General Tech

After roughly a year of blogging on Lockergnome, I’ve obtained a domain of my own, themattsmith.net, and will now be publishing content there. I do plan on continuing to maintain this site - it just won’t be my primary home on the Internet anymore.

Also, a special thanks to everyone who has ever read, visited, or commented [...]

I am currently in the process of recovering from a recent reformat. While most people find reformatting a dull, painful, and slow process, I actually take enjoyment from wiping everything and starting over. When using a computer, debris tends to accumulate as time passes, especially for power users like myself. Reformatting gives me a chance [...]

For anyone that needs a powerful computer at a reasonable price, building your own system is the obvious way to go. You can spec the build out with the exact components you want, so the system will be perfect for what it was intended for. And on top of that, you get to dive into [...]

 

I absolutely hate dealing with cables. Every time I take my computer off my desk to install a component or check a connection inside the case, it usually takes me about a half-hour to get everything set back up. There’s just something that drives me insane if all my wires [...]

I’ve lately been considering purchasing a new graphics card. When looking at the selections, I noticed that almost all of the cards on the market today still feature an S-Video output. Why?
My current graphics card has HDMI out (but it’s an 8400GS). In a couple months I plan on upgrading [...]

I went to Best Buy yesterday and bought a new Apple Wireless Keyboard. It is by far the best keyboard I have ever experienced; everything about its simple design stands out from a mile. Nothing is present you don’t need. No overcrowding function buttons on the side, no obtrusive, clunky [...]

 

High definition is not going away. It’s here to stay, like it or not. I received a TV for Christmas this past year and thought I’d share a top 5 list of things to keep in mind when purchasing a HDTV.
1. Size. While this may seem obvious, it’s important to [...]

 

There are many standards and formats in the tech world - almost so many that it’s becoming ridiculous. I’m hoping that this is temporary, and now that computers and gadgets are finally growing up, things will settle down.
Here’s a few examples:
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USB vs. Firewire
Component vs. HDMI
HDMI Audio vs. Coax vs. Optical
NTFS [...]