Computer mice come in all size and shapes. You can buy small models for mobile use, gaming mice with more than a dozen different buttons, plain two button mice and even mice for big handed individuals.

The USB big mouse that is manufactured by Brando nevertheless plays in a different league. The USB mouse measures a whooping 175mm in length, 105mm in width and 55mm in height making it one of the largest, if not the largest, retail mouse in the world.

When you look at the product image above you will notice that it comes with flashing LED lights and a translucent edge.

The core question here is whether it is ergonomic to work with this large mouse for an extended period of time. While that certainly depends on the size of the hands of the user, it looks as if the sheer size of the mouse requires movement not only of the hand but also lower arm.

The USB mouse comes with two mouse buttons and a scroll wheel. The flashing LED light makes it more of a gadget than a piece of hardware that you could work with all day. It is not clear if the effect can be disabled.

When you search for an extra large computer mouse for large hands you do not find a lot of offers, and while the USB big mouse looks more like a gadget, it could be an alternative for users with very large hands. The mouse retails for $20. More information are available at the manufacturer website.

Which leads to the following question: Which computer mouse are you using?

The free software InfoTool is a portable application for the Windows operating system. It displays all hardware relevant information on one page in the interface.

Non-Dutch speaking users need to change the language of the application under Instellingen > Taal from Netherlands to English, Espanol or another supported language first.

Once done they get a detailed listing of the computer hardware. This includes information about the computer’s motherboard, process, memory, hard disks, sound cards, graphics cards, display and even the network card among other information.

The information presented on the screen should be enough to answer most hardware related compatibility questions. Some information on the other hand ware not as detailed as they could be. You do not get a listing of all computer ports for instance, and it takes a little bit of digging to sort out the number of memory modules installed on the system.

Some elements have not been translated into English, you will encounter the odd Dutch word even if you have selected English as the interface language. It is distracting but not to hard to figure out.

The program ships with an adviser module that can be used to find out if your computer supports a specific PC game. The information presented there are mostly in Dutch. It is still possible to understand if your computer meets the selected game’s requirements though. The software ships with hundreds of games listed including Assassin’s Creed 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Modern Warfare 2 or the latest The Sims game.

It lacks information about some of the newer games that have been released recently or are about to be released. Another issue here is that the game information may not include Windows 7 in which case the program will report a compatibility error when in fact there is none.

Windows users can download InfoTool from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. (via)

RAID is an acronym that stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and as this suggests, combines multiple hard-drives that work together, so that if one hard-drive goes down, your data storage does not. A basic RAID configuration might be Raid 1, or Raid 0.

Raid 1 is a basic raid setup where two disks are used together, and data is “mirrored” from one disk to another. The two disks are considered to be one disk as far as your operating system is concerned, and will continue to function as long as one disk remains operating. The advantage of Raid 1 is you can lose one drive and keep going. The disadvantage is if you use two drives say of 500GB, you only get 500GB of space, not 1TB. So you lose half of the space you’d normally have out of those two drives. So you’re trading space for redundancy.

Raid 0 isn’t really raid at all, and is where two or more disks are used together to increase the size of a virtual raid disk. For example, three 1TB drives work together to make one 3TB drive. The raid configuration also provides improved performance. The problem with this is, if one disk out of your three dies, then you lose the entire array. For this reason, Raid 0 isn’t used a great deal, except in combination with Raid 1. For example you could have two virtual raid 0 disks combined with Raid 1, so you get an increase in performance and redundancy thrown in. Using the examples above you could have a 3TB raid array combining raid 1 and raid 0, but that would cost you six 1TB drives.

Another way to do it, is to use raid 5. A raid 5 array distributes the data across the total amount of disks, increasing performance and at the same time providing redundancy. Using our six 1TB drives in raid 5 configuration, we would end up with a 5TB raid array. If any of the six disks go down, the array continues to operate, as it automatically uses data from the remaining five to reconstruct the data from the sixth. The array will have a reduced performance until the broken drive is replaced, but all data will be intact. The only way you can lose data with a raid 5 drive is if two drives fail at the same time, which is highly unlikely. You can even configure a hot spare drive, that isn’t used in the raid array for any purpose except to be added should one of the main drives goes down. The hot spare can then be converted to an array drive and you continue until you install a replacement.

So to summarize, raid 5 allows you to store data with increased disk performance, and also allows you to lose one drive to failure without affecting your data.

What do they look like?

Hardware keyloggers can be hard to spot. They are typically small and can be plugged into the back of a computer, unseen. They often look like a USB flash drive or a keyboard connector. They are easily found online; even Amazon has several them. If you see any device plugged into a computer that is not yours, consider this a red flag. While there is a good chance the device will look like one shown in the link or below, there are others out there.

Why are they legal?

While they may be useful in fraud and identity theft, they do have valid uses. In testing software, knowing exactly what a user did is useful to programmers. That can effectively pin-point a problem in code. Employers can use them to monitor the progress and productively of employees. Some manufacturers advertise them as a form of backup, keeping each page you write even if the power goes out. While arguments can be made that they are more often used for nefarious reasons, in the right hands, they are a useful tool.

Have they actually been found on public computers?

Yes. Earlier this year, there was a case where hardware keyloggers were found on library computers in Manchester. In three separate locations, the devices were found plugged into public access machines. The type used here was the kind that looked like a USB flash drive. Authorities advise greater vigilance, especially for the employees, but users need to be alert too.

It should be noted that it is generally unwise to use public computers for sensitive data. E-mail, banking sites, and credit card use should be avoided when on these computers. If you have to use them, here are some tips. Ask how the computers are protected. Do they block software installation? Are they wiped on reboot with software like Deep Freeze? If so, could they restart the computer for you (wiping out most software keyloggers)? Always use a secure connection (https) when possible, and be alert to your surroundings (e.g. watch those around you, know what is connected to the PC). This still is not as safe as a home computer running a live CD, but there is not much more you can do.

What do I do if I find one on a work computer?

It should go without saying that you should contact IT and your manager immediately. Should you remove it? Ask. If the company owns a PC, they can install a keylogger on it. What is deemed notification (if required) can vary by state and country. Typically, a software keylogger would be more conventional, so a hardware one is suspect. Chances are that it was planted, but if that is the case, then it is evidence. Physical and digital forensic information can be gathered. Let someone responsible for and trained for this handle it.

Should one of these devices be found on a server, the problem is much more severe. It highlights a lack of physical security. A strong firewall, good anti-virus software, proper permissions, and complex passwords will not protect you from a trick like this.

The Point: Awareness

The point of this article is to be aware of the existence of these deices. They do exist, but they are not commonly seen. If you do see one on a computer, let someone know. Chances are they are not supposed to be there. While they are legal to own, it is illegal to install them on computers for public use or on systems someone does not own.

HWiNFO32 displays a system summary window and its main user interface on startup. The system summary displays realtime system information, from the processor and video card clock to supported cpu features and motherboard interfaces.

Information that you can grab from the screen include the cpu, video card, computer memory and motherboard model and specification. This can for instance be handy to see if there are firmware updates for the bios version, or driver updates for the graphic card. While it is not possible to search for those from within the application, it makes it easier to find the right driver information online as you can make a detailed search for those updates.

The main application window lists hardware groups on the left, and detailed information about devices in that group on the right. The level of detail exceeds that of the Windows Device Manager and the Bios device listing.

Here is a short list of useful hardware information displayed by the program:

• The Ultra-DMA mode of every drive, TRIM support if the drive is a SSD, drive features, SMART information
• Memory command rates, speed, manufacturer and module part number. Memory type and size.
• Motherboard model and chipset, PCH features supported, BIOS version and date.
• Processor name and frequency, max temperature levels, operating points, caches and feature flags.
• Netword card, mac address, maximum link speed and buffers.
• Monitor name, serial number and dpms modes, supported video modes.

The program has a report option which can be used to save a detailed hardware report in various formats to the local PC. Reports can be saved as text, xml or HTML files among other options.

A click on Sensors displays sensor information, including thermal sensor readings. You see the cpu, pch, motherboard, video card and hard drive temperatures, fan speeds and core voltage information.

The program keeps track of max and min values for as long as it is running in the background. Handy to assess the temperature levels or voltages over time, for instance to see if crashes or lock-ups are caused by critical temperature levels.

Alerts and notifications can be configured if values reach critical levels. The program supports a wide variety of options in this regard, from playing a sound and running a program to displaying information on Logitech LCD keyboards or a sidebar gadget.

HWiNFO32 comes with a benchmarking tool to benchmark the cpu, memory and disk. It is recommended to disable all running applications before the benchmark is started for clearer results.

The developers have included an automatic update check in the application to keep the program up to date automatically. This is completely optional but handy if installed hardware is not recognized correctly or fully supported by the hardware information tool.

HWiNFO32 is packed to the brim with hardware and device related information. That, and the fact that it can be used as a portable application should be reason enough to include on a CD or USB stick full of system repair, maintenance and analysis tools.

Is there anything missing? Well, the application missed the cpu fan on our Windows 7 test system, but that was the only thing missing.

However… on that last point, are you aware that the keyboard you’ve just spent huge sums of money on could be dead within weeks with no hope of having it replaced by the manufacturer?

I was in just this situation recently with a keyboard that had fallen foul of a white wine spillage.  It’s wasn’t large, only a small dash of no more than 5ml.  You would expect any modern keyboard, with modern production standards and given everything we know historically about keyboards and food and fluid spillages to be able to withstand such a spillage.  Indeed, most consumers and businesses would expect any and all keyboards to be able to withstand something small.

Sadly on this occasion, and within just a few seconds, the keyboard was rendered useless and has not worked since.  This seemingly tiny volume of wine stopped some keys working forever and caused many others to record incorrect key-presses or to auto repeat when just tapped once.

The keyboard in question was only two months old but the spillage wasn’t covered by the warranty.  There’s no point in saying it was caused by something else either as water damage of any type is very easy to spot and diagnose on electronics, just ask anyone who’s dropped their mobile phone in their drink.

A call to the manufacturer was met with sympathy but very little actual help and a voucher code arrived in my inbox towards the cost of a new keyboard.  This wouldn’t cover the vast bulk of the cost though.

I later called back in my capacity as a gHacks editor and was told that none of the keyboards from this particular manufacturer were considered spill-proof!  I pressed further with this and found that while a few of their keyboards had drainage holes, the design of the rest didn’t allow for these and so there was nowhere for any fluid to go once it hit the keyboard.

Further investigation of their website made no reference to any of this on the product pages.  Even the keyboards with drainage holes didn’t have this fact mentioned.  There was no reference at all unless you dug really deep into the FAQs and then the only reference was an article saying that all keyboards should be considered “non spill-proof” unless this was specifically mentioned in the product information, which again, it wasn’t.

Now I’m not going to single out this single manufacturer, firstly because when I pushed the issue about the lack of information on their website and that most people would expect a certain degree of spill-resistance they did their best to help resolve the problem for me, but also because I don’t believe this particular manufacturer’s products are any better or worse than any other.

It is significant to note however that such a basic feature of keyboard seems to have been dropped from modern designs.  The moral of this story is that if you are considering spending a sizeable sum of money on a particular keyboard it’s wise to contact the manufacturer first to check exactly how spill-proof it is, if at all.

There are generally two types.  The best type is channels designed specifically to drain fluid away from the keyboard.  If a keyboard has these you can be certain that it will be mentioned.  You would normally only expect to find such a feature on high-end laptops though.  The other is the drainage holes I have mentioned earlier.  The manufacturer of my particular keyboard was at pains to stress though that the existence of such holes did not make the keyboard spill-proof as you can never protect against large amounts of fluid and there’s no way of knowing where on the keyboard it will fall.  These drainage holes, for fairly obvious reasons, can’t be everywhere.

It’s a tremendous shame that in this age where we’re all trying to use fewer of the planet’s resources that electronics products generally are coming with shorter and shorter life-expectancies.  This news simply comes as another blow so when you’re buying your next expensive keyboard it can be a wise move to do a thorough research job first.

HWM BlackBox is another system information tool for Windows that displays relevant information in a clean interface.

The program makes use of a tabbed interface to display information about the PC’s processor, memory configuration, graphics and additional hardware.

hwm blackbox

• Processor: Displays the cpu model, codename, technology, socket, revision, instruction sets, L1-L3 cache settings, speed, multiplier, bus speed and voltage. The same screen offers realtime values of each cpu core, including temperature, usage and speed values.
• Memory: The memory tab lists everything there is to know about the installed RAM, from the total size and memory type to its frequency and speed. Each memory module can be analyzed separately on the left side. The program displays information like the manufacturer, supported frequencies, CL and voltage levels or bandwidth. Great for users who plan to add another memory module but cannot remember the type and manufacturer they have in their PC.
• Graphics: Displays information about the graphics adapter. This includes basic information like the manufacturer, series and model to advanced information like gpu, shader and memory speeds, transistors, the temperature and the pixel fill rate. The tab comes with an option to switch to other graphics adapters of the system to display their values.
• System: Combines information about several hardware devices. This includes the motherboard, hard drives, optical drives and network adapters.

system information

The last tab offers to run Windows Performance tests, a feature only available on Vista and Windows 7.

A tiny button in the tabbar contains options to export hardware information into a text or XML file, change the hardware refresh speed rate, and to open an Overclocking Panel which provides an overview of overclocked components of the PC.

overlcocking panel

The hardware monitor displays lots of relevant information about a computer’s hardware. The realtime values that are automatically updated add a lot to the value of the software. It may not offer as many detailed information about the PC system than other programs, but the information gathered and displayed should be enough for most purposes.

HWM Blackbox is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit edition for Windows operating systems. The program requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or higher. (via Web Trickz)

The benefit of building a PC instead of buying one is that the builder can customize the hardware configuration. There are usually some shops in the vicinity that offer to build the computer from the components picked by the user for a small fee. That might be an interesting option for users who are not confident to build the PC themselves but still want to have the control over the hardware selection process:

The following computer is not an ulta-high-end computer. It instead offers great performance for its price which is everything that I care about. It should also be relatively quiet thanks to the selection of specific hardware that is quieter than the usual solutions found in pre-build PCs.

There have been some changes since the last build. Ati has released the DirectX 11 compatible Ati Radeon 5000 series of video cards. Another thing to consider is that USB 3.0 devices will be more common in this year and that the computer should be have USB 3.0 if such devices will be or might be bought in the future.

Main PC build:

CPU: Intel Core i7-860 [$280]
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler [$60], requires a 120mm fan to be bought separately for about [$20]
Computer Memory: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) [$300]
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 (comes with USB 3.0) [$135]
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon 5770 Vapor-X [$180]
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 [$90] or any other sound card for that matter depending on your sound system setup. Onboard sound might be fine to for some users.
Hard Drives: 2x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive [$200] ; OCZ Vertex Turbo OCZSSD2-1VTXT60G 2.5″ 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) [$269] for operating system, applications and games.
Power Supply: Seasonic X-650 [$170]
Case: SILVERSTONE Fortress Series FT02B-W Black Aluminum / Steel Computer Case – Retail [$239]
Computer Keyboard: Logitech G110 [$80]
Computer Mouse: Logitech G500 [$60]

Alternative build:

The alternative build replaces some components to reduce the price of the PC system.

CPU: Intel Core i7-860 [$280]
CPU Cooler: boxed cooler that ships with the cpu [$0]
Computer Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) [$95]
Motherboard: MSI P55M-GD45 (comes without USB 3.0) [$120]
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon 5770 Vapor-X [$180]
Sound Card: none, onboard sound used instead [$0]
Hard Drives: Western Digital Caviar Black WD10000LSRTL 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive [$105]
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V [$100]
Case: NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail [$30]
Computer Keyboard: Generic keyboard [$20]
Computer Mouse: Generic mouse [$20]

The alternative build is more than $1000 cheaper than the initial build. It is not as fast and quit as the original PC but it is still a great computer system.

What are your thoughts on the two builds? Would you replace hardware or add other hardware? Let us know in the comments.

To combat this problem, I’ve decided its time for me to buy an external hard drive. I figure 500 GB is more than enough for me right now. What’s confusing me though is choosing which hard drive to buy. I’ve settled on a 2.5″ drive that draws power from the USB port so I won’t have to worry about an external power source. After a fair amount of research and considering my budget, I’ve narrowed my choice down to these two:

Seagate FreeAgent Go
Transcend StoreJet 25M

I’m getting a lot of conflicting reviews about both drives which is why I’m asking the Ghacks readers to help me make my decision. Here are some of my queries:

Multiple OS support: My primary computer runs Windows XP but I also own a laptop that’s running Ubuntu. I’d prefer something that works out of the box with both but I’m not averse to a little tweaking if necessary.

Partitioning: Would I need to partition my drive? I’m planning to segregate the data according to its format but can I just copy everything on it or should I create dedicated partitions? Should I leave some space free in case I want to install a portable version of an OS?

Durability: What’s the point in spending all that cash if my HD’s going to conk out after a while? Is build quality a factor and how long can I expect the drive to last?

What do you think of my choices? Have I missed anything out? What are you using for external storage and are you happy with it? Let me know in the comments.

This all occurred to me when I recently bought my Palm Pre. After buying the device and returning to the car, I expected to use the same car charger I used for my previous Blackberry Curve to charge my new device. But when I opened the USB 2.0 jack I found out I was out of luck. So on my way to South Carolina I had to stop by a Sprint store and shell out nearly $30 for a charger. Why couldn’t Blackberry, Palm, Apple and Samsung agree to use the same type of charger?

That might have been one case, but it’s not the first, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets frustrated when they have to buy a million and one variations of the same cable to do the same damn thing. I’m not saying we have to compromise performance, but just like all (well almost all) cell phone manufacturers have agreed to use either miniSD or microSD in their devices, it’s the same thing that should be done to stuff like headphone jacks chargers and better yet accessories.

I have no idea what Google and HTC were thinking when they didn’t equip a standard 3.5mm jack on the G1. Or why do we need to have ‘Apple Certified’ accessories for our iPhone’s. Yes I know the answer, its just a way for these companies to make more money even after they sell a device, because since Apple and Sony have certified accessories for their iPod and PSP line (respectively), you’ll notice that they will void your warranty if they can prove you used an accessory that was not approved by them And of course the certified accessories are more expensive cause the manufacturers are going to transfer their licensing fees to the consumer.

Thankfully there has been progress especially with Bluetooth, FireWire, CF card, eSATA and of course the indispensable Universal Serial Bus. I’m sure it’s going to take a while before I’m able to transfer my Palm Pre battery to my Motorola Q or worse notebook, or use the same charger I have plugged into my notebook for charging my cellphone, but at least some progress is here. Will ya speed it up though?

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

The software program displays a list of all devices that are currently connected to the local computer system. The display is very informative and it is possible to get an overview of all the connected drives in a few seconds. Information like the drive letter, label, type, size, vendor or format are displayed. It is furthermore possible to filter the list to hide certain types of drives like those that are not mounted at the moment or network drives.

The header of the application contains links to several functions and options that can be used to manage the drives. It is for example possible to explore the drives, look at their properties and smart values (for hard drives), run check disk, hide them from the system or use the subst command to substitute drive letters.

Additional options are provided in the main menu that include benchmarking a drive, defragmenting it, ejecting CD or DVD drives or mapping network drives.

Drive Manager is a free and portable computer program for the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

The television is sold in different sizes (as usual) including 46″ and 55″ with all models sharing the same feature set which includes energy efficient backlighting (lead and mercury free, energy star compliant), 1920×1200 Full HD support, 120 Hz Auto Motion Plus refresh rate and Internet connectivity.

The ultra slim design of the LED 7000 makes it an ideal candidate for a wall mount. Only one screw needed to mount the TV which makes the process easier and more efficient. A wireless or wired connection is available to connect the television to the network and the Internet. It can display widgets on screen that can display news or websites. Not sure if that is a killer feature but it might come in handy in certain situations.

What makes me consider buying the TV is the energy efficiency, the image quality and the wall mounting capability.

Which TV would you buy if you could select one?

First thing was to check the installed hardware in the Windows Control Panel. If you operate a different operating system you need to find and access the equivalent there. The LAN was not listed there anymore. That was bad. It could have been a driver problem so the next step was to check for hardware that was not installed yet. The LAN was not found there either.

Next step was to reboot the computer and check in the Bios. While doing that I verified that the LAN led was still on. The BIOS showed zero LAN configuration options. I knew that there were some before which gave me the confirmation that something was seriously wrong. Next step CMOS reset. This is done by setting a jumper on the motherboard. The LAN options did not show up then either. I could have tried installing a new BIOS but this sounded awfully risky with dead components on the motherboard.

You got two options basically at this point. The fast option is to add a new PCI LAN card and install it on the computer system. Good LAN cards should provide better performance than onboard LAN. That’s what I did. The other option is to contact the manufacturer of the motherboard and wait for an answer. Can take some days, usual result is a replacement or repair which can take weeks or even months. Not a good option if you need to be online most of the day.

To put everything in a list:

• Check if the operating system lists the onboard component.
• Check if it can be found by scanning for hardware.
• Check if the lights are on (if it has lights)
• Shutdown the computer and see if everything is connected properly
• Check the Bios for the onboard component
• Reset the Bios
• Replace the Nic or replace the motherboard or contact support.

Do you have any additional tips on how to cope with a dead onboard LAN?

Driver Sweeper has been covered about two years ago at Ghacks. The software has been designed to cleanup device driver leftovers both on the hard drive and the Windows Registry. The software program comes as a portable version or installer and can cleanup driver and Registry leftovers of the following hardware devices:

• AGEIA – PhysX
• ATI – Display
• Creative – Sound
• Microsoft -Mouse
• NVIDIA – Chipset
• NVIDIA – Display
• Realtek – Sound

While that does not cover all hardware devices it does provide the means to cleanup several of the most popular. All the user needs to do is to select and check one or multiple entries from the list and click on the Analyse button afterwards.

The program will scan the system for files and Registry settings for the selected type of hardware and display those in a list. All entries are checked by default and can be cleaned from that window. It is also possible to uncheck certain entries before starting the device driver cleanup process.

The developers of Driver Sweeper are recommending to uninstall the hardware using the uninstallation routines provided by the Windows operating system and / or hardware manufacturer before running their product to find and cleanup the leftovers. They also suggest to run Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode so that the tool can safely delete the files and Registry settings.

The software has an option to create backups of the device drivers which is highly recommended before starting the cleanup process. Another possibility is the software device driver backup which we covered before at Ghacks.

The disk storage format tool displays a simple dialog after execution. The connected and recognized USB devices are listed on top. After making a selection there the user can select a file system for the USB device including the NTFS file system. It is furthermore – but not at the same time – possible to make the USB disk storage device bootable from DOS which is an excellent way of installing new software or running diagnostic software programs on a computer system without having to boot in the operating system itself.

The HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool will recognize many but not all USB devices that are connected to a computer.

The disk storage format tool has a size of roughly 2 Megabytes and needs to be installed on the computer system before it can be used.

A driver is a small software program that allows your computer hardware to communicate with the operating system installed on your machine. That means every piece of hardware right from the keyboard and mouse to your CD-Rom drive, video cards, etc. needs a driver if it’s going to function properly, irrespective of whether you’re a Linux or Windows user.

Almost all of us have faced driver problems at one time or the other. This can happen when you’re doing a fresh install, re-installing an OS, switching from one OS to another or for a reason you just cannot fathom. The easiest solution in most cases is to just re-install the driver. But what if you don’t have it?

For missing or corrupt drivers, Nodevice is your savior. The website boasts of a collection of more than 30,000 drivers on their website. Drivers are categorized either according to their use or the company who manufactures them. This way you can find the driver you’re looking for easily in case you know the model number of your device.

Nodevice has drivers available for all sorts of hardware, including mobile phones, usb devices, and mp3 players. To download a driver, click on the one you want, wait a few seconds (a la Rapidshare) and then save the file to your computer. The site also has a Help section for new users who need help with installing and removing drivers or finding which one is right for them.

A site like Nodevice is handy to have around when the driver you want is unavailable at the original manufacturer’s site. The only thing you have to be careful of is that you install the right driver for your machine.

What do you think of Nodevice? Is it helpful for new users? Do you know of any other sites like it? Where do you normally check for missing drivers? Let me know in the comments.

Hardware: Trent (the author) suggests scouting around garage sales and social networks specializing in giveaways to find free or cheap hardware. This includes the CPU with a CD or DVD drive, a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. He also threw in speakers. His theory is that people are forever upgrading their computers and usually get rid of good quality equipment for free or at a throwaway price. According to him, this is the only step of the process that involves spending money.

Software: For the OS, Trent recommends the Linux distro Ubuntu. Like most Linux distros, this one is a free download or you can have the Ubuntu folks mail you an installation CD. Ubuntu comes with almost all the programs an average person needs on their PC.

My thoughts: While Trent’s PC building post suggests that a cheap PC is possible, I’m not so convinced. For one thing, picking up hardware at a garage sale can score you a good deal, you also have no idea what you’re getting. Not to mention the havoc someone can wreck with a hard disk that hasn’t been wiped clean.

My other source of hesitation is the choice of Ubuntu. While I have no problems with it, I don’t think it’s effective for computer novices, who are the recipients of this kind of PC. Thirdly, old hardware components are notoriously power-hungry. There’s no point in building a cheap PC if it’s going to feast on your power bill.

Overall, I think it’s possible to build a cheap PC but you may just get more than you bargained for. What do you think of these PC-building suggestions? Would you want to use a computer built this way? What’s the cheapest you think a PC should cost for a novice user? Let me know in the comments.

Most companies do not seem to think that giving the user choice is a wise thing to do. If you have ever installed a Windows operating system you probably know what I mean. But this article is less about Windows but about the general lack of choice in consumer products and one of the best examples that is affecting me day in day out is the blue blinking light of my Nokia N73 mobile phone.

The phone is starting to blink blue every five seconds or so if it is in sleep mode. Sleep mode has the advantage that the phone is using less battery. It is only possible to turn off the blue light if sleep mode is turned off which would mean that the battery of the phone would drain faster.

Nokia did not think that it would be necessary to give the user the choice to turn of the blue light of the phone but still offer him the choice to keep the sleep mode. The phone has to be placed with the face down to avoid the blue light which is annoying at night.

That’s a case of bad choice on behalf of Nokia to give the user no choice at all but to live with it. I really cannot see the reason why they decided to construct it that way. I also fail to see why Microsoft is not giving its users more choice when installing Windows.

Most customers can probably live happily without facing choices which could make the products more difficulty but that’s where custom setups and settings come into play.Give the average user the default installation but please provide experienced users with a way to customize the product accordingly.

Have you discovered a product like the Nokia N73 that is giving you no choice but to use a feature that you do not need? Let me know about them.

Some information about the drive. I ordered an OCZ 64 Gigabyte Core Series Sata II 2.5″ Solid State Drive which can be connected with the normal SATA cables. It’s pretty tiny, completely silent and I had to think a bit before I found a placement in my computer for it. Since I’m not moving my computer I put it on top of the 3,5″ bay.

It was immediately recognized by the Bios if my computer and by Windows without having to install drivers or do a Bios update. Keep in mind that I have a relatively new Bios from January 2008 though.

The only thing that I did so far was to install Windows XP on the drive and do all the driver and system updates. I have not installed any applications except for Firefox and Thunderbird yet.

Please point me to any benchmarking tests or other tests that you would like to have performed so that we can evaluate how fast the drive actually is. I’m thinking of benchmarking system start and startup of several applications that I will install on both hard drives. (I have another Windows XP system on my old hard drive).

So, if you got anything let me know and I will perform the test if I can grab the right software to do it.

The matter is even getting more pressing if the supply is limited, say a limited edition of a computer game or a super duper price for a product that usually costs a lot more. That’s like putting more pressure on the consumer and it usually works.

I’m sometimes hard pressed to stop myself from buying a device after reading about it on the Internet. I came up with a system that is beating impulse buying fair and square and it will definitely save you some money.

It’s actually a pretty easy system. If I see or read about something that I want I think about it for a second. Do I really need the device right now? The answer would be yes in the case of a crashed hard drive but no for a gamin system or computer game.

Every item where I come to the conclusion that I do not need it right away lands on my 90-days list. I add the date and the name of the product on that list. I check back after 90 days and see if I still want to buy that product. If I do I buy it but more often than not I don’t care anymore. Let me give you an example where this worked perfectly.

You might remember that I wanted to buy a SSD (Solid State Drives) for my new computer. SSDs were expensive and rare at that time and most could not really live up to the promise. I put that SSD drive on my 90 days list and ordered one just a few days ago because I still wanted one. Those 90 days however saw some great product releases of reliable and fast SSD drives and I was able to grab one of the fastest for a third of the price that I would have paid back then. As I said, it works pretty well and more often than not it saves you money.

Ladies, this works extremely well for non-tech related products like shoes, perfumes, clothes or books.