Friday, March 27, 2009

Windows Memory Diagnostic

Microsoft (2006). Crash Analysis. Retrieved March 27, 2009 from http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors


Thursday, March 26, 2009

This week whats happening 26 March 2009


  1. 2009 April: Conficker Internet worm (http://www.virtualmv.com/wiki/index.php?title=Virus/Anti-virus_software )

  2. IE8 Now released

  3. Google Chrome Updates available (use Help About -- I think)

  4. Google Chrome experiments (http://www.virtualmv.com/wiki/index.php?title=Internet:Web_Browsers)

  5. Google Earth has been updated also (different navigation controls)

  6. AVG 8.5 Update. Be very careful as it is easy to install the "free" trial version. Read the prompts carefully!

  7. breathingnet.org (see earlier post)

  8. Office Live Update (allows you to share/ store documents in MS-Office in the Internet Cloud on Microsoft Servers) - like googledocs

Breathing earth

This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.

Found by DR

Belja, D (2008) CO2 emissions, birth rate & death rate simulation. Retrieved from http://breathingearth.net/

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Browser tester (HTML/JavaScript)


  • Chrome Experiments (Google, 2009)[2] http://www.chromeexperiments.com/

    • Chrome Experiments showcases the applications that require significant data processing using multiple Web pages simultaneously

    • Darrin Fisher, one of the engineering leads for Google Chrome, notes that all of the experiments use just HTML and JavaScript, and are designed to demonstrate what is possible with basic Web technology




(Naone, 2009, March 18)[3]

E, Naone (2009, March 18)Browser Coders Make Chrome Shine. Technology Review. Retrieved March 24, 2009 from http://www.technologyreview.com/web/22315/?a=f

Sunday, March 15, 2009

virtualBox - to test Development software

An issue I have is trying to test different software packages which can be like octopus's in my operating system (like .net development or WAMP). I used to have them all installed and inevitably my computer would run slower and slower.

Now I use virtualBox to create a virtual machine in which I only install the software relevant to the development environmment. It means the actual developmet environment runs faster and it doesnt handicap my working PC.

I have put some instructions on my wiki at http://www.virtualmv.com/wiki/index.php?title=VirtualBox

If you want to make modifications to the wiki entry you will need to create a userid and login. Apologies for this as I know this is not a "true" wiki thingy.

Another big advantage is that I can run virtualBox on another computer (e.g. my Vista one) and can use the virtualBox image without change and it includes all the set up stuff as well - which is brilliant. I found this particularly useful when my work PC was upgraded. My virtual machines were up and running with all their weird configurations once I'd installed virtalBox, copied over the virtualMachines and connected them up.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Speed up Vista with ReadyBoost

From a post by Paradigm PCs (http://www.pp.co.nz)

Adding system memory is often the best way to improve a PC’s performance. However, upgrading memory can be difficult and costly, and some systems have limited memory expansion capabilities, making it impossible to add RAM.
Windows Vista provides a way to add memory to your system using a USB Flash drive which is called ReadyBoost to improve performance without having to add additional memory to your system.
The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache, which means that your computer can access the necessary data much quicker than it can access data on the hard drive.
This is how you Speed Up Vista with Vista ReadyBoost.

Its best to use a USB flash drive that you can spare and then plug it in an empty USB slot, preferably at the backside of your system so that you won’t have it in sight.
Now you should see a pop-up with the option “Speed up my system, using Windows Ready Boost”.
If you are not prompted, just follow these steps.

  • Go to start

  • Select My Computer

  • Right click your flash drive

  • Choose Properties 

  • Select the ReadyBoost tab

  • Check “Use this device” and tweak the settings, click apply and you’re done.


The minimum requirement for the USB flash drive is at least 256mb.