PC Mechanic, New Article

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• Intel’s New DRM’ified Chip And You
• How To Sell An LCD Monitor
• How To Prolong The Life Of A Lithium-Ion Battery

Intel’s New DRM’ified Chip And You Posted: 04 Jan 2011 03:30 AM PST All the tech world is a-buzz right now because of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge architecture which has Digital Rights Management in it. DRM is bad because it serves absolutely no benefit to the consumer, and routinely aggravates everyone who has ever dealt with it. In a nutshell, DRM ultimately forces you to keep spending money on things you’ve already bought – which is the ultimate insult to the consumer. If you buy a song for your portable music player, DRM-enabled devices “lock” it so it and cannot be transferred to any other device. When that portable music player dies, so does all the music you bought for it, forcing you to buy it again. To let you know how ridiculous that is, if you buy a vinyl record and the record player dies, that’s not a problem – buy another record player, not the record. Does this mean you shouldn’t buy an Intel Sandy Bridge CPU? No, because the DRM only applies to specific content, namely a streaming technology called WiDi 2.0. If you purchase movies through that service, it will be DRM’d. This is essentially no different than streaming movies from the Netflix service. The rest of what you do on your computer – as far as I’m aware – stays the same as it has been. If the idea of DRM technology in your processor leaves you saying, “Intel, not cool.. at all”, well, there’s always AMD – however it should be noted that it will become more commonplace to see more technologies that promote the idea of “own nothing, rent everything”. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle. Intel’s New DRM’ified Chip And You

How To Sell An LCD Monitor Posted: 04 Jan 2011 03:00 AM PST If I were to instruct anyone how to make money in the computer repair biz, I’d tell them don’t fix computers, fix monitors because they always sell – even if they’re not in the best of condition. To this day the cheapest LCD monitor new will still run you about $100, so a beat-up old 17-inch working monitor is worth $40, and one in very good shape is $50 to $60. If the monitor is larger, you can tack on roughly 7 to 10 bucks per inch as long as it’s at least 35% less than what it would cost for the cheapest new equivalent. There is always, repeat, always someone who needs a monitor. If you price your monitor right, you can sell it on Craigslist in less than 2 days. Don’t bother with eBay for these. Sell on CL and take cash in hand because someone will buy it. This is how you post an ad for your used monitor on CL: [Brand/Model/inch-size/native resolution here] monitor. [Connector type here (VGA or DVI)]. Backlight is good. Color is good. No dead pixels. No chassis cracks, blemishes or other damage. All buttons work. Local pickup only, no delivery, cash only. That’s it. You don’t need to say anything else. Be sure to include a photo of the monitor turned on and working. Responses will happen quickly. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle. How To Sell An LCD Monitor

How To Prolong The Life Of A Lithium-Ion Battery Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:00 AM PST As you may know, just about every modern laptop uses a lithium-ion powered battery. What you may not know is the care for these types of batteries differ from their NiCd predecessors. That said, it is important to give your battery proper care to get the most life out of it possible. A great article on this subject can be found at Battery University: "How to prolong lithium-based batteries". A few notes from the article: A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges. [...] Aging of lithium-ion is an issue that is often ignored. A lithium-ion battery in use typically lasts between 2-3 years. [...] If possible, store the battery in a cool place at about a 40% state-of-charge. Some reserve charge is needed to keep the battery and its protection circuit operational during prolonged storage. Avoid keeping the battery at full charge and high temperature. [...] Removing the battery from the laptop when running on fixed power protects the battery from heat. With the concern of the battery overheating and causing fire, a spokesperson for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advises to eject the battery of affected laptops and to run the machines on a power cord. It should be noted that on a power outage, unsaved works will be lost. Overall, I would highly recommend reading this article as it has some very good information. While some of it may not be practical for everyday use (i.e. remembering to disconnect your battery when running on power with a full charge), it does provide some valuable information to consider. Overall, your laptop will most likely outlive your battery, so keep this in mind. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle. How To Prolong The Life Of A Lithium-Ion Battery

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