Google has added a new feature to its search. There is a function now to allow logged in users to add comments to augment the results:
Your parents may complain about how much time you spend in front of the computer monitor. Nevertheless, you may feel a daily need to connect with your thousands of closest internet friends - updating your Facebook page, seeing what’s happening on MySpace, catching up with all the people you follow on Twitter…
You are not wasting time. You are developing skills:
In the time since Chris Pirillo asked me to start posting articles here, spam has been a constant. There is not a single day during which there is a lull in the spam. Today is a milestone of sorts. DogReader has passed thirty one thousand (31,000) spam messages.
In order to put this in some context, let’s say that I spend four second with each spam message. That would be to check if it is indeed spam or whether some legitimate comments were sent there. Then that spam is marked and deleted.
At four seconds per spam, that is 124,000 seconds or 2,066 minutes. In hours, it is 34.444. Let’s just call it thirty four hours, for the sake of round numbers. That is a week of work. That is wasted time that is not financially compensated, no matter how many Google clicks the site generates.
It is just so annoying - spammers are such a blight!
Catherine
That laptop for school will become essential equipment (more than just for gaming and music). Your class notes are there, along with possible essays, references, email and other “stuff”. In case your laptop breaks down, you want to know these five things:
It may seem odd to be considering laptop problems prior to putting down your hard-earned dollars. However, these questions protect your investment and ease your frustration in case of problems. It is a good way of assessing how well a company does stand behind its products. If you are not happy with some of the responses to these questions, do look elsewhere. Your dream machine may be sold by another computer firm.
Catherine Forsythe
One of the long term deficits of Windows is the limited clipboard. It allows one copy. If the user finds something else to copy, the initial copy is gone. Most people have had the frustration of re-searching for that initial copy (or a much earlier copy) because it is needed again.
101 Clips solves this problem. “101 is the simplest of all multi-clipboard programs. Just have it running minimized and it captures everything you cut or copy from other programs. It keeps the last 25. When you want to paste one back, all you have to do is restore it and click on the clip you want. If you prefer to work entirely from the keyboard, you can choose a function key to restore and then paste any clip by typing the letter shown next to it.”
link: 101 Clips
This simply saves time. There are other shareware multiple clipboards available and some are very expensive. 101 Clips is free. 101 Clips is good for Windows 95 through to Vista. After a couple of sessions on the computer, you will wonder how you worked without it. And the price can’t be beat.
Catherine Forsythe
Google offers a wide range of document templates. For example, if a resume is needed, Google has a template that provides the outline of exactly what you need and what you don’t need in such a document. The topics are wide ranging, as Google offers hundreds of these templates:
link: Google Templates
All that is necessary to access these templates is your Google password. - From the few that I have tried, they seem to be very well done. Kudos to Google - this really saves time.
Catherine Forsythe
There is really no necessity for international clock programs to tell what time it is in a far off place. Google will do that with a simple entry and it will do so for most large cities. For example, in Google search, simply type: “time in Tokyo” (without the quotes). Google will show you what time it is in Tokyo. In addition, it will show a small graphic, with a clock and the correct time. If Google does not generate a time for a small town, just enter the next largest city. So that is access to a huge international time data base.
Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/
It is another gambit in the ‘coffee wars’. Starbucks will be offering free Wi-Fi, with the hope that it becomes the preferred destination for you and your laptop:
“SEATTLE — Starbucks Corp. is teaming up with AT&T Inc. and will start offering a mix of free and paid wireless Internet service in more than 7,000 of its U.S. coffee shops beginning this spring.”
link: Starbucks will offer free Wi-Fi with AT&T
It seems that Starbucks and Web site designers have a common goal. That goal is to have you visit and to have you stay as long as possible. Your time spent there is a personal investment and it increases the chances that you might be tempted to purchase.
Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster
