One particular PC component that a lot of PC builders miss is the card reader. While true you don’t need one, they are oh-so convenient to have – and dirt cheap. These days the only good use for the 3.5-inch bay where the floppy drive goes is a card reader. Nobody uses floppies anymore and haven’t for years – yet I bet there’s still...

It is no secret that I absolute love the Windows Sysinternals tools which give you great insight into the operating system. This week another tool was added to the suite which breaks down physical RAM usage, RAMMap: Have you ever wondered exactly how Windows is assigning physical memory, how much file data is cached in RAM, or how much RAM is used by the kernel...

Something that happens periodically while driving is white line fever, a.k.a. highway hypnosis. That’s when you get in a car, drive somewhere and completely forget the trip. The same thing can occur at the computer. You get on the internet, surf around for a few hours, but can’t remember a damn thing you did during that time. It happens to the best...

Mozilla just released Firefox 3.5.6, and while the fix list isn’t that long, the one to pay attention to that was repaired is: Crashes with evidence of memory corruptionFF 3.5.5 for whatever reason just blew up in memory use, and so far since upgrading to 3.5.6, that rapid overuse of memory seems to have decreased quite a bit. This upgrade did not break...

Flash memory on a USB stick is easy enough to understand concerning the way it works. The memory is a type of EEPROM and non-volatile, which is the reason it doesn’t require a battery or external power source to retain the information stored on it. But if you ever asked the question, "Is there a difference between brands?", the answer is yes and...

Sign of the times: I go into Walgreen’s the other day to pick up a bag of cashews (they’re quite tasty), and in the photo center I spot 4GB USB sticks for $16. Yes, I know you can pick up these things for cheaper elsewhere, but the fact a business primarily known as a pharmacy carries these things is what got my attention. The brand Walgreen’s...

Pictured right, NVIDIA’s Quadro FX 5800, a video card that has more video RAM than most people have for system RAM. Well I suppose if NVIDIA didn’t do it I’m sure someone else would have. Did you just build the most awesomest superest kick-assing-est computer ever (most likely for gaming)? Well, guess what – it’s obsolete. Darn that...

No matter what your operating system is, a question many ask is "What should I have to do modern computing?" In this article we’ll address RAM specifically. Should you run 2GB or can you get away with 1GB or 512MB? First, a quick look at cost. Cost-wise, RAM is the cheapest it’s ever been. 2GB Desktop PC memory is under the 25-dollar mark,...

When the first consumer-grade portable video recording systems were introduced they were humongous and had extremely poor battery life. In addition to that they were heavy and gave you "camcorder shoulder" in short order. As camcorders progressed in technology they started to become smaller but suffered from the same fate as their predecessors –...

If memory leaks (programs not releasing memory once they are done using it) or other memory issues are a common problem of yours, then a handy utility for you is RAM Idle LE. RAM Idle runs in the background and, well, from the editor’s review: The program icon sits in the desktop tray and displays the amount of memory your PC has available at any given...

Last week I upgraded one of our laptops from 1 GB to 2 GB of memory for the whopping cost of $25. The memory was nothing special, just a single 1 GB DDR2 laptop stick. Considering the price of the most common type of memory is so cheap right now, why not double your RAM? The cost of putting extra memory in your system is always well spent as it typically...

The only thing you need to pay attention to as far as memory cards for digital cameras are concerned is whether it will physically fit in your camera or not. There is absolutely no significant advantage from one card format to the next. All that matters is that it can physically be connected to the camera you have. [hidepost=1] Question: Why have a memory card...

I have written in the past about how valuable a system memory selector tool is when you are looking to upgrade the amount of RAM in your system. For the most part, you just find the “type” of RAM you need and then buy it, of course if you do not know what type you need a system memory selector tool is invaluable. The other day, I stumbled across...