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Editor's Choice

Looking for software recommendations, apps, and generally useful stuff? These editors' selections highlight various technologies that merit our Editor's Choice seal of approval. We think you'll find this listing to be a valuable resource for discovering and vetting software, products, and apps. We've run these things through the paces and chosen only the best to highlight so you can get right to the good stuff.

Do you know a product, project, or vendor that could earn our Editor's Choice distinction? Please let us know at ljeditor@linuxjournal.com

Android Candy: Outer Space, in Your Pocket

When the Space Shuttle program shut down, I have to admit, it deflated my excitement about space exploration just a bit. Although it's not fair to pin the future of manned missions to space on a fleet of aging crafts built in the 1980s, the Space Shuttle represented the latest step in a process that would get us to other planets.

Everpad

It seems as though all the cool kids are addicted to Evernote. I'm not quite that cool, but I have been trying hard to convert to a paperless lifestyle. Evernote admittedly is a great tool for archiving information. When I bought my Nexus 7, I also bought a subscription to Evernote Premium.

Crashplan, the Only Reason I Install Java

I'm the sort of person who doesn't like to install Java. I actually don't like to install Flash either, but it's still tough to survive browsing the Internet without Flash installed. There is one program that makes me break my own rules, however, and that's Crashplan.

Plex

Android Candy: Plex

Anyone with an iPhone probably is familiar with the AirVideo application. Basically, it's the combination of a server app that runs on your Windows or OS X machine, and it serves video over the network to an AirVideo application on your phone. It's extremely popular, and for a good reason—it works amazingly well.

Android Candy: WiFi Analyzer

I have a new day job, and as part of the hiring package, I was issued a smartphone. I'm a little bitter that it doesn't include a tethering plan, but that doesn't upset me nearly as much as the lack of Wi-Fi analysis apps. See, my new job issued me an iPhone. I really like the iPhone (it's true, I can't lie), but in order to scan Wi-Fi, I'd have to jailbreak my phone!

Rsync, It's GRRRRaphical!

Every year for our Readers' Choice survey, the venerable tool rsync gets votes for favorite backup tool. That never surprises us, because every time I need to copy a group of files and folders, rsync is the tool I use by default.

Android Candy: Never Plug In Your Phone Again!

Last month, I showed you an awesome audiobook player app for Android, but I didn't share my frustration in getting the audio files on to my phone. When I plugged my phone in to the computer, I couldn't get the SD card to mount, no matter what settings I changed.

Android Candy—Smart Audiobook Player

The Audible app for Android is a great way to consume audiobooks. You have access to all the books you've purchased on Audible, and you can download them at will. Plus, the app provides all the bookmarking features you'd expect from a professional application. Unfortunately, if your audiobooks are from somewhere other than Audible, you need something a little more flexible.

There's an App for That

The concept of standalone Web apps isn't new. Anyone using Prism with Firefox or Fluid with OS X understands the concept: a browser that goes to a single Web site and acts like a standalone application—sorta.

Build Your Own Flickr with Piwigo

In 2006, the family computer on which our digital photographs were stored had a hard drive failure. Because I'm obsessed with backups, it shouldn't have been a big deal, except that my backups had been silently failing for months. Although I certainly learned a lesson about verifying my backups, I also realized it would be nice to have an off-site storage location for our photos.

Open Formats, Open Editors

E-books are currently quite a hot topic in the publishing world. Heck, for the past few months, it's been quite a hot topic here as well! Thankfully, digital publication doesn't have to mean proprietary formats and DRM-laden files.

Kill A Watt: Now with Less Math!

If you're interested in how much energy your electronics use, it's hard to find a device better than a Kill A Watt—except maybe the Kill A Watt EZ! P3 International now offers model P4600, which provides the same features as its predecessor, but it also automatically calculates device cost per day, week, month or year.

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How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers

Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.

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Red Hat White Paper: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy

Built-in forensics, incident response, and security with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it. However, protecting the data integrity and system and data availability is just as important. For example, when processing United States intelligence information, there are three attributes that require protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Learn more about catching the bad guy in this free white paper.

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Sponsored by DLT Solutions