- Bye, Bye Pluto
Here's a quick trivia question for ya: How many planets are in our Solar System? A couple weeks ago the correct answer would have been nine. Now, it's eight. Or 11, if you count Dwarf Planets. What? And you thought this was an article about only computer stuff. Usually it is, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk about this major milestone in Astronomy: we finally know what a planet is. And Pluto isn't one. - Rural Sourcing
I remember it all so well. The dot-com had just dot-bombed, the stock market was suffering from a sucker punch to the throat, and we were beginning to hear about some guy named Ken Lay. A little while later, news came out about Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, and Adelphia, among others. It seemed that companies were going under and CEOs were getting indicted faster than you can say 'stock option.' And then came the layoffs. Thousands upon thousands began losing their jobs on a regular basis. We started hearing about places overseas that were getting all kinds of work from US companies. - Oh Boy! A New (to me) Toy!
I am a very happy man this morning. It feels like Christmas and Santa has been good. You see, I made a purchase this past weekend that has me very excited—I now have another computer to play with. - Personal Digital Assistants
Are you a post-it note kind of person? I am. Every morning, my first three tasks are to get coffee, check email and write my daily prioritized to-do list. - The Future is Now
Remember that neat little wrist watch Dick Tracy used? You know, the one that had the phone, TV, etc all built in. And it told time, too. Way back when Dick Tracy first appeared, a watch like that was nothing more than a wistful look into the technology of the future. At the time, I’m sure that it was widely thought that technology would never get so advanced that a simple little wristwatch could actually provide all those functions. - Should You Get High Definition TV?
This week, we’ll talk about digital and High-Definition TV, and what these technologies offer us. - A Guide to Internet Cookies
There are a lot of misconceptions and fear out there about these things called ‘Cookies’. This week, I’ll try to clear up some of the confusion that might be out there and settle some fears. You may suddenly find yourself wondering if I am now writing a cooking article instead of my usual ‘Tech Tips’. I assure you that I would never try to tell anyone how to make kool-aid, much less actually cook something… - Computers Are Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!
Many people have a fear of computers, and that is certainly understandable. Oftentimes, computers are looked upon as monstrous contraptions that are just too complicated. This week, we'll talk a little bit about these monsters and see what's so scary (or not so scary) about them. - The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men, or, how I Learned to Stop Worrying and use Surge Protection
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry...' Thus the paraphrase goes of the words of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. These words ring very true to me this morning. - Is Your Computer a Sluggish Starter?
Does your computer seem to be intent on driving you crazy? Sometimes it seems that we wait for what seems like an eternity for the computer to boot up so we can do something. What in the world could that computer be doing for so long between the time you press the 'On' button and the Windows screen finally showing up? - Megabytes, Megabits and All the Rest
Megabytes, Megabits... What's the difference? Well, a lot, actually. Very often people use the terms bits and bytes interchangeably when they mean very different things. - Who Wants to Go Phishing?
If you receive an email from a bank, credit card, eBay or some other online service asking you to click a link and login to verify your account information, be wary: you may be the bait for a Phishing expedition. Phishing is when a thief pretends to be a valid business, say eBay, and sends thousands of emails to people asking them to click a link provided in the email to verify their account information. - Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!
If you are like most everyone else in the world with an email address, you cringe every time you look at your inbox and see that 90% of your emails are from someone trying to sell you something. It gets to be a hassle, trying to sort the real emails from the junk, and I have more than once deleted an actual email thinking that it was junk. Of course, all this junk email we get has a name. And its name is Spam. - Digital Video Recorders - A Couch Potato Dream Realized
OK, let's all admit that we sometimes schedule things around our favorite TV shows. - A Guide to Digital Cameras
When my wife and I first found out a few years ago that we were going to have a baby, we both automatically shifted to baby-prep mode. She spent her time buying pretty things for the nursery and shopping for cribs and car seats. Like the ultra geek that I am, I started shopping for a digital camera so we could forever celebrate little Haley’s birth with pictures.
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