We have all heard about open source software. Whenever an organization has a tight budget and can’t afford to spend much investing on proprietory software, the management would opt for free open source software.

There are a few reasons why open source software is preferred by some organizations:

• Freedom and ability to enhance and customize the software provided the same copyright is maintained.
• Low in cost. No such thing as Client Access Licenses fees. The only thing you spend on is the hardware to host the software plus a programmer’s time to enhance and install the software.
• Usually no payment is required by the developers when an upgrade to the software is released.

If your organization is considering to go open source, the following are five (5) good and proven web based office productivity software to implement. Continue Reading »Top 5 office productivity open source software

On 26 August 2008, Wareprise.com received a comment on one of its post - Open Source PHP Content Management

I have moved the comment here and it goes like this:

Hi All,

I am looking for an open source system (the preferable combination is Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP), to suit (as close as possible) to my requirement below.

Our company name: MAC
Our client name: Alpha
Project duration: 5 years
Project descriptions: The client (i.e., Alpha) will be sending inputs to design 80 to 120 advertisements for every day (display ads for yellow pages), and we (i.e., MAC) require to deliver the designed/completed ads (as PDF document) back to the customer within 2 days (24 hrs). If any rejection in the ads then client will notify us the correction details and we need to re-send the corrected ads in the same day (12 hrs).

Internal Teams (MAC): Team leader (2 members), Login (2 members), Graphic Designer (6 members), Quality Control (6 members), Quality Assurance (2 members)

External Team (Alpha): Project Coordinators (2 members)

Workflow:
Login

• The login person will enter the each ad details on the system, and attach some graphic files for design
• If any query on the ads he will raise the clarification to Team Lead
• When the Team Lead able to resolve the query then the team lead will respond back to the Login person, IF NOT
• Team lead will send/forward the query to the project co-coordinator at the client end for resolution, then the resolution notification will reach login and team lead teams

Designing

• A Designer will pick any ads randomly
• He will start construct the ads using some adobe application
• Finally he will attach the designed ads (as PDF) and complete the task
• If any query on the ads he will raise the clarification to Team Lead
• When the Team Lead able to resolve the query then the team lead will respond back to the designer, IF NOT
• Team lead will send/forward the query to the project co-coordinator at the client end for resolution, then the resolution notification will reach design and team lead teams

Quality Control

• A Quality controller will pick any completed ads randomly
• S/He will process the QC against some specification
• S/He will reject the ads and send back to the designer OR
• S/He will approve the ads and send to the Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance

• A Quality Assurance person will pick any QC approved ads randomly
• S/He will process the QA against some specification
• S/He will reject the ads and send back to the designer (again design, QC cycle will be in place) OR
• S/He will approve the ads and send to the Team lead for dispatch

Dispatch

• The team lead will dispatch the completed ads over FTP
• If any error in the ads the Project Coordinator can reject the ads
• Again login, design, QC, QA, dispatch cycle will repeat

Features required

• Web based system
• Time Tracking for each tasks
• Version control for each ads
• Email, Attachment modules
• Custom fields
• Reports
• Project Management, Collaboration, workflow, administration, security, versioning, scheduling, tem plating, syndication, personalization/localization, and session management,

I look forward to receive your views

Best regards,
Arul Kumar

—————————–

Wareprise.com responds to the requirements as follow:

Continue Reading »Response to an open source system requirement

The following list of free video editing and convertor software are highly recommended for Mac OSX:

Simple Video Splicer 1.0

• Simple Video Splicer is a very basic yet powerful tool for creating movies out of several video segments.
• Want to add a music track to the video? Not a problem, SVS offers a user friendly audio splicing tool as well.
• SVS also includes a basic image panning tool for displaying photos in motion.

Gawker 0.8

• Gawker is an application for Mac OS X that creates time-lapse movies using a webcam. Images from your camera can be shared, allowing other users to record your image stream. Streams can also be combined to create a time-lapse movie with up to four locations side-by-side. Continue Reading »Free Movie Maker and Convertor Downloads for Mac OSX

Why in the world would I want to do that?

Well I’m sure that office workers in general do only 2 things at work.

1. They are either working OR

2. They are “not working”

Let me explain my definition of “not working”. Not working means doing things which does not directly contribute to the company’s profitability.  Some examples include:

• Facebooking
• Blogging at work
• Reading blog sites
• Chatting with friends via instant messengers
• Downloading porn, pirated software, mp3, videos, movies

For many office workers, working while doing some of the above have become a norm and considers it to be a sort of work life balance. First thing in the morning, that instant messenger is turned on just to be connected to friends at all times.

Are you worried to be seen doing any of the above during work hours? If you are, then there’s a neat tool for you to hide and switch your desktop at times of trouble -> (eg. your boss suddenly walks in and you get busted).

Continue Reading »How to quickly switch and hide your desktop from your boss