Comments on: Doing Research: A Tool Inventory

By: Free Internet Paid Surveys

Free Internet Paid Surveys — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:01:45 +0000

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By: Alec

Alec — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 20:58:23 +0000

Actually Becky, I didn’t know about this. Thanks for the information. It looks like Open Office will be even more attractive in version 3.0.

By: Becky

Becky — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 14:27:45 +0000

Alec,

You probably already know this, but Open Office is working to add bibliography management for version 3. In the meantime, they’ve got some information on their project – along with alternatives – posted at http://bibliographic.openoffice.org/

By: Christopher Sessums

Christopher Sessums — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:58:20 +0000

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

Just ran across this open source collaboration tool for sharing a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

How cool is that?

By: Aaron Tyo-Dickerson

Aaron Tyo-Dickerson — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 19:23:59 +0000

I have been experimenting with a FOSS tool called JabRef as a way of tracking those resources and turning them into bibliographies. JabRef creates BibTeX formatted data files which can be exported, using pre-made (and easily editable) filters, into HTML and RTF files.

On the technical side, JabRef is written in Java and is totally platform independent. I have shared the source code with a colleague who tells me that it looks easily modifiable (for those high-end users out there). JabRef can be found on SourceForge at http://jabref.sourceforge.net/.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:20:23 +0000

You probably want to try NeoOffice/J 1.1 for Mac OS X. For those unaware, it is OpenOffice tweaked to run is a slightly more Mac fashion and, crucially, without having to run under X11.

It still looks like an ugly PC program to a great degree, but it fits quite well with Mac OS X in other ways.

The first stable release just got announced so give it a try:

http://www.neooffice.org/

By: Dennis Wollersheim

Dennis Wollersheim — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:19:15 +0000

I have just finished writing a 70,000 word dissertation in ms word. I have heard about word choking on large documents, and I was very careful; keeping each chapter in seperate file, etc. Even so, by the end, I would spend much more time fixing up mistakes having to do with word’s bugs than with mistakes in the writing! I now try to use latex. Even though it has an initial steeper learning curve, I think this pays for itself in the end. If I had to do it again, I would use latex. I don’t know if open office will have the same problems with large documents. Beware!

By: Becky

Becky — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 22:51:12 +0000

I’ve been using Dragon Naturally Speaking (proprietary) to do transcriptions. This voice recognition software, by Scansoft, is only available for Windows. According to their website, it won’t run on Virtual PC on the Macintosh, either. I haven’t tried. Check the hardware compatability list at the Scansoft site for specific recommendations on digital recorders and microphones to maximize the software’s accuracy.

My Sony digital recorder shipped with DNS 7 and digital editing software that lets me control playback speed of my audio files as well as start, stop, and rewind. Once I slow the playback speed, I’m able to get pretty good results playing the audio into my ear and speaking everything I hear into my Andrea headset microphone for Dragon to transcribe.

I’ve been using it for five weeks. This is relevant because the software becomes more accurate with use. After 5 weeks, performance is pretty impressive, but not yet 100%. I think homonyms like once and wants will always be problematic.

I haven’t looked for an open source equivalent. The reviews I read kept saying DNS was the most accurate. That was very important to me.