"Under normal circumstances the CPU isn't always active but spends much time waiting for the keyboard, harddisk or CD-ROM. What would be more logical than to turn off the CPU for that period? That's exactly what the HLT machine instruction (Opcode F4) does.
...
Modern operating systems like Linux execute the HLT instruction in an idle priority thread. This thread is always executed when the CPU is otherwise idle. No additional execution time for HLTing is needed, the CPU will not run slower.
While other operating systems like Linux always used this mechanism, Windows only learned it with NT. But even with NT and following versions it is only enabled when the BIOS and ACPI implementation is recognized by the OS."
Basically, not only will Linux keep your CPU cooler this way, it will reduce power consumption since the CPU is literally not doing anything when it's "idle".
I run CpuIdle on my WinXP machine at home and it goes from a normal temp of ~45 degrees Celcius to an average of ~30 degrees, during average desktop usage... Linux will show a similar level of cooling by default.:)
Today's CPUs are overkill for general-usage machines...
Dumpster-dived hardware = totally useful
on
Less Might Be More
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· Score: 1
Last week, I build a completely functional gaming system out of dumpster-dived parts I've found behind computer stores over the last while. I built it so friends of mine who don't have their own computer can use it when we have LANs.
166mhz Pentium MMX, overclocked to 262.5mhz (who cares, it's dumpster-dived, I have like 6 of them) (FSB is 75mhz, thus PCI bus is 37.5mhz, woot) 2.1gb hard drive some Matrox 2d video card Diamond Monster 3d II video card, 8mb Oh yeah and 64mb of ram, I actualy bought that since PC133 ram is very rare to "dive"... Running Win98 to save system resources. All the comp's time is going to be spent in-game, so why waste CPU time on a "nice" OS?
in Quake 1 (glQuake), doing "timedemo demo2" gives 108.4 FPS reliably. The game plays lag free no matter what's going on ingame - explosions, tons of monsters - still lag-free.
UT plays nearly as well, very smooth graphics and almost no lag.
So how much did this completely usable, very reasonable-speed computer cost me? About 30 bucks. That's only because I bought the RAM. It could have been 100% free if I had used slower 72-pin ram (on a different motherboard), which I have a bag full of from finding tons of 486 boxes over the past year or so.
For anyone who's looking for cheap computer hardware, seriously try it: go look in the dumpsters behind local computer stores, particularly single-location, single-owner places (chains like Future Shop, Best Buy etc. tend to never throw a damned thing out)! It's not much of a hassle, just check out the places while walking to work, school, etc.
Oh yeah, I also have a 400mhz Celeron, 32mb/RAM web server that I "dived", completely intact in the case, only missing a hard drive and video card. Pretty damn good deal if you ask me.
You're totally right, and I've been trying to tell people that since I was like 10 years old. Of course no one ever listens - they're too busy watching their "reality" TV (yes that IS an oxymoron).
It's what makes me so glad when really tragic things happen and it's all over the news, because people's stupid generic lives are changed, for once, because they'll never change it themselves.
Whatever happened to natural selection? I guess it's reduced to paying for our stupidity on a larger scale, dying from skin cancer because the ozone layer is depleted because there are so many fucking cars and all our forests are being cut down at an alarming rate. Dying from super-viruses that won't die from any known medicine because we've misused medicines for years. Kids dying from being shot by one of their classmates because the classmate has been treated like shit his/her entire life and was raised watching violent crap on TV, taught that violence is the solution to every problem (especially taught by example of their very own government)...
Thinking about society as a whole really frustrates me. People don't value intelligence, or honesty, or values that have been held highly by peacful societies for hundreds/thousands of years. People value instant gratification and material gain. What the hell is it going to take for them to wake up? You've got 80 years, at best, to live your life. Why spend all your super-limited time working towards useless material crap like a 50" plasma TV and a big house? There's more to life than that shit, and more and more, it seems like people aren't realizing that.
Dude, one time I was on the ferry going across to Vancouver Island, and they had this sign by the cafeteria that said "We have plenty of alternate dining solutions to fit your needs", or something along those lines. Alternate "solutions" like what, pancakes? Maybe a grilled cheese sandwich in there? I mean, we're on some budget-ass barely-running ferry. We're not at the Olive Garden. Jeez...
My friend and I of course proceeded to make references to "alternate dining solutions" for the rest of our trip..
Exactly the same situation at my job where I basically fix anything that goes wrong.
Our linux file server has been runing for 143 days without a single crash, etc. etc.. it just WORKS
Our Windows-based printer computers? They crash every few days. They just plain run like crap compared to the Linux server and desktops we use there. It's very frustrating to lose the entire print queue because of that (I work at a digital photography place that prints queues of hundreds of photos at a time). We'd be running linux on the printer-controlling comps but they're pretty rare printers... thus no linux drivers. heh
I'm aware of that - I had already anticipated that sort of response but figured it was so obvious no one would need to point it out...
Whether it's Yahoo News, Reuters or CNN (or any other news agency), they all seem to have an amazing inability to just refer to the true source of the news, as though it's somehow required for them to add their own user-friendly "spin" on the story...
Another thing, why don't these news agencies provide links to the press releases that the companies/people in question actually wrote themselves?? Are the news agencies afraid readers might actually learn just a little too much about the real story, or something?
I mean, they can provide friendly little links after each trademark so you can "tell (spam) your friends", but it's too much work to paste a URL that the writer's probably already got open on their screen, eh?
"America Online Inc. on Thursday shunned a Microsoft Corp. proposal to help weed out unwanted "spam" e-mail because Internet engineers are reluctant to adopt technology owned by the dominant software company."
What? Since when did AOL reject it just because it's owned by Microsoft?
No kidding, websites have "forced" users to load popup pages for quite some time now: popup pages which install malicious sofware unto users' computers without their permission, via vulnerabilities in Windows' software.
If that's not "forcing users to visit a malicious Web site", then what is??
What makes CNN more credible? That they have their own TV channel? That they have more money than Yahoo?
I'd actually consider Yahoo far more credible because they aren't as swayed by the influence of corporate sponsorships and similar bullshit very very likely used to influence how stories are reported among news networks like CNN, MSNBC and so on.
Just another case of trying to solve a problem without even LOOKING at the cause. Instead of eliminating the cause they just seek to treat the effects.
I don't understand why these people are so narrow-minded. It's frustrating as hell.
Your point that "maybe the law should be re-evaluated" is a great, fully valid point.
I once heard someone say something about the fact that 'the youth' as a group decide "how things should be" as they're the most powerful group of people in society. Their minds are the most active and capable (bodies as well), they hold the key to whatever future lies ahead, and they pretty much decide how things are going to be, whether all the near-retirement CEOs like it or not...
I've also always been a firm believer that you should listen to what a kid has to say long before you accept an adult's opinion over that... children haven't yet been affected by as many of the "accepted ideas" that are held by the society they live in, and thus tend to have far more natural responses to situations, and often far more sensible.
BTW speaking of how to prevent child porn, you're right, the thing is to prevent exploitation of children in the first place. Frankly the majority of child porn comes from foreign countries which have slack laws regarding child exploitation, especially Russia... so it's kind of hard for us to do much about that. But nonetheless, sheer censorship won't do a lot to solve the problem. Then again if North Americans can't get to the sites, the sites will receive no business...
I wonder if it's occured to anyone that a decent percentage of those "spammers"' machines are actually those of unaware home users with worms or back-door type software installed on them...
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the linux box may very well save a lot of power compared to the Windows box because it won't occupy your CPU when it's not doing anything.
...
:)
As written on the CpuIdle site:
"Under normal circumstances the CPU isn't always active but spends much time waiting for the keyboard, harddisk or CD-ROM. What would be more logical than to turn off the CPU for that period? That's exactly what the HLT machine instruction (Opcode F4) does.
Modern operating systems like Linux execute the HLT instruction in an idle priority thread. This thread is always executed when the CPU is otherwise idle. No additional execution time for HLTing is needed, the CPU will not run slower.
While other operating systems like Linux always used this mechanism, Windows only learned it with NT. But even with NT and following versions it is only enabled when the BIOS and ACPI implementation is recognized by the OS."
Basically, not only will Linux keep your CPU cooler this way, it will reduce power consumption since the CPU is literally not doing anything when it's "idle".
I run CpuIdle on my WinXP machine at home and it goes from a normal temp of ~45 degrees Celcius to an average of ~30 degrees, during average desktop usage... Linux will show a similar level of cooling by default.
Yeah.. I just ordered the IA-64 linux developer's kit CD from HP (for free) last week! Jeez..
Hey, I wrote about this yesterday...
= 10337376
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=122951&cid
Today's CPUs are overkill for general-usage machines...
Last week, I build a completely functional gaming system out of dumpster-dived parts I've found behind computer stores over the last while. I built it so friends of mine who don't have their own computer can use it when we have LANs.
166mhz Pentium MMX, overclocked to 262.5mhz (who cares, it's dumpster-dived, I have like 6 of them)
(FSB is 75mhz, thus PCI bus is 37.5mhz, woot)
2.1gb hard drive
some Matrox 2d video card
Diamond Monster 3d II video card, 8mb
Oh yeah and 64mb of ram, I actualy bought that since PC133 ram is very rare to "dive"...
Running Win98 to save system resources. All the comp's time is going to be spent in-game, so why waste CPU time on a "nice" OS?
in Quake 1 (glQuake), doing "timedemo demo2" gives 108.4 FPS reliably. The game plays lag free no matter what's going on ingame - explosions, tons of monsters - still lag-free.
UT plays nearly as well, very smooth graphics and almost no lag.
So how much did this completely usable, very reasonable-speed computer cost me? About 30 bucks. That's only because I bought the RAM. It could have been 100% free if I had used slower 72-pin ram (on a different motherboard), which I have a bag full of from finding tons of 486 boxes over the past year or so.
For anyone who's looking for cheap computer hardware, seriously try it: go look in the dumpsters behind local computer stores, particularly single-location, single-owner places (chains like Future Shop, Best Buy etc. tend to never throw a damned thing out)! It's not much of a hassle, just check out the places while walking to work, school, etc.
Oh yeah, I also have a 400mhz Celeron, 32mb/RAM web server that I "dived", completely intact in the case, only missing a hard drive and video card. Pretty damn good deal if you ask me.
man, you guys have no sense of humour... it's supposed to be funny!
Do you use Linux? Why/why not?
My boss who completely rages at the slightest error on the part of any employee would probably disagree with you on that...
I should make a website with quotes and sound clips of the kind of stuff he says. Then again, I'm sure you all know how it is, anyways...
You're totally right, and I've been trying to tell people that since I was like 10 years old. Of course no one ever listens - they're too busy watching their "reality" TV (yes that IS an oxymoron).
It's what makes me so glad when really tragic things happen and it's all over the news, because people's stupid generic lives are changed, for once, because they'll never change it themselves.
Whatever happened to natural selection? I guess it's reduced to paying for our stupidity on a larger scale, dying from skin cancer because the ozone layer is depleted because there are so many fucking cars and all our forests are being cut down at an alarming rate. Dying from super-viruses that won't die from any known medicine because we've misused medicines for years. Kids dying from being shot by one of their classmates because the classmate has been treated like shit his/her entire life and was raised watching violent crap on TV, taught that violence is the solution to every problem (especially taught by example of their very own government)...
Thinking about society as a whole really frustrates me. People don't value intelligence, or honesty, or values that have been held highly by peacful societies for hundreds/thousands of years. People value instant gratification and material gain. What the hell is it going to take for them to wake up? You've got 80 years, at best, to live your life. Why spend all your super-limited time working towards useless material crap like a 50" plasma TV and a big house? There's more to life than that shit, and more and more, it seems like people aren't realizing that.
Their Sun will never be able to play games, especially at this rate...
Dude, one time I was on the ferry going across to Vancouver Island, and they had this sign by the cafeteria that said "We have plenty of alternate dining solutions to fit your needs", or something along those lines. Alternate "solutions" like what, pancakes? Maybe a grilled cheese sandwich in there? I mean, we're on some budget-ass barely-running ferry. We're not at the Olive Garden. Jeez...
My friend and I of course proceeded to make references to "alternate dining solutions" for the rest of our trip..
Exactly the same situation at my job where I basically fix anything that goes wrong.
Our linux file server has been runing for 143 days without a single crash, etc. etc.. it just WORKS
Our Windows-based printer computers? They crash every few days. They just plain run like crap compared to the Linux server and desktops we use there. It's very frustrating to lose the entire print queue because of that (I work at a digital photography place that prints queues of hundreds of photos at a time). We'd be running linux on the printer-controlling comps but they're pretty rare printers... thus no linux drivers. heh
I'm aware of that - I had already anticipated that sort of response but figured it was so obvious no one would need to point it out...
Whether it's Yahoo News, Reuters or CNN (or any other news agency), they all seem to have an amazing inability to just refer to the true source of the news, as though it's somehow required for them to add their own user-friendly "spin" on the story...
Another thing, why don't these news agencies provide links to the press releases that the companies/people in question actually wrote themselves?? Are the news agencies afraid readers might actually learn just a little too much about the real story, or something?
I mean, they can provide friendly little links after each trademark so you can "tell (spam) your friends", but it's too much work to paste a URL that the writer's probably already got open on their screen, eh?
"America Online Inc. on Thursday shunned a Microsoft Corp. proposal to help weed out unwanted "spam" e-mail because Internet engineers are reluctant to adopt technology owned by the dominant software company."
What? Since when did AOL reject it just because it's owned by Microsoft?
Link to the article...
For once AOL does something the media should be praising it for, yet they're practically insulting AOL publically...
"...would not adopt Microsoft's SenderID protocol because it has failed to win over experts leery of Microsoft's business practices."
I wonder if I'm the only one getting painfully tired of the way the news media paraphrases and misrepresents peoples'/groups' positions...
I don't think it was due to images, however.
Look here - this appears to be the exploit you're thinking of.
No kidding, websites have "forced" users to load popup pages for quite some time now: popup pages which install malicious sofware unto users' computers without their permission, via vulnerabilities in Windows' software.
If that's not "forcing users to visit a malicious Web site", then what is??
What makes CNN more credible? That they have their own TV channel? That they have more money than Yahoo?
I'd actually consider Yahoo far more credible because they aren't as swayed by the influence of corporate sponsorships and similar bullshit very very likely used to influence how stories are reported among news networks like CNN, MSNBC and so on.
Of course it's for some reason neccesary to compare the number of US troops to the supposedly "small" Canadian Armed Forces...
It's "we're better than you" comments like that that make Canadians glad to be Canadians and not Americans...
I heard it worded as "pre-emptive counterattack"
As though they're responding, in advance, to something that has not yet happened and may or may not actually happen...
No kidding, that's the first thing I thought.
Just another case of trying to solve a problem without even LOOKING at the cause. Instead of eliminating the cause they just seek to treat the effects.
I don't understand why these people are so narrow-minded. It's frustrating as hell.
ummm.... why?
HTTP is probably the most overrated protocol of all time...
Here's an example of one of those VPN's over public internet:
the Meta network (scroll down on the page to read the intro)
Your point that "maybe the law should be re-evaluated" is a great, fully valid point.
I once heard someone say something about the fact that 'the youth' as a group decide "how things should be" as they're the most powerful group of people in society. Their minds are the most active and capable (bodies as well), they hold the key to whatever future lies ahead, and they pretty much decide how things are going to be, whether all the near-retirement CEOs like it or not...
I've also always been a firm believer that you should listen to what a kid has to say long before you accept an adult's opinion over that... children haven't yet been affected by as many of the "accepted ideas" that are held by the society they live in, and thus tend to have far more natural responses to situations, and often far more sensible.
BTW speaking of how to prevent child porn, you're right, the thing is to prevent exploitation of children in the first place. Frankly the majority of child porn comes from foreign countries which have slack laws regarding child exploitation, especially Russia... so it's kind of hard for us to do much about that. But nonetheless, sheer censorship won't do a lot to solve the problem. Then again if North Americans can't get to the sites, the sites will receive no business...
I wonder if it's occured to anyone that a decent percentage of those "spammers"' machines are actually those of unaware home users with worms or back-door type software installed on them...
"Hi! It looks like you're cheating on me with another girl! Would you like me to...:
-Slap her across the face
-Kill her and hide her body where no one would ever find it
-'Forgive' you for it and then continue to bring it up in arguments intermittently for the next 2 years"