Category: How to

  • How to run your favourite desktop utilities from almost any computer using Portable Applications

    In the course of my day, I use two or three main desktop and laptop com­puters in two or three dif­fer­ent parts of the city. And yet, work­ing on dif­fer­ent devices, I still have access to a core set of tools and util­it­ies that I find essen­tial to my daily work. Here’s how I do it. Some…

  • Speed up your Internet experience by using the right DNS server

    Last week I saw this Life­Hack­er art­icle (via AppleIn­sider) about NameBench, a win­dow util­ity that tests the speed of your sys­tem’s DNS serv­ers. And I was won­der­ing if my DNS was as fast as it could be… Pre­vi­ously, I’d switched my DNS ser­vices over to OpenDNS, a free altern­ate DNS Pro­vider that adds value as: Ultra-reli­able, glob­ally-dis­trib­uted…

  • Show your parents you care — tech style

    It’s highly likely that many of you, like me, are responsible for technical support of your families’ computer systems and internet connection. Earlier today I found a great little microsite (by Google) that’ll help you suppo...

  • Checking out library books on your eReader?

    Got a Sony eReader and use the Sony Reader store? Well check out the little blue & white box in the right-hand sidebar on the page. Yep, you read correctly -- you can check out books from the library and read them on your eReader.

  • More ways to get rid of your old tech.

    A while ago I wrote about dis­pos­ing of tech you no longer need or use. And today I found a very cool tool that will help you sell off your used gear for a fair price. Bonus points, it’s got a funky name; Worth Mon­key.

  • Lots to think about when diagnosing a slow Internet

    Occa­sion­ally I get a tech ques­tion in the inbox that is quite com­mon. So much so that it makes sense for me to put and answer the ques­tion here where more can read and bene­fit from it.  By the way, if you’ve got some­thing you’d like to ask, feel free to drop me a line…

  • Protecting your tech

    When ever I get a new tech device, espe­cially one that’s small, port­able, and has a dis­play screen, I imme­di­ately look to pro­tect­ing that screen and device. I’m kinda clumsy at times, and any­thing that can pro­tect my hard­ware from *me* is a worth­while invest­ment. I dropped my iPod Touch down the stairs last year,…

  • My iPad steering wheel mount

    I’ve writ­ten before about using the Joby Gor­illa Pod flex­ible tri­pod as an iPad desktop stand, but today was inspired to use it as a tem­por­ary steer­ing wheel mount while wait­ing to meet someone. Yes, due to an appoint­ment schedul­ing issue, I was 45 minutes early so had a bit of time on my hands. Damn flex­ible…

  • Free and good? It’s for the birds!

    Actu­ally it’s for you and me, and I’m refer­ring to the free online suite of tools that flies under the Avi­ary ban­ner. Actu­ally, it’s more than a suite of tools, Avi­ary is also a com­munity by and for con­tent creators: At Avi­ary, we believe that every­one in the world should have access to power­ful cre­ation…

  • One way to Get Stuff Done [video]

    Anoth­er Fri­day and anoth­er video — this time deal­ing with time man­age­ment and organization. The video details how the fine folk at BlueSky­Fact­ory like to organ­ize their day and their work­load. Not exactly my cup of tea — I’m cur­rently exper­i­ment­ing with the Pomodoro sys­tem described by Tris Hus­sey on his blog. But it is…

  • Are faster blogs more Google friendly?

    Per­haps. And if you’re look­ing to be found by Google, you want to do everything you can to make sure you’re not doing things to make the pro­cess harder. A month or so ago, Google announced that they’re rank­ing sys­tem would take page-load speed into con­sid­er­a­tion when determ­in­ing how to present search res­ults to vis­it­ors.…

  • How to backup files across a network easily

    Before I start, a friendly remind­er that you only have a day left to enter the con­test for a free Click­free Trans­former backup sys­tem. Tell me a backup hor­ror story. It’s one thing to backup the files on your loc­al com­puter and anoth­er to backup files stored on oth­er com­puters on your net­work, or Net­work…