As with several hobbies, my father got me interested in running a Personal Weather Station (or PWS).  At first, I used second-hand hardware for this, but ran into issues.  Most of the issues I had were communications between the base station and the sensors.  So I swapped out with another second-hand system.  This one was relatively stable with the communications, but developed an issue with the humidity sensor.  After a couple months, it too developed communication issues.  Fresh batteries in the sensors and base station did not resolve the issue, so I began looking for a new weather station.  This time, I decided to purchase a brand new weather station.

Here's a new trick I recently learned, and it comes in handy for System Builders, as well as system restorers.

I was installing a non-branded copy of Windows 7 Professional on my Dell Studio 1536 laptop.  While installing all the drivers from Dell, I included a registry patch that inserted the model number as well.  Going into the System Properties screen, I saw it now showing the model, but it did not have the manufacturer information.

The operation was a success, and the patient still lives!

Or in better terms, the refurbishment project has been successfully completed, and the PC is once again a usable system.

What do you do with a two year old stock smartphone when for various reasons you aren't prepared to replace it with a new one?

One option is to install a custom ROM so you can still take advantage of newer software. In 2012, I upgraded my Motorola Droid 3 to the Droid 4 in order to keep my unlimited data plan with Verizon Wireless and gain the advantage of 4G LTE.