You can reach me by email at my contact page. I love getting anything emails, whether it be fan mail, correction mail, or even hate mail. OK, maybe not hate mail.
Websites
WebX
http://www.andrewmin.com/webx/
I was playing around with some JavaScript one day, and decided to make an online operating system. Since its creation, it’s gotten close to 100,000 hits. It’s currently in the process of being updated, so stay tuned for WebX 2.0.
Software
Evidence Scribe toolbar
Site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14018/
In my spare time, I’m a policy debater. If you do policy debate, you know that you need evidence. A lot of it. The best evidence organizer that I’ve found is Evidence Scribe. However, the one problem was that there was no Firefox integration. So, I created one.
todo.txt Super Karamba widget
Site: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=80151
I’m a huge fan of Gina Trapani’s todo.txt to-do list tricks. One of my favorite hacks was the hack to use Samurize and GeekTool to display your todo.txt on your desktop. However, Samurize only runs on Windows and GeekTool is OS X-only. Therefore, I created a Linux SuperKaramba widget to display your todo.txt.
MLB Super KarambawWidget
Site: http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/MLB+Widget?content=80183
I love baseball. When I was “little” I wanted to be a baseball player. I never was quite that good, but I still love the game. For all of you other baseball lovers, I’ve created a little widget that will grab text from ESPN’s Scoreboard and display it on your desktop.
Twitter @politicians
Site: http://twitter.com/politicians
If you like politics and you like Twitter, you’ll love @politicians. It’s a mashup I made with TwitterFeed and all the politicians who use Twitter. I fed all of their accounts into individual TwitterFeeds, then spits them out every half-hour using the @politicians account. There’s a list of all the ones I’m following here.
make_me_a_sandwich
Site: http://cli-apps.org/content/show.php?content=89734
You need to be an xkcd fan to understand it. Read the comic “Sandwich“. Then run it as a normal user, then run it as root.
Debian Packages
The .deb file format is the format used by Ubuntu, Debian, and many other popular GNU/Linux operating systems. Think of it as sort of an installer for common programs (for more, read its Wikipedia article). I’ve created several .debs, some of which have been added to the official project.
America’s Army
Link: http://files.filefront.com/Americas+Army+25+deb/;11399768;/fileinfo.html
America’s Army (also known as AA or Army Game Project) is a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter owned by the United States Government and released as a global public relations initiative to help with U.S. Army recruitment.
America’s Army was the first .deb I ever made (excluding CheckInstall, which doesn’t count). It’s about 900MB.
odvr
Link: http://code.google.com/p/odvr/
odvr is a user-space driver for USB-enabled Olympus DVRs that do not support the USB Mass Storage specification. odvr is tested against the VN-960PC, but should support similar Olympus models such as the VN-120PC, VN-240PC, VN-480PC, VN-2100PC, and VN-3100PC. See SupportedDevices for a list of known-working devices.
This was my second .deb. Since it was for an open source project, I emailed the developer and asked him if he’d be interested in adding it to the project homepage. He was, and I had my first .deb that was added to a project.
Facebook Photo Uploader
Link: http://code.google.com/p/fb-photo-uploader/
Upload photos to Facebook using a Java-based desktop application, including tagging photos before you upload.
Like the odvr package, this was also added to the project.
Wallpapers
Tux Family Portrait
The Tux family portrait. From left to right: Tux, Tux Crystal (Revision 1), Tux Crystal (Revision 2), Tiny Tux, and Crystalized Tux. They also have an illegitimate cousin in there (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tux#QuickTime_penguin_controversy for more on this).
The backdrop is the Tux Crossing wallpaper. Unfortunately, it is uncertain who created this originally. The original Tux is drawn by Larry Ewing, the first Crystal Tux was by Everaldo, the second by Jan Vansteenkiste, and the crystalized Tux is by gg3po. The Tiny Tux is uncertain, but I believe it was by dlb
Tux Vacation Photos
Tux’s vacation photos, from Africa to Pittsburgh. The following authors created the Tuxes (all under CC-BY-SA-NC):
Ubuntux: SparkleDesign
Sherlock Holmes Tux: Brunocb
Tux R2-D2: Brunocb
Tux Martial Arts: hardwiigamer
Spartan Tux: Sadooq
Bettux (football player): joesboxd3b
Champions (soccer team): 0
i’d rather be reading mplayer
If you’re a new Linux user, this isn’t for you. If you’re one of those types who like all the bells and whistles, this isn’t for you. But if you love simplicity and a good geek joke, you need to have this wallpaper.
GRUB Bootsplashes
Tuxwin Grub Splash
The classic fight between Tux and the MS butterfly. Based on the wallpaper Tuxwin (http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=10434)
Dangerous to lean out Grub splash
Based on the Dangerous to lean out wallpaper by rod (http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Dangerous+to+lean+out?content=27049). Thought it would make an appropriate Grub splash screen.
Other
Kirocker Theme: Land of the Free Software
The famous Tux vs. MSN Butterfly wallpaper, converted into a Kirocker theme. The background image was not made by me but unfortunately there is no way to tell who the original author is. The theme config is based on sunset bliss.
Reviews of my Writing
I was never really interested in online applications or desktops until i read some of your articles, now I’m hooked. Thanks for keeping me informed on all the best online apps!
Andrew, I’d just like to commend you on your consistently fantastic, thoroughly researched and clearly presented articles. I’ve learned a lot from you. So thanks!
[Andrew] is an extremely valuable resource. He continuously offers sound advice and a has fresh outlook out many tech-related things. Additionally, [Andrew] is somewhat of a Google Guru and is very insightful on that topic as well as others.
I have watched [Andrew] develop a niche in the community and help many in pursuit of various software solutions to needs of all kinds. [Andrew] could be a solo tech section.
You are the Daddy when it comes to applications – thank god you are here helping out us computer layman! I would be in trouble if I didn’t check your vine as regularly as I do! Thank you [Andrew]! your a star
If Andrew were ever to actually become a politician he would probably be the first that new how to work a computer.
Although we are on opposite sides of the [political] aisle, I wanted to let you know I have enjoyed reading your postings.
Actually one of my friends first read this article and asked me to visit this page. This article has very useful information, it will be helpful for many. It’s really amazing to read this description of this article. Thank you so much for your help and for your efforts.
good stuff. it’s nice to see a civilized discussion between members on opposite ends of the political spectrum (and they said it couldn’t be done). thanks for leading by example.
Everytime I go there [my column], I learn something new.