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Reader challenge: Computer boot time results

After two weeks and more than 21,000 visits to the web site, the survey only produced 225 responses (thank you to those who filled out the survey). I hoped to amass at least 1000 responses, but it was still an interesting experiment. The Google Web Form attached to Google Documents worked simply and flawlessly.

The survey will remain open and you can access it by clicking here. Google Docs automatically generated the results below, but any Excel or database guru out there that wants to take a look at the raw data and shoot me back some more detailed results correlating operating systems, RAM, etc, feel free! The spreadsheet is attached below the article.

UPDATE:  Jason H. took the challenge and came up with some great statistical data from this little project. View or download his analysis below in the attachments. Thanks Jason!

Computer boot time survey

I’m experimenting with an online database collection service and thought it would be interesting to put forth a practical question; How fast does your computer boot up? To measure the boot-up time of your computer, time it from the moment you turn the computer on until the desktop and all background applications are fully loaded (i.e. no hourglass present and no hard drive activity present). Click the title of this article above or the read more below to get to the form.

Is Skype quality getting worse?

Skype callSkype ranks as one of my all-time favorite web programs. For those who have never heard this name or weren’t sure what it is about, Skype allows you to make voice and or video calls from your computer to another Internet connected computer anywhere in the world for free. Skype also offers extremely low pricing for making computer to land line or cell phone calls as well.

I use Skype to communicate with my brother in Arizona, but over the past few months we have noticed a significant change in the quality of the calls. Neither of us has changed our Internet service or computer setups, so Skype is definitely the culprit. We both noted that Skype usage seems to be climbing. At almost any time we use Skype, we note that between 10 and 13 million other Skype users are online. Whether the vast number of users contributes to the problems we experience or not, it still makes a mind boggling statistic.

It used to be that we could make our video calls and talk for anywhere from 15 minutes to 90 minutes and not have any problems with call quality, dropped calls or video problems. However, over the past six months our calls are frequently dropped, suffer from extremely poor audio, or one of us will lose the audio from the other. Every fifth or sixth call, we will experience good quality again, but good quality calls are quickly becoming rare.

We both are using the current version of the Skype software and try not to run any other programs in the background as we talk…except maybe our browsers. We both fill out the How did we do? surveys after a failed call, but the problems continue to exacerbate.

I would love to hear from other Skype users out there:

How often do you use Skype? Are you experiencing good quality calls, poor quality calls or both? If poor, how often and what type of problems do you have? Are you a Mac Skyper, Linux Skyper, or Windows Skyper? How fast is your connection? Do you have any tips for making better use of Skype?

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of Skype and please answer some of these questions as well. I’m curious.

New ways to get more junk email

My comments today are directed toward those who are looking for more ways to get on junk email lists. Some common ways that we talk about on the show include the following:

  • Register any new project you buy.
  • Ask your friends to add you to their forwarded joke list (spammers love to harvest from forwarded email).
  • Reply to junk email asking that the sender take you off their list (spammers interpret this as "Thank you for the junk mail, I just wanted you to know that this is a valid address and I read anything you send me).
  • Post your email address all over Internet forums, web pages and other public Internet sites.

Now, there are some new ways or variations of the old ways to get added to junk mail lists, give these a try if you want more spam:

The no porn approach to computer maintenance

There are many things that can slow a computer down, but nothing does more to negatively impact the performance of a computer more than spyware. Even many viruses run undetected, but almost all spyware prevents a system from running at top speed.

Spyware comes from a variety of places, but there are three types of web browsing that will guarantee that you accumulate some of the worst forms of spyware.

Online gambling sites: Not all online gambling sites are sources of spyware, but most of them are.

Online surveys and drawings via popups and spams: Many legitimate companies ask for your opinion through surveys, but surveys can also be lures for spyware. If you get a popup or spam offering a free iPod, laptop, ringtone, etc., consider it a trick to get you to download spyware.