Wednesday
10Mar2010

Tools I Can't Live Without (Part II)

Is your cell phone a phone that does computer things or a computer that does phone things? I actually have a Blackberry Storm (first generation)... So I have a computer phone that does annoying things. Well, sometimes, for the most part it is a decent phone. There are plenty of phones that do computer things, including even letting you post to your FaceBook account. Usually these phones are pretty proprietary in nature and have an extremely limited choice of applications. By contrast there are a range of devices that are actually computers that also happen to make calls. These are your Droids, iPhones, Pres, and Storms.

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Tuesday
09Mar2010

Tools I Can't Live Without (Part I)

Do you have any tools that are almost as required as your pants to get you through the day with the minimum of hassle? I have a bunch of them (both necessary tools and pants), and I'm going to start a small miniseries here featuring each one. Well, the tools, not the pants.

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Thursday
25Feb2010

Too Small for Cloud Computing?

I was at a meeting with a prospective client a couple of days ago. It was a lunch meeting at the Big Sky Cafe in San Luis Obispo... The food and service were great, in case you're wondering.

The prospective client mentioned something that gave me pause. She had attended a seminar on Cloud Computing (are you tired of that buzzword yet? Here's a link defining it). She was abuzz with the possibilities for her business... Until one of the vendors at said seminar told her that her company was "too small for cloud computing".

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Friday
20Nov2009

A (somewhat) shiny new OS

I stumbled upon a neat article this evening, one of those rare items that piques my interest to the point where I want to give it a try. 

There have been rumors for some time surrounding Google's ChromeOS, culminating in the news that a Google press release was forthcoming today. As it turns out, not only did we learn something about ChromeOS, we got the opportunity to download a VMWare image of it. Take note: you need to create a GDGT account in order to download this copy, but hey, it's worth it.

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Friday
16Oct2009

Unboxing An Asus Eee PC 1101HAB

My wife's computer finally quit. It's been in service 6 years, I can't complain. She has pretty simple needs out of a computer - pretty much spreadsheets, email, and a web browser. Thus there was no urgency to replace it, until the laptop monitor finally unhinged itself from the rest of the computer.

I have had my eye on Netbooks for some time, considering them for my consulting business. They would achieve much of what I need to do as a network consultant with a light, inexpensive computer product.

 

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