Aaron Weiss

In all its various forms, voice-over-IP (VoIP) offers an efficient way to reduce telephone costs. Skype is a particularly popular VoIP service that’s primarily used to make PC-to-PC calls for free, although a subset of Skype customers pay for credits that let them make PC-to-POTS (plain old telephone service) calls, or vice versa, reaching anyone […]

Once upon a time 802.11b wireless networking appeared, freeing us to roam around at 10Mbps, and it was good. Actually, it was just OK. So hardware vendors whipped up 802.11g — 54Mbps of bandwidth goodness. The people rejoiced and then said, “Got anything faster?” One day we’ll have 802.11n, but until that day comes, vendors […]

The most popular handheld devices among adults today are either mobile phones with PDA-like productivity features or PDAs with phone-like communications features. Then there are the plain-vanilla PDAs that pack productivity without the phone. Just to confuse matters more, all three types run on different operating systems — or rather, they used to. All of […]

Understanding Windows Wireless Zero Configuration With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft tried to make configuring and connecting to wireless networks easy for everyone. They partially succeeded. The Wireless Zero Configuration service is the “brains” behind managing wireless connections with Windows. Unfortunately, WZC does not always make sane decisions, which can cause sensations of frustration […]

The software market is bursting at the seams with remote desktop products that basically all work the same way. You install software on your “host” or “remote” machine — the one you want to see and control. Then you connect to your host from a “local” machine — the computer you are physically sitting at, […]

It wasn’t long ago that projectors were the stuff of high-end corporate conference rooms. Home projection was limited to the elite who likely starred in the onscreen material. But projectors have undergone a quiet revolution in the past few years, improving in performance, portability and flexibility and dropping in price. Yet the wow factor of […]

Linux means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. From enthusiasm to intimidation to outright fear and confusion, there is no single response Linux. And there is no single Linux, which itself spawns a great deal of the surrounding confusion. For the computer developer, Linux is like a toolkit, a collection […]

We’ve been spoiled. As computer buyers, we’ve assumed it to be a law of nature that processor speeds would double every year. The phenomenon is widely referred to as “Moore’s Law.” And even though Gordon Moore’s 1965 processor prediction has been updated to doubling every 18 months, Intel and competitor AMD remain locked in a […]

Would you trust a security guard with a scruffy beard and an overstuffed toolbelt? If you’re like most people, you probably prefer a clean cut look in those who protect your business. Perhaps it demonstrates their purity and that they are above-board with nothing to hide. ShareIt FTP server from Noisette Software is an attempt […]