tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184677012011-07-28T11:17:44.823-05:00Comments about matters trivial - and quadrivial - by William PorterWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comBlogger641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-75215220292068753102010-01-20T14:33:00.000-06:002010-01-27T16:18:09.427-06:00

MacJournal makes an excellent front-end your online blog. You can take advantage of its great text editing features, drag and drop media such as photos or podcasts, and click a button when you are done to publish your entry directly to your blog.Photos can easily be resized right in MacJournal.​You can also print MacJournal entries very easily.

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-75807511591968888042009-10-15T17:25:00.003-05:002009-10-15T17:52:31.268-05:00

In my last post, I said: [I]t's a mistake to think you can simply clone an 80GB drive to a 500GB drive, swap the drives, and go about your business. An old friend who is a fan of the Mac writes to say that, on a Mac, assuming the drive was not corrupted and the clone itself isn't corrupted, then this is exactly what you could do. Maybe. It would seem to be possible to do this on a PC, as well. At

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-83503029689190080682009-10-14T22:36:00.002-05:002009-10-14T22:45:08.311-05:00

In my summary of lessons learned, I think I failed to mention the most important lesson of all. That is, it's a mistake to think you can simply clone an 80GB drive to a 500GB drive, swap the drives, and go about your business. Next time I do this, I think I will do it like this:Make sure I have a good backup of all the documents on the old hard drive. By "documents," I mean my photos, databases,

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-52891950396426731242009-10-13T08:34:00.006-05:002009-10-14T19:41:39.285-05:00

I work on several computers, but the one I work on most - the one I do most of my database work on, as well as all of my photo editing - is a Latitude D820. I don't know what I was thinking of when I bought a laptop with an 80GB hard drive, but it soon became clear to me that 80GB wasn't enough. After thinking about it for a long time, two days ago I finally got around to doing something about

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-65642018324130314182009-03-02T11:03:00.001-06:002009-03-02T11:03:35.099-06:00

Here's a holiday that I seldom celebrate: General Casimir Pulaski Day!Pulaski was a brilliant Polish cavalryman who volunteered his services to General Washington during the Revolutionary War. He died from injuries suffered during one of his engagements but not before distinguishing himself and coming to be recognized as the Father of American Cavalry.

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-61646293438513294592009-02-18T12:30:00.002-06:002009-02-18T12:37:27.460-06:00

I could bring up Intelligent Design here, but I won't. Let me just say that, if this doesn't put a smile on your face, well, God bless you. Be sure to watch in high quality.T-Mobile Dance on YouTube

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-20840873180939311862009-02-09T23:38:00.001-06:002009-02-09T23:38:36.044-06:00

This photo of my dining room was taken with the G1 using Snap Photo rather than the default Camera app. Post processing in Pic Say. Snap Photo uses the G1's accelerometer (!) to provide digital image stabilization. Seems to work. Keep in mind that this was a low-light challenge. No flash, no sunlight, just one incandescent light. I adjusted saturation in Pic Say but color in the original shot was

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-53557995032384818242009-02-08T11:08:00.001-06:002009-02-08T11:08:54.348-06:00

Haven't gotten the 1.1 firmware update yet, but I am happy to have discovered something really good for Android: the Steel browser. http://kolbysoft.com Steel has a touch-screen interface, including an on-screen keyboard. I still don't want to type a lot on a virtual keyboard, but it's very useful to have the option for, say, entering a url or password. Steel also displays pages really nicely. I

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-31661867137559293292009-02-07T11:39:00.003-06:002009-02-07T11:46:57.241-06:00

The other day while Penelope was surfing the Web, she suddenly saw a scary screen saying the computer was infected and asking her to take action. She handed the computer to me. Here's what we saw:Notice that the presentation looks "official," but is in fact completely generic. Next we got the following messages:Behind the dialog in front there is a dialog with the even more official-looking title

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-61005048376694274512009-02-05T10:00:00.001-06:002009-02-05T10:00:15.512-06:00

Speed Dial - GalleryOne of the things I liked about Google's new browser, Chrome, is the way it displays thumbnails of my most frequently visited pages when I open a new tab. But there was a lot to dislike about Chrome, as well. First, Chrome displayed 9 thumbnails only. Second, it didn't ever seem to update them. Third, I had no control over what thumbnails were displayed. And I should add,

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-52969741651404209562008-12-18T13:56:00.001-06:002008-12-18T13:56:36.044-06:00

I'm still not sure what I did, but somehow, while I was working on my to-do list (a FileMaker database), I accidentally deleted all of the active task records. Gack! I'm a slave to that database. Without those records, I'm not a freed slave: I'm a slave without a clue what to do.But did I panic? I did not. I went to http://carbonite.com, logged in, and in two or three seconds I learned how to

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-2026483034012917982008-11-19T10:37:00.003-06:002008-11-19T10:41:09.787-06:00

Of course there's no such thing as an absolute best compact camera, but for my own needs these days, if I were buying a compact, this may be the one I'd get: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3K. I've heard rumors about it coming - PopPhoto.com had a preview of this camera back in July - and I just became aware that it's out by reading an actual review in the dead-trees edition of Pop Photography (October

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-83832446663532636452008-11-14T11:01:00.001-06:002008-11-14T11:01:15.483-06:00

I was delighted this morning to find an email in my inbox from Edouard Mercier, the smart programmer who created TooDo, the powerful task management app for Android that I mentioned (and criticized) in yesterday's post. I was delighted to hear from him, because it's clear that he really wants to make TooDo better. I have offered a few more of my own personal suggestions for him to consider, and I

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-61405159133952778722008-11-14T00:49:00.002-06:002008-11-14T00:59:31.254-06:00

I've found a couple of to-do lists for the Android OS.First, I tried TooDo from Edouard Mercier. This was my first choice because it claims to be able to sync tasks with the excellent and very powerful online to-do manager, Toodledo, which I've been using for about a year now. (It also syncs with Remember the Milk, another popular online task management service that I have never used.) In

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-77720209017060839842008-11-11T15:50:00.001-06:002008-11-11T15:50:08.218-06:00

Earlier today I was reading an article about add-ons for Firefox that mentioned something called Integrated Gmail. After visiting the web page for the Integrated Gmail add-on (here), I downloaded it and gave it a try. It's quite nice.With the add-on installed and configured, I'm able to get access to my mail, Google calendar, and Picasa, all on the same web page. In the screen shot above, notice

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-9695619065820517822008-11-09T17:53:00.001-06:002008-11-09T17:53:07.632-06:00

I was pleased yesterday to discover that many common abbreviations (I've, can't, won't, they're and many others) can be typed in Android without the apostrophe: when you hit the space key, Android adds the apostrophe for you. But I was really tickled this afternoon when I discovered that one of the abbreviations Android expands automatically is y'all. Very cool!

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-40872382609060422772008-11-09T12:01:00.003-06:002008-11-09T12:20:02.393-06:00

I have been reluctant to move to a "smart phone". I am not eager to do a lot of typing on a teeny keyboard, so I am not eager to use a phone for email. I also dislike the idea of being "in touch" 24/7. And I did not want to be tied to a specific email service. For these reasons, I was never attracted to the Blackberry. I liked the Apple iPhone much more. But the iPhone has been too expensive, and

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-16148376841366953282008-11-08T23:41:00.001-06:002008-11-08T23:41:49.604-06:00

I find the keyboard on the T-Mobile G1 "smart phone" a tad awkward to use. After all, I am a 110+ wpm touch typist when I can use all 10 of my fingers. Typing with my thumbs is frustratingly slow. But I am getting a little more comfortable with the keyboard every day and already I am able to type faster than I expected to be able to, and I make fewer mistakes than I thought I would.  I think it's

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-73660510662672184522008-11-08T22:37:00.001-06:002008-11-08T22:37:59.505-06:00

Here's a pic of my daughter and her friend. This message was written in Gmail on my T-Mobile G1 and automatically posted by email. This must be how Instapundit does it - and now I understand why he keeps his posts short. My thumbs are getting sore!

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-47935459657647559222008-11-08T13:21:00.014-06:002008-11-08T16:54:32.902-06:00

Just got back from a wonderful trip with my wife to the Grand Canyon. We arrived on Friday, October 31, 2008. Hiked down the South Kaibab trail to the river on Saturday, spent two nights camping at the bottom of the canyon, then hiked back up the Bright Angel trail on Monday, November 3. When we did this together over a decade ago, we hiked down one day, and back up the next. This time, we spent

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-26288819138862659822008-09-24T19:46:00.001-05:002008-09-24T19:46:19.033-05:00

I just realized that Picasa 3 supports Pentax raw (.PEF) files. Earlier versions of Picasa were able to display the PEF files generated by my Pentax K10D and K20D, but Picasa could not read the EXIF info. Now it can. This is good news. All important photos go through Adobe Lightroom, but this requires some effort, because I have to attach the big hard drive to my laptop. But I take a lot of

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-9131255691026410412008-09-24T10:06:00.001-05:002008-09-24T10:06:12.373-05:00

I've been using Google's new browser - named "Chrome" - ever since the day it was released a couple of weeks ago. Chrome is cute, but that's about all I can say in its favor. I'm going to stick with Firefox 3 for now. Firefox is a very mature and capable browser with a terrific feature set; Chrome is an immature application with a very limited feature set. One key difference: Firefox supports

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-6936619389473961782008-07-29T18:50:00.009-05:002008-07-29T22:31:45.224-05:00

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 was released today. It's not earth-shattering news for those of us who have been using the public beta since last spring. But the beta had a few bugs and the final release adds some new features that weren't in the beta. And with today's official release, I can finally combine my old Lightroom 1.x photo collection with the photos I have edited in the last four months

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-15658375193043469332008-07-09T18:16:00.005-05:002008-07-09T23:29:24.543-05:00

The question of Photoshop vs the alternatives seems to come up in online forums more often these days, especially as the alternatives to Photoshop get more and more sophisticated. The question is often directed specifically at the difference between Photoshop and the program that Adobe very confusingly calls "Photoshop Lightroom". So I've gathered my thoughts on the matter here.Use Photoshop to

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-2896598856389515202008-07-03T16:19:00.002-05:002008-07-03T16:49:28.210-05:00

Over at pentaxforums.com, there's been a lot of chatter about when Pentax is going to release a full-frame body to compete with Nikon and Canon. With Nikon set to release its second full-frame camera very soon (the D700) and at a price (around $3000) that sounds more like a new computer than a new car, this chatter is likely to increase. To some posters, a Pentax full-frame camera seems necessary

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-74031032550637151402008-04-23T23:28:00.004-05:002008-04-24T00:29:16.133-05:00

Noticeable perspectival distortion occurs now and then in my photos and I recently decided I should do something about it. This prompted me to think a little about when distortion matters and when it doesn't.Here's a simple example of where it matters. This is a shot of my wife and daughter, standing outside our front door.Notice that the edges of the door frame are not parallel to the edges of

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-33638782661341814042008-02-01T17:34:00.000-06:002008-02-01T18:01:27.282-06:00

Katz Eye focusing screen I now have a Katz Eye focusing screen in my Pentax K10D and I'm very happy with it. When I got my first DSLR in 2006 (the Pentax K100D) I was pleased to see that the optical finder was so much brighter than the digital finder in my previous compact camera, the Canon PowerShot S3 IS. But I was disappointed that the K100D lacked a split-prism focusing screen

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-78261411465591932572007-11-30T15:41:00.000-06:002007-12-01T10:07:19.662-06:00

I finally broke down and purchased Light Crafts LightZone photo editor. I've tried several previous demos but didn't buy for various reasons. In the past, I thought it was too expensive and too slow, and I had trouble really "getting" what LightZone is all about. Well, they had a sale this month (November 2007) that brought the price down. And I saw some video clips that demonstrate a couple of

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-66072773659820259282007-07-10T00:40:00.000-05:002007-07-10T00:59:49.886-05:00

My brother-in-law Tom and I were talking about depth of field yesterday. We disagreed - but it turns out we were both right. Tom said that the generally greater depth of field in compact cameras is a function of the smaller sensor size. I said that I thought that it wasn't the sensor size, but the smaller focal lengths of the lenses that matters.Well, I've browsed around on the web this evening

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-54699914361528276942007-07-05T14:31:00.000-05:002007-07-05T15:23:04.973-05:00

We watched fireworks last night. That the fireworks display actually happened is remarkable in itself, given the unending rain we've had here in Dallas for weeks and weeks. Our neighborhood's Independence Day parade - an ancient tradition - was canceled due to weather. But late in the evening, the rain let up and the skies cleared for a while, so decided to go. On the way out the door, I grabbed

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-30988582062483878542007-05-18T00:12:00.001-05:002007-05-18T00:38:04.780-05:00

I frequently find myself wishing my photos were sharper. Now, I don't mean to make too much of sharpness. I know that focus and sharpness are not quite the same thing. I know that composition and exposure (and an interesting subject) are more important for the kind of photography I do than sharpness. Still, I've been wondering lately if I could get my shots to be sharper.The answer seems to be

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-26987074493968789642007-04-25T17:36:00.000-05:002007-04-25T18:03:39.745-05:00

In a recent thread at pentaxforums.com, there was a bit of back and forth discussion about the merits of prime (fixed-focal length) lenses versus zoom lenses. The old view - from decades ago - was that primes were superior and zooms were not so good. That's simply not true any more.Here are just a couple comparison shots taken by my K10D using (a) the Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4, and (b) the Tamron 28-

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-62098801237772130762007-02-09T16:52:00.000-06:002007-04-25T18:04:26.743-05:00

Two things happen in ten days and the combination of the two is making me very nervous. First, Adobe Lightroom version 1 will finally be released. Second, my 30-day trial version of Lightcrafts' Lightzone will expire. I should perhaps add that only a week after that, the beta of Lightroom that I've been using for a couple of months also expires. So I can make it to the end of the month. But by

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-19537917120586054602006-12-20T22:18:00.000-06:002006-12-20T22:26:49.254-06:00

Sigh, my Canon PowerShot S3 IS is now off to Akron, Ohio, along with the two lovely converter lenses. Yep, sold it on eBay. I'm feeling very comfortable with the new Pentax K100D digital SLR, but I feel like I'm finally coming to a balanced appreciation of what the different cameras can do. Here are a few more random observations.1. I mentioned in my last post that that digital SLR's glass

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-46336160846931268632006-12-12T22:28:00.000-06:002006-12-19T16:46:26.780-06:00

A month ago, I tried to gather up my thoughts on the question of whether I should stick with the Canon S3 IS superzoom compact digital camera or consider purchasing one of the recently released, relatively low-price digital SLRS. In that earlier post I took a position that I suppose could fairly be called defensive. I had already purchased the S3. Now I was trying to persuade myself that I had

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-43394187201570541502006-11-26T11:28:00.000-06:002006-11-26T21:30:47.409-06:00

I've been looking forward to the release of the Borat movie for months. I've seen several clips of the Borat character (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) on YouTube and I thought them hilarious. When I read the reviews of the movie, my eagerness was heightened. John Podhoretz, for example, writing for the Weekly Standard, declared it "one of the four or five funniest films ever made." I like Podhoretz

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-2551798235423354712006-11-15T01:10:00.000-06:002006-11-19T16:35:57.984-06:00

Superzoom or DSLR? Should I buy a digital single-lens reflex (dslr) camera or a high-end point and shoot camera? I ask the question for myself, but you may be asking the same question. I speak as a moderately serious hobbyist, which is to say, I am emphatically not a professional photographer. I want to add further that this essay has a heavy undertow of special pleading. I have already made my

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1163543479065611352006-11-14T16:31:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:49:03.357-06:00

As far as I can tell, Microsoft's Zune music player is creating no splash at all. PC Magazine's web site doesn't mention the product at all on its front page today. PC World gives it a positive review, but the upshot of the review is signaled in the title: "Microsoft's Zune Won't Make You Dump Your iPod." Ouch. John Dvorak agrees, the machine is doomed to fail.I'm sure somebody out there, perhaps

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1163005858978648802006-11-08T11:10:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:40.555-06:00

For those who have no idea of how the high-tech voting process can be hacked, there is an excellent article over at Ars Technica, perhaps the best computer site on the Internet. Actually, it's a great article even if you do have an idea how this would be done.

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1162936396900151162006-11-07T15:16:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:40.487-06:00

In a blog entry over two years ago, I said that only two kinds of people are in favor of electronic or computerized voting machines: people who are selling electronic or computerized voting machines; and people who know nothing about computers. I was wrong. There are three types of people who favor these devices: the two I just mentioned, and a third group - people who don't understand

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1162919327290607402006-11-07T11:08:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:40.418-06:00

When you use a photo management program like Picasa or iPhoto or Photoshop Elements, there are basically three kinds of things you can do. First, you can edit the photo files themselves, for example, by cropping the image or fixing the contrast or color. Second, you can add "metadata" to the images, for example, captions and keywords. Third, you can organize your images into sets or groupings

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1162836882743606932006-11-06T12:14:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:40.326-06:00

Few quick addenda to my earlier post entitled "Organizing those photos!" First, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 is available for purchase now, at least for Windows. As far as I can tell, the latest version for Mac OS X is still 4. My recollection is that version 4 for the Mac appeared a little after 4 for Windows, so I would assume that 5 for Mac will follow soon. An old academic friend

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1162672167209843112006-11-04T14:29:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:40.180-06:00

I'm struggling once again with the problem of how to organize my growing photo collection and you might be, too. There are at least two questions here. First, what software (if any) to use, and second, what do to with that software. I've used various photo management apps over the years. I'm going to focus on just three: iPhoto 5, Picasa 2.5 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 4. (I have not used

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1155060753125077212006-08-08T12:54:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:40.107-06:00

FileMaker, Inc., has released a "public beta" of its own API for FileMaker Server Advanced and PHP:http://filemaker.com/developers/resources/php/index.htmlBut that's not what I want to talk about.Today, on a list frequented by FileMaker developers, I saw a note from someone asking if it was safe to use this beta for production work, that is, on a "real" web site with real users. This rather

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154380800380943842006-07-31T16:05:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:40.039-06:00

Popped over to my mother's house last night, expecting to spend 15 minutes upgrading her Internet connection from dialup to dsl from SBC/Yahoo! I've done this so many times I could do it in my sleep: install the filters on all lines, install the dsl modem itself and connect it properly both to the incoming phone jack and to the computer, open the computer and set the Internet preference to

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154038135773831902006-07-27T17:00:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.962-06:00

I've criticized the Apple ads and enjoyed parodies of them here, so I guess it's fair to link to a piece of online video that imagines what Microsoft might do when it tries to copy the iPod - but put its distinctive mark on the copy. Click here to view; warning - has sound. It would be funnier if it weren't so realistic.But Microsoft might be changing its M.O. For what it's worth, here's the "

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153865657310794492006-07-24T17:13:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:38.718-06:00

The lead article in the Technology section of today's Wall Street Journal today (July 24, 2006) is titled, "Is it Time to Dump Your Desktop?" It's interesting to see the question being asked so prominently, but the answer offered in the article is somewhat disappointing - perhaps because the question, as asked, is premature.The WSJ stacks the deck heavily in favor of the desktop by focusing on

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153865509424960952006-07-24T15:11:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:38.639-06:00

Gmail domain hostingPublished 7/24/2006Some months ago, I learned that Google was initiating a beta of its new hosted-domain email service for small businesses. I applied for admission to the beta immediately, got accepted, and I've now been using the new service for a full week. Do I like it? Yes, I like it a lot. Actually, I feel like I've finally fully entered the twenty-first century.Why did

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153927631928563662006-07-19T10:26:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.002-06:00

I must be getting the hang of Windows. Tonight, I solved not one, but two problems with my computer that Dell Tech Support gave up on.Problem 1: Can't set desktop backgroundI couldn't change my desktop picture or "background" as it's called in Windows. I'd right click on the desktop, click on the Desktop tab of the Display Properties dialog, click the Browse button, find and select a photograph

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153929044295363942006-07-13T10:50:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.271-06:00

According to Macworld online (7/7/06), computer industry analysts predict that the ability of Macs to run Windows well (either via Parallels or Boot Camp) isn't going to do much to increase the market share of Macs in the business world.No surprise here.I will say it again: While there may be a reason for Macs to want to run Windows, there's virtually no reason for somebody with a Windows machine

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153927824200511342006-07-13T10:30:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.090-06:00

I learned about this from an article at PC World online by Narasa Rebbapragada, who learned about it from an article at Engadget, which in turn got it from somewhere else. Anyway, it's legit, funny, and inevitable: a spoof of the recent Apple television ads in which the roles of the Mac and the PC are played by two human beings. The spoof shows just how obnoxious the Apple guy is. You'll have to

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153865913482695542006-06-10T17:16:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:38.829-06:00

A colleague of mine brought to my attention a newsletter article from a small computer reseller that reports that the Web is posing at least a small threat to Microsoft. The article notes that, with the beta release of Google's spreadsheet and with the earlier announcement that Google had acquired Writely, an online word processor, Microsoft's key desktop apps have some competition from the

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153928348245435902006-06-06T10:38:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.179-06:00

I went to the Firefox extensions page to add Crusty.com to my preferred search engines, and I ran across something wonderful: FireFTP - a full-featured FTP client that works inside Firefox.As you probably know, I'm now working 90% or more of the time in Windows, and I don't miss much about the Mac. But one of the few things I do miss is Panic Software's outstanding FTP client, Transmit. I've been

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154021838336366652006-05-17T12:36:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.478-06:00

So I've now upgraded to a Dell Latitude D820. It's got a Core Duo chip, 2 GB of RAM, a bigger (and higher-res) display, a thinner body and a somewhat more stylish look than the Latitude D610 it replaces. Here's a review from PC Magazine:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1943236,00.aspAnd here are a couple of pictures from C|net:http://news.com.com/2300-1005_3-6055430-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pgNote

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154021956036172122006-05-16T12:38:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.562-06:00

Tech writer Molly Wood on the C|net blog notes that it's one thing to be able to boot Windows on a MacBook or MacBook Pro, it's another thing to be able to use it.http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6527287.html?tag=cnetfd.blogShe focuses on the Mac line's lack of a two-button mouse. This isn't quite right. Apple makes the Mighty Mouse, which I have written favorably about in the past and which

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154022153031913522006-05-02T12:42:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.649-06:00

I read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code when it came out. I was at that time coming to the end of my academic detoxification - or rather retoxification - program, the program in which I was reading all the crap that I'd failed to keep up with during the previous quarter of a century. A sales person at Barnes & Noble had suggested the book as a good read, and he was right. I read the book straight

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1153866260338752532006-04-29T17:23:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:38.904-06:00

Bootcamp and the future of the MacPublished originally on Typepad 4/29/06A couple of weeks ago, Apple released the cleverly named BootCamp, a utility that makes it not only possible but fairly easy to run Windows (XP SP2) on a new Mac with an Intel chip. Like many of Apple’s moves in the last few years, this one has attracted a lot of attention from the computer press. We have to assume that

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154022260439353782006-04-28T12:44:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.741-06:00

Yesterday, in the early afternoon, I broke down and bought the latest version of Microsoft Office 2003, Professional Edition, for Windows XP. I need Excel for some FileMaker work, and I finally got tired of using OpenOffice. Unfortunately, the installation process has been very difficult.Around 2:00, I logged out of my normal (limited-privileges) user account, logged into my administrator account

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1131065776961956262005-11-03T18:55:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:38.296-06:00

Just sharing my desktop picture. I've tweaked it very gently in Picasa. Boy, I wish I could step away from my computer and go back to where I was standing on the North Rim in August when I took this shot.And stay there. 

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1130995267130404712005-11-02T22:58:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:38.222-06:00

.I may be losing my faith. No, not in the important way. I'm sticking with Rome on that score. I'm simply referring to my faith in Apple. Ten days ago I bought a Dell laptop running Windows XP Professional. I've used it all day every day since then. And I like it.It's not (very) ugly (anymore)!I have mixed feelings about XP blue. But the real problem with Windows - especially compared to the Mac

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1130703737903547442005-10-30T14:19:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:38.139-06:00

I have a dilemma that is driving me crazy, now that I'm using 2 computers pretty actively. The problem is, how to deal with email: move to the web or stick with the desktop?Web mail's pros and consIt seems to me that, other things being equal, storing my mail on a remote (Internet) server is superior to downloading it and storing it on a laptop and deleting the messages from the POP server after

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154021720368368262005-09-17T12:34:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.356-06:00

I finally got my hands on the new Mighty Mouse from Apple. And I love it.A lot of people are rather surprised that Apple would cave in and release a two-button mouse. Apple has never made a two button mouse before, and it's generally been understood that Apple (i.e. Steve Jobs) believes two-button mice are a bad UI/design concept.But the Mighty Mouse is not a two-button mouse. It's a one-button

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154023652329646772005-06-16T13:07:00.000-05:002006-11-14T16:36:39.890-06:00

Mac OS X.4 ("Tiger") gives parents some control over a young child's experience of the Internet. This is good.I just gave Catherine, our ten-year old, her own email account, so she can communicate with her older sisters, who are away from home now, and so she can get some more experience reading and writing. I would like to exercise some control over her use of the email account and I don't want

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-1154022712200467352005-01-06T12:51:00.000-06:002006-11-14T16:36:39.816-06:00

“Eighty percent of success in life is showing up.” Woody AllenWhen I started blogging earlier this year, my goal was to post a new article at least once a week. I kept it up for a short while. Then I got busy. I stopped showing up.I take no comfort in the thought, but I’m not alone. There are a lot of us “little” bloggers, like me and my friend Kirk Samuelson, who aren’t pressured by the thought

William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.com