{"id":209,"date":"2020-08-05T13:26:32","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T20:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/?p=209"},"modified":"2020-08-05T13:26:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T20:26:32","slug":"stick-computers-when-internet-access-is-all-you-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/?p=209","title":{"rendered":"Stick Computers, when internet access is all you need."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This time around, I want to talk about turning an extra or lightly utilized television into a computer intended for internet access, email, remote learning, and similar functions. Let me be clear, none of the devices I will describe is intended for gaming, CADD, CAM, photo editing, or video editing. These devices (computers) are designed to get you internet-based content, display videos (even movies), and provide a portal for video conferencing (the basis for much of current distance learning).How does this work? Miniaturization of computers has come a long way and you can cram everything you need to make a good computing device into a 4&#8243; stick with an HDMI connector built into one end of it (see a picture of just one such device below). To run Windows 10, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage are sufficient, though I recommend 4GB of RAM and 32GB or even 64GB of storage, and devices configured this way are available and inexpensive.What is needed to complete the package? I recommend you start with the stick device which Amazon (among other sources) sells for under $150. (brands like Intel, Azulle, Terryza, AWOW). Add wireless keyboard and mouse combination (using a combination or set makes it easy to add wireless keyboard and mouse with one USB dongle) at $30 or less from a variety of manufacturers including Logitech. Finally, add a camera (conferencing implies that you can send video or photos) at $30-$50 along with a simple multi-outlet extension cord $10 ish and $220 or thereabouts gets you a complete kit to turn any HDMI TV into a computer.What can I expect such a computer to be able to do? Well, it will be plenty powerful enough to run Microsoft Office or Apache Office (free), store numerous documents, photos, even a few videos (setting up a cloud connection can greatly increase this ability). It will do quite nicely browsing the web, accessing your email, streaming videos (HD or UHD available in some devices and a few tv&#8217;s) and will come with Windows 10 pre-installed or ChromeOS if you so choose. And yes, it should be able to smoothly handle video conferencing and other remote school functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/rsrc.php\/v3\/yJ\/r\/UFn1qq9SajO.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" src=\"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/awow-pc-stick.jpg\" alt=\"The AWOW pc stick\" class=\"wp-image-53\" srcset=\"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/awow-pc-stick.jpg 240w, http:\/\/benediktson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/awow-pc-stick-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 85vw, 240px\" \/><figcaption>small, with fan, ac networking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This time around, I want to talk about turning an extra or lightly utilized television into a computer intended for internet access, email, remote learning, and similar functions. Let me be clear, none of the devices I will describe is intended for gaming, CADD, CAM, photo editing, or video editing. These devices (computers) are designed &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/?p=209\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Stick Computers, when internet access is all you need.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benediktson-computer","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benediktson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}