ICYMI: March 10, 2016

Happy Thursday. You'll want to rush on down to today's story you should care about because the link is open to the public for a very limited time.

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The biggest story of yesterday and why you should care today:

Yeah, Bill Gates did a Reddit AMA and there's some interesting material in there, but your must-read for this morning is the temporarily-unlocked PandoDaily piece by Kevin Kelleher, "What Is Microsoft Becoming?"

It asks the question:

Even a decade ago, the company seemed sure to become roadkill on the Road Ahead, with the rise of software as a service, the smartphone and the long, slow demise of the PC all but inevitable. Those changes indeed came about, only more dramatically and quickly than most expected. And yet Microsoft isn't roadkill, but instead is looking much stronger today than it has been in many years. What happened?

and lays out the answer: Satya Nadella happened. To find out why Nadella was the right person in the right place at the right time, read the article, which also gives Steve Ballmer credit for the foundation he laid for cloud success thanks to the Azure cloud platform. There's also a nice look at how Microsoft's current approach to Windows -- turning it into a crossplatform OS -- is going to be its exit out of a collapsing PC market. 

Also worth noting:

Microsoft is testing a version of its Authenticator smartphone app that will allow users to unlock Windows 10 computers via Bluetooth.

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The most useful tech news:

Find the best USB battery pack for any situation; here are ways to optimize how you're using Gmail in your daily work, including visual cues for sorting emails; add another column to Windows 10's Start menu; use the Outline tool in Google Docs to automagically find the "logical breaks" in your work.

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The most amusing tech news:  The beloved show Mythbusters is done, but you can spend the next ... week, maybe? ... going through the extensive archives in this incredibly comprehensive Metafilter post.

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What we published yesterday: 

How-To: Remove Previous Windows Version in Windows 10 Settings App — One feature that is available after an upgrade to Windows 10 is the ability to roll back to your previous version of Windows for the first 30 days after an upgrade.

How-To: Resetting a Lumia Using the Hardware Buttons — Sometimes the Windows mobile OS can freeze so deeply that its totally unresponsive to on-screen taps and pokes. When that happens you need to fully reset the device (i.e., reset to factory defaults) using an arrangement of hardware button presses and holds that may seem more like the safety sequence for launching a nuclear missile than resetting a phone.

Review: Waterfield’s Curo Dopp Kit — Like all Waterfield productions, the Curo Dopp Kit is built to last. It’s durable and destined to be an enduring travel companion.