Official 2009 Holiday Computer Program Buyer's Guide
Dec 19, 2009 in Tech
It's coming down to crunch time if you're celebrating Christmas. Nothing's better for last-minute gifts than software -- you can just download it, burn the installer to a CD, and slip that in the ol' stocking. You don't even need to leave the house and brave the parking garage (unless you need to go to Best Buy to grab some blank CDs, that is!). But the question is: what do you get the geek who has everything? Or, worse, what do you get the ordinary person who doesn't care what they run on their computer? Well, everything below is cool in the way that getting things you do everyday done easier and quicker is cool. Read on...
How to Get Your WiFi Network to Cover Your Whole House
Nov 19, 2009 in Tech
I live in a cool house. It's not large, except apparently by the standards of WiFi networking. For an urban elitist liberal like me, being separated from my Gmail or Photobomb1 for as much as a few hours would be... disastrous. Plus, I work out of the garage, so I have to get e-mail2 there. Thus, my quest: cover the property with WiFi. Read on... (plus 3 Comments)
Beholden to The International Printing Conspiracy
Nov 18, 2009 in Tech
I have this dream, a very, very hopeless dream. My dream is that someday I will be able to print greeting cards on my very own color printer, featuring the photos that I took my own self. OK, so I have small dreams. The point is, I'd pay to live this particular dream. And that worked for parasailing, so I don't know why greeting cards would be more difficult. Read on... (plus 3 Comments)
How to Assign a Drive Letter to an Airport Disk on Windows XP
Nov 2, 2009 in Tech
I've been using a Time Capsule to back up my Mac for some time now, and have been very satisfied. I was wishing that I could run some kind of over-the-air backup for my wife's laptop, which runs Windows XP, too. So I attached a USB hard drive to the Time Capsule, and tried to mount that on the Windows XP laptop. First I did it the wrong way, and there was much sadness. Then I did it the right way, and life was easy. I couldn't find a description of how to do it right in a quick Google search, so here's my story. It's probably true for an Airport Extreme Base Station too, since that and the Time Capsule are similar.
Read on... (plus 5 Comments)
Boy, They Sure Could Make 'Em Back In The Day
Aug 16, 2009 in Tech
OK, love letters to technology are fun, but the downside of any new thing is that it's not entirely identical to old things. Here are four things that I've had on past cell phones that I really miss -- or at least haven't found -- for my iPhone. Read on...
Nothing Makes Life Better Like a New Gadget
Aug 14, 2009 in Tech
Perhaps I didn't blog because I didn't have anything to talk about! If that's the case, then apparently getting a new iPhone is going to give me something to talk about. Because I love my iPhone. It really is a clever device. In fact, it reminds me of my last truly clever phone: the Nokia 3620. Read on...
Hulu; or, My Finest Hour
Jun 3, 2009 in Tech
I got home from a recent week-long trip to find no cable. Worse, it had gone out just after I left, so I got home from a recent week-long trip to find a Tivo full of nothing but "Just a Moment, this Channel Will Be Available Shortly." Time Warner took two whole days to come out and fix it. I could almost hear the babies crying, such was this tragedy. My poor, empty Tivo! Read on...
Give Me Your Tried, Your Ports, Your Mac Apps
Dec 7, 2007 in Mac, Switch, Tech
OK, I've been fooling around on my new PowerBook -- I mean, MacBook -- now for a couple weeks, and I've achieved a moderate level of productivity. But what are the great apps out there that I'm missing? What small developer should get my $30 for the magic they'll put in my Applications folder? Tell me your favorites so that I can try them out! Read on... (plus 3 Comments)
Warning: Source of this Blog May Burst Into Flames
Aug 15, 2006 in Tech
I write this blog on a two-year-old Dell Latitude D600 laptop, a laptop which, I am now informed may vent with flames -- or, if you're not a technology marketer, the battery can explode and catch on fire. Given my previous level of satisfaction with Dell products, you can believe that I'm super-excited and happy about this development. Read on... (plus 4 Comments)
VersaMail Sucks (and How to Uninstall it)
May 27, 2006 in Tech
Like many people who got a Treo, I was at least somewhat excited that I could sync my e-mail with Outlook using the built-in VersaMail program. While I'm far too cheap to pay for the unlimited data transmission plan that would allow me to send and receive mail over the cell network, I definitely wanted to sync mail I wanted to keep around for reference with my Treo. Unfortunately, VersaMail failed miserably, sucked completely, and, virus-like, was virturally impossible to uninstall.
Read on...
What's All the Ruckus About? (A Review of the Ruckus Music Service)
Mar 12, 2006 in Tech
USC offers one of those subscription-based music services, Ruckus, for just $10/semester to its students. I'm a cheap-ass motherfucker and $10 hits that cheap-ass spot just right, so I signed up. Heck, it's a standard Microsoft-based music rental service, so I also thought it would be a fun idea to check and see if I would like renting, rather than buying my music (at least I'd get to write a review!). The conclusion? The rental model demands an incredibly high level of execution -- a level that's absent -- and is uncompelling at the moment. Read on...
*Phew*
Mar 2, 2006 in Tech
I barely made it through the day today. For the past couple of weeks, my laptop had been occasionally resistant to starting up, and today it finally showed it was serious, refusing to start all morning long. Anybody who has spent time with me knows I'm practically surgically attached to my computer. Well, midterms start Monday and I have little higher brain function without my laptop, so emergency surgery was required. Read on... (plus 3 Comments)
Treo Quest: Success; Or, How To Switch From A Cingular Region To A National Plan, And Upgrade Your Phone (While Outside Your Region)
Jun 8, 2005 in Tech
Somehow, despite Cingular's best efforts, I have a Treo 650. It amazes me that it wasn't easy for me to give them my money, but my plan was from the wrong region (PAC - California) and the Arizona salespeople couldn't access my account to either give me an upgrade or switch me to a national, roaming-free plan. So, once you're in a Cingular store, how do you switch your region, switch your plan, and walk out with a new phone, at the two year contract discount price? Well, that's what this blog entry is for. Read on...
The Great Treo Quest
Jun 7, 2005 in Tech
I want a Treo 650. I covet a Treo 650. Remarkably, I even need a Treo 650. Yet, somehow, there doesn't seem to be a Treo 650 in the Greater Phoenix area. Truly, I am an oppressed victim of the system. Read on... (plus 4 Comments)
Carly, Carly, I Used To Love You So
Aug 13, 2003 in Tech
I used to have this incredible crush on Carly Fiorina , the CEO of HP. I was so jazzed, there was a hot, erudite woman in charge of a major tech company! Then she turned out to be a crappy CEO. First she spun off the part of the company that made the calculators and testing equipment that had made HP famous, because growth in those categories was too slow during the dot-com era. Then, when the bust comes, well, HP-minus-testing is bleeding red ink while the testing equipment company, Agilent, is doing the same business as ever. Then she merges HP-now-we-just-do-printers-and-computers with Compaq, making a real big company that, oops, isn't real good. All that business and they can't figure out what it is they're all about. Well now Carly thinks she's got it -- she's decided HP is going to be Sony or Apple":http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fastforward/0,15704,475309,00.html . Woo. Now there's a plan! Let's either take on a well-established consumer electronics giant with a massive head-start in selling products that people actually put in their living rooms, or try to become a company that's about 10% the size of yours. That's a stunning strategy, stunning. The Fortune article I linked above talks a lot about how important it is to "just make things work" and how Apple is the icon for that. It's important to just make things work, consumers like it (although they don't like it enough for Apple to have more than a 3% market share). But you know what? That's what HP used to do. They had calculators that just worked. They had testing equipment that just worked. That was the HP Way. Then they got away from it. Their computers were mediocre at best, their sales chain was complex and convoluted compared to Dell or Apple, the only good thing they made was printers. Those were bulletproof and just worked. I have a LaserJet 6MP from 1996 that's still going strong and that I plan to keep for many more years. Now Carly realizes the value of that printer franchise and wants to make the rest of the company like that. I hope she succeeds. It would be good to have a powerful corporate sex symbol again!... Read on... (plus 2 Comments)
Do Blogs Belong In Google?
Jul 22, 2003 in Tech
Matt Haughey has recently added his name to the row being raised by The Register suggesting that blogs be removed from search results at Google. Now, when an A-list blogger and longtime proponent of the medium suggests such a thing, well, it may be time to seriously consider the proposition. The controversy centers around a simple set of observations: People use Google extensively to search for stuff on the Web The ability to find stuff is key to the usefulness of the Web Therefore, it's important that Google continue to return high-quality results But, increasingly, blogs are showing up as top results in many searches This is because blogs are frequently-updated, heavily linked-to, and link, in turn, to other heavily linked-to sites Blogs also tend to have better-structured information that Google's bots have an easier time handling and relating to other information As a consequence of blogs being rated so high in search results, sites selling items and news sites reviewing items receive comparatively low rankings in search results It is these news and sales sites that users are trying to find Blogs, therefore, obscure the sites that users are looking for Writers at The Register have long held that blogs should be removed from Google results before they drown out all other results. But that position relies on assertion #8 above being true. I tend to disagree with that, and here's why: Searchers on the Web are looking for relatively specific information This information involves specific items (concepts, etc.) Searchers are looking for information on these items (concepts, etc.) that is relevant to them and their particular situation Sales (advocacy, etc.) sites provide only information designed to turn the visitor into a customer News and review sites provide information targeted at a wide demographic, or at a very specific (and usually clear) demographic Bloggers provide information about their knowledge and experiences So, what of the above information best matches the searcher's needs? Well: Sales sites only match if the searcher is planning to make a purchase and if the searcher is not going to make that purchase from a well-known and trusted store, such as amazon.com, bestbuy.com, etc. News and review sites only match if the user is in their demographic A blogger may have experienced exactly the same set of needs or events that the searcher has -- they may have looked around for a new religion, or tried to buy a DVD burner, or whatever. To me, it looks as if the blog result may actually be the most relevant of all listed. For instance, Matt Haughey talks about his TiVo blog turning up as a high result for TiVo searches. That's exactly the site I'd be looking for, with information on usage and upgrading and personal experiences that might be like mine. Why drop it? Now, blogs aren't perfect. They tend to be incestuous, absorbed with minutae and even masturbatory. Worst of all, some lack any kind of peer review or outside responsibility (some bloggers, however, have made their name from providing high-quality information on their sites -- and it's these who are the most-linked and therefore would likely turn up highest in Google results). Some proportion of blogs are likely to be the worst results returned. It's probably best to remove those results. But how... Read on... (plus 1 Comments)