I’ve been playing with a couple of bits of new software, and I thought I’d share the joy
Bitlbee is a clever little server program that acts as a gateway between your IRC client and Instant Messaging protocols (Jabber, MSN, AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, etc) – what this means in reality is that you can chat to people on IM as if you were PMing them in IRC. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but actually it’s very handy. And the software works really well. If you’re already an IRC user, then I would definitely recommend you try it out. (If not, then check out GAIM for all your IM needs instead)
OpenSong is a lyric projection system for churches. This is a little gem of a piece of software – it manages all your songs, including chord charts for musicians (transposition included), and is then able to present them in a proper dual-screen arrangement. It lacks a couple of features I would like (in-presentation slide editing, for example), but overall it is one of the most polished I have tried. Definitely one to try, especially if your church is currently forking out a yearly license for a commercial alternative.
[sidenote] We used OpenSong in church on Sunday for the first time, and by all accounts it worked well. The slide transition is a little slow, but not too noticeable. The ability to jump back quickly to early slides at a single mouseclick/keypress is invaluable. [/sidenote]
mrBen