Stories by Mark Gibbs

Try the Phone, Feel the Thag, Obi-Wan

Thag. That is today's topic. "What," you may ask, "is Thag?" A fine question, young Jedi. Understand or not understand. There is no try. Ah, Obi-Wan, feel the farce . . . .

How to Play Tech Support Bingo

Some time ago, a new and subversive game emerged to help people while away those interminable corporate meetings: Buzzword Bingo. The game is simple. On a piece of paper, you and a select group of other attendees list words and phrases that typify the jargon of your business.

Down and Dirty Universal Serial Bus

Last week, Gearhead started to delve into the mystery that is the Universal Serial Bus (sounds so much more dramatic that way). We discussed hubs and power issues and concluded by noting that USB cables aren't just any old cables.

Guest column: USB for me . . . USB for you

Despite the explosion of PCs with Universal Serial Bus (USB) support, Gearhead has been intrigued by how little people know about this new technology. Indeed, Gearhead must admit that our own knowledge was a little sketchy, hence this column.

USB for Me . . . USB for You

Despite the explosion of PCs with Universal Serial Bus (USB) support, Gearhead has been intrigued by how little people know about this new technology. Indeed, Gearhead must admit that our own knowledge was a little sketchy, hence this column.

Overtightening Novell's Nuts

This week I have to start off with feedback from one Steve "The Rebate King" Manos regarding my column, "Scanning an Internet-style deal." Manos wrote to brag that he had done even better buying a scanner than I did: "I purchased this scanner from Staples Inc. at an even better rate [than] that advertised. Staples has a low price guarantee of which I took advantage. Best Buy had the same scanner for sale for $99.95, so I had Staples match Best Buy's advertised price so I could get the scanner and actually come out $0.05 ahead of the game. Of course, I had to pay postage to mail in the rebate and sales tax, but not a bad deal for around $8.00."

Nut Behind the Support Call

What an irritating evening! After a long day, I sat down with a cup of tea to write "Backspin" and managed to dump the tea all over my desk. After a bout of furious mopping, the result was a much cleaner desk but a keyboard on which the "o" and "d" refused to work.

Skinny Windows for Your Tool Chest

Do you remember back in 1998 when there was the big stink during the first volleys of Microsoft Corp.'s prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice over whether you could remove Internet Explorer from Windows 98 without breaking the system somehow?

Guest column: Scanning an Internet-Style Deal

What a deal! I was recently in Staples with my dear wife buying boxes (we're moving again) when I saw an unbelievable deal - a Canon Computer Systems Inc. scanner for $30! That's right, three zero. It works like this: You buy the scanner for $130, and you'll get a $40 rebate from Canon and a $60 rebate from Staples. Amazing.

Reading and Speaking

In December, Gearhead enthused about the Rocket eBook from Franklin Electronic Publishers. Since then, the product has performed reliably and been put to far more uses than Gearhead thought possible. For example, the eBook is a great way of keeping reports, notes and articles on hand during meetings.

Scanning an Internet-Style Deal

What a deal! I was recently in Staples with my dear wife buying boxes (we're moving again) when I saw an unbelievable deal - a Canon Computer Systems Inc. scanner for $30! That's right, three zero. It works like this: You buy the scanner for $130, and you'll get a $40 rebate from Canon and a $60 rebate from Staples. Amazing.

Guest column: The need to place blame

Last week, a number of big Web sites, including Yahoo, Buy.com, eBay and Amazon.com, were each shut down for a few hours by a series of distributed denial-of- service attacks. Now we're all looking for the bad guys - we want someone to blame.

Messing With Mail, Part Three

This week, as was the case with last week's column, we start off with a correction to a previous "Gearhead." In "A better platform on your palm," Gearhead wrote that Microsoft Windows CE drove the Casio Cassiopeia 105 on a "13-MHz StrongArm processor" . . . oops. That should, of course, have been a 130-MHz MIPS processor. Thanks to all who corrected Gearhead's errant ways.In the course of correcting Gearhead, reader Chris Anderson noted, "When the CE 3.0 [PocketPC] ROM comes out in a month or two, you'll really see its power [a 200 percent performance boost, I'm told]." Gearhead can hardly wait. What is to be done with all that spare oomph? Anderson goes on to note that even more impressive than a personal digital assistant playing a movie is a PDA playing "Doom." Check out www.comminus.com/doom.html for mayhem on your palmtop.

The Need to Place Blame

Last week, a number of big Web sites, including Yahoo Inc., Buy.com Inc., eBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., were each shut down for a few hours by a series of distributed denial-of- service attacks. Now we're all looking for the bad guys - we want someone to blame.

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