Free Disk Partitioning Utility - GParted

I was looking for an open source alternative to Norton's Partition Magic. I created 2 partitions on my laptop's 40 GB hard drive and my 20 GB C: partition was running out of space. I wanted to extend it's size. Windows Disk Management utility does not give you the ability to do this. I wanted a reliable tool that would let you do this. I used Partition Magic in the past. I wanted to explore open source options before buying something to do this and found a few. The best among them, IMHO, is GParted.
Here is the description of GParted from the website -> GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the filesystems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).
In order to use GParted on a windows PC, you need to create a Live CD [a bootable Linux CD]. The disk image for the GParted Live CD is available here. You need to download the .iso image to a CD and this creates the bootable disk. Documentation on how to use GParted Live CD is available here.

Lightweight Operating System - Damn Small Linux [DSL]

Damn Small Linux aka DSL, is a lightweight Linux OS that can run off a flash drive or CD. The size of the OS is about 50 MB. You might think - "Hmm, this must one of those command line shell interfaces". Don't be fooled by it's size. It has a GUI desktop and several applications such as XMMS, FTP client (both graphical and command line) and server, Mozilla Firefox web browser, Dillo web browser, Links-hacked web browser, Siag Office's Siag spreadsheet, FLWriter, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), some editors (Beaver, Vim, Nano), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf, emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviewer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), Monkey web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, Network File System, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and PCMCIA support.
Whoa!! All that in just 50 megs is amazing. Wait, it gets better. You can download more software for free using DSLPanel, a tool that is available on the DSL desktop.
Get DSL here -> http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html

I can think of several scenarios where this can come in handy ->

1. if you want to use a public PC [internet cafe, library, etc.] and want to be protected from viruses and malware, use DSL. Instructions on creating a flash drive containing DSL.
   
2. PC crashes - DSL can come in handy to help you recover files from the hard disk.
3. Put old PCs to good use by installing DSL on them
   

Free firewall software - highly rated

Comodo is a free firewall software that was recommended by Computerworld . Download it here.
Comodo has other free products too such as an anti-virus,anti-spam, and anti-malware. I have not used these but I would highly recommend the firewall. It's way better than the standard windows firewall.

Inexpensive prescription glasses and sunglasses - why pay $$$ to your local optician?

I wanted to buy a pair of prescription sunglasses and shopped around the usual places -> Lenscrafters, Sears Optical, Pearle Vision, etc. The prices ranged from $200 to $400. That was the cost of whatever frame I picked plus $90 just for lenses. I looked around on the web and found several websites that would let you order prescription glasses and ship it to you. The following were the popular ones I read reviews for online:

1. Zenni Optical - Glasses start at $8.00 plus shipping!!!
   
2. 39DollarGlasses - Just like the name of the website, prices start at $39 plus shipping. You can find some coupon codes online that will bring down the price.
3. GlassesUSA - Glasses start from $18.00 with free shipping.
   

Free Microsoft online training on Microsoft Visual Studio

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner/default.aspx

Free Antivirus software

1. AVG Antivirus -> http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
2. Avast Antivirus -> http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
3. Clamwin Antivirus -> http://www.clamwin.com/ - Open Source
4. Avira Antivirus -> http://www.free-av.com/
   
Avira is rated pretty high in the latest anti-virus ratings at av-comparatives

Latest Anti-virus software ratings at Av-Comparatives.

Photo Tourism

A colleague of mine pointed me to this new paradigm in storing and viewing photographs. Check it out->
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=30518
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Real estate resources - Buyers can get the upper hand in negotiations

1. Trulia: Want to find what's available for sale in a neighbourhood? Enter the zipcode or city and state and Trulia shows you all the homes for sale on a map. Point your cursor to one of the homes and it will you show you the price of the home. For any given search, Trulia will show statistics on average home prices per bedroom, average time a home is on the market, average price per square foot, etc. This translates into more power for the buyer.
2. PropertyShark: Want to find out what the seller paid for the home you are interested in? You don't need to waste your time going to the local county office for this information. PropertyShark let's you find this information and much more. When you register for a free account, you can look upto 15 properties per day. With the free subscription, you get information on how much the seller paid and when the property was purchased. It also tells you when and how much the neighbouring properties were purchased for. For more information you need to sign up for their paid subscriptions.