When I wrote my take on used-book sales, I originally included a question, then took it out because it turned into a sidebar. But it’s a valid question. Would I rather be a full-time author?
All posts tagged optimizing windows
So, would I rather be a full-time author?
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 9, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/so-would-i-rather-be-a-full-time-author/
Ways to speed up an aging laptop
Yesterday Lifehacker did a feature on laptop tweaks and upgrades, that basically came down to reinstalling the OS, adding memory, and upgrading to an SSD. All of those are good things to do of course, but there’s more you can do. I posted a response there; I’ll elaborate a bit here, where I have more [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on January 8, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/01/ways-to-speed-up-an-aging-laptop/
Optimizing Windows’ startup sequence
In days of yore, it was possible to go by one simple rule. When several minutes passed between the time your desktop appeared and the time you could actually do something, you could just run MSConfig and disable anything you don’t recognize. Back when a typical PC started up maybe a half-dozen things and a [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 28, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/12/optimizing-windows-startup-sequence/
A look back
I don’t remember the specific date anymore, but it was 11 years ago this month that I finished proofreading the galleys for what became my book. And I’ve had several people ask me recently–including my boss–why I haven’t written another one.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on October 27, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/10/a-look-back/
Slimming down Windows XP for SSDs and nettops
I found a very long and comprehensive guide for using Nlite to reduce the size of a Windows installation.
The guide is geared towards an Asus Eee. But it should work well on pretty much anything that has an Intel CPU in it.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on September 12, 2009
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2009/09/slimming-down-windows-xp-for-ssds-and-nettops/
Psst… Wanna compete with Best Buy?
Best Bait-n-Switch is offering a service where they’ll remove crapware from a PC for 30 bucks.
You can offer to do the same thing for 30 bucks, but do a better job. Here’s how.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on August 28, 2008
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2008/08/psst-wanna-compete-with-best-buy/
Windows 2000 in 32 megs of RAM
I can’t remember if I linked this before or not, so here’s Windows 2000 on 32 MB of RAM.
Of course I find this interesting. And his advice is pretty good.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on October 14, 2005
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2005/10/windows-2000-in-32-megs-of-ram/
This author says used book sales don\’t hurt authors or publishers
In case you didn’t know it, Amazon.com sells used books as well as new books. This New York Times story (via News.com) says authors and publishers still don’t like used book sales because they say it hurts new book sales.
I happen to be a published author. I say they need to quit whining.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 30, 2005
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2005/07/this-author-says-used-book-sales-dont-hurt-authors-or-publishers/
Finally! A $60 RAMdisk on a PCI card
PC World: Taiwanese hardware maker Gigabyte Technology has stumbled upon a faster way to boot up PCs based on Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system.
Please allow me to quote something I penned back in 1999: “I’d love to see someone design and release a battery-backed hardware RAM disk for PCs… Such devices existed in the early 1990s for the Commodore 64/128 and the Apple IIgs and permitted these systems to boot their graphical operating systems before the PCs of their day had managed to bring up a C: prompt. A similar device for today’s PCs would do more to boost system performance than any other innovation I see coming down the pipeline any time soon.”
Posted by Dave Farquhar on June 5, 2005
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2005/06/finally-a-60-ramdisk-on-a-pci-card/
Squeezing some life out of an aging Windows 2000 PC
I can safely say I really did write the book on Windows optimization (Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics and Multimedia, O’Reilly, 1999, ISBN 1565926773) but that was five years ago and covered Windows 95 and 98.
Windows 2000 and XP are a different animal, and are as similar to the obscure OS/2 operating system from IBM as they are to Windows 95/98.
Here’s what I did when my work computer slowed to the point that I could no longer do much work.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on September 16, 2004
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2004/09/squeezing-some-life-out-of-an-aging-windows-2000-pc/