CouchDB is a (relatively) new database option for development that focuses on documents, rather than generic relational systems like most databases do. I think the concept is appealing and support for things like automatic versioning and distributed processing and storage could mean a lot fewer headaches that trying to get a custom system going yourself. Also interesting is the JSON storage format, which would make this ideal to use in many asynchronous web applications as the data returned can be used straight away on the browser.
I haven’t had any cause to use this system yet but I’ll be sure to write a review when I do. Anyone else taken this for a spin?
SAGE, as seen on Slashdot and Digg, is a mathematical modelling and computation tool. I’ve never used Mathematica or MATLAB so I don’t exactly have a need for this but I’m sure someone may get some use out of it. It uses Python as its scripting language so it should be easier to extend than using a custom language.
I recently discovered eXtplorer, which is a Javascript and PHP file manager. The system looks very impressive and the feature list sounds great for allowing less technical users to manage their own websites (rather than requiring an FTP program). However, from my admittedly brief examination of the software I found that many of the things simply didn’t work or there were enough minor issues to make using it rather annoying.
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Songbird, a music player with tight integration with the web, has been released at version 0.3.
With my new computer one of the things I wanted to try was to see exactly how much functionality I could achieve on Windows using only freely available software. Having gotten most things like multimedia playback, word processing and other essentials out of the way I found I needed a decent replacement for Nero. After using ImgBurn for a while, which is workable but better suited for burning and ripping discs rather than building them, I stumbled upon InfraRecorder (IR) on Sourceforge. The software is apparently intended to be an open source replacement for Nero so it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Here are my thoughts on it.
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This Saturday is Software Freedom Day, a day celebrating free and open source software and acting as a means of educating the public about FOSS and encouraging its use. There is an event in Melbourne, called Software Freedom Day Bazaar, at the Melbourne Town Hall from 11am until 4pm. Cost of admission is free.
Were it not for Manifest running on the same day I’d be interested in attending.