by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 31 January 2010 @ 21:01 UTC
WEAVERVILLE, NC – Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself.
Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote) — the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways. Zotero integrates tightly with online resources; it can sense when users are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, and—on many major research and library sites—find and automatically save the full reference information for the item in the correct fields. Since it lives in the web browser, it can effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word). And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without WiFi).
To learn more about what Zotero can do, visit the Support pages.
I was reintroduced to Zotero recently and I must admit that things have certainly changed with this plug-in for Mozilla Firefox. There are plug-ins for Zotero in Mozilla Firefox 3.x, MS Word 2003/2007, and OpenOffice.org 3.x as well. When citing references in either of these popular wordprocessing applications, the Zotero plug-ins create available toolbars that allow the user to access their Zotero libraries from any PC connected to the Internet as long as you have synched your Zotero library information to the Zotero Server. Inserting, editing citations, inserting bibliographic (reference information) is a snap with Zotero in both wordprocessing applications, too.
Please view this introductory video on Zotero. If you’re a college or graduate student like me, then Zotero is your research assistant that lives in your Web browser and favorite wordprocessing app.
by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 31 January 2010 @ 03:57 UTC
REDMOND, WASHINGTON – This author was recently searching on the Internet looking for an old acquaintance—he called OS/2—with which he had lost touch. While searching numerous online newspapers, this author stumbled across an obituary for his friend that confirmed his demise. The obituary was from a newspaper in the Redmond, Washington area that announced the death of OS/2, someone with whom this author was very familiar and had worked with many years ago. This author knew that he had not seen or heard from his old acquaintance in some time but never realized why until he went searching for him and discovered that the OS had passed away.
The obituary that was found was short but very revealing. It described where and when his acquaintance had lived, what the acquaintance had accomplished in his short life span that others like him had not achieved, and it reported what the cause of death was to have been. The obituary, dated 31 December 2006, read something like the following:
“A once prominent figure in the OS world, OS/2, was found dead this morning in his Redmond, Washington home at the young age of 17. Born to the parents of Microsoft and IBM in April, 1987, OS/2 was the brainchild of both companies, which resulted from a Joint Development Agreement between the two parties in 1985. Just prior to his birth, Microsoft and IBM had wanted to name their offspring, CP/DOS, but after his birth, following two years of labor, they settled on the name OS/2, which stood for Operating System/2 because it sprang from the 2nd generation line of Personal System (PS/2) computers that IBM had sired earlier. OS/2 was reared as a text-mode OS but quickly featured a rich API for controlling the video display and handling mouse and keyboard events so that programmers who were writing protected-mode programs no longer had to call the BIOS or access the hardware directly. Other achievements of OS/2, during his short life, included a set of development tools consisting of video and keyboard APIs as linkable libraries that allowed family mode programs to run under MS-DOS, something unparalleled at the time. In addition, a task switcher called Program Selector was developed in OS/2 that allowed for text-mode multitasking of text sessions that could run multiple programs. OS/2 promised a GUI for its text-mode OS and, in October, 1988, OS/2 came through with a graphical interface that was similar to its predecessor Windows 2.1. Later in life, OS/2 introduced distributed database support for IBM databases and SNA communications support for IBM mainframe networks. Also, toward the end of his life, OS/2 developed installable filesystems, introducing the HPFS filesystem, which allowed long filenames for files in the OS. During his warp years starting in 1994, OS/2 offered greater hardware support, the ability to run multimedia programs, Internet-compatible networking, and a basic office application suite called IBM Works (OS/2, 2010; OS/2 Warp – OS/2 Withdrawal from Marketing and Change in Support, 2010).
The cause of death of OS/2 seems to have been associated with its lack of mass market appeal and dropping market share in the technology market with the sales of OS/2 dropping off sharply in December, 2005. It appears that OS/2 never fully recovered and finally succumbed to its financial-illness a year later in December, 2006. OS/2 is survived by its desktop relatives: Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7” (OS/2, 2010).
Did OS/2 deserve to die the way it did? This author would support the notion that during its warp years, OS/2 was considered an OS that had promise to be the OS of the future. However, due to the splitting up of IBM and Microsoft, in 1990, OS/2 lost much needed support from IBM and, as a result, Microsoft’s Windows 3.0 became extremely more popular among users primarily because it came bundled in most new PCs sold by Microsoft while OS/2 remained an expensive standalone OS. Furthermore, OS/2 did not have the driver support of Windows 3.0 and this oversight led to its ultimate demise. As a result, OS/2 may not have met with the death that it deserved, but it certainly lost its battle with the support of its user-base and the market share.
References:
OS/2. (2010). Retrieved January 29, 2010, from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2
OS/2 Warp – OS/2 Withdrawal from Marketing and Change in Support. (2010). Retrieved January 29, 2010, from IBM – OS/2 Warp: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/os/warp-withdrawal/
by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 29 January 2010 @ 22:10 UTC
WEAVERVILLE, NC – Windows XP® Operating System by Microsoft Corporation™ is the flagship operating system for the desktop that this company has developed since earlier versions of Windows® were developed, such as Windows 95/98/NT and 2000 Professional. This OS comes in four versions but the corporate version of this OS is Windows XP Professional and the corresponding home user version is Windows XP Home Edition. What advantages might you find in the Windows XP Professional and Home Edition OS over the use of another OS that you currently use or might consider using?
Yager (2001) indicates that Windows XP improves the overall stability, security, and performance of corporate desktop and laptop computers. Built on the Windows 2000 core, Windows XP does a better job of cleaning up after applications that forget to free up valuable system resources and, as a result, it’s much harder for applications to freeze up or hang in Windows XP. In addition, in Windows XP, if an application does hang, this OS has the capability for you, as the user, to terminate the application without closing all running applications on the user’s desktop using the Task Manager feature. Furthermore, users will spend less time rebooting with Windows XP as well as calling for technical support, and more time enjoying the experience of using this OS. Windows XP ships with over 12,000 device drivers in its driver library and, thanks to developer guidance from Microsoft, the user rarely has to reboot the OS after installing a new driver for a device that this truly Plug-n-Play OS finds attached to the PC. Also, device drivers installed in Windows XP don’t have the power that they used to have to crash an operating system. Windows XP clearly beats out the competition when it comes to installing hot-pluggable interfaces, such as PC cards, USB devices, and IEEE-1394 (Firewire) interfaces. The transparent encryption built-into Windows XP permits the user to access his/her files using file access that is controlled by strong security that is user-friendly unlike other OSes, such as UNIX, Linux, BeOS, etc. Windows XP has a built-in firewall that helps PCs that access foreign or broadband networks. And, another very important feature of Windows XP is that it has a built-in Remote Access Server, which provides technical support personnel or others more familiar with the OS administrative and supervised access to their desktop to troubleshoot and correct any problems they might encounter.
Russell (2007) identifies the top 10 advantages of Windows XP over other Oses to be: (1) hardware support, specifically with driver availability; (2) support for on-line and off-line gaming; (3) enhanced security the OS provides; (4) support for the most popular suite of office products, Office 2003/2007; (5) user-friendly wireless networking capabilities; (6) software availability for the OS; (7) extensive user help resources available via Microsoft and its associated forums; (8) computer availability associated with the OS; (9) plug-n-play support; and (10) guaranteed support for the OS through its lifecycle.
According to a Ziff Davis Enterprise survey conducted in 2008, 92 percent of users indicated that their primary OS of choice was Windows XP and 72 percent said that the OS they’re using now will be the OS that they will be using in 2009 (Donston, 2008). Microsoft has extended support for Windows XP from 2009 out to 2014 as a result of corporate users who were unwilling or unable to migrate to Windows Vista because they were happy with the current OS or their hardware was incapable of running on Vista, respectively.
One of the biggest advantages that I see that Windows XP has over other competitive OSes is the fact that this OS can run almost all the applications ever written for the Intel-based PC, dating back to the VisiCalc spreadsheet application that was introduced in 1981 when the PC revolution started (Mendelson, 2006). Although some of these applications may tend to run slowly in Windows XP, there are add-ons developed by Microsoft that will allow them to run more quickly or to run at all for those that wouldn’t run initially.
Finally, Boling (2010) indicates the Windows XP OS has many advantages over its predecessors and other OSes in that it is more stable, more secure, more reliable, is a self-repairing OS, and has several new features that enhance the overall user experience. Among these user enhancements include: (1) revised Start Menu; (2) enhanced Task Bar; (3) the introduction of skins called XP Themes that allow the user to change his/her desktop interface to suit their needs; and (4) a new feature called Fast User Switcher, which allows two or more users to be logged on and access the same PC at the same time.
Microsoft developed Windows XP as a revolutionary new operating system built with Xtreme Programming in mind, and was the first Win32®-based operating system designed for both office and home use (Boling, 2010).
—–
References:
Boling, D. (2010). Windows XP Overview: Take Advantage of New Windows XP Features in Your Apps Today. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from MSDN Magazine: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302210.aspx
Donston, D. (2008). Companies loath to give up XP. eWeek, 25(9), 16. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Mendelson, E. (2006). Run Legacy Apps In XP. PC Magazine, 25(11), 106. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Russell, D. (2007, July 11). Top 10 Advantages of Windows XP. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from Spontaneous Monotony: Blog about news, politics, computers, and the Internet: http://www.davidarussell.co.uk/2007/07/11/top-10-advantages-of-windows-xp/
Yager, T. (2001). Microsoft Windows XP. InfoWorld, 23(49), 50. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 29 January 2010 @ 15:05 UTC
MUNICH, GERMANY -- Here is a video of Hitler’s reaction after learning that the Apple iPad would not be able to multitask, but would only be able to run one application at at time.
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