“I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas” by MC Lars featuring Jaret Reddick from Bowling For Soup. Off of the Green Christmas EP now available on iTunes.

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I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas by MC Lars With Jaret Reddick

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In the past year we've highlighted hundreds of Windows apps aimed at making your life easier, boosting your computer productivity, and powering up your PC.

For those of you who weren't able to keep up, here's a look back at the most popular Windows downloads of 2008.

Keep in mind that this list is based on the popularity of posts we've published in 2008 only, regardless of the original release date of the app. Many were brand new this year, while others were solid updates to popular software. Here's the full run-down of the 12 most popular Windows downloads of 2008:

Firefox 3 Is Released, We Download

Firefox 3 was easily one of the biggest events in software in 2008 regardless of what platform you run. We may be well on the way to Firefox 3.1 now, but if you're looking to brush up on your Firefox 3 chops, be sure to check out the top 10 Firefox 3 features and our power user's guide to Firefox 3.

Mojo Downloads Music from Your Friends' iTunes Libraries Over the Internet

Mojo makes it easy to download music from your friends' iTunes libraries over the internet. Mojo comes in both free and premium flavors, but the free version offers plenty of functionality for the money. If you're just getting started with Mojo, check out our guide to using Mojo.

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter Does What It Sounds Like

It's easy to convert or print Microsoft Word documents to PDF, but what about when you want to go the other way around? The aptly named Free PDF to Word Doc Converter does exactly that. (Original post)

OurTunes Grabs Music from Shared iTunes Libraries

If the limitations on Mojo aren't for you, the open-source classic ourTunes—which downloads music from any shared iTunes library on your network—made a comeback earlier this year, as a new developer took up the reigns and continues to release updates. (Original post)

CCleaner Clears the Crap from Your PC

The popular PC colonic CCleaner (the first 'C' stands for Crap) pushed out a 2.0 release earlier this year and you were quick to update and enjoy the crap cleaning goodies. (Original post)

AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008

AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 hit the streets in May, and the application that you voted the best antivirus applications for Windows was unsurprisingly popular. (Original post)

Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Microsoft released the first major service pack for Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (x64 version), in March, and you were eager to download and update to the latest and greatest from Redmond. (Original post)

Hotspot Shield Gets Around US-Only Blocks and Content Filtering

Looking to protect your browsing privacy or access US-only content from outside the US? HotSpot Shield received a lot of attention in '08 from users looking to do that and more. (Original post)

Quick Media Converter Easily Converts Media to Any Format

Quick Media Converter converts virtually any media file (audio or video) from one format to another. The application has an emphasis on simplicity: Just drag and drop a file you want to convert onto the app, click the icon of the device you're converting for, and let Quick Media Converter take care of the rest. (Original post)

DExposE2 Brings OS X's Expose to Windows

Freeware application DExposE2 is a clone of Mac OS X's Expose feature for Windows XP and Vista, providing an attractive, innovative interface for switching and managing windows in Windows. Check out the original post to see a video DExposE2 in action.

Dropbox Instantly Syncs Files Across the Internet

Instantaneous file syncing was huge in 2008, with free, cross-platform application Dropbox leading the pack. Dropbox boasts web-based version control, fast and instant syncs, and a dead-simple setup. Among other things, Dropbox makes for the perfect password syncer. (Original post)

Executor Challenges Launchy, Impresses

Open-source application Launchy has long been a favorite of savvy keyboarders looking for quick app launching in Windows, but a saucy newcomer called Executor hit the ground running when it was released earlier this year. Check out our original post for a more detailed rundown of what makes Executor so impressive.

Sharepod Frees Your iPod from iTunes

Want to free yourself from the shackles of iTunes but still want full functionality from your iPod? Sharepod is a lightweight iTunes alternative that runs directly from your iPod, so it's with you whenever and wherever you plug in your player. (Original post)

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What's your favorite Windows download of 2008?
( polls)
Whether or not your favorite Windows download of '08 won out in the popularity contest, let's hear more about your favorite download of the year in the comments.

guest post by mikl-em

In one of those unexpected Jon Stewart-y kinda twists, The Daily Show brought out 80’s pop duo Daryl Hall and John Oates to sing a farewell to Alan Colmes, one of Fox News’ few non-conservative voices, who is leaving the show Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year.

Colmes is often criticized for being a weak liberal straw man and thus actually perpetuating the Fox News channel’s generally conservative perspective–see “The false balance of Hannity & Colmes“. Sean Hannity himself recently talked about life without Colmes. Here is a 2003 PBS interview of Hannity & Colmes.

Meanwhile, Hall & Oates have a collaboration coming out with the band Chromeo any day now. Daryl Hall in particular has been busy and high profile (relatively to the last decade at least) with his Live From Daryl’s House site and podcast–which includes an episode with Chromeo.

Given the season, I’ve gotta close with the classic Hall & Oates holiday video for Jingle Bell Rock from 1983, they really nail a great schmaltz-y mood in this one…

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Hall & Oates on The Daily Show Salute Alan Colmes

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Author David Allen's follow-up to his best-selling productivity bible Getting Things Done is called Making It All Work. Due out this month, it's all about how to become a better self-manager.

In a series of excerpts published by tech site BNET, Allen discusses the two axes of self-management—control and perspective—and asks you to place yourself in the matrix. (Of course any personal productivity book is nothing without at least one matrix.) Are you a visionary/crazy-maker? Victim/responder? Micromanager/implementer? If things are going well, you've got the right mix of control and perspective, which puts you in the Captain and Commander seat. Allen writes:

Control and perspective are closely intertwined dynamics, but achieving each one involves different approaches, whether the matter at hand is your teenager doing homework, your soccer team’s practice, your next vacation, or your product launch. If your kitchen is a mess, for example, cleaning it up and placing all the tools and equipment where they belong will be a very different exercise from deciding what to cook and how to present it. But the two activities remain very connected, in that without an organized kitchen, it will be very challenging to stay focused on the dinner itself; likewise, an insufficient focus on the recipes, the various components of the dinner event itself, and the plan for deploying them will allow the situation to quickly get out of control again.

As usual, Allen's approach appears to be a combination of business-speak and Zen enlightenment (with a sprinkling of sports metaphors about "winning your game"). The concept of self-management alone connotes the idea that you'd manage your monkey mind they way you would an unruly underling at the office. But once he's beyond the boardroom matrix, Allen dishes out his "mind like water" ideas, about paying attention to what's tugging at our subconscious selves and focusing on the big picture. While the executive or high-level manager approach might alienate creatives and cubicle workers, and the woo-woo spiritual stuff might put off business types, if Allen's able to temper it all with real-world scenarios the way he did in Getting Things Done, he may have something here. Then again, if Making It All Work is just a rehash of GTD ideas seven years later, new readers would be better off just buying the first book.

Here's the full list of excerpts (I particularly like the last one on attention):

• Understanding the Matrix of Self-Management
• The Victim/Responder
• The Micromanager/Implementer
• The Crazymaker/Visionary
• The Captain and Commander
• The Matrix Is Relative, Situational, and Fluid
• Paying Attention to What Has Your Attention

Are you a GTD disciple ready to pick up Making It All Work the moment it's available? Or is GTD just so 2004? Take a look at the book excerpts and let us know what you think.

Saturday night I finally had a chance to check out the hilarious Star Wars: Live on Stage at The Dark Room in San Francisco (see Mikl-em’s previous post). I hadn’t planned on shooting photos, but ended up taking a few from the third row (sorry Geekboy, I didn’t get any good ones of your characters).

Star Wars: Live on Stage runs through December 27th (Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm). I highly recommend checking it out if you have a chance.

Photo Gallery: Star Wars: Live on Stage

See Previously: Star Wars: Live on Stage at The Dark Room

photos by Scott Beale

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Photos of Star Wars: Live on Stage at The Dark Room

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Creative Commons will be celebrating their 6th anniversary this Thursday, December 18th at 111 Minna Street in San Francisco. See the Upcoming event listing for more info. CC birthday parties are also taking place in several other cities around the world.

image via Creative Commons

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Creative Commons’ 6th Birthday Party in San Francisco

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Popular user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia has finally released a mobile-friendly version of the web site at mobile.wikipedia.org.

The site offers a trimmed down version of Wikipedia proper, supports 14 languages, and even has a mysterious Spoken Wikipedia setting that—though currently not enabled, may presumably one day read Wikipedia articles to you.

We've seen plenty of tools for making Wikipedia friendlier for your mobile device, including the previously mentioned Wikipanion iPhone app, Encyclopedia for jailbroken iPhones, Wikipedia-va-SMS app GoLive Mobile, and webapp SnapAsk, but a lot of people will be thrilled with the official offering. It's not a terribly advanced mobile webapp at this point, but it does break down Wikipedia articles into a nice, readable format for your small screen, which is plenty as a start. If you give it a go, let's hear your thoughts—including what else you'd like to see from Wikipedia Mobile—in the comments.

UPDATE: It looks like the mobile interface might not be as new as we thought, though this is the first time we've covered it.

Here are some photos I shot at last Saturday’s performance of “I Am Snowmiser: Walken in a Winter Wonderland”, a wonderful play directed by Rhiannon Charisse at The Dark Room in San Francisco that imagines what it would be like if Christopher Walken had stared in all of those great Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated holiday specials (see Violet Blue’s previous post).

I Am Snowmiser runs one more weekend, December 19th and 20th at 10pm.

Photo Gallery: I Am Snowmiser: Walken in a Winter Wonderland

See Previously: I Am Snowmiser: (Christopher) Walken in a Winter Wonderland

photos by Scott Beale

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & FriendFeed.

I Am Snowmiser: Walken in a Winter Wonderland Photos

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Like Firefox, the open source media player Songbird is a pretty neat alternative to a big-name competitor on its own, but the ability to extend it through add-ons is what really makes it boss.

We considered the release candidate of the potential "iTunes killer"—Songbird a sloppy mess, then backed up a bit when it's 1.0 release was official. Now we're geeked to show you a few add-ons that make Songbird a great place to organize your MP3s, iTunes purchases, iPods, and whatever else you listen to.

The suggested pack

Songbird's developers chose wisely when it came to the extensions it recommends installing when you first load Songbird. iPod Device Support, QuickTime Playback and Windows Media Playback give owners of protected files, and iPods, access to their tunes with few hitches. Shoutcast Radio and Last.fm integrate nicely as streaming players, and Concerts tells you whenever an artist you dig in your library is swinging by town to play a live gig. Last, but certainly not least, mashTape gives you all kinds of web-driven contextual content on your played artist, putting artist info, news, photos, and videos from a wide variety of popular sources—Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Digg, etc.—in your bottom tray. All worthy of installation, and, in some cases, hard to imagine music browsing without.

LyricMaster

LyricMaster smartly hunts down the lyrics for any song playing in Songbird, whether in the file's metadata or through Mashtape's search. If it gets a match, it puts them in a skinny right-hand window; if not, it offers a pre-formatted Google search for your song, which you can copy the results of and paste directly into the song file. Pretty straight-forward, but seriously helpful, too.

Seeqpod

Those familiar with Seeqpod's find-and-stream MP3 search engine can smile at its seamless Songbird integration. A search bar and results listing pops open in a new tab, and you can queue up over-the-net tracks or download them directly to your library or specific playlists. Downloads head into your standard Songbird downloads window, and, well, that's it—it just works, and it expands your library exponentially, assuming you're down with the kind of quasi-legality involved.

MediaFlow

If you're a fan of iTunes/OS X's CoverFlow style, with album art flipping by as you play and switch tracks, this is its Songbird near-equivalent. There's a few bugs and performance tweaks still to be worked out, but it basically delivers on the promise of big, flip-sliding pictures. If you're going to install this, it's best to also install the FocusTrack extension to get instant album art updates as you switch tracks.

Last.fm Album Art

If your library looks pretty barren in MediaFlow, let Last.fm's vast database do the heavy digital image lifting for you. This extension shows the album art that the music-sharing service has on file for whatever you're playing in the lower-left. It (unfortunately) doesn't let you grab and save that art for metadata implanting, but makes for a light-weight way to keep your visual field stocked in your media player.

The Exorcist

As a long-time iTunes user, this is the add-on your long-suffering editor is probably most excited about. The Exorcist adds two views to your media listing options, Ghost Tracks and Duplicate Tracks, that do exactly what you'd hope—list songs referenced in your library without a related media file, and list any songs that seem to be similar in file size or metadata. Better still, those views show you the full path of duplicate files, and offer buttons to just clear out all duplicates or find your missing tracks.

Pause/Play/Stop Buttons

If a single play/pause button just doesn't do it for you, you can add a stop button that looks built-in with this tiny, helpful extension. Not the sexiest of extensions, for sure, but a good indicator of the Firefox-like potential to customize Songbird to whatever shape you want it in—once more add-ons make the list and get updated.

What Sonbird add-ons are you enjoying alongside your music? What functionality would you love to see someone code up for a weekend project? Tell us your add-on ideas in the comments.