Just a quick note that TrueCrypt 6.2a was released on June 15. TrueCrypt is an amazing Open Source encryption app that can create encrypted file containers that are mounted as drives or entire drives (including boot drives). It works with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

OpenOffice.org 3.1

...was released. I don't see any big new features in the list of enhancements (see link above). But, the overall list of enhancements like improved screen appearance and additin of macros/scripts to its Base (database) look interesting.

I wonder if OOo will survive now that Oracle owns it by way of its Sun purchase?

Just noticed that VirtualBox got a minor point update (from 2.2.0 to 2.2.2) last week...

VirtualBox 2.2.2 (released 2009-04-27) Changelog

There's a lot of items in the changelog for 2.2.2. So, be sure to take a look at them to see what was fixed in this release.

While looking at the slideshow associated with this item by Andrew Odewahn (you can find his presentation embedded at the bottom of this blog item), I wondered what software he used to generate the social graphs...

Fortunately, he mentions using the Open Source...

Graphviz

...as the tool he is using for the task.

I have Microsoft Project. However, it is not available for Mac OS X or Linux. So, a multi-platform Open Source alternative is good to learn about. I just read about...

OpenProj 1.4

It runs on Microsoft Windows as well as Mac OS X and Linux. So, I might be taking a closer look at it in the near future. However, I think it is odd that this so-called Open Source package is only available as a binary download from SourceForge. I also wonder why it does not look like it has had any development activity since September 2008. Dead project?

I interviewed the CEO and co-founder of AnchorFree on Friday. AnchorFree has an interesting free ad-supported VPN (Virtual Private Network) service named...

Hotspot Shield

VirtualBox 2.2.0 looks like a disaster so far. I installed/upgraded it on both my Mac and Windows Vista PC. Couple of items I've noted so far...

- Bridged Ethernet support works in VirtualBox 2.2.0 under Mac OS X 10.5 but not Windows Vista. NAT works in Vista, so network connectivity is available.
- Both Fedora 9 (on a PC) and Ubuntu 8.10 (on a Mac) became unstable after going through VirtualBox's container migration process.

VirtualBox 2.2.0 was just released. It is a major update according to its release notes. The biggest change looks like the support for up to 16GB memory for guest OSes running on 64-bit hosts. But, there are also a bunch of other changes related to networking a hypervisor optimization.

I find VirtualBox interesting. But, it had too many quirks to use for even personal "production" work as of the 2.2.1 release. Perhaps it is time to take another look at it.

Looks like the Open Source VLC media player for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux is inching its way to 1.0.

VLC media player 0.9.9

I recall using it quite a bit on my old Apple iBook running Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). It was able to display video formats (like Microsoft's WMV) that were difficult to view on the Mac back then.

U3 moved the location of the U3 removal tool. You can now find the download link on this support page:

http://www.u3.com/support/default.aspx#CQ3

The good news is that there is also a U3 removal utility for the Mac now.

Well, it took what seemed like years (or wait, it was!), but Google finally told us they are...

Announcing Picasa for Mac

Unlike iPhoto, Picasa for Mac searches all over the hard drive. I elected to limit it to the iPhoto library, Documents, and a few other common areas images reside. So, my blog images for articles and other items are cataloged in Picasa now.

The free and Open Source VirtualBox virtualization hypervisor is available for Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X. I took a look at the OS X version and wrote about it on the O'Reilly DigitalMedia Mac blog. You can find it at...

VirtualBox 2.1.0 Released: A Look at the Mac Version

I brought over a Windows 2000 Professional Guest OS I had used with previous VirtualBox releases. And, I installed a fresh copy of Xubuntu 8.10 (based on Ubuntu 8.10) under VirtualBox.

LifeHacker has a good list of...

Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2008

I've tried less than half of the apps on their list. So, I need to revisit this page again sometime soon to note Mac apps to try.

Forgot to mention the overview blog/article I wrote for O'Reilly Media DigitalMedia Mac Center last week about...

ClamXav: Free Anti-Virus for Your Mac - Help Protect Your PC Friends

ClamXav is a free anti-virus app for Mac OS X. It is based on the Open Source ClamAV engine for Linux.

Still looking to see if I squirreled away some old Windows test viruses to test with ClamXav on Mac OS X.

I took a closer look at uTorrent Mac 0.90 Beta and wrote an overview with a bunch of screenshots for the O'Reilly Digital Media Center Mac blog. You can find it at...

µTorrent Mac Beta 0.90

Hmm. Why did I think this was released earlier this year?

Google Calendar now supports Apple iCal

What do you know? The Mac version of uTorrent just became available as a public beta test release...

uTorrent 0.90 for Mac Beta

Note that it only runs on Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

Hmm... Wondering if this Mac freeware from Google is worth trying...

Vocito

It lets you use a Mac to dial out to Grandcentral which then calls your voice number and the person you want to speak with and then connect the two voice line calls together.

More info here on Google Code...

vocito on Google Code

I wrote an overview of running VirtualBox 2.0 on a Mac using Windows 2000 and Fedora 9 virtual machines built using 1.6.2. You can find the overview at...

VirtualBox 2.0 Update OK for Windows, Not So Good for Linux

Note that I should probably revise the title. It looks like the problems I saw are unique to Fedora 9 running as a Guest OS inside of VirtualBox 2.0. People commenting on the article say that other Linux distros are running fine as Guest OSes.