The "gold standard" in this category is "Darik's Boot and Nuke" or DBAN (pronounced D Ban).

DBAN is a tiny version of Linux, usually run from a diskette, that contains a program that will erase any hard disk on your computer. It has several different methods, many which are used by the military to securely erase data.

The reason for such a tool is that, even if you erase the data, and write new data, the old data can still be extracted by skilled technicians. DBAN repeatedly writes to the disk, with different patterns of data, to make it more difficult to find the old data on the disk.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

There was a thread on TR lionizing Bill Gates. As usual, a lot of incorrect information was being spread about the Richest Man On Earth. I had to post this corrective:

Gates and Microsoft have had some legal problems.

In the late 90s, there was the "permanent independent contractor" problem, when ICs and temps were working at MS for years, inside their offices, during regular business hours. This was against the law. (If you're in this situation, your "client" aka "boss" is breaking the law.)

See Vizcaino v. Microsoft.

System Name:

Owner's Account:

Administrator's Password:

Your computer has been wiped clean and reinstalled. Your data was backed up as best as possible, and has been restored to your "My Documents" folder.

An extra account, named Limited User has been created. This user lacks the permission to install software. For additional security against viruses, use the Limited User instead of the owner's account.

The following have been installed:

Norton Antivirus - which came with your computer.

Firefox - this is a replacement for Internet Explorer, and tends to be a less popular target for virus attacks.

Microsoft Office - this was on there before.

A CD is provided with the following:

I'm not a solar pro, or even a fan, but my friend asked about solar power generation. He's got it in his head to get a PV array to save money and maybe make money.

LOLZ.

Here's what I told him:

1. First, reduce energy consumption by conserving power.
2. Second, solar water heating pays back faster than solar electricity. Get that first.
3. Third, before getting a solar array, see what appliances can be replaced with DC-power equivalents, or natural gas powered equivalents, and what they cost. Plan the PV purchase around these upgrades. You lose energy when DC is converted to AC (and then back to DC in the electronic appliance).
4. Fourth, get the panels in, and start buying the upgrades.

I'm noticing some patterns in PC failure. Here they are.

Batteries fail, causing date errors, or worse, booting problems. These fail after 2-3 years, and can be replaced easily for around $10.

Hard drives fail after around 5 years, causing much pain. Laptop drives can fail after just a year, and tend to develop bad sectors due to mishaps with the laptop. For maximum happiness, replace the drives before they fail, and use the originals as archive drives.

Motherboards sometimes fail, but not on any predictable schedule.

Motherboards can fail if the capacitors dry out or start to bulge and explode. This is more common than it should be, but at the same time, all caps tend to fail after years of use.

(I've also seen small ethernet switches fail due to bad capacitors.)