GCStar

GCStar - Personal Collections Manager

Platforms : Windows - Mac OS X - Linux

As the name sugests, it allows you to manage several items in your collection. You type in a query , and it connects to several popular sites (i.e IMDB, Amazon etc..) to retrieve all trivial data.

Currently, it comes with following templates :

• Movie collection
• Music collection
• Video Games collection
• Board Games collection
• Wines collection
• Books collection
• Comics collection
• Numismatic collection
• TV Shows collection

You can manage almost everything with this wonderful piece of software.

GCStar also supports tagging, filtering and event logging (i.e. Lendings)

As most OpenSource Titles, it doesn't use proprietary file formats, it stores it's databases in an XML like format.

Importing and exporting is made very easy, as it supports a lot of import/export formats (DVDProfiler, SQL, HTML, CSV etc..) I use the HTML Export module (which also comes with a few customizable templates) to publish my collection on this site. (Collection -> Video Games)

I've been using this excellent piece of Software for quite a time, and I can only recommend it !

If you like it, please donate to the author via his website to support his great work!

Official GCstar Website

Gnome 3 vs Unity

Short Comparison between :

• Gnome 3 (a.k.a. Gnome-Shell)
• Gnome Classic (a.k.a. Gnome 3 Fallback Mode)
• Gnome Classic with no effects (as above)
• Unity (the default Ubuntu Desktop)
• Unity2D (a.k.a. Unity Fallback Mode)

Basics tests to monitor CPU Load and Memory usage. Screenshots were taken when system was idle for 2 Minutes.

Click on the screens for a larger version.

We clearly see that:

1. Unity causes higher CPU Load
2. 3D Effects use more Memory consumption.
3. Gnome-Classic without Effects is the best choice for old Systems
4. System Load is very high compared to a Gnome 2 System (like used in Ubuntu 10.04LTS or 10.10)

Even if it's very minimal, the System load is higher with Unity.

Now, 50MB RAM doesn't make that huge difference, and with modern Multi-Core CPU's there is no noticeable gain/loss of performance. Features like usability make the difference, and for me, I've always liked Gnome, and will continue using Gnome3. The showstopper in Unity is the placement of the Progam Menu Entries like "File" , "Edit" etc.. I think they should be bound to the active Program Window. I've used both Desktops for a while now, and I must say, Gnome 3 handles some stuff much better than Unity; the only feature I'm missing is "out-of-the-box" Window Selection à la Exposé like Unity does (Win-Key + W). If you know how to get this in Gnome-Shell , drop me comment ;)

Another nice feature in Gnome-Shell is the "ios" Style On/Off Toggle Buttons : 

And let's not forget the nicer Calendar Integration:

One thing that Unity handles better is the "User" Menu, where we hjave direct acces to Printers, System settings and Startup Programs. It even tells the user that there are Updates available :

Last but not least, I find the Unity Launcher way too ugly and to un-flexible...Have you ever tried re-arranging the icons?

With that being said, this is my Personal Opinion, and I won't blame anyone who prefers Unity over Gnome-Shell.

Nerd Fact #358

You know that you're a Nerd when :

• You count the Ubuntu Releases (including Release Name) as a measure of falling asleep (like counting sheeps)

Site Updates

I've spent a lot of my free Sunday-Time working on the new Site:

Following has been updated :

• Profile
• Projects
• Time Warp
• Quiz
• Game Collection
• Console Collection
• PC Hardware

Software - useful stuff

• GCStar - Personal Collections Manager
• Phatch - Photo Batch Processor (coming next)
• Arista Media Transcoder (coming soon)
• Mediacoder (coming soon)
• Thingamablog (coming soon)
• Jalbum (coming soon)
• DeVeDe (coming soon)

Please check back later for more reviews of amazing OpenSource Software