Can’t open localhost on WAMP- solved

After having searched a lot for this problem, I finally figured it out. Most of the guides will tell you to change in the httpd.conf( located in C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.21\conf) the listening port from 80 to 8080(or really anything you want that doesn’t interfere with another web application). That’s because Skype uses port 80 and it enters in conflict with Apache.

So what do you do if your wamp server now lights up green but your localhost page still doesn’t load? It’s a simple information I could hardly find: just add the port after localhost. You will now write this in your adress bar:

localhost:8080

Ultra portable 128 GB

I recently came into possession of a Kingston DataTraveler HyperX USB 3.0 memory stick(thanks wasd.ro for this!). It’s quite an incredibly powerful mobile storing solution for those that are always on the run, and a traditional portable hard-disk is not an option. The specs on such a memory stick leaves you with the mouth wide open. But of course, you have to own a motherboard with USB 3.0 ports, else it will run like a regular high-performance memory stick on an USB 2.0.

The transfer speeds are rated as following:

USB 3.0	READ: 225 MB/s	WRITE: 135 MB/s
USB 2.0	READ: 30 MB/s	WRITE: 30 MB/s

Well unfortunately I don’t own a motherboard with USB 3.0 ports, but the transfer speeds are good for USB 2.0 too. I tested the memory stick with Crystal DiskMark. Here are the results:

———————————————————————–
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
———————————————————————–
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read :    35.192 MB/s
     Sequential Write :    26.237 MB/s
Random Read 512KB :    32.720 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :     1.510 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     3.003 MB/s [   733.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     0.083 MB/s [    20.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     4.233 MB/s [  1033.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     0.085 MB/s [    20.7 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [I: 0.0% (0.0/119.3 GB)] (x5)

———————————————————————–
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
———————————————————————–
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read :    35.797 MB/s
          Sequential Write :    17.298 MB/s
Random Read 512KB :    34.510 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :    14.852 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     3.787 MB/s [   924.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     0.868 MB/s [   212.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     4.656 MB/s [  1136.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     0.913 MB/s [   222.8 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [I: 0.0% (0.0/119.3 GB)] (x5)

———————————————————————–
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
———————————————————————–
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read :    35.431 MB/s
          Sequential Write :    26.927 MB/s
Random Read 512KB :    34.681 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :     0.797 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     3.904 MB/s [   953.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     0.080 MB/s [    19.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     4.581 MB/s [  1118.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     0.000 MB/s [     0.0 IOPS]

  Test : 4000 MB [I: 0.0% (0.0/119.3 GB)] (x5)

As you can see, the transfer speeds are quite consistent with the change of file size, but it suffers almost a 10 MB/s drop when I drop the file size to 50 mb/s. I imagine the speeds for lots of very small files get even worse. Of course, this differs with the type of format. The stick I tested was formatted using exFAT( I posted a list of formatting options for the USB memory stick here).  The conclusion from the results? If you were to copy 128 GB from this stick( you can’t actually, the stick has 119 GB in reality( it differs from one to another)) it would take 1 hour. It’s not that good when writing at 17 MB/s: ~2 hours. These reading and writing times can be reduced under USB 3.0: ~10min for reading and ~16min for writing.

Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe: Aircraft Transportation Basics

This is a tutorial that covers the topic of Aircraft Transportation. It’s mostly a talk on it, not necessarily a tutorial, because figuring out how to make air routes is easy. You can say it at least stimulates your appetite for trying a different approach at winning the game.

Unfortunately, even if my goal was to provide 1080p resolution, this has to be one of the poorest quality videos I uploaded, not judging by image quality, but by annoyance . For some reason, Cam Studio produces what I would optimistically call a “time lapse” video output. I don’t know why it does it, I used it to record OpenTTD videos before and it worked just fine. Then I found Microsoft Expression Encoder 4.  You think the title is long? Nah, it just gives you a tip: “beware… something else is long in this program too…”. I was very pleased to notice that it records very well my screen. My happiness stopped when I also noticed that it doesn’t directly record to a normal video file. Instead, it spits out its own, weird, type of video file. This needs encoding, of course! The encoding process for a 10 minute video file took 4 hours on my E6500. If that wasn’t enough, it seems that not all the footage recorded by Expression Encoder 4 is flawless. You can notice this when watching: most of the video is jerky, so you’ll probably listen to a story more than watch an actual video. Argh X(

I hope, even though I shouldn’t, that you like it .

 

2012 is here

Happy New Year!

This night we should rejoice that another year passed and we are still standing, still having hopes and still being able to be happy. Even enemies celebrate together at this party. Like my dog and cat, I never saw them together until now:

Have any new year resolutions? Perhaps you have, but if you don’t, I’m sure you desire something on the long term. Like me- I wish for a successful year for my education and professional\hobby progress. Oh, and be a bit more creative than the last year.

  I have to recognize: this is a period of excesses food is the most significant here. At least I had some delicious trout for the festive dinner. It was so well cooked that I enjoyed eating even the bones! My heart will surely thank me for all the Omega3 oils I ingested .

Among other things, the atmosphere is literally bombarded with beautiful fireworks, but pollution speaks for itself. In many areas the air is left unbreathable and covered in smoke. Well, at least it’s not as bad as a few years back, when you could simply cut through the smoke.

I noticed 2 odd things tonight. My hall clock stopped in 2011- at 12:10 I noticed that the clock was dead at 11:45 in 2012. Interesting time for the battery to fail . The 2nd thing kind of disturbed me. As I was watching on the window, I observed 2 kids drinking from what seemed to be a wine bottle. After they finished it, they broke the bottle on the asphalt. Both of them were younger than 10 years I think.   Where are we heading with this? Some parents should be warned about giving some proper education to their children.

 

Finally, this is the fireworks show our town hall provided:

 

Drinking Twinings for the first time

The December edition of National Geographic magazine came with a little bonus: a Twinings bag of tea. There weren’t a lot of details written on the bag other than the sortiment, simple preparation instructions and the adress of the company. I was expecting to see a description of the bag’s content, but probably that’s only mentioned on the box.

The particular tea I drank has the title “Voyage – Brazilian Baía”. The scent of coconuts and vanilla made me think I’m going to soon taste something good. It has a combination of a few aromas, but the the strongest flavor was still the coconut one. It also left a very weak bitter taste in my mouth, it was almost like a “polish” to all the other flavors.

I read in the magazine that the company( actually at that time only a tea room) was founded in 1706 by Thomas Twining, a time when tea was a privilege granted only for nobles. It was basically a pioneer in selling tea, popularizing it to the masses. So from this story I understand that Twinings is probably popular among british people and is part of Great Britain culture.

I must say that I was feeling like a “sir” when drinking this cup of tea, which I enjoyed to the fullest. I can’t wait to buy a pack of these when I’ll have the occasion

 

 

The interesting story of Mars

I found a nice narrated documentary clip about Mars that is quite interesting: it tries to prove that Mars was much like our Earth in the past, until a major catastrophe, at least.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Game Review

This is one of the most beautifully detailed games I’ve seen in a while. It basically like a milestone in RPG and MMORPG games, definitely a game that should inspire others.

15 Years of Download.com: Interesting Charts and Data

The following is a cnet infographic with interesting data about download.com over the years: