Category Archives: computers

computers: my legendary Herman-Miller Levity standing desk

Posted on 2018-04-06 by skierpage

For months I tried to give my old adjustable desk to a museum, or at least to someone who has a use for it. It’s the Levity by Herman-Miller, an impressive piece of late 90s office design. It goes from … Continue reading →

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software: checking Android 5.1 (Lollipop) memory consumption

Posted on 2017-01-06 by skierpage

I wanted an Android tablet and bought the Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro for its great hardware – kickstand, long battery life, Dolby Atmos sound, comfortable to hold. But its performance is abysmal. Firefox simply exits if you browse most web … Continue reading →

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computers: power supply fix

Posted on 2015-01-05 by skierpage

I fiddled around with computers for five days straight over Christmas. I knew upgrading a laptop to Windows 7 and adding memory would be a chore, but I also had to repair my desktop. On the right is the mighty … Continue reading →

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computers: trying to update HTC Evo 4G

Posted on 2014-07-01 by skierpage

I bought an excellent Moto X phone, just before Motorola cut the price of the wooden back 75%, and shortly before Google sold them to Lenovo. That leaves me with a 4-year old HTC Evo 4G, at the time absolutely … Continue reading →

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computers: William Gibson and brain interfaces

Posted on 2013-11-04 by skierpage

Slashdot breathlessly summarizes a rather weak project combining virtual reality headset and a brainwave reading device with the editorial. Consumer level brain computer interfaces are still primitive these days, but it doesn’t seem too far off that we’ll have virtual … Continue reading →

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skiing: better gloves

Posted on 2012-03-26 by skierpage

My replacement Swany Flexor FX-15 gloves were terrible, so I got new gloves, as did a ski buddy. They’re both Gore-Tex with leather palms and fingers. They both have leashes so you can’t lose a glove. The Dakine Rover gloves … Continue reading →

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software: how Live CDs can close the deal

Posted on 2011-06-09 by skierpage

I tried out the some new operating systems by booting them off a USB flash drive, including Fedora 15. Fedora 15 seemed to work fine on my hardware and looked promising, but it wasn’t dramatically better in a few fumbling … Continue reading →

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computers: trying new distributions

Posted on 2011-04-25 by skierpage

I’m still running the Kubuntu flavor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, now up to version 10.10. It’s lovely that Linux distributions get steadily better for free, and thanks in a small part to my bug reports and testing.  The glitches … Continue reading →

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computers: one billion bytes of RAM isn’t enough

Posted on 2011-04-25 by skierpage

I’m typing this on a Falcon Northwest top-of-the-line desktop computer. It’s from 2004. The Athlon 3000 dual core CPU can keep up with most of my needs, the 100GB disk has enough space, the audio is fine, the video can … Continue reading →

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computers: I want to be browser-based

Posted on 2010-12-10 by skierpage

Google’s ChromeOS “nothing but web” replacement for the heavyweight PC environment is nearing release, though overshadowed by Android’s unstoppable rise for smart phones and tablets and Google TV. I wish Firefox and the Linux distributions would proceed with similar initiatives. … Continue reading →

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