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The best fix is often the simplest.

One way which might help you prevent a headache from being on the computer too long is setting up the screen correctly.

First, make sure your screen is perfectly centered on your desk. The screen should be directly across from your head, meaning if you are looking straight ahead, you see the midpoint of the screen. If you can picture a three dimensional axis in your head, this would mean centering it on the X axis. It is also important that your screen is tilt-centered on the Z axis. This means one edge of the screen should be no farther away from your eyes than the opposite edge. You can center it if you look at your screen from above. If you are reading something on your screen and it’s not centered in this way, your eyes will be strained from zooming in and out and focusing as you read each line of text. For the Y axis, or vertical, your screen should not be centered. It should be lower, and your eyes, when looking straight ahead, should look at the top of the screen, or somewhere near the top. Your eyes get less strained when looking slightly down than up.

Second, don’t set your screen brightness all the way up. Mine is actually at 44% on my main screen, and 50% on my secondary monitor. Full brightness is unnecessary unless you’re doing design work and just strains your eyes. You should find a nice balance between contrast and brightness so that it doesn’t seem too bright. This will be completely different for every monitor, so you have to find this balance on your own.

And finally, try to sit up straight in your chair. When you start sitting a bit sideways or with your head tilted, it makes the physical screen position adjustments useless.

Disclaimer: do not take these tips as medical facts. These may not work for you or might make your problem worse. These are just suggestions from someone who spends a lot of time on the computer. I am not responsible for anything resulting from the use of these suggestions.

Why do so many people buy gaming laptops? It doesn’t make any sense because laptops aren’t meant for gaming. Laptops are supposed to be lightweight and for doing things on the go. Gaming laptops are useless, and here’s why.

Gaming laptops are very heavy. They usually weigh around 10 pounds, while normal laptops weigh around three pounds. They’re also big and bulky. I wouldn’t want to carry around a gaming laptop in my backpack. It’s just inconvenient to have a heavy laptop.

A terrible battery life makes a laptop pointless. If you’re going to be gaming on it without it being plugged in, it won’t last more than an hour if you have a new laptop, especially with dual graphics cards. Laptops are for portability, and they become useless if the battery life is so low.

Gaming laptops produce a lot of heat. While normal laptops get very hot, I can still usually put one on my lap for an hour. After all, it is called a laptop. However, gaming laptops get so hot you will need a surface with fans blowing at the laptop if you don’t want it to overheat while gaming. Again, if it has dual video cards, it will produce a lot more heat, will weigh more, and will drain the battery more. SLI just doesn’t belong in a laptop.

Another factor is price. A gaming laptop will run you about $1500 or higher. A normal laptop will cost you $700 or higher. And here’s the thing – you can buy a desktop for $700 that will have better parts and will be faster and better at gaming than the $1500 laptop. So there is absolutely no point.

Laptops are for word processing, bringing on trips to stay connected on chat or email, and things like that. They were never meant for gaming. If you’re looking to buy a gaming laptop, do yourself a favor and get a desktop instead, and use the money you saved for buying a normal laptop.

If you have been following technology news, you should have heard about Psystar and their Open Computer. They are trying to sell computers with Apple’s OS X operating system preinstalled. The problem with this is that it is against Apple’s EULA to install OS X on any hardware other than Mac hardware.

Psystar knows this, yet they are still selling their Open Computers with OS X preinstalled. Many people are thinking that this is one big scam. Others are thinking they are just trying to get attention. But how do they legally stand when it comes to breaking Apple’s EULA?

I’m not a lawyer, but I think that Psystar is correct in a way. Microsoft is not allowed to bundle its software with hardware, so why should Apple be allowed to bundle its hardware with its software? In a sense, they are creating an OS X monopoly. This is how I understand it. You can only buy OS X if you buy Apple hardware. This does not sound right to me. But what chance does Psystar have against Apple and its lawyers?

If there is a lawsuit, which I’m sure there will be if Psystar actually ships these systems, they might have a chance if they can get some good lawyers. I actually hope they win, as it will mean you won’t have to buy Mac hardware anymore to get OS X. This will bring OS X’s market share up, and people won’t have to waste money on overpriced hardware to get it.

Until someone confirms that they receive a shipment from Psystar of its Open Computer, I will be doubtful of the company. But if they do ship, Apple will sue, and hopefully Psystar will win.

Computers get faster every couple of months as new parts come out. The average consumer however will not upgrade their computer, cell phone, mp3 player, or other tech that often. Good computers can be expensive, so most people don’t upgrade often. But when should you upgrade?

What do you use your PC for?

Many people use their computers for checking email, browsing the web, watching videos, and sharing photos. The truth is these people don’t need to upgrade for a few years. The average computer user doesn’t do any power tasks, so there is no reason to upgrade. If you fall into this category, you should upgrade once every 3-4 years. However you should also take care of your operating system. Ongoing simple maintenance of Windows or a reformat and reinstall every year should keep your computer quick and snappy throughout the years.

Do you need the latest software?

Do you use programs such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Vegas, or 3ds Max? These programs need a lot of power. If your PC is newer than the version of the program you’re using, it will most likely run the program well. But new versions come out every year or two, and these upgraded versions of power programs won’t run so well on your aging computer. If you need the latest versions of your favorite power-user software, you will need to upgrade your computer about every 2 years.

Are you a PC gamer?

PC gaming will require the latest hardware with each new game release. If you want to play the newest games at the highest settings, you will need new hardware monthly. A lot of people are fine with playing at medium settings, so for them I recommend upgrading their graphics card every year. If you only want high settings in games, you should upgrade at least every 6 months.

Gaming is a bit different from using your computer for other tasks. Most of the time, the only thing you will need to upgrade is the graphics card. If you have a dual core or quad core processor and 2GB of RAM, you will just need to upgrade the video card. Right now, I recommend 4GB of RAM for games. You might say it’s overkill, but it’s not. It was overkill last year, but this year games will have minimum requirements of 2 and 3 GB of memory.

Custom built computers

If you have a custom built PC, you probably won’t even need to read this article. Building your own computer will let you upgrade any specific part to suit your needs. I wrote this “guide” for people with prebuilt PC’s.

How often do you upgrade? Comment below.

This is a quick video review I found of the new HP 2133 laptop. This laptop is a competitor to the Asus EEE PC. Here is the video:

Have you ever dropped a cell phone in a pool or spilled your Mountain Dew all over your keyboard? Here are some steps to save your electronics if you drop them in liquid or spill liquid on them.

1. Rip out the battery. Well don’t actually rip it out, but take it out as fast as possible. And if it’s wired, like a keyboard, unplug it. You want to stop the flow of electricity to prevent a short from happening.
2. Open it up. If you feel you are smart enough to open it up, go ahead and carefully disassemble as much as you can, making sure you will be able to put it back together. If you don’t want to open your laptop, cell phone, mp3 player, or whatever, then skip to the next step.
3. Wipe off the liquid. Use a static-free towel to wipe off any liquid you see. If you did step 2 and opened it up, be extra careful not to damage anything. If needed, use a Q-tip to wipe off the liquid in tight spots.
4. Let it dry, by itself. Don’t use a fan and definitely don’t use a hair drier. Put your item in a warm spot, but not in direct sunlight, and not on top of a heater or anything like that. Let it sit for at least 2 days. I recommend up to 5 days, if you can wait.

That’s about it. If you took the battery out quick enough, it should work. If you didn’t, it probably shorted out and died. It’s worth a shot anyway as most warranties don’t cover water damage.

Also don’t forget to dry the battery itself, if there was one. Hope this helps someone.

Hope you like it. Apple fans, don’t take it too seriously.

Asus’ Eee PC laptop has become quite known in the tech community. Asus has been planning to release a desktop version of their low-price laptop, and it is now expected to debut in the April-May time frame this year. The first versions of the Eee Desktop, named the E-DT, will be powered by Celeron processors, and later will be switched to Intel’s dual-core Atom CPUs. The other hardware specs are unknown at this time. Prices will be between $200 and $300, and there will be a black and a white color scheme for you to choose from. Picture credit goes to TechConnect Magazine and Electronista.