PC Mechanic, New Article

Retro Friday: Flip Clocks
How To Get All The Adobe Flashes On 64-Bit Windows
Learn To Spot A Fake Consumer Review

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:30 AM PST

flip_clock The flip clock was a mechanical style of clocks and clockradios in homes for many years. Instead of the traditional dial or digital, small flaps would literally flip vertically to display the time.

This style of clock is so popular that it made its way into most smartphones as an app that shows a graphical representation of the old flip-style method of telling time.

One of the more storied brands of flip clocks were made by General Electric, seen at right. An original GE flip clockradio commands a pretty good penny these days to many collectors, so if you have one that’s in decent condition and still keeps the time relatively well, it’s an easy way to make a few bucks; some vintage GE flip clocks command well over $100.

The reason flip clocks fell out of favor was for two reasons. The first and obvious is that these clocks would routinely run too slow and have to be adjusted about once a week. The second is that it’s much cheaper for clock manufacturers to produce digital over flip. If you’ve ever seen the inner mechanisms of a flip clock, you know that compared to a digital it’s prohibitively expensive to make.

Are new flip clocks still made today?

Yes. You can find flip clocks ready-to-buy at www.flipclock.net or by searching Amazon for ‘flip clock’. Many shapes and sizes are available.

Note that modern flip clocks don’t exhibit the problems the original ones did with having to be adjusted for slow time frequently.

Want a freebie flip clock screen saver?

Got you covered.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Retro Friday: Flip Clocks

How To Get All The Adobe Flashes On 64-Bit Windows

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:00 AM PST

This is a follow-up to this article where it was mentioned Adobe just released Flash Player 10.2.

A 64-bit Windows experience sometimes isn’t the most pleasant thing because you periodically have to install things twice. Once for 32-bit, the other for 64-bit. With Flash Player, you must install it four times to be available in all your 32-bit and 64-bit browsers.

I’m not kidding:

"ActiveX" is the Internet Explorer version, and "Plugin" is for all your other browsers. From 32-bit Chrome to 64-bit Firefox, it covers all of them.

What to download, how to install, and post-install:

32-bit versions

Step 1. Go here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

Step 2. From the first drop-down, select Windows 7/Vista/XP/2008/2003.

Step 3. From the second drop-down, select Flash Player 10.2 for Windows Internet Explorer and download, but don’t run.

Step 4. Repeat steps 1 and 2, then select Flash Player 10.2 for Windows – Other Browsers and download, but don’t run.

Step 5. Close all browsers.

Step 6. Run the "ax" file first, complete the install, then run the other file and complete the install.

64-bit versions

Step 1. Go here: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10_square.html

Step 2. Click "Download active-x for 64-bit Windows – for Internet Explorer only", then "Download plug-in for 64-bit Windows – for all other browsers". This will be two separate files.

Step 3. Close all browsers.

Step 4. Run the ActiveX file first, then the other.

Post-install

If in your Add/Remove you have a "Adobe Download Manager" whereas you didn’t before and don’t want it, remove it. If you also accidentally downloaded any McAfee software you didn’t want, uninstall that as well.

Yes, this is all a pain in the ass, but it does cover all web browsers that use Flash on your computer.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How To Get All The Adobe Flashes On 64-Bit Windows

Learn To Spot A Fake Consumer Review

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 06:00 AM PST

Consumer reviews can definitely be helpful as they provide a way for anyone to give feedback on their experience with a product or company without having to have a platform (i.e. PCMech) to share it. Unfortunately, this system can be easily "gamed". Because of this, you have to always be wary of fake reviews which are possibly written by those who have a direct interest in what is being reviewed.

For some general guidelines on how to spot a fake review, this article summaries the signs quite nicely. Some of the things to look for (which are elaborated on in the article) include:

Reviewer’s name
Number of previous reviews
Date of the review as compared to when the product was released
Number of similar reviews posted in a short time span
Text of the review (is it written like an advertisement?)
Tone and exaggeration used in the review text
Use of "odd" phrases

One thing you can look at as well, if the reviewing site makes this available, is the IP address of the reviewer. If you notice the same IP address or a very similar pattern (only the last two numbers are different), among a lot of the reviewers, this can be a sign that the same person is posting multiple reviews.

Do you have any tips or tricks you use to spot fake reviews? If so, please share.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Learn To Spot A Fake Consumer Review