Category: Computers, Science & Technology

All anyone wanted to talk about in the tech world this week was Apple, the new iPhone 5, and the fact that their stock went higher than ever before. Whoopie. What can I say? I am not an Apple fanboy. And, I like Android phones… so, there you go. So, while everyone else drools over the iPhone 5, I am happy to play with my Android phone and fast-forward through all the Apple hype. (I know, some will say I am just dissing Apple because I don’t have one, and I am jealous.) To which I say, “Nanna, nanna, boo boo.”

Oh yeah! This is great news! Now, maybe the rest of the web will quit supporting old M$ web browsers that NEVER supported real, open web standards (they barely do in the newer M$ browsers!)

Google Apps Says Goodbye To Internet Explorer 8, Pulls Support For the Browser

“Today, the Google Apps team announced that it will no longer support Internet Explorer 8 (and lower). Thank goodness. This will affect everyone using Google Apps: businesses, educational and government institutions. The drop of support officially starts November 15th, a few weeks after Internet Explorer 10 launches.

This means no support for GMail, no Calendar, no Drive, no anything for Internet Explorer 8. Good riddance.

Here’s what the team had to say:

‘As we announced last year, we support the latest version of Google Chrome (which automatically updates whenever it detects that a new version of the browser is available) as well as the current and prior major release of Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version of one of these browsers is released, we begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

Internet Explorer 10 launches on 10/26/2012, and as a result, we will discontinue support for Internet Explorer 8 shortly afterwards, on 11/15/2012. After this date users accessing Google Apps services using Internet Explorer 8 will see a message recommending that they upgrade their browser.’

I don’t think anyone will be crying over this, however, for companies who don’t get their workstations properly updated, this could cause some issues for sure. IT folks, put your hardhats on!!!!”

Did you know that Gmail does not “see” dots in email addresses? So, JoeUser@gmail.com and J.o.e.U.s.e.r.@gmail.com is the same! And if you have Joe.User@gmail.com THAT’S the same!

So, if you think that you may be getting someone else’s email for this reason, NOPE! Someone probably just added dots that were really not there as far as Gmail is concerned!

At 11:15 a.m. ET today: NASA replayed the entire speech by President John F. Kennedy challenging us to go to the moon at the exact time it was given 50 years ago in 1962.

I Watched it online at: https://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Wow! How cool is THAT?!? 50 years since those inspiring words! And we actually did it! We need that kind of “can do” attitude in the USA again! Let’s go to Mars, folks!

Bing? Really? Bing?

Microsoft: Bing Will Be Default Search Engine on Kindle Fire HD

“Microsoft told Mashable that its Bing search engine will be the default on the Amazon Kindle Fire HD‘s web browser. Amazon also confirmed it.

The deal between the two companies came together recently. Adam Sohn, general manager of communications and influencer marketing at Bing, said the ‘last bits’ of the deal were finalized only today. Sohn said Bing would be the ‘initial default’ search engine on the Kindle Fire HD and new Kindle Fire tablets. He couldn’t confirm if the terms of the deal also include Amazon’s E Ink readers.

Users will be able to change the default to another search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

The site Ubergizmo first reported that Bing was the default browser on the Kindle Fire HD, based on some hands-on time with the device at Amazon’s press event, where Jeff Bezos unveiled the new tablets. It was subsequently confirmed by Amazon to some sites, including Ars Technica as well as Mashable.

Amazon is Microsoft’s second major partner in the mobile arena. The first was RIM — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer paid a visit to BlackBerry World in spring 2011 to announce that Bing would power search and maps on BlackBerry phones going forward.”

The Kindle Fire HD has been announced, along with many new members to the Kindle family! I think I may NEED one!

Kindle Fire HD

• 1280×800 HD display with polarizing filter and anti-glare technology for rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle
• Exclusive Dolby audio and dual-driver stereo speakers for immersive, virtual surround sound
• World’s first tablet with dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi for 40% faster downloads and streaming (compared to iPad 3)
• High performance 1.2 Ghz dual-core processor with Imagination PowerVR 3D graphics core for fast and fluid performance
• Over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games such as Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, HBO GO, Pandora, and Angry Birds Space
• Integrated support for Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and more, as well as Exchange calendar, contacts, and email
• Free Skype video calls with front-facing HD camera
• Free unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content
• Includes special offers and sponsored screensavers.
• Kindle FreeTime – a personalized tablet experience just for kids. Set daily screen limits, and give access to appropriate content for each child. Free on every Kindle Fire HD.
• Prime Instant Video – unlimited, instant streaming of thousands of popular movies and TV shows

Also of interest to me is the new Kindle “Paper White!”

Kindle Paper White

• World’s most advanced e-reader with Free 3G – higher resolution, higher contrast touchscreen with built-in light, 8-week battery life
• Free 3G wireless – no hunting or paying for Wi-Fi hotspots, no annual contracts or monthly fees
• 3G wireless works globally – download books anytime, anywhere
• Patented built-in light evenly illuminates the screen to provide the perfect reading experience in all lighting conditions
• Paperwhite has 62% more pixels for unsurpassed resolution

25% better contrast for sharp, dark text

• Even in bright sunlight, Paperwhite delivers clear, crisp text and images with no glare
• New hand-tuned fonts – 6 font styles, 8 adjustable sizes
• 8-week battery life, even with the light on
• Holds up to 1,100 books – take your library wherever you go
• Built-in Wi-Fi lets you download books in under 60 seconds
• New Time to Read feature uses your reading speed to let you know when you’ll finish your chapter
• Massive book selection. Lowest prices. Over a million titles less than $9.99
  180,000 Kindle-exclusive titles that you won’t find anywhere else, including books by best-selling authors such as Kurt Vonnegu

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• Supports children’s books and includes new parental controls

Man! Which one should I get???

Check them out! They even have Shatner’s toupee!

And in this one, the “Red Shirt” is “sweating it” because they are about to beam down, which we know what that means!

They are interactive, so try them on Google today while you can! (Friday, September 07, 2012)

If you downloaded earlier today, please download again! We had some dupe tags in the config file that would have confused things for you. Sorry about that! Hopefully, we will get a Dr. Bill.TV show out tomorrow afternoon!

A new version of The GIMP is out, and it is now easier for Mac users to install.

GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

“GIMP, the image editing program that’s a popular open-source alternative to Photoshop, is now easier than ever for Mac users to start using. Though it was completely free, installing it has long required that X11 also be installed — a major pain in the butt. That changes with the latest version of GIMP: the app is now a self-contained native app that’s a breeze to install. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping.

After downloading the app from the GIMP website (a file that weighs in at around 73 megabytes), you’ll have a DMG installer on your hands. Open it up, drag the GIMP.app file to your Applications folder, and voila! GIMP installed, and ready to use!

The total size of the app once you unpack it is about 230 megabytes. We’d say, ‘make sure you have enough hard drive space’… but this is 2012, and 230MB is what you have on your hands after warming up your shutter finger.

When we tried out this latest version, the app crashed the first time we tried opening it. Other users are reporting this same bug. Try it a second time, however, and it should load just fine.

Aside from this quirk, the 2.8.2 update fixes some bugs that were present in the previous version. Enjoy.”

Now, this IS great news! Mozilla has fixed their memory issue, finally!

Firefox 15 available to download, finally fixes add-on memory leak

“Mozilla has released Firefox 15 for PCs, smartphones, and tablets. The most standout features are a completely silent background updater (like Chrome), significant memory footprint improvements, a built-in PDF reader, better SPDY protocol support, and a new native UI for Firefox Mobile on Android tablets.

Mozilla debuted an early version of the background updater in Firefox 12, but it still harried the user with various pop-ups. With Firefox 15, the browser now downloads and applies updates in the background, and then switches to the new version the next time you open the browser — just like Google Chrome.

The Firefox add-on memory leak has finally been fixed. For almost as long as I can remember, the only surefire way to reduce Firefox’s bloated memory footprint was to close it down. In theory, closing tabs should have the same effect — forcing add-ons to relinquish their memory allocations — but until now it hasn’t. Your mileage will vary, depending on which add-ons you use, but in general you should notice quite a big reduction.

The built-in PDF reader, provided by PDF.js, is turned off by default but can be turned on by visiting about:config and setting pdfjs.disabled to false. After some preliminary testing, it seems about as capable as Chrome’s built-in PDF reader, but a bit slower.”