Author Archive
A computer smarter than a cat?
Ars Technica has a post entitled “IBM makes supercomputer significantly smarter than cat”. However, this is one of those misleading titles designed to catch readers. There isn’t really any evidence that this computer could outwit any half-way intelligent cat. What the computer does is run a brain simulation that is described:
IBM has announced a software [...]
Programmable quantum computer
In Monday’s link collection was a ScienceDaily post about an advance in quantum computing made at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is an important development and a number of posts about this advance have been appearing on the Internet. I think the NIST work is significant enough to say something more [...]
The Chrome operating system is no Windows rival- yet
Ever since Google announced that it was creating a new operating system called Chrome, there has been speculation that this would be a problem for Windows. Very little was actually known about the potential OS until yesterday, when Google revealed some details. The OS will not be available for another year and seems to be [...]
More Facebook scams
Some new Facebook scams are circulating. gHacks reports:
According to several reports on websites like Computerworld a new phishing scam is currently in the wild that is trying to get the Facebook login data of Facebook users. Pandalabs, who uncovered the phishing scam, did not release lots of details about the attack other than it mimicked [...]
Future Windows
Microsoft just held its annual Professional Developers Conference. As usual some hints about future developments in Windows were given.
You may not yet be using Windows 7 but there is already talk about Windows 8. As I mentioned last month, there is even a site about Windows 8. (It’s not an official Microsoft site, however.) [...]
Sumatra, a very fast PDF reader
For various reasons, including security, I prefer not to use Adobe Reader for opening PDF files. I have been using Foxit but the open source application called Sumatra is getting good reviews. I mentioned Sumatra before but it has a new release. Lifehacker as well as gHacks like Sumatra. It has a small footprint [...]
Windows Start-up & Shutdown Sounds from Windows 3.1 on up
It seems that people will collect almost anything. Vince Bognot has put together Windows Start-up and Shutdown Sounds from Windows 3.1 to Windows 7. I am not sure who cares but here is his collection:
Via the Windows Club
Free Microsoft programs
Microsoft may charge a lot for Windows but it also has quite a lot of free software. At TechRadar Aditya Chandrasekhar has put together a list of 24 applications from Microsoft that he thinks are the best. (Actually, not all the applications on the list are from Microsoft.)
To take a look at what’s available from [...]
How to read a lot of magazines
Personally, I already have more to read than I can manage, but if you are looking for some extra reading materials, Maggwire offers selections from 650 magazines. At the moment, the selections are free but premium material seems likely in the future.
MakeUseOf reviews the site:
Maggwire (beta) is an online destination for those who are interested [...]
Laptops have a high failure rate
A survey says that one-third of laptops fail completely within three years of purchase:
SquareTrade analyzed failure rates for over 30,000 new laptop computers covered by SquareTrade Laptop Warranty plans and found that one-third of all laptops will fail within 3 years. SquareTrade also found that netbooks are 20% more unreliable than other laptops, and that [...]
Social networking changing the language
I guess it’s a sign of the times. Terms from social networking are quickly changing status from being specialized slang to becoming recognized in general language reference works. The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen “unfriend” as 2009 Word of the Year.
It may be descriptive but I still think it’s a clumsy term.