Stories by Mark Gibbs

Revisiting RDP, discovering ReactOS, and finding Mindjet

A second look at Microsoft's RDP client, considers a replacement for Windows XP, and delves into "Mind Mapping"

Analysis: Microsoft - Too old and too big to survive?

What browser do you prefer? According to w3schools.com, which tracks browser usage of people interested in Web technologies and hence more likely to try alternative tools, as of April this year, 38.3 per cent of us preferred Google's Chrome, 35.8 per cent went with Mozilla's Firefox, and 18.3 per cent were still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (Apple's Safari and Opera were trailing way behind). Over the last year IE and Firefox have seen their shares decrease and only Chrome has gained share.

An OS for the home and cool Kickstarter projects

This week we start with something that has both intrigued and amused me: Microsoft Research has a new operating system in the works targeted at home automation called, with glaring dullness, HomeOS.

Cool hacks: DIY cellphones and a magic trackpad rethink

There's something of the hacker in all IT people ... there has to be because you spend so much of your time figuring out how things work and how to fix said things when they break (which is usually far too often).

Thwarting employers asking for Facebook access

If your employer or a potential employer asked you to hand over the keys to your house so they could search your possessions looking for something unspecified, I suspect you would be a little surprised and not a little outraged. Well, over the last few months there has been a significant number of reports of employers and colleges doing the digital equivalent of asking for your house keys by requesting Facebook passwords from employees, applicants and students.

An RDP client and a Smartphone 'Copter

Ah, what a week it's been. Ravelling the unravelled and fixing stuff I thought was fixed.

The government wants to know what it doesn't know

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Google AROUND, network scanning, and pinging with TCP

We start this week with a real geek out: If you have ever had to weigh the benefits and tradeoffs of Apache as an application server (for example, using Tomcat vs. node.js ("a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications"), then you absolutely have to watch "Node.js Is Bad Ass Rock Star Tech" (it's NSFW -- bad words). Make sure you watch all of it ... the end is great!

Opinion: Microsoft, instead of turning the lights off on XP, make it open source

To state the obvious,, Microsoft is hugely important economically and culturally, and as Peter Parker (AKA Spiderman) was told by his grandfather: "With great power comes great responsibility." (Actually Voltaire said it first but he said it in French so that doesn't count.)

Two tools; One stable, one not

If you should have, as many of us do, a love-hate relationship with the PHP programming language but have yet to fully articulate what you don't like about it, then you need to read "PHP: a fractal of bad design" by "Eevee" who describes himself as "just some guy who loves hacking." An outstanding, exhaustive and exhausting rant!

Good Enough IT -- better than Old Skool perfect

Are you one of the Old Skool types to whom detail and quality really matter? Where you strive for (and maybe rave about) the need for standards and are appalled by sloppiness?

Five geek projects

At the end of last week I slipped on a wet floor, did a wild, balletic (or so I thought) attempt to recover, and wrenched my knee and leg. The next four days were a blur of X-rays and Vicodin. Luckily nothing broken, but I've had better weekends.

The Lytro camera: Too little for too much

My editor will be glad to know that this week, in contrast to the last few Gearhead columns I will not be discussing AT&T, ADSL (+ or otherwise), or Motorola DSL modems.

Broadband infrastructure: Time for real policy

I'm late filing this column. Why? It's my AT&T U-Verse DSL connection again. Make that "yet again." I've been struggling with it all day.

Linksys Powerline connections: Wired without wires

Last week here in Gearhead I discussed my ongoing saga of trying to get decent IP DSL service from AT&T U-Verse.