Google Pack is a package of free software that Google feels is essential. Lifehacker.com has also posted their own Lifehacker Pack. While this isn't a comprehensive list of all my favorite free applications, these are the ones I use on a near-daily basis.
OpenOffice.org
This one was a total "gimme". I first gave this a try over a year ago I was too lazy to try to find a bootleg copy of Microsoft Office. Now I actually have a legit copy of Microsoft Office installed but I still find myself using OpenOffice.org more. Why is that, you ask? It handles more formats, does a decent job of exporting your documents to PDF, and my "basic" version of Microsoft Office did not include Powerpoint.
Mozilla Firefox
I shouldn't have to explain this one anymore. NEXT!
Avast Antivirus
This antivirus software is very easy to configure, fast and easy automatic updates, and not intrusive. Oh, and licenses are 100% free for home users.
CCleaner
Sometimes referred to as "Crap Cleaner"-- it does quite a nice job of cleaning up unnecessary files that installers and uninstallers leave behind. It can also go through your registry and remove most invalid entries. After running this for the first time I freed up approximately 400 MB's and reduced my Windows startup time dramatically.
The Gimp
It's like Adobe Photoshop, but free and open source. For the casual Photoshopper it has pretty much everything you'll ever need.
TextPad
This is currently my text editor of choice while working in Windows. You can open several large text files in a single window and it will keep on going. Try doing that with Notepad!
TaskSwitchXP
An alt-tab replacement for Windows XP that behaves a lot like Mac OS X's Expose. It only takes up around 600 KB of RAM on my computer. Once you try this there's no going back.
VLC
This media player plays everything that the big guys choke on. It even lets you play DVD movies from outside your region, and helps you get around Macrovision protection so you can output to older TV's.
iTunes
This is the software that finally got me to organize my music collection, and made it very easy to do so. I can no longer imagine organizing music without a quicksearch feature or smartlists.
Google Earth
OMG I CAN SEE MY HOUSE!!!!!111eleven
Picasa
I often refer to this as the "iTunes of Photos". Currently I am using it to keep track of my collection of wallpapers. I'm sure that if I had a digital camera I'd use it even more.
Rainlendar
Displays your calendar and Outlook events on your desktop, while taking fewer resources than Konfabulator would while doing the same thing.
FileZilla
Free, open source FTP client that is really easy to use.
Is there anything you feel is missing from this list? Leave a comment!
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Friday, January 20, 2006
Feds want Google search records
From Digg:
The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google Inc. to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases...Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort ``vigorously.''
My two cents:
MSN, Yahoo, et al, have all given their search information to the US Department of Justice. Google has not. Which search engine will you use from now on?
read more | digg story
My two cents:
MSN, Yahoo, et al, have all given their search information to the US Department of Justice. Google has not. Which search engine will you use from now on?
read more | digg story
DIGG: Blu-Ray Output Will be Downconverted By Hollywood
Looks like hollywood does not want us to buy movies anymore. Both next-gen DVD formats will have a flag that will force them to downsample to around the same resolution as standard DVD's if they are not played through an HDMI input. But wait, there's more:
- HDMI cables are expensive.
- Most current HD TV's do NOT have HDMI. If you want to watch these formats in their full resolutions you're going to have to buy ANOTHER HD TV.
I already stopped buying CD's because of copy protection-- it looks like they don't want me to buy movies either.
read more | digg story
- HDMI cables are expensive.
- Most current HD TV's do NOT have HDMI. If you want to watch these formats in their full resolutions you're going to have to buy ANOTHER HD TV.
I already stopped buying CD's because of copy protection-- it looks like they don't want me to buy movies either.
read more | digg story
Thursday, January 12, 2006
DRM - a student/consumer point of view
Rather than go on a long-winded rant about ideals against Digital Rights Management (DRM), I will simply post some of my experiences with it.
DVD Movies
I am a computing science student in university living on my parents' basement. As such, I have an old hand-me-down TV and no DVD player. The TV is from the late 70's and has no composite inputs and no S-video.
When I purchased my first laptop with a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive I figured I could use that to watch my small collection of DVD movies. To make sure others could watch with me in the basement I purchased a cheap S-video cable to hook up to the back of my VCR. Due to some sort of DRM called Macrovision it was thinking that I was using the VCR to try to record the DVD, and thus the image from my laptop was scrambled when sent to the TV. The image only gets scrambled while playing DVD's. As a result, I tried plan B.
I decided to try the DVD playback on the Playstation 2. Again, because my TV has no composite inputs I was forced to hook up the Playstation 2 to the VCR. Again, the copy protection thought that I was trying to record the DVD onto a VHS tape (who would do this?) and scrambled the image.
The only way I could finally get DVD's to play on this DVD was to use VLC on my laptop. VLC uses a different DVD playback library than other media players and may actually be illegal under the DMCA. The same applies for playing any DVD movies in Linux. Lucky for me, I am in Canada and the DMCA does not apply here.
Music CD's
I no longer own a CD player. The first and only CD player I owned was an old Sony Discman which broke several years ago. My preferred ways to listen to music are through my laptop (which I sometimes connect to a stereo) and on my iPod Nano. All of my friends listen to music the same way.
On Christmas Eve I needed to do some last-minute Christmas shopping for a couple of family members. I walked into the music section and found several CD's I knew my family members would enjoy. However, after looking on the back they all said that the content is copy protected and may not work with iPods. Instead of buying 5 or 6 CD's this holiday season I didn't buy any.
I have purchased some music off of the iTunes Music Store since it seems to be the only way to legally acquire new music that is guaranteed to play on iPods and not Rootkit your computer. The downside here is that there is no way to play these purchased songs in Linux.
Conclusion
Using legally acquired multimedia can be a pain in the ass.
DVD Movies
I am a computing science student in university living on my parents' basement. As such, I have an old hand-me-down TV and no DVD player. The TV is from the late 70's and has no composite inputs and no S-video.
When I purchased my first laptop with a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive I figured I could use that to watch my small collection of DVD movies. To make sure others could watch with me in the basement I purchased a cheap S-video cable to hook up to the back of my VCR. Due to some sort of DRM called Macrovision it was thinking that I was using the VCR to try to record the DVD, and thus the image from my laptop was scrambled when sent to the TV. The image only gets scrambled while playing DVD's. As a result, I tried plan B.
I decided to try the DVD playback on the Playstation 2. Again, because my TV has no composite inputs I was forced to hook up the Playstation 2 to the VCR. Again, the copy protection thought that I was trying to record the DVD onto a VHS tape (who would do this?) and scrambled the image.
The only way I could finally get DVD's to play on this DVD was to use VLC on my laptop. VLC uses a different DVD playback library than other media players and may actually be illegal under the DMCA. The same applies for playing any DVD movies in Linux. Lucky for me, I am in Canada and the DMCA does not apply here.
Music CD's
I no longer own a CD player. The first and only CD player I owned was an old Sony Discman which broke several years ago. My preferred ways to listen to music are through my laptop (which I sometimes connect to a stereo) and on my iPod Nano. All of my friends listen to music the same way.
On Christmas Eve I needed to do some last-minute Christmas shopping for a couple of family members. I walked into the music section and found several CD's I knew my family members would enjoy. However, after looking on the back they all said that the content is copy protected and may not work with iPods. Instead of buying 5 or 6 CD's this holiday season I didn't buy any.
I have purchased some music off of the iTunes Music Store since it seems to be the only way to legally acquire new music that is guaranteed to play on iPods and not Rootkit your computer. The downside here is that there is no way to play these purchased songs in Linux.
Conclusion
Using legally acquired multimedia can be a pain in the ass.
Is Google Losing It?
Over the past few months I can't help but feel that Google is losing the momentum it had several months ago. Allow me to elaborate:
1. Google Talk - Leading up to its release there were tons of rumours about some sort of Google IM client and interest was high. When it was finally posted for download almost everyone was underwhelmed. Although many people I know have it installed, nobody ever uses it.
2. Google Pack - This collection of applications does make it easier to get essential applications for fresh Windows installs. However, a lot of the applications included are definitely not the best in their class and can be extremely intrusive. Some examples are Real Player and the trial version of Norton Antivirus.
3. Google Video - While I am very excited about being able to download these files in iPod Video formats, the regular Google Video format and Google Video Player are horrible. Do we really need another media format with its own DRM? Everyday consumers are already confused as it is.
Judging from blog entries and online magazine articles, I am not the only one with these opinions. High profile sites such as The Register and PC Magazine have also posted similar opinions.
With the exception of Google Earth and Picasa, all of Google's applications have really lacked the polish and features expected from a multi-billion dollar company. Google really should stay focused on where they dominate-- search and web-based applications.
1. Google Talk - Leading up to its release there were tons of rumours about some sort of Google IM client and interest was high. When it was finally posted for download almost everyone was underwhelmed. Although many people I know have it installed, nobody ever uses it.
2. Google Pack - This collection of applications does make it easier to get essential applications for fresh Windows installs. However, a lot of the applications included are definitely not the best in their class and can be extremely intrusive. Some examples are Real Player and the trial version of Norton Antivirus.
3. Google Video - While I am very excited about being able to download these files in iPod Video formats, the regular Google Video format and Google Video Player are horrible. Do we really need another media format with its own DRM? Everyday consumers are already confused as it is.
Judging from blog entries and online magazine articles, I am not the only one with these opinions. High profile sites such as The Register and PC Magazine have also posted similar opinions.
With the exception of Google Earth and Picasa, all of Google's applications have really lacked the polish and features expected from a multi-billion dollar company. Google really should stay focused on where they dominate-- search and web-based applications.
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