Aegisub Advanced Subtitle Editor

Aegisub Advanced Subtitle Editor is a very easy to use subtitle editor / creator. I have tested out a few subtitle tools, but this one is by far the easiest one to use. It has exactly the feature I was looking for. Simply load the audio and / or the video that needs subtitles and start by selecting a portion of the audio by clicking and dragging from start to end of the sentence in the audio window, then type of paste your text in the big empty window below and click on Commit. Select the next sentence, insert the text and click Commit. To adjust the timings, simply click on a sentence and drag the start and end of the audio selection. It’s that easy! You can also adjust text size, color and style and save in many popular subtitle formats by using the Export feature.
If you want to permanently merge your subtitles with your video, then you have to save your subtitles as an .ssa file (example mysub.ssa) and use VirtualDub with theSubtitler plugin to merge the subtitles with the video. Once you installed VirtualDub and the Subtitler plugin, simply open VirtualDub, open the video, go to video->filters and add the subtitler filter, then select your subtitle (must be .ssa) file and click on the preview button and scroll in the timeline to see if it works. Next click on video->compression and select a video compression codec for exporting.

PC Matic Review

 

A gadget is just a piece of scrap if it cannot provide speedy performance and the same goes with computers. Computers are designed and made to make our workload easy. They are supposed to help us so we can wrap up our work quickly and efficiently. However, it can really frustrate a person if the computer is running slow and is not giving out its true performance. There are many tips on this website that will help resolve the slow performance of your computer, but if you are really looking for one software package to do it all, than you have to checkout PC Matic by PC Pitstop.

When we talk about the slow performance of a computer, there could be multiple reasons for this such as a cluttered hard drive, registry errors, disk errors, etc. PC Matic provides a way to see the inner workings of your computer and a way to deal with all of above problems in one place. 

Speeds Up Your Computer

The reason we highly recommend this software is that it does a great job overall when it comes to resolving issues and speeding up a computer. Also, it seems to be more comprehensive than a lot of its competitors. The software covers the registry, startup, Internet speed, junk files, hard disk fragmentation, spyware scan, and memory utilization. I am not sure if any other software package is this comprehensive. Also, all of these tools work well. In some of our other reviews, we have noticed that a tool might be included with a software package, but it doesn't do a great job. This is not the case of PC Pitstop's PC Matic.

Easy to Use

The software is also well designed and easy to use. This is very important since it comes with so many features, tools, and scans. The overall computer scan provides a Green light if an area doesn't need attention and a red light if an area needs attention. For example, a red light on "Most Fragmented Files" means that you need to defrag. Also, the program includes help buttons that help to explain what the scans are doing and what they mean. This is nice for the average Joe computer user.

Another great thing that comes with this software package is driver alert. This will make sure that you keep all of your drivers up to date and will also make sure that your drivers are running efficiently. This is a great feature as keeping up on drivers manually can be a big pain.

Price and Conclusion

The cost of this program is a little high compared to its competitors. However, it does do a better job. We found it for 49.99. Overall, we would recommend this software. We have also had a few users, through our feedback form, tell us they had good results with this software. Our users also let us know about the coupon below. If you use the coupon below, it should be cheaper or equal in price compared to the competing products on the market.

Note (Coupon): After some research, we did find the following coupon if it helps anyone:

CLICK HERE and then enter the coupon PCMSPRING2011. Please let us know if this coupon code doesn't work for you.

Top 10 free PC programs everyone should have

There are millions of free and open source projects available, many of them better than any commercially available product. Below is a short listing of what we think is the best out there, broken down into ten categories.

Anti-virus and malware protection

Most PC users realize that they need protection on their computer or may have an installed anti-virus program from their computer manufacturer. What most don't realize is that there are free programs that are just as good and in some cases better than the commercial products. Below are our recommendations

Anti-virus program: Avast! or AVG

Malware / Spyware protection: Malwarebytes

Backup solutions

There are dozens of free and commercially available backup programs for computers. Unfortunately many of those backups are stored locally, meaning if your house were to catch fire, get robbed, or if you lost your backup discs all your data would be lost. This is why when dealing with important data we suggest users use online backup services.

Online backup solution: Mozy * or Dropbox
* Free 2GB of online backup for personal use

Browsers

Although Microsoft Internet Explorer comes pre-installed on Windows computers. There are several excellent free alternatives that everyone should try. These free alternatives can often be faster, have more options, and in many cases be more secure than Internet Explorer.

Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome

Compression utility

When downloading files on the Internet you'll eventually encounter a .zip, .rar, or other compressed file. Dealing with these files can be easy with our below free file compression utility.

File compression utility: 7-Zip

Disc ripper and creation utility

Creating an audio or data CD/DVD, ripping the data from an audio CD, or creating a CD from a .ISO file can also be done freely using our below free recommendation.

CD burner / ripper utility: CDBurnerXP

E-mail

E-mail is yet another service that can be done freely. Most users today use online e-mail solutions like the one listed below. However, for those still using an e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook we strongly suggest one or both of the below suggestions.

E-mail client: Mozilla Thunderbird

Online e-mail: Gmail

FTP, SFTP, and SSH Utility

Users who maintain their own web page or need to upload or download files to or from a server will have to use an FTP utility or a SSH client. There are many commercial programs capable of doing this but our below free recommendations beats them all.

FTP client: Filezilla

SSH client: Putty

Image editor, paint program, and picture organizer

There are many great free solutions for editing, creating, and organizing your images on your computer. Many of the programs capable of doing these tasks can be several hundred dollars, but all of the below programs are completely free.

Image editor: GIMP

Paint program: Paint.net

Picture organizer: Google Picasa

Multimedia

There are dozens of different multimedia programs with different capabilities and limitations. Below are our top free multimedia programs for watching video files and recording audio.

Audio editing and creating tool: Audacity

Video and DVD Player: VLC

Office Suite

An Office suite such as Microsoft Office is often one of the most expensive programs that a user can install on their computer. Why install these expensive programs when there are free solutions that are just as good.

Office suite: OpenOffice

Notepad / Source code editor: Notepad++

computerhope

Windows Phone 7 'Mango' to arrive within two weeks

The long-awaited 'Mango' update is coming...soon.

Microsoft will begin delivering the new version of Windows Phone 7, code-named Mango, to its customers within the next two weeks, the company announced Wednesday.

"For months, we and dozens of our partner companies have been laying the groundwork for the Windows Phone 7.5 update--and making solid progress. As a result, we now expect to start rolling it out in the next week or two," writes Microsoft's Eric Hautala, general manager of customer experience engineering for Windows Phone, in a Sept. 21 Windows Phone Blog post.

Why Mango Matters

[ Read about the latest developments in software technology withComputerworld's Software Development newsletter ]

Windows Phone 7.5 (WP7) brings dozens of new features to Microsoft's mobile OS, which needs a refresh to stay competitive with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platforms.

Mango's Start screen now let users create personalized live tiles for their friends or groups. And the updated People Hub provides a single interface for Facebook, LinkedIn, Outlook, Twitter, and Windows Live Messenger updates, saving users from having to switch between apps.

Mango has tighter integration with Skydrive, Microsoft's cloud storage service. For instance, Office users now can access SkyDrive via the Office hub, and can pin Office documents to the Start screen--a feature reminiscent of the Windows desktop.

Other Mango enhancements include browser support for HTML 5 and hardware-accelerated graphics, as well as YouTube, LastFM, and Slacker integration with Windows Phone's Music + Videos hub.

Bootleggers Beware

Version 7.5 updates will be paired with software updates from handset manufacturers, and Microsoft is advising Windows Phone 7 users to avoid bootleg copies of Mango.

"This matched and paired firmware has been painstakingly tuned so your phone--and apps--work with all the new features of Windows Phone 7.5. Since your phone requires the proper firmware to function as designed, my advice is simple: steer clear of bootleg updates and homebrew tools," writes Hautala.

Microsoft issued a similar warning in April, when it warned WP7 users to avoid an unauthorized tool for downloading two software updates.

In conjunction with the Windows Phone 7.5 rollout, Microsoft will refresh itsWhere's My Phone Update? table to give WP7 handset users a better idea of when Mango will arrive.

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