Boost your WiFi signal using foil

Check this out. Create this simple “EZ parabolic reflector template” out of aluminum foil and some paper and give your router a ridiculous signal boost. I haven’t tired it, since the freeantennas.com website appears to be down at the moment.

Check out this Lifehacker site for more tips.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUTT8wdN_VA]... (more)


New plotter arrives

With Brian’s huge SEMA vehicle decal project I have this weekend I couldn’t do the job with my 8 year old Roland Stika SX-12 10″ plotter. While it’s done a great job over the years, its time has come to be replaced by something bigger. Since Mike wasn’t using our 24″ plotter in Houston, he shipped it to me. It’s a behemoth 24″ GCC Bobcat plotter that’s basically brand new. ... (more)


Mac Week is next week

After reading last week about how Microsoft is extending the life of Windows XP due to the slow adoption rate of Windows Vista, it dawned on me that the mad excitement over the initial launch of Vista was nowhere close to what it was for Windows 95, 98, and XP. Has Microsoft lost its OS innovation or has it simply reached a point where it is as good as it ... (more)


Remapping Apple Mac keyboard for XP

Yesterday I got the new Apple aluminum keyboard and I was raving how cool it is, even for Windows XP. My main complaint was that the Windows and ALT keys were swapped, which was causing me much havoc since my brain has been programmed for so many years to find the ALT key to the left of the space bar.

My initial hunt returned nothing, but after some more Googling ... (more)


My new favorite XP keyboard is…

This is kind of an odd discovery. I used part of my $100 Apple iPhone rebate to purchase the new Apple aluminum flat keyboard, with the expectation that I would be using it for my Mac. It arrived this morning and since my primary computer of choice is a DELL Windows XP desktop, I figured ah what the hell, I’ll plug it into my DELL monitor to see what happens.... (more)


iChris: How many iPods do you need?

Well, my new Nano arrived today directly from Shenzhen, China, a day early. I ordered it Sept 5th, the day Apple announced their new line-up of iPods. I’m glad I skipped the 2nd gen iPod Nano because it wasn’t much different than the first gen model. The 3rd gen model, however, is crazy different… shorter, wider, does video and games, and if you can believe this… it’s thinner than its ... (more)


Adobe AIR

I’m glad to have a social network otherwise I’d miss out on some great tips. Adobe has published a new development environment for building desktop apps. In their words:

“Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that allows web application developers to use their existing web development skills (HTML, Javascript, Adobe Flash®, Adobe Flex, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop.”

I used to build desktop ... (more)


Every kid should have an Apple IIc

Now here’s blast from the past! I was going through some of my old website files from the early 90’s looking for something specific (I can’t even recall what it was I was looking for now…) and found some Apple IIc print ads from my old Apple II+ fan site:

Why every kid should have an Apple after school

According to this Apple Computer, Inc. print advertisement (circa 1985), every kid should have an Apple IIc ... (more)


Review: Logitech MX Air Mouse

149010a.jpgAmazon started shipping “exclusively” the new Logitech MX Air mouse last month and of course I had to check it out. Here’s my review of this new toy:

First and foremost: don’t read any review from someone that just got this mouse or has used it for only a day. If I had written such a review it would have been a 5/5 star glowing review.

It’s total desktop eye ... (more)