Dennis Faas

In computer engineering, hard disk drive partitioning is the creation of logical divisions upon a hard disk that allows one to apply operating system-specific logical formatting. Disk partitioning is a simple technique which can be viewed as a ... precursor of logical volume management. The purpose of partitioning is to allow a user to have multiple file systems on a single hard disk. Active partition The Bootable Flag determines the active partition. Only one partition can normally be active at a time. The active marker is used during boot: after the BIOS loads the MBR into memory and executes ... (view more)

Synopsis: Unwanted temporary files build up over time as a result of daily computer use and Internet surfing; if left unchecked, these files can clutter up your hard drive and cause a significant deterioration in system performance. 4Diskclean Gold ... is an award winning collection of tools designed to optimize system performance, and keeps your computer running like new. 4Diskclean Gold deletes all sorts of unneeded files, including: temporary data, old backups, duplicated files and DLLs [Dynamic Link Libraries], all files viewed in Web browser and stored in browser cache, the history of URLs ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joanna writes: " Dear Dennis, I have installed a 120 gigabyte (GB) hard drive in my computer. The 120 gigabyte drive has been split into two entities: the C drive is 15.5 GB large and contains Windows XP plus all my installed ... programs; the D drive is the remaining 104 GB and contains a few downloaded programs. The problem is that my C drive is nearly full. I want to resize my C drive, but is there any way to do this without having to format my hard drive and reinstall Windows and all my programs along with it? I am on dialup Internet access and it would take *weeks* if ... (view more)

MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format invented and standardized in 1991 by a team of engineers working in the framework of the ISO/IEC MPEG audio committee under the chairmanship of Professor Hans Musmann (University ... of Hannover - Germany). MP3 was designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. In popular usage, MP3 also refers to files of sound or music recordings stored in the MP3 format on computers. MP3: Overview In the simplest ... (view more)

Today's Gazette is going to break away from our regular discussions to introduce two new members that have recently joined our Blogging Team. Besides that, I'm sick with a nasty bug (possibly the Flu) and I'm just not up to writing a whole lot. ;-) ... First up is Sarah Perez (blog name: Sarah In Tampa): Sarah enjoys blogging about the latest technology buzz on the Internet. Her compositions are typically short-but-sweet and never fail to intrigue. Just recently, some of Sarah's remarks were featured on News.com's BlogMa. Next is Nick Tyrrell (blog name: Nick's Computer Security): Nick's ... (view more)

Synopsis: Don't let your MP3s vanish into obscurity -- give them a professional look with Organizer MP3! With Organizer MP3, you can quickly and easily create MP3 CD collections and burn them directly to CD. The resulting CD includes all your MP3s, ... an MP3 player, covers, lyrics, info, slideshow pictures, and works on any Windows computer; simply insert the CD and play your MP3s (no additional software is required)! Creating mp3 collections was never so easy or convenient! Organizer MP3: How it works Organizer MP3 MP3 includes 2 programs: a Collection Builder and a Collection Player. Organizer ... (view more)

Murphy's law (also known as Finagle's law or Sod's law) is a popular adage in Western culture, which broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation. It is most commonly formulated as "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." In ... American culture the law was named after Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr., a development engineer working for a brief time on rocket sled experiments done by the United States Air Force in 1949. Murphy's Law: Variations Murphy's law has taken on many different formulations. In 1952, the proverb was phrased "Anything That Can Possibly Go Wrong, Does" in ... (view more)

Synopsis: Are you an information freak? Do you visit your favorite websites 2, 3, 4, or more times a day eagerly waiting for news and other updates to appear? Keeping an eye on a list of your favorite sites can not only be time consuming, but also ... confusing (and frustrating)! If this sounds all too familiar, then you should give DeltaSpy a try. With DeltaSpy, you can monitor your favorite websites and be notified only when there is new content available. And best of all: when you visit the web site using DeltaSpy's built in web browser, the new information is highlighted so you don't waste ... (view more)

Today's article was submitted by Bill Hudgins and is the 1st Place Winner of our Editorial Contest . The original article was put forward by one of our contributors (Sheila Foss), only a few days before the contest began. With Sheila's permission, I ... edited the article to include erroneous mistakes and later used the composition as the inspiration for the contest. If you would like to compare the contest article before reviewing the winning submission [below], you can do so by clicking here (recommended). Without further adieu, here is the Bill Hudgins' version of the article, "Make it a ... (view more)

An application programming interface (API) is the interface that an application provides in order to allow requests for service to be made of it by other computer programs, and/or to allow data to be exchanged between them. For instance, a computer ... program can (and often must) use its operating system's API to allocate memory and access files. Many types of systems and applications implement API's, such as graphics systems, databases, networks, web services, and even some computer games. API: Description One of the primary purposes of an API is to provide access to a set of commonly-used ... (view more)