Month: July 2007

More open source software

Since I’m made periodic posts lately about the stuff I’m working on in the Open Source world (as a consumer of applications, not a producer – my code-fu is too weak), I think it’s safe to add this list of 30 essential free and open source applications to the blahg. A number of the tools on this site I am already using or currently learning. However, there were a few new-to-me tools on the list that I’ll be working on getting a handle on in the near future.

11. VLC Media Player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Replaces Windows Media Player, Quicktime, RealPlayer, etc.
If you get tired of having tons of media players on your computer, get this package that runs pretty much every media type you’ll run across without breaking a sweat.

This is my personal media player now, as well. It’s not been too long ago that I thought VLC was weak in the interface, but that has been improved dramatically since then. Overall, it’s tremendously useful. Like many tools on that page, VLC also comes in a portable version which you can run from a USB key or any directory on your system without installing the application. So you remove it by just deleting the directory.

18. Handbrake
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
Unique but essential
Handbrake enables you to stick a DVD in your DVD drive and have the contents of that film stored to your hard drive in a form that can be read by pretty much any media player. I often use it to put a few movies on my laptop for travel purposes, so I don’t have to worry about keeping track of DVDs while on the road.

I’m not currently a Handbrake user, but I may use it this week to rip some DVDs to my laptop for the kids to watch on the road this week-end when we travel to grandma’s house. I’m familiar with the tool, but have never needed it before.

So there are 2 as a sample. Now head over and view the full list to see what legally free and redistributable software you should be using. And if the full list isn’t enough information for you, spend time in the comments area – there are more recommendations there that are worth checking out. IF you want to try any of these tools and are looking for a portable version, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to track that down if you can’t find it yourself.

[tags]Open source, Essential open source software, Essential Windows freeware[/tags]

Excessive tanner dies from skin cancer

Oh my {$diety} this is scary, although not necessarily surprising. A woman who started using a tanning bed twice a day at age 14 developed cancer after 7 years of abusing her skin this way. Recently, she passed away from skin cancer at age 29.

Zita Farrelly began using a sunbed at the age of 14 and saved up to buy one when she landed her first job.

For seven years she had tanning sessions twice a day. When her worried mother stopped her using the sunbed more than twice a week she borrowed a friend’s.

I’m guessing her friend might look at this and think something like “I helped cause that.” At least, I know I would.

[tags]Skin cancer, Excessive tanning bed use[/tags]

Beware the fake battery

I know the appeal of buying off-brand batteries for your cell phone or laptop. However, there is often a reason the off-brands are less expensive, and sadly sometimes the generics can be very unstable and cause real serious problems when they fail.

A man has died in China after his mobile phone battery exploded in his chest pocket.

Welder Xiao Jinpeng was working at the Yingpan Iron Ore Dressing Plant in the western province of Gansu.

. . .

He died at a nearby hospital after emergency treatment failed.

Motorola said it was “highly unlikely” that one of the company’s products was to blame – and suggested the dead man might have been using a fake phone or battery.

So the new rule for buying generics is that while you might be OK buying generic/refilled ink-jet cartridges, you probably don’t want to buy off-brand batteries. Admittedly, even the name brand batteries have problems at times, but I believe they still have much lower failure rates. While we don’t know that this man was using a generic battery, I’m willing to go out on a limb and guess it wasn’t a genuine Motorola.

[tags]Exploding cell battery kills man, Dangerous battery, Generic batteries[/tags]

Vision Robotics – building the body-harvester of tomorrow?

Orange_Harvester_Front.jpgSometimes the robots try to hide their steps to world domination. Other times, they get bad humans involved who broadcast the robots’ future build plans to the world. Here, I present to you the Matrix style body harvester being built by Vision Robotics.

Updated_scout_1.jpgSure, they show it as an orange harvester, but just crank the size up an order of magnitude or two and it will be the perfect size to pick the body pods, copper-top.


[tags]Body Harvester – a la Matrix, The robots will take over, The coming robot uprising, Vision Robotics build the body harverster of the future[/tags]

Online open courseware

If you are looking to learn something new on the techie side, here’s another site worth looking in to.

Open-Of-Course is a multilingual portal for free online courses and tutorials. By “free” we not only mean free as in “free beer” but also published as open content. Our focus is on educational information where you can benefit of in daily life.

You will find here lots of free courses and tutorials and you can join a community of over 5000 students. All the courses have their own forum for students to interact and help each other out. You can join the fora after registration. Our privacy policy can be viewed here .

People can also add their own courses or tutorials to our system for free. Open-Of-Course runs on the open source electronic learning environment “Moodle”. Read more about that here.

One of the new tools I’ve picked up lately is Scribus – a layout processing/desktop publishing tool (think PageMaker or InDesign). While looking for some tutorials on learning how to better use the tool, I found open-of-course, and felt that I should pass it on.

[tags]Desktop Publishing, DTP, Open-of-course, Open courseware, Scribus[/tags]

Make your own cotton candy machine

Every once in a while, I find the stuff that would make your kids vote for you in a “Coolest parent of the year” contest (for the record, *I* would vote for you every time, but sometimes the kinds need a reminder of how great you are). Follow this cotton candy machine build guide (or if you don’t want all the instructions on one page, start at the intro page)and you’ll get back high on their list for votes.

Here’s a bit to help you see if you are ready to start:

instructable-cotton_candy.jpg

step 1:Materials / Necessities
Okay, so here’s what you’re going to need to make your own cotton candy machine!
Materials:

  • 1- standard electric motor (preferably 1/4″ motor shaft)
  • 1- 3.25″ X 6+” Aluminum extruded round bar (3.25″ diameter)
  • 2 – 1/2″ bolts of any size diameter (smaller = better, but you need the tap for it)
  • 2 – 1″ bolts of any size diameter (need the tap for the right size)
  • 1 – average toaster heating element
  • ? – .25″ diameter copper pipe (or crimping connectors for wiring)
  • 1 – radio-controller “floppy” antenna
  • ? – lots of miscellaneous screws, nuts, and bolts
  • 1- 3″ (dia) X .125″ piece of wood
  • 1- Light Switch Dimmer or Adjustable power supply ( needs to be able to handle high voltage and amperage output)
  • Teflon Tape
  • Conductive Tape
  • A large, plastic or metal, circular object (if you don’t have one, make one)
  • Some wire mesh (usually used as gutter covering)
  • A Few Sheets of paper
  • Some tape
  • Some heavy gauge wire
  • A small bit of fast drying concrete

Tools:

  • Lathe
  • Tap
  • Electrician’s pliers
  • Band/Hack saw (if using copper pipe)
  • Drill press (and the smallest drill bit you can find, at least 1/16″ or smaller)
  • metal working clamps
  • Tin Snips
  • Alibre Design Express (free at www.alibre.com)

The entire instruction set is a bit long, but we’re talking home-made cotton candy here, folks. You just can’t pass up awesomeness like that.

[tags]Instructables, MAKEzine, Cotton Candy, DIY, Do it yourself, Build your own cotton candy machine[/tags]

Steampunk lamp

The bb_spunklampde.jpgfine folks over at boingboing seem to have a steampunk infatuation lately. Now that’s all and good. I generally don’t have even a passing interest in the steampunk posts, and can quickly skip the articles when I see the header. Perhaps I pause if there are images, but generally these don’t even hold sway on my attention for more than the briefest of moments. Recently, however, they posted a link to Frank Buchwald’s German lamp design site along with a cool image snagged from Buchwald’s. This was the first steampunk post from boingboing that I thought looked good, so naturally:

No word on pricing (although I didn’t really look carefully – it’s probably there and easily found), but that does look worth a bit of cash. If the steampunk motif catches your fancy, then see what else boingboing has on steampunk and report back what you like. (via boingboing)


[tags]Steampunk, Steampunk lamp designs, Retro-future lighting[/tags]