Monthly Archives: February 2010

I2P a real versatile anonymizing network for Linux and Windows

This week for our Freeware Page, we tested I2P a freeware which let you to surf internet without revealing your IP and encrypt your data. As described on the I2P Homepage, this freeware is a “anonymizing network, offering a simple layer that identity-sensitive applications can use to securely communicate. All data is wrapped with several layers of encryption, and the network is both distributed and dynamic, with no trusted parties”. During out test we used bothXP and Ubuntu because I2P is a java file even is it seems to be a exe file and it could be used on all the Linux OS. On Windows XP it is very simple to use I2P but at the beginning it is really slow and for this reason we suggest to keep it run for about twelve hours because this freeware needs to build its own network and for this it takes some hours. When ready you have to setup all the software you want to filter through it. For this reason, we setted Firefox (Preferences-> Advanced -> Network -> Settings) Manual Proxy Configuration to HTTP Proxy as localhost, port 4444. Then we put a tick on “Use this proxy server for all protocols” and we finished indicating “No proxy for” as localhost, 127.0.0.1. After some seconds we discovered that our IP was now in the northern part of the France (far away from our real location). To setup I2P it is necessary to point Firefox on http://localhost:7657/index.jsp because, by default, I2P tries to launch Internet Explorer also when it works on Linux. After a week of tests we can say that I2P is a little bit slower than TOR but it can easily be integrated on your browser, mail client, chat and others programs. For our (limited) experience I2P is the most complete anonymizing network we know. To conclude, as already discussed also on this post none or nothing can create a perfectly anonymous software but I2P can help to better improve our privacy. Recommended! AddThis mp3 link

WinFF: the best mkv to avi converter for Ubuntu

This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we posted an essential manual about the best software to convert a video file from mkv to a more common (and readable) avi format. First of all we tried with a well known line program: ffmpeg but we had different problems and we did not succeed. For this reason we tried to install the specific libavcodec-unstripped-51 package but we were not able to convert our file. For our second test we installed avidemux but also in this case the mkv file resisted. Then we read in a post that VLC contains a powerful converter and we used it to transform the mkv file to avi. Unfortunately we succed only for the audio part of our file but we were not able to obtain a complete video file. Only during our last test we transform the mkv video to avi using WinFF. This program, based on  ffmpeg, has a very clear graphical interface and it is very intuitive to use. After ten minutes of trials we were able to correct our settings and to start the file conversion. In the WinFF menu you can easily choose between many different video and audio formats (in our test we chose AVI) with a Device Preset setted to XviD in AVI (16:9) and decide the output folder you prefer. WinFF -does not work- if you do not insert the mandatory data in the below part of the menu. In our test we setted:
Video Settings
Video Bitrate = empty (null = we did not write anything)
Frame rate = 25
Video Size = 592 x 320
Aspect Ratio = 16:9
Audio Settings
Audio Bitrate = 118
Sample Rate = 48000
Audio Channels = 2
Additional Command Line Parameters (advanced)
null = we did not write anything
We recommend WinFF to all that people who are not very clever with line command programs and need to easily transform video files to a different formats! AddThis mp3 link

Two new Backgrounds/Wallpapers on http://deeza.org

Today, we would like to suggest two new backgrounds/wallpapers we published on http://www.deeza.org/downloads.html. Enjoy  and let us know if you like them! AddThis mp3 link

Basket Note Pads: a powerful multi-purpose note-taking application for Linux

This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have posted a review about Basket Note Pads, a well developed note-taking program for KDE Linux. Basket is nice to look and very well structured. One of the first things you notice are the import – export features which allow you to easily manage text, hiperlinks, images from many different notepad applications. In particular we were really impressed by the Tomboy notes imports on Kubuntu. Moreover, Basket has detailed setting menus you can use to set a password to a specific group of notes or use any PGP key stored on your PC. Unfortunately our tests on Ubuntu – Gnome were unsuccesfull because the program crashed many times and we decided to come back to NoteCase, more graphically simple but stable on every desktop environment. Recommended for Kubuntu! AddThis mp3 link