Tweaking Windows Services.

Services are little programs that Windows runs behind your back.  Some are necessary, many are not.  All of them steal valuable RAM and CPU time.  You can see just what Services are slowing your machine from the Start Menu.  Do Start ->Settings->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services.  Services has an icon of meshed gearwheels.
    The services application gives you the name, a brief spiel, "started" and the startup type.  "Started" should be self explanatory.  Startup type "Auto" means load and start this service at boot time, slowing your boot and committing memory to the service even if you never use it.  Beware.  Service Remote Procedure Call (RPC) MUST be set to auto all the time.  Without RPC on auto Windows will fail to boot and the only recovery is to reinstall Windows from CD ROM.  Don't mess with RPC, it bites.
   Startup type "Manual" means Windows will load and start the service only when some program tries to use the service.  Load and start is so fast that putting services to manual doesn't slow anything down.  Setting things to manual makes the machine boot faster.
    Startup type "Disabled" means never load and run the service no matter what.  A number of services are security holes or spam gateways and should be disabled.

    I am posting the service settings that work on my machine (Blackbox), which runs Windows XP Media Center (XP with some add ons to make/fake it into being a digital video recorder).  It's a single machine home machine running by itself (no networking to other machines).   Since the number of services is vast, the service list is long and I'll post it in pieces.
   I was able to get my boot time down to 45 seconds and make Blackbox perceptibly livelier with these service settings.  I thought I'd pass them on.

Tweaking Windows Services Alerter to Fast User Switching

		Dstarr Blackbox
Alerter	Transmits alerts for display by Messenger Services. Spam gateway.	disable
App. Layer Gateway Service	Supports Internet Connection Sharing.  Obsolete.  We use routers now to put multiple computers on one Internet wire.	Man.
Application Management	Install applications off the LAN.  Corp IT might want this, but I don’t.	Man.
Ati Hot Key Poller	Net rumor says that is a hot key grabber from ATI who makes my video hardware. I never use hotkeys	Man.
ARSVC	Media Ctr always ready stuff. Arservice.exe. Keeps hardware alive even after you power it down.	Man.
automatic Updates	Visits MS website looking for Windows Patches	Man.
Background Intel. Xfer Service	Network files xfer in background for Winupdate	Man.
Boot Info. Negotiation Layer BINL	Install Windows over LAN	Nohave
Certificate Services	X.509 Certificates?	Nohave
ClipBook	Allows other computers to see the clipboard. I ought to make it “disabled”.	Man.
Cluster Service	?	Nohave
COM+ Event System	auto Distribution of Com Events	Man.
Com+ System Applications	Same as above	Man.
Computer Browser	Finds other computers to place into Network Neighhood.  Needed for 2 computer LAN?	Man.
Crypto Services	Cypto support to auto update, WinMediaPlay&PNP	Nohave
Dcom Server Process Launch	Required for RPC. Do not disable	Nohave
DHCP Client	Obtains dynamic IP address from ISP or router. Needed for all networking	auto
DHCP Server	Furnishes dynanic IP addresses to clients	Nohave
Distributed File System DFS	Network File shares	Nohave
Distributed Link Tracking Client	Keeps track of location of files shared over the network	Man.
Distributed Link Tracking Server	Provides information to clients to keep track of shared files/	Nohave
Distributed Transaction Coordinator	Supports Com+ Msg Queueing, SQL file sharing over the network	Man.
DNS Client	Needed to convert www.names into IP numbers	Man.
DNS Server	Converts Domain Names into IP addresses for clients	Nohave
Error Reporting Service	Report errors back to Microsoft in Redmond	Nohave
Event Log	Logs Windows errors to disk. System critical cannot be disabled	auto
Fast User Switch Compatability	Allows login as new user w/o reboot.  I wouldn’t use it even if I had it.	Nohave

What is it with Plastic Bags?

First Washington DC "banned" them.  Actually they used the greenie furor to hike prices.  Bags used to be free, now the DC markets charge 5 cents a bag.  PITA.  Now LA is talking about bannng them.
  So what do the greenies have against a simple plastic bag?  I go to the store, the store puts my groceries into plastic bags, I carry the bags to the car.  At home I save all the bags and use them to take my recycling to the "transfer station". (it's not PC to call it the town dump).  What's not to like?

Real Jobs and Government Jobs

Thing to bear in mind.  Real jobs produce real wealth.  Real jobs manufacture stuff, transport stuff, grow stuff, mine stuff, construct stuff.  At quitting time, the real worker goes home knowing that there is a little more wealth in the world than when he came on shift. 
   Government jobs do not create wealth.  Firemen, cops, school teachers, soldiers, and bureaucrats may be necessary, but they don't create wealth.  Their salaries are paid with money taken from the real workers by force of law. At quitting time the government worker goes home knowing that it's five o'clock.
    You hear Obama saying "The private economy is doing OK, it's the government employment that needs help."  and you gotta know the president is talking thru his hat.
    You hear "progressive" economists like Krugman and democratic  politicians decrying the reduction of the government work force as if  government workers were the key to prosperity.  They aren't.
   Prosperity comes from real workers at real jobs.  Euro style bankruptcy comes from  government jobs.

Beast of extreme dampness

Stupid Beast went out yesterday.  Then we had one of those sudden summer thunderstorms.  A real gullywasher cloudburst.  She failed to make it back to the house in time.  After the rain let up, she appeared at the door, wanting IN.  NOW.
   She has somewhere out doors to get out of the rain.  But either she wasn't fast enough to get there in time or it wasn't all that rainproof.  She was wringing wet, fur soaked, leaving wet paw prints on the rug.  I tried to dry her off with a bathtowel, but the towel spooked her (your basic fraidy cat) and she scuttled under a bed, still wet.  Didn't dry off for hours.

Counterfeit MIL SPEC semiconductors

Yet another Aviation Week article on the dangers of counterfeit chips finding their way into US systems such as THAADS anti missile, C-130J transport, Apache and Chinook helicopters.  The article goes on to scary speculation with counterfeit chips might have concealed backdoors allowing an enemy to disable US weapons systems in time of war thru a sneaky internet attack.
   This is largely a self inflicted wound.  The military wants to approve each semiconductor device that goes into a weapons system.  They take so long to approve a device that it is out of production by the time the Pentagon finishes doing the paperwork.  Since the makers can not obtain approved MIL SPEC devices from the OEM manufacturer, instead they deal with a world full of shady wholesalers/distributers,  who for a price, will offer any old MIL SPEC chip you might need.  And  the wholesalers/disti's will find the needed chips anywhere.
    The solution is to require defense contractors to use current production commercial chips from reputable US makers.   A box  of commercial grade chips shipped from the likes of Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instrument, Micron, Xylinx or Altera will be what the maker says they are.  A shipment of chips from Midnight Semiconductor Supply might be damn near anything , from damn near anywhere. 
   Current production commercial chips are 10 to 100 times more reliable than any kind of  MIL SPEC device.  Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.  Built a brassboard system with commercial devices, it worked fine.  Built the deliverable system with MIL-SPEC devices which were terrible.  A couple of dead devices in every box.  Electrical performance so low that we had to redesign circuits that worked fine with decent commercial devices to work with the cruddy MIL-SPEC devices.
 

A looming threat

A dock from Japan washed up on an Oregon beach the other day.  It had been washed out to sea by the terrible earthquake and tidal wave that hit Japan last year. USA Today called it a looming threat.
   Wow.  Japan suffered an earthquake, a flood, tens of thousands of deaths, even more still homeless, power shortages, rolling blackouts and radiation leaks.   But one piece of flotsam washing up on a west coast beach is a looming threat. 
   Is not something out of proportion here?