Xnoise Makes Sweet Music - Once You Get It Installed

Xnoise features a simplified interface. You see just the essentials: your media collection list and the title, album and artist for selections placed in the play list. The resizable media library sits openly on the left side of the application window. Its hierarchical tree design makes it easy to find any single track, artist, album or genre.

Xnoise is a new Linux Media Player for GTK+ environments that just keeps getting better.

Perhaps the last thing that the Linux world needs is yet another media player, but Xnoise bridges the gap in this overcrowded software category. It has an intuitive user interface, speed and essential features.

The latest version, 0.2.19, was released Sept. 17, 2013, and is not yet well-circulated. You can find it in the Ubuntu PPA for Ubuntu and Linux Mint package managers. You can download a compressed version for a .deb installation as well as files for manual installation using a link on the developer's website.

Xnoise uses a simplified interface, so you see just the essentials.

(click to enlarge)

Xnoise performs particularly well in key areas that other more popular media players handle more awkwardly. I was able to view my library and open titles instantly without having to wade through layers of right clicks or cascading menus.

A Hassle-Free Interface

Using Xnoise is a sonorous pleasure. Its interface does not try to cram every type of display window possible into a limited application window. Instead, the design is more like using a programming schedule on a cable TV channel guide.

Xnoise uses a simplified interface. You see just the essentials: your media collection list and the title, album and artist for selections placed in the play list.

The resizable media library sits openly on the left side of the application window. Its hierarchical tree design makes it easy to find any single track, artist, album or genre.

The top of the application window displays just the basic playback controls for the current selection and a progress bar. Other playback controls are accessible from the Edit menu. I would rather have that menu function added as a right-click option or an access button on the menu row.

Search Your Way

Even more useful is the search window that sits on top of this media collections column. I just type in a title or artist to get a listing of matches. This is much faster than scrolling through a long list of entries within the media collections column.

The remainder of the application window displays the track list, the title now playing or the lyrics, depending on which tab option at the bottom you select. Any title placed in the track list can be reordered or removed at will.

I especially like the queuing feature that works the same for music and videos. The selected titles play one by one without being removed from the list.

Tuneful Features

Xnoise supports an impressive list of audio and video formats. It plays every audio/video file type I have. Plus, this player supports the Ubuntu One Music Store and Magnatune. It also has Last.fm integration.

Both of these Web services require user accounts. These music outlets are easy to use thanks to the right-click menu options that let you add or execute menu collapses, track list additions and more. Setting up account details and other player options is painless in the Edit/Preferences menu.

Xnoise also applies these same features to video playback, so you can view and search for each type of medium by hovering the mouse pointer over the Media collections bar in the left column to expose sub-lists of your videos, streams, Last Played and Most Played selections.

Nice Features

Managing your music and video collections is easy with Xnoise. One example is how the software automatically fetches album art.

Another example is the smooth method for editing collections data. Right-clicking on a title in the play list opens its metadata for quick editing.

A data box opens with field windows that hold editable data. Right-clicking on a title in the media collections list gives you an options menu to Add to track list, Change album data, Add all tracks to track list, Remove cover image, Filter for artist and more.

Noisy Installation

The only disappointment I have with Xnoise is its limited installation ease. Since Xnoise is not yet readily available in most distros' package managers and the Synaptic repository, getting it is a turn-off. Newcomers to the Linux OS will see their frustration levels rise quickly with the manual get-and-install process.

For example, the download page on the developer's website has only a few choices. The Arch download retrieves a Page Not Found-404 error. Other download options require you to follow directions for adding the Ubuntu PPA.

More confusion persists with the Taginfo download option. This page provides files for TagInfo, a library for reading media metadata (tags), but this download does not get you Xnoise.

The only other download option is tarball. This page provides a short list of compressed files. You then must uncompress them and, in most cases, compile and install them using terminal commands.

One of these tarballs provides a .deb package that makes installation possible with the .deb installer if that application is installed on your computer. But this .deb file only is suitable for the AMD architecture and does not install on Intel systems.

How to Install

I was able to install the .deb package on a desktop computer powered by an AMD processor. I had to install Xnoise the hard way on an Intel-powered laptop. This was still preferable to the more involved compiling method required by the other tarball downloads.

Here is how to install Xnoise on systems that support the APT process:

1) Add the following official PPA:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shkn/xnoise

2) Update the repository listing:

3) Complete the installation:

• sudo apt-get install xnoise

Bottom Line

Xnoise is a very nice media player that easily serves as a one-stop viewing and managing application for your music and video collections. It does not pack a lot of high-end features, but unless you are an extreme audiophile or video fanatic, you probably would not use such extra features anyway.

The features you do get, however, make Xnoise a near perfect media player for Linux.

Want to Suggest a Linux Application for Review?

Is there a Linux software application you'd like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please send your ideas to me at jack.germain@newsroom.ectnews.com, and I'll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments!

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Jack M. Germain has been writing about computer technology since the early days of the Apple II and the PC. He still has his original IBM PC-Jr and a few other legacy DOS and Windows boxes. He left shareware programs behind for the open source world of the Linux desktop. He runs several versions of Windows and Linux OSes and often cannot decide whether to grab his tablet, netbook or Android smartphone instead of using his desktop or laptop gear.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/79189.html
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Somali pirates on trial for seizing French yacht

Rennes (France) (AFP) - Three Somali pirates went on trial Monday for the 2009 hijacking of a French yacht which prompted a rescue operation by elite forces in which the skipper died.

French troops stormed the Tanit sailboat on April 10, 2009 and captured the trio during a bid to free Florent Lemacon, his wife, their three-year-old son and two others.

French commandos killed two pirates but also accidentally shot dead Florent Lemacon during the operation.

On the first day of the trial in the northwestern city of Rennes, the young defendants described a life of poverty in Somalia that they say eventually led to them to piracy.

One said he lost his livelihood following the devastating 2004 tsunami, which affected his coastal community by destroying fishing boats and depleting fish stocks.

Another said he started struggling in 2005, when a severe famine killed a lot of his livestock.

Just as the three were struggling to make ends meet several years later in 2009, pirates helped them out, giving them clothes and even drugs, and then $100 to get a "job" done, they said.

Grabbing kalashnikovs, they went to sea with two others and tried -- and failed -- to hijack a cargo ship. So they resorted to storming the Tanit, a 42-foot sailboat.

Speaking in court, Mahamud Abdi Mohamed, who does not know if he is 26 or 27, said he grew up in a family of nomads. His father died "by accident" from a bullet wound when the defendant was 8.

When he turned 12, he started tending to the family's goats, but resorted to fishing when he lost almost all the animals in 2005.

"There was no other job than fishing, my only concern was to feed my family, I risked my life because I didn't know how to swim," he said, adding he did not know the job offered to him in 2009 involved piracy.

The two other defendants, aged 31 and 29, were both also struggling fishermen.

The lawyer for Lemacon's widow Chloe, Arnaud Colon de Franciosi, said earlier Monday that the family was "traumatised and shocked but at the same time wanted justice."

Chloe Lemacon was angry with the French state for ordering a "dangerous operation," he said.

The Lemacons left the northwestern French port of Vannes in 2008 for a journey to Zanzibar. They were taken hostage on April 6, 2009 off the Somali coast.

France has taken a tough line on pirates caught by its forces in the waters off East Africa, where pirates have seized dozens of mainly merchant vessels for ransom in recent years.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/somali-pirates-trial-seizing-french-yacht-100133039.html
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Canon PowerShot G16

On the surface the Canon PowerShot G16 ($549.99 direct) appears to be a near doppleganger of its predecessor, the G15. Aside from a few minor differences in button functions and the model badge the two cameras are identical in shape and function. But underneath the hood is a new image processor that enhances video quality and improves burst shooting speed, and Wi-Fi has been added as well. Despite these improvements, the 12-megapixel G16 can't oust Sony's top-end Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II, which manages to squeeze a much larger image sensor into a smaller body, from its place as our Editors' Choice. That camera manages to squeeze a much larger image sensor into a smaller body. But the RX100 II is quite expensive, and while the G16 will never be considered a budget option, it's a solid choice if you value a longer zoom lens and more traditional controls.

Design and Features
The G16 maintains the chunky design of its predecessor. It measures 3 by 4.3 by 1.6 inches and weighs in at 12.6 ounces. It's a little taller and a little thicker than other models in its class, even those with a hot shoe like the Samsung EX2F (2.4 by 4.4 by 1.1 inches, 10.4 ounces). But that's because the G16 includes a built-in optical viewfinder and a top-mounted exposure compensation dial.

There are only a couple other premium compacts that retain an optical viewfinder. Canon's own G1 X is one of them, and the Fujifilm X20 is the other. Unfortunately, the viewfinder on the G16 continues to be a disappointment. It delivers a tunnel vision type feel and very rough framing; at close distances, parallax makes it downright useless. The X20 is a dream to use in comparison; that viewfinder is large and bright, and displays basic shooting settings. Like the G16 it doesn't provide through-the-lens viewing, but it does switch to Live View when you focus on an object at macro distances.

Although I haven't had the chance to review them yet, both Panasonic and Nikon have recently released cameras of this class with built-in electronic viewfinders. The Panasonic LF1 and Nikon P7800. I had some hands-on time with the P7800 prior to its announcement and found its EVF to be quite sharp, and certainly adequate for a compact camera. A design of that type would be preferable to the substandard optical finder that Canon has continued to use in its G-series. If you want an eye-level finder in a compact camera it's hard to beat the excellent optical finder in the Fujifilm X20, but an EVF is a good alternative if you prefer through-the-lens viewing. Other cameras of this type, including the Olympus XZ-2, Panasonic LX7, and Sony RX100 II support hot-shoe-mounted external EVFs via an accessory port.

The 12-megapixel image sensor is a 1/1.7-inch design, which is par for the course for high-end compacts. There are a few notable exceptions; the Sony RX100 and RX100 II use 1-inch designs, which are about 2.7 times the size of the G16's sensor in terms of surface area, and the Fuji X20 and XF1 rock 2/3-inch designs, which only offer a 33 percent size advantage over the 1/1.7-inch class. Those cameras with bigger imagers may make the 1/1.7-inch design sound diminutive, but remember that the G16 and others with the same sensor size boast 50 percent more surface area than standard compact cameras like the Canon PowerShot Elph 330 HS, most of which utilize sensors of the 1/2.3-inch class.

A sesnsor of this size allows for a lens with a fairly robust zoom and wide aperture in a body the size of the G16. It uses a 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) f/1.8-2.8 lens, which covers a wide-angle to telephoto range. The Sony RX100 and RX100 II aren't as ambitious with the zoom (28-100mm for both) and, while the aperture is a wide f/1.8 at 28mm, it narrows to f/4.9 when zoomed all the way in. That camera has a big advantage in low-light performance and shallow depth of field at its widest angle, but both diminish when zoomed.

To keep demanding shooters happy, Canon has loaded the G16 with physical controls. There's a front control wheel, and on the top you'll find a mode dial and exposure compensation dial. Rear controls include physical buttons to control ISO, start movie recording, engage exposure lock, activate macro focusing, adjust the flash output, move the active autofocus point, and to toggle between manual and autofocus operation.  The EV compensation dial is a boon here; the only other cameras in this class that have it are the Pentax MX-1, Fujifilm X20, and the Nikon P7800.

The rear 3-inch display is a fixed design and packs a 922k-dot resolution. It's quite sharp, with the only real knock being that it doesn't tilt like the display on the RX100 II or Nikon P7800. There's an overlay menu available when shooting; it covers a small strip on the left and bottom of the display. It's quite responsive, and provides quick access to shooting controls that don't have physical buttons like the drive mode, metering pattern, file format, and white balance.

Like most of Canon's recent releases, Wi-Fi is built in. The implementation is similar to previous models, with the same improvements that I saw with the PowerShot S120. Gone is the requirement to plug the camera into your computer via USB to set up online services; you'll still need a computer to set up a Canon Image Gateway account, but it's possible to tie the G16 to that account over Wi-Fi. Once that's done you can post directly from the G16 to Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter.

Transferring photos and videos to your smartphone is more straightforward; the free Canon CameraWindow app for iOS or Android makes direct transfer possible, either by connecting your phone to an SSID broadcast by the G16 or by connecting both devices to the same Wi-Fi network. You'll also be able to print wirelessly to compatible Wi-Fi printers, send images directly to another Canon camera, and transfer images directly to your computer. Canon's Wi-Fi is one of the better implementations that I've seen, but it can't match Samsung; the EX2F allows you to set up online accounts from within the camera itself, and also supports remote control via your phone or tablet.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/sYcVRqTJyOk/0,2817,2425891,00.asp
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Economists Await Shutdown-Delayed Jobs Report

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Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=237166786&ft=1&f=1006
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NVIDIA's GeForce Experience will stream directly to Twitch, Shadowplay coming on October 28th

NVIDIA's GeForce Experience software is getting an update by the end of the year that'll add Twitch streaming directly from the application. The company says that Shadowplay, its DVR-esque service that automatically captures the last 20 minutes of gameplay video, will arrive on October 28th in beta. ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/iPiCUZQeFZQ/
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Why Intel's more-of-the-same processors aren't enough

Despite Intel announcing flat earnings earlier in the week, the venerable chipmaker is pinning its client-side hopes on what amounts to the same strategy it's always pursued: bring out a fresh raft of processors with more speed and less power.

For consumers, this means a slew of cheap new devices -- the $99 tablets, $299 Haswell-powered notebooks, and $349 dockables that have been bruited for the holidays. But there's little about these offerings, apart from their prices -- and maybe not even that -- to get consumers or investors excited, as their attention is already elsewhere.

Slumping Wintel PC sales notwitstanding, the majority of Intel's revenue stream is still coming from the desktop market: $8.38 billion for the quarter, down 3.5 percent year-over-year. It's a large market, but a stagnant one, as many PC users continue to keep their existing devices or opt for Android or iOS devices to complement them instead of new Wintel ones.

Even the back-to-school season, the worst for PCs in five years, hasn't made a dent in that decline. Neither, it seems, has Windows XP's death march. A low-end user who hasn't upgraded since XP might well ditch that system for iOS or Android, not Wintel, and feel like he's getting more for his money.

Why the same old thing won't do
In the face of such normative changes, it's hard to see how the usual cycle of offering another round of cheaper, faster devices with better power consumption will affect anything. The competition is offering something more valuable than any of those things alone -- or even together: a genuinely new style of computing that the legacy Windows world simply hasn't been able to deliver, even in its Windows 8 makeover. Even the vaunted 50 percent improvements in battery life and doubled graphics performance promised by the Haswell processor (and later the Broadwell) aren't sufficient temptation anymore.

What's more, even if such super-cheap machines blew off the shelves, it's hard to see Intel turning much of a profit given the already razor-thin margins in the hardware world. And Intel's mobile ambitions are still a big blank, in part because its most interesting parts aren't even out yet: the Quark processors for wearable and embedded computing. The company did hint that an LTE-enabled processor line should be available by the end of 2013, with a next-generation version out by the first half of 2014.

Perhaps Intel's real long-term play is to move all the more over to the server side, where the content for those smartwatches and tablets is being crunched. The data center is where growth appears to be: such sales reaped $2.9 billion for Intel in Q3, a tidy 12.2 percent hike over last year's Q3 results. (Cloud and storage revenue were also up.) But Intel has a long way to go before its data center, storage, and services numbers can replace its PC sales.

In the meantime, investors remain unimpressed with the consumer side. And it sounds like come Christmastime, consumers will be equally indifferent.

This story, "Why Intel's more-of-the-same processors aren't enough," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/computer-hardware/why-intels-more-of-the-same-processors-arent-enough-229084
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U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges 'yes' vote on debt deal (reuters)

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