Gone are the days when you could save a bundle of money building a computer from parts. However, there are still a few situations when it can make sense to do so.
I recently had the privilege of building a computer at my place of employment, using the following parts:
http://www.mini-box.com/M350-enclosure-with-picoPSU-80-and-60W-adapter
http://www.mini-box.com/D510MO-mini-ITX-Intel
http://www.mini-box.com/2GB-DDR2-Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136387
The result is an inexpensive, fan-less computer that can be mounted on a wall or on the back of an LCD. The power usage of this computer ranges from 15 to 21 watts depending on its load, so I stand to save $30-$40 a year in electricity when compared with a more typical computer that consumes 50 to 80 watts (I leave my computer running 24/7).
There are prebuilt computers that are similar in price, such as the Zotac MAG
, but they use proprietary parts. That means if something breaks outside of warranty, you may find it difficult or impossible to find replacement parts. With a standard mini-itx system like this one, parts availability should not be a problem for several years.
Speaking of “green”: did you know that you can save money on ink simply by using a different font when composing documents for printing? According to this article on Yahoo! News, a font with thin lines such as Century Gothic can use up to 30% less ink than popular fonts such as Arial. If you’re using Linux instead of Windows, you may not find either one of these in the list of fonts available to you. However, the concept still applies; just look for a font with thin lines.
Bernardo’s Tech Blog has been successfully migrated from the server in my basement to a Ubuntu 8.04 virtual server at RackSpaceCloud. All of the content was brought over from the old server, but you’ll notice that the theme has changed. I may be doing some additional remodeling in the days ahead.
Having the blog hosted in the cloud will allow me to make some needed upgrades and changes to my on-site server, which in turn will hopefully allow me to speed up the development of Hunting Adventures, my second facebook application. For those who have a Facebook account, you can check it out by clicking here. It is fully playable already, but there will be many more features added before it is complete.
My almost-three-year-old has gotten quite proficient at the game of memory. You know, the one where you compete to find matching cards. Not only is he good at remembering the location of the cards, but he can usually name the object or character on each of the cards. So he now can correctly identify Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, and more. While developing memory skills is a good thing, knowing who Goofy and Mickey Mouse are is not exactly a valuable skill.
I figure if he can learn to identify useless characters, he can probably learn to identify useful objects such as computer components. So I hunted down some sheets of blank 3.5″ diskette labels that had been in the cupboard for years, snapped a few pictures of computer components, and then designed and printed them using OpenOffice Writer. Then I applied the labels to cardboard I salvaged from an empty cereal box.
I have attended a number of classes at creativetechs training and in general, have been quite impressed at their business model. They have classes on Lightroom, Photoshop, Photography, Dreamweaver and more. I recently finished the iPhone web apps course and today I attended the first class in the Android Java Apps course. They also have ongoing events like Retouch Live, and the John Greengo Photography Show. Now, I was not in Seatle, WA in person, but rather I was in the worldwide classroom on the internet. The live events are free, and they make money off the paid downloads. Rather than explaining it further, I’ll just send you there: creativetechs.com/training
P.S.
CreativeTechs also offers Seatle Mac support. creativetechs.com
Gone are the days when you could save a bundle of money building a computer from parts. However, there are still a few situations when it can make sense to do so.
