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 [...]
Tracking Down A Childhood Friend [Internet Privacy]
August 26, 2009 by 3 Comments
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 [...]
Do You Want a Netbook?
August 25, 2009 by 52 Comments
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, [...]
Firefox Has 31% Market Share
August 2, 2009 by 6 Comments
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. [...]
Follow PCMech on Twitter
July 31, 2009 by 1 Comment
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. [...]
Apple, You’re Screwing Up The Iphone
July 31, 2009 by 9 Comments
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 [...]
Laptop Hunter Commercials Are Stupid [Mac Versus PC]
July 24, 2009 by 51 Comments
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 [...]
Will Obama Administration Attack Google?
July 21, 2009 by 4 Comments
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 [...]
State Department Thinks Firefox Is Too Expensive
July 17, 2009 by 7 Comments
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 [...]
Flash Drives That Look Like Fire Extinguishers
June 25, 2009 by 1 Comment
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 [...]
Huge Privacy Risk When Using Twitter
June 19, 2009 by 2 Comments
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 [...]
Tweetglobe: New Visual Twitter Client For the Iphone
May 18, 2009 by 3 Comments
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 [...]
Be Careful On Twitter [Identity Theft]
May 14, 2009 by 1 Comment
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 [...]
Google Calendar Finally Gets Tasks
May 14, 2009 by Leave a Comment
It has been one of my beefs with Google that they didn’t have a task manager to go along with all their other productivity apps. Then, they released a lightweight attempt at a task manager that integrated with Gmail (available in the Labs). Yesterday, Google announced tasks now integrated with Google Calendar. You will see [...]
My Mac Will Kill Your PC. Twice.
April 21, 2009 by 54 Comments
My friend, Kyle Graham, did a video where he openly declared that his PC will kill my Mac. He compared his experience with his expensive Macbook to his experience with his $400 PC. Now, I can’t let this ballsy maneuver go without a response, can I? So, I recorded a video response. Oh, and sorry [...]
