Obama Staff Arrives to White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology - washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012104249.html

"The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos."

"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari" And the geeks shall inherit the Earth.

En arrivant à la Maison Blanche, l'équipe Obama, qui a mené la campagne la plus "2.0" de l'Histoire a découvert l'horreur d'une institution qui est resté à l'âge de pierre...

bootcamp windows7

A complete walkthrough

Before you drop the dough on a whole new system, here's a list of upgrades for squeezing a few more months, years even, out of ol' faithful, during these trying economic times.

build a computer for linux

building a computer

How to build a computer for the first time from scratch.

7:09

nice overview of programming languages

As I do my professional and personal work, I am always looking for the best tool for the job. In software development, there are several programming languages that can be used for a wide variety of reasons. I am often asked by people new to software development what is the best language to learn. They get confused when I ask them what they plan on doing. The reason is that people think there is going to be a best language for everything. However, everyone knows that there is no silver bullet. On the other hand, there are some languages which are better suited or more widely used in specific areas. So, given that idea, I came up with a list.

Over the years, I’ve collected some of the smartest-yet-funny software development quotes I have read. Here’s the current short list in no particular order. Oddly enough, there are thirteen of them and they all address the woes of programming.

“Nine people can’t make a baby in a month.” - Fred Brooks

“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.” - Rich Cook

MaximumPC.com is the best online resource for PC Features. Visit Maximum PC and read about The 32 Totally Essential (and Free) Apps for Every New PC.

And how DOS builders added secret support to make it more like unix.

SWITCHAR

Why \ was used for paths in DOS.

The reason why DOS (and subsequently Windows) went with the backslash character to convey path information, instead of UNIX's forward-slash.

Why is there a "\" key on the keyboard in the first place? As far as I know, they aren't used in English grammar, and to this day, most common users don't know which is "back" and which is "forward."

Thanks Reddit! If you've ever wondered why all the paths on Windows machines are wrong, why the escape character on Windows is "^" and so on, please read this little piece.

A Better Way to Deliver Value Added Services With the rise in broadband users, people continue to consume and share increasing amounts of digital content each year. The time and money invested in personal photos, home movies and in content purchased digitally is significant and continues to grow. Network connected consumer electronics devices, smart phones and social websites have emerged to help consumers share and access their personal content in the home and over the Internet. With the growth in digital content, there is a need for services to secure, manage and share content simply and reliably. Today digital home services such as media servers, file sharing and backup software all need to be installed on a PC. A plug computer is a small, powerful computer that connects to an existing network using Gigabit Ethernet. This type of device eliminates the need for an always-on PC in the digital home to access these services.

Un PC en un enchufe

A plug computer is a small, powerful computer that connects to an existing network using Gigabit Ethernet.

Designed from the ground up to simplify the management of digital media assets, the Marvell plug computer is designed to be left plugged into a wall socket at all times. The plug uses low power to conserve energy and draws on average, less than five watts under normal operation compared to 25-100 watts for a PC being used as a home server.

MakeUseOf has teamed up with our very own Karl Gechlik at Ask The Admin to bring you nearly 50 pages full of screenshots, links to video demos and easy how-to instructions for every step involved. The result? The Idiot’s Guide To Building A PC.

Anyone who has dug their old computer or console out of the cupboard or loft for some retro gaming will probably have noticed that it maybe hasn’t worn too well with the test of time. The plastics these machines were made of is called ABS and to make it flame retardant (just in case it catches fire after a marathon session) the plastics manufacturers added chemicals that caused the plastic turn yellow or, even worse, brown over a long period of time. It was originally thought that the yellowing was permanent and that the only solution to this was to paint the plastic in its original colour and cover the problem up. However...

Amazing process for un-yellowing plastics

Homebrew recipe for restoring the colour to old beige computer/electronics equipment

we have directed all of our energies and intelligence to inventing machinery that does nothing but increase the supply of information. As a consequence, our defenses against information glut have broken down; our information immune system is inoperable. We don't know how to filter it out; we don't know how to reduce it; we don't know to use it. We suffer from a kind of cultural AIDS.

Refurbish an old laptop into a wall mounted monitor and computer

Future Technology

People sometimes ask me why I dislike Microsoft. The answer is simple: I don’t -- I’ve just been disappointed with ...

Microsoft concept video.

Fantastic little video from Microsoft, showing how technology (mostly AR - augmented reality) might work in the future.

tech.yahoo.com: Conficker tips

An article about Conficker virus.

kitchen pc

Inductive reasoning at it's finest.

In just over a day, a powerful computer program accomplished a feat that took physicists centuries to complete: extrapolating the laws of motion from a pendulum's swings. Developed by Cornell researchers, the program deduced the natural laws without a shred of knowledge about physics or geometry. The research is being heralded as a potential breakthrough for science in the Petabyte Age, where computers try to find regularities in massive datasets that are too big and complex for the human mind. (See Wired magazine's July 2008 cover story on "The End of Science.") "One of the biggest problems in science today is moving forward and finding the underlying principles in areas where there is lots and lots of data, but there's a theoretical gap. We don't know how things work," said Hod Lipson, the Cornell University computational researcher who co-wrote the program. "I think this is going to be an important tool." Condensing rules from raw data has long been considered the province of hu

“In just over a day, a powerful computer program accomplished a feat that took physicists centuries to complete: extrapolating the laws of motion from a pendulum's swings…”

In just over a day, a powerful computer program accomplished a feat that took physicists centuries to complete: extrapolating the laws of motion from a pendulum's swings. Developed by Cornell

Tor

misc

Well, damn. I use THREE operating systems, I must be a criminal mastermind. :P

"Aside from the remarkable overreach by campus and state police in trying to paint a student as suspicious in part because he can navigate a non-Windows computer environment, nothing cited in the warrant application could possibly constitute the cited criminal offenses."

"remarkable overreach by campus and state police in trying to paint a student as suspicious in part because he can navigate a non-Windows computer environment"

Reminds me of DC.

PC Plus is the UK's premier technology magazine, bringing you all the latest news, reviews, features, tutorials and more.

Lifehacker's top 5 Netbooks.

My main computer is an hp zv5000 - it uses two heat pipes with heat sinks and two fans to cool the processor. Through use, those heat sinks (copper?) and pipes collect quite a bit of dust reducing the machine's cooling capacity.

Tales from the encrypt: If you care about the integrity of your data, it's time to investigate solutions for accessing and securing it – and not just for the here and now

"But what if I were killed or incapacitated before I managed to hand the passphrase over to an executor or solicitor who could use them to unlock all this stuff that will be critical to winding down my affairs – or keeping them going, in the event that I'm incapacitated? I don't want to simply hand the passphrase over to my wife, or my lawyer. Partly that's because the secrecy of a passphrase known only to one person and never written down is vastly superior to the secrecy of a passphrase that has been written down and stored in more than one place. Further, many countries's laws make it difficult or impossible for a court to order you to turn over your keys; once the passphrase is known by a third party, its security from legal attack is greatly undermined, as the law generally protects your knowledge of someone else's keys to a lesser extent than it protects your own."

A 10 step guide to syncing your iPhone to multiple iTunes libraries on multiple computers.

Art - community of artists and those devoted to art. Digital art, skin art, themes, wallpaper art, traditional art, photography, poetry / prose. Art prints.

sitio ideal para quienes se rompen la cabeza buscando el software indicado que abra un tipo de archivo desconocido. Su base de datos brinda información detallada de prácticamente cualquier extensión: tipo, categoría, descripción, software con el cual abrir el archivo, etc. Además si utilizas Firefox disponen de un search plugin que te facilitará las búsquedas. Uno de los mayores inconvenientes de esta web es que los resultados privilegian la descarga de software propietario por encima de opciones confiables y funcionables de software libre.

filename extension database

I'm Will Smith, the editor of Maximum PC and the guy in the video below. We shot this video demonstration to show people how to build a killer PC, one step at a time. It's a great reference for beginners and experts alike. This video was created for viewing by attendees of Comic-Con 2009.

Computers are evolving – literally. While the tech world argues netbooks vs notebooks, synthetic biologists are leaving traditional computers behind altogether. A team of US scientists have engineered bacteria that could solve complex mathematical problems faster than anything made from silicon.

Content Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

RT @zaibatsu: Bacterial computers can crack mathematical problems fast than most computers http://su.pr/1DwpiJ [from http://twitter.com/lekahe/statuses/2856248758]

Bacteria Computer! Wa-ow!

Whether you're a first-time computer builder or a seasoned pro, deviantART user Sonic480's computer hardware poster, which helps you identify countless different types of hard drives, RAM, ports, CPU sockets, power connectors, and more, is a great reference.

Whether you're a first-time computer builder or a seasoned pro, deviantART user Sonic480's computer hardware poster, which helps you identify countless different types of hard drives, RAM, ports, CPU sockets, power connectors, and more, is a great reference. Chances are you don't know the ins and outs of every single connector or piece of computer hardware you'll come across (even if you do have experience), and while we're sure the poster could cover even more territory (if we're being picky), it's a pretty great visual reference.

Top 10 Computer Hardware Fixes and Upgrades

Pundits may argue that the modern day HTPC has no place in the modern day living room, but we disagree. In fact, with the economy still struggling to regain its swagger, folks are staying in and finding entertainment at home more than ever. It's that truth that spurred us to start this here project: building a fully capable, Blu-ray and TV tuner-equipped HTPC for less than a grand. And lo and behold, we made it happen. If you're interested in seeing exactly how we pieced together a mighty fine entertainment box for less than the starting price of most pre-configured systems, hop on past the break with your notepad open. If you'll recall, we did a similar piece on HTPC building way back in early 2006. A format war and a digital TV transition later, we figured it was finally time to issue a revised edition. With disposable income becoming an increasingly rare commodity, we put a soft $1,000 cap on our model rig, and we did our darnedest to construct a solid, potent media PC that could

How-to: Media center

Whether you're buying a new computer, building your own or upgrading an old one, the process of choosing a new graphics card can be daunting. Integrated graphics solutions—the kind that come standard with many PCs—have trouble playing games from three years ago, let alone today, and will put you at a disadvantage when future technologies like GPGPU computing, which essentially uses your graphics card as an additional processor, finally take hold. On top of all this, we're in the middle of a price dip—it's objectively a great time to buy. (Assuming you're settled on a desktop. Ahem.) The point is, you'll want to make the right choice. But how?

There are plenty of great graphics cards out there, no matter what you're looking for. Thing is, the odds are seemingly stacked against you ever finding the right one. It doesn't have to be that hard.

"You're looking for a card that is a) an option on whatever system you're buying and b) can handle the game well—at a high resolution and high texture quality—which, generally speaking, is a comfortable 60 frames per second." Great overview. I didn't know that 60 fps was considered a minimum these days.

The next step after, "have you tried turning it off and on again?"

It's funny because it's true... :-)

It's true, this really is how I do tech support for friends and family...

Referencia Hardware

tech videos from the 80s and early 90s

Watch The History Of Computers

The History of Computers

Freeware Files.com Download Page.

find program product keys and passwords so you can re-install

Reference Sheets for multiple purposes - wiki markup, Firewall ports, ...

29 Free Stunning Web Icons Sets To Enhance Your Web Design. Icons can be used alone or with words. By themselves, icons can save space.

Written by: Charlotte in Freebies, Visual, Web 2.0 // 29 Free Stunning Web Icons Sets To Enhance Your Web Design An icon is a small picture used on a screen to represent some action or content. Icons can be used alone or with words. By themselves, icons can save space. A very visual icon can often say more in a few pixels than even a few words can. Icons retain some advantages over textual links. They are often easier for users to recognize than words. As the Web grows, some icons will certainly become commonplace and their meaning fairly well understood. Most of these icons will probably owe some heritage to desktop applications, but some may be new. The particular style for the icon is inconsequential. Consider the shape to be the primary focus of the icon.

Linux is brilliant at serving files. It's this ability that keeps the enterprise world turning to Linux for its heavy lifting jobs and that keeps the world Googling 24/7. But it's just as good at serving files from a computer tucked away under the stairs or stuck in the loft, and a server in your house is now becoming an essential accessory.

BitSnoop.com - biggest torrent search engine - games, music, movies, books for download.

Este sitio es para descargar torrents, no promovemos la pirateria, solo el uso de software necesario

A Visual Guide to Computer Cables and Connectors

Computer cables can be confusing so here's a visual guide that will help you identify cables, connectors and converters that came with your computers and other electronic gadgets.

Squeeze the very best performance out of your PC with these Windows 7 optimization tricks.

TheTVDB.com

We give a lot of attention to XBMC here, and with just cause. It's an open-source, cross-platform, highly-customizable media center solution that outperforms just about every commercial option out there. Here's how you can make it even better.

Looks good.

How to turn an old PC into a media centre Play media on your TV with an old PC and XBMC : TechRadar UK

As we prepare to stuff our faces with a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, we turn our Thanksgiving spirit to the gobs of free software we love to say thank you to the developers, and to give our computers a feast of their own.

As we prepare to stuff our faces with a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, we turn our Thanksgiving spirit to the gobs of free software we love to say thank you to the developers, and to give our computers a feast of their own. Earlier this week we asked you to share the free apps you're most thankful for, and after rounding up thousands of your suggestions, considering our own favorites, and performing a little spreadsheet magic, we've cooked up our own cornucopia of excellent free software and webapps we're extremely thankful for. So whether you're an American celebrating the season or not, the selection of apps below is like gravy-drenched turkey and mashed potatoes for your computer. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Klávesové zkratky, které se můžou hodit pro urychlení práce (Windows, Firefox)

Fun bit of work by Mr. Bilton. The writer details his technological method of disconnecting from cable's grasp.

A computer, with software upgrades and a wireless keyboard and mouse, can replace cable service.

e to be honest, this isn’t as e

solving a future problem

Happens at least once in a week http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers

AMD Phenom 9750 Quad-Core is the most bang for the buck, according to Paul's analysis (nice!)

Les processeurs classés par leur rapport performances / prix. Qui est en tête ? AMD !

CPU Comparisons wrt price and performance

Being part of a botnet is no fun. Your computer becomes your worst enemy, watching everything you do, collecting all of your secrets, and then delivering all that data to the bot-herder; the person who originated the network. But what does it really mean to be part of a botnet, and is there anything that can you do about it?

good information about determining if your pc is infected with malware

Good visual/info on history of computer storage.

Far from comprehensive, but entertaining.

That's badass

How to integrate a touch screen monitor into your kitchen, for TV, recipies, internet, weather, you name it.

Browse Cheat Sheets

Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

8-bit computer made by hand

Here’s the thimbleful of information I have heard regarding The Tablet (none of which has changed in six months): The Tablet project is real, it has you-know-who’s considerable undivided attention, and everyone working on it has dropped off the map. I don’t know anyone who works at Apple who doubts these things; nor do I know anyone at Apple who knows a whit more. I don’t know anyone who’s seen the hardware or the software, nor even anyone who knows someone else who has seen the hardware or software.

Excellent post on Old World computing vs New World computing. Love it.

Personal computing — having a computer in your house (or your pocket) — as a whole is young. As we know it today, it’s less than a half-century old. It’s younger than TV, younger than radio, younger than cars and airplanes, younger than quite a few living people in fact.

Nullsoft Beep is an application that makes your computer sound like computers sound in the movies.

do want

Nullsoft Beep

So you want to build a computer

you want to build a computer

please visit his profile page at Monitor Talent

Received this link a week ago, and still I'm sending it to ppl... it's an AWESOME read. http://is.gd/n4MY [from http://twitter.com/dc0de/statuses/1434156624]

Dokumente aus der Firmengeschichte von Apple im Computer History Museum.

Apple Computer (now known as Apple, Inc.) was a major force in the personal computer revolution that took place in the 1970s and '80s. Learning about its history teaches us about competing visions of the future and how companies made decisions during this exciting time. The Computer History Museum presents here two special documents from Apple Computer during the early days of personal computing.

In the personal computer’s long and varied history, some computers have been decidedly less perfect than others. Many early PCs shipped with major design flaws that either sunk platforms outright or considerably slowed down their adoption by the public. Decades later, we can still learn from these multi-million dollar mistakes.

<<Computer Science Unplugged is a series of learning activities that reveals a little-known secret: computer science isn't really about computers at all! Unplugged teaches principles of computer science such as binary numbers, algorithms and data compression through games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around. Unplugged is suitable for people of all ages, from elementary school to university, and from many countries and backgrounds. >> See the PDF of all activities that teachers can download....

"I wanted to build a machine that would be immediately recognizable as a Turing machine to someone familiar with Turing's work."

A video of a working Turing machine that Turing himself would probably have recognized despite the use of modern electronics (the only thing missing is a truly infinite tape). I'm impressed, but it also just drives home why there wasn't a "personal Turing machine revolution" after he proposed the device!

Building a real Turing machine. It uses 35mm film leader and writes 0/1 with a dry erase marker. Very cleaver.

An ACTUAL Turing Machine

You’ve backed up all files in your harddisk, thanks to Mozy, DropBox, SugarSync, or Carbonite. But there are some things that you’re yet to backup. What are they, you ask? Let’s check them out one by one: #1: Your Blog You started a blog some time ago and now it’s grown into a big community of sorts. Your life without your blog would be a nightmare. It’s always good to have a backup of your blog so that in the worst case scenario, you can safely restore the contents of the blog and start writing again as if nothing happened! If you’re on WordPress, WP DB Backup is the only plugin you’ll ever need to do a regular backup of your blog. You can install the plugin and tell it to send automatic backups of your blog to your email inbox. Install. Configure. Forget. Just as easy as that. Pro Blog Design has a complete guide on how you can go about doing it.

What to Backup?

Software, Websites, Hacks You can Use

anti theft, etc

Someday, somewhere, somehow your computer will be gone. It will be stolen, or the hard drive will self-destruct, or it will be hit by a meteor. While the latter would at least provide you with an excellent story, assuming you weren't using it at the time, having your laptop stolen, as mine was recently, just plain sucks. However, I did manage to learn a few things in the wake of disaster, and wanted to take the opportunity to share them with you here.

Three things are lost with a computer's theft: hardware, data, and privacy. I'll let others deal with the emotional aspects of loss, and instead focus on the practical ones.

Comment protéger son macbook en cas de vol

* The more heat, the faster the fan will have to run to dissipate it. The faster the fan, the noisier it will be. So, high efficiency = less noise basically. * Electricity bill. You have to pay for that wasted power , even if you’re not really using it ;) You’re basically aiming for the highest % that you can get. 80% is decent, while 85% and higher is better.

When you have to pick a new power supply, you have six main factors to consider: * Maximum power output, in Watts (W) * Maximum current output, mainly on the 12V line(s), in Amps (A) * Power efficiency, in % * Brand/Series * Number and type of connections * Price

アホスww

hello!!

ssdごいっす

Admittedly I don't think much about it at all. ...

Saving Energy

turn off computers during this downturn

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." - Popular Mechanics (1949)

a website dedicated to the use of computers in film and television. Each appearance is catalogued and rated on its importance (ie. how important it is to the plot), realism (how close its appearance and capabilities are to the real thing) and visibility (how good a look does one get of it).

via marisaolson

Starring the Computer is a website dedicated to the use of computers in film and television. Each appearance is catalogued and rated on its importance (ie. how important it is to the plot), realism (how close its appearance and capabilities are to the real thing) and visibility (how good a look does one get of it). Fictional computers don't count (unless they are built out of bits of real computer), so no HAL9000 - sorry.

website dedicated to the use of computers in film and television

They ended their lives as museum pieces, aquariums, couches, and even at the bottom of the sea. But these are the ones that stay with us.

I. Am. So. Old.

Where to Buy a Preinstalled Linux Desktop / Laptop

Good listing of where to buy pre-built linux systems

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored. The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cellphone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people like Mr. Campbell, these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life.

Scientists say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information from e-mail and other interruptions.

buen gráfico con supercomputadoras y su distribución por país

The biannual Top 500 supercomputer list has been released. Use this graphic to explore the world's fastest number crunchers or find out more about alternative supercomputer powers . Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Ftechnology%2F10187248.stm

RT @dreig: interesante infografía: Supercomputadoras en el mundo: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10187248.stm

In graphics: Supercomputing superpowers

The accuracy of computer speech recognition flat-lined in 2001, before reaching human levels. The funding plug was pulled, but no funeral, no text-to-speech eulogy followed. Words never meant very much to computers—which made them ten times more error-prone than humans. Humans expected that computer understanding of language would lead to artificially intelligent machines, inevitably and quickly. But the mispredicted words of speech recognition have rewritten that narrative. We just haven’t recognized it yet. In 2001 recognition accuracy topped out at 80%, far short of HAL-like levels of comprehension. Adding data or computing power made no difference. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University checked again in 2006 and found the situation unchanged. With human discrimination as high as 98%, the unclosed gap left little basis for conversation.

In passing, interesting-looking thing about why computers can't understand language.

link to scientific article which shows low accuracy of 2006 products

Speech recognition flatlined at 80% accuracy in 2001, and you'd be forgiven for concluding it will never get better: http://bit.ly/aoSCO0 – iconmaster (iconmaster) http://twitter.com/iconmaster/statuses/14370926269

The accuracy of computer speech recognition flat-lined in 2001, before reaching human levels. The funding plug was pulled, but no funeral, no text-to-speech eulogy followed. Words never meant very much to computers—which made them ten times more error-prone than humans. Humans expected that computer understanding of language would lead to artificially intelligent machines, inevitably and quickly. But the mispredicted words of speech recognition have rewritten that narrative. We just haven’t recognized it yet.

Kennt ihr den Unterschied zwischen Malware, Viren, Trojanern, Würmer? Die Aufklärung: http://j.mp/amsdhQ – Sergej Müller (wpSEO) http://twitter.com/wpSEO/statuses/16762701185

aboutprogramming04.jpg (imagem JPEG, 1200×3000 pixels)

the world of programming infographic

Coming out of stealth, SeaMicro is dispelling the Silicon Valley myth that you can’t innovate in hardware anymore. The startup is announcing today it has created a server with 512 Intel Atom chips that gets supercomputer performance but uses 75 percent less power and space than current servers.

New 512-core servers http://venturebeat.com/2010/06/13/seamicro-drops-an-atom-bomb-on-the-server-industry

(private) cloud in a box? http://bit.ly/dBXVTr

@LarsBoeNielsen speaking of going crazy, check out this http://bit.ly/9uxBNh Server V.Next? and yes, i want the new XBox!

these tips can help you keep your battery working at peak efficiency.

What can you do with a few gigabytes and a USB port? Quite a lot, with the right software. Learn how to encrypt your work, run whole systems, rescue Windows, and customize your thumb drive with these USB-geared tricks.

@yuifu my wallet cried when i bought this, but i'm happy :) http://short.mm.am/KF3OP – nick abel (516eltonXB7Z6Q) http://twitter.com/516eltonXB7Z6Q/statuses/18494541569