Last.fm began the scrobbling revolution. You can listen in on what others listened to and know their all-time played tracks. Enter Wakoopa, which I haven’t “wakoopa-rated” from as yet. ;)
Wakoopa makes snooping around your friends profiles and PC's so much fun because you get to learn which apps are their most used, as well as which app is more served around the world or in your friend-circle. Currently, Microsoft has a lot of their apps as the world’s most-used. These include Explorer (Windows!), IE, Word, Visual Studio and numerous others that fall down the list. I think, MS needs its own Wakoopa to wikipediarize their software, instead of slapping on unpredictable layers with every new OS. Tech support from the users would benefit way more in future.
One of the best features of Wakoopa is that you get a feed for the latest versions of your software. Very similar to the ancient CNET Update software that I used and loved... it checked my software and gave me direct links to the updates.Now I check Wakoopa and keep updated.
Wakoopa enlightens the world about software that is unseen, unheard or unused by the uninformed. Here's some trivia that Wakoopa knows, cos Wakoopa knows software!
Did you know communicating is the second biggest activity on the computer?
Did you know people browse 7 times longer with Firefox than Internet Explorer?
Did you know games are played the least on tuesday and the most on sunday?
Did you know the average computer user has 54 pieces of software?
Did you know women spend twice as much time in Photoshop than men?
Now, let’s snoop at my profile and get some insight on what I use the different applications for. Some may be trivial, redundant or even just unworthy of being called software -- others run in the background. I've hidden my anti-virus' from the list, as I will test-drive them later on and also not to compromise my security setup to any malicious viewers. :)
Firefox
The best browser in the world! Only thing IE has on FF is colored-scrollbars.
Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods
Checking out the Expansion of Black and White 2, there are 2 new creatures to choose, and lots of skeleton troops to electrocute... Zap! Now its getting boring! Best I try GTA4 asap!
Adobe Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver became Dreamweaver Ultra and now it is this marvelous piece of web creation software called Adobe Dreamweaver. With the new Air extension add-on, you can deploy web scripts as AIR applications! This handles almost any scripting you require and I use it to remove the MS Word formatting from some of my posts to make them web-ready.
Windows Explorer
Love it or hate it, it’s what Windows users rely on. When it crashes, your desktop disappears. To get it back, simply press CTRL+ALT+DEL to open up the Task Manager, then click on ‘File > New Task’. In the ‘create new task’ dialog, type ‘explorer’ and hit ENTER (or press ‘OK’).
Media Player Classic
The super-lite versatile Media player based on Windows Mplayer2 (which still exists btw). I prefer a minimal player like this. In conjunction with the CCCP, it plays everything your files’ associations’ desire.
Windows Internet Explorer
Okay! No need for explanation. The global sentiment to this piece of lack-ware is that it is considerable when it comes to viewing your web-page to make sure that you display the page correctly for IE users. I use it when I need to, and that’s only to test CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Microsoft Office Word
As I am typing this, it feels odd to have to talk about the software. Spellcheck, grammar check and live-data on-paste. These icons I’m using, are copied directly off my Wakoopa profile page and Word has that live-capability… not better than Dreamweaver though. Sadly, no time for icons in Joomla's uploader ;)
Thunderbird
Free, fast, user-friendly and preferable over the memory-whore ‘MS Outlook’. Definitely not as weighty with functionality but it is an email client with RSS capability. With Add-ons, you can browse from within your emails and feeds. Don’t just take my word for it, read this Yahoo Answer I submitted, which got chosen. Use the Thunderbrowse extension with Thunderbird. Alternatively, try out Seamonkey.
Altbinz
The best free news client so far! I formerly used GrabIt! but I won’t be going back soon! If you have time to download the hefty group-list from the servers, (or you know how to set a download while you sleep) you will have immense pleasure in using Altbinz.
Wakoopa Tracker
Hey, it’s the legend of software-snooping!
Run DLL As Application
What is this? Windows shizniz. I’ve hidden it in my profile.
WinRAR
Better than ZIP file compression, preferred by the super-compressing game-rippers, and essential to software users world-wide. Remember this, if you don’t have access to the internet, NEVER RAR you Winrar installer! A friend of mine called to ask for WinRAR cos he had RAR’d his installer up and backed it up onto DVD.
FlashGet
Free, with ads, that makes it adware or shareware, probably the only software which isn’t free or unlocked on my PC. With Firefox, it’s easier to use a download manager because I hate closing my FF only to find that the downloads are still running as Firefox.exe in my taskmanager. Use the Flashgot menu to send those downloads straight to Flashget. Pics, Flash, Video, Music and even entire web folders are accessible by the “FlashGot All’ Menu.
GIMP
The best open-source image manipulation tool next to Photoshop. Web 2.0 Gradients are fun to get creative with. PS plugins are also easy to install into GIMP.
Pidgin
At last, I can use all my chat accounts from different protocols in one IM client! Still can’t get MSN to login and it does require the GTK Runtime to be installed prior to use. I can also look like I'm always idle by setting my status to "extended away". Makes 'em wonder ;)
Notepad
There is a few better readers with support for rich-text and web markups like Notepad++ but this is for general jotting and clearing out any markups I may have copied from webpages.
Windows Task Manager
Easy to use for system shortcuts, for ending tasks and for finding the memory-hoggers amongst your active applications.
Adobe AIR Debug Launcher
I’m pretty sure this is the AIR runtime debugger that is launched whenever I install or use an Adobe AIR application.
Last.fm
The only audio-scrobbling software you need, to be used in conjunction with an audio player that is supported. Whenever you play your music, you can opt to scrobble it via this Last.FM desktop software. Later on, you can alter your playlist on Last.FM, find people who match your music choice, share your playlists and much more!
Flashdecompiler
No idea what this is for. I dislike flash. Flash defines ‘not Web 2.0’. Don’t use flash if you’re going to force me to watch your unnecessary intro loader! Don’t even think about using flash menus!
Steam
The launcher that handles your window to Valve games, news, upcoming releases, feature reviews and lots more. Free games are also available even if you have not bought any Valve game yet. Bejeweled and a lot of other addictive games are all accessible via Steam. Multi-player gaming defined social web before the term blogging was coined!
Adobe Extension Manager
This used to be called macromedia Extension Manager and I first noticed it in Dreamweaver 3 . It allows MXP files to be imported into Dreamweaver. MXP files contain scripts that are installed into a folder in your Dreamweaver installation. These scripts are like plugins for adding nifty web-scripts (Java, CGI,etc) into your web-layout with a simple click.
Styler
This allows me to slap a Vista jersey onto my WinXP desktop this winter. It’s a skinner/styler app. For messing with Windows manifests.
µTorrent
The smallest torrent client in the web. The beta version unveils the new gui and icon. Also, I’ve noticed that setting the upload limit to ‘1’ Kbps in the new beta, (as a resort to save on local upload costs) stalls your download almost completely. After all, P2P is about sharing.
Adobe AIR Installer
Installers don’t really need to be counted on Wakoopa unless you love looking at how many installs of AIR apps you did.
Winamp
I think its more crisp in treble and bass than WMP. Scrobbles with the LastFM software and associates with my audio files brilliantly, one-click and seamless integration! Although, MP4 is detected as an audio type, even when there are two types, the other being .MP4 video files. Rather use Foobar2000 which is freeware.
foobar2000
“foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows developed by Peter Pawlowski, a former freelance contractor for Nullsoft.” Woa, this totally whips a llama's ass! Try it out and compare it with Winamp... it's brilliant!
Temporary Installation File
What the heck? Looks like the unpackager for an uninstaller, I’m gonna hide this from my Wakoopa profile.
Realtek Audio Sound Effect Manager
I once found that my rear speakers were not working. This sound panel allowed me to set it to quadrophonic instead of 2/0 stereo.
Oblivion Launcher
Launches Oblivion.exe, an epic RPG that takes forever for most to complete but worth every hour spent vanquishing demons and slaying creatures indigenous to the regions you explore. Becoming a master takes dedication. One day I'll show you, apprentice, the steps to being Champion of Cyrodiil. ;)
Now that the list is revealed... you should join me and share with us all!
So will you scrobble? What software do you use and for what? Join me in the revolution of social-software!
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