I prefer testing software under dispassionate circumstances, but today's review of Recuva was performed with beads of sweat running down my forehead: My photos were missing! Could Recuva get them back?

BumpTop is an alternative desktop that aims at adding functionality and fun to the Windows experience. While it succeeds on many levels, I won't be using it on my workhorse PC.

Drupal 6 Themes from Packt Press by Ric Shreves is a remarkably disappointing book.

Many authors have tackled explaining the programming and configuration of Drupal websites, but this is the first book dedicated to teaching users how to make Drupal 6 look and feel like their own.

Out of the box, Drupal is an amazing website creation package; it has features that would take years to “reinvent” if you tried to work from scratch. From a technical, back-end , programmer’s point of view it inspires admiration.

When I put my artistic, designer’s hat on, though, Drupal can leave me nearly in tears. Though version 6 radically simplified and improved the design process over the previous edition, learning to skin a dynamically generated Drupal site is still an order of magnitude harder than designing a static web page. Though it is possible, for example, to use Dreamweaver in parts of the Drupal design process, ultimately your snippets of code and css stylesheets are going to need to be channeled to many different locations that on the site that are not readily viewable in a WYSIWYG environment.

In other words, to effectively give a Drupal site a makeover you need to know everything you’d need to do to design a regular website, plus a wealth of information about the “how” and “where” Drupal needs you to follow to get your vision integrated into its content management system. From a technical point of view, the way Drupal gives granular control of the design process without the need to hack the core code is an engineering marvel. Harnessing that power, particularly given the state of the online documentation is challenging.

It is for that reason that, even after working with Drupal for over a year, I looked forward to Ric Shreves Drupal 6 Themes. It is also why I am so profoundly disappointed by this ill-conceived book.

What is Drupal? Why is Drupal? How do you Drupal? You'll find these answers and more in Using Drupal by Angela Byron and others from O'Reilly.

I've been very busy, in the best sense of the word, building a new computer based on the EVGA X58 motherboard. It's the first system I've built in some time, and I thought I'd give Vista SP1 a try. The experiment has lasted less than a month. I'm sorry Microsoft, the lack of an up button in Windows Explorer is a deal breaker and it will probably keep me from upgrading to Windows 7 as well.

Nothing has made me long for the end of winter like my first glimpse of Jakks Pacific's new line of Star Wars 3-D Kites at this month's Toy Fair. Bigger than any other Star Wars toy vehicles (except my 7' long display models that used to hang at Toys R Us) these would be fun to play with on the ground, or hung from a ceiling. But, these really fly!

Steampunk, you ask?  Ever seen the Enterprise sporting propellers?

Taking a cue from Scaled Composites static display roll outs of its spaceships, Tyco rolled out full sized prototypes of the new remote controlled Star Trek spaceships today at New York’s Toy Fair.

At a preview of what is to come at the 2009 Toy Fair, Mattel showed off a high tech toy that prints fashion designs right on little girls finger nails.  Featuring more hi-tech bells and whistles than many printers, the new toy is something of a technological marvel.  Here's how it works:

On December 8, 2008 I showed off some great family friendly hi-tech gadgets and games for the holidays on the Today Show. To view the segment click here.

(Microsoft $69.99) Lips is Microsoft's attempt to go head-to-head with Sony's karaoke SingStar franchise.

If you've ever played any game on the strongly masculine styled Xbox 360 you're going to give Lips a double-take. The look and feel here screams "casual"; it almost feels like you're playing on a Nintendo game. You'll probably know right away whether this game is for you by looking at the artists: Duffy, Coldplay, Johnny Cash, and John Denver. For sure, this isn't your teen-son's Rock Band.