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Dell Inspiron N5110 Windows Experience Index

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:29:51 -0500

Component	Details	Subscore	Base score
Processor	Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50GHz	7.0	4.7 Determined by lowest subscore
Memory (RAM)	4.00 GB	5.9
Graphics	Intel(R) HD Graphics Family	4.7
Gaming graphics	1696 MB Total available graphics memory	6.6
Primary hard disk	173GB Free (205GB Total)	5.9
Windows 7 Home Basic

Dell Inspiron N5110 has an experience index of 4.7, which is due to the graphics card. But if the DELL also has a NVIDIA Graphics Card (NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M - 1GB), it is not used by windows to calculate the experience index. So the experience index is not really reflecting the capability of the laptop.

Rasberry Pi Tech Specs

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:33:43 -0600

Rasberry Pi is a mini computer that is just over the size of a credit card, It is a entire computing board, or a Single Board Computer. It is designed for hardware enthusiast and it comes without a fancy cover, i.e, you get the printed circuit board with all the parts as shown below:

There are 2 versions of Rasberry Pie, Version A and B

The version B has a 700 MHz ARM Processor, Broadcom GPU which is capable of Full HD Video decoding, 256 Megabytes of RAM, #{HDMI} and RCA video output, 3.5mm Audio output, SD card slot and a RJ45 Ethernet connector. And runs on a 5V power supply which is connected via the standard micro USB interface, which means you can also connect your android charger to power the system.

The interesting part is that there are several General purpose IO pins to connect or control another hardware. There are many exciting opportunities for the electronics hacker here. At the minimum it runs on Linux and hence can be used to run a server, do monitoring, play videos on TV screens, offload long running simple tasks on server, server monitoring, file sharing server on local network, a torrent box, etc!

Raspberry Pi Model B Technical Specifications

The heart of the Rasberry is a Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU, GPU, DSP, and SDRAM) System-on-Chip (SoC)

CPU	700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S core (ARM11 family)
GPU	Broadcom VideoCore IV, OpenGL ES 2.0, 1080p30 h.264/MPEG-4 AVC high-profile decoder
Network	10/100 Ethernet RJ45 onboard network
Memory (SDRAM)	256 Megabytes (MiB)
Video outputs	Composite RCA, HDMI
Audio outputs	3.5 mm jack, HDMI
Storage	SD, MMC, SDIO card slot

The Rasberry Model A does not have a ethernet adapter, but it can connect to the internet via USB dongles, USB->Ethernet adapters, USB-Wifi Adapters etc. Both models does not have a in-built Wifi chip built in, but the USB ports can be used to connect a WiFi dongle.

Rasberry Pi cost

The rasberry pi costs around 35 USD (25 Pounds) , and is currently available only in UK, US Waiting for Rasberry Pi in India, China, Japan and more. Rasberry Pi in India is available for orders by organizations and companies (You need to have a Sales Tax Number)

How to create files like .htaccess on windows

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:06:17 -0600

So you want to create a .htaccess or any other .extension and you fire up the explorer and start doing it, and you get

Error: You must type a filename

How to create a file only with extension

Fire a command line terminal and go to your destination folder (cd ...)
Type in
```
echo > .htaccess
```
and Press ENTER.
Now goto the explorer and edit the just created new empty file and save it.
Voila !

Bypass Screen lock on Xorg-1.11 Debian

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:07:34 -0600

This is a scary bug in Xorg-1.11 in which by pressing a certain key combination the screen locking process is killed. I.e, you can by pass the password authentication used in lock screens. This bug is found in version 1.11 of X-org. The entire process is killed and you cannot lock the screen again with the Ctrl + Alt + L combination.

What is the combination?

Press Ctrl + Alt + * (Multiplication key)

This version is used in Debian and could be reproduced. However the latest version of Ubuntu seems to be unaffected by this bug.

How to fix ?

The version 1.11.3 of X-org seems to not have this bug. So doing an update would just fix it.

apt-get update xorg

Tips to Improve your android battery life

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:20:47 -0600

Android phones are infamous for eating out the battery soon. My Nexus S battery lasts about 30 - 36 hours after tweaking my phone. It is obvious and a fact that the battery usage is proportional to the number of applications and services you are running.

The battery life of android phones can be extended by these tips:

Tips to improve battery life

Turn off unnecessary Wireless : The number of wireless operating devices that are turned on affects your battery life. This includes
- WiFi
- BlueTooth
- GPS (Global Position System)
- NFC (Near Field Communications)
- 3G/Data connection
- 2G voice communication.
So the more devices that are turned on the more battery is consumed. Typically you would not need to use BlueTooth and GPS so you can turn it off when not used. Typically the wireless settings are under Settings > Wireless and Networks, as shown below:

Similarly with GPS which is under Settings > Location. GPS takes up a lot of battery when used. If you are not using 3G, you can disable 3G altogether by enabling the "Use only 2G Networks" setting in Mobile networks settings. A good application that ships by default in android is the power control application widget which can be put on the home screen to put shortcuts of these settings on your home screen. A slightly advanced version you can use is available as Widgetsoid in which you can configure your shortcuts. Here is my widgetsoid widget on my home screen that has shortcuts to most of the battery saving techniques discussed here:
Applications and Services :
- The more applications you run, the more your CPU is used. Typically playing games result in draining of the battery. So if you want to save a battery life for that important call, you better not play that game. You can use a task killer to see and kill the applications. Applications such as "Task Killer", "Advanced Task Killer" etc can help you with this.
- The similar is with services. There are many services that run on your android phone that does many tasks. You can stop some of the non essential services to save your battery life. You can stop running services by going into Applications > Running Services > Tap on the Service > Tap Stop
- You can also turn off background data and account sync to save battery life.
Wallpaper and Display :
- Display brightness can determine the usage of your battery, the more the brightness the more the battery usage. So to extend the life we should use as minimum as possible. But since usability is a big concern, putting the display in automatic brightness is the best as it automatically increases and reduces screen brightness according to ambient light. You can find the settings > Display > Brightness.
- While you are at it you can also reduce the Screen timeout to a lower value so that your screen is turned off when not in use which can save you lots of juice.
- Putting a live wallpaper can also eat more of your battery life so if you want to improve battery life consider using a static wallpaper. It would also help to choose a dark wallpaper with lots of black as it requires less energy to display a black dot than a white dot. So using a dark wallpaper definitely helps. See my wallpaper at nexus s wallpaper for a dark wallpaper.
Tones and sounds :
- You can reduce the volume or turn off unnecessary sounds like Screen lock sounds.
- You can also turn off Haptic Feedback to save battery.

On the move battery drains faster

This one is applicable to any mobile phone not just android, when you are on the move the cell networks and antennas keep changing this causes significant radio traffic and hence drains more battery. Moreover more battery is used to communicate to weak signals from various towers. You can turn off all the wireless if you are absolutely positively sure of not expecting any calls (This is true when doing overnight journeys and half the journey you may not have a signal) by turning on the Airplane mode. But you wont get any calls or messages making your phone useless, but battery is saved so that you can use it when you arrive at your destination.

More tips on how to extend your battery life are on its way ..

Have a tip that worked for you ? Share with others and let us know. Post a comment.

Still your battery life is low ? Carry a USB data cable at all times.