PS/2 to USB
I'd long had a PS/2 mouse (via USB converter) and a PS/2 keyboard. I liked the hardware compatibility with GNU/Linux & Windows, it seemed simple & without hassles.
In the past I've enjoyed the original MS natural keyboard, I had one at work and one at home. Since moving, I got a new PC last year and had the plain HP keyboard which worked well (PS/2).
I decided to try out the new MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.
Instead of following the instructions, which mentioned requiring software installation prior to using the hardware, I decided to just switch from PS/2 to USB, plug in and reboot to see what happens.
I plugged USB mouse into USB (rather than use PS/2 converter) and plugged in MS USB keyboard into USB.
openSUSE GNU/Linux 64-bit : Just worked, it detected everything and worked fine.
Vista 5600 RC1 64-bit : Just worked, it detected everything and worked fine.
XP SP2 32-bit: nothing worked.
Neither mouse nor keyboard worked. I had to reboot again, plug back in the original keyboard & mouse and login. Installed the drivers/software from the supplied CD.
Switch off, change to new keyboard & USB mouse, booted, and still no joy.
Put everything back, rebooted, all working. So rebooted with original PS/2 keyboard and placed mouse in USB. Rebooted. Mouse not working but keyboard ok, so I logged in via keyboard. Then after a few mins, XP says new USB mouse found and it starts working.
Switch off, change to new keyboard & USB mouse, booted, and still no keyboard.
Switched back to old keyboard, kept USB mouse. Logged in, and decided to try plugging in the new USB keyboard whilst using the PS/2 keyboard.
XP then recognized the new keyboard, so I rebooted with just the new keyboard and usb mouse and all was okay !!
It seems the hardware detection in 64-bit Linux and 64-bit Vista is smoother than under 32-bit XP :-)
27 September 2006
24 September 2006
Vista x64 build RC1
Public Vista build for x64
I think it was RC1 that I downloaded recently to update Beta 2 :-)
I downloaded the ISO from Microsoft.com and burnt it to DVD. I decided to reinstall rather than upgrade my Beta 2 x64 install.
The installation process went very well. It improved a lot since Beta 2, it was much faster to install.
The feel of this build is good. It's far more responsive, performance seems to have increased quite a lot since Beta 2. I had no stability problems. With Beta 2 I had lots of DNS issues, these have gone away with the new build. It seems better at hardware detection and found my graphics card without problem.
I'm far more impressed with x64 Vista than I was with Beta 2 but it's still not as fast or smooth as my WinXP 32-bit install on the same machine. My personal favourite MS OS is still WinXP Pro 64-bit.
I think it was RC1 that I downloaded recently to update Beta 2 :-)
I downloaded the ISO from Microsoft.com and burnt it to DVD. I decided to reinstall rather than upgrade my Beta 2 x64 install.
The installation process went very well. It improved a lot since Beta 2, it was much faster to install.
The feel of this build is good. It's far more responsive, performance seems to have increased quite a lot since Beta 2. I had no stability problems. With Beta 2 I had lots of DNS issues, these have gone away with the new build. It seems better at hardware detection and found my graphics card without problem.
I'm far more impressed with x64 Vista than I was with Beta 2 but it's still not as fast or smooth as my WinXP 32-bit install on the same machine. My personal favourite MS OS is still WinXP Pro 64-bit.
23 September 2006
08 September 2006
2 good programming tools
Runtime code analysis
Valgrind is, to quote the website, " an award-winning suite of tools for debugging and profiling Linux programs".
It truly is an amazing tool for running against your code base to detect all manner of problems, from memory leaks to 64-bit porting problems.
I really can't rate it highly enough, it is a wonderful tool. Read more about it here : About Valgrind. It's one of the best tools you will find for checking your code.
Version 3.2.0 supports 32-bit x86/Linux & PPC32/Linux and now also 64-bit AMD64/Linux and PPC64/Linux.
You mainly place it in front of your program when running to analyse it.
For example :
Static source code analysis
HP have released a good free tool for analysing source code. It's the HP Code Advisor, or cadvise (c advise). It's a static analysis tool for checking C and C++ source code. To use it you would run it like this :
Version 1.1 is up on their website now.
Valgrind is, to quote the website, " an award-winning suite of tools for debugging and profiling Linux programs".
It truly is an amazing tool for running against your code base to detect all manner of problems, from memory leaks to 64-bit porting problems.
I really can't rate it highly enough, it is a wonderful tool. Read more about it here : About Valgrind. It's one of the best tools you will find for checking your code.
Version 3.2.0 supports 32-bit x86/Linux & PPC32/Linux and now also 64-bit AMD64/Linux and PPC64/Linux.
You mainly place it in front of your program when running to analyse it.
For example :
$ valgrind my_program my_args
Static source code analysis
HP have released a good free tool for analysing source code. It's the HP Code Advisor, or cadvise (c advise). It's a static analysis tool for checking C and C++ source code. To use it you would run it like this :
$ cadvise cc -my_compiler_opts source_code.cand it reports on potential porting problems, coding errors, security risks, etc.
Version 1.1 is up on their website now.
05 September 2006
News: AMD 64-bit laptop pricing
DigiTimes reports that AMD 64-bit dual-core notebooks keep pricing edge
02 September 2006
AMD 64-bit utilities
There are some interesting utilities here including drivers for Cool'n'Quiet for 64-bit operating systems.
AMD Athlon™ 64/FX Processor Utilities and Updates
AMD Athlon™ 64/FX Processor Utilities and Updates
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