Partition Magic (PM) was my favorite tool for the job.  I’ve been using it since version 1.0 15+ years ago.  However, after Norton bought the company who made it, PowerQuest, R&D stopped .. cold.  PM v8.0 has problems – with drives over 500GB it complains about the partition information being bad.  Of course, it’s wrong.  Also, for PM8 to work correctly, you had to boot to DOS or in my case, Windows 98se dos prompt.  This I didn’t mind.  However, other partition managers could run from Windows or had a bootable CD.  The other problem PM8 has is that it can’t resize NTFS partitions made with Windows 7.  You see, Microsoft secretly changes the NTFS specifications for each new version of Windows and PM8 can’t handle Win7 – only up to Vista.

For now, I’m sticking with Gnome Partition Editor (GPartEd).  The current one seems pretty stable although I do admit having problems with an old version about a year ago.  However, it seems that the open source community has worked out those bugs.

I can also recommend Acronis products.  I used one of their products – the one OEMed to Seagate that comes in retail versions of their hard drives.  It works pretty well.  I partitioned a number of drives and it worked just fine.

I like to partition a drive in this way:
A.  Primary partition #1 – first bootable operating system.
B.  Primary partition #2 – 2nd OS (if necessary)
C.  Primary partition #3 – 3rd OS (if necessary)
D.  Rest of drive is an extended partition
E.  Logical drive #1 – Applications, FAT32, 10-20 GB large.
F.  Logical drive #2 – Data, FAT32, preferably.

Why do I like FAT32?
1. Speed (2x the speed of NTFS)
2. Compatibility w/ all operating systems.
3. No pesky ACL (permissions)

As with all products in this category – be sure to backup your data first.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Tip 1. Increase the number of peers, slots, etc.
In Options –> Preferences –> Bandwidth
Double the default numbers in these parameters:
  Global maximum number of connections
  Maximum number of connected peers per torrent
  Number of upload slots per torrent

Tip 2. Use a 2nd computer as your peer.
In order to use a second computer, you need to know: the IP address of each computer and the port used by the bittorrent clients.  This assumes you have two computers running in a local area network behind a router.  Your router should have Port Triggering, i.e. automatically opening and closing ports as needed.

a. To find your IP address, open up a command prompt ( Start –> Run –> cmd <enter> ).  Then type “ipconfig /all <enter>”.  Look for your computer’s IP address.  Do this for both computers.

b. Find the ports used in each computer (each must be different).  In uTorrent, Options –> Preferences –> Connection.

c. Download and start the torrent on each computer’s uTorrent program.

d. On one computer, click once on the torrent being downloaded.  Click on the Peers tab.  Right-click on any peer and left-click on Add Peer.  Then type in the IP address and port of THE OTHER computer.

For example:
  computer 1: 192.168.1.120, port, 51413
  computer 2: 192.168.1.130, port 13681

  On computer 2, your peer would be: 192.168.1.120:51413.

That’s it.  That’s peer-to-peer downloading .. turbocharged.

Does your hard drive have a hidden problem?  Find out by reading the details on Seagate’s website and running the Drive Detect software.  The software will report on your drive’s current firmware.  Here’s the long and short of it:

P/N 9JU138-300 and 9NU138-336 w/ F/W SD15..19 –
  upgrade to SD1B necessary.

F/W SD15..19 – upgrade to SD1B, ok, but not necessary.
F/W SD1B or SD2B – no upgrade necessary.
F/W CCxx – no upgrade necessary – in fact can “brick” your hdd.

Seagate gives firm warnings – BACK UP YOUR DATA FIRST.

Silver Lining.  If there is a “silver lining” to this whole fiasco, it’s this – the 1.5TB drives are pretty cheap now.  When introduced about a year ago, theses drives sold for $180.  Now they’re as low as $110.  The 7200.11 1TB drives are only about $10 less!  Wow!!!  What a bargain!!!

During tests, I converted 5 large hard drives to exFAT and ran into 2 major problems:

1. One hard drive became read-only.  I can see files there, but I can’t add or delete any more files.

2. Files disappear.  After backing up 1 TB worth of data to a second hard drive, the files all disappeared.  The hard disk space is allocated, but the files are invisible.

   MICROSOFT REALLY SUCKS!!!

   I googled both problems and only came across 2 people who have also experienced this problem.  The solution — none.  Reformat to NTFS.

   What I am going to do now is to convert back to NTFS and find out how to remove all of those pesky permissions that seem to interfere w/ copying and backing up files.

   The morale of this story –  NEVER TRUST MICROSOFT!!!

1. Be Patient.
   My QWERTY speed of 100 wpm has dropped to 30.  For me, anything below 45 is frustrating.  But things are picking up.
2. It’s Worth It.
   I haven’t run into any major downsides yet like I did when learning Dvorak.  I definitely think Colemak will prove to be the most efficient layout yet.
3. Benefits.
   I’ve noticed the finger strain has gone away.  I definitely noticed that my fingers travel much less than before
4. Forget QWERTY
   No, I didn’t forget QWERTY.  Your brain makes a mental switch.  My brain can handle 2 keyboard layouts – just not 3.  Actually, I was typing Dvorak at 40wpm after 1 week, but Colemak at 30wpm after 2 weeks.  Why?  Having to unlearn Dvorak.
5. Downsides?
   There are only 3 minor downsides with switching to Colemak as I see it:
   a. My spelling is terrible now.  I didn’t realize that my good spelling was so closely linked to my QWERTY typing skill.
   b. OS Support.  I need to use Autohotkey to do my keyboard remapping.  It works quite well, but it is still a kludge.
   c. Finger cramping.  Because your fingers stay on the home row much more (70% now vs. 30% w/ QWERTY), my fingers don’t get to stretch as much.  However, this is helped with hand/finger exercise balls and I need to say that cramping is preferable to overworked strained fingers.

Getting New Releases
New DVD releases are available on Tuesday.  However, since Netflix mails new releases on Monday, it is important to:

1. Mail back a DVD so that Netflix receives it on Monday.
2. For a series DVD, put disc 1 on the top of your queue and put the rest on the bottom of your queue, with miscellaneous DVDs in the middle.
3. If you do NOT get disc 1 of a new release DVD series, then reorder your DVDs in reverse order – if you don’t mind watching them out of sequence.

Queue Tips
Netflix seems to handle all DVDs of a series like one DVD title.  I’ve noticed this when I put, say 5 DVDs of a series on my queue and there is a wait on DVD #1, Netflix will not send me DVD #2-5 – it will wait till it sends me #1 first.

These are the ramifications:

1. Consider all DVDs of a series as a single one.  Add more titles to your queue.  For example, if you have a 8 DVD at a time plan with 8 DVDs in a queue, but 5 of them are part of the same series, then you need to have a total of 13 DVDs in order to consider you queue full.  However, I do suggest putting about 18 DVDs in this theoretical queue since you need a buffer in case some DVDs are wait-listed
2. If you are waiting for DVD #1, then after you get it and return it, there will probably be a wait for DVD #2 also.  If you are wlling to watch the series out-of-order, then put the series in your queue in reverse order.  You will get your DVDs faster.

Last Queue Tip
Put roughly 50% more DVDs in your queue than your N at a time subscription.  For example, if you are a 4 DVD at a time person, I would suggest having 6 DVDs in you queue.  However, I do not count DVDs that are wait-listed – only available now DVDs.  So add more DVDs as necessary.

The most famous alternate keyboard is Dvorak, so named after its inventor August Dvorak.  It attempts to optimize the layout by:

• Placing most frequently used letters on the home row
• Make letters alternate between hands.
• Make the right hand do more work than the left.

After almost 30 years of typing on a QWERTY keyboard, I can do about 120 wpm (with errors) and about 90 wpm error-free.  However I find that lately my fingers get tired more easily.  That was when I decided to try learning Dvorak.  So far after 3 days I’ve made pretty good progress: 30 wpm and a lot less hand fatigue.  On average, your fingers travel less than half the distance than on QWERTY.

There’s another alternate keyboard layout that is worth mentioning – Colemak.  Dvorak’s layout isn’t perfect.  The problem I’ve noticed is with Control-X, C, and V. Colemak fixes it and makes a great change – Caps Lock is changed a Backspace.  Colemak is also less radical than Dvorak by making the layout closer to that of QWERTY ( less learning ) and yet giving the same benefits as Dvorak.

The real problem is support.  You can change your keyboard to a Dvorak layout in software for Windows since Win 95.  However Colemak isn’t supported at all – you need to use a software remapping program.  I prefer to have the software changed in the operating system.

QWERTY is obviously the most popular.  Dvorak and Colemak are a distant 2nd and 3rd, respectively.  Either change I believe is well worth it – greater productivity and less fatigue.