My Favorite Free Alternative Applications

I was playing with Pearltrees, putting together all the major alternative applications I use that are open source. One of the most important criteria is that a version exists for Linux and Windows. Here it is:

Thinking Space - Android App

A friend found this one and it is a good one. I guess it could be used on a phone, but better for a tablet.  Thinking Space is a Mind Mapping application for Android.

Thinking Space - AppBrain link.

Using Pearltrees in a Blog?

This is just to see how well Pearltrees works embedded in a blog. I am using my Operating System branch, and not fully expanded, as a test.

Gentoo and LibreOffice 3.4

Updated my Gentoo systems to LibreOffice 3.4 and none of the components would start:

Could not launch 'LibreOffice 3.4 [fill in component]'

Failed to execute child process
"libreoffice3.4" (No such file or directory)

Looks like a Gentoo error. The desktop commands are installed (math as an example):

libreoffice3.4 --math %U

when it should be:

libreoffice --math %U

Apple TV G2 Jailbreak Adventure

What better thing to do on a rainy day than jailbreak my Apple TV G2?  Why do I have this thing?  I guess I would say I had one of those “Buy It Now!” eBay moments.  Anyway, back when I bought it a Mac was needed to jailbreak the device.  Needless to say, I run about everything but Mac.  However, there are now ways to do it via Windows.  I decided to give Sn0wbreeze a try.  This YouTube video goes through all the steps to complete the jailbreak using sn0wbreeze and Windows:

sn0wbreeze V2.7.3 Untethered Jailbreak 4.2.2 For Apple TV 2 (Windows) 

What would become of the world without YouTube and Wikipedia?  I think we would all be doomed. I followed the video and it did not work.  On another site I found instructions and my missed step:

Press and hold the Shift key and click on Restore. Then, select the custom Apple TV 2 iOS 4.2.2 ipsw that Sn0wbreeze created and placed on your desktop.

I selected restore without holding down shift which restored the software from Apple and then came error 1611. I kept trying both the jailbreak and restore binary packages always getting error 1611. After awhile I decided to try the entire jailbreak on another system instead of my laptop. To my surprise it worked several times. WTF? Both systems are Windows 7 and running the same version of iTunes. I do not get it, just another crazy Apple experience.

In the end what I thought would be quickly done was not that quick. The Apple TV is OK after the jailbreak. I like XBMC, but I should have picked up something cheaper and never bought this thing. No, I would not buy it again.