Blogcritics Author: Warren Kelly

Book Review: PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit by Geetesh Bajaj and Echo Swinford

Warren Kelly — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 21:02:28 EDT

Improving boring PowerPoint presentations. And yes, you have boring PowerPoint presentations.
Geetesh Bajaj and Echo Swinford are both Microsoft PowerPoint MVPs. Both have written excellent books detailing how to get the most out of PowerPoint. Now they've joined forces to show you how to give your presentations a makeover. PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit contains eight case studies of presentations that need some help. Each...

Book Review: Days of Infamy by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

Warren Kelly — Sun, 8 Jun 2008 06:16:20 EDT

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, things go from bad to worse for the U.S. Navy.
Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have teamed up before; their trilogy of alternate Civil War history was received quite well. In that series, they examined the consequences of a Confederate victory in July 1863, and the outcome of Lee's assault on Washington, D.C. Before that, in the ill-fated 1945, they showed us a world where the Third...

DVD Review: Disney's Minutemen

Warren Kelly — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 13:05:38 EDT

Gonna go BACK IN TIME ... oh, sorry. Wrong teenage time travel movie.
Last Tuesday was the street date for Disney's made for TV movie Minutemen. This is the latest "let's make this kid a star" vehicle for one of Disney's "costars"; this time, it's Cory In The House regular Jason Dolley (Newt Livingston in Cory, Virgil Fox in Minutemen).The plot to Minutemen is pretty simple. High...

DVD Review: Cory In The House: Newt and Improved Edition

Warren Kelly — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:53:45 EDT

Cory is in the House. The White House, that is. And Washinton, DC will NEVER be the same.
This week, Disney released Cory In The House: Newt and Improved Edition. If you haven't seen Cory In The House before, the premise is simple. Chef Victor Baxter goes from obscure chef to White House Chief Chef, and takes son Cory with him. Hijinx ensue, usually tied somehow to Cory's pursuit of profit. And of course, his plans always...

Product Review: Macally's BTCup

Warren Kelly — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:47:10 EDT

Macally's BTCup vs. Griffin's iTrip. Which one makes the grade?
I love my iPod. My wife loves her iPod. We had "issues" when we realized we had two iPods and only one iTrip. So when I heard about Macally's BTCup, I figured it was going to be a problem solver -- wife gets the iTrip, I get the BTCup.The first problem cropped up when I "installed" the BTCup. I put the quotes there...

Book Review: Codex 632 by Jose Rodrigues dos Santos

Warren Kelly — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:17:37 EDT

Just who was Christopher Columbus? The answer may surprise you, if you get that far in this book.
Who was Christopher Columbus? Was he Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, or something else entirely? Commoner or royalty? Christian or Jew? There's more controversy and discussion of these topics than most people know about - I adore historic controversy, and I had no idea about a lot of these theories. Dos Santos has written a novel that asks all these...

Book Review: Founding Faith by Steven Waldman

Warren Kelly — Mon, 5 May 2008 22:47:49 EDT

Where did the American idea of religious tolerance come from? An unexpected source.
Steven Waldman is uniquely qualified to write a book like Founding Faith. As editor-in-chief for Beliefnet.com, Waldman has interacted with a variety of people with a variety of religious traditions. He's seen religious diversity in action, and in Founding Faith, he explores where that diversity comes from, and in the process takes on the...

Book Review: Cutting Edge PowerPoint 2007 For Dummies by Geetesh Bajaj

Warren Kelly — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:58:15 EDT

Kick your PowerPoint up a few notches with these Cutting Edge tips and tricks.
About two years ago, I reviewed Geetesh Bajaj's book Cutting Edge Power Point For Dummies. Since then, PowerPoint has gotten a facelift, so Bajaj has re-issued his book, with additional content specific for PowerPoint 2007.The biggest change in PowerPoint is the user interface, and that's where Bajaj starts off. The ribbon is a new look for...

Book Review: In Search of Molly Pitcher by Linda Grant DePauw

Warren Kelly — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:59:47 EDT

Who was Molly Pitcher? WAS there a Molly Pitcher?
In In Search of Molly Pitcher, Linda Grant DePauw tells us the story of Peggy McAllister, an 8th grader who is obsessed with academic achievement. When she finds out about the Rattletop Award, given annually for excellence in social studies, she knows that she must win it as the culmination of her middle school career. The requirement: a research...

Book Review: Switching to the Mac - The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition by David Pogue

Warren Kelly — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 14:46:16 EDT

Come to the dark side, young Windows user...
More and more people are making the move from Windows-based PCs to Macs. Security issues, virus scares, problems with Vista - you name it, everyone has a reason to turn their backs on Windows, and for many people Linux isn't the answer just yet. So they turn to Apple.I've actually contemplated the move, even though I'm not running Vista...