How Much Memory Is Enough?

How Much Memory Is Enough?

Since the days of Windows XP and Mac Mountain Lion, operating systems have expanded at a nearly exponential pace. This is good in the sense of being more robust and feature-rich, but it has taken it's toll on many machines, forcing folks into upgrading before the usefulness of the machine had been maximized. That may be part of the plan, but I'll refrain from conspiracy theories at the moment.

Another factor in the need for more internal memory, or RAM, is moving from 32-bit to 64-bit processors. This was necessary to handle the ever-increasing storage capacity. It is common now to see 1 TB (terabyte - that's 1,000,000,000,000 bytes of data) disks as part of the standard configuration. We used to think 1 GB (gigabyte - that's 1,000,000,000 bytes of data) was huge.

At any rate, bigger has become better and the need for more internal memory is greater than ever. Unfortunately, to keep the "base system price" low, the computer manufacturers continue to load the "minimum requirement" of RAM on the systems they sell. This has settled in at about 4 GB. Unfortunately, this is really not even enough for the casual user. Because of the added stress of the larger operating systems and larger processors, I recommend a minimum of 8 GB.

My rule of thumb when asked the question, "How much is enough?", my reply is the same. "Buy as much as you can afford."

The one redeeming factor in this issue is RAM is relatively cheap. A 4 GB stick of RAM is around $20 - 30 for most machines. If you are not sure how much memory your computer has, there are several ways to find out. Because the method varies so greatly I won't try to tell you here. You can Google the method for your particular device, or you can go to www.crucial.com and use their tool to scan your system. It will tell you how much you have, and how much your machine can hold. If it is user-replaceable, it will even give you pricing on purchasing additional memory.

If you have any questions about this process, or if you would like assistance upgrading your computer, let me know. I'll be glad to help.

Dudley Harris
256.366.4201
dudley.m.harris@gmail.com

Tip of the Day: Pre-loaded Software

Tip of the Day: Pre-loaded Software

When you purchase a PC from any of the major vendors, Dell, Toshiba, HP, etc., it comes with pre-loaded software. Much pre-loaded software!

Because today’s PCs come with such large hard drives this is usually not a problem. However, many of these programs are also set to load at system start-up and can have a major impact on the processing speed of your system.

Vendors have greatly increased the amount of software that is pre-loaded because they are trying to “help” you. Much of it can be helpful … if you know how to use it! Most, if not all, of it is superfluous for 99.9% of PC users. You can uninstall this software through the Control Panel\Uninstall Programs feature.

Be careful. You can also uninstall some really important stuff there as well. If you computer is not running as fast as you expect it to, let me help. It doesn’t take long to do this and is not expensive, but can get you additional life out of the machine, which will delay having to replace it.

When you purchase a new printer this can also occur. Printer companies add so much unnecessary software when all you need are the drivers. This can occupy valuable disk space, but can also cause slower response times. Most of this can also be uninstalled, or never installed in the first place. Again, I can help.

Reach out if either of these situations sound familiar.

Dudley Harris

256.366.4201

dudley.m.harris@gmail.com

No Job Too Big or Too Small

I have been helping folks with computers for quite a while. If you have need of anything computer related, I'm your man. I can't do everything, but I can certainly do a lot. And, I know folks that can do the really hard stuff. However, most of it is not really hard, and I can save you a lot of money in the process.

This past week I helped upgrade memory on 3 laptops which greatly improved their performance. I also did some optimization on them to keep them safe and running at peak efficiency. I can do the same for your machine.

Also, I am very capable of writing, or proofing, technical documents for your business. I can help with process evaluation and optimization within your operation. I would welcome the opportunity to help you.

I can also train on the Microsoft Office Suite of products: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. I can also show you some free software that will do all of this and save you lots of money!

If I can assist in any of these areas please contact me.

Regards!

Dudley Harris
dudley.m.harris@gmail.com
256.366.4201

Leap Year

Leap Year

Since we just experience Leap Day (2016 is a leap year) I thought I would give you some info on the origin of Leap Year and some helpful information on how to determine which years will have an extra day.

Why and When We Have Leap Years

by Borgna Brunner

2016 is a leap year, which means that it has 366 days instead of the usual 365 days that an ordinary year has. An extra day is added in a leap year—February 29 —which is called an intercalary day or a leap day.

Why is a Leap Year Necessary?

Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. The 365 days of the annual calendar are meant to match up with the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun — about one year. But the actual time it takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun is in fact a little longer than that—about 365 ¼ days (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be precise). So the calendar and the solar year don't completely match—the calendar year is a touch shorter than the solar year.

It may not seem like much of a difference, but after a few years those extra quarter days in the solar year begin to add up. After four years, for example, the four extra quarter days would make the calendar fall behind the solar year by about a day. Over the course of a century, the difference between the solar year and the calendar year would become 25 days! Instead of summer beginning in June, for example, it wouldn't start until nearly a month later, in July. As every kid looking forward to summer vacation knows—calendar or no calendar—that's way too late! So every four years a leap day is added to the calendar to allow it to catch up to the solar year.

A Quick History Lesson

The Egyptians were the first to come up with the idea of adding a leap day once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Later, the Romans adopted this solution for their calendar, and they became the first to designate February 29 as the leap day.

But Wait! It's Not Quite that Simple!

The math seems to work out beautifully when you add an extra day to the calendar every four years to compensate for the extra quarter of a day in the solar year. As we said earlier, however, the solar year is just about 365 ¼ days long, but not exactly! The exact length of a solar year is actually 11 minutes and 14 seconds less than 365 ¼ days. That means that even if you add a leap day every four years, the calendar would still overshoot the solar year by a little bit—11 minutes and 14 seconds per year. These minutes and seconds really start to add up: after 128 years, the calendar would gain an entire extra day. So, the leap year rule, "add a leap year every four years" was a good rule, but not good enough!

Calendar Correction, Part II

To rectify the situation, the creators of our calendar (the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582) decided to omit leap years three times every four hundred years. This would shorten the calendar every so often and rid it of the annual excess of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. So in addition to the rule that a leap year occurs every four years, a new rule was added: a century year is not a leap year unless it is evenly divisible by 400. This rule manages to eliminate three leap years every few hundred years.

It's Smooth Sailing for the Next 3,300 Years

This ingenious correction worked beautifully in bringing the calendar and the solar year in harmony, pretty much eliminating those pesky extra 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Now the calendar year and the solar year are just about a half a minute off. At that rate, it takes 3,300 years for the calendar year and solar year to diverge by a day.

Rules for Determining a Leap Year

1. Most years that can be divided evenly by 4 are leap years.

(For example, 2016 divided by 4 = 504: Leap year!)

2. Exception: Century years are NOT leap years UNLESS they can be evenly divided by 400. (For example, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600 and 2000, which are divisible by 400, were.)