Don I bought an M3 MacBook Air last fall to experiment with AI tools and LLMs that were available for use on Apple Silicon. The M3 had more RAM than the M2 it replaced and a larger NVME drive. Those were important considerations. I wanted to install Fedora Asahi Linux on it eventually. To my dismay, … Read more
A few weeks ago, someone at the faith community I attend asked for my help logging into their computer. I suspected it might have been hacked, so I created a Windows 11 boot disk to rescue the computer. The device was a four-year-old Dell Latitude 5320, which was running Windows 11 but not very efficiently. … Read more
Open-source software is not restricted to Linux. While I spend most of my time reading, writing, and developing on Linux, I can also use many tools I love on macOS and Windows platforms. Last fall, after returning from All Things Open, I purchased an M3 MacBook Air because I wanted to experiment with some of … Read more
Messaging apps have revolutionized communication, reshaping our daily lives and relationships. It’s hard to imagine a time without SMS paving the way for near-instant connectivity. Could we even fathom returning to a world where real-time communication wasn’t at our fingertips? Today, we have a plethora of messaging options. Platforms like Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, and … Read more
Openverse is a powerful search engine for Creative Commons-licensed content, allowing users to explore over 800 million images and audio files across various databases, including significant collections from the Smithsonian, NASA, and more. Initially developed as the CC Search tool by Creative Commons and later adopted by WordPress in 2019, Openverse has become an essential … Read more
I am not a talented artist, but I enjoy using graphics for greeting cards, posters, and occasionally hoodies or t-shirts. When I need an image of a creature such as a cow, horse, or eagle, I turn to Openclipart.org. This unique platform is dedicated to providing a vast collection of free-to-use vector graphics. Launched in … Read more
Inkscape is one of my favorite open-source graphic design tools. It has an intuitive interface that is relatively easy to master. As I learned to use Inkscape, I became familiar with vector graphics. I appreciated their usefulness in various projects, such as posters, t-shirts, hoodies, and any items that feature graphics. Vector graphics consist of … Read more
Recently, a friend gave me a recent model of a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion laptop. He said, “It turns on but goes off almost immediately. Maybe you could use it?” I gladly accepted the gift and took it home, and it performed as he described. I got CMOS battery errors from the BIOS and decided to take … Read more
Many people don’t realize the abundance of free and open-source resources available online. Here are some of my favorite open-source tools across different categories, designed to enhance your daily life, work, and digital experience. Browsers Firefox stands out as a privacy-conscious and open-source browser. Chromium is another open-source browser that was developed at Google. Web … Read more
My initial reaction to Linux was that I did not fully understand its range of tools. At that time, I was the technology director for a small K-12 public school district with limited resources but a growing number of classrooms, learning labs, and administrative offices. I came from a social science background, and although I … Read more
