WINE
For those of you not familiar with it, WINE is a compatibility layer that sits between the software and the operating system and lets you run Windows programs in Linux without actually having a copy of Windows. The results have been very impressive. So far I have the Windows versions of Evernote 4.4 and Microsoft Word 2007 running. I used the Playonlinux front-end for WINE to instal Word without a hitch. (There is no option for Evernote on this software so I did a manual install.) There have been one or two graphical blemishes occasionally but both programs run well enough Read more…
A Month Without Scrivener
Around one month ago I transferred all my files out Scrivener and started using OpenOffice Writer. This was an experiment and I was not even particularly sure why I was trying it. I said I would keep you all posted as to how it was going. The answer is surprisingly well. There are some things I miss about Scrivener, the little touches like countdowns to deadlines and daily word targets in particular. Making the change has not really affected my productivity any. I managed my usual word counts for the month. Some things are easier now. I can open the Read more…
Find and Replace in Writer
I just had my first big bit of grief from OpenOffice Writer. I was trying to replace double paragraph breaks. In Microsoft Word you just go to Find and Replace. In the find box you type ^p^p and in the replace box you type ^p. Hit replace all and you are done. Try as I might I could not get OpenOffice Writer to do this. I searched web pages and the explanations I got there were just beyond my comprehension. In the end, I found a solution although it involved installing the Alternate Search and Replace Extension (found here). Now Read more…
iCloud: The Hype Begins
There’s another interesting Apple puff-piece over at the Guardian. It sings the praises of Apple’s new iCloud as opposed to Google’s Web based approach to the cloud. The main difference is apparently that you can just fire up your MacBook and save your documents in the cloud and they will miraculously appear on all your other Apple computers from the cloud. You get to use local apps and not be tied to the browser as with Google’s offerings. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Another radical new innovation from Steve and the boys in Cupertino! Well, no actually. I’ve been doing this for Read more…
Some of My Favourite Things: the Kindle
I love this device. I really really do. Even though I bought it from Amazon US and a month later Amazon released a more powerful UK version at about half the price I paid for mine (including postage and import duties) I still feel like I got my money’s worth. Why? It lets me carry a library around in my jacket pocket. It’s light, its battery lasts for a month if I switch off the wireless connection and it lets me buy a new book or even get one for free pretty much wherever I am in the world. I Read more…
Weekend Reading
At the weekend I downloaded Tarzan At The Earth’s Core onto my Kindle and sat outside in the sun and read it in a few hours. This was a book I loved when I was fifteen. It involves Tarzan joining an expedition to the hollow world at the Earth’s core, the dinosaur haunted setting of Burroughs Pellucidar novels to rescue David Innes from the clutches of the Korsars. It’s an odd book which features a lot of running around, cliff-hanger endings and prehistoric monsters. It ends abruptly as if Burroughs had reached his contractual word count for the project and Read more…
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