Copywriter, technical writer, translator (FR>EN, ES>EN, IT>EN), journalist

TechnoZen

The sure-footed Mazda CX-5

Driving home from a Christmas party one snowy Saturday night, my girlfriend and I approached a traffic light at the bottom of a valley. The light turned green as we approached, but I still had to brake since the upward slope past the light made the vehicles

Read more

Wacky mobile phone facts

They’re ubiquitous. We take them for granted. But the mobile phone phenomenon supplies all sorts of nutty statistics.

Read more

Distraction-free phones?

Here’s a novel idea: get a smartphone, and remove popular apps from it. Then disable some of the apps that you found on it when you took the phone out of the box.

Read more

Right fit in the Mazda6

I didn’t expect the 2014 Mazda6 GT to roar when I pushed the engine start button, but the quiet that met my ears once I did so left me wondering why it sounded so civilized. It wasn’t hybrid-start quiet, but I expected more of an announcement that the

Read more

One rule to rule them all

Creating email rules can sometimes seem like a complex bit of weaving. Once your list of rules grows lengthy, you might find that emails don’t take on the criteria (proper folder location, category, whether they’re deleted or not and so forth) that you expect. Email rules are

Read more

The stylin' Lincoln MKZ Hybrid

While I appreciate great style in all sorts of matters, from clothes to gadgets to cars, I inevitably choose practicality, even if it trumps style. You can have both – well, almost – in the 2014 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.

Read more

Basic spreadsheet automation

The magic of spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers lies in the automation of repetitive tasks. Most spreadsheet users know about the automation of arithmetic operations, but spreadsheets let you also automate the creation of common lists like sequences of numbers and the names of

Read more

Heritage, then and now, of the Ford Mustang

One fine fall Friday, I backed into my old neighbor Ralph’s driveway and rang his doorbell. He opened his door to see me leaning against the rear fender of a 2014 “gotta-have-it-green” Ford Mustang with the top down. “Wanna go for a spin?” I asked. He quickly

Read more

Sharing a computer

You probably couldn’t imagine sleeping in the bed somebody else slept in just minutes before, or eating off the same plate somebody else just finished with. Yet all sorts of people share computers using the same account. They see other people’s messes on the desktop. They can

Read more

Fun with a shifty Subaru Forester

Little of what I learn about automobiles surprises me. That said, I wouldn’t expect to find paddle shifters in a SUV, compact or otherwise. Yet that’s exactly what I did find in a 2014 Subaru Forester XT. At first I was surprised. Then, I was pleased, and

Read more