David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
Amazon replaced the Kindle Fire today; the basic model gets a price cut to $159 and a faster CPU, and deluxe models get nicer (and in one case, a bigger 8.9-inch) screen. And, predictably, Amazon released new e-reader Kindles with a bit of a price cut and, again, nicer screens.
That wasn’t all.
I recently edited a long document whose original author capitalized way too many words. I needed to fix it. To speed up the process, I needed a way to find capitalized words in Word–all of them, and automatically. Then I could make a decision whether the capitalization was appropriate.
Another time you would need to find capitalized words in Word would be when you’re creating an index. I’m sure there are others.
It’s easier than it sounds.
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I’ve mentioned several times that I hadn’t seen Office 2010 yet, so I couldn’t comment on it, and would reserve judgment until I’ve seen it. I’ve been working for companies that were a bit behind the times on that.
I’ve been working with it for a week now. I won’t be buying it for my own use at home.
So if you didn’t drop everything and uninstall Java last week, I need another favor. Oracle released a patch for Java, so go patch it.
Sometimes community outcry and pressure works. It looks like this time it did. I just wish Oracle had made a bigger deal about it. Yes, you’re eating crow, but people need to know that this is something they need to do. One of the most frequent questions I get is whether it’s really necessary to patch Java. The answer is yes, it’s just as important as the monthly Microsoft patches. But nobody seems to know or care. They’re afraid they might break something, so they don’t do it.
Sears has the Nook Simple Touch on sale for $70. That’s about a 30% discount. (Thanks Dealnews!)
I guess I’ve had mine for about six weeks, and I like it. It’s the #2 e-reader, and I’ve run into problems in the past buying the #2 just on the basis of technical superiority (Amiga, anyone?), but if being able to load books on an SD card and the availability of free public domain e-books isn’t enough, you can root the device, load the Kindle Android app, and turn it into a Kindle.
I’m reviewing and revising policies and practices at work, including data forensics, the unfortunate necessity caused by employees misusing their company-issued machines.
Early in my career, I had to make the phone call to HR on occasion when I discovered something on an employer-owned PC that shouldn’t be there. I even did forensics once, guided by a lawyer. I had a sector editor and knew how to use it; the lawyer knew what she was looking for. That wasn’t the right way to do it, but this place wasn’t willing to go to the expense required to do it right.
But now I work someplace that is. Read more
Gizmodo got its grubby little hands on a training manual allegedly used in Apple Stores. It looks credible, and answers some questions.
For years, standard practice has been to install Java, just in case you need it.
That’s no longer a safe practice. For your own safety, unless you absolutely, positively need Java, you should uninstall it. If you’re not sure if you need Java, uninstall it, then consider reinstalling if something breaks. Read more
A former classmate and coworker contacted me with a question.
My router is about 5 years old. I have a cable modem and a router. The cable modem is fine. The router keeps connecting and disconnecting from the internet…used to happen occasionally, now happens all the time. I reset it and it works for a while, then disconnects. Is it time for a new router or do you think something else is going on?
I see two options. Read more
Micro Center is dangling some dirt, dirt cheap AMD CPUs these days, which has me thinking. I have a couple of pokey machines hanging around that I don’t use very much, so what if I modernized one of them?
The current-generation FX processors are cheap, but previous-generation Phenom CPUs are even cheaper. What to do?
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