Peter's Place

Acer Chromebook Plus C515 I've always said Chromebooks are great for most people, but not for me. I need a machine that can handle serious multi-tasking. Well, enter the Acer Chromebook Plus C515 , stage right. This machine finally handles the workload I require. Unlike Windows, ChromeOS doesn't require huge resources, so the 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD are more than sufficient. I routinely run 25+ tabs and 10 or so apps at once, and this lean, mean multi-tasking machine just keeps up, thanks to the Intel Core i3 "oomph." It even has a quiet fan, so it never gets too hot under a heavy processing load. The "Plus" features are what seal the deal for me. The AI-enhanced 1080p webcam controls are built right into the dock and make me look fabulous. But the real value? It includes a free year of Google's Gemini Advanced program. That's over a $250 value (with tax), which means if you get this on sale, the device practically pays for itself! The hardware is ...

Let's be clear--the nation's entire transportation system is deteriorating. While Hartford certainly could do with a restructuring of its disastrous and abysmal transportation options, one certainly could do a lot better than the currently proposed $15 billion plan set forth by the Bronins' cronies, as reported recently in the CT Mirror:  There’s a new plan for realigning Hartford’s highways. Is the third time the charm? If one is serious about fixing Hartford's convoluted, broken road system, then it should be replaced with a better system, not one that's equally broken, or worse, and one that also looks to the future, not just one that seeks to keep current problems at bay. Such a road plan should consider using new materials such as compressed styrofoam, foam glass aggregates such as Glavel , or other new technologies and include the embedding of solar panels (like those employed by SolarRoadways ). It should allow for pedestrian, bicycle, and other eco-friendly...

I need a new laptop. All THREE of my current laptops died on me at the beginning of this year. Were it not for a kind and generous friend who gave me his old desktop, I'd be without any computer at all. 😞 I'm looking for a powerful but affordable 8th generation or later core i7 or core i9 laptop. I don't need it for gaming but the laptops built for gaming seem to contain the specs I like; however, they're too expensive. I use a laptop as my primary computing device. I'm disabled so I am on a very tight budget. I do *a lot* of multitasking and usually have a plethora of tabs open in numerous web browsers that put a strain on a system's processing power (think, lots of web apps running in many tabs and windows). A typical computing session might be: having Gmail , Google Voice , Google Duo , Zoom , Google Docs , Google Sheets ™, 10-15 LinkedIn , 25 Facebook , 10 Twitter , my Tweetdeck (that has 38 columns), 50 Pinterest  (usually more though as it...

[Updated 25 June 2017 at 7:20 pm EDT with information on driver requirements and safety features] As someone who's been using ride-sharing technology from apps such as  Lyft  and  Uber  for the past few years, I see a lot of misconceptions and misperceptions about them, especially by people who've never used them. Here are my thoughts, based on my real life experiences after having taken hundreds of rides with both services over the past few years. I'm not merely responding to the hype surrounding them based on stories I've read or heard about but my actual experiences. People are afraid of technology and have a tendency demonize anything new and disruptive to the status-quo. We need to get over our fears of change and embrace new technologies and the world we live in, especially when those technologies make our lives easier. Lyft  and  Uber  are companies that have been operating for years and have had time to work most of the kinks out of th...

If you're feeling a little bit old today, I've got the perfect remedy to help cheer you up: A search engine giant was born today, and it's something that might alarm some people because they haven't realized exactly how much time (and how many milestones ) has passed between the birth of this search engine and now. But like it or not, we're now, today, celebrating Google's 18th Birthday!!! I'm not kidding. Really ! That's right, folks. The venerable search engine we all love and turn to in our daily lives is now, officially, old enough to be an adult . In fact, since corporations are people , perhaps it HAS become an adult today? I wonder what would happen if we were to ask Google, " Is Google a person? "—are we allowed to even ask such a thing without it breaking the Interwebs ? In any event, don't feel old because Google is 18 years old today; rather, feel old because you can remember a time when you didn'...

To: The United Nations General Assembly, All Governments and Political Authorities, Holders of Content Copyright Living in the Age of the Internet, I am deeply puzzled over the ineptitude, unnecessary overcomplication, and (at times) outright hindrance of certain organisations to broadcast content over the Internet internationally simply because they're unable to successfully navigate the myriad complications in securing such permissions at a global level and must do so jurisdiction by jurisdiction. The very idea and notion of building a global community has never been closer to reality than in today's Internet Age; villages in poverty-stricken, rural outlays are able to communicate with the entire world thanks to solar-powered laptop computers and wireless broadband. The major obstacle to completing the global community is the deprecated notion of copyright legalities. While I recognize that the originators and creators of content should have mechanisms in place to pro...

OK, so I'm the horrified new owner of a Blackberry Curve 8350i PDA , that I got for the new car service (taxi & airport runs) business that I'm going to be operating/owning out of Yonkers (but that's another story). Yes yes yes, I know that I promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn't allow my computer/technology/Internet addiction grow to the crackberry but, alas, the Universe directed me in this regard and I was left with little other choice, given the circumstances and needs of the business and what I needed from a phone. There are a lot of great reviews, like this one from Engadget . The service we have is through Sprint Nextel. After using the device for a few days, though, I have a few complaints and, quite honestly, I don't understand why more people don't complain about these things. I would imagine that my complaints are valid regardless of which particular crackberry model you're using. So here are my complaints about the Blackberry (crack...

If you want a great lesson on how to alienate your customers and destroy brand loyalty that has taken years to build up, take a close look here... Y'know this is really a very sad story. Hewlett Packard makes some really great products--that's not the sad part. What's sad is that if you ever are unfortunate enough to find yourself in a position of having to deal with their tech support, consider just junking the equipment and buying something else. Unless, of course, you're dealing with re-installing or upgrading your printer drivers. I don't know what's going on at HP these days but after the last ten or so contacts I've had with their tech support department, I can unfortunately no longer recommend that people purchase their products. And it's a damned shame, too, because they make some of the best printers out there. Case in point: I own an OfficeJet Pro L7580 and an OfficeJet Pro L7680. When I went to upgrade the printer driver for the OJP7580, it w...

OK, I've been trying to do this for the past few weeks but things just haven't been in my favour. I'm hoping that today, they are. Actually, I started this tag a number of weeks ago in my #followfriday and #samesexsunday recommendation posts but I just never had the chance to explain it until now. As most of you know, I use Twitter, that wonderful micro-blogging service that where you send status updates in 140 characters (or less) in response to a very basic question: What are you doing? One of the greatest things about Twitter, and what I find most valuable about it, is the ability to connect with people around the world who you may otherwise never come into contact with. I hold daily conversations with folks from the Netherlands, Australia, Europe, Asia, and the Americas (North and South) that I've met -- solely through Twitter. I've formed great friendships, and met some truly wonderful folk. The way to interact with people on Twitter is by following them, or ...

In a few short hours, my niece, Jennal Leann Intira Brooks, will begin procedures to undergo a partial Hemispherectomy . As can be seen from the definition, Hemispherectomy is a surgical treatment for epilepsy in which one of the two cerebral hemispheres, which together make up the majority of the brain, is removed. Jennal was stricken with TBI when, at only a very short two days old, she suffered from a stroke. Jennal was soon thereafter diagnosed with having Epilepsy , severe astigmatism, and impaired motor, intellectual, speech, and other bodily functions as a result from the stroke and TBI. You may wish to read about some of the previous difficulties my sister has had in getting appropriate care for Jennal. On 29 May 2009 (two months ago), Jennal turned five years old. It's a miracle that she's still alive. Whenever she sees me, her eyes light up, and my insides turn outward and it takes all of the strength and energy I have stored up to not fall apart like a bawlin...

Today is #followfriday on Twitter . In a nutshell, this is the day when Twitter users recommend others to follow. As @Mashable puts it , "The idea is to think of interesting people you already follow and recommend them to others. " My list has grown a bit, so instead of tweeting it, I'm going to tweet this post, and then link to the people I recommend on here. I can also add comments about users here, as well, as that pesky 140-character limit won't get in the way. All of the following Twitter users are people I recommend because they're personable, knowledgeable, helpful, insightful, and good folk. Send them an @ (a directed message on Twitter) and you'll most likely get a response. Additionally, I've also tagged certain people with other twitter hashtags, to denote whether they're, say, a #women2follow , a #mondaymensch , or a #samesexsunday individual. You may also see some people tagged as #techtuesday -- this is I have started and explain in t...