SharpReader RSS Aggregator

Although I am completely hooked on FeedReader, this is defiantly a good alternative. SharpReader is a compact, feature-rich RSS Aggregator. The reader also supports various plugins, for example, MailItem, allows the user to simply forward a article via email to a contact. Simple, but useful.

Check it out

Firefox 2.0 Final Released

Today marks the official release of Firefox 2.0 Final, and it can be downloaded [here]. There are significant differences in this release, one being the overall performance boost.

Download it [here]

Gaim 2 Beta 4 Released

Today Gaim 2 Beta 4 was released onto SourceForge. It is available for both Linux, MacOS X , Windows.

Download Gaim 2 Beta 4

For those of you who don't know what Gaim is, here is a short summary, taken from Gaim's website.

"Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks.

Gaim users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time."

Visit Gaim's Homepage

Useful Apps: ratDVD

This program, is quite useful for some, myself included. Basically, it can compress a complete DVD, into a 1 or 2 GB file, contained in a .ratDVD file. This can be decompressed back into a complete set of the VTS files, for burning onto to a DVD-R. There are several criticisms against the program, which can be read below. The following has been taken from the Wikipedia article.

• The online support for the ratDVD software as well as its usage is scarce.
• Its closed-source nature (Although the creator has stated that the source code will be released at some point in the future, and "will probably happen under the BSD license")
• ratDVD files are not a standardized format.
• Being available only for the Microsoft Windows operating system; dependent on Microsoft DirectShow
• Many source files were stolen from open source projects.

Additionally, it has received criticism for reducing the quality of the movie within. Critics of the format state that this does not qualify it for being a "true" DVD container. Proponents of ratDVD usually say that while the quality is less than that of an original DVD, it is still about twice the quality of an ordinary DVD-rip encoded in a traditional format (e.g. DivX, XviD, etc.)

The last one mentioned, the loss in quality, I did notice; however, it is not all that bad. It is around DVD-rip quality, or better, as mentioned above. I suggest checking this out, if your into DVD's, and encoding and such.