The short answer is, yes and no. It depends upon who you are. The purpose of this entry is to help you determine, yes or no.

Full disclosure. This entry is created on a Mac mini. And doing so on Windows 8 (Release Preview). If you are a developer, in my humble opinion you need to test on all platforms you expect your app to run or you are not much of a developer.

To be successful you need to leave politics in geographical territory known as Washington DC. My definition of that is: 14 mi.² of real estate surrounded by reality.

Only in politics can we afford to take sides. Those of us in IT, especially developers need to do our best to be all things to all people. Certainly this is a technical impossibility. However in our game we can get some points for at least being serviceable if not outstanding.

Technology is wonderful. It helps us run our businesses and connects us to the world. But when computer problems get in the way of getting what you need to get done, you can go from easygoing to mad-as-a-hornet in 3 seconds flat. Before you panic or give in to the temptation to throw your computer out the window, try these easy fixes.

5 Common Computer Problems

1. Sluggish PC

A sluggish PC often means low disk space caused by an accumulation of temporary Internet files, photos, music, and downloads. One of the easiest fixes for a slow PC is to clear your cache.

The way you’ll do this will depend on the Internet browser you use:

• Chrome– On the top right-hand side of the screen, you’ll see what looks like a window blind. Click on that. Click on ‘History’ and hit ‘Clear Browsing Data’.

• Safari– On the upper left-hand side, you’ll see a tab marked ‘Safari’. Click on that. Scroll down and hit ‘Empty Cache’.

• Internet Explorer– Click on ‘Tools’ and scroll down to ‘Internet Options’. Under ‘Browsing History’ click ‘Delete’. Delete files and cookies.

• FireFox – At the top of the window click ‘Tools’ then go to ‘Options’. Select the ‘Advanced’ panel and click on the ‘Network’ tab. Go to ‘Cached Web Content’ and hit ‘Clear Now’.

Like me, I believe most people go about their business never to give a serious thought about their assumed private correspondence when using Gmail to email friends, colleagues and business associates.  As it turns out, your daily banter may not be so private after all.  A recent article in Fortune Magazine, “Judge Rejects Google Deal Over Email Scanning” caught my attention and an immediate thought dominated my curiosity…Google email and scanning scam.  

In essence, the article describes Googles’ agreement to change the way it scans incoming messages so that it no longer reads emails while they are in transit, but only when they are in someone's inbox! So, what exactly does that mean? Judge Koh, a San Francisco federal judge, said she's not so sure about that. Her ruling claims the settlement does not provide an adequate technical explanation of Google's workaround, which involves scanning in-transit emails for security purposes, and then later parsing them for advertising data. The judge also proposed a legal settlement to pay $2.2 million to lawyers, but nothing to consumers.

My interest in this story is not so much about the proposed settlements or the specific details about how Google or any of the web giants settle claims based on vague legal language. It is however, more about the naiveté of myself and perhaps many others that never question how the email scanning process really works. I wonder, do most of us really care that Gmail uses contents of our mail to display targeted ads?

One of the biggest challenges in pursuing a career in software development is to figure out which language you want to work. In addition to commonly used software programming languages like C, C++, C# and Java a lot of new programming languages such as Python, Ruby on Rails have surfaced especially because they are used by a lot of consumer based start-ups these days.

It could then be a daunting task to figure out the technical language you should learn which helps you prosper in a software engineering career no matter the technology advancements that happen in the marketplace. Learning a fundamental and universal language like C# could be a great start to your career as the language is very mature and extensively used by companies large and small

What is C#

Similar to Java, C# is a multi-paradigm, object oriented language developed by Microsoft. C# is intended for use in developing software components meant to be deployed in distributed environments. So in essence, learning C# can enable you to write applications for large and complex server side systems that use sophisticated operating systems as well as compact mobile operating systems such as Android