Celestia: Explore Space! (Windows, Linux, and Mac Software)

Celestia is a free program that allows you to explore space! Celestia allows you to view more than just the night sky, but to virtually travel through it and see distant galaxy up close and pinpoint their locations in the universe. Celestia has a massive catalog with thousands of stars, moons, galaxies, comets and more.

Celestia also allows you to search for items in space by their names (whether common or scientific). Celestia is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac all for free. Hundreds of addons are also available for countless additional features.

To download Celestia, visit their website and click the Downloads button.

For a less complicated program simply for viewing the night sky, check out Stellarium.

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Explore the Sky: Stellarium (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

Stellarium is a free program available for Windows, Mac, and Linux that will allow you to explore the night sky. Enter your GPS coordinates for where you are now or want to be, and see what the night sky will look like! Stellarium will allow you to skip forward and backward through time to see what the sky looked/will look like. This is a great way to know what will be where on a particular day. I use Stellarium to find out where the moon will be on a given night and determine if I should get my telescope out.

Stellarium is a great classroom program for students of any age and a great way to bring the night sky into your classroom during the day on a projector screen, or interactively on individual computers.

Stellarium allows you many options to further customize the program. One of my favorite features of Stellarium is the ability to see the constellation lines, and then also see the constellation artwork.

To download Stellarium, visit their website.

For a more advanced program to let you explore space, check out Celestia.

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Thank You, Plugin Authors!

I would like to thank all of the plugin authors for their hard work in developing the many free plugins we use at Zylblog, all over the site. The following are all of the plugins we use, including their description from the WordPress website and a link to the author as well as a link to the plugin itself.

Listed alphabetically.

 
Akismet Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and track-back spam. It keeps your site protected from spam even while you sleep.
  Version 2.5.1 | By Automattic | Visit plugin site
All in One Adsense and YPN Inserts Adsense or YPN code in to your blog posts. Ad position can be random or pre-defined.
  Version 1.92 | By linewbie | Visit plugin site
Bad Behavior Deny automated spambots access to your PHP-based Web site.
  Version 2.0.39 | By Michael Hampton | Visit plugin site
Datafeedr Random Ads V2 The Datafeedr Random Ads plugin is a free plugin which allows you to simply and easily show random ads anywhere in your template files or using widgets.
  Version 2.0 | By Datafeedr.com | Visit plugin site
Google Analyticator Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics.
  Version 6.1.1 | By Ronald Heft | Visit plugin site | FAQ |
Hello Dolly This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page.
  Version 1.5.1 | By Matt Mullenweg | Visit plugin site
IntenseDebate IntenseDebate Comments enhance and encourage conversation on your blog or website. Full comment and account data sync between IntenseDebate and WordPress ensures that you will always have your comments. Custom integration with your WordPress admin panel makes moderation a piece of cake. Comment threading, reply-by-email, user accounts and reputations, comment voting, along with Twitter and friendfeed integrations enrich your readers’ experience and make more of the internet aware of your blog and comments which drives traffic to you!
  Version 2.9 | By IntenseDebate & Automattic | Visit plugin site
NoSpamNX To protect your Blog from automated spambots, which fill you comments with junk, this plugin adds additional formfields (hidden to human-users) to your comment form. These Fields are checked every time a new comment is posted.
  Version 3.22 | By Sven Kubiak | Visit plugin site
Permalink Redirect Permalink Redirect ensures that pages and entries are always accessed via the permalink. Otherwise, a 301 redirect will be issued.
  Version 2.0.4 | By Scott Yang | Visit plugin site
WordPress.com Stats Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.
  Version 1.7.5 | By Automattic | Visit plugin site
WordPress Importer Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags from a WordPress export file.
  Version 0.2 | By wordpressdotorg | Visit plugin site
WP-Ban Ban users by IP, IP Range, host name, user agent and referer url from visiting your WordPress’s blog. It will display a custom ban message when the banned IP, IP range, host name, user agent or referer url tries to visit you blog. You can also exclude certain IPs from being banned. There will be statistics recordered on how many times they attemp to visit your blog. It allows wildcard matching too.
  Version 1.50 | By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan | Visit plugin site
WP-Mail-SMTP Reconfigures the wp_mail() function to use SMTP instead of mail() and creates an options page to manage the settings.
  Version 0.8.6 | By Callum Macdonald | Visit plugin site
WP-Polls Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can easily include a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page. WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It now supports multiple selection of answers.
  Version 2.60 | By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan | Visit plugin site
WP Super Cache Very fast caching plugin for WordPress.
  Version 0.9.9.8 | By Donncha O Caoimh | Visit plugin site
 
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds. A templating feature allows customization of the display.
  Version 3.1.9 | By mitcho (Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine) | Visit plugin site
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January Site Updates

There have been no significant outages* since the 15th of December (after a long outage).

Jan 09: Upgraded to WordPress 3.0.4

* Significant outages include any outage over 10 minutes.

The month of December was a little slow for the blog. Not a lot changed.

The site statistics have largely the same posts and refers, but the order has changed from last month. Still, the accordion fingering chart remains as the top most accessed page.

Site usage over the last 30 days :

Top Pages

  1. Accordion Fingering Chart (bass) | ZylBlog
  2. Run The Sims 3 under Linux | ZylBlog
  3. Is it okay to leave your computer on? | ZylBlog
  4. Advantages of Linux over Windows to the average user | ZylBlog
Top Referrers

  1. computerhope.com
  2. j-dude.com
  3. zylstrablog.co.nr
  4. wordpress.org
  5. bit.ly/forexmarket
Top Searches

  1. 48 bass accordion finger chart notes
  2. 48 bass accordion fingering chart
  3. 48 button accordion fingering chart
  4. accordion 120 bass chart
  5. accordion 80 bass button fingering chart
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December Site Updates

Merry Christmas

I am a little late getting to updates.
For the first two weeks of this month, I was unable to get to the site’s administration panel. After a lot of troubleshooting and a lot of help from the WordPress support community, the issue was resolved. The majority of the pages were accessible during this time, however some internal site pages did stop working. These issues have been resolved, though the cause is still unknown.

Onward! Top pages, searches, and refers have not changed much. And, as usual, Accordion Fingering Chart stays the top page despite this site not being dedicated to music!

Top Pages

  1. Accordion Fingering Chart (bass) | ZylBlog
  2. We Have an Actual Domain | ZylBlog
  3. Run The Sims 3 under Linux | ZylBlog
  4. Is it okay to leave your computer on? | ZylBlog
  5. Spiceworks: Free Network Administration Software (Windows) | ZylBlog
Top Referrers

  1. computerhope.com
  2. zylstrablog.co.nr
  3. j-dude.com
  4. bit.ly/forwebmasters
  5. google.com
Top Searches

  1. 48 button accordion fingering chart
  2. accordion 120 bass chart
  3. accordion 80 bass button fingering chart
  4. accordion bass fingering
  5. accordion finger chart scarletti
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Goodbye Goog411

Goog411, a free automated directory assistance number, will be shut down on November 12th, 2010. Though the official article did not include details on why they choose to discontinue the service, it is known that Google wants to target smartphone users with these technologies and a similar service will still be offered with Android phones. For us “plain old telephone” users (and even “regular” cell phone users), Goog411 was a great way to find local businesses when Google searching was not an option. Not only that, but Goog411 allowed people to make long distance calls in the US for free, a feature beloved by many. Continue reading

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System Information for Windows

System Information for Windows (S.I.W.) is a great program for home users to discover specific details about their computers. From the operating system, to network interface cards, to how many RAM slots your computer has, SIW is definitely one of the most thorough programs available for finding information about individual components in your system. SIW can be run as an installed program, or run standalone on a flash drive. Divided into three sections, SIW focuses on Software, Hardware, and Networking.

Focused features:
Software:
Operating system, updates, and service packs
Advanced Autorun/Startup item viewing
Active X Items
Open Files

Hardware:
Motherboard information (Manufacturer, CPU, System Slots, Memory, Max Memory, and Memory Slots)
BIOS information (Serial number, BIOS Version, BIOS Date)
CPU Information (No. Logical Processors, No. Physical Processors, CPU Name and Speed, Level 1, 2, and 3 cache information)
Memory amount, individual memory module information, memory speed, memory width (in bits)
Temperature Sensor Information
System Slots (type, capabilities, and current usage)
Network Adapters
Detailed storage device information

Network:
Network Information (computer name, workgroup, IP address, DNS Servers, IPv6 address, adapter description, ARP table information)
Neighborhood Scan (shows nearby computers)
Open ports
Shared folders

SIW contains many more features than what are listed above.

SIW is only available free for home use only. Commercial users can purchase SIW for their business.

Another easier to use and much more simplified program targeted for computer novices is Speccy, which you can read about here.

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November Site Updates

Site Updates for the month of November

Site Stats:

Top Pages

  1. Run The Sims 3 under Linux | ZylBlog
  2. playonlinux | ZylBlog
  3. Is it okay to leave your computer on? | ZylBlog
  4. Page not found | ZylBlog
  5. Advantages of Linux over Windows to the average user | ZylBlog
Top Referrers

  1. computerhope.com
  2. j-dude.com
  3. cad-forums.com
  4. google.es
  5. prelovac.com
Top Search

  1. playonlinux no dvd crack

Continue reading

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New Server!

An even better server came about! The blog has been completely moved over to the new server. IRCD will remain on the old server for now, and will be moved at a later date.

Continue reading

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Google TV: Pre-Order Now Available

GoogleTV devices are now available for pre-order. Google T.V. can be implemented into your current television using one of two methods: 1) Get a T.V. that directly supports InternetTV, or 2) get a small attachment device to use with your current television.

These devices are certainly not free. The Logitech (R) Revue starts at $299, and the Sony InternetTV starts at $599 for a 24″ TV, and $1,399 for a 46″ TV.

Both of these devices come with a wireless keyboard with a built-in laptop-style mouse (track-pad), and allow you to use compatible cell phones as a remote. Continue reading

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