Category: Geek Software of the Week

This week’s Geek Software of the Week may be JUST what some of you have been looking for… if you want to help out someone elsewhere on the Internet with computer support! Imagine a secure connection where you can “drive” someone else’s PC even through their firewall! (With their consent, of course!) For supporting someone “far off” this is very cool!

CrossLoop Beta

“CrossLoop is a FREE secure screen sharing utility designed for people of all technical skill levels. CrossLoop extends the boundaries of VNC’s traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It only takes a few minutes to setup and no signup is required. Security is built into all aspects of CrossLoop. Session data is encrypted at the end-points before being sent using a 128-bit encryption algorithm using a randomly generated 12-digit access code. Explicit permission is required before any screen images are sent to a remote computer. CrossLoop is a secure tool to remotely assist any PC on the planet.”

This is very nice, secure… and very cool as well! Check it out!

While searching for the best ways to stream video… I ran across this video/audio player. At first I was kinda “so what?” Then, I tried it. It is fast, smooth, and, of course FREE! And, if you do not have software to play DVDs on your system, it will play DVDs as well (with appropriate hardware of course!)

VLC media player

“VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.”

So, check it out! It really is a solid media player… and works very well!

There are binary installations available for:
* Windows
* Mac OS X
* BeOS
* Debian GNU/Linux
* Ubuntu Linux
* Mandriva Linux
* Fedora Core
* Familiar Linux
* YOPY/Linupy
* Zaurus
* SUSE Linux
* Red Hat Linux
* WinCE / PocketPC
* Slackware Linux
* ALT Linux

And, with the source code, you can compile it for:
* NetBSD
* OpenBSD
* FreeBSD
* Solaris
* QNX
* Gentoo Linux
* Crux Linux

Features available in VLC

While working with the new video netcast… I found that I needed a way to incorporate a video from the web into my video editor. In this case, the Weird Al Yankovik video, “Don’t Download this Song.” It was on the web as a flash video on MySpace. First, I used the Firefox plugin called “Video Downloader” to capture the video as a Flash “FLV” file. Then, I needed a way to convert it to an MP4 format video to pull into my video editor, Ulead VideoStudio. Now, where to find a free, excellent, video format converter? Enter, “Super” to the rescue!

Super Video and Audio Converter

“If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file, without reading manuals or spending long hours training, then SUPER © is all you need. It is a Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player, easy-to-use with 1 simple click. SUPER © is totally FREE to download and to use. It plays & converts very fast full length movies to any other format without any time or function limitation. NO trial or evaluation version of SUPER © but one unique fully working version. SUPER © does NOT require any additional external codec to be installed, absolutely nothing. Necessary codecs are built in! SUPER © can also play and save Internet Media Streams with different protocols ( mms:// rtsp:// https://)”

It was VERY nice, and easy to convert the file, then I was able to pull it right into the video! By the way, here’s the link to the Firefox Video Downloader:

Firefox Video Downloader

It has been a while since we have had a “Geek Software of the Week,” and this is a fun one! The formerly “closed source” software “VirtualBox” has now gone Open Source! It is a virtualization environment, like VMware.

VirtualBox

“InnoTek VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL).”

Check out the screen shots in this link:

VirtualBox Screen Shots

“Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows and Linux 32-bit hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD. VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while InnoTek ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.”

Emsi Software says, “Security must not be a privilege. Under this motto, Emsi Software provides the Malware scanner a-squared Free completely free of charge for private use. But it is not a very limited version, it is a full tool to clean your computer from Malware. Not only Spywares, as detected by classic Anti-Spyware programs, but also especially Trojans, Backdoors, Worms, Dialers, Keyloggers and a lot of other destructive pests, which makes it dangerous to surf the web.”

a-squared Free Malware Scanner

Pretty cool and free as well! Check it out, you may want to add it to your malware killing arsenal!

You gotta look into these two Open Source projects if you are into Instant Messaging, or need to set up an Enterprise-wide IM Server where you work!

Wildfire Server and the Spark IM Client – The Open Alternative to Proprietary Enterprise Instant Messaging

“Wildfire is a leading Open Source, cross-platform IM server based on the XMPP (Jabber) protocol. It has great performance, is easy to setup and use, and delivers an innovative feature set. Wildfire is an enterprise instant messaging (EIM) server dual-licensed under the Open Source GPL and commercially. It uses the leading open protocol for instant messaging, XMPP (also called Jabber). Wildfire is incredibly easy to setup and administer, but offers rock-solid security and performance. Use Wildfire in your organization as a more secure and feature-rich alternative to the consumer IM networks. Or, replace your existing EIM server with a more open, easier to use, and much less expensive solution.

Spark is an Open Source cross-platform IM client optimized for businesses and organizations. It has a simple but powerful user interface, leading feature set, and uses the open XMPP (Jabber) protocol. Spark is an Open Source, cross-platform IM client optimized for businesses and organizations of all sizes. It includes enterprise-class features such as built-in support for group chat, telephony integration, and strong security. It also offers an exceptional experience with user-friendly features like in-line spell checking, group chat room bookmarks, and tabbed conversations. The plugin architecture allows you to build plugins (Sparkplugs) that quickly and easily add new features tailored to your specific business needs. Spark is centrally managed from within the Wildfire administration console, making it easy to provision, update and manage all clients on your network.”

More and more we are going to see streaming services in our homes. I still believe that the future of TV is actually “IPTV,” meaning TV shows will be streamed over the Internet to our homes and we will be able to have “narrowcasting” of only what we want to watch shown on our TV sets! Well, you can do that now with MP3 music in your home!

Vibe Streamer – Free MP3 Streaming Music Server for Windows

Check out these features on this FREE software!

Free MP3 Streaming Server.

Easy installation and configuration.

Share unlimited files and directories.

Full support for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003.

Protect your directories with user accounts and groups.

Easily manage your users, groups and their access rights.

Restrict access to your server based on the clients IP address, for better security.
Unlimited skin possibilities, create your own or download new skins as they appear on our website.

The included standard skin supports the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.

Our own Vibe Script Language, for unlimited possibilities in skin creation.

Guaranteed free from backdoors, spyware, adware and other non-requested software.

Very nice! Check it out! And, if you set up your outgoing ports through your firewall correctly, you can even listen over the Internet from anywhere (say, at work!) Keep all your music in one place, yet securely listen to them when you want to, anywhere you have an Internet connection!

“Sandboxie?” That sounds lame! Well, a “sandbox” is metaphorically, a place to play. (Like a kid in a sandbox, get it?) So, “Sandboxie” allows you to “play” with programs, and more specifically, websites, that are, perhaps, “dangerous” places. Places where you might get a spyware infection for instance. However, if the “play area” for your browser is “sandboxed,” then theoretically, you are safe!

Sandboxie “Virtual Play Area” Software

“Think of your PC as a piece of paper. Every program you run writes on the paper. When you run your browser, it writes on the paper about every site you visited. And any malware you come across will usually try to write itself into the paper. Traditional privacy and anti-malware software try to locate and erase any writings they think you wouldn’t want on the paper. Most of the times they get it right. But first the makers of these solutions must teach the solution what to look for on the paper, and also how to erase it safely. On the other hand, the Sandboxie sandbox works like a transparency layer placed over the paper. Programs write on the transparency layer and to them it looks like the real paper. When you delete the sandbox, it’s like removing the transparency layer, the unchanged, real paper is revealed.”

Have you Linux geeks ever wanted rsync on Windows? Miss it, huh? Well, here’s a “Windowzy” version for ya!

DeltaCopy – Rsync for Windows

“In general terms, DeltaCopy is an open source, fast incremental backup program. Let’s say you have to backup one file that is 500 MB every night. A normal file copy would copy the entire file even if a few bytes have changed. DeltaCopy, on the other hand, would only copy the part of file that has actually been modified. This reduces the data transfer to just a small fraction of 500 MB saving time and network bandwidth. In technical terms, DeltaCopy is a “Windows Friendly” wrapper around the Rsync program, currently maintained by Wayne Davison. “rsync” is primarily designed for Unix/Linux/BSD systems. Although ports are available for Windows, they typicall require downloading Cygwin libraries and manual configuration.”

OK, it is really µTorrent, with a little “doohickey” under the “U.” But, I don’t know what it is called. (I am sure someone like darkmoon will tell me!) It stands for “micro,” so you would expect it to be small and quick… and it is!

What is it? It is a BitTorrent client! Previously, I have used Azureus. And, it can be a bit “sluggish!” This one is QUICK! Also, a cool feature, you can control it from over the web! Now, THAT rocks! Check it out! You will like it!

µTorrent BitTorrent Client

“Most of the features present in other BitTorrent clients are present in µTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet). Additionally, µTorrent supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification (compatible with Azureus 2.4.0.0 and above, BitComet 0.63 and above) and peer exchange. µTorrent was written with efficiency in mind. Unlike many torrent clients, it does not hog valuable system resources – typically using less than 6MB of memory, allowing you to use the computer as if it weren’t there at all. Additionally, the program itself is contained within a single executable less than 170 KB in size.”