The Business Card

They seemed to be all around my office, and even my home – those small, rectangular pieces of thick paper, with stuff printed on them in many different styles and colors. Are these visiting cards? Yep, most people now refer to these as ‘business’ cards, though. Some business cards were printed on both sides, some even had a flap which could fold over to provide additional space for printing. Most were to be held horizontally to read them, while some had to be held vertically for reading. All thicknesses of paper were used. I remember many were even on thin flexible plastic sheets, the ones that were impossible to tear with bare hands, and could only be cut with scissors.

Some cards even needed a magnifying glass to get to the fine print. Is this the reason why we keep getting wrong numbers on the phone? This seems an important insight for business owners, perhaps. Any graphic designer looking for logo designs would have loved to glance at my collection. Most business cards had a logo. Some logos were too small to be deciphered by the naked eye, and looked more like insects sitting on the card, or like a small black fly waiting to take off from the card. Then there were the large logos, the ones that loudly stared at you from the business card, leaving little space for other particulars of the card owner.

Logos were in all combinations of colors and designs, and located at all possible locations, in the corners, middle, and some even on the reverse side. A few business cards even had the photograph of the person on it, smug and smiling. Some technology buffs seem to have presented me their electronic business cards. These come equipped with a micro CD at the back, and you can insert this in the CD drive of your computer and read the contents on your computer screen. In addition to the particulars of the person, a brief of their company’s business profile was usually found on such cards. But this style did not take off.

Filed Under: Business, Computer Tagged With: , ,

Patches and Other Software Updates

Update Check After Update Check
Image by jochenWolters via Flickr

Many people believe that when you purchase a “hard” copy of a piece of software–an actual physical copy on CD–it comes with everything already included. That simply isn’t true. While companies do their utmost to ensure that boxed software is absolutely current at the time that it is put onto CD and packaged, by the time it reaches the store shelf, and subsequently your computer, it can be days, weeks or even months out of date. In the fast-moving world of computers, that’s a long time. Also, beta testing is more rushed than it used to be. Sometimes by the time the program has just become available for sale, the creators have already discovered some sort of error with it.

Why the rush? Because perfection isn’t important anymore with the Internet so readily accessible. In the old days it used to be that the copy of the software sold on a CD had to be as flawless and polished as possible because, once the buyer installed it, that was all that they had to work with. Now, ironically, the ability to create patches and update packs and offer them up for download has made the first copies of many software programs less perfect than they ought to be. Software designers can rush through the beta testing process, assured in the fact that the user can simply download program updates from the Internet if and when they run across a problem with the version they purchased.

On one hand, you may have to spend extra time downloading patches after you’ve already spent time installing the base software. On the bright side, extra content is often available with the updates. Don’t fret if you install your new fresh out of the box software and find that it glitches or crashes–do a quick web search for patches and updates instead. You’ll be glad that you did.

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Filed Under: Computer, General Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Learning to Work with Computers Takes Time

Anyone can learn computers, but it can take a little while. Some people just aren’t interested, but a lot of people don’t want to learn them because they think that they’ll make too many mistakes. They don’t feel comfortable with a computer, especially if they’re older and haven’t grown up using one. People who have jobs where computers are commonplace use them without even thinking about it, but many people work with their hands instead, and they don’t know how to deal with computers and the Internet. If you’re one of them but you want to use the computer and learn how to work with it properly, you can.

There are several ways in which you can learn to handle computers and the Internet with skill and confidence. One of those ways is to take a class. You’ll be learning directly on the computer, and you’ll have an instructor right there to help you. You’ll also have the benefit of other classmates around, in case you have questions or need some quick assistance. If you’re not comfortable taking a class, though, or it doesn’t fit into your schedule, you can get someone else to help you. A friend or family member who’s good with computers can teach you.

There are also CDs that you can buy and put into your computer. These will run automatically and take you step by step through how to create documents, access the Internet, and do all kinds of other things. Once you learn a few things, you’ll gain confidence and want to learn even more. You can build on what you’ve discovered and continue to expand your knowledge base. That’s a great way to acquire a new skill that you can use for the rest of your life.

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Filed Under: Computer, Internet Tagged With: , ,