Tech Archives - Page 4 of 8 - Chris Ullrich dot net
Browsing Category

Tech

RIP: Netscape Navigator (1994 – 2008)

Posted on December 29, 2007

Starting in February 2008, current owner AOL will no longer support what was once one of the most popular web browsers of them all: Netscape Navigator. The browser will now be relegated to the anals of web history. Although, surely at some future date, Netscape Navigator will be inducted into the as-yet unrealized “Web Hall of Fame” located, one might assume, somewhere in Silicon Valley.

Does 1994 really seem that long ago? I guess it was — especially in technology years. Things do change rather quickly, don’t they?

One Laptop Per Child

Posted on November 20, 2007

As I love laptops, am also pretty fond of children and education and OLPC seems like a worthy cause, I went ahead and donated. Feeling left out? Want to know how you can do something? Well, don’t worry as you still have another week to do a good thing for some kids.

Plus, if you act now, T-Mobile will also throw in one year of free Hotspot access on top of giving one and getting one and that great feeling that comes from doing a good thing. How can you pass that up?

I know, some may argue that this isn’t what children really need but access to technology is important (as is food, shelter, medicine and clean water) but we’re talking about laptops at the moment so get those credit cards or Paypal accounts going and donate.

Family Business

Posted on August 29, 2007

At the moment, I am dealing with some rather dire family issues so I won’t be back for a bit. I hope everything ends up getting worked out.

But in the meantime, here’s a pretty interesting video from Mr. GTD himself Merlin Mann about how to handle your hopelessly clogged email inbox. Give it a look and I’ll be back later.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=973149761529535925&h1=en]

Trying Out an RSS Service Thingy (sorry, its technical)

Posted on June 12, 2007

Sorry folks but I’m just doing a quick experiment to see if something works. Afterward I will return you to your regular programming. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Does Something Else Interesting

Posted on May 29, 2007

minority-report.jpg

Well, if you think touch sensitive tables are interesting, that is. Really, I kinda do. Although, Surface, as its called, seems to work much like the screen of the iPhone so I wonder where they got the idea? Maybe it was the movie Minority Report that inspired them? Sure, that could be it. Whatever it was that made them think of it, the technology is pretty cool so check it out.

surfacedrawing.jpg

Moving Again

Posted on March 27, 2007

No, I’m still sticking with WordPress but I’m moving to a new host that will give me better control over the site. WordPress is a great program and I will continue to use it over at the new host.

For the next day or two we may experience some issues as the URL of this here site changes hands to new hosts. I appreciate your patience and promise that this will be the last time I move this site around. Well, probably the last time anyway.

In the meantime, check out my article at LAist concerning the new AppleTV. Should you get one? Read and see.

iPhone – Yes or No?

Posted on March 6, 2007

jobsandiphone.jpg

Over at LAist I’ve written a little piece answering a question from a reader who asks if they should get an iPhone or not. As an unapologetic Apple and Mac fan, I think my answers were put as well as I could put them. There are a lot of other pros and cons but I tried to settle on the main ones that I feel are worth it to normal cell phone users when considering an iPhone. Anyway, the piece is up so if you get a chance, feel free to take a look.

Saved by a Prius

Posted on March 2, 2007

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/v/GkJ109Z3iOg”>]

As I am a recent, and proud, owner of a Toyota Prius, this video I saw on YouTube give me some comfort that I won’t die if I’m ever in an accident. Although, I have to admit that when I first started seeing the Prius around town one of the things that always concerned me about getting one was if it would be safe during an accident. Fortunately, I haven’t had very many accident in my life (only two I think) so safety wasn’t the most important thing to me. Although, it was up there.

Anyway, so far I’ve been lucky and haven’t had to test the Prius in any real-world crash test scenarios. If I was superstitions, this would be the time when I would knock on wood or something. Unfortunately, I’m not 100% sure if this Starbucks table is made of actual wood or just a shiny wood substitute. Oh well, I guess it can’t hurt to do it anyway.

Walking When You Shouldn’t Be

Posted on February 21, 2007

Macbook Pro

well, i got some interesting news the other day. it seems i have what the doctors call “walking pneumonia.” and no, it does not come with the “boogie woogie flu” as much as i was hoping it did. really, all it comes with is chest pain when breathing, coughing, headache and a general feeling of crappiness that makes you just wanna sleep until its over. don’t worry, i’m going to live and got some good drugs.

so, that’s what i have been doing a lot of for the last few days — sleeping. that also means i haven’t been doing much of anything else like writing for LAist, Cinematical or any other sites. plus, haven’t been working on my scripts either. at least i have a good excuse this time and not the usual one i use — procrastination.

i’m going to keep this short but i had a moment or two of lucidity and felt like at least writing something. gotta keep the machine working if you can — at least at extremely low capacity. one other bit of news before i go, i have changed phones yet again (yes, its true) and gone back to the blackberry 8700g. the treo 680 is history and although a fine piece of tech, is just not for me. blackberry is where its at and i count the days until the blackberry 8800 comes out for t-mobile. soon my friends, soon.

also, i have decided to try an experiment and only use one mac instead of two. normally, i have a desktop mac (at the moment a 20“ intel iMac) and i also used a laptop — my trusty 12” g4 powerbook. i have decided to try and use only one mac and make things simpler for me. to that end, i am now the proud owner of a shiny new 15“ macbook pro. yes, i know i said 15” was too big and i would never get one, etc. well, i’m using it to write this and i gotta say, its pretty nice.

i was going to attach an external monitor (a 23“ apple cinema display or a 24” dell ultrasharp) but this screen is almost big enough not to need another monitor. plus, i’m kinda in a quandary regarding my loyalty to apple and paying a thousand bucks for a monitor when i can get a potentially better one for only about six hundred bucks from dell. everything i’ve read about the dell leads me to believe that its a great monitor and every bit as good as the apple. or, i could just use the macbok pro without another monitor. its only five inches smaller than my iMac so i almost don’t notice the difference. plus, as its a laptop you tend to sit closer to it than you do a bigger monitor and that, at least for me, makes things easier to read and see.

the other major reason i decided to try this was to avoid the “oh, that file is on my other computer” problem that seems to crop up often. if you have two computers it stands to reason you will work on one of them sometime and the other sometimes. unfortunately, that probably means you will run into the same problem i often did. an article draft or a file i need is on my desktop and i’m on my laptop at another location and can’t get to it. sure, i could vpn and ftp the stuff to me wherever i am but why bother and why open up any holes in my firewall if i don’t have to? it seems much easier to me to just have one computer, an external monitor and external drives and go from there.

i’m sure this new paradigm will also present its own problems but for the moment, it seems to make sense. besides, it was a good excuse to get a new mac and who doesn’t love that! i know i do. ok, that’s it. time to go back to bed. see you on the other side.

Steve Jobs and His Thoughts on Music

Posted on February 6, 2007

Jobsandiphone

This is a very interesting read especially coming from a guy whose company also has DRM on its music from iTunes. Still, you have to give him credit, he sure seems to be pretty darn smart. I guess you have to be to do what he’s done with Apple over the years. Enjoy.