Yupeee, a new toy. Slacware 13.0 is out, with an official and in sync 64bit version too. Finally upgraded to KDE 4.2.x.

Get yours while it’s hot. And don’t forget to support the project by buying the dvd’s from the Slackware store.

Have fun!

In the good tradition of Open Source projects VideoLAN has been at a version < 1.0 for ages. Traditionally 1.0 would be a complete, stable release. Well VideoLAN is there. Actually has been there for some time, I use it constantly and besides an uglier than usual interface has been stable and useful for me.

For those of you who don’t know VideoLAN is a full featured Media Player for Windows, Linux, OSX and many more operating systems. VLC 1.0.0 has support for live recording, new HD codecs (including Blu-ray and AES3), new formats, new encoders, and many other new features.

From it’s website:

• Free, Open Source and cross-platform
• Independant of systems codecs to support most video types
• Live recording
• Instant pausing and Frame-by-Frame support
• Finer speed controls
• New HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, Blu-Ray Linear PCM, Real Video 3.0 and 4.0, …)
• New formats (Raw Dirac, M2TS, …) and major improvements in many formats…
• New Dirac encoder and MP3 fixed-point encoder
• Video scaling in fullscreen

• RTSP Trickplay support
• Zipped file playback
• Customizable toolbars
• Easier encoding GUI in Qt interface
• Better integration in Gtk environments
• MTP devices on linux
• AirTunes streaming
• New skin for the skins2 interface

What are you waiting? Grab yours here.

Like I mentioned in my previous post Firefox 3.5 is still not supported by google gears. I don’t need it for Gmail but I use the turbo feature of WordPress.

Well, a good soul over at the Google Gears User Group made a custom build. You should treat it as beta quality. It works for me on Windows but YMMV.

Probably official support is right around the corner if the fix is already in the latest source. Common google !

I’ve been using Firefox 3.5 for some time now – alpha, beta, rc and now final.

In my opinion firefox fails to improve performance as promised. It has some new features, it has some bad new features and it misses the speed we want and need. Ajax sites seem just as slow as they were in Firefox 3.0. It still isn’t 100 on the ACID 3 test and so on.

It has private mode but instead of opening a new window – maybe with a different color scheme to mark it’s privacy – it simply closes every tab and window and opens a new empty one in private mode. That’s bad implementation in my opinion. Chrome is clearly ahead here.

Google also has some shame points because, even if Firefox 3.5 has been out for some time as a RC and now stable, they failed to upgrade Google Gears for it. Do I smell some Chrome favoritism?

I will still use Firefox because I don’t like Internet Explorer and because I still dislike Chrome for no particular reason – just a feeling – and also because I use some extensions not available elsewhere.

Just wanted to let you know that Skyfire has updated it’s browser to v1.0

Update was smooth on my E71.

Skyfire 1.0

What’s new:

• Thumbnail interaction. You can click links without zooming in. A change I welcome.
• Improved Zoom.
• Enhanced Navigation.
• iFrame handlin.
• Fast start. Another change I like.
• Reconnect to last state.
• Remember last connection (Symbian only).

Skyfire 1.0

Skyfire 1.0