Many people think the difference between screws and bolts is that screws are driven with a screwdriver, and bolts have hexagonal heads. Not so. The actual difference is that bolts engage a threaded counterpart, generally a nut, while screws make their own threads.
Most laptop computers have a touchpad centered under the spacebar. And most laptop computer users operate the touchpad with their index finger and with practice it becomes as easy or even easier than using a mouse or trackball. There is another way Continue reading Touchpad
If you are writing from
scratch, watch the screen. You’ll see immediately when you make mistakes. When you do make a mistake, again, never even glance at the keys. Fix your mistake and proceed. You’ll learn where the [Backspace] key is very soon!
You can hide a ‘secret’ in email, web pages or in any sort of text document by selecting the same color for your text as the background color – generally white. The message will be invisible unless the user highlights the white area.
Drag your pointer over the area below with the left button down to see a hidden message.
If you find it difficult to read a message because the highlighted color is too similar, you can copy and paste it into Notepad, Textedit, or your favorite text program.
If you have a Mac computer, you can hold down the [Command] key and tap the following keys to achieve some tasks that otherwise require reaching for the mouse. If you have a Windows or Linux computer, these are the same but you use the [Ctrl] key instead.
[A] – Select All
[B] – Toggle Bold Text
[C] – Copy to Clipboard
[D] – Create a Bookmark (in web browsers)
[F] – Find
[I] – Toggle Italic Text
[p] – Print
[S] – Save File
[V] – Paste
[X] – Cut
[Z] – Undo
I found these instructions in a manual about a computer programming language. Perhaps because of wording like this there are not more programmers than there are:
Look at the first compare of the second group of compare statements. The expression “r != s” will evaluate as a “true” since “r” was set to 0.0 above, so the result will be a non-zero value, probably 1. Even though the two variables that are compared are “float” variables, the result will be of type “integer.” There is no explicit variable to which it will be assigned so the result of the compare is an implied integer. Finally the resulting number, 1 in this case, is assigned to the integer variable “x”. If double equal signs were used, the phantom value, namely 1, would be compared to the value of “x”, but since the single equal sign is used, the value 1 is simply assigned to “x”, as though the statement were not in parentheses.
Finally, since the result of the assignment in the parentheses was non-zero, the entire expression is evaluated as “true”, and “z” is assigned the value of 1000. Thus we accomplished two things in this statement, we assigned “x” a new value, probably 1, and we assigned “z” the value of 1000. We covered a lot in this statement so you may wish to review it before going on. The important things to remember are the values that define “true” and “false”, and the fact that several things can be assigned in a conditional statement. The value assigned to “x” was probably a 1 but different compilers may assign a different value as long as it is non-zero.
Continuing on to the fourth example of the third group we find three assignment statements in the compare part of the “if” statement. If you understood the above discussion, you should have no difficulty understanding that the three variables are assigned their respective new values, and the result of all three are non-zero, leading to a resulting value of “TRUE.”
Some of your author’s code for a picture puzzle program written about ten years ago.
Check your major appliances for dust or dirt – like the coils on the back of your refrigerator, behind the dryer, etc. This layer of crud reduces the ability to transfer heat, requiring more energy and therefore costs more money.
With your laptop computer, gently blowing the dust out of the cooling vents can save you money another way also: Once clogged, the computer can overheat and die.
Attributed to Ben Franklin:
* Franklin Stove
* Bifocal eyeglasses
* The discovery that lightning is electricity
* First public U.S. library
* First U.S. Post Office
* Poor Richard’s Almanac
* Better street lights
* First pavement in America
* First crop insurance
* First playing cards made in America
* First willow trees planted in America
* First public hospital
* Discovery and charting of ocean currents
* Acquisition of funds to win independence for America
* Invention of artificial fertilizer
Get an old yard sale typewriter or an out-of-date computer for your kids. The little ones will learn the letters by banging them out and the older ones will tend to create stories in order to have something to type.
Learn the pros and cons of the Dvorak Keyboard Layout, how much faster you can enter text, how easy it is to set up in Windows and OS X, some celebrities who use it, and how to start with training and practice.
When a gas pipeline crossing the California desert springs a leak, it would normally be hard to find the break. To find the leak easily, the gas companies put a chemical into the gas that arouses the mating instinct in buzzards. They congregate around the area of a leak, making it easy to spot.
Most of us have come to think of Benjamin Franklin as a worldly-wise fellow, loved by his associates, and almost super-human in his ability to invent practical solutions. Some of his abilities may have come from his childhood. With 16 brothers and sisters, he probably had to learn to be quick-witted.
It turns out that Continue reading Ben Franklin’s Bifocals
One of the earliest typewriters had a piano keyboard.
What do you suppose wheels were first used for? Carts? Nope, the first wheels were probably potters’ wheels for spinning clay.
Plastic was first made in the year 1868. Until then, everything was made from leather, glass, wood, clay, bone, metals, and other natural materials.
The first car tires were evolved from an invention by John Dunlop, a veterinarian. In those days (1888), doctors and vets had to make their own gloves from liquid rubber. He adopted the technology to make air-filled tires for his son’s tricycle.
One of Leonardo da Vinci’s less known but very effective inventions was a weapon – stink bombs mounted on arrows.
If a man shaves with a razor, he uses more energy than if he uses an electric shaver because of the power required to purify and pump the water through his faucet.
