One of the reasons I say Technology Is Broken is because computers do so many annoying and time wasting things. Well, they doing something annoying, and we have to waste time fixing them.
That's why 5 Smart Fixes for Dumb PC Annoyances deserves a close read and perhaps printing to keep handy. The title could be 500 Smart Fixes, but that's a book or two, and the PC Annoyances series deals with those issues pretty well.
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If you're one of those who live with their laptop, share one of your secrets. How do you disguise the laptop when traveling, or do you? Do you have any anti-theft tricks you can share?
Backup for laptops, especially those laptops so well traveled they have their own passport, can be tricky. How do you backup? Do you use an online backup service, or wait until you hit the office? Or do you carefully save everything to a USB hard drive that you keep in the case with the laptop?
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Social networks, primarily FaceBook and MySpace for the younger set, and LinkedIn for business people, seem to be growing faster than home foreclosure rates. That's a good thing, or at least it will be in ten years or so.
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Big companies were once small, and small companies want to be big. Hence the advice from big company IT experts will help small companies. At least that's the idea behind the story “Big IT to small biz: Listen up, little dudes!” from ComputerWorld. I had no idea Big IT ever said “dudes,” much less with an exclamation point, but there it is in the headline.
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Microsoft took their lumps from press and customers about Vista, something that happens with all their new operating systems. But they usually redeem themselves somewhat with the first Service Pack, called SP1. These major upgrades come out rarely (XP is only up to SP2 now) but they fix many shortcomings and add new features.
The news for Vista SP1 varies from that tradition. In A Closer Look: Beta Vista Service Pack 1, we read there are a few improvements, but nothing major enough to warrant the term “Service Pack.”
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What may be an old computer to you may be a treasure to someone else. Linda Musthaler lists some good donation options here, along with business steps for tracking and accounting for those donations.
Don't listen to the guy saying “schools need computers, so let's take it to the high school.” Schools may need computers, but more importantly they need consistency in their units for management and cost savings.
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It's Friday, so let's lighten up and have a little fun. This story about the upcoming movie Jumper talks about teleportation and how MIT professors feel about it. As you would expect, the answer is not too exciting. But the story doesn't mention the first science fiction novel that includes personal teleportation, The Stars My Destination.
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PC World does another roundup in 14 Fantastic Freeware Finds for us. Do you ever wonder why programmers write programs for free? Sometimes they need to scratch an itch, and realize others may have that same itch. Sometimes they use well-done programs as auditions for better programming jobs. Sometimes they offer one version free and another version with more features for sale. No matter the reason, you can benefit and get some great programs for the great price of nothing.
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First CES, the giant Consumer Electronics Show, then MacWorld, starts each new year off with a trade show bang. It's hard to tell which one generates more excitement, although MacFans eagerly flock to San Francisco for MacWorld, and CES in Las Vegas is more a work assignment for most. I get to avoid both, although I always enjoy an excuse to go to San Francisco.
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My in-laws returned from church Sunday to find visitors waiting: four fire trucks. Their home and contents are a complete loss, including computers. Financial records of all kinds are gone or damaged. We haven't been able to pull out the boxes of photos to see if they're salvageable. An adjuster told us photos can be successfully restored, but that's only if they're not burned or a sodden mass from the water.
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Computers are logical and do what they're told, but people don't. Collaboration projects at work fail not because of the technical tools, but because of management heavy-handedness or poor planning. This article encourages large companies to let collaboration tools run with a little more leash rather than choking them back in the name of compliance.
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PCWorld has a nice story from CES called The UMPC: Still Evolving! Still Pointless! Why? Because Windows running on a pocketable device means a small screen and tiny keyboard. How can you treat that like a PC?
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Once again, it's the year of the Linux Desktop. Actually, it might be the eighth Year of Linux Desktops, because I stopped counting. However, I have shifted my main work machine from one running Windows XP to two running (right now) Ubuntu 7.10 and OpenSuSE 10.3. All my browsing, e-mail, and word processing work now takes place on a Linux machine.
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Bill Gates, during his annual opening speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, claimed there are now 100 million Vista users. According to this story in ComputerWorld, he didn't offer any details about the origin of that nice, round number.
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Next Tuesday, January 8th, I'll be speaking to the NSTA (National Space and Technology Association) at their lunch meeting (details here). The meeting is at the Canyon Cafe, 5000 Westheimer Road (across from Galleria at Post Oak). $25 for NSTA members, $35 for non-members. To RSVP, email events@NSTAworld.org or call 713-979-5288. You can also RSVP online at www.NSTAWorld.org.
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If you read my earlier post about All Purpose Laptops and ran out and bought one, or maybe bought one just before the end of the year, let me ask a few questions. I'm working on some laptop safety guidelines now, and I'd like to hear from you.
Did you get a laptop with pre-boot disk encryption built in? Or did you buy a third party encryption product to keep your data safe? If not, why not?
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Now that the holidays are over, except for some executives who have yet to return to work, we can start planning to make 2008 better than 2007. We should have been planning this long ago, of course, but last month at this time we were gearing up for the holidays.
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