The daily blah blah

<Update> Soon after I hit the PUBLISH button, I received via email, the OpenOffice.org newsletter, with an extensive list of openoffice.org related blogs.</Update>

Although there is an abundance of information available at the official openoffice.org site regarding the usability and how to make openoffice.org, the free open productivity suite, work better for your needs, there are hidden treasures of information, tricks, and tips all over the place waiting to be discovered.  Here are some, in no particular order of importance or significance.

The wordpress.com site.
The trick here is to look for the tags you (or somebody else) assign to a post they publish in a wordpress.com blog.  Be as imaginative and creative as possible.  Use combinations of words.  For example, office, open, xml, lead to this page, while open, office, xml lead to this different page. Try other languages, too, and see where the hunt takes you  (if you are versed in that particular language).  For example, the same tags in german will lead you to another page, altogether.

The sun.com site
Try the sun.com site for openoffice guides and white papers.  After all, they are one of the largest contributors to openoffice.org and they still hold the license for staroffice, the suite that started all once upon a time.  Note that to retrieve white papers and guides you may have to register with a username and a valid email address.  The following two links are interesting:
Migrating from MS Office to Openoffice.org or StarOffice,
Creating large documents with Openoffice.org writer

Other blogs (of course)!!!!
Try some or all of the following (I am not affiliated with them, nor do I know their owners/editors etc.  I simply read them occasionally).
Openoffice.org engineering at sun.
Tips and training for openoffice.org.
The lifehacker page and its openoffice tips.

Finally, something that I also found while searching around:
1) Open a new spreadsheet in Calc
2) Type the following in any cell
=GAME(”StarWars”)
enjoy the openoffice version of space invaders.

For more easter eggs, … well, just look around

I.

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I

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Ok, since the latest scare regarding the iphone being hijacked by a series of invisible text messages, the update to version 3.0.1 was mandatory.

iphone bios ver. 3.0.1

Apparently, malicious code could be sent to the iphone via text messages, and all the rightful owner sees is a short message with a white square. More details in this detailed article.

The bios update is a bulky 240 MB download and you download it via the usual itunes channel.  It will, as usual, back up the current contents of the iphone and then go through the loops of installing and resetting the iphone. It took less than 15-20 minutes including the download time for me, but it was time well worth it.  Highly recommended for all iphone 3G and iphone 3GS owners.

Now, onto something lighter (after all, it’s august).  I have been playing a lot with these free apps for the iphone, and i like them very much. These are not the only free and fun apps residing in my iphone, but they are the ones that keep me busy all the time. Note that all links open in itunes app store:

1. 

   paper toss game image

   paper toss. What you get when you bring together a waste bucket, a desktop fan, and a piece of paper rolled up like a ball: Paper toss. Cleverly simple in principle, all you have to do is throw the paper in the bucket taking care of the wind coming from the fan. Wind speed and direction varies, but mission remains the same: throw the paper in the bucket.   Now, this game has some hidden treasures: try to throw the paper way off-target so that it hits the cubicle next to you and you’re gonna hear from the guy trying to work while you goof off.  The game has three levels of difficulty (easy, medium, and hard) and promises several hours of productivity of doing … nothing.  Beware, if you lose a paper toss, your streak gets erased and you go back to zero (0).
2. 

   wild west pinball iphone app

   
   wild west pinball. This is an application for the pinball afficionados with a touch of wild west flare. It includes a bank heist, a gold digg mine, a “kill-dirty-harry” shootout among other things. It has traps on each side of the controls and requires pretty good dexterity and coordination especially when the ball comes tumbling down the middle.  This is aslo a free app.  I would have liked better controls, but this is a great app all around.
3. 

   toobz free iphone app

   
   toobz this is the free version of the same app and offers only five levels. It is a puzzle like game and you got to build a network of interconnected water tubes just before time runs out and water is spilled. The paid apps sells for EU€0.79 and offers more levels than the free version.
4. 

   trains iphone app

   
   And finally, the one iphone app I paid to download and get addicted to it:
   trains a train dispatcher like application in which you control the switches in a yard and have to steer the incoming trains through their destinations and safely out of the yard. It features three levels: basic, advanced, and insane, and it’s got me addicted. I would have liked separate top score lists based on level but that’s ok. I got it when it retailed for only EU€0.79 but now it is sold for €1.59.

I also got an invitation to review this iLight Farts paid app, but did not get around to doing so yet.

So, there you have it.  Updated iphone and a bunch of fun apps to spend your time.

Enjoy,

I.

PS. If you like any other free (preferably) or not-so-expensive apps, please drop me a line.

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Update: A comment by a reader of the daily blah blah and a post by security expert Bruce Schneier that anyone should read. I believe that they present the same point: no matter what security measures schools take, in the end it is the school community that will solve the problem of violence./Update

Today (April 20th) marks the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. Twelve innocent students, one teacher were killed, more than 20 were injured by two heavily armed Columbine students (before the pair shot themselves) in what became the worst school-based crime in the United States. Since then, more school-based mass killings have occured, and the BBC has an interesting (though outdated) chronology of events.

Most news outlets have carried reports and memorials for the tragic events. A partial (and incomplete) list follows:

• BBC audio
• BBC report
• CNN

Ten years later, the question remains unanswered: “How do you prevent such an event from happening?” In an earlier posting, I had suggested that the answer may lie in both the home and the school, both functioning/working together, side by side for the benefit and welfare of the children and the greater school community, but even this bonding may not be enough in socially turbulent times.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

I.

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After days and months in the making, the daily blah blah blog has finally moved to its own hosted site care of bluehost. While carefully preserving the links and content and comments, the new site will offer more capabalities while preserving the style of the daily blah blah.

The trip from wordpress.com station to bluehost station was quick and enjoyable, and our train was a top priority express with no intermediate stops.

This was done with the helpful support and guide of the guide to redirect a wordpress.com blog to a self-hosted blog. There is a direct link to a pdf document, which I strongly recommend. The process is thoroughly tested and was completed in no time at all. Easy, enjoyable, awesome reading!!!

Thanks again for following the blog to its new site.

I.

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As the year 2008 is about to depart (it has already departed in several parts of the globe), I leave you with a few free apps for the iphone, probably the coolest new gadget of the year. All of them are free apps and can be downloaded via itunes and the app store.

1. iSlots, for those who can’t live without their personal slot machine.

iSlots app

2. Black Jack. There is a paid and a free version, but the one we will choose is the free one.

BlackJack Free app

3. Just to get away from the cards, the smoke and the casino atmosphere, FS5 Touch Hockey will help us do just that. One of my favorite apps for visual-motor co-ordination activities (i.e., killing time while pretending to work).

touch hockey app

Happy New Year 2009.

I.

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It hit the net this morning for immediate download and install. It’s iPhone’s newer firmware version 2.2. It still missing a few things (copy-paste, Greek character input), but still worthy the trouble to download 240+ MB.

I have already done so.

iphone 2.2 update

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I was a bit quick with my tapping the iPhone and the post was published without text. Oops!!

Time for me to flog myself and repeat:

I will be more careful when I post.
I will be more careful when I post.
I will be more …

First, I must say that the following list of iphone apps may not appeal to everyone, but that is to be expected. Second, they are all free apps (as in free beer, $0.00 cost), since there are enough free gems floating around. Of course, there are enhanced for-fee versions etc, but I don’t see myself buying them.

iphone apps

The apps I use the most are (in no particular order): (a) Zenbe lists, (b) twitterific, (c) IM+, (d) Speedtest, and (e) netnewswire.  Not that I don’t like or don’t use my other apps (especially, shazam, evernote, facebook, linkedin or maps), but the five apps I mentioned earlier are my top-tier apps.

I like zenbe lists because the iphone app synchronizes with the zenbe lists server over wifi or 3G and I can update my things to do (separated by context) at any time.  The same is true for netnewswire which also syncs with my unread subscriptions.

Twitterific offers twitter on the go, which is always nice and is available here at the App Store.  Speedtest is a nice app which helps you estimate the speed of whatever network you are connected at the time.  I use it when I am at a low speed wireless network and to verify my home wifi speed.

Finally, IM+ is a nice all-in-one instant messenger for connecting to almost all the IM services you need (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk etc).

I run these apps either over the Vodafone 3G network or via wifi when there is one available.  They run fast, they do the job and keep me connected and in touch.

I.

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Welcome to the daily blah blah.  This site is the continuation of the daily blah blah blog hosted by the wonderful people at wordpress.com.

Site under construction

Right now, we are in the process of moving our stuff from the thedailyblahblah.wordpress.com to this site and expanding it greatly.  In the mean time, please visit us at our old place.

I.