Here goes:

1. How to Raise a Charitable Child? – I’m happy this post was popular. I try to pepper the website with a few articles other than technology, especially on raising great kids since I’ve started so late, myself.  Is it off topic?  Not if I define the topic.
2. Big Boy Competition for Google Docs and Zoho Office Coming from Microsoft – Pretty straight news with a snarky title.  Microsoft moving some of Office to the web is consistent with stories about web services that we normally cover.
3. You Tube Challenge: Make an Actually Good Video – The Onion -  Straight satire.  Very funny and on-topic to the extent that I’ve found humor in the mania for watching YouTube before. Do readers like satire better than straight articles? We do get our news from Jon Stewart.
4. Making Picasa and Flickr Play Nicely Together – Straight “how to” article, useful if you’ve tried to make these two work together.
5. Our Two Worst Posts of October and one (dis)honorable mention – Enquiring Mimes Last month we picked our worst posts of October. Readers must like to share our humiliation. Q:Write more bad articles? Probably.
6. XMind Mind-mapping is Now Open Source A short review and download link of a good previously, for sale, now free tool. I like free things.
7. Read It Later, A Must-have Firefox Plug-in Good short review for a Firefox plug-in, if you’re using Firefox. Our November stats say that your probably were using Firefox more than any other browser. More plug-in info?

Tell us what you liked and hated in the comments.

Last week we first told you about VLC, the open source multi-platform video player that plays most any video format and this week, presto, there’s a nice new release for you, that they say has been two years in the making.

Here’s what they say is new:

The 0.9 version of VLC media player adds a new interface module for Linux, Unix and Windows, a media library and an improved playlist, many new inputs and codecs support and many new audio and video filters.

Here at the EnquiringMimes lab we have taken a look, and pronounced the new interface on Windows and Linux as very snappy.  Many of the other features are updates are to keep up with fast-moving world of video technology.

The new release provides even more reason for you to use VLC for you videos.

Download VLC

So many video formats, so little time.  Video cameras, the cute little joke time-wasting videos your friends send you, training videos, DVDs, “backups” of DVDs, avi, wmv, mp4, mpeg, xvid, divx, flash video – you get the idea – you can get so many videos in a babel of formats.

VLC Media Player sorts it all out for you.  It’s a cross-platform open source video player that is quick, light, free and can play just about anything.  It can even play your store-bought DVDs.

VLC is available for Windows, Mac and Linux as well as other platforms. 

Just download and install.  Download VLC Media Player.

Open source is a movement in software, a way of licensing software and a business model. Most important for the way we use it and recommend it — it means the software is available to users at “no charge” and can be freely copied and shared unlike commercial software like say Microsoft Office.

Some of the other interesting aspects of open source is that the source code is normally available and can be modified by other developers who might want to create another application based on the original. Anything that is created from the original software should also be licensed the same as open source.

The license must not discriminate against persons or groups, it can’t be specific to a particular product or platform. That doesn’t mean it has to be built for every platform but it has to be available to be written for any platform.  It can originally be built for Windows but it can’t be restricted to not run on Mac.

One of the most interest aspects of open source is that the software is often developed by projects of communities of developers who may be distributed around the world and my never meet in person. They build the software for the love of the technology and trying to achieve excellence.

Some famous and successful open source include the operating system Linux, the office suite Open Office and the browser we all like to use Firefox.

Open source is a concept well worth supporting because it produces excellent accessible software and is available at a great price.

Optional Reading

This is the full definition from the Open Source Initiative that is generally used for saying what software is and isn’t open source.

Introduction

Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code.

The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of “patch files” with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.