Eugene's observations

I have been prompted to note the following suggestions relating to e-mail, usenet, blog, fora and other similar postings.

As a matter of curtsey I strip out e-mail addresses from people unknown to one another (either by using BCC or a distribution list).

Forwarding mass mailings is certainly frowned upon as I described in my blog at http://www.1computercare.co.uk/blog/index.php/2008/03/?blog=5#item_73

Another irritant is e-mail that is in a super large, obscure, UPPER CASE or multi-coloured font. That, in itself, is usually enough to have me clicking my 'spam' button.

Whilst on the subject, I always include the text of the message I am replying to below my message, and with all other background mails removed.

Further, it is unwise to include passwords, bank or card details in unencrypted e-mail, as it should always be assumed that e-mails are publicly available to anyone on any of the multiple computers that the mail passes through on its journey.

Also, remember to read through mail before sending - do not use language that is intemporate or capable of being misunderstood without accompanying facial expressions or tonal changes (emoticons may help with this).

Removing grammatical, formatting and spelling errors makes for an easier read.

Finally, politeness demands, in my opinion, acknowledging receipt of e-mails within 24 hours if a substantive reply is not possible within that time.

And including appropriate opening and closing salutations engenders a warmer receipt.

I have just built a new PC for myself. These are the components I used:

An interesting (to me anyway) calculation is to devise a figure for all new PCs I deliver to clients that indicates the oomph per £. By dividing the aggregated performance metrics of each PC by the price paid for it, the last six PCs I delivered cost an average £709 and their ratios of performance to cost are 1.1, 0.7, 0.9, 1.0, 0.7, 1.0 My own new PC cost me more than average - £1,094 but my performance to cost ratio is 2.3. Meaning that by spending 50% more than average, I have a PC giving 150% more performance than average.

So my new PC goes about 2.5 times (or 3 times after over clocking) as fast as the average for relatively little increased cost. So what ? Well there are two conclusions I draw: that spending a little more gives a big payback in terms of value for money, and by having a PC that well specified, I can probably make it last two years longer than more modest machines. So the cost per year turns out to be similar - only mine goes faster than yours :-)

Due to lax patent limitations Canon and Epson cartridges are oft imitated at a relatively cheap price. But the chip in Epson machines counts the cleaning cycles and assumes that the print head drain sponge must be saturated after a set number of cycles. At that time you have to 'repair' your printer to allow it to continue working - an expensive option. You may like to simply clean or replace the sponge yourself, or leave it to potentially over fill.

You may want to free yourself of the nag screens that warn you when the printer thinks you are running low on ink.

Assuming you don't mind risking any warranty that remains on the printer, an (unapproved by Epson) solution is to reset the chip's counter using the free SSC utility available at
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

I have just replaced the motherboard, CPU and RAM memory for a client who had a motherboard failure and used the opportunity to upgrade his computer to faster components. The client already had a good quality Nvidia GeForce 8000 series graphics card badged as an Asus product. The new motherboard he chose, an ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus, does not have space for audio circuitry onboard, so it comes with a 'free' SupremeFX mini sound card that neatly plugs into the PCI Express single lane slot.

The problem that belatedly became apparent, is that the Nvidia card comes with its own olfactory daughter board, designed to give gamers a more realistic experience by emitting a smell appropriate to the situation in the game they are playing. So if the game involves the player being in a car crash for example, the smell of burning rubber and fuel would be pumped out. If the driver was hurt, the smell of burning flesh can be dispensed. For young children exploring a farmyard game, the smell of fresh faeces can be wafted to their noses to give them a heightened experience of what a pig sty actually is like. This is done by connecting the olfactory daughter board to the computer's chassis fan by a small flexible tube.

The issue is that this olfactory daughter board also needs a single lane PCI Express slot. But there is only one on the motherboard ! So anyone with an Nvidia 8000 series graphics card who buys this motherboard has to choose between hearing realistic surround sound or being surrounded by an odor appropriate to the situation.

Be warned, when buying a new graphics card, always ask the supplier to confirm that the olfactory circuit is not on a separate daughter board.