Updated 03-Aug-2025 Note: I'm moving this information (which will be updated over time) to this page from another site (which will now be decommissioned). Focus on the best of open source for the everyday computer user and the IT manager making decisions. * The Best Open Source for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. * Focus ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 There has been a raft of poor design in the web design on important websites and applications. There is no explanation for it other than the fact that the designers are believing their own propaganda. Let me explain. Five Recent Design Disasters Evernote, Skitch, Springboard Mashable YouTube Design is Not Important Design is ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Update 2019 - This Aged Well Apparently as of mid 2019 Windows 10 has 50% market share and Windows 7 has 30% market share (of worldwide OS usage). The suggestions to Skip Windows 8 was taken globally. Microsoft did not release a Windows 9, and is now staying with Windows 10 and providing ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Usability is a complex phenomena, especially when it comes to mobile. Hardware, operating system, application ecosystem, all play a role. I've just updated an old Kindle Fire to Android Jellybean. This experience forced me to compare iOS on an iPad 2 with Android Jellybean on a Kindle Fire. Obviously the screens are different ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Psy is breaking records with Gangnam Style (480m YouTube views as of this writing). This is more than just a catchy song and music video. It is actually astounding for its resonance for several reasons. These reasons also tell us what can make content a success for SEO and the web. Gangnam Style ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 This is the famous photo making the rounds in email and the Facebook of the Spanish bullfighter Alvaro Munera overcome with compassion for a bull while in the ring. Except it isn't. It isn't Alvaro Munera, and it isn't a bullfighter being overcome with compassion. What it is, and how the famous Alvaro ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Back in the early 1990s I realized that most computers were misconfigured. Even today, nearly 20 years later, the otherwise well-engineered Apple products have not solved this problem. SSD drive-based Macs can particularly benefit from a half-dozen or so tweaks. SSD - Reasons and Prices mid-2012 Once you go SSD, there is no ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Statistics has a bad name. The main reason is due to ignorance of them, how they work, and how to understand and interpret them. It is easy to dismiss statistics in general, and there are many jokes such as "78% of statistics are made up on the spot", which has a nice self-referential ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 This is a short post with a few things I need to follow up on over the coming weeks and months. HTC Desire and Ice Cream Sandwich This is a brief update for 15 July 2012. There is some hope for my HTC Desire (Bravo) regarding Jellybean. ICS is now mostly stable with ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 It's nearly halfway through 2012, the half-time show is just getting warmed up. So, now that we stretch our legs, let's reflect on what was accomplished and what was left undone. What we should and should not do at this point in the year. Goals, Objectives, Tasks It turns out that not having ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Change, yet again, dear friends. First Four Months of 2012 We are one third plus six days into 2012. At the beginning I targeted eight different priority areas to change/improve. I've given myself scores on each of these areas as does not meet expectations, meets expectations, and exceeds expectations (0,1,2). Adding up the ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Encouraging others to like you (not the Facebook kind) is about social signals and communication. Interesting how books that provide instruction on how to be liked, or how to win friends and influence people, are so culturally constrained. Behavior advocated in those books simply would not work in Thailand. Not only are the ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 This is a list of possible artifacts representing or showing evidence of brand (brand tactics, etc.). These kinds of things help people think through what a brand stands for and how customers should be able to interact with it, as well as competitive comparisons. Brand Artifacts Comic strip Coloring book Colors Fonts, typography ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 A friend asked why use CyanogenMod ROM (or really, any custom ROM) instead of stock Android. Besides feeding the inner geek, there are several reason... Root Needed Sometimes it is only Root that is needed to add functionality, or in some cases, remove it. Though more and more apps and functionality is available ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Linux and unix-like operating systems have basically won the battle, albeit on the server and mobile front rather than at the desktop. And while there will be Windows and it will continue to live on, its days are essentially numbered. How did this happen? At what point did the phone become a computer? ... Read more

Updated 03-Aug-2025 Randy Komisar's book Getting to Plan B is an excellent read and he has some very useful guidelines and advice to the entrepreneur. Plan A is Necessary but not Sufficient > Plan A is useful for a number of reasons... The process of creating Plan A is useful in and of itself. It ... Read more