Biodegradable Geek

Learning to read and grok other people’s code

One reason many people don’t contribute to open source apps is because they find it daunting to look through somebody elses code. Some might even think that it’s just simpler to write something from scratch than to study someone’s work. This isn’t true, and reading foreign code is something get used to and excel at [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Learning to read and grok other people’s code", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/11/learning-to-read-and-grok-other-peoples-code/" });

Top 5 Linux Apps That’ll Boost Your Productivity

These are not in any specific order. Also, some might be available on other operating systems. Tomboy This is the best note taking app I’ve ever used. It sits in your taskbar, doesn’t annoy you and doesn’t hog your cpu cycles or memory. When you wanna jot down something, hit a global shortcut, type away, and [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Top 5 Linux Apps That’ll Boost Your Productivity", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/10/top-5-linux-apps-thatll-boost-your-productivity/" });

Top 10 Firefox Extensions that Enhance Usability

All of these extensions work on Firefox 3.x Firebug What can I say.. Firebug is indispensable. It’s quite possibly the greatest piece of software since Firefox itself. It’s a *must* have if you do any sort of XHTML/CSS/Javascript/AJAX/er.. anything! You can edit code on any site, live. Hate the annoying background on a specific site? Get rid of [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Top 10 Firefox Extensions that Enhance Usability", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/09/firefox-extensions/" });

A free, self-hosted, and open source alternative to Basecamp

In my search for a Basecamp alternative - because it’s not free, and I’d prefer something I can host on my own server - I have come across an excellent piece of software called ProjectPier. This is a branch from ActiveCollab — an open source project that later became a commercial product. ProjectPier is simple, [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "A free, self-hosted, and open source alternative to Basecamp", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/07/a-free-self-hosted-and-open-source-alternative-to-basecamp/" });

Simple and Effective Productivity Tip When Working on the Computer

This falls under “Why Didn’t I Think of This Before?” Not being able to remain focused and get things done while working on a computer is common. There’s a countless number of things to do even offline. You can, and probably do: Organize folders/desktop/etc Finally get around to actually opening up an ebook you’ve downloaded Customize your desktop (and [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Simple and Effective Productivity Tip When Working on the Computer", url: "http://biodegradablegeek.com/2008/07/simple-and-effective-productivity-tip-when-working-on-the-computer/" });