Category Archives: Computers & Internet

Try Lib-Ray: “Sintel” Lib-Ray PROTOTYPE v0.2

The following text comes from: http://www.archive.org/details/sintelLib-rayPrototypeV0.2:

‘The Sintel PROTOTYPE of the Lib-Ray free/open fixed media format for high-definition video without DRM or other “anti-features”. Since it is a prototype, it comes with no guarantees about stability or compatibility, but it is best viewed using Google’s Chromium web browser in full-screen mode on a system with a 1920×1080 “full HD” screen. Some features do not yet work even on this configuration, however, as they require elements of HTML5 that are not yet implemented. Because it’s a short movie, the ISO is relatively small (2.1 GB), and it will fit easily onto an inexpensive single-layer DVD-R disk”.

More details about the project are also available from the Lib-Ray site: http://lib-ray.org.

A new multimedia open-source standard to replace DVD and Blu-Ray DRM limitations: Lib-Ray

1 Reply

At the beginning we astonished because the video quality on DVD was something of incredible. Then Blu-Ray destroyed all the standards we were used to enjoy while watching our movies. During last 7 years the home theatre industry has developed its standards in a geometric way but the DRM topics have increased our technical barrier between people who legitimately bought DVDs and Blu-Rays and the possibility of creating backup copies.

The war between DRM and hackers is absorbing. When a new standard of DRM has been developed we wait to know how much time will pass before someone can crack it. And it is only a matter of time because it is not technically possible to create the perfect barrier against multimedia supports when, by definition, the key to decrypt the files is somewhere in the disk or on the media player. During last years, the reverse engineering has increase the chances we have to deeply understand and rewrite proprietary software.

Lib-Ray is a “new” ambitious project to create a new open source multimedia standard which could be able to challenge DVD and Blu-Ray. The developers describe Lib-Ray as “multimedia website on a disk”. The manual you can download from Lib-Ray websites, describes in details all the structure you have to create on the disk for your files. Lib-Ray runs on java libraries and html5 structure and its framework is represented by Inkscape, Gimp, Audacity, xiph.org, Flac and code from Mozilla and Chromium.

In few words, you don’t need a specific hardware to run Lib-Ray disks but each computer with a Chromium browser and a bunch of open source software will be able to perfectly play your disks (as simple as genial!).

Last but not least, on the Lib-Ray website you will also find a Downloads page dedicated to dedicated manuals, libraries and one interesting template.

Gmail Plasmoid – Kubuntu 11.04 by gotbletu

Best Gmail Notifier For Ubuntu Linux by Videoorchard

1 Reply

Searching a Gmail notifier for Ubuntu 10.04… an unpredictable Odyssey!

2 Replies

Finding a versatile Gmail notifier for my laptop seemed to be not so difficult and, after a first quick search, I selected a bunch of software I believed interesting. But when I tested them I was not satisfied by they behaviour especially because they didn’t have many of the features I wanted.

First of all I started installing the Gmail software I found in the Screenlets repositories on my Ubuntu but it was not able to update itself. Probably the firewall denied to the screenlet to communicate externally. I didn’t want to spend much time (sic) on the research of a Gmail notifier so I decided do uninstall it.

My second option was Popper and reading the program description I believed tha t was really the right one but.. after the configuration I was not impressed by the final flexibility and interaction this software offers. Just to know, for a quick configuration you need Popper configurator that is in the

The next step was represented by KCheckGmail that is for KDE and runs properly also on Gnome but, in this case, the program is not updated with the last Gmail configuration parameters and so it is nice but useless..

Then I tried with Gmail Notify. The configuration is quick and easy but it offers poor results. I mean that you have just the subject of new emails and no possibility to visualize them with a simple mouse click if you haven’t previously done the login of your Gmail account using the browser.

Finally I installed cGmail through the Ubuntu Software Center and I found what I was looking for: a simple program which let me know about new emails and let me open them with a click. The graphic interface is basic but after a couple of hours wasted on searching an effective solution I was satisfied!

Last but not least, if you don’t want to install a Gmail notifier directly on your Ubuntu, consider to install the add-on Gmail Watcher on Firefox.

Please, if you have better solution and you want to share them with us, don’t hesitate to comment this post. Thank you!

Setting up File Sharing Between Windows, Linux, and Macs with Samba! by NixiePixel

Samba: share Linux Folders with your windows machines by technoblogical

Another way to share files between Ubuntu and Windows

2 Replies

This tutorial will show you another way to share and to access the network share folders between Windows and Ubuntu machines. When file sharing is enabled, both systems can access files and folders on any of the PCs. Users with accounts on Ubuntu systems will also be able to access the content directly from your home.

1. To begin, you will need to log on to your Windows operating system. Click ‘Start’ -> search for ‘Network and Sharing Center’ and click on it.

2. Access the ‘Change advanced settings sharing. ” option.

3. Enable file sharing and backup as well.

4. At this point, you need to switch your operating system to Ubuntu. Once you log in, click on ‘Ubuntu menu -> System Tools ”

5. Then select ‘Ubuntu Software Center. ”

6. Find and install ‘Samba‘. This software is required for a better compatibility between the two operating systems.

7. After Samba is installed, you should go to ‘System → Administration –> Samba’.

8. Then click ‘Preferences -> Server Settings’.

9. Write the name of the workgroup you set for your Windows PC(s). If you do not know the exact name because you did not set it, the default name for Windows Workgroups is set to ‘WORKGROUP‘ (capitalizing is not required, however, since Windows is generally not case-sensitive).