Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Tim Cook Receives the 2017 Free Expression Award

Tim Cook, CEO Apple, Inc.
Tim Cook receives the 2017 Free Expression Award in Washington D. C. from Newseum on April 18th. I think Tim Cook personifies this award and his thoughts expressed at the ceremony (see links below for notes) are something we should all take to heart. One quote I would like to repeat recorded by MacRumors (and others):
"We know that these freedoms require protection," Cook said of First Amendment rights. "Not just the forms of speech that entertain us, but the ones that challenge us. The ones that unnerve and even displease us. They're the ones that need protection the most. It's no accident that these freedoms are enshrined and protected in the First Amendment. They are the foundation to so many of our rights." 

I have posted other review links here.


Newseum

Since discovering the Newseum, and for what it stands, I find this award should have been noted everywhere. I read a lot of news and either missed this or it wasn't covered as greatly as it should have been. 
The Newseum is an interactive museum that promotes free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of print and electronic communication from earliest days of the United States to the technologies of the present and the future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newseum 
I believe that we should all be actively concerned about the free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. There are those today that would like to take some of them away or at least block them out. 

As an outcome of this I am now very much interested in Newseum and discovered that it's principal funder is the Freedom Forum which led me to learn about the Freedom Forum. 
The Freedom Forum was established July 4, 1991, under the direction of founder Al Neuharth as successor to a foundation started in 1935 by newspaper publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co. Its work is supported by income from an endowment of diversified assets.  
The Freedom Forum, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonpartisan foundation that champions the First Amendment as a cornerstone of democracy, and is the principal funder of the Newseum and Newseum Institute.
The Newseum's modern seven-level, 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m2) museum is located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in Washington, D.C. features 15 theaters and 15 galleries. And again thanks to Wikipedia for this description, picture, and location.


Always Learning.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Surface Pro Onscreen Keyboard Needs Update/Replacement

I really do like my Microsoft Surface Pro 4 however the keyboard is useless when attempting to use this device as a tablet.

After years of having a swype like keyboard (whether its Swype, Google, or some facsimile) on Android or Apple devices this Surface Pro onscreen keyboard is just not the best it could be. I would rather do my writing on my Android phone and then copy and paste it into my blog than use this dumb tap-tap-tap onscreen keyboard.

Actually the Microsoft Office 365 apps on the Android phone are really pretty good and I do start a number of Microsoft Word documents on the phone and then clean them up on a Windows device. Perhaps Microsoft's new connection to Samsung could bring this about.

Please note (and stated many times in the past) I am a keyboarder. I learned to type in the 50's (1950's that is) and, at one time, exceeded 70 to 80 words a minute. And yet I can be faster on a swype like keyboard - almost like taking shorthand (there is a memory test).

I know there are others out there who agree with me as I see it all the time on one of those Community Boards on Microsoft, which I suspect no one at Microsoft reads.

I have often wondered how this, so last decade, onscreen keyboard is maintained. My thoughts are thatit is IT and perhaps Engineer's who do not do much writing, or only use this for coding.