Sweet spot in monitors

We answer questions on The Personal Computer Show and I thought a recent one would be of interest. A listener wrote (paraphrasing):

I want to buy a new monitor, to be used mostly for Office type work (spreadsheets and Word documents, etc). At present, I am using a small old CRT. Can you make a recommendation for the "sweet spot" as far as best value.

Our monitor/TV expert, Alfred Poor responded:

"A 19" monitor is probably the sweet spot these days. Keep in mind that a 19" wide format monitor is actually much smaller … Read more

Be careful when shopping for a replacement laptop battery

The batteries in laptop computers are expensive (a quick review of prices at Lenovo.com shows they range from $119 to $179), and like any battery, they have a limited lifespan. When it comes time to replace the battery inside your laptop computer, you may be tempted to save a few bucks and buy a replacement from a company other than the one that made the computer.

Don't.

In a widely reported story, someone in Ohio purchased a battery for their ThinkPad laptop from a company called Shentech rather than directly from Lenovo or IBM (in 2005, IBM sold … Read more

Two words for the same thing?

You say either and I say either, You say neither and I say neither Either, either Neither, neither, Let's call the whole thing off.

Ultra-portable Apple notebook to splash down at Macworld Expo

You like potato and I like potahto, You like tomato and I like tomahto Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto, Let's call the whole thing off

Apple Tablet PC is real, says Asus

But oh, if we call the whole thing off Then we must part And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heart

Steve Jobs, 10 months ago:

Are you getting it? … Read more

Improving on Walter Mossberg's PC-buying advice

A few days ago in The Wall Street Journal someone with a 5-year-old PC asked Walter Mossberg how to determine when to buy a new PC. The response in the paper was short. Fortunately, this blog lets me offer a longer, more detailed answer.

The first thing Mossberg said in his response was "There's no universal answer to your question." I disagree. The simple answer is that a computer needs to be replaced only when it no longer does something you want or need it to do. This has nothing to do with the age of the … Read more

Artie MacStrawman and the Wii Effect

PAGING ARTIE MACSTRAWMAN. ARTIE MACSTRAWMAN, PLEASE COME TO THE WHITE COURTESY PHONE. YOU HAVE A CALL FROM A MR. KINGSLEY-HUGHES.

What could/should Apple do to take sales and profits to the next level? Simple. Release an Apple branded Windows-based PC. I know, I know, this kind of talk is bound to upset the hardened Apple fanatic...

MR. MACSTRAWMAN, PLEASE MEET YOUR PARTY BY THE BAGGAGE CLAIM CAROUSEL ON LEVEL 4.

Sure, a few lunatics at the fringes who'd be upset, but that's only to be expected.

PAGING ARTIE MACSTRAWMAN. YOUR PARTY IS NOW AT THE SECURITY DESK … Read more

The Last Inquiry Unicorn.

Rob Enderle opines: Changing of the guard: Sony waxes while Apple wanes

Wouldn't that be "Re-changing"? And wouldn't that also be a load of crap?

OK, Rob Enderle has been skewered to death (sadly, not literally) by many an Apple blogger, but sometimes it's nice to fall back on a classic. Something tried and true.

Sort of like returning to an old friend.

Just one that you hate vehemently.

Enderle, as is his wont, throws about 150 unrelated items up on the wall in the hopes enough of it will stick to form the pattern … Read more

A new approach to securing USB flash drives

USB Flash drives are great. Securing them, however, is not so great. They are easily lost and the more you use one, the more likely it will contain files you consider sensitive. Corsair recently came out with a product that takes an entirely new approach to securing flash drives.

Seeing as this is a Defensive Computing blog, it goes without saying that my personal flash drives are secure. I use a free, open-source program called TrueCrypt. There are however, three problems with this approach:

The hassle of installing TrueCrypt and learning how to use it. There is a portable version … Read more

How not to drive Mac market share.

The New York Times' Randall Stross thinks Apple missed a market share opportunity with Microsoft's missteps.

And he's hell-bent on proving it!

The biggest problem here is that Stross largely relies on one source for Mac market share, a source that conveniently places it at its lowest possible threshold, 3 percent. There are plenty of other sources you could use that will give you other results, and this piece comes across as a conclusion in search of the evidence.

That forlorn number looks even worse compared with Apple's peak worldwide share of 14 percent in 1984, the … Read more

What makes a good surge protector--Part 1

Everyone knows to use a surge protector for their computer. But which one? How do you choose? Welcome to surge protector school.

As their name implies, surge protectors prevent voltage spikes from entering a computer (or whatever else is plugged into them). They are available in a variety of types and, to paraphrase the manual that came with a Dell server, usually provide a level of protection commensurate with the cost of the device. In other words, you get what you pay for.

A surge protector is not a power strip, although a low end model may look like a … Read more