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Recent Posts

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2451
Word Processor Roundup / Find a link to the Word Processor Review? Post it here!
« Last post by zridling on February 21, 2007, 12:36 PM »
If you find a link or blog post to the Word Processor Review online, post it here. Criticism is especially welcome!
2452
Word Processor Roundup / Re: Outlining
« Last post by zridling on February 14, 2007, 09:39 PM »
Good points, since I'm an outlining freak. The best, of course, was Ecco Pro. But since its demise, the best to come along was Microsoft OneNote. Each tab in OneNote will hold about 60,000 words, and while they don't convert well inside of Word (ironic!), they do convert pretty accurately everywhere else using copy and paste. Inevitably, if you're going to use a word processor's outlining feature to outline a complex document, you'd probably be better off outlining it using another app and building your document using Master documents to gain more control over editing and its ultimate form.
2453
Word Processor Roundup / Re: 3rd Party Tools like Bibliography Addins
« Last post by zridling on February 14, 2007, 09:31 PM »
Since a bibliography plugin/add-in is not a word processor, I won't include them in the review, and in fact, its complexity begs a mini-review or review unto itself. I do know that Word 2007's citation feature was perhaps the most debated topic for its beta. We all wanted it to work like EndNote, since its UI made so much sense. But once again, Microsoft went off and did its own thing, reinvented it, and immediately ran into a lot of problems which never got fixed. Microsoft did not understand the importance of this feature to the adoption of Word 2007, in my opinion, as they discarded virtually every suggestion and offer for help. So I urge others NOT to depend on the citation feature in Word 2007. OpenOffice's Base can be used for the same purpose, but you have to build it to suit your fields. You can also customize the layout in OpenOffice's Bibliography Database feature. Some academic departments have written plugin forms for OpenOffice, however.

Another consideration to building such an app would be that the various fields are constantly shifting and updating their formats every 3-5 years. Such a project would require a team to keep up with the changes and implement them, creating a huge time sink.
2454
Word Processor Roundup / Re: extra advantage with OpenOffice.org: possible portability
« Last post by zridling on February 14, 2007, 09:20 PM »
Yeah, this is a great suggestion, and even though I don't have or use a USB stick, I can still point out these smallware, portable programs. SoftMaker Office (TextMaker) also includes a portable version of its software.
2455
Word Processor Roundup / Re: KISS
« Last post by zridling on February 14, 2007, 09:18 PM »
Not a bad suggestion, but there are a few of these RTF programs around, some of which are quite good. However, you may come to see by Part 3 that online processors will make these programs obsolete. They can open and save to a variety of formats, have simple interfaces, and have the advantage of online storage and sharing. Oh, and they're free if that counts.
2456
Word Processor Roundup / Re: Papyrus Office
« Last post by zridling on February 14, 2007, 09:14 PM »
Wow, thanks for the great tip, alxwz. I downloaded it and will include it in Part 2 of the review. I appreciate it!
2457
Word Processor Roundup / Re: WPS Office should be in list
« Last post by zridling on February 14, 2007, 06:35 PM »
Thanks for the tip, xbeta! If you could get me a link to the English version download, I'd be happy to spend some time with it and review it. Looks like EI Office, but then all these are starting to run together at this point.
2458
Living Room / Re: My Amazing Secret for How to Get Great Publicity and Get Rich in the Web2 World
« Last post by zridling on February 07, 2007, 04:37 PM »
This is EXACTLY what is happening in the online office suite market right now. Companies are falling all over themselves. They toss up some AJAX, shotgun a press release a day on how their company is going to change everything from this point forward, and keep offering tidbits all in the hope a megacorp like Microsoft or Google buys them out. Look at all the companies Symantec has acquired in the last two years. All you got to do is get something started.

Now I have this idea about electric cars and electrifying one lane of the autobahn/interstate so that an electric car could get on the autobahn, get in the electrified lane and let the juice drive his car 300mph from one edge of the country to the other in no time. I'll take seed money starting at €500,000 (no USDollars, please)!
2459
General Software Discussion / Re: My favorite software! What's yours?
« Last post by zridling on February 07, 2007, 03:53 PM »
Okay Curt, FlashNote is a great idea, and I like it better than sticky apps by far. It sells itself as rough copy, but it's rather 'exact' copy, retaining the formatting of a php file I dumped inside it. Thanks for sharing!
2460
General Software Discussion / Re: ITSD Organiser (Organizer Officially I guess..)
« Last post by zridling on February 07, 2007, 03:40 PM »
Matt, if you're looking for a collaborative edge, you might consider Socialtext. It's an online wiki tool that keeps everyone on the same page.
2461
Living Room / Re: How to think, act and live better - great books and other material!
« Last post by zridling on January 10, 2007, 12:51 AM »
I've read most of the classics, and while In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust* is my favorite novel, Martin Heidegger's Being and Time and Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality had the biggest impact on my thinking for the rest of my life. Both books seemed to explain everyday life and the cosmos in ways that were true to my experience.

* Proust's masterpiece can also be downloaded free at the Online Books Page.
2462
General Software Discussion / Re: NetLimiter alternative?
« Last post by zridling on January 10, 2007, 12:18 AM »
Dr. Leech, I haven't had the same problems (yet) with NetLimiter, but here a page of suggestions to start with:

              http://www.programur...ftware/bandwidth.htm

A lot of this software is related to FTP transfers, but I have not found any freeware in this category. You might also test something like File Catalyst.
2463
Developer's Corner / Re: Difference between programming for Linux and Windows?
« Last post by zridling on January 10, 2007, 12:13 AM »
Fantastic links and analogies, thanks guys! The last languages I learned was my freshman year in college — FORTRAN and COBOL — and by the time I graduated the Mac hit the market, two years later home PCs were affordable, and FORTRAN and COBOL were worth a warm cup of donkey spit.

But Farmsteader I'm not looking to start programming. I honestly don't have the brain capacity for it. But you're right, I'd love to spend the next two years weaning myself completely off of Windows. Apps like UltraEdit, NewsLeecher, ACDSee, Screenshot Captor, et al. may run quite well under Wine or Codeweavers Crossover. Hardware, drivers, etc., are another challenge. But it was this thought that motivated the question of the difference between coding for them.

I've always thought of the difficulty of switching from the installation and hardware side; that is, until a Linux distro (which, compiling proprietary drivers with Open Source software goes against the whole idea for the most part) can make it as easy to install a program and change hardware as Windows does, then it's still the province of those who have time. If it were simple, I'm sure more software devs would simply port their apps to Linux. But that's not the case as Michael Rainey and I know about UltraEdit!
2464
Living Room / Re: How do you spend your time on the computer?
« Last post by zridling on January 09, 2007, 11:54 PM »
I should add that I spend an inordinate amount of computer time collecting (great/free) crap — ebooks, music, videos, porn (yes I'll admit it, even if it offends), photos. It's obsessive, as if I'm thinking, "Well someday when I'm in a nursing home, I'll have something to do and lots of stuff to review and finally get around to reading." And to which I'm sure it will take me only a couple of hours to delete most of it.
2465
Living Room / Re: How do you spend your time on the computer?
« Last post by zridling on January 09, 2007, 11:51 PM »
nudone for a minute I thought you were going to say your computer had you pinned and bent over the desk... but that's just Microsoft's latest EULA I was thinking of.
2466
General Software Discussion / Software tutorials based on pictures
« Last post by zridling on January 09, 2007, 11:48 PM »
In Pictures is a clever (old?) idea of offering software tutorials in pictures. They have OpenOffice 2, Microsoft Office 2003, and Dreamweaver tutorials up now, and more coming soon.
2467
Developer's Corner / Re: Difference between programming for Linux and Windows?
« Last post by zridling on January 08, 2007, 07:28 AM »
Now see Farmsteader, that's just it: I don't know. I don't even know enough about programming to ask the question in a specific way, other than the example of writing the same program for each OS platform.
2468
Living Room / How do you spend your time on the computer?
« Last post by zridling on January 08, 2007, 07:25 AM »
Like some, I spend my entire day typing, pointing, and clicking (I work with exhaustive database files and it sux), and when I get home I'm ready to be entertained or learn something. How do you spend your time at the computer? Here are some common online activities:
  • Gaming
  • Blogging (reading/writing/posting in forums)
  • Social activities (chat, myspace, findbook, second life)
  • Porn (gets my vote)
  • Multimedia (watching movies, making movies, photography, graphics)
  • Usenet/P2P/BitTorrent (sharing)
  • Programming (really?)
  • Writing the next great novel
  • Learning something/anything (Wikipedia, or any educational source)
  • Shopping (would get my vote if I had the €€€)
  • Money matters (banking, stocks, or what the rich do with it all)
  • Sports, gambling, politics, etc.

What else?
2469
Living Room / Re: Anyone know about installing Ubuntu Linux on a new machine
« Last post by zridling on January 08, 2007, 07:07 AM »
Also check out the Ubuntu Starter Guide which outlines a host of articles and notes on specific installation help.
2470
Developer's Corner / Difference between programming for Linux and Windows?
« Last post by zridling on January 08, 2007, 06:59 AM »
I can't code my name, but I need to be informed: What is the difference between programming for Linux and Windows? Especially the same program. I ran a second Linux box for years, but never made the full switch because several of my most used apps throughout the day aren't coded for Linux. Is it difficult? Do you have to go to 'Linux' school? About the best article I could find was Biculturalism by Joel Spolsky:

What are the cultural differences between Unix and Windows programmers? There are many details and subtleties, but for the most part it comes down to one thing: Unix culture values code which is useful to other programmers, while Windows culture values code which is useful to non-programmers.... This is, of course, a major simplification, but really, that's the big difference: are we programming for programmers or end users? Everything else is commentary.
2471
Living Room / Remembering lost friends of 2006
« Last post by zridling on December 28, 2006, 04:19 AM »
Turner Classic Movie Channel's annual remembrance of movie professionals who passed away in 2006, including June Allyson, Glenn Ford, Robert Altman, Bruno Kirby, Jack Palance, and Shelley Winters. The music is “Press On” by Robinella. The extracted video can be found on usenet in alt.binaries.multimedia.vintage-film under the title 12-26-06-TCM_Remembers.mpg.

Really cool, considering these people shape our lives when their movies touch us.
2472
Official Announcements / Re: The 2006 Best Of Year-End Wrap.. Online!
« Last post by zridling on December 27, 2006, 08:41 PM »
That's not only incredible, but a fantastic resource! Let's RAR these babies and start a torrent file.
2473
General Software Discussion / Re: Why piracy is the better choice
« Last post by zridling on December 27, 2006, 06:51 PM »
That's exactly what I do with all my movies and audio CDs — copy and format them into AVI and MP3/flac on my computer and archive them on DVD. With programs like SlySoft's CloneDVD and AnyDVD (both of which come with Lifetime licenses), you can remove all that crap at the beginning, strip the subtitles, or extract the audio to MP3. And if it's a "Special Edition" DVD, I burn all the 'Extras' footage onto a separate movie. If I'm queueing up Doctor Zhivago or Barb Wire, I just want to get on with watching the movie. I could care less what the FBI or whomever forces a blue screen on me. My eyes just glaze over at it.

To his larger point in the article on piracy, though, this is why I think it would have been better if Microsoft had charged either nothing for Vista or sold it for a nominal price of $50. By all appearances, it seems to be a transitional OS given all the things left out of it and the immediate work on its successor. Instead, make money of the apps used on Windows. I can't wait for the day when the OS really is irrelevant. And the reason I won't jump on Vista before SP1 (or by next Festivus) is because of apps. All mine run fine on XP; I have full driver support; and I can do everything I want for now. But by slapping $160-$400 tag on Vista, you only further enable piracy. He's right: you can have the corporate edition of Vista and the full Enterprise edition of Office 2007 right now for free if you want, fully activated.
2474
Living Room / Re: Help Me Narrow Down the DonationCoder.com Best Of 2006
« Last post by zridling on December 27, 2006, 05:10 AM »
Man, I've got some catching up to do.
2475
General Software Discussion / Why piracy is the better choice
« Last post by zridling on December 27, 2006, 04:56 AM »
Although its title talks about Hi-Definition format wars, author Charlie Demerjian tells us why piracy has triumphed over every DRM, new format, and anti-consumer tactic — because of the mega-corporations' unmitigated greed:

In the meantime, Piracy, the better choice (tm) flourishes. If you take 10 minutes to look around, you will see that every HD movie is now available on P2P networks.... What was an underground clique in the 1980s and 1990s has become mainstream and so vastly much easier to do that it is laughable. Before the technology hits 1% market penetration it is comprehensively cracked and better for the consumer than the legit versions.... The lawsuits, threats, purchased governance and stern speeches could not prevent the children of Warner Music from pirating, the less moneyed masses are a lost cause. As of right now, anyone can get any music or movie they want, for free, much more easily than they can through legal DRM infected channels. Piracy, the better choice (tm).... If you try and purchase any of this content, you descend into a DRM nightmare of incompatibility and legal mires. Your monitor will not work with your Blu-Ray drive because your PC decided that a wobble bit was set wrong. You just pissed away $6000 on a player, media center PC and HD TV for nothing, you lose.
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