Since our gaming group made the switch to the current revision of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), I’ve been a subscriber to their “D&D Insider” service.  The main draw for me was access to the Character Builder software (and its associated content revisions) that dramatically simplifies the character creation and management process.  The Character Builder  program [...]

I recently had the opportunity to check out the Battlestar Galactica (2008) boardgame with my friend Jason.  He’d bought it on a whim, and needed a patient geek to play along, through the tangle of rules.  I won’t bore you with a full review, which would undoubtedly be inferior to this one over at BoardGameGeek, [...]

Becky got her new Wireless Kobo (Wi-Fi, not 3G) back in November and has had more than a few problems with it. Initially, we’d had problems getting it to charge (it didn’t like charging off of a wall-brick;  It has a Mini-USB port for charging), so we charged it off her laptop.  We got it [...]

Just a quick note about UPS Tracking… I’ve discovered that not all UPS tracking providers are created equal.  For example, Tracking a package through NewEgg shows where the package’s next waypoint is while the package is on its way there, where the official UPS site does not.  It should be noted that the differences between [...]

My friend Jason knows that I’m a big vim freak and emailed me about vmail, a vi-like IMAP client.  I’d seen something like this a while back, but vmail is pretty good.  The vmail site discusses running it against Gmail specifically, but it should work with just about any IMAP-ready server. Anyhow, if you’re into [...]

Becky recently got a Borders Kobo, and it got me thinking about the trade-offs, as compared to real books.   eReaders have a big advantage in that you can store a whole shelf of books in a space half the size of a single book; They’re light, easy to carry, and many models have the [...]

Since the introduction of hybrid cars as a more efficient version of the standard variety, it’s interesting to see how the word hybrid has become associated with efficiency or new things in general.  I’ve noticed the following products  marketed using the term  ”hybrid”: Water heaters A line of tablet computers by Dell Asus’  Superhybrid engine (A laptop [...]

A while back, Lifehacker (I think) had a post about an Android homescreen replacement called LauncherPro.  It has a variety of customizations that aren’t available on a stock Android 2.1 phone, some of which don’t exist even in 2.2 and beyond (For example, icon-label hiding).  Two versions exist; A free, but limited version and “LauncherPro [...]

The Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card is probably one of the more complex storage devices I’ve seen lately . The basic 4gb model packs a wireless network card into a Class 6 SDHC unit.  The result is wireless photo transfer to a local PC and then onward to one or more web-based sharing services of your [...]

I don’t often think about writing things by hand, and I do it even less frequently.  When I write something, it’s generally as  a quick note to myself (I’m a fan of post-it notes, even though I carry a smartphone and a laptop almost everywhere… It’s about speed and focus). I’m pretty sure it was [...]