No Longer Just Software!

That's right. This blog is no longer just going to give out reviews of software. It will have posts on basically anything the author is interested in; this often includes useless-slash-interesting information on subjects like genealogy, languages, and other subjects time to time.

We're keeping the address, but we're the title and layout.

The changes will appear whenever the author gets around to it.

MediaWiki and Wikkii

Though there are others out there, MediaWiki is the best wiki-creation software there is. Not familiar with it? Just go to Wikipedia or Wikia, and you're seeing MediaWiki in action. For site owners, it has nearly limitless options for customization. But then comes the First Law of Computer Software: more customization, less simplicity. If you want to install MediaWiki, you have to do all this advanced installation stuff that an average person doesn't know how to do. Even if you go to the MediaWiki website, most of the terms they use in their installation guide wouldn't be familiar to you. So what should you do when you want to start a wiki?
When most people want to start wikis, they go to popular wiki-hosting sites like PBWorks, Wikidot, and Wikispaces. But there's a catch: none of these hosting services use MediaWiki; they all develop their own wiki software. This means that you have to learn a totally different syntax (simple language used for formatting) than the one used on MediaWiki wikis like Wikipedia.
That's where Wikkii comes in. Just go to their website, register, and create as many MediaWiki wikis as you wish. Since Wikkii gets all of it's money from ads (which aren't even that annoying), most of it's features are unlimited, and all of it's features are free. Probably the only problem with Wikkii is that they have an older version of MediaWiki and don't upgrade. So get out their, create a wiki, and make it as large as Wikipedia.

And a happy Thanksgiving, too!

Posts

I've been blogging way less then I aught to this summer, so prepare to see an extra long post soon.

Wikia and Wikipedia

Let's face it - one of the greatest wonders of the internet is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. You might hear stuff like "since anyone can edit, you shouldn't use it." But whoever told that to you probably didn't know that there are people who spend all day making sure that everything on Wikipedia is valid. So why use those limited book encyclopedias that don't have one percent of everything Wikipedia has? Some people have said, "I just like to flip through encyclopedias. On the internet, you can't do that." But they're wrong. On Wikipedia is a "random page" feature - just click and it will take you to any page from Aa (a village in Estonia) to zZz (a band from Amsterdam). However, there is one disadvantage to Wikipedia. It is strictly an encyclopedia, and if you post any false information it's instantly deleted. Why would you want to post false information to the world? There are two possibilities: one, you are a vandal, and you want to be evil; two, you want to show off your creativity. This is where Wikia comes in.

Wikia is a series of wikis (if you don't know what that is, see bottom) that are more in-depth about stuff on Wikipedia. For example, you can find some of the more basic Narnia facts on Wikipedia - there are approximately 110 pages. As for narnia.wikia.com, there are 610 pages. And Wikia doesn’t just have information on books and movies - it also has information on non-fictional subjects too. My favorite hub (category for wiki) is Creative - it has stuff from Alternate History to Con(structed)Worlds. So get out there and start using Wikipedia - and don't forget about Wikia as well.

Merriam Webster's definition of "wiki": a Web site that allows visitors to make changes, contributions, or corrections.

Alice

is a 3d animation software. Though the animation is very lame, it's also very easy. It is similiar to (yet easier than) IClone, in that you don't create what you animate, you just get all from an online database. And unlike IClone, it's all free.

The best part about Alice is that it takes a much smaller amount of time to create your movie. When it took me nearly a month to make Specimen A, which is one minute long, it took me less then a day to make "the Sea Epic," which is thirty secons long. In other words, for Anim8or, it takes one month a minute, and in Alice, it takes two days a minute. Big difference.

Of course, you couldn't animate a yawning, scared, sad beach-ball in Alice.

Audcacity

is probably the leading sound-editing freeware on the internet. It lets you do everything - record, modify (wanna sound like Alivin and the Chipmunks?), and export to WAV, MP3, or OGG. I have used it for many things, including recording for making movies. Go to this website to download.

Credit Maker

In Windows Movie Maker, I found credits to be - let's face it - lame. If I wanted something like:

CASTING

John Johnson

Peter Peterson

CAST

Ed William Wonderous

Mary Anna Banana

you would have to have the "Casting" go from bottom to top, and then the "Cast." from bottom to top. With Credit Maker, you don't have to wait for one section to be finished for another one to begin. It exports to avi, and can be downloaded here.