Category: General Tech Info

CPU De-lidding certainly isn’t for everyone:

1. It is not a PC modification you need to do, but can help sometimes.
2. It may or may not make your system cooler.
3. It is a very delicate procedure that should only be done by a trained professional.
4. It involves opening the cleaning the cpu’s lid and then opening it to do some delicate cleaning.
5. It will void any warranty I’ve ever heard of and isn’t for the faint of heart.

Do not attempt CPU de-lidding on a system purchased from us.  It’s a cool thing to see and do, but we don’t cover physical damage and offer no warranty for that.

Because SIM cards are electronic, here is a small list of what can cause them to fail:

1. Electric shock from the battery of the device they are supposed to go in.
2. Static electricity.
3. Corrosion if exposed to excessive humidity.
4. Bad handling, like being bent.
5. Age: degradation of the materials they are made of.

Just treat your sim card with care, and your phone will have internet if the bill is paid, and the sim card is inserted correctly.

 

 

So, My experience has been rather confusing, but pleasant with the MVNO FreedomPop.  FreedomPop can use cdma or gsm unlocked phones, and they use a sprint signal for cdma phones, or a tmobile signal for gsm unlocked phones.

I can’t use FreedomPop because both of my mobile phones are gsm and carrier locked, meaning that the phone company has restricted me from using their phones on another gsm network.  Also, the phones can’t use a cdma signal from Sprint or Verizon.

When you buy a phone on installment, it is locked to the carriers network, and will only accept a sim card from that carrier.

So, both my current personal phones can’t use any other sim card other than a t mobile one.  But that is acceptable because I use google voice, and I’m ordering a new phone from another carrier.  T mobile is just too expensive, and an MVNO with a cheaper handset, sim card, and plan just makes more sense for some people.

My advice to you is to never buy an carrier locked phone, and never buy a phone on installment, and buy gsm if you can.

Do you have a laptop or desktop?  Well then chances are, it has a hard drive.  Understanding what it does in the computer doesn’t have to be all that difficult.

1. A hard drive stores the information on spinning magnetic discs permanently in your computers.
2. A hard drive keeps the information safe, even when the power is off.
3. A hard drive has moving parts.
4. A hard drive should never be opened, or permanent damage to the disks will occur.
5. A hard drive can be made of different kinds of materials, but always has magnets in it, and should never be exposed to a metal detector.

 

1. Events
   1. Are highly customizable.
   2. Not easy to use.
   3. Have notes like location, times, and more.
2. Reminders
   1. Are very simplisitic
   2. Easy to use.
   3. Have one notes section, the title, and meant for small tasks.
3. Goals
   1. Are highly customizable,
   2. Are easy to use.
   3. Are for scheduled around the other two types, and far more automated.

If You Have a busy day, using the three types of calendar notifications in google calendar can: reduce stress, improve punctuality, and more.

First things first, what’s an MVNO?  I’ll let you look into that more, but think of the big four wireless companies as limo companies that shuttle around flash drives in a limo.

Sometimes, the big four have space in the trunk, and sell it to a Mobile Virtual Network Operator.  The MVNO buys trunk space and resells it to you, sometimes at a steep discount.

Now imagine the limosines are cell towers, the trunk space is spare bandwidth, and the flash drives are your calls, texts, and data transfers.

Try one sometime, you might like the savings, can often keep your phone, and might be able to keep your number.  I’ll let you know more when I try one out this weekend, so stay tuned.

Oh, boy. Another big company in trouble. Well, technically, there are three main companies in trouble, but Intel is in the most trouble. AMD and ARM are not 100% safe, but there are and have been protocols in place with their CPUs to prevent the kind of vulnerabilities that are plaguing all modern Intel CPUs (dating back at least 20 years, allegedly). What actually goes on?

To put this in simple terms, the kernel (which sits between your operating system and your CPU and directs traffic) is supposed to separate the user’s experience from the bare metal of the processor. This means that a user who sits down at a computer cannot easily see what the CPU sees and is doing with each and every bit of information because the kernel encrypts everything. What Meltdown and Spectre do is exploit the lack of this separation and encryption to capture these individual bits of information. It is a slow process, but it can be modified to capture entire bytes at a time. This gives an attacker an easy way to surreptitiously read the information stored in memory, which can contain valuable information such as passwords, SSN, and other things which you may have had to type in.

The reason that Intel is more at risk is because an attacker can accomplish this remotely. With AMD and ARM, the risk is still there, but an attacker would need physical access to the machine due to their protocols in place that provide better separation between the user and the processor. What does this mean for Intel? Well, its stock price fell sharply in the days after the kernel bug was revealed, but that’s superficial. This means that every computer with an Intel CPU from the past decade (at least), even Macs, are vulnerable. We at Bendy Computers are taking this quite seriously, and would recommend an AMD system if you are looking for a new computer.

For your current system’s security, please accept all updates offered by your Operating System or CPU manufacturer.