Considerations for an Apple and Samsung Smart Watch Part II

Category: Techtoday Continued from Considerations for an Apple and Samsung Smart Watch Part 1 7.Secure payments, passkeys, access. Implementing mobile payments, logins, and passkeys are the strongest argument for watch computing, but the technology has been around for awhile and although people commute with Octopus cards (Hong Kong), RFID chips, and EZCards (Shanghai)...

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Considerations for an Apple and Samsung Smart Watch Part 1

Category: Techtoday With rumblings of watch computing just around the corner, what possible benefits can another computing device/accessory have for the consumer? Although I'm perfectly happy with the current mobile devices available on the market, I have to admit it's an intriguing albeit superfluous product to release these days.1. Addressing a need. As far back as 2002, I already knew I wanted a tablet. Even before...

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CorelDraw Basics: Exporting to SVG for HTML5 web pages

Category: Techwriter There are advantages to using SVG over the more popular PNG or JPEG when working with technical documents online. SVG retains the clarity of the original drawing and can be inserted easily into an HTML5-compliant web page. CorelDraw (my preferred vector-editing program) has long been able to export to SVG. This brief tutorial will focus on exporting a simple CorelDraw...

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Tips on Writing a Manual or Guide using LyX Part 2

Category: Techwriter Continued from the article "Tips on Writing a Manual or Guide using LyX Part 1" 9. Use the Outline pane Using the Outline panel is especially important if you're exporting to PDF. Use the provided controls on the Outline pane to adjust the hierarchy of the document parts and get an idea if you've used the wrong Environment for a particular section of text. There are...

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QuickFix: Transmission or Deluge (in China)?

Category: Linux Torrent downloading has more to do with the quality of the peers and trackers and your own broadband speed than the torrent application itself. Even optimized settings in uTorrent can't overcome dodgy broadband services. However, recent experience overseas has made me realize that some clients inexplicably perform better in different parts of the world. Always set up Deluge...

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Tips on Writing a Manual or Guide using LyX Part 1

Category: Techwriter Writing a document using LyX can be a frustrating experience if you're accustomed to a traditional word processor like Abiword, Microsoft Word, or LibreOffice Write. However, there's a lot to like about using the WYSIWYM LyX. As mentioned in a previous blogpost about using CherryTree for quickly writing online manuals, there are many ways to write a structured document without...

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QuickFix: Eject a USB storage device even with iTunes running

In Windows 7 and Windows 8, you may find out that you can't disconnect your external USB storage device if you have iTunes running. This is especially true if you used iTunes to manually upload files such as videos or ebooks into an app such as Cloudreader, Adobe Reader, or iMedia Player. To disconnect an external drive while iTunes is running:1. If you're done using your external USB hard drive or flash...

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Virtual Relationships and Social Networking

I was busily washing dishes while listening to BBC's Daily Commute on my iPod a few days ago when Dan Damon's next segment consisted of an interview with Sophie, a Brit who has been providing virtual girlfriend services in Facebook for 2 years now. She candidly admitted she did it for the money, downplaying the activities of being a pseudo-girlfriend in Facebook by flirting online, posting pictures, and changing her...

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QuickFix: Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000

Computer Mice are generally resilient devices even if you regularly toss them carelessly into your laptop bag or use in multiple settings. I've had poor luck with Logitech mice, but have had a long-running relationship with my Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000, which I purchased in Best Buy back in 2008 for my Linux-powered laptops. More recently, however, the tracking "red" laser light doesn't...

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BYOD, network security, James Bond, and MacGyver

Category: Techtoday The pre-Daniel Craig James Bond was the ultimate BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) guy with his rocket cigarettes (You Only Live Twice) and fully-equipped shoe heel (Goldfinger). Today, the typical Android or iOS phone a young professional straight out of college owns has more power and capabilities than Pierce Brosnan's Ericsson phone in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Back when...

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Linux on Video: "The Linux Action Show!"

Category: Linux One thing that surprises non-Linux users is the number of Linux websites, videos, and multimedia available online apart from the Linux communities devoted to a particular Linux distributions (for example, the openSUSE community). Some of the recent ones that have surfaced regularly on Bing and Google are Linux User, OMGUbuntu, and Phoronix. Even casual sites like Lifehacker and Makeuseof,...

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Linux on Film: Criminal Minds - Season 8

Category: Linux From the onset, Criminal Minds often displayed brief views of non-Windows operating systems. Thankfully, their resident "computer analyst" Penelope (played by pseudo-geek Kirsten Vangsness) makes use of a fairly interesting desktop. For Season 8, viewers get to watch a skinned Linux/FreeBSD desktop access a remote desktop running Windows XP (recognizable by its default blue Luna theme). ...

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Brief Thoughts on Fedora 18 DVD install and Gnome 3.6

Category: LinuxFedora 18 DVD installationThe installation process of most Linux distributions is refined and as simple as can be for the majority of Linux users (unless you were setting up Archlinux, Debian, or Gentoo from scratch). Fedora 18, once viewed as an unstable and ungainly distribution for the casual desktop user, has now progressed to a very friendly system and you can easily get this impression from running...

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QuickFix: Write a Multi-Language Online manual using CherryTree

Category: Linux There are dozens of ways to write technical documents for print and web. The Fedora Developers use MediaWiki, Publican, and Docbook. The openSUSE team uses the software package Daps (which uses different XML tools to produce PDF and XHTML). Serious technical writers use a combination of HTML5, XHTML, XML, Docbook, and DITA using an XML editor, IDE, or...

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SkyDrive on Fedora 18 Gnome 3.x

Category: Linux Accessing SkyDrive using Google Chrome on a Fedora 18 box is odd enough but native support for Microsoft's popular online storage service was a surprise when I saw it in the Fedora 18 release announcement. Admittedly, I'm a regular user of SkyDrive on my Windows 7 machines, so I was curious how good the support would be. As it turned out, all you need...

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