Looking for a Microsoft alternative? Try OpenOffice
Submitted on October 21st, 2005 by admin
Filed under Productivity and The Mac Side and Software and Windows and Linux
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I’ve written about web-based office suites in the past, but I’m sure most of you would still rather write documents and work on spreadsheets from the desktop, so today, I’m happy to announce the release of OpenOffice 2.0 and recommend that you check it out if you’re looking for a truly useful and feature-filled alternative to Microsoft Office.
OpenOffice 2.0 has been in development for about 2 years now and is supported by the good folks at Sun. It’s completely free, and available for a wide variety of operating systems. OpenOffice is pretty much 100% compatible with Microsoft Office (well, almost) so you don’t have to convert your documents to a new format. The product ships with word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and database software (among others) so it has everything you will possibly need. The latest version offers improvements in the interface, faster startup times, new effects, icons, and transitions, better compatibility, and more. Learn about all the great features right here.
View RSS feeds on your MP3 player as lyrics
Submitted on October 20th, 2005 by admin
Filed under The Mac Side and Portables and Windows and Linux
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Many MP3 players support lyrics files (.LRC), and did you know you can use these to view RSS feeds on your MP3 player? With all the web-enabled devices today, I’m not sure why you may want to do this, but it’s a cool little hack nevertheless. pyLyRSS is a little Python script which does the conversion for you so you do need to have Python installed. No graphical interface yet so you’ll have to run it from the command line, but it will run on Windows, Macs, and Linux. You can get instructions on how to use pyLyRSS from its home page.
[Via Make]
RSSOwl, cross-platform RSS aggregator
Submitted on October 19th, 2005 by admin
Filed under The Mac Side and Software and Windows and Linux
No. of comments (2)
RSSOwl is a free, cross-platform RSS aggregator, and really one of my favorites. First of all, it’s Java-based so it will run on any operating system which supports the technology, including Windows, OSX, Linux, and Solaris. The entire interface is customizable and can be tweaked to your heart’s content. All the features found in other desktop aggregators are here as well including a nice search feature, feed bookmarking, and sharing blogrolls and transfering feeds via an OPML file. You can also export feeds export a feed as an RTF, PDF, or HTML file. Best of all, if comes with an integrated recommendation system so you can find new and interesting feeds. If web-based aggregators hadn’t come around, I’d probably be using RSSOwl.
jUploader, the cross-platform Flickr uploader
Submitted on October 18th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Graphics and The Mac Side and Software and Windows and Linux
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Oh, another day, another Flickr tool…today’s tools is pretty cool, and it’s called jUploader. Like the name implies, jUploader is a Java-based uploader application for Flickr (why do Java developers insist on adding a “j” to all their apps? We get it!). jUploader offers a very intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making it super easy to send photos from your computer to your Flickr account. Best of all, you can edit all metadata on a photograph or group of photographs, not just privacy options and tags like most other similar tools. jUploader is totally free, and will run on Windows, OSX, and Linux.
Uncap your iPod’s volume level
Submitted on October 11th, 2005 by admin
Filed under The Mac Side and Books and Audio and Software and Windows and Linux
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Owners of iPods in Europe have had to deal with ridiculous volume restrictions on their iPods which forces Apple to put a cap on the maximum volume level the iPod can achieve. Now, there’s a new program called goPod which will unlock the restriction and let you hear your music at full blast for some ear-bleeding fun. This may damage your iPod though I haven’t heard of any problems yet. By the way, this is illegal in France (LOL). Grab goPod right here; it’s free and available for Windows, OSX, and Linux.
[Via digg]
Back up your Flickr photos
Submitted on September 28th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Graphics and The Mac Side and Software and Windows and Linux
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Flick users have lots of great tools to sync their accounts with their computers, but until recently, not the other way around. Now there is a tool called Flickr Backup which will download photos from your Flickr account straight to your computer. All you need to do is enter your username and password into the application and watch as the magic happens. Because Flickr Backup is written in Java, it will work on any operating system with Java installed, including Windows, Macs, and Linux. It’s totally free, so Flickr junkies, go get it!
[VIa Lifehacker]
Vazu Click, a great way to get reminders on your phone
Submitted on September 27th, 2005 by admin
Filed under The Mac Side and Portables and Software and Windows and Linux
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All you GTD folks out there now have a great new tool to be reminded of upcoming events on your cellphone with Vazu Click, a free application which lets you send free text messages from your PC to your mobile phone (at least in the U.S. and Canada). There is a standalone Windows version which easily integrates with Outlook and will send you reminders of events to your phone, as well as a Dashboard widget for Mac users. If neither solution works for you, there is even an extension for Firefox and Thunderbird with the same functionality. Vazu Click doesn’t work only for reminders either. You can send contacts from your Address Book, or highlight text from a browser and with a few clicks, send it to your phone. The best thing is that it works with Windows, OSX, and Linux. Get it right here. Vazu also has a web interface for their tool which works great.
Put SLAX Linux on an iPod Nano
Submitted on September 23rd, 2005 by admin
Filed under Portables and Software and Linux
No. of comments (1)
I know, the first question on your mind is why would anyone put Linux on that shiny new iPod, right? It has its uses. I’ve had iPodLinux on my 4g iPod for a few months now, even though it’s not supported. With it, I can use my iPod as an external hard drive, play some neat games, and even watch videos (yes, on a greyscale iPod…more on that later today). This hack doesn’t actually involve iPodLinux, but rather the live-CD distro SLAX which can turn the Nano into a great backup device. By doing lots of tweaking, a SLAX user was able to get the distro installed on his Nano and can do some neat things with it. Here’s the quick rundown, on how to do it.
Making your computer more secure
Submitted on September 21st, 2005 by admin
Filed under Resources and The Mac Side and Windows and Linux and Security
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Not every computer operating system is created equal, and some are more secure than others. Yet, even the most secure systems can still have security holes if you’re not careful about how you set the system up. I’ve compiled a few links for you guys so you can learn how to harden your operating system and keep it safe. Be sure to read the guide which pertains to your operating system.
- Hardening Windows XP Professional- many of the tips here will also apply to XP Home. If you’re using an older version of Windows, I definitely recommend you upgrade.
- Apple Mac OS X v10.3.x “Panther” Security Configuration Guide- straight from the National Security Agency, this PDF contains some very useful information. If that’s not enough for you, you can also read this 41 page monster.
- Hardening Linux: a 10 step approach to a secure server- while this guide may be server oriented, every Linux user, whether home or corporate, can learn a thing or two about making Linux even more secure.
- Hardening FreeBSD- BSDGuides, has a great article on hardening FreeBSD. Some of these techniques should work on other BSDs and Mac OSX as well.
Opera browser now free!
Submitted on September 20th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Browsers and The Mac Side and Software and Windows and Linux
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Opera is an amazing browser with a very loyal following, but it has seen pressure from other browsers which are almost always offered for free (Opera used to cost USD30). Well, celebrating it’s tenth anniversary (and probably tired of losing market share), Opera has announced that their browser is now completely free: no ads, no catch. This is a great move on their part, but I wonder what took them so long. Opera is available for Windows, OSX, Linux, BSD, QNX, and other systems. It offers many features which have since been copied by other browsers like tabbed browser, built-in e-mail client, RSS aggregator, integrated search, and more. If you’re looking for an alternative to the big three (IE, Firefox and Safari), definitely give Opera a try, you won’t be disappointed.
