Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: bloom25 on May 04, 2002, 09:50:57 PM
-
I've been trying to think of something to write that would be interesting, but I can't think of anything. Is there anything you guys would like me to write about?
-
How 'bout the mating habits of the platipus?
-
Ok, but unfortunately I'm unfamiliar with the anatomy of the platapus, so can you tell me whether we're dealing with a "hardware" or a "software" issue here. ;)
I just thought of something I might try: Definitions and brief explainations of acronymns and other technical words used in the computer industry. This could be kind of like a dictionary of terms and what they mean.
For example: Earlier today I mentioned SPDIF interface in regards to a sound card, but I doubt everyone here knows what I mean by that.
SPDIF (Sony Phillips Digital Interface): This a method of encoding digital audio data and transmitting it over a cable. It's used in high end audio equipment to transfer digital audio signals between audio devices, rather than having to convert the digital signal back to an analog signal for transmission. This method avoids loss of sound quality by reducing the number of digital to analog conversions and making the transfer of signals from one audio device to another immune to noise. Many high end soundcards and some Dolby Digital (AC3) home receivers have SPDIF inferfaces.
- Related Terms: Toslink (Toshiba Optical Sound Link) Method for sending digital stereo audio signals over a fiber optic cable. Uses the same protocol as SPDIF.
-
Yes... have you ever seen a "precarious".. I think its a prehistoric bird or something..... I've heard the expression "precarious perch" but I've never seen a Precarious before....... your thoughts?
-
bloom, you should make a thread about what you predict for the PC industry in regard to cpu, motherboard, memory, video advancements; how you see all this in about 5 years, based on the experience you learned from five years ago to this date.
-
Bloom25,
With the porn rule that most companies have, you might want to explain to the masses where the copies of the picture they just downloaded gets stored on the drive(s) of their hard disk(usually to be brought up at a later date with the manager of HR...:-)) Lately, I have seen some really good people fall prey to HR porn rulings, and get fired for some picture(not hard porn), that they never thought would still be on their hard disk, after they said they deleted it, and cleared their recycle bin. I would like to pass this information to the people who work for me, as I need them for the technical job they were hired for, and not to fall prey to the HR asses. Most companies use Novell.
Thanks,
Thorns
-
Originally posted by Thorns
Most companies use Novell.
Bzzzt. Thanks for playing. Most companies do not use Novell. Sure, there are still quite a few Nov-Hell shops around, but certainly not "most". It also varies greatly based on where you live, but generally Microsoft won that battle long ago.
-
Bloom, how about a comparison of the various hardware review websites, like tomshardware.com and sharkeyextreme.com, etc..?
It would help a lot of people find the best places to learn more about many different topics.
-
Bloom.. give this a read and comment on it:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/apr02/mlaw.html
You won't regret you took the time.
AKDejaVu
-
how about a discussion on the damn plastic tabs used to hold heatsinks on socket A boards and how easily they break! grrrrr....
can ya tell i just broke one...
can they be fixed?
SKurj
-
Platypus Mating Habits (http://rainforest-australia.com/Platypus%20Life&Death.htm)
Just trying to be helpful. ;)
-
I remember reading that article some time ago DejaVu. One thing he touches on in the article is certainly true, and that is the time necessary to create an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) has dropped dramatically. He didn't go into a lot of detail on that, but it's common practice to have a number of predesigned cells available to a circuit designer. All he/she has to do is lay down the cells on the wafer and interconnect them. This greatly reduces the total amount of designing time spent creating certain types of ICs. I don't, however, see this design approach totally taking over the CPU market, especially the high end markets. Although design time is greatly reduced, when performance is of top priority this is not the best approach.
My personal opinion is that processor designs may become more application specific in nature, yet overall being very similar in design. You are already seeing this with the advent of the high end sound and video processors (GeForce, SB Audigy, etc) built onto boards which handle one very specific job, rather than forcing the main CPU to do all the work. Internally they often have many components common to the main CPU, but they are optimized for a specific task.
Recently I was talking with someone at HP about some experiments they are doing at the extreme end of this type of approach. Basically they are working on using very large numbers of structurally similar processors which each handle a small portion of a task. What was really interesting was how they communicated with each other and decided which processor would do what, but I don't know if I can share that openly. It's probably not a secret, but I'm not sure.
_____________________________ _____________________
SKurj, to be honest I've never broken the tabs on a CPU socket myself, but trust me when I say that you are not alone. This has been a problem that goes back far beyond the introduction of Socket A. Fortunately though, it looks like Intel and AMD are both switching to different retention mechanisms for their new CPUs. I'm not really sure if you can repair it, but I believe there are some socket A heatsinks that use those 4 holes around the CPU socket and screws to hold the heatsink on. At one time I knew that someone was making a heatsink of this type, but it's been quite a while ago. If you can find one you might be able to use the "broken" board again.
_____________________________ _____________________
As for review sites, I don't really have a favorite. I often read http://www.anandtech.com and find the information there generally balanced and technically correct when they discuss the issues I'm familiar with. http://www.tomshardware.com is another large review site, but unfortunately the quality and balance of their articles seems to vary depending on the author. To be honest, I haven't looked at much on sharkeyextreme in a long time. That's not to say that there's something wrong with it, I just don't have the time. http://www.arstechnica.com is another site I can think of that writes infrequent articles, but usually the reviews are very technical and through examinations of the topic.
_____________________________ _____________________
I might give your idea a shot Animal, if only to laugh at myself in 5 years.
-
well Bloom... i notice there are 6 tabs total, perhaps if i get creative with some tools i can modify a HS to use the 4 outer tabs instead of the two center ones... +)
glad to hear they are changin...
SKurj
-
SKurj, there is at least one mfg that makes a socket A heatsink that uses the 4 outer tabs. Have a look here...
Four tab heatsink (http://www.globalwinusa.com/products/sak38.html)
-
Bloom
Funny ya mention the SPDIF thing, where the heck to ya get those cables? Dude I built a system for recently WANTS HIS SPDIF lol. Thing is, I "see" perfectly well how to hook it up. I'm also aware that the only "digital" he will get will be coming from the DVD (I don't think he fully understands that part). I haven't looked yet but the two places I have do not carry those cables and don't know where to look. Any ideas?
Tumor
-
ahh kewl HF, i use globalwin now anyways. I'll see if the local distributor has one
SKurj
-
Originally posted by Thorns
Bloom25,
With the porn rule that most companies have, you might want to explain to the masses where the copies of the picture they just downloaded gets stored on the drive(s) of their hard disk(usually to be brought up at a later date with the manager of HR...:-)) Lately, I have seen some really good people fall prey to HR porn rulings, and get fired for some picture(not hard porn), that they never thought would still be on their hard disk, after they said they deleted it, and cleared their recycle bin. I would like to pass this information to the people who work for me, as I need them for the technical job they were hired for, and not to fall prey to the HR asses. Most companies use Novell.
Thanks,
Thorns
Add the lines below to your autoexec.bat file and save it, everytime you reboot all cookies, history, temporary internet files, and leftover install files in the Windows temp folder will be deleted.
The cookies, history, and temporary internet folders will be rebuilt by Windows automatically during the boot process as they are system folders required for Windows to operate, the temp folder will be rebuilt by the autoexec.bat file.
By clearing these files at every boot the Windows Explorer shell will be much more stable and Internet Exploder will be faster and more stable as well.
Anytime the I.E. cache <.dat file>grows beyond 512 kb it slows down your OS and causes BSOD's.
It can also reduce disk fragmentation a great deal if you move the folders mentioned to the outer edge of your hard disk using a utility like Norton speed disk.
To avoid slower boot times make sure you configure I.E. to dispose of temporary internet files when you close the browser, otherwise it can take awhile to clear the files at start up.
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Cookies
@DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Tempor~1
@DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\History
@DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Temp
@MD C:\WINDOWS\Temp
How about an article on alternative Windoze Explorer shells Bloom?
;)
-
Thanks Weazel! :)
Thorns
-
question for you bloom, i live in a small rural town and would like to know what options are or will be available for a high speed internet connection. i dont think dsl or cable will be available anytime soon, i have searched around but cant find any solid answers. i have heard of a possible "radio connection" but i dont know what that might be or if that even exists. any tid bits would be much appreciated.:)
-
I go along with Slash27 on this, I'm currently waiting for a "Site Survey" at home to make sure I can have a Wirless DSL connection installed. The installation costs are a bit higher than traditional wire based ADSL and although I have had excellent and informative replies to a post on another Forum an "indepth" unbiased evaluation would help me out no end in convincing my better half that I can justify the initial outlay.
Also as more and more companies wise up to the cost effectivness of not having to dig up the roads etc to provide high speed access this can (Should) only get bigger in the future.
TTFN
snafu
-
Originally posted by weazel
Add the lines below to your autoexec.bat file and save it, everytime you reboot all cookies, history, temporary internet files, and leftover install files in the Windows temp folder will be deleted.
The cookies, history, and temporary internet folders will be rebuilt by Windows automatically during the boot process as they are system folders required for Windows to operate, the temp folder will be rebuilt by the autoexec.bat file.
By clearing these files at every boot the Windows Explorer shell will be much more stable and Internet Exploder will be faster and more stable as well.
Anytime the I.E. cache <.dat file>grows beyond 512 kb it slows down your OS and causes BSOD's.
It can also reduce disk fragmentation a great deal if you move the folders mentioned to the outer edge of your hard disk using a utility like Norton speed disk.
To avoid slower boot times make sure you configure I.E. to dispose of temporary internet files when you close the browser, otherwise it can take awhile to clear the files at start up.
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Cookies
@DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Tempor~1
@DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\History
@DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Temp
@MD C:\WINDOWS\Temp
How about an article on alternative Windoze Explorer shells Bloom?
;)
How about for Windows 2000 and XP?
Also, whats the MSCONFIG equivalent for 2000 Pro?
-
How/where do you find autoexec.bat?