She loves me, she loves me not!

I usually hate services such as this one but they most certainly turn out the most profitable ones. I have several ideas such as these but I loathe them to much to implement them.

It is simple to use. First, you get an account at their web page. Then you call them and give them the number you want to call. They connect you to the number you want to call and record the call. Then they analyze the person you wanted to talk to using a system called SENSE (I have no idea how this system does it, the web page is a very light on the details,) and they give you a report on how much the person you called loves you!

I am skipping the privacy concerns (recording a call without notifying both parties is probably illegal) but this is an extremely simple and lucrative business idea. No one is going to blame you if you make up the records and no one who is dumb enough to use this system will ask about the technical details about this SENSE system.

If you give this system a try, please drop a note here and let me know if it's any good.

The best cooling method ever!

No comment!!


This really is a cool idea! Get a nice big aquarium, fill it with non-conducting oil instead of water and dump your PC in it! The oil cools your PC and you get a nice see-through case, sort of! Too bad you can't have some fish swimming in it..

The owner's page has a lot of pictures if you want to see more.

Get notified when your friends are around

I thought a lot about this idea for a long time. Imagine a system that notifies you if your friends are somewhere near. I thought about how to implement this before there were bluetooth enabled phones, but sms wasn't dirt cheap back then and after bluetooth was introduced, I fiddled with BT a bit to see if it could be implemented.

Dodgeball does it the easy way, they use e-mail over sms network. You write your location and send it to them by e-mail using your cell. They send this message to your friends and your friends' friends who are also logged in to the system. If you are close to a friends' friend, it even sends your pictures to each other so that you can meet each other.

It is a simple and efficient system. It shouldn't be too hard to implement on any given GSM network. If somebody gets the idea and implements it in Turkey, I bet they will be swimming in cash shortly..

Currently this system only works in select cities in the USA but they just partnered with Google and they probably will expand soon.

Dodgeball's interesting logo.. I wonder why they named it Dodgeball..

Simple cellphones at last!

Almost all new phones in the market today are bloated with cameras and other useless features, color screens, and expensive. Many people need simple GSM phones! There are the not-so-young people who cannot figure out complex gadgets and there are those who cannot afford expensive gadgets. It is not just about being tech-savvy or not being able to afford either. I have friends who already have a lot of gadgets and they don't need a bulky pda+camera+phone in addition to their laptops, PSPs and digital cameras.

Vodaphone and Sagem finally got the idea and started offering nice looking phones that are simple to use and have good stand-by times. The phones are relatively cheap and they are given away free if you choose the right plan.

Check out the BBC story and the pictures for more detail. I hope somebody gets the hint in Turkey soon! I know a lot of people who use old models just because they are simple to use.

Nice big phone.. Seems simple to use with its big buttons.


The black version

Finally a truly mobile PC!

I actually had thought of something like this a few months ago.

A company called Modular Computing came up with the following idea:

Instead of a laptop/notebook/pda to carry around; build a PC core that can be hooked different shells to act as a notebook/handheld/desktop.

The Modular PC and its many applications


MC has realized this idea with its Modular PC Core; a 129 x 74 x 18.7 mm component containing a 1 GHz low power consumption CPU, 256 MBs of RAM and a 20 GB HDD. The core by itself is useless, it has no screen, keyboard or any other user interface. It does not contain any power supply or battery either.

The core component of the Modular PC


MC also designed shells for different uses. There is a desktop shell which contains keyboard/mouse/USB/PCMCIA ports and can be connected to a monitor of your choice. There is a handheld shell which enables the core to be used via touchscreen. There is a notebook shell still in the designing stages. There might even be a wearable version that would enable you to integrate the core to your work clothes.

The desktop station without the core


The Modular PC in its Tablet PC form


Of course there are better notebook, tablet and desktop designs in the market but the beauty of this design is that if you choose the Modular PC, you don't have to synchronize your data back and forth between different computers. You literally take all of your data along with your computer! When you switch from the notebook shell to the desktop, all you have to do is to plug-in the core to another shell. When you turn it on, it is the same computer! Upgrading becomes incredibly simple and cost-efficient as well! Simply upgrade the Core to a new model and you upgrade all your computers at the same time!..

Unfortunately, MC is a small firm and they can't manufacture/promote/sell enough of these to cut down the costs and prices to a reasonable level yet. Still, this is a great idea and I believe that someday, we will all use computers in this fashion.

115.2 GHz cluster!!

This is over the top, even for this blog!
96 processors in this (relatively) small box!


This relatively small case in the picture contains 96 CPUs! There are other clusters out there but this is a turn-key Linux based cluster from Orion Multisystems. It uses Fedora C2 with kernel v2.6.6 and comes with quite a few development tools preinstalled. It weighs 75 KGs and has 95 1.2 GHz CPUs in it. I have no idea where they installed 96 CPUs in such a box, I'll leave it up to you to figure it out. I also didn't check the price, I'm not sure if I can handle such a huge price..

You can check the specifications here: DS-96 Specifications

Time travelers welcome

This is a funny one.. Some students at MIT decided to organize a time travellers convention! They announced this everywhere they could so that its existence could be known as far into the future as possible.

Last I heard, no time travelers came.. But it was still a nice party after all.
Time travelers welcome!

Expensive PC cooling

This is just the opposite of the previous post: Special made, top of the line, expensive cooling! Water cooling for modding enthusiasts has been around for a while but this is one step better; the system uses liquid metal as the cooling fluid. The press release is a little bare with the details but it still seems like a better idea as liquid metal is a better conductor for heat than water anyway.

Seems like any other liquid cooling system, but...

Cheap HDD cooling

If you like modding your computer or if you have a few hard drives you know coolong your harddisk(s) is neither cheap or easy. There a few options to choose from but none of them are this easy!

Go to any hardware store and buy a half inch bracket. I don't know how to describe a bracket and if you don't know what it is, here is a clue:
The bracket


Then buy/steal/salvage (from an old computer) a nice big fan. Screw the fan to the bracket and then the bracket to the harddisk.
Our dirt cheap bracket + our cheap fan

Fan mounted on the harddisk

Fits into the case quite nicely


You have to admit that it is an effective and cheap solution. Here is the inventor.

Sea Code - an insane idea that just might make sense

If you have huge amounts of money to invest, this might be a nice idea to copy.. Certainly out of my budget, but I might consider working in one.

There is a huge debate in the States about pros and cons of outsourcing to offshore companies. The countries are too far, the company does not have enough control over offshore workers, the amount of money that goes into other countries is huge and so on. Two guys had an idea: Buy a huge cruiser, park (or anchor) it in international waters as close as possible to the shore and fill it with coders!
The cruiser

Not instant success yet, but the idea is sure valid. It negates just about all the cons of outsourcing. They don't have any customers yet but they are recruiting. Check out their website if you are interested.
The location, 2 miles from LA

Connect them all

One of these days I'm just going to buy a few cheap used computers and build myself a network. Actually I have no practical need for a network whatsoever but it would be nice to have one :) And I should work on my network installation knowledge.

I could use an old Pentium MMX machine as a linux router. With some work, any linux distro may be configured to route and prioritize any incoming and outgoing traffic in a network. If you don't like linux, you may

1. Get Windows and pay $$s for some 3rd party software or
2. Get a basic, simple and decent Cisco router for lots of $$s.

Setting a linux based router would also give me a chance to learn linux installation and configuration properly. It's unfortunate that no matter how much I dislike Windows, I have neither the time or the patience to switch to linux, but to set up the router I would gladly work on linux as long as necessary.

(Details on the rest of the network to follow...)

Dancing MIT

Firts of all, I don't really want this one. I'm not into dancing but it certainly is a cool project which uses current and readily available technology. It costs $2500 but it's one of its kind, so it's not that expensive.

Enough detail: Some students at MIT have designed and built the USB Disco Dance Floor! It's got computer controllable lights (1536 of them) and colors and may be controoled by any computer with a USB port.
Dance floor in checkers configuration

As I said, it's not my thing but it shows what else can be done with simple materials and a little imagination.
Dance floor in spiral form

A very sweet mainboard

This is nothing new but I had to start somewhere and what better place to start than the components of a dream machine.

Here is an amazing mainboard: MSI K8N SLI Platinum.
My current favorite: MSI K8N SLI Platinum

Let's break the name up:

MSI: One of the best motherboard manufacturers in the world. They have been known to screw up now and then but tell me one board manufacturer that has not.

K8N: 8th Generation CPU support. Forget about Intel's new overpriced and overhyped 64 bit CPUs, 8th gen CPU means AMD64.

SLI: Here is the sweet part. SLI means Scalable Link Interface, doesn't ring a bell, right? What SLI really means is you can use two graphic cards in parallel on this motherboard! Of course there are certain limits to what you can do and it's expensive as hell right now but who cares!
The SLI logo


Platinum: This means that the board in question has all the bells and whistles a motherboard can have.

SLI has been overhyped and overcriticised but it has its advantages. It may not be a cheap solution, it does not work with every graphic card, and it does not work in most games but still it works in a lot of games that matter and it automatically supports four monitor configurations. And you don't have to buy two expensive graphic cards at once! Buy a nice graphic card now, and buy the other one whenever you have the money :)
For more info on SLI, read this.

So, in short, if I wanted to build a great system, this would be the mainboard in it.

Good morning

Hi.. I just decided to make a list of the stuff I wish I could learn or build. Simple as that.. "Stuff" includes anything and everything, mods, hacks, operating systems, computer and human languages, electronics and definitely computers.

This first post will be the one and only in which I may go into whining mode. Although I really really really really really really would like to learn/have the stuff listed here, I don't have the time or the funds or both for most of them. I work (at desktop and printer support), I go to school (3 evenings a week) and most of important of all, I watch. A lot! So I just don't have the time. I will not go into the financial reasons. They are simply boring. I do not plan to go into why I can't have this or that ever again.

But never mind!.. Suffice it to say, I will post here stuff that makes me envy and I will explain why you should feel the same as well.

See you later..