Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com Download Squad. http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/downloadsquad.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) support@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Run BASIC: today's time-waster]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/24/run-basic-todays-time-waster/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/24/run-basic-todays-time-waster/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/24/run-basic-todays-time-waster/#comments Run BASIC

Ever wish you could go back to 1984 (and we mean the real 1984, no the other 1984)?

Now you can. Sort of. Run BASIC is a site that lets you relive those heady days of PEEKs and POKEs by giving you a place to run BASIC programs.

Actually, Run BASIC is based on Liberty BASIC, not the more familiar Apple or PC versions, so it only takes you back to 1992. But all your favorite command line and lo-res favorites are there, including hangman and HiLo. You can also write your own programs, or just dig out those old manuals.

This really geeked me out when I saw it. The thrill I got from flipping on our first //e, typing a few simple lines into the built-in BASIC interpreter, typing 'RUN,' and watching my programs actually begin to to something was what got me hooked on computers in the first place as a kid. Seeing how high the computer could count was always a favorite, as was anything that involved an infinite loop or GOTO sequence that left an END someplace other than the last line.

[via Chris]

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Run BASIC: today's time-waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 May 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> BASICLiberty BASICLibertyBasicprogrammingRun BASICtime wastertimewasters Jay Savage Thu, 24 May 2007 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Study finds global piracy rates hold fast at 35%, Russian and Chinese scallawags belay a bit]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/15/study-finds-global-piracy-rates-hold-fast-at-35-russian-and-ch/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/15/study-finds-global-piracy-rates-hold-fast-at-35-russian-and-ch/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/15/study-finds-global-piracy-rates-hold-fast-at-35-russian-and-ch/#comments Piracy Rate by Region

The fourth annual Global Piracy Study, conducted by tech market research company IDC on behalf of the Business Software Alliance, was released this morning. The researchers estimate that again this year, 35% of all software on PCs worldwide is pirated. This is despite claimed advances in legitimate sales in traditional problem areas like China, where the government's decision to license operating systems and other software is uses on state-owned PCs has resulted in a 10% drop in three years (a drop from 92% to 82%, but still). Other developing markets, though, seem to be taking up the slack. Nearly one third of countries surveyed has piracy rates topping 75%, and while developing markets account for fully 30% of global PC sales, they only account for 10% of software revenue.

Perhaps the most surprising finding was that, despite the world's lowest piracy rate--21%--the estimated value of pirated software in the US is the highest on the list. IDC estimates that the US accounts for US$7.3bn in piracy losses. That raises a red flag in my mind: are we really buying (or not) that much more software than other countries, or are we getting ripped off paying for software that sells for less elsewhere?

Even taken with the XXL grain of salt BSA funding requires, these are big numbers.

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Study finds global piracy rates hold fast at 35%, Russian and Chinese scallawags belay a bit originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 15 May 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 2007analysisBSAglobal piracy studyGlobalPiracyStudyIDCnewsPiracypirate Jay Savage Tue, 15 May 2007 12:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Rallying for a better web experience at XTech 2007]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/11/rallying-for-a-better-web-experience-at-xtech-2007/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/11/rallying-for-a-better-web-experience-at-xtech-2007/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/11/rallying-for-a-better-web-experience-at-xtech-2007/#comments Xtech 2007A couple of prominent web design gurus have announced a mini conference on "Web Browsers, Standards and Interop" during XTech 2007 in Paris on May 15th. The idea is to get browser vendors, web developers and designers all in the same room to spend a day talking about about how to make life easier for each other and, most importantly for website visitors. Ultimately, the organizers want a return to "the original platform and user agent agnostic vision of the Web."

That may sound like pie in the sky, but the organizers have made a good start: Microsoft, the Mozilla Foundation, and Opera Software have already committed to attending. Hopefully, the Apple WebKit developers and the KHTML team won't be far behind. Ideally, of course, some standards organizations would be involved, too. And who knows? Since this is all happening in Paris, some members of ISO and ECMA working groups just might stop by.

Personally, I'm excited about this. This conversation is about twelve years overdue. I don't expect to wake up on the morning of May 16th and discover that Trident and Gecko render CSS the same way, but it's a good first step in the right direction.

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Rallying for a better web experience at XTech 2007 originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 11 May 2007 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> firefoxIEinternet explorerInternetExplorerinteroperabilitymozillastanardsweb browsersWebBrowsersXtech Jay Savage Fri, 11 May 2007 08:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Flickr debuts Collections]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/14/flickr-debuts-collections/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/14/flickr-debuts-collections/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/14/flickr-debuts-collections/#comments Yesterday afternoon, Flickr announced the release of a new feature that hard core Flickr users have been clamoring for for a while now: subsets or sets of sets. Or, as Flickr calls them, collections. Users can now build up large collections of pictures from building blocks of multiple sets, and even other collections. To differentiate them from regular sets when you're looking at them in the sidebar, collections have icons that are mosaics, with a number of pictures from the different sets that make up the collection.

As you can see from the screencap below, there are a couple of quirks. First, collections can only be nested 5 deep. for most people, this shouldn't be an issue, but some power users may hit that limit fairly quickly. Second, any collection can be composed of sets or other collections, but not both. That means if you have a collection and you want to create a new collection with that collection plus another set, you have to put the set into a collection first. There doesn't seem to be anything to stop you from creating a collection with a single set, so it's no big deal, but it is an extra bit of hassle, and it potentially costs you a layer of nested collections.

Finally, drag and drop editing of sets and mosaics doesn't seem to have the kinks worked out in Safari yet. When I clicked on the icons to arrange the mosaic on my test collection, the icons floated around the window nowhere near the mouse pointer. And the finished collection never showed up, even though everything looked fine. Firefox seems just fine, though.

flickr collections screencap

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Flickr debuts Collections originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> collectionsFlickrnewsSafari Jay Savage Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[SANS reports Windows 2000, 2003, XP Daylight Savings Time issues]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/13/sans-reports-windows-2000-2003-xp-daylight-savings-time-issues/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/13/sans-reports-windows-2000-2003-xp-daylight-savings-time-issues/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/13/sans-reports-windows-2000-2003-xp-daylight-savings-time-issues/#comments Internet security watchdogs at the SANS Institute Internet Storm Center are reporting two unrelated issues with the DST changeover on Windows platforms.

The first issue incolves isolated problems where clocks display incorrect times despite being patched for the new US Daylight Savings Time rules. Apparently the problem affects certain systems that were patched using directions from Microsoft the TZEdit.exe application or manual edits to the Registry. A patch is available from Microsoft here.

The second involves certain applications that rely on the TZ environment variable. a patch for that is available here.

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SANS reports Windows 2000, 2003, XP Daylight Savings Time issues originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 20002002Daylight Savings TimeDaylightSavingsTimeDSTInternet Strom CenterosupdatesSANSXP Jay Savage Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[80% of Federal Agencies Flunk E-FOIA Test]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/12/80-of-federal-agencies-flunk-e-foia-test/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/12/80-of-federal-agencies-flunk-e-foia-test/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/12/80-of-federal-agencies-flunk-e-foia-test/#comments


According a report published today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, only one in five government agencies complies with the 1997 law that requires them to make much public information available on the web and clearly post procedures for obtaining information and making so-called "sunshine requests" under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Some highlights include:
  • Only one in five federal agencies (21 percent) posts on the Web all four categories of records that the law specifically requires;
  • Only one in 16 agencies (6 percent) posts all ten elements of essential FOIA guidance;
  • Only 36 percent of agencies provide the required indexes of records;
  • Only 26 percent of agencies provide online forms for submitting FOIA requests;
  • Many agency Web links are missing or just wrong - one FOIA fax number checked in the Knight Survey actually rang in the maternity ward of a military base hospital.
The Departments of Defense, the Interior, and Veterans' Affairs, Homeland Security, and the CIA, among others, were particularly low-scorers. No shocks there. Bright spots, on the other hand, included "E-Stars" such as NASA, the FTC, and, surprisingly enough, the Department of Justice.

Anyone whose ever tried to get information from a government website probably won't be surprised by the results. The best results come from agencies who are either small or see their missions as serving the public interest. The worst results are from agencies who thrive on secrecies and/or bloated bureaucracies, which , unfortunately includes most of them.

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80% of Federal Agencies Flunk E-FOIA Test originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> foiafreedom of informationFreedomOfInformationlegalnational security archiveNationalSecurityArchivenewsus governmentUsGovernment Jay Savage Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[ReiserFS creator Hans Reiser to stand trial]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/12/reiserfs-creator-hans-reiser-to-stand-trial/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/12/reiserfs-creator-hans-reiser-to-stand-trial/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/12/reiserfs-creator-hans-reiser-to-stand-trial/#comments The big buzz in the open source community this weekend had nothing to do with software. Instead, the talk was about developer Hans Resier--founder of Namesys and creator of ReiserFS--who found out Friday that he will be arraigned for his wife's murder on March 23rd.

Reiser's estranged wife disappeared this past September. Reiser denied any involvement or knowledge, but was later charged with her murder. What happened after that could have come straight out of a soap opera. Reiser was held without bail for several months, part of the time in solitary confinement. Nina Reiser's body was never found. It came to light that Mrs. Reiser Secretly obtained Russian citizenship for her children, and they were taken to Russia by their maternal grandmother after the son testified that he saw his mother get into her car and leave the Reiser house on the day of her disappearance, and that he and his father played video games all afternoon, contradicting prosecuters' allegations that Mrs. Reiser was killed in the house, and that Mr. Reiser later disposed of the body. Investigators did, however find traces of blood in Mr. Reiser's home and car. They also discovered that Mr. Reiser had removed the passenger's seat of his car, and the original could not be located. There was, however, no indication of foul play, and Mr. Reiser's lawyers requested that the case be dropped. This past Friday, though, the judge ruled that he could stand trial on the strength of the circumstantial evidence including--in a move that is sure set privacy advocates screaming--the disclosure that, at some point after his wife's disappearance, Mr. Reiser purchased a book on murder. Mr. Reiser's mother-in-law failed to return from Russia so that the son could testify on his father's behalf or be cross-examined.

Much of the speculation in the press and the community has centered on the future of Namesys and ReiserFS. I think, though, that situations like this are one of the areas where the open source model really shines. If the community is interested in a project, it will continue. And there certainly seems to be a great deal of interest in ReiserFS. ReiserFS has some strong friends, too. The core of the developers are full-time employees of Namesys, and a large chunk of the R & D budget for recent releases has come from DARPA, which is presumably still interested. Regardless of the future of Namesys, which Reiser looks to be selling to cover his legal bills, the ReiserFS project should continue strong.

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ReiserFS creator Hans Reiser to stand trial originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 12 Mar 2007 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Hans ReiserHansReisermurderNamesysnewsopensourceReiserFStrial Jay Savage Mon, 12 Mar 2007 07:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[FreeYourID: OpenID for your name]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/09/freeyourid-openid-for-your-name/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/09/freeyourid-openid-for-your-name/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/09/freeyourid-openid-for-your-name/#comments FreeYourIDNow that so many sites seem to be adopting OpenID, you might have decided that you want one. You may also have decided that you don't want it tied to your circa 1997 AOL screen name (I'm looking at you cyrano99). What better than to tie your online ID to your real identity and keep things nice and simple?

Enter FreeYourID.

The FreeYourID service combines a personal domain in the .name TLD with an OpenID provided by MyOpenID. since your OpenId will be tied to your .name url, it is theoretically good for life--or as long as you keep the DNS registry up to date--rather than your tenure with with AOL, LiveJournal, another service. And since it's based on your name you should have less compunction about using it in a professional context than, say hottl33gs.

In addition to the OpenID, FreeYourID also includes forwarding of both your .name email and url to addresses of your choice.

They're currently running a 90-day free promo, and membership is $10.95 per year after that. If you don't like it, you can transfer your .name domain to another registrar if you want to keep it.

So far, I've stayed away from OpenID, mostly because I haven't wanted to tie my identity to any particular url. The ability to easily combine the ID with a .name domain, though, may be what finally pushes me over the edge. It would certainly make life a lot simpler.

There is one "gotcha," though: I wouldn't use the service for any particularly secure application yet. Passwords can only contain upper and lower case letter and numbers. Attempts to enter punctuation or other characters result in an "invalid character" warning. That seems pretty short-sighted to me.

[via Phil Windley]

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FreeYourID: OpenID for your name originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> .name.name TLD.nameTldFreeYourIDidentityMyOpenIDOpenID Jay Savage Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Gearing up for NeoOffice 2.1 on March 27th]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/08/gearing-up-for-neooffice-2-1-on-march-27th/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/08/gearing-up-for-neooffice-2-1-on-march-27th/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/08/gearing-up-for-neooffice-2-1-on-march-27th/#comments NeoOfficeAs long as we're talking about word processors that have come a long way since we last talked about them: Mac users should sit up and take note: NeoOffice 2.1 arrives on March 27th.

NeoOffice is a OS X port of OppenOffice.org by a group of developers who have thought from the beginning that the Main OO.o team was taking the wrong tack in offering X-11 support on the Mac. Early NeoOffice releases were all-Java wrappers for OO.o (and were known as NeoOffice/J); recent releases have been Aqua native and, as of version 2.0, included both Intel and PPC binaries. NeoOffice 2.1 will include all the features of OpenOffice.org 2.1, including support for Office 2007 XML documents and Virtual Basic (VBA) macros. And, of course, possibly the coolest icon of any app on any platform.

NeoOffice also includes NeoLight, a plugin that allows Spotlight to index both content and metadata of OpenOffice and OpenDocument files. Users of main openOffice.org distribution can download NeoLight as a stand-alone application.

NeoOffice releases are named for the OpenOffice releases they're based on. Since this isn't an official OpenOffice.org release but a project based on OO.o, NeoOffice releases tend to lag a little behind their official brethren, so NeoOffice 2.1 will correspond to OpenOffice.org 2.1, which has been out for a while. While that sometimes means not being on the cutting edge, the NeoOffice release cycle does have a couple of advantages for uses. The most important, of course, is that NeoOffice is a native app. A less obvious benefit is that by the time a Neooffice release is rolled out, it contains the first several rounds of bugfixes to the OO.o codebase.

For those of you who just can't wait, there is still a NeoOffice 2.0 version available for download, and an Early Release version of NeoOffice 2.1 is available to people willing to support the project with a donation of $25 or more.

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Gearing up for NeoOffice 2.1 on March 27th originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> MacNeoOfficeOpen OfficeOpenOfficeOpenOffice.orgopensourceOS XOsXVBAVisual BasicVisualBasic Jay Savage Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[AbiWord: Word Processing for Everyone]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/07/abiword-word-processing-for-everyone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/07/abiword-word-processing-for-everyone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/07/abiword-word-processing-for-everyone/#comments AbiWordI can't believe we haven't talked seriously about AbiWord here since version 2.0 more than 18 months ago. Shame on us. The 2.4.x releases (they're currently on 2.4.6) have seen major upgrades to nearly all the subsystems, and a host of new features including Open Document support, image handling enhancements, grammar checking, and equation editing, to name a few.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, AbiWord is a powerful, full-featured, cross-platform, open source word processor. It includes plug-in support for most document formats including Word, Open Document, Open Office Writer, Word Perfect, and even Claris Works, as well as an optional equation editor and LaTeX and DocBook support.

If this sounds a lot like OpenOffice.org Writer to you, you might be forgiven. But AbiWord's motto is "Word Processing for Everyone," and they mean it. Although plans for a full Office suite are in the offing, AbiWord is currently just a word processor and all their energy goes into getting that right. For those of you with older hardware or who are just concerned about performance, AbiWord offers efficient code and a small footprint: a complete XP install including the optional plugins takes up less than 30MB on disk and uses a correspondingly small chunk of RAM. And for you Mac users out there, AbiWord offers a native Aqua interface, so no more X-11 nonsense just to get your word processor running.

Edit: Thanks to C.K. for pointing out that AbiWord on OS x isn't a universal binary yet. It's fast and stable enough, though, that you peobably won't notice it's running in Rosetta. I didn't.

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AbiWord: Word Processing for Everyone originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> AbiSourceAbiWordOpen OfficeOpenOfficeOpenOffice.orgopensource Jay Savage Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Maypole: Agile web development for the rest of us]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/14/maypole-agile-web-development-for-the-rest-of-us/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/14/maypole-agile-web-development-for-the-rest-of-us/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/14/maypole-agile-web-development-for-the-rest-of-us/#comments Maypole If you've been anywhere except under a rock for the last 18 months or so, you're probably sick to death of the phrase "Web 2.0," and for many people, Web 2.0 has become almost synonymous with Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails, though, has some major drawbacks for the average web designer. Ruby, while gaining steam, is still not as popular as more established programming languages. There aren't as many programmers who know it as there are who know, say, Perl, Java, ASP or PHP. So developing RoR applications means investing time and money in training yourself or your team in a new language.

That may be a minor hurdle, but Rails offers more serious barriers to adoption. First, it expects to run its own webserver, which will conflict with your main webserver listening on port 80. It can be made to use an existing Apache or IIS server, but the configuration is not simple. Even when running on an existing server, it expects to run as a separate application in a mod_ruby environment. While that makes RoR applications very efficient (like mod_perl applications before them), it also means that using Ruby on Rails requires control over you servers. That's great if you manage your own hardware and internet connection, but most people don't. The majority of websites, even those owned by medium to large-sized businesses, are hosted with web hosting companies where individual users don't have dedicated equipment or access to server configurations. Even at my workplace, where we do most things in house, my department web space is just a small part of a server infrastructure maintained by a completely different network and server administration department. Adding my Rails applications to the forward-facing servers isn't in the cards.

Enter Maypole.

Maypole is a rapid web application development framework written in Perl by Simon Cozens and maintained by Aaron James Trevena and others. It will run anywhere there is Perl, which is most of the world's webservers, and provides a powerful environment for "agile web development," including database abstraction and the powerful and popular Template::Toolkit templating system. Best of all, it is platform agnostic. It can run under either mod_perl or as CGI, an will check for itself to see which environment it is running in. That means You can start using it today on your Dreamhost (in fact, I have a Maypole application running on one right now) account, and pick it up tomorrow and move it someplace else without hassle.

The Maypole site has some good introductions and links to some great articles, as well as the Maypole Perl module itself. As with any Perl project, though, the best way to get it is to install it directly from CPAN and read the perldocs.

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Maypole: Agile web development for the rest of us originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> MaypoleMVCopensourcePerlRuby on RailsRubyOnRailsWeb DevelopmentWebDevelopment Jay Savage Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:40:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Secure Remote Disks SSHFS for Mac the Made Easy]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/17/secure-remote-disks-sshfs-for-mac-the-made-easy/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/17/secure-remote-disks-sshfs-for-mac-the-made-easy/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/17/secure-remote-disks-sshfs-for-mac-the-made-easy/#comments Secure Remote Disks screencap
Thanks to reader Jan for pointing this out. Actually, unless I'm mistaken, thanks to reader Jan for creating this!

If you've installed MacFUSE and SSHFS either from source or using the installer, Secure Remote Disks is a little (<500K) Cocoa GUI to help automate mounting remote ssh directories. As you can see from the screencap, SRD will store a list of servers together with mount points, user names, and even port numbers for those connecting to servers on remote ports.

Best of all, unlike the commandline sshfs, SRD will create mount points if they don't already exist and, best of all, it correctly interfaces with finder's eject/unmount function so you can drag mounted ssh volumes to the trash or hit the eject button in a Finder window to unmount them.

This is an Alpha release, so be careful. That said, Jan's code seems solid so far.

Here are some hints for putting SRD though its paces:
  • The current SRD returns no error messages of any kind; a connection failure will silently dump you in a Finder window of your home directory. The most likely culprit is (as always) your password, but be prepared to troubleshoot the connection blind.
  • SRD will mount remote directories under /Volumes. The sample connection the pops up on first launch even has a path under /Volumes. Servers mounted under /Volumes can't be unmounted, though, so choose a mount point somewhere else, as in the screencap above, unless you want to have to logout of OS X to disconnect from the remote server.
  • Mount points will are not removed when volumes are unmounted, so make sure you don't accedentally start using the mount points for other purposes.
  • There is no way to reopen the connect dialog if you close it (i.e. File->New Window). If you hit the red button, close SRD and relaunch it.
Thanks Jan!

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Secure Remote Disks SSHFS for Mac the Made Easy originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> freewareFUSEMacFUSEOS XOsXSecure Remote DiskSecure REmote DisksSecureRemoteDiskSSHFS Jay Savage Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Getting Started with MacFUSE: DLS How-To]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/16/getting-started-with-macfuse-dls-how-to/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/16/getting-started-with-macfuse-dls-how-to/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/16/getting-started-with-macfuse-dls-how-to/#comments The big splash in the Mac community--and the rest of the world--last week was obviously the iPhone. For Mac users, though, the iPhone announcement may have distracted from the really big news: Amit Singh's release of a MacFUSE beta, his port of the Linux FUSE API to OS X. If you're wondering what, exactly, that means, FUSE stands for Filesystem in USErland, and it provides a generic interface that lets the operating system see virtually anything as a filesystem. Historically, adding new filesystem recognition to an operating system has meant modifying the kernel for each new FS. FUSE, though, provides a single interface that filesystem modules use to interface with the OS. Best of all, anything that provides the correct interface can be interpreted as a filesystem. One enterprising Python programmer even developed a script to let users mount their GMail accounts and use the extra space in their accounts to save files.

What does this mean for Mac users? A lot. First and foremost, the FUSE NTFS driver seems to work with MacFUSE, so we can finally use NTFS volumes as well as FAT volumes. Web developers and anyone else who manages files via SFTP should rejoice, too. SSHFS (included with the MacFUSE binary) allows users to mount a remote SSH/SFTP directory as if it were a local disk. That means no more synchronizing files with an SFTP client. And while the GMailFS python bindings need a little work, the fixes look trivial, and soon we should all be able to put our extra GMail space to better use.

Amit doesn't think that MacFUSE is ready for production use yet, hence the "b" after the version number, so if you're using it for anything important, make sure you've got backups. If you do run into trouble with it, updates are being released almost daily at the moment. That said, though, my trials of it seem pretty stable. The only issues I've seen have been network related. If the system doesn't get a response to a remote query, it will hang. That can mean the dreaded "Spinning Beachball" in the Finder. In most cases, the problem eventually clears itself. If you're navigating via the shell, a simple Ctrl-C cancels the hanging action.

So how do you get MacFUSE up and running for yourself? Glad you asked.

Continue reading Getting Started with MacFUSE: DLS How-To

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Getting Started with MacFUSE: DLS How-To originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> FUSEhowtosMacFUSEopensource Jay Savage Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Organize photos with your OS in 5 easy steps- DLS Imaging Tip]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/10/organize-photos-with-your-os-in-5-easy-steps-dls-imaging-tip/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/10/organize-photos-with-your-os-in-5-easy-steps-dls-imaging-tip/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/01/10/organize-photos-with-your-os-in-5-easy-steps-dls-imaging-tip/#comments If you've had a digital camera for any length of time, by now you have thousands--maybe even tens of thousands--of digital pictures of anything and everything. And if you're like most people you've cheerfully imported them into photo management software of some sort. Maybe it's something like NikonView that came with your camera or maybe it's the copy of Photoshop Elements that came pre-installed on your hard drive. Perhaps it's Picasa. If you're on a Mac it's almost certainly iPhoto. Or maybe you're a pro, or just really into digital photography, and you hopped on one of the Adobe Lightroom betas or shelled out some cash for something like ACDSee, iView, or Aperture.

Whatever you're doing it's probably time to stop. Photo gallery and management software is a wonderful way to arrange and display pictures you want to use for something. Most of of the time, the "something" is printing, displaying on screen as a slideshow or screensaver, or uploading to a photo sharing service like Flickr. For most people, that describes a very small fraction of the pictures they take. The rest just sit around in the photo library collecting dust and causing trouble, mostly in the form of slowdowns. Your library has to load all those thumbnails every time you open it, whether you ever look at the pictures or not. When you add new photos, the software has to scan the pictures, add the appropriate information to its database, create thumbnails, probably copy the images to its own directory, and sometimes even convert the images to its native format. And again, it has to do that even if you never even look at the image.

That takes time. Often it takes a lot of time, and for nine tenths of digital photos, it's wasted time.

On the other hand, you don't really want to just delete all those other pictures. The sheer quantity is part of the fun of digital photography, right? And you never know when some of those truly horrible shots might come in handy. Maybe that horrible shot of your uncle making that silly face will turn out to be the only picture of him anyone can find for a scrapbook later. Maybe you'll want something in the background of a blurry shot of a friend for reference later. Who knows? But since storage is cheap these days, there's no reason to delete all that stuff, even if you don't want it clogging up your workflow.

Continue reading Organize photos with your OS in 5 easy steps- DLS Imaging Tip

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Organize photos with your OS in 5 easy steps- DLS Imaging Tip originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> DLS Imaging TipDlsImagingTipimagingtips Jay Savage Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:05:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of Holiday Downloads, All Wrapped Up]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/22/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-all-wrapped-up/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/22/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-all-wrapped-up/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/22/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-all-wrapped-up/#comments By popular demand--okay, by demand--we've collected all 24 of our 12 Days of Holiday Downloads posts into one convenient package. And just because it is the season of giving, we've included pointers to some of the other seasonal software we've covered, too. Because really, three days before Christmas, what's better than one-stop shopping?

I'll also give you my picks for the best of the bunch.

See the full list after the jump.

Continue reading 12 Days of Holiday Downloads, All Wrapped Up

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12 Days of Holiday Downloads, All Wrapped Up originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloadsbrowsertipsChristmascommercialfreewareopensourcesharewaretimewasters Jay Savage Fri, 22 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 days of holiday downloads, Day 12: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/19/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-12-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/19/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-12-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/19/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-12-mac/#comments Frosted screencapFor our 12th day of Mac downloads, I have a very merry Mac Christmas screensaver: Skyrocket Software's Frosted. Why is it so very merry Mac? Because it features a talking snowman and talking Santa that use the the Mac's built-in Text-to-Speech interface. And best of all for Mac geeks, they use two of the most traditional Mac voices: Bruce for the Snowman, Fred for Santa. Actually, the synthesized voices are a little creepy. Fun creepy, though, in a way that takes you right back to OS 9. The sprite-based animation will take you back, too. But isn't that what the holidays are all about, tradition?

All jokes aside, though, that Mac geek on your Christmas list (maybe your inner Mac geek?) will get a kick out of it.

The free version is fully functional and not even nagware. The $5.00 registration will turn on some sound options and let the snowman say your name.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11

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12 days of holiday downloads, Day 12: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsChristmasfrostedmacos xOsXscreensaversharewareskyrocket softwareSkyrocketSoftware Jay Savage Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:10:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 days of holiday downloads, Day 12: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/19/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-12-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/19/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-12-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/19/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-12-windows/#comments Holiday Lights DesignerIt's a sad day here at Download Squad: the final day of our 12 days of holiday downloads. But it's not goodbye, it's "'til next year." And since it's never to soon to start planning conspicuous consumerism--or at least conspicuousness--as our parting shot I leave you Holidaysoft's Holiday Lights Designer 3.

HLD will take a series of pictures of a building and form a 3D model on which you can hang lights and decorations to plot out your holiday display. There are a number of preset lighting combinations including minibulbs and old-fashioned C9 and C37 bulbs, or you can add your own lighting configurations and decorations. When you're done decorating, you can view the model in different ambient lighting conditions and even through snow and fog. And when you have it just right you can use the scale tool to figure out exactly how many feet of which kinds of lights strings to put where. For the true Christmas addict, this is an ideal way to weather those long months of withdrawl until the lights go back up next Novemember.

The free five day trial is fun to play around with. If you think $49 is too much for the full version, though, you're probably right. It's not that the designers don't deserve it; there's actually been a lot of thought and effort put into the interface and functionality. It's a pretty slick little program. But we're talking about Christmas lights. If you design light displays for a living and need mock-ups to show clients, though, HLD might be money well spent.

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11

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12 days of holiday downloads, Day 12: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days or holiday downloads12DaysOrHolidayDownloadschristmascommercialholiday lights designerHolidayLightsDesignerholidaysoftwindows Jay Savage Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:10:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 11: Mac (+Windows)]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/18/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-11-mac-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/18/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-11-mac-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/18/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-11-mac-windows/#comments Very 3D Christmas ScreensaverToday's Mac download is A Very 3D Christmas Screensaver by Rob Bennet of Useless Creations. As 3D screensavers go, this one is pretty well done. You get to watch Santa fly through the sky and hop down chimneys from a number of different angles and the OpenGL rendering is fast and smooth. The saver will play your choice of Christmas carol (from a predefined list of 50+) and counts down the second to Christmas at you locale.

It is nagware (full version is $7.50), but it's not crippleware, and as an added bonus there's a Windows version, too, if you roll that way.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 11: Mac (+Windows) originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ChristmascommercialMacOS XOsXscreensavertimewastersuseless creationsuselesscreations Jay Savage Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 11: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/18/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-11-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/18/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-11-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/18/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-11-windows/#comments Free New Yer screensaverToday's holiday downloads is Free New Year ScreenSaver from Download for Free. It's not the world's most sophisticated saver, but it has falling snow, and anyone who's been following this feature knows I'm a sucker for that. And it plays the Twelve Days of Christmas, which just seems appropriate.

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 11: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> christmasfreefreewareholidayscreensaversnowwindows Jay Savage Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 10: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/15/12-days-of-holiday-downlads-day-10-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/15/12-days-of-holiday-downlads-day-10-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/15/12-days-of-holiday-downlads-day-10-mac/#comments hebcal screencapAs I mentioned today's Windows download post, we've been a little Christmas-centric around here. Unfortunately, though, quality of non-Christmas holiday downloads is one area where Mac users don't really have it better than Windows users. For the first night of Chanukah, though, I give you Hebcal, a little widget that takes you zip code, looks up the chart, and tells when to light the candles, for these eight nights, and holidays all year long.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 10: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 18:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloadsChanukahfreewarehebcal Jay Savage Fri, 15 Dec 2006 18:35:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 10: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/15/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-10-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/15/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-10-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/15/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-10-windows/#comments kwanzaa screensaver screencapWe've been calling this 12 Days of holiday downloads, but up until now, we've focused exclusively on Christmas. I'm sure many of you are feeling left out, and I apologize. The truth is, though, that the holiday download options for other holidays just really aren't up to snuff. Why? I really can't say. If pressed, though, I'd say it has something to do with other religions not commercializing their major feast days to the same extent, but what do I know?

Either way, I did track down a couple of decent screensavers from San Diego Screensavers for those of you celebrating other holidays this season: one really nice animation of Kwanzaa candles (above), and one set of dancing Hanukah bears (below) that were just too crazy to pass up.

(There's a surfing Santa, too, if that's what you're into.)

Hanukah teddy


Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 10: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloadscommercialHanukahKwanzaaSan Diego ScreensaversSanDiegoScreensaverstimewasters Jay Savage Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:55:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 9: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/14/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-9-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/14/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-9-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/14/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-9-mac/#comments Christmas Sudoku screencapToday's Mac timewaster is Dracosoft's Christmas Sudoku. I'm not usually a big fan of Sudoko, personally. I don't need to spend my free time looking at numbers in a grid. Isn't that what Excel is for? The folks at Dracosoft, though, replaced the traditional numbers with colorful Christmas icons. That I can get into. If you're already into Sudoku, the three levels of gameplay should provide hours of fun. If you're not hooked yet, this may just be the thing that drives you over the edge into obsession.

The price tag is $5.99, with a one-hour free trial.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 9: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ChristmascommercialdracosoftOS XOsXSudokutimewasters Jay Savage Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 9: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/14/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-9-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/14/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-9-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/14/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-9-windows/#comments Desktop Christmas Tree screencapToday's Windows download is Desktop Christmas Tree from Drive Software. It's exactly what it sounds like: a little Christmas Tree that sits in a floating window. Now all you PC users who've been feeling left out since I posted the OS X Christmas Trees can get in on the fun. Or at least most of it: DCT isn't configurable like its Mac brethren. But it's cute and Christmasy, so who's counting?

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 9: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of hiliday downloads12DaysOfHilidayDownloadsChristmasDesktop Christmas TreeDesktopChristmasTreeDrive softwareDriveSoftwarefreeware Jay Savage Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 8: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/13/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-8-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/13/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-8-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/13/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-8-windows/#comments Christmas Tale screencapToday's bit of Windows Christmas time-wasting is Christmas Tale from Alive Games. The objective here is to solve a bunch of puzzles that involve stacking gift boxes and blocks of ice to allow Santa to get to the tree. The trial comes with a handful of puzzles. If you get addicted, there's a full version with 20 or so levels.

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 8: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloadsAlive GamesChrisstmas TaleChristmascommercialtimewasters Jay Savage Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 8: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/12/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-8-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/12/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-8-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/12/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-8-mac/#comments bocken screencapToday's holiday download is bocken, a widget from hockeywidgets that shows the live webcam feed from the Gävlebocken, a giant straw Christmas goat erected each year in the Swedish town of Gävle. As christmas traditions go, this one is so much cooler than a guy in a Santa suit sitting in a mall food court that I don't even have words for it.

As cool as a live feed of a straw goat is on its own, the widget is also a bit of internet public service. Apparently, Gävlebocken are quite frequently victims of arson; only about half of them have made it to Christmas without being burned. This year's goat has already out-lived last year's by a week. So if you happen to see someone trying to burn the goat, take a screencap, please, and email it to the Gävle PD.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 8: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsGävleGävlebockenmacmacintosh Jay Savage Tue, 12 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of of holiday downloads, Day 7: Windows (+Mac, Linux, & BSD)]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/11/12-days-of-of-holiday-downloads-day-7-windows-mac-linux-and/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/11/12-days-of-of-holiday-downloads-day-7-windows-mac-linux-and/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/11/12-days-of-of-holiday-downloads-day-7-windows-mac-linux-and/#comments Pinch Ol' Santa screencapToday's download for Windows is Pinch ol' Santa 2 from SwordLord. As an added bonus, the most recent version also runs on OS X and many flavors of Linux and BSD. the premise is pretty simple. Santa is running across the rooftops jumping down chimneys and delivering presents. If you pinch him, he'll jump up in surprise and drop a present that you can pick up and keep for yourself. Not the most sophisticated game in the world, but a great little time-waster that doesn't require much commitment.

Something to keep in mind: you move your pinching hand with the mouse/trackpad, so if you want to catch Santa, You may want to bump up your mouse tracking speed before you start.

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6

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12 Days of of holiday downloads, Day 7: Windows (+Mac, Linux, & BSD) originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downlaodsChristmasMacPinch Ol' SantaPinchOl'SantaSwordLord Jay Savage Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 7: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/11/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-7-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/11/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-7-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/11/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-7-mac/#comments MacLampsX screencapIf you checked out our Day 2 download, X-MasTree, you may have already found your way to today's download; it's on John Schilling's recommended reading list. If you didn't check out X-MasTree or didn't poke around some of John's links on the X-Mas-Tree page, then you missed out on another great holiday lightshow: The Arctic Mac's MacLampsX. MacLampsX adds a string of configurable christmas lights to the border of your Mac's screen. The default is old-fashioned christmas bulbs, but you can also choose regular mini bulbs, the round lights you can see in my screencap, or snowflake lights, plus a some holly. Through in the christmas tree of your choice and maybe some snow, and your Mac's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 7: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downlaodsChristmasfreewareMacMacLampsXThe Arctic Mac Jay Savage Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 6: Mac & Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/08/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-6-mac-and-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/08/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-6-mac-and-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/08/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-6-mac-and-windows/#comments Super Frog screencapIn the spirit of holiday peace, we have a combined post for midpoint of our 12 days of downloads. Today's features are two free cross platform games from Koingo Software. Pictured above is Super Frog, a holiday riff on and all-time favorite: Frogger. The object is to get the little green guy across the road without getting run down by cars. Once you get across, you have to make your way though the maze, dodging deadly stockings, candy canes, and trees, and get to the wrapped gift. There are three speeds of game play, and no directions (hint: hit shift to resurrect, at least on the Mac), so it's a fun little time-waster.

Below is Christmas Crisis, where you get to play Santa. You control Santa's sleigh as it flies over the city, trying to drop presents down chimneys. the goal is to hit 70% of the houses in each level, which sounds easier than it is.
Christmas Crisis screencap

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 6: Mac & Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloadsChristmasChristmas CrisisfreewareKoingo SoftwareKoingoSoftwareSuperForgtimewasters Jay Savage Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 5: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/07/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-5-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/07/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-5-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/07/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-5-mac/#comments Today's dose of downloadable Mac geekery is a double dose: a Dashboard widget from Blue Lemon software that counts down the seconds until this year's Dr. Who Christmas episode ("The Runaway Bride," for those of you keeping score) airs on the BBC. Because nothing says Christmas to me like a countdown to an invasion of Robot Santas.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 5: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloadsAppleBlue LemonBlueLemonChristmasDoctor WhoDr. WhoDr.WhofreewareMac Jay Savage Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 5: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/07/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-5-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/07/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-5-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/07/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-5-windows/#comments Drunken Clock screencapToday's Windows holiday download is Cool-Screensavers' Drunken Clock screensaver. That may not sound very Christmas-like, but the default skin features a winter scene with a wobbling clock made from icicles. The app lives up to its name, and staring at it for any lenghth of time will give you that feeling of having put too much rum in your eggnog. And really, isn't rum-laced eggnog what the holidays are really all about?

The nagware version is free, full version is $14.99. There is also a 3D version which features a skin with a Christmas Tree, but it requires in OpenGL graphics card.

Previous 12 days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 5: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsChristmascommercialcool-screensaversDrunken clockDrunkenClock Jay Savage Thu, 07 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 4: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/06/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-4-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/06/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-4-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/06/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-4-windows/#comments Revenge of the Yolk Yolkstar screencapToday's bit of tasty Christmas goodness: InterAction Studios Chicken Invaders 3: Revenge of the Yolk (Christmas Edition). If you've never played Chicken invaders, think Galaga, but with chickens. The goal of this installment is to fly across the galaxy and save Earth from the chickens' evil weapon of mass destruction, the Yolkstar (pictured above).

IA puts out a slick product and CI3 is no exception. They also put out some of the worst puns in the galaxy. If the chickens don't get you, the humor may. Which is, of course, why it made my Christmas list.

The trial version may be enough for some, but the full version is worth the ~$30US (€22.50) if this is your kind of twisted.

Previous 12 days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 4: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloadsChicken InvadersChickenInvaderschristmascommercial Jay Savage Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 4: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/06/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-4-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/06/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-4-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/06/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-4-mac/#comments Christmas countdown Today's download is a countdown, um, tree called, amazingly enough, Christmas Countdown. Not much to say here, but at least you'll know how many days you have left to do that shopping. Or how many days you have before the holiday, if you get one. You'd be surprised how many people have been saved from strangling their bosses by just telling themselves "10 more days; i can keep my temper for 10 more days..." This little widget is here to help.

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 4: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> christmascountdowndashboardfreefreewareholidaymacos xOsXwidget Jay Savage Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 3: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/05/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-3-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/05/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-3-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/05/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-3-windows/#comments Christmas Bound screencapToday's featured Windows holiday download: Christmas Bound from Blueskied Software. In this game, you play a tennis ball (yeah, I know, but physics games are in, right?) sent out by Santa to recaputre toys that have been stolen by nasty bugs. You bounce your way through levels trying to recapture presents without touching deadly skulls in what can best be described as a cross between Super Mario Brothers, Asteroids, and Pong. That may not sound promising, but Christmas bound strikes just the right note of nostalgia, cheese, and the surprising difficulty of controlling a tennis ball with the arrow and shift keys.

Previous 12 days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2,

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 3: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 Days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsblueskiedChristmasChristmas boundfreewaretimewasters Jay Savage Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 3: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/05/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-3-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/05/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-3-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/05/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-3-mac/#comments Festive Lights Widget screencapTodays Mac holiday download is Festive Lights, a Dashboard widget from Interdimension Media. The widget does just about exactly what it's name implies: strings lights around your dashboard to brighten things up. The lights can be colored white, with a choice of blinking patterns. And yes, that's an X-MasTree in the background.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 3: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsChristmasFestive LightsFestiveLightsfreewareInterdimension mediaMac Jay Savage Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 2: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/04/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-2-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/04/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-2-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/04/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-2-windows/#comments Crispy Christmas scrennsaverToday, I present you with: the Crispy Christmas screensaver. I have no idea what's crispy about Christmas, but with a name like that, I just had to pass it along. Actually, there's a lot about this screensaver that I just don't get, like the kangaroos jumping out of the piper's horn and the thing that looks suspiciously like a d20 that flies around periodically. That's ok by me, though. It may be twisted, but it's my kind of twisted. I thought Santa jumping his sleigh over the "In Excelsis" scroll was a particularly nice touch.

Mac users feel left out? Don't. It seems has though FlashFast, the people behind the fun bit of insanity, have started putting out Mac content, too. the download bundle includes on OS X screensaver module, too. Free 7 day trial; $10 to keep it if you want.

Previous 12 days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 2: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsChristmascommercialCrispy ChristmasCrispyChristmasFlashFastscreensavertimewasters Jay Savage Mon, 04 Dec 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 2: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/04/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-2-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/04/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-2-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/04/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-2-mac/#comments X-MasTreeToday's Mac Christmas download is two-for-one. The first is John Schilling's wonderful X-MasTree, a Christmas tree that sits in floats on your desktop or sits in your dock. It can be several sizes and the lights, garland, star and even tree color have a number of options. And if that isn't enough, John has information up on how to add custom ornaments. The real draw here, though, is the lights, which are extremely well done and can fade gently in and out, or blink and flash in that gaudy way only Christmas lights can.

Since X-MasTree began life as a tribute to the grandaddy (or is that grandma?) of all Mac Christmas trees, YourHead software's Christi's Tree, I think it's only fair to talk about them together, especially since John's X-MasTree page is the current repository for Christi's tree, too. Christi's Tree isn't as big on the lights as X-MasTree, but it's still shiny and comes with a classic Mac look and configurable garland.

Both programs can be configured as Christmas count-down clocks, just in case you've forgotten how long it is until the big day.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 2: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsChristi's TreeChristmasMacOS XX-MasTree Jay Savage Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 1: Windows]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/01/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-1-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/01/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-1-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/01/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-1-windows/#comments 3DPlanesoft christmas screensaverWell, the Mac users got their first dose of Christmas today and we wouldn't want the rest of you to feel left out, so here it is: your first Windows screensaver of the season. 3Planesoft's Christmas saver features a 3D snowman getting ready for the big day, complete with tree-trimming, confetti crackers, and steel drum carols on the old phonograph. Free to try, $10.95 to own.

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 1: Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloads3DPlanesoftChristmasscreensaversharewaretimewasters Jay Savage Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 1: Mac]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/01/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-1-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/01/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-1-mac/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/01/12-days-of-holiday-downloads-day-1-mac/#comments SnöOkay, so the 12 Days of Christmas don't technically start until after Chirstmas, but that wouldn't give you much time to enjoy your yearly dose of on-screen holiday cheer, now would it? So in order to get everyone in the spirit, we present a series of downloads that serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever, other than brightening up that dreary desktop.

First up is one of my all-time favorites: Infinity to the Power of Infinity's Snö. Snö is a OS X application and screensaver that makes a gentle snow fall over your desktop, bringing a little life to your otherwise static background. If you're really adventurous, you can even set it to run in a floating window. That's festive, but tends to make work nearly impossible. there's an included screensaver, too, but since ittpoi seems to have dropped of the face of the earth recently, it hasn't been updated for 10.4 (come to think of it, I'm not sure it was updated for 10.3). But hey, it's the "oldie" component that makes and "oldie but goody," right?

If you have some spare time, Snö is open source. So feel free to track down that Tiger bug in the screensaver and recompile it. Just let me know if you do.

Snö Screencap

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12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 1: Mac originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 12 days of holiday downloads12DaysOfHolidayDownloadsChristmasMacOS XOsXscreensaverSnöSnow Jay Savage Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Palm unveils Treo 680 site ontreo.com]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/11/30/palm-unveils-treo-680-site-ontreo-com/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/11/30/palm-unveils-treo-680-site-ontreo-com/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/11/30/palm-unveils-treo-680-site-ontreo-com/#comments Treo 680 TiVo screenDespite ads floating around inviting shoppers to the url, www.ontreo.com--Palm's site for the new Treo 680 released last week--had remained dormant until today. And it probably should have stayed that way. Engadget says the phone itself has a "whiff of 2004" about it, and that goes triple for the obnoxious flash-based bit of yesteryear that Palm has whipped up to support the phone. Aside from being blinding and difficult to navigate, it's one of those "hey, look at our cool site!" sites that tells you absolutely nothing about the product. Assuming you can find the information links (I'm not telling; you'll have to figure it out for yourselves), each of the phone's features is given exactly one paragraph of description before the detail links whisk you off, without so much as a how-do-you-do, to Palm's main site. Actually I'm okay with that. It's where they should have sent everyone in the first place.

There is one interesting tidbit buried in the site, though: apparently the the 680, like it's big brother the 700, will support TiVoToGo. That makes it almost worth the $199 pricetag right there.

You can read a paragraph about that, too, if you make it through the blinding orange and emoticon-headed masses with eyesight and sanity intact.

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Palm unveils Treo 680 site ontreo.com originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Nov 2006 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 680newsPalmsmartphoneTreoTreo 680Treo680www.ontreo.com Jay Savage Thu, 30 Nov 2006 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[SoftMaker Office FreeBSD & Linux on the way]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/11/27/softmaker-office-freebsd-and-linux-on-the-way/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/11/27/softmaker-office-freebsd-and-linux-on-the-way/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/11/27/softmaker-office-freebsd-and-linux-on-the-way/#comments SoftMaker Office 2006 for Linux & FreeBSDOver the long weekend (our long weekend, anyway) SoftMaker announced new public betas of their SoftMaker Office suite for FreeBSD and Linux. SM Office includes TextMaker, a drop-in Word replacement, and PlanMaker, A spreadsheet that does everything Excel does, only faster. If you're running something compatible, swing by the site and download a copy. I haven't played around with this latest beta too much yet, but in general, SoftMaker Office as been a stable, convenient, and most importantly lean program that runs well on older hardware, whether you're using the Windows, Linux, BSD, or PocketPC versions.

The docs are a little vague, but I assume it should run on any of the mainstream Linux distros on x86, although only SuSE is mentioned specifically. FreeBSD is presumably x86-only, as well.

SoftMaker Office FreeBSD & Linux on the way originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Jay Savage Mon, 27 Nov 2006 14:30:00 EST Download Squad