So I've been working on some animations for an Art professor out of ASU for ASU's new Skysong campus, it's been really fun and I've been working in Maya with windows XP. I've noticed recently that when rendering out of Maya it really takes a lot of Processing power and even more Ram to make sure the render runs smoothly. As you may or may not know, unfortunately windows XP can only really utilize 3 Gigs of RAM which means even if you go out and get 4 Gigs for your awesome machine only 3 Gigs will actually be used. So you make think that that is the sad realization I came to, but believe me it's much worse than that. Many of you may know that I despise Macintosh and always have, but I found out something today that shook the very foundations of my Microsoft loving world. On the MAC side you can setup your computer with as much Memory as you want and the Mac OS will actually use all of it. So If I went to Mac I could actually have 16 or even more gigs of RAM and Maya would use every bit of it for my Rendering. It's a sad thing that windows hasn't caught on to this fact even with Windows Vista you can only use 4 Gigs. Now don't get me wrong I love windows, but it's so disappointing that in the Rendering world the Mac will actually out perform the PC every time.
A Sad Sad Realization.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Hardware Troubles
So I was helping out a friend this weekend work through some hardware issues, and I thought I might take a moment to discuss some of the things you can do when you computer just goes cap putt on you. Here are some of the symptoms, maybe your monitor comes on but you don't see anything on the screen or maybe your computer just restarts for no reason and you can't figure out why it keeps happening.
Lets take the monitor example first, well to begin we should rule out the obvious.....Is the monitor plug into the power outlet, is the monitor cable to the computer plugged in a secure?
Is the computer on? ...These are the no brainers, if you've tried all of those and still can't get anything to come up here are some possible solutions. First thing is that it may be a bad cable that you have connecting from your computer to the monitor, so the solution.....try a different cable. After you have done that and still no Dice then things get a little more technical. If your warranty is up and you feel comfortable opening up the box to your computer then try this solution. It's called checking to see is your Graphics card is seated. Well you ask how to I know which one is my graphics card? Generally speaking you can look down into the machine and see the big fan that is pointing straight up at you that is your computer processor under that fan not look to the south of that big fan you'll see a bunch of slots. This are your slots for you peripheral cards. Usually the one closest to the processor is your graphic card and if you still in doubt the card will usually have the brand name of the maker on the card somewhere. So check to make sure you have the right card. Now when a graphics card is "Seated" it is correctly placed inside the slot that it goes into, sometimes what happens is that the graphics card will get tugged or bumped and it will come out of that slot a little. Just push down on the card and if it goes down further and pops into placed then that was the problem and your card was properly seated. But if it doesn't move at all then it could be something else.
However if you've tried the cable and you know you monitors good and you've just tried Seating the card and it's already seated well, then there are only two possible solutions. Buy a new graphics card or buy a new computer.
Lets move on to the second example for want of time here. Of your computer just restarts for no reason it could be one of four issues. 1. your hard drive is bad. 2. you motherboard is bad. 3. your power supply is bad. and 4. Your Operating System Software needs to be reinstalled. Now all of these are potentially bad, but you probably guessed that. Unfortunately is this case there is only one way to rule out any of these possibilities, you need someone who knows how to check and verify each system, so call of you geek of a friend or put something on my tech forum and maybe you problem can be resolved easily and maybe you just have to buy a new computer.
Many people just go out and buy a new computer when they don't have too, and on the other hand many people don't buy a new computer even though they should. Just try to evaluate whats happening to your computer, some things are fixable and some thing are not, and don't forget you can always Webit and find out what the Internet has to say about your problem, I can guarantee that no matter the problem someone else out there has had it also.
Happy Computing!
Lets take the monitor example first, well to begin we should rule out the obvious.....Is the monitor plug into the power outlet, is the monitor cable to the computer plugged in a secure?
Is the computer on? ...These are the no brainers, if you've tried all of those and still can't get anything to come up here are some possible solutions. First thing is that it may be a bad cable that you have connecting from your computer to the monitor, so the solution.....try a different cable. After you have done that and still no Dice then things get a little more technical. If your warranty is up and you feel comfortable opening up the box to your computer then try this solution. It's called checking to see is your Graphics card is seated. Well you ask how to I know which one is my graphics card? Generally speaking you can look down into the machine and see the big fan that is pointing straight up at you that is your computer processor under that fan not look to the south of that big fan you'll see a bunch of slots. This are your slots for you peripheral cards. Usually the one closest to the processor is your graphic card and if you still in doubt the card will usually have the brand name of the maker on the card somewhere. So check to make sure you have the right card. Now when a graphics card is "Seated" it is correctly placed inside the slot that it goes into, sometimes what happens is that the graphics card will get tugged or bumped and it will come out of that slot a little. Just push down on the card and if it goes down further and pops into placed then that was the problem and your card was properly seated. But if it doesn't move at all then it could be something else.
However if you've tried the cable and you know you monitors good and you've just tried Seating the card and it's already seated well, then there are only two possible solutions. Buy a new graphics card or buy a new computer.
Lets move on to the second example for want of time here. Of your computer just restarts for no reason it could be one of four issues. 1. your hard drive is bad. 2. you motherboard is bad. 3. your power supply is bad. and 4. Your Operating System Software needs to be reinstalled. Now all of these are potentially bad, but you probably guessed that. Unfortunately is this case there is only one way to rule out any of these possibilities, you need someone who knows how to check and verify each system, so call of you geek of a friend or put something on my tech forum and maybe you problem can be resolved easily and maybe you just have to buy a new computer.
Many people just go out and buy a new computer when they don't have too, and on the other hand many people don't buy a new computer even though they should. Just try to evaluate whats happening to your computer, some things are fixable and some thing are not, and don't forget you can always Webit and find out what the Internet has to say about your problem, I can guarantee that no matter the problem someone else out there has had it also.
Happy Computing!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Keeping those files in line
On this fourth of July I thought it might be fitting to talk about the freedom of file structures and how best to organize your self and your computer files. Many of us just assume that the best place to hold our files are in the folders that Bill Gates gave to us, for example "My Documents" or "My Pictures". Although these are convenient places I would recommend otherwise, the reason being that if by chance you do get a virus, or heaven forbid your computer gets hacked these default places will be the first places that the virus or the hacker will look to get your personal info, so I strongly suggest you not use those folders.
Here is what I do and I keep my files safe and secure nice and snugly all the time. If you have occasion get your self a second hard drive or if you already have one then wonderful. If you don't have a second hard drive and run everything off the C drive these methods can still apply, but I recommend you get a secondary hard drive for your computer.
Number 1: On your second drive organize your self with how you work on your computer. If you deal mostly with office stuff or writing letters then create a folder for "The Office" or "Letters". Examine what you do on a daily basis. For example I do a lot of photo work, so in my folder structure I have "Tim's Photos" and in that folder I have "portfolio", "Backgrounds", "My Family", "Friends", "Camera Photos", etc. and each one of those folders has sub folders that go into more details about what exactly is located there. Windows doesn't have a space requirement for how many folders you create so make as many as you wish, you may find it daunting at first to create and organize yourself in this way, but it will really reward you in the future. Once you have the folders set up with all the things you want to hold then GRAB! all your personal stuff out of those Bill Gates folders and TAKE BACK your computer! They are yours not his and you should be able to keep your files wherever you wish, this is America after all.
Number 2: Organize your folders in a way that makes sense if you look at your photos and see they all say "IMG_0156" don't make a folder that says "IMG_s" that doesn't make sense, instead make a folder called "Photos" or "Digital Camera" and when you finally do get a chance to go through those files it might be really helpful for you to rename all those generic camera photos to what they actually are.
Number3: I know some of you are saying, "But it's just easier to keep all my stuff in the folders Bill Gates gave me". Well OK, ......I give you that, it is easy and convenient, but it's just not practical, if your computer crashes it's gonna take all your files down with it, if you have your personal files on a second hard drive then when the computer crashes you can be sure that your files are safe and secure, you can reinstall the C drive with windows and low and behold all your personal files will be waiting for you just the way you left them on the second drive.
Remember this is your computer,...... you bought it! You need to take control of it! Take back the freedoms that your files so richly deserve and Keep those files in Line! God Bless America!
Here is what I do and I keep my files safe and secure nice and snugly all the time. If you have occasion get your self a second hard drive or if you already have one then wonderful. If you don't have a second hard drive and run everything off the C drive these methods can still apply, but I recommend you get a secondary hard drive for your computer.
Number 1: On your second drive organize your self with how you work on your computer. If you deal mostly with office stuff or writing letters then create a folder for "The Office" or "Letters". Examine what you do on a daily basis. For example I do a lot of photo work, so in my folder structure I have "Tim's Photos" and in that folder I have "portfolio", "Backgrounds", "My Family", "Friends", "Camera Photos", etc. and each one of those folders has sub folders that go into more details about what exactly is located there. Windows doesn't have a space requirement for how many folders you create so make as many as you wish, you may find it daunting at first to create and organize yourself in this way, but it will really reward you in the future. Once you have the folders set up with all the things you want to hold then GRAB! all your personal stuff out of those Bill Gates folders and TAKE BACK your computer! They are yours not his and you should be able to keep your files wherever you wish, this is America after all.
Number 2: Organize your folders in a way that makes sense if you look at your photos and see they all say "IMG_0156" don't make a folder that says "IMG_s" that doesn't make sense, instead make a folder called "Photos" or "Digital Camera" and when you finally do get a chance to go through those files it might be really helpful for you to rename all those generic camera photos to what they actually are.
Number3: I know some of you are saying, "But it's just easier to keep all my stuff in the folders Bill Gates gave me". Well OK, ......I give you that, it is easy and convenient, but it's just not practical, if your computer crashes it's gonna take all your files down with it, if you have your personal files on a second hard drive then when the computer crashes you can be sure that your files are safe and secure, you can reinstall the C drive with windows and low and behold all your personal files will be waiting for you just the way you left them on the second drive.
Remember this is your computer,...... you bought it! You need to take control of it! Take back the freedoms that your files so richly deserve and Keep those files in Line! God Bless America!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Computer House Cleaning Part 2
So now that your all experts at keeping you desktop clean and organizing yourselves lets move on to some other issues.
The next time you start your computer look down at the bottom right of your screen...you'll notice that right next to the time are a few icons, for some of you it'll be a ton of icons. These are the programs that start as soon as windows start. Chances are most of them really don't need to start when windows starts and stopping them from starting does not mean that you won't be able to start them at all, you can always start these programs through the start-all programs menu.
So you ask well how do I get rid of all those programs that start up and take up all my processing power while they do nothing? Well I'm gonna tell you. Most of those icons you can right click and go to the options or properties menu, in that menu it will most likely have an option that say "Start when windows starts" or something similar, simply uncheck that option and then the next time your computer starts it won't have to load that unneeded program.
Alternatively you can do it the hard way. Go to "Start" and then "Run", in the dialogue box type "msconfig". This will bring up the config menus for windows. Now allot of this stuff you don't want to mess with but I'll let you in on the secrets here. Click on the tab that says "Startup" and you'll notice a long list of programs. Simply go down the list and uncheck all the programs that you know you don't need to start when windows starts and I can tell you that it'll probably be most of them. You'll want to leave the ones for your antivirus and for your Internet connections, but most others can be unchecked in this list without ruining the operations of your computer in anyway. Having done that click "Apply" and then "ok". It'll prompt you to restart go ahead and do that. The next time windows starts a dialogue box will pop up that states that the msconfig file has been changed, just click the don't show me this again box and then click "ok".
Congratulations now you've stopped a lot of unneeded programs from starting and you will notice quite a performance boost to the operations of your computer, and for all of you still wondering why should I even do this?.....IT WILL MAKE YOUR COMPUTER RUN FASTER......
Well hope you have fun with that and as always if you have any questions feel free to comment here or start up a thread in the forum.
Happy Computing!
The next time you start your computer look down at the bottom right of your screen...you'll notice that right next to the time are a few icons, for some of you it'll be a ton of icons. These are the programs that start as soon as windows start. Chances are most of them really don't need to start when windows starts and stopping them from starting does not mean that you won't be able to start them at all, you can always start these programs through the start-all programs menu.
So you ask well how do I get rid of all those programs that start up and take up all my processing power while they do nothing? Well I'm gonna tell you. Most of those icons you can right click and go to the options or properties menu, in that menu it will most likely have an option that say "Start when windows starts" or something similar, simply uncheck that option and then the next time your computer starts it won't have to load that unneeded program.
Alternatively you can do it the hard way. Go to "Start" and then "Run", in the dialogue box type "msconfig". This will bring up the config menus for windows. Now allot of this stuff you don't want to mess with but I'll let you in on the secrets here. Click on the tab that says "Startup" and you'll notice a long list of programs. Simply go down the list and uncheck all the programs that you know you don't need to start when windows starts and I can tell you that it'll probably be most of them. You'll want to leave the ones for your antivirus and for your Internet connections, but most others can be unchecked in this list without ruining the operations of your computer in anyway. Having done that click "Apply" and then "ok". It'll prompt you to restart go ahead and do that. The next time windows starts a dialogue box will pop up that states that the msconfig file has been changed, just click the don't show me this again box and then click "ok".
Congratulations now you've stopped a lot of unneeded programs from starting and you will notice quite a performance boost to the operations of your computer, and for all of you still wondering why should I even do this?.....IT WILL MAKE YOUR COMPUTER RUN FASTER......
Well hope you have fun with that and as always if you have any questions feel free to comment here or start up a thread in the forum.
Happy Computing!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Computer House Cleaning Part 1
So I thought that I would cover some simple techniques today that any user can use to get rid of the junk that slows down your computer.
The First rule of thumb is this: NEVER click "ok" to any dialogue box when you don't know what it's going to do. ALWAYS hit cancel if your in doubt.
That rule will save many of you from getting Spyware and Adware on your machines as your surf the net.
Next Make SURE you have a good antivirus and by good I mean NOT Norton. Norton is probably the worst Antivirus out there and will cause you more problems than it fixes. Mcafee is a little better but still not what I would recommend. I personally use KasperSky. Kaspersky is a great antivirus always more up to date than Norton and Mcafee, in fact Norton and Mcafee get their virus databases from Kastersky's database. So that would be my choice, now if you have Norton or Mcafee don't go out and change right away, but perhaps the next time your license is due you can think of switching out.
Third: Monitor what programs get installed on your machine. One way to tell is to go to Start and then Programs and just look through the list and see what you got. I bet it's been a while since you did that. If you feel a little more comfortable with your machine you can go to Add/Remove programs in the control panel and see all the programs that are installed on your computer. Go down through the list and remove programs that you know you don't use. If your in doubt about a program WEBIT! and see what it does.
Fourth: CLEAN UP YOUR DESKTOP! Thats right I'm talking to YOU!! I know you have way to many icons just floating around on your desktop and your just holding on to them for that one fateful day when you might need it again. If you haven't clicked an Icon on your desktop for over a week then delete it off the desktop. And NEVER, I mean NEVER store files on your desktop. The desktop is the worst place to store a file. Why? The desktop is a virtual space and that means that it's the first thing to crash when your computer goes down and that means that you have a much better chance of loosing whatever files you had on the desktop. You should ALWAYS keep files that your working on in Folders on your hard drive. NEVER on the desktop. And one more thing, the more icons you have on your desktop the longer it takes your windows to load and that means more waiting time for you.
Fifth: Get organized! Know where all your files are and be able to access them easily and efficiently. Use folders names that make sense. Don't just go with what the computer chooses for you. Pick names for your folders that make sense to you and that you'll remember later. Being a well organized user will give you the best chances of not loosing files and not duplicating files or folders. That's a good thing to mention as well, Look through your files and see if your have duplicates. If you have one picture of a dog with a bone in one folder and the same picture in another, you probably don't need both so eliminate one and keep yourself well organized.
Well this has gone on longer than I thought and I have a lot more to share so we'll call this installment one on Computer House Cleaning. Happy Computing!
The First rule of thumb is this: NEVER click "ok" to any dialogue box when you don't know what it's going to do. ALWAYS hit cancel if your in doubt.
That rule will save many of you from getting Spyware and Adware on your machines as your surf the net.
Next Make SURE you have a good antivirus and by good I mean NOT Norton. Norton is probably the worst Antivirus out there and will cause you more problems than it fixes. Mcafee is a little better but still not what I would recommend. I personally use KasperSky. Kaspersky is a great antivirus always more up to date than Norton and Mcafee, in fact Norton and Mcafee get their virus databases from Kastersky's database. So that would be my choice, now if you have Norton or Mcafee don't go out and change right away, but perhaps the next time your license is due you can think of switching out.
Third: Monitor what programs get installed on your machine. One way to tell is to go to Start and then Programs and just look through the list and see what you got. I bet it's been a while since you did that. If you feel a little more comfortable with your machine you can go to Add/Remove programs in the control panel and see all the programs that are installed on your computer. Go down through the list and remove programs that you know you don't use. If your in doubt about a program WEBIT! and see what it does.
Fourth: CLEAN UP YOUR DESKTOP! Thats right I'm talking to YOU!! I know you have way to many icons just floating around on your desktop and your just holding on to them for that one fateful day when you might need it again. If you haven't clicked an Icon on your desktop for over a week then delete it off the desktop. And NEVER, I mean NEVER store files on your desktop. The desktop is the worst place to store a file. Why? The desktop is a virtual space and that means that it's the first thing to crash when your computer goes down and that means that you have a much better chance of loosing whatever files you had on the desktop. You should ALWAYS keep files that your working on in Folders on your hard drive. NEVER on the desktop. And one more thing, the more icons you have on your desktop the longer it takes your windows to load and that means more waiting time for you.
Fifth: Get organized! Know where all your files are and be able to access them easily and efficiently. Use folders names that make sense. Don't just go with what the computer chooses for you. Pick names for your folders that make sense to you and that you'll remember later. Being a well organized user will give you the best chances of not loosing files and not duplicating files or folders. That's a good thing to mention as well, Look through your files and see if your have duplicates. If you have one picture of a dog with a bone in one folder and the same picture in another, you probably don't need both so eliminate one and keep yourself well organized.
Well this has gone on longer than I thought and I have a lot more to share so we'll call this installment one on Computer House Cleaning. Happy Computing!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
WEBIT!!
In this age of Google to many good people are being sucked in to what I call the Googloompah take over. It seems that Google has infiltrated our whole Internet existence, to the point of some losing themselves on the servers of the Google Empire. So in an effort to lead the revolution I've coined a new phrase "WEBIT".
Think about the last conversation you had with someone and your weren't quite clear on the facts, I'm sure one of you said, "I'll Google it later". Why do we do that!? Not only is Google the fastest growing company in the world probably, but they made themselves a Verb! Now don't get me wrong that is impressive, but I don't see a reason for me to follow suit. Let us not be mind numbed followers of the Internet age, let us not just Google for the mere reason that everyone else is doing it! Let us take back the Internet! I say WEBIT!
So the next time someone asks if you can look something up on the Internet, you say "Sure!, I'll WEBIT!!, or "I don't know, you should WEBIT!"
Happy Searching everyone!, see you in the WEB!
Think about the last conversation you had with someone and your weren't quite clear on the facts, I'm sure one of you said, "I'll Google it later". Why do we do that!? Not only is Google the fastest growing company in the world probably, but they made themselves a Verb! Now don't get me wrong that is impressive, but I don't see a reason for me to follow suit. Let us not be mind numbed followers of the Internet age, let us not just Google for the mere reason that everyone else is doing it! Let us take back the Internet! I say WEBIT!
So the next time someone asks if you can look something up on the Internet, you say "Sure!, I'll WEBIT!!, or "I don't know, you should WEBIT!"
Happy Searching everyone!, see you in the WEB!
DirectX 10 Triumph
So you may or may not know that the main reason that I would even consider buying vista is DirectX 10. DirectX is a graphics engine that runs basically every visual aspect of your computer. Your graphics card uses directX to manipulate all the graphics on your computer. DirectX 9 is great and allows for some really cool visual effects, but DirectX 10 is that latest super cool directX version, the only down side is that it isn't available for XP, you have to buy vista to use it. Which I think is ridiculous, it's just another way for Microsoft to sell an OS that doesn't really match up to it's predecessors. Many programmers and developers are comparing windows Vista to the Windows ME of yesteryear. What you've never heard of windows ME. Well join the club ME was probably the shortest lived version of Windows ever simply because it wasn't any good. Vista with all it's bells and whistles is just not up to par with what the advanced consumer wants and needs. Anyway enough Vista Bashing.
On to the celebration! I found a beta version of DirectX 10 for Windows XP. It's done by a group called the Alky Project. It's fantastic, I can get the visual effects of DirectX 10 and I don't have to worry about buying vista. For those of you who know how to handle a beta just copy this: Alky Project. And look it up on the Internet. For those of you who have no Idea what a Beta version is or what DirectX 10 is all about, don't worry you probably don't need it right now.
Anyway, I was rejoicing because of this find and maybe some of you can benefit from it.
On to the celebration! I found a beta version of DirectX 10 for Windows XP. It's done by a group called the Alky Project. It's fantastic, I can get the visual effects of DirectX 10 and I don't have to worry about buying vista. For those of you who know how to handle a beta just copy this: Alky Project. And look it up on the Internet. For those of you who have no Idea what a Beta version is or what DirectX 10 is all about, don't worry you probably don't need it right now.
Anyway, I was rejoicing because of this find and maybe some of you can benefit from it.
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