WHY CAN’T IT JUST WORK?

Apr 23, 2007 | hardware, software

Here’s a blog item that we can all sympathize with, written by a Microsoft employee. “Why can’t it ‘just work’?… “(subtitled – Isn’t technology supposed to be making our lives easier? Simpler? Less complicated?)...

MEDIA IN THE LIVING ROOM

Apr 10, 2007 | hardware, video

Here’s an article that describes the struggle to involve a computer in the living room, delivering photos, music and movies. The struggle is not going well. Hewlett Packard just announced that it is ending development of its Digital Entertainment Center line of...

MICROSOFT WINDOWS HOME SERVER BETA 2

Feb 16, 2007 | computers, hardware, Home_Server, Microsoft, network

Here’s a review of a beta release of Microsoft Windows Home Server, which continues to look like a genuinely exciting advance for home computing. Here are my earlier thoughts on the preview at the Consumer Electronics show last month.When it is final, most of us...

WINDOWS HOME SERVER

Jan 7, 2007 | computers, hardware, Home_Server, Microsoft

Microsoft is taking the wraps off “Windows Home Server” today at a trade show. The first details are just coming out from people freed from their nondisclosure agreements. Here’s Microsoft’s first public web site for Home Server. I’m...

WIDESCREEN MONITORS

Dec 1, 2006 | hardware

Televisions are switching to widescreen displays, 16:9 aspect ratios like a movie screen instead of the more square 4:3 aspect ratio. Computer monitors are following the same path; I’m now recommending 20″ widescreen monitors for anyone buying a new...

FLIMSY TECHNOLOGY

Nov 29, 2006 | hardware

I frequently rant about the declining quality of hardware and software. Here’s an article blaming manufacturers: “Now computers are fast enough, mobile phones are small enough and digital music players have enough memory. Manufacturers now have a problem....