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H.I.T.S.

5 min read

How’s your memory? No, I don’t mean the kind that lets you down at the mall or at a store when you bump into someone from your past and their name eludes you (yes, we all have that nightmare on occasion!) In this case, I actually mean the memory in your computer, known as RAM. RAM stands for random access memory and simply put, it’s where programs that are being used currently by the processor (computer) to run the programs are held. This clears when you lose power or shut down the computer.

We also have something called ROM, which is read-only memory. It’s where all the programs on your computer are stored till needed. ROM is on the hard drive; items stay stored here until you remove them, so think of the hard drive (ROM) as a file cabinet. It contains all the programs your computer needs to operate.

The RAM can be described as a desktop. The processor (computer) is the worker. So when you open a program, you want to work on, it moves from the filing cabinet, to the desk. This is where all the work is organized and used by the “worker.” When work on that program is done and you close the program, it’s placed back into the file cabinet.

The same thing happens when you shut down your computer. A well-known computer axiom is to have as much RAM and hard-drive space as you can. In the past, RAM was very expensive, especially when home computers first became available. Currently, it’s incredibly cheap.

Theses low prices prompted me to purchase a whopping 3 gigs of memory online the other night from our good friends at Crucial Technologies ( http://crucial.com/). They even have a scanner tool on their webpage that connects to your computer through the internet, tells you what memory you have already on your computer and what’s available as upgrades, along with the cost.

It’s pretty much foolproof to use and saves you lots of time. Although I could have shopped around for even cheaper RAM, I decided to stick with Crucial simply because they’ve never let us down with anything in their product lines before.

As we’ve detailed in the past with all the operating system changes in both Windows computers and Mac’s new Leopard system, computers are needing more RAM just to meet the minimum operating requirements.

Don’t wait until its too late and the prices shoot back up again.

I’ll be interested to see what the difference is in my iMac, once I install it.

Also this week, I’ve been showing lots of my students my new iPod touch, which I’ve already had freeze up on me. Hopefully, that’s not going to be a regular occurrence. After a quick net search, I came up with other users having the same problem and tested a method described by some to restore it to life. I’m glad to say it worked.

I guess that’s the downside of having something that’s a new product as it’s going to have “teething problems.” Another of these is connecting the iPod to more than one computer in order to charge it. I have different songs and pictures on both my computers and it keeps writing over one lot and then restoring it.

I wish it were like my PSP, in that once you connected it to the computer, it merely showed up as a folder icon on your desktop and just stayed there until you disconnected it. Apple, however, wants to stop you sharing the songs with another computer, so I think that’s the main reason that it does it.

This has also been an annoying problem for my friend, Jimmy, whose daughter got a classic model iPod from Santa. She has a laptop that the iPod won’t sync with, which really is ridiculous since the laptop’s not that old.

The later operating system for the laptop (called Tiger) would work, but Apple no longer makes or sells Tiger. He’s left with trying to buy new old stock online, locating an old copy of Tiger at an Apple dealer or buy a new $1,000 laptop to plug in the $250 iPod via the new operating system.

I suggested that he might try to sync the iPod via a Windows computer, as that’s been an option for quite a while now. I still think it’s a bit stingy on Apple’s part after you fork out $250 and find all this out.

When you think of how many people now own iPods, I’m sure that Jimmy is not the only one who’s having this problem.

Speaking of gadgets, we’re filming a new H.I.T.S. show next week and the dynamic duo of Jeff and Dave, the lads from Microsoft, will be coming with all sorts of new things. I’m looking forward to showing my iPod off to Dave as he is into Microsoft’s Zune (at http://www.zune.net/en-US). Jeff has said that he has lots of new gadgets, as well.

Don’t forget to visit www.bloodylimey.com

and our archive of these very articles, where you can click directly on the links that we provide.

Finally, check out the latest in video games for the whole family at a href=”http://www.rockband.com. http://www.rockband.com. end

Happy surfing.

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