Tennessee’s Broadband Adoption Outpaces National Average

Nashville, TN – Today, Connected Tennessee announced the release of the second edition of Tennessee’s Technology Trends, which reveals that today, one half of all Tennesseans have broadband service at home, up from 43% just six months ago. The two-part assessment tracks the use and impact of computers, the Internet and broadband technology among Tennessee residents and businesses. The survey was first conducted in July 2007 and six months later in January 2008, with the results revealing an impressive increase in broadband adoption – especially in the rural areas of Tennessee where Connected Tennessee is focusing the majority of its attention.

Ø Today, one half of all Tennesseans have broadband service at home, up from 43% in July. This is a growth rate of over
16% in just six months.

This past Thursday was an East Tennessee geek’s dream day, with the first annual Lakeway Technology Summit being held at Walters State in Morristown. The summit was a huge success and offered up a wide range of learning sessions and vendor booths.

The Lakeway Information Technology Alliance (LITA) sponsored the Tech Summit. LITA volunteers spent countless hours preparing for this year’s event. Their members worked hard to make the event one that could be learned from and one that would make you want to return to future events.

The keynote speakers at the event were Mark Weston, Education Strategist for Dell Inc. and Craig B. Luigart, CIO for Veteran’s Health Administration.

Mark Weston has spent the past 33 years working to enhance education for all students. He specializes in the profound improvement of education through the merger of educational practices and technology. During that time, he served in key positions at Dell, Apple Computer, Education Commission of the States, US Department of Education, US House of Representatives, National Conference of State Legislatures; and several school districts in Iowa.

This week I wanted to give you some tips on finding the best computer training. After doing some research online I came across a guy named Chris Bryant. Chris gave me some information that should prove to be very valuable. I hope you enjoy this article from Chris and if you do please check out the website he recommends at the end of the column.
Starting Your Computer Career: More Questions To Ask A Tech School Before Writing The Check
If the school offers a placement service, ask to talk to the people working in that department and ask them how they go about placing graduates. Most schools offer a list of companies that they’ve placed students with. Get this list and start calling some of these companies. Ask to speak to their HR department, and ask them for their opinion of the school. Even if they don’t say a lot, their tone of voice can speak volumes.

Most people who have used the Internet, or even know
what it is know what Google is. But most people don’t
know what exactly it is that Google does.

Or rather what makes Google do what it does. Google
searches are able to be so accurate because of Latent
Semantic Indexing.

Latent Semantic Indexing allows a search engine to
determine what a page is about by searching for one or
more keywords selected by the user.

It adds an important step to the document index
process. LSI records keywords that a document contains
as well as examines the document collection as a
whole.

By placing importance on related words, or words in
similar positions, LSA has a net effect of making the
value of pages lower so they only match specific
terms.

Is your E-mail inbox driving you nuts? Every time you delete one, do ten more show up? Are you finding it impossible to reply to every e-mail you receive? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re not alone!

Some people have gone so far as to declare e-mail bankruptcy — they delete every single e-mail in their inbox and start over. If that’s not you want to do, then here are 10 tips to reduce e-mail overload.

1. Try a good spam filter.
Even if it saves you just 05 minutes a day, that adds up to over 30.5 hours a year.

2. Cancel subscriptions to unwanted mailing lists.
Be careful with this one! Trying to opt-out or unsubscribe from spam e-mails will only alert the spammer that they have a REAL address. Also, make sure you check the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” box when purchasing items online.

Many high-quality home cinemas are put together from
component pieces that are purchased separately in order to
give the home cinema enthusiast the best combination of
equipment with regards to cost.

It is possible to buy everything you need to set up your
home cinema in one convenient box.

This will usually include a set of speakers in order to get
the surround sound effect, an amplifier and tuner in order
to adjust the volume and select video sources and sometimes
even a DVD player.

Even though these kits fall far short when you compare it
to a home cinema that is custom-built, you have to admit
that they are an inexpensive, easy to set up solution. You
only have to add a TV and some movies in order to have a
simple home theater.

Have you ever trudged through the mall, going into store after store looking for just the right birthday gift for your best friend? Or, have you ever tried to find an article of clothing in a particular color shade, only to be told over and over, “Sorry, we don’t have that in stock.”? How about a popular book, DVD movie or music CD that you just have to have, but to your dismay, every store you check has sold out of the title?

Maybe you are buying a wedding gift for your cousin. She wants a certain silverware pattern, and so far you’ve had no luck in finding it. In desperation, you haul out the Yellow Pages and call each store listed that you think might have the elusive pattern, but again, you are out of luck. Or maybe your favorite curling iron or electric razor has stopped working . You go back to the store where you purchased it, only to find that they no longer sell that particular brand.

When you think of freelancing, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? You probably think of a writer, novelist or journalist right off hand.

That is primarily because for centuries, the only real job you could have as a freelancer had to do with your mastery of the written word.

But we are no longer stuck back in the early nineteen hundreds – no we are in the twenty first century, a time that appreciates freelancers in hundreds of different jobs.

Sure, you have probably heard of freelance photographers too, you may have even met one or two in your life, but what about freelance software designers, freelance medical billing specialists, or even freelance scientific researchers?

These are all jobs that have recently begun to see massive growth in their respective fields because more and more people are realizing that they can make far more money working for themselves as freelancers than they ever could solely from working under the wing of their previous employer.

Some time you just get tired of seeing the same ol generic operating system settings. So if Windows really is more powerful than a locomotive, why does it look more like Jimmy Olsen than like the Man of Steel? From title bar to taskbar, the default Windows interface conceals more useful quick-change options than an old-fashioned telephone booth. And XP’s new Luna look takes this secretiveness to new levels. At least the dumbing down is undoable. These steps give Windows more looks than there are streetlights in Metropolis.
All Versions: Begin With the Start Menu You can customize the Start menu to add and remove programs, folders, documents, and other items. In Windows Me, 2000, or XP with the Classic Start menu, right-click the taskbar and choose Properties. In XP, click the Start Menu tab and then click Customize. In Windows 2000 and Me, click the Advanced tab. In All Versions, look for the scrolling list of check boxes at the bottom of the dialog box. The Administrative Tools menu can appear on the Start, Programs menu (XP and Windows 2000). You can hide the Run command (XP and Me) or make the Favorites menu go away. Check boxes that begin with the word ‘Expand’ let you create cascading menus out of such otherwise-static Start menu items as Control Panel, Network& Dial-Up Connections, My Documents, and My Printers (depending on your version of Windows). When you’re done, click OK as many times as needed.
To alter Windows XP’s Start menu, right-click the Start button and choose Properties. Click Customize under the Start Menu tab and select the Advanced tab. In the scrolling list labeled ‘Start menu items’, you can hide or reveal Search, My Music, and other items, or you can make Control Panel, My Computer, Network Connections, My Documents, and related items appear as icons, as a cascading menu, or not at all. Just make your choices and click OK twice.
XP: Pin Em Up The applications that appear on the left side of Windows XP’s new Start menu (above All Programs) are those you launch most often. You may also have an icon for Internet access, another for e-mail, and others above the list of frequently used applications. Microsoft calls that grouping the ‘pinned items list’. Icons for these applications don’t disappear when you stop using the programs or when you use them less frequently. To make an application or document appear on the pinned items list, open Explorer to the folder where the application is located and right-click the application’s .exe file (it’s most likely in a directory for that application within Program Files). Or right-click any shortcut to the application in Explorer, on the desktop, or on the Start menu or one of its submenus; and choose Pin to Start menu. To pin a shortcut to a document or folder to this list, drag the icon for the document or folder to the Start menu button.
Bonus tip: You can put Internet Explorer, MSN Explorer, Hotmail, or Outlook Express on the pinned items list by right-clicking the Start button, choosing Properties, clicking the Customize button, and making the appropriate selections in the ‘Show on Start menu’ panel. The Internet and e-mail options available here vary from system to system, however.
XP: Rework Your Frequent Apps List To alter the list of applications XP shows on the Start menu, right-click the Start button, choose Properties, and click Customize. Under Programs in the resulting dialog box, type a number between 0 and 30 (or select a number with the arrow keys). This might increase the Start menu’s height. To start over, simply click Clear List.
XP: A Classic Look As the list of frequently used applications on Windows XP’s Start menu changes, you may lose the ability to jump to an item by pressing the first letter in its name. To revert to the Classic Start menu, right-click the Start button, choose Properties, select Classic Start menu, and click OK.
XP: Gimme Back My Icons The Windows XP desktop has but a single icon: Recycle Bin. (If you installed XP over your old version of Windows, your old icons remain on the desktop.) If you miss the default desktop icons of Windows past, you can have them back in a trice. Right-click the desktop and choose Properties, click the Desktop tab, and click the Customize Desktop button. Under Desktop Icons, check the box for each icon that you want on your desktop (My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and/or Internet Explorer); then click OK twice.
XP: Tidy Up Your Desktop Windows XP also helps you keep your desktop spiffy. The Desktop Cleanup Wizard locates and offers to clean off desktop shortcuts you haven’t used lately.
Right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Click first the Desktop tab and then the Customize Desktop button. Under Desktop Cleanup, select Clean Desktop Now. In the Desktop Cleanup Wizard, click Next. The Wizard dialog box lists the desktop shortcuts that you haven’t used in the last 60 days. Uncheck the ones you want to keep on the desktop, and click Next. Click Finish to acknowledge the final list of shortcuts to be swept away.
Windows puts them in a desktop folder called (appropriately) Unused Desktop Shortcuts. If you ever want to retrieve a shortcut, just drag it out of this folder. If you’re the forgetful type, check Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 daysto have the software prompt you. Unfortunately, the wizard works only on shortcuts–not on folders, applications, or documents.
All Versions: Drop Anchor on Media Player When you apply a skin to Windows Media Player 7 or later (choose View, Taskbar, Skin Chooser), a small Anchor Window appears in the lower right corner that reverts to full mode when you double-click its center button. But you can switch modes simply by pressing Ctrl-1 (full mode) or Ctrl-2 (compact or skin mode). To drop Anchor, choose Tools, Options, click the Player tab, uncheck When in compact mode, always display anchor window (version 7) or Display anchor window when in skin mode (version 8), and click OK. Alternatively, with Media Player 8, click inside the Anchor Window and choose Hide Anchor Window from the pop-up menu.
This should have your OS looking like it belongs to YOU and YOU only. No more generic user interface for your machine. You really are the master of your domain. Hope this helps. Now get out there and use your new OS Super Powers.
If you are experiencing a slow problem prone machine or need physical pc repairs, networking, consulting, upgrades or more please give me a call at 423-613-5590 or visit www.PlainTechTalk.com.