Why are Hard Drives Smaller Than Their Advertised Capacity?

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Many people have purchased a hard drive, only to return home and find that the computer says its actual capacity is lower than the advertised one. For example, if you buy a 1TB drive, a computer will tell you the drive is really only 931GB. Why is that? Where did those other 69 gigabytes go? Click “Continue reading” to find out why.
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Beware of Ethanol in Your Gasoline

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gaspumpEthanol is derived from alcohol, is cheaper to produce, and burns cleaner than pure gasoline, but it’s not all good news. Using gasoline with ethanol additives can reduce gas mileage. Ethanol contains 34% less energy per gallon than pure gas, which, according to the New York Times, translates into approximately 2 to 3 fewer miles to gallon. Many skeptics claim that ethanol can damage your engine, especially on older vehicles, which is true – many car manufacturers actually void warranties on cars where anything higher than 10% ethanol gasoline is used. Recently the EPA approved use of 15% ethanol, or E15, gas on cars newer 2007, but many car manufacturers are having none of it and recommending that consumers do not use this new blend of gas. If cost is your primary concern, I would also recommend finding pure gasoline to top off the tank with – a savings of a few cents per gallon can give your car disproportionately less efficiency, and you’ll find yourself actually filling up the tank more often. Most states in the U.S. require gas stations to inform buyers if their gas contains a certain amount of ethanol. If you live in one of the few states that doesn’t, like Maryland, I would suggest asking your regular stations to find out. Image by ponsulak of freedigitalphotos.net.

My Experience with Apple Customer Support

Two years ago, I finally ordered my iMac. I was excited, because this was a product I was saving up for for a long time. I had a decent PC, but I was growing tired of Windows and the small little annoyances associated with it. I much preferred the Mac OS for it’s superior Apps. In addition, I am a Youtube reviewer, so I used my need to create videos as an excuse to buy this expensive piece of machinery. As I clicked away, improving the specifications of the computer on the Apple Online Store order form, I grew apprehensive. Not because of the price, but because this would mark a big change in my life. This would be the first time I had bought a Mac. What if I didn’t like it? Okay, maybe the price had a little bit to do with it. Increase VRAM to 2GB? Check. Cha-ching; the sound rang in my head. The final price, even with the education discount I wholeheartedly took advantage of, came out to over $2700. Quite an investment.
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Don’t Worry About That Rechargeable Battery

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IMG_0285There have been many studies regarding the prolonging of lithium ion battery operating life – that is, the batteries included with most consumer electronics, such as cell phones, laptops, and tablets. Many people actually leave the device plugged in as much as possible, thinking that the more you use it, the more the battery degrades. As it turns out, this is not true. Most lithium ion batteries are only rated for three years of use, and, in fact, they will degrade just sitting there, not being used. Keeping them plugged in all the time is even worse, as the battery’s capacity to charge decreases the longer it is fully charged. It is even true that you can “rejuvenate” a dying battery by cycling the charge (charging it up and then discharging it several times). As with any battery, it degrades with use, but with rechargeable lithium ion batteries, it is even worse to not use them.

Hello world! Welcome to the New TipAbsorb!

Why New TipAbsorb?

TipAbsorb is mostly run by one person with just a few posts from other writers (but I hope to change that soon). I make no money from TipAbsorb, so when my hosting account came around for renewal, I decided to just say no. Instead, I have moved to free hosting (that’s less reliable but infinitely cheaper). I stupidly forgot to backup the old database, and, as such, have simply redone much of the site. I used my expired hosting account as an excuse to refurbish and refine much of what you see here. I prefer it this way; it’s much cleaner than it used to be. Let me know how you feel in the comments.

What’s new?

Not a whole lot really. Like I said, the design of the website has been refined and now looks better. From now on, I am going to focus less on quantity and more on quality. Having a post up each day is less important to me than having good, wholesome, useful posts. Before, my focus for TipAbsorb was to monetize in any way I could, but, from now on, my chief concern in writing for TipAbsorb is that I enjoy doing it. For now, there will be one ad and one ad only in the sidebar. I put this ad up because 1) the sidebar appears too baren without it and 2) I hope that one day this website will magically get a ton of views, and I can retire off of the revenue from that advertisement. The blinking and flashing of this site irritated me in the past, and looking awesome means more to me than the pennies Google sends me.

Can I write tips for the site?

You sure can! I would like to have many more guest posts from now on; The Tech Block gave me this inspiration. If you would like to write a guest post, click here. Note that your post will not make it to the site if it isn’t any good, as I won’t feel bad for you if you can’t write. Feel free to self-promote in the post; just make sure that isn’t your prime reason for writing it. TipAbsorb’s slogan is “Daily Life Tips”, and I want to adhere to its purpose in life.

How can I help?

First of all, if you have been one of the long-time readers of this site, then I congratulate you. Sometimes the crap I was churning out bored me to death, but, I promise, from now on, every post will be of at least some interest. Thanks for sticking around this long. Anyway, if anyone wants to help me out, you can always donate. It doesn’t matter how much, but all donations will go towards getting paid hosting and this website on a better server. Unfortunately, having made next to nothing off of this website for years, I can’t justify pulling another wad of cash out of my pocket for a good hosting provider. If you are cheap (a lot like me as it turns out) and don’t want to or cannot donate, feel free to write an awesome life tip by clicking here. I love hearing other people’s ideas.

Youtube Video of the Week?

Yeah, I’m not going to do those anymore. They were a hassle and ended up being the only thing on the site. I will still post certain viral videos that I think are interesting and tickle the brain, and those can be found in the Entertainment category.

New Comment System

This is somewhat unrelated, but big shoutout to the people that made the Social plugin for WordPress. After fiddling around with Facebook and Twitter auto-posters for days, I was absolutely tired and was ready to smash my computer screen. But Social made it incredibly easy and saved my life. Adding compliment to health is the awesome comment system bundled with the plugin. Check it out. You can sign in with Twitter or Facebook and even tweet or post straight from there. It’s enabled me to eliminate a lot of the “Share this!” clutter.

Conclusion

Like I said, TipAbsorb is a new place now. From this point on, I will only accept high quality postings that are actually interesting to people. I am no longer going to focus on revenue and instead focus on viewership. I think ads detract from the experience, so I am only including one. This sudden change of heart comes as a result of my failed attempt over the past couple of years to monetize the website as well as my successful attempt at obtaining real-life employment. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely true. I am self-employed and do freelance computer repair and computer refurbishment work. By the way, if you want to buy a refurbished computer, visit my eBay page. That would help out a lot. I want the site to have more color, so there will probably be more images, videos, and content overall in each post.