YesBut how can I speed up my computer?

One of my pastimes is to visit message boards especially those devoted to technical forums. I admit at the onset, I’m very much a dummy rather than a geek. But I like reading about Firebox extensions and Plugins, don’t understand a word of what I’m reading, but I admire people’s ingenuity and technical skills.

One of the main questions asked on message boards is “how can I speed up my computer?”

I have had YesBut’s computer boffins to address the problem, with the additional requirement it must be easily applied even by the most inept and computer illiterate person (i.e. me).

Edward de Bono, the pioneer of “lateral thinking” tackled a similar problem some years ago. The problem he had to address was:

For the fifteen minutes before the start of the workday at a large office block, and again at the end of the working day, large queues formed for the lifts (elevators). There was no room to install additional lifts, nor any method of speeding up the existing lifts. How could the congestion be relieved?

Phasing the starting times was one option, but it would have unacceptable disruptive effects on interdepartmental activities. The solution was simple and inexpensive. Mirrors were installed in all the lift lobbies. People were so busy looking at themselves in the mirror; they no longer noticed the time taken waiting for a lift.

So back to the speeding up a computer problem.

It takes about a minute from the time I switch on the computer to the time the Windows XP bing bong sounds and I can click to open my account. It then takes another three minutes to (I think the jargon is) boot-up, and I can surf the internet. So applying the mirror solution. I start up the computer, go into the kitchen fill the electric kettle and switch it on. Go back to the computer, click to open my account. Return to the kitchen and make my breakfast. Return to the computer which by then is up and running and ready to go.

That solution is OK at the start of the day, but what about during the day? There you are up and running wanting to post your blog, and your computer has sneaked off to its private dreamland. No problem, have a book of Sudoku puzzles at hand. Direct your attention to finding the missing numbers and forget about the computer. Or get yourself one of those executive desk toys - click your Newton’s Balls. Simple

Another thing you can do is click here see today’s YesBut’s Images, then when your computer has its little siesta, think about a caption.

YesBut which one?

How do you choose which computer or camera to purchase?
The idea for this blog came to me earlier in the week, when I saw litter bins full of discarded self-destructing folding umbrellas. You know the type, made in China, one gust of wind and they turn inside out with the spokes buckled.

The choice is between buying a cheap umbrella for a £1 or a good quality folding umbrella for £30. Which one would you buy and why?
In the winter a cheap umbrella might last a month. So for a six month winter period you’ll have to buy six umbrellas. That means you could buy 5 years worth of cheap umbrellas for the cost of one good one. However that has to be offset by the annoyance of an umbrella junking itself in the middle of a rain storm. So it’s a question of balance between cost and satisfaction of usage.

The choice of umbrellas is simple and a low cost investment. But how do you choose a computer, or some other piece of technical kit?

I took for ages, (and I really mean ages and ages, measured in years rather than months) to decide which computer to buy. It was like trying to run up a down coming escallator. New computers with improved specifications were being released weekly. My eyes glazed over and my mind went into comatose state on reading:

Intel Celeron-M 370 1.5G Hz chip

1 GB DDR2 RAM, 60 GB hard drive

Multiformat DL DVD +-R/+- RW

What in the name of sanity did it all mean?

Pointless asking the “expert” in the shop or even a friend for advice. There explanations just flew straight over my head.

I finally did take the plunge and bought a computer. Based on that experience I discovered the Golden Rule of Buying:

If you can afford it buy the cheapest.

That’s it - If you can afford it buy the cheapest.

But you might say, the rule should be “buy the best you can afford”. Yes but what is the best?

Let me explain:

If you are buying your first computer or digital camera, friends and acquaintances can recommend the one they use. They can eulogise on speed, compatibility, functionality etc. But these are merely words. You will not know what piece of technical kit suits you until you try it for yourself.

What is the difference between a “Dummy” and an “Expert” - knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge costs time and money.

Hence the golden rule, buy the cheapest, use it become frustrated or satisfied by its functionality. Get to know, through experience what you consider to be essential, optional and unnecessary. Become aggravated or be contented on how long it takes to boot up, or how long it takes to do things. Learn about its limitations and importantly the reasons for those limitations.

For £250 ~ US$500 you can buy a very basic PC, £350 ~ $700 for a laptop. Even if within months you become dissatisfied with it, it will never be wasted money. You can always sell it, or keep it to back up (store) your files.

PC or laptop? If you are only going to use a computer in one location in your home, go for a PC. If you want mobility of use both in your home and at other locations then it has to be a laptop.

What about buying a digital camera? That will be the subject of tomorrows blog.

But in the mean time you can help me. Click here and suggest a caption for YesBut’s Image of the day.

Tag that

To aid falling asleep some people count sheep. For many years I’ve used the practice of:

“Fall asleep thinking of a question,
wake up knowing the answer”

It works. I lie in bed thinking “what will be the topic of tomorrows blog?”, and invariably I wake at 4 o’clock not only knowing the subject but quite often with a draft of the blog in my head. This morning the idea rattling around in my brain was “write about the subject most blogged about”. The next step was obvious - identify the top blogged about subject.

Problem - not as easy as I thought it would be. Entered “most blogged about subject” into Google and got no definitive answer. Under such circumstances there is only one solution - drink a cup of Chai and ruminate.

Lateral thinking - if there is no direct answer, look for clues. Obviously, blog tags would give an indication of the subject. Looked up Technorati’s Top Tags list, the top twelve tags were: baby, blogroll, bush, computer, gaming, me, mobile, money, opinion, tags, tecnologia and usa. So the challenge is now to write a sagacious blog incorporating those twelve tags.

I know bogroll is toilet paper, but I had no idea of the meaning of “blogroll” until I Googled it. Years ago people would look in a dictionary to find the meaning of a word, but in the “computer” orientated world information and language is evolving so quickly Google seems to have become the fountain of all knowledge, the place you turn to first for information. So blogroll is a list on a blog of other blogs. As you can see I haven’t got one!! Perhaps you can help me out; if you think your blog should be the first on my bloglist let me know.

“Tecnologia” yet another word I have never heard of! Entered it into Google and got referred to “Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre“. There was only one thing I could do - Babel Fish it. French - English no, Italian - English no, Spanish - English no, Portuguese - English = technology. Now that I find very interesting. Not that tecnologia is technology in Portuguese, but rather a Portuguese word is 11th in the Top Tag list. I would guess the majority of blogs are written in English - next French, Chinese, Spanish? Anyone out there know how many blogs are written in each language? What ever answer you give will be wrong! With the number of blogs doubling every five months, your answer will be out-of-date before you finish typing it.

Technorati indicates there are 15,248,367 blogs about blogs and 20,300 blog posts containing the word tecnologia. I’ve just checked its gone up to 20,304.

Just a thought, do more people use their computer for blogging than “gaming”? I guess it’s the latter with children ensconced in their bedrooms. When young kids ask where they come from, they are often told they were found under a “bush”, for the parents sake I hope it was a “money” tree. When a mother gets a “baby” she can now expect to have to buy as soon as the child is out of nappies, a computer, game counsel and the ubiquitous “mobile”.

The list did say “bush” not Bush. But on rechecking some of the blogs with bush “tags” it should have been Bush. George W that is President of the “USA”. I really would appreciate it if someone could tell “me” how a country like the USA could elect such shulunk as its leader. That’s just my “opinion”, obviously the majority of Americans thought he was the best thing since sliced bread.

I made reference earlier to how things are changing so quickly, this is particularly true of the London skyline. As I look out of my window I can see 29 tower cranes, they are busy demolishing buildings built in the 1960s and replacing them with click here to see an example.

YesBut are you aware?

I am away from home for a few days, so I've had to resort to using a borrowed computer. Strange browser - no tabs to open a new window, no nice drop-down menu with all my bookmarked web addresses, and worst having to remember my log-on names and passwords.

When you are confronted by the unusual you realise how, in a routine day, your actions are performed on autopilot without thinking. We can go through the day without being mindful of our actions.

Novices when commencing Zen meditation training are often asked “which shoe do you put on first?”. At first sight there is no obvious relationship between meditation and whether you put your left or right shoe on first. But it’s a measure of how mindful they are.

Which shoe do you put on first?

Trevor Leggett, head of the BBC Japanese Service for 24 years from 1946, Zen scholar and Judo expert recommended as training in mindfulness: right handed men when shaving should hold the razor in their left hand.

I once heard a Tibetan Rinpoche describe London as a mindful capital. When getting on and off an underground train an announcer says “mind the gap”. The gap, neither the train nor the platform.

Mindfulness the continuous awareness of the moment between two points in time, just before a dog lands on your head.

Danger nothing to do!

Do you suffer from itchy fingers? Sitting by your computer, are you tempted to fiddle, delete a program or download a new program? Next thing you know you either have a blank screen or the computer is taken over by an alien entity - flashing warning DO NOT SWITCH OFF THE COMPUTER OR EVEN MOVE WHILE THIS PROGRAM IS DOWNLOADING. Panic what have I done? How can I turn the clock back, so nothing has happened? Been there got the psychological scars. Now have seared into my brain cells:

Start > All programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.

But all the bad experience hasn’t stopped me from roaming the byways of cyber space, looking for free downloads. I suppose its “free” that grabs me. What ever tempted me to download a program which will translate my blog into Garza, a language that died in 1828? I have downloaded so many anti-spyware programs that my computer looks like the cupboard you keep your junk in - you open the door and the contents spews out onto the floor. The computer does nothing but run spy ware programs - Alert Spywatch has detected a spyware, no sorry ignore that warning it’s just another anti-spyware program that‘s been detected.

Some of the free downloads available:

NTFS Reader
Access any NTFS volume from a machine running FAT, as easy as pie.

Fractal Forge
Yes, you've probably all seen a fractal generator before but this one is flexible and fast. It all comes flooding back...

IEradicator
Fed up with Internet Explorer? Do you wish you could kill it completely? You can

Can’t understand them, but I just love reading the descriptions.