Allow me to continue my keyboard rant from Monday: Not only is the ancient keyboard layout part of our 21st Century life, but a lot of the old typewriter jargon remains as well.
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February 9, 2011The Keyboard LegacyFebruary 8, 2011Cybercheating is a Big DealA majority of students cybercheat, taking information from the Internet and using it without citing the source or claiming it as their own. This is big. What’s worse, in my opinion, is that their attitude is that it’s okay because “everyone else does it.” That speaks to their character more than their academic skills. February 7, 2011Your Keyboard Is Stuck In The PastI look at my state-of-the-art cell phone and I’ve got to shake my head: The teensy keyboard that appears on the screen is essentially the same keyboard invented in 1874. Is this modern technology or not? February 4, 2011Throw-Away Email AccountsHere’s a clever idea from Microsoft: Throw-away email accounts. They know that you often create a temporary email account to sign up for a service or to blog, with no intention of seriously using the account. Apparently now you can add up to five alias accounts to your single Hotmail/Live mail account. Super cinchy. Really smart.
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Microsoft Cheated with BingI can picture the meeting now: Microsoft executives were pounding on the table, trying to compete with Google’s primary business, web search. Engineers demonstrated algorithms and explained flow charts, but the suits were displeased. They wanted results now. Better searching techniques didn’t matter, what was important was knocking Google off its perch. So Microsoft cheated. February 2, 2011Olive DictationThere is no such thing as olive dictation. I meant to write, “I love dictation.” Computer dictation is a handy tool, but it’s often embarrassingly inaccurate. Often hysterically inaccurate. January 31, 2011Shutting Off the InternetLast week, Egyptian officials shut off Internet access to their country. By doing so, they demonstrated that A) it could be done and B) how to do it. They also provided ample material for those of us would would fight such a move in the future.
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January 28, 2011January 26, 2011Thoughts and SuggestionsHere’s yet another random blog post as I wallow in the time between urgent projects. January 24, 2011AOL’s Profits Come From Ill-Informed GeezersAccording to the article below, AOL is profiting because a lot of old people who use computers are unaware that they don’t need AOL. Those users already have an email account at their ISP, but they still pay $25/month for AOL service just to use the email address. That’s a silly waste of money, but I can see how it happens: Too many people are misinformed and ignorant when it comes to computers. They just don’t know any better. That’s sad. |
