Each and every gizmo and gadget connected to your PC has its own driver, the driver being the software that makes the hardware go. Keeping those drivers up-to-date is important. Or is it?
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Things are looking pretty grim out there economically speaking. People aren’t spending money because people aren’t spending money. That means we all need to hunker down until people tire of not spending money. Here are some suggestions for hunkering down with your aged computer and not spending much money to do so.
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Most people would think that a volume label would be found by a knob and it would have tick marks going from 0 up to 10 (or maybe even 11). In the realm of computers, however, a volume label is something completely different.
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I’m a big fan of backing up computer files. I’ve got backup programs running automatically on all my computers, with robust external hard drives storing safety copies of my stuff. I use all the backup tricks in the world, save one: online backup. My reason is that I don’t trust it.
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Before I shoot all my old hard drives, I should seriously look into the opportunity to resurrect them as external USB drives. I can do that for about $14 a pop.
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One of my readers recently e-mailed me this question:

Can you recommend a safe way of disposing of old computers? Not just for security reasons, but for the environment as well?

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I recently found PC monitor shopping to be a pain in the rump. No, it’s not because of the prices; LCD monitors are cheap! (In fact, has anyone seen a CRT monitor in a store recently?) The quality of the monitors is okay. But what’s irking me are the monitors’ aspect ratio.
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Given that most computers live from 4 to 7 years, you can pretty much bank on the fact that you’ll eventually need a new computer to replace your current model. It’s sad, however, when that replacement comes early.
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