LonePlacebo

January 9, 2015

A new look for LonePlacebo in 2015

You are now looking at the fourth major iteration of LonePlacebo. For the 0.05% of you RSS readers, I recommend opening this article in a browser window.

Lovingly dubbed “Gravity” for no particular reason other than the fact that I had recently watched the movie while I was contemplating a name for my WordPress theme, this new design is all about a great mobile reading experience. For the very first time, LonePlacebo is fully responsive, or in layman’s terms, it will “look good” on most devices (translation: no more pinching and zooming on mobile touch displays).

Continue reading →

November 23, 2014

PlaceboCast 18: But can it bend?

Undeterred by the Fire phone’s abysmal sales, Amazon has unleashed a flurry of new hardware gadgets including its fascinating new home personal assistant, Echo, and the Fire TV stick (aka Match Stick). How will these products fare and who builds better hardware products: Google or Amazon?

As always, thanks for listening and have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday.

Continue reading →

July 29, 2014

PlaceboCast 17: Rocky Yosemite

In this edition of the PlaceboCast, we find out firsthand just how much unfinished work Apple has before Mac OS X Yosemite’s official public release. But with Joseph’s magical audio technician-caliber abilities, you won’t notice anything amiss with this episode. Speaking of Joseph, check out his band’s debut album, Your Call EP.

As always, thanks for listening.

Continue reading →

July 25, 2014

Securing your MacBook: Going Beyond Tinfoil

How do you secure the data on your portable computer from thieves, without having to chain your computer to a concrete slab?

I have just the answer.

Disclaimer: The methods I outline here are nowhere near foolproof. Always keep the possibility of theft in the back of your mind when you leave your gadgets unattended.

Continue reading →

July 22, 2014

Adventures of a First-Time TaskRabbit

About a month ago, I received an email from TaskRabbit – a company that lets you outsource small gigs to people in your neighborhood.

Thank you for your interest in joining the TaskRabbit community! We are currently inviting a select group of applicants to complete their applications and become a Tasker. Complete your application today to join our high-quality community of neighbors helping neighbors.

Intrigued I submitted an application, including the personal information required for a background check and detailed explanations about my humble skills such as computer support, online ecommerce (Certified eBay GrandMaster), and usability testing (Is this even on?).

Continue reading →

June 18, 2014

PlaceboCast 16: This Phone is on Fireeeeeeee

Today, Amazon lifted the wraps from their much-rumored smartphone, the Fire Phone. Make no mistake, this phone was built for Amazon Prime subscribers. Firefly could be a shopper’s ultimate companion, with the ability to quickly identify nearly 100 million items in the real world. Jeff Bezos just hopes you won’t be pointing it at a new iPhone in six months.

As always, thanks for listening.

Continue reading →

June 3, 2014

PlaceboCast 15: WWDC 2014 Rapidfire Discussion

Apple’s annual developer conference kicked things off this week with its much anticipated keynote. CEO Tim Cook and Craig “Superman/Hair Force One” Federighi announced a slew of upcoming updates to iOS and Mac OS X as well as “the mother of all releases.”

One thing’s for sure: Apple has had a very busy year.

As always, thanks for listening.

Continue reading →

April 21, 2014

How to Reclaim Dropbox Storage Space

Running out of Dropbox storage? If you’ve tried every known trick in the book to increase your free storage without paying, then it may be time to re-evaluate your current Dropbox usage. In this guide, I will show you some of my tips for reclaiming storage space on Dropbox without having to lose an arm and a leg.

Continue reading →