Technophiles

By Gregory Coan

For an IT guy, I have a pretty easy job. I’m part of a team of four, and I am the main Apple “guru.” While my compatriots spend their days cleaning viruses off staff PC’s and trying to figure out why the Microsoft email system isn’t functioning, I help students and staff produce videos, transform photos, edit artistic sound pieces – in short, I help people get things done.

BY GREGORY COAN

This week I got to check out a nice addition to Netflix, the Roku set-top home delivery box. Think of it as Netflix movies on-demand without the hassles of DVDs, envelopes, and stopping at a mailbox. The Roku box is the first entry in this arena for Netflix and according to the company there will be other devices coming in the future as well. Keep in mind the Roku box works with Netflix and Netflix only. So what does it add to your Netflix experience and is it worth the $99 price tag?

You saw the commercials during the Superbowl -- “Anesthesia, ON,” and “Door, OPEN,” so you know that Microsoft has now made its way into the automobile industry. Recently, the very helpful Sharon Dash, Sales and Leasing Consultant of Paul Cerame Ford-Lincoln-Mercury on New Halls Ferry Road, invited us to test drive a Ford Focus with Microsoft Sync installed.

BY GREGORY COAN

I never wanted an iPhone. Well wait … I’m an IT Geek, of course I WANTED an iPhone but I wasn’t about to pay three or four hundred dollars for a phone. I already had a Motorola phone with AT&T and a laptop handy most of the time, so it all seemed a bit redundant to me. And I don’t really like talking on the phone.

Did you know that the first computer was designed to function like the human brain? Loosely speaking, in your brain you have programs (talents/skills), RAM (short-term memory), and a hard drive (long-term memory). You even have a “tree” structure in your head, like a computer, which explains why some things take longer to remember than others—you have to find it in the right subfolder of the right subfolder of the right folder. Now, in a human, they say the memory is the first thing to go. In a computer, however, you can always improve your memory.

BY DEBORAH GILJUM

You may have heard rumors about Office 2007 being completely different.

They’re true.

Even though it’s 2008, many people have not yet upgraded to Office 2007, but that is hardly unusual. For most, Microsoft Office software primarily means Word, Outlook and Excel. Those who once worked in WordPerfect, switched to Microsoft Word and then upgraded to Word 2003 probably have a sinking feeling at the thought of upgrading again to Office 2007. It often seems that as soon as you really master a program, they change it on you.