Category Archives: Computer

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Posted on February 26, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

In the last item on today’s ‘Best of the Web Today’ column in the Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal, the writer draws attention to a gaffe by the US Vice President in which he made reference to ‘a website number’. … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, General Tech | Leave a comment

Old Fashioned. Moi?

Posted on June 27, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

The other day, rather than regale my long-suffering family with yet another public policy rant, I knocked off an oped on a matter of high tech that has, unfortunately, become a political football. After shopping it around for a while, … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Computer | Leave a comment

A little bit of history

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I rarely toss out old stuff that I’ve written. I have on the next to me, for example, photocopies of all my police notebooks from 1979 to 1985, and just about everything else I’ve written since. The same is true … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Value | Leave a comment

iPod weirdness

Posted on April 13, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Since home theatre receivers are now coming thick and fast with bridges for Apple iPods (Gen 3 and later), Apple has kindly lent me a very fancy iPod indeed. It does video, has a 60GB hard disk and so on. … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Computer, Portable | Leave a comment

The History of the Internet according to, ahem, me

Posted on August 30, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

For some years I’ve been writing for the magazine Geare, usually just reviews of the assorted bits and pieces that I review. I was always a bit ambivalent about it because Geare is one of those ‘guys’ magazines, in which … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, How Things Work | Leave a comment

Dual Layer DVD recording about to arrive

Posted on April 1, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

I had a long lunch yesterday with Gordon Kerr, Sony Australia‘s Group Sales and Marketing Manager for Recording Media, Energy and Optical. The main focus was on the new dual layer DVD recording format, but our discussions turned out to … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, DVD, Equipment, Recorders | Leave a comment

The Economic way of looking at things

Posted on February 13, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

David Friedman, a scholar in law and economics, has published several fascinating books over the years including one of my favourites: The Machinery of Freedom. His latest (next?) book, Future Imperfect, is available on the Web in draft form, complete … Continue reading →

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CD Copy Protection Woes

Posted on September 3, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Ian writes: I’ve just read your article on copy-protected CDs and I must say it was a very interesting read. I received the Robbie Williams album today but am having problems ripping the tracks to mp3. I have always used … Continue reading →

Posted in CD, Computer, Copyright | Leave a comment

S/PDIF Misconception

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

A couple of nights ago I installed CyberLink’s new PowerDVD 5 Deluxe. Good stuff — with some worthwhile improvements over version 4.0, particularly software DTS decoding (this was previously an optional extra). But I couldn’t work out this ’24/96 LPCM Direct Output’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Computer | Leave a comment