Free software, come and get your free software...

Hands up how many of you use Open Source  (I've got my hand up high just for visual reference). OK, how many of you who don't use it... hands up if you don't use it because you think its buggy or not fully featured? Now; I'm betting that 50% of those of you who don't use open source have your hands up.

Now; the thing is that yes there will be bugs in open source software; but I can bet percentage wise is only as many as in commercial software and maybe possibly less. Reason I say that is I have worked as a Software Engineer for some BIG companies and know the number of bugs caught by customers - and these are million pound systems.

So, what I mean to say is that in actual fact you will probably only find as many bugs in a open source software item as in a commercial released.

It is true though that some open source software may not be as feature rich as commercial because they don't have a full time dedicated team working on them.That said though, in most cases those extra's may not be worth the price you pay for them. I mean; take for consideration something like KDENLive as a prime example. This is an excellent open source video editor program that has many more and better features than some of the lower, cheaper end commercial editors. Only the Pro editors really have much better features.

There are also many open source programs out there that do things there are now commercial equivalents for. You want office, you can get it, you want password crackers...

Games.. office suites, video editors.. there is an endless list, far many to keep going on about. Go check a few out - go do a search on sourceforge.net and save yourself some money in this expensive time we live in..

Review - Reallusion iClone5 Review

Youtube mobile view bot hack fixed, but do we think this will be the end of it?

So, it seems, in the last few days YouTube; after a few weeks or working on the issue; have released a fix into the system to stop the rampant mobile views bot hack that has put lots of videos to the most viewed status.

Of late we have seen many videos suddenly appear on the most viewed list with millions of views in just one day an all from a mobile device. This hack/bot has removed videos that should have been there through hard work and instead we've been seeing boring, crap, and otherwise none entertaining videos instead.

I make videos.. check out Netroman28 channel which is my YouTube channel. I mainly do software (and sometimes hardware) reviews but do have other things also. Now I don't get lots of views, though do have enough, but all mine are hard work. Yes it would be great to get more.. It would also be great to get my Adsense turned back on after some invalid clicks a year and half ago (not my doing). But I don't abandon, I push forward :)

But my message is really that this is a good thing. However, do I think this will stop botting on YouTube? No! I am sure there will be more bots, more invalid views although maybe not up to the extent of the mobile views hack. But who knows. What does everyone else thing?

By the way, more Linux stuff coming soon.

Review : mediAvatar Media Toolkit

With the current economy; is the way forward Open Source and Linux?

Just to give some background on my experience first. I first used linux back in 1994 and for many years got the slackware distribution. I remember the first distribution I got (not sure if was slackware also) I downloaded onto about 95 HD floppy disks.. Good thing was that I was at Uni at the time so wasn't a dial up :-)

I then got the first CD distribution Yggdrasil Linux again back in late 95 or so. I still have the CD box somewhere around in my cupboard draws.

Now... Back in those days installation of linux was difficult. You could sit for hours choosing the components you wanted to install then a few more hours recompiling kernals, etc. I was truly only for the tech community. I know I loved it but at the same time trying to get my ethernet network running bugged me for a while. And I had a script (from Pipex) to connect to my dial up with an awk script to kill once finished. That all said; it run so lovely compared to windows and there were some open source stuff to play with.

Fast forward to today and current misconceptions some have. I think first misconception is that Linux is still very difficult to install. This is no longer true, in fact in my thoughts its easier to install.. So, for anyone that has not tried. First thing you do is download the iso file and burn to a disk. Second thing is boot from disk (like you would if doing a windows install). Choose partition, etc (again exactly same stuff as if doing windows install) then click go. In some cases you may need to choose an install profile like gamer, developer, etc but this is just so as it pre-installs extra software.

So, what is that easier? Well; on install it basically installs your drivers etc. OK windows does that to.. but I have found on some older systems that windows will not install some drivers (specifically in one case the wifi drivers) and linux did. Install of linux just worked.

So, install is free. Install is easy and setup is a breeze. Infact using something like grub it will even setup your dual boot. There are even newer linux installs (like Ubuntu) that will install in windows as an application.

So, open source software. What is it? Well; to keep it simple its free software.Free?? Yes, there is no cost to pay - you simply download and install. Infact for a lot of it its made simple in that most distros of linux include an installer you run, search for software, click install and it downloads and installs.

"Ah, but does open source mean buggy software" you ask. In most cases no because there are more developers in most cases working on open source software than commercial (this is coming from my experience as a commercial developer).

"but what can I get" is your next question. Virtually anything. You want video edit software, kdenlive as an example. Games? Yes tons of them. Office products. yes. Yes, yes yes for your next lot. You would be surprised if never looked at what open source as to offer.

So, free OS. Free software. Why would you look at Windows? Well only if intended to play games. But then again check out Crossover for Linux by Codeweavers. Or even Wine for linux if want something to run windows applications for free.

The debate continues.. but spending less may mean better support for Linux and Open Source...

Affiliate and associate programs - do they pay give working income

So, I have wandered this for a while - especially seeing my adsense was stopped? Not sure why, had no clicks on it at all??? Maybe bad association with something? Anyhow, to that end I decided to try out a few affiliate and associate programs so to speak. You can see a couple of these on my blog page  "Really Simple Systems" (who I chose as I went for job at around a year ago, got to last 2 but didn't make it - so know software and director) and "Amazon" as everyone needs a bit of Amazon.

Now, I don't have hundreds (or even a hundred; lucky on 20-30) views each day so not sure if this experiment will work - but I hope to have enough interest to at least leave posts on how these progress and if can provided any sustained income - or least enough to give money in for food in this ever cost increasing world we live in.

If you would like to take part; certainly if interested in just being interested in my choice, then you can check out the widget below.. click, play, etc. But as a request... (underline and bold just to highlight hehe) I ask this. To increase the potential of this experiment can you each who read this +1 it on google, share this post on G+ and just try to drive traffic this way.

Also leave a comment letting me know any other programs you have used, if they worked, etc and so we can build up a great information base on these programs..

So till next time... Blogged out.

Review : Magix Web Designer 7 Premium

Looking to a simple, easy to use, website creation software from a company known to do great software?

Well, maybe Magix Web Designer is for you? Check out the review and see it in action.

First attempt at business is a launch

So, I decided to bite the bullet and take a handful of virtual dirt along with a friend and attempt to start a first business.Now; the thing is I love technology, I love reviewing technology; and so we thought "Why not try and work with that".

So, we came up with Technologist PR .. This is a work in progress, a launch of today as we have a starting foundation. And we have some ideas. For example, I know that lots of App developers like myself (as I am a developer even though I don't get to do it much) don't have money for PR, advertising, etc. So we can offer deals of say no cash up front and percentage of takings..

Now, this isn't a rash punch in the dark. I have been working on reviewing products for companies (some big companies too) for over a year working with their PR. And I have been working with a few PR companies again reviewing, advertising their products. So I have gained insight into what is required.

Basically we are offering a service that is free to try. And could potentially raise the sales of a customers product. I know how much time and effort it takes in creating a product and so believe same amount of time and effort should be paid in advertising.  But would you as a developer want to do that or prefer to pay for that to be done.

Anyhow guys, go check us out. Its my first attempt at working for myself (well to transition over time) and I will certainly keep you informed :)

Review : 3DS Max Design

All goes bit mental on Apples announcement day

Do you find it all goes a bit mental on the date Apple does this announcement. You have blog sites, magazines, youYube, etc channels all trying to rush in, get their blog/video/etc up first. All the speculation, joy and sorry (when someone isn't announced or not up to par). Just a bit bonkers...

I'm like the next person and enjoys a bit of tech. But certainly not like a giddy school boy just because a company such as Apple is about to make their yearly announcement hehe. But am I alone on that one. Tonight (for us) will come and go and this announcement will not effect my life one little bit. I certainly won't be rushing out to pre-order anything - will you?

Next it will be release day for new iPad or whatever and there will be giant queues from midnight all to get their hands on it. Just wait a month or two.. it will be still in the shops... that's what we did with iPad2 anyhow and had loads.

Certainly can't see anything gong to make me upgrade my Quad core Mac Pro anyhow.. What about everyone else, do you get giddy"?

WinJournal works, even if I did post to wrong blogger account

Yes, you can use WinJournal and write you blog on your PC and upload to blogger, unforgettably I uploaded to my wrong blogger account thinking it was this one - this is link  My other blogger account that don't use so often

So, maybe later I can go and enter the write blogger account, this one..., and then do some blogs using WinJournal from my home PC ya..  Its actually quite good, although didn't maintain the podcast/vocal submission I attached.. Though probably blogger can't handle that. O, and the smilys that were in blog didn't come up either?? So don't use those.

Still, if looking for tool you can upload one blog entry to multiple blogs then this is kewl.Not too bad prices at Downloadbuyer.com also  (not plugging site as think on amazon too).

If wander what like, check out my mariner review. WinJournal is roughly last 5-6 mins of video..

Review : Mariner Contour, WinJournal, Paperless and Desktop Poet products

Only a few days left now

With only a few days left now till the Apple announcement who is waiting with anticipation to see if the iPad3 will be announced. Is it a for gone conclusion? Do we ever know what is going to be released? To be honest, if Apple follows their standard release cycle then we can expect an iPad3 but there is always that small margin.

What you would want announced. Personally I would like a cheaper edition of there Macbook Pro as been a while since I owned one, although I love my Mac Pro - even if getting on for about 6 years old. Although I didn't buy it from now, was with an advertising company, but I have managed to upgrade the Graphics card to a 4870 and have now 12GB of ram. For those interested.

But for me there is nothing I will buy that will be announced to be honest - unless someone hands over a big wodge of cash (volunteers).

So people, what are you looking forward to being announced? What will you be buying this year that is Apple?

On a different note; please check out TechnologistPR - bit of a latest venture. There is a blogspot and a wordpress.com  (domain to come soon)

Lack of screens for the iPad3

I was reading a news shot earlier on the fact that if they announce the iPad3 on 7th as anticipated... they may not have enough of the new higher resolution screen for release.Samsung don't have enough apparently; although it was also said that LG and Sharp were also looking to be suppliers.

But hey, if there aren't enough iPad3's coming out of the factory they you can go on a waiting list was the conclusion. Now this happened with the iPad and iPad2 though you could also just wait a while and get one later. That's what I did for the iPad2. My wife wanted one and everywhere was sold out - waited 1 month and then could get easy.

So, are you looking to get an iPad3? Leave a comment if you are - or if not :-)

Do you want a Raspberry Pi

So, its the official release and so many people are after their $35 computer that the sites for suppliers have gone down. I've been there and now they are static sites just allowing you to register interest.

I've registered mine as I want to get hold of one of these small systems. OK only running 700Mhz and like 256Mb ram with linux. So what can they be used for? Well, personally I am going to set mine up (when actually get one) as a media system for my TV upstairs. Currently we can't get signal on internal aerials so this will allow me to view media across the net via my wireless network (well with my usb dongle fitted).

So, what about you guys? Anyone else looking to get one and if so leave a comment of what you will be using it for.. One other thought, maybe use inside a cabinet with mame running and lots of roms on a usb stick???