I’m referring to your computer’s desktop, not that messy thing awash with papers and Post-It Notes™. You should make it a regular task: Checking out all those itty bitty icons to see which can be banished and which should remain.
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June 28, 2013Clean Up Your Desktop!
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June 27, 2013The Computer I Lusted For 30 Years AgoWhile I wanted an Apple II+, the movie WarGames made me desire Matthew Broderick’s tricked-out IMSAI 8080. It was so advanced, I knew I couldn’t afford it. I mean, the whole system probably cost $6,000 back then with all the bells and whistles. The guy who supplied the IMSAI to the film as a prop is trying to sell it now. He’s looking at an auction house and the figure mentioned in the article (below) is $25,000. I know I don’t need it, but it’s still something to behold: The original computer that made hacker a household term.
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June 26, 2013Windows 8.1 PreviewThe Start button is back! Yeah! But it just coughs up the Metro interface, the Start screen. So Microsoft apparently still doesn’t get it: Users wanted the Start button back to get the Start menu back. I’m not sure whether this Windows 8.1 release requires me to update my Windows 8 Sucks book or not. I’ll find out soon enough whether Windows 8.1 sucks enough to warrant a new book. Editing the Normal TemplateThe Normal template is the document that stores all of Word’s formatting defaults: the font, paragraph, margins, and page size information. It’s used whenever you create a new, blank document. All that stuff can change, but to do so you first need to hunt down the Normal template file and edit it directly. That isn’t easy.
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June 25, 2013We’re Number Two!Who’s number one? Android. Number three? Apple! What’s being ranked? Operating systems! Presently, Android is the world’s number one operating system, edging out Windows for overall market share. That number will grow and grow over the coming years. So will Apple’s market share, when you count both iOS as well as OS X. In third place? Microsoft Windows.
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June 24, 2013It’s 1996 and This is the Web
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June 21, 2013Leave Your Gizmos On During That FlightYou know the mantra if you fly often: “Please turn off your electronic devices.” “If it has an on-off switch, turn it off.” “It is now safe to use your electronic devices.” Blah-blah. Today the FAA announced it will start relaxing the rules regarding using your gizmos during domestic flights. That’s good news and bad news: Good because the restrictions were based on pseudo-science. Bad because now you have no guaranteed silence time during a flight. I’m certain that the next time I fly, I’ll sit next to some loudmouth who insists on talking into his cell phone for the full duration of the flight. Ugh.
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The Shrinking Cost of Mass StorageI can’t understand why I sometimes dither about which mass storage device to buy. The answer is really obvious: Buy the storage with the highest capacity. It’s cheaper. That philosophy may not make sense, but that’s only because you fear the math.
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June 19, 2013Google Cloud Print
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June 17, 2013Tuesday, January 1, 1980
In all the history of computing, more files are dated January 1, 1980 than any other date in history. People must have been really busy that day. Then again, computers are not known for properly keeping time. |
Here’s a useful and totally insane idea: Use your home or office printers from anywhere from any device. It’s so easy to set up, even a goldfish could do it.
