Windows 7 (hardware) requirements

Bill called our radio show about being able to use Windows 7 on his computer…

On the Engineering Windows 7 blog it was stated that Microsoft will have more information about the operating system at the Professional Developers Conference on October 27. After that date, we can consider if we’re going to purchase any new hardware for Christmas or not.

Speculation is that Windows 7 will be available as early as the end of 2009.

problems defragmenting a drive

Tom called the radio show and said he cannot defragment his hard drive. Based on my experiences, this may be a symptom of other issues…

My first suggestion is to check the hard disk for errors:
Check for Disk Errors in Windows XP
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
Check your hard disk for errors Windows Vista

Then attempt to defragment the hard drive:
How To Analyze and Defragment a Disk in Windows XP
How to Defragment Your Disk Drive Volumes in Windows XP
Features of the Windows Vista hard disk defragmentation utility

You can consider defragmenting while in Safe mode:
A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
Start your computer in safe mode

mobile internet service

Dave called our radio show to get more information about having internet service while he is traveling in his recreational vehicle…

There are many wireless telephone service providers (Sprint, Verizon, etcetera) that have it available. And, there are satellite dish internet service providers (WildBlue, HughesNet, etcetera).

You need to ask about: service areas, service speed, and price.

USB ports and hubs

We’ve had conversations about using USB devices…

Someone in our (Ustream.tv) chat room suggested we review “USB Hub Design and Windows”.

Per the USB Implementers Forum, the specification for cable lengths is 3 meters to 5 meters.

I have used longer cables, but only for devices that do not need to be powered by the USB port. And, I have USB devices that cannot be powered by certain computer ports because the ports do not provide enough power for the device: because of bad experiences I do not trust USB devices that use Y-cables.

When considering using powered hubs, keep in mind that what is considered to be a “compliant bus powered hub” has only four ports.

new PSP in October, PS3 in November

Sony has announced that a new PSP (PlayStation®Portable) system will be available on October 14:  the PSP-3000 will have a built-in microphone, support IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), and MPEG-4 will be playable.

Music Memory Stick Audio Format:
ATRAC3
MP3
MP4
WAVE
WMA
 
Photo:
JPEG
TIFF
BMP
GIF
PNG

In November, look for a 160GB PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) with Bluetooth…

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