Open Source Scalable Vector Graphics Editor

I do a lot of reading, I'm interested in a lot of different subjects, and many of them are very technical. I sometimes think I missed my calling, there's a possibility I should have become an engineer. With my employment situation as it is, I don't have a lot of money to be spending on new software, so I've been looking at open-source software, and an article I ran across about doing UML using XML/XSL and SVG graphics piqued my interest in SVG.

SVG is an acronym for Scalable Vector Graphics, a standard put forth by the W3C. Its actually a subset of XML, and is supported by most browsers to some degree. Its supposedly simple, but utilizing it in your blog doesn't support that claim. My experimentation would seem to indicate that some parts work, while others don't.

In looking for editors for SVG, I did happen to run across an application called Inkscape. For an open-source package, its amazingly complete and professional and is akin to one of Adobe's programs. Although I haven't been able to use straight svg files from it in my blog, or even use any of it as inline code (that renders properly), it does allow the export of bitmapped graphics to PNG files. Those definitely work on blogger.

If you look at my header you can see one of the exports, with a nice color fade, rounded corners, and transparency. Here's another example I did this morning:



I recommend Inkscape, especially if you like to draw or just can't find the right graphic that says what you want. If you don't feel like wading through all the pages of the Inkscape.com site, you can get to the downloads directly from here.

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Trend Micro and the FSF

Ever since my subscription to my AV warned me last month for the first time it was going to run out next month, my harddrive has been going through a lot of grinding/seeking and my processor has been running up in the upper percentages, causing me to wait sometimes for my mouse to move and generally being sluggish. I suspected it was my AV, and when I ran Sysinternals procmon, my suspicions were confirmed. I suspected it because it did the same thing last year.

My system wasn't infected, unless you consider blackmailing software for which you paid money for an infection. Some people do, but they also mutter words like "Microsoft" and "Evil Empire." I'm not one of those.

I was considering writing a post about the "cranky software," but was hesitant, because I wanted to make sure it wasn't the anti-spyware software trying to protect me from an intrusion (not likely, but not impossible either.)
The other day, my computer was virtually useless due to the processor usage. After restarting several times, and trying to delete an aborted download of Eclipse, which was difficult to say the least(close to impossible) especially considering the way Trend was eating my processor time (did I mention that there was an inordinate amount of "I/O Other Bytes" showing in task manager? In the gigabyte range which incremented the same time as the AV process did) I finally booted and shutdown windows before Trend could start its maddening "scan" (which wasn't scheduled), so that I could boot a Knoppix Live CD, and used it to delete the file.

Well, when I rebooted again, Lo and Behold, Trend complains that its reverting to the last known good configuration, and my computer's crankiness was gone. Gee.

I still wasn't inclined to write a post about it, but I was considering an email with some venom to Trend. Nevermind the email, I'm doing the post after finding this this morning:
Boycott Trend Micro - Free Software Foundation

Hmm. Suing free software programmers, and doing questionable practices with customers' computers. I had to say something.

By the way, Barracuda Networks distributes the free software antivirus program ClamAV. I've checked it out in the past, and wasn't overly impressed.

I think I like Moon Secure AntiVirus, it installs on all 32bit versions of Windows, its fairly lightweight (low cpu usage) and even does automatic updates, its biggest drawback is the flashy interface you're probably used to isn't there, its just simple and works. You can download it from SourceForge.net from this link, if you need a new AV software or one for your server (yeah, its usable on servers.)

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