Bill

Member since: Apr 10th, 2007

Bill's Latest Comments

Blog Activity

Blog	# of Comments
Engadget	3 Comments
Download Squad	9 Comments
Engadget Mobile	1 Comment
Switched	1 Comment

Recent Comments:

The Engadget Show tapes today with Erick Tseng of Google, our CES wrap-up... and we're giving away a Nexus One! (Engadget)

Jan 15th 2010 5:46PM Second prize... two Nexus Ones.

Engadget's recession antidote: win a Brando 55-in-1 Card Reader reader! (Engadget)

May 15th 2009 12:31PM Cut my taxes.

Engadget Mobile celebrates the holidays with a Nokia N81 giveaway! (Engadget Mobile)

Dec 25th 2008 11:11AM Merry Christmas and thanks.

Mobile browser showdown: Archos 5 vs. iPhone 3G vs. Nokia N810 (Engadget)

Oct 18th 2008 11:11AM Nice comparison. However, speed for loading a web page is not worth much unless access to the internet is available. With my Nokia (N800 actually) if I am out of WiFi range, I can quickly tether it, via bluetooth, to the data plan on my cellphone. Surprisingly quick page loads and extremely useful. That is why it is in the glove box of my car at all times.

Brad's favorite apps worth paying for: Carbonite (Download Squad)

Oct 13th 2008 7:27PM Mozy all the way.

GPS Could Save Airlines Billions in Fuel and Reduce Flight Times (Switched)

Oct 10th 2008 9:08PM Luckily for those of us flying high-performance general aviation airplanes, the ability to fly point-to-point is already here. Much of the time when away from the major hubs, ATC allows us to "go direct." Many of the air carriers have the capability also, but the terminal airspace structure at the hubs limits the use.

And the use of WAAS capable GPS systems now allows much lower approach minimums at many smaller general aviation airports.

Avionics has been the big improvement in aviation in recent years.

Microsoft launches Phone Data Manager Beta (Download Squad)

Sep 29th 2008 9:33PM Just tried it. Worked fine with my Sony Ericsson W810i via bluetooth.

Vimeo bans gaming videos, starts debate among users (Download Squad)

Jul 23rd 2008 9:41AM Good decision Vimeo! If it will shorten the transcoding time, I'm for it.

PayPal browser plugin: Buy stuff on sites that don't take PayPal (Download Squad)

Jun 4th 2008 9:47PM I've been using the Paypal plug-in for, I believe, at least six months. If I recall, I was offered the opportunity to test it. I use it quite a bit and find it easy to use and accurate.

Flipping the Linux switch: The distribution maze (Download Squad)

Feb 26th 2008 9:52PM I recently went through a batch of at least 15 live CDs in my search for my first Linux distribution to install. After doing a bit of online reading and research, I found:
"Comparison of Linux LiveDistros at" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_LiveDistros
and www.distrowatch.com to be very helpful.

I was looking for something visually appealing, quick and that worked with a minimum of fuss with an older laptops' hardware.

Distributions that I tried included: Damn Small Linux, PCLinuxOS, OpenSUSE, Puppy, Ubuntu, Kubunto, Xubuntu, Fedora, Vectorlinux, Zenwalk, Sam, Myah and a few others.

It did not take too much time to download the distribution's ISO, burn the live CD, run, test and move on to the next one. After several days I had a good idea of what I liked and did not. Some that ran too slowly (or not at all) were discarded. I came to prefer GNOME over KDE and also kinda liked the look and quickness of xfce. Package managers didn't seem to be much of an issue to me since they all seemed to work.

In the end I installed both OpenSUSE and PClinuxOS. Along the way I learned how to partition a hard drive (using Parted Magic) about GRUB and LILO and numerous other Linux mysteries. I'm not about to move away from Windows as my primary operating system, but learning a bit about Linux has been an interesting experience. And now I know what I can do with some PC hardware when it gets past its prime.

Bill