OpenSource tools

Tools to help you through studies and life

Presentation @ RUC - Paul Henckel CC feb2009

 Method

Ordered by Activities (Title is misleading, we know)

Namedropping tools/techniques (30min)

/Break (5min)

Workshop (30min)

Grab the pdf presentation - http://snurl.com/c4qel

 To Find Stuff

Google Operators
"link:" - To find sites that link a specific site

"info:" - To see Google’s information of a Site

"related:" - To find sites similar to a specific

"site: + filetype:" - To find specific kind of material on a site

RUb.dk
Tidsskrifter + Artikel Søgning + Eksterne Databaser
To Maintain Your System

Antivirus
AVG antivirus(Win)

ClamXav(Mac)

Manage Space
AppCleaner(Mac) - To uninstal app's correctly

CCleaner(Win) - A no-frills way to maintain Windows

To Organise Your System

DropBox - For instant and automatic

synchronisation across computers

MemoClip(Win) - To manage clipboard items

QuickSilver(Mac)
The ClipBoard extension

A general guide/tutorial
To Manage Information

DeepaMehta - For knowledge management,

and creating conceptmaps collaboratively
alt: CmapTools

alt: PersonalBrain

Google Reader - To access the content of

selected RSS content streams
alt: Snackr
To Capture Information
Remember The Milk - A 24/7 accessible tasklist manager

For Google Calendar

Evernote - To add/synchronise notes from everywhere

Tutorial for use

Delicious - To store bookmarks in one central you can

access from everywhere

Firefox extension for convenience

alt: Foxmarks
 To Communicate
Pidgin - A central client for IM

Skype - Telephony and videoconferences through VoIP

Highrise - To manage an extended number of emails

Jing - For screencasting or snapshooting your

desktop
alternatives for screencasting

online no-frills alt: Screencast-O-Matic

 To Collaborate

Yuuguu - To collaborate remotely by seeing

eachothers screens: “Hold online meetings,
share your screen and work together on the
same documents in real time.”
To Keep Track Of Time
GCal - To manage everything with dates and
events
add Weeknumbers

Rainlendar - A simple desktop calendar

Synchronisation with GCal - a tutorial

Slife - For timetracking your activity on the

computer
 To Write: Notes
FreeMind - A tool for quick note taking and
structuring
online alt: Mind42

online alt: Bubbl.us

Tutorials

for studies: Brainstorming and Note Taking

for general use

To Write: Std. Reports
Google Docs - For writing documents, with real-
time collaboration

alternative: Buzzword

TurnItIn - A tool for managing the writing cycle

DK alternative: Scribo

OttoBib - To make a bibliography from ISBN

Scribus - For press quality documents

To Write: Scholarly Articles

TeX - Separating Content from Layout for a

structured writing process
A good starter

An extensive introduction/resource

proTeXt(Win)

MacTeX(Mac)
To Write: Chronologic Narratives

Celtx - For creating a storyline/sript to a

timebased narrative: “Celtx is the world's
first all-in-one media pre-production
software. It has everything you need to take
your story from concept to production.”
To Write: Distraction Free

Ever had a time where you just wanted to

write, without buttons or any distractions?

online tool: Writer

JDarkRoom

WriteRoom(Mac)

Darkroom(Win)
To Write: Dictionaries

WordWeb

Oxford English Dictionary (@ruc)

Ordbogen (@ruc)
 To Draw

Pencil - A simple all around drawing pencil,

like MS Paint with extras

Thinkature - To easily draw something

collaboratively
 To Graph/Diagram

Gliffy - “With Gliffy online diagram software,

you can easily create professional-looking
flowcharts, diagrams, floor plans, technical
drawings, and more.”
 To PDF
PdfCreator(Win) - For printing documents to pdf

PDF Hammer - Online tool to edit PDF files

Foxit Reader(Win) - A no-frills fast app to read

PDF’s

Learn to do anything with PDF

Preview(Mac)

Use Preview to edit PDF files

 To Convert

Audio/Video transcoders

MediaCoder(Win)

ffmpegX(Mac)
To Survey/Interview

Express Scribe - For help in transcribing

audio to text

alternatives

almost speech recognition: NaturallySpeaking,

VoiceSceener, pluggd

Google Forms - For making surveys

 To do Mathematics

Cinderella - For interacting with

mathematical geometry (euclidean and non-
euclidean)

Sage - To do mathematics (≈MatLab and

Maple)

alternatives (Maxima)
 To do Chemistry

ChemSketch - For drawing chemical

molecyles and LOADS of other tools for
chemistry
 To do Biology

BioKnoppix - A working self-contained

linuxOS for molecular biologists
To do Finances/Budgets

Wesabe - To get control of your money by

easily getting an overview of it

YNAB - To manage money by budgeting

based on previous months expenses
 To Geek

CloneZilla Live - Similar to Norton Ghost,

just for everyone and everything. Make
clones of your computer to save yourself
from meltdown.

Howtoforge tutorial

Lifehacker tutorial
 The end
The Keynote file for this presentation is available at: http://snurl.com/c4s4x
The FreeMind mindmap with extra programs/resources at: http://snurl.com/c4s22

Paul Henckel feb2009