Computer Technology

Nerds FTW! UH Nets a Pair of Finalists in Microsoft's Video Game Design Contest

The video game industry is massive. Video game sales outpaced music sales years ago and they continue to grow. And Houston has been home to many a video game programmer over the years. Perhaps it is because of the success at the University of Houston. For the fourth straight year, UH is the only sch ... More >>

"Feds Order 1.6 Billion Bullets" -- New Spam E-Mail Goes After FEMA Conspiracy Theorists and Sports Fans?

Spammers don't care about your political causes or your beliefs. They prey on the innocent and the naive, which is why a recent spate of e-mails I've received using conspiracy theory scare tactics does not surprise me in the least. I am not a "prepper," nor do I fear the end of the world or being j ... More >>

Find Your Next Meal with the New Version of the Houston Press Mobile App

If you're one of the many Houstonians who have already downloaded the Houston Press mobile app you know just how handy it is to have the Press with you wherever you have your smartphone. Today we're happy to announce that we're taking things up a notch with the new and improved version of our mobil ... More >>

Brand New Version Of The Houston Press Mobile App Available Now

If you're one of the many Houstonians that has already downloaded the Houston Press mobile app you know just how handy it is to have the Press with you wherever you have your smartphone. Today we're happy announce that we're taking things up a notch with the new and improved version of our mobile ap ... More >>

Get Your Mobile Concert Listings With the New Version of the Houston Press Mobile App

If you're one of the many Houstonians that has already downloaded the Houston Press mobile app you know just how handy it is to have the Press with you wherever you have your smartphone. Today we're happy announce that we're taking things up a notch with the new and improved version of our mobile ap ... More >>

App of the Week: City of Houston 311 App Has Promise, but Needs Work

App: City of Houston 311 Platform: iPhone, Android Website: iPhone Site Cost: Free The city's 311 hotline is one of the easiest ways to circumvent the hassle of city government. The idea originally was to route non-emergency problems away from 911 and create a first line of defense against the typi ... More >>

500px Mobile App Pulled from Apple Store Over Boobs, Victim of Apple's Bizarre Double Standard When It Comes to Nudie Pics

The Apple App store has an incredibly byzantine set of rules that make it almost impossible for app developers to navigate. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the approval process is often random and unevenly applied. Take for instance the case of 500px, a mobile photo-sharing app not that ... More >>

SMiShing: Like Phishing, but on Cell Phones. That's a Thing?

As quickly as technology changes, there are scammers poised to take advantage of it. For years, that simply meant tossing out junk mail. When the Internet came along, it was a combination of e-mail scams and fake websites. Eventually, the scams got more sophisticated and tricky. If you are like me, ... More >>

A Local Venue With an App? Mucky Duck Has One... and It's Good

Survival in the hospitality business is rough. The vast majority of restaurants fail. Bars are an even tougher go, and nightclub success is even slimmer. That puts live music venues on the lowest rung of the success ladder. So, it is understandable when a live music venue, struggling to get by, is ... More >>

App of the Week: Avoid Traffic with Inrix Traffic

App: Inrix Traffic Platform: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile Website: InrixTraffic.com Cost: Free Mr. Burns once called sitting "the great equalizer" on The Simpsons, but I tend to think it's traffic. We all get stuck in it and we all curse the day we were born as a result. In Houston, ... More >>

App of the Week: Is the Facebook App Getting Worse?

I've written here a number of times about Facebook and apps related to it. Most specifically, I wrote about how there are too many apps trying to do multiple jobs the single Facebook app is apparently incapable of handling correctly. But, I've also praised the social media giant for taking an intere ... More >>

Alternatives to Five of the Pricier Software Titles

The Business Software Alliance announced last week that it had come to an agreement with local business Affordable Power, LP, to settle legal claims that the company pirated software titles. According to the release: As part of the settlement, Affordable Power agreed to pay $150,000 to settle legal ... More >>

Life in the Cloud: The Complications and Conveniences of a Connected World

Over the last year or so, I've grown increasingly aware of and interested in the idea of life without a hard drive. My existence is, admittedly, a bit unique. I spend a lot of time on my laptop; in fact, it is my main computer. When I'm in my office, it is connected to a big monitor for convenience, ... More >>

Five Good Reasons to Start Backing Up Your Computer Now

Back in the late '90s when a young Justin Timberlake was touring the world with 'N Sync and people still hadn't abbreviated "electronic" mail, a funny thing happened to me -- and by funny, I really mean horrifying. I had just installed a software update on my Bondi Blue iMac and was restarting when. ... More >>

The Good, the Bad and the Spam: The Complexities of Switching to Gmail

My aunt called me on Tuesday. She just got an iPhone. Admittedly, she is not technically inclined and was in need of a little technical support. Apparently, when she deleted e-mails she received on her computer in Outlook, they still showed up in her inbox on her phone. I diagnosed the problem, but ... More >>

iCan't: 4 Reasons Why Even the iPad 3 Won't Cause Me to Buy One

In April of last year, I wrote about whether I should buy an iPad. After a few musing paragraphs, I came to the begrudging conclusion that the iPad was likely part of my technological future. Well, it's nearly a year later and still no iPad for me. With the release of the iPad 3 tomorrow (and a prob ... More >>

SaveOnBrew.com Goes Mobile to Help You Find Deals on Beer Nearby

I'm going to start this entire post by saying something that might cause you to stop reading: I'm not a big beer drinker. In fact, I rarely drink the stuff. But, what I am is someone who buys a ton of apps for my iPhone, and this isn't really so much a story about beer as it is about a website tryin ... More >>

JotForm.com Takedown: No Court Order? Apparently, No Problem

Imagine for a moment you own a business and are being investigated for a crime. You come to work and your offices are shut down and your phones turned off by your building's management at the request of the government. Now, take it a step further and imagine that you weren't the one being investiga ... More >>

Meet Chris Clackson, Hockey Player, App Developer

It's been a strange season for the Aeros. They shot off to a quick start, having the best record in the league for the first month or so. Then the injury bug hit the parent club, and key player after key player got the call to join the Wild, leaving the Aeros depleted and relying on young players ... More >>

App of the Week: App Shopper

App: App Shopper Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac Web site: AppShopper.com Cost: Free The iPhone may be good for many things -- most of those may be the result of cool little apps that extend its features -- but finding cool apps via the App Store is not one of them. Calling the App Store utilitarian i ... More >>

Google Shuttering Popular Photo Editing Tool Picnik: Top 8 Alternatives

Google announced that as of April 19, it will shut down Picnik, an online photo editing tool acquired by the company in 2010, and bundle some of the editing tools into their over-arching Google platform. The staff of Picnik remains with Google and apparently is working to add features from the edit ... More >>

App of the Week: Dragon Dictation and Dragon Go!

​App: Dragon Dictation and Dragon Go! Platform: iPhone, Android Website: http://www.nuance.com Cost: Free So, let's say you decided earlier in 2011 that you were going to upgrade your iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4. Let's also say that you were impatient and had no desire to wait until, supposedly, ... More >>

Evernote Food: An App That Helps You Record Your Meals

​Note-taking smart phone app Evernote is widely considered one of the best productivity apps on the market, particularly if you do a lot of note taking. I ranked it as my number one app of the year and find it indispensable for keeping track of everyday tasks. The company that produced Everno ... More >>

Cuban Tacos: There's an App for That...Almost

Many of us find ourselves rushing between work and home on weekday evenings with little time for determining take-out options, let alone actually cooking, which is why I was so stoked to see the flyer taped to the El Rey drive-thru window announcing the launch of an El Rey iPhone app. Visions of de ... More >>

Three Ways Steve Jobs Made Technology Cool, Stylish and Accessible

This morning I was scheduled for a conference call with one of my clients and I knew I was running a few minutes late. My laptop was not with me and I didn't know the client's email address by heart. Fortunately, I had my iPhone. I opened it up, found a recent e-mail exchange between myself and my c ... More >>

IWatch Harris County App from the Sheriff's Department Poorly Designed

The IWatch welcome screen.​The best smartphone apps meant for functionality rather than entertainment fill a need, are easy to use and provide appropriate functionality for the task at hand. The Harris County Sheriff's Department IWatch Harris County app delivers about one-and-a-half of those ... More >>

Council Candidate Allegedly Sends Out E-Mail Ripping Jolanda Jones, Even Though He's Not Running Against Her

Bolivar Fraga could easily prove it wasn't him, but won't.​An anonymous, widely distributed e-mail criticizing Houston City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones appears to have come from the campaign of council candidate Bolivar Fraga. Fraga and Jones represent different districts; however, Fraga was j ... More >>

The Five Biggest Google Fails and Wins

​Google launched with much fanfare recently and, quickly, the reviews poured in. We even wrote about the things we thought Google would need to do to beat Facebook and we have since had a chance to look around inside the social networking platform. It does appear to be easier to use than Fac ... More >>

App of the Week: To iPad or Not to iPad

Bring on the lions app!​As I was looking through my iPhone apps this week and potential new apps worth downloading, it struck me the number of iPad apps coming available. It's not surprising. The iPad, particularly since the release of the 2.0 version, has been nothing short of a sensation in ... More >>

App of the Week: Alfred

A quick search using Alfred yielded really helpful results.​App: Alfred Platforms: Mac OSX Web site: Alfredapp.com Cost: Free (Power Pack add-on for about $20) Normally, this space is reserved for apps for the phone and the occasional Web site. This week, we're going to talk directly to M ... More >>

Houston Rodeo: Now There's an App for That

Houston Rodeo: Where high tech meets low tech.​Last week members of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's marketing and public relations team held a press conference to present some of the rodeo's new-for-2011 offerings, chief among them a feature-rich smartphone app meant to improve all aspe ... More >>

App of the Week: Five Ways to Improve the Facebook App

​Dear Mark, please improve the Facebook app. Sincerely, Everyone.​​App: Facebook Platforms: All Smart Phones Web site: Facebook.com Cost: Free Facebook has become such a part of the way most people connect online, it's hard to imagine that the app Mark Zuckerberg and company produce coul ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: John Ly of Strata Restaurant

​We met with Executive Chef John Ly of the new Strata Restaurant in the Champions area, and he shared some tips for young aspiring chefs. Eating Our Words: So I understand you started off pursuing a computer science degree. Tell me about that. Ly: Yeah, I went pretty far towards getting my c ... More >>

It's A Workout Deciphering TEA's Latest Instructions On Its "Fitnessgram"

Hair Balls believes intensely and fully in the physical fitness benefits of wind sprints, pumping iron and teamwork camaraderie. But even we took pause at an end-of-the-month missive sent out to school districts around the state from the Texas Education Agency, passed on to us by a Friend of Hair Ba ... More >>

Computer Driven

The new HISD credit recovery program matches students with a software program and a coach to get them fast-tracked to graduation.

ISO A Femme Fatale? Jail Babes Has The Hook-Up

​Can't find a match on Match.com? Can't get it in tune on eHarmony? Desperate for a young hottie, but not exactly a catch yourself and unable to fly to Russia for a mail order bride? We've got a dating sight for you: Jailbabes.Jailbabes is just like any other dating site, except all of the women ... More >>

The Search For A Lonely Houston Web Phenom

This is the story of an overweight, lonely, possibly lesbian, cheating, married, Christian and, at the moment, anonymous Houston woman. She was one of 650,000 AOL users whose Internet queries were publicly posted by the company for three days in 2006. By the time AOL removed the data, it was too lat ... More >>

Somehow the Teachers Always Get Blamed

So It's Govt' Money -- Don't Have a COW

Letters to the Editor

Wize Guys

Here's your chance to get rich quick -- or lose your shirt, in which case, GlobalTec disavows all responsibility for, well, anything

Million-Hour Madness

Religious charities discover state welfare reform savings are based in part on their backs

The Blog Age

Matt Mullenweg helps usher in the real information revolution, one Web log at a time

History for Dummies

Neil Bush touts a school curriculum for guys like himself

Devil in the Details

Local government contractor Fred Martinez credits God for his success. His critics cite more earthly forces.

Soul Machine

The Apple II computer: Some still consider it the wizard of Woz

State of the Art

Compaq, then and now

Bad Cash Investments

Byte Me

Music of (Angry) India

The sudden cancellation of a KPFT staple stirs Subcontinental trouble