[141000930010] |<title>Centericq Review</title>
[141000930020] |<img/>Instant messengers are everywhere: on cell phones, video game machines and, of course, computers.
[141000930030] |Most people have several phone numbers (home, work, cell, VoIP) and some also have several screen names on several IM clients.
[141000930040] |There are a number of them out there Yahoo, MSN, ICQ etc each comes with its own ad-coated, spyware-plated and resource-hungry client.
[141000930050] |To stay connected, someone might have as many as 4-5 IM programs running, filling-up the screen and eating lots of resources.
[141000930060] |Things get even worse when someone is stuck using an old computer unable to run a graphical interface or a job that demands remote administration using only console commands.
[141000930070] |This is what Centericq has been made for.
[141000930080] |Centericq is a multi-protocol instant messaging client built using the ncurses console library.
[141000930090] |Supporting the ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, IRC, MSN, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber and Zephyr networks, Centericq can be very useful when you'd rather not use Gaim or Kopete.
[141000930100] |Unlike other solutions, Centericq provides a window-based interface that provides a lot of information.
[141000930110] |The screen is split into three sections, a list of connections on the left, including open private conversations and public IRC channels, the main conversation and information window on the right part of the screen and a small command/control panel at the bottom.
[141000930120] |Another thing that makes Centericq a great application is the support for color schemes (themes), not to mention that the configuration is being made with menus and dialogs.
[141000930130] |It's also highly scriptable so it's perfect if you want to add more functionality to it, like message forwarding or auto reply.
[141000930140] |The UI messages are translated into 15 languages and the program supports displaying Hebrew and Arabic texts.
[141000930150] |Users can log in to multiple IM networks simultaneously.
[141000930160] |This means you can be chatting with friends on Yahoo!, talking to a friend in MSN and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time!
[141000930170] |From the text mode console!
[141000930180] |Centericq supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfers, custom away messages, conferencing, buddy typing notifications and proxy support.
[141000930190] |It goes beyond that and provides many unique features like checking local inbox for new mail, script for migrating contact list and history from licq, gnomeicu and micq and an integrated RSS-feeds reader.
[141000930200] |You can arrange your contacts into groups and sort them by name, status or protocol.
[141000930210] |If you want to save the conversations, you can do so, and for each contact name a separate directory will be created, containing all discussions.
[141000930220] |You can have timestamps as well, if you want and can configure Centericq to set you away after a period of inactivity.
[141000930230] |Of course, not everything is milk and honey about Centericq.
[141000930240] |For example, for Yahoo! Protocol it doesn't support showing IDs as they were saved in the address book; it only shows the id itself.
[141000930250] |File transfer protocol has been implemented, but does it really work? 
[141000930260] |I, for one, couldn't successfully complete at least one transfer.
[141000930270] |Its own ignore, visible and invisible user lists are pretty useless and will remain so as long as the Yahoo network lists won't be used.
[141000930280] |Another thing I find pretty useless is the auto set away after x minutes.
[141000930290] |In fact, it sets you as away if you don't use Centericq for that period of time, not the PC itself.
[141000930300] |Also, it doesn't have support for webcam.
[141000930310] |But can you blame it?
[141000930320] |It's still a text console based client.
[141000930330] |Maybe something ASCII-based will be implemented in the future.
[141000930340] |Centericq builds and runs under Linux, *BSD, Sun Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X/Darwin.
[141000930350] |<b>The Good</b>
[141000930360] |It runs just fine on low-end machines that cannot run a graphical user interface, because it's a text-mode based IM.
[141000930370] |Also it supports the most important chat protocols. 
[141000930380] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141000930390] |Unfortunately, there is no compatibility support for Yahoo! Address Book.
[141000930400] |Moreover, it has a file transfer engine but it's hard to say if it's really compatible with past/future versions of IM network clients.
[141000930410] |<b>The truth</b>
[141000930420] |It's extremely useful if you use the Linux console in a day by day activity or if you work on a low-end computer.
[141000930430] |It supports the most important chat protocols.
[141000930440] |Yes, it's not the perfect IM client but it does the job.
[141000930450] |And it does it quite well.
[141000930460] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141000960010] |<title>LiVES Review</title>
[141000960020] |<img/>I have three or four clips shot with the photo camera that I want to reunite in a single clip using some simple effects.
[141000960030] |I wanted a simple free Linux application that allows me to do this easily and after spending some time searching on the Internet, I figured an appropriate one would be LiVES.
[141000960040] |The website of LiVES looks good, it presents an interesting set of features and it managed to convinced me that LiVES is the tool for me.
[141000960050] |I downloaded the LiVES rpm and then I tried to install it.
[141000960060] |That's when my bad day started!
[141000960070] |LiVES has a pretty long list of dependencies and, in that list, there were even some of the things that I use daily, like the mplayer.
[141000960080] |Anyway, I spent some time locating all the packets needed to satisfy the dependencies, because they weren't in the repositories that I use.
[141000960090] |I installed everything that was required and then I tried to start LiVES.
[141000960100] |Surprise, some libraries are still missing.
[141000960110] |They weren't missing, but in the packed version that I used for installing the naming convention was slightly different.
[141000960120] |I accordingly linked the files and then I could really start the software.
[141000960130] |This was a truly satisfying moment, because I hoped that in just a few minutes I could finally complete my job.
[141000960140] |LiVES wasn't as intuitive as I was hoping it to be so it took me a lot more than usual to get used with the interface.
[141000960150] |I had time to discover some of the interesting features that are available in the software and also some of the most annoying bugs.
[141000960160] |The first time I tried to use it I did something bad that resulted in an enormous loading time that took me nowhere.
[141000960170] |Considering the fact that, on my various operations LiVES crashed several times, you can imagine that I was pretty frustrated.
[141000960180] |A very good feature of the software allowed the recovery of files every time the software crashed.
[141000960190] |Recovery saved a lot of time and worked perfectly.
[141000960200] |LiVES has mainly two modes: a multitrack mode and a clip editor.
[141000960210] |These modes are fundamentally different and each of them has some interesting features that sometimes might come in handy.
[141000960220] |Plenty of features are implemented in every aspect of LiVES, but the problem is that the interface is not user friendly.
[141000960230] |The interface has support for themes but, unfortunately, few are available and they are not very nice.
[141000960240] |I think that, if an artist would dedicate some of its time to create an attractive theme, more users would be lured by the LiVES project increasing the chances of the project to evolve.
[141000960250] |One of the best things about this software is that it supports virtually any format, because it uses mplayer as a backend.
[141000960260] |Combined with support for custom RFX plugin, support for realtime processing and support for encoding in many formats as the most important features, I can safely say that LiVES has a very interesting codebase.
[141000960270] |The problem is that it badly needs polishing, because most of the people will not be able to use all the very interesting stuff that seems to be implemented at some level in the software.
[141000960280] |<b>The Good</b>
[141000960290] |The software seems to have a lot of interesting features.
[141000960300] |The fact that it uses mplayer makes it able to work with virtually any format and the support for RFX can only make us happy.
[141000960310] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141000960320] |The interface is not user friendly and this gives the software a very low popularity.
[141000960330] |At this point the software seems to be a little unstable.
[141000960340] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141000960350] |I want to like this software and, even though it didn't worked as I was hoping it would, it really deserves a chance.
[141000960360] |The community needs a free software for fast and easy video editing and, currently, I don't know any one that can satisfy these requirements.
[141000960370] |With a bit of focused development, this software could be really good, but until then ...
[141000960380] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141000970010] |<title>XAMPP Review</title>
[141000970020] |<img/>Nowadays, Linux administrators or web developers can choose from numerous HTTP servers, database servers and administrative tools to create web servers for commercial, non-profit, testing or other purposes.
[141000970030] |LAMP has become one of the most used combinations of free software for creating those web servers.
[141000970040] |In spite of the multitude of HOWTOs, tutorials and guides, installing LAMP from source packages can sometimes be an unnecessary waste of time.
[141000970050] |Not to mention that installing the pieces of the LAMP puzzle is a quite complex and complicated process so things could go wrong at anytime. 
[141000970060] |XAMPP is a free, pre-compiled and pre-configured software package containing the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database and tools to run PHP and Perl web applications.
[141000970070] |It was conceived to be fast, flexible and easy to install and run.
[141000970080] |Also, it contains a number of useful packages that make easy things like generating traffic reports, accelerating PHP content, administering MySQL database through a browser with phpMyAdmin, uploading and downloading files with ProFTPD FTP server and so on.
[141000970090] |Moreover, it will install on rather many Linux distributions, as well as on Windows and Solaris.
[141000970100] |But nothing is perfect and XAMPP isn't an exception.
[141000970110] |It was designed mostly for developers and it's an extremely easy way for developers to set up their own local LAMP installation for the applications they are developing.
[141000970120] |To make it convenient for developers, with the default configuration, XAMPP has all the features turned on which makes it quite insecure to be used in a production environment.
[141000970130] |But, of course, with some minor modifications to the configuration files, it can be secured enough to be used in such environment.
[141000970140] |As for installing XAMPP, one may find it hard to believe it's done in just three steps.
[141000970150] |But it's true.
[141000970160] |All you have to do is visit its official homepage and download the latest version available for your operating system.
[141000970170] |Next, the package needs to be uncompressed using the command:
[141000970180] |# tar xzvf xampp-linux-LATEST.tar.gz -C /opt
[141000970190] |Note: This command is available only for Linux environment, for other operating systems, read the suitable documentation.
[141000970200] |And that's it!
[141000970210] |You now have a fully configured and working LAMP installation on your Linux PC.
[141000970220] |To start your new LAMP server, just issue the following command:
[141000970230] |# /opt/lampp/lampp start
[141000970240] |This command starts up the Apache HTTP server with PHP support, the MySQL database and ProFTPD FTP server.
[141000970250] |Stopping XAMPP is just as easy, issue the last command but replace 'start' with 'stop'.
[141000970260] |XAMPP also provides the individual start and stop commands for each application.
[141000970270] |You could run only Apache or only Apache and MySQL or any other possible combination. 
[141000970280] |Another great feature that XAMPP has to offer is the ability to fast switch between PHP4 and PHP5.
[141000970290] |This helps developers to easily test their applications compatibility with the two versions.
[141000970300] |In addition to the previously specified applications, a default XAMPP installation also includes several PHP applications with demonstration purposes and some more web-based tools.
[141000970310] |For instance, XAMPP has included OpenSSL for secure sockets layer support.
[141000970320] |It also has included graphics libraries such as GD, database packages such as SQLite and gdbm, XML and PHP packages and finally some packages to demonstrate XAMPP's versatility such as Webalizator, zlib, mod_perl and IMAP C-Client.
[141000970330] |<b>The Good</b>
[141000970340] |XAMPP is a great development tool.
[141000970350] |It's very easy to install and contains all the tools needed, as well as some demo applications, for helping new developers in their path to success.
[141000970360] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141000970370] |Being a development tool on one hand, it's a bad thing, on the other hand, considering the number of features turned on by default and its security level that is rather low.
[141000970380] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141000970390] |XAMPP is the perfect application for developers, even for small non-profit organizations or online communities.
[141000970400] |It can be installed and used very easily.
[141000970410] |By default, XAMPP has a very low security level; therefore, it can't be used in production environments.
[141000970420] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141000980010] |<title>Xara Xtreme Review</title>
[141000980020] |<img/>A few days ago, I found out that a new great software for vector graphics emerged in the Linux world.
[141000980030] |This software is a truly wonderful gift from Xara who decided earlier this year to give to the open source community Xara Xtreme.
[141000980040] |Now, the process of porting has gone very far and in my opinion, is ready for the mainstream public.
[141000980050] |Xara Xtreme is very famous for its speed.
[141000980060] |To be honest with you, I never believed anyone that stated that their software is the best or the fastest or things like that.
[141000980070] |That's why I decided to see that for myself.
[141000980080] |Since it's a vector drawing software, I wanted to test it with some complex SVG files but <b>Xara doesn't support SVG yet</b>.
[141000980090] |I don't like to start like this, but it couldn't have come as a greater disappointment.
[141000980100] |Support for SVG is critical, but I've seen on the forum that this is a work in progress and we will have it in Xara, so more good news are yet to come.
[141000980110] |I tested the speed with the ProbeX16.xar file and I'm really impressed that <b>it is able to load that incredible amount of details in a more than acceptable amount of time</b>.
[141000980120] |I've then created my own ProbeX1.xar to work with and for every action I performed, the response was in real time.
[141000980130] |This really blows my mind because I have a 1.5GHz processor that I never considered for high detail graphics.
[141000980140] |This software is really fast because I remember that other vector graphics software took more time to render drawings that where less complex.
[141000980150] |<b>The Interface</b>
[141000980160] |Xara Xtreme has a very nice, uncluttered and easy to use interface.
[141000980170] |Even though it might seem to have a few buttons, an experienced user can do truly amazing things with Xara.
[141000980180] |Most of the tools are located in the left hand side of the screen and after selecting a tool, its settings will be shown in an upper toolbar as you are used to from all the other programs.
[141000980190] |The icons are very intuitive and for every button, there is a tooltip that gives you a hint about what it does and sometimes about the keyboard shortcuts that apply.
[141000980200] |From what I've seen so far, the tools are Xtreme.
[141000980210] |They pack a lot of power in the simplest form possible.
[141000980220] |In the main menu, little functions where available.
[141000980230] |This is somehow strange, because even though most people wouldn't access them from there, the main menu gave a rough idea about what are some of the features.
[141000980240] |I personally like this approach because a lot of accent is put on functionality.
[141000980250] |On my first try with the software, I was able to make some interesting graphics.
[141000980260] |I think in a few hours I could really get to know Xara which is a very complex software.
[141000980270] |I was just surfing on their website and I located some advertising movies.
[141000980280] |They where excellent!
[141000980290] |The few hours necessary to get familiar with Xara are now down to a lot less and the chances to get things right are much bigger.
[141000980300] |I really want to see some tutorial movies that demonstrate some techniques because if they will be available, then this great tool can become a delight to virtually anyone.
[141000980310] |<b>Xara is a great photo editing tool.</b>
[141000980320] |It's very easy to use and even though it doesn't come close to GIMP at this stage, it can perform most of the actions a normal user would ever want to perform a lot easier than he can do it in GIMP.
[141000980330] |It can work with all the popular formats that are used for photography and also in this area demonstrates an incredible speed and versatility.
[141000980340] |The plugins feature hasn't been implemented in version 0.7 but I've read that Xara plans to use GIMP plugins and that they are also thinking of making the Photoshop plugins work.
[141000980350] |Considering where Xara Xtreme for Linux stands at this point and what features are still planned for implementing, I honestly think that this application can be the best.
[141000980360] |<b>The Good</b>
[141000980370] |Xara Xtreme is fast, is versatile, is easy to use and now it's FREE.
[141000980380] |Xara Xtreme is great with vector graphics but it's also very good with bitmaps.
[141000980390] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141000980400] |I can't really say bad things about Xara because it's a work in progress and the things that bothered me will not be there in the final product.
[141000980410] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141000980420] |Xara Xtreme is a great gift that will push Linux a step further into the future.
[141000980430] |I can only be happy that great tools are now available for Linux and even better, they are now free.
[141000980440] |I once believed that Inkscape is the greatest graphics software around but now, I know that Xara Xtreme will take the lead.
[141000980450] |Check out some screenshots of Xara Xtreme for Linux with a detailed Ford Probe GT:
[141001000010] |<title>Akregator Review</title>
[141001000020] |<img/>Some of us like to be up to date with the latest news, events, services and so on.
[141001000030] |This is called information and each one of us selects our sources based on our interest.
[141001000040] |However, new information sources are created or found frequently, which leads to an information overload. 
[141001000050] |Not long ago, Netscape invented a data format designed to select only the information that interest us and to keep that new information under control.
[141001000060] |It was called RSS (Really Simple Syndication).
[141001000070] |Using RSS, websites can put their content into a standardized format, which can be viewed and organized through a RSS aggregator (reader).
[141001000080] |There are a lot of RSS aggregators out there, for each and every operating system available, but only one is integrated with KDE.
[141001000090] |It's called Akregator.
[141001000100] |Akregator is an open source news aggregator which supports both RSS and Atom feeds, that can be sorted into categories.
[141001000110] |Akregator can be configured to fetch all feeds within regular intervals but also, the user can choose the update intervals for every feed, for individual feeds or for those in a selected category.
[141001000120] |Articles can be opened in tabs within Akregator or an external browser as Konqueror or Firefox can be used to read them.
[141001000130] |KDE is kind of a synergy; it offers so much as a whole than its parts, on an individual level.
[141001000140] |This is the case with Akregator and Konqueror.
[141001000150] |If you're browsing a RSS-ready website with Konqueror, the little orange RSS icon will appear at the bottom-left of the browser.
[141001000160] |If you click that icon, the RSS feed is automatically sent to Akregator.
[141001000170] |Adding feeds can't be easier than this.
[141001000180] |Akregator has a basic interface, similar to any other feed reader.
[141001000190] |Feeds are listed on the left site and clicking on a feed brings up the list of posts from the feed.
[141001000200] |Akregator has three modes:
[141001000210] |<b>normal</b>: three-paned view with the list of feeds on the left, the list of posts in the top right pane, and the post content in the bottom-right pane.
[141001000220] |<b>widescreen</b>: feeds are in the left pane, posts in a middle pane and content in the right pane.
[141001000230] |<b>combined</b>: feeds on the left side, and shows all current posts in a feed on the right side.
[141001000240] |The user can choose what browser to use within Akregator's configuration, in the Browser tab.
[141001000250] |Also, Akregator can be configured to open links in tabs within it, in KDE's default browser (everyone knows its Konqueror) or in another external browser. 
[141001000260] |Akregator has the ability to archive and keep all feeds but this can get a little disturbing if you are subscribed to a lot of feeds so, in this case, it's probably better to use the expire function, which automatically deletes articles after a certain amount of time. 
[141001000270] |In order to make feed reading and manipulation faster, you can configure keyboard shortcuts for usual actions like moving between previous and next articles or feeds, tagging them as important, marking them as read or deleting them. 
[141001000280] |Akregator offers another useful feature, the individual feeds customization.
[141001000290] |As some feeds are more important than others, they can be configured in a particular way.
[141001000300] |For instance, you can set the update interval for a specific feed that interests you in a particular way, you can enable a notification when new articles arrive in that feed and you can configure how articles in that feed are viewed.
[141001000310] |You can choose from feed view, full view or view in an external browser.
[141001000320] |Of course, viewing the feed in a full view or a browser will have a longer loading time and the whole point of using RSS will be wasted. 
[141001000330] |When you close Akregator, a window pops up telling you that it will keep running in background, adding an icon to your system tray.
[141001000340] |Unfortunately, for those who hate having additional icons in the system tray, the pop up dialog doesn't also have a quit button.
[141001000350] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001000360] |Akregator has all the features a RSS should have and even more.
[141001000370] |It handles large number of feeds flawlessly and it's very easy to work with, especially with the KDE/Konqueror integration that makes adding feeds a piece of cake.
[141001000380] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001000390] |When used in combined mode, it's a very convenient way to skim through a bunch of feeds at once but this mode has its flaws.
[141001000400] |For instance, reading a bunch of feeds in this mode increases the article load time and the more articles a feed has, the more noticeable the wait becomes.
[141001000410] |Also, in this mode there isn't any way to mark individual articles as read or important.
[141001000420] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001000430] |Akregator is the best, free software, feed reader for KDE since it integrates so well with Konqueror and other KDE applications and because all its useful features which make news reading a fast, easy and enjoyable experience.
[141001000440] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001020010] |<title>Ardour Review</title>
[141001020020] |<img/>Ardour is a very capable digital audio software.
[141001020030] |There are many similar software packets to Ardour, but none of them runs on Linux and none of them is Open Source.
[141001020040] |Ardour does all these things while still benefiting from all the things Linux has to offer.
[141001020050] |If configured properly and if there is enough experience behind Ardour, it can definitely outsmart most of the expensive competitors from the Windows platform.
[141001020060] |I'll start with telling you that, at this point, Ardour is not an easy to use software.
[141001020070] |Working a little with it lets you understand why.
[141001020080] |There are many features available and making all of them in easy reach and intuitive seems a very complicated task.
[141001020090] |The software has great functionality but it is not user friendly.
[141001020100] |It is a tool for multi-channel, multi-track, non-linear and non-destructive audio editing and even more.
[141001020110] |It's almost a whole audio editing studio packet in a fairly small open source software.
[141001020120] |Anyway, I don't see it as a user's software but more as a software for professionals.
[141001020130] |A good news is that Ardour2 is close of being released and it will have a much improved interface that will use GTK2.
[141001020140] |Interesting features will be implemented and we'll have an even better digital audio workstation.
[141001020150] |The first thing you notice is that Jack is essential for Ardour.
[141001020160] |This is a very good thing because Jack provides a high performance, low latency audio server that routes audio data between an audio interface and audio applications.
[141001020170] |Many things in Ardour relate to Jack and I strongly suggest you read a little bit about it.
[141001020180] |Probably one of the most important things when running Ardour is the screen resolution.
[141001020190] |On a 1024x768, not even the main window fits entirely.
[141001020200] |This might be a problem for a lot of users with old monitors or with laptops because a higher resolution might not be supported.
[141001020210] |Most of the time, you'll work with a lot more than the editor window, perhaps with the mixer, jack, clocks, effects...
[141001020220] |The bigger your screen, the more productive you'll be with Ardour.
[141001020230] |If you have two monitors, you will really get the best out of them.
[141001020240] |The most important windows are <b>Editor</b> and <b>Mixer</b>.
[141001020250] |In general terms, the Editor represents the time based aspects of a session and the Mixer represents the signal flow. 
[141001020260] |The Editor will be the most useful in the early stages of a session because that's when you add and arrange the material within the tracks along the time axis.
[141001020270] |There are many advanced features available for working with the samples and the tracks.
[141001020280] |Sometimes, organizing your samples has a critical importance and for each track, you can choose different visual options for allowing a better classification.
[141001020290] |The Mixer mimics a lot, in terms of functionality, a traditional hardware mixing console and even goes beyond one.
[141001020300] |In a mixer's window, there are several mixing strips that correspond to tracks and buses that you use.
[141001020310] |The mixer strips are designed to visually model the signal flow and after you work with them a little, you'll notice that they have many interesting features.
[141001020320] |Ardour supports many audio file formats for importing/exporting but unfortunately, OGG is not supported and because of the license and patents, Mp3 and WMA are unsupported too.
[141001020330] |A good news for the OSX people is that Ardour2 will have support for Mp3 on that platform because Apple has bought rights for the Mp3 technology.
[141001020340] |For the Linux people, I can only give you a suggestion.
[141001020350] |Use Mplayer to convert any format you like into wav.
[141001020360] |The process is fairly fast and the command for performing this task is the following: mplayer -ao pcm:file=outputfilename.wav inputfilename.mp3
[141001020370] |I really don't want to go into further detail because I'm expecting the new version every day and then, I'll really want to check out the new features and probably write a new review.
[141001020380] |Until then, I'll let you in the company of this one.
[141001020390] |In the end, I just want to say that I saw on the Internet a very interesting piece of hardware that's actually a custom crafted PC with some special addition that incorporates Ardour.
[141001020400] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001020410] |Ardour is a very versatile piece of software.
[141001020420] |It provides so many features that would be almost impossible to present them in a review.
[141001020430] |You can see that the interface is engineered in a smart way, even though it's not very user friendly.
[141001020440] |Ardour reaches a professional level.
[141001020450] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001020460] |The interface is definitely not user friendly.
[141001020470] |I classify as a user and I was in war with the interface (now we have reached truth) :)) Support for the most common audio formats is not available.
[141001020480] |Plugins are not in easy reach for everyone.
[141001020490] |A good book will be very nice to have.
[141001020500] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001020510] |At this moment, Ardour is the best software and probably the only one that classifies as a digital audio workstation in the Linux world.
[141001020520] |When Ardour2 will be available, I think that it will be the newest best Digital Audio Workstation :) It really isn't anything that can match this level.
[141001020530] |Check out some screenshots of Ardour.
[141001020540] |The last one is done by professionals.
[141001030010] |<title>TightVNC Review</title>
[141001030020] |<img/>VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing and it's a desktop sharing system which uses a few complex and complicated protocols to provide control over a remote computer.
[141001030030] |So, basically, what it does is to transmit the keyboard presses and mouse clicks to a computer in a different location.
[141001030040] |Through a VNC, you can control your home computer from work or from another location just like you were right in front of it.
[141001030050] |All you need is a correctly setup VNC, a computer and Internet access.
[141001030060] |VNC has two parts: a client and a server.
[141001030070] |The server is the program on the machine that shares its screen, and the client (or viewer) is the program that watches and interacts with the server. 
[141001030080] |TightVNC is one of the many VNC software packages available but it's one of the best choices you can make.
[141001030090] |Why?
[141001030100] |Because TightVNC gathered all the useful features from other VNC packages and was made available for all major platforms, while keeping it free, stable, easy to use and compatible with other VNC software.
[141001030110] |Moreover, TightVNC is actively developed so new versions with new added features and bug fixes are released frequently, making it even better.
[141001030120] |So how does it work?
[141001030130] |First of all, you must install the server on the computer you want to remotely control.
[141001030140] |This is a pretty straightforward process, so you won't get a hard time with it.
[141001030150] |Next, and the most important part, is to set a password because you wouldn't want a couple of bored strangers to control your sweet little computer.
[141001030160] |The server config panel offers some more options which are recommended to leave as default unless you really know what you're doing. 
[141001030170] |Once the server is configured and started, it's time to install the client, also known as VNC viewer.
[141001030180] |In the client config panel are some more options you should consider.
[141001030190] |Think about the connection bandwidth both computers have available.
[141001030200] |Is it a high or a low bandwidth connection?
[141001030210] |Based on this, you should setup the client.
[141001030220] |For a low connection, you should set a lower level of compression.
[141001030230] |This means that the images you are going to get from the server computer will have a lower quality, but will arrive faster.
[141001030240] |The whole idea is to feel that you're right in front of the remote computer, not using a 20 year old one.
[141001030250] |Of course, if you set the compression to a very low level, you won't feel like using a 20 year old computer, but you will surely see some very low quality images.
[141001030260] |Although, I'm sure this in not the case considering how far the Internet and Internet Service Providers have advanced.
[141001030270] |After the configured has been completed, it's time to connect to the remote server.
[141001030280] |Fire-up the viewer, enter the remote IP and the password and you're good to go.
[141001030290] |Once you press the OK button, everything should work as a charm.
[141001030300] |A window will open; it will be a completely workable, slightly slower rendering, of the remote computer's desktop.
[141001030310] |There isn't need for special key combinations or anything else, just use your mouse and keyboard just like you were right in front of it.
[141001030320] |What about security?
[141001030330] |Are you worried that someone may takeover the control or see what you're doing?
[141001030340] |No problem!
[141001030350] |TightVNC offers (until now) two security measures.
[141001030360] |First, passwords are encrypted before being sent over the Internet.
[141001030370] |This is done automatically and does not require any dependencies.
[141001030380] |However, the traffic itself is sent as it is, unencrypted.
[141001030390] |If your work is of a national security importance or if you are a security addict, you can install OpenSSH on both computers, this way, creating a SSH tunnel for all VNC connections.
[141001030400] |Securing traffic is, however, on the TO DO list, the TightVNC team is currently developing a built-in encryption in a future version.
[141001030410] |What else is there?
[141001030420] |TightVNC enables file transfers between the two computers.
[141001030430] |You can upload files from your local machine to the TightVNC server, and you can download files from the server to the current computer.
[141001030440] |Note: this feature is missing from the standard VNC.
[141001030450] |If, for some reason, you can't install a VNC viewer on the local computer, you can use the greatly improved Java viewer applet which can be accessed via a built-in HTTP server.
[141001030460] |With it, you can control your computer through a browser.
[141001030470] |How neat is that!
[141001030480] |Besides the efficient compression algorithms which optimize the encoding for slow and medium-speed connections, TightVNC offers an optional JPEG compression.
[141001030490] |This additional feature will compress the color depth of desktop images you receive.
[141001030500] |This is only required when your connection is very low and you don't really care about perfect image quality as much as you care about speed and performance. 
[141001030510] |Moreover, you can set two passwords for TightVNC server.
[141001030520] |One which enables full control over the remote pc and the other which enables a read-only view, disallowing the keyboard and mouse events to the remote computer.
[141001030530] |You can use this feature if you're showing someone how to do a certain computer task or if you are fixing someone's computer and you want him to 'watch and learn' but without interfering.
[141001030540] |There are also some advanced options and properties you can use, such as using custom ports for TCP connections, allowing or disallowing loopback connections or disabling the HTTP server.
[141001030550] |And more to come, as TightVNC is constantly improving, featuring a number of other performance optimizations and bugfixes with every new released version.
[141001030560] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001030570] |TightVNC is an enhanced version of VNC which includes a lot of new features, improvements and optimizations over the original version of VNC.
[141001030580] |Although it's very easy to use, stable and under an active development, it still maintains the quality of being a free software package, available for both Linux and Windows.
[141001030590] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001030600] |Although TightVNC encrypts the passwords sent over the net, the rest of the traffic is sent as it is, unencrypted, so for the moment, using TightVNC over the Internet could be a security risk.
[141001030610] |Until a version with a built-in encryption will be released, it's recommended to use SSH tunneling for all connections.
[141001030620] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001030630] |Many users, including myself, agree that TightVNC is the most advanced free remote desktop software.
[141001030640] |It has all the features needed to make remote controlling an enjoyable and easy experience.
[141001030650] |Unfortunately, it lacks an important, security-related, feature: traffic between the two computers is sent unencrypted, endangering your privacy.
[141001030660] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001040010] |<title>OpenOffice.org Review</title>
[141001040020] |<img/>Some time ago, I needed a word processor to write an essay for school but I didn't want to throw away almost $200 for a bloated office suite package, most of which I wouldn't use anyway.
[141001040030] |While searching for alternatives, I've found an office suite with the same features, almost identical applications but most important of all, FREE.
[141001040040] |It was called OpenOffice and I haven't stopped using it since.
[141001040050] |After two years of continuous development, OpenOffice has become a free viable alternative to other expensive office suites.
[141001040060] |It has a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a presentation application (Impress), a vector drawing program (Draw), a Mathematic application to create and solve complex equations (Math) and a database frontend (Base). 
[141001040070] |Its interface provides a quite large number of enhancements designed to assist in the transition from proprietary office suites while providing the user with a new, functional and easy to use interface.
[141001040080] |Enhancements such as multi-pane views and floating toolbars, deliver a familiar interface and an impressive flexibility in how the new or existing users interact with the applications.
[141001040090] |For an increased customization, OpenOffice provides the ability to choose toolbar buttons, menus and to create shortcuts that suit every user's needs.
[141001040100] |Significant improvements have been made in the compatibility with other proprietary office suites.
[141001040110] |Although OpenOffice uses a XML-based file format by default, it can open and save files in MS Office format easily, without following a special procedure.
[141001040120] |In addition, import support for Corel WordPerfection documents has been added, allowing a much easier cross-suite documentation.
[141001040130] |<b>Writer</b>
[141001040140] |Writer's interface has been designed to resemble to MS Office's Word, which makes an eventual switch to OpenOffice more comfortable.
[141001040150] |In addition, Writer has an impressive compatibility with MS Word: heavily formated MS Word files are opened almost exactly as they did in Word even if they included drawing objects, tracked changes and other advanced features.
[141001040160] |Of course, there are some features not supported, like MS Word macros or animated text but this is compensated with features like PDF-export or find-and-replace dialog that uses wildcards and regular expressions, which you can't find in MS Word.
[141001040170] |Also, OpenOffice provides an impressive feature which organizes macros and scripts in a tree-structured display.
[141001040180] |Compared to past versions, Writer provides a few significant enhancements such as an improved word count feature, mail merge wizard and the ability to nest tables and insert bulleted and numbered points in a table.
[141001040190] |Unfortunately, Writer is trying to bee too many things at once.
[141001040200] |Besides being a word processor, it also tries to be a HTML editor and a desktop publishing software.
[141001040210] |<b>Impress</b>
[141001040220] |What if you need to design a slide show?
[141001040230] |Can you use OpenOffice Impress or do you have to go back to MS Office's PowerPoint?
[141001040240] |Let's see.
[141001040250] |The first time you run Impress, you will most likely feel nearly at home.
[141001040260] |Like the rest of the OpenOffice package, Impress has been designed to look and feel just like PowerPoint.
[141001040270] |Most of the tools are available and can even be found in the same places.
[141001040280] |Despite the similarities, there are also some differences in key features such as in starting a slide show, adding special effects and in working with images or charts.
[141001040290] |Both PowerPoint and Impress start with a tutorial when setting up a slide show.
[141001040300] |In PowerPoint, the tutorial is called Wizard and helps you select the slide background, structure, the type of output and that's about all.
[141001040310] |In contrast, Impress provides a tutorial called AutoPilot that not only guides you through these three steps, but also helps you set the slide's transition type and timing, and a title page.
[141001040320] |Unfortunately, Impress doesn't offer any templates by default.
[141001040330] |Overall, both Impress and PowerPoint have their good and bad parts.
[141001040340] |The perfect presentation utility will be, in my opinion, a combination of the two.
[141001040350] |<b>Calc</b>
[141001040360] |Calc is the spreadsheet program which can be used as an alternative to MS Excel.
[141001040370] |It's an easy to learn and use application.
[141001040380] |If you are an Excel user or ever used it for quite a long time, you will find working with Calc to be very easy, as its menus and dialogs are almost identical with the ones Excel has. 
[141001040390] |Compatibility with Excel is also quite impressive, being able to easily open, modify and save Excel files.
[141001040400] |Its features are a lot like Excel's and it even comes with some new features of its own.
[141001040410] |DataPilot feature makes it easy to pull in raw data from databases and convert it into meaningful information.
[141001040420] |Its row limit is now increased to 65,536 data rows.
[141001040430] |Moreover, Calc offers a wizard which guides you through choosing and using one of the many advanced spreadsheet functions.
[141001040440] |Calc menus and dialogs seem easier to navigate than the corresponding dialogs in Excel.
[141001040450] |It has been expanded to support up to 65,536 rows of data.
[141001040460] |Moreover, significant improvements have been made in the DataPilot feature, allowing users to carry out advanced analysis of data stored in spreadsheets and databases. 
[141001040470] |Similar to Writer, Calc's compatibility to MS Excel is quite impressive, but not perfect.
[141001040480] |For instance, charts based on pivot tables tend to be blank. 
[141001040490] |<b>Base</b>
[141001040500] |Base was recently added to OpenOffice suite and it was designed as a Microsoft Access work-alike.
[141001040510] |Its SQL entry pane seems to be more adequate for users with prior SQL experience, while Access provides a bigger and probably better help system.
[141001040520] |Base error messages are rather obscure and clicking the 'More' button, there isn't any more useful assistance with the problem. 
[141001040530] |Moreover, Base can't work directly with MSSQL databases created by MS Access. 
[141001040540] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001040550] |OpenOffice is a full-featured office suite that offers everything you need for creating dynamic documents, eye-catching presentations, analyzing data or managing databases.
[141001040560] |Being an open source software, it maintains the quality of being free and frequently updated by the open source community and most importantly, it's a viable alternative to other expensive office suites like Microsoft Office.
[141001040570] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001040580] |While trying to be a better alternative to Microsoft Office, there are still some missing features which only MS Office provides, for the moment.
[141001040590] |Also, the resemblance to Microsoft Office which is more obvious with every new version can be disturbing for some users.
[141001040600] |The compatibility is a good thing but the MS Office-like interface should be optional and not mandatory.
[141001040610] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001040620] |Overall, OpenOffice is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office.
[141001040630] |Besides being a free software, it also provides an impressive compatibility with MS Office documents.
[141001040640] |Some of MS Office features are still missing in OpenOffice but, as compensation, it has some new features of its own.
[141001040650] |Moreover, it's available for different platforms.
[141001040660] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001050010] |<title>Griffith Review</title>
[141001050020] |<img/>Organizing your movie collection is a rather difficult thing to achieve, especially for the large ones and it gets even more difficult with every new movie added.
[141001050030] |Luckily, there are tools available to help you with this intimidating task, one of them is called 'Griffith'. 
[141001050040] |Griffith is a cross-platform application and it's known to run on GNU Linux, Microsoft Windows and MacOS X systems.
[141001050050] |It will probably run on other POSIX compatible operating systems where a GTK+ environment is available, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Solaris.
[141001050060] |It's written in python/pygtk and will only work if GTK2, Python, Pygtk, SQLite and Reportlab libraries are available. 
[141001050070] |When you run Griffith for the first time, you will need to add every movie from your collection to the program's list.
[141001050080] |Fortunately, Griffith can fetch movie information from the web, using a plugin system.
[141001050090] |Adding a movie to the list is a quick and easy process, as you only have to type the movie title, select a source website.
[141001050100] |Most likely, your search will return many results so you will have to choose the right one from a list.
[141001050110] |Griffith will then try to fetch all the related information about the film, such as rating, genre, year, cast and so on.
[141001050120] |Griffith is also easy to navigate on, with the movie list on the left and information on the right.
[141001050130] |When selecting a movie from the list, it shows the movie details.
[141001050140] |First is the position in the movie list, next is the “seen it” checkbox, the movie's original and plain title, movie director and rating.
[141001050150] |If available, a poster is fetched from the web and shown.
[141001050160] |The poster section has some extra options.
[141001050170] |You can open the poster image in a separate window, you can load the poster from the hard-drive or you can remove it.
[141001050180] |A nice feature is the ability to fetch a bigger poster image from the Amazon website.
[141001050190] |However, if the movie has a popularity below average, it's quite possible its poster won't be found on either IMDB or Amazon and the poster location will show the Griffith logo.
[141001050200] |Also on the right, there are tabs that contain certain movie information.
[141001050210] |The first tab is “Details” and shows the movie year, runtime, country, genre, studio, classification, official site and imdb (or what source website you picked) movie and trailer page.
[141001050220] |The next tab, “Plot”, describes the story line.
[141001050230] |Next is the “With” tab which contains the movie distribution: the actors’ names and their role in the movie.
[141001050240] |The “Technical info” tab contains technological information such as movie color, DVD region and layers (if DVD is the storage media).
[141001050250] |In this tab you can set the number of discs and their condition, for instance damaged, fair or excellent.
[141001050260] |The “Language” tab is a little trickier, as you first have to add the language name in the preferences window and then set that language for the subtitles, dubbing or lector.
[141001050270] |In the “Volume” tab you can choose what volume or collection is the movie part of. The “Tags” tab works just like the language tab, you first have to add more Tags in the preferences window and then select them from that tab.
[141001050280] |The “Notes” tab is reserved for personal notes regarding the movie.
[141001050290] |Finally, in the “Loans” tab you can set if the movie is loaned and whom is it loaned to.
[141001050300] |Also, it contains a history list with every loan for this movie.
[141001050310] |Another feature found in this tab is the e-mail reminder, which sends an email to the person to whom the movie is currently loaned to, reminding him or her to return the movie as soon as possible.
[141001050320] |Movies added to the list are automatically numbered, which allows a later ascending or descending sorting.
[141001050330] |Moreover, the movies can be sorted by their title, original title and by movie director.
[141001050340] |The columns, however, can be set from the preferences window.
[141001050350] |Another feature that makes finding movies very easy is the search filter.
[141001050360] |With it, only movies from a certain year or with a certain rating are shown.
[141001050370] |Griffith can also show only movies from a certain collection.
[141001050380] |From the View menu, you can set Griffith to show only movies tagged as not seen or as loaned.
[141001050390] |Griffith also supports backup and restore functions.
[141001050400] |When the backup function is used, the whole /root/.griffith directory (containing your settings, your people, tags and languages and most importantly, your movie list) is added to a zip archive. 
[141001050410] |Other worth mentioning feature is the export function.
[141001050420] |Griffith can export an html, pdf, xml or csv file that include your complete movie list.
[141001050430] |However, it's not a good idea to generate an html file after using the 'fetch a bigger poster from Amazon' function, as there will be big and small posters everywhere and you will end-up with a completely unequal and unaesthetic file.
[141001050440] |Griffith can also generate covers for each movie, which can be printed straight from its print preview window.
[141001050450] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001050460] |Griffith allows you to manage your movie collection by easily adding only the movie names as all the related information is automatically gathered from the dedicated websites.
[141001050470] |It provides useful features such as automatic numbering, backup/restore functions, exporting movie lists as HTML or PDF, generating covers and loans management.
[141001050480] |It has an easy to use interface and it runs on multiple platforms.
[141001050490] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001050500] |Although it has all the functions needed to manage a movie collection and more, there are some little things that need some more work.
[141001050510] |For instance, you can search for a movie only if you type a part or the whole movie name.
[141001050520] |You can't search by actors, genre and so on.
[141001050530] |This function could work very well with a “Wishlist”, which is also missing.
[141001050540] |Moreover, when fetching a new and bigger poster, both should be kept.
[141001050550] |This way, when generating an html file, it should use the small poster for every movie and the big one for generating covers.
[141001050560] |I've also noticed that when searching for bigger posters, a lot of results return, but none or very few actually contain a poster.
[141001050570] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001050580] |Overall, Griffith is a good movie collection manager software.
[141001050590] |Its interface is very easy to use and its features are really useful.
[141001050600] |It has a very good collection organization method and it automatically gathers movie information from dedicated websites.
[141001050610] |However, it has a few little annoying problems and still misses some features.
[141001050620] |But 'perfect' doesn't exist so we'll have to settle with 'excellent'. 
[141001050630] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001060010] |<title>KGet Review</title>
[141001060020] |<img/>If you download large files, you know how important a download manager can be.
[141001060030] |For instance, if you're downloading Linux ISOs and your connection fails, a download manager can resume your download unlike starting it all over again if you would have downloaded directly.
[141001060040] |There are a variety of download managers available for Linux, one of the most popular ones is called KGet.
[141001060050] |KGet is integrated into the KDE desktop system, so you most likely have it already installed.
[141001060060] |In fact, if you're using Konqueror for browsing, you probably already see it in the notification area (system tray).
[141001060070] |If not, you can easily launch KGet by clicking its icon found in KMenu >Internet. 
[141001060080] |The first time you run KGet, it will ask if you want it to enable Konqueror integration.
[141001060090] |This means that whenever you click a download link while browsing with Konqueror, the file will be downloaded by Kget instead of Konqueror's download manager.
[141001060100] |Immediately, the KGet icon will appear in the tray, allowing easy access to the program's window and configuration menu.
[141001060110] |Once KGet has been integrated into Konqueror, all download links will be passed to it.
[141001060120] |However, there is another way that the downloads could be added to this download manager - using KGet's Drop Target feature.
[141001060130] |This feature adds a big blue arrow to your desktop which can be moved to a specific desktop location and also can be set sticky, that's the same thing as being always on top.
[141001060140] |Drop Target allows you to drag'n'drop links, files, even images to the blue arrow in order to be downloaded to your hard drive by KGet. 
[141001060150] |KGet comes with some more features that simplify the download process.
[141001060160] |For instance, you can configure KGet to automatically restart failing downloads, disconnect or shutdown PC when download is completed, set a destination folder for each file extension or even configure the number of simultaneous downloads.
[141001060170] |Unfortunately, KGet does not support segmented downloads (download the same file from different location at the same time in order to increase the download speed). 
[141001060180] |Also, KGet has a nice Timer function which enables you to start a download at a certain time.
[141001060190] |To use the timer function is a bit trickier, but quite easy once you get the hang of it.
[141001060200] |First, set KGet in Offline Mode, load a download link using Drop Target or Paste function, double click the file in the download list, click the Advanced button and choose a date and time for the download to begin and close the new window.
[141001060210] |Finally, select the Timer button and change back to Online Mode.
[141001060220] |The Offline Mode can also be used if you don't want the file transfers to start before your work at the computer is done.
[141001060230] |Set KGet to Offline Mode, add the files to the queue as usual and when you're finished and ready to leave your computer, set it back to Online Mode and the downloads will start as usual.
[141001060240] |Another method of downloading files at a later time is by using the Import Text File function.
[141001060250] |Simply write down the download links to a text file, save it and import it to KGet when you can.
[141001060260] |If there's a list of files that you regularly download from the Internet, you can store this list of files in order to be automatically re-downloaded at a later time.
[141001060270] |Under the menu option File, click the Export transfer list to save the files currently in queue and use Import transfer list to recall the list at any time. 
[141001060280] |KGet also features a Transfer Log Window which contains the whole download log and the log for each application.
[141001060290] |This feature is useful when you want to know if and how a file transfer has been completed and you have the option "Remove file from list after success" selected in the configuration menu.
[141001060300] |KGet has a pretty intuitive and easy to use interface so the rest of the configuration is pretty straightforward so you won't have a hard time configuring it.
[141001060310] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001060320] |KGet is a KDE/Konqueror integrated download manager with an easy to use interface and many functions that make the download process easier.
[141001060330] |It supports multiple downloads, automatically restart failing ones, delaying some downloads such that others can complete and it also offers the ability to select an unique target directory for each file extension downloaded from the Internet.
[141001060340] |It also supports queuing, scheduled downloads and computer shutdown when downloads complete successfully. 
[141001060350] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001060360] |Unfortunately, KGet doesn't allow better control over bandwidth usage for each download and it doesn't support segmented downloads.
[141001060370] |However, the segmented download function has been listed on the TODO list, so we will expect it in a future version.
[141001060380] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001060390] |Overall, KGet is a pretty good download manager which works excellent with Konqueror.
[141001060400] |It has a lot of useful features that makes downloading easier and more reliable but it's still missing some features that increase the download speed, such as the ability to download from multiple locations and also, it wouldn't hurt to have more control over each task's download speed.
[141001060410] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001070010] |<title>MainActor Review</title>
[141001070020] |<img/>I've been looking for a long time for an easy to use video editing software that I want to use to perform some simple tasks.
[141001070030] |I couldn't find a free one so far, so I had to look in the poorly represented commercial sector.
[141001070040] |Well, here is where I found just what I was looking for.
[141001070050] |This software is called MainActor and it comes from a company called Main Concept.
[141001070060] |It allows importing, editing and producing videos fairly easy without requiring a skilled professional to push its buttons.
[141001070070] |It is fairly easy to use and with a little determination, anyone can use it.
[141001070080] |The first thing I liked about MainActor is that it installed very easy without giving me any concerns that a user might encounter problems at this stage.
[141001070090] |Secondly, I liked that it is able to work with the DV and the MPEG format but since it is a commercial software, I was a bit disappointed that it doesn't support more formats.
[141001070100] |Anyway, those two should be enough for most of the people since most of the modern camcorders use DV and the Video CDs and DVDs use MPEG.
[141001070110] |The interface of MainActor doesn't have an exquisite eye-candy but it doesn't classify as ugly.
[141001070120] |I would have liked a nicer interface but I like this one too because it's practical.
[141001070130] |The interface is composed of five windows which can be arranged anyway you like.
[141001070140] |There is the browser window, the media player, the effects window, the timeline and the preview window.
[141001070150] |You can arrange these windows as you like and when you've found the layout that works best for you, it can be saved for further use.
[141001070160] |The first window you'll be using is <b>the browser</b>.
[141001070170] |From here, you'll be importing your media files, and you'll be selecting the various effects.
[141001070180] |The browser window facilitates the management of all the components that are present in your project.
[141001070190] |<b>I really like the effects</b> because the variety is pretty interesting.
[141001070200] |The effects are grouped in four categories like audio effects, filters, sources and transitions.
[141001070210] |Another thing that I like is that you have animated thumbnails that give you a better idea about what they do.
[141001070220] |For some reason, the thumbnails don't animate all the time.
[141001070230] |Some of the most interesting effects that can be used to produce very interesting films are the color keyer and the slow-motion / time warp.
[141001070240] |There are dozens of transitions available which can only make the end user creative and happy when doing it.
[141001070250] |<b>The timeline window</b> does exactly what is says.
[141001070260] |It offers you an overview of your project.
[141001070270] |Here, you import all your movie clips, sound files, edit them and add the various effects and transitions.
[141001070280] |It is fairly easy to use and if you get stuck at some point, there is a comprehensive manual in PDF that will teach you to get the work done and will even teach you some things you couldn't learn otherwise.
[141001070290] |<b>The effects window</b> is very important when working with various effects.
[141001070300] |It offers a broad palette of settings for them and only adjusting various parameters, you can get what you want from an effect.
[141001070310] |Reaching the settings concerning an effect is done by double-clicking the desired effect track.
[141001070320] |If you get comfortable with this component, you will realize how much you can accomplish with this software.
[141001070330] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001070340] |This is the most user friendly software we have today for video editing.
[141001070350] |It has many various effects that allow the user to create interesting clips and allow us to easily import the material from different sources.
[141001070360] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001070370] |The software costs money.
[141001070380] |It's around 200$ and I think that most people from the Linux world will not pay this price.
[141001070390] |Unfortunately, it is not as user friendly as I would have liked.
[141001070400] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001070410] |MainActor is a good software and gets the job done.
[141001070420] |I don't consider it a tool for the professional, but for the home user, it has everything we need.
[141001070430] |If you have the money and you don't want to stress yourself with other complicated solutions, you should buy this software.
[141001070440] |Maybe the best thing is to try the demo first and see for yourself what it's all about.
[141001070450] |I strongly advise consulting the manual.
[141001070460] |Here are some screenshots:
[141001080010] |<title>KMPlayer Review</title>
[141001080020] |<img/>KMPlayer is a multimedia player integrated into the KDE desktop system, capable of playing audio and video formats.
[141001080030] |However, the main difference between KMPlayer and other multimedia players is that KMPlayer acts as a front-end to multiple multimedia libraries such as MPlayer, Xine or GStreamer.
[141001080040] |This means that KMplayer can play everything that MPlayer, Xine and GStreamer will play, all together.
[141001080050] |Not only that it supports video, audio and recording files, it also supports many other formats such as podcast RSS/Atom, DVD, VCD and VDR.
[141001080060] |You can also watch TV with KMPlayer, supposing your card is supported by Video4Linux.
[141001080070] |Installing KMPlayer can be done by compiling the source, from a RPM file or by using a package manager such as Fedora's yum.
[141001080080] |However, at least in my case, I had a lot of trouble installing it as there were a lot of requirements to be met. 
[141001080090] |Once you install and start it, KMPlayer will detect if you either have MPlayer or Xine installed on your system.
[141001080100] |If both are detected, switching between them can be easily done by pressing the black arrow pointing down and selecting Xine or MPlayer from the menu entry "Play with…".
[141001080110] |From the same menu, you can also zoom the video or switch to full screen.
[141001080120] |Further on the toolbar are the rewind, play, forward, stop, pause and record buttons.
[141001080130] |The record button allows you to save a stream to a MPEG4 format file.
[141001080140] |By default, the file is saved as record.avi under your home directory but you can modify the output name and target from the menu Settings >Output settings.
[141001080150] |If KMPlayer is properly integrated into KDE, video files can be previewed in Konqueror by right-clicking on the video and choosing the appropriate entry from the menu.
[141001080160] |When you are previewing a video file in Konqueror, there is a button bar right under the video feed.
[141001080170] |Clicking on the first button, which is a black arrow pointing down, will pop up a menu with several options.
[141001080180] |The first, "Play with", allows you to select the engine which will play the video (MPlayer, Xine etc).
[141001080190] |This option is very useful because some video files are rendered better with MPlayer and others are rendered better with Xine (streaming videos, for example).
[141001080200] |From the same menu, you can bookmark videos, zoom in or out and adjust the brightness and contrast, or switch to full screen.
[141001080210] |The last option is Configure KMPlayer which opens a preferences window.
[141001080220] |The preferences window is divided into four sections: General Options, Source, Recording and Output Plugins.
[141001080230] |The first section is divided as well into four tabs.
[141001080240] |From the first tab, General, you can switch on or off options like keep size ratio, show console output, loop and so on.
[141001080250] |In the next tab, Output, you can choose the video and audio driver, from a quite long list.
[141001080260] |The last two tabs, Xine and MPlayer, allow you to change advanced options for those players.
[141001080270] |However, it's recommended you leave those as they are, unless you know exactly what you're doing.
[141001080280] |In the second section, Source, you can configure several options regarding the multimedia file's source, such as the location of it, its subtitles and also, here, you can choose what player to use for its rendering (Gstreamer, Mplayer or Xine).
[141001080290] |A useful feature that you can also find here is the bandwidth managing section where the preferred and maximum bitrate can be set.
[141001080300] |Besides the URL source, KMPlayer can be used for playing other multimedia formats such as VCD, DVD and can even be used with a TV tuner to output a cable TV source.
[141001080310] |MKPlayer can be also used for recording both the audio and video source.
[141001080320] |For the recording process, several options can be configured.
[141001080330] |You can choose the recorder, the arguments for the recorder and where to save the recorded file.
[141001080340] |As for postprocessing, KMPlayer supports several postprocessing filters, gathered in the Custom Preset tab.
[141001080350] |Moreover, it also supports deinterlacing if you ever want/need your rendered file to be compressed.
[141001080360] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001080370] |Overall, KMPlayer is a useful application for viewing multimedia files in the KDE environment.
[141001080380] |It supports a lot of formats and sources and offers a nice collection of plugins and configuration options in order to make the video experience as pleasant as possible.
[141001080390] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001080400] |KMPlayer is a front-end to several multimedia players.
[141001080410] |Because each of these players has its own share of features and options, it's impossible to integrate every single one of them into KMPlayer.
[141001080420] |So basically, the user is missing a lot of Mplayer, Gstreamer or Xine's features by using the KMPlayer front-end.
[141001080430] |Also, KMPlayer tries to make the multimedia experience a pleasant one but unfortunately, some of its features (such as recording) are rather difficult to configure in order to work properly.
[141001080440] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001080450] |Because it has a GUI interface, KMPlayer makes viewing multimedia files easier, but being just a front-end for more than one program at a time, facilitating this process generates the loss of certain (some) functions and options of these programs. 
[141001080460] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001090010] |<title>Konversation Review</title>
[141001090020] |<img/>Most of the people discover IRC, among other things, while using the Internet for the first time.
[141001090030] |Some of them get over it very fast; others remain "IRC addicts" for a long time.
[141001090040] |There are also a lot of people that use Linux and are either some kind of IRC lovers, or just need IRC for a short while for who knows what reasons.
[141001090050] |Konversation is an IRC client for Linux, designed for all kinds of IRC users, novices or advanced. 
[141001090060] |Even though Konversation has been built for KDE, unfortunately, it's not included in it.
[141001090070] |This means you'll have to manually install it.
[141001090080] |The installation can be completed rather easily if you're using a RPM-based distribution such as Fedora or Ubuntu.
[141001090090] |Simply use you distro's package manager to issue the Konversation installation (yum install konversation for Fedora or apt-get install konversation for Ubuntu).
[141001090100] |Once installed, the first time you run it, you will see the "Edit Preferences" dialog.
[141001090110] |Here, you can set various settings about your IRC identity and the servers you want to connect to.
[141001090120] |The first page contains the servers list, by default only one is already available, Freenode.
[141001090130] |This is Konversation's home server.
[141001090140] |Of course, you can add your custom servers very easily by pressing the "New Server" button.
[141001090150] |You can select a server that Konversation will auto connect at start-up by selecting the server, clicking "Edit.." and checking "Connect on application start up".
[141001090160] |It's also possible to supply a default channel, which will be opened after the connection to the IRC server has been established.
[141001090170] |In the "Identity" section, you can enter your real name and nicknames.
[141001090180] |Among many, many other features, Konversation offers an easy auto-autentification on connect.
[141001090190] |Also, from the "Identity" section, enter the Service nickname and your nickname password.
[141001090200] |The service can be either NickServ, Q or many other service nicknames.
[141001090210] |Other preferences that can be set here are the quit and kick message.
[141001090220] |From what I've noticed, if you configure some advanced preferences, you will have to quit Konversation and start it again in order for your preferences to be applied. 
[141001090230] |After the preferences' customization, it's time to connect to the IRC server.
[141001090240] |Simply select the server from the list and press the "Connect" button.
[141001090250] |After the connection messages and notices, it's time to join a channel.
[141001090260] |The easiest way is to type "/join #channel" in the main window.
[141001090270] |If you're not sure what channel to join, just use the channel listing feature.
[141001090280] |To retrieve this list, go to "Window" menu, click "Channel List" and press "Refresh List".
[141001090290] |This will issue the "/list" command to the server, getting the list with all the channels created on that IRC server.
[141001090300] |Be aware though, as this can take a rather long time if your connection isn't very fast or if you have joined a very large IRC server with thousands of channels.
[141001090310] |Once you have joined the desired channel, Konversation will show you the basic information about that channel, such as its topic, its modes and the time it was created.
[141001090320] |The channels tab can be positioned by every one's preference, in the top, bottom, left or right section of the Konversation window.
[141001090330] |Also, in a channel window on the right, Konversation will list all the users currently on that channel.
[141001090340] |You can interact with all of them at once by typing in the channel window, or you can start a private chat by double clicking the person's nickname.
[141001090350] |Moreover, you can interact in different other ways through the menu that pops-up if you right click a person from the list and by choosing to send files or, if you are in a channel operation, to kick or ban that person.
[141001090360] |From the same right-click menu, you can add persons from the nicklist to your address book, as Konversation has another useful feature: KAddressBook integration through DCOP.
[141001090370] |Konversation can be configured through the "Configure" dialog available from the "Settings" >"Configure Konversation" menu.
[141001090380] |In this window, you will have a lot of sections in the left and the section's options in the right.
[141001090390] |Among the options you will have available for customization, there's the "Nicklist themes", "Colors", "Fonts", "Connection", "Ignore" where you can add or delete users that you don't have to deal with, "Logging", "DCC", "Highlight" where you set Konversation to react with a sound when your nicknamed has been said in one of the channels, and the "Watched Nicknames" which is something like "Notify" in mIRC.
[141001090400] |Here, you can add the persons you would like Konversation to react once they join the IRC server.
[141001090410] |For advanced users, there's the ability to use scripting within Konversation.
[141001090420] |Scripting in Konversation is rather easy, simply add shell scripts in the apps-directory of Konversation.
[141001090430] |Make them executable and then simply run them with the "/exec" command.
[141001090440] |Personal scripts are to be placed into ~/.kde/share/apps/konversation/scripts, systemwide scripts into $KDEDIR/share/apps/konversation/scripts.
[141001090450] |If you want to create your own scripts, the /exec command passes at least three arguments to your script which can be accessed in bash as $1, $2 and $3.
[141001090460] |The arguments are:
[141001090470] |$1 the DCOP port of Konversation$2 the IRC-server connected to$3 the target, that is, the IRC-channel you're currently on
[141001090480] |You'll need the DCOP port to be able to influence Konversation.
[141001090490] |For example, telling Konversation to say something on the channel is done by:
[141001090500] |dcop $1 Konversation say "$2" "Hello, World" 
[141001090510] |If you provide more input than just /exec and the scriptname, the extra text is broken into pieces by separating out each word delimited by spaces.
[141001090520] |For example:
[141001090530] |/exec mycmd one two three four
[141001090540] |is available in the mycmd script as the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh argument, accessible in bash as $4, $5, $6 and $7.
[141001090550] |If you are going to make scripts that output a lot of lines, beware of saying them too fast on a channel, because otherwise, you'll flood the channel and you'll end up having problems with the persons in that channel.
[141001090560] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001090570] |Konversation is an IRC client written in Qt/KDE which means it will run pretty smoothly if you use the KDE environment.
[141001090580] |It has a lot of features both for the beginner and the advanced IRC user.
[141001090590] |It supports multiple servers and identities for each one, it also supports file transfers and text decorations and colors.
[141001090600] |All that come with an easy to use and highly configurable interface.
[141001090610] |Moreover, it supports scripting but this is, more or less, targeted at advanced users.
[141001090620] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001090630] |As for the bad parts, Konversation was missing some major functionality in the past versions but all have been corrected or added so I couldn't find anything specifically wrong with the last version of Konversation.
[141001090640] |However, it still might not have just every feature an IRC client should have, that's why it still doesn't convince everyone to drop Kopete or Xchat in order to use it as the preferred IRC client.
[141001090650] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001090660] |Konversation is most likely the IRC client you will want to use once you've decided to join an IRC channel, while using Linux.
[141001090670] |It offers all the features you will need once you entered the IRC world.
[141001090680] |However, there is always room for improvements.
[141001090690] |For the moment, every Linux IRC client is able to do just about everything Konversation is able to do and even more, so a mass switch from Kopete, X-chat, etc to Konversation is not likely to happen in a near future.
[141001090700] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001100010] |<title>MeD's Movie Manager Review</title>
[141001100020] |<img/>Organizing your movie collection can sometimes be a rather difficult thing to achieve but fortunately, there are tools available to help you with this task.
[141001100030] |For Linux, one of them is called “MeD's Movie Manager” which is a simple to use, yet customizable, movie collection organizer.
[141001100040] |It's a Java application which makes it platform-independent, meaning it can be run on any operating system that supports and has Java installed.
[141001100050] |It gets the movies info from IMDB.com and the episodes info from TV.com and stores them into a MySQL or HSQL database. 
[141001100060] |When you run MeD's MM for the first time, you will need to create a new database, either HSQL or MySQL.
[141001100070] |From what I've noticed, this is unfortunately a required step as it won't allow you to add any movies until a database has been created.
[141001100080] |After this step, everything becomes easy.
[141001100090] |To add a new movie, simply use the Add button or the Alt+A key combination.
[141001100100] |As you will notice, a new window will open with many info fields but don't worry as you won't have to fill all of them manually as this program gets the movie information from the Internet.
[141001100110] |Entering a search term in the Title field and hitting enter will activate the search on IMDB.com and the results will be returned in a small window.
[141001100120] |Now, just select the movie you were searching for in the results window and press Select.
[141001100130] |As you can see, all the movie info files have been auto-filled and an image has been added to the cover section in the upper right.
[141001100140] |Finally, press Save and you're done: your first movie has been added to the database.
[141001100150] |In order to get episodes information from TV.com website, you will first have to add the movie name as usual and then, from the movie list, right click the movie name and select Add episode(s).
[141001100160] |The same window will appear, with the movie info fields and cover section but instead of Get IMDB.com info button, you will have Get TV.com info button.
[141001100170] |In order to successfully add a new episode (or more) to the movie, you will need to leave the title filed as it was found on IMDB.com and only press the Get info button.
[141001100180] |The search results will be presented in the small window, first the movie name, then the seasons (if available) and finally, the episodes.
[141001100190] |A nice feature MeD's MM offers is the ability to add not only one episode at a time, but all of them at once.
[141001100200] |This will save you a lot of time if your movie has hundreds of episodes. 
[141001100210] |The main window has a clear interface, the movie list in the right with the filter filed in the bottom left and the movie information section in the right.
[141001100220] |The filter filed allows you to perform a search in the movie list, either by searching for a single term, or by performing an advanced search with AND / OR operators.
[141001100230] |For instance, searching for the term “Silence”, will return all the movies with “Silence” in the title, while searching for “Silence AND Lambs” will return all the movies with “Silence and Lambs” in the title.
[141001100240] |To search for movies that contain either “Silence”, or “Lambs” in their names, use OR instead of AND.
[141001100250] |You can also use the two of them in combination but remember to write them in capital letters.
[141001100260] |In the preferences window, you will notice the skin support.
[141001100270] |This is a good thing as there are a few skins that change the whole aspect of the program, in a good way and also has proxy support.
[141001100280] |Also, in the preferences windows, under the “Movie List” section, you will be able to customize your movie list, specifically the size of it, whether to show icons or covers and so on.
[141001100290] |MeD's MM offers the ability to save the covers locally in order to make loading faster.
[141001100300] |When I've selected this option, the movie covers in the list were gone, instead, some default icons appeared, even though the option “Show covers in the movielist” was selected long time ago.
[141001100310] |MeD's Movie Manager enables you to backup your current movie database by using the Export function in the File menu.
[141001100320] |Unfortunately, from what I've noticed, the Export function will save an htm or xhtml file, while the Import function requires a txt or xml file.
[141001100330] |Strange, isn’t it?
[141001100340] |And another strange thing is the Report Generator function which enables you to preview your movies list in three different layouts and save it in many file formats, including xml.
[141001100350] |Could this be the way to import the movies list at a later time?
[141001100360] |Could be.
[141001100370] |For what it's worth, I've tried exporting the movie list from the old database and importing it back in a new one but unfortunately, I didn't have much luck with it.
[141001100380] |Luckily though, the Report Generator function supports printing, which could be a useful feature to someone, at some point.
[141001100390] |If you are an advanced SQL user, you will find it very easy to add an “Additional Info Filed” as this operation only requires writing a MS Access/HSQL compatible SQL query script.
[141001100400] |I'm sure everyone will be able to do this. 
[141001100410] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001100420] |MeD's Movie Manager is a simple to use, yet customizable movie collection manager.
[141001100430] |It's able to fetch the movie and episode information from IMDB.com and TV.com.
[141001100440] |It has an easy interface which can be customized by using themes and skins.
[141001100450] |The movie list can be exported in several file formats, under different layouts.
[141001100460] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001100470] |Even though there is an Export and Import function, I've had a lot of trouble importing a movie list exported earlier, even though I've used the same computer.
[141001100480] |Also, there are a few other weird occurrences while using the program, such as covers disappearing from the movie list if the “save covers locally” option is selected and so on.
[141001100490] |Moreover, there isn't any way, for the moment, to tell what season an episode is part of. 
[141001100500] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001100510] |Even though MeD's Movie Manager has a lot of functions that come handy while organizing your movie collection, it also has some bad parts that make you change your mind and start using another software.
[141001100520] |I guess, if your system is only capable of running Java and there is no way of running another movie managing software, MeD's MM will do just fine. 
[141001100530] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001110010] |<title>KleanSweep Review</title>
[141001110020] |<img/>Every operating system is basically made of many files and directories which, in time, fill up with some more files, some of them useful, some of them less useful and even unneeded.
[141001110030] |These files end up occupying a lot of free space, which can be used to store your personal files rather than some files nobody needs.
[141001110040] |So what can you do to free up that space?
[141001110050] |You can either search the files manually, which may take a very, very long time if your operating system was installed years ago or you can choose an easier way, that is, using a disk cleaner application.
[141001110060] |One of those applications is called <b>KleanSweep</b>.
[141001110070] |From what I've noticed, there aren't that many disk cleaning applications available for Linux but aren't we almost always looking for quality rather than quantity?
[141001110080] |Let's see if KleanSweep is truly a quality disk cleaning application for Linux. 
[141001110090] |In order to install KleanSweep, your system must have installed a C++ compiler, KDE 3.4.x libs, Python and optionally, Scons, which is a software construction tool included in the KleanSweep archive.
[141001110100] |Installing it is easy as it only takes two steps if Scons is already installed on your system or three steps if it isn’t.
[141001110110] |To run it after the installation is complete, type <b>kleansweep</b> in a terminal and press enter.
[141001110120] |The first time I ran KleanSweep, I was logged in as root so the application sent me an information notice, recommending me to manually review all the files suggested for removal and warning me that improper use of this program may render my system unusable.
[141001110130] |Ok… that should scare-off a lot of beginners.
[141001110140] |From these messages, I can tell that KleanSweep is designed for the above average Linux user, which has some basic understanding of what can be safely deleted.
[141001110150] |Also, in the Welcome notice, there is a message from the author that says he takes no responsibility for any damages caused by the improper use of this program.
[141001110160] |So again, we are warned that this program can really damage your Linux installation.
[141001110170] |Use this program with a lot of caution and attention.
[141001110180] |You have been warned!
[141001110190] |Even if I don't see myself as a Linux guru, I decided to take my chances and proceed, so I clicked Next and reached the scan options section.
[141001110200] |Here, I could select what to seek for: empty files, empty directories, broken symlinks, broken executables, backup files, orphaned files, dead menu entries, obsolete thumbnails and duplicated files.
[141001110210] |Out of curiosity what files will KleanSweep suggest for deletion, I've selected all of these options.
[141001110220] |Also, in this section there's a Settings button that opens the scan settings window.
[141001110230] |Here I could choose the directories to exclude from the scan, if the application will either show the progress and score column or not.
[141001110240] |Also, in this section, under the Orphaned files searching tab, I could choose what Linux distribution I was using (I'm running Fedora so I've chosen an rpm-based distro) and the directories to include or exclude.
[141001110250] |Finally, I've set “/” as a starting directory and clicked Next.
[141001110260] |The application started by creating a list of installed files and then began searching for the files I've picked in the previous section.
[141001110270] |As a recommendation, carefully pick what files to search for because if you choose to search for all types of files, in every single one of your system's directories, the scan process can take a very, very long time.
[141001110280] |Depending on your CPU, disk, free space and number of files on your drive, the scan process can take from a couple of minutes to 3, maybe even 6 hours.
[141001110290] |After the scan process was completed, the KleanSweep window had one tab for each file type I've chosen to search for.
[141001110300] |Let's see what this application found wrong on a Fedora Core 5 system installed about three months ago.
[141001110310] |In the first tab, Empty files, KleanSweep found some xml files, some dat and log files and some other useless files.
[141001110320] |But, unfortunately, it also suggested for removal vital files such as some gpg files, many of Wine's files and even the Trash and Drafts folders from Thunderbird's directory.
[141001110330] |Umm, that's not good.
[141001110340] |And worse, even if it found around 5000 empty files, they only had around 5MB in total size.
[141001110350] |But then again, they're only empty files.
[141001110360] |Next, there's the Empty directories tab.
[141001110370] |Here, many of the directories suggested for removal were very useful, such as Gimp's brushes directory, again some Wine directories, some /opt/kde3 directories and even the /lost+found directory.
[141001110380] |And I've only scrolled through twenty, maybe thirty files out of thousands found.
[141001110390] |I'm almost sure now that if you delete all the files and directories suggested, without reviewing them first, your computer will most likely fail to boot on the next restart. 
[141001110400] |In the broken symlinks tab, most if not all of the results were in fact useless shortcuts and was safe to select all and delete them.
[141001110410] |But a symlink is very small in size and regardless of how many KleanSweep finds, it won't free a lot of disk space.
[141001110420] |On my system, the program found about 200 broken symlinks with a total size of 191 bytes.
[141001110430] |Not very impressive.
[141001110440] |There weren't any results under the Broken executables tab.
[141001110450] |I guess this is a good thing.
[141001110460] |Backup files tab had a lot of suggested for removal files, most of them were bak files created by different internet programs (bookmarks backup, IM contact list backup) or by text editors (you know, those files that end up with a “~”).
[141001110470] |This search returned about 600 files with a total size of 25mb.
[141001110480] |It's not much but it's a start.
[141001110490] |Orphaned files… Now here are a lot of results.
[141001110500] |KleanSweep found about 6200 orphaned files, mostly image files (png, jpg), library scripts and a lot of Python-related files.
[141001110510] |They had a total of almost 500 MB.
[141001110520] |Although it's pretty impressive, I'm not sure how exactly does it recognize an orphan file, therefore, I have no idea which files are safe to delete and which aren't.
[141001110530] |Dead menu entries tab.
[141001110540] |Again, many results (around 500) but with a very small size (around 3MB).
[141001110550] |Most of these files were .desktop files and were located in the kappfinder directory. 
[141001110560] |Obsolete thumbnails.
[141001110570] |Here, as results are returned the files in $HOME/.thumbnails.
[141001110580] |I work with a lot of pictures every day, so this step allowed me to get rid of about 2000 files with a total size of 50MB. 
[141001110590] |Finally, the Duplicated files tab.
[141001110600] |I found here A LOT of files that where suggested for removal (around 5000 when I got bored and hit stop) with a total of 200MB.
[141001110610] |There were files like cursors, Perl modules and other files you won't want to delete.
[141001110620] |Again, not a section safe to select all and delete.
[141001110630] |It will be a good idea to compare MD5sums before listing the files, this way reducing false positives. 
[141001110640] |After I've selected what files I wanted to be removed, I clicked Next and reached the Review section.
[141001110650] |Here are listed all the files I've selected under a single tab.
[141001110660] |There's also a backup option.
[141001110670] |I checked that just in case.
[141001110680] |Clicked Next again.
[141001110690] |Now I've been asked for a location where the backup archive to be saved.
[141001110700] |Finally, the selected files were first added into an archive and then removed, in the end informing me how many files were deleted, how many couldn't be deleted and how much free space I've gained. 
[141001110710] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001110720] |KleanSweep is if not the first one, then among the first cleaning programs for Linux.
[141001110730] |It can be used for searching many types of unused files, such as broken symlinks or duplicated files.
[141001110740] |Searching and deleting files is a pretty automated process, you only have to review what files to be deleted or kept.
[141001110750] |It also has a backup function, just in case something goes wrong.
[141001110760] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001110770] |If you choose to search all of your systems for useless files, the process can take a very long time.
[141001110780] |As it doesn't yet automatically make a difference between system files and ordinary files, you must manually review every file suggested for removal.
[141001110790] |This process can take up very much of your time, as there might be thousands of files returned as results. 
[141001110800] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001110810] |KleanSweep is a very useful cleaning program for Linux, as it can remove a lot of useless files from your hard drive, making your system faster and gaining some useful disk space.
[141001110820] |Unfortunately, this program doesn't yet make a difference between normal and system files so you must review each file to be sure you are not deleting vital system files.
[141001110830] |As there might be a lot of results, reviewing them will take a lot of your time.
[141001110840] |Moreover, you will have to know your way in a Linux system so you know which files should and shouldn't be deleted.
[141001110850] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001120010] |<title>Mozilla Firefox Review</title>
[141001120020] |<img/>By the time the first version of Mozilla Firefox was released, Internet Explorer was already used by more than 90% of the world population.
[141001120030] |In just a few years, Firefox managed to take the browser market by storm, increasing its popularity to around 14% while IE struggled to maintain around 80% of the market share.
[141001120040] |Now, with the final 2.0 release of this amazing browser, one question comes to everyone's mind: Does Firefox 2.0 have what it takes to ever get close to IE's market share?
[141001120050] |We shall wait and see.
[141001120060] |The first thing that stands out in the new Firefox is the more modern look and feel.
[141001120070] |Everything is more shinny, more playful and more clickable.
[141001120080] |Tabbed browsing feature was a major innovation that made Firefox quite popular and in version 2.0, there are further improvements to this.
[141001120090] |By default, the links now open in a new tab instead of a new window and each tab has its own close button.
[141001120100] |There is also a new handy way of switching between the tabs, via a pull-down list of all open tabs.
[141001120110] |I think the new tab style is well done compared to the faded effect used in Beta 2 version of 2.0.
[141001120120] |The only bad thing I could find with the tabbed browsing function is that I can't rearrange and organize tabs using drag-n-drop.
[141001120130] |Also, pages are now rendered differently so loading them will take less time.
[141001120140] |A number of other minor interface improvements have improved the usability of the browser in this new version.
[141001120150] |The search box will generate a list of recommended search terms when used with a compatible search engine, and a new search engine management dialog makes it possible to remove or reorder installed search engines.
[141001120160] |Additionally, a new add-ons window has been added which provides a multi functional interface for managing extensions, themes and updates.
[141001120170] |Search function has also suffered some changes.
[141001120180] |For some reason, pressing "/" will initiate a new quick-search, feature that will come very handy to those used to Vim and its search feature.
[141001120190] |Moreover, if you search for a word on Google and open a web page from the results, on that page, the word you were searching for will be highlighted. 
[141001120200] |Another quite interesting feature in Firefox 2.0 is the integration of RSS Readers.
[141001120210] |Since its early days, Firefox has made a commitment to usability and ease of use, which implies integrating all things web right into the browser.
[141001120220] |Wiring search engines into the browser is one example.
[141001120230] |In Firefox 2.0, we now see similar integration done with RSS readers.
[141001120240] |This feature only intercepts RSS feeds on websites and sends them to either an external application, or to a web service such as Google Reader.
[141001120250] |Unfortunately, this version of Firefox doesn't also have a RSS reader so we'll have to install an extension.
[141001120260] |Session management and built-in spell check are the two new features that I find the most useful.
[141001120270] |The session manager enables you to restore a session after a crash or after a browser restart required by an extension installation.
[141001120280] |Users can also optionally configure the browser to automatically restore tabs from the previous session every time the browser starts.
[141001120290] |Moreover, if you close a tab by mistake, Firefox allows you to correct that mistake by following the menu History >Recently Closed Tabs. 
[141001120300] |The integrated spell check feature is easy to use, and it works exactly as one would expect.
[141001120310] |The built-in dictionary generally provides reasonable correction recommendations, and the highlighting used to indicate a potentially misspelled word is easily visible, but still unobtrusive.
[141001120320] |It's essentially the same spell checker that has existed in more serious writing applications (word processors, email clients, etc.) for years, with red dotted lines under misspelled words and right-click action to suggest correct spellings.
[141001120330] |Unfortunately, I had some hard time with the spell-checking because my version of Firefox didn't come with a dictionary so I had to download it manually from the add-ons website.
[141001120340] |If you also have troubles with the spell-checking feature in Linux, right click on a Web form, click Add dictionary… and install the dictionary package you need. 
[141001120350] |2.0 features a built-in anti-phishing protection mechanism that detects web site forgery.
[141001120360] |Phishing Protection warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page.
[141001120370] |Phishing Protection is turned on by default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites.
[141001120380] |This list is automatically downloaded and regularly updated when the Phishing Protection feature is enabled.
[141001120390] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001120400] |In my opinion, Firefox has gathered all the great features from several browsers and applications and joined them together, creating a browser that's the closest to perfection.
[141001120410] |When it was released, Firefox revolutionized Internet browsing by its astonishing features and increased security.
[141001120420] |Now, with the 2.0 release, Firefox has grown to be even better, faster, more secure and good-looking than ever before.
[141001120430] |I really do believe Firefox users will be very pleased with the new version and that Mozilla will hopefully approach Microsoft's market share.
[141001120440] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001120450] |However, there is always room for improvements.
[141001120460] |In order to gain more popularity and bigger market share, Firefox will need even more innovation and web integration.
[141001120470] |In the near future, I hope to see a better bookmark and history system, more productivity features and, why not, even some built-in applications such as a RSS reader.
[141001120480] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001120490] |Firefox has been a powerful, fast, secure and good-looking browser since the first day it hit the Internet streets.
[141001120500] |The new released Firefox version offers features that increase even more its performance, stability, usability and security.
[141001120510] |However, there is still room for improvements in order for Firefox to gain more popularity. 
[141001120520] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001130010] |<title>Mesk Review</title>
[141001130020] |<img/>There are a lot of audio players for the Linux platform, some of them are designed especially for KDE, some of them for GNOME, such as Mesk, but most of them work on both environments.
[141001130030] |However, one must always search for quality and not quantity and Mesk is one of the few quality audio players that really deserve at least a try.
[141001130040] |I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed. 
[141001130050] |<b>Installation</b>
[141001130060] |I've tried to install Mesk on Fedora Core 6 and the installation went smooth, provided that I had GNOME installed with most multimedia codecs (gstreamer with plugins, ogg vorbis plugins for python and so on).
[141001130070] |Unfortunately, you will have to find out and install the additional software on your own.
[141001130080] |In order for Mesk to run on your machine, you need to have the following software installed:
[141001130090] |- Python 2.4 eyeD3 0.6.10 
[141001130100] |- pygtk 2.8 
[141001130110] |- gst-python 0.8 
[141001130120] |- librsvg (for SVG image support)
[141001130130] |To install Mesk, simply download the latest release package in tgz format, uncompress it and execute the popular installation commands: ./configure, make and make install.
[141001130140] |<b>Experience</b>
[141001130150] |After installation, the simplest way to run the program is to execute the command <b>mesk</b> in a terminal.
[141001130160] |The first time Mesk starts, a tips window will pop up which I personally hate, so I've unchecked the "Show tips when Mesk starts" option and closed it. 
[141001130170] |The first thing I've noticed about Mesk is its ability to have more than one playlist.
[141001130180] |This enables the user to sort his songs by genre, by type (singles or live sets) or by any other combination.
[141001130190] |Of course, you can rename the playlists as desired.
[141001130200] |Like most audio players, Mesk allows you to queue the songs in the playlists.
[141001130210] |For instance, if you add a song to the playlist, it won't be played immediately, but will rather wait for its turn to be played.
[141001130220] |To add a song to queue, simply right click on a song and select Queue.
[141001130230] |From the same right-click menu, you can add more songs, cut, copy or delete them.
[141001130240] |The queue can be cleared by right clicking somewhere in the blank space and selecting Queue / Clear Queue.
[141001130250] |The songs can also be moved from one playilst to another by using the Cut and Paste options from the menu. 
[141001130260] |Unfortunately, Mesk is still in its early stages, so a lot of features are missing.
[141001130270] |The Preferences window has only two plugins.
[141001130280] |The <b>gajimstatus</b> which changes your status in Gajim with the currently playing track and <b>audioscrobbler</b> which allows users to share their music preferences through the popular Web 2.0 service, Last.FM. 
[141001130290] |From the View menu, one can select the compact option, which makes Mesk even smaller and more compact, giving up on the playlist section.
[141001130300] |<b>The Good</b> 
[141001130310] |Mesk is an audio player for Linux with great potential.
[141001130320] |Even if, for now, it only has a few features, it will leave you with a quite good impression, especially from the smart way its playlists work and from the good-looking interface. 
[141001130330] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001130340] |Mesk is only at the development stage; therefore, I won't recommend it for intense, everyday usage.
[141001130350] |It still lacks a lot of features and options which you will most likely need for a great audio experience (an audio equalizer, for instance).
[141001130360] |Its interface is quite nice but will have to suffer some modification if new options will be added which is a good thing considering that now it looks a little empty.
[141001130370] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001130380] |Although it's in an early development stage, Mesk will definitely impress anyone using it, if not with its current features, then with its potential.
[141001130390] |The way playlists work shows that the author has used an intelligent approach for creating it.
[141001130400] |If other popular options and features will be implemented the same way, I'm certain Mesk will be one of the most world-wide popular audio players for Linux, and why not, for other platforms as well.
[141001130410] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001140010] |<title>Azureus Review</title>
[141001140020] |<img/>The BitTorrent protocol is used more and more often by people and organizations around the world.
[141001140030] |Companies are using BitTorrent protocol as a method for releasing their products.
[141001140040] |Because of the increasing BitTorrent protocol usage, torrent clients sprouted like mushrooms.
[141001140050] |Azureus is a torrent client that has been available since the beginnings, when there were available only two or three clients.
[141001140060] |The first version of Azureus was released around May 2003 (if I remember correctly) and has been continuously supported and updated until the present day.
[141001140070] |Many would think that being developed for this long, Azureus is a very good, almost perfect torrent client everybody should be using.
[141001140080] |Is this true?
[141001140090] |Maybe...
[141001140100] |When it comes to using BitTorrent, Azureus offers an incredible amount of flexibility.
[141001140110] |This full-featured torrent client has a lot of functions which will make everyone's life easier while downloading through BitTorrent.
[141001140120] |And if its features aren't enough, Azureus also has plugin capability, which allows you to use any of the additional plugins found on its homepage. 
[141001140130] |Unfortunately, Azureus is a Java application.
[141001140140] |This has been the main reason for complaints from users over the years.
[141001140150] |Because it depends so much on the Java Virtual Machine, Azureus' performances will increase or decrease based on how JVM is installed and configured on each system.
[141001140160] |This means that no mater how many developers work on it or how much time they spend improving it, it will still crash, freeze or use a lot of resources on a system with bad configured Java.
[141001140170] |Azureus is available on most of the Linux distributions but if you choose to install it by yourself, it should be a tricky process, especially if you don't already have Java installed.
[141001140180] |When I've tried to install Azureus, I was lucky enough to already have jdk1.5.0_09 installed on my system, which Azureus found and used properly.
[141001140190] |At the first run, Azureus opened a configuration wizard.
[141001140200] |First, it asked me to choose a language to be used for menus and so on.
[141001140210] |I was impressed by the large number of languages available.
[141001140220] |In the next screen, I had to select my proficiency from Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.
[141001140230] |The beginner would only allow access to all the basic functions needed to download torrents.
[141001140240] |The Intermediate option would allow me to upload my own torrent files, besides the usual downloading, while the last option, Advanced, would allow me access to network settings.
[141001140250] |I chose the Advanced option because I'm behind a firewall and must manually set the port number that has been forwarded and so on.
[141001140260] |The next screen allowed me to select my Internet connection type and upload speed.
[141001140270] |The next screen was the one I've been looking for, NAT/Server port.
[141001140280] |Here I could choose the right port that has been previously forwarded on my network router.
[141001140290] |Moreover, there was a function to test the port, which reported successfully.
[141001140300] |The final screen allowed me to select a destination folder for downloads and that was it.
[141001140310] |I clicked Finished and Azureus finally started.
[141001140320] |The first thing I did was to load up a torrent file.
[141001140330] |I've pressed the Open button and a rather large window popped-up.
[141001140340] |Here I had to select the torrent file, its mode (queued, force started etc) and the location to save the data.
[141001140350] |Wait a second, I remember setting this in the configuration wizard, it shouldn't ask for it again.
[141001140360] |Anyway, the bright side is that next time you would be loading a torrent file, the location will be saved.
[141001140370] |Moreover, if the torrent had multiple files, I could choose which files I want it to download and which not to. 
[141001140380] |Finally, Azureus started downloading my torrent file.
[141001140390] |The basic information was shown right next to the torrent name, such as size, download speed, ETA and so on.
[141001140400] |For advanced information, I would have to right click on the torrent and click Show details.
[141001140410] |Extended information would be shown in a new window, such as tracker and status, peers, and A LOT more.
[141001140420] |From the same window, under the Options tab, I could set the maximum upload and download speed, upload slots and connections.
[141001140430] |After the torrent had finished downloading, it was automatically moved to Seed section where it was made available for other users downloading that same file.
[141001140440] |Of course, I could stop it at any time if I wanted to.
[141001140450] |More options regarding that torrent could have been set by right clicking on the torrent name. 
[141001140460] |Next, I started looking through the menus and found some quite interesting and useful stuff.
[141001140470] |For instance, from the Tools menu, I could remove blocked Ips that were banned automatically for sending bad data or manually, by me.
[141001140480] |The Statistics option will show some quite impressive graphs for download and upload speed, as well as for Cache and Distributed Database. 
[141001140490] |Finally, in the Tools menu, I found the Options function, where I could customize all Azureus' functions and features.
[141001140500] |The options window is divided into two sections: categories to the left and their options to the right.
[141001140510] |The options here can be basic, intermediate or advanced, depending on what proficiency one chooses at the first run but basically, here, one can set the minimum/maximum upload and download speed, whether to automatically hash check or not the downloaded data and many more.
[141001140520] |In this same window, the plugins are also configured.
[141001140530] |Azureus has a nice function for installing new plugins called Installation Wizard.
[141001140540] |This wizard will list all the available plugins, download them using Update agent and install them.
[141001140550] |This feature will save you a lot of time searching for plugins and trying to install them.
[141001140560] |Another thing worth mentioning is that I've installed around 5 plugins and it never asked for a restart. 
[141001140570] |Finally, and this is not an Azureus specific problem, but a general one for torrent clients: the ports set in Azureus must be opened in order for file transfers to work properly.
[141001140580] |Also, if you are behind NAT and don't have access to your network router, then you're simply out of luck.
[141001140590] |You will have download and upload speeds a lot lower than normal.
[141001140600] |This is called in the world of torrents being connectable (or not).
[141001140610] |Azureus has a plugin called UPnP which is supposed to automatically forward ports on UPnP enabled routers.
[141001140620] |<b><u>The Good</u></b>
[141001140630] |Azureus is a full-featured BitTorrent client and the ability to expand its functionality through plugins means that you can get it to work exactly the way you want.
[141001140640] |It's a platform-independent Java application which will run on any operating system with Java installed.
[141001140650] |It can be configured for beginners, as well as for advanced torrent users. 
[141001140660] |<b><u>The Bad</u></b>
[141001140670] |There's a major drawback to running Azureus: the amount of resources it requires to run.
[141001140680] |On a quick test, it used almost 10 times more RAM than a C++ client, using the same torrent file.
[141001140690] |Moreover, if your Linux distribution doesn't come with Java pre-installed, getting Azureus to work won't be an easy task.
[141001140700] |Being such a flexible and full-featured program can be overwhelming at first. 
[141001140710] |<b><u>The Truth</u></b>
[141001140720] |Azureus is one of the first torrent clients available and being developed for so long is surely obvious through its features, functions and flexibility.
[141001140730] |It can easily be used by a beginner, as well as by an advanced torrent user.
[141001140740] |The only drawback Azureus has is its required resources.
[141001140750] |Being such an advanced application written in Java will take over all your RAM.
[141001140760] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001150010] |<title>XChat Review</title>
[141001150020] |<img/>Is IRC dead?
[141001150030] |Opinions may vary from one person to the other.
[141001150040] |However, judging from the number of IRC clients available, one would think that IRC is still alive and kickin'.
[141001150050] |XChat is one of those clients, developed mainly for Unix-like systems but versions for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X have also been made available.
[141001150060] |Being available on the most important platforms is one of the many reasons that XChat is one of the most popular IRC clients.
[141001150070] |Other reasons are tabbed or tree interface, DCC file transfer, support for multiple servers and a high level of configurability.
[141001150080] |XChat is available both as a command line and as a graphical program, although the graphical version far overtakes the command line version in many areas.
[141001150090] |Its interface was developed using the GTK+ toolkit and it's released under the GPL license which means that it's a free software.
[141001150100] |Over the years, I had the 'pleasure' of installing XChat from sources, as well as using RPMs and don't remember having problems with any of them.
[141001150110] |The sources will build on any system with GTK+ installed, while the RPMs require gtk2-devel.
[141001150120] |Once installed, you will either find XChat in the KMenu (KDE) or you'll have to type xchat in a terminal in order to run it.
[141001150130] |The first thing you will see is the Network List window.
[141001150140] |Here you can choose your nickname, a second choice (in case it's already taken), username and realname.
[141001150150] |The username can generally be anything you like, just make it up.
[141001150160] |The next step is to choose a network to join.
[141001150170] |This is a matter of personal taste, I can't really recommend one!
[141001150180] |Some are better than others, so you'll just have to experiment.
[141001150190] |However, there's a network mainly for Linux and it's called Freenode.
[141001150200] |You will find here the official IRC channels for most distros and applications.
[141001150210] |Great place to seek help!
[141001150220] |Just select the row and click Connect. 
[141001150230] |If your Internet connection is working well, you will be connected in no time.
[141001150240] |Right after connecting, a dialogue will pop-up so that you can join some channels (chat rooms).
[141001150250] |If you know the channel name, type it starting with the character "#".
[141001150260] |If not, click on Open the channel-list and a window listing all the channels on the network will open.
[141001150270] |Depending on your connection speed and number of channels on the network, listing them could take from a few seconds to a few minutes.
[141001150280] |Once you’ve joined a channel, you will notice the network and its channels in the left, the discussions in the middle and the nicknames list in the right.
[141001150290] |Also, some things you may not notice at first, the channel topic is shown in the upper part of the discussions section, the number of total users and operators on the channel is displayed in the upper right.
[141001150300] |Your current lag is revealed under the nick list, using a meter.
[141001150310] |Lag turns up when latency (the time it takes to send/receive a packet along a network) gets annoyingly high.
[141001150320] |To type a message to everyone simply left click in the text box at the bottom of the window, type your message in, and then press enter.
[141001150330] |When you press enter, your message will appear in the middle of the main window.
[141001150340] |Every time you or someone else types a message, their name will appear in the left column beside that message.
[141001150350] |This is so everyone knows who said what.
[141001150360] |To start a private chat with someone, either right-click on his nickname and select Open Dialog Window or type /QUERY his-nickname in the chatting box.
[141001150370] |XChat supports auto-completion for both commands and nicknames so the above command can be written like: /Q[TAB] his[TAB] and it will magically complete.
[141001150380] |Once you've finished chatting or if you would like to join a different channel, you will need to leave & close the channel window you're currently in.
[141001150390] |To do this, you will need to type /part to leave the channel and then /close to close it and /join #other-channel to join another channel.
[141001150400] |To connect to another IRC server, open the Network List from the XChat menu, select the network and click connect.
[141001150410] |The new network will open separately so if you want to disconnect from the previous network, select it and type /close in the chat box.
[141001150420] |Other commands can be found out by typing /help.
[141001150430] |Also, /help {command} will explain it.
[141001150440] |XChat can send and receive two types of DCC: active mode and passive mode.
[141001150450] |Generally, active mode should be used, because it works with almost all clients, but if you're behind a very restrictive firewall, you could have to resort to using passive mode.
[141001150460] |To send a file using active mode, use the command /dcc send {nick} {file}, while in order to use passive mode, use /dcc psend {nick} {file}.
[141001150470] |XChat can be customized from the Preferences window, found under the Settings menu.
[141001150480] |Here you can set its appearance, such as font, colors, how the nick lists is sorted and so on.
[141001150490] |Also, you can set XChat whether to log all conversations or to use a proxy.
[141001150500] |For advanced users, XChat offers the Plugin function which supports scripting in a number of programming languages: Perl, Python, Tcl and Ruby, which are available as external plugins and contain a binary module interface, usually for the C programming language.
[141001150510] |<b>The Good</b>
[141001150520] |XChat is a full-featured IRC client available for all important platforms which offers a pretty nice and intuitive interface.
[141001150530] |It can be easily used by beginners, while experienced users can customize it through the plugins function.
[141001150540] |<b>The Bad</b>
[141001150550] |Its interface needs a little bit more polishing so it will be even easier to use.
[141001150560] |Also, the close (X) button is missing in the "Tree" layout.
[141001150570] |Moreover, it won't hurt to have a little bit more documentation.
[141001150580] |<b>The Truth</b>
[141001150590] |Even if IRC isn't used as much as it used to be, there will always be the need for good IRC clients.
[141001150600] |XChat is one of the best for users with any level of knowledge.
[141001150610] |However, it's far from being perfect as many useful features can be implemented.
[141001150620] |However, XChat is currently under active development so chances are we will see a better version of it in the near future.
[141001150630] |Check out some screenshots below: