Tech Terrain

Having dived into free and open source software (FOSS)  and realized it's importance and freedom given,  I recommend you to use LibreOffice instead of the  Microsoft Office  Suite for viewing and creating all your documents and presentations.  I'm not saying this just because I support FOSS. I will provide solid reasons why you should migrate from Microsoft Office which is a proprietary software to LibreOffice which is totally free. LibreOffice was a part of Apache OpenOffice until 2010. Whether you have a windows machine or a Mac, LibreOffice can be installed on both. Microsoft Office It is a very good document viewing and editing software which will cater to all your needs with very few bugs and is easy to use. The price may be seen as a bit too high given that today the fight between computers and tablets is very competitive and that Windows 8 is not much used many people. One of the major advantages of MS Office is that it can handle enormous a...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or two you’ve probably heard about 3D printing . Although 3D printing technology has been around since the 1980’s, it hasn’t been until recent years that the 3D printer has downsized and made its way into the homes of everyday consumers. In fact, many consumers have probably seen products of industrial 3D printing without even knowing it. So while businesses continue to innovate and expand their uses of 3D industrial printers, consumers are also now getting in on the action and creating a variety of useful objects for around the home. Image courtesy: columbialion.com What do businesses use 3D printers for? Things like: Prototypes: Businesses have been using 3D printers for years to make large and small prototypes quickly and efficiently. Before the rise of industrial 3D printers in the late 80’s many companies had to outsource the manufacturing of prototypes and as a result many prototypes took weeks just to arrive t...

In the recent years, we have seen a rapid progress in the field of software testing and quality assurance. We can say that world has experienced an evolution in the field of software testing as many software testing companies have mushroomed in the various parts of the globe. Testing was first defined by Myers in 1979 in his book “ the art of software testing ” as a way of executing the application and looking for the errors. However, the recent developments have totally changed the previous concepts of testing and it has emerged as a new field in the software engineering. The modern day studies have stated testing as an indispensible activity to ensure software quality. With the advent of the automation testing, achieving high quality standards through continuous improvement have become possible. Therefore, to confirm the quality of an application and to meet the expectations of the highly demanding user, applications are tested on the latest automated tools and toys avail...

Animation is one of the most revolutionary movements the world had come across almost ninety years back. The production had moved through many ups and downs in these years. The animation production was never easy in these days. In the initial days there was no technology and machinery that could muscle the production and make the process easier. The invention of the computer brought a massive change in this trade. The process became easier. It is not completely right that the process of animation became easier because of computer but manual workload minimized. Madagascar by Dreamworks Animation Initially the animation production was completely dependent on the hand drawing. The artist had to be very strong with his art work to generate the character as it is all the time. The motion of the characters was also created by the hand drawing. Later with the introduction of the computer the production work became easier. The computer also gave the birth of 3d animation. The advan...

Cell phones were a revelation when they became widely available to the general public. They gave us a way to keep in constant contact with our friends and family, meaning that no matter where we happened to be, we were never “off the grid.” Of course, calling your loved ones was just one of many possible applications for these new phones: they also single-handedly ushered in a new era for small and large business owners. Now there was an effortless way to stay in contact with employees “in the field” when they left the office to conduct business elsewhere; they no longer had to remain dependent on, say, pay phones or hotel room telephones. Their calls could be private, and best of all, mobile. Today, another new technology is about to take business telephone systems to the next level. VoIP phone services (Voice Over Internet Protocol) are positioning themselves as the next big thing not only in business communications technology, but for the average citizen. Here’s how it ...

While sitting at home and watching television, you have no doubt seen advertisements for popular products and services during a break from your favorite show. Rather than using catchy jingles or product demonstrations, a lot of companies are working to develop characters for their ads that resonate with their target audience. That way, when people see the character they will instantly connect him or her with the company, hopefully building a relationship that will lead to more sales and business. How people respond to the character can make or break that particular ad campaign, which is why it is important to gauge the popularity of the ad to see if it is successful or needs adjustments moving forward. Which Ad Characters Are Most Popular? When asked which advertisement character is their favorite in a recent mobile study, men and women were able to point to two campaigns that are getting it right. Although they differ on which character is most Most Interesting Man in th...

In the modern working environment, IT hardware is easily the most significant tool at your disposal in terms of how your business operates. The rate at which a business operates in the current climate is all down to the latest IT technologies, so whoever has the most advanced systems will inevitably bring home the bacon. With the introduction of high-speed software , the demand for a more competitive market has changed the way business is conducted forever –such are the benefits that the web brings to the table. There is so much great quality IT hardware on the market that it can often be hard to know which is right for your business, and as a result it’s often worth getting an expert opinion to have a look through your options and work out which might work best for your business. You should always search around before committing to an IT software , because you could end up with a product that has no benefit to you whatsoever. What is IT hardware? IT hardware are the physica...

After launching free calls for North Americans earlier this year, Facebook is now finally allowing the British a chance to get in on the service. Or more specifically, British people that are using an iPhone , iPad or iPod Touch . Getting started is fairly simple - just download and open the Facebook Messenger app . Next, select the "i" button in conversation view and press "Free call". Like proper phone calls, you're able to use other applications while keeping the call going and leave voice messages. If you receive a call, you'll receive a push notification to let you know. With the service now available in the UK, Canada and the US, it's now possible to call internationally for free. This has long been possible with Skype, but many more people use Facebook and there's no need to find additional contact information. Voice quality is consistent with Skype and other VOIP providers like Viber. It's not known if Facebook plans to ope...

Google Chrome , even though not rated as the most-used browser yet, has certainly captured the public’s imagination. Savvy Windows users are preferring Chrome over other browsers. One reason for this is that Google's Chrome has an enviable list of extensions that even beat Firefox! Read on. 1. Session Manager: If you’re halfway entering information on some site after having logged in, click Session Manager and your session will be saved for later. Just click the link in the add-on to return to the page. You can bypass the login menu and go directly to the page you were working on. 2. Google Mail Checker: Shows how many unopened emails you have in your Gmail via a small icon on your Chrome address bar. You’ll have to set Gmail as default email in order to enable this. 3. Stop Autoplay for YouTube:   Stops auto play of videos. Silently buffers the video, so that you can play it later if you want. No more suffering slow loading stutte...

I remember wondering in middle school math class why they were teaching us Boolean Algebra. When would we ever use this stuff involving truth tables? Fast forward 25 years, and suddenly I wish I had paid more attention in class. In the good old days, a sales person could keep track of their leads and contacts in a tin box on index cards. At the most, a sales rep sent and received a few letters per week. Phone calls were strictly local; an interstate call required permission from a sales manager. No one called overseas. Face-to-face selling in a territory was the norm. Today, face-to-face contact is rare. Most sales reps sit in a cubicle or at home and communicate with the world through electronic means. Customer contact is done via phone, web conference and, mostly importantly, email . The amount of information sent, received and managed by a sales rep is staggering. In many companies, a sales rep is expected to make 45 calls per day and follow them up with an email. ...

Have you ever had an idea of recording your phone conversation in your PC ? Implementing this idea in real form, could be way too helpful. Let us cite a scenario, based on which you will feel the genuine need of implementing this concept, so here we go: many times we have seen people forgetting the crucial portion of the conversation that lasts for hours, and following this practice could be an effective solution to such problems. Recording the conversation in a PC requires the collection of certain utilities, which may sound little tedious to set up in your PC. We will put the entire process in a very simplified manner, so that you can start recording your phone calls, without any hassle. Find your appropriate device To begin with this process, you need your equipment that can be attached to your system for the proper reception of the sound signals. The device generally, used is ‘Telephony Answering Device’. The output of this device is supposed to be connected with the ...

Why Cell Phone Tracking Software? Bosses always want more productivity. In fact, they’ll employ the oddest methods to ensure every employee is performing at 100 percent productivity. Inappropriate actions by staff members may bring an unbearable amount of shame and embarrassment to the company. Therefore, if you’re in a managerial position, you must ensure none of your employees are acting in an inappropriate manner by constantly watching and monitoring their every move. However, keeping a constant lick on your staff members is incredibly difficult when added on to your regular job responsibilities. Yes, you can incentivize them to maintain productivity, but that’s still not effective in handling any major data leaking from the employee. If you happen to suspect any staff members of doing this, it’s critical to begin tracking their mobile phone numbers to determine who they’re giving information to and what that information is. mSpy is the premier mobile phone spy softwar...

Content Management System (CMS) is a piece of computer software that allows the user to publish, edit, maintain and modify content. Such a system of CMS will allow workflow to be managed, either through manual steps or an ‘automated cascade’. The first CMS was announced in the late 1990s and was designed to make the writing of versions of ‘code’ simpler and the make the process of website development far more flexible than it had been previously. The main features The core function of a Content Management System or CMS is to present information on a website or websites, with CMS features varying widely from system to system. Some Simpler CMS systems have only a handful of systems while other versions offer far more comples and powerful functions. Most CMS include features such as; · Web-based publishing · Management of format · Revision control · Indexing · A search facility · Retrieval A CMS is update...

In today’s world, technology has grasped the attention of both youngsters and adults strongly. People are seen checking their smartphones , PC s, or tablets every few seconds to make sure they don’t miss a tweet or a post. Educational experts from SolidEssay.com state that instead of doing research through books, newspapers, or any other media, we prefer doing online research thanks to the constant draw of Google and YouTube searches. Children are seen wasting their precious time in using different technologies. Everyone is distracted by the smart and innovative technologies being invented daily. Following are some ways to help you be less distracted by Technology: Stay Focused Sometimes you just forget your work and find yourself shopping for different items on eBay or playing games; afterwards, you wonder how you got there. Stay Focused is a plug-in of Google Chrome that allows you to focus on work and this plug-in decides how much time you have to burn on the tim...

The advent of numerous innovation communication devices has brought a revolution in international journalism arena. Nowadays, journalists work since dawn to midnight for covering their day-today stories. In this way, it has become necessary for field reporters to use ultra modern devices to store and compose the ongoing news contents. Surprisingly, smartphones  have made it simple. Now, you can get all the needed applications in your smartphone and cover an ongoing event easily. Stunning Smartphone Applications for Field Journalists: Magisto Video Editor: This application is useful to make editing of your recorded videos and images. You can make needful changes in your content. At first, this video editing application was published in mobile reporting guide of UC Berkeley. Since then, it has been beating top video editing applications, including Apple’s own iMovie. You get the freedom of mixing two different videos and audio files with the help of this smartpho...