5 ways to make your Windows computer lightning fast

Trim-down and tune-up tips anybody can do

Nobody enjoys using a slow computer. You want your computer to be fast and responsive, whether it's brand spanking new or four years old. Follow our tips to keep you zooming along the information superhighway, regardless of your PC's age!
1. Run the essentials
The most basic thing you can do to speed up your computer is also one of the fastest changes you can make — close unneeded applications! If you're working in Excel, the odds that you'll need Word open at the same time are slim. Limit open software to what you are using at the time. This also cuts down on distractions and helps you get your work done more quickly.
If you have a stubborn application that won't close, treat it as a frozen application and kill it via Task Manager by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del and selecting Start Task Manager.
Your computer automatically starts some programs when you turn it on. Some of these are necessary parts of the Windows operating system, but you may be able to disable some applications. Open the program in question and go into Properties or Options. Usually, auto-start options are found under General or Launch settings and will be labelled "Launch when Windows starts." Uncheck the check box and save the setting change to keep the application from coming back up the next time you reboot.
If you don't find an option like that, there's one more place to look for applications that auto-start. Be forewarned, this option is for advanced users — disabling essential startup items can have catastrophic results. Don't kill the auto-start settings for anything you don't recognize!

Scour your programs list for items that can be deleted

2. Fluff not necessary
Unless you've built your PC from scratch and manually installed Windows, hands have touched your computer before. Heck, you may have even had some kind of setup service performed at the store immediately following your purchase. The downside to all this pre-use activity is that applications that you will likely never touch have likely been installed and are running on your computer.
To deal with this preinstalled mess, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features and uninstall the unwanted items. Things to avoid removing include standard Microsoft software bundles such as Office, software you have actively paid for such as Photoshop, and your antivirus package. If you're not sure where something came from or what it does, do your online homework and search for software's name before uninstalling — better safe than sorry!
Extra software can also end up on your computer after you install applications you actually want. As you go through the installation process, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for additional install prompts. These will look something like "Install Utility Name for Internet Explorer/Firefox" with a check box next to it. Make sure the checkbox is not checked, to keep the junk software at bay.
3. Safe and simple browsing
Current versions of popular browsers (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome) let you do much more than the mere web surfing of their predecessors: extensions and add-ons let your browser do all sorts of things. Have you set up something in your browser that displays an unread emails count icon, or maybe clips web sites to Evernote with one touch? Then you're using extensions!
Did you know these extensions require additional resources beyond the standard browser requirements to run? You can disable these items when you want to speed up your computer (and your browser). The process varies a bit based on your browser:

• Internet Explorer and Firefox Go to Tools > Add-ons or Manage Add-ons (depending on your version) and disable individual add-ons that you don't use.
• Chrome Right-click on any of your add-on icons (located between the address bar and the wrench icon) and select Disable. You can also click Manage Extensions to go through your installed/enabled add-ons in one page.

Browser add-ons can seriously hinder your speed

Internet Explorer comes with an option to launch entirely without add-ons, so you don't have to disable individual add-ons on a session-by-session basis. To access this version of IE, click the Start Button and type in Internet Explorer. You should see two versions come up: Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer (No Add-ons). Select the second version, and IE will launch without any add-ons or plugins. To use a version with add-ons, simply launch IE from your regular shortcut. 4. Timing your antivirus scans
You may think that running your antivirus program at all times is the epitome of safe browsing. While it's true that running scan jobs during peak hours may keep your computer marginally safer, it comes at a serious expense to speed. Most antivirus packages have a background task that runs at all times and scans new files when they are downloaded, while operating with a lower demand to your computer's resources.
To keep your top browsing hours free of any unneeded antivirus burden, configure full scans during hours that you are definitely not on your computer.

• Workday hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) This works best if you use a different computer for business purposes.
• Early evening (6-7:30 p.m.) Scan while cooking dinner or unwinding after the workday.
• Late night (1-4 a.m.) Let it run while you're asleep.

Find the hours that work best for you, and configure your scanning schedule accordingly. Make sure that your real-time or on-demand scanning is also enabled when setting up your schedule!
5. Add a physical boost
If you've done everything above and your computer is still sluggish, your last option is to upgrade the memory (RAM) in your computer. RAM acts kind of like short-term memory for a person, giving your programs more room to keep data while they're running. However, figuring out what kind of RAM your computer needs and installing it can get complicated: so if you want to upgrade your computer's memory, we recommend calling your local computer repair shop and letting them take care of it.
Good housekeeping
Keeping your computer in top form requires regular maintenance. Follow a maintenance schedule for your standard activities, perform a little seasonal cleanup, and use Tecca's maintenance tips to keep your PC at its speediest!
This article was written by Liz Patt and originally appeared on Tecca

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Canon offers new camera for Hollywood filmmakers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four decades after winning Academy Awards for its cinema lenses, Canon Inc. was back in Hollywood on Thursday, unveiling a new high-end digital video camera before an audience of some of the world's most famous filmmakers.

Fujio Mitarai, chief executive of the Japanese camera and office equipment giant, took the wraps of the movie camera, called Cinema EOS, in a packed theater on the Paramount Pictures movie studio lot.

At $20,000 for the body alone, the Cinema EOS is not cheap by consumer standards but is on the low end of what professional digital film cameras cost, which can reach into the six figures. Two zoom lenses intended for movie making will go for $45,000 and $47,000.

Making such costly cameras for professional users is somewhat of a departure for Canon, which makes up more than a third of its revenue from consumer electronics, and more than half from office equipment like all-in-one printer-copier-fax machines.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Mitarai said Canon's move into expensive high-end products for professionals comes in response to the rising yen and the movement of manufacturing to cheaper-labor countries abroad.

"Anything without high added value is now being manufactured in southeast Asian countries and China. So we need to shift into an era where all our products have an added value," Mitarai said. "That is one major trend in meeting the difficulties posed by the strong yen."

The camera draws on the popularity of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a single-lens reflex still camera that the company introduced in 2008 and which became widely embraced by independent filmmakers because of its ability to take full high-definition video at the 1920-by-1080 pixel resolution known as 1080p.

It didn't take long for its popularity to reach Hollywood.

The Mark II was used in the final episode of the last season of Fox's television show "House M.D.," as well as in the car racing scenes of "Iron Man 2" and certain scenes in "Captain America: The First Avenger," movies that Paramount distributed.

The Cinema EOS is similar in shape to a traditional still camera but works with a variety of mounts.

Mitarai said the camera's digital images had the warmth of film and brought out skin tones well. The company showed a number of short films that used the camera to show off how it functioned in action sequences, especially in tight areas that made use of its compact size.

The camera is compatible with an array of around 60 "EF," or electronic focus, lenses that work with Canon's still cameras. The company also introduced seven new lenses that are precise enough to work with super high-definition movie cameras made by other companies using a standard known as 4K.

"This is the camera that gave us the opportunity to work with you today," Mitarai told the crowd.

Filmmakers including Jon Favreau, Ron Howard and Martin Scorcese were in attendance.

"Mr. Mitarai, welcome to Hollywood," Scorcese said.

Import From: http://news.yahoo.com/canon-offers-camera-hollywood-filmmakers-020300566.html

China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou 8 blasts off

BEIJING (AP) — China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou 8 blasted off Tuesday morning, in the latest step in what will be a decade-long effort by the country to place a manned permanent space station in orbit.

The spacecraft took off from a base in the far western city of Jiuquan, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Minutes later, Xinhua cited Chang Wanquan, who leads China's space program, as announcing the launch a success.

China launched its own space station program after being rebuffed in its attempts to join the 16-nation International Space Station, largely on objections from the United States. The U.S. is wary of the Chinese program's military links and the sharing of technology with its chief economic and political competitor.

Earlier Chinese news reports did not specify a launch date for Shenzhou 8. Chinese space officials rarely speak to foreign media.

The Shenzhou 8 will attempt to dock with an experimental module, carrying out maneuvers to couple with the Tiangong 1 module now in orbit. The 8.5-ton, box car-sized Tiangong 1 launched last month.

Following Shenzhou 8, two more missions — at least one of them manned — are to meet up with the module next year for further practice, with astronauts staying for up to one month.

Plans call for launching two other experimental modules for more tests before the actual station is launched in three sections between 2020 and 2022.

At about 60 tons when completed, the Chinese station will be considerably smaller than the International Space Station, which is expected to continue operating through 2028.

Import From: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-unmanned-spacecraft-shenzhou-8-blasts-off-002126759.html

Where the Internet was born

UCLA's Interface Message Processor (IMP) (R) is pictured in the birthplace of the Internet, at 3420 Boelter Hall, the original location of the first ARPANET node at UCLA in Los Angeles, California June 2, 2011. UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock and his team used the IMP, the packet-switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET to send the first message, the letters LO to Stanford Research Institute on October 29, 1969. The UCLA Department of Computer Science and Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have collaborated in creating the Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site and Archive (KIHSA) with the center recreating the lab at its original site in 3420 Boelter Hall from which that first message was sent, which for years had been used as a classroom.The recreated lab will open October 29 with a reunion of the computer scientists responsible for the first message. Picture taken June 2, 2011. REUTERS/Fred Prouser (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS TELECOMS)

Part of sun turns into stormy 'benevolent monster'

WASHINGTON (AP) — After years of quiet, the sun is coming alive with solar storms in a big way.

The sun shot off a flare Thursday afternoon from a region that scientists are calling a "benevolent monster."

Scientists at the federal Space Weather Prediction Center say that area is the most active part of the sun since 2005. It has dozens of sunspots, including one that is the size of 17 Earths. Sunspots are kinks or knots in the sun's magnetic field.

"It's beautiful," said forecaster Jess Whittington. "It's still growing. The size is what blows me away."

Thursday's flare wasn't aimed at Earth. However, this active region is now slowly turning toward Earth, and scientists say it will be directly facing Earth in about five days.

That storm region will only affect Earth if it shoots off flares and they hit our planet, which doesn't always happen with stormy areas, said prediction center space scientist Joe Kunches.

The region will be facing Earth for about two weeks as it rotates, he said.
Solar flares send out bursts of electromagnetic energy that can occasionally disrupt communications and electrical systems.
For the past several years, the sun has been at a quiet end of its cycle and only recently has gotten more active. Solar cycles go in 11-year period. This cycle has had fewer storms than usual for this time in its cycle. But that may be changing.
"The sun is looking more like we think it should at this point in the solar cycle," Kunches said. "It's got a number of active centers."
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Online:
Space weather prediction center: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov

Import From: http://news.yahoo.com/part-sun-turns-stormy-benevolent-monster-213318304.html

Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases

WASHINGTON (AP) — The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.

The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. That's an increase of 6 percent. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries — China, the United States and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.

It is a "monster" increase that is unheard of, said Gregg Marland, a professor of geology at Appalachian State University, who has helped calculate Department of Energy figures in the past.

Extra pollution in China and the U.S. account for more than half the increase in emissions last year, Marland said.

"It's a big jump," said Tom Boden, director of the Energy Department's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge National Lab. "From an emissions standpoint, the global financial crisis seems to be over."

Boden said that in 2010 people were traveling, and manufacturing was back up worldwide, spurring the use of fossil fuels, the chief contributor of man-made climate change.

India and China are huge users of coal. Burning coal is the biggest carbon source worldwide and emissions from that jumped nearly 8 percent in 2010.

"The good news is that these economies are growing rapidly so everyone ought to be for that, right?" Reilly said Thursday. "Broader economic improvements in poor countries has been bringing living improvements to people. Doing it with increasing reliance on coal is imperiling the world."

In 2007, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its last large report on global warming, it used different scenarios for carbon dioxide pollution and said the rate of warming would be based on the rate of pollution. Boden said the latest figures put global emissions higher than the worst case projections from the climate panel. Those forecast global temperatures rising between 4 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century with the best estimate at 7.5 degrees.

Even though global warming skeptics have attacked the climate change panel as being too alarmist, scientists have generally found their predictions too conservative, Reilly said. He said his university worked on emissions scenarios, their likelihood, and what would happen. The IPCC's worst case scenario was only about in the middle of what MIT calculated are likely scenarios.

Chris Field of Stanford University, head of one of the IPCC's working groups, said the panel's emissions scenarios are intended to be more accurate in the long term and are less so in earlier years. He said the question now among scientists is whether the future is the panel's worst case scenario "or something more extreme."

"Really dismaying," Granger Morgan, head of the engineering and public policy department at Carnegie Mellon University, said of the new figures. "We are building up a horrible legacy for our children and grandchildren."

But Reilly and University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver found something good in recent emissions figures. The developed countries that ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas limiting treaty have reduced their emissions overall since then and have achieved their goals of cutting emissions to about 8 percent below 1990 levels. The U.S. did not ratify the agreement.

In 1990, developed countries produced about 60 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, now it's probably less than 50 percent, Reilly said.

"We really need to get the developing world because if we don't, the problem is going to be running away from us," Weaver said. "And the problem is pretty close from running away from us."

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Online:

Government carbon dioxide info center: http://cdiac.ornl.gov/

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