Archive for March, 2008
TechWeb - Apple uses the update mechanism for Windows for distributing the latest versions of its iTunes music store and for the QuickTime video player.
This program’s name will probably remind you of the Egyptian god of life, death and fertility, Osiris. In fact this application has something to do with all these matters, as it’s a medical tool to view scanned sections of the body.
It is meant for professional users and while I doubt you have an x-ray machine or an electro-magnetic scanner in your bedroom, you might learn something by looking at the demos available. You actually have two very big samples to download, with lots of DICOM images (the standard for radiological and non-radiological medical images). What does it have this kind of image file more than a JPEG? Well, a lot. You can see the picture in 3D, zoom in, discovering details, basically you can navigate within the picture, even turning it upside down if you wish. This gives you a perfect idea of the shape of human organs and could be useful for any science student or generally curious person.
OsiriX is used by doctors and while they may find it fairly easy to use, non-professional users might find it intimidating and difficult understand at first. You might find it useful to quickly read the relative wiki to find more DICOM images to download and understand how to use the 4D functionality (a 3D image with a temporal event in it, like the heart beating). It’s not easy to view what you would like, unless you find an online source of DICOM images or you have your own magnetic resonance imaging machine.
The human body is fascinating and OsiriX allows you to analyze it with 4D images that you can zoom in on and explore. It might be difficult though to find DICOM images which you are interested in.
Review by Francesca Migliorini
Hello readers, and welcome once again to Free Software Magazine’s fortnightly newsletter, keeping you up to date with all things free software… AND the top 10 FSDaily announcements for this week! Enjoy!
General announcements
Top ten Free Software Daily stories this week
This gallery software makes web albums of your digital images. JAlbum aims to be the easiest to use and most powerful tool in this category - and free! With JAlbum, no extra software is needed to view the albums, -just your web browser. Unlike "server side" album scripts, JAlbum albums can be served from a plain web server without scripting support and thanks to JAlbum’s built in web server, you can even share your albums straight from JAlbum. You can also share your albums on CD-ROM.
JAlbum is written after numerous disappointments with existing album software. With JAlbum you have full control of the look of the generated album, not just color theme and basic layout, still making an album is just a matter of drag and drop + a button click if you prefer to use one of the many existing looks. JAlbum will process your images, make index pages and slide show pages and even upload the final album to the Internet for your friends to see.
LazyMouse is the type of application that you either like or hate. Supposed to make you save time, it can automatically snap your cursor onto every new window you open. The preference pane option can also bring your cursor back to its original position. Because it install in your System Preferences, LazyMouse is really easy to set up and activate. You can have it play a sound every time the mouse is moved, although we discourage you doing that, as it gets a bit annoying after a while.
LazyMouse will appeal to users who hate moving their cursor around and like having it point right to where they need to click. However, most users, accustomed to moving their cursor around, might get a bit discouraged by it. We really suggest trying LazyMouse out to see if you really need it or not.
If you hate moving your mouse around, LazyMouse will come in handy.
Review by Cyril Roger
FOSDEM - a geek trip to Brussels. Going abroad to experience different cultures. Or at least, a chance to eat chips, suffer rain, and watch American TV in a different country.
If you like Poker but can’t quite pull the right face at the right moment perhaps you should be looking for a similar yet slightly simpler card game. And that card game could be Croker. Instead of numbers in Croker you play with pictures - frogs, pigs, dice and baskets of fruit. It’s the way the French play, apparently.
As with Poker the aim of the game is to make the best possible hand from five cards and like Poker the possible combinations include pairs, three of a kind, a full house or four of a kind. Each time the cards are played a round of betting occurs until players are ready to show all their cards and see who’s won.
The animated cards are very colourful and you get to play computer opponents but there are only two levels of difficulty easy and hard which is a bit annoying.
If you like Poker you’ll have fun with Croker, and if you like cards games with pigs and lightbulbs you’ll probably really enjoy it too.
Review by James Thornton
This program simplifies the creation of installation for Pocket PC Devices. Eliminates the need of manually editing the required .inf files and calling the cabwiz tool for creating the cab(s) files.
Everything is working with dialogs, and the user interface is enough flexible and powerful to combine the related objects between them. For example, when creating a shortcut, the dialog will offer to choose from the files selected to be installed as the target of the shortcut.
And even more, can create a self-executable installer, witch includes the created cab(s) file(s) and automatically installs the proper Pocket PC application via active sync. No more manual editing of .inf files, searching internet for information how to make these files, command prompt for building cab(s) file(s).
Features:
• Easy to use interface, all the functions are one mouse click away
• Can save/open created installation projects
• Supports all the cabwiz tags and options
• Supports creation of multiple installs for various platforms (e.g. ARM, SH3)
• Creates compressed, self-contained, self-extracting Windows setup program
• One click for creation of .inf files, cab(s) file(s) and installation executable
Dockchanger is a simple application for anyone who just can’t get used to the new 3D dock in Mac OS Leopard. Thanks to this app you’ll be able to revert to a more traditional 2D dock, although it’ll incorporate new design features of the updated Dock, like the transparent look and light dots under active items.
Dockchanger is easy to set up and can as easily be removed if you decide to revert to the newer 3D Dock. It’s a nice feature to have, so you can switch appearances whenever you want. We hope that Apple will incorporate a similar feature in later versions of Leopard, so users can decide what they like best.
Dockchanger is a useful tool to revert to a more traditional 2D dock in Mac OS Leopard.
Review by Cyril Roger
The history of darts began many centuries ago. The King of England, Henry VIII and King of France, Charles VI were among the most devoted darts lovers. The appearance of this game relates to a time when spears and darts were one of the most basic kind of weapon.
As time goes by the vital necessity of training was transformed into a fascinating game: the dartboard as the target and darts with sharp needles - tips. The player who hits the center of the target (so-called "Bulls-eye") was considered as the lucky beggar. In 1908, the game was generally accepted as a popular sport. In Great Britain, the USA, Germany, and Australia and in many other countries this game became an integral part of national culture.
Features of the game include:
• Enhanced digital music for Palm OS 5 devices (Music requires Palm Zire 71, 72, Tungsten T, T2, T3, C, E, Treo 600 or Sony TJ, TH or UX series)
• Excellent 16 bit graphics
• Low-res and Hi-res devices support
• Running under Palm OS 3.5 with 16 bit screen
• Enhanced digital sound effects for Palm OS 5 devices
• One player mode
• Two players mode
• Multiplayer at one device
• 5 level AI for game with Palm
• A choose 3 difficulty level
• 11 darts games
• Timed game
• Strategy game ( throws scores )
• Advanced game settings
• Hints for best scores ( Calculator Bristow)
• High-scores table