Linux and the Macbook Pro Temptation

Category: Tech Today I've been putting off buying a Macbook for more than eight years now, but I have to admit that aside from the normal excuse that I have zero disposable income and that I don't need another computer, it's useless to deny that now is the best time to get a Macbook Pro. All my production machines run on a Linux distribution with one Windows 7 thin-and-light providing...

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Linux and Toshiba "Sleep and Charge" on the NB520

Category: Tech Today Users of Toshiba laptops or netbooks don't need to install or download the Sleep-and-Charge utility Toshiba provides for Windows. Even Linux users (like me), can take advantage of the Sleep and Charge feature by enabling the settings in the BIOS. With Sleep and Charge enabled, users can plug in their USB device like the iPod Touch or iPad and recharge while the system is...

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Quick Fix: Identifying older SODIMMs/DIMMs

If you're handed down the task of sorting out memory modules from old industrial motherboards, legacy desktops and old laptops/netbooks, there's every likelihood you would need to identify the properties of the DIMMs and SODIMMs before you can reuse the parts. Although the basic properties of memory modules are understood by most computer users, sorting out discontinued but usable DIMMS/SODIMMS...

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PCLinuxOS KDE MiniMe and LXDE 2013.10 Review Part 3

Continued from PCLinuxOS KDE MiniMe and LXDE 2013.10 Review Part 2 5. KDE 4.x on a diet is always a good thing and Texstar's MiniMe product is a great example of a judiciously put together KDE distribution. There are KDE Desktop Activity modules included with the release (standard KDE4.x fare) plus PulseAudio for occasions when buggy Kmix goes berserk on hardware. And then...

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Stories from a Tech Writer's Studio: The "Writer"

I was dozing off on a flight sometime back when a noise shook me to attention. The young lady beside me was tapping furiously at her iPad, trying to delete a video file from her video app for iOS. "It keeps reappearing!" she muttered, jabbing at the same point again and again. Unsightly fingerprints were already appearing on the gorgeous display. I stretched and bent down to reach my satchel, which was stowed...

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PCLinuxOS KDE MiniMe and LXDE 2013.10 Review Part 2

Continued from PCLinuxOS KDE MiniMe and LXDE 2013.10 Review Part 1‏ KDE MiniMe It's long been my belief that a lighter KDE release should be provided by the openSUSE team, openSUSE being my KDE Linux distribution of choice. PCLinuxOS has had a slim release for years through its MiniMe version, which I've never tried until now. In the last few weeks of use, PCLinuxOS 2013.10 KDE MiniMe certainly...

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Quick Fix: Windows Movie Maker video card driver issues

Category: Tech Today Windows Movie Maker is great for casual video editing with support for popular video formats (including the Sony NEX series' AVCHD). If you hardly work with video but need a simple competent video-editing application, Movie Maker is free for Windows 7 and Windows 8. Microsoft maintains a Windows 7 version of Windows Movie Maker 2012, which can be installed along with other...

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PCLinuxOS KDE MiniMe and LXDE 2013.10 Review Part 1

Category: Linux PCLinuxOS is an admirable Linux distribution in many ways, with a regular (and extremely informative) e-magazine, a devoted userbase and a committed developer all coming together under one banner. Texstar and the PCLinuxOS community recently celebrated their 10th birthday and it was with great anticipation that I downloaded the ISO and went about exploring the fabled distribution the last few...

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Quick Review: Bingo Waterproof Bag for Mobile Devices

Category: Tech Today The problem with going to the swimming pool or to the beach on your own is that you often have to leave your money/wallet and/or your precious smartphone on the sundeck or towel. For loners, this is a horrible inconvenience and there's the constant fear of theft. Knowing that a waterpoof bag for a smartphone or MP3 player would prove useful one of these days, I visited the Chinese online ...

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AirAsia e-magazine and chat support

Category: Tech Today AirAsia, one of the more popular budget airlines in Asia, has a few hits and misses (including painful add-on fees from everything from seats to insurance). However, two services that I like are the chat support and the free e-magazine you can download from their site. I've written about my love for airline magazines previously and suggested that airlines could cut...

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FrameMaker Basics: Inserting an Inline Image

Category: Tech Writer The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications recommends adding a bitmap to instructions if the screen button or control is unnamed or too obscure for an end user. FrameMaker makes adding inline images easy through the Anchored Frame panel and Insert option. To insert an inline image to text: 1. Position the insertion point in the statement or text. ...

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Create a Photo Essay/Slideshow for Multiple Devices

Category: Tech Today Unsolicited Question: What's the fastest way to create a nice photo slideshow/photo essay to stream/display to a desktop, portable, LEDTV, iOS, Windows Phone or Android device without having to use HTML5/Javascript or Adobe Flash? In most cases, you can display your photos in devices without having to design a slideshow. But if you want to create a photo essay like those found in...

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Using power plugs and adapters from other vendors

Category: Tech Today Manufacturers will always warn users to use the bundled accessories of their products. However, users have become more and more resourceful when it comes to swapping chargers and power plugs. Moreover, because tablets, smartphones and mobile devices have become so similar in input/output voltage it's actually easy to "swap" chargers. Some combinations I've tried include Sony Playstation...

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IMDB.com access in China

Category: Tech Today   For the last two years or so, I haven't had much luck accessing IMDB.com in Shanghai due to the Great Firewall. Yesterday, however, I stumbled on an IMDB.com link and it suddenly pulled up. Yeah, I know. Big hairy deal, right? All the pages were now accessible when previously Chinese censors inexplicably prevented access to the popular movie site. Now I can reread all the trivia about...

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Download openSUSE 13.1 Images and Banners from Github!

Category: openSUSE   With the upcoming openSUSE 13.1 almost ready for mainstream release (RC1 is out now), show your true green colors by downloading images and banners from the openSUSE Github repositories! As a committed user to openSUSE and still running openSUSE 12.2 despite excellent reviews of 12.3, I'm ready to move to 13.1 once its all ready to go. OpenSUSE KDE...

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