July 2011
14 posts
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Beoga: How to Tune a Fish
Well, it’s not too often that I end up with a cover story, but that’s exactly what happened with this month’s Irish Music Magazine. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have some time on Skype with the talented folks from Beoga, talking about their new album, their upcoming tenth anniversary and life on the road. They’re a great bunch and the jaw-wag was...
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Cool Site of the Week: Newspaper Map
Back in university, I was trained, to write for newspapers and radio. By the time I was finished with school in 2000, both mediums were already frozen in the headlights of the oncoming truck that we now describe as new media. Over the next decade, I shied away from working in newspapers and found that blathering away on the radio really did nothing for me. My passion was found in fiction,...
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The Tech Behind: Prosthetics
From time to time, I’m asked by my editors at Maximum PC to piece together a feature that relates how something cool, but somewhat mysterious, works. I look forward to doing work like this, as it provides a nice break from my usual how-to writing, and forces me to research a topic I have little or no knowledge of. This time around, the topic was prosthetics.
Prosthetics is a...
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Finished.
Well, that’s that: Last night marked the completion of my work on Drupal for Dummies: Second Edition. While the writing experience this time around was far more enjoyable than what I experienced while working on my last book for Wiley—thanks in no small part to the presence of my writing partner Lynn and our stellar agent over at Studio B—I’m...
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How to Upgrade Your Time Capsule's Hard Drive
I spent a good chunk of this past Saturday morning putting this How-To together for Mac|Life. Fortunately, it was:
A miserable, rainy day best spent indoors
An awesome opportunity to upgrade my 2008 Time Capsule’s puny 500GB hard drive with a world stomping 3TB monster.
I’d say that’s a win. Anyway, if the drive in your Time Capsule has crapped out or you feel like you...
The Sims Medieval Review
Having reviewed both the PC and Mac versions of The Sims: Medieval, I can tell you that EA did one Hell of a job in porting knocking out a game for we OS X users that’s just as stable and playable as its Windows-bound counterpart. I’m not a Sims fanatic myself, but with the humour, hours of gameplay and quirkiness that this title offers, I can see why the franchise has earned such...
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New Digs: TabTimes
I’m thrilled to be able to announce that in addition to my regular freelance work for publications like Mac|Life and Maximum PC, starting this fall, you’ll also be able to read my barely comprehensible blather at TabTimes: a new digital news magazine focusing on news, analysis and reviews of tablet computing devices and software with an emphasis on their application in business and...
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Cool Site of the Week: Gojee
There is nothing better in life than good food. You can enjoy it without any emotional attachments and regret nothing later… except perhaps for the cost and the occasional bout of heartburn. For this week’s Cool Site of the Week over at Maximum PC, I’ve featured one of my favourite sites—Gojee.
Gojee allows those of us who enjoy cooking at home to provide a list of...
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Seamus! Gizmodo! Indeed! Part II
I check in with Gizmodo multiple times a day, and I’m a big fan of both their writing staff’s style and the majority of their content. As such, it’s always a pleasant surprise to find that some of my work from over at Maximum PC makes its way over to Gawker. This isn’t the first time it’s happened (I rocked some Dropbox tips for Maximum PC back in February that...
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Does Not Compute: 10 PC Myths from Movies and...
Ask anyone that knows me, and they’ll tell you: I’m a raging movie nerd. At last count, I had over 300 films in my collection, and I have no plans of slowing down. Throughout my couch-bound viewing adventures, I’ve noticed that Hollywood’s depiction of computers, software and the folks that use them are well, frigging awful. The folks over at Maximum PC noticed...
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Browser Extension of the Week: Stylebot
We’re all a little OCD. Me? I can’t sleep knowing that there’s dishes or anything else left on the counter over night. Maybe it comes from growing up in flats full of cockroaches, I dunno. Anyway, if the red wagon you’re stuck pulling leaves you with a dire need to tweak the look of each and every website you visit during the course of your internet travels,...
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Extreme Sports Gear: Technological Evolution, Then...
As a writer, reader, occasional musician and dedicated couch aficionado, there is precious little room left in my life for what transpires in the great outdoors. That said, my aversion to natural light doesn’t stand in the way of digging the technology that all you “active” people utilize as part of your “healthy” lifestyles.
Once you get done with your...
Cool Site of the Week: MIT OpenCourseWare
If the only book you own is currently propping up your air conditioner, maybe it’s time you broaden your educational horizons with a medium you still respect: Your computer. For over a decade, MIT OpenCourseWare has provided students and educators with free lecture content, course and reading materials to a wide array of their top drawer offerings. Oh, and it’s all free, so you...
