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by PC-Doctor, Inc.A technical blog for technical people, among other things...
Recent podcasts
Tales from the Street
13/09/2007
One of the great things about working with diagnostic software is the great stories that for the most part go untold. I don't mean the obvious stuff about computer illiterate users trying to scan pages by holding them to computer screens, or using optical drive trays as cup holders. These are funny, but they can be found everywhere. Like airline passengers asking for window seats because they like to open the window for fresh air. Nah. I'm talking about the good stuff. How about this one (it's real.) A computer user reported to technical support that flushing his toilet made his computer reboot. Now how would anyone figure that one out?
Why I’m Just as Happy Without ReadyBoost
12/09/2007
Windows Vista ships with a technology called ReadyBoost that is intended to increase the performance on systems that arenrsquo;t equipped with an adequate amount of RAM. The idea is good, the user simply plugs in a USB key and lets Vista use a part of the keyrsquo;s capacity as a sort of ldquo;extra RAMrdquo;. No need to run out and buy expensive (which they really arenrsquo;t anymore) RAM modules; all you need is a fairly fast USB key. The setup is really easy; if Vista recognizes the USB key as being ReadyBoost capable when the key is plugged in, Vista asks the user if he or she wants to increase the system's performance with ReadyBoost. If the user clicks yes, Vista will ask how much of the USB keyrsquo;s capacity should be used for this and after the user has specified the amount and clicked OK, the setup is done. Now itrsquo;s time for a history recap. Does anybody remember some 12 years ago when software like RAM Doubler and others were quite popular? They claimed that through various ingenious techniques they could make the system manage the memory so much more efficiently that installing the software would create a performance increase equal to doubling the amount of physical RAM in the system. This, of course, is also a good idea.
C++/CLI vs. C#
10/09/2007
Wersquo;re thinking about writing a new application in .NET. I tend to believe that therersquo;s not much difference between any of the languages that Microsoft has created for .NET. VB is essentially C# with different keywords and punctuation, for example. Yoursquo;re certainly not going to change the design of your code because you had to write ldquo;endrdquo; instead of ldquo;}rdquo;, so, for a long time, it seemed irrelevant to discuss anything but C#. Then Microsoft fixed their C++ implementation with C++/CLI. This is actually a different language from C#. It tries pretty hard to be C++ with access to the .NET runtime and some extra pointer syntax. In particular, you can still have deterministic destructors, free functions, and generic programming. You'll write a different program with C++/CLI than you would with C#, so it's worth thinking about which language you'd choose.
Tech Race 2008 - Part I
07/09/2007
This series will discuss the use (or lack thereof) of technology by the leading candidates for the 2008 race for the White House. I'll spend time on each of the leading candidates and analyze what technologies they're using and their implementation of each. The final part in this series will be an attempt to grade each candidate, ranking them one against the other. The 2008 Candidates - in order of recent rankings within each party by RealClearPolitics (data collected on September 7, 2007)
CompTIA Error Codes and PC-Doctor’s Error Code Wizard
06/09/2007
In August, CompTIA (the Computing Technology Industry Association) released an updated set of standard error codes. The announcement was followed by PC-Doctorrsquo;s release of the free Error Code Wizard. ldquo;Whatrsquo;s the big deal?rdquo; you might ask. Well, let me tell you. Alright, Irsquo;ll be the first one to admit it. The phrase ldquo;standard error codesrdquo; just doesnrsquo;t generate the same level of buzz as ldquo;Apple lowers the price on the iPhone.rdquo; But, how does it sound when I link it to a statement like, ldquo;save millions of dollars per year?rdquo; Has a nice ring doesnrsquo;t it? Use the error codes with accurate diagnostics (like PC-Doctor, for example) and you will be able to perform quantitative root cause analysis and that should save the industry millions in reduced No Fault Found/No Trouble Found rates. Now that is something I can relate to!
