Windows Resource Monitor
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Nick says, in relevant part:
> The response to this inquiry has led me wonder some wonderings about the > folks on the list. Is it the case that: > (1) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC You have been in the presence of both Eric and me when we have been using our PCs, and I even recall that you and I once (briefly) discussed Win7 when we first got our (respective) present PCs. > (2) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who has had this > sort of problem (="resource leakage"?). I'm not sure I'd say I've had anything as bad a case of it as you have. However, one suggestion I haven't seen (but may have missed) is that, instead of/in addition to focussing on the Resource Monitor, you use the (still there in Win7, though somewhat gussied up) good old msconfig.exe to find--and rout out--all sorts of cruft that has been installed behind your back. For instance, if you've had occasion to install anything from HP, you will find that any number of most-of-the-time-useless, all-of-the-time-resource-intensive, programs have been co- installed silently. I have *never* found that deleting them from the Startup routine causes me problems: every one of them that is actually necessary to perform something I occasionally do (e.g., scanning with my HP All-In-One device) will load perfectly happily, and perform as adequately as HP is capable of making it perform, at the time when I choose to do the task. (Then I can, if it's causing slowdowns, kill it afterward with the Task Manager.) Much software from non-HP sources is as bad, if not worse, when it comes to sneaking undesired extras into your Startup. (Adobe is another source of such, IME.) > (3) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to > pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert. Those "experts" are in the same class as the "expert audiologists" who spam the snail-mail of everybody over (apparently) 65 with come-ons for "free hearing tests" (which will, of course, diagnose the need for hearing aids), or the "expert waterline insurers" who just sent everyone in my town a snail-mail offer to buy a $150/year Waterline Insurance Policy (there is one small strip of our town, where leaking service-station gas reservoirs polluted the aquifer beyond remediation, that has "city water"--piped from the actual city, Fall River, next door; everyone else in town has private wells), or ... you get the idea. > (4) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to > pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert and who also too dumb to know > how to use the resource monitor to fix it, myself. See above: the resource monitor plus msconfig (plus, if you really want to get down and dirty, services.exe, which used I think to be services.msc?) is probably all you need. In fact, I suspect that you would be better served by not trying to find out everything you need to make use of all the information that the resource monitor tells you, but rather just going to the (expanded, Win7 version of the) Task Manager, and consulting the various tabs there that tell you an often more useful proper subset of the resource monitor's information. Lee ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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Is there a list somewhere of commonly found - and usually unneeded - services that can be disabled in the services manager? That is, a list of descriptions of what each service does in plain english?
Ron
-- Lee :
See above: the resource monitor plus msconfig (plus, if you really want to get down and dirty, ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Eric Charles
Hi Nick. Tried to send you a message on your e-mail. I don't have time to go through your spam thingy. Sorry.
On Feb 7, 2013, at 1:54 PM, Eric Charles wrote: > 1) I use a PC, because I am cheap and lazy. > > 2) This sort of thing is a ubiquitous problem on PCs, and is sometimes a problem for Macs depending the exact operating system (but I've never seen it as bad on a Mac as it usually is on a PC). > > 3) I would be suspicious of a store-bought expert helping with this... and as has been suggested, an expert friend should be cheaper (though not necessarily free, as it is time consuming). > > 4) I know how to use the resource monitor, and often find that it is not telling me what I want to know. The long list of Processes often does not seem to account for what the Performance screen tells me is the CPU Usage and Physical Memory Usage. I've never really figured out why this discrepancy occurs... but I haven't tried hard to find out. It is certainly annoying. > > As suggested, a complete wipe will fix the problem. I have rarely done this... but usually am thinking about getting a new computer at about the time the problem is annoying enough that I would consider a wipe... and switching to a new computer is pretty much the same thing as wiping the old one. If you do not use too many programs, a wipe might be relatively easy. > > Also worth noting: Depending on your computing needs, $200 is a significant fraction of the cost of a new machine. > > Eric > > > -------- > Eric Charles > Assistant Professor of Psychology > Penn State, Altoona > > From: "Nicholas Thompson" <[hidden email]> > To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[hidden email]> > Sent: Thursday, February 7, 2013 2:57:32 PM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Windows Resource Monitor > > Thanks owen. I did lots of stuff LIKE that, but may not have recognized a helping hand when it was proffered. With your reassurance I will plunge back in. > > The response to this inquiry has led me wonder some wonderings about the folks on the list. Is it the case that: > > (1) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC > (2) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who has had this sort of problem (=”resource leakage”?). > (3) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert. > (4) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert and who also too dumb to know how to use the resource monitor to fix it, myself. > > > N > From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Owen Densmore > Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2013 10:25 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Windows Resource Monitor > > Nick: did you google: > how to use the windows resource monitor > .. it turned up lots and lots of info. > > However, the classic solution to a clean machine is to literally start over: wipe the disk *after* making a complete copy of its contents to a cheap disk, and drag stuff back aboard as you need it. > > This is augmented by Dropbox: if you don't have it now, you may want to consider it as a backup of your working stuff, stuff that you can't replace from other sources and is data you actually created. It also makes it trivial to see/work on the files from any of several computers. > > Then the "lets start over" approach is much much easier. Clean system with one folder of your working repository. > > I'm always amazed just how zippy a new system is. > > I keep a log of all installs I do, you may start doing that .. it makes it easy to know what you may need to reinstall if you go the clean install route. And what may need removing 'cause you don't use it anymore. > > -- Owen > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 11:11 PM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote: > Thanks for all your suggestions. Most I actually understood, for which I am enormously grateful. > > I have the habit of burying my most important question under a lot of verbal rubble, so I want to ask it again in case you missed it. Is there any guide to the Resource Monitor that is more forthcoming than the help files that come with it? Stuff like what the various charts and graphs and numbers are telling me. > > N > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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For our mac user friends I just came across this neat little command: purge
It apparently frees up memory in caches. See this: http://osxdaily.com/2012/04/24/free-up-inactive-memory-in-mac-os-x-with-purge-command/ --joshua On Feb 7, 2013, at 7:35 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: > Hi Nick. Tried to send you a message on your e-mail. I don't have time to go through your spam thingy. Sorry. > On Feb 7, 2013, at 1:54 PM, Eric Charles wrote: > >> 1) I use a PC, because I am cheap and lazy. >> >> 2) This sort of thing is a ubiquitous problem on PCs, and is sometimes a problem for Macs depending the exact operating system (but I've never seen it as bad on a Mac as it usually is on a PC). >> >> 3) I would be suspicious of a store-bought expert helping with this... and as has been suggested, an expert friend should be cheaper (though not necessarily free, as it is time consuming). >> >> 4) I know how to use the resource monitor, and often find that it is not telling me what I want to know. The long list of Processes often does not seem to account for what the Performance screen tells me is the CPU Usage and Physical Memory Usage. I've never really figured out why this discrepancy occurs... but I haven't tried hard to find out. It is certainly annoying. >> >> As suggested, a complete wipe will fix the problem. I have rarely done this... but usually am thinking about getting a new computer at about the time the problem is annoying enough that I would consider a wipe... and switching to a new computer is pretty much the same thing as wiping the old one. If you do not use too many programs, a wipe might be relatively easy. >> >> Also worth noting: Depending on your computing needs, $200 is a significant fraction of the cost of a new machine. >> >> Eric >> >> >> -------- >> Eric Charles >> Assistant Professor of Psychology >> Penn State, Altoona >> >> From: "Nicholas Thompson" <[hidden email]> >> To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[hidden email]> >> Sent: Thursday, February 7, 2013 2:57:32 PM >> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Windows Resource Monitor >> >> Thanks owen. I did lots of stuff LIKE that, but may not have recognized a helping hand when it was proffered. With your reassurance I will plunge back in. >> >> The response to this inquiry has led me wonder some wonderings about the folks on the list. Is it the case that: >> >> (1) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC >> (2) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who has had this sort of problem (=”resource leakage”?). >> (3) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert. >> (4) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert and who also too dumb to know how to use the resource monitor to fix it, myself. >> >> >> N >> From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Owen Densmore >> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2013 10:25 AM >> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group >> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Windows Resource Monitor >> >> Nick: did you google: >> how to use the windows resource monitor >> .. it turned up lots and lots of info. >> >> However, the classic solution to a clean machine is to literally start over: wipe the disk *after* making a complete copy of its contents to a cheap disk, and drag stuff back aboard as you need it. >> >> This is augmented by Dropbox: if you don't have it now, you may want to consider it as a backup of your working stuff, stuff that you can't replace from other sources and is data you actually created. It also makes it trivial to see/work on the files from any of several computers. >> >> Then the "lets start over" approach is much much easier. Clean system with one folder of your working repository. >> >> I'm always amazed just how zippy a new system is. >> >> I keep a log of all installs I do, you may start doing that .. it makes it easy to know what you may need to reinstall if you go the clean install route. And what may need removing 'cause you don't use it anymore. >> >> -- Owen >> >> On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 11:11 PM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote: >> Thanks for all your suggestions. Most I actually understood, for which I am enormously grateful. >> >> I have the habit of burying my most important question under a lot of verbal rubble, so I want to ask it again in case you missed it. Is there any guide to the Resource Monitor that is more forthcoming than the help files that come with it? Stuff like what the various charts and graphs and numbers are telling me. >> >> N >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Joshua Thorp
It's not Python that's the issue, it's the C++ Visual module which (until the very recent work) had three C++ components (for Windows, Mac, and Linux) for creating windows and handling events.
On the Mac, the problem is that it has often happened that a minor operating system upgrade made something in our supposedly standard Mac-specific code break, or Tcl is broken so the lightweight Idle IDE won't work, or some damn thing. A particularly dramatic example is pulling the plug on the Carbon framework, with the effect that VPython, with a rather conventional architecture that continues to work on Windows and Linux, could not run on Cocoa, which requires that Cocoa call VPython, whereas the API of VPython requires essentially that VPython call Cocoa. (Hence the recent major effort to restructure VPython in a fundamental way while preserving its API.)
On Ubuntu Linux, the problem is that very often some library is broken by a release, and one must hunt and hunt for some scrap of information that tells you how to make things work again. We don't include Python in our installers; we tell people to install Python first before using our installer. This is true even on the Mac. It is true that Python comes with the Mac, but the Apple version is crippled, and there is general agreement that if you're actually going to use Python yourself on a Mac you should install a Python from python.org.
A hoped-for benefit of the change to base VPython on wxPython (which is a wrapper for the cross-platform GUI framework wxWidgets) is that this will insulate VPython from the continual upheavals in the Mac and Linux environments. Bruce On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Joshua Thorp <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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Administrator
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In reply to this post by Nick Thompson
Just an observation: Things are Getting More Complicated .. when it
comes to computing. I have two friends, both quite bright in terms of computing. One a PC, the other a Mac user. Both have what I call Rotten System Syndrom (RSS). It is NOT a PC vs Mac issue. Its just that things are getting way too complex. The cloud, backups, sluggish systems, how to uninstall apps, knowing what's on the computer, knowing whether or not there is a problem. It goes on and on. The same for Linux, Mac, Windows. I'd love to say: Oh, just get a Mac. Or Ubuntu. Or Windows 8. Nope. It all boils down to systems being so complicated that even experts have problems. My solution has been along the lines I mentioned to Nick earlier: in a phrase -- System Hygiene. So how do you keep your system clean and nice .. and not even need to do a clean install? There are several things that contribute to your system being healthy. The most important is: know what is on your system and being able to remove it when no longer needed. Nick hit one one right away: a system utility like the Task/System monitor he found. So rather than being a noob, Nick turned out to hit on the right issue right away. On my system, I always have the "Activity Monitor" running, and yes, as Josh mentioned, run "purge" often. So I can see visually what's up with the system. All the Big 3 have these, just look for performance monitor etc and you'll find it. Next: after understanding how your system is running, look at your disk. Again, all the Big 3 have something like Omni Disk Sweeper for the Mac: a program that lets you see, by size, where everything is on your disk. I had to scrape my Mini clean recently so that Time Machine (the incremental backup system) wouldn't fill up immediately. I found over (blush) 40GB! that I no longer needed! That's a lot of cruft. And I'm supposed to be hip. But no, cruft happens. So after (2 days believe it or not) of figuring out what needed to be done, I applied yet another tool available on all of the Big 3: an un-installer programmer. There were several available. I deleted a large amount of the 40GB blush that way. Amazing just how much TeX takes up on legacy systems. What next? Well, I still had WAY too much on my system to have a sane backup/TimeMachine strategy. DiskSweeper again. Man did I have a LOT of stuff I no longer needed. What to do? I chose a mixed strategy: - All working docs were put in the cloud. How? Dropbox for a lot of it. Music? Both Google Drive and iTunes Match. Again available for the B3. Whew, that was a lot. I had over 80GB music, and now it's all in the cloud, multiply backed up. Next photos. As mentioned earlier, Arc and Amazon storage helps there. Mail: IMAP/gmail .. that's solved (and now with 2-factor authentication). Movies? again, not too difficult. A larger dropbox might help but I decided on simply finding .torrent files, so that I can get lost movies in a few hours if needed, the rest on local storage (redundant, via a NAS, but really not needed) - Loose a lot of apps I really don't use. AppZapper was seriously busy for quite a while. And even then, I had to find out how to keep my /usr/local clean due to the mixed strategies of Linux/Unix systems for package management. So, no Nick, you are not odd having to figure out what to do. And you hit almost immediately on the important issue: how to monitor your system. What's running now and what's it doing? Check the net for what causes these odd daemons/services running. See if you can get by without that option. Find the cruft. Buy a disk or two for backup and pushing data not needed 24/7. It really is that simple: Things have gotten really complex as my two friends, Mac & PC know. Decide on a strategy. Don't worry if its the best. It just has to satisfy your requirements. Follow a plan after deciding on the strategy. Don't be in a hurry, its not easy nor obvious. Do NOT think you are odd, noob, ignorant, weird, and so on. As I say, my two friends are very intelligent yet still struggling with their two systems. My recommendation is to think out a Machine Hygiene strategy first, then a plan that implements it. You will have to haunt Best Buy for a couple of disks, and sign up for Dropbox and/or similar systems. Decide what data is really, really important, likely using a Disk Sweeper to find out just what you DO have on your system. Then just devote a taks a day for a couple of weeks and you'll be fat, dumb and happy! And not dumb at all. -- Owen On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote: > Hi, > > > > My Dell Studio (yeah, yeah, save the Mac cracks) has been cranky of late, > particularly when streaming stuff, and since I am reluctant to put out a > couple of hundred dollars to have it “tuned up”, I have been trying to see > what I can do on my own. This has led me to the resource monitor, a truly > fascinating little gizmo, a couple of levels down in the Task Manager. > The help files that are attached to it are pretty lean, and I was wondering > if someone knew of a “Resource Monitor for Idiots” source. > > > > One thing that I immediately learned which was STUNNING was that mac I-tunes > has a chum that it loads called AppleRemoteDevicesManager.exe which grabs 25 > percent of your resources off the top and doesn’t let go unless you whack it > over the head with a brick. It’s purpose is to manage your relationship > with your mobile devices, but relentlessly demands resources even though you > don’t have any mobile devices. I think of it as essentially an Apple > Trojan. (Ok, now, you can make Mac-cracks). > > > > Thanks, > > > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > http://www.cusf.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: Windows Resource Monitor
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You say that like complexity is a bad thing. On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote: Just an observation: Things are Getting More Complicated .. when it Doug Roberts
[hidden email] ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Owen Densmore
Thanks, Owen, for these kind words.
The hardest thing at this point is knowing what I dare touch what I don't. There are several programs which some of the sites on the web tell you are part of the system and can't be touched, and some tell you are filled with viruses. So, I guess if you have some instincts to share with me about which advice sites are trust worthy and which are not. Another problem is fighting with the programs, like Utube, that resist when you try to kill them. As for dropbox, I have already paid for Carbonite and they are from Boston and their call center is in Maine so I trust them. I love it. Any time I am not paying attention it puts little green dots beside all my files. Could you ask for anything more? I am definitely a citizen. And I do get the impression that there are not a lot of people on this list with win7 machines. Nick -----Original Message----- From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Owen Densmore Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2013 8:29 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Windows Resource Monitor Just an observation: Things are Getting More Complicated .. when it comes to computing. I have two friends, both quite bright in terms of computing. One a PC, the other a Mac user. Both have what I call Rotten System Syndrom (RSS). It is NOT a PC vs Mac issue. Its just that things are getting way too complex. The cloud, backups, sluggish systems, how to uninstall apps, knowing what's on the computer, knowing whether or not there is a problem. It goes on and on. The same for Linux, Mac, Windows. I'd love to say: Oh, just get a Mac. Or Ubuntu. Or Windows 8. Nope. It all boils down to systems being so complicated that even experts have problems. My solution has been along the lines I mentioned to Nick earlier: in a phrase -- System Hygiene. So how do you keep your system clean and nice .. and not even need to do a clean install? There are several things that contribute to your system being healthy. The most important is: know what is on your system and being able to remove it when no longer needed. Nick hit one one right away: a system utility like the Task/System monitor he found. So rather than being a noob, Nick turned out to hit on the right issue right away. On my system, I always have the "Activity Monitor" running, and yes, as Josh mentioned, run "purge" often. So I can see visually what's up with the system. All the Big 3 have these, just look for performance monitor etc and you'll find it. Next: after understanding how your system is running, look at your disk. Again, all the Big 3 have something like Omni Disk Sweeper for the Mac: a program that lets you see, by size, where everything is on your disk. I had to scrape my Mini clean recently so that Time Machine (the incremental backup system) wouldn't fill up immediately. I found over (blush) 40GB! that I no longer needed! That's a lot of cruft. And I'm supposed to be hip. But no, cruft happens. So after (2 days believe it or not) of figuring out what needed to be done, I applied yet another tool available on all of the Big 3: an un-installer programmer. There were several available. I deleted a large amount of the 40GB blush that way. Amazing just how much TeX takes up on legacy systems. What next? Well, I still had WAY too much on my system to have a sane backup/TimeMachine strategy. DiskSweeper again. Man did I have a LOT of stuff I no longer needed. What to do? I chose a mixed strategy: - All working docs were put in the cloud. How? Dropbox for a lot of it. Music? Both Google Drive and iTunes Match. Again available for the B3. Whew, that was a lot. I had over 80GB music, and now it's all in the cloud, multiply backed up. Next photos. As mentioned earlier, Arc and Amazon storage helps there. Mail: IMAP/gmail .. that's solved (and now with 2-factor authentication). Movies? again, not too difficult. A larger dropbox might help but I decided on simply finding .torrent files, so that I can get lost movies in a few hours if needed, the rest on local storage (redundant, via a NAS, but really not needed) - Loose a lot of apps I really don't use. AppZapper was seriously busy for quite a while. And even then, I had to find out how to keep my /usr/local clean due to the mixed strategies of Linux/Unix systems for package management. So, no Nick, you are not odd having to figure out what to do. And you hit almost immediately on the important issue: how to monitor your system. What's running now and what's it doing? Check the net for what causes these odd daemons/services running. See if you can get by without that option. Find the cruft. Buy a disk or two for backup and pushing data not needed 24/7. It really is that simple: Things have gotten really complex as my two friends, Mac & PC know. Decide on a strategy. Don't worry if its the best. It just has to satisfy your requirements. Follow a plan after deciding on the strategy. Don't be in a hurry, its not easy nor obvious. Do NOT think you are odd, noob, ignorant, weird, and so on. As I say, my two friends are very intelligent yet still struggling with their two systems. My recommendation is to think out a Machine Hygiene strategy first, then a plan that implements it. You will have to haunt Best Buy for a couple of disks, and sign up for Dropbox and/or similar systems. Decide what data is really, really important, likely using a Disk Sweeper to find out just what you DO have on your system. Then just devote a taks a day for a couple of weeks and you'll be fat, dumb and happy! And not dumb at all. -- Owen On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote: > Hi, > > > > My Dell Studio (yeah, yeah, save the Mac cracks) has been cranky of > late, particularly when streaming stuff, and since I am reluctant to > put out a couple of hundred dollars to have it "tuned up", I have been > trying to see what I can do on my own. This has led me to the > resource monitor, a truly fascinating little gizmo, a couple of levels down in the Task Manager. > The help files that are attached to it are pretty lean, and I was > wondering if someone knew of a "Resource Monitor for Idiots" source. > > > > One thing that I immediately learned which was STUNNING was that mac > I-tunes has a chum that it loads called AppleRemoteDevicesManager.exe > which grabs 25 percent of your resources off the top and doesn't let > go unless you whack it over the head with a brick. It's purpose is to > manage your relationship with your mobile devices, but relentlessly > don't have any mobile devices. I think of it as essentially an Apple > Trojan. (Ok, now, you can make Mac-cracks). > > > > Thanks, > > > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > http://www.cusf.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Owen Densmore
Very good advice and nice explanation Owen, thanks!
On Feb 7, 2013, at 8:29 PM, Owen Densmore wrote: > Just an observation: Things are Getting More Complicated .. when it > comes to computing. > > I have two friends, both quite bright in terms of computing. One a > PC, the other a Mac user. Both have what I call Rotten System Syndrom > (RSS). It is NOT a PC vs Mac issue. Its just that things are getting > way too complex. The cloud, backups, sluggish systems, how to > uninstall apps, knowing what's on the computer, knowing whether or not > there is a problem. It goes on and on. The same for Linux, Mac, > Windows. > > I'd love to say: Oh, just get a Mac. Or Ubuntu. Or Windows 8. > > Nope. It all boils down to systems being so complicated that even > experts have problems. > > My solution has been along the lines I mentioned to Nick earlier: in a > phrase -- System Hygiene. > > So how do you keep your system clean and nice .. and not even need to > do a clean install? > > There are several things that contribute to your system being healthy. > > The most important is: know what is on your system and being able to > remove it when no longer needed. Nick hit one one right away: a > system utility like the Task/System monitor he found. So rather than > being a noob, Nick turned out to hit on the right issue right away. > > On my system, I always have the "Activity Monitor" running, and yes, > as Josh mentioned, run "purge" often. So I can see visually what's up > with the system. All the Big 3 have these, just look for performance > monitor etc and you'll find it. > > Next: after understanding how your system is running, look at your > disk. Again, all the Big 3 have something like Omni Disk Sweeper for > the Mac: a program that lets you see, by size, where everything is on > your disk. I had to scrape my Mini clean recently so that Time > Machine (the incremental backup system) wouldn't fill up immediately. > I found over (blush) 40GB! that I no longer needed! That's a lot of > cruft. And I'm supposed to be hip. But no, cruft happens. > > So after (2 days believe it or not) of figuring out what needed to be > done, I applied yet another tool available on all of the Big 3: an > un-installer programmer. There were several available. I deleted a > large amount of the 40GB blush that way. Amazing just how much TeX > takes up on legacy systems. > > What next? Well, I still had WAY too much on my system to have a sane > backup/TimeMachine strategy. DiskSweeper again. Man did I have a LOT > of stuff I no longer needed. What to do? I chose a mixed strategy: > - All working docs were put in the cloud. How? Dropbox for a lot of > it. Music? Both Google Drive and iTunes Match. Again available for > the B3. Whew, that was a lot. I had over 80GB music, and now it's > all in the cloud, multiply backed up. Next photos. As mentioned > earlier, Arc and Amazon storage helps there. Mail: IMAP/gmail .. > that's solved (and now with 2-factor authentication). Movies? again, > not too difficult. A larger dropbox might help but I decided on > simply finding .torrent files, so that I can get lost movies in a few > hours if needed, the rest on local storage (redundant, via a NAS, but > really not needed) > - Loose a lot of apps I really don't use. AppZapper was seriously > busy for quite a while. And even then, I had to find out how to keep > my /usr/local clean due to the mixed strategies of Linux/Unix systems > for package management. > > So, no Nick, you are not odd having to figure out what to do. And you > hit almost immediately on the important issue: how to monitor your > system. What's running now and what's it doing? Check the net for > what causes these odd daemons/services running. See if you can get by > without that option. Find the cruft. Buy a disk or two for backup > and pushing data not needed 24/7. > > It really is that simple: Things have gotten really complex as my two > friends, Mac & PC know. Decide on a strategy. Don't worry if its the > best. It just has to satisfy your requirements. Follow a plan after > deciding on the strategy. Don't be in a hurry, its not easy nor > obvious. Do NOT think you are odd, noob, ignorant, weird, and so on. > As I say, my two friends are very intelligent yet still struggling > with their two systems. > > My recommendation is to think out a Machine Hygiene strategy first, > then a plan that implements it. You will have to haunt Best Buy for a > couple of disks, and sign up for Dropbox and/or similar systems. > Decide what data is really, really important, likely using a Disk > Sweeper to find out just what you DO have on your system. Then just > devote a taks a day for a couple of weeks and you'll be fat, dumb and > happy! And not dumb at all. > > -- Owen > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Nicholas Thompson > <[hidden email]> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> >> >> My Dell Studio (yeah, yeah, save the Mac cracks) has been cranky of late, >> particularly when streaming stuff, and since I am reluctant to put out a >> couple of hundred dollars to have it “tuned up”, I have been trying to see >> what I can do on my own. This has led me to the resource monitor, a truly >> fascinating little gizmo, a couple of levels down in the Task Manager. >> The help files that are attached to it are pretty lean, and I was wondering >> if someone knew of a “Resource Monitor for Idiots” source. >> >> >> >> One thing that I immediately learned which was STUNNING was that mac I-tunes >> has a chum that it loads called AppleRemoteDevicesManager.exe which grabs 25 >> percent of your resources off the top and doesn’t let go unless you whack it >> over the head with a brick. It’s purpose is to manage your relationship >> with your mobile devices, but relentlessly demands resources even though you >> don’t have any mobile devices. I think of it as essentially an Apple >> Trojan. (Ok, now, you can make Mac-cracks). >> >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> >> >> Nick >> >> >> >> Nicholas S. Thompson >> >> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology >> >> Clark University >> >> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ >> >> http://www.cusf.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: Windows Resource Monitor
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In reply to this post by Owen Densmore
Nick,
If you use a proprietary system like a Mac running Mac OS X or a Windows PC, and you aren't a person that has reason to know the semantics of internal interfaces (a.k.a. APIs) there really is no recourse but to seek support from the vendors involved, or online support groups. A second approach is Doug's guerrilla like tactics as with Google. Just beat them until they give you the answer you want. Most users expect things not to work, so there's only so far that can take you. There's only so much outrage that can be generated. In your case, it sounds like the problem was the Layered Service Provider interface that Microsoft provides and how it interacts with some other product trying to intercept that traffic (see the table at http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4123). Sometimes the developers of one of these intermediate products will be motivated to debug the problem, other times you'll need to appeal the the app vendor (here Apple), or the operating system vendor (here Microsoft). Do a little work with Google, and the support websites of the likely vendors involved, and you'll find the answer almost every time. The third approach is to make it your responsibility. With Linux, there is source code to the whole thing. Tens of millions of lines of code. It can all be rationalized. While it is true that few people have the depth and breadth to understand all of these things, the beauty of the free software community is that you can almost always find that expert and someone has likely had the same problem and analyzed it, and _to the bottom_. Not just in terms of vague phenomenology as with so many Windows or Mac problems, but the the particular line of code with a mistake. I just don't understand how people who use or write software for a living, especially scientific software, would ever tolerate using a Mac or Windows box. I won't tolerate being helpless to vendors who make it hard to understand how their software interacts with other software. Well, let me qualify that, I won't tolerate being helpless when it matters and I can get my way. I don't mind using a Mac or Windows box for entertainment, for example. And I'll use Microsoft Word or Powerpoint if collaborators want to use that. Those things don't involve `real' problem solving -- at worst solving problems with`presentation' issues can become an annoying distraction. Any interesting program will have bugs, and any interesting program runs in concern with a lot of other programs. If bugs exist in `secret' components, we'll you're often completely powerless to do anything about it. Could I tolerate some obstacles and `secret' components? That is, tolerate intellectual property of software companies? I often could, but I think it is better if I don't, and will also try to persuade more people not to tolerate it either! (I mostly sit in front of Macs, but I do all my work on Linux machines either over the network or in Linux systems in virtual machines.) Marcus ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: Windows Resource Monitor
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I don't want to get all gushy or anything, but I knew there was a reason that I liked you, Marcus. (Written, gushingly, on an Android device.) And fuck you, Google. Get it fucking right, finally. Please. On Feb 7, 2013 9:26 PM, "Marcus G. Daniels" <[hidden email]> wrote:
Nick, ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: Windows Resource Monitor
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BTW, I think my supply of outrage has been drained. Running on empty now. On Feb 7, 2013 9:31 PM, "Douglas Roberts" <[hidden email]> wrote:
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Re: Windows Resource Monitor
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On 2/7/13 9:37 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
> > BTW, I think my supply of outrage has been drained. Running on empty now. > But if I understood correctly, an Android revision is in the works?! heh. Marcus ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: Windows Resource Monitor
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Maybe. If they feel like it. In their own good time. Arrogant bastards. On Feb 7, 2013 10:11 PM, "Marcus G. Daniels" <[hidden email]> wrote:
On 2/7/13 9:37 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote: ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Joshua Thorp
Josh -
> For our mac user friends I just came across this neat little command: purge Thanks! I didn't want to admit it in front of the Apple-bashers (especially Doug), but in the last year I've had more problems with automatic resource (usually memory) management on OSX (10.6.7,8) than ever before. The Apple Task Manager is roughly the same (I assume) as the Windows Resource Manager, and I find it quite easy to go see who are the memory hogs. Not unsurprisingly, the worst hogs are Web Browser plugins that are trying to do more than their share of heavy lifting (Flash and Silverlight). Typically I can just kill one or both of those buggers off and let the web pages using them restart them (simple reload of the page) and for a while I'm all good again. Sometimes iPhoto gets carried away but I'm also pretty willing to just kill/restart it and things usually go back to right. I am not that clear on how the Inactive memory is managed, but it *is* clear to me that when free memory goes to zero, so does performance! Purge looks like a winner (and maybe a good alternative to my killing the browser plugins and iPhoto) - Steve > > It apparently frees up memory in caches. See this: http://osxdaily.com/2012/04/24/free-up-inactive-memory-in-mac-os-x-with-purge-command/ > > --joshua > > On Feb 7, 2013, at 7:35 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: > >> Hi Nick. Tried to send you a message on your e-mail. I don't have time to go through your spam thingy. Sorry. >> On Feb 7, 2013, at 1:54 PM, Eric Charles wrote: >> >>> 1) I use a PC, because I am cheap and lazy. >>> >>> 2) This sort of thing is a ubiquitous problem on PCs, and is sometimes a problem for Macs depending the exact operating system (but I've never seen it as bad on a Mac as it usually is on a PC). >>> >>> 3) I would be suspicious of a store-bought expert helping with this... and as has been suggested, an expert friend should be cheaper (though not necessarily free, as it is time consuming). >>> >>> 4) I know how to use the resource monitor, and often find that it is not telling me what I want to know. The long list of Processes often does not seem to account for what the Performance screen tells me is the CPU Usage and Physical Memory Usage. I've never really figured out why this discrepancy occurs... but I haven't tried hard to find out. It is certainly annoying. >>> >>> As suggested, a complete wipe will fix the problem. I have rarely done this... but usually am thinking about getting a new computer at about the time the problem is annoying enough that I would consider a wipe... and switching to a new computer is pretty much the same thing as wiping the old one. If you do not use too many programs, a wipe might be relatively easy. >>> >>> Also worth noting: Depending on your computing needs, $200 is a significant fraction of the cost of a new machine. >>> >>> Eric >>> >>> >>> -------- >>> Eric Charles >>> Assistant Professor of Psychology >>> Penn State, Altoona >>> >>> From: "Nicholas Thompson" <[hidden email]> >>> To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[hidden email]> >>> Sent: Thursday, February 7, 2013 2:57:32 PM >>> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Windows Resource Monitor >>> >>> Thanks owen. I did lots of stuff LIKE that, but may not have recognized a helping hand when it was proffered. With your reassurance I will plunge back in. >>> >>> The response to this inquiry has led me wonder some wonderings about the folks on the list. Is it the case that: >>> >>> (1) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC >>> (2) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who has had this sort of problem (=”resource leakage”?). >>> (3) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert. >>> (4) I am the only person on this list that owns a PC who is too cheap to pay the 200 bucks to get it fixed by an expert and who also too dumb to know how to use the resource monitor to fix it, myself. >>> >>> >>> N >>> From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Owen Densmore >>> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2013 10:25 AM >>> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group >>> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Windows Resource Monitor >>> >>> Nick: did you google: >>> how to use the windows resource monitor >>> .. it turned up lots and lots of info. >>> >>> However, the classic solution to a clean machine is to literally start over: wipe the disk *after* making a complete copy of its contents to a cheap disk, and drag stuff back aboard as you need it. >>> >>> This is augmented by Dropbox: if you don't have it now, you may want to consider it as a backup of your working stuff, stuff that you can't replace from other sources and is data you actually created. It also makes it trivial to see/work on the files from any of several computers. >>> >>> Then the "lets start over" approach is much much easier. Clean system with one folder of your working repository. >>> >>> I'm always amazed just how zippy a new system is. >>> >>> I keep a log of all installs I do, you may start doing that .. it makes it easy to know what you may need to reinstall if you go the clean install route. And what may need removing 'cause you don't use it anymore. >>> >>> -- Owen >>> >>> On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 11:11 PM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote: >>> Thanks for all your suggestions. Most I actually understood, for which I am enormously grateful. >>> >>> I have the habit of burying my most important question under a lot of verbal rubble, so I want to ask it again in case you missed it. Is there any guide to the Resource Monitor that is more forthcoming than the help files that come with it? Stuff like what the various charts and graphs and numbers are telling me. >>> >>> N >>> >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Marcus G. Daniels
I develop scientific software (VPython, GlowScript), not exactly for a living but as an important supplement to a physics textbook and curriculum. I'm committed to making these 3D programming environments work in Windows, Mac, and Linux. In the 12 years of the life of VPython, Windows has been much easier to deal with than either the Mac or Linux environments.
Bruce On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 9:25 PM, Marcus G. Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:
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Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: Windows Resource Monitor
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In reply to this post by Owen Densmore
It's interesting that what Owen recommends is currently part of the SANS 20 Critical Controls for Effective Cyber Defense. Critical Control #2 is Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Software. Wrapping this back around to complexity - Alan Paller and
the SANS crowd frequently claim that implementing just the first four controls is enough to see a significant change in the state of a defended computer network system. I'm curious if there has ever been any work to show that seemingly simple security actions
can have such a great effect.
Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager
V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084
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On Feb 7, 2013, at 8:29 PM, Owen Densmore wrote:
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In reply to this post by Owen Densmore
I'm not familiar with Disk Sweeper, but I'll put in a good word for DaisyDisk. It is pretty, elegant, and extremely useful for finding out where all the disk space went. (Mac only)
--Barry On Feb 7, 2013, at 8:29 PM, Owen Densmore wrote: Again, all the Big 3 have something like Omni Disk Sweeper for ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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Thanks for the pointer. I now use it too, along with omni disk sweeper, they complement each other.
-- Owen On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 11:26 AM, Barry MacKichan <[hidden email]> wrote:
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