The first computers I ever built (and then disassembled and then rebuilt) never seemed to gather any dust. But over the last 5 years I’ve seen an increasing amount of dust gathering inside my computers’ cases. I have no idea why… it seems to have corresponded roughly to when I moved from the UK to Canada so maybe Canada is a dustier country

Over the last year I’ve seen the internal temperatures in my current desktop PC steadily rising:

Before cleaning

These are the Core0 – Core3 temps and two copies of the hard drive temp.

So last week I opened up the case and vacuumed it. I cleaned all the vents, sucked the dust off the fans, sucked all the dust bunnies out and cleaned the processor heatsink.

The heatsink was problematic. The PC has a Core2Quad processor (big heatsink) in an Apevia X-QPack mATX case (small case). As a result there’s not much space and the narrow nozzle of the vacuum cleaner was never going to get anywhere near the heatsink without me disassembling the case. Rather than do that, I used the poor man’s compressed air duster (ie I blew through a straw) and blew the dust out of the heatsink vanes then vacuumed everything up.

With everything reassembled and allowed to run for 24 hours, the temperatures dropped to:

Temperatures after cleaning

Those temperatures are Core0 – Core3, “CPU temp”, “motherboard temp” and the hard drive. [Actually, at time of writing, they're 5C below those numbers - but today's a much colder day]

Not sure where the “CPU temp” and “motherboard temp” sensors are being read from. The case has a front panel temperature LCD and two free-floating sensors which I’ve attached to the top of the hard drive and the chipset heatsink… but those are currently reading 26 and 47 degrees… so apparently not related.

To complicate things slightly, between taking the two sets of readings I also upgraded from Ubuntu 9.10 to Ubuntu 10.04 (more about that later). I’ve seen some reports on the internet from people who noticed the reported sensor temperatures dropping as a result of the upgrade. I did the upgrade a day before I cleaned and didn’t see any fall in reported temperatures afterwards so I don’t believe that that’s a factor in the improvement that I’m seeing.

So there you have it: a year’s worth of dust had clogged up my CPU heatsink and fans to elevate temperatures by approximately 15C. If it’s been over a year since you opened up YOUR computer’s case then maybe you should give it a spring cleaning too?

It’s not a replacement for a laptop:

• it has no USB ports for peripherals
• no multi-tasking (we think)
• limited opportunity to develop applications for it (developers have to work within the walled garden of the AppStore and users have to sync through iTunes)

But it’s too big to be pocketable so it’s not a replacement for a PDA like an iPod Touch.

If I wanted to actually “do” anything then I’d take a laptop along with me, if I wanted to read a book or a PDF then my gut feel is that I’d rather have an eReader (Engadget has a great comparison with the Kindle), if it’s just for casual internet access then a smartphone will do.

I think a major part of the market for the iPad is going to be iPhone users who are finding it too hard to read all the information that they’ve got access to on the screen of their phone.

Besides products, Apple are also great at making markets. Just because few people can see a need for a product today doesn’t mean that they couldn’t take advantage of it if they had one. Lots of Apple fans will buy them regardless, even if they already carry an iPhone and a MacBook around with them. And once they get the product out there in people’s hands in quantity, applications and use-cases will follow. It’s sure to be another winner.

I think most people considering the iPad will already have a smartphone and probably a laptop as well. I think we can also assume that these people carry their smartphone with them everywhere. So, if we’re assuming that technology purchases are made with the intention of simplifying our lives then will you be taking your iPad with you in situations where you previously took your laptop (which I see as a win)? Or will you now be carrying three devices (which I see as a fail)?

Continuing from that… if you’re already carrying your smartphone around with you everywhere, I see the 3G option as unnecessary for most people. Why not save the $130+$30/month (or Canadian equivalent) for iPad 3G access and tether the iPad to your phone? As far as I can see, there’s no definitive statement as to whether or not the iPad can be tethered. But you can bet that any lock-down that Apple put on it will be broken within a month or two and I’m sure tethering is one of the things that the community will enable.

Whilst thinking about phones, one of the features that interested me was the inclusion of a microphone. Whenever I see a microphone on a wireless device, my first thought is of Skype (even though I’ve barely ever used Skype myself!). The lack of a camera might be an issue for some people but, especially now that Apple have graciously allowed VoIP applications to connect over 3G, you could actually use the iPad to make phone calls. It’s probably a little on the large side to replace your mobile phone and the lack of multi-tasking means that you couldn’t talk to someone whilst you get information for them from an email or a webpage but I think it’s an interesting use-case – especially when tied to an unlimited data plan.

Oh, and we can’t talk about the iPad without talking about the horendous name. Everyone seems to have agreed that it’s dreadful.. but then is it much more dreadful than iPod sounded when we first heard it? Heck, look at all the flack that Nintendo took for the Wii and that didn’t stop it flying off the shelves. I suspect in a few months we’ll have forgotten all the feminine hygiene wisecracks and moved on. Breaking out of the i{thing} naming pattern is long overdue for Apple. But the brand recognition of i{thing} is immense… I can’t see Apple having the guts to do it and, as a result, I think it’s actually becoming an Achilles heel of the brand as much as it’s a strength.

Sure, there’s a great little back-street parts shop every couple of miles, but their range is usually pretty limited and a lot of that is “we can order it for you and it’ll be here this afternoon”.  But they are very handy and sometimes they’ve got the cheapest prices around.

For a better range and (usually) better prices we have Tiger Direct and NCIX.

I’ve used Tiger Direct several times in the past, generally successfully but I’ve never felt 100% comfortable with them. Not sure I’d use them again as they messed up my last order and the customer support rep didn’t really help the situation.

NCIX has always been a pleasant experience. The prices are usually good, the range and stock are excellent and, being local, I can pop into one of the shops to pick up my order and save time and postage. Maybe the fact that I can cut the delay and cost of shipping out of the equation is a factor in my satisfaction here. The only criticism I have of them is that they put things on and off sale so frequently that several times I’ve bought something only to see it at a lower price the next week – but that’s pretty much expected in this market.

However it looks like we now have a new player in the market. Newegg have been a favourite of many folks in the US for several years – good prices and a good selection. And last week they finally opened a Canadian store.

A quick scan through a couple of random components shows them to be generally comparable with NCIX – about the same or a bit cheaper. The range doesn’t look great though – for instance only 2 different 24″ monitors listed whereas NCIX has 9 actually in stock. Looks like the shipping charges start at about $15 so it’s unlikely to be cost-effective for me personally unless I was ordering a couple of things together but for folks who already have to pay shipping from NCIX it’s likely to be an alternative worth checking. And NCIX will price-match a lot of stuff so maybe I can get the best of both worlds next time I need to buy something.

And, it must be said, having a fabulous time.

I spent last Thursday dismantling the computers that are being scrapped. Open the case, remove the power supply, remove the motherboard, remove the RAM, the battery, the processor and heatsink. Put it all in separate piles, grab the next machine off the rack and repeat.

Does that sound boring? Oh no – it’s great… every machine is different – some of them are 15 year old pre-ATX machines, some maybe as new as 5 years old. Every machine is put together differently, different challenges to getting the parts out. The more modern machines were interesting because of the economy of construction and, for the business oriented models, the mechanisms inside them designed to make it easier to change components. The older ones were equally fascinating… plenty of times I stopped to admire an ancient component and thought “wow – I used to have one of these” (and in many cases still do!).

I’ve been fiddling around inside PCs for almost 15 years now so I could pretty much do this with my eyes closed. I’ve also got several years experience with Ubuntu – Free Geek’s operating system of choice. So, with a bit of training, I’m someone they could easily use anywhere in the process.

Their volunteer co-ordinator said something about “fast tracking” me through the system which sounds great… give me a day or so in each position and then maybe find something challenging for me to do there. But first I need to spend time doing each of the jobs so I know how it all works.

I went back on Saturday and spent half the day at “eval 1″. This position is responsible for the initial assessment of the incoming machines. Open them up, remove memory, hard drives, addon cards, optical drives, vacuum them out and then decide if the machine is up-to-spec for re-use. If it is, it goes to “eval 2″ where it’s tested to see if it actually works. If not it goes to dismantling.

Underneath the eval1 desk there’s a big plastic bin into which you drop all the removed cards – a fair mix of graphics cards, sound cards, network cards etc. This bin had reached overflowing so I offered to ‘deal with it’. Dealing with it involved sorting the cards… graphics cards in one pile, network cards in another, modem cards, sound cards etc. And then they’re very fussy about which cards of each type they can reuse. For example the Ubuntu install is done over the network so if you’re keeping a network card it has to be network bootable. Most motherboards already have sound built-in so if you’re keeping a sound card it better be a good one. And graphics cards… that’s where it gets really complicated. They have a very clever flow-chart to help non-technical people identify what to keep and what to bin but I’d seen all this stuff before so could whizz through the bin pretty quickly. Then back to eval1 to help out. Another great day.

I’m back there again tomorrow… officially a “floater” which might just mean I get to stand-in for someone who doesn’t show or (hopefully) it might mean I get to do a couple of different jobs.

Can you tell I’m enjoying this? *LOL*

They’re a volunteer organization that takes people’s unwanted old computers, strips them down, ethically recycles the unusable parts, takes the reusable parts and builds them into fresh computers. Then loads Ubuntu onto them and sells them dirt cheap or gives them away to people who need access to a computer but can’t afford one.

Sounds like a damn fine organization to me. And, given that this is the sort of thing I do for myself all the time, it sounds like somewhere I should be able to do some useful volunteer work.

If the planets align, I’ll go down there next Wednesday and see what it’s all about.

On further investigation I found a full dinner service, set of speaker stands, a PC, keyboard and LCD monitor and a dozen mice (no – the ones with buttons on silly!). It’s amazing the stuff people throw out. I took most of it to the nearest thrift store (one block away…) but brought the PC home.

A spot more investigation revealed a Sony Vaio PII-400, 1.6GB, 192MB. OK, a heck of a long way from a powerhouse but fully functioning, neat mini case and a matching and working LCD monitor too with integrated speakers.

I’ve had to up it to 256MB RAM and I’m prepping a 40GB drive to put in there. We have a PII-350 which runs Xubuntu perfectly well for casual browsing and email so I think I should be able to do the same with this one.