smart computer use?

I bet you wish you knew about it. Actually it’s not much to get worked up about, but it’s a good sign of the times.

About two weeks ago, Wal-Mart began selling $200 Linux-based PC. The initial run was around 10,000 units. Now Wal-Mart is sold out. Has Linux now found a niche?

Wal-Mart’s $200 PC - sold outThe system sold by Wal-Mart was an Everex’s TC2502 gPC and is the first mass-market $200 desktop PC. The spec of the system is very low - 1.5 GHz VIA C7 CPU embedded onto a Mini-ITX motherboard, 512MB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive - but this doesn’t matter because the system does pretty much everything that your average PC users wants.

Has Windows outgrown the average user?

Read the rest of the article here.

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You don’t need to buy an external hard drive. You might be able to build one for cheaper. You might be able to use existing hardware you have laying around to get off to a cheap start in building your own external hard drive.

It’s nearly 2008, and nearly all PCs are multimedia these days. Though not everyone’s PC harbors hundreds of downloaded movies, even the most workaholic business traveler has a few tunes for the road on his laptop. And if it’s not Hollywood movies and music taking up room on your system, then it’s personal photos and videos that are multiplying faster than bees around your picnic lunch. No longer constrained by the limitations of film, the average vacationer takes hundreds of snapshots or hours of video without thinking about where it will all be stored. Eventually, inevitably, you will run out of space and be faced with two options: Delete your precious memories and purchased content or upgrade your storage options. One quick and relatively easy way to get more room is to build an external hard drive. It is a great time to build one because hard drive memory is really cheap right now.

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People will become more like cyborgs as computer technology increases in power. Computers keep getting smaller. Computers keep getting more powerful. All other electronic devices also are following the same patterns. Devices get smaller, and they become more portable and powerful.

With these increases in power and decreases in size, devices are becoming easier to wear, attach to your body, or even have implanted in your body.

We are starting to see this in applications such as:

New Wearable Computer Helps Blind Navigate

This is a refreshing, smart use of computer technology. These are the types of applications of computers that will pave the way for more powerful uses of computers. Uses of computers beyond the traditional Desktop/Laptop PC’s, phones and iPods.

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I argue that you should not buy too much software at once. Typically, any software that you buy for personal use on a computer is going to take a bit of time to get used to. You need to spend enough time with the software to come to a personal realization that you:

• either really do need to keep the software on your machine
• or you need to delete or un-install it.

You need to get a feel for the software you are buying.

You should focus time on a new software purchase without moving on to another piece quickly. Software can be expensive. Applications like Adobe (formerly Macromedia, or something…) Dreamweaver, although fun and/or productive, can cost a couple hundred or more depending on whether you buy it used or new

If you don’t spend enough time with software before getting a new focus or interest, you might not realize just how much you really do or don’t need that nifty application.

Sometimes you might be best off just uninstalling and selling software that you don’t use.

This is what will probably be the case if you over-purchase software. It’ll be a distracting from stuff you do use.

If you’re not using it, and it’s worth $150, sell it.

But, sometimes the software might be cheaper or unsaleable. Actually, for as much as I recommend that you sell expensive applications, it might not be worth it to try to sell games or stuff that you payed $20 for. The time that you might need to spend to unload it on e-bay might not be worth the few dollars to get back.

Old production software is not fun to have around, generally

It’s not fun, however to try to use Photoshop 5 after having used Photoshop CS2. Or playing around with Flash5 after using Flash 8. I would argue there is a bit of a difference in having a good time with old games than old production applications.

Prevent overlooked software

Overlooked software on the shelf next to your PC is not a good situation. Buy software only once you have an understanding of the stuff you already do have. This will prevent a situation where your PC is loaded with so much stuff that you don’t know what to do with it all.

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