HOWEVER, it can cost a fair amount of money, and many small businesses just can’t justify spending the money on software they will use rarely.

I have had some experience with Open office, Libre Office, and Neo office on both Windows and Mac platforms. Libre- and Neo- are both spinoffs from the open-source Open office suite which has been around for a couple of decades. NeoOffice wasbegun in 2003 by Patrick Luby and Ed Peterlin because there was no port of OpenOffice for the Mac at that time. LibreOffice is a fairly recent spinoff project from OpenOffice – I’ve read some blogs that purport LibreOffice is being feveloped faster.

All three apps will read and write Microsoft Office files – there may some small issues depending on the file and your computer, but you get those issues (things like not having the same fonts installed) anyway.

I can recommend all three for general Office-type tasks. If you are on a Mac, however, I really do prefer NeoOffice. The user interface behaves in a more mac-like manner (text highlighting, for example, looks like text highlighting should on a Mac. Libre- and Open-office text highlighting looks more like it does in Windows. This is disconcerting or even annoying).

The developers of NeoOffice have also kept up with the times in the Mac world – the current 3.2.1 version is Lion (10.7) compatible, and has support for Versions, Full Screen mode, and Resume. CLICK HERE for more details.

Another plus for those with older OS X Macs – they still have a current PowerPC compatible version available. It does run a bit slow on my first generation Mac mini (1.4 gHz PowerPC) – but it does run quite acceptably.

Links

Open Office

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

Libre Office

LibreOffice is the power-packed free, libre and open source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. Support and documentation is free from our large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers.

NeoOffice

NeoOffice is a full-featured set of office applications for Mac OS X. Created in 2003 when there was no Mac OS X version of OpenOffice.org available, Patrick Luby and Ed Peterlin have devoted their decades of Mac software engineering experience to create an office suite that is adapted to the unique needs of Mac users.

While OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice now have their own Mac OS X versions, Patrick and Ed continually add improvements to NeoOffice that our Mac OS X users will not find in OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice such as:

• Extremely stable Mac OS X code that has been in daily use by hundreds of thousands of NeoOffice users since 2003
• Significant speed improvements to the OpenOffice.org text layout, rendering, and printing code
• Native Mac OS X text highlighting
• Native file locking support for local and networked volumes
• Mac OS X Services support
• Native floating tool windows

Small Biz Tech

You are a small business owner and know you really need to get your technology more integrated into your workflow- or you need a basic introduction to websites in plain English, including why you would want to have one, how to go about getting one inexpensively and the pluses and minuses of all those decisions you have to make . Or, you’d like to know more about Microsoft Office, or even if you HAVE to have it! These classes in “plain English” will help you get up to speed. Bring your questions, ideas and vague notions-we’ll try to get them all covered!

Day 1 – Websites: Why and How? Most business owners know they “need” a website but many don’t have a megabuck budget to get one created. And then there’s the question of what to do with it after it’s completed? This class takes a look at some easy online solutions and offers suggestions for how to create a website, what to do with it, what it should have and how and why to keep it up to date.

Day 2 – Practical Online Marketing There’s a ton of hype on information “out there” telling you all the things you should be doing online. The problem is that the only way you can get all of it done is to ignore both your business AND your life! We’ll explore several options and discuss how to best spend your time marketing your business, including websites, blogs, all of that social media stuff like Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps even touch on online advertising.

Day 3 – Small Biz Tech I: Working Your Machine Not really sure how to work your machine? Let’s take a look (and practice!) at all the “basics” of using a computer – things like Windows, your mouse, printing, saving documents, applications (finding, installing and uninstalling), the internet, email, downloading files, installing new software, finding quality free or inexpensive software, dealing with file formats (what’s a PNG anyway?”), etc. Bring your questions – we’ll try get them all answered!

Day 4 – Small Biz Tech 2: So You Have a Computer What do you do with it? Let’s take a look at what you are doing and come up with additional possibilities for using this tool better and perhaps using it in more ways! We’ll take a NON-TECHNICAL look at things like networking, printing, sharing files, Internet searches (how do you quit wasting time looking for information online?) and even look at free software that might be useful! Do you really NEED Microsoft Office? Do you NEED to use Windows? Maybe, or maybe not!

Day 5 – Excel and Spreadsheets Part I: the Basics in Plain English Learn the basics of using a spreadsheet, why it’s a useful tool, what it can be used for, and the concepts for creating a well-designed and easy to use spreadsheet. We’ll practice designing a basic budget during the class, and even see how many days old you are (but we won’t tell!) Questions? We’ll get them answered!

Day 6 – Excel and Spreadsheets Part 2: Sheet, Functions and Being Useful Learn more Excel including dealing with multiple sheets and when that’s needed, built in functions like SUM, MIN, MAX, COUNT and PMT, and tricks to make your spreadsheet useful.

Day 7 – Excel and Spreadsheets Part 3: Charts, Pictures and Stats, Oh My! Learn to create charts, what type to create, how to make them look good and even use those charts in other programs or online.

Day 8 – PowerPoint: Get Beyond the Prefab and Get Your Point Across Almost everyone knows the basics of PowerPoint, but far too many people stop there. We will spend some time playing with the features that you can use to easily customize your presentations. We’ll also look at a process to follow when creating a presentation that can save time, and we’ll discuss some of the design and presentation issues so your project will be far better than average. Bring your questions!

July 12 – August 4, 2011 – Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, 8 Sessions

CLICK HERE for more information and to sign up!

This Digital Life: A Beginner’s Guide to Home Computers

This is a series of classes focused on people who are curious about computers, don’t know much about them and want to ask the really simple questions but are too embarrassed to ask, or who are tired of asking their kids for help. These classes have a lot of hands-on plus a lot of “plain English” explanations of how to work computers to get some things done. So bring your “how to” and “why” questions – we’ll get them answered! Optional, but useful – bring a thumb drive to each class (also known as a flash drive.)

Day 1 – How to Work the Blinkin’ Computer Learn to turn your computer on, understand basic technology, print documents and pages, save what you’ve been working on without losing your mind, use a flash/thumb drive, connect new gizmos to your computer, and understand basic networking.

Day 2 – Online, Social and Safe We’ll cover the different ways you can keep up without getting overwhelmed with email, the web and all of that Facebook and Twitter stuff-what they are, how to stay safe online, how to use them and why they can be fun!

Day 3 – Practical Internet: Quit Wasting Time Unless You Want To Have you ever felt like you wasted time searching for something on the Internet or ever wanted an easy way to create a website? Then this is the class for you! Well take a look at these activities and actually practice online.

Day 4 – Digital Pictures So you’ve taken all those pictures with your digital camera. Now what do you do with them? We’ll explore a variety of things from editing software to posting those pictures online. Bring some digital photos with you that you’d like to experiment with, or we’ll have some for you to use.

July 11 – August 1, 2011 – Mondays from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, 4 Sessions

Click here for more information and to sign up!

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

GCSU Continuing Education

Their Facebook page

It’s been interesting trolling the ‘net for installation instructions – I’ve seen conflicting reports on the process, and nothing that specifically mentioned Ubuntu 10.10.

So here – for the sake of others and myself – is how I got Ubuntu 10.10 to work with a Netgear WG311 PCI wireless access card:

What you’ll need:

1. A working Ubuntu 10.10 system
2. Admin access (i.e. your admin password)
3. Internet Access – and all the passwords and such to access the home network
4. A Netgear WG311 PCI card already installed into the machine

The Process:

1. Start the machine running. Login. Get to the desktop.
2. Start a console (Applications–>Accessories–>Terminal)
3. Type this:  lspci | grep Marvell
   
4. You should see something like this showup:
   Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88w8835 [Libertas] 802.11b/g Wireless (rev 03)
   (As long as you see something related to “Marvell” you are OK. Your screen will likely look somewhat different)
5. Get the drivers from either
   ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/wg311v3_1_0.zip or
   http://www.soft32.com/Download/Free/NETGEAR_WG311v3_80211g_Wireless_PCI_Adapter/4-181522-1.html or
   possibly http://www.marvell.com/drivers/upload/MV-S800374-00.zip
6. Open up the “Downloads” folder (Places–>Downloads).
   Doubleclick the zip archive you see there to unpack the archive.
7. Fire up the Synaptic Package Manager (System–>Administration–>Synaptic Package Manager).
   Search for “ndiswrapper”.
   Install ndisgtk, ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 and ndiswrapper-common.
8. Back at the console/terminal, type this:
   ndiswrapper -h.
   If you get a reply with some help text, that means ndiswrapper is indeed installed. If it isn’t, redo Step 6.
9. Switch back to your open downloads folder.
   Open up the folder you extracted back in step 5.
   You’ll see several folders there – find the WinXP folder inside the Driver folder and open it.
10. Set your screen – i.e. move the windows around -  so you can see both the console and the contents of the WinXP folder at the same time.
11. In the console type this:
    sudo ndiswrapper -i
    -make sure you leave a space at the end of the line, and DON’T HIT ENTER YET
12. Switch to the WinXP folder.
    Click and drag the file WG311v3.INF into the console.
    Let go of the mouse button when your pointer reaches the end of the line you typed in step 11.
    The line should end with the full path of the .INF file. Hit enter now.
13. Type ndiswrapper -l.
    The console should reply:
    wg311v3 : driver installed,  device (11AB:1FAA) present
    
14. If that doesn’t work, try typing this: 
    ndiswrapper -a devid wg311v3.
    [Replace "devid" with the PCI ID or the USB ID of your card, in the form XXXX:XXXX.
    To get those numbers, run the command lspci -n or lspci -nn (for PCI cards, the -nn option adds a human readable device name so you can easily identify the device your are targeting) or the command lsusb (for USB devices]
15. Now you have to insert the software module into the system. Type this:
    sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
    
16. Check to see if it worked by typing this command:
    iwconfig
    You should see a reference to “wlan0” in the output. If you do, it’s working!
17. Now add it to the list of things to automatically startup by typing this command:
    sudo ndiswrapper -m
18. …and then type this:
    sudo gedit /etc/modules
    [gedit is a text editor- you could also use pico or any other text editor you have available in your system.]
    Add a line that says ndiswrapper
    Hit CTRL-X to write the file.
    Exit your text editor.

That should do the trick! I suggest shutting down the system and then restarting, just because I like to make sure things are working – and will continue to work after I’ve gone back home!

Sources for more help:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Device/Netgear_WG311_v3

http://madwifi.org/

http://switch2linuxnow.com/home/netgear-wg311-ver-3-wireless-network-cards

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-5141.html

http://www.linux-wireless.org/Drivers/

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/marvell-88w8335-chipset-netgear-wg311-pcicard-driver/

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-9300639326172081%3Ac6lzq8-dhwz&ie=UTF-8&sa=Search&q=NEtgear+WG311+linux+driver&hl=en-+

The primary issue is that Ubuntu out of the box doesn’t talk to the internal monitor correctly. The monitor is limited in terms of refresh rates and screen resolution – granted, it was fairly advanced for it’s time, but time moves on.

First, some links:

• Ubuntu PowerPc Downloads page
• Ubuntu PowerPC FAQ
• Mac-Linux site – has a PowerPC wiki that is useful, not much Ubuntu info, though

Here is the procedure to install Ubuntu onto an iMac DV:

1. Download/create an Ubuntu PPC live cd. See links above.

2. Turn the machine on, pop the CD into the slot, and hold the C key until you see type on the screen.  The C key makes the machine to boot off the CD.

3. Once you get some type on the screen and the machine is waiting for a response, type this:
live video=ofonly
Hit enter

4. It will take several minutes for the machine to boot, and the screen will flash a few times. At some point you will see a warning dialog box telling you that ubuntu is running in “Low Graphics mode”. Click the OK button.

5. Then you will see a selection box – select “Exit to Console login” and click the OK button.

====
I would think the odds are good that someone on the planet trying this would actually get lucky and Ubuntu would finish booting. In that case, once everything is up – it will take a while! – switch to console mode

To switch to Console mode -> Press Ctrl + Alt + F1

You’ll need to kill gdm and X at this point. Some sites have said the command to do this is
killall gdm

Other sites said that wouldn’t work.
====

6. In either case, at the command line, type this:
lspci | grep Rage

Write down what you see there.

The lspci command gives a ton of system hardware information. The | part “pipes” the information into another program, grep, which prints to the screen any lines with the word “Rage”, which is the video card used in this model.

7. Then type:
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You are going to create a configuration file [named xorg.conf that will be stashed in the  etc/X11 directory] that will tell the GUI how to talk to the internal monitor.

8. Type this:

Section “Device”
VendorName “****” <- the vendor from the lspci command
BoardName “*****” <- the card from the lspci command
BusID “*****” <- the RIGHTMOST three numbers at the beginning of the info from the lspci command
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Generic Monitor”
Option “DPMS”
HorizSync 60-60
VertRefresh 43-117
EndSection

=====

For example, for my iMac the lspci command returned
00000:00:10.0 Ati Technologies Inc Rage 128 PR/PRO AGP 4x TMDS

VendorName “Ati Technologies Inc”
BoardName “Rage 128 PR/PRO AGP 4x TMDS”
BusID “00.10.0″

=====

9. Hit CTRL-O to write the file

10. CTRL-X to exit from nano

11: Then give this command:
sudo startx

You should see the desktop popup onto the internal monitor – but it WILL take some time.

12. Now you are ready to install Ubuntu onto the internal hard drive.  There is a command to “Install Ubuntu” – it will either be on the desktop, or inside either the System or Administration menus. Find it, select it, and follow the prompts.

The internal drive on my machine is only 10gig, so I opted to wipe the hard drive and put Ubuntu on the entire drive – goodbye OS X 10.2 and MacOS 9.2.2!  After all of the updates have been installed I still have about 40% of the drive still available.

Using Mac OS 10.2 the machine was barely usable for even basic web work (email etc). I’ve found the speed under Ubuntu to make the machine useful again for a variety of tasks, especially anything office-related.

===

Tom Rule
the MaconMacGuy
MaconMacGuy.com
MidGaHosting.com

Also of interest – when this aired, the World Wide Web was only 2 years old!

I find it fascinating how the technology has changed over the years. granted, I’m a bit of a maverick – I selected Astound to use for presenting way back in 1998 because it was cross-platform and way ahead of Powerpoint in terms of animation and video playback. I’ve used one of the tools mentioned below for a couple of years, and am planning on checking out the other soon.

Both use the “freemium” model – accounts are free for basic functionality, and advanced features are available for a subscription.

Here’s an example of quickie presentation I threw together for my Mercer class – I was out sick, but needed to go ahead and cover the material.

‘Twas the night before Christmas (or “holiday break”)
But I was still working — I kicked off a rake.
Secure shells were placed on my desktop with care,
So no one could sniff what I typed away there.
My clients’ hot issues were all put to bed,
But what those had preempted still caused me to dread.
So I in my bathrobe (’twas cold in that room)
Had just settled down for a long game of Doom.
When out on the WAN there arose such a mess
I thought that it must be a DDoS!
Away to the firewall I flew like Jet Li
Denied all incoming, even SMTP.
But as I more closely inspected each packet,
I realized with awe what was causing the racket:
A download! What format? I couldn’t have known it
But I found it included a textual component:
“Now JavaScript! Perl! Now Python and Ruby!
On Haskell! on Clojure! on Scala and Groovy!
To the Web-facing site, to the edge firewall,
Now bash away, bash away, bash away all!”
The download completed, though I tried to abort,
And a little man popped out a USB port!
His glasses — how thick! His gut — a real softy!
And his beard was all stained with cold pizza and coffee.
He was nerdy and plump, a right jolly old geek,
Though he smelled like he hadn’t had a bath in a week.
He spoke not a word, but went right ahead
He wiped off all Windows, installed *nix instead
The software I’d need, he downloaded it all
(Still using less space than a fresh Win install).
In the USB port he inserted his thumb
And vanished right into it the way he had come
But I heard him exclaim, ere I even had missed ‘im
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good system!

–Chip Camden

—-

This is not a surprise – it has actually been true for years. I did some serious research on the matter back in 2003, and found several Fortune 500 companies who were mixed platform – and had to hire FAR fewer Mac techs than for the PC side.

I keep my personal machine for FAR longer then usual – but you actually could put mac OS 10.5 [Leopard] on the vintage-2000 iMac DV that is sitting on the floor to my right. I wouldn’t put Vista on ANY machine made before 2007.

According to the article there is some real rancor between the iPhone and Android teams/CEO/whatever. Although that might make for some good soap opera type of entertainment – I’m more interested in a comment the article made comparing this spat with the Apple-Microsoft “war” of the 1980s-90s.

For those of you that have been around for a while, the Apple iPhone vs. Google Android war looks a lot like the Microsoft-Apple battles decades ago. Apple went closed ecosystem and Microsoft went with the “we’ll flood you with partners” approach. Nowadays, Google is playing up the Microsoft flood the zone approach with an open source twist.

I thought that was an interesting take on the business/coding/user/and mindshare battles that went on between the Apple OS and Winders….uh, I mean Windows. As a synopsis I suppose it works fairly well – but let’s take a look at what the aftermath has meant for the two companies, and see if there are any parallels to draw in the phone OS space.

Microsoft is now supporting well over TEN operating systems – there are multiple versions of Vista and Windows 7, all which have significant differences (although the cores are basically the same). Apple? 6, assuming you count the Server editions of 10.4, 10.5, and 1.06 separately. That doesn’t sound like a big difference until you factor in all of the possible hardware configurations that can affect system stability and usability – indeed, hardware can make the software look stupid in a blink of an eye, and an untrained user may not be able to tell the difference.

Plus Apple machines are MUCH less likely to go haywire on you – whether OS or hardware related.

In the marketplace, you can buy Macs from a variety of places, but have a relatively few models (albeit well-positioned in terms of capabilities!), all which perform well. The Windows side is a confusing array of options, sizes, price levels, support levels, performance levels, and even quality levels – none of which is easy to discern.

So assuming a similar path in the phonespace means that in a few years we’ll still have a few iPhone models (more than now, if you included the iPad in this scenario) – and tons of Android phones at varying levels of functionality, quality level, and usability.

…. and Google will be using the then-current release of the OS to integrate the features Apple added in their LAST release.

In any case, this is gonna be interesting to watch!

I have a post for my Mercer CSC125 class with several links to the Macworld material, including photos, video, and some editor’s reactions. You can view that post HERE, over at csc125.blogspot.com.

I threw the lesson plan out the window, and we had a very interesting discussion about the student’s reactions to the iPad – was it a usable thing now, could it be usable on the job – in business, etc.

What surprised me was that the overall reaction was “yeah, it’s cool, but I don’t see how it’s useful for me”. Several questioned droppiong $500 on something they weren’t sure they’d use (which was actually  nice to hear! I’m sure their parents would be proud.)

Most of the kids have smartphones and laptops. Abvout half of them know about multi-touch capabilities, but relatively few have multi-touch capable devices. A surprising number said the omission of a videocamera was a deal-breaker for them – most who said this use video chat on Skype to stay in touch with home (several states away, even across the ocean in Britain).

My take?

A very cool technology which will again change how we interact with the computers in our lives – after the concept of “no keyboard” is adopted across the industry. I can see using one, especially given the iWork apps (which are Office compatible), projector interface, and the fact that I do all my email on the web anyway.

This is going to be interesting!

Techrepublic posted a few snippets from the presentation by Steve Jobs:

…and here are some reactions from the PC World and MacWorld editors:

It is NOT the best thing out there, but works pretty doggone well. It DOES “suck up some CPU cycles” – i.e. when it’s running your machine will slow down a bit.

It is DEFINITELY better than running nothing – so if your subscription to Norton or Symantec or whatever is running out, and you don’t have the cash, check it out.

http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=523334930-a275dfeedae0baeeab728d8c7a14c0c1-bf&brand=TECHREPUBLIC&s=5
for an article about it, with links to the download.

More details at
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/products/?p=839

Download the product at
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx

I am using using it on one of my machines, and it seems to work well. When it’s scanning the machine does slow down, but this is on a slower Pentium 4 machine.

——-

Pop a thumb drive into your PC.

On your PC:
My Documents–>My Music–>iTunes
One of those folders inside iTunes has all of your audio files. Copy them onto the flash drive.

Eject the flash drive, and pop it into your Mac.

On your Mac:
Open up iTunes. Open up the preferences, and make sure “Copy files into the library” is checked. I also suggest checking “Keep the library organized”.
Slide the itunes window over to the side.
Open up a window to your flash/thumb drive.
Highlight all of those folders that contain your audio (Command-A is a keyboardshortcut). Click-n-drag them into the iTunes window.
Wait a while.
It may ask you about authorizing this machine blah blah blah. Allow it – you might have to add an AppleID and password.

OTHER RESOURCES
http://reviews.cnet.com/ipod/9602-12576_7-0.html?messageID=2510455&kw=ipod
http://lifehacker.com/242468/geek-to-live–how-to-move-an-itunes-library-from-a-pc-to-mac-and-back
http://www.jakebouma.com/2008/04/05/how-to-move-your-itunes-library-from-a-pc-to-a-mac-without-losing-metadata-ratings-playcounts/

One of my clients is blind, and runs a computer-based recording studio (that is verrrry nice, let me tell you….). There’s a constant dance we have to do to keep his machines running, because not only do you have the inherent complexities of dealing with Windows (XP pro in his case), PLUS the weirdnesses of audio on Windows, you have JAWS, a screenreader fropm Freedom Scientific to boot.

It can get hairy keeping things running.

My client has depended on Outlook Express for years for his email – primarily because Jaws didn’t play well with the full Outlook, and webmail isn’t an option (for the same reason). Summer 2009 Microsoft stopped supporting Outlook Express on Hotmail because they moved to “Windows Live”, which uses a fundamentally different technology for email fetching.

Now, I understand the technical and business reason for Microsoft’s decision – after all, this is a FREE product they’re offering. I also understand my client SHOULD have moved off of using MSN for his primary email a long time ago, and moved it onto his own domain – but generally you don’t fix what’s broken, especially when you have a memorize what is onscreen because you can’t see it!

But this means my client can do NO business online, because email is how he conducts a good part of his studio work.

A tough situation – one he didn’t ask for. In the next installment I’ll describe what we decided on after much discussion – and let you know how it all came out.

As I type this I’m waiting to find out myself!

This is a small business, with a couple of people in the office taking care of “just about everything”.

So, if you want to keep your office from working well, do these things:

1) Put the absolute minimum of RAM in your computers. (One machine has 260K for the OS – Windows2000). This will make your office personnel spend most of their time WAITING for their machines to do anything.

2) Never train them in anything. That way they won’t know anything about tools that will help them do their work – like Outlook, or web browsers, or….

3) Don’t share ANYTHING, even though they are on a network already. This way one person will have to wait until the other machine is open to get anything done.

4) Never backup anything. That way you’ll REALLY be hosed when (not if) a machine breaks down!

5) Don’t setup any standard communication lines – like a REAL email address based on the business’s domain. That way no one will know how to contact anyone – they’ll all be using yahoo, or hotmail, or…….

6) Don’t crosstrain – don’t let anyone know what anyone else is doing, especially in terms of websites, usernames, and passwords!

7) Don’t setup guest accounts on your machines – that way anyone who walks by can mess around with the machine.

So how is YOUR office doing? Need some help? Contact the MaconMacGuy for some mostly intelligent help!