When I was a child I was a latchkey kid. In fact I was one of the founding members of this ever growing club. This is why as an adult I don’t watch a lot of television. No need to, I already put in twice as many hours watching television as most people ever will. My wife will sit and channel surf at the end of the day, but I usually get on the computer or do other geeky stuff.
If there is a show I like I usually just buy the box set on DVD. However there are four shows …read more

I hope by now the two readers of my blog are starting to understand a little more about PC’s. If you are understanding PC’s that’s good, because that is what I want. I want you to Learn, learn, learn. Learning is good learning is great, but really this has nothing to do with the case on a PC.
Seriously though, the case is the most neglected part of your PC, but the most important. You will hear some people argue this, but I can tell you right now they are wrong. A good case design can determine the overall performance of …read more

A gig-a-what
In today’s high-tech world there are a lot of terms and crazy lingo that is thrown around. Let me elaborate on the terms used for measuring data storage. First think about milk and how it is measured. In school you get a little carton of milk it used to be a pint. It takes two pints to make a quart. It takes 4 quarts to make a gallon.
Now let’s apply this concept to data. First you start with a bit this would be the most basic breakdown. A bit is not even equal to 1 piece of information. …read more

When comparing a computer to a brain the hard drive would be the long term memory. In fact it simulates long term memory much like a brain does, just with high-tech electronics. The sole purpose of the hard drive is to store data. It’s that simple.
When you create a Word document and save it, the document is written to the hard drive. This is done with magnets inside the hard drive. The magnets move clusters around to create your document. This is one of several reason magnets are bad around your computer.
Traditionally the hard drive has been the …read more

Warning

You might be wondering what exactly a Central Processing Unit (CPU) is? A lot of books and articles describe it as the brain of your computer, I think that is a sad description of a CPU.
A CPU has one function and that is to process information. Central Processing Unit, process information, I see wheels moving, a light is coming on. No mystical words in this term. It is fairly easy to figure out.
A human brain has many functions one of which is to process information. This is not the only function of your brain. This is why if …read more

Warning
Your E-Mail has stopped working, you cannot open Microsoft Word, and your PC has slowed to a screeching halt. You are so frustrated that you turn to your car salesman neighbor who is a self proclaimed Computer Guru. The best your neighbor comes up with is defragging the hard drive.
Danger, Danger, Danger! For the sake of your data do not proceed. The Defrag utility is a good utility for increasing performance, but may not be what you need. There are two basic things to remember about Defrag:
1. Your problems may lay deeper
2. Running defrag before you run Error-Checking thoroughly can put your …read more

Warning
If you have read my post NIC – Who’s That you should have a real basic understanding of what the NIC is. Let us now figure out how to troubleshoot it and your network. It is a cold Sunday afternoon in February, but you do not worry. You are nice and warm in your house with your face painted two different colors as you are watching the Super Bowl. During one of the thousands of beer ads you jump online to find some video footage of the play you just saw and bam, nothing. You have lost your Internet connection. …read more

Let’s get in our time machine and travel back a few years. In fact a decade ago, the year 1995. Bweep, Bweep, Bweep, Bweep, Bweep, Bweep, Bweep, Bweep, Bweep,!!!!!!! We’re in 1995 and, hey who is that lip-syncing to TLC? Is that you? You’re a guy lip-syncing to a girl band. Dude – you were so gay in 1995.
What else were you doing in 1995 besides watching Steve Ballmer dance around like a puppet in Bill Gates plan to rule the world, and lip-syncing to TLC? You say you took a intro to computers class at your local community …read more

Anyone who has had to talk to the technical support for their high speed access has heard of a NIC card and wondered what that is. Well I will tell you, it is the biggest grammatical error in the tech world that I know of. When ever I hear NIC card the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. If you must know there is no NIC card. NIC stands for Network Interface Card. So to say NIC card is to say Network Interface Card Card.
What I want you to do now is use NIC in …read more

Ok everyone there is only 11 more shopping days until Christmas. The question I have for you is have you bought your IT guy or gal a gift yet? What do you mean you haven’t? Johnson- do you remember the time he deleted all your porn before the company president found out. What about you Wilson, remember when your IT guy recovered your files that you should have had saved on the server. Jackson -what about the time your IT guy made sure the DA could not find any incriminating evidence against you on your laptop.
I’ll tell you …read more