P. J. Connolly

Hello, my name is P. J. and I’m codephobic. That might be overstating the case, but not by much. You see, I’ve attempted for decades to program in everything from FORTRAN to Perl; with only a few exceptions, I’ve given up about half an hour after “Hello World.” Until recently, I’ve assumed much of the […]

Today is the 100th birthday of IBM, or at least, its predecessor, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. As the company that made the mainframe a corporate staple, and put the PC on the desktops of business around the world, there’s no question that the universe of computing technology revolved around IBM well into the 1990s. [WP_IMAGE] But […]

As you may recall, one of the big beefs I have with Apple’s plans for distributing Mac OS X 10.7 Lion as an online-only upgrade is the pain involved in downloading the software over and over, when one wants to install it on multiple machines. [WP_IMAGE] Apple’s been working on the problem for a while, […]

Billions of Points AutoCAD 2012 allows users to more easily create 3D models of existing buildings and objects with laser scanners, by supporting up to 2 billion scan points in a drawing. Materials Browsing Made Easier Updated materials swatches and better organization of the library make it easier for users to work with materials and […]

Apple began selling unlocked GSM iPhones in its United States retail outlets today; they list at $649 for the 16GB model and $749 for the 32GB model. This is such good news that I’m actually thinking about buying one. [WP_IMAGE] Since the introduction of the original iPhone in 2007, the only way to acquire an […]

Although content management systems are thought of primarily as a tool for media organizations, almost any business will generate enough digital content that managing it inside someone’s head or in a file drawer simply isn’t a good idea. In today’s reading, I came across a discussion on Poynter.org that, although directed at journalists, is an […]

One might be forgiven for thinking that after 25 releases, Autodesk had run out of things to put into its flagship product, AutoCAD. As with many simple assumptions, that simply isn’t the case. The 2012 version of the gold standard in CAD software boasts new features designed to make users more productive, without compromising performance […]

Today, I’m going back to the subject of personal identity, thanks to an author-described “self-indulgent comment” in today’s Register, which, except for a few details, could have be written by me. Here’s my story: Back in the day, there was a service called CompuServe, whose octal-based user addresses were rooted in the Digital PDP systems […]

So, it appears that Windows XP users won’t be able to take advantage of Apple’s iCloud service. This is good news for Microsoft, in a perverse sort of way. That’s because the XP users who want to experience iCloud have two choices: switch to Mac, or upgrade to Windows 7. [WP_IMAGE] There are two reasons […]

With just an hour or so left to go on World IPv6 Day, I have to say, that I’m surprised – and a bit happy – that more fuss hasn’t been made over it. After all, “hassle” has been a big reason why transitioning to IPv6 – which has been “imminent” for the last five […]