Analog Tachometer PC Mod

greenape147 writes: "BurnOutPC has this review of a tachometer modification for your PC. The tachometer, made and sold by Xoxide, works via the serial port and displays the CPU utilization in RPM's! The classical look of this external tachometer is really nice to see after the "window phase" everyone seems to be going through. Not to mention the fact that analog meters are so fun to watch. Currently supported in Windows NT/2000/XP, a GNU/Linux driver is in the works."

Comments

What will they think of next?

[cecil36]

Now that we have the CPU tachometer, I wonder if we are any closer to making computer cases look like car dashboards. I'm wondering if it would be possible to:

• wire a mouse to an odometer to measure miles traveled
• put a temperature gauge on the case to measure the heat inside
• use a fuel gauge to measure free disk space

Next thing you know, Kelley Blue Book will be adding computers to their price lists.

Metric vs. imperial

[kiwimate]

FWIW

There are currently three countries that have not officially switched over to the metric system (depending on your definition of "switched over" -- try driving in England if you don't want to use MPH). They are USA, Liberia, and Myanmar (also known as Burma). This makes the US the only industrialized country to not have officially adopted the metric system.

However, anecdotally (because I didn't grow up in the US, so can't confirm this from personal experience), I understand that you will often find the metric system being used in education, science, etc. For example, I know someone who was a chemistry major at Penn about 40 years ago who had to use the metric system for everything during her studies.

NASA on the otherhand ...

[TheViffer]

has tried to be the first organization to "integrate" both standard and metric.

Mars Climat Orbitor Lost

Kind of costly to show that it does not work well.