First, you have to identify the reason for the loss of speed.  There are several things that can cause your computer to slow down, or run slower than when you first purchased it.  Some reasons are major, and can be expensive to fix.  Others can be relatively minor, and can be fixed without much effort or cost.

Let’s start with the bad stuff.  Your computer may be running slow because your hard drive is too full.  Your computer will function much better if you try to test the limits of the hard drive.  If this is the problem, you need to try deleting some of the data from your drive, or uninstall any programs that you do not use any longer.  Make sure to delete all the temporary folders on your drive, as they take up valuable space when it is at a premium.  Once you have cleared as much drive space as you can, you can run Disk Defragmenter to clean up your disk, and repair any data sectors that are damaged. In extreme cases you may have to employ the “nuclear option” and format your hard drive, reinstalling your operating system.  That is only a last resort, but sometimes it is the best option to get original functionality back.

Next, we can consider the easier option.  Before doing anything drastic (like formatting your hard drive) you should think about checking your registry.  There are several good products available to scan your computer and let you know what problems are present on your computer.  Your registry can become corrupted, leading to slower operation of your computer.  Signs that your registry has become corrupted include:  running slowly; programs not opening, or taking forever to open;  startup taking a long time; programs not shutting down correctly; computer working erratically; much more.  Most of the time, when these type of issues are present, your registry will need to be repaired.

Many people don’t understand how a registry becomes corrupted in the first place.  The registry is the essentially the control center of your computer.  It stores “keys” which are packets of data that records information about your system.  The registry contains keys that store information about every program you have installed, or have ever installed on your system.  It stores information about every piece of hardware that you have installed, or have ever installed on your system.  It also contains information about everything that you do while logged into your computer.  When you surf the web, download programs, log into accounts, or even change fonts, your registry is accessed.  In a perfect world, the registry on your computer would be “self cleaning.”  That is, when you uninstall a program, the registry should remove all information about that program.  When you close a program, the corresponding registry keys should close out.  But, in the real world, this just does not happen!  The registry grows each time you install new programs, open programs, or save files.  As that file grows, your computer has a harder time finding what it is looking for to make your programs work.  This leads to computer freeze ups and slow processing of commands.

To fix these registry problems, you could try to weed your way through the registry files and clean them up manually, but that is very dangerous.  Only the most experienced computer gurus should even attempt this task by hand.  The better option is to choose a registry cleaner to do the job for you.  There are several good options available to you, any of which will do the job.  Most providers will allow you to scan your computer for free before purchasing.  Grab one, scan your computer and see what turns up on your computer.  You can then make a decision as to whether you need to purchase the program or not.  Here are a few recommended registry cleaners:

You do need to be careful when using registry cleaners.  There are some who suggest that a registry cleaner can cause damage.  You should use any registry cleaner carefully.  Make sure to take a look at any suggestions made by the program for removing registry entries.  You should be particularly wary of free cleaners, as they are often tagged with spyware and malware.  Many programs offer a free scan, but will have a fee to register.  When choosing a program, look for tech recommendations, like from cNet or tucows.

The bottom line is that getting a registry cleaner could save you a lot of time, effort and money.  It can clean up your computer, and get it running smoother and faster without a complete rebuild.  So, try a free scan today, and see if you can get more from your computer.  Even if you aren’t having problems, you might be surprised how much more efficient your machine can be if you get your registry cleaned up!

Technical Specs

USB powered. Has one USB in port, and one USB out port.  The unit does not take up one of your ports, as there is one available for use on the unit.  Cable length:  30 inches

Size: 13 inches wide.  11.2 inches deep.  .85 inches tall. Weight:  1.6 lbs.

Fans: 2 fans, 70 mm in diameter.

Warranty: 3 years parts and labor.

In the Box: Cooler, USB cord, User’s Manual

The Pros…

This is one of the most durable, sturdy notebook coolers available on the market today.  The aluminum top is much tougher than comparable coolers which have a plastic top.  The aluminum top also helps to dissipate heat away from the exhaust of the computer. This laptop cooler also rests solidly on rubber feet, which keep it from sliding on a solid surface.

The pass through USB port also receives high marks.  The problem with most coolers is that it takes away a valuable USB port.  This model runs off of a USB port, but since it has a USB in port as well, you don’t lose a port that may be necessary for your productivity.  Along the same lines, the cable length has been praised.  It is long enough to reach between computer and cooler, and yet not long enough to be in the way while working.

The fans on this unit are quiet, and yet powerful enough to accomplish the task of cooling the computer.  There are also 2 speeds that you can use, depending on how your computer runs.

One of the best features on this unit is that there is a compartment built in to store the cable.  This will keep it from getting lost, or separated from the cooler when not in use.

The Cons…

As with anything, there are some cons to the Antec Notebook Cooler.  Here are a few of the complaints that have surfaced in the “internet chatter” of this product:

This product only works with computers that exhaust to the bottom.  For computers that suck air from the bottom and exhaust to the back or sides, this unit will not help, and in fact may cause damage.  Make sure that your unit is compatible before ordering!

One weakness is where the cable connects to the cooler.  This could be made more sturdy.  Be careful when connecting cable, and when disconnecting.  Also, you need to be careful that the cable is not pulled out at strange angles, so that damage at the plug in point is not incurred. This is the worst and most recurring problem cited among users.

One minor complaint is that the holes in this notebook cooler tend to get clogged up with dust.  This is easily alleviated by blowing out with canned air.

Another minor complaint is the brightness of the led light.  It is blue, and bright enough to be a distraction.  While several users complained about this, it is also a problem that would be easily remedied with a piece of electrical tape.  Simply cover the light if it is annoying to you.

Overall…

Overall, this laptop cooler is very highly rated.  On Amazon, it has received over 300 ratings, for an average of 4 stars.  The worst complaints are listed above.  If you make sure that your computer exhausts to the bottom, and are careful with the cable, we think you will be happy with this notebook cooler.  If you are looking for a way to make sure your notebook computer runs without overheating, this is a great solution!

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ANTEC Notebook Cooler To Go NEW

US $10.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Nov-12-2009 6:29:09 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

ANTEC RUN COOL RUN QUIET NOTEBOOK COOLER

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NEW Antec Notebook Cooler 200

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Antec NoteBook Cooler ANT065607KS BRAND NEW!

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•    SpinScrub multiple rotating brush system
•    Heated cleaning
•    Removable rotating brushes for quick rinse cleaning
•    Fingertip Clean Surge function for spot removal and heavy traffic areas
•    Two separate translucent tanks to keep clean solution and dirty water separate
•    No belts to change, break, or replace
•    SpinScrub powered hand tool for cleaning stairs and upholstery
•    12 AMP motor
•    Full One Year Warranty

The Hoover SteamVac deep cleans with hot tap water and cleaning solution. It has a powerful 12 AMP motor, and uses 5 brushes that spin and scrub to clean carpets, rugs, and bare floors. The hand tool provides an easy way to clean small areas, furniture, and stairs. The Clean Surge feature gives an extra burst of cleaning solution, which works well for stains and high traffic areas.

The Hoover SteamVac is not hard to use. Simply pulling a trigger as you push the machine releases the cleaning solution, and letting go of the trigger allows you to do drying strokes over the area. This feature allows for quicker drying of carpets.

The top water tank holds one gallon of water mixed with cleaning solution. The lower tank holds the dirty water picked up from the carpet, and is easily removed to be emptied out into the sink.

Negatives:
The dirty water tank fills up fairly quickly, and usually before the clean water tank is empty. This causes you to have to stop for emptying, then stop again to refill. However, the process is quick and easy, so it is not a major problem.

Some customers have complained about leaking, but it seems that it is because they have not set up the machine properly. Make sure to carefully read and follow the instructions for set up and use, and you should not have any problems.

The Hoover SteamVac will remove many stains, but pre-treating is required for stain removal. It will not remove all stains, and especially will not remove very old stains. However, you will probably not find a carpet cleaner that will remove stains that have been there for a while.

Overall, the Hoover SteamVac F5914-900 with Clean Surge is an excellent carpet cleaner. It will remove dirt and odor, and will even remove many stains. It is convenient to have so that carpets and furniture can be cleaned more frequently, and spills that will stain can be taken care of more quickly. Investing in the Hoover SteamVac will allow you to do a thorough cleaning of your floors without having to make an appointment and pay someone else. Just cleaning your carpets and furniture once will make it worth the price.
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Hoover SteamVac Dual V Steam Carpet Cleaner Shampooer

US $129.99 End Date: Thursday Nov-12-2009 5:30:28 PST Buy It Now for only: US $129.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list

Hoover TurboPower 5200 Steam Vac F5912-900,Carpet Steam

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New Hoover Steam Vac Vacuum Shampoo Water Tank 42272134

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Hoover SteamVac Dual V Steam Carpet Cleaner Shampooer

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Features List (from Brother.com)

• Fast color output. With print speeds up to 21ppm in both color and monochrome, you can quickly and cost effectively produce presentations, reports, brochures or documents.
• Make a statement with vibrant color documents. Delivering print resolutions up to 2400 x 600 dpi, it’s easy to produce color documents with sharp text and brilliant graphics.
• USB Direct Interface. Print PDF and JPEG files directly from your USB flash memory drive without connecting to your PC. Connect directly to your PictBridge-enabled digital camera to print pictures from the camera, without first downloading to a PC.
• High Capacity Replacement Toner Cartridges. Reduce operating costs and spend less time replacing supplies with high yield replacement toner cartridges. (TN-115 Series sold separately)
• Network connectivity. A built-in Ethernet network interface enables you to share the HL-4040CN with everyone on your network.
• Flexible paper handling. Effortlessly handles letter/legal size paper and envelopes via a 300-sheet input capacity. This printer arrives with a lower paper tray, which holds up to 250 sheets and a multi-purpose tray, which holds up to 50 sheets.

The speed on this printer is much faster than comparably priced printers from HP. At 21 ppm, it is at the top of most of the consumer level printers. Faster printers are certainly available, but you will have to spend much more money for the luxury. For most home and small business applications, this speed is more than adequate.

I just hooked my printer up with the network card, and couldn’t believe how easy it was. There is another model that has a wireless network card, but you can expect to pay at least another $100 for the convenience. Right now, you can find the Brother HL-4070CDW(the same as the 4040cn, only with duplex printing and a wireless card) for a cheaper price than the 4040cn. As long as you can find a deal like that, go with the bells and whistles!

Negatives

I mentioned before that I have had very few problems with this machine. There are, however, negatives with just about anything. First, realize that toner cartridges are pretty expensive. This is to be expected of just about any laser printer, especially color laser. Now that the printer has been out for a while, remanufactured cartridges are hitting the market, which is driving the price down considerably. Just in the last 6 months I have seen the availability of cartridges increase and the price decrease. In fact, you can purchase the cartridges for about half of what they were when I bought my printer.

The second negative is size. This thing is huge! If you order over the internet, be sure to check on the price for shipping, as you could get gouged. I had to move this printer from my house to my office, and it was a major feat. Just be sure that you are aware of how much this printer weighs, so that you are prepared to be able to set it up when it arrives. It can be difficult to unpack by yourself!

I have only had two minor printing problems. The first came while trying to print to overhead projector slides. For some reason, the printer started messing up one out of about 10. The problem was exactly the same on every messed up slide, and it was consistent throughout the whole job. The second time I had to do a batch of these, they printed without any problems. It could have simply been a data glitch in the first print job. The second problem was a paper jam while printing double sided. This is a problem that often occurs when printing double sided. I have done several jobs with double sided printing, and have only had one paper jam. That is hardly worth mentioning, as most printers have occasional paper jams.

Overall, this is a great printer. I would certainly recommend the Brother 4040cn to anyone looking for a reasonably priced, efficient color laser printer. Rated at up to 35000 print cycles per month, this machine is plenty durable for most home, home business, or small business applications.

Brother TN115/TN110 4040 9040 9440 TN110 4 COLOR Toner

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Brother TN-110 TN110 4040 9040 9440 TN110 4 COLOR Toner

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4PK BROTHER TN110 TONER CARTRIDGE FOR DCP-9040, HL-4040

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Brother TN-110 TN110 4040 9040 9440 TN110 4 COLOR Toner

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This show follows the same pattern that has proved successful for other shows.  It contains enough show to show story line to keep viewers hooked from week to week, and is personable enough to keep you interested.  The writers keep enough “backstory” in the script to make sure that you can relate to the characters.  Each week, the doctors are faced with enough challenges to keep them jumping, and keep the show interesting.  Most weeks, the story line will keep you on the edge of you seat.

House M.D. is a show that is quite convincing most of the time.  Much like the show E.R., there are many medical discrepencies, but most of these will go unnoticed by the “lay” person.  I am sure that doctors who may watch shows like this can criticize it easily.  In fact, a quick Google search will show you that the errors are easily found by those who may be looking for them.  However, for most of us, the show can be very entertaining, and the errors are not so glaring as to make the show unbelieveable for the greatest part of the audience.

This show is not one that is suitable for children.  It can be very graphic, showing gruesome details of surgeries or other medical situations.  Subject matter can also become unsuitable for younger viewers.  There is occasionally sexual content in the show, but there is often sexually related materials.  Subjects dealing with STDs, rape and other sexual topics are frequently a part of the story line.  For this reason, viewer discretion is advised.

Overall, this series is very well made.  The acting (especially that of Hugh Laurie) is quite good.  Granted, sometimes the subject matter is just not something that I prefer, but for the most part, the show is very well done.

The first four seasons of House M.D. is now available on DVD.  You can even find the boxed set of the first four seasons together.

The Medical Science of House, M.D. by Andrew Holtz

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House M.D. Season 3

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House M.D. Season 2

US $15.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Nov-12-2009 11:17:31 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

HOUSE M.D. "2009" EMMY DVD MOS DEF 1 EP HUGH LAURIE

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Ebay Results

testing

Samsung’s website lists the features of the i900 Omnia as:

• OS:  Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Dimension:  112 X 56 X 12.5 mm
• Camera:  5MP Auto Focus Camera with Power LED
• Display:  3.2” TFT, WQVGA (240 X 400)
• Network:  HSDPA 7.2Mbps (3G)
• UI/GUI:  Full Touch with TOUCHWIZ UI Technology
• Connectivity:  Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi
• GPS:  Embedded GPS
• Radio:  FM Radio with RDS
• Audio:  MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, OGG, AMR
• Video:  Divx, Xvid, MP4, WMV, H.263, H.264
• Memory:  16GB/8GB +microSDHC (up to 16 GB)
• Applications:  Microsoft Office Suites, Push Email, TV-output, Time Manager, Business Card Recognition, Geo-tagging, Contents sharing among devices with Samsung DNLA Certified solution
• Battery:  1440mAh
• Accessories:  Stylus, Leather Case (optional)

It is clear that Samsung has not skimped on the features of the i900 Omnia.  It is, for example, the first Windows Smartphone with a 5 Megapixel camera.  The camera also has a 4X digital zoom.   Obviously, this phone has been developed for more than just “business” use, having many features that will be valuable for entertainment purposes.

Negatives…
There are a few negatives that have surfaced concerning the i900 Omnia.  Perhaps the greatest complaint among the “internet chatter” is the fact that there is no place for storing the included stylus.  The stylus is designed to hang from a lanyard that is tied to an eyelet on the phone.  As you can imagine, this would not be very convenient.  Most users simply give up on the stylus, choosing to use a finger instead.  Without a storage compartment, the stylus can be cumbersome, and distracting.

Other complaints include an inability to see the screen in bright sunlight, and the memory cards not being hot swappable.  Certainly, the problem with screen brightness can be a problem under some circumstances, but that seems like a common problem among many of the smart phones.  The problem with the memory card is rather insignificant, unless you are using the phone as an MP3 player, and tend to swap cards frequently.  The phone has up to 16 gb of space built in, and can take an miniSD card up to 16 gig, so you will have a tremendous amount of space available.

Finally, this phone does not have a standard USB port.  This can be quite frustrating, as it means that it has its own cable.  This is fine, until you lose the cable and have to replace it.  It would be nice to have the standard cable to cut down on the hassle.

In the Box…
The i900 Omnia comes with all of the software necessary to sync the phone to your computer, a DC charger, and manuals to cover all of the features and functionality of the phone.  It also comes with a stylus (as mentioned before) and a hands free headset.  The headset comes with several ear buds, so that you can use one that is comfortable for you.

Overall…
The overall ratings of this phone seem to be very high.  While the phone does not look much different than other phones in its class, the functionality is at the top of the tier.  There isn’t much in this type of phone to change as far as the look goes.  However, this phone has added features that are both useful and entertaining.  This phone has the same type of functionality as the Apple iPhone, but goes much further for being useful in business applications.  If you use Windows anyway, this phone is going to be much more useful, as you can sync all of your applications, including Outlook contacts and calendar.

This phone appears to be at the top of the heap of new Smart Phones.  The touch screen makes navigation easy, and the touchscreen keyboard is much easier to use than standard Smart Phone keypads.

Overall, this phone gets 9 out of 10.  The negatives are not significant enough on this phone to cause hesitation.  Personally, the Windows platform appeals to me far more than other platforms.  I know this is often a personal choice, and you should find the platform that is right for you.  I like the ability to have seamless integration with my current Office applications!

NEW BATTERY FOR SAMSUNG Omnia i900 i-900 i908 i-908 AUS

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2x Top-Class Stylus Touch Pen 4 Samsung i900 Omnia i908

US $0.92 (0 Bid) End Date: Wednesday Nov-11-2009 23:18:44 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

2x Top-Class Crystal Hard Case Samsung i900 Omnia i-900

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NEW Battery for Samsung SGH-i900 SGH-i908 i900 Omnia US

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This is day one of this new blog.  My plan and vision for this blog is to use it to review many different things, from electronics, to blogs, to books, to outdoor sports equipment and a whole lot more.  As I get rolling here, I want to make this a resource to find information about products that you might be looking for, as well as an entertaining site to visit and read every day.

I also want to make this a place for reader reviews.  Do you have a product, a book, a website, or something else that you would like to review?  Drop me an email with a good, detailed review, and i will consider posting it.  I do reserve the right to reject posts of course, but quality reviews will be used!  Here are some general guidelines that reviews should follow for publication:

• Reviews should be thorough.  Plan on at least 500 words for each review.  Cover the features of whatever you are reviewing.  Include things that you like, as well as things that you don’t like.
• Reviews should be honest.  Everything has a negative side.  Tells us what it is.   We want to be able to make a rational and informed decision, so tell us the bad side too!  Don’t try to sugarcoat it, and don’t over state the positive.
• If you are doing a review of a website, make sure it is a site that is valuable.  We will not publish reviews of sites that are not going to be of interest to a fairly wide readership.  Don’t submit a review of a site that is only full of affiliate links.  Tell us about the information, and the design of the site.  Tell us what you like, and what you don’t like.
• Submit the review via email:  contact AT bigbrewsreviews DOT com.  Send the review either in the text of the email itself, or as an attachment.

I am sure there is much more that I will add to these guidelines as we move forward.  For now, write your review in a way that you would enjoy reading, and find valuable.  In return, you can put a link at the bottom of the review to your own website or blog.  If you contribute 5 or more reviews that are published, I will add you to my blogroll under a heading labled “Contributers”.  This will give you a permanent link on all pages of this blog.

I am excited about the possibilities of this blog.  I hope that you will come back often, and link to us if you find some information that your own blog readers would find useful.