Maybe it’s due to the shorter attention spans of today’s youngsters, or even the advent of instant messengers and texting via cell phones, but is anyone else beside me a bit dismayed by the decline in basic writing skills on the internet? I certainly am.
Category Archives: Computing
Cranky Geeks
For nearly the past two decades, I’ve been an on-again, off-again reader of PC Magazine, having first picked up an issue at some point in the mid 80s to learn more about the computer I had purchased a year or two earlier. After a couple of issues, I was hooked, and was a subscriber for many, many years. I still visit their site regularly, and have seen various columnists and editors come and go. One notable (or one could say notorious) columnist is John C. Dvorak, who has had not one, but two columns in PC Magazine (his own opinion column, and “Inside Track”). I’ve always admired his style, even if I never agreed with him 100% of the time. He’s been on TV as well as radio, so he’s no stranger to the broadcast world either, and has written for countless other publications in addition to PC Magazine.
Windows alternatives…and they’re free!
Computer hardware prices have dropped noticeably in the past few years, to where a computer is sold more like an appliance. While the power user and gamer computers are still pricey (as they should be, with a lot of heavy duty hardware inside), the average household user is now able to buy an affordable computer. And as some consumers buy new computers, they hand down their older ones to friends or family members. One hidden expense, though, is software. What can you do to lessen the pinch?
Two Routers for Your LAN
I reconnected my Vonage line, due to a new line of work I’m getting into. With Vonage, you are required to use their router, as it provides you with the VoIP (voice over IP) connection that you need to connect your telephone to the internet. (Mine is a Linksys RTP300.) As I already owned their router, I did not need to get a new one (although I could have ordered a Motorola wireless router from them…for a fee). However, I also run some of my other computers on the network, and the Nintendo DS, using my D-Link DI-624 wireless router, and I often need to exchange files between computers on the LAN (as I often use other computers to backup data onto), or access those computers using Remote Desktop. So, without having to buy yet another router, I had to find a way to make both of them work together–they both had to connect to the internet, as well as share files and allow Remote Desktop connections between them. Continue reading Two Routers for Your LAN
Gmail and Spam Filtering
I have been using Gmail’s web interface for quite awhile now, almost two years. Thing is, I had pretty much abandoned my Eudora installation. Every so often I’d log into it to dump my mailbox contents, but wasn’t actively using it to do my e-mail chores anymore. Gmail’s interface is nicely laid out, and very responsive–with the AJAX technology, the screen refreshes with new mail within a minute. The best part about Gmail is their spam filtering.