PaperKarma Stops Junk Mail with a Snap of a Photo(via @Lifehacker)
iOS/Android/WP7: Nobody likes junk mail, but if you’re too lazy to go through and unsubscribe to everything individually, PaperKarma is a new app that only requires you to take a picture of the offending mail to remove yourself from the junk mail database. PaperKarma works on magazines, catalogs,…
“SHCOOL X-NG” in front of Marte Valle High School, New York City, was first reported by The New York Post, but was apparently missed by both city workers and school personnel for several months.
Tag, You’re It
Microsoft® Tag is a superset of Quick Response (QR) codes. Although Tag provides the same basic function as standard black and white QR codes, it’s a lot more flexible and offers a number of advantages.
One of the obvious differences between Tag barcodes and standard QR codes is that Tag barcodes can be customized and full color, as well a black and white. Tag barcodes are eye-catching. For a quick video showing how Tag can be used, first download the Tag app using your smartphone and scan the Tag on the right.
And in December 2011, Tag became the only platform that lets you create, read, and track Tag barcodes, QR codes, and Near Field Communication (NFC) touchpoints. At last you can delete all of your different QR code reader apps, and have only one app to read any Tag barcode, QR code, or NFC touchpoint.
You can find detailed information about creating Microsoft® Tags, including examples of customized Tags and ideas for using them at the Tag website
TechFleur plans to offer Tag creation and reporting services in the near future and here is the Tag I created so you can add my contact information to your smartphone. Remember to download the Tag app first.
Look for more exciting news about my experiments with Microsoft® Tag in future posts.
Disclaimer: TechFleur receives no compensation from the links in the article above.
Anyone who abuses my contact information with spam or unsolicited offers will be blocked.
This work is copyrighted under a Creative Commons License. Terms of the copyright for work presented on this site are provided in the information pane on the left. All of the content on this site (including all text, graphics, sounds, videos, and other files) is covered under Canadian, U. S. and international copyright and trademark laws by the respective copyright or trademark owners. TechFleurâs content on this site may not be used for any commercial use without express written permission of TechFleur.
Understanding Intention
When writing or editing, we may think we’re communicating clearly, but in fact, we’re expecting our readers to make the same assumptions, conceptual leaps, and understand the same references that we do. In other words, we’re expecting them to understand our intentions — what we mean and not what we say.
Read more in the Original Article.
Mystery of the Disappearing Watermark
Originally, watermarks were faintly visible images or impressions manufactured into paper that identified its maker and/or quality. Today we use digital watermarks to provide an indelible message or identifier on electronic documents. Watermarks are useful because they are subtle and integrate with the contents of the document page. If you simply type the word “Confidential” in a page header or footer, the word can be digitally removed. However, if you apply a watermark of the word “Confidential” as the background on document pages, removing this classification becomes virtually impossible.
You can add a watermark to the pages of an Excel worksheet by inserting a picture field in the center section of the page Header. Sometimes, however, the watermark does not display in Print Preview or when the document is printed. You confirm that the picture field (&[Picture]) is in the page Header, so why doesn’t the watermark appear on the page?
The short video and step-by-step instructions below explain the reason that the watermark is missing and how to solve the problem.
Background
The requirements for your worksheet are: 1) there should be no gridlines, and 2) a “Draft” watermark should print on all pages.
Your worksheet looks fine. The gridlines have been removed by applying the white fill color to the entire worksheet. However, when you check Print Preview the “Draft” watermark you had added to the page Header doesn’t display. You check the page Header and the picture field is still there. So what’s the problem?
Answer: The white fill color you used to hide the gridlines also hides the watermark. Here are the steps to correct the problem:
Step 1: Remove the fill color from the worksheet.
a. Click the Select All button, which is located at the intersection of row 1 and column A.
b. Select “No Fill” in the color picker tool. The gridlines are now visible. When you check Print Preview, you see the watermark.
Step 2: Hide the gridlines on the worksheet.
a. Open the File tab and select Options.
b. In the Excel Options window select Advanced in the navigation area.
c. Scroll down to the area titled “Display options for this worksheet:” and uncheck the “Show gridlines” checkbox.
When you go to the worksheet, the gridlines are hidden, and when you go to Print Preview, the watermark displays.
Disclaimer: TechFleur receives no compensation from the links in the article above.
This work is copyrighted under a Creative Commons License. Terms of the copyright for work presented on this site are provided in the information pane on the left. All of the content on this site (including all text, graphics, sounds, videos, and other files) is covered under Canadian, U. S. and international copyright and trademark laws by the respective copyright or trademark owners. TechFleurâs content on this site may not be used for any commercial use without express written permission of TechFleur.
Finding Commands on the Ribbon in Office 2007 and Office 2010
Cross-post from my main blog.
Microsoft Office Labs, the research arm of the Microsoft Office team, created a tool that should make it a little easier to find the command you need in less time. The Search Commands add-in works for Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Echosign Update Supports E-Signatures for Adobe Reader
Adobe has released a new version of Reader with native EchoSign integration that enables users to sign PDFs inside documents. The update also includes a “Send for Signature” option so users can send their PDFs off to other folks to sign. - Jennifer Van Grove, VentureBeat, January 10, 2012
Organic Storage of Data Using Salmon DNA
Scientists from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have created a “write-once-read-many-times” (WORM) memory device, that combines electrodes, silver nanoparticles, and salmon DNA. - Ben Coxworth, Gizmag, January 6, 2012.
It would seem that this would work for other forms of DNA. Ironic because DNA is already a form of data storage — it stores the information that determines how life forms. Now I’m thinking about how this might not only impact the way that data is stored, but the type and form of data that can be manipulated.
