Tech Blog

eBooks are going to be bigger than ever in the coming months, especially since Apple's recently announced its iBooks ebook store. It's pure speculation on my part, but I'm thinking that in the coming months with the launch of the iPad, iBooks will also be available for the iPhone and iPod touch... Read more...

Winter in Canada means cold winter nights -- nights that, if you're on the prairies, are usually cold, crisp and clear. Which means perfect evenings for stargazing. But if you're temperature challenged, live on the 'wet' coast, or are located in much cloudier environs, then perhaps these two astronomy software applications can help. Bonus points...they're Linux, OSX and Windows rated. Read more...

This time of year many of us travel home to visit family. If you're the least bit of a techie, you'll likely be called in to help someone diagnose some sort of computer problem -- hopefully not very serious. But if Uncle Billy's computer 'just stopped working' and you know you're going to be spending an evening there, you can bet you'll be asked to 'just take a look at it, you're so good with computers it won't take you long to figure it out.' The next thing you know you're plopped in front of the system, waiting for it to go through a virus laden bootup while wistfully remembering that hot rum toddy you left by the fireplace. Read more...

Lately I've been trying to keep my windows desktop icon and clutter free. In my case, this has meant that I've been saving less to my desktop (my default save-to location) and more to working directories. And, since a cluttered desktop reflects a cluttered mind, I like to think of this as a bit of personal mental-floss. Read more...

This morning (one of) the big stories on the tech wires is that Google is offering their own DNS services—Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Public DNS—which is part of their efforts to speed up the web (along with giving site owners tools to speed up the load times of their sites). Google provides good, easy to follow, directions on the Google Public DNS page—Using Google Public DNS. So, Google is making it easy to switch to their DNS, should you? Maybe so. Read more...

It's entirely possible that you've got a slightly older computer sitting around doing nothing, and you've thought to yourself, "Self, I really should turn that old computer into a media centre, rather than let all that good tech go to waste...but how?" Read more...

If you've been thinking of trying ChromeOS, especially the USB boot versions, then you should consult this ChromeOS hardware compatibility guide. No, this isn't 100% guaranteed stuff, and will certainly be be updated over time, but it's a good idea to check. Read more...

Since we're in the business here of helping folks get more out of their tech, I thought I'd help you let out your inner Spielburg or Ken Burns with a little movie making. If you have relatively recent Mac you've got an iSight built in and coupled with iMovie you're ready to start recording movies like this masterwork I recorded tonight: Read more...

Yeah, it's that time again. I've made my list—something I haven't been fond of doing since I was a kid—but for those of you who are still making your list (double checking is always recommended) or the recipient of said list (in which case I suggest triple checking) MacWorld is running a series of buying guides for the Mac faithful. Read more...

Window 7 has been available at retail for a couple of weeks now, so I thought I'd use this post to explore some of the cooler features and functions, cooler to me, at least And, of course, when you select features to profile, a nice round number is always a bonus... Read more...

Ever wish you could undo a particular driver or application installation? I have, recently in fact when I installed Adobe CS3 on my wife's Windows 7 /XP dual-boot computer. Something happened in that install that pooched the Flash plugin for Internet Explorer. It could have been a bad scene, except for a cool little feature of Windows 7, one that has been a part of the Windows OS since ME (so there was one good thing about ME). Read more...

Not everyone wants to lug a laptop around with them between classes or across town to a study session at the library. Or perhaps you're moving between a work computer, your home computer and a remote worksite computer, yet want to make sure you've got your suite of regular-use tools at hand ('cause you certainly can't guarantee they'll be installed on computers you don't control). This is where the concept of the 'portable application' comes to the rescue. Read more...

After weeks in beta, the latest update for Snow Leopard (10.6.2) has come out as well as some security updates for 10.5. It's a hefty update, my feeling is that 10.6.1 was pushed out fast to fix some key issues, but 10.6.2 is more of a refinement and fixing things that can only come out after enough people use it and start hitting issues. One of those key issues is the mysterious guest login-disappearing data bug (that's a pretty big bug, actually). Read more...

WordPress is the the leading blog engine right now. I've been using it for years and am pretty comfortable with setting it up on a webhost, but what if you want to play with it for a while and don't have a webhost or just want to keep your bloggy creations off the Internet? Simple, you download everything you need and run a complete server on your own machine. Have 30 mins? That's pretty much all you need, so let's get going. Read more...

Do you ever get the feeling like the folks behind the major OSes (Windows, OS X, and Ubuntu) seem to just want to stay in lock step with each other? Sure you expect it from Microsoft and Apple, but the Linux crowd? Regardless, it's T minus 1 day until Ubuntu 9.10 (aka Karmic Koala) goes final (you can download the beta now) and I have the release candidate of our next furry friend to turn into a virtual machine (or maybe even a new boot partition). But, huh what's a geek to do? So many OSes, so little time? Read more...