A regular theme in my columns has been Open Source versus corporate-driven software. This week, I'm going to provide you with a list of excellent free software that can replace common software that people pay good money for. I'll still assume you're paying for the operating system (Windows or OSX), unless you're a die hard Linux fan, in which case this is old hat to you.

Let's...read more

During high school, I interned and volunteered at a planetarium and had my own 6 inch telescope. In college my major was Astrophysics, the result of a childhood dream of understanding the stars, the galaxies, and the universe. I have always been fascinated by space and it's wonderful to now have at my fingertips more information and better images than even the telescopes at UCLA displayed. Now...read more

A few years ago I read a book called "Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz. The book delves into our modern life and explores how the staggering number of choices we have available to us can actually cause us to freeze up. Just think what happens in your mind while you're standing in front of the toothpaste aisle.

I think it's time for a revise on the book, this time dealing with...read more

As a kid, I was fascinated by science, going through dinosaurs, my Radio Shack 160-in-1 electronics kit, starter microscope kit, and then my first telescope. Man, was I missing out! Kids today have at their fingertips more knowledge than was known at any prior point in history. It's just up to their imagination and a little help from Mom and Dad to begin the exploration.

I started putting together...read more

I was sitting at a restaurant this past weekend, reading a book on my Kindle when my phone beeped to tell me that I'd just received an email at my Google account. Popping open my phone, I noticed that it had connected to the restaurants WiFi network for me, enabling faster browsing. I opened up the Gmail app and started to read the email. It was from a friend of mine who recommended a book that...read more

I'm a gadget guy; I love anything with bells and whistles, or more appropriately, circuits and buttons. I also like building things. So you can imagine my delight in discovering a company called RepRap. They've been around for awhile, and I've checked in every so often to see how they are progressing, and they've finally reached the point where I want one.

RepRap is a company that...read more

Since I spent the past few columns talking about world-altering technologies, I felt that this week, I'd just kick back and talk about a bunch of cool little things.

First up is something I haven't had a chance to personally check out yet, but will as soon as things slow down a bit. I'm talking about a cool new storefront that's opened in Boise. It's called the Gamers Cave. Located...read more

The computer is arguably the most important tool that has been developed in our history. Most of us interact with one on a daily basis and we are all faced with the same challenge of getting information in and out of these pesky devices. We've even had to coin new terms for the impact it's had on our health. From carpal tunnel and gamer thumb, to qwerty-itis (the impressions on your face when...read more