Keeping notes, todo lists, or just anything you are writing synchronized between computers can be a hassle. Some solutions, like using DropBox, require you to install software on computers that you regularly use. If your needs aren't that heavy, but you'd like a free way to keep your text available wherever you are, check out SimpleText.ws.

SimpleText.ws is an open-source, very light text editing environment that allows you to create and manage documents in a web service, and access them anywhere. It uses Google for authentication, so if you already have a Google account, signing in is as simple as clicking the Sign In link.

The fact that SimpleText.ws is open source means that if you're not comfortable hosting your text on someone else's server, you can grab the server code and host it yourself.

There is also a public API available for SimpleText.ws, which means that developers can write applications that synchronize with it. Currently there is only one, but it's a good one: Hog Bay Software's WriteRoom for iPhone.

How do you keep your text files available no matter what computer you're working on?

Skype has been providing cheap and free VoIP, chat, and video conferencing features for Windows, Mac, and Linux for years. But just because a program works on Linux doesn't mean it's open source, and the Linux client for Skype has been just as closed a platform as the Mac and Windows versions. That's not to say that developers haven't been able to build third party add-ons and tweaks for Skype. But the source code hasn't been available, which limits the ability of the open source community to really contribute to Skype for Linux.

But it looks like that's going to change. This weekend Olivier Faurax contact Skype customer support about the availability of an RPM package for installing Skype on Mandriva Linux, and he received a reply that indicated that the Linux client for Skype would be made open source in the near future.

I was a bit skeptical, since customer service folks don't always know what's going on in the minds of management, so I sent a request for more information to Skype's corporate communications office, and it turns out that yes, Skype does plan to make its Linux client open source in the future.

It's not entirely clear when the shift will take place. But it should make it much easier for third party Linux developers to ensure that there are up to date packages for Skype for a variety of popular Linux distributions including Mandriva, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Fedora, and others. It also means that we could start seeing third party applications built around Skype code or more powerful third party plugins for Skype that enhance the application's functionality.

You can read the official statement from Skype after the break.

If there's one thing better than a handy, free application it's a handy, free application that runs on everyone's computer. Looking for a cross-platform download manager? Take a look at Multiget.

Once installed, Multiget monitors your clipboard for download links -- or you can start putting the app to use via its floating drop box. Find something you want to download in your favorite browser, then click and drag a link onto the box to initiate the transfer. Downloads can also be started via Multiget's task menu.

Multiget supports multiple simultaneous threads per download, FTP and HTTP resuming (as long as the server supports it), and it works through proxies.

The developer provides binaries for Linux and Windows - as well as the source code, of course. Those of you running a Linux distro with apt-get can likely do a simple sudo apt-get install multiget. Mac and BSD users have to jump through the additional hoop of compiling from source, but Multiget will work for you, too!

Just as with Launchy or Gnome Do, there's not a heck of a lot to see in a screenshot of Blaze's main window. The orange-ish command box really only gives a glimpse as to what's possible with Blaze, however.

For starters, it's smart enough to find what you're looking for even if you should happen to stumble over your keys a bit (e.g. the butchered Photoshop entry above). Lurking behind the scenes is a powerful automation handling system and plugin support (skin support is coming soon).

The automator watches silently in the background, waiting to observe you performing repetitive tasks. When it spots something, Blaze will alert you and offer to create an action to handle the task next time. On the project page, the author demonstrates this functionality by renaming a directory full of photos. Blaze can also record macros -- so you can just press record, start doing what you need to do, and presto! You've got a new action.

Blaze ships with .dll plugins to provide several handy functions, like creating emails, performing calculations, index the ID3 tags of your MP3s, and more.

I can see myself enjoying Blaze on my netbook even without all the advanced functions. Since my typing isn't quite as accurate on the scaled-down keys, it's nice to know that Blaze will still be able to launch apps even if I hit a few wrong keys here or there.

edit: forgot to mention, .NET 3.5 is required - sorry, running Windows 7 you sometimes forget that it's still an additional download for some!

[via MakeUseOf]

Before I get started, yes, I do realize that this is not Engadget. However, TonidoPlug is a bit of a different situation for us. It's an excellent example of a software product making the jump to hardware -- and doing it well.

In case you missed the earlier posts, I took a look at the Tonido beta a while back. Anyone who is leery about offering up confidential documents and media files to the Cloud Gods, Tonido is for you. If you can read and follow directions and spare some of your valuable time to configure the suite, it's a simple, secure, and effective way to rock a cloud setup without giving up control and complete privacy.

Here's a quick recap of what Tonido provides:

• File sharing
• Photo gallery
• MP3 streaming with playlist support
• Thots, a simple blogging platform
• A collaborative workspace with calendar and task management

As for the plug itself, it utilizes Marvell's Sheevaplug base running the 1.2Ghz Foreceon processor with 512Mb of DDR2 memory and 512Mb of flash storage onboard. Ubuntu 9.04 provides the embedded software muscle and leaves plenty of room for expansion.

After a second (or is it third?) round of possible Chrome OS images captured by the ever-popular A. Nonymous Tipster on his trusty-but-low-res digital camera, speculation around Google's ethereal OS is bound to keep heating up.

I located a reference to Chrome OS in the Chromium source code's switches file yesterday, and today I was intrigued to find not just a few lines in a file but an entire directory.

Nestled in the 204 branch is a chromeos folder which only contains a couple of files at this point. They do provide a couple interesting insights, however:

• The status bar contains a clock, an application menu, and a non-working battery indicator.
• Some information about the single sign-on cookie: "To support single-sign-on for Chrome OS, we need a way to inject cookies into Chrome. In the case of session cookies, putting them into Chrome's cookie jar DB doesn't work. This CL adds a command line flag that tells chrome the name of a Unix pipe to open, from which it can read said cookies."

The drama around URL shorteners doesn't appear to be ending any time soon. Here's a quick recap, for those who haven't been following:

• Tr.im, the fourth most popular URL shortening service, shut down because of the insurmountable advantage its competitor, Bit.ly, gets as a result of being the default URL shrinker on Twitter.
• A couple of days later, Tr.im was back, still angry about the perceived Bit.ly monopoly, but ready to continue operations or sell to someone who would.
• According to Tr.im, Bit.ly offered Tr.im $10,000 for its domain name and all of its links. Tr.im said no to this and other reported offers.
• Meanwhile, Bit.ly joined a coalition of similar services, called 301works, to create an archive of shortlinks, in case a shutdown like Tr.im's should happen again in the future.

That brings us up to today, and Tr.im's announcement that it's going to be community-owned. By positioning Tr.im as the people's URL shortener, the site's operator, Eric Woodward, hopes to achieve a large enough market share that Tr.im's collection of links can be a meaningful (and open source) data set for analysts. Tr.im has split off from parent company Nambu, and Woodward has agreed to personally cover any shortfall in Tr.im's operating costs.

In his blog post announcing the community-owned model, Woodward criticizes the 301works group as a Bit.ly publicity stunt that will be ineffective in solving the dead link problem. He's quite clear that Tr.im will not be joining 301works, and that community ownership is a better way to preserve links in the future.

YAPM is free, requires no installation, and open source to boot. I won't go so far as to call it completely portable (the .Net 2.0 framework is required), but I'm all for applications that don't make me click through a setup.

Open Atrium is a new open-source "team portal" that looks like it's going to be running a lot of intranets in the near future. It comes with six basic features: a blog, a wiki, a calendar, a to do list, a shoutbox, and a dashboard. You can also create smaller groups within your team, and they'll each have members-only versions of those features. That's pretty useful, but where Atrium separates itself from the pack of other offerings out there is in the ability to build your own features.

It looks like the folks behind Open Atrium are pushing to create a feature-developer community, where people can build and share features for everyone to take advantage of. If you've always felt like every collaboration option out there was missing one feature or another, Atrium might be able to scratch that itch. My favorite basic feature is the iGoogle-like dashboard, which looks like the glue that holds all the other parts together. On the technical side of things, the core of Atrium is Drupal, and also uses PHP, Apache and MySQL.

Here at Download Squad, we're always excited to report on the latest browsers. In recent months, we've seen some impressive updates to Firefox, Safari and Opera, and the debut of Chrome. Those are all great, but do any of them run on Mac OS 9? Classilla, a Mozilla variant, brings the hottest new browser technology to an unsupported (but fondly remembered) old OS.

Classilla comes from the recognition that old PowerMacs could still have some life in them if they had a browser that supported current web technologies. Instead of Mozilla's current Gecko rendering engine, Classilla uses Clecko, an engine that forked off from Gecko when Mozilla stopped developing for the Mac OS 9/Classic environment. Although you won't be able to view every webpage in Classilla, it's an open source project that aims to continue updating for better security and standards-compliance.


[via Slashdot]

Open-source software is everywhere, and developers use it to speed up their development on a regular basis. This is as it should be, for the most part, assuming the developers follow the licensing for whatever open-source software (OSS) they use. Along with licensing, the open-source community is, probably rightly so, very focused on attributing credit correctly. Considering that most OSS developers do not make any money for their contributions, credit and reputation are really the only compensation they can expect.

Imagine the horror in the OSS community then, when a mini-TEDTalk was released today that had presenter Chris Hughes showing off augmented-reality software that is built on very powerful open-source toolkits, but fails to attribute any credit to them, or even mention their existence.

Ralph Hauwert certainly took issue, and wrote a scathing blog post describing the offense. To TED's credit, they have updated the page for today's video, acknowledging the furor and offering an explanation. According to the update, Chris hadn't been intending on presenting at TED, but after privately showing his project to a number of people, he was invited to do a short 2 minute presentation. Due to the extremely short format, there was apparently no time for attribution of credit for the software frameworks his software was based on.

This is a cautionary tale. Clearly someone made a mistake, and Hughes' reputation may end up bearing the brunt of the error. It's important to remember that in the software business there are always two currencies at play: the typical financial currency that we usually think of (you know, money), and credit for the work that was done. Although there is a lot of open-source software that is licensed to be free to use, that fact amplifies the focus on correctly attributing credit for the work that went into the software.

My guess is this is a lesson Chris Hughes isn't likely to forget again.

Regardless of what operating system you run on your computer, it doesn't have to be all work and no play. Heck, that could turn you into some kind of axe-wielding homicidal maniac bent on destroying your own family while watching over a remote resort hotel in the dead of winter.

I'd certainly never want that to happen to any of our DownloadSquad readers, so here's a list of games that you can install on Windows, Mac, and Linux (and some even on BeOS and BSD). Enjoy!

...And, as usual, if there's a particularly killer cross-platform game that I didn't include, feel free to post it in the comments -- and tell us why you love it!


Battle for Wesnoth - One of the best known open source games around, Wesnoth is an excellent fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game. There's plenty here to keep you busy - multiple campaigns and large maps, and online multiplayer for when you grow weary of playing on your own.

Battle Tanks - It's got colorful, cartoonish graphics, massive explosions, tanks....And best of all, it's got multiplayer. What could be more fun than blowing up your friends while causing immeasurable damage to an unsuspecting city?

Cube2: Sauerbraten - Another excellent open source FPS. One of the coolest things about it is that you can build and edit levels while you're in the game. There's also Quadropolis, a massive repository of goodies for the Cube engine including maps, scripts, and mods.

Eat the Whistle - If you're into uber-realist sports games, go ahead and scroll right past this one. If, however, you enjoy a little bit of humor and some old-school visuals, Eat the Whistle is a must-have download. Features sim, career, and arcade (complete with power-ups) modes.

FreeCiv - Another cornerstone of open source gaming. Inspired by Sid Meier's classic series, FreeCiv challenges you to develop your civilization from primitive roots into a thriving, modern society. Multiplayer mode support up to 30 (yes, 30) players. With more than 100 playable nations and 29 translations, FreeCiv is a truly international Time Waster.

FreeDroid - A modern take on the C64 classic Paradroid. It's a rich, futuristic RPG with plenty of robot butt kicking. In addition to dozens of different weapons, there's also a wide range of magic attacks, and you can even take control of your enemies and use them against each other.

Frets on Fire - If you've been looking for an excuse to rock out with your keyboard, go download Frets on Fire now. Tell your office mates your learning to play like Vadim Pruzhanov. Sure, he plays a different kind of keyboard, but it's still badass.

Glest - This fantasy themed RTS pits the opposing factions of magic and technology against each other. Do battle with mages, dragons, archers, horsemen, ornithopters, and more. If you grow weary of Glest itself, there are plenty of mods you can download to breath new life into the game.

Globulation 2 - A slick RTS that lets you focus on the "S" by intelligently handling part of the nettlesome micro-management this type of game usually requires. The game's built-in tutorial will help you learn how to build a powerful creature civilization that will be the envy of...er...other creatures.

Grid Wars 2 - There are times when playing this game makes you feel like you're trying to take on Asteroids, Tempest, and Gyruss all at once. If you like space shooters, bright, stunning visual,s and frantic gameplay, Grid Wars 2 will keep you riveted.

Hedgewars / Wormux - Two different takes on the turn-based goodness inspired by Worms. Both games feature awesome, cartoony graphics and fun gameplay, though I'm partial to Wormux (it may have something to do with the Gnu cannon).

LinCity - This popular open source city simulation hit version 2.0 this year, and it's looking better than ever. Manage your resources, keep people happy, and watch your creation grow into a booming metropolis - or cram everyone into spaceships and get the heck out of dodge - either way, you win!

Neverball - If Marble Madness was cool, Neverball is absolute zero. Use your mouse to tilt the playing surface and manouver the ball to collect coins and reach the goal marker. The download also includes Neverputt, which is exactly what you think it is - a tilt-and-roll miniature golf game.

Phun - Two-dimensional physics sandbox tomfoolery! Create all kinds of crazy arrangements then turn Phun loose and see what happens. Objects can be made out of different materials, and they react in different ways. See how gravity, friction, and wind affect things. If only grade 12 physics had been this much fun...

Scourge - Scourge bills their project as a "graphical Rogue-like game." If that's true, think of Rogue as the plate and Scourge as a multi-layer, fancily decorated cake piled atop it. It's packed with open source Dungeons and Dragons style action. The project has some ambitious goals and is looking for contributors - if you enjoy playing it and can offer your skills, find the team on the #scourge IRC channel on Freenode.

Smokin' Guns - Take a Quake3-powered FPS, slather on some Briscoe County, Jr., and you've got Smokin' Guns. You can almost smell the black powder and road apples. It's good, old-fashioned, Wild West fun.

Vacuum Magic - If Luigi's Mansion left you thinking all vacuum-based games sucked, give this 2d side-scroller a try. It's just you and your mystical 'vacuum field' against all manner of nefarious critters. Suck in certain beasts and food items and you can spit 'em back out to inflict damage.

VDrift - Ever wished you could be just like Vin Diesel? I wouldn't go sharing that with too many people. On a related note, VDrift is an awesome 3D drift racing sim. The latest version boasts a smarter AI, better physics, new sounds, and improved overall performance.