n#

Guess what time this photo was taken.

See if you can guess exactly what time of the day this photo was taken.. Then scroll down a bit for the answer.. (You can click the photo for a bigger version on Flickr)

Doesnt really look like dawn…

Or afternoon..

Or evening..

..and those bright dots…

….yes.. they are stars…

…You are correct!, the photo was taken at night. Sometime between 11 PM and Midnight..
The light is from the moon and a street lamp.

1 comment March 20th, 2007

Classic PC fun: Reviving a Pentium 4 3.06

The photo has notes - please click to view them.

Just how much performance can be extracted from a used PC? Especially one with relatively humble specs like this (Pentium 4 3.06GHZ HT). You may be surprised:

Original specifications
Pentium 4 3.06 HT
512MB DDR333
Nvidia geforce 440MX
80GB+40GB hdd

Existing problems:
CPU ran somewhat warm (anything from 45 degrees upwards idle)

Physical cleanup

1. Disassembled the PC to component level, and cleaned every single piece. This involved some amount of sneezing but it was an interesting process. Thankfully the PC had an easy slide out tray for the motherboard.
2. Removed the CPU and cleaned it, also took apart the heatsink/fan assembly and cleaned/polished it.
3. Reseated the CPU using arctic silver. (CPU now idles at around 38 degrees celcius!)

Upgrades/mods:

1. Tweaked the BIOS, and optimized memory timings, so as to get the best performance out of the system.
2. Switched to a SATA 250GB drive.
3. Fully redid the cooling system - so as to circulate air more efficiently within the case.
4. Added a fan for one of the board heatsinks (possibly the onboard GPU), and a passive heatsink to another chip (possibly the SATA controller?)
5. Switched to the onboard graphics, (to reduce power usage, also the onboard graphics support directx 9).
6. Added an external PCI sound card as the internal one is a bit resource heavy.
7. Added a separate fan for the hard disk. Hard disk now reads an operating temperature of around 36 degrees celcius!)

Possible concerns

1. Due to long term use under extreme heat conditions, and manufacturer flaws, a number of capacitors have started to leak from the top. This leads to capacitor failure and system instability/failure.
2. System uses DDR333 ram. To enable dual channel operation I should at least match the speed of the chip. Unfortunately nobody seems to carry DDR 333 any more. Hopefully I will be able to find a 512MB DDR333 or DDR400 chip which will work.

Final performance benchmarks
(as compared to a dual core pentium D)

Windows XP professional: boot in 14.7 seconds.

Conclusion
Hyperthreading is a viable technology - as the benchmarks show, it gives the dual core PC a serious run for its money!

Todo: Get more ram and enable dual channel.

Add comment March 14th, 2007

Assembling a Vista Premium capable PC

I set out to build this PC in Dec 2006, primarily for the purpose of testing out Windows Vista. I wanted a PC that was suitable light work, some surfing, occational videos, etc. As such the specs were fairly modest, also the PC was reasonably inexpensive (under 100K, including monitor).

Target configuration:
Vista premium capable
Dual core processor
Dual channel ram, at least 1GB ram
decent 17inch monitor
DVD writer.
Complete black system (I’ve always wanted to assemble one of these!)

Motherboard
I needed a motherboard with support for dual core processors and dual channel ram, also reliability and staibility.

After considering many different motherboards. I finally chose a Gigabyte 8i945gzme-RH, as it was affordable (around 10k from IT LAND, Unity Plaza), had an Intel chipset, and supported Intel dual core processors (Pentium D and Core 2 Duo).

Processor
I chose an Intel 820D (Stepping B0, SL8CP) (2.8GHz X 2) as it was cheaper (around 12k from ITLAND) than a Core2 which retailed for over 20k then (I decided to use the money saved to get a better monitor).

Ram
I chose Kingston ValueRam. As I wanted to enable dual channel ram, the ram had to consist of identical parts from the same manufacturer. I used 2 512MB Kingston DDR2 ram modules (KVR533D2N4/512 total cost 13,500/- One from IT Land, and the second from Mitech computers, Unity plaza, as IT Land only had one on stock).

Hard disk
Since all modern motherboards include SATA and IDE support is mostly for legacy drives, I chose a Hitachi SATA 250GB HDD - cost exactly 9k, from Mitech computers (Unity plaza)

Case
Generic case with a 450Watt power supply (400W+ power supply recommended for dual core PC’s). I chose a case with a fresh air intake for the CPU. Case cost under 3K, from Asian Computer Systems (Unity Plaza)

Monitor
I chose a Viewsonic VA702, (24,500 , Asian Computer Systems, Unity Plaza)

Graphics
I rarely play computer games, so the onboard graphics were OK. Thankfully the motherboard has a PCI Express slot available, should I decide to upgrade at a future date.

DVD
I used a spare NEC 8X DVD writer I had.

Performance
Performance under both Vista and XP was absolutely stellar. Using dual channel ram and SATA HDD (Originally I used an ATA133 HDD) had measurable benefits.

Conclution
So thats my spec for a decent general purpose Vista premium capable PC, taking into account Sri Lankan prices and availability (As of Dec 06).

Update: Am looking to upgrade, so this PC is for sale. If you are interested in purchasing the PC alone or PC + Monitor, contact me at nsharp [at] nsharp.org. I’ve owned this PC for the last 3 months but havent really used it much except to install and test Vista (and it includes a 3 year warranty).

6 comments March 6th, 2007

CrispyBlogPosts Beta now public

Crispy blog posts is now in public beta.
See here: http://crispyblogposts.com/

So, what is CPB? It’s a social bookmarking site for blog posts, with voting, categories (called channels) and other cool features.

CBP is designed to allow you to submit blog posts to various existing categories (or you can make new channels) and people can vote on those posts. Based on votes, posts will either go up or down.

So, CBP is something that combines the best of Digg and Technorati.

I think it would be nice if people could register and interact (forums/comments etc) but the ability to use the site anonymously is a great idea, sadly lacking in most social sites. (I like the idea of comments because good comments can enhance a link/point to alternate viewpoints etc)..

3 comments February 18th, 2007

Windows Vista Launch: Sri Lanka

Today afternoon, Vista was launched in Sri Lanka. The main event was a colorful PR blitz.

I missed the opening ceremony, and stuck around a few minutes only (most of it was stuff on Vista and how it would improve your business etc).

Vista Demo’s

There were a few of PC’s and laptops with Vista for people to try out. A rep from Microsoft called me over for a demo - overall he focused on features which casual/business users might like (Aero etc).

Swag

Just a t-shirt and a brochure on Vista. A smarter move would have been to include a discount voucher for purchasing Vista !

The brochure included some info on Vista and a note on the benefit of Genuine Windows (A not so subtle hint I guess).

Questions

I still don’t know how much Vista costs here (Sigh). Maybe that was in the presentation and I missed it.

Photos
More photos from the Vista launch in Sri Lanka

Add comment February 15th, 2007

Kottu Piped (2)

The pipe now works (mostly). Turns out the problem was with Kottu occationally not giving an RSS out. Have created a new feedburner for Kottu (could not use existing as it rewrites URL’s so can’t filter for duplicate URLs)

Pls try out the pipe here:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/Kg4RMoe72xG54nkEEpPZnA/
RSS version here:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/Kg4RMoe72xG54nkEEpPZnA/run?_render=rss

Note: Pipe is (supposed to) fetch kottu and zsri, remove duplicates, and sort newest to first.
Todo: Does achcharu have an rss out? Are there other aggregators I haven’t added?

3 comments February 14th, 2007

Kottu Piped

I’m experimenting with Yahoo pipes to create a mashup of Kottu and zsri.
You can see the result here:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/Kg4RMoe72xG54nkEEpPZnA/
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/Kg4RMoe72xG54nkEEpPZnA/run?_render=rss
(the second link is an RSS feed for your feed reader)

How the above example works:

1. Get feed from Kottu and zsri
2. Filter unique posts (drop duplicates)
3. Sort posts by date
4. Generate output list + RSS

Yahoo Pipes allows you to create mashups of sites and content in many interesting ways. Yahoo released this feature recently and I’m sure people will find many creative ways to remix content with it.

I will write a review of Yahoo Pipes as soon as I learn more how to use it, in the mean time please visit the above link and try it out!

3 comments February 13th, 2007

Car ads explained

Actually this post is in reply to a question on Autolanka… All photos via flickr

help! I’ve lost the original flickr links to most photos here so if you find one of your photos here let me know and I will link photo properly or remove it if you want! thanks

Used By Lady

Used By Engineer

Used By Doctor

TOPping condition

Owner Leaving

Immaculate Condition

[b]Company Used[/b]

Quick Sale!!

Used by Enthusiast!

Original Condition (Looks a bit like it used to, BEFORE the crash and rollover)
Engine is in excellent Condition (it can start)
Anniversary Edition (Has a special imported sticker)
BRAND NEW (It was, in 1983)
Many Extras (more than one cupholder)
Very Efficient (When going downhill, neutral)
Excellent interior (We washed all the dog poop off the seats)
Excellent exterior (rust has been painted over)
Fully Overhauled (I replaced air filter)
Recently Overhauled (I replaced air filter last year)
Used By Enthusiast (I always drive it at 7,500 rpm with tha beet [sic] silencer)
Luxury Seats (new seat covers)
Carefully Restored (After being rear ended by a semi, we used lots of filler and strips of metal to glue it together)
Used Carefully (Driven by senior citizen with Alzhimers, so clutch was never released fully, always kept at 50%)
Agent Maintained (Once, in 1987, it was taken to the agent for a quote)
Latest Security System (Guard dog in boot, remember to feed it)
Only 15,000 KM (After 4th odometer rollback)

Add comment February 11th, 2007

Optimizing your web site.

Why?
Aside from helping you survive the digg effect, optimizing your web site will:

1. Make it waste.. sorry.. use less bandwidth and space (so you save money on hosting costs)
2. Help users with slow connections (e.g. dial up users) view your web site.
3. Make the world a better place: an optimized site means: less wasted time, bandwidth, electricity, etc Just imagine, if every web site optimized its content, worldwidge bandwidth usage would drop significantly

But my web host gives me one TB of space and ten TB of bandwidth daily - why should I care about optimizing my website?

1. No, it probably doesnt. If you read the fine print you will see various conditions which make it impossible for you to actually use the promised bandwidth/space. Sure your site will chug along fine but if ever it becomes suddenly popular, it will collapse
2. Web hosting companies limit accounts by CPU usage:. Again, the TOS probably includes something like “Your site will be terminated if you use too much CPU resources” Too much CPU resources means whatever the hosting company wants it to mean. Unfortunately, most modern sites tend to be very resource heavy (compared to traditional plain HTML sites).

So, how can I optimize my web site?

1. Reduce the size of commonly accessed files: If you use a graphical header, that may count for 50% of the bandwidth used by page! To reduce the size, open this image in an image editor and save at a lower compression. You can find a list of most accessed files by examining your servers logs and sorting them on file accesses. Typically your sites theme (if you use a CMS) are the most heavily accessed files
2. Choose a good webhost: beware of companies that offer you unlimited space (or seemingly impossible amounts of bandwidth/space). Summary: If the host charges 19.95 a year for one TB of bandwith a month and 11TB of space, it’s probably a scam. also, research your web host before you sign up, and see what other people say about them (this is obvious, but some people still don’t so..) .
3. CACHE the site: if you use a CMS like Wordpress, every time the site loads, it is re-rendered - i.e. the CMS engine reloads every plugin, pulls content from the database, etc. This process is VERY server intensive, and the number one cause why blogs go down (note: this applies to blogs you host on your server - if you use a blog on a server like Blogger/Wordpress.com this probably doesnt make a difference/insn’t possible). To cache the output of wordpress, you can use WP-CACHE. This will store a prebuilt version of your site and serve it intelligently. As a bonus, it will speed up your sites dramatically (as the server just has to serve the page, instead of building it from scratch).
4. Use FLICKR for image storage: Set up a flickr account and use it to store any images. (note, do not store images you are using DIRECTLY, e.g. header/footer on flickr. It’s against the TOS). By image storage here I mean general images. Flickr is good as it allows different resolutions/etc and is an excellent and reliable image host.

General tips on improving your web site

1. Remove unnecessary crap: this includes 99% of widgets and just about anything which uses Java(e.g. shout boxes, music, and so on). This ALSO includes wordpress plugins you don’t really need
2. Ensure that your site functions in all browsers (Firefox users are typically famous for overlooking this - many of them believe that anyone who doesnt use Firefox doesnt matter. Well if you want to ensure that 50% of your visitors can’t see your site, fine)
3. Make sure that the text is legible. Many people use extremely tiny text/poor contrast layouts which are a strain on visitors with poor eyesight
4. Use paragraphs - and try to summarize your information.
5. Link directly If you want to quote a lot of content from another web site

2 comments February 9th, 2007

Windows Vista: FAQ and Buying guide.

On January 30th, Windows Vista was released to the general public.
Here’s a quick Vista FAQ from me:

Is Vista for you?
It depends. Given the right hardware (i.e. a Core 2 duo, 2GB ram and the latest graphics), Vista is fast. But then again, so is anything else. Also see my review of Vista here.

If you depend on Windows software, then maybe Vista is the way to go, from a future perspective - i.e. if you want to continue to run Windows software, expect most of this software to require Vista somewhere along the line.

So, if you are buying a new PC, and want a Microsoft OS, then maybe Vista is for you.

Otherwise, I recommend you consider options such as Ubuntu

How fast is Vista with current software?
THG has a good review with detailed benchmarks of most applications on Vista.

How cool is Vista?

Well, Vista can run with a new interface (Aero) which enables the desktop to function in 3d (many cool effects, vector icons etc). If you are into 3D desktops, you should also check out Beryl’s desktop here, which happens to be free - it works with many Linux distro’s)

Which Vista is for you?

Vista comes in many different versions. You can compare them here. I’d recommend the cheapest version you can find which includes Aero.

What’s the difference between OEM and Retail version?
Retail version:
FOR: Includues more support, has a nice shiny box, Can be transfered from PC to PC
AGAINST: Costs a lot more.

OEM version
FOR: Same thing without the shiny box, costs a lot less.
AGAINST: Lives and dies with your PC (Can’t transfer to another PC)
Note: You CAN do hardware upgrades to your PC though (except the motherboard though)

Which do you recommend?
I’d say go for home premium OEM: It includes Aero, and most of the stuff you need, and is a bargain at around $125 incl shipping Zipzoomfly have it a bit cheaper, but I prefer newegg.

Purchasing Vista

I suggest you import it direct from US. I recommend Newegg as I reglarly purchase from them, and they have never let me down. I do not recommend purchasing it locally from Microsoft or an agent. Vista has NOT been released locally, it will be released sometime in FEB according to Microsoft chief evangelist who I spoke to recently.

Add comment January 31st, 2007