Eugene's observations

I have just upgraded my own main PC by cloning the system volume from a 10,000rpm velociraptor to a SSD with no moving parts. The benefits are that

• with no moving parts the mean time before failure rises dramatically - meaning that it's lifetime is much longer;
• it produces far less heat than conventional disks which means less cooling is required which means less noise;
• because less cooling is required and due to its own construction the power consumption is reduced;
• it transfers data at about three times the speed of a regular disk.

How much faster the computer appears depends on which programs are run and how, but it is certainly noticeably faster. The difference would be even more noticeable had I been running the usual 7,200rpm disk rather than the velociraptor.

I have recently received a mail out of the blue with a pointer to a hand held ‘PC’ and the one line question: ‘Should I buy it?’ This is an extreme case of a common situation where the potential buyer sees a tempting ad and then finds a reason to buy the object.

By not starting the process correctly – i.e. asking ‘what tasks do I want done’ (trade description: requirements analysis), the chances of finding a suitable combination of components, price and after sales service are slim. In this case my correspondent wanted to run applications locally to write a letter or use instant messaging so the 2GB storage would have been inadequate and the 128MB volatile memory would make the device perform like a dog with no legs.

At £89.99 the ‘portable mini’ computer is certainly cheap, but would you really be comfortable squinting at a 7” screen or typing on an 8” keyboard for anything but occasional web based mail messages ?

The old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ really applies with computing, and as with all purchases of things you don’t fully understand, buying a little independent consultancy first will usually save big bucks over the lifetime of the product.

I have recently fixed two PCs where the owner has installed huge numbers of (mainly free) programs. In itself this is not a problem, but the more programs that are installed the greater the chance of one unintentionally messing with another - either when they are installed or as a result of them both residing in memory. Moreover, rectifying unrelated faults often takes more time, and therefore cost, as not only is more testing than usual at the end of a repair required, but there is a greater propensity for configuration changes that adversely affect a program.

The more programs that are installed in memory the slower the PC performs generally as they all compete for a slice of the limited memory resource. Not only that but as increased paging is required, there is a greater risk that program faults will develop when shutting down a computer that is completing maintenance operations in the background.

In general, but especially in the above cases, I recommend having CPU and disk activity meters permanently visible on the desktop. These are freely available, for example as gadgets from Microsoft or Google

This will enable you to postpone significant events (e.g. program (un)installation, shutting down the computer, calling for support when something is not working as expected) until the PC is quiesced - hence, limiting the likelihood of interrupting an important modification to the system state.

In much the same vein, it is good to let the system finish its start up procedures as much as possible before beginning work. So start the computer 5 minutes before you start work and shut down 5 minutes after you close the last program to reduce the risk of interrupting important background tasks.

Many people now are aware that phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an e-mail - usually a hyperlink to a web site.

To protect themselves from being spoofed, some people let the mouse pointer hover over the link and read the destination address in the status bar, but this is not a safe way to detect phishing because the status bar can easily be programmed by Javascript so show something legitimate.

The only safe way is to open your browser and type an address (or use a favourite/bookmark) into the appropriate field.