With all the extensions available for Google Chrome, it can be tough to decide which ones to install. And with so many from unknown third parties, you might be overly cautious. If you want to play it safe, go right to the source — and who better to provide Chrome extensions than Google? From useful to unique, here are the best Chrome extensions direct from Google that you need. 1. Google Mail Checker If you keep a close on eye on your Gmail inbox, then the Google Mail Checker is the extension for you. Th...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 30th, 2017
The promise of technology is one of empowerment. Computers are tools. They make it easier, or even possible, to do certain tasks. Technology’s basic purpose is to help. While developers often mean well, much of our technology is less than helpful. Today’s web services leave us dependent on telecommunications companies, put control of our data in other people’s hands, and open us up to pervasive surveillance. Planned obsolescence takes our hard-earned cash and turns it into products that we need to replac...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 30th, 2017
Are you still using Evernote? Kudos! The company has been through some major trials and tribulations over the last 12 months, and many users have jumped ship to OneNote. But alas, OneNote isn’t right for everyone. So if you’re still using Evernote, you’ll no doubt be aware of one missing feature — a glaring omission for a supposedly full-featured note-taking app. I am, of course, talking about archiving. Why isn’t there a simple, native way to archive your old stacks for posterity? Even the paid tiers do...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 30th, 2017
Structured Query Language (SQL) is a remarkably powerful tool, and one that is packed full of features. Once you’ve mastered the most important SQL commands, you can start to get a bit more creative with your SQL. Today I’ll show you everything you need to know about SQL concatenation strings. There are many different SQL dialects. For all these examples, I’m using the PostgreSQL variant. What Is Concatenation? Concatenation means to join two things together. You may have used it in a programming languag...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 29th, 2017
Whether you are teaching a class, giving a lecture, creating a tutorial, or running a training session, these PowerPoint templates are perfect. Some give you tables, charts, and diagrams while others give you a simple educational theme for your situation. With a template, you do not have to waste time creating a presentation from a blank canvas. Instead, you can concentrate on the content that goes in it. If PowerPoint is your slide-creating tool of choice and an educational concept is what you need, che...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 28th, 2017
Power is unpredictable. A car crashing into a pole or a small flaw in a transformer can cause a blackout or a surge strong enough to destroy most electronics in your home. Although rare, these events can knock your computer out when you need it most. It can even cause thousands of dollars of damage. The solution is not any mere surge protector but instead an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). These big, beefy units combine a high-quality surge protector with a backup battery that will keep electronics r...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 27th, 2017
Adobe After Effects is one of the premier pieces of software for editing videos. But before you can learn to edit video like a professional, you need to learn some basic skills. One of those skills is motion tracking. You’ve probably seen the effects of motion tracking — smoothly floating text, perfectly placed graphics — in professional videos. Today, we’re going to learn how to use After Effects (AE) to do it ourselves. The Basics of Motion Tracking Let’s start at the beginning: what is motion tracking...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 25th, 2017
If you’ve ever worked with colleagues on a document, you know this pain: someone takes the first pass (document.doc), then emails it to everyone. The next person does the same, as does the third, each tacking a revision (document_rev3.doc) to the file’s name. The manager likes what she sees and tags it as complete (document_final.doc)… until last-minute changes come along (document_final_Aaron’s changes_reviewed_by_Bob_now_really_final.doc). Now imagine changes like this in dozens of source code files. P...
Seaton Dubman
Posted on August 25th, 2017
