Category: Software
Meeting Mode: How I Solved My “Zoom Lighting” Friction with Alexa Routines
If you work from home, you know the “pre-flight” ritual: checking your camera, fixing your hair, and—most importantly—adjusting your lights. In my home office, I…
The Energy Detective: How I Monitor My Home Power for $30
Have you ever looked at your monthly utility bill and wondered exactly which appliance was the culprit behind that price spike? Was it the extra…
The Future Arrived Faster Than I Thought: From 2008 Dreams to my 2026 Tesla
Back in 2008, when I first started blogging here at The Technic Alley, I spent a lot of time “daydreaming” in print. I was fascinated…
The $1,500 Reset: How a 2-Minute Fix Resurrected My 2016 MacBook Pro
We’ve all been there. You have a piece of hardware that has served you faithfully for years, but suddenly, it starts acting like it’s ready…
Cloud Computing At The Speed Of The Network
The recently published Technical Report on Cloud Computing from UC Berkeley lists 10 obstacles/opportunities related to cloud computing, of which “Data Transfer Bottleneck” ranks #4. As I…
Copying Text Between VNC Client and Windows
I have been using VNC server on Solaris, and a viewer on Windows for a while and have been able to copy text from the…
Turbo Tax: Can't Create Encrypted PDF
I was using Turbo Tax Home and Business 2007 and wanted to send the final PDF to a tax consultant for some review. I wanted…
MemoPad: Your Handy-Dandy Electronic Notepad
If you have used a PDA or a smartphone, you are most likely familiar with an application called MemoPad (on Palm devices) and something similar….
How Smartly Do You Use Your Smartphone?
Do you own a smartphone or do plan to get one? What do you plan to do with it? Why did you consider getting one?…
Backing Up Data With Norton Ghost On A NAS Disk
I have been using the Norton Ghost 9.0 for a couple of years now. When I started using it, I used to connect an external…
Flowcharts Make Your C/C++ Code Readable
While browsing the EETimes website, I noticed an ad that said “Flowcharts from C/C++ code.” It sounded interesting, and so I clicked on it. It…