Daily Archives: April 11, 2022
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The Last Langalist
ISSUE 19.15 • 2022-04-11 EDITORIAL
By Will Fastie
Fred’s retiring.
I don’t know where to start, but people keep telling me I should start from the beginning. For me, that was about 30 years ago, when I visited Fred at CMP in search of an editing job after PC Tech Journal unexpectedly shuttered. We knew each other by reputation, of course, but had never met in person — remarkable because we both endured the same, endless trade shows, and most editors knew one another.
He didn’t hire me. I forgive him.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.15.0, 2022-04-11).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Shutdown.exe /f
LANGALIST
By Fred Langa
As this weekly column reaches the end of its 25-year run, it’s a bittersweet moment for me.
But in large part because of you, dear reader, there’s far more sweet than bitter!
Thank you!Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.15.0, 2022-04-11).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
What technology will run your life a few years from now?
SILICON
By Brian Livingston
“My interest is in the future, because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there,” said Charles Kettering, the head of research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947.
I’m sure his statement is true. Time travel into the future isn’t science fiction — we all do it every day at the usual speed. But what kind of a future will it be, and can we head off the worst aspects of it?
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.15.0, 2022-04-11).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
DockFolders — it’s the pretty things …
FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT
By Deanna McElveen
I would like to start out with an apology to those I have neglected this year. I have been so nerdy with the software, and then I remember that some of you just want pretty things.
No worries! I have what you need! Pretty and useful! DockFolders by Silon Systems is beta freeware (you know I have to be the first to try anything) that creates a gorgeous, curved folder dock/menu on your desktop. The program works on Windows 7, 10, and 11.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.15.0, 2022-04-11).
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Is this the end of the road for Windows 7?
ON SECURITY
By Susan Bradley
Vendors start to draw the line.
Ahh, Windows 7. I remember when you first came out. I remember when people hated — truly hated — your User Account Control (UAC) system that required administrator approval any time they wanted to do something that had been perfectly normal in Windows XP. I remember that UAC was so annoying that Apple lampooned it (more like harpooned it) in several of its famous Mac-versus-PC TV ads.
I went so far as having a cartoon made, urging people to “zip up” their UAC setting rather than disabling it, because I saw both users and administrators removing the UAC prompt entirely. But that represented a lowering of security for Windows 7. I thus urged people not to disable it, despite the annoyance. I told them to zip the slider all the way to the top. Remember the slider?
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.15.0, 2022-04-11).