Hardware Archives

Yesterday I shared some of the many problems I had building my new computer in the Building A Computer Is Normally Easy But Not Always post. One very small detail I didn’t talk about was some new cables so I’ll cover them today. Yes, I’ll provide...

We’ve all seen the special effects in movies where a character looks to be in a very unrealistic situation. Of course it was filmed in front of a green screen and then the situation was digitally inserted using chroma key technology. I’ll tell you about a...

If you wander through your house or office, you’ll product find a huge number of devices plugged into an outlet and using electricity. How much are they using? We’ll discuss a way to monitor their usage. Yes, I’ll get a small commission if your...

I’ve talked about various solutions for connecting a bare hard drive externally to your computer in previous posts. They were just some flavor of cabling. Today I’ll look at a docking station that makes the solution a lot more elegant while also adding...

I’ve been charging my phones wirelessly for more than four years now. Yes, I still use wired charging at times when wireless isn’t convenient. Over the years I’ve collected three different Qi chargers and have learned that some are better than...

It’s been almost a year since disaster struck and our backup plan had a catastrophic failure. Our data has recovered, but the corporate wallet still feels a lot lighter. As part of our recovered, we knew we had to replace at least two of the hard drives in our...

I don’t often write about toys, but the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 is as good a reason as any. Yes, I provide links to purchase the Lego kits on Amazon. Yes, I’ll get a tiny commission if you buy them. No, I wasn’t lucky enough to get kits of my...

I’m a sucker for gadgets that make travel easier and I found one that is going to save me a lot of headaches. Yes, I’ll be including a link to buy at Amazon (and a discount code) for which I earn a small commission. No, I didn’t get a free one....

New footage of old trips to the moon and new trips to a different moon. Facebook died for several hours and the world went crazy. Windows 1.0 is making a return? These are just a small number of the stories covered this week. Click on the headlines below to read the...

I’ve written about graphics cards on many occasions. They are a very important component in any computer where graphics work is involved. Even if you aren’t a gamer, looking at cards targeted towards gamers is a great place to start. I’ll tell you...

When I write about monitors, I almost always want to write about big ones. About a year ago, I wrote Prices of 43″ 4K Monitors Dropping, LG Has Great Option. In fact, I purchased the LG Electronics 42.5″ Screen LED-lit Monitor featured in that post and love it....

I know I’ve already written about what parts I’ve going to get as a rebuild my computer in Building a Fast Computer Starts With These Parts. Even though the parts were all selected, the order hasn’t been placed yet. So like any good procrastinator,...

I was talking with a client on the phone recently when the batteries on the cordless phone died. There are other handsets, but it took me a couple of minutes to get another one so that I could continue speaking with the client. Ugh. I’ll tell you what I ordered...

In the last two weeks I’ve described the parts that will go into my refurbished computer. You can read the two previous posts Building a Fast Computer Starts With These Parts and More Components for Building a Fast Computer to see everything I’ve included...

I told you last week in Building a Fast Computer Starts With These Parts that the guts of my computer would require replacement. In that post I covered the CPU, motherboard and memory that I had chosen. This post will tell you about some of the other parts I’ve...

Loyal readers may have noticed I haven’t been writing as much recently. There are various reasons, but one of the biggest ones is that I’ve been battling some issues with my desktop computer. I’ve tried a number of things to get it working correctly...

Back when I was a teenager, my home suffered a break-in while the family was on vacation. I’ve been lucky since then and my life has been crime-free. While one can never been completely safe, I don’t have a lot of concern in my current home. An easy way to...

As I was preparing to move to Loreto, Mexico, I decided to take a variety of steps to automate my home. Much of the process was described in a post I wrote last July entitled Automating a House with Alexa Devices. Today I’m going to share another product you can...

Recently a loyal reader asked if it was a requirement to have a discrete graphics card to run CorelDRAW. While it isn’t a requirement, it definitely helps you get the most out of any graphics software. Your CPU can focus on doing what it does best and the...

I know I’m not the only one who lives in a house that acts like a Faraday cage when it comes to WiFi signals. Thanks to heavy concrete filled with rebar, my signals are very limited. That’s where a WiFi range extender saves the day. Today I’ll tell...

I always keep headphones in my travel backpack. Sure, they get used when I’m not traveling. I just make sure to keep them in my backpack so I have them on the road with me. When I went on my last trip, I reached into my bag to get the headphones and they had...

I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of reading books on a screen when the idea first appeared. Now I do almost all of my book reading on my tablet. The most popular device for pure reading is Amazon’s Kindle and today I’ll tell you about the newest...