Joe D

I have always had a passion for everything computing. In early 2000, I decided to take my passion to the web. Thus, C.O.D. was born. Through the years we have made many great friends at C.O.D. and hope to continue our journey for years to come.

XBMC 13.1 Gotham returns

Now that more people are starting to use XBMC 13.0 codename “Gotham,” several issues have popped up which testing hadn’t previously revealed. After releasing two betas and a release candidate, it’s time for a final 13.1 release. The incorporated fixes are the ones already mentioned in the release candidate announcement, nonetheless we will list them again below. Do note that this release contains only fixes, and no new features. This 13.1 release can be safely installed on top of any previous XBMC releases. Please read the important notice at the bottom as well. Should you find any problems, you can find how to report these at the bottom of this announcement. Very likely we will release another bug-fix release after this version, with additional fixes and small improvements. These are however to intrusive to already include in this 13.1 release, as they need careful testing.

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In-home Consumer Electronics Multiply but Electricity Usage per Home Falls

Despite their significantly higher market penetration in U.S. homes, consumer electronics (CE) now account for a lower percentage of electricity usage per household than they did three years ago, according to new research released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®. The study Energy Consumption of Consumer Electronics in U.S. Homes in 2013 says CE devices accounted for just 12 percent of residential electricity consumption in the U.S. last year, a nine percent drop from their energy consumption share in 2010 (13.2 percent).

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QNAP TS-470 Review

If you are hunting around for your next NAS, you have plenty to pick from. With countless options, NAS makers are hard at work trying to ramp up their products and are jockeying for the number 1 spot on your short list. It seems like only yesterday that QNAP had introduced their X69(L) lineup and already we are being greeted by a more powerful X70 lineup. For the last few months, we have been putting QNAP's TS-470 to work in our office... the real question is, is it worth your dollar?

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Can’t Remove a Partition? Use DiskPart

If you have ever removed a hard drive from a system and installed it in another, you may have run into a situation before where you are unable to delete some of the partitions on the drive. This usually happens when you remove the hard drive from a system made by Dell, Acer, Samsung, etc. The partitions you are unable to remove are designated for system restore and the like. Well, getting rid of those partitions is easier than you think. All you need is a command line and a cup of coffee.

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