January 2009

What to do with a new computer? It is always a working mess.

Right up front, one has to decide if you want to be on the bleeding edge of technology by obtaining a 64-bit computer rather than a 32-bit computer as has been going on for years.

The pros and cons of this decision are far reaching and extremely difficult for the first-time user.

• If you are already a computer user and have a lot of legacy software (old programs) and hardware (old printers), and you are not doing video editing, then 32-bit is for you because the drivers and support for all of those old programs is in place and you will not have to be on the phone with the manufacturer trying to convince them to make 64-bit drivers for your computer. The transition will be much, much easier.
• If you are just now starting out with computing or are willing to start over with all peripherals, then 64-bit is the way to go for you. Make the transition now to software that is certified 64-bit by checking each one on a list of software you are ready to purchase. Don’t allow for surprises. Then there is the problem of dealing with the mess that many manufacturers deliver to you and expect you to maintain. Little stuff like delivering a computer image that is already so fragmented that the computer runs somewhat slowly or that has so much crapware on it that it can’t get out of its own way for all of the paid bloatware installed.
• A little further explanation: Dell now will, for $50 more, deliver a computer to you that has no crapware on it e.g. software that is delivered to you that manufacturers paid Dell to put onto the computer. It comes by the ton (or bits) and represents about $50 per computer. That is why the Dell prices are sometimes cheaper – they are prepaid by the advertisers.
• There is a program called the DeCrapifier which will allow you to identify and remove the crapware. Hint: The program, whilea imed at Dell, will work on any computer at any time and will assist you identifying and removing crapware from your computer even though your computer is ancient.

Speaking of ancient computers:

SPAUG will get to see some really ancient computers at the Computer History Museum January 7 (not the usual 2nd Wednesday of the month). There will be no regular meeting on the 2nd Wednesday in January. The Computer History Museum needs to know how many docents to bring in as for every 15 persons, a docent needs to be in attendance. So a count (including spouses and/or other guests) is needed by emailing your information to: JIMDINKEY atsign JIMDINKEY.COM by December 31 (earlier is better).

You are also cordially invited to view the Babbage Computer in the lobby of the Computer History Museum at 2 p.m. on the same day. The drawings for the Babbage calculator were made over a century ago but were turned into an actual calculator in the past few years. The drawings were accurate! The result weighs 8 tons. A great treat to see. Even includes a printer!

Voice Recognition software

Voice Recognition software is finally ready!  For years I have purposely purchased Intel chips because they have the ability to handle Voice Recognition Programs properly because only Intel chips have 46 instructions the AMD chips do not have. These instructions were requested to be integrated into the Intel chips by a Voice Recognition coalition of several software manufacturers. These 46 instructions are unique to Intel chips.

Because it is my dream to be able to dictate what I am currently typing slowly and not so well, I have been very interested in the progress of the voice recognition industry.

To that end, many Voice Recognition programs have come and gone. I try them out and train them—all to no avail. They stink. They get deleted. Good riddance.

During the time that I was working on a computer of a SPAUG member, the owner requested we check out the Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10 program that was already installed and so he was using a microphone I swiped from another usage, The owner was talking and the words were arriving on the screen a few seconds later – just as it should. The program was running flawlessly.

Then the headset was transferred to me and while I happened to be talking about some characteristics of the computer, my words started showing up on the screen!

No training, no prior knowledge, different voice with different timing and the program had no initialization by me as a new user. Impressive!

I’m installing my copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10.0 as soon as I can. It has gotta be good because Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.0 has already been tested.

Reloading an Operating System

What are the criteria for deciding that it is time to reload an operating system?

Basically, when there are so many things that it cannot do without extreme measures or continual error messages. If it is a pain to use the computer, it is time for a reload.

If it won’t boot, then there is no option. The problem is to forensically figure out what caused the computer to crash. The corrective action tends to cover up the original problems and the clues they leave.

A little test: What is the size of the directory located at c:\windows\installer? I don’t expect that there is a record of how big it was when the computer was installed, but it is a measure of how much junk is on the computer. The real reason for the test is to evaluate how much worthless overhead has been loaded onto the computer by repeated loading and unloading of programs.

This exercise brings out the fundamental assumption that if you install a program and then uninstall that program, the program will be gone. Not true in the case of Microsoft. Microsoft leaves files equivalent to the install size on the computer in the c:\windows\installer file area. Thus if you install 10 times (and remove 9 times) a large program such as Naturally Speaking, you will consume the space of 10 installations and there is no way to collapse the wasted space other than reinstalling.

So if you are an experimenter of programs and install something just to try it and subsequently uninstall the experimental program, your computer will fill up with rot that is not removable.

The only proper way to uninstall itinerant programs is to make an Acronis backup of the entire computer before you install the itinerant program and then restore the entire computer in order to wipe out all traces of the temporary install.

All computers upon which you are testing anti-virus programs need special treatment. Anti-virus and other programs are known to integrate themselves into the structure of the Microsoft operating system. Only a selected restore will do the job of removing all traces of the program. To provide me with the ability of restoring in case something goes wrong, I tend to run ERUNT (15 seconds) followed by Acronis incremental (3 minutes) as protection in case I need to remove an integrated program.

The Secunia program that checks for the up-to-date status of all of your software – not just Microsoft, is now going to be a for-fee; but the older program (RC3) will work for a while. This is a standard pattern in the industry wherein a program will appear for a year or so as free until the bugs have been worked out – and then they want money. Feel free to use it to tell you if your software is out-of-date. If it is, click on the icon beside the software that is out-of-date and the next thing you will see will be the download of the current software. No chasing around on the web to find the proper location.

Are you being blacklisted?

www.robtex.com will check about 200 blacklisting sites for your being blacklisted. If you suspect that you have been blacklisted by some site, use the URL to run a routine check. You may have forwarded, unknowingly, an email that had a virus in it and the recipient automatically blacklisted you. This is how you find out if you are blacklisted.

FAT or FAT32 vs NTFS HDDs

CONVERT X: /FS:NTFS is the command that will take a FAT or FAT32 HDD to NTFS.

Unfortunately, many of the external USB external hard disk drives are sold with FAT32 formatting. There is nothing inherently wrong with this but some files, including especially Acronis files, will cross over a FAT32 boundary without any warning. Acronis will not be able to read its own output at a later time – thereby making Acronis report the file as being corrupt.

If you have any external hard disk drives, please check it out NOW to establish the formatting and if not NTFS, please use the CONVERT command to fix the problem. Then check the status of the Acronis files by using the Acronis VERIFY option. Hint: Turn on VERIFY in the Tools of the initial screen so that you won’t get caught.

Other large files should be checked with their own verify option both before and after the CONVERT.