Columns

This is the week Mexico celebrates Day of the Dead, that most colorful of all holidays.  And every year about this time I always seem to notice some news article reported on the computer/technical news sites I follow that is at least tangentially related to death and dying. This year will be no exception.

My Aunt Rose, no longer an octogenarian because she proudly points out as of this summer she is a nonagenarian, asks this week’s question as she familiarizes herself with her new laptop and its newer version of Windows.  “On the computer, what is the difference between hibernate and sleep?” she emails me to ask.

There is a key on the keyboard of all Windows computers called the [Windows] key, and many people who learn what it can do are thrilled.  For those who have yet to discover it, this is the key with the Windows logo that looks like a little flag.

There is a new acronym to add to the bottomless bowl of alphabet soup that makes up the world of Information Technology.  IoT is short for the “Internet of Things.”  In the beginning, the only things connected to computer networks were … well, computers.  This is no longer the case, with more “things” being connected to the net and so we now have the Internet of Things.

Recently, all the major news networks repeated the story of an anonymous New York City restaurant owner whining about how wireless internet access was causing food to get cold and waiters to perform their jobs less efficiently, leading to more customer complaints and costing the restaurant owner money.  To read more than I have room to quote here, just point your browser to any internet search engine and search for “Restaurant Figures Out Surprising Reason for Customer Complaints.”

Several times in previous columns I have addressed the subject of the best way to deal with a wet laptop.  While I am loathe to bore the readership by repeating myself, I can justify doing so this time because it was not her laptop that my girlfriend got wet but her smartphone.