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Vol. 8, No. 22
6-19-08
1 The use of power
2 Farewell
3 Firefox 3.0, cell wars,
election wars, IBM looks for Sarah Connor
4 Print and manage file
structures
5
File recovery
Last week we talked about
modern processors and how much power they offered so this week let’s harness
that power.
Any single or dual core 64 bit chip will
run 32 bit programs, so pretty much anything you have around will work but to
get the benefits of all that speed and power you have to switch.
Almost all distros of Linux come in 64 bit versions and Microsoft offers XP and Vista 64. The operating system is the best place to start since that’s the platform for other programs to run in and if it can’t keep up anything running within it won’t be able to.
Along with the OS you need to make sure all your hardware has 64 bit drivers. These are the files that Windows consults to configure communication between the OS and various pieces like the video card, Ethernet port and motherboard. If you’re upgrading an existing machine to 64 bit you need to verify that all of these are available before you dive in.
Once you have the OS and all 64 bit drivers you’ll need applications that will run in that environment. The 32 bit versions will run and still perform better due to the more robust OS, but native 64 bit applications are preferable.
Many popular mainstream security programs like AVG, Panda and Kaspersky are available in native 64 bit versions but otherwise you’re very limited. No office apps, no financial apps, very few media apps etc.
For the time being you can upgrade the OS, which WILL improve performance, but nearly everything you run on it will be in emulation mode.
Eventually most software companies will come out with new versions so upgrading now prepares you for the future but don’t expect a lightning quick new PC, you’ll just get a slight boost.
On other topics, we’ve mentioned the new AVG 8.0 and it seems it’s causing some problems, not for end users but for websites. One of the new features is a “scan-ahead” security measure that checks the main page of all the websites listed on the first page of search engine results from Google, Yahoo and MSN LiveSearch.
This is driving traffic figures through the roof on some sites and really mucking up how they figure ad revenue. It’s also using massive amounts of bandwidth, leading to many webmasters facing larger hosting bills. If a way around the problem isn’t figured out soon some smaller websites may close down operations.
Considering only 20 million of the estimated 70 million AVG users have upgraded to 8.0 means the problem can only get worse.
Lastly I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Tim Russert’s passing. I’m certainly far from being a real journalist but I appreciate a good one when I see a good one. But Russert wasn’t just good; he was the best we had.
He was fair, honest to a fault and he knew more about politics than all of Congress combined. He never ambushed a guest with personal “gotcha” questions but he did press for honest and straightforward answers to questions of policy and politics and, while most politicos dreaded going through the ordeal they said to a person that they respected and trusted him.
He will be greatly missed…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Mozilla.org said this week that more than 8 million
copies of Firefox
3 were downloaded in its first 24 hours online. If you were able to
download it at all on Tuesday, you were lucky:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9972002-7.html
In a move to poach sales away from the upcoming
iPhone 3G, Sprint said
Wednesday the Samsung Instinct will be available June 20 for $129.99.
That high-pitched wail you hear is Steve Jobs:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208700417
Fueled by increased viewing of online political
videos and the use of
social networks to gather campaign data and online donations for
candidates, use of the Internet in this year's election cycle is
shattering records:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9100038&intsrc=news_ts_head
The IBM Roadrunner, capable of making over a
quadrillion calculations
per second, was named the fastest supercomputer in the land by the
TOP500 Supercomputers list. But will it run Crysis?
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/IBM-Roadrunner-Meep-Meeps-to-Top-of-Supercomputer-Rankings-63471.html?welcome=1213837596
Copy us on the good stuff
Matthew Dattilo
Download of the Week
Want to print a list of all
your files or folders? I use the free Karen's Directory Printer. It generates
folder and sub-folder listings in every way imaginable, including (or
excluding) file size, creation date, and attributes. It's free here:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.asp
While we're looking at files,
let's look at a file management tool.
Ant Commander is file/directory management program which distinguishes
itself primarily by being written in Java and including many *nix-like
features, such as a command shell window and scripting processes. It includes a
simple file viewer and several other useful features. This JAVA application can be quirky, but it's
free and worth a try. Get it here:
Carlita Lupino
Email Question of the Week
Q: Some
time ago you featured a free utility which recovered files after
a crash. Pleeeeeeeeez Help... Warm Regards From Sellersburg!
A: Hi Johnny,
This file should help you:
http://un-delete.com/data/files/?gclid=CNzR_5ud_5MCFRZjnAodnjN_WA
Good Luck,
Art Maley
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