Excel Chart Advisor Suggests the Best Layouts for Your Data

Chart Advisor, a free plug-in for Excel 2007, takes the guess-and-hope element out of making your spreadsheet data presentable. The plug-in adds a single button to Excel's "Insert" toolbar, and clicking it brings up a window with the Advisor's recommended layouts, ranked in order of relevance. Mouse over the chart layouts to see a preview, then click on "Modify Chart" to filter and change the data being used. It's definitely more helpful than Excel's default chart and graph chooser, and helps graphing newbies figure out how to tweak their displays. Chart Advisor is a free plug-in, requires 32-bit Windows XP or Vista and Excel 2007.

Download Link: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/chartadvisor/Pages/default.aspx

Duplicate Cleaner Ferrets Out File Dupes

Hunt down multiple copies of the same file with Duplicate Cleaner, a lightweight and quick duplicate file finder. Add multiple paths to Duplicate Cleaner's search, handy for de-duping a media collection that spans multiple drives. Filter your duplicate search by file type, content, size, and date of creation. Additionally Duplicate Cleaner offers support for MP3 metadata, including artist, title, and album, a fantastic feature for weeding out a large music collection. Duplicate Cleaner is a free download for Windows only.

Download Link: http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/dupe.html

Recover a Lost Linux Password

If your memory or mistyping leaves you without the right password to get into an account on a Linux computer, there's no need to reformat. Make Magazine's Hacks Blog gives a step-by-step account of the command line fix you can make by booting into "single user mode." The fix is written from an Ubuntu perspective, but applies to most any Linux system that boots with the GRUB manager. It's also a reminder that even a password-protected Linux box isn't truly protected from the curious, so consider encrypting your data or taking other measures.

Visit: http://www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2008/09/howto_reset_a_lost_ubuntu_pass.html

iRinger Turns Music and Video Files into iPhone Ringtones

Desktop app iRinger converts any video or music file into an iPhone ringtone, including YouTube videos. iRinger brings audio effects (like fade in and out, flanger, and delay) and video support to its single, simple interface. You can download any YouTube clip, for example, and import it into iRinger to create a tone. iRinger does nag you with a pop-up sponsor window that you can't close unless you donate to the project; otherwise it's a handy all-in-one iPhone ringtone utility. iRinger is a free download for Windows only.

Download Link: http://www.iringer.net/

College Alarm Clock Wakes You Up in Time for Class Today

Desktop application College Alarm Clock wakes you up on time for class (or an irregular work schedule) seven days a week. Set a custom alarm time on a per day basis, Sunday through Saturday, and set the sound to just a plain beep, or choose a song from your computer's digital music library. College Alarm Clock can skip any day of the week, and you can save an alarm schedule to easily switch between holiday break and the new semester of wakeup times. College Alarm Clock is a free download for Windows only.

Download Link: http://www.geocities.com/vinodtandon/cac/index.html

GimmeSomeTune Supercharges Your iTunes Library

Mac OS X only: Free iTunes add-on GimmeSomeTune automatically fetches missing album artwork, lyrics, and automatically embeds them in your music library. GimmeSomeTune runs in the background, and in addition to the metadata tools, it also supports scrobbling your music to Last.fm, universal hotkeys, iChat status updates, and even Apple Remote control. Apart from all that, GimmeSomeTune is also an excellent iTunes desktop remote, complete with a fully customizable song notification window. The donationware GimmeSomeTune is a must-have for the iTunes lover, Mac OS X only.

Download Link: http://www.eternalstorms.at/gimmesometune/index.html