It has been a long time coming, but OpenOffice version 3 has officially been released to public beta. The current stable version of OpenOffice is pretty good, but as a Mac user, I have been waiting for a native Mac version of OpenOffice. I am currently running NeoOffice for the Mac, which is good but [...]

I broke into the world of computers and technology at around the ripe old age of 10. Not so amazing really, but remember…that was in 1984…back when most people on the street didn’t know what a computer was. The day my father came home from Radio Shack with a brand new Tandy 1000 was the [...]

If you’re administering your own web pages (or possibly WordPress themes,) it’s more or less required to know Cascading Style Sheets, a.k.a. CSS for short. In the video below I give a very basic tutorial on how to adjust font styles using CSS.

Today is a slow news day so here are a few entertaining videos to pass the time. The following two videos are examples of “human pixels.”
First, Space Invaders.

Second, the UC Berkley Marching band performing a half-time show including a whole crapload of video games (Zelda, Super Mario, Tetris, etc.)

If you thought video games [...]

The other day, I met with Kyle Graham of Ambidupdate.com. We were meeting to talk a little business, but he had asked me ahead of time if he could do a quick interview. Of course I said yes. He used his new Flip Video to record this interview of me outside of a Chili’s in [...]

People see PCMech.com and sometimes wonder what is the “engine” behind the magic, so to speak. Well, it’s no secret that PCMech uses WordPress. If you were thinking about trying WordPress for yourself there are completely free ways to do it (as in without the requirement of a domain and web host). See video below [...]

A PCMech Community member alerted me that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP is in fact in Windows Update now - which would put it ahead of schedule.
So I checked it out.
(click image for full-size view)
Yep, it’s there.
Will I be installing it?
Not yet.
I’m going to purposely wait to see if the auto-updater actually does its [...]

1. It’s not Microsoft.
2. It’s not Apple.
3. It’s not Yahoo.
4. It works on any OS using almost any IM client you can think of (AIM client itself, AIM Lite, Trillian, Pidgin, Kopete, Adium, Digsby, Miranda, etc. etc. etc.)
5. Jabber still sucks.
6. MSN/Live still doesn’t work right and disconnects randomly.
7. Yahoo does [...]

Vmware is releasing information about the forthcoming 2.x version of Vmware Fusion. Actually, it is available for download now as a beta release. And this one is sure to please. Why?
Multiple screen support!
This is great news for me and should be for any Mac user who has more than one monitor. My Mac Pro has [...]

Over at UbuntuGeek.com they’ve just released an article that instructs how to remove Compiz Fusion including all the config files.
Ubuntu users who read this will most likely ask the following two questions.

Why? Compiz is awesome!
What advantage does removing the config files do in addition to removing it?

In answer to 1:
Yes, Compiz is awesome. It showcases [...]

ECS A780GM-A Black Series Motherboard - “The 780G chipset is the most powerful integrated graphics chipset on the market today. ATI is soon to release the 790G chipset which will bring even more performance to the integrated graphics chipset market. Integrated graphics are great for the person wanting to build a inexpensive system as you only [...]

I saw someone over at DailyTech ask a question about building a Mac and watched him take machine gun-like shots over and over from PC and Mac fanboys for asking a stupid question. You know it’s bad when you have both sides of the computer world bashing you. Of course you can’t build [...]

This video I made for those who are (or thinking about) writing a book in OpenOffice Writer. It’s also for those who have done the same thing in Microsoft Word but don’t exactly know how to perform the same function in OO. With this video, now you know.

Almost everyone has a wireless phone. And sure enough you’ve probably seen that “Universal Service Fund” (or something similar to that) on your bill. You’ve probably thought to yourself What IS that charge for?
The USF was created in 1997 by the FCC in order to meet the goals of Universal Service as outlined in the [...]

Life officially 100% sucks for Yahoo right now. Microsoft decided to back out from buying Yahoo. Guess what happened. The stockholders decided to give Yahoo a good swift kick in the ass, i.e. the stocks dived and dived hard.
As far as Microsoft is concerned, their stocks actually edged up.
Will Yahoo recover from this? Unknown at [...]

I bought my MacBook Pro over a month ago now. I have been meaning to do a quick review of the unit here on PCMech. Well, finally, I’ll scratch that small to-do off my list. Two words: LOVE IT.
But, you want a little more detail, perhaps. Fine, I’ll provide it. Warning: don’t expect me to [...]

I have long thought that Google desperately needs to add an in-house todo list to their Gmail Apps line-up. They likely will before too long. And my wish list for a Google todo app is as follows:

Ability to integrate right into the Gmail interface (ala Outlook)
Nested tasks
Ability to turn an email into a task [...]

According to a story on ComputerWorld, market share of Apple’s Safari web browser as well as usage of Mozilla Firefox both dropped in the last month. Internet Explorer market share actually gained.
Market share for Safari dropped from 5.8% to 5.5%. Firefox usage went from 17.8% to 17%. Internet Explorer usage went from 74.8% to 76%.
I’m [...]

Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock - “Ever found yourself in the need to be able to take a huge amount of computer related files with you on the road or say just over to a friends house. Vantec just may have the answer you are looking for with their new NexStar Hard Drive Dock.”
Visiontek Radeon HD [...]