Originally published at . You can comment here or there.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2499b/if_it_aint_broke_dont_fix_it_ancient_computers_in_use_today.html

Garry Ward, an old pal, used to make a living at keeping antique mainframe-ish things going; I gasped that they’d *do* that and not get something newer and better, but…he was also the guy who ( Read more... )

Some time ago, Susan’s aunt gave us an old PC that was too wimpy for her use, and I set it up as a house server under Ubuntu Linux, but I’ve just had a myriad of problems with it.  The burner doesn’t work.  The Samba setup is damaged beyond repair and you can’t connect to it.  I have a bunch of house server stuff on it (Joomla, Wordpress and ( Read more... )

The office is apparently going to MS Office 2007 this spring. My sounds of joy and laughter are vastly muted. It could be, perhaps, that after 25 plus years of being a computer geek, I’m thoroughly convinced that Microsoft is a hack company, and given my druthers, I’d avoid it all over the place - and do as much as I can.

For one thing, I can’t ( Read more... )

Does anyone here have any recommendations on software that writes out documents by voice commands?  No Mac-only software, please.  I can handle Ubuntu Linux or WinXP.

I tend to use Open Office anymore, partly because I want to help in the no-thanks-Microsoft universe, but also because I really hate Office 2007.  I really hate the new interface ribbons, because you simple cannot find things anymore. My workplace uses Office 2003, but one of the people works at home a lot and has Word 2007, and I curse a lot in ( Read more... )