A transistor is an electronic component. It is defined as an "active" electronic component because it is able to perform more than one function at more than a single level.

The most basic of transistors is the bipolar transistor. It has three connections; those being the base, collector, and emitter. A circuit-diagrammatical representation of the bipolar transistor is shown in Fig.1 below. The collector is the connection at the top, the base is the one in the middle, and the emitter is the one at the bottom with the arrow on it. In addition to the transistor’s amplification factor, the base and emitter act as a diode. (See Fig.2 (i) and (ii).)

The direction of the arrow indicates whether the type of bipolar transistor is NPN or PNP. (Which stands for Negative Positive Negative or Positive Negative Positive.) The difference amounts to the way that the transistor is connected in a circuit with regard to the DC polarity. This polarity is caused by the transistor’s substrate layers being doped with a P-type and an N-type substrate. (See table of links.)

Fig.3 shows a PNP transistor connected into a basic circuit. Fig 4 shows an NPN transistor connected into an equivalent circuit. The resistors in the circuit limit the current flowing through the device and set the device’s voltage potential point with respect to the supply rails. The capacitor drawn in with dotted lines is a decoupling capacitor which, along with R3, decouples the collector (PNP) or the emitter (NPN) to ground; limiting distortion in the output and/or compensating for any residual ripple present in the supply rails – depending upon its value combined with that of R3 giving a certain AC reactance. (A subject beyond the scope of this article.)

Resistor, R1, is connected as a DC current-limiting resistor in both cases, to the base of the transistor; limiting the base current which in normal operation should not rise above approximately 1/10th of the current flowing between collector and emitter. (As low as 1/100th is the preferred quiescent value for maximum amplification in most high-gain devices.) The differential between the two sets the transistor’s working amplification factor or beta. This is limited by the actual electrical characteristics of the chosen device itself.

This article cannot hope to go into the full details and various functions of the bipolar transistor under all conditions, and even the AC amplification operations of said device are far too in-depth to discuss in the space allocated.

For further information on this device please visit links in the table of links below.

Table of Links:

The prefetch folder is a software cache where Windows stores a lot of operations data. When Windows runs a process(Even boot processes.) the processor goes through many complicated calculations and sub-processes in order to get your process or program running. Windows saves some of that work in the prefetch folder for future reference, should it be needed at a later time, such as if you run the same process or program again. If you do then Windows consults the prefetch folder in order to avoid having to process all those calculations and sub-processes again, with the result that the system is a little faster having saved the use of the extra CPU cycles.

Some websites claim that if you regularly empty your prefetch folder it’ll speed up your machine: This couldn’t be further from the truth. (Linked page is over 3 years old but nevertheless relevant.) If you do so then Windows has to do all those calculations again, run all those .DLLs and sub-processes again, thus using up many extra CPU cycles and causing your computer to run slower: Windows will have no pre-processed information to consult, and therefore will have to compute the whole lot all over again.

"OK I see what you’re saying. Exactly how much information does Windows actually store in the prefetch folder?"

At most Windows stores calculation information for the last 128 recent processes. Files stored for prefetch have the suffix .pf. Delete that lot and Windows may end up having to do 128 sets of complicated calculations all over again: Your CPU won’t exactly be happy with you after having to process all those algorithms again unnecessarily – And your computer will work slower as a result.

Leave prefetch alone: It’s there for a reason, and removing part or all of it will not be beneficial to you or your computer.

If you’ve just installed new antivirus software, but Windows Security Center says you have no antivirus software installed, don’t be alarmed: It more than likely has installed properly and it probably is working. It’s probably that Windows Security Center can’t see it; that’s all.

If Windows doesn’t detect it and/or the program doesn’t tell Windows that it’s installed then Windows thinks there’s no antivirus software installed and reports to you that there isn’t any installed; simple as that.

Can you make Windows see it? Not really, no; but you can tell Windows that you do have antivirus software installed that it can’t see, and that you know it’s there and will keep a check on it so that Windows doesn’t have to.

Depending upon whether you’re running Vista or XP, there are different ways of doing this:

If you’re running Vista go to Control Panel and click on Security Center.

Click "Check settings" with regard to the "Malware protection" line.

This might not be exactly what your screen looks like; but in any event click the button marked "Turn on".

Once again this might not be exactly the same as the screen that you get. In any event click on "I have an antivirus program that I’ll monitor myself".

Malware protection changes from red to yellow and the state changes to "Not Monitored".

Now Windows Vista will stop nagging you. Ensure that you monitor your new antivirus program yourself.

In Windows XP go to the Control Panel and click on Security Center. The process is similar but a lot less hassle: Click on "Virus protection" and click on "I have an antivirus program that I’ll monitor myself".

Again Windows XP will stop nagging you; but you must ensure that you monitor the state of your new antivirus program yourself.

I’m only going to touch briefly on Microsoft’s cloud computing platform that they’ve revealed at their Professional Developer’s Conference will be called Windows Azure: It sounds too complicated, and to be frank, details are still to sketchy to make any decent report on it yet to my mind:

Having said that; Mary Jo Foley of ZDnet has made an outstanding effort to make something out of the intense mayhem of the Microsoft version of cloud computing, and I suggest that you read her article which can be found here.

The softies are revealing more about Windows 7 today and are releasing the first pre-beta code:

It’s reported to include many new features including a better desktop and user interface, multitouch controls, improved boot-time, USB drive encryption, among other things.

Microsoft admitted in so many words that it had made a mistake with Vista: "The ecosystem wasn’t ready for the release of Windows Vista," said Windows senior vice president, Steve Sinofsky, who then went on to list a small catalogue of Vista-related failings.

Sinofsky cited the decision to change the underlying Windows version number to 6.1 rather than version 7 as a sign of its intention to ease the task of upgrading. (See this article on PCMech.com.) "If it works on Windows Vista, it’ll work in Windows 7. The move from Vista to Windows 7 we expect to be seamless." He said.

It was also indicated that Windows 7 would perform well "…on a netbook with only 1GB RAM.": Does this mean that the system requirements will be less than Vista’s and more like XPs? It appears to hint that this may be so, and if so that is definitely a step in the right direction, away from the bloatware of Vista.

What Microsoft refused to disclose, though, is how many different versions of Windows 7 there’d be, and also the cost of the operating system. (Please don’t have more than 3 or 4 versions: Vista was a joke with all of its many version; only a couple of which were any good!)

Microsoft still refuse to provide details of a final release date for Windows 7. They’re probably being cagey this time round: Last time with Vista, development took a lot longer than originally intended, but to stick to the announced target as much as was possible, to save face, and to satisfy the whining customers; they released too early despite being well behind schedule, and gave us a buggy mess of underdeveloped faulty codebase that took everyone by surprise as well as losing a lot of their existing customer base. I don’t think they want to make such a massive balls-up this time around.

What do you think? Are they just being more careful, or could they be having secret development problems?

Addendum

See the BBC’s news coverage of the cloud-computing race.Click here.

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"Religulous" has outsold the pro-ID film "Expelled", which has been running for 6 months, in only 20 days, despite attempts by US churches to get bums on seats in the cinemas for the latter. I’m now expecting Sarah Palin to try to ban it and/or build a bonfire outside her local movie-house and demand that the reels be thrown on. (In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to have this blog banned now.) Take a look at the trailer:

“Religulous,” directed by Larry Charles, is an entertaining, funny, angry, thought-provoking journey from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Via Dolorosa, the Qumran Caves, to Stonehenge, Habibi Ana (and a Moslem Gay bar), the Vatican, the Holy Land Experience Park in Florida, the U.S. Capitol, Mormon Tabernacle, and many others.

Everywhere, Maher is asking a few simple questions: What do you believe, why, and how can you possibly…? Half Catholic, half Jewish, and fully agnostic, Maher is incredulous, in every sense of the word, but curiously warm and gentle asking questions about the “the final battle between intelligence and stupidity that will decide the future of humanity.”

See more of the review.

What do you think; comedy or religious sacrilege? Leave a comment below.

In electronics a resistor is a component that offers resistance to current. The main DC function of a resistor in an electronic circuit is as a current limiter; such as in the collector circuit of a single-NPN transistor stage, ensuring that the transistor doesn’t pass more current than its rated value causing it to overheat and burn out. It can also be used in conjunction with a capacitor to give a form of AC resistance known as reactance, the value of which is dependant upon the values of the chosen components combined with the AC frequency passing through the resistor/capacitor pair – However this article is concerned with calculating the DC resistance of resistors only.

Single resistors are available in a number of predetermined values. The unit of DC resistance is the Ohm; symbolised by the Greek letter omega. The value of the resistance of an individual resistor in Ohms can be read by means of the coloured stripes on the body of the component:-

Black = 0

Brown = 1

Red = 2

Orange = 3

Yellow = 4

Green = 5

Blue = 6

Violet = 7

Grey = 8

White = 9

Starting from the first and usually the largest stripe marked on the body of the component; the colour of this stripe indicates the digit furthest left. The next stripe indicates the next digit, the third stripe indicates multiplier to the power of 10 (Or put more simply; the number of zeros after the first two figures.): Thus a resistor marked red, brown, red would indicate that its resistance is 21 x 10 to the power of 2 – or 21 x 100 = 2100 Ohms; 2.1 kilohms. (2K1)

The last stripe(s); usually silver or gold, but maybe another colour, indicate the component’s tolerance or degree of accuracy at staying true to its marked value.

When 2 resistors are connected in a series circuit their total DC resistance can be ascertained by the equation

RT = R1 + R2

Therefore if we connect two 2100 Ohm resistors in series they have a total resistance of 2100 + 2100 = 4200 Ohms, or 4K2.

That’s pretty simple eh? But what if we want to calculate the resistance of two resistors in parallel? The equation becomes slightly more complicated. The total resistance of two resistances in parallel is calculated by the equation:-

RT = R1 x R2 / R1 + R2

Therefore a 2100 Ohm resistor in parallel with a 4200 Ohm resistor gives a total resistance of (2100 x 4200 = 8,820,000) divided by (2100 + 4200 = 6300) = 1400 Ohms; 1.4 kilohms. (1K4)

At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland they have a problem: The Hubble Space Telescope went tits-up on September 27th 2008. When the team tried to activate redundant backup systems they hit a couple of snags which caused the telescope’s 486-processor-driven systems to go into what they describe as "safe-mode" and halt most of its science operations. No that wasn’t a typo: The processor running the main computer is an Intel 486 from 1989.

The Hubble Space Telescope: I wonder if the aliens thought it was an orbiting trash-can at first?

From what I hear they have worked things out and now have the issues under control. They’re hoping that operations will restart this weekend; 25/6th October 2008. The 486 will probably take a month to add a few numbers together and realise it cocked-up perhaps?

Let’s face it though: This massive machine has been in space for 17 years beaming back some amazing images of things we could never hope to see from earth-based equipment. When it was designed back in the 20th Century an Intel 486 was leading-edge technology. – But having now related the truth that we have many tons of ancient technology orbiting our planet; a lot of it still working, the people at NASA say that the old technologies are reliable.

If they do the job that they are supposed to do and keep doing it regardless then there’s no reason to complain. What’s that adage? "They don’t make things as good as they used to."

You could even build it using a 486 if you wanted?

Do you think the technology we put into space is too old; keeping in mind that most of it starts off being designed up to 10 years before lift-off?

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As a Pagan I’d be failing if I didn’t mention Halloween; which is only a week away now. Basically all religions afford it some significance of a kind; particularly the mystic and Pagan religions.

I received the following video today from Lisa Jackson, a Pagan friend of mine, on the subject of-. Lisa always manages to combine the artistic with the informative. Her creativeness seems to be somewhat unbounded. I’ve even told her that she should be producing documentaries for the BBC in the past. I just know that she’s going to present the Pagan view of the festival so much better artistically than I ever could verbally.

Surprisingly she’s a You Tube artiste’; but unlike some of many she’s a real artist and a good one at that. I’ve featured her work on this blog more than once before – Not solely because I want to do her a favour but because I truly believe in her talents and abilities. There is no point in putting crap on this blog as a favour to someone unless I want to achieve audience figures of zero: If I didn’t truly think there was talent there I’d give it a miss.

Take a look at the latest Lisa production; even visit her You Tube page and view some of her other works why not?

This time of year is when the Celtic year draws to a close. Most Pagans see this as the ending of an old and beginning of a new cycle of nature’s wheel – Ever turning, repeating year in, year out. For there to be plenty there must be also depletion: That is the balance of nature. The winter is the time of lean; when the supplies no longer come in, and we live from what we have gleaned in the summer of plenty that has just gone by.

We live in the knowledge that the Sun god will be reborn on the Winter Solstice and will rise up in the sky day by day to warm the barren frozen wilderness that has transpired from the luscious fields of plenty. We live in the knowledge that the wheel will turn again and the lean will become the fill of the earth, the harvest, and then it turns again.

We also see Samhein (pronounced sow-een) as a time when the worlds collide; when just for a short time the realms of the three paths entwine: When the lair of the dead, the emptiness of the future unfulfilled; the unborn not yet conceived, joins with our world and becomes a part of our dimension just for that fleeting moment; those few precious hours.

We use this as a time to reflect upon the year that has been and to remember our departed ones: Ancestors we may have never known and loved ones that we still hold dear alike. We are ready to embrace the new year and plan for the times ahead. First we must let the world of those passed take the remains of the old year to its final resting so that we can move on unobstructed.

The great goddess is withering and in solitude from the loss of her lover. We bid the old cycle farewell and all must die to be reborn.

Enjoy the video:-

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Every now and again hardware manufacturers write a new device driver version for their products: They do this to iron out bugs in previous drivers, to add extra or better functionality to an existing product, or to allow better integration with new technologies used by websites etc. Maybe even for security reasons too.

It is always good practice to keep your hardware’s drivers up to date, as it will allow your computer to function better if you do.

Microsoft sometimes announce and allow you to download drivers from Windows Update: Personally I don’t think it’s a good idea to always trust drivers from Microsoft Update. It has been known for WU to advise people to update a driver only for it to be the wrong driver which crashes the system. Also these driver update sites which scan your drivers and find the latest versions don’t always get it right. Whilst they are generally accurate they do tend to boob at times: I once was offered a driver package by such a site which was supposed to be the latest drivers for the chipset in the machine which I was using at the time. The drivers were the latest drivers for an Intel chipset; yet there was a Silicon Integrated Systems chipset fitted to the motherboard.

The only fully reliable way to do it is to take the long route and go direct to the manufacturer of the device in question to search for the latest correct driver. To do that you need to know who the device manufacturer is, what the device in question is, and also any particular model number of a specific device.

This can be easier said than done, as there are many devices on the motherboard itself; all of which need their own individual unique driver. If you know which device needs a driver, and what it is + its model number and manufacturer, then you’re almost there. If you have a motherboard that needs drivers but you don’t have the corresponding installation CD, you’ll need to either order a corresponding driver CD from the board’s manufacturer, or download it online as an .ISO file and burn it to CD on another computer.

If you’re already running an existing working PC then it’ll be worth checking your drivers to see if they can be updated. Old or corrupted drivers can result in anything from less-than-tip-top performance to a stop error. (BSOD) Assuming that you’re not someone with lethargic loser mentality; "Oh I can’t be bothered – My computer works as it is, so I don’t need to improve it.", you’ll want to keep your computer working at its best as much as possible.

The place to start is in Device Manager. In earlier 9x versions of Windows this was readily accessible. In Windows XP they’ve hidden it. I wrote an article on creating a Device Manager icon on your desktop, which it might be useful to read. If you haven’t yet created that icon then there are 2 ways to get to the Device manager window:

The first; the short way, is to click Start>Run and type "devmgmt.msc", then click OK. The second; the long way, is to click Start>Control Panel>System(In Classic Mode.)>Hardware and on the Hardware tab click the Device Manager button.

There you will see a list that looks something like this:-

The top icon is your computer itself, and it has your computer’s name next to it. (In this case "INXPENSE2X"; because the computer I’m using is an ex-demo model from the Kustom Komputa INXPense range with a dual-core processor.) Below that you’ll see various sections which expand if you click the corresponding + signs in the boxes to show which devices you have installed:-

As you may note I expanded the "System devices" section, which is in essence most of the drivers associated with the components the motherboard, and as you will also note there are a lot of them. Don’t fret; they won’t all require updating.

Double-click on a device and a spec.s box appears which has information on that particular device:-

As I insinuated earlier; there are certain drivers that won’t need updating. These are the system device drivers that are provided and installed along with the operating system:

When Windows is installed it installs a number of drivers by default during the installation process. Some of these drivers are stand-ins and are installed pending installation of a better and updated driver, which usually occurs when the drivers on the motherboard’s accompanying CD are inputted on initial power-up after build – And/or in the case of using a supplemental graphics card; when the graphics card’s driver CD is installed after the motherboard’s devices are installed. Some of the drivers that the operating system installs, though, are only licensed to Microsoft, and form a part of the Windows operating system; such as the drivers for the COM ports, the motherboard resources drivers, the PCI standard host CPU bridge drivers, etc. These are normally set in stone with the operating system and cannot be updated unless you upgrade the operating system: For instance from XP to Vista. Occasionally but rarely Microsoft may offer an updated driver of this type on Windows Update -  And in such rare cases it is worth taking the new driver and upgrading your existing driver as you won’t get an update from anywhere else. Usually, though, if you double click on a device and the driver manufacturer as written on the Drivers tab is Microsoft plus the year of manufacture is the same as the year that the operating system was released, then there’s no point in attempting to update that particular driver.

It’s drivers such as "VIA standard PCI to PCIe Bridge" which might be able to be updated: In the case of this one it comes in a package of system drivers from Via at the ViaArena website, and which is updated somewhere in the region of every 9 months to a year. Also drivers such as Asus nVidia GeForce 6200 graphics card… Basically anything with a manufacturer name in it, is a great place to start looking for updated drivers.

Go to the device’s manufacturer’s website, search for an updated version of the correct driver, and install it:-

Some drivers are supplied in their own .exe package and can be installed with just a click + follow any instructions. Other drivers aren’t quite so user friendly, and require a different approach; such as unzipping to a .temp file, opening the device’s installation program, pointing it to the temp file that has been unzipped, and allowing Windows to install the files for you. (Canoscan FB620U scanner driver for example.) Yet others are so primitive that I’ve known at least one case where it’s best to just dump the files on C: drive and the installer usually finds them and installs them on reboot. (- An old Xerox printer I used to use once, years ago.)

That’s given you some idea of how. As for why; well as I already said: It’ll give you better performance, and greater stability – So keep your drivers up to date. Maintain a healthy computer.

Today an emergency "out-of-band" Windows update was issued by Microsoft.

MS08-067: Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution

Please go straight to Microsoft Update or click the above link to download this update. You will need to restart your computer after the update is installed.

My source for this information is here. I checked the authenticity of this alert by going to Microsoft Update myself on a fully-patched and updated computer. Microsoft Update offered me this update all the same with a critical rating. If you have doubts or you wish to check out the authenticity yourself, then please check this out yourself: You don’t have to use my links either: Go to Microsoft Update by whichever route you like.

(I’ve downloaded this update to both of my computers running Windows XP Professional and not seen any adverse side effects myself nor am I expecting any: Such effects are extremely rare in the case of Microsoft’s patches and updates.)

It is admittedly rather unusual for Microsoft to issue any updates at any time other than Patch Tuesday, so they must have a very good reason for doing so. I was slightly cynical when I first saw news of this; so I checked it out and it’s genuine, as you’ll see when you go to Microsoft Update.

If you have automatic updates switched on then this update will automatically be delivered to your computer at the time you specified to check for updates. Owing to the way in which this update was issued, however, I do advise that you check this out as a matter of priority.

If you don’t have automatic updates switched on then I suggest you visit Microsoft Update  as soon as possible to check this one out.

This alert was brought to you outside of and extra to the normal scheduled articles on kkomp.com due to the nature of the issue of the bulletin from Microsoft. The security of your computer(s) running Microsoft Windows is a priority. As such I am taking the unusual step of mailing this article to all signed-up subscribers to this blog despite not having the intention to begin a proper mailing list at the present moment.

This alert carries no advertising with it.

Next week from the 27th October 2008 onwards, Microsoft is hosting its Professional Developers Conference. On offer at the PDC are sneak previews of the Windows 7 operating system; which is still in alpha, their cloud-based operating system, appropriately nicknamed "Windows Cloud"; at least for the interim, as well as its latest office suite; currently known as Office 14.

Microsoft have so far kept quiet about their latest office-worthy toolkit, other than hinting on a RTM date of late 2009/early 2010 in a leaked Powerpoint presentation.

Back in February 2008 , Bill Gates hinted at it having a greater online presence. Does this indicate an office-in-the-cloud? Maybe after the week is out we’ll know for sure.

Multinational British-based telecommunications company BT has chosen  around 15,000 homes/businesses in Muswell Hill, London, and in Whitchurch, South Wales, to be the launching-points for its new internet service  of its "Fibre-to-the-Cabinet" internet-delivery-system.

BT are claiming this service could give customers speeds of up to 40Mbps, and is scheduled to be in operation in the summer of 2009.

BT are unclear as to which ISPs will be using the scheme as yet, but have said that those ISPs will be setting the prices for their services once this matter has been further sorted out. Further details for the next stage of the operation, in which the service will be on offer on a larger (Nationwide?) scale, is to be announced in 2010.

According to David Campbell, director of next generation access at BT Openreach:-

"Services in these areas will be available to all UK communication providers on a wholesale basis. The sites were chosen in consultation with communications providers and took into account feedback from regional development agencies, devolved authorities and similar organisations."

"It was also necessary to take into account current network topology and our ability to run testing procedures in the chosen areas. We have a good mix of areas, allowing us to test our products in both urban and semi-rural environments."

What’s the big deal though? Is this all too little too late? In 1994/5, the then NTL cabled most of the more easily-accessible areas of the UK with its fibre-optic cables, on which, since the merge with Virgin Media, a 40Mbps internet connection has been available for quite some time.

It would appear that BT are intending to do exactly the same; thus giving the already-cabled areas a choice of hi-speed internet, while leaving the rural outlying areas with the paltry choice of slow-dial-up or expensive satellite internet services.

If the above paragraph is true, then nothing changes other than an increase in variety for the select recipients in more densely-populated areas; screw the rest of them.

Having areas of 40Mbps connection whilst continuing to have areas where, to keep costs down, customers opt for a 56Kbps dial-up connection, isn’t really going to be productive: The most vulnerable point in any chain is its weakest link; so if little Jenny, who has a 40Mbps connection, is sending her granny, who has a 56Kbps dial-up connection, a 500MB file of her favourite cartoons, then Jenny may as well have a 56Kbps dial-up connection also for all the time it’ll take to reach granny.

Maybe I’m being a bit melodramatic in the above paragraph; but unless everyone gets a decent deal out of a new development which affects society as a whole, then what is the point of it if it’s just going to produce bottlenecks? I mean what is the point of having a 10-lane motorway for 99% of the distance between towns A and B, if at the end of the motorway is a single-track winding lane making the final connection?

Meanwhile Thailand (Which isn’t exactly a technological superpower.) continues to have its hyperfast-internet which is available to almost everyone; and the traffic between Thailand and the UK is not a massive amount. I wonder why? Perhaps it’s because they get fed up with waiting for the British to receive their message? It leaves Thailand within the second; gets to the UK 3 seconds later, and reaches its final destination as a complete download later that week! Am I being melodramatic again? Not in all cases: I’ve known email from abroad to reach its UK destination 3 days later. In some cases even longer than that. When snail-mail becomes faster than the internet it’s clear that someone somewhere is doing something wrong.

So come on BT: I hope everyone, regardless of area, local population, and accessibility, is going to benefit from this: If they don’t it all seems pretty pointless and just another one of the UK’s famous postcode-lotteries.

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“There’s a new trend out there designed to scam computer users: web sites that sell bogus software. Not only does the software not do what it claims to do, but the companies that sell this “software” get a hold of your credit card and can do even more damage to your bank account."

Sunbelt Software , who have exposed a lot of crapware (Rogue software) aimed at the Windows platform, have now at last found crapware aimed at the Mac OSX platform. They know it’s crapware because it’s brought to you by none other than the same people who gave Windows users scareware like Antivirus XP 2008 and XP Antivirus.

There aren’t many malware components aimed at OSX; but the number has seemingly increased by at least 1 recently. However they only found the site itself for the new MacGuard malware program, but were unable to get hold of any program. The site itself appears to have now also been disabled; possibly by Apple themselves?

Macs have appeared relatively untouched by threats for a long time; but now it seems that malicious software targeted at OSX is about to awake Mac users from their sleep of complacency. Previously in March of this year, 2008, a Mac security site, Macvirus.org, with a forum full of links to malware which targets Apple computers; the RSPlug-Gen trojan in particular, as well as the Zlobar-Fam trojan for distribution to PCs running Windows. They were posing as fake codecs supposedly needed to view a non-existent pornographic film of Britney Spears.

There are a number of ways of looking at this: Either you could say every virus targeted at a Mac is one less virus targeted at Windows (Aren’t there enough already?), or you could say that those people who use alternative operating systems to Windows aren’t as safe as they might imagine; and their complacency could be their downfall at the end of the day.

What do you think? Do non-Windows users need to bother with anti-malware programs?

Paul Boutin today claimed on Wired magazine that blogs are a 2004 relic that have been superceded by the likes of Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook etc:-

“The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths.

It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”

This argument was later described as "flamebait", and at least one blogger admitted that they had fallen for it.

If indeed it was such, then this would be tantamount to trolling in the blogosphere: An open invitation to the kooks to migrate from the realms of Usenet and various esoteric online forums to infest the alleged "tsunami of paid bilge" with their incessant idiosyncrasies and four-letter-word-laden flame-wars.

Is the blogosphere really destined to become a domain of Kadaitcha-Man-like supertrolls and macho insult-contests run by over-testosteronised individuals attempting to score points off one another by means of character-assassination and flagrant depersonalisation of lesser mortals deemed as "f*ckwits"?

Hopefully not: That kind of thing has its rightful place in certain newsgroups on Usenet and the like; but hopefully won’t be spilling over into the adult blogosphere anytime soon.

As mathewingram.com puts it:-

"I’m hoping that Boutin’s post took about the same amount of time as it did to come up with that Twitter message, because it has about as much value. Is everyone going to have a blog? No — and they never were. Facebook and Twitter are probably enough for many people. Not writing at all is enough for many people. But why does it have to be all or nothing? What we have now is the option to micro-blog (i.e., Twitter) some thoughts, post others to Facebook, share things on FriendFeed or through Google Reader, and blog things that take longer to think through. But I guess that’s not as catchy as a “blogs are dead, Twitter killed them” scenario."

It is my sincere hope that blogs will remain a focal point of online self-expression without invasion from kooks and trolls from Usenet or anywhere else. It would be a great shame to see this proud channel of online-individuality fall victim to the cyber-thuggery and neo-macho-egoism of the newsgroup terrorist or die out as a result of the rise of microbloggers. I very much doubt that this is or will ever be a realistic scenario in all honesty. The mere possibility of it ever being the case could be quite unsettling to some people though.

Do you think it possible? Is there any danger of an "asswipe-invasion" at any point? Your thoughts please:-

Panic set in at kkomp.com office when first it was discovered that the blog posts were no longer being notified on Facebook, followed by the discovery that Ping.fm had vanished. In the broadcasting social-network’s place was a Go-Daddy advertisment but no ping.fm dashboard.

kkomp.com use ping.fm’s free broadcasting notification service by means of a plugin attached to the WordPress blog which you’re reading now. This plugin allows notification of any new posts to be sent to ping.fm, and then subsequently onwards from ping.fm to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, FriendFeed, Plurk, and the like.

I immediately Googled for any further news; of which there was none, and consulted Twitter. I was told that ping.fm were having domain problems. During the short rally of tweets the ping.fm site reappeared and seems to be back to normal operation. I have no idea how long exactly the site was down for: All I know is that it was for somewhere between 0 and 36 hours.

This post is partially news and partially a request for further enlightenment: If anyone knows any further details then perhaps they’d be good enough to add a comment below? Is there an ongoing problem or was it a one off outage? How long were they down for? … And other information of that nature.

Testers report that they have been invited to test the Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 2 beta as well as the Windows Server 2008 beta.

It was initially acknowledged by Neowin that the delivery of the SP2 invitations had been received earlier. That report is now being confirmed by other testers. Further testing of SP2 betas is expected to happen during the next few weeks in the case of Neowin. The goal of Microsoft appears to be to get the final version of both delivered before Windows 7 is released.

Windows 7 is currently expected to be released to manufacturing in 2009, as this blog earlier predicted. M$ seems to think that getting the service packs released before then will reduce the inevitable customer confusion normally associated with their strange schedules and confusing product titles/releases. To me it would seen rather counterproductive to release Windows 7 and then announce a second service pack for Vista anyway. Having said that they (M$) did release Vista and subsequently release a third service pack for XP; so there’s no knowing what they might get up to nevertheless.

The exact intended date for RTM seems unclear as yet, but who knows what could be going on in the backrooms at Microsoft, who won’t be drawn to comment further on the timing of the releases. This could mean that they themselves have no definite schedule at present, and are undergoing a suck-it-and see testing phase before making any announcement of a definite release schedule.

Here’s another weird Windows experiment for you to try in your spare time:-

If you’re running Microsoft Word 2007; open Microsoft Word 2007 and type the following:

=rand (200, 99)

Now press ENTER.

If you’re running Microsoft Word 2003 or earlier; open Microsoft Word and type the following:

=rand.old (200,99)

All of a sudden a load of text has appeared: More Windows magic?

You ain’t seen nothing yet: Let’s try again in a foreign language:

Open Microsoft Word 2007 again and type the following:

=lorem (200,99)

Press ENTER.

(You may have seen this text associated with some third-party aspect of WordPress also perhaps?)

(Unfortunately for users of Word 2003 or earlier, =lorem … only works in Word 2007, or so I am led to believe.)

Crazy Glitch ( Type In =rand(200,99) In Mircrosoft Word – Click here for the funniest movie of the week

What’s going on here?

The rand() or =rand.old function in Microsoft Word specifically generates (random) text. The text that it generates may vary from version to version: In Word 2003 and older versions the text produced is different to that produced by 2007

The first number  inside the brackets is the number of paragraphs of text to generate. The second is the number of lines in each paragraph.

See the following Microsoft help and Support article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=212251 .

In the headlines today are 2 new ads from Apple. The first of the "I’m a Mac and I’m a PC"-style ads slam Microsoft’s advertising spending on Vista and highlight the problems people have had with M$’s latest operating system:-

Do people really care about Microsoft’s advertising budget though? OK the money has to come from somewhere, usually from the customers. In general, though, people don’t consider that when going out to buy a Microsoft product.

"Oh I don’t think I’ll buy Microsoft’s product because they’ll just spend any profit they make from me on advertising Vista."

Was it actually slamming Microsoft’s advertising budget though; or was it just emphasizing the problems associated with Vista?

The second ad pokes fun at Vista in a bleep-out; again highlighting the issues that people have faced with the operating system:-

The question is: How does any of this kind of negative-advertising actually promote Apple or the Mac? None of what I see makes me think "Wow; I should go out and buy myself a Mac."

I have 2 PCs; each running XP. Why XP? Because Vista has too many issues for my liking and I really don’t think it’s worth upgrading. When Windows 7 is released, if it’s much better than Vista, I’ll build a new PC for myself and install Windows 7.

I see a Mac as an expensive PC running Unix. Granted the OSX operating system hasn’t had the number of issues that Vista has had; but ME was another of Microsoft’s mistakes and I’m running the operating system that they released after ME. Why do I want a Mac? I can’t build a Mac; I’m not allowed to. I have to buy one ready-built. I can’t upgrade a Mac myself: I have to take it to Apple to be upgraded with what components they say I can have in it.

A ready-built PC will cost me slightly more than a self-build PC and it won’t be built as I want it to be built. A Mac will cost me even more than that, and it will be built as Apple and the Great Jobsweh; god of all things Apple, has decreed it shall be built – So saith the LORD.

I’ll continue building my own PCs, and I’ll continue to install Microsoft software. Why? Because I’m not allowed to install OSX on my home-built PCs. Apple can knock Microsoft all they want; but I’ll still buy Microsoft’s products. I’ll skip Vista, just like I skipped ME.

Apple should be addressing the fact that I don’t want their Mac for the reasons stated herein, rather than slagging Microsoft off.

If I could build and upgrade my own Mac I’d probably have one. OK I’d have to abide by the limited choice of components that Apple say I can upgrade it with probably, and I may have to build it according to certain specifications and conditions, granted; but I’d have my own personal Mac rather than Steve Jobs’ computer.

If I could run OSX on one of my PCs I would do just that; and Apple would sell me the operating system: But they won’t, so I lose out and they lose out.

If I could repair a Mac that I’d purchased when it went wrong then I would and I’d buy one in the knowledge that I could do just that. I don’t want to have to take it to an approved Apple stockist to be mended for 3 or more times the price I’d otherwise pay. I have the capabilities to do it on site, and I’d want to do it on site.

So Apple can spend as much money as they like on slating Microsoft and telling me how much better a Mac is then a PC, (Although there is very little difference in my mind: To me a Mac is a sturdy regulated PC running Unix.) but I still don’t want to buy a Mac because it’s not in essence my computer when I do: It’s Apple’s computer which I’ve hired indefinitely! I’d rather have my own computer that I own fully and can do what I want with.

Wouldn’t you too?

No; this isn’t political subterfuge…

…It’s a crazy little experiment for you to try in your spare time:-

If you’re using Windows, do the following:-

1. Open an empty notepad file
2. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3. Save it as whatever you want.
4. Close it, and re-open it.

(It should work with most versions of Notepad.)

——

That is so weird! Why does that happen?

There’s a bug in most versions of notepad that misinterprets ANSI text as Unicode.

A number of different word patterns can generate this same effect: The bug is triggered by any sentences with a first word with an even number of letters (2 or more) and all other words with odd number of letters (3 or more).

Example: "Go sit about there".

See also: wikipedia.org – Bush_hid_the_facts

Are you still using Windows 98, 98SE, or ME?

Released in 1998, Windows 98 was a MS-DOS-based operating system which used the FAT32 file format only. Windows 98 was pushing the DOS operation close to its limit, and 98SE (Second Edition) released in 1999, fixed a few performance issues that were apparent in the original.

For the sake of convenience I’m going to label those operating systems from 98 to ME collectively as Win 9x. Win 9x was showing its age. Various issues caused it to be somewhat of a liability and it just wasn’t a technology worth continuing with. The release of XP sounded a death-knell for the older MS-DOS system, and XP heralded a new, more secure and more stable modus operandi in its new NT-based technology which had been written from scratch, based in many ways on the design of the older NT system used by Windows 3.1.

Microsoft stopped supporting Win 9x in July 2006; therefore any vulnerabilities in any or all of the Win 9x operating systems discovered since then remain unpatched and will continue to be such. This means that using these operating systems today makes them a possible serious security threat.

Of course upgrading isn’t without its costs: A new Windows operating system such as XP or Vista, whilst preferable to 9x, isn’t free. Add to that the fact that some hardware may need to be upgraded, or in the case of moving to Vista, the entire machine will probably have to be replaced with a new one to meet the rigorous hardware specifications and requirements that Vista operation needs.

In the above case, if cost is a real issue, it might be possible to retain the machine as is, but rather than moving up to a new version of Windows, use a free Linux distro instead. A lot of Linux distros have lower hardware requirements than their Windows counterparts.

A note of caution here, though: When your older hardware components do finally give up the ghost, you may find that newer components are incompatible with your older machine, and that the required components which you need due to compatibility needs might end up costing you an arm and a leg in antique value.

Whether you choose to use Linux or stay with Windows at whatever cost, you may or may not have issues when transferring existing data, depending on which operating system you choose and which method of upgrade you choose also.

My advice here is as follows:-

First, back everything up – Yes everything. Back up your important data to disk as is if you can or as much as you can in addition to backing up the whole shebang using Norton Ghost or similar.

If you’re sticking with Windows then I suggest that you don’t upgrade your existing installation. Rather I suggest adding anything important to a brand new install. Problems that have built up over the years with 9x could transfer to your new OS if you upgrade your old installation. You might even like to try installing your old hard-drive into a new machine as a second drive after checking the file system’s rigidity and ensuring that it’s free from malware.

If you go the Linux route then I suggest you talk further about the move with a tech site such as PCMech in addition to following any relevant advice herein.

In short summary, then; if you use Win 9x it’s time to stop using Win 9x. Do you agree?

Microblogging service Twitter seems to be on the up. Following the replacement of CEO Jack Dorsey by fellow co-founder Evan Williams on Thursday; Twitter’s backers have announced that new revenue models will be unveiled in the first half of next year.

It has long been a contentious issue as to how Twitter is going to make any money to keep itself afloat, and is a question that still continues to be bandied around in cyberspace, with well-meaning folks making all kinds of suggestions.

With a current estimated value of $80 million, it’s on a near level-par with Facebook, which has dropped considerably in value in the last couple of months according to unspecified reports. Twitter has been spending the last few months remedying the not-uncommon service-outages with which it was regularly plagued, making the famous fail-whale into an iconic character with its own cult following. These outages were a positive sign for Twitter; showing a huge demand for its services…And Twitter has certainly grabbed people’s attention: Wired.com even estimated that Twitter will eventually top the 1 billion figure and continue growing.

In his article on the subject for Silicon Alley Insider; Henry Blodget makes an interesting analysis:-

"Why is Twitter different than the 9,000 other Web 2.0 companies that are intending to figure out a revenue model eventually? Because people are obsessed with it.  Don’t forget that this company was founded last year.  Google wasn’t anywhere near this ubiquitous in its second year, and neither was Facebook."

With the economy in the current state who knows what may happen? Overall though, it appears that the future for Twitter is bright. What do you think? Greatness or collapse? Maybe something in between?

Some analysts are saying that we may be in for a very rough ride due to the state of the economy. Is it better to wait before starting a startup company? Some of the current big companies, such as Apple and Microsoft were started during a recession; so maybe it’s not such a bad time after all?

In reality it makes no difference whether or not there’s a recession on: It depends rather upon the person at the helm: If you have what it takes you’ll succeed despite recessions and economic turmoils. If you don’t then you’ll go under and nothing will stop that happening no matter how good the economic trends are in your favour.

That’s the opening theme of the message of the latest post on paulgraham.com . Read the rest of the article there before continuing to the next paragraph.

"…the time to start is always now." I couldn’t agree more: Maybe it could have been done easily in a different way yesterday. Maybe it’ll take a radical rethink to go ahead under current conditions: Better late than never; and if you’ve got the determination, nothing’s going to hold you back. Give it the radical rethink that it needs and go for it.

In a recession, money doesn’t disappear into a financial black-hole: It changes hands and ends up in different places. By doing so it affects the steady flow of capital wealth around the established financial structures. To escape from the situation the established structures are forced to change shape in order to get the cash flowing around the economy again, at which point the monetary system kicks back into gear, trading continues in a varied economic environment because it’s movement has been made favourable for those places where the money piled up when the economic machinery ground to a halt to start investing it again.

- But the above situation is just the core mechanism: Its operation has a knock-on effect for the rest of the economic structure too. The outer machinery of society must also evolve to encompass and fully utilise the structural changes at the core, or a part of the core, of the economy. It’s the forced core changes that start a recession rippling outwards into society in general. It’s the forced evolution of the machinery of society to fit into the new methods of operation that actually are what we call a recession.

So a recession is not so much a tragedy as a change in the traditional established methods of the commercial operations of society in general until they fit in tandem with the new set of the behaviours of the core machinery of finance and commerce. The trick is to follow, analyse, and make correct predictions: Predictions of the operations of the financial core machinery’s operations, coupled with predictions of the state of the evolution to change of the societal model in the light of those operations. having done so, adapt the interests of your startup to operate in tandem with that evolution of the societal model in the light of the new advancements, the given environments dependant upon location and circumstances, and any progress made during the period under analysis.

From these analyses and predictions we can generate a set of predictions, and hopefully a fairly accurate yet adaptable business model, based upon those predictions, which is flexible enough to weather any unexpected storms; to survive any unpredicted events, and to be already sailing by the time the waters are calm enough to make future competitors think about putting to sea.

Get in there first: Surprise the competition when they round the first bend and see you making such good progress that they can barely see what they have to beat being so far behind as you sail off into the horizon.

The early bird catches the worm; the latecomers just end up getting stuck in an empty wormhole.

Do you agree? If not why not?

On October 8th of this year, 2008, I wrote an article on why Microsoft must launch Windows 7 in 2009 with that very title; giving reasons why Microsoft won’t want to wait until 2010 to launch their new operating system.

AMD showed some presentation slides at CEATEC (Cutting Edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition) which may show that the softies actually do have plans for a 2009 launch date.

AMD’s presentation suggested that the chipmaker has plans to introduce 40nm chips next year, along with DirectX 11-capable GPUs. PC Watch took a few snaps of AMD’s presentation; which allegedly included a slide titled ‘What to expect in 2009’, which says that we can expect a move to 40nm chips, as well as the arrival of Windows 7 and DirectX 11, in 2009.

Microsoft themselves haven’t yet publicly confirmed or denied this; although taking into account the words of Bill Gates in April 2008 that "sometime in the next year or so that we’ll have a new version[of Windows]." I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it for sale on the shelves at Christmas 2009 or before. What do you think? Leave a comment.

Windows 7 is to officially be called Windows 7 when it’s released. Microsoft have announced.

The software giant’s forthcoming operating system has been codenamed Windows 7 all along. It now looks like Microsoft is sticking to Windows 7 for keeps.

On Microsoft’s Windows Vista blog , corporate VP of Windows management, Mike Nash stated:

"I know there have been a few cases at Microsoft when the codename of a product was used for the final release, I am pretty sure that this is a first for Windows".

"The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We’ve used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or ‘aspirational’ monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista."

"And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new ‘aspirational’ name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows."

Saying that may not make too many people happy; as there has been a lot of disappointment with Vista, and many are unimpressed. Meanwhile Microsoft staff who are developing 7 have been cautious over User Account Control, after taking into consideration the over-intrusiveness of Vista’s UAC.

Engineers working on Windows 7 have admitted Vista’s User Account Control was too intrusive, and are promising to tone it down in the forthcoming Windows 7.

"We’ve heard loud and clear that you are frustrated." Microsoft’s engineer Ben Fathi states on the Windows 7 engineering blog. "You find the prompts too frequent, annoying, and confusing. We still want to provide you control over what changes can happen to your system, but we want to provide you a better overall experience."

Fathi has promised to "evolve" the feature for the next version of Windows, and to tone it down somewhat.

Microsoft will be announcing the pre-beta code of 7 at the company’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) later in this October 2008.

What do you think will be new in Windows 7? How do you think it will improve on Vista? Do you have any insider information that you’d like to share; or even just an opinion? If so please comment below.

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As I may have mentioned elsewhere, I have a lot of data backups of different types: In fact I’m a backup-a-holic to a certain extent; having been caught without a backup or a working backup too many times to recall. Luckily I did manage to recover at least some of my data at those times from semi-backups I’d burned to DVD or CD and a few recoverable files from failed backups. Nevertheless it wasn’t pleasant or enjoyable doing so. So now I backup everything to a number of destinations; one of those being my other computer.

Besides a copy made using Paragon Drive Backup,, I also like to have a "hard copy" of my data on both computers: By "hard copy" I mean identical files and folders on the disk. The reason being that if one computer fails – as is sure to happen at the most inopportune moment – I can simply start that job or that part of the job again on the other computer and assign a repair slot for the one that’s not working properly or at all.

*A (jealous?/unthinking?) friend commented that my office was too cluttered; especially my desk, when the topic arose once. She asked me why on earth I needed two computers? Wasn’t that just greedy and overkill? I could only use one at a time, surely? I replied that if one went down the other would be used as a substitute until the first one was fixed. She scoffed at me and said that I definitely didn’t need two computers, (Maybe she was after the spare one?) and that it was just unnecessary clutter. (Isn’t it great when do-gooder friends try to run your life for you – As if they didn’t have a life of their own to run. – Perhaps they haven’t?)

Two months later my main computer’s BIOS chip failed, and I sent the motherboard back under warranty and was sent a new one. I then had to rebuild the computer; having stripped it down to remove the old, faulty, motherboard. The entire operation including stripping down, RMA, return, their checks, agreement to replace, and delivery of the new board, took around two weeks in total. During that time my friend called to suggest more ways of de-cluttering and supposedly "making my life easier". (Getting better friends was one way that I immediately thought of.)

"What’s happened to your computer?" She asked, when she saw it on the bench in bits.

"Oh it malfunctioned." I replied "Fortunately I had a spare computer, so I wasn’t left in a rut without any way of going online." I sneered at her as she eat her earlier words.

Previously I’ve had issues with synchronising the two, and had to manually shift folders around – Remembering which one was which and all the malarkey involved with it.

Today, however, while I was reading a PC mag, I read about Microsoft’s SyncToy 2.0. This handy program is one of Microsoft’s range of power-toys that they kindly released and didn’t tell many people about, so that only the hyper-geek community discovered it.

Once installed this power toy took all the hassle out of synchronisation of files: I told it what to synchronise on the main computer with what files on the backup computer, and the jobs were written down and programmed so that whenever I need it to sync the files I just click and Sync-Toy gets on with it; ensuring that the changes I made to one file on the main computer are reflected in the other copy on the spare/backup computer, while I get on with something else.

This power-toy will work in Windows XP and in Windows Vista. The stated system requirements are:-

Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0
1GHz Intel P3 processor or equivalent
256MB RAM, 512MB RAM recommended
20MB free disk space

- In other words most computers running XP or Vista built in the last 5 years should have no problems with it. The Microsoft .Net Framework v2.0 is available for download from Windows Update if you don’t have it installed on your machine. There isn’t a Linux or Mac version as far as I can see, but if you do run Linux or Mac exclusively then it’s possible to run Windows in a Virtual Machine environment within those operating systems.

To read the full overview click this link. Even if you don’t back up between networked machines; it’s possible to backup and sync files over the internet too with this handy prog, so the uses are manyfold. Another great thing about it is that it’s free, even though it is from Microsoft.

It’s free, it works, it’s written for Windows and freely distributed by the same company that wrote Windows: You can’t go wrong with it, and I bet you can find a use for it. To download it go to the overview page and near the bottom you’ll find a download link for the 32-bit and also the 64-bit versions of it.

Enjoy it; and if you can think of any radical ways of putting it to use other than the obvious I’d be interested to read your comment below, as would other readers no doubt.

First I’d just like to confirm that this blog is not dead or dying: The reason that there haven’t been quite as many posts appearing lately as there used to be are computer problems the last two weekends and illness the weekend before.

A capacitor is, in basic terms, an passive electronic component that stores electrical energy between the tiny gap between two electrodes. They have many different uses; and it’s rare to find a piece of electronic equipment without a capacitor or capacitors in it.

One piece of electronic equipment where a lot of capacitors are used is your computer, where there are quite a few. You’ll find them on any board, and in particular inside the power supply unit (PSU). There’s a certain type of capacitor called an electrolytic capacitor that uses an electrolyte between the electrodes or plates in order to increase its capacitance. The circuit-board mounted electrolytic looks like a tiny bean-can of varying size and height on a circuit-board.

When an electrolytic capacitor is made with good-quality materials it has a fairly good mechanical rigidity despite its high potential for electrical leakage. When a capacitor is made on the cheap, however, problems occur, and its working life is limited. Unfortunately there’s no way to tell how long an electrolytic capacitor will last if you’re not familiar with the manufacturer. The electrical characteristics of any new capacitor will be as marked on the tin, in all but a very few cases. It’s only with use that things start to go pear-shaped.

Since around 1998, some motherboard and PSU manufacturers have been using Chinese-manufactured ultra-low-cost electrolytic capacitors in the construction of their products in order to keep costs down. This has led to something that is known these days as "capacitor plague":-

Capacitor plague occurs after around a year or more of in-circuit usage of a low-quality electrolytic capacitor. Because the chemical formula for the electrolyte used in the capacitor is basically the cheapest formulation that the manufacturer could get away with and have their product still function; eventually, with use, hydrogen gas bubbles build up in it between the capacitor’s plates. This increases the internal pressure within the sealed can. Eventually the pressure builds to a point and the electrolyte/gas bubble mix escapes any way that it can: This could be from the base of the component; but more usually from the top, where usually a weakness is deliberately built into the electrolytic capacitor’s can so that any venting electrolyte can escape from the top. The main reason why it’s better that it escapes from the top is so that a visual inspection of the faulty circuit easily identifies a leaking electrolytic.

(Of course things haven’t always been this way. Perhaps you might remember the old 1940/50s television sets, where due to lower capacitor technologies at the time, huge capacitors, literally the size of a bean-can or larger, were used in places without any place for the expanding electrolyte to go. Older readers perhaps may recall their television making a huge bang; blowing the back off and leaving a cloud of acrid smoke. That was just a capacitor reaching the end of its life – Usually rendering the whole unit inoperable and beyond repair.)

Many motherboards and cheap power supplies manufactured between 1998 and 2007 incorporate these cheap and nasty electrolytic capacitors, and many fail rather quickly. Commonly there’s no massive bang, although it has been known even in computers. More than likely the faulty cheapo capacitor either bulges, leaks, or both.

If a motherboard or other device suddenly begins playing up; take a look at it and check the capacitors: If the can on any given capacitor doesn’t look perfectly-formed, or if you see a rust-coloured mark on it, or both – usually at the top – then you can assume fairly correctly and with a good degree of accuracy that your device has capacitor plague.

There is a cure; but it could be rather long-winded and not worth the hassle, in replacing all the faulty and potentially-faulty electrolytic capacitors on a given board. This is usually ultra-geek work and requires a good and steady hand at soldering, plus some knowledge of electronics and electronic circuit construction in practical application. I’m trained to that level myself, in fact beyond that to military-grade soldering standards, but in my opinion it’s much easier to buy a new board than attempt the fiddly and not-always-successful task of replacing capacitors.

It’s a shame that this happens and has been allowed to continue unpenalised for a long time; but it does, it has, and there’s not-a-lot can be done about it. These days many manufacturers, Gigabyte in particular I notice, are manufacturing their products using non-electrolytic capacitors – Thus avoiding the chances of capacitor-plague. However some are still using electrolytic capacitors in the board’s component population, and, who knows, they could be made in China and cost ten-a-penny?

What do you think? Should companies continue to cut costs and quality too just for the purpose of making their products slightly cheaper? – After all it’s the customers who suffer, not the protagonists.

Preamble

Most routers connect to the internet on one side, and to the computer by means of the IEEE ethernet port via a cat 5 cable. The router may connect the same way to other devices also possibly; such as other computer(s) maybe, and/or a NAS server perhaps. This is known as a LAN (Local Area Network).

To set up a network it’s not just a simple matter of connecting up and everything works hunky-dory though: The network settings have to be correct inside each device in order that it knows where everything else is. With Windows XP Microsoft have simplified this operation with the Network Setup Wizard, or "NetSetWiz" as I refer to it. Without going into all the complicated technical details, you run the NetSetWiz on all computers and other devices using Windows, after having correctly connected up your network, and it sets up each device to interact with the other devices running Windows.

Even though the NetSetWiz didn’t appear until XP was released; it’ll work on pretty much any version of Windows in use today. Microsoft have done a fairly good job as regards this wizard with backwards compatibility.

Inevitably, though, there are times when things break down, and it doesn’t seem to work quite as it should.

Even when using just a single router with a single computer, which doesn’t usually require any assistance from the NetSetWiz, there can be communication problems occurring between router and computer.

I’m writing this article mainly because I notice that I’m getting a larger than usual number of visitors who’ve been searching Google with a term similar to "BT Home Hub doesn’t connect with computer" or "Computer can’t see BT Home Hub". I have quite a few references to the BT Home Hub on this blog, which is why Google refers it to the visitors; but not a lot if anything as regards troubleshooting.

Guts

So you’ve connected the BT Home Hub as BT suggest: Filter at or near the BT socket with telephone and computer connections running from it; the cable connected from the filter to your BT Home Hub. The power adapter plugged in to a live 13 Amp socket, and the low-voltage output lead connected to the power input of your Home Hub.

(*Note: The recent BT Home Hubs; 2.0 and above, require a working voltage of 15 Volts. The older BT Home Hubs, before 2.0 require a working voltage of 9 Volts: Therefore if you’re replacing an old Home Hub with a new 2.0 or greater, you would probably have problems with it, if it works at all, if you don’t use the power adapter supplied with it and use the old one instead. (I don’t advise using the new adapter with an old Home Hub; although it may or may not work as a temporary measure. (Then again it might damage the old Home Hub due to over-voltage – I don’t know and I don’t intend to experiment in this area.)))

You power everything up and – No internet connection.

First check that the top three lights on the Hub are lit up and are blue. If not then refer to the documentation supplied with the Hub. If yes then check the cat 5 cable connection between the router and the computer. (Unless you’re using a wireless connection.)

If there’s nothing wrong with that, check that your ethernet adapter is working properly and has a driver or the correct driver installed. You can do this in Device Manager. If a yellow mark with an ! is attached to your ethernet adapter’s icon in Device Manager, I suggest you right-click on the icon in question and remove the device from the list. Following that click "Actions" at the top of the Device Manager page and "Scan for hardware changes". The computer will see the device and add it back to the list, then it’ll look for and install the driver again. When it has done this the ! should vanish and the ethernet controller should work correctly. If not then you have a problem with the driver that you are using and need to get a new driver from the motherboard’s manufacturer or the manufacturer of your ethernet controller.

If everything is OK so far but you still can’t connect to the internet then there may be a TCP/IP error in that your Home Hub has assigned your ethernet controller an invalid IP address. To solve this you can either reboot both the computer and the Home Hub, or to save rebooting the computer you could go to a command prompt and type in "ipconfig /flushDNS": (Note the space between ipconfig and /flushdns.) This will empty your DNS cache where the invalid IP address has been stored, and the Hub will hopefully assign a new, correct IP address when it reboots.

There was a typo in the above paragraph previous to 27th November 2008, for which I apologise.

Going this far should have sorted all but a tiny percentage of problems. if you’re still having problems I suggest that you refer to the documentation that was supplied with the Hume Hub, or phone BT themselves on 0800 800 150. Unfortunately their call-centre is in India, half of their representatives are totally computer-illiterate and are reading from a script, and a lot of them have such strong Indian accents that they’re rather hard to understand. Some of them also have no intelligence to speak of.

If you are replacing an old BT Home Hub with a new model 2.0 or greater then it should be possible to plug it straight in  to the existing connections as before, remembering to swap the old 9V power adapter for the new 15V power adapter.

It is quite possible to run your BT Home Hub without using any of BT’s software. I suggest that you don’t install the Norton Security Suite provided with the Home Hub as this is bloatware. Use something else instead with equivalent function. See this article on an alternative antivirus/antispyware solution.

I also suggest that you might like to not install the BT Broadband Desktop help client unless you are computer-illiterate: The reason being is that some antispyware vendors consider the BT Broadband Desktop Help client as spyware/malware, and the Home Hub will work perfectly well without it being installed. If you don’t know much or anything about computers, or are a technophobe, then I suggest that you do install the client.

The wireless connection manager software provided by BT is a waste of space IMO, and sometimes conflicts with the Windows equivalent – which is all you need. I suggest if you can that you totally disable the BT wireless connection manager and use the equivalent built into the operating system instead.

Please comment on this article and give your views and suggestions.

Addendum

I’ve had a few enquiries about the BT Home Hub from Google that I feel I should just mention:

First: Should I leave my BT Home Hub switched on all the time?

Yes and no: I would suggest that you don’t leave it on 24/7 week in, week out. Give it a few hours’ break now and again, otherwise it gets funny at times. Other than that I’d say yes; use it to your heart’s content: If you want to go up and watch whatever on the computer in your bedroom then doze off and leave the Hub on all night why not? It doesn’t use much power, and if you’re worried about someone hacking your wireless while you sleep you could set it to switch wireless off at a certain time. Also it updates at night sometimes: Around 1AM time: Whatever you do; don’t switch it off while it’s updating or it’ll never work again. Read your handbook.

If you have questions about using certain services with it then you can use pretty much any service with it: DSL, TCP/IP, FTP, HTTP, Peer-to-peer, (Watch out though: I happen to know that BT have set up sensitive equipment, set up to record illegal file downloaders’ IPs; so if you do it via BT you’ll probably get caught. I realise that not all P-P involves illegal downloads; and that there’s also a highly ethical side to it: Just to let you know that you’re being watched by electronic eyes.) but you’ll need to set it properly in some cases: Refer to the handbook that was packed with it when it arrived.

If you have a question then why not scrawl it on the wall in the sidebar? It might as well be used.

…And I’ll add a little more to the above:-

Your BT Home hub doesn’t have to be connected to your computer by wires – You can connect wirelessly: How secure is this? The Home Hub 2.0 has a secure wireless connection using 256-bit encryption. (Older models use 128-bit encryption and less-secure wireless protocol by default. Those models require settings to be altered to enhance security. 2.0 upwards are inherantly more secure by default and require no setting to become so.) Connecting is a synch: First you’ll have to have either a wireless card fitted via a PCI slot inside your computer, or you can use an external USB wireless dongle.

You’ll also need your BT Home Hub’s wireless key; which is printed on a card that was delivered inside the Hub’s packaging with the rest of the paperwork. There is a space in the instruction booklet to write this into, which is useful if like me you lose the card.

I won’t go into graphic detail about the process. Simply either set up your wireless connection, via your computer’s internal wireless card if it has one, using the software built into the Windows operating system (XP or Vista.)(I don’t recommend using Windows 9x: It’s old, insecure, and problematic. If you are using Win 9x then get a better operating system.)(Linux and Mac users refer to your operating system’s documentation.) or plug your wireless USB dongle into a USB socket on your computer and set up the connection using the software built into the (Windows, Linux, Mac) operating system.

The BT Home Hub 2.0 has an internal antenna and will connect to your computer via a wireless connection within most properties. If your property is so big that it’s out of range then you can probably afford a second BT Home Hub anyway. If you can’t get a signal due to a blamk-spot then you’ll have to move your computer to a different location.

I didn’t want to go here but it looks like I am anyway. First a warning that you might find this offensive or extremely contravercial.

On with the show:

And now a small vacation of a few minutes into the continuation of George Bush’s God-Squad politics in the form of God’s insult to evolution; Sarah Palin.

Right-wing religionist and fundamentalist Repugnut Sarah Palin thinks Jesus loves her and has destined her for greatness. (-Which isn’t a bad feat for a Witch who’s been dead for over 2000 years.) Personally I see it as more of a case of the uneducated masses supporting the untalented excuse for a leader who’s intent on perpetuating the only reason that the mentally-dull can find to carry on with their miserable waste-of-a-life; that being their religious crutch with which they limp through their unfulfilled existences.

Senator McCain… Oh yeah he’s meant to be the candidate – No, he’s the puppet fronting the campaign with Palin pulling the strings. It’s the Wizard of Oz all over again!

If they should manage to get in, prepare for a return to the dark-ages for the US at the mercy of the Yahweh and Son black-comedy circus. Forced pregnancies for rape victims, books banned from libraries because they don’t convey Palin’s delusional religionism, children indoctrinated from an early age to worship her image – Just like the children at Jesus Camp around 2006 who worshipped a cardboard cutout of Dubya.

‘Not only that but a prospect of a discontinuation of relations with Russia caused by an inability to negotiate, and maybe a re-ignition of the cold war – In addition to a probable religiously-inspired war with the Islamic nations in the name of "God".

Yes it’s another of those "Vote Republican and veto sanity" elections. – And this time the best that the Religious Right could come up with is not only insane and inadequate, but also this time scarily so.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for feminism and equality: But not with a delusional Jesus-freak peddling it along with an enforcement of her personal beliefs whilst at the same time destroying all the credibility of a superpower and igniting further global tension.

And Obama… Does he have what it takes? Probably not, right at the present moment; but he certainly appears to be at least sane. Honestly I am scared that the Republicans have a chance of winning this US election; even though I live across the puddle in the UK.

OK I just had to vent that. That’s all. I’ll leave you with a fitting ending:-

As a fairly long-time internet-user, I’ve used a large number of antivirus solutions in my time. I’ve also read quite a few reviews and seen a few products come and go.

There are quite a number of antivirus solutions out there that don’t cost a penny; Avast! and AVG being just two of them. The problem is that, despite appearances, there really is no such thing as a free lunch: The old adage holds true every time to a great extent: "You gets what you pays for."

By now you’ll have guessed correctly that what I’m about to reveal isn’t free software: What it is though is a brand new product that I heard about, and that I now use. It effectively also detected a virus on my personal machine that AVG 8 was unable to see.

Clearly from the test results below, this product is extremely effective – Although a lot of antivirus solutions do sometimes find infections that others miss. The same is true with antispyware.

Another bonus in its favour is that it has only just been developed and is therefore fully suited to today’s computing environment from the word go.

Personally I am most impressed with it, and I rate its performance top-value, up with classics such as Kaspersky and NOD 32. Another plus in its favour is its lack of bloatedness and seemingly small footprint compared to newer versions of some products such as Kaspersky.

OK the suspense is killing you I know; so I’ll reveal the identity of the product:

Click on this link for more information.

———————————————————————————————–

The test was conducted as follows:-

This product has been tested by myself on two new, previously unused Asus motherboards with a used single-cored and a dual-cored processor fitted to each respectively. The hard-drives used in both machines had previously been formatted in NTFS after having been totally cleaned using Webroot System Erase and their function checked using Spinrite.

These two testbed machines were then deliberately randomly infected by being used on the internet for 12 hours without any antispyware or antivirus protection and with the Windows Firewall deactivated. They both were running 32-bit Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3, and they both had all the latest additional updates from Microsoft installed previous to the test.

These machines were then installed with Avast! antivirus. A couple of viruses were detected on each machine by the software during a full scan. The infections were removed and Avast! was uninstalled offline. They were reconnected to the internet having had AVG 8 free antivirus installed on both of them. AVG 8 found spyware on both during a full scan, and also detected another virus on one machine that Avast! has missed.

Normally after this one would expect then to be fairly clean, both of spyware and of viruses.

Next, AVG was uninstalled and the test-subject product was installed on both offline. they were connected to the internet and the test product was finalised and updated. A full scan was then run using the test-subject:

On the dual-core machine another hi-threat virus was found along with a virulent piece of adware/malware plus a spyware cookie. On the single-core machine the identical piece of malware plus two spyware cookies were reported.

Both machines were then scanned by AdAware, which found a few other spyware cookies on each. (AdAware by Lavasoft is an unparalleled spyware detector; the like or equal of which I have never seen to this day.)

The specifications of the testbeds were as follows:-

Motherboard = Asus M2VTVM socket AM2. 64MB onboard graphics, 2 x DDR2 RAM slots, 2 SATA connectors, 2 x IDE.

Processors = AMD Sempron 1800MHz Single-cored and AMD Athlon 64 x 2 2.6Ghz Dual-cored.

RAM = 1GB 667 MHz DDR2

HDD = 40GB SATA Hitachi

Power supplies and any other parts/connectors used were from the spares box

Chipmaking giant Intel isn’t happy about AMD’s recent decision to spin off its fabrication business as a separate company. Initially the move by AMD seemed to be a rather good decision in terms of finance and growth; but now Intel are kicking up and saying that they have "serious" questions regarding AMD’s strategy.

The problems centre around a licence agreement that AMD has with Intel in which AMD pays Intel royalties for something called a "patent cross-licensing agreement"> This agreement allows AMD to produce x86 chips, which Intel holds the patent for. AMD intends to open up its fabrication plant to other companies beside itself – Therefore Intel claims that AMD is violating this agreement. Intel is nevertheless intent on protecting its intellectual property rights.

Intel have asked AMD to make details of the agreement public; something that AMD haven’t done: Therefore Intel’s representatives aren’t yet fully able to discuss the full details of the gripe that they have with AMD, so further details aren’t exactly forthcoming and are sketchy at best.

Following AMD’s announcement that it’s creating the Foundry Company, IBM have seen opportunity there and have jumped at the chance to embrace the move; in which AMD intend to share their existing and future fabrication facilities with other companies.

The plot thickens and the argument continues pending further developments.

What’s your view of this malarkey? Do you agree that Intel have a good case and should stand up against AMD to defend their patent? Do you think that Intel should be more flexible and allow AMD to pursue their objective as an act of good faith? Give your opinion in the appropriate comment space below.

In short – Everyone needs them – That includes YOU!

I have seen people using an old computer running Windows ME without any firewall, antivirus, antispyware; totally unpatched. I was so shocked that I commented out loud about having found the local computer virus maternity unit: The owner, who was in the nextdoor room, came scurrying in with a look of puzzlement combined with anger on her face.

This person had been merrily using a totally unprotected computer for years and spreading viruses to all and sundry across the internet for years; totally unaware of any threat to herself or others.

"Oh but I only use it online about an hour a day." She exclaimed.

– How thoughtful of you. NOT!

Some computer users I’ve encountered have no idea what a firewall is. Others have said that they think they don’t need antivirus software because they only have a dialup connection. Still others have antivirus software but didn’t realise that it had to be updated. And yet others even have complained to me that the security bug fix that "Microsoft" emailed to them didn’t do anything but slow their machine down.

The worst instance was a person who had had their machine "upgraded"- Allegedly from a single-core to a dual-core processor, and had supposedly moved from a 32-bit to a 64-bit installation of Windows XP, which they’d paid a sizable amount of money for the privilege of having carried out. On my examination the operating system disk packaging didn’t shed any light on the question of exactly what this person was running, as there was only a clear case with a home-recorded CD inside it. The contents of this CD included a virus that had been rewritten to defeat the Microsoft Genuine Advantage software and reported a legitimate key. It soon became clear that this was an unprotected, non-updated, unpatched pirated copy of Windows Vista, which was being run on a machine that was hardly capable of running it:

The "upgraded" "dual-core" processor was a 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 single-core processor and the RAM it was using was still the old DDR rather than DDR2. The motherboard was a rather ancient Asus board made to run the early 1st generation Athlon 64s, which was what it was still doing. The system was riddled with viruses and malware: In fact I was surprised that it was still running. The operating system was totally unprotected and all the software that they were running was pirated also.

Both the cases I’ve written about lived within 15 miles of me, and are just two worst-case examples of the many similar cases I’ve seen that close in proximity to where I live: The possibilities from those statistics frighten me no end. I would estimate that there are nearly a million internet-connected users in England alone who are not using any online protection and whose computers are virus and botnet nurseries.

On the basis of that estimate alone it should be fairly obvious to you why a computer needs protection.

In general I think that most computer users are too lax don’t take security seriously enough.

I am fairly certain that the number of machines that are still unprotected by any kind of firewall is fairly big.

I am fairly certain that the percentage of machines unprotected by any kind of anti-virus and anti-spyware software is quite high: Higher than you’d imagine.

I am fairly certain that the number of people who have anti-virus and anti-virus software installed, but whose databases have never been updated is quite colossal.

I am fairly certain that the percentage of machines that have not once taken any update to Windows or Windows components is probably in the twenties.

I am also fairly certain that there are a number of people who’ll click on links or open attachments from unknown sources without giving it a second thought.

Owning a computer could be likened to owning a car: Both require maintenance, both need attention, both need care when using them. When you drive a car you don’t just get in and drive off taking any route that you fancy. There are do’s and don’ts; there are things you can do and things you shouldn’t do:

For instance if you don’t stick to the roads and drive cross-country you’re likely to end up stuck in a rut or broken down in the middle of nowhere. If you try to drive through tree trunks you’ll end up with a busted car. (I know this: I didn’t try to drive through a tree, but I lost it on a corner and hit one once. In that instance I discovered that evolution fashioned trees in a stronger design than Ford fashioned cars.) If you drive recklessly you’ll end up hurting yourself financially and/or physically. Maybe you’ll end up hurting others too.

The same is true when using a computer: if you don’t bother to maintain it and just "drive" it in any old fashion you’ll get reputation and you’ll end up with a computer that’s slow, faulty, and full of malware. That malware will spread from your computer to other users because that is what it is made to do. If a person doesn’t use anti-virus then their computer will become a virus nursery and infect other computers: That is carelessness and selfishness on their part. likewise with anti-spyware, firewall, etc.

People do exactly that though: they don’t bother, they don’t care. They might not mind having a machine full of malware; but other people don’t want that. As a result, we have botnets, spam, and constant virus and spyware attacks.

My advice to every computer user – Whether they run Windows, Linux, or Mac; but especially if they run Windows, is:

Windows is a targeted operating system; but other operating systems are by no means immune to attack.

Everyone needs education: That includes computer users. What do YOU think?

The Palin hacker who hacked the Alaska Governor’s Yahoo email account was a 20-year-old college student called David Kernell (An appropriate surname for a computer-whiz-kid.). He turned himself in to federal authorities and confessed.

OK it was a silly college prank that he did for a laugh: He answered a set of security questions and changed the password on Palin’s email account. He posted the new password online as well as posted a few screenshots of the account’s content to a public website.

An immature prank – But here’s where the shit hits the fan: The guy’s only the son of  Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell. It gets worse: The "kid" is going to be arraigned before Judge C. Clifford Shirley in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. I haven’t delved into any information on this judge; but let’s hope, for the sake of the defendant, that the judge isn’t a staunch Republican voter.

Kernell could face 5 years in jail and a $250,000 fine in a worst-case scenario. His college fees might pale into insignificance in the light of this; despite not getting any further tutelage.

If the Republicans haven’t called "Foul!" then they could well do so, and probably will. How do you think this might change anything? Comment below and give your opinion.

To read the full story of the case so far at time of publishing; click here.

This article is the followup to the article "Cigarettes – The Movie", posted on the 20th September 2008. (To Americans that’s 09.20.2008; to everybody else it’s 20.09.2008.)

I’m not that photogenic, (‘Better in motion than stills; but all the same not a beautiful star of the screen.) so I won’t be starring in or producing a sequel to Rich Menga’s short movie about having received the packet of John Player Specials that I sent him. (See the 1970s UK commercial below.)

John Player Specials (AKA John Player Black) aren’t available in the USA, and a friend of his advised him to get some if he ever went to the UK. Basically I saved him the trip and sent him a pack.

In return today I received a packet of Djarum Menthol Cloves; which as far as I am aware aren’t available in the UK.

The wonders of modern electronics are bringing the world together.

Exchange something special with someone that you know on the internet: Make their day and bag yourself a treat.

A.M.D. to Split Into Two Operations

Chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices; better known as A.M.D, is intending to split into two companies: One of the companies concerned with designing the product, the other concerned with manufacturing them. Two Abu Dhabi investment firms would inject capital into the two companies; financing expansion and upgrading of their existing facilities in Germany.

The move is all to do with A.M.D.’s efforts to ensure that they remain the only serious competition to rival chipmaker Intel. A.M.D. have found it hard going to finance their own expansion in the face of the huge company debt, and therefore have turned to Abu Dhabi for assistance.

The question is, having fallen so far behind, are A.M.D. still really serious contenders in the microprocessor industry? In order to keep up with second place behind Intel the company are forced to turn to a third-party for investment. If they do actually secure that investment then it appears that at least someone still thinks that there’s life in the company and potential to continue to pile on the competition.

In the meantime Intel continues to devise smaller, faster, power-efficient chips at an alarming rate. A.M.D. needs to keep up or Intel will become a monopoly, something like Microsoft was before their two operating system disasters with ME and lately moreso with Vista.

One only needs to turn back the clock a few years to 2004/5, and we see A.M.D. storming ahead of Intel: Intel are chasing improvements to existing technologies and barking up the wrong tree, while A.M.D. are surging ahead producing their renowned Athlon 64 processors, followed by the dual-core Athlon 64×2. (The computer that this article was written on runs one of these processors.)

But oh how the mighty have fallen! Intel bit back and, after stapling two cores together, then producing two cores on a single die as A.M.D. had done earlier, then stapling two of those together as a quad-core processor. Meanwhile A.M.D. were throwing piles of money into what almost turned out to be a failure in the shape of their Phenom range. Beset with difficulties the Phenom range appeared late, and still with one or two issues that were later ironed out by a BIOS adjustment to compensate for a flaw.

Meanwhile Intel had grabbed the bullet and taken the edge by producing multicore technologies with superb power-efficiencies combined with further miniaturisation of transistors to 45nm, with a possibly-attainable target of 22nm on the horizon. A.M.D. were left cashstrapped and behind.

Having now already as-good-as-gained the capital investment that it so badly needs; A.M.D. proposes to play catch-up by at last instigating plans first announced in 2006 to build a massive chip-fabrication plant in New York.

I wish them luck and hope they pull it off. despite opinions to the contrary I sincerely believe that A.M.D.’s chips are by far the better processors. As a small computer builder myself I always incorporate their technology into a machine when I am able.

What do you think? Is it possible for A.M.D. to catch up with Intel and seriously compete with them for the top spot again? If so do you think that their latest move will enable them to do so? Please do comment and share your opinion(s).

6 Studios and RealNetworks in a battle of lawsuits to prevent a DVD copying program’s progress.

Six major movie studios, namely Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, the Walt Disney Company and Sony, sued Seattle-based company RealNetworks on Tuesday over its program that allows people to copy DVDs. The studios aren’t happy about the implications regarding possible piracy of their strictly no-copy enforced DVDs

RealNetworks would argue that their software gives the user the freedom to make the DVD content more portable. On top of that it argues that the software, RealDVD, is now legal due to a decision in favour of Kaleidescape, a manufacturer of top-of-the-range servers., in addition to which is the fact that it conforms to the rules on DVD protection because it encrypts the digital copies that it makes; thus preventing illegal file-sharing.

As a counter argument, the studios argue that RealNetworks’ software violates the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act by bypassing the anti-copying mechanism which is recorded onto the original DVDs.

RealNetworks see the studios’ action as counterproductive in attempting to disrupt technological advancement which could provide consumers with greater flexibility.

I would tend to agree with RealNetworks on this point; although I do understand the case from the perspective of the studios. What’s your take on it?

Addendum: January 10th 2009: For the latest on this story; click here.

This article was written for posting on a site that I write for, or for posting on this blog; one or the other. Due to increased workload it was overlooked and never posted by the other site, and due to my illness at the time, which had me flat out in bed feeling like death warmed up, it was never posted on this site either

Although the fire’s gone out to a large extent regarding this post, I though that I’d rather post it than waste it. Please remember when reading it that this post was originally meant to be published on or around 30th September 2008:

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Contrary to popular opinion; Microsoft may have not yet pulled the plug on the Gates/Seinfeld advertisment series.

According to Gizmodo.com:-

"From a trusted Crispin Porter source, we’ve learned that some sites have jumped the gun and that the Microsoft Gates/Seinfeld ads have not been axed. It’s true, Microsoft apparently asked the agency to focus on the new "I’m a PC" spots. And it’s true, the agency has gotten plenty of "I don’t know what this means" response in their measured statistics of the Gates/Seinfeld ads. But no one has pulled the plug on the dynamic duo just yet."

There are more Seinfeld/Gates adverts in the pipeline then: That’ll come as a relief to Apple; who thought the Softies might be about to produce something that would be more effective in countering the successful Apple advertising campaign.

But according to other reports; Microsoft are ready to step up a gear after their ads which have got everybody talking about Microsoft. In the next series Apple’s strategy is ripped into with a Microsoft engineer resembling a character in Apple’s ads appearing with the words “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

The renewed campaign carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls”. Microsoft intend to turn Apples own tables on them; by using the image of the PC that the Apple ads have attempted to generate – but against Apple.

It appears that Seinfeld has no further part to play in the forthcoming advertising campaign; at least initially and for the foreseeable future; although Bill Gates is set to remain very much a player, along with Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra, and singer Pharrell Williams – These stars play regular PC users who confirm their happiness at running PCs utilising Microsoft software. (I really do hope that they’re not still trying to convince the public that Vista is any good though; otherwise the new ads will be about as effective as a Windows ME salesman giving away a pound of apples with every purchase.)

Also starring in the Advertisments are 60-plus other Microsoft employees (Including and extra to Bill Gates.) – An unusual example of how; in a few cases, being company-employed can make you rich – all of whom publicly display their email addresses: Spammers take note.

Microsoft want to take back the initiative from Apple and be positively realistic about the benefits of the PC. Apple have tried with some success to negatively caricature the PC; but Microsoft want to reverse this without dragging Apple through the mud. If it works it could strengthen the flagging dominance of Microsoft as a market-leader possibly; but having said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating – Microsoft are going to have to ensure that Windows 7 is a markedly better than and totally bug-free operating system compared to Vista; which is still being compared to ME as a total flop.

Advertising agency Crispin Porter; who produce the Microsoft series of advertisments ,appear to have thus-far acted true to form by first getting everybody talking prior to the main thrust of the campaign designed to reverse the tactic used by Apple of PC mockery whilst glorifying the Mac.

What do you think about this strategy?

I must try and get one of those T-shirts…and a boob-job.

Carrying on from yesterday’s post; I’m pleased to report that, despite setbacks, the operation is complete and a total reinstall has been achieved, including all third-party software and files that I’d backed up on the other computer in whatever format.

To be honest the backed-up files were copies of backups of backups that were getting a bit old and stale – A whole new system was called for anyway, which hadn’t actually been done fully since I built the original computer in March 2007. The original computer had a hardware malfunction relating to the BIOS, and I had the motherboard replaced under warranty; installing a backup of the original system straight to it. That software has crashed and been repaired twice since. To be honest it was like a patchwork quilt – So I’ve done the right thing in starting again.

I encountered BSOD’s soon after reinstalling Windows XP and SP3. I had added a few pieces of third-party software at this stage, but I was unable to account for the stop errors nevertheless. At this point I make a strong recommendation for Ad Aware 2008 from Lavasoft; which was the only program able to find a hidden virus and another piece of malware which somehow mysteriously got onto the system and caused the crashes.

I built this machine; so I’m rather familiar with it. It uses an Asus M2VTVM motherboard which appears to be rather finnicky about software compared to my other machine which runs very stably under virtually all conditions with a Shuttle motherboard.

As you have read from the previous article; the operation was made somewhat difficult by, and a total reinstall was virtually forced by, a catalogue of errors and dysfunctions both on the part of Windows as well as to a certain extent on my part. These lengthened the operation somewhat, causing me to dedicate the entire weekend towards getting the machine running again, which has reduced the amount of time I would otherwise have spent on this blog.

Nevertheless the show must go on; and I’ve endeavoured to bring something rather than nothing to you despite this minor catastrophe right on top of the illness which put me out of action for a while a week before. Hopefully with a bit of luck normal operations will be resumed forthwith.

Have you ever had a hard-drive clap out on you? What was your experience?

This is a deviation from the normal type of posts:

I’m currently carrying out maintenance of my main computer due to the hard-disk packing up. basically what’s been happening over the last 3 days is that for no apparent reason the machine’s been randomly BSODing; just a couple of times a day at first, then more including at boot. Yesterday the CHKDSK initiated after crash at boot 3 times and repaired errors on the disk, only for it to crash again at boot, sometimes activating CHKDSK before attempted reboot.

The situation now is that it won’t boot at all without crashing.

I had a second drive in the machine; so I disconnected the faulty drive from the motherboard and connected the second drive in its place. I switched on and was planning on using Windows Automated System Recovery to restore things. My backup was on the drive that I was now using – Which Windows promptly formatted! Fortunately I had a copy of the backup on an external disk.

I though that I’d left it connected to this second computer which I’m on now, so I switched it on but found that it wasn’t. OK fair enough. I didn’t realise that it was connected to the machine I was working on.

I went out to the kitchen to make coffee and returned a while later to a dialog box telling me that Windows ASR was formatting volume \DosDevices\ D: … and the external drive was spinning away with a constant green light on:

So thanks Windows – You just ruined any chance I had of making things easy: Now I’ll have to try and use a month-old backup which I have stored on this computer, or I’ll have to rely on the slow restore of Carbonite online backup.

This operation is clearly going to take the rest of the day: In future I’m using Acronis and Carbonite/Backblaze online backups only.

This report has been the big rumour of the day today; as you may have heard – Setting the gossip lines, blogs, and Twitter, alight with chat:

Apple says the Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report Is Not True.

Of course it’s not true: For one to have a heart attack one must first posses a heart.

Jobsweh may posses an organ that keeps the blood circulating throughout his body; but any outgoing emotion from that organ appears to have been stemmed by his control-freak nature and love of profit at any cost.

Using tactics of mass-mind-control akin to those used on the German people during and just before the second-world war by Hitler and the Third Reich; Jobs has conned the world into buying his substandard products in a hypnotic marketing ploy using deceptive yet convincing tactics to deceive the minds of the masses into thinking that anything bearing the Apple name is the best thing since sliced bread.

What is a Mac? A Mac is a PC with a sturdy chassis and an inflated price tag. What is an iPhone? An iPhone is a small programmable handheld computer/phone with a weak non-user-replaceable battery that is remote-controllable and block-able at the behest of Steve Jobs. What is OSX? Well-developed Linux with its own special flavour – No more and no less.

So an Apple system is no more a sturdy PC made of Apple-approved components in an Apple-defined design configuration running a specialised flavour of Linux called OSX written by Apple, all of which costs twice as much as a normal PC running a normal Linux distro. Maybe this Apple system’s overall operation is slightly better than average; provided that all software is approved by and provided by Steve Jobs at an inflated price. It’s not anything different from the norm in reality: It’s the ultimate con.

Is Steve Jobs worried that he’s taking the public for a bunch of mugs. No; not even an iota of shame or guilt. Does he care that he’s selling a PC as a specialised improved type of technological evolution?

Having said that though – I must admit that I definitely do admire him for his unbelievable nerve. Not even Bill Gates with all his wealth and genius pulled such a massive confidence-trick on so many to get where he is today.

If you’ve seen the 1970/1980s BBC TV comedy series “Only Fools and Horses” then you may remember the episode where Del and Rodney are bottling tap water and selling it wholesale for a profit as “Peckham Spring”. ‘Far-fetched you think? No more far-fetched than Del Boy Jobs selling a PC running Unix as a Mac at an inflated price. No more far-fetched than a mentally-unstable Corporal putting on a display of authority and conning an entire nation into following him and his Third Reich.

The same old confidence-trick in another guise is still just the same old confidence-trick. As Shakespeare wrote in his famous play Romeo and Juliet:-

“That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

If you’re a control-geek and you want to totally nerd-out FireFox, then I thoroughly recommend this add-on: It shows extra information on the status-bar of FireFox; such as FireFox’s memory usage, total installed RAM, network speed, upload/download to FireFox… Rabbit, rabbit, yap-yap, rabbit rabbit, bunny… Here; take a look at the options panel and see for yourself:-

As you can see, you can fully-customise the function of this add-on, from what it displays right down to the colour of the text it displays it in. – Of course being a FireFox add-on it’s freeware and fully Open-Source just as you’d expect; so you can code away at it to your heart’s content if you want to fully-personalise it.

Unfortunately there’s only a Windows version currently – But as it’s Open Source, if you have the ability, you might like to create one for Mac and for Linux.

Here’s what it’s showing on my computer with the above settings applied:-

How To Get Yours

Direct your browser to

https://add-ons.Mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3271

That’s all.

Despite a strong wind from the NASDAQ with the potential to dislodge Apple and send it tumbling as an economic drop-out; the company has had its own windfall in the States recently according to figures released by US market watcher NPD: The figures indicate that Apple made an impressive 20% of all retail notebook computer sales during July and August of this year, 2008.

The MacBook range of laptops appear to have gone down well with parents buying for their kids for the new school year, as well as with students. I perceive the dollar-signs lighting up so bright in the eyes of Jobsweh; god of all things Apple, that they nearly cause a fire as he curls his talons around his increasing capital assets:-

The 20% figure is for stock turnover. The revenue percentage of market share is 35%: Whoever suggested that Jobsweh had priced himself out of the market?

Of course, as I mentioned in another article, the MacBook line is due to be refreshed about now or in the very near future – Yet even just clearing the old stock has set the cash-registers ringing merrily across America.

The “anti-Vista lobby”; IOW a large percentage of (ex-)Windows users, must have helped account for the unexpected fortune of the company – switching from Windows notebooks now mainly only available pre-installed with Vista, to MacBooks with OSX installed. Despite the relatively high-costs involved it seems the American public on the whole feel that it’s a price worth paying.

Can this boom continue or is it merely a lucky blip? Despite the economic misfortune that now bites the world economy, it appears that Apple have had such an effective marketing campaign that consumers will still buy MacBooks despite the extra price tag and the cheaper Linux-bearing alternatives.

It would be wise for Apple to drop their profit-margin somewhat on the upcoming ranges though, as competition is still rife and economic future trends would appear to favour lower-cost devices. If the price of the new lines are right then Apple have the chance to make another massive windfall, rather than breaking where their growth is stemmed, and dropping from the money-tree to become fodder for the foragers and scavengers of recession.

Do you think Steve Jobs (Jobsweh) can resist overpricing his wares?

This current economic downturn is, by its very nature, set to affect everyone; small or large. Apple are already finding that due to economic forecasts of future spending behaviour in light of the troubles, that their expensive products are in danger of pricing them out of the predicted market.

That’s not the only trouble on the horizon though:

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday 30th September that the global financial crisis will sap consumer and business spending, affecting all companies, including his own.

This fact is a problem from which nobody is immune. It’s an all-encompassing difficulty which everyone has to face: When consumers are spending less there’s less money in the economy due to that fact. If the revenue isn’t coming in from the customers then it doesn’t appear in anybody’s coffers by magic. When consumers spend less due to a lack of supply in the economy then consumer confidence starts to wane further; the knock-on effect of which is that analysts start to produce grim forecasts which have the effect of driving share prices down – Resulting in even less money within any given company. When this circle repeats often enough and begins to cascade, the money-markets start screaming “Recession”, following which share prices take another battering, and everyone from small startups to huge multinational conglomerates see their stock devalue to a fraction of its original worth. From that point it’s survival of the fittest as the economy begins to pick up again.

“Financial issues are going to affect both business spending and consumer spending, and particularly … spending by the financial services industry,” Continued Ballmer.

“We have a lot of business with the corporate sector as well as with the consumer sector and whatever happens economically will certainly effect itself on Microsoft,” he told the Reuters newsagency.

“On the other hand, when businesses have less money — they can borrow less money, they can spend less money — that can’t be good. When consumers feel the economic pinch, house prices come down. That can’t be good,” Ballmer said.

Could it be that investors have taken Ballmer’s remarks as an indication that Microsoft’s revenues could be hurt by the continuing financial crisis? Apparently some NASDAQ traders seem to think so.

Reading between the lines; Ballmer is ready for the recession that he is certain is coming. The economy is already collapsing, and any countermeasures taken at this point appear to only serve to delay the inevitable.

If this is the right way to see the situation; and it seems from the evidence available that it probably is, then rather than wasting resources in attempting to prolong the agony as George Bush seems to be attempting to do, it would seem to be a more sensible option to use those resources to cushion the fall and avoid as much damage as is possible when everything reaches its nadir.

To my mind Bush is attempting to delay the inevitable until he’s out of the way of the falling debris, by throwing money at the problem. When the big lumps hit the fan, a lot of it is going to end up as the responsibility of government to clear up.

How to cushion the economy?: When there’s no money around people aren’t going to want to spend much on anything as there won’t be much to spend in the first place. Business needs to make a profit still, though, to survive while the economy picks itself up again.

The answer would appear to be to cut prices. The knock-on effect of that would see a reduction of profits, due to both less revenue from the consumer sector as well as, quite probably, increased cost of raw materials. This could well cause companies to diversify their product lines and produce smaller and/or lower cost products from less resources.

The upshot of this may well be that the situation could force a further leap in technology with regard to manufacturing processes in order to accomplish this; which would have a positive effect on the economic implications of industrial manufacturing, as well as assisting the forward progression of technology as a whole.

In conclusion, then, it appears that there is unavoidably going to be a recession: Possibly a rather deep and dismal time ahead for all sectors. As the world emerges from it, however, I believe that things will get a lot better and the overall effect could quite probably be a developmentally positive one rather than a detrimental one.

What’s your opinion?