Google today announced the launch of Web Designer, a new tool for building interactive HTML5 sites and ads. The company first hinted at this launch in June, but had been quiet about it ever since. Web Designer, which Google calls a “professional-quality design tool,” is now officially in public beta and available for download for Mac and Windows.
Tag Archives: software
Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before | Richard Stallman | Wired.com
It is now 30 years since I launched the campaign for freedom in computing, that is, for software to be free or “libre” (we use that word to emphasize that we’re talking about freedom, not price). Some proprietary programs, such as Photoshop, are very expensive; others, such as Flash Player, are available gratis — either way, they subject their users to someone else’s power.
Much has changed since the beginning of the free software movement: Most people in advanced countries now own computers — sometimes called “phones” — and use the internet with them. Non-free software still makes the users surrender control over their computing to someone else, but now there is another way to lose it: Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS, which means letting someone else’s server do your own computing activities.
Both non-free software and SaaSS can spy on the user, shackle the user, and even attack the user. Malware is common in services and proprietary software products because the users don’t have control over them. That’s the fundamental issue: while non-free software and SaaSS are controlled by some other entity (typically a corporation or a state), free software is controlled by its users.
Why does this control matter? Because freedom means having control over your own life.
If you use a program to carry out activities in your life, your freedom depends on your having control over the program. You deserve to have control over the programs you use, and all the more so when you use them for something important in your life.
Read the full story: Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before | Richard Stallman | Wired.com
3-Sweep: Extracting Editable Objects from a Single Photo | YouTube
From Collaborative Coding to Wedding Invitations: GitHub Is Going Mainstream | Wired.com
“The open, collaborative workflow we have created for software development is so appealing that it’s gaining traction for non-software projects that require significant collaboration,” says GitHub cofounder and CEO Tom Preston-Werner.
With 3.4 million users, the five-year-old site is a runaway hit in the hacker community, the go-to place for coders to show off pet projects and crowdsource any improvements. But the company has grander ambitions: It wants to change the way people work. It’s starting with software developers for sure, but maybe one day anyone who edits text in one form or another — lawyers, writers, and civil servants — will do it the GitHub way.
See the full story: From Collaborative Coding to Wedding Invitations: GitHub Is Going Mainstream | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com.
Power Tools | Roy Tennant – The Digital Shift
Excerpt of article content specific to libraries:
Tools in a digital library context often provide similar benefits, although they tend to be different in nature. I would say that a basic tool for any digital librarian is likely a computer running a LAMP stack:
L = Linux
A = Apache web server
M = MySQL
P = A “P” programming language such as Perl or Python
With that, there is very little you can’t do. Well, that is, once you install the dependencies of whatever else you’re wanting to run. But you get the idea. It’s a basic platform from which much else is made possible. It’s an essential tool set.
Some of the other digital library tools in my repertoire include:
Swish-e – I’ve used this indexing software since the mid-90s, and haven’t seen a reason to change. With it, I’ve set up and maintained a variety of web sites that function as if they are database-supported but in fact are simply flat XML files that are indexed using Swish-e (see, for example, FreeLargePhotos.com).
XSLTProc – Sure, there are many options for XML processing out there and I won’t attempt to defend this particular decision except to say that it is easy to use and does what I need it to do (process XSLT stylesheets against specified XML files). Again, it underpins a number of my web sites.
Nano – You can stop laughing now. Seriously. Stop laughing. I mean it. Nano is a simple text editor (before it was Pico, which was what the PINE linemode email system used for message editing). I use it to do simple editing tasks in text files and programs on the server. I know it isn’t nearly as cool emacs, or even vi, but hey, it’s what I’m used to.
Tools are power. They give you capabilities you would not have without them.
35 Powerful Cloud Tools for Modern Librarians | Stephen’s Lighthouse
“These tools work as an alternative to Microsoft’s expensive Office Suite. Choose from the products below to save money on expensive software licensing while also keeping software current with more frequent updates. These Cloud apps may also integrate with automation services (see below) for increased productivity and efficiency.”
35 Powerful Cloud Tools for Modern Librarians | Stephen’s Lighthouse.
Two New Services Offer Ready-to-Launch Websites for Libraries | The Digital Shift
Library web hosting provider LISHost this month launched Library CMS, a modular, Drupal-based content management system template tailored to the needs of library websites. The move follows the March debut of Prefab, a WordPress-based CMS template designed for libraries by user experience (UX) consultancy Influx. Both are offered in conjunction with web hosting and are positioned as affordable, comprehensive website redesign services for individual libraries and small systems.
See the full article: Two New Services Offer Ready-to-Launch Websites for Libraries | The Digital Shift.
13 Best Free Audio Editing Apps | Mashable
See the full discussion: 13 Best Free Audio Editing Apps | Mashable.
- Acoustica Basic Edition
- Audacity
- AudioTool
- Tunekitten Audio Editor
- MP3 Cutter
- MP3Gain
- Audio Joiner
- Reaper
- WavePad
- WaveShop
- Wavosaur
- Fission
- Nero WaveEditor
For an LIS class group assignment in 2012, we evaluated and compared a few different audio editing applications (Audacity, LMMS, Traverso and WaveSurfer) and Audacity came out the winner on the majority of criteria, usability and range of features available.
Five [Six] Free Online Tools to Learn Another Language | Gizmodo
Five [Six] Free Online Tools to Learn Another Language | Gizmodo
- LiveMocha
- FSI Language Courses
- Duolingo
- Internet Polyglot
- Lang-8
See also: LaMP Teaches You a Foreign Language via Movie and YouTube Subtitles | LifeHacker. LaMP can be installed on Windows computers or accessed online.
A Computer To Teach You Not To Act Like A Computer | Co.Exist
Technology enthusiasts who spend their days playing with computers and robots often have the amount of social graces of the machines they’re programming. So it’s either a brilliant or incredibly off-base intervention that an MIT graduate student has designed computer software to attempt to teach the socially-maladjusted how to be more sociable, via a Siri-like virtual conversation coach.
The program, called My Automated Conversation Coach (MACH), “uses a computer-generated onscreen face, along with facial, speech, and behavior analysis and synthesis software, to simulate face-to-face conversations,” according to a press release. “It then provides users with feedback on their interactions,” for example, how good was their eye contact, which words did they emphasize, how did their voice rise and fall.
via A Computer To Teach You Not To Act Like A Computer | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation.
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