Practical Technology

When I started in computing, we had two main peripheral interface choices: RS-232 serial and Centronics parallel ports. Neither was fast. RS-232, which was the more generally useful of the pair, topped out in early days at 20 kilobits per second (kbps). That was then. This is now. Today, USB 3.0 can hit 625 MegaBytes [...]

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I’ll be the first to admit that while I like Chromebooks, I own a Samsung Series 5, Chromebooks also have serious problems. Still, the Chromebook is far from being dead. My fellow ZDNet writer, Scott Raymond argues that the consolidation of WebKit, and Chromium open-source Web browsers source code trees means the end of a [...]

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At long, long last, Windows XP is no longer the number one, end-user operating system. It only took, Microsoft, what? Not quite two years to get desktop users off XP to Windows 7? Well, you could look at it that way, but you’d be wrong. The truth is that users haven’t been moving from XP [...]

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It’s really not that hard to give Linux a try on a desktop or notebook. But, I get it. Not everyone is comfortable with burning operating system ISOs to a CD and then booting a computer from it. If that’s you, or a friend of yours, then consider just buying a PC or laptop that [...]

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It was the best of devices; it was the worst of devices. When I first agreed to write about a week working with nothing but a Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, I knew I was asking for trouble. Although I already knew and liked its Chrome Web-browser-based Linux operating system, ChromeOS, I also know how I [...]

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