I have been a DirecTV customer since 1997, shortly after they rolled out the service, and have remained loyal and dealt with many of their growing pains. I recently decided to drop DirecTV after 15 years for several reasons.
Post Tagged with: "electronics"
How PC Fans Work
Computers and other electronics produce heat, and they need to be cooled. Most electronics depend on fans or some other type of blower to move air and cool the system. This cooling could be in the form of direct heat removal, as blowing air over a hot component (such as a heatsink), or ambient conditioning [...]
Retiring an OCMS Server
I’ve been running three servers for OCModShop for a long time. I thought it was a much better way to segment individual tasks for the whole site. At one point I had everything on one server: firewall, web, mail, and SQL. Not only were all of these services a severe resource hog, but if one [...]
VisionTek Killer HD 5770 First Look
I remember the first card nVidia ever put out.. the NV1, which was a PCI video card plus an audio card plus wavetable synthesizer plus game controller board. At the time, all of these functions were handled by several different add-on cards, and certainly not via the PCI bus. That technology was way ahead of its time, [...]
Entire PowerMat Lineup Tested
Decades ago, there was a man who had a dream of powering the entire world wirelessly. His vision was to use giant towers that would transmit electricity through the air, which would be harvested by receivers that would use them to power homes and electronics. Not that there were that many electronics back in [...]
How to Choose a Radar Detector
Radar detectors are electronic devices designed to detect radio waves. Radar detectors detect radio signals across a range of wavelengths —X, K, Ka and Ku. Radar detectors are used for a variety of purposes across the world. Radar detectors help alert motorists regarding speed traps and radar guns. Radar detectors are also used in tracking, [...]
OCZ Sabre OLED Gaming Keyboard Review
When you see something new and innovative like an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) keyboard, one can’t help but compare it to the expensive Optimus Maximus keyboard. The one feature that such a keyboard desprately needs is a drool-guard, as every technophile would hover over its beauty. Unfortunately most of us don’t have over $1000 [...]
NitroX X835 Bluetooth Handsfree Kit
Cell phones are practically ubiquotous in today’s modern society. A natural response to new technology are laws to make that technology safer. Most people use their cell phone as an extension of their physical being, and as such talk and text in the car, which have caused many unnecessary accidents. It is not advisable to [...]
Purchasing a DVD Recorder
DVD (“Digital Versatile Disk”) players and recorders have all but replaced the VCR (“Video Cassette Recorder”) and its associated analogue technology, at the heart of home entertainment systems. A DVD recorder, for example, allows you to record from standard definition, analogue television, as well as digital cable, satellite and “Freeview”, and you can, of course, [...]
nMedia Wood HTPC 8000 Case Review
Back in the day when computer modding was brand new, people came up with some of the most innovative PC cases. Some shoved their cases into custom steel cases, acrylic and even cases made from Legos. By far one of the most prestine-looking cases have been made from wood. I even did a case mod [...]
ATEN VS481A 4-port HDMI Switch Review
We have reviewed ATEN products before, as they make great KVM switches. The last one we reviewed was geared towards the PC gamer and included DMI and audio switching. Anyone who has been around home theater for the past twenty years has seen the industry change the video cables from RF cables, RCA, S-Video, component [...]
SteelSeries Xai Gaming Mouse
Readers who keep track of me (yeah, both of you) know that my favorite gaming mouse of all time is the SteelSeries Ikari laser mouse. Not only are there great professional touches, but the mouse is simple to use and provides effective features not found in any other gaming mouse… but still it could be [...]
Intensafire Xbox 360 Controller Mod
BGRMods was at PAX 09, and was showing off their Intensafire mod. This product is essentially a pre-printed circuit board that is installed into any wireless Xbox 360 controller to give it enhanced fire abilities. Unlike other modding products, the Intensafire was designed to be installed quickly without any soldering. Coy Christmas (yes that’s his real name) [...]
Zalman ZM-NC1500 Ultra Quiet Notebook Cooler Review
Notebook computer pack an awful lot of electronics into a small space. As notebooks get more powerful, so does their heat output, and people who use their notebooks as a “desktop replacement” feel all of that power on their legs (please no dirty jokes). “Gaming-worthy” notebooks have more heat issues than an office-class laptop. The [...]
Upgrade Your Laptop RAM in Less than 5 Minutes
This article is set up in two parts, one part about RAM overview and a second part about RAM upgrade. If you are curious on how the RAM works, you will find a detail summary that should give you all the information that you need to know about RAM, organization and speed. If you just [...]
Verbatim BD-R and BD-RE BluRay Media Review
Let’s face it: DVD is on the way out as a data storage medium. Don’t believe me? Do you remember when writable CDs were all the rage? I do, and I have a receipt for the $1000 2x drive to prove it. Once writeable DVDs became affordable, they were the backup medium of choice, and only [...]
Overburning: An Intro to the Dark Side
We’ve all been there. You get that file that is just a little too big for the data disc you wish to back it up to. If it’s too big for a CD-R, you could simply stick it on a DVD-R - although I consider that an immense amount of wasted space. DVD-Rs are cheap now, [...]
BringIt Lets You Compete Online For Real Cash
Recently I spoke with Bring IT CEO Woody Levin about the new online service that allows gamers to compete with one another for real cash. I want to thank Woody and Austin for making this interview happen. OCMS: What is Bring It and can you tell us how it works? Bringit is a consumer driven [...]
SunbeamTech SATA Dock
I’ve always been an advocate of external devices. Except for HDD enclosures - the lack of heat dissipation on most of them makes me shudder in my Spiderman jammies. But other stuff, like thousands of Plug N’ Play USB devices out there, have always made my eyes glaze over and my tongue hang like a puppy [...]
Sapphire Radeon HD4670 Video Card Review
The gaming industry is a competitive market these days. Everyone has to have the latest thing to keep up with the demanding, hardware sucking games that are being churned out every day with little hesitation. And the video card makers are making a killing off of us. Not just a killing, a freaking massacre. Sure, [...]
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