I am planning to give my daughter my old laptop for her birthday. It's a two year old MacBook that I have completely filled up. When it's all cleaned up from my files and programs, it will be perfect for her. Her only worry is that she is so used to a Windows machine, she won't be able to use a Mac.

We're all running here and there to conferences and meetups–not the least of which are the upcoming BlogHer conferences. Traveling, traveling . . . but in a high-tech, gadget-happy world, what do you pack? What do you leave at home?

RT @SisterDiane: Okay, here's the plan: Maker Faire becomes some kind of permanent geek village, and we all go live there together. You in?

The summer solstice puts the actual season a few weeks away, but the May and June proliferation of graduations, weddings, beach trips and barbecues mean summertime even if the calendar hasn't yet caught up. Since so many events often mean much capturing of memories on memory cards (and film? Yes, please?), it seems like a good time to make a little list of Ten Entirely Subjective Commandments for Successful Summer Photography. Let's shoot, shall we? (Sorry.)

Human have look to the stars for freedom, faith, wishes and destiny. It is in our fiction and our non-fictional tales of survival. May 2009 has a been a great month for star gazing and thoughts about galaxies beyond sight. And no, I’m not referring to a certain Paramount movie franchise reboot. 

I read a lot, but I don't buy a lot of books. I get books at the library. I buy magazines and newspapers, but only the occasional book. The other day I grabbed a book at the library called Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott because of this sentence on the inside flap of the cover: "The bottom line is this: if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future."

Some people read the dictionary for fun. I read the BlogHer blog lists for fun. When I see an unfamiliar name, I like to check it out and see what I'm missing. I often find blogs that are too good to miss ever again.

There are two definitions of "rights" in this discussion. The first is copyright, the control of intellectual property. That's the author rights. The other is the right to equal access to information. That's the disability rights part of the issue.

Do you "feel" your age? What's your age suppose to feel like anyway? I'm not sure how I am suppose to be feeling at forty-something, but I am feeling more and more like I'm "looking" my age. The thing is...I don't care enough about how I look to ever go under the knife and have plastic surgery, but I do care enough to wonder about other ways I might be able to maintain a youthful appearance as the years tick by.

The one thing everyone agrees on about preparing for the BlogHer Conference is this: You must have business cards. Those business cards end up being your billboard for the weekend. They tout your brand, blog URLs, e-mail addresses, Twitter sign, and anything else you can squeeze onto the 3x5 inch surface (unless you have those tiny Moo cards--then you have even less real estate to work with). Enter Poken, the new tech gadget that allows you to store your information on a cute little thumb drive and share information with others via the High Four. It virtually eliminates the need for traditional cards. Or does it?

It was a completely different Auto Show atmosphere in Detroit this week than it was at November's Los Angeles Auto Show,  and we're not talking about the weather.

New blog, new software, new gadget—what do you do when you can't get it working right or can't find the answer in the manual? Or maybe you found the answer in the manual but it just doesn't make sense. I turn to the Internet, as I'm sure many of you do. There are sites dedicated to providing tips on most topics. Here are a few good places to start looking. Of course, you can just go to Google or Yahoo! and search for answers. But if you know there's a good site on your topic, why not start there first? If you don't find what you need, then search.