The Lifelong Learner
:: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are -Roosevelt ::
The Lifelong Learner
:: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are -Roosevelt ::
I’m sure that almost everybody experienced their computer running slower and slower as more programs are added. Or simply just by using the computer. So how do you keep your computer running at maximum speeds? I’m going to give you my top reasons that should keep you computer running, well, let’s just say, up to its potential. (And, yeah, I wrote this little guide myself.)
1) Add RAM (Random Access Memory): if you don’t have at least 512MB, add more! This is the single, most important thing that will improve your computer speed. Believe me, you’ll see the difference!
This is the reason: as your computer is running and you are using programs, such as memory eater Office, each program is stored in RAM. As you open new programs, more RAM is needed. If you run short of it, your computer needs to use Virtual Memory (a combination of RAM and your hard disk). So, for instance, when a program requests more RAM and does not find it, your PC will have to swap some older programs to your hard disk (slow operation) to free the RAM. That process will take away valuable PC resources and will make your computer seem slow. A simple solution for that: when your PC asks for it, give it to it, by having spare RAM.
2) De-fragment Your Disk: it should be done probably at least once a month. What happens is that when you move/remove your files the disk, space is getting fragmented (your files are stored in several, different places on hard disk). So. when you’re saving a larger file, it will take a while for your PC to find (or compose) the location (or space) for it — from several chunks, making it a slow operation. If your Hard Disk is not fragmented, it will put it in one, continues place; your PC does not need to search for empty fragments since it will get in on first request.
3) Minimize the number of programs loading on startup. I only have my Firewall and Anti-Virus start each time my computer starts. Every program that loads at startup eats valuable RAM, plus it takes time to load it, making it seem like your computer is slow.
How can you see and remove programs that load on startup? The first place to look on your Windows machine is Start/Programs/Startup. Remove all but the mentioned above from there — most likely, you do not need any other ones.
The second place, harder to find, is msconfig – Start/Run and type msconfig. On the Startup tab you will see all of the programs that load initially (yeah, the list might seem very long — they all start, slowing down your computer!) So which ones do you remove? (You should do this often, as new programs like to get there manually.) On my XP machine I only have a Firewall (Zone Alarm — free), and a Norton Anti-Virus (vptray) checked-off, and yeah, the list is also long on my machine (all, but the 2, unchecked). One little thing, each time you make a change, when you restart, it will give you a warning: Just check of “Don’t show this warning anymore” check-box and you should be fine.
4) Remove Spyware from your computer. What is Spyware? Let me just tell you that you acquire Spyware just by browsing the Internet and installing different programs. (It seems that Spyware is everywhere now, just like SPAM.) They are basically programs/tracking cookies/etc (not necessary stuff) sitting on your computer, taking valuable resources and spying on you! On a recent system scan, my anti-spyware program discovered 69 different objects identified as Spyware. And I haven’t really installed anything and haven’t visited all those sites that you might suspect to have it.
What can you do about? First, get an anti-spam program. There are two good ones that do the job and are FREE: Ad-aware and Spybot – Search And Destroy. I’ve used both, but I like Ad-aware much better. It is simple to use and works great. (The only bad — cumbersome — thing about it, is that you have to individually select all of those objects that you want removed.) I had had some problems with Spybot, but it still does the job, I think.
Second, run the program every couple of weeks, at least. Before you run it, though, make sure you update the definitions (just as in an anti-virus program). It takes around 2 minutes to scan your computer. However, you’ll be amazed how much stuff you’ll find. And removing those intrusions is fun. Plus, most of all, it speeds up your computer.
5) Format the hard disk. If you feel that the above items do not work, the best alternative — having the most visible results, although very radical move — is to format your hard disk. If you have the time, you should do it every year or so — your computer will be running at top speeds (if you also follow the four methods mentioned above).
So, I ask you: Have you seen a difference? I know my computer is running nicely. Some might say, get Linux, I’d say yeah, it might be a solution, but I’m still waiting for more adaptation and ease of use.
If you’re into politics and you did not hear last night’s speech, you should check out this article from Economist.com — I did it my way�and I�ll do it again. What did I think about the speech? I think it was not as strong as Kerry’s speech. I think Bush had some good ideas, such as Tax Simplification, some of his plans for education reforms, and couple other ideas. He also had some bad ideas: about Social Security, about outsourcing, and about couple others. I didn’t like his lack of details. Plus, as much as I like or don’t like the President (I think he’s doing a good job for now), he cannot sell his ideas. He’s just a bad speaker.
Who am I going to vote for? I don’t have a final decision yet, but it’s Kerry for now, and it will probably be Kerry. I like Kerry’s ideas about Health Care, about outsourcing, about technology investments, and about couple other things. I just have a feeling that he needs to be given a chance. Plus, Kerry knows how to talk. To make up my mind for sure, I’m waiting to see a head-to-head debate, Bush vs Kerry, and I’ll make my decision then.
That’s a dose of politics for this week. Watch out, though, for the next two months, for a very heated, negative battle. Just don’t listen to everybody and to everything because I think a lot of people are biased and don’t give you the objective information that matters.
Audible.com is a fairly cool service where you download audio books. You can then put those books on a CD or on your compatible MP3 player. It seems like they have a big selection of books. They also have a subscription service.
They have two types of subscriptions. One, for $19.95 per month, where you get any two books in that month. And second, where for $15 you get a book and a periodical (daily, weekly or monthly magazine).
I consider this a pretty good service for somebody like me, who commutes for more than 1/2 hour to work. (It takes me close to an hour each way. 
). That’s why I signed up for the first option, where I get two books per month, plus, along with that I get a pretty cool MP3 player. It’s a basic player, but it beats burning each book on a CD: the transfer is quick. One cool thing about it, though, is that whenever I stop it, it remembers the last position I was at (for each book). That’s very helpful.
Overall, I think Audible gives you a pretty good deal. Most of these books are priced more than $20, so it’s like getting one for free each month. Plus, I can finally put my driving time to better use. Uhm… maybe driving will not be that bad after all… See for yourself.
I don’t think I need to add any justification for it, except to recommend Brian Tracy’s book, Goals. I bought an audio version of it and now I’m actually doing some of the action steps from it — I see a difference already. Plus, I subscribe to his Personal Success newsletter, which I think is very good.
This is a great article comparing Microsoft to the old IBM, and how Microsoft is starting to lose its shine. It is producing buggy applications filled with security holes and it is trying to integrate everything together. Companies are starting to see that and they don’t want to be connected to only one company. They want choices. They want open standards (not necessarily open source — two different things). They want security. Does Microsoft give them that? I don’t think so. I’ve always said that competition is the best thing for innovation. Microsoft, with its monopolistic tacticts doesn’t have that. And that’s starting to hurt. Anyway, those are my views, but you should read what Espen Andersen has to say about IBM and Microsoft in the latest Ubiquity issue.
Here are two excerpts from the article:
…
It seems to me that Microsoft’s main problem is running out of new markets to enter. There are many markets available that are too small for it, at least too small for a pure product strategy. These markets require knowledge of how to solve the customers’ problems, and choosing which products to use after the problem is understood. Microsoft is product-focused rather than solution-focused, and as such will always be enslaved to their main markets, their main users, and their history.
If you don’t have an anti-virus installed on your computer, and don’t want to pay for one, you might want to try one of these, free ones.
Alwil Avast 4 Home Edition: VB100 and ICSA certified, on-access and on-demand scanning, e-mail scanning for Outlook and POP3/SMTP, automatic updates, e-mail technical support, 7.1MB.
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus System: VB100 and ICSA certified, on-access and on-demand scanning, e-mail scanning for Outlook and Outlook Express, automatic updates, 5.7MB.
H+BEDV Datentechnik AntiVir Personal Edition: ICSA certified, on-access and on-demand scanning but no e-mail scanning, automatic updates (after fairly significant configuration effort), 3.8MB.
Softwin BitDefender Free Edition Version 7: Uses same scanning engine as the VB100- and ICSA-certified Standard Edition, on-access and on-demand scanning but no e-mail scanning, automatic updates, 8.8MB.
See an article at PC World.com here.
What are the top regions in the U.S. for hiring over the next few years? According to Business 2.0 magazine, here are America’s 20 hottest job markets:
1. Raleigh-Durham, NC2. San Jose, CA3. Washington, DC4. Austin, TX5. Atlanta, GA6. West Palm Beach, FL7. San Francisco-Oakland, CA8. Middlesex-Somerset, NJ9. Seattle, WA10. Boston, MA11. Sacramento, CA12. Phoenix, AZ13. Minneapolis, MN14. Denver, CO15. New Haven-Stamford, CT16. Baltimore, MD17. San Diego, CA18. Dallas, TX19. Charlotte, NC20. Philadelphia, PA
Interesting. Middlesex-Somerset NJ is number 8, so I guess NJ will do OK. Austin, TX is number 4? I’ve never been in Texas but I’ve been hearing some good things about Austin. One of these years I will have to travel to Texas and see the Western side of U.S. Should be interesting. 
I’ve recently come across two very cool RSS readers: Pluck and Bloglines.com. Both are free, by the way. I”ll explain how I use them and which one I like better.
What is an RSS reader? RSS is the new, cool way to distribute your blog, or your website content, i.e., news. I have several news sites that I read and several blogs, so, using an RSS reader I can do it in one place, without going through different sites. It almost feels like reading email: all of the posts that you read are marked accordingly, so you don’t have to look at it again. Plus, an RSS reader can notify you when there is a new entry in any of your subscriptions. It is a very cool technology. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It basically changed (or changes) the way I read/access news and blogs. I’ll tell you about the 2 different readers that I discovered.
Pluck This is my favorite RSS reader. It is a plug-in for IE and uses IE to render pages. That’s very cool, since you can see the actual post right inside it. It is fast, too. When you install Pluck (very easy and fast), it comes pre-installed with several categories (sports, news, business, and more) so even if you don’t have any sites (read below, though ) you can still see how the technology works.
Bloglines.com I like this one as well — I actually use both. It is very easy to use. The advantage of this one is that it sits in one central location, on their server, and you can access it from any computer. That’s a big advantage, I think, because you don’t have to install it on every computer — you can access it at work without installing anything. Bloglines has a count of users that are subscribed to the blog/site that you are retrieving info from — but I think that the count is based on the users from Bloglines.com ((
How do you get new RSS subscriptions? 
As more and more sites create RSS feeds, you will see a simple XML logo, RSS logo, or other on their sites. Clicking on it, copying the address, and entering that address into the reader does the job. Simple.
To get a feed from this site (yeah, from this site), click on the XML icon in the bottom left corner (last icon) and add the address to the reader. Enjoy.
Oh, what a vacation it had been. For those two weeks I’ve been in a different world. Literally. We had a very good time. And like I said in my previous post, Greece was exotic and Poland was relaxing, family oriented.
Greece. We’ve seen two different worlds in Greece. Athens, or Acropolis in Athens, is something to see. I’ve never seen anything like it. It is an amazing statue that’s been there since the beginning of the mankind.
Then there is Athens, the city. Or I should say Athens before Olympics. Let me tell you, it looks like a great rebuilding of Athens. A lot of construction is taking place before the Olympics. Thus, Athens is a bit messy. But Plaka, the old town of Athens, is very nice.
Greek Islands. This is a totally different world than Athens. They’re beautiful, tourist friendly, and expensive. Yes, the islands are beautiful, and you’ll not be bored on them. There is so much you can do that the islands will satisfy even the most demanding. We visited two of them.
Santorini was the first one. This is probably the most amazing island. The island still has a volcano and the whole island is on the volcano contour: it seems like the island is on a mountain. It’s very nice.
Mykonos was the second one. And Mykonos has a town that has has a labyrinth architecture. Those streets are so small and plentiful that you’ll get lost. We did. And it took has like 10 minutes to find our way. It’s very cool.
We’ve seen most of the islands because we rented a scooter (12-15$/day). We had a lot of fun riding that little motorcycle (and no, I didn’t have any experience). I would definitely recommend that.
Beaches on the island are also amazing. They’re very liberal, not like in U.S. Half of the women don’t wear bras and every beach also has a nude beach on the right side. That makes the beaches interesting!
Poland was next, after 6 days of Greece. I’ve met up with my new family — from my wife’s side — and relaxed a little. We went to Zakopane, Krakow, and Tarnow. Krakow is a great city, I think it is one of the nicest cities in Europe. I always pay a visit when I’m in Poland and I always like it. A lot of tourists, too.
So there you go. Pretty much the whole vacation. I don’t want to bore more and take more space. But we had a great time. More vacations like this and I’ll be happy.
I love books and I buy a lot of them. (I would say I’m buying a book per month.) Do I spend a lot of money on them? I guess I do, but before I buy any book I do the following to make sure that the book I’m buying is a good one and that I’m getting it at a good price:
1) Read the reviews2) Find the best price available
1: Read the reviews
I use Amazon.com to find out what other readers think about the book. If the book does not have at least 4 stars, I usually don’t buy it. (Unless it was recommended by somebody that I know.) I don’t want to read books that I’m not going to like. I want to read the best books, so that’s why I buy the highest rated books and books recommended by somebody.
On Amazon.com, I also like the lists (recommendations) from other Amazon.com users. A good list tells me which books I might need on any subjects and the reasons why that user thinks so. If I find somebody with a good list, I add him/her to my Favorite People or to my Friends’ List at Amazon.com. Once I know what book I’m going to buy, I find the best price.
2: Find the best price available
I use a book search engine to find a best book deal. I have two websites that do the job for me: FetchBook.info and BookArea.com. Each of these sites looks in around 40 on-line bookstores and gives me a list, sorted by the best book price. I buy based on this list. A lot of times, used books on Amazon.com and Half.com come on top of those lists, so, if I don’t want to search, I buy a used book from those sources.
So there you go. That’s how I buy my books. Hopefully, you can save a buck or two doing it this way. I know I do. Do you have a different, better way? Let us know.
