Bitcoins what is it & how it works ?

I'm quite sure Till now all of us must have heard about bitcoins from one way or another, most of us are curious about what is bitcoin and few of us who even know what it is but surely uncertain about its future, In this post I'll try to Explain bitcoin to all readers to very easiest form. with just 5 Q&A

What is Bitcoin ?

A.
 It Is crypto-currency [ E-currency ] it can be used to make payments online. Bitcoin payments are easier to make than debit or credit card purchases and It can easily replace them. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency introduced  in 2009 by  Satoshi Nakamoto

What are the advantages of Bitcoin?
A. 

•  Transparent and neutral
• Instant Payment
• Very low fees
• Secure, Irreversible
• Strong protection against identity theft 

I'll be explaining all these points in upcoming posts 

What are the disadvantages of Bitcoin?
A.

• Not Yet fully known by average joe 
•  Volatility
• Uncertainty
• Money Laundering 

  

What is Bitcoin mining ?

A.
 The process of finding new blocks to be added to blockchain is called Bitcoin mining. This is done by a computer program by solving a complex puzzle with real time input of transaction data. Now a days mining requires specialized hardwares and electricity consumption. Miners are rewarded with Bitcoin by the system.

What are the units of Bitcoin ?

A.
 There are 4 standard units of Bitcoin...
    i. 1 BTC = 1 Bitcoin
    ii. 1 mBTC = 10^(-3) Bitcoin
    iii. 1 μBTC = 10^(-6) Bitcoin
    iv. 1 Satoshi = 10^(-8) Bitcoin

Elementary OS Luna's New Notification System Looks Just Perfect

Next version of Elementary OS codenamed "Luna" will be based on just released Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" and it is going to bring about a number of really interesting changes, new notification system being one of them.

Video Demo of Elementary OS's New Notification System

Elemenatry OS "Luna" has not yet been released and features like these are supposed to be polished and further improved before the final release. From the initial looks of it, I think I am going to really like the next Elementary. Also, this new notification system looks like something Ubuntu can emulate in their future releases. Notify-OSD, at the moment, looks terribly designed and executed. [Video demo by WilleoSoeurs]

Top 5 Fast, Lightwieght and Free Android Launchers

First, we introduced you to a chosen collection of 6 awesome launchers for Android. Then we featured 3 more launchers tailor-made for Android 4.0 ICS+ operating system. Since then, a lot of our readers have been asking for more lightweight alternatives to the ones we already featured. SPB Shell 3D or TSF Shell 3D are not really for the ones who look for simpler, more lighter launchers. Hence this article. A collection of 5 simple and lightweight Android launchers.

Smart Launcher: Installing Apex launcher was the first thing I did after upgrading to Android 4.0 ICS and I never looked back, until I came to know about Smart Launcher. Unlike all other launchers out there, with almost the same kind of layout (at a basic level), Smart Launcher is characterized by its minimalist design, low memory usage and a user-friendly UI that lets you start any application with a few taps. You have to use it to know it. My only gripe is that, the Quick Start screen does not have native icons for generic apps such as Google Maps. FREE

• Install Smart Launcher for Android from Google Play Store

FTL Launcher: FTL stands for Faster Than Light, and to an extent, this launcher stands up to its name. A no nonsense launcher with pretty good support for customization. FREE

• Install FTL Launcher Lite for Android from Google Play Store

Launcher 8: I'm not a big fan of Windows Phone 8's Metro (whatever it is called now) UI. But it can act as a quick alternative to conventional mobile phone interfaces. Launcher 8 is an Android launcher which tries to emulate Windows Phone 8's look and feel. It surely looks nice and I have many friends who are absolutely in love with Launcher 8. There's also another alternative called Launcher 7, based on Windows Phone 7. Give both of them a try. FREE

• Install Launcher 8 for Android from Google Play Store

Lightning Launcher: A bare to the bones, highly customizable and free Android launcher that is extremely light on your phone's memory. FREE

• Install Lightning Launcher for Android from Google Play Store

Nemus Launcher: Extremely fast and customizable launcher for Android. It's no surprise that Nemus maintains an overall Google Play Store rating of 4.6 even after a million downloads. Specific charectersitics include low memory usage, responsiveness, easy management of apps, workspaces and folders among others. FREE

• Install Nemus Launcher for Android from Google Play Store

9 Good CD and DVD Burning Tools for Ubuntu/Linux

There is no dearth of good CD/DVD burning tools for Ubuntu. Brasero Disc Burner comes as default in Ubuntu and it is a good enough tool with almost all functionalities you expect from a basic CD/DVD burning application. But what really are the alternatives. Here is a quick listing of very good CD/DVD burning applications available for Linux(in no particular order). Read on.

K3B - KDE Burning Tool

K3B has been my favorite CD/DVD burning tool ever since I started using Ubuntu some 4 years ago. K3B is a Qt based application and it might look a bit out of place in Ubuntu GNOME desktop. But from a functionality point of view K3B is far ahead of all its competitors.

• Click Here to Install K3B in Ubuntu

• Those using other distros, visit K3B Download Page.

GnomeBaker Burning Tool

GnomeBaker is a free and open source CD/DVD authoring application for Linux. It is based on GNOME desktop environment. GnomeBaker comes equipped with functionalities like: Drag and drop to create data CDs (including drag and drop to and from the Nautilus file manager), Create audio CDs from existing WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg files etc.

• Click Here to Install GNOME Baker in Ubuntu

• Those using other Linux distros, visit GNOME Baker download page.

Brasero Disc Burner

If you are an Ubuntu user, you don't need any introduction to Brasero Disc Burner since it comes as a default application in Ubuntu. Supports features like on-the-fly burning, multi-session, on-the-fly conversion of music playlists in all formats supported by GStreamer and so on. Brasero is my second favorite Burn tool available for Linux.

• Click Here to Install Brasero Disc Burner in Ubuntu if you are using an older version of Ubuntu which don't have Brasero pre installed ie.

• More information: Brasero Homepage

Xfburn for Linux

Xfburn is a tool to help burning CDs and DVDs. As the name indicates, Xfburn is better integrated with Xfce desktop though it can be used in any Linux desktop environment.

• Click here to install Xfburn in Ubuntu

• Those using other flavors of Linux, visit Xfburn Download Page.

Nero for Windows, Linux

Yes, Nero indeed has a Linux version of its popular CD/DVD burning application. Nero Linux 4 costs US $19.99 and there is a demo version also, available for free download.

• More Information and Download Links: Nero Linux 4

ImgBurn for Windows, Linux(under Wine)

Before getting excited, let me make it clear. ImgBurn is not an open source application and there is no official package for Linux as well. But ImgBurn is among the few applications which runs neatly under Wine and that is exactly why it is included in this official listing of Wine supported applications.

• Visit ImgBurn Homepage for more information.

SimpleBurn for Linux

SimpleBurn is a minimalistic application for burning and extracting CDs and DVDs. SimpleBurn was designed to have minimal dependencies. It uses GTK2 libs for the interface for burning it uses CDRTools (cdrecord, cdda2wav, mkisofs) or CDRKit (wodim, icedax, genisoimage).

• Installation in Ubuntu is a bit complicated since there are no DEB packages available AFAIK. You can compile and install SimpleBurn instead. Instructions here.

InfraRecorder for Windows

Although InfraRecorder does not belong to this list since it does not have a Linux version, it is a widely acclaimed open source CD/DVD burning tool for Microsoft Windows licensed under GNU General Public License. In 2007, CNET rated InfraRecorder the best free alternative to commercial DVD burning software.

• More information at InfraRecorder Homepage.

CDRDAO Command Line Tool

CDRDAO(CD recording Disk At Once) is an open source CD burner application for Windows, Mac and Linux. CDRDAO records audio or data CD-Rs in disk-at-once (DAO) mode based on a textual description of the CD contents. The CDRDAO application is run from the command line and has no graphical user interface. 

• More information at CDRDAO Homepage.

5 Best Open Source Tools to Create Scalable Online Social Networking Platforms

While Facebook and Twitter is the core of the Internet’s social networking world, some companies and organizations may have reasons to set up their own social networking applications. For some companies, setting up their own social network is a good option because the public Internet may not be secure enough for certain conversations concerning sensitive proprietary information or customer contact information.

Top 5 Open Source Social Networking Software
Deploying your own uniquely branded social media tool with open source software could be a good choice especially if you plan to differentiate your product through custom development built on top of the open source tools. There are many open source social networking toolsets available and it can sometimes become quite overwhelming and cumbersome even to find out which one best suits your organization's requirements. Here's a list of 5 good open source social networking software which we think are the very best among the lot.

Dolphin: Built on the PHP platform, Dolphin is a fully scalable and customizable social media application. Dolphin is perhaps the most popular open source commercial social media application in the market today. Dolphin’s success is due to its development company’s long experience with creating social media applications. BoonEx has been around for more than ten years and began creating online dating software. Today, their flagship social media software, Dolphin, offers an entire suite of social networking tools that offer similar functionality as sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Match.

• Homepage for Dolphin Social Media Application

XOOPS: Xoops is a free and open source full-fledged content management systems (CMS), written in PHP, that allows you to build sites based on your needs. XOOPS stands for extensible Object Oriented Portal System. While the original code base was written for corporate portal applications and has matured into a full content management system. The backend database is powered by MySQL. [Tip: Yogurt Social Network module for XOOPS]

• Homepage for XOOPS Content Management System (CMS)

Elgg: Elgg was voted by Infoworld as the best social network platform in 2008. Elgg is especially popular in the education space as it is used by several colleges and universities, as well as high schools, as a campus wide social networking platform. Elgg boasts of an extensive plugins gallery and has a robust API set. Elgg also has a robust data model that is flexible enough to accommodate whatever your specific social media needs may be.

• Homepage for Elgg Open Source Social Networking Software

Buddy Press: Buddy Press was built based on the WordPress MU project in 2008 and 2009. With the PHP base of WordPress, Buddy Press has grown from a simple Wordpress mod to a full blown stand alone social media application. Buddy Press can be used as a campus wide social media platform or a niche media tool for your new product or service. It can also be used as your company’s internal communication tool. The unique aspect of Buddy Press is that it can be used as an all inclusive social media platform or it can be used as an extension to your current social media tools. By using the administrative console, you can disable and enable as many features as you need in order to integrate it into your current social media platform or through a public platform such as LinkedIn.

• Homepage for BuddyPress Open Source Social Network

Anahita: Anahita is an open source social media development framework that is the most customizable and flexible of all of the development environments reviewed here. As a framework, it requires some technical expertise to get it off the ground, but it provides the most reliable and advanced feature set for developers to use. The privacy model is very extensive and utilizes a social networking graph structure for management. Data storage is leveraged through the use of the Amazon E3 framework.

• Homepage for Anahita Open Source Social Networking Framework

Easy Ways to Download YouTube Videos in Ubuntu

Minitube: When it comes to "conventional" YouTube video streaming and downloading in Ubuntu, nothing beats Minitube. You can type any keyword, and Minitube will give you an endless stream of videos to watch, as simple as that. Minitube does not use the Flash Player either, which means lesser CPU consumption. And of course you can download videos in the quality you choose with the click of a button. What more, Minitube is available for download in default Ubuntu repositories (for Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 13.04).

Youtube-dl: Command line tools are a big no-no to many. But I would argue otherwise. Youtube-dl is the best and easiest way to download YouTube videos in Ubuntu. It is fast and obviously nimble. And make no mistake, it has quite a wide range of functionalities. But if all you need is to download the best quality version of a particular video, open up the Terminal and type "youtube-dl<space><link to the video>". Does that look complicated?

Gmediafinder: A good Minitube alternative loaded with YouTube streaming and downloading capabilities. In my experience, Minitube has been more stable and a little bit more easier to use when compared Gmediafinder. But it gets the job done. To install it though, you have to add the following PPA and it is not readily available in Ubuntu Software Center (Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 13.04 supported). Just do the following in Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:s-lagui/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gmediafinder

Movegrab: Yet another command-line tool for downloading YouTube videos in Ubuntu. Somehow, I am finding it difficult to download YouTube specific videos using Movgrab at the moment, even though I didn't had any problem with sites like Dailymotion. Many consider Movgrab to be a superior alternative to my favorite Youtube-dl. More details and how-to-use instructions on Movgrab at WebUpd8. Do the following in Terminal to install Movgrab.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install movgrab

YouTube Downloader Script: Here's a simple cross-browser script that will add a download button to the YouTube page, literally. It will let you download your favorite videos in MP4 format (HD, Full HD and even 4K supported). See installation instructions below,

For Firefox: You need to download Greasemonkey extension for Firefox first. Afterwards, simply visit the script download page and install it.
For Chrome/Chromium: Install Tampermonkey extension first. And then, like before, visit the script download page and hit Install button on top.

Make no mistake, almost all the tools featured above (except the cross-browser script) does support other popular sites like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Metacafe, Liveleak, Blip.tv etc. apart from YouTube. Try them out and let us know your feedback. Thanks for reading.

CAD Apps for Linux

 

Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. But are there any good free CAD apps for Linux? Strangely, that is one of the questions we often receive in our mail. We will try to list not just the free CAD apps here, but also the non-free ones that works well under Linux(in no particular order).

Bricscad is a CAD package developed by Bricsys, originally built using the IntelliCAD engine. We have featured Bricscad before in our featured listing of top commercial apps for Linux. Bricscad is among the few commercially supported CAD packages which runs on Linux. Bricscad is capable of most contemporary AutoCAD functionalities.

• Download Bricscad for Linux

QCad is a CAD software package for 2D design and drafting. QCad professional edition is the non-free version with options for limited-time free trial. There is also a community edition of QCad which is licensed under GPL. You can download QCad community edition for free.

• Download QCad Professional and Community Editions

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FreeCAD is a free and Open Source 3D CAD/CAE program, based on OpenCascade, QT and Python. It features key concepts like macro recording, workbenches, ability to run as server and dynamically loadable application extensions. Windows, Mac and Linux versions available.

• Download FreeCAD for Windows, Mac and Linux

VariCAD is 3D/2D CAD program primarily meant for mechanical engineering design. VariCAD provides support for parameters and geometric constraints, tools for shells, pipelines, sheet metal unbending and crash tests, assembly support, mechanical part and symbol libraries, calculations, bills of materials, and more. VariCAD is a non-free, proprietary application with packages for Windows and Linux readily available.

• Buy VariCAD for Linux from VariCAD Online Store

Open CASCADE Technology is a software development platform for 3D surface and solid modeling, visualization, data exchange and rapid application development. Open CASCADE Technology is available for free download and is licensed under Open CASCADE Technology Public License which the developer claims to be 'LGPL-like with certain differences'. The Debian project considers the license to meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines and has accepted Open CASCADE into its main archive.

• Download Open CASCADE Technology for Linux

CYCAS is a 2D/3D CAD application for Windows and Linux which offers special elements and techniques for architectural design apart from normal CAD techniques. CYCAS enables intuitive and uncomplicated handling of 2D and 3D elements. It is non-free and proprietary.

• Download CYCAS for Windows, Linux

CityEngine is a 3D modeling application specialized in the generation of three dimensional urban environments. Key features of CityEngine include GIS/CAD Data Support, Dynamic City Layouts, Street Networks Patterns, Map-Controlled City Modeling, Industry-Standard 3D Formats and more. CityEngine is non-free and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

• Download CityEngine for Windows, Mac and Linux

BRL-CAD is a cross-platform open source solid modeling system that includes interactive geometry editing, high-performance ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis, image and signal-processing tools, a system performance analysis benchmark suite, libraries for robust geometric representation, with more than 20 years of active development. BRL-CAD is free to download and is available for almost all platforms out there.

• Download BRL-CAD for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris etc.

Edit: 3 Other CAD Apps for Linux Recommended by Our Readers

• Draftsight - It was a really big mistake from our part for not including Draftsight in the first place. DraftSight is a free 2D CAD product developed by Dassault Systèmes. DraftSight lets users to create, edit and view DWG, DXF files easily. Specific packages for Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva and Suse available for free download.

• LibreCAD is the free and Open Source personal CAD application for Windows, Mac and Linux. LibreCAD is among the very few truly community driven CAD app for Linux.

• ARES Commander Edition for Linux