PCIN.net Update

Archive for May, 2008

From the New York Times:

A variety of legends have grown up around Bill Gates’ brief career at Harvard. (He dropped out halfway through and co-founded Microsoft). On Tuesday night, during an interview at the “D: All Things Digital” conference in Carlsbad, Calif., Mr. Gates regaled the audience with his strategy of not bothering to attend classes and then catching up in a single intense burst during a separate reading period at the end of the term.

On Wednesday afternoon, Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, himself a Harvard dropout, appeared to one-up Mr. Gates.

PC World recently had an article about some of the young people that are bringing innovations to the industry:

Mark Zuckerberg, watch your back. Sergey and Larry? Consider early retirement.

The next generation is coming up fast, and they aren’t waiting for you Web 2.0 geezers to step aside. Here are 10 serious overachievers–20 years old or younger–with more ambition, energy, tech smarts, and business savvy than you’ll find in most entire high-tech companies, let alone most adults.

A co-worker sent me a link to a part of the Princton web site called UChannel:

The UChannel (also known as the University Channel) makes videos of academic lectures and events from all over the world available to the public.

You can download all sorts of talks, seminars, symposiums, etc.

From the New York Times??????:

After a years-long dispute, Microsoft and the computing and education project One Laptop Per Child said Thursday that they had reached an agreement to offer Windows on the organization’s computers.

Microsoft long resisted joining the ambitious project because its laptops used the Linux operating system, a freely distributed alternative to Windows.

Ed Bott mentioned that Laplink is celebrating their 25th anniversary. Yesterday they were giving away PCmover for free. However, their servers couldn’t handle the traffic as word got around, so they’ve extended it through today. Visit the Laplink web site to register and download the software. I don’t know when or if I’ll use it, but I’ve grabbed my copy!

From the Globe and Mail:

Federal regulators have ordered Bell Canada to provide tangible evidence that its broadband networks are congested to justify the company’s Internet “traffic-shaping” policies.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) yesterday laid out the process through which it will tackle the issue of how Internet providers manage the flow of content on their networks and those they lease to third-party providers, setting up a summer of debate over so-called net neutrality.

Adobe Photoshop (along with Photoshop Elements) have a feature called “actions”. These are similar to macros you might find in a productivity suite. The “actions” let you do several things at once. I recently came across a site that explains nicely what an action is and how to start using them.

…have you ever had a task in Photoshop where you apply the same steps in the same order over and over? After many repetitions of these mindless and time consuming tasks, they become boring and error prone because they don’t engage our imaginations nor require creativity. Practice doesn’t make perfect. It results in wasted time.

If this sounds familiar you have probably wondered, “Instead of having to enter these steps manually each time, isn’t there a way they could be recorded and played back automatically with the touch of a button?”

The good news: “Yes, there is.” All it takes is utilizing functionality built into Photoshop called Actions…

The “actions” can actually be saved and shared, and the site has links to download dozens of free actions.

From MSNBC:

It’s hard to think about a computer without an external mouse, even though touchpads on laptops – like the one I’m using now – have made it not as essential as it once was.

If you’ve been around PCs for more than a few years, you’ve probably gone through your fair share of these peripherals. About 25 years ago, I started with a PC that didn’t even have a mouse.

PC World has an interesting article about The 7 Most Annoying Developments in Software:

From antipiracy measures to built-in nagging, today’s software often comes with features that drive you nuts. Here are the irritations we’d really like to zap.

PC World has an article about neat things you can do with Google:

Every time I turn around, Google’s come up with something new, cool, or innovative. It’s no wonder it has Microsoft on the run.