Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 11th Jan 2008 11:57 UTC, submitted by anonymous
"Earlier this week Apple released updated Mac Pros that use Intel's new Penryn processors. Also new is the fact that the standard Mac Pro configuration now comes with eight (instead of four) cores. Of course, what I've been wondering (as I sit here and think about getting a new Mac Pro) is how does the new standard eight-core Mac Pro perform compared to the old high-end Mac Pro? I've gathered Geekbench 2 results for both Mac Pros to find out."
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RE[4]: Back to basic first
by B. Janssen on Fri 11th Jan 2008 20:40
in reply to "RE[3]: Back to basic first"
Member since:2006-10-11
That is an interesting perspective you put this into, but I'd say it still is bigger than zero, which is what you get when you shut off your computer.
This is also true for all the other millions of electric devices people keep running on stand-by for no other reason as to be able to switch it on without getting out of the armchair. Which might add another perspective to your's.
RE[5]: Back to basic first
by Joe User on Fri 11th Jan 2008 22:35
in reply to "RE[4]: Back to basic first"
Member since:2005-06-29
I actually have "normal" switches that don't leave devices in stand-by for other appliances in my house. I'm conscious about energy savings and this is more important than laziness not wanting to move one's ass to unplug the TV after watching television. Same for the radio, the modem, etc...
RE[5]: Back to basic first
by rayiner on Sat 12th Jan 2008 01:18
in reply to "RE[4]: Back to basic first"
Member since:2005-07-06
Who cares if it's not precise zero? It's close enough to zero that it has no measurable impact on the environment.
"Every little bit counts" is a mantra that might make people feel good, but it's not one that is sound from an engineering point of view. If something you do to save energy has no measurable impact, it doesn't matter, and no, the thought doesn't count.
Another bit of perspective for you. You use as much energy in the couple of minutes you wait for your laptop to boot as it takes to keep it in sleep mode for a couple of hours. If you factor in the high energy usage of bootup/shutdown sequences (thanks to hitting the disk so hard), you might not even come out ahead!
Edited 2008-01-12 01:32 UTC
RE[4]: Back to basic first
by Joe User on Fri 11th Jan 2008 22:32
in reply to "RE[3]: Back to basic first"
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Sleep mode is nowhere near 10W. Your average laptop battery is only about 55W-HR, and a laptop will easily last a day or two in sleep-mode with a full-charge. That puts the sleep-mode power draw at 1-2W.
To put that into perspective, a single gallon of gasoline has about 36,600W-HR of energy, enough to power a laptop in sleep mode for two to four years.
To put it still further into perspective, powering all the laptops sold worldwide in a year in sleep mode for a year will use about 25 million gallons of gasoline. This sounds like a lot, but the US alone uses that much gasoline in only 90 minutes...
The power savings from shutting down computers is so phenomenally miniscule it's barely worth even posting about.
Edited 2008-01-11 19:44 UTC