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Open Disks for Students and General Use Print
March 2010

"OpenDisc: Open Source for Windows"
http://www.theopendisc.com/education/

The OpenDisc group have compiled a CD with a host of OSS ready to be installed onto any Windows PC.
They have also created a CD image to be used specifically in the educational environment.

You download the ISO image and burn it to a CD, then use the CD to install the software onto the PC. Please note:
burning an ISO image to CD is NOT the same as simply "copying" the file to the CD. Space doesn't allow me to go into this; Google "burn iso cd image windows" for more info.

Contents of the educational CD:

Office and Design:
-------------------------------
OpenOffice.org – Fully compatible office software for your school work Dia – Make technical diagrams and flowcharts Scribus – Create professional looking posters and magazines GanttProject – Plan your school projects with this project management software FreeMind – Collect your ideas with this mind mapping Software PDF Creator – Make PDF documents from any program Sumatra PDF – Read PDF files quickly and easily

Internet:
-------------------------------
Firefox – A safe, secure and fast web browser Thunderbird – Manage your emails better than ever – Reclaim your inbox!
Pidgin – Talk to your friends whatever instant message client they use Kompozer – Create web pages easily, without having to code RSSOwl – Keep up with your favourite internet news feeds on your desktop

Art and Graphics:
-------------------------------
GIMP – Edit digital photos and create graphics GIMP animation – Create animations Inkscape – Make professional looking vector graphics Pencil – Animate your own cartoons Blender – 3D graphic modeling, animation, rendering and playback Tuxpaint – Drawing program for children ages 3 to 12

Multimedia:
-------------------------------
VLC – Play music, videos and DVDs
Audacity – Record, edit and mix music
TuxGuitar – Compose your own music
Piano Booster – Teach yourself the piano Avidemux – Edit movies and add special effects Infra Recorder – Burn your own CDs and DVDs CamStudio – Record your actions on a computer Really Slick Screensavers – Great looking screensavers

Science and Mathematics
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Nasa Worldwind - Discover the earth and other planets~ Greenfoot – Teach yourself how to program GraphCalc – A graphical calculator Guido Van Robot – Learn how computer programs work CarMetal – Cool mathematical modelling tool Maxima – University standard computer algebra system Celestia – Explore the universe in three dimensions Stellarium – A planetarium on your PC

Games:
-------------------------------
FreeCiv - Control the world through diplomacy and conquest FreeCol – Discover the ‘New World’ and build an empire Numpty Physics – Solve puzzles using physics TuxTyping 2 – Learn to type like a pro Tux of Math Command – Test your mathematical skills Winboard Chess – The classic game of chess

Utilities:
-------------------------------
GTK+
7zip
Abakt
Clamwin
HealthMonitor
Workrave


 
Matrox G200e graphics driver only supports resolution up to 1280x1024 on X8SIL-F (Workgroup Server) Print
March 2010

Production Team,

Please be aware that the Matrox G200e graphics driver for the Supermicro X8SIL-F motherboard (Compucon Workgroup Server) only supports a resolution of up to 1280x1024 by design. Please see the following note extracted from the G200eW Release Notes below, which includes two (2) methods of adding support for a specific desktop resolution. Method 1 is to add support into the driver for a specific system whereas Method 2 adds support for all systems into the driver. Please note that the new resolution will break KVM redirection should the user or reseller attempt to use it.

PRODUCT INFORMATION
-------------------

Matrox G200eW (Nuvoton), version 1.02.005
January 15th, 2010

HIGH AND WIDESCREEN RESOLUTION SUPPORT
--------------------------------------

The driver supports only a limited list of resolutions by default.
The list consists of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024.
This limitation guarantees that KVM redirection will always be functional with these modes.
The KVM supports upto 1280x1024 resolution.

There are two methods to add high and widescreen resolutions to the list.


method 1)
Add the following section to the MtxSetup.ini files located in the X32_WHQL and X64_WHQl folders

[AddReg.0532.xxxxyyyy]
HKR::Mga.SingleResolutions:BINARY:\|
80,02,e0,01,\|
20,03,58,02,\|
00,04,00,03,\|
80,04,60,03,\|
00,05,D0,02,\|
00,05,00,03,\|
00,05,C0,03,\|
00,05,00,04,\|
50,05,00,03,\|
78,05,1A,04,\|
A0,05,84,03,\|
40,06,84,03,\|
40,06,B0,04,\|
90,06,1A,04

where xxxx -stands for subsystem ID (SSID) and
      yyyy - subsystem vendor ID (SVID)
  
SSID and SVID should be copied by the system BIOS to the Matrox PCI configuration space (offset 0x2C/0x4C).

Eash line represents one resolution. 80,02,e0,01,\| for example means 0x0280 X 0x01e0 resolution (640x480),
i.e the encoding uses 16 bit values in little endian format.
The list can be changed if it is required.

This way will work only for a specific system. If the SSID changes from system to system or
the System BIOS does not copy the values to the PCI configuration space the second methods can be used.


method 2)
Add the following section to the MtxSetup.ini files located in the X32_WHQL and X64_WHQl folders

[AddReg.0532]
HKR::Mga.SingleResolutions:BINARY:\|
80,02,e0,01,\|
20,03,58,02,\|
00,04,00,03,\|
80,04,60,03,\|
00,05,D0,02,\|
00,05,00,03,\|
00,05,C0,03,\|
00,05,00,04,\|
50,05,00,03,\|
78,05,1A,04,\|
A0,05,84,03,\|
40,06,84,03,\|
40,06,B0,04,\|
90,06,1A,04

This way all the systems with the installed g200ew driver will support the new resolution list.

NOTE: this article has been superceded by http://www.compucon.co.nz/content/view/608/139/

Cheers,
Edmond

 
Intel Desktop CPU Line Up & Diamond G41 etc Print
February 2010
Subsequent to releasing Core i7 and i5 in 2009, Intel has released Core i3 recently.  How different are these labels to Core 2 Dual and Quad?  What about Pentium and Celeron?  This session attempts to unveil the technical and performance differences and resolve any confusion our channel members may have.  This session will cover Compucon roadmap for the next few months and Diamond at the low end of the desktop portfolio.  AMD is not out and we will briefly explain its movements.

Presentation: 2010-0224 System Platforms.pdf (880KB)
 
Renewable Energy Resources Print
February 2010
An article of the New Zealand Main Report Business in February 2010 reported that (data source is Global Wind Energy Council):

(a) The World's wind power capacity grew by 31% in 2009 adding 37.5GW (Giga Watt) to bring total installations up to 157.9GW.

(b) New Zealand wind power capacity grew by just over 50% during 2009 with a record 171MW (Mega Watt) installed at three wind farms.  Wind energy now provides over 3% of the country's electricity consumption.
 
Marine Cloud Whitening Print
February 2010
The International Monetary Fund's Finance & Development magazine is pushing a technique called Marine Cloud Whitening as the newest approach to stop global warming. This approach involves ships spraying seawater into the air to generate clouds which will act as some sort of shielding. 

We mention this information for completeness as we have reservations about the effectiveness of carbon trading emission schemes.  Compucon will continue to observe established environmental protection policies such as using high efficiency components and not using harmful materials etc. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_reflectivity_modification

Acknowledgement: We first learned about this approach from a weekly Main Report Business newsletter in February 2010
 
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