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How To Get Sign-Off For Your Designs

“How did you do that?” My colleague Leigh sounded impressed. He had been working with a problem client for weeks trying to get design approval. Then I came along and was able to get signed-off in a single conference call. “Can you teach me how you did that?” he asked. I mumbled something about years of experience, but the truth was I didn’t have a clue. It just seems I can find design approval easier than most. As I thought about it I realised there are actually quite a lot of things that have become second nature for me over the years. But I have learnt the hard way through many painful projects. Unfortunately because I started designing websites back in 1994 there was nobody around to teach me this stuff. I wish somebody could have just shown me how to avoid all of those endless revisions. Hopefully some of the advice I share with you here can help you avoid years of pain and suffering. My first piece of advice focuses on the old adage — prevention is better than cure. Prevention Is
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Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. We've evolved over millions of years to sense the world around us. When we encounter something, someone or some place, we use our five natural senses to perceive information about it; that information helps us make decisions and chose the right actions to take. But arguably the most useful information that can help us make the right decision is not naturally perceivable with our five senses, namely the data, information and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about everything and which is increasingly all available online. Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets, keeping us continually connected to the digital world, there is no link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. Information is confined trad

Which Windows 7 is right for you?

Windows 7 officially will be released to the public on Thursday, and judging by our poll, most readers have already decided to upgrade. For those who haven't, or for those who want a bit more information on just what you're getting with your Windows 7 Starter, Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate, take a look at the chart and explanation below. . Starter Home Premium Professional Ultimate . 32-bit and 64-bit versions 32-bit only Both Both Both . Maximum physical memory (64-bit mode) N/A 16 GB 192 GB 192 GB . Maximum physical CPUs supported 1 1 2 2 . Home Group (create and join) Join only Yes Yes Yes . Backup and Restore Center Cannot back up to network Cannot back up to network Yes Yes . Multiple monitors No Yes Yes Yes . Fast user switching No Yes Yes Yes . Desktop Wallpaper Changeable No Yes Yes Yes . Desktop Window Manager No Yes Yes Yes . Windows Mobility Center No Yes Yes Yes . Windows Aero No Yes Yes Yes . Multitouch No Yes Yes Yes . Premium Games Included No Yes Yes

A Computer Repair Utility Kit You Can Run From a Thumb Drive

Technibble, the Australian site for aspiring computer techies, recently released the second version of its popular Computer Repair Utility Kit , a collection of 57 hand picked tools to help you diagnose and repair your Windows machine. While all of the utilities are freely available online, this all-in-one kit saves you the trouble of searching for and downloading them individually. Most of the applications don't require installation and the kit can be run directly from your thumb drive. Although the kit is extremely useful as it offers all of the tools in one neat package, we thought it might be useful to describe each application and rate it based on the level of experience required for use. We've used the following rating system: Beginner: Basic computer skills Intermediate: Need to be familiar with some computer jargon Expert: Must be comfortable changing system settings File Management CCleaner CCleaner gives your PC a tune-up by removing unnecess

Recession is ending, Signaling Shift in the Economy

The most hopeful jobs report since last summer suggested Friday that the recession was ending, but the recovery will be marked by a still-rising unemployment rate and tens of thousands of job losses each month until next year. The American economy shed 247,000 jobs last month, the smallest monthly toll since last August, the government reported on Friday. While businesses are expected to keep cutting positions through the rest of the year, the Labor Department’s latest figures offered hopeful signs for the American worker and a measure of relief to the Obama administration, which has faced rising criticism as unemployment blew past its earlier projections. “The trend lines are positive,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “We are going from massive job losses to just big job losses on our way to a stable job market, I think by next spring.” The length of the workweek increased, albeit slightly, for the first time since August, a sign that businesses were not scali

INTERNET FACTS

Facebook Facts Facebook was originally named TheFaceBook and it was developed by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. The first use of the FaceBook was on the Harvard campus and it was limited only to Harvard students. Soon the FaceBook spread like wild fire around the other major U.S. Universities. Mark Zuckerberg dropped the Harvard and pursued his facebook dream to become one of the 4th most-trafficked websites in the world with more than 90 million active users. The FaceBook website is built on PHP-MySQL technology and it is probably the most popular PHP website ever built. Interesting fact is that the facebook.com domain was purchased for $200,000 and FaceBook has more than 24 million photos uploaded daily. Internet Addiction Facts Are you addicted to your online connection? Are you one of those crazy folks that can't wait to read the email with your morning coffee? Doctors are calling it serious addiction combined with: Cybersexual Addiction, Computer Addiction an

The Future of the Desktop

Everything is moving to the cloud. As we enter the third decade of the Web we are seeing an increasing shift from native desktop applications towards Web-hosted clones that run in browsers. For example, a range of products such as Microsoft Office Live , Google Docs , Zoho , ThinkFree , DabbleDB , Basecamp , and many others now provide Web-based alternatives to the full range of familiar desktop office productivity apps. The same is true for an increasing range of enterprise applications, led by companies such as Salesforce.com , and this process seems to be accelerating. In addition, hosted remote storage for individuals and enterprises of all sizes is now widely available and inexpensive. As these trends continue, what will happen to the desktop and where will it live? This is a guest post by Nova Spivack , founder and CEO of Twine. This is the final version of an article Spivack has been working on in his public Twine . Is the desktop of the future going to just be a web-hoste