PC Matic Blog • Page 61 of 70

Black Rhinos and White Elephants

S.Hogan / March 19, 2008

With great excitement I set off to snap pictures of laptop herds, grazing the shelves of the local Best Buy. Sporting my new macro capable camera and memory card, this was going to be a pictorial review that would rival the Discovery channel’s ï¿½Tribes of the Orinocoï¿½. We all know how bad laptop keyboards are. Cramped with missing keys, these are the trophies I seek.

As I entered the store, the smell of fresh electronics sharpened my senses. I found my first large herd fanned out across Brand Name Gulch. Camera in hand I rushed to the front of the herd knowing I was between them and the only outlet. It took some tricky footwork to position a shot of their

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I Hate this Keyboard!

Dave / March 18, 2008

The word “performance” usually means CPU, memory, disk, or video performance to most people. That’s usually what I mean by it too. But after several months of experience with one particular notebook, I’ve found a component that has destroyed performance more than any other: the keyboard.

When PC Pitstop did a bloatware survey last year, we had several notebook PCs that we couldn’t return. I took one of them, the Toshiba Satellite A135, to use as a Windows Vista test system. Initially, I tried leaving all the preinstalled crapware on the system to see how it would perform. After a few weeks of that, I couldn’t stand it anymore. At least the crapware situation can be fixed, though, unlike the keyboard.

I hate this keyboard.

Take a look

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Optimus Maximus

S.Hogan / March 18, 2008

Tired of missing the backspace because of a lazy pinky? Need some extra function keys for Gaming? Want to use color to reduce your hunt and peck time? No Problem, make that key any size you want or any function you want. Art Lebedev, of Art Lebedev Studios, is using OLED technology to remedy all the scenarios above and many more. My hardware closet contains at least 12 keyboards so I have no clue how I missed reading about this before now. I do remember some vague comments about OLED technology a few months back, but nothing like what I’ve read today. Optimus Maximus, you will be mine!

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Dual Core Doldrums

chengrob / February 26, 2008

I’m pretty manic about my laptops. It drives my wife nuts because I need to buy a new laptop every year. The reason is simple – technology. Or better put – Moore’s Law. Each year technology evolves, making each new laptop more powerful , lighter, and with more storage and a brighter, higher resolution screen. Man, I love it.

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Dual Core Double Delicious

S.Hogan / February 26, 2008

Blame it on the chewing gum.

Double the processor cores means twice a fast, right? That’s what a lot of people are mistakenly thinking. In the past three years, starting with the AMD Opteron, both major producers have been serving up dual core processors like they were tater chips. Manufacturers have been incorporating them into their latest and greatest portables and desktop offerings. Intel has confirmed this as a great decision by following suite with their version of Dual and even Quad core processors. The general public is snatching them up like chips for dip.

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PC Pitstop OverDrive Beta

chengrob / February 12, 2008

Long time no see. What? It’s past Ground Hog’s Day? Man, I feel like I’ve been buried in a hole. The reason is because I have been working non stop on a (w)hole redesign of our world renowned Full Tests. We are renaming the service, PC Pitstop OverDrive Beta. Our plan is to run the beta for as long as necessary to weed out any last bugs. The product has already undergone substantial testing, but it is not possible to foresee every situation without a formal and public beta period. Once that is over, our plan is to move our signature Full Tests to OverDrive. Vrooom!

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New Box Blues

S.Hogan / February 5, 2008

All Brand New and Ready to Roll

Yep, when I plunk down $500.00 to $1200.00 or more, I’d like to think I’m getting the latest and greatest. We all know electronics become outdated faster than potato salad at a Texas picnic, but I would at least expect to get the darned thing out of the box before having to update it. Our recent comparisons found just the opposite.

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100 Million PC Pitstop Tests & Counting

PC Matic Cybersecurity / February 1, 2008

On January 21 2008, David T. Stone of Seattle, Washington was updating and testing a beta video driver for one of his many computers. Continuing his habit of quite a few years, he went to the PC Pitstop Full Test to check the results. No bells, no flashing lights, but that test was the 100 Millionth PC Pitstop Test run since our inception on March 3rd of 2000.

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The PC Pitstop Tachometers

PC Matic Cybersecurity / February 1, 2008

The PC Pitstop house band is taking the world by storm with their first two singles – Vista, Not What I’d Thought You’d Be & The Vista Blues. Check out these smash hits!

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Windows SP3: The Long Journey

S.Hogan / January 10, 2008

Fact and Fable

Unlike a lot of sequels, Windows XP SP3 is better than the original. Any day now the official release is due to hit the streets. Rumors of 10% performance increases crowd my Googled results. My mind travels to increased scores for benchmarks. Microsoft’s favored son is rising to the position of SUPER HERO. “WINDOWS XP CONQUERS….” Oh, sorry, I’ll get back to earth now.

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The Pit Blog

All Brand New and Ready to Roll

Fact and Fable