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November 10, 2012 Windows 8 sports a new interface termed ‘Modern UI’, which was previously called the ‘Metro UI’, but the title has since been changed due to rumoured legal reasons. PHOTO: NOMAN ANSARI I didn’t expect  Windows 8  to be very good. Why? Because Windows 7 was excellent, and as longtime Microsoft consumers understand, the Redmond based software giant hasn’t released two quality iterations of Windows in a row. Not until now, that is. Windows 8 has been a pleasant surprise. It looks quite gorgeous, runs lightning fast, and best of all, is rock solid. For the $15 upgrade price I purchased it for here in Pakistan, it is an absolute steal for an officially licensed operating system. Over the years, whenever Microsoft has tried to take revolutionary steps with Windows, the initial results have invariably been rocky, with Windows 95 and Windows Vista having had especially poor launches. Meanwhile, some of the best versions of the operating sys...

Whether it’s a high-profile tech company like Yahoo!, or a more established conglomerate like GE or Home Depot, large companies have a hard time keeping their best and brightest in house. Recently, GigaOM discussed the troubles at Yahoo! with a flat stock price, vested options for some of their best people, and the apparent free flow of VC dollars luring away some of their best people to do the start-up thing again. Yet, Yahoo!, GE, Home Depot, and other large established companies have a tremendous advantage in retaining their top talent and don’t. I’ve seen the good and the bad things that large companies do in relation to talent management. Here’s my Top Ten list of what large companies do to lose their top talent : 1. Big Company Bureaucracy. This is probably the #1 reason we hear after the fact from disenchanted employees. However, it’s usually a reason that masks the real reason. No one likes rules that make no sense. But, when top talent is complaining along these lines, i...

Startups working on a technology called Hadoop have become talent magnets in Silicon Valley, hiring top engineers away from the likes of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook. And they've become a popular investment for ex-Cisco execs turned VCs, too.  Hadoop is software for managing "big data." It makes it cheap and easy to store massive bits of information and then sift through it to find interesting trends. For instance, Google's Flu Trends uses Hadoop to see where flu outbreaks are by watching where people are doing flu-related searches. Most of these folks could have their picks of startups. Why Hadoop? Hadoop lets companies build applications that were never before possible. It works with a mind-boggling amount of stored data -- petabytes  -- and runs on cheap hardware. In the past, applications with data this big needed a supercomputer to process and a big network to move the data around. Now, apps that analyze trends, predict the weather, sift through so...

To add a Tick symbol in MS Office Excel, Word or PowerPoint , you need to go to INSERT > SYMBOL from the toolbar and select the Font Wingdings, in the character code box Enter number 252 Here you will get both the simple Tick and a Ticked box symbol. Cross Symbol and Crossed box symbol are also present there and can by inserted if desired

Windows 7 has introduced a number of improvements that have without a doubt made it easier to work with than any of its predecessors. The new taskbar along with a slightly tweaked glass look gives it a fresh feel in itself that tempts the user to explore it further. It was developed while keeping the customer feedback in mind and has, in short, made everything quite simple. Faster Startup and Shutdown times With Windows7, your computer (notebook/PC) will start up, shutdown and resume from standby much faster than ever before. Windows 7 Libraries One of the new features of the upcoming Microsoft operating system are libraries which basically is a collection of folders on the computer system. A Library can be treated like a folder with a group of subfolders inside it. The important thing to remember is that the subfolders are not actually stored in the library. They are just made to seem as though they are. Each library has some default contents, but you can change these, and also creat...