Lossless codecs, like FLAC, are great when it comes to preserving all the quality present on the original media. Unfortunately though, they do take up quite a bit of space and most lossless codecs are far from popular in the mainstream. Therefore, it often becomes necessary to sacrifice some of the quality in order to recoup some disk space and increase compatibility — because the day that the iPod supports open source codecs, is also likely to be the day that hell freezes over…

So, you’re stuck with hordes of FLAC files and you want to convert them all into high-quality MP3’s, and, of course, you’d like to do all this without paying a penny, correct? Is that even possible? After all, the Fraunhofer Society currently owns the rights to the MP3 codec, and they’re not shy about cashing in on it.

Fortunately, there is a solution, and both of the tools needed for this operation are available for free!

Ever since I gave up on iTunes and Winamp, I’ve been using a very light-weight and very elegant music player known as Foobar2000, or just Foobar for short. Besides the wonderful job it does playing back music with an absolute minimum of fuss, unlike iTunes, it also features an extensive array of useful plug-ins, the most fundamental of which come pre-installed. One of these built-in tools is the codec converter, which is what we’ll be using to solve our little dilemma.

In order to encode and decode MP3 files, Foobar uses the LAME codec. Due to reasons I don’t fully understand, the guys behind this codec have somehow circumvented the need to license the relevant technology from the Fraunhofer Society, and can therefore offer MP3 support for free — sounds like that might be an interesting article all on its own, but I digress.

Anyway without further ado, here’s the interesting bit:

Once you have Foobar installed and fired up, click on the “Library” menu, and select “Configure” — alternatively, you can just hit Ctrl-P, and that will get you to the same place. On the left side of the “Preferences” window that just opened up expand the entry titled “Tools,” and click on “Converter.”

From here, look to the right side of this window, and you should see a button labeled “Add New.” Click on that.

You should now see the window pictured below. From the “Encoder” list, select “Custom.” The first text box under the drop-down that you just used should now read “lame.exe” –  again, just like in the picture.

The settings are almost perfect right from the start. There is, however, one problem. We would like to convert our pristine FLAC files to the highest quality offered for MP3’s, but unfortunately, that’s not what the settings reflect at the moment. In order to rectify this, all that we need to do is replace the text in the “Parameters” box with the following:

-S --noreplaygain -b 320 - %d

From a technical standpoint, that’s all you need to change; your files will now be properly converted to 320kbps MP3’s. The description of this conversion preset, however, won’t reflect the fact that we’ve forced the LAME encoder to use a constant bit rate of 320kbps. But, this is easily fixed as well. At the very bottom of the window, simply update the “Bitrate” field to 320, and set the “Settings” field to “CBR,” short for “Constant Bit Rate.”

That’s it, you’re now ready to convert your FLAC files.

Now, in case you’re new to Foobar, once you’re ready to actually convert a file, all you need to do is add the FLAC files in question to any playlist, select the song, right-click, and hit “Convert.” The rest is really straight forward…

Oh, almost forgot: The first time that you convert something to MP3, Foobar will ask you where it can find the LAME executable (i.e.: the file called LAME.exe). If you don’t already have it, you can download it from www.free-codecs.com. Once you’ve downloaded it, simply extract it to any location of your choosing — perhaps you might want to extract it your music folder, so you know where it is for future reference. After the extraction, head back over to Foobar, and when prompted, simply select the executable from the folder that you extracted the .zip file into.

Enjoy!

Despite the troubled roll-out, the beta to Microsoft’s next operating system, Windows 7, is finally available. But, unless you are either a die-hard Microsoft fan (possible, though unlikely), or a true geek, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “So what?”

Well, if that’s your first reaction, then I really can’t blame you. Traditionally, trying out beta releases of operating systems has been a real hassle. Either you’re so eager and willing to try out the very latest that you can’t wait to repartition and reformat a drive in order to install the new OS, or you just can’t be bothered.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just boot your current operating system – be it XP, Vista, or some Unix variant – pop open a window and run Windows 7 in that?

Not only would this be a great alternative to a traditional installation, but it’s also pretty easy to setup!

First off, a few terms. What we’re trying to achieve here is known as “full virtualization,” meaning that we’ll be virtualizing not just a single application or service, but an entire operating system. From now on the operating system that boots up when you turn on the machine will be called the “host,” and the operating system that we’re going to run virtually on that host will be known as the “client.” So, in other words, the client will be running within the host.

A critical aspect to virtualization is the fact that the client will think that it’s the one and only operating system running on the machine; it will, by design, be completely oblivious to the host. From a practical standpoint, this means that the beta to Windows 7 should behave exactly as it would if you had installed it on a fresh machine.

Unfortunately, the complete isolation achieved by virtualization also has a few downsides. First off, Windows 7 won’t have direct access to any of the machine’s hardware; for any action that it wishes to perform it will have to go through a middleman, the host. In short, this means that you’re computing experience in Windows 7 won’t be quite as spiffy as it might otherwise be on the host. Additionally, Windows 7 won’t have any access to OpenGL or Direct3D implementations on the hardware level. In layman’s terms, this means that the graphics will, for lack of a better term, suck. You’ll have to forgo the Aero eye-candy, and forget about playing solitaire at a decent framerate — I’m serious.

With all the warnings out of the way, let’s get started.

There are several application that will provide us with the capabilities that we need, but we’ll go with Sun Microsystem’s VirtualBox, since it’s free. You will find the appropriate download link here.

Besides VirtualBox, you will also need the ISO image of Windows 7 so that you can actually install it. Microsoft already has an entire page dedicated to Windows 7, located here. At the top of the page, you should be able to see a link that reads “Download the Windows 7 Beta.” Clicking on this link should start you on your way towards getting the beta, as well as the key that you’ll need if you don’t want Windows 7 to expire after 30 days. Since we’ll be using VirtualBox, make sure to get the 32-bit version of Windows 7; 64-bit clients aren’t completely supported yet in VirtualBox, but it’s coming soon, I hear.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed VirtualBox, go ahead and run it.

After the application starts, click on the blue star icon labeled “New,” this will start the “Create New Virtual Machine Wizard.” Sun has done a great job with VirtualBox, as such the Wizard is pretty straight forward and easy to use. Nevertheless, I’ll share some of the more important details to getting this all to work.

The second page of this Wizard will ask for the VM name and the OS type. The name can be whatever you like, so “Windows 7 x86,” for instance. The OS type, however, is more important. The operating system is obviously “Microsoft Windows,” so leave that as it is. As for the version, select “Windows 2008″ – not “Windows 2008 (64 bit).”

The third page is where you choose the amount of RAM that client will be able to access. The general rule of thumb is that you want to allocate about 40% of the total physical memory in your system. Too little, and the client won’t run properly, just like in real life; too much, and the host won’t be all too pleased. I would strongly recommend at least one gigabyte, the minimum recommended by Microsoft. On to the next page!

On the fourth page, you’ll be asked to select, and if necessary, create a virtual hard disk to install the client onto. Go head, and hit the “New…” button. This should bring up another Wizard, the “Create New Virtual Disk” wizard. I left all the setting in this Wizard at their default values and that seems to be working just fine for me. These would be: Dynamically expanding storage, the default virtual drive file location, 20.00 GB in size, and that’s it. Once you’re done with new Wizard, you should end up with the first Wizard. Just hit “Next.”

You should be seeing a summary page, so if everything is satisfactory, click “Finish.”

Going back to the main “Sun xVM VirtualBox” window, you should be seeing you’re newly created virtual machine in the left-most side of the window. Virtually speaking, we have just assembled you’re brand new machine from all the various parts, and we are now ready to boot it up for the first time.

Double click on the virtual machine to start it.

You should now see a new window, and a new Wizard, the “First Run Wizard.” Click “Next.”

The second page will ask you to select the installation media; in our case, that would be the ISO image of Windows 7 that we just downloaded. So select the ISO, select the “Image File” bullet, and click on the browse icon. This will open the “Virtual Media Manager.” From this new window, click on the “Add” icon and browse to the 2.44 GB (if it’s the 32-bit version) ISO image that you just downloaded. Once you’ve selected that image, you should end up back in the “First Run Wizard.” Click “Next” once more.

You should new be seeing another summary page. If all the listed information is correct, click “Finish.” If we go back to the analogy of before, you’ve just booted your machine for the first time, the Windows installation disc is in the drive, and you’ll now be asked to install Windows.

After Windows 7 installs itself, you can safely shutdown the client, just as you would with any “real” computer, and the next time you start her up, she’ll behave exactly like you would expect. Any changes you make will be saved for the next session. So, if you want to install Firefox, or OpenOffice in Windows 7, you can, and the next time you boot into Windows 7 everything will be exactly as you left it.

Enjoy, and remember, it’s a beta…

If you’ve taken the time to read the last two posts, then surely you must be aware that the time has now come to finally install Ubuntu; and if not, then oh well, just look at the pictures or something.

In my last two posts, I’ve attempted to explain the pains that I went through trying to get the best out of my new laptop. The problem originally started with my realization that I am in no means whatsoever a fan of Vista. Postpartum depression urged me to seek out XP’s familiar setting. Much to my dismay, though, XP would not install on my new laptop, so that was the first hurdle I had to surmount.

Not only was I interested in a return to XP, I was also curious about Linux; particularly Ubuntu. So, the obvious choice, or at least a logic one in my mind, was to dual-boot. In the previous two articles, I explained how to install XP on a new machine intended for Vista, as well as how to prepare a system for a dual boot operation. Okay, so now that we’re all up to speed once again, let’s take the plunge once more, shall we…

If this first step doesn’t seem blatantly obvious, then maybe Linux isn’t for you, but in order to do anything further you’ll need the Ubuntu installation disc. So, head on over to Ubuntu.com. and download the latest version — 7.10 at the time of writing. Once armed with the image file, you’ll need to burn this to a disc. If you already own it, I would recommend using Nero, but if not, InfraRecorder is an excellent, and not to mention free, alternative.

Once the disc has been burned and finalized, pop it into the machine you wish to persuade into conversion — and cross your fingers, for the moment of truth is at hand. Linux is often labeled as being far more stable than Windows, which is true for the most past, but the main problem is getting it to run in the first place. Not all hardware likes Linux flavor. If you’re unlucky, you may have in front of you a machine cursed with unsupported hardware. If this is the case, you may experience issues ranging the benign, such as a nonfunctional web cam, to real show-stoppers, like incompatible graphics cards or display devices. Curing any of these issues may require long and inquisitive searches of some of the less frequented fringes of the net. Fortunately though, there always seem to be a plethora of willing and able Linux hobbyists to help you out.

Oh, and if the CD doesn’t boot right away, make sure that your BIOS is set to boot from CD-ROM drive…

Okay, so assuming that the CD boots properly, you should soon see the Ubuntu desktop–but, hey, wait a minute! What happened; nothing was installed, or was it?

The CD you just popped into your machine is what is known as a Live-CD, meaning that it contains a bootable version of the operating system. Allowing the user to experience the full operating system without having to install a single file is a great way of demonstrating the potential of product that many might be too hesitant to install.

“Okay,” you say, “but I want to install it, not just demo it.” Well, see that little icon on the desktop, the one that says “Install”? That’s where you wanna be if you’re interested in giving Ubuntu a serious test-drive.

Starting up the Installer, you should see a dialog box that will guide you through the installation process in seven rather easy steps. The first three steps are real no-brainers, simply select your prefered language, the appropriate time zone and your keyboard layout.

Step four is were things start to get a little more exciting. Depending on how many drives and partitions your machine has, this step may be more or less complicated. Since I’m writing this as part of a series in which I explain how I managed to dual boot XP and Ubuntu on a Vista-shipped laptop, the path I chose to follow in step four of the Ubuntu installer is quite specific to my particular needs. In the previous article, I explained how GParted was used to partition my drive into a Windows partition and a Linux partition companioned by a SWAP partition. If you followed the same procedure as I did, and used GParted to prepare the drive, then all you’ll have to do is select the correct partition, and move on. Since we already used GParted for most of the heavy labor, it makes little sense to reformat/resize the partition again — unless, of course, you made a mistake the first time around. Not to sound to repetitive, but step four is where you really want to pay attention. It’s very important that you select the correct drive to install Ubuntu onto, otherwise you’ll be in serious danger of losing existing, potentially important, data.

Looking at the screenshot below, we see that the system I used to grab the screenshots has two physical hard drives: HDA and HDB. We can also tell that the first drive, HDA, has three partitions on it: HDA1, HDA2, and HDA3. The one we’re after is the one that is formatted as EXT3, so in this case that would be HDA2. To double check that this is the right drive, take a look at the size of the partition. If this number corresponds to what you specified in GParted then you’re good to go. Note that there is no need to check any of the boxes unless you want to reformat the drive again, which really can’t hurt. So, once again, if you want to reformat, check the box, otherwise just highlight the drive. And in case you are wondering, SDA1 is a removable thumb drive.

If you have decided to reformat any of the drives again, make sure to also hit the “Edit partition” button. This should bring up another dialog box, asking you to specify the new size of the partition as expressed in megabytes, what format to use, and where to set the mount point. If the drive that you are partitioning is meant to house an installation of Ubuntu, it’s critical that you use the EXT3 format and set the mounting point as a single forward slash. If you’re confused, refer to the picture below.

Once you’re done with the “Edit Partition” dialog box, hit “OK,” and then click “Forward” once you’re back at larger dialog box.

Step five is particularly useful for those of us who have decided to dual boot, since Ubuntu will scan existing partitions for any other operating system from which it might be able to port over any important documents and folders. I always prefer to start fresh, and since Gutsy Gibbon is capable of reading Windows partitions, I will leave this step up to you. If you’re not interested, just proceed to the next page.

Even though there appear to be 7 steps, number 6 is really the last one that really requires any work. The purpose of this step is to help you set up a user account, and it’s pretty straight forward. As such the only note to make here is that your log in name cannot be capitalized and that…uhm, oh yeah, don’t forget your password.

Series: Dual-Booting: XP and Ubuntu

Part I | Part II | Part III

After I got my new laptop, it didn’t take me all to long to determine that I wasn’t all too fond of Vista. Instead of hastily ditching Vista and running right back into XP’s familiar settings, I thought I’d try out Linux. Having heard myriad glowing reports of its user friendliness, Ubuntu seemed like the obvious choice. However, if I did dedicate my entire system to Ubuntu, there’d always be the problem of gaming; Linux isn’t exactly a hotbed for interactive entertainment. So, why not dual-boot?

There are several approaches to dual-booting a system with XP and Linux: you can either nuke the drive, partition it, and then reinstall both operating system; install Linux first, then partition and install XP; or you can install Windows first and then get Linux working afterwards. In this article, I’m going to choose the latter method, but no matter which way you choose to go, an essential tool to have in your arsenal is GParted.

GParted is a nondestructive UNIX-based partition editing application used to create, destroy, resize and move entire partitions and their file systems. The application is widely available on many Linux systems, but more importantly, it also comes as a live-cd. What that means is that you can download the application image, burn it to a disc and boot from it, without having to touch the rest of your system.

For the purposes of dual-booting, I’ll describe how to use GParted to shrink an existing Windows partition, so that the freed up space can then be reformatted as EXT3 and SWAP partitions to host a fresh installation of Ubuntu’s Gutsy Gibbon:

• First thing’s first: since you’re going to be making critical changes to your hard drive, make sure that the data on that drive is properly backed up and secure. Even though GParted is designed to be nondestructive, you never know what might happen; the wrong button might get pressed, or the power might fail — so backup first!

• Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s start. In order to do anything you’ll need the program, so go get the GParted Live-CD image first and burn it to a disc. After the burning process finishes, pop the CD back in and reboot. Note: if GParted doesn’t load, then you’ll have to amend your machine’s boot order in the BIOS first.

• When booting from the Live-CD, you’ll be asked to input some system information, such as hardware configuration, language and keymap – don’t worry, it’s easy. A few seconds into the boot process, you’ll see a list of possible boot configurations. From my experience the first option, the one that reads “Gparted-liveCD 0.3.4-11 (auto-configuration),” seems to work just fine, so go ahead and select that. After a few more loading cycles, you’ll be asked to select the appropriate keymap and after that your language; the numbers you should be entering in are 41 and 33, respectively. This should take care of the setup, now just wait for the distro to finish booting.

• Now that everything is loaded and set you’ll want to get started by shrinking the existing Windows partition. To do this, select the partition, either from the list or from the graphical representation, and then hit the button labeled “Resize/Move.” This will bring up a smaller window from which you can choose by how much to shrink the existing partition. Notice that there are three input fields in this window; enter the desired new size of the partition in the second field, or just move the arrows at either end of the graphic. Since GParted aims to keep your existing data intact, the minimum size that an existing partition can be shrunk to is equal to the amount of data already on that partition. The other two fields in the window describe how much of the new free space will appear before the newly resized partition and how much of it will appear after it. How you organize the layout of the partitions isn’t crucial to getting both operating systems running, but it keeps everything organized. Once you feel comfortable with the changes, hit “Resize/Move” — don’t worry, the changes aren’t permanent yet.

• Once you’re back to the main interface, you’ll notice that the existing partition is smaller and that it is now surrounded on either one or both sides by unallocated dark gray space. To create any further partitions, which you’ll need to if you want to install Linux, simply select the dark matter and click “New.” Creating a new partition is just as simple as shrinking an existing one, the only difference being that you’ll also have to select the filesystem type; since the new partition will host a Linux install, select EXT3. When specifying the size of the new partition, make sure that you leave about 512MB to 2GB for a Linux swap partition. Think of the swap partition as an extension of your RAM, but on the hard drive.

• To create the swap partition repeat the previous step, but instead of choosing EXT3 as the filesystem type, select LINUX-SWAP. With the size set, hit “Resize/Move,” and return to the main interface.

• Up to this point, GParted hasn’t done anything to your hard drive; the only thing that you have done up to now has been planning out what to do. So, once you’re confident that you’ve set everything up correctly, press the “Apply” button to actually make the changes to the system. Hitting “Apply” should bring up a cautionary message, telling you that you’d better be sure about what you’re doing. Once you dismiss that message, GParted will get to work and the operations that you have specified will commence. Depending on the size of your hard drive, the amount of data on, and how many new partitions you are going to create, GParted may be at work for a couple of minutes or a couple of hours.

Once you’re done, GParted will kick you back to its main interface window, from where you can go on to the main menu and quit. If everything went to plan you should now have at least three partitions: one based on NTFS, another on EXT3, and then a third to serve as a SWAP partition. At this point you’re free to install whatever Linux distro you fancy.

However, if you’re new to Linux, then I would highly recommend you try out Ubuntu, which is highly user friendly, very stable, and extremely customizable. For help on installing Ubuntu, be sure to check back in a couple of days for the last installment of my dual-booting series to get detailed instructions on what to do and not to do…

Series: Dual-Booting: XP and Ubuntu

Part I | Part II | Part III

If you’ve recently purchased a new laptop, chances are that it came with Windows Vista installed on it. Now, depending on how easily you can adapt, that might be a little bit of a problem. Even though Vista has been out for about a year now, many users are still reporting on having a hard time with the new operating system. Some consumers just can’t get all of their peripherals to work properly, others are experiencing horrendous performance issues, while still others just hate the changes that Microsoft made.

One solution to this dilemma would be to take Apple’s advice and just “upgrade” back to XP. If you’ve already gone ahead and tried this approach, though, you may have noticed that this causes another problem — quite a serious one actually. XP refuses to install!

So what’s the problem, you ask? Well, let’s think about this chronologically, shall we. Windows XP is old. No wait, let me rephrase that: XP is ancient! This means that the software and the drivers included with the installation package are just as old; that’s six years to be precise. Back in 2001, when XP debuted, Microsoft expected motherboards to interface with hard drives via an IDE cable. But, six years down the road, PCs and laptops manufacturers have all dumped IDE in favor of SATA, which is faster, allows for hot swapping of drives, and insures better data integrity and reliability. This all sounds wonderful, until you consider that Microsoft never included any SATA drivers with their XP installers. So now what?

Fortunately, there is a fairly easy way to rectify this problem. The necessary SATA drivers aren’t included with the standard installation disc, so we’ll have to add, or slipstream, them using a neat little tool called nLite:

• First off, we’ll need to download and install nLite, a freeware application developed and hosted by Dino Nuhagic. The latest version can be found at www.nliteos.com. I got everything up and running with version 1.4.

• Next, we’ll need to locate and download the appropriate SATA driver. Since it took me quite a bit of time and effort to locate the necessary drivers, I’ll do my part to simplify the task by hosting the driver I used here.

• The only other thing that we need now is an XP installation disc – hopefully a legal copy – into which we’ll slipstream the SATA driver.

Okay, now that we have the right software and the correct driver, let’s get started. Since we’re going to be adding a component to the standard Windows installation files, we’ll have to extract the files from the CD. While doing so, it is important to make sure that the file structure stays intact. By far the easiest way of getting all the right files onto your system is to simply insert the CD, head over to My Computer, right click the CD directory, hit copy, and then paste it to the desktop. Once that is done you’ll be ready to get started with nLite:

• Once nLite is launched, go ahead and skip the first screen which only contains information about the program.

• The second screen will ask you to locate the Windows installation, which will be on the desktop if you followed the instructions above verbatim. Once you’ve located the correct directory, hit OK in the selection window and wait for nLite to analyze the directory. If you’ve identified the correct directory, you should be able to see the Windows version, what service pack you have, the version number and installer size. If you don’t see this information, chances are that you’ve identified the wrong directory.

• The third page isn’t really that important, so skip it and make sure you get to the Task Selection page, since that’s the part where paying attention becomes important; it’ll be where you tell nLite what to do with the Windows installation files. Depending on what version of the Windows XP installation disc you have, you might want to alter a few of the settings. However, for the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that we’re dealing with a standard Microsoft installation disc that already has Service Pack 2 installed on it, and that we’re not interested in slipsteaming in any other components, hotfixes, addons or tweaks. So, with all these considerations in mind, go ahead and check the third box down, labeled “Drivers,” as well as the very last one, labeled “Bootable ISO.” Click next when done.

• We should now be at the Drivers page; this is where you should locate the correct driver for nLite to slip into the installation. In the bottom right hand side of the window, right above “Next,” you should see a button labeled “Insert.” Click it, and then select “Multiple Driver Folder.” Doing so should bring up yet another window within which you’ll have to locate the folder that the SATA driver, which you should have downloaded earlier, resides in. Clicking OK in this, as well as in the next window, should bring up a list of possible SATA drivers. Now, if you know exactly what hardware you have, go ahead and select the appropriate driver. However, if you don’t know exactly what you need, then you might want to try the fourth one from the bottom — that’s the one that worked for my HP DV6500T. Clicking OK again should kick you back to the Drivers page; go ahead and click next.

• This next page is really straightforward. If you feel that you’ve set everything up correctly, hit OK, and watch nLite got to work — okay, well maybe there isn’t that much to see…

• After nLite finishes working its magic proceed to the next page, where you’ll have to complete one last task. Now that nLite has analyzed and modified your XP installation files, it’s going to want to know what it’s supposed to do with the newly created files. Your two best options are either to burn a new XP installation disc directly from within nLite, or to have the program create an ISO image which you can then do with as you please. In my case, I went ahead and created an image (just in case I happen to loose the CD at some point), which I then burned to a disc with Alcohol 120% (there are plenty of other applications, such as Nero, that will do the exact same thing).

If you successfully followed the steps outlined above, then you should now have a brand new installation disc for Windows XP. The only remaining step is to insert the disc in your laptop and reboot. If everything went to plan, your machine will recognize the drive and start the installation process, which should be the exact same as it would otherwise be. If you have any remaining questions, please feel free to post a comment down below, and I’ll try my best to assist.

Note: This slipsteaming process will only work if you want to install Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003.

Series: Dual-Booting: XP and Ubuntu

Part I | Part II | Part III

A couple of months ago, I got so fed up with iTunes and its unstable nature that I completely abandoned it as my primary music player. iTunes was giving me all sorts of problems: it would crash unpredictably, it would halt podcast downloads without reason, it would require my processor’s full attention for extended periods of time, and the list goes on. All of these problems slowly but surely built upon my existing contempt for Apple’s often hailed piece of junk. Apple tries to have iTunes perform all sorts of functions, but unfortunately it fails to please on almost every single level – I’m sure I’ll piss off at least one Apple fan, so don’t hesitate to leave me a comment or two.

After ridding my hard drive of any and all things Apple, I hit Google in search of a replacement for iTunes. After a few quick searches it quickly becomes clear how tight Apple’s stranglehold on music playback is – practically everyone with an iPod uses iTunes, and most are completely unaware of exactly how lackluster this combination really is. Looking through the queries, it was nothing but Apple this and iTunes that. There has gotta be something out there that doesn’t suck…

After a few more searches, I finally found something that I had almost forgotten about: Winamp. Developed by Nullsoft, Winamp has been faithfully reproducing audio since 1997. In fact, the guys over at Nullsoft have just released version 5.5 to commemorate the player’s 10^th anniversary – ironically, this latest version was released on the tenth day of the tenth month of the player’s tenth year of its existence.

Winamp vs. iTunes: A Battle of Philosophies

Apple’s most identifiable mantra is simplicity. Designing software with this philosophy in mind has its fair share of advantages, as well as drawbacks. For example, one of the things that Apple is fond of doing is binding multiple functions to a single button. The play/pause/stop button is a good example of this practice; it keeps the interface clean, possible aiding new users in finding desired functions, but it also pisses off more experienced users. One of the things I hate most about this practice is that it means that I can’t always pause or stop a song or podcast from my current location in the interface — I might, for example, have to switch from the podcast directory to my music library in order to pause the song instead of completely stopping it.

Another drawback of “simplicity” is that it inherently cripples functionality and, by implication, also the ability to customize. Every instance of iTunes conforms perfectly to Apple’s cookie-cutter ideal; in all probability you’ll never find anyone whose iTunes is black instead of white, or whose ID3 tags display any differently than yours. Again, this might be fine for the average user, but every once in a while it’s nice to able to change things around, especially when the mold that you’re being forced into simply doesn’t fit.

Apple, with its simplicity, is at one end of the spectrum, while Winamp is far more towards the center, offering a wider range of functions and settings, without being too complicated. Winamp isn’t in the least bit shy about is capabilities, and as such, it places every commonly used function right on the dash. The interface might look a little more intimidating than that of Apple, but at least everything is right there in front of you.

Winamp’s Look ‘n Feel

I wrote quite an extensive article on why I got extremely fed up with iTunes a months ago, right after it happened; as such, I won’t burden anyone with repeated arguments and explanations. Instead, I’ll try to focus more on that Winamp does and why I ultimately like it better.

Winamp does a nice job of balancing simplicity and functionality without losing customizability. By default, Winamp 5.5 will display three major information panes: Right under the menu bar is a horizontal pane featuring all the major controls, as well as all of information about the file being played. Now if this were iTunes, that would be the only thing displayed here, but it’s not; depending on your needs, you might want to use this pane to display visualizations, playlists, or perhaps, equalizer settings – all of which can also be displayed elsewhere if you so please.

Positioned directly underneath the playback/information pane, you’ll find the directory and media navigation pane. This pane has been vertically split into two parts; the leftmost part lists all the available music, podcast and video directories on your machine, while the right hand portion of the pane displays a more detailed list of the contents of each directory. This part of Winamp, I suppose, is actually quite similar to its iTunes counterpart, save for a few (embarrassing) differences. As much as I had wanted Winamp 5.5 to be perfect, there are still a few minor things that I think iTunes does-dare I say it-better. For one, it would have been nice to see a little more information in the directory listings pane. Don’t get me wrong, detailed library information, like the album name, track number, genre, rating and play count is available, but you’ll have to venture over to a different part of the interface. Perhaps I’ve conformed to Apple’s mold a little too much, but I’m of the opinion that this should available from within the playlist.

Onwards, though. On to the last pane: All the way on the right of the display is what ha s been dubbed the “Playlist Editor.” Occupying all vertical space on right side of the screen, the editor displays all songs currently in the playlist, along with their item number and play time. At the bottom of this pane is a series of buttons which allow you to add to, remove from, and otherwise manipulate the playlist. This feature comes in quite handy when you want to dump a new album directly into a playlist.

A Few More Things Winamp Does

If you haven’t read the preceding paragraphs, you might have missed it: I’m not a big fan of iTunes. One of the things that I hate most about iTunes, and by association also Quicktime, is the general lack of formats that it supports. I happen to like high-fidelity audio reproduction; lossy MP3’s don’t always do it for me. As such, I’m a big fan of high quality, open source formats, such as FLAC, which-you guessed it-Apple doesn’t support. Winamp on the other hand, does support FLAC, along with a whole list of other formats. It’s small things like this that matter to me.

In similar fashion, I also enjoy the fact that I can have Winamp look and behave how I want it to. As I’ve already stated, I consider Winamp to be somewhere towards the middle of spectrum when it comes to functionality. It might not be as customizable as Foobar2000, for example, but simply having a variety of skins to choose from is very nice. Skins don’t just change the look, but they also affect the feel of the player; some skins are really elaborate, some are only about the essentials, while still others might be completely modular.

Additionally, Winamp’s Preferences menu reads like Tolstoy’s War and Peace in comparison to its anemic counterpart in iTunes. After using iTunes for an extended amount of time, the number of options and variables open to change in Winamp is astounding: Would you like to see the splash screen on startup? Do you want to allow multiple instances of the program? How about a scrolling the ID3 tag information in the taskbar icon? Or perhaps you’d like to automatically convert underscores into spaces when reading song names? Winamp even solves of the biggest nuisances in iTunes: you can set it to keep an eye on specific music folders so that any chances in the folder (like the deletion of a song, for example) will automatically reflect in playlist – so no more stupid exclamation marks!

And if there’s something you think Winamp ought to do but doesn’t, there’s always a vast plugins library available. There are plugins that’ll do everything from managing your playlists and post-processing your music, to enabling support for your favorite MP3 player-yes, that includes iPods.

First released three years ago, Ubuntu has managed to permanently alter the Linux scene. Before Ubuntu grabbed the Linux world by storm, Linux was plagued by the stigmatic notion of being only for the geekiest of the geeks. Ubuntu’s undying focus on usability and ease of installation changed all that, and Gutsy Gibbon, the latest release, is the best yet at demonstrating this commitment.

Major New Features:

• GNOME 2.20
  • GNOME is the essence of Ubuntu’s Graphical User Interface (GUI), and version 2.20 introduces a long list of new features – some of which are actually pretty impressive. Thanks to this newest version of GNOME, Ubuntu will now feature: integrated desktop search, enhanced image browsing, simplified system preferences, better power management and laptop battery monitoring. One of the neatest features that I’ve seen so far has to do with the Evolution e-mail client (which is part of GNOME): if Ubuntu finds keywords in your e-mail suggesting that there should be an attachment appended to the message, it will automatically check to see if this is actually the case. If it can’t find the attachment, it’ll warn you before you send it off by mistake. It’s little things like this that often stand out the most.

• 3D DESKTOP EFFECTS
  • If you’ve done some research on Linux lately, you’ve probably come across a few videos that show off some very impressive 3D visuals. It may not increase your productivity, but the integration of Compiz Fusion into Gutsy is sure to please many. If you have a slower system, however, there is no need to worry. The developers have thought this through, and if your system doesn’t have the graphical horsepower to take advantage of the beautiful, but taxing, aesthetics of Compiz Fusion, your system will automatically fall back onto the standard 2D desktop environment.

• FAST USER SWITCHING
  • If your Linux box also happens to be the family PC that’s used by just about everyone who walks into the house, then you might be pleased to hear that with this latest version of Ubuntu you will be able to switch between different users without having to repeatedly log out and re-enter your username and password. The security provided by passwords will still be there, but you won’t have to jump through nearly as many hoops to switch from one account to the next.

• BETTER SCREEN CONFIGURATION
  • Anyone who’s installed Linux on a variety of machines knows that it’s not always a hassle-free experiences. Fortunately, the Ubuntu developers know this and they’ve taken the time to try to correct the most common issues. Gutsy Gibbon comes equipped with a decent variety of drivers, including those for ATI, nVidia, and Intel graphics chips. In addition to proper support for the most popular cards, Gutsy is also far more intelligent when is comes to detecting multiple monitors and the like. On top of this, a lot of the configuration options and settings needed to properly set up a display (or two) have been taken out of the terminal and put into a user-friendly dialog box. However, let me tell you from personal experience that things still aren’t a 100% perfect; if you happen to have a rather obscure setup like I do (with two off-brand displays that connected to a PC via different interfaces), you might still have a little trouble getting it all to work seamlessly.

• FULLY AUTOMATED PRINTER INSTALLATION
  • This one is as simple as it sounds: plug the printer in, let Ubuntu detect and configure it, and your ready to go…

• COMPLETE NTFS SUPPORT
  • Practically every major operating system has its own file system: Windows prefers NTFS, Apple like HFS+, while Linux has EXT3. This creates an inherent problem. What if you want to take a file off of one system and put it on another to work on? In previous Ubuntu distros, you could read files from an NTFS system to edit them, but you couldn’t write them back onto their original drive. Once again, Gutsy Gibbon comes to the rescue. Thanks to the integration of the NTFS-3g Project into Ubuntu, version 7.10 now fully supports both reading as well as writing.

• BETTER POWER MANAGEMENT
  • Linux and laptops is either hit or miss; it either works or it doesn’t. One major source of frustration for some users is that Ubuntu might not properly interface with the hardware present in the machine. This can be especially troublesome when the hardware in question is the battery and its management. Gibbon’s new Linux kernel promises to go easy on both the battery as well as the user’s lap.

• HARD DISK ENCRYPTION
  • Data security is very important these days. Whether you work for the government or maintain a simple blog, having your data securely tucked away (and backed-up) is extremely important, and the Ubuntu guys know this. That’s why they’re offering an alternate system installer that will allow you to set up Ubuntu so that the entire disk is encrypted. Unfortunately, this will only protect you if your system is off. For some more hardcore protection, check out TrueCrypt.

Overall, Gutsy Gibbon is yet another solid step forward for Ubuntu. As others have already noted, Gibbon does a far better job of being ready to use right out of the box (so to speak), than Windows. If you’ve never used a Linux system before, then let me honestly say that Gibbon is the perfect stepping stone; it’s just as user-friendly as most Windows operating systems, and yet it doesn’t relinquish any of the power that Linux is known for.

Ever wondered what all the “Web 2.0″ fuss is all about? Sure, it’s often described as the second generation of online services and applications designed to keep people social; but what does that actually mean for the average user? For an answer that leaves little doubt about the usefulness and inevitable need for powerful, interlinked web applications, check out Picnik.

Picnik – possibly the epitome of Web 2.0 – is the ultimate showcase when it comes to demonstrating that online applications can be just as fast and smooth as any local application. Picnik is a sophisticated, yet simple, photo-editing application, which has all the necessary features to easily outperform and outclass Vista’s Photo Gallery and Apple’s iPhoto.

Although there is no way that Picnik is going to convert anyone away from professional powerhouses such as Photoshop, it has enough elegance and grace to become a social networker’s best friend. Picnik is lightning fast thanks to the clever implementation of AJAX and Flash. Once you hit the “Fullscreen” button, there is no way to tell that Picnik is all the way up in the clouds, as they say.

After a quick and painless registration process, users are presented with a very simple tabbed interface that easily guides users through the process of uploading, manipulating, and sharing their creations. One of the things that makes Picnik such a powerful “Web 2.0″ applications is that fact it is set up to seamlessly integrate with a most popular image sharing sites out there, including: Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Facebook and Photobucket.

Uploading images is a piece of cake. Once a user hits the “Connect” button and enters their login credentials, it’s a synch to import images from any of the above mentioned networking sites. And if you’re not into the whole “Web 2.0″ phenomena, then there’s plenty of other options at your disposal: either upload your images directly from a local directory, enter a URL, or snap a quick picture with your webcam. You can even search for images from within Picnik, using the Yahoo Search tools.

Once you’ve got they image you want into Picnik, you’ll be able to do all sorts of things to it; some good, some not so much. Obviously, all of the standard manipulation tools are present: Auto-fix, rotate, crop, resize, exposure and color correction, sharpen, and, of course, red-eye correction. But, if you really want to create something unique, then there’s a whole other tab waiting for you.

Under the “Create” tab, you’ll be able to apply a wide variety of “Effects.” If you’ve ever used Photoshop or any other photo editing package, then you should be pretty familiar with the range of filters that exist. Some are useful, while others are a complete joke. Besides just apply one (or more) of the 24 filters available, you’ll also be able to ruin, erh, enhance your images with text and shapes. To be fair, though, the power of each of these tools is pretty amazing; you’ll not only be able to choose the font and size you want, but also how align the text, what color to make it, and whether you’d like it to appear faded. Once you’ve added all the necessary shapes and text, you might want to add one of five different borders.

Another incredibly useful feature is the Undo & Redo system. Any change you make to the image can be easily undone, and if need by, redone. The part that surprised me about the feature was that it’s not just limited to undoing one or two changes, like that sorry excuse for a photo editor called iPhoto. At one point, I was able to undo 12 changes I made to the image.

Once you’re all done editing, hit the last tab to save and share you photo with the world. At this point, Picnik doesn’t actually store images on the own service, but you can easily export your image back into Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, or Photobucket gallaries. And if that isn’t the way that you wann go, then you can always save it locally, e-mail it, or send it off to an insane number of other sites, like: ImageShack, Freewebs, Walmart Photos, TypePad, Costo Photo, Snapfish, Tumblr, and SmugMug, to name only a few.

Overall, Picnik deserves to do well; it’s a good concept, that’s been executed really well. This is Picnik’s first week out of beta, and to celebrate the accomplishment, the developers have decided to grant everyone full access to all the features. So, go check it out while you can. At the end of the week, Picnik will cut off some of the more advanced features and make them part of their “Premium Feature Stream,” which will go for an easy $24.95 a year.

If you’re keen on tracking all activity on your site and you’d like to have access to those statistics locally, then FireStats might be just what you’ve been looking for. I’ve used the tool for a little over a year now, and I’ve been impressed with it right from the beginning when it was still in beta.

Most of the credit for this awesome little tool goes to Omry Yadan, who has done an outstanding job of maintaining the project. Omry pushes out regular updates, and also does an excellent job of documenting all changes and fixes. The latest stable version of FireStats is 1.3.6, and development is still going strong.More…

Written entirely in PHP, and with plenty of Ajax support wherever possible, FireStats provides all the essentials and a bit more. There are plenty of tracking tools on the Net, but many, like Google Analytics (which I also use) don’t afford the user any privacy protection. Since FireStats resides locally on a users server, you can be assured that no unwanted information will be send to any third party – not that I don’t trust Google, but it’s nice to have complete control over all of your data.

Besides protecting a user’s privacy, FireStats will provide users with all of the following:

• Basic hit statistics, including all hits since installation, and all hits in the last 24 hours.

• Recent pages visited by your traffic.

• Recent referrers.

• Complete breakdown of browsers and operating systems used; all organized very neatly in a number of tree lists.

• IP origin analysis to determine the nationality of visitors.

• List of search engine entries used to arrive at your site.

• The ability to exclude unwanted visitors from the statistics. This can be done by IP, as well as by user-agent.

• The ability to add statistics to the Wordpress sidebar and/or footer.

• Publicize nationality of comment posters.

Another cool thing about FireStats is that it’s not platform specific. As longs as your site is coded in PHP, you’re free to use the standalone version. FireStats will also integrate nicely into any of the following content management systems: Django, Drupal, Gallery2, Gregarius, Joomla, MediaWiki, Trac, and, of course, Wordpress.

Check out the Live Demo.

Despite having posted a variety of articles on Vista, I’ve had only limited access to the new operating system until recently when I purchased a new HP DV6500t laptop. The laptop came with Vista, and as such it has offered me the opportunity to some more exploring. Having spent two weeks with Vista now, there are things I like and, perhaps obviously, things I don’t. If you’re used to XP, like I am, then switching will present a certain number of adaptive challenges; below are some of my biggest qualms.

THE CONTROL PANEL

One of the things that bugs me most in Vista is the fact the Microsoft somehow decided that it would be good idea to completely reorganize the control panel in what seems to be an attempt at making it easier to use. Well, that didn’t work; for anyone who is used to the setup and organization of XP, trying to do something simple, like adding and removing programs, can be quite a chore. In Windows XP, performing this task was easily accomplished by hitting “Add and Remove Programs” in the control panel. Easy enough, right? Well, in Vista it took me a whole lot longer to do than I’d care to admit. The biggest problem I had was getting to the right place. As it turns out, “Add and Remove Programs” has been renamed to “Programs and Features.” Who’s bright idea was that?

Another change that I honestly don’t get is the removal of “Display” from the control panel. Don’t get me wrong, you can still modify all of the usual suspects, like resolution, themes, screen savers and appearances, but in order to do so you’ll have to head over to something called, get this, “Personalize.” And once you’ve figured this out and you’ve hit the icon, you’ll notice that the trusty old tabbed dialog box no longer exists in Vista as it did in XP. Instead, you simply delve deeper into the control panel.

Luckily, the rest of the icons and settings in the Vista control panel remain pretty much the same as they were in XP, but that which has changed is quite is annoying to re-locate, especially for “old skool” Windows users. Obviously, these are only petty complaints that most users will probably get used to pretty quick, but, nonetheless, if you’ve spent almost every waking hour on an XP system for the past half decade, it’s really annoying (and embarrassing) to be unable to quickly amend settings. On top of all this, I find that the changes don’t even make it any easier to get the job done.

FILE EXPLORER

Another rather large complaint that I have about Vista is that the “File Browser,” or whatever you might want to call this unnamed application, underwent major changes as well, and once again, I’m not too happy about what Microsoft has done. If you’ve spent any time with Vista, you probably know what I’m talking about.

First of all, why the hell mess with something that really isn’t broken? As a self-proclaimed computer geek, I spend a lot of time in the XP file browser, and I’ve gotten quite used to its already simple interface. One of the most used buttons in the XP version is the “Up” button, which allows me to move up the parent folder of the folder that I’m currently in. What Microsoft has done in a(n) (failed) attempt to “enhance” my computing experience is to get rid of this beloved button, and replace is with a dynamic address bar. Sure, it might be more noob friendly, but, in my opinion, it’s easier to just keep pounding the “Up” button to get where I want to be—but hey, maybe that’s just me…

If you want to make the Vista file explorer look and feel more like the XP version, head over to the “Folder and Search Options,” found in the “Organize” drop-down menu, and try changing a few things around. The same options menu can also be found in the Control Panel, and there it’s called “Folder Options.” Is it so hard to stay consistent?

I can understand that Microsoft would like to make the operating system friendlier, but the least that they could have done is include an option to revert back to the old, “Classic” scheme, much like you can with the themes.

USER ACCOUNT CONTROL (UAC)

Wikipedia describes User Account Control as a system infrastructure that “aims to improve the security of Windows by limiting applications to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes an increase in privilege level. In this way, only applications that the user trusts receive higher privileges, and malware is kept from receiving privileges necessary to wreak havoc on the operating system.” Translation: it’s a nuisance for the experienced user.

If you are a new PC user and Vista is the first operating system that you have ever used, then this might be a pretty good security infrastructure to keep in place; if you didn’t launch an application and UAC pops up, then you know something, somewhere is up to no good. However, there is a huge drawback to UAC. It has the tendency to pop up with every keystroke, especially on a clean install, and this is sure to piss people off. All users, old or new, will eventually succumb to “pop-up fatigue,” meaning that every pop-up will be met with the same general response, either yes, no, or ignore—think of it as having Windows cry wolf far too many times.

If you know what you are doing, you shouldn’t have too much of a security problem if you just turn off UAC; in fact, I will go as far as to say that everyone will be better off with it turned off, because the level of annoyance it creates far outweighs the benefits. Just get a good anti-virus application instead.

SO WHAT DO I LIKE IN VISTA?

Good question! Vista is slower than XP, it’s not really any user friendlier, and it doesn’t really keep you safer in any meaningful way. So, there really isn’t that much to warrant a switch from XP—besides maybe the eye-candy.

Oh wait, there is one thing. Having a search bar built into the start menu is actually really convenient. It makes it a lot easier to find a specific application or file…And that’s really about it as far as I’m concerned.