What You Need in a Computer System (Mac or PC)
A start-up web publisher can buy a single powerful computer to handle your writing, coding and designing needs, so you won't need to manage several computers.
PCs and Macs
We'd like to avoid getting into a Mac vs. PC argument here, but it does bear...
Can You Upgrade or Do You Need a New Machine?
For less computer-intensive tasks, consider upgrading an older machine. In general, if you have 256MB of RAM or less, upgrading to 512MB will make a noticeable difference; a total of 1GB or even 1.5GB will improve performance even further. If you are...
Software Solutions
A computer without software is like a kitchen without pots and pans. To run a community media site, you'll need several types of software. We'll suggest some first-class industry standards in each category, then point out more basic alternatives that...
Digital Cameras
If you're encouraging readers to submit photos, your community reporters will need a digital camera to snap photos of local stories and events.
A good resource for digital camera buyers is Digital Photography Review, http://www.dpreview.com/ . It has...
Backing Up
To avoid losing all your hard work in a random hard-drive crash, it's important to make copies of all your important files. In computing, these are generally known as "backups."
A favorite saying goes: "There are those computer users who back up their...
Audio Recording Equipment
Just like photography, digital technology has changed forever the practice of audio recording. Options stretch from dirt cheap to very high-end. In all cases, however, you may also need to consider the following equipment to record audio:
A device...