I am a statistics

Hollywood (Apple) & Intel

I am not very happy about this -- about what the article talks about.

I it's really about Hollywood: Apple's looking to transform the movie industry the same way the iPod and iTunes changed the music business.[...]

Apple -- or rather, Hollywood -- wants the Pentium D to secure an online movie store[...]

Released just few days ago, the dual-core chips include a hardware copy protection scheme that prevents "unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted materials from the motherboard," according to PC World.

Intel's DRM scheme has been kept under wraps -- to prevent giving clues to crackers -- but the company has said it will allow content to be moved around a home network, and onto suitably-equipped portable devices.

And that's why the whole Mac platform has to shift to Intel. Consumers will want to move content from one device to another -- or one computer to another -- and Intel's DRM scheme will keep it all nicely locked down. [...]

Will current Mac users like this new locked-down platform?[...]

The Apple & Intel was announced today.

Ode to Newton

The Newton's history. As far as the story goes before it really even starts...
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 Wired's #8 #9 #10. The #8 has the best up to date story, even if it's 3 years old by now - still works the same way. Still same legend. Still amazing. In the sense of how it has changed my personal life too.

Now enough of the anandtech

All the net junkies have seen the Anandtech's G5 bashing article (from /.). This and its comments add something to the above article. Of course still, all the creative professionals must use mysql as one of their main tools when they get a G5... .

Apple G5, Intel Pentium inside

The project is nearly done. The last step(s) left to do:

* Wire the front panel to the main logic board - this should be easy as I have the pinouts for the cable that plugs into it. That means I can use the power button, firewire, usb, and audio jacks (and gee the firewire may actually work). This also means I can remove the temporary power button that you may see poking out of the rear fan vent.
* Play with cable and hose routing - just need to clean it up a bit more.
* Replace main logic board fan (its broken, VERY noisy and soon to be disconnected).
* Install low noise fans in rear - not TOO necessary since this runs nice and cool, but i want to get that waste heat out of the box.
* Find alternate power supply that matches better to the rear port - pipe dream, but you never know what to find. A friend and I are looking into what it would take to rewire a Power Mac G5 power supply which would also resolve the cable routing issue.

and my ultimate todo - have the Apple laser cut out of the side panel door and mount some lucite in its place. A nice blue glow would look good coming out of where the apple was.



System Specs:

* One Power Mac G5 case
* Gigabyte GA-8INXP (Complete specs on the mlb) which includes built-in:
- 5 speaker audio
- gigabit ethernet
- 4 IDE channels (2 supporting raid)
- 2 Serial ATA channels (both supporting raid)
- dual bios images on the board
- dual VRM modules (odd but /shrug)
* Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz CPU
* Samsung 2.5 GB PC2100 DDR RAM
* Samsung DVD+RW Optical Drive
* Western Digital 120 GB ATA/100 Hard Drive
* GeForce4 4600 with 128 MB RAM AGP Video Card
* 400 Watt Power Supply
* Thermaltake liquid cooling system (its soso but quiet, I have a Swiftech setup on the xeon box, much nicer)
* 4 port USB 2.0 PCI Card (needed the internal USB port to power the neon)



Side view with lights on, shows the upper drive tray that was cut to fit the hard drive(s) underneath the optical drive. I sorta like how it looks in this orientation.



Open side with lights off - Here, you can see the blue led lights added. Ok, so it looks pimped, but I sort of like it. The small blue fan on the right came with the main logic board, the reddish glow to the left is the waterpump which has a status light (it goes out if the pump isn't working).

More pictures will eventually be uploaded here.