Alonline » software

Orbs – a Flash music player

Al — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:46:12 +0000

Another Flash gadget that is rather clever, although a little tricky to use. Choose light or dark sounds, click away to pick when they get played and attempt to make music. It is easier, sometimes, if you make things go a little faster or slower than the default setting. Play with Orbs, see if you can produce something worth listening to, and if so post the link in the comments.

45 freeware design programs

Al — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:40:58 +0000

Here’s a load of useful programs, all based around visual design, that I will certainly find useful in the future – who knows, maybe you will too. There’s all kind of stuff from photo editing, to Flash animation, to 3D world creation. There’s bound to be something here that’s of use to you, so have a look for yourself.

Democracy – the only video player you need?

Al — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:15:20 +0000

Here’s another good looking Open Source product that I’d never heard of until today: Democracy claims to be able to play almost any media type you can throw at it, as well as browse online video in all it’s forms, and also save online video onto your PC at the same time. It sounds like an excellent piece of software, and I’m just downloading it now. I’ll try it tomorrow and see whether it does what is says, and if you fancy giving it a try then just visit their website for all the info you need.

Jinzora – online jukebox software

Al — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:07:21 +0000

If you have a media server, which I haven’t got yet but have every intention of doing so soon, then this bit of software may be of interest to you. It allows your home server to stream your media library to wherever you are on the Internet. Looks to be rather slick, with options for including cover art, categories and playlists.I think I will be paying with this once I get a PC with RAID up and running to be my server. Jinzora might be just what you need.

Atlas Gloves – bringing Minority Report to you

Al — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:58:53 +0000

If you have a webcam and Google Earth installed on your PC, then you can play at being Tom Cruise. This very nifty piece of software analyses the movement of your hands when you shine a light from them at the camera. The movements you make can directly control Google Earth – zooming, panning and rotating are all easy. I shall be trying this for myself, and you can too if you visit the Atlas Gloves site. There are a few videos to watch as well.

The best help option ever

Al — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 00:38:26 +0000

I rather like this. Someone with a sense of humour has managed to get something amusing into a product, and it works rather well. See it here, I hope this is real and not just a Photoshop.

How to lighten a SysAdmin’s job

Al — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:14:06 +0000

I now want to be a SysAdmin at NetQoS, solely because they have developed this incredibly cool way to visualise their data flow. It’s like Tron has suddenly been updated for the 21st Century, and then brought to life. If this ever becomes available for home use then I will have to grow my network just to enjoy a richer spread of fun. Read, and watch, more here.

Google: better because it’s staff are

Al — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 22:52:59 +0000

The basis of this article is simple: how to write a spell checker. A company like Microsoft would probably invest millions of dollars, and millions of lines of code, to produce something that is good but still makes mistakes. Google, on the other hand, manages to suggest word corrections in 0.1 of a second and still gets 90% accuracy. This article shows how this was done, complete with the Python code used, and manages to go completely over my head before reaching halfway through. I can read the code, but the theory and math behind the code is too much for me. It seems that if you employ a lot of very, very intelligent people you will get the results required to keep you ahead of the opposition.

Google Apps free to Rwanda and Kenya

Al — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:52:21 +0000

Whilst this is a very nice gesture by Google, offering their Apps for free to the countries of Rwanda and Kenya, I feel that possibly food and clean drinking water would be much higher on the priority list of the majority in both countries. However, the provision of Google Apps for free will allow those few who have Internet access, or even computers, to better communicate and coordinate with each other, and of course give Google an insight into these developing markets for future products and services.

Project Looking Glass

Al — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:21:55 +0000

This looks interesting, although it may be just that little bit late, given that both Vista and Linux desktops will offer some form of 3D visualisation shortly. Still Project Looking Glass has just hit the magical 1.0 version, so it should be reasonably stable and usable. I would download it but I really need to clean my PC up first of all the other crap I keep downloading just to try it out. Once I’ve tried Project Looking Glass I’ll let you know what I think – if you try it first then please let me know.