I’m really digging Boxee, a free, open-source media center program. Basically, it’s a piece of software that turns your computer into a TV by aggregating online videos and such from places like YouTube, the Onion Online (which is hilarious, by the way), ComedyCentral.com, and other places that have lots of awesome free content. It also [...]
This is a multi-part series about my journey on the road to becoming a real PC owner and user. As a Mac guy tired of being left behind when it came to new games, both in terms of software and hardware, I finally decided to take the plunge and build a gaming PC. Time for [...]
I bought my current laptop, a now two-year-old 17″ MacBook Pro, for 3D animation and gaming. I figured I’d need its capacious screen for Maya’s enormous and bloated user interface, and that the extra size would allow the machine to squeeze out more power from its X1600 graphics card, which was pretty good in November [...]
The Microsoft of today is the Apple of yesteryear; directionless, adrift, unpopular, deserted by the technical elite, and home to mostly shitty software. Microsoft produces a thousand different products with no unified vision or purpose, and most of them bleed money. Like the Apple of the 1990s, research labs belch forth an unending stream of [...]
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked (in the role of Windows IT guy) to fix printing problems, install various basic PDF utilities and disinfect malware-infested computers, I’d have enough money to buy all the Macs needed to banish these routine issues for good. Seriously! It’s 2008 and Windows still doesn’t [...]
So a particularly embarrassing email written by Bill Gates and made public during the company’s antitrust investigations was just put all over the internet, and boy is it a doozy! Here goes: From: Bill Gates Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM To: Jim Allchin Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will [...]
Are you an IT person? No? Well, pretend that was a yes for a moment. I’d like to take a few moments to talk about Microsoft Windows as it relates to IT. The particular issue I’ve been having at the moment that out of the box, WIndows XP, well, just can’t do anything. You have [...]
I was reading Daniel Eran’s (of RoughlyDrafted) latest article on the history of Microsoft Office and a great point was brought up: despite Microsoft’s bluster about working with others, it routinely stabs its partners in the back when convenient. The general message is this: if Microsoft partners with you or buys your technology, it’s because [...]
People follow personal philosophies all the time, and many companies have corporate philosophies as well. Holding true to a core set of beliefs that inform and guide your decisions is a sure way to not only infuse your life or company with a sense of purpose, but also to attract those who agree with your [...]
I got a pretty standard assignment today: a faculty member’s computer is on the fritz, so take a look and replace the machine if you can’t fix it on-site. Fair enough; I went down and took the requisite look. She had a Dell Optiplex something something 26-something, and on the dim screen was a blinking [...]