Dust on the PSU

Between taking care of the household, the kids, the pets, and the district PTA, computer care is probably one of the last things that you think of doing on a regular basis.

Without a regular maintenance schedule however, you could find out (the hard way) that a neglected computer is an energy hog - one that works harder than it needs to and one that could be a financial burden to replace.

Let's talk about maintaining hardware.

So much emphasis is put on maintaining a computer's operating system that we sometimes forget how important it is to maintain a computer's hardware components.

Suku Unik yang Jarang Diketahui

Tidak dipungkiri jika kehidupan manusia sekarang ini dulunya berasal dari masyarakat kesukuan, lewat pengaruh modernisasi dan besarnya laju migrasi serta urbanisasi pola hidup pun mulai berbeda.

Setiap suku punya pola hidup, adat, budaya sampai bahasa masing-masing. Tapi siapa sangka ternyata masih banyak masyarakat kesukuan yang tidak diketahui oleh masyarakat dunia. Jumlah populasi serta minoritas pun membuat mereka makin hilang ditelan bumi, suku apa saja mereka? Berikut 4 suku unik yang jarang diketahui dunia.

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Suku Sami

Masyarakat suku Sami yang mendiami bagian utara Skandinavia dan bagian barat laut Rusia menjadi salah satu suku minoritas yang sampai sekarang tidak banyak diketahui. Mirisnya lagi meski punya keunikan tersendiri masyarakat suku Sami harus mengalami perlakukan buruk hanya karena mereka masyarakat minoritas. Bahkan Norwegia sempat memaksa masyarakat suku Sami masuk menjadi masyarakat Norwegia. Kini keberadaan mereka pun semakin tersingkirkan meski seluruh masyarakat suku Sami berhasil mempertahankan adat dan budaya mereka.

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Suku Ainu

Jepang hampir sama seperti Indonesia yang terdiri dari banyak suku. Tapi suku Ainu sendiri selama ini justru tidak banyak diekspose bahkan suku Ainu nyaris tidak ada dalam catatan sejarah. Padahal suku Ainu sendiri dipercaya sebagai penghuni pertama pulau Hokkaido jauh sebelum Negara Jepang terbentuk.

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Suku Basque

Selama ini suku Basque yang mendiami daerah yang terletak diantara Perancis dan Spanyol ini adalah suku minoritas dengan populasi yang kecil. Tapi ternyata sejumlah pakar sejarah mengungkap jika suku ini adalah suku yang lebih dulu tinggal sebelum bangsa Indo-Eropa masuk memenuhi Eropa.

Tapi hal tersebut justru membuat suku Basque hidup terasingkan. Kabarnya hal tersebut terjadi karena suku Basque memiliki bahasa dan budaya yang sangat berbeda bahkan tidak punya kemiripan diantara dua Negara yang mengapitnya. Tak ayal keberadaan mereka seperti “tidak diakui”.

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Penutup

Ketiga suku di atas mungkin hanya sebagian kecil suku minoritas yang tidak banyak ditahu keberadaannya, mungkin juga di tanah air sendiri masih ada beberapa suku yang mengalami hal serupa.

Dust in the CPU

Between taking care of the household, the kids, the pets, and the district PTA, computer care is probably one of the last things that you think of doing on a regular basis.

Without a regular maintenance schedule however, you could find out (the hard way) that a neglected computer is an energy hog - one that works harder than it needs to and one that could be a financial burden to replace.

Let's talk about maintaining hardware.

So much emphasis is put on maintaining a computer's operating system that we sometimes forget how important it is to maintain a computer's hardware components.

Since there can be quite a few components to take care of, let's talk about the most important one.

The most important component of a computer's hardware system is its fan.

The fan is located on the computer's CPU unit and when that thing gets clogged with dirt and dust, it can run down a computer faster than you can say, "Something's wrong with my computer and I don't know what it is!" In short, the fan is responsible for keeping a computer's motor cool and this motor is what keeps the computer's hard drive and peripherals functioning the way you need them to, which translates to "fast."

A dirty fan doesn't rotate fast enough to keep that motor cool and a completely clogged fan just stops rotating altogether.

This causes the computer's motor to work harder - and a harder working motor can raise the electric bill! Worst case scenario: the motor can overheat and stop working as well.

No motor equals no computer.

Keep your computer's fan clean by preventing the fan from getting dirty or dusty in the first place.

Use the computer in a dust-free environment and never smoke around it.

Nicotine and tar mean certain death when it comes to computer fans, however should you find a need to clean the fan, do so with extreme care.

It's quite easy to cause more damage from cleaning so if you're not comfortable with cleaning your PC yourself, take it to a shop for servicing.

Otherwise, you can unplug and disassemble the computer to do it yourself.

You'll need a can of compressed air and an anti-static rag to remove stubborn clumps of dust.

Hold the can perfectly vertical and spray the fan being careful not to spray the dust off the fan onto other sensitive parts of the computer like circuit boards or inside the motor casing.

Wipe up remaining dust with your anti-static rag and then reassemble the computer.

One thing that you certainly don't want to use to remove computer dust is a vacuum cleaner.

Although using a vacuum cleaner seems to make more sense, the strong suction of a vacuum cleaner can actually spark damaging static electricity or dislodge loose cables.

You also don't want to use oil-based cleaners.

Although Pledge may dust your wooden tables and cabinets to a perfect shine, the oil inside a cleaner like this will erode sensitive computer parts.

Stick to a liquid-free dusting method and your dusting routine will be safe enough to repeat as often as you need.

As previously mentioned, preventing dust from entering the computer is extremely important and will reduce the need to open and dust your system in the first place.

The severity of outside elements (smoking, humidity, pets, etc.) will ultimately determine how often you'll need to de-dust your

machine.

But as an average, you shouldn't need to perform this procedure any more than once or twice a year.

The entire exercise should take no more than twenty minutes tops and once complete, you'll immediately see and hear the difference in your machine.

The computer's keyboard and mouse will run more smoothly, hardware won't take as long to connect, and the entire machine won't be as loud as one that's corroded with ugly dust bunnies.

Networking Home Computers

Have you ever thought about networking your computers at home? If you have a small collection of computers around the house (and a small collection of computer users), you can connect each one of those computers to one another and share data, software, and hardware including a single Internet connection. There are many creative uses for home networking, however it's an ideal situation when upgrading each computer to the same capability is financially out of the question. On a home network, each computer has access to the equipment of the better machine in the group as if that equipment were their own.

Connecting computers with either an Ethernet cable or a Wireless connection can create a home network. The easiest and cheapest method uses an Ethernet connection, which requires a series of network cards, a cable for each computer, and a router. The network card is similar to the old modems we used in the past to connect to the Internet, however in a home network, it's used to communicate with every computer that's connected to it.

You'll want to first, select the computers that will connect to each other and then install the network cards inside each of them. Then you'll connect a cable to each computer that will communicate with the server. These cables won't connect to the server directly. Instead, they'll connect to the router. To enable Internet access for each computer, this router will need to connect with a modem of the host machine.

Once the hardware is set up correctly (you'll need to read the instruction manual of your equipment for details), you can then setup the network from Windows on each machine. Within Windows, you can set up a home network similar to the way that you set up an Internet connection. Only this time, you'll set up a LAN (Local Area Network) connection.

Windows should walk you through setting up a LAN after starting the computer and once complete, you can begin to connect one of your machines to the network. You can do this through Internet Explorer by typing in the address and password required to access the router (the address and password required to access the router will be in the router manual).

Connected to the network, each computer can send files back and forth, open programs on a remote computer, play the sound files and videos located on another computer, and share a single Internet account to browse the web, download files, or chat with someone in an entirely different country. If a single printer is available on only one computer in the network, every connected PC can send documents to it and print them out. Kids will enjoy the ability to play multi-player games and adults will enjoy the ability to blast a single message to everyone at once or maintain a group schedule.

Since we're describing a home network that will connect to the Internet, you're strongly advised to install a protective firewall program to thwart Internet viruses, worms, or other damaging spyware code. Firewalls prevent - but they don't repair. Only anti-virus and anti-spyware programs can reverse damage. So you should install a firewall on the computer that grants access to the computer, and then install an anti-virus and anti-spyware program on each of the remaining computers in the network.

If you have files that shouldn't be shared (bank statements, credit card information, etc.), you can restrict their access in one of several ways. You can put them in a new folder and then remove the "read" permissions for that folder. Or you can specify who can (and who cannot) access specific files with a password from within Windows Control Panel.