Patty switched to a Mac Mini
Two weeks ago, Patty bought herself a Mac Mini. Today, I saw on the Security Awareness Blog that there’s a new Switch site at Apple who are ditching Windows.
PC/Tech
Bad Power Supply
It looks likely that my earlier PC troubles were caused by a bad power supply. Thanks to Jason who pointed out that it might be heat, but since the symptoms happened right as I started it up, when all the components are relatively cool, I didn’t think it’d be heat related. I swapped in the
Video Game Myths
An MIT professor is debunking video game myths. Hillary Clinton should read this before embarking on any crusade. But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer.
Recognize these PC symptoms?
My main desktop PC, the one I play warcraft and occasionally code in, has been bizarrely unstable lately. In a way that hasn’t been too easy to diagnose. At first, it was only when I was in Windows, it would lock up or suddenly reboot. Usually right in the middle of a melee. Yesterday, it
Hardware DRM in future Windows PCS
Another reason why you don’t want to upgrade to Longhorn – Microsoft’s next major revision to windows. Of course, that assumes it’ll come out within the next few years. That version of the operating system will have hardware enforced digital rights management to restrtict audio and video playback. The analysis linked above makes an interesting
Flipbook!
An awesome flash application that lets you build a simple flipbook like animation one frame at a time. Part of the charm is the simplicity of it all, you can draw in black and white, there are no colors or erasing short of erasing the whole frame. Here’s a quick doodle of a simple castle
Tacit knowledge – inherent or learned
Jon Udell’s column on tacit knowledge about computers touches on a trait that can be used to separate computer geeks from regular users. Computer geekds know how to and are comfortable figuring out how to do something with their computer (setup mail filters, reconfigure their desktop, automate repetitive tasks) and casual users are frustrated by
Pro Apple/Mac press growing
We may be witnessing the beginnings of a more mainstream backlash against Windows and the general frustration they inflict on average users. I’ll start by adding that I still have 2 windows installations used solely for playing World of Warcraft. My main machine dual boots to Debian Linux, where I do the occasional bit of
Broadcast Flag Struck Down!
Great news: The DC Circuit of the US Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC can not enforce the "Broadcast Flag" that movie and television cartels want to put into future TV hardware. Basically, this little flag would tell your TiVo/Replay/VCR if it could or could not record the latest episode of American Idol or
Test your domain name’s setup
If you’ve got a couple domains that you run, you should check out http://www.dnsreport.com/ and use its tools to make sure everything is set up as it should be. It’ll tell you if your configuration is valid, the address is set to receive email, and also point out potential trouble spots. I used it and