Blackmoor Vituperative

I have been using TextPad for years. Many, many years. I have been looking for a replacement for nearly that long, for two main reasons: TextPad does not have Unicode support, and it isn’t open source. I have kept it for this long because it truly is a fantastic text editor. It offers macros, block select, smart indentation, regular expressions, and a host of other features I use on a regular basis. I have tried editor after editor after editor after editor, and none have measured up to the standard set by TextPad… until now.

Meet my new text editor: Notepad++.

There is a reason that the OpenOffice.org 3.0 servers are struggling to keep up with demand. OO.org 3.0 really is a serious upgrade over version 2.4 and makes NeoOffice irrelevant for Mac OS X users (previously, OpenOffice only worked within X11; While NeoOffice did a great job porting OO.org to native OS X, OO.org 3.0 works out of the box in OS X as a native Aqua application).

[…]

I had never liked the OpenOffice equation editor; this version brings a very nice graphical and text-based hybrid editor to us math teachers. Mail merge was clunky in OO.org; this version brings a mail merge wizard and improved label templates. Outline numbering tended to be a bit kludgy for notetaking in OO; this version improves the stability and interface of outlining.

Annotations are now incredibly easy to add (Insert, Note) and Office 2007/2008 formats are supported across the board. While Microsoft has dumped VBA support in Office 2008, OO.org users can run Visual Basic scripting, as well as Python and Javascript.

(from ZDNet, OK, now OpenOffice is definitely good enough)

Are people still debating whether to switch to OpenOffice? Seriously? Are these same people still debating whether to switch from dial-up to broadband? Are they still debating the merits of aspartame over saccharine?

Seriously?

OpenOffice was “good enough” to replace MS Office at least five years ago. Any individual or company that is still using MS Office is just… sad.

See also:

• Gallery: Enhancements for OpenOffice 3
• Paula Rooney: OpenOffice 3 launch timed perfectly but will Sun, IBM exploit opportunity?
• Paul Murphy: OpenOffice vs. Microsoft Office

This is cool. HP will send you a postage-paid envelope to send back empty inkjet and laserjet cartridges to be recycled.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday he will recommend that the nation’s largest cable company be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet.

[…]

“The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers access to the Internet,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told The Associated Press late Thursday. “We found that Comcast’s actions in this instance violated our principles.”

Martin said Comcast has “arbitrarily” blocked Internet access, regardless of the level of traffic, and failed to disclose to consumers that it was doing so.

(from FCC chief says Comcast violated Internet rules, Yahoo! Finance)

That is remarkable. I am not used to seeing the FCC as the good guys.

The 5 real reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

• iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can’t be on everyone’s phones.
• iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology.
• iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.
• iPhone won’t play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.
• iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on the horizon that respect your freedom, don’t spy on you, play free media formats, and let you use free software — like the FreeRunner ().

We can trade our freedom and our money to get something flashy on the surface, or we can spend a little more money, keep our freedom, and support a better kind of business. If we want businesses to be ethical, we have to reward the ones that are. By not enriching companies that want to take away our freedom and by rewarding those that respect us, we will be helping to bring about a better future.

In solidarity,

John, Josh, Matt, and Peter

(from Defective By Design)

The JMRI Defense fund is a worthwhile cause. Think about sending a few dollars their way.

Net neutrality is a complex issue, but here is the main thing you need to know about it in order to support it:

The Digital Rights Mafia is against it.

This has to be the craziest case mod I have ever seen.

I have been using the Nokia n810 for a few weeks now, and I am going to soften my criticism of it a bit. What the n810 does, it does really well. I am able to check my email, chat through Pidgin, and research on the web any time I am near a wireless hotspot.

The n810 has become my lifeline to my wife, my mother (who is having serious health problems), and my colleagues across the world. Suffice to say that I have turned around completely on the n810. No, it doesn’t replace my Palm — nowhere near. But it does keep me connected to my friends and loved ones, and at this time in my life I couldn’t really live without that.

Warning: shareaza.com has been suborned by scammers. For Shareaza updates, always go to http://shareaza.sourceforge.net.