MakeUseOf.com: “Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]” plus 9 more |  |
- Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]
- Cool Websites and Tools [January 12th 2012]
- 5 Heavy Duty Mechanical Keyboards For The Hardcore Gamer
- 5 Excellent Ways To Customize Windows You Simply Have To Try
- 9 Amazing Photoblogs To Discover Priceless Images From Around The World
- Try The Free Official AutoCAD App For Your Phone [Android]
- 5 Fantastic Resources On The Web For Ukulele Players
- Easily & Quickly Send Command Line Emails With Blat [Windows]
- Scan Your System And Removable Media For Viruses With ClamTk [Linux]
- The End Of Boxee On The Desktop & What To Use Instead
| Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun] Posted: 12 Jan 2012 11:06 PM PST
If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.
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| Cool Websites and Tools [January 12th 2012] Posted: 12 Jan 2012 08:31 PM PST
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.
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| 5 Heavy Duty Mechanical Keyboards For The Hardcore Gamer Posted: 12 Jan 2012 06:31 PM PST
If you're wondering what the fuss is about you might want to read our relevant Technology Explained feature and if you're still not convinced then we've considered the benefits your investment will return too. Now it's time to highlight some of the hardiest, boldest and most expensive peripherals to ever sit on a desk. Credit cards at the ready… Corsair Vengeance K60 – $109.99
Designed from the ground up for those who are serious about first-person shooters, the Corsair Vengeance K60 is a mechanical keyboard with a featherlight touch. This touch is delivered via the low-sensitivity, linear feedback Cherry MX Red keyboard switches employed which are perfect for fast-paced games where quick reactions are key (excuse the pun). One thing to remember is that these Red switches require far less pressure to activate than the similar Cherry MX Black switches (45g actuation, instead of 60g) often preferred by gamers. It's always best to try out the keyboard before dipping into your pocket, or at the very least be prepared to return it if you find the keys "too squishy".
The keyboard itself is not built for typing but takes gaming very seriously. The extra-grippy rubberised WSAD and 1-6 number keys in dashing red will ensure schoolboy errors are a thing of the past. In addition to the lightweight, stylish design the Vengeance K60 can register 20 simultaneous key-presses and above all take more of a pounding than conventional keyboards. Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition – $139.99
PC gaming isn't quite what it used to be, and back in the days of Quake III Arena, Counter-Strike 1.6 and the original Team Fortress Classic, Razer were one of the few companies manufacturing very high-quality peripherals and accessories. They're still in the game, and the BlackWidow Ultimate is their current trophy piece (with the Stealth Edition costing $10 more). The main difference between the Ultimate editions and lower down standard editions is the anti-ghosting technology that improves multiple keypress detection. Add this to ultra-light keys with the same 45g actuation seen on the Vengeance K60 above and you've got a hardy and responsive input device that will last years.
The BlackWidow Ultimate also looks the part, with a sleek black finish punctuated by adjustable LED-lit keys that are perfect for late-night sessions. The keyboard also comes with 2 USB passthrough ports and a headphone port. CM Storm QuickFire Rapid – Around $100
If you find most gaming keyboards to be too large, and hate wasting precious desk space then you might want to consider the CM Storm Quickfire Rapid from CoolerMaster. Not usually a name associated with keyboards (or any peripheral for that matter), CM Storm is CoolerMaster's range of high performance gaming gear and the QuickFire Rapid is one of two flagship keyboards. A variety of Cherry MX switches in different flavours (Black, Blue and Brown) are present on the Quickfire Rapid, though which version you get depends on where you live. Black is often considered the "best" for gamers, with Blue offering a toss-up between typing and gaming (though your own preferences will probably vary).
The CM Storm QuickFire Rapid comes in at around $100, though if you like the look of Cherry MX Red switches (ultra-light actuation) then there's a Red Switch edition available too. AZiO Levetron Mech4 – $109.99
For a company whose motto is "Everyday Technology" the AZiO Levetron Mech4 doesn't look particularly "Everyday". Of course this might change depending on how many keyboards you get through in a year, as this is a rugged spill-proof device with fabled Cherry MX Black switches in place. The keyboard is modular by design, and comes in 3 parts – the keyboard itself, a number pad which can be mounted on either side and a 6-button macro controller which sits on a rail above the function keys to provide an incredible variety of control layouts.
The Mech4 also comes with the usual features you'd expect from a keyboard at this price, including anti-ghosting, drainage gutters for spilled drinks (!), user-programmable keys, a chunky volume knob and the ability to quickly disable the Windows key during gaming sessions. Razer Star Wars: The Old Republic Gaming Keyboard – $249
Instantly reduce any Star Wars fan to fits of jealous rage with your very own Star Wars: The Old Republic gaming keyboard from Razer. Ok, so it might be a tad expensive and unnecessary – but look at it! Starting with low-travel keys and a 1ms response time the keyboard packs in the features. There's Arabesh and the standard alphabet printed on each key, what Razer has deemed "extreme" anti-ghosting (for mashing multiple buttons), a multi-touch full-colour LCD trackpad and 10 dynamic macro keys to ensure your best moves are close at all times. It might be expensive, but it sure is beautiful. ConclusionDespite the initial expense, mechanical keyboards aren't necessarily bad value for money. If you're coming from a non-mechanical model then you're bound to be pleasantly surprised by the feel of the keys, especially a few years down the line when your keyboard still works like a charm! If you've bought a mechanical keyboard, have done some research or are thinking of buying one have a say in our comments, below.
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| 5 Excellent Ways To Customize Windows You Simply Have To Try Posted: 12 Jan 2012 05:31 PM PST
This doesn't mean that Windows is perfect. Sometimes there are things you want to do that simply don't come built into Windows. Should you give up? Of course not. What you should do, is customize Windows! Here are some great ways to do it. Coolbarz [XP, Vista & 7]Coolbarz is a small and portable app which lets you add customizable shortcuts to frequently used programs. What's special about shortcuts, you ask? Well, Coolbarz lets you do it a bit differently than you're used to.
Using Coolbarz, you can create quick access toolbars wherever you want on your desktop (top, bottom, right, left), and populate them with all the apps, folders and even files you regularly use. You can customize almost anything about these toolbars, from appearance and fade times to position of buttons, scrollability and more.
After designing your toolbars, simply drag all your favorite programs into the toolbar, and a shortcut will instantly be created. When you're done, hover on the appropriate side of the screen to reveal the toolbar. This is a great way to unclutter your desktop while still accessing everything with a single click. Quick Access Bar [Vista & 7]Not to be confused with the Quick Access Toolbar found in many Office products, Quick Access Bar is another shortcuts toolbar, but this one is aimed at accessing folders.
Once installed, a new bar will appear at the top of your screen. Clicking the "Q" on this bar will open the settings. From here, you can change it to auto-hide, change the bar's appearance, and, of course, decide which folders will appear on the toolbar.
Add folders to the list by clicking the plus button. You can then order the folders as you wish using the arrow buttons. Only the folders you check will appear in the toolbar. This is a simple tool, but can save loads of time if you frequently need to access multiple folders on your computer. It's also quite fetching to look at! Desktop Panorama [XP, Vista & 7]If you like working on multiple desktops, but happen to own only one monitor, you may like working with virtual desktops. Virtual desktops are multiple different desktops you can work on using only one monitor. This can help organizing multiple open programs, files, etc., and allow you to create separate desktops for work, fun, school, and more. Desktop Panorama is a relatively new app which offers a new take on virtual desktops. It installs a bar at the bottom of your screen, which you can play with to create multiple different desktops.
You can then scroll through the desktops by moving the focus square, look at the small previews for each of your windows, and decide which desktop you'd like to use now. On top of creating multiple desktops, the app allows you to see what exactly is open on all other desktops. The UI is a bit tricky: click the magnifying glass icon to browse desktop using the focus square, and the window button to move windows inside the panorama.
One problem arises when you want to close Desktop Panorama. All the apps and windows you had on other desktops simply disappear (but are kept in Panorama for the next time). Desktop Panorama is not perfect yet, and also contains a nag screen for the paid version which happens to be quite annoying. Having said that, I think it offers an innovative approach, and would love to see it improve in the future. Definitely one to try. Stardock Tiles [Vista & 7]Have you had the chance to see Windows 8's metro UI? If you can't wait to try it, or you're just looking for a new way to manage opened applications and shortcuts, give Stardock Tiles a spin.
Stardock Tiles adds a tiled shortcuts bar to your desktop. The bar is multifunctional, it has a "My Tiles" section, and an "Apps" section, which you can view by holding the right mouse button and scrolling to the left (did anyone say touch screen?). To My Tiles, you can add any shortcuts you access frequently by dragging them into the bar. You can then rearrange them by holding down shift when dragging them around. The Apps section contains previews of all your running applications. You can access, close, and even force close (Ctrl+click) processes using the bar.
The app comes with an extensive options menu, where you can customize every little bit of it. If you really love it, you can purchase the full version for $9.95 and get options such as multiple monitor support and third-party skins. But the free version is more than enough to enjoy some Windows-8-inspired productivity. Metro7 [Windows 7]If you really want to take Windows 8 for a spin, and you can't be bothered to actually install the preliminary version that's available, make sure to try Metro7.
Metro7 is a glimpse into the metro UI world of Windows 8, and gives you a taste of what you can expect from the new operating system. You launch it just like any other program, and then watch as your desktop transforms into a colorful tiled interface. The app is still in beta, and therefore far from perfect, but I had loads of fun playing with the tiles, pinning apps and websites, getting weather updates and simply getting the feel of this new UI. It's the ultimate customization for current Windows versions! If you haven't tried it yet, it might be time to formulate your own opinion on this UI. Are you ready for Windows 8? And do you know of more great ways to customize Windows? Share in the comments! Image credit: Shutterstock
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| 9 Amazing Photoblogs To Discover Priceless Images From Around The World Posted: 12 Jan 2012 03:31 PM PST
Below is a selection of nine awesome blogs and photo sites that offer amazing, priceless images, each in its own way. ffffound
I recently mentioned ffffound in a post about 10 websites that will help you feel better, but ffffound is much more than a quick pick-me-up. It is a website where a closed (invite-only) group of artistically inclined individuals share photos. Some can be disturbing, some contain nudity, but in a given page I can usually find at least a couple that make me think or feel something. Ffffound is easy to navigate: Simply hit J to scroll to the next image, and K to scroll to the previous one. No text, no lengthy explanations. Just photos, photos, photos, as far as the eye can see. Pictory Blog
Unlike ffffound, in Pictory Blog every photo has a story. Rather than a never-ending torrent of photos, it is more of a carefully curated drip. Just a few photos are published every day, and they come from all over the world. Photos are submitted by readers by themes, and the blog ties in tightly with Pictory magazine itself. For example, check out this gorgeous long exposure scene, which was submitted as part of the "in deep" theme and links to all photos published from that theme. The blog and the magazine both make me feel like taking my Canon 600D and seeing what it can really do. Boston Globe Big Picture
If there is one website I think of when I think "photo blog", it's the Boston Globe's Big Picture. Every few days a new post goes online, showing a close-up of events from another part of the world. Each photo has an informative description. The Big Picture is one of my favorite ways to keep up to date on important global events, and really look at them for myself rather than just read what others think about them. In Focus
The guy who was originally behind The Big Picture, Alan Taylor, left the blog in January 2011. But he did not give up on telling stories using photos. Quite the contrary, he amped up his act and set up shop at In Focus, The Atlantic's photo blog. Alan is a pro Web developer, which may explain why In Focus looks so similar to The Big Picture, right down to the "j/k" shortcuts for flipping between photos and the black images that "may contain objectionable content" which you must click to view. If you like The Big Picture, you'll love In Focus. Chromasia
The Chromasia blog is a part of Chromasia, two companies run by David and Libby Nightingale. Simply put, the blog contains stunning photos. They are all by David, and can be purchased as prints or cards. The blog is very lean on text – you will have to guess (or make up) the story behind each picture yourself. One very unique feature is the link that says "show the original" below each image – you can hover your mouse over it and see the non-Photoshopped version of the same photo. It's as if David really lets you into his studio, and shares what parts the camera and the computer both took in the creation process. Lovely, and very open. The Sartorialist
This one's for the ladies: The Sartorialist contains mainly street photos of people, mostly from New York, going around town in spiffy, creative, and interesting wear. That is not all you would find on the blog, however, as can be seen by the photo from Morocco, above. If you like street photography and enjoy fashion, this is one blog to check out. Pixelcandy
If I ever start a photography blog, I know what I want it to look like – Pixel Candy. This is the personal blog of German photographer Thomas Bonin, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I don't mean just the photos, either. The format itself is compelling and artistic. It makes your monitor into a picture frame – there are no scroll bars, no comments, no words. Just a single image at any given time, taking up your undivided attention. There is also an "archives" button that takes you to a long thumbnail view, but the highlight is definitely the single-image view. In a word – wow. Flickr Blog
The Flickr Blog is interesting because it curates and shares the work of Flickr community members and amateur photographers alongside "official" photos from NASA (above) and other public bodies who join the Flickr Commons from time to time. Flickr is the 900lbs gorilla of the online photo-sharing world, but its blog feels fresh, fun, and not pretentious in any way. Cute Overload
Cute Overload is right what it says on the tin – adorable pictures, usually of furry, fluffy animals. It may not be the most artistic photo blog on the planet, but it is certainly one of the cuddliest. From flying squirrels to kittens hugging puppies to ducks wearing sandals, Cute Overload has it all. In SummaryThis has been one challenging post. There is such an abundance of excellent photography blogs online sharing priceless images, picking just a handful was tough. But here they are. Did you like them? Did I miss an important one? Sound off in the comments!
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| Try The Free Official AutoCAD App For Your Phone [Android] Posted: 12 Jan 2012 02:31 PM PST
So, imagine how surprised I was to find the official AutoCAD WS Android application is available for free in the Android Market. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it’s real, so it’s well worth getting your hands on the AutoCAD application before Autodesk changes their mind and starts charging for it. Trying Out AutoCAD WSAutoCAD allows you to access files stored on your AutoCAD WS account online, which you can create for free using the application. This means you can upload files to your online AutoCAD WS account using your desktop and automatically sync to your smartphone and to the accounts of your clients and co-workers. It’s a simple process to email an invitation to share documents and this ensures everybody has the latest version.
If you want a wider variety of example files than the applications offers, Autodesk have plenty of example files here.
Other than using AutoCAD WS online, the next easiest way to get drawing files on your phone is probably to email the file to yourself and save it to your SD card, but if you prefer some other way then suit yourself. Editing Files With AutoCAD WSObviously, a phone CAD application is never going to be as easy to use as a desktop version. Screen size on a phone is limited, so your document view is smaller and tool options are harder to reach. Keep in mind that small edits are the intention of the application, rather than this being your primary document editor.
Android’s pinch zoom and pan gestures are perfect for viewing large and detailed drawings, such as are normal in AutoCAD. You might find yourself wishing your desktop had a touch screen so you could do the same there. Limitations Of AutoCAD Android ApplicationMy main gripe with the AutoCAD application is that it’s huge, taking up just under 20MB space on my phone upon installation. Even after moving it to the SD card, it hogs a huge amount of space on your phone. Which, for some Android phones, is just not feasible.
Alternatives & Complementary CAD ApplicationsDroid 2 CAD allows you to take location points with your GPS and export them for use in a CAD document later, which could be extremely useful when surveying sites. AndCad, RedStick Site CAD and AutoQ3D CAD are all CAD applications which allow you to edit DWG files, but are only available as either a demo or paid application. However, with the official AutoCAD application available for free, paid alternatives look far less attractive as options. For a desktop CAD alternative, take a look at LibreCAD and make sure you check out our guide on how to convert DWG files to PDF. What do you love or hate about the AutoCAD application? How well does the mobile application suit your line of work? Let us know in the comments.
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| 5 Fantastic Resources On The Web For Ukulele Players Posted: 12 Jan 2012 12:01 PM PST
The ukulele is considered the easiest stringed instrument to play. With just four strings the ukulele has an incredible range of chords but only a few which are essential to learn in order to produce music. Ukuleles are therefore a good entry-level instrument for those who want to play guitar or another stringed instrument, but don’t have the confidence to start on something so complex. Ukulele Tuner
Ukulele Tuner is first on the list as tuning your ukulele is the first thing you’ll need to do. Get-Tuned offers an online ukulele tuner which is simple yet very effective. You get a choice of five presets, including standard, full step-up, and full step-down, as well as a complete set of notes to choose for yourself. You can also choose between a ukulele sound and a sine wave depending on your preference. Get-Tuned also has tuners for guitars, banjos, violins, and other stringed instruments, articles such as introductions and how-to’s pertaining to these instruments and even a Java-powered virtual metronome with different sound effects and tempo options. Uke School
Uke School, or Pineapple Pete’s Uke School to give it its full title, is a great place to head after your new instrument is tuned to perfection. The bulk of the site is dedicated to simple and intuitive lessons broken down into Beginner, Basic, and Advanced, and further into individual drills and instructions. The lessons are perfectly pitched, being easy to follow and detailed. There is also a section talking about the ukulele, including the types available and the history of the instrument, a section featuring songs, and even a section dedicated to getting babies playing the ukulele. The site is free to use thanks to unobtrusive advertising and a donation page. Ukulele Underground
Ukulele Underground exists to help the next generation of ukulele players, dispelling the notion that the instrument is just a toy. There are lessons and tips presented in the form of videos, and even the occasional video collaboration by members. There is also the opportunity to form or join a group, and to read or contribute to the forum. The basic lessons are free, again supported by advertising and the chance to donate. There is also a paid option called UU+ for those who can afford it. This offers more-detailed lessons, live seminars, downloads, and giveaways. Easy Ukulele
Easy Ukulele is another site built for newcomers to the instrument. There is a wide range of content on the site, from tips for tuning and strumming right through to video lessons and chord charts. The passion the site’s owner Kainoa has for the instrument is obvious and empowering, and it makes it a lot easier to listen to what he has to say on the subject. As well as the lessons there are also reviews of different ukuleles, basic information on uke musicians and festivals, and links to a multitude of other websites ukulele players will find useful. Ukulele Songs
Ukulele Songs is the place to visit after you have learned the basics and want to do more with your uke. There are pop songs available to play, with all the chords needed to perform tunes from ABBA to U2 all laid out neatly. There are also videos and chord charts. Worth it simply for the tablature needed to play The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix. Uketoob isn’t quite worthy of a full entry on this list, but it’s a fantastic site nonetheless. It isn’t a resource as such, instead being a ukulele video blog, featuring a new clip which includes a uke or ukes on a daily basis. But it’s a must-visit for all ukulele players both new and experienced. ConclusionThese five fantastic ukulele resources on the Web will provide new and established ukulele players with tips, tricks, chords, tabs, lessons, and much more besides. If you play the ukulele then please feel free to share other (preferably free) resources you have found on the Web. If you don’t play the ukulele then why not? Do you prefer another instrument? Do you think the ukulele is nothing more than a trendy toy? The video embedded above should hopefully help dispel that myth. Image Credit: Monsieur Gordon
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| Easily & Quickly Send Command Line Emails With Blat [Windows] Posted: 12 Jan 2012 11:01 AM PST
Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to introduce to you today, if you’ve never heard of it before. Blat is not new, but it’s important. There are numerous applications and utilities that will automatically send email notifications out for you. You can get RSS news updates automatically emailed. You can have websites send you email notifications, like the 10 notification sites that Saikat covered. You can even set up services like Google Analytics to send you automatic reports every now and then. But what if you want to set up batch jobs or Windows scripts on your own computer where you can send out emails straight from the command line? Well, Blat is a Win32 utility that you can use to send emails via SMTP straight from the command line. Setting Up Blat Command Line EmailsBlat is a free utility that’s been available ever since Windows 95, and it has continued to evolve through the years. It is now available as a SourceForge offering. While Unix users have utilities like sendmail to issue command line emails, Windows users have turned to Blat since Windows 95 to do the same. Many computer users don’t realize how easy it can be to send emails via the command line in Windows, only because they’ve never tried blat. So, for those of you that have never seen it, I would like to introduce you to this brilliantly simple, yet powerful command line utility. After you download and extract the Blat files, you’ll find blat.dll, blat.lib and blat.exe. Make sure to place them all in one folder, and you can launch the .exe file from there. The first step is to issue the “install” command which will tell blat what SMTP server and account to use.
In this case, the command I issued was “blat -install <smtp server> <email user id>” This works for my SMTP account (no password required), but if yours requires authentication, you can include “-u <username> -pw <password>”, but keep in mind that blat still doesn’t support SSL without some third party tool, so it won’t work at this time with Gmail SMTP. Once you’ve got the id/pw and smtp server to use installed, you can issue the blat command at any time from the command line. In my example, I have a file stored in the blat directory called help.txt that contains all of the blat command parameters. I want to email this text file as the email body using blat. I can do this in one command by typing “blat help.txt -to <email address to send to> -subject TestFile” That’s it!
This command opens up the test file, embeds it as the email body, uses the subject line that you’ve defined (don’t use any spaces though), and then sends the email to the recipient you defined. Here’s what the email looked like when I received it.
While being able to open up a command prompt and issue a quick email like this is pretty cool, it’s even cooler to use that ability from within an even more powerful Windows Script. Issue The Blat Command From Within A Windows Script FileMy goal in this example is fairly simple. I have a Windows Script that pings a list of websites that I have listed in a text .ini file.
Currently, when the script encounters a problem pinging any of the sites, it’ll issue an alert window that looks like this.
Instead, I’m going to improve my script by issue an email whenever a website isn’t pingable, rather than depending on a pop-up window. To do this, I’m just going to add the following section to my existing Windows Script. 'If any ping failed, send an email If Ping = false then '* Send out email wscript.echo "Sending " & strFailedList Shell.run "c:\temp\blat\blat.exe -body " & strFailedList & " -to rdxxxxx@gmail.com -subject TestFile" End If If you’ve never used scripting in WSF before, you have to issue the command “Set Shell = wscript.createObject(“wscript.shell”)” to set it up. Then you can use Shell.run as show above to launch the blat.exe command. A few hard lessons learned about blat limitations. The command above only works if the string variable ‘strFailedList’ has no spaces in it. To accomplish this I use a dash between each failed IP ping, so my final email looks like this.
If you want a better formatted email, you could always output any messages that you want to email out into an output file, and then replace the “-body” parameter with the name of the file instead (like the example I showed in the first half of this article). As you can see, the blat tool lets you integrate email sending into your Windows Scripts, and opens up the possibility of all sorts of useful email notifications for when things go wrong with your PC. If you’ve never tried it before, give the Blat tool a test and let us know what you think. Did you come up with any creative uses for it in your Windows scripts? Share your ideas and insight in the comments section below. Image Credit: ShutterStock
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| Scan Your System And Removable Media For Viruses With ClamTk [Linux] Posted: 12 Jan 2012 10:00 AM PST
About ClamTkClamTk is available for most of the popular distributions such as Ubuntu and Fedora, but is installable on all systems via compilation of the source code. In Ubuntu, you can install it by searching for “Clam” and installing the “Virus Scanner” or by running this in the terminal: sudo apt-get install clamtk In Fedora, you should be able to install it by searching for “clamtk” in the package manager or running in the terminal: sudo yum install clamtk Interface
The virus definitions should be updated automatically through the scheduler (more on that later), while the engine version and GUI version are dependent on what is pushed to your distribution’s repositories. If any of the two are majorly out-of-date, you should notify the repository maintainers using the recommended method. Most distributions ask that you file a bug complaint or simply wait. Menu OptionsAside from the very simplistic interface, some more advanced features are hidden within the menus. Under Scan, you’ll find a few more options for scanning, including quick and recursive scans. Under View, you can see the history of actions taken with the program, as well as clear that log. Under Quarantine, you can check the status of your quarantined items, restore or delete individual quarantined items, or simply empty the whole quarantine.
Finally, under Help, you can manually check for updates for the antivirus engine and the GUI, as well as look up information about the GUI itself. ConclusionClamTk is an easy-to-use GUI for the ClamAV engine that should help you keep your Linux system virus free. However, more importantly, this easy tool will help you get rid of nasty viruses that may be on a separate hard drive or removable media. Don’t forget that as a rescue solution, you can boot up a Linux environment using a LiveCD and install ClamTk to combat the virus that may be plaguing your Windows machine. What do you think of ClamTk? Is there any antivirus solution on Linux that is better? Let us know in the comments!
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| The End Of Boxee On The Desktop & What To Use Instead Posted: 12 Jan 2012 09:01 AM PST
We should have seen it coming. There was an entire year between updates for desktop users, during which things continued to break. Certain shows stopped working, apps slowed down or broke entirely and new features appeared only on the Boxee Box. We put up with it. We loved Boxee, and wanted it to keep growing the way it did back in 2009 and 2010. We watched some shows in our browser, and used Navi X to fill in the gaps. Apps still worked, for the most part, and local playback was still decent. During the summer of 2011 we were told we’d get an update in autumn. Months went by, autumn wound down; Boxee users grew impatient. Then, right around Christmas, Boxee released a new, bug-ridden version for Linux, Mac and Windows only to also announce this was the final desktop version ever to be released: developers will from now on focus only on the Boxee Box and software for other set-top devices. This makes sense. Boxee is a small company, and can’t spend money developing its program for every platform under the sun. Other than consumer devices Boxee doesn’t have much of a revenue stream, and millions of dollars in venture capital means Boxee needs to be profitable, soon. So the desktop version’s decline was inevitable. Still, a total lack of updates leaves me feeling betrayed. I, and the large number of Boxee early adopters, sincerely felt like we were part of the team. We tested the software, provided feedback and helped promote the platform. Boxee kept releasing clever hacks to keep Hulu working for free, and promised they would always do that. Those days are long gone, and it’s time for all desktop Boxee users to buy a box or find a new home. Story Of A Boxee UserI’m what you might call a Boxee fanboy. I’ve been using the program since its alpha release, and spent a great deal of time telling my friends and family they should be using it instead of cable. I wrote an excessively glowing review of Boxee’s beta back in early 2010, and a series of follow-up articles after that. Boxee was the recreational program I used more than anything else. If anyone should be excited about the current release of Boxee, it’s me. I’ve forgiven its shortcomings many times, looking back, because I always believed things would keep getting better.
Not this time. The 1.5 release of Boxee for the desktop is buggy and frustrating. Most of the online shows I tried to watch didn’t work or didn’t launch in full screen. Support for Netflix, Hulu and more are dropped from the desktop version, meaning I need to turn to NaviX to watch many movies and shows. And a variety of apps simply don’t work any more. I could say more, but it’s all been said in the Boxee forum, where users are openly discussing what program to switch to. None of these bugs would be a huge problem if updates were coming. The problem is they’re not. So it’s time to find something new. Why Not Buy A Box?
So why don’t I support the program I love by buying a Boxee Box? Because I have a computer hooked up to my TV, which I use for a lot more than just media. I play games on it with a couple of joysticks, share files from it to my other computers and use it to test lots of different software. Why not add a Boxee Box as well? Because I don’t want to take up more space with an unnecessary device. I’d be more than happy to pay for the privilege to use Boxee on my computer, and I think I’m not alone. At it’s best, Boxee worked better than anything out there. But I don’t want another device cluttering up my living room. Boxee claims people like me are around for now, but won’t be for long: people are finding dedicated boxes to be better for the job. That may be the case. I get it. But if Boxee can’t support its desktop users anymore, how do I know they’ll keep supporting their box users? It’s not a completely fair question, but I can’t be the only person asking it. What To Use Instead
After seeing how awful the new Boxee is, last night I bit the bullet and installed XBMC. And I’m telling you: I should have done that months ago.I got my favorite plugins, Reddit TV and Navi X, working in no time. I found a plugin for streaming shows from CBS, NBC and all the major networks, and it works flawlessly in a way Boxee hasn’t for years. Yes, it’s not as well organized. Yes, the interface is harder to use. But it works, and it’s actively being maintained. Check out XBMC or read our most recent review. A program I want to check out, but haven’t yet, is Plex. Since our last review Plex was updated to run on Windows natively, and I can’t wait to try it out. Feel free to let me know your thoughts about Plex below. ConclusionThe Boxee team said it all: “We would not be where we are today without you. But we can’t stay here.” I understand the sentiment, but will miss Boxee. You did web video well before you needed to make money, and standing up to big companies and hacking to keep stuff working is what made that great. Oh well, there are lots of new programs to try out with lots of clever programmers. Can you think of something else I need to play with? Give me your thoughts in the comments below, because this recovering Boxee user needs ideas. I’ll be hanging out with you guys below.
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Boxee fans – it’s over. There may be more fun to have with the Boxee Box, but Boxee on the desktop isn’t coming back. It’s time to find something else if you have a computer hooked up to your television.
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