ctrl.altered.mind

MadPenguin.org has a report on Suse’s new Enterprise Desktop 10, and reviewer Adam Doxtater is convinced that Suse has a winner on their hands, with what could be the most impressive distribution released ever. Suse already holds that distinction with Suse Linux 10.1, which is currently ranked second-best (with Ubuntu on top). Just reading the feature list for the new SLED 10 has me convinced as well, and this is one release I will be really waiting for.

SLED 10 is a stellar release and Suse’s attention to detail is praiseworthy (as the article mentions, for example, the desktop reflects the color of the ipod thats plugged into the system, even after hot-swapping black and white ipods). The biggest (and most prominent) change is the desktop switch, with Suse moving away from their KDE-centricity and defaulting to GNOME this time.

While SLED 10 may not be a Vista-killer in the true sense of the term - although its only a matter of time before Windows stagnates into oblivion, unless Microsoft can get its act together and revamp from the ground up. The industry is already going as far as calling the unreleased Windows Vista operating system a ‘Windows Me 2.0′, the most bloated Windows release of all time (they’ve moved from CDs to DVDs now), with features that just about bring the beast on par with OS X (Tiger, not even Leopard) and other popular linux distributions.

Link to the article (a highly recommended read), with installation and interface screencasts (the article has links to more).

I had sampled Windows Vista a long time ago when it was still known by its codename, Longhorn. This was a primitive prototype that has undergone significant change in the past few months, as Microsoft gears up for a release (hopefully) sometime before January 2007. However, the coincidence of the first public beta release of Windows Vista a few days ago and my switch to the Mac allowed me to utilize the freed up processor cycles of my notebook for some Vista flavor. While installing a beta OS from Microsoft on a notebook with custom hardware is not recommended for the average computer user, I faced some issues that corroborate this tip as well. Most notably, audio output was not handled well by Vista, with sound levels failing to exceed 1% of their maximum capacity. This, however, was the least of my concerns, as I’m sure Microsoft will ensure hardware compatibilities (atleast within the desktop computer domain) as their release date approaches. The most depressing fact to me is that Vista is a beast of an OS, in terms of the resources one has to feed it in order to make it heed. While the beta that Microsoft has provided, is the future Windows Vista Ultimate edition (read ‘most feature-rich version’), my notebook is fairly high-end as well. In other words, a really large segment of Windows Vista consumers are going to see the need to upgrade their systems, primarily video RAM (Vista needs atleast 128MB dedicated video RAM for a good user experience). This kind of computing power is overkill, and is beyond the requirements of an average home computer user.

Another glaring fact about Vista is its attempt to build a stronger level of security into its processes. While it does a good job, the best it could probably do without complicating things too much and without implementing a Unix-like system, there are minor aberrations in the implementation. For one, blanking the screen and then displaying a security dialog box seems like a glitch. Hopefully, this wont exist in the final release. Secondly, the system even displayed a security dialog when I tried running Internet Explorer 7 for the first time, asking for a confirmation lest I doubt the authenticity of the program. One would think Microsoft could build internal security checks for its own programs.

I do realize Microsoft has a ton of different issues to worry about, such as support for the countless third-party hardware (peripherals and components). However, average computer users who are going to be compelled to buy expensive hardware for basic usage are not going to feel too happy. That is, if they realize this is the case.

After hearing about Bubbles, a new app that attempts to bridge the great browser divide separating Web 2.0 from the desktop, on Om Malik’s blog, I thought I’d give it a try.

Bubbles is a nice and simple attempt (by Ohar Eder-Pressman and friends in Israel), and allows developers to customize their web applications via javascript APIs - therefore allowing the bridge to be crossed both ways. The AJAX engine can also be used to write tiny JS applications for the client side, which probably might be a lot more useful for me than the basic concept of Bubbles itself. Thanks to some quick tweaking via AutoPatcher XP, I can set individual browser windows to operate like standalone applications, with basic system tray functionality.

The Bubbles web site could use some quick spelling correction though.

3D3R Bubbles

.. you need to use the Windows Task Manager to terminate a non-responding Windows Task Manager! I don’t know how I managed to pull something like this off at work, but I must’ve been doing something really bad. I’ll put this down as another symptom of the ‘Its a Friday evening and I’ve nothing interesting to do’ syndrome.

Yahoo! Finance has a story reporting that GoDaddy.com , the world’s leading domain name registrar, plans to migrate its Linux server portfolios to Windows-based hosting, in an effort to maintain providing low-cost solutions. As a highly satisfied Linux-hosting services customer, I’m having a mixed reaction towards this decision. GoDaddy.com currently offers ASP and .NET support for Windows-based hosting, and PHP for Linux-based hosting services. Hopefully, they would be able to offer PHP support for no extra cost on Windows, and I’d be really happy. Anything else would not make much of a difference to me, its not like server downtime would affect me in any way - I’m not running an internet business here.

GoDaddy.com to Migrate Entire Hostname Portfolio Onto Microsoft Solution for Windows-Based Hosting

Have you ever wondered who’s connected to your shared iTunes music library? I’ve would like to have a way to find out, and TCPview is a free Windows utility that allows you to do just that. TCPView (by SysInternals) is a Windows program that will show you detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections. On Windows NT, 2000 and XP TCPView also reports the name of the process that owns the endpoint. This is basically modeled on the lines of Netstat, a command-line utility that is included in Windows. The program also allows you to look at connections going out from your favorite P2P application.

Once you get TCPView running—assuming iTunes is also running and sharing music—you will see a list of connections with the iTunes icon next to the process name (iTunes.exe) and process number. Look for TCP connections where the Remote address is something other than yourself. This means that whatever machine is listed there is at least attached to your shared music - don’t use this to strike a conversation with the cute girl across the hall in the library and freak her out!

To find out which song is being played remotely is tricky and not convenient - you will need to perform a search for all mp3 files on your system, and sort by the Last Modified tag.

For the Mac, the RendezWho widget displays connected users and also the song they are playing at the moment.

TCPView by SysInternals

The RendezWho Widget for Mac

If you download and share (hopefully only non-commercial and redistributable) software using BitTorrent, you would definitely want a client that offers maximum functionality with the smallest possible memory footprint. µTorrent is exactly that, and is available for the Windows platform. µTorrent (current version 1.4 (stable), and 1.4.1 (beta)) is definitely the best Windows bittorrent client I have used, and scores a notch above others like ABC, Azureus, and Shareaza (all open-source and free). It supports UPnP port mapping (Windows XP and above). I only wish it were as nice as KTorrent on Linux.

µTorrent.com - Powerful, efficient and small BitTorrent client

While looking for ideas and widgets to add to my website, I found a really nice iTunes extension that renders a feed of the song currently playing in iTunes in XML, and also publishes this information to my website via FTP. I’m using a free Flash ‘gizmo’ that combines the XML file (track information) with album art pulled from Amazon.com. Brandon Fuller, the author of ‘Now Playing’, has detailed instructions on his website, if you are not familiar with XML and PHP. The iTunes extension (I believe there’s one for Windows Media Player as well) is shareware (5 uploads per session), but costs only $10. Now, little brother can watch me too The display shows up in the sidebar on my homepage.

My Now Playing Window

Brandon Fuller’s ‘Now Playing’ - An iTunes for Windows Plugin

The OS X-only Tickr tool has been around for a while. Basically, a neat application that polls Flickr.com for posted pictures according to specified tags and adds a nice scrolling display to the desktop. Well, Windows users can rejoice now that the idea has been ported with the new Slickr tool. Its as simple as adding a few tags (get Flickr tag ideas) and letting the beauty happen. The application, although in beta, ran quite stably on my machine. However, some users behind firewalls have seen runtime errors. A couple of missing features though - the tray icon does not have a context menu, and the only way to quit the application is via the trusty Windows Task Manager ;-). Secondly, there’s no method to modify tags later, except by reinstalling the program (so make your choices wisely!). The program is available from the CCorpSoft website.

Also, there is a screensaver tool by the same name that has an advanced settings menu with all the right options in place, and runs a screensaver on your Windows machine by fetching tagged (or recently posted) pictures from Flickr. The Slickr screensaver is really neat, and creates an OS X styled Pictures screensaver with zoom effects, but with pictures taken by other people! You could also let the application fetch your own private pictures via authorization (makes great sense if all your pictures are saved on a different machine). Definitely a ‘must have’ for Windows users.

On Windows, I generally tend to pick my applications by typing the executable filenames in the Run window (Win+R). However, if you depend on the Start Menu > Applications menu to locate your programs, this will interest you the most. I discovered a very cluttered Start menu today, and decided to get it organized using X-Windows style context groups. Apparently, creating new folders manually within the Start menu folder does not help much, and it is a pain to drag and drop application shortcuts (especially if you have a ton of them). A quick search led me to a nicely written freeware application, called Tidy Start Menu (v2.7), that does the organizing for you in a couple of minutes. The categories are preset, but leave nothing to be desired. The application is complete with wizards to backup and restore start menu shortcuts, delete empty and redundant shortcuts, and import/export menus using XML files. Tidy Start Menu has an extended version (for $19.99 with their special Christmas pricing) if you need to create custom categories, or a context menu to easily uninstall programs, among other features.