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MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed from our readers. This week we have questions on MacBook trackpads becoming very sensitive after using alternative pointing devices, desktop pictures not being oriented properly, and third-party menu extras not being removable from the system menu. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few here, we certainly welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Hypersensitive trackpad on MacBook Pro

MacFixIt reader "Terry" asks:

Since I purchased and installed a Magic Track Pad, my … Read more

As more companies realize the savings involved in running large commercial buildings more efficiently when it comes to energy, sales of automated building energy management systems are poised to soar.

The U.S. market for such systems will grow to $2.4 billion annually by 2016 compared to seeing $900 million in revenue for 2010, according to the "Building Energy Management Systems" report released today by Pike Research.

Products include optimization software for a particular building's needs, as well as analytics that tap in to smart grids to predict peak supply and demand scenarios and adjust internal … Read more

Chrome is ready for corporate use, Google argued today in blog posts.

"Today, we're announcing that Chrome offers controls that enable IT administrators to easily configure and deploy the browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux according to their business requirements," product manager Glenn Wilson and programmer Daniel Clifford said.

Of course, it'll be up to those administrators to decide whether it really is ready. But Google has added several features, most notably Windows policy template support that lets administrators control Chrome settings across an organization.

And for those not satisfied with poking around help files and … Read more

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Got a new PC?

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Do men and women who work in IT see their jobs and career opportunities differently? A new survey from IT staffing firm Technisource finds some disparities but also areas of agreement.

Released yesterday, the "Technisource Women & Men in Information Technology Survey" (PDF) discovered differences in viewpoints among men and women in IT in such areas as compensation and career challenges.

Among some of the specific findings, 78 percent of the women polled said they don't believe compensation is equivalent between them and their male colleagues. But almost half of the men surveyed do think it's … Read more

Not many MacBook or iPhone users are going to weep over the cancellation of an Apple server.

In fact, they probably didn't know Apple even made them. But when Apple announced it was shutting down production of the Xserve effective January 31, a very specific group of people took notice.

The Apple faithful inside corporate IT departments large and small are feeling jilted by Apple's sudden cold feet in the enterprise computing market. And though the announcement came last last week, the full impact of Apple's decision is still being absorbed.

Apple's own support forums are … Read more

Arguably one of the best screen capture programs for Windows is now available on the Mac. TechSmith's Snagit has a long history with Windows fans as a highly flexible and feature-rich tool for quickly grabbing visual info on your screen. The software's main strength is that it offers a number of tools for adding graphics--like arrows, boxes, and thought and speech balloons--to call out specific areas on the screen. When you're finished with a capture, you can quickly add the project to a presentation, just about any document, or send the screen capture through e-mail. One of … Read more

AT&T is making a new foray into the health care market with a business geared toward improving patient care and trimming medical costs.

Announced today, the new AT&T ForHealth unit will deliver a range of wireless, networked, and cloud-based products to doctors, hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies. The goal is to push the adoption of new technologies to the industry as the country tries to switch over to electronic and digital health care management.

AT&T said it's looking to expand upon some of its current health care projects, which include medicine bottles that … Read more

Collages are a fun way to combine multiple images into one, and they have many potential uses, from greeting cards and scrapbooks to social networking profiles. CollageIt enables you to create good-looking collages without a lot of hassle.

The program's interface can be a little confusing at first glance--there are multiple menus and sliders--but if you focus on the Getting Started pane in the middle, you'll be fine. To create a collage, you simply select the images you want to use, adjust the settings, generate a preview, and save the collage when it's done. The program automatically … Read more