Create Panoramic Photos with Hugin

This article was written on August 22, 2008 by CyberNet.

hugin.jpg

Panoramic photos seem to be becoming more common these days as people carry cameras with them wherever they go. In the past we’ve shown you tools like AutoStitch and Windows Live Photo Gallery that make assembling panoramic photos effortless, but the free Hugin program is much more customizable.

Hugin will attempt to find points on the images that match up with each other, or you can manually specify control points. It can take some time to get used to because of all the manual settings available to configure, but with these tutorials and a little spare time this weekend you should be all set.

There are over 8,000 images on Flickr that have used Hugin for assembling some amazing panoramic shots. Once you get the hang of using the program you’ll be able to create shots using Hugin like this that started out with this typical panoramic.

Get Hugin for Windows, Mac, or Linux

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Two Main Thunderbird Developers Leave Mozilla

This article was written on October 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

It’s been an extremely sad week for Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client. We’ve seen the only two full-time developers announce that they will be leaving the organization at the end of this week. News of this started when Scott MacGregor, the lead Thunderbird engineer, said that October 12th will be his last day as an employee. David Bienvenu then followed up Scott’s announcement with his own.

This comes just a short while after Mozilla announced the creation of MailCo, a subsidiary created for Thunderbird with $3 million in seed funding. People had a lot of fears that the result would be disastrous, but Mozilla put up a FAQ’s site regarding the new subsidiary to help calm everyone down. They wanted to reassure us that everything was going to be alright, and ironically this was included in the FAQ’s:

How will the current Thunderbird developers be involved?
We expect the current developers (Scott MacGregor and David Bienvenu) to continue to be the module owners for Thunderbird and Mozilla mail codebases.

Do we have reason to be worried now? We don’t actually know the reason that Scott and David are leaving Mozilla so it’s possible that it has nothing to do with the subsidiary being established. David Ascher, the leader of the new MailCo, said:

Both Scott McGregor and David Bienvenu have posted that they are leaving Mozilla Corp.  My understanding from chats with them weeks ago (I hope I’m not divulging anything that I shouldn’t) is that they have decided to start a new venture.  They’ve worked on Thunderbird and its predecessors within Mozilla and Nestcape for a long time, and I can certainly understand their desire to do something different.

The bulk of the MailCo budget is expected to be spent on staff (as with all small software companies, and especially small open source software companies!), with most of that going to Thunderbird-focused staff for a while, I expect.  We’re recruiting experienced developers now to focus specifically on Thunderbird and more broadly on improving mail and communications in general.

The future of Thunderbird doesn’t seem all that bright anymore, but it is a little reassuring that the bulk of the MailCo budget will be spent on staff. They have $3 million to work with as of right now, which seems like a lot, but Thunderbird doesn’t really have its own revenue stream so that money will be gone in the blink of an eye. It might be a little early to make any judgements, but I don’t have a good feeling as to where this is headed. I really feel bad for Eudora who had just decided to make their popular mail app use Thunderbird as its base.

Source: Mozilla Links

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Google Engineers reply to NSA: “all too often, laws are for the little people”

There are a couple of Google engineers working for the Google security team replying in kind to the NSA and the GCHQ (on the other side of the ocean) regarding the most recent round of Edward Snowden-leaked documents on government snooping into Google and Yahoo cloud networks. What you’ll find is a rather everyman-level bit […]

Swype 1.6 pushed with mini keyboard and voice recognition boosts

There’s a new Swype in town this week for Android, running with new features requested by the masses throughout the year. This version of the 3rd-party keyboard software continues to replace the standard keyboard experience on your Android device, both smartphone and tablet, and here brings on the ability to work with the tiniest of […]

Clean Up Your Inbox by Sending Bulk Email to Its Own Folder

Clean Up Your Inbox by Sending Bulk Email to Its Own Folder

Mailing lists are like your fingernails. They’re useful, but you have to trim them and tend to them regularly lest they become unruly and bring you great pain.

    



Azureus 3 Now Known as Vuze

This article was written on April 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Vuze

Azureus 3 just announced today that their client, formerly code-named Zudeo, will be called Vuze. In addition to the name change the press release also says that the service is getting more content:

The service enables a robust community to browse and discover premium content from both worldwide media companies and high-quality self-published content. Vuze now offers dramatically enhanced features and premium content from around the world, including the U.S. premiere of the hit BBC television series Sorted, which will be offered in HD. Azureus also announced that it has entered into an agreement with Showtime Networks for distribution of its original programming, including award-winning hit shows Weeds, Dexter and The L Word.

I haven’t used the service since it was first introduced because it just wasn’t compelling enough for me. Not only that, but as Slyck File Sharing points out Vuze is not DRM-free:

And yes, Azureus’ Zudeo/Vuze outlet contains its fair share of DRM – much like the BEN. Material that Starz Media sells is wrapped within a DRM environment, as is BBC content. The difference between BitTorrent, Inc. and Azureus however, is Ashwin Navin and Bram Cohen has been aggressively vocal against DRM, while Azureus has been noticeably quiet.

As of right now the most popular videos on the site are mostly movie trailers, such as Spiderman 3 and Transformers, in which almost all are provided in HD quality. It definitely isn’t for people on dial-up though, because the 2 minute Spiderman 3 trailer is a whopping 99MB in size!

There seems to be a lot of competition in the video arena these days, which makes me wonder whether Vuze will be a success? If it is then it will probably be because of the Azureus name that stands behind it.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Kazam smartphones ushered in by former HTC heads

This week two former HTC executives have launched a smartphone brand called Kazam, complete with a whopping 5 models right out the gate. These smartphones are not aiming to present the sharpest displays, nor the most powerful processors – or the best cameras, for that matter. Instead they aim at a number of pressure points […]

Safari 3.0.4 for Windows – Spelling and Grammar Check

This article was written on November 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

Safari Spell Check

Apple released a pretty big update to the Safari 3 Beta browser for Windows this morning. One of the most notable additions is the spelling and grammar checking, which can be done inline if you so desire. To have Safari check the spelling while you type just right-click in a text box, go to Spelling and Grammar, and then tick the Check Spelling While Typing option. As you can see above it underlines incorrect words with a dashed red line.

One of the other big features is the ability to perform a full history search. If you pull up the browser’s history and start to do a search it will scan all of the text for your visited websites, instead of just the titles and URL’s. This is almost like what Opera 9.5 offers, except that Safari’s isn’t searchable directly from the address bar.

There were also improvements to security, stability, compatibility, keyboard shortcuts, and several more features:

  • Windows to be resized from any side – thank goodness! It was annoying have to grab the bottom-right corner each time I wanted to resize Safari.
  • Includes an additional font smoothing option (“standard”)
  • Supports listing FTP directories
  • Links to proxy settings from Safari (Safari respects the proxy settings in the Windows Internet control panel)
  • Adds cookie management
  • Includes tooltips
  • Allows printing of page numbers, titles, margins
  • Improves bookmark collection interface
  • Maintains original order of imported bookmarks
  • Adds an interface for editing AutoFill information
  • Adds a new preference to manually mark RSS articles as read
  • Includes support for tilt wheels

If I didn’t know better I would almost say that Apple is trying hard to provide a decent version of Safari for Windows users. Who would have ever thought it would come to this?

Get Safari

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Windows Vista 5487 Screenshots Leaked

This article was written on August 03, 2006 by CyberNet.

Windows Vista 5487 Screenshots Leaked

WinFuture.de was able to get their hands on a copy of Vista 5487 and they are kind enough to show us some screenshots. The Welcome Center that pops up after you login now has several additional features to it which will help people get started more quickly. Also, the screenshot above shows the new design of the weather, stock, and performance widgets. This build is also branded as Vista RC1 but that doesn’t mean much. Robert from LonghornBlogs.com said that the August 15 release date of Vista RC1 isn’t very accurate according to his sources. I have also just heard that it will probably be pushed back to the end of August or early October. Hopefully the slight delay will help ensure that Vista RC1 is a great milestone release!

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Android 4.4 KitKat updates approach: HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung

Google appears to be getting serious about putting the whole modern device lineup on their newest Android 4.4 KitKat operating system software update here just days after the system was revealed in full. While you’ll be able to pick up the LG-made Google Nexus 5 right this minute, each of the four major US-based manufacturers […]