This is to inform my non-exsistant readership that I will be moving to Vox for the time being. I have been having some issues with Blogger and I just want to try out something new. I might return to Blogger sooner rather than later, but for now, I'm going to try out Vox. It's an awsome blogging engine and once I get more invites, feel free to email me for one.
Visit http://virtunate.vox.com
Nathaniel
Monday, August 07, 2006
The Complete Open Source Solution: A Complete Non-Microsoft Operating System
With the growth of the open source movement in recent years, the number of open source solutions has expanded in recent years with the large scale apotion of Linux, the founding of the Mozilla Foundation, and the development of OpenOffice.org in the late nineties. The number of Non-Microsoft solutions is quite astonishing. And it's a wonder why the majority of the geek community has not jumped onto the Linux Bandwagon. But that entire issue is for another post. Onto the complete Open Source solution.
Operating System: Ubuntu Linux
One of the newer Linux distro's Unbuntu was financed by Mark Shuttleworth and is updated every six months. It's based off of the Debian Linux source code. But that's the 
technical aspect. Ubuntu, unlke most Linux distro's is a full featured OS. It's comes bundled with other software (more on that later.) Many other Linux distrobutions do not come bundled with the software and require that you download the Linux version of the software. Like other Linux distro's, it allows much more customization than Windows. Today I read an article on Digg that showed users of Linux on how to make your own theme's as well as how to design your own login screens. And the fact is, you can expand Ubuntu and customize it to suit your needs. So for a user friendly Open Source Free Operating System, you can order a Free CD from Here. For those of you who want to get out of Windows World to the Open Source World should use Ubuntu. Until you get into the hardcore coding and learn things like Python, Perl, C, and Java you should use Ubuntu.
Productivity Suite: OpenOffice.org 2.0
As I mentioned above, Ubuntu comes bunbled with free software. Along with the Firefox Web Browser and the GIMP Image Editor, it also comes with a productivity suite called OpenOffice.org 2.0. An alternative to Microsoft Office, Open Office comes with a Word Processor (Microsoft Word) a Presentation Client (Powerpoint), an Excel Client (Excel) a Graphing Client (Acess) and a Graphics creation client. And it's all FREE. Instead of paying hundred's of dollars (the basic version of Microsoft Office will cost you $100-150) for programs you can get the same features for free. Now it's a bit of a change in terms of interface as the program is set up a bit differently. But once you get over that, OpenOffice is a powerful suite of applications for all types of users.
Editors: The GIMP (Picture) Audacity (Audio)
Although I don't personally use the GIMP, it is what some people are calling an O
pen source, free alternative to Adobe Photoshop(it can run up up over $700 CDN) as well for Audio editing. (Apple's Soundtrack Pro can run up hundreds of dollars.) I use Leo Laporte's recomendation of Audacity for an Audio editor. It's powerful, enough for basic Audio editing. If your doing your Own Podcast, it's enough to use Audiacity. I don't have a lot to say about these editors, other than the fact that they run great and it's not worth the money to go out and buy things like Soundtrack Pro and Photoshop.
Email & Web Surfing: Firefox & Thunderbird
I've mentioned this before. Firefox is better. End of discussion. If you
have a POP or IMAP account (like Gmail or Yahoo) you can use Thunderbird to access your Email account. If you don't use a POP/IMAP account, ignore this section. If you are using an Email account like Gmail Gmail will give you the settings to set up the account on Thuderbird. Thunderbird is a very versatile client that allows for extension. You can add in things like Theme's and more functionality. The same is true with Firefox. It allows for more functionality and it has the ability to change it's apperence. And here 's the best thing. If your techno-savy you can download the source code. And if you find a legitimate error in the code you will get $500 and a Firefox T-Shirt. You don't see Microsoft or Apple doing that. That's the great thing about the Open Source community: it has a community feel and an open mind that allow for expasion. If you found an error in the source code for Apple or Microsft you'll be calling Microsoft one day and your laywer the next. See my other entry about the death of closed source standards.
Media:Musik & The Movie Player
Since you cannot use iTunes on Linux (and that would be the height of irony.) you must find another player. I've recently been introduced to a not-so-shiny music player called Music that will run on Linux. As far as I know it only plays audio files but it woks with most file extensions (excluding Apple's protected AAC iTunes Music) and allows for things like crossfading and a 16 channel equalizer for all you audiofiles out there. For Video I would recommend the Movie Player. Although it isn't again, is not as nice on the UI side of things, it supports dozens of codecs.
Security: SmoothWall & F-Prot
Even with an Operating system as secure and popular as Linux, it is paramount that you have both a solid firewall and a anti-virus program that can detect things like spyware and virus's. I recommend Smoothwall for a Firewall. It's free as well as Open Source. And for Email and general anti-virus protection, I recommend F-Pro.
That's just a few programs that I've come across. There are many others for people like you and me who are trying to figure out what to use in the Open Source World. And if you learn things like C, Java, Perl and Python, you can make your own programs!
That's all for now,
Either Today or Tomorrow I will have coverage of Apple's WWDC Conference.
Nathaniel
technical aspect. Ubuntu, unlke most Linux distro's is a full featured OS. It's comes bundled with other software (more on that later.) Many other Linux distrobutions do not come bundled with the software and require that you download the Linux version of the software. Like other Linux distro's, it allows much more customization than Windows. Today I read an article on Digg that showed users of Linux on how to make your own theme's as well as how to design your own login screens. And the fact is, you can expand Ubuntu and customize it to suit your needs. So for a user friendly Open Source Free Operating System, you can order a Free CD from Here. For those of you who want to get out of Windows World to the Open Source World should use Ubuntu. Until you get into the hardcore coding and learn things like Python, Perl, C, and Java you should use Ubuntu.Productivity Suite: OpenOffice.org 2.0
As I mentioned above, Ubuntu comes bunbled with free software. Along with the Firefox Web Browser and the GIMP Image Editor, it also comes with a productivity suite called OpenOffice.org 2.0. An alternative to Microsoft Office, Open Office comes with a Word Processor (Microsoft Word) a Presentation Client (Powerpoint), an Excel Client (Excel) a Graphing Client (Acess) and a Graphics creation client. And it's all FREE. Instead of paying hundred's of dollars (the basic version of Microsoft Office will cost you $100-150) for programs you can get the same features for free. Now it's a bit of a change in terms of interface as the program is set up a bit differently. But once you get over that, OpenOffice is a powerful suite of applications for all types of users.
Editors: The GIMP (Picture) Audacity (Audio)
Although I don't personally use the GIMP, it is what some people are calling an O
pen source, free alternative to Adobe Photoshop(it can run up up over $700 CDN) as well for Audio editing. (Apple's Soundtrack Pro can run up hundreds of dollars.) I use Leo Laporte's recomendation of Audacity for an Audio editor. It's powerful, enough for basic Audio editing. If your doing your Own Podcast, it's enough to use Audiacity. I don't have a lot to say about these editors, other than the fact that they run great and it's not worth the money to go out and buy things like Soundtrack Pro and Photoshop.Email & Web Surfing: Firefox & Thunderbird
I've mentioned this before. Firefox is better. End of discussion. If you
have a POP or IMAP account (like Gmail or Yahoo) you can use Thunderbird to access your Email account. If you don't use a POP/IMAP account, ignore this section. If you are using an Email account like Gmail Gmail will give you the settings to set up the account on Thuderbird. Thunderbird is a very versatile client that allows for extension. You can add in things like Theme's and more functionality. The same is true with Firefox. It allows for more functionality and it has the ability to change it's apperence. And here 's the best thing. If your techno-savy you can download the source code. And if you find a legitimate error in the code you will get $500 and a Firefox T-Shirt. You don't see Microsoft or Apple doing that. That's the great thing about the Open Source community: it has a community feel and an open mind that allow for expasion. If you found an error in the source code for Apple or Microsft you'll be calling Microsoft one day and your laywer the next. See my other entry about the death of closed source standards.Media:Musik & The Movie Player
Since you cannot use iTunes on Linux (and that would be the height of irony.) you must find another player. I've recently been introduced to a not-so-shiny music player called Music that will run on Linux. As far as I know it only plays audio files but it woks with most file extensions (excluding Apple's protected AAC iTunes Music) and allows for things like crossfading and a 16 channel equalizer for all you audiofiles out there. For Video I would recommend the Movie Player. Although it isn't again, is not as nice on the UI side of things, it supports dozens of codecs.
Security: SmoothWall & F-Prot
Even with an Operating system as secure and popular as Linux, it is paramount that you have both a solid firewall and a anti-virus program that can detect things like spyware and virus's. I recommend Smoothwall for a Firewall. It's free as well as Open Source. And for Email and general anti-virus protection, I recommend F-Pro.
That's just a few programs that I've come across. There are many others for people like you and me who are trying to figure out what to use in the Open Source World. And if you learn things like C, Java, Perl and Python, you can make your own programs!
That's all for now,
Either Today or Tomorrow I will have coverage of Apple's WWDC Conference.
Nathaniel
Friday, August 04, 2006
Live Spaces Spaced Out & The Amazing Screw on Head
Spaces Spaced Out
If any of my old MSN Spaces blogging audience is reading this, you know that I switched over from the MSN Spaces blogging service back in July for various reasons. Just to explain a few, I found the lack of costumization, as well as the chessy looking interface, did not have the proper image I wanted to project to the Blogoshere. The fact is, with MSN Spaces, you could not insert things like Pictures or Video's into your posts. With Blogger, you can insert both pictures and video's into your posts. For those of us who are a bit more technically inclined, you can directly edit the template using either CSS or HTML code. And if your really into it you can create your own template using CSS. By using the Template edit feature in Blogger, it is possible to add links and buttons your sidebar. I've added my favorite Podcasts, News Sites, Blogs and Free Software. Of course I can alwasys add more if I so desire, however at this point I think that that would be enough. Anway back to the main point of the story, MSN spaces was upgraded to Live Spaces on August 1st. The Live version of it's predesessr, it included a bevy of new features including the ability to post photo's in albums (think Flickr), the ability to create lists (who makes lists?) and the ability to put Windows Live Gadgets(Widgets, think either Dashboard or Konfabulator) So basically all MSN spaces does is take all the features that other sites have come up with and copy them. Well, that's a very compelling reason to go back to spaces. Not. And the fact is, half of the so far users have reported probelms with half of he features. Yet another reason to go back to Spaces. Not.Blogger was the first blogging engine ever. Let me repeat that. First Ever. So when Microsoft comes along and thinks that it can waltz right into the Blogging market, and hope to take it over, they are totally and completly wrong. Now many people use Spaces for the shear sake of simplicity. Ok, I can understand that. But the fact is, with most of the products Microsoft designs, they are engineered to the people-who-could-care-less-about-what-the-techo-features -are. Well I've got some news for Microsoft. They're are people who actully care about what the Blog Looks like. If you didn't notice, I cahanged the layout the other day because I felt the blog needed a better more clean, bright image. The fact is, sites like LiveJournal, Blogger and TypePad will win the end, because of the fact they give they're more for the fact that actully put time and not just money into the development of it's software. The fact is, money doesn't buy everything, but time is priceless, that's why things like Gmail and Flickr are still in Beta. Anyway, the overall point of this is I will not be returning to Spaces anytime soon.
The Amazing Screw on Head
Mentioned in TWiT 62, the Amazing Screw on head is one of those cartoons that show
s a plot that seems to be way out of contecgt at the time, but is actully quite amazing to watch. The Amazing Screw on Head is set in the days of the Civil War, the Amazing screw on head is about just that. It's a screw on head that has an amazing knowledge of ancient history, more specifically, the ancient evils and they're technologies. In the Pilot (I just watched it today.) The Amazing Screw on head is called in by President Abraham Lincholn to stop a plot to release a demon that will reek havoc on the world at large. The technology that is used is a variation shown in things like James Bond and the like. Just as an example, the mode of transportation is a steel capusle that is fired like a rocket. The show is just all action. It's a comedy as well. The Screw on Head (as he is called) has several people to help him. Irconically enough all the names of his support team begin with Mr. For example, his Butler and backup (think Alfred from Batman) name is Mr. Groin (yes that is his name, and you can stop laughing.) his dog is named Mr. Dog. But I digress. This is a really cool show and I hope that it goes from Pilot to series. Moreover I hope that it comes to Canada.
Well that's all I can think for tonight.
Nathaniel
P.S. Check out my New Blog that I'm doing with BoredSVUNut. Ranting Geeks. We posted last night and we will post again either tomorrow or Sunday Night.
The Amazing Screw on Head
Mentioned in TWiT 62, the Amazing Screw on head is one of those cartoons that show
s a plot that seems to be way out of contecgt at the time, but is actully quite amazing to watch. The Amazing Screw on Head is set in the days of the Civil War, the Amazing screw on head is about just that. It's a screw on head that has an amazing knowledge of ancient history, more specifically, the ancient evils and they're technologies. In the Pilot (I just watched it today.) The Amazing Screw on head is called in by President Abraham Lincholn to stop a plot to release a demon that will reek havoc on the world at large. The technology that is used is a variation shown in things like James Bond and the like. Just as an example, the mode of transportation is a steel capusle that is fired like a rocket. The show is just all action. It's a comedy as well. The Screw on Head (as he is called) has several people to help him. Irconically enough all the names of his support team begin with Mr. For example, his Butler and backup (think Alfred from Batman) name is Mr. Groin (yes that is his name, and you can stop laughing.) his dog is named Mr. Dog. But I digress. This is a really cool show and I hope that it goes from Pilot to series. Moreover I hope that it comes to Canada.Well that's all I can think for tonight.
Nathaniel
P.S. Check out my New Blog that I'm doing with BoredSVUNut. Ranting Geeks. We posted last night and we will post again either tomorrow or Sunday Night.
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