Technology as a way of life

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser...


Ionic cooling technology expected to be commercialized next year

Before Sharper Image went defunct, the company pushed its Ionic Breeze air purifier relentlessly through commercials. The big selling point of the product was that it used charged particles to move air without the need for a fan or other moving parts.

MIT Review reports that some researchers are using the same idea for cooling laptops and other electronic devices. Researchers from the University of Washington and a company called Tessera that has licensed the ionic-cooling technology from the university are working on adapting the power of ionic cooling to use in notebook computers.

According to the researchers, the ionic-cooling methods can extract about 30% more heat from a laptop than a traditional fan. In addition to removing more heat form hot internal components like the CPU, lab tests have also reportedly shown that the ionic-cooling method consumes about half the power a fan needs. Any power savings realized in a notebook computer directly increases the run time of the machine.

The ionic-cooler is based on research originally completed by Alexander Mamishev from Washington University. The tech was licensed by Tessera last year and researchers at the university and Tessera have been working to convert the technology into a smaller form that can be used inside electronics devices like notebooks, game consoles, projectors, and servers.

Tessera director of research and development Ken Horner said, "The early work focused on principles. We're now focused on optimizing it and fitting it into small form factors."

MIT Review reports that the ionic cooler developed by Tessera would sit near a vent inside a laptop. Heat pipes would be used to draw heat away from the heat generating components inside a computer and pull the heat towards the ionic-cooling system.

The ionic-cooler itself consists of a pair of electrodes, one of which is an emitter and the other a collector electrode. When voltage is applied between the two electrodes, ions flow from the emitter to the collector pushing neutral air molecules across a hot spot.

One of the biggest challenges for the technology was to create a very small voltage converter that could generate the needed 3,000 volts to power the ionic system. The 3,000 volts of power had to be generated from the notebook's 12v DC power supply.

Engineers were able to devise a suitable power supply that measures only 3 centimeters square from the power supply for a cold cathode fluorescent lamp. A problem still facing the researchers is one of dust. The technology has to be made as impervious to dust as current fans are. The ionic cooling device also has to be made more rugged.

The lifespan of the electrodes is currently not up to the 30,000 hours of life expected from a notebook computer. The researchers are reportedly working with new electrode materials now that are expected to solve the longevity issues with early electrodes. The researchers declined to give specifics on the materials being used due to patents that are pending on the technology.

Exactly how much cost an ionic-cooling system would add to a notebook is unknown at this point. Tessera's Craig Mitchell says that the technology will be ready for commercialization next year and that the cost of the cooler would be in the ballpark of where it needs to be.

Better methods of cooling the internals of computers will be needed for new technologies like the graphene multiplier to come to market with the potential to push CPU speeds higher.

I guess many of you are google-ing all day for tweaks to bring DirectX 10 on XP and are not sure what to do considering the massive contradictory information. The interesting thing is some russian site made an alpha "patch" to add the functionality to XP. But does it actually work?
After downloading the patch, i installed it on a virtual machine to see if it will even boot afterwards.
Well, to my surprise it did boot normal and the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (dxdiag.exe) "confirmed" it's installed. This would be enough proof for the majority of the people but not for a geek like me. That little "change" is easily done by modifing a file and a bit of registry tweaking. So that still doesn't convince me. The patch could actually work with the SDK's (Software Development Kit) DirectX 10 only and not suitable for games. It makes the system think you have Dx10 but no actual use can be achieved (the extra features are not enabled in anything).

Microsoft did annnounce there is no compatibility between XP and Dx10 because of changes in the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) and the new audio driver stack plus other updates in the operating system.

Will DirectX 10 be available for Windows XP?

No. Windows Vista, which has DirectX 10, includes an updated DirectX runtime based on the runtime in Windows XP SP2 (DirectX 9.0c) with changes to work with the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) and the new audio driver stack, and with other updates in the operating system. In addition to Direct3D 9, Windows Vista supports two new interfaces when the correct video hardware and drivers are present: Direct3D9Ex and Direct3D10."

Since these new interfaces rely on the WDDM technology, they will never be available on earlier versions of Windows. All the other changes made to DirectX technologies for Windows Vista are also specific to the new version of Windows. The name DirectX 10 is misleading in that many technologies shipping in the DirectX SDK (XACT, XINPUT, D3DX) are not encompassed by this version number. So, referring to the version number of the DirectX runtime as a whole has lost much of its meaning, even for 9.0c. The DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DXdiag.exe) on Windows Vista does report DirectX 10, but this really only refers to Direct3D 10.

Since these new interfaces rely on the WDDM technology, they will never be available on earlier versions of Windows. All the other changes made to DirectX technologies for Windows Vista are also specific to the new version of Windows. Even if it's displayed as Dx10 that doesn't mean you actually have Direct3D 10 which is needed for 100% DX10. Anyway, let's see if a DX10 game will start under these conditions because if it will that will prove i'm wrong.

Well what a big surprise ... i was actually 100% sure that it would not work. Going a little offtopic i want to ask you this:
Why would someone with a decent computer (considering he wants Dx10) would still use xp after 7 years from it's release when Windows 7 is just around the corner (yes i admit Vista kinda sucks) and will be what Vista should have been. Sure it eats more RAM, but let's face it... systems are built with a minimum of 2GB nowadays and 4GB systems are really common. As i discussed this in an earlier post, whats the point of having loads of memory if it's gonna be unused (as in xp). Vista at least occupies it with the most used programs which helps the starting time of those applications.

Back on topic, Windows XP DX10 is a myth and does NOT work as it should so i consider it BUSTED!

Oct 25, 2008

Bad Vista Tweaks

Well i was very skeptical about Vista in the past but it doesn't seem that bad after all. Anyway i must inform you that i made my own tweaked Vista dvd and installed from there (all ram hungry and yseless services were removed, as the annoying UAC, Firewall and Defender cause i am using third party anyways. Total size of the DVD is 1.2GB compared to 2.6GB of the original wich was full of useless drivers which we have to update to the latest versions from the manufacturers websites, so there was really no point in keeping them... or the support for chineese LOL.

Some Vista tweaks found all over the internet can do more harm than good. They won't kill your windows, blow up your dog or date with your wife(small chance though) but they may hurt performance. Some of them may have worked with older Windows versions, but are redundant now. Frankly speaking, the best "tweak" is to throw RAM at it ! Or else even one simple thing like 'reducing start ups' will make a lot of difference in performance !

Always Unload DLL (Disable DLL Caching) to free up memory and improve performance. Using this tweak on Windows 2000, XP or Vista has absolutely no effect. This registry key is no longer supported in all post-2000 Windows OS's.

Cleaning the Prefetch Folder. Every time you clean up the Prefetch folder, you delay application load times, the next time you launch them. Its only after the second time that you regain optimal application load times. Only one Prefetch file is created per application . Windows cleans this folder at 128 entries, down to the 32 most used Application's prefetcher files. In Vista this folder does not occupy more than around 50MB. Cleaning the Prefetcher can therefore be construed actually as a...a temporary self-inflicted un-optimization ! Now why would you want to do that ! The developers of the memory management system of Windows Vista have done a good job...no question about this one.

Disabling Certain Services. Don't take this advice to its extremes, for in fact this could actually cripple your system ! For instance Disabling the task Scheduler to improve performance actually prevents the Prefetcher and the Layout.ini file from forming or being updated ! Forcing, inter alia, longer application startup times. Never ever shutdown the System Restore Service...never know when it may save your day ! Disabling the DNS Client Service may decrease the the overall performance of the client computer, and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. This effectively reduces Internet Performance for sites you have previously visited and puts an unnecessary load on your ISP's DNS server.
Simply use a safe Program like Tune-Up Utilities. Shutting down services indiscriminately is a sure shot prescription for trouble !

Page (Swap) File Tweaks. "Create a Fixed Size Page File to improve performance" : This was relevant in the earlier days of Windows; Definitely irrelevant for Vista ! "Eliminate your Page File completely, if you have a large amount of memory installed" : There are simply NO published benchmarks establishing any performance gains from doing so ! And in any case Windows wasn’t designed to run without a page file.

The ReadyBoost Tweak. Several ways being suggested on the net as to how to make ur USB compatible with some hacks/tweaks. Here is one for example :
1. Plug the device and open the device properties : Start > My Computer > Right click Device > Properties > Readyboost Tab
2. Select, “Stop retesting this device when I plug it in.” Remove the device.
3. Open Regedit : Start > Type regedit in the search bar
4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft /
Windows-NT / CurrentVersion / EMDgmt
Change the Device Status to 2, ReadSpeedKBs to 1000, WriteSpeedKBs to 1000.
5. Re-Plug the device. Readyboost should work.
But using such methods only fools Vista into thinking that such USB drive are compatible. Expect no performance gains in such cases !

"How to turn the PC 'on' in 10 seconds" ! Modifying the regkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ ContentIndex some claim makes your PC start in 10 secs ! Changing the default value of its '"Startup Delay/Decimal" from 4800000 to 40000 makes this happen; are the claims.
This has nothing to do with the time it takes for windows to load, only the duration that the welcome screen shows up. And its is my opinion that this is best left at its default value, as a certain delay in startup is required so that necessary programs & services can be fired up properly.


Here is a link to a reliable service configuration site "BlackViper" and the top 9 tweaks for a better Vista experience

Oct 24, 2008

Cars and more cars...

Really had to "clean" my eyes after the last "beauty thingy" and i thought why not share it with you guys... and girls perhaps(small chance of that ever happening on here)



Crazy Arab's Drifting (OMFG)



What happens when you don't see snow & ice too often... CRASHTIME!


First of all... for the majority who's thinking WTF is a Dacia, well... it has 4 wheels and wants to look/feel/be a car... kinda... u can get more info about it HERE. (if ur interested in not interesting stuff)

And this is the "one of a kind" Special Dacia Tuning Edition (the Mona Lisa of all tunings i ever seen), i'll keep the nasty comments to myself because after seeing that "thing" I'm in a temporary blindness state (which is a good thing considering i won't see that "car" again).



PS: can anyone tell me what that round thing on the hood want's to be???


Hmmm compare that to the world's #2 ugliest car ever made (link to article) which is the Fiat Multipla and you realise that our's is the CLEAR WINNER! Go go go Bucharest! I knew we could beat the crap out of them... oh wait... oooops that's a bad thing :|

First of all i would like to say I've been using Linux (Ubuntu more specific) since March 2006 and have been really impressed by it. Some of the major "problems" an everyday user has in switching operating systems is the "fear" of new things and not knowing how they work (or just getting used to specific ones and not really interested trying something diff if it can do the same thing).

Wine is a software application which allows programs specially built for Microsoft Windows to run on Linux/Unix distributions. This is a project which started 15 years ago and on the 19th of June 2008 reached it's first "stable" version 1.0 (3 days ago Wine 1.1.0 was released including more bugfixes and improvements). Many windows applications and games have been working for quite a while with Wine but since Ubuntu 8.04 and Wine 1.0 were launched, they brought gaming to a new level. Too check the compatibility of Wine with any application you can take a quick look here Wine Application Database

To mention just a few Top Used applications that run almost as Windows versions (maybe a bit slower):

  • Photoshop CS2
  • Office 2003 (although that OpenOffice comes preinstalled with Ubuntu and it has the same functionality as Office2003/2007 maybe even more nice tweaks)
  • 3Dmark
  • Autocad (not the 2008 version)
As for games go (cause we are talking about the future of gaming with Wine) many games showed us that gaming IS possible:
  • World of Warcraft
  • EVE Online
  • Guild Wars
  • GTA: San Andreas
  • Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
  • Supreme Commander
  • Counter-Strike: Source
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (a few graphic bugs)
  • Half-Life 2
  • Silkroad Online
  • Team Fortress 2
  • Battlefield 2
  • S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Shadow of Chernobyl
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
  • Broken Sword
  • Quake 4
  • Unreal Tournament 3
  • etc etc
In terms of performance applications don't suffer from any noticeable loss bur there might be a 10-20% performance drop in linux gaming (because of the "emulation" (although virtualization might be a better term for it) but on today's constantly improving hardware you won't even notice it cause it will still be playable at over 30FPS.

Sidenote: some games have been reported as working better on Linux than Windows, these include:
  • WoW (any version)
  • SecondLife
  • Quake (any version)
  • Unreal Tournament (any version)
You should try downloading Ubuntu and install it in Windows... yes u heard me right "INSIDE WINDOWS" using the integrated Wubi installer. Just burn or mount your Ubuntu 8.04 cd/dvd and press install. When your computer boots you will have a menu where you can choose between Ubuntu or Windows. And if u don't like it, simply go into Windows, Add-Remove and uninstall it... it's THAT SIMPLE!

You might wanna take a look (or even download it) from the official UBUNTU page.

Sidenote: Linux is no longer that "geek's only" territory. It's a user-friendly operating system waiting to show-off its functions and looks, because you may be using Vista right now and think "hey my vista is looking very damn nice, Ubuntu can't look any way better than my Aero look"... well i have some news for you... just look at this little video: Windows Vista vs Ubuntu + Beryl (i bet you will change your mind) hehehehe...

Jun 15, 2008

Pictures

Computer case tweaks/mods