Reviews

The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

by Doc Coleman - Nifty Tech Editor June 6, 2012 Personal Stamp
Thumbnail image for The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

Fastens your seat belts, folks, this one is one hell of a ride.

If you read last year’s review of Phoenix Rising, you probably either already know what I’m about to say, or you’re already nose deep into the book and not reading this review. For those of you who are coming late into the game, or just enjoy reading my reviews, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris are at it again! On May 29th, 2012, Harper Voyager released their second Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, The Janus Affair.  Once again, Wellington Thornhill Books, and Eliza D. Braun have emerged from the Archives of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences to uncover a dastardly plot that endangers Queen Victoria’s England, and possibly the rest of the world.

This is a preview of The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel. Read the full post (477 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Philippa Ballantine, Tee Morris, The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

0 comments

Free Will (and other compulsions), Book 2 of the Antithesis Progression

by Doc Coleman - Nifty Tech Editor April 4, 2012 Personal Stamp
Thumbnail image for Free Will (and other compulsions), Book 2 of the Antithesis Progression

Once more, I’m visiting the Time Waster’s category, providing a new review with my personal stamp on ways you can fill up that excess personal time you have from using the Nifty Tech reviewed on these pages.

Free Will (and other compulsions) is the second book in J. Daniel Sawyer’s Antithesis Progression series, which manages to combine science fiction and noir elements into a fascinating future setting. The first book in the series is Predestination (and other games of chance). If you’ve read Predestination and enjoyed it, you’re sure to want to pick up Free Will, and no doubt look forward to the next time J. Daniel Sawyer publishes a book with a short title (and a long and contradictory subtitle). At the time of this writing, Free Will is only available in electronic formats, but is available for Kindle, Nook, and a variety of other formats via Smashwords.

This is a preview of Free Will (and other compulsions), Book 2 of the Antithesis Progression. Read the full post (652 words, 1 image, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Free Will, J. Daniel Sawyer

0 comments

WordPress

by Doc Coleman - Nifty Tech Editor February 14, 2012 Service
Thumbnail image for WordPress

One of the hallmarks of Nifty Tech is the fact that it takes work off of your hands. As a result, one very easily begins to take it for granted. The tech blends into the background, and instead you focus on just getting things done. This week I’m going to be looking at a piece of tech that I’ve been taking for granted for a while. This may not be useful for many, but for some of you, it could be very interesting, indeed. Today, we’re looking at WordPress.

This is a preview of WordPress. Read the full post (1165 words, 8 images, estimated 4:40 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Wordpress

4 comments

Apple TV

by Doc Coleman - Nifty Tech Editor January 17, 2012 Featured
Thumbnail image for Apple TV

This is a review that I’ve planned to do for a long time. It seems like each time I get geared up to do this review, the manufacturer changes something about the product and sets me back to square one. Which means that I’m trying to do a review of a very good, unsung piece of hardware and software, and then they do something that just makes it better. Darn them!

This is a preview of Apple TV. Read the full post (1177 words, 5 images, estimated 4:42 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Apple, Apple TV

11 comments

EEE Pad Transformer

by Scott Roche September 26, 2011 Android
Thumbnail image for EEE Pad Transformer

I’ve been wanting a tablet for a long, looonnnnng time. To tell you the truth, apart from the coolness factor, I couldn’t tell you why, but I was told to get whatever I wanted for my birthday. My Mom had planned on throwing me a big party, and that hadn’t materialized. So, she gave me the money she would have spent. Now was my time to decide. So what did I chose and why? The former should be answered by the title of this review. The later is a much larger answer.

I could have gotten the bottom end of the iPad range with the money I had. I thought about it though, and the iPad is still a flawed device in my opinion. As sexy as it is, a lack of Flash support, internal SD card support, and dual cameras – in the model I would have gotten – are all major short-comings.

This is a preview of EEE Pad Transformer. Read the full post (966 words, 4 images, estimated 3:52 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Android, EEE Pad Transformer

5 comments

Ghost Ship

by Doc Coleman - Nifty Tech Editor August 18, 2011 Personal Stamp
Thumbnail image for Ghost Ship

Summer this year has interrupted the normal flow of things here at The Nifty Tech Blog. While we haven’t been giving you the normal flow of content, that doesn’t mean that we have been completely idle. Unfortunately, we have put a bit of time into researching some tech that didn’t measure up to or standards, but really wasn’t bad enough to rant about. And Scott and I have both had work and family issues to deal with. But sometimes you come across something that is review-worthy even when you’re not looking for it. In this case, I feel like I just have to share some of my summertime reading with you. I recently finished reading Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. This is one of their Liaden Universe novels and it holds a special place in the collection. It is the third book in one series and the 8th book in another series, and… it’s kind of complicated.

This is a preview of Ghost Ship. Read the full post (740 words, 4 images, estimated 2:58 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Ghost Ship, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller

0 comments

Google Docs Wrap Up

by Scott Roche June 20, 2011 Service
Thumbnail image for Google Docs Wrap Up

I hope you enjoyed the last two reviews of Google Docs. There’s a lot more to this service/software and I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface. For the features remaining, the song largely remains the same, but I feel like a good wrap up is in order.

As a clone to presentation software like Power Point or Keynote, Google offers up Presentation. I know, the name says is all. Google didn’t spend any time coming up with a snazzy title for any of these tools. They just work. As with Documents, Spreadsheets, and Forms, you have the ability to easily share and embed your content. If you already have a Powerpoint presentation created, it’s easy to upload and convert it to a Google Docs format and vice versa. Any Presentation can be downloaded as a Powerpoint, a PDF, or text.

This is a preview of Google Docs Wrap Up. Read the full post (522 words, 3 images, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Google Docs

0 comments

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

by Doc Coleman - Nifty Tech Editor June 19, 2011 Personal Stamp
Thumbnail image for Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

This review is the first in a new series of reviews. I’ve been planning to do this for a while. It has just taken some time to find the right thing to review and time to review it. You might notice that this review is in the category “Time Wasters”.  That doesn’t mean that things in this category are a waste of time. While the rest of the reviews on The Nifty Tech Blog are aimed at productivity, reviews in this category are for ways to occupy the leisure time you’ll have after using all the other products we’ve recommended.

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel is the first novel from Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris writing together. They take us back to the age of Queen Victoria, and give us a view of a secret organization in Her Majesty’s government. This clandestine organization, the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, deals with the strange, the bizarre, and those things best not talked about in polite society. Agents of the Ministry travel the world investigating these strange and unusual events, and returning dangerous artifacts to Mother England where they can be safely stored away from dangerous hands.

This is a preview of Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel. Read the full post (443 words, 2 images, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Philippa Ballantine, Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Tee Morris

1 comment

Waze

by Doc Coleman - Nifty Tech Editor June 6, 2011 Android
Thumbnail image for Waze

For some time now, we’ve been looking at different turn by turn navigation apps. We’ve seen a number of them that were pretty good, but costly, some that were decent, but free, and even a few that were very useful, but required an annual subscription. The big problem with turn by turn apps has been traffic. Add some traffic problems and the best GPS can become worthless, unless it can route you around the traffic. As a general rule, a dedicated GPS tends to do a better job, but there are times when your dedicated GPS fails or isn’t available. Having an app on your smart phone can make the difference between getting there and getting lost. While Waze isn’t perfect, it does have an innovative take on managing the traffic issue that we think makes it worth the look.

This is a preview of Waze. Read the full post (1184 words, 9 images, estimated 4:44 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Waze

5 comments

Google Docs: Number Crunching

by Scott Roche May 23, 2011 Service
Thumbnail image for Google Docs: Number Crunching

I will admit it, I’m not a power spreadsheet user. I was an English geek in high school and college. I was never into numbers or databases. I did learn a thing or two about them after college when I took some computer programming classes in order to find a real job, so I got to learn more about them than I ever thought possible. That might just make me an ideal user for Google Docs’ spreadsheet feature.

This is a preview of Google Docs: Number Crunching. Read the full post (451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Tagged as: Google Docs

4 comments

← Previous Entries