Dr. Blip's PC-Doctor Blog

lifehack.org - We each have many distractions that keep us from getting things done. I noticed a few prominent distractions in my life this week (Twitter and Digg are taking over!) and I felt that it was time to address the problem! I know that I am capable of getting things done and achieving things but I’ve noticed that distractions can get the better of me. When I’ve planned to research a topic for a new article, sometimes I “wake up” and realise that I’ve been browsing Digg for the past 30 minutes. Not only does this cut down the time I have in a day, but more than anything it hinders my ability to concentrate on the task.

I see concentration as being split into three different levels.

The first level is acknowledging that I have work to do. I can sit down and make a start, but I’m vulnerable to distractions and they can easily get the better of me. At this stage it sometimes feels like I’m looking for an excuse not to work. My mind can easily wander onto other things, and I often think about what is happening on Twitter, and that 5 minutes checking it won’t hurt!

The second stage delves a little deeper, as I’m starting to understand the task and my mind starts to figure out what is going on. At this point some distractions die down as I start to get more involved with the task at hand, but there are a few that can still break my concentration. If I got a phone call at this point, I would probably find my way onto the Internet after that, and blame the person who called for distracting me!

Read More

telegraph.co.uk - In the nine months since Apple launched its iTunes Application Store, users have downloaded more than a billion apps for their iPhone and iPod touch devices.

But for every Rolando, Flight Control and TwitterFon, there are dozens of humorous, lighthearted and, in some cases, tasteless programs to choose from. The huge success of iFart, which turned the iPhone in to a virtual flatulence machine, has paved the way for a host of imitators.

Here, we round-up 10 of the strangest iPhone apps (note: all links open in iTunes):

BulletFlight: A must for every self-respecting marksman, this app helps gunmen line up a clean shot at their target by calculating factors such as prevailing wind conditions, ammunition type, and distance to the target.

iBeer: This app, which was at the centre of a legal battle, turns the iPhone or iPod touch in to a virtual pint glass; tip the device to your lips to mimick gulping down the foamy suds.

Dog whistler: Wannabe shepherds will love this app, which emits a whistling sound to call your dog to heel. The only problem is, some of the frequencies are beyond the range of human hearing, so you’ll have to take the developer’s word for it.

Read More

telegraph.co.uk - The new phone is a waterproof, sunlight-powered device which will be sold by the Japanese mobile phone company KDDI from June.

Ten minutes of explosure to sunlight is sufficient for a one minute call or to power the handset in standby mode for two hours.

As much as 80 per cent of the battery of the handset, a collaboration with manufacturers Sharp Corp, can be recharged entirely by sunlight as a result of storage technology embedded in the front face of the phone, according to manufacturers.

Marketed as a “green” eco-friendly alternative to conventional mobile phone handsets, the company claims that the device’s lack of dependence on standard electricity will help reduce carbon dioxide emission levels.

The new handset is the latest in an increasingly competitive global race among mobile phone companies to produce “eco friendly” devices.

Read More

telegraph.co.uk - Scientists say the revolutionary 'STAIR' (St Andrews Air) battery could now pave the way for a new generation of electric cars, laptops and mobile phones.

The cells are charged in a traditional way but as power is used or 'discharged' an open mesh section of battery draws in oxygen from the surrounding air.

This oxygen reacts with a porous carbon component inside the battery, which creates more energy and helps to continually 'charge' the cell as it is being discharged.

By replacing the traditional chemical constituent, lithium cobalt oxide, with porous carbon and oxygen drawn from the air, the cell is much lighter than current batteries.

And as the cycle of air helps re-charge the battery as it is used, it has a greater storage capacity than other similar-sized cells and can emit power up to 10 times longer.

Read More

PCWorld - Google's map-makers turn to a custom Google Trike to reach those nooks and crannies around the globe.

Google is mapping the world one street at a time. However, some of those locations are not conducive to cars, let alone the Google Street Views van or even a smal car. Locations like Europe pose an extra challenge -- how to navigate all of those tightly packed, tourist-clogged cobblestone street in historic city centers?

Well, for all of those hard-to-reach areas, Google’s tactical strategy becomes obvious thanks to a handful of images that have surfaced today. The Google Street Views Car is replaced by the Google Street Views Trike.

Read More

PCWorld - The story is as old as the Web: A social network born among twenty-something college kids and young wired professionals sprouts up, apparently out of nowhere, and grows into a cultural phenomenon. Eventually, it reaches critical mass and explodes, its mushroom cloud drawing the attention of millions of Baby Boomers, leading to a huge influx of new users, which in turn triggers complaints from the youngsters who started it all. The invasion of the Boomers spurs some members of younger generations to flee the carnage (and the fallout) in search of fresher territory.

We've seen this scenario play out on MySpace and Facebook, and now it is starting to happen on Twitter. When the Baby Boomers--traditionally defined as anyone born in the United States between 1946 and 1964--arrive, they tend to do so en masse. And when they set up camp, they invariably change the dynamic of the social network itself. Whether due to their distinctive social habits or the sheer vastness of their demographic, a mass migration of 50-and-over folk brings in its train everything from increased political activity to a proliferation of spam.

Read More

PCWorld - Lately it seems I can't go anywhere without running into a gaggle of social media consultants bloviating about the wonders of social network marketing. Sure, you've seen 'em, too. Slick shake-and-bake "experts" promising to help you leverage the power of Twitter and Facebook to raise your profile and, inexplicably, boost your profits. But scratch the surface on most of these claims and they instantly crumble. Meanwhile, it seems the only people making any money in social media are the consultants themselves.

For anywhere between a few hundred and a few thousand bucks, you can hire a social media consultant to come to your office and put on a training seminar for your staff. They'll spend an hour or two pontificating about the power of social media to raise awareness of your brand and the magical benefits of building closer relationships with your customers in 140 characters or less. They'll probably even offer you a few "insider tips" based on their "deep expertise" in the field. The only problem? It's a load of bull.

Unless you define success by the sort of loosey-goosey standards that might make your horoscope appear to actually predict the future, the real measure of any business undertaking is that it increases your profits. But in the vast majority of use cases, neither Twitter nor Facebook stands any significant chance of doing that for business users. And if you're a small business that depends on, say, actually selling real products and services to actual paying customers, wistfully tweeting about your daily specials is almost certainly a waste of resources.

Read More

codinghorror.com - Google's Chrome browser passes anything you type into the address bar that isn't an obvious URI on to the default search engine. While web browsers should have some built-in smarts, they can never match the collective intelligence of a worldwide search engine. For example:

weather San Francisco
CSCO
time London
san francisco 49ers
5*9+(sqrt 10)^3=
Henry+Wadsworth+Longfellow
earthquake
10.5 cm in inches
population FL
Italian food 02138
movies 94705
homes Los Angeles
150 GBP in USD
Seattle map
Patent 5123123
650
american airlines 18
036000250015
JH4NA1157MT001832
510-525-xxxx (I'm hesitant to link a listed personal phone number here, but it does work)

I like to think of the web browser address bar as the new command line.

Oh, you wanted dozens of cryptic, obscure UNIX style command line operators and parameters? No problem!

define:defenestrate
presidents 1850...1860
"plants vs. zombies" daterange:2454955-2454955
link:experts-exchange.com sucks
filetype:pdf programming language poster
allintitle:nigerian site:www.snopes.com

Read More

Gizmodo - Airlines don't officially compete on being the most efficient at stripping away your remaining tatters of dignity. No, the new battleground is in-flight Wi-Fi. I'm somehow unsurprised the worst airline in the country is winning.

That's right, AirTran is winning on two fronts. AirTran will be the first carrier to offer Wi-Fi on every single flight (granted, they're a smaller airline, so it's a much smaller feat than Delta is facing). And they charge a (slightly) reduced rate of $8 for using just your iPhone or BlackBerry on Wi-Fi, not the full $10 that's the going rate for flights under 3 hours.

Still, that little airlines like AirTran are ponying up is good for competition in one sense—the day before, Delta announced that half of their fleet had Wi-Fi and the rest will by September, a little ahead of schedule. And American Airlines is busy outfitting their fleet, too.

Read More

Lifehack - Maybe one of your goals involves traveling the world or maybe you’re looking for enough time to help with a cause you feel passionate about. Either way, though, you likely have a prior commitment to an employer — or at least to paying rent and eating on a regular basis. Most of us are not in a position to quit working and spend all our time on those activities that we’d like to make a priority. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t add our own priorities to our work — it’s possible to incorporate our own interests into our work even if we haven’t landed our dream jobs.

Talk About Your Passions

Your interests may have absolutely nothing to do with your job: most corporate jobs don’t take your passion for the arts or your after-work involvement in sports into account. But that doesn’t mean that limiting your discussion of such topics will pay off in the end. If you want to balance your work with your passions, it’s worth making sure your work actually knows that you have a few passions.

I went to school with a friend who took an IT job immediately after graduation, despite being far more interested in making films. Just talking about his passion opened up some opportunities for him: he’s gotten involved in national competitions for films on his employer’s behalf, gotten access to company property for sets and props for his own projects and has been able to add some interesting responsibilities to his resume that actually involve making films. At the very least, he’s turned his job into something he enjoys — but he also has moved a little closer to working in a job that focuses on his passion, rather than incorporates it.

Read More