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Page 10
As stated on the preceeding page, I just got through a teaching/learning experience by giving a course on computer basics to a group of students here on Manitoulin through Cambrian College.
I have to admit that it was my first time at the front of a classroom other than years and years ago when Christian Brothers called me up to the front of the class for a demonstration of corporal punishment. It was rather refreshing not having to bend over and have a goaltenders hockey stick applied to my bottomside.
So, .......to continue on...
Is Your Ram Healthy:
The following are signs that you might have a defective ram chip:
- Blue screens during the install procedure of Windows XP. This is one of the surest signs of faulty memory.
- Random crashes or blue screens during the running of XP. Note that heat can also be a culprit in the case of general flakiness like this, so you should test for that possibility too.
- Crashes during memory intensive operations. 3D games, benchmarks, compiling, Photoshop, etc.
- Distorted graphics on screen. This can also be related to the video card.
- Failure to boot accompanied by repeated long beeps - the accepted BIOS beep code for a memory problem.
You can check your ram at
PC Pitstop
This on-line diagnostic will test your PC's processor, video, memory, hard drives, and speed. Don’t be surprised if your hard drive clicks and your monitor flashes while the tests run. The complete series of tests takes two to four minutes.
You can identify your ram by downloading
CPU-Z.
From there you have two options:
- Take your 'puter to a tech shop, tell them what you have and what you want, or
- Go to
this tutorial , order the part(s) and install yourself crossing your fingers.
If you are technically-challenged like me, you'll go see
my buddy Claude.
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Tour of WinXP:
You may have missed this when you first got Windows XP. I know that I bypassed it having been a Win98 user graduating to XP and felt it unnecessary. Microsoft has a built-in "animated tour" that you can watch.
To do so, go to "Start Button", "Programs", "Accessories", then "Tour Windows XP". A dialog box will appear asking whether you'd like an animated or non-animated tour. Make your selection, press "Next". Pretty basic stuff, but good for newbies.
Probably considered bloat by experienced users.
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Service Pack 3:
The latest service pack for Win XP is now available from
Major Geeks. From the website it appears to be the official Microsoft service pack, but some of the folk on a discussion board I hang in, think it may not be the official Microsoft offering.
Dunno, I downloaded the 344 meg file and it installed flawlessly (almost). You may choose to wait until it appears on the
Microsoft web page. Use the Texas mirror as the Florida mirror produced a corrupt file.
See my previous posting on
"preparing for service Pack 3.
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Just Call Me Master:
"
I was trying to impress my boss with my vast computer knowledge and he starting lamenting about his Master Boot Record. I just looked concerned and shook my head whenever I figured it seemed appropriate.
What the hell was he going on about?"
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When starting up your computer, at the end of the ROM BIOS bootstrap routine, the BIOS will read and execute the first physical sector of the first available floppy or hard drive on the system. This sector is called the Master Boot Record (MBR), or Master Boot Block (MBB), or Partition Table.
A small program is stored at the beginning of this sector and the partition table is stored at the end of this sector. This program uses the available partition information to determine which partition is bootable (usually the first primary DOS/WIN partition) and attempts to boot from it.
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How's Your Chevy Runnin'?:
If your 2005 Chevy was acting up and you wanted to get some info, you sure as heck would start off at the General Motors website, right!
Microsoft can be used as a resource in fixing or improving your computer experience. You should spend some time browsing through their pages - you never know what you might stumble upon. You probably didn't know, but even Microsoft has some freebies for the taking.
Click on the graphic above for starters, but remember - these guys are out to make money. Often, third-party software is superior to the Redmond giant and there's plenty of freeware out there that is as good if not better.
When I'm looking for freeware, the first place I go is
Pricelessware
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Information - Coming and Going:
For those of you that have "inquisitive minds", and there are many out there, I'll now explain
how information is moved from computer to computer.
Let's say you want to chat with your long lost friend who lives on another continent. You fire up your IM application, a lot of you use Messenger to do this - there are countless other instant messaging applications out there to choose from.
So you plug in your friend's e-mail address and do a search and hopefully it is found, so you add him to your contact list and then you try to connect with him.
Underneath the cover of that computer of yours, the little men who live there are trying their hardest to use devices called ports to do your deeds. So - long story short: there are tiny little
people living inside your computer that press all the buttons to make things work.
For the long story, click on
this link for an explanation
of how ports work.
Apologies to my buddy in Southern Ontario with whom I chat for the use of his likeness in this post.
"Jimbo - last time I saw you there was a lot of hair on your head - what happened?"
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" in my dreams "
I would've had this company do a web page, but Marie wasn't too keen on it.
Go ahead and call me henpecked. You weren't the guy who had to sleep with her.
We could have wiped out the Nazis in eight weeks if only we had this guy in our IT department.
I asked him but he had the idea that I was connected to a porn site.
Tony Curtis was hot, but I would never had sung to the President if this guy was born twenty years earlier.
I bet I'd still be alive too!
Yes, it's true
I sleep very soundly and when I do I am prone to talking with dead people and sponges. Don't let that scare you away - you can depend on a well-designed website and it is guaranteed not to be spooky.
I'm just a cartoon character from
Day by Day but I know a whiner winner when I see one. Visit us on our web page.
And Please...
If it's past your bedtime and you can't sleep, please think of your good friends around the world who just may or may not be in bed.
Being Indispensable
Sometime, when you are feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego's in full bloom,
Sometime, when you take it for granted,
You're the only qualified one in the room...
Sometime, when you feel that your going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these few simple instructions
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up tio your wrist,
Pull it out, and the hole that is remaining,
Is the measure of how you'll be missed!
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore ~
But stop and you'll find in a minute,
That it looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint observation,
Is to do the very best that you can,
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is only one indispensable man.
This above Is Dedicatated To The Memory Of Correctional Sergeant Hal Burchfield
12/16/47 - 6/8/85
Killed In The Line Of Duty
San Quentin State Prison, California Department of Corrections
Dang,
Looks like I gotta find some content to fill this thing up more...
'You know Bert, that POKO
sure is opinionated !'
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