My Desktop Theme
I found online a complete kit to transform XP to look very close to Ubuntu. Link
Kurt Nelson
My Various Random Ramblings
Archive for September, 2007
New Site Design Done
Well, the newest version of thisisnotajoke.com has launched, and we now run WordPress for a backend. The theme is based on Almost-Spring with heavy CSS modifications done thanks to Spencer of Gurnk. With WordPress, it is now easier to update the website, and I am able to integrate my personal blog into the website. I am also in the process of purchasing iHost to make purchasing hosting easier and quicker. One question for any WordPress people out there: How can I seperate my blog stuff better from the rest of my site?
jDefense 0.2 Released
Version 0.2 Alpha 3 has been released with some new features:
- Supports splits in map path
- Supports multiple Start/End points
- Implements ‘Y’ character in map files for a split
- Randomizes enemy path when there are splits
- Reads skin file names from Properties file
- Reads game play settings from Properties file
Download the newest version from the download page.
MLA in LyX
LyX is a word processor that takes care of the formatting for you, leaving you to only create the content. This post will tell you how to have LyX automatically format a MLA paper for you.
To start with, there are a few things you will need:
At each of these pages, download the newest stable installer. After downloading, put the MLA Template and JabRef somewhere easy to access, and install LyX.
Basic Paper
After installing LyX and letting it install any packages prompted to, open it up. If it asks about installing packages, let it go ahead and check the check box for it to not remind you any more. Then in LyX, go to the File menu and select New From Template… In the window that opens, navigate to the MLA.lyx file you downloaded and open it. You will then see the main window for writing your paper. The first line has what is called meta info, which it what tells LyX how to format and title your paper. Go ahead and switch out my info with yours, including your first name, last name, teacher, course name, if you want to specify a date other than today, switch the /today out, and finally your title. Leave the page break and below alone, even if you are not using any references. You are now ready to write a basic MLA paper with no references. When you are done writing, go to the file menu and select Expot -> PDF (pdflatex) to save the document as a PDF to your My Documents folder.
Citations
Ready to do citations? Coming soon…
jDefense 0.1.2
We have released the newest version of jDefense which has some major bug fixes, and minor graphical updates. The game is now fully playable, and just needs to be balanced. The newest version is available at http://jdefense.sourceforge.net
Office 2007
Office 2007 is a major improvement over the old office. With the ribbon interface, you can now find what you want and can work much quicker. File sizes are now cut in half with the new XML format. It runs smoothly on all systems, and still retains its power features while exposing them more and making them easier to use. I recomend with no reservations Office 2007, and consider it worth upgrading to from an old version.
Google Talk
Google talk is now my favorite instant messaging system, with one major caveat: no one else uses it. So my new mission is to convert people. The first feature is ease of use. My mom even did not need to be taught how to use it. Second, it now has a great voicemail feature that will allow you to leave a voicemail with any email address, with no requirement of being able to open an attachment. Finally, there is the new feature of it showing all users exactly what music you are listening to at that time.
Recently, Google has linked Google Talk in your Gmail with AIM. This means that you can now log into your AIM account from Gmail.
Pidgin
Pidgin is the best instant messenger program available. It is compatible with all of your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, Google Talk, ICQ and IRC. A bonus feature is that instead of people’s screen names, you can set the software to show real names instead. Pidgin had a plugin based structure, meaning many features can be added by downloading more software. For example, I have a plugin that is used by everyone is in a conversation and has the effect of writing all messages being written in code and burned after reading. Gaim is also an open source project, meaning the code that runs it is freely available for download and modification. Because of this, this software is one-hundred percent free.
Gmail
I use Gmail for all of my email, and consider it the easiest and best free solution for your email. Using Gmail, you can even keep your old email address. You never have to worry about losing your address book or any of your emails again, as they are all on Google’s server. If you use multiple computers, your mail stays synced up between all of them. And it has a good antispam filter.(Link is a bot trap)
Mozilla Firefox
If I can’t have Mozilla Firefox on a computer, I refuse to use it. (Except
in the case of these school computers) Firefox is a full replacement for Internet
Explorer that is easier to use and can have a whole lot more features. Firefox
supports add-ons called extensions. for example, I have an extension that will
automatically strip all advertising from any web page. Also with Firefox, you
will get almost no spyware because by default Firefox is more secure than IE.
Firefox is called open-source software, meaning that the code driving it is
free to download and modify for any person. Henceforth, Firefox is a completely
free program.
if (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'MSIE') !== FALSE) {
echo '
If you are going to download the free Mozilla Firefox browser, please download through me so Google pays me a dollar.
‘;
}
?>
Information
A mix of philosophy, technology, and college life with creative and obscure writing about those mixed in. Also, occasional tidbits about my company Kelson Prime, LLC.
