CHRISdotTODD

Ballmer and Gates promise a late 2009 release of Windows 7 (and not a minute too soon). Here's a brief look at the UI. Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7 I think it looks good, but I don't like the idea of reaching over my keyboard to the screen -- I think it needs to be a tablet PC to really enjoy the multi-touch screen, not unlike the Microsoft Surface product. (Of course it works well on the iPhone, too.) I also wonder how it'll work for handicapped people -- those missing fingers, hands, or even just tremors.

At work I was having trouble with any Google web property not displaying images when I used Firefox. I tried everything I could think of from changing Options to clearing cache to searching for a solution. I finally decided that setting everything back to "new install" state would have to be the way to correct it. Of course I searched Google, and I found an answer on the Mozilla site that told me that by deleting the Profile file, Firefox would create a new one and I'd be good to go. Sure enough, it worked. I did lose most (maybe all) of my Extension configurations. Deleting your Profile (manually): Close Firefox Enter %APPDATA%\Mozilla\ Firefox\Profiles\ into Run... Open the folder of the Profile you want to delete (the folder name will end with . ProfileName ) Delete prefs.js Start Firefox Well in researching this tonight to post, I discovered that I could have just created a new Profile - giving me the opportunity to see if that fixed the problem. If it did (which in

I just discovered this new web service, Cover It Live , that enables bloggers to post short commentary instantly onto a website. If you're familiar with Twitter , it is similar, but with a feed for a single event. As you can see on my right-nav column, I have added my own live Twitter feed; with Cover It Live, you can add a feed for a single event as a replacement or addition to a blog article. The first example I saw was from Rafe Needleman , on his WebWare site. Rafe was blogging live (streaming) using Cover It Live while at the Google Factor Tour for Search event on Monday. I missed the live posting, but I was able to follow the commentary that he posted. I was also able to see the questions posted by those who were following Rafe. I found another example being used by a Yahoo! blog, Ball Don't Lie , where four bloggers posted commentary during the NBA Draft Lottery, followed by Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals (Celtic and Pistons). I haven't posted myself, but

Formula explanation clarified 22-May-08. I recently had the need to compare a long list of values with another list, and for the matches get a value from the same row. For example, if you have a long list of phone numbers and you want to find who they belong to, you could compare the phone numbers to a contact list, and for every match pull out the name. Oh, and if there is no match, you don't want to get an error message, but rather something more intelligent. It takes 4 Excel functions to do this: IF (logical_test,value_if_true,value_if_false) ISERROR : Value refers to any error value (#N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, or #NULL!) INDEX (array,row_num,column_num) MATCH (lookup_value,lookup_array,match_type) Here's how to do it: =IF(ISERROR(INDEX(phone!$B$1:$B$25, MATCH(A8,phone!$A$1:$A$25,0))),"NA", INDEX(phone!$B$1:$B$25,MATCH(A8,phone!$A$1:$A$25,0))) (I used carriage returns for display, this should be one continuous string) phone!$A$1:$A$25 refers to

John C. Dvorak posted a great opinion piece in his PC Mag column on Microsoft buying Yahoo!. He reminds us that for the same $44 billion we could by GM and Ford and have enough left to have a great party too. You could buy General Motors lock, stock, and barrel for $14 billion, name all the cars "Google Sucks," and get more bang for the buck. Heck, you'd have enough left over to buy Ford for around $16 billion, and you could name all those cars "Google Sucks More" and still have $14 billion left over for a big party. He also points out Microsoft's (lack of) success with prior mergers. Give this one a read for yourself .

If you have been a regular reader of my blog, you have likely noticed the images and photos have a nice shadow and sometimes torn edges. These are two of the many features available from SnagIt -- a screen capture and editing program from TechSmith. SnagIt screen capture of a long (scroll) list SnagIt's screen capture options are pretty powerful. For example, you can use it to scroll a window to get the entire contents. And if the scroll is part of a drop-down box, SnagIt can capture that as well. It can even do short video captures of your screen. In addition to the screen capture features, the latest version of the editing functions is better than ever. TechSmith has made it easy to add objects such as call-outs and arrows, with the ability to move them after placing them without having to understand layers or other more complex editing techniques. From the TechSmith website, here are the system requirements : Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, XP x64, Vista 32-bit, or Vista 64-bit i

As reported by Ars Technica , Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) let tech executives in Washington know that if ISPs move away from a neutral web then the government will move away from the tax breaks and other freedoms they have been benefiting from for the last 15 years as part of the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Wyden delivered his ultimatum at a Computer & Communications Industry Association conference in DC, where he cast the entire network neutrality debate in terms of a legislative compromise. The story goes on as Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) hosts a net neutrality meeting on Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 . To establish broadband policy and direct the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a proceeding and public broadband summits to assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues relating to broadband Internet access services, and for other purposes. The premise is to prevent ISPs from put unfair constraints on its customers. For example, if