gHacks technology news » linux software

Install Multiple Applications With AllMyApps

Martin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:11:33 +0000

AllMyApps offers a similar functionality as Ninite which we have reviewed last month. Both applications allow a computer user to install multiple programs without further user interaction. But that’s where the similarities end. Ninite creates a custom installer based on the selection of applications that the user makes on the homepage. AllMyApps on the other hand consists of a software program that needs to be installed on the computer system and an online part which consists of the selection of applications and the sending of these information to the installed software.

Another difference that becomes obvious right away is the support for both Windows and Linux operating systems whereas Ninite only supports Windows. AllMyApps on the other hand makes it more difficulty to finish the process, especially at first run. The user needs to download the application and install it on the computer system. An account at the website needs to be registered afterwards. Once that is done it comes down to selecting the applications that should be installed on the user system.

That selection takes more time compared to Ninite as the developers have listed them in categories with no apparent option to view all at once. It usually takes a few clicks to add an application to the list of applications. AllMyApps offers more applications than Ninite does. Both seem to provide access to popular applications such as CCleaner, Google Talk, Paint.net or ImgBurn to name a few.

The applications need to be transferred to the installed application. The web browser will display a launch application dialog (Firefox does at least, not tested in other web browsers) with the AllMyApps application preselected. Security software of the operating system, like UAC in Windows, might also display a prompt that needs to be accepted before the data can be transferred. The program will then display the applications in its interface giving the user the option to cancel or start the installation.

A click on start will initiate the download of the setups and afterwards the installation of the selected software programs without further user interaction. Users who want to install multiple applications at once now have two programs to chose one. Ninite works only in Windows and does not offer as many applications but is less complicated to use. AllMyApps is compatible with Windows and Ubuntu Linux, offers more applications to install but makes it harder to install the applications due to the registration and software selection process.

Users who want to try out AllMyApps can visit the project’s homepage to do so.

Tags: allmyapps, install, install applications, install software, linux software, ninite, windows software

Exif Metadata Editor Jhead

Martin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:18:04 +0000

So called exif metadata – or exif data – is automatically added to photos taken by digital cameras. The data that is added to the photo depends largely on the digital camera used but it usually includes information such as the time and date the photo was taken, the camera model, resolution and other technical information. They also contain preview thumbnails of the photos in their header. The information contained in the exif header can pose a privacy risk. Think of cutting an image but keeping the exif data of the original image. The thumbnail image could show more of a photo than desired.

Exif data can also contain comments and other information that many users might not want to distribute with their photos.

Jhead is a command line application that can display the contents of the exif file for one or multiple jpeg images. More powerful than revealing the contents of the exif data is the use as an exif metadata editor. Jhead can edit, add and remove data from selected jpeg photos easily. The huge list of commands is available at the developer’s website. It ranges from replacing exif data with data from another photo, manipulating date, time, thumbnails and general data.

The default command jhead filename will output the exif metadata of the selected file or files (wildcards are possible, e.g. jhead *.jpg) in the command line

Jhead is available for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Tags: exif data, exif data editor, exif metadata editor, jhead, linux software, portable software, windows software

File Synchronization With Free File Sync

Martin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:08:51 +0000

File synchronization can come in handy in several situations. Think of users with multiple computer systems, e.g. a desktop PC and a laptop or netbook. File synchronization can help them to synchronize emails, bookmarks, spreadsheets and every other kind of data that was created or changed on one of the computer systems. It can also be used for backup services by automatically synchronizing the data of the main computer system with a backup server or external storage device.

Free File Sync is an Open Source file synchronization software that’s above everything else super-easy to use. The main interface is separated into a left and right column. Directories can be added to each column. The two main actions offered by Free File Sync are to compare or synchronize the directories and the files residing in them. A click on the Compare button at the top will generate a directory and file listing for every directory that has been added to the application.

All files and directories are displayed in both columns with a blank row in the opposite column if the file or directory does not exist there. Information about each file including its name, size and modification date are displayed in the table as well. Arrows in the middle indicate the action (e.g. overwrite file in the left column, copy file to the right column) are taken if the Synchronize button is pressed.

Statistics for each column are displayed in the footer listing the number of directories, files and the size of the data conveniently. There are also general statistics about the total number of files and folders that would be created if the user would synchronize the files. Several advanced options are available. The file synchronization program supports file filters and several different ways of comparing and synchronizing files. Files are initially compared by name, size and date which can be changed to a file content comparison instead.

Four different file synchronization options are provided by Free File Sync as well with automatic synchronization of both sides selected by default. This can be changed to mirror files that reside in the left folder to the right folder, copy or update files from the left to the right folder or a two way synchronization which synchronizes both sides simultaneously.

A batch job can be created using the parameters configured before. Batch jobs can be executed by starting the file synchronization software with the file name of the batch job as a parameter. This makes it also possible to add the file patronization as a scheduled task in the Windows Task Scheduler.

Free File Sync is easy to use. It takes only a few minutes the most to compare or synchronize files and another few to create a batch file to sync files regularly with little to no user interaction. The program is available at the Sourceforge website where it is available for 32-bit editions of Windows and Ubuntu.

Tags: file sync, file synchronization, free file sync, linux software, Open Source, windows software

Open Office 4 Kids

Martin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:05:29 +0000

The idea behind Open Office 4 Kids is to provide a version of Open Office for children between the age of 7 and 12. The project is in its early stages with version 0.5 recently released to the public. The main difference between Open Office and Open Office 4 Kids are the missing features in Open Office 4 Kids (Java and Base are for example not included in this release). A benefit of this is the performance gain when working with Open Office 4 Kids compared to a default Open Office installation.

The interface is different as well. Open Office 4 Kids makes use of less buttons in the interface and divides them into a header toolbar and sidebar. The changes are slim at the moment but the developers have plans to implement additional changes in future releases. The main difference on the other hand is that Open Office 4 Kids is a simplified version of Open Office.

As you probably know, the OpenOffice.org Education Project aims to create a bridge between Educational world an OpenOffice.org, through several actions. One of the results is OOo4Kids

The development release 0.5 of Open Office 4 Kids can be downloaded from the project website. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh operating systems.

Tags: linux software, mac software, open office 4 kids, Open Source, open-office, windows software

Disk Encryption Software TrueCrypt 6.3 Released

Martin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:55:16 +0000

TrueCrypt is one of the most popular Open Source disk encryption software programs for the Windows operating system. It can be used to encrypt entire hard disks, partitions and to create encrypted containers on hard disks that have a specific size defined by the user. Some of the latest features that have been added include operating system encryption and complete system encryption. The latest version of TrueCrypt brings full support for Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system that has been released today.

While Windows 7 support is probably the stand-out feature of the True Crypt 6.3 release there are a few others additions and changes that might be interesting to some users. TrueCrypt 6.3 adds full support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as well which should please Mac users who use the software program.

Another addition to this release of the disk encryption software is the “system favorite volumes” option. This comes in handy “when you have volumes that need to be mounted before system and application services start and before users start logging on. It is also useful when there are network-shared folders located on a TrueCrypt volume and you need to ensure that the network shares will be restored by the system each time it is restarted.”

The latest version of True Crypt can be downloaded from the developer’s website where it is available for all supported operating systems.

Tags: disk encryption, encryption, linux software, mac software, true-crypt, windows software

Google Stress App Test

Martin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:04:17 +0000

Google recently published a study in corporation with the University of Toronto that came to the conclusion that computer memory error rates are higher than previously suspected. The study, conducted over the course of 2.5 years on tens of thousands of Google servers, revealed that a third of all machines in the test experienced at least one memory error per year with the amount of correctable errors per year averaging over 22000.

Google has released a Stress App Test at Google Code. The program, that is released under the Apache 2.0 license, tries to ” maximize randomized traffic to memory from processor and I/O, with the intent of creating a realistic high load situation in order to test the existing hardware devices in a computer”.

The Google Stress App Test was designed for several applications including stress testing but also hardware qualification and debugging, memory interface tests and disk testing.

stressapptest is a userspace test, primarily composed of threads doing memory copies and directIO disk read/write. It allocates a large block of memory (typically 85% of the total memory on the machine), and each thread will choose randomized blocks of memory to copy, or to write to disk. Typically there are two threads per processor, and two threads for each disk. Result checking is done as the test proceeds by CRCing the data as it is copied.

The software program is available for download at the Google Code project page. Installation and usage guides are available on the website.

Tags: google code, google stress app test, linux software, stress test

Fastest PDF File Viewer

Martin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:12:06 +0000

Adobe PDF is not the fastest pdf reader that is available these days even with programs like Adobe Reader Speedup which remove some of the unneeded features. There are quite a few popular alternatives like Foxit PDF Reader which provide a similar functionality but offer faster startup and loading times.

If speed is the main issue the relatively new pdf file viewer MuPDF could be an option. MuPDF is a bare-bones pdf file viewer with a low memory footprint and the fastest pdf loading times that we have experienced until now. The pdf reader is a portable Open-Source cross-platform program for Windows, Linux and Mac OS operating systems.

Users can either execute the program which will open a small file browser to pick a PDF document or link the pdf file extension to the program so that it will be automatically the viewer of choice for pdf files.

MuPDF is perfect for users who want a portable resource friendly pdf reader. It comes with a few keyboard shortcuts to navigate documents more easily but lacks the functionality of Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader.

L, R Rotate page in 90° increments
+, – Zoom in and out
W Shrink wrap window
N, space Next page
B, backspace Previous page
Shift-N Skip 10 pages forward
Shift-B Skip 10 pages backward
M Mark page for snap back
T Pop back to last mark
123G Go to page

Not everyone needs advanced functionality but some users might miss options to copy text, search for text or print a selection of the pdf file. MuPDF on the other hand is probably the best solution for users who want to view – and only view – pdf files on their computer system without having to download and install a software program. A Firefox add-on is provided by the developer as well to view pdf documents on the Internet.

Tags: adobe reader, firefox-add on, foxit reader, linux software, mac software, mupdf, pdf, pdf viewer, windows software

Network Management Software KontrolPack

Martin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:45:16 +0000

Cross-platform networks are usually more complicated to manage compared to single-platform systems especially if free network management tools have to be used. The network management software KontrolPack is an Open Source cross-platform network controller that is easy to deploy and operate. KontrolPack is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems covering most of the operating systems that are in use these days.

Deployment could not be easier. The network administrator needs to install KontrolPack on all computer systems that should be managed or used to manage the network. The client systems then need to be started in client mode while the administrative systems need to be started in administrative mode.

Network administrators can then, among other things use functionality like:

Handle remote shell command execution.
Share files between remote computers.
Manage your network: LAN (Local Area Network).
Get an overview of the workstations on your LAN.
Lightweight XML based message exchange between client and server.
Handle each client with a personalized tab panel.
Send commands simultaneously to all computers on your LAN.

You can manage your computers and execute the same shell commands on them regardless of the operating system. On top of this, it provides an easy interface that can be used to view your LAN activity and manage your network without difficulties.

Users who are using this software on any supported operating system will be able to perform administrative tasks remotely on multiple computers that run on different operating systems without any technical issues.

For example, from a machine running a GNU/Linux distribution you can send an order to a hundred computers running MS Windows telling them to restart or to defrag their root partition. You can also retrieve IP addresses and routing tables from a variety of computers in order to help manage a network. Sometimes single commands are not enough, and it is possible to execute batch files and scripts simultaneously throughout the network

All different platform releases of the network management software KontrolPack are available from the developer’s website.

Tags: kontrolpack, linux software, mac software, network management, network management software, windows software

Midori Lightweight Web Browser Alternative

Martin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:11:40 +0000

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari. Those are the usual web browser names that make the news these days on the Internet. This are also the web browsers that the majority of web users use actively. Other web browsers face this tough competition. Last to feel the competition was the Google browser which – despite Google’s marketing power and efforts – remains at the lower end of web browser distribution.

Other web browsers on the other hand do usually not have the backing of a multi-billion Dollar corporation. That’s why they need to come up with other means to grab web browser market shares.

Midori’s approach is the lightweight but still comfortable web browser. The portable web browser is based on WebKit which is also used by Google Chrome and Safari. This guarantees great page rendering speeds. One of the greatest benefits of the web browser is its low resource usage. The browser uses about 10 Megabytes of computer memory with one open tab which is not much when compared to the resource usage of other web browsers that use a multiple of that.

The speed and low resource usage does not affect the functionality of the web browser. It offers many of the features that web users demand including tabbed browsing, session management, bookmark management or extension, userscript, userstyles and theme support. Not everything is yet fully support though. Userscripts for example are supported as long as they do not use advanced metadata. This means most are supported while some are not.

Midori is an interesting web browser, especially for users who prefer bare bone systems that are resource friendly and therefor faster than comparable products. The web browser is available for Linux and Windows and can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Tags: browser, lightwheight browser, linux software, midori, web browser, windows software

Free File Hosting Downloader

Martin — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:39:54 +0000

Free file hosting downloaders are programs that make it more comfortable to download files from file hosting websites like Rapidshare, Megaupload, SaveFile or Mediafire. These programs usually offer a handful of advantages with the most important ones being the ability to bypass all the advertisement that is posted on those websites and to queue files without having to sit in front of the computer system to activate the download once the time limits ran out.

FreeRapid Downloader is a downloader for several dozens free file hosting websites. It uses a plugin based system to enable support for the different file hosting websites. These plugins are automatically checked and updated from within the program’s interface.

One interesting aspect of the file hosting downloader is that it is available for Windows, Linux and Mac if Java is installed on the computer systems. There are multiple ways of getting links into the downloader. The downloader automatically monitors the clipboard to become active whenever a link that is pointing to a file hosting website is copied into the clipboard. That’s a very comfortable way of handling downloads unless multiple links need to be added to the software program.

The second option is available in the program itself. It is possible to copy one or multiple links into the interface which are then processed by the software. The free file hosting downloader will then automatically start downloading files that are in its queue. It can check for availability and will display an error message if files are not available anymore.

The options are quite extensive ranging from automatic update options to proxy servers to alerts and error handling. The main benefit of using this program is its simplicity. It works really well and the only downside that users might find is the missing support for premium accounts that are offered by some of the file hosting websites. FreeRapid Downloader can be downloaded from the developer’s website. Check out the Rapidshare Search article for some options to search the popular file hosting website.

Tags: file hosting, file hosting downloader, free file hosting, freerapid downloader, linux software, mac software, rapidshare, rapidshare search, windows software

Prep For GRE, GMAT, SAT Tests With Words

Martin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:19:56 +0000

You might want to check out the cross-platform software program Words if you are currently preparing for GRE, GMAT or SAT tests or any other kind of test that involves the English vocabulary. Words is a portable software written in Java that can be executed on all major operating systems providing that Java is installed on them. Words offers a basic multiple choice test that is using a dictionary of more than 4800 English words, their true definition and four false ones.

The program will display on word and five definitions at a time. The user selects an answer with the 1-5 keys on the keyboard. It is also possible to press ESC to see the result. Pressing ESC will count as a wrong answer on the other hand.

Words will then let the user know about the correctness of the answer. The program will furthermore display the pronunciation of the word, its meaning(s),synonyms and links to the definition at dict.org.

The m key on the keyword will add the word to the list of words that have been mastered by the current user while the enter key will display the next word that has not been mastered yet. All words in the database will be tested by default. This can be changed in the program’s options to only test words that are starting with a specific letter or fall into one of several categories.

Words is a good program for users who want to prep for GRE, GMAT or SAT tests and those who want to improve their English vocabulary.

Tags: learn english, linux software, mac software, portable software, prep gmat, prep gre, prep sat, windows software, words

Download Wikipedia With Okawix To Access The Data Locally

Martin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:58:25 +0000

Wikipedia is a popular online encyclopedia that is used by most users to get a quick overview on a certain topic. Wikipedia and its sister websites like Wikimedia or Wikiquotes can not only be accessed from desktop computers and web browsers but also from smartphones and other electronic devices. All have in common that an online connection is required to access the contents.

Okawix now offers a solution to download the full Wikipedia archive (and the archives of all sister sites) to the local computer system. The software offers its own web browser that can be used to navigate the websites normally once they have been downloaded to the local hard drive. This is an excellent solution for situations where no online connection is available.

The software program displays all supported languages in its interface on the first startup. The user can then select one or multiple languages to download contents in these languages. Okawix will then display the available Wiki websites and their size. Included are Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikipedia, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity and Wiktionary. The size of each download ranges from a few Megabytes to astronomical 6 Gigabytes for the English Wikipedia website.

A click on the download link beneath each entry will initiate the download of that database to the local computer system.

Okawix will ask the user to select a path for the download which can be saved so that it will be automatically picked for additional downloads. Images can be downloaded optionally. This will increase the size of the download.

The main interface of Okawix will then display the downloaded Wiki websites in the left sidebar offering a search engine and web browser. There are also options to print a page and find words in the page.

Okawix provides an easy way to download Wiki websites to a local computer system. The integrated web browser is responsive enough to offer a great offline working experience. It would be nice if the developers would add an option to automatically update the downloaded contents with new content that has been added to Wiki websites. Okawix is available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

via Instant Fundas

Tags: apple software, download wikipedia, encyclopedia, linux software, okawix, wikipedia, wikipedia download, wikipedia offline, windows software

Diagnose Your Mp3 Collection With MP3 Diag

Martin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:17:55 +0000

The motivation to create MP3 Diag was born out of frustration with existing solutions to diagnose and tag a mp3 collection properly. The developer did a thorough analysis of many existing mp3 taggers and came to the conclusion that many used non-standard ways of storing data. These errors were still tolerated by most mp3 players but could cause lockups or even crashes on others. MP3 Diag can analyse a mp3 collection and perform the following operations on each mp3 file:

Adding / fixing track info, including album art; information can be retrieved from several sources: Internet, clipboard, file name, local files, and (obviously) keyboard
Correcting files that show incorrect song duration
Correcting files in which the player cannot seek correctly
Converting characters for non-English names
Adding composer name to the artist field, for players that don’t handle the composer field
Renaming files based on their fields
Changing word case for track info

MP3 Diag makes it easy to identify and fix issues with mp3 files. It can also be used to make changes to the mp3 files. Issues that can be detected by the software program are for example:

broken tags / headers / audio
duplicate tags / headers
incorrect placement of tags / headers (ID3V2, ID3V1, LAME, Xing, …)
low quality audio
missing VBR header
missing track info / cover art
broken track info / cover art
missing normalization data
character encoding issues (for languages other than English)

The user needs to select one or multiple folders that contain mp3 files at the beginning. The program will automatically scan and analyze all mp3 files and display its findings in the main program interface. Each mp3 file is handled separately. It is possible to fix issues individually which could take a while depending on the size of the mp3 collection and the amount of errors found or to create a custom list that is fixing multiple errors (if they exist) at the same time.

Mp3 Diag comes with a tag editor that can query online databases like MusicBrainz or Discogs for information about selected songs or albums. Other nice to have features are a file renamer, sorting options, mp3 backups before making changes and extensive options.

Mp3 Diag is an excellent tool to scan and fix a mp3 collection. The open source tool is available for Microsoft Windows and Linux computer systems.

Tags: diagnose mp3, fix mp3, linux software, mp3, mp3 collection, mp3 diag, tag editor, windows software

A Web Interface For Newsgroups Downloads

Martin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:53:16 +0000

Users who work with newsgroups usually use desktop clients such as Newsbin, Grabit or Microsoft Outlook to do so. Some Usenet providers offer web access to newsgroups with options to download files right from the web interface which can be very comfortable in certain situations but especially when no desktop clients can be installed on a computer system. URD, which stands for Usenet Resource Downloader, is a software program that provides a similar web interface for Usenet users.

This web interface can be used to browse, search and download files from newsgroups. It supports nzb files which can be imported and exported. Other features include making use of multiple connections to a newsgroups server if that is supported by the server, using encryption if it is supported, downloading newsgroups headers, schedule updates of newsgroups, preview nfo and jpg files and smarty template support.

A few things are not supported yet like being able to upload to newsgroups or reading posts in non alt.binaries newsgroups. The web interface works with many popular newsgroups providers including Giganews, Astraweb and Newszilla.

The program itself has to be installed on a computer system running Linux, preferably a web server. Installation support is provided for Debian and Ubuntu with installation on other Linux distributions being similar.

Download to your debian-based (e.g. Debian or Ubuntu) linux PC. Doubleclick on the file to install, or alternatively run:


# sudo dpkg -i urd_0.6.2-1_all.deb
(This will install URD in /usr/share/urd, and add an apache alias for /urd to that directory)
Change PHP's max memory usage:
# sudo vi /etc/php5/cli/php.ini

memory_limit = 128M
Uncomment the include path (for Smarty):
# sudo vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

include_path = ".:/usr/share/php"

Then go to http://localhost/urd/ and follow the installation instructions.

Usenet Resource Downloader could be an interesting application for users who want to download or browse newsgroups through a web interface.

Tags: Debian, giganews, linux software, newsgroup, newsgroups, newsgroups downloader, newsgroups web interface, usenet

VLC Media Player 1.0 Released

Martin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:34:24 +0000

The VideoLan team today announced the release of version 1.0.0 of their popular media player VLC Media Player. The major release introduces many few features, formats and codecs to VLC and fixes a high number of bugs that were present in previous versions of the media player.

The changelog lists all of the changes and additions that the developers have packed into the new release of the VLC Player including live recording, finer speed controls, new HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, Real video 3.0 and 4.0), formats, video scaling in full screen or zipped file playback. VLC Media Player can still play most video and audio formats out of the box without needing third party codec installations to do so.

VLC Player is still cross platform which means that the new release is available for all supported operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OSX and Linux. Users can download the new release directly from the developer’s website.

A viable alternative is SMPlayer which uses less resources than VLC Player while providing most of the benefits.

Tags: linux software, mac software, media-player, movie player, Open Source, video-player, vlc, vlc media player, windows software

Stream Music With Subsonic

Martin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:29:31 +0000

Streaming music over a computer network or Internet was a complicated process in the beginning days of the Internet. Today all it takes to stream music is the installation of one program and a web browser to access the music. That’s highly comfortable and doable even for inexperienced users who shy away from all things technical.

Subsonic is a Java application which, as we all know, has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. To setup the service users need to install the computer program and check the Subsonic Music Streamer service to configure it further. Subsonic will automatically start its service which can be accessed by pointing the web browser to http://localhost:80/. Some users might run into troubles using that port which can be changed in the configuration.

The username and password admin will allow the user to add music to the program and change configuration settings. Subsonic does not come with a file browser which means that it is necessary to paste the path(s) to the music folder(s) manually into the interface.

The music is added automatically then which takes only a second to complete. Subsonic displays all band names in a left sidebar making it very easy to access the music collection. Songs can be played in the interface directly or in an external mp3 player which is configurable in the options.

Information about music including mp3 tags and album art are displayed directly on screen with links pointing to various popular sites like Last.fm, Wikipedia, Amazon and Google to look up additional information.

The admin can change many aspects of the application in the options. This starts with welcome and login messages, continues with user management and permission settings and ends with the ability to add podcasts and Internet radio.

Subsonic has to run on the local computer system before others can access it on a computer network or over the Internet. The number of users able to access it at once depends highly on the computer hardware and network speed.

Tags: linux software, mac software, music software, stream music, subsonic, windows software

Install Guest Additions for a better VirtualBox experience

Jack Wallen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:03:31 +0000

In my last two articles (Installing Windows XP as a Virtual Machine on VirtualBoxx and Installing and configuring VirtualBox for virtual OSes) you saw how easy it was to install VirtualBox and then install Windows XP as a virtual machine. The implications of this software are only as limited as the imagination of the user. But there are instances where the install might not look or feel exactly as you would like.

In my default setup of Windows XP, on my particular Ubuntu 9.04 box, the installation of Windows XP rendered a perfectly usable desktop with 32 bit colors in 800×600 resolution. This resolution, of course, is not ideal for some situations (such as Full Screen mode). In order to get a higher resolution, along with other features, you have to install Guest Additions. This is a simple process that can be done quickly and yields a much better user experience than the default. So…let’s get to the installation.

Figure 1

Before you attempt to do the installation of the guest additions you have to have your virtual machine up and running. Once that VM is running you will see three menu entries at the top of the window: Machine, Devices, and Help. You want to click on the Devices entry and then click the Install Guest Additions entry (see Figure 1).

What you will see is a warning message instructing you that the Guest Additions CD image could not be found. Fear not, this is normal. Click Yes in order to download the image and then Download to confirm. You will see a progress bar at the bottom left of your VM window.

When that download has finished you will be asked if you want to Mount the image. Click the Mount button to reveal the Sun xVM setup wizard. Click Next in the welcome screen which will take you to the license agreement window. Click the I Agree button (and read the license if you feel so inclined.)

Figure 2

What you are now doing is a fairly straightforward Windows application-like installation. The only “gotcha” during installation will be a warning that the software did not pass the Windows Logo testing. Ignore this warning and click Continue Anyway. Your screen will flicker for a second – don’t worry.

You will see this warning another time when it attempts to install software for the pointing devices.

After that warning the installation will complete and, in typical Windows fashion, you will be required to reboot your virtual machine. Do this. When the reboot completes you will find your virtual machine much easier to work with. Now:

You no longer have to capture the mouse pointer.
You can set your resolution to a much higher level.
You can now copy and paste between guest and host operating systems.
You can run Windows in seamless mode.

Seamless mode

Figure 3

Seamless mode is a very interesting trick. What this does is take the elements of Windows out of the VM window and layer them on top of your Linux desktop.

As you can see, in Figure 3, with seamless mode activated all Windows applications have their own window. So in this instance Internet Explorer appears to be running on Linux by itself. And the Windows task bar is resting nicely on top of the GNOME panel.

You toggle between seamless and non-seamless mode by pressing the Hot Key and the “L” key. The default Hot Key is the right Ctrl key.

Final thoughts

This is truly some exciting work. With the help of VirtualBox you can, effectively, have your cake and eat it too (as the saying goes.) Work with Windows applications inside of Linux without needing the help of Wine.

Tags: Linux, linux software, virtual-machine, virtualbox, windwos xp

Desktop Search Engine DocFetcher

Martin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:37:10 +0000

DocFetcher is a document search engine that, unlike prominent desktop search engines such as Google Desktop Search or Everything, is best suited for indexing and managing document formats only. Most document types are supported starting with plain text documents to scripting languages such as html or php to Microsoft Office formats like doc and xls but also the Office 2007 variants docx and pptx plus formats of Office alternatives such as Open Office or Abiword documents.

Another difference between DocFetcher and other desktop search engines is that the former was designed to index document folders only and not an entire hard drive. This means that the initial setup of the document search engine is more time consuming as the user has to point the application to specific folders on the computer’s hard drive that contain the documents that should be indexed by the program.

The advantage of this method is that the program uses less system resources and is able to offer a better result quality. A few options are available to filter the result list. It is possible to specify a minimum and maximum file size, select some or all of the supported file types and locations that have been indexed by the desktop search tool.

Search results are displayed in the same interface with their title, size, filename, type, path, author, modification date and score that is computed by DocFetcher. A left-click on any document will load a preview of the document’s contents in a preview area in the interface which is great for accessing information of documents quickly as the search term is highlighted in the preview of the document.

DocFetcher (via Essential Freebies) comes as an installer or portable version for the Windows and Linux operating systems. It requires Java to be installed on the computer system.

Tags: desktop search, desktop search engine, docfetcher, document search, documents, google desktop search, java, linux software, search engine, windows software

Laptop Theft Recovery Software Prey

Martin — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:25:53 +0000

There are a few things that laptop owners can do to prevent laptop theft. Probably the most important one is to keep an eye on the laptop all the time. Sometimes however that is not enough and the laptop gets stolen or lost. There is little chance of getting the laptop back once it has been stolen.

The laptop theft recovery software Prey tries to increase the chances by collecting and sending a bunch of information over the Internet. It obviously does not help if the thief is clever enough to format the laptop before using it. If the thief boots the operating system and connects the laptop to the Internet then Prey will be able to submit the data.

Prey works by checking an url regularly for existence. If the url exists it will send out the collected data to a specified email account. The date includes:

This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and — in case your laptop has an integrated webcam — a picture of the thief

About the url that has to be created. The laptop theft recovery program has been designed that way to avoid data being send out continuously by the software. Users can for example sign up at a free web hosting service such as Blogger to create the url that the software program checks (for Ghacks it could for example be http://www.ghacks.net/stolen/).

The user needs to specify login data to a s SMTP server so that the data can be transferred. The laptop theft recovery software Prey is available for the Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating system. The Linux and Mac version are currently more advanced and come with a bi-lingual interface, automatic connection to the first open Wi-Fi network.

Tags: laptop, laptop theft, laptop theft recovery, linux software, mac software, recovery software, windows software

Fing Network Discovery Software

Martin — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:45:02 +0000

The network discovery software Fing has been born out of the ashes of the much acclaimed Look@Lan network monitoring and discovery software. The project is still in an early stage and comes with a command line version for the Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh operating system. This might turn away users who do not like working with the command line. The interactive mode that has been build into the network discovery software on the other hand might convince them to give it a try nevertheless.

Fing can be run with a single command from the command line or started in interactive mode which basically consists of a series of questions and simple answers provided by the user. The first question for example after starting the interactive mode is about the mode the software should run in. Options are discovery, scan or infos.

Discovery: Will start the network discovery module. The user has to pick a network adapter and answer several additional questions. Fing will generate a network discovery report in the end.
Scan: Provides the means to scan a remote host, will display ports, services and firewalls running on that server.
Infos: Displays information about local and remote networks.

Fing offers a selection of output formats such as text, html or csv that can either be displayed directly in the console or saved in a file on the local computer system.

Verdict:

Fing is a fast network discovery tool for command line junkies. The export functionality and speed are excellent, a graphical user interface would be desirable nevertheless.

Tags: fing, linux software, mac software, network, network discovery, network discovery software, network monitor, remote host, server, system administrator, windows software

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