|
Dan Daily and The "Dan Daily" Sites presents Living With Your Computer To go to the Main Tips Site; Click Here For A Printer Friendly Version of this Page; Click Here
To stop the music, click the stop button above.
Hey Gang, the Members sites are over 30 times the size as these free sites. I have much, much more then just computer tips! Membership includes the free "Danny's Gold" CD! Check it out: Click Here
System Crashes Part II Written by: Dan Daily
Hi Gang! As you recall, last week we talked about how to avoid system crashes. I went into detail about how your memory works, how the Windows swap file works, What Windows virtual memory is, and how important it is to keep your hard drive clean, and defragged. Today, I'd like to send you a link for a little program that will help you out in the event of a memory freeze. Even though I know you all are religiously following the frame work from last week. This program is added insurance. .
What it does: As you now all know, you have many programs running at the same time. Each program reserves a block of ram, whether it's actually active or not the block of ram is reserved, period. Generally what happens; you're just working away, having a good time, and then you do something. Normally that something will be in the flavor of trying to open a web site that is graphic intensive, such as a Java site. Boom, the site loads about half way, and you computer is all done. As I mentioned last week, your frantic button pushing, only adds to the problem by initiating several more commands. Poor crippled Windows can't even do what you wanted in the first place, let alone, a new list of things. The problem is simple: Windows is trying to write ram to it's swap file, and free up board ram. Generally though, once you have the freeze, it's all over: But there is something you probably don't know: Your Window's commands themselves are generally OK, and will still work. The only problem is, if you try to run a big program, you're REALLY screwed. With that said, "Ram Booster" is a program that once initiated, will compress all the ram, squeezing shut the blocks that are inactive. It, more or less, punches a hole into the Ram registers forcing Windows to send unused Ram to the swap file. The best way to describe it is; it acts like a defrag for your system ram. I don't run "Ram Booster" all the time. I have it on my task bar, it's just Click the start button, and click the Ram Booster Icon. It will force your ram to clear, and it works great. Just last week, a Java site made me lock up. I'm not really surprised as I had AOL, Front Page 2000, Popup Stopper, Zone Alarm, Ad Subtract, Clip Trakker, Photoshop, and Internet Explorer all running! And of course, like you, I hit about 10 more buttons before I got hold of myself. (What the hell, I'll admit it, we ALL do it, it's the human thing to do besides swearing at Bill Gates.) I clicked Start, Ram Booster, and optimize, and wow! All my commands all of a sudden came to life. Of course the Java site was gone, because I "X" ed it out as one of the first panic moves. LOL But, Ram Booster can be configured to run all the time, and at a predetermined time, to optimize automatically when ram is low. After such a close call, I recommend saving your work, and rebooting your computer. If you don't do that, one thing will be immediately evident. Everything will run very slowly at first. That's not because of Windows, but because of Ram Booster. Your computer will slowly recover, but now it has to reload, (so to speak) everything that was in it's ram before Ram Booster was started. In essence, it's making Windows decide what should be active and what shouldn't. The smaller your memory core, the more thinking Windows has to do. Remember, Ram Booster just squeezed it shut. It really works that well. The best part is; Ram Booster is totally free. It is no longer published, so I put the setup files on my server for you. So, if you'd like to give it a try, just I think you'll really like it. I couldn't live without it. If you have very large amounts of Ram, Ram Booster may hang. If it does, just cntrl/alt/del and close it. What it opened will stay opened. If you run it again, you'll see what I mean. I hope this helps you on your road. Your Road? Yes, Your Road To Computer Sanity Danny
Since this is my first time talking to you directly, in the "Danny's Daily's" tradition, I thought I'd explain some computer terms in 'Real World' English for you: . Hacking Through the Jargon Jungle There was a time in my life when I didn't know what terms like "data input" and "beta version" meant. What secrets were in the computer industry? I had to know. Now that I've had computers for 20+ yrs, and am a beta tester myself, I can share my knowledge with you; the people who "really want to know." Alpha. Software undergoes alpha testing as a first step in getting user feedback. Alpha is Latin for "doesn't work." Beta. Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is Latin for "still doesn't work." Computer. Instrument of torture. The first computer was invented by Roger "Duffy" Billingsly, a British scientist. In a plot to overthrow Adolph Hitler, Duffy disguised himself as a German ally and offered his invention as a gift to the surly dictator. The plot worked. On April 8, 1945, Adolph became so enraged at the "Incompatible File Format" error message that he shot himself. The war ended soon after Hitler's death, and Duffy began working for IBM. (really) LOL CPU. Central propulsion unit. The CPU is the computer's engine. It consists of a hard drive, an interface card and a tiny spinning wheel that's powered by a running rodent -- a gerbil if the machine is a 386, a ferret if it's a 486 and a ferret on speed if it's a pentium. Default Directory. Black hole. Default directory is where all files that you need disappear to. Error message. Terse, baffling remark used by programmers to place blame on users for the program's shortcomings. File. A document that has been saved with an unidentifiable name. It helps to think of a file as something stored in a file cabinet -- except when you try to remove the file, the cabinet gives you an electric shock and tells you the file format is unknown. Hardware. Collective term for any computer-related object that can be, or should be, kicked, battered, shot, or thrown out of the nearest window. Help. The feature that assists in generating more questions. When the help feature is used correctly, users are able to navigate through a series of Help screens and end up where they started from without learning a damned thing. Input/Output. Information is the input from the keyboard as intelligible data and output to the printer as unrecognizable junk. Memory. Of computer components, the most generous in terms of variety, and the skimpiest in terms of quantity. Printer. A joke in poor taste. A printer consists of three main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light. Programmers. Computer avengers. Once members of that group of high school nerds who wore tape on their glasses, played Dungeons and Dragons, and memorized Star Trek episodes; now millionaires who create "user-friendly" software to get even with the rest of us. User-friendly. Of or pertaining to any feature, device or concept that makes perfect sense to a programmer, but not another soul in the world as we know it. Users. Collective term for those who stare vacantly at a monitor. Users are divided into three types: Novice, Intermediate and Expert. Novice Users: People who are afraid that simply pressing a key might break their computer. Intermediate Users: People who don't know how to fix their computer after they've just pressed a key that broke it. Expert Users: People who break other people's computers. . Now, aren't you glad you have me to explain these things?
|
