Comparing Hardware Specs and Cost - the new standard for men?

Category: Techtoday It always confuses me when people exchange hardware specs in forums and boast about how much they spent for their setup, tablet, laptop, or smartphone. "I spent xxx dollars and my xxx processor and xxx RAM can smoke your rig any day of the week!" And then another guy will come out of nowhere and say, "It's in the OS d*mb*ass and nothing is better than an iMac with Mountain...

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Booting into Linux on Windows 8 Secure Boot-equipped hardware

Category: LinuxWhen news about Secure Boot came out and fears of Linux users being kicked out as an alternate OS started, I wasn't apprehensive. I had full faith that the Linux community would quickly resolve the issue quickly and with panache. At any rate, if you've purchased hardware preinstalled with Windows 8 and can't seem to boot using your beloved LiveCD or LiveUSB, you can try a work around via the...

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Adventures in Xujiahui, Shanghai Part 2

Category: Techtoday Metro Plaza: Gangnam Style, Secret, Girls Generation, and Linux Metro Plaza has its own smaller electronics market but you visit the mall for the computer brand retail stores. The staff are more knowledgeable and not as pushy. Gaming devices like the Playstation 3 and XBOX360 are also more visible here. The same brands in Pacific Digital Plaza are there plus lesser known ...

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Adventures in Xujahui, Shanghai Part 1

Category: Techtoday As a penniless fan of computers and electronics, I've spent countless hours just walking around in places like BestBuy and Future Shop (Canada). As nice as Newegg, Fry's, and Amazon are for browsing products online, there's nothing like touching and smelling the silicon, plastic, and metal parts of newly unpackaged products. You can't accuse me of "showrooming"  though since I...

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Lettering Comic Books using CorelDraw Part 2

Now that you have your callout or thought balloon, you can start positioning and adding the text. 1. Using the Pick Tool, move and resize your Callout shape to position it on on top of the comic book panel. If you used the Callout Shape Tool to create your balloon, use the Shape tool to adjust the node and point the callout to the speaker. 2. Before adding the text, choose your font carefully....

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Lettering Comic Books using CorelDraw Part 1

Category: Techtoday In my article about translating comic books, I gave an overview on the steps to translate a foreign-language comic book. In this tutorial, we'll take a look at replacing the text on a comic book panel with your newly written translation. Although this can be done in any graphics editor, we'll be using a vector application instead, which creates more precise shapes and provides better...

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QuickFix: Use your Sony Reader PRS as a card reader (Linux)

Category: LinuxThe old Sony PRS-600 has a Sony Pro Memory Duo slot and works with an M2 adapter if needed. Although it was expensive at the time it was released, the Sony Reader also came with an SD card slot (which is now standard on the latest model, PRS2THBC). Using any Linux distribution, a user can quickly use their Sony Reader as a card reader for either media if they find themselves without an SD or Sony Memory card reader handy....

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Unemployed? Try Technical Support (Wait! Hear me out!)

Category: Techtoday The words "technical support" elicits the same response as the words Richard Nixon, recession, and Windows Vista. Criticisms against technical support, whether commercial or internal (within a company), is not often fair, but almost always true. Having spent a huge amount of time early in my career providing technical support for a variety of consumer electronics, computers, and operating...

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Access Blogger.com in China

Category: Techwriter Besides looking for an affordable spoon and fork set, one of the more obvious difficulties with living in Shanghai is accessing Blogger.com. Without access to Blogger and my blog, Unsolicited But Offered, all my posts have been sent via e-mail the last few months. Typing http://www.blogger.com and my blog url http://unsolicitedbutoffered.blogspot.com still triggers a "Connection...

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Attempting to draw with a Bamboo Wacom and Corel Painter 12 Part 3

Category: Techtoday The Bamboo Wacom Experience I'm still at Chapter 4 of Digital Painting Fundamentals, somewhat distracted by drawing that Ditko-style sketch of Spidey I started. As I worked on the web-spinner's webbing, I remembered just how much I appreciated the Wacom despite my inability to draw. Spidey should always be drawn upside down. Sketch by author. Revelations about...

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Buying an iPad 2 cover using 360Buy.com (China)

Category: Techtoday I've been using the improvised iPad stand (which I wrote about in a previous entry) for the last few months, but then I realized I'd be traveling with my iPad 2 really soon and needed a way to protect its admittedly handsome chassis. Even with a screen protector, an iPad 2 is nowhere near as tough as the steel-covered Sony PRS-600 I had been using for years. So I shopped around on...

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QuickFix Basics: Can my Linux distribution manage my iPad or iPod Touch?

Category: Techtoday Linux distributions like Lubuntu and openSUSE can access the file system of an iPad or iPod Touch. You won't even need to install any additional package to directly access the file system although there are software packages in Linux for managing your iPad/iPod Touch media. Take note, however, that most Linux utilities are not on par with the functionality of iTunes in terms of accessing...

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Enter: Microsoft Surface Ads and Microsoft.com

Category: Techtoday With recent news indicating Microsoft profits are down, it may seem like Microsoft is once again taking a beating ahead of its Windows 8 launch. However, I took a gander at Microsoft.com's revamped interface and watched the new advertisements for the Microsoft Surface tablet. Overall, I was impressed and stoked for Bill Gates' little company. For one, the...

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Pairing and Adding Bluetooth Devices in Windows 8 Part 2

Bluetooth Device Control and the Windows 8 Start Screen Once you've paired a device successfully, the Bluetooth device is automatically added to your Windows 8 Start screen as a tile. In the screenshot below, my Brian iPod Touch and my Grey63 Nokia E63 were added to the Start screen. Obviously, you can remove them by right-clicking on the tile. Each Bluetooth device added to Windows 8 has...

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