Sure, you can use some shortcuts, if you know about them. The problem is it's not easy to find these little shortcuts at all, intentionally so, and you have to go there often enough to learn these tricks. Which you're probably not gonna do if you get turned off by the store in the first place. But the greater point is…

This is true. I use Dvorak predominantly, for about 5 years now, and I'm extremely fast on it. But it's kind of a pain. Any time I use another computer or certain keyboard shortcut oriented computers it can be a bit difficult.

This won't work for me. I have basically the same thing, an 'in' drawer sitting right on top of my desk. It's clear plastic so I can still see the papers inside. But it doesn't work, once something's in there it's forgotten. (At this point I just use it as a drawer full of oft used reference papers like account…

This is just the most perfect example of statistical think gone awry. Have they done a study as to how many people experience the rat-in-a-maze idiocy and vow to never go back, and how many lost sales they have as a result? Probably not, because that's a much harder study to undertake. I go to Ikea about once every…

I have been a professional photographer so, yeah, I'm aware that megapixel count is not the be all end all of image quality. But to say it has little to nothing to do with IQ is ridiculous. You can get wonderful shots from a 4MP camera, and today's 12 to 18MP consumer cams can certainly be said to have gone too far to…

A big screen does not have to mean a big phone. The phone screen should be very very nearly as big as the phone itself. The wasted screen real estate on the iPhone 4, for instance - they could have easily fit a 4" or even a 4.3" screen on that phone by making it all screen and no bezel.

This post is just waaayyaayy too long, and in fact I have not read the whole thing. There's a lot of important information in it though, but most people are not going to read it who really ought to.

I absolutely love FF on the desktop, and r4.0 is the best browser I've ever seen. FF Mobile would be extremely awesome for sync purposes and I love the way it works on Android BUT - RC3 and earlier were terribly buggy, and the current RC4 messes up my Droid X, causes the battery to burn down twice as fast as normal,…

Basically Amazon could become the premier Android tablet maker if they just had a decent Android 3.0 experience and undercut the iPad by $150. They're track record with aggressive price cuts, slick usability, and sleek hardware on the Kindle tells me they can do this. Honeycomb needs a few tweaks and it will be…

The article is incomplete as far as specs go. I was very stoked about the iPad 2 but a lot of realizations have tempered my enthusiasm. The rear facing main camera is truly pathetic, it seems to be LESS that a megapixel, it seems to be the same as the iPod Touch at a paltry 0.7MP! If you're going to put a camera on…

Huh? Instant oatmeal, hello, only needs hot water anyway. And tastes like glue. (Hey, I still take it camping without fail, a flavored version masks the glue taste; but at home, no way.) I was expecting at the very least old-fashioned oats or something. At home I put instant oatmeal in water and stick in the micro for…

Whatever it is, it's too much. These tablet makers see $ signs that ain't gonna happen. And why are these tablets all carrier-sponsored? I don't want another data plan to pay, that's the last thing I want. I just want a wifi device. Basically what I think will happen is these tablets will be great but everyone will…

You know, I have most of the above hand tools as well as most of the mentioned power tools that they are called an 'alternative' to. However, in some cases, like the molding plane and the miter box, these hand tools are actually more expensive than the power tools they would purport to replace, while doing roughly as…

The instructions say get a 1/4-20 tap and tap handle. Not really necessary to make your own threads. All you really need is to drill a hole in the wood base material large enough for a 1/4-20 nut, then glue the nut in with epoxy. Or buy a t-nut that is meant to be sunk and anchored in a wood hole. There are a couple…

Many of the comments on this article regarding keyboards are confusing 'learning' with 'input efficiency'. This is not an either/or situation. If you're just interested in words per minute, then sure, a keyboard is going to be way ahead, few people are going to debate that. The point is, there are times when a writing…

@DaTruth: To me this is by far the only really crappy thing about Gmail. In most other ways it has local email clients beat by a mile, but in this case it really sucks. I'm not sure why they couldn't allow you to set a checking frequency but just set a limit as to how frequent. Or at least pay a yearly fee to check…

@ITIL_Prince: I never said it was a waste of time, but if the shoe fits, hey, go ahead and lace it up. Or, to say it another way, why not investigate and reproduce the most likely scenarios, rather that ones that are extremely implausible for numerous reasons?

The problem with all of these systems is that it's a system, it requires maintenance. I've had a bunch of X10 (ancient Radioshack version of home automation) controlling my home lights for years. I'm glad I stopped there. It was very useful for me to be able to control outdoor lights from inside without wiring up a…

The perfect gift for people who don't realize you can buy an axe head, little metal wedgy things, and a piece of hickory for about $30 or less.

It's really really difficult to carve something into a highly spherical shape. Even if you had a modern lathe, it's difficult. On the other hand, making a wheel is fairly easy using a number of different techniques. For one, just find some nice round hardwood tree branches and cut them into sections. Also the bearing…