Top Ten Downloads for Home
Stuck in the summer doldrums? These files offer some joie de vivre.
Max Green, FileWorld
Every year millions of dollars are spent on self-help books, tapes, and videos. Why not save some money by downloading shareware instead? All the files in this list are aimed at improving your quality of life. They'll protect you from repetitive strain injury, increase your reading speed, teach you astronomy, instruct you how to mix drinks, plan your meals, and maintain a healthful diet. As always, these downloads are ranked by popularity; if you'd like to browse all the files in this category, click the link to the right.
- AceReader: Become more proficient at reading both on and off your computer. AceReader helps you break bad habits such as subvocalization and rereading.
- Coeli - Stella 2000: This first-rate astronomy program creates an amazingly realistic simulation of the night sky. It features planets, comets, and more than 15,500 stars.
- BarBack for Windows: Browse more than 3000 cocktail recipes by name, by liquor, or by glassware and add or remove drinks as you like.
- Stretch Break Pro: If you get aching muscles and stiff joints from sitting in front of your computer too long, this program will force you to take breaks. Every 30 minutes, a Windows screen pops up showing animated figures doing stretches for you to follow.
- Wellness: This program covers more than 60 ailments, including allergies, high blood pressure, colds, heartburn, hemorrhoids, and sunburn. It provides herbal remedies, vitamins and minerals, homeopathy, and yoga poses to treat each condition.
- From Scratch: You can enter an unlimited number of recipes into this program. Ingredient quantities are automatically adjusted based on the number of servings. You can print recipes and search for a recipe based on recipe name, ingredients, keywords, origin, time to prepare, instructions, notes, or nutrition information.
- Life Form: If you are carrying a few extra pounds, trying to get in shape, or want to feel better, this program has information you can use. It's divided into eight sections that include Information, Food, Exercise, Measurements, Chemistry, Ratings, History, and Graphs.
- DietWatch Diary: Keep a log of your diet, weight, and exercise within your Internet browser. You can chart personal data and compare your nutritional profile to others.
- Mealformation: This menu management and analysis program helps you develop an individual meal plan and calculates the dietary allowances for calories, total fat grams, cholesterol, dietary fiber, and protein.
- Now You're Cooking: This program helps you plan meals and manage grocery costs. Create your own recipe categories, perform powerful searches for recipes across cookbooks, prepare a shopping list from your weekly menu based on multiple cookbooks, calculate the cost of your groceries, and import and export recipes.
