Memory card speed for cameras

What they’ve done is that they’ve upgraded compact flash cards so fast that they are faster than hard drives. Cameras have built in memory for a buffer, and then they save into the flash card. The speed of which the camera writes to the card is correlated to your camera’s buffer. The speed of which the camera writes to the card depends on the buffer and shutter speed, not entirely the speed of the flash card.

 source: leo.am

What is a Rootkit?

A rootkit is a hacker technology that will hide hacked files from you. However, not all the programs that use this technique are necessarily bad. Rootkits gained prominence with Sony who used them for copy protection. It sounds like you have malware. Check out Rootkit Revealer. The only reasonable thing to do if you find a rootkit is to format and reinstall.

source: leo.am

ISPs’ Unwritten Rule

Some ISPs have the “unwritten” rule where you can download too much. These companies are disconnecting people for downloading too much even though they may claim to have unlimited bandwidth. Leo would post this on broadbandreports.com. He recommends reading up on the site for a new ISP as well. You’ve got Leo’s complete sympathy.

Pictures on DVD becoming blurred or pixelated

What’s happening here is that your computer is compressing the MPEG-2 wrong. Somewhere, the picture is being degraded. You may be capturing a very small size. It is pretty clear that your capture card is capturing at a smaller size than needed. You want to capture at 640×480. Look at the file you’re capturing and get the properties. If it is at 640×480, but still looks blurry, then the transcoding is going wrong.

source: leo.am

Routers, Hubs, Switches

Router                                                                                                                                                                                                         a computer networking device that forwards data packets across a network toward their destinations, through a process known as routing. Routing occurs at Layer 3 (the network layer i.e. Internet Protocol (IP)) of the OSI seven-layer protocol stack.  (source: Wikipedia.org)

Switch                                                                                                                                                                                                         A device for changing the course (or flow) of a circuit. The prototypical model is a mechanical device (for example a railroad switch) which can be disconnected from one course and connected to another. The term “switch” typically refers to electrical power or electronic telecommunication circuits. In applications where multiple switching options are required (e.g., a telephone service), mechanical switches have long been replaced by electronic variants which can be intelligently controlled and automated. (source: Wikipedia.org)

Hub                                                                                                                                                                                                                    A device for connecting multiple twisted pair or fiber optic Ethernet devices together, making them act as a single segment. Hubs work at the physical layer (layer 1) of the OSI model. Hubs are either active or passive. Active hubs repeat the signal received at one port out each of the other ports (but not the original one). The device is thus a form of multiport repeater. Ethernet hubs are also responsible for forwarding a jam signal to all ports if it detects a collision.                   (source: Wikipedia.org)

Click here to learn all about them in great detail at MakeItSimple.com.

Filenames Have Turned Blue

That’s Windows telling you that they’re compressed. Uncheck the Compress box (right-click, properties) and they’ll turn back to black.

Dynamic Disks

Most of the time you work with basic disks, those are the ones we know and love with primary partitions, extended partitions, logical partitions and so on. Dynamic disks are new to Windows 2000 and XP and are formatted differently. Microsoft describes the difference here. Converting a dynamic disc to basic will delete all the data from it! But there is a troubleshooting guide you can follow to try to save the data. Backup first, of course, using a disk imaging program that’s independent of the OS like Norton Ghost, then import the contents of the disc.

How Long Will Flash Memory Cards Last?

Typically flash memory can be read and written 300–600 times. After that it will get unreliable.