Web develoeprs: Four Dangerous Navigation Approaches that Can Increase Cognitive Strain

Four Dangerous Navigation Approaches that Can Increase Cognitive Strain: "Summary: Some navigation implementations risk pushing users into a state of cognitive strain which lessens the likelihood of them taking desirable actions."

Digital Detox: How to Unplug for the Holidays

Digital Detox: How to Unplug for the Holidays: "But what are the best ways to beat iPhone addiction? Whether you’re trying to study or trying to be a good family member, here’s how you can go on that digital diet."

Digital democracy lets you write your own laws

Digital democracy lets you write your own laws: "True democracy is not just about casting a vote every five years. It means citizens being fully involved in the proposal, development and creation of laws. The Commission on Digital Democracy currently being established will consider what part technology can play in helping people to take an active part in the way the country is run."

Debit vs. credit cards: Which is safer to swipe?

Debit vs. credit cards: Which is safer to swipe?: "While the tens of millions of Target shoppers who had their credit and debit card information stolen likely won't be on the hook for any fraudulent transactions that may occur, debit card users could face much bigger headaches than credit card users."

Research: Cubicles Are the Absolute Worst

"The bottom line: workers in enclosed offices were by far the happiest, reporting the least amount of frustration on all 15 of the factors surveyed. Workers in cubicles with high partitions were the most miserable, reporting the lowest rates of satisfaction in 13 out of those 15 factors."

Flat vs. Deep Website Hierarchies

"Summary: Information can be organized in either flat or deep hierarchies; both have their advantages and pitfalls."

Get Off The Phone

"However, there is a difference with phones. They are so portable that you can use them anywhere, so people do."

The Most Convincing Reason To Give Social Media A Break | HooplaHa.com

"The ironic thing about social media is that in its mission to connect people, we, the users, ride our natural instinct to socialize into a mess of collected “friends” and “followers,” enabling ourselves to be satiated by the “likes” and re-tweets, so that we don’t have to accept the responsibility of making real friendships, or even standing the solitude of our own company for more than ten minutes."

How to Run a Last Pass Security Audit (and Why It Can’t Wait)

"If you’re practicing lax password management and hygiene, it’s only a matter of time until one of the increasingly numerous large scale security breaches burns you. Stop being thankful you dodged the past security breach bullets and armor yourself against the future ones."

No, iCloud Isn’t Backing Them All Up: How to Manage Photos on Your iPhone or iPad

"If you have a Mac, you can launch iPhoto and enable the Automatic Import option under Photo Stream in its preferences pane. Assuming your Mac is on and connected to the Internet, iPhoto will automatically download photos from your photo stream and make local backups of them on your hard drive."

Read Overdrive library ebooks on the original iPad (first generation iPad)

The first generation iPad cannot be upgraded to iOS 6 or better, and therefore can no longer have the Overdrive Media App installed. (Our first gen iPad is at iOS 5.1.1, and that seems to be the latest version it supports) However, Overdrive now offers a "read in browser" option that works very well, and works in Safari (the web browser installed on the iPad).
Just log into overdrive.com with your library info (card number and PIN), and when you find a book you like, choose to Read (In your Browser):

Here's the Overdrive info on this option.
More information here from a library system that has a nice set of pages on it, with various links to tips on reading in your browser, how to download a book for offline access when you go somewhere without internet access, etc.)

Note that not all books have the read in your browser option, from what I hear... but the ones I've spot-checked already all do. So good luck.

Your Phone Is Ruining You For Us

"Recent hand-wringing suggests that the cultural backlash against cell phones has finally arrived. If it has, what are we doing about it"

Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill?

"Summary: Introductory text on Web pages is usually too long, so users skip it. But short intros can increase usability by explaining the remaining content's purpose."

How to Reduce the Size of Your WinSXS Folder on Windows 7 or 8

"The WinSXS folder at C:\Windows\WinSXS is massive and continues to grow the longer you have Windows installed. This folder builds up unnecessary files over time, such as old versions of system components. This folder also contains files for uninstalled, disabled Windows components. Even if you don’t have a Windows component installed, it will be present in your WinSXS folder, taking up space."

VolunteerSpot

Free online sign up sheet, volunteer scheduling software , and volunteer management software. — VolunteerSpot: I just helped a friend test a volunteer sign-up sheet for a school book fair, and this system did things right: easy to use, good out-in-the-open privacy policy, email confirmation (with custom link to edit sign-up), and reminder emails sent at appropriate times. Plus the lady on the front page is the same one from TeamViewer, so it's a familiar face. Ha ha.

What You Need to Know About Windows 8.1

What You Need to Know About Windows 8.1: "The latest version of Windows has been dubbed “an apology” by some — it’s definitely more at home on a desktop PC than Windows 8 was. However, it also offers a more fleshed out and mature tablet experience."

What to Do When Windows Won’t Boot

"You turn on your computer one day and Windows refuses to boot — what do you do? “Windows won’t boot” is a common symptom with a variety of causes, so you’ll need to perform some troubleshooting."

How to convert PDF to Word DOC for free: a comparison

How to convert PDF to Word DOC for free: a comparison: "If you are wondering whether you can do good PDF to Word (DOC, DOCX, or RTF) conversion for free, the answer is: Absolutely. This posting will present and compare a number of different ways to do this, for free, without any watermarks or restrictions."

Revive Your Old PC: The 3 Best Linux Systems For Old Computers

"If you have an old Windows XP PC or a netbook, you can revive it with a lightweight Linux system."

A better way to die

"My mother faced death on her own terms, and in doing so set a good example for all of us"

Is Facebook causing outbreaks of mass hysteria?

"Social media could be taking empathetic pain to a whole new level"

What Apps Have Access to Your Facebook and Twitter?

"When was the last time you’ve checked to see what apps have access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts? If you are like most Internet users, you are probably long overdue for a cleanup. Below, we show you how to perform an audit. An audit will let you review all the apps on your account and determine if they should still have access."

Fracking Explained

The New Talk: Not Just Sex—Porn, Too

"The ultimate goal of the talk is not prohibition; it’s perspective. Kids need to know that what they are seeing, in all its often disturbing variety, is not what sex really is. Pornography is a business. It makes money by taking a natural thing to an unnatural extreme. Porn is part of sexuality, but it doesn't define it. The sex on porn sites is not the sex that is a wonderful part of life."

Why You Should Worry Whenever a Service’s Password Database is Leaked

"Whatever a service says when its password database is stolen, it’s best to assume that every service is completely incompetent and act accordingly."

Relying on Algorithms and Bots Can Be Really, Really Dangerous

"Efficiency isn’t always bad. But Morozov suggests that sometimes tools should do the opposite—they should introduce friction. "

How Can I Find Out Where an Email Really Came From?

Slam Poet Slams Technology, Inspires Us To Switch Off

How to Enable and Tweak Ubuntu’s Flashy Graphical Effects

Do I Really Have to Unplug My Cable Modem for at Least 10 Seconds?

Windows Live Mail sorted by date: not working correctly

I recently helped someone who used Windows Live Mail 2011 for their mail client, and a weird situation developed: even though her mail was sorted by date, with the newest mail supposedly at the top, it was not completely that way; some messages were a few or many entries further down that they should have been, obviously out of order.
Resolution: after finding this page, we turned off conversation grouping (no idea how it got turned on in the first place) and all was well.
The steps:

1. open Windows Live Mail
2. go to the View tab
3. click on Conversations and choose Off.

Had I not figured this out, I would have switched her over to the eM Client mail application, which looks like it has a nice feature set, including calendar, and can import data from various Microsoft mail systems. It's free for basic non-commercial use.

Why aliens might understand the universe very differently than we do

Your Facebook friends may be evil bots

"How safe is your online social network? Not very, as it turns out. Your friends may not even be human, but rather bots siphoning off your data and influencing your decisions with convincing yet programmed points of view." 'via Blog this'

Camp gives kids a tech break, and might even save your marriage

"Within the Wi-Fi free camp bubble, life is blissfully retro. Kids eat three meals a day together around a table -- and wait for this, because they aren't clutching devices and tapping away all distracted and zoned out, they actually talk face to face and make eye contact."

How to Properly Clean All Your Gadgets Without Ruining Them

We Need a Fixer (Not Just a Maker) Movement

"Once a month, in an art gallery, they offer to repair anything neighbors can carry. People troop in with PCs, lamps, appliances — piles of stuff we typically pitch in the garbage at the first hint of trouble. As I watch for three hours, the fixers get everything up and running (except the lava lamp)."

Accurate recording: The one amazing feature that makes European DVRs so much better than American DVRs

 "Here’s the good news: This hypothetical DVR utopia actually exists, and a lot of people are living in it. The bad news for me and my fellow Americans: The United States is trapped in the bowels of DVR hell, and we’re not going to escape any time soon."

How to banish Metro from your Windows 8 PC forever

If You've Got Nothing To Hide, You've Actually Got Plenty To Hide

"The line "if you've got nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about" is used all too often in defending surveillance overreach. It's been debunked countless times in the past, but with the line being trotted out frequently in response to the NSA revelations, it's time for yet another debunking"

These Unresolved Ethical Questions Are About to Get Real

"As our technologies take us from the theoretical to the practical, a number of thorny moral quandaries remain unanswered. Here are important unresolved ethical questions that are on the verge of becoming highly relevant."

How to Electronically Sign Documents Without Printing and Scanning Them

Also; See the Comments there.

8 Ways Your Wireless Carrier is Gouging You

"Wireless carriers are gouging us — particularly in North America, where the USA and Canada have the most expensive cell phone plans in the world. We’ll look at the many ways cell phone companies are taking advantage of us.
Carriers don’t stop at just having the most expensive plans in the world. From long contracts to fees upon fees, carriers have set the system up to take advantage of customers."

These games let you do real-life science

Most of us would probably like to be citizen scientists, but we're too busy — and yet we sink billions of hours into social gaming. So some savvy researchers are harnessing our love of gaming, to help advance the goals of science, using thousands of brains to sort through data. Here are eight games you can play... for science.

New Ubuntu version

"I love living in Linuxland. The operating systems are so boringly useful and undramatic. They work great, and fail better."

You’ll Probably Never Upload Your Mind Into A Computer

"Many futurists predict that one day we'll upload our minds into computers, where we'll romp around in virtual reality environments. That's possible — but there are still a number of thorny issues to consider. Here are eight reasons why your brain may never be digitized."

Why Ubuntu Doesn’t Come With Support for MP3s, Flash, and Other Multimedia Formats

"Most Linux distributions come without support for MP3 audio, H.264 video, Flash content, and even commercial video DVDs. Patents, closed-source software, and even laws that make certain types of software illegal restrict what can be included in a Linux distribution."

The Internet: It's like never leaving junior high

External travel monitor, USB-powered

Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 Monitor Review | External Monitor Reviews | LAPTOP Reviews: "It's no secret that using multiple monitors dramatically increases your productivity at the home or office, but the moment you travel with your laptop, you're stuck with a single screen. This year, we've seen a couple of vendors rise to the challenge by releasing portable USB monitors that can fit right in your notebook bag. Lenovo's 14-inch ThinkVision T1421 ($199) is clearly the best of these portable displays, with wide viewing angles, great image quality, and the ability to transfer power and data over a single USB connection."
External travel monitor, USB-powered

Why You Should Use a Password Manager and How to Get Started

Why You Should Use a Password Manager and How to Get Started: "The majority of people use very weak passwords and reuse them on different websites. How are you supposed to use strong, unique passwords on all the websites you use? The solution is a password manager.
Password managers store your login information for all the websites you use and help you log into them automatically. They encrypt your password database with a master password – the master password is the only one you have to remember."

SharePod

SharePod Freeware download and reviews - SnapFiles.com: "Sharepod is a small program that runs directly from your iPod or USB drive and allows you to manage your iPod or iPhone without the need to have iTunes installed on the PC."

You receive a "The User Profile Service failed the logon” error message

You receive a "The User Profile Service failed the logon” error message: "Method 1: Fix the user account profile" I've used Method a few times now to fix this problem. Even when using Safe Mode and logging in with that account.

Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You - ProPublica

Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You - ProPublica: "Data companies are scooping up enormous amounts of information about almost every American. They sell information about whether you're pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you have."

Converting Search into Navigation

Converting Search into Navigation: "But I don't hold out much hope, because most people have the literary skills of an anteater (I was going to say, "a chimpanzee," but these animals are too smart for my metaphor). "

Three Lessons from the Death of Google Reader

Email signoffs: End them forever. Best, Yours, Regards: They’re all terrible. - Slate Magazine

"We need a hard and fast rule here, people. We’ve been wishy-washy for far too long, and at a cost of time lost and awkwardness gained. We’ll all get used to scaling things back after a short time. In the end, it will make things easier on everyone. So let’s do this. I’ll go first."

Job Hunting with Social Media - The New Way to Find a Job

Children and the culture of pornography: 'Boys will ask you every day until you say yes'

 "The death of 13-year-old Chevonea Kendall-Bryan has driven the debate on the sexualisation of the young to fever pitch, but what will we do about it?"

Commenting threads: good, bad, or not at all.

I can typing!

Turn Your Windows 7 PC Into a Wireless Hotspot

" Note that you have to be plugged into a wired connection in order to share the connection wirelessly with others, or have a second wireless card." I just did this successfully with someone, it worked fine.

Why Does Google Obscure Searches for Content Licensed for Re-use?

Also in the comments, someone says points to http://search.creativecommons.org .

How our mobiles became Frankenstein's monster

Viruses, Trojans, and worms, oh my: The basics on malware

What’s the Difference Between Jailbreaking, Rooting, and Unlocking?

Gaming on Linux: A guide for sane people with limited patience | PCWorld

"It still depends a little on your hardware, but for the most part Linux is as robust a gaming platform as you could ask for. I know you've heard that kind of talk before, but we mean it this time."

Windows Repair Freeware

"Windows Repair offers solutions for the following problems: Reset Registry Permissions and File Permissions, Register System Files, Repair WMI, Repair Windows Firewall, Repair Internet Explorer, Repair MDAC & MS Jet, Repair Hosts File, Remove Policies Set By Infections, Repair Icons, Repair Winsock & DNS Cache, Repair Proxy Settings, Unhide Non System Files, Repair Windows Updates, Repair CD/DVD Missing/Not Working... and more."

What your hotel knows about you

I vote: creepy.

How IT Deals with Your Computer Problems versus Their Own [Comic]

Help! I’ve got Windows 8 and I miss my Start menu!

Smartphone Propaganda Posters for the Modern Age

"During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, the use of “propaganda posters” were popular for encouraging good behavior — teaching safety, boosting worker morale, and rousing wartime sacrifice. I’ve always enjoyed the art and design of these posters, and decided to have Ted whip up a set of originals to address an area of behavior where modern society is often lacking: smartphone etiquette. Enjoy."

"If you've done nothing wrong, you have nong to hide."

Don’t Have a False Sense of Security: 5 Insecure Ways to Secure Your Wi-Fi