There was a time when iTunes was a (relatively) snappy and meagre 10MB download and it played back music well enough. Nowadays, Apple’s free audio player software (now at version 8.0.2) is a jukebox, store, sync software and video player all rolled into one that weighs in at a grand 60MB. There are times when I wish there was an iTunes Lite option that did not have the extra features I don’t need and just played audio.

I can’t wait for Songbird 1.0 to come out — with iPod support baked in, it can completely replace iTunes for most people (on Macs and Windows).

This beautiful coin won a Dutch contest to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. The winning designer, Stani Michiels, (actually, it’s more the winning architect) has a nice detailed process story about the winning design. The stunning thing for me was that the entire process of designing the coin was all done with free software — Python, SPE editor, PIL, pyCairo, Gimp, Inkscape, Phatch — on an Asus Eee PC that ran Ubuntu.

Absolutely stunning work and a glowing tribute to the versatility, quality and cost of Linux in a ‘production’ environment. If only Linux and most other free software were easy enough for more people (like our parents) to access and use on their desktops, the world might be better, freer and less energy-hungry than it is now.

[Via Design Oberserver]

Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco — in a world where only one company sells tobacco. Like any addictive drug, it inculcates a harmful dependency.

›› Richard Stallman rips into the One Laptop Per Child project

If you are on a Mac, need a simple software to automate your backups and don’t have much money to spare, you definitely need to take a look at iBackup. Created by Martin Jahn, iBackup is a simple-to-use back up tool that allows for easy restoration as well. Not only does it back up your files, it can also save system preferences and settings from applications like iCal, iSync, Keychains, etc. Very highly recommended for those who need a simple backup tool that can automate backups with minimum fuss.

If you are using it in a commercial environment, you need to pay for it though. But that’s not really a lot to ask for, is it?

Type this into the address bar of your freshly installed beta version of Google Chrome.

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‘Whoa’, but hey, it is beta software.

[Via atc]

Looks like the browser wars are upon us again. With the introduction of Google’s Chrome browser to the party, I cannot wait to see how the loyalty of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera users will be tested (and I include myself in there). The IHT has a good write-up on how Google doesn’t actually have to win this browser war to cause Microsoft to wobble.

And yeah, I am convinced Chrome is going to be the killer app for Android. In fact, since it’s WebKit powered, it could be ported to the iPhone someday, somehow.

Like many nerds, I really cannot do without Quicksilver on my Macs. For those not familiar with Quicksilver, it is (at the very basic level) a keyboard application launcher (though it’s capable of many more things). There are a number of Quicksilver pretenders for the Windows and I have tried a number of them. My favourite, though, has always been Find and Run Robot. I have been using it for the last three years and it has never let me down — it is lightning fast, doesn’t slow your computer down and stays out of the way.

Having said that, Quicksilver is a very powerful application, and honestly, Find and Run Robot is not really at that level yet. But it works great as an application launcher and can only get better.