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1. 
   Review - The GIMP

   2.2.3 (Jan 26, 2005)

   Prediction: the interface will never be significantly changed. Perhaps a fork will come about with a different interface. But for anyone who wants a major overhaul on this codeline, I seriously doubt it will ever happen. It took lots of people effort to learn how to use it the way it is, and they will not stand for it changing. So either learn to like it, or try to get support for a fork project, or use something else.
   Remember: A true beginner can't get much done with Photoshop either. If you have already invested time learning something else, of course the other program will seem easier, because you already know it.

2. 
   Review - OpenOffice.org for Windows

   2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) (Dec 17, 2004)

   This version does have a format paintbrush icon right in the toolbar that works just like you'd expect, and it does do word count of selected text (select text, tools menu, word count). Startup isn't real slow if you allow the quickstart to run in the tray.
   There are some hassles involved in using the snapshot builds- for example, they just changed the format from .oot to .odt, and it cannot read the .oot format without mucking around.
   But OOo is improving all the time, and it is a viable replacement for MS Office for many people. Writer is very functional, it has more than enough features for most people. Calc opens all of my Excel spreadsheets and they work, although people say advanced spreadsheets may not. Haven't looked at the Powerpoint replacement. An Outlook replacement is not included (there's always Thunderbird and Sunbird), and Base is not helpful for a novice Access user- it does not work the same at all.
   If you are an typical user of Word and Excel, OOo
   could easily let you stop being a pirate or let you get off the Microsoft bandwagon.

3. 
   Review - Overclockulator

   1.1.1b (Sep 13, 2004)

   Does just what it claims. Hovering over a field explains how to fill in the blanks, and it lets you guess how many watts of your P/S you are using or would need if you changed stuff.

4. 
   Review - QuickTime Alternative (QT7)

   1.33 (Aug 19, 2004)

   Warning- Quicktime Alternative is Warez and should probably be banned from this site. It does work very well, to play almost all Quicktime files (some exceptions), but if you are in a country where license or copyright laws are enforced it is illegal. It contains exact copies of files from Quicktime which cannot be used without agreeing to their license terms, even though the program is free to download.
   Fortunately, Media Player Classic by itself may be legal, and if you install Quicktime but never run it and delete its startup tasks, MPC can still play all of your files and you will not have to run the intrusive Quicktime.

5. Comment - Does Open Source = Closed Mind?

   1.33 (Apr 16, 2005 - 2:22 AM)

   Do you really think there wouldn't be any software if copyrights and software patents didn't exist? Plenty of people would still make software. Over the decades of the existence of computers, if Microsoft did not exist, someone would have made an o/s that was easy even for grandparents to use. Dell would have probably done it, so they could sell more computers to those grandparents!
   
   Yes, there is a "term" called "intellectual property," but that is all it is, a term. It is basically a synonym for extortion. All IP is is the right to send the government after someone for doing something you don't like with what is supposedly "your" information.
   
   People should make money for their efforts if they deserve it, not because the government is helping them carry out their extortion against people who would like to copy their information. I am sure that many programmers could find a way to make money even if all copyrights and software patents were void- they could work for a company that needed a type of software written, could be sponsored by government grants, could work in return for donations, and could be sponsored by companies like Coke and Pepsi. It would be great publicity for Coke to have people know that it sponsored the best software so it could easily justify paying a few programmers. Also, there is great inefficiency for programmers to have to keep independently writing the same software over and over because someone else has a copyright on it. An efficient economy would need less programmers because they wouldn't be duplicating each others work as much, each one could make far more product because of having an infinite resource of code and techniques to use. There would be absolutely no shortage of software.
   And, every job you make by forcing people to pay for information, you take away from someone else by taking that money away from the person who should have been paid it for a legitimate service or good. Writing software is a perfectly sensible job to be paid for, in the ways I mentioned above. Owning information and taking money from people in return for not suing them for "copyright violation" is not a legitimate job.

6. Comment - Does Open Source = Closed Mind?

   1.33 (Apr 15, 2005 - 10:21 PM)

   1. I said "someone who is that kind of a criminal" (i.e. has stolen a trillion dollars) should be executed. I haven't stolen any trillion dollars. I am being consistent here. I am not making threats about what I would do, I am just saying what the government should have done long ago.
   2. It is stealing. What have their customers received? A few cds worth a few pennies. What have they spent? Over a trillion dollars. In a fair world, people could run a computer and be compatible with games and files from all of their friends without making some thief rich.

7. Comment - Does Open Source = Closed Mind?

   1.33 (Apr 15, 2005 - 6:43 PM)

   And the issue isn't who is more secure or if it would cost a lot to retrain users and admins if you decided to switch to Linux.
   Microsoft has stolen over a trillion dollars from the people of the world. Someone who is that kind of a criminal, you don't discuss if they have a nice haircut or not, you execute them immediately.
   In a world where a decade ago the government forced microsoft to give away free open source windows, the cost of low end computers would be a fraction of what is is now, improving the quality of life of the poor all over the world. And every business would be more profitable because they wouldn't have a trillion-dollar parasite sucking from them every year. You can't just steal a trillion dollars from the world without harming a lot of people. Every present and former high level employee or board member of Microsoft should be arrested or worse and have their wealth distributed to the poor or the national debts of the countries of the world.

8. Comment - Sony Wants Single Standard for HD DVD

   1.33 (Apr 13, 2005 - 1:59 PM)

   All they have to do is kill off Blu-ray.

9. Comment - TiVo Begins Testing of 'Pop-Up' Ads

   1.33 (Mar 30, 2005 - 12:54 AM)

   It was only a matter of time.
   Rush out and buy your broadcast flag-free pc HDTV cards now before they are no longer available.