Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

If you can afford 5 to 10 grand for an electronic coffee table, take a look a Microsoft Surface. It isn’t being touted on Microsoft’s sight yet, but this Yahoo! News Article (Yahoo link gone) has some info on it.

A coffee table with a touch screen top that responds to more than one touch at a time. Now I could go on and on about how Americans care about nothing but recreation and fun, but this “Surface” actually will be used in the office eventually also.

For a while Microsoft Surface devices will be a novelty in hotels and upscale cell phone stores, but in time I can see this as a much better way of scrapbooking, organizing and enjoying photos and (gasp!) even games. In fact, it could spawn a whole new generation of table and card games. I can envision a really cool way to play chess. Add some remote consoles and how about a war strategy game?

Microsoft Surface just may end up in more places than one might think.

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One of today’s limited stock items from Buy.com that is FREE (after rebate) with FREE SHIPPING is the Coolmax 2.5 USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure.

This is will fit 2.5″ hard drives, which is laptop size. I happen to have a spare laptop hard drive laying around, so…

Important point: Make sure you select 6 - 9 day shipping if you expect shipping to be free. They will check 3 - 5 day by default. Even with the free shipping, sometimes the product is at my door the next morning anyway - other times not. (Never been even close to 9 days for me.)

Quantities are limited, though, so you gotta act fast.

Coolmax 2.5 USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure

This advice was passed on to me by my wife who read it in a magazine. Flat panels should apply here as well. The old CRT screens I always said “Windex and a Kleenex”, but flat panels don’t do as well with that at all. And the cleaners at the office supply store haven’t impressed me yet.

Rule #1, never blow compressed air at a screen, particles can actually get embedded in the screen from the force of the air.

Rule #2, if possible, test on a screen you care little about (or maybe someone else’s? - just kidding!).

Rule #3, check your warranty first. I recently bought a new monitor for someone whose son had hit a hardball in the house, bounced off the fridge, then smacked the 19″ flat panel - not breaking it per se, but leaving a black spot in the image. I asked her about the warranty, from Dell, she said “no way”. After we bought the monitor, however, she double checked and sure enough, she had “completecare” which DID cover accidental damage. She resold the new monitor to a friend.

This tip they claim actually will clean ink off of a screen:

Make a solution of one part 90% isopropyl alcohol and one part distilled water. Wet a cotton swab with the solution and gently dab the stain; don’t have the solution dripping. Then wipe dry with a soft cloth.

They say DON’T use window cleaners or citrus based anything. And don’t apply cleaner directly to the screen.

I mentioned the other day a 5 year old PC with a Pentium 4 1.7 and 128 MB RAM that was slow as molasses in January. An 512MB memory module was less than $50 and gave that PC new life.

Since I’m doing so many of those right now, I went ahead and added a couple pages to my website on memory upgrades and where to get the correct (and best) product at a great price.

Reasons I’m doing all of this?

• Vista isn’t exactly taking off, for a variety of reasons. Lack of working drives being one reason.
• Since the new PC’s, especially the cheapo’s everyone seems to want, aren’t really much faster; and if you don’t fall for the Vista Aero call, why spend the money on a new PC?
• Memory upgrades are cheap. And they work. So many PC’s were put out with inadequate RAM, and they respond so well to a memory upgrade.

And if memory alone won’t do it, sometimes it benefits you greatly to reload Windows XP. Yes, it’s a pain. Yes, Please make MULTIPLE backups first. But you can end up feeling like you have a new PC.

Note: on many of these units I am finding PC2100 memory. That’s kind of hard to find, so I’m buying PC2700 memory as a perfectly compatible replacement. And since most of them are only 128MB sticks, I’m just taking them out rather than mixing speeds of RAM. Like I said, the new PC2700 is just too cheap to worry about salvaging the old PC2100. But hey, maybe you can sell it to a friend for $10.

The new pages:
Memory Upgrades
The Best Memory Vendor

Hey! Any musicians (aspiring or otherwise) out there?

The musicians in my house just got set up with an MBox 2 Pro (Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Factory Bundle) for recording their music to the PC via Pro Tools software.

If you are interested in finding out how this turns out, drop me a line or leave a comment and I’ll keep you up to date.

We are also going to use it to turn my old Music LP’s (any of you remember those?) into MP3.

Cheap computers, I hate them. This particular unit is a Gateway 500 Series Computer, circa 2002. It was cheap. Besides the price, the next indicator of quality (or lack thereof) was that it came loaded with Windows XP Home Edition instead of XP Professional.

The owner brought it to me on Friday because it was dead. She wanted to know if I could fix it or if she needed a new computer. Now, you know I’m not a salesman since I told her I would look at; chances are it’s the power supply. (Some people buy another new PC at this point; yes, you guessed it, another cheap computer.)

Turns out, Gateway saved themselves all of about a $1.50 by configuring this model with a whopping 160 watt power supply; and this is a full tower PC. I have had units like this underpowered gem fail to boot up after adding a second hard drive for the sole purpose of upgrading the hard drive and cloning the old onto the new. 160 watts is barely enough to power the unit out of the factory door, let alone add another device. So much for expandability.

This unit I salvaged by installing a used 300 watt power supply that had the right connectors. 300 watt is the smallest output power supply I have EVER put in a PC. New I think they might have gone for about $35, retail.

The problem with finding such a cheap power supply in a cheap computer like this is that it is an indicator of just how bad the manufacturer is trying to cut costs. Where else do they skimp on quality? Answer - Everywhere. Cheap, slow (5400 rpm) Maxtor hard drives, cheap floppy drives, slow (PC2100) RAM. This unit came configured with all of 128MB of RAM. Turn it on and go do something else for a while.

Cheap is as cheap does. Avoid it, I say.

The good news is that I gave her the power supply on the condition she would buy 512MB RAM for under $50 from Crucial.com, my preferred memory source. She can probably get another year or two out of this PC with a little TLC, and enjoy using it a whole lot more.

Don’t assume things, with your network or anything else. Hopefully you have seen the word “assume” diagrammed before so you know what I mean. I run a gigabit network at my place, and with a 3 month old PC that’s a Core 2 Duo, I expect performance.

But network file transfers seemed sluggish. I would have checked it out sooner, but you know, the cobbler’s kids wear no shoes.

Today, though, enough was enough. Right click the network icon on the desktop (go to network in Control Panel if it’s not on the desktop; or right click on the network icon on the Start Menu), choose properties, then double click the Local Area Network icon for a status. Instead of reading Speed 1.0 Gbps, it read 100Mbps. What? No wonder.

First, I yelled at myself for forgetting to reset the switch port from when my laptop’s older port replicator was plugged in there. For some reason it didn’t want to negotiate 100Mbps with the switch and I had to manually set it. But when I opened the web interface for the switch and checked, it was set to “Auto” like it should be.

Hmm. Let’s unplug the patch cable and try another. I said, “Let’s unplug the patch cable and try another!”. But it was stuck. All of the patch cables around it came out easily, but not this one. Finally I got a better grip and pulled harder. When it finally came loose, I could see that the prongs on the cable were no longer aligned properly.

What had happened was not all that uncommon, which is why I’m telling you this story. Sometimes with low voltage connections and a bit of humidity, green stuff (a technical term) starts to “grow” on the connectors. This has funny way of increasing the physical bond between the surfaces while simultaneously decreasing the electrical properties of the connection. Hence, a lower speed sync up between components.

The patch cable will get tossed, and the switch port cleaned with some electrical cleaner. In the meantime, I plugged the new cable into a different switch port.

All is well, and 1.0Gbps again. For a while, anyway. I’ll try to make a habit of checking periodically; I suggest you do the same.

Reason #7 to backup your computer. Ok, I made up the #7 thing, but don’t the guys on TV commercials make it up too?

When you take your laptop or desktop PC in to be repaired, make sure you have a good backup of it. Preferably an entire drive image with a product like Acronis True Image.

And this same advice goes when you or someone you have trusted your computer to might reach for a system recovery disk or boot to system recovery mode.

Your entire hard drive will be reformatted and all data and Windows customizations will be lost! Let me repeat that: you will lose everything. All data, all programs you have installed, all songs you have downloaded. Everything.

Unless you have a backup.

Now, with the system recovery, this is indisputable. It’s gone. You need to restore data and reinstall additional programs you have added when it’s all done. If you have no backup…

When you take the laptop or PC into the repair shop, or they come to you, you might fare better. But don’t bet your data on it!

Case in point: Client bought a new HP/Compaq laptop for his son. Pretty nice unit, actually. Got a good price at boogie buy. The latch broke. Couldn’t get the laptop cover open. This particular PC came with XP Home and I upgraded it to XP Pro for him, among other enhancements. Took it in for repair. Thank you very little they not only fixed the latch, but also reformatted the hard drive. What? Procedure, I am told. In their defense, that way they know the PC will work properly when it gets home; without having to clean off viruses and malware which might cause the customer to blame them.

What if your computer isn’t operating, and that’s why you need to get it repaired? (Or the latch is broken.) You can’t backup then can you?

Ah, grasshopper, that’s why you make backup a habit before you shut the machine down.

Remember this tip: whenever you shut your computer off, or even reboot it, there is a chance it will not come back up properly.

So backup first!

See here for more on computer backup.

One Laptop Per Child is a non profit organization whose goal is to give children in developing countries access to computer technology. It’s a noble goal.

These laptops, with wireless but without hard drive, are designed to be easy to use and help these under privileged people gain access to the worlds prosperity.

The laptops have a rechargeable battery but can be powered also by a car battery or a hand crank.

I think this is fantastic, with one exception. That exception is the United States. The One Laptop Per Child program specifically excludes the under privileged in the United States.

As a person who is well aware of some of the rural, maybe a bit backward, areas of this country where people applaud the opening of a Super Walmart so they have access to a $9/hr job, even though statistics show that Super Walmarts are long term detrimental to the economic well being of their county, I ask “Why?”

Why is it that what’s good for the rest of the worlds poor isn’t good for our poor? Our poor only get hand outs from the government when they can coalesce into a large enough voting block to get some politicians notice. And that usually only happens in the inner city.

If the laptop only costs $100 to make due to mass production, then our poor should have access at $100 too.

The seo popularity in past decade has given rise to many web development companies as well as dsl companies and services offering domain name registration. We now have cheap web hosting as well.

Since I’m always harping about Acronis True Image and External USB Hard Drives, I thought it only fair to tell you which enclosure I like.

VANTEC NST-360SU-BK External Enclosure

This unit from Vantec I have used extensively. It is a full size (for 3.5 inch hard drives) and does require a power cord with inline transformer. You supply the SATA drive of your choice.

Here’s why I like it:

• Any standard SATA hard drive can be used (supports 1.5 and 3.0Gbps). If you outgrow it, just clone (if necessary) and swap out the drive. I have posted a video of how to do this.
• USB 2.0 interface or eSATA (external SATA).
• eSATA adapter included in the kit. This is a cable that attaches to the motherboard with a backplane converter brackt that installs where any expansion card would fit in the case.
• Easy to assemble

If this unit is to be transported much, I recommend a more resilient drive like the Seagate Barracuda ES models. They are designed for servers, with longer life expectancy and lower failure rates.

Here’s the 500GB model
Seagate Barracuda ES 500GB 3.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

They also have 250 & 750GB sizes.