Funny Video!

My cousin sent me this really funny video of a gibbon irritating two tiger cubs; just thought I would share with you all. It's in Hindi, but that won't spoil the fun. Have a good day! :)

NewsTon!c : OOo 2.4 Released, Online Photoshop Version Out

OpenOffice.org 2.4 is done and out
The OOo team has released version 2.4 of it's popular open source office suite. This version features a plethora of improvements over the previous releases, all of which can be found here. OOo 2.4 is expected to boost the growing popularity of this suite.
The OOo website has also gone a complete makeover for better navigation. The release of OOo 2.4 was probably delayed because of this makeover.I miss the trademark seagull and the hatched eggs, but overall it looks much simpler now.

OOo Home | Download | Extensions



Photoshop goes online with free-for-all Photoshop Express
Adobe has released a free web version of it's industry standard image editor - Photoshop CS3. The Express editor is extremely trimmed down and offers only some basic tools like crop, rotate, red eye removal etc. Express can serve as your online photo album as well, offering a whopping 2GB of free online storage. You can create your own gallery and show off your photos in 3D or grid arrangement. All in all, Express is a big leap towards the constantly increasing online-nisation of our desktop world.

Express Home

StarBurn 10.0 Up For Grabs Today!

You might have read my recent post on Giveaway of the Day (GAOTD). For those who haven't : GAOTD offers a licensed software for free daily and legally.


Well, the site is offering StarBurn 10.0 for today. StarBurn is an all-in-one utility for your CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs - it does all the usual burning and writing jobs and has additional features like audio extraction, DVD and Blu-Ray decryption etc. as well. StarBurn is more powerful, more flexible and smoother than Nero or Roxio. The premium version costs $495, but is available completely free for today. You can either proceed to www.giveawayoftheday.com or click on the ticker below to download StarBurn.

If you are reading this post a bit too late, there is always the free version of StarBurn available in Freeware Fiesta. The free version has nearly all the features of the premium version except these -
--- Network burning feature is locked after 30 days.
--- DVD and Blu-Ray decryption is unavailable.

:)

Free Alternatives To MS-Office : 2 : Online Apps

After covering some free offline suites in the last post, it's time to look at the free online alternatives to the over priced Microsoft Office. These services are a great way of safely storing your important documents online, even if your computer crashes or something. Some come with additional perks like direct blog publishing and instant document sharing. They do have certain limitations on the maximum uploading size for documents, maximum free online storage etc. Thankfully, these limitations do not matter most of the time.


Google Docs (Google Inc.)
Google Docs is presently the most popular online office suite out there. It includes a word processor, a presentation tool and a spreadsheet, all three being sufficiently packed with features. With Google Docs, you can open and edit Office files already present on your computer, or the ones you receive by mail. The best thing about Docs is it's clear and self-explanatory interface which makes your work all the more easier.
The options may look minimalistic, but there is almost everything packed in there. The organizing facility in Docs is great - you can create separate folders to store your files, bookmark the important ones and instantly share them with your Gmail contacts. There are some limitations like:

There is a limit on how much a user can store on his/her account. Each document must be under 500k plus 2MB for each embedded image. Each spreadsheet must be under 10,000 rows, 256 columns, 100,000 cells and under 40 sheets. A user can have a total of 5,000 documents and presentations, 5,000 images and 1,000 spreadsheets. The maximum number of spreadsheets that one can open at one time is 11. Only presentations under 10MB can be imported. User access to Google Docs is currently supported through Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Safari. (Source : Wikipedia)

You need to have a Google account (your existing account will do) to access Google Docs.
Docs Home

Ajax13 (Ajax13 Inc.)
Ajax13 is a combo of basic office and entertainment applications i.e, a word processor (ajaxWrite), a presentation tool (ajaxPresents), a spreadsheet (ajaxXLS), a drawing tool (ajaxSketch) and a web-based music player (ajaxTunes). The apps load in a jiffy and include all important features. You can create a free account at Ajax13 to avail the 1GB online storage capacity - enough for most to store all their documents. Ajax13 supports only Mozilla Firefox (1.5+) and other Firefox based browsers, as of now.
Ajax13 Home


ThinkFree Online (ThinkFree Corp.)


ThinkFree is one of the "wow-it-looks-great" online office suites out there, and an online word processor (Write), presentation tool (Show) and spreadsheet application (Calc). A ThinkFree Online account will give you 1GB free online storage. However, only file sizes within 10MB can be opened / edited with ThinkFree Online. ThinkFree goes a step ahead of Docs and Ajax13 by providing a premium version of it's suite (currently in beta). You can download this version to your computer and use it as any other normal offline suite. All the documents created offline via ThinkFree Premium will be automatically synchronized with your online account. ThinkFree also features ThinkFree Docs, an online community of publishers who share a variety of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can search the Docs database, download the files you want / like and upload your own files to the server. Other features include maximum compatibility with Microsoft Office, direct publishing to blogs and direct export to PDF format. ThinkFree is neither as easy nor as fast as Google Docs or Ajax13, but it's definitely worth the try if you are looking for something more than just an office suite.

ThinkFree Online Home


Zoho (AdventNet Inc.)
Zoho has the most extensive application tools of all mentioned here. It has got everything you can possibly want for official work - from the basic word processor to a database manager to a collaboration groupware to a chatting client. This snapshot shows all the 20 tools that you can avail with a free Zoho account (some of them with limitations):The Zoho application tools are feature rich and support all the major native formats. There is also a single click publish button, with which you can directly publish to your blog from Zoho Writer.
Zoho is the one for you if you aren't someone to compromise.

Zoho Home

--- Zoho has recently released iZoho, an iPhone version of it's popular suite.



Thus ends the list of ten excellent suites that can completely substitute your Microsoft Office. None of these cost a dime, so just try them out and stick with the one you like.
:)


[Note]
I am not aware of the the limitations on upload size, storage capacity etc. in Zoho and Ajax13. Please inform me by a comment or by mail if you do know them. :)

Free Alternatives To MS-Office : 1 : Offline Apps

The price tag of Microsoft Office 2007 was a big shocker - the Ultimate suite costs a whopping $675! Even the Basic suite is $150, and it includes just Word, Excel and Powerpoint. This has led many people to go looking for lesser priced or free alternatives. And thankfully, there ARE a lot of such alternatives available! In this post, I will be covering the free offline alternatives to MS-Office, for both Windows and Mac. A later post will cover the free online apps.

Please note that unless specified, these office suites don't support the native formats of Office 2007 (they support formats till Office 2003). However, later versions should include this support as well.


OpenOffice.org (Sun Microsystems)

Unless you have been stranded on an island for the past three years, you have probably heard of something called OpenOffice. This complete and open source office suite has today surfaced as the biggest competitor to MS-Office. OOo is cross platform and includes a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation tool (Impress), database manager (Base), all purpose calculator (Math) and a professional drawing tool (Draw). All these tools support the respective Office formats and the more flexible Open Document Format as well. With OOo, you won't get purring cats or hat wearing wizards to assist you in your work, but you can still get most of the work done easily due to the simple OfficeXP-like interface. One cool feature in OOo is the ability to directly export the created documents in PDF and HTML formats. The strength of OOo lies in it's open source base, which results in frequent version upgrades, bug fixes and availability of a large number of extensions.

Home | Download.com | Extensions


Google Pack - StarOffice (Google - Sun Microsystems) [Windows Only]

StarOffice is yet another office suite from Sun Microsystems. It's based on OOo and actually costs $70, but is now included for free with Google Pack! The Google Pack version of StarOffice adds an extra Google search box to the apps. This special version is available only to Windows users as of now. StarOffice is pretty much similar to OOo with a few additional features:
-Better spell-check facility
-Greater variety of pre-made templates
-Better interoperability with other major office suites (notably WordPerfect)
-ADABAS support
-Professional tech support from Sun (you won't avail this with the Google Pack edition)
-Separate extensions

Home | Google Pack | Extensions


Lotus Symphony (IBM) [Windows Only]

Symphony, still in beta, is one of the latest offline suites to hit the market. It is comparable to Office 2007 Basic, and includes a word processor, presentation tool and a spreadsheet. The sleek Office-like interface of Symphony makes it a must have for all whose work is confined to these three tools. Like OOo and StarOffice, it supports the native Office and Open Document formats.

Home


OxygenOffice Professional (SourceForge project by Kami) [Windows Only]

Both OOo and StarOffice horribly lack in availability of inbuilt templates, cliparts and photo galleries. There are lots of these stuff available for download, but who wants to take the pain? OOoP addresses this by including a 3400-strong clipart and photo gallery. There are extra fonts, templates, sample documents and a Wikipedia search box included as well. Other tweaks like enhanced help menus and user manuals make OOoP a cool improvement over OOo. However if you already have OOo, you can simply download the gallery extensions from here.

Home | Download.com


NeoOffice (Planamesa Inc.) [Mac Only]

NeoOffice is the OOo hybrid for Mac OSX. OOo itself has a Mac version, but you should consider NeoOffice for a better Mac-ish look and a "dozen native Mac features". Among these features is the ability to read "most" Office 2007 formats, which is really cool. I am not a Mac user so you will have to explore NeoOffice yourself.

Home



AbiWord (AbiSource Community)

AbiWord is a standalone word processor with features very similar to Microsoft Word. It is open source, cross platform and supports the .odt and .doc formats, besides having it's own proprietary format. If you use only Word of your Office suite (many people do), AbiWord will be a good and light substitute. A Vista compatible version has not been released yet.

Home | Download.com


:)

Lets Give Them A Better World

Do you love your pets and other animals around you? Do you feel sorry to see a dog being chained all day long with nothing to do? If yes, then please some time to sign this petition to enforce strict animal welfare laws in Canada. It's not necessary for you to hail from Canada to sign this petition (I am from India). You don't need pay anything as well. I heard of it from Simply Confusing and signed immediately. If the law comes through, many animals will see brighter days. If you find any other similar petitions in the internet, do sign them as well and tell others about it. You definitely want the first dog to be happy like the second one, don't you?





Note: Just click on the "Sign the petition" message at the bottom of this page, and then follow the instructions.

Grab Your Giveaway Today

Want to lay your hands on some non-free software? Most people will very likely visit a torrent site, grope around for the software and download it along with a "crack". If you too do this, be warned - not only are you supporting software piracy with this, but also you are exposing your computer to possible virus and other malware attacks, which might be hiding in that crack.

Giveaway of the Day (GAOTD) offers you a new licensed software, entirely for free, everyday! You don't need to sign up anywhere or complete offers to get these cool software. Just visit their website, check out the giveaway for the particular day and grab it if you want! This has made me an ardent GAOTD fan as this is a strong jolt to software piracy.







GAOTD offers almost all varieties of software, that are essential for daily use but are usually not free. These include audio and video converters, rippers, system optimizers, file recovery and backup software, web tools, special purpose image editors, encryption tools, HIPS monitors and so on. Some notable giveaways in the past are:

• Corel Graphics Suite (very popular and costs over $150)
• StarBurn Professional CD / DVD Burner (has better features than Nero; costs $495)
  
• Advanced Windows Care Personal (has some more features than the popular Personal edition)
  
• AimerSoft Video Converter (supports almost all varieties of video formats for inter-conversion)

Security software like antiviruses, antispyware and firewalls have never been on giveaway so far. However this is not a problem as there are many excellent free options available in these categories:

• AVG Free , Avast! Home - antivirus (use only one - read this)
  
• Spyware Terminator , Windows Defender - antispyware
• Comodo Firewall Pro - firewall
  

Limitations

1. Every software is given away for a period of 24 hours only. You have to download the installer file AND install it on your computer within these 24 hours. If you don't install it in the giveaway period, you will get only a limited day trial.
2. You won't get any technical support from the developers of the software that is given away. This is not much of a problem because hardly does anyone use technical support.
3. You will receive updates for the version that you download. However if a newer version is released, you won't be able to upgrade to it for free. Most of the time, GAOTD does a rerun of the same software every time a new version is released. [To my knowledge, Advanced Windows Care Professional has been on giveaway at least thrice].
4. You can use the software for personal use only.

How can you help GAOTD?

1. If you own a blog / website, you can put a "ticker" showing the latest GAOTD giveaways. There are three tickers available here. You can develop your own tickers as well.
2. You can participate in the GAOTD Forums (it's free to join) to discuss any problems with downloading the giveaways. You can also request for a special software to be given away.

Visit GAOTD @ www.giveawayoftheday.com

:)

Getting Into Miro

Miro, formerly called Democracy Player, is an open source Internet TV application. It allows you to download, watch and share videos and TV shows from over 3000 channels and from video sites like YouTube as well. The best part is that downloading the stuff via Miro is legal, making it a big boost to the anti-piracy campaign! I have posted some screenshots of Miro here - do have a look at them and then you can try this wonderful, small and free app.


1.The default home page in Miro opens a channel browser displaying the featured channels in smooth slides. The recent and popular channels are put up in thumbnails. Scroll down a bit further and you will be able to surf channels from your favorite category. The recent entries from the official Miro blog and online Help topics are displayed at the bottom. The sidebar panel lets you access most of the features in a jiffy.


2.What I like about Miro is it's excellent video searching facility. With just a single click, you can search for videos from YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Google Video, Blogdigger, Blip.TV, DailyMotion, Mefeedia and Revver.


3.And Miro isn't just about downloading stuff - you can also put the downloaded media in the Miro Library and view them directly with Miro's inbuilt video player! This video player, very much like VLC or GOM, supports a wild variety of formats so you don't have to go on a find-that-damn-codec mission.


4.Miro's main purpose however remains with the channels. You can "subscribe" to the various channels available (3787 as of now and counting...) and download the shows available in the channels. By default, Miro will search for all new shows in a channel and download it for you, once you subscribe to that particular channel.


5.Miro has a nice set of configuration tools as well. The Preferences window allows you to have full control over how it behaves.


6.Sharing the videos with your friends is very easy with Miro. The Miro Developing Team have teamed up with Video Bomb, which allows you to directly mail the downloaded videos to your pal's email ID, irrespective of it's size! You can also post them at Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit.


7.Miro has now partnered with Revision3, TED and Deutsche Welle, and you can directly subscribe to the additional channels from these players in Miro. More information is available here.



Any cons / limitations in Miro?
As you have seen, Miro is an awesome utility. Being open source, it breaks free from any limitations. However there are some small tweaks that I would like to see in the future versions:
1.I would rather have the home page show the video library and not the channel browser.
2.Miro is bit of a resource hog. The developers should work on making it more streamlined.
3.Miro is mostly about downloading videos, which are usually big files. If you are on limited broadband, Miro is not for you. [This is of course not Miro's fault]

Hopefully the future versions will make Miro a truly killer app!


The Competition
Miro faces tough competition from some similar free software, most notably Joost and Livestation. While these two players have their own cool features and channels, I personally prefer Miro to both. My reasons - Miro is open source, it is available for Linux (and I use Ubuntu Linux), and it has more than 10 times as many channels as Joost or Livestation. MakeUseOf has covered both Joost and Livestation pretty well.


Technical Info
Miro is available for Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mac OSX 10.3+ and all Linux distributions. The installer is less than 25MB big.




Visit Miro @ www.getmiro.com

:)

If Ever Linux Rules...A Realistic Note

if you liked my post "If Ever Linux Rules...", you will definitely love these additional points by Mr. Arnold Johnson of Arno's Art: The Linuxville Travelguide. These are more realistic and practical and will be hopefully appreciated by Linux lovers.


"
*Linux book writers put desktop GUI's in the front of the book and terminal use in the back.
*Linux books written for normal computer users instead of system admin and programmers.
*Buck tight organizations like charities and libraries use Linux instead.
*Education cost slashed by using and teaching Linux, nation wide, in America!
*"Silicon Pirates" movie remake shows them getting whipped by a Linux community effort.
*Dynamic Duo (Microsoft and Mac) gives way to the Three Musketeers (Microsoft, Mac and Linux).
*Feature length movies in Flash and Ogg formats.
*Three fingered salute (Ctrl-Alt-Del) replaced with (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace). Millions need physical therapy and/or retraining.
*Computer annoyances and technical problems cut in half by Linux use. The technical support market takes a big hit. The president is concerned.
*Tux appears on Wheaties box, then on Oprah.
*Linus becomes popular middle name. He really is Batman!
*Max Headroom is resurrected as open source security application, look out AI.
*Microsoft Windows is rewritten from scratch.

"

:)

I am dreaming!!!

I NEVER thought this stupid article will get such a response! I woke up today to find 350 visits and 19 Diggs in 12 hours - those are enormous numbers for me!!! Thank you so much everyone!
This has really inspired me and so I am taking the hibernation tag off PC Ton!c. Posts will be a bit irregular because of my ongoing exams, but they will definitely come!

:)

If Ever Linux Rules....

Can you think of any changes that will take place if Linux dethrones Windows and Microsoft goes broke? Well, I just thought it over and these ideas came to my mind. Most of them are fictional and are meant for amusement only. Hope you enjoy!

• Penguins will be a happy lot. They will send lots of flying kisses from the Antarctic. Some will even swim north to meet their celebrity cousin, Tux.
• The guys at Google will be on wild celebration. Some of the Microsoft folk will join Al Qaeda to drop bombs on the Google office.
• Antivirus companies will close down. Headed by Symantec, they will open their own bakeries.
• Less PC users will die from the shock of getting a blue screen of death, or on finding all their important documents and photos missing.
  
• On the contrary, death rate among illegal hackers will rise surprisingly. Some will start funding Microsoft to revive the good old days of Windows. Some others will try to target Linux, only to be pecked away by Tux.
  
• Ships usually sink due to storms, faulty technique or accidents with icebergs. But now more ships will sink due to overloading of the free Ubuntu ShipIt! CDs.
  
• Intel Pentium will rise again - most Linux distributions run super fast on Pentium IV and 512 MB RAM without ever slowing down!
  
• Steve Ballmer will be caught using Linux on his PC. Reason - Windows Vista too heavy on the poor guy's pocket!
• Devastated, Adobe will slash the price of Photoshop from $700 to $7.00. People will still prefer the free and open source GIMP.
  
• Linux users will become game maniacs as the gaming companies turn their attention to Tux.
  
• Names like Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player will be featured in history books.
• Computer viruses will disappear. Biological viruses will be happy again - they will be no longer ignored like they were in the days of the computer virus. A search for "virus" in Google will display results for biological viruses, and not the computer ones, at the top. To show their gratefulness to Linux users, the viruses will stop spreading AIDS.
  
• Netscape Navigator will rise again and will be an instant hit. However, there will be no enmity with Firefox or Flock.
  
• Torrent sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova will join already dead rival Demonoid, in Hell.
• Apple's happiness at Microsoft's ruin will be cut short by Linux's domination. However unlike Microsoft, Linux will recognise Apple for it's rock solid operating system, Mac OSX.

Alas! Linux is not going dominate the PC world and Microsoft is not becoming a "who-cares?" entity in the foreseeable future . I have been a full time Ubuntu user myself for almost a year and I find it pretty solid, but there are definitely some small improvements needed to make it a serious contender of Windows. And Windows users, please don't think I hate Windows or anything! I like both Windows XP and Windows Vista. As you can see, PC Ton!c is almost entirely about Windows.

:)

P.S. Oh yes, I had Chemistry yesterday and I have done pretty well. Today, I was reading Physics since 9 in the morning (it's 3:00 PM now), so I decided to take a break and write down something funny. Hope you liked it!