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The Free Stuff: Anti-virus Software AVG Anti-virus: the most popular free-ware anti-virus Avast anti-virus: another freeware A-V choice Anti-Spyware Software Ad Aware Spy Bot Cleanup/tune-up utilities ccleaner cleans up temp and junk files, scans registry for known bugs <More later>

Windows XP is a wonder. It has thousands of files and a registry that turns mere mortals into jelly should they attempt to play with it. As fancy as it is, Xp users can run into a lot of headaches. Viruses, worms and spyware (Oh my. ) are a sad fact of intenet life and anyone that has suffered their wrath won't soon forget it. A feature of XP that many people either forget about or have never hear of is called Safe Mode. When you boot the system hit the F8 key and windows will load with a minimal set of drivers and allow you to unscrew whatever is screwed up. Tthe things that makes safe mode so appealing for diagnostics is that very few processes are loaded into memory and to interfere with things like virus/spware detection and removal or defragging the hard drive. Safe Mode comes in several variations. First is Safe Mode with Networking which would give you web access if networking is actually working. The next layer of Safe Mode has no networking turned on and is 100% isolated so that you can clean up whatever mess you have on your hands without exposing a flakey PC to the wild, wild web. Last is Safe Mode with only a command line. Thar be dragons here so if you don't know what you are doing, leave this one alone. You don't have to do anything very fancy to a windows box to create a software conflict, a condition where two or more programs are competing for the same resources. Windows is supposed to guard against this problem but it does happen. Usually systems that develop this problem have been used for a while, have lots of programs loaded. The system begins to slow down, lock-up for no apparent reason or have start-up or shut-down hang-ups (system boots or shuts down very slowly). Another friend to windows users is the Windows Task Manager or the little box you get when you hit control-alt-delete. When you have symptoms like unexpected lockups and startup/shutdown hangups, take a careful look at Windows Task Manager. You will be able to see how much memory and CPU time that all of the various programs (processes) that running on your computer actually use. If either CPU or memory usage VERY LARGE compaired to outher programs, that may well be your problem. Try killing it and see how your system behaves with out it. Another sign of trouble under Task Manager is too many processes are running at once. This could mean that spyware is loading up and running Don't worry. In windows, there is usually a dozen programs to do most anything. If you have to throw one out for behaving badly, chances are you can find another one that is better and will play nice with your operating system and other programs. OK- Here's a menu for a pretty good diagnostic session. If you do this about once a month, you'll save yourself a lot of greif. Reboot system, hit F8 while system is loading and come up in SAFE mode Run your anti-virus program Run your anti-spyware program Run CCcleaner [free utility that eliminates temporary and junk files) Run a registry checkup program to clean up and optimize your registry. Empty your Trash folder. Run defrag on your primary (usually C:) drive partition. Reboot your system to standard Windows. In my next entry I will list some programs and links to both free and commercial software + the pros and cons of freeware vs commercial software.

Over on Digg.com, I saw an article called Ten reasons every programmer should know C. On a whole I have to agree with the author: if you are a computer science student or a professional programmer, you should know C. It is a powerful language but that power comes at a high price. It is one of the most difficult languages to learn, use and master. However, if you do manage to master C, there aren't any uglier languages to learn. Most programs don't really require C and can be handled at a higher level like an SQL database or a scripting language like Perl or Ruby. Using C would be taking the long way to handle a trivial application. Where C really shines is in systems and utility software and cross-platform portability. If you are worried about things like that then C might just be what you are looking for. In the interest of balance, I decided to include a rebuttal here in my blog: Top 10 Reasons NOT to program in C 1). Because C code is ugly and will make you cross-eyed. 2). Because those that want to fondle embedded technologies risk creating a new order of intelligence that will exterminate mankind. 3). C stands for :wacko: cryptic, crusty and :2hands: conniption. 4). If you use C, you'll spend most of your time rewriting library routines already included in C++. 5). C uses pointers which often point to nothing in particular. ===> nowhere 6). C programs are small, tight and efficient and make Microsoft programs look bad. 7). C programmers consider themselves elite and wonder who are you to think that you can join their club. 8). Programming in C can cause dain bramage. 9). Bugs in C look remarkably like undocumented features. 10). C isn't object oriented and you probably can't afford the version of C that is.

Back in the eighties if you had anything to do with computer programming, Borland's Turbo Pascal and Turbo C were all the rage. Borland created Intergrated Development Environments (IDEs) that allowed programmers to write, edit, compile and debug code all in one program. Since then, IDEs have become something of an industry standard like JavaBeans and Eclipse. Well, Borland is back! You can download for free Turbo Explorer compilers for C++, C# and Delphi. Free is always the right price. C stuff is all over the web so I won't belabor that point. Delphi is an object-oriented version of Pascal with extensions for the windows environment. You can find these compilers at the Turbo Explorer Homepage. If you are intrested in Delphi, check out Marco Cantu's homepage. He has free code and ebooks available for download. Two of these are of special interest are: Essential Pascal and Essential Delphi. These can be found at Cantu's free Pascal and Delphi ebooks.

Did I mention that the MSN messenger hates me? I'm not sure what I did to piss it off so bad. Every time I try to use MSN, it connects,might work for a short time (or might not) and then it locks up my internet connection. GRRRR. I missed the GAC meeting tonight because it wouldn't work. That bums me out because I hate to let down the team. I even uninstalled it and tried to reload it, then cold booted the entire system. Same crap. How embarrassing. The International Brotherhood of Geekdom is going to demand that I return my pocket protector. Sorry guys.

The design of my knowledge-base is specific to me and my interests. Another persons knowledge base may look completely different with different topics and priorities. Astronomy & AstrophysicsAstrophysics Black Holes Gravity Cosmology General Astrophysics High Energy AP Hubble Observations Neutron Stars/Pulsars Plasma Physics Stellar structure & Evolution Supernova [*]Basic Astronomy [*]Celestial Mechanics [*]General [*]History [*]Milky Way [*]NASA Pubs [*]Research Methods and Instruments [*]Spacecraft [*]Stars [*]Solar Astronomy [*]Reference [*]Business Accounting ATWork Skills Business Tech Cost-Benefit Analysis CRM Economics Finance Grant Proposals Management PR Project Management Risk Management World Trade [*]Certifications Cisco DB 2 Java Linux Microsoft MySQL Security Sun [*]Computer Hardware Bus Computer & Processor Architecture Firmware Hard Drives Memory PC Designs Ports Printers Software USB Cables [*]Databases Data Mining Data Warehousing Databases Access DB 2 Java Databases MySQL Oracle Misc Databases [*]Data Conversion [*]DB Design [*]Relational Databases- Theory & Practice [*]SQL [*]Electronics- huge [*]Engineering Aerospace Architecture Automotive Blueprints & Diagrams CAD Chemical Civil Components Construction Electrical Guides/Reference Engines Environmental Machining Materials Mechanical Metallurgy Vibration Pipes Welding Wiring [*]Fiction Classics Fantasy Horror Mysteries Sci-Fi Techno-Thrillers Graphic Novels [*]Fun Stuff aquarium/fish backpacking bikes bonsai Crafts gardening Darwin Awards Humor Model Rocketry Modeling Motorcycling Music Cat Care Photography [*]Games 007 Aftermath Aliens Babylon 5 Cyberpunk D20 FASA Gurps Rifts Space Opera Star Wars Stargate Traveler [*]General Science Anthropology Archeology Biology Chemistry Climatology Ecology Geology Oceanography Optics Reference [*]History Classical Period Middle Ages Colonial Period Industrial Revolution Modern [*]Home & Garden [*]Info Systems [to be reorganized] [*]Info Security [to be reorganized] [*]Intelligence Sources & Methods Organization Analysis Asia Africa Australia Europe North America South America [*]Knowledge Theory [to be reorganized] [*]Legal [*]Manuals & Guides Backup & Recovery Hardware Lab MS Office Net Services Open Source Reference Software Disaster [*]Math algebra algorithms Basics Bessel Functions Calculus Combinatorics Complexity Differential Equations Dirac Hilbert Integrals Probability Sequences Statistics Tensors Abbreviated List<< [*]Medicine Anatomy & Physiology allergies Emergency First Aid Health Maintenance Reference Abbreviated List<< [*]Military Administration Basic Technologies Disaster Response Engineering Equipment FEMA Field-craft Hand2hand NBC nuclear, Biological & Chemical Weapons Small Arms Smithing Small Unite Tactics Guerrilla Warfare Counterinsurgency [*]Operating Systems Apple BSD Linux Microsoft OS OS Theory UNIX POSIX [*]Periodicals Scientific American Nature Science Jane's Defense Weekly [*]Physics Acoustics Classical Mechanics Electromagnetism General Gravitation Quantum Physics Relativity String Theory Nuclear Physics Radiation Physics Mathematics for Physics Study Guides Thermodynamics Spectroscopy Optics Statistical Mechanics [*]Programming Computer Modeling Data Compression Graphics Interfaces Markup Languages html xtml xml [*]Programming Languages C Family Pascal Family FORTRAN Java [*]Programming Theories and Methodologies Structured Programming Object Oriented Programming Data Structures Algorithms [*]Scripting Languages Perl TCL Python Ruby [*]Software Engineering [*]Web Development [*]Psychology [*]Reference Maps Cultures Encyclopedias Oxford Dictionary Jane's military references [*]Technology Aerospace Audio Bluetooth boats CD-DVD Cell phones Digital imaging Energy Fiber Optics Lasers Microprocessors Multimedia nanotechnology neural nets nuclear technology Radar Radio Robotics SAN Satellites Sensors ships signal processing speech recognition weapons wireless [*]Writing Craft Business Writing Journalism Reference technical fiction

I have been working on a project for a long time that I'm going to describe in the next few blog entries. I began collecting e-books some time ago. At first it was just a few but as I began finding more and more sources for them, my ebooks collection became like a snowball rolling downhill getting bigger and bigger gathering momentum. It wasn't too long before the management of this collection became a real chore. This library is now several hundred gigs in size and contains over 100,000 distinct volumes. There are a great many headaches involved. First: formats- there is pdf, djv, txt, html, compiled html and more. Second: some volumes are teasers and are incomplete and ineligible for inclusion. Third: some books don't neatly fit into one subject area- e.g. Does An Atlas of Gravity belong in the Reference section, physics section or astrophysics section? Fourth: duplicates are a big problem and are not easily detected. As a person who has worked in "Information Systems" for 20+ years, the management of unstructured data is a challenge that I have been working on for a very long time. While many applications are neatly and cleanly death with in the tabular format of spreadsheets and relational databases, knowledge is not so neat or clean. It comes in blobs and often overlaps on to completely different genres. The breakthrough that I have accomplished is not making knowledge fit into a nice neat package or application. It is building the application to accommodate the knowledge. Various schemes have been devised to accomplish this. The oldest and best known is the Dewey Decimal System which is a reasonable and efficient way to organize paper libraries. When IT is applied to the problem however, Dewey's decimals don't add up. The DDS depends on numbers like 431.11c, 536.32 and 702.122. The problem is that computers see those numbers as REAL numbers with a decimal part and an exponent. In some cases a Dewey Decimal Number doesn't equal a number that the computer can use. Because of rounding, 702.122 might actually equal 702.123. This Dawg just won't hunt. In the eighties, another scheme developed for organizing library data with info technology in mind is called MARC MAchine Readable Cataloging. MARC kicks butt for cataloging libraries. The problem is that it was expanded to encompass ALL of the different things that modern libraries are keeping: records, CDs, software, etc. MARC has become so complex that it has become unwieldy and difficult to work with. The use of other methods is underway like XML and XML enabled databases but the central problem remains: how best to organize and structure an electronic library?

I got a PM from a student requesting advice on buying a notebook PC and I thought that I would share my suggestions here in my blog. These are just a few of my thoughs and suggestions. I would be delighted if it gave anybody inspiration or ideas. If not, well... it is here for free. _________________________________________________________________________ I suggest either HP or Dell. Both are very solid and priced competetivly. Both have websites that let you design and price your own configuration with various options. HP and Dell are established companies and have tons of experience building all sorts of computers. Your notebook won't be their first. Toshiba makes a good laptop too but they tend to cost more for the same box. Once you've bought your notebook, you aren't through buying stuff yet. Remember to save some of your cash for software. I suggest Microsoft Office student & teacher version and Mathematica. Both run about $100 for the student version. Depends on what you study of course. Here's a tip: buy Microsoft Office 2003. It's on its way out but can be had at significant discounts. You may want a second power adapter: one for where your PC lives most of the time and one for the road. Another item you may want is either a backpack or breifcase for your laptop. Most kids use a backpack which is OK but I like something that protects it better. I use a notebook breifcase by Vaultz. Unlike soft-sided backpacks, the Vaultz products protect the items you are storing and they look really good. Vaultz If you want a backpack for your notebook, I suggest Swissgear. Their cost is middle of the road and they add a lot of little details that make their backpacks more convenient like special pockets for cd player and a cell phone. They also stand up to wear very well. I've had one for 6 years and it looks brand new. Swissgear I have a sweet little HP laptop that I got this spring that I configured myself for a little less than $900 BUT that was before Vista [which I would stay away from for a while until they get the bugs out]. As far as specs, I'd go with 17" screen- or a minimum of 15". Go with a gigabyte of memory minimum. 2 MHz processors are fairly standard now. Try to get as much hard drive as possible. 100 GB is fairly common in laptops now and probably about right for most peoples needs. Most notbooks come with a network adapter. If you need a modem, get it with your PC, don't add it later. The original manufactuer will have it installed correctly and will save you a headache. You may also want a USB hard drive to back up your data to. They connect to your laptop via a USB port and act like an extra hard drive. I got one by Seagate with 320 Gbyts for $90. I copy all my critical files to the secondary drive. The notebook hard drive or the USB drive may die but it is unlikely that both of them will die at the same time and your data (work, collections, etc) will live on after a crash. Here is an example of the drive that I have. They come in all sizes and are really worth it for backup or data trandfers between laptop and desktop.