Research reveals mislaid microprocessor megahertz

1st April 2007 00:02 GMT


It's no wonder we need to upgrade our computers on a regular basis. Not only are chip companies regularly releasing ever-faster microprocessors, but new research has revealed that modern CPUs actually lose megahertz over time.

This startling conclusion follows a five-year research programme carried out by the Illyria University's Information Technology department.

"Five years ago, we activated a dozen new, freshly-purchased systems," said Computer Science Professor Asteio Artikolos. "Since then we have measured, on average, a 10-15 per cent reduction in the machines' clock speeds over that time. It's as if each machine's stock of megahertz were somehow leaking away.

"Each year, we have added new, faster machines. Not only have these seen a similar reduction over time in the number of processing cycles available each second, but the rate of decrease is greater than older, slower microprocessors."

So far Artikolos and his team have been unable to explain the phenomenon. One possibility is that the effect is related to the time dilation effect discovered by Einstein. Any moving body operates on a different temporal frame of reference than a static one, said Artikolis. As processors are clocked higher, so their transistors move more quickly, altering their apparent speed when measured by benchmarkers in a state frame of reference.

"It's certainly the case that many computer users notice a decrease in performance over time," Artikolos told Register Hardware. "A machine that seemed incredibly fast on the day of purchase seems torpid within three years. Traditionally, this was blamed on reduced free hard drive space and the increased memory requirements of software updates. Our research suggests a more fundamental problem, one that centres on the very way modern microprocessors operate."

Artikolos' findings pose an interesting question: where exactly are all these megahertz ending up? More research, he said, was needed.

Intel was unavailable for comment. AMD, however, claimed to be well aware of the problem and to be already designing processors capable of working beyond the limits of Einsteinian mathematics - with a negative temporal displacement facility built in.

"It's why all our processors appear two years ahead of the other guys' stuff," a spokesman said.


Enjoy

LOL

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots from Dungeon Runners.

Dungeon Runners

I've been involved in the Beta test for Dungeon Runners. It's an all instanced game put out by NC Soft. It will be free to play, but to unlock the better items, you need to join, which is a whopping $5/month. The graphics aren't bad, the UI and gameplay are very simplistic, and so far, it's been a lot of fun. It has the same feel as WoW and uses the same quest/npc markers. The community seems more mature than in WOW though. It's due to release in 2ndQ this year. I'll post more later and try to get some Screenshots.

A Betrayal of Justice and Our National Security?

Copied in full from the Conservative Voice.
by Marc Rotterman
A Betrayal of Justice and Our National Security
January 15, 2007 02:19 PM EST

Widely ignored by the mainstream media was the Inspector general of the National achieves’ final report concerning former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger’s pilfering of classified documents from the National Archives in 2003.

The release of the Berger Report (by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform) makes the decision by the Department of Justice -- to give Berger a slap on the wrist for this national security breach -- simply unexplainable.

The committee’s 60 page report makes it crystal clear that Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser knew exactly what he was doing and that what he was doing was wrong.

The report was released to the public in late December of 2006, more than a year after Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removal of the documents.

When confronted by National Achieves officials about the missing documents, Berger said it was possible he threw them in his office trash.

But now we learn from the Inspector general inquiry that - Berger confessed... that he placed the documents under a trailer in an accessible construction area outside Archives building and retrieved them later.

For this felonious breach of national security, Berger plead guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents, was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, and was barred from access to classified material for three years.

Sandy Berger received no jail time for his crime – zip – zero.

No wonder the average American thinks there is a double standard for the rich and powerful...

Throughout this national security scandal, the press, the public and law enforcement officials were repeatedly assured that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger could not have destroyed any documents that the government did not have copies of in their files.

His conduct was portrayed as act of buffoonery, not as a breach of national security. At the time, these documents were also being reviewed by the 9/11 Commission.

Could it be that Berger was trying to hide the fact that he and his boss Bill Clinton we both “asleep at the wheel” when it came to protecting America from the likes of Bin Laden and al Qaeda?

Was Berger trying to alter the historical record of the Clinton approach to terrorism from the public and the 9/11 commission?

In the achieve files Mr. Berger had access to the original, un-copied and un-inventoried documents of Richard Clark, the anti-terror NSC official who served in the Clinton administration.

The key excerpt in the report's executive summary is all you need to read:

“The full extent of Berger's document removal, however, is not known, and never can be known. The Justice Department cannot be sure that Berger did not remove original documents for which there were no copies or inventory. On three of Berger's four visits to the Archives, he had access to such documents.”

The travesty is that Berger should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Instead he continues to be a guest on cable talk shows and panels pontificating his views of America’s national security policy.

And by the way, thanks to the Justice Department’s failure to fully and vigorously prosecute and Mr. Berger, he will be tanned, rested and ready for the next Democratic administration as his plea deal expires in 2008.

Coke is Evil

I've now been almost 6 weeks without any pop of any kind.


Here are the effects of you drinking a single can of soda.

* In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

* 20 minutes:Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get it’s hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)

* 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dialate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.

* 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

* >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

* >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.

* >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution

What the hell are they thinking?


TOPEKA, KS—In response to a Nov. 7 referendum, Kansas lawmakers passed emergency legislation outlawing evolution, the highly controversial process responsible for the development and diversity of species and the continued survival of all life.


Lawmakers decried spontaneous genetic mutations.

"From now on, the streets, forests, plains, and rivers of Kansas will be safe from the godless practice of evolution, and species will be able to procreate without deviating from God's intended design," said Bob Bethell, a member of the state House of Representatives. "This is about protecting the integrity of all creation."

The sweeping new law prohibits all living beings within state borders from being born with random genetic mutations that could make them better suited to evade predators, secure a mate, or, adapt to a changing environment. In addition, it bars any sexual reproduction, battles for survival, or instances of pure happenstance that might lead, after several generations, to a more well-adapted species or subspecies.

Violators of the new law may face punishments that include jail time, stiff fines, and rehabilitative education and training to rid organisms suspected of evolutionary tendencies. Repeat offenders could face chemical sterilization.

To enforce the law, Kansas state police will be trained to investigate and apprehend organisms who exhibit suspected signs of evolutionary behavior, such as natural selection or speciation. Plans are underway to track and monitor DNA strands in every Kansan life form for even the slightest change in allele frequencies.

"Barn swallows that develop lighter, more streamlined builds to enable faster migration, for example, could live out the rest of their brief lives in prison," said Indiana University chemist and pro-intelligent-design author Robert Hellenbaum, who helped compose the language of the law. "And butterflies who mimic the wing patterns and colors of other butterflies for an adaptive advantage, well, their days of flouting God's will are over."

Human beings may be the species most deeply affected by the new legislation. Those whose cytochrome-c molecules vary less than 2 percent from those of chimpanzees will be in direct violation of the law.

Under particular scrutiny are single-cell microorganisms, with thousands of field labs being installed across the state to ensure that these self-replicating molecules, notorious for mutation, do not do so in a fashion benefitting their long-term survival.

Anti-evolutionists such as Hellenbaum have long accused microorganisms of popularizing "an otherwise obscure, agonizingly slow, and hard-to-understand" biological process. "These repeat offenders are at the root of the problem," Hellenbaum said. "We have the fossil records to prove it."

"No species is exempt," said Marcus Holloway, a state police spokesman. "Whether you're a human being or a fruit fly—if we detect one homologous chromosome trying to cross over during the process of meiosis, you will be punished to the full extent of the law."

Although the full impact of the new law will likely not be felt for approximately 10 million years, most Kansans say they are relieved that the ban went into effect this week, claiming that evolution may have gone too far already.

"If Earth's species were meant to change over successive generations through physical modifications resulting from the adaptation to environmental challenges, then God would have given them the genetic predisposition to select mates and reproduce based on their favorable heritable traits and their ability to thrive under changing conditions so that these advantageous qualities would be passed down and eventually encoded into the DNA of each generation of offspring," Olathe public school teacher and creationist Joyce Eckhardt said. "It's just not natural."

Some warn that the strict wording of the law could have a deleterious effect on Kansas' mostly agricultural economy, since it also prohibits all forms of man-made artificial selection, such as plant hybridization, genetic engineering, and animal husbandry. A police raid on an alleged artificial-insemination facility outside McPherson, KS on Friday resulted in the arrest of a farmer, a veterinarian, four assistants, one bull, and several dozen cows.

Agribusiness leaders, who rely on evolution science to genetically modify crops, have voiced concerns about doing business with Kansas farmers.

"If Kansans want to ban evolution, that is their right, but they must understand that we rely on a certain flexibility in the natural order of things to be able to deliver healthy food products to millions of Americans," said Carl Casale, a vice president with the agricultural giant Monsanto. "We're not talking about playing God here. We are talking about succeeding in the competitive veggie-burger market."




I hope this was just a joke.

Last Chaos

I found another new game and it looks promising. It's called Last Chaos .
It is in open beta, and I don't think all the classes are finished. I am downloading tonight and will post more about it soon.