Tech DC

In the DC area especially, there are people who have reason to be concerned about computer espionage, either for work (national or corporate secrets) or personal reasons (divorce or blackmail). Here are 12 tips to guard against intruders snooping on your activities:

Use decent passwords. The easiest way for someone to access your email and other [...]

Kindle Battery Update.. Not For Most People
It has been widely reported that the recent Kindle firmware update improved battery life up to 85%. Unfortunately, this is not true for almost all Kindle owners.  The battery life improvement only applies to the recent Kindle 2 (Global Wireless) version that was introduced October 7, 2009.  The original [...]

What you need
1. T6 and T8 torx screwdrivers
2. Phillips Head screwdriver
3. Microfiber cleaning cloth
4. Suction cups
5. External USB or firewire backup hard drive
6. New SATA hard drive. We recommend the 1.5TB Western Digital Green Drive

Step 1 - Backup via Time Machine
Before you start, you have to first make sure you have a recent time [...]

If you have computers or electronics that you don’t want to be killed by power fluctuations, it’s a good idea to have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). The battery in the UPS keeps your equipment running through blackouts our brownouts (reduced power).
Dead Battery
The main problem with a UPS is that its battery might only last [...]

What should be important to you when buying a flash drive, besides capacity? Speed and reliability.
Amazon and Newegg provide useful user reviews that can alert you to drives with high failure rates. I also look for good read and write speeds.
Read and Write Speeds
Speed tests can be calculated manually, but I used HD_Speed software to [...]