Open Office

Open Office is an open-source software that includes all types of programs, like word processors, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and even more. It is available in different languages and it is multi-platform so you can work in all the operating systems. Apart from these features, you can open, read, create, and save your work in other common files such as .doc or .ppt. Probably the best characteristic is that it is completely free of chrage.

The word processor included in the Open Office Package is Writer. It has everything that you would expect from a modern, fully equipped word processor and desktop publisher.It has applications such as AutoCorrect, AutoComplete, AutoFormat and all the fonts and styles you want.

The spreadsheet software is called Calc. It is easy to use for newcomers, and experienced users appreciate features like AdvancedDataPilot technology or an Intelligent Sum Button.

The presentations porgram is called Impress. Its name describes perfectly the application sicne it has all kinds of special effects, a multi-pane view, and has 2D and 3D clip art.

The graphics software is called Draw. In this program you can do everything form a simple sketch to a complex plan. You can manipulate everythign yuo do, rotating it and creating photrealistic images. Due to its smart connectors, it is also easy to create a flow chart, organisation charts, and network diagrams.

The base program offered in the Open Officce Packet is called Base. With this program you can create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports. It offers a choice of using Wizards, Design Views, or SQL Views for beginners, intermediate and advanced users.

Open Source Initiative (OSI)

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit global corporation that intends to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community and promote the use of open source software.


But first of all, what is open source software? The open source software are programs that are free to the public and that can be used by anyone. In other words, they do not have a private license, therefore they are perfectly legal because they are public and free. The definition used in the web Webopedia is the following: Open source refers to a program or software in which the source code (the form of the program when a programmer writes a program in a particular programming language) is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge.


There are open source programs of all kinds: text editors, for creating presentations, for calculations, desktop publishers, to draw, and even to being able to create animated images.


There is an incredibly extended list of open source programs but among this list we can find the most commonly known and used: Open Office, Google Sketch Up, Scribus, Scratch, and many more.

Design of a football field in Google Sketch Up

The multiple programs Open Office offers

Scribus, an open source desktop publisher

A game created in Scratch

Apple will overtake HP

I have read an article in Computerweekly about how Apple will overtake HP as top supplier of computers in the world.


This article tlaks about how in the second trimester of 2012, Apple will pass HP as the world's largest supplier of computers. The reason is that Apple's growth in the last four quarters was incredible from 9% of the share to 15% of the worldwide share, and the pads, especially iPads are potentially increasing the PC demands, thus overpassing in half a year the domain of HP.


“Pads, particularly the iPad, have radically changed the dynamics of the PC industry over the past year, already propelling Apple into second place in the worldwide PC market in the third quarter of 2011," Tim Coulling, analyst at Canalys said. 


Canalys also predicts a growth of the market with the intruduction of ultrabooks. HP released its new ultrabook last week, priced at $899.99 the company probably expects to make competence towards the powerful Apple with this release.


However, the floods in Thailand, place where many computers are made and shipped, will probably reduce shipments of desktops, netbooks and notebooks.


Still, HP continues to have the largest share of the market with 19% in the third quarter of 2011, however Apple and Samsung were the only UK PC suppliers to show an increase in their shares, with 22% and 40% respectively.

My Summer Holidays

I always start these kind of essays by saying that it has been the best summer of my life, and it is probably true, but the thing is that each summer gets better and better, therefore, I could say that this has been the best summer of my life.. I've been to many places; Cadiz, Laredo, Germany where I was in a summer camp near Berlin and the U.S (New York, Washington D.C. and Boston).

My summer started after a long month of June full of language and school exams. I missed the last day of school to go to Chipiona, a little town in the region of Cadiz. This was a typical trip, nothing new, since I've already gone there for 3 years. The stay there was awesome; I already had friends there so we did various interesting things and we      had a great time together.



After Chipiona, and a long car journey back, I went to Laredo, place where I pass most of my summer. The plan there is what I usually do; go to the beach, practice sport, all that kind of staff. A significant difference with other summer in Laredo is that I have met a lot of people who are very nice and ended up being close friends, so I couldn't ask for more.



However, my whole summer was not spent in this town of Cantabria. Since I am learning German, I decided with my parents to go to a summer camp in Germany. The summer camp was called GLS and it was situated near the Wolzig lake, at about 70 km from Berlin. The time spent there was outstanding. I met a lot of people from all over the world, made good friends, spoke in many languages, learned a little bit of other languages, and, most important of all, had a good time while learning. I am willing and expecting to go next year.



You might think that my summer was already very busy, but it wasn't all. One week after coming from Germany, with tiredness from partying all day, I flew to the U.S, more specifically to New York. Most go the time I spent it in Manhattan, since it is the most turistical and most well-known part of the state of New York, however I also visited the other suburbs of the state; the Bronx, Brooklyn, etc. My impression of New York: completely astonishing. I could not even describe it with words. It is just so amazing, and especially compared to Bilbao, so different. The way of life, food, buildings, people, everything is extremely the opposite from

Bilbao, in my opinion, and also from Spain. And when you see places like Time Square, the Empire State, or the Statue of Liberty, you kind of get a shock because seeing them after all the times you've seen them in movies and in TV is really shocking and I could say even emotional. My stay in New York was not only marked by New York. I also made day trips to both Washington D.C. and Boston. Both were spectacular cities. Probably I enjoyed more visiting Washington because seeing the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the site from the Memorial, where Martin Luther King made his famous "I Have a Dream Speech" is astonishing.

And after all of this busy and tired, nevertheless, incredible trip, I went back to Laredo to recuperate strength and prepare myself for the starting of the school year. And so, the days passed on, each day ended up being better than the last, and just like a snap of your fingers, the vacations ended, and I was back in school.

Easter Holidays

Below is a podcast with what I did this Easter vacations:

Javier's Easter Holidays Podcast

New Podcast!

Here is my first podcast in blogger. Hope you like it!

PODCAST

JPG vs GIF vs PNG

In this blog I'm going to explain the difference between these three different kind of image formats, explain how they are, and which is the best for desktop publishing.

JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPG is an image format used on the web with and extreme power of resolution, over 16 million colors, and they're enormous files in which information which the human eye can't detect is compressed. So large is the file, that you either have to compromise the quality of the image or have a large file. It is not used for letters, line drawings or simple graphics due to its quality which then is loses quality and sharpness. JPG is not reccommended for desktop publishing because the file of the images is too large.

       

                An example of a JPEG image

                                                                    
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

GIF is another image format on the web with not a lot of resolution, only supports 256 colors, and it is perfect for line drawing, black and white images, and small text that is only a few pixels high. It supports animation, and all the animated images, or almost all, are in GIF format. GIF would be good for desktop publishing, but maybe it could have a bit more quality.

  An example of an animation in GIF

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

 PNG is another web based image format, and it is really and improvement of GIF. It lets you compress the file to 5%-25% and it also allows you the control of opacity (the degree of transparency). It doesn't matter how much you save it or re-save it, the quality will stay the same. It doesn't allow animations.

An example of an image in PNG

What is the difference between JPEG, GIF, PNG?


There is a main difference between these formats, they're all very different. JPEG has the most quality of image, but the files are normally very big. GIF has less quality, the files are smaller, and it can support animation on the images. PNG has he same quality as GIF, but it allows you to compress it more witout damaging the quality, and it also allows you to control the opacity.


What do all these formats have in common?


All of these three formats have in common that they are all used in the net.


Which is the most widely used one?


The most widely used format in the Internet is the GIF format because it is used for icons and all the other things mentioned, and so it is the most used on the web.


Which is the best format for...?

Photographs: For photographs, JPEG is undoubtely the best because of the great resolution which will allow the image too seem as if it were real, and with good quality to the last detail.
Drawings: For drawings, the best format is GIF because you certainly don't need a lot of quality, and it will allow you to have a small file with a reasonable quality. 
Animations: For animations, the best format is obvoiusly GIF. Most of the animations on the net are GIF, and it is basically the only format of the three allowing animation, therefore this is the format for animation.
Non degraded quality: The format for non degraded quality is PNG. PNG allows you to save and re-save as much as you want, compress it a lot, and the quality of the image will stay the same, where in the other formats it wouldn't. Definitely the best for non degraded quality.

The difference of quality and file size between the three formats