Diary of a Network Geek

Not all uses for technology are recommended.

Look, I love technology and all the incredible things it can do for us, but even I know that too much reliance on some of it can really be a problem. The potential of augmented reality is pretty awesome, but, like anything, it can go awry. And, I’m sure you’re wondering what that has to do with my regular Fun Stuff on Friday post, right? Well, this week I have a free, short film for you about the upside, and potential downside, of augmented virtual reality “pets” titled Strange Beasts. And, yes, it is fiction, but it’s pretty good especially for being a short. I won’t spoil it by revealing too much, but definitely go check it out.
What else are you going to do to waste time on a break on Friday?

This post originally appeared on Use Your Words!

In this case, I’m talking about nebulae that you make yourself.

Not anything that Dave saw aboard the Discovery or on the other side of the Monolith, but rather a beautiful web-based tool for “drawing” your very own space background. It’s called Neonflames, which is an accurate enough description and it’s really easy to use. Just go to that link, click on one of the big circles of color, then click, hold and drag your mouse over the blank, black screen. What’s left behind in the wake of your cursor is procedurally generated star-filled nebula. Change colors and add as much as you’d like, then you can either click the “Share” button to upload your creation to Imgur.com, or click “Download”, like I did, to save your nebula to your computer so you can share it any way you’d like, or even make it your computer background.
It’s simple, pretty and kind of relaxing on a Friday when you should be working but aren’t.

And, yeah, I know this is a little weak, but I was traveling this past week, so this is the best I’ve got.
Go see Blade Runner 2049 tonight! And I’ll see you next week!

This post originally appeared on Use Your Words.

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Yeah, I know, I’m not really a huge fan of Micro$oft Office either, but, what can you do when it’s become the defacto standard?

Make the most of it!
So, back in the day, the reason I originally got into computers at all was due to writing.  I know, crazy, right?  Well, I discovered how much easier it was to edit documents without having to retype the whole thing and I was hooked.  Then, as I wrote more, I got really into moving whole sentences and paragraphs and, yes, even entire, multi-page sections of text from one part of my work to another.  It was pretty fantastic, really.  In any case, copying and moving text is one of the things that Word is really good for and there’s even a secret feature to make your editing job easier; The Spike.
With the Spike, you can copy or cut multiple sections of text and then paste them all into the same section all at once!  You can even take text from multiple documents and copy it to the Clipboard and then paste it into a new document with the Spike!  How fantastic is that?

So, go check out the link and see how to leverage all that power for yourself.
Enjoy!