Since Windows Vista and Windows 7 Microsoft started to embrace the “big brother” attitude even harder. There are a lot of secret software installed by Microsoft on your computer through their magic “Windows Update”. Here is some evidence: Windows Update updating without permission! http://cubicspot.blogspot.com/2007/08/windows-update-updating-without.html True Spyware In Microsoft Windows 7 http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=670&pgno=1 http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=670 Microsoft Windows 7

It looks it is possible to switch from IDE to AHCI after Windows was installed in IDE mode. All you have to do is to change the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServic esmsahciStart key from 3 to 0.  The details are here: http://ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?69682-Change-from-IDE-to-AHCI-after-Installation Increase in performance due to AHCI is minor (few percents) while the problems created by this

1. Note: If you already have an empty partition to install XP on it, use it and jump to step 2. Shrink the existing partition (use Computer Management-> Disk Management) to make room for the second partition. For Windows XP you need minimum 4GB. In the space that you just freed, create the new partition.

Scareware Scareware comprises several classes of scam software with malicious payloads, or of limited or no benefit, that are sold to consumers via certain unethical marketing practices. The selling approach uses social engineering to cause shock, anxiety, or the perception of a threat, generally directed at an unsuspecting user. Some forms of spyware and adware

Published August 2010 Is your compiler like this: or like this: ?

On Toshiba support forum a kid name Bob sustains that two Toshiba tech guys sais to him that is dangerous to keep your computer in stand-by/hibernate mode. So he would like to start his computer faster but without using the stand-by/hibernate mode: > The holy grail for me would be to use sleep mode 100%

One month ago, my OS froze and I had to forcefully turn off my laptop by pressing the power button for 4 seconds. The laptop cut the power off but after few seconds it rebooted and started to load the BIOS, then Windows. So, I pressed the power button (and keep it pressed for few

When did you looked last time in your ‘Plugins’ section of your Firefox browser? Did you know that you have lots of garbage there? Many companies such us Microsoft, Yahoo and Google stealthily  install plugins that you don’t want and without your permission. Some of them are of GREAT danger for your security. See these

Few months ago I had to run a test to see if DNA sequence files (FASTA files) compress better than simple text files. DNA files contains only 4 characters (A, C, G, T) so you will expect that they will compress really well compared with text files. However, the DNA code is pretty random (well

How we spend Moor dividend During the last 28 years, the clock speed increased 586 times. The Intel Pentium processor, introduced in 1995, achieved a SPECint95 benchmark score of 2.9, while the Intel Core 2 Duo achieved a SPECint2000 benchmark score of 3108.0, a 375 times increase in performance in 11 years. One indication is

Some raw notes about distributed databases. If you want to start with parallel databases then you need some good knowledge about traditional (non-distributed) data bases. Here are some books I personally recommend.: Books about regular DB http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/0321290933 http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/078972569X http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/9781593271909 (For true beginners. You may not want to start working with parallel DB systems if

Distributed Processing: Raw Resources (2008/2009) I’ve decided to share some of my 2008/2009 notes on distributed processing. These documents are just raw material and personal observations from my research at the time. While I intend to revisit and organize them into a more presentable format, here’s the first post in a series of about 30

Web applications are increasingly popular, but are they truly “real” applications? Given the limitations of web technology, it’s clear that web “applications” can’t match the functionality of traditional desktop applications. This is why 96.4% of users still prefer desktop software (like Word) over basic online tools (such as Google Docs). An interesting observation about the

Here is a very intresting test that shows that DD3 is only few percent faster that DD2 even if it is way way way more expensige: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-speed-tests,1807.html “You get the best bang for the buck if you stick to the mainstream of the memory market, which currently is still DDR2-800 or 1066, preferably at low

Here is a “nasty” article about how to hack your Windows 7 32 bit to use more than 4GB or RAM. It looks like MS Windows can use more than 4GB or RAM but MS don’t want to sell it that way: “That 32-bit editions of Windows Vista are limited to 4GB is not because