Computer Stuff

What is faster Broadband or Verizon DSL?

I found a page that tests how fast you are on the net. I did it two times and I believe it confirmed what I thought to be true. When I did it the first time it measured 711.4 kbps and it did seem very slow to finish. Then I did it again and the number jumped to off the chart.

I know my computer is faster when I revisit pages than if I do a search and am all over the place. I have used other peoples computers and go to pages that are new to that computer (no cookie) than I have to wait the second or so too.

Click to test your speed: Tech.msn.com

Speedtest.net

DO’S and DON’TS

Always remember to back up your folders on either rewriteable CD’s or those nifty detachable hard drives that you can pick up at Costco. How often is up to you, and what you will have to do over, if your hard drive dies on you. For me, I have all my pictures and documents on rewriteable CDs. I use a third for quick saves, and once I have filled that particular CD up I will erase one of the two sets I have for say, my site pictures, and do a fresh save. I do this for all my sets of saves. I will do this once or twice a month. I also make a tally mark on my CD label so I know how many times I have rewritten on it; they do not last forever.

OR, you could get a detachable hard drive like I said before, and use it until you have enough for a permanent CD.

While checking your email NEVER click a link and check into the site.

Example: AOL or EBay.com telling you that you have a problem with your account. It is usually 99.99% a spoof email, where someone has copied the companies email look. This is called Phishing where they are just waiting for you to type in your name and address or password and they want you to type in your credit card information.

DO use ‘Disk Defragmenter’ by going to programs, clicking on accessories, and then System Tools to where you will see disk defragmenter. The more you use your computer; adding and deleting large files etc. the more you should do it. Think of your computer as a filing cabinet and every time you look at a document and save it, you are refilling it.

Do manually run your anti virus software if you haven’t been online when the automatic download time that you set is suppose to happen.

While checking your email NEVER click a link and check into the site.

Do manually run your anti virus software if you haven’t been online when the automatic download time that you set is suppose to happen.

Computer Lingo

1 GB of Memory which is equal to two (2) 512 MB’s. I believe the numbers backwards are: 512, 486 , 384, 256, 128, 64, 32MB. I have heard more than once you can never have to much RAM! I know I haven’t mention cache but it is fuzzy to me. They say more is better. Cache is faster memory, where you can retrieve what you closed out (saved) from that, instead of filing it way back in the saved area when you turn off your computer. Saved both ways when power is off.

1 GB of Ram Memory This is your Random Access Memory. For instance, with this amount of memory available to me I can have my virtual world running (Desk top in a pretend environment) then be on line working on Robin’s World and have my Photo upload program running along with my Microsoft Word and Excel all running just fine and no waiting for things to boot up. I believe 512 Ram worked for me before, but I did not want to take chances, and I did not want to wait and somehow I felt I was. The bigger the programs the more memory it is going to need. I do not do graphic work, specialized stuff, so for what I do I have plenty. OK more than enough.

For example Hoyle Table Games 2004 says you need at least a Penium233 or higher. 233 is the low end of a Pentium 2 so you don’t need much.

32 MB RAM to run the program. So you can see it doesn’t make a dent in my RAM space.

8x CD ROM is talking about having Direct X 8 or higher. Upgrades are free so what the heck.

360 MB install space. (In add and remove programs it says 604MB but I installed the most that was possible.)

My Marrowwind game (on the PC) will do fine with what I have but the games out now are crazy huge.

2.16 GHz = is the unit of frequency: a billion per second versus MHz = a million per second. I am rather in the middle considering what is out there now. Do not ask me about this it gets so convoluted. Don’t go backward just get a Pentium 4 or AMD comparable would be an AMD2600 to what I have is the 3000 + GHz..

To Understand Size

One day a bit (00, 10 talk) was born and when you have 8 bits you get a byte (has 255 possible combinations). It is very useful in storing information. 1,024 bytes can store about 1,000 characters and to hold them it is called a Kilobyte. 1 Megabyte can store a million characters. 1 Gigabyte can store a billion characters (or 1,000 Megabytes) . 1Terabyte equals a trillion characters.

Back to the 360 MB install space, this too will do nothing to 1 of my 80 GB of space. Think of it this way; 1,000 – 360 and every time you install something like my Microsoft XP media content which is 610 MB’s now you are talking some space but still even with the other parts of Office which is another 400 MB it isn’t that bad because most programs are a fraction of this.

So go look in your add and remove programs and see how big your programs are. Click control panel and you will find it at the top. To see what you have go to My Computer and right click it.

Pentium 4 or compatible AMD an 80 GB Hard Drive is nice and big and the norm as time goes on. Along with at least 384 MB of Ram 512 would do you better. And memory is cheap! Let’s say you have 256 Ram already and you want a little more. 256 Ram more would be $50.00. Get a nice Video card, the one I have is old by gaming standards but really nice for everything else. Another thing that is fun to have is a CD writer and it is like $50.00 with a writing speed of 52X Please do not buy a computer that is proprietary. Who is going to mail their computer tower to the manufacturers just to get an upgrade?