I just downloaded and compiled Dillo, a sweet little browser that bridges the gap between the tiny and efficient text-based Lynx and heavyweight browsers like Firefox and the sluggish beast Mozilla. Dillo is a lot like a desktop version of a Palm Browser - tight, fast, memory efficient… and sh... read more →

Avoid buying cheap-o security cameras, such as ones from Swann, Q-See, etc. at all costs. If you are lucky enough to find printed specs on the package, you'll notice that they have high noise levels, high lux levels, and low resolutions, all of which translates to a garbage picture and endless ... read more →

After craving a top quality Japanese Green Tea, I tried a variety of teas at my local coffee places (Peets, Starbucks, etc). While they have good coffee, I was less than impressed with their tea, as well as their annoying habit of serving tea in lip-burning, tea-blanching, boiling hot water. Luckil... read more →

StickyC discovered this years ago, but lo and behold, this consistent formula worked its magic on me last night. Company Party + Gin Martini + Karaoke Machine = SINATRA! Sing along with me:South of the BorderDown Mexico Way… ... read more →

Seen the cool Bottle Cap camera tripods over at Semsons? Jake Ludington posted instructions detailing how simple it is to just make your own. Quote: Total cost is $3.37, not including the Pepsi. ... read more →

The crummy analog picture quality of the Comcast DVR [superbowlcomcastdvr, comcastdvrwar, comcastdvrdst, newcomcastdvr, comcastdvrdead, comcastdvrdelete, comcastdvravsforum, comcastdvrcodes] box has me actively researching solutions for building my own HDTV PVR . I didn't expect to discover th... read more →

My SanDisk SD WiFi Card just arrived in the mail today, and hoo-wee is the 'net fast on the Zodiac now. As a matter of fact, after having my adventures with bluetooth and getting this WiFi card, I simply can't imagine having a non-wireless PDA ever again. Thanks to the web site: http://www.... read more →

There are a lot of great HDTV big-screen monitors available these days, but nearly all of them have maximum resolution of 1280×720, which supports the HDTV resolution 720p. Unfortunately, 720p is not the highest HDTV resolution - 1080i is. Even though 1080i is interlaced, the ultimate way to ... read more →

I've been very picky about keyboards over the years, as I tend to type like a machine gun. Several years ago, I found one that I thought was perfect: the NMB RT6856 which used to be bundled with Micron desktops. I actually possess 6 of those. Well, I figured it was time for me to get out of th... read more →

I've had the Comcast HD-DVR for about 2 weeks now. I'll write a review after I finish reading a thread about it on AVS Forum. AVS Forum is a killer place to get all the hi-fi and video info you need, but sometimes the amount of information can be overwhelming. The "Official Comcast 64... read more →

My friend and GDC speaking partner Elonka is in Wired today, discussing a cool crytographic sculpture at CIA headquarters. In case you're wondering, Elonka was the first person to crack PhreakNIC. And of course, she has a blog. ... read more →

This week I've tried a variety of web browsers for PalmOS . Specifically, I've been looking for a browser that: Downloads and renders pages quickly Uses minimimal bandwidth Uses a minimal amount of system RAM Supports landscape mode on the Zodiac Supports ECMAScript (aka JavaScript) Rende... read more →

My long time friend StickyC has a very active techno-humor-motorcycle-drinking blog over at http://www.stickyc.com. He also has a wiki, where he's posted a run-down of his fairly elaborate Home Media Center project. I've been meaning to do this for about 5 years now, but the big holdup fo... read more →

Applying a polyurethane top coat to a wood finish in a cold winter garage turns out to be a bad idea. In my case, each '2 hour fast-dry' coat took over 10 hours to dry in 45'F weather. And worse, the stuff won't flow smoothly or disolve itself properly, leaving lot's of little p... read more →

Tip: When carrying a tube of suncreen during winter sport activities, put it inside of a sealed ziplock bag before slipping it in to your pocket. That way, you can prevent a mess and some permanent stains when, oh… hypothetically speaking, you're snowboarding on a lovely Thursday afternoon... read more →

Because of an apparent bug in the Widcomm WinXP Bluetooth drivers, I decided to try enabling Bluetooth in Linux to give the Tapwave Zodiac wireless internet access. Linux Bluetooth works great! Bluetooth success in Linux is a result of the BlueZ driver project, which is conveniently included with t... read more →

As the Sandisk SD WiFi cards are sold out everywhere (unless you want to pay a premium price), I've been experimenting with Bluetooth as a connectivity option on the Tapwave Zodiac. I have a D-Link DBT-120(rev. B4) Bluetooth dongle that, as with all Bluetooth dongles, comes with drivers from Wi... read more →

Numerous web sites can describe how to connect to the Sony Ericsson T616 via Bluetooth , but many seem to be missing a critical piece of information: the network access number, aka the phone number. Thanks to Chad at Infoworld, I found the dialup number that works on ATT Wireless (now Cingular) GPRS... read more →

The Tapwave Zodiac is a very cool PalmOS handheld, but unfortunately for us old-school Palm users, it comes with the one and two-stroke Graffiti 2 handwriting input system, rather than the original elegant one-stroke Graffiti 1. Fortunately, it is possible to add Graffiti 1 to the Zodiac. All of t... read more →

Maybe it's obvious, but Mozilla Thunderbird is not a usable alternative to Outlook 2003 . After playing with Thunderbird 1.0, it is a very well done email client app, perhaps the best Windows email client from someone other than Microsoft. But without a full-fledged PIM , a stand-alone email c... read more →

My mail servers support POP3 and IMAP . Because I'm using multiple clients nowadays, including webmail, Mutt, and Outlook 2003, I changed my Outlook config from POP3 to IMAP. Oops. Outlook's support for IMAP is lacking a couple of features. Yes, it basically works, but here's what it... read more →

Modern front-loading washing machines are such a cool improvement over the classic American top-loader tub . After picking two highly rated models (Bosch and Whirlpool) and finding out that they won't fit in our circa 1979 laundry room, our third choice was delivered today: Believe it or not, t... read more →

In the December 14, 2004 issue of PC Magazine, Bill Howard wrote an excellent article about the problems with fixed-resolution LCD panels and readability. Since most Windows apps can't deal with font DPIs other than 96 (lazy programmers), high-resolution LCD panels are straining our eyes with t... read more →

The Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco makes the well known and loved Anchor Steam Beer. Recently, I discovered that Anchor also has a distillery called, appropriately enough, the Anchor Distilling Company. If you like gin , try Anchor's Junipero. Unlike Bombay Sapphire's silky yet r... read more →