I’m not a reviewer per-se, and this isn’t a pen or paper blog, but I am a (likely certifiable) Pen Addict. Because of this, I’m nearly as choosy about good paper as I am about good coffee and good whisky. And while normally I don’t review pens and paper here (or do much of anything here for that matter), I… Read more →
Geek Stuff
Technobabble, attributable to the fact that I’m an electrical engineer and a Linux poster child.
Gift “To-Dont’s” for Your Geek
It’s Christmas, and you’ve got a geek in your life. Congratulations! Maybe you’re a new boyfriend or girlfriend, bewildered by your love interest’s tech savvy, or maybe you’re a parent whose progeny has recently taken a sharp turn toward geekdom. Perhaps, on the flip-side, your long-time significant-other has always been a geek, leading to endless gift-giving frustration. In any case,… Read more →
5 Ways to Fail at QR Codes
It’s pretty damn cool to see QR codes (finally) skyrocketing in popularity here in the ‘States. I’ve been seeing them all over the place – in magazines, on signs and displays, winking from TV commercials, backing people’s business cards, even on bumper stickers. Unfortunately, as is usually the case as any new technology makes its way into the worlds of… Read more →
Welcome to The Twitters…
Just in case you enjoy such things, I’ve finally gone and set up a Twitter account: @mtbkrdave Read more →
Prediction: Welcome to Reality!
Considering that (at least as far as I can recollect) I’ve only made one prediction here on daverea.com, it appears I am now officially 100% more reliable than Harold Camping at fortelling future events… Back in January, while musing on the topic of sea trends and innovations in mobile technology, I predicted that mobile app rentals would emerge as a… Read more →
When Green Means Tunnel Vision…
(Happy Earth Day everyone…) Occasionally, staunch environmentalists make a good point or two. But in many cases, despite their enthusiasm for the term “sustainability”, they’re just not willing to look at the big picture. Case in point? Greenpeace recently released a scorecard for the “green-ness” of datacenters operated by the world’s cloud computing behemoths. Here it is: “So what’s the… Read more →
Unique non-feature
We in the open-source world hear a lot of flack about all the things open source supposedly “doesn’t do”. Looks like we can add one more thing to the list of things Linux and other open-source software offerings don’t do: provide funding for international crime syndicates. Read more →
What comes after Inbox Zero
It seems like certain tools in our lives have a tendency to morph into lifestyles, obsessions, or even whip-wielding captors (complete with Stockholm Syndrome) over time. I can think of few better-suited examples of this than E-Mail… Most of us have an almost Pavlovian reaction to incoming e-mail when we’re at work, and thanks to smartphones, Blackberries and webmail portals, we… Read more →
Microsoft Tags: We’re Watching You!
Word on the street today is that the Redmond Behemoth that most folks love to hate has managed to “tag” upwards of 2 billion real-world objects with it’s colorful 2-dimensional bar codes… Hmm – last I knew, a tag was a territory marker that gang members left with spray paint. But I digress… Personally, I think being able to point… Read more →
You never start from nothing
Ten years ago, I sat in a conference room with a group of ambulance officers and paramedics. My clearance papers were on the table – a collection of training data that, taken together, was the basis for my being allowed to run the show in the back of an ambulance, alone. After I received my clearance that day, the brass… Read more →