How To: Two Of The Best Disk Space Analyzers For Windows

Even though hard drives and SSD's have become less and less expensive, space is still a precious commodity when it comes to storage on a PC.

It's happened to me. You get that pop-up in the lower right corner within Windows. "Oh my god", you exclaim. "How did that happen?"

Well. Don't fret. No need to go digging in Explorer to find out what files are taking up space and which to delete. (And where would you start anyways?)

There are plenty of disk utilities and space analyzers which show this information. These programs are not disk cleaners per se. They do not automatically remove or delete files, but they do display in a slick graphical display which files are residing on your hard drive/ssd.

Windirstat 

Windirstat is a popular favorite among geeks. It gives a graphical display of files as a treemap.

The treemap represents each file as a colored rectangle, the area of which is proportional to the file's size. The rectangles are arranged in such a way, that directories again make up rectangles, which contain all their files and subdirectories. So their area is proportional to the size of the subtrees. The color of a rectangle indicates the type of the file, as shown in the extension list. The cushion shading additionally brings out the directory structure.

Spacesniffer

Spacesniffer gives a slick display of the hard drive tree in a graphical display. It doesn't have the directory list which WinDirStat has, however the "tree map" is clickable, allowing you to dig deeper within the file folders.

So next time 

Tech News: FBI warns ransomware threatens healthcare sector

The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team.... a branch of Homeland Security) issued a joint alert which stated they had credible information of "an increased and imminent cybercrime to US hospitals and healthcare providers".

The alert stated malicious groups are targeting the public healthcare sector with the purpose of "data theft and disruption of healthcare services".

Ransomware is an specific attack on systems, servers and networks to scramble data and to literally hijack the data until the clients pay up. It may be found on personal PCs as an individual pop-up stating your computer has been infected and to "click here" to remove the infected file. 

However the moment you click on the pop up, a file lurking in the background starts scrambling and locking your data. The pop-up then gives you a notice to contact a phone number to remove the so called "infected" files..... which in reality your paying for tech support to unlock your files...... it's a very evil scheme.

Since the early 2000s, groups have been deviating from private individuals to targeting larger corporations for bigger pay. Major corporations (Norsk-Hydro/Lockergoga in 2019) and entire city governments (Atlanta/SamSam in 2019) have been attacked by ransomware.

A total of 59 U.S. health care providers or systems have been impacted by ransomware in 2020, disrupting patient care at up to 510 facilities.

The alert was posted so healthcare providers, IT and network administrators, can take necessary steps to protect their networks from such attacks.

**** Change in Services Offered ****

Due to the ongoing Coronavirus situation, services which I offer will only be conducted remotely via Team viewer.

Teamviewer is a remote desktop sharing platform that allows desktop sharing.

Services are limited with remote desktop sharing

The following services are offered as long as the computer can connect to a network (wired or wireless)

*Virus/Spyware removal 
(As long as the Virus/Trojan allows network connectivity)
*Data backup and resolutions
*Software install and upgrades
*Consultation and Training

How Motherboards Are Made

Ever wonder how all the motherboard components of your PC are put together? 

How the resistors, capacitors, Mosfet, and processor are placed on the mobo?

Back in the 80's everything was done by hand. Now it's all done by automated SMT lines; Surface Mount Technology machines. It starts by placing the smallest components first, then to the larger components.

Gamers Nexus toured Gigabyte's Taiwan SMT lines and factory to show how motherboards and video cards are made from start to finish.

Video Courtesy Of Gamers Nexus

Tech History: Suzanne Vega, a song, and how MP3 was invented

Back in 1982 Suzanne Vega wrote a song called "Tom's Diner"... yes, the famous one remixed by DNA with the heavy bass line, dance beat, and synth horns, but the original was an a cappella song.

By 1984 it had been released on an obscure folk compilation, and didn't appear on Vega's studio albums until 1987's Solitude Standing.

Yet, the catchy tune has made Vega the "Mother of the MP3".

How's that you wonder? Well... read on.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

In 1988, German audio engineer Karl-Heinz Brandenburg and his team were working developing an audio compression scheme.

The compression works on the basis of "masking" - what we hear, what we don't hear — that sometimes when hear something it's masked by other sounds. 

Think having a cello and violin side by side with the cello in the foreground.
Those 'other' sounds are removed from the file making the file smaller and thereby compressing it. 

It was during a series of compression algorithm tests when Dr. Brandenburg heard "Toms Diner'(Vegas original version) playing on the radio down the hall near his office.

Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner-Original Version

Brandenburg used Vega's a cappella version of "Tom's Diner" to fine tune the compression system, playing the track before and after compression was applied to tell whether the song sounded good enough. He figured Vega's song would be a tough track to compress and would be a good test for whether the compressed version was really listenable.

That was in 1988, and it took Dr. Brandenburg and his team another 5 years of trial and error before they were finally satisfied with the sound quality of the song. 
Compression still removed a significant portion of the data, but the difference was undetected by audio experts.

So, in 1993 Dr Brandenburg and his colleagues submitted the compression system to the Motion Picture Experts Group (That's the group that sets the standard for audio and video compression) and MPEG Audio Layer III was born.