Yes? Sometimes the best solution to this extremely irritating and worrisome problem is the simplest solution– Reboot!
Many users, especially desktop users, fall into the trap of never turning off their computer. Leaving a computer running 24/7 does save on start up time and gives us a chance to do maintenance. However, over time a computer left on will begin to slow down more and more. The reason? Wasted energy. As you probably know, your programs utilize a number of your system’s resources in order run smoothly. Unfortunately, these resources frequently remain running even after you’ve exited the program that needed them. This means that as you open and close programs, resources are snatched up but never released. At some point your computer begins to use hard drive space as RAM. This slows everything down!
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Sick of waiting for your files to open? Does your computer freeze up all the time? Are you constantly rebooting?
These are all signs that your computer network is in desperate need of maintenance or possibly an upgrade.
What makes computer networks run slow?
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The weeks are flying by and summer is almost upon us! This Wednesday already marked our 9th trip to Detroit to meet with the Technology Team. This time, Conroy (DE Consultant) came with me to teach his second lesson.
A big part of Conroy’s job at DE is troubleshooting issues for end users. A customer calls him when they can’t print, when their second monitor isn’t working, or when they can’t connect to the internet. Conroy then figures out the source of the problem and repairs it.
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After a week long hiatus for spring break, Josh (DE Consultant) and I made our way back to Cody to teach the students how clean up and speed up their computers.
When we brainstormed at DE months ago, we thought up fun ideas for the things we’d show the kids at Cody (For example, taking apart an XBOX). The very first time we met with the Cody students, we asked them what they wanted to learn about. To my surprise, they came up with things that we never thought of—things we deemed too boring. One of those “boring” topics the students wanted to learn about was cleaning up viruses.
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Yesterday’s trip to Cody took a new direction. Previous lessons had been about breaking, fixing, and making all things technology. Yesterday’s lesson was about planning for the future.
Mike (Operations Manager) handles the hiring here at DE, so he thought it would be useful to give the students some insight on where to look for jobs and how to land one.
The hour started with some round table discussion. First, Mike asked who was looking for a job this summer. Everyone raised their hands. Then we discussed the process of deciding what type of jobs would be good fits. Mike asked questions about the team’s interests, skills, money requirements/goals, and transportation restrictions.
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Yesterday’s trip to Cody was exciting to say the least. To get some perspective on the lesson, let me first tell you a little about the teacher. (James, DE Programmer).
James taught programming at his own high school in Ypsilanti– when he was still in high school. He also wrote music for his high school and college marching bands. So… he’s basically a genius and built for this volunteer project.
When James started devising his lesson, he asked if he could go two weeks in a row because he had so much to share. Yesterday was part one of his two part lesson on computer programming and music.
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