Thursday, January 31, 2008
Hubble Hubble
10:42PM Sarah Stokely | Google recently launched its Palimpsest project, which will upload and host terabytes of scientific data, including data from the Hubble Space Telescope. But in a talk today at Linux.conf.au Googler Leslie Hawthorn pointed out an awesome mashup that this has made possible – images from the Hubble Space Telescope can be overlaid on the sky view in Google Earth: Sky. Neat stuff. :)
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Wine supports Photoshop under Linux
10:22PM Sarah Stokely | One of the nice things about the open source movement is it gives us choices. The Wine project has been around for years and lets users run supported Windows applications under Linux. I got an interesting update of where Wine is at from a talk at Linux.conf.au today.
If the Gimp isn’t enough for you, you may be interested to know that you can now use Wine to run Photoshop on Linux. The Code Weavers project, maintained by Dan Kegel, supports CS2 and CS3.
This tip came from a talk by Leslie Hawthorn, Google’s head of open source programs. Google sponsorship helped fund the development, and there’s more in the pipeline. They are also working on getting the speech recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking working under Linux as well.
Leslie said Dan Kegel had also been working on getting iTunes to work under Linux as well. “He purchased Kraftwerk’s Autobahn on iTunes!”
Wine’s been lower profile in recent years, it was good to get an update on its progress. I used to recommend it to gamers who didn’t want a Windows PC just for games. Have you used Wine? If so I’d be interested to hear what you thought of it. More » 
Lifehacker Australia interviews Linus Torvalds
8:49AM Sarah Stokely | Linus Torvalds is one of the most influential hackers in modern computing, having created the Linux kernel as an open source alternative to the Unix operating system. He’s since spent nearly 20 years maintaining the kernel in a leadership role (as well as continuing to have an active coding role) through the Linux Foundation.
Linus is a regular attendee at Linux.conf.au (last year he was spotted tooling around the conference on a home brew Segway – possibly the geekiest moment in history). He’s back again for LCA this year, and we were thrilled to score an interview with him yesterday.
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Top 10 BitTorrent Tools and Tricks
8:30AM Adam Pash | BitTorrent is the go-to resource for downloading everything from music and movies to software and operating systems, but as its popularity continues to grow, so do the number of tools available for making the most of it. Some are must-haves, while others are a waste of time. Climb aboard for a look at 10 of the best BitTorrent utilities, tools, and resources for finding and managing your BitTorrent downloads quickly and efficiently. More »
Fix Your Poor PC Posture
8:20AM Adam Pash | The Dumb Little Man weblog’s got his eye on your PC posture, and frankly, it’s not all it could be. Not only can good posture improve your overall well-being, but from a productivity perspective, it can also help you stay fresh so you can work harder for a longer period of time without feeling the fatigue more common to your old hunched-over habits. To aid in the improvement of your PC posture, the post offers six stretches to get you sitting up straighter and taller at your computer. While you’re at it, maybe it’s time you fixed your overall workspace into a more healthy, usable setup. Improve Your ‘Hunched over the PC’ Posture [Dumb Little Man] More »PC World examines at your options for getting …
8:10AM Adam Pash | PC World examines at your options for getting Windows XP after the June 30 cutoff date, and—barring some miracle extension from MS—the prospects don’t look good. The get-used-to-Vista-or-find-a-new-OS days are very near. More »Ask MetaFilter Roundup
8:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | How do I stop eating when I’m not hungry? Can anyone recommend a rowing machine for a small area? How can I take my after-work hobby full-time? Why are transfers to my external firewire drive so slow? What’s the best way to play my MP3 player in my car that doesn’t use a tape adapter or FM transmitter? More »DIY Camera Stabiliser On-the-Cheap
7:50AM Adam Pash | This video tutorial steps through how to build a very simple and cheap vertical camera stabiliser intended to reduce camera shake when you’re shooting in conditions where a tripod just won’t do (or, you know, you don’t have a tripod). The stabiliser should work particularly well for shorter distance shots, but you’ll notice more shaking the more zooming you do. In those cases, the tripod is still your best friend, but for a workable and cheap DIY, this is a great DIY tool. More »
