What is it that makes the human brain work? How is it that a simple configuration of neurons produces such a complex equation? Why do people think differently? Why do some people have a logical brain while others have a more practical brain? Why is it that some people have a better understanding of common-sense? These are some of the processes my brain tries to analyze. Why? One word, curiosity. I am so enthused about the unknown sciences. That might be why I am so interested with computer hardware. A computer can control just about anything. Heck, Ashely Simpson uses it to tune her voice for recording. Ba-zing!! Anywho, the human brain is just like a giant computer. You have processes that are worked out through algorithms and a solution is brought through to be displayed in a certain format. For some people, this format could be a mathematical equation, others a complex scene that they can walk through in their head. There is no limit to the displays that could be produced. Your brain really is a giant computer. It uses waves (pulses) to send information at a given frequecy through nurons to the different body parts. The brian has a storage unit for temporary information that can be accessed until the information is no longer needed and it has a storage unit for information that needs to be accessed multiply times at a later date. There is much much more to the brain than this. This is merely covering the basics. Your brain uses it’s temporary storage for things you will need for a second or two and you won’t need any longer. Think about it. Do you remember everything that you see, or even think. No. There is no way. Your mind would be so filled with useless junk that your head would explode if you tried to retrieve something useful. We’ll call this short term memory. Everyone has probably heard of this. You can remember something in short term memory for about ten seconds. Try having someone write down ten numbers and have them read them to you one at a time in one second increments How many can you remember? Probably about five or so. Then there is long term memory. There’s about five types of long term memory. I don’t really want to get into them now so I’ll blog about it in a later blog. Well I have been ranting about all this brain stuff and you might think there is all this information on the brain, but there really isn’t. We know very little about the human brain. It’s that complex. People can argue this all they want, but no matter how much you think you know about the brain, there’s always something that will change your whole theory.

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Description of the Problem

Alright… I’ve seen this question more than a few times on the Internet. Fundamentally, the question is stated like the following:

“I have all this broadband speed (cable or DSL), and when I’m hosting information to other people (such as a website or p2p), the download speed for me drops! I’m not using much bandwidth to download so I don’t understand the problem!”

Brief Answer

At issue here is the way IP (internet) traffic works. The short explanation is that when people are downloading from your machine, they saturate your upstream bandwidth. This in turn affects your downloading because common Internet activities (such as surfing the Web, e-mail, p2p, etc) require acknowledgements (ACKs) to be sent from your PC to whatever machine you’re talking to. Since your upstream is “full,” the ACKs cannot get through or are seriously delayed.

Long Answer

Many broadband users have large download pipes and small upload connections, 768kbps and 128kbps respectively. Also, most internet-based communication uses the TCP/IP protocol to transfer data. For those of you somewhat familiar with TCP, you know that this is a protocol which assures delivery of information. It accomplishes this by sending acknowledgement packets (ACKs) to the computer it’s receiving data from. This process is controlled through a process known as TCP Windowing. The home computer asks for information from a host (server) out on the Internet. The transaction of information occurs as defined by the windowing of the home PC. When the roles are reversed, the home PC serves out its information and doesn’t allow for the ACKs to get through thus interfering with downloads from the Internet.
Remedy of the Issue

So how do you remedy this problem? An obvious choice is to upgrade your upstream connection. Some broadband providers sell packages where you can upgrade to 384k or higher upstream connections… for a price. Another idea is to pay a small fee to a web-hosting site to host the information you wish to provide to the world (just like I’m doing).

Additionally, you may optimize your TCP sessions to the Internet. This can be accomplished by manipulating the windowing values in your operating system (OS) and by setting a more-effective maximum transfer unit (MTU) for your OS. If you would like more information on how to do this, just send me an e-mail or leave a comment.

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 For those of you who hate all the extra junk that Windows installs when you install a fresh copy of Windows, nLite is the program for you. I used it to uninstall about 200 programs/services/protocols that I will not need, and don’t really want because of the security holes. It turned out to be about 250 MB off the install so it went much faster. My boot time is much faster too. It went from about 15 seconds to about 10 seconds. That’s not too much for performance increase, but I like to save time where ever I can.

The nLite install can be found at http://www.nliteos.com/. Once downloaded and install, open up nLite. Your first screen should have all the information about the current build of nLite. Click next. It should bring you to a screen to create an image of your Windows OS. To do this, slap in your Windows install disc to your CD drive and select it through nLite. nLite will then copy the install to your harddrive. Click next and it should bring you to a list of options. Service Packs, Hotfixes and Updates, Drivers, Components, Unattached, Options, tweaks, and bootable ISO. If you can’t see these options, then close nLite and reopen it. Then select your Windows install folder nLite made just a moment ago. Now click next till you get to that screen. Now you can select what you want to modify, whether it would be to turn off all unwanted services or to uninstall the stupid Windows Messenger. After tinkering with everything, just click the bootable iso and it will write a bootable ISO for you so you can install windows. Just download magic ISO to burn the ISO. You can find it at http://www.magicISO.com/. Now reboot and boot into the windows install and you should be all set. Now for you truly lazy people, you can go under the unattached menu to enter your CD key and other info to make the process go without you even needing to be there. How about that?

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Well I have been doing a lot of online chatting from a guy from the Calibrator Haven II CounterStrike: Source clan. His name is Isaac (did I spell that right?). He’s a pretty good guy with views about the same as mine, except for the fact that he is a Mac fanboy. lol, the flames will never end!

 Our last conversation concerned the spectra of politics. Here is a subject that can turn two people into mortal enemies just because of what they believe. I was really amazed by this person’s behavior. Anyone who knows me knows that I can be very very short with people. After a long day of sitting at the computer looking at words just passing by, it will cause anyone to go berserk. We talked about mainly about or political stance. Good thing to see he is very open minded. He votes as I would. He votes based on who he thinks will improve the country’s well-being. That’s what I do. I don’t really care too much about who is a democrat and who is a republican. I am more concerned about who is going to lead the country to where I would like it to go.

Here is my stance on the world now. First off, get rid of the United Nations. This is about the worse organization out there. We stick our necks out and back the UN in whatever it decides and they turn their back on us when we needs them. I say screw’em. Now NATO I can agree with. They don’t pencil around the problems. They see what needs to be done and they get it done when it needs to be done. The UN takes something and puts it off and puts it off… then gets around to it, then puts it off again… See a pattern? Well I am sick of it. If they want to beat around the bush, let them.

Abortion. Here is one that will piss people off, so I’ll spare you. Abortion is wrong, but I can understand why some people would need one. If it endangers the mother’s life, I can understand that. Think about it, you know know you have two days to live. Will you be scared? Yes you will. I don’t care who you are. I bet you will be scared. Even though my religion says as long as I am righteous and live my life in the name of Jesus Lord and Savior, I will be saved from eternal damnation. You will be separated from everything and everyone you know. Man, this is going to bring me into a whole other topic about what we know and how we “feel,” so I’ll go on.

Here’s another make it or break it sides. Republican or Democrat? Does it matter? How about I make my own views and we go from there?

Iraq. Another thing that will piss people off. You know, politics piss people off. I’ll just stop the pissing off speech. Ok, Iraq. I think it is justified that we are over there. I really do. I know it sucks for the soldiers, but that’s what they signed up to do. When they signed their life away, they said, “Send me where ever my country needs me.” Our country is strong. We should set the example in the world by doing what we know is right. That will get things moving in the right direction. I know some of you might not agree with me, but think of it this way. Sadam killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people… How do you feel that you can sit back and watch that happen? It just makes me sick.

 Well I need to head off to bed. I will be adding to this at a later time.

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