MBJ's COMPUTER PAGE
I like computers for many reasons but mainly because they allow me to do cool things like make DVDs, webpages, and use the internet.

I am, however, aware that many people can be easily frustrated with modern technology so the purpose of this page is to impart some of the useful things that I have learned about computers to the public.
What kind of computer?
First things first, what kind of computer do I recommend?

Personally, I like PCs. I know that some people like Mac but I have always been a PC user.

If you are looking to buy a new PC and do not wish to build your own, I highly recommend getting a Dell. My last two machines have been Dell PCs and both have proved to be very reliable machines with exceptional performance. Of course, it helps that I perform proper computer maintenance, which I will discuss in another section.

Unless you really need portability, I also recommend getting a desktop PC over a laptop. They are generally more powerful, more reliable, they are easier to upgrade, and you get more for your money.
Hardware
As far as processor and memory requirements are concerned, your needs vary along with what you want to do with your system. As with many things in life, more is always better. As of April 2004, I would not recommend getting less than a 2.4 GhZ Pentium processor and not less than 512 MB of RAM. Pentium 4 is preferable to Celeron due to the increased performance that comes along with Pentium 4.

I would also recommend staying away from integrated video and/or sound. The integrated components may perform OK when you first get your machine but having them makes upgrading very difficult. The video card that you do get should have at least 64 MB of RAM. If you are into computer gaming, I recommend getting a video card with at least 128 MB of RAM, (once again, more is better). If, however, you want to make your own DVDs from home videos or TV broadcasts, you will need a video card that is capable of capturing video. I recommend ATI's All-In-Wonder line for this purpose.

As far as a hard drive is concerned, once again, this depends on what you want to do with your machine. If you plan to work with digital video or play a lot of games, I recommend at least a 120 GB hard drive. If you plan to mainly do word processing and internet, you can settle for a smaller hard drive (40-60 GB). If you can afford it, I highly recommend a Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive. They are faster, easier to install, and generally better than the old style ATA drives. Also, never settle for a hard drive that has nless than 7200 RPMs. The old 5400 RPM hard drives are scarce these days, but you do still run across them on occasion.

Another essential piece of hardware that you will have to decide upon is a CD/DVD Burner. Due to the decreasing prices of DVD Burners (good DVD burners can be found online for around $100), I highly recommend getting one instead of settling for a Burner that can only make CDs. DVD-Rs are great for storing mass quantities of data. The current single layer DVD-Rs can hold 4.7 GB per disc as opposed to the 0.7-0.8 GB that most CD-Rs can hold. The huge storage capacity of DVD-R discs also makes them great for storing digital video. I should also mention that DVD Burners also burn CDs. If you are buying a PC from Dell, I recommend getting only a DVD-ROM drive and then installing your own burner later. For some reason Dell does not offer the cool new combo drives that are becoming the new standard. Combo drives will burn both competing DVD formats (+R and -R).

I also recommend shelling out the extra money for a flat panel monitor. They may seem extravagant but it really is worth the extra money. If you do get one, make sure that it has digital input (DVI) capability and that your video card has DVI out as well.

Another device that I view as essential is an optical mouse. Again, they cost a bit more, but the extra precision and reliability that they afford are more than worth the price.
Essential Software
If you have a PC you are most likely using Windows as your operating system. The latest version is Windows XP. I am running XP Home on my machine. I like Windows XP for many reasons. It is more stable than previous versions of Windows, it has a more polished look, and it has several little tweaks that I like such as letting you choose which program you want to use to open a file by right-clicking the file.

After the operating system , the most essential piece of software is your internet security system. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND getting Norton Internet Security. This suite includes two wonderful applications: Norton Antivirus and Norton Personal Firewall. No matter what computer you have, you should have this software. Antivirus does a great job at blocking viruses (which are easier to get than you might think) and Firewall protects your syatem from intruders. Another wonderful thing that the firewall does is block ads on the internet. This function is amazingly cool and makes the software worth every penny. Since I installed it I have not seen a single pop-up ad. It even block advertising banners on web pages! So you can go to www.weather.com to check the forecast and not be bombarded with pop-ups and banner ads, or browse my geocities page without having those annoying ads on the side of the screen. FREEDOM MY FRIENDS! THAT'S WHAT IT IS!

Now that I have finished ranting and raving, I can move on to other software applications.

Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, Powerpoint.You know it. You use it. You need it.

Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Pro: If you can manage to get your hands on this cool piece of software, do. It is an invaluable tool if you plan to distrubute any kind of official or important document over the internet.

Nero 6: This is, in my opinion, the best burning program out there. If you plan to burn either CDs or DVDs, you should do it with Nero.

Adobe Photoshop: If you do any kind of image editing, be it scanned pictures, pictures taken from a digital camera, or anything like that, this is the software for you.

Winamp: The full version of Winamp is the best program that I have found for ripping MP3s from your CDs. Windows Media Player, while a decent program for playing media files, will only rip files to WMA format, hich is much less compatible with other hardware and software than MP3. For example: Most DVD players can play MP3s that have been burned onto a CD but only a few can play WMA files. Also, often times Nero will not accept WMA files if you are trying to burn a CD from them.
Software that's not quite legal
There are a couple of pieces of software that you should know about, if only for the sake of knowledge. I will not admit to using them nor will I advocate their use...but as a fan of free speech and freedom of information, I WILL tell you about them.

Kazaa Lite: This application is one of the infamous peer to peer (P2P) file sharing applications. You may have heard of Kazaa, it's legal predecessor. Kazaa Lite was a reverse engineered and rebuilt version of Kazaa that stripped the original program of the hindersome adware and spyware and added some extra functionality and more options. Kazaa was shut down after Sharman Networks (the maker of Kazaa) sued them for copyright infringement. The program is no longer distributed as the Kazaa Lite website was shut down. If one did wish to get their hands on a copy if this nefarious software, the only way is, ironically, through a peer to peer client such as Kazaa. In case you didn't know, P2P has a bad reputation due to all of the sharing of illegal files including music, movies, and every piece of software listed in the previous section.

My Two Cents: I think that P2P filesharing is a good idea in theory. Of course in theory communism works. Communism and P2P filesharing have the same flaw that makes them seem better on paper than in real life. This is the fact that they ignore the human element. Communism failed because people did not get their fair share of the profits that resulted from their labor, so the workers were unmotivated and the whole system tanked (and let's not get into the corrupt government officials). P2P ignores the fact that if people can get cool stuff for free, they will do it, whether it is legal or not. This is especially true when no one is looking. Now that the RIAA has started slapping filesharers with lawsuits and publicizing the litigation, people are starting to get scared and illegal P2P filesharing is starting to decrease. As a matter of fact I would prefer it if the software was legal but no one shared illegal files. There is a lot of cool stuff out there that is not copyrighted that could be shared legally. Unfortunately what people share is very difficult to police and now all filesharing is being viewed as bad. OK, enough of this rant.

DVD Decrypter: This piece of software is freely available on the internet.Once again, I will neither admit to using it nor advocate its use by anyone else (in fact, I won't even link to it for fear that the Geocities police might shut down my site).

When most people are faced with the question of "Is it possible to copy a DVD using a computer?" they will answer: "No, they have some sort of copy protection." The copy protection that they are referring to does indeed exist. It is called Content Scrambling System or CSS for short. A few years ago a teenager from Sweeden (I think) who is now known as "DVD Jon" cracked the CSS code, creating a piece of software called "DeCSS". Jon's original intent was to create a software DVD player that would work on a Linux system (an alternative to Windows).

DVD Decrypter is based on the DeCSS code. What the program does is rip DVD files to a computer's hard drive, stripping them of their encryption. Once the files are decrypted, they can be burned onto a DVD-R to make a perfect copy of the original DVD. You can probably understand why this program is controversial. Actually, its legality has never been challenged in a court of law, partly because it is distributed as freeware and partly because it is distributed from another country. It is, however, illegal according to the provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) AKA Bill Clinton's biggest mistake.

There is another school of thought called "Fair Use", which applies to CDs that many fans of DVDs have unofficially extended to themselves. Under fair use, you are allowed to make one backup copy of something that you legally own for personal use. One example is copying your CDs to take with you in the car. I do this because blank CD-Rs are cheap and I worry about things in the car getting stolen, treated roughly, or exposed to excessive heat. Doing this is perfectly legal. Like I said, though, Fair Use has not yet been approved for DVDs. I can, however, think of several good reasons to back up one's own DVDs. One is if you have children who like to watch DVDs. Children are usually not too carefull with technology and it may be wise not to let them handle an original disc that cost you 20+ dollars and if it's by Disney, may be out of print. Blank DVD-Rs are cheap ($0.81) and I feel that we should be able to make personal backups. Spread the word! Write your congressperson! (ah, political correctness)
Another cool thing that one can do with a computer these days is edit video and create DVDs.
Video Editing