Now if this isn’t just like Minority Report. Someone has used the hacked Kinect drivers to run multitouch on their PC using Ubuntu. I fully expect a much better version coming soon for Windows 7, and I’m hoping for integrated support from Microsoft as part of Windows 8, for sure. The applications may be limited right now, but there are some that would be great for this type of interaction.
CNET does a simple and sweet review on Google vs. Bing on the new Windows Phone 7. Sadly, Google just half baked their application and it is selling it’s search results rather than a good product. That worked 10 years ago, but not so much these days. Bing, on the other hand, stands out on it’s native Microsoft powered phone.
Like others, Google Search uses the phone’s GPS to localize searches (on the Samsung Focus, in this case). It hands out search suggestions as you type, but only if you type slowly, we found. It also keeps track of your previous searches, a boon for anyone hoping to bypass typing and repeat a search. Results appear in a browser window, which provides access to image, local, and news results as well as the Web findings.
And that’s about it. While suggestions and history are nice additions, were hoping for more than a Web shortcut from the Sovereign of Search in its debut Windows Phone app.
On the other hand, Bing’s more polished app enables voice search and spell check in addition to search suggestions. Bing’s results look more striking as well, since they manifest in an app and not in a browser search results page–just as we expect for an integrated search incumbent. Image results and search history are missing; however, Bing’s local results for “bagel” were mapped in an image and spot on.
To soldiers old and new: THANK YOU for your service to this wonderful country. You are appreciated more than you will ever know. Military.com has a few nice articles that are worth reading.
A Brief History of Veterans Day
Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In legislation that was passed in 1938, November 11 was “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.'” As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.
In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress — at the urging of the veterans service organizations — amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
In 1968, the Uniforms Holiday Bill ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the last Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.
Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11.
There may be times when you use a USB drive frequently and you want it to always have the same drive letter. You may have applications that save to that USB drive, and if it’s not there, you have to hunt for the drive letter (this can be a pain when browsing through a command prompt). Using this tip, you can assign your USB drive a static drive letter to make sure it always stays the same.
1. Right click on My Computer (or Computer), and click Manage.
2. Click on Storage to expand, and click Disk Management.
3. Right click on your USB drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths…
4. Select the drive letter and click OK.
5. Here is where you assign the drive letter for the drive. Make sure it is a few letters past what your last one, to avoid giving the letter to a different USB drive when the static one isn’t inserted. Click OK.
6. Click Yes. This will affect any running programs that reference the current drive letter for the USB drive.
7. Your USB drive will be reassigned to the new drive letter, and if AutoPlay in enabled, you will be greeted by the AutoPlay popup.
Well, this just overshadows the previous news story of the new XBox 360 controller. I’m a lifelong fan of Tron, and am awaiting the new refresh of Tron. I just found out about the new Tron XBox 360 controller that will be in my hands very soon! This is definitely a must have for any Tron fan. Just amazing. No wireless, but I’m sure you’d be saving some battery life with the LED’s anyway. Not a lot, but still enough to notice.
Are you looking forward to the 3D version of Tron? Well, we have news for you – you can definitely soup up your gaming sessions with the Tron Xbox 360 controller for $50. The main drawback we have about this would be the lack of wireless connectivity, but otherwise, you might just prefer to spend your gaming time at nights now with all the lights turned off simply because you want to enjoy the soft glow that makes you think you’re somewhere else instead of your room. The controller itself is pretty responsive, boasting just the right amount of resistance without feeling too loose. As for the triggers, some say that they might feel slightly plasticky, but what do you expect for $50? Perhaps not throwing in wireless is a good thing, since it would require more frequent charging to keep it juiced up for your entertainment.
Today I am going to review the book Visual Quickstart Guide: Microsoft Windows 7, authored by Chris Fehily and published by Peachpit Press. There are always people out there that are new to computers, new to Microsoft operating systems, or just looking for basic information on how to use their PC. This book is aimed at those people.
Let me start by saying that this book is very simple. Having said that, it is also extremely thorough, going through details on how to do what you need to do with Windows. It doesn’t skimp on the step by step instructions on how to do things. That’s the good part. This book goes through all the basic operations that you would need to operate your Windows 7 PC, from starting up, adding new users to using Windows Live Essentials (which is a free download, not included in the OS). It won’t make you an expert, but it will make you a knowledgeable computer user.
Let’s see what this book has inside. It starts with an introduction to the OS, how to use the Start menu, logging on and off, the interface and other basic usage. From there it goes into the Desktop, how to customize it, change the background and icons. Following that, you have a chapter on where to go for help. Windows built-in help works great for a lot of things, but nearly anything and everything you may have a question about, someone online has an answer (probably many people have a few different answers or opinions!).
Coming up next is how to customize your Windows 7 environment, organizing your files and folders, and installing and running programs. While these are very basic tasks, they are also essential to using your PC. If you aren’t comfortable with installing and running programs, there really is very little reason to own a computer. Following that is printing, scanning and faxing, which is a very common thing with PC’s. There are a few things that are different with Windows 7, some make things easier and others a bit more difficult, but this chapter makes it all understandable. After that, you get into adding hardware.
Then comes the part that comes in handy: actually using your PC to get things done. Digital photos, Windows Media Player (and Windows Media Center), Windows Live Movie Maker (part of the Windows Live Essentials package) and the internet. They may be basic things, but they are something that you may use quite often.
Then you get into the online section of the book, including security and privacy, Internet Explorer, Windows Live Mail (also part of WL Essentials) and Windows Live Messenger. You also learn about user accounts, setting up a small network (workgroup only, domains are definitely out of the scope of this book!), and working remotely using Remote Desktop.
The last chapter is dedicated to maintenance and troubleshooting. Using only 20 pages, it isn’t the thickest part of the book, mainly because it would take a book twice as thick to go through the detailed subject matter! An appendix is included that details how to do a basic install of Windows.
There are a few issues I have with the book, the first one being the advocating of piracy. If you are installing Windows 7 and don’t qualify for an upgrade, you need to install a full version of Windows 7. But, according to the book, you’re better off buying the upgrade version and downloading a copy of XP or Vista from BitTorrent. This is definitely not a good suggestion, and I do not recommend doing that. There are copies of Windows online that aren’t exactly clean and contain spyware, malware and viruses.
Another issues I have is the section where the author claims “Antivirus is a scam”. Yes, some of his arguments are true, but there is definitely no reason to not run an antivirus program. No matter how careful you are, watch what sites you visit: if you go online or share media, you are susceptible to viruses. I always recommend a basic antivirus at the very least. With many free options available that use very little resources, there is no reason not to.
All in all, this book is great for very novice Windows users. It guides you through step by step to how to use most, if not all, of the features of the OS. While it doesn’t dig deep into the customization and tweaking of the OS, the target audience would have no use for it anyway. Most of the readers to this site are too advanced for this book, but it would be a good gift to anyone in the family with their first PC or someone that has just upgraded from Windows 95.
Microsoft has released the new XBox 360 controller, and if you have the Wireless Receiver for your PC, it will work with Windows 7 as well. I really need to finish my gaming PC and separate my development/work stuff from my gaming stuff and get one of these! I need more USB ports for my gaming controllers.
Now, if you happen to have an Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver connected to your Windows PC, guess what? You can use this new controller with your PC to play games just like you could with the older Xbox 360 Wireless Controller. So if you’re like me and prefer using a controller for PC gaming, this might be a good step-up especially with the transforming D-Pad. You can also use the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller to play the in-box games in Windows 7 like Chess Titans. Yes I like playing Chess on my PC with a Xbox 360 Wireless Controller. Truthfully I am really digging Batman: Arkham Asylum (I’ve got the “Game of the Year” Edition) being a huge Batman fan and can’t wait for its sequel and I’m going to be picking up Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 which uses DirectX 11 for some awesome game-play.
While I’m kind of suspect to the source of this information, it seems like the launch of Windows Phone 7 was less than stellar. Sure, they give reasons as to why it could be so weak, but the source being unknown throws it off a bit for me. (Emphasis mine below).
Microsoft may have sold 40,000 Windows Phone 7 smartphones during the first day of sales, according to TheStreet.com. That number reportedly came from “a market research source who tracks phone sales.”
I’ve found that a lot of people make fun of Windows for it’s errors, but what about Mac? So much for the indestructible Mac. It seems that I get a lot more errors that are unrecoverable from Mac’s than I do with Windows. Windows can crash, but it can recover from it easier and there is 99.999% always a fix. Not so with a Mac. Of course, I see mostly errors all day in the line of work I’m in: IT Support.
And a little bit of humor:
Yes, Google has copied Bing once again. Instead of people dissing Google, it’s all Microsoft’s fault (isn’t it always?!). Well, this guy says the opposite and that Microsoft is the good guy.
Now, I know that some — if not most — of you just looooove to hate on Bing, but there is absolutely no doubt that they’re getting a lot of things *right* in Google’s eyes and that’s the important thing to consider here. While I will be the first to say that I love Google for its search capabilities and I’ve yet to find a search engine that comes even remotely close to giving me the ability to drill down into results the depth and breadth of Google’s index, I think it’s time for some competition and innovation to happen in the search space.