This daily message seems more appropriate for this list, so without further
delay:
Daily Tip:
Driving Changes
Some PCs have the annoying habit of changing the BIOS boot drive setting
every time you connect a new hard drive before startup. Some are bad enough
about it that they'll assume that any newly connected drive must be the boot
device (which it almost never is). If you've attached an external drive by
USB, FireWire, or eSATA, make sure not to power it on until your computer's
OS has loaded. If you've connected an internal drive, however, you'll need
to enter Setup after starting the PC. Reset the hard drive priority list so
that the proper boot drive is at the top, then save your changes and exit.
Your computer should boot up normally now.
Daily Term:
daemon
A daemon (pronounced da'mon or de'mon) is a memory resident computer program
that runs in the background, typically without user interaction. Daemons are
often started automatically at bootup in a process referred to as spawning.
They respond to specific events or triggers to perform predefined tasks.
An example from the UNIX OS (operating system) is the spooling daemon. When
an application writes a file to the LPT (line printer terminal) spooler's
directory, the spooling daemon is automatically invoked to print the file.
The application wanting the file printed does not need to worry about
resource competition or the complexities of LPT spooler. It simply drops the
file in the directory and assumes the daemon will complete the task.
Non-UNIX OSes also use daemons, but they are usually known by a different
name. Windows, for example, refers to these types of programs as System
Agents (Windows 9x/Me) or services (Windows NT/2000/XP).
The term daemon is often used interchangeably with demon, especially in the
UNIX world, where daemon is considered mildly archaic. In some circles, a
slight distinction is made between the two, where daemons are part of the OS
and demons are part of an application or program. In this context, a trigger
in a DBMS (database management system) is considered a demon because it is
part of the DBMS, not the OS.
The term daemon originates from Greek mythology, in which daemons were
guardian spirits.
David Ferrin
http://www.jaws-users.com
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