Archive for February, 2011
The HP CPU Assassin!
Super User Question of the Week [21 Febuary 2011 – 28 February 2011]
If you’ve got an HP laptop and noticed that it overheats often, don’t just write it off as unfixable. You might be suffering from the CPU Assassin!
A little bit of background. Sathya had a problem with his laptop. As a super user, he uses it all the time and keeps it on 24/7. However, it keeps over heating:
At the end of the day it’s really annoying to have my thighs burnt because over overheating.
So he posed this excellent question:
Why does WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe) keep spiking my CPU?
The overheating seems to be a result of WMI Provider Host ( WmiPrvSE.exe ) spiking the CPU utilization to 25% every few minutes. Any ideas why this is happening ?
Hate the “Google Search Spam”? There’s an app for that…
Super User Question of the Week [14 Febuary 2011 – 21 February 2011]
Google’s search results have been well… under the spotlight recently, including our very own Jeff Atwood. Lifehacker did a poll recently and discovered that nearly 77 percent of their readers think that “Google’s search results are less useful”. But whether you agree that Google’s searches are pure crap, God’s given searching manna from heaven or something in between, there are always sites that you just don’t want popping up in your searches.
This brings us to our question of the week by Sathya:
Is there a browser add-on to filter Google search results?
Is there a way to block specific sites from appearing in Google search? I’m looking for a browser add-on (preferably Google Chrome) – I don’t want to create custom search engines or what-not.
Did you know that IPv6 may include your MAC address? Here’s how to stop it.
Super User Question of the Week [7 February 2011 – 14 February 2011]
With the roll out of IPv6 and IPv4 addresses quickly running out, there will be soon a greater migration over to IPv6. But there seems to be an issue, your computer’s MAC address may be included with the new IPv6 address. In comes Arjan’s great question:
How to avoid exposing my MAC address when using IPv6?
On my Macs, each IPv6 address includes the MAC address of a specific computer (not of my router). Sites such as ipv6-test.com not only show it, but even tell me it belongs to an Apple computer.
This feels like a super cookie, and might apply to other operating systems as well. How can I avoid my MAC addresses from being exposed?
The modern marvel of the SSD
With the SSD’s on their way from Kingston, I decided to go a little bit more in detail on the what, why, and how’s of SSD’s.
SSD stands for Solid State Drive. This "Solid State" is a term for the fact that the drives themselves do not have any mechanically moving parts. A typical Hard Disk Drive (HDD) uses rotating disks where data is stored and read.
Meet the New Moderators!
Hey everyone, the news is out and we have three new moderators! Congratulations to Sathya, DMA57361, and studiohack!
I have asked each of them to give an introduction as they pleased (well with a few probing questions). Here are their answers:
Is my Linux getting a cold?
Super User’s Question of the Week [31 Jan – 7 Feb]
If you’re a linux user you typically know what you’re doing and what to avoid when it comes to attracting virus’s on your pc. But there’s a growing crowd out there that’s integrating Linux into their everyday lives, and they aren’t your typical hacker or programming enthusiasts. They’re average users. This brings up the wonderful question posed by ykombinator: