Exasperated Calculator

Category: Computers

  • PC Build 3: The Buildening

    It’s been a while since one of my more popular posts on how to build a small media PC, and even longer since I built my last ‘main’ PC (2008). But due to age, and a growing addiction to FlightSim, I decided to build a whole new PC. Here are all the bits (well, minus…

  • Wolfram Alpha – the good, the bad, the ugly

    The most interesting search engine to be launched in years just went public: [Wolfram Alpha](http://www.wolframalpha.com/) Wolfram Alpha sells itself as a ‘computational knowledge engine’. And it’s a very nice proof of concept. But as it stands there’s some things about it that are quite poorly developed, and some things that should be removed immediately. Search…

  • How to build a small media centre PC for standard definition TV for less than $A 500

    I decided that I needed a new TV to put in my bedroom. Also, it’s been a year since I played with building a computer, so I decided to try my hand at building an [Intel Atom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Atom) based PC. *Parts* A quick glance over [AusPCMarket](https://www.auspcmarket.com.au/), and a quick email to Dan of [Dansdata](http://dansdata.com/) led me…

  • Hands up if you can see the problem

    [Net Neutrality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality) is one of the biggest hot button issues among the nerd illuminati of the Internet right now. The simple question is whether all internet bits are equal, or should ISPs be allowed to privilege some bits (from their customers or people who pay them) over others. There are some side issues here, but…

  • Yay ADSL2!

    Just got an email from my ISP (the fabulous Internode) to tell me that my upgrade to ADSL2 will be happening sometime next week. Should pretty much quadruple my internet connection speed, which will be very nice indeed.

  • Google spreadsheets is not an Excel killer

    It seems that lots of people are all aflutter over Google Spreadsheets. I personally doubt that it’s going to have any impact whatsoever on Excel and Office more generally. Firstly, most people who use Excel use it fairly peripherally. Word is by far the most used of the programs in the Office suite. Most uses…

  • Ever buying any computer hardware?

    staticICE seems to be a useful search engine for Australian computer hardware prices. (Nothing very new, but most of the ones on the ‘net are US-centric).