Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Vista days already numbered, windows 7 already talked about
Microsoft’s most controversial operating system ever has been Windows Vista, seemingly suffering from more bugs than a cockroach farm. Its been plagued by poor performance, incompatible software, missing hardware drivers and more issues. Microsoft are set to release its Service Pack 1 for Vista in a hope to straighten out the bugs
Whispers about the next version, currently codenamed Windows 7, have started growing a bit louder. Computer experts certainly suggest that if you are happy with your Windows XP computer, there is no reason to race out and update.
Many businesses have loaded XP instead onto new computers originally pre-loaded with Vista just to maintain their ‘standard operating environments’, most of which in the world of business are years behind what cutting edge consumers would use.
However, be warned if you buy a new computer will get a vista machine. Although some providers are still making machines with Windows XP available but these are far and few between.
Whispers about the next version, currently codenamed Windows 7, have started growing a bit louder. Computer experts certainly suggest that if you are happy with your Windows XP computer, there is no reason to race out and update.
Many businesses have loaded XP instead onto new computers originally pre-loaded with Vista just to maintain their ‘standard operating environments’, most of which in the world of business are years behind what cutting edge consumers would use.
However, be warned if you buy a new computer will get a vista machine. Although some providers are still making machines with Windows XP available but these are far and few between.
Preventative maintenance, is it important?
Taking care of your investment is important, preventative maintenance is making sure your computer lives the full length of its useful life. Dust is hazardous to your pc and over its life it will indeed attract a lot of it, the main reason why dust is hazardous as it also traps moisture and thus allows components to short out.
The other difficulty dusty causes is that it cakes around heat sinks and blocks the flow of air This means that the processor can over heat and other electronic components could burn out. As the processor heats up it slows down to cut back on the amount of heat it produces. Keeping the processor heatsink free of dust means the computer runs at its peak speed.
So what do we need to do in preventative maintenance, firstly make sure all vents are free from dust, get a can of compressed air from an electronics store and then open the case and blast the lightly any dust out of the machine being careful not to touch any of the components
Then once the case is closed up wipe it down with a moist cloth or use moist towels, to remove any dirt build up on the case. Make sure you vacuum out the area where your computer will be sitting to remove dust. That will be sucked into the freshly cleaned computer.
Just keeping the machine clean should assist in keeping the computer working for a long time as well as keeping ti running at a fast speed.
The other difficulty dusty causes is that it cakes around heat sinks and blocks the flow of air This means that the processor can over heat and other electronic components could burn out. As the processor heats up it slows down to cut back on the amount of heat it produces. Keeping the processor heatsink free of dust means the computer runs at its peak speed.
So what do we need to do in preventative maintenance, firstly make sure all vents are free from dust, get a can of compressed air from an electronics store and then open the case and blast the lightly any dust out of the machine being careful not to touch any of the components
Then once the case is closed up wipe it down with a moist cloth or use moist towels, to remove any dirt build up on the case. Make sure you vacuum out the area where your computer will be sitting to remove dust. That will be sucked into the freshly cleaned computer.
Just keeping the machine clean should assist in keeping the computer working for a long time as well as keeping ti running at a fast speed.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sega finally makes a move
We were wondering sometime why SEGA had re-copyrighted its mega drive and other consoles, well it appears previous foes are working together. Games that used to be available on the Megadrive and dreamcast systems are being release on the WII by Nintendo.
New Vista and XP service packs
Microsoft released both XP service pack 3 and Vista service Pack 1 release candidate for download. A release candidate is a software package that has been prepared for release as the final product but they are not quite sure if its ready yet for commercial release. Its another stage in the beta testing, thousands of people are downloading the packs to test. Microsoft are warning people that they should deploy the RC1 on their systems if it has mission critical data. They should wait for the full product release. However, RC1 for XP seems to repair several running speed issues. One thing I discovered with the vista service pack was that several programs that I could not run on successfully without error now work.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Security alert: 'Valentine's Day' Storm gives love a bad name
The latest storm worm is delivering Valentine’s Day themed executable names as attachments – for example ‘withlove.exe’ -- in e-mail messages straight from the heart with subjects such as “I would dream” and “Memories of you”.
Amanda Conroy (PC World Australia (online))
Amanda Conroy (PC World Australia (online))
Slap corey
Australian’s have always been good at taking the proverbial pee out of a specific event, often its how we deal with strong emotions such as grief and anger, we as Australian’s can often make light of or express dark macabre humor at such things. Websites like blogs and youtube allow us to express ourselves in written or video form and pod casting allows anyone to be journalists.
However, one thing that Australian’s are good at is parody, sarcasm and wit and often this shows in the form of full website developments. In recent weeks there has been an out pouring of anger, disapproval, disgust and just plain outrage of the actions of a 16 year old boy who set up a street party in the Melbourne suburbs. Brisbane based design group Vivo has responded to that by designing a simple website called www.slapcorey.com where Australian’s can take there frustrations out on an avatar of the boy in question. At the time of writing this article nearly half a million Australians had visited the site and slapped Corey.
However, one thing that Australian’s are good at is parody, sarcasm and wit and often this shows in the form of full website developments. In recent weeks there has been an out pouring of anger, disapproval, disgust and just plain outrage of the actions of a 16 year old boy who set up a street party in the Melbourne suburbs. Brisbane based design group Vivo has responded to that by designing a simple website called www.slapcorey.com where Australian’s can take there frustrations out on an avatar of the boy in question. At the time of writing this article nearly half a million Australians had visited the site and slapped Corey.
Microsoft developing stressful software
Since the term Human Resources was first uttered into today’s corporate world, employers have been thinking of ways they can squeeze the most out of their employees in terms of efficiency and productivity. The concerns are of course that in by doing such they tend in effect reduce efficiency and productivity cause the business gets its staff so highly strung they end up with more stressed staff.
Call centre environments are indeed one area where this seems to occur the most, employers monitor incoming call rates, length the operator is on the call and the eventual outcome and even listen into the calls. Time away from the desk is also monitored to the second.
Outbound call centers are indeed stressful environments as the agent is technically invading someone’s personal time by calling them at home and is often met with great hostility. This makes it difficult for companies recruit staff, thus call centres like these tend to move over seas into lower social economic countries where the staff are expendable.
Sure staff need to be checked up on to make sure they are not breaching company guidelines, laws or safety obligations but how much snooping is a positive thing and how much actually detracts from the business. If an employee feels trusted and supported will he or she perform better than employee always under the thumb and constantly pushed for better results?
It now appears that Microsoft is developing software that may help employers to monitor the productivity, competence and physical well-being of employees while sitting at a distance. The software is so sophisticate that it will even reveal when an employee is stressed or frustrated by reading heartbeat and facial expressions.
Given what we have been discussing in this article is it any wonder that civil liberties groups and privacy lawyers are criticising this type of software technology and strongly voicing concerns that it may lead to employees’ dismissal on the basis of a computers assessment of their physiological state.
Call centre environments are indeed one area where this seems to occur the most, employers monitor incoming call rates, length the operator is on the call and the eventual outcome and even listen into the calls. Time away from the desk is also monitored to the second.
Outbound call centers are indeed stressful environments as the agent is technically invading someone’s personal time by calling them at home and is often met with great hostility. This makes it difficult for companies recruit staff, thus call centres like these tend to move over seas into lower social economic countries where the staff are expendable.
Sure staff need to be checked up on to make sure they are not breaching company guidelines, laws or safety obligations but how much snooping is a positive thing and how much actually detracts from the business. If an employee feels trusted and supported will he or she perform better than employee always under the thumb and constantly pushed for better results?
It now appears that Microsoft is developing software that may help employers to monitor the productivity, competence and physical well-being of employees while sitting at a distance. The software is so sophisticate that it will even reveal when an employee is stressed or frustrated by reading heartbeat and facial expressions.
Given what we have been discussing in this article is it any wonder that civil liberties groups and privacy lawyers are criticising this type of software technology and strongly voicing concerns that it may lead to employees’ dismissal on the basis of a computers assessment of their physiological state.
