Windows Solutions

• Use ether of these two open source CPU frequency control applications to maximize battery life by restricting your CPU multiplier speed. Remember though there is fine line between extending the race to idol so much that it uses more power in the lengthened process time than your CPU’s/Fans to at full with dynamic switching to begin with. Rightmark CPU Clock Utility is the more advanced and lightweight but much less user friendly so I prefer Notebook Hardware Control as it has broader control over the computer and is easier to use but uses about a third more system resources.
  Rightmark [cpu.rightmark.org]
  NHC [www.pbus-167.com]
• Run a cache Ramdisk for certain write heavy applications, which can speed up the system a lot and enables the HDD to remain spun-down for longer periods. Firefox Guide Here.
• Use free lightweight alternatives like many Linux distributions do such as Rulesplayer for video(XP Only), Foobar2000 for music, Chrome for browsing(Chrome does peak my CPU more than Firefox when first loading a page but is lighter throughout and much faster),  Microsoft Security Essentials for protection, Foxit Reader for PDF’s, 7zip for RAR/ZIP extraction.
• Turn off unnecessary services/chipsets for Webcams ect. With applications such as Ecobatt if it supports your laptop if not learn to build your own scripts with Microsoft Devcon.
  Devcon [support.microsoft.com]
  EcoBatt [www.s10lenovo.com]
• Disable unnecessary services. If you don’t want to play in the scary Microsoft services control panel and have a easy undo button give Game Booster a go.[www.iobit.com]
• Defragment your HDD to reduce seek time allowing it to finish its task and Spin-down earlier.
  The tools you want to do this with are first pagedefrag from Microsoft sysinternals as this allows you to defragment your pagefile, Microsoft Bootvis to arrange all your system and start up applications on the fastest outer rings of your HDD. Following these set up scheduled maintenance with either MyDefrag/Ultimate Defrag Freeware Edition
  PageDefrag [technet.microsoft.com]
  Bootvis [majorgeeks.com]
• Slowing down your optical drive as you would for watching a movie silently on a laptop can also be power saving for low access tasks. An advanced to try this with is Nero Tool Kit [www.cdspeed2000.com]
• Underclocking/disabling your graphics card fans when in 2D mode if it supports it and controlling your case/system fan speeds with Speedfan if you know how hot your system can comfortably get while remaining stable and queit can save power. New Nvidia cards support powersaving modes and user profiles can be made to enhance upon this with RivaTuner.
  Speedfan [www.almico.com]
  RivaTuner [www.guru3d.com]
• Uninstall any unnecessary bloat from you system with Revo-Uninstaller and open Run and launch msconfig to stop any applications you don’t frequently use or require from auto-starting at boot.
• I also optimize my registry by removing empty spaces/unused blocks using RegCompactPro which speeds up PageDefrags job and give the PC a monthly clean with ISysCleaner Pro which normally finds a few more files than the popular CCleaner but is a bit slower.

Lastly I have some old(Year Old) fast USB flash-drives that actually made a difference to Windows 7 as dedicated readyboost drives. Now XP users can emulate and actually drastically improve upon this sudo raid 0 access to system files using ebooster but I found the programme caused BSOD’s with anti-virus database files miss-matching with the threaded reading so use this at your own peril but its Ramdisk tool works honestly fantastically with Firefox. If you are really after super-fast read/write times though a cheapish option is the iRAM PCI-Express Ramdisk from Gigabyte for the PC. But as a poor student I’ll stick with the free open source optimizations to make me happy!

Linux Solutions

Switch To a lightweight distro such Crunchbang Linux Lite 9.04.01 (very fast/lightweight Openbox distro) or WattOS RC1(Power conserving distro) if its to minimal for you. While these both may be Ubuntu based distributions, which doesn’t by any means give them the lightweight pedigree of a complete distribution such as Arch Linux or the efficiency of a personally compiled Gentoo Installation. The Linux giant Ubuntu has however made drastic improvements in performance with its 9.04 base and mostly sustained them with 9.10 which gives reason to stick with the hardware/user friendly platform as it no longer falls really that far behind the aforementioned distros!

For those of you who are interested an external look at Ubuntu performance gains/losses over the last few years releases have been graphed here in a great article by Tux Radar [www.tuxradar.com] Though the two derivative distributions above go just that little bit further and put the apparent official lightweight respin of Ubuntu, Xubuntu to shame!

CrunchBang Linux goes down very well with performance Linux users who don’t like squandering their computer resources on the OS, enabling them to feed all their systems remaining power back into the task you set out to do with its applications. This means it is great for gaming and RAM munching photo editing apps (Though to make Gimp windows usable on its Openbox window manger its best to install version 2.7 snapshot and use single window mode). Crunchbang achieves its snappy responsive feel by using a lot of customized scripts by its dedicated user community to execute system functions verses relying on a big heavily featured window/system management systems. Now if you add this to the fact it also uses very lightweight default applications its a dark little speed demon on even the oldest setup. The OS only requires 256MB Ram for the live CD and 500MHZ CPU. There is two things you need to do to switch this system from a performance geeks OS to a frugal laptop OS and the first is simply disable the desktop monitor Conky as this causes frequent but negligible CPU and HD activity. Second is install WattOSPM which is a GUI power management application for setting the terminal tools Laptop-mode-tools, x-backlight and powersaving values! This is a fab tool once you learn all the correct settings to control/disable your hardware saving a few extra precious watts of charge!

A fairly lengthy review of WattOSPM on the older WattOS Beta 2 Distro release was done by Raiden a while back and helps to explain how to use the GUI [www.raiden.net] while we wait for a more complete guide than the breif explanation in the documents folder after installation. The demon can be installed on any Ubuntu based OS and a guide on how to do this can be found here [www.ubuntuforums.org].

OK now following your choice of lightweight Linux OS you can also apply these extra tweaks to increase your mobile uptime.

• Install cpufreq-selector (Which in vanilla Ubuntu can also enable CPU frequency switching within Gnome Panel Frequency Monitor). Do this carefully as there is a fine line between saved cpu/fan volts and extending the ‘race to idol’ excessively if you are using CPU hogging apps. How to install on Ubuntu [www.ubuntugeek.com]
• Use a Ramdisk for any frequently caching applications like Firefox to prevent the HD spinning up/writing!
• Search out hardware control/disabling scripts for popular netbooks/laptops where you can save a couple of watts turning of webcams ect. at chipset level these can be found on the Easy Peasy/Cruncheee forums for many netbooks.
• Install Intel PowerTop for a user-friendly tool that monitors each and every application and tells you which of them are causing your computer to waste power waking it unnecessarily from idol states. It also provides you with tuning suggestions to achieve low battery power consumption. The solutions for the software it identifies as problematic can be found on Intel’s Project site. [www.lesswatts.org]

Shockingly Ubuntu hasn’t really done much to improve power management on its OS surely slowing its growth as the go to Linux as it has placed it as a low priority issue (Lauchpad Blueprint) so most of the recent improvements to Linux power management is actually thanks to the work done by Powertop helping developers improve their software and the paired work by the Kernel developers to rectify this situation between more important upstream fixes! Personally I ask why spend so much time brownifying a desktop interface if people don’t get much of a chance to use it because your OS squanders the systems battery so much!

Before I start, my view on Linux is that its is all about choice and that is reflected in the fact that use so many different distros but its rapid growth or should I say overcrowded diversity often leads me to find few ever really have the user/developer backing to really form Linux into something palatable to the average PC user. Thankfully some are taking the time to experiment with the usability of Linux as a desktop OS such as Mint/Moblin/xPud and I hope their efforts make some headway into seeing its market share improve from around 1%. Still I must credit Ubuntu for helping Linux reach that milestone to begin with, but OSX 10.6 is still my main OS as it is simply still easier to use, So I hope they take note of the work being done by its many forks and brings their improvements home to its dominating Linux user base as it seems to have the best chance at being noticed by Apple/Windows users and therefore really needs to set Linux in a reliable modern light.

Anyway back to topic, here is a brief List of which Linux OS I use and why

WattOS RC1 = Laptop Linux. WattOS’s unique feature is the WattOSPM (Power Manager) which is a much needed GUI to a series of Linux demons/tools to help optimize your laptop to run more battery friendly, which when accompanied by its fast lightweight app choices provides a system suitable for prolonged work on the go without sacrificing all of Ubuntu’s native functionality/compatibility.

WattOSPM is installed by default but needs enabling, so go to the Menu – Preferences – Users and Groups – Unlock(Admin Mode) and add your user login profile to the “powermanagers” group. Save the change and restart to access its icon (Lightning Bolt).

It supports Flash straight away which is always a nice addition and includes Remastersys a very useful tool for gun-ho tinkerers like myself called  to create a Live DVD version of your system once you have finished setting it up to allow a easy complete restoration installation should your OS get borked beyond repair or a HDD fail. NOTE: If you have a old computer or laptop that you would like to see if you can give a new lease of life without a hardware upgrade with Linux I would recommend WattOS over Xubuntu any day as I’ve found it actually usable on systems as low as 600MHZ and 192MB RAM unlike the officially supported supposedly lightweight derivative of Ubuntu. Though if you are really after speed I would recommend looking at Arch Linux or if you don’t want to leave Ubuntu’s good hardware support Crunchbang Linux.

xPud 0.9.2 = Windows Accompanying Instant On OS. To me Instant on OS’s are the future of Linux beyond its use in embedded hardware and most likely to succeed in the short term till Windows sorts this 30sec+ start up wait. I believe this because they are mainly just trying to fix one of windows problems its slow boot speed preventing quick access to the internet and not trying to tackle all its ill’s. xPud’s Installer works with Windows XP/Vista/7 without any partitioning to your drive making it perfect for Linux novices and it adds itself as a selection to the Windows boot.ini preventing the need to install Grub making them feel uneasy.

I turned to Linux in first place in search of a faster alternative to WinXP as I imagine many users do, and for playing videos/browsing xPud in 8 sec’s has me covered. While its Min requirements are 1GHZ processor and 256MB RAM, most internet use today is media heavy and therefore encounters Flash. The problem is though Flash Performance on Linux is pitiful so for smooth BBC iPlayer playback eg. you are looking at 1.2GHZ realistically and 2GHZ+ for HD. I also suggest installing the Ad-block Firefox add-on to eliminate wasting CPU power on Flash ad’s which helps speed up the Mozilla based OS to to feel more competitive against modern WebKit based browsers.

Tiny Core Linux 2.7 = 10MB Ram loaded OS For Old PC’s. Tiny Core Linux is really for the Linux hobbyists as it only supports limited hardware out of the box (No Wifi) but it is the smallest Linux distribution I know that still has a basic desktop interface and it works incredibly fast with the dependency free Opera Browser. It has a simple application repository with all the Linux favorites so you can can literally add just what you want/need but with a GUI interface unlike other base distributions which start being built from terminal. TinyCore supports installing and running in persistence mode making it my current Pen Drive Linux. Now for those of you into tiny lightweight OS’s look at SliTaz and MenuetOS 64Bit too. NOTE: Chromium doesn’t load on the current release and on two of my systems sound playback from Flash is crackly with the current OSS package.

Slax 6.1.2 = Introduction USB Linux. My first ever Linux experience was with a Slax 4.2 Live CD and My Slax builder application on Windows and it was fantastic. Today Slax has now taken this modular customization further now and integrated it into a brilliant online Web Builder. The benefit of this is you can download pre-customized OS image including your selected collection of software packages for your portable needs for a USB with persistence support or legacy Live CD/DVD. As a result you get a complete OS that’s perfect for you without the hassle of snooping through the repositories post installation and from an easily navigable online store of software. Personally I would recommend Ubuntu for its documentation or Slax for its Windows like KDE layout to any new Linux user as they help smooth the bumpy ride and avoid the scary terminal with GUI’s until your comfortable to use it.

Ubuntu Studio 8.04.1 64Bit LTS = Desktop Linux Design Studio. The household family desktop needs to be reliable for all our work needs. I found that stability in Ubuntu Studio LTS which sits happily alongside Windows 7 for my daily design work when I want to try a new open source 3D tool as I cant afford its Windows equivalent. I use the LTS releases as I don’t want to have to worry about messing about with the family files/ tweak system settings every 6 months when I have a job to do (Plus I dislike the 9.10 theme, but that’s irrelevant). Though only problem with the installation is that is text based and this is a bit discerning to some Windows users who have never installed an OS and are afraid it will overwrite their Windows install but they need to worry the installation is almost as easy as an LiveCD’s.

What sets Ubuntu Studio apart from its mainstream brother is the realtime kernel which is optimized low latency sound playback with audio editing software and its extensive pre-configured/linked creative based software. It is important to make sure to download the proprietary graphics drivers for your GPU if you do any form of 3D design on Linux as I have found the Open Source alternatives for Nvidia very ill-performing. I don’t currently own a ATI card so I cant comment as to their performance but imagine the same is true, therefore it would be wise to try both if your going to be relying on it daily.

Ubuntu PPC 7.04 = iMac Print Server/Web Radio. My very first Mac is very precious to me and as a result hard to throw away but its lacking Mac OS 9.2 is useless today. So Instead of throwing the system out I converted it to Linux with an Ubuntu 7.04 PPC Live CD years ago which worked out great, PPC was then subsequently dropped by Ubuntu that month and it became a community supported port platform. This inadvertently resulted in the release quality dropping slightly and the next working release (At-least for iMac G3) came with 8.10 Alternative .

The current PPC 9.10 Alternative installs fine on my system and boots almost as fast as 7.04, but the communities decision to speed up graphical rendering on my original iMac by dropping the screen bit depth from 24Bit to 16Bit isn’t really to my taste as it cant play videos anyway so destroying its GUI/ Photo displaying abilities was kind of pointless and I decided against looking even into how to fix as it feels sluggish compared to 7.04 which performs admirably considering the iMac G3 has 350MHZ CPU and 320MB of RAM. Having tried 4 different distributions the aging Ubuntu PPC 7.04 is best so far but is leaving the iMac at risk of being dumped again as its support is disappearing (Ideas Anyone?)

OpenPMA V0.2 =Improved ArchosPMA400 OS (Replaced by an iPhone 3GS now as my PMP, but a true Linux fan would have replaced with the Ubuntu freindly OpenPandora) OpenPMA enable it to act as a silent 30GB Divx/Xvid/MP3/WMA/FLAC friendly media center via its TV out, USB LAN dongle with (SMB4pma ‘Samba’ network file sharing) and dock remote. Admittedly it’s Opera Internet Browser is unusable and closer to WAP on a 150MHZ processor, but Flash free RSS reading is fine with Corsair. Console emulation is possible with MediOS and its VNC Viewer can also double as an extra touchscreen PC monitor when used in conjunction with ZoneOS Virtual Screen and TightVNC (Screen Selector Tool) on windows. Around 300 applications are available for the device and while development to the platform is pretty much stagnant if you are an embedded Linux fan its a very cheap toy to pick up and hack away at!

As this is a bit of an obscure OS I’m going to link to useful documentation on how to install OpenPMA at Pointlisse and I recommend using latest nightly build (Extract With 7zip) Nightly Builds. You can get the packaged apps from 1 2 3 4 5 Repository of software to convert 1

Right there we go hope I didn’t bore to much, and as to how long each will last on my systems who knows change is all part of the fun of Linux and I look forward to seeing what develops of Chrome OS and if Google will smartly design it to accompany and improve Win/Mac as a quick booting chain-loading OS for net while we wait.

1. Photographers Case – 3GS Factron Quattro Case – Features a very strong aluminium protective case with a screw mount fitting for a range of lenses to enhance the shooting ability of the 3G+ with Macro/Wide Angle/Fisheye though results are best with the 3GS and the lower distortion Wide Angle lenses.

2. Apple Fanboy Case – Felt Mac Classic Slip On

3. Gamers Case – Mophie Juice Pack Air Case – The worlds thinnest rechargeable external iPhone battery Case. It more than doubles the life of the iPhone from a single charge enabling you to game just that little bit longer. Also it converts the iPhone port to the universal mini USB for charging and connectivity which is a useful touch if you carry lots of other gizmos that use the universal format.

PS. Coming Soon though is the iControlPad Case which might just take the Gamers case crown as it makes games such as Quake considerably more playable by your fingers not interfering with your view of the game!

4. Music Lovers Case – IPOW Flip Case With Speaker – This case has a rear set of stereo speakers to work in unison with the included 2 in the iPhone and also like the Mophie includes an external rechargeable battery to help keep your iphone and the extra speakers going as a miniature boombox for the life of the party. This would be perfect for festival goers who are willing to take functionality over aesthetics. The Flip down screen protection is a nice addition though as it can double as a stand that is missing in many more expensive cases.

5. Budget Student Case – Qubits Soft Touch Hybrid Shell Case Skin – This good quality rubber case is an absolute bargain as it also includes an touch through overlay film to protect the screen from key scratches ect. in your pocket giving your iPhone complete protection for just over £5

6. Designer Case – The Walkman is my personal favourite arty case from the collection on etsy, but I love lots of the cases from the talented artists on there. So here is a bonus top 15 handmade artistic iPhone cases as this is a design based site! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

7. Waterproof Case – Otterbox Armor Case – The only useable hard waterproof case for the iPhone on the market at a price that reflects this, therefore the simpler and cheap Aquapac bubble case is good solution if you just need a temporary solution for a dive ect. but it isn’t touch friendly or strong. Now back to the Otterbox Amour Case, it is one of the strongest cases on the market featuring an inner shock cage and external clam housing with tightly fitted rubber seals that enable a watertight seal on the iphone to 1m. The case isn’t particularly popular though due to it very bulky size and limited waterproofing depth and has become superseded by Otterbox’s equally strong but sleeker Defender case shown below, the trade off though is that it is only water resistant.

Otterbox 3GS Defender Case – The leading high impact protective iPhone case on the market, featuring the same inner shock cage and rubber grips of it older brother in a much thinner design for the construction site. The only drawback is its external badly designed belt holster box which includes a screen protector but allows the phone to fall out if you lean over as it doesn’t grip the the great Defender case.

8. Geek Case – WildCharger Conductive Charge Pad & Case

9. Modder Case – iCustom Transparent iPhone Body – Image from the great Gizmodo – This Russian iPhone body replacement is popular in the moding community to show off what changes you have made to your phone, as it allows complete visual access to the internals of the iPhone without sacrificing the phones form factor.

10. Emergency/ Traveller Case – MobileFun Solar Charging Case – The priceless little gem which is very hard to get hold of now can fully charge your iPhone in just over 3 hours of sunlight thanks to an integrated solar panel on the screen cover. This case would be perfect to people going on hiking trips as the GPS will never leave the phone out of juice, helping your stay on your plotted route 24/7. I seriously hope another company starts producing a similar case soon and for the same bargain price MobileFun did as I cant see who wouldn’t want to never have to worry about an important call going dead because you forgot to top up the charge on the phone before you left for work in the morning.

11. WTF Case – Noreve Diamond Leather Case – If you have the money to burn on the App I’m Rich then this case is the perfect accompaniment even if it does looks this bad wih 272 diamonds.

12. Rural Dwellers Case – Griffin Clearboost Case – Griffin have done something very useful for those who frequently suffer dropped calls because of spotty coverage on their forced contract network. Without requiring you to remove or modify any part of your iPhone you can enjoy increased call reception and reduced data packet loss by just poping on this case.

13. Clubbers Case – Jailbreak iPhones only – SnaptureFlash Case – This case works in conjuction with the unofficial iPhone App Snapture on a jailbroken iPhone and can synchronize the cases Xenon flash to go off with the full screen shutter making your nightclub drunken photos much more reliable! This case is a must if you are already jailbreaker as it is fairly cheap and fixes one of the most serious design flaws in the current 3GS!

14. Video Lovers Case – iClooly Clip Case – This simple case takes the classic belt clip and turns it into a stand. The clip can also rotate 90 degrees in either direction to enable the stand to work in landscape mode for video. This case is really useful for people who use photo screensaver App’s or leave a calender App open 24/7.

15. Minimalist Professional Case – IvySkin Reflectscreen 3G – This mirror finish screen protecting film is simple and stylish way to protect you iPhone without tarnishing Apples designers efforts in creating a sleek sexy device. The mirror effect is only visible in certain light and a select angles so it doesn’t interfere with your use of the phone but to improve your security for onlookers either side of you it does. Women will love this film as it provides an inconspicuous pocket mirror to use anywhere without giving away their OCD vanity checks!

Unfortunately many computer users do not take this same approach to respecting other parties work which has forced companies into justly protecting the propertry content, but their methods have always been wrong, especially with these ridiculous unskipable anti-piracy propaganda adverts on DVD’s you have ‘purchased’ appear to have taken the same misguided stance on the problem for years as shown below. They have become such an annoyance that when combined with honest peoples daily tasks being hindered by bloaty DRM laden software this leaves users riled up at these compainies so much that it just invokes the desire to pirate mediocre but necessary bloaty utilitys as they don’t feel worth the financial reimbursement . Ironically the comedy industry now parodies these lame retaliations and It is only fair that I include its views on the problem.

So here are 3 piracy videos. The first shows an early attempt at informing people of the crime of software piracy, the second shows todays MPAA’s modern retake on the crime of movie piracy with some added external statistics to see how this affects your feelings towards the apparently suffering movie industry. Lastly we have Futurama’s ironic response to the terrible methods still used today to stop piracy, as its return to the television is mildly credited to the shows pirated success on the internet revealing to the broadcasting networks the publics desire for the show to return to the airwaves and its financial value.

They are about all sorts, So just keep an eye out towards the end of the week.

Priorities first though, designing a working site so back to work sorry!