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.

Last week my Xbox 360 was hit by the wide spread problem of hardware failure which has been dubbed as ‘the red ring of death’. For those who don’t know this is a common problem which seems to affect a wide range of Xbox 360 consoles and has even been featured on the BBC’s Watchdog program in February this year.

The first thing that crossed my mind when this happened apart from the initial annoyance the problem caused was how much it would cost to get repaired as it has just passed the twelve month warranty period. My first line of enquiry was to drop David an e-mail as he had the same problem about a month ago. David was quick to reply with some good news and some bad news the good news was that Microsoft are now fixing the red ring of death problem for free or by replacing your machine if it cannot be fixed. This brings us on to the bad news, I called the number provided by David to find out how to ship my 360 to Microsoft and they promptly sent a UPS delivery guy to pick the console up last Monday (12/11/07) which was good but it will take three weeks for the console to be fixed or replaced and means missing out on nearly a month of my Xbox live subscription and missing out on the free arcade game offer…not cool.

However the good news certainly does outweigh the bad as when the red ring of death problem was first reported it all the repairs and shipping had to be paid for. This also means that now I can get back to playing my Wii console which I did not take with me to Bolton so this means that now I can finally complete The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which I have had for nearly a year now and it is a fantastic game so I look forward to seeing how its plot unfolds.

As nearly everyone knows the Apple iPhone went on sale in the US earlier this year (29/06/07) and received an incredible response. I was pleased that the iPhone UK release date was 09/11/07 and the carrier was O2 as O2 is my carrier and my contract was due for renewal in November. However with the O2 iPhone contract which is unlike other phone contracts where you get a phone for free instead the iPhone will set you back £269. This is a huge leap from getting a free phone and then there is the array of different contract tariffs, the contract I selected is £35 per month which lasts 18 months.

I was willing to pay the £269 as I knew what the phone had to offer and already managed to have a trial run on the device briefly in September thanks to a good friend who could not wait for the UK release and had their iPhone imported. My first impression was utter amazement, I was very impressed with the touch screen and wireless access which was much better than expected.

Consequently when I purchased my iPhone I was not disappointed and I feel that it was worth every penny of the £269 due to vast amount of features it has to offer the best of which in my opinion are the iPod and wireless internet access (a full list of the iPhone features can be found here).

The only small issue I did have with the iPhone for the first four days was with the on screen keyboard as I found that I kept hitting the wrong keys which proved to be rather irritating however after four days this was no longer an issue and I think it’s fantastic.

Overall after using the iPhone for over a week now I am very pleased with this introduction into the smart phone market and hope that apple continue to develop more phones in the future as well as upgrading the storage capacity, which for the UK iPhone was 8GB (I believe in the US there was also a 4GB version available on the launch day in addition to the 8GB version). Even though it is clearly an expensive device I found that it has already become extremely useful and means that I do not have to carry around my phone and iPod as two separate devices. Excellent!

Now there will be no problems when it comes to navigating the Internet.

Image by xkcd

The results are in and they are extremely good I am delighted to be able to add the MSc in IT Systems Development to my CV, well done to all who passed and are now Masters Of Science!!! The title sounds a bit arrogant but what an amazing achievement to gain. I checked with the student centre today and the graduation date is November 23rd (Friday) see you there.

Now its time to celebrate…

For those of you that remember Windows ME the following image will explain a lot, i’m just glad that the later Microsoft OS developments have been a great deal more stable.

Image by xkcd

With the release of Halo 3 on Wednesday (26th) it was clear that hijinks would ensue when going for the goal of completing it on the notorious legendary difficulty. Ben and I started out on legendary and were quickly joined for part of the quest by David…. below we can see where he drove us off a cliff… good times.

Screenshot by David, driving by David and crash caused by David tut tut.

No doubt there will be more Halo 3 hijinks soon… just wait until you see the screenshots of us all wielding rocket launchers while fighting giant robotic scarabs.

It’s that time of year again.

if(date == “09/13/2007″) Engadget.Write(“Happy Programmer’s Day”);