The Digital Man: Sherlock (2010) Part 1

Category: Techtoday Note: SPOILERS abound - please proceed at your own risk. All screen captures from Sherlock (2010) DVD I was teaching technical support to a class back in 2006 and I asked my trainees if any of them had ever read a Sherlock Holmes story. Sadly, none of them did (though I'm pretty sure they came out in droves when Robert Downey Jr. appeared in Guy Ritchie's rendition of ...

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Testing hardware compatibility with Knoppix featuring the ASUS U80A

Category: LinuxAs a Linux user, I'm always on the lookout for sturdy laptops that can be "recycled" by installing a Linux distribution on them. Considering how wasteful some users are when it comes to their electronics, and with laptops being tossed aside for ultrabooks and tablets, now is the best time to find old laptops for use for students and kids who can't afford a laptop but want to learn Linux, computers, and networking. People with disposable...

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Taipei's Taoyuan Aiport is Wi-Fi Linux friendly!

Category: LinuxIt may seem odd to note that a specific place or country's Wi-Fi is Linux friendly, but I've had issues connecting to some public Wi-Fi services in other countries using my Linux machines. In Kuala Lumpur International (KLIA) for instance, I had to visit the KDE Terminal to manually connect to the main login page for the free wireless service. In most cases, you should be able to connect without having to manually setup iwconfig with...

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BBC News and Flipboard App for iOS

Category: Tech TodayI'm not an App whore. I get hives if I go past three pages worth of apps on my iPod Touch (Yeah, yeah even that Japanese guy next to me on my flight was wondering why I didn't have an iPhone yet). I'm happy with my 6 free dictionaries, 2 document readers, video player, Opera browser, and the occasional map and city guide when I go on a business trip. Besides, I'm perfectly happy accessing news and doing serious work on my Linux...

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Cannot export to PDF using Adobe InDesign (MacOSX) Part 2

Category: TechwriterContinued from Cannot export to PDF using Adobe InDesign (MacOSX) Part 2InDesign crashing midway through exporting to PDFEven without the "Out of memory" error message, a failed exporting process could also be caused by memory issues. There are other reasons why this occurs, however, such as the following:1. A corrupted JPEG file - Personally, I would never use JPEG with InDesign. The quality is bad enough even before you...

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Cannot export to PDF using Adobe InDesign (MacOSX) Part 1

Category: TechwriterIf you're saddled with an OSX workstation, whether it's a Mac Pro with a Dual-Core Intel Xeon 2.66 GHz processor or one of the sexier new Macs Apple released recently, an earlier version of Adobe InDesign may experience issues exporting to PDF. The common symptoms are:1. InDesign shutting down midway through exporting to PDF2. An unusable 0KB PDF3. An "Out of memory" error message4. InDesign displaying an error message regarding...

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Review: Toshiba NB520 netbook featuring openSUSE 12.2 Part 2

Continued from Review: Toshiba NB520 netbook featuring openSUSE 12.2 Part 1Category: openSUSEStartup and shutdown speedI'm not a huge fan of benchmarks since individual user configuration plays a lot in how a system boots up especially when you're running a system as malleable as Linux.The first step users might want to be is do head off to the BIOS and switch to the Advanced tab. Select Fast from the options.  Changing that setting doesn't...

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Bringing Your Digital Portfolio to an Interview Part 2

Continued from Bringing Your Digital Portfolio to an Interview Part 13. Portable storage - So the interview is being held in a room without wireless access and you weren't allowed to bring in your Macbook Pro or your Google Nexus by the security guard who looks like he can arm wrestle Captain America. No sweat. Don't lug around your Seagate External Drive or Thunderbolt server just to show off your offline work (Due to security reasons, IT companies...

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Quick Review: Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500

Category: TechtodaySo I know what you're thinking. You're doing a review on a wireless mouse? A MICROSOFT Wireless mouse? What can I say? I've written about my love for wireless mice before, but with the popularity and ubiquity of touchscreens these days, I'm now more than ever appreciating the brilliance of a mouse. That said, I do have touchscreen devices and a Wacom tablet. However, 90% of my work on my Linux, MacOSX, and Windows boxes is done...

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Bringing Your Digital Portfolio to an Interview Part 1

Category: TechwriterUnemployment is pretty high globally but if you even spend 15 minutes in the technical forums, you would realize that everyone is better than ever when it comes to coding, programming, designing, and creating web sites. Competition is incredibly tight. Software piracy has made sure that professional software is available to students, who admirably and arduously practice at an early age. Everything from professional Adobe products...

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10 Reasons to Love Lubuntu 12.10 Part 2

Category: LinuxContinued from 10 Reasons to Love Lubuntu 12.10 Part 16. Lightweight - Like most Linux distributions, your installed applications and how you maintain your system affect your performance more than your hardware. My poor man's older Core i3 and 6GB of RAM Lenovo Ideapad Z360 isn't a powerhouse system but with Lubuntu, the system boots up at a respectable speed and can convert audio (using Sound Converter), rip video (AcidRip DVD Ripper)...

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Linux on Film: Antitrust (2001)

*All screencaps from Antitrust (2001) Long-time Linux users are familiar with Antitrust (2001), which was strongly advertised as a movie that would inform the masses about open source and Linux. I'll leave that discussion to archived forums and avoid the open source and Linux politics that came with this movie. Suffice to say, I enjoyed this movie when I watched it in the cinema way back in 2001 and I highly recommend...

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