SnakeBite MP3 Converter

SnakeBite is an audio conversion application that can convert your entire music library to MP3 in a single step. SnakeBite is designed for those who use libre audio formats like Vorbis and FLAC, but also need their music in the MP3 format.

Simply choose the source folder (containing your music) and the destination folder (where the music converted to MP3 will go), and SnakeBite does the rest. After it has finished, the destination folder will contain the exact same folders and files as the source folder, except all the files will have a ".mp3" extension and will be encoded in the MP3 format. Your original music library is never altered in any way.

More Here: http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=2342

Watching Live-TV On Your Ubuntu Desktop With Zattoo

A company called Zattoo has developed a software program that allows you to watch TV on your computer. All you need is a broadband connection and a current operating system (Windows XP or Vista, Mac OS X, or Linux). The service is legal and free of charge.

Check it out at:
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/watching-live-tv-on-your-ubuntu-desktop-with-zattoo.html

Rogue MP3 Trojan streaks across networks.

Since Friday more than half a million computers have been infected, according to McAfee. The Downloader-UA.h Trojan serves ads onto contaminated PCs as part of an apparent money-making scam.

McAfee reckons miscreants loaded hundreds of rigged MP3 and MPEG files onto popular file-swapping services such as Limewire and eDonkey. The files are all named differently (in multiple languages) and vary in size in order to make them appear like legitimate music or video files.

Attempting to play one of the malicious files will trigger the download of an application named "PLAY_MP3.exe" that serves ads onto infected Windows PCs.

Adobe's Open Future, Open Screen Project.

Adobe made huge announcements regarding opening up the Flash Player. Effective today, there will be no restrictions on the SWF specification or the FLV specifications that make up video in Flash. before you had to sign an agreement not to use it to create competing players. But, thanks to there Open Screen Project all of those restriction are bye, bye.

The goal of the Open Screen Project is to enable a consistent runtime environment across a wide variety of devices and desktops. The next release of the Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices will have no licensing fees meaning you can distribute and deploy them anywhere. As part of this, Adobe is also publishing the device porting layer APIs. The device porting layer APIs are what Adobe uses to take the core of the Flash Player and make it work on different operating systems and devices. This will blow Microsoft's Silverlight out of the water. Well done Adobe.

10 Things You Don't Want To Hear From Technical Support.

1) "Do you have a sledgehammer or a brick handy?"

2) "That's right, not even McGyver could fix it."

3) "So -- what are you wearing?"

4) "Duuuuuude! Bummer!"

5) "Looks like you're gonna need some new dilithium crystals, Cap'n."

6) "Press 1 for Support. Press 2 if you're with 60 Minutes. Press 3 if you're with the FTC."

7) "We can fix this, but you're gonna need a butter knife, a roll of duct tape, and a car battery."

8) "In layman's terms, we call that the Hindenburg Effect."

9) "Hold on a second... Mom! Timmy's hitting me!"

10) "Okay, turn to page 523 in your copy of Dianetics."

(Bonus) "Please hold for a Microsoft attorney."

Things to do on your new Ubuntu Linux 8.04

Ubuntu 8.04 was released a few days back and here is a list that helps you install all the essential codecs and applications easily on your Ubuntu 8.04 desktop saving your googling time and helping you make transition from Windows to Ubuntu. More Here

By Ambuj Varshney

It is a documented fact that Windows can...

It is a documented fact that Windows can destroy computer hardware due to virus attacks. There are some Windows viruses that can damage the hard drive by speeding wear and tear, and others can turn off the fans, thus overheating the CPU. Some viruses make the CPU run too fast, and then make sudden halts, which not only affects the CPU, but it also hurts hard drives and fans.

Read More Here: http://www.raiden.net/?cat=2&aid=307

Shuttleworth starts countdown to Ubuntu 8.04 release

The next red-letter day for Ubuntu fans will be April 24, when Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long Term Support) arrives. Mark Shuttleworth, the CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, guarantees that the next version of the popular Linux distribution will make it on time, with something for enterprise, desktop, and Internet users.

In an interview, Shuttleworth made the point that, while many executives have yet to realize it, "Open source software projects and Linux distros are actually better than proprietary companies at hitting deadlines." In particular, Shuttleworth says, "Companies are now comparing Linux with Vista, and it's clear that's Linux does a better job of meeting people's expectations.

More Here

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Managing The GRUB Bootloader With QGRUBEditor On Ubuntu 7.10

QGRUBEditor is a graphical frontend for managing the GRUB bootloader. By using QGRUBEditor, you do not have to mess around with the GRUB configuration in /boot/grub/menu.lst anymore. This article shows how to install and use QGRUBEditor on Ubuntu 7.10.

http://www.howtoforge.com/managing-grub-with-qgrubeditor-on-ubuntu7.10

Mark Shuttleworth blames ISO for Microsoft's Office Open XML Win

“It’s sad that the ISO was not willing to admit that its process was failing horribly,” he said, noting that Microsoft intensely lobbied many countries that traditionally have not participated in ISO and stacked technical committees with Microsoft employees, solution providers and resellers sympathetic to OOXML. “When you have a process built on trust and when that trust is abused, [ISO] should halt the process.”

More Here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2222

By Paula Rooney

Six Future Open Source Superstars

In the world of open source software Red Hat’s crossed over from exciting leader to respectable elder statesman. The action is among the new batch of up-and-coming open source software companies who are not yet venture backed but are developing interesting technologies and services. Here are some of the companies that may well be the new open source superstars.

More Here: http://linuxbusinessnews.sys-con.com/read/529607.htm

By: Mark R. Hinkle

Matrix XP

Play Windows games on Linux with PlayOnLinux

If you are an avid gamer, you probably dual-boot your favorite Linux distribution with Windows, because that's where you find most new cutting-edge games. But what if you could run your Windows games on Linux? PlayOnLinux is an open source Python-scripted front end that helps you install and play tons of Windows-only games -- and then some!

More Here: http://www.linux.com/feature/128773

By M. Sharma

Good malware hunting for Linux

Linux has proved to be much more resistant to malware than Windows, especially when it comes to viral infections, but any remote exploit makes it just as susceptible to worms, trojans, and rootkits as any other platform. Given all the fuss in the news recently about compromised Linux/Apache servers being responsible for infecting Windows users with malware when they visit those compromised sites, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at three of the best rootkit/malware detection tools available for Linux desktop and SOHO users. Here's a brief comparison of three popular choices: Chkrootkit, Rootkit Hunter, and Ossec.

Read more and get it here:
http://www.linux.com/feature/128450

Software Freedom Law Center
Publishes Legal Guide on Free Software

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), today published a legal guide which acts as an in-depth introduction to the legal issues surrounding FOSS.

The guide, written by members of SFLC's staff, covers a variety of legal topics and their practical application to free software development. These topics include copyrights and licensing, organizational structure, patents, and trademarks.

The guide is available at: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.html

Turn your computer into an internet TV

Miro ROCK'S under LINUX! And, yes there is a Windows Version...

Play virtually any type of video file - Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, and more. Browse your collection, make playlists, stay organized.

Your computer screen is a high-definition display. Miro gives you access to more free HD content than any other video player. Sit back and watch gorgeous HD video fullscreen.

Subscribe to any video RSS feed, podcast, or video blog. Explore and subscribe to over 2,500 free channels with the built-in Miro Guide. New channels added daily.

Download and save videos from YouTube, Google Video, Dailymotion, and more. You can even save a search term and automatically get new videos as they are posted.

"Free and open-source, because open media matters."

Get it here: http://www.getmiro.com

Lunar Eclipse: This Wednesday..

A total eclipse of the Moon will occur this Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event will be visible from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.

Details at NASA's Website :
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html

How to recover your boot password under Linux

you can recover using the following steps

Turn on computer

Press ESC at the grub prompt

Press e for edit

Highlight the line that begins kernel ………, press e

Go to the very end of the line, add rw init=/bin/bash

press enter, then press b to boot your system.

The system will boot up to a password-less root shell

Type in passwd username

Set your password

Type in reboot

That's it.... It's fixed...

Google intros Team Apps edition to bypass the IT department..

Google released a new edition of its hosted applications suite that end-users can bring into the workplace without the involvement of their IT department.

The new release, called Google Apps Team Edition, is available for free. It is aimed at employees who are interested in using Google Apps but whose employers haven't signed up for it.

So far, more than 500,000 mostly small organizations have signed up for Google Apps, but the other versions -- Standard, Education, Partner and Premier -- require IT to implement the suite because its services are linked to an organization's Internet domain.

Once signed up with Team Edition, people can see who else in their organization's Internet domain is also a user, and invite those who aren't.

Read more here:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/020708-google-intros-apps-edition-to.html

Check it out here:
http://www.google.com/apps/business/index.html

Firefox: a toolbar trinity.

Firefox rocks because it acts like a Lego set -- you have your base module, and then you can stick extensions on it. Some of the most obvious extensions are toolbars. Unlike the embedded-application extensions like Chatzilla or FireFTP, toolbars actually modify your interface.

A toolbar can contain search engine interfaces, bookmarks, RSS feeds, or extra tools for managing content. A lot of toolbars are very specialized -- tools for multimedia producers, musicians, and even Mormon theology students. Here are three more general toolbars that any net junkie will find useful.

Read more here: http://www.linux.com/feature/126291