Anthropomorphic Computers

We're not big believers in machines that take on human (not to mention malevolent) characteristics, but the latest events are really testing our limits on this. This newsletter was all set to go out the last week of February. Then on Thursday, February 26th, this system blue-screened (if you haven't seen the Blue Screen of Death -- often referred to as the BSOD -- you haven't had a true Windows adrenalin rush). Nothing we did would bring it back, and after some diagnosis we finally decided that the motherboard had died.

Now just a week earlier we had ordered a new motherboard, a new processor chip, and memory for this system. All ordered through this computer, of course. In fact, the new hardware was scheduled to arrive the next day, a fact we also determined using this computer. Now we don't really believe that the computer somehow knew it was about to be replaced, do we? Of course we don't. That's silly. Isn't it?

By good fortune, FedEx was early and the hardware arrived Thursday afternoon. By Thursday evening we had a system up, but it was not really stable until early this week, at which point all the work that didn't get done Thursday, Friday, and Monday came due. This is our first chance to get the February newsletter out, and yes, dammit, we're still going to call it a February newsletter. We're not going to let some malevolent computer cheat us out of an issue.

Spam (Again)

The Spam problem continues unabated. We have had our Spam filter in place for a few months now and it's working quite well -- almost too well, in fact. It catches about 95% of the Spam and only a very few "good" messages. And in a funny way, that's the problem. We have to go through the list of messages caught by the filter every day. Looking through 400+ messages to find the one or two "good" messages that might be there is a tough assignment. Somewhere around 150, our eyes begin to glaze over. The result, of course, is that we have missed a few good messages that got caught in the filter.

So why not adjust the filter settings so a little more Spam slips through but fewer good messages get caught. Unfortunately, it's not a nice linear adjustment. No matter how far we scale it back, some good messages will get caught in the filter. Do we have a better solution? Not yet. If we did, we'd be using it.

There are solutions on the horizon, however. Several organizations are working on schemes to control Spam. Some schemes will cost users a little money, but the small amounts they are talking about would be well worth it. One scheme is to require postage just like regular mail. The numbers they are currently talking about are quite small -- $.0025 (that's 1/4 cent) per email. We just did a little research and found we sent out an average of 160 emails/month over the last 6 months. Under the proposed scheme that would cost about 40 cents, or a little less than $5/year. Other schemes propose allowing a certain number of free emails (50 or 100) each month and then charging 1/4 cent for anything beyond the quota. The idea is that for normal email users this isn't a big deal, but for Spammers, who send out millions of emails a day, it would quickly add up to a prohibitive amount.

The problem with these schemes is that there are always people caught in the middle. For example, there are some very good (non-Spam) email newsletters that have 150,000 subscribers or more. These folks could be shelling out as much as $375/mailing, which would effectively put them out of business. So the creators of these schemes will have to figure out how to allow for these exceptions without creating loopholes for the Spammers. Stay tuned -- we're confident there will be a solution for Spam, but it's not clear how soon one can be agreed upon and implemented.

Heat

OK, it's not really a web issue, but it is a computer issue and we all use computers to see websites. One of the most common causes of random computer crashes is heat. We went through a series of crashes a couple of years ago. Finally, someone online suggested we check the fan gratings of our systems. Sure enough, they were all clogged with cat fur (office cat's revenge for all those times we pushed him off our chair...). Cleaning out the gratings solved the crash problems immediately.

It's not difficult to check -- just reach around the back of the computer where the grating usually is, sweep your hand over it a couple of times, and see how much dust, fur, and other garbage you come up with. Do it once a week. Your computer will thank you.

If you are having work done that will raise dust (a cleaning crew coming through, floor sanding, etc.), shut down the systems so the cooling fans don't pull all that dust into the system. Your fans will last longer and your system will run cooler.

And finally, if your computer starts making a howling noise, it's probably the CPU fan. Most CPUs (the processor chip that is the heart of any computer) today require a separate fan to cool them. These fans are often cheaply made, and after a year or so of running, their bearings begin to give out. Don't ignore this -- if the fan stops, the CPU will overheat and (most likely) burn out. Older CPUs cost $100 or less, but the latest ones can cost $700+. Fan/heat sink combinations cost about $20. You do the math.

If you are pretty competent with tools you can buy a replacement and put it in yourself. Usually you buy the fan and the heat sink as a package. Note that to get the right fan and heat sink, you need to know which CPU you have. Unfortunately, the instructions that come with replacement fans usually assume you don't need instructions. You can find good instructions for replacing the fan and heat sink here: http://www.pcguide.com/proc/physinst/sink-c.html.

If you don't feel competent to do it yourself, have your local computer service person do it -- it should take just a few minutes in most cases. Email us if you need the name of a good computer service person.

Thanks for joining us this month. See you next month.