scottnesbitt.net

I'm a writer and editor based in 40.9006° S, 174.8860° E. My hours at The Day JobTM are spent focusing on technical communication and knowledge management. In my civilian life, I put a lot of thought and effort into writing articles, blogging, penning essays, and publishing ebooks.

/now

  • Planning and writing posts for Open Source Musings
  • Trying to get back on track with a couple of my bigger writing projects
  • Working through the mechanics of some RSS-based publishing projects
  • Reading Designing Disorder by Pablo Sendra and Richard Sennett

Inspired by Derek Sivers
Last updated: 18 March, 2024

/uses

Here is the technology, both high and low, that I use daily:

Text Playlist

Here are some of the articles and blog post that I regularly go back to, either to inspire me or to remind me of an idea:

You can also download my full playlist as an OPML file.

Inspired by Leo Babauta
Last rotated: 29 January, 2024

Articles

Over the years, I've written a few articles for more than a few publications, some of them still alive and kicking:

Videomania

"HDTV Dilemma" (June, 1990)

"The Future Of Television?" (June, 1994)

The Globe and Mail

"One Lesson Japan Can't Teach Us" (December 9, 1992)

"The Death Of The Book?" (November 25, 1993)

Saskatchewan Bulletin

"Japan's System Doesn't Work" (January 20, 1993)

OPSTF News

"One Lesson Japan Can't Teach Us" (February, 1993)

The Toronto Star

"Japan's Inefficient Workers" (February 10, 1993)

"PCs for All" (February 25, 1999)

"The Web-Based Desktop" (May 11, 2000)

"The `Net Toaster' rides again" (Oct. 10, 2000)

The Comics Journal

"Mangajin: Learning Through Comics" (Issue 159 - May, 1993)

"Comics On CompuServe" (Issue 171 - September, 1994)

Selected Reading

"How To Learn A Language, Without Ever Stepping Into A Classroom" (September, 1993)

The Kitchener-Waterloo Record

"Technophobia Is Here" (November 15, 1993)

Midnight Zoo

"ORION: Getting There On A Bomb And A Prayer" (Volume 3, Issue 9)

Gauntlet

"Toronto's BBS Busts" (Number 8)

Home Computing & Entertainment

"Speaking In Tongues" (September, 1995)

"My Home Is My Castle" (March, 1996)

"Playing With Pictures" (May, 1996)

We Compute

"Simple, Inexpensive Ways To Protect Files" (May, 1996)

"WordExpress" (July, 1996)

ComputorEdge

"Are Faster Processors Necessary?" (May 31, 1996)

"Protecting Your Files Without Spending A Fortune" (June 20, 1997)

"Speaking In Tongues, Digitally" (November 13, 1997)

"The Myth Of The Paperless Office" (November 2, 1997)

"TeX: The DTP Alternative" (February 20, 1998)

"Netscape & Internet Explorer? Who Needs 'Em?" (March 26, 1998)

"The Myth of Online Democracy" (April 3, 1998)

"Don't Weave a Lousy Web" (November 28, 1998)

"Adding Some Style to the Web" (December 4, 1998)

"Giving Windows 3.1 a Facelift" (July 16, 1999)

"Productivity in the Digital Age" (July 28, 1999)

"The Web of Languages" (November 5, 1999)

"Zipping and Unzipping for Beginners" (November 12, 1999)

"Going Graphical In DOS" (February 25, 2000)

"OpenContent: Freeing Information" (May 26, 2000)

"Building Web Pages in Your Browser" (November 17, 2000)

"Publishing to a Different Beat" (February 23, 2001)

"Listening to the Radio, On the Internet" (March 2, 2001)

"Enter the Internet Appliance" (July 20, 2001)

"Browse Your Way to a Foreign Language" (August 22, 2003)

"Breadbox Ensemble: Making Old Computers New Again" (December 10, 2004)

"Creating PDFs in Linux" (March 25, 2005)

"The New Face of Desktop Publishing for Linux" (May 6, 2005)

"Choosing a Linux E-Mail Client" (June 3, 2005)

"Linux Tools for Technical Writers" (July 1, 2005)

"Linux PDF Viewers" (March 10, 2006)

"Text Editors for the Non-Geek" (April 21, 2006)

"Blogging from the Command Line" (June 2, 2006)

"Browsers of the Past" (July 21, 2006)

"Nvu: WYSIWYG Web Editing in Linux" (July 28, 2006)

"Viewing Word Files at the Command Line" (August 11, 2006)

"Useful (Mostly) Little Linux Utilities" (October 6, 2006)

"Managing Tasks at the Command Line" (March 9, 2007)

"Essential Linux Books" (March 23, 2007)

"Blogging with Thingamablog" (March 30, 2007)

"Ripping CDs with ripit" (April 6, 2007)

"A Look at Specialized Linux Distributions" (April 27, 2007)

"Going Portable With AlphaSmart" (May 25, 2007)

"Seven Tips for Choosing an MP3 Player" (October 12, 2007)

"A Look at Free and Open Source Utilities for Windows" (December 14, 2007)

Toronto Computes

"Internet Graphics: Covering The Basics" (October, 1996)

"Low-Cost Word Factories" (May, 1997)

"Super File Converter" (November, 1997)

"Printing More With Less" (March, 1998)

FreeLance

"Processing Words On A Budget" (November/December, 1996)

Multilingual Computing & Technology

"Accent Duo With Translation" (Vol. 8, Issue 1)

"Web Translation Made Easy" (Vol. 8, Issue 3)

"Surfing The Web, Asian Style" (Vol. 8, Issue 4)

"KanjiScan: Powerful And Flexible Japanese OCR" (Vol. 8, Issue 5)

"Tsunami MT 6.0" (Vol. 9, Issue 1)

"Accent WordPoint" (Vol. 9, Issue 3)

"Translation Aide" (Vol. 9, Issue 4)

"The Web of Languages: A Look at Online Dictionaries and Translation Services" (Vol. 9, Issue 5)

"TransLinGO! 1.0" (Vol. 9, Issue 5)

"Typhoon MT 6.0" (Vol. 9, Issue 6)

"WinMASS Pro 3.0" (Vol. 9, Issue 6)

"J-Text Pro" (Vol. 10, Issue 1)

"Japanese Word Book CD-ROM" (Vol. 10, Issue 2)

"DynaLab Unicode Font" (Vol. 10, Issue 2)

"LanguageLink 97 Professional" (Vol. 10, Issue 2)

"LEC Translation Trio" (Vol. 10, Issue 5)

"L&H Power Translator Pro" (Vol. 10, Issue 6)

"Easy Translator/Simply Translating" (Vol. 11, Issue 2)

"KanjiKit 2000" (Vol. 11, Issue 3)

Terra Incognita

"Getting There Without The Pollution" (Spring, 1997)

Writers' Journal

"Processing Words On A Budget" (May/June, 1997)

Link Up

"Surf The Web in Almost Any Language" (September/Oct., 1997)

"Web Publishing For The Rest of Us" (March/April, 1998)

"The Other Browsers" (September/Oct., 1998)

"Web Translation Software" (January/Feb, 1999)

"Web-Based E-mail" (May/June, 1999)

"Posting Web Pages Free of Charge" (January/February, 2000)

"The World at Your Fingertips" (May/June, 2000)

"OpenContent" (March/April, 2001)

"E-Mail Appliances" (September/October, 2001)

Midwest PC Review

"The Power of the Command Line" (October, 1999)

Small Business Canada Magazine

"An Alternative to High Priced Office Suites" (Winter 1999/2000)

Sympatico NetLife (online edition)

"Start Your Engines" (May/June, 2000)

Web Review

"HTML-Kit: Nice 'n Tidy" (May 5, 2000)

"HTML Tidy: Keeping it Clean" (June 16, 2000)

"The Ant: Doing HTML Right with Word" (December 1, 2000)

"HTMLEdit 3.0" (January 5, 2001)

"HTML Designer — Authoring for Web and Wireless in the Palm of Your Hand" (February 9, 2001)

California Computer News

"Volks-PC: Bringing the Computer to the Masses" (June, 2000)

Smart Computing

"E-mail By Phone" (June, 2000)

"Gaming on the Go" (September, 2000)

"Video Webcasts" (January, 2001)

"Screening Webcams" (February, 2001)

"Web Cameras: Tips To Solving Your Web Cam Woes" (March, 2001)

"Put It In Motion" (April, 2001)

"How To ... Add Frames" (April, 2001)

"How To ... Add Video" (April, 2001)

"Finagle Your Files & Folders" (May, 2001)

"Unearth Compatibility Issues" (May, 2001)

"Swallow Your Medicine" (May, 2001)

"Helpful Hints To Handle Hardware Hiccups" (July, 2001)

"Unpucker Problematic Software When It Sours On You" (July, 2001)

"Slice it Up" (September, 2001)

"Crunch Time" (September, 2001)

"Condition Critical" (November, 2001)

"Go Portable" (November, 2001)

Computer Reference Encyclopedia issue 5 (May, 2002) — contributed entries for the section SERV-SMO

Art Today

"HTML Tidy: Keeping it Clean" (November, 2000)

"HTMLEdit 3.0: Web Editing in Your Pocket" (March, 2001)

"The Ant: Doing HTML Right with Word" (May, 2001)

About.com

"Introducing Internet Appliances" (July 22, 2000)

"Getting Your Software Off The Web — Part 1" (July 24, 2000)

"Getting Your Software Off The Web — Part 2" (July 26, 2000)

"Operating Systems for Internet Appliances" (August 7, 2000)

"Is An Internet Appliance Right For You?" (August 15, 2000)

"Buying an Internet Appliance" (September 15, 2000)

"A Look at Email Appliances" (September 27, 2000)

"Having Fun with Your Internet Appliance" (October 4, 2000)

"A History of WebTV in 760 Words" (October 19, 2000)

"Web Tablets: Portability Guaranteed" (November 5, 2000)

"What's New" (November 18, 2000)

"Email In Your Pocket" (December 1, 2000)

"The PostBox On Your Desk" (December 8, 2000)

"Learning WebTV On Your Own" (January 5, 2001)

"What Was New at CES 2001" (January 21, 2001)

"Should I Buy a Notebook or a Tablet?" (February 9, 2001)

"An Internet Appliance Wish List" (February 16, 2001)

"Two Weeks with Audrey — Part One" (February 23, 2001)

"Two Weeks with Audrey — Part Two" (March 3, 2001)

"Web Tablets in Business and Industry" (March 16, 2001)

"Bleak News, Hopeful Future" (March 23, 2001)

"The New NiC" (March 30, 2001)

"Four Questions to Ask" (April 20, 2001)

"Defining Internet Appliance" (May 11, 2001)

"WebTV For Dummies" (June 1, 2001)

"Gazing into the Crystal Ball" (June 8, 2001)

"The Death of a Good Idea" (June 15, 2001)

"Sony eVilla (finally) Released" (June 22, 2001)

"Mivo 200" (June 29, 2001)

"NiC 2.0 — Part One" (July 13, 2001)

"NiC 2.0 — Part Two" (July 20, 2001)

"Email With a Twist" (August 3, 2001)

"Bridging the Digital Divide" (August 10, 2001)

"Internet Appliances in Education" (August 17, 2001)

"Sony Kills the eVilla" (August 31, 2001)

"Where to Buy an Internet Appliance" (September 21, 2001)

Linux.com/Newsforge.com

"Creating PDFs with ps2pdf" (April 2, 2004)

"Quick and Dirty Typesetting with APT" (April 28, 2004)

"Putting Together PDF files" (June 17, 2004)

"XML-Based Documentation Using AurigaDoc" (August 26, 2004)

"Free Text Editors for the Rest of Us" (October 5, 2004)

"GhostWriter: Linux for Writers" (January 17, 2006)

"Viewing Word Files at the Command Line" (March 1, 2006)

"Manipulating PDF Files with PDF Toolkit" (April 27, 2006)

"Creating Professional Documentation with Linux Tools" (May 12, 2006)

"Personal wikis: Three small, simple alternatives" (August 31, 2006)

"Task management made simple with todo.txt and Tux ToDo" (October 5, 2006)

"Creating PDFs with PDFCreator" (December 25, 2006)

"Writing and Publishing with Emacs Muse" (April 9, 2007)

"Adding a little Cream to (g)Vim" (May 16, 2007)

"Blogging from the Command Line" (June 27, 2007)

"FLOSS Manuals sprints to build quality free documentation" (December 23, 2008)

DEVPEN.com

"Two and Three Column Webpage Layouts with CSS" (May 6, 2004)

"Positioning Graphics with CSS" (July 17, 2004)

"Printer Friendly Web Pages" (May 26, 2006)

"CSS Formatting" (June 3, 2006)

InformIT

"Cleaning Your Web Pages with HTML Tidy" (July 2, 2004)

"Creating Presentations Using OperaShow" (July 23, 2004)

"DocBook Conversions with XFC" (August 1, 2004)

"Which Hosted Wiki Is Right for You?" (June 9, 2006)

"An Introduction to DITA" (October 27, 2006)

eclips

"Densha: Memories of a Train Ride Through Kyushu" (April 1, 2005)

TUX Magazine

"Adding PDF Power to OpenOffice.org" (May, 2005)

FineTuning.com

"The Power of Nature, Seen Through a Bus Window" (June, 2005)

"Printer-Friendly Web Pages Made Easy" (June, 2005)

"Building Strength, Without Moving a Muscle" (July, 2005)

"Listening to Radio, On the Web" (July, 2005)

"Web Page Layouts without Tables" (July, 2005)

"Working with Your Files" (July, 2005)

"Framing Your Web Pages" (August, 2005)

"Eight Must-Have Firefox Extensions" (August, 2005)

Things Asian

"Gaining a Different Perspective on Nature" (August 3, 2005)

"Memories of a Train Ride Through Kyushu" (August 30, 2005)

Geeks.com

"Converting Audio Files to MP3" (November 12, 2006)

"Cleaning up Audio Files with Audacity" (December 10, 2006)

"Getting Started with Your Podcast" (December 31, 2006)

"Recording a Podcast with Audacity" (January 7, 2007)

"Improving Skype Audio in Windows" (January 14, 2007)

"PDFs on the Cheap in Windows" (January 21, 2007)

"A Quick Look at Audio Formats" (January 28, 2007)

"Improving Your Google Searches" (February 11, 2007)

"Recording Skype Calls in Windows" (February 25, 2007)

"Securing Your Wireless Network" (March 4, 2007)

"Test Driving Linux Using a Live CD" (March 25, 2007)

"Setting Up a Home or Office Wireless Sound System" (June 3, 2007)

"Resurrecting an Old PC with Linux" (June 10, 2007)

"Five Must-Have Firefox Extensions" (June 17, 2007)

"Computing on the Go with PortableApps" (June 24, 2007)

"Which Blogging Software is Right For You?" (July 8, 2007)

"Software for the Serious Blogger (Part 1)" (July 22, 2007)

"Software for the Serious Blogger (Part 2)" (July 29, 2007)

"What's a Flickr and Who's Picasa?" (August 19, 2007)

"Sharing the Load with Web 2.0" (September 16, 2007)

"Getting the Most Out of Flickr" (September 23, 2007)

"Is There a Wiki in Your Future?" (October 22, 2007)

"Improving Skype Audio in Linux" (October 29, 2007)

"How to Make Gmail Your Email Hub" (November 4, 2007)

"Tweaking Your Home Wireless Network" (November 11, 2007)

"Four Gift Ideas for the iPod Fanatic on Your List" (November 18, 2007)

"An Introduction to the Linux Command Line" (December 2, 2007)

"Five Gift Ideas for the Geek on the Go" (December 9, 2007)

"Stocking Stuffers for the Hard-to-Buy-For Geek" (December 16, 2007)

"What's a Smartphone, and Why Should You Consider Buying One?" (December 26, 2007)

"Linux on Your Laptop" (January 20, 2008)

"Megapixels: Myth or Reality?" (January 27, 2008)

"External Storage: Go Big or Don't Bother!" (February 2, 2008)

"Getting to know the Eee PC" (February 24, 2008)

"The Linux Command Line, Revisted" (March 2, 2008)

"Editing Your Digital Photos with Picasa" (March 9, 2008)

"Simply Store Your Files Online" (March 16, 2008)

"Refracting the Web onto Your Desktop with Prism" (April 6, 2008)

"Taking your DVDs Portable with Handbrake" (April 13, 2008)

"A Buyer's Guide to PC Memory" (April 27, 2008)

"Using Your Eee PC as an e-Book Reader" (May 25, 2008)

"A Buyer's Guide to Hard Drives" (June 1, 2008)

"Getting Social with Flock" (June 8, 2008)

"Bringing Windows to the Linux Desktop" (June 29, 2008)

"Moving from Analog to Digital TV" (July 6, 2008)

"Four Alternatives to Windows Media Player" (July 27, 2008)

"8 Fantastic How-To Sites" (August 3, 2008)

"Lightweight Word Processing" (August 10, 2008)

"Staying Powered Up When the Power Goes Down" (September 7, 2008)

"Bringing Linux to the Windows Desktop with Cygwin" (September 14, 2008)

"Working with Photos using IrfanView" (September 21, 2008)

"Going Virtual with VirtualBox" (September 28, 2008)

"Google Chrome: Future or Fad?" (October 5, 2008)

"What are eBook Readers Anyway?" (December 13, 2008)

"eBook Readers: What's on the Market?" (January 18, 2009)

"Essential gear for the digital nomad" (January 25, 2009)

"Faster, Safer Surfing with OpenDNS" (February 15, 2009)

"Grinding the (Google) Gears" (March 8, 2008)

"Video Formats Guide" (March 15, 2009)

"Free Web-Based Tools for Creating Slides" (March 22, 2009)

"Must-Have Apps for the BlackBerry" (April 19, 2009)

"What is Microblogging?" (April 26, 2009)

"Learning Languages: Online, and on Your Own Time" (May 24, 2009)

"Taking a Breath of Adobe AIR" (May 31, 2009)

"Five Essential Apps for the Ubuntu User" (June 7, 2009)

"Four Ways to Back Up and Share Files in the Cloud" (June 21, 2009)

"Dealing with Identity Theft" (July 12, 2009)

"DRM: Here Today, (Hopefully) Gone Tomorrow?" (July 19, 2009)

"Open Source Alternatives to Popular Windows Apps" (July 26, 2009)

"A Linux Live CD to the Rescue!" (August 2, 2009)

"Tips and Tricks for Online Faxing" (August 23, 2009)

"Four Password Managers to Wrangle Those Pesky Passwords" (August 30, 2009)

"Four Apps to Take Your Tweeting to the Next Level" (September 13, 2009)

"Choosing Webcams" (September 20, 2009)

"Four Free Apps for Editing Your Photos Online" (October 4, 2009)

"Forget Those Passwords - Literally" (October 11, 2009)

"Three Great Alternatives to Acrobat Reader" (October 18, 2009)

"Is There a Flip Cam in Your Future?" (November 1, 2009)

"Putting Wikipedia in Your Pocket" (November 15, 2009)

"5 Great New Features in Ubuntu 9.10" (November 22, 2009)

"5 Fantastic Gift Ideas for the Gadget Lover on Your List" (November 29, 2009)

"Opera: The Forgotten Browser" (December 12, 2009)

"5 Must-Have Google Chrome Extensions" (January 17, 2010)

"5 Essential iPod Touch Apps for the Mobile Geek" (January 31, 2010)

"Shorter is Sweeter: A Look at URL Shorteners" (February 7, 2010)

"Create Your Own Cloud with Opera Unite" (February 14, 2010)

"Safeguard Your Equipment with a Surge Protector" (March 28, 2010)

"Put Your Laptop on a Leash with an Android Phone" (August 22, 2010)

"Three Great Alternatives to the iTunes Music Store" (August 29, 2010)

"Backing Up Your Google Docs" (September 5, 2010)

"Squeezing More Out of Your Home Wireless Network" (September 12, 2010)

"Ultra Thin Laptops: A Worthwhile Investment?" (September 26, 2010)

"Plug Computers: Putting Servers in the Palm of Your Hand" (October 3, 2010)

Free Software Magazine

"Prism: bringing web applications to your desktop" (Issue 22 - May, 2008)

"Connecting to Windows servers from GNU/Linux with pyNeighborhood" (Issue 23 - February, 2009)

Royal Pingdom

"Three hot open source projects webmasters should keep an eye on" (October 1, 2009)

"Five factors to consider when choosing online storage" (October 7, 2009)

"identi.ca: microblogging meets Open Source" (October 14, 2009)

Beckett Guide to Phone Apps

"4 Hot Gadgets for 2010" (Issue #3)

"Top 10 Gadgets for the Holidays" (Issue #4)

Workshifting.com

"Coworking and the Workshifter: Taking Workshifting to a Different Place" (March 25, 2010)

"Workshifting When You're Not a Workshifter" (June 28, 2010)

"Choosing the Right Gear Bag" (July 19, 2010)

"An Introduction to Tethering" (August 2, 2010)

"Paper: The Workshifter's Secret Weapon" (August 9, 2010)

Social Technology Review

"Implementing Social CRM: 4 Questions to Answer Before Implementation" (December 1, 2010)

"Analytics for Social CRM: The Best Options for Social CRM Analytics" (January 3, 2011)

"Measuring the ROI of Social CRM" (February 1, 2011)

"OAuth and Its Impact on OpenID" (March 4, 2011)

"To Tweet or Not To Tweet: Do's and Don'ts of Tweeting Your Brand" (March 30, 2011)

"Tactics for Getting Retweeted" (April 7, 2011)

"What Metrics Matter in Twitter and How You Track Them" (May 13, 2011)

"Facebook Marketing: What Facebook Metrics Matter and How to Track Them" (May 16, 2011)

"Driving Customer Engagement with Social Sign-On" (June 13, 2011)

"Four Factors to Consider When Implementing Social Sign-on" (June 14, 2011)

"Using Social Sign-on to Target Content to Customers" (July 1, 2011)

"Three Limitations and Disadvantages of Using Social Sign-On" (July 1, 2011)

Techerator

"Three simple ways to back up your tweets" (March 16, 2011)

"Share files the easy way with Ge.tt" (March 23, 2011)

"Clean up your Linux computer with Bleach Bit" (March 30, 2011)

"Convert Web Pages to PDF, Quickly and Easily" (April 18, 2011)

"Take Your To Do List to the Command Line" (April 26, 2011)

"Dropbox: Going Beyond Storage" (April 29, 2011)

"Bring Evernote to Your Linux Desktop with Nevernote" (May 4, 2011)

"Getting to Know Markdown" (May 11, 2011)

"Greplin: Your Personal Search Engine" (May 23, 2011)

"Move Files Between Your Android Phone and Your Computer Without Wires" (June 1, 2011)

"Converting Files Online, Quickly and Easily" (June 7, 2011)

"Using the Linux Command Line with Nautilus Terminal" (June 13, 2011)

"Make Your Searches More Social with Wajam" (June 17, 2011)

"Create an Instant Photo Gallery with DropMocks and min.us" (June 27, 2011)

"Write Blog Posts From Inside Your Browser with ScribeFire" (July 11, 2011)

"Collaborate on Documents Online with ScribTex" (July 18, 2011)

"An Introduction to Ubuntu's Personal Package Archives" (July 25, 2011)

"How to Learn the Linux Command Line with CLI Companion" (August 3. 2011)

"How to Create Your Own Custom Short URL with bitly" (August 4, 2011)

"Posting to Tumblr from the Linux Desktop with OpenTumblr Client" (August 22, 2011)

"3 Great Alternatives to Dropbox" (August 26, 2011)

"5 Must-Have Chromebook Apps for Work" (August 30, 2011)

"How to Back Up Your Google Tasks" (September 8, 2011)

"5 Basic Commands Every Linux User Should Know" (September 12, 2011)

"Taking Screen Captures on the Linux Desktop with Shutter" (September 13, 2011)

"Converting Graphics on the Linux Desktop with Converseen" (September 14, 2011)

"Creating a Bootable Linux USB Drive with UNetbootin" (September 15, 2011)

"Backup Files from Your Linux Desktop with Pybackpack" (September 16, 2011)

"How to Play Ogg Vorbis Files from the Linux Command Line" (September 28, 2011)

Make Tech Easier

"Quick and Dirty Scanning On The Linux Desktop" (April 8, 2001)

"How to Manipulate PDFs with PDF Chain" (April 15, 2011)

"Rip Your CDs at the Command Line" (April 23, 2011)

"4 Great Sources of Information About Linux and Open Source" (April 29, 2011)

"How to Quickly Convert Audio Files with Gnac" (May 6, 2011)

"Take Your To Do List to the Command Line with iKog" (May 13, 2011)

"How to Convert Videos in Linux with Arista? (May 20, 2011)

"Tweeting From The Linux Desktop With Turpial" (May 27, 2011)

"Taking Your To Do List Mobile with Todo.txt Touch" (May 31, 2011)

"Installing Software in Ubuntu with Eve Installer" (June 3, 2011)

"Using JShot for All of Your Screen Capture Needs" (June 10, 2011)

"Ripping DVDs in Linux with OGMRip" (June 17, 2011)

"How to Easily Write and Publish eBooks With Sigil" (June 24, 2011)

"How To Share Files with Your Android Device, Without Wires" (July 1, 2011)

"Posting to Tumblr from the Linux Desktop with Grumblr" (July 8, 2011)

"Manage Your Finances (Simply) in Linux with wxBanker" (July 15, 2011)

"DuckDuckGo: A Search Engine with a Twist" (July 22, 2011)

"Backup Your Online Data With Google Takeout" (July 29, 2011)

"Manage Your Passwords Online with Passpack" (August 5, 2011)

"4 Options to Create a Safe Personal Cloud" (August 12, 2011)

"Getting to Know Textile" (August 13, 2011)

"Three Great Mindmapping Tools for the Linux Desktop" (August 20, 2011)

"Create and Edit Web Pages on the Linux Desktop with BlueGriffon" (August 26, 2011)

"4 Great Online Editors for Web Developers" (September 2, 2011)

"4 Awesome Online Resources for Creating QR Codes" (September 9, 2011)

"How to Batch Convert Documents at the Command Line" (September 16, 2011)

"Publishing Web Pages with Dropbox and DropPages" (September 23, 2011)

"4 Awesome Web-Based Apps for All of Your Diagramming Needs" (September 30. 2011)

The 10Most.com

"10 great tools to test your website speed" (April 28, 2011)

"10 great, free online project management tools" (May 31, 2011)

"10 Great, Free Social Media Management Apps" (June 8, 2011)

"10 Great Free Tutorials for Learning How To Develop iPhone Apps" (June 15, 2011)

"10 Great Interview Sites for Entrepreneurs" (June 22, 2011)

"10 Most Powerful Drupal Distributions" (July 7, 2011)

"10 Ways the Internet Enriches Our Lives" (August 8, 2011)

"Online Usability Testing: 10 Great Tools to Make Your Web Site Easier to Use" (October 5, 2011)

"10 Great Free Live Web Analytics Tools" (October 21, 2011)

Opensource.com

"Top 4 open source ERP systems"

"How to write a book in five days" (November 21, 2013)

"Wallabag to serve your open source read-it-later needs" (April 9, 2014)

"Is open data living up to the hype? One data journalist weighs in" (July 2, 2014)

"Top 5 open source customer relationship management tools" (July 8, 2014)

"Is making your product free and open source crazy talk?" (July 14, 2014)

"Milind Bhandarkar talks big data and open source software" (July 22, 2014)

"6 open source tools for data journalism" (July 29, 2014)

">Real debate between citizens and officials with DemocracyOS" (August 7, 2014)

"DemocracyOS promotes civic engagement on both sides" (August 18, 2014)

"Top 4 open source invoicing tools for freelancers and small businesses" (September 2, 2014)

"Seneca College realizes value of open source" (September 17, 2014)

">3 tools that make scanning on the Linux desktop quick and easy" (September 24, 2014)

"Penn Manor goes "all in" with open source" (September 29, 2014)

"How to clean up digital recordings using Audacity" (October 3, 2014)

"Five open source alternatives to popular web apps" (October 15, 2014)

"On a quest for a new logo and open design at Mozilla" (October 20, 2014)

">Top open source alternatives to Google Analytics" (October 23, 2014)

">Test drive Linux with nothing but a flash drive" (October 28, 2014)

"Tin Whiskers Brewery bucks the trend of secret recipes" (December 1, 2014)

"Best open source tutorials of 2014" (December 15, 2014)

"5 open source projects to join in 2015" (January 5, 2015)

"Create a daily reading list with calibre" (January 15, 2015)

"Going open source on Android with F-Droid" (January 21, 2015)

"Has the time come to kill the password?" (April 7, 2015)

"Building better pages in Drupal with Paragraphs" (April 30, 2015)

"Open source, beyond technology" (May 11, 2015)

"Take it from a former leader, the open organization is hard work" (June 25, 2015)

"How to talk to your company about FOSS" (August 19, 2015)

"The Open Organization book club: Engaging people" (September 14, 2015)

"Engaging thoughts and comments: Open Org book club, chapter 3" (September 19, 2015)

"CouchBase CEO on the rise of NoSQL" (October 14, 2015)

"Best of Opensource.com: Tutorials" (December 22, 2015)

"Top 6 open source CRM tools for 2016" (February 4, 2016)

"Storming the government castle" (April 12, 2016)

"4 open source alternatives to Evernote" (August 2, 2016)

"3 open source alternatives to Office 365" (August 24, 2016)

"4 desktop note-taking applications for getting stuff done" (September 12, 2016)

"4 command-line graphics tools for Linux" (September 23, 2016)

"3 command-line conversion tools for Linux" (October 13, 2016)

"3 Twitter clients for the Linux command line" (October 20, 2016)

"3 web browsers for the Linux command line" (December 15, 2016)

"Top 10 Linux news stories of 2016" (December 27, 2016)

"3 tips for effectively using wikis for documentation" (January 3, 2017)

"3 to-do list managers for the Linux command line" (January 12, 2017)

"Book review: Ours to Hack and to Own" (January 31, 2017)

"3 desktop wikis to help organize information" (February 2, 2017)

"4 open source tools for doing online surveys" (February 8, 2017)

"4 open source tools for sharing files" (March 2, 2017)

"Two open source secure email services" (March 22, 2017)

"Running Linux on your Chromebook with GalliumOS" (April 12, 2017)

"3 Emacs extensions for getting organized" (April 20, 2017)

"3 types of useful Atom text editor packages for writers" (May 11, 2017)

"How to make Vim user-friendly with Cream" (May 18, 2017)

"3 alternatives to LibreOffice Writer" (June 6, 2017)

"Book review: 'OPEN' explores broad cultural implications of openness" (July 4, 2017)

"4 lightweight image viewers for the Linux desktop" (July 4, 2017)

"4 lightweight email alternatives to Thunderbird" (July 31, 2017)

"How to create an effective checklist for documentation" (August 9, 2017)

"How to write better error messages" (August 16, 2017)

"Manage your finances with LibreOffice Calc" (August 21, 2017)

"Essential open source software for running your small business" (September 13, 2017)

"3 text editor alternatives to Emacs and Vim" (September 18, 2017)

"How to create an ebook chapter template in LibreOffice Writer" (October 18, 2017)

"Scrot: Linux command-line screen grabs made simple" (November 30, 2017)

"Getting started with Turtl, an open source alternative to Evernote" (December 6, 2017)

"How to use WeKan to manage your work" (December 11, 2017)

"Getting started with the Notepadqq text editor" (December 13, 2017)

"How to create mobile-friendly documentation" (December 21, 2017)

"Best open source tutorials of 2017" (January 2, 2018)

"How to create outlines in Linux with TreeLine" (January 18, 2018)

"Top 4 open source alternatives to Google Analytics" (January 23, 2018)

"How to check spelling at the Linux command line with Aspell" (February 5, 2018)

"How to create slides with Emacs Org mode and Reveal.js" (February 14, 2018)

"Create a wiki on your desktop with Zim" (February 21, 2018)

"How to manage your passwords with Bitwarden, a LastPass alternative" (March 15, 2018)

"Behind the scenes with the Bitwarden password manager" (March 19, 2018)

"3 password managers for the Linux command line" (April 12, 2018)

"Using less to view text files at the Linux command line" (April 16, 2018)

"5 Emacs modes for writers" (May 14, 2018)

"4 Markdown-powered slide generators" (May 24, 2018)

"4 open source tools for distraction-free online reading" (May 30, 2018)

"3 journaling applications for the Linux desktop" (June 7, 2018)

"Revisiting wallabag: An open source alternative to Instapaper and Pocket" (July 6, 2018)

"3 Emacs modes for taking notes" (July 18, 2018)

"4 open source media conversion tools for the Linux desktop" (July 23, 2018)

"Finding alternatives to proprietary online tools with Framasoft" (August 2, 2018)

"Sharing open source alternatives to Google's online tools" (August 8, 2018)

"4 scanning tools for the Linux desktop" (September 17, 2018)

"4 open source invoicing tools for small businesses" (October 2, 2018)

"Taking notes with Laverna, a web-based information organizer" (October 8, 2018)

"Browsing the web with Min, a minimalist open source web browser" (October 18, 2018)

"Get organized at the Linux command line with Calcurse" (October 24, 2018)

"7 command-line tools for writers" (November 19, 2018)

"4 open source Markdown editors" (November 29, 2018)

"Taking notes with Standard Notes" (December 12, 2018)

"8 tips to help non-techies move to Linux" (December 17, 2018)

"Organize your information on the Mac desktop with nvALT" (January 22, 2019)

"Using more to view text files at the Linux command line" (January 28, 2019)

"Two graphical tools for manipulating PDFs on the Linux desktop" (February 12, 2019)

"Get started and organized with TiddlyWiki" (February 18, 2019)

"3 tools for viewing files at the command line" (February 19, 2019)

"How to organize with Calculist: Ideas, events, and more" (April 18, 2019)

"Check your spelling at the command line with Ispell" (May 3, 2019)

"Convert Markdown files to word processor docs using pandoc" (May 22, 2019)

"4 open source mobile apps for Nextcloud" (May 27, 2019)

"4 open source Android apps for writers" (June 26, 2019)

"Copy and paste at the Linux command line with xclip" (July 5, 2019)

"Get going with EtherCalc, a web-based alternative to Google Sheets" (July 17, 2019)

"3 tools for doing presentations from the command line" (August 6, 2019)

"4 to-do list managers for the Linux desktop" (September 9, 2019)

"4 open source eBook readers for Android" (October 3, 2019)

"Most-read open source news stories of 2019" (December 28, 2019)

"10 open source software alternatives for the new year" (January 2, 2020)

"3 eBook readers for the Linux desktop" (February 25, 2020)

"Revive your RSS feed with Newsboat in the Linux terminal" (February 28, 2020)

"5 productivity apps for Elementary OS" (March 5, 2020)

"4 Markdown tools for the Linux command line" (March 19, 2020)

"3 lightweight text editors for Linux" (March 20, 2020)

Linux Magazine

"Small and Simple" (Issue 248 - July, 2021)

"Taskmaster" (Issue 227 - September, 2019)

ebooks

I've been know to occasionally publish an ebook, which you can buy and download as either a PDF or an EPUB:

Learning Markdown

Learning Markdown teaches you how to quickly format content for the web using a lightweight markup language. You’ll learn what I believe is the most efficient way to use Markdown. And unlike the various cheatsheets available online, this book explains the how and the why of using Markdown.

You can buy this bookLearning Markdown:

Learning HTML

Learning HTML shows you how to build an HTML document from top to bottom. When you've worked your way through the book, you'll be able to not only create an HTML document from scratch, but you'll also be able to fix problems with documents and even add formatting that your blog editor or content management system doesn't support. You won't be a web designer or developer after reading this book, but you'll have a solid foundation with HTML on which you can build your knowledge.

You can buy Learning HTML:

Weekly Musings: The First 52

This volume brings together the first year of my weekly email letter Weekly Musings. Each of the 52 short essays in this book are me thinking aloud, presenting ideas (some of them half-formed) to a wider audience.

You can buy this book at Gumroad.

Weekly Musings: The Second 52

This volume brings together the second year of my weekly email letter Weekly Musings. Each of the 52 short essays in this book are me thinking aloud, presenting ideas (many of them partially-formed) to a wider audience.

You can buy this book at Gumroad.

Weekly Musings: The Third 52

This volume brings together the third year of my weekly email letter Weekly Musings. Each of the 52 short essays in this book are me thinking aloud, presenting ideas (many of them partially-formed) to a wider audience.

You can buy this book at Gumroad.

Weekly Musings: The Final 52

This volume brings together the final year of my weekly email letter Weekly Musings. Each of the 52 short essays in this book are me thinking aloud, presenting ideas (many of them partially-formed) to a wider audience.

You can buy this book at Gumroad.

Random Thoughts

This book is a collection of advice and ideas culled from my public notebook that prompt you to take time to reflect on your life and on the world around you. It's advice and ideas which will remind you that maybe all your life needs is a few small changes rather than a radical overhaul.

You can by this book at Gumroad or from my Ko-Fi shop.

Elsewhere

You can find some of my work at these fine outposts around the web:

  • Open Source Musings, where I write about free and open source software from the perspective of someone with few, if any, technical chops.
  • The Monday Kickoff, where each week I curate nine links to interesting, enlightening, and sometimes infuriating reads (lo-fi edition here).
  • Random Notes, my occasionally-updated public notebook.
  • Weekly Musings, my now-retired weekly letter in which I shared a new essay every seven days.
  • The Plain Text Project, where I looked at living and working in plain text. This site is no longer updated.

Support My Work

You can help keep the lights on by making a micropayment via:

You can also subscribe to Fastmail and get 10% off your first year (and I get a bit knocked off my annual subscription fee).

About this Site

As you can see, this site is very simple. It's more like a home page from the early days of the web, rather than a website. This page is formatted with HTML5 and a bit of CSS.

Why go old school? Partly to (re)gain a little more control over what I publish on the web. Partly to make updating and posting this website faster and easier. Read this blog post to learn more.

If you're looking for this site's privacy policy, it's in this document.