Are you gunning for a raise or a promotion? Maybe you only want to stand out for job security. Regardless, this can be achieved by impressing your boss, but how?

What about Excel? Many of us, despite our job, use spreadsheets in Excel. This program is an extremely powerful business tool; here are some tips to increase your efficiency, which is certain to impress your boss.

• Hiding Information: Did you know that you can hide columns, rather then deleteing them, when printing a spreadsheet? This can be useful, for example, if the spreadsheet has private information such as salary. In order to hide rows or columns, select the associated number or letter of the row or column to highlight it, then right-click on the highlighted row or column and choose the Hide option. It is possible to Unhide a row or column in the same manner after you have printed or displayed your spreadsheet.
• Timestamping: You can attach a fixed date and time to your Excel spreadsheets utilizing your computer’s “Ctrl” key. In order to do this, hold Ctrl as you press the semicolon key. For the current date and time merely hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys while pressing the semicolon.
• A Better-Looking Spreadsheet: You can enhance a dull spreadsheet with Excel’s Themes option. You can find this option in Excel’s Ribbon. Just click on it, and you’ll discover a variety of different fonts and colors that you can use on your formerly boring spreadsheets.
• Tracking Trends: The latest version of Excel includes a feature called Sparklines. With this feature, you can create small charts that show trends in information. For instance, you could use Sparklines to instantly figure out how many software bundles each of your company’s salespeople sold in the first half of 2011.
• Conditional Formatting: This lets you format only specific cells, you can decide on a criteria, and any cells that fall within it will be a certain color. This feature will be helpful to get a quick visual read of your spreadsheet.

Technology is always changing and adapting. So, unfortunately, are cyber-criminals. MIT’s Technology Review website recently presented its list of the biggest technology security threats of 2012. If you spend much of your life surfing the web or communicating with your friends through social media sites, you should be interested in this list. Understanding what’s on it can safeguard you and your computer in 2012.

Stolen, Spoofed Certificates

One difficulty that the article talked about is stolen or faked certificates. When you log into a website, your bank for example, the traffic is encrypted with a “certificate”. This proves that the site can be trusted. The faking and stealing of these certificates was a frequent strategy used by cyber-criminals in 2011. This can give them access to confidential information.

A Common Security Mechanism in Trouble?

This is a serious issue since the use of certificates and encrypted data is the most popular security mechanism on the web. If they can no longer be trusted, that means possible trouble for all computer users.

Technology Review also pointed to online attacks called “hacktivism” as a key security challenge for this year. Organizations such as Anonymous and LulzSec crack passwords and break into company sites. Commonly, these groups do so to demonstrate that companies are woefully unprepared to address hackers. Sometimes, they target companies or corporations that they think are responsible for wrongdoing. No matter the motivation, expect these groups to continue their so-called hacktivism in 2012 and beyond.

Home Automation

In 2012 one more security risk is the growing popularity of home automation. People connect alarm systems, lights, even locks, to the internet to automate their homes. If trustworthy companies are not used or if hackers get into these systems picture the damage that can be done.

It’s hard to envision life without the computer. Today we carry miniature computers – that’s what smartphones are, after all – in our pockets. However, there was a time when the greater part of consumers did not have a single computer within their homes.

How did computers become such a key appliance in such a short amount of time? This is the question that science historian and writer George Dyson asks, and answers, in his new book, Turing’s Cathedral, a kind of personal history of the computer.

The son of scientist Freeman Dyson, George Dyson spent a lot of his life at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies. The very first digital computers were built here with the assistance of scientist Josh von Neumann.

After you’ve read Turing’s Cathedral, you will discover just how much chance went into creating the machine that led to the computers we currently take for granted. The personalities at the Princeton Institute didn’t always mesh well, but somehow they were able to create the world’s first digital computer. This machine was constructed and run from an otherwise nondescript building in New Jersey.

Genius or not, people are still people, and when working closely on a single project there are certain to be rivalries and disagreements that arise. Turing’s Cathedral lays these things open, showing the humanity of the scientist that created the first computer.It was not just the personal disputes that needed to be set aside to make this project successful; there were also moral issues involved. The work that went into the creation of the computer walked hand in hand with the U.S. nuclear weapons project.

You might think that history books are dull reads and a history of computers has to be filled with technical jargon. Turing’s Cathedral does not fit that image at all. Anybody who uses a computer will find this book interesting. Which is an awful lot of people these days.

As the planet gets to be more connected so do our cars. Cars like the Audi A6, Ford Edge, and the Lincoln MKX allow individuals to browse the Web while in their front seat. People are able to, stream music, get latest traffic information, but is all this access the best thing while driving? Typically it’s exciting to see technological advancements, but when it comes to our safety on the highway is there such a thing as excessive connectivity?

Challenges of the Connected Car

Drivers get distracted and this may result in accidents. In fact, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 80 percent of all accidents involve driver inattention within 3 seconds of the collision. So, this being true, imagine how distracted the driver would be if there is an amusing YouTube video playing on an in-car screen.

Does Tech Distract Drivers?

Drivers need to concentrate on the road. Whatever takes their focus away from it—regardless of whether it’s chomping down on a fast-food burger or hunting for traffic information—can cause potentially fatal accidents. That’s why the news that cars are on pace to become much more connected is greeted with as much reluctance as enthusiasm.

Browsing the Web Inside Your Car

Regardless of how we feel about this, unless laws are put into place preventing it, people will soon have the capacity to stream YouTube videos, Google an answer to a question, and correspond via social media sites in their cars. Maybe the next step ought to be to increase the self-driving aspects to cars; but perhapsthat would detach us even more to the world around us.

Again, this would normally be deemed a positive development of technology. The potential negative impacts, though—an increase in the quantity of unfocused drivers on the road—do give pause. It’s important for drivers to understand these tech goodies are nice features. However, it’s equally important for them to remain focused on the road, no matter how badly they want to sneak a peek at the video streaming into their vehicles.

You have probably heard of nanotechnology, but might have very little idea as to what it’s about and exactly how it pertains to you. Nanotechnology makes life easier for all of us; it’s not merely the stuff of science fiction. Basically, nanotechnology is the science of working with matter on an atomic scale.

The practical side of nanotechnology

As an example, Science Daily ran a feature story about scientists creating a way to use nanotechnology to lessen the amount of friction in car engines and machines. If this technology becomes widespread, it can help extend the lives of machines and engines and help them operate more proficiently. According to the Science Daily story, a team of scientists created tiny polymer particles that were dispersed in automobile engine base oils. When tested under conditions that simulated those present in car engines, these tiny particles were found to have a fantastic capability to reduce friction.

More efficient motors

Even when dispersed at low concentrations they reduced friction considerably, much more so then the friction additives currently being utilized in many industries today. How much more do they reduce friction? By about 55 percent more! Nanotechnology is a developing industry so expect more breakthroughs like this. In fact it is growing so fast that the United States recently released a national strategy to be sure that environmental, health, and safety research requirements are addressed in the field.

The emerging world of nanotechnology

If you feel, then, that nanotechnology is only good for Hollywood special effects blockbusters; just take a close look at your car’s engine. One day, nanotechnology could leave you with an engine that uses less gas. That, obviously, can leave you with a fatter wallet, and you will be able to thank nanotechnology for this.