By Chris Hoffman at MakeUseOf.com…
Windows is moving towards a more locked-down direction with Windows 8 and its Start screen and “Modern” app environment. There’s no denying this — you can’t even set a custom Start screen background without installing a third-party utility. Luckily, Windows hasn’t completely shed its legacy of customizability, yet. There are many different hacks you can perform with the Start screen, although most of them should have been included with Windows 8 itself.
By Ryan Faas, Computerworld.
When Microsoft shipped Windows 2000 and Active Directory, Apple didn’t really have a solution for identity management or for linking Macs to an enterprise network. The company was just beginning the transition from its classic Mac OS—the first version of which had shipped on the first Mac in 1984—to OS X. Although Apple did ship a public beta of OS X in second half of the year, the final release didn’t arrive until March 2001.
via Apple and the enterprise: A complicated relationship | Macworld.
By Paul Thurrott at WindowsITpro.com…
In a startling and unexpected announcement, Microsoft revealed today that CEO Steve Ballmer would retire sometime in the next 12 months. During the intervening time, the company will begin a search for his successor.
via Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Retire in 2014 | Paul Thurrotts WinInfo content from Windows IT Pro.
By Cade Metz at Wired.com…
Alex Polvi is living the great Silicon Valley archetype. Together with some old school friends, he’s piecing together a tech revolution from inside a two-car Palo Alto garage.
He’s like Dave Packard or Steve Jobs or Sergey Brin — at least up to a point. The difference is that, from his vantage point here in the 21st century, Polvi views his garage with a certain sense of irony — “straight-up Palo Alto-style,” he says — and he harbors ambitions that suit our particular time. He wants to change the way we build the entire internet, making this worldwide network of computer servers as easy to update as the browsers on our laptops.
via Linux Hackers Rebuild Internet From Silicon Valley Garage | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com.
Alright, maybe I’m the real curmudgeon here but I agree with all of these points made by Jason Nazar in his article at Forbes.com…
20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get
Some good tips for Excel users. The screen shots are Excel 2013 and Excel 2010 users should be able to follow along. By Ryan Dube at MakeUseOf.com…
I’ve always believed that Excel is one of the most powerful software tools out there. It isn’t just the fact that it’s spreadsheet software, which is by its nature powerful anyway. No, Microsoft Excel 2013 itself has such an awesome collection of built-in tools and features that it has beyond any doubt, become one of the most useful tools for so many things. In this article, I plan to show you how powerful formulas and conditional formatting can be, with three pretty useful examples.
A well written article on why open source is not profitable (not that it is intended to be) and some interesting analysis on the success and failures of many initiatives. By Daniel Eran Dilger at AppleInsider.com…
Open Source enthusiasts love to tell you Android is winning, and that it is winning because it is open. But they’re wrong on both counts. The history of computing makes that abundantly clear, as do the current leaders in profitability.
via Editorial: Apple, Google and the failure of Android’s open.
Personal productivity is one of my special interests. I highly recommend this post at Lifehacker. It’s amazing to me that Benjamin Franklin so thoroughly documented his productivity rituals and guiding principles. By Thorin Klosowski at Lifehacker.com…
Benjamin Franklin’s Best Productivity Tricks
Benjamin Franklin was a polymath by all accounts, and he didn’t get to that point by slacking off. He was a founding father, a scientist, a writer, and so much more. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what was behind the brain that made Franklin so productive.