When I’m teaching digital photography classes, I always emphasize the importance of backups. For most people, file size of each photo and numbers of photos means that they can do regular transfers to CDs or DVDs. There are some things you can do to increase the probability that you will be able to retrieve those [...]

Nuts & Volts magazine
Back in the middle of the 20th century, the do-it-yourself culture was still going strong. This was the era of Mechanics Illustrated, Science & Mechanics, Popular Science/Mechanics/Electronics and others devoted to the home mechanic and amateur scientist. Every issue had several articles devoted to home workshop projects.

Along about the late 80s and [...]

We’ve reviewed all kinds of system utilities, which areprograms that reveal the functions and processes running under the hood of yourcomputer. Even when you think your system is idle, PC gnomes areworking tirelessly to keep your system humming and free of virii and malware.
Want to know what program has opened a specific file ordirectory or [...]

The latest reduction in value for the consumer was noted by my wife. Rolls of toilet paper are being reduced in width by one full centimeter. The hope is that most people won’t notice that the product is smaller even though the price has stayed the same. It’s happening with ice cream too. Notice that [...]

Younger people take a lot for granted. When I grew up in rural Maine, telephones were the best technology going. We had two in our house, the conventional wooden box on the wall with it’s crank on the side that would be used to alert the operator that you wanted to talk to someone. Of [...]

We’re taking a week-long vacation away from computers, so Earle will be carrying the blog load for a bit.

John McCain wants more nuclear power plants, as we’ve noted here, but the owners of Seabrook tells Foster’s that they have no intention of trying to build a second reactor at New Hampshire’s only nuclear power plant, even though they’re licensed to do so.

Mark the calendar if you live near Concord: Next Friday (Aug. 1), the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium will be open in the morning so you can watch a live feed of the total solar eclipse that is happening in China. It’ll be on their big plasma-screen TV.
The planetarium will be open from 6 to 8:30 a.m., [...]

GT Solar of Merrimack starts selling its shares today, reports the U-L. If all goes well - but it hasn’t been on the stock market lately - they’ll have a $2.2 billion market capitalization.
UPDATE: Shares fell after trading began, reports Xconomy.

E-Ink of Cambridge, Mass., has gained prominence with its "electronic ink" (made of black-and-white spheres that are rotated by electric charge) thanks to Sony’s Reader and Amazon’s Kindle - now it’s powering the cover of Esquire’s 75th anniversary issue due out for October.
How longer before your daily paper has this, I wonder?

The Union-Leader’s coverage of John McCain in the state yesterday emphasized his desire to build 45 more nuclear plants - possibly including the long-scrapped second reactor at Seabrook.
Obama is sort of pro-nuclear-power, as this clip shows.
Even people (like me) who think nuclear power should be a part of our response to global warming realize that [...]

Did you know that NASA’s 50th anniversary is coming up? Neither did I … which is what prodded my Telegraph column this week, about a talk being given at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium this Friday by a Manchester aerospace engineer. The column has some video and a slideshow about Alan Shepard, New Hampshire’s claim to [...]

The Globe reports that a developer hasplans for a nassuve "life sciences" complex, with 2 million square feet of labs and offices, on 250 acres in Burlington, Mass. - south of Lowell. It would be the largest such complex in New England, but since it doesn’t have tenants and has no road access, I think [...]

Photo by Bob Hammerstrom, Nashua Telegraph
Being a reporter is fun sometimes. Yesterday I got to play with - er, study - a demonstration model of the Da Vinci Surgical Systems robotic surgeon that is coming to St. Joseph Hospital. Here’s the article, with photos of it. Here’s a YouTube of the company’s sales video.
Along [...]

The journalist in me tends to roll his eyes at self-serving announcements from the business community about how they’re doing good - decades of being targeted by PR makes you cynical - but there’s no question that the marketplace will have to be a major driver if society’s energy-gobbling habits will change. So let’s praise [...]