Posted by admin on February 29, 2008
We were talking about the Leap Day at Lunch when it dawned on us Salaried employees that we don’t actually get paid for the extra day.
So, After a quick search on Google, I hereby Claim Feb. 29th as International Work for Free Day! Only 1460 more days left to get your T-shirt for the next one!
If you’re an hourly employee, remember to get a card for you supervisor or manager.
Also, It would be a good day to volunteer!
Happy International Work for Free Day
Comments:
Filed Under: Blog
Posted by admin on February 26, 2008
I’ve used the Turkey City Lexicon for years. Growing out of a science fiction writer’s group in Austin, Texas, it’s an invaluable resource for all writers.
It’s a collection of humorous writing tips, apt names for writing errors and a kind of secret handshake for writers all rolled into one.
For Example:
- The Kitchen-Sink Story
A story overwhelmed by the inclusion of any and every new idea that occurs to the author in the process of writing it. (Attr. Damon Knight)
- And plot
Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular.
- Eyeball Kick
Vivid, telling details that create a kaleidoscopic effect of swarming visual imagery against a baroquely elaborate SF background. One ideal of cyberpunk SF was to create a “crammed prose” full of “eyeball kicks.” (Attr. Rudy Rucker)
And it’s now been released to the public at the SFWA website.
Posted by admin on February 25, 2008
So far, the great Linux experiment is going great. I’ve switched from Fedora to PCLinuxOS: The main reason was the native support for my Radeon Card. Thanks, Tasos, for the heads up!
I’ve also been playing with a few Word Processing program.
I’ve already mentioned Open Office, the full featured MS Office killer on the software page. Now however, I can say I grok the things that used to bug me about it. Open office has about a billion and one options to customize the program, page layouts, templates,document style, Etc. Now I get it. Part of the Open Source ethos is that nothing is hidden and the user has total control. Not just over the software, but options in the software. If you want to print on a 4″ by 8″ sheet of paper with .72 inch margins and 1.33 lines spacing, go for it. That’s why you get more options than Word: Because it’s up to you. Duh.
There’s also Abiword and Koffice: I’ve used both before, but I still Prefer Open Office.
A new one I’ve been liking is LyX. LyX is billed as a “What you see is what you mean” Document Processor and it’s kind of a throwback to an earlier Linux. If I get the Gist of Neal Stephenson’s “In the Beginning …” essay, Command line Text editors such as Emacs and VI came first and were designed for programmers. Flash forward a few years, And Word Processor applications were needed for Unix. The programmers didn’t start over, they just created formatting applications such as LaTex that could take the output of the text editors and turn them into documents.
LyX is the next generation: It uses DocBook formatting packages that contain all the formatting for turning your manuscript into a finished book. Or screenplay, or whatever. Simply pick the document you want to create, and start typing. Voila! What you see is what you mean. Chapter headings look like chapter headings, paragraphs look like paragraphs, pages, margins, fonts and what ever else are automatically taken care of. It’s like typing your manuscript directly onto the printed page.
Also Fun to play with, especially with the Oscars over and Nicholls and Disney fellowships right around the corner is celtx. This program creates scripts in a wide variety of formats: Screenplays, Stage plays, Audio scripts, even novels and stories. But that’s not all. Celtx also has functions for all areas of media pre-production: Storyboards, scene lists and breakdowns, index cards, props. Everything you need to replace cumbersome pen and paper notebooks and get the show on the road. Celtx has even added collaboration and secure web services.
All professional, and all free. give them a shot.
Posted by admin on February 20, 2008
If anyone here is on Penguins/Amazon’s list, Congratulations!
Posted by admin on February 14, 2008
Where’d the widget go?
A while back I added a widget for LitMatch in my sidebar. However, somewhere along the way I removed it. There weren’t a lot of outgoing clicks on it, and it cluttered up an already cluttered site.
And that’s too bad, because LitMatch is a fast growing, useful site. Primarily a search engine for Literary Agents, Litmatch also has submission tracking capabilities and a Blog onthe business and mechanics of submitting. Agents are rated by site users for response time and what encouragement the agent gave.
Oh yeah, here’s the Widget:
