Graham Roberts
Home Computer
Services
Reputable & reliable computer repairs and servicing for Barlborough, Clowne, Bolsover & surrounding villages.
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Graham Roberts
Home Computer
Services Reputable & reliable computer repairs and servicing for Barlborough, Clowne, Bolsover & surrounding villages.
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Home Computer Services Winter 2005 Newsletter
Dear Customer. Let me start by wishing you and your families a very happy and peaceful New Year! 2004 in Review 2004 will be remembered as the year that Software prices rocketed whilst hardware became (relatively) cheap. At the turn of the millennium, PC’s were doubling in power every few months and prices were three to four times higher then now in general. My own two year old PC can still be purchased “as-is” (only at a fraction of the price) whereas a few short years ago, models disappeared off the shelves within weeks to be replaced by “bigger and better” (and dearer!).
It is certain that some hardware and computer components have reached the upper limits of how much quicker they can operate or how much data they can hold or process. This is because of the limited speed that the microprocessors, motherboards, hard-drives and CD-ROMS etc can work without overheating and how the micro circuits that connect everything can be cooled more efficiently. Because of that, the very latest PC is only 20% more powerful then my two year old “banger”.
On the downside, software developers (they say), have had to invest heavily in development to try to inject life into the static hardware market, but there’s also a case of severe opportunism afoot in my opinion. Internet Security and Photo-editing software in particular spring to mind. In the early 1990’s, a theory was put forward that Personal Computers and game consuls should be virtually “give away“ items and their respective dependant software be the main source of profit. This was laughed off as pie in the sky fantasy but you can buy a brand new PC (complete with XP pre-installed) in some shops for the same price that you would pay for a CD of Windows XP Pro and you can buy a new Xbox or Play-station for the price of two or three game CD’s. I wonder; is the “theory” already fact? Either way, it would seem that now would be a good time to consider replacing or upgrading if you feel you need to.
2004 was also the year that Spyware became recognised as a real threat to pc users and Rogue Diallers became a household word for everything that’s bad about the internet. Dozens of local people have been duped out of their hard earned cash by Diallers. As I’ve said previously, you will give yourselves a better chance against these Internet Highwaymen by keeping all your security programs up to date and making sure the rest of the family avoid unsecured site and music/ video download websites. Also once again, Broadband users are currently protected against Rogue Diallers, provided that the old dial-up modem cable is removed from the PC and the wall socket.
Regarding Broadband, prices have almost halved in the last year. You can pay almost as much for the old dial up connections, when they could have super fast, doesn’t lock up your telephone line Broadband for about the same price. If you use the Internet regularly, I’d certainly recommend that you look into changing over. 60% of my local customers already have, and I don’t think any of them would go back to the old method. If you want to email me for advice on what it entails and the various Broadband packages and services please feel free. The Near Future? Basic PC internal design has not changed much in well over a decade but I believe that changes are now close to being developed for the next “leap” in technology. This could see hard drives and even CD-ROMS replaced with “solid state” flash storage devices. These are basically the same as the ones used for years in your digital cameras memory card and “hand-held” PC’s only much larger. The reason that they have not been used before is purely down to size; they could not make them large enough but it would seen that problem has now been overcome. The advantages are no moving parts to wear out, instantaneous loading and unloading of operating systems and programs at switch on and hence, no more tedious booting up and down. Of course even solid state technology needs faster microprocessors to become significantly quicker and resistance in the overheating metal micro circuits are still a problem. The answer to this is said to be holographic technology. The tiny metal conductors will be replaced with beams of light straight out of Star Trek Enterprise, so future PC limitations with be measured at a mere 186,300 miles per second!
The next Microsoft Windows operating system after XP, (codenamed “Longhorn”) is due out in 2006 and it seems that it will also be a major step forward, taking full advantage of the anticipated new technology. I can’t wait! Purchases So it looks like now is a good time to take advantage of the current cheaper hardware climate but a few words of warning:
And Finally…
Once again; have a very Happy New Year and thank-you again for your custom! Graham Roberts Disclaimer By mentioning products websites or suppliers by name in this newsletter, I am not directly endorsing them or liable for any losses brought about by the use of their products or websites. Information and advice is provided on an “as is” basis and taken at the recipient’s own risk. Any views expressed are personal and do not represent any other parties. |
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