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9 Apr 2021 - Podcast #738 - (21:45)
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Any time spent waiting for a computer is wasted. People have been saying that at least since the early days of personal computers, and system administrators probably felt the same about waiting for punch card readers and mainframe computers.
Computer speed is a factor of its many components. Computers used for photographs and graphics need fast video systems. Those who need access to online resources need fast network connections. Many applications and uses can be bogged down by a slow disk drive.
Solid-state boot drives are common in many computers now, even for some budget-priced systems. Users are even beginning to use SSDs in computers with multiple hard drives. Prices have been dropping. Mechanical drives are still the most economical way to add storage space, but the difference isn't as great as it once was and the performance increase is substantial.
Let's look at how to select the right SSD and at when you can save money by not buying a solid-state drive.
Let's start with considering cases in which a faster SSD won't provide a lot of performance improvement. Disk drives used for backup don't need the speed offered by SSDs. That's the primary use case that won't see much benefit from an expensive SSD.
Many manufacturers make SSDs, some well known and others less so. Some manufacturers are known for making faster drives that are usually somewhat more expensive, but if you're replacing a mechanical drive, just about any SSD will be faster than any consumer-grade rotating drive.
For comparison purposes, I'm using Samsung 870 EVO and Samsung 870 QVO drives. I've used two of the one terabyte EVO models, one to replace a mechanical drive in my wife's computer and one to replace a smaller SSD in my primary computer. Both use a Serial AT Attachment (SATA) interface, but Samsung claims the QVO drives are faster.
| Size | 870 EVO | 870 QVO |
| 0.25TB | $40 | none |
| 0.5TB | $70 | none |
| 1TB | $120 | $110 |
| 2TB | $230 | $190 |
| 4TB | $480 | $420 |
| 8TB | none | $805 |
The EVO drives are available in sizes from 250GB to 4TB, but the QVO line omits smaller sizes, starting at 1TB, and adds an 8TB model at the high end.
To illustrate the differences you might expect after replacing a mechanical drive with a solid-state drive, I compared a Samsung 860 EVO with a Western Digital Black drive that's the primary drive for data, photos, and website development in my computer. Western Digital has five disk designations: Blue, Black, Red, Gold, and Purple. Blue drives are consumer-grade devices and Black drives offer better performance. Red drives are designed for network use, gold drives are aimed at enterprise users, and purple drives are primarily for use in surveillance settings.
The Samsung drive in the computer was running at 45°C and the Western Digital drive at 51°C. That's because it's in top-most position of a four-bay drive enclosure. No rotation speed is listed for the Samsung drive because it has no moving parts. The Western Digital drive runs at 7200 RPM.
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I used Crystal Disk Mark to perform read/write tests. Keep in mind that these numbers apply to specific disk drives in a specific hardware setup, but the numbers illustrate the general types of differences users can expect by installing a solid-state drive.
The test shows speeds for sequential reading and writing 1MB files with 8 queues on 1 thread, sequential reading and writing 1MB files with 1 queue on 1 thread, random reading and writing 4KB files with 32 queues on 1 thread, and random reading and writing 4KB files with 1 queue on 1 thread. These settings are the default for Crystal Disk Mark.
Sequential operations read and write to sequential disk sectors, so mechanical drives don't look too bad by comparison. The solid-state drive is about three and a half times faster than the mechanical drive. The major difference in shown in a more real-world test because after a disk has been in use for a while, files are no longer in sequential order. When the mechanical drive has to move heads to locate the various parts of a file, seek time cuts into performance. Random reads and writes range from 60 to 300 times faster on the solid-state drive.
Benchmark tests don't entirely equate to real-world performance. Adding a solid-state drive to your computer won't make it 300 times faster, or even 60 times faster. The CPU and a variety of other factors all work together to determine overall speed, but it's clear that swapping an old mechanical drive for a solid-state drive will make a difference.
The the two drives I used for benchmarking both use a SATA interface, which is now more than 20 years old and no longer the fastest disk technology. If your computer supports the PCI Express bus (PCIe), Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) interface, or PCIe with NVMe support, take a look at drives that use these interfaces. They cost more, and depending on other components in the computer, they might not provide any real performance boost.
So start by checking out the computer. Open the case and look to see what interface options are in there. Solid-state drives can look like a mechanical drive in a 2.5" case, they can look like an overgrown memory module in the M.2 format, and they can be on PCIe cards for desktop computers.
Then think about how much space you need and how much you're willing to pay. In 2021, the best choice for most people is probably a 1TB drive. Anything smaller is too small and larger sizes cost considerably more.
And don't spend too much time worrying about specifications. If you can't justify paying for the drive with the best specs, remember that any solid-state drive will improve the computer's performance.
Happy hunting, and speedy computing!
Windows includes a lot of useful utilities and apps, but some useless and possibly annoying components are included, too. At the top of that list is Internet Explorer. You can easily dump it.
Internet Explorer, for example, hasn't been updated in years, but it's still probably on your computer even though Microsoft created Edge and then stopped work on that browser to create an entirely new Edge variant. Internet Explorer is outdated and has security problems. It's not the only outdated or unimportant feature that can be removed, so let's take a look.
The usual caution applies: Don't remove or disable something unless you know what it is.
Start by right-clicking the Windows icon in the Task bar, then choose (1) Apps and Features from the menu. Or start in (2) Settings and click (3) the Apps and Features tab. On the Apps and Features tab, click Optional Features to open another panel that lists all of the built-in functions that Microsoft includes. These range from Internet Explorer to Notepad, from WordPad to Windows Fax and Scan.
Click anywhere on the Internet Explorer 11 line and then click Uninstall. Removing some features requires a system restart. Although the Windows Settings panel has a more attractive interface, the old-style Control Panel still offers more flexibility, so I'll continue with it.
Click the Start button and start typing "features". Turn Windows features on or off will appear in the list. Select it.
Because I removed Internet Explorer using Settings, it doesn't appear in the resulting list. If you haven't removed IE yet, you will see it in the list. In addition to removing unwanted features here, you can also enable functions that you would like to use. Here are the features I recommend disabling:
As with changes made in Settings, many of the changes made here will require a system restart.
A friend in California let me know that he had signed up for the National Institutes of Health's All of Us program. I've participated in a few other research projects and this one appealed to me, so I signed up. Maybe you'd be interested, too.
My California friend said "I joined the medical research group All of Us. They just sent out — and I returned — a DNA sampling kit. I want to believe that it is not a governmental scam to get more information on me. They promised that I would learn something about myself as part of the deal." So I visited the website and found that the All of Us Research Program hopes to enroll one million people to build a diverse health database. Researchers will use the data to learn how our biology, lifestyle, and environment affect health. The primary objective is to "find ways to treat and prevent disease."
That seems like a laudable goal and is exactly the kind of thing governments should be doing. So I started the enrollment process and learned about the program's core values:
The objective is to make the program a catalyst for positive change in research. "Working together," the website says, "All of Us researchers, partners, and participants can build a better future for health research and care."
Signing up to participate involves more than just clicking a couple of boxes. You'll need to watch about half an hour's worth of brief videos that explain how the research project works, what kinds of information is collected, and how personal information is safeguarded.
Are there risks? Of course. Nothing is 100% safe. The All of Us website says the main risk of joining All of Us is to your privacy. "This risk is low," the site says. "but it is not zero. We are working with top privacy experts and using highly advanced security tools to keep your data safe."
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After watching the videos, prospective enrollees are required to answer several questions about the program before they're allowed to enroll. The questions are based on information provided in the videos. "We want to make sure we did a good job explaining All of Us to you" the website says. "Before you sign this consent form, please answer the following questions." If you've paid any attention at all, you'll get all five answers right. In fact, anyone with a bit of common sense should be able to get the answers right without any previous explanation.
When I signed up, there were more than 265,000 participants who have started to share their health information. The National Institutes of Health is aiming for one million participants. The consent form (PDF) is long and detailed, but it is written in simple, clear English. After completing the registration process, users can begin entering demographic information and answer questions about their health. For each type of information collected, the site explains the purpose of collecting the data, what it will be used for, and any possible issues with providing the information. Users can decide which questions to answer and, in some cases, limit how the information is used.
The NIH is explicit about the program not being a health care program: "All of Us is not medical care, medical advice, or treatment. If you need care, contact your healthcare provider."
All of Us is a long-term program that is designed to continue for at least 10 years and will include research that uses data and samples provided by participants. Those who enroll will receive information about the studies if they want to receive them.
Some of the results may be health related, but not all. All of Us may provide feedback that will help a healthcare provider to take better care of participants. For example, the website notes that "if any of your physical measurements are outside of what we would expect, we will tell you so you can follow-up with your healthcare provider," and participants will have to pay for the cost of follow-up care with their healthcare providers.
Other results might be interesting to participants, "but they probably would not help a healthcare provider take better care of you." The National Institutes of Health notes that some of the results "might come from tests that are still experimental."
If you're interested in signing up for the All of Us program, or just want to know more about it, visit the National Institutes of Health website.
According to Consumer Reports, Comcast is making it difficult for subscribers to obtain needed internet service at a time when many people are still working from home and a lot of students are enrolled in online education.
According to the magazine, Comcast plans to use the covid pandemic to jack up fees and increase profits by placing a 1.2TB cap on broadband services and then charge customers up to $100 per month extra when they exceed the data cap. The internet service provider already has the data cap in place for those who haven't signed up for unlimited data plans. The new plan will allow users to exceed the 1.2TB limit once. After that, they'll be charged $10 for every 50GB of data up to a maximum of $100 per month.
The charges would apply in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and in some parts of North Carolina and Ohio. Consumer Reports is asking people to sign their online petition for Comcast to drop the data cap and fees.
Microsoft does more than release new versions of operating systems and applications. A new version of the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Campus 2.0 will aims to come close to being carbon neutral. The overall redevelopment area covers 72 acres, and one area will sit atop wells that reach down more than 500 feet.
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Microsoft says the hidden wells will be the foundation of a system that heats and cools the new buildings with an untraditional clean energy source: the constant temperature below the earth’s surface. The tunnels will be 550 feet deep, which Microsoft notes is approximately the height of the Space Needle in Seattle and that I note is about five feet less than the height of the LeVeque Tower in Columbus. At 555 feet, the former AIU Citadel was one of the tallest buildings in the world when it was built in 1927.
Called the Thermal Energy Center, the centralized and almost entirely carbon-free system wasn't part of the initial plan for the campus modernization, which is redeveloping a fraction of Microsoft’s 520-acre headquarters over the next few years. The design had originally called for more typical individual utility units, powered by natural gas, for each new building. But redevelopment of the 34-year-old section of campus presented an opportunity for the company to think creatively about its impact on the environment.
If you'd like to read more about the project, you'll find an article on Microsoft's website.
The Comcast ploy isn't a new technique. In 2001, AT&T was offering "unlimited" online internet access using their WorldNet service, but "unlimited" turned out to have a different meaning for AT&T lawyers and marketers than it did for the rest of us.
AT&T said: " PRICE: For just $7.00 a month* you'll get unlimited Internet access with the AT&T WorldNet Service i495SM Offer as well as a 7 cents per minute rate on your state-to-state long distance calls from home — all day, every day.* (In-state long distance rates may be higher.) The $7.00 monthly fee* will appear on your long distance bill along with your long distance usage charges, so you'll have just one convenient bill to pay. INTERNET ACCESS HOURS: Unlimited, with no monthly maximum hours."
But notice the asterisks. As it turned out, $7 per month didn't include certain other fees that raised the price by 10%, "unlimited" service was really limited to 150 hours per month (the average month has 720 hours), and naturally "Other terms and conditions apply. Offer subject to change and billing availability." Twenty years later, we still see offers like this.