January 31, 2009 · Uncategorized ·

The latest version of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) for Linux has been released. Early reports seem to indicate that this version (version 4.2.0) is a huge improvement over the earlier versions of KDE 4.x.

I am still waiting for Linux Mint to release KDE 4.2 in their repositories; but once they do, I will be installing it and checking it out. I am also planning on booting into my Mandriva installation later today to see if KDE 4.2 is available there, yet.

If you’re using a Linux distribution with KDE 4.2 installed, please share your experiences with the new desktop environment.

January 26, 2009 · Uncategorized ·

The Boxee team reported a little over a week ago that, while at CES, they were approached by a few hardward manufacturers about potentially integrating boxee into various types of hardware.

I’m curious; would you like to see an all-in-one media player like boxee (similar to Windows Media Center, but with more integration of Web-based technologies like YouTube, Hulu and more) available as a set-top box? If so, what features would you expect to see in that device?

January 24, 2009 · Uncategorized ·

Earlier this week, Smashing Magazine put together a fantastic resource for PHP developers. The post is a list of “50 Extremely Useful PHP Tools.” The categories covered in the post are:

• Debugging Tools
• Testing and Optimization Tools
• Documentation Tools
• Security Tools
• Image Manipulation and Graphs
• PHP Code Beautifier
• Version-Control Systems (though, according to the comments, the tools listed in this section arguably do not belong there)
• Useful Extensions, Utilities and Classes
• PHP Online Tools and Resources
• In-Browser Tools (Firefox Add-Ons)
• Frameworks for PHP
• PHP IDEs and Editors
• Sources and Resources

The descriptions of some of the tools in the article could have been a little better, as I don’t even understand what some of the tools are designed to do. However, there are quite a few interesting items in the list. I will definitely be trying some of them over the next few months to see how they work and what they might be able to do for me.

January 3, 2009 · Uncategorized ·

Apparently, as a result of the leap year coming to an end, every 30 gig Zune on the planet suffered a serious issue – they were basically bricked on Jan. 1, 2009. The problem has unofficially been dubbed “Z2K9”.

December 30, 2008 · Hardware ·

From a Dummy’s Perspective

Admittedly, I know very little about all of the technical aspects of new televisions or high-definition television (HDTV), but I did a good bit of research while trying to decide which television to buy. Hopefully this guide will help some other people with as little technical knowledge about new televisions as I have.

December 28, 2008 · Uncategorized ·

This Christmas finally brought me into the 21st century. I received/purchased three items for Christmas that brought me much closer to where most people have been for a few years.