JavaScript Visualization Frameworks Review

This article covers the JavaScript frameworks for the creation of data visualizations. The frameworks covered are:

1. ProcessingJS
2. RaphaelJS
3. D3

It is a great read. The only point of conflict for me was that Snap.svg was not mentioned. Snap.svg is the spiritual successor to RaphaelJS.

Still the article does a great job.

Finding Software Alternatives

If you are looking for a software alternative to any software. You have two alternatives:

1. Google for software alternatives and try every one of them
2. Take advice from others

The first means that you are going to learn from your own experience. In my own experience, this is a slow and painful way to learn.

A much easier way is to learn from the experiences of others. At that is where AlternativeTo comes in.

AlternativeTo is a website which lists alternatives to web-based software, desktop computer software, and mobile apps, and sorts the alternatives by various criteria, including the number of registered users who have clicked the "Like" button for each of them on AlternativeTo.

Unlike a number of other software directory websites, the software is not arranged into categories, but each individual piece of software has its own list of alternatives, permitting a more tailored listing approach.

Searching through AlternativeTo was how I found a number of software tools that I currently used when I decided to stop software piracy.

Uchaguzi

Ushahidi is a platform for incidence reporting. It was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2008.

Earlier this year, it was used to monitor post-election violence in the United States of America. It was a thing of joy to see a product from Africa achieve that feat.

Now it comes full circle as on the 8th of this month, Kenyans will be voting again.

To this end, the company has launched Uchaguzi which is a platform to monitor the Kenyan elections happening this Tuesday.

It a nice homecoming for Ushahidi.

7 Free Content Creation Tools

Welcome to a new month.

I apologize for not posting in a while. I was seriously busy at work. I start the month with a list of 7 free content creation tools. This is taken from a post by Shopify.

If you don't want to read the post, below is a list of tools along with links to their respective websites:

1. Meme Generator
2. Lumen5
3. Fake iPhone Text Generator
4. GIPHY
5. Canva
6. Qzzr
7. Playbuzz

Have a great month ahead.

Tools and Resources

If you are a reader of this blog, you will know that I have written and self-published 3 books. In this post, I will share with you links to some of the tools and resources that I use.

When I started on my journey, the first place I started from was with The Creative Penn. Make sure you sign up for here newsletter.

Also, take a look at this KDP Tools and Resources list. They cover the most general use cases. I use Sigil to create my ebooks in the ePub format and then use Kindle Previewer to know how it will look on a Kindle device as well as create a file that I can upload to the Amazon store.

Have a great weekend.

AIDE

AIDE is an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing real Android apps directly on your Android device.

This means that you can program mobile applications on your device. Using AIDE you can learn Java, C/C++, HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.

You can find it on the Google Play store. It is free but is ad supported unless you buy a premium license.

Some of the reviews describe it as a genuine IDE. So if you want an alternative for developing Android applications, give AIDE a try.

IdeaSpaceVR

IdeaSpaceVR is an open source content management system for the virtual reality web. Think of it like WordPress for virtual reality.

It allows you to manage your virtual reality spaces and assets like you would manage blog posts. You run it on your own server. All you need is PHP and a database.

You can download and install new themes and create a virtual reality website. Or create your own theme with the Theme API.

IdeaSpaceVR uses WebVR for interactive VR experiences. WebVR is compatible with all modern web browsers on PC and mobile (Samsung Gear VR, Cardboard, Daydream, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive).

If you are into virtual reality, you might want to give IdeaSpaceVR a try.

GraphicsGale

When creating games that use pixel art, you need a tool that will help you to create your animated sprites. There are a number of tools to do this, but I will mention GraphicsGale because this week it became freeware.

GraphicsGale is great for pixel art and animation. It had a premium version which that includes support for GIFs, Windows icons, Windows cursor, and Windows animated cursor.

So if you are looking for a free tool for pixel art with years of industry experience behind it, give GraphicsGale a try.

Astropy

Astropy is a collection of software packages written in the Python programming language and designed for use in astronomy.

The software is a single, free, core package for astronomical utilities due to the increasingly widespread usage of Python by astronomers, and to foster interoperability between various extant Python astronomy packages.

Astropy is included in several large Python distributions; it is part of package managers for Linux and MacOS, the Anaconda Python Distribution, Enthought Canopy and Ureka.

If you work in astronomy, you should give Astropy a look.

Industry Tools for eBook Creation

According to The State of Digital Publishing in Canada 2016 report the top tools used by publishing houses in Canada are:

1. Adobe InDesign
2. Oxygen XML Editor
3. Microsoft Word
4. Sigil
5. QuarkXPress
6. PressBooks
7. Calibre
8. P-Shift

Personally, I use Sigil for eBook creation. I created my 3rd book using Sigil. It is a simple and intuitive tool. The only drawback is that you must know how to markup your book using HTML.

Basic HTML is all you need to know to learn how to use Sigil to the best of its capabilities. The place I would recommend that you start from would be w3schools.

12 Design Tools To Make Your eLearning Course Look Good

Whenever I look at an item, in my head the first thing that will attract me is its beauty. After that I consider it is will be useful and simple.

The BUS way of looking at things is not unique to only me. Most of us have our first impressions shaped by this way.

For creating eLearning courses, beauty can be a major attraction or turn off.

Check out this post for 12 Design Tools to make beautiful eLearning courses.

Open Source Alternatives

Yesterday, I talked about a free alternative for Microsoft Office called WPS Office 2016 Free which in my opinion is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Office.

The image above shows the open source alternatives to the other popular softwares on the Windows Operating system.

I also use LibreOffice because of its great drawing tool. But I prefer WPS Office 2016 Free for the beauty of the documents that I can create with it.

A Free Microsoft Office Alternative

This year, I promised myself that I would stop cracking other people's software. As an author, watching a book I had spent 9 months of my life laboring on become available on pirate websites made me promise that I would never again pirate anyone's software.

This would mean that I would have to find either a free alternative or buy the software where the free alternative couldn't do the job.

After months of searching, I am glad to say that WPS Office 2016 Free is a great Microsoft Office alternative.

Today I use it for all my Microsoft Office tasks. It only replaces Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It has some annoying ads but it is fully compatible with Microsoft Office.

If you are looking for a free Microsoft Office replacement, give WPS Office 2016 Free a try.

Turn a Google Form into a Chatbot

To get started, visit Fobi.io and enter the link to your Google Form. From there follow the prompts. It is simple and easy.

Fobi.io is powered by Zoi.ai. You must give Zoi.ai credit as they have found a way to market themselves without actually doing any marketing.

So if you are looking for a way to make your Google forms stand out, give Fobi.io a try.

Ninite A Package Management System

Ninite is a package management system for the Windows operating systems. Think of it like a way to automate all the programs on your computer without having to do anything else.

When you visit the website, all you have to do is pick the programs that you are interested in and download your Ninite package.

Benefits of using Ninite rather than the individual applications' installers themselves include: toolbar/adware free installations, the ability to update multiple applications at once, automatic selection of architecture (64-bit vs 32-bit), language selection based on operating system's language, and error reporting, should one of the installations fail.

Do give Ninite a try.

Corona SDK Roadmap

If you checked out the list of Magic Tools by Ellison Leão you would see Corona SDK in the list of game engines.

Corona SDK is a great tool for game development. It uses the Lua programming language. Last week, they released their roadmap.

Their roadmap shows you all the features they want to add from now up till the first quarter of 2018.

Check it out and do give Corona SDK a try.

Photopea

Growing up, I learned that creativity was grown by constraints. I became resourceful because of the lack of resources. That attitude has helped me keep going when everything around me said stop.

From time to time, you find a tool that is God sent. It meets a clear need in your life. As a developer, I don't see how I would ever buy Adobe Photoshop. However working with designers means that I need a way to open the PSD files sent to me.

In comes Photopea.  Photopea is a free online photo editor with excellent support for PSD, XCF and Sketch files.

This means that you can open files from Adobe Photoshop, GIMP and Sketch App. GIMP is the open source competitor to Adobe Photoshop while Sketch App is a great Mac only design tool.

Photopea changes the game by providing you with a free and advanced editor. It runs totally online. You can also get it as a Chrome extension. Do like them on Facebook.