Bad news A lot of free software is rubbish. Many paid-for programs are rubbish as well. Loads of it is pre-loaded by manufacturers 1 and starts of its own accord serving to clutter up your system, use resources, open up security holes and many worse things. The next post in this series will cover how to slim your system

Good news You can do just about everything for free. Paying for programs should be an absolute last resort. Read more

Now works with Firefox version 3.5.

New readers start here: The BBC radio schedules are a horrible mess. So I have redesigned them. Use this Firefox add-on to

• Give a much easier to read display
• Much easier other dates
• Much easier other stations
• Much easier listen again

PLUS your personal bookmarks on programs for once, a week or a series

Problem Accented characters are a pain to type even with a dedicated keyboard. You can remember numeric codes! Or you can peck at a list somewhere and paste in.

Solution I have written a small program that allows you to use a single function key for all accents in any language of your choice. It will also do special characters.

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