28 June 2013

Outsourcing with the web and mechanical turks

The web still has more to give for outsourcing work.  This article is about Amazon's Mechanical Turk that allows tasks that only humans can do to be subbed out or crowdsourced.  This is not available in the UK as far as I can find but seems to be good for transcriptions and surveys.  With a bit more development on building reputation of the workers (and higher pay for higher rated workers) perhaps this could be good for translations, proofing, spreadsheet fixing and  many other things.  Definitely an idea to watch.

20 June 2013

How to print from Android (free)

I have spent the last 20 years or so trying to eliminate paper but there are still occasions when you need to print - often to give to someone else.  Here is how to set printing up from your Android device to a 'normal' printer:

  1. Download Google Cloud Print onto your Android (it's free from Google Play)
  2. Follow these set up  instructions to make your printer available (easier to do from your PC)
  3. You may need to wait a few minutes for everything to sync up
  4. Print from your Android by using share, then picking Cloud Print from the list
This worked very well on my Nexus 10.

04 June 2013

Tips for powerful writing

Five Writing Tips that Can Double Your Salary | LinkedIn

Is Facebook Stickier Than LinkedIn? | The Magnet Blog presented by Ongig

Interesting article from employer's side comparing effectiveness of LinkedIn and Facebook in converting shares to brand awareness and applications.

Is Facebook Stickier Than LinkedIn? | The Magnet Blog presented by Ongig:

'via Blog this'

Windows 8 training

I have just completed some basic training for using Windows 8.  I have been using it for over a month now and thought it would be good to check through what I have not been able to figure out on my own.

Top of the list is a (slightly) quicker way of turning it off:

  • Hover over the top right to bring up the menu
  • Select 'Settings'
  • Click the 'Power' button
I know that when Windows 95 came out, we all thought that clicking 'start' to shut down was strange and we all had to get used to it - but clicking 'settings' to shut down seems neither consistent nor logical.  Still, I like to end on a positive note: it does boot up much more quickly than my last system.