The death of a netbook

My ACER netbook died. So after months of pondering and comparison I have a Barnes and Noble Nook tablet. Overall I am pleased with it. When you turn it on initially it probably takes around 30 seconds to get to the home screen. After that it just sleeps unless it is manually shut off. It has an android operating system so it acts like a phone with a 7" screen.It does have a version of Adobe flash player so you can view webpages normally in either the mobile or full versions. It is lightweight and can be viewed in either landscape or portrait. You can lock the gyro if an image is uploaded sideways. Then you can turn the tablet to view it correctly. It has good graphics and a nice sized qwerty keyboard in landscape mode. At this time you can't cut and paste and there is no cursor control from the keyboard. Things can get a little dicey in full version but most mobile pages limit access. It can actually fit in your pocket snd it is thinner and lighter than a paperback. I have the 8 gb version and it will hold around 1000 ebooks. B&N has it dialed into their server for books, apps, newspapers and magazines. I would recommend purchasing a stylus pen for touch accuracy in full webpages. There is no spell check included. To be continued…

How to Design Programs

I'm guessing I will not have much of a following and have decided to keep some of my my programming links here.


Designing Programs
http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/curriculum-Z-H-2.html


Learning to program PYTHON
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/l2p/index.htm

Intel Microcode

Just keep learning new shtuff!

Microcode website

When I upgraded the RAM on my netbook, I was instructed to update my BIOS firmware to the latest release. So I bit my lip and prayed that everything went right. This is one procedure that you don't want to miss on. It can leave your system in an unrecoverable state. It's called bricking your computer. After loading the operating system my BIOS did not recognize the increase in memory. Subsequently neither would the operating system software. My skin crawls when I can't get something to work right, so I set about making sure there wasn't a newer release or perhaps there was a fix for this out there in ether land. While searching Intel's download servers I kept running across these microcode downloads. I had my mind set on BIOS and it took me a little while to investigate just what was this microcode stuff I have never heard of.

http://urbanmyth.org/microcode/

Intel Microcode Update Utility for Linux

The microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>. The utility has two uses:
it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, PIII, Pentium 4, Celeron, Xeon etc - all P6 and above, which does NOT include pentium classics). It also supports processors of the x86_64 architecture.


Microcode has been around for a long time. It was written in assembly code into the harder, more permanent areas of memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode

Modern microcode is normally written by an engineer during the processor design phase and stored in a ROM (read-only memory) or PLA (programmable logic array)[1] structure, or a combination of both.[2] However, machines also exists which have some (or all) microcode stored in SRAM or flash memory. This is traditionally denoted a writeable control store in the context of computers. Complex digital processors may also employ more than one (possibly microcode based) control unit in order to delegate sub-tasks which must be performed (more or less) asynchronously in parallel. Microcode is generally not visible or changeable by a normal programmer, not even by an assembly programmer. Unlike machine code which often retains some compatibility among different processors in a family, microcode only runs on the exact electronic circuitry for which it is designed, as it constitutes an inherent part of the particular processor design itself.


**************************************************
Several Intel CPUs in the x86 architecture family have writable microcode.[16] This has allowed bugs in the Intel Core 2 microcode and IntelXeon microcode to be fixed in software, rather than requiring the entire chip to be replaced. Such fixes can be installed by Linux,[17]FreeBSD,[18] Microsoft Windows,[19] or the motherboard BIOS.[20]

Intel has recently released these software updates to by-pass the BIOS updates and write binary code to the processor.

http://dereenigne.org/computers/linux/update-intel-cpu-microcode
You are probably familiar with the terms firmware and drivers in the context of computer hardware, and the endless updating that they require. Most people associate these drivers and firmware updates with peripheral equipment such as graphic cards and DVD drives. You might not however be aware that you can also update the firmware on your CPU (firmware is called microcode in CPU speak).

These microcode updates are normally bundled in with BIOS updates. Given the fact that BIOS updates are inherently risky, motherboard manufacturers are reluctant to issue BIOS updates for anything other than major bugs. This means your microcode can become quite dated. Both Intel and AMD realize this and release standalone microcode updates.

If you are running Debian or Ubuntu and Intel CPU (there is a pretty good chance you are), you can use the intel-microcode and microcode.ctl packages to update your microcode. This will download the latest microcode for your CPU and apply the update automatically on each boot. This process does not apply the update permanently, and is completely reversible.

Periodically run sudo update-intel-microcode
to download the latest microcode version from Intel.

I was already wary of BIOS updates so I didn't just dive in and start downloading files. microcode.ctl is available from the Ubuntu Software Center. I downloaded the program ran the update and voila, even though my BIOS seems unaware of my RAM upgrade it's no longer fooling my operating system.

Now if I could just convince it that it's only a single core.... :)

64-bit Ubuntu upgrade

I recently updated my Netbook to the Ubuntu LINUX 64-bit (ubuntu-11.10-dvd-amd64.iso). At first I had heard that the 64-bit didn't provide adequate support for the mostly 32-bit software available. When I decided to take another look, I was seeing more positive reviews and decided to give it a whirl. I have been pleasantly surprised so far. Programs seem more responsive and I have been seeing less graying out when starting programs. The system monitor has now correctly detected my 2GB of RAM. It still appears to believe that I have a dual core processor. (Intel® Atom™ CPU N450 @ 1.66GHz × 2) As far as I can tell, from the product information, It's a single core 2 thread processor.
No glitches and it's the OS that this was designed to run.
Next step install the 64-bit LTS on the (wife's) desktop!


11/02/11
Update: My printer drivers are 32-bit! Canon PIXMA MX340. I was able to get the scanner to work with Simple Scan. The printer not. I'm trying Google Cloud Print but not tested it yet. I will not be updating desktop to 64-bit until CANON gets up to speed!

Playing Catch-up!

I was researching the specs on my Acer netbook. It has the Intel Atom N450 processor. While reading, the article went on to tell about the next generation of this line with the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) integrated into the processor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Atom I will only paste the applicable section here.

Second generation cores
[edit]Pineview microprocessor

On December 21, 2009, Intel announced the N450, D510 and D410 with integrated graphics.[2] Total kit power goes from 11.8 W to 7 W with the new processor and chipset, a 40% improvement.[34][35] Intel GMA 3150, a 45 nm shrink of the GMA 3100 with no HD capabilities, is included as the on-die GPU. Netbooks using this new processor were expected to be publicly shown at CES on January 4, 2010, and to be released for sale on January 11, 2010.[36][37] The major new feature includes longer battery life, with 6 cell systems reporting 10 or more hours of battery life.[38][39][40]

The current generation of the Atom is codenamed "Pineview" which is used in the "Pine Trail" platform. Intel's current netbook platform (codenamed Pine Trail-M) utilizes an Atom processor (codenamed Pineview-M) and Platform Controller Hub (codenamed Tiger Point). The graphics and memory controller have moved into the processor, which is paired with the Tiger Point PCH. This creates a more power efficient 2-chip platform rather than the 3-chip one used with previous-generation Atom chipsets.[41]

On 1 March 2010 Intel officially announced the introduction of the N470 processor,[42][43] running at 1.83 GHz with a 667 MHz FSB and a Max TDP of 6.5 W.[18]

The new Atom N4xx chips became available on 11 January 2010.[44] It is used in netbook/nettop systems, and features an integrated single-channel DDR2 memory controller and an integrated graphics core. It features hyper-threading and is still manufactured on a 45 nm[45]process. The new design uses half the power of the older "Menlow" platform. This reduced overall power consumption and size makes the platform more desirable for use in smartphones and other mobile internet devices.

On December 23, 2009, MSI introduced a new series of netbooks to be released in January 2010[dated info], the Wind U130 and U135, that were among the first netbooks to incorporate the new "Pine Trail" platform. ASUS and Dell have since introduced netbooks based on the Pineview-M chip N4xx.

The D4xx and D5xx series support the x86-64 bit instruction set and DDR2-800. It is rated for embedded use. The series has an integrated graphics processor built directly into the CPU to help improve performance. The models are targeted at nettops and low end desktops. They do not support speedstep.

The Atom D510 processor features dual core running at 1.66 GHz, with 1 MB of L2 cache.[46] The Atom D410 processor features a single core running at 1.66 GHz, with 512 KB of L2 cache.[47] Power requirements are rated at 13 watts[46] for the D510 and 10 watts[47] for the D410.

Rakarrack

http://rakarrack.sourceforge.net/

Loads of fun! Even has a Bass effect!

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/ubuntu-to-switch-from-x-window-system-to-wayland-2010115/


Just starting to get used to X-Window and pfft!

http://wayland.freedesktop.org/