Free, easy, quick, great PDF creation: Try OpenOffice

keywords: free software, opensource, OpenOffice, grantwriting
I try to give credit where credit is due.
I have written before about using OpenOffice (version 2.4) for “real professional work.” In an earlier post, I wrote about successfully writing an entire grant application using OpenOffice for wordprocessing and figure creation in conjuntion with Zotero for references (and the grant [...]

Viewing Large Text Files (like big GFF files) in Windows

I know, I know, many of you will say “just use Linux”. And this is true, but SignalMap from NimbleGen, which is quite convenient for viewing GFF files of ChIP-chip data, is just a windows product (and yes, I did try WINE as an emulator).
So if you try to load a 380,000 line file into [...]

Free Multiplatform Reference Management? Try Zotero

Mark Bieda zotero references computer software citations
You use Endnote, refman, or one of the others. You want a free alternative because (1) you don’t want to worry about licensing issues (like buying a new copy for each computer) (2) you want something that will run under windows, linux, and mac os x (3) you just [...]

Python for Perl Programmers (and Bioinformatics people)

Mark Bieda python getting started quick tips hints tutorial
I wanted to write a short post about getting started in python.
What you will like about Python as a perl person:
(1) A great thing is the interpreter. This will allow really rapid learning of python. For a perl person, python should come really fast. I was very, [...]

I wish I had… started with python earlier…

So far, my bioinformatics work has used a melange of perl, R, and bash scripting. While this has worked pretty well, it does have limits. For one, it is very not portable (bash scripting). I’ve already had problems with distributing software.
I wanted something that I could distribute in an easier way, yet had the advantages [...]

Howto install linux… basic options

Ok, so I have another post on howto install linux.
This is just a short list of the top options – all this stuff is covered elsewhere, so I won’t be boring.
The basic list is: dual-boot windows machine (a favorite of mine), a Mac (ok, it’s FreeBSD, but you could also do linux under parallels), [...]

Howto install linux to a computer… fast

Ok, so I have been in the unfortunate situation of jumping from one computer to another.
The fortunate thing is that, along the way, I’ve had to learn to get linux going quickly.
This entry is about getting linux going fast but temporary. You will want to look at my other post (coming): installing linux… longterm for [...]