Open Source Fever

Well, after deciding that I was going to learn R for statistical analyses, I've been thinking quite a bit about other open source / freeware programs that I might switch to. One such application that I've started tinkering with is S5 - in the creator's own words, it's 'a slide show format based entirely on XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript.' Put bluntly, a clever cross platform alternative to Microsoft's bloated presentation software. No more worrying about what OS the conference computer is running - just fire up a web browser (preferably not IE) and off you go! It's a bit daunting to contemplate converting my existing lectures to this format, but I'm very seriously considering using it for new lectures.

I've also flirted with the idea of using LyX for document processing, again in favour of an well known (and equally bloated) MS application. Not sure if I'll go through with that or not -- in addition to not being sure how I'll deal with the inevitable .doc files that will clutter my Inbox, I was put off by the plethora of other helper programs that need to be installed first. Let's say that installing and using LyX is on the backburner for now.

Finally, I wrote this entry with the free text editor Smultron.