Wednesday, February 5, 2014

How To Create Bookmark Icon in Chrome Without Text





To create icons without text in your Chrome browser , simply navigate to your favorite web page, such as http://www.google.com and press ctrl and d at the same time.

You will be greeted with a pop-up window with the name and folder where you can select the location of your bookmark. Leave it set to the Bookmark Bar option and then delete the name out of the name box.

Click done and you're all set.

Try doing this with a few of your favorite websites or create your own folders with your most visited links. It's quick, efficient and it looks pretty sweet too!








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Sunday, February 2, 2014

How To Take a Screen Capture on a Chromebook





To take a screen shot, press and hold ctrl and tap


A "Screenshot Taken" notice should pop up where you can then view your screen shot for editing or you can access it later by clicking on the Files icon in the dashboard.







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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Why Technology Is Not Causing The Downfall of Modern Society



As you look around and see hundreds of people with their heads slightly tilted down, thumbing up and down on the smartphone glass or viewing our children picking up the video game controller upon waking, it may seem like modern technology has taken over our minds, our lives and even our souls.

There are plenty of good arguments that would suggest that technology is making us dumber, fatter and less engaged with the real world. A prime example of what our society might become is depicted in the film Idiocracy - where even the President is dawning some "Bling" and no one knows how all this futuristic technology works that happens to do everything for them.

If you spend a lot of time at the computer, then you are labeled a Geek, and if you spend too much time on your smartphone (which is also a computer) then you might be labeled a Facebook addict. Tweeting every 5 seconds is probably not good for the psyche and 8 hours spent editing in Photoshop is sure to give you carpel tunnel.

But is this a fault of technology? Can we really blame bits plastic, metal and silicon. It seems silly to think about in this context but out in the real world, there are many who view modern technology as a rotten scourge to humanity.

I hear it a lot more often than I used to. "If it weren't for (insert generic technology term), then society would be much better off."

The problem with this way of thinking is that it can be applied to different times in human history where it doesn't make sense.  It would be easy enough to say that if it hadn't been for the invention of cars then we wouldn't have so many deaths due to accidents on the road.

Gun owners might be able to back me up here, as they know it's certainly not the gun's fault that it took part in the roll of a shooting. The gun didn't pull it's own trigger, and even if it did, a human would have programmed it to do so.

You can't blame technology for a persons negative actions. I could use a car to go rob a store, but does that make the car responsible for the crime? No. Is it the telephone's fault that little Johnny made a prank call to your grandmother? Not so much. Someone can get murdered with a weapon, but does the weapon serve a prison sentence? Not since last time I checked.

And you can't blame the forester's chainsaw that cuts the trees you wipe your ass with.

Be Reasonable And Use Common Sense

The same can be applied to the ever popular Social Media game. You may want to blame it for the millions of duck face selfies, but the reality is that people are free to do whatever they want and just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Using common sense in any situation is always the best practice.

Parents will quickly blame obesity in children on the rising popularity of tablets, when it's ultimately the parent's responsibility to gauge a child's usage, much the same as with the television or video games.

These attitudes are even easier adopted by folks in small town dwellings and rural areas where technology is utilized in a much slower fashion. This is not a jab at country folk (I happen to be one of them) but merely a lifelong observation of a culture that is much different than those of suburban and urban ares.

What irks me even more is when people blast modern technology while using it themselves. How many rants on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook have you seen about how awful it is that everyone is so engaged in this technology all while using it daily themselves.

As humans we are always quick to point the finger, blaming objects, groups, governments, police and regulatory organizations. We need to stop blaming the perils of society on something else and work diligently to help solve those problems. Many of these problems can be solved by the use of computer programming and web app development but certainly not all.



It Will Be Ok

We often only hear about when technology fails, such as when the security of a company is compromised or over-hyped coverage about the NSA and Edward Snowden is blown out of proportion all over the media. Whereas we seldom give praise to innovations in Healthcare IT that are saving people's lives and enabling us to live longer.

Technology is like anything else. People will use it for good and bad reasons. People will abuse it. People will use it to make our lives better and people will use it to change the world.

In fact, most of the modernized world is only made possible because of our addiction to oil and oil by- products. People that are quick to jump on technology's back don't often don't have this realization. We can really trace the way we live our lives back to humanities roots with technology, inventing crude tools and making wall paintings - and going even further back, we could blame the dinosaurs that created the fossil fuels to begin with.

Heck, why not blame God or the Big Bang Theory for all our troubles.

Just because we can build an Atom Bomb, doesn't mean we should blow entire countries to kingdom come. It's not the bomb's fault. It's not technology's fault.

It's our fault.

Photo Credit: Technology Is A Given by Scott McLeod BY-NC-SA


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Monday, January 13, 2014

Windows 9 Needs To Be Microsoft's Best OS Ever



Talks of a 2015 release of Windows 9 has been making it's rounds with the codename "Threshold" and I can't help but jump in with my take on the news.

I've been using Windows based machines since about 1995 and although it wasn't until the release of Windows 98 would I acquire my very own Compaq Presario, I can safely say that my overall relationship with Windows has been love/hate.

It was the only game in town right? I sure as heck could not afford a Mac at the time, nor did I have a clue what Linux was, so like everyone else, I would wield a Windows operating system and I've owned every edition from 98, all the way to the current Windows 8.1.

Now, I'm one of the few techies out there that didn't think Windows 8 was a complete abomination. In fact, I have gone in the complete opposite direction and tried to inform people that it was actually a pretty decent system under the hood. It's even much simpler to use once you get used to the subtle changes. Windows 8.1 also turned an alright system into a great system.

But alas, the world is not full of me and Windows 8 never gained much traction between geek and everyday consumer alike. Even Microsoft is embarrassed about this as millions would voice their opinions sharing a strong distaste for the new UI.

I think most of us agree that Windows needs an overhaul and Microsoft certainly tried to bring Windows into the modern world, however people just aren't willing to plunk down hundreds of dollars on a less than excellent OS when there are now viable alternatives - and some of those alternatives costing zero dollars.

So where does that leave Windows 9? I believe it will need to be Microsoft's greatest Operating System to date. They have competition now within budget to mid-range systems. Ubuntu is gaining more and more traction and Chrome OS has been putting a dent in market share. Plus, Android on the desktop/laptop is on the horizon.

Instead of me talking about what I think would make Windows 9 awesome, (I'll do that in a later post) I would like to point you to some Windows 9 Concept Designs where you can find 7 different possibilities of what Windows 9 could look like.

There probably isn't going to be much of a collaborative yawn when 9 strikes either. It's either going to wow, or it's going to be damned to the ends of eternity. It needs to make an impact and it needs to leave people with no reason to switch.

But what if it doesn't? What if it fails miserably? Is Microsoft's reign as king over? That is still very unlikely but it could certainly sound the death trumpets in what could be the beginning of the end. It's still largely a Windows world in both consumer and enterprise land.

I would suggest that Microsoft not hype their shiny new system in the least and keep information about it well below the radar. Users are going to have really high expectations following a not-so-dazzling release in it's previous incarnation.

If it's not a great system, will it be the end of Microsoft? No, but if it's not their best system ever, you can bet people will start looking elsewhere for their computing needs.

And that is not how you sell Operating Systems.


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