2004 November

How are my dogs feeling right now? Here, let me find out… ah, they’re in a playful mood. I can’t read minds - but I can read LCD screens. There’s a new product on the market called the Bow-lingual. Gag gift? Yes and no. I saw it sitting on the shelf and couldn’t resist its […]

Anyone who is even remotely interested in the spam issue, how spammers work, why spammers spam, and, perhaps most important, how the rest of us are contributing to the problem, and what we can do about it should run, not walk, to their closest bookstore or online bookseller to pick up a copy of Danny […]

Do you ever find yourself searching for a file you know is on your hard drive somewhere? Or maybe you need to find a file on the network, and you don’t know where it is? Tired of using Windows file search and find it horribly slow? Well, suffer no more! Burn Rubber: File Search Accelerator […]

The world is a surprisingly small place, and as a species, we’re unusually messy and destructive. But the last few years have seen an impressive increase in awareness of the importance of recycling. Instead of just throwing things away as soon as we’ve finished with them, many of us go to considerable lengths to dispose […]

MasterYourWindows is a system check tool that continuously checks auto-run-entries, BHOs, etc. You can deactivate or delete the entries to detect or get rid of viruses, trojans, and hijackers. It will auto-maximize selected application windows, as well as auto-minimize or close annoying dialog windows, applet windows, or system windows in your browser. Create default […]

When you’re in the market for some new hardware, how do you usually go about buying it? Do you just walk into your local computer store, close your eyes, and point at a random product? If you do, then you’ve probably experienced some major heartache. Purchasing hardware is not something you want to do on […]

Q: I just purchased a scanner, and I’m going to try to scan in a bunch of my family photographs. I don’t know anything about scanning, but I really want to make sure that my picture scans come out as good as they possibly can. Where can I go to receive some basic scanning education?

Instead of considering broad issues, today I will concentrate on a single part of the problems some seniors have becoming comfortable with using a computer: the mouse. Achieving unconscious skill with the mouse and clicking is essential, yet we tend to forget that this is not a natural tool.

I picked up a 1GB SD card the other day… for $60 and a $15 mail-in rebate. I only have one device that supports Secure Digital at the moment, but it seems to be the “removable media” of choice for products today. I’m not sure if prices will go much lower than this before the […]

I must be one of dozens of Nintendo DS owners on the planet right now. I checked the Linkup Engine, and I’m feeling quite lonely. Of course, the lonliness is made more tolerable with a Nintendo DS in hand! The included Metroid Hunters demo is fun, but… controlling the character is somewhat clumsy on the […]

It doesn’t take a prolific e-mailer to see that the spam of this holiday season is going to be… the Robosapien Robot (a seemingly cheap-ass Aibo knock-off). You’ve probably already seen these Robosapiens gaining sentience in local electronics stores, too. Has anybody bothered to check the specs on these monsters? At least I finally stopped […]

My desktop wasn’t looking terribly merry until a few seconds ago. Someone at InterfaceLIFT posted a Christmas Wallpaper. It’s quite jolly. I’m looking for other media fun now… know of any Christmas wallpaper sites I should see and share with all my other Christmastime buddies? It’s much easier to right-click and Save As than it […]

Oh those crazy software CEOs… what will they think of next? How about paying every employee $5000 for buying a hybrid automobile that gets better than 45 MPG? That’s what Godfrey Sullivan, president and CEO of business performance management software developer Hyperion is offering to his employees… $5000 to buy a Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, […]

Every once in a while, there is a program that is just fun to use. One that captures the imagination, serves a purpose, provides information, and takes advantage of the latest Internet and computer technology. Today’s Family First site visits just such a program and the associated Web site.
The site we are looking at is […]

I’m now the proud co-owner of an Epson PictureMate photo printer. Even though I’ve only spent about three days with it so far, I’m ready to recommend it to all you Holiday shoppers. I’ve never owned any kind of photo printer before, so let me explain why I believe it’ll appeal to those of you […]

So many of you responded to the post about the U.S. government mandating the embedding of RFIDs in U.S. passports in 2005, that I felt that I should provide you with this update.
According to the Washington Post today, the Bush administration has responded to the privacy concerns of privacy advocates by saying, essentially, “hell no, […]

The purpose of 7Canaries Professional (by TallStick Software) is to retrieve music scores from audio recordings. It takes a standard WAV file as input, then processes it and outputs a standard MIDI file. Unlike most competitors, it allows you to get several voices (up to nine). The program works with pre-recorded files, and there are […]

PhishGuard is a software/service that helps you detect and block phishing or spoofing attempts, usually designed to lure you into providing personal or credit card information to fake online sites. The program integrates into Internet Explorer and warns you whenever you visit a site that is known to be a scam. It uses an online […]

The movie buff is a species that is frequently found in dark quarters with a bucket of some sort of popped corn covered with artificial butter. They seek out the sticky floors of these habitats on a weekly basis, often staying in the area until their job is complete. Approaching them outright is not a […]

Q: I have a bunch of movies on my hard drive that contain live performances from some of my favorite bands. Instead of having to watch the videos every time, I’d like to extract the audio from the performances so I can listen to them on my MP3 player. What sort of standalone program can […]