I am beginning to look for additional contributors to the PCMech editorial team. My goals are to introduce additional viewpoints and interests into our content. So, would you be interested in joining the team? Obviously, you must be well-versed in computers and technology otherwise you’re going to have a hard time (pretty obvious). However, I am not limiting...

Not long ago, a book came in the mail for me to check out. It was Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed, by Paul McFedries. So, I checked it out. First of all, let me make one thing clear. If you are a typical end user of Windows 7, you don’t need this book. In other words, if you use Windows like most people use Windows, then this book will seem too technical for...

Is it too much to ask to expect a company to know how to operate their own computer systems? I am a user of the Iphone 3G, and of course that means I must use AT&T. Others have talked about the various service disruptions, undependable voice mail, and generally being a bottleneck to an otherwise awesome phone. Here in the Tampa Bay area, I haven’t had many...

A few weeks ago, I was in the living room on the laptop surfing the Internet. You know, the casual, pointless kind of web surfing because what’s on TV is less interesting. I ended up on Facebook and was tracking down some of my old childhood friends. Not all of my old friends are on Facebook, so I wondered if I could find them anyway. Specifically, I was...

The netbook has been getting really popular lately with the “good enough” crowd. Rich recently joined them, and now so have I. Rich grabbed a Dell Inspiron Mini 10V. I just purchased an Asus Eee PC 1000HA from Newegg. I just wanted to take a gauge of the PCMech readership. So, I wet my finger, stick it into the wind, and just ask. Do you want a netbook? And...

Firefox is quickly gaining ground on Internet Explorer and, hopefully, will one day send IE to the dustbin of history. A milestone along the way is surpassing the 1 billion download mark. The one billion download mark is likely rather inflated because it includes users downloading multiple copies. That number does not include updates, however. As it sits,...

I am making an adjustment in how PCMech is represented on Twitter. For some time, I have had new posts from PCMech.com tweeted out over my personal Twitter account, @davidrisley. I had the account @pcmech registered, but rarely used it. That is now changing. In short, there are two very different aspects to David Risley. I am the founder of PCMech, a tech site...

I am sensing a rising tide of ill-will toward Apple and AT&T with regard to the Iphone. Apple is typically quite adept at public relations, but I believe their moves with regard to tight control of the Iphone is beginning to get out of control. One of the arguments against Apple has always been their control over their devices. With the Mac, I think it is a...

Many of you have probably seen the commercials. Some young person wants a laptop with a 17” screen, bunch of memory, bunch of power, and they don’t want to spend more than $1,000. They look at the Apple laptops and conclude it is too expensive. So, they go buy some cheap PC for $699 and go skipping down the yellow brick road. Its the stuff dreams are made...

Most of us remember when the Clinton administration went after Microsoft in an aggressive anti-trust case. In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice filed legal action against Microsoft alleging it was a monopoly that abused it’s market power in the PC market. The chief complaint had to do with Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows and restricting...

In more proof that government is full of garbage decision making, we got a real gem from the U.S. State Department. At a townhall meeting conducted by Hillary Clinton, an employee asked a seemingly simple question: Why aren’t we allowed to use Firefox? Like many other dinosaur-era enterprises, where Internet Explorer is forced down your throat because of...

USB flash drives have become so standardized and normal that people don’t think much of them anymore. Whereas they used to be fairly expensive (considering), nowdays you can easily get 8GB drives for as little as $20. Reminds me of the old days when we had to use floppy diskettes and we thought we were rocking out with modern technology. Since there is...

When using social media, you have to be really careful what you do because you can inadvertently give away WAY too much information. In this video, I demonstrate one way that people give away WAY too much info on Twitter. Many mobile Twitter clients that are used on GPS-enabled phones have the ability to update your location on Twitter with your GPS coordinates....

Late last week, a new Twitter client hit the App Store for the Iphone. It is called TweetGlobe. It was developed by a good friend of mine, so I knew about this app’s development for some time and it was awesome to finally see it go public. Tweetglobe does something that I’ve never seen on the Iphone – it maps your tweets to a 3D representation of the...

Even though we have many in our PCMech audience who are not that into Twitter, I continue to maintain that Twitter is a really big deal. I am a routine daily user of Twitter and will continue to be. [You can follow me at @davidrisley] I also see the trends on Twitter, and one of them the last few days has been a stupid game where people would come up with their...