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Technology catch-all thread


iamshack

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QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 10:17 AM)
But you must have gmail open, which defeats the purpose.

 

Are you crazy or something? You aren't supposed to question anything Google does on the Internets. Their army of unpaid lemmings will relentlessly attack you.

 

Oh, and you should sign up for G+, it's really awesome, and wayyyy better than FB. Only it's not. But it is. Only it's not.

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QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 10:17 AM)
But you must have gmail open, which defeats the purpose.

 

Oops didn't see that part.

 

I use an app called PushBullet that mirrors all my notifications to Chrome, so whenever I get email, text, FB message, etc on my phone I get it on my desktop as well.

 

And if you don't care for that, there's numerous Chrome extensions that are way better than Google's Gmail notifier: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/c...ljbihmemj?hl=en

Edited by chw42
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QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 10:22 AM)
Are you crazy or something? You aren't supposed to question anything Google does on the Internets. Their army of unpaid lemmings will relentlessly attack you.

 

Oh, and you should sign up for G+, it's really awesome, and wayyyy better than FB. Only it's not. But it is. Only it's not.

 

Google+ actually does quite a few things better than FB. Their photo editor, auto-backups, Google Hangouts, just to name a few. I'd be more inclined to use it if other people actually use it though.

 

Using G+ on Android makes a lot of sense since the FB app is utter crap. It's ugly, it runs a billion services in the background that'll drain your battery, and it's fairly slow. There's a few 3rd party clients that are way lighter, much better looking, and less resource intensive. I personally use Klyph. But since FB's API is...well...lacking, the app doesn't have all the functionality the FB app has.

Edited by chw42
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QUOTE (Jake @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 10:47 PM)
Yeah, I would love Google+....if only anyone used it.

 

Google+ is pretty much a Google/tech news reader. Oh and I also use it to get beta versions of apps. That's about it.

 

I actually do talk to friends on Hangouts though, it's one of the few major video services that allows you to do multi-person chats for free.

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 10:51 PM)
Google+ is pretty much a Google/tech news reader. Oh and I also use it to get beta versions of apps. That's about it.

 

I actually do talk to friends on Hangouts though, it's one of the few major video services that allows you to do multi-person chats for free.

 

I'm also a big fan of Hangouts and following Google/Android news and getting beta apps is pretty much what I do with G+. With that said, I probably still use it more than Facebook, which has become a tremendous waste of time despite my doing a mass purge of friends/follows to see if I might start seeing things that are worthwhile on there

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 09:34 PM)
Google+ actually does quite a few things better than FB. Their photo editor, auto-backups, Google Hangouts, just to name a few. I'd be more inclined to use it if other people actually use it though.

 

Using G+ on Android makes a lot of sense since the FB app is utter crap. It's ugly, it runs a billion services in the background that'll drain your battery, and it's fairly slow. There's a few 3rd party clients that are way lighter, much better looking, and less resource intensive. I personally use Klyph. But since FB's API is...well...lacking, the app doesn't have all the functionality the FB app has.

 

Facebook's new app Paper is pretty good, at least on IOS.

 

I don't think anyone would disagree that G+ is a leaner/meaner product than Facebook, and the things it does it does very well, unlike FB, which is more of a jack of all trades/master of none. But when you look at it that way, it's easy to have a limited product do it's limited actions much better than a vastly larger product like Facebook. In the end, G+ is just a limited version of FB, and the most important commodity in these services is the community, which just isn't there.

 

Oh, and I'm not really a huge fan of Facebook either, but that's where the people are, and without people, these services are useless.

 

Facebook grew organically, because people WANTED to be a part of it, whatever it was that FB had that caused people to do that, G+ is missing it. Most of it's growth thus far wasn't organic, it was forced by Google, which led to most of the G+ accounts that exist to go unused or ignored.

Edited by Y2HH
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QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 05:26 AM)
Facebook's new app Paper is pretty good, at least on IOS.

 

I don't think anyone would disagree that G+ is a leaner/meaner product than Facebook, and the things it does it does very well, unlike FB, which is more of a jack of all trades/master of none. But when you look at it that way, it's easy to have a limited product do it's limited actions much better than a vastly larger product like Facebook. In the end, G+ is just a limited version of FB, and the most important commodity in these services is the community, which just isn't there.

 

Oh, and I'm not really a huge fan of Facebook either, but that's where the people are, and without people, these services are useless.

 

Facebook grew organically, because people WANTED to be a part of it, whatever it was that FB had that caused people to do that, G+ is missing it. Most of it's growth thus far wasn't organic, it was forced by Google, which led to most of the G+ accounts that exist to go unused or ignored.

Facebook really exploded because of college students latching onto it as a better way of sharing their experiences than MySpace. I can't really recall what features Facebook had that MySpace did not, but that organic growth took place on college campuses and spread like wildfire.

 

If you really want a social networking product to reach a community, you've got to convince those in the best position to utilize it that it's the best product out there.

 

I think Google+ is just trying to supplant something that has too strong roots at this point.

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QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 10:09 AM)
Facebook really exploded because of college students latching onto it as a better way of sharing their experiences than MySpace. I can't really recall what features Facebook had that MySpace did not, but that organic growth took place on college campuses and spread like wildfire.

 

If you really want a social networking product to reach a community, you've got to convince those in the best position to utilize it that it's the best product out there.

 

I think Google+ is just trying to supplant something that has too strong roots at this point.

Facebook had exclusivity and a complete lack of advertising, which made it cool.

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QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 10:09 AM)
Facebook really exploded because of college students latching onto it as a better way of sharing their experiences than MySpace. I can't really recall what features Facebook had that MySpace did not, but that organic growth took place on college campuses and spread like wildfire.

 

If you really want a social networking product to reach a community, you've got to convince those in the best position to utilize it that it's the best product out there.

 

I think Google+ is just trying to supplant something that has too strong roots at this point.

 

MySpace became a total clusterf*** with all the HTML editing you can do on their pages.

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QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 07:26 AM)
Facebook's new app Paper is pretty good, at least on IOS.

 

I don't think anyone would disagree that G+ is a leaner/meaner product than Facebook, and the things it does it does very well, unlike FB, which is more of a jack of all trades/master of none. But when you look at it that way, it's easy to have a limited product do it's limited actions much better than a vastly larger product like Facebook. In the end, G+ is just a limited version of FB, and the most important commodity in these services is the community, which just isn't there.

 

Oh, and I'm not really a huge fan of Facebook either, but that's where the people are, and without people, these services are useless.

 

Facebook grew organically, because people WANTED to be a part of it, whatever it was that FB had that caused people to do that, G+ is missing it. Most of it's growth thus far wasn't organic, it was forced by Google, which led to most of the G+ accounts that exist to go unused or ignored.

 

Paper does seem nice, but I think that's the first mobile app FB's made that people have actually liked. The FB app has always been kind of "eh" on iOS and Android (Android specifically). It's not a great app, but you kind of need to use it if you have FB.

 

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 06:22 PM)
MySpace became a total clusterf*** with all the HTML editing you can do on their pages.

 

It always seemed to me that was the thing its users liked the most about it. I think the problem was that by its nature, HTML editing or not, it became something that adults would never like...and unfortunately its user base starting approaching adulthood. We're already seeing with Facebook that you can't own a single age demographic across generations when it comes to social networking, it seems.

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 06:26 PM)
Paper does seem nice, but I think that's the first mobile app FB's made that people have actually liked. The FB app has always been kind of "eh" on iOS and Android (Android specifically). It's not a great app, but you kind of need to use it if you have FB.

 

The Facebook app itself is really bad...it's like a half-assed replica of their website, and it's buggy as hell. Paper is nice, though missing a few features, it's nothing I care about (such as events), but it's pretty slick.

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 06:22 PM)
MySpace became a total clusterf*** with all the HTML editing you can do on their pages.

 

THIS is exactly what was wrong with MySpace. I could never find anything on anyone's pages, because everyone put them in different areas, or made them look drastically different, it lacked general organization, and became a sloppy/annoying experience.

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QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 9, 2014 -> 07:53 AM)
THIS is exactly what was wrong with MySpace. I could never find anything on anyone's pages, because everyone put them in different areas, or made them look drastically different, it lacked general organization, and became a sloppy/annoying experience.

The auto play music was the worst.

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QUOTE (Jake @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 09:24 PM)
It always seemed to me that was the thing its users liked the most about it. I think the problem was that by its nature, HTML editing or not, it became something that adults would never like...and unfortunately its user base starting approaching adulthood. We're already seeing with Facebook that you can't own a single age demographic across generations when it comes to social networking, it seems.

 

When MySpace was popular, I just started high school and back then, doing all that s*** to your page was awesome.

 

But eventually it got too crazy.

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QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 9, 2014 -> 08:34 AM)
I used to use the free version of LogMeIn. However, it is no longer free. I mainly used it to remotely access my Grandma's computer (Win XP) and occasionally my Mac at home.

 

Does anyone know any free alternatives?

 

MS has a Remote Desktop app.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?...oft.rdc.android

 

It obviously won't work for your Mac though.

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 9, 2014 -> 05:37 PM)
MS has a Remote Desktop app.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?...oft.rdc.android

 

It obviously won't work for your Mac though.

 

Apple has their own variation built in, and it can also run VNC, or anything else unix allows. Microsoft makes a remote desktop client for it but not a server.

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re: my issues sharing my Wi-Fi, a recent update to my wireless card's driver has taken care of things quite well.

 

In other news, I've had several pleasant interactions with Lenovo's customer service recently. At one point, I had gone through a "buy computer, changed mind, buy another" and they dealt very well with the whole order cancellation, etc. process. Of course, this wasn't all that surprising since they were still in the business of getting my money at that point.

 

My girlfriend's Lenovo laptop wouldn't boot up and was making a certain clicking noise, which I recognized to be HDD failure. We called, waited no time at all, and had a very friendly tech support rep. About 15 minutes later, we were in the car, heading to FedEx where they were paying to ship the unit to their nearest warehouse. We had it back with a new HDD less than two weeks later.

 

On my new Lenovo desktop, I noticed my "a" key on the wireless keyboard had quit working. I went and reinstalled drivers, did all kinds of cleaning, taking off and reattaching the key...to no avail. Every other key worked. I spent about 5 minutes on the phone with tech support again and they had a replacement to me 3 days later, which comes with a return label with which I'll return the defective part free of cost (beyond the time it takes to drive to a FedEx location in the city that houses their international HQ). I've been using my BT keyboard that I usually use with my tablet in the meantime.

 

We tend to only have anecdotes to evaluate different OEMs and we usually only hear the bad stories, so I thought I'd share.

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