PC Mechanic, New Article

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• How Do You Burn A DVD The Right Way?
• Death of the Thumb Drive As We Know It?
• Top 5 Desktop Operating Systems Over The Last Year

How Do You Burn A DVD The Right Way? Posted: 06 Apr 2011 03:00 AM PDT Immediately upon read of the title, you’re probably thinking, "Pff.. yeah, I think I know how to burn a DVD, thank you very much." Maybe. But do you know the differences between the file systems you can use when burning a disc? In the popular freeware optical disc burning utility ImgBurn (which I use and recommend), you have the option of using a file system of ISO9660, Joliet, UDF or a combination of all three. When preparing files to burn in ImgBurn, you can click the Options tab and choose the file system: Which should you go with? The answer depends on how you intend to use the disc once completed. For general purpose use: UDF (Universal Disk Format) For discs to be used as video discs: ISO9660 + Joliet For "talking" properly with old computers: ISO9660 If what you’re doing is simply backing up data, UDF is the one to go with. All files written will be done so properly and you won’t encounter issues with longer file names. If creating video discs, ImgBurn will usually detect this if burning AVI files or the like and ask you if you want to use ISO9660 + Joliet, because if you don’t, chances are the disc won’t play correctly in some console players (in which they can be quite finicky at times). Using ISO9660 alone should only be used if you plan on using the disc on a vintage PC. With this file system you can force SFN (commonly known as 8.3 filename) limitations on write that will make the disc guaranteed to be compatible with MS-DOS or just about any other old-era PC OS that has optical drive support. You can enable old-era 8.3 support in ImgBurn by going to Advanced, Restrictions, ISO9660 and purposely selecting "Level 1 – 11 characters, 8.3 Format", like this: It’s probably true that if this is your goal, you’re burning a CD and not DVD for old-PC use, but the point is that if you need to get files on to an old PC, you’ll burn the right type of disc the first time with ImgBurn. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle. How Do You Burn A DVD The Right Way?

Death of the Thumb Drive As We Know It? Posted: 05 Apr 2011 01:45 PM PDT This is a guest post by Abdul Karim. Since early 2000, the thumb drive has revolutionized computing. It made it possible to quickly and easily transfer valuable files between computers. Thumb drives [also known as USB drives and flash drives] were introduced shortly after the adoption of USB after an era where users were fed up with using blank CDs and floppy discs. The problem was clear. Floppy discs were outdated and didn’t meet the data capacity needs for that time, and CDRs were too bulky and difficult to use for ordinary computer users. The thumb drive alleviated all that by providing a quick, easy and reliable storage platform where anyone with basic computer skills can transfer files between computers and create basic backups. The Thumb Drive Today Ten years on, and we’re asking the question: are thumb drives still relevant to this day? Thumb drive technology has certainly improved over the years. 10 years ago if you had a 32MB thumb drive, you wouldn’t need to worry about running out of space for a long time. Today the minimum is more like 8GB, but the sky is the limit. It’s even possible to have 256GB data capacity on a thumb drive, thanks to the Kingston DT310, which could rival the hard disk space of many computers today. The Internet in the Equation With the rise of greater internet access and download speeds, it’s now possible to transfer files far quicker through the internet than it is to plug and transfer files using a USB drive. For instance, users have been emailing files to themselves for transfer purposes since the birth of email. And it’s a far better method for collaboration and sharing purposes too. In fact, not only is the internet used for transferring files across computers and users, but with the wide scale adoption of cloud computing services like Google Docs, for many users the internet has become the primary location for storing data – completely doing away with local storage and the need for flash drives altogether. Cloud Computing: Internet on Steroids For a more organized solution that takes care of file management, online backup services provide a very useful way to keep online backups of files. They keep archives as well as synchronize data between computers. What’s particularly useful is the fact that users simply select the folders they wish to backup and synchronize and then the software goes to task, regularly uploading files which are modified. They are then downloaded by other permitted computers and users, which provides everyone with the latest version. Online storage has been in wide use for the last 5 years, however with the increasing use of mobile computers, the industry has been asking how do you allow users to manage their data and their software licenses across multiple computers? The answer is the complete and seamless integration of the internet into desktop computing. Not only are we going to be storing our data online, but we are going to be storing all of our software online too. For the everyday user this will mean that you can have the exact same files, software, customization and settings from any computer, requiring less use of laptops altogether and of course flash storage devices. Storage Platforms for Home Use It’s clear that for long distance collaboration the thumb drive is redundant, especially as we begin to see more fiber optic technology being deployed by ISPs, meaning super fast download speeds. So it would seem that flash drives are still handy to have around at home. The truth is, we’re beginning to see wider use of home theatre PCs (HTPCs) and network attached storage devices (NAS), which allow home users to centrally place their movies, software, user files and music on the local network, which can then be accessed wirelessly. This all making the thumb drive even less relevant for the home user, except for occasional USB installation of operating systems on netbooks and tablets which don’t have an optical drive. About the author: Abdul Karim is a tech enthusiast who enjoys web design and blogging and is a keen adovcate of cloud computing and online data management. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle. Death of the Thumb Drive As We Know It?

Top 5 Desktop Operating Systems Over The Last Year Posted: 05 Apr 2011 07:00 AM PDT Using an operating system that’s has good adoption is important for when you actually want to get stuff done with your computer (you know, being productive?) When you use an OS with wide adoption, naturally there’s more vendor support; this means more stuff will work with your computer on both the hardware and software side of things. Here’s how the chart looks for what people are using for OSes over the last 12 months. The first chart will be for the North American region, and the second global. These charts were generated at Statcounter. North America Worldwide North America Windows Vista use is dropping like a brick as Windows 7 shot right past it easily, and at this point is very close to overtaking Windows XP. Linux flatlines and made no significant gains. No surprise there. Mac OS X had a slow but steady gain, but is starting to fall off. This is typical Mac market share concerning their desktop line. Global Windows 7 is nowhere near the point of overtaking XP but blasted past Vista easily similar to how it did in North America. Linux, like in North America, flatlines globally on the desktop. Again, no surprise there. Mac OS X had a small nudge from 5.92% use 12 months ago to 6.53%. That is significant for Apple’s OS on a global scale, but still doesn’t beat any Windows OS out there. What you can take from these statistics In North America it’s probably true you have until 2012 before XP is officially not the most-used Windows anymore. At that point you can expect vendor support to drop significantly, so if you’re an XP user now and were wondering when was the right time to go with a new Windows, there’s your answer. Outside of North America however it’s a different story. XP will continue to live on well into 2012 and possibly all the way to 2013 before newer versions of Windows overtake. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle. Top 5 Desktop Operating Systems Over The Last Year

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