2006 December

This entry is all about using one of several open source projects that bring a technology to Windows that has been on Linux and available from commercial sources for several years.
This technology is called virtual desktop, and essentially what you do is setup a desktop with icons or shortcuts on the desktop, but instead of [...]

As you have all been busy, so have I. But now I am well fed, and my kids are happy with their new toys. My son was disappointed that the Tracphone Web site was unable to keep up with all the traffic. My son was not able to register his new phone and card [...]

I just found this really great tool that is Open Source and allows me to run my son’s DOS learning games and my favorite pirate game in DOS!
If you have some really old DOS games lying around that you just have to try again, or if you donate your old son’s learning programs to a [...]

Here are two programs that I have used in the past, since my son has fetal alcohol syndrome, and loves to sit in front of a computer. I use these programs to help him memorize various things. For instance, in the 4th grade, the students had to memorize all 50 states. In the 5th grade, [...]

I am tired from all the rushing around; that’s why I haven’t written for a while. But here I am on Saturday and I am flying! At least virtually and a lot cheaper than owning a real plane, too. This program, FlightGear, is so good that my father (who actually flies a Cessna) even likes [...]

This Java application has been around a few years and has shown nice growth in usability and features. But this is not a tool for a novice. If you don’t know what a critical path is, if you cannot (or are unable to) estimate time requirements to finish a portion of a job, if you [...]

In case you haven’t already discerned my purpose here, I have set on a quest. Instead of searching for the Holy Grail, or Peace on Earth, I seek as much independence from Microsoft, and other less onerous commercial software. It is my search for tools that I can use to perform my job, as a [...]

Now for one of my favorites that I actually use. Inkscape is a vector based application that is similar in use to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X, but of course since it is Open Source, it is free to use.
Now this is not your run-of-the-mill graphics application; this application can import JPG, [...]

Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program aimed at those who have little or no financial background. In making this software, I have attempted to make things as simple as possible while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users.
Buddi is available for free; you can download it for free, with no disabled [...]