Category: Pursuits

  • Everbody’s thinking about S3 for backup

    I can see today that I’m hardly the only one messing around with Amazon’s super-cheap S3 online storage system as a possible off-site backup strategy. Jeremy Zawodny, whose has been wanting/predicting solid online backup for a while, says he’s experimenting with S3, but doesn’t give all the details yet (like what software is he using,…

  • Speedy blogs, speedily updated on VoIP

    Once upon a time, I kept stacks of computer magazines on hand just in case I was suddenly in the market for some gadget reviewed months earlier. Now a days, of course, the Internet has completely subsumed that role and it’s usually not the web sites of big magazines that even run the best reviews.…

  • Lo hicimos, Lo hicimos — we did it

    Sunday night we put together the spare parts and made a new PC, a Shuttle XPC, actually. As I explained the other day, it’s made with loose ends, bits of the old MSI-based Windows 2000 system and bargains picked up around town for about $400. For the record, it’s based on an Intel Celeron D…

  • Getting ready to upgrade the Windows 2K box

    A little less than a year ago, I scrounged up some spare parts and built an AMD Sempron 64-based PC running Windows 2000. It used a bare bones case by MSI which was so loud and slouchy that I got sick of it. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve again searched high and low…

  • Why I got such a good deal on my Canon Rebel XT

    Canon introduced an update to its top-selling digital SLR today, according to the Digital Photography Review web site. The main new features seem to be a slightly bigger and brighter LCD, 10.1 megapixels instead of 8 and some kind of automatic lens dust cleaner. Can’t say there’s much there to make me sad I moved…

  • New gadget blog sounds promising

    I’ve grown quite tired of the current crop of gadget blogs which seem all to focused on the People-magazination or something of new tech gear. Mike Arrington of Techcrunch, a site following Web 2.0 news, has expanded his stable with a new gadget blog, dubbed logically enough Crunchgear. It sounds promising as Mike seems to…

  • New camera needs lots of accessories

    For a recent business trip to Alaska (sweet!), I determined that my trusty & wonderful Canon SD 400 Digital Elph wasn’t up to snuff. So I splurged on a digital SLR that was on sale at Best Buy, Canon’s Rebel XT. Va-va-voom. It’s big and bulky but takes me back to the days of my…

  • Boo-hoo, Civ IV Mac

    Well, it seems you need a G5 or Intel-based Mac to play Civ IV. Looks like I’m outta luck since I’ve got neither and the whole idea was to play on the commuter train on my Powerbook G4 (ps don’t ever, ever buy 1st generation hardware like round I of the new Macbook Pro). At…

  • Hurray, Civ IV on my PB

    Just one more month until Civ IV is available for Macs. Hmm, should make the daily commute more fun and the rest of life slightly less productive…

  • New stuff floating my boat

    Catching up on a bunch of feeds at Bloglines this morning, I found my inbox filed with news of cool stuff. The 1.5.0.2 upgrade of Firefox on my Powerbook g4 renders page with super speed that puts Safari to shame. Next, and I can’t quite decide whether this is great or insane, a service called…