PC Building
Posted by Ben Harris
Hi all.
Over the past month, I have been building my custom PC. Here is a little guide to building your first PC.
The first thing you need to do is buy all the componants you want. Here is a quick checklist of everything you will need.
- PC Case. I recomend ATX
- PSU (if there isnt one already in the case you are buying)
- Motherboard
- CPU
- RAM
- Hard Disk Drive
- CD Drive
- Graphics Card
- Sound Card
I really recomend buying all your stuff off ebuyer, its a really great site, and it all works out quite cheap. When ordering parts, note that OEM means that it comes straight from the manufacturer, and so tends to come without any instructions or anything. For example, I bought my hard drive and CD drive OEM, and they came as-is, just the componant, nothing else.
*Wait for delivery*
Ok, now all your componants have arrived, and its really worth checking you do have all of them first. What you want to do
is get your PC Case out. Check it over, take all the packaging off it and everything. Put the case on a table or something on its side, and remove the side pannel. It may vary, but in my experience, its always the panel to the left of the case that comes off. Once off, we will move onto the next step.
Ok, now what you want to do is fit your processor to your motherboard. To do this, you first need to either get an anti-static wrist strap, or just touch a metal pipe or something to earth yourself (this prevents static electrisity on your body
damaging the componants).
Get the motherboard out of the packaging and place it on the plastic packaging you removed it from. The motherboard
will have a little piece of plastic where the processor will go to protect the contacts, flip the lever that holds the cpu down,
and remove this piece of plastic.
Now you need to get your processor out, get it out of the box, and place it in the processor slot. It will only fit one way.
After getting the CPU fitted, you will need to fit the heat sync. The heatsync is the big fan thing with metal fins that keeps
your CPU nice and cool, and will prevent damage to it by overheating.
Most modern heat syncs will have four pins which slot into four holes surrounding the cpu on the motherboard. (Your heat sync will have some thermal paste on it, dont touch that, its used to make a better contact between your cpu and heat sync). Now what you wan to do is place the heat sync into the four holes on the motherboard (make sure the pins are all rotated fully clockwise), and diagonally press the pins in until they click. Do these at oposite diagonals, so the top right and bottom left ones, then the top left and bottom right ones. Just press until they click. After fitting, try to give it a little wobble to check it is fitted firmly. If it moves much, take it off by rotating the four pins anti-clockwise by 90°, and repeat this stage. Once firmly fitted, take the wire from the fan, and plug it into the motherboard (on the ASUS P5K its at the top right)
Now you have your CPU and HSF (heat sync) fitted to your motherboard, you are ready to put your motherboard into your PC Case!! There are small metal rings over the motherboard, these are the holes you use to fix it to the case. you will have been
supplied with 8-10 little (usually brass) screws with a screw hole in top (sorry for the in-technical description). You should screw these into the appropriate holes on the case back panel. After screwing them in,
place the motherboard ontop and screw the motherboard to those little brass things.
Yay! Your motherboard is fitted!!!
The next stage is to plug your power supply into your motherboard. On many cases, the PSU (power supply unit) will
already be fitted at the top right of the case. It will have quite a few wires coming out of it. One big main one, some straight
line 4 pin ones (molex), some square 4 pin ones, and probably many others.
What you want to do is plug the main big one into your motherboard. There will be only one place where it will fit, and its
usually fairly obvious. Its on the far right side of the ASUS P5K motherboard.
Once that one is plugged in, find a square 4 pin one, and plug this into the motherboard too (top left on the ASUS P5K).
This is usually labeled something like ”P4″.
Okay, thats the basics, now we just need to slot the HDD & CD Drive in and connect the power to them with a molex power plug, and then connect the drives to the motherboard either via IDE or SATA cables (depending on the type of drive).
Now thats done. You will want to slot your graphics card and sound cards in. These will really vary depending on the cards,
so I wont cover those here. Just follow the instructions in your manual.
The last thing you want to do is connect the small loom of wires to the motherboard, these connect the buttons, lights and
other basic functions to the front panel, again, these highly vary depending on the case.
The most crucial one that all cases will have is the power button. All of the little wires will have a small black plug on the
end with a label. Just follow your motherboards manual on how to fit these as there is likely to be much variation.
Now you just need to fit your RAM into the ram slots, and you essentially have a built PC.
Plug the power cables in, monitors, mouse and keyboard, and start her up. When you startup, hit whatever key you need
to to enter the BIOS. Just check the motherboard has detected all of your componants.
Now you just need to install an operating system and your away!!!
Cheers for reading,
Ben
Set a Blank Password in Windows XP To Protect the Computer from Internet Attacks
Posted by Ben Harris
Some useful information. Your Windows XP computer is more safe if you don’t set any password at all than using some weak password like “abc123″ which can be easily guessed by hackers.
Using a blank password (or no password at all) makes your computer more secure because Windows XP accounts, that are not protected by a password, cannot be accessed remotely over the network or the Internet.
You have to be physically infront of the computer in order to get in. Due to this default behavior, it is better to leave a blank password assigned to an XP account rather than assigning a weak, easily guessed password.
An official guide from Microsoft on Password strength therefore suggests using blank passwords on Windows XP machines when the following criteria are met:
• You only have one computer or you have several computers but you do not need to access information on one computer from another one
• The computer is physically secure (you trust everyone who has physical access to the computer - like your family members)
The use of a blank password is not always a good idea particularly when the computer is not in a secure location. For example, a laptop computer that you take with you is probably not physically secure, so on those you should have a strong password.
Update: If you want to access your XP Professional computer over the network ever after the password is blank, run gpedit.msc in the Run box and disable the setting “Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only” available under Local Policies. [source: http://www.labnol.org] .
Cheers
Ben
How to fold a T-Shirt in 2 seconds
Posted by Ben Harris
I found this cool little method for folding t-shirts while watching some videos on videojug, really good, and it works, I tried it about 5-6 times and got the hang of it 
Its not my work, 100% of the credit goes to fold-your-shirt.com!
The smartest way to fold your shirt with this step by step instruction.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Finish!
©2004 - 2007 by fold-your-shirt.com
Funny Xbox Live Video
Posted by Ben Harris
This is a video that I found rather amusing, mostly because it is so true
Ben
VoIP Calling
Posted by Ben Harris
During my exploration of VoIP, I discovered that VoIP really isnt that complicated or expensive. I have managed to get my own local land line number over VoIP free, and I can just use it to recieve calls 100% free. I’ll briefly explain how I did it.
Firstly, you will need a broadband connection, microphone and speakers/headphones.
1. Go to sipgate.co.uk
2. Signup for an account and number
3. Download X-Lite here http://www.counterpath.com/x-lite-downloadsurvey.html
4. After installing X-Lite, you should see something that looks kind of like a phone on your desktop. Right click on the top of it and click ‘SIP Account Settings…‘.
5. Click properties, and making sure you are on the ‘Account‘ Tab enter the following details
Display Name: [This can be whatever you want your display name to be]
User Name: [Your sipgate username (Can be found by logging into sipgate.co.uk and clicking settings at the top)]
Password: [Your sipgate password (Can be found by logging into sipgate.co.uk and clicking settings at the top)]
Authorization User Name: [Same as User Name]
Domain: sipgate.co.uk
‘Register with domain and recieve incoming calls‘ Should be ticked, and make sure ‘target domain‘ is selected
6. Click the ‘Topolog‘ Tab at the top.
7. Select ‘Discover global address‘
8. Select ‘Use specified server‘, and set the box next to it to stun.sipgate.net:10000
9. Make sure ‘Enable ICE‘ is checked.
10. You can now receive free incoming phone calls, and make free phone calls to other sipgate members
You can also setup voicemail via the sipgate site, and add credit if you want to pay for outgoing calls.
Regards
Ben
Portable Applications
Posted by Ben Harris
Portable applications are really great little things. A few months ago, I bought a 2GB ScanDisk Cruzer Micro from good old play.com for a few quid. I then remembered a cool site that I had seen called portableapps.com, so I popped over there and downloaded the ‘Standard Portable Apps Suite’.
Once you have downloaded it (all 89.5mb of it), you run a nice little simple installer which installs a menu system, and an array of application on your chosen drive, Its a bit tricky to explain, so I’ll just put up a picture of what mine looks like.
You can also add new applications by either downloading available ones off the above mentioned site or, you can put any self contained application into the folder the original installer makes called ‘Portable Apps’. So for example, I added a folder called Opera with Opera Portable inside, and the menu automatically picks the application up… Good stuff, gotta love technology when it works
Regards
Ben
Webcam Fun
Posted by Ben Harris
Due to extreme bordum, I went around the internet looking for a piece of software that would allow me to easily take pictures of myself with my webcam, and muck arround with them (effects and stuff).
I came accross one called Snap! (Can be downloaded here http://www.snapstrip.com/). Its quite funny to mess arround with, but unless you buy the full version you can only take 10 pictures per day, and you get their little watermark. The following are a few pics I took, and stuck some effects on:
So that concludes this little nugget
Regards
Ben
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Posted by Ben Harris
My latest project has been all about SEO, or search engine optimisation. Its really facinated me now to be honest. I thought that it would be cool to post all that ive learnt to get that good old pagerank up.
Firstly, its really worth finding out what your sites pagerank is now. You can find out by visiting my nice little pagerank checker here. In most cases, if you dont even know what pagerank is then yours will probably be 0, like mine for this site. Right, if you have no idea what pagerank is then read on.
What is Pagerank?
Pagerank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. That prety much summarises it, You can read the rest of this article here! (Cheers Wiki).
Ok, so now you should have a better understanding of it all. But the big question is ‘How can I increase my sites pagerank?’. To be honest theres no really simple answer like close your eyes, count to 42 and you will have pagerank 10, but there are ways in which you can raise it. This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. There are a few steps you should take in order to raise your pagerank.
- Choose your Keywords.
- On-Page Optimization.
- Off-Page Optimization / Link Building.
In depth explanation.
Step 1: Choose your Keywords
This may sound like a simple step, but you should take a lot of time when choosing your keywords. Consider these questions:
How popular are the words?
In other words, how many times do people search for this keyword? Generally, if no one (or very few people) is searching for a keyword, it’s not as valuable.
How competitive are the words?
Or how many other sites are trying to rank for the same keywords. Generally, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is going to be to rank for it.
It’s best if you can find words that are popular with less competition. This is where it pays to spend a lot of time. Research your keywords. You’ll be surprised at the untapped gems you can find.
The next section discusses some of the tools you can use to research and find good keywords. They use data from search engines to give an idea of how popular and competitive your keywords are.
Keyword Research Tools
WordTracker.com - WordTracker is a very good tool for researching keywords.
Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool - Great tool for researching keywords, simple and easy.
Google AdWordsKeyword Tool - Google’s own keyword utility
Step 2: On-Page Optimization
Now that you have your keywords, let’s look at a list and descriptions of the most important places in your web pages to use them.
- Page Title
The Page Title is the text between the <title></title> tags. If there is one necessary element, this is it. Not only for SEO reasons, but also because users rely on it to know what a page is about.The title is also very important because most of the time, it is used in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). A well put together page title can have a much higher click-thru rate.Here’s an example from Hotels.com.
“hotels.com - We know hotels inside and out.”
Their main keyword is [hotels]. Its a good title because they the main keyword, once as the first word, and once later in the sentence, and it is also very user friendly. It makes sense. If you try searching for [hotels] in Google, you will see that they have been very successfully. (I must add that that success has come from Off-Page Search Engine Optimization. We’ll talk about that soon). - Body Text
The body text is any text between the <body></body> tags. Body text, or page content is important for on-page optimization, because without it, there is very little for search engines to judge a site by. More body text is generally better, but you want to keep paragraphs short (short paragraphs help hold the attention of readers). Use your keyword as much as you can In A Reasonable Manner. Overuse of your keyword will result in an Over Optimization Penalty (OOP). - First Sentence of the Body Text
Try to use your keyword somewhere in the first sentence of the body text. It sets the tone, and reinforces to the search engine the fact that the keyword is important. - H1 Tag and H2 Tag Text
The H1 text is the text between the <H1></H1> tags, and H2 tags are used in the same manner. These tags are called Header tags. Meaning that they should describe everything that is under them. Header tags are helpful for on-page optimization, and letting search engines know what a page is about, but if you don’t use them, its not the end of the world. - Anchor Text (internal)
Anchor text is anything between <A></A> tags. In other words these are links. Anchor text helps search engines know what the link leads to. So a link with the anchor text “Click Here” is not very descriptive, while one that makes use of your keyword like “keyword” or “click here for keyword” is much better.One element of the Anchor tag that is usually overlooked is the Anchor Tag Title. This is not visible unless the user hovers the mouse pointer over the link. Here is an example for the keyword [foo].
<a href=”foo.html” title=”Click here to learn all about Foo!”>Foo - IMG ALT Attributes
The IMG ALT is important for on-page SEO and probably more important because it is required by law. For disabled users who cant see your images, the alt text should describe what the image is. This is a good thing because its another place to use your keyword.Example: <img src=”/images/foo.jpg” alt=”foo”> - URL/ File Name
It can be helpful for pages to be named using the keyword. For example if a page is about “Green widgets”, then you would name the page green-widgets.html. Always make sure to use a hyphen “-” and not an underscore”_” (don’t even think about using a space), since most search engines have a hard time with underscores. - Meta Tags (Meta Description and Meta Keywords)
Meta tags are located in the <head></head> tags. They are invisible to users, and are used strictly by some search engines. There is a good reason that I have put Meta Tags at the end of this article. They are becoming less important to on-page search engine optimization. With that said, it can’t hurt to use them. I will briefly describe and give examples of both.- Meta Description:
Include a complete, descriptive sentence that describes the page. Make sure to use your keyword, but don’t go overboard.Example:
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Wiget supplies for users of green widgets.”>- Meta Keywords:
Include a list of keywords. The best way is to write your body text, and then select keywords from that text. Don’t use keywords that aren’t in the page.
<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”Wiget supplies, green widgets, blue widgets, widget cakes, …..”>
Off-Page Optimization (Link Building)
Now that you’ve finished your on-page optimization, it’s time to move on to off site factors. These are external factors that affect your site’s ranking in the search engines, and they pretty much just include external links to your site, or other web pages that link to your pages. These links are also known as Backlinks and inbound links (IBLs),
Whatever you call them, they are highly valuable, and highly sought after.
For some people, link building can definitely the most difficult part of Search Engine Optimization, but it doesn’t have to be. Link building can be quite painless if you go about it in the right way.
- Placed Links
We’re going to start with what I’ll call, Placed links. These are links that you have some control over. (how, where, and when they are created)Web Directories
Directories are an easy way to get started with link building. They are basically large lists of links to other sites; sort of like the yellow pages of the internet. Some directories list websites for free, while others charge a fee.The best way to find a good directory to list your site in is to search Google for “Your Keyword Directory” or “Directory Your Keyword”.Usually, top ranked directories will benefit your site the most.
Some tips for directories:
- Look for nich directories that rank well in Google
- Look for directories that your competitors may be listed in
- Look for directories that offer a permanent linkLink Requests
This involved finding sites that are related to yours and asking them to link to you. Honestly, this is one of the most tedious things you can do, but it does work sometimes, so if you’re up to the task, go for it. If you’re going to do this, remember to be sincere, and don’t send out generic link requests (spam).Paid Links
When it comes to paid links, you should be careful. Paid links from sites that make it obvious that the links are paid for, will most likely not help your ranking in the search engines.Thinks like “Sponsored Links” written above your links, sitewide links (links that appear on every page of a site), or even links that appear on the right or left side of a site as opposed to in the center (editoial) part of a site, can all be big red flags telling search engines that “these are Paid Links.”
Search engines are constantly striving to negate the power of paid links, so that they don’t offer any benefit for ranking.
If you want to buy paid links for ranking purposes
- keep it under wraps.
- Ask for links in the content part of a page, not in the sidebar, and not sitewide
- Use anchor text (the words in the link) that contain your keywords
- Vary your anchor text
- Try to buy links permanantly, as opposed to monthlyInsider tip: Probably one of the most effective methods to find paid links to help your ranking is to search for sites that rank in the top 10 for your keywords. Find a page that ranks well, but that isn’t going to be in competition with you, and send the webmaster an email, offering cash to add a link to your site from that page. You can offer £10, £20, £50, or whatever you think is fair.
Article Sites and Press Releases
There are lots of people who use article sites to get links, but I’m not going to talk about that because I really don’t think it’s worthwile. If you’re good at writing articles, you should start a blog. (see the link bait section below) - Natural Links
If your Content is Great, you’ll have Link Bait
I think the term “link bait” has a bit of a bad reputation because it sounds sort of shady, but in actuality, link bait is just great content.Link bait can be anything that naturally attracts links. It can be a funny or bizarre picture, a useful tutorial, a video, or in some cases, Free tools (see some free SEO tools ). They are fun for me to make, and people naturally link to them.Link bait draws natural links, and these natural links are the best, and most effective kind of backlinks you can get.
One-Liners
Posted by Ben Harris
These are a few of my favourite One-Liners !
- Wear short sleeves, support the right to bare arms
- Police Station toilet stolen….Cops have nothing to go on
- If a thing is worth doing, it would have been done already
- Jesus loves you! but everyone else thinks you’re an arsehole
- When blondes have more fun do they know it?
- Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now
- Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
- Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!
- Karaoke is Japanese for “Tone Deaf”
- Clairvoyants meeting canceled due to unforeseen events
- I bet you I could stop gambling
- Energizer Bunny Arrested! Charged with battery
- I used to be indecisive, now I’m not so sure.
Random eh 
Ben
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