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posted by Jessie on 03/19/2012
As most of us already know, water and electronics are basically worst enemies. You wouldn’t toss your hair-dryer in the bath tub, you take off your nice digital watch before dunking your hands in a sink, and in the same vein, you don’t want water getting anywhere near your several hundred (or several thousand) dollar computer. The reason liquids can be so damaging to electronics is that water (or more specifically, the free electrons in most water and liquids) is conductive, and bridges connections in the circuitry that you really don’t want interacting. Corrosion can also be a factor in damaging your computer, depending on the type and amount of liquid, length of exposure, and material of the computer components.
Any way you frame it, liquid on your computer is one of the worst things that can happen. Liquid damage can be insidious, with symptoms not appearing for days or weeks after a spill occurs, and even a tiny amount can irreparably ruin your machine.
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posted by Elijah on 02/20/2012
Last week Apple released the developer preview for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, which draws more new features directly from iOS.
For quite a while we’ve joked that Apple is going to run out of big cat names, and it seems they finally have. Way back in 2001, before most people would even consider buying a Mac, Apple released OS X 10.1 Puma. Pumas and Mountain Lions are the
same animal, but 10.8 is a far cry from 10.1’s aqua interfaced bugginess. Apple has moved to an incremental update approach with their last few operating system revisions, and as such 10.8 Mountain Lion isn’t an “all new cat.” It’s an updated cat, so the reused name makes sense.
posted by Jessie on 12/15/2011
Working in the tech industry, and specifically being in the business of servicing Windows computers as well as Macs, one of the most common problems I see is this: viruses. Countless times the same scene plays out: a frazzled-looking PC user comes in, holding their laptop or desktop, and tells the sad tale of how they were using their computer when, suddenly, they were infected. This can come in many forms: endless pop-ups, fake anti-virus software telling them they need to run a “free scan”, regular program use stopped by crashing, all leading to the computer becoming slow or unusable. Sometimes, I see the same people come back again and again, with the same issue. Read on to learn how to avoid it.
posted by Colin on 12/07/2011
I wanted to write a quick blog post about my recent quest to find the best method of streaming content from the internet on my television set. (This is not a product review, as I have not yet acquired the device I eventually settled on.) First of all, let's talk about my needs- I'm interested in streaming content, not playing local files. This is the biggest distinction you can make when shopping for an internet-enabled device for your television. What that means, in basic terms, is that I'm looking to stream content like Netflix or Pandora, rather than downloading full audio or video files to a local device (like my computer) and playing those files. After shopping around online and consulting with some of my tech-savvy friends, I'm confident that I found the best internet to television device for my needs.
posted by Elijah on 08/04/2011
We see a lot of frustrated tweets and Facebook messages from people whose computers crashed while they were doing work, and are wondering if there’s anything they can do to recover their unsaved changes. The answer is “maybe”, but advancing technology is edging it ever closer to “don’t worry about it, your last revisions are safe and sound.”
posted by Colin on 07/07/2011
I posted every little thought I have in my head about Google's new social media platform Google+ over at the left-click Advanced blog, check it out here.
Since writing the article I discovered that Google+ allows animated GIFs to be posted, and have decided that Google will win the war with Facebook based on this alone.
posted by Elijah on 06/23/2011
Let me preface this with a disclaimer: it's a bit silly to post directions for connecting to the internet on the internet itself, the very thing that those who need it can't access, so give this a quick read and mentally file it away for when you DO have problems.
It’s a fairly typical scenario. I answer the phone cheerfully; “Hello, left-click!” “My internet isn’t working...” says the disappointed caller on the other end. Internet connectivity issues are a pretty common occurrence. I’m going to run through a few steps you can try at home that may get your internet back up and running.
posted by Elijah on 05/26/2011
PCs have been fending off viruses, malware, and other cyber attacks since the beginning. Mac computers, on the other hand, have always watched from the sidelines as their PC brethren suffer. As of May 2011, this is no longer the case. Say hello to MAC Defender, the first major widespread piece of Mac based malware. If you’re a Mac user you may have no idea what to do, but this article will have all the info you need.
posted by Aaron on 04/15/2011
When it comes to hard drives, traditionally there was only one real choice for consumers and businesses alike; the industry standard hard disk or platter based drive. Over time with the natural progression of technology there has been an overwhelmingly large demand for a stable, power efficient, blazingly fast storage solution. This article will touch on some features of the classic hard disk drive (HDD) whilst exploring some of the benefits from newer non-volatile NAND based flash storage devices, commonly referred to as solid state drives, or “SSD” for short.
posted by Elijah on 03/04/2011
SSD, not “Super Sale Day” or “Social Security and Disability”, but Solid State Drive. You may have heard about SSDs being the way of the future for computer storage, but what does that mean for you as the end user?