Jim Lynch: Tech Tips, Opinions and Reviews

I’ve been a big fan of Amazon’s Kindle for quite a while now. I own a Kindle ereader and I often use the iPhone Kindle app to read my Kindle books while I’m out and about. I’ve been waiting patiently for Amazon to finally come out with a Kindle application for the Mac and now [...]

Valve recently announced that it will be releasing Steam for the Mac:

Valve Software, whose Steam download services has become a successful content distribution platform for the PC, will expand to the Apple Macintosh, the company said.

More importantly, Valve will also port its Source graphics technology to the Mac, giving both platforms access to the same games. Valve also confirmed that it will launch a sequel to its highly acclaimed game, Portal, which it will simultaneously launch for both Macs and PCs.

Last week I covered the problems I had with my 24-inch iMac and how I ended up exchanging it for a 27-inch model. This week I want to share some of my experiences with my new iMac. After the Apple Store employee brought my iMac out to my truck, I carefully loaded in the computer [...]

Over the course of my computing life, I’ve had mostly good luck with hardware. But every once in a while a computer or component comes along that just keeps crapping out over and over. So it has been with my 24-inch iMac, and two weeks ago it finally came to its end. When I first [...]

It’s that time of the month again: Time for me to respond to some reader comments and cover a few potpourri items. Eye on the iPad sverrisson, writing in response to my “5 Reasons Why I Won’t Buy an iPad” column, said this: Who cares if the name resembles a female product? Would anyone care [...]

Back in the old days, Linux used to be a tough cookie to get installed. It was way more challenging than Windows and certainly nothing like Mac OS X. You never really knew if it would work well with all of your hardware until you tried it. Sometimes things went great and other times—well, let’s just say that things didn’t go well at all.

These days, it’s more or less a snap to get Linux working on your computer.

I have a confession to make that might shock you. I used to smoke. In my late teens and early 20s, I was a chain smoker. I enjoyed it. I loved having a cigarette in my fingers and I enjoyed the experience of smoking. I especially enjoyed it in college while I was writing papers; [...]

The ridiculous hype is finally over and Steve Jobs has given birth to yet another neat consumer device. The iPad isn’t even shipping yet, and it’s already made a huge splash in the press. Coverage of the iPad has been everywhere and Apple fans are swooning and waiting to whip out their credit cards to [...]

I’ve gotten quite a few comments since I started writing for ET again, so I thought I’d take one column per month and address some of them. And I’ve also included a few potpourri items about current technology events that are interesting, but might not warrant a full column of their own. So let’s start [...]

Remember when your local librarian would shush you up so you wouldn’t disturb others? Well, she knew that noise can be a terrible distraction when you’re trying to read a book. But what about when you’re trying to read an e-book? The usual kinds of noise—dogs barking, kids screaming, teenagers blaring music, etc.—can be just [...]

For the last few years, Firefox has been the only browser I use regularly. I’ve never cheated on it. Oh sure, I’ve had brief flings. I tried my best to really like Safari on my Macs, but it always left me cold. I don’t use Windows enough to have Internet Explorer as my main browser. [...]

It’s a sad time for Ubuntu users. Canonical has announced that it is removing the GNU Image Manipulation Program, aka GIMP, from the default Ubuntu installation routine. Canonical hosted its biannual Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) last week in Dallas, Texas. I was one of many open source software developers who attended the event and participated [...]

There’s absolutely no denying that we’re in a terrible economy right now. Unemployment is way up over the last year and consumer spending is down significantly. So what’s a person to do for Christmas gifts this year? Instead of stuffing your loved ones’ stockings with fat-laden candy or silly doodads made in China, you should [...]

Over at Desktop Linux Reviews, I recently wrote a review of Mandriva Linux 2010. For the review I picked the “free” version of Mandriva Linux, which meant it had no proprietary applications or codecs installed. In the review, I wrote this: For this review I picked the Mandriva Linux 2010 (Free) version. This version contains [...]

There are a lot of desktop Linux distros out there that you can try for free. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to simply roll your own distro? Tech-savvy developers can do this fairly easily, but Joe and Jane Desktop User really couldn’t—until now.

SUSE Studio puts you in the developer’s chair and lets you create your own customized version of desktop Linux. You don’t even need to download software to do it, just visit the SUSE Studio site to get started. You can do everything necessary in your browser—no other tools are required.

Windows 7 was launched just over a month ago—I’m sure you’ve heard, read, seen, and generally experienced all of the hype. I, however, have been pretty much ignoring Windows 7 since the day Microsoft first announced it. Well, I finally got around to paying some attention to it and ended up installing Windows 7 Ultimate [...]

Ever since my full-time gig as Community Manager for Ziff Davis Media ended back in June, I’ve been looking around for a new gig by checking various job sites. I’ve been dismayed at how many job descriptions state that you must be in the office and that telecommuters are not invited to apply. This strikes [...]

A friend of mine posted an interesting link on Twitter a while back to an article dealing with MMORPG addiction. It was sad and somewhat moving to read about one guy’s struggle with it. He lost his girlfriend, his job, and pretty much his life to Everquest. Here’s some of what he went through: If [...]

There’s a unique breed of Linux user out there these days and they’re called “distrohoppers.” What the heck is a distrohopper? Well according to the Urban Dictionary, here’s the definition of a distrohopper: “A distrohopper is someone that keeps switching from one Linux distribution to another, not with the intention to just test a certain [...]

I’ve gotten some flack from a few of my readers over on Desktop Linux Reviews for using virtualization software to run Linux distros. Some people feel that virtualization is “cheating” or that it somehow it warps the review. I couldn’t disagree more. Because there’s no way to cover every single potential hardware configuration, it really [...]