If you are an artist and tend to use more traditional media, you may find it more difficult to freely express your ideas using computer. For many artists and even designers, there's nothing like the freedom of using more traditional methods such as pencil and paper for quickly developing ideas and sketches, and computers can affect this. You could always scan in your hand drawn images, but raster images can't be used with many popular CAD programs.   

RasterVect 14.9 enables you to convert raster drawings into a more versatile vector format. Use the application to scan in hand drawn images and convert them so that they can be opened and edited in almost any CAD application. The program has a number of different conversion methods and includes a selection of viewing tools.

RasterVect 14.9 link.

Go out and buy a multi-core computer and you'll soon realise that basic tasks won't even saturate the power of one core, rather than the other three or four cores that make up your CPU. However, there's no reason you couldn't allocate more than one core to a virtual operating system and enable this to use more power. It's now possible to use your virtual operating system management tool to allocate resources individually to each OS.

VirtualBox 3.0 is now available and this is a major new release. As mentioned above, it enables you to allocate more than one CPU core to each virtual operating system. Other highlights include enabling Windows-based hosts to use and access DirectX 9 as a virtual operating system, support for Windows 7 and much more.

VirtualBox link.

Although we put this online yesterday, it's the big release we've all been waiting for. Firefox 3.5 is here and it's been worth that wait. Our immediate thoughts was that this appears far faster than the previous Firefox 3.0.x. Pages loads more quickly, images render more smoothly and so on. The latest version also supports more of the latest web standards, including HTML 5.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is available for download in 70 languages and across multiple platforms, so you can grab a version for Windows as easily as you can for your Mac. It ships with a private browsing mode which will enable you to surf the Internet, without leaving a trace behind on your computer. Ideal if you share a desktop computer between family members. You'll need to check whether you favourite add-ons are compatible with the new version.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 link.

We've been using Firefox 3.5 for a month or so now and you wouldn't know it was only a release candidate. Very stable, very fast and it's going to be a key release when it's available - and the rumour is tomorrow, the last day in June. However, if you have multiple editions of Firefox 3.5 installed across various computers, you'll want to keep your bookmarks, preferences and other information in sync.

Mozilla Weave 0.4 for Firefox is an updated version of the Firefox synchronisation tool that has always made sure your bookmarks and passwords are in sync, but the latest version will now synchornise your preferences. It also will give you the same identity support (based on Open ID) across your editions of Firefox, so you can quickly access a secure web page, so you don't have to remember your login information.

Mozilla Weave link.

If you're planning your new website, it's very difficult trying to come up with something innovative, new and exciting. Generally speaking, we need to spend time searching through various websites for our inspiration. We can source a colour scheme for inspiration, navigation ideas and much more. Problem is that websites have a bad habit of changing, much like wallpaper. Note a URL and go back to it later to find that it's completely changed, down or immensely slow. Not the best situation if you're sitting in a meeting with your web design team to show them inspiration for your site.

LittleSnapper 1.0.4 is a Mac-based commercial tool that's a little like Evernote. It enables you to browse the web and add grabs of a web page to the application, which you can use to build a database of inspirational ideas. You can add tags and other reference points, so you can quickly find sites based around certain colours, as an example.

LittleSnapper link.

Obsolete applications quickly occupy space within your PCs memory and can even drain system resources. Most people would turn to the Windows Add/Remove facility to remove these unwanted programs, unfortunately though some tools may leave associated folders and files behind even if the program itself is successfully removed. If you are in search of a reliable removal tool, it may be worth considering a more proactive uninstaller.  

Ashampoo Uninstaller 4.0 takes a snapshot of your computers Registry prior to the installation of any new application, determining where all folders and files are placed.
you can then use the uninstaller's comprehensive "Before and After" comparisons to monitor and identify the activities of any program such as hidden files and Registry keys.

Ashampoo Uninstaller 4.0 link.

Only a few years ago, it was easier for people who knew how to use the command line to use it to copy files between drives, rename folders and even download applications from an FTP site. For some people, they still prefer to use the command line as you can do some really powerful stuff if you understand the commands and parameters. Mozilla Labs have realised this and implemented a way of controlling the Firefox browser from a command line.

Mozilla Ubiquity for Firefox 0.5 is a free add-on that brings a command line to your browser and, on a simple level, will enable you to control the browser. However, it will also do far more complex things in the future and you will be able to tell your browser to perform a function using simple natural languages.

Mozilla Ubiquity link.

Maintaining an organised computer not only helps your PC run more smoothly but it's essential for privacy reasons, too. Inevitably files will accumulate on any PC, and although many will be harmless, there will still be files that your machine will automatically store that may be more sensitive. Even if you think you've removed these items, there are some tools that are better than others at completely removing these files.

CCleaner Portable 2.21 is a portable version of the popular cleansing tool. The portable version enables you to run the application without installation on any machine you may be using via a USB stick or other portable media. The application is also useful for removing old Registry entries such as uninstallers and invalid shortcuts.

CCleaner Portable 2.21 link.

Most of us have a fairly large collection of media files on our home computer. These could be our audio tracks, the photos we've taken on vacations or videos we've ripped from our own DVDs. There's little point using our laptop screen to view a movie or attempt to listen to our favourite tracks through the computer speakers. As your laptop or home computer is likely to have a VGA-OUT or DVI-OUT socket, you only need one cable to connect this to your TV. Problem is that you need some decent media management software to get the most from your collection.

Boxee for Windows and for Mac is an early preview version of this superb free open-source media centre technology that's designed to find and group together your media collection, connect your computer to your TV and watch your movies, photos and listen to your audio tracks.

Boxee for Windows and for Mac links.

After installing and removing software from your computer, over a period of time this will slow and result in your PC taking longer to boot, start applications and will generally feel sluggish. You can do three things to solve this situation. Remove some of the unnecessary items from your Registry, using a Registry optimisation tool, cleanse your PC from unnecessary startup applications and give your drive a boost by defragmenting the drive contents. This means you use software that will take your drive contents and re-arrange them in a logical manner so that your computer can find and load them more easily.

Defraggler 1.11 is the latest version of the free defragmentation tool that you can use to optimise your drive or drive partition, internal or external. There's a portable version of the software which you could install on a USB flash drive and take with you to optimise other computers. The latest version ships with a number of small fixes and enhancements.

Defraggler and Defraggler Portable links.