MeteoEarth: Enjoy the Graphics, If Not the Weather
- Sep
- 27
- Posted by Patrick Nelson
- Posted in Reviews
You know those fancy, animated weather visualizations that you get on the local television news broadcasts — the ones with the 3D drill-down dynamic graphics that make it appear as if the meteorologist is directing the clouds? Well, you can now get something similar on your Android device. MeteoGroup is a European producer of weather-in-motion graphics that it supplies to broadcasters.
read moreZevenOS’s Neptune Distro: Linux the Way You Want It
- Sep
- 25
- Posted by Jack M. Germain
- Posted in Reviews
If you are looking for a really decent, snappy and lightweight KDE distro that installs easily onto a flash drive, check out ZevenOS’s Neptune. Our Picks and Pans column has been devoting considerable time lately to playing with countless Linux distros. Rarely have I found truly bad distros — after all, Linux is Linux.
read moreZevenOS’ Neptune Distro: Linux the Way You Want It
- Sep
- 25
- Posted by Jack M. Germain
- Posted in Reviews
If you are looking for a really decent, snappy and lightweight KDE distro that installs easily onto a flash drive, check out ZevenOS’ Neptune. Our Picks and Pans column has been devoting considerable time lately to playing with countless Linux distros. Rarely have I found truly bad distros — after all, Linux is Linux.
read moreGoogle Keep: Note-Taking and Checklists, Done Well
- Sep
- 20
- Posted by Patrick Nelson
- Posted in Reviews
Some years ago I decided to eschew paper. It was part of an effort, with which I was obsessed at the time, to become more nomadic. I felt then, and still do to a certain extent, that accumulations of paper were restrictive, because they forced you to always return to the place where the paper was in order to refer to things — and live your life. One reason we have offices.
read moreOpenPGP Studio Keeps Prying Eyes Off Your Personal Data
- Sep
- 18
- Posted by Jack M. Germain
- Posted in Reviews
GoAnywhere OpenPGP Studio is an easy-to-use, cross-platform desktop tool by Linoma Software that protects files using the OpenPGP encryption standard. Why opt for this relative newcomer instead of other, more mature open standards-based encryption solutions? If for no other reason, OpenPGP Studio is “pretty good protection,” which is the basis of the OpenPGP standard.
read morePanicGuard: Nice Idea but Not Ready for Prime Time
- Sep
- 13
- Posted by Patrick Nelson
- Posted in Reviews
Here’s an app that should bring peace of mind to any late-night solo worker, exerciser or neighborhood watch patroller. It’s an ingenious combination of personal alarm, tracker and alert creator that uses sensor and other components included in the average smartphone, such as the speaker, to sound an alarm. The GPS and other location services are used for tracking.
read moreWireless Aside, Cr OS Linux Delivers the Best of Two Worlds
- Sep
- 11
- Posted by Jack M. Germain
- Posted in Reviews
The Cr OS Linux distribution is an interesting blend of the Cinnamon desktop with a special edition of the Chromium Web browser. The approach Cr OS Linux takes gives you a taste of Linux Mint with a chaser of a not-quick pure Google Chrome OS. Cr OS is a fully functional Linux distro. It has its own repository and package manager to provide software updates.
read moreLost Droid Takes Stealth Seriously to Secure Your Phone
- Sep
- 06
- Posted by Patrick Nelson
- Posted in Reviews
Having recently had my bicycle stolen — after having a set of wheels pilfered in a previous year — I was getting mad and, to quote the 1976 movie Network, I was not going to be taking it anymore. I decided to beef up my security both in general and on the replacement bike in particular. I was going to invest in some security tech.
read moreCherryTree Takes the Pits Out of Pruning Your Notes
- Sep
- 04
- Posted by Jack M. Germain
- Posted in Reviews
Keeping track of my bits and pieces of information across several computers running Linux and Microsoft Windows has long been a problem. CherryTree is a sweet solution that keeps my information local and cloud-free. CherryTree is an outliner-style hierarchical note-taking application that features rich text and syntax highlighting. It stores data in a single xml or sqlite file.
read moreCherryTree Takes the Pits Out of Pruning Your Notes
- Sep
- 04
- Posted by Jack M. Germain
- Posted in Reviews
Keeping track of my bits and pieces of information across several computers running Linux and Microsoft Windows has long been a problem. CherryTree is a sweet solution that keeps my information local and cloud-free. CherryTree is an outliner-style hierarchical note-taking application that features rich text and syntax highlighting. It stores data in a single XML or SQLite file.
read more