The battle for search is still going strong. All search companies are continually tweaking and adjusting their algorithms to help improve their search results and keep those same formulas for being gamed by developers.
 
With Microsoft releasing Bing and Google working on their newest search algorithm called Google Caffeine, there’s a lot of effort around incorporating the idea of social search with your organic results.
One of my biggest complaints about search is that my results are impacted by just about everything that’s available on the web. If I’m searching for a question about a certain topic, I don’t want to get …read more

If you’re quick, you should go follow @MSNBCHeadlines on twitter. They’ve had their account hacked and let’s just say the person that’s in control of the account is having a little fun with the media outlet.

I’m not sure how it is all these accounts on twitter have been getting hacked so prolifically lately. I don’t think all of these people have simple passwords that are getting cracked, so what’s happening? Are there machines infected with other malware that’s collecting login information?
Aside from the major PR issues that a entity like MSNBC is going to have to deal with after this …read more

I continue to do more and more development within Microsoft Access 2007. I’m still learning the ropes on how to do stuff but there’s something we’ve come across that is an extreme annoyance and it seems like a pretty obvious fix and solution.

We are working on a variety of applications that consist of a number of data entry forms and displays. While troubleshooting the applications and adding features, sometimes you need to pop open the form in Access Design View and make some changes.
Because the form you’re working on is dependent on some of the other forms that are …read more

One of the items on my Christmas wish list for last year was an Amazon Kindle. I still don’t have one, and probably for the better because they’ve come out with a larger format version in the Kindle DX. Now there’s another player in the market with Barnes & Noble releasing their eBook reader, the Nook.

The images above are not to scale of each other, but the center image is the Kindle DX which you can tell is much larger, just using the scale of the person’s hands (that is unless that got some tiny person to use as …read more

This post may be pretty basic for many people but I’ve decided I should write-up a quick article about it anyway. I frequently come into contact with people who love using Google and have it set as their default search engine, yet they don’t customize it to their preferences.

There are a variety of settings you can set to tell Google search to act the way you want it to act. If you want to access all of these options, just look for the “Settings” link in the top, right-hand corner of the screen on the main Google search page.

Interface Language …read more

For quite some time I’ve had a personal software rule that I would no longer install Apple software on my laptop PC. No iTunes or QuickTime for me. The reason I made that decision is because of the problem I’m having now.

There are a couple of websites I use regularly that continually wanted me to install the QuickTime application so I could enjoy the website in all its glory. I finally caved in and decided to give QuickTime another try.
Then I kept getting updates and updates that kept wanting me to install iTunes and Safari along with my QuickTime updates. …read more

I have been working on digital collaboration for the last five years and I would continue on working on this field for the years to come. The main technology or platform I use is Microsoft SharePoint which is an enterprise class platform for developing applications across portals & collaboration, documents library, business process and workflows, etc.

The digital collaboration space is growing and the enterprise keeps on implementing and improving their collaboration capability across the whole organization. Google knows this as such they have released Google Wave technology to be able to complete in a vertical market. I have signed up …read more

As a follow-up to my earlier post; I’m beginning to think that the government, and specifically the United States Postal Service should take over the management and support of our Internet infrastructure.

Here’s some of the reasons I think this might be a good idea. Let’s look at the functions of the United States Postal Service:

delivery of mail (connecting people)
delivery of packages
official endorsement of dated materials (think tax returns being postmarked)
official government documents (issuing of passports, etc.)
economic exchange (delivery of paychecks, tax returns, invoices)

These are the basic functions that I believe are provided by the postal service. As I stated …read more

Taking videos is fun and simple with so many pocket size and portable high definition video recording devices. How about sharing them? Sure you can download your videos on your laptop or desktop, upload them on video sharing sites and send the link to your family and friends. This method has been around for years, but what we want is to be able to share videos instantly with friends and family members while shooting them up.

Qik is the quick way to share your videos to everyone else by shooting and streaming live videos from your phone. Qik can send out …read more

Reports were buzzing when Microsoft announced about the $30 USD Windows 7 upgrade and now reports are again spreading like wild fire but on the negative side as the $30 USD Windows 7 student is not installing properly, had not been received or have had problems downloading the upgrade software.

Microsoft has already responded to this and have acknowledged the problems surrounding the Windows 7 student edition. Because of this recommendations on helping resolve this issue were written outside Microsoft. The three links below should be able to get you started on the Windows 7 student edition:
1. Upgrade Instructions – this …read more