Requested Tidbits

INTRO -
I have had requests from some of our readers in relation to several topics, and I am posting a new page. I know it has been awhile. As a little bit on me, I have been very busy with the up coming release of Windows 7 and would like to report that it is also known now that it operates perfect for both 32bit and 64bit systems, as before I had said I did not have enough Data to make an opinion. The ticker tape is in and it operates quite well for both systems, now we prepare ourselves for the 128bit systems of the future. I am adding a few tidbits here as by request and I hope you all enjoy. And as always you know I love to answer questions and feedback. You can do so many ways, either through e-mail, the live chat or message system link on the right, or even through my face book as several of you have added yourselves to my friends list. Thank you all for your input and questions, without which I would not have even started this massive project that grows every time I touch it.


The Miracle of Data

I had a request to explain how Data on a computer is read in the most basic of terms one day over a phone support call. Here is a request for that information as I can best explain in layman's terms. Feel free to look for more technical information on that on this link - (CLICK HERE).

My description focused on how data was stored on a computer, not so much the technical involvement of Bits and Bytes, but the physical methods used to STORE the data on a computer. It is quite miraculous the way this is done. I am about to give the simplest breakdown of how this is done, and it will hopefully open your eyes to the true wonder of what has become a modern phenomenon brought on by the hands of human creation and invention.


FIRST we start at the Hard Disc or the "Hard Drive" this is the core of all your stored information on your computer. The hard Drive is a vital organ in the operation of everything on your machine as it is storage or "Memory" for your computers programs, Data (i.e. pictures, music, video, documents and the like) and the Drivers that allow your computers "Brain" or Processor to talk to all the other Hardware on your Computer (i.e. Speakers, Monitor, DVD Drives and other Physical components).

This Data is what we are focusing on in this section. How does the computer STORE this information? This is the Miracle itself. It starts with a very simple concept of Positive and Negative electromagnetic charges. Lets try and break this down a little so it is easier to understand, we have to begin with the language itself - Binary. More on Binary is on the Click Here link just above in the first segment for those wanting to "Know more technical stuff".

So in basic we start with a small part of Data. And for arguments sake lets just break down how one single letter of the alphabet is stored on your machine. Lets say we open a word or text document and type the letter "A", one single letter, how is this stored?

Well in code the letter "A" as in all letters in the alphabet and all numbers are identified by a series of 0's and 1's. These zero's and one's represent as grouping of "on" and "off" codes that in a series equals the capital letter "A". The binary code for this is: 01000001

You can have fun and find out what the Binary is for anything using one of these cool binary translators at this link - (CLICK HERE). You can type in a phrase or a word and click "encode" and it will give you the Binary translation of it. This is the "code" your computer uses to store information. It does not store the letter "A" on your hard drive when you type it and save it, it actually saves the Binary translation which in this case is 01000001, meaning "A". So this many numbers to save a single letter? Yes. But the way it is stored, the size of these numbers are not important, because this breaks down even further. As an example, Pcspyder in Binary is written to the hard drive as: 01010000 01100011 01110011 01110000 01111001 01100100 01100101 01110010 . 8 0's and 1's, a series of "on" and "off" for every letter in the word. Programs and other data on your computer is also saved in this same method. This is where data is broken into Bits and Bytes as seen on the Tech links I have been adding as we go for those trying to put my info here together with what is on the information pages.

Now back to the magnetic part. All these 0's and 1's are then written to your Hard Drive using positive and negative magnetic charges on the Hard Disk. So a zero is saved as a magnetic stamp on your hard Drive. This explains why people always say keep your computer away from magnets and static electricity, because those two things are the NATURAL enemy of your Data on your Hard drive. If your hard Drive is hit by such an attack, its magnetic data can be altered, thus causing the magnetic charges to become corrupted with "FALSE" information.

So everything on your computer is stored in a series of 0's and 1's in form of a magnetic charge on your hard drive and that's the sum of it, in the simplest terms I can muster. So your computers NATURAL enemy is magnetic fields and static electricity.

Cookies what are they? What's the best way to clean them out?

Mmmm... My favorite cookies in the whole world would have to be Peanut butter ones. Another reader asked how to delete their cookies, and I am going to explain that here and also the ups and downs about cookies. And as our reader explained, we are not talking about the baked ones but it is fun to play with words a little. Mmmm peanut Butter~

Cookies are a way for websites to help your computer remember where you have been and allow your web browser to pull up like pages quickly and efficiently. Some cookies can be bad and some can be good and others can be absolutely necessary. In example, your online banking in a lot of cases will plug in cookies to know that it is you that is trying to access your online bank account and not some schmuck down the road. More on Cookies for the techies can be found on this link (CLICK HERE).

Is it OK to clean out your cookies? Well yes. If it removes the cookies you use to gain access to saved and secure websites, when you log in again, it will restore them as needed. So no worries about getting locked out of your online bank account but you will have to log in again all fresh and new to return your sites cookie to remember your visit.

The BEST tool I have found for cleaning out my cookies and the like is the CCleaner tool and you can get the download on the links to the right. It is free and the programmer makes his living on donations, so if you have an extra dollar here or there, don't forget them so that these awesome types of free programs can continue to be available to us.

There is also a built in system that is standard in all windows computers called "Disk Cleanup", which on Xp machines is found in Start button then All Programs, then accessories and into the System tools. For Vista (I love the ease of Vista) simply type in disk cleanup in the Start Search and it is right there in the top left. Click on it and run it and it will give you options of what you want to clean out, I suggest everything it offers, you'll regain a lot of space back and it should speed your machine up a little as well.

The bad side of cookies is that malicious programs and other parasitic organisms in our new data world like to track what you are doing and the like. one good example is covered in my other articles on Rogue ware and Toolbars of Death. Also in the links to the right.

Battery, Hibernation, Sleep Modes, Power Options and Modders -

Ok, another reader thought it would be nice for me to share my input on Hibernation, sleep modes and battery life. And here is the scoop. In my honest opinion there is two different situations to look at on this topic. Both pan out the same in my world.

A computer Laptop or Notebook and a Desktop have one major thing in common, windows run time environment. In my opinion is extremely flawed in the aspect of the Power options called the hibernate and sleep mode functions. These settings can be found in Power Options in the control panel. In the advanced options you can turn off the Hibernate and sleep mode functions which on a lot of laptops cause the machine to go to sleep and not wake up. It is a known flaw in the windows software and not very publicized to the masses. As we know, they refuse to admit their own flaws, much like any billion dollar company.

If you have a Laptop you should always turn it off if you are away from the machine for more than an hour. A laptop is not MEANT to be on for more than 4-5 hours at a time, nor are they designed to modify their operating environment. When you BUY a laptop, they are a molded machine and not made to be altered. I talk to a lot of people that try making their laptop into a gaming machine or some dual boot monster. This is not the correct approach.

Machines that are made a certain way can not be properly altered to do higher end tasks that these self made computer gurus are attempting with their "branded" machines. I call these people "Modders". A Modder is a person that is trying to bend the laws of corporate physics by making their machine do or become something it was not built to do.

A laptop of any size or shape is not a GAMING machine EVER. It also is not meant to be altered in a way for whats called Dual Booting separate operating systems. If you are into this kind of stuff spend half the money and build a machine that is half the cost and can do everything you want without having to wrestle with "Big brother" corporate machines stamped units.

Less money more power and more control. If you are a person that falls in this category, let me know via e-mail what you really want to do and I can guarantee I can build such machine at 1/3 the cost you'll find on any corporate website. Modders should never own prefab machines, you are limiting yourself for more money than its worth and no result but disappointment.

If your worried about your laptops battery life, then use your battery more often. Always keep your battery plugged in and use it on a regular basis. Your battery will live longer by using it. Letting it charge and then running it down so it can recharge again. Just like us, you live a longer and healthier life through use and exercise, the same applies to your battery. As a note, most prefab laptops allow only one battery replacement in the first year, be sure to take advantage of this as after the warranty expires, you are going to pay upward of 150 dollars for a new one when it finally retires from service.

In short, if you want advanced performance from a computer - BUILD one, special abilities from your machine? BUILD ONE. Turn off all Windows built in Hibernate and Sleep modes on the machine through your POWER OPTIONS, and if you have a laptop, turn it OFF if your not using it and run on the battery power on a regular basis for the best experience.

System Restore use and cleanup ~

You may find yourself to be one of those people that find that your machine is constantly screaming to you that "D drive is Full". This is caused by your system restore. When your computer does a system backup restore feature, it actually saves a "picture" of your system environment on your D drive or whats called the recovery partition. This is listed under, Computer or My Computer, and you should see the C:/ and D:/ drive. The D:/ drive is actually the section of your machine you do not use, and it is actually a saved copy of your recovery disks.

With this drive is full error, you will find that the D:/ drive bar is likely to be RED. This is caused from your machine doing its backups in this area of your machine. There is limited space in this section of your machine as it is not really used unless you have to RECOVER your computer to the factory setting due to system corruptions and the like.

When it is red, all you have to do is click on the D:/ drive and delete all the files in this first window except the one labeled Recovery. Leave the recovery file and delete all the rest and then the bar will turn green again and the error will go away. The next time your machine runs a system restore it will save a new file in here for the future. Whatever you do, do NOT delete the Recovery folder, as this is a complete compressed version of your entire machine for use in case of system failures. Once this is done, you can manually create a fresh restore point right away by going into system tools and selecting system restore and clicking the option create a new restore point. You can even name it to remind you what was happening when you made it. Example, I name mine "cleaned" so know if I have to restore, this is a title I will look for knowing my machine was clean and healthy on that particular date. More on system restore here (CLICK).

Browser Efficiencies ~

Well to avoid redundancy on the browser topic read the articles to the right about cleaning up your Internet explorer.

But some things to add. One is that your machine runs on Internet explorer, even if you use Mozilla or google Chrome or the like, their connection to the Internet does so through the health and settings of your Internet explorer. In fact your desktop (the area that you first see when your machine turns on with your icons on it) is in fact an Internet explorer page without an address bar and search box on it. YOU CAN NOT REMOVE YOUR INTERNET EXPLORER - you will kill your machine. It is running on Internet explorer the moment the machine turns on.

The best way to surf the Internet is to have multiple tabs open in one browser and not having multiple windows open. And from my reports, I have found a lot of people having issues with the new Internet explorer 8. You can actually uninstall it from your machine if needed by clicking this link (click here). (click the Fix It link and then restart the computer).

Things that will kill your Internet explorer are websites that use add-on games and other things that ask - "add this" to your explorer. As an example, My Space, Face book and the like absolutely have broken my Internet explorer because of their "Add-ons" so for these types of websites I only open them using Mozilla which has no problem handling these "Add-ons".

Download Mozilla here - (click here).

A browser is simply a WINDOW into the Internet. Web based e-mail and the like are only locations IN the Internet, it does not matter what browser I use, I can access my g-mail from any of them on any computer on the planet. A browser is simply a way to "see" it. I don't have to use Internet explorer to view and interact with the Internet, but without it, my other browsers will not connect to the Internet at all, as they "USE" my explorer settings to connect to the Internet.

What I do is use my Internet explorer to connect to safe and secure websites, like my bank and Cnn and the like. I run a second browser (Mozilla) to surf the web and run my websites that run a bunch of JUNK, to prevent breaking my explorer.

Another neat feature is that I can run one yahoo email loggin and account on my Internet explorer, and another user and account name in the Mozilla, so I can see and respond to two emails at the same time and be logged into yahoo on two separate accounts at the same time using two different browsers. A very nice trick.

ROGUE WARE UPDATE:
Be on the lookout for the latest release by our Russian thieves in the Rogue ware industry, and it is going by the title of Antivirus 360, to trick our unsuspecting Norton Antivirus 360 users into clicking on them and becoming victoms of their latest release. Find out more of how to deal with rogueware by using the link on the right titled "Rogueware" and "Ccleaner Setup and operation".