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JimDinkey's blog

PrezNotes - January 2010

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 22:34 — JimDinkey

Recently a computer was brought to me that had severe problems with its hard drive which basically necessitated reloading from the manufacturer-supplied disk image.

 
Since the user was relatively unsophisticated, it was decided that the reload would be such that the user would have minimum interaction with the operating system and that the computer would be set up to be essentially as self-main­taining as possible.

November 2009

Sun, 11/01/2009 - 00:00 — JimDinkey

It was on one of my routine bi-monthly runs that a virus file — “TrojanClicker:win32/Yabector.gen” — appeared.

About every two weeks my computers are scanned in a series of steps that attempt to assure that all is well—including viruses, structure, data integrity, and software-patch currency.
Many of these activities take hours, but I don’t care because the scan is started and I disappear out the door.

October 2009

Fri, 09/25/2009 - 21:42 — JimDinkey

“Trick or Treat” -  It’s Not Just For Halloween

Whether it’s software you bought from a big-name source or something you got for free from a no-name, you have to be alert when you install it so you don’t open yourself up to some ghoul or pirate or other attacker who wants more from you than you expected. And those ghouls, pirates, etc., are always adding to their bag of tricks to use on you. It is a sad commentary on the ethics of some companies that they use this type of “software pushing”. It is also a fact of life that most of us just press NEXT when doing installs—and the unscrupulous ones take advantage of this!

September 2009

Tue, 09/01/2009 - 17:36 — JimDinkey
Do You Want to be a Guinea Pig for Microsoft Windows 7?

Here are some things you can do to prepare for Microsoft’s release of the Windows 7 operating system before the time for choices runs out. Currently,when working with a beta version of Microsoft Windows 7, if you have a lot of time and energy to donate to the project, you can learn a lot.

My conclusions are the same as before:

  • Unless you are into pain, Windows 7 is not ready.
  • It took Microsoft three years before XP worked.
  • Microsoft now needs some more money, and they’ve trotted out a pile of software that is merely a rewrite of Vista—which had its own problems.

August 2009

Sat, 08/01/2009 - 01:00 — JimDinkey

In my July-issue review of RAID, I wrote that I was working on a 3ware 8006-2LP card <http://tinyurl.com/kk74ep>.  I’m happy to report that the card—and especially the software—is a professionally-created product that is clear in its instructions and meets its specs.

As with all RAIDs, a certain amount of knowledge is assumed. Bring your card and computer to the Clinic and you can do all the work yourself if desired, accessing support help when desired.

July 2009

Wed, 07/01/2009 - 01:00 — JimDinkey

RAID is being revisited this month because you need to know about some additional information and criteria that should be applied in selecting a RAID1 (mirroring) system.

Too many computers are showing up at the clinic having no backups at all—forcing their owners to try to recover from total-loss disasters.
 
What should be put into a computer to effectively automate the job of backing it up when the user is too inexperienced or unwilling to do it himself? I recommend a one-time installation of a RAID1 mirror, which, if one hard drive fails, can use another hard drive in the RAID system as a source for rebuilding the RAID image. Additional internal or external hard drives will also be needed as part of the RAID setup.

June 2009

Mon, 06/01/2009 - 01:00 — JimDinkey

RAID1 for those who won’t do backups…

RAID:  Redundant Array of Independent Disks 
 Aka:   Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

This month we will discuss a solution to the tearful realization that your precious financial records, wedding and baby photos are gone forever because when your hard drive decided to fail, you had no backup.

May 2009

Fri, 05/01/2009 - 01:00 — JimDinkey
Manufacturers need to be responsible for providing for the easy installation of drivers for their products.

In one of the SPAUG newsletters it was noted that DELL had provided the end user with a CD that had 105 separate and distinct drivers on it (when only 5 were needed) and also had not provided a listing of drivers needed for that particular computer either with the sales order or on a website location.

Drivers are an integral part of any computer designed to interface the operating system as set forth by the manufacturer to the various hardware parts that change from manufacturer to manufacturer. While the specific drivers often were on the purchase order, no such order was available.

Just as with much other software, drivers often are updated after the computer is purchased but most owners do not even bother to check the currency of the drivers under the philosophy that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

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