Downloading Songs to iTunes From Previous Purchases

iTunes-LogoWhile Apple won’t release the iOS5, Lion, and iCloud software packages for some time yet, they instituted an update to iTunes that will allow you to access to any songs you previously downloaded through the music catalog. It’s something that doesn’t seem that great until it’s actually in use. Only then can you see the magnitude of that one small update.

Under iTunes 10.3, it looks very much the same as any other build of iTunes, but it has the one key difference in that it’s already working within the confines of the cloud. Much has been said about the cloud, but it seems more like a mysterious and ominous entity. For anyone that has any doubts about it, this slight occurrence of it in iTunes should give a hint of how great it could be.
[Read more...]

GetGlue: A Multi Platform Recommendation Service

GetGlue IntroSharing is one of the things that makes life more interesting. What’s so fun about having favorite things if you can’t share them with your friends and family? The joy is in telling people we love about things that enrich our lives: a good book that you’ve just read, a beautiful song that you’ve just listen, or an exciting movie that you’ve just watch. And the process goes both way, you can also discover many great things from others’ recommendation.

Internet made the sharing business a whole lot easier. You can instantly email your overseas friends about the latest and greatest song from your favorite rock band, or tweet about it to your followers. But why stop there? Why not join GetGlue – a community where people from all over the world share and discover things that they love?
[Read more...]

How to Layout a Book with OpenOffice.org: Part 3

Inserting an imageIn this final part of our series on laying out a book with OpenOffice.org, you will learn how to position illustrations in your book, how to use paragraph styles, and how to export in different formats. What you will take away from this is one method that has worked for me and many other people. At the end of this post, I will provide links for further study on the subject.

Illustrations

To insert an image in OpenOffice Writer, simply click “Insert->Picture->From File“.  Then, select the image that you want, and click OK.

By default, the text will wrap around  your picture. If you do not want this or want a different type of wrapping, right click on the picture and choose the appropriate wrap method from the wrap menu.
[Read more...]

How to Layout a Book with OpenOffice.org: Part 2

ooo_writerIn the first part of this series, I explained how to prepare an OpenOffice.org document for book layout. In this second part, I am going to highlight some key points raised by some of our readers and also how to properly align page numbers and format paragraphs.

There are a couple of things you should consider before proceeding:

1. If you are submitting your book to a publisher, they normally do not expect you to format the book or do any typesetting. That is their job. They just want the raw manuscript. In some cases, they may even insist that you use a particular generic font and not change default margins. Make sure you read their submission guidelines.

2. One of our readers mentioned that he usually formats his books after he finishes writing. This is undoubtedly the best method in most cases. What we created in Part 1 was a basic template that you can use without any further formatting needed before you start writing. Furthermore, if you are working for the publisher or are the publisher, the author might be someone else. In that case, you will take his or her text and prepare it.
[Read more...]

How to Layout a Book with OpenOffice.org: Part 1

ooo_writerIt is all in your head: the plot, the characters, the locations, and even the scenes, but for some reason, staring at the blank page and blinking cursor makes you freeze. You like the idea of writing a book but cannot imagine actually completing it. If that feeling sounds familiar, then this might be the right article for you.  Even if you have written a book and have it all ready to go, you may intend to self-publish it, start your own publishing company, send it to an editor, or just layout your book so you can see how it looks.

There is a long list of reasons why you might need to prepare an OpenOffice.org document in book form, and once you have learned how to do it, you will have a useful skill that you or people you know may need in the future. You can use this method for both print publications and e-books.
[Read more...]