On older machines, and even sometimes on not-so-old machines, Windows Explorer can get sluggish, and painful to use. It may happen suddenly and it may be happening all the time. In either case, here’s how to fix it when Windows Explorer gets slow.
How to keep paint brushes from drying out
It’s inevitable. You’re painting, and you reach a point where you have to let the paint dry, or you’re just out of time for the day. But you’re going to have to come back and paint again, so it seems like a waste to clean the brush, only to load it up with the same color paint again. Here’s how to keep paint brushes from drying out. Both during a project and at the end of the project.
What is daisy chaining?
At my second job at Best Buy, we were taking out a display to make way for flashy new product that needed lots of space. That meant a new shelf layout, and new power strips. “No daisy chaining!” the manager bellowed as we plugged in the power strips. But what is daisy chaining? And is it always bad?
Daisy chaining means plugging one device into another, like tying together a garland from daisy flowers, rather than running wires all the way back to the original source. Daisy chains can be used for transmitting power, data, or both.
Laser printer streaks and how to fix them
Laser printers tend to be fairly low-maintenance items. When they start printing streaks across your pages, that’s how you know it’s time for service. It doesn’t usually mean you need a new printer. Here’s how to fix laser printer streaks.
Laser printer streaks usually mean the printer’s toner cartridge or drum unit has a problem. On some printers the drum unit is part of the toner cartridge, but on cheaper printers, it may be a separate piece.
Why Amiga failed
I defiantly celebrated the 25th anniversary of Windows 95 by buying myself an Amiga 500. That relic from 1987 did everything Windows 95 did, and it ran an operating system that first appeared on the market 10 years before Windows 95. It was easily 10 years ahead of its time. But it flopped. Here’s why Amiga failed.
There wasn’t any single thing that brought Amiga and its parent company, Commodore, down. If anything, the Amiga is a cautionary tale of how good engineering won’t save you if you get everything else wrong.
Commodore 1570 disk drive
The Commodore 1570 disk drive was an odd, short-lived product from Commodore in 1985. Like many things Commodore did that year, it solved an inventory problem for them, but can leave people scratching their heads today.
The Commodore 1570 looks like a mashup between the 1541 and 1571 drives, and that’s exactly what it is. It’s a fast 1541 designed for the Commodore 128.
AST Computers and AST Research
AST Research was a high-flying brand in the early 1990s, but faded in the second half, making it a somewhat obscure 1990s computer brand. Their computers had a good following in the first half of the decade and they were generally high quality. But financial problems sunk the company in 1999 and an effort to revive the brand failed in 2001.
AST Research shifted from making add-on cards in the 1980s to making entire PCs in the 1990s, but as PCs shifted to commodity parts under price pressure, AST failed to adapt. This led to a rapid decline in market share and the once-popular mass market PC brand disappeared from store shelves.
Atari SDrive Max
I got an SDrive Max for my Atari 800 and I really like it. It took a little doing to get it working for me. Hopefully you won’t have the same troubles I did. If you are, hopefully what helped me will help you. Let’s take a look at the Atari SDrive Max and what it does for you.
SDrive Max is a modern storage solution for vintage Atari 8-bit computers that uses SD cards. By storing images on the card, the Atari can boot off the image as if it were a floppy drive.
How to not drill too deep
Sometimes when you’re working on a project, you have to drill a hole to a certain depth, and you don’t want to go completely through your workpiece. How do you not drill too deep? Here’s how.
To not drill too deep, you need to stop the drill from going any further than you want. You can use something called a drill stop to do this, or you can improvise your own with stuff you probably have in your shop.
How to cut rigid foam insulation board
Rigid foam insulation board claims to be easy to cut. It says right on the board, usually. But when someone saw me doing that in the Home Depot parking lot, he said, “You’re a braver soul than me!” But if you know my trick, it’s not hard. Here’s how to cut rigid foam insulation board, with simple hand tools, and minimal mess. The best way to cut foam board even allows you to cut it right in the Home Depot parking lot, so the board will fit in a small SUV.
Thin foam board will cut with just a utility knife, but you can easily cut the thicker 2-inch boards, even with just simple tools.