Ubuntu makes it easy when you have alot of work to do…
I have too much work to do, at least Ubuntu makes things a little easier!
Ubuntu, making life easier, again! (click to enlarge)
Lucid looking sooo nice!
Just seen this screenshot of Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid), off of Jono Bacon's blog.
I am really excited for using Lucid, when looks this slick!
My Python Code is Online!
I have added a new page to my website, called 'Code'.
It has all my published python programs, both games and applications. They are all licenced under the GPLv3, so please use and edit the code as you like 
Open Source FTW!
iTunes is not totally DRM-Free!
I have never been a fan of iTunes. It does have a great interface and buying and syncing music to your iPod is seamless. My main issue with iTunes is a problem I spotted early on which prevented me from using the store and the device. iTunes music used to be DRM, Digital Rights Management, which means the provider has control when and how you use that file. I did not want to be involved in that service, for mainly two reason. One, what happens if iTunes disappears, what happens to all my music??? Second, if I wanted to listen to music on a computer without iTunes or another device which is not an iPod, I can not.
Thankfully a few years later, a music store arrived which provided high quality DRM-free MP3 music. Amazon MP3 is the greatest thing to happen to digital music! I can play these tracks on any device I have (my three computers which run different OSes, my phone and my PSP) and if Amazon MP3 disappeared, I can still play all my music!
iTunes quickly followed suit and changed all their music to DRM-free. However, is iTunes music completely DRM-free like Amazon. The answer is NO! iTunes music has some DRM removed, mainly allowing you to play your music files on a different media player other than iTunes, but that is it. However, you will have to find a media player which can play iTunes strange file format. Instead of using the very popular industry standard, MP3, it uses .m4a. Which you will find it not supported by many players. With MP3 files, you know that you can play them any player, computer and device, with m4a you can not.
One major DRM trait is how users obtain their music. If you need to download your music, you still have to use iTunes and bypass their authentication service. Which means you can not download music onto that computer, unless its been authenticated and you can only authorise 5 computers. This is still DRM, Apple controlling how and when you can download your music. What happens iTunes goes, you wont be able to use this authentication service to get your tracks.
The finally DRM trait by Apple is what they do to every single music track you own. They use a method called Water-marking, which means to put the user's data in the file. Apple put the customers details into the file, so if that file ends up on a file sharing website, they can trace it back to the customer. This is still DRM in the sense of controlling and track your data.
Apple still use a strange file format with DRM surrounding it. Apple have made good steps forward, by allowing you to not require iTunes to listen to the music. Though they have a long way to go DRM-Free!
Video Playback on GPU in Linux!
One of the major new advancements in nVidia drivers has been the ability to playback video on the GPU instead of the CPU. This is freeing up CPU usage, and putting all the work on the powerful GPUs. However, one of the major problems is getting the correct software to do the job.
In Linux, it appears that there is only one media player which fully supports VDPAU, which is the Linux API developed by nVidia which decodes video on the GPU. Gnome MPlayer supports this technology, which allows both 720p and 1080p video to play on the GPU, without the CPU usage going too high. This technology has allowed me to play HD videos on my Acer Aspire Revo, which if you tried to play on Totem (which renders video on the CPU), the CPU hits 100% and the video very coppy. In Gnome MPlayer, it can playback without a problem with the CPU sitting at 20%.
This is a plea to Gnome to implement VDPAU into Totem!
Full Circle Magazine Issue 34
FCM Issue 34 is now out, with a ton of great Ubuntu articles and news. My section, Ubuntu Games, is in again this month. This issue, I have reviewed the Uplink, by the guys at Introversion Software! Download it now for Free!
CCleaner, The Tool which all Windows users need!
CCleaner is a tool I always install Windows, and use regulary to make sure my machine is running quick and is clean.
It basically removes unused temporary files, logs, application data cache data and junk files. It has support for many applications, such as; All major web browsers, Office, Windows files, Flash, VLC, MSN, AntiVir, and the list goes on.
Apart from cleaning old files, it has an excellent tool for finding unused registry entries from old application left there after they were removed. Word of warning, it could always been dangerous changing things in the Windows registry, but I have never had an issue using this tool.
CCleaner is also an excellent tool for removing software and managing which software starts on boot up, a far better solution than what Windows is offering.
There are many solutions like CCleaner, but most of them cause damage to your system and slow it down, basically Junk-Ware! CCleaner gets the job done, consentily being updated to support more applications, and will improve your system's performance. On your first clean up, it will likely find over 2GBs of junk data!
CCleaner can be downloaded for free here!
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool
Full Circle Podcast Episode 1 is out!
My first ever podcast is out, Full Circle Podcast Episode 1!
Myself, David and Robin talk all things Ubuntu; News, Reviews, Gaming and anything Ubuntu related!
Click here to listen!
Does this look wrong….
In light of the Yahoo - Ubuntu Deal, the Yahoo - Microsoft Deal and my comments on the FCM Podcast (you will be able to listen to episode 1 shortly, you can now listen to the episode here!). This could be a reality soon...
Ubuntu & Bing, do you like???
Windows Apps I Always Install
Want to show some Windows love today by posting a short article about the Windows applications I install after a fresh install of Windows. All these apps are free to download and use!
Firefox
The first app I install, Firefox is world's most popular alternative browser. I love this browser for its look and feel, speed, addons and tons of features!
Foxit Reader
Foxit is a PDF reader you might have never heard of. Most people will use Adobe's PDF reader, since thats the one most people only know about. I hate Adobe's PDF reader, it has loads of great features, but it is very slow and heavy on system resources. Foxit Reader is designed to lightweight, very quick to load, and just provide the features view the PDF document.
OpenOffice.org
Microsoft Office is an excellent set of applications, however it can very expensive to buy. If you need an office suite, OpenOffice.org is a free office suite which is very similar to Microsoft Office. It has word processer, spreadsheet, presentation, database and drawing. Plus, OpenOffice.org can open Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. OpenOffice has about 90% of the features which Microsoft Office has, and I believe the interface in OpenOffice is better.
VLC
VLC is a media player, and I love it, just because it will play any audio and video file format you throw at it!
CCleaner
Windows computers can get full of junk files, old applications and a messy register. CCleaner is an excellent tool for removing junk and cached files, which can save you 100s of MBs of data. It can safely clean out your registry, which can become messy over time. It is also a very good tool at uninstalling applications and managing the startup of applications in the background.
Pidgin
If you need a lightweight Instant Messenger (IM) client which can handle multiple IM accounts in one application, Pidgin is for you. There is no need to have MSN messenger for your MSN contacts and Yahoo Messenger for your Yahoo contacts, etc; you can have all your contacts in one application! It supports over 20 accounts from different providers. Plus it has great features such as tabbed chat windows, video/audio chat and file transfer.
GIMP
Adobe Photoshop is the hallmark in photo editing, however it is incrdible expensive. If you need a photo/graphic editor for free, with the majority of the same features as Photoshop, GIMP is what you need!
Me!
Ed Hewitt, 19, Studying @ - Brilliant match, no way I was expecting a 4 - 0 result. Nice to see Neville.
- Nice to see the older players back in the united side.
- Playing Doom 3 on Linux, will have to review this for FCM36!
