Category: software

  • Easy BIOS upgrades? Who wudda thunk

    Every time I boot up my cheapie Windows PC running Windows Vista, I get the same annoying error message. The Asus T3-M2NC51 barebones box has a slight conflict with the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane processor at its heart. It’s something I knew when I paired them up last spring (See “Imperfectly building my…

  • Inching the household up to Mac OS X 10.5

    Slowly I turned, inch by inch…well, not literally. But with the first dot-1 update out to Apple’s new operating system, Leopard, and more updated programs available as well, I’m inching my household towards full upgrade-hood. As I mentioned the other day, my antiquated, first gen Mac mini was the first to get hit with Leopard…

  • Reclaiming an ancient PocketPC as a web browser

    Cleaning out the attic closet recently, I came across an ancient Casio PocketPC that I must have bought six or seven years ago, the Cassiopeia E-115. It’s a cute little device featuring a smallish, color touch-screen and compact flash card slot. My son was immediately interested in reclaiming it but we couldn’t get it to…

  • Ignore that cranky Mossberg and his Kindle whine

    I kept meaning to predict that Wall Street Journal gadget reviewer Walt Mossberg was going to pan the Amazon Kindle e-book reader because he’s hyper-sensitive to minor flaws. But life intervened and I didn’t get the chance. And, of course, now he has. Sometimes Mossberg is right on, but unfortunately with the Kindle, he’s far…

  • Kindle reviews by folks who actually have seen one

    Amidst all the misinformation about Amazon’s new Kindle electronic book reader, particularly coming from people who have never touched or used it, here’s a list of reviews from the fact-based segment of techdom: Gizmodo checks Kindle in the bedroom, on an airplane and atop the porcelain throne. Not quite a home run, just a triple,…

  • Ignore the static: Kindle is great for reading

    Wow, the new electronic book reader from Amazon, Kindle, sure is getting a lot of absurdly misguided and factually incorrect criticism. My fingers are getting sore from responding to such a tide of disinformation in comment boxes scattered across a zillion web sites. Just this morning, I’ve been writing a lengthy comment to a Kindle…

  • Test bed Leopard upgrade reveals some issues

    Well, the UPS man finally brought my family pack upgrade copy of Mac OS X 10.5 aka Leopard. As I mentioned the other day, I have no immediate plans to install it on either of my main systems, the 24″ iMac or 15″ MacBook Pro, known respectively as “Gigantico” and “Lunar Excursion Module” or LEM…

  • Leopard upgrade? Not today, baby

    Excited about Apple’s new Leopard OS X upgrade? Me, too. It’s got plenty of desirable new features, great and small. Did the Fed-Ex guy just drop it off and you’ve ripped open the box and got the shiny disk right in your hands? You’re drooling as you read the back of the package and start…

  • Back in the New York Groove thanks to HBO

    One of the wireless phone companies, I think it was, some years back concocted a crazy service to help identify random songs by calling them in to some all-knowing, tune-analyzing super computer. You know — hear a great tune on the radio, dial up the supercomputer, hold your phone up to the speakers, and find…

  • Can the web solve the BOOK omnivore’s dilemma?

    Always looking for new things to read for those Internet-inclined among us means always looking at new web services that may offer help. Today I stumbled across GoodReads.com, which lets you list, rate and review books you’ve read. There’s obviously going to be some kind of behind-the-scenes suggestion engine voodoo but it seems I need…