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Roll your own Network Attached Storage

In today’s Computing column, I explained the joys of using Network Attached Storage, or NAS, rather than a PC for sharing files on a home network. From the column, here’s a basic explanation of NAS: NAS drives are different from most of the external hard drives you see advertised in electronics stores. Those drives usually [...]

Got them cosmic iPhone keyboard blues again, mama

For those of you jonesing for an iPhone 3G when it is released on Friday, here’s a modest reality check with regards to the touchscreen keyboard. Found on Twitter: stephweiss sitting at IAH waiting for a flight to Oaho 15 minutes ago from mobile web stephweiss Sitting at IAH waiting for a flight to Oklaho 14 minutes ago [...]

Jawbone’s Noise Assassin shows no mercy

My daughter came up with the perfect name for those folks who insist on wearing their Bluetooth cell-phone headsets wherever they go: Bluetools. It seems to fit — having one of these things stuck in your ear, blue light pulsing, while strolling the cereal aisle in Kroger strikes both of us as more than [...]

Voice mail is inefficient and irritating, but dead? Uh, yeah. No.

Almost from the minute e-mail became available at the Mighty Houston Chronicle, I tried my best to get my regular contacts to use it instead of the telephone. This was crucial back in the 1990s, when I was the technology beat reporter covering the huge growth in home PCs and the rise of the [...]

Caffeinated Wi-Fi: Inversion Coffee

[Note: This is the latest in a series of reviews of Houston-area coffee shops that offer Wi-Fi and a place to work. Previous reviews featured Catalina Coffee and Coffee Groundz. If you’ve got a favorite coffee spot with connectivity you’d like reviewed, leave a comment.] If you’re a coffee-shop devotee, chances are you’ve got one you [...]

Great guide offers Windows troubleshooting basics

Much of the e-mail I get from readers of my column comes from Windows users in pain. These are not geeks or techies, but everyday folks whose systems have developed some kind of problem they’re at a loss to solve. For the most part, their machines work as they expect, so they don’t spend much time [...]

Linkpost | 7.3.2008

Bill author: Computer techs don’t need a private eye license

[Note: Folks who repair computers for a living are concerned about reports that their work now requires a private investigator’s license. R.G. Ratcliffe of the Houston Chronicle’s Austin bureau looked into the matter and found it’s not necessarily so. — D.S.] Personal computer repair companies in Texas are worried that a law passed last year [...]

iPhone 3G sales details announced

Want an iPhone 3G on the first day? Be prepared to be at an Apple or AT&T store at 8 a.m. on July 11. AT&T released details today on how sales of the update to Apple’s cell phone will work. It includes bad news for those who don’t meet the wireless provider’s contract conditions — [...]

Gone, baby, gone: Notebooks vanish at airports

You’d think that an airport security checkpoint would be one of the safest places for your valuables, right? After all, you’re surround by highly trained and vigilant personnel whose sole responsibility is to protect you and yours from harm. Think again. It turns out these checkpoints are the prime places that notebook computers go missing [...]