Month: July 2008

Sourceforge.net, the biggest open source software development site, with over 100,000 hosted projects and more than a million users, just announced the winners of their Community Choice Awards for 2008. News of the event was surprisingly quiet, except in open source circles, even though it was open to any open source project, and not just the ones hosted on Sourceforge.net. It’s a shame that the event didn’t get more coverage, as it seemed to differ from what you normally expect of software ceremonies. A simple look at the category listing and you’ll see what I mean.

Most notable categories were ‘most likely to be the next $1B acquisition’, ‘most likely to be ambiguously and baselessly accused of patent violation’ and ‘most likely to get users sued by anachronistic industry associations defending dead business models’. You’ll get it, this event was much more than just about handing out trophies. It was an opportunity for Sourceforge.net and the open source community to speak their mind.

OpenOffice.org and phpMyAdmin were the big winners of the Community Choice Awards, picking up respectively three and two little statues (or whatever it is Sourforge.net handed out to them). VLC, which is clearly the most flexible and easy to use video player, picked up the prize for best multimedia, while Linux was hailed as ‘most likely to change the world’.

If the category titles are making you a little skeptic, just check out the names of the sponsors for the event: Microsoft, Mozilla, The Linux Foundation are but a few that helped make this possible. The finalists also include many applications that certainly would have deserved to win such  as the XAMPP Apache distribution or the Drupal and XOOP content management systems. If you failed to participate this year, make sure at least that you check out some of the winners.

Think your wallpaper looks bad? Wait till you’ve looked at the selection Macenstein came up with. I’ve rarely seen a bad wallpaper on a Mac, first because the default ones generally look pretty, and second because Mac users tend to be very concerned with the general appearance of their machine.

Lack of taste, yet, is everywhere. Macenstein’s list is a perfect example. Among the 21 different wallpapers chosen, you’ll find a strangely ‘swastika’ looking crop circle, a seedy casino billboard, and a PowerMac surrounded by two ladies in bikini. Some have gone for the celebrity endorsement style, although in a very awkward way, like you’ll see with the Jake Gyllenhaal and the Dawson’s Creek wallpapers. Worst of all though are the wallpapers that fit in an Apple motto or logo with an image that has absolutely nothing to do it with such as Superman, an Indian chief or a picture of Nelson Mandela and a ‘Think Black’ motto.

I hope you are not twisted enough to actually dare use one of these wallpapers. If you really want a beautifully designed desktop background, I suggest turning to UsingMac’s list of 90 wallpapers, all which are discreet variations on the Apple logo itself, with varying colors, viewpoints and contrasts. The bottom of the list pays hommage to the Leopard platform with different takes on the feline creature. A universe apart from the ones mentioned before. With the hordes of Apple crazy designers out there you’re guaranteed to find great looking material from people that love the operating system. It’s hard to pick out a favorite, but my preferences probably go to the Apple Vortex, Crashed Apple and Flaming White Apple.

Anyway, take a look at both lists and see if there’s any wallpaper you’d fancy putting up on your Mac.

Have Microsoft finally come up with something worth getting excited about? Microsoft Live Mesh is an interesting new project that enables users to synch all of their mobile and computing devices seamlessly. This even includes Macs although currently, it’s only available on Windows platforms but a Mac release is imminent. At the moment it’s in pre-release beta stage and only the first 10,000 people who sign-up will be allowed to test it so you’d better hurry up.

The principle is thus – all of your devices that you include in the Mesh can be synchronised with each other at any time from any location as long as you have an internet connection. So let’s say you’re sat on the beach and want to make sure your documents on your Macbook are synched with your documents on your PC at home, just hit a button and it’s done. The same goes for your mobile device such as an iPhone. In the future, it’s expected that it will automatically synchronize your devices with offline applications which will become increasingly important as Web 2.0 takes off.

Refreshingly for a Microsoft product, it’s incredibly easy to use and beautifully presented and designed. It makes backing up essential documents, including videos and photos between devices just a matter of a few clicks. And it works perfectly in both IE and Firefox. The question is, how on earth are Microsoft going to sustain this service as it expands? The bandwidth it requires for millions of users synching across the world must be huge. Will we eventually see a distinct decline in synching times or is this a sign that Microsoft can still do something right? Continue reading “Synchronize PCs, Macs and phones with Live Mesh”

There’s loads of great software available for Windows Mobile, but install too much and your Pocket PC or Smartphone will start to lag. As a result, it’s a good idea to regualrly remove the utilities or games that you no longer use. It’s pretty easy to do this through the ‘System’ menu in Windows Mobile. Click on ‘Start’ and select ‘Settings’. Now click on the ‘System’ tab and go down to ‘Remove Programs’. Highlight the program you wish to get rid of and click ‘Remove’. If you need to restart your phone or PDA you will be notified.

OK, well that’s that taken care of then? Well, maybe not actually. Some apps have preference files that stay on your system, or they don’t show up at all in the Remove Applications menu. As a result, it’s a good idea to run a special third-party installation tool to clean up the bits that get left behind. You could try Remover, which is specifically-designed for uninstalling Windows Mobile apps. However, I personally prefer MemMaid, as it’s good for cleaning bad uninstall data, and also helps you manage many other areas of your system memory.

To completely weed out the rest of your application data get hold of Today Plugin Uninstaller. The handy tool will remove any Today screen plugins you’ve installed and wipe away any traces they often leave behind during a standard uninstall.