Tom Bihn Smart Alec and Monolith Computer Bags Review

There are two schools of thought on bags intended especially for carrying around computers and like-wired accessories. Either you got it for free when you bought your notebook, or you went out and specifically found a designer bag that a.) looks decent, and b.) is bound to be another colour other than black. Let's face it, these default standard computer bags tend to be pleather, pretty utilitarian, and the equivalent of the 1980's brown Columbo trench coat. In other words, they get the job done but you end up looking like just another computer geek toting around a 20lb black rectangular bag make from plastic cows that don't mooo. People, there are better options out there; bags that will protect a notebook from bumps, hold more wires and cables, and frankly look a damn-sight cooler. Continue Here>>

Beginners Guides: Stopping Junk Email

The use of email as a mass-marketing tool has become an epidemic particular to the current global use of computers in our society. According to one recent opinion, over 45% of all email sent over the Internet is unwanted and uninvited. This is a conservative estimate, while an average email account may start out pristine and useful, it quickly accumulates layers of unsolicited commercial email like the age rings of a tree, until the whole thing collapses under its own weight. So what to do about it? Many processes have been set in motion to declare unsolicited commercial email illegal, but as yet no law exists to really regulate it. The best way of dealing with unsolicited commercial email currently is through avoidance and redirection. It's sort of like the 'if a tree falls in the forest...' question. If unsolicited commercial email lands in an inbox, and no one is there to read it, does it really exist? Answer is, who cares? Let's look at what unsolicited commercial email is, and how to filter it out of your life like the hairball in your sink. Continue Here>>

A Reader Asks... Q:I assembled a 2.6GHz Pentium 4 computer recently with a Gigabyte (Intel 865G) motherboard. When I set the 'top performance' setting in the BIOS, my computer doesn't work... When I cleared the CMOS by removing the battery, my computer worked fine. Can you tell me why this happens so I can fix it? A: The 'top performance' BIOS option is found on many Gigabyte motherboards. It changes the memory timings of the system to deliver higher performance. Depending your computer's memory, you may or may not be able to enable this successfully. By lowering the memory timings, you are attempting to force your computer's memory to transmit data more promptly, which should increase the overall software performance of the computer. Most motherboard manufacturers implement some version of this 'turbo' switch in the BIOS and getting them to work can be a toss-up. According to Gigabyte, success using the 'top performance' setting depends on the configuration of your computer, and it is not guaranteed to work every time. Gigabyte's implementation apparently changes memory timing options which cannot otherwise be set in the BIOS, and requires memory able to run at low latency timings. Your memory is likely not capable of performing with these settings, which does not mean it is defective, just that it is not capable of the more aggressive memory timings. Take a look at Colin's excellent article on Memory Latency vs. Bandwidth for a more detailed exploration of how memory timings work (or don't). Tune in next week for a question about the upcoming BTX form factor and upgrading to it. To submit your question, send us an email.

Gigabyte GN-A17GU 802.11g WiFi Access Point Review

The 'Quickening'

Search Dealtime Abit ASUS Gigabyte Intel iWill Soyo Super Micro More... AMD Intel More... SDRAM RDRAM DDRAM More... Albatron ATI PNY MSI More... Have you ever found your computer slowing to a crawl when working on the network? That's because WindowsXP by default, uses your CPU to process network tasks instead of off loading them onto the network card which obviously chews up less resources. Luckily if you have a good network card you can force Windows to do all the calculations at the network card instead of on your processor. First load up regedit (start -> run then type regedit and press ok). >From there follow this path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> Tcpip -> Parameters and find/create the DisableTaskoffload DWORD value. Set its value to 0 then save and reboot. Once that's done WindowsXP will use your NIC's processing power to handle any network tasks instead of the main processor.

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