I certainly benefit from standardization of the world around me, and I welcome interoperability and interchangeability as well as the price and product selection advantages. But I am not blithely focused on standardization above all else. I will happily use a proprietary solution if the alternative is inelegant, ineffective, or insufficient.
Terabyte home
In Search of the Perfect USB Cable
You wouldn’t know it from hefting my backpack, but I’m always looking to lighten my load with clever, compact, versatile cables. With so many devices now using USB for both data and power, I’m always on the lookout for nifty new cables. Here’s a quick overview of a few cables that I found useful recently.
How Software Update 2.23 Killed My Verizon MiFi 4510L (And How I Brought It Back to Life Again)
Although I love Verizon’s super-fast LTE service, I’ve had no end of trouble with my Novatel 4510L MiFi device. After installing a software update, the thing stopped working entirely. Happily, I found a solution online and I’m now back up and running.
The Downward Spiral: How Economic Pressure Turns Commodities to Junk
I am certainly not the first person to notice the peculiar “race to the bottom†that happens when products are commoditized. But it is been much in my thoughts recently as I observed the annual tragedy of holiday price wars. How can a company economically produce a DVD player, tablet computer, or even a string of Christmas lights at the prices we see today?
iTunes Match Does Not Like VBR MP3 Files: Here’s How to Fix It
iTunes Match often stumbles over music files, marking some as “Not Eligible†and seemingly not recognizing others. Here’s my solution to the former problem, and perhaps the latter as well.
