Verizon Wireless has permeated my life with the relentlessness and negative energy of a repo man.

My accountant the other day said she’s in the market for a new PC and asked if she and her family should upgrade to Windows 8. Having covered PC technology for many years, she thought I might have some insight into into the new operating system.

Verizon Wireless bandwidth and data limitations are punitive and consumer unfriendly.

4G remains 16-18 miles from my home. So I tested it a couple of times as I neared 4G territory closer to Boston…

I keep hearing about how everyone is watching video on their smart phones. Then I try to do it and the experience is, well, awful most of the time. Particularly lately.

Two blue screens of death (BSOD) in as many weeks: Yikes, is it my under a year old HP Desktop? Windows 7? Some of my apps?

Jobs was brilliant, tyrannical, funny, driven and many other things that typify game-changers. He will be endlessly eulogized over coming days and weeks and written about for years and decades. What I can uniquely offer are a few encounters I had with Jobs and the perspective of someone who has covered computers and IT since January, 1980.

The best way to test if companies are using social media is to complain about them.

Ever wonder how much junk a Windows 7 PC picks up in a couple of days?

A CIO friend told me yesterday that his company is considering ditching notebooks and equipping its sales force with iPads. And I have yet to hear from a CIO or IT exec who thinks tablets don’t have a key role to play in the corporate America (my day job is community manager at IDG’sEnterprise CIO Forum).