Free Office 2013 Alternatives 

Not keen on ponying up the cash for Microsoft's new Office 2013? Check out these free Microsoft Office 2013 has officially hit the streets, and it offers a significantly upgraded interface, more tools, and perhaps most importantly, a cloud-friendly system that lets you work from anywhere. In any case, if you are part of the camp that is unconvinced by Microsoft's new offerings, then know that there are some fantastic and completely free alternatives out there. Here are four that we like.

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Google Docs
Many Office users have been migrating to Google's productivity tools since long before Office 2013 and its yearly subscription came to be. That's because Google offers fantastically intuitive applications for creating text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. You can import and export Microsoft Office file types, and it's all completely free (for individual users, not businesses). A Google account is required, though.

One downside to Docs, of course, is that its functionality requires a Web connection and browser. To be clear, you can work with Docs while offline, but only through the Chrome browser, and your edits will only sync once you are reconnected to the Web. Another possible issue with Docs is compatibility, as we have seen text formatting get wonky when importing from Word. Still, because of its ease of use, broad functionality, and collaboration capabilities, Google Docs deserves its spot on this list of viable Office alternatives.One of the biggest draws of Google's offering is the collaboration that it makes possible. Because all of your editing takes place in the cloud, you can actually share documents with other Google users and work on them together in real time. What's more, Docs integrates well with other Google offerings, making it a great choice for dedicated Google users.

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Microsoft Office Web Apps
This one is a no-brainer. If you're not keen on paying for Microsoft's full-featured desktop Office suite, then why not try using its trimmed-down cloud-based option for free? The suite consists of Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

For anyone who uses Office, Microsoft Office Web Apps should be a cinch to pick up. All of the compatibility you need is there, and I would even go so far as to say that this cloud-based suite's interface is quite a bit more elegant than Google's. Microsoft's cloud-based Office Web Apps are integrated with SkyDrive and are free for individuals to use.

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LibreOffice
LibreOffice is an open-source office suite that was developed in 2010 after forking from the also outstanding and popular OpenOffice.org program. It is completely free downloadable desktop software, and it comes loaded with tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, databases, and math formulas. With its slick interface and powerful arsenal of tools, LibreOffice is certainly one of the best free Office alternatives available today.

LibreOffice's interface should look and feel familiar to any seasoned Microsoft Office user, which means you should be able to hit the ground running immediately after downloading. It is eminently compatible with Microsoft's native file formats, but we have seen reports of minor text-formatting issues when importing files from Word. Still, with its five-star rating on CNET's Download.com, the free LibreOffice is definitely a good choice. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

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Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012
When it comes to compatibility, Kingsoft is king. It can open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and from what we've seen, can preserve all of Microsoft's formatting when doing so. For anyone looking for an Office replacement, this sort of worry-free compatibility is a huge deal.

Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 is available on Windows and has a companion app for Android. There is also a paid Pro version of Kingsoft's suite that offers a few extra power features like VBA functionality in spreadsheets.

Creating DVDs From VOB Files

Creating DVDs From VOB Files

I lifted this discussion from Isobuster.com.  I copied it here in case it ever becomes unavailable.  I found it very useful.

We are going to use VOBedit and IFOedit freeware programs to recreate DVDs from VOB files.  To be able to use Vobedit properly we need to rename the extracted VOB files like this:VTS_01_001.VOB, etc. It's very important for this tool that the file ends with double zero and then a consecutive number starting with 1, so _001.VOB, _002.VOB, _003.VOB and so on.

Now start up VobEdit.

1. Click the Open button and open the first VOB file (VTS_01_001.VOB).
2. Next, click Edit and select Join Clips

1. Next choose or create a new folder and preferably name it VIDEO_TS.
2. Use the proposed name of VTS_01_1.VOB.

1. In the next dialog box, check that the number is 1 and next click OK., 

VobEdit will now convert the renamed (_001,...) VOB files to VTS_01_1.VOB etc. The resulting VOB file(s) may be combined in one file, the sizes can be altered or there can be more files, it all depends.

After this process you end up with one or more new VOB files in a VIDEO_TS folder, which are also already named correctly, so that they can be used later on to produce a new Movie DVD.     

Now it's time to start up IfoEdit.

1. Click the Create IFOs button.
2. Open the first VTS_01_1.VOB file which was produced by VobEdit.
3. Make sure that the Same as source checkbox is checked!
4. Click OK.

IfoEdit will now create the IFO and BUP files:   

After the process is done you will see two lines in the top pane of IfoEdit:
VIDEO_TS.IFO and VTS_01.0.IFO.

1. Click the first line. Content will be displayed in the second (bottom) pane.
2. In the bottom pane, click the line that says VTS_1 Audio..., this triggers a popup dialog.
3. In the dialog, change the Language to English.
4. .  Click the OK button on the dialog.
5. Save and confirm when asked to overwrite. 

Repeat the same process again, but this time for the second line:

1. Click the second line. Content will be displayed in the second (bottom) pane
2. In the bottom pane,double click the line that says Audio 1:... which triggers a dialog to popup.
3. In the dialog, change the Language to English.
4. Click the OK button on the dialog.
5. Save and confirm when asked to overwrite.

As a last step:

1. Click the button Get VTS sectors.
2. Select Yes to process all IFO files when prompted.e        

You can now close IfoEdit. The result is a full set of IFO, BUP and VOB files in a VIDEO_TS folder on your HD. This set of files is (or should be) suitable to be burned with a standard write application, such as Nero for instance.

    

The Double-Headed Eagle

The Double-Headed Eagle

I am trying to get through David Starkey's Churchills on Channel Four, and I noticed that the emblem of the family is a double- headed Eagle.  I have always loved that symbol.  I have always loved that symbol.  I am Greek Orthodox, and the emblem of the church has a double-headed eagle, which was borrowed from the Byzantine Empire.

The double-headed eagle is a common symbol in heraldry and vexillology. It is most commonly associated with the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Empire and their successor states. In Byzantine heraldry, the heads represent the dual sovereignty of the Emperor (secular and religious) and/or dominance of the Byzantine Emperors over both East and West. In the Holy Roman Empire's heraldry, it represented the church and the state. Several Eastern European nations adopted it from the Byzantines and continue to use it as their national symbol to this day.

Frankly, I think the church's symbol isn't as pretty as some that I have seen.  Here is one that was used by Russia, which I find attractive:

The one you usually seen used by the church isn't muscular like Russia's, but looks like it could afford to lose a few pounds.

Antinous

Antinous

Here is a statue of Antinous, which now resides in Berlin.  Antinous was born to a Greek family in what is now north-west Turkey, and joined the entourage of the emperor Hadrian at a young age. He is frequently described and depicted as a beautiful boy and youth. The relationship is believed to have been sexual.

Antinous drowned in the Nile in October 130. The death was presented as an accident, "but it was believed at the time that Antinous had been sacrificed or had sacrificed himself," and Hadrian "wept for him like a woman." Hadrian went through the process of deifying him soon afterwards, a process previously exclusively reserved for imperial family members rather than friends or lovers of non-Roman origin.

Pergamon

Pergamon

Pergamon (or Pergamum) was an ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey, located 16 miles (26 km) from the Aegean Sea that became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 281–133 BC. Pergamon is cited in the book of Revelation as one of the seven churches of Asia.

The following is a picture o fhe frieze of the Pergamon Altar which was "recovered" between 1878 and 1886 and now resides in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Homer's Greece

Homer's Greece

The following is a map of Homer's Greece. At the bottom right, you will see my favorite Greek island, Symi (Syme).  According to Homer, King Nereus led three ships from Symi to the Trojan Wars.

File Lockers

This is my current experience with file lockers:

• Mediafire is very fast and reliable.
• Zippyshare is very fast and reliable.
• Mega is very fast and reliable. It allows multiple downloads, which is great. 
• Bitshare is can be very fast and reliable.  Sometimes it is just fast.
• Megashares is very fast, but it is hard to find a download slot. ...You have to keep trying. You also have to wait 2 hours to download another episode.
• Uploading is fast and reliable.
• Freakshare is fast and reliable.
• Filefactory is fast and reliable.
• Ultramegabit  is fast and reliable.
• Fileparadox  is fast and reliable.
• Sendspace  is not very fast, but it is reliable.
• Uploaded is not very fast, but it is reliable.
• Ryushare is not very fast, but it is reliable.
• Fileparadox is not very fast.
• Sharesix is not very fast.
• Lumfile is not very fast.
• Asfile is not very fast. Sometimes it doesn't download a big file completely, but if I keep my downloads to one big file a day, I may not have that problem.
• Putlocker is not very fast, but you can do multiple downloads.
• Blizfiles is not very fast.
• Cloudzer is slow.
• Rapidgator is slow, and sometimes it doesn't download an episode completely. 
• Rapidshare is slow, but reliable. The last time that I used Rapidshare, however, the download was very fast. Unfortunately, episodes are removed very quickly. Because the links are taken down so quickly, only recently posted links are worthwhile.

Avoid :

• Netload  - It never downloads an episode completely. 
• Billionuploads  - It gives you an .EXE file.
• Uploadcore  - It gives you an .EXE file.
• Putlocker  - It gives you an .EXE file.
• Cyberlocker  - It requres an account. 
• Datacloud  - Alot of advertising and no file to download.