Specialized Computing Blog

We have had some time now to get accustomed to Microsoft’s latest incarnation of Windows with its release of Vista. And it seems the general consensus is….PASS!

If you are considering a new computer, understand the hardware has not caught up to the physical demands set forth by Microsoft and it’s newly born cash cow.

The most important upgrade you could buy to make your computer experience worthwhile is more memory. In other words, the hardware needs to catch up to the software.

Running 512k memory is useless so don’t even bother to buy one with this amount of memory. You have to get AT LEAST 1 gig of memory to even consider running Vista.

But here is a point to consider, why should you have to go out and spend more money on more memory just to be able to run a spreadsheet and watch the latest episode of 30 Rock? Why should any new machine slog along as if it has been subjected to year’s worth of unprotected malware attacks?

Sure there are some great security features built into Vista that pretty much prevent you from doing anything to your machine, but what is the cost? The user experience really has taken a hit with this release.

Why? Vista takes at least 350k of memory for it just to run. WOW! Nothing like streamlining your software Bill since you have only delayed the launch four times.

People have been buying computers for twenty years now and at no time was your new machine worse than the old one! It seems as if Microsoft and the hardware people need to get together and come up with a decent performance standard that would be acceptable for everyone.

Companies like CompUSA and Best Buy are charging consumers $150-$200 to UNISTALL Vista! That’s right, up to $200 to take the software off of your machine. Seems like we really have taken a step back with this upgrade.

The new UI (user interface) is clean and rounded and bubbly and smooth and looks nice. There is a bit of a learning curve with some of the functionality so you want to spend some time going over the built in “what’s new” function.

Microsoft seems to be taking user feedback and using it to eliminate or bury unused features. For example, in previous incarnations of Windows you would get to the “Run” feature (used primarily when your DVD or CD that was supposed to autorun decides not to run) by going to Start>Run.

Vista hides Run – here is your trick. Start>Acessories>Run, not too big a deal, but it is if you can’t find it where you have been looking for it for the last four years.

In short, if you are in the market for a new machine, put your arms around the fact that you are getting Vista no matter what. Just make sure you save a few bucks to upgrade your memory or your user experience is not going to be what you want it to be.

Whether you are an expert computer user or not, you have probably been burned by your computer in the past. For some a computer virus could have wiped out your hard drive, or completely taken control of your web browser. For others, you might have been running an application only to have it crash and lose your data. So what is the solution?

There is a solution to many of the common computer problems: switch to an Apple computer. Although Apple and Microsoft have always competed for the personal computer marketshare, today things have changed. Where once someone with a Windows-based computer would never think twice of switching over, now people are switching in droves.

Why the sudden shift? There are many factors for this change. First off, the Macintosh operating system has been redesigned from the ground up and is now a more stable and effective operating system. With Mac OS X, users have a lot less to worry about: no viruses, no trojans, and no crashes. What more could a user want?

Apple delivers more: a seamless integration between hardware and software. When you buy a PC and install Windows, chances are that you are installing the operating system on a set of hardware that was never really fully tested together. Different combinations of plug and play hardware are what causes Windows to crash time and time again.

On the other hand, with an Apple computer, you get the operating system that was tested with the hardware ahead of time. Did you ever wonder why Apple sells the hardware with the software? It’s because it allows the developers to test their software on the different hardware configurations before shipping the product. PCs come in too many varieties to be tested fully.

Plus, Apple delivers all the applications you need to get your work done, and have fun doing it. On a Windows machine, you get the basic Microsoft Office suite of applications. Now, you can get the same suite of applications for your Mac as well.

Yet, Apple offers applications that you can’t get on Windows: the iLife set of applications. These programs make your life easier because they organize and import all your digital photos, they play your music, they let you import home movies, and create DVDs right from your computer.

What’s more is that Apple does most of the work in the background, and leaves you to focus on the most important decisions. Developers and computer wizards used to pride themselves on knowing the internals of their windows machines. Today that’s changing, as people realize they have better things to do than spend all their time at a computer terminal, when they could go out and enjoy life.

That’s exactly what switching to a Mac can do for your productivity. Your computer will let you be as productive as you can, by getting out of your way. So that you can get back to living your life to the fullest!

In the last 20 years there have been many changes, both in the programming languages used and in the technologies themselves. It is an evolving field with some great rewards as well as challenges.

It is necessary to enjoy this line of work because it requires constant upgrading of skills. Although it can be argued that you should do this in any field, with technology you will be required to keep constantly up-to-date. Failure to do so will lead to obsolescence in a short amount of time.

What programming languages should you learn? How do you go about learning them? The key is to be able to learn new languages quickly. One viewpoint is that companies give too much weight on a programmer’s knowledge of particular programming languages. Knowing the ins-and-outs of a language is important but in today’s environment, a programmer needs to be well rounded; software development requires proper communication. Communication is about 1/2 the job. Gone are the days of sticking a bunch of programmers in a corner and have them crank out code.

How do you go about learning about programming? A course at a local community college can be essential in starting that endeavor. There are also online resources such as Microsoft (for .NET languages) and Sun (for Java) that may prove useful on how to get started.

Even after taking courses there is no better way to learn than by getting a project to tackle. Often, this is a Catch 22 because you cannot get a project without experience and you can’t get experience without prior projects. One way around this is to volunteer to write a program(s) for local organizations such as churches or other organizations. You could even talk to businesses in your area, that have programming departments and offer your services for free or nominal fee to get some learning and experience.

Many technologies that exist today are complicated. There is simply no way to know every aspect of every technology that exists. As an evolving field, new technologies are being introduced constantly. When undertaking a project, you are often under tight time constraints and deadlines. You need to be able to solve the problems within the allocated timeframe. The challenge here is being able to know where to find answers quickly. Services are available that can facilitate quick access to those answers. Two services that have been extremely useful for me are Safari Online (http://safari.oreilly.com) and Experts Exchange (http://www.experts-exchange.com). For most of your reference needs, you can use Safari and for direct answers to questions, Experts Exchange is the way to go. There are plenty of others but these are my personal favorites.

An article about programming and the software development process would not be complete without a discussion of outsourcing and offshore development. This controversial subject could be the subject of an entire new article and then some. But it is important to know that this trend is here and will continue for many years to come. Some programmers have seen rates drop 30% because of it. Outsourcing is a fact of life. Ignore it at your own peril!

The best way to combat this trend is to embrace it and use it to your advantage. Do this by employing the communications skills that are required by a software developer as discussed above. By understanding the requirements and being able to convey those requirements to an outsource entity you effectively add value to your organization. By understanding the software development process, you can offer to support those outsourcing projects. This too, adds value.

In reading this article you may feel that you are cut out for a career in programming and software development. There are many challenges that a programmer is faced with including those discussed in this article. Constant learning, outsourcing challenges and proper communication are all components that a programmer is exposed to. If after experiencing all these elements it is still something that you desire, programming can indeed be a fulfilling career.

The answer to the question, ‘Do I need to learn programming?’ is: It depends. It depends on what exactly you mean by programming. You need to know a little bit of web programming like HTML and Javascript so that you do not need to depend on someone else for additions and editing your work (if you intend to build your own website). Those two languages are some of the basics that everyone should know.

If you’re referring to software programming then the answer is: No you do not need to learn programming. You do not need to learn it to get ahead as it is usually the concept or the idea which can make you money and not a programming tool or language.

Further, the world is getting more and more specialized. In order stay in tune with it, you need to find your niche and build with it. Nobody can be good at everything. It’s about delegation. Unless you plan to become a professional programmer, and getting a formal education for it, leave development up to other experienced developers.

Additionally, from a practical standpoint, it is dangerous for everyone to try to do web programming. Some of the coding, for example one of the variables the tell-a-friend script pulls from the form is openly included in the message it sends out. The problem with that is if someone who knows what they’re doing, with regard to programming gets a hold of it, they could easily recode the tell-a-friend form into an open spam relay. It is a script with a major hole just sitting there waiting to be exploited. That’s the risk you run when you don’t understand the ramifications of every line of code. If you do not have the time or desire to learn serious coding, and some basic code security techniques, you will only make life harder for other netizens and in the end, for yourself.

So unless you plan to become a professional programmer and take the time to study these things, there’s really no need to learn programming. Rather, hire someone who is a professional and let them do the work for you. Finding a professional programmer is easy too. All you need to do is visit http://www.rentacoder.com and put out a bid for your project. You’ll get programmers from all over the world quoting on your project. Entrepreneurs use them all the time and have wonderful results. Hiring someone is not only far more effective, but it leverages your role as the project manager and takes you out of the creator mindset.

It’s easy to make a mistake when buying a new computer. Many people end up spending a ton of money on something expensive that they’ll never use to its full potential, while others buy something so small that they have to do expensive upgrading in a matter of months.

There’s few things more disappointing than finding out your 6 month old computer can’t do what you want it to do, or that you don’t really need that $400 graphics card to run Microsoft Word.

Don’t just buy blindly. Hopefully this article will help you ask the right questions and get the right hardware for your needs in return.

Power Supply:

Often overlooked as a component, your power supply is an important part of your computer as it powers all the internal components. The power supply you need will largely be determined by the components in your PC – in particular CPU type, graphics card and number of internal devices.

For Pentium 4 and all AMD CPUs, a minimum 300W power supply is recommended. If you want to run one of the new ATI X8xx or GeForce 6xxx series 3D graphics cards, don’t even try anything weaker than a 400W power supply.

Never overlook the significance of a power supply – an underpowered system will be prone not only to unreliable operation, but also to component damage.

CPU:

On the entry level side of things you have a choice between AMD’s Sempron CPUs and Intel’s Celeron D. These CPUs are not for the hardcore gamer – they’re for the average user who only want to run office applications and use the Internet.

For the hardcore user/gamer there’s the Pentium 4 and the AMD Athlon 64 CPUs. There’s little to choose between the two big guns in the CPU business. The slowest Pentium 4 CPU readily available at present is the 3Ghz version, while AMD’s equivalent, the Athlon 64 3000+ will likewise satisfy most users’ demand for processing power.

Go faster than that and the increase in cost becomes quite significant, and you’ll have to weigh that up against your budget and your demands.

Motherboard:

The most important thing to keep in mind when picking a motherboard is to get one that’s fairly future proof.

For Pentium 4 that means a motherboard that supports socket 775 CPUs, and for AMD a motherboard that supports socket 939 CPUs. Also, make sure your motherboard has enough expansion slots (most commonly PCI slots) to support all additional cards you may want to use in future – including sound cards, TV cards, wireless network cards, etc.

If you’re a gamer, also make sure that your motherboard supports either an AGP 8x (obsolete soon), but preferably a PCI-Express 16x slot for a 3D graphics card.

3D Graphics Card:

While most motherboards these days feature an onboard graphics card that is suitable for the casual user, these aren’t adequate for gamers.

With the old AGP 8x architecture almost obsolete, the way to go is a PCI-Express graphics card if you have a motherboard that supports it.

For casual gamers who want to play a bit of Sims and Harry Potter, nVidia’s GeForce 6600 and ATI’s X700 series of cards will do the trick.

For the hardcore gamer who wants to play cutting edge games like Doom 3 and Battlefield 2 at rocking frame rates, don’t get anything smaller than a GeForce 6600GT or ATI X800 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory on the card. 128MB is also acceptable if you don’t want to play at resolutions higher than 1152×864.

Before buying a graphics card, make sure that a) your motherboard has the appropriate slot for it and b) that your power supply is strong enough to support it.

RAM:

RAM is fast memory used by your computer to execute tasks. When your computer runs out of RAM, it starts swapping data to the much slower hard drive, which slows down your entire system.

With RAM being so cheap these days I’d recommend you get at least 512MB. If you’re going to run Windows XP, don’t get less than 256MB or you’ll slow even the fastest CPU powered computer to a crawl.

For hardcore gamers, less than 1GB simply isn’t an option anymore.

Hard drive:

The smallest hard drive you can buy at the time of writing is 80GB. That’s more than the average home/office user will ever fill, while it’s not nearly enough for music/video collectors or avid gamers.

At the moment the first big price jump in hard drives comes between 200GB and 250GB, so 200GB would be a great option if you need some serious space. Be sure to make comparisons if you need more space – for example, two 200GB drives are much cheaper than one 400GB, even though you get the same amount of space.

On the other hand again, two 80GB drives are more expensive than one 160GB drive.

It’s also worth getting a SATA hard drive if your motherboard supports it. It’s much faster than IDE drives, which are still abundantly available.

Optical Drives:

Fortunately CD-ROM drives have quietly vanished off the market, so you can now get more versatile DVD-ROM and CD-ReWriter drives very cheaply.

If you want to be able to write DVDs, naturally go for a DVD-RW drive, and make sure the drive you get supports double-layer writing so you can use the new 8.5GB double layer DVD discs in it, which is a whole lot of backup storage.

So, that’s just a quick rundown of the things to keep in mind when buying a new computer. Fortunately it’s almost impossible to buy a slow computer these days – only gamers and other users of high-demand software need to pay special attention to what they get.