On The Nature of Computers

Withe the news of Steve Jobs' departure from Apple, I am reminded of all the things he did to world of computers that has changed everyones life.

In the early days of computers, there was one choice for a Personal Computer: IBM. It was a white or beige box, with a green on black TV-style screen sitting on top.

To make it work, you had to type commands at the blinking cursor. There is a reason why all highly-skilled computer people are called "wizards". If you knew what you were doing, you looking like a wizard from a fantasy novel casting a spell; writing arcane formulae on the magic screen. If you were successful at your invocation, the computer did something; often inscrutably.

And then, 10 years later and a century of drudgery later, came a computer whose very screen said "Hello." Just by looking at it, you could tell that the user would not have to be a wizened old man performing arcane rituals just to turn on a program.
This was, of course, the Macintosh; a computer so simple a normal person could use it.

Steve Jobs always made pronouncements, not just announcements. One of the first things he did after being allowed to come back to Apple, was to say "The floppy disk is dead."
At the time, every computer came with a floppy disk. How else could you save your work to a transportable medium?

At the time, everyone in the PC world, including myself, scoffed at this obviously flawed pronouncement. But in the course of time, the floppy disk did die; even though you can still buy computers with floppy disks in them. Or at least holes for the drive should you wish to put one in.

You may have noticed, the Windows based computer world is not exactly big on innovation. Its like taking a basic car frame, chassis, engine, suspension, wheels, etc., and putting different body shells and interiors and it and selling that car as every type available: Ford, Corvette, Ferrari.
You can gussy it up however you like, but its always the same thing underneath.

Macs are similar to PCs in this way, but instead of just saying "here's a new outside; have fun"; Apple, meaning Steve, took some ideas and ran with them, often opening up entirely new market as he did so: the All-in-one computer, the iMac; the incredibly tough laptop; the incredibly light and thin laptop; the all-in-one pocketable computer and internet device, the iPhone, the iPad, etc.
You get the idea.

Apple has, for a long time but not always, taken great risks with trying new products. A famous flop was the Newton.
Famous for its bad design, and amazingly bad handwriting recognition.
But, it was a thing no one had tried before. And after its famous flop, companies sprang up in its wake trying to do better.

Palm, anyone?

So, today, what is the nature of computers?

Are they frustratingly hard to use, and inscrutable when the unusual happens? Or are they rainbow-hued delights that say "what you want to do is right there on the screen"?

When they break, and they all do, even the rainbow-hued delights of intuitiveness, what can be done about it?
Do you unplug it and take it to the manufacturers retail store and service center, or do you call up a number that takes you to a land of gibberish and incomprehensibility, where you are told to do the same thing (that you have already tried) over and over again?
Or do you have a repairman that come in and charges by the hour?
(Hmmm, who could that be..?)

The nature of computers today is one of magic and wonder, as well as frustration and drudgery.

On the one hand we have the tool that makes modern life possible (though some would disagree), and on the other hand we have a tool that make modern life enjoyable.

Do we take the one that is all things to everyone and enjoys great adaptability and expandability, because it is able to do anything we ask of it, or do we take the one that is easiest to use and might reduce the stress level in our lives and allow us to concentrate on living rather than tool-induced frustration?
Even if that second road is the less well-paved road, and we might encounter potholes, blockades or other obstacles?

Ultimately it is up to the end-user to decide which nature of computers is the right one for them.
Versatility and frustration or freedom and speedbumps?

What is it for you?

Data Breaches and You

PC World has an article on corporations' overall response to securing your data against breaches.

What is that response? "We dont really care about our customers as long as our brand still looks good."
For the more nuanced explanation, go here.

But, fear not; for there is a solution to keep yourself safe from data breaches. Be warned, however, that while the solution is easy, there is work involved.
Read it here.

Should you desire assistance with preventing (or dealing with the aftermath of) data leakage, call me.

The Joys of Editing Someone Else's Webpage

Sometimes, I get asked "Can you make some changes to my webpage/site?"
Since I can, and they dont usually take a lot of time, I say "Sure."

But sometimes, those small changes can turn into a head-pounding nightmare, where I end up screaming at the ceiling, "Why? Dear God, why did they have to do *that*?"

Most of you have probably never built a website from scratch, and then had to set up hosting, upload the pages and then troubleshoot any problems (and no, Wordpress is not "from scratch," because Wordpress has done of the hard parts for you; especially on the .com site).

Last week, I was consulting with a good customer on the changes he wanted done on his company's website(his previous webmistress was often out of town on church business). So there I was, I had downloaded the page I was working on and the images that went with it.
I fired up my trusty, but old, copy of Dreamweaver and set about making the changes that the customer had asked for.
When I uploaded the changed page, and refreshed my browser window, I saw that all but one of the images were "broken": broken means no pictures were displayed. Technically, the link that tells the web page where to find the pictures was broken.
So, no pictures. On the company's front page of their website.
I kinda freaked out. The website was live, and and totally broken.
I went and looked for where the image links said the pictures were, and no such folder existed.

On the server, there was an "images" folder. The images folder is where all young designers are suggested to put the pictures for their website, because it makes everything easier.

The young woman who had been maintaining the website previously(who was a professional web designer person) had not been using the images folder.

In fact, it looked like my downloading of the web page had somehow mysteriously moved (not copied) the entire folder with all of the pictures in it to my computer, and erased said folder from the server.
I dont think thats even possible, but its what it looked like. Or, even more impossibly, the download process re-wrote all of the image links in the web page so that they would correspond to an appropriate folder on my hard drive.

After I discovered this had happened is when I was screaming at the ceiling (metaphorically, anyway).

After a brief break, and some deep breaths, I found all of the pictures and was able to move them to the images folder. I refreshed the page, and...
Still broken.
Re-uploaded everything.
Still broken.
Checked image links.
Now only partly broken.

It had been a half-hour by now, and in the middle of the day. I was kind of expecting my phone to ring and hear the customer ask, "Peter, what happened to the website?" (Fortunately he didnt).

I went back into Dreamweaver and did a global search and replace on all the image links to point them to the right folder.
I saved the page and re-uploaded, and...
Still two images broken.

"How?" I asked my self. It turned a couple of the graphics files were scattered about and I had missed moving them the first time.
I fixed that, refreshed the page, and...

All better.

Just something to remember the next time you change website maintainers and there is gibbering when you call for an update.

Inside Your Computer, Part 4: Fans and Cooling

This is the fourth part in an ongoing series about the parts and pieces that make up the innards of your computer.
This time I will talk about the fans and ways of cooling your PC.

First off, why do PC's even need cooling? As the electrons that compose electricity move along wires, they generate heat. The faster they move, or the more of them that are moving, the more heat that is generated.

As I mentioned in the previous post in this series, the CPU and other components generate a lot of heat, which has to go somewhere.

A CPU has a heatsink and a fan to dissipate its built-up heat, but that heat has to go somewhere too. So, now we come to case fans (or chassis fans). The are the fans that pull in cool outside air and exhaust the hot inside air.

Every computer you buy has at least two fans that come with it, even laptops. One is the CPU fan and one is the power supply fan.

If you put your hand behind a computer's case, you will feel a breeze of warm air. That is the power supply fan keeping the power supply cool, and in the process helping to keep the computer cool as well.

These fans usually come in three sizes, 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm; or small, medium and large.

Computer cases, except for the small ones, can usually add one or two more fans. Some cases can add several fans; fans for cooling hard drives, cooling the RAM, cooling the chipset, even.

Why? Because cold computers work better, faster and longer. Think of it this way; do you work better when it is 110 degrees out or when it is 70?

In the continuation of this post, I will talk about the other ways of cooling your PC: Water, Immersion, and Peltier.

An Easy To Use Back-up Plan

Most computer users dont back up their important data at all; some back up occasionally but not often enough.

The questions I get when I mention backing up are, "How?" "When?" and "What data?"

So, here are the answers and an easy to do plan.
How do I back up?

The easiest way to back up is to buy an external hard drive that come with a back up program included. Install the program and allow it 2-4 hours to make an entire copy of your hard drive.

Other than that, you back up by copying your files and folders to any device that is not inside your machine, which is why they're called "external."
Flash drives, memory sticks, and camera style memory cards are not recommended for back up purposes because they are too small and can be easily lost.
If you know how to "burn" a CD, that is another good option.

When do I back up?
At least once a week. If you are creating data that is important to a business, or otherwise difficult to replace, you should back up every evening (The external drive and back up program mentioned above will give you options as to what, when and how often to back up.)

What do I back up?
Pictures, documents, financial data, music, and everything else. You should back thing up in this order, because this is the order of irreplaceability.
Since most people have huge amounts of everything, the easiest way to back things up is from oldest to newest; especially with photos. Last weeks might be able to be replaced, or re-taken, but last years or ten years ago can never be replaced (everything changes over the course of years, you could never re-create the exact pictures you took).

A common mis-perception when backing up is thinking that once the data is off your computer, its "backed up."
Not so. A backup means you have your data in at least two places at once, so that if something happens to one place, you can replace it from the other place.

In other words, redundancy.

An Easy To Use Security Tool

As most of you are aware, security between your computer and the Internet is of utmost importance.
In order to assist you with making sure your computer is as secure as possible, here is a link to a website (Gibson Research) which will scan your Internet connection for any open holes through which malicious attacks may come.
Shields Up! is an online vulnerability scanner. It tests whether Windows is leaking information about you to the Web, whether your firewall is actually protecting you, and what websites see about you when you visit them.

I suggest that you click on each of the top row of tests, see what happens, and read what it says about the results. If it says you have passed entirely, feel good; if you get any other result, you should call me and I will come over and fix things up so that you will pass.