Re: [Discuss] [OT] iOS from a power user's perspective
From: Rich Pieri Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 11:55 AM To: discuss@blu.org Subject: Re: [Discuss] [OT] iOS from a power user's perspective I would bet that it is far more probable that 5 years from now tablets will have Kinect-like hardware built-in, than Microsoft will still be making Surface tablets. I don't foresee it. It'll be nice if it happens but I'm not holding my breath about it. Worth a look: an up coming gesture recognition device: https://leapmotion.com/ quote The original inspiration behind Leap Motion came from our frustration with 3D modeling. Molding clay took 10 seconds in real life but 30 minutes with a computer. The mouse and keyboard were simply getting in the way. Since available technology couldn't solve our problems, we created the Leap Motion controller. ... But with the Leap Motion controller, 3D gesture control has finally made out of the lab and into real life. Typing? Seriously? That's fine for writing a novel. But it's hardly the most natural, intuitive way to communicate. The ability to control any application with nuanced hand and finger movements is already transforming the way we interact with computers. And we're just getting started. /quote I can see how the hardware can be easily integrated into a tablet - it mostly requires multiple (same-side facing) cameras, which are getting cheaper and smaller by the day and the processing horsepower needed for this is already there. -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Computer donations
Hi Stephen, Is there an age limit to how old machines you accept? I have some older machines that work but are quite slow. Also, any use for older printers and CRT monitors? Thanks, -Nilanjan Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:48:33 -0400 From: sro...@panix.com To: guy1g...@gmail.com CC: discuss@blu.org Subject: Re: [Discuss] Computer donations I assist several programs that make refurbished computers available to needy families living in Boston area housing developments. e.g., the Whittier Tenants Association and the Castle Square Tenants Association. We'd gladly accept computers of that nature, and we have never asked for subsequent fiscal support though in a small number of instances we check back to see if more computers have become available where that seems welcome. We accept computers with or without operating systems. - Stephen Ronan On Tue, 31 Jul 2012, Guy Gold wrote: Greetings BLU members. Does anyone have experience with Computer donations in the Boston/Greater Boston area ? We have some model year 2006-2007 systems (Pentium-D / Border of Core2Duo era ) , that, may be available for donation, the matter still needs to pass some ranks of approval, but I want to check before I even offer . 1. Will such systems be of use ? ( or charities may say that they're 'too-old' ) 2 . I was told , by a well-knowing source, that donating computers, may mean that - you will be asked to support them later on, and if so, you must grant support - , that will be a deal breaker if cannot be avoided. 3. Any experience you can post back will be welcome. Thank you. -- Guy Gold ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Mentor Graphics
Hi Drew, I can get you a contact - give me a few hours (or maybe till tomorrow) if you can wait until then. -Nilanjan From: drew.vanza...@gmail.com Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2012 12:02:08 -0400 To: discuss@blu.org Subject: [Discuss] Mentor Graphics Does anyone on the list work for Mentor Graphics, or have a contact who does? I'm interested in teaching a real PCB design tool at the Artisan's Asylum. * Drew Van Zandt Artisan's Asylum Craft Lead, Electronics Robotics Cam # US2010035593 (M:Liam Hopkins R: Bastian Rotgeld) Domain Coordinator, MA-003-D. Masquerade aVST * ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[Discuss] Electronics Recycling Event - Hudson, MA - April 20,21
Electronics Recycling Event April 20-21, Stop Shop Plaza The PC/TV Electronics Recycling Event is coming up in a just a few weeks on April 20th and 21st. Collection times are:* 12:00 – 6:00pm on Friday and* 8:00am – 2:00pm on Saturday. As in past years, it will take place at the Center at Hudson (Stop Shop Plaza) at the intersection of Route 85 and Technology Drive. It is sponsored by Intel Massachusetts. Accepted items include: computer monitors, fax machines, CPUs, DVD players or VCRs, cameras, telephones, and stereo equipment. Large home appliances cannot be accepted nor any items with liquid or gas. A donation of $10 for individuals and $20 for business will be requested. All funds raised will go to the United Way. -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] My God! It's Full of Batteries!
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:57:51 -0400 From: richard.pi...@gmail.com To: discuss@blu.org Subject: Re: [Discuss] My God! It's Full of Batteries! On 3/16/2012 3:48 PM, Shirley Márquez Dúlcey wrote: Faster processor, Retina Display, LTE. What I wonder is how they squeezed in so much more battery without making the thing significantly heavier. The new display panel is slimmer than the previous generation's display panel. Chips with more features or faster frequencies don't weigh more :-) ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] AMD FX-8120 update
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 09:16:24 -0500 From: bogs...@pobox.com To: discuss@blu.org Subject: Re: [Discuss] AMD FX-8120 update On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 8:44 AM, Chuck Anderson c...@wpi.edu wrote: On Tue, Mar 06, 2012 at 04:27:07AM -0500, Shirley Márquez Dúlcey wrote: The fact that the correct strategy for maximum performance may be different from the best power management strategy is likely to require new OS capabilities (changing the scheduling strategy based on power management settings). If I have four things running on a desktop system I'd likely prefer to spread them among all four modules for maximum speed, but on a laptop I might prefer to put them on only two modules and take the performance hit to get the power reduction of shutting off the other two modules. I'm not so sure you would gain anything by shutting off modules. It was found with CPU frequency governors that slowing down a processor actually used MORE power, because it took longer to complete running tasks. It is better to have the CPU always run as fast as it can while there are running tasks, and then halt the processor when it is truley idle. Depends on the kind of task. Some tasks have time limits (viewing a video) rather then fixed computational goals. That is not a good example. Video or audio is processed by a separate dedicated engine. It has a fixed compute and power profile, does not use any significant CPU (core) resources and the OS typically cannot do much else to reduce the power consumption. In fact, that is why both Apple and Microsoft (for Win8) have explicit power specs for audio and video that hardware vendors have to meet. These have nothing to do with the main CPU's power/performance profile or capabilities. In general, Chuck's assertion is correct: it's better to execute fast and go to sleep quicker than to slog along slowly -- the latter takes much more power. Why? Because the CPU's power consumption is, these days, only a small fraction of the overall system power. Things like system buses, the IO buffers on the chips, voltage regulators, PLLs, DLLs, etc. consume a lot of static power and is independent of how fast the CPU is running. So the quicker you can shut these down, the better off you are in terms of saving power. -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] AMD FX-8120 update
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 10:15:35 -0500 From: bogs...@pobox.com To: discuss@blu.org Subject: Re: [Discuss] AMD FX-8120 update On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 9:55 AM, Nilanjan Palit tollyg...@hotmail.com wrote: Depends on the kind of task. Some tasks have time limits (viewing a video) rather then fixed computational goals. That is not a good example. Video or audio is processed by a separate dedicated engine. It has a fixed compute and power profile, does not use any significant CPU (core) resources and the OS typically cannot do much else to reduce the power consumption. In fact, that is why both Apple and Microsoft (for Win8) have explicit power specs for audio and video that hardware vendors have to meet. These have nothing to do with the main CPU's power/performance profile or capabilities. Depends on how your app is implemented (and whether the codecs to use the graphics engine are available for your OS of choice (Linux)). The assumption was obviously an optimized app that takes advantage of the h/w capabilities. If you are using an unoptimized app (e.g., using unsupported codecs), then your expectation of optimized power or performance is not realistic! Actually, on second thoughts, even for a software codec, you'd be better off bringing all the horsepower to bear on a highly parallelizable task like video encode/decode and getting the job done faster, sending it to the video rendering engine and putting the CPU to sleep. Remember, that we are talking here about sleep cycles that are on CPU timescales (every 1-50us) which are much different than the human timescales required for video (30-60 fps). So there are potential gains to be had probably even in such scenarios as well. Even if the heavy lifting is being done by the graphics engine, the main CPU is still going to have to feed it data periodically either from the disk or the network. Yes, that is why I used the words does not use any significant CPU (core) resources (not zero). Periodic DMA doesn't consume that much power and that is built into the power targets/specs set by Apple Microsoft. In fact, DMA is one of the reasons to execute fast and go to sleep. DRAM IO buffers are very power hungry and it's better to get large chunks of data, shut off the DRAM ( CPU) IO buffers and put the DRAM into self-refresh mode. You don't really want the go-for-a-stroll approach when you have DRAM accesses involved in the scene. In general, Chuck's assertion is correct: it's better to execute fast and go to sleep quicker than to slog along slowly -- the latter takes much more power. Why? Because the CPU's power consumption is, these days, only a small fraction of the overall system power. Things like system buses, the IO buffers on the chips, voltage regulators, PLLs, DLLs, etc. consume a lot of static power and is independent of how fast the CPU is running. So the quicker you can shut these down, the better off you are in terms of saving power. ie. Is very dependent on how low a power state you can bring a system too vs. what are essentially continuous (albeit often very limited) computational needs. His statement is only ALWAYS true, I did not use the words ALWAYS true -- I used the words In general. There are always corner cases, which I did not want to go into for lack of time/space.if what you have is essentially a batch job. If either its entire input or its entire output is wall clock constrained then it gets messier. I'm aware that studies of particular hardware/software have shown that run fast and stop is better then run slow. But this isn't like algorithms analysis where you can say that something is always true. I don't understand what you are trying to say here. What is a batch job?Can you give examples of other tasks that are wall-clock constrained besides multimedia (video, music, VoIP, Skype, ...)? -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[Discuss] Mass. libraries switching to FOSS
Came across this article: http://www.thedailyshrewsbury.com/news/cw-mars-library-software-upgrade-pushed-feb From the article: The new software, known as Evergreen, is an open-source library system first adopted by the Georgia Public Library System. It is currently being used by approximately 800 libraries. C/W Mars is making the switch to avoid paying to update proprietary software, and also to improve user experience, according to Northborough Public Library Director Jean Langley. BTW, 'C/W' stands for Central/Western Mass libraries, which is quite a large network spanning communities in several Mass. counties. It's really encouraging to see that local public governments and services see the benefit and opportunities in FOSS since it frees up funds for other items that are more valuable to the end-user. And also good to see that the federal government sees FOSS benefits as well, since this initiative is funded thanks to a $412,000 federal grant, of which a large part was meant for software development. Two other library networks—the North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE) and the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium (MVLC) - also received grant money for similar upgrades. MVLC made the switch in May 2011, while NOBLE is expected to change sometime around Memorial Day this year. -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Code for America
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/code-for-america-an-elegant-solution-for-government-it-problems/2011/12/16/gIQAXrIu2O_story.html This is a good story? This is a bad story? You agree with this? You don't agree? This story is worth us spending time to read, but not you to comment on? I thought the title would have been enough to entice folks to read, but I agree that some editorial comment to accompany the link would enhance the message. This project sounds like a great way to bring together technologists who want to give back to the community and the public sector's never ending need for IT development/growth/support at a cost that is attractive to the cash-strapped municipalities of today. Quoting from the article: Code for America is the technology world’s equivalent of the Peace Corps or Teach for America. The premise is simple and elegant. Code for America, a nonprofit group ... offers an alternative to the old, broken path of government IT. Young technophiles from Google and Microsoft apply to spend a year of their time working on problems they discover as on-site fellows in cities across the country. They bring fresh blood to the solution process, deliver agile coding and software development skills, and frequently offer new perspectives on the latest technology — something that is often sorely lacking from municipal government IT programs. However, the real kicker, and part of my main motivation for posting on this list: The code for all projects is open source and made available to any city or government entity. This means state and local governments gain a growing repository of well-written, modern code that, in many cases, will directly address specific programmatic needs common to governments providing services to the public. This is already proving to be a great way to solve problems quickly and at minimal cost. 2 of the main examples in the article are on Boston and how 6000 miles away Honolulu took advantage of the FOSS code reused it to better its own public service. -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[Discuss] Code for America
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/code-for-america-an-elegant-solution-for-government-it-problems/2011/12/16/gIQAXrIu2O_story.html ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[Discuss] Recommendations for wireless N adapters?
I'm in the process of building a new Windows box and need an adapter for WiFi-n. I started with looking for PCIe x1 cards but have now extended the search to external USB adapters as well due to the slim pickings for decent cards especially for 5GHz. I have shortlisted the following: * Linksys Wireless-N PCI Adapter With Dual-Band WMP600N + http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-Wireless-N-Adapter-Dual-Band-WMP600N/dp/B0028N6VN2 * Asus Black Diamond Dual Band (2.4GHz 300Mbps/5GHz 300Mbps) Wireless-N USB Adapter + http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Wireless-N-Graphical-Interface-USB-N53/dp/B005SAKW9G I'd appreciate any comments on these or any other good WiFi-n adapters that folks have used. I'm planning on putting this PC in a place where the signal strength from my router is rather weak, so strong ( reliable) reception is critical. Thanks, -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
