Paul Lilly
Paul is a seasoned geek who was first seduced into the world of computers and technology by the Commodore 64, and through the years he’s courted a number of OSes and platforms from DOS on up to the latest version of Windows. Having joined the HotHardware team in 2011, Paul is now a mainstay of the site covering the news beat and reviews, and resident wiseguy who keeps the mood light. He’s also an experienced freelance technology writer whose work has appeared in a number of online and print publications.
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
When it comes to graphics cards, proper drivers can make all the difference in the world. For those of you rocking a GeForce brand videocard installed in a system running Microsoft's Windows 8 Release Preview, brand new WHQL-certified drivers are now available to download. NVIDIA's 302.82 release isn't for everyone...
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When machine finally decides to rise against man, the human race is going to have its hands full. For one, it's a well known fact that robots have super human strength and pose a particular problem for senior citizens (we're not making this up, but Old Glory Insurance might be). They're also cheaters, so don't go hoping for a fair fight. Maybe...
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Apple, now the largest company on the planet in terms of market capitalization, has been lining its pockets with revenue from highly popular devices like the iPhone, but have you ever wondered just how much money is at stake? The bean counters at Strategy Analytics did a bit of number crunching and determined that...
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Kids today complaining of the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy, bug patches, and game delays should take a moment to appreciate how good they really have it, and where some of us old fogies (by young pup standards) first cut our teeth. For me, it was the Atari 2600 with games like Pitfall (totally rad for its day) and...
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A recent study has found that more and more mobile phone users are tapping into their cell phones to not only surf the Internet, but to do the majority of their online Web browsing. Folks who use their cell phone to go online were once the exception to the rule. In April 2009, Pew Internet found that slightly less...
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Could you imagine Zeus sitting atop Mount Olympus plugging away on a MacBook Air (as if!) or a bulk OEM machine loaded with trialware? Pffft. That's absurd, but the concept of packing "godlike power" into a diminutive micro tower form factor isn't, at least not as far as Falcon Northwest is concerned. The boutique...
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There's no such thing as a geek who has everything, but that doesn't always make it easy to shop for the geek who has most things. If you keep your eyes peeled, however, you'll find it's possible to score a gem every now and then. One example is the batch of retired World of Warcraft servers Blizzard auctioned off earlier this year, one of...
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You've heard of the so-called 'Apple Tax' in which Apple branded computers carry a premium for the same or similar parts compared to their Windows-based brethren (we took a detailed examination of whether or not the Apple Tax is real in late 2010), but since when do Apple users have to pay more for unrelated services like hotel lodging? Since...
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Do you enjoy the sound of your own voice? Don't worry, we're not here to judge, and truth be sold, we sometimes feel the same way. The exception to our vanity is when we're playing a game and yelling at our teammates through a headset. That became a problem when Sony rolled out its v4.10 for the PlayStation 3, which...
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One of the products MSI was busy showing off at Computex earlier this month was the company's upcoming Slider S20, which is an 11.6-inch Ultrabook with a slide-out physical keyboard that doubles as a stand. MSI disclosed only a handful of details, saying it would pack an new generation Intel Chief River CULV platform...
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Rivals T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have inked a deal to exchange spectrum in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) band in 218 markets across the U.S. The mutually beneficial deal will improve T-Mobile's spectrum position in 15 of the top 25 markets throughout the country as it looks to launch 4G LTE service next year, in exchange for spectrum...
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New research suggests that higher ups holding positions in senior management either don't know where their company's data resides, or aren't sure. That might not be surprising to folks who find themselves continually frustrated trying to communicate with decision makers who seem disconnected from day-to-day...
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Considering a career change? You may want to see if Dunder Mifflin is hiring. A piece of malware first discovered in 2010 is making the rounds, and it's wreaking havoc on thousands of office printers, resulting in pages of "garbled printouts" and reams of wasted paper. It's a "paper saleman's dream come true," Symantec says. Trojan.Milicenso,...
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Amazon founder and chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, once held a job flipping burgers at McDonald's. Today his net worth is estimated at $20.2 billion, making him the richest Internet entrepreneur in the entire world. He's far from the only one to have made billions on the Internet, however, as there are at least...
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Tablets and smartphones and Windows 8, oh my! In case you haven't noticed, touchscreen computing is a big deal, and it's only getting bigger. Unfortunately, gaming on a tablet pales in comparison to fragging your friends on a PC with a mouse and keyboard, or even on a console using a controller. Tapping and dragging...
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We don't know what the going rate is for venturing off to infinity and beyond, but if you'd like to boldly go where man has gone a few times before, a company called Excalibur Almaz will take you there... for a price. The commercial aerospace company said it's ready to start selling tourists trips to the moon, tickets...
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Solid state drives (SSDs) may well supplant mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs) as the storage of choice one day, but two things need to happen first. Capacity needs to increase, and the cost of flash-based storage needs to come down. Both of those things are happening right before our highs. Increasingly bigger SSDs are finding their way to...
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The events that took place on Thursday were "Not how [Twitter] wanted today to go." Twitter went offline for all Web users yesterday morning, and mobile clients had stopped showing Tweets. Had Twitter been hacked? Was the microblogging world coming to an end!? Not exactly. "This wasn't due to a hack or our new office or Euro 2012 or GIF avatars,...
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Listing likes and dislikes, favorite movies, and other similar traits is completely optional on Facebook. Disclaiming crimes of a sexual nature, however, is not for residents of Louisiana. A new law sponsored by Louisiana state rep. Jeff Thompson requires sex offenders and child predators to list their crimes on...
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If you've been waiting for Acer to make its Iconia Tab A700 tablet available to order, your wait is over, provided you're interested in the silver model. Both the black and silver models are up for order on Acer's website, though the silver SKU is showing as "In Stock" while the black model appears to have sold out, at least for the time being....
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Get ready to say your goodbyes to Office Starter 2010, because Microsoft is already starting to do so. The Redmond software maker has reportedly begun letting its OEM partners known that it's phasing out the feature-thin version of Office that they've been pre-loading on new PCs, which was originally designed to give users a taste of the Office...
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A leaked 56-page presentation spilled the details of Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 720 game console, but what's even more telling is how Redmond's legal team is handling the situation. The document first appeared on Scribd and sat there for all the world to flip through, right up until Covington & Burling LLP, a law firm that represents Microsoft...
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