Thursday, 4 December 2014

Windows 8.1; the very best of Microsoft Windows?

XP is one of my favorite OS, Windows 8.0 messed up in my opinion but Windows 8.1 became the second largest operating system (OS) in the world overtaking Windows XP. In terms of internet usage, Windows XP holds the third position with 10.69 percent of share and 8.1 climbed on to 19.95 percent. XP is one of the most user-friendly operating systems and has an impeccable record in terms of its usage, without any doubt. Although it got knocked out by 8.1 OS, the features of XP like ‘hibernate shutdown,’ restoration of windows registry, copying multiple files to CD-RW will always be special ones.
There are many alluring features of Windows 8.1. The start screen holds the search and power buttons appearing on the upper-right hand corner just beside the account picture. Using the settings charm, one can easily shut down the computer, thereby providing flexibility. The taskbar of this operating system can be accessed from anywhere, including the ‘windows store app’ screen. Another interesting feature is that all the pinned and currently used applications appear in the taskbar. Switching between different applications is made easy through the tactical use of the taskbar. Any application can be pinned in the taskbar to provide fast access to the computer resources.
In this ever-changing internet world, the way people perceive technology is also changing. Windows 8.1 OS can be termed as a novice operating system and its overtaking of Windows XP is quite significant. Today’s internet users judge every feature and aspect of operating systems before installing them. Hence, to continue, 8.1 OS has to upgrade periodically. One can argue that best three operating systems, i.e. Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows XP are all Microsoft products, but then there is no guarantee that these systems will continue this Bull Run.

Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/12/windows-8-1-os-of-microsoft-overtakes-windows-xp/#1AxYLeKpooh26WsS.99

Breaking News - NASA Orion Launch Has Been Postponed

Updated: 12/04/14, 10:00 a.m: Mission scrubbed! Gusty winds and a malfunctioning valve have put Orion in the corner—for now. NASA plans to go another round with the mission Friday morning at 7:05 a.m. EST.
 

A Giant Leap From NASA


It's the biggest countdown for NASA since the shuttle era ended in 2011. The space agency's new Orion spacecraft is scheduled to lift off on an uncrewed test flight Thursday morning from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The launch initially was set for 7:05 a.m. ET, but was delayed more than once, in part because a boat came too close to the launch area, and later because of a wind gust, NASA said.
Mission managers hope to launch the craft before the day's window closes at 9:44 a.m. ET.
"We haven't had this feeling in awhile, since the end of the shuttle program," Mike Sarafin, Orion flight director at Johnson Space Center, said in a preflight briefing on Wednesday. He said it's the beginning of something new: exploring deep space.
NASA's newest spaceship, Orion, sits on top of a Delta IV Heavy rocket on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 3, waiting for its first test flight. Orion is designed to take humans to an asteroid and on to Mars, but its first flight will not carry a crew.NASA's newest spaceship, Orion, sits on top of a Delta IV Heavy rocket on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 3, waiting for its first test flight. Orion is designed to take humans to an asteroid and on to Mars, but its first flight will not carry a crew.
Orion -- NASA's next giant leap
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Orion looks like a throwback to the Apollo era, but it is roomier and designed to go far beyond the moon: to an asteroid and eventually to Mars

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Internet Tips and Tricks

You don't need the http:// portion of a web page

When entering an Internet address you do not need to type http:// or even www. in the address. For example, if you wanted to visit Computer Hope you could just type computerhope.com and press enter. To make things even quicker, if you are visiting a .com address you can type computerhope and then press Ctrl + Enter to type out the full http://www.computerhope.com address.

Quickly move between the fields of a web page

If you are filling out an online form, e-mail, or other text field you can quickly move between each of the fields by pressing the Tab key or Shift + Tab to move back a field. For example, in the example form below you can click in the "First Name" field type anything and press tab to switch to the next field.





Tip: This tip also applies to the buttons, if you press tab and the web developer has designed correctly the button should be selected and allows you to press the space bar or enter to push the button.
Tip: With a drop-down box that lists dozens of options you can press the first letter to scroll down to that letter. For example, click the drop down box below and then press "u" to quickly scroll to Utah.



Know your Internet browser shortcuts

Internet browsersThere are dozens of different shortcut keys that can be used with Internet browsers. Below are a few of our top suggested Internet browser shortcuts.
  • Press Alt + D to move the cursor into the address bar.
  • Hold down the Ctrl key and press the + or - to increase and decrease the size of text. Ctrl + 0 will reset the text.
  • Press the backspace key or press Alt key + left arrow to go back a page.
  • Press F5 to refresh or reload a web page.
  • Press F11 to make the Internet browser screen full screen. Press F11 again to return to the normal view.
  • Press Ctrl + B to open your Internet bookmarks.
  • Press Ctrl + F to open the find box to search for text within the web page you are reading.

Related pages

Protect yourself and avoid bad websites

Take advantage of tabbed browsing

Take full advantage of tabbed browsing on all Internet browsers. While reading any web page if you come across a link that interests you open the link in a new tab so it doesn not interrupt your reading. A new tab can be opened by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the link or if you have a mouse with a wheel press down on the wheel to use it as a middle mouse button to open the link in a new tab.

Use Internet search engines to their full potential

Get the most out of every search result. If you are not finding what you want try surrounding the text in quotes. For example, searching for 'computer help' without quotes returns results with "computer" and "help" anywhere on the page. However, if you search for "computer help" with the quotes it only return pages with "computer" and "help" next to each other.
Tip: In every search box you can press enter instead of using the mouse to click the Search button.

Try alternative browsers

Most computer users use the default browser that comes included with the computer, with Microsoft Windows this is Internet Explorer. There are many great alternative browsers that are all free to download and use and may have features your current browser does not include. Below are a few of our favorites, try one or try them all.

Install plugins and add-ons

All of the above alternative browsers also have a large community of volunteers who develop add-ons and plugins that can be added into the browser. Each of these browsers has hundreds of thousands of these add-ons that can do such things like the current weather in your browser window, changing its color, and adding additional functionality.

Make sure your browser and its plugins are up-to-date

An Internet browser can have many plugins that give it additional functionality. For example, Adobe Flash is a great way to bring movies and other animated content to the Internet. Keeping these plugins up-to-date is vital for your computer stability and also security. Using the below tool you can quickly verify if your plugins are up-to-date and get links to where to download the latest updates.
 
Source: Computerhope

Firefox Dumps Its Default Search Engine - Google




Firefox and Google are breaking up.

I felt like crying when I first read about the break up
Maybe it was that Google  has a competing browser, making them strange bedfellows. Or after ten years of partnership, it was time for change. Or maybe Yahoo just offered to pay more.
Yahoo is replacing Google as the default search engine for Mozilla's Firefox browser, the companies announced late Wednesday. With 10% of the market, it is the Internet's third most popular search engine, behind Google's Chrome and Microsoft's  Bing (which powers Yahoo searches).
The change is significant for Firefox users, who perform some 100 million searches in the browser every year, according to Mozilla.

Below is a picture of some of the most popular web browsers; Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera Mini and Microsoft Internet Explorer, tell Quantum-Networks which one you prefer and why.


Google+, Do you know how to use it?



A developer who spent three years helping create Google+ has written a brutal blog post declaring the tech giant's social network a failure.
In a lengthy, at times profane breakdown on blogging platform Medium, Chris Messina, the man credited as inventor of the hashtag, writes that Google missed a chance to make the service a one-stop home for its users' online identities and, instead, created a less-popular Facebook copycat.
"Lately, I just feel like Google+ is confused and adrift at sea," Messina wrote. "It's so far behind, how can it possibly catch up?"
The November 28 post was a follow-up to a tweet in which he had mistakenly called out a bug on Google+ that was actually caused by an external app. Even as he corrected himself, he called out Google for the network's missed opportunity.

Tuesday, 2 December 2014

Unbelieable Vehicles Can Run On Human Waste, so nothing is waste?

A bus running on human waste
I saw this article on CNN so I decided to share it with you guys, enjoy.

The A4 bus service from Bristol to Bath in the United Kingdom might as well be called "the number two." It runs on human poop and food waste.

The U.K.'s first "bio-bus" is powered by biomethane gas, which is generated through the treatment of sewage.


With a full tank, the bus can travel up to 186 miles, while producing up to 30% fewer emissions compared to diesel-powered buses.
The eco-friendly bus started regular service on Monday and is expected to carry around 10,000 passengers a month between the Bristol airport and the historic town of Bath.
"The bus is powered by people living in the local area, including quite possibly those on the bus itself," said Mohammed Saddiq from GENeco, the company that runs the sewage treatment facility providing the fuel.
He said one person's annual waste could power the bus for around 37 miles.
Related: In Cleveland, sheep could be key to the city's renewal
But don't worry -- smelly fumes are not a problem.
Biomethane gas is generated from sewage using bacteria that breaks down bio-waste into methane and carbon dioxide. Throughout the process, all impurities are removed to produce odor-free emissions, said Saddiq.
The bio-bus is the latest invention to demonstrate that human waste can be a valuable source of green energy.
In the U.K., human waste is already used to heat thousands of homes. Experts estimate that biomethane produced from sewage could replace around 10% of the U.K.'s domestic gas needs if the nation's waste is used at full capacity.

photo credit: CNN

The Power of Computers

The power of code

From the scythe to the steam engine, we've always used technology to control the world around us. But our ability to shape our environment has been transformed by one machine more than any other – the computer.
What makes computers so powerful is the code they run. It's incredibly flexible, controlling games one moment and spaceships the next. It came to do this thanks to individual genius, invention driven by necessity, and the power of human imagination.
 
 

1679

Binary: Leibniz invents the language of computers

This content has failed to load. Please check your internet connection and try again.
Piers Linney retraces the roots of today’s digital world back to a simple idea by Leibniz over 300 years ago – binary code.
Humans have created codes since ancient times. But it was a German mathematician who invented the code that underpins almost all computing today.
Gottfried Leibniz created a system that didn't use our normal ten digits, 0 to 9. Instead it used just two: 0 and 1. Leibniz called his code 'binary', and imagined a mechanical calculator, in which marbles could fall through an open hole to represent one and remain at a closed hole to represent nought. This calculator was never built, but Leibniz’s idea paved the way for the whole history of computing.


1842–1843

Babbage and Lovelace: the first idea of hardware and software

Getty Images
Lovelace cropped B
Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician ahead of her time, describing how to program a calculating machine long before computers were developed.
British mathematician Charles Babbage took Jacquard's idea further and designed the Analytical Engine: the first general purpose calculating machine.
Babbage's idea was that punched cards would feed numbers, and instructions about what to do with those numbers, into the machine. That made the machine incredibly flexible. In 1842, fellow mathematician Ada Lovelace described exactly how punched cards could program the Analytical Engine to run a specific calculation. Although the engine was never built and so her program never ran, Lovelace is now widely credited as the world’s first computer programmer.

Project Zero - Samsung Galaxy S6

Project Zero

This is the internal codename of the Galaxy S6, the supposed next Samsung flagship. So far, Samsung has been quietly codenaming its flagships with letters from the alphabet - the S4 was Project J, the S5 -- Project K, but rather than the S6 being ‘Project L’ (which also coincides with Android 5.0 ‘L’ollipop), it decided it is time for a reset.

It’s all back to the basics. After a few prosperous and worry-free years of growth, Samsung has to go to the drawing board to re-think its ‘next big thing’, which no longer looks so big after sales tumbled and the Galaxy S5 sold slower than the S4.
And frankly, a lot of the fairy tale growth for Samsung thus far
inexcusably late with its product cycle, taking years to make an adequate, large-sized iPhone. Now that there are two of them, and a mature market with a plethora of strong offerings from China, Samsung is starting to feel the heat and this time it’s serious. Samsung mobile head JK Shin is said to be leaving, replaced by Samsung electronics head BK Yoon.

One thing is certain: the Galaxy S6 will be a vastly different smartphone, aiming to show the best of Samsung in one device.

Design: entirely new vision

Design: entirely new vision


We’ve been criticizing Samsung a long time for its uninspiring, all-plastic, cheap-looking devices, and that chant reached a crescendo in the Galaxy S5, where the company ignored all hopes and pleas for a more refined style, and stubbornly released the S5 with the same plastic design.

With ailing financials, though, and a series of well-made, metal devices, Samsung might finally make a change.

Going back to the ‘Project Zero’ codename, it’s very likely that the reset it implies refers to the visual style of the device at most. After all, previous Galaxy S series devices were never criticized for their processors and performance power. All of this leads to one logical conclusion - Samsung is probably developing an entirely new style for the Galaxy S6.

Friday, 28 November 2014

Bomb Blast In Nigeria

Dozens are killed and many more hurt in a bomb and gun attack during Friday prayers at one of the biggest mosques in Nigeria's city of Kano

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

And Google Chrome Soars On Mobile Devices


At Google I/O in June, the company announced that the mobile version of the Google Chrome browser had over 300 million users. That was a huge ten-fold increase from the prior-year. Nearly six months later, Google executive Darin Fisher told those assembled at the Chrome Dev Summit, that the current number is up to 400 million mobile Chrome users. Besides the new look of Material Design, and changes that have made the browser more secure, Chrome has added some new features as well.

One change that Google made was to remove a 300ms delay that the browser employed, to see if the user was going to double-tap on the screen. By eliminating this delay, Chrome is now smoother for the user, and allows the developer to have more control over animations. Web pages also take on the color of the toolbar, and show up alongside apps in the Recent apps view added to Android 5.0.

Fisher also showed some slides, which you can see in the video below, showing that those calling for the demise of the mobile browser might be jumping the gun. He talked about improving performance, and giving more of the workload to a mobile device's GPU. That move alone, could save battery life. And he also referenced Google's new Mobile-friendly label on search results, helping users find a website that is optimized for the smaller mobile screen.

Animal Affairs I & II

                                                                Animal Affairs I & II   Chicken I . I am scared for my life. Chicken II...