Ben Ganley’s Blog

There has been a new article added to the Project Triton projects page.   To view the article, follow the link below.

A.I - Automatic Installer Article

Regards,
Ben Ganley
28th of January, 2010

There has been a new article added to the articles page, in regards to Project Triton. In turn, the same link has been added to the projects page also. To view the article, follow the link below.

Windows Neptune/Project Triton Article

Regards,
Ben Ganley
25th of January, 2010

This post is bound to be somewhat controversial…

The majority of phones have a vibrate function… and most phones now also support java applications.  What happens when you use java programming to make your phone vibrate?  You get satisfied women and a flat mobile phone battery

Description:

Stop calling yourself from home and let the phone ringing.
Don’t let your friends found a vibrator in your purse anymore.
If you can’t hide your vibrator as a phone, turn your phone into a vibrator!
With Masturbator Pro your mobile phone becomes an excellent self sex toy for ladies!

You just need to start the program, set the vibration type to Continuous, Alternating or Random, and that’s it!

Haha broken English!

Anyways i’d just like to point out some things:

• Your phone battery doesn’t last forever, so be conservative!
• Now you can be a smart arse and respond to parents and mentors that your phone IS a toy!
• Try experimenting with the different speeds and modes.
• This won’t work for all phones, and some phones you may have to set your phone profile from silent to general.
• Phone batteries only last for a couple of hundred charges… so if you find you’re charging your phone too often, it might be time to upgrade from your phone.

Anyway if you’re on your mobile phone, click the link below to download the application straight to your phone.  Or alternatively, download it to your computer and transfer it to your phone via email, USB cable, bluetooth, whatever!

Download link:
Mastubator Pro - 2.73Kb
Downloaded 38 time(s).

Regards,
Ben Ganley
20th of January, 2010

Intel’s Pentium 4 processor is now thankfully a thing of the past.  During the era of the Pentium 4 though, the chip was widely criticized as being hot, power hungry, and an all-round inefficient chip design.  In fact, the predecessor to the Pentium 4 was faster on a per-clock basis.

What does this mean?  If you get a Pentium 3 and a Pentium 4 side by side at the same speed (eg. 1.4ghz) then the Pentium 3 will nearly always come out on top.  Why?  Because the Pentium 3 is a more efficient chip, a better design, powered by a better underlying architecture (Microarchitecture).  Some analysts even say that in a worst case scenario, the Pentium 3 at 1.4ghz can compete with the first generation Pentium 4 (Willamette Core) at 2.0ghz - 2.1ghz.

Though it wasn’t all bad.  The Pentium 4 did bring some new technologies to the table which did increase performance, but were what i believe, simply applied to the wrong architecture.

On a 180nm manufacturing process, Intel was able to scale the first generation Pentium 4 up to 2ghz, whilst only scaling the last of the Pentium 3 cores (Tualatin) to 1.4ghz.  Why?  Intel stopped scaling the Pentium 3 core so that they wouldn’t make their flagship product, the Pentium 4, look bad.  How do we know this?  Well it is commonly known in the computing industry that as a rule of thumb, the smaller the manufacturing process, the higher the processor can scale in terms of clock frequency.

This is proven by Intel scaling the Pentium M to 1.7ghz with their 130nm manufacturing process… and this is a mobile chip meaning that it isn’t running at it’s full potential, but rather, a lesser speed to run cooler and consume less power to extend battery life.  Intel’s second generation Pentium 4 (Northwood core) was also based on a 130nm manufacturing process, but being a desktop processor rather than a laptop one, Intel could simply allow large coolers to be strapped down to their chips, allowing them to scale to nearly 3.5ghz at stock speed!

Now this isn’t to say that a Pentium 3 core could scale to nearly 3.5ghz… it wouldn’t get anywhere close to that.  Modifications to the core would be required to allow this, such as a lengthening of the pipeline (what Intel did with the Pentium 4) to allow for higher clock speeds, but in turn, less performance per clock due to a miss in branch prediction.  So you see, it’s not just the manufacturing process that determines the clock speed ceiling of a chip…

But even without a lengthened pipeline the chips still overclock (with less stability) anywhere up to 1.8ghz with the Tualatin core, depending on the chip being used… but more commonly around 1.6ghz is commonly achievable.

Long story short… i believe that Intel should have instead lengthened the pipeline by 2-5 stages increasing it to a 12 to 15 stage pipeline, with the SSE2 instruction set, and the quad-pumped bus essentially enabling 400-533mhz fsb on the 100-133mhz fsb chips.  Tualatin already had 512kb of L2 cache like Northwood (twice that of Willamette), and if it was to take anything from its successor chip the Pentium M (practically the design i’m talking about), then Intel could have strapped down 1-2mb of L2 cache onto these chips… which on a desktop platform with desktop cooling, could have scaled as well as the Northwood core did.

If Intel had of done this from the beginning, instead of having it’s ~5 year detour with the Netburst architecture, we would likely be a couple of years ahead in processing technology, maybe more.  And who knows, maybe AMD would have already gone under… their Athlon 64 architecture would have been competitive, but unable to beat the quad-pumped Pentium 3 architecture in desktop form that i speak of… which was AMD’s main period of success against Intel, due to their own stupid mistakes, and i say mistakes because i mean RDRAM and Netburst… but more on RDRAM another time.

I’d like to leave you today on the following note.  Intel’s line of Core 2 processors can essentially be traced back to their roots with the Pentium Pro back in 1995.  How?

Pentium Pro - Pentium 2 - Pentium 3 - Pentium M - Core - Core 2.

They’re all just a line of the same underlying architecture (P6) though with many vast improvements to the original core, and a renamed architecture ( to Core) in the case of Core 2 chips.  Intel probably even used Core 2 methodology for their Core i7 line of processors, and AMD’s Hypertransport and Integrated Memory Controller ideas also

Yes, the history of CPUs and Microarchitectures is a peculiar one, though interesting and could be talked about for days

Regards,
Ben Ganley
12th of January, 2010

Yesterday my Nokia 2730 classic decided that my security code wasn’t good enough for it anymore.  The security code is the code requested upon unlocking the keypad, which on my phone i have set to automatically lock after 30 seconds of inactivity.  This is a good feature because it doesn’t just stop your phone from making calls while bouncing around in your pocket, but it also protects your privacy from others.

Anyway as i was saying, my security code stopped working.  I entered it multiple times, only to be rejected.  I also tried every other code that i could think of, just in case i changed it and don’t remember doing so… but to no avail.  Even my girlfriend’s code didn’t work

So i hit Google.  I found many ‘Nokia Master Code Calculators’ which are supposed to generate a master security code (doesn’t work for PIN and PUK) by entering your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number.  I did this on about 10 calculators, and i guess they all share the same algorithm because each one gave me the same master code, which didn’t work either.  Mind you, some of the websites actually make you check a tick box stating that you agree you’re the legal owner of the phone, because you could have stolen someone’s and therefor you’re using their service for illegitimate purposes.

Of course i did all of this after calling my handset operator (Optus) who in turn did answer my customer service call late at night, because in india i presume it’s day time haha :P  They said they couldn’t really be of assistance and gave me Nokia’s customer care number.  They stated that their operating hours are between 8am and 8pm, but i called anyway.  The automated Nokia customer care section had an option for lost or forgotten security codes, so i chose that.

Turns out that all the security codes option does is state that if your default 12345 Nokia security code doesn’t work, you have to take it to your local Nokia care center and pay to have it fixed.  Well i don’t have a Nokia care center anywhere near where i live, so not very helpful at all i think.  I was also annoyed that i would have to pay to have my phone fixed after malfunctioning (?) on it’s own accord.

When i had just about given up hope, i found a hard to decipher Yahoo Answers question.  Turns out that all you have to do it press the # button on your keypad when you’re prompted for the security code, then the phone states code error (as it does with all incorrect codes).  Then you simply put in your actual security code (which is apparently no longer working) and you’re in!  All i can say about this is WTF Nokia…

The first thing i did following regaining access to my phone was disable security coded keypad lock ;)  I hope this post helps any other unfortunate people that have the same problem as i did in future.

Regards,
Ben Ganley
10th of January, 2010

Today While enjoying my usual rummage through the internet , i came across something interesting.  AMD’s K6-3 CPUs was the topic at hand i was reading about.  What was my interesting discovery?  I learnt that the undocumented and apparently demonstration-only AMD k6-3+ 550mhz chips were the last of the K6 range of CPUs.  Not only that, but they also mark the end the K6 micro-architecture, and represent the best of the CPUs that Super Socket 7 had to offer.  Apparently these chips are ‘ultra rare’ in regards to their availability, and it just so happens that i own one of these chips!

A few months ago i decided to start purchasing components to rebuild my first computer, get it running at it’s best with a lineup of new and speedy components (for it’s day and age).  I’m yet to purchase the FIC PA-2013 motherboard for the machine, but i do however already have the new CPU as stated above.

During the excitement of discovering how rare the chip is, i decided to take a photo and upload it to here, my blog… but i got carried away and took 9 photos of various hardware laying around my office.

Click here to visit the photos listed below.

This is in reverse order, as the phot album is displayed (yeah my photo album plugin is crazy )

9. Various Pentium 4, Core Duo, Pentium M, and Pentium 4 based Celeron.  Note that the IHS has been removed from a couple of the Pentium 4 during a previous experiment to test IHS implementation with mobile CPUs for desktop usage on MODT boards and CT-479 adapters.

8. A close-up shot of the Pentium 3 Tualatin under it’s heatsink fan. [Included For Kooby ]

7. Photo of my dual Pentium 3 Tualatin board.  Actually looking to upgrade this with a DDR socket 370 board from MSI which also supports overclocking. [Included For Kooby ]

6. FB-DDR2 800 (PC6400) memory for the Netburst Xeons on a seaburg chipset board (such as skulltrail).

5. A close-up shot of one the matching Xeon chips.  These are the top/end of the line NetBurst CPUs from Intel, codename Dempsey.

4. Matched Xeon 5080 & FB-DDR2.

3. AMD K6-3+ 550mhz

2. AMD K6-3+ 550mhz

1. Asus CT-479 adapter, for use on selected Asus socket 478 boards.  Allows the use of Banias and Dothan core Pentium M chips on the desktop platform - nice! 

Comments welcome.  Thanks for looking, Enjoy!

Regards,
Ben Ganley
7th of January, 2010

Did you know that with some games, there is software available to make your own custom maps?  Some people know this, others don’t.  Some of those that do know this, have made maps and do make maps, whilst some others that know of this map making software simply don’t bother.  The software used to make the maps depends on a few different variables… but it’s usually just the game and the engine that it runs on that determines this.

Once i got curious about making maps, so i decided to give it a try.  The game i was playing most regularly at the time was Counterstrike Source, which runs on the ‘Steam’ engine. The publisher of the game has released a map editor named Hammer in their SDK (Software Developers Kit) and is free for anyone to use.  So i made some stupid maps here and there.

One of the maps i made was considered ‘fun’ by my friends when they played it, so i built extensions into the game map… secret areas which allow either team to sneak in behind the enemy’s base.  For players who haven’t played my map and it’s extended version, you can simply find these areas by using the commonly known ‘noclip’ console command to fly around the map, through the walls and such to find the areas that I’ve just spoken of.

If you wish to try the map (awp station and the extension) i made, then please download it from the link below.

Download link:
Awp Station - 214Kb
Downloaded 25 time(s).

Regards,
Ben Ganley
30th of December, 2009

During the development of Windows Vista, Microsoft demonstrated some very cool features in their upcoming operating system.  These fancy features were usually demonstrated through either keynote presentations, publicly shared operating system (OS) builds, or OS builds that leaked to the internet from internal Microsoft employees.

Although i’ll probably go over this topic in greater detail at a later stage, i’d like to share one of these features with you today.

One of the Vista enthusiasts on the internet, who i believe goes by the alias ‘Ave’ has re-created what isn’t really a ‘feature’ so to speak, but it is a nice little effect/addition to Microsoft’s Vista operating system.  What is this little effect that i speak of?

Well, In Windows Vista when you click the start menu, you can see your user picture in the top right corner.  As you move your mouse over the various ‘places’ on the computer below this user picture, the user picture image will change with a fading effect.  Microsoft originally demonstrated this user picture to be a 3D slightly rotating picture, which changes (fades) as the user moves their mouse cursor over the ‘places’ listed below this image.

Ave has effectively coded this feature back into Vista with a small application he (or she?) has created, named 3duserpic.  To download this program to try for yourself, click the download link below.

Download link:
Ave 3d User Pic - 289Kb
Downloaded 30 time(s).

To install the application, you must first unzip the .zip file with a utility such as 7Zip.  Then you can simply run the 3duserpic.exe application on your vista machine, and from what i remember, this doesn’t require a restart and you can see the application working in the start menu right away!

If you would like this to run automatically when you start your computer,  create a shortcut to 3duserpic.exe and drag it to your start menu > all programs > startup.  Once the shortcut is placed in the startup folder, the application will run automatically each time you start your computer.  To disable this from happening, simply delete the shortcut you have placed in the startup folder.

Enjoy!  And Merry Christmas for tomorrow

Regards,
Ben Ganley
24th of December, 2009

PS.  This may work for Windows 7 due to Vista and 7 sharing the same underlying OS architecture and Aero user interface (UI)… but i am doubtful, so try this on Windows 7 at your own risk!

Well lately I’ve been rather busy doing things here and there. Due to this, I’ve been a lazy blogger and haven’t posted any new content. Anyway i’d like to thank you for your patience by presenting you with a little YouTube video of mine, named Prank Calls 2008.

This video originally got me suspended from school for 4 weeks… mind you that was Term 4 of Grade 12… essentially 5 week Term. Why was i suspended? Because the video introduction displays myself in my school shirt… in my own house… in my own time. And yes, i was suspended without warning, months after the video went live. Not exactly what i’d call fair (in the least)… but anyway, here it is, so enjoy!

Regards,
Ben Ganley
23rd of December, 2009

Sony’s new PlayStation 3 sports a new user interface which completely replaces the older one used on the PlayStation 2.  This new interface is called XrossMediaBar, or XMB for short.  XMB is very attractive in regards to it’s aesthetics, and is easy enough for your grandma to use.

Originally used on the Sony PSX which is a digital video recorder, it was ported to the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and from there it was added to the PlayStation 3.  The PSP and PS3 versions of XMB sport an animated ‘waves’ wallpaper which changes color and brightness depending on the time of day, week, and month.

For those of you who are running Windows Vista Ultimate, or have ported the Vista Ultimate Extra named ‘Dreamscene’ to your Windows 7 installation, you can now have this animated ‘waves’ wallpaper too.

Dreamscene is an extra only provided to Windows Vista Ultimate users which allows you to use video files for the wallpaper on your computer.  Some Vista users have ported this Ultimate exclusive feature into the other additions of Vista and Vista’s successor, Windows 7.

So if you’ve read this far, i guess you’re wondering where the Dreamscene video files can be downloaded from.  Well, on my daily internet journeys i came across a couple of websites offering different color variations of the ‘waves’ animated wallpaper for download.  See the following links.
http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-3-General-Discussion/XMB-waves-videos-for-Vista-animated-desktops/m-p/8270439

and

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3media&message.id=156992

Before downloading, please note that these video files are high definition 3 minute loops that weigh about 200mb each.

I’ve downloaded all the different color variations, so if the links ever go down, then just ask me to upload whichever ones you want, and i’ll be sure to do so.

On a side note, i find it interesting that these video files are a 3 minute loop.  Why?  Because the little lights that float around at the PlayStation 2’s main menu are on a 3 minute animation loop also.  I’ll explain how i know that in another blog post, at a later date.

Enjoy your new animated wallpapers.

Regards,
Ben Ganley
17th of December, 2009