Trying to extract clips from a DVD is usually a roundabout process that involves a lot of waiting. Free utility DVD Knife makes it easy to extract clips from any part of your DVD.

Generally, in order to extract a small clip from a DVD, you’ve got to rip and convert the entire movie—or at least a specific chapter—before you can work with it. DVD Knife does away with this lengthy process with a quick, four-click solution. When you start it up, you just open the disc, navigate to and mark your start and endpoints, and click save. DVD Knife will extract the clip (without compressing or decompressing) into a small VOB file that you can then convert into whatever file type you need, giving you more time to actually concentrate on the goal at hand (or to finish up that project quickly and go do something else).

[ Download DVD Knife ]

TechTracker is a new service from CNET that scans your computer’s hard-drive for any outdated software programs and will alert you as soon as new updates are available for download.

The TechTracker app scans your installed software and then retrieves the version information provided in the executable files that come with these applications. It then compares this data with their own database of software products to see if there’s any version mismatch.

If there’s a new version available for your software, you can download it directly from the download.com website or click the “more info” link to view user ratings and other details of that software program before downloading.

CNET’s TechTracker is available for all versions of Windows and a Mac version is in the pipeline. You may either use Facebook Connect or create a free account at CNET.com to use the TechTracker service.

With TechTracker, you can also set up an email alerts for all your software programs so you’ll get an email as soon as a new version is released by the software developers without having to wait for the software scanner to inform you.

VersionTracker is another popular service that offers similar features and the very interesting part is that both these services are owned by CNET / CBS Networks.

The difference is that TechTracker is a free product and limited to software applications only while VersionTracker will scan software as well as hardware drivers though it costs money. Going forward, I think CNET will also release a pro version of the TechTracker application that will have all the features of VersionTracker and possibly some more.

Many of us own more than one computer, but unless they are connected to a network, moving files from one machine to another is laborious. We advocate synchronisation tools such as Sugarsync or Dropbox, which enable you to synchronise your favourite and most important files across multiple machines, irrespective of operating system. Snag is, if you have a slow broadband connection, or need to move across large movie files, synchronisation is going to take way too long to migrate your files.

The other option is to backup your data to a removable drive then connect that drive to another machine and restore the content. Of course, if you have a system problem in the future, you can simply restore the content back to the host computer.

FBackup is a free backup tool from the makers of Backup4All that offers you basic backup for your Windows computer. It ships with some pre-defined templates, so you can backup your email, My Pictures, My Documents and other key folders. The tool will enable you to backup to a connected drive, removable flash drive or even across your network.

You can use ZIP compression to get the most from your storage location. You can even use it to backup your most important files, even if they are open and in use by an application. All in all, it’s a simplistic tool designed to make sure you backup your files, quickly and easily with the minimum of fuss.

[ Download FBackup ]

Most of us use the same web browser across multiple computers. Synchronisation tools such as Mozilla Weave or Foxmarks enable us to keep the same bookmarks across various computers where you have Firefox installed. It’s a seamless process. Just add a website to your bookmarks and, when you start up your other computer, you’ll find the same bookmark updated in Firefox.

Snag is, we don’t always use the same browser on every machine. Some users prefer Firefox on their Windows desktop and Safari on their Mac-based laptop. Now with Google Chrome, some users have moved to this as their browser of choice. Sadly there’s no Mac or Linux version available.

Synchronising different bookmarks across your computers is another problem entirely. You can’t synchronise your Firefox and Safari bookmarks, automatically.

Transmute is an answer to this problem. It is a simple conversion tool that enables you to import bookmarks from one browser and then export for another. For example, load the bookmarks from Google Chrome on your Windows desktop and export for Apple Safari on your Mac.

The only downside is that this app is Windows-only, so you can’t convert between your Mac browsers.

Note that this is the portable version of Transmute.

[ Download Tranmute ]