Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 20, 2006 by CyberNet.

OpenOffice.org has always been lacking a good set of templates and clipart which is why OpenOffice.org “Premium” is starting to become popular. To help develop what the “Premium” version has OpenOffice.org is starting a contest to encourage people to create their own clipart and templates:

Users of OpenOffice.org‘s open source productivity suite will have a chance to win cash and prizes by submitting template and clipart designs in a contest sponsored by OpenOffice.org and WorldLabel.com. The contest, which ends October 13, offers a top prize of $750 to first place winners who submit the best template or clipart design, along with cash and other prizes to second through fifth place winners in both categories.

OpenOffice.org is accepting templates for four of its applications: Writer, a word processor; Calc, a spreadsheet; Impress, a presentation creator; and Draw, a graphics program. Judging is expected to take about three weeks from the close of the contest.

I think it actually sounds pretty cool so I might put together a template to submit. My fear is that people will simply download Microsoft templates and save them in the OpenOffice.org template format for their submissions. Hopefully they have some kind of way to prevent this from happening otherwise they will probably be receiving some unfriendly stares.

News Source: NewsForge

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Ryan, who can’t wait to get his kid fixated on the wonderful world of computers. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“My son (five years old) has commandeered my wife’s laptop for his game-playing pleasure lately, and it’s been driving her batty. He basically only plays the games she does (Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma, etc.). So far he’s able to find the games he wants (by their icons) and open them without issues using Windows 7, but now that I’m looking into getting him his own basic computer I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t something more kid-friendly out there. I’ve had cursory experience with OS X and Linux (Ubuntu), and I’ll be doing all the installing and setup myself. Any thoughts from parents? Thanks!”

Kids and computers. Now that’s a recipe for awesomeness. Any new(ish) parents out there have any experience on their kids loving / hating a certain OS? Feel free to drop your advice in comments below — let’s keep it intelligent, okay?

Ask Engadget: best desktop OS for kids? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on May 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tracking Down Great Software For You!

Note: This software is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. It also does not require any installation to use it, just download the files and run the program.

It’s been a little while since we have come across freeware software that made us all giggly inside, but Nubs (Download Mirror for version 1.1) is just that. It essentially puts tabs (which the program calls Nubs) around the border of your screen so that you can quickly access all of your applications.

It appears that this Windows application gets the idea from a Mac application called Sticky Windows, which will cost $16 to purchase. The video on the site for Sticky Windows actually demonstrates how Nubs works since it is so similar, but this screenshot should explain it all:

As the screenshot demonstrates, dragging a window to the edge of the screen creates a “Nub” out of it. You can then drag the Nubs around to position them how you like, but they’ll always remain attached to one of the edges.

Just like on your Windows Taskbar, clicking on a Nub will alternate minimizing and maximizing the window. A Nub won’t appear until you drag a window to the edge of the screen, but once it is created it will remain visible until you right-click on the Nub to close it. And if you choose to, there is an option available to hide a window from the Taskbar once a Nub has been created for it.

Here is a list of things that you can customize in the application:

• Enable/disable a fade effect when minimizing/maximizing windows.
• Hide “Nubbed” windows from appearing in the Taskbar.
• Hide the Nub icon from the System Tray, but you’ll probably want to leave it there because it is a convenient way to restore all of your Nubbed windows.
• Pick your font type and size.
• Choose from several themes that are included, but you’ll first have to follow the instructions in the ReadMe file that’s included so that you know where to place the themes. Otherwise they won’t show up in the list.

Here are a few screenshots that demonstrate all of the available options:

  
Click any screenshot to enlarge

Quick video demonstration of how Nubs works
Nubs Homepage (Download Mirror for version 1.1)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Android 2.3.6 begins rolling out to Samsung Nexus S, fixes voice search concerns (update: breaks tethering, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on December 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

One of the things that I’m looking forward to the most with Firefox 3 is to see what kind of redesign they will come up with for Vista users. Right now the Firefox theme in Vista is anything but stellar, but it is possible to improve it with very little work on your part. We are going to walk you through several changes that you can make, all of which will keep the default Firefox theme in tact. We’re not looking to clone Internet Explorer 7 … we just want a good looking Firefox!

All of the tweaks we are going to demonstrate are available on Userstyles.org, which means you’ll want to have the Stylish extension installed before continuing. That way it will just take a few clicks to get each feature installed. Lets get stylin’!

–Toolbar Color (Homepage)–

One of the things that irks some people, including me, is the toolbar background color in Firefox. It is like a pastel blue, and doesn’t feel anywhere near the same as it does in other versions of Windows. You can change that though by adding this style to your repertoire, and you should notice a difference rather quickly:

Note the change in background color behind the navigation buttons

–Maximized Toolbar Color (Homepage)–

When you maximize Internet Explorer 7 in Vista it darkens the toolbar background to make it easier to focus on the content of the page. This style will do the exact same thing for Firefox so that only when the browser is maximized will it have the dark background. In the screenshot below we also have the Hide Menubar extension installed which makes the Menubar disappear until you press the Alt key.

–Tab Background (Homepage)–

If you didn’t decide to go with the first style mentioned in this article you may want to consider using this one. It will alter the background color behind the tabs to match that of the toolbars (the pastel blue), which I think does help tremendously in making Firefox have more visual appeal:

Note the difference in background colors next to the last tab

–Joined Back/Forward Buttons (Homepage)–

I’m a bit uneasy as to how well this fits into the default Firefox theme, but it will work for any theme that you are using. If you prefer to have the back and forward buttons “joined at the hips” like they are in Internet Explorer 7 just install this style, and voila:

Note the different back/forward buttons

–Vista Throbber (Homepage)–

In our quest to Vistify Firefox we can’t forget about the little throbber icon! Naturally it only makes sense to use the same “busy” icon that the mouse uses for indicating that a program is busy, and this will do just that:

–Address Bar Progress Meter (Homepage)–

This isn’t something that will necessarily make Firefox more like Vista, but it does look pretty sweet. You’ll need to install the Fission extension first, which makes Firefox show the page loading progress in the Address Bar. Then when you apply the style it has a Vista-esque feel to it:

–Overview–

I’m anxious to see what Mozilla has been brainstorming for a Firefox 3 theme in Vista, but as it stands they will be shipping a Vista-specific theme to compliment the eye candy incorporated into the operating system. One can only hope for amazing things!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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