Category: Open Source

  • Better Business

    Yes there is a way to do better business. Matt Mullenweg of Automatic, the company behind (amongst other things) WordPress.com has announced that Automattic has donated the WordPress trademark – a major assett – to a separate legal entity the WordPress Foundation to ensure that it remains protected and free: “Automattic might not always be…

  • Yoga Asana Practice Sequences meet WordPress & HTML

    I’ve been gradually looking for better ways to display and communicate asana and practice sequences: It started with some basic hand drawings which were clumsy because I had to use a marker instead of a fine pen to get a result that would scan and display properly on screen. I’ve described some asana in depth…

  • Designing an Engine

    This post is also dedicated to Mark and the guys at Diaspora When I was working as a software designer – we would sometimes run into clients that would ask for a “per-screen” quote. My partner would then answer that we aren’t Samsung – we don’t manufacture screens. Usually when people, especially developers, hear “design”…

  • KeepNote replaces Evernote

    When I was still working on a Windows XP computer I enjoyed Evernote. Evernote is a combination of a web-service and client applications for note-taking. Most of the time I used Evernote’s Windows client application for keeping my notes organized. Though there are additional application for mobile devices and what not – I didn’t need…

  • Mozilla Weave replaces XMarks

    Mozilla Firefox is my primary (open source) web browser and one of my favorite addons to is was XMarks. It enabled me to easily synchronize bookmarks between my computers. It worked great. At some point the XMarks service was extended to store and synchronize passwords as well. Though I can’t say why, I didn’t trust…

  • Installing Ubuntu/Kubuntu

    Until today I’ve been using a WUBI based installation of Kubuntu on my resurrected laptop. WUBI was very promising when I first encountered it, but now I believe it is not a reliable solution. For some reason (I suspect it’s a hardware issue) my computer sometimes freezes – and all I can do is brutally…

  • Not Getting an iPod

    For some months I’ve been planning/working to eliminate my physical CD collection. A key ingredient in this endeavor is a media player which can be used to store and playback music. When I started out I was planning on using an iPod to fill this role, assuming it would be both fun and functional. Boy…

  • Closed Open Source

    I am a fan of open-source. This started with WordPress and is gradually expanding to cover almost all of my information needs. I am writing this post on an old latpop I resurrected with Ubuntu and purely open-source solutions. In some cases, such as Open Office, I have had to surrender many niceties and make…

  • Welcome Mozilla Raindrop

    Mozilla has just revealed Raindrop – a new messaging project from the Thunderbird (email client) team. I am happy about this project. I have been thinking about it quite a bit since I heard about it last week. It’s not clear to me yet what Raindrop is. I like that it is an exploration. I…

  • Introduction to Getting Started with WordPress

    Some of the WordPress projects I create are with people who have never heard of blogging or websites, though most people I encounter have basic computer literacy – some have just that. Yet they have something to say – and my intentions are to help them say it. This creates some challenges for me –…

  • Resurrecting my old laptop

    My old LG (LM50a) laptop has been completely out of commission for a few months.  It took a few hits and in the end the CD drive was slipping out of place (and pushing it in caused the computer to crash) and the power connection was shaky – so the computer was losing power and…

  • Homemade RAID (Part1)

    As a photographer I have accumulated vasts quantities of digital information. If you live in the USA or Europe then you can find numerous attractively priced storage solutions. I live in Israel and most of these devices don’t make it out here. One that did is outrageously expensive and for me out of the question.…

  • Migrating to Mozilla Thunderbird

    For some time I have been wanting to switch from Outlook to Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a mail client developed by Mozilla – the same organization that is behind the Firefox Browser. These are both open source tools and I am slowly migrating to open-source applications – the reasons deserve a whole separate post. They both…

  • WordPress Karma

    This post has been on my mind for quite some time. What finally pushed it out is the unofficial international wordpress day (although I missed it by a day or two). Karma is one of those tricky sanskrit words that relentessly changes its meaning in accomodating different contexts in which I try to apply it. In…