Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
A reader asks: How do I know if I have enough RAM? (Question sent to me via Quora) Every device (PCs, tablets, smartphones…), and every user, has a unique answer for “what’s enough RAM?” In a perfect world, RAM would you hold all of your running programs and processes in their entirety, live; letting the hard drive…
Q: If my dimension XPS Gen 4 is 64-Bit, why can it only address 4GB RAM? (Question sent via Quora) A: There’s a world of difference between what’s mathematically or theoretically possible, and what is commercially viable for desktop systems! For example, a 64-bit system is theoretically able directly access 2^64 bytes (=16 exbibytes) of…
Q: How do I recover/save my phone’s internal storage before doing Reset? (via Quora) A: It depends on where’s the data stored — but should always be relatively easy to do. 1) If the data is on a plug-in/add-on memory card, recovery is trivially simple: Turn off the phone, remove the card, and plug the card…
Plus: What happened to Karen’s PowerTools? Most of this article is about some free templates that can simplify your use of Robocopy — a free, powerful (but underappreciated) command-line copy/clone/sync tool that’s built into all current Windows version. But before digging into Robocopy, please let me tell you about a related issue: The rise, fall,…
Q: What is the difference between using the activated and unactivated versions of Windows 10? (Via Quora) A: Windows will work OK without activation, but it’s not the same as the activated versions. Unactivated Windows will only download critical updates; many optional updates and some downloads, services, and apps from Microsoft (that normally are included with activated…
Q: What is the most hard drive speed-intensive task? (Via Quora) A: There are actually many, many tasks that can force a drive to work at full, no-holds-barred, flat-out, 100% read/write capacity, for an extended time. So there’s no one, single “most intensive task” — there’s actually a boatload of ’em! In addition to obvious software…
Q: Does downloading data to a hard drive, say an app onto a phone, make the hard drive slightly heavier? (Question sent via Quora) A: On a flash hard drive or in RAM? Yes! Adding information — a 1, instead of a 0 — requires storing an electric charge. Each electron has a very small weight (something like…
Q: Why does Android need more RAM than my full Windows 10 PC? (Question sent via Quora) A: Your PC’s RAM is usually just the working memory for the CPU; a separate hard drive (solid state or magnetic) lets you store files and data outside of RAM. But in Android, the RAM is not only the working memory for…
Update: Late-August, 2018 OK, looks like things are finally working more or less as they should! The basic site is stable; the major infrastructure is in place and OK. The RSS feeds are working; point your RSS Reader at Langa.Com, or use the links under MISC in each page’s sidebar. (If your RSS reader isn’t seeing…
Q: “Is there a timer on the motherboard after the PC has been completely drained of power?” (via Quora) A: Yes, usually. Many systems have a small cell or battery on the mainboard to power a few basic, internal housekeeping functions. These functions stay alive even when the rest of the system is shut down and switched off, with…