Another great post on Jon Taplin’s Blog that’s well worth the read. In it he points out some of the current administrations delusions of joblessness (look at the chart!), and other political stagnations that are affecting our current state of economic affairs.

One of the major points of his post is how our economy has shifted to a service base, which is largely non-exportable (at least to smaller, more locally oriented businesses). This also means we’re not manufacturing as much as we used to, and therefore don’t have the export power we’ve had in the past. In other words, as the dollar has fallen against the Euro and other currencies, we’ve not seen an increase in exported manufactured goods as you’d expect.

This is an extremely important point to take in. If the current administration can’t see that the single most important thing we need to do in order to help the economy is to save/rejuvenate manufacturing jobs (read as: jobs that create exportable products and services) in the US, then we’re really sunk.

I tend to think, however, that the market will correct for this. We’ve already heard of some manufacturers moving operations to the US from the EU as a means to cut manufacturing costs. This is a trend that will probably continue, but only if businesses wake up to the fact that the current downturn in the economy isn’t a short term anomaly. Rather, it’s a long term (think several years) condition.

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I recently came across yet another free and open source software portal, this on is from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). A lot of good software listed on this site, stuff you wouldn’t normally get quickly by searching Google or SourceForge.net. One of the interesting pieces of web based management softwares I came across was SAHANA.

SAHANA runs on a LAMP/WAMP server and enables fast setup and web based management of disaster recovery networks. Features include a missing person registry, organization registry, request management system, camp registry, volunteer management, inventory management, and situation awareness. SAHANA has been used in several recent disasters for various applications. More can be found on its website.

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UNESCO Free & Open Source Software Portal

By now, everybody’s heard of the GIMP and Paint.net, but there are a lot of other great graphics programs out there for special situations which are lightweight and easy to use. And like the saying goes, the right tool for the right job…

Xara Xtreme

A while back, Xara released their vector graphics program Xara Xtreme into the wilds of the WWW as open source software. While the Windows version is still payware, the Linux version is completely free (as in speech!) and makes a great addition to any Linux graphics suite. While Xara Xtreme is comparable to InkScape, they don’t share all of the same functions, and they are a good complement to one another. GNU/Linux only.
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Artweaver

Artweaver is a freeware program for use with tablet PCs and pen tablets. It can simulate paint brushes of various types, includes layering, standard image formats and plug-in support, and has standard editing features like croping, area selecting and some built-in image effects. Not bad for around 8 Mb. Windows only.
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ArtRage 2

Along the same lines as Artweaver, but more focused on the painting aspects of pen input, ArtRage 2 is a free, limited feature download with a payware, full feature version available. The main advantage of ArtRage 2 is that it really does feel like an honest to goodness drawing pad right there on your PC. The free version, includes pencil, paint brush and a few other tools that allow you to really have a lot of fun with your tablet. Windows only.
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FastStone MaxView

FastStone offers several freeware and shareware programs for manipulating and viewing images. FastStone MaxView is a great freeware replacement for Windows XP’s Photo and Fax Viewer. MaxView is faster and has more options and features than Photo and Fax Viewer, and has a borderless window as well as auto-hiding controls and hotkey support. Windows only.
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Photoscape

Photoscape is a freeware photo editing program which includes features that allow you to do general photo editing and enhancements. You can also use it as a batch editing tool and it also allows you to make animated GIFs. Windows only.
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BONUS!! Imageditor

I’ve recently come across a handy tool for editing the Windows registry to change which programs open image files by default. Windows automatically associates certain right-click actions (chiefly open and edit) with built-in programs. I’ve been using Paint.net as a replacement for MS Paint for a while, but I wanted to associate it with all the same image formats that Paint was. This way, Paint.net would use the built-in “Edit” context menu item.

Imageditor allows you to do just that, with no manual editing of the registry or going through the hassle of changing multiple items in the Folder Settings dialog. There are instructions on the Imageditor page on how to use it. Windows only.
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