2006-11-10 (Friday) by Gregory Tucker.

NEW YORK (Kyodo) Japan is the seventh best place to live on the planet, according to the U.N. Development Program.

Japan moved up four spots in the 2006 standard of living survey, released Tuesday, from its position at No. 11 last year, when it fell out of the top 10 for the first time since the survey began in 1990. The upward move appears to be due to the country’s recent economic recovery.

Norway topped the list for the sixth consecutive year. Iceland came in second place, followed by Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Japan, the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

The survey covers 177 countries and regions, measuring average life expectancy, education, literacy, the gross domestic product per capita and other factors, to calculate the Human Development Index. Japan’s highest position was in 1999, when it was fourth.

This is an interesting development that doesn’t surprise me. Non-Japanese tend to think of crowded trains and rabbit-hutches passing for houses, but Japan has so many different things to offer than just what Americans think is important. Unfortunately, if you haven’t lived there, it can be difficult to understand.

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2006-11-04 (Saturday) by Gregory Tucker.

Top 25 Projects:

1. Gaim
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gaim
Gaim is a GTK+ instant messaging application. It supports multiple
protocols, including AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN, Jabber, IRC, Napster,
Gadu-Gadu, Zephyr, and SILC. It has many common features found in other
clients, as well as many unique features.

2. ZK - Ajax but no JavaScript
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zk1
ZK is Ajax Java Web framework enabling rich UI for Web apps with no
JavaScript and little programming. With event-driven feature-rich
components, developing as simple as programming desktops. With markup
language, designing as simple as authoring HTML.

3. phpMyAdmin
https://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin
phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the
administration of MySQL over the Web. Currently it can create and drop
databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any
SQL statement, manage keys on fields.

4. Adempiere Bazaar
https://sourceforge.net/projects/adempiere
Adempiere is a collaboration of Open Source Developers that contribute
vertical application add-ons and improvements to the Compiere ERP/CRM in
an open and unabated fashion. Focus is on the Community.

5. Gallery
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gallery
A slick, intuitive web based photo gallery. Gallery is easy to install,
configure and use. Gallery photo management includes automatic
thumbnails, resizing, rotation, and more. Authenticated users and
privileged albums make this great for communities.

6. FCKeditor
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fckeditor
Online text editor (DHTML editor), for ASP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, PHP,
Java and JavaScript brings to the web many of the powerful features of
known desktop editors like Word. It’s XHTML compliant and works with
Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape and IE.

7. FileZilla
https://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla
FileZilla is a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with a lot of
features.FileZilla Server is a reliable FTP server.

8. PhpGedView
https://sourceforge.net/projects/phpgedview
PhpGedView parses GEDCOM 5.5 genealogy files and displays them on the
internet in formats and charts that you are familiar with.It also allows
relatives to edit their genealogy online and collaborate together on
their research.

9. KeePass Password Safe
https://sourceforge.net/projects/keepass
KeePass Password Safe is a free, open-source, light-weight and
easy-to-use password manager for Windows. You can store your passwords
in a highly-encrypted database, which is locked with one master key or
key-disk.

10. MediaPortal
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mediaportal
MediaPortal opens the portal to all your media. Listen, record and
organize music, movies, radio, streams, pictures and even pause TV! Use
internet sources to enrich your media with album art or song names.
Enjoy your media center or HTPC like never before!

11. Openbravo ERP
https://sourceforge.net/projects/openbravo
Web based ERP for SMEs, built on proven MVC & MDD framework that
facilitate customization & maintenance of code. Already in production,
it encompasses a broad range of functionalities such as finance, supply
chain, project management, manufacturing & much more.

12. ScummVM
https://sourceforge.net/projects/scummvm
ScummVM is a cross-platform interpreter for several point-and-click
adventure engines. This includes all SCUMM-based adventures by
LucasArts, Simon the Sorcerer 1&2 by AdventureSoft, Beneath a Steel Sky
and Broken Sword 1&2 by Revolution, and many more.

13. Covide CRM-Groupware
https://sourceforge.net/projects/covide
Covide combines great Groupware (shared email, calendars, files) and CRM
(sales and support) in CRM-groupware. The most efficient way to work
together. Integrate it with VoIP PBX Asterisk and OpenOffice and you can
create a complete Virtual Office.

14. Inkscape
https://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape
A Linux, Windows & OSX vector graphics editor (SVG format) featuring
transparency, gradients, node editing, pattern fills, PNG export, and
more. Aiming for capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio, etc.

15. Stellarium
https://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium
Stellarium renders 3D photo-realistic skies in real time with OpenGL. It
displays stars, constellations, planets, nebulas and others things like
ground, landscape, atmosphere, etc.

16. Azureus
https://sourceforge.net/projects/azureus
Azureus is a powerful, full-featured, cross-platform bittorrent client.

17. MiKTeX
https://sourceforge.net/projects/miktex
MiKTeX is an up-to-date implementation of TeX & Friends for Windows (all
current variants).

18. TinyMCE
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tinymce
TinyMCE is a platform independent webbased Javascript HTML WYSIWYG
editor control, developed in JavaScript/ECMAScript, higly customizable.
Works in Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, MSIE and Safari (partially).

19. DC++
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dcplusplus
This is a project aimed at producing a file sharing client using the ADC
protocol. It also supports connecting to the Direct Connect network.

20. 7-Zip
https://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip
7-Zip is a file archiver with the high compression ratio. The program
supports 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, LZH, CHM, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO,
RPM and DEB formats. Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50%
better than ratio in ZIP format.

21. MegaMek
https://sourceforge.net/projects/megamek
MegaMek is a networked Java clone of BattleTech, a turn-based sci-fi
board game for 2+ players.Fight using giant robots, tanks, and/or
infantry on a hex-based map.

22. Jameleon
https://sourceforge.net/projects/jameleon
Jameleon is a data-driven automated testing tool that is easily
extensible via plug-ins. Features of applications are automated in Java
and tied together independently in XML, creating self-documenting
automated test cases.

23. Ares Galaxy
https://sourceforge.net/projects/aresgalaxy
Chat/File sharing p2p client. Network is organized into leaf/supernode
topology featuring broadcast-type searches. Ares delivers broader search
horizon by means of DHT technology.

24. KoLmafia
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kolmafia
KoLmafia is a cross-platform desktop tool which interfaces with the
online adventure game, Kingdom of Loathing.KoLmafia is written in Java
(J2SE 1.4 compliant), with binary releases in JAR format.

25. Anathema
https://sourceforge.net/projects/anathema
Anathema is an exhaustive suite for all aspects of Exalted series
management, featuring character and campaign management, media library,
script notes and more. Supports both First and Second Edition. Exalted
is (c) by White Wolf Publishing.

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