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This should be fun to watch: two industry giants will slug it out, trying to dominate one of the most profitable segments of Microsoft's catalog of applications.
Yesterday, Google announced that it is acquiring Quickoffice, an office suite of programs (word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation programs) that run on iPhones, iPad, Android, Android tablets, and Symbian devices. Google already has a complementary product, called Google Docs, that is cloud-based and runs on almost any computer, including Windows and Macintosh. Adding Quickoffice gives Google a quick addition of non-cloud applications. I am guessing that Quickoffice can also easily be ported to Windows and Macintosh, although that is not available today.
This article has nothing to do with genealogy. However, I do believe every American should read this, or similar, articles.
I admit to being a bit of a privacy nut, but this proposal really bothers me. What do you think?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently proposed a change in the U.S. law related to wiretapping. If passed, the change would allow government monitoring of Facebook, Skype, and some email services. The idea is to change the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which currently doesn't give investigators the right to monitor and intercept communications. The proposed new law forces telecommunications providers to set up their services in a way to allow wiretapping by the FBI and other unnamed government agencies.
This has nothing to do with ancestors, but it strikes me as setting an historical precedent. Our descendants may look back at this as a major change in history: Canada is the first government to officially release digital currency. I wouldn't be surprised to see all governments do the same within a few years.
The Royal Canadian Mint, the government-owned corporation that produces Canada's coinage, is set to launch MintChip, a digital form of currency that enables value transactions in the cloud. MintChip will not exist as coins or paper. Instead, MintChip only exists as information securely stored on flash drives, MicroSD cards, USB sticks, or remotely in the cloud, all for use by smartphones running Windows, iOS, Android, Blackberry, or by desktop and mobile browsers once the apps are created.
I found an interesting article by Butch Lazorchak published in the The Signal, a newsletter devoted to digital preservation, published electronically by the Library of Congress. Lazorchak writes:
"In the midst of the South By Southwest Interactive Conference, I daydream about a time (ideally in the not-so-distant future) when librarians, archivists and museum professionals (LAMs) rule the world.
"Delusional talk you might say, spoken by someone with more than a little self-interest in ultimate LAM domination. But the halls of SXSWi are full of conversations about “big data,” “cloud computing,” “web usability,” “search and access” and a host of other subjects that are squarely in the domain of today’s information professionals."
Lazorchak also writes of "self-organizing libraries, archives and museums." Really? Self-organizing? How will that work?
Writing in the Windows Secrets Newsletter at http://goo.gl/gRNeI, well-known PC expert Woody Leonhard describes the new "consumer preview" version of Windows 8. Woody is a dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft fan, so I was surprised when he wrote, "If you download and install Windows 8 Consumer Preview, released late last week, I can almost guarantee that you won’t like it." He goes on to say that Microsoft is slowly abandoning the individual Windows users and is focusing on corporate sales. As he writes, "Microsoft is not building Windows 8 for the garden-variety Windows expert. You and I aren’t being ignored, exactly, but we’re not at the top of the Win8 food chain. As perplexing as it might sound, aiming Windows 8 at a different demographic is probably a good decision. But it still might lead to Windows’ demise."
I haven't seen the Windows 8 preview version yet. However, I have Windows 7 and Macintosh OS X systems sitting on my desk, side-by-side, installed on two different laptop computers of similar specifications. From what I have seen, I think Woody is correct. Microsoft appears to be focusing less and less on the individual, in-home user and more and more on their corporate customers.
It is the first day of the month. It's time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!
Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first of every month, if not more often.
Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first of each month?
According to the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies, statistically speaking, one in every 1,461 people should have a Feb. 29 birthday. The society estimates there are 200,000 leap-year day babies in the United States and 5 million worldwide.
If today is your birthday, we wish you four times the normal birthday greetings. Enjoy the birthday!
The Confederate States attempted this in 1861 and failed. BBC News now has an interesting article about the predictions for life 100 years from now. The predictions are interesting to read but one really caught my eye: the break-up of the United States. The BBC article claims this will happen voluntarily, apparently without the need of a civil war or any unnecessary bloodshed.
Yesterday I posted an article with a title of Google Extends Free Voice Calls in Google Voice for All of 2012. That article is still available at http://goo.gl/Dd5zG. In the article, I mentioned that "I disconnected my old telephone service several years ago and I don't miss it. My new telephone looks like a normal cordless phone; I don't wear a headset and I don't need to leave my computer running to receive calls."
Newsletter reader Sue asked a question: "How do you use it with a regular phone if your phone service has been disconnected?"
I thought I would share the answer here where everyone can see it in case anyone else has the same question.
The Web is a big place. You can buy anything from t-shirts to books to car insurance to genealogy newsletters to automobiles just by entering your credit card number. The more you buy on the Internet with a normal credit card, the more your credit card number is being spread around. I don't like sending my credit card number all over the place, especially to companies I never heard of before. PayPal has a better way.
PayPal conceals your credit card numbers so the merchants or other users cannot access your accounts. PayPal allows a quicker, smoother way to pay for your transactions. Use your Visa, Master Card, Discover or American Express credit card safely, and be insured for all of your purchases. Or, use your bank account and never reveal any of your sensitive banking information to merchants.
PayPal is the leading online checkout site and is trusted globally. You'll notice millions of sellers accept PayPal as their preferred form of payment. You'll be protected if the item you pay for is never shipped, and in some instances, you'll be covered under the PayPal Protection Policy if the item is significantly not as described.
I have been using PayPal since 2000, and I know that it works. I have learned to trust PayPal. In fact, I trust PayPal more than most other credit card services.
This article has nothing to do with genealogy but I found it to be a great service. I decided to share it with others.
Do you have a lot of email newsletters or other subscriptions clogging up your inbox? That includes advertising "subscriptions." You could unsubscribe from each one at a time but, if you have many of them, that takes a long time. Now a new service will automate the process. Of course, you don't want to unsubscribe from the eogn.com newsletter, right? (ahem)
Here's a Christmas gift suggestion for the person who has (nearly) everything. A UK company called Creative Coffins allows customers to create their own personalized coffins. The coffins are made from 60% recycled paper combined with wood pulp.
Tomorrow (Friday 11/11/11) is No Email Day, a campaign to encourage people to stop using email for 24 hours for greater productivity and to realize how email has become abused/overused. Can you stand the withdrawal symptoms?
No Email Day is billed as a way to ‘be more productive with your time’ and, as its manifesto makes clear, stems from the frustration of an over-crowded inbox. Set up by digital innovator Paul Lancaster, the ‘No Email Day’ is not a plan to go back to old-fashioned forms of communications. Indeed, it is an attempt to move FORWARD into newer forms of communication, such as social media, to increase greater collaboration and productivity. Paul Lancaster states, “Managing your email can be a massive time suck.”
The Age newspaper reports that scientists believe they will have a drug within the next few years that will extend the average human lifespan to 150 years. The full article is available at http://goo.gl/B7yfG.
The typical retirement age today is 65 so that means 85 years of retirement, assuming we don't change the retirement age. More likely, most people will work until age 100 or 120 years or so. Many of us also will get to know our great-great-great-grandchildren.
According to Wikipedia, Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984. He also appointed the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day. Reagan recognized the popularity of ice cream in the United States (90% of the nation's population consumes ice cream) and stated that these two events should be observed with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."
This Sunday, July 17, my family and I will be holding "appropriate ceremonies and activities" at the Kimball Farm (http://www.kimballfarm.com/). I suggest you hold similar "ceremonies and activities" at your favorite ice cream place.
Here's a new method to honor a recently-deceased loved one and also provide a unique place to store the the remains: an urn that actually looks like the deceased. Cremation Solutions offers just that:
Keepsake sized Personal Cremation Urns are the latest in custom personalized cremation urns. They are created from one or two photographs with exceptional attention to details. With advances in facial analysis and the advent of state of the art 3D imaging, these high tech urns can be made to look like anyone. The full sized personal urn can hold all the ashes of an adult. For holding just a portion of the ashes, we recommend the keepsake sized personal urns.
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