The developers of VLC Media Player have just announced on their Twitter account that they will release the first release candidate of VLC 2.0 at the end of the week. The latest release version right now is VLC 1.1.11 which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, popular Linux distributions and even other operating systems such as Android or OS/2 (anyone still using that?).

Windows 64-bit version of VLC Media Player running the Spin Demo

Once a suitable release candidate has been found, VLC Media Player 2.0 will be released for all operating systems. Existing VLC users likely want to know what they can look forward to in version 2 of the player. Here is a list of important changes taken directly from the latest nightly build of VLC 2.0.

• Major Video Core and Outputs rework and rewrite: Subtitles, subpictures and OSD can now be sized and blent inside video outputs x11 (Unix), OpenGL (Unix) and Direct3D (Windows) are such video outputs.
• Almost every video filter can now be transcoded
• Port to Android, iOS, OS/2 and Win64
• Multiple files are now supported inside RAR files
• Experimental Blu-Ray Discs support using libbluray
• You can now use ffmpeg-mt in conjunction with vlc, to split decoding load on multiple cores. H.264, VP3, VP8, JPEG-2000, Mpeg-4 ASP/DivX and RV3/RV4
  are notably concerned.
• C64 SID file playback support of using sidplay2
• Support for WMV Images, aka WMVP and WVP2, as used by Photo Story
• New video output based on Direct2D for Windows 7 and Vista (with Platform Update), New video output for iOS platform

Probably the biggest improvements are the 64-bit version for Windows, the port to mobile operating systems and Blu-Ray playback support.

You can get a taste of things to come by downloading the latest nightly build from the VLC build server. Remember that nighly versions are not necessarily stable, as they are development builds. (Thanks Mike)

While we are at it: Which media player are you currently using?

Update: First release candidate builds for Mac and Linux have been posted on the VLC ftp server. You can access the change log here.

System Stability Tester is a free open source software for Windows, Linux and Mac systems that can stress test and benchmark a computer system. It does so by calculating up to 128 million digits of Pi which is extremely taxing for the processor.

When you first start the program you have the choice to run a benchmark or system stress test. A benchmark can be used to compare the results of a system to another system, the stress test to verify that there are no calculation errors.

You can also select the amount of Pi digits you want to compute, the turns, and the number of threads the computer should use for that task.

The stress testing application supports two pi computation algorithms: The Quadratic Convergence of Borwein and Gauss-Legendre with Borwein being selected by default.

Please note that you can only run a stress test if at least two threads are selected. The program then starts the calculation which can slow down the PC considerable during operation. Statistics are updated regularly that display the amount of calculated Pi digits, the state, and time it took to calculate them.

An overview at the top highlights the total amount of errors of the calculation as well as the processing time until the first error was detected.

You can optionally save a log file or a Pi file. The first saves basic information about the run, the second all Pi digits.

One of the core advantages of System Stability Tester is that it is available for Mac, Linux and Windows systems, which means that it can be used to compare the performance of computers running different operating systems.

Interested users can download System Stability Tester from the developer website over at Sourcerforge.

For example, when you are dual booting any Linux operating system such as Ubuntu, the very first thing that you need to be aware of is that the Linux Grub will overwrite your Master Boot Record (MBR). This will mean that you will be able to boot your new Linux operating system in a hard drive partition, but you will probably not be able to boot back into Windows thereafter.

Rather than spend a day pulling your hair out trying to look for a solution, find a good guide on dual booting Ubuntu with Windows before you get started. This is an Ubuntu guide on the topic that happens to be immensely helpful and there are plenty of other links on the site to assist, should you run into any problems.

To get to the point, the very first thing you must do before dual booting Linux alongside Windows is backup your operating system. Don’t just backup the files and folders; backup the entire system on an external hard drive. If you put it on a partition and you are unable to access the partition after the dual boot, you are out of luck. It seems obvious, but always backup your system to removable devices or an FTP server. The advantage of having the external hard drive is that you have something tangible in your hands that you can restore your system with.

Secondly, create a system repair disk or buy one. If you have your Windows installation disk, that would be best, but the repair disk will be sufficient to get you into the recovery environment so that you can have a DOS prompt to work from in order to restore your MBR. As long as you have the full system backup and the repair disk, you have a parachute if you mess up the operation. Understand that Linux has a completely different language than DOS and the GNU Grub is not something to be messing with unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Make sure that you partition your hard drive properly before dual booting. DO NOT boot Linux onto the same partition on which you have installed Windows. That just about covers it.

Once you have an effective dual boot of Windows and Linux, you will be rather pleased with yourself and you get to enjoy the benefits of both operating systems. Also, a dual boot is much faster and more efficient than a virtual machine. Enjoy a safe dual boot.

Celtx is available as a free version for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. There is also Celtx Plus, a commercial desktop version and an online studio version to manage team projects. Most users should start with the free version though to see if they can work with Celtx to create their novels, comic books, films, audio plays, storyboards or other types of media. The software is very versatile in this regard.

I’d suggest to load one of the demo projects on first start to get a feel for the program. A demonstration is available for each type of media supported by Celtx. The program layout adapts to the selected production type. If you have selected Novel for instance, you are presented with an interface divided into the project library, the novel’s chapters and the core text editor part. Other modules can be displayed, like index cards, the title page or the master catalog offering information about characters, items of importance or scene details.

One of the program’s strengths is the ability to add detailed information to the catalog. Character information for instance include a name and description, media, physical description, character traits, functions, motivation and backgrounds.

Even better, information added to the catalog are automatically linked in the play, novel or script. Additional options include adding notes to any part of the media, external links to websites that offer information or are important for research, options to add a synopsis or history to the project library and a lot more.

The text editor is decent enough. While it does not offer the full functionality of an Office suite like Microsoft Word or Open Office, it offers enough text editing and formatting options to the aspiring content creator.

It feels a bit strange that all guides posted on the site are for purchase only. A good starting point for new users are the Celtx Wiki and user forum.

Some buttons in the program interface, like Toolbox or My Studio, lead to the add-ons page on the website. Add-ons need to be purchased before the functionality becomes available.

Celtx is a sophisticated pre-production system. More than 1.5 million users use it worldwide to create media according to the project’s homepage. The program can be downloaded for all supported operating systems from the developer website.

TeamViewer 7 is now available for Windows, Mac and mobile operating systems such as Android or Apple’s iOS. The Linux download page lists version 6 as the latest.

The developers have added a lot of new features to the remote access software. It is a long list divided into the two core areas Remote Control and Meeting.

Remote Control

All users benefit from performance optimizations. Especially direct connections, file transfers and working with TeamViewer Manager have seen performance improvements. The new media features, e.g. screenshot creation during remote control sessions or the AVI converter make life easier in specific situations. The option to display multi-remote screens on a 1:1 scale may be interesting as well to some TeamViewer users.

• Drag & Drop Even Faster – Simply drag each desired file from and into the remote control window and drop it exactly where you want it.
• Enhanced Multi-Monitor Support – Do you and your clients both work with two or more screens? Then simply display multiple remote screens on a 1:1 scale on your own monitors – simultaneously and without toggling.
• Save Connection Settings per Computer – You can now store individual connection settings for each computer in your computers & contacts list. Thereby, saving you valuable time for all further connections to the same computers.
• Integrated Screenshot Feature – Create a screenshot at any moment during a remote control session. Thus, snapshots of the remote screen are acquired at lightning speed.
• AVI Converter – Convert your recorded sessions into AVI format and then edit your videos at will.
• Movable TeamViewer Panel – Position your TeamViewer Panel wherever you like on your local monitors so that you can see every important screen area at any time.
• Performance Improvement – Especially direct connections and file transfer are now even faster due to optimization of data packets and display settings.
• Optimized performance with TeamViewer Manager – Huge speed increases, especially for large databases. Through optimized database requests, TeamViewer Manager is now up to 4x faster.

Meetings and Presentations

Please note that TeamViewer 7′s meeting feature is only compatible with other TeamViewer clients, it is not backwards compatible.

Several useful new features have been integrated, from recording presentations and converting them directly to avi video files over participants who join the meeting on mobile devices to options to start meetings before participants are added which is ideal for testing and preparing.

• Instant Meeting – With just one click, you can start your meeting even before adding any participants – ideal for preparation and testing. Invite your colleagues, business partners or clients on the fly.
• Schedule Meetings – Schedule your meetings and send invitations directly from your email client. Use the new “My Meetings” functionality in your TeamViewer account to maintain the perfect overview of all your planned meetings. Transfer your appointments automatically to your Outlook calendar.
• Up To 25 Participants – Invite up to 25 participants to your meeting. From marketing presentations with potential new clients in a personal 1:1 scale, to large international meetings, anything is possible.
• Mobile Participation On The Road – With the new TeamViewer Apps for iPhone, iPad (coming soon) and Android, participation in meetings is possible at any time from the road. That way, you and your colleagues will never again miss important discussions.
• Presenter – Organizer – Participant – Assign different rights to your participants during a meeting. Name one participant the organizer. This person will have expanded rights in order to support you during the meeting. Alternatively you can give another participant the presenter role so that this person can share their screen.
• Communication Tools – Now all participants can see and hear each other. During a meeting, they are connected via Voice over IP and Webcam. Additional tools, such as chat, whiteboard or telephone conferences, support the acoustic and visual exchange of ideas. Choose from a variety of communication tools for lively meetings and presentations.
• File Box – Would you like to make files available for download during a meeting? Simply copy the desired documents into the shared file box via Drag & Drop and easily and quickly exchange them at will.
• Record Presentations – Record your screen presentations and convert your video into the AVI format. This way, you can edit your videos at will.
• Movable TeamViewer Panel – When presenting your entire screen, just drag your TeamViewer Panel to each desired position – even, for example, to a second monitor, to have a complete view of all the important screen areas.

Are you using TeamViewer? If so, which new feature do you like the most? (via)

Java users can verify their computer system’s Java version on this page. Affected by the security vulnerabilities are all JDK and JRE 7, and JDK and JRE Update 27 and earlier versions.

The risk matrix highlights each individual patch, the affected components, attack vectors and scores.

End users can make use of the automatic updating routine or download the new Java versions directly from the Oracle website. Windows users can check manually for updates from the Java Control Panel applet. They need to switch to the Update tab of the applet and click on the Update Now button there to run an update check and install the update on the system.

Users running the Java Runtime Environment 6 (who want to stay on 6 and not switch to 7) can download the JRE 6 Update 29 from this page. The new version is available for all supported operating systems. Windows users can download online or offline installers of the JRE.

Users who are already running the Java Runtime Environment 7 can download the new version that brings their version to JRE 7 Update 1 here.

Developers can download the Java Development Kit 7 Update 1 from the Java SE Downloads page. Additional developer related downloads are provided on that page as well.

Oracle classifies the patch update as critical. Users running either the JDK or JRE on their computer system should update the systems as quickly as possible to protect their operating systems from potential attacks and exploits.

Oracle notes that 19 of the 20 vulnerabilities can be remotely exploited without the need for authentication. System administrators who need more information should start with the official patch update advisory linked above. It includes temporary workaround suggestions that may mitigate potential attacks on computer systems.

They know full well that any modern platform will live or die on the number and quality of the apps available for it and, in order to gain any kind of critical mass on tablets and other mobile devices when it ships next year, Windows 8 will need a good number (we’re talking thousands) of good quality apps in a wide variety of categories sitting ready in the new Windows Store.

This, according to Linux Gnome co-creator Miguel de Lcaza is why Linux is doing so badly on the desktop.  In an interview given to Tim Anderson’s IT writing blog…

When you count how many great desktop apps there are on Linux, you can probably name 10. You work really hard, you can probably name 20. We’ve managed to piss off developers every step of the way, breaking APIs all the time.

He also cites the confusion caused by so many completely different distributions of Linux on the desktop as a reason for the platform’s failure to take off in any meaningful way.

To be honest, with Linux on the desktop, the benefits of open source have really played against Linux on the desktop in that we keep breaking things. It is not only incompatibilities between Red Hat, Unbuntu, Suse, but even between the same distribution.  Ubuntu from this week is incompatible with the one nine months ago. And then there are multiple editions, the KDE version, the Gnome edition, the one that is the new launching system.

It’s unusual that only a few short years ago we were all saying that what set one operating system apart from others were factors including ease of use, power and flexibility.  Then along came the iPhone and almost everything changed to the quality and availability of apps, so much so that this has even now become Microsoft’s new focus; this is despite the fact that nobody would ever criticise the Windows desktop platform for ever being short of software.

He was also asked about Windows 8 and said…

They are Microsoft, it’s going to succeed. In three years they are going to have this thing on half a billion computers, so it will be out there.  I have to say, I actually like Windows 8. I am not a Windows user. It’s probably the first time that I would use a Windows machine.

This may be somewhat optimistic as first Microsoft will need to placate business and IT pro users who like the flexibility and power of full desktop apps.  There can be no doubt that he is a man who knows what he’s talking about though.  He still is critical about Windows though where it’s deserved.

Right, and it is needed, they definitely need to fix this mess, a lot of malware, spyware, and the fact that everybody is sysadmin, and has to reinstall their machine every so often.

In the defence of GNU/Linux (which isn’t something I’m often accused of doing) it has a lot going for it with modern distributions, I even have a full chapter devoted to it in my book Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out and will probably do the same for the Windows 8 edition next year.

This opens the Keyboard Preferences dialog in which you can select different language layouts. Click the “Layouts” tab and then click “Add”.

Now the Layout dialog box opens. Scroll through the various different countries and variants to select the desired language layout that you want to set. Keep in mind that you can set multiple languages and the default will not be lost. In this demonstration, we are selecting basic German for the keyboard layout. Select by country to choose any language and then select any applicable variant. Certain countries, such as the United States, can display several different languages. When your selections have been made, click Add and you are able to preview the keyboard layout for that language setting.

You are also able to set the layout by language and set a variant. When you have completed your selections, click Add.

In this case, the keyboard language was set both by country and by language. You can do either one, but the layout may vary somewhat if you do not set by country and by language. This is something you will have to experiment with, as the settings will be different for each country and language. Always view the preview to be sure that it is what you are looking for or at least close to what you are looking for.

Notice that we now have two languages displayed in the Keyboard Preferences. Both are immediately usable and you can add additional languages or simply close the dialog.

Now that multiple languages have been installed, a new icon will be displayed in the System tray. This will be located in the upper-right portion of the screen. An abbreviation of the country for which the keyboard is set is shown here. Click on the icon to reveal the list of languages and to change languages. You may also access Keyboard Preferences here to add more languages.

Click on “Show Current Layout” to preview the keyboard layout for a selected language. Here, the language was switched to German and we get a layout preview.

You can print this layout easily from this screen. At the bottom-right you will see the Print button. Click Print and you have an easy reference to keep beside your keyboard for reference.

To change keyboard shortcuts for switching languages, open the keyboard preferences dialog and click the “Layouts” tab. Now chose the keyboard shortcuts to switch between input languages. For example, check the box next to “Alt+Shift” and this will be the shortcut to change keyboard languages. Choose the shortcut that is most convenient for you.

There are other options in Keyboard Preferences to customize keyboard settings, should you desire to experiment with these. This covers the basics for adding keyboard languages to Ubuntu.

There are some major, I won’t call them failings as that would be unfair, but certainly issues with the operating system around the lack of offline storage and offline apps.  There’s no native document editing or media playback, and with everything the OS does requiring a live Internet connection to work, there’s the fact that the device will be a useless brick when you try to use it offline.

There’s still a chance that the Samsung hardware can redeem it though as Chrome OS isn’t a bad operating system or indeed a bad idea.  It’s a very polished OS and very quick; though some people have said not quite as quick as a standard Linux installation and not being able to install Linux on the Series 5 I was unable to test this.

The build quality of the Series 5 is superb.  The bright white top (it’s also available in black) is just lovely and the quality of the plastics used throughout are up to Samsung’s usual high standards.  It’s got a mini VGA port, a USB 2 port and a combined headphone/microphone socket on the left of the body, an SD/MMC card reader on the front and another USB 2 port and, crucially, a USIM slot on the right of the body.  This is helpfully behind a flap, though the SD/MMC card reader isn’t and so a card will protrude from the machine when inserted, which is a touch disappointing.

Internally there’s an Intel Atom N570 processor running at 1.66GHz and 2GB RAM.  This is backed up by just 16Gb of storage, of which the operating system takes an ‘unspecified’ amount; remember the Chromebook isn’t about offline storage so doesn’t provide feedback on how much storage space it has available.

The screen is super-bright and generally excellent and the machine will give you a solid 8.5 hours of battery life between recharges, so it will easily keep going for the entire day.  The battery is non-removable however as is becoming the trend these days.  Last but by no means least there’s a 2MP webcam above the screen.

Google have specified a new keyboard layout for Chromebooks with the row above the numbers now having keys for back, forward, refresh, switch screen (you can open browser links in new windows and what I dub the earthquake button as it makes the screen shudder when you have only one window open, will otherwise slide between them.  Then there are controls for brightness up and down, volume up and down, mute and finally a power button.  The caps lock key is now a wide search key, but it’s a bit too wide which results in a narrow enter key.  This I found disappointing and I’d have hoped for a slightly better keyboard layout.

If you press the power button it’s debatable whether you actually turn the device off.  As it’s entirely flash memory-based it’s never really off.  This makes for a maximum 8 second startup time and from standby you can be working in under three seconds.  This really is the definition of “instant on”.  The machine weighs 1.48kg and is the size of a small netbook.  It’s also worth noting that the lightweight charger comes equipped with a USB socket for charging your smartphone or other device, a very thoughtful addition.

But what is the Series 5 like to live with.  Well it’s certainly portable though perhaps not as light as you might hope for such a ‘lightweight’ machine, which will be down to the excellent battery and screen.  You can merrily use the Series 5 out and about thanks to the USIM slot and with my 3G data SIM installed it connected quickly and seamlessly to my provider and a provided a broadband-speed connection.  You can enable and disable both the wireless and mobile data connections in the software to maximize battery life and make certain you’re not wasting your valuable paid-for data when wi-fi is available.

So I can dispel one myth straight away.  On the evening of getting the Series 5 delivered I took it down the pub and was using it happily.  This machine is anything but a brick when away from wi-fi, this is excellent news though you’ll want a good data package to go with it.  This means that if you want a Series 5 or another Chromebook it would be worth finding a good deal with a mobile phone operator.

It’s nice to see a multi-touch trackpad too and indeed this is one of the most friendly things about the Series 5 as it’s both large and extremely usable.  Indeed the keyboard quality, despite the narrow enter key deserves a mention for being very easy to type on with large keys and easy to read letters on the keys.

This brings me on to the types of people who might benefit most from having a Chromebook.  These people being children who might benefit from having something at school that will help them access Google Docs, as this is commonly used by schools now, and pensioners who will benefit from the simplicity of the OS, the great keyboard and bright screen.  On this note though, Google will have to do some work to enable the partially sighted to  scale the whole OS and not just the contents of the browser window.

Google are updating Chrome OS regularly though and even my issues with offline apps is being addressed with a forthcoming offline version of Google Docs.  Who knows what will happen with a media player and other apps in the future.

So what what do I think of it and can I recommend the Series 5?  The machine is $430 (£350) or $500 for the 3G version which is the price of a high-end netbook with a 320Gb hard disk.  So would you want to buy a Chromebook rather than a netbook onto which you can install Google’s Chromium OS, the downloadable alternative to Chrome OS?  To be honest, at this point I’d rather recommend a good netbook instead, but Chrome OS is a great operating system and they’re addressing all the shortcomings one by one.

To top this off with the Series 5 being such a quality product, if you’re not a big user of files and music (perhaps you use your phone for music) then the Series 5 can be recommended.  Certainly if you’re looking for a sturdy portable device for the kids going back to school next month coupled with the dependability of Linux, you can’t go far wrong with the Series 5 Chromebook, just make sure you buy the 3G one.

Overall 7/10

You can buy the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook at Amazon: There are currently four models available, two Wi-Fi models and two 3G models in the colors Titan Silver or Arctic White.

Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook (Titan Silver)

Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi Chromebook (Titan Silver)

Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook (Arctic White)

Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi Chromebook (Arctic White)

SuprSetr basically improves the photo set capabilities of Flickr, and here in particular the organizational process of Flickr set management. When you run the program for the first time after installation (under Windows) you are asked to authorize the application on Flickr to enable access to a user’s photos on the photo hosting site.

The program opens an authorization url in the default browser. This is a specific Flickr page where the user can accept or deny the authorization. Once authorized a list of all existing photosets are retrieved from Flickr. All sets are set to unmanaged at the beginning, which means that SuprSetr has no additional information about the sets that have been retrieved from Flickr.

The main window of the program displays a list of the photo sets. All managed sets are listed first, followed by unmanaged sets in alphabetic order. It is optionally possible to hide all unmanaged sets from the View menu.

The toolbar at the top offers buttons to add, edit, delete and refresh the sets, and to use the filter text box at the top which filters sets by their title. Sets can be viewed on Flickr with a right-click and the selection of Open Set in Browser from the context menu.

To manage sets, double-click one. This takes you to the Set Editor window. The first step is to check the Manage this set with SuprSetr box, the second to define the parameters that become available afterwards. Parameters include tags, date taken and uploaded and sorting.

Once you define the parameters of the set, SuprSetr will know how to search your Flickr stream for photos that match the parameters, and can then update the content of the photoset based on the search results. SuprSetr will add and remove photos from the set to make it match the results of the search. However, SuprSetr will NEVER delete photos from your photostream.

SuprSetr comes with additional tools and options. This includes Twitter integration to tweet whenever new photos are added to specific sets or all sets. Messages can be customized with placeholders:

• %t – This will be replaced with the photoset title
• %u – This will be replaced with the photoset URL. The URL will be shortened with bit.ly
• %c – This will be replaced with the number of photos that were added to the photoset
• %C – This will be replaced with the total number of photos in the photoset

The Tools menu leads to some nice to have tools like FavrTagr which analyzes all photos on Flickr based on the number of favs that they have received. For every ten favorites a new tag will be added in the form fav10, fav20, fav30 and so on. It is possible to create a new set based on these tags.

A second tool that is available is the Set Ordering Tool which can be used to reorder the list of photosets on Flickr.

Flickr users who work with photo sets and need better manageability of their sets can download SuprSetr from the project website.

The file manager offers a top down look on all the files on the computer system with options to zoom in and out to view the files directly the file manager.

A basic example. Say you have a few text documents or images sitting in a folder. If you zoom in closely enough, you can read the texts or view the images without opening the files at all.

This viewing mode does not work for all file types on the system, but the most basic file types are all supported. This includes the majority of media files, plain text documents and even some games or applications.

The program interface needs some getting used to time, as it looks quite messy on first glance. It basically consists of a header with direct links to folders, the configuration and file management tools, and the main area that can be used to zoom in and out of folders and drives.

It is a good idea to run the application full screen as it might otherwise be difficulty to read the button texts in the program header.

The mouse wheel is used to zoom in and out of the file and folder structure. It feels a bit strange in the beginning that it is not possible to use the mouse to move the selection around, as it happens quite often that a file is not displayed centered on screen. The user guide has an answer for that. The developers have mapped the scrolling to the middle mouse button. Hold down the middle mouse button to move around.

A double-click on a file opens it in the default viewer on the system, which is handy for all unsupported files or if you need to edit the selected file.

New users should consider reading the install and start guide as well as the general user guide on the developer website at Sourceforge to get a deeper understanding of the program. Especially the core keyboard and mouse functions are explained in the guides.

The file manager can be downloaded from the project website over at Sourceforge. The program is compatible with all recent versions of Windows and various Linux distributions.

The JRE is needed to execute Java applications on the local system and in the web browser. I use it for instance for the excellent RSS reader RSSOwl.

The JDK, Java Development Kit, has also been released as version 7.0 Final. The Java SE 7 Features and Enhancements page lists the highlights, changes and known issues. The page, which acts as the release notes, is highly technical. It links to additional pages with the most important changes in the new release, which makes it that much harder to compile an overview of important changes.

Probably most important from an end users point of view are security improvements and changes. Some weak ciphers have for instance been disabled in the Java 7 release to enhance the security.

This release includes new features such as small language changes for improved developer productivity, a new Filesystem API, support for asynchronous I/O, a new fork/join framework for multicore performance, improved support for dynamic and script languages, updates to security, internationalization and web standards and much more.

Java developers find all the information they need in the release notes and documentation. This includes updated installation and troubleshooting guides as well as JDK 7 and JRE 7 specific development guides and API documentations.

The Java Runtime Environment 7 has been released for all supported operating systems. Users can download the JRE 7 for supported 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows, Solaris and Linux from the official download page.

The Java offline installers have a size of about 20 Megabytes under Windows, and between 12 and 35 Megabytes under Linux and Solaris.

Developers can download the latest Java SE Development Kit 7 from Oracle as well. JDK 7 is offered for the same set of operating systems. It’s download size varies between 80 and 160 Megabytes.

This support will be for Windows enterprise customers who are also running a SUSE machines in conjunction with their Windows boxes.  It’s a good move on the part of Microsoft to avoid upsetting business customers who are already feeling squeezed with extremely tight profit margins and software assurance costs to the Redmond giant.  The move will mean these enterprise customers won’t have to pay for further Linux support.

In a press release Microsoft said…”As IT operating environments become increasingly consumerized, cloud-based and automated, there is an implicit expectation that the underlying technologies from multiple vendors should work together. For this reason, the collaborative relationship between Microsoft and SUSE has come to be viewed as a model for the industry.  The joint Microsoft-SUSE collaboration has served more than 725 customers worldwide across a range of industries, such as manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare, and financial services.”

“Our collaboration with SUSE not only helps customers to achieve success today, but also seeks to provide them with a solid foundation for tomorrow,” said Sandy Gupta, general manager of the Open Solutions Group at Microsoft. “Through our continued engagement on the technical side, an outstanding support offering from SUSE and our ability to provide mutual IP assurance, we feel confident that we will be able to deliver core value to those running mixed-source IT environments well into the future – and into the cloud.”

This move doesn’t mean that Microsoft will stop complaining about Linux or even stop suing for patent infringement, as these are just what the technology industry does (probably at the request of lawyers needing to justify their sky-high salaries).  It’s further evidence though that, deep down, technology companies around the world are more interested in building better experiences for their customers than they are feathering their own nests.

This is something I have always felt sets the tech world apart from other industries such as finance or energy.  It’s a good move and both Microsoft and Novell should be applauded for working together again.

The feed reader has just been updated to RSSOwl 2.1 which adds several very interesting features to the program. Probably the biggest feature in the new release is google reader synchronization which means news states, labels and stars are now shared between Google Reader and RSSOwl.

The synchronization can be activated via File > Import > Synchronize with Google Reader. One of the things that users need to know is that there is no automatic synchronization of feeds between Google Reader and RSSOwl, for that you need to use the Import feature. Whenever you add a new feed to one of the readers, you need to use it again to synchronize the feeds. The news items on the other hand are automatically synced after the initial setup.

The developers have improved stability, scalability and performance of the RSS reader significantly. Among the improvements are crash fixes, support for large profile databases beyond 2 Gigabyte, a new wizard to automatically repair broken search indexes and a reduced memory footprint.

Layouts have been improved. The developers have redesigned the newspaper layout, headlines layout and list layout. Layouts can be changed via the View > Layouts menu.

There have also been other user interface changes, for instance integration of the archiving feature in all layouts to quickly move news items to the archive bin for safe keeping, support for instapaper and readability or a per feed configuration of the layout.

Existing RSSOwl users will receive update notifications when they start the feed reader. New users can download the latest version from the official program homepage. There they can also read up on all the changes of the new release in the changelog.

Probably the biggest new feature in the beta is native 64-bit support for 64-bit Windows operating systems. While still in beta, it marks a milestone in the 64-bit development of Flash, as the beta release indicates that 64-bit support might be added to the final version of Flash 11.

Users with the intention to download the 64-bit version of Flash beta need to know that it can only be run in a 64-bit web browser. That’s Internet Explorer mostly, and some custom compiled versions of the Firefox web browser. Users who run a 64-bit browser can install the 64-bit version of Flash normally on their system, provided that it is a 64-bit operating system as well. To sum it up: You need a 64-bit OS, a 64-bit web browser to install the 64-bit version of Flash 11 Beta.

What else is new in Flash 11? Adobe lists the following features on the Adobe Labs page: Stage3D APIs, G.711 audio compression for telephone, H264/AVC SW Encoding, Socket Progress Events and HD Surround Sound.

Adobe® Flash® Player 11 desktop beta drives innovation for rich, engaging digital experiences with new features for cross-platform browser-based viewing of expressive rich internet applications, content, and videos across devices. Some of the features from the Flash Player Incubator, such as Stage 3D and 64-bit support, have been moved into this beta release.

While useful to some users, they might not be relevant for the majority of Flash users at this point in time. Flash 11 Beta could be more interesting to developers who may have plans to integrate one or some of the new features into their applications.

Interested users can download 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Flash 11 Beta from the Adobe website. The new version is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh computer systems. The download page links to 32bit and 64bit Flahs uninstallers, for users who need to go back to version 10 of Flash.

You can then load photos either by dragging and dropping them into the program interface, or by using the photo loader menu to do so. Photos are scanned and displayed in a strip in the lower half of the screen. The active photo is shown in the upper half. Here it is possible to select the visible space if the photo is larger than the maximum video resolution.

Additional tools are displayed between the two interface sections. Users can change a photo’s rotation here for instance, add Sepia or black and white effects, change the duration and transition period or add subtitles to the photo. It is furthermore possible to change the order of photos via drag and drop. Everything can be configured in short time.

Motion is configured in the upper half, between the two thumbnail photos. It basically moves the visible part of the photo for the selected duration. This effect can be disabled if it is not needed.

The number of images and the video duration are displayed in the footer of the program window. That’s handy to sync the video duration to the selected audio file.

A click on the Render Filmstrip button opens the rendering options. Users can select a quality profile, for instance medium, full HD or VCD, Pal or NTSC, and an output format. Available are MPEG4, Flash Video or MPEG1/2 among others.

The rendering process can take a while, depending on the selected number of photos, the output format and the processing power of the computer system the software is running on. The video will be saved to the project folder automatically.

The program lacks a preview feature, which is probably the biggest issue that I had with it. If you want to test how the selected photos and music look like on video, you have to render it to do that. That’s especially problematic if you have selected to process many photos, as the processing can take quite some time then.

PhotoFilmStrip is nevertheless an easy to use program for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Interested users find additional information and download links at the developer website.

The HTML format offers an alternative. While it is often not that pretty to look at it provides better controls to read and work with the text of a document. Tools like Calibre can convert pdf documents into various formats. Their disadvantage is that they often do not get it completely right, so that header, footer and other textual information are added that are not really needed to read the text.

Enter PDF Masher. The Open Source software turns pdf documents into HTML pages. Instead of relying on guesswork or an algorithm to extract text from the pdf document, it asks the user to identify and select the text that should be available in the next document.

You can load a pdf document via the Open File button at the top of the interface. PDF Masher scans the document and displays all the text that it found in a table like structure.

Displayed in the sortable table are the font size, x and y position, text length and the text itself among other data. This makes identification of text that you want included in the resulting document relatively easy. A click on a row display that row’s text in the lower half of the screen. Here it is possible to add, edit or delete text directly. That’s helpful if the automatic text detection created some mistakes that need to be corrected.

It is furthermore possible to ignore single or multiple text ids automatically so that they do not turn up in the new document.

Lines can also be set as footnotes and titles. Footnotes are for instance automatically added to the last page of the document, so that they do not appear in the document.

The developer has created a small video that demonstrates the programs functionality.

PDF Masher is a handy program for users who want better control and readability on their mobile devices. The manual conversion options may take longer than automatic conversions, but they ensure that the accessibility of the document is improved.

Users who want to convert multiple documents at once need to look at other programs for the job. If it is just one document, then PDF Masher is one the best options, provided that you are fine with the resulting HTML format.

PDF Masher is available for Mac OXS, Linux and windows operating systems. It can be downloaded from the developer website.

4K Video Downloader is a free software program for Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and Linux based operating systems that supports downloading online videos from the four sites YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and Dailymotion.

Video urls need to be copied to the clipboard before they can be pasted into the program via the Paste url button in the program interface.

The program displays download information immediately after the button has been pressed.

A thumbnail image of the video, its name, playing duration and link are displayed at the top. All available video qualities are displayed underneath. This ranges from low resolution videos all the way up to 4k videos if supported on site.

The only other option available is to change the default save directory. A click on the download button starts the download.

This is indicated int the main program interface. Each video that is added to the program is displayed there. A progress bar indicates the download progress of each individual video.

Videos that have been downloaded successfully can be played right away, either by hovering the mouse over the video information and selecting play, or right-clicking the video and selecting play from the context menu.

The context menu links to additional features that include opening the folder the video has been downloaded to or pausing and resuming video downloads.

And that’s basically the functionality of the whole program. When you look at what is offered, you probably will notice the lack of features that would make the program more comfortable, like automatic recognition of video urls or configuring a specific quality setting as the default.

On the plus side, it works not only on Windows but Linux and Mac computers as well. You can download the latest version of the video downloader from the official project website.

The free backup software Duplicati offers all of this, and then some more. The program displays a backup setup wizard automatically after installation. The wizard walks the user through the process of creating the first backup job.

It begins with the selection of a name and the folders and files that should be included in the backup. Duplicati suggests several common Windows folder out of the box, My Documents, My Music or all desktop files for instance (if Windows is the operating system of choice. The program is also available for Linux) Users who store their data elsewhere can add custom paths to the backup easily in the same step.

The space requirements are displayed on screen, and re-calculated whenever folders are added or removed by the user.

Backups can be protected with a password. The default encryption is a built-in AES 256 bit encryption algorithm with the possibility to switch to the GNU Privacy Guard for protecting the backup data. GPG is a free alternative to the popular PGP.

The backup destination is configured in the next step. And this is where Duplicati shines. Available are local and remote backup locations. From Amazon S3 and CloudFiles over WebDAV based, SSH based to plain ftp backups and local folder backups. It is all there and easily configurable.

It is necessary to enter a path, and if a remote backup location has been selected authentication to complete this step.

The last step displays several advanced options, allowing the user to schedule backups, configure rules when to remove older backups, size and bandwidth limits or filters to include or exclude files from the backup.

The backup can be started right after the setup wizard or at a later time.

Most backup settings can be configured for all jobs directly in the program options. Here it is possible to set an encryption method and password, authentication settings for Amazon S3, SSH and other services or the system’s GPG path.

It is possible to change settings and configure new backup jobs even while a backup is running in the background.

Backups can be restored at any point in time, but only by running the software program and selecting the data restore option.

Duplicati is an easy to setup backup program for the Windows operating system and Linux. Is there anything that is missing or a feature that could be improved? Well, it would be great if advanced users could configure backups on one page to speed things up. For now, it is only possible to use the wizard to create backup jobs. A missing feature is the ability to backup hard drives or partitions. Another feature that is missing is an option to restore backups externally.

Windows and Linux users who are looking for a lightweight, highly configurable backup software should download Duplicati for a test ride. The program is compatible with all recent versions of the Windows operating system.

With a three button mouse, typically people keep the default settings. With a five button mouse, the extra two buttons often go unused. The default is that they typically are used to go back and forward in web browsers and file managers. This is not as handy in other programs. Other functions might be more useful; the user should decided what they need. For example, I would rather use the extra buttons to copy and paste text. Enter btnx.

Using Btnx

To install btnx, search for it in Ubuntu’s Software Center (found in the Application menu). Alternatively, you can install it from the command line.

sudo apt-get install btnx

Now you can access btnx from:

Applications > System Tools > btnx

This will bring up a GUI dialog box for you to configure you mouse. From here, click “Detect mouse & buttons” and follow the steps. It will have you test your mouse and label the buttons. Don’t forget to add your scroll wheel. It is an extra step compared to manufacturers’ software, but it only takes a minute or two. Next, click on the “Buttons” tab to configure what each button does. Usually, it is the extra mouse buttons that are the best to customize, but any can be changed.

In this case, I set the keycode on “Button-1″ (named by me) to “C” and the modifier to “Ctrl.” Since this is just a case of simulating “ctrl+c” to copy something, left or right control keys are irrelevant. Naturally, I set the “Button-2″ as “ctrl-v” for paste. Page Up & Page Down would also make sense. Options are not limited to key combinations. Programs and other buttons can be set as well. A wide array of functions are available for someone to choose from.

Make sure to click the “Enabled” check box. To apply the changes, restart btnx from the “Configurations” tab. If a change does not seem to be taking place, try restarting btnx or your computer.

Note: The homepage and the help files were not available. For clarification and program details, use the man pages from the Wayback Machine.

Problems and Issues

In tests, while the remapping worked, a curious side effect evolved: the buttons now work as both copy & paste and forward & back. This made them useless in websites. Further research lead to a fix: xinput. The program will let you swap or disable mouse buttons, among other things. It should come with Ubuntu and other types of Linux, but it can be installed from the terminal:

sudo apt-get install xinput

Once installed, you need to use it to list and show devices:

xinput list

You should see your pointing device listed. Look for your manufacturer’s name. If the name appears twice, then you need to use the “id” number in place of the name. Once you have found this information, you can disable the extra button functionality with the following line:

xinput set-button-map “Your mouse name” 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 0

Now, your mouse should work as intended. Btnx will still know you are pressing the buttons, so the remap will still work. If you have problems, try running through “Detect mouse & buttons” again to make sure they were set correctly. Note: You may have to do this each time you customize the buttons.

Closing

It took some time to find the answers, but I now have perfectly functional copy & paste buttons on my trackball. These solutions where found in the forums at ubuntuforums and pinoygeek. With luck, you will not have the problems that I ran into. If you do, I hope this article saves you the trouble of having to research the solution. Please feel free to share how you remap your mouse in the comments.