Aug 11, 2010 3:05pm GMT
A plug computer sounds like such a good idea, until you realize that before you can actually put it to some practical use, you need to install and configure some software and applications -- a task that requires time and technical skills. Fortunately, the recently announced Amahi Plug Edition solution provides a better and easier way to turn a plug computer into a useful device. As you might ha... more »
Add a Word Count Feature to TomboyAug 10, 2010 5:58pm GMT
If you use Tomboy as a drafting tool, a word count can come in handy in many situations. While Tomboy doesn't offer this functionality out of the box, you can easily add it using the Tomboy-Wordcount add-in. Although it's distributed only as a source package, compiling it is not particularly complicated. First off, you have to install two packages: gnome-sharp2 and mono-gmcs . On Ubuntu, you ca... more »
Schedule Tasks GUI style with Gnome ScheduleAug 09, 2010 8:53pm GMT
The cron tool lets you schedule system tasks, but if fiddling with cron's settings in a text editor is not your cup of tea, then the Gnome Schedule tool is right up your alley. Gnome Schedule is available in the software repositories of many popular Linux distros, so you can easily install it on your machine using your distro's package manager. On Ubuntu, you can do that by running the followin... more »
Adding a Dummy Text Feature to OpenOffice.org WriterAug 09, 2010 8:46pm GMT
Every now and then, I need to fill a blank OpenOffice.org Writer document with dummy text. While OpenOffice.org comes with a built-in feature that allows you to do that (type dt and press the F3 function key), it generates only one paragraph at a time and doesn't allow you to specify your own dummy text. So instead of the built-in dummy text feature, I used to use the Magenta Lorem Ipsum Genera... more »
Add a Grammar Checker to OpenOffice.org using the After the Deadline ExtensionAug 06, 2010 8:08pm GMT
The lack of a grammar checker is a pet peeve of many OpenOffice.org users. But there is a solution for those who are in desperate need of grammar checking capabilities in the productivity suite. The After the Deadline (AtD) extension adds a grammar checking feature based on the open source language checking server developed and maintained by Automattic (the company behind the popular WordPress... more »
Power Management with cpufrequtilsAug 05, 2010 9:40pm GMT
Switching to a lightweight graphical desktop environment is a great way to improve the overall performance of your system, especially if this system happens to be a notebook or netbook. But if you opt, for example, for LXDE, you'll discover that it lacks a graphical tool for managing power profiles and controlling the processor frequency. This might not be a big problem on a desktop machine, bu... more »
Lookup Words from the Command Line Using a Simple Bash ScriptAug 03, 2010 6:00pm GMT
The humble nano text editor can be a rather handy distraction-free drafting tool, but now and then I need to look up words and their definitions in WordNet. To do that, I tweaked a simple Bash script I stumbled upon on the Stack Overflow Web site. The original script pulls data from the Google Define source, but it took just a few minutes to make it work with WordNet. So if you, like me, need t... more »
