"Mod" is short for modification or modify. The short and sweet tech definition is: to make a modification to a product. In the tech world, however, modding a product usually means making a change to product in a way that was not intended by the manufacturer. Sometimes this may void a warranty, or worse, allow for legal action against the "modder." Let's cover the two most common ways the term "mod" (or "modding") is used...read more

Back it up or get a smack down!

We remind our readers all the time to back up their drives. It can't be stressed enough. We joke about it, saying we will personally stop by your house as the Smack Fairy. And believe us, we would leave you with red cheeks. Which cheeks? You decide ;-) But in all seriousness, if your hard drive fails you, or a nasty virus leaves your data inaccessible, you'll be praying for a smack down instead. It is just a horrible, gut-wrenching feeling when you lose all those precious family photos, school documents, resumes, and other irreplaceable data.

Not including fans, hard drives are the only major component in your computer that has moving, mechanical parts. Sometimes you are given warnings before they go bad and sometimes it's a sudden disaster. And, all too often, the data is not recoverable. Even when it is recoverable, the recovery cost is often thousands of dollars.

In recent years, many USB devices are making it even easier to back up your files. Burning to a CD used to be the method of choice. Now, you can save photos and music on USB thumb drives, iPods, or media players. Also, full disk backups are easy to do on external drives, especially since most companies include backup programs right on the drive.

So now there is no good excuse to avoid repeated backups. If you come crying to us, we will try to help. But if you didn't do your backups, be prepared for a smack down.. or a friendly "We told you so."

"Do I leave my computer on 24/7 or do I shut it off when I am not using it?" We are here to say, "It really doesn't #@%&ing matter!"  Ok, maybe it's not that cut and dry. If you need a concrete answer we would love to break it down for you.

To start with, set the monitor to shut off after 15 minutes when not in use. It'll save a few bucks, preserve monitor life, and will help prevent the screen from getting burned-in (unlike our site, that's bad!). The only time this does not apply is if the PC is being viewed for a lengthy period of time without user interaction, like watching a movie. The monitor is mentioned specifically because it SHOULD be shut down when not in use. But what about the PC as a whole? We're getting there.

If you share files 24/7, run your PC as a server, do folding@home / seti@home, or run any other program constantly, then leave the darn thing on.

The rest comes down to the almighty dollar vs. personal convenience. It may cost about $10 per month for the average user to leave their PC on 24/7. Some people like to leave the PC on every night to run tasks (anti-virus scan, defragmenter, etc). Others absolutely hate waiting for the computer to boot up. If either of these are worth $10 per month to you, then let it run 24/7.

If none-of-the-above apply to you, then turn your PC off when your not using it. Save that $100-$200 per year and go buy yourself something nice.

NOTE: Some people speak of concerns about hard drives having a shortened life due to being constantly turned off and on. The thing is, hard drive life expectancy is hard to judge; Not to mention, the replacement cost is typically well under the $100 you'd save in one year. In addition, the newer Solid State Drives (SSDs) are not affected by this issue. "BUT MY DATA IS PRECIOUS!" Exactly, that's what backups are for, but that's another tech tip...

For most of us, the User Account Control (UAC) in Vista and Windows 7 is the equivalent of the annoying "Are we there yet?" during family vacations. Fortunately, the UAC can be disabled, while silencing the kids with a firm backhand isn't quite as easy (legally). And don't do that anyway, you could hurt your hand.

Are you sick of these popups? Want to disable the UAC? Here's what you do: READ MORE