computers and technology

Click on the thumbnails below to see video clips explaining some of the websites developed by Sheldon Rampton. You can also click through to visit the websites directly:

PR Watch
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SourceWatch
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WCCN
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Global Corp Forum
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Family Matters
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Kenny Rampton
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Information

I built most of the websites showcased here using Drupal, a popular, PHP-based content management system. I like Drupal because it is designed to enable developers to add additional functionality by writing their own PHP modules. Website developers have taken advantage of this by writing literally thousands of modules that are now available as free downloads from the "contrib" section of Drupal's website. I've used other people's contrib modules to quickly add functionality to websites including audio podcasting, videos, maps, and bilingual translation assistance (English/Chinese).

Palm Inc. investor Roger McNamee is predicting that iPhone customers will be switching en masse to the Palm Pre once it goes on sale. Here's why I know already that I won't be making the switch:

• I generally don't like buying new products until after they've had their shakeout tour.
• Aside from the slideout keyboard, most of the features on the Pre look like iPhones knockoffs.

I've written previously about Time Capsule's problems and my preferred alternative of using Airport Extreme and an external hard drive. Another option worth considering would be a Network-attached storage (NAS) device.

QNAP, a company that makes NAS devices, has a forum post titled "How to use your NAS with Time Machine" that explains the setup procedure, which is similar to the procedure for setting up Airport Extreme with an external hard drive.

After several more days spent trying to get my Time Capsule working properly, I finally returned it to the Apple Store and bought an external hard drive and an Airport Extreme to take its place. The price for the two items together was almost the same as the price of the Time Capsule by itself -- only $40 more. It took a few hours to get them set up, but everything is going smoothly now -- at least for the time being.

I was an early adopter of Apple's "Time Capsule," which in theory sounds like a great idea but has been a disaster for me in practice. This is the story of my nightmare.

In theory, Time Capsule is supposed to enable wireless, automatic backups of my hard drive via wifi. I liked the idea because I thought it would save me time and make backups so convenient that they'd be sure to happen.

In practice, it's been slow, aggravating and buggy as hell.