Other Stuff : Texxors.com

How to increase your electric bill and gain social status

July 27, 2008 Posted by Bryan in : How-to, Humor, Other Stuff, Tips , add a comment

Excess is a sign of success. Whether you’re talking about Jay Leno’s 75+ cars, or the potlatch ceremonies of the Kwakwaka’wakw, how much you’ve got is measured by how much you can spend. With gas and other factors pushing energy costs to new heights, these days, nothing is a bigger sign of wealth and social status than sporting a huge electric bill. So to keep you at the top of your peer group’s pecking order, here are a few things that are guaranteed to pump your watts. (more…)

The Second Life generation

June 25, 2007 Posted by Bryan in : Opinion, Other Stuff , 2 comments

My wife and I were discussing Second Life yesterday (as I’m sure all geek couples do), and she noted that unless you have a certain level of programming ability there’s not much you can do in SL besides walk around and chat.

If you’ve visited Second Life you’ve probably experienced this, too. Second Life is a pretty intimidating (and boring) place when you don’t know what’s going on. When everyone around you knows how to manipulate the environment and you don’t, you’re at a significant functional disadvantage. (more…)

Last minute Father’s Day gift: Make magazine

June 16, 2007 Posted by Bryan in : Other Stuff, Reviews, Tips , add a comment

You can’t say we haven’t helped you out this Father’s Day. We arranged for huge discounts on the MySoldius solar charger, gave you a list of cool but inexpensive tech gifts, and we’ve even got a suggestion for you last minute shoppers: Make: magazine. (more…)

5 gifts for Dad under $60

June 13, 2007 Posted by Tara in : New Products, Other Stuff, Reviews, Tips , add a comment

With Father’s Day rapidly approaching, I decided to to put together a mini gift guide for those of us who want to show our appreciation for dad without breaking the bank. Each one of these gifts is under $60 and is user friendly, as we know sometimes parents just don’t understand. The first gift is one I know for sure my own dad would like:

1. The Humminbird SmartCast RF30 Wireless Remote Fish Finder

Retails for $59.99, designed as a wrist mount, this little gadget has a 75-foot remote operating range and 100-foot depth capability. It has a 1.25-inch high-visibility display with 48 x 32 pixels of resolution. It is obviously waterproof and has one touch menu navigation for ease of use. (more…)

A great resource for uninstalling programs

May 21, 2007 Posted by Bryan in : Other Stuff , 1 comment so far

If you’ve ever run into one of those applications that didn’t come with an adequate uninstall program, you probably spent a lot of time trying to get your machine back to the way it was before you installed the offending application. I know I’ve been down this road several times with a certain messaging program and Sony Ericsson’s cell phone software. (more…)

What is the word on OpenOffice? (Part 1)

April 24, 2007 Posted by Tara in : New Products, Opinion, Other Stuff , 1 comment so far

I have been hearing rumblings around the office lately about OpenOffice, the multilingual, multiplatform, FREE office suite. One of my coworkers was a beta tester for Excel 2007, and had several complaints. He was telling me that everyone should be using OpenOffice anyway, including our company. I was suspicious of his enthusiasm and decided to do a little bit of research to find out the whole story.

For those of you who are not familiar with OpenOffice, it is an office suite (like Microsoft Office) that utilizes open source code. Open source means that source code is made public so that any programmer or layperson who can write code can copy, fix or redistribute the open source material.

The suite is comprised of Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (multimedia presentations), Draw (graphics), Base (database manipulator), and Math (formulas and equations with graphic user interface).