Improving Personal Computer System Performance

So, you’ve reached the conclusion that your laptop or desktop personal computer is not running as fast as the day you bought it. There are a number of folks out there that are trying to capitalize on this rather common complaint. I’m sure you’ll find lots of sites that offer software downloads (usually free) that can “radically improve system performance” or make equally unbelievable claims. Folks looking for ways to save money on gas are often tempted with equally outrageous claims made by those selling gadgets that fit over your carburetor or magic fluids to dump into your gas tank. Most of us recognize these products as bogus because we understand car engines or that you can’t increase your car’s stability by putting a bowling ball in the trunk.

To better understand how to make your computer as fast as it can be, it’s important to know how a computer works and what makes it run more slowly.

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Posted by William Vaughn at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I needed a smarter, larger capacity postage scale and I had been using a small Pelouze PS2R1-P. It worked ok, but did not have the capacity for anything over 2lbs. Unfortunately, my new book weighs over 3 lbs. The first “postage” scale I bought (at OfficeMax in Woodinville, WA) was a Pelouze PE10—which has a 10 lb. capacity. I got this back to the office only to discover that the PE10 was not a postage scale—it was just a scale. Once you knew the weight, you were still required to work through the rate sheets of each carrier you wanted to use.

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Posted by William Vaughn at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Perhaps this entry should be titled “Driving off the road with Microsoft Streets and Trips” ‘cause I nearly did drive off the road trying to use the 2006 version while on a number of recent trips. I would call myself a self-styled expert on automobile navigation systems. I must have purchased a half-dozen GPS automotive navigation systems since their first introduction. All along the way I’ve passed comments back to the manufacturers in an attempt to make these system work better for me and all of us. This article discusses Microsoft’s contribution to the fray.

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Posted by William Vaughn at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just saw this movie. If half of what Al Gore says is true, we as a nation, we as the human race are in for a lot of misery as spaceship Earth tries to expell or exterminate us. Even if we do elect an administration that makes some serious impact on the amount of CO2 that we are spewing forth I think it won't be long (certainly in my lifetime) before water is lapping around the feet of politicians standing on the top step of the Capital. IMHO, I think it's probably too late to do much good--too much damage has been done. Given that the CO2 levels are currently 130% of the maximum ever seen in historical data gathered from ice core-samples that go back about 420,000 years, if we had started working on this problem in Teddy Rosevelt's time, we would only put off the inevitable.

Check out.http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/New_Data/ and http://an-inconvenient-truth.com/ and http://www.climatecrisis.net/

Posted by William Vaughn at 06:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I strongly encourage all veterans to visit the announcement page issued by the Veteran’s Administration that explains how a VA data analyst lost 26.5 million veteran records to a common thief. What the article does not explain is why the data was not encrypted. Today, it's common practice to ensure that data is encrypted on any system that can be stolen (a laptop or an external or removable drive).

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Posted by William Vaughn at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(Originally Posted in the spring of 2005)
While at the Developer Connections conference I talked with Dan Appleman as I’m a fan of his book written for (and partially by) teens: “Always Use Protection: A Teen’s Guide to Safe Computing”. It’s a great resource for those of us that have neighbors, friends, family and in-laws that are trying to setup networks in their homes and ask us for support.

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Posted by William Vaughn at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(Originally posted 3/31/2005)

Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t appreciate poor customer support. Since I work with many high-tech toys and tools, I’m constantly running up against really good, really bad and really average customer service. A few weeks ago I wrote an editorial about my Buffalo WAP and how well they treat their customers. This week I wrote about the Hyatt in Orlando whose service is about as good as it gets. However, in the last month I’ve spent countless hours trying to get Motorola to give me a straight answer about my MPX220 phone and the 98500 Bluetooth car kit. One of the reasons I spent the extra money for the MPX220 is Bluetooth.

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Posted by William Vaughn at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)