Category: Cool Stuff

OpenOffice.org tips and tricks site

Here goes one of my infrequent discussions on using legally free software. I’m not fond of the escalating price of software, especially considering how often new features are unnecessary for anything but to drive the ongoing need for more powerful hardware. And while I do know all the means of acquiring software illegally, I do use legal copies of software. Whenever possible, I download and instally legally free software, whether public domain, open source, freeware, ad-supported (although rarely) or any other means of legitimately free distribution. I do pay and use some applications, such as Nero and X to DVD, if I can’t find a free alternative that I like, but luckily, there are few needs for commercial software in my daily computing time outside of my games.

One of the applications my wife uses frequently is Microsoft Office. I don’t want the bloat from that on my system, but occasionally she works on my computer and needs access to some type of Office product. I’ve worked around this by installing OpenOffice.org (often referred to as OO.o) and Abiword for her to use. Unfortunately, I’m not very strong with OO.o, and sometimes Abiword doesn’t have all the features she needs. So, what to do? Why, I think I’ll buy a book and also read the author’s blog to learn how to better use OO.o. That should be a nice distraction from my other current reading – Beginning GIMP.

You can buy the book from the author for $30 via paypal, or head to Amazon and get it for $59.99. I have no idea why the price difference, but I’ve ordered my copy from the author.

So to reiterate – if you are tired of the cost of commercial software, consider many of the excellent free alternatives (and feel free to contact me for help finding tools for your tasks – I love tracking down stuff online). If you are in the market for office productivity software, consider OpenOffice.org, and read this hints and tips site to learn it (and consider buying the book).

[tags]Random free software commentary, Learn OpenOffice.org, OpenOffice.org tips and tricks[/tags]

Another how to draw site

Long ago, I posted a link to a “How to draw” site that I thought was really cool. This week, I’ve found another such site. This new site takes a different approach to drawing lessons than the first, using a blog format, but it still looks to be a helpful and informative How to Draw site. Here’s a sample of the lessons on the site at the time I’m posting:

howtodrawblog.png

There are a lot of videos of the owner doing drawings, which may be a more useful way for some people to learn. I do laugh a bit at that 7th article in the recently written list – Inking the Monkey. I suppose that’s what all the cool kids are calling it these days.

[tags]How to draw, Video drawing lessons online, Drawing e-learning[/tags]

Wooden keyboards

The site is lacking details on the when and where of this, but I couldn’t pass up showing this beautiful wooden keyboard shown at COMPUTEX 2007 up for view at aving.net.

aving-wooden_keyboard-clip.jpg

Make that in a split keyboard style and I’ll have to get one. Of course, with how much time I spend on the computer, I suspect a wooden keyboard would wear down too quickly to be worth the price.

[tags]aving.net displays wooden keyboard, COMPUTEX 2007 show – wooden keyboard[/tags]

Turn your steps into storage

Really, wouldn’t you think this was a rather obvious idea, even if few places makes use of it?

lh-stepstorage.jpg

The Unclutterer weblog points out a really neat home design idea: a staircase that doubles as a set of storage drawers.

As the article at LifeHacker points out, this is something done on yachts and boats where space is at a premium. Still, it’s not something I can ever recall reading about before.

[tags]Turning steps into storage space[/tags]

Microsoft security engineer shows simple wireless network break-in tools

I love security. I really need to get a good job back in the computer security industry. If I could track down a decent job in security, I’d get to play with cool software like the wireless security breaking tools demonstrated by Microsoft’s Marcus Murray (more information on this session on Murray’s blog).

ORLANDO – During an updated version of one of the more popular sessions at TechEd each year, senior security engineer and Microsoft MVP Marcus Murray did attendees a major service by demonstrating that hacking into a network is not really an art, and in some ways, not even much of a science.

His “Why I Can Hack Your Network in a Day” session is actually something of a misnomer, as many of the tools he uses (including one written by SysInternals guru-turned-Microsoft fellow Mark Russinovich) can enable individuals to work their way to revealing the passwords of domain administrators in closer to 15 minutes.

Of course, this is just a case of technology allowing transfer of skill – one security expert figures out the vulnerability, encases it in a point-and-click tool, and shares with the world. But it is still interesting to see what is going on in the back-and-forth of improved security/improved breaking of security fight. As always, security experts will look at the exploited vulnerabilities, come up with ways to reduce or eliminate them, improve protocols, and release equipment with the improved protocols. This will be followed by the break-in experts analyzing the new protocols, looking for direct and secondary/side-channel attacks, determining weaknesses, exploiting those weaknesses, and releasing simple tools that allow less skilled attackers break the security. Around and around it goes, until the eventual heat death of the universe or until we all start communicating via telepathy (which will probably get hacked somehow, in which case evolution will create better telepaths, and so on).

[tags]Microsoft security engineer demonstrates wireless hacking tools[/tags]

USB geekery

Geeks need cool, useless toys. I’ve covered that often enough here on the site that it should be pretty clear already. Many times, I’ll find cool toys that I don’t comment on or post, just because I find about 3-4 gadgets and toys a day. But occasionally, I find a toy that’s just too useless and cool to not mention. Today, I point out the USB plasma ball.

brando-USBplasma.jpg

Absolutely no use, true, but really cool. Especially for us older geeks – a throwback to our youth days when these things were more common. (via Tingilinde)

[tags]USB Plasma ball, Cool geeky USB toy[/tags]

Modern Mechanix on LOLcats, the early years

Back before LOLcats were everywhere you turned, the folks at Scientific American published information on photographing cats in their December, 1931 issue. Learn what early photographers did for good LOLcat images in the days before the GIMP and Photoshop.

MM-cat_photos_clip.jpgCATS are easy to photograph-if you can tap an unlimited supply of patience. Beyond that, all you need is a camera (I prefer a reflex) with flash attachment. An assistant, portrait lenses, a tripod and a flash extension are helpful, but by no means essential.

The best place to work is a spot the cat likes best and the best time is just after he has eaten. When the cat gets down to the business of washing, you can start clicking. Set up your equipment beforehand and keep backgrounds plain. If the cat happens to like a spot in front of a cluttered background, stretch a sheet behind him.


Isn’t that picture just screaming for a LOLcat caption? I’m imagining something like “Plz 2 find t3h water is getting m3h”, but I’m a bad LOLcatographer. I don’t know how photographers in 1931 got their captions on images, but these seems to be the earliest sign of the coming LOLcat meme.

[tags]LOLcats – the early years, Scientific American covers LOLcats in 1931[/tags]

PLoS ONE open access online science journal

Catching up on my Tingilinde reading this evening, I found a recent article there linking over to PLoS ONE. I had never heard of this site, but the article sounded interesting so I followed the link. That article, Ionizing Radiation Changes the Electronic Properties of Melanin and Enhances the Growth of Melanized Fungi, is way beyond my means of comprehension. However, the site byline, “A new way of communicating peer-reviewed science and medicine”, intrigued me. I spent a little time searching around the site to see just what PLoS ONE is. If you look at the site, you can find that it is an open access science journal, and it offers peer reviewed scientific studies for your online consumption.

PLoS ONE (eISSN-1932-6203) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication. PLoS ONE welcomes reports on primary research from any scientific discipline. PLoS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit organization. PLoS ONE’s start-up phase is supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute.

. . .

All works published in PLoS journals are open access, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Everything is immediately available online without cost to anyone, anywhere-to read, download, redistribute, include in databases, and otherwise use-subject only to the condition that the original authorship is properly attributed. Copyright is retained by the author.

From what little I’ve poked around, it appears that the site is offering credible scientific information via what I call the Cory Doctorow method of riches through free content. Yes, it is a method that I realize others have also done. It just works in my mind to tie the practice to someone whose work I’ve consumed heavily.

If you are at all interested in what is going on in the scientific world, PLoS ONE is a good site to add to your sites-worth-visiting list. Just expect to find lots of works that are over your head (sample below). OF course, many of you may be much brighter than I am, so you might not find that to be the case, but I certainly couldn’t grok much of what I saw there. It was, regardless, quite fascinating.

PLoS-ONE_clip.jpg


Oh, and that PLoS thing? Well, that stands for the Public Library of Science. Just in case you wondered (I did, and found it while poking around the site). And if you are looking for more science sites worth visiting, just let me know and I’ll add some of the other places I’ve found to be worth the time investment.

[tags]Public Library of Science online journal, Science sites worth visiting[/tags]

Interactive touchable tetris board

This is hard for me to explain concisely and well, so I’ll just slap up the image, direct you to the details of construction, and let you marvel at the interactive touch-board LED-based tetris game.

TetrisGame-02-L.jpg

What is this thing? It’s the game of Tetris but played on a device that is composed of 240 buttons. So if you want to move the Tetris block right/left, you simply touch a button left or right of the current piece. To rotate a block you touch a button in one of the top two rows. And to drop a block you touch the bottom row. It’s a hands on Tetris game! Watch:


A few ‘wow’ numbers:

  1. 16 microcontrollers
  2. Total of 256 MIPS
  3. 720 LEDs
  4. 1.5A current draw
  5. 1300 lines of code
  6. 28800 bits being updated per second
  7. 9 people
  8. ? man hours

The full write-up is extensive and very interesting. There are pictures of the 2×2 board that is the basis for the entire system. But as awesome as it would be to have this, their estimate for pricing is around $1500. I believe that’s a touch more than the wife would let me spend.

[tags]Awesome touch-reactive tetris board game[/tags]

New thought on the creation of the great pyramids

I was just discussing at work today with a colleague the topic of the construction of the great pyramids. I posted on the site here last year a bit about new thinking on the process, and today found another article about possible casting work done in the creation of the pyramids.

The widely accepted theory-that the pyramids were crafted of carved-out giant limestone blocks that workers carried up ramps-had not only not been embraced by everyone, but as important had quite a number of holes.

According to the caller, the mysteries had actually been solved by Joseph Davidovits, Director of the Geopolymer Institute in St. Quentin, France, more than two decades ago. Davidovits claimed that the stones of the pyramids were actually made of a very early form of concrete created using a mixture of limestone, clay, lime, and water.

Continue reading “New thought on the creation of the great pyramids”