Jonathan Cusick

This will be my last post in 2007 and I thought a good way to end the year would be to provide a list of open source and freeware applications which I have found to be extremely useful over the last year.

FTP: FileZilla

FileZilla is an open source FTP client (a server version is also available) which can deal with the transfer of very large files (greater than 4GB) and is also supported on multiple platforms.

IM: Pidgin

Pidgin is an instant messaging application which enables the user to connect to a wide range of IM accounts at the same time, so you can keep in contact with your buddies on MSN, Yahoo, AOL etc on a single client.

Music Management: SharePod

This is a music management application for your iPod and one of its best features is that it enables you to easily extract songs from an iPod to your local machine.

Security: TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt as mentioned in a previous post enables the user to encrypt their data easily and has the flexibility to work on a USB flash drive.

Browser: Firefox

Firefox in my opinion is the best web browser currently available and with the wide range of extensions that can be easily applied to it ensures that it will not loose popularity anytime soon.

E-mail: Thunderbird

Thunderbird is an e-mail client and like Firefox has a wide range of add-ons which can be applied to provide users with a customisable application.

Office: OpenOffice

OpenOffice as you can probably guess from its name is an open source office suite which features a word processor (Writer), a presentation program (Impress), a mathematical function creator (Math), a vector drawing tool (Draw), a spreadsheet program (Calc) and a database feature (Base). One of the most useful features of OpenOffice is the built in ability to convert word processor documents into PDF format.

Text Editing: Notepad++

Notepad++ was created as an alternative to Notepad as it contains a lot of additional features and it can also be used for editing source code as it includes syntax highlighting along with the ability to zoom in and out.

Web Development: XAMPP

XAMPP provides all the tools that are required in order to run an Apache web server, MySQL database, PHP, phpMyAdmin, perl (and many more). The real advantage of this apart from having all the applications bundled together in one place is that they are already configured to work once installed, so there is no need to arrange the configuration files unless there is anything that you really want to change. XAMPP has a fantastic interface and is extremely easy to use I highly recommend it for all your PHP development and testing.

Video: VLC Media Player

VLC is not just a normal media player as it comes bundled with all the codecs that you will need to watch or listen to all your media files. In addition to this it also performs all the functions that a regular media player would such as playing DVDs and VCDs.

Audio Editing: Audacity

Audacity provides the ability to edit audio files, record audio and supports a wide range of formats such as OGG, WAV, MP3 etc. This is a fantastic program if you are producing a podcast and are looking for a free way to record and edit your show.

Graphics: GIMP – The GNU Image Manipulation Program

GIMP – The GNU Image Manipulation Program is the ultimate free image manipulation application as it has many professional features that you would expect from an application like Photoshop and is also cross platform so it can be installed on most major operating systems. This program is very useful for fixing any pictures from a digital camrea that did not turn out quite right or quickly resizing them.

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Portable versions of FireFox, OpenOffice and Notepad++ along with a range of other open source software can be found at PortableApps.

Happy New Year!

With the rapid expansion of e-commerce and social networking over the last few years it has become necessary for most users to store personal information, passwords and even financial information on their machines, this information is then inevitability then stored on a USB flash drive at some point. This has brought about a rather worrying security loophole as it means that if your flash drive gets stolen or misplaced that someone could then easily obtain this sensitive information.

I have been approached about this issue on many occasions and surprisingly after conducting an array research it appears that hardly any USB flash drives are shipped with a method for users to securely encrypt their data. After taking this problem into consideration and looking into the open source encryption software available, there is an easy solution to this problem and its thanks to an application called TrueCrypt.

TrueCrypt enables the user to easily encrypt their data from a wide range of industry standard algorithms. Basically you just have to load the appropriate TrueCrypt files on to your flash drive and then select an encryption algorithm and select the amount of memory you want to dedicate to being secure (kind of like a secure vault for your data). In order to encrypt you files you simply mount the secure area of your pen drive and copy the files into it has you normally would then dismount it when finished. I was initially going to create a step by step tutorial in order to show how this can be achieved, however before I started I discovered an excellent tutorial which can be found here.

After missing out on around three weeks of gaming due to my Xbox 360 developing the ‘red ring of death’ issue, I was issued a new unit which arrived last Thursday (29/11/07). It was good of Microsoft to replace the unit as it ensured the whole process went more smoothly rather than having to wait for a certain unit to be fixed.

This brings me to the update that was issued for the Xbox 360 that was released yesterday and contains some new features including the ability to view your contacts friends lists but the most impressive feature is that the Xbox 360 now supports DivX playback not only through streaming but also from optical media (CDs and DVDs).

In order to get the DivX update you have to attempt to play a DivX file and then you will be prompted to download the necessary update as it is not included in the mandatory dashboard download. This is amazing as it means that I can now put my DivX player aside and play the files directly from my Xbox which is much more convenient. I am glad that Microsoft have listened to the masses that have been requesting DivX playback for some time now and I am also sure that this will also lead to increase in sales as it means that you now do not just get a games console but also a DivX player.