Wet Electronics & The Rice Myth

When a phone gets wet, many people immediately rush to get a bag of rice. Don’t do this. Resting a soaked phone among dry grains of rice does very little to draw out moisture. And it can encourage starchy particles to get up inside your device, worsening its condition. I know this may hard to … Read more

Trade In & Recycle with Apple

Apple has really stepped up their technology recycling efforts. Check out their website for trade-ins and recycling: https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in First, Apple is willing to consider any of their devices for trade-in value towards your next Apple purchase. That means iMacs, Macbooks, iPhones, etc. You can use the website to get an estimate or you can carry … Read more

Download Your Printer Software

Installing a printer? You typically won’t use a CD these days, everything comes from the internet. So if it’s an older device, don’t fret if the disc has gone missing. You just need to download your printer software. And this is always done for free! For HP devices, go to https://support.hp.com/us-en/driversFor Epson printers, try https://epson.com/Support/sl/sFor Brother devices, … Read more

Don’t Leave Laptops in Hot Cars

The summertime heat has arrived! Here’s your annual reminder: Don’t Leave Laptops in Hot Cars. Same goes for your other tech items, like tablets, phones, portable game consoles. Computers and other devices are vulnerable to the extreme temperatures inside of a car’s cabin. In very little time, heat build-up in your vehicle can bake your … Read more

Checking Hard Drive Health

The hard drive in your computer is going to wear down some day and fail. Everyone hopes their hard drive will last a long time, and most do. But hard drive death is unpredictable, and your computer may give you no warning about what’s coming. As your computer ages and slows down, you can spot-check … Read more

Computer Recycling

When you want to dispose of a computer, you should recycle it. Your local landfill may come to mind for this task, but that’s often not the best idea. Besides the inconvenience of driving there, the landfill is likely to charge you recycling fees for some of your tech-junk. But there’s good news: Virginia passed … Read more

The Hole in your Monitor Stand

OK, I really have to let out a gripe, and it’s about the Doonesbury comics. Every weekend, I pick up my dead tree edition of the newspaper and work my way through it to get to the crossword and comics. And week after week, the Doonesbury strip keeps tweaking me. I can’t stand it. Mr. … Read more