Messages

76

General Software Discussion / OpenGoo - Open Source, Open Standard Web office

« on: May 09, 2009, 03:56 AM »

I don't know anything about this, but it seems like a Very Good Idea:

OpenGoo has one goal: to make the best Web Office. Period.
There is no way we can achieve that goal if we do not work together as a community. We need to bring together the work of tens of thousands of the Open Source developers working on the pieces all around the World. We need your help. Come join OpenGoo now, and be part of a new Web history.
OPENGOO IS FOSS
There are many commercial alternatives. but none of them offer you the advantages of Free Open Source.
When you have an Open Source piece of software you:
Can change it at will
Can switch your IT providers
Pay less
Use it however you want
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the licencing of OpenGoo

77

General Software Discussion / Re: Set GMail as default email client - not just in browser

« on: April 16, 2009, 01:06 PM »

Do share!

78

Living Room / Re: Keyxoard Layouts

« on: April 07, 2009, 03:22 AM »

Do you use the PKL to map your keys (I mean when you were running two keyboards)?

-Perry Mowbray (April 05, 2009, 02:26 AM)

Yes, unfortunately the second use was at college, where such things are frowned on. 

79

Living Room / Re: Keyxoard Layouts

« on: April 04, 2009, 10:13 AM »

I used Dvorak for some years, but became frustrated because so many common control key codes are in odd places. then, when I had to alternate between DVORAK and QWERTY layouts, I slowed right down. Now I'm back to using a single keyboard, I use the Colemak layout, and am very happy with it. It's a l'ot easier to learn if you already touch-type in Qwerty, and the Z,X,C,V keys are in the same place  As far as I can tell its just as fast as Dvorak for lengthy text input, and even more comfortable because there is less work for the little fingers!   

80

Living Room / Crazy Compact Camping Car

« on: February 03, 2009, 10:46 AM »

I love ingenious things that cram a lot into a little, but this is just amazing. Not just living room, but kitchen, bathroom (including tub!), and upstairs. Three guys built it for a year-long trip round Japan.

This camping car is made to small size. Because the road in Japan is narrow.
We made for folding two-story camping-car to prepare the greatest emigration space into the small body.
Time necessary to make the second floor is about two minutes. These operations are done in the driver's seat(cab).
The second floor is about 6 square meters area.
A driver's seat(cab) is not connected to a living-room, so cannot basically ride on living-room while running.

81

Living Room / Re: Going Into Frugality Mode -- What are your Tricks and Tips

« on: January 31, 2009, 12:06 PM »

This may seem backwards, but try tithing. Put a tenth of your income aside, and  give it away, blow it, spend it on whatever you like, so long as it's nothing you really, really need.

The Ideal is 50% on Needs, 30% on Wants and 20% Savings
 

Warren and Tyagi write, “You can spend your Wants money on anything that strikes your fancy, so long as you stay within 30% of your income.” In fact, they warn against spending too little on Wants, suggesting that those who spend less than 20% of their income on the things they enjoy might be missing the point of money. “You certainly won’t get into trouble spending like this on Wants,” they say. “Even so, you should ask yourself — are you making enough room for fun?”

Excellent question, and here’s the truth: I’m spending less than 10% of my income on fun, and I can tell. I’m growing a little cantankerous in my old age. I’m letting things like a trip to the movies raise my blood pressure, when I should just be enjoying life. I’ve paid off my debt. I’m not spending foolishly. I can afford to go to a movie, even if it is expensive. I can afford to spend the extra 29 cents to have a great mug of cocoa.

82

Living Room / Re: Tagging Conventions/Folksonomy

« on: January 30, 2009, 04:36 AM »

You need to ask yourself why you are keeping all this stuff.

The omnibox in Google Chrome is scarily good at re-finding stuff you have seen recently.
ListMixer is great for temporary ad hoc lists, and stuff that you might, or might not, look at again.

When I do add  link to my personal bookmarks, I take a tip from Jay Baldwin's toolbox

Our tools are sorted by function rather than by name. Whackers, twisters, nabbers, and hole-makers live with their functional kindred. Just seeing them there together can give you an insight into how to do something more easily.

I say to myself "I shall need this again when I want to VERB [adjective] [NOUN] [adverb]

So, for example, the Listmixer bookmarklet is filed under "Keep," together with ones to subscribe to an RSS feed and make a note in Reader. Each main verb is a separate folder on my bookmark bar. By concentrating on what i might actually DO with the link, I avoid large collections tagged "interesting."

83

Living Room / Whole Earth online!

« on: January 10, 2009, 05:58 AM »

Those of us of a certain age will remember the Whole Earth Catalog and it's subsequent sister publications. This was where my interest in computers and alternate technology started, back in my student days in the 1970's 

Now they're all online! 

For those who are too young to remember, I'll let Kevin Kelly explain:

The Whole Earth Catalogs preached the hacker/designer approach to life starting in 1968, decades before this lifehacking became the norm. The Catalogs were a paper-based database offering thousands of hacks, tips, tools, suggestions, and possibilities for optimizing your life.

Like fine wine, the back issues of the Whole Earth Catalogs and its offspring, the CoEvolution Quarterly improve with age. One can read 20-year-old back issues and they will inform and astound you. They feel as if they were written yesterday. I've noted previously that much of their charm comes because they were blogs created in newsprint, written before the internet.

One could read back issues if you could find them. I had the privilege of producing many of the issues of CoEvolution Quarterly and some of the Catalogs, so I had my own personal library of them. (Therefore you should also discount my enthusiasm for them.) I can't tell you how many wonderful evenings I have spent sitting in my reading chair re-exploring the fantastic worlds captured in these back issues. It is impossible to pick one up and not be mesmerized, thrilled, amazed, and informed by at least two stories or reviews. There is a timeless nature to this work that is due to their anti-fashionable status. The Whole Earth Catalogs and CoEvolutions were idea-based journalism, rather than event-based. Instead of reporting on top of things, they liked to get to the bottom of things.  These issues zagged while the rest of the culture zigged, only to zag later.

The good news is that all this goodness is now online. Danica Remy and the last holdouts of the old Point Foundation, publishers of the Catalogs and magazine until its last issue in 2002, have given a second life to this gold mine of material by arranging them to be scanned and posted online. The entire 35-year archive of Whole Earth Catalogs, Supplements, Reviews and CoEvolutions are all up and ready to be studied. You can read them for free, or download them for a fee.  Go here.

I am not thrilled by the interface or format. The pages are clunky to navigate and worse, the proprietary format goes against the essential open system that Whole Earth both preached and practiced. The scans are analog. I could not find anyway to copy and paste text from them. The pages would have been far more useful and easier to use and share as plain old PDF docs.

But, oh! The richness!  There are some very are early Whole Earth Catalog Supplements that in all my time at Whole Earth I never saw or read. They are here online now. For those unfamiliar with the wisdom of the Catalog, this archive will serve as a wonderful start. There are more than 100 issues of CoEvolution Quarterly (later called Whole Earth Review) and dozens of Whole Earth Catalogs to keep you up for years.

84

Living Room / Re: How many countries represented here on DC ?

« on: October 02, 2008, 10:37 AM »

Northern Ireland

85

Living Room / Re: Skimp or splurge?

« on: August 15, 2008, 04:41 AM »

Skimp: clothing

Splurge: shoes

I buy quality when I can (usually on sale) but then, that doesn't necessarily have to mean splurge, either, does it? Overall, I'm drawing a blank here. I guess I follow my dad's credo - shop around until you can get good quality at a good price. This way you buy once (or once every X years) instead of buying low quality items frequently.

-Darwin (August 14, 2008, 08:17 AM)

What counts with clothes is cost per wear. Cheap jeans are an abomination, but I have a pair of carpenter's trousers that I wear nearly every day, and will see me right for years yet.

Another useful thing is to have a little book in which you write down everything you really, really want and why you want it, even if you think you can never afford it.
It's quite chastening to look back at some of the stuff you once lusted after! 

86

Living Room / Re: Favorite part of the Beijing Olympics so far?

« on: August 13, 2008, 12:08 PM »

British cyclists fast? Is there any British cyclist left?

-Lashiec (August 13, 2008, 11:07 AM)

Thus far (out of four events) gold in the women's road race and silver in the time trial. They are expected to do even better in the the track events and the BMX later, having just about cleaned up in the World Championships. If you like fast, watch out of Mark Cavendish who won four sprint stages in his debut Tour de France this year.

The Spanish didn't win everything - it just seems that way sometimes!  

87

Living Room / Re: Show us your (physical) desktop

« on: July 22, 2008, 10:46 AM »

Here's mine. Not exactly kick-ass, but it does me! 

88

Living Room / Re: Computer mods: What odd things have you done?

« on: July 16, 2008, 04:18 PM »

i think a cool mod would be a flat old style computer case (not tower but the kind that has proportions more like a pizza box), but with the entire top being one giant slow fan (like maybe a 20inch by 20inch fan).  now that would be cool in more than one way.

-mouser (July 16, 2008, 11:10 AM)

Thinks: inside a kitchen extractor hood (mounted on the wall, but over a desk, not a cooker!)?   

89

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« on: July 08, 2008, 11:38 AM »

Yep, it's broken with a fresh install as well. About the reload, I don't really know, I saw some sites that tend to reload themselves (like Techarp), but they do that to load new ads (or to check you are not blocking them). I think I saw one that does that constantly, but I can't remember which one. If you care to provide an example...

-Lashiec (July 08, 2008, 10:13 AM)

Try reading the comments on 43Folders, e.g.

http://www.43folders...-cool-tools#comments

EDIT: For Google groups, there's a fix. I saw similar behaviour in other Google sites, so I guess if they fix that, they'll fix the others.

Most welcome - thanks!   

90

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« on: July 08, 2008, 09:49 AM »

I guess that might be because of installing over an older version. Upgrading from Opera 9.2x to Opera 9.5x has given many headaches to most users, so probably a fresh install will solve the problems.

-Lashiec (July 08, 2008, 09:26 AM)

Tree view in Google Groups is brokek with my upgrade, and some sites seem to repeatedly reload for no apparent reason. 

Does this also happen with a fresh install? 

91

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« on: June 09, 2008, 12:52 AM »

Hi,

I have been a happy user of FARR, Google Desktop and Humanized Enso.
Enso has recently went Open Source.

While I think that Enso is a great product (as well as FARR) with an interesting view concept,
it may benefit with FARR experience

Maybe interested readers / developers can take a look at Enso to
"cross polinizate" ideas.

http://www.humanized.com/

I am sure that it can be of mutual benefit.

-inter (March 13, 2008, 04:43 PM)

The Open source project is at http://code.google.com/p/enso/

92

Living Room / Re: Annals of Self-Experiment - Seth Roberts is His Own Mouse

« on: June 02, 2008, 04:38 AM »

This is a story from a site called Quantified Self (Tools for Knowing your Own Mind and Body).
I *love* this stuff.  More please.

-mouser (June 01, 2008, 05:11 PM)

Thanks for pointing this out. I never noticed it before though I have feeds for some of Kevin Kelly's other stuff that is linked from there: The Technium and Cool Tools. The latter is a direct descendant of the old Whole Earth Catalog that was a formative part of my student years.   

93

Find And Run Robot / FARR filetype?

« on: May 30, 2008, 05:41 AM »

Is it possible to open FARR with a specified results list contained in an external text file? The file may be written by an exteral program. I'm thinking of an associated filetype that pops up a menu of FARR choices when clicked (or launched in FARR!)

94

General Software Discussion / Opera Newsreader Problem

« on: April 26, 2008, 02:00 PM »

Recently my ISP had Usenet problems. When service resumed I found that two of my five subscribed newsgroups were no longer updating in Opera though I could get new posts using other newsreaders.  

The only thing that the groups seem to have in common is that I did a 'catch up' on both in XNews before contact was restored  in Opera. I've tried unsubscribing one group, rebooting and resubscribing, but to no effect.  

Ideas, anyone?

95

Living Room / Re: 25 interesting things that you learn about computers only in the movies

« on: April 03, 2008, 10:54 AM »

That all started with Blade Runner, remember? Harrison Ford zoomed in on a picture of the "skin job" stripper and her snake prop until he could read the id number micro-stamped on one of the scales.

(how many dpi can you freaking fit in a jpeg to be able to do that? ack.)

-Edvard (April 03, 2008, 10:29 AM)

They did the same trick with security cameras in the first Columbo shows. Back then most people thought that videotape worked like film.  

And what about that scrolling assembler code in the original Terminator movie? Z80?  

96

Living Room / Re: Laptops in the future

« on: April 01, 2008, 06:09 AM »

None of them are what I am hoping for.

I'm just looking for an ebook that I can comfortably write with and can be used an a remote controller for other systems. Solid state, AA batteries, nice multi-touch A5 portrait display that I can hold like a book. Cover that opens like barn doors, out and back, to make a split vertical keyboard. 

97

Living Room / Re: Haiku Poetry Messages for Microsoft Errors

« on: February 29, 2008, 12:45 PM »

They seem to have been entries for a Salon challenge in February 1998. (I Googled "disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both")

98

Living Room / Re: Myth or Last legend

« on: February 20, 2008, 11:13 AM »

Anyone frm scotland do update me with this.

here is the link for somehing unusual on the discovery.I found it while was searching for sea horse myth on discovery.

http://dsc.discovery...;guid=20070531170000

What ya think it is?

-arunpawar (February 20, 2008, 04:40 AM)

Whatever it is, it is not a plesiosaur

Oddly enough, the first sighting came shortly after the release of the original 'King Kong.'

99

Living Room / Re: Wanted: Electronic/Searchable Holy Books

« on: January 15, 2008, 11:24 AM »

I think (for now) your solution is best served by finding texts you are interested in, whether in html or plain text, and find a full-featured text viewing/searching software to load it into.
Something that allows full-search indexing, keyword tagging, marginal note-taking and markups for cross-referencing between two or more texts, stuff like that.

This functionality exists for many of the Bible study apps mentioned, it is the texts themselves that are not available because the text must be formatted for the software, which is a time-consuming process to say the least.
If such software (a more generic text indexing/markup/comparison tool) does not exist, I think it would be a fantastic project for someone to start as it would be a great research tool for texts of any persuasion.
 
Perhaps the discussion should now turn to finding such a software if it exists, and what it should look like if it doesn't.

-Edvard (January 14, 2008, 10:26 AM)

In the early days of XML there was an example file that contained the KJV, the Koran and the Book of Mormon. I wrote a simple concordance to display each reference to a given word.  Unfortunately, I no longer have the file and cannot find it on the Net. 

The first requirement seems to be a way to automatically parse a text by book/chapter/verse, sura/paragraph (or whatever its native divisions are) so that they can be referenced directly by external links.

100

Living Room / Re: Wanted: Electronic/Searchable Holy Books

« on: January 15, 2008, 09:29 AM »

First of, thank for the link to the film. It looks very interesting. I'm going to try an view it when I get the opportunity.

I do understand that what I am asking for is quite huge, but only if you look at it as me trying to "understand" everything about all of the religions. What I seek is only slightly more than a surface level understanding, a foundation, that will provide me with a proper perspective with which I can view related issues. I do not wish to do this as a Doctoral Thesis, I just want an educated layman's understanding - something beyond hearsay and propaganda.

-tinjaw (January 11, 2008, 05:25 AM)

A good book to start with might be Karen Armstrong's A History of God.  It does a good job of comparing the development of ideas about God in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The final sentence:

Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation; they will fill the vacuum by creating a new focus of meaning. The idols of fundementalism are not good substitutes for God; if we are to create a vibrant new faith for the twenty-first century, we should, perhaps, ponder the history of God for some lessons and warnings.

I think that might be useful whether or not you are a theist.  (BTW, I'm a Methodist with Quaker inclinations)