Mr. BlahLaLa and I are considering buying Kid BlahLaLa a laptop for his 10th birthday. (We want him to be able to play Minecraft and browse the internet.) We're a Mac family but I'm pretty sure this computer will have to be non-Mac because they're so much cheaper, which in turn opens up a whole world of internet security questions that I usually don't think about on my mac. Plus the whole idea of "Now I'm giving my kid a computer, what do I need to think about?" type of stuff. [more inside]
posted by BlahLaLa on Mar 2, 2013 - 13 answers

Can you bring me up to date with the state of Linux desktop environments? [more inside]
posted by deadwax on Jun 19, 2012 - 12 answers

Are my odds of working in a technical field substantially lower because I don't "buy into" the lifestyle? [more inside]
posted by Nomyte on May 23, 2011 - 25 answers

Looking for examples where large amounts of data + large amount of computer processing power = discovering unexpected patterns. [more inside]
posted by flashboy on Oct 27, 2010 - 9 answers

How can I best transfer all of my paper to the cloud and make it searchable? [more inside]
posted by allfortheBoss on Jun 16, 2010 - 7 answers

How much data, in bytes, does an old fashioned FORTRAN punch card hold? [more inside]
posted by codacorolla on Jan 13, 2010 - 16 answers

In the first half of the 20th century groups of scientists in United States created the first electronic computers, fitting big halls, they needed permanent assistance because of overheating and continuous repair. The price of the construction and the maintenance was probably huge. Having such a thing was expensive, it seemed to be probably a luxury what only very very few countries could afford at that time. BUT, there was a scientist who prognosed that at the end of the 20th century every country in the world will be able to afford such a machine. He was obviously true. Now every country has at least one computer. My question(s): Who was this person? Where and when did he told what he told? And the exact citation would be appreciated. I am very sure it was he, the club of computers was filled by gentlemen at this time I think. I don't know whether it was Neumann or someone else. Please help, I am very curious about this. I did not find the answer by myself, for sure you all now more. Thanks! [more inside]
posted by fifigyuri on Sep 9, 2009 - 6 answers

I'm helping out an elderly lady who is using a laptop with XP which is showing signs of unreliability. It is now permanently sat on a table so it doesn't get moved around. She is especially concerned about a failure leading to a loss of outlook express e-mails. This person is easily confused by all things computer related so it has to work with minimum intervention and be as simple as possible. I was thinking of using an external drive and Acronis true image 11 home. I would set up True image to mirror on to the external drive. I was also thinking of automatically forwarding all outlook express mails to a web mail account - yahoo mail - as she has a yahoo account already. Being able to read from a webmail account would allow uninteruped service should anything go wrong. Is there anything wrong with this?
posted by conrad101 on Aug 18, 2008 - 11 answers

Tell me about Network Attached Storage ( NAS )? In particular what current manufactuers should I avoid for a typical 1 terabyte (or greater) RAID array? I'm also interested in general information and pitfalls for NAS devices and implementations. [more inside]
posted by loquacious on Aug 10, 2008 - 13 answers

Can you help me decide between PDA's, Smartphones, Pocket PCs and the year 2008? I am looking most specifically for info on the Sony Clie PEG NX70V ... IPAQ 4350 ... and IPAQ 2215. But advice on any of this would be immensely helpful! I did search AskMeFi, but found only info for new equipment or old posts. I'm talking used equipment instead, older but able to keep up with current software stuff. (More inside) [more inside]
posted by thewhynotgirl on Jan 24, 2008 - 20 answers

I need recommendations for a scanner that will scan documents into black-and-white PDF files in a quick, clear and crisp fashion. I am also interested in hearing of any brands to avoid. [more inside]
posted by invisible ink on Oct 19, 2007 - 8 answers

If Valve's Steam means that games developers can do away with publisher, distributor and retailer overheads... um... why isn't everyone doing it, or similar things?
posted by Pretty_Generic on Nov 10, 2004 - 13 answers

I've been told the computer hardware industry is based on holding back the release of existing technologies so that people upgrade in small increments. Is this true? If so, wouldn't the first company to break the rule get a chance to dominate the market? Is there some kind of backroom deal going on?
posted by Pretty_Generic on Oct 11, 2004 - 9 answers

Does anyone out there have contacts with anyone at IBM? Specifically the original engineers of the IBM 5100 computer from 1975 that was built in Rochester, Minnesota? I have been researching the story of John Titor and I was wondering if the claims at Titor's Claims on the 5100 can be verified.
posted by banished on Jan 26, 2004 - 5 answers

After perusing bluehammer's question regarding his inlaws and his computer, it made me onder-is there any source online that would walk the average naive computer user thru some of these basic solutions to problems-and in some cases point out the problems in the first place? My son and husband are geeks, to be sure, but I would like to learn this sort of thing on my own. (Don't ask me to get them to show me-I don't need the aggravation.)
posted by konolia on Dec 26, 2003 - 2 answers