Irretrievably geeky?

Okay, so I've fallen a bit behind in the work I need to do in building a basic database for my wife. "No problem", I thought, "I'll just use Access at work and then open it up in OpenOffice Base when I get home, and everything will be just peachy."

While my workstation at work as MS Office, it doesn't have Access. Either they're too tight to spring for the Professional version and settled for the Small Business one, or they just don't want anyone to use it. It's probably the latter as the network is locked down to Confidential security level and I can't even access my Gmail from work. They're a touch paranoid, but they do have their reasons.

My solution was to download a version of OpenOffice from Portable Apps, do a small bit of config tweaking, turn it into a LiveCD and bammo, I'm building databases in my lunch time.

I still haven't worked out if this is pretty cool, or if I just need help.

While on the matter of locked down desktops, at my old work I used to run XMPlay on my workstation so that I could listen to my CDs that I have encoded in ogg vorbis (nicer sound at lower bit rates than MP3s, in my own experience. YMMV.) Since workstations at my new job don't even allow access to the local drive, I've been reluctant to run XMPlay from my roaming network share. I don't particularly want to push my luck. I also don't want to re-encode about 100 of my CDs into MP3 so that I can use Windows Media Player.

My solution? I've downloaded a version of VLC from Portable Apps and I intend to place a copy of that on every DVD containing ogg files so that I never have to think about this problem again. Hopefully it will work (I'm burning my first test DVD this weekend).

Is this pretty cool, or do I just need help?

The coolest thing about all of it of course is that the portable apps I am using (and I include Firefox Portable currently sitting on my USB drive permanently attached to my house keys in this) are free - beer and speech.

Either way, I'm pretty sure using portable apps to kludge around desktop security settings is irretrievably geeky.

Google Web Toolkit now freer than ever

Google have decided to make the source code of their Google Web Toolkit available under the Apache Licence 2.0.

If anyone isn't already aware, the GWT allows you to write your code in Java and it will then compile your code into Javascript to create AJAX goodness. Google claim that some of the benefits of this approach including allowing Java developers to continue to develop in an environment that they are comfortable in and make spiffy web pages. Of course, AJAX is more than Javascript, but I'm sure something like GWT is very helpful.

I know a little Java. I know even less Javascript. Some day I must try this out and see just what it is capable of in the hands of someone who knows just enough to cause a lot of trouble.

Happy birthday, CC!

Creative Commons turns 4

Open Document Format published

The Open Document Format (ODF) has finally been publishedas an official standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). What does this mean?

ODF is an XML-based file format that saves text, spreadsheets, databases, presentations (think PowerPoint or Keynote) and the like to a standard, open format that can be implemented by anyone who wishes to, free of charge. The importance of XML is that, by and large, XML-based files are more or less human readable. I've never tried to read a raw ODF file, but the fact that ODF is now an open published standard, it means that anytime in the future anyone who knows how to read a published standard will be able to develop a reader for ODF files.

I have no illusions that ODF will be the downfall of the "Great Satan" - of course it won't. A great many people use and value Microsoft Office and will continue to use it for many years to come. However, as it currently stands, Microsoft Office file formats are proprietary and not open. Applications such as OpenOffice.org have reverse engineered various forms of Office file formats but Microsoft could break that functionality quite easily in future releases. Having an international, open, published standard means that documents can be archived in ODF format today and still be read 20, 30 or 50 years in the future (assuming the media they are archived on is still readable). If Microsoft disappeared off the face of the Earth five years from now, the ability to read those office formats would diminish over time.

Theoretically.

I'm also aware that Microsoft has submitted their Office XML standard for publication/standardisation. ODF has simply got there first. Hopefully Microsoft will support ODF as well as their own file formats in future releases of Office.

Found via ArsTechnica [permalink]

30 free pieces of software for Windows

This list comes from The Simple Dollar, a personal finance blog. Most of the software on this list could replace, to a large extent, a commercial and/or proprietary equivalent. For example, of the items on the list, I use Firefox to browse the web (instead of Internet Explorer), FileZilla as an FTP client (take your pick as to which client this replaces - WS_FTP and CuteFTP are two off the top of my head), OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office (it's not perfect, but for what I use office suite software for, it's definitely adequate), VLC Media Player instead of Windows Media Player (admittedly this is because I don't have any music or videos encumbered with Microsoft DRM) and Freemind is an excellent mind mapping program that is very easy to use.

The list isn't perfect however. It lists Gnucash for personal finance although there isn't an official Gnucash build for Windows. There is a link to how to build it on Windows down in the comments, but gaaagh, I'm a geek but I don't have the time right now to be that much of a geek - perhaps try Buddi instead?)

I'd also recommend GanttProject over GanttPV but that comes down to personal taste. I also use Avast! antivirus instead of ClamWin, but Avast! is only gratis, not libre, so I can see the reasoning there.

All up though, it's a good list. There's a lot of good software on there and many program worth checking out.

Originally found via Lifehacker [permalink]