Digital Bits Technology Column

“Jane Fonda.” What pops into your head when you hear the name? Some remember odd cult classic movies like Barbarella. Or there’s “Jane Fonda’s Workout Challenge”, where Jane brings us back to big bold 1983, a magical time when you couldn’t do any kind of physical workout without a leotard, bright white shoes, a big […]

Converting audio cassette tapes to CD, MP3 and other digital formats

See more Audacity questions and answers at the Audacity Q&A. My parents recently redecorated a room in their house. While cleaning up, they found a cassette tape wedged in a back corner, covered in thick layers of time and memory. Just looking at it, you could tell it was old: The label, originally red and […]

DIY Wallace and Gromit: How to make free stop motion animated movies

You love Wallace and Gromit. You’ve seen their adventures about runaway “techno-trousers” piloted by evil penguins. You know the real cause of the mutilated vegetables in “Curse of the Were-Rabbit”. And you want to do it too, don’t you? Admit it, even the least creative of us yearns to be a Nick Park, creating lovable […]

Free language translation tools (sorry, no Klingon)

About one third of Internet websites are written in English. Running down the popularity list, we also see sites written in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and German. You want to keep up on foreign news, but don’t know how to translate the Spanish La Nacion to English. You want to impress your new Russian coworker with notes in […]

RFID, Radio Frequency Identification: It’s here whether you want it or not

You’re Christmas shopping, months late, squeezing through packed stores full of cash-wielding consumers, slavering to buy, buy and buy some more. Having paid oddly high “sale” prices, you’re walking out of the store when an alarm goes off. A hundred shoppers fall silent and turn Yule-filled gazes your way. A store worker re-scans one of […]

Use secure file deletion software before donating or selling computers

You’re driving your car, and an oncoming vehicle splashes mud on your windshield. The glop of mud looks remarkably like Abe Lincoln. (Lincoln with mud all over his face, of course.) You run the wipers and see you’re out of washer fluid. Mud smears. Honest Abe is almost unrecognizable. You see a little remaining of […]

Encode, play and compress video movies for playback on handheld Pocket PC and Palm devices

You’ve spent buckets of money on your jazzy cellphone. With email, calendar, digital camera, e-book reader and web browsing, who needs more? Rarely getting out of bed, you work so well with your handheld device, it’s a productivity Swiss Army Knife. But you’ve been working too hard. Relax the right way. Not with fads like […]

Sleeptracker watch review: Waking up is hard to do

I have the honor to be the parent of a beautiful baby girl. She’s happy, healthy and truly everything this parent wants. …Except when she wakes me up while I’m sleeping. During the night, just when my wife and I have slid into a cozy, all-encompassing, deep sleep, where the body relaxes like an overboiled […]

Build your own robot with Vex Robotics

Erector sets have gone electric: The Vex Robotics Starter Kit gives you over 500 pieces of robotic fun, including motors, gears, wheels and hardware. Throw in some batteries, turn on the radio transmitter, and take control. Build your own robot The Vex Robotics kit allows you to design and build robots from scratch. It’s for […]

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Exercise video games: StepMania and Dance Dance Revolution