Category: Computers


  • Restore Line Breaks

    File this under external brain notes. I figure I will need to do this again or explain it to someone else. Outlook removes line breaks. This probably works fine for people who work in a normal job. As I work in computers, removing these often breaks the formatting and makes the message unintelligible. For example,…

  • The Learning Management System (LMS) has been a despised technology by some ever since I started working with one, WebCT, in 1999. At the time it was deemed crappy technology that had to improve or die. So today in 2012, about 13 years later, I have to roll my eyes at the pundits writing about…

  • My jaw dropped at the end of this blog post Cloud Hosting and Academic Research. There is a value in keeping significant old systems around, even if they no longer have active user bases.  A cloud hosting model seems so right to me–it’s scalable and robust. It just makes sense. But the hosting costs are…

  • Everything is out there. From the most profound to the most mundane, whatever I need to know when I need to know it. Last week I set my DVR to record a series. I knew it was in re-runs and British. The DVR sucks in the sense it gives an original air date but not…

  • Facebook is a useful tool for gathering information about others. From the beginning, the advice has been to be careful that what is posted well represents us. Or… To limit who can see those things we might not want seen. Hiring managers also have a difficult situation. Is who you are looking to hire who…

  • No, a person cannot catch a computer virus. But, as more wireless technology is implanted in people, I can see worse things being done. Given an example was the exact model of a former vice president of the United State’s pacemaker, I can see the Secret Service going into fits figuring out how to prevent…

  • So many of my favorite sites languished then died because another company bought them. The Posterous acquistion by Twitter therefore is not good news. I would not place Posterous as my favorite blog platform. Given in a couple years it will be dead, I guess it never will be.

  • As we browse the Web, our browsers picks up cookies. Many sites will give our browser advertiser’s cookies. More importantly, the advertiser’s servers can look to see whether we have their cookies and where we obtained them. This is how they record our browsing habits. The more places they advertise, the better they are able…

  • In Real Life

    Context matters. The current environment is assumed, so other contexts must be specified. Online conversations eventually will reference, “In Real Life.” We have corporeal bodies. At least, that is the common sense, much like the world is flat, children are miniature adults, and males are only rational. What we sense is not the data, but…