Tadej's computing homepage

Again just a relatively short notice (that is beside the "standard" changes; see the previous "events-entry" on this same page to see what I have in mind by that) about the new content that I've added to pages "articles1.html" and "myths.html", particularly, this newly added text is about the two programs from PGWARE: http://www.pgware.com website about which I posted a "blog-entry" on my slovenian blog that I've entitled Prevarantski programi na PGWARE strani: http://tadej.sopca.com/2009/04/19/prevarantski-programi-na-pgware-strani.

Firstly, I added this text below about PCBoost application to "PROCESSES AND THEIR BASE-PRIORITIES" section (in one sentence: process priorities are relative, not absolute and so a higher process priority doesn't make a particular abbr class="text" title="application program">program run faster) on "articles1.html" page. I was actually using this one for a short period of time before learning more about CPU priorities concept and realizing that it's a "snake oil" application

An example of a so-called "snake oil" program that explains the princip of priorities totally wrong is the PCBoost: http://www.pgware.com/products/pcboost program from "PGWARE" website. Here's what they say: "PCBoost 3 increases computer performance by allocating higher portions of CPU power to active applications and games. PCBoost is a revolutionary product which enhances processor intensive software to run at even faster speeds." which is absolutely not true.

And secondly I wrote this text below about a program called SuperRam under "THE MEMORY-FREEING PROGRAMS MYTH" article/myth (again in one sentence: free RAM is wasted RAM, meaning that you want your RAM to be as fully used as possible, not to mention that any currently not allocated RAM is used as file cache anyway, so it's actually even not unused) on "myths.html" page. By the way, the "THE CACHING OF THE PAGEFILE MYTH" article/myth also deals a bit with this question.

One example of an application that explains the principle of how OS manages memory totally wrong is the SuperRam: http://www.pgware.com/products/superram program from "PGWARE" website. Here is program's description: "SuperRam 6 increases computer performance by freeing wasted memory back to your computer. By optimizing memory utilization your computer will operate at stable speeds and never run out of memory." that is of course totally false.

If you want to, see also the "Products": http://www.pgware.com/products and "Downloads": http://www.pgware.com/downloads pages for other such "snake oil" applications that they offer on this same website.

06.04.2009

This time just a brief note: since the last update I haven't done any really important things (of course, I always do some "standard" changes, like fixing any layout problems, other errors/problems in the code, or spelling/grammatical errors if I discover them in the mean time etc.), except for adding new content and modifying the existing one. Namely, I moved the "DEFRAGMENTING/MOVING THE XP'S PAGEFILE" article to the "myths.html" page, and as more importantly, I created a new "THE BEST PLACEMENT OF THE XP'S PAGEFILE", containing some of the text from the one mentioned above. But above all, I wrote and added a completely new "ABOUT BEST FIREWALL PROGRAMS" article that I've put onto the "security1.html" page.

17.03.2009

Horay, everything is as it should be after a long long time (I am of course talking about the problem with my computer restarting, see for instance the previous "events-entry" on this same page, and the first one on page "events13.html") since I am now finally using my friend's spare computer. It's a computer with AMD Athlon XP processor and Asus A7V266-C motherboard (my old computer had Intel Celeron-S C3 Tualatin processor and DFI CA64-TC/TN motherboard), with ATI Radeon 9600 Series (RV350) with 128 MB of internal RAM (compare to nVidia GeForce4 MX 440 with only 64 MB as in case my old PC's graphic-card), and with 768 MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM (and not 512 MB of PC133 SDRAM as in case of my old computer), so its memory-related operations are also much faster now. And also, now I finally have a computer with two separate hard-disks, which makes backing-up of my important stuff more secure, and of course, because of it I placed the pagefile (a "pagefile.sys" system file used for so-called virtual memory) on an non-OS parition.

Then here below is the text from the post (it's not the first/initial post though) in the thread titled About experiences with my new PC and a few questions: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/617007557931 that I've opened on "Ars OpenForum" forum about all this (another related thread is the Pagefile placement in this scenario??: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/837004167931 one), describing the three things (of course, related to configuring/optimizing this new PC of mine) that I "achieved" in one single day.

I just need to post this also here in this thread (the original post is this one in the other thread that I opened about pagefile placement in case of this new computer of mine) because you see, today it is a very happy day (in terms of computing-related stuff) for me because of many reasons!!

1. I bought a new 512 MB stick of DRAM today so that now I have 768 of RAM altogether, and so now pagefile placement is not an "issue" anymore!!

2. This new computer had an issue that you needed to start-it-up three or four times (however when you finally succeded there was no problem with it running/restarting, you just needed to avoid to shut-it-down) before it successfully booted-up. In first two/three attempts I could hear all the stuff (fans, hard-disk) starting to power-up, but then it suddenly shut-down by itself. This powering-up could be only 1 second, or 3-4 seconds long. But anyway, I thought that this is related to a broken start-up/shut-down button (it's difficult to explain what I mean by "broken", but in one sentence: the spring - I hope this is the right word - is broken so that the button sometimes stays stucked inside), but now listen to this: just for the sake of trying I replaced the PSU with the one from my old computer (which is a totally new/powerful PSU), and guess what?? Now there is no need for three/four attempts anymore, but it booted-up normally the very first time (nomather the broken start-up/shut-down button), ehm, I am only regretting now that I tried to start-it-up so many times today and so stressed the hard-disk and other components for no reason.

3. And finally, since I already had casing open I also very punctiliously cleaned-up the CPU's fan (and the dust behind it, i.e. on the heatsink), and so now there's no need for opening a new thread here on Ars forum, in which I was planning to ask about possible reasons for 70 C temperature of this AMD processor and mobo at 40 C and more (compare to for example my old Intel's which was at 30-35 C with mobo around 25 C, after the cleaning) since now after a complete clean-up the CPU's temperature is at 50 C, and mobo's at 30 C.

-- shirker

And by the way, just for slovenian visitors: here are also the three related "blog-entries" ordered by the date of posting Trije danasnji uspehi v zvezi z mojim PC-jem: http://tadej.sopca.com/2009/03/13/trije-danasnji-uspehi-v-zvezi-z-mojim-pc-jem, Uspeh: moj nov PC je delujoc in uporaben: http://tadej.sopca.com/2009/03/08/uspeh-moj-nov-pc-je-delujoc-in-uporaben, and Koncno sem dobil tisti prijateljev PC: http://tadej.sopca.com/2009/02/25/koncno-sem-dobil-tisti-prijateljev-pc on my slovenian blog "Sopca" website.

25.02.2009

Yeah, once gain this "events-entry" (and so also the website's update) is following the last one relatively soon, but in these four days so many things happened (i.e. things related to this website) that I just couldn't resist to wait some more time before writing it (I was planning to wait till the first days in March), you see, as absolutely the most important thing is that on February 23 I completely redesigned the "index.html" page (for old design see "index-old-design.html" page) so that now it contains much more detailed descriptions of pages or as I call them now sections. Beside that, regarding let's say minor things/changes, I also changed the whole website's layout a bit, namely, I increased the value of "width" property (from 800px to 840px) in all the website's external .css files, then I updated the "MBM5_logs.zip": /script/MBM5_logs.zip file (it's a file containing logs that I collect made by a program called Motherboard Monitor 5: http://mbm.livewiredev.com, or shortly "MBM 5") with new logs added from the last year or so, moved one "events-entry" to its preceeding page, and finally I also updated all the "notes" & "rules" files, which are available on page "diverse.html" under the "The "drop-down box" menu" sub-section. Oh and just as a side-note: somewhere in between I changed almost all my articles to be obviously visible as forum-posts (i.e. with the use of "<blockquote>" element), for instance see the posted thread about the problem of mine with my computer restarting randomly in an "events-entry" dated 29.12.2008 on "events13.html" page. However, later I decided to revert them back as they originally were so that they look as a normal part of a respective page.

Then additionally regarding website related things it's "a must" to also mention that I moved the "FIREWALL CONFIG SETTINGS/RULES" article from "config1.html" to "config2.html", and "MY PREVENTION SPEECH FOR CASTLECOPS" from "config2.html" to a completely new security2.html page (and therefore separated SECURITY section from SOFTWARE as it was before), while on page "security1.html" I also separated "ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS" to "ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS 1" and "ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS 2", while especially imporant is that on the already mentioned completely new page "security2.html" I separated "ABOUT INFECTIONS AND CLEANING" section/article to "ABOUT INFECTIONS AND CLEANING 1" and "ABOUT INFECTIONS AND CLEANING 2" by adding a totally new infection-cleaning story (i.e. the latest one, which was the infection with "Haxdoor" trojan, and in which case I needed to use various interesting "low-level" techniques to get rid of), which I by the way alredy at least shortly mentioned on this same events-section on "events10.html", (in the part 1 of "events-entry" dated "14.01.2007"), page "events9.html" (the part 1 of "events-entry" dated "26.09.2006"), and "events8.html" (the part 1 of "events-entry" dated "23.08.2006") pages.

And now to the most important thing that in fact actually happened today (and the only one that's not related to this website of mine in any way), but it surely is a computing-related event or should I rather say miracle. Well, it's that I finally got that friend's spare computer (a computer from my friend that he don't need anymore), as I mentioned in "events-entry" posted on 09.02.2009 below, it's an AMD-core computer (meaning that it has AMD's CPU instead of Intel's), with an ATI Radeon graphic-card with 128 MB of internal/its own in-built RAM. I just can't wait to switch to it from my current/old one, however, I am a bit hesitating since that will require quite a lot of work, like for instance moving my dial-up modem, installing my old hard-disk to the new computer etc. /UPDATE: Well, as I was told this isn't even necessary, if you're interested visit the Swapping your board without so much as a reinstall (243kB of images, updated Jun '06) : http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/77909774/m/1400925745 thread (it's a sor of a tutorial) on "Ars OpenForum" forum under "CPU & Motherboard Technologia" section. While otherwise regarding life (of course, the computing-related part of it) it was as usual, meaning that I've posted an entry now and then on my main slovenian blog on "Sopca": http://sopca.com community (and same goes for posting "twits" on "Twitter": http://twitter.com), I was being quite active on "Facebook": http://www.facebook.com, and was actually being very active (compare to previous weeks/months) on my personally favorite "Ars OpenForum": http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums forum. And that's about it for today's "events-entry", and until next time greetings to all!!

20.02.2009

I just had some spare time and thought to mention one or two things, both related to website itself. As first, I made quite a few necessary changes to the website's code (mostly errors that were causing the website to not be XHTML/CSS valid anymore), added a small line of javascript code under the "The various computing quotes" section on "diverse.html" page (to refresh the page to see other quotes), fixed internal linking on the "intro.html" page and such, and also I've added a completely new article entitled "IS DRIVE-PARTITIONING WORTHY AT ALL" on the page "articles2.html" article, which I guess (i.e. what's it's all about) don't require any special description/explanation. While secondly, just two minor things: I updated the links pointing to threads on Winforums: http://www.winforums.com/index.php forum from the old http://forums.winforums.org/showthread.php... to new http://www.winforums.com/showthread.php... form, and secondly, I also updated the 12 x 12 pixels icon that I use for/beside links to threads and thread's titles from "Winforums" mentioned in previous sentence, namely, I've changed it from the old one to the new/current one. This is basically just a mentioned website's "favicon.ico" file that I resized to 12 x 12 pixels to fit to the line.

And finally, not really related, but anyway, since I mentioned favicons in the above paragraph; you can read more about them (they are basically just 12 x 12 pixels files with .ico extension) on website conveniently titled "Favicon.com": http://www.favicon.com, and/or additionally on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon article on "Wikipedia" portal. Further, on this website that you're reading right now I am using a favicon (it's a simple white letter "T" on black background) that I created myself with the use of IrfanView: http://www.irfanview.com program (it's similar on my http://clarinet.50webs.com where I have a letter "C" on black background), while on my main general website (the english http://tadejpersic.50webs.com, and the slovenian http://tadejpersic.50webs.org variants), and on my slovenian http://tadej.sopca.com blog, I use an icon from Famfamfam: http://www.famfamfam.com website, in particular from the "Silk Icons": http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk collection (here is a direct download-link: http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/famfamfam_silk_icons_v013.zip) of numerous cool 16 x 16 pixels icons. Oh and by the way, before I started using this icon on my blog, I was using an icon in form of a cubic (if you want to see it please visit the Updejt: spet nova blogova favicon ikonica: http://tadej.sopca.com/2008/02/04/updejt-spet-nova-blogova-favicon-ikonica "blog-entry" on the mentioned blog of mine) that I got on this page: http://www.clickfire.com/content/graphics/favicons on Clickfire website, however, originally it has black background so I changed it to white, while additionally I needed to experiment a bit with various values of so-called "Sharpen filter" in IrfanView application already mentioned above.

09.02.2009

As I already mentioned in "events-entry" from 29.12.2008 on the previous "events13.html" page (and also in the "events-entry" on 06.12.2007 on page "events10.html"), I am expeciencing strange more or less random computer restarts for the last year; for detailed information about this issue of mine please see the thread that I opened back then on my favorite tech-forum Ars OpenForum: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums (many times mentioned/referred to on this website) on a well-known and respected "Ars Technica" website, linked in the mentioned "events-entry" on 29.12.2008. So you see, the thing is that these restarts make the use of my computer almost impossible. And well, although I do know how to avoid them in 90 of 100 cases, I cannot use my computer normally because of them since this includes avoiding browsing the Internet (because they mostly occur when I make a specific action, like opening a page with "heavy graphics" and/or lots of content in general), watching movies, playing games and so forth.

Further, as I also mentioned in that first "events-entry" (see the paragraph above) describing this problem I've tried almost everything to find a cause for them (i.e. the cause for the restarts) and fix it, or to be more precise, I've first upgraded the graphic-card's drivers from the older then installed/used version 77.72 to version 81.98 (that I already had downloaded to my computer), however, the version 91.47: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_91.47.html was the latest/current at that time (all these drivers-variants are the so-called "ForceWare" variant of drivers; before this type I was using the "Detonator" type though), then when all this didn't help I've switched my better then used graphic-card with an old ATI Rage128 PRO II (with only 32 MB of internal RAM compare to nVidia GeForce4 MX 440's 64 MB), and finally, I've replaced the old PSU (with not-working fans) with a new and much much better one, but to my big surprise the restarts were still occurring. Therefore I finally gave up and so I am letting you know that I will soon get another computer (with AMD's instead of Intel's CPU, and with a better ATI Radeon graphic-card with 128 MB of RAM); it's my friend's computer which he does't use anymore (so it's not new), but it's certainly better to have a working computer, even if it's old. And so I finally won't be afraid anymore all the time, waiting for the restart to occur.

20.01.2009

I am glad to post first "events-entry" in the year 2009. Before writing it this page already existed (see the last "events-entry" in year 2008 with date 29.12.2008 on "events13.html" page), however it only contained the so-called "filler content" text; I left one paragraph of the text that was displayed until I wrote this "events-entry" for "legacy purpose", see here below for the actual text/code.

The filler content: I yet need to add content under this entry, the page was created only to finish with the 2008 "event-entries". For the last entry from year 2008 please click this: /other/events/2008/events13.html link that will direct you to page "events13.html.

And secondly, regarding the website-code related changes that I made during this time (i.e. from the last "events-entry"), there were only a few fixes here and there, which were so unimportant that are really not worth being mentioned. But I simply need to mention that I constantly make this website better and better!

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Events 14

THE EVENTS-ENTRIES LISTED BY DATE

20.04.2009