The K-12 Open Source Classroom

Bringing Open Source (Free and Free) into the Classroom

Posts Tagged banshee

My Cowon S9 Arrives!

May 23

Posted by admin in OSS Applications, hardware | No Comments

Cowon S9

The Main Screen of My Cowon S9

Finally, after losing my iRiver E100 in the Pittsburgh Marathon (rain, sweat, and electronics don’t mix–who knew!), my replacement arrived. I did not use it much, taking it on a run soon, but first impressions make me think I will like it. About the same size as the iPod Touch, with a touchscreen. I actually like the little ‘plop’ noise when you touch icons.

Last night I finally transferred some playlists to it.  Apparently it did not come in MTP format to begin with, so you could only drag-n-drop.  After switching to MTP, I could add playlists.

Definitely a good little player so far.  The screen (AMOLED) is gorgeous!  Sound is good.  I think this could definitely work in a classroom.  More to come…

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Open Source Alternatives–Osalt

May 19

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Osalt Logo

Osalt: Your Guide to All Apps Open Source

Looking for an open source application to one of your proprietary ones?  Not sure what’s out there in a particular category?  Then you definitely need to visit the OSALT website.  Osalt, or Open Source As Alternative, lists top open source applications and top proprietary applications.  Right from the front page you can begin finding good OSS alternatives to programs such as Photoshop, Citrix, iTunes, and Nero Burning ROM.   For instance, it lists Amarok (I use this one!) and Songbird as alternatives to iTunes.  I definitely recommend Amarok, as I use it.  Songbird is a great choice, although they recently stopped Linux development.

On the site, you can click one of the Top 10s and see a review of the application.  Looking at Dia, for instance, you will see a link to the website, a brief description, a rating (3 out of 5 stars), and other apps similar to Dia.  Dia, if unaware, allows you to receive some of the Visio functionality.  In schools, we use it in place of Inspriation.

You can also just search or go through the directory.  A definite must is to subscribe to their RSS feed, to receive updates of new software.  Osalt definitely will help you in finding the Open Source alternatives to go an open source world!

http://www.osalt.com/

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iRiver Clix Bust!

Apr 9

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iRiver Clix

Now Playing--Not My iRiver Clix!

Arrgh! Those following me know I will run the Pittsburgh Marathon in a few weeks. Like all 21st Century runners, I use an mp3 player, the iRiver Clix.  Lately, I even began to take my Blackberry on long runs, and found myself snapping pictures and videos.  Heck, I even plan to Plurk from the marathon.  Not sure if that’s ever been done before…

Anyway, I LOVE my iRiver Clix.  After my original iPod, yes, I admit it, died two years ago, I spent a long time looking for the right player.  I wanted something that would play many formats, including the open format .ogg.  I wanted something I could load and sync with Amarok or some similar open source application, Banshee also comes to mind.  I looked far and wide, and finally found the iRiver Clix.  It did not meet all of my requirements, I still needed *gasp* Windows to download videos to it, but I could use Amarok to keep my playlists.

As I prepared for my long run last week through Umstead State Park, I prepped the player.  I tried a song, and it hung…didn’t go through and play.  I reset it, and tried again…nothing.  I formatted it.  Looked online to find out how to complete a hard reset.  Opened it and reseated the plugs.  Then it would not even work at all.  Argh!!  So I used the wife’s iPod Touch for the run.  Yuck!

That now has me prepared for my 26 mile practice run tomorrow.  I am going to try the iRiver e100 I also possess.  While it works for many things, I never used it for running.  I did practice once this week on a short run, and it worked alright.  The big downfall is its inability (so far!) to work with Amarok or anything else on the Ubuntu side.  I can use it as a HDD, but can’t get playlists to work.  So I used my Vostro with Windows 7.  You will probably see me over the next couple posts try to figure out the e100.  Anyone who has–please let me know!

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image used under public domain from : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iriver_clix_(2G).jpg

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So I’m Back to Amarok…

Nov 9

Posted by admin in OSS Applications, open source | No Comments

Amarok t-shirt
These iRiver players are about to be the death of me. Just when I think I fine-tuned everything, I decide I want to change things up. On my iRiver Clix, I used Rhythmbox in Ubuntu to download my podcasts, then gnomad to organize my song lists and transfer music to the Clix. Yes, it took an extra step, but it worked. Unlike my iRiver E100, which I dual boot into Windows to make work. So this weekend, as I finally repaired the XPS 400 (I think!), I decided to give Banshee a shot. Seems it would make a better organization, so why not? Well, it did not work, and then worse, it blocked my ability to sync music through gnomad. So I completely formatted the Clix, and now am using Amarok once again. If I can find how to transfer videos, I will be set!
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Yes, you did read right–the XPS 400 is, what I think, finally fully functioning. For the past six months or so, I had an intermittent problem where after a random amount of time, it would shutdown. Sometimes when off it would click on and boot by itself as well. My first thought, after some lengthy calls with Dell was the motherboard and power supply, which I both replaced. No change. Tried some changes with the OS, but again, nothing. My last shot was a new I/O Panel and ribbon cable, which I replaced this weekend, and after having it on all day, it has yet to shut off. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

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