Since the Mac Terminal can handle ssh, I have not found the need to utilize a stand-alone ssh client.

Cyberduck:

Cyberduck is an open source FTP / SFTP /Cloud Storage / WebDav client for connecting remotely to almost anything!  It even lets you manage and upload to your Google docs account.  Cyberduck offers a drag and drop interface and convieneintly allows you to edit files remotely (actually it downloads the file to a temp directory, opens it in the appropriate local editing application, then uploads it once saved). My all time favorite feature is the rubber ducky icon you get on your dock!

Cyberduck can be downloaded from the app store or from this link: http://cyberduck.ch/

Burn:

This may be one of the simplest burning apps I have ever used. Creating a DVD can take a long time in even some of the better commercial programs, but not with burn. select almost any video file and Burn will analyze the file and automatically convert it to the proper file format before burning to a disk.  Creating cds and dvds from .iso files is also as simple as dragging and dropping the .iso file to the interface.

Burn can be found here: http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

Adium:

Apart from the endearing program icon (“Adiumy”) that sleeps in your dock until you run the program, Adium offers  connections to almost every instant messaging protocol under the sun, and provides Address book integration to get images, and names from the address book if a contact matches.

By the way, my Adiumy is blue. What’s yours?

Adium can be found here:  http://adium.im/

The Unarchiver:

If you have used a Mac in the 80′s or 90′s you are probably familiar stuffit files (.sit), a File compression utility that had pretty much dominated the mac market from its release in 1987 until several years after the  the release of OSX in 2001.  If you ever worked on a project between PC and Mac then you also remember the aggravation of receiving a stuffit archive from a mac user!  While those days are pretty much over and .zip, is the standard for cross platform archives, there are still those select few that will send you a file in .sit format (most likely on a ZIP disk!). Lucky for us, “The Unarchiver” can handle this along with many other standard and obscure archive formats.

The Unarchiver can be found on the app store or here: http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

Keepass:

KeePass keeps all your usernames and passwords safe in an encrypted database. Simply select the KeePass database file, enter your user-name and password, optionally select a key file. That’s it! you now have access to your list of passwords.  You don’t have to worry about someone peeking over your shoulder and seeing your user-names or passwords, because they are starred out, and are only accessed by copying and pasting the user-name or password from the interface.

Since Keepass works on Mac and Windows, you can store your database file on a cloud based storage or usb key and access your passwords from wherever you need them.

KeyPass is available from here: http://keepass.info/

OpenOffice.org:

For the most part Google Docs provides all my spreadsheet, and document needs. However, every now and again its just nice to be able to open documents offline.  This is where Open Office comes in.  Open Office is a feature rich alternative to Microsoft Office, at a great price (free).  As of OSX 10.4 Open Office is fully ported to Aqua. but if you are running an older version of OSX there is a version that runs under the x11 windowing enviroment

Click the links in the paragraph above to find the version for your OSX version or visit: openoffice.org

About a month ago I decided to upgrade my current workstation to Windows 7 64 bit. In the process of re-installing all my programs I realized there are quite a few Open source and Free Programs that I have come to rely on for my day to day work.  Since I have found these programs invaluable to my workflow, I felt I would share them with the community.

Filezilla:

Filezilla is a Free and Open source FTP Client that while not being the prettiest interface, it does provide a great two window drag and drop enabled file browser (local and remote), as well as a site manager and quick connect with history.

One nice feature of this project that is worth mentioning is that there is also a “Filezilla Server” application.  The server application allows you to quickly set up an ftp, through GUI, and add users on a Windows computer.  this can come in handy if you need a fast way to send someone a large directory of files, as they can download them directly from your computer without the wait time to first upload them to an external service.

Filezilla can be found here: http://filezilla-project.org/

PuTTY Tray:

PuTTY Tray is an extended version of PuTTY (a free Telnet / SSH client).  When you need to quickly establish a terminal connection to a web-server or other linux/unix machine, PuTTY is a simple client that saves sessions and supports several protocols.

PuTTY Tray is available for download here:  http://puttytray.goeswhere.com/

WinSCP:

WinSCP is a free and opensource SCP and FTP client. SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) allows files to be transmitted securely between two hosts. The protocol is based off of the SSH Protocol meaning that you can transfer files to a machine running SSH.  Win SCP gives you a graphical user interface (that is drag and drop enabled), to facilitate file transfer over SSH.

WinSCP can be found here: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

7-zip

Whenever you need to archive or un-archive files, 7-zip is a no-hassle way to get the job done quick. It has a user interface however I personally have never used it as almost everything can be done from a “right click” of the mouse in windows explorer.

7-zip is free and open source. It can found here: http://www.7-zip.org/

KeePass

If you are like me, you have literally hundreds of user-names and passwords you need to remember, I shouldn’t have to stress the importance of using different passwords for each account!

KeePass keeps all your usernames and passwords safe in an encrypted database. Simply select the KeePass database file, enter your user-name and password, optionally select a key file. That’s it! you now have access to your list of passwords.  You don’t have to worry about someone peeking over your shoulder and seeing your user-names or passwords, because they are starred out, and are only accessed by copying and pasting the user-name or password from the interface.

KeyPass is available from here: http://keepass.info/

OpenOffice.org

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with Microsoft Office. But Open Office is a great opensource alternative that is very feature rich and has a workflow very similar to Microsoft Office (pre-Ribbon).  One thing to note is that, if you are used to building scripts or macros in MS Office, they may not transfer over. However, Open Office does have its own scripting framework that supports multiple languages, mainly: BeanShell, JavaScript, Java, Python, and OpenOffice.org Basic. You can learn more on OOo Scripting here.

OpenOffice.org can be found at; you guessed it: http://www.openoffice.org/

Pidgin

Pidgin is a multiple protocol instant messenger client.  it supports the following chat networks:

Facebook Chat is available via a plugin found here.

You can download Pidgin here: http://www.pidgin.im/

Those were my top 7 Free and or Open Source Applications that I use on a daily basis. Do you have any favorites that you can’t live without? Would you like to learn more about any of the programs mentioned above? Leave a message below or drop me an email on the contact page, I would love to hear from you!

Daniel artfully blends video and lighting, with music and spoken word in this fascinating study of the human body in its peak physical condition.

Priced to rival the new RED Scarlet system, canon has chosen to focus on color reproduction over a raw workflow similar to RED I won’t touch the arguments for and against 4k footage, if you want more information click on over to this article by Panavision VP John Galt @ Creative Cow.

Here is a demo of the camera ans some of it’s features: (by Jonathan Yi):

No longer just tools for international espionage, Homebrew USB ‘Dead Drops’ have been appearing all over the world.

“‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. USB flash drives are embedded into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. Everyone is invited to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your favorite files and data. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is open to participation.” -link

 

As of the publish date of this article, deaddrops.com (a website that maintains a user submitted database of drops worldwide.) lists the locations of 767 USB drops containing approximately 2,385 GB of data that can be accessed by anyone with a laptop or other USB enabled device.

The first USB Dead Drop project was started in 2010 in New York City, USA, by Artist and member of the “Free, Art & Technology Labs” (F.A.T.) Aram Bartholl, who embedded 5 usb drives into brick walls and other public spaces around New York City.  Adam Explains the project and shows you how to make your own dead drop in the video below:

Dead Drops ‘How to’ – NYC from aram bartholl on Vimeo.

LINKS:

Photo Credit (ADACTO – FLICKR) http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/5398569344/

Interactive Map of dead drops worldwide: http://deaddrops.com/dead-drops/db-map/

Adam Bartholl: http://www.datenform.de/indexeng.html

F.A.T. Labs NYC: http://fffff.at/