DygiScape

RealPlayer Labeled ‘Badware,’ Real Networks Disputes Report

RealPlayer has been labeled as Badware [link via Techmeme], and consumer online safety group, StopBadware, advises users to uninstall RealPlayer. I’ve always disliked the way RealPlayer would sit in my systray and frequently pop-up informing of a product upgrade — when I never explicitly authorized it.

I suppose it was the registration paths mazes that it would send users through hoping they’d pay for some “gold” pass that irked me. I just didn’t see the need to pay for a media player that I used so infrequently, while I can get the same (probably better) content on other players like iTunes, Winamp and VLCPlayer.

The report issued by StopBadware.org has a full analysis on why RealPlayer earned their stripes.

I’ve posted details on how to uninstall RealPlayer in response to this.

Tags: internet, Safety, Software, Tech News

Enterprise Software & Bloggers

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of enterprise software? Probably user-friendly isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Robert Scoble ignited the discussion on why bloggers generally don’t write about enterprise software.

I should preface this entry with the fact that I haven’t had a lot of hands-on experience with enterprise software from popular vendors Oracle, Sybase or other applications that falls under this umbrella. Despite this, I have used SAP and other enterprise applications so I have some insight into them.

Typically, enterprise software attempts to solve problems across an organization (hence, enterprise), but also allows flexibility to adapt to the specific needs in the organization like “Accounts Payable.”

From my experience, enterprise software sucks (for end-users). The goal of enterprise software is to address the needs of the enterprise — not the end-user. This is understandable, otherwise why would the organization purchase it?

Scoble’s reasoning on why enterprise software isn’t sexy, is that it was only deployed at the request of the a minority in the organization, not the people who are mandated to use it:

[Regarding SAP] … But I didn’t have any say in that matter. Some CIO somewhere else made that decision and forced us all to use SAP. That doesn’t exactly make us warm and fuzzy about the computer sitting in front of us on the desk.

I understand where he’s coming from, but I find this point flawed. Just because the employee wasn’t a decision maker in the usage of enterprise software, doesn’t automatically make it unattractive. I’d think that the employees don’t mind doing the tasks asked of them; rather, I think the frustration is in the software itself. However, since bloggers thrive on their audience who constantly make choices, I totally agree with Scoble’s statement that “consumer software” unquestionably pays the bills for bloggers.

I think in many cases enterprise software is underrated. The purpose of the software is to be functional for the company, not to be friendly for end-users. On the contrary, I feel the end-user experience (the employee) is generally undervalued in the software industry.

What’s the solution?

We all use computers differently. I think that enterprise software manufacturers should offer open flexible APIs so that a user-friendly front-end could be developed for it. Essentially, as long as you have authentication, replication and programmed access rights/rules for the data, then everyone wins. Using enterprise software shouldn’t be a hassle. Front-ends can still be sold to clients, while allowing them to develop them in-house if they wanted. The only challenge is getting enterprise software vendors to agree on an open format.

There you have it with my sentiments about enterprise software. Perhaps you disagree, share your thoughts in the comments below.

Tags: Blogging, business, discussion, Software, technology, Usability

Linux Conversion, Complete.

This weekend, I committed myself to fully converting to Linux and to quit Windows. I took a look at my usual computer usage and what applications I really used and made certain I had a reasonable alternative.

I would admittedly rate myself as 4/10 on a scale from Linux Neophyte to 1337 Hax0r. I can navigate the file system, recover things, compile things, and understand the fundamentals of Linux. So, this was a daring challenge when I wanted to switch over.

Never fear, Wine is here. No, put down the Chardonnay, I’m talking about Windows Emulator “Wine is Not an Emulator” (WINE). I discovered that it isn’t just for installing some silly freeware Windows junk. You can literally take your software with you, if you have some time to get into it.

I was able to successfully run AOL 5.0 <g>, Microsoft Office 2003 and uTorrent. Amazingly, they all had compelling performance compared to their native counterparts. I was able to download a torrent at 95% of my connection speed, so it stayed. Office works like a charm, including all necessary fonts and glitz and glam. AOL actually works well* and renders FDO as its supposed to, but the browser doesn’t work because Wine lacks IE. Overall, I am quite satisfied.

* This statement is intended that running a Windows app is certainly a challenge, let alone something as proprietary as AOL.

I’ve configured my Thunderbird, Firefox, Pidgin, and Skype with all their bells and whistles and am a happy computer user. So let me break down what the comparable applications are:

AIM/AOL/Yahoo/MSN/Gtalk/mIRC/IM: Pidgin
Office: Open Office, MS Office under Wine, Abiword
Winamp/iTunes/Music: XMMS, Amarok, Rhythmbox
Skype/VoIP: Skype, TeamSpeak
Command Prompt: Bash
Task Manager: ps aux, top, System Monitor (Gnome)
Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro/Graphics: Gimp, Photoshop under Wine
McAfee/Norton/AVG/Anti-virus Software: None! It’s Linux!
Dreamweaver/Notepad/Text Editor: Bluefish, Screem, Gedit (Gnome), vi
Windows/Operating Systems: Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, SuSE, Mandriva, and many others.

There you have it. No excuses. If you’re on the fence, you’ll enjoy the multitasking ability of Linux, no freezes or crashes and the impressive uptime.

I’ve included a screenshot for the curious. Enjoy!

Update 11/28: From the comments below, WINE probably means “Wine Is Not an Emulator,” instead of my own interpretation “WINdows Emulator.” Thanks, Ed!

Update 12/4: I went into further detail on the recursive acronym in the comments below, as well as struck out my typo. Thanks!

Tags: Gutsy, Linux, Microsoft Word 2003, Migration, Pidgin, Skype, Software, Ubuntu, uTorrent, Windows, Wine

Leveraging Piracy for Viral Marketing

If it weren’t for IRC, FTPs and our favorite — KaZaA, would we know about how great Adobe Photoshop is? The $700 professional photo-editing application was (and is) widely available on piracy networks. Same for the beta copies of Windows Vista and formerly XP. What if software companies embraced early adopters instead of fighting them?

I know I used Photoshop when I was younger, and I assure you I couldn’t afford it at the time. Since I became “hooked” on the Adobe and Macromedia series of software applications, I used it all the time and recommend it to friends and family. In turn, my momentary loss of a sale turned into prospects and sales simply because I used the software.

What if a software company released their software to the seeders on a pirate network? No cracks or keygens needed, just a private release for that network. For example, a special copy of that favorite graphics program just for The Pirate Bay. Allow the folks to spread it, use it will in turn recommend it. This can potentially spread the buzz about that product by enabling the influencers to use it, without them paying a dime.

The business folk might ask how to monetize it. This can be a tough choice, but you can limit certain features of the software and prompt them to upgrade to a full license. This can lead to potential sales as people require more heavy duty uses of the program. Another option is embedding an optional advertisement window into the software. Nothing intrusive or would upset a user, but something balance the “free” user out so you can churn some dough.

This might not be feasible for large software corporations like Microsoft or Adobe, but perhaps the lower-tiered ones have a chance to get their software out there, in front of the people to spread the word. I know that I’d try a program that was meant to be free versus one that isn’t.

A very timely blog entry from CrunchGear explains the history and the aspects of piracy in simple terms. Is this something that the “elite” lost their domination of? Are simple users (aka, n00bs) getting into it? This is probably the biggest fear the RIAA and MPAA have is when the average person is ripping, seeding, and burning seamlessly. Oh, wait — that was years ago.

That said, I discourage software piracy, but I do support companies embracing their “threats” and finding innovative solutions for them. This can happen with software, music, games or even movies. Just think if that hot new movie you downloaded was sponsored by Verizon?

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

[tags]warez, software, appz, gamez, movies, solutions, business, piracy, consumers[/tags]

Tags: music, P2P, PR, Software, Torrent, videos

5 Firefox Extensions I Can’t Live Without

Firefox is an awesome Web browser that supports third-party extensions. These add-ons add even more power and control to the popular browser. I use the Internet more than 8 hours daily, so I’ve tried and kept many extensions, and I’ll share my insight on them, here.

What are extensions? … Add-ons?
Extensions are enhancements for Firefox, serving a purpose of adding on features that aren’t natively available in the current Firefox release. For the sake of user-friendliness, Mozilla grouped the category of “extensions” and “themes” into Add-ons. Simply put, extensions add features and themes change the interface (colors, buttons, etc…)

I use the Internet a lot. Trust me, with a full time job that primarily exists online and a geeky life I need to support … I can say I’m probably using Firefox more than 8 hours daily. That said, I maximize my productivity with Firefox extensions and without them, I’d be pretty darn upset.

Extensions I Can’t Live Without:

1. Adblock Plus — With this extensions, I can speed up Web browsing by filtering out ads. This increases speed by about 25% when browsing. Adblock Plus instructs Firefox not to render any addresses that are in it’s blocklist, and works wonders when blocking ads. An extension that self-updates, lets me add custom strings, and even shows stats, is a keeper for me and many other users!
2. Fasterfox — This speeds up Web surfing by tweaking the internals of how Firefox retrieves web pages. It’s pretty straightforward. I also like to see how long a Web site took to load. Fasterfox also functions as a stopwatch to view the length of time to load a site. Powerful little tool for Webmasters, and helps speed things along for all users alike.
3. Forecastfox Enhanced — This extension delivers Weather alerts and forecast, all from Accuweather.com. This version is “enhanced,” adding a higher resolution RADAR picture for your area. I love it. It updates automatically and conveniently alerts you, but doesn’t bother you that a storm is coming. All you need to do is enter your ZIP code, and you’re done. No spyware, no BS. When you’re done, go ahead and uninstall Weatherbug.
4. Del.icio.us Bookmarks — The popular bookmarking service has their Firefox extension to help you synchronize bookmarks. It lets me tag sites right from my navigation bar, in seconds. I use this to access my bookmarks from anywhere, cross browser/OS. With tagging, it’s even easier to organize my bookmarks.
5. Colorful Tabs – If you’ve used tabbed browsing, you can understand how challenging it is to keep ‘tabs’ on your favorite Web sites. This extension colors the tabs so you can easily identify tabs by color. It know it sounds silly, but it’s awesome. I have about 5 tabs open any given time, so this definitely helps!

Bonus: When I’m performing Web development or SEO work, these extensions are invaluable for working with Web development and analyzing existing Web sites: Web Developer for viewing and changing pages on-the-fly and SearchStatus for performing SEO functions and viewing Google PageRank and Alexa Rank. Ideally, this isn’t for the masses, but is very useful for Web developers.

That’s the best of the best extensions that I use. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of useful extensions available for Mozilla products such as Firefox and Thunderbird. It all depends on how you use the Internet and what you want to accomplish. You can check out the Mozilla Add-ons site and see what suits you best.

Do you have a favorite extensions? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Tags: firefox, internet, mozilla, Software