Category Archives: Writing Software

Innovating Office For iPads: Or, Why Microsoft Should Stop Worrying And Learn To Love Apple

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1329927564 92 Innovating Office For iPads: Or, Why Microsoft Should Stop Worrying And Learn To Love Apple

The online publication The Daily is embroiled in a fuss about its leak of plans to bring Microsoft’s Office suite to the iPad. The Daily’s convinced the software is for real, but Microsoft has issued a tissue-thin denial that actually confirms or denies nothing material. Meanwhile, the general feeling is that MS would be crazy not to expand its Office domain onto the best-selling tablet PC–one that’s causing a computing revolution. But Microsoft is actually facing a stickier problem here.

It’s about price and precedent.

MS would be foolish not to address the iPad App Store as a market space because Apple’s tablet is continuing to dominate the scene, is likely to do so for a while, is affecting PC sales and is penetrating into business workplaces (with a recent survey saying 91% of business and IT pros using one for work). That’s MS’s traditional Office stomping ground. MS’s own Windows 8-powered tablets aren’t due for a while yet and will likely take a while longer to actually establish a decent market share, so delaying a tablet edition of Office until then could miss out on potential sales. It’s also arguable that while Android is building its tablet market share, writing Office to be compatible with so many subtle variations of Android OS and hardware would be a lot more work than aiming at Apple’s product. 

So, let’s assume that MS really is developing a version of Office for Apple’s iPad that embodies some of its own Metro mobile OS styling as the leaked imagery hints. Let’s guess that MS may even build in some of its upcoming SkyDrive tech to facilitate cloud storage, thus boosting business-user productivity (when users later download that PowerPoint slide they were working on to their office PC) and competing with Apple’s iCloud system. That sounds great, doesn’t it? MS fans, or those merely chained to MS by years of having to use its products, will get their familiar systems on a new and very chic computing platform that’s ideal for use while commuting and which will enable perfect compatibility with their PC apps at home or their desk.

Now–how does Microsoft price this code?

Apple already has its own business productivity apps on the iPad with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, and they offer compatibility with MS’s system and interlock through the cloud to Apple’s own desktop versions. If you use one iTunes account on several iPads, thanks to the way Apple’s system works you only need pay once for these apps. They sell for a very reasonable $9.99 each, allowing Apple to continue its PR effort that points out how many apps you have to pay for on PCs are free, already installed or low-cost on its hardware.

Microsoft could easily price at or very near to the same point and compete directly, relying on the massive inertia the Office name carries.

But Office on the PC costs $119.99 for one user on a home PC for the lowest “Home and Student” edition, and $349.99 for the full “Professional” version. That’s four times the cost of Apple’s iPad apps for the entry level and over 11 times the cost for the top edition. It costs more still to install Office on a handful of PCs ($499.99 for the Pro version). So pricing the tablet edition at $30 for the full package could set a precedent among consumers to expect lower prices for the desktop software too. Which would hurt MS because Office is one of the world’s best selling pieces of software and it makes up a big part of the company’s profits (it may, or may not, have recently superceded Windows as the biggest contributor to MS’s bottom line, and was credited with boosting a 6% rise in MS quarterly profits to $5.74 billion late in 2011).

So MS could make the tablet versions not fully-featured, arguing (perhaps without real basis) that the tablet environment isn’t suited for the full workload of, say, Excel or that the hardware wouldn’t support it. That sets a bad precedent for its own software on Windows 8 tablets then: Why buy a Win 8 tablet if the apps are already on the iPad cheaply, and why buy them at all if they don’t work as well as the desktop ones? If MS then chooses to make the Win 8 versions of Office better than the iPad ones, this would be simply exposed as marketeering and could alienate a considerable number fo consumers who already love their Apple product. And don’t forget the rumors about the upcoming iPad 3–its super high-resolution screen will best that on many PCs, and its hardware would thus seem perfectly capable of supporting as complex an app as Excel. It may even best the upcoming Windows 8 hardware.

And Apple, seeing the app competition, could always spend a little effort to brush up its own iWork suite on the iPad to improve both functionality and cross-compatibility with Microsoft’s software, and quickly nullify any added value in buying Office and maybe even Windows 8 tablets. After all, the iPad is very publicly applauded right now and who would spend $500 to $800 on one in March, complete with their familiar MS Office aboard, only to ditch it for an unproven Windows effort late in 2012?

Hence Microsoft is trapped in a version of the famous prisoner’s dilemma, being forced to cooperate uncomfortably with its erstwhile “enemy” in order to make profits from the iPad’s success, so both parties ultimately benefit. Its one true path out of the mess is to truly innovate for once, and deliver such serious added value from the iPad edition of Office and the Windows 8 version that it actually attracts customers because of its strengths and new features. Does that sound like a typical Microsoft solution to you?

[Image: Flickr user x-ray delta one]

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

Computer spyware is newest weapon in Syrian conflict

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1329912018 30 Computer spyware is newest weapon in Syrian conflictSyrians demonstrate against the regime after Friday prayers in the north Syrian city of Idlib on February 17. Activists working against the regime now have to worry about malware that can expose their activities.STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • U.S. antivirus experts say a virus is sending information to a server in Syria
  • Activists: Regime supporters are stealing oppositionists’ online identities’
  • Imposters use stolen identities to pass the viruses to activists, opposition claims
  • Antivirus software may not yet optimally protect against the new viruses

(CNN) — In Syria’s cyberwar, the regime’s supporters have deployed a new weapon against opposition activists — computer viruses that spy on them, according to an IT specialist from a Syrian opposition group and a former international aid worker whose computer was infected.

A U.S.-based antivirus software maker, which analyzed one of the viruses at CNN’s request, said that it was recently written for a specific cyberespionage campaign and that it passes information it robs from computers to a server at a government-owned telecommunications company in Syria.

Supporters of dictator Bashar al-Assad first steal the identities of opposition activists, then impersonate them in online chats, said software engineer Dlshad Othman. They gain the trust of other users, pass out Trojan horse viruses and encourage people to open them.

Once on the victim’s computer, the malware sends information out to third parties.

Inside Syria: Hope, supplies run low in bunker

Othman is an IT security “go-to-guy” for opposition activists. He resides outside of Syria for his own safety.

Syria: Rain doesn’t stop protests Walking through a deserted Homs Syrian town held by opposition

Since December, he has heard from dozens of opposition members who say their computers were infected. Two of them recently passed actual viruses to Othman and a colleague with whom he works. They checked them out.

“We have two malwares — first one is really complex,” Othman said via Skype chat. “It can hide itself more.”

The U.S. analysis of one of the viruses — the simpler one — would appear to corroborate the time of its launch around the start of the year.

The virus has two parts, said Vikram Thakur, principal security response manager at Symantec Corporation, known to consumers for its Norton antivirus software. He said one of them points to December 6 and the other to January 16.

Thakur has dubbed the simpler virus “backdoor.breut.”

It was the more complex virus that the former aid worker unwittingly downloaded during a chat. Since she travels to Syria, she has requested that CNN not name her for security reasons and instead refer to her as “Susan.”

In one Syrian town, full-throated cries of defiance

To get a picture of the humanitarian needs on the ground in Syria, “Susan” contacted opposition members via the Internet. In January, she received a call via Skype from someone she believed was a regime opponent.

It was an imposter and a regime supporter, she claims.

“They called me actually and pretended that it’s him — this activist that I didn’t know, because I’d been talking to him only two times and only in writing.”

This message in Arabic encourages computer users to download a free security program. It actually installs spyware on a user’s machine, experts say.

Days later, other opposition members told Susan and Othman that the activist she thought she had spoken with was in detention. Activists accuse government forces of coercing him to reveal his user name and identity and of then going online to impersonate him.

Othman says additional activists, who say they were detained and released, tell of being forced to turn over their passwords to Syrian authorities.

CNN cannot independently confirm the accusations, because the Syrian government strictly limits international media coverage within its borders.

Calls for Syrian government comment to a spokeswoman for al-Assad on Friday were not answered or did not go through. Friday is the weekly special day of prayer in the Muslim world.

The man chatting with Susan via Skype passed her a file. She recalled what he said to her to coax her to open it: “This makes sure that when you’re talking to me, it’s really me talking to you and not somebody else.”

New York Times reporter dies in Syria

She clicked on the file. “It actually didn’t do anything,” she said in a baffled tone. “I didn’t notice any change at all.”

No graphics launched; no pop-up opened to announce to the user that the virus was being downloaded. The link appeared to be dead or defected, said Othman.

The second virus, backdoor.breut, which was e-mailed to him by an activist inside Syria for analysis, launched the same way. “Download, open, then nothing,” Othman said.

It contains a fake Facebook logo and was passed off in a chat room as a Facebook security update, he said.

At CNN’s request, Othman forwarded that virus to an IT security expert in California for an independent analysis.

Othman removed the more complex malware on Susan’s computer but made an image of the infected hard drive beforehand. At more than 250 GB, it would have to be sent on an external hard drive by regular post — snail mail — for any independent scrutiny.

The U.S. expert confirmed the invisible nature of the backdoor.breut Trojan horse download.

Thousand stage public protests on Friday

“Nothing would actually show up,” said Thakur. “The only thing that the Trojan actually does — it copies itself into one of the temporary locations, but that would not be visible to the regular user.”

The malware launches when the user reboots the computer.

The Syrian cyberactivist and the California IT security manager pointed out that the lack of fanfare during download helps to conceal the viruses from their victims.

“Most of them will say ‘it’s a damaged file,’ and they will forget about it,” Othman said.

She was not aware she had been hacked until she lost her Facebook and e-mail accounts a few days after clicking on the file.

“I didn’t click on any kind of new link or something, so they must have known about the password,” she said, referring to the loss of her Facebook account.

She handed over her laptop to Othman and his colleague, who told her that the Trojan horse had logged her key strokes, taken screen shots, rummaged through her folders. It hid the IP address it sent its information to, Othman said.

Othman found a screen shot the Trojan horse took of Susan’s online banking home page. He told her to change all her passwords, Susan said.

“You don’t want your money to be stolen by some of the Syrian security guys,” she quipped.

The other virus — backdoor.breut — sends the information it pillages from infected computers to the IP address: 216.6.0.28 and does not hide this.

“We checked the IP address that our engineer referenced and can confirm that it belongs to the STE (Syrian Telecommunications Establishment),” a Symantec representative wrote to CNN. The STE is the government telecommunications company.

This does not necessarily mean that someone at STE is doing the hacking, Thakur stresses.

“Whether it’s a home user behind that or it’s actually a company or an organization, which has been allocated that IP address, we just have no insight from where we sit.”

But the Syrian government has access to all activity through that server “absolutely without any doubt,” Thakur said. Anyone not wanting the government to see what they are up to would not use that server.

Skilled Syrian opposition activists avoid government telecom servers when online.

The simple virus, backdoor.breut, acts like a bull in a china shop, Symantec’s Thakur said.

“It did not look like it was written by any sophisticated hacker,” he said after examining it. “It was just kind of put together — slapstick functionality.”

Simple malware is readily available for download on underground forums in the Internet. Hackers can repurpose it and hand it out. Othman believed the second software to be such an off-the-shelf product because of its amateurish construction, but the California expert disagrees.

“It’s not something that somebody just went out there, copied code from an Internet website and just pasted it in. It was definitely coded for its current purpose.”

The name “backdoor.breut” derives from the virus’ behavior.

“We sort of took the word ‘brute’ just because of what it was actually doing and kind of changed a couple of characters to b-r-e-u-t,” Thakur said.

“Brute — meaning that it is using brute force — it’s just going in smash-and-grab — I’m going to try to get anything that I can and get the hell out of there.”

Backdoor.breut attempts to give the hacker remote control of the victim’s computer, according to the analysis. It steals passwords and system information, downloads new programs, guides internal processes, logs keystrokes and takes shots with the webcam.

It also turns off antivirus notification, but that does not completely conceal it from detection. “Some of the good software can detect it in the same day,” Thakur said.

The nature of its use may make backdoor.breut and other new Syrian malware hard to defend against. Antivirus makers need to know the virus to be able to assign it a signature and make the file detectible to block the download, according to Thakur.

The more widely a new virus spreads around the world, the more likely it is to land on an antivirus maker’s radar. The smaller the region the virus is located in, the less likely virus vigilantes are to notice and combat it.

“Looking at this Trojan and the telemetry that we’ve gathered the last five or six days since we did the analysis, this is not targeting people across the complete globe. So, it could be days before some antiviruses actually create signatures for the file,” Thakur said.

More complex antivirus software can detect malware that does not yet have a signature, because of how it behaves after infecting the computer, Thakur said. If the antivirus does not have this ‘behavior’ component, it may not defend against a new virus “for a substantial amount of time.”

On a Facebook page named “Cyber Arabs,” Othman warns activists of the danger of downloading the virus and reminds users to keep their antivirus software updated.

Download.com, CNET’s software download website, offers antivirus software, some of which includes a “behavior” component and is free of charge.

But that is still no guarantee for not contracting a new Syrian cyberbug, “Susan” reminds.

“It was up-to-date,” she said. “The problem is that they sent me a … file, and I was totally stupid — like, it’s an EXE file — and I opened it.”

John Scott-Railton also contributed to this story.

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Ge Wang: In concert with technology

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1329903636 34 Ge Wang: In concert with technologyWednesday, February 1st, 2012 By Linda Yu

Ge Wang has regretted spending too much time coding and playing StarCraft, but he has never regretted playing a second of music.

He is the mastermind behind the music app start-up Smule, which has released a number of wildly successful apps, including “Ocarina,” “Magic Piano” and “I Am T-Pain.” Dedicated to sharing his love of music and pushing the boundaries of computer music, Wang is also an assistant professor of music and, by courtesy, of computer science. He also finds time to stay involved with a number of musical groups on campus, including the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) and Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPho).

Wang’s first exposure to music came when he was living in Beijing with his grandparents.

“My grandmother loved Beijing opera, my grandfather loved Western classical music, and since both were well versed in their respective musical loves, there was always music happening at home,” he said.

Following this initial stimulus, Wang started playing the accordion and the electric guitar. In high school he stumbled into working with music and computers.

“I was writing little ditties, and it just seemed really fun to write music with computers,” Wang said.

He didn’t have any technical experience or programming knowledge at the time, but he made use of whatever notation and production software he could get his hands on, whether it was shareware, freeware or cracked to remove copy protections.

In college, Wang chose to study computer science at Duke University, which he credits to his interest in video games.

“It seemed to me that the one thing more fun than playing video games was making them,” he said. “Software is a good way to express ideas you may have, and it’s easy to get together people around the world to use it. That’s magical.”

Though he had wanted to somehow combine music and computer science in his studies, Wang didn’t realize how he could do so until he took an electronic music class his junior year. Shortly thereafter, he heard a composition by Paul Lansky called “Tables Clear,” which inspired him to pursue computer music in his graduate studies.

“Lansky recorded sounds in the kitchen, from pots and pans to children screaming, and then somehow transformed them so that they magically self-organized into this music,” he said. “It was something you couldn’t make without computers and I knew after hearing it that I wanted to learn how to do it.”

After completing his graduate studies at Princeton, Wang applied for an assistant professor position at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) in early 2007.

“I had known how instrumental Stanford has been in the short history of computer music,” he said. “CCRMA is a place for serendipitously awesome stuff to happen, and the people at CCRMA set the tone for me to move forward.”

One such step forward was founding the iOS music software developer Smule in 2008, which Wang undertook with one of his graduate students, Jeffrey Smith ’89 M.S. ’89 Ph.D. ’13. Though Wang was already simultaneously working on a number of different projects, he was drawn in by the potential academic and social benefits of Smule.

“From a researcher’s point of view, to truly study mobile music, you have to study it from a large scale — in the hundreds of thousands or millions — so a startup made sense,” he said.

Wang also hoped Smule would increase the accessibility of music. Frustrated by the current “few-to-many” state of music making, where a few people are creating music and most people are consuming it, he envisions a future where making music is more widespread.

The main difficulty in realizing this goal lies in the barriers that keep people from making and sharing their music. Wang thinks social pressure is the biggest culprit.

“People either consider themselves to be a musician or not,” he said. “But, as Picasso said, ‘Everyone is born an artist,’ and I really do believe that.”

“As children, we don’t have much inhibition to try new things or be embarrassed, so therefore there is no failure,” Wang added. “At some point, people start classifying themselves, and they almost sell themselves short. I’m wondering if there’s a way to undo that.”

Wang speculates that fear of negative or insincerely positive feedback holds people back from sharing their music.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if the conditions could be set so that you would feel much freer about making music?” he said. “People sing alone in the car or in the shower. How can we get people to socially share that?”

Current Smule app users are already a part of Wang’s strategy to help people get over the initial hump of making music: presenting it as a game in an anonymous setting.

“It’s like benignly tricking people into making music,” he said. “People may think musical instruments are for specialists, but everyone can play a game. Music is human, music is social, and once you have it, you’ll want more.”

Music apps are varied and plenty, but the Smule apps stand out because of Wang’s musical philosophy in sculpting the user interaction. Aside from stellar graphics and the gaming mechanics built into the apps, Wang also makes sure to not shortchange the music-making experience.

“We don’t want to lose that true expression,” he said. “There’s a balance between ease of entry into the experience and leaving enough room for personal expression.”

Drawing from that philosophy, many Smule apps set up a balance between the human and machine by hinting to users how to play certain songs, without penalizing them for stepping outside of the guidelines. Wang compared the structure to “Rock Band,” which he feels is more rigid and less personal. The main difference in Smule’s approach, he argued, is that the app fully preserves the user’s music rather than encouraging perfect imitation of a predetermined piece of music.

Wang is also cognizant of the dangers of instant gratification, which technology often provides. Mastering an instrument requires hundreds or thousands of hours of diligent practice, and he doesn’t want to remove the effort from learning. He described the apps as more like a “gateway drug” — a way to give users the feeling that playing music is worthwhile.

“If it weren’t for a vision, you can’t really justify the process of going through it,” he said. “Hopefully we can still instill this sense that if you put more time into it, you can get better at it. In the end, it’s up to the person. We’re just making it easier for people to get pumped about doing these things in the first place.”

In addition to his work with Smule, Wang is also involved with computer music research at CCRMA, where he studies new possibilities in music due to technology.

He pointed out that computer music is not about recreating existing types of music with computers, and will not replace traditional music. Instead, the intersection of music and technology combines elements of the past and future.

“There’s so much room for everything to coexist, and we continue to add to the palette,” Wang said. “You need instruments and ways to make music we’ve always had.”

With technology’s powerful capabilities, it presents multiple paths for musical exploration. One area of development is mobile phones.

“Hundreds of millions of phones will be connected, and before long, billions,” he said. “What kinds of new music can we make? Can we create an instrument for a million people to join in on and create music meaningfully? I don’t know what that is right now, but it was simply impossible before because the technology wasn’t there to support it.”

This sense of uncertainty is inherent in his research, but Wang is driven by the belief that there is no doubt of the need for music in our lives. Earlier last March, following the earthquake in Japan, more than 3,500 users of Smule’s “Glee Karaoke” app uploaded their versions of “Lean on Me,” creating an international chorus of support.

“Music is entirely different from everything else,” Wang said. “It defies the need for logic, but it’s not illogical. It makes sense in its own way.”

PhD in Electrical Engineering for the {Serious

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1329893958 21 PhD in Electrical Engineering for the {Serious

Article by Dennis Moore Hopkins

There are numerous fields of research to form the thesis of your PhD in Electrical Engineering. Other than the logical manner to select those more relevant to your area of expertise, it is also recommended to opt for those which allow a good command in career advancement. Taking on a specialization which is not relevant to your local community will just get you an additional title on your business card. Unless you are considering a move to regions which have a demand for such expertise, focus on a common specialization which is a paradox of its own.

Although this doctorate program can be obtained via a distance learning program or on an online basis, there may be a need to access laboratories for research work as part of PhD course requisites. As this can be an extensive program, juggling a full-time job with family whilst cramming your studies in whatever hours left may be too ambitious a feat. If you are at a crossroad on whether to give up your job to pursue a PhD in Electrical Engineering thus causing a giant dent in your cash flow, check for financial aid by the institution or local educational boards. As part of the drive to encourage the public to improve their levels of knowledge, some offer these incentives to help lessen the load of financial burden.

Since electrical engineering is a professional course, all PhD candidates should have prior certification in the same discipline in the form of a Master’s degree. Some may grant a direct entry from a Bachelor’s degree depending on certain requirements. As part of PhD course requisites, a PhD student is expected to attend a number of related courses. By engaging a thesis advisor from a member of the faculty, the student receives mentoring in areas to develop his thesis. The student then prepares the thesis and presents it to the PhD committee or board for approval. Once approved, the student works on his thesis whilst fulfilling other course requirements which may include a teaching assistant’s post. This all contributes to overall assessment of the PhD. There may be a need to pass some qualifying exams in written and oral form upon completion of mandatory courses. The student is then expected to present his completed thesis to the said committee and defend his stand where necessary.

Photo verification reports send to ECI : 21st feb12 ~ E-Pao! Headlines

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1329885558 88 Photo verification reports send to ECI : 21st feb12 ~ E Pao! Headlines

Photo verification reports send to ECI Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, February 20 2012: With the photo verification and comparison process conducted over all the complaints lodged by different political parties and individuals in connection with the recent election to the state Assembly over, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Manipur has sent a final report to the Election Commission of India (ECI).The photo verification process to detect proxy voting was carried out under the supervision of CEO along with Central Observers deputed by ECI for the purpose. With completion of the photo verification of the electorates, the final report has been forwarded to ECI by late evening today through email, a reliable source disclosed.The source said that a large number of bogus votes were detected during the photo verification and comparison process conducted with the help of a software known as Picasa.In case of Churachandpur, an interesting case was detected where a single woman electorate cast vote 76 times.Complaints for re-poll in as many as 500 polling stations have been received from different political parties and individuals.Although it had been reported that ECI had given instruction to the State Election Officer for making necessary preparation for re-poll in some polling stations, the exact number of polling stations where the re-poll is to be held is not known or indicated by ECI.A poll penal of ECI is likely to decide the matter after close examination of the full report of the photo comparison, the source said.Meanwhile, there would be a teleconferencing between the officials of the ECI and the officials of State Election Office tomorrow. Three Special Observers and two officials from ECI are set to arrive here on February 22 on a one-day visit to meet with all the leaders of different political parties who have lodged complaints with CEO and ECI.Subsequently, the ECI officials would hold another meeting in New Delhi over the complaints and photo comparison report before announcing a schedule for re-polling on February 23, the source added. On the other hand, Kuki Chiefs’ Association, Chothe Tribe Union,Chandel and Thadou Students’ Association, Chandel have opposed to repoll in any of the polling stations under 41-Chandel (ST) Assembly Constituency.

Suggestions to Make Money Online

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1329862844 37 Suggestions to Make Money Online

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Advanced Features of Article Writing Software

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1329861547 92 Advanced Features of Article Writing Software

For any writing project, there will always be different types of writers. Some writers prefer to do their own research for the writing project and produce content for themselves while others may delegate the duties. In addition, there are passive and active writers. Inevitably, the more experienced active writers will desire for more from their article writing software. Article blending is one such feature. A large number of articles can be blended into uncountable unique articles. The Article blending feature is available in some article writing software; not all of them. All features of the article writing software should boost the writer’s search engine ranking in achieving the top spot. For this matter, most article writing provides enhanced personalization or customizable features which will zero in on the writer’s preferred specialization. Most article writing software that provide these capabilities have free trials before eventual purchase. Once the purchase is made, a link or code is given to the customer.

Tags: article writing software

This entry was posted on February 13th, 2012 and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

 

I can't emphasize enough that writing smart is what an online writer must remind themselves of every time they write! This means double trouble. When Sharon opened the door of the closet, she could not see her clothes, but a beautiful forest. Mow the lawn.Get away from the computer. One of the important things to be kept in mind while availing such service is the quality of the articles. Usually these papers are included in the examinations but before inclusion in the exams students are made to read about different topics and points. This information not only help the company to present required information to the visitors but also help in the attainment of a huge customer base. I had insinuated that I could take it all in stride. It will live on as a monument to your machismo." The entire ad went on with language like this for several hundred words, but when you clicked through to see the vehicle it was just a beat-up Subaru with an asking price of $2,000: not even worth the copy that sold it. This is a bit of wisdom dealing with borrowing it with this. I'm gaining a new skill and if your for writers is awful, writing and poetry doesn't work anyway. You may be quoted and it's extremely possible that your name will be passed on as an authority in your chosen niche. It doesn't matter to me how you feel in relation to writers on writers as soon as believe me, "Time waits for no man." Also, the students pen playing distribution and literature assigning. Humor in web content, if used wisely can help the product to penetrate the most difficult part of the customer base.

WriteRoom

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Among the many Mac text editors available, Hog Bay Software’s WriteRoom (Mac App Store link) stands out as a distraction-free tool that still offers a plethora of options for writers to set up their environment exactly the way they want.

Your first contact with WriteRoom is one that gives you the freedom to write, and to not worry about anything else. Like other focused text editors, such as iA Writer (), WriteRoom offers a basic writing view—in this case, a light-gray background with black, sans-serif text (Bitstream Vera Sans, one of my favorite fonts), and no toolbars or buttons.

If you like this layout—the font, background color, text width and so on—you can just use the default settings. But if not, you’re free to tweak options. The previous version of WriteRoom, which Macworld reviewed in 2008, had a preferences window hosting dozens of options. WriteRoom 3 takes a different approach—there’s no preferences window, but the program offers a number of options in its menus. The Format menu lets you change font, size, justification, and line wrap, as well as the number of characters per line. The View menu lets you toggle settings such as typewriter scrolling (the line you’re typing is always in the middle of the window—an essential feature in my eyes), highlighting of the current line, viewing invisible characters, and more.

zoomIcon WriteRoomwriteroom3 272897 WriteRoom

If you don’t want to be bothered with your own settings, you can apply themes, which are combinations of fonts, colors, and backgrounds. I don’t find any of the included themes to be appealing, but you can create your own theme, choosing your favorite font and font size and adding a background color or image. (The developer also hosts a collection of user-submitted themes.)

WriteRoom lets you create and edit documents in either text (.txt) or rich-text (.rtf) formats. Some similar apps are limited to .txt or Markdown files, and the capability to style text—and view styled text—in documents makes WriteRoom a bit more flexible.

WriteRoom is optimized for Lion, including a full-screen view. However, one oddity is that the basic WriteRoom theme—black text on a light-gray background—changes to white text on a dark-gray background when you switch to full-screen mode. While some people may prefer this theme, I find it hard on the eyes. (Plus, I would have expected the default theme to remain the same in both views.) You can of course tweak this appearance, but it doesn’t seem like you should have to.

Some of the other useful features in WriteRoom include a live word count in the title bar (great for people like me who often write to a word count; you can also view character count, page count and more), and Dropbox syncing to the iOS version of WriteRoom. I’d like to see iCloud syncing, as well, as that would make it easier to use WriteRoom on both a desktop Mac and laptop, but Dropbox is good enough.

If you want a minimalist tool for writing, WriteRoom is likely to have all the features you need. And even though you can personalize the app all you want, you can also ignore those options and just write. Perhaps best of all for writers on a budget: While WriteRoom 2 was $25 back in 2008, WriteRoom 3 is only $10.

UPDATED 2/21/2012, 11:39am, to correct statement that WriteRoom doesn’t offer a line-spacing setting; it does.

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Effective Benefits Of Business Writing Software

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1329855558 87 Effective Benefits Of Business Writing Software

Running a business is not always easy. Small business owners tend to have the most to struggle with simply because they do not have a lot of experience or even money to provide. Utilizing business writing software is going to help any struggling business owner get the tools and skills that they need to get ahead.

Once this tool has been implemented, business owners will no longer have an issue writing out the business documents that they require to make business run smoothly. There are templates that are going to be included with the software that will make the process go along must faster.

When the documents have been written, the software is going to check all grammar and spelling mistakes that might be missed. A simple word application might work, but will not do the proper amount of checking that is needed. When dealing with business, there should be no mistakes whatsoever and this software is going to make sure that nothing is missed.

The software should be relatively easy to find. Most people have reported being able to find a free version that works just fine. Take the time to look around online and find a reputable version that is going to offer all of the necessary tools to complete all business documents. Be sure to browse around and find the right one to use.

When searching for this software be sure to look into what the computer system requirements. The system will not install the software if the computer is too old. Installing a new software might actually crash the computer, so make sure that everything has been updated and ready to go.

Becoming a successful business owner is easy when using business writing software. Take the time to look around and find a version that will be easy to use. Once the documents are being written out properly there should be no trouble at all and business should speed up.

For the best grammar checker visit our site at grammarspellingchecker.com/ – Improve your English writing skills today.

Artistic Creative

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1329853229 94 Artistic Creative

MANILA, Philippines — The Hanvon Art Master 0806 is a slim, lightweight, tablet geared for unleashing the creative and artistic ideas for those always trying to find innovative means to express themselves.

The Hanvon Art Master 0806 draws most of its strength from its 1024 pressure levels and ±0.1mm accuracy, drawings are highly accurate and sensitive enough to match that of the artist’s style, using the cordless and battery-free pen.

This graphics tablet is easy to use, just connect it via USB to your computer and install its software applications, which is only 200MB, and everything is all set. Its dimensions are 357mmx277mmx15mm, which fits in most laptop bags, and is light enough to be carried around.

The Absolute Coordination Method is a feature that lets the active area of the tablet, called the tablet film, represent the entire screen, which can be navigated through the tablet’s pen. Even without contact, at 7mm, the pen will function acting as the mouse pointer.

The pen itself is sleek and easy to handle, which can be easily attached and difficulty detached from the tablet’s rear pen cradle. The erase button on it may be too sensitive as it is pressed on the slightest touch, potentially ruin focus while working.

The penWrite tool is compatible to MS Word, and whatever letters written in the tablet, will be written on the program. However, writing here might require careful penmanship as letters and symbols may be confused with one another, such as the “g” can be mistaken for an “a”, “e” sometimes come out as “æ”, and even without that little tail, “i” is almost always interpreted as “j”. The penWrite seems more suited for people who are mobility impaired of using a keyboard. Otherwise, it is practical just to use the keyboard.

With its built-in multi-language recognition, penAsia distinguishes characters from different languages such as Japanese and Korean and will be displayed on the document. Other languages it recognizes: English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil), Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

The penSign simply works for you to write your signature in Microsoft Office documents. While the penMail provides actual handwriting in Outlook Express and Windows Mail with relative ease. The penMark lets you write quick notes on the screen and doodle in your saved pictures, and can be saved and deleted at your whim.

The most fun this tablet can offer comes from the WhiteBoard utility, as it is set as a blank white page where you can draw smoothly and freely. It can be used for flashy presentations for business and educational purposes. It has zoom and spotlight features to highlight your points. The Express Keys are found in the upper left side of the tablet, which might be inconvenient for left-handed people as these are customizable function keys. The Touch Strip is used to scroll up or down and magnify images or documents.

It is compatible with graphics applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash, Corel Painter, Corel Draw and more, which allows you to edit photos without the need of the mouse.

Specifications 

Cordless and Battery-free Pen technology

Pressure-sensitive Technology

Tablet Size: 357mm *277mm* 15mm

Active Area: 203mm*152mm

Pressure Level: 1024 levels

Report Rate: 220 points per second

Accuracy: ± 0.1mm

Maximum Reading Height: 7mm

Tilt Range: ± 60 degrees

Editor’s note: Have fun with the Hanvon Art Master 0806. This tablet offers the WhiteBoard utility, as it is set as a blank white page where you can draw smoothly and freely. Use it for flashy presentations for business and educational purposes. Compatible with graphics applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash, Corel Painter, Corel Draw and more, which allows you to edit photos without the need of the mouse.

 

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