Author Archives: Dominic

Recommended Hard Drive Setup – SSD + large SATA HDD drive

I get asked by a ton of people, both online and in real life, for recommendations on what to use for their desktop setups. Today, I want to key in on the hard drive setup.

Generally, most people are fine with the standard 500GB-1TB SATA hard drive. However, when I get asked by someone looking to do more than the standard Internet Browsing and Word processing, I often offer a more complex solution. I will recommend that they go with a SSD drive for Windows and a few key programs and then also add in a SATA drive for less intense programs, music, video, and more. Until SSD drives become less expensive, this configuration allows for performance while not breaking the bank. I like this setup so much right now that I even use this in my own primary desktop. read more

Why I am Not Excited about the iPad Mini

I have had a lot of time to play around with different tablets. I own a Kindle Fire, I have used 2 different versions of the iPad at work, and have even had the chance to play around with the Nook a bit. I feel like each of these tablets fills a role in the tablet market. The Kindle Fire, and tablets like it, are great “around-the-house” tablets. By this, I mean they are great to leave on the kitchen counter or coffee table to be used when you need to look something up really quickly. The iPad is great at this too. However, the iPad is also a very effective business tool as well. An iPad is great to take to meetings or on business trips in which you don’t need the power of a full laptop. I wouldn’t say that a Kindle fills this role very well. read more

Windows 7 Blank/Black Screen Problem

My sister just bought a new Dell laptop a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, she already started to run into a few problems. In particular, she was getting a blank screen right after she got past the Windows login screen.

I started debugging by trying ctrl+alt+delete at the blank screen and then attempting to run explorer.exe. Luckily, this worked, kind of, and I was able to see the normal desktop. However, when I tried to run Firefox, IE, or a few other programs, they would not start correctly.

Debugging in Safe Mode
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Ditch Cable for a Media Center

I have been a cable subscriber for a long time now. However, recently, this has changed. I decided to ditch cable and experiment with a media center substitute. I have been running a media center only solution now for a few months and I have to say that I don’t miss cable that much at all.

The reason I wanted to try this out was for the cost savings. The price of cable in my area was up to $50 a month for a pretty basic plan. This does not even count any of the cool extras you always see advertised like a DVR or any premium channels. I was tired of paying this much money for a service that I only used a few times a week. When I switched to a media center solution, I was able to cancel cable. I signed up for Netflix after I cancelled cable, but all-in-all I am still saving over $40 per month. The media center itself only cost me around $400. So, the media center will pay itself off within 10 months of use. read more

Logitech G400 Gaming Mouse Test

I am a pretty big gamer. I have been known to get into both FPS games like counter-strike and battlefield and RTS games like command and conquer and Starcraft. To play these games the right way, a good gaming mouse is essential. If you are a serious gamer, you should not under-estimate the value of a good gaming mouse.

In the past, I would swear by the Logitech MX518 gaming mouse. However, this mouse has been discontinued and is becoming very hard to find. Due to this, I decided it was time to find another mouse. Looking around, the most obvious choice was the Logitech G400 Mouse
. The G400 is built in a very similar way to the MX518. The G400 feels very much like the MX518. The G400 does boast a few upgrades over the MX518. To start, the DPI has been upgraded to 3600. The cord on the G400 is lighter when compared to the MX518 which is a small improvement as well. read more