When To Buy A New Computer

September 29, 2010

I know you are wondering what a cement block and a bungee cord have to do with buying a new computer, right?

Well they have a lot to do with it.
Let me explain.
Processors and associate hardware double in power every 18 months while it takes on the average 6 years to write software for the new processors and associate hardware. So there is a major gap; how big a gap?
From the Pentium 3 to the Pentium 4 was a doubling of power and from the Pentium 4 to the core 2 was another doubling. Then from the Core 2 to the Dual core was yet another doubling! I know my words just don’t seem to convey the reality.

For illustration purposes lets say the Pentium 3 is a car that travels 20 miles in an hour, can you visualise that?  Great , now then the Pentium 4 travels twice that, doubling the power, going 40 miles an hour. Now the following year the Core 2 comes out and it is double in power and to continue our illustration it is traveling at 80 miles per hour! Now then what is the speed of the Dual-Core processor in this illustration? 160 miles per hour! With the Quad-Core processors what is the speed? 320 miles per hour!

Does this help?

Pentium III





Remember this all takes place in less than 6 years!

Now comes the part about the cement block and bungee cord!!

Now remember hardware double every 18 months while it takes about 4 years to write the Operating system that can utilize the new powerful components. So what take place between these four years? Updates and patches.

Picture your Operating system as the cement block and the bungee cable the updates and patches which is tied to the bumper of your car (computer) . As the new hardware comes out they use the older operating system which will require advanced drivers to link with the new processor and chips and major software updates. So as time goes on the core of the operating system doesn’t really change just like the cement block. But the updates and drivers get pulled greater and greater like that bungee cord getting stretched until finally the cement block takes to the air and comes crashing down! Average time to the flying cement block 4 years!

This is why there was Windows NT then Windows 2000 then Windows XP then Windows Vista then Windows 7

Are there alternatives?

Yes, get a different cement block (operating system) with a longer bungee cord (updates and drivers) like Linux but 8 years is the MAX before the flying cement block. 🙂

Did the hexa-core (six core) processors come out yet?

Yep the first months of 2010.

When is Windows 8 coming out?

Late 2012 or 2013 or ….

In the mean time there are going to be a TON of updates  🙂


by R. Frank Tulak

 Related articles for further reading:

The Real Beanstalk

Computers in Cars?


Did You Feel It?

January 9, 2010

February 28, 1999 Astronomers at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia stared with bone chilling shock at the resent photos taken of the sky.  They were comparing the objects in each photograph for size and velocity. One faint object was growing in size but was not  moving in any direction. Measuring the change in size with the time of each photograph, the speed of the object was calculated at over 43,000 miles an hour. Within hours other observatories searched and verified the objects size at 100 feet long with a trajectory that crossed our orbit putting it on a collision course with earth in less than 36 hours. Within 24 hours, with all observation positions around the globe tracking the asteroids course,  the  final calculation showed the asteroid would pass between the earth and moon on March 2nd at 13:44 universal time (8:44 a.m. ET)  Everyone who knew about it could not sleep that night, if their calculations were wrong it could be a disaster similar to a nuclear explosion. I believe everyone one held their breath the last seconds from the 43rd minute to the 44th minute of what was either going to be a miraculous flyby or a deadly,  devastating impact.  On March 2nd at 13:44 universal time (8:44 a.m. ET) asteroid 2009 DD45 at 43200 miles an hour, like a monstrous bullet,  shot between the earth and  moon. Many gave silent prayers, others hugged their children and loved ones while no one else really noticed nor did the news agencies give it any attention.

Did you feel it?  Did you feel the impending doom when the asteroid was approaching?

If not you will be given another opportunity.

In 2004 an asteroid 1150 feet long ( the size of the rosebowl stadium!) and weighing 23,0000 ton was discovered and unlike the afore mentioned asteroid there has been enough time to properly assess it’s threat potential and with great precision project it’s path, because it has a collision course with earth in 2029 (not 2012).  When will our orbit and the asteroid collide?  Are your ready for this?  In April.  What day?  On the 13th day and what day of the week is that?  It’s a Friday.  With that knowledge they named the asteroid “marshmallow” 🙂 (no! just kidding) They gave it the name of Apophis, the Egyptian God of death.  If this asteroid hits the earth it is going to be very bad!  How bad?  All the dinosaurs will be become extinct!  Wait, they are already extinct.  Well then if it hits the earth it will really ruin everyones day!  The good news is its not going to hit the earth!  How close will it come?  It will shoot between the earth and our communications satellites.  Do you know how close that is?  (Your Dish TV and cell phone will probably not work and it will not be wise for any aircraft to be flying that day either!) What is the bad news?   Well our earth’s gravity is going to drastically change the course of that asteroid when it flies that close to the earth, so much so that it might change it’s course and hit our earth 7 years later 2036.  Where would it hit?  More than likely it will hit in the Pacific ocean between Hawaii and Los Angeles, which will cause 5 consecutive tsunami waves radiating from the impact area; the first one being 3 MILES HIGH ( This is not a good thing! )  If this asteroid hits it will ruin everyone’s day and cause some very major life style changes for everyone who lives on the Pacific coastline!

The technical tsunami

On 27 July 1993 the requirement for EMS and a door through 1 meg memory limit in 16 bit computers was unlocked and opened with the ability to write more complex and intelligent programs with the arrival of the 32 bit Windows NT.  The impact created a technical tsunami wave that changed every computer. The ripples are still felt today with the advanced graphics editing programs using Microsoft XP and our graphic intense cell phone!  The advanced 32 bit programs allowed photo quality image capture and printing.  Where did the corner overnight photo developer and printer shops go?  Where did the public telephones and phonebooths go?  Swept away by 32 bit programing  tsunami!

Did you feel it? The twinge of unfamiliarity with the world?  The need to relearn how to make a simple phone call.  To relearn how to take a photograph with a digital camera.  To learn how to modify the image and print it out on a printer.  Where is the typewriter?  What is happening to the fax machine?  What is a website or a blog?  Have you learned to tweet and do your tweets link to your Facebook?

If you missed it you have another opportunity.

The 64 bit operating system now has the engines to really run it.  Four years ago the two-in-one processor came out.  Two years ago the four-in-one processors came on line. Now with the 32 bit operating system reaching it’s maximum limt  and the demand to do more than the 32 bit operating system can perform the technical tsunami has begun!  64 bit programs will change everyone’s day and cause some very major life style changes for everyone!

by R. Frank Tulak

Why is there a Blue Screen of Death?

August 12, 2009

Everyday more and more we are seeing the “Windows Blue Screen of Death” not just on our computers but on buildings on airplanes at gas pumps and at the airports. As more and more computers are being integrated into our daily lives the Blue Screen of Death becomes more visible. The other operating systems also have failure screens but because of the brilliant blue of the Microsoft Failure screen we remember it more strongly. Here are the failure screens of other operating systems.
sadMAC The “Sad Mac” of the Macintosh Computer.
The “Kernel Panic” of Linux operating system
Now that we are seeing these failure screen more frequently the big question arises;
Why is there a blue screen of death?  The answer is PEOPLE !
I know and your response would be “WHAT?”.
Let me explain.
One of the greatest “AH HA !” moments came when I was at a Programmers Conference, which are called technically a “Developers Conference”. There I had the unique privilege of meeting the people who wrote the programs and operating systems that you and I are so familiar with. What I thought was so amusing was by talking to each person I knew what programs or operating system they wrote by their personalities. It only took a little while but you could tell.  It was as if I already knew them. Then the “AH HA !” moment happened and I understood; the logic of the programs they wrote were modeled after their own logic and way of thinking!
That is the reason there are failures!
To explain it better picture in your mind a big dance party, and that the operating system is like the song or dance tune being played. The male dancers are the hardware, while the female dancers are the software. The beat or timing comes from the band musicians with their instruments, and the dancers are all moving to the beat of the music. All around the room in chairs are men and women ready to get up and dance when there is room on the dance floor.  How many pieces of hardware and software can dance depends on the size of the memory which would be the dance floor.  The faster the musicians play the faster the dancers dance. What happens when dancers collide or step on each others feet?  Then we have a program error and the dancers leave the dance floor (the program must shut down.) What happens when dancers slip and fall into the band or knock down other dancers?  That is when the music stops or a “Blue Screen of Death” everyone has to stop and the music starts over again.
You see the same problems of logic and actions that people have in their lives is the same in their programs. They model their programs after their own way of thinking!
As you watch the video think of what is going on in your computer! Remember programs and operating systems are modeled after the thinking and logic of the programmers that wrote them!

So when will we stop having blue screens?

When people no longer write programs and operating systems!
When the computers write the programs and not people!
Picture in your mind a dance party were the musicians and everyone dancing are robots, no mistakes, the whole dance is flawless!
Wouldn’t that be fun to watch?
So enjoy your blue screens while you can they won’t be around much longer. 🙂

Linux or Windows, Which is the Top Selling OS?

June 3, 2009

The  other day I stood with the refrigerator door open yelling at my wonderful wife that “There is no mayonnaise in the refrigerator!”,

but she constantly affirmed that there was mayonnaise and that it was right in the front of my face! I was getting angry, because I know what mayonnaise looks like and there was no mayonnaise in the refrigerator! Finally she came up beside me and smiled while she reached into the refrigerator and pulled from the the top shelve ,right in front of my face, a white plastic form fitting container with the label “Mayonnaise”!
I declared “that’s not mayonnaise!” Tilting her head with a gentile smile she asked “then what is it?” She knew what I meant. I meant that the container was not what I was expecting for mayonnaise. “My reaction wasn’t my fault”, I explained to her “cognitive dissonance is a common flaw in human nature”.

I hate it when she smiles at me like that!

Now brace yourself because I am about to do to you what my lovely wife Patricia did to me!
You all know that the major competetor of Windows, Apple computer, left the IBM and Motorola Processor chips and changed over to the Intel processor chip which uses a special flavor of a Linux OS (Operating System) called Lepard, right? So everyone is asking which is better now Linux or Windows with the assumtion that it is either of them because those are the only operating systems that work on an Intel processor.

 Now that you are standing with the refrigerator door open yelling “there is no other operating systems” now I am going to do a Patricia!

On the shelf in front of everyones face is the top selling Processor this past year  the ARM processor!

 CAMBRIDGE, UK – Jan 22, 2008 –ARM [(LSE:ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY)] today announced that the total number of processors shipped by its Partners has exceeded ten billion. The company developed its first embeddable RISC core, the ARM6™ processor, in 1991, and its semiconductor Partners currently ship almost three billion ARM Powered® processors each year.“ARM Partners have now shipped more than one processor for every single person on the planet” said Warren East, CEO, ARM. “Ten billion ARM processors in use mark an enormous milestone for ARM, but also demonstrate the growth in adoption of the ARM® processor architecture by the vast majority of major electronics companies and across the broadest range of applications.”


What operating system does the ARM Processor chip use? Symbian OS !

Never hear of ARM processors or Symbian OS?

Well today everyone uses them all day long!

The ARM processors with the Symbian Operating system is in 98% of all cellphones sold!

Repeat after me “cognitive dissonance is a common flaw in human nature”.
Am I smiling?
What do you think? 🙂