PSA: Don't use Open Office

I keep seeing people recommending Open Office as an alternative to Word, and uh... look, it is, technically, an open source alternative to Word. And it can do a lot of what Word can, genuinely! But it is also an abandoned project that hasn't been updated in nine years, and there's an active fork of it which is still receiving updates, and that fork is called LibreOffice, and it's fantastic.

Seriously, if you think that your choices are either "grit your teeth and pay Microsoft for a subscription" or "support free software but have a kind of subpar office suite experience", I guarantee that it's because you're working with outdated information, or outdated software. Most people I know who have used the latest version of LibreOffice prefer it to Word. I even know a handful of people who prefer it to Scrivener.

Open Office was the original project, and so it has the most name recognition, and as far as I can tell, that's really the only reason people are still recommending it. It's kind of like if people were saying "hey, the iPhone 14 isn't your only smart phone option!" but then were only ever recommending the Samsung Galaxy S5 as an alternative. LibreOffice is literally a version of the same exact program as Open Office that's just newer and better – please don't get locked into using a worse tool just because the updated version of the program has a different name!

I use LibreOffice. It's wonderful.

I wish non-tech people would get into open source. You should post your crochet pattern on github. I want to see your wip novel on a webpage running Wikimedia.

Okay this post is getting traction again for some reason so i need to be clear, this post was mostly a joke and it doesnt seem anyone picked up on it. I mean yes i want non-tech stuff to be "open source", but the Github thing is a joke please don't put non-tech stuff on github, use actual platforms meant for whatever youre sharing (NOT SOCIAL MEDIA). Programmers will burn me at the stake if you guys seriously try to use github this way, i can not survive programmer bullying.

We can build back those places that have been taken from people by the automobile, the beauty of the city is how it never remains in a constant state

Maths doesn't need applications to be interesting

So long as economic systems incentivise unethical behaviour, the effect of ethics education on society will remain minimal.

ARE YOU TODAY’S DATE?

BECAUSE YOURE 10/10

i’ve waited one year to reblog this

Seven colours!?!!?

uh, “Poynting vector”?

ok this looks ultra mega based, are you kidding me? can you imagine the bullshit i could get up to with this bad boy? fuck yes i want ten

always amazed by how apple users go to bat for the phone that gets worse forever

This design could be improved in a few minor ways:

1. The Android/iOS switch should probably be a software implementation rather than a physical switch, to avoid accidentally hitting it.

2. The external antenna is redundant. Smartphones already have an antenna: that's how they transmit wireless signals. Same with the radio.

3. The hand strap position could be improved connecting it to the bottom of the phone

4. They should add a DVD drive

5. Add a microphone jack in addition to the headphone jack

"Theory is haunted"

-"What?"

-cocks gun: "Theory is haunted"

So you people like convoluted diagrams, too?

Here ya go, filthy

Suddenly PID control seems a lot less scary. Comforting, even.

everything should cost one dollar, ten dollars, or one hundred dollars. a drinky drink is one dollar. a t shirt is ten dollars. rent is one hundred. i might be convinced to allow one thousand dollars for some very big purchases like a house. i get it, you're running a business. i'm not unreasonable.

Why not have prices on a log scale?

Hi, hey, hello,

Did you know, the letters of the Greek alphabet are considered words by the scrabble dictionary?

That’s right! Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, and all of your favorites from math class could help YOU win some family scrabble games this winter.

Tangentially related but I just learnt about number systems with irrational bases and my mind is frazzled

Like you know how in base ten you can rewrite 1 as 0.999999 reoccurring? Well in base phi (the golden ratio) every number has infinite ways of being rewritten, but they’re ALL unique to that one number. It’s driving me slightly mad in the best possible way.

The reason is because phi^2=phi^1+phi^0 which can be rewritten as phi^n=phi^(n-1)+phi^(n-2) so if you have a number, say 1, which is phi^0, you can rewrite it as 0.11 (which is phi^-1 + phi^-2) which can be rewritten as 0.1011 (which is phi^-1 + phi^-3 + phi^-4) etc. etc.

I love maths

I’m so sorry for completely derailing this post I just… I had to talk about it it kind of just came out