Reviews

Getting the Most from the Nexus 7

The ASUS/Google Nexus 7 arrived at my door on August 1, 2012 with a lot of anticipation from both me and the rest of the consumer electronics world. A quad-core Tegra 3 processor from NVIDIA, a 1200x800 HD IPS display covered with the latest scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass and a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera were among its most notable cool features.

Switching to Chrom(ium)

For someone who works with, writes about and teaches cutting-edge technologies, I tend to be a bit of a laggard when adopting new ones. I upgrade my laptop and servers very conservatively.

Extreme Graphics with Extrema

High-energy physics experiments tend to generate huge amounts of data. While this data is passed through analysis software, very often the first thing you may want to do is to graph it and see what it actually looks like. To this end, a powerful graphing and plotting program is an absolute must.

Pluck Out a Novel with Plume

I often discuss the Linux port of Scrivener with my writer friend Ken McConnell. We both like Scrivener's interface, and we both prefer to use Linux as our writing platform. Unfortunately, the Linux port of Scrivener just doesn't compare to the OS X version. The other day, Ken told me about Plume Creator.

ZaTab: ZaReason's Open Tablet

Quite a few options exist as far as Android tablets go. Some of them are great choices for personal entertainment and media consumption. Google's new Nexus 7 is a powerful little beast designed to serve up media from Google Play. Amazon's Kindle Fire is a great device for tapping Amazon's extensive content offerings.

ZaReason's Valta X79

I was recently contacted by Earl Malmrose of ZaReason, who wanted to know if I'd like to review ZaReason's new Linux-based desktop computer, built around the new Intel 6-Core processor and quad channel memory.

SlickEdit

For the minimalist programmer, there's vim. For everybody else, there's SlickEdit.

KeePassX: Keeping Your Passwords Safe

For a long time, my password tracking system was quite simplistic: hope I remembered the right passwords for each site or record them in an ordinary word-processor document. Such methods obviously have great flaws. I might have a hard time remembering a password for an infrequently used site, and a word-processor document isn't the most secure place to store passwords.

Book Review - The Linux Command Line

Do you ever have that moment when someone asks you for a recommendation on a book, and when put on the spot you spin around in your office chair, scan your ever-growing library of books that you bought over the years of IT experience but either: A. Never read? B. Flipped through but never finished? C.Passed out halfway through the first chapter? 

Mercurial - Revision Control Approximated

A short while ago, an article appeared in Linux Journal implying Git was the be-all and end-all of source code revision control systems ("Git—Revision Control Perfected" by Henry Van Styn, August 2011).

Fade In Pro

When I switched from Windows to Linux, I found software to replace almost everything I had been doing in Windows. Most of the software I needed was in the repos, although I did pay for a couple commercial programs.

Astronomy on the Desktop

Many people's initial exposure to science is through astronomy, and they are inspired by that first look through a telescope or their first glimpse of a Hubble image. Several software packages are available for the Linux desktop that allow users to enjoy their love of the stars. I look at several packages in this article that should be available for most distributions.

New Books

Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 20th Ed. (Que) Besides our fealty to Linux, there may be nothing else besides tinkering with our PCs that defines our Linux geek identity. Therefore, we know that books like Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs, now in its 20th edition, will appeal to many of our readers.

Luakit Extensible Micro Browser

Fellow control freaks, if you enjoy having dominion over just about every aspect of a program, I think you'll like this. Inspired by projects such as uzbl, and developed by fellow Perth-boy Mason Larobina, luakit is the Web browser for those who like the element of control. According to the Web site:

Webian Shell: Prototype Web-Based Shell

Webian Shell is a web-based shell that is designed to run full-screen and function as the primary user interface for your computer. At the moment, it's still at the proof of concept stage, but 0.1 is runnable without making any modifications to your system. As it features some interesting ideas, it's worth having a play around with.

Chumby, the Next Generation

If you're unfamiliar with the Chumby, you might want to go back to the May 2008 issue of Linux Journal. Daniel Bartholomew showed us all about the cuddly little gadget and explained why we might want one of our very own.