Maysville Linux Users Group (MLUG) - Linux Users Helping Linux Users

OxygenOffice Professional

OxygenOffice Professionalis an enhanced version of OpenOffice.org. It includes more than 3400 graphics, both clip art and photos, which are integrated into the gallery and can easily be placed into any OxygenOffice document. Several templates and sample documents are included, as well as over 90 fonts. OOoWikipedia, which can search Wikipedia, is also included. An enhanced help menu, additional User's Manual, and extended tips are great to help beginners get started. You can use more predefined gradients, colors, and other useful elements, run VBA from Excel documents in Calc, and import Office Open XML (Microsoft Office 2007), Works, WordPerfect files, and T602 document.

OxygenOffice Professional is free to download, use and distribute for corporate, enterprise, home and non-profit application. It is easy to use, easy to learn. Check out the additional screenshots. Also you can get the latest information in the news section and from the project summary page.

Linux Links

http://www.linuxlinks.com is an online repository of web site links covering many categories and sub-categories. They have categories from Beginners to software (with many sub-categories), companies, distributions, etc.

Check the web site out....I am sure you will find something there.

Argyll Color Management System

http://argyllcms.com/

Argyll Color Management System is our link of the week.

Have you ever created an image in Linux and then printed it to find out that the printed image looks nothing like the image you created? What about working with digital photos and finding the colors are too bright or not indicative of the actual image taken? Chances are, if you are taking digital photos or creating digital images, you may find that your monitor does not display the correct colors....or your printers do not print what is displayed on screen, or even viewing the image on a different computer may look entirely different. Color/Monitor/Printer calibration then becomes an absolute must.......

Argyll is an open source, ICC compatible color management system. It supports accurate ICC profile creation for scanners, CMYK printers, film recorders and calibration and profiling of displays. Spectral sample data is supported, allowing a selection of illuminants observer types, and paper fluorescent whitener additive compensation. Profiles can also incorporate source specific gamut mappings for perceptual and saturation intents. Gamut mapping and profile linking uses the CIECAM02 appearance model, a unique gamut mapping algorithm, and a wide selection of rendering intents. It also includes code for the fastest portable 8 bit raster color conversion engine available anywhere, as well as support for fast, fully accurate 16 bit conversion. Device color gamuts can also be viewed and compared using a VRML viewer. Comprehensive documentation is provided for each utility, and a general guide to using the tools for typical color management tasks is also available. A mailing list provides support for more advanced usage.

Argyll is a collection of source code that compiles into a set of command line tools, licensed under the GNU licensing terms.

Argyll also includes a general purpose ICC profile format access library, icclib, and a general purpose CGATS file format I/O library.

Raw Therapy: Raw Image Converter & Digital Photo Processor

Raw Therapee is a free RAW converter and digital photo processing software. The features below are implemented already:

Full EXIF support: The long-waited feature is here, RawTherapee is able to import EXIF data from RAWs and export to the output image formats, including TIFF. RT supports Makernotes, and standards compliance is improved.
EXIF Browser: Browse, edit, delete the original EXIF tags. The possibility to record additional tags (like author, copyright and comment) is also available.
IPTC tag support
More input ICC profile options
A new highlight recovery method ("CIELab Blending"), that promises better recovery of color information
Histogram now corresponds to cropped area
Runtime theme switching: The look ("skin") of RT can be changed, and you don't even need to restart the program. RT will be packed with new themes, too.
Lots of other minor (and not-so-minor) tweaks: bugfixes, eye-candy, some new GUI icons, performance improvements, etc...

Requirements:

a fast processor with SSE support is recommended (but not required)
at least 512 MB of RAM.
Windows version: windows 2000 or XP is required
for the linux version: gtk+ 2.10 series required

Download:

Windows version (SSE support)	rawtherapee23.exe
Windows version (no SSE support)	rawtherapee23nosse.exe
Deb package for Ubuntu (i386)	rawtherapee_2.3_i386.deb
Deb package for Ubuntu (i385, no SSE)	rawtherapee-nonsse_2.3_i386.deb
Deb package for Ubuntu (amd64)	rawtherapee_2.3_amd64.deb
Tgz archive for linux with glibc 2.4	rawtherapee23_glibc24.tgz
Tgz archive for linux with glibc 2.4 (no SSE)	rawtherapee23nosse_glibc24.tgz
Tgz archive for linux with glibc 2.3	rawtherapee23_glibc23.tgz
Tgz archive for linux with glibc 2.3 (no SSE)	rawtherapee23nosse_glibc23.tgz

Price:

You can decide how much you pay for RawTherapee.
It can be downloaded and evaluated for free. If you are satisfied with it and you can afford an $5 payment, the author kindly asks you to make a donation to support the further development. Please click on one of the donation buttons on the right side and make PayPal payment.

Part 1 - The Ultimate Linux Digital Photography Guide - Introduction

The Ultimate Guide to Linux Digital Photography Software - Introduction

I had been using digikam for several years to manage my collection of digital photographs. With the recent purchase of a new DSLR (my first I might add), I was looking to see what else was out there in the terms of software, functionality, features, costs, etc. At the same time, while looking on the net to see what was available, I found many people looking for the same things as I. There was also a lot of mis-information out there. Due to the popularity of our Ultimate Linux Guides to ....I decided to create this one.

In this article, I will list some of the software that is out there along with a basic description and their homepage url's. I will randomly pick the software as I try it out and add to this collection, tentively entitled, "The Ultimate Linux Digital Photography Guide". This guide will help you chose the correct workflow that works for you.

Please use the talk-back forum to discuss this article, make suggestions or recommendations or corrections, add your insight, or add to the articles.

blueMarine - Linux Digital Photo Workflow

With point and shoot digital camera's I have owned in the past, both F-spot and Digikam have worked well. Now that I have purchased a new DSLR I am looking into other types of software for photo management (and it will be hard for me to change after using digikam all these years....if I even change at all).

With the above being said, I have found blueMarine. It is our "Link of the Week".

blueMarine is an open source application for the digital photo workflow, the blueMarine project will provide you an all-in-one tool for managing your photos, from the shoot up to the archiving and beyond. blueMarine is an expandable, open platform and includes specific support for different photographers communities, as well as the latest technologies.

blueMarine foundation is very similar to existing applications such as Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture: a photo browser, which can be explored in different ways (by folder, by calendar, by tags, by galleries). This is just a core upon which different modules can be plugged in. The aim of blueMarine is to fully support the photographic workflow, even before the photo shoot (for instance, trip planning supported by maps) and beyond print or archival. For instance, an ornithologist usually manages field notes about the bird observed and photographed: directly binding them to photos and maybe GPS positioning data is much better than keeping a separate Excel sheet.

Bibble.com = Own a DSLR AND Use Linux??

I just bought a new Canon Xsi / 450D DSLR camera. Because I wanted this camera so badly, I even considered going to dual boot Windows just so I could shoot in raw + L JPEG photo's and be able to use the included professional photo editing tools. Another feature I wanted was the tethered shots (the camera being hooked up to my laptop and controlling / taking photos from the laptop). This feature was also included for Windows / Mac but no canon software for Linux.

Step up to the plate for Bibble - Bibble 4.9 Professional Workflow and RAW Conversion software for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux is designed to quickly and easily let you maximize the results from most major cameras and RAW formats.

Bibble 4.9 leads the industry with features including:

So, this link of the week award goes to Bibble.com for allowing me to continue using Linux for everything! (now if I could only afford to buy the pro version after buying the camera......)

Nintendo Wii can run linux

GameCube linux, a linux distribution aimed at running on Nintendo GameCubes, has made a release available as a proof-of-concept currently in version 2 that linux can run on the Nintendo Wii via a USB drive. The version 1 proof-of-concept uses the Team Tweezers' twilight-hack. The Twilight Hack is currently the only safe, released way to run homebrew on an unmodded Wii.

New Linux Super Computer Uses Playstation 3's

When the PlayStation3 was released in November 2006, Gaurav Khanna's wife braved long queues so he could be one of the first people in the US to get his hands on the gaming console.

But the astrophysicist was not itching to burn some rubber in Gran Turismo or shoot hoops in NBA 07. Instead he wanted to build his own supercomputer.

Mr Khanna now owns 16 PS3s, which spend their days simulating the activities of very large black holes in the universe for the physics department at the University of Massachusetts.

Hooked together in a single cluster, the PS3 consoles provide his department with the same amount of computing power as a 400-node supercomputer.

Full article at Digital Life

New Nine Inch Nails album released under Creative Commons License

The new Nine Inch Nails album, called Ghosts I-IV, has been released under the Creative Commons License.

From the homepage: "Nine Inch Nails presents Ghosts I - IV, a brand new 36 track instrumental collection available right now. Almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I - IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Trent Reznor explains, "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts.""

From the FAQ: " Ghosts I-IV is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license."