Category: Digitoy

  • Bye, bye solenoid — hello digital mobility machine

    Today, I picked up Tricia’s Volvo XC60, which arrived at the local dealer this week after an “intensive examination” by Customs and Border Patrol delayed its entry into the USA. I used the navigation system for the first time today because it was inoperable when we picked up the car in Sweden. (It comes pre-loaded…

  • Software only its mother could love

    I’m learning something, or actually re-learning, something fundamental about marketing: a new idea, a true breakthrough, won’t sell. I’ve been thinking about this because I’ve been talking to people whose job it is to follow/report/blog about software. And more than one has told me that I once worked on a very original product that, despite…

  • Bye, bye JungleDisk; hello CloudBerry

    I’m the geek my family and friends go to with their tech questions and for advanced support. If you want to do something more than just stare at your Android smartphone — like connecting it to your Office 365 Exchange account — or you want to get a game to run in a Windows virtual…

  • So long, Mr. Edison. It was great seeing you.

    Years ago when we were hunting for a condo to rent in Singapore, I noticed that the ceiling light fixtures hadn’t been installed in the kitchen of a newly constructed unit we looked at. When I asked the agent why, she said that the landlord was waiting to see if a Japanese or American expat…

  • Take THAT, Best Buy

    Just yesterday, as my wife and I were going through the Sunday papers, I ran across an ad for HDMI cables from Best Buy. As you can see from the snippet from their weekly ad, they have a house-branded 6ft “high speed” HDMI cable for $60. I mentioned to my wife that I knew this…

  • My 3rd of July, or how I nearly got pwned

    Well, now that it’s over, I can finally talk about it. I got up Sunday morning, July 3rd, salivating over all the cholesterol-laden meats I was gonna burn…er…grill that day in celebration of the holiday. I was looking forward to my weekend breakfast of imported Nestle 2-in-1 coffee sachets (I prefer the Indonesian version) and peanut…

  • Purportedly extinct dinosaurs sing

    Ok, I really need your help. You guys gotta help me figure out if I’m listening to the pop music equivalent of nearly extinct dinosaurs or if I am really hearing a vibrant revival of the music and bands of the 70’s and 80s. I need to know if it’s just me experiencing some kind…

  • How to: T-Mobile WiFi calling on Android phones with Verizon FiOS

    Well, another frustrating problem bites the dust. And my solution is documented here for others who have suffered trying to explain to T-Mobile customer support drones that, no, it’s not my phone — I have four of them that do exactly the same thing. And no, our Internet connection is up. And, no, I won’t…

  • I hate Drupal

    The first iteration of www.vuuch.com was in Drupal. That decision doesn’t count among the best we have made. Since last August, I’ve struggled to warm to Drupal. Today, I am coming out of the Drupal-hating closet to tell the world what a mess this system is. It’s impenetrable, unsupportable, slow, awkward, poorly architected and ugly. I’ve…

  • A gadget lover’s descent into Luddite-ism

    I love gadgets. Just ask anyone who knows me. I’m the proverbial heat-seeker when it comes to electronics. And, as we close out 2010 and look forward to 2011, I got to thinking about all the gadgets I’ve used in 2010. Just recently, the four of us in my family upgraded to Android smartphones (G2’s…

  • Hell hasn’t quite frozen over: I almost learn to love Microsoft

    I started work on a post two days ago that was tentatively titled “Hell Freezes Over: I Learn to Love Microsoft.” I didn’t get far because, as anyone who knows me knows, I have this thing against Microsoft: I am still smarting from the way they competed with Lotus in the 90’s. They were ruthless,…

  • HP machines are far from color blind

    I first heard about this YouTube video on Consumer Reports. As you watch this, note the humor with which the black worker describes the racist HP laptop. I, for one, wouldn’t have been so level-headed if, say, the HP laptop ignored Jewish faces with big noses. The one thing you gotta ask yourself is what…