Category Archives: Software
Stanford’s Free Computer Classes
Stanford University is providing three of its courses to anyone at no charge. Not just any courses, but three of the most popular courses:
Classes start October 10th, so there is still time to sign up.
- What’s required of you as a student? Readings, assignments, quizzes, an exam and at least 12 hours per week devoted to the course.
- What is different between you and the Stanford student who paid tuition? You will not get “one-on-one interaction with the professor, the full content of the lectures – or a Stanford degree.”
Lytro’s Light Field Camera
Wow! What a cool idea for a camera! Take a picture and don’t worry about focusing – you can focus later on an spot on the photo. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself! Go ahead . . . I’ll wait . . .
Isn’t that the coolest thing you’ve ever seen? From what I’ve read, Lytro is planning on building their own camera with this technology embedded. However, I’m hoping that they license the technology to other camera manufacturers, too.
Windows 8 Preview
I’m currently running Windows 7 on a touch laptop. It works – kind of. Sometimes I wish I was running either a non-touch laptop or a fully-touch tablet, as it tends to move between the two interfaces at its own whim. However, it looks as if Windows 8 would be a big step forward for me. Apparently, the interface can switch between the traditional, non-touch interface and one that is touch-based – at my whim!
A few other things noted in this article:
- Performance should increase, e.g., fewer processes and space necessary for the operating system
- Picture password feature available (instead of typing a password)
- Status of some applications available on the home screen. From the screenshots, it looks like you could see the number of unread email/chat messages before opening the application. I look forward to seeing what other applications use this feature. It would be nice to see this overview of what is happening on my system instead of having to open applications to see if there are any transactions.
- Refresh your PC – a new feature that allows you to do a clean installation of Windows. Looking forward to seeing how this one works, too!
Word Lens App
An app that not only translated what is in front of it, but keep the formatting and colors of everything around it? Take a look at Word Lens.
This is free and comes with the English/Spanish and Spanish/English translations; other languages are $5 each.
Upgrading Windows
Want a walk down memory lane? At Andy’s Tech Experiments Blog, he upgraded through every version of Windows and recorded it in a video:
Help is Coming for Sloppy Typists
Help is on its way not only sloppy typists, but for those of you struggling to type on the touchscreen keyboards of your smartphones. As long as you are close enough to the correct letters, your words will appear! Take a look:
BlindType is not yet available, but its two creators have said that the beta is coming soon. I’ll be watching for it!
Bloglines Gone as of October 1
Many of us started with RSS using Bloglines. However, as time moved on, other RSS readers were developed and Bloglines wasn’t . . . developed, that is. So, we moved on to other RSS options.
Ask.com, the owner of Bloglines, has just announced that they will be shutting the Bloglines service down as of October 1st. Fortunately for those still using the service, there are export capabilities that will allow a relatively painless switch to another RSS service.
Outlook ToneCheck
ToneCheck, a plug-in for Outlook, analyzes your email message before it’s sent and lets you know if you are being too emotional. Specifically, it looks for emotions such as elation, humiliation, excitement and fear. The beta is free, but for enterprise-level implementation, there is a cost.
Interested? There’s a demo.
Fonts for Science & Engineering
It’s taken 15 years, but the Scientific and Technical Information Exchange has created Version 1.0 of STIX Fonts — a comprehensive font set that serves the scientific and engineering community. They are provided royalty-free to anyone who wishes to use them.
If you are interested, the font set can be downloaded and installed.
Printing Via the Cloud
Google is looking at the possibility have printing via the cloud instead of locally. Using the Google Chrome operating system, you would ask to have a document printed, the request would go to Google Cloud Print, which would route the job to the correct printer, and return the status to the user. No more printer drivers!
Chrome OS is being developed as web-only software, so it makes sense that printing would also be web-only. In addition, devices are now being sold that don’t have printer ports. This would be a great addition for them.
