Since I came home to Baltimore for the holidays, my parents decided that we should go look at new cars for the family.  One of our cars is fairly new and in good shape, but the other one is 13 years old and has 166,000 miles on it, and it’s starting to show its age.  The air conditioning doesn’t work; it has an engine oil leak; and the last...

A recent article by Tom’s Hardware discussed “Intel’s Top Secret Processor Plans.” I found it to be quite an intriguing article as Intel has been struggling recently. Intel’s market share has slipped and AMD has gained ground in recent months, due to a number of factors, but Intel’s new plans should make them competitive...

The topic of technology’s past, present, and future has been discussed in this column previously, and will probably have been beaten to death by this time next year.  But we’ve really only looked at the progression of technology from the perspective of technology itself.  We haven’t discussed as much the people who use it. I have an interesting...

Remember back in the day, when you had to spend $3000 to get a mediocre computer that could just barely do what you wanted it to and was overtaxed after a year?  I certainly do.  When my family got a brand-new Gateway 2000 in 1995, it came with a huge 17” monitor and an even larger case.  We opted for the 124-key AnyKey keyboard, and bought an...

Hello, and welcome to my first Kudos and Calamities.   I’m taking over for Force Flow as the co-writer (with Tyler Thompson) of the column.  If you’re a regular at PCMech Forums — and probably even if you’re only an occasional visitor — you’ve doubtless seen one of my many posts, usually about some laptop or another.  This...