Hello, my blog has moved to a new home:

http://blog.jordan-west.com/

I’ll be archiving all the posts up until now on here, but all new posts will only appear on that above address.

Note: if the picture above looks badly resized, and jagged, this post is going to be irrelevant to you anyway since you don’t use firefox

Do you find yourself impulsively checking certain websites when you should be working? I do. In fact its become so automatic for me that I barely notice I’m doing it until I’ve opened about 10 tabs and each of them contains something more interesting than my work.

I’ve tried various internet anti-procrastination extensions for Firefox, but they all seem to do the same thing – limit the amount of time you spend on certain websites. Personally, this doesn’t work for me. They pop up while I’m halfway through reading or watching something, and eventually I just get sick of the rude messages and uninstall the extension.

So what if you could surf the site for as long as you like without interruptions AND be more productive? Its not possible you say? Well, I’ve written my own script to test this theory. Its only a couple of days old so I haven’t tested it thouroughly yet, but I think its working. Basically it has two functions:

• Stops you from impulsively checking time-sink websites really often.
• Offers words of encouragement =)

When you check a website, eg facebook, the time is recorded. You can surf the website as long as you like (theoretically you’ll eventually get bored) but once you stop surfing the site – ie stop opening tabs/clicking links – you won’t be allowed to access the site for another five hours.

That’s right, five hours. I know it seems like a long time, but if you’re like me you’ll realise that don’t really need to check those sites more than once per day. In the future I’ll provide options to change that length.

I’ll post the script in the next few days, meanwhile you might want to install Greasemonkey, a Firefox extension which you’ll need to run the script.
Script has been posted

EDIT: OK, I’m a bit slow, but I can’t not include this classic from the Beijing Olympics:

The world relies on Windows. Good job Microsoft.

OK, this next one isn’t really in real life but its entertaining nonetheless.

Just read an interesting method of avoiding procrastination, or rather motivating yourself to work on certain tasks. By doing tiny amounts of tasks you realise how easy the task is and thus how easily you can complete it. Not sure what you might do if the task isn’t easy however.

Sounds like an interesting idea, I’ll give it a go over the next week or so.
Link: Kick Procrastination’s ass: Run a dash

Yes, I was procrastinating by writing this. I have an assignment due tomorrow.

I recently received this chain letter in my email:

Subject: im proud.u call me racist
Okay, now that i have your attention.

There are Aboriginals, ,Torres Strait Islanders, Kiwi Australians, Lebanese Australians, Asian Australians, Arab Australians, Boat People from all over the place., etc. And then there are just Australians.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my Direction.

You Call me ” Australian Dog”, “White boy”, “Cracker”, “Honkey”, “Whitey”, “Caveman” . And that’s OK. But when I call you, Black Fellarr, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Sheep Shager Camel Jockey, Gook, or Chink, You call Me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the Housing Estates the most dangerous places to Live?

You have the United Arab’s union, College Fund. You have Invasion Day. You Have Yom Hashoah ,You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi. If we had WET (White Entertainment Television),
.We’d be racists.

If we had a White Pride Day .. You would call us Racists.

If we had White History Month, we’d be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to”advance” OUR lives . We’d be racists.

If we had a college fund that only gave white Students scholarships….. You know we’d be racists.

“White colleges” ..THAT would be a racist college.

You can march for your race and rights. If we marched for our Race and rights, You would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and Orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our White pride .You call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a Muslim gang member or beats up a Lebanese Drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society,
You call him a racist.

I am proud. But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists?

There is nothing improper about this e-mail.

Let’s see which of you are proud enough to send it on.
And if you don’t send it on, you’ll be eaten alive on next wednesday, ( or something along the lines of that shit. )

First of all, I’d like to know what is meant by “And then there are just Australians”. Who is just Australian? People born in Australia? I’m pretty sure many Aboriginal Australians are born in Australia. Or by ‘just Australian’ are you talking about people from White European background? Take a look at your family history and I think you’ll find that all of your descendants arrived in Australia on boats from all over the place.

You have Invasion Day. You Have Yom Hashoah ,You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi. If we had WET (White Entertainment Television),
.We’d be racists.

Invasion Day is Australia Day, the day that Australians celebrate the landing of the First Fleet and set up of the Colony of New South Wales. This sounds like a European day to me.
Yom Hashoah remembers the 6+ million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. ANZAC day remembers the bravery of the Australia/New Zealand Army Corps.
Mawlid al-Nabi celebrates the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Christmas celebrates the birthday of Christ.
White Entertainment Television? How about every channel which isn’t Black Entertainment Television. We don’t even have BET here in Australia (it turns out this email is just another modification of one which started in the US).

I am proud. But, you call me a racist.

That’s because you are a racist. That has nothing to do with being proud. I’m a proud Australian. Nobody calls me racist. I am not proud of my European history. People don’t call you racist only because of what you say – they call you racist because of your attitude.

There is nothing improper about this e-mail.

Yes there is.

The way this chain-letter is written separates “us” from “you”, but this doesn’t make sense. The only separation that is being made here is skin colour. It is this attitude that people with white skin are somehow separate from people with any other colour skin that annoys me. Unfortunately this is the attitude of many Australians – take the Cronulla riots for example. People are separate only in that they came from different countries to begin with. But here in Australia, we are all just Australians.

Australia is a land of diverse culture, which is what makes it so interesting. Its people who write and say things like this email that make me ashamed to say I’m Australian.

With the launch of Microsoft’s new suite of software with an interface make-over comes an offer no money saving uni student could refuse. Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, for $75. The website advertising it all – itsnotcheating.com.au – is clearly aimed at uni students who pirate their copies of Office. After all how many students can afford the pricey Office suite, even with a normal student discount? It sounds like a great deal – you can even get a year’s trial for only $25, however I propose a better one. How about free? And no it is not cheating.

OpenOffice has been around for quite a while, however it is only just starting to pick up momentum as it becomes discovered by more and more individuals, businesses, and NPOs. The great thing about OpenOffice is that it follows the open standard. Basically this means that it is designed in such a way that features can be continually added, and remain standard across all office software which use the OpenDocument format.

The OpenDocument format was created as an ‘open-source’ format with the purpose of unifying all of the different document types into one public standard. Remember how annoying it was not being able to open Office 2000 documents with Office 97? OpenOffice can open both of these formats, and many more, however you are encouraged to save documents in the OpenDocument format. So it would seem logical that Microsoft’s new Office would embrace this new ‘universal’ format to eliminate all of the compatibility problems. Instead, in the Microsoft tradition, the company has opted to create yet another proprietary format, the Office 2007 format. By default, files saved in Microsoft Office 2007 cannot be opened in Office 2003. So Microsoft released a patch. Another bandage to fix up another wound.

One more thing to note – Microsoft’s offer is only available to Australian university students, and expires 28 May 2007. OpenOffice is free for anyone, for any use, forever.

Office 2007 (Australia University Students only)
OpenOffice

Subversion is almost a necessity for many programmers. However it is rarely thought of as a tool for “versioning” essays, study, letters, documents etc.

What is Subversion?

Subversion (or SVN) was designed to be a successor of CVS, another “version control” system. Basically what they do is keep track of every version of a file in a folder you specify. So for example when writing a program, you may try adding a new feature only to find that it screws up big-time, and you want to go back to an old working version. Subversion allows you to do this. However it can also be a very useful tool for general document work. For example, if you are using Microsoft Word, you can pick two different “revisions” (or versions) of your document and compare the changes in them.

Why use Subversion?

1. Keeping backups
   You don’t have to worry about hundreds of old backup files lying around. Subversion keeps track of the date at which each file was versioned. You can also place notes on each revision. When you have finished working on the documents, you simply “Commit” the files to Subversion, which creates a new revision. You can then revert back to any revision at any time. You can also compare changes between two or more revisions.
2. Synchronising files
   You might have a bunch of documents on a USB stick which you would also like to have on your PC at home. This way you can edit the files when your USB stick isn’t plugged in. Subversion can keep track of what has changed, and commit only the changes made to the database. Subversion was designed with collaborative work in mind.

Check back for Part II – How to use Subversion

Meanwhile, check out Subversion on a stick

Following is a list of free (open source or freeware) software which I use regularly, more often in fact than commercial software. You may have already come across many of these applications before. If not – you may discover something useful.

1. Graphics – Blender
Windows, Linux, Mac
Blender is 3D modelling software. It was previously a commercial application, however the company went out of business and sold the code to the open source community. Yet the application in its current state is much more powerful than the original commercial product. Some argue that it even rivals 3D Studio Max in some of its features. The main turn-off for Blender is the user interface, which at first appears very confusing. After following a few tutorials, you will find that the interface is actually very efficient.

2. Editor - Notepad++
Windows
Notepad++ is an excellent Notepad replacement. I currently use it for all of my PHP and Python development, as it can be customised to function almost like an IDE. It starts up very fast, and features syntax highlighting, code completion, text zoom, folding, macros, and many other features that you may expect from an IDE.

3. Productivity - AutoHotKey
Windows
AutoHotKey is an essential tool to speed up any type of computer based work. Create hotkeys that do just about anything, and automate almost any task in Windows. There are plenty of existing scripts if you don’t have any programming experience (although the scripting language is very easy to learn), including global hotkeys for iTunes, code completion in any application, window detection, and even pranks.

4. Planning - Freemind
Windows, Linux, Mac
Freemind is a mindmapping tool which is excellent for mapping out ideas, plans, todo listsc, essays – virtually anything. I have also found it to be a great tool for study. Freemind can export to many formats including HTML and png.

5. Media - VLC
Windows, Linux, Mac
The ultimate media player that plays almost any format of audio and video (except RealMedia). Fast, simple and efficient, VLC is an excellent media player. There is no media library feature, however it does have a playlist function and works well as a ‘drag-and-drop’ media player.

6. Programming - SharpDevelop
Windows
SharpDevelop is designed to be a replacement IDE for Microsoft Visual Studio. SharpDevelop 2 is built for the .NET 2 framework, and allows you to write applications with C#, Visual Basic .NET, and Boo.NET. Most of the features of Visual Studio 2005 can be found in SharpDevelop.

7. Music - Winamp
Windows
Most of you have probably already made up your mind on Winamp. It is a music and video player with library, podcast client, iTunes replacement – all pretty standard features. I use it only because it supports all the common music formats (m4a, wma, mp3 etc).

8. Photos - Picasa
Windows, Linux (sort of)
Picasa is another child of Google, which means it follows the ’search and sort’ mantra. It is excellent for organising your photo library – you can tag images, add captions, and it also features many one-click functions such as screensaver, collage, email, slideshow, timeline, and colour adjustments. It even includes an I’m Feeling Lucky button which attempts to adjust brightness/contrast and colour balance automatically.

9. Game - Gate 88
Windows, Linux
Gate 88 is a great game, although it takes a bit of time to learn. The graphics are very simplistic; the objects are composed of basic vector graphics, but this actually gives some interesting effects. Probably the most unique thing about this game is that it plays as both an RTS (Real Time Strategy) and a space shooter. You fly a ship around, but can also build and research. Internet and LAN play can be great fun however as with many freeware games, it can get tired quickly.

10. Internet - Firefox
I’m sure anyone who comes across this knows about Firefox. If you haven’t yet tried Firefox, make the switch.

Hopefully you have found something useful in here – if you have any additions feel free to post a comment.

 EDIT: I’ve noticed a lot of people coming across this post with the search term ‘vlc osd’. The on screen display appears when you press Shift+Left/Right, Ctrl+Up/Down/Left/Right.

Recently I noticed a presentation tool which incorporates two buttons which can control a Powerpoint presentation, pdf, slideshow, or anything that uses PgUp and PgDn buttons.

It is available for around AU$50 from Jaycar (I managed to get the same one for $20 from eBay), and comes with two parts. One, a laser pointer, has three buttons. An up and a down button, and a button which activates the laser pointer. By pressing the up and down buttons, you can remotely press the PgUp and PgDn buttons, by using a small ‘dongle’ which connects to your computer’s USB port.

Out of interest, I thought of many different uses for this (not just presentations), and using AutoHotKey, I have created a script which converts this presentation tool into a small, fairly cheap remote control for VLC, using an On Screen Display.

You may be wondering how you could control VLC with only a two button remote. Pressing ‘Up’ tells VLC to play/pause. Pressing ‘Down” brings up an on-screen menu, where you can then scroll up and down to select volume, fast forward/rewind, and jog. To select an item, simply leave the selection on one of the menu items. The easiest way to learn how to use it is to play around with it, you can try it out without the remote by just using the PgUp/PgDn keys.

Download VLC Remote OSD (190KB)

Laser Presentation Tool (AU$39.95 from Jaycar)