Tech Toys – Page 4

The OLPC arrived – see what’s in the box

26March2008GeekTieGuyPersonal, Tech Toys

I had almost forgotten about the OLPC give-one-get-one campaign I took the opportunity to participate in last year. Well, the thing finally came today. I wasn’t really all that anxious to get it, so it didn’t bother me at all that it took a while. I thought it was more important that the real recipients

Netflix WatchNow MediaError(1400): One solution

2March2008GeekTieGuyPersonal, Tech Toys

Here’s a quick tip: If you’re a Netflix subscriber and are having problems with the WatchNow feature, take a look at whether you have any caching proxy servers between the PC you’re using to watch a show and the Netflix servers (yes, that’s a long path and a very general statement, I know). If, for

Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode

18February2008GeekTieGuy3 CommentsTech Toys

[I may have a hard drive mini-series on my hands here, see previous post.] If your computer has performance problems and you can’t quite explain why (you’ve ruled out startup items, spyware and such ilk), it may be worth looking at how your IDE controller manages hard drive data transfer. It should be using (U)DMA,

Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status

18February2008GeekTieGuy3 CommentsTech Toys

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to the local Fry’s recently to get a replacement hard drive. What prompted me to do that was a warning from the BIOS of my computer saying that the S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive was bad. I’m glad I listened to that warning. After replacing the

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Category Archives: Tech Toys

The OLPC arrived – see what’s in the box

Netflix WatchNow MediaError(1400): One solution

Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode

Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status