Flowing Fix (via NY times): Tips for Buying Tech

So you are thinking of buying a new item of technology (e.g., computer, camera, tv) and with so many options to tweak it might seem confusing as to which are a higher priority than others.  The N.Y. Times article has some good tech buying tips which will help ease the confusion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/technology/personaltech/12basics.html?_r=3&ref=technology

Flowing Fix (via numberstemplates.com): Export Address Book Data With Apple iWork Numbers ’08

Tip: Export Address Book Data With Apple iWork Numbers ‘08 [Mac OS X only]

http://www.numberstemplates.com/2007/08/25/tip-export-address-book-data-with-apple-iwork-numbers-08/

by MICHAEL on AUGUST 25, 2007

Here is a great tip I found on the Apple discussion boards courtesy of Neil Barman. 
You can use Numbers to export your address book entries to a comma separated values (csv) file.
Here’s how you do it:

Open Address book, then select the entries you wish to export. Drag them into numbers, on a blank area of the canvas, and a table will automatically be created. By default, the following fields are displayed: Last Name, First Name, Phone and Email. The other address book fields are present, but hidden. To have all fields display, choose the Unhide All Columns from the Table menu.

You can then select Export from the File menu, and choose a csv format that will be suitable for import into another application.

Then you can export this to a CSV file which Excel can read. Next create new sheet and create the headers (or as needed)

Title

Last name

First name

How name should print (map to Middle Name)

Home street

home city

home state

home zip

Then, MS Word >>; Tools >>; Mail Merge Manager

Then follow the steps and use the EXCEL file as the data source

Microsoft ICE

Microsoft Image Composition Editor: (MS Windows Only)
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/

I nice tool to create composite images.

Inkscape

Inkscape (Mac OS X, MS Windows, Linux): http://inkscape.org/
Free, ease to use, and powerful vector graphics editor.  Great for simple and complex figures.  Allows for exporting to various formats including .eps, .pdf, and .png which are perfect for LaTeX documents.