Rocket Dock Rocks!
In my trek for a MAC OS X style dock for my Ubuntu PC, the other day, I happened upon a neat little app called Rocket Dock. This app is actually for Windows but I decided to try it out anyway (I’ve yet to find one for Ubuntu that I like).
I was pleasantly surprised. It was a fairly small download and was quick to install. So far I have been running it for 3 days and haven’t had any issues whatsoever.
One of my favorite things about this is the availability of custom icons, skins, docklets available to make your experience with it that much better. The icons are particularly useful because some applications don’t fare well with Rocket Dock’s method of rendering the icons. The one that sticks out in my mind is Internet Explorer.
If you are interested in such a tool I suggest giving rocket dock a try. You can get it from their official website at http://www.rocketdock.com/.
FileZilla – An Open Source FTP Client
For those of you who have websites, you know that one of the most important tools you must have is your FTP client. This is the main way to get your files up to your site and when you make changes you use the FTP client to upload those too.
In this day and age there is no need to pay for this type of software. FileZilla does just about anything you would need and with their server software you can even run your own FTP site on your computer. You might ask what exactly FileZilla has to offer? Here are some of it’s main features (pulled directly from their website):
- Easy to use
- Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
- Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X and more
- IPv6 support
- Available in many languages
- Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
- Powerful Site Manager and transfer queue
- Drag & drop support
- Configurable Speed limits
- Filename filters
- Network configuration wizard
- Remote file editing
- Keep-alive
- HTTP/1.1, SOCKS5 and FTP-Proxy support
For me, the best feature about this is the price. FileZilla is absolutely free and open source so you could even edit the source code if you wanted. The other reason I really like this is that it runs on multiple platforms. I always have a Linux box set up among my Windows machines so to be able to use the same software on both platforms. Having to learn how to use different software on each platform you run is time consuming and hinders your productivity. FileZilla is also extremely stable and, at least for me, never crashes or causes any sort of problems.
If you are looking for an FTP client I suggest you seriously consider FileZilla, you might be pleasantly surprised.
10 Questions With Stefan Berka of Operating-System.org
Stefan Berka is the owner/operator of operating-system.org. The goal of his site is to document and share as much information about operating systems as possible. I’ve recently had the chance to ask him a few questions and here they are with the answers. Enjoy!
Q. Who are you and what do you do?
A. My name is Stefan Berka, i live in Germany and work for a security software company as employee in the support department.
Q. What prompted you to start operating-system.org and why?
A. I was fascinated from the different operating systems with different concepts and graphical user interfaces. Starting from 1999, there was only a documentation of 15 pages and i had the goal to share the informations with others after some revision over a own website.
Q. How long have you been running the website?
A. The website is online since 15. February 2001. Since then the design and navigation have gone through important changes.
Q. What to you envision as the future of operating-system.org?
A.The intention of my project is to inform about as many operating systems in detail as possible. All informations are free of charge and and without restriction available in long term.
Q. Are there any new features and/or components you plan on adding in the near future?
A. I have the plan to make some screenshots specials with operating systems for comparison with others. Because of the feedback of some visitors, specifications about the minimum hardware requirements are added soon.
Q. What is your favorite OS and why?
A. I like to work with different operating systems to take benefit from each of them for the needed field of application. If i had to choose one only i’ll take Linux to compile and configure it for my needs.
Q. Are there any operating systems that are missing from your site? Are there any that you need help to find information for?
A. Currently i’m after the seek of screenshots of the operating systems Minix, PC/GEOS and NEXTSTEP.
Q. What do you see as the future of the operating system? Is it in the “cloud” or do you think the desktop OS still has a future?
A. My opinion is that there will be possible never the one and only perfect operating system for everyone. The requirements for all sorts of intended purposes in the ease of use, security and multimedia support are too different. The operating system roles for desktop and server usage will be stay for a long time.
Q. What operating system(s) do you use on your personal computers and why have you chosen it (them)?
A. I use Windows XP on my desktop computer for maximum compatibility and performance for games. Windows Vista is installed on my laptop to produce the website project with high security. Mandriva Linux is used for multimedia purposes on another computer, the advantage is to install and configure it once.
Q. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
A. The website is developed with a own content management system in PHP/mySQL. All pages are created with templates for each language offline for the upload.
Switching To a New Web Host
I’m taking the plunge and I am going to switch to AN Hosting as my main provider of web hosting and related services. I am currently running eCSWare.org on one of their VPS servers (same account as Haikuware.com) and have had much success.
I am not switching because of any problems I’ve had with Hostgator I just found an excellent one day deal for $5.95/month that gives me pretty much unlimited transfer, databases, email, domains etc. As well as RoR and PHP support. Hostgator is currently providing me pretty much the same stuff (less RoR) for $9.95/month. It’s not a huge savings but every bit counts these days with the markets going the way they are.
It’s going to take me a while to get everything switched over, as I currently have 6 sites running. They all have to be backed up, uploaded to the new host, and the databases have to be re-configured. I shouldn’t lose anything and I will keep the Hostgator account up and running until I am sure everything is working 100%. There shouldn’t be much downtime save for the short period where the new DNS settings will have to propagate over the Internet.
Wish me luck!
~TheNerd
Top 5 Firefox Add-ons
Tom Merrit of cnet tv counts down the top 5 Firefox add-ons. Enjoy!
An Interview with Cliff Hunt – Chairman and COO of YANGAROO, Inc.
I have recently been given the opportunity to interview (via email) the Chairman and COO of YANGAROO, Inc. YANGAROO is a provider of a product called DMDS (Digital Media Distribution System) which caters to the music industry and provides artists and corporations a digitally secure method to transfer and distribute media to various organizations. They have recently been involved with the Juno Awards, using their DMDS product, to aid the artists in their distribution of their work(s) to the judges.
The interview is below. Feel free to let me know what you think by leaving a comment!
1. Me: Can you please explain what Yangaroo is and what are its main products and/or solutions?
Cliff Hunt: YANGAROO Inc is a publicly traded technology company based in Toronto with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London UK. Its main product is its patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) which is the leading secure B2B digital delivery solution for the music and advertising industries. DMDS is a web-based delivery system that pioneers secure digital file distribution by incorporating biometrics, encryption and watermarking. DMDS replaces the physical distribution of musical recordings and advertising to radio, media, retailers and other authorized recipients with more accountable, effective and far less costly digital delivery of broadcast quality media via the Internet. Other products that YANGAROO has developed include eNotes which are used extensively by the music industry in both Canada and the US. These are special notifications that not only deliver the music track, but also provide additional information and graphics, and allow the recipient to stream the music directly from the notification. DMDSDirect is another product designed to service the growing independent community, allowing independent labels and artists to send their music to radio formats that have been pre-packaged ,( ie top 100 College radio stations, or top 100 Alternative Rock stations, etc), and with the added convenience of payment made simply by credit card.
2. Me: What is your personal background?
Cliff Hunt: I started as a musician, playing in a horn band called the Brass Union in the Toronto area. After my band broke up, I was hired by Coca-Cola promoting live concerts, and from there was hired as an agent at the biggest booking agency in Canada. That’s not what I ultimately wanted to do, but I learned a lot. As an agent, a number of artists asked me if I’d be interested in managing them, so I did that for a number of years. From there I formed my own record production and music publishing companies, and over 25 years signed over 35 major international record deals with my artists achieving international success, and winning numerous Juno Awards and touring the world. I guess I saw the changes in the record industry coming in the late 90’s and saw the digital age as a new and exciting opportunity within the industry that I knew best, and YANGAROO evolved from that process.
3. Me: What is DMDS and how does it work?
Cliff Hunt: The record company has the DMDS agent on their desktop computer or laptop. They upload the file from whatever digital format they have it in. They first put in the metadata. They can add cover art, photos, tour dates, a link to the video and all kinds of additional information. They choose the destinations. They can choose all of hot AC radio, for instance, or can cherry-pick stations or choose individuals within those stations. Then they choose the date they want it to be downloaded or they can have it downloaded immediately. Radio receives it and can stream it, listen to it, and if it’s something they want to add to their playlist, they just click download for a full WAV, CD-quality file. They drop it into their scheduling system and it’s on the air.
4. Me: How did you get involved with the Juno awards and how will Yangaroo be able to help it?
Cliff Hunt: It’s interesting, actually , it was CARAS (Canadian Association of Recording Arts and Sciences) that contacted us. DMDS is used exclusively by all four major label groups in Canada, those being Universal , Warner, SonyBMG, and EMI and the presidents of these for groups sit on the board of CARAS, and when it came time for CARAS to seek a new way of handling the voting process, we were the obvious choice.
5. Me: I’ve reviewed your website and noticed a references to musicrypt. What is musicrypt?
Cliff Hunt: Musicrypt was the original name of the company, and as were focused originally on the music industry and would be encrypting the files the name seemed obvious at the time. As we began to see the potential for our technology to provide opportunities far beyond just the delivery of music files we realized a name change was necessary and changed the corporate name to YANGAROO Inc. about 18 months ago.
6. Me: How will DMDS and Yangaroo benefit the music industry as a whole?
Cliff Hunt: We benefit the music industry in many ways. We save them money, we save them time, we provide much more flexibility, accountability, security, and we are environmentally safe. Consider the traditional way of sending music to radio for instance. Special CD-pros have to be manufactured, they must be packaged, then labeled, and then delivered to hundreds or thousands of radio stations throughout North America. This costs a fortune, is inefficient, and wastes literally tons of non-biodegradable materials, not to mention, the burning jet and diesel fuel to deliver this content. This process can also take weeks to accomplish. As you have seen above we replace this entire, add additional value to the process and do it in minutes.
The music industry must become much more effective and efficient and DMDS helps them accomplish this.
7. Me: How will DMDS and Yangaroo benefit the individual artists?
Cliff Hunt: As I described above, DMDSDirect is a tool designed to help individual artists and small independent labels. Our radio packages allow them to send to radio stations quickly and inexpensively, and get many of the same benefits as the major labels . The cost saving is considerable and this allows the independent artist or label to spend more money on advertising and promoting themselves.
8. Me: What do you envision for the future of Yangaroo?
Cliff Hunt: YANGAROO will expand far beyond just the music industry. We are already beginning to deliver radio spots for the advertising industry and we expect in the next short while to be able to deliver video files, meaning broadcast quality music videos and television commercials in the same manner and with the same features that we now provide for audio delivery. YANGAROO delivers digital content from point A to point B quickly, securely, and inexpensively. That could be a music file, a video file, a print document, or a medical x-ray. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
9. Me: Are there any other upcoming projects or partnerships that you can talk about? If so what are they and who will they benefit?
Cliff Hunt: The major project we are consumed with currently is the launch of our DMDS 5.0. This is a complete new version of our DMDS software that is a quantum leap forward and much more advanced than the current version, providing for the previously mentioned video delivery, much more detailed and visually enhanced reporting, and many more features that will allow YANGAROO to remain the world leader in this new and growing industry. We expect to launch DMDS 5.0 by year-end.
10. Me: As a closing comment could you please talk about your views and impression of the state of the music industry in Canada. What do you think needs to be done to improve the revenues of the corporations and artists involved and what do you feel needs to be done to slow down or stop the piracy of digital media.
Cliff Hunt: I am more optimistic about the music industry in Canada than I am say in the US. The major labels in Canada led the way and were the first music industry in any country in the world to make the transition to entire digital delivery for promotional music. They did it using DMDS and have been using us exclusively since 2004. The independent sector in this country has also embraced DMDS and is following the lead of the major labels, making themselves more viable by saving significant time and money.
The rest of the world is moving to a digital world, but it is taking more time. We expect to do over 2 million deliveries in the US this year and have more than 2000 US radio stations registered on DMDS and receiving much of their content through us.
How to Encrypt and/or Digitally Sign Your Email
Tom Merrit of cnet tv explains how to encrypt and or digitally sign your email using an open source product called The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) as he mentions in this video it appears to be more difficult that it actually is so do not be scared. He uses a MAC and Thunderbird for this demonstration but the process is quite similar on Windows. Enjoy 
Another Video on NoHardware.com
I love the videos on NoHardware.com. They make me laugh so I thought I would share the latest one with you. Enjoy
GoGrid.com Launches an Interesting Marketing Campaign
A reader who stumbled upon my blog article about cloud computing sent me a link to a site called NoHardware (nohardware.com). It appears to be an ad campaign for GoGrid.com which is a supplier of a sort of “cloud computing” server solution.
What is neat about NoHardware is that it’s a video campaign akin to the “Will It Blend” stuff. The videos are little skits featuring Dr. GoGrid writing prescriptions for better server performance. Most of the prescriptions consist of a “cloud computing” remedy for a common problem such as up time. Take for example, the second video, where Dr. GoGrid says that your servers will blow up and then they take a huge pile (of what appears to be decommissioned gear) and put it out in a field then blow it up. They literally blow it up with some sort of explosives.
At the present time there are only two videos on the NoHarware site but I suspect that they will continue adding some as time goes on. In my opinion it’s a very clever marketing campaign and should bring lots of attention to the GoGrid.com products. For more information on the GoGrid cloud computing packages you can visit their site at GoGrid.com
eComStation 2.0 RC4 Promotional Video
So I was bored the other night and decided to get my copy of eComStation RC4 up and running and make a short screencast. I also added some music to make the viewing a little more pleasant. The list time I created a video of eComStation it ended up on the official eComStation website. I’ll send another email to the resellers mailing list this time and see if they are interested in posting it to their site again. There are a couple of mistakes that got in there but I was too lazy to fix them so you’ll see the top of an Windows Live Messenger sign-in notification and a preview of a minimized window (Vista thing). Feel free to comment here or on YouTube.