Article archive for 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008

So long 2008, and thanks for all the phish

Reaching out and picking and choosing cultural references with abandon, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz wishes everyone a happy 2009. Even though this is an end-of-year blessings article, it’s also important. David lists 10 important online safety tips that could help you make 2009 a safe and successful year.

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Monday, December 1, 2008

HDTV? DLP? WTF?

If you’re like Jorge Sosa, you might have noticed buying a TV is now a process that seems about a bajillion times harder than it has to be. The last time he bought a TV, it was an old-school CRT model. "Bigger is better" was the one-and-only simple rule. Now, there’s a whole new lexicon to learn and it seems like you have be a genius to go about purchasing an idiot box. What follows is his personal cheat sheet on the digital TV hoohah. It’s even in plain English, and yes, "hoohah" is a real word.

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Can the Internet save newspapers?

When we think of the Internet and newspapers, we normally think about how the Internet is killing newspapers. Craig’s List, for example, is taking away classified ad revenue from papers across the country. But in this article, newspaper journalist and favorite Computing Unplugged contributor Jorge Sosa looks at some ways the Internet might actually serve to save newspapers and make them even more relevant to the communities they serve.

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Watch your back: avoid becoming a victim of holiday scams

We originally ran this article in OutlookPower Magazine back in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina hit and everyone was in a more giving mood. However, given our current economic times, the scammers are back in full-force and it’s perhaps even more relevant today. It’s interesting, and sad, that a publication like OutlookPower has to spend so much time talking about scams and how to protect yourself. But email is a mass communication tool and with anything that has mass effect, you have people doing good and people doing not so good. Email certainly has provided enormous benefits to vast numbers of people, but it also creates risks. In this time of holiday celebration, many of us share goodwill, while others seek to tap into that goodwill for nefarious gain. So, before you start thinking about giving, make sure you watch your back.

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Saturday, November 1, 2008

How to stay in business in 2009 (and some new site features)

What are the strategies and tactics you can begin to deploy NOW that will help keep you afloat in these incredibly uncertain times? What are ten things you can begin to do right now, this month, this week, even this morning that will combat the financial crisis blues and ensure that your bottom line is more line than bottom? Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz discusses an upcoming webinar that’ll answer these questions, introduces two new site features, and even shows you how you can find ten tips for staying safe online.

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Saturday, November 1, 2008

Easier methods of ebook authoring

From her standpoint of a librarian, Jessica McCurdy Crooks’ recent article, Learn the steps for creating an ebook easily, provided some useful information but was somewhat lacking in any real-world applicability. There are other ebook reader and creator programs on the market that provide a much more user-friendly experience for both reader and writer, and in this article Editor-at-Large James Booth gives you a hands-on learning approach to those applications.

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Saturday, November 1, 2008

Moving beyond the battery

What if you could have a car, powered by battery, that could drive at 80 mph and go 250 miles? Now, what if that battery could recharge in less than five minutes? That’s the question Jorge Sosa explores in this fascinating edition of Green Tech.

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Saturday, November 1, 2008

Jott versus SpinVox: A voice-to-text battle royal

Dianah McDonald takes a look at two competitive voice-to-text services. They work the same way. You dial a number, speak some instruction into the phone, and the result is texted, emailed, or otherwise communicated to the appropriate destination. Or is it? Read this fun review and you’ll learn if either service is voice-to-text nirvana or not-ready-for-prime-time.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

We review the i2i Stream wireless audio extender

These days, people tend to listen to music just about everywhere. Aerielle Technologies’ i2i Stream is intended to make it easy to share music with your friends and listen on the go. How well does it work? Read this article and you be the judge.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Toaster oven redux

Back in December, David wrote a somewhat brutal review about the GE Halogen toaster over. The thing burned him, and he was determined to burn it right back. What’s interesting about this isn’t that the boss had a grudge against an oven. What’s interesting is the strange fascination this article seems inspire with readers the world over. We’ve gotten an almost never-ending stream of letters about this review and this oven. Since nothing beats a warm toasty bagel for breakfast (except orange danish), we thought we’d share with you a representative sampling of the letters (two more showed up today).

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