How to spot a Leaky Capacitor

One of the questions we get a lot is how do you detect a leaky or bad capacitor.  Here's how.

Short the terminals to ensure it is not charged. If you are doing this on a motherboard with a small capacitor, just use a small screwdriver.  If this is a high voltage or capacity unit UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO THIS - leave it to an expert.  Large capacitors can be extremely dangerous.

Steadybrace Pro Video Camera Shoulder Support

Because of the very lightweight design, there is almost no added weight to the camera.  And because of the collapsible design it’s easy to take this support with you on whatever shoot you go on.  The Steadybrace can also be used for low shots as ground tripod.

DC Power To Bring Massive Savings To Datacenters

InfoWorld's Logan Harbaugh follows up his '10 IT Power-Saving Myths Debunked' to argue in favor of using DC power in the datacenter. The practice — viewed as a somewhat crackpot means for reducing wasteful conversions in the datacenter just a few short years ago — has gained traction to the point where server vendors such as HP, IBM, and Sun are making DC power supplies available in their server wares.

Obama is the First President to have a Digital Portrait

Barack Obama's election to US president has already brought a string of firsts, and on Wednesday there came another. The official presidential portrait was shot on a digital camera for the first time. The picture was taken by the White House's new official photographer, Pete Souza, and issued by The Office of the President Elect through its Web site. It was taken on Tuesday evening at 5:38 p.m. using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, according to the metadata embedded in the image file.

Who's Running Apple Now?

With Steve Jobs stepping down from heading Apple for at least six months who's running the company that he resurrected? This article names the three people who will try to keep things running. But you have to wonder whether they'll have the charisma needed to keep Apple cool..

Breathalyzer Source Code Ruling Upheld

In a follow up to a 2005 story where Florida judge Doug Henderson ruled that breathalyzer evidence in more than 100 drunk driving cases would be inadmissible as evidence at trial, the Second District Court of Appeal and Circuit Court has ruled on Tuesday to uphold the 2005 ruling...

Smiley Emoticon Patented? WTF?

The insane, nut jobs at the Russian patent office have granted a trademark to Oleg Teterin.  This man now claims ownership of the rights to the ;-) emoticon. WTF!?

Apple Releases iPhone 2.0.1 update

Apple has released the very first update to the iPhone 2.0 software, which promises bug fixes and more.

How to Trim Vista's Large Borders

Windows Vista by default has very large program/window borders. Microsoft was interested in showing off the new transparancy or "glass" interface. If you'd prefer a more slimmed-down, Window XP style border, you can easily configure this setting to make it more to your personal style.

How to Add an Item to the Quicklaunch Bar

The Quick Launch menu is one of the most useful features in Windows (2000, XP and Vista). Windows Vista makes it even easier to add a program to the menu than previous versions.