9 Sep, 2009
After 15 years as a Windows power user, and current Windows 7 user, a colleague at What the Tech has accepted the challenge of his roomate to give up his Windows notebook cold turkey, and use a similarly equipped Macbook for 30 days. He’ll be blogging about his experience daily. It should be an interesting read, and of special interest to anyone who’s ever considered switching from Windows to OSX.
Link: The Macbook Experience at WhatTheTech.com
20 Jan, 2009
If you’ve ever tried to lookup the location of an IP address, check the status of DNS propagation, or wanted to check the health of your DNS or mail server, you’re probably familiar with DNSstuff.com. It used to be an incredibly useful site – when it was free. While DNSstuff.com does still offer a selection of free tools, full access has now reached $79/year! While no free site offers every tool available on dnsstuff.com, here are 10 free sites that offer a good selection of alternatives.
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17 Jan, 2009
ERD Commander is a very useful tool that Microsoft acquired with it’s purchase of Winternals. It’s especially useful for computers that aren’t able to boot into Windows, or even safe mode. ERD (Emergency Repair Disk) allows access to Windows restore points, file recovery, crash analysis, hotfix uninstall, and other low level operating system tasks, all in a very familiar Windows interface. It also provides network and internet access, as well as a web browser.
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5 Jan, 2009
Change can be a great thing. We’ve all heard fascinating tales of people who shed half their weight. But change can also be treacherous and destructive. A peek into history books would reveal us tales of great empires falling apart, leaving nothing but dust behind. Doubtless however, change is powerful.
Symantec’s history over the last few years seems to match the second definition. The huge security company, which just a few years ago has been the biggest and doubtless the most influencing security software developer around, witnessed a steep downfall in sales. The security giant, whose products were once installed in almost every new computer, was taunted by the Revolution of the Internet. Faster download speeds made it easier to find alternatives – some of which were free; so did online reviews and comparisons, which were available to everyone: not only in geeky computer magazines.
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8 Dec, 2008
Wow! 571 entries seems to confirm these backup drives are in hot demand. Reading those comments, a lot of you really need to develop a backup plan. If not an external backup drive, check out other options in our Home Backup Series, or even a cheap Fireproof Backup Soultion. Don’t wait until it’s too late folks!
We have contacted the winner, and received a reply with permission to use their full name. Congratulations to Ramkumar Venkatachalam of India! His comment (number 378), was drawn at random:
good old dvd’s in a pouch thats my backup strategy
It sounds like he’ll be putting the backup drives to good use.
Didn’t win? Don’t sweat it. Enter for a chance to win over $6,000 of HP hardware here, and at 49 other sites!
4 Dec, 2008
Welcome…
To the $6,000 Geeks to Go HP Magic Giveaway contest!
What?
One winner will receive a prize package valued at over $6,000! Including all of the following: 
Brought to you by HP, Microsoft, and geekstogo.com.
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25 Nov, 2008
Finding it a little more difficult to find the holiday magic this year? Still need something extra special for under the tree? HP and Microsoft have teamed up with 50 websites this holiday season to give away a total of $300,000 in prizes, in The HP Magic Giveaway. If you’ve done the math correctly, you already know that means we have a $6,000 prize package to award to one lucky winner. While the details of our contest won’t be revealed until later (subscribe to our feed), now we’ll share what’s contained in the prize package, and all 50 sites where you will have an opportunity to win!
If you’re new to this site, we share magical moments every day, by providing free tech help. Our magical moments come from helping someone solve a technology problem. It could be as simple as removing the Language Bar, or as complex as removing the latest rootkit that your antivirus missed. If you have some magic to share, or just want to learn more, please visit our forums.
The Holiday Magic Prize Package:
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What’s included? It’s an impressive array HP of hardware. An awesome 25″ touchscreen desktop, a notebook with a huge 18″ screen, a 14″ entertainment notebook, and an ultra small and light, Mini1000 netbook with a 10″ screen. Plus a MediaSmart Connect that makes it easy to share media from a computer with your HDTV (photos, music, even HD video). HP accessories include a wireless All-in-One printer/scanner/copier, and a Photo Value Pak.
Microsoft wraps up the software with Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows XP (Mini 1000). Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 (1 DVD w/ 3 licenses), and Microsoft Windows Live. Completing the package is Corel VideoStudio X2, and the movie Kung Fu Panda (2 widescreen DVDs; 1 Blu-ray disc).
Yes, one lucky winner takes it all, and there are 50 chances to win. To see all 50 participating sites, visit the official HP Magic site, or view the complete list after the break…
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16 Sep, 2008
On several occasions I’ve had the chance to talk directly with Pat Moorhead, Vice President of Marketing at AMD. He is a very genuine, and honest person. He’s the kind of person you’d like to have as a next-door neighbor. How many marketing people can you say that about?
Recently, he was asked his opinions about netbooks. What is a netbook? The Asus Eee was probably the first to claim this new category. These $300-500 notebooks occupy a category previously dominated by small and light $2,500 notebooks. These minimal 9-10” systems are mostly geared to access the Internet. However, they have serious compromises. Pat argues that while netbook prices have gone up, notebook prices have come down. Battery life of the netbooks also fails to meet expectations, as well as no optical drive, small screen, and very small or no hard drive. What do you think about Pat’s comments, and about netbooks?
18 Aug, 2008
CastleCops.com has long hosted a number of databases essential for malware removal. These databases consist of information on components of wanted / potentially unwanted programs. They are especially useful when looking up suspicious entries in HijackThis logs. However, CastleCops has suffered from DDoS attacks and slow performance. Recently, its founder accepted a job with Microsoft, and the site has been unavailable for many days at a time. It’s future is uncertain.
Enter Systemlookup.com, a new home for these community contributed databases, hosted by Javacool. Javacool is the author of SpywareBlaster and other helpful tools. Systemlookup.com has an attractive, clean design, is very fast, and advertising free. While it’s still a work in progress, and new features are planned, it’s very useful.
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28 Jul, 2008
With the completion of our recent Home Data Backup Series, I found that many of the alternatives had the same downfall. They still relied on the user having to physically take the chosen backup media to a safe place for storage. While this could be as simple as taking a drive to a fireproof safe in the same office, it still took an extra step that really did not have to be necessary. It also limited access to the data. To combat this, I decided to “customize” my NewerTech miniStack NAS to make it fireproof. Throughout this article I’ll affectionately refer to this project as “The Tank”.
I have to start with a disclaimer. This unit has not been tested in an actual fire and this article will make no claims as to the amount of fire and heat this creation can stand. During the course of this article I am going to break the warranty on a few pieces of equipment. Follow these directions at your own risk. The author of this article and GeeksToGo.com assume no liability for those who choose to follow these directions.
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