February 5, 2014

Mistakes Apple Wishes You’d Forget

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

They are the perhaps the most prestigious company on the planet. They represent a certain status. Only the cool kids use their stuff.

Of course, it’s Apple, the company that revolutionized technology with the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. That’s the same company that failed to revolutionize anything with some ripe products in their boneyard — stuff that they’d wish people would forget.
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February 3, 2014

Feminists Take On Wikipedia

Filed under: News — admin @ 4:31 pm

Wikipedia is just too slanted to the male perspective, or so say feminists who want to fix it through extensive editing. They’ll be holding editing-a-thons across the country over the next few weeks.

Being a man, of course, I can’t fathom their specific issues. I expect they’ll be changing the third person singular from “he” to “she” all over the place. You can’t do that in Chinese or Latin or other languages. And maybe references to a ship as “she” will go down the tubes. I know a ship is a “she” in Italian. Can’t change that one, of course.

Oh, English is so sexist!

Link

Would You Like to Play a Game?

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

Joshua, the computer personality of the WORP mainframe from the film War Games, uttered the most famous line in all of computer gaming history. It asked Matthew Broderick’s hacker character, “Would you like to play a game?” How can anyone say no to that?
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January 31, 2014

Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo

Filed under: News — admin @ 9:37 am

Much fanfare met the purchase of Motorola (one of the world’s leading Android phone manufacturers) to Google (the only Android operating system developer) last year. It was like an Android fanboy’s fantasy: The operating system and hardware would be made by the same organization. Take that, Apple!

Recently, Motorola has been sold by Google. The buyer is Lenovo.

If you recall, Lenovo is the Chinese company that made news about a decade ago. That’s when IBM sold them their entire PC division. IBM decided it wanted out of the consumer computer division, and that was a smart move.

As a consumer of consumer computers, I was a bit worried. I prefer the IBM brand. My first PC was a (used) IBM PC. (My first computer was a TRS-80 Model III.) Since IBM sold their PC business, I’ve purchased many Lenovo computers. In fact, the first one I bought still had the IBM logo.

My most recent Lenovo computer is a laptop I bought last year. It’s a solid machine. In fact, I recommend Lenovo laptops. The extended warranty is worth the price, and the service is excellent. Lenovo delivers a good product, so I’m not concerned about them dipping into the smartphone waters.

In the big picture, I believe Google wants to remain a software company. True, they have the Nest line of products and Chromecast. But these, too, may be spun off to various hardware manufacturers. I see that as a good move.

The only concern I have is that Lenovo try to keep the Nexus line pure. The Nexus phones and tablets are as close to stock Android as you can get. I like that.

Link

Task Manager to the Rescue!

Filed under: Main — Tags: , — admin @ 12:01 am

I’ve used this trick so often, I don’t even think about it. In fact, I’ve done it on my son’s computer so often he knows it well. It’s the old “Kill a program by using the Task Manager trick,” and if you aren’t familiar with it, you should be.”
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January 30, 2014

Play with Virtual Legos

Filed under: News — admin @ 12:17 pm

I don’t know whether or not to be thrilled, but apparently Google has introduced a Chrome app that lets you play with virtual Legos on your computer. Perhaps the app also lets you bury random Lego pieces in the carpet, which you can step on at 3:00 AM? Or maybe Lego pieces that become eternally stuck to each other?

O the possibilities!

Link

January 29, 2014

When Filenames Were Shorter

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

Up until 1995, PC users existed in a world where filenames could be only eight characters long. It actually wasn’t as painful as you might imagine.
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January 27, 2014

Happy Birthday, Mac

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

I was a pretty-well established computer geek by the time the Macintosh computer debuted 30 years ago. It wasn’t until April of that year (1984) that I actually got my hands on a Mac.
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January 24, 2014

Updating Your Old Word Documents

Filed under: Main — Tags: — admin @ 12:01 am

Word 2007 introduced a new document format. Along with it came a tornado of confusion and anger.
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January 22, 2014

Troubleshooting the Android-PC Connection

Filed under: Main — Tags: — admin @ 12:01 am

ma-USB-Notification It’s supposed to be easy: You connect one end of the USB cable to your phone or tablet. The other end plugs into the computer. You cannot confuse the ends. Further, once the connection is made, both computer and mobile device start talking.

Well, they should.
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