itpov.com

An Information Technology point of view

Dealing with loud computers

One common complaint I always heard with desktop computers is that “my computer sounds like a jet taking off”. Oh how many times I heard that. And of course it was not one of my favorite things to deal with because… well… I don’t care to be a techie. Yes, I know the stuff and sleep walk through it, but I don’t want to do it. Of course, you can’t say that to your user who is already frustrated, so I generally opted for one of my favorite lines:

“Excellent! I know the fans are working then!”

Well, that’s the end of my story. A friend just reminded me of it and I thought I would share. For all you techies who found this post on a search and want to fix the problem, here is the solution:

Sounding like a jet taking off is generally a fan. You can get it from a CD not spinning down but that makes a very obvious sound. You first need to figure out which fan it is. To do this while the computer is running stick your hand over the fan in the back. If it muffles the sound (you’ll notice a big difference) you have a bad power supply fan. Order a new power supply. If not, it is probably the processor fan. You can generally get a new fan and not need a processor. If you are reading this, then opening the power supply and replacing the fan will cost the company more in your time than it will for buying the fan. Plus, there’s some dangerous stuff in that power supply, so just stay out. If you are still unsure on the fan, you can shut the computer down and let the fans come to a halt. Then block one of the fans from spinning up and start the computer up. Once spinning the fans are really dangerous so don’t ever try to stop one that’s already going. However, they don’t have a lot of acceleration power so if it doesn’t get to start right away it won’t hurt (just don’t hold it for an overly long time). If the sound isn’t there, then you found the bad fan. Let it go and see if you hear the sound.

An alternative to replacing is to stick lithium grease in the bearings for the fan. This is once again something I would rarely mess with unless you are really hard up for cash and know what you’re doing because it’s going to take time and it’s hard to get it in the right place. Also note that these days computers are starting to contain more and more fans. Be sure to identify the fan that is the problem.

October 31st, 2006 Posted by josh | The IT Manager | 3 comments

Why use stored procedures?

A friend was just asking me online if I use stored procedures for everything in my current application. The answer was yes, and it deserves noting that there are two good reasons to be in this habit.

The first reason is rather obvious, they are far more secure against SQL Injection Attacks. I don’t feel like going into that right now, so I have provided the link for those who want to know more.

The second reason is that it seperates the database schema from the application. This makes it easier to deal with changes to the database. It eliminates the need to dig through your application and find all of the instances where an ad hoc SQL statement is accessing the database.

I just ran into an issue in my application that is causing me to change databases from SQL Express to Access. I’m not thrilled about it because I feel I am taking a step back in technology, but it’s about what the customer wants, not what I want and in this case they want an install that doesn’t require them to load SQL Express. I currently have 59 stored procedures and 2 views I am converting to Access. In my application those procedures are called multiple times each. Thanks to my use of stored procedures though, I will simply be changing the database connection in my application and cleaning up a few small issues that will be inevitable.

Whether you are security conscious or not, using stored procedures (or in Access, queries) can be extremely helpful. I would recommend using them wherever you need a query. If you don’t have the option to use them, create a class in your application to at least group all of your SQL code together. You can ensure on your own that your security is right, and you can more efficiently manage your SQL statements (although stored procedures are still better).

October 31st, 2006 Posted by josh | The Software Developer | no comments