Top posts of 2010: A retrospective

I don’t normally do this, but then again, I’ve never had these kinds of statistics at my disposal either. So I’m going to take a minute to look back at the most popular posts of 2010, and pontificate a little about what I think each one might mean.

I really only have good statistics since October, so it’s a little unfair, but incomplete stats are better than none. I see some interesting patterns in what people ended up reading, some of it surprising, some less so.

We’ll take it from the top, rather than like a DJ.

The three most popular posts of 2010 were all about trains. Lionel has staged a comeback in recent years, and I guess there’s a bit of nostalgia going on too. Other companies are noticing that in their branding, and bringing back iconic names and symbols. I guess Lionel trains fall into that category.

I guess it doesn’t hurt that there’s so little information about Lionel and similar trains on the web. There are some forums you can go to, but I think it’s telling that people are willing to take their chances clicking on something called Silicon Underground for train advice rather than wading through what they find there.

Making your own Lionel Fastrack terminal sections

Frequent questions about setting up toy trains and trains and Christmas trees

Fixing old Lionel tubular track

This one surprised me somewhat. Information about the Slimline S7220n is extremely difficult to find. Much of what’s in this piece, I had to work out on my own. What surprised me is the number of people looking for information about that model of computer. I guess people like having a machine smaller than a shoebox and want to extend its useful life.

Upgrade and repair options: HP Pavillion Slimline s7220n

People are very concerned about SSD life expectancy, at least according to my Google search logs. The only surprise here is that this didn’t rank higher, but similar information is available elsewhere, so that may be why.

Predict your SSD life expectancy with SSDLife

A lot of people are canceling cable, and the allure of an antenna that you can make in about 30 minutes with less than $10 worth of parts and can pull in signals dozens of, if not ten dozen, miles away is undeniable. I get more than 20 channels with my very sloppily built example. I’m sure a half-hearted attempt would be absolutely amazing.

The Gray-Hoverman antenna

And we’re back to SSD life expectancy again, and a practical way to improve it. No surprises with this one.

How to check and fix disk partition alignment to improve SSD life expectancy and performance

Manufacturers take note: People are frothing at the mouth to buy Android-based tablets. This post proves people are willing to click on anything in hopes of finding one. The first company to release a decent Android tablet, slap a brand name on it that people have heard of, and price it significantly lower than Appl is going to have a very good year.

Attack of the $99 Droid-Pads

This one squeaked into the top 10, and I’m glad it did. It tells me people are asking good questions, whether they realize they are or not.

What to look for in a router

And this last one hung on, another sign of the times. The recession’s over but all that means is things aren’t getting worse now for the majority. Wallets are still thin and people are looking for bargains. But they don’t want to throw their money away either.

Are Black Friday computers a good deal?

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