Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head...

For Opinion Columns Visit JimLynch.com

Jim — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:18:55 +0000

I’ve had a change of heart about putting columns on this blog. When I first left ET I was going to use this as a place for news blogging and also for opinion columns. But I’ve decided it makes more sense to put the opinion columns on Jim Lynch: Tech Analyst and Community Manager rather [...]

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Review

Jim — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:43:45 +0000

The Register has an interesting preview/review of Mac OS X Snow Leopard: I like Snow Leopard, and found moving back to Leopard quite surprisingly painful. Was it really so slow? It didn’t feel so a week ago. There’s some controversy about how “64-bit” this upgrade really is. I have no complaints about compatibility, and 10.6 promises to [...]

Linux Foundation Issues Tux the Penguin Credit Card

Jim — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:55:43 +0000

I have very mixed feelings about this: The Linux Foundation, the non-profit that supports the growth of the Linux kernel, is today announcing an affinity Visa Platinum credit card for people who want to contribute to advancing the OS through the organization’s initiatives. Reading the press release announcing the new credit card made me raise my [...]

Loyd Case’s New Blog

Jim — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:02:41 +0000

If you are looking for Loyd Case from ExtremeTech, he has a brand new blog up: http://www.improbableinsights.com/ Please drop by and say hello by posting a comment or two. It’s great to see Loyd writing again.

Online Community Manager Survey Results

Jim — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:42:28 +0000

The Community Manager survey results are in. 72 community managers responded to Kommein’s request. The results were quite interesting as I know many of us have been curious about items such as community manager’s pay and where they fit in with their companies. This blog post is revealing the responses to about half of the questions [...]

Jeff Bezos Apologizes for Removing Kindle eBooks

Jim — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:19:56 +0000

Well it strikes me as way too little, way too late: This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism [...]

Why Amazon.com Sucks and Why I Won’t Buy Any More Kindle Ebooks

Jim — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:31:09 +0000

Well I’m sure by now you’ve probably heard about Amazon deleting certain books off of people’s Kindles without the permission of the Kindle owner: Amazon.com shocked customers yesterday when it reached out to hundreds, if not thousands of Kindles and simply deleted texts that users had not only purchased, but had started to read. A literary coitus [...]

Google Chrome OS

Jim — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:17:27 +0000

Exciting news for computer users, I hope I can get a copy of this for a review at some point on DLR. It’s been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching [...]

Customize Your Linux Desktop

Jim — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:41:55 +0000

Maximum PC has a great article about Linux desktop customization: The days of ugly Linux desktops are a thing of the past. Modern distros include many tools and options that enable them to look good and be more useful. Unlike Windows, Linux has several different widget toolkits. The most well-known widget engines are GTK+, (distributed with GNOME) [...]

How To Make It Easy to Switch from Windows To Linux

Jim — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:29:05 +0000

I think these tips are pretty much right on about how to ease the transition for users from Windows to Linux: Moving users to Linux can be tricky, but Jack Wallen has some practical measures that should ease the transition. Sheer economics are making the use of the Linux operating system increasingly widespread. It is free, reliable [...]

Overheating iPhone 3GS

Jim — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:19:41 +0000

Wow. Well I’m glad I only have an iPhone 3G! Technology sites and Apple forums have been indundated with comments about the new model overheating and becoming discoloured since it was launched on June 19. Some iPhone users have complained that the device has become too hot to [...]

Desktop Linux Reviews Update

Jim — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:13:40 +0000

Just a heads up that there are a number of new desktop Linux reviews up on the DLR blog: Live Linux Gaming Tiny Core Linux 2.1 Knoppix 6.0.1 Kubuntu 9.04 I’m pleased to note that Linux Today has linkedto the Kubuntu and TCL reviews and Distrowatch has linked to the TCL review. So traffic has been up significantly and I’ve [...]

Michael Jackson’s Body to Be Plastinated at the O2 Arena

Jim — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:28:10 +0000

Well the Michael Jackson story just keeps getting weirder and weird. It’s a never-ending circus. Today, I came across this: Michael Jackson will live on as a ‘plastinated’ creature preserved by German doctor Gunther von Hagens. Von Hagens has caused controversy with everyone from the Pope to the chief rabbi in Israel with his practice of embalming [...]

How To Find ExtremeTech’s Staff

Jim — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:03:24 +0000

Just wanted to post links to the sites of my fellow ExtremeTech alumni. I added them in the sidebar but here they are for anybody out there who is googling and trying to find them: Joel Durham Jason Cross As of this writing, I don’t have a site yet for Mike Nguyen or Loyd Case but if they put [...]

Why Twitter Sucks

Jim — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:59:31 +0000

This seriously sums Twitter up pretty well. I know people that are totally addicted to it and can’t disconnect. Sad.

Readers: Anti-Clickers Versus Anti-Scrollers

Jim — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:42:50 +0000

Somebody posted a note on a site I frequent yesterday complaining about articles being broken up into too many pages. The point this person was making was that he/she found it annoying and/or thought that web publishers were being greedy or just otherwise trying to annoy readers. Well why do sites break up articles into multiple [...]

Linux Today Linked To My Linux Mint 7 Review

Jim — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:38:15 +0000

I pitched it this morning and they linked to my Linux Mint 7 review over on my new Desktop Linux Reviews blog. Thanks so much Linux Today guys! It made my day to see that. One of the nicer things about mintInstall in this release is Featured Applications which highlights some popular apps for [...]

Social Media Consultants: A Huge Waste of Money?

Jim — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:49:55 +0000

I really couldn’t agree more with this. Lately it seems I can’t go anywhere without running into a gaggle of social media consultants bloviating about the wonders of social network marketing. Sure, you’ve seen ‘em, too. Slick shake-and-bake “experts” promising to help you leverage the power of Twitter and Facebook to raise your profile and, inexplicably, [...]

Life After ExtremeTech

Jim — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:48:52 +0000

Well the countdown has begun until Friday, my last day at ExtremeTech as Community Manager. Loyd’s farewell column is up and it’s touching to see some of the messages there. It’s nice to know that ET has meant so much to so many people. And it will live on in its new form and probably [...]

Hybrid Car Sales Decline

Jim — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:04:17 +0000

Well this really isn’t much of a surprise. Given that they were overpriced to begin with, I figured hybrid sales would drop significantly once gas prices dropped. Americans have cut back on buying vehicles of all types as the economy continues its slide. But the slowdown has been particularly brutal for hybrids, which use electricity and [...]

My Review of Amazon’s Kindle 2 and the Amazon Kindle App for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch

Jim — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:48:22 +0000

Well I finally got my Kindle 2 and also downloaded the Kindle App for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch. I did a review of both of them for ExtremeTech. From the Kindle 2 review on ET: So should you spend $359 for a Kindle 2? Is it worth the money? Well so much of the answer to [...]

Waiting For My Kindle 2

Jim — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:06:46 +0000

I finally bought a Kindle and I can’t wait for it to get here. With the design tweaks, I finally felt it was time to try one. I am very annoyed that Amazon isn’t shipping them until the 25th though. That’s more than two weeks after their announcement. Why the big wait for shipping to commence? [...]

Warhammer Online Population Decline

Jim — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:59:56 +0000

Well I reactivated my WAR account recently to play with a friend who had gotten the game. I was shocked to see so many servers reduced to low population status. When I left WAR it wasn’t too long after it’s initial release and it was packed with people. But when I returned it was like [...]

World of Warcraft Interface Clutter

Jim — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:50:01 +0000

This guy has a good point, you can get REALLY carried away with adding mods to World of Warcraft: As Blizzard Entertainment’s designers created it, WoW is set in a pretty, almost placid Tolkienesque universe. But for the hardcore gamer, that pristine landscape is begging for augmentation. There’s just too much to track: At any given [...]

Steve Jobs: Hormone Imbalance Making Me Lose Weight

Jim — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:10:39 +0000

I got two emails this morning from Apple PR. One is a letter from Steve Jobs and the other is from Apple’s Board of Directors. The one from Jobs indicates that a hormone imbalance has made him lose weight and that he is seeking treatment. The letter from the board expresses support for Jobs. Here’s the [...]