I downloaded this completely cool desktop wallpaper that makes your LCD look like it has been broken, and a bunch of people at work keep asking me what happened to my monitor. Awesome!

Folks, our friend Johny has uploaded a Woopra overview video which is so comprehensive it even taught me a couple of things about how the application works!

If you’re using Woopra currently, I recommend that you spend 10 minutes with the video and pick up at least a few new tricks. If not, you can see what all the buzz is about, and what you’ll soon be able to get access to.

For those of you who can’t wait till the closed beta ends to get started, there are two opportunities to get your invite now:
Read the rest of this entry »

This is fantastic. For all you computer loving Muppet fans out there. You’ll get a kick out of this video.

It looks kind of old, and I suppose this is actually Cookie Monster’s distant cousin, Computer Monster. Enjoy!
Read the rest of this entry »

This three-minute promotional video from Digital Equipment Corporation produced in 1994 sure takes me back. At that time people were using 14.4kbps Modems to dial into an Internet service provider and read pages on the Web. And the number of sites was only in the hundreds or possibly thousands.

Compare that to today… there are 160 Million sites and I visit them on my 10,000kbps (10 Mbps) cable connection (a 700x increase!). My house has more bandwidth than the backbone in 1994!

One of the choice quotes from this video:

In the future you will be forced to compete with distant companies you’ve never encountered before, and you’ll be able to expand to new markets at low cost.

Read the rest of this entry »

As many of you know, I’m not a fan of the Mac. I’m a PC power user, so I can happily do anything within Windows, and don’t find the need to feel special about myself by standing out from the crowd by purchasing a computer that has miniscule market share.

Having said all that, for those of you that have been living under a rock, Apple has just launched a pretty cool new laptop that is only about a half an inch thick. The presentation of the new machine was done in typical Apple style - that means, perfectly launched. Just watch the video to see what I mean.
Read the rest of this entry »

Folks, I don’t know how something like this could happen, but I’m telling you - YouTube was completely off-line this morning around 9:30am here in Texas. and when I say off-line, I mean entirely.

I noticed it when someone at the office complained that a video wasn’t loading in the blog. Then we tried to go to their homepage, and… nothing. Nothing but an HTTP error at least. We tried on multiple computers too, but it doesn’t really matter because this is the type of error that only the Web servers spit out.

I’m guessing that most people would have missed this outage, but I wonder if anyone else did indeed notice it? It just goes to prove that even the big boys can go down sometimes. Still, it makes me wonder what switch could have been thrown to take down the entire site and all of the videos at once.

This is so completely off the hook geeky that it is wickedly cool… So, if anyone is looking for an excuse to get me a present, here is the number one idea. A shirt with animated bars that actually detect WiFi signals.

Better yet, it’s available for only $30 at ThinkGeek.com.

Product Features

• Glowing animated shirt dynamically displays the current wi-fi signal strength.
• Shows signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g
• Black 100% Cotton T-Shirt
• Animated Decal is Removable (with hook and loop fasteners) for Easy Washing
• Battery Pack is Concealed in a Small Pocket Sewn Inside the Shirt
• Runs for hours off three AAA Batteries (not included)

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve previously written about how to access your PC from anywhere for free, and my favorite tool for this purpose is LogMeIn.com. The only problem with LogMeIn is, you need to have previously installed, and have running, the LogMeIn application in order to access the machine remotely.

But what if your buddy / relative / coworker calls you out of the blue wanting you to diagnose some computer issue and you know it would be 100 times easier if you could just remote control the computer? Well, no problem! CrossLoop is the fastest, easiest method of accomplishing this.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ok. You know how Microsoft seems like it always crashes at the most inopportune moments possible? Well frankly, it’s all your fault. What you need to do is type the following command: Hold ALT, CTRL, CAPS LOCK, and TAB while simultaneously pressing F8, HOME, ARROW DOWN, and ENTER.

This will bring up the following dialog box. Examine closely to adjust your systems preferences.

The other day I was explaining to someone what a Wiki is, though I didn’t do a very good job because it’s something that is a bit difficult to explain off the top of your head.

Well, now I can redeem myself by posting this excellent video about Wikis which simplifies and demystifies the entire subject.
Read the rest of this entry »

Folks, I just wanted to pass along a tip for a free PDF Printer Driver in case anyone was ever looking for one, or in case you don’t know what this even is!

A PDF Printer Driver is a little piece of software that installs just like a printer would, but instead of converting your printed output it saves the exact printed format as a PDF file. You might want to do this for any of the following reasons:

• To e-mail a document in a universal format which preserves the exact page layout. For example, if you create a form using MS Word, you can convert it to PDF.
• To preview exactly what a document is going to look like when printed before wasting paper and ink.
• To post a printable version of a document on a Web site that people can access using any computing platform.
• If you want to print something, but you aren’t near a printer you can print it to a PDF and then later print a hard copy. VERY useful for offline work on a laptop while traveling.

The only problem is that up until relatively recently the only way to accomplish this was to own a very expensive piece of Adobe software. But now there are a few free alternatives on the market, and I wanted to recommend Bullzip PDF Printer.
Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s post is unfortunately a sad one. We lost a very close family member this weekend to a long battle with a number of ailments including Cancer. It was one of those situations where our loved one was taken decades before her time, but at least it was not something that just occurred suddenly.

It’s been a very sad weekend, but at the same time one that reminds me how precious life is. I also came to the personal realization that grief is for the living, not the dead. We have to continue on through this world forever missing a part of ourselves that can never be refilled.

This weekend also reminded me of a commitment I made some time ago to help Stanford University’s Folding@Home project which researches fundamental causes of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes. Cancer and Parkinson’s have both impacted my family and I believe that with enough emphasis we can cure these crippling diseases.

And you can help Stanford’s research by simply running a tiny piece of software on your computer that only uses the spare cycles when you don’t need them.
Read the rest of this entry »