Jul 15, 2009 GMT
The Mobile Barcoder extension for Firefox is a one-trick pony, but the trick it does is a really neat one. When browsing the Web, you've probably noticed that some Web sites contain QR codes. These codes offer a convenient way to capture and transfer useful information like URLs and email addresses to your mobile device, provided it can read and process QR codes. Say you found an interesting article while browsing the Web on your laptop and you want to read it later on your mobile device. Snap the QR code containing the article's URL with your device, and you can open the link in the built-in browser. But here is the problem: only a handful of Web sites out there actually use QR codes....Productivity Sauce
Jul 10, 2009 GMT
A task manager is probably the first thing you might want to install on your Android device, and you won't find a better tool for the job than Astrid. This open source task management utility sports not only a cute application icon -- it also offers all the tools you need to efficiently manage your tasks. A user-friendly interface makes it extremely easy to create new tasks and edit existing ones. The task editing screen of Astrid's interface is split into three sections: Basic, Dates, and Alarms. The Basic section allows you to set the task's priority, assign tags, specify the time it would take to complete the task, and attach a note to it. In the Dates section, you can specify a...Jul 09, 2009 GMT
Being a proponent of open source software, I've always found it annoying that the device I use most of the time -- my mobile phone -- runs some closed source proprietary system. Moving to Nokia N95 that runs the soon-to-be-open-source Symbian OS improved things slightly, but I still wanted to have something more Linux-like, open, and tweakable. That's why I followed with interest the release of Google's Android platform. The system itself did look rather promising, but, as it often happens, the first Android-powered handset turned out to be a somewhat underwhelming device. Worse yet, it has never made it to our shores. So imagine my excitement when I saw that one of our local 3G carriers...Jul 03, 2009 GMT
NoteCase has always been an indispensable application in my productivity toolbox. So the news that NoteCase's developer ceased its development sent me scrambling for a replacement for this excellent note-taking tool. It didn't take me long, though, to discover KeepNote. Similar to NoteCase, KeepNote is a hierarchical note manager, which means notes in the application are organized in notebooks and subnotebooks that act as nodes in an hierarchical tree. You can assign different icons to each notebook and note (or page, in KeeNote's terminology), which makes it easier to identify and find specific pages and folders. As you would expect from a note-taking application, KeepNote supports...Jul 01, 2009 GMT
While StarDict touts itself as "the best dictionary program for Linux and Windows," it has a serious challenger to the title called GoldenDict. On the face of it, GoldenDict looks like any other dictionary application. But dig deeper, and you'll discover a few rather neat features that make it not only a rather competent dictionary but also an excellent research tool. For starters, GoldenDict supports a wide range of dictionary formats, including StarDict dictionaries, Babylon .BGL files, Dict dictionary files as well as ABBYY Lingvo source files and audio archives. In addition to that, GoldenDict supports MediaWiki-based references, which include both Wikipedia and Wiktionary....Jun 29, 2009 GMT
Need to whip up a quick screencast? You might want to use Krut for the job. This cross-platform screen recording tool has virtually no learning curve, and offers a few useful features that can help you to create high-quality screencasts with consummate ease. Krut is written in Java, so you have to install the Java Runtime Environment on your system before you can run the utility. Krut requires no installation, and you can launch the application by simply running the KRUT.jar file. When up and running, Krut places a floating palette containing four buttons: Menu, Rec, Snap, and Cursor. The latter lets you specify the recording area, which you should do before you start the...Jun 26, 2009 GMT
Linux distributions designed for netbooks are a dime a dozen these days, so one really has to pull something extraordinary out of the hat to impress the mobile crowd. While Jolicloud's main goal is not to awe Linux geeks, the new distribution does offers a radically different take on a system for your netbook that might appeal to the non-technical user. Jolicloud has been in development for quite some time, and its developers managed to keep it under tight wraps, carefully dispensing invites to a few chosen users. Recently, yours truly found himself among the lucky ones. As an avid netbook user, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take Jolicloud for a spin. The currently available...Tag Cloud
News
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Google and NASA Partner in Quantum Computing Project
Vendor D-Wave scores big with a sale to NASA's Quantum Intelligence Lab.
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Mageia Project Announces Mageia 3 Linux
Many package updates and Steam integration highlight the latest from the Mandriva-based community Linux.
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FSF Outs the World Wide Web Consortium over DRM Proposal
Richard Stallman calls for the W3C to remain independent of vendor interests.
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Debian 7.0 Debuts
The new release supports nine architectures, 73 human languages, and zero non-Free components.
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Alpha Version of Fedora 19 Released
Fedora developers release the first alpha version of Fedora 19, known as Schrödinger’s Cat, for general testing. The final release is expected in July 2013.
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ack 2.0 Released
ack is a grep-like, command-line tool that has been optimized for programmers to search large trees of source code.
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SUSE Studio 1.3 Released
New features in SUSE Studio 1.3 include enhanced cloud integration, VM platform support, and lifecycle management.
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Xen To Become Linux Foundation Collaborative Project
The Linux Foundation recently announced that the Xen Project is becoming a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.
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RunRev Releases Open Source Version of LiveCode
Open source version of LiveCode is now available for developing apps, games, and utilities for all major platforms.
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OpenDaylight Project Formed
OpenDaylight is an open source software-defined networking project committed to furthering adoption of SDN and accelerating innovation in a vendor-neutral and open environment.

