Computer news, reviews, humor, and practical information, for better or for worse, from a computer technician's on-the-job experiences.
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Consumer Nightmare: Volcano 9 On Monday, the courier dropped off some new toys for me. I've been quite excited to install my new CPU fan-- the Volcano 9 by Thermaltake.
The only drawback to having a super fast computer is the noise. With all of that processing power, you need some heavy duty airflow inside the case. I almost envy my clients running an old Pentium, as they are so quiet compared to my beast. That is what prompted me to try the Volcano 9.
This product is designed to have a 3-speed fan with an auto sensor that will adjust the fan speed according to the heat level of the CPU. It's designed to have this capability, but I'm here to tell you that there is some serious flaw in the design!
I took my old CoolMaster heat sink/ fan off of my CPU, and following the directions, I applied some thermal paste to the CPU and put the sensor in place. Then I put on the new Volcano 9 fan and fired up the machine.
The fan started really quiet. I was delighted! Then, it started to roar like an airplane taking off. It was considerably louder than my old $6 CoolMaster fan. Then, the fan slowed down and got quiet again. At this point, less than a minute after I'd turned my computer on, the computer froze.
The long and the short of it is, the Volcano 9 fried my new MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard, and my Athlon 1700+ processor. Unless Thermaltake wants to offer some recompense, I'm now the owner of hundreds dollars worth of junk.
My advice: do not buy any products from Thermaltake.
Downloading and Watching Movies (Windows 98/2000/XP Mac Linux) Here is a quick guide to watching movies from the Internet. Note: Beware of pirated Hollywood movies, because you wouldn't want to watch blockbuster movies for free, or you might upset the MPAA! ;)
Here is what you'll need:
A fast internet connection. Downloading movies over dial-up is no fun, trust me on this one.
A good file-sharing program. I recommend Kazaa-Lite. If you use the regular Kazaa, you'll be seeing lots of unwanted pop-up windows and other annoyances. Uninstall it, run Ad-Aware and then install Kazaa-Lite, which you can download here. For hard-to-find movies, try using Overnet (requires patience).
 You need codecs to watch the movies that you download. This can get tricky, but if you download and install these four packages, you should be able to happily watch 98% of the movies out there.
(I recommend installing them in this order, and rebooting before installing ffdshow).
1) Nemo Codec Pack
2) DivX
3) Xvid
4) ffdshow.
A good media player to watch the movies in.
(Windows Media Player can play most movies you'll find, and is now available for Mac and Linux as well as Windows. If your movie won't play in WMP, try opening it with the DivX Player that comes bundled with the DivX codec).
Someone to make popcorn. A microwave will work okay most of the time.
Written and Performed by John Walkenbach The J-Walk Blog is a steady part of my internet diet. When I started this online journal, I was very much influenced by J-Walk. This John guy, I don't know what's up with him, but he has to be one of the most prolific writers and rehashers of interesting links on the 'net.
If you are into computers, you will want to occasionally re-visit my site; but there is something for everyone on the J-Walk Blog.
Click on John's face to see his site.
Hello, World! I am flattered and delighted that so many people are finding their way to this site. I've been quietly plugging along with this for some months now, to a small audience. On Friday, however, www.blogger.com decided to put a link to this site from their home page. That has translated into several thousand visitors a day! Thanks, guys.
If this is your first time here, I'm glad you could make it. Please pour yourself a drink and feel at home. Perhaps you would like to bookmark this page!
Featured Download: SpamPal (Windows 95/98/2000/XP) I have to give a heads-up to SpamPal.
I've heard mixed reviews in the past about software tools that help you to filter email to avoid unwanted spam. I came across SpamPal on CNET.com, and noticed that it had a very impressive 99% user recommendation rating.
SpamPal works with standard email programs such as Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora. It does not work with web-based services such as Hotmail or Yahoo, etc.
I’ve been using it for almost a month now, and I’m here to tell you that SpamPal has blocked hundreds of unsolicited messages while only letting 10 spams through. More importantly, it has not blocked a single legitimate message from arriving in my Inbox.
“SpamPal is free software; you can download and install it entirely free-of-charge. This isn't a trial, or a crippled cut-down version to tempt you towards an expensive "full" version, or a package loaded with spyware to steal your personal details - the fully-featured version of SpamPal can be downloaded and used without imposition or restriction!”
Download SpamPal here.
Computer and Video Game Nostalgia I've been feeling very sentimental about computers this week. Its largely due, I'm sure, to the fact that I set up a IBM-XT clone (circa 1986) in my office.
This machine has dual 5 1/4 inch floppy drives, which means it was one killer machine back in its day. I use the first drive to boot up into DOS whenever I start the machine (old computers, you understand, did not have hard drives-- you need to load the operating system from disk or cassette each time you turn them on). The other drive has an old floppy with a bunch of games. Among my friends, Asteroids is the most popular.
Its fun watching peoples faces light up when they see it running on the black and orange monitor. Even non-geeks seem to take delight in remembering what computers used to look like. I love comparing that old gem to my current main desktop. Its hard to believe the difference 15 years can make in this industry!
Check out this fun recreation (above) of the very first video game, entitled Pong, created by inventor Ralph H. Baer. If that gets your juices going, you should download this clone of Space Invaders for the PC. Written in DOS, it will run on any Windows computer. It will open a full-screen DOS Window and take you on a nostalgic trip!
 F1 - start game
Esc - end game
Ctrl - move left
Alt - move right
Shift - fire
 I used to play Space Invaders endlessly on my Commodore PET computer. The computer had a built-in 9" black and green display, a 4 MHz processor and 6K of RAM. I seem to recall it took about 15 minutes to load Space Invaders from the cassette drive. Playing Space Invaders was about all that that computer was good for. I read recently that the PET was named after the pet rock fad of the mid-seventies. Appropriate!
AlphaShield: New Internet Security Device AlphaShield is a truly unique and powerful device that provides you with the protection you need against hacking and information theft.
Complete privacy and total protection. AlphaShield puts you in control of your Internet experience. Simply plug the unit between your computer and high-speed modem and experience the peace of mind security you need.
AlphaShield's effectiveness comes from the combination of three powerful technologies.
IP Stealth Technology makes your computer 'invisible' to 'would-be-hackers'
Real-time Packet Authorization (RPA) allows only requested information into the computer, keeping all unsolicited visitors out.
AlphaGap Technology automatically disconnects the computer from the Internet when not in use, eliminating the possibility of unwanted intrusions. more...
Suggested by: Ian Weir of Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
Customize the Places Bar in MS Office 2000 When you are opening or saving a document in Office, you'll see some shortcuts on the left side that may or may not be helpful. I have found that customizing these shortcuts is a real time-saver.
Begin by downloading Places.dll. Click the link, choose "Save", and save it to your Desktop or somewhere convenient. After the file downloads, copy it to your Windows\System directory.
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type the following command line:
Regsvr32 <Path>\Places.dll
(for most computers, this will read "Regsvr32 C:\Windows\System\Places.dll" or "Regsvr32 C:\WINNT\System\Places.dll")
Now open any Office application, such as Word. On the Tools menu, you will now find an option entitled "Set Places..."
Note: Microsoft has added the Places bar setting to the registry for Office XP. More info here.
Stuff1-inch hard disk drive designed for consumer electronics for an OEM price of less than US$100.
Here's the Gateway PC ad CBS refused to broadcast because they felt that it advocated the illegal downloading of music.
Transfer VHS Video to CD Tech TV-- Turn your home videos into CDs. They'll last longer that way.
A VCD (video compact disc) is nothing more than a CD containing moving pictures and sound. On today's episode of "Call for Help," we'll show you how to turn movies you've captured on your PC into a VCD that's capable of playing in almost all stand-alone DVD players.
Digitizing is a way to convert analog video into data you can store on your hard drive. To do this, you need a video capture card or, if you have a digital video camera, a 1394 or FireWire port. more...
Submitted by Charles Coughlan of Winlaw, B.C.
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