Computing | Keys Corner

NeoOffice/J 1.1 Alpha 1 available

By John, on September 9th, 2004

Goody, goody: my favourite Office software implementation for the Mac has been upgraded to use the latest OpenOffice.org release. So far it’s an alpha release, but nonetheless, first reports are positive. No major issues so far, just keep an eye on the patches as they become available (at a pretty amazing rate) in the . . . → Read More: NeoOffice/J 1.1 Alpha 1 available

On how to write “internet”

By John, on August 31st, 2004

I missed this article a couple of weeks ago in Wired. So just for the record, expert opinion is that web, internet and its abbreviation net should no longer be capitalized, unless used in a headline.

And in case you missed it, back in October 2000, Wired decided that e-mail should be written . . . → Read More: On how to write “internet”

Cultural influence on technology

By John, on August 17th, 2004

There was an interesting article on Genevieve Bell a cultural anthropologist employed by Intel, in The Oregonian last May. Bell spent the last two years looking into how Asians interact with technology. She turned up some interesting things.

Did you know for instance that LGE, a Korean company, produces a mobile phone with . . . → Read More: Cultural influence on technology

Computer units of size

By John, on August 2nd, 2004

OK – who knows what a kibibyte is?

No, it is not a new cat food – it is 1024 bytes. You might think that that is a kilobyte and, until 1998, you would have been right.

But several major insititutions, decided that it was nonsense having telecom manufacturers and hard disk . . . → Read More: Computer units of size

The better Office software

By John, on June 30th, 2004

OpenOffice.org have just taken a major step for Mac OS X users, by releasing their first update to OpenOffice.org, their freeware competitor to Microsoft’s Office suite, in roughly a year. You can download OpenOffice.org 1.1.2 for OS X from here. So far, so excellent.

Unfortunately, in their effort to provide a user-friendly installation, . . . → Read More: The better Office software

Unwiring the last mile

By John, on June 26th, 2004

The IEEE approved IEEE Standard 802.16-2004, more commonly known as the WiMax standard, on Thursday this week.

WiMax is a standard that will give similar funcionality to computer users, as we have today with Wireless LAN (WLAN) – but instead of having a range limited to typically 20 – 50 meters (maybe a . . . → Read More: Unwiring the last mile

Surfing the internet

By John, on June 20th, 2004

Intel has produced a a surfboard with integrated WLAN laptop, which will allow surfers to check their emails, surf the web, and even record footage of themselves catching the best waves.

The laptop doesn’t sound in the least bit usable, at least not unless your name is Duncan Scott, but it should generate . . . → Read More: Surfing the internet

Why DRM is bad – for everyone

By John, on June 18th, 2004

The opinions of the music / film industry and the paying customers on DRM (Digital Rights Management), or copy protection, are diametrically opposed to each other. Microsoft has been an active developer of DRM technology and wants to incorporate it into its next generation operating system. So it was interesting to see that Cory . . . → Read More: Why DRM is bad – for everyone

Good collection of links on moving from MT to WP

By John, on May 17th, 2004

Carthik has a useful collection of links on migrating from Movable Type to WordPress.

(Via Burningbird)

Palm Pilot / Mac OS X 10.3.3 error message

By John, on May 15th, 2004

I have spent some time trying to get the data transfer working between the Palm Desktop 4.2.1 on my Mac and my Sony Clie. After one of the latest OS X updates (I don’t know exactly which one), I started get the error message _Transport Monitor Could not complete your request (16)_ each time . . . → Read More: Palm Pilot / Mac OS X 10.3.3 error message