According to the BBC, all hard drive manufacturers have agreed to change how their devices store information effective with January of next year.  Under the old method, hard drives store data in blocks that are 512 bytes in size.  This was dune to work with floppy drives, and it stayed with the storage industry until now.  Under the new architecture, blocks will be increased to 4K in size, or nearly eight times the old size.  This is expected to make hard drives 7 – 11% more efficient than the current drives.

The problem is that Windows XP, despite its age, is still a very prevalent operating system, and it has no clue how to handle blocks of that size.  Mac OS X (Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard versions) Windows Vista, Windows 7, and versions of the Linux kernel released after September 2009 are all able to handle the new file format.

A workaround has been designed to trick the hard drive into working with Windows XP, but it could result in reduced speed performance of as much as ten percent.  So, it will work, just not at peak performance.

In short, if you feel like you may need a new hard drive, do it before the end of this year so you can get one of the old style drives.

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

New Hard Drives Coming Out In 2011 May Not Play Well With Windows XP

The past few nights my laptop fan had been running a lot more than usual, and it was also running at the faster speeds meaning that the system was getting way hotter than it should.  I took a look at the bottom side vent holes on Friday night and saw some dust build-up, but nothing horrible.  I decided I would take canned air to it on Saturday before I turned it on.

… yikes.

I was right, it was dust, but the amount of dust was staggering.  I blew on to the actual fan and dust came shooting out of the side vent holes.  I blew out the side vent, and dust came out the fan.  It took several rounds before no dust was coming out, and then I opened my laptop lid and discovered dust had shot up through the keyboard onto the screen.

Again … yikes.

So, just because a laptop fan doesn’t look bad from the outside doesn’t mean it isn’t dusty where it counts on the inside.  Always make sure the computer is off before you do this so the fan is not running at all as it will move with the compressed air hitting it and you don’t want to fight the motor.  After I did this last night, my laptop ran smoothly all night and I didn’t hear the fan kick into high even once, so it was definitely all of the dust that had built up inside of it.

Keeping your computer physically clean is monumentally important for the longevity of your system.  Don’t neglect it, and if you hear it doing something unusual, investigate it!

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

Cleaning Out Your Laptop Fan

OnlineFamily.Norton’s list of searches by children is disturbing and only goes to prove that computers should always be in a communal space where parents can monitor the computer usage.  First, the top 100 searches combines for all age groups under 18 years of age:

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. Porn
6. YouTube.com
7. Yahoo
8. MySpace
9. eBay
10. You Tube
11. Wikipedia
12. Michael Jackson
13. Taylor Swift
14. Gmail
15. Party in the USA
16. Miley Cyrus
17. Club Penguin
18. Miniclip
19. Fred
20. Games
21. Facebook login
22. Google.com
23. Hotmail
24. Lady Gaga
25. Amazon
26. Yahoo Mail
27. Justin Bieber
28. Addicting games
29. Facebook.com
30. Webkinz
31. Yahoo.com
32. Boobs
33. MSN
34. Hannah Montana
35. Dictionary
36. Walmart
37. Selena Gomez
38. Dictionary.com
39. MySpace.com
40. New Moon
41. Runescape
42. Lil Wayne
43. Google Maps
44. Down
45. Google Earth
46. Norton Safety Minder
47. Mapquest
48. Boom Boom Pow
49. Craigslist
50. Twilight
51. Megan Fox
52. Sesame Street
53. Poptropica
54. Target
55. Eminem
56. Music
57. Fireflies
58. Disney Channel
59. You Belong With Me
60. Utube
61. Weather
62. iTunes
63. Beyonce
64. Pokemon
65. Britney Spears
66. Twitter
67. Hotmail.com
68. Demi Lovato
69. Funny
70. Black Eyed Peas
71. One time
72. Cartoon Network
73. Jonas Brothers
74. Halo
75. www.youtube.com
76. Watcha Say
77. Family Guy
78. Taylor Swift You Belong With Me
79. Best Buy
80. Taylor Lautner
81. Rihanna
82. Pussy
83. Gmail.com
84. Lego
85. Gummy Bear Song
86. Thriller
87. You’re a jerk
88. Nigahiga
89. Girls
90. Free online games
91. New Moon trailer
92. Translator
93. Disney
94. Ask.com
95. Paparazzi Lady Gaga
96. Poker Face
97. Chris Brown
98. iPod Touch
99. Photbucket
100. Bing

Sex being in the fourth slot isn’t too surprising with teenagers in the mix, but lets take a look at the top 25 broken down by age group:

Porn was in the fourth position for children under the age of seven, and sex was in the same position for the 8 – 12 age group.  Both terms are in the top 25 for all age groups.  The chart for gender had “sex” as the fourth term for boys and the fifth spot for girls.

I have talked many times on many different blogs about how children should not be allowed to have computers in their bedrooms, and these search statistics just go to prove that fact.  When you have 7-year-olds and younger searching for porn, you know you have a problem.

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

What Kids Searched For In 2009

While at my office today, working away without a cloud in the sky and … the power goes out.  Not your normal power blink, but the hour long variety.  Luckily I have my two main computers on a battery back up and it gave me enough time to save all my work, close my programs and shut my computers down in the proper fashion so that there was no damage.

Considering what a vital part of our lives computers have become, at home and at work, an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) should be a part of anyone’s setup.  You don’t need a huge one as all you need is a few minutes of power to get your work saved and the computer shut down in the proper fashion.  If you’re on a laptop,  this is of course not an issue, but if you are using a desktop, this is a must.

As with any major purchase you need to research your options, check reviews and remember, one of the most important aspects, is remember the more you plug in to the device, the faster the battery will drain when you need it.  Make sure that you have at least five minutes of time, so divide the amount of time the device will provide by the number of items you will plug into it and make sure it comes out to at least that long.

Now, what are you waiting for?  Start looking for one before your next power outage!

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

Battery Backups Are An Essential Part Of Your Computer Set Up

The BBC had a report today about a new line of computers called SimplicITy that is directed squarely at the elderly.  According a recent survey, 6 million residents of the UK over the age of 65 have never used the Internet, and that are the people SimplicITy is going to try to help.

Using a simplified navigation screen that has only 6 buttons, a person can browse the Web, email, chat with friends and family and more, and there is no extraneous items on the computer that might confuse someone.  The computer also comes loaded with 17 videos hosted by UK television presenter Valerie Singleton (sample video at the bottom of the post) that will explain everything you need to know about your computer in simple terms.

Some critics have said that these new computers are patronizing to the elderly, but we say exactly the opposite.  My 89-year-old grandmother has never used the Internet, and is frightened to even try it with me sitting right next to her, but this she could understand.  I also would love it as her grandson because I wouldn’t have to worry about her accidentally deleting anything of importance, or possibly downloading all of the usual viruses.

This is exactly the type of product we had in mind when we started this site, and we think this is the type of product whose time has come.  With the baby boomers aging rapidly, there are still many of them who don’t understand computers, and this is going to be a huge segment of the population not online.  We hope it’s a huge success, and maybe they’ll think about expanding to the USA.

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

UK Firm Launches Computers Designed For The Elderly

I originally wrote about are Are Extended Warranties Worth It back in June of 2008, and at that time I said my one exception to not buying them was laptops.  Well, this held true when I purchased a new Dell Vostro 1520, and I’m glad I did it.

The new laptop is great except for some odd problem with my ethernet port.  For some reason after about 30 minutes of use it stops working, and then the only way to get it to work again is to reboot the system.  Unfortunately that doesn’t always work either, so to the Dell service line I go.

While the agent I’ve been working with has been fabulous, and has tried a million things, it just simply isn’t fixing it.  So this week they are sending out a technician to my office to replace the ethernert card for me.  Barring that working we will be reimaging the entire hard drive in the possibility it is a software issue, but hopefully the new card will fix it.

This is one of the reason I always believe in these warranties for laptops.  In my personal opinion it is just too much hardware shoved in to such a small space that it is almost destined to have problems.  Repairing laptops for the average person is next to impossible, so the technicians are always the best choice.

Sure it would have been nice to see the computer work flawlessly out of the box, but defective parts can and do happen.  The expenditure for the warranty can be a bit daunting, but when it comes to laptops, something more and more of us are coming to depend on, it’s worth it.

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

Extended Warranties For Laptops Is Always A Good Idea

I am always leery of studies released by parties with a vested interests in the results (i.e. a group of wine makers releasing a study about wine being good for you), but sometimes they still bring up good points.  While I think the basis of this Fox News story on Wi-Fi security is a little suspect, it still raises good points for Wi-Fi security any time you are away from your home.

Multiple security firms issued warnings about your information security while in places such as an airport (again, notice the warning was issued by security firms…) or a hotel, and to make sure that the network you are connected to is legitimate.  Yes, this is good advice, and is something you should pay attention to, but the reason I find this whole thing suspect is that the original study was issued by AirTight Networks, a company that specializes in wireless security measures.  They sent out experts to 27 airports around the world to test their Wi-Fi and claim to have found unsecured networks in baggage claim, ticketing areas, passangers connecting to hacker Wi-Fi hotspots and more.

The reason I find this whole thing a bit “off” is:

• Are the hackers buying tickets every day to get past security, and then setting up in waiting areas with Wi-Fi sniffers?  No one notices the people then not getting on flights?
• Are they run by employees in the secured areas of the airport?  Those people are searched each day also.
• No one notices stray, unexplained equipment in a storage room?

If all this is to be believed, I’m more worried about my physical safety if hackers can get this Wi-Fi equipment in with no one noticing.

No matter how cynical I may be, Symantec still offered five good pointers in the article:

— Pay attention to your surroundings. Just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you’re not in public. Don’t look at important documents when sitting in a waiting area for a plane or a train — wait until you’re alone and in private for that.

— Beware of “Evil Twins.” Some Wi-Fi networks look legitimate but are actually dummy networks created by criminals. Even if they contain the name of your airport, airline or hotel, they will directly link your computer to the hacker’s. If you always use the official access keys provided by the establishment, then you should be safe.

— Always assume Wi-Fi connections are being eavesdropped on. Never enter sensitive data — Social Security numbers, bank account information, etc. — when browsing the Web via a Wi-Fi network.

— Set all Bluetooth devices to “hidden,” not to “discoverable.” Better yet, if you don’t use Bluetooth, just shut off the function altogether.

— Keep your security software current and active. Mobile PCs are just as vulnerable to viruses, worms and Trojan horses as are desktops, so make sure you have the latest protection installed.

I would say don’t live your life in constant fear, but do try to use common sense and your own good judgement in what networks you connect to.

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

Be Careful When Choosing Wi-Fi While On Vacation

As I mentioned the other day in my post on the Kirksville Tornado, when I returned to my office that evening, we began having a computer problem.  My primary computer is a Dell Vostro 200 mini-tower, under 1-year-old.  When the tornados began to hit I started shutting down our systems, but when it came time to unplug them (as you should during a storm), the tornado sirens started sounding and that meant it was closer than I thought, so I left without unplugging.

When I got back to the office a few hours later and went to turn my Vostro on, I got the Dell logo screen and then… nothing.  No function keys worked, nothing changed, it would just sit locked on that screen.  Finally I bit the bullet and called Dell tech support since I was still under warranty.

The tech agent, who was actually one of the nicest I’ve ever dealt with, told me to remove the side panel of the computer tower.  After that was off, he told me to locate the main power cord connection that runs to the mother board.  I did so, and I did look it over for signs of damage, and it looked perfectly fine.

Secondly he had me remove all four of my RAM chips and then reinset them.  At this point I knew where he was going with this, and it was more than likely that my system had received a shock of static electricity.

It was the next thing we did that I would have never thought of.  If you’ve ever opened up your computer you’re sure to have noticed a round silver battery on your mother board.  This is the CMOS (Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) battery which helps your system remember things like the time and date while your system is shut down.  He had me remove that battery from the mother board and leave it out for over a minute.  We then popped it back in and tried to boot the system.

We did get the system back up and running, althought we did keep getting an error message.  The technician had me go into the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) system, and it seems while the battery was out, the system convinced itself it should have an old 3.5″ floppy disk drive.  Why it thought this we had no clue, but we reset that and the computer is working great now.

Oddly, it is actually working better than it did before the storm.  We had been having a weird problem with it not shutting down programs properly, and at times we would have to confirm each one by hand when shutting down the system.  That problem has not appeared once since we did this reset.

Now, this isn’t something I would recommend doing just for the heck of it when you have a computer problem, but it is best to know that this is a possible solution that your tech support may recommend for you to do.

Two other lessons to take away from this:

1. Yes, you should unplug your computer when possible, but the tech guy quickly added when I told him the sirens had gone off, “Sometimes your life has to come first.”  If you can unplug your system, do so, but don’t ever risk your life for it.
2. I am a big believer in remote backup services, and seeing as I use one extensively now, I can’t tell you how much panic and stress that takes out of a computer crash.  Even though my system was down, and it would be a pain if I had to set it up all over again, it was a relief knowing all my documents and files were safely stored somewhere on a remote server.  If you haven’t started backing up your systems yet, do it, you won’t regret it for a second the first time you have a computer problem.

All in all it was a good learning experience, if also a bit frightening.

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

Static Electricity And Your Computer

A good computer these days writes data at approximately 60MBs a second, but when staging a marketing event to promote Samsung’s SSds, they were able to get the write speed up to 2GBs a second, or 34 times faster than the current average. Course, it took over $25K to do this, but it is still impressive. You can see just how impressive this would be in the video below, and even more impressive since they chose to run Windows Vista!

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

24 Samsung SSDs Strung Together To Make Super Computer

In what seems like common sense, my latest monitor actually tells me on the built-in menu screen what its optimum settings are.  As somone who has been using computers since 1983, all I can say is, “Well, it’s about time!”

Over the years I have had to play with the built-in monitor settings endlessly to find the correct settings to make everything look normal on my screen.  My latest computer came with my first ever widescreen display, and it was also the first time I had ever had a 22″ viewable area.  I was totally befuddled why things weren’t measuring the pixel size I knew they should like the 125X125 to the right of this very article were showing up well over their set sizes.  Finally, out of pire frustration I opened the menu window to see if I could find anything in the settings I could play with, and I found the above image about the resolution I was set at, and what the monitor suggested.  (Sorry it’s blurry, I had to shoot it with a camera)

I was stunned.  This is the first time I have ever seen a monitor for a PC tell me this, and, sure enough, as soon as I changed it to the wildly large size of 1680X1050, everything looked proper again!

How in the world did manufacturers just finally figure out this was a good idea?  Or has this been going on for a while now, and I just never bought the correct monitor to see it?  Either way, this is a very welcome addition to a monitor, and I hope it is something we see more of in the future to ease everyone’s pain in setting up a new computer.

Article originally published by StarterTech.com

Determining Your Monitors Resolution