Windows only
A few months ago we tried out Digsby, and our verdict was that it's one of the best cross-network messenger clients available. The only downside was that when it came to the performance of Digsby things weren't so pleasant. Some of the commenters on our article noticed RAM usage spiking to 70MB and above as they were using the program, and this disappointed a lot of people since they liked the appearance and functionality of the messenger.

I've been closely following the Digsby blog, and they posted some great news last Friday night. Right now they are preparing for a major new release that has both performance and RAM optimizations that should solve the remaining qualms. This all comes due to a reworking of the application's architecture, which I'm very grateful for!

My first-hand experience is that the new version cut my memory usage by over 50% as seen in the screenshot above. I use Google Talk, Windows Live, and Twitter services with Digsby, and overall it only used about 27MB of my memory. That's not bad considering the previous release ate up over 50MB with the same accounts.

Before we tell you how you can get this pre-release version checkout what the developers had to say about this big milestone:

• RAM Optimization: Many people have reported that Digsby is taking 70MB - 110MB during normal use. If you leave Digsby running for a while, the memory leaks caused RAM usage to climb to 150MB+ on some systems. We completely reworked the architecture to use less memory and also improved the memory management by releasing objects when they are no longer needed. We also hunted down and eliminated numerous memory leaks. All in all, these changes lower Digsby's RAM usage by over 50%. It should now hover in the 20MB - 50MB range depending on how many accounts you have and what you are doing at the moment. There is still more we can do and our goal is to get RAM utilization down even further!
• Performance: The changes in architecture improved the performance of simple user interface elements like buttons and menus; they now draw 2x - 3x faster! Digsby should be much more responsive now than ever before. However, while this build focused on RAM optimization, the next 1-2 builds will have a strong focus on improving "perceived performance" even more, including things like GUI response time, CPU utilization, etc.
• Firewalls and Proxy Servers: Those who have not been able to use MSN or other IM protocols due to firewall/proxy restrictions should now be able to connect without any issues.
• Crash Reporter: The new release includes a crash reporter that will ask you whether you want to send a crash log to us if Digsby should crash.
• Bug Fixes + Enhancements: Over the past two months we have added a large number of bug fixes and enhancements. There are too many to list here but we will include a full Change Log when the release is pushed to everyone.

You can grab a "testers only" version of the new Digsby from their forum, but be aware that it might not be stable (I didn't have any problems with it though). They plan to have a full public release soon, but I'm sure some of you won't want to wait.

Windows only

uTorrent is definitely one of my favorite BitTorrent clients on Windows, and after 9-months of development version 1.8 has finally been released. This new release includes full Vista support (including the Windows Firewall, Teredo/IPҢ, and numerous other enhancements.

Back in December 2006 you may recall our concern as to where uTorrent was going to head since it had been acquired by BitTorrent. A lot of dedicated followers said that they would be switching clients, but here we are a few versions later and overall it still feels like the uTorrent we know and love. The new version uses just 9MB of memory when downloading a torrent on my machine which is even lighter than the previous version, and the interface is still easy to understand. What about you? After a year and a half are you still using uTorrent, or have you switched to something else because of the acquisition?

What does the future hold for uTorrent? The developers aren't quite ready to move on to the next release of uTorrent as they will be focusing on a Mac version of the client. The first public Alpha release of uTorrent for the Mac is expected to be released in the coming weeks, and we'll be sure to let you know once that becomes available.

Get uTorrent 1.8

Over in our forum Max inquired about whether it was safe to remove old versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) that had been left behind after each upgrade. Of course you can, and there's a good chance that you can free up hundreds of megabytes by removing them.

According to Sun the reason they leave the old versions of Java on your computer is to ensure that older Java applications will work even if they're not compatible with the newest version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE):

The latest version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is always the recommended version as it contains updates and improvements to previous versions. The latest available version is always compatible with the older versions.

You can keep older versions of the JRE installed, in case you have an applet/application that still depends upon a previous version.

The chances of you actually needing one of these older versions probably isn't high, and removing them can definitely free up some space on your hard drive. Sun provides instructions on how to uninstall older versions of Java, but it can be a bit tedious if you've got several updates to remove.

The easier method is to use a free program called JavaRa, which JMBAKE pointed out. It only works on Windows, but the nice thing is that it doesn't require any installation. Just download the file, extract the contents, and you're ready to go.

When you launch JavaRa you should see a simple interface just like this one:

It's all pretty self explanatory, but here's a list of the things that you can do:

• Remove old versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
• Update to the latest version of JRE
• Remove the Java startup entry
• Remove the Sun download manager
• Remove useless JRE files

Nothing like having a little extra breathing room on your PC.

Download JavaRa

The OpenOffice.org team makes a great productivity suite, but the developers behind the famed open source project have also tucked away a few enjoyable Easter Eggs. Several of them are your typical run-of-the-mill Easter Eggs that show the credits, but one in particular is a lot of fun.

First you'll want to fire up OpenOffice.org Calc, and enter the following code into one of the cells:

=GAME("StarWars")

After entering that in press Enter to start playing Space Invaders! Make sure you capitalize the "S" and "W" in StarWars otherwise it won't work.

I got a little addicted to the game once I started playing it, and managed to get to level 16 as seen in the screenshot below. Once you get to level 14 it gets a little more difficult since there are "ghost" bombers that are only visible when they're dropping a bomb on you. So they can be rather difficult to attack.

Let us know in the comments how far you manage to get, and if you close the window you'll need to restart OpenOffice.org Calc before being able to play again. Otherwise you'll get a "oh no, not again" message in the cell.

More OpenOffice.org Easter Eggs

(Click to Enlarge)

Windows only

One thing that Microsoft finally got around to doing in Vista is making it easier to manage the partitions on your hard drive. Using the built-in Disk Management you can do most common operations without needing any third-party tools, and in my experience it works pretty well.

Windows XP users aren't quite as fortunate when it comes to resizing partitions on their computer. Up until now finding a partition manager for XP wasn't too difficult, but finding one that was free was a different story. A lot of my friends turned to Linux-based solutions, but optimally you'd want something that runs in Windows itself.

That's where EASEUS Partition Manager comes into play. They offer a free home version that can resize/move, create, and delete partitions on your computer. Since you're able to perform resizing operations you can also grab any unallocated space on your hard drive and add it to an existing partition. All of this for free!