High school dropouts. You have a kid, 16 or 17, wants to drop out of high school. He has a decent job lined up, construction, or building trades, or factory work or driving a truck. Something with a better future than McDonalds. He isn't much of an academic, doesn't get into book learning much.
Do you say OK? Or do you insist that he/she sit thru another year or two in class to get a high school diploma?
Monday, June 4, 2012
Keeping score as you tweak Windows for speed
Windows has many faults. It's a virus magnet, it's too plump, its flaky and it's slow. We poor Redmond victims can't do much about the first three items, but we can do something about the the last one. You can make Windows somewhat less sluggish. It can be hard to tell if your tweaks are helping or hurting. You can keep score with Windows Task Manager.
Task Manager is easy to start. Just hit control-alt-delete and Task Manager will open his window. He has five tabs, Applications, Processes,Performance and Networking.
Applications shows what "real" programs you have running. A "real" program is one you started with a mouse click, which displays a screen window and has code taking up RAM and CPU run time. About all the Application window is good for is shutting down applications (End Task in Winspeak) that have frozen up and no longer respond to mouse or keyboard.
Processes is a more interesting tab for the tweaker. Process is Winspeak for any program that takes up RAM and needs CPU time. All sorts of things take up RAM and CPU time but don't show a screen window. My Blackbox has 26 processes burdening the hardware. When he was new from the store he had nearly 50. The only good process is a dead process. Any tweaks you can do to shut off unneeded processes will make your machine run faster. Most processes are actually part of Windows and you can't do anything about them. All the Applications running in the Application Window will also show in the process window. The code part counts as a (sometimes more than one) process. Along with the process name, you want to see how much memory each process is using, how much CPU time it uses and how many I/O writes (disk writes) it is doing.
If these numbers don't show in the process window, click on "View" on the taskbar and then "Select Columns". Put a check mark on the properties (there are dozens of properties) that you want to see. The organized Windows tweaker will keep notes. Note down the number of processes, and keep track of it. Fewer is better.
Process window will show any virus you may be blessed with. As of this writing, anything running will always show up in the process window. The trick is to identify the virus amid the blizzard of ordinary processes. Especially as many virus take the name of perfectly legitimate parts of Windows.
The Performance tab gives score on memory usage. Physical Memory Total, is all the real RAM on your system. Available is what you think it is. System Cache is used as a disc cache. Windows keeps recently accessed disk data in the cache on the idea that it might be needed again soon. It saves a time consuming disk access each the cache hits. When RAM runs low, windows can reduce the size of cache to make more memory available. Kernel Memory Total is RAM taken for Windows use and cannot be used by programs. Any tweak that reduces Kernel Memory Total makes more RAM available to your programs.
Task Manager is easy to start. Just hit control-alt-delete and Task Manager will open his window. He has five tabs, Applications, Processes,Performance and Networking.
Applications shows what "real" programs you have running. A "real" program is one you started with a mouse click, which displays a screen window and has code taking up RAM and CPU run time. About all the Application window is good for is shutting down applications (End Task in Winspeak) that have frozen up and no longer respond to mouse or keyboard.
Processes is a more interesting tab for the tweaker. Process is Winspeak for any program that takes up RAM and needs CPU time. All sorts of things take up RAM and CPU time but don't show a screen window. My Blackbox has 26 processes burdening the hardware. When he was new from the store he had nearly 50. The only good process is a dead process. Any tweaks you can do to shut off unneeded processes will make your machine run faster. Most processes are actually part of Windows and you can't do anything about them. All the Applications running in the Application Window will also show in the process window. The code part counts as a (sometimes more than one) process. Along with the process name, you want to see how much memory each process is using, how much CPU time it uses and how many I/O writes (disk writes) it is doing.
If these numbers don't show in the process window, click on "View" on the taskbar and then "Select Columns". Put a check mark on the properties (there are dozens of properties) that you want to see. The organized Windows tweaker will keep notes. Note down the number of processes, and keep track of it. Fewer is better.
Process window will show any virus you may be blessed with. As of this writing, anything running will always show up in the process window. The trick is to identify the virus amid the blizzard of ordinary processes. Especially as many virus take the name of perfectly legitimate parts of Windows.
The Performance tab gives score on memory usage. Physical Memory Total, is all the real RAM on your system. Available is what you think it is. System Cache is used as a disc cache. Windows keeps recently accessed disk data in the cache on the idea that it might be needed again soon. It saves a time consuming disk access each the cache hits. When RAM runs low, windows can reduce the size of cache to make more memory available. Kernel Memory Total is RAM taken for Windows use and cannot be used by programs. Any tweak that reduces Kernel Memory Total makes more RAM available to your programs.
"The Supreme Court has the last word"
Heard just this morning on NHPR. Speaker was talking about NH and the NH Supreme Court rather than the Federal brand of same. Must be another well educated journalism school grad. In the real world, the legislature can always override the court, they can always amend the constitution. Or just ignore the court ruling.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Wall St Journal Worry Warts
Medium length OP-ed piece in the Journal about electric cars. Ron Adner, from Dartmouth's Tuck school of business opines that electric cars will have poor resale value due to deterioration of the expensive battery over time. And that resale value is a crucially important factor in the decision to buy a new car. And, plugging in zillions of electric cars to recharge will over load the national electric grid and put the lights out all over North America. Being a professor at the school of business, Mr. Adner suggests a change in business model. Instead of selling electric cars, he suggests leasing them like cell phones. That will solve everything. When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail...
In the real world these are non problems. Sure the batteries wear out over time, but so does every other part of a car. The depreciation on new cars is already so awful that short lived battery packs won't make things much worse. A new car looses half its value the moment you drive it off the dealer's lot. The NADA blue books show cars depreciate to rock bottom after seven years. The design goal for battery life on the Chevy Volt was 10 years. Nobody knows if they achieved that goal, the cars haven't been around for 10 years yet. So electric car resale value will be much less than what they cost new. What's new here?
Then there is the load on the electric grid. Non-problem. Demand for electricity drops way down at night when every one goes to bed and turns off the lights and the TV. Have a timer start the charging after 11 PM. Mr. ElectricCarOwner gets home at 6 PM and plugs in his car. It doesn't draw juice until the timer cuts it in after the evening power peak is over. Electric companies can offer bargain rates to encourage off peak car charging.
I'm glad none of my children went to Dartmouth, since they have turkey's like this teaching there.
In the real world these are non problems. Sure the batteries wear out over time, but so does every other part of a car. The depreciation on new cars is already so awful that short lived battery packs won't make things much worse. A new car looses half its value the moment you drive it off the dealer's lot. The NADA blue books show cars depreciate to rock bottom after seven years. The design goal for battery life on the Chevy Volt was 10 years. Nobody knows if they achieved that goal, the cars haven't been around for 10 years yet. So electric car resale value will be much less than what they cost new. What's new here?
Then there is the load on the electric grid. Non-problem. Demand for electricity drops way down at night when every one goes to bed and turns off the lights and the TV. Have a timer start the charging after 11 PM. Mr. ElectricCarOwner gets home at 6 PM and plugs in his car. It doesn't draw juice until the timer cuts it in after the evening power peak is over. Electric companies can offer bargain rates to encourage off peak car charging.
I'm glad none of my children went to Dartmouth, since they have turkey's like this teaching there.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Trendy Marketeers
"What's Selling Where | Paint colors. Title of a piece in the Wall St. Journal. They list five trendy sounding colors, complete with color illustrations of each color. Plus lots of fancy words about the grooviness of each color.
Trouble is, these forward looking trendy colors are the same dreary light pastels that have been slapped on the walls of Army barracks, gov'mint offices, and tired industrial buildings, for the last 50 years. Nothing new here, just washed out light blues, greens, and tans.
Hint to homeowners. If you are gonna paint a room, there is a lot to be said for good old landlord white (very light ivory). It brightens up any room, makes it look larger, and won't clash with wall hangings, rugs, curtains, furniture, or pictures. If you want to use a strong color on the walls, have your decorating plan well in mind, everything put into the room must either match, or at least harmonize with, the wall color. Done right, it can be effective, but it's hard to do right, especially on a tight budget.
Second hint to homeowners. Think about wall paper. It goes up easily, it hides all sorts of really horrible flaws in the walls, and can transform a room. Wall paper is less demanding than strong monocolors as to matching and harmonizing with the rest of the stuff you put in the room.
Trouble is, these forward looking trendy colors are the same dreary light pastels that have been slapped on the walls of Army barracks, gov'mint offices, and tired industrial buildings, for the last 50 years. Nothing new here, just washed out light blues, greens, and tans.
Hint to homeowners. If you are gonna paint a room, there is a lot to be said for good old landlord white (very light ivory). It brightens up any room, makes it look larger, and won't clash with wall hangings, rugs, curtains, furniture, or pictures. If you want to use a strong color on the walls, have your decorating plan well in mind, everything put into the room must either match, or at least harmonize with, the wall color. Done right, it can be effective, but it's hard to do right, especially on a tight budget.
Second hint to homeowners. Think about wall paper. It goes up easily, it hides all sorts of really horrible flaws in the walls, and can transform a room. Wall paper is less demanding than strong monocolors as to matching and harmonizing with the rest of the stuff you put in the room.
Free Anti virus programs
These are the ones I have used. All of them are scanners, upon command, or perhaps automatically, they compare files on your disc with a list of known badware/malware, and post big "Gotcha" messages when they find a match. They all take an hour or so to do your hard drive, and they all wait for you to personally OK zapping a malware file. Just in case they make a mistake. Which they never do. Since new malware is hatched every day, they all have provisions to download updated badware lists.
Most of them also install "realtime scanners" , programs that load into RAM at boot time and check all incoming stuff (email, email attachments, downloads) for badware, These scanners slow your system down a lot. I just removed a couple from my desktop, and the improvement in response is very noticeable and very pleasant. MicroSoft Security Essentials is the worse offender here. It slowed Blackbox down so much he was falling behind my typing. When a 600 Mhz machine with a Gigabyte of RAM cannot keep up with my 10 keystrokes/sec hand typing, something ain't right. Blowing away Microsoft Security essentials fixed things right up.
I have run all of these antivirus programs within the last few months. The computers all survived the experience. They are all free. They are all fairly easy to run, you download them from the web, run 'em, and tell 'em to zap everything they find. None of 'em will find everything. If faced with a difficult infection, try several of them. What one misses, another might find.
MalwareBytes. A relative newcomer. As a plus feature, no "realtime scanner". He just scans the hard drive, once, and doesn't bother you afterwards. Website BleepingComputer tipped me off to this one.
Spybot Search and Destroy Been around for a while. Started out as an anti spybot scanner and broadened out into scanning for most types of malware. No "realtime scanner", a plus feature in my estimation.
Lavasoft AdAware Another spybot scanner that has branched out. Installs its own "realtime scanner" and whines when it finds traces of other antivirus programs on your machine.
AVG Another relative newcomer. Still shaking the code down, but it works and does no harm.
ZoneAlarm. Started off as a firewall and the latest version includes a disk scanner and a "realtime scanner".
MicroSoft Security Essentials Fairly new from Redmond. Effective, is able to block some pesky infections spread from websites. CPU hog. Slows your machine a LOT, all the time. Consumes up to 90% of your CPU time. Difficult to turn off or remove.
Most of them also install "realtime scanners" , programs that load into RAM at boot time and check all incoming stuff (email, email attachments, downloads) for badware, These scanners slow your system down a lot. I just removed a couple from my desktop, and the improvement in response is very noticeable and very pleasant. MicroSoft Security Essentials is the worse offender here. It slowed Blackbox down so much he was falling behind my typing. When a 600 Mhz machine with a Gigabyte of RAM cannot keep up with my 10 keystrokes/sec hand typing, something ain't right. Blowing away Microsoft Security essentials fixed things right up.
I have run all of these antivirus programs within the last few months. The computers all survived the experience. They are all free. They are all fairly easy to run, you download them from the web, run 'em, and tell 'em to zap everything they find. None of 'em will find everything. If faced with a difficult infection, try several of them. What one misses, another might find.
MalwareBytes. A relative newcomer. As a plus feature, no "realtime scanner". He just scans the hard drive, once, and doesn't bother you afterwards. Website BleepingComputer tipped me off to this one.
Spybot Search and Destroy Been around for a while. Started out as an anti spybot scanner and broadened out into scanning for most types of malware. No "realtime scanner", a plus feature in my estimation.
Lavasoft AdAware Another spybot scanner that has branched out. Installs its own "realtime scanner" and whines when it finds traces of other antivirus programs on your machine.
AVG Another relative newcomer. Still shaking the code down, but it works and does no harm.
ZoneAlarm. Started off as a firewall and the latest version includes a disk scanner and a "realtime scanner".
MicroSoft Security Essentials Fairly new from Redmond. Effective, is able to block some pesky infections spread from websites. CPU hog. Slows your machine a LOT, all the time. Consumes up to 90% of your CPU time. Difficult to turn off or remove.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
One damn thing after another
We had a serious thunderstorm Monday night. Next morning main computer, trusty old Blackbox, a Compaq, was no longer on the internet. Windows claimed the network cable was unplugged. It wasn't, but the little green LED that indicates connection was out. After some blundering around, I fired up trusty laptop, and lo and behold, he went right on line by wireless. So, that means cable modem is alive, and the router has enough life to do wireless. I'm using one to those wireless routers that puts out a wireless signal AND drives four RJ-45 jacks. Blackbox is connected to one of the RJ-45 jacks. Maybe the Ethernet cable failed, or Blackbox's network adapter got fried. Or the router got half fried, so the wireless still works but the RJ-45 jacks are toast.
So I pull out a PCI wireless adapter card and plug it in. But the install CD refuses to run. So I decide to blow away some of the antivirus software that has been bogging Blackbox down. After a bitter hand-to-hand struggle I get rid of Microsoft Security Essentials and ZoneAlarm. Neither went easily or quietly. But after killing them both, the install CD started to work, and the wireless card connected and Blackbox is back on line.
Joy. And, I knew that the antivirus stuff was slowing him down, but wow, now he is back in his old form, quick and silent. Love it. So I am gonna run barefoot for a while.
So I pull out a PCI wireless adapter card and plug it in. But the install CD refuses to run. So I decide to blow away some of the antivirus software that has been bogging Blackbox down. After a bitter hand-to-hand struggle I get rid of Microsoft Security Essentials and ZoneAlarm. Neither went easily or quietly. But after killing them both, the install CD started to work, and the wireless card connected and Blackbox is back on line.
Joy. And, I knew that the antivirus stuff was slowing him down, but wow, now he is back in his old form, quick and silent. Love it. So I am gonna run barefoot for a while.
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