Moore’s Law has to date been dead on as far as chip development goes, but should the focus of development be directed elsewhere? If you look at the most complex computing device on the planet, the human brain, it is not a single “device” that is focused on a single task before moving on to the next one. It is a discreet set of components, each of which is specifically suited to a different type of task.

If this approach was taken with computer and chip design, I think it would produce more efficient systems with uniquely designed modules providing the support and functions required by the specific software running on that system. This way the system’s resources are focused on performing the current set of tasks in the most efficient way, thus requiring more modest components for a specific system or user. This also means less heat, noise, size and hopefully cost.

This approach is already starting to appear with multi-core processors allowing multiple tasks to be executed simultaneously and graphics cards which take it much further in the right direction with things like T&L, it just isn’t far enough.

You could take it one step further, producing systems with chips which could be programmed during use and then later re-programmed for a new task. This way a piece of software could be written with instructions on how to program the rest of the system to fully utilise all the resources available to maximise its productivity. Maybe there’s some mileage in this theory, or maybe it’s all crap. I have got a stinking hangover and am watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith while trying to think about PC design so who knows.

Well after the previous post, Does the iPod Nano break easily? I have actually managed to break mine after nearly 6 months!
 
Yup, I´ve cracked the plastic over the screen and made the LCD bleed so that you can´t see anything apart from the battery meter in the corner. It still works fine though and since I can still tell if the battery´s about dead then I´m happy with it. Plus it means people´ll stop playing with it and skipping songs when I´m listening to it.

 
So how did I do this? I got astoundingly drunk, fell over and landed on top of it on a cobbled market place. Just goes to show, it is in fact an mp3 player and not an item of protective clothing. Be careful with the little buggers!

I´ve always liked Nokia´s for a couple of reasons. The operating system is pretty much the same for all models so you can pick a new one up and get to grips with it easily enough.

 
Also, the batteries and chargers are very similar. Even if they weren´t the same size you used to be able to borrow someone´s nokia battery when yours died and make a quick call. And although the power chargers have improved, charging much quicker, even the old ones come in handy every now and again.
 
I´ve got a nokia 8800 and love it. One of the main complaints people have with it is the battery life. It doesn´t bother me since I sit in front of a computer all day with an old nokia charger handy in case of emergencies and then when I get home I can just drop the thing in the super cool cradle to charge if it needs it.
 
What I tend to do though is just use the spare battery it came with and swap them when it dies then drop this in the cradle so even when it´s completely dead I can just change it and be off without waiting an hour for it to charge. Brilliant!

 
I did notice something this morning though. Whenever I used to borrow/lend someone my battery in an old Nokia, you used to turn it on and have to put in the date and time again…. I haven´t done this with mine yet. Does it have another mini battery inside as well or a capacitor that keeps the clock running for a minute or two…? This phone just keeps getting better.
 
Oh, and I still haven´t managed to break it. Or my iPod Nano. 

The new iMac is one of the ones based around Intel processors as opposed to the previous PowerPC chips from IBM. The good thing about them is that they´re using the new Core Duo chips, the new dual core (as the name suggests) so they should be pretty sweet machines.

The bad thing about them is that they come with the usual Apple price tag and cost a pretty penny. As soon as I´ve got some disposable cash in my budget then I might get one for website testing purposes and graphics and media work. Until them I think I´ll upgrade my majorly outdated main desktop to a dual core processor.

The only question is to go with AMD or Intel…. I think I´ll go with one of the AMD Athlon 64 X2s. Time to go shopping!

It might not come as a suprise to anyone who knows me or if you´ve read some of this site, but I´m a major geek. I have two desktops, 3 laptops, 2 mobiles, an iPod, a 42" plasma TV, dvd, Sky… and the list goes on. The best part about all this is that I know how they all work and how to use and if necessary, fix them.

 
Then there´s the rest of the population who listen to the PR, marketing and press bumf and go out and buy Centrino laptops and no access points, MP3 players, but don´t know how to rip their CDs and transfer them across…. and the list goes on.
 
So what happens when they realise they don´t know how to use their shiny new purchase? They come to people like me who they´ve heard "do computers". That´s fine except that I´m really busy and so don´t have enough free time to go round helping them all which just makes them get arsey. "Why don´t you charge them?" I hear you ask. I would but since my call-out charge at work for web development is about ?50 per hour, which I enjoy, then I´d have to charge about ?75 an hour (since I hate it) to make it worth doing during business time. I don´t think anyone´s going to pay me that to show them how to turn an iPod off (someone did ask).

 
So what´s the answer? Small print that´s not so small? Security software that updates itself? More training courses at Selfridges? Who knows. In the mean time, I´m going to scour t´interweb for an Xbox 360.

Just a random idea I had on the bus this morning. Kids can sometimes get ear ache from the cold wind in winter. If they listen to an iPod then that´ll stop it!
 
Maybe I should work for Apple´s marketing department. And before you all email me saying I´m just a lunatic with an amazing body, I haven´t slept much recently…

If you found this then you´re just as lazy as me and can´t be bothered to read the instructions that came with your shiny new iPod.
 
So how do you turn it off instead of waiting for it to power itself off? Easy, old down pause!

I was just watching T3: Rise of the Machines and noticed something that I must have missed last time I watched it. The Arnie Terminator gets taken over and controlled by the sexy T-X baddy. He manages to fix himself by doing a restart.

Since most of the IT problems I have to go and fix are done through a simple restart of the program/computer/appliance maybe I should get all the users to watch this since they don’t listen to me but might listen to Arnie. Worth a try?

I was just doing a bit of random browsing as usual on a Monday morning and I came across an article on Slashdot about a guy who got pissed off with his Xbox 360 crashing all the time and so managed to fix it.
 
I think it has something to do with the power supplies over heating because all he did was raise it off the floor with a bit of string. There you go folks, another public service announcement

Cluster Update: I´ve gone ahead and started building my Linux cluster to act as my way-over-the-top web server. I grabbed 6 identicle Athlon based systems that I wasn´t using and ripped out the hard disks (I only need the drive in the master node). These were then all networked and I then went searching for tutorials on how to set it all up.

After a bit of searching I found this tutorial which is quite good. I used Fedora Core 3 since I already had the disks on my desk but it works the same. The only bit that I found confusing was adding the libraries lines which after more searching is added to the file /etc/ld.so.conf. I´ve booted it all up with the master and one slave node and I´m about to do a boot with all 5 slaves. After that I might do some testing to see what kind of performance I´m getting out of it.