Category: Pursuits

  • WordPress 2.7 is the best WordPress yet

    When WordPress 2.5 came out a few months ago, there was a lot to like but there was also a lot to not-so-like. The layout of key parts of the program, including the dashboard and the editing page for new posts, didn’t seem very well thought out. The overall design was visually noisy and distracting,…

  • Bluehost Internet hosting service eases upgrades with SimpleScripts

    I have generally good things to say about my web hosting service, Bluehost. They are very reliable, with uptime for my site of over 99.5% (at least since I started monitoring it in September using the free SiteUpTime service). Bluehost also offer lots of add-ons and free services, like high-end spam filtering and automatic installation…

  • Using Applescript to send articles to my Kindle

    I’m constantly finding new ways to use my Kindle e-book reader. Lately, I’ve found a way to save eye strain and trees when reading long magazine articles posted online. Instead of reading them on my laptop, and making my eyes watery and tired, or printing them out on a zillion pieces of paper, wasting all…

  • An update on online backup: Mozy’s still good

    I just posted a lengthy comment at MacIntouch about using Mozy for online backup, so I thought it might be worth re-posting here: I have been using Mozy since April 2007 on both my iMac and Powerbook Pro. It is fast and reliable, working in the middle of the night to upload new or changed…

  • Facebook isn’t a web site (or a spaceship), it’s a time machine

    I’ve been thinking a lot about Facebook lately. A couple of months ago, maybe around the time Barrack Obama got the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver, a funny thing started happening with my 50 or so “friends” on Facebook. Since I joined earlier in ’08, there’s been an awful lot of dead air — most…

  • Extra megapixels in Canon 50D hamper performance

    I’ve written before about the digital camera industry’s misguided megapixel race, leading to ever more pixels crammed onto the same size sensor in each next generation of camera. The problem is that increasing the density of pixels damages the camera’s ability to cleanly pick up detail. So I wanted to call attention to a recent…

  • Sony ereader seeking wide open wireless

    Fascinating week in the land of electronic books and the devices to read them. We got a fresh rumor, complete with picture, about the next generation of the Amazon Kindle which we already know definitely isn’t arriving this year. But the much bigger, non-vaporish news was the announcement of Sony’s third-generation digital book reader, dubbed…

  • Harvard Bookstore gets solid new ownership

    Back in May, I fretted a bit about the future of the Harvard Bookstore (not affiliated with the university), one of the last great indie bookstores left in these parts. Today comes news that a retired tech executive and his wife have bought the store and intend to keep its operating philosophy intact. New owner…

  • Start saving my pennies: Canon updates 5D digital camera

    Well, after all that waiting for Canon to update its cheapest digital single lens reflex camera with a “full frame” sensor, the new model was finally announced today. The EOS 5D Mark II, announced today, retains the full frame sensor of the 2005 model and gets a host of amazing, 2008-y upgrades like the ability…