Technology

Technical User Groups – The Tribe of Passionate Geeks

The bug got me in the mid-70s. My math teacher in junior high, Mr. Blumenfeld, introduced us to a fascinating contraption on a tall stool that appeared, at first glance, to be an adding machine of some sort. But the thing was programmable, and came with this very nifty manual showing all the instructions you [...]

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Windows Phone 7 – The Phone for (or Against) ADD Sufferers?

Many of us have been waiting (a long, long time) for Microsoft to finally release a real entry into the “magical” smart phone race, and we’re almost there.  But I have some concerns.  I may be crazy, but follow me on this… The Windows Phone 7 may be just what our increasingly ADD / ADHD [...]

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Key Launcher Experiment, So Far…

As you may have read, I’ve been testing several “key launcher” type of utilities for about two weeks so far. Although a key feature (sorry — no pun intended) of several of these utilities is an “autotext” feature, this is the least of my needs for this type of app (coincidentally, “app” was just expanded [...]

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Key Launcher Disclosure and Disclaimer

Amazing. I’ve only been posting on my blog regularly for a few weeks, and already I find myself in a position where I have to clarify something. It seems that by posting my intentions on trying out some “key launcher”-style apps, I’ve attracted some authors and employees of these companies. The power of Technorati, I [...]

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Re-Automating

Programmers are a curious bunch. We’ll spend hours or days working on a solution for ourselves that’ll save us mere minutes. Part of it is just the challenge of stripping down tasks to their bare minimum, even if the total time we save from ever running that task adds up to just a small fraction [...]

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Why are Kids Not Choosing a Software Career?

Last month, I commented on Scott Hanselman’s blog about his Hanselminutes podcast in which he interviewed interns who worked for him at his now former company, Corillian. Listen to the podcast and see my comment in that post. Basically, I stated that I was concerned about the lack of students interested in programming these days, [...]

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Bit Literacy – Naming Files, Revisited

I recently finished reading Mark Hurst’s new book, Bit Literacy, and I definitely recommend it. It’s a quick read, but it’s one of those books you should revisit time and again. Seth Godin of The Dip fame (also highly recommended) calls this “…The Elements of Style for the digital age,” and that may be true, [...]

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Samsung Q1 Ultra – Loving It

I know that the ultra mobile PC has not yet found its niche, but I have the Samsung Q1 Ultra, and so far I’m loving it. It’s far from perfect, I admit: the keypad leaves a lot to be desired, and I wish the keypad was backlit, and it’s no speed demon, but it’s extremely [...]

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Why Hoaxes Work

I am constantly amazed why e-mail hoaxes still work, even to this day. Haven’t we been warned for several years now to look for the obvious signs of an Internet hoax? Haven’t we’ve been informed of sites like www.snopes.com and www.hoax-slayer.com? Then why, oh why do people continue to pass around such garbage? Human nature. [...]

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