Big Honkin' Freebie Day

[filkertom]

Look at all these goodies:

• Open Office 2.4
• Photoshop Express (a free online version of Photoshop)
• New versions of Wavosaur and Reaper
• Crayon Physics (grand prize winner at the Independent Games Festival)
• Nine pages of classic games for download at FileRadar.net
• ETA: 38911 Bytes, a Commodore 64-sound emulator at Odo Synths

Anything cool you've seen lately?

Comments

[maiac.livejournal.com]

[Drastically revising my original comment] Adobe currently has a TOS statement that essentially says they get to use any uploaded photo any way they want, but I just saw a "correction":

"We've heard your concerns about the terms of service for Photoshop Express beta. We reviewed the terms in context of your comments - and we agree that it currently implies things we would never do with the content. Therefore, our legal team is making it a priority to post revised terms that are more appropriate for Photoshop Express users. We will alert you once we have posted new terms."

So it may be safe to upload our photos to the PhotoShop Express express.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that whole foofrah. The Photoshop people at Adobe, at least, are pretty cool about such things... or, at least, they don't want to piss off their entire user base at once....

[johno.livejournal.com]

It seems that every online service when they first go-live have similar "we own/have unlimited rights to every thing you upload".

They get roasted by potential users, bloggers and the press.

They back down and revise the TOS after 2-3 weeks.

Adobe at least was smart enough to do it the same day as launch.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Wavosaur... that's one I havent' heard of before. Thanks!

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Tom. I was just wondering if OO was still around. (I reinstalled yesterday)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Version 3.0, due in September, is supposed to have .pdf import, as well as something called ODF, which I presume is Open Document Format.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

They're also adding full support for MS Office 97 file formats.

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

I've been using OO (in addition to a lot of other open source software) for a few months, since the last time I had to reinstall ^%#%$ XP. I had tried it when it first came out, but got frustrated with the compatibility issues. The current version is much better; I haven't had a single interoperability problem.

OTOH, I haven't attempted to work with any Office 2007 files. Can it open/save to .docx format and the like?

I suppose I could look this up myself, but I'm feeling lazy.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Free software everyday (http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/)

I haven't used any of it in months (I lost the link for a while - just found it) but I'm saving anything I find!

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Wow, it has been a while since I updated OO, hasn't it? I think I'm still at 1.3. I'll have to take care of that this weekend.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Whenever I've tried to do downloads of old games I have found that they were not playable on my current machine. Is there some trick I'm not understanding?

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

Well, it's tricky because XP and (I assume) Vista aren't built on top of DOS like the earlier versions of Windows. There's an emulator called DOS-Box which you'll see is recommended on the download pages of most of those games, but I've had very spotty results with it.

There's also a way to edit the (I think) nt.bat file which can help in many cases; but again, results are inconsistent.

On the whole, it's simpler to just find an old Pentium I or II at a garage sale and use it for vintage gaming.

[surakofb5.livejournal.com]

Mind Habits

I heard about this on NPR. They developed the game as part of their research, then made it available online because they found that it actually reduces stress and improves confidence, and they wanted to share it. I haven't had a chance to try it yet because the server got swamped.

So it's fun *and* good for you!

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah. DVD Flick. (http://www.dvdflick.net/) It isn't elegant, and it's no speed demon, but it's a no-frills way to make a DVD from almost any video file. The beta version (which you have to hunt through the site to find) allows a rudimentary menu. For my troubled friends, I can fling a couple of XviD video files into it, start it running, and have a DVD that will play on a standard player with little trouble. (Although, of course, what you get depends on how good a video file you have to begin with.) Another nice feature; since it takes a long time to encode video, you can set the "shut down computer when finished" option and let it run on its own while you sleep.

And I'm having to do that for some projects for friends, 'cause things are happening out of my control and I'm squeezing time. Sad phone calls from bereaved friends, a technically incompetent lady who needs a lot of home repair, a picnic for which I must cook. (But fear not, Tom, I will get that DVD made for you soon. And with a little more care than DVD Flick.)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Like I said, if you can just burn the raw data files to something and send those along, I'll happily do the scut work. :)

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll send the MPEG2 file for editing sake. But I'll also send the DVD so you can browse it and decide how/if you wish to edit it without having a computer. Plus the other thingies. (Maybe when BluRay becomes more common sending the whole AVI file won't be impossible: I'm told the disks can hold 25 or 50 GB. But it'll be a decade before they come down in price to where we civilians can use them.)

Shoot, I'm almost half as busy as you.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

... what is this "without having a computer" of which you speak? ;)

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, just that you can pop a DVD into your player connected to your TV, and move through it using your remote. Or in your laptop with DVD player on the road. For browsing through footage, while reclining in a comfy chair with a soothing beverage, that beats staring at a computer screen seated stiff-backed in an office chair. Fortunate guy. I have no chair available in front of my TV. I have to watch it from my Mac across the room, or by dragging a stool in front of my Shuttle PC near the TV (where your video currently resides, by the way) or standing up.

[adamek.livejournal.com]

Open Office 3.0 is out in alpha. This is native on Mac OS X. You don't need to launch X-Windows for it anymore. It seems much faster than NeoOffice on my Mac.