The Apple Mac Pro (Xeon E5620) might be overkill compared to with some of its workstation rivals and all-in-one alternatives, but it's still a worthy addition to your art/scientific/entertainment company's arsenal of number-crunching weapons.

The Canon PowerShot SX210 is a no-nonsense camera that packs a long 14x optical-zoom lens into a small body. But this camera doesn't excel in low light, and images show some color fringing.

The pocket-size Fujifilm FinePix F80EXR gives you enough zoom to get close to the action, and it takes some pretty impressive photos, but the user interface on this camera needs a serious overhaul.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is the most expensive pocket superzoom of the pack, but it does deliver solid shots, even in low light, along with a handsome feature set for the discerning photographer.

Samsung packs a lot of fun features and a 15x zoom lens into its HZ35W, but noisy images hold this pocket camera back.

The easy, fast, and feature-packed way to control your PC or Mac from afar.

Panda Antivirus Pro 2011 uses many techniques to keep viruses and other malware from invading your PC. As a bonus, it includes a fully functional two-way personal firewall.

Netgear's WNDAP350 Access Point is a must for small businesses looking to affordably expand their wireless networks.

Thumbplay offers the highest quality sound of any music subscription service on Android, but a few drawbacks like drab design and the lack of a queue keep it from the number one spot.

While you can get more zoom in a same-size camera from competitors, Sony makes up for it with a wealth of innovative features and clever in-camera software in the Cyber-Shot DSC-HX5V.

The HP ProBook 4225s came through on certain business-friendly features, but underwhelmed in processor and battery performance.

Logitech's THX-certified, 2.1-channel Speaker System Z623 pumps out powerful, sweet-sounding PC audio at a nice price.

With the NewSoft Presto! BizCard Reader 6 and a laptop, you can scan business cards on the go almost as quickly as you collect them.

If you're seriously into browsing and discovering new shows, the TiVo Slide remote will be a welcome, albeit pricey, addition to your TV experience.

The latest edition's improvements aren't revolutionary, but the Amazon Kindle remains the best dedicated ebook reader on the market.

The HP Pavilion dv7-4083cl desktop replacement laptop shines at home and on the road.

The Pantech Jest is one of the worst phones we've tested recently on Verizon; only its compact design and usable QWERTY keyboard save it from oblivion.

The HP PhotoSmart e-All-in-One lets you print a file by sending an e-mail from anywhere and without installing a driver.

The Razer Abyssus Mirror claims to get back to the basics, but goes back a bit too far while costing more than its competitors.

The Sharp FX features an internal broadcast TV tuner, a touch screen, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but it's a poor, buggy performer in practice.

With its stowaway receiver, mobility and comfortable design, the diminutive Logitech Wireless Mouse M305 nearly takes the cake in the ultraportable mouse category.

The AVADirect Custom Gaming PC is one of those technological terrors that exists only to smoke benchmark tests and humiliate rivals on the game grid.

If you need an easy way to control a PC or PC remotely, LogMeIn is a decent choice.

Free, and full of features, this boot-management software is an essential for any advanced Windows user.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T410s is hands down the lightest 14-inch business laptop in the market.

The Zend Framework team announces the immediate availability of Zend Framework 1.10.8 , our eighth maintenance release in the 1.10 series. This release includes around 22 bug fixes. A special reminder to those users of Zend_Service_Twitter , please ensure you upgrade to 1.10.6, 1.10.7, or 1.10.8 ASAP. These releases introduce a change in the Zend_Service_Twitter API that enforces the use of OAuth by default when using methods that require authentication. The change was introduced to help prepare Zend Framework users for the Twitter OAuthcalypse scheduled in 6 days from now on August 31, 2010 . (If you cannot upgrade, there are other ways to integrate Zend_Oauth with Zend_Service_Twitter .)

My latest book on Git, Pragmatic Guide to Git goes on sale today! I'm really excited about this new book. It's the culmination of a year's worth of work on an entirely new format for Pragmatic Bookshelf.

From today's announcement:

Last summer, Pragmatic author Travis Swicegood proposed a new kind of book covering the popular version control system, Git. We thought it was a good idea–so much so that we've launched a whole new series in this format. Check out the details on the series below, as well as Travis' new book, Pragmatic Guide to Git, now available in beta.

Having a good idea is cool. Having a good idea that you can get other people excited about too is even better. I thought I was onto something interesting when I pitched the idea to Prag, and so did everyone else there. A year later and here we are with an entire new series lined up.

Here's the quick description of the new book:

Need to learn how to wrap your head around Git, but don't need a lot of hand holding? Grab this book if you're new to Git, not to the world of programming. Git tasks displayed on two-page spreads provide all the context you need, without the extra fluff.

Article originally from rooJSolutions blog After what seems like forever in design and migration, I've turned on the roojs.com and roojs.org domains, I'm slowly in the process phasing out my old company name - AK BK Consulting, which is now rooJSolutions

David McCandless gave an excellent TED talk on visualization of data. The take-away quote from this was:

Data is the new soil

I love that line. Data gives rise to new ways of understanding something. Presenting something spatially gives you the ability to put it in context more quickly than trying to explain the context.

Take 20 minutes, this video is well worth the time investment:

Zend Framework extension, which provides classes for using and implementing Gravatar's services and features. It consists of HTTP client for performing Gravatar Profile Requests, client for Gravatar XML - RPC API and view helper for rendering Gravatar image URL s.