Use Wubi to learn Linux

As a huge proponent of learning new widely used technologies, I have been telling students who work with Internet technologies to learn Linux because 99% of all new web servers coming online are on Linux servers. Workplaces, especially small companies, often use linux file servers to avoid the huge licensing costs associated with Server 2007.

Now there is an easy way for beginners to install Linux on a second hard drive and play with the Ubuntu version of the Linux Hardy Heron kernel. If these terms sound like a foreign language to you, then this post is something you need. Wubi is a simple linux installer program that you can run straight from Windows. It will set up linux on the hard drive of your choice, make a boot loader and generally configure some of the more geeky settings. There are many different versions of linux and Ubuntu is one of the most popular. Check out the Ubuntu installation guide at seo.gadget and begin to learn!

Use Acrobat.com as a meeting place

Adobe's new AIR/Flash platform is ripe for application development and they are showcasing the possibilities with the latest in web 2.0 cloud computing. Acrobat.com is a powerful little conferencing application that provides for three vital functions:

1. You can make PDFs online and share them with anyone using an email address.
2. It contains a full-featured web meeting application complete with easy to use white board, web cam conferencing and telephone call-in numbers for voice only conferencing.
3. A free word processor, Buzzword, also is available for generating quick documents on the fly. You can also export them to your favorite format and save them on your local disk which is convenient for the jump drive enthusiasts.
   

Though, I love google docs/apps too, this user interface is simple, sleek and efficent in delivering the goods, all for free! Try it out and move into the sphere of cloud computing.

Get out of Debt - Part 2

Though I've posted a number of finance tips in the past, recent research has turned up a host of how-to financial sites that I wish I had known about as a college student. If you are a financial wizard and understand amortization calculation, debt to income ratios and FICO scores, then the sites below are on a beginner level. However, if these terms are new to you, then the following sites are a godsend for learning about debt, money mangement, and methods of moving toward a debt-free existence.

Learning the ropes of finance 101: everything you wish someone had told you earlier...

About Debt:

1. Debt to loan Ratios the basics: http://ezinearticles.com/?Debt-To-Income-Ratio---A-Critical-Factor-In-Your-Credit-Score&id=806220
2. Debt to income ratios - part 2 from Buzzle.com
3. The Motley Fool provides a wonderful free guide and workbook for getting out of debt; this site alone is a great first step toward financial solvency.
4. Finally if you are in debt, Dave Ramsey presents an interesting take on the psychology of debt reduction with his debt snowball site.
   
5. Buzzle.com has a nice debt reduction resource list. It's a great place to survey the range of considerations necessary to make a serious go at debt.
6. The Federal Trade Commission has tons of information about credit repair, debt management, financial counseling,
   

Learn about loans and interest by playing with the amortization calculator.

Finally, the following blogs are written by people who've wrestled with debt and survived. They teach money management skills, provide goos links and provide a nice place to learn about budgeting, financial investing and resources for tracking your cash.

1. The Get Rich Slowly blog is a nice place to learn about day-to-day management issues that are critical for financial success. The tone is friendly and the posters are real folks, not account managers or sleazy "credit counselors" trolling for clients.
   
2. Ramit Sethi's I will teach you to be rich blog is valuable because it also covers business building techniques.
3. Mint Money Management free software might do the trick if you're looking for an all-in-one stop shop for organizing your finances. As always, verify that privacy concerns are respected and this could be a great tool.

So that's it, a fairly comprehensive get started set of finance tools.

Enjoy!
phree

Contracts for Freelancers

At some time in your career you may choose to freelance. Knowing how to write a solid contract and plan for unforeseen changes/contingencies makes a huge difference in profit margins. Often it will be the difference between losing and making money on a project. Digital web magazine offers a few reasons why you should never do a project without a contract and practices that are always useful in legal negotiations.

That said the following resources are useful starting points for writing contracts that help ensure both parties conclude the project with positive results. First visit:
writing web design contracts for the non-legal. There's a rough sample that requires customization on this site too. Second creative latitude provides many great resources for the startup design company. This is the site that you must visit to visualize the many steps necessary in client and work flow management. Finally "Bulletproof Web Design Contracts" contains expert advice regarding changes/contingencies that you should consider before you begin to fine tune the contract.

If contract terms and language still make you crazy, visit this glossary to get familiar with legal phrases/terms. Though a contract is not an absolute guarantee that your projects will be profitable and hassle-free, it can provide a good foundation so that everyone involved knows what to expect as the project progresses.

Happy freelancing!

Quick Web Designs for Mortals

If you need a web site that you can tweak and reverse engineer then the Open Source Design project is for you. Non-web designers often need to post projects sites quickly and the open source design project provides clean basic web sites that you can download, tweak and upload in a matter of hours. For graphic/web designers and photographers the sites may not fully meet your needs but for those who need quick design, the sites are ideal starting points.

If you download and use one of these sites, please provide feedback below.
take care,
phree

2 Useful Utilities

If you are a windows user who works with images and attachments, then the following utilities may help you streamline your workflow.

First, XnView is a utility for viewing and converting graphic files. It allows you to batch process many images at once,is a big time saver if you are a Photoshop user.

Second, clip path is one of many utilities that can save time navigating to attach files in email programs like gmail, hotmail or yahoo mail. Visit the lifehacker download of the day site for clip path here. There is a great discussion that lists other path copying programs as well so be sure to read the whole page.

Happy Holidays!

Fix Your Gadgets, MAC XP, ipod, etc

If you own a computer and other gadgets, then you have to visit the following sites for cool fix it and mod advice:

1. Mac Fix It (http://macfixit.com/).
   
2. Fix my XP (http://fixmyxp.com/). Also check out their list of freeware too.
3. Finally for more ipod juice and to fix the Ipod check out crunchgear.com
   

That's it for now...
phree

40+ Excellent Free fonts For Professional Design - Smashing Magazine

Are you a web designer in search of new, professional looking fonts? Look no more. Smashing magazine comes to the rescue with 40 free fonts that actually look good. No more Klingon or kitchy grunge. Check out the fonts @ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/08/40-excellent-freefonts-for-professional-design/.

Smashing Magazine is also quite cool for everything graphic!

Happy Veteran's Day!
phree

Quicktime Player Quickness

As a media artist (especially animators) you often find yourself scrubbing through sections of movies many, many times to review your work. Quicktime works very well for this purpose and is my current player of choice (I also dig the VLC player, since it can play DVDs and is free to the masses).

The shortcuts/features I find myself using most...

Drag the in and out points to the area of a movie to review and use these shortcuts to quickly replay the footage:
Enter or spacebar : Plays if paused; pauses if playing
Ctrl + Alt + right arrow key : Jumps to end of movie or end of selection
Ctrl + Alt + left arrow key : Jumps to beginning of movie or beginning of selection
Left or right arrow keys : Step back or advance one frame

More shortcuts...

http://images.apple.com/quicktime/pdf/QuickTime7_User_Guide.pdf

Forget about Forgetting: Hello to File Syncing

It is a fact that your computer will have issues and lose data when you need it the very most. Saying good bye to that data (countless hours of laboring) is never an easy thing to do. It is much easier to say hello to file syncing.


Unison is one example: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ (caution - this program is for people who enjoy command line, Linux style operations)

Syncback Freeware is another: http://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/software/SyncBack_Setup.zip The Syncback downloads page is here and the free version of the software is located at the bottom of the page.

Cheers!

Lookslikematt

Learn everything with MIT's Opencourseware

Ever wish you'd taken a class that wasn't offered or convenient during your college career? Well MIT has the ultimate answer in that it publishes over 600 courses offered at its posh Boston campus. Want a course in programming or algorithms, check out the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department or the Science and Technology courses. For the record, MIT publishes the syllabus, assignments, exercises, etc., but you would still have to buy the books required to learn the material. Since it is all accessed free, you won't receive credit, but it's all about the knowledge anyway. So get out there and have fun!

Get a lifehack

This one is posted for all students who have too much to do and too little time to do it.

Lifehacker.com is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn about cool new downloads and efficient methods for getting things done (GTD). GTD strategists are obsessed with increasing productivity and eliminating wasted time. Thus, the site always presents interesting tools to help with time management skills and technology tasks.

Learn C++ & Java from the Master

My programming gurus led me to this source a few years back and I heartily recommend the following resource for anyone who wants to learn C++ or Java. Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in ..." series is by far the best resource I've found for someone who wants to learn to think like a programmer.

Check out his site @ http://mindview.net where he gives free PDFs of Thinking In C++ & Thinking in Java