Gnomie Joshua Thomson writes:

I watched your video where a viewer asked about Web conferencing. I use ooVoo; it’s a good conferencing program — let’s just hope it stays free after beta. Of course Skype is supposed to be implementing video conferencing, which I hear is supposed to handle up to 16 people at a time… but there are currently already a few good actually conferencing apps.

First is Vsee. It’s a decent conferencing app; I don’t know the limit on how many people can be on at once, but I’ve done up to four.

Then there’s MeBeam. Now this is nice because you don’t have to download anything! It’s Flash-based, and I’ve seen up to eight people on at once. You can create your own room, but be careful… there’s a “Random Room” button on the top that will, as it says, take you to a random room. From my experience, which has been just today, almost every room that you randomly connect to has some weird stuff going on. A lot of guys (doing inappropriate things, as you can imagine), just to forewarn you! Thus, I don’t know if you make a room and tell your friends the room name, if other people can click “random room” and join yours? There is no password protect, so it’s worth “testing” for a free non-download conference application.

And there is SightSpeed, which is kind of like Skype. It only offers one-on-one video chat for free and for conferencing you have to upgrade (which is a paid service).

Gnomie Nate Wright writes:

Hey Chris, I’ve got a problem. I built a computer last summer around June and (like an idiot) I bought most of my parts without doing any real research. I didn’t know very much about computers and thinking that it was going to be really good I went and bought Vista 64 bit over Vista 32 bit. I have experienced many problems from SLI not working but in fact slowing down my FPS, to just nonstop computer crashes. Now I’m ready to go and buy a vista 32 bit OEM version but I have a problem: I have a lot of content stored on my computer. I currently have a 250 GB SATA hard drive and I only have around 100 gigs free, so I need some way to back up all that content. I don’t really want to use DVDs because that would just seem like a huge waste, and I don’t want to buy an external hard drive because they are more expensive for less space. So basically I have three questions:

1. Is it possible to perform an upgrade from Vista Premium 64 bit to Vista Premium 32 bit so that I don’t lose any content, or am I seriously going to have to either buy an external HDD or a crap-ton of DVDs?
2. Is there a way (if I get another internal SATA drive) to partition both my hard drives so that they are both recognized as the C: drive and their storage is combined? Or would they be recognized as two different partitions?
3. Would it be possible to install Vista on a new HDD and then somehow transfer the files from the old HDD (which would still have Vista on it) to the new one with Vista installed?

Sorry if any of this is unclear. I didn’t really know how to state some of these questions… I’m more of a wannabe computer geek than a real one like you (that’s meant to be a compliment, by the way). Any help would be greatly appreciated; so far I have failed to find any information on these things.

BTW: Those April Fools’ Day jokes were hilarious. I can’t believe that people thought that you actually hated the iPhone because the icons “jiggled,” and you were switching back to Windows XP for Microsoft Paint! Keep up the good work!

Gnomie John writes:

Why upgrade? Chances are you have bought something online with a credit card, used internet banking, or dealt with confidential information on your computer. If you use a wireless router with anything less than WPA2 encryption, your information may not be as secure as you think.

“WPA2 security is definitely worth the modest amount of effort required to set it up. The original WPA security standard can be cracked with relative ease unless you use a passphrase that is longer than 20 characters and is not merely composed of words that can be found in a dictionary.” [Quote from the PC World article: Wireless Tips: Your Wireless Network Needs a Security Update]

1. Check current devices for compatibility. Your router and wireless network card may already support WPA2; Google your devices and find out. If they do, download the latest drivers for your wireless network card and update the firmware on your wireless router (very easy to do, but follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully).

   If your devices don’t support WPA2, and the security of the information transferred over your network is important to you, consider buying a wireless network card and router that support WPA2. Most recent wireless devices have WPA2 as standard.

2. Download the WPA2 Hotfix for Windows XP. This threw me when I was setting up my network. You need to download this hotfix or WPA2 will not work. It’s that simple. The hotfix is #KB893357 available from the Microsoft Web site.
3. Set a strong password for both network key and wireless router. What’s the point of all this if you set a one word password? So make it greater than 20 characters, consisting of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and obscure characters such as @ and &. Randomize it — be creative. Get your pets to walk on your keyboard. Just don’t be predictable. Pretend you’re Jack Bauer and this is a matter of national security.
4. Don’t bother with MAC filtering or Hide SSID. They add little or nothing to your security. Unless you have a specific reason for doing so, activating them generally only makes your life more stressful.
5. Use TKIP & AES encryption when selecting the encryption settings on your wireless router and on your computer; select WPA2-Personal with TKIP & AES encryption. This is a very high level of security for today’s standards.

HOT TIP: WPA2 Personal is the one to use unless you run a large enterprise.

BONUS TIP: Use the Windows Wireless Assistant built into Windows rather than the one your wireless network card came with. It generally works with less conflict and generally uses less system resources. It’s one less “Yet Another Program That Wants To Load At Startup.”

Gnomie Gabe Somebody (if that is, indeed, his real name!) writes:

Hey Chris, I’ve got a top five list for you. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent trying to fuss with my home networking to discover the solutions are usually simpler than they seem.

1. Totally go with wired or wireless — not both.

2. Don’t use Windows for your home network. Just go to Best Buy and get a simple networking program. Keep it simple!
3. Beware of electrical interference. Try not to place your router too close to a computer, microwave, cable box, TV, etc. Just move it. Simple as that.
4. Change the channel. Interference can sometimes be cleared up as as easily as changing the channel on your wireless router. You might have had the problem only because somebody was cooking something in a nearby microwave. You can buy a USB device that finds the best channel for you, but it’s just a waste of money. Just experiment and change the channel to best suit your environment.
5. Location, location, location. Try to put your wireless router high up and near the thing that will use it the most. Also, don’t place it too close to windows (the holes in your house that are covered in glass — not the operating system). Doing this will not only increase your range, it will increase transfer time also.

Irish Gnomie Barry (aka Basement) writes:

Hey Chris,

I’ve been following your videos for a while and have only thought of mailing just now; wasn’t sure if you had a video on this topic.

I’m very busy with college and do most of my work on my MacBook, which I purchased in September. It has developed a little crack, but that’s another story and seemingly a common problem.

My desktop at home is XP Pro SP2, and at this point is more of a machine for chilling out than anything else. I do keep it relatively up to date, but as I’m so busy I don’t always get to mess around with it. The other day I started going through some folders and deleting things — junk, mostly downloaded bits of crap, old versions of updates, anti-spyware, etc. I deleted quite a few items. Fortunately I tend to download all of this to one or two main folders, so it’s easy to dump. I’m a bit less naive with things now, so I don’t download as much free software as before, but sometimes it’s amusing to find old versions of setups, etc. I did have a silly phase of hunting for things like mp3 converters, but I’m hardly bothered with that any more.

In terms of organisation, I think I’m OK at this. I tend to keep all my music in proper order. Same goes for college stuff; see below for an example:

C:\Barry\College\Psych\20072008\Admin Stuff
C:\Barry\College\Psych\20072008\Term II \Cognitive Science

I can imagine some people would think I’ve a ridiculous amount of folders and sub-folders, but I like the structure.

In writing this email I thought I was going to have a point — perhaps I don’t! However, do people spring clean their hard drives or simply do a periodic wipe and reinstall? What helps them organise things? Categories, or something else? I don’t have to worry too much about keeping the work on my MacBook in sync with my PC, so that’s not really a problem and I make regular backups of the former.

All the best and keep up the good work!

Gnomie Mikey (mxjf in our chat room) writes:

I have been watching your videos for a long time and have been subscribed to your YouTube channel since around October. I have noticed that you and Ponzi have quite a few laptops, and I thought this would be appropriate.

Around February 2008, I decided I wanted a laptop. So I started looking on eBay and other places. Then, my dad told me that my cousin had a used laptop he would be willing to sell to me. Later, I talked to my cousin and he said that he was asking $50 for it, but here was the catch: it had a cracked screen. I was pretty desperate for a laptop at that time, so I accepted his offer. When it arrived, I was happy to see that it booted up and the crack wasn’t that bad, but it was significant enough to make using it a little problematic. So here are my top five tips for using a laptop more efficiently in the event you crack your screen:

1. Resize your windows. It really helps if your screen is cracked in one section but not another. For example: if your screen has a cluster of cracks in the top portion of it, resize and drag your window to fit the bottom section. I found that it really helps the most when you are typing up a text document.

2. Change to a higher screen resolution. It can help you to get more use out of the part of your screen you still have left. Increasing your resolution will make everything smaller. Many people have their screen resolution set to 1024 by 768. If you change your screen resolution to 1280 by 1024, for example, you will be able to fit more icons in your available space on your desktop, and will be able to view more content because everything is smaller. I noticed that when I go went YouTube to look at a video, the top 3/4 of the video was chopped off. When I switched to a higher resolution, the video was a little smaller, but it was not blocked by a crack.
3. Take care of your laptop. If it has black spots around the cracks, do not push on them — it will only make them worse. Don’t move your laptop as much. If you are a person who brings their laptop to school/work every day, or bring your laptop with you almost everywhere you go, don’t shake it while you carry it. If you have a laptop bag and it is big enough, place your laptop crack-side up so the crack won’t get worse. For example: if your screen has a crack on the right side, place your laptop in your bag so that the left side of it is facing the handle/strap of the bag.
4. Use it less frequently. If you are like me, you most likely have a regular desktop computer as well as a laptop. More than likely, your desktop is more powerful, has more drive space, and is more than capable of performing the tasks you would normally do on your laptop, despite the fact that it isn’t as portable. If you need to make a PowerPoint presentation at home and need to present it to your class the next day, do it on your desktop and transfer it to a flash drive. Flash drives will fit in your pocket, and more than likely, there is a computer in your class. Plus, a laptop won’t fit in your pocket, will it?
5. Start looking for a screen. Many times someone will crack their screen, go to a site like eBay or craigslist to buy a new one, and replace it by themselves. Sometimes you will get lucky like me and find an identical model laptop to your broken one for extra cheap, with a working screen, but being stripped clean of the RAM and hard drive. Just put your hard drive and RAM from your broken laptop into the working one, and you are good to go. In some cases, the new laptop might even have a better disc drive or DVD burner. You never know.

Gnomie techmarshal from our chat room writes:

Hey Chris,

I’m not new to your live feed, but I am new to the chat room. My handle is techmarshal and I thought I would send you this top five list. So here it goes…

1. Get rid of the programs that you never use or have just forgotten about. These programs not only take up hard drive space but also can slow down your system with unecessary processes.

2. Look at your music and picture library and see if you have any duplicates that are not needed. If you have a lot of files, then you can download programs that scan for duplicate files. The program that I use is Easy Duplicate Finder from majorgeeks.com. It’s safe and very effective.
3. Get a high capacity flash drive and copy needed but not very often used files over to it. This will help clear your hard drive and you will still have those important files easily accessible at any time.
4. Convert files into a smaller format. For instance, if you have a lot of videos in mp4 format, you can convert them to a much smaller flv format. The program I use is MediaCoder. It’s free and converts many different formats.
5. Use a file finder to search for the largest files on your hard drive. There are many different programs to do this — like Large File Finder. Simply choose the unneeded files and delete them. It’s that simple.

Bulgarian Gnomie Nik writes:

Hello, Chris. My name is Nik (aka K915 on YouTube and in the chat room). I would like to present my top five things to do to make Windows faster and more reliable. I know there are a lot of videos and materials about this out there (you probably even have a video covering this topic), but still I decided to share my little experience with you and the people on YouTube.

1. Increase the virtual RAM. It’s also called the paging file — and believe me, it plays a big role. It acts like RAM for applications, including games and programs. You can expand it to whatever size you want, but it also depends on the size of your hard drive. I use a 40 GB hard (yes, I’m looking forward to upgrading it) and I’ve set up the maximum for the paging file: 1900 MB. I’ve tested the Windows performance lots of times with little virtual RAM and with the maximum capacity, and there is a big difference in a very good way.

2. Windows visual effects must go! Switch off all the visual effects, dragging windows with contents, mouse shade, and so on. These take RAM and slow down the process of other programs. This is very useful for Windows XP and Vista.
3. If you are an experienced user, you can edit the registry entries to make things faster. There are delays for minimizing windows, program starting, and even the Start menu. For example, did you notice that you have to wait some time to bring up the Start menu? Yes, you have. It’s a matter of milliseconds, but when you edit most of the stuff to work without delay you can see good results.
4. Keep the registry clean! A messy registry with unnecessary and useless keys is a very bad thing! Cleaning it up and sorting it can prove to be very effective. But be careful — registry entries are not to be played with, so this tip is recommended for medium-level users. There are also a lot of programs on the Web to do that for you.
5. Disable the Windows sounds! Sure you can listen to music, but Windows Startup, Shutoff, and Logon sounds take time to load and play. My advice is to get all the Windows sounds disabled. That way the sound doesn’t play before you start and program, and there’s no delay.
6. Bonus: Always use CPU-friendly programs. For example, don’t run many chat clients separately; they take a lot of CPU. Why have WLM , Yahoo! Messenger, and ICQ all started when you can have Miranda and use them all in one program? Switch off unnecessary programs that you don’t use at the moment.

Gnomie fendabenda writes in with his top 5 favorite anti-viruses:

1. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal
   Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal offers excellent anti-virus protection, perhaps unsurpassed in its ability to unpack and scan compressed files — something that trips up a lot of other vendors. Should be used in conjunction with a firewall.

2. BitDefender Antivirus Plus
   Softwin’s BitDefender Professional protects against viruses, spyware, and instant messaging threats, as well as offering firewall rules to block undesirable traffic and a privacy gateway to keep your identity and preferences private while surfing the Internet.

3. McAfee VirusScan Plus
   McAfee VirusScan Plus is an ideal candidate for those seeking an anti-virus/firewall combination without all the bloat of traditional Internet security suites. McAfee VirusScan Plus makes an easy job of removing adware and spyware, something not all anti-virus products deliver.

4. Eset Nod32
   Nod32 features a small footprint, low performance hit, and fast scan speeds, providing focused virus protection ideal for gamers or those with an older PC. Should be used in conjunction with a firewall. This is also a very nice anti-virus for computer experts, and nerds like Chris himself :) As it provides more use for those smarter few of us that want more features and need more protection.

5. Panda Antivirus 2007
   Panda Antivirus 2007 combines anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-phishing with its highly touted behavior-based TruPrevent Technology. License covers use on two computers and includes free tech support via email (telephone support options are also available).

Gnomie Tim Stapleton writes:

Chris,

Recently I was reading an article in my local newspaper about a local college student who has developed a new “all-in-one” IM program called Digsby that not only supports the regular AIM, Jabber, ICQ, Yahoo!, and Google Talk, but incorporates your email as well as your MySpace and Facebook accounts.

There are downloadable versions for Windows OS, Mac OS, as well as Linux. I downloaded it and, in my opinion, it works fairly well; it is still the beta version. The thing that I like most about it is, as mentioned, the incorporation of one’s social networks and email right into the program so that when you move your mouse over the status bar for the particular account that you want to look at, it brings up a pop up window so you can see your inbox or the status of your buddies on your social network of choice.

On the email end of things you can set up a variety of accounts including POP, IMAP, Yahoo!, Hotmail, and Gmail. Also, it has many different features with which you can personalize your account.

You can find the article about the program and a brief video about it here.

And the Web site for the program itself is here.

Gnomie Josh writes in to share his top 10 favorite programs:

1. Audacity: Audacity is a free program that allows you to edit your music and sound files. It is Open Source and it is very to use. For someone looking to start podcasts, this program is for you. You will get used to the features it has in a matter of minutes. This is perfect for starting off in editing music and sound files.

2. Winamp: Winamp is a great music player for those looking for an alternative to the common “iTunes” software. It comes with many features and plug ins as well. You can play all your music files and save play lists as well. It also plays many music files that other music software cannot normally play.
3. Trillian: Trillian is a all-in-one messenger that uses very little resources. It includes, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Jabber (Gmail chat), Yahoo!, and even IRC. This is for you if you are a person that always has at least four messengers running at a time. There is a pro edition to this, which is slightly better, but the basic one is just as good because it is free.
4. CPU-Z: CPU-Z is a small program that displays your current computer specs. For example, it can show you your motherboard name and even how much RAM you have. This is good to know when you are looking for those drivers and you forgot the name of your motherboard.
5. WinRAR: WinRAR is a great program that allows you to compress your files to a smaller file size. I suggest using this as a default compression program. There are others such as Win7, but this does the same job.
6. UltraVNC: VNC is a client to server based program that allows you to access another computer. Just start the server on the computer you want to gain access to, and then use the viewer on another computer to view that computer. I suggest getting UltraVNC and not RealVNC. It seems to be faster and overall more robust.
7. TrueCrypt: This software allows you to encrypt any drive you want to and as you move files to that drive, the files encrypt automatically. I suggest using this if you need to keep important information away from people that want to know things.
8. Skype: Skype is a Voice Over IP program that allows you to communicate for free for PC to PC calls. The only downside to this of course is that you need credit in order to call to landline phones. However, the price is cheap to do so.
9. HijackThis: This program will search your registry for errors and possibly anything that could be wrong with it. Not only that, it logs all of the information it changed or found.
10. AVG: AVG is a free program that lets you scan for viruses… for free. Most software you need you have to pay for in order to do this. This is free and for being free, it is good at what it does.

Bonus Site: dll-files.com will let you find 99% of .dll files you need. Sometimes you may get an error saying you need a certain .dll file for a specific program. This site will let you find that .dll file and make that program work.

Gnomie Jebus (pronounced “hay”-”bus”) writes:

Mr. Pirillo,

I’m a long-time watcher, recent-chat-joiner and first-time writer. I’ve noticed that one topic that comes up regularly is Windows Vista, to which many chatters respond to “upgrade to XP.”

However, no matter how strong you think you’ve built your argument against the winds of change, your shelter of stubbornness is bound to collapse eventually. I remember when XP came out, and people criticized it for being too user friendly, a lot like when DOS was around and geeks criticized it for not being (for lack of a better term) technical enough.

I wish not to criticize Vista or praise it, but merely provide this Top five list to help improve your future eXPerience.

5. Update!

For the love of Cthulhu don’t forget to update. Service Pack 3 is almost out and after that Windows XP will be on extended support, so you will still need to check regularly for hotfixes. A good idea might be to back up your data and completely wipe your hard disk and reinstall XP, then install all the service packs and updates at once.

4. Keep your box free of dust.

A clean computer is a happy computer. Make sure your system has proper ventilation and a good air flow. Check it ever two or three months and vacuum the dust (after taking the proper safety precautions of course) out of the surrounding area (floor, fan grates, the jumble of cables, etc…). Invest your hard earned cash in canned air and clean out your computer. Or, if you’ve never even opened up your tower, buy an air compressor. (I’m serious, I once bought a used Alienware off eBay and I had to use an air compressor to get all the dust out of it, it works fine now though).

3. Use alternative programs.

I don’t want to start a browser war, but it would be a good idea to switch to a lighter browser, such as Firefox or K-Meleon. In the future, there will no doubtedly be an IE 8 and an IE 9, which Microsoft will ask you to upgrade. Undoubtedly the new browsers will be more rich in features and will require more resources to run. I have no doubts that Firefox and Opera will follow this path as well, to what extent however I cannot predict (read: I don’t want to start a browser war). Also, with less popular browsers there is a smaller chance that you will get a virus or spyware than with the more popular ones.

Much like Internet Explorer, there will be updates to Windows Media Player, iTunes, QuickTime, and Real. These will run slower on your old system. If you use “QuickTime Alternative” and “Real Alternative,” you get the same functionality at a faster speed. Also, try some lightweight media players such as VLC, which plays just about every media format imaginable.

Instead of using the latest AIM client, try Miranda-IM or Trillian, free programs that both make use of all the popular IM protocals out there and organize your contacts under a single program.

2. Defrag and Chkdsk

Run these system checkups every once in a while (every five or six months is what I do) in order to keep your hard drive content neat, tidy, and uncluttered. Another helpful program is CCleaner, which erases your Internet cache, cookies, and all sorts of useless hidden files and folders that are just taking up space on your hard drive.

1. Remember that you are using an out-of-date OS!

I can’t count how many times I’ve had people complain to me about how “terrible” Microsoft Windows is and how they get the Blue Screen of Death every 10 minutes. Whenever I ask what version they are running you would not be surprised how many times I find out they’re running ME or 98se. You chose not to upgrade, so be prepared for the consequences.

Gnomie Hai-Shuo Shun writes:

Slow computer getting you down? Wish you could speed up your system so that games won’t crawl by like a slide show permanently set to slow? Well look no further! I shall share five easy steps that you can take to improve your system’s speed! Most of them are free of charge, and all of them should have some effect on your system. So without further ado, we begin with:

1. Remove spyware and adware from your system. Have you noticed recently that ads seem to pop up whenever you go to a Web page? Or that Internet speeds are about that of diseased livestock? Your system’s probably chock full of spyware. What to do? Well, thankfully there are several things you can do. First, download either Spybot-S&D or Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware, and run it. This should remove most if not all of the spyware and adware on your system. Neither of these are particularly robust, however, so we move on to:

2. Remove viruses from your system. Get yourself a decent virus scanner program. Big names include MacAfee, Symantec, or Norton. By the way it should be mentioned that virus scanners like the Big Three tend to be huge. Big, beefy programs that can chew up RAM faster than Dudley Dursley chewed up Harry’s birthday cake. If this is a problem for you, take a look at avast! avast! is a free virus scanner that can be downloaded, but be careful. Phishing sites love to pretend to be “free virus scanner software” and so you have to be careful. Yes, avast! is a respected name and is not a virus, but only if you actually download it and not some trojan.
3. Defragment your hard drive with the disk defragmentation tool, usually located in Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools. This useful little program will improve performance by compacting your data so that your programs aren’t all located in tiny little bits. Some people might argue this point, saying that defragmentation doesn’t actually improve anything, but look at it this way: it never hurts at worst, and at best has a chance of improving your runtime! So where’s the loss?
4. Remove dust. Buy some cans of compressed air (yes I’m aware of the irony of purchasing a can of air. No, I do not wish to purchase any bridges today). Using this compressed air, blow the dust out of your system. That dust does your CPU no favors and a thick, liberal coating of dust tends to collect when you leave your computer running in a dirty room. Oh and by the way, after you’ve blown all that dust into the air, it’ll settle. All over your carpet. So you might wanna vacuum later. Just an idea.
5. Clean your registry. CCleaner is a good registry fixer that’ll fix all those broken things in your registry. By the way, don’t go mucking about in the registry without backing it up first. If you do not do this, then I cannot be legally responsible for any time rifts, space distortions, or world wars caused by unexpected changes made by CCleaner. That said, properly done, a registry change often helps in improving performance. Also check your startup programs: there are programs that are set to start as soon as Windoze boots, and this can cause Windoze to start up slower. Removing a few (AIM is a good one) might improve your startup process. You might keep your hair a bit longer, too.

One final bit of advice. Oftentimes I’ll see on PC-building Web sites people wondering why their computer is “running so slowly even though they have the best gear.” The word of advice? Check your PSU (Power Supply Unit). How far do you suppose you’d get if your car’s gas tank had a maximum capacity of 2 gallons of gas? Would you want such a car? Well, your “awesome gear” won’t get too far on a puny PSU either. If your computer’s operating much slower than you’d expect from your hardware, consider replacing your PSU with one that can actually handle your power-hungriest parts (usually your CPU and GPU). Calculators for what wattage of PSU you might need are all over the Web. Just to be safe it might be better to go 50 watts or so above the recommended, just in case you decide to add something else later.

Sarah Coles writes:

Hi Chris,

You may have seen that a new site launched last week called Skewz, which is an interactive site that allows users to submit political stories from mainstream media and online blogs, discuss and rate them (i.e. “Skew”) according to left or right angle. The innovative site sorts and categorizes news to its degree of liberal or conservative slant, using user feedback.

It has already received positive attention from its potential competitor, Microsoft’s Blews. In fact, a scientist at Microsoft’s Live Labs recently wrote the following:

“Skewz is definitely worth checking out. Part of the user experience is to report your own particular point of view… The result is a digg-like experience with a richer set of features (digg has, essentially, a single variable whereas Skews has at least two depending on how you count them).”

The full text is here.

The purpose of Skewz is to democratize political news by meaningfully sorting through it — without having one editor or one small group of people decide what political news is important and what isn’t. Like Digg.com, Del.icio.us, and Reddit, Skewz compiles all the news in one place, but Skewz is completely specialized in political topics.

Gnomie Johannes writes in with his top six tips for learning how to program:

1. Start simple, very simple. Don’t download the source to some high-tech program which you use every day — chances are you won’t even be able to compile it (make it into an .exe file). Instead, download some old compiler; I say old because then there will be a lot of support and documentation for it. Then start really simply: write a line of code that displays your name, like in a Windows console program.

2. Learn how to learn. Different people want to learn in different ways. You might want to look at tutorials and walkthroughs on simple programs to learn how someone else did it. Or you might be like me and find a function and play around with it to see what happens.
3. Learn more by finding a method that you think is fun to learn by. For example, you can use the Beep() function to make the computer beep for a certain time and frequency. Beep itself is boring, so why not put it in a loop and give it a higher tone each time, or make it oscillate back and forth?
4. Find a friend or community for when you get stuck. We all need someone we can ask sometimes — even Microsoft — therefore, it’s always nice to have someone or a community you can ask when you get stuck.
5. Release your software. If you make something you think is useful, other people will want it, too. Releasing your software will give you great feedback, and you will gain a strong motivation to expand the program or program more and better programs.
6. Don’t be discouraged in thinking that your skills will be obsolete in a few years, for they will not. Even though new languages are created, they all follow the same idea upon how they work with pointers, functions, and variables, etc. Your skills will be valuable forever.

Gnomie Ryan Krizan writes:

1. Do not leave your notebook running on a poorly ventilated surface, such as wood or metal for too long. Once the wood or metal heats up from the heat of the laptop, it will retain the heat and not allow your notebook to cool properly. You might as well toss your notebook into a hot furnace.

2. Learn how to manage hard drive spin cycles as pertaining to your operating systems. Most hard drives are only rated for around 50,000
   spin cycles before they wear out, so managing spin cycles can greatly increase the life expectancy of your hard drive.

3. Try not to let heavy power cords, USB cables, or any other cables that are plugged into your notebook hang. Over time, it could damage plugs in your notebook that could result in costly repairs. As is very common with Dell notebooks, the AC power adapter — which is soldered directly to the notebook’s motherboard — can get damaged, and render a motherboard useless if unrepairable.
4. Tap the keyboard and touchpad lightly. Notebook keyboards and touchpads are not built as heavily as desktop keyboards and mice. Keeping the keyboard and touchpad clean and lightly tapping instead of “punching” the keys or touchpad will help increase the notebook’s life expectancy.
5. Try not to fully discharge your notebook battery. Adjust your power management settings to shut down the computer when the battery charge reaches 15 to 20 percent rather than 5 to 10 percent. Rechargeable batteries can become damaged if fully discharged too many times. Battery life is generally determined by charge and discharge cycles around 300 to 500 cycles. Also, if storing a battery, do not store the battery fully charged for more than a couple of days as many notebook batteries are designed to be stored at around 40% charged.

Gnomie Terabytes Courtney from our chat room writes:

I bought a 22″ monitor about a month ago and when I turned it on I found it had about 20 stuck pixels! A few hours of hardcore gaming didn’t fix the problem and I didn’t know what to do. It was then I remembered that every color is made up of red, green, and blue. Here’s what I did to fix ALL of my stuck pixels:

1. Opened mspaint and created a new bitmap with a resolution the same as my monitor’s (in my case 1680 x 1050).
2. Created three images: one red, one green, and the last, blue.
3. Saved all of the images to my desktop.
4. Finally, I highlighted them all, right-clicked and chose preview, went fullscreen, and let the slideshow do the work.

I’m not 100% sure as to why this works, but I think it’s because, for each color, two of the three cells in each pixel get a chance to be off. I also found speeding through the images helped.

Anyway, I hope all of your stuck pixel woes can be solved!

Gnomie Ian writes:

Hi, Chris!

I used to come into your chat room often under the ID: Ian. Sadly, I’m so busy these days I can’t even find time for myself. I still watch your videos on YouTube and think they are top-rated. Keep up the good work, mate!

Here is my question.

With your own personal problems having to use Comcast, I wonder how you feel about big ISP companies trying to take away net neutrality. Google explains it best:

Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days. Indeed, it is this neutrality that has allowed many companies, including Google, to launch, grow, and innovate.

Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.

Today, the neutrality of the Internet is at stake as the broadband carriers want Congress’s permission to determine what content gets to you first and fastest. Put simply, this would fundamentally alter the openness of the Internet.

My opinion is: If the ISP giants are able to control the Internet, then we have to confess to ourselves that we no longer live in a free world. Net neutrality has made the Internet a huge stepping stone in the world today. It gives us the ability to easily gain knowledge with the press of a key and the click of a mouse. Self-employed people have been able to make small or big successes all because of the Internet and the rights it stands on today.

If people don’t take a stand against these greedy companies today, then the Internet, as we know it, will be gone tomorrow.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” - Lord Acton

Wish you & Ponzi well. The same to everyone in the chat room!

Ian, The Scotsman in Texas

PS: Thought the Scottish food video was funny. I live in the states now — let me tell you, there also some nasty foods here.

Gnomie Tim Malloroy (aka RedFlameOut) writes:

Hey Chris,

I wish I had more time to view and participate in your videos, however, work is killing me right now.

I came across an interesting issue with Windows Defender (which I use as an addition to anti-spyware rather than my only protection).

As part of my security procedures, I periodically make sure all the protection software is updating itself properly. During one of these scans, Windows Defender had not been updated in quite some time. Manual update failed with a Code 0×80240022.

Our friend Google helped me find the answer and I want to share it with the community.

Apparently something happens to the definitions in Windows Defender that stops updating from working. The following command line procedure corrects it. Or at least it did for me:

1. Type Windows-R (Hold the Windows or start key and type an R) to bring up the run dialog box.
2. Type in cmd.exe and the press ctrl-alt-enter to run it as Administrator. It may ask for escalation privileges so type in your password and press enter if it does.
3. Use the cd command to change to the Windows Defender directory:

   cd “\Program Files\Windows Defender”

4. Run the following commands:

   mpcmdrun -RemoveDefinitions -All
   mpcmdrun -SignatureUpdate

Gnomie Elayne D. Cipolla writes:

Hello Chris, Just finished watching the video on Vista and MS’s “tell it to the hand” attitude toward its bread and butter… the consumer. Having just purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop at the beginning of February and didn’t hear about the nightmare that is Vista until after I purchased this machine, I started having troubles from the get-go… one day, two weeks after purchase, the machine refused to boot. Tried using the recovery disk that came with it and it worked fine for two more weeks, then the same nonsense started happening all over again. I bit the bullet and took the laptop to the local Toshiba authorized repair facility and it found it had bad sectors on the hard drive. Because the machine was still under warranty, the repairs won’t cost me anything. However, I will find out how well the Vista OS works once I pick up the laptop later today. I inquired about having XP2 installed in place of Vista and was told that the laptop would not accommodate XP in any way, shape, or form whatsoever. The machine was “made” to run Vista and Vista it will be.

So much for my story. To answer your question as to what MS needs to do to improve itself… that’s relatively easy. Test, test, and test again… with average folks and not just tech types. And as you said, listen to the people who use it. Just because someone doesn’t have a line of letters and degrees after their name doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re talking about. MS is in a competitive field and wants to remain on the top, but if it only keeps its eyes on the bottom line… well, it’ll be on the bottom looking up before long. Change for change’s sake is not progress. My dad used to tell me, “When Detroit comes out with a new model, don’t buy it the first year. Wait a year and let them get all the bugs out of it. Every new model has problems even the most diligent engineers can’t foresee.” I think MS needs to see that the consumer has the opportunity to purchase a computer with the option of using the proven, older OS or the new one and stress to the OEM that it’s important that the hardware be made to accommodate both versions in case the consumer wishes to go back to the tried and true. XP had a boatload of problems when it first came out and look how long it took before Microsoft finally got it working right. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there should be some kind of major overlap when a new OS comes out. Something that even a non-techie or non-geek can install, complete with drivers. (”so simple, a caveman can do it!”)

I can remember the first thing that was told to me by my professor in my Web site design/development class. It was the first rule of computers for him: “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Always keep in mind that not everyone is computer savvy and make the design simple enough so that a first-time user won’t feel overwhelmed, but a tech-savvy person won’t be insulted. It’s a lot like writing… always take into consideration who your audience is.

Thanks again for all the good work and information you’ve been providing over the years. It’s been a real help.