I know there are a zillion smartphone / cellphone applications that find food near you, but what if I only have a laptop and need to find something nearby? For example, what's the best way to find the closest pizza if I don't know my current address?

I heard from a friend that Google's going to be shutting down Picasa because of Google Plus and I'm kind of freaking out: I have hundreds of photos on the site and no idea how to save them from vanishing when they pull the plug. Help!

Thanks for your earlier tutorial on how to upload images to Pinterest [ see: tutorial on how to upload Pinterest pictures or photos ] but I'm confused because some of my friends seem to be able to add photos and images to their Pinterest boards that actually click through to their sites, but I can't find the "link to" information when I'm uploading. What's the secret?

Another question about the built-in Mac spell dictionary. (I did read the previous question How can I forget or edit a learned word in the Mac spelling dictionary?)

Under User>Library>Spelling> I have both LocalDictionary and en.

What is the relationship between these two? Adding a great number of specialized, technical words one at a time as they appear in my writing is taking a lot of time. Is there a way to add a great number of (specialized) words to one of these?

I'm a big fan of Pinterest [ I am too, you can find AskDaveTaylor on Pinterest as d1taylor -- Ed ] and recently noticed that some of my friends are having their Pinterest activities show up on their Facebook timeline. Nice. I want. How do I hook up Pinterest to Facebook and vice versa?

Every time I go to Amazon.com I see that the Kindle version of a book I want to buy is less expensive than the print edition. Coupled with it being more environmentally friendly (no shipping, no printing, no hassle with it taking up space on my shelf) I'd like to switch over. But I don't want to buy an actual Kindle device. Is there a way to read Kindle ebooks on my Mac or PC system?

I've started using the Voice Memos app on my new Apple iPhone 4s and it's simple and darn useful. But if I want to share it with a friend or save it on my computer, how do I copy the voice memo recording from the cell phone?

Hello Dave. I need a Bash shell script that creates a directories with the group names automatically when user logs in to the system, in their home directory.

For example, user "sandy" might have the following set of groups from the 'id' command:

uid=10002(sandy) gid=119(rtkit) groups=119(rtkit),10001(admin),10003(pr007drdl)

and the directories "rtkit", "admin" and "pr007drdl" should then be created. How do I do it?

I take a lot of photos. So many that Aperture is starting to bog down. I was talking with a fellow photographer and he said that he splits his Aperture library every six months. Sounds like a good idea. How do I create a new Aperture library or, better, move a project into a new library?

Last week marked the fifteenth time I've attended the always-amazing Consumer Electronics Show. With 158,000 attendees and 3,100 vendors exhibiting, it's a trade show like no other I've ever seen, and "massive" doesn't begin to describe it. In fact, this year I had a pedometer in my pocket and on the day I walked the most, I took 17,000+ steps, around nine miles. One day. Walking.

There are lots and lots of companies showing their wares in reasonably modest booths, 15x15 feet, 20x20 feet, and then there are the real consumer electronics powerhouses, companies like Samsung, Sony, Intel and Sharp, they have spaces that are larger than your local store. The Sony booth itself was 30,000 square feet and took a year to design and create.

So what was worth seeing?

I have a Kindle DX that I really like and use to read books. I also have an Apple iPad and occasionally want to pick up my book and continue it on the larger iPad screen. Problem is, when I buy a book at Amazon, it asks which device I want it to appear on and when I pick my Kindle, it doesn't show up on the iPad. How do I have it appear on both or transfer it from the Kindle DX (or Kindle Fire, when I get one) to my iPad's Kindle app?

My son has been doing really well with his new cell phone, but recently he's hooked up with a girl who seems to never sleep and I have more than once found him late at night texting away. Not good. I have talked with him, but I'd also like to work with AT&T Wireless to establish blackout hours on his phone service during which time he cannot send or receive texts. Is that possible?

When I plug in my Apple iPhone 4s into my Dell Windows 7 laptop, it automatically imports all the photos and videos into Windows Live Photo Gallery. It's driving me crazy! I don't want to use this particular program for managing my photos! How can I change it or, better, have Win7 simply ask me what to do when I hook up my iPhone?

My daughter got overenthusiastic and preordered a bunch of upcoming music CDs from the Apple iTunes Store. Not so good. Once they all ship, I'm looking at over $100 in music purchases, way more than I can afford. Is there some way to cancel these pre-orders before they're charged to my iTunes account?

When I put a music or audio CD into my Microsoft Windows PC, it launches Zune Player. Very weird. How do I change it to either launch iTunes, which I use to manage the music on my iPod, or Windows Media Player, which I use for music on the computer itself? I'm running Windows 7, btw.

Now that I have a Kindle Fire, I'm excited to copy some of the PDFs that are on my computer and read them on the slick little color device. Problem is, I can't figure out how to copy PDF files onto my Kindle and then read them on the device itself!

I know how to install and change themes in Windows XP, but I haven't figured out the same in Windows 7 yet. Can you step me through the process of downloading and applying a new Windows 7 theme, Dave?

Dave: How do I remove Keynote files i have loaded on iTunes, I am not able to delete them. The delete option in iTunes is inactive.

I need to test out some Web site programming on a Linux system and have determined that the Ubuntu distribution is ideal. My question: what's the best, easiest way to install Ubuntu Linux on my Mac system so I can run all my tests?

In Part 1 of our Smart Grids and Smart Homes series I introduced the concept of the Smart Grid. Governments and utilities are spending a lot of cash on upgrading our power grids to make them smart. Now, how do I leverage this to be greener, save significant amounts of money, and perhaps have a little fun along the way?

Home Energy Management (HEM) is going to be very important to you in the future, whether you like it or not. You see, in just a few years most if not all of us will have variable electricity pricing. The cost of retail electricity per kWh will vary throughout the day and will not be fixed like it currently is for most of us.

Depending on where you live you may have two or more tiers of pricing (eg. high and low rate), or a constantly fluctuating price that more accurately tracks the prices in the electricity wholesale market. Wholesale prices can vary by 300% or more in one day. If you could save three times the cost of running your washing machine during a low-peak period, would you? I don't think my jeans will care at what time they were washed.

You've probably heard of the Smart Grid and are aware that it has an energy conservation element to it. What you may not be aware of is that over the next decade our entire power grid and the way we use power in the home will be transformed. Those who embrace the new Smart Grid technologies stand to pay substantially less for their energy (and produce less CO2) than those who do not. So, what should we be doing now and in the near future to benefit from all this?

In this first article in the series, I'll provide a brief introduction to the Smart Grid. In subsequent articles I'll be explaining how you can get involved and make your home smarter...

Finally, finally, I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 and it's pretty, but the interface is a lot slower. Is there some way to turn off some of the fancy zoom, shadow and transparency effects so Win7 speeds up?

Hey Dave, how can I delete a number or entry from my favorite list on my new iPhone 4?

I am constantly running commands in Terminal.app on my MacBook and then copying and pasting the results into email messages or documents. Yes, I'm a tech writer. What I'm wondering is if there's any way to actually copy and past into the Mac system wide copy/paste buffer directly from the command line?

I think I have automatic updates set for my Windows PC, but it never seems to tell me there's an update, and my experience with Windows and Microsoft is that there are updates typically every week or so. Is there some way i can manually run a Windows Update to see if there's anything pending or available for my Win7 laptop?

I'm addicted to Facebook and am constantly posting updates from the Facebook app on my iPhone. Recently a friend pointed out that everything I post is only to friends, not to friends of friends or the public at large. For some of my updates, that's fine, but for others I do want it in the public eye. How do I change the Sharing settings on a wall update within the iPhone Facebook app?

I'm about to migrate my blog from one server to another and a wordpress guru friend of mine said it's important that I disable commenting on my blog before I do so. What's he talking about and how do I turn off comments on my site, then turn them back on?