AbiWord is an excellent free open source alternative to MS Word.

Easy to install and operate on many operating systems Abiword is a perfect choice for someone on the look out for a new word processing program. Import files from Word, OpenOffice, Word Perfect, HTML, text and other file types. This is a perfect program if you are on the run as well. Small enough to load onto and run from a flash drive, take it with you and work on your documents on most any computer. Whether you’re working on a Mac or a PC you will have access to your important documents without a lot of hassle or fuss. For those less technically inclined there are plenty of help and FAQ resources both on the official Abiword website and elsewhere on the web. The included help files can ease you through importing your documents, exporting them to your email and setting the preferences to your liking. Regardless of your technical know-how you’ll be up and running quickly. Are you a developer? It’s great for you too. Find bugs, use it as a learning tool. You can even find a project to assist on. Great for budding developers to get some hands on working knowledge. Overall this is an excellent program for everyone from the basic user who just wants to write a document without any hassles to experienced developers with a need for a new project.

Have you ever wanted to record streaming music? Or perhaps your friend has a really great song from iTunes but you can’t listen to it on your computer.

Maybe you wanted to record the sound from a funny YouTube clip. This article will allow you to get great quality audio input directly from your computer, without a microphone! Note, this is for Windows, but similar steps may be taken in various other operating systems.

1. Silence any program that would create undesirable noise. This includes instant messengers, music players, websites, and games.
2. Open up a sound recording program such as sndrec32.exe. For anything longer than a minute, you will probably need to download a program from the internet (I personally recommend Goldwave).
3. Open audio playing program such as iTunes or Yahoo! Music Player.
4. If there is an icon for system volume in your System Tray, double-click it. If not, go to Start>Control Panel>Sound and Audio Devices, from there select the Audio tab and click the “Volume…” button in the Sound Recording frame. Now, regardless of whether or not the icon was in the System Tray, you should be at the same position. Click the “Options” menu, and select “Properties.” Choose the “Recording” option if it’s not already selected. Make sure that “Stereo Out” “Mono Out” or “Stereo Mix” is checked (these names may change slightly from system to system but check for anything with Stereo and/or Mono). Now click “Ok.” Back in the volume control window, make sure that the Stereo/Mono input is selected and adjust the volume of that input (I suggest starting at 30-40% depending on the volume of the audio your are trying to record, otherwise you will get very poor quality audio). Close the volume control window. 5. Start recording with your sound recording program just prior to playing your audio, to make sure you don’t miss the beginning; you can’t cut out what you don’t have.
6. Don’t forget to play your audio. Once you’ve finished, stop recording and save your audio file (edit it if necessary).
7. Play around with the volume to get better results.
8. Enjoy!