Skype

In Lithuania IRC really got popular, especially the aitvaras network, but for some time now, when people start using different chatting alternatives, about which hardcore IRC users don't really speak with a smile in their face. But in my opinion, alternatives have different good things, same as bad too. This time I will present Skype. I think that Skype is a well written application and what is great, that it is available for free, but it is closed source, I think that is good, it is much harder to crack it or to integrate a virus and stuff, I mean much better for security issues of the user. You don't need to pay for it or search for any cracks and serial numbers if you can't afford buying software.

Skype is very comfortable and it thinks about the user and his convenience, it is quite fast and very stable, I never had any problems using Skype. Skype has a chat, contacts, who see you online or offline, what is superb, that usually there are 2 or 4 millions users online from all the world. But that is not the point, you have your privacy and they can't see when you're online or offline unless you set the Skype me mode. The main thing Skype is used, is VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) usage, you can call other people, who are using Skype, it is like phone calls on the Internet, but what is wonderful, that there is a feature to call to ordinary phones and cells, but it is not free, but really is quite cheap all you need to do is use SkypeOut. Remember, that calling emergency calls is not working, because it is not a phone alternative. One of the feature which is very useful, it is voice mail, which you can use when you're offline or away/busy from your computer.

Skype works on most of the popular Operating Systems, such as Windows, Linux, MacOSX, PocketPC.. It is very easy to use, if you want to speak, you need to have a microphone, also it can send and receive video, but you'll need to install an webcam, the quality is not the best, but it works and it depends from the camera it self, but the sound has really big quality and furthermore everything is very secure, the talks too, because an hashing method is used while sending the data. One more serious feature is file transfer, it is really very fast and comfortable and works between different platforms, the sizes of the files is not relevant, but what I miss is the resume ability, because sometimes the file transfer freeze and you need to resend the file from the beginning again.

Well, I am just offering to use this "another chatting software", I liked it due to I often forget that I am talking with some one on IRC, because I am quite busy doing something else, like programming or reading and while chatting on Skype it is almost impossible to forget about it. I would like to add, that it is possible to talk with a lot of people, not only in private, the same are with calls. A lot of who started using Skype for business and really managed to lower their expenses for telephone bills, due to the sound quality is high and all the frequency are used which are heard by the human ear and letters C and S will be two different letters and will not sound like one. This kind of things worked earlier too, we saw it on television, but never it was so easy accessible for regular users, Skype made it possible and they don't ask anything from us, no money, no ads, what is just glamorous that there are now spyware, viruses and even Spam! No Spam! but I have heard about some viruses, so be careful, but don't really worry, just look who you add to your contacts and don't do wild things with your webcam :D

More at Skype website.

Filezilla

A lot of whom have heard about FTP, but not much people know how often they are using it or how exactly it works. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is required for file transferring, but telling the truth you don't need to get deeper into this. Most of the servers are offering FTP access to the files, but now, when the 3 epoch of web has come, there appeared a lot of different and useful new alternatives, which made FTP not a such useful thing. But we still use it widely. So why not get all what you can out of FTP ? A lot of who are using Windows Explorer to connect to FTP server, but it is slow, not comfortable and even worse, has only few lame features.

Filezilla, is one of the FTP clients that I would really recommend using, it is fast, user friendly, does not need a lot of resources, the main thing is that it is free and open sourced. It is very stable and can have two types of database storage - XML and Windows Registry. But it's not only a client, Filezilla can be an FTP Server, but I would rather use other applications as FTP servers. Filezilla can send and receive files from/into the server, it has support for SSL/SFTP and even GSS. It has an automatic ASCII/BINARY method recognizer, it can use different proxies and firewalls while connecting to the server. And of course the simple functions like keep alive, chmod, passive and active modes, it remembers file transfers too, which is very convenient. It has a very customizable configuration, that it would suite the new users and of course the advanced ones. A very easy to use site manager where you can make a list of all your ftp servers/sites and with a few clicks connect anytime. At one time you can run as much Filezilla applications as you want, it depends on your RAM space, it even can limit the speed for you, if you need it.

So I encourage you to try it and get used to such an FTP client and forget using Explorer, because it really is a big pile of shit, you'll see how much faster your files will start downloading and how everything will become much better. Filezilla has caching abilities and has a similar file browsing like Explorer for local host. You're using Opera integrated FTP client ? not bad, but only for browsing, but not for receiving or uploading files and often connecting to the server. Well, you can try other ftp clients and could choose one out of them, which you liked better, but everyone I know who used Filezilla has left it as their main FTP client, so don't waste your time, use Filezilla and let someone else waste his/her time searching for the best FTP client out there.

FileZilla Project page

Opera

It still is strange for me, that there are people, who are using Internet Explorer.. or they are very lazy to change something or browsing for them do not mean anything at all, or maybe they do not understand that browsing the web can be much more comfortable and pleasant. Furthermore more secure using something else than IE. I understand that at the beginning it can be really hard to get used to something new, but when you try, you start to understand that it is much better than something you used before and you think how could you be using that bullshit before.. This time I will talk about a browser which about half year back became a free application, it is Opera, the name can sound silly, but it is like that, I don't think that names matter very much, especially if it is so popular and a lot of whom know it, because they have started their service since the year 1995.

I used to be Mozilla Firefox fan, when Opera still was a non free application, I am not saying that Firefox is a shitty software, but believe me, it is much slower, uses much more resources, more RAM and it loads slower too; large pages scroll slower, I made some tests before and Opera won even three times in some things, it is slower when you change between tabs, it really is noticeable when you are using a high resolution like: 1280x1024, besides after using Opera, QT interface got really nicer for me. I know that Firefox 2 is coming and other updated Firefox versions got better. There are rumors that those are much faster, I tried them, they are faster, but Opera still is far more superior. Telling the truth Firefox is much more powerful with all its Addons and Extensions, which really are useful, but guess what ? they slow down the application. On the other hand, everything is great if it is not using IE engine, IE in my opinion can only be used for pages which does not work in other browsers (Crappy pages which should not be visited at all) So, people make the conclusions yourself. There are plenty of other browsers that might bring your attention, for MacOS it is Safari and of course for Linux OS, best on KDE it is Konqueror, it should be similar to Explorer on Windows, but it is much better, as a matter of fact it is very very fast, I have done some CSS tests. Opera and Firefox also work with Linux, but you know what ? Firefox is slow there too.

Opera is one of the most powerful Internet applications, it does not only browse the web, but has its own IRC client, it can read Feeds, such as RSS and Atom, has an Email program, FTP browsing, powerful bookmarks and of course you can control almost everything, due to the customizable configuration/settings. If your computer is not a so called bitch computer and you're the only person who is using it, you can store your cookies, remember wand logins and watch your history. The security is great, you're fed up with spyware, viruses and all that similar bullshit which you get while browsing the net ? Opera is safe, and you can safely browse interesting porno pages, but it is a disease.. Opera has new features like SVG, VoIP support, it is the first step into the new Internet, because XML and XHTML is quite old things now, but IE seems to be so old that the support for it still is almost missing.. I think you heard about the new IE version which will be published together with the new Windows Vista ? but it just stole the features from other browsers.. Microsoft is a big company which like to plagiarise, but they know how to make money out of stupid people.

More about Opera

Privoxy

Today I thought to talk about Privoxy, so this will be my little presentation of it, which in my opinion is useful. I think you are fed up with all the ads on the Internet ? so called spam, banners, popups and other bullshit on the widely used Internet, I think you could continue living without it much better in this cruel world. Privoxy is the software that can help you, it is a web proxy which is capable of filtering the content to secure your privacy, to change the incoming content, even control the cookies and of course to get rid of all the ads and other bullshit which comes from the Internet.. Privoxy has a very customizable configuration, you can edit everything the way you need, but often for a regular user the default settings are alright. By the way, Privoxy can be used for personal usage and for all the network installing it on the main server.

So, where can you get this really good piece of software ? download the latest stable version from the main Privoxy website and install it in your computer. Privoxy is available for most of the Operating Systems, such as Windows, Amiga, Linux, Apple.. You should know how to install the software on your OS, for Windows there is a very easy to use installer.. After the installation you will need to use it as a regular Proxy in your browsers or whatever you want. If you're using Opera or Mozilla or maybe even the pathetic Internet Explorer, then find where the Proxy settings are. For Opera -> Menu: Tools -> Preferences; Advanced, Network -> Proxy Settings. For Firefox -> Menu: Tools -> Options; Connection Settings and for IE somewhere in Internet Options, search near the Connections.. Don't worry and don't give up, write 127.0.0.1 and change the Port to 8118 where you will see HTTP, SSL or HTTPS Proxy. I also recommend you to not use the Proxy for "localhost,127.0.0.1,*.lan" Well, now just save and try to access the Internet, a site which you know has lots of banners and enjoy the browsing again without any bullshit..

What to do if you're already using somekind of a Proxy and you want to use Privoxy too ? That is not a problem at all, you will only need to edit your Privoxy configuration a little bit by using forward command, just forward to your proxy, everything is clearly written in the configuration file. By the way, if sometimes you want to look at the ads, you can just temporally disable proxy, usually the setting is in your browser, choose Direct connection or disable proxy servers or something similar, if you're not stupid then you will find it. If you have any problems, please comment here or even better, try to find your answers on the main Privoxy website given above.

Hello

As I started using this service more widely, I really started to like it, so wanted to create an English version of my Blog, I won't be translating anything, but I will try to write the same information and maybe much more. Posting takes lots of my time, but content is really good, having lots of content is great. I Don't really like to plagiarize, but sometimes I need to do it, because there is no other choice.

So as you understand or maybe not if you did not read my old Blog, I will be writing mostly about software, especially free one, does not matter, closed or open source. There are a lot of software to choose from, but most of it sucks, so I will try to point to the better software, it will take time, but I hope I will succeed. Nevertheless, don't worry I will be writing about different Operating Systems, Hacking and Security issues too. ;)