FROM THE VIRTUAL CYBERPRINTING CENTER IN THIS ISSUE RESOLUTIONS MAC EXPO R.I.P. CELLULAR IRRITATION iTOONS REAL NEWS KOMIX WHETHER REPORT

RESOLUTIONS TECH CENTRIC

Every year, many people in the midst of a New Year's hangover, wonder what the heck happened to the past twelve months of their lives. They resolve to make changes in their daily routines in order to better themselves. Well, technorati can examine their own internet habits to determine if change is needed:

LOSE WEIGHT. A common problem beset on the industrial world. However, it is also true with file sizes. People are sending huge attachments that certain email accounts cannot handle. Some send without compression or some send in unreadable program type. For large document delivery, it is sometimes more considerate to break up the documents into individual email attachments than trying to overload the receiver with one giant attachment.

GET YOUR FILES IN ORDER. Some people need a Will or a way of organizing their important matters. If your desktop looks like post-shredder blizzard, then you need to set aside a hour or more of your time to organize, prioritize and systematically file your paperwork at your job. A three stack (or box) method works: quickly sort your files by what is happening now - - - Current, Priority, Closed. Current files may include open matters which do not need immediate attention. Priority files are those which there are deadlines, responses, or action required ASAP. Closed files are those whose matters have been concluded, or that have no pending activity to address.

BACK UP YOUR FILES. There is paper correspondence and electronic documents in the work place today. However, technology has made it possible to back up any kind of file into a digital archive. In Closed paper files, you can scan those documents into a dedicated hard drive for storage. In network systems, you can purchase simple back up utility software which can automatically make copies of your system's hard drive data and store it on a secure server. In the case of a computer crash, it is very difficult and expensive to retrieve data from a broken hard disc.

MANAGE YOUR TIME. Economists claim that we are more productive than we have ever been because of the advances in technology. However, those tech advances also breed access to non-productive use of employment resources. Most companies use the Internet more than telephones in operating their daily business. The Internet is a great method of conducting business, but it is also a simple click away from time wasting sites such as YouTube videos, game sites, and general mindless surfing through hyperlinks or personal bookmarked pages. There was an old research study which indicated that the average worker spends more than 2.5 hours of their work day doing non-business Internet surfing. In a recessionary time, a productive employee is an employed employee. A person can get addicted to the Internet like any other activity; so cutting back on the time one wastes on the net is more important than ever.

CLEAN UP. A clean work space is a happy work place. Just like a mother scolding you to go clean your room, there are times people do not think about cleaning up their work space computer equipment. Computer equipment are excellent dust collectors. A nice shammy will keep you from squinting at the screen. A air can to get the crumbs out of the keyboard can improve the life the typing keys. Double check the bottom of the mouse for dirt, dust, and if you have an old style rolling ball, whether the movement is still smooth.

GET A CHECK UP. A computer is like a living human being; it usually won't go to the doctor until it is too late. Instead of waiting for problems to plague your machine, do some preventative medicine. Run a diagnostic program to determine the condition of your drives and operating system software. Defragment your hard drive files to improve read speeds. Run an anti-virus program to make sure than your machine is not infected by malware. Clean out the cache files from daily used programs and your Internet browser to speed up performance. Check for updates for your computer programs so that they run efficiently.

TAKE STOCK IN WHAT YOU GOT. There are people who just need to get the latest and greatest gadgets or programs. You should make an individual value judgment to determine whether the latest version of a software program is worth the cost. Take into consideration of whether in your daily routine that you are receiving files that your current system cannot convert properly; that the PDF documents can't be opened or edited in a manner others expect in your work production cycle; or that there are published security flaws that need to be corrected.

 

REAL NEWS KOMIX

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MAC EXPO R.I.P. SLOWDOWN IN SHOWDOWNS

The annual pilgrimage to San Francisco has a wake-like quality to it this year. Apple announced that it will no longer attend the Macworld Expo after this January's event. In addition, Steve Jobs will not be making the event's keynote address. Macintosh followers were at first, stunned by the news.

Rumor mongers quickly pounced on rampant speculation: Jobs is ill; Apple has run out of new products; the last quarter financials are going to be bad; the iPhone is in trouble; the world is coming to an end; the sky is falling; or the company would be merging with bitter rival Microsoft.

But none of those items has any basis in reality. Truth be told, Macworld Expo was not an Apple event. The parent company of Macworld Magazine created the event as a trade show to gather Apple hardware and software manufacturers together under one large tent to proclaim the goodness of the Macintosh. When the event first started, Macintoshes were expensive machines with very little market share in the personal consumer market. Apple could not even be seated at the grown-ups table with the likes of IBM, Hewlett Packard or Xerox. Apple was the icon of the rebellious geek culture that seized upon computer technology as more than just a work place device but as a platform for personal creativity and growth.

Apple was more blunt to quell the rumors. Apple has been thinking about ending its attendance at the event for years. It does not trying to tie its product launches to the artificial date set by a third party event sponsor. In addition, Apple is large enough now to call the press to its own Apple events at any time during the calendar year.

What will be lost is the anticipation of the keynote by the Apple corps faithful. The words of Jobs was like the fire and brimstone speeches of evangelical preachers before the dawn of commercial radio. People came to hear what he had to say, because each time he would dazzle the crowd with a new product, a new innovation, a new way at looking at the world. Jobs was a master showman . . . the best public relations pitch man the company will ever have, and that is what has some worried about the future.

Jobs may be the idea man, the driving force that keeps the brand the most valuable in the world, but he is not the inventor, the engineer or the computer whiz kid. The core of the company is now the thousands of engineers and designers in the research and development department. Apple has massed the largest treasure chest of a publicly traded tech company with more than $25 billion. The finance department, not Jobs per se, has been handling the daily operations of the business. Jobs brings to the table his personal vision of what consumer products need to be produced in the future to keep the company on the cutting edge.

The company is positioned well for the day that Jobs steps down as CEO. Stock market analysts will tank the stock shares on that news. But people will forget that when Jobs left the company reigns the first time, Apple became quite profitable in his absence. The question will remain whether he has groomed in his ideas of innovation into the corporate culture of Apple to keep it going forward as the leading technology company.

The whole concept of trade shows have run their course as well. With the bulk email lists, web site pages and peer to peer sales materials, any company can get its new products launched without having sales people man a booth in a convention hall for a week. Apple does not even need to sell its products to distributors anymore. It has its own web and physical stores across the country that can get the same product buzz launch as a MacExpo speech.

But when the last Apple vice president wraps up the last Macworld keynote speech in January, 2009, one would hope that he would pause, smile, and then utter those famous words, “oh, there is one more thing.” Then have the curtain open for Jobs to make a final curtain call.

 

iToon

 

 

CELLULAR IRRITATION MODERN PLAGUE

The holiday shopping season is always high stress. When the workload increases by end of year decision calls, there is less time available to actually shop for the presents for family members. So when you go into a store “cold,” meaning that you have no idea what you want to buy, you want to concentrate and view the merchandise in peace.

In the last minute rush, I went into the local Barnes and Noble bookstore. A couple of people were waiting for gift wrapping at the front door; a few people were next to them in the magazine racks. So I went around them and into the first stacks. As a family of diverse readers, there are plenty of topics to explore in search for an appropriate present, whether it be local history, mysteries, biographies, food, current events or humor. But I found little humor when I turned the first corner (puzzles/humor section).

There stood a woman looking at a shelve of books. She was on her cell phone talking to someone about the possible choices in front of her. “Have you heard of this one?” she would ask her caller.

This is the growing public pet peeve. Shoppers on cell phones. It is getting to the point of nails on a chalkboard. It is aggravating, stupid and pointless to discuss possible purchase with someone who is not present to view the item. In grocery stores, one could see a mother or father dialing up the spouse to ask if there is anything “needed” at home - - - the loaf of bread, gallon of milk. But there have been times I have observed a person walking down each aisle of the grocery store asking a person on the phone what she should buy - - - that's why you put together written shopping lists BEFORE you enter the store! Or, if you are in “bachelor mode” you run through the food center on automatic pilot as your cart shopping is all a matter of habit: produce, dairy, pasta aisle, canned goods, paper goods, frozen foods, lunch meats, breads, beverages then to check out. A simple and efficient dinner dash.

So after running into the woman on the cell phone in the first book aisle, I quickly moved on to avoid the aggravation. I pass the customer service desk where I find an employee on her cell phone, talking on her cell phone apparently with another co-worker, about when she was going to take her break.

I move to the back of the store away from those cellers. After wandering the current events, sports and fiction sections for about a half hour, I work my way back toward the first aisle. In the section before that, in cooking, I find the woman still on her cell phone. She had moved over only one stack, still jabbering away on her phone call. She was now into the cooking section, looking at a table of quasi-celebrity cook books. “Did you know (this person) has a new book out?” she would ask. Then she would find a style of cook book and ask if the person she was shopping for would like it. She went rapid fire through five books in that inquiry conversation.

I deduced that this woman had been moving slowly aisle by aisle discussing each possible selection with her caller. Why didn't they both meet at the store and shop together? And why would someone need to have the approval in minute detail of buying another person a book? It's a book! - - - - not like finding a heart transplant donor!

But the final nail happened next. The woman found an interesting cook book, and began reading the recipes to her friend. That's just . . . . . insane.

So I turned and saw a crowd entering the store. Almost in unison, three people flipped opened their cellphones.

That's when I had to leave the store, without buying anything. I did not need to hear the nail scratches on the chalkboard of more shoppers.

 

iToon

 

 

THE WHETHER REPORT STATUS

Question: Whether in the next four years Google will have antitrust suits against it like Microsoft has had to face in the last decade?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether the computer mouse will be replaced with full touch screens?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether Rocky, our Tech Guru, will ever submit for publication his assignment on current technology trends in education?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

 

 

 

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