Posted from Student On Campus – Part of the Ace Carter Network

Spotify is, at the moment, the hot topic across most parts of Europe. For those who have never heard of it, Spotify is a peer to peer streaming music program with virtually no buffering. It’s easy to use interface allows you to create playlists in a second and it’s huge (and growing) song base means that they probably will have your favourite song.

As of yet, it is unavailable in the US, but the latest news suggests that it will be released by the end of the year. However, it seems alot of people can’t wait that long and have managed to find ways of downloading Spotify outside of Europe.

Here’s one way – thanks to Techcrunch.

Invite yourself from anywhere:
1) go to http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/
2) enter the following URL: https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
3) Create your account, for UK postcode – check http://www.postcodesearch.org.uk/

Note: I tried it and it does work – leave a comment if there are any problems.

Ok, so you’ve downloaded Spotify. Now, how to get rip/download some songs from it? Thanks to Spotify Ripping.

Note: Do this at your own risk please…..

Download Spotify Ripper

The program was written by Swedish programmers, and thus, is in Swedish – But it is easy to use.

1. Start Spotify and make sure their isn’t a track playing. Then start Spotify Ripper by launching “Spotify Ripper.exe”. Start off by ticking the “Logg” box. By doing that you will get a small window which tells you the status of the ripping.

2. Now press “Hitta Spotify”. This will connect Spotify and Spotify Ripper so that the files will be named correctly. If everything works as it should the message “Spotify hittat” will appear in the log.

3. Now press “Rippa”. This will make Spotify Ripper wait for Spotify to start playing a track and start ripping it while it plays. When a song ends Spotify Ripper will convert the track to a mp3 file which then is named automatically and simultaneously rip the next song in your playlist. You will find the ripped music in the same folder as Spotify Ripper is placed in. Spotify Ripper will keep ripping all the tracks you play on Spotify until you press “Rippa” again.

4. Now switch back to Spotify and start the playlist or album you want to rip. Spotify ripper will do the rest for you. Just leave Spotify playing until the album or playlist is finished. But beware that any background sounds from other applications from your computer will also be recorded by Spotify Ripper so make sure the sound is off on any IM’s, e-mail programs or any other program that might make a sound.

5. If Spotify Ripper doesn’t work for you you could try starting Spotify Ripper before you start Spotify and restart booth Spotify and Spotify ripper. If it still doesn’t work Spotify Ripper probably doesn’t support your soundcard and it won´t work until a new version is released.

Thanks again to Spotify Ripping for making this possible.

Luckily, there are quite a few open source/free Photoshop Alternatives. Here’s my favourite 5:

1. Paint.Net

Once a replacement for Microsoft’s Paint application, Paint.Net has grown into fully fledged graphics editing suite. I enjoy using it because it is relatively easy to use.

2. Gimp

Probably the most popular Photoshop of the lot, Gimp has grown in features and user base since its release in 1995. I use this with Paint.Net – Mainly for some quick logo designs.

3. Krita

Krita is open source bitmap editing and drawing with the following advanced features: 16-bit image support, High dynamic resolution images, CMYK and even color management. As part of the KOffice suite it added a full features image editing and draw application – including lots of filters for either serious use or just to play around with.

Here is a tutorial on Krita (Using a tablet for drawing)

4. Fotografix

Fotografix has a ridiculously small footprint. It’s a 370Kb download and about 700Kb once extracted. Despite its size, most of the features I rely on in Photoshop are available. Another download link : Click Here

5. Picnik

Picnik is a web based photo editor that has recently taken off due to a partnership with Flickr. It has all the basic features plus a few advanced ones like layers and special effects. It is cross platform since you only need a browser.

Here is a tutorial:

A couple of days ago Microsoft decided to drop the price of Microsoft Sharepoint Designer 2007 to……well, $0. Here’s what they had to say:

We are implementing a number of changes to promote and facilitate even more customization efforts on top of the SharePoint platform including making SharePoint Designer 2007 available as a free download.

It may seem like Microsoft are open sourcing Sharepoint to try and regain its standing in regards to its web design products.
Let’s see what changes Microsoft actually make on Sharepoint. It should be interesting.

Download Microsoft Sharepoint Designer 2007 : Click Here

Many a time I have had to use Rapidshare to download files, but have been forced to sit through the long waiting time to get the download started (!) and then endure the ridiculously slow download speed – 25KB/s sometimes!

‘Get a premium account’ you say. Well, no -I don’t use it enough to warrant getting a premium account, even if it is the 3 day version.

So, how do you get full download speeds and not have to endure long waiting times and slow d/l speeds? Premium Link Generators of course. 

Here is a pretty decent list which will allow you to get ‘premium account’ access for free.

1. RS Generator
2. HelloRapid
3. Rapid Unblock
4. Very Rapidshare
5. Rapid File
6. Rapid Loader
7. RS Fox
8. RS Findr
9. Premify RS
10. Rapidshare Pre
11. RapitShare

These have been checked at the time of posting – they are in working order. If any links stop working or if you find some different ones, comment and let me know.

Hulu launched in early 2007 and has proved to be one of the best online TV streaming websites…..in the US.

For those of us who have seen been hit with the annoying message like the one below, there may be ways of getting round the barriers at Hulu.

One of them is to use Hotspot Shield which creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your computer and their Internet gateway. It offers a secure pipe from where you can access the web, and in turn disguise the location of the user on the end connection.

This software can also be used to access Pandora and other US only websites.