smart computer use?

What the hell is Page’s Law? Guys at Google can make their own laws. This one makes sense though:

Put really simply, what this means in the real world is that the performance of a PC and other devices constantly increases. So why do PCs never really seem to get faster?

Well, call it Page’s Law. Page’s Law was actually coined by Sergey Brin, who dropped in at the tail end of a Google press conference, and was asked about the pace of software and Web development.

“Page’s Law is sort of the opposite of Moore’s Law,” Brin said. “Page’s Law says that every 18 months software becomes twice as slow.”

Yeah.

I recently was browsing through thedailygreen.com to see what’s new. There was a short piece about a recent trip to Best Buy to find a new hard drive:

In case you haven’t been there recently, there are MOUNTAINS of computers to choose from. The salesman was going on and on about this model and that when I stopped him short. “What do you have in “green”?” I asked.

For a minute, he looked flummoxed. Then he got a big smile on his face and practically pranced over to the new Dell hybrid.

I was curious to read more about this new Dell Studio Hybrid, mainly since I hadn’t heard of it yet. Plus, it’s touted as a green pc, which has also come to get my attention recently.

What makes the Dell Studio Hybrid green?

According to the Dell web site:

• It’s size makes it green. It is supposedly 80% smaller than a standard desktop. It also comes with 75% less printed documentation by weight when compared to other typical desktops. So, they are putting an emphasis on using less materials overall.
• It’s light power usage makes it green. This computer supposedly uses about 70% less power than a typical desktop. This machine also meets Energy Star® 4.0 standards with an 87% efficient power supply. Good stuff. That is a pretty big difference in energy use.
• It’s recyclable, so that makes it green. I guess the packaging is 95% made from recyclable materials.

I also saw that it comes with a “system-recycling kit, so you can help preserve and protect the environment”. What is that? I had to dig deeper.

I can’t really find exactly what the system recycling kit is, but I found this little tidbit:

When you’re ready to send it back to us for free recycling (or recycling your existing computer), you can do so using a system-recycling kit that comes with the system.

So, basically it looks like they make it easy for you to send it back to them to take part of the the Dell computer recycling program. I guess that works. They aren’t going to let you assimilate the pieces of the computer with nature or anything like that.

I live in North Dakota. Winters get very cold and brutal at times. I’m sure if you’ve heard anything about North Dakota you have heard about that.

That’s the story setup…

Here is the quick back story about my old computers.

I have a couple of old desktop computers that I have recently rotated out of use in favor for new desktop computers. Both of the old computers are tower units that built about 5 years ago. I had to just finally rotate them out and replace them with new computers because they just couldn’t keep up with modern applications for me any more.

I would consider both of the old computers to be worth keeping around, however. You just never know when you will get the itch to set up a computer that is a few years old to either play Unreal Tournament GOTY or maybe set up a linux server for a web development playground. At least that is my line of thinking.

So, I put both of the computers out in the garage.

I put them there in hopes that some day I might feel like using them again.

Cold weather and computers

I would like to think that cold weather can have a completely negative effect on computers. I know for a fact that if a computer is going to be turned on or off, it should not be sitting in 20 degree temperatures. The effects of hot-cold changes would wreak havoc on the computer hardware.

But, I would also think that a computer might be completely fine sitting in the cold if it will not be turned on and will only be there for storage.

I am thinking that I will probably take the hard drives out of the two old computers and keep them in the warm confines of my studio. I don’t really think I need anything from the hard drives, but I would like to keep them around and keep them operational if a situation arises where I need a hard drive.

I think that the rest of the computer (motherboard, CPU, RAM, CD drives, tower, power supply, etc.) will be fine sitting in the garage for storage over the winter. Or at least I’ll find out someday if and when I might try to use them again after storing them in the garage over the winter.

Temperature drops and computers

This whole situation also got me thinking about how changing temperatures can be bad for old computers. I had another computer that was from the same 2001 era that these two old computers are from. This particular other computer was being used at the office of the business where I work. It is more than a few years old but was being used as a developers computer (ftp, text editors, and simple non-resource intensive apps were all that it was running).

The heat went out over a particular winter weekend and the temperatures in the office dropped to maybe 40-50 degrees from the usual 70 degree mark.

When I came into the office on Monday morning, that old computer was not running, and the CPU fan and heatsink were hanging out the side of the computer by it’s wires. Hmm… not a good thing I though to myself. Turns out that the CPU fan and heatsink had snapped off of the motherboard, the plastic clips that held the fan and heatsink on the motherboard were broke and there really was no way to fix other than replace the motherboard.

I could only assume that this had happened because of the temperature drop… in combination with the brittle old plastic inside the computer.

Too bad. I kinda liked that old machine. Now it’s cannibalized for parts.

Ah, how the life of an old computer can be ended so quickly.

Here’s an R2D2 clone made out of a beer keg. I like this kind of creativity and enthusiasm. I’m including this on this site as an example of what you can accomplish when you walk away from the computer, drink some beer, and relax a little.

How does this relate to smart use of computers? It doesn’t. But it’s a good example of what you can accomplish when you decide to take a break from your computer every now and then. Taking breaks from your computer is smart.