Archive for December, 2009
A Phone Running XP? – Yes – Really!
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I get the feeling that Microsoft might be forced to extend the service-lifetime of their Windows XP operating system beyond 2014 at this rate. Why? Because the latest generation of smartphones all come with an amazing array of applications, and this particular smartphone runs XP.
Since September 2009, Chinese company ITG have been working on a smartphone that would run Windows XP. This has now come to fruition, and the prototype is released. The unit’s specs are as follows: –
…And there’s even a video of it on You Tube. (…Complete with Linux zealots saying something similar to: - “The screen’s far too small; but if it had Linux on it then it would be perfect.”
- Yes I wonder about such people too; such as how they managed to survive into their early teens. Modern-day fuckwittery among a certain section of society appears to be unparalleled since records began. Click here and see the comments for yourself if you doubt me.)
Source: Techtree, tomshardware.com. This is going to throw up a number of problems if Microsoft get funny about it: Firstly; are the softies happy about this venture? Secondly; if MS do indeed end the Windows XP product lifecycle in 2014, as currently expected, then future buyers of this technology might feel somewhat short-changed. What do you think? Please leave a comment.
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Battle of the Browsers 2009
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In January 2009, Internet Explorer had almost 70% of the browser market; well down on its 2008 average, partly because of the poor take-up of IE7 in the unpopular Windows Vista operating system. The introduction of IE8 along with the Windows 7 Retail Version, in October, and also the previous beta and RC releases of Windows 7, was promising; but Microsoft didn’t really provide anything earth-shatteringly amazing with IE8, which, after all the what seemed like aeons of development and promises, turned out to be a bit of a damp squib after all the hype: There was not-a-lot in it that didn’t appear in any other browsers. The main thing about IE8 was that it was a part of Windows 7, and would therefore make at least some impression. Meanwhile, Firefox was still slowly gaining in popularity during 2008, and things were looking promising for Mozilla in the coming year, thanks, in part, to Vista’s failure. Google hit the headlines with Chrome, and the Google browser instantly soared in popularity, and then made more gains on top of that. Let’s look at some figures: The chart on the left is from March 2009, and the chart on the right is from November 2009.
Chrome, Firefox, and Opera appear to have done rather well during 2009, while Apple continued to fail to supply a browser that works as well with Windows as it does on Mac OS. Internet Explorer and Safari had combined losses of 7.48% while Chrome, Firefox and Opera had combined gains of 7.35%. In the coming year, development and implementation of HTML 5 and IE9 promises to make browser-development even more exciting. Microsoft, particularly, need to up their game, or they’re going to find that they are in danger of getting relegated to the “Third World” of browser-popularity unless they can stop the rot. What surprises will they bring us in IE9, and will they have it ready in time to lead the way, rather than copy the pack? Time will tell.
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How Many Processor-Cores Should I Have
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What is a “core”? Does it mean the computer’s made by Apple; hence ‘Apple core’?
No, but that’s a humorous idea nevertheless, even if slightly esoteric: - A ‘core’ is a separate processor; therefore a single-cored processor is a single processor. A dual-cored processor is 2 processors in the same chip, and so on… A processor is a vital part of the computer; it’s where the main calculations are carried out; the computer’s brain, if you like. You may often have heard it said that two heads are better than one, and 2 heads = 2 brains, 2 processors, 2 cores. A processor core is not a computer in itself, though, any more than a brain is a human-being. As the human body requires many different organs to make it run properly and continue working; such as a nervous system, blood vessels, heart, – so in the same way a computer requires many different parts to keep it working; such as data buses, power rails, chipset. At the time of writing, the number of cores generally available are: - 1 core. (Intel Atom (32-bit low-power processor currently used in many netbooks.)) 2 cores. (AMD and Intel – various.) 3 cores. (AMD Phenom.(AMD’s previous generation of processors, mainly using 65nm fabrication.)) 4 cores. (AMD and Intel – various.) I believe that 6 and 8-cored-offerings are on the horizon from both AMD and Intel also.
What’s the advantage of having all these cores? That depends on what software you’re running at the time, and what that software’s doing: - Very basically; a single core can only perform 1 calculation at any given point in time. It works so fast that it may appear to be doing more than 1 thing at once; but even if it’s running 2 or more processes simultaneously, it’s only doing one calculation at a time: Therefore it’s doing a calculation for process A, and then it’s doing a calculation for process B, and then back to process A, and so on… ‘Introduce 2 cores, though, and core 1 can do all the calculations for process A, while at the same time core 2 can do all the calculations for process B; at least in theory. In practice it’s a little bit more complicated than that, though. – But that’s beyond the scope of this article. Let’s not, at this point, forget hyperthreading: Hyperthreading is a technique introduced by Intel, ( -and later developed and adopted by AMD) in the very-early 21st Century, that makes each core of the processor appear to the operating system as 2 cores. This doesn’t mean that each core is as fast as 2 cores, or as effective, but each single core with hyperthreading will still be faster than a single core without hyperthreading. If the program that you’re running is CPU-intensive; then it’ll benefit from running on a multi-cored processor by being able to utilise the processing-power of an entire core all to itself; whereas if it were run on a single-cored processor, it would slow the execution of other programs down, and they would likewise slow it down too. But there are programs; particularly games, that are written in such a way that they utilise the processing power of more than one core in their execution. In fact, lately, entire operating systems are written to take advantage, in part at least, of the processing power of more than 1 core; such as Windows 7, for example. Writing such software can be rather complex and tedious; which is part of the reason why every single program in existence these days don’t all take advantage of all the cores of a multi-cored processor. Great; so what are you recommending?
Personally I recommend a dual-core or more processor; depending upon what software you’ll be running. – In fact, unless you’re talking about a netbook made in 2009 or earlier, or a laptop made before 2008, you’ll be fairly hard-pushed to find anything still working that has a single-core processor fitted. – Maybe a 6-year-or-more-old desktop?
If you’re a gamer, or you use CAD software; both of which are extremely processor-intensive and designed to use more than 1 processor-core, then the more cores the better. – Also the more RAM the better too; which is where running a 64-bit operating system comes into its own. If you’re a standard run-of-the-mill computer-user, then you should currently happily breeze through with a dual-core processor. If you run Windows 7 64-bit, or a 64-bit Linux operating system, then I suggest doing so on a processor with 3 or more cores for optimum performance, although 2 cores will do the job fine also. Mac users: Well Apple seem to be fairly proficient at ensuring that their latest computer products are good enough for anything that the users throw at them; so I’ll leave Macs out of the equation. Is there anything you’d like to add to the above, or is there anything that you feel I missed? If so then please leave a comment.
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Color Cop (Free Software) – multi-purpose colour picker for Windows
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Color Cop is a multi-purpose colour picker for web designers and programmers. It features an eyedropper, a magnifier with variable magnification levels, 3 by 3 and 5 by 5 average sampling, snap to websafe, colour history, and a 42 colour complementary palette.
Color Cop will convert RGB decimal values to Hexadecimal colour codes. It has colour code support for HTML Hex, Delphi Hex, PowerBuilder, Visual Basic Hex, and Visual C++ Hex. This link leads to a demonstration of Color Cop in action. You can download Color Cop here. If you use it; why not consider making a donation to the program’s creators? You can do that on the Color Cop website.
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A Bit More About 64-Bit
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- But first: - Unlike most, if not all, other bloggers, I didn’t send out emails to my list wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and clogging up the internet. This was because I was so badly affected by a very heavy flu-like cold, which I believe a large percentage of the UK have also contracted, that I just wasn’t up to doing any writing from Wednesday 23rd until now. Even now I have itchy sniffles, slightly aching muscles, and feel too hot and too cold in sequence, but I have to get this show back on the road. – I think I’m going to do my utmost to avoid colds as much as possible in future: The last one I had, earlier in 2009, knocked me out for a few days too; and I really don’t like feeling mentally-incapacitated due to a microscopic lifeform invading my body and breeding: In fact I felt so much like crap that at one point I had to check that I wasn’t evolving into Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo. I hope you all enjoyed your celebrations anyway; whether or not you’re on my list. If you’re not on my list then you’ve been missing out and will continue to miss out in 2010 unless you join ASAP: You’ll no doubt see that large blue form at the top of the sidebar which promises you a free report. – Well, all you need do is enter an email address at which you’d like to receive communications, and click the “Get it Free” button… And that’s it: I’ll handle all the rest – ‘no need for you to worry about a thing. – That includes your privacy: Read my Privacy Policy. 2010 just a few days away eh? Happy New Year to you all; just in case I get hit by some other disease before then. (X-fingers.) I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like only yesterday that I was down by the river with a friend watching the fireworks herald in the year 2000. In a way I wish it were 2000 now; as this blog, as it is now, would most likely have made me a tidy sum of money already; without really trying that hard. – But things have changed: No longer do a select few “cool” people have their own website. Now pretty much everyone and their dog has a website; and it’s no longer a case of sticking up a few banners and watching the cash roll in. Things have changed, and will no doubt continue to do so in the following decade. On that note I want to share something with you; yes it’s free – for now anyway, I’m not sure what this’ll be leading on to, but it’ll be good. [I think you may need to act fast if you want to get onto whatever’s happening; otherwise you might have to wait a while. I didn’t get a chance myself to find out exactly what’s going on.] Anyway, no charge; I think this may be useful to you if you have a blog or are thinking of blogging in the coming decade: Click here for more on that.
Now we’ve got that out of the way; I want to talk a bit more about 64-bit and memory: -
On a hardware level, different machines have different physical RAM capabilities. This is usually governed by the processor and/or chipset architecture’s capacity to address x number of memory-locations. Also, of course, the amount of RAM that can be used is governed by the number of RAM-slots, and the capabilities of the RAM-controllers. On a software level, theoretically, a 64-bit operating system is capable of addressing thousands of terabytes of memory; but in reality this could overcomplicate things and cause development costs to rise out of proportion: Therefore most 64-bit operating systems are only capable of addressing a few hundred gigabytes maximum. Going back to hardware; even this amount of memory would, at the time of writing, take up a lot of space on the motherboard. Generally most motherboards available today will be able to utilise anything between 8 and up to 32 GBs RAM as a maximum. So how much RAM do I need? How much should I have installed? That depends on a number of factors: Firstly; are you running a 32 or a 64-bit operating system? If you’re running a 32-bit operating system then you won’t need any more than 4 GBs, and the machine won’t see all of that either. – Having said that; the more the merrier. – Up to 4GBs with a 32-bit OS, that is, and as much as you like/can get with a 64-bit OS. I have a computer running 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3 on an AMD Athlon 64×2 dual-core processor, with 2GBs RAM without any problem. I’ve even set the registry to commit all operations to RAM rather than the paging file, and it’s ‘happy as Larry. The most memory-intensive thing I do on it is search through thousands of large files, which sometimes takes it to the wire, but nonetheless, it’s working fine. I also have a computer running 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium on an AMD Phenom x3 triple-core processor. It has 8GBs RAM installed; although it rarely uses more than 5, no matter what I do on it. I don’t use many memory-hungry resource-hogging, graphics-intensive programs on it though. If I did I might use all 8MBs and need more. I know of someone who has fitted and used all 16MBs of memory on their Mac; so it varies from person to person. A 64-bit OS should run on tickover quite easily with only 2GBs RAM, and have some to spare. I recommend a minimum of 4MBs, personally though, for normal use, with a 64-bit OS. Can I have “too much RAM”? In short, in the case of a 64-bit OS; no: If you have more RAM installed than the computer can use at the time, it simply won’t use it until and if ever it needs it. Even in the case of a 32-bit OS, you can install 32 GBs if you like, as long as you don’t mind the fact that the operating system will never see more than 4 of those gigabytes. A 64-bit operating system will see it though; whether or not it has to use it: So install it, why not, if you can and if you can spare a few extra readies: At least you’ll know it’s there for if the machine ever needs it. Any questions? Anything to add? Come on, don’t be shy; there’s a comment box somewhere below, and it’s there to be used.
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(Is that a gypsy violinist I hear nearby?)
5 Predictions for Tech in 2010
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I’ve scoured around the internet lately, and observed a few possible future trends emerging. In view of and based upon these, I feel that I am able to make a few predictions for 2010: –
1) Intel will continue to dominate the desktop processor market, despite the current legal action being taken against them by the FCC. Core i7, and more likely, Core i3 processors, will dominate the marketplace. AMD will make progress in 2010, but will nevertheless continue to fall short in comparison to its rival. The dominance of Intel’s chips will be largely due to the fact that each core supports hyperthreading, giving dual-core processors the ability to effectively appear as quad-core chips. AMD will also possibly introduce hyperthreading into their processor-lines during 2010. 2) Digital camera manufacturers will probably abandon the marketing of their products by the megapixel and adopt a marketing-strategy based upon the user-friendliness and ease of use of their product. There is already a good amount of processing-power inside most cameras, and, rather than continuing to utilise this to increase image-processing and resolution capabilities, the makers will concentrate more on usability. 3) Cloud-computing will continue to gain in popularity, but die-hards like Microsoft with their Office programs won’t be making any losses either. 4) Netbooks will begin to utilise dual-cored power-conscious processors in place of the not-so-hot single-cored Intel Atoms that are currently in use within them. 5) Solid-State-Drives will probably make a great leap in popularity during 2010; possibly even becoming mainstream and out-performing their spinning-disk counterparts. SSD prices look set to fall even further; and with 1 terabyte SSDs already in the pipeline, they could soon be the disk of choice for all builders and manufactures at little extra cost. Do you agree? Do you have anything to add? Please comment.
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Pure Yuletide Genius!
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As well as a techy-type, I’m also in a smaller way a kind of arty-farty-type person, and this video that Lisa Jackson recently put together only a few days ago has swept me right off my feet. – So much so in fact that I simply have to publish it here because it has so many amazing artistic points about it as well as demonstrating that it’s work that emanates from an artist of talent and supreme artistic dexterity. What has this got to do with technology, hardware, software, practical electronics? Not one heck of a lot; but it’s Christmas, so, despite my normally non-participative inclinations in regard to Christmas, I’m bringing you what I hope will be a little seasonal-type warmth in the form of this enlightening off-topic show. It also shows you what can be done with just a standard camera, a computer, and a You-Tube account, especially if you happen to be a born-artist with the ability to bring the mundane to life and make it positively enthralling to watch. I so wish I had just a small percentage of this talent; as I intend to be adding more video of a technological nature to this blog during 2010, and had I the creativity that Lisa demonstrates, I might even get some amazing ratings for my work. I promise nothing as amazing, even though on a totally different type of subject matter, in any coming vids, but just maybe I can bring technology to life to at least some fraction of the extent that Lisa brings nature to life from stills. (I’ve really gone and set myself a hard target there! I also have the disadvantages of being camera-shy and un-photogenic too; so don’t expect me to suddenly transform this site into a techie-vlog. (Vlog = video-blog.)) This delightfully-presented picture-show is a great example of how the most seemingly-uninteresting and no-big-deal snapshots can be presented as a heart-warming and fascinating sequential-mosaic portrait of an event with a seasonal flavour to it. On that note let’s take a walk into the art-ghetto; the pulsing pile of data-remains that is You Tube: -
This girl has talent well beyond her years, without any formal training either. It’s genuine artistic genius: No less. Enjoy; and Merry Christmas to you. Blessed Be. This blog will be back to it’s usual technology-oriented subject-material very soon; but, just at times over this holiday period, it’s good to take a break and go elsewhere – Particularly when a work of such outstanding brilliance becomes available for showing.
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The WordPress Classroom
"My name is Matt Wolfe, and WordPress Changed my life."
Matt Wolfe; famous US internet marketer, had his life changed in such a big way that
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Five Things That Nark Shazza
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In many ways I’m an easy-going and tolerant person; but I can also be rather sharp-tongued and intolerant too, when things start to get my goat, having built up for some time. I’m a logical-thinker, and may at times appear to suffer from overindulgence in my own intellectual-prowess: Nevertheless I try to stay on a level and retain an heir of consistency and competence.
There are a number of things, though, that make me see red fairly quickly; although I usually successfully contain any over-emotional reaction to a certain degree in most cases. Here are a few of them: - 1) Drunkenness and associated inarticulate vulgarities and depraved fuckwittery: Everyone likes a drink but nobody likes a drunk; particularly me, if the drunk in question happens to use it as an excuse to behave in a delinquent and irresponsible manner. Very very occasionally I get drunk myself; once or twice a year at most, but I tend to just shut up and do and say nothing, as there’s probably nothing sensible to say if my head’s swimming, and as I already know, if there’s nothing to be said some idiot usually has to go and say it: I just don’t want it to be me.
2) Huge sales letters: Do marketers honestly think that I’m going to read all 30,000+ words covering an equivalent of 48 single-sides of A4 paper? The way I see it; there are several points to be made: -
That’s it; no more is needed. While touching on how using the methods or whatever contained within the product has helped the vendor personally is a very good thing, I honestly don’t want to spend an hour reading about how much money the vendor has had since birth, and how they are now the greatest marketer in the history of the internet because they have been bringing in $20,000 a day in the last 3 months using the “secret formula to success” that is only and exclusively contained in their publication. (The “secret formula to success” that they mention is, usually, set up a website/blog and sell the “secret formula to success” to everyone else.) (A video-presentation helps too; because it’s more interesting than reading reams of multi-coloured typeface, as well as the fact that it can eliminate the need for all the said typeface.) Don’t get me wrong here, though: There are some genuine products out there from genuine vendors and authors that don’t claim that they’re going to make you an instant success overnight; but sometimes do nevertheless: It’s a matter of knowing how to filter golden-nuggets these out from the detritus. – and that’s what I attempt to do with regard to anything I offer via this blog, before I advertise it. – I’m just nearing the end of the Blog Masters Club course by David Risley myself; so yes I do buy and try some of the products before I offer them here. If they are no good then I ask for a refund and forget them. If I benefit from them then I advertise them here. (Yes; I will be promoting the Blog Masters Club; because it’s an excellent product.): This includes physical as well as online products too. At times I’ll see a product and get a gut-feeling about it, after which I’ll do a little research and then promote it if the gut-feeling remains. Also at times I see a product that makes me curious, but after looking into it I can say “No” to it and move onwards.
3) Spammers – That includes Twitter-spammers, email-spammers, and every other kind of spammer out there. Now, surprisingly, I actually do admire the tenacity and dedication of some spammers in a way, in that they have the persistence and unerring dedication to continuously flood the market with their dodgy offers of dodgy goods, and that, even though any spammer has a bad reputation by designation, people still, nevertheless, buy their goods: Well you don’t think that spammers would be spamming if it didn’t work do you? Some people even if only 1 in almost a million, buy from a spammer: Therefore, if the spammer sends out 100 million spams a day, or get 100 million views a day, then they make 100 or more sales a day. Don’t get me wrong, though; spammers annoy me just as much as they annoy anyone else, and I definitely don’t condone or encourage spamming: It’s irresponsible and selfish; it puts a vital public utility; namely the world wide web, in jeopardy by consuming too much bandwidth, it’s usually a criminal activity supporting other criminal activities, and it’s illegal: There are 3 good-enough-reasons not to do it. But the public; even if it’s just 1 in a million people, keep the spammers in profit, because they buy from them: therefore there will always be spammers because there will always be dodgy or criminal or stupid or any combination of the three members of the public who use the internet.
4) Brainless egocentric men. Please note that I intend no sexism here: I mentioned “men” rather than “people” because brainless egocentric women don’t annoy me; they actually entertain me to some extent, despite the fact that I treat them with the contempt that they deserve in many cases. I have creased up so many times because of this that I’m surprised I still have all my ribs intact. I have a knack of making such females appear and feel 1/2 inch tall. Men with this trait, on the other hand, bore me to tears, and if I ever manage to get a word in edgeways through their mindless, brainless, senseless drivel about how big they are, how they scare everyone else, who they’ve beaten up + stories of fights from the past, and how they always make a perfect sexual conquest of some poor victim-girl afterwards who is amazed at their macho-ness… zzz, it usually angers them because the comment I make out of sheer intellectual-unbelievability, boredom, and tedium, is guaranteed to be pointed with a poison-tip and hurts their inflated male-pride.
5) Christmas – Yes Christmas; a time for giving, a time for sharing, the season where we show our love and compassion towards our fellow humans… OK let’s cut the BS: Christmas; take 2, and action: A time for some people to get as much as they can, no matter what the cost; particularly if they’re a teenager. A time for being bored to tears by the in-laws and having to listen to their boring tedium of an excuse for conversation again. A time for drunkenness and gluttony… Enough! – That’s the negative bit. On the positive side; a time for stores and other retail outlets to do a roaring trade and balance their books against any losses accrued at lean-times in the trading-calendar. A time when the year’s profits can be estimated fairly accurately from the season’s overall profit when run against projected losses in the coming post-Christmas lean-time. I don’t intend to labour this: There is one winner from Christmas: Commerce – Everyone else loses at the end of the day. It’s not about Christ, other than the token “away in a manger” stuff as performed by schoolchildren, nor is it about anything religious any longer; be it Pagan, Christian, whatever. Me? I hibernate: Not literally; I mean I hermit-ise. – I lock myself away with a computer and an internet connection and a coffee machine, and before I know it the day’s over. Relief! ‘Only another 250 or so days to go before everything starts gearing towards the following damn Christmas again… and before that we have Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween… Now I don’t mind Halloween, but all the Christianisation and the Westernisation and the Hollywood influence, etc, has detracted far away from its real meaning… Enough of this: It’s coffee-time. Bye. |
You’ll Be Glad It’s Yule…
…For two reasons if you live in the Northern Hemisphere; for one if you live in the Southern Hemisphere: - - Because, in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are getting shorter from this point onwards; whereas, in the southern Hemisphere the reverse is true. (You’ll notice very little difference if you live within 500 miles of the equator on either side.) - And because, since it’s Yule today for Pagans, and Christmas on Friday for Christians, I’m giving away a couple of products with PLR rights – meaning you can customise them and even sell them as your own work- as Yule/Christmas presents to all of my readers, or any who want them.
So then; without more ado, I present you with: -
And…
Both of these products have PLR rights, and you’re all welcome to either or both of them.
Blessed Yule / Merry Christmas
…And what would this post be without the customary adverts? - Cue the adverts: -
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Kkomp.com – Beyond: The Public Newsletter – 18th December 2009
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This is the last Public Newsletter of 2009. The next Public Newsletter will appear on this blog on Friday 15th January 2010, in just under a month’s time; 4 weeks to be precise. There won’t be a Public Newsletter on New Years Day, unless there are exceptional unforeseen circumstances that the public need to be notified about.
In this final Public Newsletter of 2009, I’d like to draw your attention to a few new features on this blog: - The first of these is the poll, which is happening in the sidebar. Although I appreciate that a number of my visitors only come here to get what they want and then as soon as they’ve got it they disappear, and don’t seem to care if the blog vanishes or blows up so long as they have what they want, (This doesn’t apply to all visitors by any means; but I’m certain that a number of visitors have this attitude.) I’m actually trying to reach out and interact with everyone. – So if you’d be so good as to participate I would be grateful; considering I provide this service. If the poll’s not working for any reason at any point then I’d be grateful if someone would let me know: This brings me on to the next newly-added feature of the blog; that being the “Send Me Your Feedback” page, on which is a form, with which you can communicate with me. (Horror of horrors!) – Well if you’ve read what I have to say then, unless you’re totally brain-dead, you’ll obviously form an opinion as you read. Use the form to tell me your opinion, and do let me know which article you’re referring to when you do so. – Also tell me if something like the poll isn’t working, or anything at all: Surely somebody must have something to say? Surely you don’t hold me up as a goddess and obey my every word unquestioningly? This is also good for people who don’t like the Disqus comment system that I’ve installed, as it provides an alternative way to comment. – No your comment isn’t automatically published; but I will publish the comments made in this way as I see fit. There is another product on offer too; which I haven’t yet got around to advertising with banners as I appear to have currently run out of room for any more banners; therefore I’ve dedicated an entire small page to it, with a clickable link or two to the product’s main page. You can find it by either clicking this link or clicking on the link under the header banner titled “The WordPress Classroom” (Those links aren’t there for my benefit only you know.) – As in the place where you go to learn all about using WordPress as a platform for your blog and generating an online income from it, etc, etc… You may have noticed that some of the links in that block under the header-banner that were there before aren’t there now: This doesn’t mean that the respective pages have vanished though; just that I’ve once again run out of space to display everything: A matter that I’ll be addressing during 2010, or perhaps before. Here’s a display of all the page links that are currently displayed, followed by a list of links to all all active pages that are not currently displayed: -
… And for the convenience of my visitors I’ve just this second put those extra page-links in a widget in the sidebar too. … And for my next trick I bring you the standard listing of all the posts published since the last newsletter; just in case you missed any: -
I Want to Move a Program From my Old OS to Windows 7…December 17, 2009 When you’ve lost the installation program and/or the product-key; you could be basically screwed… But it’s better to spend to save in the long run.
Onwards and UpwardsDecember 14, 2009 Come on people: Scrooge is dead – At least I thought so…
Encrypt-Stick: Keep Your Data SafeDecember 12, 2009 Over 600,000 laptop thefts annually, resulting in a $5.4 billion loss of proprietary information: Put an end to this crazy financial loss with Encrypt-Stick.
Coming Soon: Christmas Discount Shopping ArcadeDecember 10, 2009 It’s a kind of discount – starting next week. Roll up, roll up: you have less than a month to grab a few bargains! The arcade is still there; and will be until 5th January 2010; so I suggest you take a visit.
MaxBlogPress Christmas DEAL is LIVE…December 9, 2009 An amazing deal; that is never to be repeated: Get MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate plus 3 other top products for less than Ninja Affiliate usually retails for! ‘Sorry; but it’s now too late to catch this one: The offer is now closed.
Just a Quick Note…December 8, 2009 As title: Just a quick note… As in: ‘Note; of the quick variety’.
Microsoft Security Essentials Rated Top Free Anti-Malware SolutionDecember 7, 2009 Microsoft’s free Security Essentials anti-malware package is getting great publicity; and now it even stands up well to vigorous testing too.
Apology for Technical FaultDecember 5, 2009 Apology for the unexpected technical issue that this blog has encountered.
… And that’s just about it for 2009: If you’re doing Christmas this year, have a good one: Merry Christmas. – And for all fellow Pagans; blessed Yule. … & Happy Hanukah for Jews, and blessed be for any other religious festivities, here unmentioned, that you may or may not be engaging in. The Public Newsletter returns in the New Year, so also have a Happy New Year, and I wish you all tech success and happiness & prosperity for 2010. Namaste’.
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I Want to Move a Program From my Old OS to Windows 7…
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If you’ve just built or bought a new PC to run Windows 7 on; you might want to run all the programs that you ran in XP or Vista. Some of these may be programs that you purchased from online vendors which have a setup program which requires an installation key. In some cases the user may have retained both the installation program and the installation-key. Guess what: You’ve lost the key.
Vista to 7 When moving up from Windows Vista to Windows 7; you can do an in-place upgrade and take all your programs from Vista to 7, and they’ll work “perfectly” without any problem – At least that’s the idea. In reality, though, any errors/corruption or whatever that appeared on your previous Vista installation will most likely appear on your Windows 7 installation if you use this method; and any problems you encountered running things in Vista may recur in 7, or worse. I’m an advocate of reformat/reinstall: I don’t advise an in-place upgrade for the reasons mentioned above. XP Dead-End With Windows XP as your previous operating system, you’ll have to go the reformat/reinstall route anyway: There is no way of doing an in-place upgrade anyway in such a case. Drive-Transplant You might think that it would be an idea to take the old machine’s hard-drive and install it in your new machine. The added drive will appear as a second hard-drive, and you’ll be able to access all the data on it. As for the programs on it, though; that’s a different matter: – If a program was installed using a setup program initially; then there’s a 999/1000 chance that it’ll require the setup program again to make it of any use to the new machine… And, of course, you’ve lost the key, even if you still have the setup program. A lot of programs, rely on configuration and registry settings that are made within the operating system by the installer-program. Without having run setup, those settings are not in place, and the programs will not run. There are a few, smaller, programs that don’t require a setup at all, but usually anything in the way of programs that are either large or purchased will require their specific setup programs to be run before they can be used. Get Set-Up The first place to look would be the website where you originally purchased the program from. In some cases the vendor will no longer be providing the setup program for your particular version of the program, as it has now become “obsolete” and new versions have since been issued. In cases such as these you should probably buy the latest version anyway, as the old program you were using may contain incompatibilities with your new operating system, as well as security vulnerabilities which have been patched in later versions.
Think Ahead I personally have a way round the “lost-key” scenario: I hold on to a copy of the installation-program wherever possible, and I send all of my installation emails containing installation-keys to one of my Gmail accounts, so that any time I want to reinstall a program I find its setup-program on the relevant storage-media, and I look up the installation-key online on the relevant Gmail account: Target neutralised. Scrooge Isn’t Just For Christmas At the end of the day, then, in most cases, if you don’t have a setup program and a key, if one is necessary, you’re screwed: ‘Simple as that. – But stop being so tight-fisted: shell out a few bucks for the latest version of the program in question: It’ll be compatible with your new operating system, it’ll be secure, and it will possibly save you time and hassle by avoiding any of the problems which would have arisen had you eventually installed the old version, having got hold of a setup program and a key, by whatever means. I myself am a cheapskate, and I’ll be a freeloader as well as a paying consumer if it’s a viable proposition to do so: In many cases, however, it isn’t a viable proposition to be a freeloader and/or to try and do it all on the cheap. The above is one of those situations: One where shelling out a little, rather than avoiding doing so in any way possible, is actually going to save you time and money at the end of the day: It’s a situation where you spend money in order to save money. Lastly; if you use hacked or pirated software in its place then you’re asking for trouble, and if you end up screwing-up your operating system completely because of that then I have no sympathy for you whatsoever: You got exactly what you deserved, and hopefully that’s taught you a lesson. Summary in Midwinter In summary, then, if you’ve lost your product installation key and/or your installation program and the program doesn’t work when you try to move it between operating systems; buy new: It’s the most sensible and cost-effective way to go when all’s said and done.
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Onwards and Upwards
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I suppose I’d better write something; or people will start to think the blog’s been discontinued/abandoned if I don’t keep posting. (Yep, you guessed it; I’m a little pissed off: Perhaps I’ve been overdoing it this weekend?) There was a time when weekends were for relaxing. Relaxing, at least as far as this last weekend is concerned, is a term which I seem to be becoming more distant from as time goes by. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining in the least: I love blogging (/problogging) and all that’s related to it. It would just be nice if my efforts produced better results once in a while. – I suppose everything takes time and dedication; although technique is equally important… More on that at another time. You may or may not have noticed that I’ve added a “Send Me Your Feedback” page; which contains a form on which you can compose an email to me stating useful suggestions, positive and constructive criticisms, and the like. I’ve spent the weekend and today so far setting up lighting for future video-production, doing administrative tasks, blog enhancements, and things like that, hence I didn’t get around to writing a post until now. It feels weird, working with 3 hours sleep, courtesy of my dedication and determination driving me on into the early hours of this morning without even a glance at the clock until much later than I’d thought it was. I wanted to draw your attention to the items advertised, various banner ads, and the Xmas Discount Shopping Arcade; which was 10 days in planning and 10 days in building, testing, optimising, and finally, opening. – There are amazing discounts on my own tech-help products inside; plus a product from a much more experienced blogger than me which could very well end up providing you with the impetus and the method to put a lot more money in your purse/pockets at the end of the day. I had been hoping that crowds would rush to see what’s going down inside; but it appears, from the lacklustre trickle of visitors to the arcade so far, that my readers are afraid of going near anything with a price on it: People flock in their droves to my free-content, usually without a word of acknowledgement either in the form of a comment; but as soon as anyone gets the idea that something might cost more than zero they seem to avoid it like the plague.
Guess what? It’s the loss of those individuals solely: It’s not my problem. I only offer genuine deals of good value and quality here. If people choose to snub my efforts then they lose by not getting the great deal(s). On that note you have less than 1 day to take advantage of the MaxBlogPress 75%-discount Xmas deal which was advertised in that rather large banner in the sidebar, but you might still just catch it by clicking the link herein… (Nope; sorry, you missed it.) This blog is strewn with great offers; all of which have something to do with the internet, hardware, software, or electronics. They’re not only displayed at this time of year either. – But those who over-procrastinate lose out as always. Who needs all the hassle of trudging around town and supermarkets when you can buy products online much more easily? – Usually cheaper too. – Plus it doesn’t cost you for fuel for the car, or even for more calories if you choose to go on Shanks’ pony. There are some offers advertised on this blog that you’d never find at any supermarket anyway. So that was my little internal-pressure-relief session for today. ‘Your turn: ‘Get clicking and purchasing. – You know it makes sense. You may have heard me mention in this blog at times that I have big plans for 2010. That means that I can’t spend all of my time creating regular free-content for the vultures anyway, as I have extra work to do to make things happen. I’m not saying that this blog will change overnight, neither am I making any promises with regard to exactly what’s going to happen: Slowly, maybe sporadically, during 2010, the focus will switch away from a totally-free-base to a combination of free and paid-for content; with less emphasis on the free pillar-content: The foundations are laid, and I’m now building upwards. - Watch this space.
Humbug! |
Encrypt-Stick: Keep Your Data Safe
Did you know: -
Introducing Encrypt-Stick TM Encrypt-Stick™ is the simplest, most effective way to ensure your vital, personal files and records remain private and for your eyes only. Encrypt-Stick™ is an encryption software system which runs on any USB Flash Drive and safeguards the loss of your data, files and records. Our system ensures businesses and individuals can protect their sensitive data while maintaining their obligations to the new privacy and information laws.
512 Bit Polymorphic Encryption The Company entered into a License Agreement with PMC Ciphers, due to its high speed of encryption and its immunity against Power Analysis Attacks – i.e. hacking – on low to mid range micro process controllers. The polymorphic system is hardened against practical attacks such as brute force and represents an advance in encryption technology. In 1999 Bernd Röellgen patented a Polymorphic Encryption technology based on his ‘Polymorphic Method’ and this was immediately classified by the German government as a state secret. Later that year in an attempt to encourage e-commerce the German government declassified all of its encryption technology, allowing PMC-Ciphers Inc. to develop its disk encryption software and distribute 8 million copies worldwide. Röellgen’s patented Polymorphic Encryption technology is able to create ultra-fast, ultra-strong ciphers that are extremely adaptable with no theoretical or practical way to reconstruct keys from plaintext. His method comes with a comparable number of ‘data keys’ as with conventional symmetric encryption methods. However, it adds a significant amount of possible and equally probable algorithmic keys, thus yielding substantially higher security and speed.
Who hasn’t forgotten a password? Encrypt-stick software provides the perfect solution to managing your passwords. Simply enter your passwords into Password Manager and your accounts and passwords will be encrypted and stored on your flash drive. They’re always with you and can be accessed from any computer. You never have to guess again or go through the forgotten password process ever again.
Lost Flash Drive Recovery So you’ve lost your flash drive, and now you have no way to unlock the vaults on your computer. No need to worry! Encrypt-Stick software allows you to easily initialize a replacement Flash Drive by using our Instant Online Recovery System. Simply obtain another flash drive (with a serial number), purchase a license and go through the private-recovery process. Are you concerned about your data’s security? Click on the banner below to find out more.
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Coming Soon: Christmas Discount Shopping Arcade
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This being the ‘Season of Goodwill’ and all that fakery mumbo-jumbo; I decided that it was time that I showed some goodwill myself, and did so by making massive reductions; and I mean as massive as I can make in some cases. Not all of the products in the arcade are mine; but everything that is created by myself is heavily discounted in bulk: The more you purchase, the more you’ll save. – And you may be rather surprised… But I don’t want to tell you everything about it before it opens. I’m hoping to open it on Monday 14th – and then in only a limited capacity: You see, to be perfectly honest with you I’ve made a rather crucial timing-error again. - My inexperience is still evident. – I should have started preparing for this time of year around August/September time; but due to circumstances to some extent beyond my control I found myself ill-prepared at the beginning of December: - Learning Curve I had to prioritise either the learning-curve, from which I would gain experience now and in the future; or go into the season with only very limited vision of the marketplace as I almost attempted to do last year with only a bit more than a clue, but realised by foresight that I was not clued up enough to even be able to attempt doing so at that time and ended up not attempting the exercise. Of course, the learning curve, in tech-matters, in writing, and also in marketing, is a lifelong thing and is ongoing. However a crash-course was needed, as I found, at one point, that I was almost half-way through the year, with a little more tech-experience to add to my lifelong-experience, a writing-style that was progressing, but a marketing-strategy that was still sadly lacking in many of the necessities required to be successful. Lucky me: I found BMC It was just after that that I heard of the BlogMaster’s Club Course which was being run for its first time by internet entrepreneur David Risley. Without hesitation I enrolled; and to be honest at first it appeared to be very similar to other courses I’d previously enrolled on, despite seemingly having a bit more depth in some regards. As time went by, however, I found that the depth and quality of the tuition (USA = tutelage.) including the live personal instruction and totally constructive criticism that I requested from David; ‘The Professor’, was making things happen and I was learning things with regard to addressing certain areas which had been almost totally neglected through my lack of experience in blogging. Turbo-boost The course came to its half-way point; and suddenly everything appeared to step up a gear. Now not only had we all constructed a solid framework to begin using as a platform for the future – which appears to be the aim of all blogger-courses – but this course goes even further; more than twice as far as other courses of a similar nature: This course not only builds a solid framework, but it also builds the permanent-structure upon the framework; it puts the meat on the bones, if you like. Is this a sales-pitch? No; the doors aren’t open yet to new admissions – I hear a rumour, though, that they may be open as soon as January 2010; so I’m just laying the groundwork for what is to come: I’m on the course still, and so far I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about anything from getting a little money from their blog to make it self-financing; right through to making a fortune from it and retiring early. There is just so much material; good material, and although I’m keeping up with study, I’m finding that there’s so much to put into action from what I’m now learning that it’s just too much for me personally to accomplish all at once. Continuing in a positive vein, there are a number of other good points yet to be spoken of with regard to the course: - In your own time Firstly; there is no rush: We have six-months to do the course and have the Professor’s attention. After that we have lifetime access to the course material; and I, for one, intend to study a lot of it all over again, which could end up taking a few more months as there’s just so much information and so much to gain. The standard of teaching is excellent: David Risley’s a born-communicator and a hidden genius if the truth be known. – But it’s just not possible, in my case anyway, to have access to all that much beneficial information, and then take it all in and apply it all within six-months. Do I think the course should be longer than? No; because its not information overload: It’s quality teaching that is straight to the point, informative, in-depth, and going further and deeper into the subject than any other course that I’m aware of does. Stretching the course out any longer would just water it down and lose people’s attention. The course has been well-thought-out in advance, so that the natural progressive rhythm of the content presented holds the pupil’s attention, yet isn’t too much nor is it too little over too long a time; which would be boring: Instead it’s just right. – Spot on. As soon as I know when things are opening up to a new intake I’ll be straight on the case; so stay tuned and I’ll be sure to give you a chance to see for yourself if you’re interested. Oh yeah; as I was saying… Now; back to the shopping arcade: - I did say that it’d be opening in a limited capacity. Why? Well the last thing I want to do is to rush it: Rome wasn’t built in a day. I’m building a tiny village at the moment, rather than an empire. I want it to be good, even if that means good only in the sense of a small establishment for now; rather than a massive empire. What can you expect when you have a look inside, then? Like any shopping arcade, you can roam around at will, and choose what you want to purchase. While the deals on offer are cumulative-discount-purchases, they are sure to at least make you raise an eyelid if nothing else. Unlike many such online retail-centres; the funnel-effect doesn’t drag you deeper and deeper into enforced multiple-purchasing before you are presented with the next offer; rather you are welcome to come on in and look at what’s on offer on all levels, then make your purchase-choice or leave empty-handed and return again another time: Think of it as a trip to your local supermarket, rather than a visit from a high-pressure double-glazing salesperson. Procrastination could be a thief of savings There is just one thing, though, that you should know: The arcade is only, at present, temporary: It’s closing its doors on 5th January 2010 unless notified otherwise at the last minute, and will re-open at a later date with different discount-offers. – So if you want something on offer inside, don’t procrastinate and leave empty-handed too many times, or you’ll miss out. As I said before, it’ll be opening on this blog next week; probably Monday 14th unless a last-minute snag crops up. Be prepared for a bargain or two.
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MaxBlogPress Christmas DEAL is LIVE…
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MaxBlogPress Christmas DEAL is LIVE… MaxBlogPress have just launched their special Christmas OFFER and it’s a fantastic discount-deal! ==> |
- This is the deal on offer:
For the next 7 days ONLY MaxBlogPress give you the opportunity to grab 4 of their best selling products [worth $328.00] at 75% DISCOUNT.
This discount offer will expire at Midnight on Tuesday 15th December – and after that, this package will never be sold at this price again. – That’s their promise!
The most exciting part of all this is: If you had to buy these products individually you’d expect to pay a minimum $328.00 – but today you can grab all four products and get instant access for less than $90, one-time investment [yes, you’re saving $241!]…
Here’s what I’m talking about:
- Product #1 -
MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate [retails for $97] (This is excellent software: I have experience with it personally.)
- Product #2 –
WordPress Wizard 2.0 [retails for $97]
- Product #3 -
$365K Blog Traffic Formula [retails for $37]
- Product #4 -
Daily Traffic Blueprint [sells for $97]
If you had to buy these products individually you’d expect to pay a minimum $328.00. Today and the following week you can grab all four products and get instant access for a less than $90, one-time investment [yes, you’re saving $241!]…
==> MORE
http://www.maxblogpress.com/go.php?offer=shazoom101&pid=67
View CommentsJust a Quick Note…
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Hi readers.
This post isn’t really content as such: In fact you might look at it more like a small, out-of-sequence, Public Newsletter, if you like. The purpose of this note is threefold: -
So – Please don’t be afraid to comment on any article at any time. It’d be an idea to get a free Disqus account first; then you won’t get hassled so much for not having one. – You know it makes sense. OK; that’s just about it I think: End of mini-Public-Newsflash, or whatever you’d like to call it. Do please feel free to interact with this blog: I’m not an island; even though I’m a Brit and live on one. Tech success! – Enjoy the rest of the week. Sharron Field Owner and Creator of kkomp.com Follow me on Twitter: Find me on Friendfeed: On Facebook too:
Namaste’ |
Microsoft Security Essentials Rated Top Free Anti-Malware Solution
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UK magazine Computer Shopper have rated Microsoft’s new Security Essentials 1.0 anti-malware package as top-of-the-class with regard to free antivirus solutions. In the February 2010 edition of the magazine, which brings product news, computer help, tests and analyses new technologies, and runs competitions, Microsoft’s offering was awarded the Budget Buy award and rated with four stars; the same score as AVG 9.0. As we’ll go on to see further down, Microsoft’s product has a smaller footprint and is much more environment-friendly than AVG.
(You may wonder why it was given a budget buy award when it is free: Well free appears to me to be a decent budget!) Computer Shopper claim that their specialised anti-virus testing lab is one of the best in the world, and a member of AMTSO. (Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organisation.) They use viruses downloaded live from the internet as malware samples, rather than having a cumulative collection of virus-samples that may have mutated considerably since the sample was collected. In short; they test using XP Professional with the SP2 service-pack applied, and ensure that the anti-malware solution under test is updated with the very latest available malware definitions. The anti-malware solutions tested were both free and paid products. In the category of free products were: -
The lowest-scoring of these was Avira AntiVir Personal. In summary the magazine said that although it was easy to use, they were very disappointed at its poor web-threat-detection, as well as its unreliable automatic updates. Second from bottom, but yet in third place, came Alwil’s Avast! Home Edition, which has loads of features and provides a good all-round malware defence. – However others did a better job. AVG 9.0 was released while CS were testing, and despite having an unfair advantage in a number of ways, the product continued to hold its own among the best free security software available, coming in second-place out of the four. In first-place amongst the free-category was Microsoft’s Security Essentials 1.0. Computer Shopper’s summary verdict was that it was lightweight, easy-to-use, and accurate. They said that Security Essentials was the perfect choice if you’d rather not shell-out on a paid-for security suite. So although AVG had an herein-unspecified ‘unfair advantage’, it was nevertheless beaten back to second-place by the cream-of-the-crop from Microsoft. Why was this? Taking a look at the stated minimum hardware specifications required to run the 2 solutions might give us a clue as to at least a part of the reason: -
Unlike its resource-hungry rival, Security Essentials requires lower specs to operate, indicating that it has a much smaller footprint: It only needs a 500MHz processor, for instance, it only requires a minimum 250MB RAM, and will operate comfortably within 150MB disk-space.
Another thing CS stated about Security Essentials that gave it the edge was that it “rivalled the best of the paid-for anti-malware suites.” : It ended up with an overall-score of 18/19, having failed to protect against live-malware on just one occasion out of 19 attacks. The software didn’t interfere with or delay the running of any other software either.
Microsoft’s previous attempt at anti-malware; namely Windows Live One-Care, was rather lame; but this time round, the softies have done themselves proud. I myself have written a number of positive comments about Microsoft Security Essentials; one or two of them on this blog itself. Apparently it appears that everyone else is doing the same; which can only mean that Microsoft have yet again excelled themselves with an excellent product, worthy of the accolades bestowed upon it. |
Apology for Technical Fault
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Hi I thought it prudent just to write a quick note to apologise for the fact that this blog hasn’t been displaying the pictures within articles for around 24 hours. As you see; this problem has now been resolved: –
The issue was due to a file-permission change on this blog’s Ubuntu Linux server, which occurred for reasons unknown. The problem is now corrected and, hopefully, will not recur. I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused. Sharron Field Owner and Creator of kkomp.com Follow me on Twitter: Find me on Friendfeed: On Facebook too: |
Kkomp.com – Beyond: The Public Newsletter – 4th December 2009
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There are two main things this week: - Firstly I’m reigning back on free-content-creation; at least for the time-being: I’ve been writing and writing and writing; and the result of that is that the creation of new (pillar) content has begun taking over totally; leaving very little room for anything else. – That means that development and enhancement had, basically, gone out of the window. Whilst it’s true that this blog has had rather a lot of work done on it with regard to design-enhancement of late; I found that this plus creating all that daily-or-more new-content was wearing me out: I worked two 36-hour-days in one week just to get the design bettered, on top of content-creation. I still have the dark-rings under my eyes to prove it too. So until at least a couple of weeks into January 2010 I’ll be producing maybe considerably less free content than I have been recently doing. – Although having said that if the writing-bug takes over, as it does from time to time, there may be the odd sporadic burst of increased-output.
Shop via Kkomp.com – Beyond. The thing is that I don’t want to be producing free-content at the expense of things that could make this blog-venture a self-financing or profitable exercise: My current project, which is already delayed due to various circumstances, is my shopping-arcade, which is hopefully going to be open- at least in a limited sense – for the post-Christmas-sale-period and hopefully from then onwards. – However I may well run into further snags and not be able to open until later into 2010. – I’ll have to see how things go on that before making any promises. Whether this project is going to actually work as intended, or just look like a mini-mall in Times Square, is what I’m going to find out when I get it up and running. – However the project is underway, and more will be revealed as and when. I’m hoping that the next revelation will be its opening, but I know that if I rush it then it’ll just fail, crash, and burn – So I’m taking my time with it to bring value and a decent product which will give the customer a good experience to the table, rather than something that looks like it’s been bodged in a rush. – So maybe I’ll end up missing the deadline, but at the end of the day I’ll have something that’ll last. – Christmas 2010 is only 52 weeks away after Christmas 2009 anyway, and by that time I’ll be hoping to have become an established online affiliate-and-otherwise-retail-outlet, in addition to being a technology-information-and-reference-library. – Those are the current plans anyway. I’m quite serious about the monetisation of this blog; as a self-financing or profitable blog is a blog that it going to last the test of time, rather than going under and vanishing or not being updated due to financial-pressures brought about by x-circumstance(s).
- There will still be free-content here then, as there is now, and some more. There will also be paid-for content of a higher-quality nature, and in a different type of format to that already available, such as maybe membership-site sections providing coursework on a paid-for basis, etc.
Moving on… Moving on: The next main issue in the spotlight with regard to this blog recently is the move of the mailing-list; hereinafter known as the ‘Kkomp.com – Beyond community’ from FeedBlitz to AWeber. As you’ll no doubt have noticed; the mini-forms displayed to join the community have already been switched to AWeber ’s forms from FeedBlitz, and as a result all new entrants into the community, having confirmed their wish by clicking on the confirmation URL in the email sent by AWeber, will instantly go onto the AWeber list rather than the original FeedBlitz list.
As for those already on the original FeedBlitz list; well the FeedBlitz list is still operational and those concerned will continue to get the usual level of service that they’re used to for the time-being. When, in the near-future, I’ve ensured that the new AWeber system is configured properly and working optimally, I’ll be importing the FeedBlitz membership to AWeber, and they’ll probably receive a confirmation email from AWeber, before going onto the AWeber list, having thus clicked the confirmation URL. Following on from that the FeedBlitz list will remain open, although I’m unsure how long for, but any new people joining the community will go onto the AWeber list from the outset. IF anyone currently on the FeedBlitz list wishes to get onto the AWeber list in advance , then they are welcome to fill in the currently-displayed AWeber mini-forms now. – However they should expect glitches, etc, on the AWeber side, until I get the new list configured exactly as it should be and confirm that. – Therefore it may be an idea if people switching to AWeber in this way also remain on the FeedBlitz list for the time-being. In short; everything is a little behind-schedule, but it’s all happening.
21 Days to Christmas It’s 3 weeks that can’t go fast enough to me. I’ve been hearing about bleemin’ Christmas since the end of September. I find it sad that most of the Human Race dedicate at least 1/4 of their lives, or more in some cases, towards 1/365th of their life; which at the end of the day only brings them debt, poverty, a hangover, bellyache, and lots of other negative things which take up to a year to recover from. – How sad! So it’s a sorry-time for consumers, in reality. As far as manufacturer’s, retailers and a lot of businesses are concerned, however, the massive amount of consumer-glut brings massive bonuses: So in a way the gullibility of the consumer partially-drives the world economy to a large extent. – That can’t be bad then: It’s a balance of yin and yang: From negativity comes positivity; from inertia springs productivity, and, as always, someone’s loss is someone else’s gain.
But wasn’t there meant to be some religious significance to Christmas? From a Christian perspective, it can’t possibly, for a number of reasons which I won’t go into here, be the time of year that Jesus (Latin) (Hebrew=Yeshua.) was born. Also the 4 differing records available in the well-known Gospels are fairly dubious and contradict one another in a number of places. Even the other Gospels from the Nag Hammadi Library cannot in any way unite the separate accounts, and in many ways further contradict one another. The fact is that they were written well after the events by people with their own differing political agendas and mostly in varying states of consciousness; courtesy of wine, myrrh, and whatever other potent concoctions were available at the time. From a Pagan perspective, it’s the date of the Feast of Mithras; the Legend of Mithras as taught by the Roman all-male Cult of Mithras is in fact the source of most of the Biblical New Testament teachings, with Jesus substituted for Mithras in a lot of cases. There is no longer a Cult of Mithras, and there hasn’t been for well over 1000 years. (At least I’m unaware of there being any, although it was a very secret cult from its inception.) Christmas is also very near the Yule sabbat, marking the return of the sun and rebirth of the Mother Goddess. – But that’s the 21st December, the darkest day with the least sun, rather than Christmas Day itself. - So from whichever religious perspective you look at it, whether you see Jesus as the Son of God, a Witch, or just a political insurgent using religion to get his message across, as all political insurgents did at the time, it’s a blank, a farce, a dud: Something invented to fill a void in otherwise empty lives. To me; living as I do in England, this time of year is just darkness, cold, short days and long nights. Barren and lifeless soil and bare trees and shrubs, devoid of any foliage and in a state of growth-suspense. Next year I’ll be hoping to cash-in on the consumer-glut though, I hope, if things go according to plan. That, in itself, will hopefully pay for my heating and lighting bills; although as far as lighting economy is concerned you might like this article from a while back.
While we’re at it; let’s take a customary look back at the articles published since the last Public Newsletter, in reverse-chronological-order: -
Why not 16, 8, or even 4-bit computers, come to that?
Technology used to have many well-kept secrets: These days it appears secrets have a maximum life of a few weeks. – Meet Intel’s Core i3 Range…
After a year of suffering second-rate-service I’m finally doing what I should have done in the first place; moving my mailing-list to Aweber.
You’ve bought a PC with Windows 7 64-bit installed. – You want to dual-boot it with XP 32-bit. Is it possible? Please don’t’ install Win 7 32-bit on it though!
It’s time to make money.
If, against all my best advice, you’re still using Internet Explorer 6 as your browser; perhaps this will make you try something else:
There appears to be a rather surprising amount of confusion with regard to the 32/64-bit (conversion) issue. Hopefully this article will clear some of that up.
I advise everyone to upgrade to Widows 7, 64-bit if possible, but in this article I’ll show you, by means of third-party videos, how you can make Vista look like 7.
An XP advice article I wrote a while back on getting the aging OS to contact Windows Update in search of drivers.
See your hard-drive activity on-screen in more detail with this neat little app.
A self-made promotional video- Ok I kind of cut-up an original promo you could say – for a package that could well give you the edge in internet business
At times your computer may be slow, sluggish, or even freeze-up totally for a while: – Yet your processor-load is tiny: What’s going on?
Since there was a discount on this item between 24th and 27th November; I thought it a good idea to share this product offer with my audience.
That’s about it as far as this Public Newsletter is concerned, then. I very much envy those in the Southern Hemisphere at this time of year. Stay warm, stay well, enjoy the weekend. That’s all. |
‘Why Aren’t 32-bit New Computers Available’
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This was searched for on my blog: The temptation is just too great, and so, my 64-bit-fixation not yet retired to the back of my mind, I’ll answer it directly: - Some people think it’s a sign of idiocy to answer a question with a question. Personally I don’t. – Although I myself don’t profess to be a Christian; according to the Christian Bible, Jesus Christ himself often answered a question with a question. Look at the number of followers he has, even after 2000+ years! ( – If only Twitter were around in His day.) So in answer I’d ask the inquirer posing the question: - ‘Why aren’t new 16-bit, 8-bit, and 4-bit computers available any more?’ Do you remember the days of DOS, when 8MBs of RAM were considered a big-deal? 16-bit-processing was the standard, and DOS, which is still in a way a large part of the framework that Windows is constructed upon, was originally a 16-bit operating system. – Nobody much programs in DOS these days. I used to write the odd batch-file in Windows 98 to freak people out at college, much to my tutor’s displeasure; particularly in view of the fact that I was on an electronics course rather than a computer course – but I think that was the last time I used it.
(‘Remember Fortran and Cobol? – That’s another subject entirely. Going back even further; machine-code: It’s still at the heart of all computing, and is the original computing language… Kind of. ‘Remember that board with one of the first 1MHz processors on it, that you could only program in machine-code? (‘Around 1977/8-time if I remember correctly. – It cost about £600GBP!) – I knew someone who had one; but I still never learned to program in machine-code, to my discredit.) Did you know you can build your own 4-bit analogue-to-digital/D – A converter from just 4 quad 2-input TTL NAND-gate chips? – Those were the days; eh? Why does this person want a 32-bit new computer anyway? Do I hear “I have old peripheral hardware that won’t operate in a 64-bit environment.”? - Run 32-bit XP Pro in a virtual machine inside 64-bit Windows 7. – That’s one way round it. – See this article. ( It was quite astounding to find out that I wrote that article as long ago as 25th June: It seems like only a couple of weeks ago!) – Better still; get new hardware, whatever. It sounds like our enquirer needs something like an Atari, maybe? : That was actually a very good computer for its time. Joking and sarcastic quips aside, though; progress rules: Technology moves ever onwards. On that note I am, actually, looking forwards to the first 128-bit commercially-available operating system’s release. A few supercomputers are already using a 128-bit operating-system; so I very much doubt that it’ll stay in the ultra-geek-world only for that much longer. Please do use that little-used comments-box and state your opinion. - Oh and if you’re wondering why it’s so small, and why it asks you to log in: The reason is that I’m using the Disqus comment system – which gives comments a little more social ‘oomph’. – Join Disqus why not: It’s free, and there are many other bloggers using it as well as me. Don’t be shy; and it’s quite safe. |
Revealed: Intel’s Secrets of the Core i3
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German online retailer www.hpm-computer.de last week leaked details of Intel’s coming range of Core i3 processors. Although Intel forced the retailer to remove the offending info; it was too late: TechConnect Magazine managed to copy the information, and is still displaying it, including clock speeds and prices. The Core i3 range are supposed to be a budget range of processors: With that in mind, a price-tag of between 104 and 253 Euro seems a bit steep; bearing in mind the current unfavourable exchange-rate.
So what do you get for your money? All 5 of the i3 offerings have an on-chip-built-in graphics processor, constructed using Intel’s new 32nm fabrication technology. The 32nm transistors will require less power in order to operate due to their decreasing size; which gives the Core i3 the edge in power-efficiency. The on-chip graphics-processor will mean that it won’t be necessary to have a graphics-processor on the motherboard itself; as is the case with the Core i5 family also.
The fastest of the bunch of 5 different models of the Core i3 will be Core i3 540; clocking in at 3.06 GHz. (Why am I thinking P4? Maybe I’m paranoid, or maybe it’s that I distinctly remember that just after I purchased a first-generation P4 clocked at 2.8GHz, Intel released a 3.06GHz P4 with hyperthreading, back in 2002.) The Core i3 dual-core range will also include hyperthreading; allowing the operating system to see them as quad-core processors. Expect the price of DDR3 RAM to fall even further: These babies have a dual-channel DDR3-1333 memory controller, as well as 4 whole megabytes of L3 cache.
– It’s about time DDR3 got cheaper: I’m now seeing 4GB of DDR3 1600 MHz for less than £100GBP, while 4GBs DDR2 800MHz is up to around £70GBP, from less than £60GBP when I bought 4GBs of it for my triple-cored Windows 7 box just before they released the RC, and another 4GBs shortly afterwards, for a tiny bit less still. ( – Supply and demand. ) I once said that I didn’t think they’d get fabrication technology much smaller than 35nm: That was only about a year ago and it seems that I’m already about to be proved wrong, if I haven’t already been so proved. How much smaller can they go? According to my quick off-the-cuff calculations they’re already at the thickness of three or so atoms. What next; quarks carrying energy inside atoms? – That would bring a whole new way of looking at electricity and electronics if it is feasible! |
A Reason to get onto my Mailing List (Soon)
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I’m fairly sure that you can see a couple of opt-in forms on this page, and therefore it’s fairly obvious that you can see that you’ll get a free pdf document if you do so… But I’ve run into a snag with all this: I’m using FeedBlitz as my mailing-list provider, and I can’t understand how most of their user-interface works – or should I say I can’t see how their user-interface works at all. The number of times I’ve spent several hours going round in circles on it is a joke: The thing’s a living nightmare!
FeedBlitzkreig
“Ve have vays ov confusing ze Englander schwine!”
With a name that sounds like a high-security German WW2 POW camp for the Catering Corps; it’s certainly not easy to find my way around inside FeedBlitz’ latticework of interconnected hidden links. About a year ago I started my mailing list with FeedBlitz, because FeedBlitz are free: In short; they have to be or they’d have no customers in my honest opinion. – I can’t imagine anyone paying for total confusion. They do run some paid-services, but in all honesty I don’t know for the life of me how they make a profit. Anyway; the initial point of having a mailing list in my case was to notify people of the new content on the blog. I managed to work out how to configure the interface to do that, and left it there for the time being. However, now, for the purposes of future and pending enterprise concerning this blog I need to set up autoresponder sequences that route the reader to a specific location, on this blog or elsewhere. I also need to set up multiple autoresponders which are situation-dependant, etc, etc, and it appears that the FeedBlitz system is either incapable of doing so or has buried or hidden the necessary setup part of the user-interface within the extremely complex and totally illogical maze of irrationally-labelled links that it calls its graphical-user-interface. Actually it’s quite embarrassing that, since I can’t route anyone to a thank-you page when they click the current confirmation-link from FeedBlitz, that I have to give them the download location on the same page as the confirmation-link – and I have a feeling that a lot of people just click the download link, take the pdf, and ignore the confirmation link: That wasn’t the deal; but many people these days will do anything if they can get away with it: It’s otherwise known as an immature lack of personal responsibility and self-control, aka greed at any cost. – That’s their problem rather than mine anyway.
Why don’t I contact FeedBlitz and ask them for assistance? I shouldn’t have to: It should be perfectly straightforward and user-friendly, rather than confusing and badly-labelled. I shouldn’t have to get a series of straight A’s in rocket-science to operate their UI. Quite frankly I am tired of going round in circles and breaking into a cold-sweat just trying to get my bearings in their maze: It’s not even as if they give me a map, and the signposts might as well be written in an obscure Deutschlander dialect. Those that I can understand just lead me on a trail which eventually ends up at the point where I started… Which is why I’m moving over to Aweber at the end of this week / beginning of next week. Everyone on my list should already have received notification of this by email. The snag is that everyone on my list is going to get a confirmation email from Aweber in order to make sure that they are happy with the move and want to continue to receive email from this blog’s lists about new content, special offers, insider information, etc. I am prepared to discover that possibly half of my list don’t bother to click the confirmation link in the email sent by Aweber: That’s life. – But those who seriously like this blog and want to remain on the list will do so.
So this is public notification that I’ll be changing the mailing system over to Aweber, as well as making it a lot better too eventually in due course. FeedBlitz will probably email me and offer me a map and full instructions plus a dedicated free customer helpline for if I get stuck in future, provided that I stay with them. I shouldn’t need a map and instructions in the first place: It should be as clear as daylight what I need to do from the outset. If they do try to offer me that it’s like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. – Too late FeedBlitz: You had your chance. – Aweber here we come. Aweber is not free; but I’d rather pay $20 a month for a top-quality service that I can actually use then get a brain-ceasure through confusion for free.
Fair enough? Is it fair of me to slag-off FeedBlitz’s free service like that? – After all it is free. – But even if they paid me to use it, there’s no point in trying to use something that only wastes my time and goes nowhere. – Yes I know, if they did pay me to use it I’d be paid for doing virtually nothing; but that’s loser-mentality at the end of the day: That’s unemployment-benefit-addict-thinking: Freeloader-folly: A step in completely the wrong direction: – Welcome to Dead-End-Alley; off Subsistence Street. You’re welcome to it if you like: I have bigger and better plans. – No matter how long it takes me to implement them fully. In the coming year you’ll see bigger and better things from this blog; along with a slight change in direction; but It’ll be staying on a technical theme nevertheless. – Don’t worry; you won’t log in one day and find that the blog has become a feminist-UKIP-recruitment-centre or something similar and equally obtuse.
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