Seems the earlier reported Overclocking problem found in the latest WHQL Nvidia drivers was just an accident afterall, as NVidia has just released some new drivers (currently in Beta) that fix the issue.
New in Version 196.34
* Fixed a bug with v196.21 that prohibited GPU overclocking
Go check it out, they’ve got downloads for all versions of Windows.
PaydayLoans.org, a site dedicated to giving you the truth about Payday Loans (which they day Doomsday Loans), has published a fun infographic giving you the details on the number of Payday Loans institutions compared to the number of McDonalds and Starbucks for all 50 states. Not surprising to see the Payday Loans centers are in the impressive majority in almost every state.
An impressive collection of data presented quite well.
Payday Loans vs Starbucks vs McDonalds (INFOGRAPHIC) | PaydayLoans.org.
It’s been 24 hours since we were bestowed with the knowledge of the Apple iPad, and opinions are still pretty divided on whether it will be Apple’s savior or the implement of it’s own destruction. Personally, I weight in on the “I don’t get it” side, where it falls somewhere between too big to be convenient, and too underpowered to be useful. The form factor has specific advantages to a few niche groups, and some of these are coming to light already.
CreativeBits asks “What does the iPad mean for Designers?” on his blog, and discusses the options for improved connectivity and email before getting to where (I believe) the iPad has a chance to shine: Graphics and Presentations. For presenting work, it not only has a “Wow” factor for clients, but it’s useful:
Most of us already show our designs on a laptop screen or on a projector when presenting. The iPad will be a great device to present your work especially when you’re dealing with your client on a one-on-one basis. It’s not suitable for large group of clients.
Essentially a “batteries included” Wacom Cintiq, is has great potential.
3D World takes a similar approach and asks “What does the iPad mean for 3D Artists?”, and again focuses on the drawing and graphics capabilities:
Again, having a larger display with the same touchscreen capabilities as an iPhone should make for a perfect sketching and planning environment, much like a more sophisticated Cintiq. Third parties such as Adobe are almost certain to adapt their software or launch entirely new apps for the iPad, and while it‘s unlikely any full-fledged 3D design apps will appear for it, there may be scope for less conventional design programs, such as prototyping tools.
I have to admit that an iPad-centric version of Photoshop or Illustrator would be pretty interesting. What do you think? Do you plan to run out for one?
Micheal Geist has been closely investigating the developing of the secret ACTA treaty, and just compiled the timeline into a great interactive visualization available on Dipity.
Michael Geist writes, “The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is generating growing concern as many people learn about the secret copyright treaty for the first time. I’ve create a visual timeline to trace its emergence that includes links to the leaked documents, official government statements, and NGO letters and work in the area.”
FloatingSheep.org has been publishing several infographics over the past few months that have just popped up on my radar. They are taking markers that people have placed on Google Maps, and creating infographics from them. Take, for example, places that have been geotagged with the Allah, Buddha, Hindu, or Jesus and mapped them to a world map.
As one might expect, there are more references to Jesus in Europe and in the Western Hemisphere. References to Allah are found in the Middle East. References to Hindu are found in the India. References to Buddha are found in the Asia. What is also striking is the lack of data in large parts of the world.
Now what happens when you take the above religions and throw in the topic of sex into the mix.
Too bad they do not throw politics into the mix.
Personally, I have made many mistakes when visualizing data. Sometimes some great art comes out of those mistakes. FloatingSheep.org has posted some unintentional map projections. While it result is not informative, it sure does look interesting.
via FloatingSheep.org : Google’s Geographies of Religion
Bright Side of the News has a cost analysis breakdown on the GF100 (Fermi) chip. According to the article, the GF100 is being manufactured at TSMC on a 300mm wafer using a 4540 nm process. Assuming that the GF100 chip is the same size as the GT200 chip, which was manufactured on a 65 nm process, then 94 GF100 chips will fit on a wafer. If one assumes a 40% yield, that gives Nvidia 37~38 chips per wafer. At $5000 per wafer, that means that a GF100 chip costs $131. How much is AMD paying per chip? From the article:
… the current cost of single AMD Cypress die is $96. For as long as you’re under $100 per die, you can count your blessings with TSMC’s 40nm process. Reality is that AMD can easily reach 60-70% yields with Cypress and they will drive the cost of a single Cypress ASIC to anywhere between $54-64 [70 to 60% yield]. Thus, cost advantage AMD, no matter what happens.
The article is really worth reading, as it deals with the 2% yield rumor for the A1 silicon, and talks about the yields for the A2 silicon.
via Bright Side of the News : nVidia GF100 Fermi silicon cost analysis
Ten One Design, creators of the Pogo Stylus and Pogo Sketch, have announced what might turn the Apple iPad into something closer to the Wacom Tablet. It seems that their stylus pens work quite well on the iPad’s capacitive touch screen.
The Pogo Sketch and Pogo Stylus are both ideal for detailed graphic artwork and enhancing the canvas-like display of the iPad, especially when used with applications like the Brushes app demoed during the media event.
The tip uses considerably less surface area than a fingertip, which makes navigating the user interface easier and more enjoyable. And people with longer fingernails or larger fingers will not experience gadget envy from not being able to use touch screen devices. The stylus easily glides across the screen and even keeps it free of smudges and grease.
Both the Pogo Sketch and Pogo Stylus are available at their store for $14.95, and at Apple Stores. Read their full release after the break.
Michael VanDaniker has created an interesting visualization of web traffic to W3Schools.com using a soon-to-be-released visualization product called Axiis.
Each of the concentric rings are essentially pie charts showing the percentage of visitors using each browser for a particular time slice, starting with January 2002 in the center and working out to August 2009. The numbers on W3schools.com don’t quite add up to 100% because they don’t report on browsers that make up less than 0.5% of their visitors. This results in a gap at the end of each ring.
In the chart, Blue is IE, Orange is FireFox, Green is first Netscape then Chrome, Grey is Safari, and red is Opera. It’s fully interactive, hovering over any bar gives the actual percentage number. However, it still suffers from the same problem of almost all circular charts, it’s difficult to compare the lines. With the high density of the chart, you can get a “feel” for trends (like FireFox grows fast, as does Chrome), but actual comparisons are difficult.
Visualizing Historic Browser Statistics with Axiis. via CoolInfographics
Here’s what you simply must put in your next desktop: the new EVGA W555 motherboard with dual-Xeon chipsets, a dozen DDR3-ready memory slots, and an impressive 7 PCIe slots.
As you can see, the W555 isn’t exactly small. As we haven’t had a chance to play with a board yet, the exact dimensions are unknown, but EVGA has confirmed that it is larger than either the E-ATX or SSI standards. Then again, any motherboard with two LGA1366 processor sockets, 12 DDR3 DIMM slots and seven expansion card slots isn’t ever going to be small.
Such a rig begs even more amazing questions:
via bit-tech.net | Preview – First Look: EVGA W555 dual-Xeon motherboard.
Renderfarm Wranglers rejoice as Prime Focus has just released version 4.0 of their great render queue management software, including improved OSX support, improved scalability and stability, and compatibility with their upcoming iPhone application.
“Most notable in this release is the number of subtle enhancements that have been made, to not just the main applications, but also all the underlying software-specific scripts,” continued Owen. “Multi-threaded remote command execution and status feedback is fantastic for keeping control and ensuring consistency of our software load and configuration on all our slaves, and the new Pulse web service opens up a world of new possibilities for communicating information to other systems in our pipeline.”
Now available for purchase, it’s $140 per node plus $35 for a year of support.
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