Archives for the month of: September, 2007
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Wysiwyg Blogging Tools for Linux… Suggestions?

September 21, 2007 //
10

Upon reading Earl Moore's recent photo posting, I commented to him that I liked the layout of the post and asked him if he did it all manually. While it was not a fully automatic solution, he mentioned that he used Ecto to do the post. And that of course, got me thinking….

I've never thought of using a dedicated blogging tool. Normally I either compose my posts in Gmail and email them in, enter them right in Blogger's online editor, or when I'm feeling all manly, I get bareknuckled and compose them using html in gVim. But my recent experience with Jottit and it's dual paned wysiwyg html editor made me think that a nice wysiwyg blogging tool would be of great use to me.

My fingers danced across the keyboard asking the great Google oracle to show me all the wonderful free and open-source blogging clients for Linux… pfft! Turns out it is very very slim pickin's when it comes to wysiwyg blogging tools for Linux.

There's BloGTK, but it hasn't been updated since 2005 (might give it a try), and Drivel, which seems simple enough but is not wysiwyg. There's also Bleezer - which is cross-platform because it's java-based (I'm not a big java app fan) but supposedly it doesn't support image-uploading to the new Blogger, which is a deal-breaker for me. And there's not much else. Maybe Linux developers feel comfortable enouigh sprinkling html tags here and there that it just isn't a priority.

I dare say that wysiwyg blogging tools for Linux are second only to quality consumer video editing applications for Linux in scarcity. ;)

Mind you, I could get off my duff and put my rudimentary knowledge of python to some good use. Yeah sure.. that's just what I need - some other blind alley to wander off into….

Any Linux users out there had any luck with wysiwyg blogging tools?

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A very cool low-tech site – and it’s Post 500!!

September 21, 2007 //
2

Bill Westerman’s utilware site is cool. There is no RSS feed. The layout is simple, clean and interesting. The site is different than a lot of others because while it’s modern and unique, he hasn’t used any flash (I think). It’s navigation is kind of book-like in that you can flip through page by page if you like, or refer to his table of contents - and it’s in a horizontal layout. There is nothing ‘below the fold’, since there is no ‘fold’.

He’s got some interesting writing there on a variety of tech-bent topics. He’s developed a GSD (Getting Shit Done) methodology which is ‘brutally simple’ and ‘doesn’t require a lot of forethought or planning’. Right up my alley. Lately he’s into pen and paper, something I can definitely relate to.

Anyway, it would be nice to have him in my RSS reader, but then again, I’d miss the wonderful-ness of his site if he had a feed. It’s definitely worth a visit.

On another, unrelated note, this is my 500th post here on Renaissance Man. I was thinking of doing up a full-on well thought out meaty post on some heady topic, and then realized this would break with tradition! :) - and likely jarr my few regular readers.

In any case, if you are one of my few regular readers, a truly heartfelt thanks for your patronage and be happy in the fact that there’s simply nowhere for this blog to go but up! :)

Cheers.

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Categories blogging, web

Watch out you Yanks!

September 20, 2007 //
1

Today, for the first time in over 30 years, the Canadian Dollar became on-par with the US Dollar.

Co-worker asks ' Does that mean I can pay the US price for books at Chapters now? '

Heh… yeah sure. Right after our gas prices fall 20% to come in line for what they're paying at US pumps. ;)

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Google Docs does Online Presentations – but no OpenOffice Impress support yet…

September 18, 2007 //
2

Tom Raftery notes that Google Docs now does online presentations. Sadly, right now, those brandishing Keynote or OpenOffice Impress presentations (.odp files) are out of luck as far as importing existing files.

I'm back teaching a college course part-time right now, and the way I've done it for the last few years is to use a Powerpoint presentation for the lecture (it's what they run on their media machines - no getting around it at the moment) and also provide printed handouts at the beginning of each class so they don't spend their time copying down notes.

But maybe this could provide an alternative means for students to get the notes. I could publish these for online viewing. Or better yet, start a free blog with links to each week's presentation viewable online using Google Docs. I've wanted to do this in the past but didn't like the idea of hosting pdf files or ppt files for download.

Also noteworthy is that they give you the option of downloading a zip file of the presentation. This file actually contains an html file and all the folders and media files so that you can view it in your browser locally (offline).

Because there doesn't seem to be a way to export the file to ppt, odp or anything editable at the moment, I'll likely end up using it just to make versions for online viewing.

To check out the simplicity of the online viewer, you can check out my Week 1 presentation right here. Be careful you don't fall asleep watching it - the first week is almost always a snoozer.

Anybody got any bright ideas on how to make use of Google's new Online Presentations?

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Jottit – a potentially useful web app. Finally!

September 17, 2007 //
0

I no longer Twitter, tweet or whatever it’s called these days.
Me no Jaiku.
No hablo el Facebook. (except to read the odd personal message from long lost high-school acquaintances).
Pownce (Tell me again.. why?)

But Jottit does seem to be (potentially) fun and useful. From what I can tell:

- editable pages with static addresses
- simple simple simple
- two pane text editor is fricking brilliant!! Blogger(tm) - Are you paying attention!??!
- public or private
- editing history - wiki style note-taking anyone?
- simple simple simple
- web 2.0 gradient-free
- simple simple simple!
- NOT built upon a requirement to socially network! Aaargh.. thank you!

Jotit seems potentially useful. How novel. :)

Click here to visit my baby-steppin’ Jottit page.

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Now there’s something you don’t read about every day…

September 10, 2007 //
0

Tom Raftery is using his Vista laptop more than his MacBook Pro. He supposes that the ClearType font rendering is making screen reading easier on his eyes.

The tech blogging space seems so pro-Mac / anti-Vista these days. Talk about walking around with a bullseye on your back. ;)

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Categories Uncategorized

Google Reader finally gets search, Humber College gets Google Apps and I’m looking to ditch Powerpoint

September 6, 2007 //
0

Google Reader finally get's a search box!  Hooray!! I think that this is definitely a big deal. It will change the way I use GReader. No more going to Google's blog search or to Technorati to find posts I need to recall. It's about fricking time! :)

I start teaching again this Saturday (materials and methods of construction to architectural technologists) at Humber College. Turns out Humber has now moved to Google Apps (check it out  here).

Now if only I could get away from using Powerpoint to do my weekly lectures. Sure, I do most of the setup work using OpenOffice, but I always have to double-check formatting and stuff with Powerpoint since that is what's installed on the college machines we use for presentations. You don't want to learn from someone who has fonts running off the side of the screen do you? :)

Incidentally, if you want to see a presentation ninja in action, you really should check this out (via Chris Brogan).

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Opera 9.5 – Gmail Render Problem – maybe a deal-breaker?

September 6, 2007 //
2

As I posted a day or so ago, I'm now trying out the Opera 9.5 Alpha3 browser both at home and at work. The performance improvement over Firefox is noticeable for me on both Linux and XP. However I am having what might be a deal-breaker type of problem with Gmail.

Opera seems to have problems rendering the Gmail Quick Contacts display on the left hand side correctly. It only shows my name and the status drop down box, and even then, it appears cut off. I cannot see anyone else in the quick contacts display and therefore cannot launch a Gchat window for anyone in that list either. Not good.

I've figured out how to run user javascripts (ie. Greasemonkey Gmail skins) on Opera for the Gmail page, but haven't found anything that will fix the problem. I've also read about a tip to use the F12->Edit Site Preferences->Network->Mask as Firefox, but this hasn't helped either.

Anyone know of a way to fix the problem or at least provide a decent workaround?

This is definitely a deal-breaker for me. I  have Gmail up all day long and use the quick contacts list intermittently. Not having it, is a royal pain. While the exact rendering error is slightly different between XP and Linux systems, the error appears on both systems.

And I know that it is more than likely because Google hasn't implemented CSS exactly to the standards either. Opera is very standards compliant and that makes for render errors when CSS coders don't follow them correctly. Too bad the error is happening on what is probably one of the most important sites to me.

It ain't all bad news. Opera seems to just blow away Firefox in handling the recently revised Digg commenting system - it's much snappier. The FF developers should find out what Opera is doing in that respect and copy copy copy. ;)

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Microsoft and OOXML – another battle to add to the list

September 6, 2007 //
0

I’ve been doing a little reading tonight on Microsoft’s attempt to fast-track approval for it’s OOXML (Office Open XML) standard by the ISO. Just trying to wade through all the anti-Microsoft rhetoric and educate myself on the issue.

Mary Jo Foley writes about Why Microsoft deserved to lose the OOXML standards vote. She does a good job of clarifying the issue for me - the proverbial layperson:

In spite of the rhetoric on both sides, Microsoft wants OOXML to gain ISO standardization so that it won’t lose out on government contracts that require “open,” standards-based products. Microsoft’s competitors don’t want Microsoft to obtain ISO standardization because they see this loss as a chance for them to finally lessen Microsoft’s 90-plus-percent market share in the desktop-productivity suite business.

I’ve also read a lot of comments about how Microsoft’s current specification is in quite dodgy shape technically speaking. Many people are of the opinion that the standard was rushed and that it was not written with interoperability in mind at all. For some more technical criticism of MS’s proposal, some people are pointing to the Danish complaint’s listing (pdf document).

Now this was only a vote on fast-tracking approval of OOXML. Microsoft needed 2/3 of the votes and only received 17 out of 32 votes. But it’s not necessarily the end of the story. MS can get another vote in March after it addresses technical questions posed by some of the voters. It may very well win that one. And only adding to the political drama is Microsoft’s apparently unethical lobbying tactics.

With Microsoft owning so much of the commercial market share in office apps, you might doubt the importance of such an ISO standard. But then again, Redmond seems to be going to great lengths to have it go their way.

It will be interesting if they lose out in the end. They’re already embattled with Google on several fronts, watching Apple hit home run after home run, trying to get to grips with an increasingly open-source world, battling Linux on the server side, and finding a few manufacturers now offering pre-installed Linux systems on the desktop…

Geez, I’m almost starting to feel bad for them…

Nahhhh. ;)

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Categories linux

PC Envy

September 6, 2007 //
0

Kent Newsome just bought a new (and quiet) toy. Of course, I’m immediately jealous. :)

I’ve been pondering for the past month or so about what my next system purchase will be. I’m torn between a laptop or a desktop machine. The Dell XPS M1330 has caught my eye - no pedestrian Inspirons for this tough guy! ;) But buddy at work got a nice XPS 710 desktop system a while back and I have to say, when you pair that up with a Dell 24” LCD monitor, it’s pretty damn nice too.

My current machine is still plenty usable. It’s a P4-3GHz, and with running Openbox on Feisty, I’m very happy with the speed. It’s very capable for most of the stuff I do. Of course extra processing power (even in the M1330 I suppose) would do me fine for encoding all those damn screencasts too. :)

So right now I’m torn between a laptop and a desktop. The laptop makes infinitely more common sense to me. And I’m not looking for a desktop replacement style laptop either. I like the 13.3” screen because I’m interested in a light, portable and capable device. We have a 17” HP laptop at work and it’s a behemoth. Completely at odds with what I’m looking for (the guys at work say I’m nuts).

Another problem? I’ve been out of the computer buying market for quite some time and haven’t paid enough attention. A T5300 or T7200 processor means almost nothing to me. And worse still, I’ve never owned a laptop so I’m at a loss as to what to really look for technically. One thing is for sure, it’s gotta be a Dell - family discount y’know. :)

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Categories technology
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