Monthly Archives: September 2022

Memory Upgrades: An Inexpensive Way To Boost Computer Performance

Memory Upgrades: An Inexpensive Way To Boost Computer Performance

Many people buy a computer with only the minimum amount of memory (RAM) installed. The reasons for this vary, but usually computers with the minimum amount of RAM are cheaper than the others, so appear to be a bargain.

Other folks have older computers that might have had a reasonable amount of memory installed at the time of purchase, but struggle to keep up with the memory requirements of modern applications. Installing additional memory is a relatively inexpensive way to boost performance in old and new computers alike.

If your computer is 2-3 years old and it is running somewhat slow, then it’s worth considering purchasing a memory upgrade before lashing out on a new computer. The majority of people that I talk to about computer memory upgrades (especially those with a computer over 2 years old) are surprised at the increase in overall performance after installing a memory upgrade. Typically it can extend the useable life of the average computer by another 2-3 years, at a mere fraction of the cost of buying a new one.

Installing a memory upgrade is usually a simple process, requiring at most a phillips screwdriver to either undo the memory hatch on your notebook, or to remove the case if you have a desktop pc. Once you have access to the memory slots, it’s just a simple matter of pushing the memory module into the spare slot firmly, closing the hatch or putting the case back on, putting the screw back in, and rebooting the computer.

It can be a more complicated exercise if your memory slots are fully populated, but a competent memory supplier should be able to provide you with advice on the upgrade options available and whether or not you will need to remove one or more of the existing modules to make room for larger ones.

The question a lot of people ask me when considering buying a memory upgrade is “What size memory upgrade should I buy?”

I usually answer this with a question: “Tell me about the sort of things you use your computer for?”

Generally speaking I recommend you install 512mb if you are running Windows XP on your computer. Microsoft say that the minimum is far less, but it really is the minimum in my opinion. 512Mb of installed memory will give you enough room for Windows XP to load, and a little spare for a couple of web browser windows, an email client, antivirus application, and a spreadsheet or word processor.

If you run OSX or a flavour of Linux, I still recommend 512mb as a minimum.

If you only have the generally accepted minimum of 256mb, this is barely enough to load Windows XP. As you start up other applications, your pc will begin to allocate “virtual” memory. This means that a section of your computers hard drive is used for moving around data in the same way that physical memory is used, only it goes a lot slower.

If you do photo editing in addition to the basics, think about going up to 1GB of installed memory. If you are a home video buff or play a lot of computer games, then 2GB is really going to keep you productive. (Is gaming productive?).

Memory upgrades are available from many different sources, and made by a lot of different manufacturers. Kingston are probably the best known manufacturer, and they make modules for most of the top OEM’s, who rebrand Kingston memory as their own.

Before purchasing an RAM upgrade, be sure to ask if the memory is guaranteed to be compatible with your PC or laptop, and is backed by a no-quibble return policy. Always make sure a lifetime warranty applies as well.

So if you or your kids are complaining about their latest computer game running too slow, consider that you might not need to buy a new computer even if it is a couple of years old, but simply upgrade the one you have with some more memory. It can make a world of difference, and make your computing investment last a lot longer.

Scuba Diving Computers Required

Scuba Diving Computers Required

More and more dive operators are making them mandatory. Some even include a wrist dive computer as part of the gear provided to their customers. This is especially true for live-aboard dive boat operations.

Of course that only makes sense for these “dive your brains out” deals. You’re doing a ton of diving, spending serious time underwater, and a computer not only makes it easier, but helps avoid compromising safety.

And don’t misunderstand, live-aboards are great. It doesn’t get much better than five or so dives a day, and merely rolling out of bed to get to the site. Put that together with great food, pristine reefs off the beaten path, & falling asleep under the stars, and it’s a super vacation recipe.

Aside from their obvious usefulness in the live-aboard world, dive computers make sense for most all diving situations. In fact, anyone serious about the sport shouldn’t make another dive without one. From maximizing bottom time to calculating complex dive plans without compromising safety, these wrist computers are invaluable.

Even the dive operators who don’t make them mandatory, will separate the computer divers from the non-computer divers, requiring those without personal dive computers to follow a much more conservative profile, which most often results in a shorter dive.

Now there’s nothing wrong with being conservative, but not to the extent of cutting a dive needlessly short. And that’s the whole point behind using a computer. It allows more time at depth and/or underwater while still helping you stay within safe limits.

There may be a handful of very experienced scuba divers who are so skilled with the dive tables, they can recalculate complex dive plans on the fly during their dive with some proficiency. But even they can’t beat a computer in terms of speed and accuracy. And most, if not all those guys, still use a computer simply because they prefer to get the most from their diving.

Whether you need the full functionality of variable gas mixtures, extensive dive logging, complicated multi-level dive profiles, deep or decompression dives, etc., or just want to stay safe while allowing for slight changes to your dive plan, a good dive computer is an excellent investment.

They really should be considered required equipment. Prices have come down so far that cost just isn’t an excuse anymore, especially when thinking about safety. Get the most out of your diving by making a wrist computer an integral part of your dive gear.

Got Dial Up?

Got Dial Up?

Forget Online Gaming

Computer games have come a long way since electronic checkers and the like. Today, we’ve got computer games that would put some 21st century movies to shame and interest in online gaming is catching on like some kind of crazy fever. Once dominated by males aged 25 and older, today’s gaming generation includes mom, sis, aunt, even grandma and grandpa! If you think you’ve caught the online gaming bug, and you’re thinking about becoming a participant, don’t even think you can join in on this online fun using a dial up Internet connection!

Part of the fascination with online gaming lies in its speed. During play, online gaming becomes a virtual world and in order to project a sense of reality into the mix, its games are fast, its movements are smooth, and its sounds are as realistic as we hear them in the natural world. Sitting in front of an online game, and actively participating in one puts the player in another world – a world that’s so different, so cool, and so real.

No, we’re not talking about a super-fancy version of checkers or backgammon. We’re not talking about a visually rich game of tic-tac-toe. We’re talking about full-fledged networked or multiplayer gaming that allows anyone to entertain themselves and hoards of others across the world at the same time. Multiplayer games play over online but trust us when we say any old Internet connection won’t do.

If you want to get in on this craze, you’re going to have to ditch the old dial up connection that you might have and get into broad band. A broadband Internet connection will give you the ability to send and receive highly detailed and realistic imagery at an appropriate speed. It will give you the means to watch videos in real time, and it will allow you to experience speech as if each and every other player were speaking to you directly.

A dial up Internet connection just can’t handle this kind of fun, but you can get a broad band connection just as easily. For the techies out there, broadband is a type of data transmission in which a single medium (wire) can carry several channels at once. 1 For the rest of us, broadband is an Internet connection that allows several people to send and receive data at the same time. A dial up connection doesn’t do that. A dial up connection can either send or receive – but it certainly can’t do both. Let’s talk about Broadband ISDN for a minute.

ISDN stands for integrated services digital network and it can transmit transmitting voice, video and data over fiber optic telephone lines at about 64 Kbps (64,000 bits per second).
Most ISDN lines offered by telephone companies give you two lines at once, called B channels. You can use one line for voice and the other for data, or you can use both lines for data to give you data rates of 128 Kbps, three times the data rate provided by today’s fastest modems.2

Broadband ISDN – a combination of regular broadband and ISDN can transmit voice, video and data over fiber optic telephone lines at about 1.5 million bits per second (bps). It’s a much faster connection than either broadband or ISDN alone! If your ISP offers Broadband ISDN, ask for it – your online gaming adventure will be the better for it.

1 Source: Mecklermedia Corp.
2 Source: Mecklermedia Corp.

Just What Is A P.C. Anyways?

Just What Is A P.C. Anyways?

The question often arises – “Just what is a PC”?

Many people would immediately answer that the term “P.C.” Stands for “Personal Computer”. In fact the term P.C. does stand for “Personal Computer”. Many, especially Apple Macintosh users, would define and argue that a personal computer as any small computer system purchased and used by an individual. Indeed one could make a point that many devices used by individuals today without any question or thought such as cellular phones and calculators are indeed dedicated personal computers as well. This is all true yet Cell phone, calculator owners or Apple Macintosh computer users would refer to their electronic device as a P.C.

Calling something a P.C. implies that is something much more specific than just any personal computer or electronic tabulating or communications device. One thing that the term P.C. implies is that the P.C. had its origins in the first I.B.M. (International Business Machines) P.C. that was introduced to the computer market in the year of 1981.

The computer market leader, the behemoth computer company I.B.M. did literally invent the P.C. I.B.M. literally invented the P.C. and set the standards and formats of the P.C. which lie with us even today. However the I.B.M. P.C. did not emerge from I.B.M. like the Ten Commandments from the Lord at Mount Sinai. The P.C. did evolve from precursors. Generally it is accepted that the direct historical origins of the P.C. began with MITS Altair first introduced in 1975 – 11 years earlier. These Altair kits were just that, nothing more than a kit of parts for the electronics enthusiast to assemble themselves. The Altair setup was a kit for hobbyists to assemble. Indeed the product was little more than a set of flashing lights. There was basically nothing in the way of product support. Many of the Altair kits were never even assembled.

The significance of the I.B.M. project was that the computer market leader- the marketing behemoth of the time – I.B.M. both set the standards for a small Personal Computer and gave it stamp of approval. Previously IBM’s emphasis was on large mainframe computers. This is where I.B.M. emphasis and most importantly its profit lay. Some would even say the real purpose of the I.B.M. P.C. development project was not to create a Personal Computer product and set standards for the P.C. to come, but rather to prove that this rigid, top down management Style Company could devise a product in less than a year and ½.

Previously all IBM products were devised exclusively in house by IBM, with only IBM designing and manufacturing the products and with large profit margins. What made this situation different were the time frames. In order to complete the project the IBM team went outside of IBM, outsourcing in today’s terms. Off the shelf products, which met the I.B.M. PC specs and standards were utilized. Furthermore third party software – such as the operating system dos was utilized rather than proprietary IBM software. This was the first step towards the open source software of today.

Previously the small business and computer software market was fragmented into many small different pieces. There may have been a market for software but for which computer type – Commodore, Apple, Sinclair etc etc etc. Because of the stamp of approval given by I.B.M. to personal computer and the resulting standardization and volumes of IBM PCs software developers could now write and sell product to a large identifiable market.

The reality is that IBM clearly designed and created the first PC in 1981 and controlled the development and evolution of the PC standard for several years afterwards that IBM lost control of the PC standards by 1987 when they introduced their PS/2 line computer systems. The IBM PS/2 line was an attempt by IBM head office to reign in the computer market back to IBM with a somewhat proprietary IBM hardware computer rather than more open standards.

Up until the point the industry had shared standards with I.B.M. The many companies that produced P.C.’s literally copied IBM’s systems right down to the chips, connections and shapes (form factors) of the computers, cases and circuit boards.

For the most part what was in that I.BM? P.C. could be readily purchased as parts from 3rd party or even original manufacturers. Even though the prices for parts may have been higher than what I.B.M. paid when they bought hundreds of thousands there was a good profit margin and profits to be made even by small time computer assemblers. I.B.M., had stuck to their standard profit margins when releasing the I.B.M. PC. Even people like Michael Dell ( originator of the now market leader Dell Computers) , could start out screwing together and setting up computers in his college dorm room and still make a good profit while selling his clone computers at a hefty price reduction compared to the real I.B.M. P.Cs. IBM’s marketing response to the nattering disturbance of these small time P.C. clone makers was the message which was especially directed at the most lucrative business end of the market ‘You Can Never Go Wrong Purchasing I.B.M”

What changed the equation was when IBM released this I.B.M. PS/2 line and tried to change the market back to its profitable control. By now there was more than enough inertia – both in the personal computer market, market size, profit, computer component suppliers and manufacturers. The die was set and the market could not even by swayed by the giant I.B.M. Corporation.

The term “P.C” or “Personal Computers “ refers not to just any small personal computer but the computer models which a descendant and direct line from the original IBM Personal Computer which was developed and sold by I.B.M..

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A Digital World Has Come

A Digital World Has Come

The Internet has been around for sometime but its popularity started a little more than five years ago as more people gains access to public domain. As more Americans engage in online activities such as gaming, surfing, communicating with relatives and friends, and stock brokering, new companies are created. Now you have companies offering web design, web development, website hosting and SEO services. Aside from this, our age is growing up to careers like graphic design and web designers, types of work, which were inconceivable a decade ago.
Now you may be asking: What sort of work do these new companies engage in? Web development is the general term used to refer to all the activities I mentioned about. Any activity related to the creation of a website can be categorized under this term. Some professionals, however, insists that web development refers more to the technical side such as coding and networking.
Webdesign services are involved with the layout of a website. The web design is the first thing people notice when they visit a page. It is also one of the major factors considered by repeat visitors. There are four aspects of design: the content (basically this is the information on the site), the usability (the functions and features of the website), the appearance (should be enticing to readers0 and lastly, the visibility (people must be able to find your site!). The main goal of a good website designer is to make information readily available to his readers in a form that is very easy to understand.
SEO services are basically a marketing strategy used by sites to get more traffic, or in laymen’s terms, to get people to visit their sites. Say for example a person goes to Google and types in SEO, they should be able to find sites relating to search engine optimization and the those sites at the top of the list has the highest page rank, meaning, these are the sites which is visited most often. There are other websites which are not indexed or listed in Google, MSN or Yahoo. This means that unless you know the website’s name, no one will get to visit that site. To make your site popular, you need to build links to your site, and this is what companies engaged in SEO does.
Now, let’s talk about something less technical. Did you know that more people are spending more time with the internet than watching TV, reading the papers and listening to the radio? For one, you can do all these three things while sitting in front of your laptop. Now you no longer need a Tivo or a subscription to the local paper because now, you can get anything from the web for free! You can now do your shopping online; you can even gamble or take out loans from the internet. Aside from this, work is no longer confined to the office. When you need to beat a deadline, the internet gives best solution – bring your work home and let your VPN put you right back to work!
Surely, we are entering a new world – one where everything has its virtual counterpart. From teachers to bankers, friends and dates, everything we need is now online. But how has this affected our society today? In a study of 4,000 respondents, it was reported that internet usage was averaging at 2-5 hours a week while those in the extremes spend more than 10 hours in front of their computers. This has caused the 15% decline in social activities and another 25% who are spending lesser hours in talking to their friends or their families. Truly, this world has become a digital world of conveniences, and a world where people are losing contact with their social environment.