Computer Maintenance 101

A few days ago our computer was experience some massive problems. It was experience really bad lock-ups. By a bad lock-up I mean the screen just froze. No mouse. Not CTRL-ALT-DEL. No Blue Screen. The clock even stopped. It would happen between 10 seconds and 5 minutes after the computer started.
At first I feared a virus or worm. Then I feared hard drive failure, or bad RAM. (Of course it has to be the hard drive...I haven't backed up for a few months...)
So I started in safe mode to rule out and bad device drivers. The computer didn't crash after an hour on, but the fan was going like crazy. We have one of those temperature sensitive fans that turns on when it starts to get hot.
Wondering whether or not it was hot, I rebooted into BIOS mode, and went to the section that told me the CPU temperature. Almost 70C (160F). I did a quick search on normal CPU temperatures, and I found the normal range was 30 to 50C.
I shut the computer off, and looked at the CPU fan. I could not see the cooling tower for all the dust.
I took the fan off, got out the vacuum, and vacuumed off the eighth inch carpet of dust from the CPU cooling tower (being careful not to touch any components inside the computer)
The computer has been fine ever since.

Conspiracy? Nah! Never!

When I browse Microsoft's documentation website in IE, my page looks like this.


This is what it looks like in Firefox.


Also, you'll notice the different URLs. When I paste the URL into IE, it redirects me to the correct page. In FF, I get no such redirect. Methinks Microsoft doesn't want people reading their website with THAT browser.
Here's the URL if you want to try it yourself.

I uninstalled IE7

Actually, I used the System Restore utility to take my system back to the day before I installed IE7 just to make sure it REALLY got it.
It broke our Movie Maker which was pretty much a deal breaker, since we have been using it so much. If I really want tabs, I'll go with Firefox.

Macromedia killer?

Looks like Micro$oft is working the the Macromedia Dreamweaver suite replacement.
It's called Expression Studio.
http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/expression-studio/default.mspx
It has a web designer (similar to Dreamweaver), something that looks like it can do what Flash does, and a graphic designer programer similar to Fireworks or Freehand.
'Twill be interesting to see if it takes off.

Internet Explorer 7

I installed IE7 on our main home computer just to check it out.
It features a redesigned interface, tabbed browsing like Firefox, an RSS feed button so you can monitor all your favorite blogs.
The only thing bad so far is somehow it broke our Windows Movie Maker.
Here's a screenshot.

(click to enlarge)

The future of photos?

Here's a link to something called Photosynth, put out by Microsoft.
It's in pre-beta stage right now, but what it basically does is scan through your photos looking for similarities, and extrapolates a 3D montage allowing you to "walk" through your photos.

They also recommend 1 Gig of RAM to run the demo.

Seems interesting...we'll see where it goes.

Windows Trivia

Over on the right I have a link to "The Old New Thing" which is a blog maintained by a guy who has been on the Windows programming team from I think the Windows 3.x days. Anyway, here is an interesting set of links I gleaned out of his archives of useless Windows trivia and interesting anecdotes.

Why are there 2 copies of Notepad?

Why is the registry called a hive?

Why does Windows 95 have functions called BEAR, BUNNY and PIGLET?

I'll take one of everything

Twenty foot long computer

Do not underestimate the power of the game Deer Hunter

Actual Death Threat

An insight into the Windows 95 startup sound

What is this Xerox directory doing in Program Files?

Windows Annoyances - Useless dialog boxes

Whenever you try to open a file that does not have a program associated with the extension of the file, this dialog pops up.




The default option is to "Use the Web Service" to help you out. Has anyone ever actually used this Web Service? Well, today was my lucky day. I wanted to find out what would happen.



When I hit OK, it directed me to this web page:





Now, this is telling me "I have no clue what your file is." No duh, you told me that on the other dialog box. Now, look at the options that this gives me.
It's telling me to go to yet another website, which (I'm sure) will still not tell me what to do with my stinkin' file.
Better yet, one of the suggestions is "UK Technical support".
HUH??!?!
If I were a novice user, and I were presented with this page, I would be more confused than ever.

In general, the only program I use to open unrecognized file types is Notepad.
I'm sure there is no way to set that as my default, and Microsoft forces me to go through a completely meaningless step to do what I want to.

Bloatware?

Windows Vista, the next Operating System from Microsoft will require a whopping 15 GB of free hard drive space to install. Here's a nice little graph of space requirements for various versions of Windows.


Raw Data (I'm not sure what is causing the extra space...apologies):

Win 95	55 MB
Win NT	110 MB
Win 2000	650 MB
Win XP	1500 MB
2003 server	2500 MB
Windows Vista	15000 MB

12 step program

My name is Jeremy...and I'm a programmer.
OK, so this isn't quite Programmers Anonymous, but here are the 12 steps to writing better code.