Before buying old computer selling as new, check the tech specs
Look out for old computers selling as new. Sometimes they’re more expensive.
The HP desktop I bought in 2017 for $650, for example, is now selling on Amazon for $982. It’s not the exact model, but it’s a similar one from 2017 that comes up when I click “Buy again.” The same year, a friend bought a “new” computer with the old Video Graphics Array. The result was a slightly fuzzy screen.
VGA was replaced by HDMI in 2008.
To avoid duds, check the tech specs. You can find them on the product page at Amazon, BestBuy, HP, Office Depot and other sites. But what if you don’t understand what you’re looking at?
The answer is UserBenchmark.com. It gives you comparisons between processors, memory, drives and more. That’s how I found out that machines using an Intel i5 processor might perform better than those with a much faster Intel i9. Elsewhere, I discovered that some computers come with an embedded multimedia card, which is slower than a solid state drive. For more information, see the “How to Geek” article called “Read This Before You Buy the Cheapest Laptop.”
HOW AI WORKS
The new book “How AI Works, from Sorcery to Science,” by Ronald Kneusel, $30 at NoStarch.com, offers a great overview of artificial intelligence. Kneusel says that thanks to artificial intelligence, nothing will ever be the same again.
Chapter 2, a free download at NoStarch.com, gives you the whole history of artificial intelligence up to the present. A lot happened in the 1980s. In Chapter 7, you’ll learn about the “Large Language
Models” that power artificial intelligence today.
The book has some interesting prompts to get ChatGPT to write children’s fiction. Though I find most artificial intelligence stories lame, they can be a nice starting point.
RUNNING OUT OF STORAGE SPACE
You only get 15 gigabytes spread across Gmail, Google Photos and Google Drive. Here’s how to clear out the garbage.
On your computer, go to drive.google.com and click “Storage.” Google Drive will list your files from biggest to smallest. See if there’s anything you can delete. Recently, I saw one with a “.cab” extension. That a compressed archive that delivers software related to Windows installations. I deleted it and saved over a gigabyte. I also deleted an “MSI” file, which is a Microsoft Installer File. I sure didn’t need that anymore.
On a phone, it’s slightly different. Go to your Google Drive app, tap the hamburger icon (three stacked lines) and choose “Storage.” Scroll down and choose “Clean up space.”
You can do the same thing in your Gmail app. In the search bar at the top, type “Has attachment larger:10MB,” without using the quotes. You’ll see the biggest files. Of course, you might also have thousands of little emails cluttering your inbox. For those, search on some general term that will bag most of them, then delete all.
If all this is too much trouble, however, you can sign up for a Google One account, which increases your storage from 15 gigabytes to 100 gigabytes, and goes up from there. If you’re using iCloud instead of Google Drive, you might want to add Drive, to avoid running out of space. Amazon Photos is great too, since it’s unlimited for Prime members. And there’s always Dropbox and others.
EAR BUD INTERRUPTION
Nearly every time I ask someone for directions, I notice that they have to pull the earbuds out of their ears before answering. But if they’d selected the right settings on their phones, they wouldn’t have to do that.
For the second generation AirPod Pro, all you have to do is turn on “Conversation Awareness.” It will automatically lower the volume of your music or podcast and pick up the volume of the person who’s talking to you. For Google’s Pixel Buds Pro, you turn on “Conversation Detection.” For most other earbuds and headphones, just find the “Transparency Mode” setting.
Some of these other headphones and earbuds are getting cheap, even with great quality. My friend loves his wireless, over-the-ear Runolim Hybrid. The company says they have been proven to reduce external noise by 95% in over 10,000 experimental results. They include a high-definition microphone, 65 hours of playback, and an audio cable for those who prefer a wired connection. To get to Transparency Mode on the Runolim, you just hold down a button and cycle through the options. Currently, they’re on sale at Amazon for $20, down from $50.
FINDING USER MANUALS ONLINE
Before you buy something techy on Amazon, consider reading the user manual to see how hard it will be to figure out. Amazon often has links to manuals. If not, go to ManualsOnline.com. It has guides for 70,000 products. Or you can Google it.
FINDING FLIGHT INFO
Recently, my friend’s boarding pass showed no terminal or gate information. So he opened the free app “Flight Aware.” Sure enough, the info was all there. Flight Aware can also tell you if your flight is looping back from somewhere else. If the flight starts at your own airport, it’s more likely to be on time.
INTERNUT
“Automatic bike transmission concept is wild and spiky.” Search on that phrase to find a strange new bicycle which shifts gears automatically. A 25-second video shows you how it works.
Joy Schwabach can be reached by email at joy.schwabach@gmail.com.