Windows 8.1 has been out since last October and while I had upgraded my desktop PC at work and my Surface Pro tablet almost immediately, I had never gotten around to installing the update on my daughter’s laptop. It was time to give her the Start button back! š As seems to the norm for …
In a surprise pre-Christmas present to the anxious jailbreak community, the Evasi0n jailbreak for iOS 7.0.4 was released two weeks ago. I almost jumped on it immediately (I’ve been stuck on iOS 6.1.2 since my last jailbreak) but since I was heading out of town for Christmas and there was some controversy around the initial …
When I got my first TiVo back in 2003 it seemed like I was adding new TiVos to my “collection” almost every year and had four of them by 2007. With the recent release of the TiVo RoamioĀ line I decided to do a little consolidation and upgrade my setup with the latest hardware. My existing …
For a while I’ve been wanting to get some sort of OBD-II adapter and software (like Carbonga) so I could troubleshoot the occasional check-engine light on my ’03 Toyota Highlander. AfterĀ reading aboutĀ theĀ Automatic LinkĀ back in March, the allure of a shiny new gadget forĀ $70 (with no additional service fees) was too strong to resist so I …
Linda McKinney is a myrmecologist, a scientist who studies the social structure of ants. Her academic career has left her entirely unprepared for the day her sophisticated research is conscripted by unknown forces to help run an unmanned – and thanks to her research, automated – drone army. Odin is the secretive Special Ops soldier …
A few weeks ago I traded in my trusty old 2003 Toyota HighlanderĀ (174,000 miles)Ā for a new 2013 SE model. In addition to all the automotive and mechanical advances in a 10-years’ newer SUV, I finally have built-in Bluetooth and iPod integration! (I know, welcome to 2008, right? š ). Toyota’s Display Audio system has a …
Continue reading ‘Using my iPhone with Toyota’s Display Audio system’ »
Four months ago I bought my daughter a Microsoft Surface RT tablet for her birthday as a laptop replacement. Last month I got a Surface Pro to use at work (also as a laptop replacement). Having now used both versions of Microsoft’s first tablet I wanted to jot down a few of my own observations …
Like nearly 4 million other iPhone users, I had been waiting for iOS 6 to be jailbroken for a long time. I’ve had my iPhone 4S for almost a year and have been “stuck” on iOS 5.1.1 since last May because I didn’t want to lose my jailbreak by upgrading to iOS 6. This past …
For Christmas, Santa brought my daughter and I the LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 buildable/programmable robotics kit. Sweet!Ā Of course as luck would have it, LEGO just announced the next generation of the Mindstorms line at CES this week, but that won’t damper our enthusiasm for building robots and programming them to do our will! š My …
The Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized ARM-based Linux computer that costs just $25. It’s intended to be used as an educational device and instantly appealed to my inner tinkerer (and gadget freak). I ordered the Model B (256mb RAM, 2 USB ports, HDMI/composite video/audio jacks, and Ethernet) from Allied Electronics back in late September …