Here is a tool that you will want to remember. By highlighting any part of a OpenOffice document and selecting Clear Formating as shown in the attachment "Clear.png", the formating will be removed. Today I was working on a document where some unwnated formating crept in. This was formating that could not be removed using the formating tools available. Then I stumbled upon this gem and I was no longer wishing for the reveal codes feature in WordPerfect. It would be nice if we could have that, but at least this feature quickly solves the problem (in this case I had double line spacing that would not just go away) and lets us carry on with our work.

Click the image for a larger screen capture.

Somebody must have convinced the RIAA that untold riches will come their way once Digital Rights Management controls are in place. However Digital Rights Management (DRM) will not help anyone.

Like many of us, the recording industry works in a world where technological change is the norm. When they claim that their revenue has been affected by illegal copying they are correct. Today it is too easy to make counterfeit copies of recordings on a large scale. It is up tothe consumer to watch for these fakes, and report them to the authorities. Purchasing a pirated recording is not a bargain. However, the recording industry gains more than it loses when a friend gives a copy of CD to a friend, if it introduces the person to a new musical experience. Also, there is, was, and always will be parasites who never pay for anything if they can help it. They will never be a customer anyway, therefore nothing can be lost or gained by them.

This entry got started with a trip to Staples to buy three cartridges for our Inkjet Printer.Price? $60.00 for the cartridges. Then we saw a new printer on sale for $69.00. This printer did not come with a network interface. Other than that it was a newer version of the one we have.

The announcement today by RedHat that they will not be releasing a consumer desktop offering is not bad news. RedHat is concentrating on what it does best: offering enterprise software solutions. Ditto for SUSE, even though both companies offer a product that works great as a desktop.

The advancements for the Linux desktop (in the context of increasing  adaptation and awareness) have come from the large hardware producers that customise a Linux install for their hardware. We have seen great results with the gPC, Asus eee PC, Everex Cloudbook, and the expanding offerings from Dell.

Yes, I did my part, I took part in the 60 minutes for the Earth Hour event. It was easy, I stayed at home, kept all the lights, computers, and our *TV off for the hour. Perhaps it is something that should be done more often.

For instance, before you sit down and fire up that super powered gaming machine, why not go for a walk. Yes, a walk; hey, it is a cool thing to do. After all it was something John Lennon really enjoyed doing.

It took about a week to get here, but it finally arrived, my Asus Eee PC is here. First of all I had to curb my excitement as the batteries took some time to charge – up to two hours.

As soon as it was ready it booted up in no time. First task is to test the WIFI. I did not have any trouble with the WIFI getting on to a network at all -- even my own!