SSDs - Solid State Drives

Hello again! You may have heard of things called solid state drives or SSDs for short. Well basically these are drives that contain no moving parts in them, unlike a conventional hard drive. They are used in, primarily, USB flash drives because of their high read/write speed and their durability. SSDs are also starting to be used in netbooks where power and weight are at a premium. So what are the main advantages of SSDs?
Firstly Solid State Drives consume a lot less power than hard drives. Whereas a hard disk drive would require it's own power supply, a SDD can run off the computers internal supply. That is why they can be used in USB drives, because they need a minimal power supply.  This reduced power usage also lessens the heat output.
The greatest benefit of SSD Drives is what is provided as a result of how they work, because they contain no actual moving parts unlike an HDD. This means an SSD is perfect for any notebook or portable computer because they are robust enough to easily absorb several knocks and falls without suffering any serious damage or failure. Hard drives contain moving parts (the write head and the disks themselves) meaning that they are not so durable.
Furthermore solid state drives can read information faster as well as write faster. SSDs can do this because a hard disk drive uses a needle to locate the data and this takes time. The solid state drive doesn't need to this. This will mean that PCs utilising an SSD will start up much faster and the transfer of data will be significantly quicker.

But there are disadvantages to SSDs.
They are much more expensive than hard disk drives meaning that any device using them will have its price jacked up by this. But, like all technologies, this price will slowly come down, making the solid state drive more accessible to everyone.
Secondly, SSDs have a limited number of read/write processes. This means they have a finite number of times that they can be used. Everytime you access the drive, more read/write processes will take place, thus shaving a small amount of their remaining life.
Finally, SSD capacities are much lower than that of hard disk drives, thus limiting their application. Although this capacity is expected to increase rapidly, with drives of 1TB (1 terabyte=1000 gigabytes) already available for industrial applications.

Overall, it depends on what the SSD will be used for, whether it will be better suited to the job than an HDD or not. But the price is expected to go down and capacity and performance to go up meaning they could be a serious rival to the hard disk drives long standing reign. Watch out!

C Cleaner review

In this post I'm going to talk a bit about C Cleaner, a program that deletes internet history and the hidden bits of it that most people don't know exist.
First of all I'll explain exactly what it does. When you delete your internet history on any web browser, it appears to be deleted; and most people ie - an someone untrained in data recovery, couldn't find it again. But if you have sensitive information (I don't but obviously some people do) a trained IT professional, or computer forensics expert can find this again. Yes, there are people trained to find these kind of things. What C Cleaner does is delete this data hidden in places that don't normally get deleted.

Right, the actual program itself. What's it like? Well I find C Cleaner very useful. Even if I just want to make sure no-one finds out what present I'm buying them or whatever, it's good. People who work at companies might like it to delete their secret browsing habits.You can also use it to delete temporary files and unused file extensions to speed up your computer in general. I would highly recommend it to you.
But, just to make sure you know, no program, except military grade data destruction programs will completely erase data from a computers hard drive. What deleting does is basically tell the computer it can overwrite this data - it does not destroy it and it can be found still by people, even after something like C Cleaner is used, although C Cleaner makes it much harder. So if you've been looking for a program like this you should definitely give C Cleaner a go.

Introduction to Linux

What does the word Linux bring to mind? A struggling, nerd sitting at his computer hacking his way into the Pentagon or something free and therefore rubbish and hard to use? Or perhaps you have never heard of it. Well basically what Linux is (there's a bit of technical mumbo-jumbo but I'll attempt to simplify as much as possible) is a thing called kernel. A kernel is what the operating system, for example Windows or Mac OSX or Ubuntu, uses to perform all the mundane tasks, such as hardware management, networking and basically keeping the OS running. The Linux kernel is what Linux distros or distributions use to do the above. A distro is basically an operating system based on the Linux kernel. Examples include among others, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu and Fedora. This may seem complicated but it isn't if you use this analogy - the kernel is like the engine of a car, it keeps it running.
The operating system on top of this is like the dashboard and interior of the car, looking good and helping you drive. In case you're wondering the big penguin is the symbol for Linux - don't ask me why.
But isn't any Linux distro just for nerds who spend all their time on computers? I here you ask. Well no, sure there are distros that are insanely hard to use, but for the most part they are fairly easy to use. To name a couple Ubuntu and Fedora are some of the easiest OSs out there. Some argue they're easier to use than Windows. You'll have to judge for yourself.
So why should you choose Linux or technically a 'Linux based distribution' over Windows? Well the short answer is, why not? Seriously, if you've got an ounce of technical knowledge and can read words off a screen and click a mouse, then you can install and use Linux. Some points why to give it a go:

• It's compatible with most things. Back in the early 2000s many Linux distros weren't compatible with anything. This is because, since Windows has such a large share of the OS market, that is what computer manufacturers design their products for. But now the distros have changed and are compatible with most pieces of hardware.
• Choice. There are, literally, hundreds of distros to choose from. Depending on your needs you will pick a different distro. I'll mention a bit about choosing a distro in my next post. There is something suited to everyone out there. As well as this new updates and releases are released incredibly often - some every 4 or 5 months or so. So if you want to be up to date with the latest stuff this is great. To find a distro go to DistroWatch. 

• And finally the price. Well, there isn't any. It's one thing in life where less is better. Linux distros are whats known of the open source. This means they are and always will be free. Also you can do what you want with them. Change them, sell them or reverse engineer them. It's, too borrow an opensource quote, free as in freedom, not free as in beer.

So why not give Linux a go? There's tons of tutorials out there or check back here and I'll have posted up a tutorial on installing a few distros. Good luck on picking one!
DistroWatch
Linux.org