Software

Software, reviews, and tutorials.

Myth 0.21 is out. How did I miss this one?

In my defense I haven’t been reading the MythTV mailing list in a few days. I know, I’m a slacker. For those of you that don’t know, MythTV is a an open source software Personal Video Recorder project. It lets you build a box similar to a TiVo or ReplayTV, but much more powerful – and more easily modified. It is ideally suited to allow you to ditch that piece of … DVR from your cable company.

I’ve been using MythTV in one form or another for the better part of two years and I have been nothing but pleased. Granted you have to be semi decent at Linux and have the time to tweak the system but, if you do, you’ll be more then happy. I use it for whole house media distribution.

[…]

WinVNC system tray icon won’t go away no matter how many times I curse at it.

I needed to install WinVNC on my enemy friend’s computer so I could keep tabs on his daily atrocities, (ooh, that’s my big word for the day)  but of course I didn’t want him to know about it.  WinVNC now compiles their program with the icon in the system tray and no way to remove […]

Symantec Ghost who? A list of open source alternatives.

Have you ever just finished something important and all of a sudden the lights dim, your PC begins to sound like the clothes washer, and then bam, your work is gone? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, right? Maybe I should have taken my watch off before sticking my hand in that running PC after all.

Well, the thing that annoys me most is, not losing the work, but knowing I’ll have to spend the next two days rebuilding the system just in order to recover whatever I was working on. Like a good boy, I save my work to multiple locations. If you care about it, don’t trust it to a computer, I always say. Strange advice from someone who is a computer professional.

Anyway, the solution to this problem has always been to ghost your system. Ghosting your system means making a backup image, applications and all, so that you can restore your system to a running state quickly. Strangely enough the product most people use to do this is called Ghost. Get it? Ghosting? If you have ever used the recovery CD that may have come with your system then you have probably used Ghost without knowing it.

So if you already have a rescue CD from your computer vendor and have used Ghost before why should you read this. Well, I’m willing to bet that you have added a ton of applications, system settings, and other things that aren’t included on that rescue CD so, its probably a good idea to update that image once in awhile. Here is the gotcha. If you want to do that then you need to buy Ghost. Buy Ghost? Why would you do that when there are better, free, open source alternatives. See, I thought this might be worth the read.

[…]

Google Earth, a better way to mapquest.

Getting directions online is part of our everyday rituals now, so why not do it in style? Google Earth lets you play god satellite and lets you zoom from seeing the whole earth to the roof of your house/apartment/underpass. You can get directions and not only will Google Earth map it out for you backwards and forwards, but you can “drive” the route via digital car. I’m not sure if this will help you or not, but it makes my top googolplex of cool features. (get it… googolplex… oh shut up) My favorite thing to do is to check out other places in the world like Rome or Japan. The satellite photos of the world are updated about once a month, so you can’t really spy on anyone if that’s what your evil little mind was thinking. Here are some other cool features of Google Earth.

[…]

How to Install Wine in Ubuntu

Are you running Ubuntu? Do you like to watch Lost online like I do? Well you can’t with Linux because the Move Network Player that ABC.com uses is only compatible with Windows based IE or Firefox. Install wine and you can install the windows based version of Firefox and watch all 4 seasons of Lost online ( other shows and windows based programs work too, but not all).

[…]

Your PC can cure disease, discover ET, solve the mysteries of the universe and much more.

Do you feel like you just don’t do enough for society and you want to actually contribute something even if it is just 1’s and 0’s. Then here are 10 great programs that you can install and run on your PC when you have to go back to work cause your incompetent boss, who claims to know everything, just deleted the finance department share from the network. (omg.. it’s the second time this month!!)

[…]

Save a Firefox extension. Help an angel get it’s wings.

Did you know that there are a ton of cool Firefox extensions out there that you have never heard of? That is because they are stuck in extension purgatory. Meaning they are waiting for reviews. When a new extension is submitted it is put into the sandbox where it waits for reviews. The problem is […]

The best damn way to learn Photoshop (rated R)

I was playing with Photoshop the other day and couldn’t figure out how to blend a picture of my ex-girlfriend with another picture of a bi-plane flying upside down… she was going to be falling out of it. (I figure since I fell for her…) Bad jokes aside, I came across this AWESOME site that teaches you how to do some cool things in Photoshop…
[…]