FolderSize Displays What’s Eating Your Hard Drive Space [Downloads]
My Clippings October 21st, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Windows only: Free portable application FolderSize quickly analyzes the contents of any hard drive or specific folder on your computer to help you hunt down your hard drive hogs and free up space.
(Click the image above for a closer look.)
FolderSize is another in a relatively long line of similar tools (our favorite is the previously mentioned WinDirStat), but it boasts a couple of nice features that sets it apart from most.
First and foremost, it’s portable, which means it’s the perfect app to throw on your PC repair kit thumb drive. Second, where some of these tools can take a while to analyze your hard drive usage, FolderSize seems to run really fast and light. On the downside, it’s not as feature rich as most of the alternatives, and you can’t drill down through the results or even open folders in a new Explorer window from its interface. You can, however, zoom in and out on the window for a closer look at folders using your mouse’s scrollwheel.
If you’re going to do some serious file analysis where you can install something, I’d suggest going with WinDirStat. If you just need something fast you can carry on your thumb drive, this app seems like a good option. FolderSize is a free, open-source download, Windows only.
QT Lite Frees You from QuickTime’s Bloat [Downloads]
My Clippings October 19th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Windows only: No one likes being bugged by Apple’s Software Update Utility in Windows, but many of us deal with it because we need QuickTime to use iTunes or view the occasional video. QT Lite aims to fix that.
If you don’t use iTunes (or any other Apple software), you can finally rid yourself of Apple’s Software Update bloat by replacing QuickTime with QT Lite. QT Lite installs only what is necessary to play QuickTime files and nothing more. It still has all the same settings and preferences as the normal version of QuickTime, though.
QT Lite is very similar to QuickTime Alternative, which we featured as one of our superior alternatives to crappy Windows software. The only difference is that QuickTime Alternative also installs Windows Media Player Classic, so it should also work as a QuickTime replacement if you want to install iTunes without the QuickTime bloat.
QT Lite is a free download, Windows only.
Five Best Software Update Tools [Hive Five]
My Clippings October 18th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Rather than wait around for your software to notify you of updates (let’s face it, a lot of applications never will), these five handy tools keep an eye on your apps, alert you when an update’s available, and streamline the updating process.
Photo by Wesley Fryer.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite software update tools, and now we’re back with the five most popular nominees. Read on for an overview of each, then cast your vote for the one you like best in the poll below.
Note: Clicking on the screenshots below will enlarge the screenshots to their original size.
FileHippo Update Checker (Windows, Free)
FileHippo.com is a software download site that hosts tons of both freeware and shareware, so the FileHippo Update Checker is a natural extension of their web site—only better. The lightweight application (the download is 155kb) scans your computer for installed apps in seconds, compares your installed version with the FileHippo.com database to check for new releases, then lists all detected updates in a list in your browser along with links to download your updates. FileHippo Update Checker is a free download for Windows only. (Original post)
Synaptic/APT (Linux, Free)
The Advanced Packaging Tool, a.k.a. APT, is a free tool built into most Linux distributions and many variants that handles the installation, removal, and updating of software packages. APT is a tool that went a long way toward making Linux a bit friendlier to the masses who aren't comfortable installing or compiling software packages on Linux, but it runs from the command line, so it's still not all that friendly to folks joining Linux from the Windows or Mac worlds. That's where Synaptic comes in. Synaptic is a graphical front end to APT that makes the tool wildly more user-friendly, and—yes—it handles checking for and updating software with aplomb. (Folks using Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution among Lifehacker readers, take note: Synaptic will be replaced by the Ubuntu Software Center—another APT-powered update tool—in April of 2010.)
Tags: Apple, Build, cli, command line, email, Google, Information, IO, Linux, ma, Mac, man, OSX, Photo, quick, script, security, Ubuntu, way, wind
New Screencast: Editable CSS3 Image Gallery
My Clippings October 18th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
We build a pretty typical image gallery design pattern, a grid of images that pop up larger when clicked. But this image gallery page makes use of hot semantic HTML5 markup, loads of visual treats with CSS3 and jQuery, and made editable through the CMS PageLime. Quick reminder, the demo is awesome-est in a WebKit browser (Safari or Chrome).
View Demo Download Files View Screencast
Tags: blockquote, Build, cli, css, Google, ma, man, Photo, quick, video
Psystar, Apple file motions for summary judgment
My Clippings October 17th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Hardware, OS
Apple and Psystar have been embroiled in litigation for quite a while now. At the core of the dispute: Psystar modifies Apple’s operating system software so that it can run on its clone machines. It then sells its computers with Mac OS installed to, well, anybody who wants one. As you can imagine, this does not make Apple happy.
Anybody familiar with The Great Clone Crackdown of 1997 will tell you that Apple likes to keep a very tight grip on any device that presumes to run its software. Apple points out that Windows machines are a mishmash of often conflicting hardware and suffer from quirks and errors and incompatibilities that such a set up can bring.
So Apple’s cadre of lawyers descended quickly on Psystar. In July of last year, the company sued Psystar for copyright and software licensing violations, quickly amending its lawsuit to additionally charge Psystar with violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
More than a year later, now that discovery has been completed, the two parties have each filed for summary judgment, which, in effect, asks the judge to rule in favor of the filing party because enough evidence has been shown that either makes or breaks the lawsuit.
Psystar’s argument, and the one covered in its motion, somewhat relies on the “first sale doctrine” which says that any purchaser of a copyrighted product can then take that lawfully-made copy and sell it, so long as no additional copies can be made. For its part, Apple says that when one “purchases” its OS, you are only purchasing a license to use the product. Its Software Licensing Agreement (SLA) quite clearly states [PDF link to Snow Leopard SLA] that the user cannot modify the software to run on a non-Apple system.
The idea that what you are purchasing is a license to use the product is pretty commonplace among software manufacturers, because, the argument runs, you can cut any software company’s profits off at the knees if every purchaser became an owner with free rein to redistribute the software. Apple states that no software company in its right mind would put the money into research and development of any software product at all if that were the end result of bringing its product to market. Groklaw suggests this could have ramifications for FOSS and and the GPL.
Continue reading Psystar, Apple file motions for summary judgment
Tags: Apple, email, Google, Inc., IO, ISO, Leopard, ma, Mac, man, OSX, php, quick, Snow Leopard, wind
Go Straight to Your Unread Gmail Messages with a Shortcut [Shortcuts]
My Clippings October 8th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
You probably already know how to find unread messages in Gmail (just search is:unread in:inbox), but if you want quick, bookmarkable access to only those unread messages in your inbox, CNET has a simple suggestion.
The video above walks through the basic idea. They suggest not just adding a bookmark to the is:unread in:inbox URL (which, if you’re a regular old Gmail user, is http://mail.google.com/mail/?&shva=1#search/is%3Aunread+in%3Ainbox), but also setting up a keyword bookmark for that URL so you can instantly open your unread messages in a couple of keystrokes.
I love the last part, but that’s not terribly surprising; I think keyword bookmarking is one of the best features in Firefox. Either way, this simple bookmark could be a useful one if you have trouble keeping your unread messages at “zero”.
Cobbett: eBay’s Skype Purchase Failure
My Clippings October 8th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Was Ebay’s historic $2billion Skype acquisition the worst deal in the history of the PC industry? Maybe not, but it’s got to be on the shortlist. Dr Faustus negotiated himself a better contract. First, let’s consider the price. $2.6billion (in cash and shares) is a lot for any company to shell out, even for something as then-exciting as Skype and a share in the fledgling VoIP revolution.
Next, factor in the fact that if Ebay ever had a clue why it wanted Skype in the first place, we never saw it. PayPal for $1.5billion? Sure. It’s now the standard method of buying and selling on Ebay proper – that one makes sense. Skype? We didn’t even see the much-mocked idea of buyers calling sellers to ask questions come to fruition, never mind anything that justified the exorbitant price.
No wonder Ebay has been trying to sell it on, but what exactly does it have to sell? In a twist of fate that must have led to at least one former contract lawyer filling in a fast food job application form, we found out that Ebay had bought Skype, but not the key peer-to-peer technology behind it, which was still owned by the software’s original developers. To put this situation into some sort of context, it’s the equivalent of Ebay having one wish and spending it on a lifetime’s supply of tuna, but failing to persuade the genie to hand over a can opener.
But wait, that’s not all! Just in case there wasn’t quite enough salt poured into its already gaping wound, the moment Ebay finally managed to wash its hands of the whole messy business by finding a buyer for the service, Skype’s original owners popped back up and hit the online auction house with a lawsuit, finally squirting actual blood from the emaciated cash cow’s poor, withered udders. Right into Ebay’s sobbing face.
What I’m trying to say here is that, firstly, I think this deal could probably have gone a little better. Secondly, if there are still any giant corporations out there that disagree with me, and which honestly believe that urinating away billions of dollars on something as obviously foolish as the initial Skype purchase could be seen as a good investment, well, you’re in luck.
HotPrints Prints Free, Ad-Supported Photo Books [Free]
My Clippings October 7th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Need physical copies of some great shots, but you’re a bit too lazy to order and pay for them? HotPrints mails you free 16-page photo books, with shots pulled from Facebook, if you don’t mind some non-intrusive paper ads.
In this case, non-intrusive means the advertisements aren’t watermarked or otherwise touching your actual photos. They’re inserted between the pages, and can be pulled out, kind of like magazine subscription cards. You’d also have to be comfortable with HotPrints using “contextual” data from Facebook to target some ads at you. That means the album style you choose, the content of your profile, and region information from your Facebook account are used to target the ads, but the company claims that no identifying information is given out to its sponsoring partners. You can read more about HotPrints’ do’s and don’ts at their privacy policy.
If you’re cool with that at the cost of free, even free shipping, HotPrints’ Facebook app makes it fairly easy to pull in tagged photos of yourself or any Facebook contacts for a quickie album, with a limit of one per month. It’s a free service, requires a Facebook account (and app authorization) to use.
Tags: cli, Google, Information, IO, ma, Photo, php, Printing, quick, script
Statistics of breakdown of hard disks
My Clippings October 7th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Hardware.fr published an article giving the failure rates of many components used in computing by analysing the database of a large French retailer. The chapter which interests us most is that devoted to the hard drives.
As always, there are large differences not only between the manufacturers, but also between the various models. Without surprise, Seagate is fallen due to the problems encountered with the firmware a few months ago, this marque, and her little sister in the same group remains at the bottom with nearly 2,8% of returns. Samsung with its SpinPoint T of 500 GB wins the prize of the least reliable disc with 12,9% of returns, which is colossal. At the opposite end, Western Digital win for the most reliable disk with its models 1 TB (Green or Black models)where no model has been brought back to after sales service.
However things can change very quickly in this industry where each model is the occasion to set the counter at zero. Hitachi, for example, had problems of reliability a few years ago but is now in the first place with the most reliable disks.
Use SUSE Studio to Build a Linux OS From Scratch [Operating Systems]
My Clippings September 30th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from Google Starred
Think you can make a better fast-booting, Chrome-focused OS than Google? Want to craft a custom Linux system that boots from a USB stick? SUSE Studio gives you 15 GB to do exactly that, and you do it all online.
SUSE Studio is what powered the fan-made “Chrome OS” we posted yesterday, which, in that case, was a semi-stripped-down system loaded with the developers’ version of Chrome, Google webapp links, and OpenOffice. If speed and cloud computing aren’t your bag, you can create a fully functional system with Firefox, 3D graphics, and whatever apps you can find installed. Want your system to start up with an AWN dock and Launchy keystroke launcher running? Not a problem.
Even if you don't know all that much about Linux, it's pretty easy to build a system you can boot from a USB stick or live CD/DVD, run inside a virtual machine program, or actually install it—or, heck, even test it out in your web browser.
Here’s a basic walkthrough of building a system with SUSE Studio. In this case, we’re looking to build a GNOME-based system that would boot fairly quick and use Chrome for most of its functions, and use GNOME-Do as the primary application launcher.
Get an account, choose your desktop
First things first, you’ll need to grab an invitation and account from SUSE Studio. While it’s invite-only at the moment, I received my invite only 10 minutes after registering and filling out a quick survey that suggested it would boost my invite reply time. Once your invite arrives, you can sign into SUSE Studio with your Google or Yahoo account, or any OpenID provider. Not sure how to nab an OpenID? Here’s a quick video tutorial.
Once you’re signed in, head to your “Home” screen and click the “Create new appliance” link in the upper-right. SUSE Studio calls each bootable system you create an “appliance” throughout the process. You’ll be asked to choose your “base template,” which includes the GNOME and KDE desktops, a Just Enough OS (jeOS) option, and server or command-line-only choices. Most folks will want to lean toward GNOME or KDE setups, as they're the most familiar graphical environments. If you're familiar with Linux enough to know how to build a login manager and desktop from a command line system, though, go ahead and play around—you can't really hurt anything.
Tags: Build, cli, command line, Google, IO, ISO, Linux, ma, Mac, man, quick, script, video, VirtualBox, way, wind
