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Before I started my final project in the MSc Development Management (TU874) I decided that I will do it completely in a open source environment. For that reason I borrowed a small laptop from work (although I am on the hunt of mini notebook) and installed Ubuntu Hardy (8.04).
There were a few glitches to make the wireless, video card and sound work (acer computers are not the easiest to get on linux but it’s not a big drama either). Actually the only thing that seems to come and go is the microphone. I made it work at some point but then something went wrong and now it’s dead. I don’t need it for the project so it still suits me well.
Here is the bundle of tools which I use for the project:
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy)
Firefox 3 browser
Zotero 1.0.7 add-on for Firefox for the bibliography and also project diary. It serves me as one-point resource management tool. There I keep all literature source, all my thought and notes and also links to the other programs files.
OpenOffice.org – office suite – almost as good as MS Office. It is a wonderful piece of free software
Planner Project Management – use it effectively manage time and human resources. I list my to do tasks, deadlines and I can see whether I can meet them based on the resources allocation.
FreeMind – a good mind mapping software, which I previously used under Windows. It’s excellent to organise your thoughts; notes taking when reading articles; all purpose mapping tool.

That’s about it.
I can highly recommend this setup as it is very powerful, yet free of charge!
A.

As part of my thesis I am planning to conduct a number of telephone interviews. To better capture the conversation I thought I might use recording in addition to taking notes. That is, of course, with the acceptance of the interviewee.
I am planning to either use skype for free calls or use a softphone such as Ekiga to conduct the interviews.
I googled for options of skype recording and there were a couple of software available. One was requiring compilation of the code, which I am not familiar with. I chose the second one, which was a straight forward install from a .deb installation file – Skype Call Recorder
The software is super simple to use. After the installation you can find its icon under Applications -> Accessories. Once activated it stays as system tray icon from which you can change the preferences.
I have set it up that for each call it asks me whether to record or not. For me it worked from the first time without any headaches,

Next would be to find software to record from VoiP (softphones).

A.

Това е само да отбележа, че наред с нещата на английски ще пускам и публикации на български, по теми вълнуващи главно българската аудитория.