Not only does this increase the maximum storage capacity per Gamecube slot, but this also opens up the ability to trade save game files online via a PC!
Of course, this opens up the ability to hack your savegame on the PC as well. No more hunting for rupees in bushes for me.
That's got to be the noisiest component left in it then surely? Unless it's not a 60mm..
A couple of months ago I decided to silence my machine. I nipped to QuietPC.comand got a Zalman silent heatsink for my GPU, 2 quiet case fans and a SilentDrive(tm) to enclose (and silence) my hard-disk. I already had a quiet enough PSU and a Zalman Flower on my 1800+.
The result is that I can sleep in the same room as the box (my goal), but it isn't silent. When I lay my head down to rest and the house is quiet the hum from the remaining fans is very audible. However if you come into my room in the day, you can't tell its on unless you stop still and actively listen for it.
I've found that low frequency sounds are quite soporiferous. However the SilentDrive doesn't entirely mask the high pitched whine of my Maxtor 740DX (also the SilentDrive's build quality is absolute poo) and it is that sound that I hear quite clearly on those nights that I just can't quite get to sleep. Interestingly too, the resistor slowed Zalman casefans are far louder than the Enermax PSU fans. Does anyone know if I dare reduce the voltage on the case fans even more?
I have a coolermaster case, so I figured the sound gets transfered easily through the entire metal body. I was right; I made myself some rubber washers and isolated all the fans from the case and the difference in noise was very noticeable. So I figure I shouldn't have fallen in love with the sexy metallic sheen of the Coolermaster and bought the budget Dabs.com like I had originally planned;)
All in all the Athlon idles at 38C and at 100% load it gets to about 51C, so I might deactivate the case fans and see how that goes.
Basically I was disapointed with the QuietPC products, they work ok, but they rip you off - the case fans were standard Zalmans, but on their site no brand is mentioned and all the products listed are overpriced. Also the results were not as good as I hoped.
But anyway back to the Radeon stock fan. Removing my NVidia 440MX stock fan was the most noticeable change I made! Zalman GPU passive coolers are pretty cheap. It may be worth checking them out if you want that little bit more silence for your dad's box.
I was surprised the article didn't discuss it but in my opinion, the best aspect of using nanotubes would be their low resistance. Resistances as low as the article claims would lead to much lower heat emissions. From my own knowledge I'd say that chips that use nanotubes wouldn't require active cooling. It'd be interesting to see if I'm right.
It would be interesting if you could dock your laptop and the dock contained another processor and more RAM etc. Thus you could increase the power of your computer when you get home.
The only things that really stop me using a laptop all the time instead of a big box are noise and upgradability issues. An "add-on" box that is non-roaming would/could solve the upgradability issue and since were talking about the future here, I'll assume noiseless machines are the norm * crosses fingers *
You may have noticed this term being spun about in the thread; the answer is nanotubes.
A nanotube is like a bucky-ball (buckminster fullerine) but elongated into a cylinder. To the uninitiated a bucky-ball is a small macromolecule composed of 60 carbons. It looks like a football (european) and hence its name. So nanotubes are cylinders of hexagonallybonded carbon.
Potentially you could have "threads" of nanotubes that are bonded completely with strong chemical bonds, in comparison most materials we use in construction today consist of mostly much weaker interactions based on small charge dipoles and momentary charge variation (van-der-vaals force). IIRC correctly a van-der-vaals bond is about a thousand times weaker than a covalent (chemical) bond, and it is forces like these that hold the materials like kevlar together. The way the carbons bond in nanotubes should be compared to that of diamond, so in layman's terms a nanotube is a very long and very narrow cylindrical diamond.
A rope or sheet of woven nanotubes (of good length) would have a surely unbelievable tensile strength and hence people want to use them in applications like these (as well as in many other areas).
However AFAIK nobody has managed to develop nanotubes efficiently with significant length yet. However I keep seeing journals with articles on nanotubes and their practical applications so money's going into this field and it can only be a matter of time before a method of cheap production is found. The only method I know to date is vaporisation of gaphite with a laser - the resulting dust contains a variety of carbon species including bucky balls and nanotubes.
Nanotubes also conduct electricity and heat efficiently and seem to act as excellent lubricant.
I used to wonder if people were basically good or basically evil, until I saw what most people do when they think they're anonymous on the net and there are no consequences to their actions.
This is exactly what occured to me after two months of Diablo II, 16 hours a day. At first it was great fun, but soon I began to feel the general attitude of the realms. It's very mercenary and cold. And worse it seemed like every other player was trying to tradehack you or trick you into giving them your items. I saw plenty of people "item fountain" or drop a valuable piece of kit by mistake and then lose it to some other bastard who then promptly left the game. In normal life these people wouldn't dare steal from people they didn't know, even if it was something they really wanted. The difference is that the realms have no police, no state, no punishment and no consequences. I was apalled when I realised how many people wouldn't object to stealing when there are no consequences to their actions.
But I expect I should have realised that that's why we need police, and punishment and why we have a concept called "justice". If people can get away with it they will.
I just hope the majority of these people are teenagers who are going to grow up and gain some morality. But I still feel a little tainted by the whole affair. Can I really trust all these people I know in the real world? Or would they backstab me if they could get away with it? I think it's different when you can see the other person's face. Most of those 12 year old thieves would feel some guilt if they could see how upset some of the victims got.
I stopped playing Diablo II, and only then realised that I'd stopped eating and sleeping properly and that I'd been ignoring my family and friends. Whoops!
Firstly I should say that I think hydrogen would make an excellent fuel for transportation. Burning or oxidising hydrogen produces fabulous amounts of energy, and, if stored absorbed or as a liquid, hydrogen has a higher energy density than today's batteries which means longer journeys in-between fuel-stops. Battery technology might improve, but I'd wager that hydrogen-power could be developed more quickly.
Anyway, pollutants don't necessarily have to be noxious gases. The deposition of significant amounts of material in areas where it doesn't naturally occur is also pollution. For instance hot water from the outflow of a power station might kill nearby wildlife.
If in 20 years time most/all people use transportation that is powered by hydrogen, then the net result is an awful lot of misplaced water. This is unlikely to be excess water -- in 20 years I doubt natural gas will still be catalysed to make hydrogen -- so it would be water misplaced from the sea (if you recall splitting water to give hydrogen and oxygen represents a plentiful supply of hydrogen).
Can anyone imagine what this might do to the climate over cities? Apart from the humidity, how about cloud-formation and rain? The umbrella industry might be worth some investment in advance.. How much hydrogen will the world's drivers require? I can't see the sealevel being effected but constantly removing water from the sea in specific places possibly would effect currents and tides.
Now I'm fairly confident that water pollution has to be better than the myriad of toxins, carcinogens and greenhouse gases we produce today, but my overall point is that it's hard to avoid effecting the environment completely.
And we could avoid repeating the mistakes of today by prioritising low water emission in tomorrow's fuel cells...But hell, even I'm tempted to leave that one for our children to sort out. Let them get wet I say!;-)
I just thought of another point, how about all the oxygen from splitting seawater? When the hydrogen is burnt it recombines with oxygen to make water so there is no net excess of oxygen, however the oxygen produced by the plants will be localised at these coastal regions. More oxygen in the air means higher fire risks. As well as greater ozone levels and ozone is the strongest oxidising agent known to man (think bleaching agent).
Slashdot Mirror
That's got to be the noisiest component left in it then surely? Unless it's not a 60mm..
A couple of months ago I decided to silence my machine. I nipped to QuietPC.comand got a Zalman silent heatsink for my GPU, 2 quiet case fans and a SilentDrive(tm) to enclose (and silence) my hard-disk. I already had a quiet enough PSU and a Zalman Flower on my 1800+.
The result is that I can sleep in the same room as the box (my goal), but it isn't silent. When I lay my head down to rest and the house is quiet the hum from the remaining fans is very audible. However if you come into my room in the day, you can't tell its on unless you stop still and actively listen for it.
I've found that low frequency sounds are quite soporiferous. However the SilentDrive doesn't entirely mask the high pitched whine of my Maxtor 740DX (also the SilentDrive's build quality is absolute poo) and it is that sound that I hear quite clearly on those nights that I just can't quite get to sleep. Interestingly too, the resistor slowed Zalman casefans are far louder than the Enermax PSU fans. Does anyone know if I dare reduce the voltage on the case fans even more?
I have a coolermaster case, so I figured the sound gets transfered easily through the entire metal body. I was right; I made myself some rubber washers and isolated all the fans from the case and the difference in noise was very noticeable. So I figure I shouldn't have fallen in love with the sexy metallic sheen of the Coolermaster and bought the budget Dabs.com like I had originally planned ;)
All in all the Athlon idles at 38C and at 100% load it gets to about 51C, so I might deactivate the case fans and see how that goes.
Basically I was disapointed with the QuietPC products, they work ok, but they rip you off - the case fans were standard Zalmans, but on their site no brand is mentioned and all the products listed are overpriced. Also the results were not as good as I hoped.
But anyway back to the Radeon stock fan. Removing my NVidia 440MX stock fan was the most noticeable change I made! Zalman GPU passive coolers are pretty cheap. It may be worth checking them out if you want that little bit more silence for your dad's box.
I was surprised the article didn't discuss it but in my opinion, the best aspect of using nanotubes would be their low resistance. Resistances as low as the article claims would lead to much lower heat emissions. From my own knowledge I'd say that chips that use nanotubes wouldn't require active cooling. It'd be interesting to see if I'm right.
Little OT but:
It would be interesting if you could dock your laptop and the dock contained another processor and more RAM etc. Thus you could increase the power of your computer when you get home.
The only things that really stop me using a laptop all the time instead of a big box are noise and upgradability issues. An "add-on" box that is non-roaming would/could solve the upgradability issue and since were talking about the future here, I'll assume noiseless machines are the norm * crosses fingers *
You may have noticed this term being spun about in the thread; the answer is nanotubes.
A nanotube is like a bucky-ball (buckminster fullerine) but elongated into a cylinder. To the uninitiated a bucky-ball is a small macromolecule composed of 60 carbons. It looks like a football (european) and hence its name. So nanotubes are cylinders of hexagonallybonded carbon.
Potentially you could have "threads" of nanotubes that are bonded completely with strong chemical bonds, in comparison most materials we use in construction today consist of mostly much weaker interactions based on small charge dipoles and momentary charge variation (van-der-vaals force). IIRC correctly a van-der-vaals bond is about a thousand times weaker than a covalent (chemical) bond, and it is forces like these that hold the materials like kevlar together. The way the carbons bond in nanotubes should be compared to that of diamond, so in layman's terms a nanotube is a very long and very narrow cylindrical diamond.
A rope or sheet of woven nanotubes (of good length) would have a surely unbelievable tensile strength and hence people want to use them in applications like these (as well as in many other areas).
However AFAIK nobody has managed to develop nanotubes efficiently with significant length yet. However I keep seeing journals with articles on nanotubes and their practical applications so money's going into this field and it can only be a matter of time before a method of cheap production is found. The only method I know to date is vaporisation of gaphite with a laser - the resulting dust contains a variety of carbon species including bucky balls and nanotubes.
Nanotubes also conduct electricity and heat efficiently and seem to act as excellent lubricant.
I used to wonder if people were basically good or basically evil, until I saw what most people do when they think they're anonymous on the net and there are no consequences to their actions.
This is exactly what occured to me after two months of Diablo II, 16 hours a day. At first it was great fun, but soon I began to feel the general attitude of the realms. It's very mercenary and cold. And worse it seemed like every other player was trying to tradehack you or trick you into giving them your items. I saw plenty of people "item fountain" or drop a valuable piece of kit by mistake and then lose it to some other bastard who then promptly left the game. In normal life these people wouldn't dare steal from people they didn't know, even if it was something they really wanted. The difference is that the realms have no police, no state, no punishment and no consequences. I was apalled when I realised how many people wouldn't object to stealing when there are no consequences to their actions.
But I expect I should have realised that that's why we need police, and punishment and why we have a concept called "justice". If people can get away with it they will.
I just hope the majority of these people are teenagers who are going to grow up and gain some morality. But I still feel a little tainted by the whole affair. Can I really trust all these people I know in the real world? Or would they backstab me if they could get away with it? I think it's different when you can see the other person's face. Most of those 12 year old thieves would feel some guilt if they could see how upset some of the victims got.
I stopped playing Diablo II, and only then realised that I'd stopped eating and sleeping properly and that I'd been ignoring my family and friends. Whoops!
Firstly I should say that I think hydrogen would make an excellent fuel for transportation. Burning or oxidising hydrogen produces fabulous amounts of energy, and, if stored absorbed or as a liquid, hydrogen has a higher energy density than today's batteries which means longer journeys in-between fuel-stops. Battery technology might improve, but I'd wager that hydrogen-power could be developed more quickly.
..But hell, even I'm tempted to leave that one for our children to sort out. Let them get wet I say! ;-)
Anyway, pollutants don't necessarily have to be noxious gases. The deposition of significant amounts of material in areas where it doesn't naturally occur is also pollution. For instance hot water from the outflow of a power station might kill nearby wildlife.
If in 20 years time most/all people use transportation that is powered by hydrogen, then the net result is an awful lot of misplaced water. This is unlikely to be excess water -- in 20 years I doubt natural gas will still be catalysed to make hydrogen -- so it would be water misplaced from the sea (if you recall splitting water to give hydrogen and oxygen represents a plentiful supply of hydrogen).
Can anyone imagine what this might do to the climate over cities? Apart from the humidity, how about cloud-formation and rain? The umbrella industry might be worth some investment in advance.. How much hydrogen will the world's drivers require? I can't see the sealevel being effected but constantly removing water from the sea in specific places possibly would effect currents and tides.
Now I'm fairly confident that water pollution has to be better than the myriad of toxins, carcinogens and greenhouse gases we produce today, but my overall point is that it's hard to avoid effecting the environment completely.
And we could avoid repeating the mistakes of today by prioritising low water emission in tomorrow's fuel cells.
I just thought of another point, how about all the oxygen from splitting seawater? When the hydrogen is burnt it recombines with oxygen to make water so there is no net excess of oxygen, however the oxygen produced by the plants will be localised at these coastal regions. More oxygen in the air means higher fire risks. As well as greater ozone levels and ozone is the strongest oxidising agent known to man (think bleaching agent).