The Way of the Johnny

I love photo and video editing on my Mac. For photography, iPhoto is a wonderful application I use for casual photos and Aperture 3 is what I use for my serious, professional quality photography. For video, iMovie is easy to use and can give great results. But we also have a netbook in the house ( Asus EeePC ) which runs Windows XP and it gets a lot more use than the Mac does. Between my wife's iPod Touch and the EeePC , she doesn't even use the Mac anymore. She also takes a bunch of photos and videos with her Canon Powershot SD1000. So, to me, it makes a lot of sense to dedicate the EeePC to my wife's photos and videos. It has a fairly big 160GB hard drive and has a decent screen. The question that comes up is: What software can I use on this low powered netbook for editing Sophia's photos and video? More specifically, is there free software out there that can come close to doing the same job as iPhoto and iMovie do on the Mac? I'm happy to say ...

Yesterday, I finished installing Windows 7 on my mom's computer. I upgraded my Macbook Pro with a SSD drive, so I took the old HDD , bought a 3.5" HDD enclosure adapter, and threw it in my mom's Dell Dimension E510 desktop computer with the intention of installing the Windows 7 RC on it. I'm very impressed with Windows 7 RC on my mom's desktop. Before I get into my list of observations, here's a short list of the E510 specs: -CPU: Intel Pentium D 2.80 GHz -RAM: 2.5 GB - HDD : 2.5", 120 GB, 5400 RPM -old HDD : 3.5", 80 GB, 7200 RPM -wireless network adapter: Netgear -Monitors: (1) 15", 4:3 ratio Dell connected via VGA and (1) 17", widescreen Dell connected via VGA to DVI port using adapter -Keyboard and mouse: wireless Logitech set with Dell label -Printer: Canon Pro9000 -Scanner: Epson -And various USB devices ( muli -card reader, 30 GB external HDD , etc.) As you can see from the specs, my mom's computer isn't the most pow...

I got my Macbook Pro 2nd gen. about 2 years ago and I'm still loving it. I recently upgraded the hard drive to a Corsair solid-state drive and it's pretty awesome to have programs launch in less than 1 second. But this blog article isn't about a new hard drive, it's about why I use a Mac and why I still use a Mac (and will probably be using Macs from this point on). I get a kick out of the newest Microsoft "laptop hunter" commercials and I also get a kick out of the Mac vs. PC commercials. Both are equally biased and both bend the facts in favor of the respective companies agenda. But, as far fetched as they tend to be, I notice both Windows users and Mac users repeating the same "facts" in their discussions of which platform is better. Truth be told, each platform has its advantages and I'm not going to even try addressing the differences. Computers are indeed personal and I wanted to give the reasons why the Mac is the right platform fo...

Being a computer geek and the default tech support for some of my family and friends, I have had to deal with computer security at the consumer user level. Sure, there´s the usual anti-virus and anti- spyware software installation on every Windows machine I run into, but this isn ´t a full-proof way to ensure viruses, spyware , malware , and other don´t make it on a computer. As Leo Laporte says, the user´s behavior is the most important barrier to blocking bad guys from getting into a system. No matter how good anti-anything software is, it can´t stop a gullible user from clicking a false link on a website that downloads malware to said user´s computer. People need to monitor their behavior. So, what to do when users just won´t change their behavior? How would you handle the computer of someone who just doesn ´t care about keeping their computer secure? The solution I have been using lately is the one that I use myself: sandboxing . Check out the short wikipedia here: http:...