The Science Elf

Ever want to take Windows XP (or any version of Windows, really) with you wherever you go? Maybe you'd rather use XP than the OS installed on a public computer. Maybe you just want to prank your friends and watch as their computer boots into a 16 year old OS. Whatever the case, today I'm going to show you how to create a bootable flash drive that will launch Windows XP in a virtual machine on (almost) any computer you plug it into.

It's pretty easy to take the search engine Google for granted today, but twenty years ago, there was no such thing. In fact, for well over a decade before Google, search engines were crawling, indexing and searching.

More and more products seem to come out that make use of some form of a computer text-to-speech voice, with today's voices sounding acceptably realistic. Even though speech-based products are fairly recent, the concept of electronically generating a voice has been around for nearly a century.

Even though many of the computers in my collection are hard to find, or no longer manufactured, only one can claim the title of being the only one of its kind to be made.

Snapchat, the popular image sharing social media platform, has only been around for a few years, but the technology to digitally take a photo and send it has existed for at least thirty years.

Happy 65k everyone!

In a recent video, I managed to get an image from my camera all the way onto my Apple iiGS. I also promised I'd outline the process, so, here ya go.

Back before smartphones were ubiquitous in terms of portable computing, another device was popular. This week, we take a look at the HP iPaq h2215, a Windows Mobile PocketPC from 2003. Stay tuned for next time for a demonstration of some of the hardware peripherals this thing can use.

Last week, I looked at the iPaq h2215, a PocketPC from 2003. This week, we're taking a look at some addons for the PocketPC: -HP Photosmart Mobile Camera -Pharos iGPS -Nevo (Remote control software)

Today, in the final installment of PocketPC Month, we take a look at the Microsoft MiPad, an experimental product from the early 2000s sort of like a proto-Siri, as well as Microsoft Voice Command, the actual product to eventually release from the MiPad research.

Few people know that Java, the worlds most popular programming language, the one that powers smartphone apps and Mars rovers alike, was the result of a project to build a better TV remote.

A long time ago I made a video on Clippy, the nearly universally hated paperclip from Microsoft Office. I figured now was a good time for an update.

What can you do when you're a kid with a crappy computer and no money to spend on games? Download free trials of course! This week, I'm taking a look at a childhood favorite: Bricks of Egypt.

While the popular macOS sees updates nearly annually now, there was a time where Apple struggled for years to get a major update out.

Windows ME is easily one of the most derided versions of Windows, but few seem to realize just how much influence it had over versions of Windows following it.

This week we take a look at the Gateway Profile 5.5, one of many interesting All-In-One designs of the early 2000s.

Last time, we looked at the Gateway Profile 5.5, an "ugly" yet interesting All-In-One computer. Now, we're trying out a few different operating systems to see which ones the Profile can run.

In this New Year's episode, we take a look at the Y2K bug, a programming mistake that threatened to crash all the world's computers as they ticked over from 1999 to the year 2000.