| The flag of Nova Scotia was flown for 155 years before it was formally adopted; it was only formally adopted after an 11 year-old girl’s school research project revealed that at no point in the preceding century and a half had the Canadian province actually voted on the matter.  | |
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Today's Tech Term
Zero Suppression | |
| Zero Suppression refers to the removal of redundant zeroes from a number so that its legibility is greatly improved or to deal with storage, page, or display space constraints. Two examples of Zero Suppression are: 00093752 becomes 93752
54.194400000 becomes 54.1944 | |
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What We're Reading from Around the Web | |
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| Intelligent machines capable of speech are often the stuff of futuristic sci-fi movies, but you can turn any computer into a chatty Cathy. Even though we aren't yet at the stage with computers where they can interact with us like people, there are a few tools and simple scripts we can write to make any computer that is running Windows speak to us. | |
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| Java tries to install the terrible Ask Toolbar and other obnoxious junk — sorry, “sponsored software” — when you install it. Worse yet, Java bundles this junkware with security updates. This registry hack tells Java to never install that stuff. | |
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| The extremely useful Snap feature — introduced as “Aero Snap” in Windows 7 — is much-improved in Windows 10. Snap Assist, 2×2 snapping, and vertical snap features help make you more productive on the desktop. | |
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| Last year, Google announced plans to lock down Chrome so that extensions can’t be side-loaded by crapware installers. Sadly they’ve found a way to trick users into installing lousy extensions, although in this case these spyware and adware extensions do exist in the Chrome Web Store. | |
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| iOS 8 added support for third-party keyboards. Now iPhone and iPad users can finally swap out their keyboards and use some of the same keyboards available on Android devices. Swipe-to-type is now an option for iPhone users, too. | |
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| It’s a tale nearly as old as computers themselves. You pull your trusty old video game console or vintage 1980s computer and it’s yellow, greenish, or some combination there of instead of the gray or beige it once was. What gives? Why does your old tech turn yellow? And further, what can you do about it? | |
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| The default folder-merge behavior in Mac OS X is to erase the existing folder, deleting all its files rather than offering to merge them intelligently. Windows and Linux file managers have offered folder-merging for decades, but Macs still don’t. | |
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| Flushing your DNS cache can be a useful tool to resolve any host connection errors that you may experience with Google Chrome or other browsers. It is very simple to do and can be done directly in Chrome or from an Elevated Command Prompt window in Windows 7 or 8. | |
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| A new focus on the desktop brings new keyboard shortcuts for desktop users, so rejoice! Here are all the new keyboard shortcuts you need to know in the Windows 10 Technical Preview. | |
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