After looking at all these windows freeware tools, we need to have a little bit of fun. A little bit of freeware for windows fun that is..... Thanks to Buziol Games Soft for creating the ever so awesome Mario Bros. game, freeware version for Microsoft Windows. This installs on just about any version of Windows, including Vista, plus has both full screen mode and minimized screen mode for "when you are at work"....oops did I say that out loud? I don't think I will be able to pry my wife away from my PC now! This is great, the graphics are very decent, the sound is great. The actual download is at http://www.download.com/Mario-Forever/3000-7435_4-10344976.html. It appears that their website is not yet complete, but they are posting updates. So strap on your wrench and help Mario defeat that evil Bowser guy and save the princess.

How many of you would like to record radio streams, or edit an MP3, or maybe record some music across several different tracks, edit it, and then publish and export to MP3 or WAV file? Audacity provides all this functionality to you. It is also great for converting cassette tape to MP3. Or if you are old enought to remember Vinyl Records and 8 tracks, you can convert them to MP3 and or WAV files to be burned to CD or copied to your MP3 player. Audacity has an easy user interface, many different effects to add flare to your recording. You can download Audacity @ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. If you are going to be exporting to MP3 you will need to download the lame_enc.dll from http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?lame_enc. Once you download you can place the DLL in your favorite DLL storage area, then when you export your first MP3 from Audacity, it will ask you if you want to locate the lame_enc.dll, then you just point the path and presto you will be making MP3s. Now there is a derivative of Audacity called CleanSpeech which is a free alternative to other audio editors that are oriented for preparation of music, sermons, lectures or any type of recording. It is derived from Audacity, with simplifications and enhancements aimed at improving the clarity of speech and streamlining preparation by an automated process. Here are a couple scenarios where CleanSpeech is appropriate: 1. A church has backlog of sermons they want to make available for distance listening such as SermonAudio @ http://www.sermonaudio.com/main.asp. 2. Schools have backlog of recorded classroom lectures they want to upload to their website for distance learning. You can download CleanSpeech @ http://audacious.sourceforge.net/.

Okay, here is official first blog. In my blog, I will be evaluating freeware for Windows then provideing a freeware review. Most of you know what freeware is, however, incase you don't know, web-o-pedia defines it as the following: "Copyrighted software given away for free by the author. Although it is available for free, the author retains the copyright, which means that you cannot do anything with it that is not expressly allowed by the author. Usually, the author allows people to use the software, but not sell it. "
Basically free is always the right price for me. I will also look and evaluate open source freeware for Windows platform and providing a freeware review. I by no means take credit for any of the software I evaluate, so if there are any copyrights on names and or functions with in programs, all credit goes to the author.
Okay with out any further delay lets take a look at our first freeware for Windows review.........