Archive for November, 2009

How to: Calculate The Cost Of Electricity

electricity-meter-pictureHave you ever wondered how much it costs to leave your computer running 24 hours a day?  Or how much it costs to run your dryer or any other electrical device.  Well, now you can thanks to some very simple step by step instructions from smallnotebook.org.  Below is a copy of the calculation chart that he has posted.

How to find the cost of electricity for my laptop:

1. Start with the number next to the letter A or Amps on the label. 4.26A
2. In the US, multiply by 120 for appliances that you plug into the wall (except use 240 for dryers).
Outside of the US, find your voltage here.
x 120
3. Divide by 1000. / 1000
4. Multiply by the number of hours (I’ll use one hour to keep it simple). x 24
5. Multiply by the average kWh price on your electric bill. x 0.15
This is the cost to run your appliance for that amount of time: = 1.995

If leave my work laptop plugged in for 24 hours and using the above formula it cost my company $1.99.  My laptop uses 4.62A and I don’t know the cost a kWh so I assumed the $.15 that the author uses.  That doesn’t sound like to much except it costs $726 a year too leave my laptop running,  assuming I never take it home.  If I do then I would start to incur that cost.  After doing these calculation I will be sure to start shutting down my computers and other devices when they are not in use.  Did you calculate the cost of your appliances?  If so, please share.

Now to find the cost of electricity for my laptop:

1. Start with the number next to the letter A or Amps on the label. 1.5
2. In the US, multiply by 120 for appliances that you plug into the wall (except use 240 for dryers).
Outside of the US, find your voltage here.
x 120
3. Divide by 1000. / 1000
4. Multiply by the number of hours (I’ll use one hour to keep it simple). x 1
5. Multiply by the average kWh price on your electric bill. x 0.15
This is the cost to run your appliance for that amount of time: = .027

Windows Vista/7 Screen Saver Settings Application

Windows Vista and Windows 7 come with two nice screensavers by default, Mystify and Ribbons.  Both screens savers come as is and don’t have a setting button to modify the number of ribbons/lines or the width of the ribbon/line but as many sites point out you can modify a few system registry keys to be able to change different aspects of each screensaver.  Last year I wrote a couple of applications that will remove the difficulty and fear that some users might have with modifying registry settings into nice easy applications.  If you are curious as to what each screen saver looks like after the modification take a look at the screen shots from here.

Here is a screen shot from my the MystifySSConfig.exe config utility (the RibbonsSSConfig.exe look exactly the same).  The applications aren’t pretty looking but they gets the job done. There isn’t any installers, you just download and double click on the exes.  The apps are written in Autoit and the source is included.  Feel free to modify it as you wish and if you make any nice changes please let me know.

mystifySSApplication

Mystify Screensaver Config (119)
Ribbons Screensaver Config (125)

Source

Mystify Screensaver Source (149)
Ribbon Screensaver Source (124)

How to: Create a Bootable Windows 7 USB Drive

microsoft_considering_windows_7_on_flash_drives_full

Apparently this tool has been pulled from the Microsoft site after it was reported that it contained GPL licensed code.  Read more But if you still need to create a USB boot disk from Windows you can do it via this method or with linux via this method.

A few weeks ago I gave a step by step guide on how to create a bootable USB drive containing the Windows 7 media from a Linux system.  Here is how to do the same thing but this time in Windows with a handy tool from Mircosoft.

Installation

To install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool:

  1. Click here to download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool installation file.
  2. When you are prompted to either save the file to disk or run it, choose Run.
  3. Follow the steps in the setup dialogs. You’ll have the option to specify where to install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and whether to create shortcuts on your Start Menu or Windows Desktop.

You need to be an administrator on the computer you are installing the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool on. The tool requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher. If this is not already installed on your computer, the installation program will install it for you. In this case, you may have to reboot your machine to complete installation.
System Requirements

  • Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
  • Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
  • 50MB of free space on your hard drive
  • DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive

Using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Before you run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool, make sure that you have already purchased Windows 7 ISO download from Microsoft Store and have downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to your hard drive. If you have purchased Windows 7 but have not yet downloaded the ISO file, you can download the file from your Microsoft Store Account.

To make a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file:

  1. Click the Windows Start button, and click Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool in the All Programs list to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.
  2. In the Source File box, type the name and path of your Windows 7 ISO file, or click Browse and select the file in the Open dialog box.
  3. Select USB to create a copy on a USB flash drive or DVD to create a copy on a DVD disk, then click Next.
  4. If you are copying the file to a USB flash drive, select your USB device in the dropdown list and click Begin copying. If you are copying the file up to a DVD, click Begin burning.
When your Windows 7 ISO file is copied onto your chosen media, you can install Windows 7 by navigating to the root of your DVD or USB flash drive and double-clicking Setup.exe.
Ok I just cut and pasted the instructions from this Mircosoft site but why try to reinvent the wheel.

Firefox Turns 5

Indeed, Firefox has become a bright symbol of technological freedom and the poster child of open source success. Mozilla’s efforts have helped to raise awareness about the importance of vendor-neutral web standards and the power of collaboration and community-driven development. Mozilla’s philosophical values became the cement with which the architects of the open web built our brave new Internet.

(via Ars Technica)

Boy does time fly. I can’t believe that it was 5 years ago that Firefox was released as version 1.0. Now I can browse the Internet without it.

Secure Your iPhone, There’s A New Worm In Town

If you have jailbroken your iPhone or iTouch you may want to think about changing the devices default root password.  There is new worm going around that only affects jailbroken iPhones and iTouches that have SSH server installed and running.  The worm will search networks for the open iPhone SSH servers running and connect to them as root.  All iPhones/iTouches have the same root password, alpine, which makes this worm possible.  Once the worm connects it doesn’t do anything too harmful, just changes your background to a picture of Rick Astley, also disables the SSH server and then looks for other devices to infect.

Here is a step by step guide on how to change the default root password.

Step 1: Download the Terminal application from Cyndia.

Step 2: Once downloaded start the application and type the following commands.  Remember that the root password is ‘alpine’.

motersho-iPhone:~mobile$ su
Password:
motersho-iPhone:~root# passwd
New Password: [type in a new password]
Retype new password: [retype the password]
motersho-iPhone:~root#

That’s it.  You are now secure.  Plus I have a feeling this will help keep Apple out of your phone.

Keep this in mind, if you upgrade to the next iPhone firmware you may have to redo this.

I Want To Be Like Mommy…

iwanttobelikemommy