Free public access wifi connections during holiday travel are a wonderful thing. Easily hook your laptop or phone up to the network and you’re surfing away in a holiday bliss. Not to burst your bubble, but there is a black sheep out there that you need to take precautions against. Its name is Firesheep and it’s out to take over your accounts.
December 23, 2010
I’ll admit it – I’m a geek. I enjoy implementing new technology before it becomes mainstream. I canceled my cable service about a year ago and I haven’t looked back. It has been replaced by media servers and streaming systems that give me more choices than I ever had before. I’ll go over some of those choices and show you just how easy it is to get started.
October 8, 2010
I’ve written a lot about social networking lately; both my skepticism and how I finally broke down and joined the surge. Just a little while ago I came to a realization: none of this is new. We’ve all heard the phrase “there’s nothing new under the sun” but when it comes to services like Facebook and Twitter, isn’t that something new? Read on and let me explain.
July 29, 2010
Today Google announced that they will open source the VP8 video codec (something they acquired when they bought the video codec company On2 earlier this year.) This is a very nice codec with compression results similar to H.264. Google is calling the new format “WebM” and bundling it with two other open source projects for audio and a file format container.
May 19, 2010
Today I want to get on my soapbox. I hope you will forgive me if I stray out of the tech realm just a bit – although most of what I will talk about is related to technology in our lives.
Technology is changing daily and it is eroding our privacy. From spying laptops to full body scanners we have allowed our privacy to be swapped for a feeling of safety. I’ll be discussing some of these trends and ask what can we do to stop it.
March 4, 2010
We all do it in one way or another. Watching the neighbor out the window, listening to the cell phone conversation of the person next to us, or even just reading the latest news. It’s all a form of voyeurism. We want to know what is happening and what other people are doing, and one part of us wants to think that we can do it better.
With the rise of communications, our ability to keep track of other people has become greater and our desire to do so is insatiable. Every second is filled with email, Twitter, cell phone calls, Facebook posts and customer satisfaction surveys. We have seen the rise of socially acceptable voyeurism.
January 29, 2010
A lot can be said about Google. Simple, clean interfaces. Fast, accurate results. Huge behemoth of a company. Tentacles in just about everything. There are also a lot of opinions about Google and their services but when it comes to most computer users, it’s undeniable that they have a positive reputation. It’s what I like to call “Geek Cred“.
If there is something that you need done the odds are that Google has a service for you. Lets take a look at some of these services and see just what might be in it for you.
November 13, 2009
Hard drives fail. It’s a fact of life. Next to cooling fans, it’s probably the most failed device in a computer. It’s even worse on laptops where the space restrictions keep the hard drive warm or even too hot to touch, and heat is the number one killer of hard drives (okay maybe heat comes after the sledge hammer.)
I get lots of questions on what is the best way to backup your files. Should you put everything on a second hard drive? External USB or Firewire? How about Network Attached Storage? Off site storage? Everything here has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Today I’m going to talk about everyone’s favorite words “free” and “easy”.
September 15, 2009
Although it’s tempting, this is not a tirade on Battlestar Galactica vs. Terminator’s Skynet. This is about computers and electronics and what they mean to you everyday.
It’s no secret that we are all becoming more reliant on computers each and every day. As our appliances and televisions become smarter, everything becomes a computer. Larger production means lower prices and now what used to be the realm of the geek enthusiast becomes a necessity in your home and office.
I have a theory: As computers become cheaper and cheaper to build and prices come down, they become no different to you than your toaster.
March 11, 2009
There comes a time in the life of just about everyone that works with graphics on a regular basis when you will receive the most atrocious low-res logo file to use in a project. As the professional that you are, you are not going to throw it back at your client and refuse to use it now, are you?
November 10, 2007