Tech by PC

The ideal policy

PC — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:30:35 +0000

Computer and Internet policy in the workplace, Part 2: The Ideal Policy The ideal policy must balance productivity. It has to focus on actual results of policy change, not a theoretical ideal. First, you need to identify what problem you have that you want to develop policy to solve. Policy for the sake of policy is [...]

Computer and Internet Policy in the Workplace

PC — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:41:58 +0000

I have some first hand knowledge of several different ways of handling policy in the workplace. This article is the first in a series that will discuss those, some theoretical ideals, implementation and awareness techniques, and pitfalls to implementation. Policy usually seeks to maintain safety for proprietary company data, employee privacy, public relations/image reasons, and [...]

Christmas

PC — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:00:59 +0000

Merry Christmas! So what was on your wishlist for Christmas this year? Did you get it? I did not put much in the way of technology on my wish list this year. Everything I want is too expensive. If I didn’t have a limit here are some tech things on my wish list: Dual-Quad server with 64GB [...]

Silly Spam Comments

PC — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:26:20 +0000

If you run a blog you’ve most likely come across spam comments like this: Submit your comments to millions of sites with the ***** submission tool. Generate backlinks, etc etc. Ok, two reasons why this is stupidly funny. First, if you have such a bad blog that you need to spam to get it viewed [...]

Shift in the tide at Apple

PC — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:50:16 +0000

I just saw an article on Wired called 8 Signs That Apple Customers Are No Longer Special. I am going to breech the Apple vs. PC subject here with my 2 cents. First of all, the article has some good points, but the larger picture is that Apple has fans that spend money on them [...]

GM Needs to go Bankrupt

PC — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:51:02 +0000

GM has halted work on the factory that is to produce the engine for the Volt. This is absolutely the last thing they should be doing right now. They need to commit 100% to the Volt at the expense of all else. I don’t care if they halt every other production line and sell every [...]

Energy Saving Technology

PC — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:34:43 +0000

I’ve written about the Atom processor and what it could do to save power if used in enterprise. Here are some things that I’ve done to save energy at home. Replaced all my lights with CFL (Compact FLourescent) bulbs. Replaced windows with triple pane vinyl. Fixed the draft under the front door with a draft guard like you’ve [...]

Welcome Wordpres 2.7

PC — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:50:22 +0000

It took me less than 5 minutes to upgrade 4 blogs that I’m responsible for on the technical end. If you are a Wordpress user who has shell access to your server and you aren’t using subversion to update, then you are just wasting your time. I have been looking forward to this release for quite [...]

When will a computer be an appliance?

PC — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:05:12 +0000

This topic has been debated for many years with pontificators claiming that the appliance computer had arrived, yet we still see tremendous progress in processor speed and capability, hard drive space, video cards, and so on. I have usually disagreed with these statements, instead believing that software and people’s desire for and immersive and fluid [...]

Garmin Nuvi 750 Review

PC — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:47:47 +0000

My Nuvi just started saying that the maps are outdated and need to be upgraded, probably at a cost. I have had it for about a year now, and while I don’t regret getting it there are some things about it that I think are done rather poorly. The following is my pro/con list for [...]

Online Advertising

PC — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:50:42 +0000

This is not an online marketing blog, or anything of the sort, however my experience with promotion over the past few months has taught me a few things and given me the motive to try some new things. I thought I would share some experiences and get any advice that anyone might want to share. [...]

LED Christmas Lights

PC — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:20:25 +0000

Walmart is now selling LED Christmas lights. For a string of 60 lights at 4.5 watts and pretty much zero heat generation this is a great idea. As someone who moved to CFL bulbs many years ago, this is just the next step in progression. Amazon has some lights available online, but Walmart’s 60 light [...]

Making more money without a website

PC — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:40:51 +0000

Dr. Pepper made good on a promise to give everyone a free Dr. Pepper when/if Guns N’ Roses finished Chinese Democracy, started in 1994. They opted to use their website to hand out free coupons for Dr. Pepper. Well, the website crashed. They extended the free Dr. Pepper through 6pm today, but even today I [...]

What if there had been a tech bailout?

PC — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:08:39 +0000

It wasn’t too long ago that we had this little thing called the dot com bust. What if the government had bailed out the tech firms as they plan to do to the auto industry? Here’s a little glimpse into what our lives would look like. Grocery stores would be online, and even rurual customers could [...]

Vista cuts down on help desk calls

PC — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:55:37 +0000

That is what I heard from a Microsoft trainer recently. Does anyone have any direct knowledge of whether this is true or not? The problem with any metric like this is that there are so many more variables than just Windows Vista and Windows XP. For example, take a 3-year old Windows XP machine and [...]

DirecTV2PC Beta

PC — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:35:30 +0000

This is some good stuff. I downloaded the DirecTV2PC beta recently and have been using it to watch recorded shows in other rooms of the house. Read on for a full review with screen shots. DirecTV2PC Requirements There is a requirement wizard that will test your PC to see if you meet the minimum requirements. I downloaded [...]

Magic Jack

PC — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:20:04 +0000

Ok, this is the last post for a while on Magic Jack. I have been using it for several days now and here is what I learned and why I will not be replacing my home phone system with it. I can’t port my number. That’s right, I have found several places on the Internet that [...]

Phone Decisions

PC — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:46:46 +0000

I recently bought a Magic Jack to evaluate, and I finally got around to moving the house phones over to it. Unfortunately it is not yet possible to port your number to Magic Jack, so for the time being I have forwarded my Packet 8 number to the Magic Jack number. We will see how [...]

Time Changes

PC — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:48:38 +0000

In the USA we just went though a time change. The majority of the world does not do daylight savings time, however some of us are still stuck on legacy systems. The most common answer to why daylight savings time was used is that it was good for the farmers, however this answer is largly mythological [...]

Vampires!

PC — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:42:41 +0000

Since Halloween just went by I thought I would talk about vampires. You know, things that turn into bats and suck your blood! No, I’m just kidding. Well, I am talking about Vampires, but of a different sort. Vampires, Wall Warts, Power Brick, these are all descriptive names for those transformers that plug into your wall [...]