I’m a big fan of the Apple TV.  In terms of functionality, I feel like it is the superset of all streaming devices.  You can cast media to it from smartphones and tablets.  Out of the box, you can stream your own local content from a PC.  It ties into Apple’s iTunes ecosystem for movie/TV […]

Back in March 2012, I bought a third generation iPad to serve as a “family room” computer — for checking email, looking things up while watching TV, checking the weather, etc.  It served extremely well in that role — even better than I had expected!  In fact, I was so impressed by this concept of […]

Many years ago, I built an external hard drive by getting a Rosewill external hard drive enclosure, along with a 640GB Western Digital hard drive to go inside it.  Combined, they gave me an external hard drive to use for monthly backups (in addition to the real-time cloud backups I get with CrashPlan). Over time, […]

Over a year ago, my wireless Logitech keyboard died, and I temporarily replaced it with a backup Dell keyboard that had come with my old HTPC, Scooter.  I originally had planned on getting a permanent keyboard as part of getting my new laptop Venus last February, but I had trouble picking one out, so I delayed […]

When I got my new laptop, Venus, and decided to make her my primary computer, I knew that I would still frequently want a full keyboard/mouse/monitor setup in many situations, so I set up a “docked” environment at my desk that she could easily be connected to and disconnected from, comprised of an amazingly nice […]

I recently was able to enact a long-planned and far-reaching change to my technology environment at home. The main change to talk about is that I bought Venus — a late 2013, 13-inch MacBook Pro. Prior to Venus, I had always had a desktop as a primary computer, with a low-powered laptop to use if […]

As is the case every year, the holidays brought several computer updates. The most important one is that, after having been extremely happy with my Apple TV, Beauregard, I got a second one, Aloysius, for my basement TV.  I really, really like the Apple TV.  It makes it so easy to watch streaming video from […]

Clementine, my primary desktop, has had dual monitors for the past few years.  One of them (a Samsung SyncMaster 940BX) dates back to my old desktop, Fozzie, and was the oldest computer component currently in use.  The other was identical to that one, purchased a couple years later just for Clementine.  When my wife and […]

After an excessively long contemplation period, I’ve decided to add two new machines to my family of computers.  One in particular I’ve had for a while, but the issue at hand was whether to consider them truly part of my family of computers, or just simply consumer electronics devices.  I’ve decided they’re part of my […]

I recently completed the final steps of my multi-step plan to transition to 802.11n for my home network.  I previously had upgraded Clementine to have a 802.11n adapter.  The next step was to upgrade my router.  Previously I had a standard Actiontec 802.11g router that was issued with my Verizon FiOS service.  Since Verizon now […]