Thursday, January 31, 2013
Jennifer Lawrence?s dress did not rip at the SAG Awards
First of all, this is [...]
Why Office 365 is a better deal than Office 2013
The new Microsoft Office is here. As with the previous versions, you can get Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more as a locally installed suite of applications or as Office 365, a cloud-based subscription. However, choosing between Office 2013 desktop software and the new Office 365 is a dramatically different decision than in the past.
This time, there is virtually no decision to make. Comparing Office 2013 to Office 365 is an exercise in semantics; Microsoft has significantly stacked the deck to favor one over the other.
There is a clear distinction between the two options. Office 2013 describes only the desktop applications. By contrast, Office 365 is a Web-based platform that pairs the Office applications with cloud storage. In the past, though, the Office 365 versions of the software had limited features and capabilities compared to the full desktop versions, and if you didn?t have an Internet connection you didn?t have Office.
With the new versions of the productivity suite, though, Office 2013 vs. Office 365 is a smoke-and-mirrors debate. Office 2013 is more expensive than Office 365, and the license is only good for one machine. If you only need the core applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) you can get Office 2013 Home & Student for $140. Throw in Outlook, and you get Office 2013 Home & Business for $220. Office 2013 Pro adds Access and Publisher, all for $400.
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Americans Still Not Sold On Nokia Smartphones
Nokia Preps True PureView Windows Phone
Faster, better, stronger: Get your PC in tip-top shape
Trying to keep your PC running smoothly sometimes feels like an impossible task. Windows is prone to all kinds of bloat, which can bog down your PC or?in severe cases?even render a system functionally useless. Over time, it?s almost impossible to prevent unsavory apps and other files from infiltrating a Windows PC, regardless of how careful a user you may be. There are simply too many ways for junk to seep its way in.
With regular maintenance and a bit of effort, however, it?s possible to keep a Windows system relatively clean and performing at its peak. Some of the things we?re going to cover here may be second nature to long-time PC aficionados, but these tips should come in quite handy for casual users. At the very least they?ll help you keep your system clean, updated, and better protected from potential threats.
Update, update, update
Vulnerabilities in Windows and many popular applications are quite common. To mitigate the possibility of such vulnerabilities being exploited on your system, it?s important to keep your OS and all of your applications patched and up to date. If you haven?t already set Windows to automatically update, do so now by opening the System and Security settings in the control panel, clicking Windows Update near the bottom-left of the window, and then clicking the Change Settings option. Should you want to install updates manually, remember to do so about once a week. Microsoft tends to release most updates on ?Patch Tuesdays?, but if a severe vulnerability is found and fixed quickly, MS may release a patch at any time.
It is also important to keep your antivirus and antimalware utilities patched and updated. Nefarious malware programmers tend to be a couple of steps ahead of the good guys, so it?s important to keep your digital defenses as current as possible. Antivirus and antimalware apps should update themselves daily (or even hourly), but if a problem has occurred (or your system is already infected), auto-updates may have been disabled. Check the status of your antivirus and antimalware apps often to ensure they?re updated and enabled.
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Using Darwin to Develop More Efficient Solar Panels
Reports: No surgery needed for Chandler Jones
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Kelsey Grammer: A Proud Dad, Again!
On July 13, Kelsey Grammer announced that he and his fourth wife, Kayte, are now the parents of a healthy baby girl, named Faith Evangeline Elisa Grammer. ?We are thrilled,? the couple said in a prepared statement.
It?s a happy ending for Kelsey and Kayte, who?ve been through their share of troubles: The couple fell in love in 2010, while Kelsey was still married to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Camille Grammer. And, though Kelsey has four other children ? two with Camille and two from previous relationships ? he and Kayte had been trying for some time to have a baby; in 2010, she suffered a miscarriage, and earlier this year, she miscarried Faith?s twin.
?We choose to celebrate the life that has been given us,? the couple shared.
Hilary Duff Responds to Weight Criticism: ?Say It To My Face!?
Less than four months after giving birth, Hilary Duff is forced to defend her post-baby body.
?I don?t care what people say,? Hilary tells In Touch about those who teased her after photos surfaced of the actress relaxing in a bikini with her son, Luca. ?Say it to my face!?
Hilary, who?s married to former hockey player Mike Comrie, says she?s been exercising a few days a week, pairing spin classes with private training. ?This is how it goes for most women ? the weight doesn?t fall off overnight,? she tells In Touch. ?I?m not back to where I want to be, but I?m not stressing it.?
Well, there?s one other person ? her husband, who reassures Hilary that she?s picture-perfect. ?Mike doesn?t care,? she says. ?Even during my pregnancy, he thought I was beautiful.?
How to clean your laptop's cooling fans
I've written about this subject in years past, but it's so important I feel obligated to repeat myself for those who might have missed it.
Your laptop may be choking to death.
You see, like desktops, laptops can suck up lots of dust. And because everything in a laptop is packed together so tightly, dust is even more dangerous. When the cooling fans have to run constantly, it's just a matter of time before the machine start to overheat. When that happens, it may lock up. It may damage system components. And it might even kick the bucket.
Fortunately, as I've mentioned before, this is easy to fix. All you need is a small screwdriver and a can of compressed air (or an air compressor?though tread lightly with that, as noted below).
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Reading Terminal Market Welcomes Meltkraft, A Brand New Grilled Cheese Bar
Tough On Your Smartphone? Sprint Offers A Solution With New Ultra-Rugged Kyocera Torque
Boom in Mining Rare Earths Poses Toxic Risks
Housing Recovery: Be Careful What You Wish For
Peter King on M&M: Trading Darrelle Revis would be ?more Jets idiocy?
Monday, January 28, 2013
Yahoo takes on Google in search wars
How to buy the best laptop in the age of Windows 8
Laptops used to be simple. Almost all of them had a clamshell design, with a display that folded onto the keyboard. You picked the laptop you needed based on factors like price, weight, and performance. But it's different today: New form factors, different operating systems, and disparate user needs conspire to make choosing a laptop a complex chore.
Do core processor specs matter, or has system performance reached the point where users won't even notice a 300MHz frequency bump? Should you buy a laptop at all, or would a tablet better suit your needs? I'll answer all these questions and more as I explore the challenges of buying a laptop (or something like a laptop) in the age of Windows 8.
Define your needs and budget
Before you pull out your credit card, consider how you'll be using your new machine. Perhaps you do a lot of business traveling, and carrying something lighter than your current 6-pound behemoth would improve your life on the road tremendously. Or maybe you're looking for a shared family machine, or a laptop that you can hand off to a student to do schoolwork on. Or you might want a high-performance system that can deliver high frame rates in 3D games.
Let's look at the main buying factors for each scenario.
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Friday Afternoon Headlines
Andean Glaciers Have Shrunk 30-50 Percent
How Effective is the iPad as a Business Tool?
9 Last Minute Gift Ideas From When Your Grandparents Were Kids
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Twitter's Vine ripe with users of video sharing service
Twitter launched Vine recently and it appears the video sharing service that lets you post clips up to six seconds long is already a hit with users.
Vine is a completely public and compelling medium that gives you a brief window into what people all over the world are seeing, or the kinds of things they?re thinking about. You can share the brief videos on Twitter and Facebook.
Just like Facebook?s Instagram turns regular people into creative photographers, Vine encourages anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch to make video montages. And unlike other platforms where it might take minutes or more to get your video fix, Vine makes it simple and fast to create and consume it -- perfect in a world where our digital attention span continues to shrink.
It takes a bit of ingenuity to create a good vine, and that?s what Twitter intended, saying last week that ?constraint inspires creativity."
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Let's Celebrate!: A New TSR to Launch Gygax Magazine Saturday
4 Free Photo-Sharing Alternatives For Anyone Who Left Instagram
Hopefully you've been able to try out one or a few of the 6 photo editing apps we shared earlier. Now we're following up with some options to take those processed images and share them online, with some of the best photo sharing apps (not called Instagram)... More
Bounce back: Chara, Rask lead B's past Isles
Zdeno Chara fired a wrist shot past Rick DiPietro with just under 13 minutes left in the third period to break a 2-2 tie, as the Bruins bounced back from their first loss of the season with a 4-2 win over the Islanders Friday night at TD Garden. Rookie sensation Dougie Hamilton added two assists and set up Boston’s fourth goal with a pretty outlet pass as the Garden crowd began to chant his name.