Most people still use these large projectors (seen in the picture below) because they require a lot of power for large surfaces or simply didn't hear about the latest developments in this field.

Computer Projector (Source: trendygadget.com)

This is a so-called professional computer projector, capable of displaying 1024 x 768 pixels with a 210Watt light bulb on a surface 1 to 11 meters away. Contrast ratio is at about 500:1 and the lamp life is limited to just 2500 hours in standard mode or to 3500 hours in ECO mode. Fortunately the lamp can be replaced many times before the projector becomes unusable, although manufacturers usually don't specify such time estimates.

Such professional computer projectors have a lot of signal input options from analog S-video and VGA to digital HDMI or DVI. Some are capable of producing signal on their own from a network attached device or USB storage device.

Computer Projector (Source: kitguru.net)

In the picture above you see a much more advanced computer projector, based on LED lighting. Most characteristics match those of the light bulb based models, except for the brightness, which is usually about 10 times lower, just 200 lumen in the case of the ASUS P1. Lamp life is also different on LED-based projectors, as these advanced light sources don't generate a lot of heat. This particular LED projector model can function for up to 30,000 hours with less than 20% brightness loss at the end, but it can be used a lot more until it becomes non-functional. The power consumption of such a projector is just 50Watts, while smaller models require around 8-10Watts, so they are a lot more economical than light bulb projectors.

Today (2011) I would draw the line at AM2+ / LGA775 platforms, DDR2 memory and PCI-Express 16x slots, meaning that any broken computer with parts older than these isn't worth fixing.

How To Find Compatible Computer Parts For Hp A1512x (Source: centrecommercialkahira.com)

The HP A1512x desktop computer is based on a standard mATX ASUS P5LP-LE mainboard. This is good news for owners, because it means that it can be replaced with any mATX mainboard available on the market. The only serious limitation of this desktop computer is the 300Watt power supply, which doesn't offer enough power for a high-end processor or video card.

The original mainboard supports LGA775 socket processors up to the Pentium D 8xx dual core family and any CPU cooler that is compatible with the LGA 775 processor socket. The chipset on the mainboard is an Intel 945G desktop part with Intel GMA 950 integrated video, so you don't require an additional video card to use the computer. Four DDR2 memory modules can be installed and used in dual channel mode. Total system memory size is limited to 4GB, including the video card's shared memory. In a 32bit operating system you are able to use up to 3.5GB of memory, while a 64bit operating system can access all of the installed capacity.

Any SATA and IDE device can be installed, including DVDbrners, Blu-ray burners and large hard drives. Please note that hard drives above 500GB capacity may require special settings/drivers.

How To Find Compatible Computer Parts For Hp A1512x (Source: h20000.www2.hp.com)

The PCI-Express 16X slot in theory supports any video card available today, assuming that total power consumption doesn't go over the power supply's limit (80% of 300W if the power supply is old).

All in all the HP A1512x desktop computer is still a good option for home and office work. All parts can be replaced with store-bought components, so the only problem you may have to face is the slightly higher price of DDR2 memory and LGA775 processors.

Data recovery is not a standard service, and it’s offered only by specialized companies. Unfortunately taking your computer in for data recovery will void the warranty given by the manufacturer, so the first thing you have to focus on before thinking about fixing a broken computer is you personal data.

Ideally you make daily backups on an external hard drive or network storage, so when your computer breaks down you’ll lose a days work at most. The truth is that hard drive technologies are significantly improved every year, but they still do break down even without any exterior factors. The average life of a hard drive is around 7 years, meaning that some break down after a few days, moths or year, while others become obsolete in perfectly functioning condition. Personally I still have a couple of 1-4GB hard drives from the ’90s which still don’t have any bad sectors. I use them instead of Flash Drives for installing operating systems (like UBUNTU) on computers, because they are much more reliable. Transfer rate is not so great, only 3-5MB/s, while flash drives have already broken the 100MB/s barrier (on USB 3.0 interface).

Theoretically if you have all your data on an external device you may bring the computer to an authorized service where it will be repaired in a couple of days. Some computer manufacturers also offer on-site repair, meaning that a technician will show up at your place in 24 hours after your call and will not leave until your computer is up and running again. I know that most Dell laptops and desktop have this kind of warranty. Very practical for most users, but let’s also look at an amateur solution, done at home by anyone who can use a screwdriver.

If you don’t have a backup of your data, the first thing you do after you realized that your computer has a hardware defect is taking out the hard drive and trying to copy important data onto another computer.

The perfect tool for this is a USB to IDE/SATA adapter, which can connect any laptop/desktop hard drive to any computer with a USB port. As you can see it has two IDE connectors, one is for small laptop hard drives and the other for desktop IDE devices. The SATA pport can be connected to any SATA1/2/3 device, including optical drives too. There’s usually a power supply in the retail package of the USB to IDE/SATA adapter, and it can provide about 30-40Watts of power, supporting 99% of laptop and desktop IDE and SATA drives. Before connecting a hard drive taken out of a supposedly defective computer, make sure you have a good antivirus software on the other computer, just in case.

After you connect the drive and everything seems normal, the operating system detects it, the first thing you do is find the most important files and quickly copy them onto the healthy computer. If the hard drive seems to be in perfect condition you can continue to copy all the other files you may need too. If for some non-hardware reason there aren’t any visible files on the drive, you can use one of the equally efficient recovery tools like OnTrack EasyRecovery.

These programs can scan the entire surface of the hard drive for any recoverable data including deleted or partly damaged (overwritten) files.

At this point you should have all your files copied to a secure place, and you can begin diagnosing the problem of the defective computer.

The simplest way to do that is to keep cheap replacement parts at home, for example a $10 400Watt power supply, a processor cooler for ~$5, a small hard drive for ~$35 and maybe a 1GB memory module for $20.

If the computer fans don’t start up, the first thing you do is replace the power supply. If this helped and the computer powered up, you should insert an OS installation disk into the optical drive and try to install it, but remember that some components may still be damaged, permanently.

At the end of the OS install process you should also install all necessary drivers, and after that use a diagnostic or benchmarking program to test all system components. Most benchmarks stress the components just enough to break them if they have the smallest problem. Logically if one test fails, you should replace that component with a spare, and you’re out of the woods.

The hardest problem to diagnose is any non-fatal mainboard problem, when the computer boots up, but after a while it starts giving errors. I have seen many such cases. Errors caused by a defective USB port, SATA controller, IDE controller, Floppy controller …etc. that doesn’t show at the POST (power on self test). The damaged chips simply overheat, and stop functioning after a while. If your computer has these symptoms and all other components have passed the tests or benchmarks, than you’ll need to search for a compatible mainboard (or return it under warranty of course). If the computer is less than 5 years old you should have no problem finding a much better and also cheaper mainboard, which will serve you for another 1-5 years.

Perhaps I should have started this article by saying that no computer with a hardware problem is fixed in the traditional sense. Today most authorized professionals simply replace the processor, hard drive, optical drive, mainboard … etc. so no actual repair takes place. If the problem is software related, than you may call it a repair, because no physical component gets replaced.

Leisure Suit Larry was one of the first adult computer games. First of all it can be admired for its complexity, the way the player interacted with the game was more complicated than Mario’s run and jump mechanism or other point and click adventure games.

The game wasn’t too complicated, but most actions had to be made by dialog, inputing commands and sentences for different objects or game characters. If you got the sentences right, there was a reaction so the game’s storyline could continue. Otherwise you wold just wounder around places in the game, basically stuck.

Its adult content in my opinion was minor: a couple of scenes with naked breasts (or a few huge pixels that resembled a topless woman), dialogs that included seducing a woman and some adult actions. There wasn’t anything a normal kid couldn’t overhear/see at home or somewhere else, but of course by definition it’s a 18+ game.

Sextris was a much simpler game, I remember playing it when I was young. It was basically Tetris on one side and a picture in the other that was revealed gradually as you made lines disappear by making complete lines. There were also other early games with adult (sexual) content, but games only got better with the advances made in 3D development.

Today there are very realistic adult computer games available, some even with multiplayer options to play “against” others on the web.

Virtual Jenna is based on the famous porn star Jenna Jameson and it’s focused mostly on sexual acts, representing a completely different kind of adult games, without any interesting challenges. This game is strictly based on bodily functions, so it addresses a very different kind of adults that aren’t necessarily gamers. It almost as challenging as a game that would simulate eating or sitting on the toilet.

Other adult games, such as the ones found on absolu-flash.com are just fun, without realistic graphics or challenging tasks. Browser-based flash games are always the easiest way to kill a few hours, because they are relatively simple to play and work on almost any modern personal computer with an Internet connection.

Browser based games need the latest version of any popular browser and an appropriate flash plugin for it. Processing power is not really an issue, even the 1.66GHz single core Intel Atom processors can handle a flash game at a time with GMA 3150 integrated graphics or even with GMA 950.

When power is down, but you have a netbook with an internal 3G modem for Internet, you can kill some hours and calm your nerves with a browser based adult computer game until power is restored.

An Acer Aspire One can run up to 7 hours non-stop on a single charge while running flash games that don’t really need many resources.

PI-FHB05-EGG looks like an egg, but sounds like a speaker and can be used as a card reader and USB hub.

Although it doesn’t do anything special, it is a very practical product, ideal for people who don’t need very powerful speakers and have little available desk space for all sorts of cables and accessories. There are two things that are not clear about this device. It can be found on the website of a manufacturer called PI Manufacturing Corp., so it’s more likely that Anyware just sells it or it bought the license. The other unclear thing is about the type of connection it uses, just USB or USB + 3.5mm stereo jack ? On the back of the main speaker there is one port in the middle that isn’t specified what it’s for.

Another interesting device is a mouse combined with a keypad, a crossover that resulted in a very big mouse or a small keypad. Either way it doesn’t seem very practical, although it makes some sense for right handed users to cover the keypad while they’re using the mouse, because usually the keypad is also used by the right hand.

The other mouse + keypad combo is more practical, because it’s easier to switch from using one device to using the other. They are also in a very comfortable position, your hand practically stays in the same position when using either device.

On newegg.com it’s listed as “currently unavailable”, but AnywareUS is specified as the manufacturer and mediagateusa.com as the official website. Usually if a bigger manufacturer unites with a smaller one, it moves the product support page to its own website (ex: when AMD purchased ATI or Seagate purchased Maxtor). There isn’t enough information on their websites to determine how they are related, but feel free to leave a comment if you figure it out.

In the keyboard category Anyware has two flexible and water resistant keyboards: FOLD-2000 (PS2) and FOLD-3000 (USB).

They are basically the same product, with different plug type (PS2/USB) and color. Keyboards are known to be the main target of coffee and other kinds of drink spills, and also they are usually full of bacteria, so the water resistance feature solves both of these problems.

ME-600 OTG is another practical accessory from Anyware Computer Accessories.

It’s a battery powered external hard disk rack that also serves as a backup device on the go for any simple storage unit with a USB port such as USB flash drives, mp3 players, 2.5” external hard drives, digital cameras …etc. Yes, external hard drives too because the internal Li-Ion battery can provide enough power for almost any 2.5” notebook hard drive. According to my calculations 2 x 3.6V x 780mA can provide 2 x 5V x 500mA (500mA being the maximum power allowed on a single USB 2.0 port in a computer).

Almost 1 year has passed since Windows 7 was released, but Anyware still advertises its remotes as Vista Remote controls for Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate.

It’s unclear whether GP-IR02BK will work on Windows 7 or not, but its capabilities clearly recommend it for any present and future operating system.

The special feature of this remote is that it can imitate any infrared remote signal by learning, and not just by selecting it from a list like most universal remote controls work, although Anyware didn’t specify how it does that exactly, please comment if you know.

It seems that it will take a lot of time to make the transition to 64bit, mostly because users are not yet forced to adopt this relatively new technology. 64Bit operating systems have one huge advantage over 32bit, they could address a huge quantity of system memory up to 256TB (instead of the 4GB limit for 32bit operating systems). Microsoft for example decided to limit maximum addressable system memory to 192GB for Windows 7 (PRO, Enterprise and Ultimate) and to 2TB for Windows Server 2008 (R2 too).

Personally I didn’t upgrade my computer when 80386 processors became available in my price range, missing a huge step in computer hardware development. From a 12MHz 80286 processor with 2MB of RAM I upgraded directly to a 33MHz i486SX, which had a lot of extra features (compared to the 80286).

The biggest advantage of this upgrade was the 8 memory slots that could support 32MB of system memory (8 x 4MB modules). This 486SX computer stayed in the family for a long time, we even ran Windows 98 on it when we upgraded the hard drive to 1GB (for about 100$).

At the time 386 and 486 computer parts were basically the same, removable processors used the same socket main boards, so users could easily upgrade even if the performance difference (between 386SX and 486SX or 386DX and 486DX) was insignificant.

Hard drives in that era came in sizes from 40MB to 2GB, and they were all supported by both processors (by their motherboards and hard disc controllers), although there was some kind of barrier around 500MB before both chips were simultaneously available, but it wasn’t common knowledge, mostly because no one that still used first generation 80386 processors could afford a hard disc close to 500MB. When CD-ROMs were introduced they didn’t have this problem if you had an operating system that could support the 650/700MB file system.

Floppy drives are not worth mentioning because they were amongst the worst technologies ever developed. Right from the start they were so primitive that new 3.5” 1.44MB drives could be used with 8088XT (or older) systems too (although only in 720K mode) so data could be transferred with these downgraded floppy disks from a brand new 80486DX (or later) machine to a 8088XT and vice versa.

Video cards were still very primitive and they were connected through 8bit (shorter) or 16bit (longer) ISA slots.

Other 386 and 486 computer parts included special hard disk controllers that also supported some kind of early RAID features, network cards, dial-up modems and so on.

The dial-up modems had a life exactly like the floppy disc drive, with the least improvements over the years. On the picture you can see a very old ISA slot modem next to a model made for PCI slots that’s  still used today. Who knows what the future will bring, but what we can say for sure is that some technologies are never  improved significantly (they never become practical), while others double their speed, capacity and/or quality in every cycle (6-12months).

Before going into where and how to get free computer wallpapers it needs to be said that high resolution wallpapers (but low resolution ones too) take up a lot of system memory and sometimes need to be reloaded when a program closes and the background becomes visible again. This was mostly an issue when average computer systems had just a few megabytes of memory, but used almost the same resolution monitors and background images as today. On slow computers with minimal installed memory, just enough to run the operating system I strongly advise against using background pictures and visual effects.

Free computer wallpapers are all around the web now, but most of them look average, and that’s not someone with taste would desire.

Putting pictures of celebrities as the computer desktop background is one of the worst clichés, just like pictures of sport cars and cute animals.

Professional computer wallpapers can easily be found on google.com simply by searching for “free wallpaper”. I have to admit that the results are not quite what I expected, the big majority of the wallpapers displayed on google.com (image section) are very artistic and represent exceptional aesthetic value.

Whatever your taste dictates, there are a couple of things you should take under consideration. Choose wallpapers with the appropriate aspect ratio. For example cramming 4:3 images into 16:9 screens won’t have the desired result.

Resolution is also very important, you should always use high resolution (higher than the resolution of your monitor) pictures as background. Although more system memory is used this way, you don’t want your desktop looking like a satellite TV image during bad weather or solar flares.

You may think that a great computer game can teach you skills and tactics in different sports, but the truth is that it doesn’t, because it dumbs down very complex physical movements to a relatively simple key combination.

At most, these games offer in-door entertainment and they work on your reflexes (to push buttons).

Even the recent development of motion-sensitive input devices like the WII has or the recently released Microsoft Kinect don’t offer experiences close to the real thing. These rigid devices detect a limited number of movement types and are very inaccurate. For example if you learn to play Tennis perfectly on a WII doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to hit a real tennis ball with a real racket.

Basically computer games offer fun, motion sensitive consoles offer fitness, but no combination of these two is similar to the real sports. For example playing basketball on the computer is very similar to playing soccer or football, although in real life you need completely different skills for them.

People have been playing on computers since the first text-based games were invented in the ’60s.

The first basketball games for computers looked like this:

The first more serious basketball game for computers came in 1990, and was made by SEGA. This game had more acceptable fake-3D graphics, which means that players could move in all four directions on the playing field and also jump, throw …etc.

To play basketball on the computer you don’t need to invest in any software. If you’re not pretentious there are many browser-based free games that offer more complex game play than the old 1990s SEGA game, although most of them are aimed at kids.

For advanced gamers there are many basketball game titles playable on some of the slowest computers that might still work today. To be able to play you just have to distinguish the players by their numbers and the two teams. High detail graphics is not essential.

One of the biggest sport game developers is EA Sports with the “It’s in the game” slogan, you may want to check out their website.

Today an average computer has at least six USB ports, a COM port, one LPT (parallel port), one LAN port, at least three audio inputs/outputs, a VGA port, two PS2 ports …and so on. This high level of connectivity can lead you to purchase and use at least 15-20 accessories with only one computer.

In this case organizing camera and computer accessories and cords becomes a serious problem, because if 10 cord get tangled and you quickly need to remove one, all kinds of things can happen from extreme cursing to ripping some cords or damaging some plugs and ports.

The first step to prevent such a situation is to mark each wire so you can quickly identify the one you may want to pull out. Cordotz is one of the manufacturers that makes plastic tags for wires, which are both useful and pleasant to look at. The retractable USB cable is also a great idea, but must laptop users are already familiar with such products, all laptop accessory kits include at least a mouse with a retractable cable, some even have retractable LAN, audio and modem cables.

Manufacturers are working on the problem, almost every computer accessory can be bought in a wireless version too. Keyboards and mice are amongst the best candidates for wireless, because they are perfected to a very high level, two AA (rechargeable) batteries can last up to 6-12 months on a single charge.

Although this solution doesn’t really reduce the number of cables because a USB cable will have to be plugged into the monitor, but at least the webcam is in an optimal position for video chat and you don’t have to worry about it falling off (like the models that grip the top of the monitor). For digital cameras developers have come up with the strangest idea to transfer pictures to your computer: a Wi-Fi memory card.

It makes sense if you think about it, this way it can be fitted in any digital camera without having to modify it’s hardware. You just insert the card into the slot and it becomes a small wireless file server.

This invention really eliminates the need for an extra USB cable.

Organizing camera and computer accessories and cords is much easier if you use as many wireless accessories as possible. Printers were amongst the first accessories to receive a LAN module, but today they also have Wi-Fi for easy access.

A computer backup can be described as the action of storing the files in your computer on a medium that is different from your hard drive (an external medium). The main reason behind computer backups is the protection of the files: in case the computer’s hard drive is damaged, the backups will save the files you had on the drives and will make it possible for you to restore them, as soon as your problem is solved.

Until recently, the easiest way to back up was by means of floppy. The floppy disks were those who stored the information in case anything happened. Floppy are no longer available these days, especially since the new generations of computers, laptops mainly, are no longer equipped with the floppy drive. In this case, another media of storage are requested. Besides, in order to store everything one may have on a computer, it would take millions of floppy disks, given that one floppy can only store 1.4 megabytes.<

CD-ROMs on the other hand hold a lot more. They can store up to 800 megabytes and, what is even more interesting, they don’t get infected by viruses or any other sort of malware program. DVD burners also are very well received by those who need to back up their computers. The problem with these storage devices is that they are a little more difficult to write onto. In order to burn onto CD-ROM or a DVD, you must have installed on your computer a special burner. There are computers who have CD/DVD readers, but they don’t have burners. Then you have a problem. If you happen to have a burner (or buy a computer equipped with it), you must learn how to burn onto CD/DVD. The computer will guide you through it. Is not that difficult.

You may back up the information on your computer by using a USB removable device. Unfortunately, these computer jumpers act like part of the memory, thereby they can get infected by viruses. Therefore you must be very careful. There are also the memory cards you can use. If the files you need to back up are not so many you may use sending them to email. It is the easiest way and so far the safest.

Any device you choose, it is important to perform computer back ups. If not for safety at least for speed. Backing up files on removable media will allow your computer to operate at a higher speed.