Tim Xu

Google Maps has been a very reliable tool since its inception – it’s high utility has made it practically ubiquitous in my car-going life. Today, however, it failed me.
I was driving to Paramus to proctor an SAT Practice Test, so before I left, I wanted to find a McDonald’s on the way so I can [...]

Well, I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve been using Windows 7 Beta 1 for a couple of days now, and I have to say – Microsoft has redeemed itself after Vista. The new features aren’t superfluous, and are really quite useful. Despite the new taskbar being (unsurprisingly) very similar to Mac OS X’s dock, it still works [...]

As printed in my column “Technophiliac” in the Yale Daily News.
The pace of modern life has accelerated with time. As a society, we spend less time sitting down and more time moving from place to place. When we do sit down, it’s most likely in front of a computer. This is especially true for us [...]

As printed in my column “Technophiliac” in the Yale Daily News.

I can count the number of CDs I brought to college on my fingers. Photographs? None. Tapes of old vacations — you’re kidding, right? In this brave new world of digital everything, electronic cousins of these once important physical objects have rendered them relics. The [...]

As printed in my column “Technophiliac” in the Yale Daily News.
I download music illegally. I tried to be legal, to buy my CDs and use the online music stores legally. I want to support the bands whose music I enjoy. But the very thing the music companies use to protect themselves from piracy – Digital [...]

In fact, I name them after Greek Goddesses. My main hard drive is named Astraea, goddess of justice. My flash drive is named Iris, the messenger goddess. My external hard drive is split into two partitions: the Time Machine partition is named Soteria, the goddess of safety and preservation from harm and the storage partition [...]

Microsoft is, arguably, one of the most powerful companies in the world. Its operating systems drive 90% of the world’s PCs and millions of smartphones. Its video game console was the top of the generation for over a year. It’s one of the oldest and arguably most trusted names in home computing. It commands billions [...]