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Open Source Has Features
I use many Open Source software tools in my day-to-day life, but I know I could use more. Right now I use PHP, Apache, MySQL, Drupal, WordPress, and may others, mostly related to my website design business. About six months ago I switched to FireFox from Internet Explorer, and that is probably the one I use the most for everyday life.
One that I have not tried until now is OpenOffice. I just figured I didn't need it since I already have a copy of Office 2000 that I bought at a student license price and want to get all the use I can out of. But then I came to a problem that Word 2000 couldn't handle.
A client put some images he'd taken with his digital calendar into the Word document and sent it to me. I knew the hi-res versions were in the file because the .doc file was a hefty 7MB. Opening Word, I tried to get the images out into PhotoShop so I could save them and put them on the website. You'd think a right-click on a photo would give a nice "Save As..." link, but no cigar. The best option was to copy to the clipboard, and when pasted into PhotoShop, it got me only a 300-pixel-wide photo with something like only 256 colors. In other words, it was totally unacceptable.
Then the thought struck me: I be OpenOffice has it! Basically, OpenOffice is a totally free, open-source version of Office. And if Word has that setting in there so that you can't copy somebody else's photos, OpenOffice probably has the workaround to get the images out becuase open source people like free access to everything.
Sure enough, I was right. I downloaded it from their site in a couple mintues, installed it in five minutes, and immediately had the Word file opened in OpenOffice. Although there wasn't a handy "Save As..." link like I hoped, their copy function worked. Pasting into PhotoShop gave a beautiful 2000-pixel-wide photo that will definitely be enough to put on the site.
Thanks, OpenOffice. For the uninitiated, if you get a new computer and don't want to buy Microsoft Office, download OpenOffice really quick and you're set to go. I'll keep playing around with it, and probably soon I'll switch over. Of course, if you have the finances, it is very helpful to support the work of the OpenOffice programmers, but it's not required.
New From Coldplay
Today I went out and picked up the new release from Coldplay: X&Y. And believe me, it's worth the $10 if you at all liked their first two albums.
First of all, the 12 tracks (plus a not-so-hidden track) clock in at a spacious one hour. And all the songs, after a listen, seem to be worth a listen. Of course, I'll have to listen to it a bunch more, but first impressions are very positive. If you ask me, "Speed of Sound, " the first single, is one of the weaker tracks on the album. Chris Martin's keyboard is as prominent as ever, yet a couple tracks are more rockin' than anything they've done earlier.
Unfortunately, I don't have the money to see them when they come to town this fall. Besides, I'd be 100 feet away if I did order tickets right now. If I'm gonna go to that big of a concert, I'd pay top dollar to get the first couple rows.
Geek Speak
Hey all,
I know most of your who read this are not generally as geeky as me, and that's why I've kept most of my Geek posts pretty un-technical. But that may change in the future.
You see, my friends at TCPHP.org have put my blog in their feed aggregator. And lots of geeks drop by there, so I hope to be a bit more geeky in the future. So if reading code is not your thing, just skip the posts marked Geek. I won't get mad at you. I promise.
The Return Of Furious?
For those who do not know, here's a bit of background. About ten years ago the band delirious? was formed, and along with them their independent label, Furious? Records. Currently, Furious? Records and it's Fierce! Distribution deliver all the best Christian music to the UK marketplace. A couple years ago Furious? Records tried to launch a US division, which allowed more artistic freedom and better marketing for All Star United and delirious? in the American marketplace. Sadly, the venture did not work, and within a year delirious? was back on their old home, Sparrow Records.
However, I think now is the time to try again. delirious? is releasing a new album this fall, so what better time to try doing it themselves again? Plus, they have some great bands they would probably be able to easily sign with a little coaxing and a good plan for mainstream marketing. The most obvious candidate is The Rock 'n' Roll Worship Cirucs, easily considered one of the most progressive rock artists in the industry but is yet not currently signed to a record label. The next candidate is The Elms, the ultimate rock 'n' roll band with a classic, American sound. Of course, the band would rather be on a non-Christian label for good reason, but if Furious? did a good job and leveraged their distribution through EMI, it could be a killer combination.
C'mon, delirious?! The Americas need a decent record label again. Well, I guess I don't mind too much the fact that all the best artists are independent and doing exactly what they want, but it'd be nicer for these amazing artists to gain a higher profile.
Mac OS X on my Dell?
Will it happen?
According to this news report, on Monday at the WWDC conference in San Francisco, Apple's Steve Jobs is supposed to announce a phased transition to Intel instead of IBM's PowerPC processors. Why the change? Well, one thing I'm suspecting is a lot of money from Intel as a part of the deal.
But there are wider ramifications. With this change, there's even less that separates my Dell from the Apple. This makes me think of something I read in Apple Confidential 2.0: a letter from Bill Gates. In 1985, Bill sent a memo to the execs at Apple saying they had to open their technology to other manufacturers to make the Macintosh a standard operating system. He talked of the Mac OS being the big difference between Macs and PCs, not the hardware. And Bill said the way to go was selling their operating system. Maybe after selling tons of copies of Mac OS X Tiger at $130/box made them realize that if they could sell Tiger to Windows users they'd make a killing.
If I could buy Mac OS X and run it instead of Windows XP on my Dell, I'd do it. I always thought that it was fairly impossible because OS X was made to run on their proprietary PowerPC architecture, but if new Apples are gonna use Intel, then I can too. The question is when they'll decide this is a good idea instead of just making everybody buy their own hardware. They're probably the best way to kill Microsoft. Maybe next time you go to Dell.com you can get either Windows Longhorn or Mac OS X - which would you choose?
I Shouldn't Go To Wal-Mart
It seems like a deal. But it's a siphon of money. For example, today I decided to go there because I needed some socks and underwear. Wal-Mart is a good place to go for such things, becuase it don't matter if they're cheap, ya know? While I was there, I picked up a big stick of deodorant because the local convenience stores only stock the small sticks. So all that was productive.
Then, my mistake was heading over to the electronics section. (That's where I used to hang out when I lived in small-town Hastings, but now it's not a good idea because I can get much better selection at Best Buy.) And, actually, they do have some good buys. Nobody else has Grand Theft Auto III for $10, but good thing I don't have a graphics card for my computer. But they do have cheap DVDs.
I left with four DVDs at $5 each. If you try to get these at places like Target or Best Buy, these are usually $10, so it was a good deal. But I probably shouldn't do it, because I really have no money right now. Sadly, that somehow doesn't stop me when it's that cheap. For the record, I picked up the comedies What About Bob?, The Three Amigos, and Rush Hour, which are all good buys. The one I'm not sure about is the rather wacky drama Vanilla Sky starring Tom Cruise. I've only seen it once, but I did enjoy it, but it's another one of those movies in my collection I'll probably get crap for.
Another Star Wars Weekend
Yes, folks, this was a Star Wars weekend for me. I went home to my parents' and on Saturday night we watched A New Home, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi. All in a row! It was tons of fun!
Mom and dad hadn't seen the new one yet, so we went to Revenge of the Sith again on Monday. Of course, there were tons of great food, lots of guests, and other things this weekend, but that's not about Star Wars, so I won't mention that.
Hmmm.
I had nothing really good to say, except for the hundreds of things that happened in the last couple days and I wanted to blog but was unable to becuase of server switching. It's almost like not having a phone number for two days. I'm OK now, though. I'm going to my parent's for the weekend.
Speaking of which, I should try out that technology that WordPress has to let me e-mail blog posts to a secret address and it'll post them for me. That'd be cool. So you might e-mail blog posts from me this weekend, ya never know.
The Digital Phenomenon
So you want to know about the digital version of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith? Frankly, I could barely notice a difference. It still was great to see it again, but it wasn't really any technically more amazing, as far as I could tell. But it still makes releasing a movie really easy - all they have to do is send them a large file over the Internet or whatever.
Of course, part of the reason I probably didn't see anything different is because I'm half-blind. But oh well.