ramdisk Archives - The Silicon Underground

Optimize Windows 10 for better performance

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 12:00:37 +0000

When I first installed it, I thought it was pretty pointless to try to optimize Windows 10. Of course, I installed it from scratch on a computer with an SSD and 16 gigs of RAM. Then I upgraded a couple

The post Optimize Windows 10 for better performance appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Speed up Firefox

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 11:00:52 +0000

I’ve seen a lot of gimmicky hacks to speed up Firefox, and you probably have too. But chances are Firefox ran just fine when you started, then it slowed down over time. Here’s my collection of tips to restore Firefox’s

The post Speed up Firefox appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Common AmigaDOS commands

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 11:00:00 +0000

The Amiga had a command line, or CLI. It was a rather powerful CLI, especially for its time. But there are a number of differences between AmigaDOS and other operating systems you may be familiar with. These are the common

The post Common AmigaDOS commands appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Giving Libre Office another look

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 11:00:04 +0000

With the end-of-life of Office 2003 rapidly approaching, I’m having to look at alternatives. Even after five years, I find the Office ribbon demeaning and productivity-killing, so Microsoft’s newer products are out. With Libre Office, the price is right ($0),

The post Giving Libre Office another look appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Firefox 19 is a big security improvement

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:13:29 +0000

Mozilla quietly released Firefox 19 this week. Its biggest selling point is a built-in PDF viewer (like Google Chrome does), which makes me more comfortable than having Acrobat Reader installed–Mozilla is generally faster at fixing security holes than Adobe. Besides

The post Firefox 19 is a big security improvement appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Yes, ramdisks still make sense, especially with memory so cheap

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 22:30:50 +0000

A former classmate and industry colleague dropped me a line a few weeks ago. He pointed out that memory is dirt cheap, and he bought 16 GB of RAM, just because it cost him around $100 to do, and was

The post Yes, ramdisks still make sense, especially with memory so cheap appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

The Samsung SSD 830: A user review

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 26 May 2012 14:47:13 +0000

I didn’t need much convincing to purchase a Samsung 830 SSD; I was in the market for a bigger SSD, and my short list consisted of Samsung and Intel drives. So when I found a good price on a 128

The post The Samsung SSD 830: A user review appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

And speaking of SSDs, here’s how Oracle performs on an SSD

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:25:48 +0000

Andy Black is a former colleague and an Oracle DBA. Several times in the last few years, I ran into problems where I wished he wasn’t a former colleague, because my team got into some jams that I was pretty

The post And speaking of SSDs, here’s how Oracle performs on an SSD appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Intel enters the budget Sandforce market

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:26:01 +0000

Intel announced a new low-end SSD today, the 330, based on a Sandforce 2281 controller. The popular 120 GB capacity will retail for $149. While not as cheap as OCZ’s entry-level SSDs, it’s within striking distance. The main difference between

The post Intel enters the budget Sandforce market appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Easier deep Firefox SQL optimization

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:56:44 +0000

Last year I examined ways to optimize Firefox’s SQLite databases. I’ve since found I like it better when I just put the Firefox profile in a ramdisk, but that may not be an option in all cases. If you don’t

The post Easier deep Firefox SQL optimization appeared first on The Silicon Underground.