Category: software

New FileZilla Beta

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I see that a new beta (2.0b5) of FileZilla is available. FileZilla is an open source (GPL) ftp client for Windows (no relation to Mozilla).

In that past, I previously used SmartFTP. And, it was a decent program, but I prefer FileZilla’s interface. That, and I prefer to use open source programs if I can (though SmartFTP is freeware, so I didn’t feel entirely guilty about using it).

In this latest version of FileZilla, it has the option to “Preserve date/time of downloaded files”. And, just for my own sanity, I appreciate that feature. Now, if only they'd give that option for uploaded files as well (or would that feature be dependent on the ftp daemon on the other end?).

Crimson Editor – 3.45 beta

Ashley Bischoff7 Comments

Cool, I was pleased to discover that Crimson Editor v3.45 beta has been released today. For those not aware, Crimson Editor is a freeware source-code/text editor for Windows.

It may not quite be at the level of (say) TextPad, but TextPad isn’t free either. While I don’t believe that shareware is immorral, I do consider free software to better imbody the hacker ethos. I regard Crimson Editor as the current champ of source-code/text editors for Windows. Some features:

  • Multi-level Undo/Redo
  • Change-detection. That is, if a file changes on disk “out from under the feet” of the editor, the editor prompts the user whether he/she would like to reload the file.
  • Syntax Highlighting: HTML, CSS, C/C++, JavaScript, and so many other languages (even Python and LaTeX).
  • Auto-indent
  • Matching-parens highlighting. This is extremely handy for multi-level if-statements, for instance.

As far as what’s new in the 3.45 beta, I found this list of features to be included in 3.45 Final on the messageboard, and presumably the items that are listed as “done” are included in the beta.

Ballmer ’fesses up to Linux/Windows cost FUD

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

From The Register, “Ballmer ’fesses up to Linux/Windows cost FUD”. For quite some time, Microsoft maintainted that Linux costed more than Windows. But, they’ve apparently realized that people just aren’t buying that anymore:

Windows is a lot more expensive to run than Linux, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has finally confessed. Despite Redmond’s heroic efforts to defeat common knowledge with elaborately-rigged total cost of ownership ‘studies’, innuendo, FUD and outright distortions, the rhetorical power of common experience has become too powerful, even for a marketing behemoth like MS.

According to an article by VARBusiness, Ballmer now concedes that MS execs “haven’t figured out how to be lower-priced than Linux. For us as a company, we’re going through a whole new world of thinking.” [...]

Ogg Vorbis goes gold

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

As mentioned at The Register, “Ogg Vorbis goes gold” today.

For music fans the hope is that major hardware vendors will back the format, which is promoted as offering higher quality playback in less space than MP3. [...]

However, the code isn’t quite ready for download by the masses:

News of the release came to us in an email from Reg reader Douglas Gore, who told us: “Ogg Vorbis officially become version 1.0 today as announced on the developers mailing list, they haven't announced this officially yet as they are preparing it for full release, but the code is in the CVS and already people have compiles of the final code floating around in the Internet.” [...]

The big-win for me is that Ogg isn’t encumbered by patents, unlike mp3.

New ViRC

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

A new version of ViRC has been released, 2.0rc3. ViRC, if you’re not aware, is one of the better IRC clients for Windows. I used to be a Klient, user, but its lack-of-development since last year finally turned me to look for other options.

And, though it may appear that ViRC doesn’t have some of the more advanced functionality that other clients have built-in (such as auto-away), there’re 3rd party scripts to take care of that (including auto-away).