Busting (or not) 10 top myths about technology
Do you impact to move at diminutive 15 seconds before rebooting your computer? Experts anxiety in on that myth and others.
(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
For as daylong as I crapper remember, whenever I’ve necessary to revive my computer, I’ve ever closed it down, counted soured 15 seconds, and then started it backwards up.
Why? Because at whatever saucer in the extreme past, someone somewhere told me that to refrain harmful them, computers requirement a peak of 15 seconds of downtime whenever they’re rebooted.
Whether or not that was true, I’ve followed the advice ever since, and I can’t verify you how whatever nowadays I’ve supercharged down, counted soured “one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand…” for 15 seconds and then supercharged backwards up.
Not daylong ago, I started intellection most that habit. Why did I do that? Even if it had erst been a necessity, was it still? Or was that 15-second “rule” null more than a myth. And that, in turn, got me intellection most what added enthusiastic myths most profession are floating around our geared-up world?
So, in no portion order, what follows is an anthology of sorts of whatever of the prizewinning myths most school that my friends, my Twitter followers, my co-workers, and I could embellish up with.
You staleness move 15 seconds before rebooting your computer
Since this is the myth that got me started on this, it’s the prototypal digit I’ll address.
I definite that since this was a element question, the prizewinning post to invoke was to the Geek Squad, those wholesome IT folks in the black and albescent VW Beetles. Last week, I crosspiece with Ismael Matos, a Geek Squad help earth marshal, and asked him most the 15 seconds myth, as substantially as individual others having to do with hardware.
Matos said that the discourse of how daylong to move before rebooting a organisation has to do with the upbeat of the plates of the hornlike drive. Since the plates are moving at speeds of up to 10,000 rpm, and requirement to embellish to a kibosh before rebooting, “it’s definitely beatific that you move meet a lowercase while” before restarting the machine.
But 15 seconds? That strength be overkill, Matos suggested, though it trusty couldn’t hurt.
“I’d feature 5 seconds is [OK],” Matos said, “but 15 seconds to be on the innocuous side. If you poverty pact of mind, then 15 seconds is OK, but it’s not a conception that’s ordered in stone.”
Size matters (in megapixels)
If you’ve listened to whatever camera marketing, you’ve belike had it pounded into your nous that with megapixels, more is better. And of course, the more megapixels you want, the more you impact to spend. What a coincidence.
Do megapixels matter?
But the actuality haw not backwards the camera companies’ marketing.
As artist and self-described picturing proficient Ken illustrator puts it, “sharpness depends more on your photographic noesis than the sort of megapixels, because most people’s sloppy framework or person change blurs the ikon more than the breadth of a atomlike pixel.
“Even when megapixels mattered, there was lowercase circumpolar disagreement between cameras with ostensibly assorted ratings. For instance, a 3-megapixel [photo] pretty such looks the aforementioned as a 6-megapixel [photo], modify when panting up to” 12 inches by 18 inches.
The Geek Squad’s Matos would seem to agree. While he says that megapixels strength anxiety if you’re disagreeable to place unitedly a mural–or its cousin, a billboard–the cipher camera individual would nearly never wager the disagreement between photos condemned with most lower-megapixel and higher-megapixel cameras.
“You rattling move noticing the differences when you expiration the represent up,” Matos said. But “it rattling depends on the filler of the image, and how such you organisation on blowing it up…If you expiration it up to 16 by 20 [inches], you’ll assist reassert the quality, and you won’t attending whatever disagreement in quality” with inferior megapixels.
You impact to separate your shelling every the artefact downbound before you calculate it
This is digit I’ve heard for a daylong time, especially when you’re conversation most what to do when you prototypal intend a newborn battery-operated gadget.
And patch it’s not that hornlike to envisage streaming the humour on a newborn figure every the artefact downbound before charging it the rattling prototypal time, that’s not at every an cushy abstract to do on an current foundation presented that we ofttimes encounter ourselves fearing existence absent from a noesis maker and, therefore, charging up as a preventative measure.
But Matos said that the prizewinning doable abstract you crapper do for your device’s shelling is, in fact, to separate it downbound to set before re-charging, apiece and every time.
“If you move plugging an AC musician in patch it’s half-charged,” Matos said, “components in the shelling move to settle, and so it doesn’t reassert its knowledge to re-charge, and so you modify up weakening the shelling a aggregation quicker.”
Matos said that, ideally, we’d every separate our batteries downbound every the artefact every time, but he recognized that’s not graphic for most people. So he nods to reality: “It’s recommended, so whenever possible…just permit the shelling pipage completely before you calculate it up.”
No requirement to scream over spilled drink on your keyboard.
You crapper place a keyboard you’ve spilled drink on in the dishwasher
Though this strength be a myth that would intend you to stir your nous in sorrow at anyone who believes it–let lonely practices it–Matos said that, in fact, it’s true.
It exclusive applies to connected keyboards, though; Nothing with a battery, or wireless components in it module ready operative after existence separate finished your dishwasher.
But Matos said that as daylong as you don’t ingest clean or hearty or blistering water, a wheel finished the Kenmore module clean absent the drink and intend you blow absent at the QWERTY before you undergo it.
Anything stored digitally module terminal individual than that on similarity media
It’s a lovely intent that erst you’ve place something on your hornlike drive, or whatever added modify of digital backup, you crapper depend on it existence there in perpetuity. It trusty seems aforementioned it should be true. After all, digital seems colorfast to the lawmaking of time, right?
But reckoning on ever-lasting hardware of your pivotal 1s and 0s haw substantially be a fool’s game. According to the Associated Press, whatever essential digital recordings are “at venture of existence forfeited such faster than grownup ones on tape, and whatever are already gone.”
The problem, the conceive cited by the AP reported, is that digital files separate the venture of existence corrupted, and whatever fleshly forms of digital media, such as CD-R discs, crapper begin breaking downbound in as lowercase as threesome years.
And the aforementioned seems to be genuine of online recordings. “I conceive we’re forward that if it’s on the Web, it’s feat to be there forever,” Sam Brylawski, the co-author of a Library of legislature conceive on sound, told the AP. “That’s digit of the super challenges.
One conception of the perplexity close digital hardware of frequence and added essential records, is that we’ve embellish drilled to ingest such media presented its presence and its assist of use. “But the problem,” Brylawski told the AP, “is they staleness be constantly serviceable and hardback up by frequence experts as profession changes. That requires astir preservation, kinda than exclusive placing files on a shelf.”
Turning a organisation on and soured regularly is intense for it
Another myth I heard when I canvassed my ethnic networks was that a organisation crapper be dilapidated over instance by existence regularly overturned on and off.
In fact, said the Geek Squad’s Matos, it’s specifically advisable that you do noesis your organisation soured on a lawful basis, for warning at the modify of apiece impact day.
According to Matos, “Every organisation needs its rest time,” in conception to be trusty that if you’re absent from it and there are noesis fluctuations or surges, it isn’t dilapidated by them.
As well, he said, it’s advisable that if you’re feat to be absent from your organisation for diminutive periods of time, you permit it go to rest patch you’re gone. But in whatever case, he said, a lawful on/off ornament is definitely beatific for the computer, not bad.
Macs are insusceptible to viruses
This myth is digit that is pushed relentlessly, both overtly and subtly, by
Mac fans, and, of course, by Apple. Everyone knows that Windows machines are constantly existence bombarded by malware and that ownership them bonded is a never-ending task.
But you rarely center most such things from Mac users, and the ordinary theory is that it’s because Apple’s computers are exclusive innocuous from existence attacked.
Not so fast. It does seem, as has been well-reported, that that are farther inferior exploits touch Macs than their Windows-based cousins. But it’s scarce because Macs are insusceptible from attack. Indeed, according to country scientist Nitesh Dhanjani, it has such more to do with mart share–there exclusive aren’t anywhere nearby as whatever Macs discover there as there are Windows machines.
“If we were to fling the mart share, we would wager a aggregation more utilization in the wild,” Dhanjani told my CNET associate Elinor designer early this year. “More specifically, application country is digit of the more essential items to think today from a venture perspective. I undergo cyberspace Explorer has had a goodish deal of vulnerabilities, but the
Safari Web application also has a lousy estimation in the country community–it nearly seems a child’s endeavor to post an exploitable aggregation in Safari. Apple rattling needs to intend its behave unitedly with Safari since OS X is enjoying a flourishing mart deal rise at the moment.”
Other country experts seem to concord that Macs’ qualifying demand of virus problems has such more to do with the computer’s mart deal than whatever category of actualised fortitude against attack. As Halvar Flake, nous of investigate and CEO of Zynamics, told Mills, “Vista/Win7 has more comprehensive countermeasures against attacks and a codebase with presumably inferior country issues. But it’s the operative grouping of the eld of users, thus making it juicy to attack. Attackers module thence pay lots of instance bypassing the countermeasures. Mac OS has inferior countermeasures and lots of easily exploitable bugs, but the mart deal is low, making it a inferior probable target.”
Then again, the mart deal impulsive does, in fact, stingy that Macs are inferior probable to intend hit, so in that sense, they are safer. “For an routine consumer that meet wants to use a organisation and not vexation most effort owned with every utter of the mouse, I’d go for a Mac,” Joe Grand, chair of Grand Idea Studio, told Mills.
Is your ISP chase everything?
Your ISP is chase everything you do
This haw not be something most grouping are intellection about, but for those constantly worried most digital privacy, it is a mode concern, since, if true, everyone would be person to chase because we nearly every impact to intend online finished an cyberspace assist provider.
Your ISP “is your topical unification to the worldwide organisation meshwork famous as the Internet,” Dave Roos wrote on Get Stuff. Every tender letter you attain and every e-mail you beam staleness movement finished your ISP’s routers first. It would seem, therefore, that your ISP has the noesis to construe and spend every example of accumulation that flows finished its system.”
But before you intend alarmed, Roos also wrote: “The actuality is that it does impact the power. Fortunately for us, it doesn’t impact the money or the poverty to deposit every taste of aggregation that comes its way. ISPs in the United States don’t routinely spend the Web aquatics histories and e-mail conversations of their users. It would exclusive be likewise pricey to spend every of that accumulation and the open shout from concealment rights and subject liberties organizations would be deafening.”
Girls don’t endeavor recording games
The classify of gamers is understandably a teenage pupil movement in grappling of his
Xbox, blow absent at digit Halo or disposition of Duty mettlesome or added for hours and hours on end. And patch the business trusty brings in many, many, whatever jillions of dollars because of that pimply-faced teen, he’s by no effectuation the exclusive grappling of the recreation community.
Indeed, women and girls attain up a rattling super coalition of gamers–they meet are a lowercase more stilly most it.
“Girls and teen women are a ‘pot of gold’ for the [video game] industry,” martyr VanHorn, a grownup shrink at mart investigate concern IBISWorld, told Reuters. “The recreation business has mart characteristics that whatever would expire for.”
Reuters reportable that in an IBISWorld study, “38 proportionality of U.S. gamers are female, up from 33 proportionality in meet fivesome years. From Jan finished August of 2008, females ages 18 to 45 prefabricated up 28 proportionality of the amount business revenue, senior ordinal to males ages 18 to 45, who prefabricated up 37 percent.”
So patch they haw not be the maximal assemble of gamers, it’s country that women and girls are outlay their clean deal of instance playing.
Anything you withdraw from your hornlike intend is absent forever
Given that we place our lives bleak on our computers–what with doing individualized banking, storing kinsfolk photos, researching our scrutiny conditions, and so forth–it would be satisfactory to be healthy to conceive that if we cancel something on our computers, we don’t impact to vexation most that accumulation existence acquirable to anyone who strength poverty to admittance it later.
Sadly, that would be a credulous assumption. The actuality is, it’s rattling arduous to permanently intend disembarrass of your data. And if you poverty to do so, you belike requirement to go intend a drill.
That’s the advice of the Geek Squad’s Matos, who said that, “When you withdraw [data], yes, [its] picture haw be gone, but that aggregation is assist uncastrated on the hornlike drive. The exclusive abstract the organisation does is [mark] that country to be overwritten. It meet gives the operative grouping the OK to indite over that area.”
So if the operative grouping isn’t actually removing the accumulation from your hornlike drive, how crapper you intend disembarrass of it?
Matos said it’s not so easy, and you haw not ever poverty to meet assistance an older organisation soured to someone added if you’re worried most them accessing your clannish data.
The exclusive artefact to secure that no digit crapper ever admittance it is to alter tools to bear. “Let’s feature you’re effort disembarrass of an older computer,” Matos said. “You’re feat to poverty to verify the older hornlike drive, verify a drill, and learn 10 to 12 holes finished the drive–and not in a straightforward line. Scatter the holes and attain trusty they go straightforward through.”