Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Article: Ancestry: Edwardian England's drunkards | Mail Online
Ancestry: Edwardian England's drunkards | Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260872/Ancestry-Edwardian-Englands-drunkards.html
(via Instapaper)
I am using Windows Live Writer to create this
I don’t like Microsoft. Never have.
Nor Apple, for that matter. Not the technology per se, just the way they operate in a predatorial, dictatorial manner when each of them was/is in p0wer. But I heard too many good things about Live Writer, and my MacBook is dead, so…
And I like it. It seems to work well. I like the interface. God help me, I actually like a Microsoft product again, the first one since Excel.
Armageddon.
Monday, March 29, 2010
WHO ARTED?!: Rest In Peace, Dick Giordano (1932-2010)
Links to this post
Goodnight Dick Giordano
Dick Giordano has died today at the age of 77 according to Newsarama and Who Arted?. The legendary inker, artist and editor that worked at Charlton Comics, DC Comics and Continuity Associates studios (he was Neal Adams' partner in the ... Posted by Jamdin at March 27, 2010 9:54 AM
The game of MONOPOLY - giant size - remains popular, competitive, cut-throat fun - San Jose Mercury News
Who knew the board game Monopoly was a rich source of life's most vital lessons?
Matt McNally, for one.
"There are so many life skills you can learn from Monopoly," says McNally, who was playing three other top national competitors Saturday at Monopoly in the Park at San Jose's Discovery Meadow. The action was being filmed for "Under the Boardwalk," a documentary about the world's bestselling board game.
"It's about studying the art of negotiation," adds the Las Vegas entertainment manager, who was unseated as U.S. Monopoly champion in 2009. He also puts persuasion and the ability to manage investments on the game's list of virtues.
Donning oversized hats that symbolized which Monopoly piece they had chosen — a top hat, a shoe, a dog and a car — the four men heaved oversized dice, paraded around the larger-than-life board (the only one of its kind in the country) and fiercely negotiated financial deals as the game proceeded.
For Tim Vandenberg of Victorville, who can tell you the odds of landing on one row of properties compared with others, the 75-year-old Hasbro board game remains a perfect tool for teaching his sixth-grade math students about probability and fractions. Vandenberg was one of the top players in the 2009 U.S. Championships last April.
According to the Hasbro Web site, Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pa., came up with the idea in 1934, and Parker Brothers first produced it in 1935.
Monopoly is now sold in 103 countries and produced in 37 languages.AdvertisementFor McNally, Vandenberg, Ken Koury and Domenic Murgo, of Warwick, R.I., who won Saturday's game, what started out as family time around the board game when they were children has turned into a lifelong passion.
"This is celebrating the game of Monopoly and how it brings people together," says filmmaker Kevin Tostado, who has traveled around the world for his film about the game. He said 41 countries sent representatives to the World Monopoly championships in Las Vegas in October. "It's universal. Where ever you go in the world it looks the same. The name of the streets may change."
But longtime competitive Monopoly player Koury has a tougher, colder explanation for why — even in the age of video games — Monopoly remains so popular.
"You have to decide how to manage your assets," he says, referring to the properties that players accumulate as the game proceeds toward a final winner. "You can't win without building enough houses," he said gleefully, "and bankrupting people."
Contact Pauline Lubens at 408-271-3649.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Microsoft Employees Leave The Windows Phone 7 Team…To Make Windows Phone 7 Apps
All naysaying aside, people are pretty excited about Windows Phone 7. Our readers are excited for it. I’d be outright lying if I said I wasn’t excited about it, too. Know who else is excited? The Windows Phone 7 team — but perhaps not for the reasons you’d expect.
With a few years of work finally coming to a head, some of the folks on the Windows Phone 7 team are taking a step back, looking at the fruits of their labor… and leaving. Not because they’re ashamed, and not because they’re being poached by the competition — but because instead of making Windows Phone 7, they want to make things for Windows Phone 7.
20 Most Popular Open Source Software Ever
20 Most Popular Open Source Software Ever These days, you can quite easily buy a brand-spanking-new computer and install all the software you need for free, using applications offered under the Open Software License. You can get a free image editor, a free sound editor, a free word processor, media player, file archiver, PDF creator… the list goes on and on and on. While some of these free apps do not offer quite the same level of polished functionality as their commercial rivals, others far exceed the capabilities of everything else on the market. Below, we take a close look at the cream of the crop: 20 invaluable and indispensable open source applications that you really should be using, if you’re not already. The vast majority of them are cross-platform and absolutely 100% free! You’re bound to find several that are perfectly suited to your needs.
1. WordPress
WordPress is the world’s most popular blogging platform, used by a staggering 202 million websites. As simple or as complex as you want it to be, WordPress is supported by a wide array of plugins which can be used to transform a standard blog into anything you could possibly desire. Besides blogs, WordPress can be used as a straightforward content management system to power anything from an e-commerce site to a social network.
2. Magento
Magento, used by 30,000 merchants, including Samsung, Nespresso and The North Face, is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce platform. Magento Community Edition is offered for free under the Open Software License. The Enterprise Edition, for which you have to pay, offers features like multi-store capability, store credits and gift cards, out-of-the-box.
3. Mozilla Firefox
Firefox currently accounts for 24.43% of the recorded usage share of web browsers, but this figure is on the rise. Already the browser of choice for most web professionals, Firefox’s popularity is growing thanks to its vast selection of third party add-ons, which let users tailor their browsing environment down to the finest detail.
4. Mozilla Thunderbird
With its speedy searches, built-in RSS feeds, strong security and superb add-ons, Thunderbird has to be the best, free email application available. If you’re prepared to spend some time tailoring your email environment with add-ons, you’ll absolutely love it, but it’s probably not ideal for complete novices.
5. FileZilla
FileZilla is a hugely successful, cross-platform FTP client. It’s also available as a server, for Windows only. Created in January 2001 by Tim Klosse as a class project, FileZilla has gone on to become the 5th most popular download of all time from SourceForge.net.
6. GnuCash
GnuCash provides a great, free alternative to paid-for accounting software. Designed for personal and small business use, it offers bank account, stock, income and expense tracking, in addition to double-entry accounting.
7. Audacity
Music software like Cubase and Logic Pro can be incredibly expensive, which is why an increasing number of people are turning to Audacity, a free, cross-platform sound editor. Users can record and edit live audio; cut, copy, splice and mix sounds; and convert ageing tapes and records into digital format.
8. GIMP
Just like sound editors, industry standard image editing software is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, but GIMP provides a free alternative. It performs every major function you could desire, except for, vitally, CMYK separation functionality necessary for prepress work.
9. OpenOffice
With the ability to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases, OpenOffice is an accomplished rival to Microsoft Office, which clearly influenced OpenOffice’s design. Microsoft Office users will feel completely at home and find that OpenOffice performs just as well, if not better.
10. VLC
At last count, VLC media player had been downloaded 300 million times. Unlike some paid-for alternatives, VLC supports practically every audio/video codec and file format. The most recent VLC release also offers live recording of streaming video, frame-by-frame advancement and superb speed controls.
11. Handbrake
Handbrake rips/converts DVDs to MPEG-4 for playing back on your iPod or archiving. It doesn’t have the ability to decode DVDs, but can do so if you have VLC, which includes a DVD encoder, installed on your computer.
12. Pidgin
Pidgin is the ultimate, free instant messaging tool. It provides you with one window through which you can simultaneously interact with different people, whichever instant messaging platform they’re using.
13. Freemind
Freemind is a terrific mind-mapping tool, which lets you get all your thoughts down as quickly as possible with the use of icons, shapes and colors. Besides the ordinary nodes and links, you can add hyperlinks and even documents to your maps.
14. Notepad++
Reliable, customizable, intuitive and free, Notepad++ is the most popular Windows-based CSS editor around. It offers everything: syntax highlighting; folding and auto-completion for CSS, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, SQL, HTML, XML and PHP; multi-file viewing; tabbed editing; zoom in/out; and bookmarks.
15. 7-Zip
7-Zip is an extremely popular file archiver for Windows, which, although free, outperforms Winzip. It can unpack the vast majority of archive formats and can create TAR and GZ archives, commonly used on Unix and Linux systems, as well as its own 7z format, which easily outshrinks ZIP files.
16. Blender
Blender is a 3D content creation suite which can be used for everything from modeling to skinning, particle simulation, animating and texturing. Unlike some other free apps in this list, Blender has not been designed to “imitate” other 3D graphics software, which means it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve familiarized yourself with all the shortcuts, you’ll be hooked.
17. PDFCreator
Windows users can consider PDFCreator a credible rival to Adobe Acrobat. Creating PDFs is as easy as printing, literally, as once installed, you can select PDFCreator as your printer, letting you create PDFs from practically any application.
18. Calibre
According to Calibre, it’s the “one stop solution to all your e-book needs”. I’m inclined to agree. Besides letting you catalogue and manage your e-book collection, sorting, tagging and commenting on them as you please, you can download content from the internet and convert it into e-book form.
19. TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt really is the best free encryption program around for anyone worried about their security. It offers 11 algorithms for encrypting your files, as well as a comprehensive help manual, which gives advice on complex password creation, hidden volumes and erasing encryption giveaways.
20. Ubuntu
Named after an African philosophy of community, sharing and generosity, Ubuntu is a free operating system for Linux that’s quick and easy to use. Recent figures suggest that around 50% of Linux users have Ubuntu installed. With its focus on usability, Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice, Firefox Empathy, Pidgin, GIMP and other tools pre-installed.
Author : Tom Walker
Tom is a designer and writer who works with a UK based online shop specialising in Epson printer ink, toner, paper and other printing accessories. You can read more of his writing on their blog.
Related posts
- Best Open Source Software for Web Designers and Developers Writing an article that lists the Best Open Source...
- 15 Open Source eCommerce Platforms Whether you’re about to open your first online shop...
- 25+ Free Editors and IDEs for Freelance Developers on a Tough Budget Spending hundreds of dollars on a text editor or...
- Excellent Free Editors and IDEs for Developers Most developers have picked their favourite editor and/or IDE...
- 8 Desktop Blogging Clients To Manage Your Blog More Efficiently Writing new entries online using your weblog’s control panel...
Please remember to share this post!
New Rule: Let's Not Fire the Teachers When Students Don't Learn -- Let's Fir...
This Happens To Me Every F—king Single Day
Some days, it happens two or three times. I bet that you and most of your friends and family find themselves in the same situation too. [Loldwell]
