Category: Productivity (Page 10 of 13)

Atom text editor review

Hey there you guys!

How are you today? I hope you are doing good

Today we are going to look at an amazing text editor. Free and open source, Atom.
GitHub presented it’s text editor and made it open source under the MIT license in mid 2014. Available for Linux and Windows. “A Hackable text editor for the 21st century!”

It’s made by GitHub. The biggest code repository online.

Lets take a look at the awesome features of Atom.

1. It looks amazing!

 

Atom’s main interface. Two panes

No more black text on a white background. (Unless you are into that thing. There is a white theme 😛 ) it has the look and feel that made Sublime text the favorite text editor of many developers. It’s divided into panes for ease of use.

2. It has many plug-ins for you to choose from.

It comes preloaded out of the box with many plug-ins and the syntax support of many languages, and you can add as many as you like and need!

3. Great community support

As it is being developed by GitHub you are bound to receive great support and many plug ins and themes to your liking.

4. Cross – Platform

It’s available for Linux (Ubuntu / RedHat). Windows and OS X 10.8 and later. I must note that the version for Windows and Mac checks for Auto update. While in Linux you need to check for it manually!

5. If you didn’t find it. Make it yourself!

You can customize Atoms to your liking and needs by “Hacking it”. That’s right! You can edit parts of the interface and look using your knowledge of CSS & html.

As everything else there are some draw backs to it, let’s check them out:

1. Resource consuming

It’s takes around 200 MB more less. Separated into background services and the program itself (which is 20 MB). In comparison it takes a LOT more than Sublime text.( Same load on Xubuntu)

2. It takes a long time to load

It takes around 19 seconds to load. Compared to Sublime text which takes seconds to load. While when I installed it on Linux Xubuntu. It loaded in 2-3 seconds!!

3.File size restriction of 2 Mega byte file size 

I’ve read around the web that you can’t open files larger than 2 mega bytes. I am yet to test that. I’ll update this section when possible. *Update: Crashed with a 1.5MB .js file on Windows & Linux!

Download

The download page detects your system type and gives a timely link. So go check it out from here.
Also checkout the flight manual which gives you all the information you need to know like Keybindings.

Final words

I think it’s unfair to compare Atom to industry giants like Vim and Sublime Text. Simply it wasn’t around for as long. And it has room for improvement and plenty of potential!  It’s highly customizable, has a great interface and 100% free. Totally worth a try!

How did you like this post? Did you find it useful? Please comment below and let me hear what you have in mind.

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OpenOffice transitioning to LibreOffice

Hey there you guys

How are you today. I hope you are doing great.

Today we are going to talk about

Apache OpenOffice. It’s been a while since we spoke about it!

I’ve used it for over five years and it has been nothing but good! Then I transitioned to LibreOffice. You can see all about it in here. If you are thinking like me you are probably wondering: Is there a learning curve for me? My answer is: Not at all!

They quite similar. You won’t have a problem at all. Everything you knew and liked in Apache OpenOffice you will find in LibreOffice plus much more!

You might ask: Why are we still mentioning Apache OpenOffice?

Well for a very simple reason! It has been around for much longer than LibreOffice. And many people still use it. After all it was downloaded over 100 million times!!

If you are out there and still using Apache OpenOffice. You might want to check the new LibreOffice. It’s simply the best!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Please let me know what you think in the comments section!

Have a nice one!

Backup and restore Rednotebook journal

Hey there you guys. How are you? How are you doing today?

I have reviewed Rednotebook before here on this blog. As a great journal and note taking software.
I have been using it for years now and it hasn’t failed me once!

Today we will see how to backup the journal folder (where you kept your notes) and restore it!
And how to share this awesome software across systems on the same computer (Dual Boot)

Since RedNoteBook has become an important tool of mine. I needed to backup and restore my notes in case something happened. I tried using the Zip folder but that failed badly and I lost tons of data!

Until I came up with a really easy fix!

By default the directory for rednotebook on Windows (7, 8 ,8.1) is:
“C:Users<User Name .rednotebook

And on Linux is: “/home/<User Name /.rednotebook/”.

From the main interface click File Open to change the directory to the one you created

Navigate to the folder where you put the “Rednotebook” folder (Restoring notes)

Go inside the folder and choose “Data

You will find the notes you already entered.

Click OK and you are done! Make sure to do it on both systems and select the same folder for both systems. And it’s very important to choose a folder both Linux and Windows can “See”.
How did you like the post? I hope you find it useful. Please leave a comment!!

Facebook. Is it time for you to quit?

Hey there you guys!

How is it going? How are things?

Facebook no more

Facebook has became one of the most visited sites on the planet! Everybody has an account or two on it! It’s very popular and very entertaining! With everything you like and the chance to communicate with almost anybody anywhere on earth! It’s amazing isn’t it?

No! Not really..

If checking Facebook is the first thing you do when waking up and the last before you go to sleep. You might be hung up on the site, no you say? When was the last time you checked yours?

It’s more serious than you think. The term “Facebook addiction” is not a laughing matter!!

 

Have you stopped to think how much time you spend on Facebook? How many times you log in “just to see what’s going on”?

Sites like this should support your life, don’t let it take away your life!

When was the last time you spoke to someone? Read a book? Did one of the hobbies you forgot after signing in to Facebook?

If you answered the previous questions with long thinking pauses. You are in trouble!

The site is designed to be a maze! Once you get in you lose your way out!

Does a like mean anything now? A simple “lol” is how we laugh? Will we save the starving people in Africa by sharing a picture? Is this the future of mankind?

 

Get out of Facebook and reclaim your life.

know you feel skeptic about all this. But all my friends are there! I play my games on it! It’s my source of news and current events. I can’t get out!

Really? What was your life before that? You make it sound like Facebook is your whole life!

Once you quit Facebook you will gain many benefits:

A lot more time!

You would be amazed by the time you used to spend on Facebook! And the things it kept you from doing! Instead of Facebooking about it, go do it!

 

You will save money!

You won’t believe the amount of things you bought just because you saw in an ad on Facebook or because someone you know bragged about it on Facebook!

A good night sleep!

You will enjoy a sound asleep! You won’t care about the post you had a fight on, or how many likes your new photo has got. You won’t be woken up in the middle of the night by an annoying chat. Or notifications from a post you liked without paying attention. This is very risky. The site is on all the time. 24 hours a day. This messes with your sleeping cycle. There is ALWAYS something to do. Someone is online to talk to. Good bye sleep cycle and hello insomnia. Thus more Facebook.

Piece of mind

With all that useless crap out of your life, the levels of stress and anxiety are bound to drop! You will feel much more relaxed. And it’s all thanks to you walking away out of Facebook.

 See the pun here?

 

You will think for your own

No more know it all jerks to tell you how to live your life! How to dress, where and what to eat, where to spend the next vacation. Or those hair transplant ads 😛
No more of being a brainless zombie who checks his pocket every 30 seconds to see who did what or who is feeling down.

 

Your life is yours again

Your privacy is a rare treasure to keep in this digital age. It’s very awkward one someone you barley know asks you: How do you feel after you broke up with (…) after an 18 month relationship? What? How did you know? Oh wait..

Your battery and data plan will thank you!

It depends on your browsing and device type. But if you were like me, oh man will they thank you or what? I was a wreck! Daily online. Liking and commenting on. No matter where or when. Even on my desk working or even at driving (Never again)!!

 

You will be more productive!

Have you heard the joke going: What’s the best way to make money out of Facebook?
Go to Account settings Deactivate account. And get to work!
It’s true! Do you know how much the economy loses every year because of delayed work? Delayed because office workers are Facebooking? A lot! (Google it).
As simple as that: You will do more.

 

Speaking of work, you will increase your chances of keeping your job or getting a new one!

You don’t believe me? How many people have been fired because of something they posted on Facebook? A lot!
A lot of people add their colleagues and managers on Faceook, which means merging personal life with work and social media.
Many people forget that the rants they post can be misinterpreted, or pretending to be sick while you are actually on the beach (true story and the employee was fired on the spot because her manager saw her post).
n many cases, human resources depend on Facebook to learn about the true identity of people who applied for jobs (not the neat things they have written in their resume), many people are rejected based on their interests, friends and posts.
When I say that Facebook could get you fired or keep you unemployed, you better believe it!

 

You will lose weight!

I’m not joking with you! Combine all the elements! You are out there. In the sunlight. Smelling the fresh air. Walking and working. Seeing people and interacting. You will move more, thus losing more weight. Magic!!

After all these reasons I think you began to change your mind dear reader. And if you still don’t believe me. Take the following challenge:

 

The 24 hour abstinence challenge

Stay away from Facebook for 24 hours. Seems like nothing huh? I’m not finished.

You aren’t allowed to log into the site. Check notifications. Read e-mail notifications. In short for 24 hours I want you to pretend like you don’t have an account. Come back later and tell me when did you crack 😉

f you experience a mild headache and the recurrent tendency to check your phone / tablet / PC over and over again. You need help. And bad! (Just assuming).

And you have (unknowingly) took the first step of getting out!

Try to deactivate your account for a day. Just that. No need to rush things (Only an idiot tries to quit cold turkey).

Then reactivate it. And try for two days. And like wise.

Attempting to quit

Only after leaving the site for weeks on end you can truly value life without it. And if you are the kind to check the site once in every blue moon this post isn’t really for you. I’m talking about the guys who walked in and never found the way out!
Please be nice and let the people you know and care for that you are leaving the site, and leave contact information, unless you want to go “off the grid”..

 

What’s the alternative?

You don’t need 3000+ friends and 7 pages to manage! That’s just too much.

Leave your closest people nearby. There are a lot of great ways. Go see them for a change! If they live away call them! Fear the high toll of calls use Voip services like Viber or Whatsapp for example. In the end it’s up to you.

Texting can be fun. Done the right way and in the right time with the right person! And the aforementioned apps can help too!

Nothing beats sitting there. Talking to people face to face. I fear that this digital age had driven us apart. And when the world has become a small village. Our homes became a vast desert!

It’s a trouble sign when a married couple who live under the same roof exchange emails or Facebook messages. While being in the same house!!

 

Final words

I hope this post helped you realize what a bad idea it was to sign up to Facebook. And no it’s not free if you think of it. You are anything but free.

Keep in mind. Theses so called social networks are supposed to support your existing life. Not to become it..

This won’t be my last post on the subject. I will add some more input. But as always your input is very important. Comment below and tell me what you think of this post. And if you like it so much 😉 then join my blog to get the latest feeds. And subscribe to my mailing list. 100% free!!!

Have a nice one!! 🙂
have made an Arabic version of this post, feel free to check it out!

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