Author Archives: Donncha

Bird flu not a major human threat yet–scientists

According to Reuters it’s not serious yet, but I remember reading a book a few weeks ago on this very subject, with disasterous consequences. *shudder*

“If a person contracts both human flu and bird flu during this peak flu season, that may result in the two sharing their genetic information and emerging into a new strain with the ability to jump very efficiently from human to human.
“If that happens, it will be an emergence of a pandemic, something we don’t want to see,” Chan told Reuters.

Compressed httpd data

Enabling zlib compression makes a huge difference to a http server. I stress tested this server using Apache Bench. Before compression was enabled I managed just over 1-2 requests of (large) pages per second, but with compression that rose to 10 requests per second! Just add this to a .htaccess file if you’re using PHP 4.

php_flag zlib.output_compression On

Update – Enabling compression that way here causes too many problems. I’ll have to try and convince Colm to install mod_gzip which works everywhere else I’ve used it.

C-ONE Reconfigurable Computer

Here’s the C64 version. Looking at the specs it looks like a cross between a C64, Amiga, and PC!

  • It has c64 expansion slots, as well as a 6502 compatible CPU.
  • It has a copper chip like on the Amiga, but from the description of it, I think the C64 can do what it did anyway (read “About the Copper” on the Specifications page.) as anyone who did any assembly programming on the C64 will have manipulated the raster beam to display more than 8 sprites for example.
  • It has ports for a PS/2 keyboard, and fits inside an ATX case.

That’s just a summary. Read the specs page for more. The Slashdot discussion has even more, including info on on what FPGAs are.

IMO, there are lots of _very_ cool FPGA devices about to hit market, and they are going to change how we use computers. Gaming not the least.