CareyMorgan.com - software

Thumbdrive-sized Portable Apps

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 23:06:09 -0800

You can now fit a full collection of open source productivity software onto a regular thumbdrive for easily transferring your work environment from comptuer to computer. Download a full suite or each portable-ready app individually at johnhaller.com.

My Favorite Firefox Extensions

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:42:41 -0800

Even though Microsoft is finally getting around to releasing a version seven of their Internet Explorer browser, most of the recent innovation has been taking place with the freely downloadable Firefox browser. The main feature Firefox brought to the mainstream and that IE7 will be offering is tabbed browsing. With a tabbed browser, you can open new browser "windows" in the same window but with the page title appearing in a tab instead of the window title bar. This makes it really practical to switch between multiple web pages simultaneously without spending all your time finding the right window on your task bar.

Beyond tabbed browsing, Firefox has captured a significant share of the browser market by offering programmers the ability to extend its functionality through add-ins they call Extensions.

Here are some of my favorite Firefox Extensions and why:

Ruby on Rails - Web development framework to watch

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:22:34 -0800

Ruby on Rails sounds like a promising web development framework, though I know nothing more than the

XP PowerToys - Making Windows Even Better

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 09:45:33 -0700

Windows XP works quite well with tons of hardware and software. But even the programmers at Microsoft have thought of a bunch of ways to make it better. Enter the PowerToys for Windows XP, a group of freely available extensions to the Windows XP operating system that you can install and use to make your life easier. I especially like the Image Resizer, Command Prompt Here, and Tweak UI which lets you adjust things like menu speed, desktop icon size and spacing.

I also like the "Send to X" powertoy from Windows 95 which lets you copy groups of filenames to the clipboard, send a filename to a command line, or send files to any folder, all with a right-click.

OpenOffice - Is It Finally Time to Switch?

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:13:59 -0700

I've been watching the Open Office project for quite a while, even back when it was known as the free version of StarOffice from Sun. Over the past few years, several clunky and annoying issues have been obliterated, allowing this free program to emerge as a viable replacement for the spendy Microsoft Office in nearly every way. Some folks are saying that only Powerpoint and a few types of highly complex documents may still require the features of MS Office. Other folks are pointing out that OpenOffice is a memory hog and loads slowly.

NVU - Free and Simple Web Page Editor

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:08:40 -0700

For people who aren't ready for serious web design work but need a flexible and useful place to edit web pages without knowing HTML, the NVU (prnounced n-view) web editor is the ticket. You can't go wrong with this free tool, and you can run it on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Read what some others say, then start to use it yourself!

Run Like Mad

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 07:12:34 -0700

What a great summary of my life in programming. Adam Bosworth describes the new model of application development:

Run like mad
Try things out, watch, learn
Iterate
Learn form the customers in real-time
Real applications, APIs to follow

Zimbra - open next-gen collaboration server

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 21:16:50 -0700

Zimbra represents several steps forward: an open source collaboration server that will certainly give Microsoft's Exchange a run for its money, and a great example of AJAXi technology that promises to make deploying great tools easier and easier over time. Maybe my home network will sport one of these someday!

Ubuntu - a gentler Linux distribution

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 21:13:19 -0700

Ubuntu is a Linux operating system with a philosophy centered around making technology accessible and useful for ordinary people. Whereas many technology projects seem to focus on making techies' jobs easier or making money, this one is different. That gives me hope it will end up being one of the more usable "free" operating system configurations.

ZDNet article tells the Ubuntu story

HijackThis - Identify whats really running on your PC

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 08:55:44 -0700

If you suspect something fishy has made its way onto your system and your virus and spyware programs aren't picking it up, download HijackThis , unzip the program to a new location, run the program and produce a log file, then copy and paste its contents into the space provided on this web page: this HijackThis log analyzer.

This process will tell you what experienced people believe about the programs running on your system. If you have any BAD items, search the list of spyware removal strategies found on the same website.

CivicSpace and Politics | CivicSpace

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 21:50:58 -0700

CivicSpace and Politics

Is the following a fair characterization?

What this means is that conservatives like to have power concentrated in the hands of a few, trusted â€œpeople like usâ€? who give orders to an obedient mass. They like it when things are expensive because they have more money, and they like to keep things expensive by quashing competiton, securing an ever-larger slice of an ever-shrinking pie. Progressives like to empower everyone to send messages to the leadership and value a diverse range of opinions. They like it when things are cheap or free, allowing everyone a sufficient slice of an ever-growing pie.