Yup, 2008 is coming to an end, kind of like in a blink - and honestly, I feel that I have again achieved a rather big zilch in this term... to make things short here's hoping 2009 would be a much better year in all aspects for me.
And I'm going to start saving up for a Gibson, donations are welcome.
Exhibit ANVIDIA DISASTER: thousands of GPUs faulty
NVIDIA have had a long history of making great graphics processors but lately there's something terribly wrong coming out of their factories.
If you bought a laptop with either the NVIDIA Geforce 8400M (M for Mobile) or 8600M in it, you can now stick yourself in the pile for people with bad luck. This includes laptops from the following brands (take a deep breath): Acer, Apple, Asus, BenQ, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, LG, MSI, NEC, Sony, Toshiba... to name a few. Now it's not with everyone, of course. If you hit your Control Panel and find yourself using either the 8400M or 8600M graphics processor, you're affected; everyone else can move on.
What's wrong with your computer might you ask? Something small that can affect it in a large way. Quite a few of the graphics chips NVIDIA have been producing are defective. We know that the rumour of every 8400M and 8600M chip being bad is probably true, but now we're hearing that it might extend to other models like in the mobile NVIDIA chips running off of the 6000 and 7000 designs. That's a lot of graphics chips and this can cause your computer to overheat, lock-up, and possibly not work.
What's troubling about all of this isn't so much that it's happened but the way in which it's being handled. While this news has been out for a week or two now, only two companies have really responded.
Both HP & Dell have released "fixes" for the issue at hand -- BIOS updates that will cause affected computers to fire up the fan when it's needed to cool down the problematic graphics chips so that they, you know, don't die. But this isn't really a solution. This is a fix in the same way that say putting a plank of wood over a hole in the road fixes a dodgy stretch of road. This is a quick fix that has its own issues.
On the one hand, updates that force your computer to cool itself down not only kill your battery life further but also leave you running the risk that now with the extra needed fan cycles, that cooling system built into your laptop might die sooner than expected. As a result, these "fixes" can be as damaging as the whole chip issue in the first place.
But at least Dell and HP are doing something about it. What about everyone else?
For instance, where is Apple amongst all of this and why aren't they informing their MacBook Pro customers that their shiny silver laptops might just stop working and provide issues? APC has previously covered the fact that the current-generation MacBook Pros are plagued with graphics glitches -- it seems likely that the NVIDIA hardware fault and Apple's on-screen graphics corruption is related, but Apple just isn't saying.
The real problem in this whole thing is that the companies using NVIDIA chips in products probably won't want to tell the public. Computers that die all of a sudden will be easier for them to replace on a one-by-one basis. Telling everyone that "your computer has an issue and needs to be returned" will only result in a ridiculous loss of face & money, and that's probably going to happen to NVIDIA too. They're already being sued by memory makers Rambus and now this has happened. It's not good news for NVIDIA at all; very bad news for computer makers that have got the faulty NVIDIA chips soldered onto their motherboards, and awful news for consumers who may have to fight tooth and nail to get their computer repaired, and then, be without it for weeks as technicians work through the backlog.
UPDATE: NVIDIA supplied the following response to this article:
NVIDIA’s highest priority is to ensure complete satisfaction and delight for all of our customers. We fully stand behind our products and are cooperating with our partners to resolve the recently announced notebook field failure issue.
Please remember the following:
1) The issue is limited to a few notebook chips only; we have not seen and don't expect to see this issue on any NVIDIA based desktops.
2) Only a very small percentage of the notebook chips that have shipped are potentially affected and the problem depends on a combination of environmental conditions, configuration and usage model.
3) We continue to work closely with our partners and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that all NVIDIA chips currently in production do not exhibit the problem.
As a result, it is very unlikely that your NVIDA based notebook product is affected.
Again, we truly appreciate our customers passion for our products and apologize for any inconvenience. We are dedicated to delivering quality products that raise the bar on graphics performance across the spectrum from the world’s fastest gaming desktops to the sleekest ultra-portables available.
Exhibit B
My Laptop.
I insist you press play.
It's so breathtaking... I wish I had but 10% of his talent, the ability to make the guitar sing like that is way priceless...
And it's currently the song I am learning but I would probably never be able to play it that way
It's really supposed to be like, a time of joy and festivities, yet a lot of the people I know seem to be going through a tough time. Well, tough luck, really. But don't worry, like all good things will come to an end, all bad patches do end too - and at the end of it you learn something new every time. So cheer up, and talk to me for candy canes to cheer yourselves up (selected person only, due to limited stock/haven't buy yet/absolutely broke) costs.
I am already broke 9 days into December because I couldn't resist the temptation of a 640GB hard disk at $140, yet my monthly allowance is only so much it is like the recruits' pay, but I don't get to eat at the cookhouse (private joke). So I'm $140 poorer. And the joker who wanted to buy/trade my guitar just stopped replying - what a nut, lack of manners, lack of social etiquette, and just, horrid little kids. Just drop me a message or something and I would be fine cancelling, thank you. Stop wasting my time.
I am waking up early so I can go to my hall room and sort out stuff. Exciting? Well it's quite okay-ish. Now the Indonesian government wants to do some sort of property stock-taking for every citizen so I see my mum and dad sitting over the dining room table discussing a briefcase worth of papers. Sucks, like NTU, they only seem to contact you when they want something. (Yea, I said it)
And you know what? The 640GB hard disk is still sealed. 0% used. ZERO PERCENT. I can't yet think of what to fill it with, especially since my laptop isn't fixed yet. MY LAPTOP ISN'T FIXED YET. It's time to raise all sorts of hell. The Fujitsu dude playing some sort of computer game at work and getting away with it said 1 to2 weeks, and today's the 2 week mark. SO UNPROFESSIONAL RIGHT. So I'd really like to rant and all, but alas today is a public holiday. So they would not be open, means they would not allow me to let him fix my laptop once and for all. I mean I switched the decent Acer miniPC into my room but it's just not mine, and I'm not really used to it (I mean I installed the Windows interface in Bahasa, so everything is like potong and salin - copy and paste) which I take a while to get used to.
In any case, who wants to sponsor my band? We are looking for a sugar daddy/sugar mummy to pay for various stuff. Please apply only due to a love of music, as we do not do extra service(s). Did you know a decent PA system costs $500? And that's on a christmas crazy offer. Sigh.
Oh, and we are also looking for a new vocalist! :D
Originally created for the Fly By Night 2008, but this version did not fit the theme that the team was going for so I went to re-cut and re-edit from the raw tapes, so please view is at such. Cheers! =D
Hols have started for about like... 15 days now, and though it's not boring i wish there were OTHER things I could do.
update:
fly by night
never won anything, not really surprised. A little bitter due to some really jarring experiences. But congrats to Shi xiong's team who are the only team frm CS to win a judges choice award. I question whether it was really a film comperition or home video challenge, because of some of their choices and what not. But finished the bulk of the work really quickly to the point where we could sleep (yes we slept, some of us like pigs) for large periods of time.
laptop:
broke down with the blue screen of death. and when it booted up the bios screen was arranged in like hologlyphs. friggin scary even if you are a matrix fan. So i have to use my dinosaur of a desktop now for many things, and as you can tell from the spelling this keyboard kind of sucks. It's a dinosaur because a) it's skeleton has been around since the year 2000. b) it runs on pentium 4. c) the pentium 4 motherboard does not even slot properly into the chassis - i make do and d) its already yellowing. Nothing much I can do here other than watch videos, chat and play uncharted waters 2 (thats pretty fun)
luckily for me the warranty covers it, now i'm just waiting for the parts to arrive so eight flags dude can replace my motherboard. at least it's covered by warranty, so phew.
kbox:
quite awesome :D. Going again tmr. And some time later again perhaps.
jamming:
not bad, now got like THREE originals. just wait for you all to pass me the recordings so I can arrange. Sorry arrangements dun just fly onto your plate like that haha.
last but not least:
FOR ALL THOSE OF YOU WHO'VE CAUGHT THE FIRST ONE BY LOW JIN YONG (the FOC video lah) HERE'S THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED (ok not really) SEQUEL. COMING TO YOU (hopefully) JANUARY 2009.
work in progress. Volunteers for crew and cast please contact me. hee =D
It's gonna be, legen-*wait for it*-
