Laptop Battery Life

power saver mode

power saver mode

The average life of a Laptop battery is around 2-4 years. This all depends on a multitude of factors, most actively are the number of cells in the batters. A 6 cell battery will inevitably last a shorter amount of time than a 9 cell. That’s just the way it works.

Here is something to ponder just a second. They will warranty a Hard Drive for 5 years, a Mother Board for 5 Years, but not one will Warranty a battery past 2 years. What does that tell you about our technology?

I’ve heard all sorts of things when it comes to laptop batteries. I’ve heard they have battery member, I heard you should let them fully charge, and fully drain before plugging them back up to charge.

It seems to be however that no matter what I do (just short of sticking them in my closet for a few years)  they don’t seem to last very long.

laptop battery sony viao

laptop battery sony viao

You can recharge an average lithium ion battery 500-1000 times before the battery becomes ineffective. You figure that’s about 1x a day for 2 years or so. That’s all.

Of course you can implement Power Saver mode and let your laptop standby after so many minutes of misuse. This may give you a longer battery life because there is less need to charge the battery.

The point of the matter is that your laptop battery is going to ware out before your laptop does. With average laptop battery cost being around $130, and average Laptop prices being somewhere between $400-$800 you can see that it’s a large percentage of the laptop’s cost. So after 2 years when your laptop battery goes out, and you need to spend $130 for a new one. You start thinking really hard…do I want to spend $100+ for a laptop battery? or $400 for a new laptop? Most people end up buying a new laptop. A great marketing scheme if i do say so myself.

Note: Your laptop will function as a desktop permanently, even with the battery removed, so long as it’s plugged in. Just food for thought.

Creative Commons image liewcf

How to make photos smaller

Photo

Photo

If you’ve ever attempted to send or receive some of these 6+ Megapixel Camera photos to or from the internet you’ve almost certainly came across an issue where an image was way way to big. While these new cameras take great pictures, they are not very accommodating when it comes the the web. So how do you make these pictures or photos small enough to send online, while still keeping the quality.

Luckily windows comes with some software we can use to scale down the software at least for the purpose of emailing the items. We are going to use the OutLook or Outlook Express picture utility. Don’t worry we aren’t going to send the items via outlook, we’re just using their software to squish the files.

Here are the steps

  1. Select the Image or Images you want to make smaller
  2. Right click a image, select send to, then Mail Recipient
  3. Send Picture Via Email Wizard Pops Up
  4. Make Sure Make My Pictures Smaller is selected
  5. Click OK
  6. Right click ad save, or copy and paste the images from the next screen

There you go, your images are now much smaller. Be sure not so save over your high resolution images. You may want to create a new folder to save the smaller images to.

If you want to see pictures of the steps please look below.

make photos smaller 1

make photos smaller 1

make photos smaller 2

make photos smaller 2

make photos smaller 3

make photos smaller 3

Why do zombies eat brains?

zombie eat brains

zombie eat brains

I’m a bit of a zombie fanatic, ever since I watched “Night of the Living Dead” with my dad as a kid, I’ve been hooked. But what’s up with the brains? Why brains and not kidneys, livers, or hearts.

Recently when watching an 80’s zombie movie “Return of the Living Dead”, I came upon the answer. About 3/4 of the way through the movie they take a the upper torso of a mostly decayed female zombie and strap it down to a metal table at the mortuary. They then ask the Zombie, why she want’s to eat them. She says I just want to eat your brains. Why brains the guys ask her. “Because it hurts to be dead, I can feel myself decaying, and the brains make the pain go away.”

So there you go, Zombies eat brains because it makes the pain go away. Brains have some chemical that seem to act as a pain releaver for the dead.

Now this is just one movies interpretation, zombies actually come from the religion Voodoo. According to voodoo a sorcerer can reanimate the dead. Voodoo says nothing about brains however. Phil a guest posted this in the comments section below. “Return of the Living Dead invented the idea of zombies eating brains”. Phil seems to be right 🙂

Update Found a Video Online! (warning foul language)


More Zombie Stuff: Zombie Sound Effects, Zombie Online Game, Demon & Zombie SoundsHalloween Sounds, Halloween Sound Effects, Why Won’t My Zombie Eat Brains

Google Killed Your Grandma

Google Killer

Killed by Google

Yep that’s right, Google has unofficially offed your Grandma. What? There was a study done a few years back to find the regions of the world that have the largest population of persons over 100. They then sent persons to those areas to log things like diet, living conditions, race, and social status.

The deciding factor ended up being social status. Old people were the center of the village or town. Night and day people would come visit them and ask them questions. These guys are the original Google. If you needed to know what to do then you asked the oldest person you could find. The older you were the more you’ve seen and the more you know.

So why did Google kill your Grandma? If she’s alive there may still be time to save her. Old people live only when they have a reason to live. If they are needed, they will find a way to stick around. So what happens if we don’t need them for anything? If we now find all our answers on Google or Yahoo, or Bing then what do we need there old shriveled up leather heads for? Not much.

So find a reason to love your Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, or Papaw. Pretend you love the smell of Moth Balls and Urine. (hey don’t get mad at me, you know it’s the truth) Ask them questions…then Google it later to find the real answer. I know it’s double data entry, but your Grandparents lives are at stake here people.

photo by kalidoskopika via flickr