I have many documents created with Microsoft Office for assignments written for graduate school courses years ago. How can I easily convert those dozens of documents to a different format without using an online application? This is an excellent example of the power of open source. Five years ago I took a course at a … Read more
Joplin has become my default note taking app. I use it for everything whether short notes on what to pickup at the store to saving articles I inted to read later with the web clipper. I have an iPhone, a laptop and a desktop and I depending where I find myself on any given day … Read more
Recently I have been tasked with assisting a local medical office with finding a new way to securely store medical images. The office needed a robust replacement for an aging Windows computer that was soon to be out of date. I considered a number of solutions among them TrueNAS, OwnCloud, Nextcloud and a Samba share. … Read more
In the last blog post I wrote about the new Lenovo V 15 laptop I purchased and installed Fedora KDE Plasma 42. One of the annoying problems I have had in the last day since setting this laptop up is the lack of access to a right button click using just the touchpad. I had … Read more
LibreOffice is a free and open-source office productivity suite developed by The Document Foundation (TDF). It originated as a fork of OpenOffice.org in 2010. I have been using LibreOffice Writer, Impress, and Calc almost since its inception. It was an easy move from OpenOffice.org. I readily recommend LibreOffice to all those who ask for my … Read more
Writing blog posts that share my experiences with Linux and open-source software often requires screenshots of accomplishing a task or an expected outcome. Over time, I have used a number of such programs in Windows, macOS, and Linux. Most recently, using Fedora 42 KDE Plasma has introduced me to Spectacle. It can capture images of … 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
