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It’s time now to get your own ERP. Openbravo is the leading fully functional integrated web-based open source ERP (enterprise management system) that offers a unique value proposition - a higher value at a lower cost.

Web-based

Openbravo has been designed from the ground up to be web-based, enabling universal, secure access and simplicity through any browser.

Fully Functional

Openbravo includes all the functionality you would expect of an extended ERP solution, as well as basic CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BI (Business Intelligence).

Truly Integrated, Truly an ERP

Openbravo has been designed as a single ERP application: all functionalities share a common architecture, philosophy, rules and user interface, and all are seamlessly integrated.

Open Source

Openbravo is released under an open source license, with no hidden costs or ties to a particular vendor. The license ensures no usage fees, public access to source code and permission to freely modify source code.

Revolutionary Architecture

Openbravo is based on a revolutionary architecture that offers a better way to build software applications.

Adapted to Needs

Once requirements and business processes have been identified, Openbravo can be adapted to any company’s needs and be fully operational in a short amount of time.

Product Features:

Openbravo is an open source ERP solution designed specifically for the SME (small to midsize firm). Developed in a web based environment, it includes many robust functionalities which are considered part of the extended ERP: procurement and warehouse management, project and service management, production management, and financial management.

Additionally, this same application seemlessly integrates the rest of the areas, starting with a management scope directly helping clients with its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BI (Business Intelligence).

0> Master Data Management

Products, components, bills of materials, customers, vendors, employees etc.

The correct management of the master data of your company (products, customers, vendors, etc.) is a fundamental aspect for guaranteeing the coherence and tracking of processes. Maintaining exclusive coding, avoiding duplications, and sharing the relevant information among all areas of your company is one of the challenges faced today by all types and sizes of organizations. Openbravo helps you to organize and centralize the key data of your company, facilitating the rapid and easy flow of information among all areas implicated in different company processes.

• Products and Components.
  • Product categories.
  • Product indexes: product types (item, service, cost), with specialized management for each. Particular warehouse management definition for each product (management of stock, tracking ability). Characteristics. Product images.
  • Measurement units, conversion between units, variable weight units.
  • Materials lists (products made up of others).
  • Vendors by product.
  • Price lists. Definitions of rates with differentiation (for example, from sales rates to purchasing rates). Automatic process of generation of rates.
  • Rates. Price rates, applicable prices, price limits, specialized rules for applying prices to purchasing and sales.
  • Freight categories.
  • Transportation services (integrated with business partners).
  • Substitute products.
• Business Partners.
  • Customers, vendors, employees. Functions characterized by internal use (delivery/receipt of material, invoicing, collection, social direction, others). Contacts associated with direction. Third party grouping. Areas of interest (for commercial analysis).
  • Customers. Sales rates. Invoicing method (immediate, delivery notes served, order completely delivered, periodical). Payment forms and terms (conditions of payment). Printing format and number of documents discernable by customer. Permitted risk (credit).
  • Vendors. Prices and discounts. Form and period of payment (conditions of payment).
  • Employees. Related with customer agent.
  • Groups of business partners (segments or categories).
  • Payment Terms (expiration dates, fixed payment days, working days, multiple expiration dates).
  • Periodic invoicing calendars (monthly, fortnightly, weekly), with cut-off dates for each case. Possibility of mixed use calendars.
  • Purchasing and volume sales discounts. Relation of articles, scalable discounts.
  • Sales channels (sales representatives, telesales).
  • Areas of interest.
  • Third party activity reports.

1> Procurement Management

Rates, purchase orders, goods receipts, invoice registration and accounting, purchase planning, etc.

Openbravo’s handling of the flow of supply guarantees the integrity, tracking, and homogeneity of the entire process. Each document in the supply process is based on the information contained in the previous document, so that repetitive introduction of data and human errors are avoided. In this way, it is possible to navigate through different documents that conform to a determined flow (order, goods receipt, invoice, payment) and know in real time the state of any given order (pending, delivered, partially delivered, invoiced, etc). The natural integration of this process with accounting guarantees that the finance department always has up to date and reliable data at its disposal.

• Purchase planning, based on production necessities, keeping in mind minimum stock levels, goods receipts dates, and pending requests.
• Purchase orders. Rates applications: prices, discounts and price limit controls. Warehouse control of goods pending receipt. Correction of orders. Creation of purchase orders from sales orders. Refunds to the vendor.
• Receipts. Automatic creation from pending order lines. Automation of incoming goods (location according to priority). Refunds to the vendor (according to stocks). Cancellation of delivery notes.
• Purchase invoices. Application of rates: prices, discounts and control of price limit. Automatic creation from order lines or delivery note lines pending invoicing. Invoicing of goods processed in consignment. order. Cancellation of invoice (leaving pending for invoicing the associated documents).
• Relationship between orders, delivery notes and invoices.
• Expense Invoices.
• Massive printing of documents.
• Purchasing order reports, vendor invoices.

2> Warehouse Management

Warehouses and bins, warehouse units, lots, serial numbers, packages, labels, receipts and deliveries, movements between warehouses, inventories, stock valuation, transport, etc.

The warehouse management processes built into Openbravo allows the inventory in your organization to always be up to date and correctly valued. The possibility of defining the warehouse structure of your organization to unit level (storage bins) facilitates the exact localization of your stock at any time. Additionally, the capacity for managing product lots and the possibility of using serial numbers assure compliance with the tracking requirements imposed by the majority of industries.

• Warehouses and storage bins (multiple warehouse use available).
• Stock products in multiple units (for example in kilograms and boxes).
• Personalized product attributes in the warehouse (color, size, quality description, etc.).
• Lot and serial numbers.
• Printing of labels. Barcodes (EAN, UPC, UCC, Code, others.).
• Management of bundles in warehouses.
• Restocking control.
• Traceability configurable by product.
• Movement among warehouses.
• Picking strategies (according to stock, with rules of priority by expiry, location, etc.).
• Physical inventory. Inventory planning. Continuous inventory.
• Reports of movements, tracking, stock, arrivals/departures, expiry, inventories, locations, etc. Personalized reports.

3> Project and Service Management

Projects, phases, tasks, resources, budget, expenses and expense invoicing, related purchases, etc.

This functionality is orientated towards companies whose activities are based on the delivery of projects and services. With relationship to projects, Openbravo allows for the management of budgets, phases, tasks, expenses and purchases related with each individual project. These projects may be related to monitoring construction projects or even sending out and sales and purchase related requests. The service component permits companies to define services and resources and control all activities. These activities may or may not be billable, for internal or external customers, and be monitored for incurred expenses at a detailed level.

• Project types, phases and tasks.
• Expenses associated with a project.
• Made-to-order projects and generation of sales orders from templates.
• Construction projects. Invoice to origin (by project).
• Rates by project.
• Budget report. Tracking of actions regarding budget estimates.
• Generation of purchase orders.
• Project reports.
• Resources.
• Register of services.
• Internal expenses.
• Invoicing of expenses.
• Invoicing of services.
• Levels of service.
• Activities report.

4> Production Management

Plant structure, production plans, BOM’s, MRP, manufacturing orders, job reports, costs of production, work incidences, preventive maintenance types, etc.

The production functions and plant management in Openbravo allow a complete shaping of the productive structure of each organization (sections, cost centers and work centers) as well as the relevant data for production: production plans (operation sequences), and products used to make one another. Currently, the functionality provided by Openbravo is orientated towards covering the usual necessities of a discrete production environment: production planning and requests related to procurement using MRP, creation of manufacturing orders, job reports (notification of times and consumption), calculating costs of production, notification of job incidents and maintenance reports.

• Plant structures.
• HFG’s (Homogeneous Functional Groups) or Cost Centers.
• Work centers and machines.
• Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) keeping in mind client requests, existing clients, stock levels, and minimum order quantities.
• Production plans, with multiple arriving products and multiple departing products.
• Production orders.
• Sequence creation and products for each order phase.
• Confirmations with data relating to the production plan and pre-filled sequence.
• Calculation of production costs with the possibility of adding indirect costs.
• Work incidences.
• Types of equipment and management of each piece of equipment.
• Preventive maintenance and maintenance types.

5> Sales Management and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Prices, rates, varying quantity sales orders, shipments, invoicing, volume discounts, commissions, CRM, etc.

The functionality of Openbravo in the Sales Management module is expressly designed with the objective of allowing maximum flexibility and adaptability in its execution, needed in any commercial process. It is possible to link documents (orders, shipments, invoices) in any order that the company requires or even disregard any one of these that is not necessary. All this is achieved without sacrificing the coherence and integrity of information and guaranteeing the tracking of processes. The capacities of integration with order capture systems by PDAs extend the potential of the solution beyond the physical limits of the particular company.

• Sales areas.
• Sales orders. Direct sales. Pre-sales. Telesales. Rate applications: prices, discounts and price limit controls. Reserves of goods in warehouse for unprocessed orders. Notification of customer risks. Correction of orders.
• Types of order documents: estimations (with and without reserves of goods), standards, warehouses (automatic delivery note generation), Points of sale (automatic generation of delivery note and invoice).
• Delivery note. Automatic creation from pending order lines. Automation of the outgoing orders (according to stocks, with rules of priority by expiry, location, etc). Cancellation of delivery notes.
• Automatic generation of delivery notes.
• Invoicing process. For all types of invoicing: immediate, delivered goods, order completely delivered. Periodically, (weekly, fortnightly, monthly).
• Invoice registration. Rate applications: prices, discounts and price limit controls. Automatic creation from order lines or delivery note lines of delivery notes pending of being invoiced. Notification of customer risks. Invoice cancellation (leaving associated documents pending invoice).
• Massive printing of documents (orders, delivery notes, invoices), with individual selection criteria for the user.
• Possibility of the creation of documents in any order and to disregard documents not required (Order-Delivery note-Invoice; Order-Invoice-Delivery note; Delivery note-Invoice; Invoice).
• Commissions.
• Reports of orders, sales order supplied, delivery notes, invoices, orders not invoiced, details of invoicing.
• Integrated with order capture systems by (palm and pocket PC).
• Standardized customer information (360° vision).
• Management of requests. Integration with E-mail.

6> Financial Management

Chart of accounts, accounts, budgets, taxes, general accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank accounting, balance sheet, P&L, fixed assets, etc.

The financial management functionality provided by Openbravo is designed to minimize manual data input on behalf of the user, thereby freeing them from tedious, routine tasks and allowing greater focus on other, more value added tasks. This increase in productivity is due to the financial department acting as collector of all the relevant actions generated from the other management departments. This occurs in such a way that these have an automatic reflection in the general accounting, in the accounts receivable and accounts payable as soon as they are produced.

• Accounting
  • Default charts of accounts.
  • Definition of charts of accounts.
  • Fiscal year and year to year management.
  • Budgeting.
  • Tax categories.
  • Tax brackets. Determining flexible taxes based on regions, products, or business partners.
  • Linked accounting. Direct navigation from accounting entries to documents and vice versa.
  • Manual entries. Enty rates.
  • Journal entries.
  • Trial balance.
  • General ledger.
  • P&L statements (income statements).
  • Balance sheets.
  • General accounting plan statements.
• Receivables and Payables
  • Generation of debt payments (from invoicing).
  • Issue of debt payments.
  • Management (cancellation, merging and division) of accounting documents. Remittances (according to bank records).
  • Issue of cash accounts. Multi-cash account.
  • Cash account journal (cash audit). Cash account entries by type Expenses, Receipts, Balance, Deposits, Bills, Order (for cash payment on delivery note: possibility of recovering expenses before invoicing. Automatic generation of entries for cash payments and payments on delivery note.
  • Bank statements. Portfolio issues selection assistant.
  • Manual liquidations. Other expenses (payroll, taxes, etc.).
  • Cash account reports, bank, debt payments by position.
• Assets
  • Definition of the assets, fixed assets, acquisition price, and accounting valuation.
  • Temporary or percentage based amortization.
  • Amortization plans.

7> Business Intelligence (BI)

Reporting, multidimensional analysis (OLAP), balanced scorecards.

Nowadays, business organizations handle a great deal of data in the practice of their business activities. This does not necessarily mean that they have available to them the necessary information for the management of their enterprise. The BI component of Openbravo, integrated into the management system, will help you to monitor of the state of your company, providing you with the relevant information for decision-making. The predefined balanced scorecard will allow you to verify, through the monitoring of a series of key indicators, if the defined strategy is being correctly implemented in your organization.

• Integrated with application management.
• Reports definable by user.
• Pre-established dimensions (third party, product, product category, product category, project, campaign, etc.) and dimensions established by use.
• Predefined balanced scorecard.

8> Other characteristics

• Configurable main menu.
• Configurable language for each user.
• Programmable alarms by specific user role or user.
• On line help (currently in English and Spanish).
• Possibility to attach documents, images or files to any register in the application.
• Navigable network of information on forms and reports, you can go to the previous form (back button), you can go to the registers used in the current register (back navigation) or to registers that use the current register (forward navigation).
• Output of reports in multiple formats: .html, .pdf, and .xls.
• Configurable filters and flexible record sorting.
• Embedded selectors in the forms for the most used entities (products, business partners, accounts, projects, orders, invoices…).
• Configurable batch processes of tasks that can be scheduled on specific times.

Get your own Openbravo from here.

KeePass Password Safe is a free, open source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager for Windows. You can store your passwords in a highly-encrypted database, which is locked with one master password or key file.

Introduction

Today you need to remember many passwords. You need a password for the Windows network logon, your e-mail account, your homepage’s ftp password, online passwords (like website member account), etc. etc. etc. The list is endless. Also, you should use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password you have a problem… A serious problem. He would have access to your e-mail account, homepage, etc. Unimaginable.

But who can remember all those passwords? Nobody, but KeePass can. KeePass is a free, open-source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager for Windows.

The program stores your passwords in a highly encrypted database. This database consists of only one file, so it can be easily transferred from one computer to another.

KeePass supports password groups, you can sort your passwords (for example into Windows, Internet, My Homepage, etc.). You can drag&drop passwords into other windows. The powerful auto-type feature will type user names and passwords for you into other windows. The program can export the database to various formats. It can also import data from various other formats (more than 20 different formats of other password managers, a generic CSV importer, …).

Of course, you can also print the password list or current view. Using the context menu of the password list you can quickly copy password or user name to the Windows clipboard. Searching in password database is possible.

The program ships with a strong random password generator (you can define the possible output characters, length, generation rules, etc.).

The program features a plugin architecture. Other people can write plugins for KeePass, extending its functionality: support for even more data import/export formats, backup features, network features, etc. See the plugins page on the KeePass homepage for downloadable plugins and an introduction on how to write your own plugins.

Strong Security

• KeePass supports the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES, Rijndael) and the Twofish algorithms to encrypt its password databases.
• Both of these ciphers are regarded as very secure by the cryptography community. Banks are using these algorithms for example, too.
• Even if you would use all computers in the world to attack one database, decrypting it would take longer than the age of the universe.
• Even quantum computers won’t help that much. The algorithms are symmetric so its complexity would be reduced a bit, anyway, the sun will go nova before you have decrypted the database.
• The complete database is encrypted, not only the password fields. So your usernames, notes, etc. are protected, too.
• SHA-256 is used as password hash. SHA-256 is a 256-bit cryptographically secure one-way hash function. Your master password is hashed using this algorithm and its output is used as key for the encryption algorithms.
• In contrast to many other hashing algorithms, no attacks are known yet against SHA-256.
• In-Memory Passwords Protection: Your passwords are encrypted while KeePass is running, so even if Windows caches the KeePass process to disk, this wouldn’t reveal your passwords anyway.
• [2.x] Protected In-Memory Streams: When loading the inner XML format, passwords are encrypted using a session key.
• Security-Enhanced Password Edit Controls: KeePass is the first password manager that features security-enhanced password edit controls. None of the available password edit control spies work against these controls. The passwords entered in those controls aren’t even visible in the process memory of KeePass.
• Also see the security information page.

Multiple User Keys

• One master password decrypts the complete database.
• Alternatively you can use key files. Key files provide better security than master passwords in most cases. You only have to carry the key file with you, for example on a floppy disk, USB stick, or you can burn it onto a CD. Of course, you shouldn’t lose this disk then.
• For even more security you can combine the above two methods: the database then requires the key file and the password in order to be unlocked. Even if you lose your key file, the database would remain secure.
• [2.x] Additionally, you can lock the database to the current Windows user account. The database can then only be opened by the same person who created it.
• Also see keys information page.

Portable and No Installation Required

• KeePass is portable: it can be carried on an USB stick and runs on Windows systems without being installed.
• Installer packages are available, too, for the ones who like to have shortcuts in their Windows start menu and on the desktop.
• KeePass doesn’t store anything on your system. The program doesn’t create any new registry keys and it doesn’t create any initialization files (INI) in your Windows directory. Deleting the KeePass directory (in case you downloaded the binary ZIP package) or using the uninstaller (in case you downloaded the installer package) leaves no trace of KeePass on your system.
• [1.x] KeePass runs, without downloading any additional libraries, on Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT, 2000, XP (Home & Pro, 32-bit & 64-bit), 2003 and Vista. No .NET framework is required.
• [2.x] KeePass requires the Microsoft .NET Framework (which can be downloaded for free at Microsofts website). Windows Vista already includes this framework; for Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / XP you need to install it, if it’s not installed already.
• Ports for other systems like Linux, MacOSX, PocketPC, Smartphone, etc. are available! See the downloads page.

Export To TXT, HTML, XML and CSV Files

• The password list can be exported to various formats like TXT, HTML, XML and CSV.
• The XML output can be easily used in other applications.
• The HTML output uses cascading style sheets (CSS) to format the table, so you can easily change the layout.
• The CSV output is fully compatible with most other password safes like the commercial closed-source Password Keeper and the closed-source Password Agent, also the CSVs can be imported by spreadsheet applications like Microsofts Excel or OpenOffice’s Calc.
• Many other file formats are supported through KeePass plugins.

Import From Many File Formats

• KeePass uses the common CSV export format of various passwords safes like Password Keeper and Password Agent. Exports from these programs can be easily imported to your KeePass databases.
• KeePass can parse and import TXT outputs of CodeWalletPro, a commercial closed-source password safe.
• KeePass can import TXT files created by Bruce Schneier’s Password Safe v2.
• [2.x] Out of the box, KeePass supports importing more than 20 formats (see Help: Import).
• Many other file formats are supported through KeePass plugins.

Support of Password Groups

• You can create, modify and delete groups, in which passwords can be sorted into.
• The groups can be arranged as a tree, so a group can have subgroups, those subgroups can have subgroups themselves, etc.
• Also see this screenshot.

Time Fields and Entry Attachments

• KeePass supports time fields: creation time, last modification time, last access time and expiration time.
• You can attach files to password entries (useful to store PGP signature files in KeePass for example).

Auto-Type, Global Auto-Type Hot Key and Drag&Drop

• KeePass can minimize itself and type the information of the currently selected entry into dialogs, webforms, etc. Of course, the typing-sequence is 100% user-customizable, read the documentation file for more.
• KeePass features a global auto-type hot key. When KeePass is running in the background (with opened database) and you press the hot key, it looks up the correct entry and executes its auto-type sequence.
• All fields, title, username, password, URL and notes can be drag & dropped into other windows.

Intuitive and Secure Windows Clipboard Handling

• Just double-click on any field of the password list to copy its value to the Windows clipboard.
• Timed clipboard clearing: KeePass can clear the clipboard automatically some time after you’ve copied one of your passwords into it.
• [1.x] Protection against clipboard monitors (other applications won’t get notifications that the clipboard content has been changed).
• [1.x] Paste-once functionality: allow only one paste operation, after pasting the clipboard is cleared automatically by KeePass.

Searching and Sorting

• You can search for specific entries in the databases.
• To sort a password group, just click on one of the column headers in the password list, you can sort by any column.

Strong Random Password Generator

• KeePass can generate strong random passwords for you.
• You can define the possible output characters of the generator (number of characters and type).
• Random seeding through user input: mouse movement and random keyboard input.

Plugin Architecture

• Other people can write plugins for KeePass.
• Plugins can extend the functionality of KeePass, like providing additional import/export methods for other file formats.
• Go to the plugins page for more information and plugin downloads.

Open-Source!

· KeePass free and you have full access to its source code!

· Open-Source prevents from backdoors. You can have a look at its source code and compile it yourself.

· You can yourself check if the security is implemented correctly, you can, if you want, use any other encryption algorithm.

· Opening the sources also encourages other people to port the application to other systems (PocketPC version already in development) or write translations.

· KeePass is OSI Certified Open Source Software. OSI Certified is a certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.

Download KeePass from here.

Recently, I spoke about Azureus A Powerful, Full-Featured, Cross-Platform Bittorrent Client. Now we shall look at another issu, installation of Azureus on Windows, Linux and OSX.

Installation Guide - Windows Users

1) Install JRE from here.
2) Install latest setup.exe from here.
3) Start Azureus.exe.

• If Azureus window does not show up after a minute, or if it immediately terminates, try starting with the debug .exe available from
  http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download/Azureus-debug.exe

Starting manually:

• java -classpath swt.jar;Azureus2.jar org.gudy.azureus2.ui.swt.Main

If Azureus starts without any exception stack traces, you can replace java by javaw and just use this shortcut/batch for starting Azureus:

• javaw -classpath swt.jar;Azureus2.jar org.gudy.azureus2.ui.swt.Main

Batch File:

• start javaw -classpath swt.jar;Azureus2.jar org.gudy.azureus2.ui.swt.Main

If the problem still remains, you should use the batch file, java instead of javaw and an absolute path to java.exe (C:\jre1.4.1\bin\java.exe, for example).

• C:\jre1.4.1\bin\java.exe -classpath swt.jar;Azureus2.jar org.gudy.azureus2.ui.swt.Main
  pause

Installation Guide - Linux Users

1) Install JRE from here.
2) Extract latest linux package (choice of GTK or Motif) from here

• To extract the program files from the package, type
  • tar xvjf Azureus_x.x.x.x_linux…tar.bz2

where Azureus_x.x.x.x_linux…tar.bz2 is the name of the downloaded package.

3) Change to the azureus directory and run ./azureus to start

• cd azureus
• ./azureus

If you get an error message, or want to configure the java exec path, just open the azureus script file with your favorite text editor and edit the given configuration options.

If Azureus does not show up after a minute, you can try starting it manually:

• GTK:
  • java -cp swt.jar:swt-pi.jar:Azureus2.jar -Djava.library.path=./ org.gudy.azureus2.ui.swt.Main

• Motif:
  • java -cp swt.jar:Azureus2.jar -Djava.library.path=./ org.gudy.azureus2.ui.swt.Main

4) Please give feedback, if any exceptions were thrown.

Installation Guide - Mac OSX Users 1) Download the latest OSX package
2) Follow the instructions when opening the .dmg file.

If you still have problems, feel free to come on IRC.

You’ll surely find a lot of like minded folks who’ll definitely pull u out of the dark.

Azureus implements the BitTorrent protocol using java language and comes bundled with many invaluable features for both beginners and advanced users:

• Multiple torrent downloads
• Upload and download speed limiting, both globally and per torrent
• Advanced seeding rules
• Adjustable disk cache
• Only uses one port for all the torrents
• UPnP sets the forward on your router
• Can use a proxy, for both tracker and peer communications
• Fast resume
• Can set a default download dir and move completed files
• Can import torrents automatically from a set dir
• Highly customizable interface
• IRC plugin included for quick help
• Embedded tracker, host your own torrents, automate your shares (periodic scanning of a dir)…
• Distributed Hash Table: host on it a completely decentralised torrent and/or benefit from it when the tracker is offline.

Many useful Azureus plugins are available:

• Auto-adjustment of your upload and download speeds according to your network charge with Autospeed
• Auto-download torrents with RSS Feed Scanner
• Schedule upload and download speed limits with Speed Scheduler
• Receive a mail when a download finishes with Status Mailer
• Add numerous info on torrents (Extra seeding columns, Country Locator)
• Remote control Azureus through the Swing Web Interface or the HTML Web Interface

If you begin downloading with another client…

• If it’s with a BitTorrent client working on versions prior to 3.3, you can safely resume your download with Azureus.
• From 3.3 on, you need to make your client, either pre-allocate the space used by the files or try and finish the allocation. If it can’t, it’s not safe to resume the download with Azureus.
• To continue downloads begun with BitComet, you need to check “Truncate existing files that are too large” in Options > Files as BitComet adds bytes at the end of the files…

Azureus has shown memory usage issues…

• Memory usage is known to climb up and drop back repeatedly when using java jre 1.4.2 with some configurations. The cpu load is higher too.
  Please use latest Java 1.5.
• A high cpu load has been experienced with some configurations using Zonealarm.

If you want to control the download speed of Azureus..

From 2.1.0.0 on, Azureus has a built-in download speed limiter, available through configuration > transfer or by right-clicking on the download speed in the bottom status bar.
Some other programs however are also available:

• Netlimiter for windows users (Note: can cause 100% cpu usage on some configurations).
• The Wonder Shaper (or Trickle) for linux (openbsd, solaris…) users.

Azureus gives you 2 settings:

• Max active torrents: maximum number of torrents that are either “downloading”, “seeding” or “ready”.
• Max simultaneous downloads: maximum number of torrents “downloading”.
  (always inferior to (Highest port number - Lowest port number) and to (Max active torrents))

For instance, you have 4 torrents in Azureus. You set max active torrents to 3 and max simultaneous downloads to 2.

• You will then have 2 “downloading” torrents, and 1 torrent “ready” and 1 torrent “stopped”.
  When one download finishes, the torrent then switches to “seeding” mode and the “ready” torrent begins to download.
  Once over, you will have 3 “seeding” torrents and a “stopped” one.

Check here for more details.

If you notice that your Azureus download speed is slow…

First thing to check is your upload limit setting: if you use all your upload bandwidth, your download performance will be greatly impaired.
So be sure and check your line speed.
Run the configuration wizard (introduced in version 2.0.3.2), available from the File menu.
If you want to set some limits manually, please read the following:

Concerning your computer:

• Are you behind a router? Enable port forwarding to your computer on port 6881 (or whatever you specified in the configuration).

Concerning Azureus:

• how many peers are you connected to? Set “number of max connections per torrent” sufficiently high (to 100 for instance) in “configuration” menu > transfer, unless you have some disconnection issues.
• what’s the “total speed” of your torrent (directly under “max uploads” in the general view) ?
  this gives you an estimate of the speed of your swarm, so an estimate of your speed (speed of the swarm/numbers of peers you’re connected to)
• When allocating bandwith, please allow at the very least 2kB/s per uploads (4kB/s is recommended), that means that using the default value of 4 uploads per torrent, you need AT LEAST 8kB/s of upload per downloading torrents. Not uploading will result in poor performances, trying to increase the number of uploads while the bandwidth is limited WILL result in a serious slow down.

Example:

My line is 512/128.
The settings for a BitTorrent application is directly linked to my max upload speed, here 128kbps (16kB/s).
So my max upload speed in azureus will be 13kB/s (letting room for download and browsing).
With 13kB/s upload, I can have 6 uploads at a time, because one upload needs to be at the very least least 2kB/s (uploading less might be damaging both for you and for the peer you’re uploading to - seeing that you’re not sending fast enough, the peer will ask someone else for the same piece and discard yours when it finally arrives, having downloaded it (and you uploaded it) for nothing… ).
I will have 2 active torrents (1 at most downloading, the other seeding) with 3 uploads each. (3 uploads means I will be uploading to 3 peers at a time on one torrent).
That way, if I’m only downloading, each peer will get 13/3 = 4kB/s approx, which is good and will make them sending me data more likely. The more you upload to a peer, the more likely he is to send you data fast.
And if I’m seeding one torrent and downloading another, each peer will get 13/6 = 2kB/s approx, which is ok.

All those settings should have been taken care of when you first ran the config wizard. Of course, it’s essential that you know your max upload speed for the wizard to be effective, both for the peers and for you.

Those who didn’t know what torrent import/export is?

• A torrent file contains information encoded using a space-efficient technique, however this renders the file hard to understand and modify. The “export torrent” facility allows this torrent information to be saved in an XML format which is more amenable to modification.
• The “import torrent” function takes an XML encoded torrent file and converts this back into the original format, making it usable as the basis for downloading/seeding.
• To uniquely identify a torrent a “hash” is computed from the “INFO” part of the XML document. For example, this hash is used when communicating with a tracker. Changes made to the “INFO” data will alter the hash value and make the torrent incompatible with other downloaders/seeders for the torrent content.
• The XML schema for XML torrent documents can be found here.
• Due to character set issues the torrent name and file name components are currently exported as hex encoded bytes.

Azureus’s in built tracker..

Azureus has a built in tracker to allow users to share torrents directly, rather than uploading them to an “external” tracker. This is called “hosting” and can be performed by selecting this option from the context menu on the “My Torrents” view.

Configure the details of the embedded tracker via the “Tracker” tab on the “Configuration” view. There is an “External tracker IP address” field that must refer to the external IP address of your machine. Note that if you are behind a firewall this may differ from your machine’s local address. To help in this task there is a “Check Address” button here. If your machine’s external address isn’t fixed (e.g. your ISP regularly changes it) then this will interfere with your hosted torrents, as the “announce url” will need to keep changing. If this is the case then it is advisable to use a DNS redirection service, such as DynDNS.org, to assign yourself a fixed DNS name - refer to the site for details.

In order to host a torrent it must have the correct “announce url” defined in the torrent. It must refer to the url of the embedded tracker. Use the File Menu/ “create a torrent” facility to construct a torrent, selecting the “Use Azureus embedded tracker” option to ensure the correct announce url is used. Then open the torrent and select “host”. You will probably want to seed the new torrent, at least initially, so start the torrent and navigate to the file/directory used to create the torrent when selecting the download location.

You will see on the tracker configuration dialog that there is a port associated with the tracker, default value 6969. If you have a router/firewall you will need to open this port up for incoming TCP connections, as you will have done for the peer transport ports (default 6881 to 6889).

The tracker also, if enabled, publishes the hosted torrents and statistics as a web page. This can be accessed by using the tracker’s root url. For example, http://127.0.0.1:6969/. Other users can then download the torrents directly from here ( http://yourexternalIP:6969/ ).

Access to the tracker web pages and the tracker announce process can be controlled by password settings specified on the Tracker configuration panel. This supports basic authentication and as such the user name and password values are transmitted in plain text. This can further be protected by using SSL (below). Note that password protecting the tracker announce process requires a BitTorrent client capable of handling authentication, such as Azureus.
Communication with the tracker can be encrypted using SSL, again this requires a suitable client such as Azureus.

Configuration of SSL is required for both the Azureus downloader and tracker:

Tracker configuration: It is necessary to generate a public/private key pair for the SSL framework and store this in a file called “.keystore” located in Azureus’s home directory (where it stores the “azureus.config” file). It currently must have a keystore and key password of “changeit”. Such a key pair can be generated via the following Java command (”keytool” can be found in the JRE bin directory).

• keytool -genkey -keystore %home%\.keystore -keypass changeit -storepass changeit -keyalg rsa -alias azureus

Various questions are asked during the key generation process. The important one is the first one, “What is your first and last name?” Respond to this with the dns name (or IP address) of the tracker.
The certificate required for clients can then be exported via

• keytool -export -keystore %home%\.keystore -keypass changeit -storepass changeit -alias azureus -file azureus.cer

Note that it is the certificate, NOT the private key that is distributed for client use. Also note that it is possible to directly obtain the certificate from the SSL protected tracker if using Internet Explorer, as it allows you to save the certificate when contacting the site.

Downloader configuration: The client must trust the certificate in order to communicate with the site. The certificate must be imported on the client into a certificate store called “.certs” in the same place as “.keystore” above. The command to do this is:

• keytool -import -keystore %home%\.certs -alias azureus -file azureus.cer

assuming the certificate is in file “azureus.cer”. Again the password must be “changeit”. When prompted say “yes” to “do you trust this certificate”.

A good way to test that the tracker and downloader setup is going to work is to seed a torrent on the SSL tracker. Note that this requires Azureus to be set up as both Tracker and downloader above, and hence the “.keystore” and “.certs” files must both be populated via the three steps of key generation, certificate export and certificate import.

When creating a torrent to host using SSL, check the SSL checkbox on the “create torrent” wizard. This ensures that the announce url starts with “https” (as opposed to “http”) and also that the SSL port number is used (as opposed to the non-SSL port, again see the Tracker configuration).

Download Azureus.

Latest version of Adobe Flash Player which happens to be version 9 supports H.264 video support. HD6DVD high definition video players, Blu-ray all these make use of the same standard

It makes use of ActionScript 3.0, which is a very powerful object-oriented programming language of the Adobe® Flash® Player runtime environment. Using ActionScript 3.0, developers can Develop rich Internet applications (RIAs) based on ECMAScript.

It also has a New virtual machine, which was built from ground zero to support the next generation Action scripts.

Other features include Increased performance and Enhanced security. The Optimized compiler and the new virtual machine will ensure the ActionScript 3.0’s execution to be atleast 10 times faster than earlier. As a result of which the application startup time decreases (Adobe claims to have seen 50% reduction in the start up time and memory usage). There is alos improvement in the text readability department, smoother scrolling of large text blocks with optimized text rendering routines.

For end users it’s all about safe browsing. Adobe has enforced a lot of securtiy components for data, applications, content and URLs to safeguard sensitive data.

According to Adobe this new player also supports High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support, as well as hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced full screen video playback. H.264 playback enabled Adobe Flash Player will be supported by the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and applications developed with Adobe AIR software, including Adobe Media Player.

If you a publishers who often puts up video content on the web, now you can deliver high quality video content on the web and let your viewers enjoy it.

Apart from Windows, Adobe Flash Player 9 for Solaris now available. Adobe delivers Flash Player 9 for Solaris Sparc and Solaris x86 platforms. And also Flash Player 9 is available for Linux, extending its reach to the broadest audience to date.

Here is the Adobe Press Release.

Nokia introduces a leading edge connected camera, navigation device and multimedia computer in one

Espoo, Finland - Nokia unveils the Nokia N82, the latest multimedia computer optimized for photography, navigation and internet connectivity. With the tools to discover the places and moments worth capturing, and the capabilities to capture and share them instantaneously, the Nokia N82 offers photography enthusiasts an enhanced camera experience.

Discover, capture and share

The Nokia N82 enables you to explore your surroundings and find your way with navigation and routing; document your adventures with the high quality imaging capabilities; and instantly share your experiences with one click upload to the web.

Featuring A-GPS, 5 megapixel camera, Xenon flash, Carl Zeiss optics and internet connectivity, the Nokia N82 also incorporates all the multimedia computer features common to Nokia Nseries. Like its predecessor the Nokia N95, the Nokia N82 is the latest epitome of a truly converged device that is not one thing but is many.

“The evolution of camera capabilities in mobile devices has been extremely fast over the past years. With the Nokia N82 we have reached such a superior level in image quality, speed and ease of use that not only does it outperform any other cameraphone on the market, but it’s also a very credible alternative for single purpose digital still cameras,” says Satu Ehrnrooth, head of Nokia Nseries Cameras Category, Multimedia, Nokia. “In addition to the high-end camera, the Nokia N82 also enables you to navigate and discover new places, enjoy your music, browse the web, play games, chat online and be part of the global web 2.0 community wherever you go.  Thanks to the wireless broadband connectivity, convergence and yet again increased performance, the Nokia N82 is all you need in your pocket!”

Discover the world

The powerful A-GPS and preinstalled* Nokia Maps help you explore and locate new places, whether in another country or just around the corner. All Nokia N82 standard sales packages come with a free voice guided navigation trial*, and you can purchase additional features, such as city guides and longer subscription to the navigation.

With access to more than 15 million points of interest, you can locate and navigate to the most interesting sights, bars or restaurants wherever you are. You can also send map excerpts and routes to friends by MMS or save map screen shots to the gallery.

Capture your experiences

With a 5 megapixel camera, powerful Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, the Nokia N82 delivers remarkably vivid photographs, even in low-light conditions. Fast camera activation, autofocus with a dedicated autofocus assist lamp, fast reloading between shots and DVD-like quality video capture make it a truly convenient and credible tool for capturing and telling your life stories.

Thanks to the 2GB microSD card in the standard Nokia N82 sales package*, you can store up to 900 high-resolution photos or up to 84 minutes of high quality video on the device.

“The Nokia N82 gives the best ever camera and navigation experience in one stylish premium device. Just imagine what kind of possibilities this will open up and how much richer your every day life experiences can be! The sophisticated design and glossy looks appeal to men and women who are conscious of their style and want to impress with the latest in technology,” Satu Ehrnrooth continues.

Share your stories

With high speed Wi-Fi connectivity and one-click upload to online communities, the Nokia N82 makes sharing your experiences and discoveries easy. When viewing a picture or video, simply one press of a button starts uploading it while you carry on using the device for other purposes.

Or you can impress your friends with multimedia slideshows - complete with music and effects - on the high resolution display or on a compatible TV.

The Nokia N82 comes with the new content driven 3D multimedia menu and includes a convenient orientation sensor that rotates the user interface automatically between horizontal and portrait mode. For quick and easy access to entertainment content, the Nokia N82 also supports the Ovi family of Nokia internet services, including Nokia Music Store, N-Gage games** and Nokia Maps.

The Nokia N82 is available now in key markets with an estimated, pre-tax, unsubsidized sales price of approximately 450 euros.

Many of us still wish we can play the Guitar some day. But time is the main constraint for me. With New Year coming up, I was listing down all the resolutions I’ve got for myself this year and ‘trying to learn guitar’ is one of the resolutions which has been on the list for couple of years, but has never been resolved :P.

Gibson have come up with a new Robot Guitar, which seems to make my New Year resolution a reality this time. I obviously want to learn how to tune a guitar and want to do this without any gadgets, but as a beginner, diving right into the music will be a lot more difficult than expected. Thanks to Gibson’s new robot guitar, with it’s self-tuning feature, it makes guitar tuning way easier.

Years of research has gone into the making of Les Paul Robotic Guitar, and Gibson the manufacturer is happy to see it launch next month.

They have put up videos and other how-to’s on the site which will brief how easy it is to tune the guitar– even a kid can use it without any problem.

With a twist of the know, you have access to everything from intonation to quickly accessing nonstandard tunings used in classic hits like Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”

What more personal recommendation do u want, when The ‘Guitar God’ Steve Vai and Billy Corgan themselves are already raving about it.

Gibson said they will release 4,000 limited edition in the first slot with each guitar priced at $2,500 worldwide on December 7th 2007. They also will start selling the regular version in January 2008 and I bet the prices will be far lower.

Time to resolve one of my “New Year Resolutions”
A Good Write Up On How To Have A Productive New Year..

Most adsense publishers fear that they might click on their own ads, which will result in termination of their contract with Google. Accidental clicks ere a real problem for me too initially, until I found out some simple, cool tricks, which made my life more easier.

To start with, Michael Hampton from Homeland Stupidity has developed a script, which will prevent publishers from accidentally clicking on their own ads. If you decide to go this route, you need to have Firefox with Greasemonkey extension installed. Once you have Firefox and Greasemonky insalled, you’ll have to download the script and install it.

Once done with the installation of the script, visit your website which has AdSense ads in it. A popup box will bounce up asking for your AdSense Publishers Code (You can find your publisher code at the bottom of ‘My Account’ in your AdSense Account’s Dashboard, which looks something like pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).

If this sounds too complicated then you can also block Adsense ads using the Hosts file. Open “lmhosts” file with any text editor and add the loopback address, as shown below:

127.0.0.1 localhost

You can find the “HOSTs” file in is located in c:\\windows\\system32\\drivers in Windows NT and XP. In Windows 9x, the HOSTS file is located in c:\\windows.

If you still feel you clicked on your own ad by mistake you can report it to Google at this page.

USB, has been one of the biggest and most widely used success story in the history of computing. When the USB’s came into existence, the slow serial and parallel cables used for transferring and storing data was replaced by faster technology, which came at a cheaper cost and with an added advantage of low power usage.

USB 1.1 was replaced by much faster USB 2.o, which by all standards is faster. The USB fans were all happy about it, but they have more to celebrate about now. USB 3.o should be out in the market sometime soon and yes it definitely will be much faster and efficient than its predecessors.

USB 2.o had capacity to handle bandwidth upto 480 Mbps but with USB 3.o, the bandwidth is roughly scaled up to 4.8 Gbps, which accounts to 10 times faster than what the USB 2.o had to offer.

This new standard was recently demonstrated, and the demonstration made use of a optical cable. Best features - it is compatible with older USB formats and it’s better power efficiency techniques will help decrease the load on portable devices. This is a good sign for me as my “Reliance Netconnect” can longer now ;).

Possibly in the works: Better ability to charge devices over USB, some of which still require an A/C adapter or two USB connections to draw enough juice.

Specs are planned to be delivered early next year with commercial availability for 2009.

Mark, speaks about what possibly can be the end result of chasing a spam site or buying from a spammer. There is no single day when I open my mail account, where in I do not see spam mails… Find Top quality replica luxury watches, Massive Price Reduction, Broad Assortment Generics, Candy for the kids, Pharmacy’s , these are some of the mail subject you see very often.

Security Advisor, Mark takes you on an interesting World tour, while trying to find the earrings he ordered from one of the spammers.

Read the rest of the Operation Green Dot - Following the spam.

The bottom line? Buying from a spam site just isn’t worth the risk, no matter how good the deal seems.