ComputerDumb.com

Posts Tagged ‘computer’

Changes are a-coming to chkdsk and NTFS health in Windows 8, and unlike the controversial Metro interface, these tweaks should make everyone happy. As hard drives get bigger, the Windows 7 chkdsk times get longer (and longer, and longer…) when hard disk errors occur, as infrequent as they are. In a worse-case scenario, attempting to boot a corrupt drive can take hours. The new system changes all that.

The Windows 8 improvements will let NTFS try to identify corruptions on-the-fly and make an instant fix in the background, no usage interruptions required. If that doesn’t work, Windows 8 will conduct … [Read More...]

HP has announced their new lineup of Ultrabooks, notebooks, desktops, displays and thin clients that are all built for business. These PCs are designed to handle the specific needs and challenges facing businesses today, and in the future. I have a sweet spot in my heart for small business owners (my mom has owned her small business since 1995), so I know it’s important to have great PCs and these two new models by HP are perfect for the busy small business professional.

HP wants to help small businesses become more efficient, tech savvy and successful. One important step in … [Read More...]

Hey, remember that whole Mass Effect 3 ending thing? Mercifully, I don’t plan on giving it any further attention beyond that sentence. But it did – in its less oppressively obnoxious moments – give rise to a renewed discussion about videogame endings. The general consensus? It’s the point where even the mightiest fall, tumbling from a perch of lofty regard to the turgid depths of disappointment. BioShock, Fallout 3, Knights of The Old Republic II – even the most beloved franchises have proven all-too-capable of heinous back-stabbery at the 11th hour. 

And those are only the standouts. Plenty of other series … [Read More...]

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According to the old Internet rumor mill, Nvidia’s GTX 670 graphics card is set to launch this Friday. Pictures of alleged retail boxes have been popping up for a while, even before the massive dual-GPU GTX 690 hit the streets a week ago. Now, one reviewer claims that a unit fell into his hands courtesy of an unnamed manufacturer, and he’s benchmarked the leaked card and slapped the results up on the web for all to see.

Usually, these reported leaks turn out to be B.S., but the folks over at TweakTown have a sterling reputation for honesty and have … [Read More...]

When Eric Cartman prettied himself up in makeup and started shouting “Whatever! I’ll do what I want!” on a fictional Maury Povich talk show, he and South Park’s creators were flexing the freedom of speech rights allowed to everyone in the United States. Now, Google may be getting ready to do what it wants, too; the company recently commissioned a report by a First Amendment scholar who concluded that Google’s search engine results are constitutionally protected speech and shouldn’t be subject to government anti-trust regulations.

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, the brains behind the claims, says that search engine results … [Read More...]

Thinking about what to buy the graduate this June? Today, HP has announced a flock of new PCs and devices just in time for graduation. I love them all, but picked the ENVY Ultrabook and ENVY Spectre^XT because they have some great features for students working on summer internship or getting ready to head to school in the fall. Having just graduated from college last June, I know durability and portability are very important, but so is rocking a PC that looks great.

The new ENVY Ultrabook is a stunner in black and built to handle the four (or … [Read More...]

Carrian is the foodie behind Sweet Basil, the food blog. Sweet Basil is all about getting everyone back into the kitchen where good food is approachable and where friends and family can build healthy and happy relationships. Carrian has been writing Sweet Basil for about three years and is a wife, and mother to two girls. Carrian enjoys spending her time seeing new places, trying new restaurants, and just relaxing with the family.

Tell me, why do you hate emailing photos? I have multiple reasons – the time it takes me to search through my photos to select the correct … [Read More...]

The Bluetooth-enabled Livio Radio car kit attempts to be the Holy Grail of dashboard connectivity devices, marrying smartphones with older cars that lack the hardware to fully support them.

The main idea behind the device ($120 from Livio, cheaper elsewhere) is that you can wirelessly play music from your iPhone or Android phone via your car’s speakers using an FM radio connection, so whatever’s playing on your phone gets piped through the car’s radio.

The phone and the Livio dongle … [Read More...]

Anyone with a smartphone is essentially a super-spy, carrying around miniature surveillance-and-communication technology that would have made Connery-era James Bond so enraged by envy he’d have sipped his martini slightly too quickly.

Nonetheless, it’s well known that all primates have an innate urge to acquire possessions that make them feel like they’re on a secret mission for a clandestine government agency. Even bonobos, I’m pretty sure.

The Black Ops 2 Professional Tactical Headset from … [Read More...]

What’s the future of memory look like? NAND flash? Hybrid memory cubes? The memory makers over at Micron have their hands in both of those technologies, but they’re also banking on a third form hitting the streets before too long, bearing a striking resemblance to the DDR3 we all know and love. This weekend, the company announced that “its first fully functional DDR4 DRAM module” is up and running and should make it to market in 2013.

DDR4 has higher clock speeds and data transfer rates than DDR3 while simultaneously using less voltage than its predecessor, although the final standard … [Read More...]

Driven mostly by Apple’s iMac, the all-in-one PC market has seen a boom lately. And why not? You can cram an entire computer behind a big, floating display and control it with a couple of wireless peripherals. The minimal, clutter-free design of an all-in-one PC works in every room of the house, and the big screen can comfortably double as an HDTV for watching videos. They tend to be more difficult to upgrade, but they’re very convenient.

This 27-inch all-in-one from Asus is no iMac, but … [Read More...]

I love the new line of light and thin PCs that are on the market lately. As someone who always seems to be on the go, it is great to find beautiful, durable PCs that can slip into my purse without adding any weight and that last all day long. Samsung has a great collection of ultra-portable PCs that are perfect for the busy traveler like me, or the person who just wants an awesome PC.

Samsungtweets is joining us during this week’s Tech Tuesday #winchat to discuss just that and to giveaway a Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook™. This PC … [Read More...]

For the last 16 years, Michele has been helping women find support online for their hobbies and healthy lifestyles. Michele is a mom of 4, CEO of Mom Geek Media and creator of ScrapsofMyGeekLife.com, a blog offering daily commentary, advice, reviews and shared experiences of how her real life and the digital domain connect. She can be found on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Michelle is also the inspiration behind my recent attempt at training for a half marathon and losing a bit of weight. Her connection with technology and her tip that tracking leads to success … [Read More...]

Are you ready for the second coming of Google’s Internet-enabled TV platform? Well, ready or not, Google TV is once again on the horizon, and this time it will be LG making a big push to promote the platform, not Logitech, which had some harsh words for the service after being burned by weak sales and left holding millions of dollars in unsold inventory. That’s all in the past as far as LG is concerned, and the future starts in mid-May.

“Production of Google TVs will start from May 17 from our factory in Mexico and U.S. consumers will be … [Read More...]

I wrote this blog post a few weeks ago while on a trip to the UK. Enjoy!

Greetings from a Eurostar train traveling from London to Paris at 300 KPH. I have been in London for the past few days visiting the Microsoft UK offices and on this trip I have been spending a lot of quality time with my Sony VAIO SA laptop.

When you travel frequently or are on the go a lot for work – it is critical to have a PC that has enough (or even more) energy than you do. Finding the perfect PC that … [Read More...]

The GTX 680 and AMD Radeon 7000 series cards that showed up this year run cooler and more efficiently than cards from previous generations, but hey, they’re still powerful pieces of technology; pumping out those kinds of polygons puts out some high temperatures. If your new GPU has been running a bit hot under the collar, you’ll be happy to hear that a trio of new cooling solutions from Arctic can help you beat the heat. And if you haven’t been able to spring for a new GPU in 2012, that’s okay; these coolers support a vast array of cards … [Read More...]

Subaru has always been a bit of a niche player in the U.S. market. Building no-nonsense cars with all-wheel drive gets you a loyal following of snowbound northerners, weekend rally drivers, triathletes and Yankee cranks. Outside of those demographics, Subaru is a non-entity: Only those with dissociative identity disorder have ever cross-shopped a Legacy and a Lexus, and the Arkansas Subaru Dealers’ Association could have their annual meeting in a single booth at Shoney’s.

Once you fall down the Subaru rabbit hole, however, the cars on offer are … [Read More...]