How I Became a Hacker (and How You Can Become One Too)

Until relatively recently (the past few years), I was too uncertain of my skills to do much of anything for myself.   I felt trapped by my own ineptitude. I wouldn’t move a piece of furniture, lest it be a wrong move. I tolerated bad designs, kept all the default setting on my computers and …

Inspiration by Peter Pan

Yesterday morning I rooted a Barnes and Noble Color Nook so I could load Cyanogenmod and turn it into an Android tablet. As per my previous experiences, the actual rooting and installation went very smoothly. But that is not to say that I didn’t hit any snags. In fact, an installation process that should have …

Do you really want a smartphone?

I was bored in the waiting room at my doctor’s office a week or so ago so I decided to have a look around.  In addition to some seriously outdated magazines (there were a couple of People’s from last century) I saw almost everyone fiddling with their smartphones.  It brought to mind an episode from …

Why Does Everything Need to be so Hard?

On Wednesday, I helped a client figure out how to get the scanner from her wireless multi-function printer to send scanned images to her laptop. After trying all of the easy options, I went online to get the user manual. The thing had 3 manuals.  Three! For a multi-function printer.  There was the User’s Manual, …

My New Laptop: Day 4

As I anticipated, I am feeling increasingly comfortable with my new laptop.  My fingers still occasionally hit the wrong keys and I am relying heavily on my trackpad while I learn a whole new set of keyboard commands.  My remaining issues are with application compatibility. re I decided on a Linux laptop, I had done …

Why I broke up with Apple

I have been an apple devotee since I got my very first Mac Classic  loaner in college.  The very first computer I bought for myself was a Mac LCII. In fact, I still have it, I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it. Like many of us, I assumed that I would get …

My New Laptop: An Experiment, Part II

Not unexpectedly, the transition to my new laptop hasn’t been particularly smooth. First the system froze installing the newest version of Ubuntu, which was released the same day my computer shipped.  Then I tried to do the installation from a CD my husband burned for me. When that didn’t work, I gave up and called …