PC User Help and Information » What is…

MP3 Unwrapped

Steve — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:09:37 +0000

MP3 is the term for a patented digital audio encoding format. It is one of the most common digital audio formats and is the preferred format for storage and transfer of audio on portable media players.

Officially published in 1993, the MP3 format was created by the Moving Picture Experts Group as part of its MPEG-1 standard. Officially known as MPEG Audio Layer 3, the full name was “MPEG-1 Part 3″ which resulted in the more widely known name of MP3.

The MP3 standard uses a “lossy” data compression method which means that in order for the file size to be reduced, some of the bits are discarded. In practice, an audio file can be compressd by a factor of 10 without any perceptable loss of quality. These high compression rates make MP3 files ideal for audio storage as it reduces the bandwidth required for playback and transfer.

An MP3 file not only contains the information needed to play the audio content, but also contains metadata that is used to identify the content. This information is known as an “ID3 Tag” The ID3 tag contains information such as artist, album, genre, etc. There is no standard for the ID3 portion of the MP3 file, but the industry has developed several formats such as ID3v1 and ID3v2 and, more recently, APEv2.

The technical underpinnings of an mp3 file can be viewed here:
http://www.mpgedit.org/mpgedit/mpeg_format/MP3Format.html

Computer Virus Primer

Steve — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:48:20 +0000

A computer virus is similar to a virus that affects living organisms in that it can spread from computer to computer, infecting each new host with a small program that is intent on causing some kind of harm. The infection may be relatively harmless such as a prank popup display, or it can be extremely dangerous if its intent is to destroy all the data on your hard drive.
Staying true to its nature, a virus will also attempt to spread to other PCs by various means such as file sharing websites, thumb drives or email. A virus is typically very small and can imbed itself in already existing system files on your PC, or create innocent looking files or registry entries that are difficult to locate and destroy. Most viruses are also smart enough to resist many methods of removal.

There are several ways in which a virus can infect your system. Infected email attachments is the most common source of infection. These attachement may be an image, a document or just about any other type of file that can be attached to an email. Infections are also spread through internet file sharing and download sites.

Types of Threats

Worm – a self-replicating program which uses the system to send copies itself to other systems with no user intervention
Spyware – a program that becomes installed on a system which collects small bits of information about the system or user without their knowledge
Adware – a program that displays or downloads advertisements to a PC. The ads may appear as a popup, or may appear in a portion of the web browser
Malware – a broad term for a wide range of malicious software whose intent is to disrupt your system, gather information about the system or gain access to system resources. Malware is not necessarily the virus but is often the method of transmittal
Trojan Horse – a program that masquerades as a safe application yet contains malicious code that will cause an infection.
Rogue Software – decieving or misleading programs that trick users into paying for an unnecessary or fake security software

Antivirus Software

Programs that are designed to detect and remove or neutralize viruses are referred to as Antivirus Software. They work by periodically scanning your system for known viruses and also by monitoring all new files being added to your system.

How Can You Tell If Your PC Is Infected

The existence of one or more of the following may be an indication that your system is infected:

Random pop-ups- Unknown files or icons appearing on your desktop or other places when you did not install them
Files or icons disappearing from your system without you having uninstalled or moved them
Unusual error messages
Hardware devices (hard drives, CD Drives, etc) can no longer be accessed
Applications crash unexpectedly, run slowly or don’t start up at all
Your system becomes unstable and freezes or crashes frequently
Your system will not boot up at all

Virus Prevention

Prevention is the best approach to maintaining a healthy system. Installing a reputable Antivirus program is your first priority. The program you install must update itself frequently with files that contain lists and characteristics of the most recent viruses that are circlating. In addition to the Antivirus program, maintain healthy habits with regard to your online and email activities.- Never download attachments from email accounts that you do not know.

Only download files from trusted sites
ensure that you have a good firewall between your network and the internet
update your PC with the latest updates as they are released

Firewire vs USB

Steve — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:00:56 +0000

To the end user, Firewire (also known as an IEEE 1394 interface) and USB appear to perform the same function. Firewire and USB share a number of characteristics but differ in some important ways. They are both a method of transferring data between devices and PCs, whereas firewire has the additional capability of connecting 2 or more devices together without the intervention of a PC. This capability is known as “Peer-to-Peer.” Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) uses a “Master-Slave” architecture in which the computer dictates the data flow. This adds additional system overhead resulting in slower data rates.

The key difference between Firewire and USB is that Firewire is intended for devices that are data intensive, i.e. camcorders, DVD players and digital audio equipment. The new USB specification known as SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) can have data transfer rates of up to 4800 Mbit/s whereas the latest Firewire 800 can transfer data up to 800 Mbit/s.

Over in my article “The Future of USB – It’s 3.0.” I detail the differences between the three versions of USB. For Firewire, there are specs for Firewire 1600 (1.6 Gbits/s) and Firewire 3200 (3.2 Gbits/s), but there has been few details regarding new hardware to support these specs.

/doc