Open-source and cross-platform media jukebox Miro upgrades to version 2.5, and the improvements bring drastic changes to performance and useful tweaks to the interface. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Miro 2.5 introduces a database overhaul so intensive that users with large collections of video and music might face a delay of more than 10 minutes when they first launch the new version. However, Miro states that the delay should be a one-time event.

Once you've installed the update and launched it once, subsequent restarts should find program launch speeds of two to four times faster than before, says Miro.

Along with the database refresh, torrent fans should find better support for those file types and keyboard shortcuts have been redone to make it easier to navigate the program. Developers will appreciate the new documentation for hacking the database, while podcast junkies finally get direct support for audio podcasts.

Interface enhancements include a new library UI, categorized by the simple Video, Audio, and Other labels. Downloading from YouTube has been made easier, too, with a new button to facilitate that feature when you add YouTube as a sidebar site. Audio playback has received some surface tweaks as well, making it easier to navigate.

Drive Manager is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that helps users managing and identifying connected drives. Drives in this regard is every hardware device with its own drive letter which includes hard drives, dvd drives, removable storage devices such as USB sticks or network drives.

The software program displays a list of all devices that are currently connected to the local computer system. The display is very informative and it is possible to get an overview of all the connected drives in a few seconds. Information like the drive letter, label, type, size, vendor or format are displayed. It is furthermore possible to filter the list to hide certain types of drives like those that are not mounted at the moment or network drives.

The header of the application contains links to several functions and options that can be used to manage the drives. It is for example possible to explore the drives, look at their properties and smart values (for hard drives), run check disk, hide them from the system or use the subst command to substitute drive letters. Additional options are provided in the main menu that include benchmarking a drive, defragmenting it, ejecting CD or DVD drives or mapping network drives. Drive Manager is a free and portable computer program for the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Simon Vinkenoog overleden - In Amsterdam is de dichter/schrijver Simon Vinkenoog aan een hersenbloeding overleden. Hij was 80 jaar. Onlangs werd bij hem een been geamputeerd vanwege vaatonstekingen. Hij leek daar goed van te herstellen, maar moest vrijdag na een hersenbloeding naar het ziekenhuis.
Vinkenoog heeft tientallen dichtbundels op zijn naam staan en was ook bekend als performer. In 1951 stelde hij de dichtbundel Atonaal samen, met werk van progressieve dichters, die sindsdien als De Vijftigers bekend staan. De afgelopen jaren trad hij op met Spinvis.
Als "oudste hippie van Nederland" kwam hij graag uit voor zijn drugsgebruik.

"Ik leef als het ware buiten de tijd, in een hier en nu, dat bestaat uit het verwerven van allerlei vaardigheden die ik tot nu toe niet besefte." Dat schreef Simon Vinkenoog dinsdag nog op zijn weblog, vanuit het Revalidatiecentrum Amsterdam aan de Overtoom.

Zijn ‘Amsterdamse leerjaren’ heeft hij in 1962 beschreven in Hoogseizoen. De marihuanascene op het Leidseplein staat daarin centraal. Vinkenoog zou nog tot op hoge leeftijd 'wietambassadeur' blijven en open praten over zijn drugsgebruik.
In het kader van een medisch experiment in het Wilhelminagasthuis maakte hij in 1959 voor het eerst kennis met LSD. "Daar heb ik de sleutel gekregen tot de enorm grote wereld die achter de psychedelica ligt waarbij alles deel uit gaat maken van je eigen structuur."

I’m a big fan of the BitTorrent protocol despite its bad rap. Devised as a method to distribute large files without using up too much bandwidth, it’s become a hit for all the right and wrong reasons. It’s unfortunate that using BitTorrent can be so difficult: Tracker? Seeding? Port forwarding? Why did my ISP block my download, even though the files were legal? BTaccel, a browser-based and remotely hosted BitTorrent client, can help to make things far easier. Feed it a link to a torrent and it does all of the P2P wizardry automatically, downloads the file and prepares it for you to grab off their servers via HTTP.

First, the user interface is Google-simple. You have an account link at the top, and a box in the center where you enter a URL or keyword. You can search by keyword, browse a website by proxy or paste in a direct link to a .torrent file. Browsing torrent tracker sites via the proxy is a bit hit-and-miss in this alpha release. Sometimes, it will pick up a clicked torrent link, but not always. Your best bet is to browse the tracker in a separate window, copy the torrent link’s location and paste it into BTaccel. After you’ve chosen a torrent, the next screen you see will be a summary of the torrent’s contents. Once the download from the swarm is complete, you can be alerted by email, and then you may download torrent files individually, or download a single compressed ZIP of all the files packed together. To view the torrents currently in your download queue, hit the Home page and you’ll be presented with a list of your torrents and their progress. 

What makes BTaccel so great is the fact that your system won’t be bogged-down with uploading and downloading. Once the torrent is finished, you’ll have a direct download from BTaccel’s servers (which must be completed within 72 hours). Another advantage is the fact that you can start a torrent from any computer with a browser and then finish the transfer at home, when it’s convenient.

In comparison to using a traditional BitTorrent client, BTaccel offers users an advantage on ease-of-use. For those interested in the protocol, we have plenty of BT-related material on MUO, especially The Big Book of BitTorrent, which I consider a must-read. We’ve got your hookup for the first 150 users to sign up with alpha invite code “100GBmakeuseof150”. If you’ve missed out, follow @btaccel on Twitter for a chance to score a code.

VideoLAN's VLC media player, arguably the world's best media player, hit version 0.9.9 in early April. Three months and more than 78 million downloads later, VideoLAN has announced VLC 1.0.0, or "Goldeneye." Your media will never be the same.

In fact, with VideoLAN's VLC media player, it doesn't have to be. One of the amazing things about VLC is that it can play anything that you've ever even thought about playing. That random media format that one site in Ecuador requires--VLC likely plays it, while Windows Media, Apple QuickTime, etc. likely will not.

This is, in part, a natural result of VLC's open-source heritage. Licensed under the GNU General Public License, VLC attracts a diverse array of developers with disparate media interests. Those interests translate into a media player that really can play every obscure media format I've ever thrown at it (and in my hunger for Arsenal videos, I've found many different video formats that Windows Media, Apple QuickTime, etc. didn't know what to do with).

Here are a few of the features now available in VLC 1.0.0:

• Live recording
• Instant pausing and frame-by-frame support
• Finer speed controls
• New HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, Blu-ray Linear PCM, Real Video 3.0 and 4.0, ...)
• New formats (Raw Dirac, M2TS, ...) and major improvements in many formats
• New Dirac encoder and MP3 fixed-point encoder
• Video scaling in full screen
• RTSP Trickplay support
• Zipped file playback
• Customizable toolbars
• Easier encoding GUI in Qt interface
• Better integration in Gtk environments
• MTP devices on Linux
• AirTunes streaming

I regularly use VLC to transcode media files, including files I originally streamed from the Web. If you don't have VLC, I encourage you to download it and give it a try. It really is an amazing media player, one that has far more tricks up its sleeve than the proprietary media player that came with your computer. VideoLAN Client is an essential download for anyone that watches video or plays music on their PC. It’s a powerful tool that is now less intimidating to use, thanks to its steady refinement over several years, resulting in a less ‘techy’ preferences setup, for example. Download VLC 1.0.0 here.

Windows only: Backup and Synchronization utility GFI Backup is an easy to use, full-featured package for keeping your collections of files safe and secure.

Using the software is easy, with a wizard-based setup for new backup tasks and lots of options to choose from. GFI Backup can do AES encryption, incremental or differential backups, notifications, or file synchronization—and it can backup your data to local folders, FTP, network, or even removable flash drives, making it worth a look for anybody seeking a free but powerful backup solution.

GFI Backup is a free download for Windows, email registration required to download. For more, check out our five best Windows backup tools, our five best file syncing tools, or just check out previously mentioned DropBox for instant file-syncing anywhere.