Jun 05 2007

Another bird in my life

Today I was perusing the interweb looking for a software suite that would meet my needs. With my business really picking up, it is getting difficult for me to remember all the appointments that I have scheduled. Not to mention, I also have to remember when I’ve made plans with friends, other appointments (for the car, et cetera), and just general life events. So, I was looking for a calendar program that would be suitable for the large amount of events that I will need to program into it, and one that would allow me to organize the display daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly.

I thought I had finally found the right program, but alas, it was incredibly expensive. $199.99 USD is awfully steep for a simple calendar program. Right about that time, I found the wonderful Mozilla Sunbird. I currently use Firefox–which used to be called Firebird in its earlier versions–and Thunderbird by Mozilla. All of the Mozilla products have worked out very nicely for me on both my Linux and Windows machines. So, I thought I would give Sunbird a go, and boy am I glad that I did. I really does everything that I need it to, and to make things better, it is visually appealing.

So, if you are in need of a good calendar program to manage your busy schedule, I highly recommend Sunbird. Here’s a link to the Mozilla subsite for it:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

Also, if you already use Thunderbird and would rather just have a more basic calendar built into it, you can try the Mozilla Lightning plugin for Thunderbird, which can also be found on that same subsite. I haven’t messed around with that one yet, but I will probably try it a little later on. It does seem like it has some nice features that are well mated with Thunderbird’s handling of email.

|:| Zach |:|

Jun 03 2007

New and improved FLV player

Hello all,

I have found and uploaded a much better player for you to use to view your saved copies of any videos taken from the Z-Issue website (or any other saved .flv file, for that matter). This player, named FLV-Player S, was created and deployed by Ivan (123123@gmail.com) in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. You can see his original website for the player at this address:

http://sweb.cityu.edu.hk/50689882/flv.html

However, I have uploaded a copy to the Z-Issue server to make it easier for you to download and use. If you would like to download it and use it on your own computer–which I highly recommend doing instead of using the Riva Player that was previously listed here–simply click the “FLV Player” link under “Tools” in the right-side bar of the site. You will be prompted by your web browser to run or save the file. Save it to your desktop. Then, to play any video, you simply have to double-click on “player.exe,” go to “browse and load,” and select the video you would like to open.

Unlike the Riva Player, this one allows you to resize the videos, go full screen, and even set AB repeat! I hope you enjoy the new FLV player, and thanks again to Ivan for creating this wonderful piece of freeware. 🙂

|:| Zach |:|

Jun 02 2007

Are humans GNU?

Okay, so I was thinking about the human body a little bit, and I was trying to figure out if it more closely resembled a Linux or Windows system. I have come to the conclusion that it falls somewhere in the middle of the two. The body has a certain level of freedom similar to the Linux OS, but also has implemented restrictions like Windows. For instance, if one wants to hurt one’s self, it is one’s decision to do so. However, that being said, the CNS picks up that pain and sends it to the brain, which registers it and could cause one to stop inflicting the pain-causing action. Though this is merely one anecdote, I think it nicely summarizes the OS-style structure of the human body. A fully Linux body would allow one to inflict as much pain as one wants without hindering him or her at all. A fully Windows body wouldn’t allow for the self-injurious behaviour at all in the first place.

Anyway, food for thought. 😉

|:| Zach |:|