This article was written on September 10, 2007 by CyberNet.
FileZilla 3 was just released and I have to admit that I’m pretty excited to see my favorite FTP client hit this big milestone. This version has spent several years in the making, and even though it doesn’t have many new features over the previous version there is something that is definitely worth noting: it’s now cross-platform! That’s right, it doesn’t matter whether your a Windows, Linux, or Mac user because FileZilla runs on them all.
Making FileZilla 3 cross-platform was no easy task, and it required a complete code rewrite. Unfortunately they also weren’t able to bring back all of the features from FileZilla 2, but I believe that most casual FTP users won’t notice much of a difference. The only thing I’ve found so far that FileZilla 3 is lacking is the synchronization capabilities that FileZilla 2 offered. If you never used that feature I think you should be pleased with the new version.
One of the other great things that I noticed in this version is the organization of queued, failed, and successful transfers into separate tabs at the bottom. This makes it much easier to see how your transfers are going.
Interestingly enough the developer also decided to refresh the FileZilla icon by choosing a different color scheme. It’s not a drastic change from what it was, but it’s enough to make me look twice when trying to find the program in the Start Menu.
This article was written on April 11, 2006 by CyberNet.
PortableApps.com is popular for their wide range of portable applications that they have available, such as Portable Open Office and Portable FileZilla. Now they have released a portable version of GIMP. If you aren’t familiar with GIMP then this is the easiest way to test it. It has many similar attributes to Adobe Photoshop although it does lack the simplistic interface that I am accustomed to in Photoshop. If you have never used Photoshop before then I am sure you will love this free application for editing your photos, however, existing Photoshop users may find it difficult to adjust to the differences.
I am currently using Portable GIMP because it is a nice replacement for Paint in Windows. That way I can carry it with me on my USB drive and always have a decent photo editing application.
This article was written on June 25, 2007 by CyberNet.
Microsoft Monday
When Microsoft released a DreamScene Preview for Vista Ultimate users, I couldn’t wait to try it out. Once I got it installed I was indeed impressed, but I still felt like I was missing out on the full capabilities of what DreamScene could really do.
Now being more than 4-months after the preview version was released, there is still no final version, but that’s a whole other story. Shortly after the Vista release, Stardock picked up some of Microsoft’s slack by extending the feature set that Dreamscene had. They made a free add-on called Deskscapes which once installed, lets you choose from their vast collection of user-uploaded “Dreams.”
Almost all of them are offered for free, and so I thought I would take a look at several that I have personally tested out. And since there are no videos of them available on the site I also felt the need to demonstrate to you what each of them looks like.
Note: None of the videos have sound because I was trying to keep the size of the video to a minimum, but its not like they would have sound on your desktop anyway. You can also look for the little white dots on the timeline to quickly skip to the next Dream demo:
–The City–
These three Dreamscapes are all based on cities, and one of them has a special place in my heart since it is of the Chicago skyline!
Everyone loves water when it comes to desktop backgrounds, so I thought I would devote an entire section just to that! We’ve got waterfalls, lakes, and tropical paradise that will help prepare you for a vacation.
Note: Some of the effects that some of the Dreams have are more subtle than others, particularly the two Island ones. I threw these in because they look good, and some people don’t like too much motion on their desktop.
This is kind of a conglomeration of odds and ends that I found. A few of them put you in space, some are related to movies, and others just don’t belong anywhere.
The hot one in this group is no doubt the Shark Pit, which is what I have my current Vista desktop set to. When other people have seen me using it they think it is the coolest thing ever. Kudos to the Stardock team for developing it and not charging a dime!
Besides for producing free Dreams such as the Shark Pit, Stardock also works hard to create dynamic ones. Unlike other Dreams, the content that these show are not just a looping movie, and are instead created on-the-fly for your viewing pleasure.
Since these will cost you money, I decided to point out the features that each has a little bit more in detail so that you have a better idea of what you’ll receive. All of them, except the first one, also have options that you can configure to your liking and I made sure to demonstrate some of the different things you can do with those settings.
Blissful Dream ($8.95) This one is pretty cool because it adjusts with your computer’s clock. From what I gather, there are just a few transitions that it has (sun rise, afternoon, sunset, night) which I try to demonstrate in the video by manually adjusting the clock.
Desktop Earth ($8.95) I think the NASA-addicts out there will really get a kick out of this one. It is a rotating globe that shows where it is currently daytime and where it is nighttime. You can customize the speed of the rotation, or just make the globe stationary and have the light revolve around it as the day goes on.
Desktop Collage ($8.95) I really thought at first that this was going to be my favorite. I consider myself a photo guru and take pictures of almost anything, and looking through the options there was all kinds of stuff to love. At certain time intervals, it places a picture on your desktop (essentially forming a collage), and you can control the size of the pictures as well as the delay between adding photos. The downside is in choosing the location of the photos to use because it didn’t let me use a folder that only contained sub-folders. Instead I had to pick a folder that had pictures directly in it, which takes away a little bit from the beauty of this Dream.
Liquid Dream ($9.95) I think this ended up being my favorite out of the bunch because of how realistic it is. At first glance it doesn’t look like anything amazing, but the power lies in the configuration. You can adjust the rain drop frequency, the drop size, the background (rocks, sand, etc…) and the reflective image (night sky or clouds). If you sit there and play with the different options you are sure to find some cool settings, which I try to demonstrate in the video.
While all of the cool dynamic Dreams currently cost money, in the near future that could be changing. Stardock told me that they are working on an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the dynamic Dreams so that anyone could create ones just like these. So keep your eyes open because there could be some cool things on the horizon!
This article was written on January 23, 2007 by CyberNet.
WordPress 2.1 Ella has been released, and it’s ready for download. With over 550 bug fixes, and quite the list of new features, it should definitely be worth the upgrade. There are too many features to list,(view the complete list here) but here are some that caught my eye:
Autosave- This should prevent you from ever losing a post again! We use Window’s Live Writer for writing our posts, but previously to that we wrote our posts in the online editor. There were several times that the browser would unexpectedly crash. Post gone. This should prevent that.
Tabbed editor: This allows you to switch views between your code editing, and WYSIWYG. Nice edition.
Improved visual editor- now includes spell checking!
Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project
Upload manager lets you easily manage all of your uploaded pictures, video, and audio
Akismet plugin – a new version of this spam protector built right in!
There’s also a list of developer features that will allow for a new generation of plugins with richer elements like image and thumbnail API, and a custom header, color picker, and image cropping framework.
As they plan for the future, they’re asking what the community wants to see. The most popular ideas are pictured in the screenshot below. The most popular ideas include plugin update notification, tags, and thumbnail and image resizing.
We’re in the process of upgrading, and will probably have it completed later tonight when traffic slows down a bit. You can download the latest version here.
This article was written on November 12, 2007 by CyberNet.
As expected Google released their Android Software Development Kit (SDK) today. It provides all of the tools needed to start creating applications that run on the next generation mobile operating system, and Google is getting their checkbooks out to help ensure that Android won’t be a flop…
–The $10 Million Contest–
Google has caught the attention of developers around the world by announcing a $10 million contest that will be awarded to some of the best Android applications. The money will be distributed equally between two Android Developer Challenges:
Android Developer Challenge I: Submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008
Android Developer Challenge II: This part will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008
In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.
–Android Screenshots–
These are screenshots of Android running on what looks to be a Blackberry-like device:
(Click to Enlarge)
–Touch Screen Android Screenshots–
Android includes an iPhone-style browser that is Webkit-based. It provides a browsing experience similar to what you would expect from a desktop computer. You can zoom in and out of the websites at your own leisure, and it even includes a website history browser that appears to be a sibling of the iTunes Cover Flow:
(Click to Enlarge)
–The Video–
Finally, here is the video that Google provided with live demonstrations of both the regular and touch screen uses of Android:
This article was written on April 18, 2007 by CyberNet.
Microsoft just released updated Virtual PC images for Windows XP that users can legally download. Virtual PC images are a single file that contain a “clone” of an operating system. The Virtual PC software is a free download provided by Microsoft and is used to run multiple operating systems inside of Windows. This is normally useful for developers who need to try a program that they’re developing on multiple operating systems to ensure proper compatibility, but it can also benefit other people.
There is actually another benefit to this that most people don’t realize. Using these images is also great for keeping your PC free from unnecessary clutter! If you’re thinking that you want to test out an application to see how much you like it, now all you have to do is install the program on the Virtual PC. That way if you don’t like it, you can easily remove it from your computer without wondering what registry settings or folders it left behind.
The only downside to using these is that the images expire August 17th, 2007, but that is still 4–months of free access to a Windows XP testing station. Also, these images are pre-activated, but Microsoft has deactivated the product keys so that they don’t pass the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) check. This is pretty logical because some users might try to retrieve the product key from the Virtual PC image and use it to install their own version of XP. If Microsoft allowed these keys to pass the WGA checks, then that product key would quickly become a goldmine for piracy.
This article was written on April 25, 2008 by CyberNet.
Last year we took a look at a sweet PDF reader called PDF-XChange Viewer. One of my favorite things that it includes is a tabbed system for managing multiple PDF’s. It seems like everything is getting tabs these days, and there’s no doubt that they fit very well into a PDF reader. It sure beats having ten different windows open and trying to switch between them all, doesn’t it?
Our fan favorite Foxit PDF reader is jumping on the tab bandwagon as well! The newest version that was just released includes the tab system seen in the screenshot above. Not only that, but it also lets you create bookmarks for any spot within the document which is especially handy when you’re dealing with extensive PDF’s.
Still want more? Here’s a look at some of the other new features and improvements:
Multimedia Player Support: Supports many media formats including audio and video. Read multimedia ebooks with Foxit Reader 2.3.
Callout and Text box Tool: Creates comments in a callout text box or a box. You can also define their appearance as other commenting tools.
Commenting Text Tool: Enables users to add most types of text edits by right-clicking on the selected text, including highlight, strikeout, underline, squiggly and replacement. You can also use the Commenting Text Tool to add bookmarks for PDF files.
Rulers and Guides: Provides horizontal and vertical ruler guides to help users align and position objects on the page. Right-clicking on the ruler enables you to change the unit of measurement.
Magnifier: Magnifies areas of the PDF files easily as you work on Foxit Reader.
Automatic Scrolling: Allows users to view documents without using mouse actions or keystrokes.
Optimized Rendering: Supports progressive rendering and significantly reduces the response time from the user interface events.
Improved Link Tools: Allows users to add actions to links, such as go to a page view, open or execute a file, open a web link, etc.
Improved Snapshot: Enables users to print the selected area in Foxit Reader by simply selecting the Print option from the context menu.
Search Enhancement: Allows users to float, move and resize the Full Foxit Search box.
Better Annotation control: Groups drawing markups to help users operate objects collectively, and allows users to move annotations through pages.
Streamlined UI: A completely redesigned UI with a new look and feel makes Foxit Reader more intuitive than ever before.
I would say that this is actually a pretty big upgrade for Foxit, and I definitely recommend grabbing the new version. Remember, you can download the ZIP version if you want to run it without performing an installation.
Finding apps that make you more productive is always something that I look forward to, and DonationCoder is once again on top of that! Just a little while ago they started a Getting Organized Challenge to see what programmers could come up with.
My first thought was that this was going to be a roundup of existing programs, but instead they required that any submitted apps not be released prior to November 1, 2007. There are 10 programs in total, and all of them are offered completely free of charge. How can you beat that?
I think my favorite out of the bunch is Evaluweight (pictured above). It’s helpful when you’re wanting to compare, well, anything. All you have to do is specify the features you want in the left column, and assign an importance/weight to each of them. Then for each of the products you give them a score (out of 10), and the program will automagically calculate the overall score based upon all of the features. You can save all of the data to a file for easy retrieval, but what would have really been nifty is some sort of HTML export tool for people who post comparisons on websites.
Among the other programs are:
Interruptron – Helps monitor how much time you waste because of interruptions.
AnotherOneDone – Keeps track of how many tasks you have to do, and shows a progress bar displaying how many you’ve completed.
HowLong2It – Counts down to a date in the future, or even one in the past. If you specify a past event, such as a wedding anniversary, it will say how many days have passed since the anniversary.
Timer Assist – A timer that is designed to repeat at a specified interval.
Simple Multi-Alarm Utility – Create multiple alarms to alert you of upcoming events/tasks.
PlainTextWiki Toolkit – Lets you have wiki text support in several different text editors.
CFDButton – Provides more filetype filters in the Open file dialog box. You can also set your favorite directories so that they are just a click away.
MyHelp – A program where you can quickly store things that you often forget.
JRHourlyMarker – Adds hourly markers to mirc and xchat.
This article was written on March 18, 2008 by CyberNet.
I don’t think anyone was really expecting to see a new release of Apple’s Safari browser today, but it has dropped down the tubes for all to enjoy. Apple is once again boasting the performance of the browser when stacked up against the other mainstream alternatives, and according to them Safari comes out well on top in terms of HTML performance and JavaScript performance.
As you may recall we recently put many of the different browser up against Apple’s SunSpider JavaScript test, and Firefox 3 pre-release builds topped the charts. At the time though we didn’t test it against pre-release versions of Safari 3.1, and so we thought that we would do that now. Here are some of our past results intermingled with the newest versions of the browsers (the lower amount of time is better):
Note: All tests were performed on the same Windows machine.
Apple definitely holds the performance crown when comparing it to other released browsers, but once Firefox 3 makes its way out there will be a new king of the hill. So if you were developing a lengthy diabolical plan as to how you were going to switch from Firefox to Safari you might want to hold off if performance was the sole deciding factor.
As far as the Acid 3 test goes Safari 3.1 scores a 75/100, which isn’t quite as good as the nightly builds demonstrated when we last tested it. It’s still the closest a browser comes to passing the test though.
I haven’t noticed any new features in Safari 3.1, and so if you find something I would love to know about it. I do have to say it does feel pretty snappy though when it comes to loading pages. I might have to whip up some more comparisons between the browsers available.
This article was written on January 17, 2006 by CyberNet.
Brains-N-Brawn has figured out a way for Xbox 360 users to watch DivX videos on their Xbox360. This is a good workaround for everyone that is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for a mod solution to turn the Xbox 360 into a real multimedia powerhouse.
mceDivX360 actually works its magic by getting the Windows Media Encoder to do all of the work. The Windows Media Encoder will transcode the DivX files into the WMV format on the fly. The WMV is the format needed for the Xbox 360 to play the movie. This could have been much easier if Microsoft wasn’t so adamant about having users only use their files.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
When Microsoft 
Microsoft just released updated Virtual PC images for Windows XP that users can legally download. Virtual PC images are a single file that contain a “clone” of an operating system. The 
