In October, just before NaNo began, I did a little Q&A. One question was about what I use to write: my answer was that I use OpenOffice Writer because I find a lot of programs have a lot of bloat.
I have tried a lot of stuff since I started writing novels (such as yWriter) but it just had too much. For every thing I felt I could use, there were ten things I did not need. I just wanted something where I could bullet point my characters and the like.
So you can imagine my delight when I discovered Kabikaboo, which basically just makes a collection of linked text files. It puts them in order, with children and grandchildren and stuff like that. It might not let me add styling and hyperlinks (which I would love) but that’s okay for now, as that stuff is supposed to come out in future versions. It’s simple, and it’s exactly what I wanted.
I love it when you find something after much searching and get it. It’s like when I found Write Or Die. 
So, writers out there, what are some of the other tools you use? I’d love to see what else people are using, and maybe find something else to use too.
25 February 2010 Technology, Writing
It seems all I am blogging about here is computer trouble, and neglecting it for everything else. I have been posting somewhat regularly at On The Nightstand though.
This is not me apologising for not blogging, as this post has an actual point to it.
My laptop has used up another life, and it’s choking and gasping and, well, not doing anything, really. And after all of the problems I have had with it, I have finally had enough. Actually I had had enough long before now; it’s just taken me this long to save up enough for the parts to build my own PC. (We have decided to call it Torchwood)
So now I’m looking at Linux installs, since I don’t want to spend 150-200NZD on Windows (XP or Vista) with Windows 7 coming out in October. More specifically I am looking at Ubuntu and its many derivatives. Does anyone have any suggestions versions that would be good for someone who has used Windows most of her life, or ways to make the changeover easier?
Expect a lot of blog posts about my venture into Linux and building a PC in future. But don’t worry – there’s some more writing ones hidden up my sleeve. Especially now that I am working on Lionheart…
You know how I have been having a bit of computer trouble lately? And by “a bit” I mean “my computer is an utter zombie, except not nearly as awesome”?
You get three guesses, and the first two don’t count.
Yeah, it’s being a pain in the rear again. This time my user profile is corrupt and I have had to set a new admin profile up. All my files are safe; this is just annoying, having to reset all the little things I had: Firefox addons, Thunderbird settings, bookmarks… all the little things like that.
It’s nothing too major in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still annoying. Only a smilie can properly show my feelings.
A friend of mine got for her birthday this week a pre-order thing for the upcoming Sims 3 game. And as you can imagine I am more than a little jealous. Unfortunately my computer is made of suck, and even if it weren’t a zombie that only half-worked it is still nowhere near powerful enough to play Sims 3. In fact, it can barely cope with Sims 2 and any expansion pack higher than University is out of the question. I have my eye on my perfect computer, but unfortunately I am a wee bit short on funds at the moment. 
I am hoping to make a spare bit of cash by designing websites, but it looks like I am about three months away from that awesome desktop with Sims 3.
For a good chunk of this weekend, a friend and I have been watching videos made with Sims 3, as posted on their official website and their youtube account, and ooh-ing and aah-ing over new features and the way things look. We commented on the resemblances between Susan Boyle and Barack Obama’s Sims and the real thing in the Good Luck, Susan Boyle video. And we laughed ourselves silly at a parody of the new Star Trek trailer made entirely with Sims 3. The image accompanying this entry is from a screengrab of that trailer. My favourite bit? Red Shirts will die…
So: are you looking forward to Sims 3? If so, what things are making you so excited? I am looking forward to (amongst other things) being able to customise personalities more, a grid that is four times smaller, being able to select lifetime wishes (and having a larger range of wishes to choose from) and, of course, the open neighbourhood system.
I have invented a machine that makes you hear the title of this post in the voice of Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.
No, wait. That’s not it.
The good news is that my computer has been resurrected as a zombie. No, not as a vampire, which is a case of being both cursed with awesome and blessed with suck, a zombie. Instead of gaining immortality and superior strength and senses etc. my computer has come back only to slowly rot and fall apart. I have taken to calling my laptop Owen, partially because of the state the computer is in, and also due to the eventual replacement being called Torchwood Three.
Insert your own “turn on Torchwood” jokes here. It’s all right – it’s one of the reasons I chose the name. 
Anyway, to celebrate the return of my laptop I have been able to finish the design I started a little while ago. I hope you like it.
And now I can go back to The Superhero Diaries.
Well, it’s finally happened. After about five years of slave-labour loyal service (and one year on top of that as a showroom display), my laptop seems to have finally given up the ghost. It’s been a long time coming – the CD/DVD drive somehow became just a DVD drive sometime early last year, the original power pack exploded (with a bang!) earlier this year, and it would scream in protest if I try to open filezilla while already having firefox and photoshop open already – so now the whole thing seems to have finally died.
I am writing this from the family’s desktop, which only reminds me of how much I miss having a computer in my room, with all my programs and files and everything. I miss my firefox install, with its bookmarks and addons and British-English spellcheck.
Don’t worry if the laptop takes my novels with it: the most recent versions of Blood Bound are with my wonderful beta, and the beginning fragments of Bones and The Superhero Diaries can be pieced together from stuff I have in various emails/from my notebook. I will have to do some extra typing and re-do a few things, but it could have been far, far worse.
In a way, this is a good thing, as I have been wanting a new laptop for some time now. The bad side, on the other hand, is that I cannot afford a new laptop right now, and it will take me about a month until I have saved enough money for the replacement I have got my eye on. So I am trying to look on the bright side in the meantime: being online less will mean less online distractions, so I can write my novels by hand in my notebook; I have noticed that when I type things up online from handwritten notes things get expanded, and my word count increases. So hooray for that.
So don’t worry about me if I am not online as much as usual. I’m still around, still writing… and looking for things that I need to get rid of anyway, and figure how much they’d be worth on TradeMe. It seems that not only am I trying to trim the fat on my body, but everywhere else now, too.
