CPU or Hard drive - the "Brain" of the Computer

Introduction

We tend to think of the Central Processing Unit (CPU) as the brain of the computer because it controls the machine and is the "thinking" part of the computer.  However, the human brain is not only a thinking organ: it performs many other vital functions one of which is memory.  Scientists believe that the frontal lobe or front part of the brain is concerned with thought and the temporal lobe (the part by the temples) deals with memory.  If I compare this to the computer then the CPU deals with "thought" and the hard drive/ fixed disk,  deals with memory.  Note there are other kinds of memory in computing.   Thus the hard drive is as much "brain" as the CPU.


A Great Free Utility Program

In my years of experience in repairing computers one of the commonest problems for computer failure is a failing hard drive.  Since the hard drive stores the operating system, the computer will fail if the part of the hard drive containing the operating system begins to fail.  One very useful program for monitoring hard drive health and performance is called Active@ Hard Disk Monitor.  The information about your hard drive is beautifully displayed graphically.  I particularly like the scan disk utility that allows you to see graphically whether there are any bad areas on your hard drive.    




A Failing Hard Drive

Once you discovered that your hard drive is failing don't hesitate to take action.  Ensure that you have a back up and immediately replace it.  One great program that can facilitate the replacement is called EASEUS Todo Backup.  Among its many features, you can backup not only a single partition but multiple partitions and from different disks!  Or you can clone the entire hard drive, that is, copy the entire hard drive to a new drive.  You don't have to use this program only in the event of a failing hard drive but you can use it if you would like to upgrade to a bigger hard drive. Another plus is that its interface is very attractive and easy to use and it is absolutely free.

Making Photos Smaller

Introduction

We all send pictures over the net.  We email  family,  friends or upload them to websites   The trouble is that not all of us have access to high speed internet and sending pictures on a slow connection may seem like an eternity. The good news is that  there are  powerful, free programs  that can make a huge difference in the time it takes to email pictures or upload them to a website.

Smaller is Better

Reducing the size of a photo for internet purposes is a good idea especially for those who have a slow connection.  If your connection is slow, a smaller size photo will upload faster than a larger one.  Moreover, if your website contains many pictures, those of us with slow connections will have to wait a long time for your page to load.  Thus reducing the size of your photos will cause your page to load faster. And a faster loading page is better than a slower loading one.


Free Software

Although there are many programs that can resize pictures, I would like to recommend my two favourites: PIXresizer and Shrink Pic.  PIXresizer allows you to choose different methods to resize your picture, convert between graphic formats such as .bmp, .gif, .jpg and so on and can automatically reduce to a best size.  There is also a built in image viewer.   What I particularly like about Shrink Pic is that it can automatically resize all your photos to an optimum size whenever you email a picture. So after installing Shrink Pic, you don't have to worry about reducing your photos for emails.  What great software!.  Those of us who have slow internet connections will welcome such cool programs so that emailing and uploading photos won't have to take forever.

.