Here’s a summary of Mac Freeware & Free & Open Source Software (F/FOSS) discussed last week in my personal blog.
Skype 2.5 for Mac OS X
Do you Skype on your Mac? If so, head over and pick up the latest release…
Skype 2.5.0.85 for Mac OS X
This release just came out today (Jan. 31). The two new features are: Ability to send cheap SMS messages and free 10-person conference calls.
Adium 1.0 Multi-IM Client for Mac OS X
The Mac OS X Open Source…
Adium 1.0 Instant Messenging Client
…was released on Feb. 2. It can let you IM with people using AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and other IM services.
Krut Computer Recorder 0.9.2
This Open Source project can record audio and video from your computer and save the data MOV or WAV (WMV?) files.
Krut Computer Recorder
Binary versions are available for Linux and Microsoft Windows. I’ll guess (though I have not tried yet) that this Java-based product can also run with Mac OS X. The latest version was released on January 17, 2007.
If you have freeware or Open Source software to recommend for Mac users, please post it in a response here (or email the information to me if you prefer to remain anonymous).
NeoOffice for sure. NeoOffice runs nicely especially on the Intel Macs since the Intel Macs also run the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) better IMHO than the PowerPC machines. Thus NeoOffice (which runs on top of Java) runs comfortably compared to on PPC. Thus no need to install OpenOffice via X11 on Macs.
WAV is a simple, uncompressed audio format unrelated to WMV.
Dale: Yep, NeoOffice is a good one. I mentioned its current version way back in Oct. 2006. I see from the 2.1 version will be available soon for the rest of us. I'll revisit it then.
Matt: Thanks. I guess I wasn't clear in my blog entry (not surprising since my blog is really often just notes to myself about F/FOSS apps I want to look at later). My WMV? was shorthand for I wonder if the Krut author meant WMV instead of WAV (audio only didn't seem that useful for screen recordings :-). And, BTW, WAV and WMV are somewhat related in the fact that both come from Microsoft (the "W" in both == Windows).
I want to recommend ossim:
"OSSIM provides advanced geo-spatial image processing for remote sensing, photogrammetry, and Geographic Information Systems. Backed by an active open source software development community, OSSIM solutions have been deployed on a number of critical commercial and government systems"
they have very nice mac versions that will allow you to read imagery and terrain files from sites like seamless.usgs.gov etc.
WAV is essentially to Windows what AIFF is to Mac - afaik, a container for non-lossy sound files. If you pop a CD into your Mac you'll see AIFF files although they are in fact Red Book Audio CD files. I guess they are converted or encapsulated on the fly if you copy them to the Mac. On Windows, you'll see WAV files. I guess the software uses WAV for sound recordings which would make sense as the Mac understands WAV.
My timetracer is a must if you are working on timebased projects. www.gersh.no/worktimer.html