That was Then... This is Now

When you're in the market for a new TV the brand name can be a factor. But it's not everything because each manufacturer makes multiple lines of products. There are budget-friendly TVs with low price tags and performance. There are midrange models. And there are expensive high-end televisions with exceptional performance. If you simply purchase a "Samsung" or "Sony” or any other model just because it’s on sale, you really have no idea exactly what kind of TV you're buying, or how good it is. But the “SKU” or Stock Keeping Unit, can tell you lot about the TV you are considering. Television SKU’s are long, complex strings of letters and numbers that identify features of each model. They can tell you the product line, screen size, and even individual retailer variants of TV’s. And they're the key to decoding just how good that TV really is.  Will Greenwald writing for PCMag has created a helpful guide to decoding the SKU’s of different TV manufacturers . At ...

As everyone knows, the year 2020 has emerged as one of the most challenging in our lifetimes. In just six months, the world has endured a pandemic that has spurred a global economic crisis. As societies reopen, it’s apparent that the economy will not be what it was before COVID-19. One of the things necessary to begin a safe and successful economic recovery is greater access to the digital skills required to fill new job opportunities. And one of the keys to a genuinely inclusive recovery are programs to provide easier access to digital skills for people hardest hit by job losses, including those with lower incomes, women, and underrepresented minorities. To address this need, Microsoft is launching a Global Skills Initiative aimed at bringing increased digital skills to over 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year. This initiative will combine existing and new resources from LinkedIn, GitHub, and Microsoft and will be centered around three primary areas of activity: (1) The...

Last June, the FDA authorized the use of “pooled testing” for identifying COVID-19 infections. The method allows up to four swabs to be tested at once. A “bundled sample.” This strategy is expected to expand testing to larger sections of the population. If the sample comes back positive, then all the individuals in that sample will need to be tested separately.  If, however, the sample comes back clean, that’s four people who do not need to be tested further, saving public health officials time and money. The FDA said it expects pooled testing to allow virus identification with fewer tests, which means more tests could be run at once, fewer testing supplies would be consumed and patients could likely receive the results more quickly. This strategy will be most efficient in areas where the outbreak is under control, meaning where only a small percentage of test subjects are expected to be infected, the FDA acknowledged. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, ...

With almost everyone working from home now and participating in online meetings at work or school, sharing your desktop or being able to record what you are working for later use on is a necessary skill. Many people already know how to do this of course, but if you don’t, Lance Whitney, writing in PCMag.com , explains how to use the Game Bar . Good article. I picked up a couple things from it. Just remember “Windows Key + G” if you have a PC. He also explains how to record the screen using a Mac

Like almost all other colleges and universities, Marian was forced to go 100% “online” in order to finish the Spring 2020 semester because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although neither I nor most of my students had trouble adapting, many other faculty had difficulty making the transition. One of our “advantages” was that my university had an “early” Spring Break so when we returned the week of March 9 we were able to anticipate the change and plan accordingly. When we went “live” Monday the 16th, we were better prepared. The hang-up for many of my colleagues simply was that most traditional courses have not been designed with an “online presence” in mind. This summer as our university gets ready for the Fall (as of now we are planning to conduct classes as usual) all faculty have been required to take an online seminar involving Designing for Canvas. In traditional classes we use Canvas for distributing materials and for grading. During the second half of the semester relied on Web...

It is theoretically possible to become invisible to cameras. But considering recent events, will this idea catch on in the future? There is a terrific article published in Ars Technica which appeared in my Apple news feed this morning. Very much worth reading. Especially if you are stuck at home as most of us are now. Many things to think about for when this coronavirus pandemic is finally over and we return to “normal” life. Author Katie Cox states: Right now, you're more than likely spending the vast majority of your time at home. Someday, however, we will all be able to leave the house once again and emerge, blinking, into society to work, travel, eat, play, and congregate in all of humanity's many bustling crowds. The world, when we eventually enter it again, is waiting for us with millions of digital eyes—cameras, everywhere, owned by governments and private entities alike. Pretty much every state out there has some entity collecting license plate data from mil...

The coronavirus outbreak is disrupting business hours, supply chains, trade shows, and conferences. And it will continue to disrupt many other aspects of life and work as long as uncertainty about its spread continues. It has forced companies to cancel travel plans and require individuals to work from home. Effective remote work requires a rethinking of collaboration strategies. Sustained remote work, which we are now facing for who knows how long, requires different tactics than occasional telecommuting. Daniel W. Rasmus, author of “ Management by Design ” and “ Listening to the Future ,” writing in eWEEK, has compiled a list of 10 actions to take when considering remote work: No. 1: Decide on which collaboration tools to use. No. 2: Simplify the collaboration toolset. No. 3: Select which tools to use to support which processes. No. 4: Get to know your collaboration apps. No. 5: Document escalation and conflict remediation approaches. No. 6: Decide where content will go....