[141001700010] |Winki the Ripper Review
[141001700020] |Ripping DVD movies to more compressed formats is quite an old practice.
[141001700030] |It was more popular in the past, when everyone had small hard disks and, at that time, it was more practical to store a 700MB avi file rather than a 4GB DVD image iso file.
[141001700040] |Even today, when the latest hard disks allow us to store a far more greater number of DVD images, the number of programs dedicated to ripping DVDs keep on growing exponentially.
[141001700050] |But that's not necessarily a bad thing since I guess everyone would rather have as many available options as possible.
[141001700060] |Winki the Ripper is one of the DVD rip programs available for Linux.
[141001700070] |Basically, it's just a graphical front-end for Gnome written in Python to command line tools like mencoder, mplayer, mkvtoolnix and oggenc.
[141001700080] |Winki can be installed in a number of ways, depending on which distribution you're using.
[141001700090] |Moreover, you can find instructions for most popular distributions on the Winki's homepage.
[141001700100] |When I first tried Winki, I was running the latest version of Kubuntu (7.04) so I followed the instructions for Ubuntu Festy Fawn.
[141001700110] |I had to add a few lines to apt's sources.list file, validate the author's signature, and run the apt-get install winki command.
[141001700120] |Everything was looking good until I was presented with the huge list of dependencies (about 90 - 40MB needed to be downloaded).
[141001700130] |Besides the programs for which Winki is a front-end, the list also contains many of Gnome's packages.
[141001700140] |So basically, KDE users won't be able to use Winki unless they download most, if not all packages that build the Gnome desktop.
[141001700150] |When the installation was over, I started looking for Winki's shortcut through the KDE main menu and I was surprised not to find one.
[141001700160] |That forced me to open the run application dialog (Alt+F2), type winki, press Enter and hope for the best.
[141001700170] |A couple of seconds later, Winki fired-up.
[141001700180] |The first thing you'll notice about Winki is probably the wizard-like interface.
[141001700190] |This is good thing as this type of interfaces are easier to use.
[141001700200] |The first screen will display the GNU General Public License, a logo at the top and several buttons at the bottom, which will be available through all screens.
[141001700210] |These buttons are Help (it's not available for some reason), Settings, Quit, Back and Forward.
[141001700220] |Clicking the Forward button will lead to the next screen, where you'll add the source media.
[141001700230] |Here, you can choose the CD or DVD device containing the media you want to encode.
[141001700240] |You can also select a DVD image file or a DVD folder, as well as a multimedia file stored on the disk (avi, mpeg etc).
[141001700250] |You may add as many sources as you want.
[141001700260] |Another click on the Forward button will reveal the third screen, where you'll choose the encoding.
[141001700270] |The available options are: DVD (create dvd), Multimedia file (create Matroska or AVI multimedia file), VCD, SVCD (create vcd, svcd) and Stream copy (copy the selected streams to files).
[141001700280] |Based on your selection in the source screen, only one or a few options will be available.
[141001700290] |In the next screen, you'll be able to enter the movie information.
[141001700300] |If all Winki's dependencies have been met (required as well as optional), the application will be able to fetch the info from IMDb.
[141001700310] |Otherwise, you may enter it manually.
[141001700320] |In this screen, you can also select the output folder.
[141001700330] |Off to the next screen: title selection.
[141001700340] |In this fifth screen, you will be able to preview the move and enter a title for it.
[141001700350] |Moreover, right-clicking on the movie title will pop-up the proprieties dialog, where you can modify various options such as video and audio format, aspect, frame rate, bitrate and so on.
[141001700360] |After that, another click on the Forward button will display the Title and Chapter Names screen, where you may enter names for the movie's titles and chapters.
[141001700370] |The succeeding screen allows you to select one of the audio languages available.
[141001700380] |This enables you to choose the audio language you understand best as the audio stream for the encoded video file.
[141001700390] |Clicking Forward will open the Target screen, where you will see the target structure preview in the left part.
[141001700400] |In the right part, you can choose the number of targets, the media sizes (CD or DVD) and optionally, the video bitrate.
[141001700410] |Next is the Crop Detection screen.
[141001700420] |On the left, you'll see all the titles listed, as well as the control buttons.
[141001700430] |Pressing the Crop Detection button will start the preview of the selected title, while the Get Value button will save the location of the crop.
[141001700440] |As for the last screen, Rip, you'll see here the steps required by the rip process, as well as the current step.
[141001700450] |At the bottom of this screen, there's a check box that allows you to enable or disable updating the user interface during the rip process.
[141001700460] |Moreover, a tooltip announces you that ripping will be faster if the UI is disabled.
[141001700470] |While at any screen (except for the last), you can click the Settings button which pops-up the preferences dialog, which is divided in four tabs.
[141001700480] |The first tab, DVD, allows you to choose an encoding preset which will change the options underneath: video format, resolution, aspect and shrinking method, as well as the audio format.
[141001700490] |The available encoding presets are: None, Best quality and Fastest encoding.
[141001700500] |The multimedia file tab allows you to choose from one of these encoding presets: None, Best quality and Fastest encoding, Maximum compression, Ipod or Cell phone.
[141001700510] |Optionally, you can select one of the file format (matroska which is superior, MP4 or AVI which is inferior).
[141001700520] |In the third tab, you'll need to enter the full path to the executables required by Winki.
[141001700530] |Most of them are already there and have a green spot next to them.
[141001700540] |That means they are good to go.
[141001700550] |For the rest, with the red spot, you'll need to make sure they exist and if they don't, to install them.
[141001700560] |The final tab, Misc, provides three checkbox options: whether to process one DVD chapter at a time, whether to exist winki when done and whether to show pop-up windows or not.
[141001700570] |The Good
[141001700580] |Winki The Ripper aims to be the easiest program for video encoding.
[141001700590] |I have to admit, that's not far from the truth.
[141001700600] |It provides a wizard-like interface that's pretty easy to use and it supports several input and output formats.
[141001700610] |The Bad
[141001700620] |Many of the basic features are missing, such as the help system and the support for more multimedia files; fortunately, Winki is an actively developed project and I'm sure there won't be anything wrong with it once it's complete.
[141001700630] |The Truth
[141001700640] |Winki The Ripper is a graphical front-end to several command line tools related to multimedia playback and rip.
[141001700650] |It has a clean and easy to use interface, as well as several useful features.
[141001700660] |Unfortunately, there are several drawbacks as well, such as the possibility that some programs for which Winki is a front-end may not be legal in all countries.
[141001700670] |Check out some screenshots below:
[141001730010] |Automatix2 Review
[141001730020] |One of the things I used to consider a bit difficult when I had to face a Linux operating system for the first time was the entire "ritual" I had to process in order to have some applications installed and working on my computer.
[141001730030] |I might be overreacting a bit on this one, but after I have seen a much easier alternative, believe me, I am not.
[141001730040] |Some of you might have already understood what I am talking about here; for all the others, I have only one word to say: Automatix2.
[141001730050] |Automatix2 is a graphical interface you can use for the automatic installation of the most popular applications for the Debian based distros.
[141001730060] |Thus, it works with most of the Debian based Linux distributions, from the wide-spread Ubuntu versions such as Dapper, Edgy or Feisty to Debian 4.0 (Etch) and Mepis 6.0, 6.5.
[141001730070] |To give you a brief idea on what Automatix2 is capable of, I will tell you that I have installed the Opera browser on my computer through only 2 clicks: one to select it and one to press the Start button!
[141001730080] |Actually, this would be the entire "philosophy"of how to use Automatix2: 1. select item(s) you want installed on your PC from a list, which is pretty generous I could say; 2. press "Start".
[141001730090] |I do not even imagine how you could possibly do it easier than that.
[141001730100] |Installing Automatix2 on your machine will be done through the classical method, though.
[141001730110] |You will first have to add the source ("deb http://www.getautomatix.com/apt feisty main"), then get the security key, import the key and then run the sudo apt- get update and install commands, an entire ritual as I've said before.
[141001730120] |But you can say Good-bye! to this ritual once you have successfully installed Automatix2.
[141001730130] |Ah, I have just remembered one little detail I must mention; while it is running it's not recommended - actually, it is not possible at all for you - to run synaptic, apt-get or any other software installation alongside Automatix2.
[141001730140] |The only result you'd get is an error message and an exit from Automatix2.
[141001730150] |From what I have heard so far, Automatix2 enjoys full support from the team that created and developed it, which means that we should expect new features, bug-fixes and updates to it, and perhaps this behavior when running other installations might not trouble you in the future.
[141001730160] |In spite of its quite simplistic looks, as it is not "garnished"with too many buttons, AX2 is just fit for accomplishing its purpose.
[141001730170] |So, besides the famous "Start" button there will be only two more, one for hiding/showing the gnome applications and another one, "Show", for viewing different information such as the source lists, the activity and change log and some possible errors along with detailed information about them.
[141001730180] |The list with available applications is divided into categories, which follow in an alphabetical order and cover a wide area of usability, from chat and email clients to virtualization and programming tools.
[141001730190] |The menu bar follows the same template: 3 places, File of course, View and the omnipresent Help.
[141001730200] |Here I would object to the View place, which accesses the exact same options menu as the Show button.
[141001730210] |I think that Preferences would have substituted that View better, where I would have liked to meet a panel for configuring AX2 to work behind a proxy too.
[141001730220] |For now, if you are behind a proxy it's highly probable that you will experience some nasty errors or not even get AX2 to work at all.
[141001730230] |I found the current proxy configuration, which is made "manually" through a number of steps from a terminal; kind of difficult and even confusing for a newbie in the Linux area who would have the misfortune to be behind a proxy.
[141001730240] |I hope that future releases of AX would show some improvements in this matter.
[141001730250] |Another aspect I would like to mention is that Automatix2 install list contains suggestions coming from the Ubuntu repos, and thus I don't think the eventuality of AX2 breaking the Ubutnu upgrades is worth being discussed, as it is very low.
[141001730260] |The Good
[141001730270] |At the moment, this is the only tool of its kind of which existence I am aware of , thus I can say it is also the best.
[141001730280] |Leaving the joke aside, I really consider AX2 a very helpful innovation and I was really pleased with the simplistic way it handled my installation requests.
[141001730290] |The Bad
[141001730300] |Even though such an app proves to be very helpful and safe, there are rumors claiming that the Ubuntu development team has criticized its content and they even claim that AX1 breaks the updates from Dapper to Edgy.
[141001730310] |The Truth
[141001730320] |Automatix2 is a Debian Linux tool used for - as the name itself states - automatic installations of commonly used applications, codecs, fonts and libraries.
[141001730330] |For a complete list of what AX2 can install, you can check this link here.
[141001730340] |Please enjoy some screenshots of Automatix2:
[141001740010] |K3b Review
[141001740020] |K3b is probably the best application for CD or DVD burning and ripping,out of everything that I've tested up so far, and I really think I had dealt with plenty of them.
[141001740030] |What makes it so special?
[141001740040] |You could ask the hundreds of individuals who gave it enough votes in order to become the Multimedia Utility of the Year 2006, or you could read the lines below.
[141001740050] |Only if you think about the burning area covered by this little strange named app, you can become aware of its truly high potential.
[141001740060] |From the simple CD and DVD copies, to the creation of audio CDs and file transcoding, K3b makes them all.
[141001740070] |Honestly, since I've started using it I was completely satisfied with its features, and there was no need in the authoring field that K3b was not able to help me out with.
[141001740080] |Not to mention the ability of burning eMoviX CD/DVDs.
[141001740090] |Besides being so multi-functional, K3b is also very unpretentious.
[141001740100] |It deals perfectly with any CD or DVD media you intend to supply: CD-R/W, DVD+R/W, DVD-R/W as well as with their dual-layer counterparts.
[141001740110] |Written in C++ programming language, K3b must enjoy a robust and tidy programming design, as it seems to have no idea of any bugs or errors since I have been using it.
[141001740120] |I don't know about you, but I prefer the easy-to-use programs, which are able to do the calculations for me and find the best solution leaving me only the OK -click task.
[141001740130] |Therefore, I think it's not hard to guess why I have such a crush on K3b.
[141001740140] |It has a clever graphical interface that is able to provide you the most useful defaults and automatic modes for calculating the proper settings in some given circumstances.
[141001740150] |And speaking about the interface, I must say it also has a very nice look and the incorporated browser is worth all the praises, as it meets all the criteria of a helpful tool in the right place.
[141001740160] |Due to these aspects, the creation of custom CDs and DVDs becomes nice and easy and everything that the user has to do is just a matter of a few clicks.
[141001740170] |Besides the ordinary Data DVD and Audio CD projects, K3b also features the Mixed-mode CDs, Video CDs and DVDs and as I've mentioned before the eMoviX CDs and DVDs.
[141001740180] |As I was speaking about an ease-of-use, I must also mention here the way you add files on the disk to be burned, as this would be the easiest possible way: the drag and drop way.
[141001740190] |While preparing data to be burned, the user has the possibility of organizing it in any way he or she can think of, as K3b provides the options of creating new folders, moving files within the collection, renaming them and all the others provided by a common file manager.
[141001740200] |The K3b developer has done a great job with the improvements of the previous version in creating this one, even though I guess he mixed up something at one point since a new bug started nothering me while writing DVDs.
[141001740210] |I've encountered this bug while writing a multi-session DVD; I got really surprised, as this feature worked very well in the previous version.
[141001740220] |So, I have some data I must write and the only media support I have at hand is a two-weeks old multisession DVD where I've previously written some school projects.
[141001740230] |But when I've clicked the import session button (and here I am a bit disappointed with the resemblance between the two import and remove session buttons; those two buttons are identical and they can be very confusing), my 4.4 GB DVD turned into a 8GB dual-layer.
[141001740240] |Unfortunately, it actually didn't, but K3b was not aware of the impossibility of the situation and by I don't know what means considered it that way.
[141001740250] |This is not a very bad thing, but, if I press the burn button, K3b will ask for a dual-layer and will refuse to use my multisession DVD.
[141001740260] |This problem can be solved easily if the previous session on the DVD was organized in folders.
[141001740270] |If so, then you can remove the session and then even though the files in the right-right side of the window will go away, the folders remain in the left-side and you can add files in those folders, and then when you press the burn button everything will go as it should.
[141001740280] |A good addition to the previous version would also be the timer.
[141001740290] |I think K3b was one of the few burning programs equipped with a timer.
[141001740300] |This timer shows you the elapsed time or if you prefer the remaining time.
[141001740310] |Another aspect that I consider to be very clever and well-thought would be the progressive writing speed.
[141001740320] |Whatever your speed option is, K3b starts from the minimum speed possible and then increases progressively until at the end it reaches the desired one.
[141001740330] |This way it assures a proper and safe process of burning your media support.
[141001740340] |The Good
[141001740350] |K3b provides a nice and comfortable GUI to perform most CD/DVD burning tasks like creating an Audio CD from a set of audio files or copying a CD/DVD, as well as more advanced tasks such as burning eMovix CD/DVDs.
[141001740360] |It can also perform direct disc-to-disc copies.
[141001740370] |The Bad
[141001740380] |The only bad part I could find while using K3b was the bug when writing a multisession DVD.
[141001740390] |Regarding all other aspects, K3b excelled through the remarkable features it provides.
[141001740400] |The Truth
[141001740410] |K3b is a free software CD and DVD authoring application designed for the GNU/Linux and also for all other Unix-like operating systems designed for KDE.
[141001740420] |Check out some screenshots of K3b 1.0 below:
[141001740430] |Follow the editor on Twitter @mariusnestor
[141001780010] |Synaptic Package Manager Review
[141001780020] |It all started from a low level tool, used to install, remove, update or provide information about the .deb packages, called dpkg (which is the short for Debian package).
[141001780030] |As the system started to catch a more Gordian aspect, a higher tool was needed, so that it could be able to fetch packages from remote locations or deal with labyrinthian package relations.
[141001780040] |The APT (Advanced Package Manager) came then to make easier the process of managing software on the Debian GNU/Linux- powered machines.
[141001780050] |APT was automatically retrieving, configuring and installing software packages from binary files or even by compiling the source code.
[141001780060] |It could also work with the RPM Package Manager system through the apt-rpm version.
[141001780070] |APT is actually just a C++ library of functions (known as libapt).
[141001780080] |Based on this library, Conectiva company considered the development of a tool that should fuse the point-and-click simplicity of a graphical UI with the power of the apt-get command line.
[141001780090] |And that's how the Synaptic graphical front-end for APT took shape.
[141001780100] |There is also a "brother" of Synaptic, which runs on the KDE desktops and which is called Adept.
[141001780110] |That was a pretty long history lesson indeed, but I think it was worth remembered, for a better understanding of Synaptic's purpose and how it actually works.
[141001780120] |As it comes as default once with the 4.0 version of the Debian based systems, Synaptic can be easily found by following the System >Administration >Synaptic Package Manager menu path.
[141001780130] |Do not panic when you’ll be asked for password at start-up.
[141001780140] |It's natural to go this way in order to prevent possible hacking attempts over the system from some potential malicious "friends" of yours using the computer while you're away.
[141001780150] |This password requirement might also be there to discourage the newbies from damaging their system by accidentally removing the important packages.
[141001780160] |However, the later scenario is less probable, as Synaptic' s GTK+ user interface is probably the most user-friendly UI I've ever encountered that even the most occasional Linux user can figure his/hers way through Synaptic' s pallet of functionalities and features.
[141001780170] |Let's stick our nose a little inside the mind-boggling package database.
[141001780180] |But this shouldn't be confusing, as it benefits of a very clever and well-organized management.
[141001780190] |One can choose the way the packages are grouped according to criteria related to the section they belong, or category, the package status, custom filters, or recent search.
[141001780200] |Also if you're interested in some specific details such as its size, its dependencies, recommended or suggested additional packages, or a short description of a package, you'll just have to take a look at the lower right window pane, where you will see such a details list.
[141001780210] |You can also examine these details with a simple right-click on the package and then choose the Properties option.
[141001780220] |Installing packages through Synaptic is also piece of cake.
[141001780230] |After you've selected the package(s) you want to install, just press the right mouse button and a context menu will pop-up where you can choose to mark the package(s).
[141001780240] |After you've completed the marking you can press the Apply button in the toolbar, or you can press the Ctrl + P keys combination.
[141001780250] |And here comes in action an interesting feature provided by this application.
[141001780260] |Synaptic has the ability to warn you if your choices conflict with packages that are already installed on your system.
[141001780270] |In this unfortunate case, a dialog box should show you the packages that need to be removed.
[141001780280] |Also, if the package you want to install needs other dependencies, Synaptic will let you know about them and will install those dependencies for you.
[141001780290] |Things go the same way in case you want to remove any package.
[141001780300] |When it comes to removing, Synaptic also provides you with a more powerful option, Mark for Complete Removal, which will also remove the configuration files associated with the package.
[141001780310] |The list of repositories or software channels can also be easily managed from the Software Preferences Panel.
[141001780320] |The software preferences panel can be accessed by selecting Repositories from the Settings menu.
[141001780330] |Synaptic uses the system list of software from: /etc/apt/sources.list.
[141001780340] |If you alter your sources.list, you should then click on the Reload button at the top left of the screen to sync your repositories with the Package Manager.
[141001780350] |You can also do that by using the Ctrl+R key shortcut.
[141001780360] |The Settings menu offers another handful tool, Filters, which can create new filters for better managing the packages.
[141001780370] |Let's have a word about the incommode broken packages.
[141001780380] |I'm sure most of you have already met them, and I don't think you were too pleased with the message warning you about those unsatisfied dependencies.
[141001780390] |Well, Synaptic brings in the solution to this messy problem.
[141001780400] |A Fix Broken Packages tool.
[141001780410] |Moreover, Synaptic will not allow any further changes to the system until all broken packages are fixed.
[141001780420] |The Good
[141001780430] |For all you Debian-like users, Synaptic was created to give you a hand with all those packages and dependencies.
[141001780440] |Once Synaptic is running, dealing with system and application upgrades becomes as easy as abc.
[141001780450] |It finds, downloads, and installs all the upgrades.
[141001780460] |The Bad
[141001780470] |The "I haven't encountered any unpleasant situation since I've started working with this application" statement applies in Synaptic's case too.
[141001780480] |Besides the large official (and also unofficial) maintained packages, it also comes with many handy features and functionalities, easy to use by any user, no matter how limited his Linux knowledge would be.
[141001780490] |The Truth
[141001780500] |Synaptic is a graphical package management frontend for apt.
[141001780510] |It provides the same features as the apt-get command line utility but through a nice and ease-to-use GUI based on Gtk+.
[141001780520] |In conclusion, I will let the pictures below speak for themselves:
[141001800010] |Psi Review
[141001800020] |Psi is the dedicated client for the Jabber/ XMPP protocol.
[141001800030] |Based on the Qt toolkit, Psi can run on different operating systems, such as Linux, Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. Psi was first created by Jutin Karneges, but in 2005 its maintenance fell into Remko Troncon's responsibility.
[141001800040] |The name Psi is said to stand as an abbreviation for the word psynergy, something like psychic energy, but also from the psi Greek letter, which is also used as logo.
[141001800050] |Psi was intended as an easy-to use Jabber/XMPP client, and so it is.
[141001800060] |Even though it is a single protocol application, it provides some very interesting features such as allowing gateways to other services or file transfer support, even with other Jabber clients, and even with other IM networks, if the user's server supports the feature.
[141001800070] |What I most liked about Psi is that it is very small, but very fast and responsive in the same time.
[141001800080] |It benefits from a high cross-platform compatibility, therefore you shouldn't have any problem using it with your operating system, whichever that would be.
[141001800090] |This is said to be the reason why the skins are not supported by this application.
[141001800100] |Even though its UI looks pretty neat and elegant, I think a few skins would have been welcomed by the more pretentious users, who care about details such as shape and colors.
[141001800110] |I could also mention among its defaults that lack of support for more exotic options such as webcam or voice messaging, even though I know that would be a bit too much to ask from a cross-platform, which is more designed to be fully functional on all systems rather than exceeding the expectations for just one of them.
[141001800120] |However, there are other features about Psi that make it a powerful tool.
[141001800130] |And the full support it provides for Unicode definitely is worth being mentioned here.
[141001800140] |Psi also supports basic formatting for both chats and normal messages.
[141001800150] |I've heard some claiming that Psi would actually address the more advanced Jabber users.
[141001800160] |On the contrary, when I started using it I was surprised by the easy and intuitive way one can deal with the program.
[141001800170] |I'm not exactly a fan of the instant messaging clients, therefore I do not need sophisticated apps to take me ages until I figure out what task accomplishes each of the tens of buttons garnishing it, and in the end to realize I don't need more than 5 of them for the daily use.
[141001800180] |I can say Psi is not one of them.
[141001800190] |I found very OK its compact aspect combined with the pretty good power of customization.
[141001800200] |I do not bump into all kind of more or less useful buttons unless I want to.
[141001800210] |By default it comes with three customizable toolbars: the Buttons, the Event notifier and the Show Contacts toolbars.
[141001800220] |You can add/ remove as many buttons you want on them through the Configure Toolbars option that can be reached by hitting the menu button in the down left corner, the one featuring a Greek psi letter.
[141001800230] |I could say this is the main menu of the entire application, as from here you'll do all the configuration stuff.
[141001800240] |Here is where you have to come first in order to setup some information regarding your account, such as personal information (nickname, birthday etc) or connection details such as host and port.
[141001800250] |For that, and more other settings regarding your account just go to the Account Setup section.
[141001800260] |I must say it took me a while to find that "menu" button, as it looks more like an About button rather than a menu one.
[141001800270] |I shall also say a few words on the Show Contacts toolbar.
[141001800280] |This toolbar provides a few options I found very useful such as the Show offline contacts, from where you can choose to see or hide buddies who currently are not signed in, or the Show Away/XA/DnD, which does the same thing for the unavailable buddies.
[141001800290] |Remember what I was saying earlier, that even though it is a single protocol messaging client Psi is able to interact with other network protocols too?
[141001800300] |Well, let me provide you a few details on how this is made.
[141001800310] |Everything relates to the Gateway (or Transports as they're also called) Jabber components.
[141001800320] |These components are specially made to interact with other (proprietary) networks (ex. MSN, ICQ etc).
[141001800330] |In order to use a certain gateway you'll have to browse the server hosting it through the Service Discovery tool.
[141001800340] |You will probably have to enter a different server's address in order to access different gateways.
[141001800350] |If you use gateways only on your server, then just open Service Discovery and you should see them in the window below the address bar.
[141001800360] |After that you'll have to register with your gateway with your ID and password for the network you need and that should be all.
[141001800370] |You should be able to see in the roster the contacts from the other network.
[141001800380] |The Good
[141001800390] |Jabber technologies are highly extensible, therefore Psi is able to interact also with the other, proprietary messaging protocols such as ICQ or MSN.
[141001800400] |The file transfer with Psi depends exclusively on the XMPP/Jabber protocol standards, just like most of everything in Psi.
[141001800410] |The Bad
[141001800420] |The only bad aspect I found at Psi would be, among the lack of exotic features such as built-in games or webcam support, the fact that it also lacks skins.
[141001800430] |Leaving the look and feel details aside, on the functionality side Psi works as fine as expected.
[141001800440] |Since I used it I must say I did not experience any strange errors or forced exits.
[141001800450] |The Truth
[141001800460] |Psi is the first IM application that is compatible with all major platforms, from Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X to GNU/Linux.
[141001800470] |Built upon the Jabber open protocol, Psi makes itself noticed through its small size and fast responsiveness.
[141001800480] |Curious about Psi?
[141001800490] |Then you can check out some screenshots below:
[141001810010] |LBreakout2 Review
[141001810020] |Have you ever had one of those days when you're just sitting bored to death in front of your computer and pray for someone to go online to start a little chat?
[141001810030] |Or, you're home alone, there's nothing for you to do, you're not exactly in the mood for throwing a party, but still, you feel like having some fun?
[141001810040] |Well in that case, or in the case you just want to experience a relaxing but enthralling little game, then you came to the right person.
[141001810050] |I'm sure I'll find a cute game, one that is not too tiresome but which is quite captivating.
[141001810060] |Ta-da-dam...[drums rolling] ...please meet the LBreakout 2, successor of LBreakout, as you might have already figured it out.
[141001810070] |Do I have your attention?
[141001810080] |I hope so, because I have a lot to tell you about.
[141001810090] |I've been playing it for hours last weekend and I just couldn't get enough of it.
[141001810100] |I must now be fair to you and warn you from the very beginning: the game is addictive!
[141001810110] |Therefore, you'll play it at your own risk; do not blame me if your boss should enter your office and find you wasting precious working time on...LBreakout.
[141001810120] |This game I'm telling you about won the No Starch Press SDL Game Contest.
[141001810130] |Besides the amazing entertaining power, LBreakout2 also benefits of pretty nice graphics and sounds.
[141001810140] |Well, now, do not expect sophisticated 3D acceleration or who knows what other complicated features.
[141001810150] |This game is more like one of the "classics": it keeps everything simple and focuses mostly on the relaxing purpose.
[141001810160] |It can be used by the entire family, no age-limit.
[141001810170] |The game is cross-platform, therefore you'll be able to play it no matter the system running on your comp, Linux, Windows or even Mac OS X. I've tested the Linux version on my good-looking Ubutnu 7.04 and I had no problem with it, except for the installation, when I've noticed the game required the Simple DirectMedia Layer library that was not yet installed.
[141001810180] |After I've got it via Synaptyc, things worked as smooth and clean as possible and 5 minutes later, I was poking the keyboard like crazy, eager to get to the next level.
[141001810190] |The entire philosophy in LB2 consists in breaking some bricks using a shiny green metal ball and a paddle.
[141001810200] |It doesn't sound too difficult, does it?
[141001810210] |Well, don't rush into thinking that.
[141001810220] |The game aims to challenge your reflexes, therefore it brings in some unorthodox "friends", called maluses (chaos, darkness, weak balls, malus magnet a.s.o), which will try to hold you back from smashing the colorful bricks.
[141001810230] |The bricks themselves can tease you, as they are not regular bricks at all, they can be regenerative bricks, indestructible bricks, chaotic bricks, growing bricks.
[141001810240] |However, you won't be left on your own in front of so many maluses.
[141001810250] |There are also a lot of bonuses (goldshower, joker, explosive balls, bonus magnet etc) to help you out.
[141001810260] |There are also some friendly bricks, to compensate the balance, such as the explosive bricks.
[141001810270] |LB2 resembles much the popular Arkanoid arcade game.
[141001810280] |The idea is the same, a paddle prevents the ball from falling from the playing field, attempting to bounce it against a number of bricks.
[141001810290] |When it hits a brick, the brick goes away.
[141001810300] |When all bricks are gone, the player goes to the next level.
[141001810310] |LB2 has 50 levels, and it also offers the possibility to create completely new levelsets through the integrated easy-to-use level editor, according to your more or less merely twisted imagination.
[141001810320] |The default levels have different difficulty degrees, starting from Kids, continuing with Easy, Medium and finally Hard.
[141001810330] |I will only say that the Hard difficulty level is definitely one hell of a challenge.
[141001810340] |If you get tired with all those levels, you can always challenge your friends via LAN or internet.
[141001810350] |Fullscreen supported?
[141001810360] |Sure it is.
[141001810370] |Just press the F key and there it is.
[141001810380] |What I forgot to mention about this game here is its impressive customization power.
[141001810390] |You can set your own controls, the Graphics or Audio settings.
[141001810400] |There are also a few themes available from which you can choose but you can download and add others too.
[141001810410] |The Good
[141001810420] |LB2 is just one of those old-time classic style games.
[141001810430] |It's quite simple, but it is also very entertaining and you'll always find the same fun and pleasure whenever you come back to it.
[141001810440] |The Bad
[141001810450] |What I did not like about it was that it is quite difficult to play it with a more sensitive mouse.
[141001810460] |The ugly part is that the game does not provide you the option of changing the mouse sensitivity.
[141001810470] |I would have also liked to provide features such as two players at the same time.
[141001810480] |I think this will be even more challenging.
[141001810490] |I think that also the graphics can be improved.
[141001810500] |LB2 has nice and elegant classic graphics, but this can be improved for a more modern aspect.
[141001810510] |The Truth
[141001810520] |Nice, compelling, slick, breakout game.
[141001810530] |For further details ...
[141001810540] |Go Play It!
[141001810550] |If curious, you can also check out the screenshots below:
[141001820010] |Anjuta Review
[141001820020] |The programming under Linux issue has always been a fashionable topic among different developers, mainly due to arguments regarding the IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) used for creating the applications.
[141001820030] |While some more "traditionalist" programmers still claim that the command-line GNU tools are by themselves an IDE, the graphical IDEs are gaining lot of popularity lately.
[141001820040] |There has been noticed even a tendency of combining the Open Source philosophy with an open, extensible framework, for creating a community of people to extend the capabilities of the IDE, adding even exotic languages and applications to the list of supported ones in the environment.
[141001820050] |Among the most popular IDEs there would be the KDevelop, an integrated development environment for the K Desktop Environment (with support of languages such as C++ or Ruby), Eclipse, NetBeans, or Anjuta, for C/C++.
[141001820060] |I'll tell you more over the later, as it happens to be a "friend" of mine (it is the IDE where I work on my projects).
[141001820070] |Anjuta is one the most advanced and sophisticated IDEs available for Linux, yet friendly and easy-to-use, and it is GPLed.
[141001820080] |It has been written for GTK+/GNOME and features a number of advanced programming facilities such as: a project management, some application wizards, an interactive debugger built over the GNU debbuger(gdb) and a powerful source code editor, which offers you features like source browsing, code completion and least but not last I could add the syntax highlighting.
[141001820090] |As any regular IDE, Anjuta is made out of a source code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build-automation tools, and a debugger.
[141001820100] |It also integrates a class browser, an object inspector and a class hierarchy diagram, for use with object oriented software development.
[141001820110] |I happen to be a C/C++ programer, therefore I am familiar with the C-ish side of Anjuta, which looks very good, I could add.
[141001820120] |I should definitely say a few words over the source code editor.
[141001820130] |What I've noticed in it is that it looks as simple as possible, but provides the exact functionality you need.
[141001820140] |Its most important, and useful, feature was the syntax highlighting.
[141001820150] |The newbies in the field will understand me better on this one.
[141001820160] |The editor can also be customized in order to provide certain information such as the indentation guides, white spaces and line end characters, for a more comfortable editing.
[141001820170] |In order to make these visible /invisible just go toggling the menu items in View->Editor.
[141001820180] |There are also features such as Finding/Replacing pieces of text in a file which increase the usefulness rate of this editor.
[141001820190] |And what kind of editor would Anjuta's be if it wouldn't support file printing?
[141001820200] |Whenever you need to print a file, just select File -> Print Preview to get a preview of what's going to be printed and then just press the Print button.
[141001820210] |Another aspect of the code editor that can be found in any respectable IDEs are the tabbed windows.
[141001820220] |On the compiler side, Anjuta, as most other IDEs, make use of the GCC for compilation.
[141001820230] |There is also make for project management and CVS for versioning.
[141001820240] |It also benefits of an on-board interactive debugger.
[141001820250] |Relatively small compared to Kdevelop, Anjuta stands out, as it is quite fast.
[141001820260] |I do not have to wait for ages for it to deal with my more-or-less buggy pieces of programs.
[141001820270] |Even though in the beginning it gained a pretty stained named due to the numerous bugs it had, now Anjuta comes with one of the most stable IDE versions.
[141001820280] |The fact that it looks a bit similar to the Visual Studio from Microsoft makes it highly accessible to the former Windows users, who were recently "enchanted" with Linux and look here for some more "familiar" stuff to use for their older activities.
[141001820290] |File compilation is made easy by simply pressing the F9 key, or by selecting Build -> Compile.
[141001820300] |You will receive in the Message window a small compilation log, including possible errors.
[141001820310] |You can double-click on the error lines which will take you to the particular line where the error occurred.
[141001820320] |The ordinary Compile option will not build you the executable.
[141001820330] |For that, you can press the F11 key (or following the Build -> Build).
[141001820340] |You will receive a message list in the Messages window here too.
[141001820350] |Anjuta has also a smooth way of maintaining and managing projects.
[141001820360] |It also allows you to make use of other tools too, which have an additional advantage of making your projects more flexible.
[141001820370] |You'll have to take care though with the files managed by Anjuta, as they would all be overwritten.
[141001820380] |The Good
[141001820390] |Looks good, it is relatively light, it does lots of things automatically (such as Makefiles or configure scripts) and benefits of an extensive documentation.
[141001820400] |And these are just a few of Anjuta's capabilities.
[141001820410] |The Bad
[141001820420] |Anjuta is a good, flexible, stable and reliable development environment.
[141001820430] |That's for sure.
[141001820440] |It has a nice way of managing projects, a very useful and advanced source code editor and a pretty good interactive debugger.
[141001820450] |But (you know ... there's always a but) it still needs improvements in many domains.
[141001820460] |Let's take the editor for example.
[141001820470] |I've said before it deals nicely with windows as it has the tabbed window option.
[141001820480] |So far so good.
[141001820490] |When you open the file, let's say a .cc file, the application does not create a net tab for that certain file, but instead runs another instance of Anjuta.
[141001820500] |Another thing I did not like about it was the Terminal.
[141001820510] |Unfortunately, this incorporated terminal proposed by Anjuta does not support copy-pasting.
[141001820520] |I hope this will be solved in the future releases.
[141001820530] |The Truth
[141001820540] |Anjuta is an Integrated Development Environment for the C and C++ programming languages on GNU/Linux.
[141001820550] |It has been written for GTK/GNOME and features a number of advanced programming facilities.
[141001820560] |Among these, there would be: project management, application wizards, an on-board interactive debbuger.
[141001820570] |If interested, you can also take a look at the Anjuta photos below:
[141001850010] |Asunder Review
[141001850020] |I think everyone has heard by now about what the CD Ripping/Encoding tools can do.
[141001850030] |For those who haven't, here's something that might give them a clue about what these applications are made for.
[141001850040] |Ripping is the process of copying the audio data from a CD to a hard disk.
[141001850050] |To preserve storage space on a hard drive, the copied data will be encoded in formats like MP3, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis etc.
[141001850060] |Ripping and encoding have been controversial issues from a legal point of view, since this is considered illegal in many countries, when it's done without the consent of the copyright holder.
[141001850070] |Despite these legal problems, ripping and encoding software continue, and are very useful for those who want their favorite music on their portable players and sometimes even for artists.
[141001850080] |An application that comes from the big family of CD-Ripping software is Asunder: a small, graphical Audio CD ripping and encoding tool for Linux, created under the GPLv2 license.
[141001850090] |It attracted my attention mainly because it's fast and on the producer's site you can find packages for the most important Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Debian, SUSE, Gentoo etc.
[141001850100] |Because I’ve been using Ubuntu Linux with KDE installed for quite some time now, I downloaded the package for this Linux distribution and the installation was very simple.
[141001850110] |I only right-clicked on the package and went to the Kubuntu Package menu -> Install package.
[141001850120] |But you can also find the source code on the developer's website, if you are a console freak and you want to compile the application by yourself.
[141001850130] |Asunder starts very quickly, with a complete track list, content taken from the Audio-CD you'll insert.
[141001850140] |Its main interface is simple, and it invites the user to click the "Rip" button and start the ripping process.
[141001850150] |In the list of files, you'll see thee main menu that has only two parts: Preferences and About.
[141001850160] |The "Preferences" category is composed of three tabs: "General", "Filenames" and "Encode", all of them giving the user a feel of simplicity.
[141001850170] |With small steps we'll go through these sections, so let's start with "General".
[141001850180] |This part of the "Preferences" menu has a few options, like "Eject CD", a drop-down menu where you can select the location of the ripped files, your CD-ROM device (default is /dev/cdrom), or create an M3U playlist.
[141001850190] |This last option is very useful if you want to quickly add the music you ripped in a music player.
[141001850200] |This part of "Preferences" is very simple, isn't it?
[141001850210] |So let's move on to "Filenames".
[141001850220] |It comprises a box named "Filename formats" where the user can edit how the files will look like: the music file, the playlist and the album directory.
[141001850230] |It has a short legend in the left part of the window, telling you what "%A", "%T", "%N" and "%L" mean.
[141001850240] |I can tell you from now what these things mean: "%A" is for the artist's name, "%T" for the song title, "%N" is the track number (it can only be two-digit) and "%L" is the album.
[141001850250] |Under this box, you'll find a small field named "Invalid characters".
[141001850260] |I don't see its purpose; it's very clear you can't use the "/" character in an album or filename on Linux.
[141001850270] |It's useful only if you want to add more invalid characters to the blacklist.
[141001850280] |I malevolently added a "/" in the "Filename formats" box, and the program didn't respond with anything to my intention of spoiling it, or even my filesystem.
[141001850290] |That's a black ball for the developer.
[141001850300] |Maybe a Linux newbie would want to make his filenames look "cooler", by adding that invalid character to them.
[141001850310] |The app shouldn't allow that!
[141001850320] |It doesn't even give a warning to the user!
[141001850330] |Maybe in a future release, the developer will think about this thing too.
[141001850340] |Let's see what's in the next tab, in "Encode".
[141001850350] |There are five checkboxes, four of them refer to the file formats the program can encode: WAV (this one actually won't be encoded, the music will just be ripped from the Audio-CD), MP3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC.
[141001850360] |In the MP3 part of this menu, you should keep the "Variable bit rate" checkbox checked; this way, it will produce better sound quality at the cost of some extra hard-disk space.
[141001850370] |Be sure you have the lame package installed on your system.
[141001850380] |If you have Ubuntu Linux, you can install it by launching a terminal and typing in sudo apt-get install lame.
[141001850390] |After that, Asunder will encode in MP3 too.
[141001850400] |Also, you should know that it will encode in all formats if you don't tick any of the checkboxes.
[141001850410] |The maximum bitrate at which Asunder can encode is 320kbps, the best quality for this format.
[141001850420] |But the author has some surprises for us: for the Ogg Vorbis filetype you will have a maximum quality of 10, and I found out this number is actually the quality equivalent of an mp3 at a 500 kbps bitrate.
[141001850430] |That's really, really good stuff!
[141001850440] |But FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is even better: it has a maximum quality coefficient of 8, more than 800 kbps.
[141001850450] |I like the developer's choice in audio codecs; I actually think he chose them pretty well!
[141001850460] |I discovered that the sliders are a little bit jumpy: if you try to drag them, they will just go in the opposite direction, a very annoying thing when you want to do something quickly and not click on the position you want a slider to go to.
[141001850470] |This was the Preferences menu, the next part we'll move on to will be the ripping and encoding processes.
[141001850480] |I started selecting files so the program can do its job: I found out it has problems when you select one or more files, it won't show the exact number after it does its work.
[141001850490] |For example, I selected one file in two formats, ogg and mp3, but it appeared in the status as only one file was created, and in the folder there were two files with the extensions .ogg and .mp3; after that, I selected two songs in its interface, which in the status appeared as four, together with the following message: "All 4 files were created successfully.".
[141001850500] |This thing is confusing, it seems that it can change its mind...
[141001850510] |Another thing this program doesn't do right: it doesn't ask you if you really want to overwrite a file!
[141001850520] |Well, there's still much, much work to be done until Asunder will be complete and these problems fixed.
[141001850530] |They are not major ones but they can be quite annoying, and I really think there's place for more good stuff from Asunder's developer.
[141001850540] |The Good
[141001850550] |Asunder is very small, a good option for those who really care for their space, and it has a nice GTK+ based interface, it's well organized and it moves very fast.
[141001850560] |A big advantage is the fact that you can find packages for almost all well-known Linux distributions.
[141001850570] |The Bad
[141001850580] |The main thing it lacks is a better warning system.
[141001850590] |The user can make some mistakes, without even knowing it.
[141001850600] |Also, it should've had a "What's this?" option when you right-clicked on something.
[141001850610] |The bug fixing should be done faster, but I think I'm a little bit harsh, considering this is a one-man project.
[141001850620] |The Truth
[141001850630] |Asunder is another CD-Ripping tool, but it comes with something I haven't seen in others: it can simultaneously rip and encode the songs you want.
[141001850640] |It has some translations, in German, Greek, Spanish, French etc., but they aren't completed.
[141001850650] |The author is very open to suggestions and bug reports so don't hesitate!
[141001850660] |If you find something, let him know!
[141001850670] |Here are some screenshots of Asunder in action:
[141001850680] |Follow the editor on Twitter @mariusnestor
[141001860010] |QGRUBEditor Review
[141001860020] |Sometimes you need a tool to help you easily view and edit the GRUB boot loader, without going through text editors and changing manually system files.
[141001860030] |For this kind of stuff QGRUBEditor was created.
[141001860040] |For the beginning, the most important question is:"What is GRUB?".
[141001860050] |So let's answer it.
[141001860060] |GNU GRUB is a boot loader package that came from the GNU Project.
[141001860070] |It allows a user to have different operating systems on his computer at the same time and gives him the ability to choose between them when the computer starts.
[141001860080] |This boot-loader can also select from different kernel images available on a particular operating system's partitions and to pass boot-time parameters to these kernels.
[141001860090] |GRUB provides a simple command line interface where users can write new boot sequences, but QGrubEditor has the advantage of a graphical interface that can be run as a normal application on Linux.
[141001860100] |After you get your hands on QGRUBEditor you should make sure you have Qt4 installed.
[141001860110] |You could verify that by typing in a console "whereis qt4".
[141001860120] |This should indicate its location, pointing out to /usr/lib/qt4, /usr/include/qt4 and /usr/share/qt4 by default.
[141001860130] |If you don't have it, you can use the "sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev" command to get it, if you're on Ubuntu.
[141001860140] |I didn't have it installed on my Ubuntu 7.04 machine, so I had to set it up using the aforementioned command.
[141001860150] |Another thing you should verify is whether you have the g++ compiler.
[141001860160] |If you don't, use "sudo apt-get install g++".
[141001860170] |Things can be very easy on Ubuntu, you only have to type one single command and...
[141001860180] |VOILA!
[141001860190] |The program or library is on your system, waiting for you to use it.
[141001860200] |After your system meets all requirements, launch a terminal and go to the folder where you've extracted QGRUBEditor.
[141001860210] |Here you should type "qmake-qt4" followed by "make" and "make install".
[141001860220] |The last command is a little bit different for the Ubuntu users, you will have to type "sudo make install" to gain root privileges, otherwise that command is useless.
[141001860230] |When I started the application I was asked for the admin password.
[141001860240] |This can only mean that things can get a little bit messy if you're not careful with what you change in this program.
[141001860250] |I found out afterwards that QGRUBEditor makes back-ups every time it accesses a file, to prevent data loss, giving the back-up a name that resembles the original file.
[141001860260] |After that the user can restore the back-up with no problems.
[141001860270] |Anyway, I advise you to be careful, you never know what could happen.
[141001860280] |The next thing you'll see after you're asked for the admin password will be a window splitted in two and some nice, beautiful icons.
[141001860290] |These are actually from the Crystal SVG / Hicolor KDE icon theme, the only original one is QGRUBEditor's icon.
[141001860300] |In the upper window you can find all the entries from /boot/grub/menu.lst, a file where GRUB lists every operating system installed on your computer.
[141001860310] |The default entry is highlighted with green, but you can change the color by going to "Settings", or by pressing Ctrl+S if you have another favorite color.
[141001860320] |Click on one of the entries in this list.
[141001860330] |You'll see some changes in the other panel, like the path to the kernel and its parameters, the title of the entry, etc.
[141001860340] |Under this panel you'll see the settings for the selected entry.
[141001860350] |I really like the fact that you can easily change the splash image from here and you can put a password on the booting of an operating system.
[141001860360] |Also, you can change the time until the default entry starts, calculated in seconds.
[141001860370] |I don't know exactly for what the Colors field was made, because I don't know whether you can specify the number of colors (like 256 colors, 16-bit, etc.) or it's for something else.
[141001860380] |I believe it was made for the first option, choosing the number of colors.
[141001860390] |The developers should've thought about giving explanations for every function that appeared in their program.
[141001860400] |I don't like to see beginners left aside and no help being provided with the program.
[141001860410] |The "what's this?" function is missing and the documentation provided with the package doesn't offer in-depth help.
[141001860420] |Right clicking on an entry doesn't open a pop-up menu that contains the most important functions as I expected, it opens the "View" menu.
[141001860430] |I don't know what the use of this might be; it encumbers the work of the user and if someone wants to hide some toolbars he or she can simply go to "View" and uncheck the option related to the toolbar.
[141001860440] |The buttons on the main interface lead to functions that are available through the drop-down menus, including all important functions and some more that don't help the user in any way (like the "About" button).
[141001860450] |In the "File" menu there are just two buttons: "View Input" and "Quit".
[141001860460] |All important functions can be accessed through keyboard shortcuts, like Ctrl+V for "View Input" or Ctrl+Q for "Quit".
[141001860470] |The "View" menu lets the user show or hide the toolbars, a good function if you don't need so many buttons on your screen.
[141001860480] |The third menu is "Actions", where you can choose from adding new entries to the /boot/grub/menu.lst file to removing entries and refreshing the list.
[141001860490] |Also, from here you can back-up and restore the files you've modified through QGRUBEditor.
[141001860500] |The deleting of back-ups is also permitted.
[141001860510] |Be careful what key combinations you use, some may differ from the normal usage.
[141001860520] |The last one is "Settings", split in three different sections: General, Paths and Language.
[141001860530] |I always come across the same problem in the software I use: no explanations for the options!
[141001860540] |I want to know what "Smart Cropping" is.
[141001860550] |What does it do?!
[141001860560] |Does it affect the files I edited in some way?
[141001860570] |And what's the difference between the "Quick Mode" and the "Advanced Mode" of backing up/restoring/deleting files?
[141001860580] |I would really like to know these answers, but there's no help, not even a small hint.
[141001860590] |In "Settings" --> "Paths" you will encounter the paths to menu.lst, device.map and mtab files.
[141001860600] |You can change them, if you are unsure of what you've done, where they indicated before by clicking on "Restore Default".
[141001860610] |I've noticed there is an increasing community around QGRUBEditor, with members from all around the world.
[141001860620] |The proof for this statement could be the translations, like French, German, Greek, etc.
[141001860630] |You can change the program's language, but you have to restart it for the changes to take place.
[141001860640] |If you want it back in English, you'll have to leave the "Translation File Location" field empty.
[141001860650] |The Good
[141001860660] |QGRUBEditor's small size and intuitive interface makes it a perfect tool for administering your GRUB loader entries, changing their parameters and the way GRUB looks without getting into much detail.
[141001860670] |The Bad
[141001860680] |There is no help system, contextual menus are strange and don't ease the work of a user.
[141001860690] |Another aspect that I didn't like was the lack of a good documentation.
[141001860700] |The Truth
[141001860710] |The same actions done with this application can be performed with a text editor by changing some files.
[141001860720] |The translations are very well made and very soon we'll see more of them.
[141001860730] |Here are some screenshots of QGRUBEditor in action:
[141001870010] |Flock Review
[141001870020] |At this moment, the variety of web browsers keeps increasing, some of them with original and innovative concepts and some that don't bring anything new.
[141001870030] |I knew Flock as a boring web browser that didn't offer too much.
[141001870040] |After trying the new version, I've changed my mind.
[141001870050] |Now I can say that it's one of my favorite web browsers; although there are no stable versions, the latest preview release is 0.9.1.2.
[141001870060] |This version is also the subject of my review, so fasten your seat belts, because you're going to fly through the Web with Flock from now on!
[141001870070] |If you want to know more about this special web browser that was built for social networking fanatics - like me - then you should go on reading.
[141001870080] |If you think you're not into social networking and stuff like that, Flock will make you change your point of view.
[141001870090] |Anyway, you could use it like any other browser, but where's the charm in that?
[141001870100] |So here's my advice: get Flock, install it and read this review!
[141001870110] |What is Flock?
[141001870120] |Flock is a web browser that is based upon Mozilla Firefox and other solutions from Mozilla.
[141001870130] |The developers from Flock call it a "social browser", due to the special features included in it, mainly those for interacting with social networking web services, such as Flickr, Del.icio.us, Technorati and some popular blogging and news aggregation services.
[141001870140] |Although you could say it's a relative of Firefox, it has many features that separate it from Mozilla's browser.
[141001870150] |The developers from Flock thought you should have a customized homepage, called "My World".
[141001870160] |You can keep it as your homepage - which I think is a good solution - or you can transform it ino your own information portal with search engines, news, multimedia items and much more.
[141001870170] |Flock in action!
[141001870180] |After you install it, the first run will be a little bit slow, compared to Firefox.
[141001870190] |Afterwards, you will be asked if you want to make Flock the default browser.
[141001870200] |It starts with an "Import wizard", which lets you select from the already installed browsers the bookmarks that will be imported.
[141001870210] |It can set the homepage to be the same as in Firefox (if you have it installed).
[141001870220] |When the process is finished, you will be shown a list with what the application has done.
[141001870230] |Two tabs will open up, one that will take you to a page that's thanking you for downloading the application and one with My World.
[141001870240] |In the address bar this will be "about:myworld".
[141001870250] |My World is nicely done, but I found a bug - that I reported through the feedback service, read on to find out how - that is a little bit annoying.
[141001870260] |If you middle click on a link from the "Favorite Feeds" section on My World, the browser gives you an error: "The requested URL is not valid".
[141001870270] |Although it reports this, it still opens the link you click in a new tab.
[141001870280] |If you try this many times, at a certain moment it will open up just a blank page.
[141001870290] |On sites that use Java, Flock seems to work at a much slower rate, compared to Konqueror or Firefox.
[141001870300] |In the upper half of the My World page, you'll have a search field that uses Yahoo as default engine.
[141001870310] |Do you want to change it?
[141001870320] |Of course, you can do that!
[141001870330] |You can select from some other search engines, like Google, Ask.com, Technorati, Amazon,etc.
[141001870340] |If you don't want the ones I enumerated, you can go to "Edit"->"Preferences".
[141001870350] |To add more search engines, go on the "Searching" tab, and click on the "Download more now!" link.
[141001870360] |This will take you to the "Search Engine Plugins" website.
[141001870370] |If you have accounts open on any social networking websites (media sharing, blogging etc.) like Youtube, Wordpress.com, Xanga etc. or a self-hosted blog, you can access them directly from the "Accounts and Services" button on the My World page.
[141001870380] |This will open a sidebar, from which you can select yours.
[141001870390] |If you don't have an account created on any of these websites, then you can make one very easy with Flock.
[141001870400] |You only have to click on one of the items listed in the sidebar, and a wizard will help you create the user account on any of them.
[141001870410] |To make things even easier, Flock will remember your blog, after you visit it.
[141001870420] |The browser will automatically add the feeds related to it in "Favorite Feeds", even though you don't want that.
[141001870430] |But you can always delete them afterwards.
[141001870440] |An interesting feature that I haven't seen in other browsers, is the "Web Clipboard".
[141001870450] |What can you do with it?
[141001870460] |Here you can add text and images so you can use them later.
[141001870470] |You can do this very quickly and in a simple manner, by using the drag and drop technique.
[141001870480] |If you find any interesting images or text on your travels in the vast realm of the Internet, you can just drag and drop 'em in the toolbar.
[141001870490] |After you've finished using them, the browser lets you delete them one by one or all at the same time.
[141001870500] |The bookmarks are renamed into "Favorite Sites", or "Favorites", and they are shown as many other elements in the My World page.
[141001870510] |Besides the things I enumerated until now, there is something even more special: you can upload media directly from this page to sites like Flickr, Photobucket etc.
[141001870520] |After you log in on your account, even if you close the tab, the browser will remember the user name and password, and will show the user in the left side of the window.
[141001870530] |From here, you can select the "Forget account" option, which will erase any information related to your media sharing account, or log out, which will sign you out from the service.
[141001870540] |I've created an account on Flickr especially to test Flock's ability to upload images.
[141001870550] |I was really wondering how it will work.
[141001870560] |So I clicked on the "Upload Media" button in the My World homepage and a new window appeared.
[141001870570] |Photo Uploader could be considered as a separate application, although some might say it is an extension of Flock.
[141001870580] |You can freely close the browser, and you will still have on your screen the window for image uploading.
[141001870590] |It works as many other things from Flock, by dragging and dropping.
[141001870600] |You can drag images from wherever you want in this window.
[141001870610] |If you are not a fan of this technique, you can always use the traditional - but more time consuming - way, by going through the "File" menu in the Photo Uploader application.
[141001870620] |After you drag your images in Photo Uploader, you can edit them in batches or separately.
[141001870630] |You can do some simple editing on your files, like cropping or rotating them.
[141001870640] |If you do something wrong, you can always revert the last action, so don't worry if you make some mistakes.
[141001870650] |Of course, you should not make too many, or it'll become a habit!
[141001870660] |Do you want the entire world to see your pictures?
[141001870670] |If you want that, you can set the "Privacy" option to "Public".
[141001870680] |For those of you who prefer to share their pictures only with their family or friends, you can change it to "Private", and tick one or both of the check-boxes.
[141001870690] |I forgot to mention that you can add a name to your pictures, a description and some comments, so your viewers know what's all about with the images they see.
[141001870700] |Also, I recommend you to add some tags to the images, so search engines like Technorati can easily index them, or to make the navigation much easier for the visitors of your Flickr account.
[141001870710] |Now we're at the step where you click the "Upload" button.
[141001870720] |If you have done that, another window will pop up, from where you can resize the photos, you can choose the album where you want them on your account and if you don't have one, you can add it from this interface.
[141001870730] |Also, some statistics are offered, like the number of photos being uploaded, the estimated file size and the current usage of the account.
[141001870740] |When the uploading process is finished, the files will appear as thumbnails in the Media bar.
[141001870750] |From here, you can share the files by sending them through e-mail, or by posting them on a blog.
[141001870760] |Their links and HTML code can be copied to the clipboard, for later use.
[141001870770] |Thanks to the option with the HTML code, you can get two versions of it, one for small images and the other for large images.
[141001870780] |Do you want to send the Flock development team some feedback?
[141001870790] |Then go and click on the blue bug placed on the right, and the browser will take you to the feedback page.
[141001870800] |Here you can report bugs, request new features, or comment about the application.
[141001870810] |I have sent them a bug report, and the way you can tell them the problem you've encountered is brilliant!
[141001870820] |You will have a pre-formatted template where you can add information about the bug.
[141001870830] |You can tell them how to reproduce the bug in three steps, but you can add more information if you want.
[141001870840] |After this, you can let them know what result should have happened and what actually the application did.
[141001870850] |Give them your e-mail address if you are anxious to know what contribution you've made by sending your bug report to the developers.
[141001870860] |There are so many features that I haven't mentioned in this review, because Flock has a large number of them, and I would not want to spoil your fun when you try it.
[141001870870] |Start downloading it now and have fun!
[141001870880] |The Good
[141001870890] |Flock is one of the browsers that will be prepared for Web 3.0, with its social networking oriented features and the options it offers.
[141001870900] |Very soon, the community around it will grow thanks to the way you can contribute to its development.
[141001870910] |The help system is also good.
[141001870920] |The Bad
[141001870930] |It is still a development release; until it reaches a stable version there are many things to be added.
[141001870940] |It needs an increased security, because it stores passwords and accounts by default, and a beginner could get his passwords stolen thanks to the storing feature.
[141001870950] |The Truth
[141001870960] |There are other mainstream web browsers which have already a good position on the market, so it will need a lot of marketing and advertising to get through from the "least-known" to the mainstream category.
[141001870970] |It is Firefox based, so there's still a lot of work to be done until Flock will be able to compete with Mozilla's browser.
[141001870980] |Here are some screenshots of Flock in action:
[141001880010] |Tibia Review
[141001880020] |Whenever you want to dream of a place where you can meet druids, paladins, knights and mythological creatures, fight in shiny armors or wear the cape of a sorcerer, go to the Tibian continent.
[141001880030] |Where's that?
[141001880040] |In Tibia, one of the oldest MMORPGs created in Europe.
[141001880050] |You will solve riddles, receive quests from other characters and turn yourself step by step into a powerful mage or a fierce warrior.
[141001880060] |You only have to create an account on the game's site and then you're ready for a fantastic journey.
[141001880070] |So let's see what you should expect from the game, shall we?
[141001880080] |After creating an account on Tibia's website, you can access the servers through the game client, by entering the account number and the password provided through e-mail.
[141001880090] |The next step you should take would be to launch the game client.
[141001880100] |After the login takes place, the game will let you create a character.
[141001880110] |You can select from different types of characters like citizen, hunter, mage, etc.
[141001880120] |I advise you to carefully choose the class, because it will influence you.
[141001880130] |So you've logged in...
[141001880140] |When you do this for the first time, you will be greeted with a screen offering some tips on how to control your character, information on different marks, signs and buttons.
[141001880150] |The main window is made up of three parts, the console, the game interface and the character controls.
[141001880160] |I like the menu, because you can move the buttons up and down on the right side of the screen.
[141001880170] |Your character can be simply moved by left clicking wherever you want to move it.
[141001880180] |If you encounter a player that has a skull mark underneath the name, it means that he has been involved in some violence, so you can kill him.
[141001880190] |To do this, right click on him and select "attack".
[141001880200] |Don't worry, you won't be marked, unless you do the aforementioned action on unmarked persons.
[141001880210] |When you get out from the temple (where you encounter the first NPC, who can heal you by typing "help" in the in-game console) the game will offer you some directions, telling you about the most important places in the village.
[141001880220] |First things first, I went to the academy, as the game told me!
[141001880230] |I've noticed that the time lapses here on a normal course: day is followed by night, when the lamp posts get lit up.
[141001880240] |At night, your visual field seems to lower, while the areas near the street lamps or any other source of light are in lighter colors.
[141001880250] |If you right click on an item, like a tree, you will receive information related to it.
[141001880260] |I went into the Academy, where I looked on a bookshelf, which gave me some directions on using the console and how to interact with other players, especially NPCs.
[141001880270] |I entered the Academy's dungeon and the game warned me that in underground areas I could bump into some nasty creatures, which could be a problem for an inexperienced user.
[141001880280] |Although some beds were placed in the dungeons, the game won't let you use them.
[141001880290] |Why are they put there?
[141001880300] |Ok, so I finally encountered a "nasty creature"... maybe it can be called a pest?!
[141001880310] |I found a rat which tasted the tip of my blade!
[141001880320] |This gave me some experience points, which can in time improve my character's abilities.
[141001880330] |Also, the game advised me that I should search the corpses of dead monsters for valuable items.
[141001880340] |Yaaay!!!
[141001880350] |The rat had a coin!!!
[141001880360] |What would a rat do with money?!
[141001880370] |Anyway, it doesn't matter at this moment, I put the coin in my bag and started to search for some more "monsters" to kill...
[141001880380] |I noticed that the character has a number of arrows and when they're gone he can only hit monsters with his melee weapon, so if your rats or anything else run from you, go get 'em!
[141001880390] |By the way, the NPC called Seymour will give you a quest to kill some rats and for every rat you kill he will give you some coins.
[141001880400] |If you want to look for some items in your inventory, don't look for a button, don't try any keyboard shortcuts you know from other games, you will have to right click on the bag and its contents will show up.
[141001880410] |I think the character is limited to an amount of items, because if you right click on anything in your bag and then choose "look", it will tell you how much that thing weighs.
[141001880420] |Be careful in the underground, because if you find a fire and an energy field, they can kill you.
[141001880430] |I made this mistake: I entered the flame and it continuously took hitpoints from me, even after I went for a long distance from it.
[141001880440] |Here I also found a teleporter, a blue blob which will carry you to different places.
[141001880450] |Through it, I found a chamber where I could pull some levers and creatures went out from their cages.
[141001880460] |I read on the sign located near the levers that you can fight them.
[141001880470] |I got killed here by a bug!!!
[141001880480] |When you get killed, you will be revived by the "gods" and you will resume your journey.
[141001880490] |Actually, you will be sent back at the beginning.
[141001880500] |So I went back to the academy, where I opened some books and read them, which gave me some tactical information, learned something about the orcs, and read a fairytale about a gnome.
[141001880510] |Here you can find out more about the mythology behind the game, how the world was created, which gods did that, etc.
[141001880520] |I tried to buy something, but I didn't have any coins, I really would've liked the game more if it gave me money when I started it, at least a few coins!
[141001880530] |I think Tibia has much more to offer, so you should try it out, although it doesn't look like a game from 2007, more like one from 1997.
[141001880540] |Maybe the mythology, or characters will turn you addicted to it, who knows?
[141001880550] |Don't forget to log out before quitting the game!
[141001880560] |By the way, you can't do that if you're fighting, so don't try to run off from a battle by logging out!
[141001880570] |The Good
[141001880580] |Tibia is an old game and despite that I've seen many users on the server where I got connected.
[141001880590] |It is good for those who don't have expensive computers, as the game could be run on a PII at 400 Mhz with no problems.
[141001880600] |All you need is a good Internet connection.
[141001880610] |The Bad
[141001880620] |The graphics are the most problematic thing in this game.
[141001880630] |I understand it is 10 years old, but the game could have been improved.
[141001880640] |The Truth
[141001880650] |The game can be addictive, if you don't mind the poor graphics quality and you're interested only in the fantasy behind it.
[141001880660] |There are many other MMORPGs that can beat this game very easily.
[141001880670] |Here are some screenshots of Tibia in action:
[141001890010] |Brasero Review
[141001890020] |Nowadays, almost all computers have a CD-Writer or DVD-Writer installed on them, so you can easily take your important data, may it be documents, music, videos or programs, wherever you want.
[141001890030] |A good example of interesting stuff from my point of view could be a Linux distribution.
[141001890040] |So, you have a CD/DVD-Writer, but you will need some software that can help you add files to your discs.
[141001890050] |For this kind of stuff Brasero was created.
[141001890060] |It is an application for burning discs for the GNOME desktop environment and was designed to be as simple as possible, so you can easily create your discs.
[141001890070] |I am using Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, so the installation was very fast and easy, I had go to Applications menu, opened up the Add/Remove program, typed in the search field "Brasero", mark the checkbox in front of it and click on the "Apply Changes" button.
[141001890080] |After these few steps, the application was on my system!
[141001890090] |If you are also using Ubuntu, then you will find Brasero, after installation, in Applications -> Sound
[141001890100] |'ll start telling you about it.
[141001890110] |Let's begin with the main interface, which resembles the lower pane from K3B, the CD/DVD burning application for KDE.
[141001890120] |It is not a bad thing after all, because some of you are used to K3B and this feature will make you feel comfortable using Brasero.
[141001890130] |You will have four options to choose from after you start the program: "Audio project" - lets you create an audio CD, "Data project" - creates a data CD/DVD, with any type of files you want, "Disc Copy" - copies a CD/DVD to another medium of the same type and "Burn image", an option that burns a previously created CD/DVD image to disc.
[141001890140] |The four big buttons that offer you the aforementioned functions, are supplemented with a toolbar, made up of three menus: "Project", "Disc" and "Help".
[141001890150] |The third one, "Help", is actually a section of the application from where you can get the author's e-mail address, because there is no documentation made for Brasero.
[141001890160] |In "Disc" you will find two options, one to erase a rewritable medium and the other to perform a file integrity check on a CD or DVD.
[141001890170] |An md5 checksum can be used for this, if you tick the checkbox on the "Check Integrity" menu.
[141001890180] |When you want to create an audio CD so you can use it on devices that don't support mp3 files, you will have to click on the "Audio project" button.
[141001890190] |Afterwards, the file selection interface will appear, where you can add files to the project.
[141001890200] |How can you do that?
[141001890210] |It's very simple, you will have to use only your mouse, by dragging and dropping files from the source directory to the future audio CD.
[141001890220] |Brasero has a preview function implemented, so you can listen to the songs before they're added to the project.
[141001890230] |I almost forgot to mention that there is a CD icon in the lower left corner of the interface, which is in fact a menu with the CD types (for audio would be: 74, 80, 90 and 100 minutes).
[141001890240] |When you finish adding stuff, just click on "Burn" and another window will appear, with the burning options (speed, burnproof, simulate the writing, eject after burning).
[141001890250] |Just click on burn after you make the changes you want and in a few minutes you'll have an audio CD.
[141001890260] |For data projects, the process is the same as with the audio ones.
[141001890270] |After you burn the CD you can also check the file integrity.
[141001890280] |Brasero reported me that some files were corrupted on the disc.
[141001890290] |I checked every document to see if there is something wrong, but I could not find anything that looked suspicious.
[141001890300] |Do you like little, annoying bugs?
[141001890310] |I'm pretty sure you don't.
[141001890320] |I found one, I don't know whether it is a function or a real bug, but here is how you can reproduce it, to see what I mean:
[141001890330] |1. Right click on a file in the source directory, action that will bring a menu, where you can select to see the hidden files.
[141001890340] |Don't select the "Show hidden files" option.
[141001890350] |2. Click somewhere outside this menu.
[141001890360] |3. Quickly go back on the file you previously right clicked.
[141001890370] |The file will stick to your cursor, although you don't want that!
[141001890380] |To get rid of the "glued" content from your cursor, you will have to right click again somewhere on the interface.
[141001890390] |For data projects, you have mediums ranging from older 650 MB CDs to 7.9 GB Dual-Layer DVDs, but you can also create disc images in different formats; one of the most common is ISO.
[141001890400] |Too bad there is no Preferences menu, so you could have set the default options from the beginning.
[141001890410] |You need to configure the application for every project you want to burn, as I have noticed.
[141001890420] |Brasero is also "moody", sometimes it remembers the changes you make, sometimes it doesn't.
[141001890430] |When you create multisession discs, after you burn a project, the program will return to the main interface, letting you add more files.
[141001890440] |In fact, it does not happen like this... you will have to restart Brasero to continue your multisession disc, otherwise the only thing you will get are error messages.
[141001890450] |"Disc Copy" will copy from a source drive to a destination drive - or image file - the entire content of a CD or DVD.
[141001890460] |Just click on "Copy" and go get a coffee until Brasero finishes its work.
[141001890470] |"Burn Image" writes an ISO, RAW, CUE or TOC image to an empty disc.
[141001890480] |You can choose between these types of files, or you can let Brasero select the type by itself, which is the safest option.
[141001890490] |The Good
[141001890500] |Brasero is very fast and doesn't take too much from your computer resources.
[141001890510] |If you want a simple and clean-looking application, then Brasero will suit you.
[141001890520] |The Bad
[141001890530] |The complete absence of documentation is one of the worst aspects.
[141001890540] |I have seen much simpler applications with a well-made help system, why doesn't Brasero have it too?
[141001890550] |I looked for a menu where I could set up Brasero the way I would like it to work, but I only found... nothing; this is another black ball for the burning application.
[141001890560] |The Truth
[141001890570] |Compared to other existing tools for CD/DVD burning, Brasero is the best solution for the GNOME Desktop Environment.
[141001890580] |It still needs some bugfixes until I could say it is the best software.
[141001890590] |Here are some screenshots of Brasero in action:
[141001900010] |Phatch Review
[141001900020] |There are moments when you need to do some basic image editing, like adding shadows or watermarks to a large number of images and you are running out of time, so you can't just edit them one by one.
[141001900030] |A problem that I also encountered until I found out about Phatch, a marvelous utility that could be your best friend when you have to change many pictures and you're short on time.
[141001900040] |Phatch is a simple and easy to use cross-platform GUI Photo Batch Processor that supports all popular image formats and can duplicate folder/subfolder hierarchies.
[141001900050] |In the future, a console version will be created, so you can batch photos even on webservers.
[141001900060] |Phatch was created in Python and you'll notice it is still connected with the scripting language, so if you know something about Python, it will be a true advantage, because the program even has a console for it!
[141001900070] |Read on and you'll find out what Phatch has prepared for you!
[141001900080] |Phatch's installation was very simple and quick, as I'm using Ubuntu 7.10.
[141001900090] |I downloaded the .deb package and double clicked it, waited a few seconds for the Package Installer to start and after reading the description, I clicked on the "Install Package" button, situated in the upper-right corner of the window.
[141001900100] |To install it, Ubuntu requested my password, so I typed it in.
[141001900110] |The installation started,and after a while it finished.
[141001900120] |To run the app, I went to Applications -> Graphics and Phatch was there!
[141001900130] |I launched it, anxious to see what it can do.
[141001900140] |When I first saw it, I was a little bit disappointed: a window with a white background and some kind of robot with four arms were the only things waiting there.
[141001900150] |So I started browsing through the menus, first going to "Help", to find more info about Phatch.
[141001900160] |There are three options in this menu:
[141001900170] |•Translate Phatch - this will send you to the application's Launchpad website, where you can contribute to the current translations, or if there's no translation for your language, you can start it.
[141001900180] |•Write Action Plugin - If you know PIL, then you can write a plugin for Phatch.
[141001900190] |You can study the plugins in /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/phatch/actions.
[141001900200] |If you want to see your action plugin in the next version of Phatch, you can send it by mail to the program's developer.
[141001900210] |•About Phatch - offers information about the license used, credits to the persons who contributed and the current version installed on your system.
[141001900220] |Everything in Phatch has a keyboard shortcut, even the less important things.
[141001900230] |Press CTRL+N and a new Action List will be created.
[141001900240] |The same thing could be done by going to File -> New.
[141001900250] |The buttons under the main toolbar are very intuitive and they will take the icon theme you're using on your system.
[141001900260] |Ok, let's see Phatch in action.
[141001900270] |Go to Edit -> Add to include a new action in the list.
[141001900280] |To simplify things, you can click on the button that looks like a cross and a new window will pop-up.
[141001900290] |Here you can select from a number of nine actions, which are: "Canvas size" - scales the canvas without resizing the image, "Convert Mode" - changes the color mode of an image, "Image size" - scales an image with different filters, "Invert" - inverts the colors of an image, "Round" - modifies the corners of an image, making them round or crossed and lets the user choose every corner individually, "Save" - the most important action, that saves all changes you've made, "Shadow" - drops a blurred shadow under a photo, "Transpose" - this action will rotate or flip an image at a 90 degrees angle, "Watermark" - applies a watermark with tiling, scaling and opacity.
[141001900300] |Every action has its own options, so we can say that Phatch is a complex application disguised as a simple one.
[141001900310] |I was delighted to see what's under this disguise.
[141001900320] |The action lists can be saved, so you can use them after you finish doing a set of images.
[141001900330] |The actions could be then used another time, so you won't go through the same steps of creating the rules every time you want to modify a batch of files.
[141001900340] |I like the fact that you can put the actions in the order you want them to be run.
[141001900350] |The first action that will be started is the first one going from the upper side of the window to the bottom.
[141001900360] |If you selected "Watermark", "Round" and "Shadow", first a watermark will be applied, then the corners will be rounded and finally a drop shadow will be added to the image.
[141001900370] |By the way, I've noticed that if you play a little with the corners of your image and then make it less opaque, the corners will still have the opacity set at 100.
[141001900380] |The last action you should add to a list is "Save", which will let you choose the path where to save the modified files, their type (bmp, jpg, png, and more others), the resolution (measured in dpi - dots per inch) and the quality of the result.
[141001900390] |If you forget to add "Save", don't worry, Phatch will add it automatically when you try to execute the action list.
[141001900400] |The execution process takes place if you go to Tools -> Execute, or press CTRL+X. When you do this, a new window will appear, allowing you to choose the source file or directory, check the image types that the program should use from the specified directory and more.
[141001900410] |When you're done with these options, click on the "Batch" button, located in the lower right corner of the window and the magic takes place.
[141001900420] |It only takes a few moments to process the images, so you will gain a lot of time, if you think about the nightmare you had when you edited every file manually.
[141001900430] |I've played a little with the actions and at a certain point I tried to use "Convert Mode", to change an image from RGB to CMYK colour code and the result was an error, telling me it can't save the file as png, because I selected CMYK.
[141001900440] |I clicked on "Ignore", to see what happens.
[141001900450] |I tell you, nothing good happened!
[141001900460] |The result was a file that could not be opened!
[141001900470] |Something similar happens if you have "Shadow" in your list, and select in "Convert Mode" the option monochrome.
[141001900480] |Although Phatch has a Log Viewer included (you can access it by pressing CTRL+L), these errors were not appended to the log.
[141001900490] |I searched for something that would add the errors to the log, but I didn't find anything.
[141001900500] |If you want to see what's "under the hood" of Phatch, you can launch the Python shell, located in Tools.
[141001900510] |The keyboard shortcut for the shell is CTRL+P.
[141001900520] |When I first launched it, I took a look in it, closed it and again launched it.
[141001900530] |This led to the blocking of Phatch and I had to kill the process, because the application couldn't do anything.
[141001900540] |I forgot to tell you that after you create a set of actions, you can transform the application in a droplet (by pressing CTRL+D) which will take a small space on your desktop.
[141001900550] |You can drag and drop images on it and the Phatch droplet will process them automatically.
[141001900560] |To return to normal view, just right click or double click on the green droplet.
[141001900570] |The Good
[141001900580] |Phatch is very stable, from my point of view.
[141001900590] |It looks very clean and simple, without any unnecessary features.
[141001900600] |With the main actions you can do every basic modifications on a batch of images.
[141001900610] |An advantage of Phatch over other applications is the fact that new actions can be created, so if you want more than nine actions, you can start creating some (of course, if you know Python)!
[141001900620] |The Bad
[141001900630] |A help file is missing and I would love to see some functions explained in more detail.
[141001900640] |The lack of a "Preferences" menu is really annoying, because I would like to configure the program to suit me.
[141001900650] |I'm pretty sure there are more persons like me out there.
[141001900660] |The Truth
[141001900670] |The truth is that this application will transform itself in one important tool that you will find in almost every Linux distribution.
[141001900680] |It is one of the most useful software I've encountered until now.
[141001900690] |Here are some screenshots with Phatch in action:
[141001910010] |eyeOS Review
[141001910020] |It has been a long time since I published my last review of eyeOS, the open source web operating system.
[141001910030] |Today, I have decided to take a look at some new features which make eyeOS unique.
[141001910040] |First, I should remind everyone what eyeOS is.
[141001910050] |It is a web-based open source platform designed to hold a wide variety of web applications over it.
[141001910060] |It looks like a regular PC operating system, but the "trick" is that it can be accessed from anywhere.
[141001910070] |If you travel all the time, or you don't own a PC or laptop or move often, then you can access eyeOS from an Internet Cafe.
[141001910080] |All you need is a web browser, Internet access and eyeOS is there for you, always, all the time, the same way you left it!
[141001910090] |Dahlia is the new eyeOS with a revolutionary redesign.
[141001910100] |Now it has a beautiful taskbar, desktop, its own filesystem and pretty effects.
[141001910110] |Let's have a look at the applications pre-installed on eyeOS Dahlia!
[141001910120] |eyeFiles is a simple and intuitive file manager you can use to transfer, copy, rename, delete and paste files but also to create folders, download or upload files and explore the eyeOS virtual filesystem.
[141001910130] |eyeDocs is a word processor that offers you a quick and efficient way to write and edit text, HTML and Microsoft Word documents.
[141001910140] |Not only is eyeDocs a pretty good HTML editor, but it can also be used to paste text from other applications installed on your real operating system.
[141001910150] |eyeCalendar is a calendar application that allows the association of a block of text with a certain day of a given month.
[141001910160] |It can be useful for things such as meetings, tasks organizer or even for remembering birthdays.
[141001910170] |eyeContacs is a address book application that allows you to store your contacts and even import vCards.
[141001910180] |eyeBoard is, like the name says, a message board which can be used to post messages.
[141001910190] |Each user can post messages and others may view them.
[141001910200] |eyeFTP is a FTP client to connect to servers through eyeOS.
[141001910210] |With eyeFTP you can browse directories, download and upload files, create folders, rename, move and delete files.
[141001910220] |eyeMail is, as the name suggests, an e-mail client that permits multiple accounts and allows you to send and receive e-mails.
[141001910230] |At the moment, it is very simple and does not offer any other features.
[141001910240] |eyeNav is, basically, a browser within a browser.
[141001910250] |You can use it for browsing the Internet.
[141001910260] |Note that eyeNav uses the bandwidth of the server that hosts eyeOS for you.
[141001910270] |However, note that some web hosting services might not allow such behavior of the applications that you host on their web servers.
[141001910280] |You might want to double check before allowing eyeNav to run on a server that is hosted by a third party. eyeNav can be useful if it runs on a server with a different ISP.
[141001910290] |In case you cannot reach a page from your ISP, you might reach it by using eyeNav on a different hosting server.
[141001910300] |You can even watch YouTube videos on it!
[141001910310] |eyeRSS is a RSS/Atom feed reader that allows you to read the latest news on your favorite websites.
[141001910320] |eyeCalc is, obviously, a calculator, that you can use the same way you are using any other calculator.
[141001910330] |Some important functions, such as %, are missing, but it's quite useful when you really need to do some quick and basic calculations.
[141001910340] |eyeNotes, which is basically a text editor, can be used to write text documents.
[141001910350] |eyeChess is a very nice chess game, which you can play if you're bored or just to ...exercise your brain!
[141001910360] |eyeProcess is a basic task manager application used to kill running eyeOS processes and applications.
[141001910370] |eyeTrash is a trash application that stores deleted files.
[141001910380] |At the moment only the empty, restore and file properties functions are implemented, but for a trash app that's more than enough.
[141001910390] |eyeGroups functions as a workplace for group works.
[141001910400] |From here, you can create new groups and restrict the access of some users to different files.
[141001910410] |eyeApps is an eyeOS app that can be used to delete and install other eyeOS applications.
[141001910420] |eyeOptions, a.k.a. System Preferences, can be used to change the eyeOS theme, upload and set a new wallpaper and to change your password.
[141001910430] |eyeInfo provides information about eyeOS, like version number and all the developers, collaborators etc.
[141001910440] |More applications (files with the .eyepackage extension) can be downloaded from the eyeOS-apps website and uploaded to eyeOS.
[141001910450] |However, if someone else gave you access to a server that runs eyeOS, you might not be able to upload and run your own applications.
[141001910460] |How do I install it?
[141001910470] |And what do I need to install it?
[141001910480] |Now that you've learned what eyeOS is and what it can really do, you probably want to install it too.
[141001910490] |Well, eyeOS is very easy to install, as it contains only 7 files that you can upload in a few seconds on the web server where you want to install it.
[141001910500] |The main requirements for the eyeOS installation is a web server with Apache and PHP 5.x installed and working.
[141001910510] |Don't even bother to install the new version of eyeOS (Dahlia) on a web server with PHP 4.x as it will not work.
[141001910520] |The best part of the eyeOS installation is that it does not require a MySQL database, because it has its own virtual file system.
[141001910530] |All I needed to do in order to install eyeOS was to:
[141001910540] |1. Download the latest installer from here2.
[141001910550] |Extract the files from the archive I have just downloaded.
[141001910560] |3. Connect to my web server through a FTP client.
[141001910570] |4. Upload the files I have just extracted into a previously created "eyeOS" folder (on my web server).
[141001910580] |5. I have opened up Firefox and typed in the eyeOS installation path (e.g. http://www.softpedia.com/eyeOS/install.php) and followed the instructions to end the installation.
[141001910590] |6. That's it, now I can access eyeOS (from http://www.softpedia.com/eyeOS/) with my favorite web browser.
[141001910600] |The Good
[141001910610] |eyeOS can be used to share information, store various data as text, upload photos, save links and more. eyeOS is pretty easy to install and it has its own virtual filesystem.
[141001910620] |You can customize it anyway you like and the best part is that you can install more application for it, if the pre-installed ones do not satisfy your needs.
[141001910630] |I love the new effects implemented in Dahlia, especially the log-in effect which appears when you've entered the wrong password/username.
[141001910640] |The Bad
[141001910650] |I can't really say that I have found something bad while testing eyeOS, the main inconvenience it may be the fact that it doesn't quite act like a real operating system, which means you can't right click on files and folders to access different functions.
[141001910660] |The desktop is a new feature in eyeOS but as I said, you can't right click on it to refresh it or create a new folder.
[141001910670] |Another inconvenience is the fact that you can't drag and drop files from the real operating system into eyeOS, or at least access them, via eyeDocs (the eyeOS file manager).
[141001910680] |And sometimes (depending on your Internet speed) it may be lagging.
[141001910690] |The Truth
[141001910700] |eyeOS is simply beautiful, inside-out.
[141001910710] |It can be used from everywhere as long as you have access to a computer with a web browser and Internet connection.
[141001910720] |No matter if you use it to share photos with relatives living in a different country, store contacts, organize your tasks, do some quick word processing, read/send e-mails, play simple board games - eyeOS will always be there for you.
[141001910730] |Follow the editor on Twitter @mariusnestor
[141001920010] |Claws Mail Review
[141001920020] |The e-mail clients are one of the most used applications at this time, along with office suites, web browsers and instant messengers.
[141001920030] |Although e-mail clients such as Thunderbird, KMail, Evolution can be found installed by default on many Linux distributions, there is always place for another one that fits a special type of user.
[141001920040] |Claws Mail is dedicated to that category of persons.
[141001920050] |Claws Mail appeared in April 2001, bearing the name "Sylpheed-Claws".
[141001920060] |The identity change happened in November 2006.
[141001920070] |To find out more, let's go back into the past and see for what was Claws intended...
[141001920080] |It had the primary goal to be a test-bed for potential features of Sylpheed, so the latter could not be compromised if something went wrong.
[141001920090] |In the beginning, Claws Mail and Sylpheed were both based on GTK1, then moved to GTK2 in 2003 and released the first modern Sylpheed-Claws in 2005.
[141001920100] |Since then, the applications' goals have started to diverge more and more, leading to the rebirth of Sylphead-Claws, with a different face and name.
[141001920110] |Now, we're back in the present.
[141001920120] |Claws Mail is at this moment at version 3.10, and keeps on growing.
[141001920130] |The user must keep in mind that he/she won't find a full featured PIM like Evolution or Outlook, but a simpler, faster and highly configurable application.
[141001920140] |If you want to install Claws, you will have to get the source package and compile it.
[141001920150] |Do you know how to do it?
[141001920160] |If you don't, read on and find out.
[141001920170] |Untar the archive in your home directory, go into the newly created folder, open a terminal there and type in it "./configure".
[141001920180] |Make sure you have all the dependencies for Claws installed on your system (if you don't, the "configure" script will report what you're missing).
[141001920190] |If this operation ends successfully, you should type "make" to compile it.
[141001920200] |The last one is "sudo make install", if you are using Ubuntu (while on other distributions you must switch to the root user to run this command), to install Claws Mail system wide.
[141001920210] |If you want the easy way (on Ubuntu, of course), go to the Claws Mail home page and add the Ubuntu repositories.
[141001920220] |Then, fire up Add/Remove software from your Main Menu and search for Claws Mail.
[141001920230] |Check the box in front of it and install it!
[141001920240] |After the forementioned steps, you can launch Claws Mail by going to Applicationrs -> Internet -> Claws Mail.
[141001920250] |I avoid going through all the menus, by simply pressing ALT+F2 and typing "claws-mail" in the "Run Application" window.
[141001920260] |When you first start Claws Mail, you will have to answer a few questions in order to set-up an account.
[141001920270] |The process is split in five short pages, so it will not take too long.
[141001920280] |The main interface is quite simple and retro looking.
[141001920290] |It feels like you're using an email client from 2000, 2001.
[141001920300] |But, don't be disappointed by this, because things can change.
[141001920310] |On Claws' site, you can find some new themes for the application, so you can modify the way it looks and make it more personal.
[141001920320] |Or, you can install the themes package via Synaptic Package Manager on Ubuntu.
[141001920330] |The principal toolbar is made up of the following elements: "File", "Edit", "View", "Message", "Tools", "Configuration" and "Help".
[141001920340] |From the "File" menu, you can create new mailboxes, set the application to work offline, save a file and some other functions.
[141001920350] |"Edit" does what its name says: editing.
[141001920360] |In it there are options to select, copy, delete threads and tools for searching through your emails.
[141001920370] |In "View", you can arrange the elements in your mailbox in a way that fits you.
[141001920380] |In "Message", you can compose, send/receive emails and add tags to them, which can be then used to quickly find emails that have the same tags.
[141001920390] |The next menu is "Tools", containing the Address Book, options for filtering messages, logs and much more.
[141001920400] |"Configuration" is the most important menu, from my point of view, because here you can customize almost every part of Claws Mail: from Tags, Actions, Filtering to Account Modification.
[141001920410] |Ah, I forgot to mention Preferences and Plugins.
[141001920420] |The latter is one of the best things in Claws.
[141001920430] |Why?
[141001920440] |Because from here you can load spam filters, a plugin for showing Claws Mail in the system tray (Thunderbird doesn't have this option on Linux, only on Windows, unfortunately) - a very practical one, and if you're not satisfied with the default set of plugins, you can install more, by downloading from the official website.
[141001920450] |To install one, you will have to compile it first, just like a normal program for other distributions than Ubuntu.
[141001920460] |It will be automatically installed in Claws' folder, with the others.
[141001920470] |The last one is "Help", with an About screen, an Icon Legend from where you'll learn what every symbol in Claws Mail means, and two more entries: Manual and Online User-contributed FAQ.
[141001920480] |I was hoping at a more elaborate user manual, somehow included in the application.
[141001920490] |Instead of this, the user receives a not too well organized HTML page, with sections that don't have at least a "Go to top" link, to make navigation easier.
[141001920500] |Another negative aspect is the way the window resizing is made.
[141001920510] |If you try to modify the dimensions of one panel, it will not compress its elements, but cover them.
[141001920520] |The vertical scroll bar from the mailbox list is always present, although it should appear only when the user can't see all the directories.
[141001920530] |In your Inbox it will eventually wind up some spam.
[141001920540] |To prevent this, you have two plugins: Spam Assassin and Bogofilter.
[141001920550] |You can't use them at the same time, so you will have to decide which one is better.
[141001920560] |From what I know, it seems Bogofilter is better.
[141001920570] |After you select it, you should mark a message or two as "ham" (non-spam messages), so it can learn in the future.
[141001920580] |Step by step, it will stop every spam message that could get into your Inbox.
[141001920590] |On the e-mail sending/receiving side, I've found some things that can bother a user in his/her work.
[141001920600] |For example, when I checked to see if I had new emails, the application didn't report anything, so I was starring at the screen, waiting for something to happen.
[141001920610] |It should give a message like "There are no new messages for this account", which would be perfect from my point of view.
[141001920620] |Also, if you click on "Get Mail", you will notice the Configuration menu acting like it is pushed by an invisible cursor.
[141001920630] |Messages are marked as read only if you open them, and there is no way to change this thing as far as I know.
[141001920640] |For someone who wants to go rapidly to his/her emails, this could be a problem.
[141001920650] |Sometimes, you might receive from a contact of yours a list of URLs.
[141001920660] |To skip reading the rest of the email and just jump to the URL list, select the message and then go to Tools -> List URLs.
[141001920670] |The web addresses will then be available for you to visit, in a list, without unnecessary elements.
[141001920680] |In the end, I'd like to mention the fact that Claws Mail creates a directory called after the account's name and puts it in your Home folder.
[141001920690] |However, the directory created by Claws is read/write only for the respective user.
[141001920700] |The Good
[141001920710] |Claws Mail can be easily installed, on almost every Linux distribution.
[141001920720] |I didn't encounter any problems with the installation, and the wizard for setting up accounts does its job very well.
[141001920730] |Also, the increasing number of plugins can transform it in good solution for doing more tasks with only one application.
[141001920740] |The Bad
[141001920750] |The look of Claws doesn't appeal too much to a normal user.
[141001920760] |The menus should be rearranged, so they can be more logical.
[141001920770] |I really think the developer should hide the folder Claws Mail creates in your Home directory, because I don't see the point in having a visible folder if we already can access our e-mails from the application.
[141001920780] |The Truth
[141001920790] |The truth is... that Claws Mail can be used as an e-mail client for a home desktop, but not yet in the office world.
[141001920800] |The plugins are much better than those from Thunderbird, although they are only a few.
[141001920810] |It can do its job well, and can be transformed into an RSS Feed Reader too, feature that can't be found in KMail.
[141001920820] |The developers have done a good job with the memory consumption, compared to other applications.
[141001920830] |It only takes a few megabytes out of your RAM to work, and that's an A+ to them and an F to other email clients.
[141001920840] |I really hope that in the near future the above mentioned drawbacks will be fixed, so that we can enjoy a nearly perfect, really good looking Claws Mail.
[141001920850] |Here are some screenshots with Claws Mail in action:
[141001940010] |LimeWire Review
[141001940020] |The file sharing subject has been a very controverted one for a long time, because copyrighted materials got into file sharing networks, which led to some serious holes in the rightful owner's pocket.
[141001940030] |Although these scandals happened, file sharing clients and networks still exist, some of them with stricter rules and the rest with – almost – no rules at all.
[141001940040] |One of the largest and most popular networks is Gnutella, and LimeWire is a client application for it.
[141001940050] |The philosophy behind LimeWire could be compressed in a single expression ,which is also the application's motto: "Enabling Open Information Sharing".
[141001940060] |The people behind LimeWire want to hurry up the Gnutella research and development, by providing the core message passing and file sharing code, so anyone who wants to contribute does not need to waste time re-writing it.
[141001940070] |The latest stable release of Lime is 4.14, but a Beta version is available, too.
[141001940080] |I do not recommend to use the Beta edition yet, because it is unstable and this is a risk to your computer.
[141001940090] |Before you can install LimeWire, make sure you already have a Java Virtual machine on your system, preferably the latest version.
[141001940100] |As I've already had JVM installed, I downloaded the .deb package for my Ubuntu 7.10, then I double-clicked the .deb file and, with the help of the Package Installer, Lime was installed.
[141001940110] |I found it in the Main Menu (or Applications) under Internet.
[141001940120] |When you first start LimeWire, a setup wizard will greet and help you to configure the software.
[141001940130] |The wizard starts, and the initial splash screen will remain somewhere behind the window.
[141001940140] |If you move the window around, you will see the splash with its current loading progress.
[141001940150] |After a couple of steps, the wizard showed me an interesting option, called "Content Filering".
[141001940160] |This can be used to filter files that copyright owners request not to be shared.
[141001940170] |A link was present in the Content Filtering window, indicating that you can learn more about this feature.
[141001940180] |I clicked it, but LimeWire gave me an error, because it could not locate my web browser.
[141001940190] |Every time you start LimeWire, you will get a message prompting you to upgrade to LimeWire Pro, an improved – but paid – version of the application.
[141001940200] |I won't upgrade right now, so I choose "Later".
[141001940210] |The problem with the browser had to be fixed some way, so I looked around for a way to configure LimeWire to use my web browser.
[141001940220] |I went to Tools -> Option and the configuration menu appeared.
[141001940230] |I had to resize the window, so I could see the buttons for applying my changes.
[141001940240] |The next thing was to find an option for fixing the problem with my Internet browser.
[141001940250] |I found this in the "Helper Apps" menu, and I changed in the Browser field "mozilla" with "firefox".
[141001940260] |I did the same thing with the Image Viewer field, but with a small difference: I swapped "mozilla" with "eog".
[141001940270] |I applied the settings and I got the following message: "One or more options will take effect the next time LimeWire is restarted."
[141001940280] |Why do I need to restart the application?
[141001940290] |I don't like this, but I must conform with Limewire...
[141001940300] |The thing happens again, when you want to close the window by clicking on "Ok".
[141001940310] |Wasn't it enough one time?
[141001940320] |After the annoying message, I wanted to restart the application.
[141001940330] |I tried to close it, but it got stuck and nothing happened.
[141001940340] |After some wild clicking on the close button, it finally disappeared.
[141001940350] |I started Lime again, but this time it worked fine, because it could now send web pages to Firefox.
[141001940360] |It seems that the blocking problem is still there even after the restart...
[141001940370] |I hate this thing, because if you go to File -> Close, LimeWire will be minimized and when you maximize it again, the application gets stuck!
[141001940380] |On an other computer, this thing doesn't happen, and I am starting to believe that this could be happening only on my computer.
[141001940390] |The main window is made up of three large panes, a status bar that offers you information about your connection, if you are behind a firewall, the number of shared files and the download/upload speed.
[141001940400] |Besides this, Lime comes equipped with its own integrated media player.
[141001940410] |If you want to find something new, but you don't know what exactly, you can do this by clicking on the Search tab, choose the search type and then select the "What's New" tab, which is situated in the lower left area of the window.
[141001940420] |If you are used with DC clients (direct connect protocol) that didn't let you do a search and then another one in a short time interval, because of the hubs' settings, you should know that this won't happen in LimeWire.
[141001940430] |Go and seek freely whatever you want!
[141001940440] |A button located in the lower corner of the window, tagged magnetmix.com, was intriguing me...
[141001940450] |Why was this thing there?
[141001940460] |I wanted to find out, so I clicked it.
[141001940470] |Firefox started and opened up a website from where I could select some free content to download.
[141001940480] |When I chose a file, it went directly to LimeWire, which started looking for download sources.
[141001940490] |The files were on my computer in a few minutes, and I could use them.
[141001940500] |The Good
[141001940510] |It is – even the free (as in not payed) version – the best solution for file sharing, from my point of view.
[141001940520] |Its philosophy is very nice, and this will gather more developers around the application pretty soon.
[141001940530] |The Bad
[141001940540] |From my point of view, the fact that is Java based is the most negative aspect.
[141001940550] |Java is a real memory sucker, so I would have preferred a compiled C/C++ application than one which eats around 100MB of RAM.
[141001940560] |The Truth
[141001940570] |LimeWire is a program "with a tradition", if I could say so.
[141001940580] |It has already had made a name in the file sharing world and it is still growing, with a large community backing it up.
[141001940590] |Here are some screenshots with LimeWire in action: