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Category Archives: tech

Reviews, speculation, and other idle thoughts on hardware, software, firmware…

Apple vs. Mozilla

by Rob Friesel

A change may be due on the web and email apps front… I may be pushing some of the limits of what Apple’s Mail and Safari apps can really offer me but… But I cling to them pretty desperately for some reason. Nostalgia? Because they came as part of the package? Can’t pin it down – – there’s also the pain in the ass of switching applications like this. So after being more/less forced into using Firefox and Thunderbird “exclusively” recently, I thought to myself it might be worth it to give each a shot for a solid week and see how it panned out. After Day 1, I came up with a version of the following scorecard to try and weigh this out for the long term…:

Macrodobe vs. Microsoft?

by Rob Friesel

Neat article off Int’l Herald Tribune re: some elements to consider in the recently-finalized Adobe/Macromedia merger/acquisition festival (first announced in April). The “good point” is their citation of how Microsoft plans to bundle print-to-PDF capabilities into Windows Vista (much as Apple already does with OS X). This $650 million threat to Adobe’s PDF-creation-software business underscores […]

USB Turntable!?

by Rob Friesel

Via Gizmodo: Bios Magazine reports on ION’s unfortunately named “ITTUSB” turntable which apparently pumps the vinyl goodness direct to your Mac/PC over USB. While not priced as low as Griffin’s iMic, at $139 it might be a more than perfectly affordable solution for someone looking to rip down their tracks from vinyl. This will probably […]

not looking good in leather

by Rob Friesel

Via Smart Mobs: Celebrities Looking Bad in HDTV: Silly Talk or Serious Issue? “With high-definition television facial imperfections and ageing signs are dramatically visible.” [Philip Swann of TVPredictions.com] said many celebrities were “scared to death” by the technology. Poetically judicial, perhaps? Almost makes you wonder if HD is the death knell of “the Media made […]

custom menu bar time/date

by Rob Friesel

A handy little tip over at CreativeBits re: customizing the time/date stamp format in your OS X menu bar. It takes a little playing around to really make it work right. The “catch” (at least as I observed it) was that you need to: Copy what you want from Date Paste it into the “Medium” […]

commercial rewind

by Rob Friesel

The headline should have been “TiVo! Inexplicable, Unwanted Features For Everyone!” Wasn’t the point to skip commercials? Or if not the point, at least a major benefit? Or have we officially entered some sort of Wallace/Cronenberg alternate reality? Really and truly frightening.

Bad Behaviour

by Rob Friesel

Downloaded and installed the Bad Behaviour WordPress plug-in to combat some recent spammy comments that have been trying to sneak through. Kinda makes me wish I lived in Russia… UPDATE: So far, no good. It’s tracking failures but I’ve still gotten close to 50 comment spam attempts already this morning… Yargh! So we’ll turn verbose […]