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PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

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I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

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This site is built on a fresh trunk checkout of Django, running on Python 2.5.1, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive.

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A Django site.
(Finally!)

Copyright 2008
by Paul Bissex
and E-Scribe New Media

OpenOffice.org, sorta-Aqua edition

As of yestderay, an early version of OpenOffice.org for the Mac is available for download. Not the X-Windows port, but a step toward a full-fledged native application. Until this point, you only had NeoOffice if you wanted Aqua widgetry and a semblance of native OS X experience. NeoOffice is quite good, but it launches terribly slowly. Whereas this new build of OOo launches in under ten seconds on my slowish Powerbook.

Don't get too excited just yet; this is for tweakers only. Here are some of the problems and gaps they warn you about:

They forgot:

But if it's the next step in breaking the hegemony of Microsoft Office, I'm all for it. There's nowhere to go but up!

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
+ +
1 comment

Some related posts: Xiph, Ogg, FLAC, et al. • QuickTime 0, Open Source 1 • The Open Source Desktop, Revisited • Sparkle: automatic application updates • Great open source apps for the Mac • DarwinPorts 1.1 • Mining Monday: FreeBSD, KDE and Me • Cyberduck, cyberdoc • Camino • Sourcemorgue
• Comment from Kai, 3 weeks later

I'm testing it for a few days now, and it's fantastic. Everyone should take a look!

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