If you can help it, don't drink or eat near your keyboard. Liquids getting inside your keyboard from a spill can short it out and food particles can also cause problems. Try not to smoke near your computer or have a good airflow near it. Computers intake air and blow it out to stay cool. Tars from the smoke will stick to the parts and can cause premature failure. It's also good to periodically take off the cover and vacuum the accumulated dust from inside. If you don't know how, take it to a professional. But trust me, on the keyboard.

Remember when working inside of a PC case to always ground yourself by touching the case frame before touching any of the PC components. This will avoid having to replace costly PC components due to static electricity.

If you put one of your favorite CD's music or program disk into your computer or CD player and it does not play. The best thing to do is go to the kitchen and get a tablespoon of peanut butter, regular and not crunchy style. Smear the peanut putter around the surface of the CD really well. Take a soft cloth, not wet, and wipe the peanut butter off using a motion going from the center of the CD outward. Do Not wipe around the CD in a circular motion. CD's are partitioned in a manner that resembles the way you slice a pie. If you wipe in a circle around the CD, you are more likely to cause damage.

While third party or open source libraries can save you time, make sure they really fulfill the needs of your project before you commit. You could end up spending many hours of your time debugging and enhancing code you don't understand very well.