RJ Tata’s Blog

• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org
  http://www.openoffice.org/
  OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites (including Microsoft Office), the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

• Open Source Development Editor: Open Komodo
  http://www.openkomodo.com/
  The Open Komodo Project, based on the award-winning Komodo IDE, is a new initiative by ActiveState to create an open source platform for building developer environments. ActiveState has open-sourced elements of Komodo Edit, a free multi-language editor for dynamic languages based on Komodo IDE, to create the Open Komodo code base.

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400+ public boat launches in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Open the michigan-lower-peninsula-public-boat-ramps.kml (right-click and select “save target as” or “save link as”) in Google Earth. Or, you can use Garmin POI loader to put the michigan-lower-peninsula-marinas-and-yacht-clubs.csv on to your Garmin GPS.

Many Locations from
1. Fish Michigan, 100 Southern Michigan Lakes, 2nd Edition by Tom Huggler (ISBN 0-923756-17-5)
2. Fish Michigan, 100 Northern Lower Michigan Lakes, by Tom Huggler (ISBN 0-923756-19-1)
3. Fish Michigan, 100 Great Lakes Hotspots, by Tom Huggler (ISBN 0-923756-18-3)

Want to learn how to make your own? Click Here….

I’ve been a huge fan of Google Earth since it launched. I’ve also recently purchased a Garmin Nuvi 650 GPS and the thought occurred to me – wouldn’t it be cool to pinpoint locations in Google Earth’s satellite view, and then somehow transfer them to the Garmin GPS? A quick search on Google and I notice that somebody has already figured it out! First, setup Google Earth to use decimal degree locations under Tools -> Options. Then you add a new folder under “My Places” in Google Earth and save your desired locations into that folder. Then you save that folder (by right-clicking it) as a *.kml file. Next, get your hands on the shareware program called POIEdit. Open the .kml file in POIEdit and you’ll see that you can save it as *.gpx (GPS exchange format) or *.csv (the Garmin comma separated POI format) file. Now you can use Garmin’s free POI Loader to load the *.csv file as a Custom POI (Points of Interest) on to your GPS. You could also use POIEdit to save the Google Earth file to other GPS formats as well. Happy navigating!