FOSSwire

Gnac is a simple program for GNOME that allows you to convert audio files from one format to another.

It is built atop of the Gstreamer media framework, meaning that you can import any files that Gstreamer is capable of playing and then output to Gnac's supported formats for the conversion.

Once you've installed the program, it appears under the Sound & Video category, where you can launch it.

The interface is extremely simple. Use the Add button, or drag in a set of input files that you want to convert. Then select the output format from the list box at the bottom. Once you've done that, press the Convert button.

The default export options allow you to convert to Ogg/Theora and FLAC as well as WAV and Speex. While the number of export formats built in by default is nowhere near as high as with some programs, particularly those based upon ffmpeg, keeping just a few formats does keep the application simple.

For those people familiar with Gstreamer, it is possible to add to that list and add a new 'audio profile' with custom settings, so you are not strictly limited to those audio export formats.

Despite that limitation, Gnac is an effortlessly simple program with a great interface and could come in extremely handy if you're trying to batch convert a music collection to FLAC or Theora, for example.

The ability to drag a whole load of files in, choose the format and click Convert and then just leave it doing its work makes it perfect for batch jobs.

Gnac 0.1.1 has recently been released, packages for your distribution along with source code to build yourself can be downloaded from here.

An interesting trend I've noticed over the years is the thought process of how users install applications. Most of the time, a KDE user installing an application won't care what the application uses or what desktop it is designed for. They just simply install the application, use it, and get on with life.

The thoughts are different with the average GNOME user, however. A lot of times, when installing software, many GNOME users check to make sure the application was made for GNOME (GTK) before installing it. Why? In most cases, it is because the application will look different and won't fit in with the others on their system.

And with good reason. A bad looking interface is enough to pull anyone away from an application. Obviously, these Qt applications will look fine on KDE, but it's time to bring the love over to the GNOME desktop.

Qt 3

While there is no way to match a Qt3 theme exactly to your GTK theme, there are ways to tweak it to make it look presentable. One of these methods is by installing the QtCurve theme for KDE, which gives applications a more "GTK" look and feel. (If you really want to take it far, there is also a version of QtCurve for GTK.)

Once you install QtCurve, you could edit some configuration files to make the theme take effect, but the easiest (and most complete) way is to simply install kcontrol. Yes, that means bringing in a bunch of KDE dependencies, but don't worry, we'll fix that later.

Run kcontrol, either from Alt+F2 or in a terminal, and expand Appearance & Themes on the left sidebar. First, open the Style dialog. Under Widget Style, select QtCurve from the dropdown menu. You can also select another Qt theme if you think it more closely resembeles your GTK theme.

Next up are the icons. In the same section (Appearance & Themes), visit the Icons panel. Select Tango from the list, and finally hit Apply. Your KDE applications should now look almost the same as everything else on your system.

But, we're not done. Unless you want your system menu to be cluttered with a bunch of KControl options, you'll want to remove it (and extra dependencies, if any). Okay, now you're done, unless you want to configure Qt4 applications. If you do, continue on down.

Qt 4 and KDE 4

Thankfully, Trolltech saw the lack of integration from Qt 3. While a theme is available to integrate GTK apps into KDE, the reverse never existed. With the introduction of QGtkStyle, GNOME users will be able to enjoy KDE applications on their system and never feel out of place. QGtkStyle is not available for any distribution yet, but you are free to download the source and configure it using the same instructions as above, except by using qtconfig instead of kcontrol.

That's all you'll need for a nicer, better integrating desktop. It may be a bit of a pain to set up, but the end experience is worth it. Enjoy.

This one is probably aimed more at the geekier end of the market, but it is an application well worth covering.

There are many reasons why you might want to capture the raw network traffic that is entering and leaving your system. This can be for diagnostic purposes when something has gone wrong, finding out if there's a rogue program on your network, or if you're just curious about what communications are going on.

Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) is one of the most well known free software packet capturing and analysis tools available. It is cross platform, and runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and many other Unix-like operating systems.

A basic capture can be started by clicking the leftmost button on the toolbar and then selecting your primary network interface and clicking Start.

From that point on, Wireshark will capture all of the packets that are entering and leaving that interface. You can now get to work as normal, or do some action and come back and analyse the results later.

The analysis interface allows you to filter the packets by many criteria, including protocol, source, destination and many more powerful filters. You can then deconstruct what is going on by looking at the hex view, or on supported protocols, by looking at the data (such as the HTTP conversation in the screenshot above).

Packet dumps can then be saved to disk in libpcap format, and reopened in Wireshark or another program that supports the format.

Packet analysis isn't for the faint of heart, or for those who don't have some understanding of TCP/IP and other networking concepts. If you do like to delve a little deeper into what's going on network-wise, however, Wireshark is an invaluable tool and one of the best programs in its class.