Keeping a PC running smoothly is something that seems to elude a lot of people. Too many times I’ve seen people running their PC to a crawl and then wondering what the problem is and why everything seems to be running so slowly. Inexperienced users seem to pick up a huge amount of spyware and viruses, as well as a plethora of programs designed to eradicate such things. All things combined can turn even the fastest of machines into something resembling a computer built in 1990. Hopefully I can give a few words of advice that’ll help keep your PC fast and healthy.
Most mistakes that people make when using PCs are made browsing the Internet. Bad surfing habits can seriously affect your PC and load it with junk and spyware. These range from small programs that run in the background relaying data about your Internet use to full-blown viruses. Obviously a PC that is infected with either isn’t going to run so well. Too many background processes and it’ll start to put too much load on your RAM when performing intensive tasks, such as gaming or photo manipulation. Your computer will eventually have to use portions of the hard disk as overflow memory and you’ll notice a big slowdown.
To ensure that you don’t pick up malicious programs I would recommend using Firefox to browse the web. As Internet Explorer is by far the most widely used browser it is the one that the most viruses are written for. Using Firefox will cut out a lot of the attacks that you can be affected by. However, Firefox is second to Microsoft’s program and you’ll still need to be aware. Try not to visit less-than-reputable sites with a lot of low budget flash adverts and pop-ups. Never click yes to anything that does pop up, and ignore any messages that try to alert you about the condition of your PC. These are scare tactics to get inexperienced users to download unnecessary software, clogging up your PC.
Many people swear by their virus protection software, claiming that it helps keep their PC clean. I’ve kept my PC virus-free for over seven years without a single piece of virus protection software. I found that having it constantly running in the background and checking everything slowed my PC down. Constant update and checking popups started to get annoying as well and in the end I decided I could do without it. So long as you’re careful while online you can do just fine without any virus protection software. Without it, your PC will run much faster and smoother.
A lot of people seem to get infected with spyware when opening malicious emails. The key here is to have a decent spam filter on whatever email client that you’re using, and having a good eye for what to open and what to delete. My general rule is that if I don’t know who the sender is then I just delete the mail without reading it. Avoid emails from friends that seem suspicious as well, as often a virus will send itself to everyone in the infected person’s address book. Don’t follow any links or open any files. Above all else, never ever download or run a .exe file. It’s almost guaranteed to be a virus.
Make sure you defragment your hard disk around once a month. If the data becomes to fragmented then it’ll take a long time for the head to read the data from the platters, slowing the PC again. By defragmenting you’re keeping the files arranged more orderly on your disk and therefore making it easier to read. Many people never even bother doing this and then find that their PC takes ages to read files and get going.
Make sure that you don’t install too many useless programs. Many programs will launch on startup and sit in the background, not really doing anything until prompted. Although they feel like they’re not there they’re still using up valuable system resources. Allow this to build up and you’ll end up with a slow PC. A good way to tell if you’ve got a lot of these programs is by checking the number of icons in the bottom right of the screen, try to have as few as possible.
Keep Windows up to date. This is vital as often in updates there are crucial security updates that can make a world of difference. The same applies to browsers and any anti-virus software you have installed. By making sure everything is fully up to date you’re far less likely to encounter problems later on.
Keeping a PC running well isn’t a difficult thing to do, it just requires a little care. Making sure you get things right to start with will help you with the headaches that occur with virus infections and computers slowing to a crawl. Hopefully in the future you’ll look after your PC well and have a fast machine that runs smoothly.
In the sensible world of soccer there is nothing quite like scoring a goal. English football is almost unique in the world of sport in that its currency, the goal, has such a high value. With so many games decided by just a single goal it comes as no surprise that to score comes as such a relief and is met with such enthusiasm. Many players celebrate wildly after scoring, and some even plan their celebrations in advance. Many of these goal celebrations have entered the national psyche and become embedded in the culture of our national game. In this article I will look at some of the most memorable goal celebrations in football.
There will always be the standard celebrations, such as the airplane or running to the corner flag and knee sliding, but what really stick out are the celebrations made famous by a particular player. In the 90s German striker Jurgen Klinsmann joined Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. Klinsmann was known internationally for his success with the German national team and for being a top goalscorer and notorious diver. When he scored on his debut the forward mocked those who had called him a diver by performing his own unique celebration and diving to the turf, sliding along the grass on his stomach. The celebration quickly caught on and can be seen copied everywhere, from grass roots right up to the highest level. A good one to try if the ground is especially wet.
Another classic that will always stick in the memory, even if has not been mimicked, is the celebration by Marco Tardelli in the 1982 World Cup final. After scoring from for Italy from the edge of the box he ran to the touchline completely overwhelmed in the moment. Ecstatic and screaming his own name this celebration shows just how much the World Cup means to these players and has since become an iconic image for the competition.
Another celebration that gained notoriety in the Premiership was brought in by a foreign player. When Fabrizio Ravanelli signed for Middlesbrough the footballing world was left somewhat surprised. What wasn’t surprising, however, was that he would go on to score many goals for the club during his stay. His goals would always be celebrated with him pulling his shirt over his head and running with his arms outstretched. The celebration reached legendary status and was copied worldwide after Ravanelli started using it.
Of course, not every celebration must be wild and over the top. One of the greatest England strikers of all time, Alan Shearer, had his own more restrained celebration. He would run to the corner with his right arm raised and palm open. It became a signature celebration and one that the world of football would see many times over an illustrious career.
Goal celebrations can sometimes be entertaining as the game itself and supporters are keen to attach themselves to a move associated with their top goalscorer. There are bound to be many crazy goal celebrations to come and long may it continue, just make sure the goal is worth it before doing seven backflips afterwards.
Anyone that’s taken an image with a digital camera will know that when you get the picture on your computer that they’re generally huge in both file size and dimensions. It can be frustrating to manage such large file sizes as it can really tax your RAM and the huge dimensions take up the whole screen, making the pictures extremely difficult to work with. In this article I will give you some useful tips on how to reduce these images down to more manageable sizes using Photoshop Elements 4.0 in OS X for Apple Macs.
The first step is to open the image in Photoshop. You can right click and then open-as if you’ve set up your mouse to have two buttons or if not you can ctrl-click the image and then select to open in Photoshop.
With the image open in Photoshop the first thing to do is reduce the physical size of the image. People don’t often think about it but it can really help with the file size as well. To do this just go to the menu at the top of your screen and select the image drop down menu. You’ll then want to go to the resize option and then select resize image, not resize canvas.
You’ll be given an option box that allows you to change your image size. If it’s straight off a camera then it is most likely between 2000 and 5000 pixels wide, which is substantially larger than your monitor can display. In the width box select a reasonable size, usually around 1000 pixels to preserve quality. Make sure that the constrain proportions box is ticked at the bottom, so that the image keeps its proportions. Making sure that pixels are selected as your unit type hit OK and watch as your image is reduced in size. With any luck you won’t even notice the difference in quality.
The next step to easily drop the file size is a simple compression as you save the picture. From the menu at the top select File and then Save for Web. Your screen will change to a split mode where you can see two versions of your picture. On the left is the original uncompressed version and on the right is the compressed version that you’ll be saving. On the top right corner there are a few options to select, the one you’re looking for is the quality box. Clicking this will give you a slider where you can select the quality of the image you’re saving. The lower the quality the lower the file size, however you won’t want to go too low as the picture will become distorted. Find a setting that gives you the lowest file size but while keeping the detail in your image. When you’re satisfied click OK and save the image.
Hopefully these tips will help out on your hard disk space and on your memory. It’ll make viewing images much smoother and will make you life much easier. You can also use this knowledge to compress images for uploading to websites and publishing on the web.
For anyone moving across from Windows to using a Mac the first few days can feel a little strange. The interface is superficially the same but fundamentally different. The Mac operating system, OS X has a number of really useful features and shortcuts that Windows lacks that can make working on a Mac really easy. While Windows has many functions not present on Apple’s operating system this article will focus on a few tips to help transitioning over to a Mac a little easier.
The first thing to note is that Macs are far more shortcut driven with the user able to do a lot more things more easily through cunning use of the keyboard. On a Mac the Apple key replaces the functionality of the Ctrl key on a Windows keyboard. Notice that is where the Alt key is on a PC keyboard, so start using your thumb rather than your little finger to start using the keyboard shortcuts. There is no Windows key and in its place is the Alt button, with Ctrl and shift remaining in the same places.
A lot of the most widely used Windows shortcuts are replicated on a Mac, so Apple+C is for copy, Apple+V is for paste and Apple+X is for cut. Learning these keys and making full use of them is an excellent time saving tool when doing long, boring repetitive tasks that don’t require much thought but a lot of clicks. In a similar fashion Apple+F is useful for finding and searching through documents and web pages, much like the Windows variant.
What is much easier on a Mac than a PC is taking screenshots of areas on your desktop. Simply hit the key Apple+Shift+4 and your cursor will change to a crosshair that you can use to drag a box. When you’re done dragging, a screenshot will be created of the area inside the box that you made, creating an image on your desktop. Very simple and easy and something that Windows lacks in such an easy format.
So if you need to see your desktop you’ll notice how easy it is in Windows, you can simply click the show desktop button on the taskbar. OS X does not have this button as the taskbar works differently. However they have what I consider to be the best feature of the Mac operating system, and that is hot corners. To see the desktop just drag your mouse cursor into the bottom right or bottom left hand corners of your screen. You’ll notice all your windows are minimised and you can view the desktop to open up any files that you need.
Another great feature of hot corners is the ability to move the cursor into one of the top corners of the screen to be able to see every window you have open at the time. You can then just click the window you want and it’s brought to the front. This feature is a really great addition if you tend to work with a lot of windows open at one time and need to switch between them a lot. This one feature is what Windows is really lacking and is the only thing that I miss from OS X when working on a PC.
Hopefully these tips will help you a little when changing to using a Mac for the first time as it can be a little unsettling at first. In time you’ll come to appreciate the different features of each operating system and only wish that someone would bring together the best features of both into one system that you could use.
Many people are new to using computers, and watching them slowly work their way though the various menus can be frustrating. I’m sure any competent Windows user that has watched someone crawl through menus slowly clicking every command has wanted to jump in and just get the job done quickly. What many people don’t seem to realise is that everyday tasks can be greatly sped up by effective use of hotkeys. Learning a few hotkeys can reduce the amount of times you need to click the mouse, and so greatly increase your speed when using a computer.
The first two that any new user should learn are the copy and paste hotkeys. This can really help when doing word processing tasks such as writing letters. It is also extremely useful when doing long repetitive tasks such as data entry. The Windows key to copy the text you currently have highlighted is Ctrl+C, to paste simply press Ctrl+V. If you’re looking to do something a little more advanced then Ctrl+X will cut the text, removing it from the current location and enabling you to paste it into a new location. These two hotkeys are probably the most useful ones you’ll ever learn.
Anyone that has spent any time using Windows has surely had a program crash on them. Clicking the top bar only to see the dreaded not responding text is every user’s worst nightmare. Clicking the red cross to close the program doesn’t seem to close it and your computer slows to a crawl. At this point you’ll need one of Windows’ most useful hotkeys, Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Pressing these three keys together will bring up a box called the Task Manager. This window will give you a list of all the programs currently running on your PC. From this you can simply select the program that you wish to terminate and reliably close it. It’s generally the most sure-fire way to close any crashed program.
Another great way to cut down on mouse clicks and time-consuming cursor movement is using the Alt+Tab hotkey to flick between windows. I’m sure many users like to browse the Internet using more than one browser window for example, and switching between them by manually clicking the taskbar can become annoying after a while. By pressing Alt+Tab you can easily move between programs, speeding up your time at the PC and cutting down on repetitive movements.
Another great hotkey that is especially useful when browsing the Web is Ctrl+F. This key is for finding text in your currently selected document. Simply press Ctrl+F and then type in the text you’d like to find. The computer will scan the document for you and you’ll easily be able to locate what you were looking for. It is a really great tool for saving time while looking through a long file or scanning list. Try it out when looking through search engine results for some impressive results.
As you can see memorising just a few keys will greatly improve your speed when using a PC and can make even the newest beginner seem like a seasoned IT veteran. Hopefully you’ll be able to remember some of these keys and step your computer efficiency up a notch as well.
Building a games PC can be a stressful and confusing process. There are so many parts to choose from and sometimes the will to build it yourself can dim and you start to become tempted to buy one ready made from manufacturers or retailers such as Dell or PC World. While it is definitely the easiest option it is much more expensive to buy a ready made PC than it is to build one yourself. By building a PC you’ll understand just what is inside and how your machine works. It’ll be easier to upgrade later and you’ll be able to build a better machine for the same cost.
I’ve built several PCs for gaming and there are always several things that I look out for and consider to be most important. The main component of any gaming computer is the graphics card, and this is the area that you really cannot afford to cut back on. With the rate that games are increasing their demands on PCs you’ll need to spend the money and buy the latest graphics card that you can afford. It is well worth stretching your budget as far as you can go for the GPU as it will make a world of difference when rendering the 3D environments that all modern games use. I would generally give 30-40 percent of my budget to the graphics card.
The next things to consider are what I feel are the real backbone of your PC, the motherboard and processor. If you search the Internet you can find some really great deals on motherboards and processors so make sure you shop around. A dual core processor is mandatory these days and make sure that your motherboard can support all the components that you intend to buy. For this reason the motherboard is often the last item that I choose when building a PC.
For most gaming I would say that 2GB of RAM is sufficient. There doesn’t seem to be much need for any more yet and if you’re running Windows XP you won’t be able to make use of any more anyway. When choosing your power supply bear in mind that this is another area that you can’t afford to cut back on. I’ve had three power supplies blow up in the same machines before finally deciding to spend the money on a decent one. Turned out it was money well spent and the expensive power supply lasted me for three years. Make sure you don’t do the same mistake as a blown PSU could even fry your other components, ending in a very expensive accident.
Some people view peripherals with greater weight than others. I think they’re definitely important as they’re the parts that you actually spend time touching and using. Make sure you get a large flat screen monitor to save on desk space and enable to you run in nice large resolutions. When choosing a keyboard I find that a regular keyboard is quite sufficient for everything I need, but make sure that the buttons are smooth and not too chunky to press. You’ll want something that is really easy to use. A mouse is worth spending a little on, I’d recommend a five button infra red mouse.
As for sound a good set of headphones is superior to speakers and a lot cheaper so if your budget is stretched at this point I’d certainly endorse buying a good headset. Ensure you get a large hard drive as well, as you’ll definitely want to store music and film on your computer, so the bigger the better. You can pick up 1TB drives for around a hundred pounds these days. The final part is the case, and I think a lot of people spend too much time and thought on it. I would really cut back and get the cheapest case you possibly can and save the money to spend elsewhere. I have had the same old case for six years and it’s served me just fine.
Building a PC is a difficult task and it can seem more effort that it’s worth, but when you save so much money you’ll be able to have a computer that lasts a much longer time that if you’d gone to a retailer. Good luck building your PC and hopefully you won’t blow anything up, like I’ve done on too many occasions.
There is no doubt that video games are in their golden age at the moment. Since 2007 sales of consoles and games have grown by 57% in spite of the economic downturn. During March 2008 $1.7 billion worth of games products were sold. The games industry is now bigger than films and is gaining more and more mainstream appeal and recognition.
The Nintendo Wii has helped to bring games to a much wider audience than was ever thought possible. Many families and older people are joining in what was traditionally a hobby for young males. The current generation of technology has pushed games further than they’ve ever been before. Games on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 are pushing graphical realism to new heights while the Wii is looking to break the boundary between virtual and real space with motion sensitive controls.
An interesting question to pose is where the next generation will go, and where video game entertainment will end up. A common theory is that they will move away from being games as such and end up as virtual reality like experiences. The starting points of the necessary technologies to achieve this are already in place.
The controls of the Wii are a significant stepping stone toward virtual reality in the home. Imagine if when playing Wii Bowling instead of watching the screen with cartoon characters mimicking your actions you were wearing a headset and being fed photorealistic graphics from a first person perspective. The experience would be far more realistic than anything available at the moment.
It is my opinion that there will be two distinct directions that electronic entertainment will take. One path is that of the Wii, appealing to a mass market with easy to pick-up games that are designed for a quick dose of fun with family and friends. The other side I think will go down the ultra realistic route and end up trying to give the user a virtual reality experience. With technology as it is, the scope for providing this in the home is limited. The Wii remote requires users to physically move their bodies. Obviously this will not work in the living room once games require you to do more than swing a tennis racquet or bowl a ball.
A workaround for requiring physical movement from the participants is to read brain activity. While currently the stuff of science fiction there are significant strides being made into reading human brain waves and converting them into mechanical movement. On the 28th of May 2008 the BBC posted a news article stating that scientists from the University of Pittsburgh had managed to get a monkey to control a robot arm to feed itself by just using its brain. The monkey had tiny probes the width of a human hair inserted into the primary motor cortex in order to read the electronic impulses that control movement. With a little training the monkey was able to manipulate the robotic arm as if it was its own.
Such invasive procedures are obviously out of the question for simple home use but it is certainly feasible to see the technology being adapted to read the brain from outside the head. It would be in this way that thoughts could be read to control movements in a virtual reality. This technology would also have other significant advantages, such as restoring movement to those crippled by spinal injuries and motor neurone diseases. I would see a difficulty when using these systems in separating virtual and real movements. Once trained to control movements in a virtual world with the brain would one be able to move their real body properly afterwards?
With technology such as this in place combined with ultra realistic graphics, we may see some virtual reality games created that are almost indistinguishable from real life. Would this lead to a mass migration to a virtual world where people can be as they please? Perhaps the topic for another article but certainly it is a scenario explored in many science fiction books and films.
In 1999 action film The Matrix famously told of a future in which mankind lived unknowingly in a virtual reality, their physical bodies were used to power the machines which had enslaved them. While unlikely to happen, when you read stories of Korean men starving themselves to death while playing MMO games it certainly does make you worry about how many people would abandon their bodies should such technology become available.
In reality though it is highly unlikely that virtual realities this complex will be able to exist, at least not in the foreseeable future. The computing power required to process them is trillions of times greater than what can be achieved today, with some theories suggesting that it would take a computer the size of a planet to process a virtual reality complex enough to fool the human mind.
I do think that games will reach an extremely high level of realism though, just not in entirely virtual worlds. The biggest barrier isn’t just processing power, but how to give enough feedback to trick the senses. I think that vision and sound will be relatively simple to reproduce but taste, smell and touch will be much harder. The issue of balance is a sticking point as well. Without direct input into the brain these sense may prove impossible to mimic inside a computer simulation.
Of course in the end it also comes down to what is financially viable for a company to put out and sell. The consumer will dictate the direction that games end up taking by what they’re willing to spend money on. With the dominating success of the Wii over the other platforms it would suggest that users are more comfortable using controls that mimic real life actions than they are using a traditional control pad or keyboard and mouse.
Graphics and simulations will continue to improve over time and I’m sure that one day it will be quite standard to wear a headset to play games. Whether that headset reads the thoughts of the user or not depends on whether it becomes cost effective to sell to consumers and whether people are ready to embrace the technology. I’m sure the possibility will exist at some point in the future but whether it represents the future of video games and is actually used remains debatable.
Everything considered the future of electronic entertainment is certainly a bright one. Eventually the technologies will merge and we’ll see virtual reality games integrated into TV, radio and the Internet. The only question is when all this will happen.
