Office on a budget

Do you want to setup an office but can't afford the $400 dollar price tag of Microsoft Office? This site called John Hood's the best of free software is a must visit for you. His site has a lot of free alternatives to office--wordprocessors like Cryptedit or full office suites like Openoffice.org, and many more are reviewed and ready for download.

If you have a slow connection, John Hood can also mail you a CD with all of the free software he has on the site. Just don't forget to donate if you have extra money.

So before you dig deep into your pocket to purchase MS office, try out the free stuff first. The free software can be all that you'll ever need.

Another Opera post

I found this long document in the Lockergnome encyclopedia. The article is all about the history of Opera browser and other useful information about the browser. If you are an Opera lover, this article is worth a read.

You can also check out Opera Watch for the latest buzz about our favorite browser.

If you are not yet an Opera user, head to TnTLuoma.com to read a good article called 30 Days to Becoming an Opera7 Lover.

New blog template

Edit: I changed back to a default Blogger template. The last template has difficulty in handling comments.

I don't have time to setup a Wordpress blog so the next best thing is to just setup the default skin of Wordpress called Kubrick. Well, the skin looks great, even samureye used to have this skin last year.

I got the skin from Blogger templates. If you need a cool customized template, you can check out their free collection there.

One thing that bothers me with this skin is that it's a little slow to load, but that's just me nit-picking. Well, this will be my default until I can find a better template. Maybe I will setup a new Wordpress blog, if I have the time.

FirefoxOpera

I saw this site on Opera Watch: the unofficial Opera browser blog. The site is about making Firefox, look and feel like Opera by using extensions.

Hmmm... Why not give it a try you Opera lovers and get the best of both worlds.

Opera 8 beta 3

This blog has an extensive review of the fine usability of Opera 8 beta 3. As for all beta of Opera, beta 3 does not have Blogger support as of yet. From the looks of it, things will be rectified soon enough. I will be patient. So far I'm still using Opera 7.54u2 to surf the web and post in this blog.

Opera or Firefox

Two of the most stubborn groups in the net are the Firefox fans and the Opera lovers. A hot debate rages inside newsgroups, forums as well as chat rooms on which browser totally owns the other.

I claim to be an Opera lover, yet I somehow can't grasp the animosity that Opera lovers attribute to Firefox, mainly because I use Firefox too. I know that many of you are probably saying that the hottest place in hell are reserved for those who sit on the fence, because they don't know which side to step on. But just because I feel no guilt in using Firefox does not mean that I denounce being an Opera lover, no, in fact, I blatantly spread my love for Opera like gospel.

What I'm trying to say is simple. If you want to use Firefox, then do. If you want to use Opera, then by all means. Fans of both browsers should stop pulling the other down--"You need a hundred extension in Firefox to get the functionality of Opera!" "Opera has the worst javascript support!" Stop already! Let both software speak for itself.

I understand the need to inform people, especially newbies, about the functionality of Opera and Firefox, but bickering should be avoided. To outsiders, Firefox and Opera fans look like ravening wolves, ready to pounce at each other using flame wars as weapons of smear campaign against each other.

I'm an Opera lover, but I use Firefox--heck I even use the insecure, slow, and ancient IE sometimes. So which is better for me, Firefox or Opera? My answer is obvious--it's a matter of taste.

Librarian bashes bloggers. Gaiman bashes back.

Michael Gorman wrote on Library Journal:

"A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web."

"It turns out that the Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief."

"Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs."

Legendary comics writer, novelist, and avid blogger, Neil Gaiman responds to Gorman with:

"a) he's simply a very, very bad writer, or b) he lacks any skills of a diplomatic nature, or it's just c) he really believes that statements like "Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts" are somehow going to disabuse people who keep blogs, journals and such from believing or repeating the calumny that "Michael Gorman is an idiot" (someone apparently said this on a blog, he tells us, expecting us to feel an outrage on his behalf I somehow wasn't able to muster.)"

Link

Blogspot beefing up

According to this article on Lockergnome, Blogger service will eventually slow down on speed and performance because of its popularity in the web.

All I have to say is that so far, Blogger has not slowed down on my ancient PC and dial-up connection, so I'm not worried one bit. Another thing to note is that the Blogger staff is ready for this eventuality and are beefing up their hardware.

Now all Blogger needs to do is to support Opera 8 browser. Blogspot, please support Opera 8! I want Opera 8 to be my default browser! Firefox is slowing my machine too much! Blogspot, I'm gonna hold my breath until you support Opera!

Nintendo DS emulators

Nintendo is once again making waves in the handheld videogame entertainment landscape with the uber-portable Nintendo DS. Emulator makers are also jumping on the bandwagon to create DS emulators. So far these emulators can only play some demo games but they actually emulate most of the DS hardware.

Alertspy is spyware!

Update(4 November 2005) : The link of the fix below is not valid anymore. Please visit this link instead for the fix.

I'm not even gonna list the url of this abomination. This site called win-fix dot com has infected me with an incessant pop-up ad stating that I have 47 spyware infections in my system. Apparently, this message is a false positive deviously devised by these thieves to force me to purchase their product called Alertspy. I don't even know how I got infected with their stupid pop-up ad that show up almost every hour, but I think these thieves resorted to phising (not even Firefox is immune to this method) to get people to visit their sites.

If you have been a victim of win-fix and Alertspy, the first thing you need to do is never download, purchase, or install their Alertspy product, it does nothing to solve the problem. I urge you instead to go here for instructions on how to remove the annoying messenger service pop-ups that they bombard you with.

The url for the removal procedure above is the legit www.winfix.com, do not trust win-fix dot com.

Remember the names: avoid win dash fix dot com, avoid Alertspy. They are thieves.

I have some projects

Well, the lack of posts only means that I have some things that I'm working on. Actually, I'm working on three fictions, two fanfics (DBZ and Batman) and one original short story.

You can check some of my works here and here. I hope to finish just one of them before the end of April.

Opera 8 beta 2

This is a capsule review of much anticipated Opera 8 beta 2.

As usual, Opera 8 sports the same GUI from Opera 7. This means that the free version of the browser is still ad-supported with the same customizable interface and same features, peppered with new innovations.

The new upgrade of version 8 comes with more support for websites like Gmail and Hotmail, they even have a quick button to report sites that are incompatible with Opera. In addition, the pop-up blocker has noticeably been made more customizable.

So with the new innovations for Opera 8, why the heck am I still using Firefox as default? For starters, if I was using Opera exclusively, I wouldn't have this update because Opera 8 can't make the text editor of blogger to function.

I'm really an Opera user so I'm optimistic that programmers in Opera get the kinks out after the browser goes out of beta.

Manga Reactor

More manga downloads at Manga Reactor. All the series are compiled by volumes and fixed up as a download link for eDonkey. Check it out, it has loads of manga.

D.Gray-Man

The souls of the dead and the machine merge to become a living weapon of the devil.

This title is still a new scanlation effort. According to Manga News the scanlation so far for this manga is up to chapter 34.

D.Gray-man is a supernatural thriller (a little “shonenized” though) that yet again, pits the powers of good against the devil. According to exorcist lore, the devil, through a certain “Earl of the Millenium,” is making an akuma (demon) out of every hopeless and desperate people of the earth to usher the end of the world. The akuma is the devil’s weapon (part machine) that can evolve, gain experience and power when it kills people.

Allen Walker is the main character of this series. He’s a mysterious 15 year old kid claiming to be an exorcist. His main weapon is an anti-akuma weapon that he calls, a “cross that lives within him.” His immediate motivation seems to be getting rid of akuma’s for him to free the souls of the dead so they can hopefully return to god’s side.

The illustration of the comic is very detailed and clean like most good manga. I have read chapters 1 to 5 of the series, it looks very promising so far. If you like stories about man against the devil, you will surely like this series even though it has a little sci-fi twist to make the plot interesting.

Go to Stop Tazmo for some chapter d/ls.

History of Japanese comics

If you are interested in manga or you are doing research on the history of manga click here for the a brief history of the medium.

It's interesting that manga can be traced even during the time of picture scrolls and Buddhist monks.

The article also covered the father of manga, the history of shonen and shoujo, as well as other famous mangas of yesteryear.

A very informative and entertaining article, I must say.