Insomnic Dreams

Google Chrome is the new browser on the block and it’s garnering a lot of attention. The main reason – it’s fast. The second reason – it’s secure. Today, the latest stable release came out and you can grab it here for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The latest version includes the long awaited extension support and bookmark sync (as well as lots of fixes and security updates).

Here’s my favorite creative video about the features:

So why switch to Chrome from Firefox or Internet Explorer?

Well the IE question is easy to answer – Internet Explorer just doesn’t work as well as either Chrome or Firefox. It has worse security, lack of standards compliancy, short on features and in general just isn’t very snappy. It is best for use in a business environment because of it’s compatibility with Sharepoint and other MS specific services but otherwise it just doesn’t compare – though to be honest, Internet Explorer 8 is probably the best version of IE ever created. So if you are scared about switching please at least update.

So the bigger question is why choose Chrome over Firefox. Well… there it gets tricky. I am choosing Chrome because it’s faster than Firefox on my Mac and has more standard extensions than Safari. On my PC it’s faster than Firefox and the extensions are lighter than Firefox add-ons so it doesn’t hit my resources as hard. The built in bookmark sync with storage in Google Docs is also nice to have. Plus, if you are already using Google services it works very well with them and the official Google extensions only make it better.

A reason to keep Firefox is the extensive add-on support and tried and tested website support. Firefox is a more mature browser; similar to IE in that it’s become better supported over the years. Firefox keeps on trucking and the latest release does provide some increased speed and security.

A last reason to switch to Chrome is because of the HTML5 compliant video function. Sounds really boring right? Well, what it means is better control and playback of video on the web. YouTube and Vimeo now offer it and the playback is much smoother and much friendlier (especially for accessibility users).

So which extensions do I prefer? Here’s a quick list:
AdBlock: Good adblocking (and Google is okay with it).
Chrome Reader: Google Reader RSS subscription extension
Google Similar Pages: Good for finding, well, similar pages…
Google Mail Checker: Basic checker and link
Google Voice Checker: Check Google Voice account and also activates numbers found on pages.
Send from Gmail (No Button): Sets Gmail as default for composing when you click on email links

If you want a few to try out just head over to the extensions page and check out some of the “Featured” and “Most Popular” ones.

So there you have it – a whole new browser to play with and see if you like. Oh – I forgot to mention – it will automatically bring over your bookmarks/favorites and settings from either IE or Firefox so you can be up and running in no time. So give it a try and see what you think – worse that could happen is you don’t like it and go back to what you were using.

I’ll be surprised if you do though…

I recently purchased a Kindle 2 and I am very, very happy with the product. I know discussions of the Kindle can spark some debates so I’m going to avoid all of those by stating “I like it but if you don’t that’s fine too”. So lets skip along happily now and discuss what I wanted to discuss with you which is specifically about reading manga on the Kindle. Yup… you can read japanese comic books on the Kindle very easily. You can also load your own images for viewing as well using the same process.

So how do we accomplish this amazing feat? Actually, very easily. The program to use is called Mangle.

Mangle does an awesome job of converting images to be optimized for the Kindle display and processed to work correctly with the navigation system of the device.

See for yourself. The following image was converted using Mangle and loaded onto my Kindle 2. The left side image is the original, the middle one is the converted, and the right side image is displaying on the Kindle 2. Click on the thumbnails to see the original sizes.

So as you can see it looks pretty darn good. You can see a couple other examples at the Mangle website.

Mangle runs as a stand alone executable so you can run it directly with no installation necessary. It’s a very basic layout so it’s very easy to use. You pick either a set of images or a directory of images, click the gear icon to get it started, tell it where to put the converted images and then it converts them for you. That’s it!

Once it’s converted, you will plug in your Kindle and create a folder on it called “pictures”. Put the new book you created (the folder with all the images) into the Pictures directory and you are all set. It should show up in your book list using the name of the folder as the title.  If you don’t see it, press Alt+Z to refresh the listing.

You can also use Mangle to convert pictures into a photo album or convert pictures to use as custom screen savers.

Yes… custom screen saver. It requires hacking the Kindle a bit but is very easy and can be reversed. Go to the Kindle 2 Screen Saver Hack wiki page at MobileRead and it will walk you through using it. The image you see above is one of my custom screen saver images.

This program works on Windows and Linux and is free to use. Feel free to post any questions and I’ll be happy to help out.

UPDATE: The Kindle 2.3 update breaks the screen saver hack. The updated version can be found at JYA’s site.

UPDATE 2: The Kindle 2.3 update has some new image viewer options. For some it has caused issues and for others it has not. If you have any issues, the new PDF support has worked pretty well for manga. IrfanView does a good job of converting the Mangle converted images to PDF (process: thumbnail viewer->select all->print to PDF using CuteWriter).

UPDATE 3: After speaking with Amazon customer service and tech support it seems the “developers” have decided that any use of the built in image viewer is considered a hack and therefore note support. After bothering them over and over about it though I was told an image viewer would be developed in a future release. I’m assuming that it will be part of the new active content  that is coming to the Kindle (think “App Store”) and the recent release of the Kindle KDK (Kindle Development Kit). This could easily mean a dedicated comic book reader as well.

Many people ask me about BitTorrent and to be honest, it’s not easy to explain. I’m going to try here but I’m going to do it with lots of help.

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol based around a distributed sharing system and optimized for large files.

While completely accurate that description isn’t really useful in getting started with BitTorrent.

If you’ve ever used file sharing programs before like Napster, Kazaa or Limewire … BitTorrent is nothing like those. To explain how BitTorrent is different I’m going to get some help because as simple as it is to use, the initial understanding on how to use it is can be confusing.

I’m going to send you to a bit of learning before we move on to a couple other topics. First, Lifehacker has two guides to getting started with BitTorrent; a beginner’s guide and an intermediate guide. You can skip the intermediate guide for now but definitely bookmark it for future reference. The other excellent guide is The Big Book of BitTorrent by Aibek. That is a free PDF book about 28 pages long… that’s more of a reference tool but will answer pretty much all of your quesitons. Start with the Lifehacker beginner’s guide…

Once you’ve looked through those items you’ll notice that you’ll need a program and some websites. The program handles the downloading and the websites are where you find the torrents.

If you didn’t read the guide here are the quick and dirty basics (but you may or may not understand them just from this little bit):

BitTorrent uses torrent files to connect your BitTorrent program with other people sharing the exact same file. So a torrent file for the movie Elephant’s Dream is like a bookmark or ticket that connects you to all the other people downloading/uploading the movie. People who have the entire file are called seeders and people who are still downloading the file are called leechers or peers. You will be connected to multiple people who have the same file and you will download pieces of the file from different people and others will download pieces from you. So you download the Elephant’s Dream torrent file and open it with your BitTorrent program which connects you to others to share the actual movie file of Elephant’s Dream.

So back to what you need… a program and some torrent sites. If you are on Windows I recommend uTorrent (it’s actually µTorrent using the metric presentation for “micro”) and for OS X and Linux I recommend Transmission. The uTorrent guides are very good as well for help in using BitTorrent even if you aren’t using uTorrent. Each program has a different interface but all BitTorrent applications work in a similar fashion so once you are familiar with one you can use pretty much any of them and it’s just a matter of extra features.

So you have the program and now you need to start sharing. This is where a good set of BitTorrent websites comes in handy. For beginners, I recommend The Pirate Bay and Mininova. Those sites should provide you with pretty much all the items you may be looking to download. Demonoid is also a popular location but requires membership and sometimes they aren’t open to new members – but you can get an invite if you ask around. The Pirate Bay is probably the most open and busy torrent tracker (the backend service that directs your torrent “ticket” or “bookmark”) so you’ll find lots of content there. Mininova also has a lot of content and is a bit more manageable in regards to browsing particular catagories.

A note on piracy… there are lots of laws and rules about piracy and some of them apply differently depending on your situation and the content. There are loopholes and so forth but put simply: if you didn’t pay for it, and you should have, then you are stealing. That being said, BitTorrent is not digital piracy… BitTorrent is just a system for transfering large files.

One last note… BitTorrent is a LOT safer than other file sharing services but you can still get infected if you download and install the wrong thing. Be sure to check through torrent site comments and run antivirus utilities just to be safe.

So that should provide you will all the information you need to get started with your file sharing. Don’t let the amount of information be too daunting … it really is easy to use.

Good luck and happy torrenting!

OpenOffice is a free office suite comparable to Microsoft Office or Apple iWork and the latest version has just been released. OpenOffice can be run on Windows, Mac or Linux and is compatible with Microsoft Office 2000-2007. OpenOffice also matches ISO standards for ODF (Open Document Format) which provides full compatibility between other programs that use this recently approved standard.

OpenOffice Suite contains the following applications:

• Writer: Word processor comparable to Microsoft Word and can export documents as PDF and do simple HTML editing.
• Calc: Spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel but has more graphing functions and can also save as PDF.
• Impress: Presentation software similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. It doesn’t have as many built in templates, but many are available for download. Impress can save presentations as flash files or PDF.
• Base: Database program that provides many functions similar to Access but also handles other types of open source database functions.
• Draw: Vector graphics program that has features similar to Visio and Publisher for drawing layouts, shapes, flow charts and other scalable designs.
• Math: Equation editor program for mathematical formula

OpenOffice being closely compatible with Microsoft Office makes it a very good replacement, especially for the cost. So next time you need something to use for document or spreadsheet work, take a look at OpenOffice.org before dropping a few hundred dollars on Microsoft Office.

The latest version of Firefox will be released on June 17th and Mozilla is hopping to break a world record on that day.

I’ve been using the beta releases for the last couple months and I’m very happy with the new version of Firefox. It’s even convinced me to switch from Safari to Firefox on my Mac. It’s fast, it’s got excellent features, and if you change the icons to “small size” then it looks good too – on Linux, OS X, and Windows XP and Vista each install matches itself to the OS.

If you have been using Internet Explorer or Safari, I really recommend you give Firefox a try – but don’t download it until June 17th! Once you download it, you also have to hit up one of the most popular features – the add-ons. Check out some of the most popular add-ons to see if something suits your fancy. A couple of my favorites are AdBlock Plus, Download Status Bar, and Delicious Bookmarks.

Once you get used to using it, you’ll find lots of tips and tricks for making the browser work for you the way you want it to work – instead of having to work the way the browser wants you to work.

UPDATE: Some helpful hints on the new Firefox 3 at Lifehacker

Of Zen and Computing wrote a good article about a common complaint when purchasing a Mac – the price.

The best rebuttal presented about that complaint is that there is a difference between the price of an item and the cost of an item. Macs are pricier than the discount PCs you can get from Dell or HP, but in my opinion they are a better investment. My two main reasons for considering a Mac a better investment is that they require exceptionally less servicing to keep them running at optimum and they are reliable for a long time. My G4 Powerbook, which was released in 2005, is still going strong with all original parts as my main computer and I hardly do any “fixing” on it beyond my natural desire to tinker.

I will point out that the low price of those discount PCs is also a feature – a good feature really.  A $300 PC is a great option and if you can learn a few things to help keep it running well then you’ll be just fine for quite some time. If you are feeling a bit adventurous and willing to try something new, Linux (especially Ubuntu for new Linux users) is a great way to make that same cheaper PC a bit more stable and reliable.

One other item to note are the article comments because they show an interesting phenomenon known as computer fanboyism.  The PC vs Mac vs Linux debate is a rough one (especially online) and it makes any Mac vs PC comparison articles hard to deal with sometimes – but it’s an interesting social aspect of online life to see.

The latest version of popular Linux distro Ubuntu has been released today – and expect all the usual techie pages to be flooded with info about it.  It is version 8.04 code named “Hardy Heron”. It has a lot of functional updates and Ars Technica covers a bunch of the more significant changes.

Probably the biggest new feature for people who are interested in trying out Ubuntu is the inclusion of Wubi. Wubi allows you to install Ubuntu on a hard drive (or partition) that already has Windows installed without affecting your Windows installation.  This means you can install Ubuntu, dual boot (at computer start up you’ll choose Windows or Ubuntu), and remove Ubuntu without affecting your Windows installation. This makes it very easy for new users to try out Ubuntu.

The direct download sites will be pretty busy for the next few days so using the torrent download would probably be the quickest choice.

UPDATE: Lifehacker has posted some very useful tips for new users trying the new Ubuntu release.

Another excellent video from Common Craft.

Check out their site for newly available Hi-Res versions of their videos for use in the work place.  I would HIGHLY recommend using some of their videos as training material. The Zombies in Plain English could save a life.

FOSSWire, the folks that brought us the original Terminal Commands Cheat Sheet, has created a new cheat sheet specifically for Ubuntu. Ubuntu has become the de facto ”New Linux User” distribution and this cheat sheet to useful terminal commands will certainly help. If you’ve thought about switching over to Linux, then taking a look at Ubuntu is an option which many people have come to love. Check out the Ubuntu summary for more information.

Lets ignore copyright issues of DVD ripping for now and just deal with the practicality of legitimate DVD ripping.

An example of a legitimate DVD rip is making backup copies of your purchased DVDs. That copy of Little Mermaid that gets played over and over is likely to break and since Disney puts some titles “in the vault“, if it breaks you may not be able to find a new copy to buy. So you rip it to have a backup in case something happens to the original.

Luckily, Lifhacker just asked its large audience which rippers are their favorites and they’ve come up with a top 5 DVD rippers along with a few worthy honorable mentions. The nice thing is that all of the software is free. The big winners are:
DVDShrink (download) (Windows)
Handbrake (Windows\Mac\Linux)
DVDFab HD Decrypter (Windows\Linux-Wine)
MacTheRipper (Mac)
DVD Decrypter (Windows)

Be sure to check out the article for more details on each of the different programs and some guides to their use.

My personal preference is DVDShrink and adding in AnyDVD to help with some of the newer DVDs that have copy protection that DVDShrink can’t handle. Each program does things a little differently though so your end result may also dictate which software works best for you. DVDShrink allows ripping DVDs to another playable DVD but maybe you want to rip the DVD to play on your iPod or HTPC, in which case Handbrake would be a better choice. Give some of the programs a try and I’m sure you’ll find one that works well for you.