Tool of the Week – Page 5 – Mike Soltys, Ph.D.

Tool of the Week: Panorama Tools

Posted on August 22, 2011 by mrsoltys

On a few of my trip reports I've gotten comments on my panorama's to the tune of "How did you do that?!" I use two panorama tools. The first, AutoStitch, has free demo for PC and although it lacks features, seems to be a great working blackbox program. When I got my mac, I purchased the program Calico Panorama. It...Read More

Tool of the Week: MapMyFitness

Posted on July 25, 2011 by mrsoltys

I love exercise. It helps me clear my head, feel good, and burns calories so i can drink more beer. I'm also somewhat competitive. I lever enjoy suffering in the back of a pack, and even when I'm by myself I like to match myself up to personal goals. Thats why I love MapMyFitness (also the same as: MapMyRide, MapMyRun, MapMyHike,...Read More

Tool of the week: Spotify

Posted on July 18, 2011 by mrsoltys

Lately there's been a lot of buzz around the new music service: Spotify, so I decided to review it for this week's tool of the week! Spotify is an application on your computer, much like iTunes, except it allows you to stream any song you like. Spotify's main draw is it's social aspects: where you can see your friends favorite...Read More

Tool of the Week: NPR Live Concerts

Posted on July 11, 2011 by mrsoltys

I love listening to music while I work, and free music is awesome. NPR has a series of full live concerts that you can listen to online or download for free from their series All Songs Considered podcast These are great, because you can just push play and have an hour or two of great music to work to. You can...Read More

Tool of the Week: Wolfram Alpha

Posted on June 27, 2011 by mrsoltys

Wolfram Alpha is a math lover's dream. I've used Wolfram alpha to do everything from help me derive or check equations I've gotten published to helping kids on their math homework. But that's not all it does. Check out their super cool example page and click around, you'll be amazed at everything Wolfram can do: from telling you what constellations you can see tonight,...Read More

Tool of the Week: Topo Maps

Posted on June 20, 2011 by mrsoltys

[caption id="attachment_425" align="alignright" width="320" caption="TopoMaps near one of my favorite mountain biking spots: Walker ranch"][/caption] There is no substitute for a good topo map and old fashioned compass. Knowing how to use them is a basic skill for any outdoors person. With that said, nothing beats being able to bust out your smart phone and immediately know your place on...Read More

Tool of the Week: f.lux

Posted on June 13, 2011 by mrsoltys

f.lux is a sweet free program for any operating system that really helps with eyestrain when working on your computer for long hours. based on the time of day flux gradually adjusts the tones of your monitor output to be easier on your eyes (including softer, redder colors late at night). This is consistant with the body of literature that suggests avoiding bright...Read More

Tool of the Week: Performance Air-Filters

Posted on June 6, 2011 by mrsoltys

Living in colorado, my car sometimes struggles at high elevation on hills... especially when loaded down with friends and gear. I did some reading about how I could improve performance, and came across performance air filters. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="384" caption="About to head out for some adventures in Suzi"][/caption] Performance Airfilters are pretty cheap (compared to many car upgrades), but can increase...Read More

Tool of the Week: LaTeX

Posted on May 30, 2011 by mrsoltys

Think of LaTeX as the nerdiest word processor you'll ever see. LaTeX focuses on content, and does all the formatting for you (kind-of). The end result is beautifuly typset documents based on style sheets with auto labeled equations, figures, and tables. I love using LaTeX in conjunction with BibTeX to automatically format my citations and build my bibliography based on the citations I've used...Read More

Tool of the Week: Mint.com

Posted on May 23, 2011 by mrsoltys

Mint is an online personal finance tool, and the most helpful and easy to use budgeting tool I've ever used. Simply enter in your user-names and passwords to the accounts you want it to track, and then Mint will automatically download your transactions and assign them to budgets. It also does a great job tracking investments. Mint is complete with...Read More