Microsoft is Dead -

"Microsoft cast a shadow over the software world for almost 20 years starting in the late 80s. I can remember when it was IBM before them. I mostly ignored this shadow. I never used Microsoft software, so it only affected me indirectly—for example, in the spam I got from botnets. And because I wasn't paying attention, I didn't notice when the shadow disappeared.

But it's gone now. I can sense that. No one is even afraid of Microsoft anymore. They still make a lot of money—so does IBM, for that matter. But they're not dangerous."

http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html

Lyx - The Document Processor

"LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents, not their appearance."

http://www.lyx.org/

Taxation without web presentation

"The Library of Congress recently signed a deal to accept 3 million dollars worth of "technology, services and funding" from Microsoft towards building a new website powered by Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in. I (Casey) usually leave the blogging to Tim, but I've got to say something about this.

Microsoft, in general, is very good to libraries, and libraries are very good to them. Microsoft gets huge tax breaks for donating software licenses -- something that doesn't really cost them a thing -- and libraries get software they couldn't afford otherwise.

This is a different beast, however. It sounds like Microsoft technologies will be used from the ground-up -- if you use Microsoft's Silverlight to do the front-end, your developers pretty much have to use Visual Studio and Microsoft languages, your database admins have to use MS SQL Server, and your systems admins have to use Windows and IIS. In any case, it seems unlikely that Microsoft would consult on a project and not recommend you use Microsoft as much as possible."

http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2008/02/taxation-without-web-presentation.php

Flickr Bits and Pieces

"I now have a total of 147 applications and plugins in the database, all of which utilise the Flickr API in some way."

http://www.flickrbits.com/

Métamorphose: A File -n- Folder Renamer

"Métamorphose is a free, open source program to mass rename files and folders which combines great flexibility with an intuitive interface. "

http://file-folder-ren.sourceforge.net/

10 Free Applications Every Student Needs

"Unless you have money coming out of your ears, you probably won’t want to shell out the cash you’ll need to get Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, EndNote, and so on — even with your student discount. These free apps do the job well enough, and sometimes even better than their paid or otherwise limited alternatives."

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-ultimate-student-resource-list.html

Legal Issues Associated with Open Source and Free Software Projects

"This is a must read if you or your organization associated with open source software project. If you are interested in a basic understanding of the legal issues that impact FOSS development and distribution, this primer is for you. The guide, written for developers, has sections on copyrights, trademarks, patents, organizational structure and other legal issues"

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/legal-guide-on-free-software.html

40 Great Open Source Graphic Programs

"I thought that you should be aware of few Open Source Graphic Programs, because now everybody is speaking about the Open Source movement, so I thought that you should know more about 40 projects. You will find here their name, a screenshot and few details."

http://openit.biteus.org/40-great-open-source-graphic-programs/

Reading and writing Excel files with Perl

"Only recently have the doors been open to Microsoft Excel, the most popular spreadsheet application for the desktop. This article takes a look at reading and writing Excel files in Windows and Linux, using Perl and a few simple modules. The author of this article, Teodor Zlatanov, is an expert in Perl who has been working in the community since 1992 and who specializes in, among other things, open source work in text parsing."

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-pexcel/