MAC-address analysis  Tags: networking, computers, hardware.
First, a few things you need to know about MAC addresses: When a NIC (Network Interface Card) is manufactured, it is given (issued) a globally unique MAC address. Don't rely on their uniqueness though because users easily can modify them. A MAC address is 48 bits in size (12 characters hexadecimal, as you probably know them), and they are divided up into two halves: the first and the second half! Hard stuff, I know.

The first half is the "OUI" (like the French word for "yes" while forgetting to release caps-lock).

Define: The cloud  Tags: webdevelopment, computers, networking.
According to Wikipedia, this is the definition of "Cloud Computing". The new kid on the block, something overhyped that nobody understands.
"Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet)."

(Note that SaaS is a known term among both IT people

Pure magic: rebooting  Tags: Windows, computers.
So you got a really weird problem, every diagnostic you run is positive but the function just won't work. You tried about everything there is to try, but the mad girlfriend bug persists.

I had this today with the sound on my mother's laptop. The sound device was enabled, working fine it said, the Windows Audio service was started, the volume was at 80% and not muted, and it even showed the volume on the volume bar when it was supposed to play.

Authorative technology  Tags: computers.
This is a translation from a Dutch opinion article by Christian Jongeneel, published in 'De Ingenieur' (The Engineer) on October 28th 2011.

---

Once, I owned an Apple IIcx, a payment in kind of a befriended editorial, who had purchased a new one. Back then you were tied to an Apple if you wanted to design a magazine. I used it for my volunteersmagazine. It was a nice machine, it came with a big screen, which I could júst lift on my own.

Just like my PC the Apple crashed regularly.

Windows installation with narrator  Tags: windows, computers.
Installing Windows, or any other Operating System for that matter, is often a bit boring. You can't do what you want on the system until it's completed, time between steps is often a bit long but also too short to really go do something else, etc.
I said to someone as a joke I would not attach a screen or mouse and do everything by keyboard blindly. That would have been easy once in Windows, but the installation is always a bit different and I do it like five times every year so I don't know that by heart.
So I didn't think it would actually be possible, but if I had looked up a screenshot of the first one or two setup screens I would have.