I woke up in a good mood this morning and then… Sometimes one piece of technology makes another, seemingly unrelated, piece of technology misbehave. It happened this morning at 12:15am CDT when an automated program that I run in Amazon EC2 failed to do its thing. The EC2 instances (that’s geek speak for “virtual machines” […]
Sony eBook Library Runs Under VirtualBox
I am thrilled to report that the magic software which Sony requires me to use to download ebooks from their on-line bookstore finally runs under VirtualBox. For reasons which I understand, but do not agree with, Sony requires use of their special software to download anything from their eBook Store, even free ebooks. Since I […]
IE6: Get Over It
I am fed up with wasting clients’ dollars “fixing” web sites so that they look good in Internet Explorer 6. IE7 has been out for 2 1/2 years. IE8 is available as a free beta. There are lots of other browsers available for free. All of these browsers work better than IE6. If you still […]
Sony PlayStation 3 as a Home Theater PC
Candy and I have talked about building or buying a home theater computer (HTPC) for years. We have a pretty nice home theater including a projected HD picture that is almost 100″ diagonal and fairly impressive 5.1 sound. This gear works great for DVDs and HD-DVDs (yes, I picked the wrong horse in that race) […]
Poisoning People with Old Electronics
This article in Slashdot about the electronic trash that we create hit home. I cannot think of a good way to paraphrase it so here is the whole thing: Every day, Americans toss out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers, making electronic waste the fastest-growing part of the US garbage stream. A lot […]
Benjamin Franklin’s Electrical Kite
We all know the story of Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in an electrical storm. I always thought that it was kind of fanciful, along the same lines as the myth about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree. Guess what: I was wrong. Franklin not only flew the kite in a storm, he held […]
Tinkering for Fun
When I was a kid, my parents got me a chemistry set, signed me up for the science kit of the month, and encouraged an incredible of experimentation which stank, buzzed, glowed and occasionally broke stuff or blew fuses. I performed useful public services by keeping trash like antique speakers and yards of old extension […]
Step 2: Google Chrome to Replace Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux
Do you remember when I predicted that Google Chrome would take over the world replace Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux? Here is the next step, to be released for CES which begins January 8, 2009. If all you want from your computer is to read your email (Gmail) and surf the web and use […]
Reader Plates – Economical Paperless IFR Approach Plates
I purchased my Sony PRS-505 ebook reader primarily to run Reader Plates. This is a set of electronic IFR approach plates or, to be technically correct about the name, the FAA (NACO) Terminal Approach Procedures. When I fly IFR (in the clouds), I use these half-page charts when taking off from or landing at an […]
Trial Licenses and Books
My Sony PRS-505 ebook reader continues to delight me. I have chewed my way through a couple of books and several short stories, all without the bother of braving the mall to reach Borders or the traffic to reach the library. As I have finished these books, I simply let them evaporate into the ether, […]
Loving the Sony PRS-505 eBook Reader
Having spent almost a week with my new Sony PRS-505 eBook reader, I am way past infatuated and well into love. For reading books, it just plain works. No fuss; no muss. I have grabbed several books, some old, some new, and am thoroughly enjoying reading them. The first line of the main menu, visible […]
eBook First Impressions
I bought an ebook reader this week (a Sony PRS-505, more on that in another posting, I promise) and have been so busy figuring our the whole ebook game that I have not taken the time either to read many of the blogs that I follow or to write. Here are my first impressions of […]
Added Benefit of On-line Family Trees
I published my family tree on-line so that other family members and genealogists would have easy access. I never imagined that it would turn into a way to find long lost friends. I just received this email message: A friend of mine from college was looking for me. So, he googled my family name and […]
What if the Matrix Ran on Windows?
See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.
Bye Bye Windows 3.x
The headline The end of an era – Windows 3.x startled me this morning. My first thought was to look at the dateline; it had to be in the distant past and I wanted to see how distant. I will save you the tension and anticipation; the dateline is November 1, 2008, just four days […]
Cross Browser Testing
Cross browser testing is always a pain to coordinate but at least it just got a lot less expensive. Amazon Web Services just released AMIs running Windows which means that you can now get Windows virtual machines for as little as $0.125 per hour. These beasties make great platforms for doing cross browser testing. The […]
Boom or Bust for Open Source Software?
You might have noticed a bit of “uncertainty” in the economy these days. I was fascinated to see these two articles show up within 24 hours of each other: Economy to Give Open-Source a Good Thumping by Andrew Keen <snip> So how will today’s brutal economic climate change the Web 2.0 “free” economy? It will […]
Steal This Comic or Song
I buy a lot of music on-line and it breaks down like this: 1,268 completely unlocked MP3 files, easily playable on any computer or device, all purchased from eMusic.com. (Here’s a link to get 25 FREE iPod® compatible downloads from eMusic! Choose from over 2.8 Million songs! ) 0 DRM-locked files from iTunes, Audible.com, etc.
Laptop Battery Myth
Infoworld published 10 power-saving myths debunked. I admit that I assumed this myth was true. Myth No. 7: Notebook batteries just wear out. There’s not much you can do to make them last longer. Fact: Many laptops with nickel-cadmium batteries come with a battery-reconditioning utility that drains the battery fully, then brings it back to […]
Netflix Quietly Begins Live TV Broadcasting
Internet TV—broadcasting live television over the internet instead of using radio broadcasts or the cable television infrastruction. Almost everybody has heard of it. Some people talk about it as the Next Big Thing in television. Many people figure that it will not happen for a long time for a wide range of business and technical […]
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