Customer info exposed again: Suffering data-breach fatigue?

| October 4, 2014

The year 2014 is turning up to be the year of the data-breach. It seems every month another high profile company reports that their clients and customer data has been compromised. JP Morgan Chase is the most recent and perhaps the largest loss of data – a information from a “mere” 76 million households and […]

A long evening with Apple iDevices and iOS8 software updates

| September 18, 2014

Most of Wednesday evening was spent backing up and cleaning up … and then downloading and installing Apple’s iOS8 release on a couple iPhones and an iPad (if full iCloud functionality is desired, then prepare for Mac OSX Yosemite install). Once finished, then the app update fun began and so as a reminder to those […]

TechFriday: Dashlane gets high marks as a password manager

| May 9, 2014

I’ve mentioned LastPass a few times in the past as a way to manage the many passwords that our online presence requires and it still looks like a good option. Over the years things change, so I was interested to read “The Best Way To Manage All Your Passwords” article in the WSJ by Geoffrey […]

Big Data and Predictive Analysis when it comes to airfares

| April 22, 2014

A post on the FiveThirtyEight.com blog by Kaiser Fung this past weekend analyzed the prediction of airfares on Kayak (after the removal of Microsoft’s Bing Travel’s Farecast in January 2014), left me wondering if the days of successful Big Data’s Predictive Analysis are disappearing? According to my read on Fung’s selective airfare routes research, you […]

Tech Friday: Fing and some terrific simple little hacks

| February 14, 2014

Fing is a great little network scanner app available on iOS and Android devices that helped when diagnosing a network printer problem this week. It not really necessary, but is so convenient that I wanted to share it with others. If you are overwhelm with devices, ip and mac addresses and odd names showing up […]

Tech Friday: Revisiting Soluto after switching to an SSD

| January 17, 2014

A Tech Friday reminder to consider Soluto if you have a slow booting computer and revisit it after upgrading hardware … especially if you are  for trying to stretch the “use by date” of an aging computer. Everyone I know love a fast booting computer, although I doubt a Windows machine is ever going to […]

Reminder: Check on your virus protection and update it!

| December 30, 2013

Offering up a reminder to those running Windows (or any OS really) without or with ”OUTDATED” virus protection — questionable links, website and emails are plentiful. Most of them, from what I have read, still target the Microsoft Windows users, but we should assume most popular operating systems are at risk as well. Do your […]

Announcement from Apple on a variety of devices

| October 23, 2013

Yesterday’s Apple product event came on the heels of last months lackluster iPhone 5c and 5s announcement (I watched on and off on my iPad – Jony Ive in photo on right) . First off, there wasn’t anything earthshattering just as with the new iPhones, but the updates and upgrades will be “want to have” items. […]

Test driving the PixelPumper Mac app for blogging

| September 29, 2013

Untitled Blog Post Name I’m taking a look at the Apple Macintosh blogging app called PixelPumper after using the Windows-only  Live Writer for years. I know the day is coming when either I’ll upgrade my old clunky PC notebook computer for a lightweight Macbook Air or see Microsoft eliminate LiveWriter entirely (rumors). I’m still a […]

Apple iCloud’s online beta for Pages, Numbers & Keynote

| July 23, 2013

Apple is testing a few new online iWork applications for those iCloud users accessing their cloud account. The addition of Apple’s document, spreadsheet and presentation software to iCloud will move the beloved computer company one step closer to Microsoft and Google went it comes to online “Office” productivity software. I’m reluctant to commit to one particular […]

SmartDeblur looks to be almost ready for primetime

| October 20, 2012

Why is it that  I question installing and using software some pretty impressing “debluring software” from a guy named Vladimir Yuzhikov? Am I being overly paranoid or worse … prejudice. Anyway take a look at SmartDeblur and what Gizmodo has to say about this windows only (for now) software … although with smartphones getting some […]

Enjoyed this WSJ article … and yes downloaded Jotly

| June 6, 2012

No longer available WSJ article

Spotify.com comes to America after winning over Europe

| July 16, 2011

This content is restricted.

WordPress 3.1.4 upgrade available

| June 30, 2011

Upgraded to WordPress to 3.1.4 ;  fixes potential security issues: This release fixes an issue that could allow a malicious Editor-level user to gain further access to the site. Version 3.1.4 also incorporates several other security fixes and hardening measures

Tech Friday ideas: Sumatra PDF and Foxit Reader

| May 6, 2011

Who doesn’t struggle with the bloated Adobe PDF Reader or the pricey full-featured Adobe Acrobat Pro PDF products? I’ve used both products over the years and have been frustrated by the cumbersome Adobe software. Although I still use an older full version of Acrobat upon occasion, I have fund Foxit Reader and more recent lightweight […]

MyTether on webOS 1.5.5 for the Palm Pre is working again

| January 25, 2011

After switching to Verizon’s webOS Mobile Hotspot on my Sprint connected Palm Pre in order to be able to tether my phone, I had all but given up on MyTether. Although I’m not an everyday “tether-er” … having the ability to connect my notebook computer to the Internet in a pinch is important. Thankfully Raja […]

Important end of the year WordPress 3.0.4 update

| December 30, 2010

The gurus at WordPress.org have tweaked their programming code and issued an Important Security Update. Take note if you are self-hosted WordPress user and update your install as soon as possible. Version 3.0.4 of WordPress, available immediately through the update page in your dashboard or for download here, is a very important update to apply […]

Tech Friday: Soluto helps to speed up Window 7 boot times

| November 19, 2010

The boot modifying program called Soluto seems to help keep my Windows 7 notebook computer’s cold boot a bit snappier. Although my older Windows machine may not be up to netbook, tablet or Macbook speeds, the improved one minute and 44 second boot is better than without the Soluto tweaks. The company’s tagline as “anti-frustration” […]

Tech Friday: WordWeb Dictionary and Thesaurus

| November 12, 2010

Although I’ve used a few different online dictionaries over the years, I’ve concluded that using a program called WordWeb is better than all the cookies, flash cookies and beacons. According to a WSJ article this summer, sites like Dictionary.com were pretty intrusive. More than half of the sites examined by the Journal installed 23 or […]

Tech Friday posted on a Saturday: At-Large Recorder 2

| October 16, 2010

Not that I’ve been all that regular at posting a “tech tip” on Fridays, but I did try out a new video recording program this week. It is called At-Large Recorder 2 (Windows only) by Applian Technologies and is a DVR of sorts for the Slingbox … which is a piece of hardware that broadcast […]

Upgrading Palm Pre apps: I should know better

| October 12, 2010

While struggling to stay productive during my out of town trip last week, I found it necessary to tether my computer to my Palm Pre a couple of times. On previous trips I bragged about MyTether as a way to do this, but after a summer webOS update it no longer works … so I […]

Lastpass.com – a tech Friday tip on a Monday

| September 27, 2010

How do you keep all of your online passwords safe and secure? I’ll admit, I wasn’t all that smart about managing mine. About a month or so ago, a technology friend of mine shared his method of using the stand alone KeyPass Password Safe on his PC and explained how he then plop the encrypted […]

Tech Friday: Simple Thunderbird email add-on to pass on

| September 10, 2010

I’ve used Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client for quite a few years now and as it is with most software, it all in what one get use to using. Recent upgrades have required me to make adjustments to my set-up and I grumbled a bit … but for the most part upgrading to 3.1.3 has been […]

A buck-forty-three for the new Neato! Palm Pre app today

| August 30, 2010

Every once in a while, the point of sale technique works on me … and today was the day. I coughed up $1.43 for a Palm Pre app called Neato! It’s a simple little application that runs on the webOS smartphone and receives webpage links, copied text and maps from a computer browser using a […]

I have a bone to pick with Avast antivirus software

| August 15, 2010

I’ve used the same antivirus software on my PC for over a decade and have been pleased with how the company has supported updates and discreet reminder in both the free version and low priced home protection. Unfortunately things have changed for me, after struggling with an upgrade to the 5.0 update, I shifted back […]

Bookmarking & collaborating on web research with iCyte.com

| April 23, 2010

At some point in collecting and bookmarking websites for research and the organizational complexity that comes with doing it can be daunting. My XMarks synced bookmarks have become so unwieldy that I don’t even use them anymore – same for those I’ve archived with Delicious.com. I’ve turned to use an Instapaper’s “ReadLater” bookmarklet, a PDFit […]

Slower than expected release reinforced by Adobe’s CEO

| April 19, 2010

Delayed or no delay? In an interview with Fox Business News, Adobe‘s CEO Shantanu Narayen commented that Flash 10.1 for mobile devices would be available in the second half of 2010. Earlier this year many Palm webOS users expected to have Flash available much sooner (link) and have been disappointed in the delay. Some suggest […]

Windows 7 Release Candidate soon to expire

| February 16, 2010

There are still a few of us running Windows 7 RC and putting off the inevitable reinstall headache. I suppose I’ve been hoping that there might be some kind of extension or that I might end up with a new computer? Alas, the time is drawing near to install either Windows 7 Home Premium or […]

Minor WordPress update today – current version 2.9.2

| February 15, 2010

Updated to WordPress 2.9.2 which was primarily released to repair a problem “where logged in users can peek at trashed posts belonging to other authors.” Not a big deal for most WordPress users, but an easy update for those desiring to stay current.

MyTether “no patch” Beta installed and running fine

| January 29, 2010

The MyTether “no patch” beta fix was release while I was traveling this week. I didn’t have the nerve to install on my Palm Pre in fear of ‘bricking’ it so waited until this afternoon to reinstall. So far so good, although the speeds aren’t what I would like, most likely due to 5PM Sprint […]

SlingMedia’s Palm Slingplayer Beta2 is available

| June 12, 2007

Although the Palm OS Slingplayer on my Treo 700p has been near flawless, SlingMedia has dutifully fixed a couple things and offered users a new 30 day free trial called SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS BETA2. (available as of last night) I installed it directly to my PDA over the Sprint network on the Treo’s […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog