Solid State Drives (SSD)

Solid State Drives are storage drives that do not contain any moving parts. There are many advantages to installing a solid state drive into your existing computer. However, there are a couple of disadvantages as well.

Traditional hard drives contain internal disks called platters that store data on various places on the platters. These platters are spun and read by heads (see image below). For many years, these hard drives have been used and they are very reliable for the most part. However, the emergence of solid state drives has revolutionized the hard drive industry.

Traditional HDD

Solid state drives are storage drives that do not contain any moving parts (see image below). If you're having trouble visualizing how a solid state drive works, just think about a flash drive. A flash drive does not contain any moving parts and the data is saved on the drive without the use of spinning platters and read/write heads. With that being said, the absence of spinning platters and read/write heads greatly speeds up the process of saving and retrieving data to and from the disk. Recently, I bought a new laptop and quickly swapped out the hard drive for an SSD. The amount of time it takes the computer to boot up has greatly been reduced with the new SSD. In fact, when I turn my computer on I'm up and running in a matter of seconds as opposed to minutes. This may not be a big deal for some but to me it's like a difference of night and day. 

SSD

In conclusion, solid state drives are a good investment for the computer user that needs more efficiency out of their computer. However, as of the writing of this blog they are a bit expensive and come in smaller storage sizes than traditional hard drives. If you can wait, it may be better to catch them on sale like I did. If you can catch them on sale, I think the increased efficiency and speed are definitely worth the price.   

The Raspberry Pi and why you should own one

The Raspberry Pi and why you should own one

If you haven't heard of the Raspberry Pi, you should probably read up on it. The Raspberry Pi is a small computer about the size of a credit card (see picture below). What's so special about this computer? Well for starters, it's a fully functioning computer that can fit in the palm of your hand. Next, it can use your existing television as a monitor which cuts down on the cost. Also, it can be connected to your existing wi-fi and bluetooth devices using an inexpensive dongle plugged into the usb ports. Lastly, it only costs $35. Yes, you read that correctly $35.

If you have children and would like to introduce them to the world of computers, I would definitely recommend purchasing a Raspberry Pi. If you haven't noticed yet, there is a big campaign to boost student's interest in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) areas and this little computer may just do the trick. There are plenty of cool activities for students to learn as they explore many different areas. While completing the projects, students will learn how to write code, troubleshoot the computer, and most of all have lots of fun! Best of all, one of the main features is the Raspberry Pi is so inexpensive that if it gets broken, you're only out of $35 as compared to hundreds or even thousands for traditional desktop or laptop computers.

If you don't have kids, you too can have fun while exploring the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi. There are plenty of do-it-yourself projects available using just a quick Google search. Some of the projects I'm personally intrigued with are hosting your own personal and private cloud, home automation, and home security. If you like to tinker with electronics in your spare time, this may be of interest to you. And to top it all off, depending on the project you may be able to save money in the process. What's not to like about that? For more information, please visit the Raspberry Pi site at the following link: https://www.raspberrypi.org/