The Consumer Electronics Show is the largest convention of its kind in the world. It features technology, gadgets and gizmos of every size and variety, from home robotics to security cameras to laptops. There are a few sectors that receive a strong focus, however, and one of them is mobile.

This year’s CES lacked huge new product announcements, yet there were still several technologies demonstrated that look set to change the mobile landscape over the next few years.

Intel’s Smartphone Reference Design

Intel has been attempting to find a place in smartphones, tablets and other small devices for years. The original Atom was in fact aimed at what the company called MIDS – mobile Internet devices. But it turned out that the original Atom drew more power than other solutions, so it ended up in netbooks. Since then, Intel has struggled in this space, but this CES they introduced something new that could change their fortunes. It’s a reference phone design based off an Intel Atom processor that is fully functional and runs Android x86.

This may not seem like an important event, but it is. Previously, Intel was placing the burden of product design largely on its partners. By developing a reference design, Intel is showing hardware manufacturers how to use its latest Atom processors to develop a competitive phone that can run today’s most popular smartphone OS.

And if that wasn’t enough to prove that Intel is finally able to be serious about entering the smartphone market, the company announced two important long-term partnerships. One is with Lenovo, which has already developed an x86 smartphone and is looking to launch it in China this February. The other is with Motorola, which should be launching x86 phones in the fall of 2012.

If Intel and its partners hit their targets we’ll be seeing ARM and x86 designs side-by-side during CES 2013.

Windows 8

This CES there were no major announcements surrounding Windows 8, but there were a number of important steps made towards launch. Intel showed ultrabooks with Windows 8, Nvidia showed a development platform with Tegra 3 running Windows 8, and Microsoft showed numerous demos of Windows 8 features in action.

It’s clear that the hardware manufacturers are excited about Windows 8. And why shouldn’t they be? The new operating system will begin an inevitable integration between mobile devices and more traditional PCs. Apple has already started down this road, but if Windows 8 is released when expected, Microsoft will easily take the lead.

Intel has already hinted at the innovation that Windows 8 could allow. Their ultrabook press conference included a number of convertible tablet designs. The best, in my opinion, is a laptop with a sliding display hinge that can easily be converted between a normal laptop and a tablet PC. We’ve seen such devices before, but they’ve never had the OS to go with the hardware. That will change by the end of 2012.

Qi Wireless Power

Wireless communications revolutionized technology. Yet when it comes time to power our devices, we have to turn back to old-fashioned cords.

The Wireless Power Consortium is trying to banish the cord forever by putting forward a wireless power standard called Qi Wireless Power. With Qi, it’s possible to charge a phone simply by placing it on a Qi compatible charging station. Such a station could be placed in your car, your nightstand, your desk – or all of the above.

That’s just the start. Currently the standard only calls for charging within an extremely short distance (5mm) but the hope is for that to be expanded. We’ll still probably see distances measure in millimeters, but it could at least be enough to charge a phone by throwing it in a cupholder or dash slot.

Obviously, wireless charging is convenient, but it’s equally important because of what it means for smartphone design. If smartphones didn’t need to have a port for charging, they could do away with ports entirely, relying on Bluetooth and WiFi entirely. This would allow for more design versatility. And if you can easily charge your phone without a cord, the battery won’t need to be as large. This also would increase design versatility.

Qi Wireless is still far from mainstream, but it’s an important step forward. Just like wireless communications, wireless power can’t become common without standards that everyone can agree on. I’m convinced that this technology – be it this standard, or another like it – will become an important part of mobile devices over the next few years.

Conclusion

CES 2012 didn’t include many finished products based off new hardware, but we did see a lot of new platforms that are starting to translate into products and will continue to advance over the coming year. I think CES 2013 will more than make up for any feelings of disappointment surrounding this year’s convention.

Image Credit: PC Perspective

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We all love working, don’t we? I’m sure none of you reading this would have it any other way than to sit at a desk for hours with little to show for it other than a meager wage. Those long hours spent in an office working on a computer never get tiresome, dull, or frustrating, do they? Or am I wrong in this assumption?

Yes, yes I am. Even the best jobs have their bad points, those moments when boredom sets in and there is nothing you’d like more in the world than head home and drop into bed. Or possibly out for a few beers. Thankfully there are alternative ways to relieve the boredom at times such as these. As long as you have access to the Internet and a way of bypassing the firewalls and filters your company has likely installed.

What follows are 20 (and many more besides) fun things to do online when you’re bored at work. Just don’t get caught by the boss.

Read

The Onion

The Onion labels itself as America’s Finest News Source. And it is, assuming you like your news to be funny yet wholly inaccurate.

The Daily Mash

The Daily Mash is the British version of The Onion, providing laughs and made-up news with a UK bias.

Literally Unbelievable

Literally Unbelievable exists because some people are too dumb to realize stories from the above sites aren’t based on the truth. Society is screwed.

Damn You Auto Correct!

Damn You Auto Correct! logs all those times when your smartphone auto-corrects your messages to make you look like a fool. Intentionally, of course.

You could also read comic eBooks.

Look

Garfield Minus Garfield

Garfield Minus Garfield does what it says on the tin – removes Garfield from the old Garfield cartoon strips. Which leaves Jon Arbuckle talking to himself. And looking slightly deranged as a result.

People Of Walmart

People of Walmart is a site dedicated to the store everyone shops in but no one wants to be spotted in. The sights on offer will leave you permanently scarred but laughing like a drain at the same time.

Awkward Family Photos

Awkward Family Photos captures those moments most of us would like forgotten. It was bad enough having these images locked away in an album under lock and key. Now they’re on the Web for all to see.

Scrolldit

Scrolldit pares Reddit down to just the images people are sharing. In other words, the good stuff you don’t want to miss. Perfect fodder for sharing on social networks when you’re bored.

You could also play picture games based on Flickr.

Watch

Talking Animals

Talking Animals is a YouTube channel which anthropomorphizes household pets. Your cat or dog isn’t as dumb as it may sometimes appear to be. At least if you believe these guys.

Quirkology

Quirkology is the perfect YouTube channel for those bored out of their minds at work. These are experiments anyone can do, most without any kind of special equipment.

The Gregory Brothers

The Gregory Brothers are a walking YouTube video factory. Thanks to Autotune The News and Songify This, this comedy troupe have become insanely popular. The Bed Intruder Song is still a must-see.

Jonathan Mann

Jonathan Mann is the man of just one voice, but 1,000 songs (and counting). Most of us would struggle to write even one song, while this guy has managed to write a new one every day for the past three years.

You could also visit video sites better than YouTube.

Play

Google Pacman

Google Pacman is perfect to play for five minutes when you’re bored at work. This is Pacman built around the Google logo. It started out as a Google Doodle before being archived to its own domain.

Bastion

Bastion is a perfect slice of indie gaming that is now available to play directly in Google Chrome. The full game needs to be bought but the Chrome extension offers a highly-playable demo.

Minecraft Classic

Minecraft Classic is free to play directly in the browser. And it’s well worth doing so, as Danny discovered last month.

Zynga

Zynga is the current leader in the social games sector. Its website therefore offers a portal which will offer simple pleasures for those with five minutes to spare.

You could also play Facebook Games and/or Google+ Games.

Laugh

Animals Being Dicks

Animals Being Dicks features gifs of animals being, well, dicks. Updated daily, this Tumblr-powered site is pretty much guaranteed to make you laugh. Unless you’ve had a sense of humor bypass.

Fail Blog

Fail Blog features videos, images, and stories all with one thing in common – someone, somewhere has failed in an epic manner. Part of the Cheezburger Network so more laughs can be had with very few clicks.

Criggo

Criggo is an online compendium of mistakes found in newspapers and magazines. Unlike with their online versions, these will remain forever, haunting some editor or another.

Dilbert

Dilbert is Dilbert, the same comic strip that has been appearing in multiple publications since 1989. Corporate culture and the technology which shapes it has changed, but Dilbert remains as funny as ever.

You could also laugh at these geeky websites.

Lest We Forget…

And finally let’s not forget MakeUseOf.com itself. Need I say more? OK, just a little. As you’re already here and reading this article you will know MakeUseOf is the best place on the Web to find things to make use of. And that includes links to websites and apps which will prevent boredom setting in whether at work or at home.  Also, don’t forget our Geeky Fun section if you want a few laughs.

Conclusion

With many of us being connected to the Internet most of our waking lives, there is really no need to ever be bored. There are roughly 200 million websites online at this moment in time. At least a few (million) of them will appeal to you personally and help to kill time at work.

The ones outlined above are just the tip of the iceberg. Explore! And then come back and let us know what you found. Just keep it clean, please.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/keyboard.png?323f2c" alt="things you shouldn't joke about" />No longer must we use title="The 4 Stages Of Social Networking With Old Friends [Opinion]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-stages-social-networking-friends-opinion/">smoke signals to communicate. Long gone are the days in which we used cave walls to document events. It’s an title="Make Your Dumb Phone Smart With ifttt" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/dumb-phone-smart-ifttt/">age of technology, a time in which we are supposed to be advanced. However, even in such an advanced age, it seems as though Internet society has become incredibly lenient about a variety of very important social issues.

I’m not a fan of making light of stuff that actually hurts people, and it’s not even a matter of being offended – I’m not. However, I do worry about how desensitized we have become to these issues.

Pedophilia

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I really don’t know when pedophilia became funny. Why is it okay to casually reference participation in sexual acts with children? Sure, I get it. You know that pedophilia is wrong, and for some odd reason, this is why you joke about it – a possible way of coping. However, I believe that the more we joke about it, the more laid-back we will become around it. We don’t take it as title="Why Reddit Isn’t As Bad As Some People Would Make You Believe [Opinion]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reddit-bad-people-opinion/">seriously anymore.

Do I think this joking will lead to common acceptance of pedophilia? Nah. I’m not a conspiracist like that. However, I wish that just for once we can let the fact that there are people out there who want to have their way with children break our hearts a little bit. These folks want to rob the innocence of young boys and girls, and we make light of it by posting a picture of Chris Hansen or Pedobear. That’s kind of ridiculous.

Rape

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Rape isn’t cool, and joking about it isn’t either. I’ve never been a rape victim, and I can’t say I plan on it. However, the word “rape” is thrown around too casually on the Internet these days. (Just to clarify, I don’t believe usages of the phrase such as “raped my childhood” or “raped my memories” would fall under this category, but that’s really up to your discretion.)

Once again, this isn’t an issue of me being offended, because being offended does nothing in this world. However, I do worry that seeing rape jokes on the Internet may bring up some harsh memories or feelings for actual rape victims. If you’re heartless, you may believe that these folks need to get over it and stop living in the past. However, until you’ve actually had such an experience, I don’t want to hear that kind of opinion.

Killing

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Ladies and gentlemen, why must you insist on saying you wish someone would die? I don’t care if you wouldn’t actually do it, but have we gotten to a point where such hateful thoughts are acceptable? Behind the wall of the Faceless Username, cowardly individuals will come out saying that they wish that other individuals should die or, even worse, that they would kill them if they could. We’re talking about the removal of a life, here.

I’m not referring to the casual, all-in-fun, “I will kill you if you do that one more time!” Of course not, for people tend to rag on each other all the time and say this. However, what I am referring to are words that are obviously fueled by title="6 Things The Internet Has Taught Me About Etiquette [Opinion]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-internet-taught-etiquette-opinion/">hate and anger. If the intention of this (non-fruitful) death threat is to emotionally hurt the person on the other side of the computer screen, then something needs to change.

Suicide

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Right up there with death threats, we have issues concerning suicide. I’ve seen a few instances where someone posts online about their thoughts of committing suicide, and then people will swoop in saying things such as “do it” or “if killing yourself will make you happy, then go for it”. It’s akin to a person standing on top of a skyscraper with a crowd of people below, screaming for him to jump.

How disgusting is this? I understand that many folks have varying views on euthanasia, but here’s what I believe when it comes to the Internet. You are not a professional, you don’t know the context of the person’s situation, and you have no clue what their life is like. If anything, I would say report the post and provide them with words of encouragement. However, if you know that your words will seem condescending in any form or fashion… shut up. Please. You’re dealing with a life that has so much potential, and the slightest thing could ruin it.

Many of you may comment on here that folks that post these things are only title="4 Things That Really Annoy Me In Tech Today [Opinion]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-annoy-tech-today-opinion/">seeking attention and won’t actually do anything. To that I say that you should treat every hint of suicide as if the person will actually do it. If you decide to make the call that they won’t, and then they do, there’s a high chance that you will live with blood on your hands forever.

Conclusion

These are just four things that I believe the Internet makes too much light of. Is it a perfect post? Of course not. However, I hope it made you think a little bit.

What other things should people stop joking about on the Internet? Do you disagree with any of the items mentioned here?

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/keyboard.png" alt="blogging tips" />The href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/80-tools-for-bloggers/">world of blogging is an odd place, but at the same time, it’s a beautiful paradise full of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-occupy-movement-websites-check/">free speech and a variety of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-easy-methods-live-blog-events/">personal views. Granted, it could also be considered the graffiti of the Internet, but that’s just someone else’s opinion.

It seems like every blog has a theme or a running topic. However, there are a few topics that you might want to reconsider blogging about before setting your heart on them. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t write about them, but hear me out for just a few minutes.

Relationships

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I’m not against relationships (my girlfriend is pretty fresh), but I am typically against writing about relationships. Past, present, future… anything. Why? Well, the Internet is relatively permanent, and things might come back to haunt you.

For instance, say that you write about how amazing Dreamboat McSexy is in 2009. McSexy dumps you in 2010, and then you proceed to write every detail of the break-up including title="8 Ways To Exact Your Revenge On An Ex-Partner Online" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-ways-exact-revenge-expartner-online/">how you sliced his tires and burned down the front porch of his house. One, you’ve potentially ended all possibilities for a future relationship. Two, you’ve confessed to destruction of personal property and arson. Good job, kid.

Making Money

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/money.png" alt="what not to blog about" width="580" height="190" />

Online writers typically don’t make much money, so my question is why do some folks think that their blogs on title="PayPal Launches Facebook App For Sending Money [News]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/paypal-launches-facebook-app-sending-money-news/">how to make money are going to fly on the Internet? Granted, I believe that there are writers out there who give fantastic financial advice. However, I do believe that the pickin’s are slim.

It seems as though there are a lot of start-up blogs out there that are chock full of title="2 More Places To Design & Sell Your Own T-Shirts" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/2-places-design-sell-tshirts/">get-rich-quick schemes. The irony is that when you look at the writer’s past experience… well… there’s not much to say for their financial history. My suggestion? Get out there and make some money before you try to gain ad revenue from your blog about making money.

Writing

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My philosophy on writing is this – there isn’t a set way to do it. However, a lot of blogs spend quite a bit of time telling you how to write. Now, I’m not against blogs that cover basic writing structure and the typical do’s and don’t’s. What I am against is the Nazi-fied this-is-how-it-must-be-done way of writing critique.

So when it comes to title="4 Sites For The Aspiring Author & The First Book He Wants To Publish Or Sell" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-sites-aspiring-author-book-publish-sell/">writing blogs, here is what I suggest. Don’t be a stickler about everything, and let the creativity flow. Much how everyone has a different voice than you, not everyone writes like you.

Your Life (Revised)

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We all love to embellish our lives a little bit, and for some reason, this often comes out through blogging. I don’t know how many Facebook posts I’ve seen that say, “Make sure to check out my blog tomorrow… and you’ll see what kind of adventures I can get into at title="[Still] Get Coffee With These 2 Replacements For Jonathan’s Card" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/coffee-2-replacements-jonathans-card/">Starbucks!“

Truth is, around the time this Starbucks post rolls around, the only interesting part of it is the fact that the barista misspelled the writer’s name on his cup and there was no toilet paper in the bathroom – stop the presses. But really, if you’re going to blog about your life, keep it real and don’t resort to making it sound cooler than it is.

Blogging

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I know what you’re thinking – “He’s blogging about what not to blog about, and he says not to blog about blogging. How do we trust this guy?” For the record, I wouldn’t trust me, but right now, that’s not my problem. The ball is in your court.

What I actually mean is that it’s not always a good idea to write a blog about blogs – blogging tips, blogging exercises, blogging everything. This isn’t to say a blog shouldn’t include tips about the trade. However, devoting an entire blog to href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/blogging/">blogging might be a little monotonous. If you can spice it up, then more power to you.

Conclusion

So now that all is said and done, hopefully you can see my reasoning for a lot of this blogging nonsense. Maybe you’ll change your topics, or maybe you’ll keep them the same. Who really cares?

What other topics should people reconsider blogging about? What should people not blog about at all?

Image Credit: href="http://morguefile.com/archive/display/175106" rel="nofollow">mantasmagorical

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image64.png" alt="chrome addons" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-chrome">Google Chrome has been my browser of choice for a while now. I like it because it’s fast, and it feels lean (at least until I look at its memory footprint). Unlike most of my applications, Chrome doesn’t make me feel like I need to customize the heck out of it to make it usable.

Still, a recent stroll through the Chrome href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/home">Web Store revealed an interesting trend. There are more than a few add-ons that don’t add new functionality to Chrome, but instead replace parts of the browser with substitutes that are supposed to be better. Are they really better than the default? Let’s examine three and find out.

Speed Dial 2

Chrome’s default New Tab page keeps getting better; it recently got a selector along the bottom, for switching between apps and most visited. The default looks like this (for me):

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Pretty fetching, I think. Still, href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jpfpebmajhhopeonhlcgidhclcccjcik">Speed Dial 2 claims it can do much better. Let’s see what it looks like, once installed:

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This is a close-up; the whole new tab page looks like this:

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The section you see on the right (bookmarks and recently closed tabs) only appears when you mouse over it. One thing that’s really striking about Speed Dial 2 is the sheer amount of options you get:

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This is just an example out of a single tab in the options page. There are dozens of different settings; it can even follow your habits and highlight the sites you’re most likely to visit according to time of day (i.e, open a New Tab page in the afternoon, and it highlights MakeUseOf because you usually go there in the afternoon). That’s a tad on the creepy side, perhaps, but it’s off by default.

Another cool thing  about Speed Dial 2 is that it lets you view the Chrome Apps you’ve got installed alongside your most frequently visited sites, and it’s quite slick about it, too:

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So, at the top you see my Apps, and at the bottom you see a bookmark. You can also change the sizes, if you prefer the App icons to be larger.

Last but not least, Speed Dial 2 exposes some very cool browsing statistics, as pie charts of the sites you visit the most, and those you visit the most via speed dial.

Final verdict: If you like to fiddle, href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jpfpebmajhhopeonhlcgidhclcccjcik">Speed Dial 2 certainly offers a huge number of options, definitely far more than what Chrome offers by default. With a bit of patience, you can make it into a truly unique and inviting start page.

Better History

Chrome’s default history tab looks like this:

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And it also lets you do a full-text on pages you’ve visited:

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Quite nice, on its own. What can href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/obciceimmggglbmelaidpjlmodcebijb">Better History offer that would actually be better?

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Ooh, now that’s pretty slick. It does look better, and ironically, it meshes better with the style used for Chrome’s settings page:

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That’s Chrome’s built-in settings, just for comparison. I love how the developer took the UI and made it his own – Better History feels more integrated with Chrome than Chrome’s own history view, quite an achievement.

Now, in terms of options, it doesn’t offer quite so many tweaks:

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So you get to clear the history, control how visits are grouped, or leave feedback. Not very exciting. but I’m not sure what else you would need. Visit grouping is handy, and looks like this:

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So if you know you visited some website around 8pm yesterday, you can quickly zoom in on the time and look just at that slice. Also, note the handy Expand button. If you visited more than one page on a given website, all pages are grouped together, so you get the larger view of where you visited, and can drill down to specific pages as you need.

Search is the only part where Better History actually seems worse than Chrome’s own built-in history viewer. You can only search page titles, URLs, and dates. So searching for “Chrome” brought up completely different results than the search I’ve shown above:

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Final verdict: Better History is not entirely better (search is actually a bit worse), but for most things, it is actually better. Nicer visual integration, and great grouping functionality. Definitely something the Chrome developers could learn from.

Sexy Undo Close Tab

“Seriously now?” – that was my first thought when I glimpsed the name href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bcennaiejdjpomgmmohhpgnjlmpcjmbg">Sexy Undo Close Tab. By default, re-opening a tab you just closed takes only a quick tap of Ctrl+Shift+T. I do it almost reflexively, I don’t even have to think about it. What could possibly be made better here?

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Sexy Undo Close Tab comes as a button, along with a live search feature. As could be expected, it also has an options page bursting with settings:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome14.png" alt="chrome addons" width="409" height="533" border="0" />

While not all options are eloquently named (“amount of closed tabs number thing“?), they are quite plentiful. The most useful ones are the new keyboard shortcut (off by default): Ctrl+Z. That’s a traditional Undo keystroke, and it actually makes a lot of sense in the context of re-opening a closed tab. It handles text editing areas intelligently – when you hit Ctrl+Z while editing a Gmail message, it still undoes your typing (rather than reopen a closed tab).

Another thing I like about Sexy Undo Close Tab is that it remembers closed tabs between sessions, and thus serves as a sort of a history viewer. Handy.

Final Verdict: Not necessarily better than the default, but certainly different! I wish it had a keyboard shortcut for popping open the list of recently closed tabs – that would definitely make it better than the default.

Your Turn

So what add-ons did I miss? Remember, I am looking for ones that replace default Chrome functionality with something that is better (or at least, is supposed to be better). Let me know in the comments!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image19-300x300.png" alt="" />I’ve read that href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-best-6-sites-to-get-free-ebooks/">e-books are the future of books, and href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/243129/ebooks_vs_print_books.html">it’s not a matter of if they’ll surpass print books but when.  Being still in college, I wondered if that was the case for href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-websites-purchase-electronic-college-textbooks/">e-textbooks. There’s certainly more buzz on e-textbooks as they’re cheaper and it means that students don’t have to break their backs with heavy physical books. But are they better? Is going all digital better?

This whole semester I’ve been dealing with e-textbooks and using just an href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-android-apps">Android href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-fun-apps-kill-time-android-honeycombtablet/">tablet (Acer Iconia A500) to digitize all of my schoolwork to answer these questions. It’s not even the end of the semester but I can conclude that it’s been more of a hassle than a convenience. The href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-android-tablets-today-buyer-check/">tablet itself is great, but using technology in school isn’t quite the same. Remember the href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/the-kno-is-deadlong-live-kno-thanks-to-30-million-from-intel-et-al/4545">Kno tablet? While I thought it was revolutionary, the concept didn’t seem to be picked up by schools. Universities, professors and students simply (some may be but most) aren’t ready to embrace digital textbooks, and not all professors make it easier for students who want to use their laptops or tablets to replace pen and paper.

Have An e-Textbook? You Will Fail An Open-Book Test

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The argument of e-books versus traditional textbooks books goes beyond whether you prefer the look and feel of an actual book to the more unnatural book-on-a-screen experience. In terms of practicality, there are many obstacles and opposing forces to replacing physical books with digital versions for good. For instance, even right now when tablets have been hot for at least a year since the iPad 1 came out and there are quite a few people who can afford them, none of my professors at my href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/infographic-schools-rule-web/">apparently-expert-in-social-media school so far have declared that they prefer digital textbooks. One of my Computer Science professors reasoned that you can easily cheat on a test, go online on your web-enabled device and easily call or email your mom and ask her to look up the answer in a textbook for you. You could also simply Google the answer.

Having e-books and web-enabled devices also limit forms of testing, which is a just a headache for instructors. They’ll probably hate you for making them figure out a way you can’t cheat on the test and giving them additional work. This is true when the study material is as difficult as figuring out the answer to some obscure logic riddle, and some professors might prefer to give open-notes and open-textbook tests. Right now, since there are some students with the physical books and some with the e-books, those who purchase the digital versions of the textbooks end up disadvantaged.

align="center"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image21.png" alt="image" width="364" height="439" border="0" />

Students could solve this by printing segments of their textbooks for the exams, but this is usually not permitted per the textbook publisher. How do I know this? My classmates who buy the (cheaper) digital textbook end up going through hoops of inconvenience to secure a remotely decent grade during these open-textbook exams. That usually includes having to figure out a way to bypass the limitation the textbook publisher has imposed for the e-book – you can only print 10 pages at a time. So the unpleasant options you have when you buy the digital textbook are to either print 10 pages at a time, harass a classmate to make photocopies of their physical book or buy the textbook anyway. I swear this is happening in one of my classes this semester.

Have An e-Textbook & Are Majoring In The Sciences? Your Book Will Confuse You

Another downside I have seen when traditional textbooks are replaced is that not all the text in a specialized textbook will be compatible with the rendering engine of an e-reader or tablet. I am NOT kidding. I’ve seen this first hand when one of my classmates who got the Kindle textbook ended up being totally confused with a formula. The way the formula was displayed on the Kindle involved a delta triangle instead of the correct symbols.

Talking about incompatibility, here’s an example of something equally confusing from my actual Logic class notes on my Android tablet.

align="center"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image22.png" alt="image" width="580" height="497" border="0" />

I’m pretty sure those squares up there in the screenshot were meant to be curly braces, but that is just a guess.

Stylus Or Not, Hand-Writing On A Tablet Will Suck (& Be Slower Than If You Just Freakin’ Use Pen & Paper)

Right now, iPad and tablet owners have probably thought it best to try a stylus in the hope that they can replace paper. I know I have. I used href="http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Stylus-for-iPad-CS100K/dp/B004VM0SE6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320470440&sr=8-1">Bamboo’s Stylus for iPad, which is supposed to be one of the best styluses out there, on href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.adsk.sketchbookhd">Autodesk’s SketchBook Pro, which is probably the best drawing app on the Android Market right now. Though both were good, no matter how long I tried to get used to it, I have found that using a stylus on a touchscreen just isn’t as pleasurable as it is using pen and paper.

It’s probably too much to ask for the stylus experience to be similar to what you get with a pen, I reckon, but it’s the precision and extra pressure you need to add that put me off. Want some proof? Here are my actual notes, taken with a stylus. Does this look legible to you?

align="center"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image23.png" alt="image" width="580" height="384" border="0" />

Parts of my hand-writing aren’t so bad; some other parts look like hieroglyphs. If you own an iPad and have experienced something different, let me know in the comments. For me, no matter how much I try to like a stylus, it just doesn’t cut it for me.

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As you can see here in my actual Logic class notes, another problem I’ve experienced is that if you’re focusing somewhat hard on making your notes legible, guess what, it’ll take you longer than usual and perhaps the professor will have moved on and erased the tidbit of information that was meant to copied quickly.

There are also problems when your tablet doesn’t actually support palm rejection or requires you to write really big and you have to keep zooming in and out. There have been some newer tablets that hold promise and seem to solve some of these problems, like the href="http://noteslate.com/">Noteslate (which seems to be vaporware), the HTC View and the href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz48l2Va3Wk">Lenovo Thinkpad tablet. If you have these tablets, please share your experiences in the comments.

Now if we’re talking about a graphics tablet (like a 12’’ href="http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Cintiq/Cintiq12WX.aspx">Cintiq), it might be a whole different ball game, but you’ll have to lug around both your laptop and the graphics tablet to school, and set up your little office during every single class, provided you have enough desk space…

There’s No Way To Sync Last-Read Points In Your Study Material

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You like having your leisure books synced on the Kindle, Kobo, Google Books, etc. apps, right? Imagine having to study books and slides (especially PDF slides and Powerpoint presentations that professors use so much these days) and not having a way to sync these across your computer, tablet or phone. It becomes increasingly annoying when there are more and more instructors relying on these slideshows and there’s always a need to either print them out (countering the purpose of saving paper in the first place) or re-figure out again where it is that you last read.

This frustration is something I’ve personally experienced and perhaps is not well-founded since you could try to figure out a way to remember the last checkpoints in your collection of slides, but I just don’t see why e-books can be synced so easily nowadays, yet digital slides, online tutorials, etc, aren’t so easy to organize.

align="center"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image26.png" alt="image" width="580" height="324" border="0" />

That’s why I appreciate ideas like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/ibisreader-cool-ebook-reader/">Ibis Reader which allows you to upload PDF documents and read them on the web with any device, but until the project is optimized for bookmarking last-read pages and so forth, it’s just for the casual reader that’s not in school.

Yes, Benefits Do Exist

I’ve encountered some inconveniences as you can see, but there are more good sides of owning a laptop , tablet or smartphone.

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Not only do tablets (and smartphones too!) make good clocks, they also are just lighter than a pile of textbooks of course, offer excellent battery life, are great e-readers (not for school), can be your personal planners, etc.

The point of this post isn’t to bash tablets or laptops. This rant is just my opinion of the current state of personal technology in schools. There are many ways to solve or remedy these concerns, but as of right now, the notion of having digital textbooks and using tablets for school is fraught with many problems. The transition to digitizing schoolwork is just fractured in many places because some are enthusiastic about the old ways, and others are ready to touch the future (on their tablets).

Agree or disagree? Let us know your opinions in the comments below!

Image credit: href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=49607542" rel="nofollow">karam Miri, href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=86344822" rel="nofollow">Dmitry Lobanov, href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=85314694" rel="nofollow">Digital Storm, href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=77151811" rel="nofollow">Olaf Speier

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/facebook_logo_300x300.jpg" alt="facebook etiquette" />You’ve read about the things that we title="5 Things You Need To Stop Posting On Facebook" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-stop-posting-facebook/">shouldn’t post on Facebook, and you’ve even read about the things that title="7 Things You Should Be Posting On Facebook [Opinion]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-posting-facebook/">you should post on Facebook. As a matter of fact, you might have even read about the title="6 Facebook Stereotypes We All Know & (May) Love" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-facebook-stereotypes-love/">types of people that you’ll find on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook">Facebook. Basically, there’s a lot that could be said for the social networking site, and the list of all that could be said doesn’t seem like it could ever end.

However, have you ever just sat and realized, “Whoa. Facebook doesn’t really make that much sense.” Well, I have thought this time and time again, but I keep using it anyway. Let’s take a look at a few things we do on Facebook that don’t make sense.

Starting A Conversation On Someone’s Wall

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I just really don’t understand the concept of posting things such as “Hey!” or “What’s up?” on someone’s wall. It’s just a little odd because it’s as if you are inviting others to join the conversation, but at the same time, it seems private. Basically, you should probably save private conversations for private messages.

I want you to imagine being at a party. There are a lot of people there – maybe 50 – and your cousin Jimmy is drunkenly stumbling around in the corner with a lampshade over his head. Now, I want you to imagine that two people in the middle of the room start screaming out their private conversation at the top of their lungs. That’s what I think of every single time people start a private conversation on a Facebook wall.

Posting Your Phone Number When Prompted

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This kind of fits right into the same category as the public conversations that I mentioned above. Occasionally, someone will write on their friend’s wall, “Hey! I got a new phone lol. Wut’s ur number again, baby?”

Despite the fact I don’t understand why anyone would laugh about getting a new phone, it just seems kind of inconsiderate to ask someone to publicly post their phone number. Furthermore, it’s kind of silly to post it voluntarily anyway. Creepers exist, but if you have the number posted on your information anyway, then I guess it’s no problem.

Clicking “Like” On Stuff

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Like – Such a simple word, and it’s effectively narrowing the language usage of Facebook users everywhere. Are you happy that your niece received that pharmacy job that she’s been working her bum off in school for? No. You like it. Did you find a piece of music elegant, complex, and beautifully composed? Nah. You just like it.

For some reason, we have summed up everything we could say about someone else’s post on Facebook into this one word. Is it that hard to actually take the time to write something out? Perhaps something like a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/reddit">Reddit upvote/downvote system would be better, but I still find it peculiar that we are able to put so much into such a little word.

Tagging People In Status Updates

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If you want to contact someone, why don’t you just privately message or title="How To Use Find My iPhone To Get Your Stolen iPhone Back" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/find-iphone-stolen-iphone/">call them? I want you to imagine the party scenario once again. Say, for instance, that I’m at one end of the room at this party, and my editor Mark is at the other end of the room. At this point I’m a little hyped up on caffeine, and I really want to talk to Mark. However, instead of politely going up to him and starting a conversation, I begin hollering his name across the room, trying to get his attention.

Perhaps this type of instance is quite analogous to tagging other in status updates. If you want to talk to them, why not message them? I’m not saying to stop doing it, for I do it, but I am saying when you think about it, it just doesn’t make any sense.

Updating Your Status… Period

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I’m no stranger to updating my status. If something cool happens, I post about it. However, it doesn’t happen very often. With that being said, why do we even do it? Do people really care about what we are doing right now at this second? Why do we feel the need to share the moment with people who aren’t actually experiencing it with us? Wouldn’t it be better to just share it with the folks that we are actually around while it’s happening?

Crazy stuff, I tell you. I sometimes wonder what we did before Facebook. How were we able to tell anyone about our oh-so-thrilling adventures to title="[Still] Get Coffee With These 2 Replacements For Jonathan’s Card" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/coffee-2-replacements-jonathans-card/">Starbucks to pick up venti caramel macchiatos? Last time was just a grande, so things are getting a little crazy.

Conclusion

I’m not complaining about Facebook! It just makes me wonder why we do what we do. The same “why” moments could be applied to everyday life. For instance, why do we call someone while we are at their door rather than just knocking? It’s just stuff like that.

What other things on Facebook don’t make sense? Do you have any good examples of the ones mentioned above? Do you disagree with any of these?

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/icon.png" alt="crowdsourced dictionary" />A while back, I wrote a little bit about title="Search For Twitter Hashtags You Don’t Know & Get Definitions With Tagdef" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/search-twitter-hashtags-definitions-tagdef/">Tagdef, an online href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter">Twitter  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-effectively-use-twitter-hashtags/">hashtag dictionary. Just as a recap, it’s a whole lot like the old title="10 Online Slang Dictionaries To Learn Jargon & Street Language" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-online-slang-dictionaries-learn-jargon-street-language/">Urban Dictionary, something that most of us have visited at one time or another. However, what if you could take the original Urban Dictionary and bring it to life?

Enter href="http://www.vifinition.com">Vifinition, a spiritual successor of the original Urban Dictionary that actually uses videos for its definitions. Better yet, they are videos chosen from the Internet by users themselves, putting a dual crowd-sourcing spin on the entire operation .

Vifine Just About Anything

The makers of href="http://www.vifinition.com">Vifinition are all about letting you “vifine” your world, defining the word “vifinition” itself as “a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/video">video definition of just about anything”. Better yet, the alternate definition is “a consequence of being creative and unproductive simultaneously”. Sadly, that is the story of my life.

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From the get-go, you’ll see Vifinition Of The Day as soon as you arrive on the homepage of this website (which has great potential to become something very big). For example, say that today’s word is “golf“. Well, based on what I found, the vifinition is an entire comedy routine by Robin Williams on golf. Seems pretty simple, right?

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Furthermore, since you are (as far as I know) a user, you can submit videos to Vifinition. The way this is done is fairly simple. Browse href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube">YouTube, find something that correlates with the word at hand, and simply submit it. Heck, if you feel like getting a little crazy, you could actually make videos yourself. I don’t think that necessarily violates anything, and it may even make Vifinition a little more interesting.

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Browse The Vifinition Video Dictionary

Alright, as with any review I do of a website, it’s time to decide whether or not the search function of Vifinition is usable. Well, what’s the verdict? Nothing fancy is added to it, and nothing is missing – Vifinition got it right. Right now, since the site is in its early stages, there won’t be as many results as I’d like to be, but that’s because the entire site is dependent on its users. You might want to get in there and help them out.

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Along with the search function, there is an alphabetical legend that you can use to browse the site quite easily. Click the letter of the word you are looking for, and voila, you instantly have a video that defines your world. Furthermore, there’s also a random vifinition feature (which I believe every site like Vifinition should have).

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Rate Your Favorites

In a similar fashion to title="3 Types Of Reddit Commenters That Drive Me Nuts" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-types-reddit-commenters-drive-nuts/">Reddit, you can vote vifinitions up or down depending on how relevant they are. This is yet another feature that keeps the users in charge of the entire thing, and as far as functionality goes, it keeps all the definitions fresh and current. Speaking of current, a lot of the definitions seem to correlate with recent real-world events, so watch for that when you visit.

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As a note, since the site is totally user-generated, you may or may not run across material that could be deemed offensive. However, as with the case of Tagdef and Urban Dictionary, this is not surprising. Furthermore, since the videos found on this site are from YouTube, it’s not like you wouldn’t be able to see them anyway. Vifinition does a very good job of keeping the site unbiased and embraces freedom of speech, but I’m not entirely clear on all of its moderation policies for more extreme cases.

Conclusion

As a video-maker myself, I think href="http://www.vifinition.com">Vifinition is a pretty darn awesome little thing. It has great potential to go beyond the novelty of being a video dictionary, and it could actually become a resource that is incredibly extensive. As a reminder, Vifinition is still in the early stages of development, but it needs people like you to help it fulfill its own destiny. If all goes well, I envision it as becoming some kind of futuristic library (but we really need some holograms first… perhaps it could become Holofinition?)

What other sites do you know that are like Vifinition? How have you made use of Vifinition? Tell us what you think about it in the comments.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/i-dont-like-this.jpg" alt="things people do on facebook"/>Hello, Facebook user. Browsing Facebook for at least an hour a day? Have over 200 friends? Used Facebook for a few months? By the time you’ve read through this post, I can promise that you’ll have nodded your head in agreement at least once.

When Google+ was first announced, I immediately assumed it would be a hit. Not because of how Google is so interlaced with the rest of our internet, but because of “ href="http://everythingsysadmin.com/2011/06/facebook-fatigue.html">Facebook fatigue“. Change is very refreshing and exciting (as long as it’s not href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/enable-facebooks-timeline-profile/">Facebook changing… itself) and seems to have a gravitational pull online.New stuff is cool to us. The great transition from MySpace to Facebook was a clear example.

But, how does one fall victim to Facebook fatigue? While that’s a question that is conditional to the temperament of each individual user, I can bet that experiencing any of the following five antics will have you begging for a Dislike button.

We ranted a bit with href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-stop-posting-facebook/">5 Things You Need To Stop Posting On Facebook. I rant on with five more.

Indirect Status Updates

If you’re above the age of 30, you probably don’t experience this horrible Facebook phenomenon quite as often as the rest of us. This is the go-to move of every disgruntled 16-year-old girl. It’s also high up there with males who need a cowardly and passive-aggressive way to openly rage at their ex-girlfriend. In the end, both end up looking pathetic, psychotic, and/or immature. Come on, you know what I’m talking about:

• “I hate him so much. I can’t stand being around him every day of my life.”
• “I like how my best friend seems to never be there for me…”
• “Seriously, who hangs up on somebody in the middle of a conversation?”

All of these are cries for attention. All of these are very narrowly directed at one person or one small group of people. All of these are weird and annoying. All of these could just as easily point directly at the person, but that would still be immature. Send them a damn personal message, don’t go embarrassing yourself and looking like a wreck in front of your friends. Stop it.

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I feel a little different about cute messages or ones that are positive and cheerful in nature. You get a pass on that, just don’t do it more than three times per week please.

MySpace-esque Behavior & “Games”

I hate to be the guy to claim, “That’s so MySpace!” but listen: The general quality of the Facebook community was at its peak when href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/myspace/">MySpace was alive and well. MySpace was for glittery graphics, profile songs, Mafia Wars, and comment spam. It generally seemed to appeal to kids in high school and younger. Facebook was for the clean-cut college student and above. It was for people who enjoyed an organized, no-nonsense approach to social networking.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;"src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/myspace-a-place-for-headaches.jpg" alt="annoying facebook posts" width="400" height="249" />

Unfortunately, that has all changed. Here are a few of the cancers that Facebook has unfortunately inherited:

• The “TBH” word game – “LMS TBH” (Like my status, to be honest) is a little social game where users who Like another’s status will receive an honest opinion about themselves posted to their Wall.
• “Inbox me numbers” – This is basically a private and more ridiculous mutation of TBH. You send a private message to a user with a random number. Instead of posting to your Wall, they post the numbers they received to their own Wall and then an opinion or memory about the corresponding person who sent them that particular number.
• Ridiculous chain messages – “Repost this status or 12 kids will die of cancer”, “R.I.P. David: Just kidding. If you had an emotional response to David’s fake death, repost this on your Wall”, “Facebook is going to shut down in three days unless you pay them $50 for an account, let’s repost this a million times and stop them”, etc.
• Friend-tagging word games – “Look at your friends displayed to the left. The first five are your co-stars in the next terrible sci-fi movie,” with five witty character names to label for each, etc.

There are more examples out there, but I’m annoyed in even describing these four.

Using Apps that Spam Walls or Tags

Okay, you definitely know this one. href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-tips-tricks-avoid-farmville-facebook/">FarmVille? Sims Social? Horoscopes? The “Report Card” app that tags a ridiculous amount of your friends? Every birthday calendar app that obnoxiously invades your Wall?

This is just flat-out annoying. A lot of these applications spam your friends’ Walls, too. The fact that it spams yours is annoying enough. This hits hard because you’ve got to be considerate about things that not only affect your friends’ profiles, but yours as well. We see it on our News Feed. It spams the hell out of us. How about an application for horoscopes that messages you privately? Don’t get your hopes up, it’ll never happen because these apps thrive on virability and they need exposure through you so that they can be monetized.

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Being a Downer

Sometimes it’s like Frownbook. Lighten up! If you use your Facebook only to vent out your frustration and depression, you’re doing it wrong. I’ve never done it myself, but I can’t imagine that it is the best form of therapy. See a professional if it becomes a habit.

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Again, it goes back to being considerate and we all see it. I don’t want to be brought down by your six depressing posts per day. If that happens, I’m going to have to remove you, and then what if you notice? That’s going to upset you even more, maybe!

Using Facebook as Twitter

You know that friend who blows up your News Feed with a new status every 30 minutes? Have them look into href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter. Maybe they’ve heard of it. Facebook’s not the place to tell us you’re waking up, driving to the store, watching TV, eating food, feeling sick, and laying in bed all within the same day and in separate posts.

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So, who among you is saying – guilty as charged? Facebook is a social network. Just like our real world one, it falls upon us to keep it clutter free. Don’t you think so? What are your pet peeves when it comes to Facebook.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/image269.png" alt="technical interview questions" />I recently had an href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-youtube-video-channels-learning-basic-job-interview-skills/">interview (for a summer internship) for which I was told beforehand I needed to bring a pencil in case there were technical interview questions to do with coding. I was particularly nervous about the last bit but soon enough, Google winded down my nervousness a bit. I scoured the web for any type of prep material and was glad to find many sources of guidance for situations like mine.

If you’re soon facing a technical job interview, here are a few resources you should probably check out before the big day.

Find Out What NOT To Say Or Do