Hummm… more like a linkshare.

A-PDF Extractor - I was looking for an app to convert PDF to text over the holidays, and this was one of the two I downloaded. I actually didn't even get through the installation of the other one because I didn't like their terms. Which is fine, because A-PDF Extractor does the job: nice, simple, and quick. Warning: not a portableapp as far as I can tell (no .ini's or such in the Program Files folder).

How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone (for Free) | MakeUseOf.com - I have to say this could come in handy… if I ever need it for some reason. What is nice is there is an address for Unicell, which is what my dad is on. And the Gmail Labs way doesn't work. Although I think Unicell has a place on their site where you can text message phones using the service.

Bug 105843 – Cache lost if Mozilla crashes (Mozilla Bugzilla) - Nice to know that this is actually tracked. But… it's intentional, from what I read, there is a chance that the cache might be corrupted, so it just dumps it. Which is really annoying if you are on dial-up. Seems to happen to me occasionally when browsing offline. There was a patch on the page, I think, but if I recall right it was for Firefox 1.5 or something… not Fx 3.

May you see deep snow. =)

Unlocker (Windows) - Ever have a flash drive or such that Windows just doesn't want to Safely Remove? Fire up this baby and see what's holding on to it. I think if it's explorer.exe, it should be safe to Unlock it or just yank out the drive, as long as you know you aren't transferring data to  or from it, or moving files around on it. Otherwise, assuming you aren't doing data work like I just mentioned see what else is tying up your device (backup managers, mp3 player managers, and so on…). Can also help you out the same way if you have a file you want to work with, but you get a message something else is using it. I'm not sure, but I think it might even help you get past an Access Denied (you'd probably have to be an administrator). Brilliant little tool.

ExifTool (Windows/Mac/Linux under Perl) - this one is a command line tool for dealing with metadata. I found this tool in a search for something to edit the date taken on digital photos, because sometimes one forgets to reset their camera clock. *Ahem* Certainly not me. Never. Anyway, to fix my mistake, I mean such a mistake, this will do the trick (though I haven't actually put it to use yet). Now, I know all you out there are shivering in fear of using a command line tool on your beautiful photos. Well, make backups of them before you start anyway, but there are some GUI's to make things so much safer and more comfortable. 
ExifToolGUI - Windows (tested on XP SP2). Lot's of nice GUI options for accessing the awesome power of ExifTool. You'll need to download ExifTool separately.
Mac users, you can check out the "Related Utilities" section on the ExifTool homepage.
Linux users, stop being a weenie and use the command line. Heh.

PDFCreator (Windows) - It installs as a printer on your system and allows you to make PDF files from any app that can print to it. Pretty nifty. Now I can make PDF's from WordPerfect 8 (yep, that's what I use, for real).

Hope this brightens your day at least a little bit.

In the tradition of Grand Stream Dreams, I bring you our very first Linkfest.

Boston.com - World Series game could be delayed for Obama pitch - You might have heard that Barack Oboma had purchased an half hour time slot on at least some networks to promote his cause. Clever of him. But possibly delay the World Series? It's only by a few minutes, I know, and I'm not a big baseball fan… but still, let's hope people get mad at him for this…

Fox News - Obama Ads Invade Video Games - Obama billboards show up in Burnout Paradise on Xbox Live… hmmm… ok… I didn't know their were ads, but hey, I suppose if they pay for them… but a little weird anyway.

Newsweek - Who Are the 10% Who Think U.S. on Right Track? - A viewpoint on who actually thinks things are good. Meh. Not extrememly persuasive.

Schlissel's blog - Some of My Best Friends Are Sarah Palin - A good post about Sarah standing on what she believes and representing us as Christians… and being us.

LA Times - Greenspace blog - Bottled water not so pure - Really? I would have never guessed…

PC World - Microsoft Sues DHL After Train Dumps 21,600 Xboxes - Ummm… ouch? Not good, DHL.

Ars Technia - Revenues rise as Google says hard times will drive business - Woot for Google! They seem to be doing pretty good as the world economy melts down… that's my kind of company. Kinda like our local banks: they are still going strong since they've invested wisely (read: with discretion… *cough* Citibank et all *cough*).

MercuryNews.com - Q&A with John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla - Pretty good interview. Nothing ugly. Lilly thinks Chrome isn't exactly competition… it's just Google helping Mozilla out with their mission: making the web a better place. I like that Firefox slogan, by the way: "Take back the Web." Pretty sick. Anyway, also some stuff on Firefox Mobile, of which alpha versions are coming soon.

Sioux City Journal.com - Senator's lawsuit against God is tossed out - This feels like it should be on the Drudge Report, but, LOL, what were you thinking?

redemption in a blog - Optimize Firefox’s memory usage by tweaking session preferences - If you're a heavy heavy tab user in Firefox, you might take a look at this if things have been slowing down.

Matasano Chargen - Detecting Anonymizing Proxies - An interesting blog post on detecting the use of a proxy server. Technical and hopefully helpful illustrations. A good read. Edit, October 24, 2008: The link is still 404, but I looked up the Google cache. No pictures, I'm afraid, but it's better than nothing.