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I was recently introduced to BatchGEO (batchgeo.com).  It is a mapping service which will plot multiple locations on a map based on address information compiled on a spreadsheet.  The home page allows you to paste records directly on the page or to download a spreadsheet template to import later.  With your data loaded on the web page, you can click the Map Now button and all the locations will be plotted and displayed on a map.  You can save the map and a link to the map can be shared with other folks.  A bonus is when the map is emailed and opened on an Android mobile device, driving directions are available.

I was wanting to create an ad-hoc network on a Windows 8 system, but discovered the “Create an ad hoc network” feature available on prior Windows OS systems is not available on Windows 8.  However, I found in Window 8 you can use the Network Shell (netsh) utility to create a virtual wireless network (WLAN).

1. First you need to verify your network interface supports virtualization.  Open a command prompt (with administrative privileges) and run “netsh wlan show drivers” – look to see if “Hosted network supported” is “Yes”
2. Enter the following command to configure the wireless network “netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<name> key=<password>
3. Now start the hosted network by running “netsh wlan start hostednetwork”

Data mining (looking for useful or interesting trends in massive amounts of data) is becoming more accessible to individuals as huge databases are being brought online by companies such as Google and Amazon. A good example is the Google Ngram Viewer (https://books.google.com/ngrams). It is a front end search engine that queries Google’s database of public domain books going back several hundred years. You can search for individual words and phrases (e.g. When did the term robot come into common use? According to the Ngram Viewer, is was in the mid-1920s). However, the tool also supports more complex queries. This article discusses some them: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/bigger-better-google-ngrams-brace-yourself-for-the-power-of-grammar/263487/ An interesting query in the article uses basic math in the query to compare how often (as percentages) the term “United States” was used as a singular noun versus a plural noun. In the 1800s, there was a significant shift following the Civil War where the United States became more commonly referred to as a single nation rather than a collection of individual states. As is typical with this type of “big data”, the possibilities are endless.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) jointly issued a statement to alert financial institutions Microsoft will discontinue extended support for Windows XP effective April 8, 2014.  After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide secruity patches or support for the Windows XP Operating System.  To read the Joint Statement, visit http://ithandbook.ffiec.gov/media/154161/final_ffiec_statement_on_windows_xp.pdf 

If you want to copy Office ribbon customization to another system you can export them and then import them through office. [more]

Export a customized ribbon:

You can export your ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar customizations into a file that can be imported on another computer.

1. Click the File tab
2. Under Help, click Options
3. Click Customize Ribbon
4. In the Customize the Ribbon window, click Import/Export
5. Click Export all customizations

 Import a customized ribbon:

You can import customization files to replace the current layout of the ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar.  By being able to import the customization, you can keep Microsoft Office programs looking the same from computer to computer.  Note: When you import a ribbon customization file, you lose all prior ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar customizations.

1. Click the File tab
2. Under Help, click Options
3. Click Customize Ribbon
4. In the Customize the Ribbon window, click Import/Export
5. Click Import customization file

See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/export-or-import-a-customized-ribbon-HA101850649.aspx#_Toc263250006 for additional details.

Microsoft has started to roll out new functionality for touch screen devices in windows 8.  On my personal Windows 8 system, I noticed I had updates to apply.  I applied the updates and my desktop was slow coming back up, somehow this new functionality got invoked and my computer started to narrate my keystrokes.  I was briefly caught off guard until some research uncovered this new Microsoft feature.

There is a neat feature on the iPad that will assist in limiting the access for very young people and helping very old people use the iPad. The feature allows you to limit the buttons available on an application and is accessed through the Settings->General->Accessibility->Guided Access. Turn Guided Access “on” in this screen, then start the application you wish restricted. A “triple click” option then brings you to a screen that allows you to identify areas of the screen you wish to be inoperable… then “start” this shell application. [more]

I used this to assist my 96 year old mother-in-law… so she can read books in the Audible application… without getting into screens that she doesn’t understand. This really helps her quality of life… to be able to listen to audiobooks, and my quality of life... not having to run to her rescue to stop the book so she can do to dinner or sleep!!

Crucial M500 SSDs support self-encrypting drive (SED) technology which allows BitLocker for Windows 8 to simply be used for encryption key management rather than software-based encryption.  Out of the box, the drive encrypts all written data and decrypts all read data - and functions like a non-SED drive until key management software like Windows 8 (and Server 2012) BitLocker is used. [more]

When you turn BitLocker on using Windows 8 and a compliant SSD like the M500, you don't have to wait for the whole disk to be rewritten and it's encrypted.  Thus, you can encrypt the whole drive in a couple of minutes or less.  As far as BitLocker and Windows is concerned, it functions just like traditional non-SED drives do regarding pre-boot passwords, recovery keys, etc. 

An interesting spec is Crucial states their SSDs are designed to support 72TB total bytes written (TBW) - which is equal to 40GB per day for 5 years.  It stands to reason that if you don't have to rewrite every byte of an SSD when you use BitLocker to encrypt or decrypt the whole drive, it should help the life expectancy of the drive. 

So, since the drive I/O specs include the hardware encryption overhead, you lose no performance whatsoever when you implement whole disk encryption using BitLocker for Windows 8 on these drives. 

A very basic description of Crucial M500 encryption can be found at

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD-Knowledge/An-introduction-to-the-encryption-features-of-the-M500/ta-p/128272 

More specs are available (since this is a Micron drive) from:

http://www.micron.com/~/media/Documents/Products/Data%20Sheet/SSD/m500_2_5_ssd.pdf

I frequently use my phone to take pictures of equipment, usually model number and serial numbers.  The other day I thought it would be nice to import those pics into an app that would allow me to search on the text in the picture, and possibly perform a full OCR.  It turns out that Evernote can do the search function but unfortunately not the full OCR (yet).  Use the Evernote app to take the picture or import an existing pic from your photo library.  As long as it is a JPG or PNG the Evernote servers will process the image to make it text searchable from any of the clients.