Julia wants a free cooking timer
I’m a little embarrassed to send another question especially since you published the last one but I hope it helped some others that were stationary freaks like myself. I have been using yours you designed for the Windows Live Mail which are very, very nice. Also the pictures were so nice about finding the property’s in WLM messages. Thank you.
Now my question is: Do you know of a free Timer for Cooking to download onto the Computer. I’ve looked at several but I’m not sure if they are safe or will give me some kind of toolbar I don’t want or need. I don’t like to have to eat “Burnt Offerings” as a meal just because I was engulfed on the computer and didn’t hear my stove timer. Besides I’m not God and I don’t think He would want me to be eating like that anyway. Frankly it’s not good!. Hope you can help. Thank you.
Our answer
Hi Julia, thanks! At first I thought you were looking for free cooking lessons, and I’d be happy to teach you, but cooking for and feeding EB takes up most of my time. And considering she only lets me out of the basement once a week, I would not be able to help you 🙂
However, I can help you with a cooking timer…
Now I am not one for timers as I’m never on time, and I am an old timer, but as far as timers go, this was the best kitchen timers I tried (I tried 4 of them). With no adware, or spyware, no malware at all (as of February 27, 2014), this is the best timer I was able to find. And do not worry, although this thing hasn’t been updated since 2008, I tested it on both Windows 7 and Windows 8 (64bit) and it worked great. It will work on 32bit computers too.
Here’s the scoop from the Dinner Timer Web site:
Dinner Timer
Version : 1.1
Released : 28-Aug-2008
Filesize : 8.48Mb
Cost : FREE!
New Features :
The timer is now resizable with the time expanding/shrinking to fill the available area so it’s usable from a much greater distance.
Improved font rendering for less jagged display of time – esp. when large.
New Twitter notifier – now you can notify your friends and family automatically when you start dinner, when it will be ready, tweet notifications when it’s about to be ready, when it’s ready and through Dinner Timer Lite’s unique overrun timer tweet when the dinners burnt.
Improved bubble notifications – both the bubble and twitter notifiers now support text template replacements. Include any of the following for them to be replaced with the appropriate values when run : {{RunMins}}, {{StartTime}}, {{EndTime}}, {{MinsRemaining}}, {{MinsOverrun}}.
Additional sounds for the sound notifier including : Cow moo, Air horn, Alarm beep, Alarm clock beep, Alarm ring, All clear, Ambulance, Aooga horn, Boat air horn, Boing, Boing2, Boxing bell multi, Bullet ricochet, Buzzer, Buzzer 2, Buzzer 3, Buzzer 4, Buzzer 5, Buzzer heavy, Buzz through loud, Buzz thru, Chainsaw.
The time options available in the drop down list is now user configurable and includes the ability to name the times. e.g. you can enter a timer called “Pizza” and have it set as a 12 minute timer, the list will then show Pizza which can be easily selected and when the timer is started it will run for 12 minutes.
New installer with a single exe so no unzipping required. Binaries and installer are now digitally signed. Various under-the-cover improvements to facilitate some new features in the next release.
Well apparently the next release will be a doozie since it’s been six years in the making. Maybe the next release will cook for you too?
Anyway, I tested it on Windows 7 and Windows 8, just to remind you again. And you can get even more information and/or download Dinner Timer Lite (Freeware) from:
http://www.dinnertimer.com/Download.aspx
I don’t know what Dinner Timer Heavy does. I didn’t see one 🙂 Cook lightly, eat lightly, with Dinner Timer Lite 🙂
I’ve used “Cool Timer” for years upon years, and it works wonderfully. It’s a small program with nothing attached or hidden. You can choose what type of sound you want the timer to make, to get your attention.
Note that the download button is on the middle of the page, under the image of the Cool Timer.
/// I removed the link — it led to Softronic, one of the biggest distributors of malware in the world. The software they offer, may often be legitimate software, but Softronic wraps all software in their malware installer –anyone who downloads from Softronic will be infected with malware. TC ///
I love CalendarPal. Would it be feasible to add a “countdown timer” as a new CalendarPal feature? I use it to remind me of appointment days, but sometimes on the
day of the appointment, I have often wished that I could set a timer for 1, 2, 3 hours
while I work on the computer to fill the time gap. It’s a nuisance to reset the bedroom alarm clock, and then hope I hear it. Thanks for the question Julia, and thanks for the answer TC. DinnerTimer might just work for my purpose, too.