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We’ve shown you Ubuntu chemistry applications for students, but we somehow missed this extremely simple and information-crammed version of the periodic table. That’s too bad. There is a lot of information to be found in gElemental, and it’s very logically arranged. There’s a reason it’s so highly rated in the Ubuntu Software Center, and I think it’s more than a competent replacement for a mere poster.

Whether you’re a student or just a science enthusiast, this is an application worth having around for offline reference. If you’re a real nerd, you can just explore it for fun in your spare time. Science is fun.

Using gElemental

If you’ve seen the periodic table of the elements before, the main screen of gElemental will be familiar to you. You’ll see the elements, all in their proper places.

Hover over an element and you’ll see its name, the series it belongs in and its atomic number at the top. By default elements are color-coded according to series; you can find a legend by clicking the drop-down menu at the bottom of the window. You can change this color code in the menu to any of dozens of factors, which is certainly something a poster can’t do.

It’s a simple interface but what else do you want? If what you want are details about the various elements I highly recommend clicking one of them.

You’ll find a variety of information right away, from basic chemical stats to the year and place it was discovered. Click the “Physical or Atomic” tab in this window and you’ll see even more information:

Under physical, you’ll find the melting and boiling points, the heat of fusion and vaporization and more. The atomic tab contains even more information. Rest assured, there’s more data here than most posters you’ve seen.

Are you wondering where this information is all coming from? There’s a complete list of sources which you can find in the menu.

You’re free to look through this and decide how trustworthy the information is, which is particularly nice if you need to cite something you find in this program.

Installing gElemental

Are you ready to install this program? Search your Linux distro’s repository for “gelemental” and you’ll have it in no time. Are you a Ubuntu user? Then simply click here to install gElemental, thanks to the magic of the Ubuntu Software Center.

If you can’t find gElemental in your repositories, head over to the gElemental homepage, where you’ll finds the source code to compile it yourself.

Conclusion

I love simple applications that do one thing very well. So far as I can tell, this program is a great way to quickly pull up information about the periodic table of the elements. Do you agree? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments below along with any alternative applications for the job.

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I’m not even going to pretend. I was 5 or 6 years old back in 1995 so this is well before my time, too. In the age of social networking and Internet 2.0, web-based chat rooms are practically dead. They’re all but done with; on the endangered list. Still, IRC is the most popular server/client chat protocol in the world. Maybe the rooms aren’t as active as they were 10+ years ago, but we’ve still got a pulse!

Some boredom and curiosity mixed well together and I’ve rediscovered IRC just recently. Now, I’d like to show you how to use my favorite IRC client, HydraIRC. There are a lot of multi-IM clients (like Trillian) that support the IRC protocol, but nothing really beats the efficiency and oldschool feel of a standalone chat client. You’ve probably heard of mIRC, the most popular IRC client, but here’s a few reasons why I love Hydra:

• It is portable. Download the ZIP and extract it to wherever you like. Put it in your Dropbox or on a flash drive. Portable applications beat out self-installing packages every day of the week.
• It is lightweight. mIRC is a little bulky for me.
• It is free. Everyone loves things that are free.
• It supports everything that you need in an IRC client: multiple servers, DCC, event logs, channel monitoring, an extremely flexible GUI, and more.

You can check out some more, official screenshots at the official HydraIRC website.

Anyway, rusty IRC legend or complete newbie, let’s get you started. Get HydraIRC downloaded. Next step is to figure out where you want to chat and what about, right? You want to go into the File menu, then New Server. Hydra comes preloaded with loads of the most popular IRC servers.

Now it’s on you to pick the network (and associated server) that you want. You can either query up Google and learn a bit about each, or experience can guide you. FreeNode has tons of channels for coding, tech support, general hacking, networking, and things of that nature. EFNet is your oldschool “general” server. QuakeNet and GameSurge are for gamers, and so on.
For this example, let’s go ahead and go on GameSurge. Double click GameSurge, click the IRC server that expands beneath it, and then click OK to connect.

Every server consists of many channels (or rooms). Upon connecting, the Channel List window will pop up. If it doesn’t, you can click into the Channel menu and then Channel List. Click Populate List and after a second, you’ll have a list of every channel on the server. Click the Users header once and you’ll have sorted the channels by the most users. Scroll through, see if there are any you may be interested in, and then click Join.

This is how you join an IRC server and a channel (the easy way). There are hundreds and hundreds of servers out there and thousands of channels. There’s probably an active channel for just about any subject that comes to mind. It’s good to have it sitting in your taskbar for idle moments in between tasks.

If you need any help or want to dive deeper into the subject, let’s chat in the comments. If you really like IRC chatting, consider setting up your own IRC channel and read our post on that.

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In a press release, the health care organization wrote that “patients will have 24/7 access to lab results, diagnostic information, direct and secure email access to their doctors, and will also be able to order prescription refills”.

Being able to access medical records can be a huge advantage to patients, particularly the elderly, carers and patients with chronic conditions who need to get updates on lab results, fill prescriptions and communicate with the doctor’s office.

The Android app contains sections for medical records, pharmacy center, appointment center, message center, and a Kaiser location facility finder. Your secure, electronic medical record includes your health history, information about allergies and immunizations, details about prescriptions and any ongoing health conditions, health care reminders, and most test results.

The app for the iPhone has not been released yet, but users can in the meantime access their records on a mobile-optimized version of kp.org and save the site as a shortcut icon to their iPhone device.

Kaiser said that in “2011 alone, more than 68 million lab test results were made available online to Kaiser Permanente patients. The mobile-optimized site and the new app make that information, and much more, securely available at members’ fingertips”.

Source: Marketwatch

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Fear not, apartment shopper, because with these three US-based iPhone apps, you will be ready to hit the apartment market with your best foot forward and armed with as much knowledge on what is available as possible. Each of these three apps has some great features, and because they are all free, there really is no reason not to download them all! Between the three, it is nearly impossible not to find what you need.

Apartment Guide

This is a great application for finding your next place to live. When you first boot it up, it will ask you to allow it to use your location, if you say yes it will be able to find apartments near you. At first, you can simply tap the “Search Nearby” button, and it will show you the apartments close to you. From the search nearby screen, you can tap refine to narrow the results by price, bedrooms, bathrooms and other parameters.

Clicking any result will bring you to the screen for more details on the apartment. You can quickly click “Call now” to call the place and set up an appointment to see the units. You will also be able to see a detailed description of the units, as well as a breakdown of different models and their prices. They also show amenities, pet policies, community features and special features.

You can also used the advanced search to limit the results it shows you to only ones that meet specific requirements. Of course, if you are not looking for an apartment near you, you can also type in a zip code to search anywhere. Another cool feature is that the app will remember places you have viewed recently as well as those you have called. It also allows you to store any place as a favorite for easy access later.

Trulia

Trulia is a full featured real estate iPhone application that does everything from finding houses for sale, houses that are sold, places that have been reduced in price, open houses and of course apartments for rent. To view the places available for rent, simply tap “For Rent” from the main screen. By default, the application will show you an aerial map view of all the places available in your proximity. You can tap any of them for a more detailed view.

If you do not enjoy looking at a map, you can tap the list button on the bottom right of the screen to view the apartments in an easy to read format. You can also tap the magnifying glass symbol to search using location,  minimum and maximum rent, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and other things that are important in your search.

You can add places to favorites, but you must create a free account with Trulia. The nice thing about this is that you can get access to your favorites from another device or computer. Trulia, while not as easy to navigate as some apps, is your one stop real estate iPhone application.

MyApartmentMap

This app is incredibly streamlined and easy to navigate. It launches a simple screen that asks, “Where do you want your apartment?” The front page also features any places you have saved on the bottom. To start your search, simply enter a zip code or city into the box and click “Search!”

The results will start with a list, showing you all the apartments for rent in the area. You can scroll through these to find the one you like. At the top of the screen is where you can customize how you view the results. You can click “Map,” which, you guessed it, shows the results on a map. You can also click “Data,” which is an awesome feature that shows averages for the apartments in your results. You can see the average rents based on size and other data about the places you are looking for. You can also view deals on apartments in your area by clicking on the “Deals” tab.

On the top left of the screen you can click “Filter” to tweak the results. Do you need an apartment that will let you keep your dog? Do you need a place that is under $1,000 a month? Well from this screen, you can customize all that and more.

Conclusion

With these three applications, you will be ready to find the perfect place to live, for the right price and in a great location. They make finding an apartment as simple and painless as possible. The best part is; you can take them with you while looking at the places, to make sure they stack up to their description.

Image Credit: ShutterStock

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Google Docs has always been a good option for people looking to view or edit documents while on the move, but the mobile app has often left something to be desired.

Today Google has taken a step in the right direction by giving the app a much needed update. The most important new feature? Support for viewing documents offline. You can make a document available for offline viewing by opening its menu and tapping the “Make Offline” option, which is represented by a thumb tack.

There is also a new “Offline” menu on the main menu. As you’d expect, it acts as a library containing all of your offline documents, making them easy to find. Updates to these files are automatic when you are connected via Wi-Fi, so they’re remain as current as your last Internet connection.

Offline editing is still unsupported.

Another improvement is a revision of the tablet interface. Tablet owners will now receive a high-resolution version of documents when they are opened and can swipe left or right to move between document pages.

I wouldn’t say any of these changes are revolutionary, but the addition of an offline view does extend the functionality of the Docs app. I have run into situations where I was outside of a data service area but wanted to view a document. Now Docs will have me covered.

You can download the updated app from the Android Market. It requires Android version 2.1 or better.

Source: Android Guys

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