Pidgin

I have my friends scattered across on different IMs -Yahoo,MSN,ICQ,Google and AIM.

Previously I used to use Trillian from Cerillian studios to use one client to integrate the friends' lists on these services.

Lately,I came across a very neat application that does this integration much better.The software is called Pigin.

The best thing I liked about Pidgin is its clean interface and the Tabbed windows.

One can install additional plugins for extra features.

Pidgin could be downloaded from http://www.pidgin.im/

Microsoft Office Picture manager

Lately I have been using MS Office Picture manager to work on my photos and I found it as a decent tool for all basic purposes.

Earlier I used Faststone for editing my photos.But I found MS Office Picture manager to be a good option.

I have since then not installed Fast Stone on my new PC.The advantages I found in using
MS Office Picture manager are as below

1.One doesnt have to install any new software and that keeps the PC clean.

2.It provides easy access to all the editing features like 'Auto Correct',Compress,Resize and Crop images.

3.Most of features provided by Fast stone are included.

It would be great if the 'Adding Text to pictures' feature is also included in the Picture manager.If that is done,I don't think users will have to look elsewhere