Just What We Need: Another Operating System
Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Three choices today, if you’ll permit me to generalize, and four choices tomorrow. This Official Google Blog article discusses Google’s upcoming entry into the desktop operating system market with Google Chrome OS. Sigh. I like Google’s tools, including their search engine, web browser, Earth viewer, and more. Google has recently announced another upcoming service called Wave that is supposedly a reinvention of email (and this new tool does actually sound exciting). But the news of a Google...
read moreSearch Engine Round-Up
Lets get right into it: Google is my personal favorite search engine. It’s the most popular general purpose search engine. It’s estimated that 63% of global searches are performed on Google, with the next biggest player being Yahoo! with a paltry 20%. Google is fast, typically very accurate, and offers a diverse suite of tools that can enhance your computer usage. Google has become ubiquitous in my social circles, such that my friends will say, “google it and find out” (Google in lowercase there, since it’s a...
read moreWeb Browser Round-Up
Remember Netscape? For the real old-schoolers, remember Mosaic? Browsers have come and gone during the relatively brief history of the World Wide Web. This is a round-up of today’s noteworthy browsers. Internet Explorer 7+, the most common web browser on this list by far, is nicely done by Microsoft and a valuable addition to your software arsenal. Every Windows system produced in the last ten years or so comes with a free copy of IE as its default browser, so it’s no wonder this thing is everywhere! (Update your old version...
read moreTen Reasons Why It’s Time for a New Website
I’ve been a Web Designer for over ten years now, and boy-oh-boy, have I seen some doozies on the web, especially sites belonging to small- to medium-sized firms. I’ve written this somewhat tongue-in-cheek list of reasons to think about a new website. Do any of these situations fit your site? It was created in the Twentieth Century. If your site was built in a four-digit year starting with 19, it’s time for a replacement. A great deal has changed in the near-decade that has passed since, and a number of these changes...
read morePowerMenu: Features Windows Forgot
Speaking of a windowed interface, there’s one tool in my arsenal that is essential for both single monitor systems and multiple monitor systems: a utility called PowerMenu. This very small application adds a few menu options to the Windows Control Menu (hidden under the little icon on the left side of most windows’ title bars). The options included are Transparency, Always On Top, and Minimize to Tray. The Transparency option makes the window semi-transparent (to a degree you specify as shown in the illustration). Always On...
read moreMust-Have Internet Explorer Add-on
One of the best reasons to use Mozilla Firefox instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer is Firefox’s easy add-on functionality. Firefox supports simple add-ons that bring additional features to the browser that you want. This customization makes Firefox fit like a glove with such add-ons as ad-blocking, drag & drop, mouse gestures, tab management and more. Internet Explorer isn’t so friendly. Just try to find all those add-ons for IE, and you will be frustrated. However, there is one free add-on for Internet Explorer that...
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