Why I’m not making tech resolutions for 2014 [Ian]
You'll have noticed by now that my colleagues here are all busy promising to clean up their tech acts for the coming year. But I'm not going to do that.
I don't generally make resolutions anyhow -- it saves having to come up with excuses later -- so instead here's what I won’t be changing in 2014.
LibreCAD 2.0 now available
After almost two years in the planning, alpha and beta stages, open source 2D drawing tool LibreCAD 2.0 has just been formally released.
The official LibreCAD blog details some of the additions and improvements that have been made along the way: an extended DXF library, new circle drawing methods, the ability to filters layers with regular expressions, hatching of ellipses, a quadratic form engine for intersections, SVG export, and more.
The collapse of the internet and other things to look forward to in 2014
It's inevitable that at this time of year tech companies and analysts like to try to grab headlines with their predictions for the coming 12 months. Security specialist Kaspersky Lab is no exception, and guaranteed to make waves is its forecast of the collapse of the internet as we know it.
This, it says, will be driven by pressure to break the web up into national segments. So far this has only applied to counties like China with its Great Firewall, but other nations including Russia have planned legislation to prohibit the use of foreign services. In November, Germany announced that all communications between the German authorities would be fully locked within the country. Brazil too has announced its plans to build an alternative internet channel so as not to use the one that goes through Florida.
My tech resolutions for 2014 [Mihaita]
I frequently make resolutions throughout the year, ranging from being more patient to losing some weight. However, I give technology little to no attention in this respect, which may seem a bit unusual coming from someone who writes about it for a living. But, lately, I have been thinking about making some changes, and what I could do more in regards to tech.
I do have realistic expectations, as I am in no way trying to convince myself that I will actually work on every item from this list, starting January 1. It's a fool's errand as far as I'm concerned. Instead, these are the things I would like to build towards this following year, with the end goal of steadily improving myself throughout 2014.
Eric Schmidt unveils his predictions for 2014
The year is almost at a close, the ball ready to drop above Times Square, fireworks being shipped to all the major cities... It’s a reflective time, as evidenced by the BetaNews staff recently stopping to ponder 2013 in tech products. But, it’s also a time to look forward at what to expect over the coming 12 months.
Google’s Eric Schmidt is no exception, as he has recently taken a couple of minutes to reveal his thoughts about what is in store for 2014.
Breathe new life into older scanners with VueScan
In an ideal world manufacturers would support their hardware devices forever, providing new drivers every time a new version of Windows or OS X appears on the scene. The sad truth, however, is that support tends to only last a few years, leaving your hardware relying on backwards compatibility to keep it working longer term.
For many hardware devices, once they stop working with a newer version of your operating system, that’s it. But if you’re about to throw out a trusty old scanner, stop and check out VueScan 9.4 before doing so.
NeatMouse lets you control your mouse cursor from the keyboard
While in theory there are many ways to control your PC, in practice most applications assume you’ll be using a mouse. And that’s just fine, unless your mouse is broken, the battery is flat, or maybe you can’t use one at all. And suddenly "point and click" doesn’t seem quite so easy any more.
NeatMouse can help to restore (almost) normal operations, though, by allowing you to emulate a mouse with your keyboard. You’ll be able to move it around, spin the scroll wheel, then left, right or middle-click, all with a keypress. It’s great for replacing a faulty mouse, but can also be used just occasionally, whenever you need to position your mouse cursor with pixel precision.
Tablet activations surge over Christmas, but it's not all good news
Unsurprisingly tablets proved to be a very popular gift this Christmas. According to mobile measurement firm Flurry, device activations were up by 63 percent on Christmas day, compared to any other average day in December.
Flurry’s activation figures cover Amazon, Apple, Acer, and Samsung and reveal an interesting trend. While all four tech firms enjoyed a major bump on the day, activations were much lower this year than in the previous two years.
My tech resolutions for 2014 [Mark]
Well, that's another year out of the way! It's customary at this time of year to make resolutions... for some people at least. It's something I've always shied away from, but this year is going to be different.
I don’t smoke anymore, I don’t need to lose weight, and I'm unlikely to take over the world in the next twelve months. But when it comes to tech, there is room for improvement, so here are my New Year's resolution that I will, truly, try to stick to.
Bring the Windows Experience Index back to Windows 8.1
Windows 8.1 delivered plenty of worthwhile improvements: extra app docking and resizing options, a "boot to desktop" option, automatic app updates, SkyDrive integration in Explorer, and a sort-of Start button, amongst many others. But it also took one feature away in the form of the Windows Experience Index (WEI), a simple tool for benchmarking your PC hardware.
If you miss the WEI, though, there's no problem -- you can easily restore the feature by installing ChrisPC Win Experience Index.
RawCopy lets you copy any NTFS file -- even if it’s locked
Copying files is normally a very straightforward process, but there are one or two potential problems waiting to trip you up. If Windows or another application has the file open, for example, you’ll probably just get a "File in Use" error. And if you don’t have the necessary permissions to access the file then you could also be blocked.
You might be able to get around some of these issues, with a little work (using Unlocker to manually close a file, say), but RawCopy offers a simpler and safer approach. It’s an open-source console-based tool which copies NTFS files using low-level disk access, bypassing all the usual restrictions. Whether the file is locked by an application, Windows, or you just don’t have the necessary permissions, there’s no problem: RawCopy will copy it regardless.
My favorite tech products of 2013 [Mark]
This past year has been incredibly busy, and a huge amount of hardware has passed through my hands. Some of it has impressed, a lot has disappointed, but a handful was great enough to make it to my list of favorites for the year.
While I've tried out a great deal of software, this has been a year in which it has been hardware that has caught my eye. So here it is: my favorite tech from 2013.
List the installed software on any network PC with Basic Software Inventory
When you’re managing a network then it’s important to keep track of the software installed on each system, and Basic Software Inventory is convenient way to help, quickly listing everything installed on your target system.
Well, maybe not quite "everything", the program can only itemize applications installed with the Windows installer, a significant restriction. Don’t let that put you off, though, because Software Inventory has other interesting aspects, including the fact that it’s an HTML Application, a plain text HTA file, so you can see how the program works and even tweak it to suit your needs.
Happy Birthday Linus Torvalds! How's that Linux thing doing?
As 2013 crawls towards the finish line, we can reflect on Christmas, the gifts we gave and received and for some people, the birth of Jesus. However, December contains another significant birthday, belonging to Linus Torvalds. Yes, the father of Linux was born this month.
His birthday is a great time to thank the man for his contributions. However, it also marks an appropriate time to reflect on the state of Linux. Was 2013 a good or bad year for the kernel?
My favorite tech products of 2013 [Alan]
The year that slowly draws to a close has been a big one in technology, but when is that not the case these days? It seems the rate of hardware and software releases grows exponentially -- it's Moore's Law on steroids. We've seen new tablets, laptops desktops, phones...you name it.
I've been fortunate enough to test more than a few of these products and I have had the usual share of hits and duds. If you asked what I liked, what I really liked, then I would give you a few answers. And that’s what we will stick with here. I’ll spare you the whining about products I didn’t care for.
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