gregladen | January 2, 2008Desktop Publishing; Running MS Office; Some Games
Scribus is an OpenSource desktop publishing application that runs on Linux and the Mac as well as other systems such as that one from Redmond. I don't use DTP very much these days, but I've played around a little with Scribus. Here you will find a detailed review of the software.
I have run Microsoft Office under Crossover. Crossover is a commercialized version of WINE, which in turn is an OpenSource application that allows you to run Windows software. My impression has always been that WINE is not even nearly "grandma-ready" but I found…
gregladen | January 2, 2008For US citizens, adults only, you must be over 18 to view this content...
and thus of voting age.
Check out this site. It asks you to rank a bunch of different general issues, distributing 20 points across them. This requires you to think carefully about what you think is important (thus getting more points).
Then, based on those responses you are asked questions about more specific issues. Like, if you said "gun control" was important, you are now asked about assault weapons ban legislation, perhaps other gun control legislation, etc.
Then it tells you the top three candidates in…
gregladen | January 2, 2008Obesity and Seatbelt Use; Epilepsy; Asthma
Obesity linked to decreased seatbelt use from PhysOrg.com
Obese people are less likely to use their seatbelts than the rest of the population, adding to the public health risks associated with this rapidly growing problem.
[...]
Epilepsy and brain pathology linked together by the protein ADK from PhysOrg.com
The brain of individuals who suffer from epilepsy is characterized by astrogliosis, a brain pathology evidenced by a complex series of changes in the morphology and function of brain cells known as astrocytes. Little is known about how…
gregladen | January 2, 2008In Stockholm, the heat will be sucked out of the bodies of the thousands of people who pass through the Central Railway station to heat the buildings.
"So many people go through the Central Station ... We want to harness some of the warmth they produce to help heat the new building," Karl Sundholm, of the Swedish state-held property administration company Jernhuset, told AFP.
[source]
A quarter of a million people pass through the station daily, which should provide a lot of heat. Normally, their body heat, and their body odor, is vented from the building. Once the new system is…
gregladen | January 2, 2008This is the inaugural post in a new category I call "Stoopid News."
One of our local affiliates, WCCO News (Twin Cities Channel 4), ran a an interminable trailer claiming that a new study indicated that "teacher burnout" was not caused by low pay, not caused by working conditions, not caused by students, and not caused by workload. It was caused by something else. Details later on during the news broadcast. And so on.
When the story was finally aired, it turned out that the study was done in Germany of German teachers.
Fine.
Now, this is an international blog, and I don't want you to…
gregladen | January 2, 2008Corey at 10,000 birds has an interesting post weighting the value of gray squirrels as a visitor to your bird feeder, vs. the nuisance they cause as a visitor to your bird feeder. Last summer, I found a way to combine both perspectives.
Up at the cabin, the habitat is mixed woodland, so we have a high diversity of squirrel species. I assume there are flying squirrels buzzing around at night; There are marmots, but not many. There has been one red squirrel often seen near the wood pile; and in June, there was a pair of gray squirrels, seen most often, not surprisingly, at the bird feeder…
gregladen | January 1, 2008Beer May Cure Cancer; Prostrate Cancer Protein; Vomit Inducing Infection Strikes Cursed Cruise Ship;
Cancer-fighting agent found in beer from PhysOrg.com
A key ingredient of beer may contain a cancer-fighting substance, a German study indicated.
[...]
Scientists find protein potential drug target for treatment-resistant prostate cancer from PhysOrg.com
Scientists at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia have found that a signaling protein that is key to prostate cancer cell growth is turned on in nearly all recurrent prostate cancers that are resistant to hormone therapy.…
gregladen | January 1, 2008Installing Linux on a Macbook Pro; KDE - to be or not to be; Microsoft Developing Emacs.net ... WTF?; Tricking out Gimp; Cool, or possibly utterly useless, Firefox add-in
From Kahvipapu...Why? install Linux on a Macbook Pro?
Just because I can. Believe me, I heard question "Why on earth you want to run Linux on mbp?! Why don't you just use OS X? It's purrfect!" more than once. Yes, OS X is nice and I do like it, it's hands down better than Microsoft's operating systems and has some extremely nice unique features. I just happen to like Linux more for the tasks I do (No doubt Photoshop junkies…
gregladen | January 1, 2008It is fun, and appropriate, to slam local newspapers that uncritically regurgitate yahooistic creationist rhetoric. But when the local papers display fits of rational thinking, we should praise them.
Thus, I bring you a quote from the St. Petersburg times. This is from their list of Top Ten People to Watch in 2008, and it concerns recent and ongoing political events in Florida:
4. Charles Darwin
Despite 148 years of uninterrupted scientific validation, Darwin and his seminal work, The Origin of Species, continue to lose ground to the Judeo-Christian creation story.
Just this month, a…
gregladen | January 1, 2008Today's Linux Calendar.
Jan 01
J.D. Salinger born, 1919
Jan 01
Paul Revere born in Boston, 1735
Jan 01
Circumcision of Christ
Jan 01
AT&T officially divests its local Bell companies, 1984
Jan 01
The Epoch (Time 0 for UNIX systems, Midnight GMT, 1970)
Jan 01
Macintosh Epoch, Midnight 1904
Jan 01
Anniversary of the Triumph of the Revolution in Cuba
Jan 01
Castro expels Cuban President Batista, 1959
Jan 01
Churchill delivers his "Iron Curtain" speech, 1947
Jan 01
First Rose Bowl; Michigan 49 - Stanford 0, 1902
Jan 01
Beginning of the Year in Japan
Jan 01
Independence Day in…
gregladen | December 30, 2007First, have a look at this (warning, large file):
wow
It is a PDF file of the unrooted mammal evolution tree that came from this research.
Now, here is a question for you. There is a rumor that this graphic or something like it has been converted to a poster for sale. Anybody know where to get one?
Thank you very much.
gregladen | December 30, 2007I like the way this address spacetime instead of merely space. Or time .
Do you recognize the languages i the background?
gregladen | December 30, 2007A town full of crazy people in Louisanna got fed up with having their telephone exchange be "666" because of the link between this sequence of numbers and the devil. So they got their exchanged changed to 749. This is very funny.
7:49 is the Bible verse from Luke Johnthat says "But this multitude that knoweth not the law are accursed." in reference to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were the crazy people in the bible ... the fundamentalists ... who Jesus warns about, because, well, their multitude knoweth'd not the law and were accursed.
This came up again more recently in the Democratic…
gregladen | December 29, 2007From Slashot:
"Computers and handheld devices running default GNU Linux or Unix OSes have swept Amazon's 'best of' list for 2007, according BusinessWire.com for 28 December 2007. Best selling computer? The Nokia Internet Tablet PC, running Linux. Best reviewed computer? The Apple MacBook Pro notebook PC. Most wished for computer? Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7-inch PC mobile Internet device, which comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. And last, but not least, the most frequently gifted computer: The Apple MacBook notebook PC."
wOOt!!!
gregladen | December 29, 2007According to the New Hampshire State Republican Party and an Associated Press report, Republican presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul will be excluded from an upcoming forum of Republican candidates to be broadcast by Fox News on January 6, 2008.
[source]