| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| 1029usr078198 |
Posted - April 03 2010 : 09:01:07
Listen now. or Download the archive.
Question: Marvin asks, "How do I know if I need extra memory?"
Answer: Great question, Marvin. In general, more is better, and it's often an inexpensive way to boost your computer's performance. The best way to know if you need extra memory is to do two things, and then observe two things. First, you want to run malware scans and be reasonably sure you don't have any malware that's artificially slowing your system down. Second, defragment your hard drive. Once you've done those two things, observe the system's speed and your hard drive light. If your computer's slow and the hard drive is just running constantly, then your system is probably swapping a lot of information into and out of memory. It does that because you don't have enough memory to accommodate what you're doing at that time. Occasional swapping is no big deal, but every time it happens, your computer slows down briefly. What you don't want is for this to be happening constantly. Crucial.com has an article we'll have linked in the show notes about how much memory you need in a rule-of-thumb kind of way. But please be aware, that more memory won't have any effect on your Internet speed. If your Internet connection is slow, it's slow. Web-only addition: When observing system speed, don't do so using your web browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) because most of what you do using your web browser is dependent on the speed of your Internet Connection. To speed up your Internet connection, your ISP may provide speed-boosting software. Additionally, there is one optimization you can make to your Internet packet size, but the default packet size is already pretty well optimized.
Cool Site: Wolfram Mathworld: ""The Web's most extensive mathematics resource" will help you remember all the algebra, geometry, trig, statistics, calculus, and diffie-Q that you left behind years ago! And you'll probably learn a lot you never knew along the way." – so says 100bestwebsites.org. If you’re doing homeschooling or just tutoring your math student, even if that student is you, this site is a must. Wolfram is a company that makes a software package called Mathematica, which is all about doing math the way you would do it longhand. The Mathworld site has definitions and examples of all kinds of math terms. Have you ever heard of the Potato Paradox? I hadn't, but it's interesting. Also of interest is the section on optical illusions. I didn't know they had so much to do with math.
Cool Gadget: Cisco Valet Plus router: Gearlog.com has this week's gadget listed. It's the Cisco Valet Plus router. Cisco, whose consumer line of products used to be a company called Linksys, now calls their wireless routers hotspots, but this goes beyond just a name change. Router setup has typically been something that non-techies have found somewhat confusing and have often resulted in insecure setups. Different schemes have been implemented to make the process simpler and easier, but I'm not sure how much easier Cisco's Valet process can get. The Valet series of router comes with a USB flash drive. What you do is to go through the wizard to set up the router. You’re then prompted to put that flash drive into your computer and the configuration information is copied over to it. To set up another computer to use your wireless, just plug the flash drive in and follow its wizard to securely connect almost instantly. The software that comes with the router lets you set up parental controls, and lets you assign a secondary set of credentials so that friends can use your Internet connection without having access to the rest of your network. It runs about $150, but the non-plus version will save you $50.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Easter Eggs: In software, an Easter egg is a hidden message, an inside joke, credits, or a special feature found in software that takes some special control sequence to get at. You'll find them in all kinds of software, from a hidden game in Excel 95 to HP scanners that play "Ode to Joy".
Links
AntiMalware Toolkit:
http://www.daconsult.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=76
Computer memory requirements: How much memory do you need?
http://www.crucial.com/support/howmuch.aspx
How much do you need? At Tom’s Hardware:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram,1190.html
Wolfram Mathworld:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
Illusions at Mathworld:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/Illusions.html
Cisco Valet Plus on Gearlog:
http://www.gearlog.com/2010/04/cisco_valet_plus_router_no-brainer_set_up_fast_throughput.php
Cisco Valet Plus Reviewed at PCMag:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362115,00.asp
Cisco Valet Line of devices:
http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/products/valet_stcVVcatId551965VVviewcat.htm?icid=mk_enus_hpt_00001
Easter Eggs at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media) |
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