A little bit about benchmarking

Today i will write about benchmarking as i promised before,,,

Benchmark is a process of determining the capacity of our system, in this writing, the system will be a computer, but actually it can be anything that could be measured.

Benchmarking in computer is mainly divided into three kind
1. Synthetic benchmarking
2. Game Benchmarking
3. Real World Benchmark

The most popular benchmark among that three is the synthetic benchmark. it also has a lot of variant. Synthetic benchmark is a benchmark taken with some benchmark software. The most popular software used for synthetic benchmarking are for example, 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage, Sysmark, SiSoft Sandra, SuperPi, WinRAR, PC Wizard, HDTach, HDTune and etc. They all have different testing pattern and also different speciallity. 3DMark is a software for testing the capability of a graphic card to accelerate a game. It uses Graphic card the most beside of CPU. SuperPi is for testing CPU performance. It makes the CPU count the decimal place of Pi(22/7) until a certain digit, and it count the time needed to finish the calculation. In this case it determine the CPU performance in the relation with the processor cache. The shorter the time needed to finish the calculation, the better CPU it is. SiSoft Sandra is global tester for all the part of computer. It could also compare our result with the saved result of a lot of system. It could test the memory, the Hard disk, the Processor, and etc

Game benchmarking is now pretty popular since new game require a lot of resource and better system. For example, F.E.A.R, Quake 4, Crysis, Company of Heroes and etc. They have a benchmarking system that provided to test how far our system can run the game. Crysis have two benchmark in the game. One is the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) benchmark and the other is the CPU benchmark. The GPU benchmark is mainly benchmark the GPU, how can it shader the object, how far could the GPU maintain the frame rate. Generally the result for GPU benchmarking is shown in FPS (Frame per Second) or most well known as frame rate. The higher the Frame rate, the smoother the display, and the better we play a game.

Now we come to the last main kind of benchmark, the real world benchmark. This benchmark complete the other two benchmark. A benchmark is not more than simulation, and a simulation is never the same as the real one. Then to proof the simulation, we need to use it, and feel ourself the performance. This benchmark discussed a lot for its subjectives. The benchmark is depend on who held the benchmark, so this benchmark result is not very comparable but still important to complete the other two benchmark.

So the benchmark is only a simulation, but from that simulation, we can predict the performance and the capacity of our system but still cannot predict the reliability of our system. There's some product that is optimized for benchmarking, so that the performance in the benchmark process and the real world process will be different. There also a product that is not having a good result in benchmark but has a good performance in the real usage. This mean that synthetic benchmark and the game benchmark need the real world benchmark to complete the result.

The Dream PC in Jakarta

Today i attended the benchmarking workshop held by CHIP at the Annual Indocomtech event, the biggest IT exhibition Show in Indonesia.

I will not tell you about this Indocomtech, i'll just give a short story of the extraordinary scene i had. I start this workshop just with the meaning of benchmarking, the test, and the result

The post about benchmarking will be posted soon, but what I'll post now is about the PC i saw with my own eyes, the dream PC that only for test center for now.

This dream PC is shown by the CHIP test center Indonesia and Also Benchmarked by them. They use this specification:
-Motherboard MSI Eclipse X58 (they didn't tell the chipset type, but i found it out myself)
-Processor Intel I7 965 Extreme edition 3.2 GHz 4 core Hyperthreading
-three channel Qimonda memory DDR3 unknown capacity, perhaps 6 GB
-Two Intel SSD 64 GB operating in RAID 0 with writeback feature enabled
-three 280GTX three way SLI
-Tagan power supply 1100 watt

They test it with 3Dmark 2006 and they get over 21000 point!!! What a point. They also benchmark an insane value of data transfer, 555++ MBPS for data transfer in SSD and cache write in 2288 MBPS, with a very consistent speed. The real score is shown by HDtach, FYI, normal harddisk can only have a maximum data transfer of 100 until 150 MBPS with inconsistent speed.

The cores shown on the task manager are all 8!!!, they all working together with the reference speed 3.2 GHz.

The most exciting view is that this PC can run Crysis at a "very high" setting, with the resolution 1280 x 1024, and anti isotropic filtering (anisotropic filtering) at 16xQ at average around 40 fps. This is insane!!!

There are 4 preset for Crysis game setting, they are "low", "medium", "high", and "very high". My own PC with the Graphic card NVIDIA Geforce 8600GT can only play Crysis at "medium" setting with the resolution 1280 x 1024 and the anisotropic filtering off at the average 25 fps.

I could not the picture of the PC, because they had it in secret, and ask for the audience not to take even a single photo. I didn't really understand why should they keep the product in secret. They even didn't mention the chipset and the processor at the workshop, but i found it by myself, because they gave a lot of clue about them.

starting point

i learned something in life related to Physics

Somehow, when we want to move a thing, for example a board, we have to move it with a big power that we have to force the force that prevent the board from moving while we push or pull it... Do anyone know that force that prevent the board moving? Yes, it is the friction

Friction is coming from the roughness of the material, in my example, the material of the board and the surface. the surface is microscopically jagged. And the more jag the board and the surface had, the more the roughness they had. The higher the roughness the harder we move the board, the smoother the surface, the easier we move the board.

It's quite exciting that the friction itself changing while the board has moving. It may caused by the changing of the roughness of the surface while moving, but of course it is not that simple, but let's assume that it is happening that way . The jag may become smoother and smoother that causing the friction becoming less and less. But where did the jag go then? I'm not really sure about this, but in my opinion, the jag transform into another form of energy called Heat. That's why after moving a board, we feel that the bottom surface of the board and the surface where the board move is quite hot. One more thing, when we stop moving the Board, then we want to start move it again, the friction will be approximately as big as when we first start to move it. So, the the friction is only goes smaller when the boards is moving, and came back to its usual value when it stops.

Physics is so related to life in many aspects

I also found a very exciting facts that starting, especially for me, is the hardest step to take in every progress. It needs a lot of courage, mental, spirit, and consequence.

But just like the friction itself, if we started the start successfully, the rest will be easier to take. This is the most interesting part. The rest will be easier to take. The way will be smoother and smoother as we experience more and get usual to the condition around.

So, the important, maybe not the most important, but quite important step of a progress is the start.

A sprinter, without a good start could messed everything up, he could possibly fall down, or slowing down his run. A racer, without a good start, he could possibly has some accident or he cannot track a good record. An investor, especially with low modal, could possibly losses everything without a good start.

Starting is important, the start is also need a good backup. For a sprinter, he need to improve the flexibility of his leg muscle, for a racer, he need a good machine, for an investor, he need good strategy and enough modal for his investment. Without a good backup, a start will just went wrong and messed all the things up.

Starting is important, but it not measure the rest. When failing a progress, we could still start over and over again, just like when we move the board, if we lucky enough, we should only move the board just by pulling it or pushing it on the same surface. But how if we should move it to another rougher surface, or we need to push it over a sloping field?? we don't just need to force the friction, but also the weight of the board itself. We have a lot of new start point to start over.

Measure there are several things you had before starting something
this is just my opinion, anyone can add...
1. Determine what kind of goal you are attempting
2. Measure the capacity of your own
3. Courage yourself, trust yourself
4. Don't afraid of failing
5. Don't stop. At least keep on moving
6. Prepared well, but don't wait until all prepared, if so, you will not start.

Any objections? Any additions?

Just give me a comment...

Ubuntu 8.10

Around 3 days ago i succesfully set up a new Ubuntu 64 bit in my PC

I continue my journey exploring Ubuntu by installing the new version of Ubuntu inside my PC. I just download the new version of Ubuntu from its official site from the server near me.

Unlike before, i don't want to use any CD for installing Ubuntu inside of windows, so i just mount the ISO file with DAEMON. Then it's working like we have burn the ISO into a CD by making a virtual drive inside your PC. Then, autorun from the virtual drive and a selection menu will appear asking an action to do.

I choose to install Ubuntu inside windows (option number 2) which is easier to use, and low risk on missing data. After it perform several data copying, i reboot the PC. Now, there will be an addition menu on the boot screen, we can choose to boot the Ubuntu and continue installing the Ubuntu or we can choose to boot the windows.

After choosing to install Ubuntu, it will perform several tasks that installing Ubuntu, just leave it installing, my computer takes about 20 minutes witout internet connection, and it takes longer time when your computer is connected to the internet since it will connect to the mirror and download update for the OS. After succeeding this step, then the Ubuntu is now ready to use. Simply reboot the PC and now there are two OS in my PC

I boot the Ubuntu and update the driver for my graphic card, this task perform in quite long time, without any progress bar, so what we could do is wait until it finish, when updating the driver for graphic card, the update manager will not able to update anything else.

After the graphic driver is installed, then i update the software by using the update manager. When updating, i try to activate the desktop effect in system > preferences > appearance > visual effects, then choose extra. Note that the desktop effect could only activated when the graphic driver is installed. The most stunning effect is the wobble effect, where the windows wobble when moved from a point to another. It moves like a jelly. it's simply stunning for me.

After update, i start to install compiz fusion inside Ubuntu to get more stunning effect. Based on the video below, with compiz fusion or Beryl application installed, the effect we got in this OS will be far more stunning than Vista. I follow the Tutorial (Indonesia) i found by googling step by step, and it really works.

After finishing the installation, i have now a very stunning windows effect, a 3D desktop, wobble effect, desktop cube, magic lamp effect, water drops effect, and many more. After since, i never boot my windows again.

Ubuntu has a very stunning effects if you have Compiz fusion or Beryl installed, but not flexible to use, installing an application may need internet connection for the tutorial. Somehow, i think that this is very good, since i myself found a difficulty to install something, then viruses will hardly affect my system.

By now, there are about 4 of my friends looking forward to use ubuntu in their PC for a good system and visual effects. One of them has successfully set up an ubuntu with the compiz fusion when i wrote this.

smile

Today i learned about smile.

Smile is a universal language that everyone can use, that everyone can understand. It such a magic language that can break a bad situation.

Just like when we met someone new, we even don't know each other yet, and to start talking with them just a very difficult things to do, especially for me who is introvert. But, when we start with smile, everything change, we can easily introduce ourself because of this simple thing, we feel like we know them before.

When we give a smile to others, people will unexpectedly gave us a smile in return. For me this is extraordinary. When people give me smile, for me, it's not good for not relpying them one. So i should try to rise a smile even in my worse mood or situation. When i try to rise a smile, i feel that my problem a little bit relieved and i got a new strength to face the problem again. I don't really understand why could possibly this strange effects happen, but i know sure that it's helping me so much

I think when we give a smile to others, we have encouraged people to face their problems, and when we have problems that seems to be very hard to go through, we need smile from others and get extra courage.

Of course not every smile can do this, i believe that only the smile that come out from our true feeling is working the best.

Ubuntu 8.04

i tried to set up an ubuntu version 8.04 in my PC.

I download the installer at www.ubuntu.com, the installer is in iso format that we can just burn it with burning software like Nero or ISOburner or other burning program right into CD. Do not use windows XP burner since it doesn't recognized iso program as an CD images files.

After burning the ISO, i insert he CD into the CDROM and an autorun menu will appeared. The menu offer 3 choices, first to install the Ubuntu, second to install Ubuntu inside windows, and the third to learn more about Ubuntu. I want to try this Ubuntu so i choose option second, to install Ubuntu inside Windows. Then a dialog windows appeared to determine the location, the size and he type of installation, and also the username and the password for the Ubuntu. Next and the rest will be take place by the program.

Well, the Ubuntu simply installed into my PC!!! to remove the Ubuntu, we can simply remove the "Ubuntu" program from the windows control panel.

There are a lot of device unrecognized by Ubuntu on my computer. Such as the Ethernet card, the sound card, and also the NVIDIA graphic card. The synaptic package manager inside Ubuntu offer an upgrading driver for the NVIDIA card, and after upgrading the driver and activating the extra graphic environment of Ubuntu, it become very good looking.

These are the thing i felt so far about Ubuntu 8.04:
1. FREE!!! FREE!!! FREE!!!
2. Enchanting Graphic environment
3. Good support
4. Open almost all type of document in windows
5. Disable the security in PDF format

Then i download again the latest version of Ubuntu, 8.10 Intreped Ibex. and burned it again into a CD, then i boot my PC from this CD.

A lot of improvement from the 8.04 to 8.10. The most important thing is my Ethernet card is working here, so that i could access the internet.

I try the Pidgin Messenger for adopting the Yahoo Messenger. It works as well as the real Yahoo Messenger. hen i tried to download the Alternate installer of Ubuntu in torrent format, it could download the torrent at the speed of average 55 KBps with Telkom Speedy (in Windows XP SP 2 Pro i could only get maximum 10 KBps with the same provider).

So far, Ubuntu is very convenient to use but somehow when i install this OS into my harddisk, not as an application in windows, there always a crash when first booting the OS, i should reset the computer until at least two times to get it works. And also the Harddisk performance is reduced a lot, when transferring data, the transfer speed is only as fast as USB flash disk, where the speed should be 5 or more times faster. I don't really get what this problem happens for, but I'll keep trying the OS right away

Full name

Today i successfully created an adsense account after 2 times failed to create one.

The first application failed because of one of the article inside of my blog was represented in Indonesia, Google want all the article of the blog is all in the language we chose. I choose English as the main language for my blog. since there was one article in Indonesia, Google didn't accept my application.

I delivered my second application after i deleted the article in Indonesia. I delivered the application in exactly the same format as the previos one. After about two days, Google reply my application with fail. The reason for the rejection was my application is not complete.

Then i tried to resubmit the application and recheck all the required fields, first i thought that everything was okay then it was impossible that the information i submitted is not complete, but then i paid attention at the name. I fill my name with "Hendruw", and this is not an accepted one, i should provide a full name, then i fill it with "hendruw -", and at last my application is accepted

This is not the first time i found a problem with name, i found this problem when apllying for passport, visa and university entrance apllication. All of these application need a full name for application. For my parents, who are chinese, a name should be short and clear and as unique as possible, unlike the Americans or europeans who are really concern about name. Then they gave me a short name without surname. sighhh.... I thought, why didn't they gave my name with the family name in Chinese*. Then my name now shoud be "Hendruw Lim", since my family name in Chinese is Lim, but they didn't.

But it's okay, i don't blame them for this, this only a small problem that could be easily solve since i could get all the one i had a problem in with full name. I got my passport, my visa, and the university entrance examination.

*note: Chinese name consist of three letter (and always three) written in mandarin alphabet, the first letter comes with the family name, and the rest is the name given by parents.

paper with black spot analogy

Today, i learned a lot from my character building class,,,

The most important thing here is when my lecture show a white plain paper with a big black spot in the center of it, then she asked what did we think about this paper. A lot of sound of people shouting their opinion out to the lecture, they mention a lot of thing, one said a Japanese flag in black and white color, there another said that it is a mole, i myself saw this as a hole. Then, she ask us to write down our strength and our weakness.

She was explaining the meaning of this all, first she ask us what part is the easiest, when writing down our strength or our weakness. And almost all the class said that the good one is rather difficult to write down. Then she told us that this is the same as the paper, the paper is big, but how come we were only paid attention on the black spot in the center of it? "this is a paper, with only a small spot which size is nothing compared to the size of the paper. Just like yourself, you are now can only see clearly your weakness, in fact, your weakness is nothing compared to your strength, so why didn't us forget our weakness and develop as far as possible the strength we had?"

This statement and the analogy she took was very good and inspiring. But somehow, there's a lot of questions coming into my mind, why did all my class mate paid attention only at the black spot not the paper? There of course something with it, then this statement coming into my mind, "because it is the center of interest." It seems very normal that people will pay a lot attention at the black spot rather than the paper itself.

With this analogy, i thought a very dangerous condition, if white considered as our strength, then black considered as our weakness, then the white will difficultly erase the black, while the black will easily erase the white. This thought was coming from coloring, when we are coloring black above white, the white will completely covered and became black, in other hand, when coloring black with white, we can only get grey, no matter how hard we are trying to color it.

Isn't it dangerous? don't let the black spread out wide okay...