I tasted a new iPad at lunch. Holy smokes, that display. Imagine, 60 ppi aside, surfing on a tablet that looks like the iPhone 4/4S. Stunning. Didn’t even see a game that was native to 2048×1536. That’ll be amazing as well. Have fun new iPad getters today!
The Blog of Peter Filias
…a self-proclaimed Computer Ninja
Category Archives: Computers
Windows 8 Consumer Preview
So, all I wanted to do at the end of last week was get Windows 8 Consumer Preview a quick ride around the block. Well, I tried to install it on my work PC with Microsoft’s Virtual PC, no luck. I tried to install it with Oracle’s Virtual Box, no luck.
I don’t want to have to mess around with VMWare Workstation (at home) nor do I want to mess around with dual booting. I guess I’ll have to give it a quick go with one of the aforementioned methods after all, though.
I had the very early version installed on my old work computer under VMWare Workstation, booted into it once and was, “meh”. I wonder if the consumer preview will float my boat a little bit more. I am most curious about the mail app. Is that weak? I kind of wish they’d do with the mail app what Apple did with the iMessage OS X app and let you install a beta version.
Is the installation and testing of new OSes something people look forward to? I guess you can do the same thing with Apple if you’re an Apple Developer ($99). It’s not free, but for the diehard Apple Developer, it’s close enough to being free. Well, maybe not, as Apple only charges $99 for their OS (IIRC).
If I do actually get Windows 8 installed, I’ll write something about it.
UPDATE: I realized I missed my mark of trying to write a post every week. Hell, I didn’t write a single post during the leap year month of February. Shame on me.
Should Kids Learn to Code?
I was reading some of my tech sites this morning when I noticed an article that discussed the computer science eduacation we give our youth.
I remember, way back in 1982/83, when math was boring to me (I finished our assignments rather quickly), and my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Luther, was searching for something to keep me busy. She handed me a book on BASIC programming to use on the Commodore PET computers we had in the media center. I think we had the models 4016 and 4032.
A few weeks before this, or maybe the year prior, we were introduced to the PET computers and turtle tracks. Turtle tracks was a simple LOGO-L-based programming language. It taught us logic and directions at a very early age.
I remember using it in this fashion:
FORWARD 100 LEFT 90 FORWARD 100 LEFT 90 FORWARD 100 LEFT 90 FORWARD 100 LEFT 90
Not only did we have a VERY EARLY lesson on programming in the 2nd or 3rd grade (and onwards), but computers were in a pioneering state and a fairly decent part of our education, for those times. We had exposure about once a week, and this raised interest in some households. I wouldn’t say a large percentage of homes had computers in 1982 or 1983, but I’d make a guess that about 15-20% of the homes had one. Those who had them were relegated to playing games on them, and a small percentage of them were using them to do things like “socially network” on bulletin board systems.
If you go back in time and investigate what these systems were, you could easily determine they were VERY EARLY social networks. Online services like CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL expanded on the BBS, and became the definite precursor to social networks of today, like: MySpace, Facebook, and Orkut.
Let’s wrap this up. I’m a proponent of making computer science, even elementary programming (coding) education mandatory. It will teach our youth, our leaders of tomorrow, our future champions of industry, that computers aren’t meant for just hanging out on Facebook, Google+, and playing games. It could actually help to bridge the gap between playing and using a computer.
Should Kids Learn to Code was the original article that led me to Andy Young’s article.
Rid yourself of app notifications in Facebook
A friend of mine kept asking me how the heck to remove or hide notifications from people who they’re friends with who play lots of Facebook games. I was stumped but also didn’t do much research aside from trial and error within Facebook’s notification settings. No luck. When I Googled it this morning, it led me to a post (will fill in URL later) that showed how do it.
To do it, you go to your notifications page and click the “x” all the way to the right of the notification. From there you edit that app’s settings (even though you don’t even have that app) and choose “Never” for how it notifies you.
Here is the two step process on how to do this:
Dropbox for Google Docs
So, on my way into work today, I was thinking, “Why isn’t there a desktop integration for Google Docs in the same way there is one for Dropbox?”
All it took was a 93ms search and the result was Insync! Not only is Insync the solution I was looking for: A desktop folder that is synced with Google Docs, but it can do this with multiple Google Accounts!
Taken from their site, here is some info about Insync:
Why should I use Insync over Dropbox?
- Way cheaper storage — Google charges $0.25 per GB/year and Dropbox charges $2.00 per GB/year. That’s 8x difference. Plus you can get 20GB for $5/year.
- Extensive sharing features…
- read/write + read-only sharing permissions
- nested sharing
- share recipients are not charged against their storage quota
- re-sharing permissions
- individual file sharing
- Multiple Google account support (personal, work, school, org, etc.)
- You can use Google Docs web to edit docs online
Insync is 100% free. How do you make money?
We plan on making money via premium features. Example: secure remote wipe of local GDocs.
What does “Perform these operations when I’m not using the application” mean?
It just means that if you are offline, Insync still has access to your GDocs to perform operations. It doesn’t mean Insync has forever access. By the way, you can revoke access to Insync at any time using your Google accounts page.
Why does Insync need access to my Google contacts?
We use your contacts to faciliate auto-completion when you are sharing.
What’s Insync’s favorite song?
That’s a no brainer.
