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Personally I wonder when Google is going to become a bad word. Twenty years ago Microsoft and their products Office were great innovation that challanged the dominence of IBM in the business world. Today MS is the devil, and I have a feeling in 2015 Google will become the bad guys in public opinion.

Some have already started saying they're acting kind of evil, most recently censoring search results for users in China. But I digress.

I've read (that is this isn't my own thinking) that much of what Google releases is done in order to keep it's competitors off balance. It may not be a well planned attempt to get into music downloads, as much as a way to keep Yahoo and Microsoft and iTunes and whoever else guessing what Google is doing. If your competitors are spreading their resources too thin trying to compete on all fronts, they won't be focused on challenging the primary money maker, search specific advertising.

 

---- Section 1 : Things to install, depending on how you use your PC ----

 

Office Applications:

Gaming Needs:

Music & Songs:

Internet Browsing:

 

---- Section 2 : Security & Privacy ----

 

I edited the original post to illustrate this point. In my opinion the very first step with any Windows operating system is to go to Microsoft's update site and download patches for bugs and especially security flaws. Follow that with firewall and anti-virus.

 

My reasoning is this: while one is online downloading gaming, music, and browsing software, the computer is exposed and vulnerable to attack.

 

Just my opinion. Hope this helps. Good how-to otherwise.

+ Optimistically - PessimisticallyPolitics: The political landscape probably won't change too much. + N. & S. Korea patch things up. - India and Pakistan don't. + E. and Central Africa figure out how to live peacefully - The US invades, er sorry, 'lends military advice' to VenezuelaScience: - Global weather patterns get worse, + Western nations are steadily getting away from oil and + share it with the developing world, - People land on Mars, scoop up some dirt, and come homeAnd of course, the Rolling Stones go on their "Wheezing Geezer" tour. ;-)

Here is a link to another article that throws Apple into the mix regarding Adobe, pdf, and OpenOffice.

 

Seems to be there's a lot of litigation aimed at Microsoft because some other companies have been successful at suing and/or settling with them.

I can see it now: clueless CEO's asking flight attendants why can't they get access to their e-mail. Or maybe it already happens now with cell phones. I'm guessing there will be a hefty fee for coach class, perhaps a bit less for business, and then free for those lucky enough to be in front of the curtain.

Even just a year ago there seemed to be more options for free hosting. The number of sites offering good deals without any ads is very small.At least, that's what it seems to me from searching the past couple days. Could be the problem is the search engine. Google tends to offer up more and more junk and less focused results. Could be the web just has more and more junk. But I digress.One important factor is the ability to go from free to paid and have decent support. From the comments I've seen so far, it appears Xisto has the goods and can deliver.

Interesting topic. I tried the test and was shocked, only 55 wpm on two different tries. Once upon a time I could better than 80, back in the day ;-)I learned on my own with an instruction manual and an electric typewriter. I think I was faster before I used computers regularly, before M$ Word started correcting my errors, for better and worse.Good for you all and your fast fingers. I had the impression that learning to type well was going by the wayside because of many factors: fewer office jobs require fast typing, text messaging with thumbs, 1337 speak, etc. Glad to know the keyboard isn't going away any time soon.

Just a hello. New to this service. Looking for a free host to try out some php and web stuff. Looks like a great place and looking forward to participating.

Monster Bowl is a fun online browser game with some pros and cons. You manage a team of creatures (humans, elves, orcs, or skeletons) who play a field game like American football. Initial start positions can be set, but all the action of the game is handled by an AI.

Working for it is the fact that is is free, fairly easy to get into, runs in a browser (requires relatively current version of Java). Upgrading is relatively inexpensive ($5 per month).

Some things people might not prefer: graphics of game are 2D, pretty simple. Strategy is somewhat limited (you can't design plays, just the starting postitions of blockers, runners, defenders, and throwers). The season lasts 7 weeks, just two league games a week, but one free challenge each day. Pace of the season could seem slow.

I don't have any stake in posting this (not paid to do it, don't get any free credits, etc.) Just thought I'd add this to the games forum as it can be fun and addictive.

There are a series of blog posts by Bob Cringely on Google's adsense. I don't use Google's service so I can't comment directly on the issue. What Cringely is reporting (he's pretty reliable and has been covering the tech scene for decades) seems more an issue of Google's reluctance to provide decent customer service to adsense clients, especially smaller ones.