Solitaire is enjoying something of a resurgence these days with searches for Solitaire up almost 100% since reaching a low in 2007. As regular readers know I have an interest in online, browser based versions of games like Solitaire having set up the Free Video Games Project in 2005.

The reasons for the renewed interest in Solitaire are not clear but a possible reason may be companies restricting access to the game by removing the built-in Solitaire game on Windows computers from the workplace. Several people who work in offices have told me that their company removes the games from the computers and clearly a lot of people are searching for an online version to get round this. Users in France seem to be particularly interested. One of the biggest searches is for "solitaire en ligne".

While there are many online versions of Solitaire available it can be frustrating to wade through the rubbish to find a good, Flash-based, clean version that does not require a download, is fun to play and is not over-run with advertising.

Happily I'm pleased to say that there is now a new, awesome online version of Solitaire from the Free Video Games Project.

Bookmark it, pass it on, enjoy!

Posted by Alx Klive at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Previously we got our set top box to its first boot into the BIOS screen. This time we dig deeper, add a hard drive and install the box's first operating system. By the end of today's installment you'll be surfing the Internet and browsing websites on your soon-to-be set-top box.

Putting together hardware is all about having confidence at each stage that things are working up to that point. Booting into the BIOS was an important step and confidence builder. It proved that the power supplies, memory and motherboard are all working.

The next step is to hook up a keyboard, and check you can navigate around the BIOS using the arrow keys on the keyboard.

It's a good idea at this point to learn how to change things within the BIOS and what some of the BIOS settings are. A quick reminder... The BIOS is the very basic software that comes 'burned in' to the motherboard and which automatically runs each time you power up the motherboard. You can't do very much with it but you can change a few settings. You will need to have familiarity with some of these settings later. Start by setting the time and date and explore other options from there.

Don't worry too much about what you change in the BIOS. Normally you have to select 'yes' on a 'save settings' page to actually make the changes permanent. If all else fails you can simply power down, unplug, and remove the small battery on the motherboard for 10 minutes. This will reset everything back to factory fresh. Just remember which way round the battery comes out, and remember to put it back in again.

Incidentally now is a good time to experiment with the power switch - how long you have to press it to shut down, turn it on, etc. This understanding of the subtleties will help you later on.

If you've been following on from the last article, now is the time to try switching out of 'configuration mode' and into 'normal mode' using the small jumper switch on the motherboard. That done you can check whether you are able to boot into BIOS using the F2 key on the keyboard. This is the normal method of accessing the BIOS. Simply switch on and hold down the F2 key on the keyboard until you get to the BIOS screen.

How computers normally work is that once you power up the motherboard, it loads the BIOS software, looks at what settings there are and then proceeds to load the operating system. Right now you won't be able to go beyond the BIOS screens because you haven't yet installed an operating system. But we're about to change that.

We'll be using Ubuntu, a surprisingly friendly Linux operating system for our tests. We start by booting into Ubuntu off a USB stick.

Almost all motherboards these days can boot up from a USB stick. If you have a correctly configured USB stick that contains an operating system (eg Ubuntu), you can boot into Ubuntu without the need for a hard drive or CD/DVD drive.

The basic steps are...

• Find a spare USB stick that is 1GB or higher
• Download the netbook version of Ubuntu (recommended) on another computer and follow the instructions* on the Ubuntu website on how to transfer it to a USB stick
• You can then boot up your set-top box in Ubuntu from the USB stick

* Ignore any suggestions on the Ubuntu website to check the 'MD5 hash'.

The steps in more detail...

Your USB stick will need to be formatted as FAT32. Formatting is the type of filing system the stick uses. Your USB stick should already be formatted as FAT32 - most are. You can check (on Windows) by going into 'My Computer', right click on the USB 'Removable' drive and select 'Properties'. Look for where it says 'File System' and with luck it will say FAT32. On a Mac you can check by ctrl-clicking on the USB disk icon and choosing 'Get Info'.

If it says something other than FAT32 such as NTFS or FAT16 you will need to reformat your USB stick into FAT32. It's not hard, simply follow these instructions for Windows and these instructions for Mac.

Having checked and/or formatted your USB stick and downloaded the Ubuntu IMG file, you can now follow the instructions on the Ubuntu website to copy the IMG file to the drive. Copying Ubuntu to the USB stick takes time and on the Mac it seemed like nothing was happening for a while, but it was.

UPDATE: Ubuntu is no longer distributed as an IMG file but as an ISO file (easy to burn to CD, less easy for USB). The new 'wizard' instructions from Ubuntu for installing to USB (via Ubuntu) did not work for me. The PC instructions which use the Pendrive Universal Installer worked well, and even worked under Parallels emulation on my Mac. One more important tip if you have boot problems from USB (a horrible "Boot Error" message)... Within the BIOS is a setting called "USB Mass Storage Emulation Type". Change this from 'Auto' to 'All Fixed Disc'. This problem had me stumped for hours.

Once you're satisfied the USB stick is ready, eject it, and plug it into your set-top box. Connect a keyboard and mouse and turn it on. Hopefully you will go flying past the BIOS screen and straight into a welcome screen from Ubuntu.

You may get a 'choose language' screen first. A problem that happened for me is that the USB stick I used first of all simply would not boot no matter what I tried. Some USB sticks have this problem and it is worth trying a different one if you are running into trouble. Cheap 'conference' USB sticks are to be avoided.

If you don't get to the Ubuntu welcome screen and instead you get no further than the BIOS screen, there are two other things you can try.

a) Switch your configuration jumper switch back to normal mode if you haven't already done so

b) Enable the BIOS setting that allows you to boot from a USB drive and any setting for 'Boot USB Devices First'. Sometimes these are not enabled by default. Hopefully your earlier exploration of the BIOS screens will have revealed where these settings are and if all else fails read the motherboard manual for instructions on booting from USB.

Am going to skip through bits more quickly now as there's lots of ground to cover...

With luck you will now be looking at the Ubuntu welcome screen. You should have options about how to proceed including one for trying Ubuntu without making changes to your computer. This is the one to go with. There may be other options such as testing memory and disks but ignore these for now.

UPDATE: The screenshots show the older version of Ubuntu from what is available now.

Quick Aside - I've chosen Ubuntu as the test operating system but there are actually many flavours of Linux you could use. Ubuntu is just very user friendly. You could also use Windows of course, and if you really want to get experimental you can install Mac OS on PC hardware. It's likely that we'll settle on some flavour of Linux to run the set-top box in future, so Ubuntu is a good place to start.

If you've been following along you should now be booting into the Ubuntu desktop and be greeted by a screen looking remarkably like a Windows or Mac desktop. Ubuntu is a full GUI operating system and comes with various applications pre-installed including the Firefox web browser. 'Clicking' is a little different in Ubuntu from what you might be used to. Often just one click is needed rather than two. Other than that it will seem very familiar.

Providing you can move the mouse around and click things you've also reached another milestone. Your mouse is working.

Now for another milestone. Plug in an ethernet cable, see if Ubuntu finds it (this might take a few seconds) and see if you can browse the Internet. If so, pat yourself on the back - you've built a fully functioning computer!

It would only be human to go exploring some of the features of Ubuntu at this point. By all means do so and come back...

Adding a Hard Drive

The final part of today's installment is to plug in a hard drive and copy (install) the operating system from the USB stick to the hard drive. While the box will work perfectly fine off a USB stick, and we may end up using a USB stick in the final product, there will be lots of software installs to do between now and then and this will be much easier and much faster with a hard drive.

Full instructions follow...

N.B. Be careful to turn off the computer before installing the hard drive.

For the purposes of following along I'll assume you are using a traditional hard drive at this point. You can use a spare laptop drive or a desktop drive (although it may not fit physically into your box), whatever you have lying around. The contents will be completely erased, so bear this in mind before proceeding. If you need to buy a hard drive I suggest getting the cheapest SATA laptop drive you can find - size (in GB) is not an issue. If money is less of an object, get a small SSD drive for super fast startup times.

Most current motherboards including the Little Falls 2 are very flexible and come with both SATA and older style IDE connectors for connecting hard drives. Whatever you have lying around should thus work.

Be aware that if you are using an older (IDE) laptop drive you may need a cable that converts from a 2.5 inch IDE connector to a 3.5 inch IDE connector (pictured). Maplin sell these cheaply in the UK, CompUSA in the US. A small power connector for powering the hard drive is included.

If you are using a SATA drive, regardless of whether it's a laptop drive or a desktop drive, you will have two connectors to hook up - a power cable and a data cable. The Little Falls 2 comes with both of these cables in the box as do most motherboards.

If you are using an IDE drive, you should check whether it is set as a 'master' device or a 'slave' device. Nearly always it is set as a master device and that's what you want. Read here for more info on this.

Don't worry about installing the hard drive physically into the box at this point. Rest it anywhere it won't get knocked or damaged.

A 'being careful' step now would be to boot into the BIOS and look for evidence of the hard drive being visible to the BIOS, and thus connected correctly and working. You should be able to see your hard drive listed in the 'Boot Order' section of the BIOS. If this scares you, just carry on, but you may need to change this setting later.

Now boot up off the USB stick again as before and select the option to install Ubuntu. The difference now is you will be using the USB stick to install a copy of Ubuntu to the hard drive rather than run from the USB stick. After a short delay you will be presented with a series of screens - language for install (this erroneously referred to a CD install rather than USB install), timezone, keyboard layout etc. The 'Prepare Disk Space' screen should show the newly connected hard drive as an option for where to install Ubuntu and you may need to reformat/partition the drive before doing so. Ubuntu gives you choices for this. If you get an option for single or multiple partition choose single. Make suitable choices for naming the computer and begin the install. It took about 10 minutes on my machine for the install.

At the end you should restart the computer, swiftly remove the USB stick and watch your set-top box boot into Ubuntu from the hard drive. If it gets stuck at the BIOS screen or gives you a message saying it can't find an Operating System, you may need to go into the BIOS and set up the 'Boot Order' so that it tries to boot from the Hard Drive. Switch it off and try again.

If it's worked, congratulations! You're all ready for the next installment.

Read Pt 4: Installing Flash, getting it working on a TV, testing video performance

Posted by Alx Klive at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the first part of this article I introduced the concept for the WorldTV set-top box and some basic requirements.

In this part I delve deeper into the hardware-side and show just how easy it is to make your own streaming set-top box (aka TV PC, aka Over the top Set Top Box).

Traditional set-top boxes are dedicated hardware devices. They are custom made to a precise specification and have custom software that makes them proprietary and 'closed'. This has the advantage of making them reliable, quick to start up, and cost efficient. There is no wasted hardware.

The downside is that they are inflexible, take a long time to bring to market, and are inevitably based on old technology. Designing a user interface for them is a huge pain - just ask anyone who's had to design a user interface for cable TV. A user interface designed for one set-top box typically doesn't work on another - it's a nightmare.

The WorldTV set-top box prototype will be different. It will use a computer based architecture with an operating system and browser to load the UI. The challenge will be to make it start up quickly and be reliable. People are used to TV equipment being extremely reliable - TV's don't crash.

In its simplest terms I'll be building a small computer and putting software on it. The software will take the longest to perfect and will be an evolutionary process. The hardware side will be the easy bit and I cover that today.

If you've built your own PC before, you know how easy it actually is. If you haven't, this guide may just be the catalyst for you to try it yourself. I certainly hope so. To that end I'll be writing easy to follow instructions.

The Parts you will Need

A standard component list for a PC typically looks like this...

• Motherboard
• Processor
• Hard drive
• Memory
• A DVD drive
• A case with built-in power supply

Each of these components can be readily bought at low cost from a myriad of sources, even from local no name computer stores. All of them come in standard sizes and fittings and use standard connections. They come with the screws and connectors you need.

A PC set-top box is no different, it's just smaller than a typical PC. Small PC components are a specialist item but they can be readily bought from a cottage industry of suppliers. Good suppliers I've found (I've not tried all of them) include Mini-ITX.com, Cappuccino PC and ITX Warehouse in the UK.

The parts list I settled on...

• An amazing low cost motherboard from Intel featuring built in Atom processor
• 7200rpm laptop drive (for now) - Solid State Drive later
• 2GB RAM stick
• Miniature 'PicoPSU' 90W power supply
• Mini-ITX M350 case
• USB wi-fi adapter - to provide wireless internet access

The parts have arrived and here they are...

Motherboard

I chose the Intel Little Falls 2 Motherboard (D945GCLF2) as the basis for the system. It cost £65 ($89).

The advantages of this motherboard are that it comes with a very capable processor included, it has s-video/composite video output for a TV and is incredibly cheap. A 1.6ghz dual-core Atom 330 is the processor and is the more capable cousin of the same chip used in many net-book PCs. I know from experience a net-book is capable of displaying medium-definition flash video, so my highly scientific calculation is is that this chip will be fast enough for the set-top box.

UPDATE: This was written in July 2009. There are now better motherboard options available with HDMI output in the 'Mini-ITX' size.

The Case

The case for any 'production' version of a set-top box would almost certainly be custom made. For the prototype, I've chosen a versatile off-the-shelf case designed for mini-ITX motherboards like the Little Falls 2.

Even by mini-ITX standards the M350 is a diminutive case as it does away with a DVD drive. What I most like is the hidden area at the front of the case for enclosing a USB stick. This is perfect for the wi-fi adapter I plan to use. This hidden area is unshielded - meaning the wireless signals will pass through. The case is also covered in ventilation holes so will run cool. The case was not cheap at £45 ($39 in the US!). It would be much cheaper with a custom designed version.

Hard drive and Memory

To keep the cost down I originally considered using a USB stick as the hard drive. I may revisit this idea, but for now it's all about speed, and that means something more traditional. An ultra high speed, solid state disk like those from OCZ would be the performance option and these will come down in price over the next couple of years. I will try one of these later, but for now I am using a recently retired 7200rpm laptop drive.

Memory - The Little Falls 2 uses standard PC memory modules and has a max capacity of 2GB. I chose a Corsair 2GB stick that cost £15 ($22). The full spec is 533 mhz DDR2 Non ECC, CL4, unbuffered 240pin DIMM SDRAM. You can also use 667 or 800 mhz modules and they will simply run at the lower 533 mhz speed. Sometimes faster memory is cheaper. For me, 667 mhz memory was cheaper than 533, so I used that.

The power supply

Any PC motherboard has a silly amount of power needs - all different voltages and currents. The power connector on a motherboard typically has 20 pins or more. I chose the Pico PSU which is a tiny board that takes a single 12v input and generates those 20 different connections. This greatly simplifies matters. I will use an external AC adapter to provide the 12v power. You could also run it off a car.

The Pico PSU cost £21 ($30).

Total cost so far: £145 ($200)

This is twice my target 'production' budget, but for a prototype this is in the ballpark.

Putting it all together

Step 1 - Installing the motherboard

The first step is to mount the motherboard in the case. Mini-ITX motherboards use 4 small screws in standard positions (supplied) and a metal backplate (supplied) that pops into a rectangular hole in the back of the case.

Shimmying the motherboard and backplate into the case was a little fiddly, the case is barely bigger than the motherboard, but it was ultimately not difficult. I got the motherboard in first and then slid in the backplate from the side.

Step 2 - Adding the PSU and memory

The Pico power supply slides onto the 20 pin connector on the motherboard. Actually the motherboard has a 24 pin connector but the two are compatible. You connect it the only way that it will go.

A second connector from the Pico PSU attaches to a separate point on the motherboard (see the manual for directions) and there is a third connector for powering a hard drive. The PicoPSU comes with a standard 12v DC in jack, complete with ring nut, and this fits in a convenient hole on the back of the case.

Slotting in the memory is simplicity itself. It can only go one way and you just have to remember to ground yourself first, and pop out the white plastic clips before pushing the memory in. The clips lock back into place as you push the RAM in. For grounding I just touch a metal object connected to the ground such as a radiator or computer case.

Step 3 - Connect the power switch, power indicator and front USB connecters

Your set top box case may differ but mine required hooking up a connector for the front power switch, the front power indicator and the front USB port. The motherboard manual shows where to hook these up. If it's your first time building a PC, be aware these slide onto pins on the motherboard. Some are polarized meaning they are a pair which must be connected the right way round. Refer to the motherboard manual and remember red means positive, black (or white) means negative.

Step 4 - Connecting a monitor, the AC adapter and the first boot

The last three steps can be done in under 30 minutes and already its time for the first boot. You don't need a hard drive for this as the goal is to simply get as far as the BIOS screen, which is a screen for changing motherboard settings.

Before you do this you will need to connect a monitor using a VGA cable. This is the older style of cable and most monitors still have this style of connection. It is unlikely you will have success booting into BIOS from the S-Video connection - it's not worth trying actually. Your motherboard, if different, may have a DVI connector instead.

Before powering up you will want to move a small jumper switch on the motherboard that changes it from 'normal' mode to 'configuration' mode. See the manual for this. This makes the motherboard boot into BIOS without needing to connect a keyboard. Usually you boot into BIOS by holding down the F2 key on a keyboard at startup.

The final step is to connect the AC adapter. You will need an AC adapter that is rated 12V and 5A or higher. If the adapter is rated in watts the equivalent is 60 watts (or higher). I used a multi-voltage adapter from an electronics shop which I set to 12v and 5A.

Hopefully your first boot will go a little better than mine. In my excitement over finding a large AC adapter lying around that was 12v and had the right connector, I failed to notice it was only rated at 1A (the equivalent of 12 watts) and this was not enough. While the Intel Little Falls 2 motherboard has an ultra low power processor (an amazing 4 watts), the graphics hardware is old and inefficient. It adds over 20 watts for a total power need of 35-40 watts. Add in a hard drive and a wireless stick and you get to 60 watts.

The least you need to know is that you will need an AC adapter rated at 5A or more for this motherboard.

A last check of all the connections and it's time to press the power switch. All being well you will be greeted by the BIOS screen (pictured) and will be well on your way to building your own set-top box.

Read Pt 3: Installing the hard drive and operating system, getting online

Posted by Alx Klive at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm heading up a fun project at work to build a prototype set-top box that is capable of receiving video from sites like YouTube, Vimeo & Daily Motion, and present them in a user friendly way on a TV.

The box will be built using off-the-shelf hardware and I'll be detailing the whole process here. At the end I'll be interested to see if it is possible to replace normal TV viewing with online TV viewing.

There have been a number of attempts at getting online video onto the TV - games consoles, high end TV's with internet access, specialist set-top boxes. Typically it's a feature added as an after-thought, it's restricted, it's walled-garden. This set-top box will be built from the ground up to work with online video.

There are differences between watching online video on a computer, and watching it on a TV. Understanding these differences will be key to your own success in designing a set-top box.

• The user interface is fundamentally different - TV's are harder to control and text is hard to read
• There is no keyboard and people don't want a keyboard on their couch. This will be solved in future with lightweight browsing tablets that people use in their living rooms.
• Short form online video clips do not work on TV, not if you have to search for them. See keyboard issue above. It's tedious to be looking for something new to watch every 2 minutes.
• Online video on the computer is an interactive experience, TV is a passive experience. People watch TV to relax
• The TV experience has been around for 60 years and people's habits don't change quickly.
• Interactive TV has never worked, despite billions spent.
• Online video must adapt to TV, not the other way round.

The goals for this set top box are:

• low-cost (under $100 with mass production)
• off-the-shelf PC hardware
• Super simple - it plugs into the mains, picks up a wi-fi signal and connects to the TV
• It has only one switch - a power switch
• Maybe it has a DVD player (one extra switch and an extra $20)
• It should be powerful enough for 'medium-high definition' (720p)
• A Wii-like remote for controlling the user interface
• When you turn it on, it automatically browses to a website that serves up the user interface

The idea of using a website as the user-interface for a set-top-box is key I think. The advantage will be that the UI can be dynamic and personalized for each individual. It can incorporate live information from the Internet and be improved without the user needing to update software. It will use standard technologies that are widely known.

The parts for the prototype have arrived and I'll write up the initial hardware build soon.

Read Pt 2 - A look at the parts and putting the hardware together

Posted by Alx Klive at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A new type of hard drive promises to revolutionize our interactions with computers in the very near future. The revolution is so dramatic, so different from what we are used to, that anyone who uses a computer is going to benefit in a profound way.

The biggest bottleneck in your computer right now is the hard drive. It's the only part of your computer that remembers anything when you turn it off, so it's kind of important, and unsurprisingly its something we use and rely on a lot. That's why most of us have had a painful experience with them in the past.

Well the good news is that a new type of hard drive promises to not only make them more reliable, but much much faster. So much faster in fact that a speed revolution in our interactions with computers is about to take place in 2010 and 2011.

The problem with existing hard drives is that they are prone to failure. This is because they are mechanical. Spinning inside your computer as we speak, at 120 revolutions per second, is several very thin magnetic disks a little smaller than a CD. Hovering a millionth of an inch away from each disk (actual figure) is a small pickup head, that should it ever touch the disk its allied with, will lead to complete failure of the hard drive and likely total loss of data. Something to think about the next time you feel like shaking your computer.

It's actually a miracle these disks don't fail more often. Fortunately the miracles of modern engineering mean that they are actually quite resilient. Technically they shouldn't stand a chance but they do.

The point about these drives is that they are the library the computer turns to hundreds of times per second and they do so mechanically. Because the device is mechanical, there is an upper limit to how fast the data can be accessed or written. There is only so fast you can spin the disk and move the tiny little head across the disk. Far quicker is something that has no moving parts, and which works at the speed of light - memory chips.

In the past the problem with memory chips was that they were relatively expensive compared to hard disks. The price per GB for chips has and still is much higher than an equivalent hard disk, so it was unrealistic to think we could store all our programs, photos and music files on chips. That's why we didn't.

But the never ending march of capacity means that memory chips the size of hard disks from just 3 or 4 years ago are now quite affordable. And since our fundamental storage needs have not increased that much in the same period, it is now realistic to consider putting some or even all of our data on chips.

So called Solid State Disks (disks made out of chips) started appearing around a year ago. The initial offerings were extremely expensive and actually no quicker than the hard disks they were supposed to replace. They offered almost no reason to upgrade and were simply a toy for early adopters. That situation is now changing and a single product from a previously little known company has revolutionized the industry.

A company called OCZ has blown away the competition, reviewers and bloggers that track this nascent industry. A typical hard drive has an average transfer rate of 30 megabytes per second. The OCZ Vortex has a throughput of 250 megabytes per second. This is nothing short of phenomenal, and the price is within the reach of many people - an entry level 30GB solid state disk from OCZ costs £90 ($140).

Now a 30 GB drive may seem tiny in comparison to the 1500 GB (1.5TB) mechanical drives that are available for the same price. But who really needs 1500 GB? The vast majority of people use far less than this. The capacity of hard disks has simply run away from most people's needs. Bad news for the mechanical disk companies, good news for consumers.

If you run a standard home computer, have installed maybe half a dozen programs, have a medium sized music and photo collection, and are not storing your home videos on your computer, chances are you are using no more than 30 GB on your disk right now. Maybe its 50, maybe its 75. The point is you are not far away from legitimately being able to consider a Solid State Disk to replace your mechanical one. You might even be able to do so now.

If I tell you that installing one of these OCZ drives would instantly make your computer feel 8x faster - bootup of Windows or Mac OS X in under 10 seconds, opening Microsoft Word in the blink of an eye, all for maybe $140. Would that not sound appealing?

Such nirvana is actually available right now if you are comfortable with swapping in a new hard drive into your computer. Simply go and buy one of these disks and install it. To a computer they look exactly like the mechanical hard disk they are replacing and have the same dimensions and connections.

For most people, this speed revolution will come the next time they buy a new computer, assuming that is you are buying a computer in 2010 or 2011. Solid State Disks are available in brand new computers now, but typically as a build-to-order option that is over priced. In all cases (as of the time of writing in July 2009) they are poor performing 1st generation models. The OCZ Vertex is firmly a 2nd generation model.

I would suggest that if you are a hobbyist or your time is particularly valuable, now is the time to dip your toe into the water with SSD's and specifically the OCZ Vertex or its emerging cousin the OCZ Summit. You don't need to move everything over to Solid State Disks right away. You can create a boot drive containing your system software and programs on the solid state disk, and keep all your document files, music and photos on a traditional disk. You'll still get a huge speed benefit and still have lots of space for those large music or video files. If you like the idea of rolling your own solid state disk, you can actually buy an enclosure that lets you put your own memory chips into it.

I'm personally holding out just a little bit longer. My core storage needs (system and programs) are a little higher at around 75gb, and once those start coming in at the same price as the 30gb, I'm going to make the jump. Note that the OCZ Vertex also comes in capacities of 60gb, 120 and 250gb, but these are just a bit too expensive for my money.

While OCZ have definitely shaken up the market, Intel is also producing high performance SSD drives (although more expensive) and I can't imagine the likes of Samsung and SanDisk are going to sit by and let these two companies show them up for very long.

One interesting aside is that going beyond 300 MB per second is not currently possible due to the speed of the SATA or eSATA interface that connects these disks to your computer. A new SATA specification of 600MB per second (6Gbps) is coming, but who knows how long that will take. Another good reason to take the plunge into SSD's soon....

Update - Aug 10th 2009
One issue I've learned about SSD's since writing the post is a degradation of speed performance over time. This can be fixed though with special garbage collection algorithms and here again OCZ are leading the way. This will thus be a short-lived issue and can be fixed on older SSD drives by updating the firmware.

Posted by Alx Klive at 1:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lately my Mac Pro has been crashing and freezing with greater regularity. From prior experience with computers crashing, and it being the summer (and a particularly hot one in London!), I had a hunch it was heat related.

Weird artifacts on the monitor display (strange green and pink blocks and lines) clued me in that it might be the Radeon X1900 display card that was the cause of the overheating, and a bit of searching around on the Internet showed that this card has something of a reputation for overheating. The solutions people talk about all seem to revolve around removing fluff from the fan ingest (did that), purchasing after market coolers (not cheap and quite complicated) or buying a new card (even more expensive). I wanted to find something else.

The first step was to confirm that it was heat related. I shut down the computer, opened the case, and let the computer cool down for an hour. When I started it up again the computer lasted longer before crashing than normal. A good clue.

I went looking for a way to see what the temperature actually was inside my Mac Pro. There are several methods for doing this but I found a wonderful free utility called Temperature Monitor. This shows you the temperature for many points within the machine and can graph them over time. A very useful tool indeed.

Although Temperature Monitor did not show a specific temperature reading for the graphics card itself, two readings in particular seemed high and are indeed physically close to the graphics card - the Northbridge and Memory Module B2. Both were up around 80 degrees C which is definitely a little hot.

I used another free utility, the brilliant SMCFanControl to adjust the speed of the fans within the computer. While running the history graph feature of Temperature Monitor I first turned all the fans up to full and immediately saw nearly all temperature readings within the Mac Pro go down. It was amazing to watch. After some fiddling I set the PCIe/HDD fan to a minimum speed of 1700 rpm which brought the Northbridge and Memory Module B2 temps consistently down under 70 degrees. I left the other fans in the end at their default settings.

Since then I haven't had a single crash and I've not spent a penny. I've created different profiles within SMCFanControl (Normal, 1/2 cool down, 3/4 cool down, full cool down) and can instantly change the speed of the fans at will, depending on the ambient temperature.

Now if only I could get a speed increase utility for my air conditioner...

Posted by Alx Klive at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)