Animal Behavior Research Resources

Irfanview (One of the best programs ever)

dleichte — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:08:41 +0000

I just wanted to give a quick mention to one of my favorite programs, Irfanview. It is always one of the first programs I install when I, or someone I know, gets a new computer.

Irfanview is a small, fast, yet powerful image viewer. Even if you already have more advanced image editing software, this program is perfect if you want to view an image, make a few quick edits, or convert file formats.

Relatively Cheap Document Retrieval Service

dleichte — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:01:03 +0000

Sometimes you can’t get the article you need online, even if you’re willing to pay for it. And sometimes, even if you are willing to pay, the price can be outrageous. Although I thought their prices were too good to be true, I decided to give a company called Artrieve a try. They can obtain just about whatever you want, as long as it can be found in the Library of Congress, National Institute of Health, or National Library of Medicine. As of this posting, they’re prices are $11 per article for those obtained from the library of congress, and $8 each for articles obtained from the other libraries. There is also a per-page fee depending on your delivery option. For pdf documents, the price is 40 cents per page, in addition to the initial $8 or $11 fee. Articles are generally obtained within 3 days, but you can pay more for a rush order. One thing I particularly like about Artrieve, is that they will scan a document that is only available in print and convert it to a pdf file for you.

Pros

Can obtain articles not available online
Can be less expensive than ordering from publishers such as science direct
Fast and excellent service (in my experience)

Cons

Document retrieval services are expensive! This one is just less expensive.

Lastly, I wanted to mention, that contacting the authors of journal articles is another option. In my experience those that I have contacted have been more than happy to provide me with a copy of their work, but they may not be in as much of a hurry to send it, as you are to receive it.

Starting Over

dleichte — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:01:26 +0000

I seem to have a problem when it comes to new projects: I need to get to the point that I am almost done, until I realize what it was that I had actually wanted to accomplish in the first place.

When I started this blog, I was just looking for an easy way to organize all of the sites I had bookmarked, with the hopes that the list I compiled would be useful to other students. Instead, I ended up with a confusing mess. I decided to start over and ad back a few links at a time, but only after I take the time to describe each site, and why I think each one is useful.

Windows Search 4.0

dleichte — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:56:56 +0000

I wanted a fast and easy way to do key word searches of all of the files on my hard drive. I tried Google Desktop and didn’t like it. After using Windows XP indexing service for a while (which is fine if you configure it properly), I found Windows Search 4.0, which is exactly what I was looking for. Some of the features I really like include fast searches as you type, a preview window, and the fact that it can index pdf documents.

A few tips

This search does not use Windows XP’s indexing service so you can go ahead and disable the old indexing service.

If you use Zotero I would recommend setting Windows Search 4.0 to index Zotero’s storage folder.

The program does not seem to index open office document files even when configured to do so.

Some useful software

dleichte — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:06:40 +0000

Zotero

Zotero is an extension for Mozilla Firefox that allows you to keep track of your research resources. One feature that I’ve found particularly useful is the ability to export formatted citations (e.g., in APA format). You can also import citation information directly from certain web resources, such as Google Books, but you also have the freedom to manually change, and enter bibliographical information.

FoxIt Reader

Foxit Reader is a PDF viewer that also allows you to mark up PDF files just like you would a hard copy. You can highlight, add notes, etc. All of these marks can be removed by simply clicking on them. However, the free version places a mark that reads “Edited by FoxIt Reader…” at the top of the document after you save, which, to me, doesn’t really matter.