Open Sorcery...

(forgive the horrible pun in the title :D)

The magic of open source programs has hit home today. I tried to find my old Photoshop CS3 and Office 2007 discs today... to no avail. So i decided to try what I thought before were inferior programs, such as OpenOffice and The GIMP.

Well to be honest I always knew that Open Office was superior because of it's compatibility with every known file format and (decent) plugins. But GIMP took me by surprise when I used it for a bit earlier. It has full Photoshop .psd and Paint Shop Pro compatibility, which was extremely surprising, down to every last layer the compatibility was perfect with everything I had used.

I have alse been using 7-Zip and VLC for years, but no-one in their right minds would use any other program with such functions as these two. Truly superior in nearly every way. The only downfall of these open source programs that I can see is the lack of support, by phone and email. I think that this is the only thing holding back these fantastic programs from the big time that Microsoft has achieved with its OS and Office programs and Adobe in the PDF, Photoshop and Video Editing departments.

Actually I don't know of a good decent open source video editor. If anyone can point me to one, it would be much appreciated.

Donate to these lovely programs, cause I have. They all deserve it for the hard work that goes into them and it would be a shame to see any of them go under or stop being developed.

Weekend!

Hey, its the weekend. So I went to work on a Saturday as usual. Then I met with friends, and went home. I also am meeting my friends today at Lamas land, a park in Cambridge where I live. I look forward to it every week, cause they nearly all go to a different college. Should be good.

Now I am watching Star Trek. Next Generation, for anyone who knows the different names. Series 5, ep 21. Its good.

Now my friend is tagging loads of pictures on Facebook, which is kind of annoying. 151 emails so far -_-

Next week should be the same as last week, doing lessons. Actually, on Wednesday I had Sound Technology for an enrichment thingy, which was really awesome actually. I said a sentence, "The quick fox jumps over the lazy dog" and then made other words out of it such as "Docks" and the like. That was quite fun. Next week we will be manipulating animal sounds to sound like other animals. Which will be very interesting.

Have a good Saturday and Sunday and week ahead everybody.

P.S I have a few Google Wave invites left. Email me: jamieroos1@googlemail.com and I'll see whether I can get one to you :)

Cool Sites I Just Found

http://www.dspoke.com/projects/flash/orbit1.php

http://www.dspoke.com/projects/flash/orbit2.php

http://www.dspoke.com/projects/flash/drawdots.php

http://www.dspoke.com/projects/flash/line.php

http://www.dspoke.com/projects/flash/3lines.php

Made by my Mums website guy.

Guiltless plug: www.casatuscany.com is my mums site that sells houses in Italy, mainly Tuscany.

Winter, Mates and College

Well as the year gets old, it gets cold. (That kinda rhymes which is pretty cool :D)

Yesterday was one of the best Saturdays i've had in a while. I spent the morning and the beginning of the afternoon doing some work for my Dad, which was good fun and it got me some money.

After that, I stayed at the Vaults as some friends were around and so we socialised for a bit and stuff. Then I got the bus home and I had a wash and a shave, then got a lift back.

Now that happens just about every Saturday which I really enjoy cause I like seeing everybody there :)

When I got back into town I walked up to Lamas land to meet with mates... again. Its sort of turned into something that happens every Saturday night, which is great. However this week it was extra great, it really seriously was. Its kinda hard to explain but it was just the group of people and the stuff we do together (nothing dodgy intended :P)

Anyway, after that I walked back to the Vaults and had a couple of pints of Magners and then, my sister wanted to go home so I joined her back to the house. Then a little something to eat then bed. Overall a fantastic evening :D

So that was yesterday. How interesting.

College is fine at the moment, I think I have decided to drop Physics next year. It is so fast paced, so difficult compared to the other subjects I do. Computing, Maths and Electonics I am really enjoying overall. Much finer than secondary school :D.

Peace out till next time.