Just How Do You Fix Unwanted PC Noise?

Well, there are many ways to address the noise problem in your technology. There are many solutions out there, so it is important to correctly identify the source of your problem. However, I have outlined some possible scenarios that will help get you started.

Regular Desktops and Small Form Factor Workstations from Major Manufacturers — In my work I’ve seen quite a few entry level desktops and small form factor workstations that exhibit excessive noise problems. In many cases the noise would become more pronounced, the older the machine gets. With some older HP and Compaq SFF workstations, sometimes the cooling fan in either the power supply or the CPU cooling fan is the culprit. Replacing these components with a higher quality component will fix your noise problem.

Non-Branded Machines Built To Order — These types of machines are kind of scary in that you never know what you will find in these boxes until you open them up. These non-branded machines are usually built by some no-name discount computer stores or dis-reputable people trying to cash in on someone’s naivety. I’ve seen quite a few of these come in for repair and they are all sloppily made with poor components. The case is always shoddy, and how things are installed are shoddy as well. And in all cases, people have paid high sums of money for this worthless junk. With machines like this, a repair is never worth it; just salvage what you can and get a quality machine.

Home Theater PC’s — These types of computers are usually in people’s living rooms and are left on for extended periods of time recording their owner’s television shows or serving media for playback. If your HTPC exhibits unwanted noise, first check the noise level of all cooling fans (CPU, video card and power supply). For this entire process I would measure the noise level with my sound level meter. In addition, make sure that all the components in the computer are properly fastened and that components are secure and do not vibrate. And the last thing to check is that your machine has good quality rubber mounting feet. If you accomplished all these steps and are still experiencing a noise problem, you may want to first try lining your PC case with a sound deadening material like Dynamat, or similar. A more extreme step to take would be to convert your system from an air-cooled one to a water-cooled one.

Gaming PC’s — Gaming PC’s can be quite complex little units in terms of unwanted noise and hum coming from the cooling fans. Few companies build quiet or low-noise machines in this competitive market segment. Usually in air-cooled gaming machines, the cooling fans are larger high flow devices capable of moving a lot of air through your PC. Even with quiet cooling fans, the sound of the air flow is quite audible. Many gamers don’t complain about the air-flow noise because when they are playing games, the game soundtrack is set at a loud volume level. There are a lot of things to look at in a gaming PC to make you machine into a silent performer. However, the biggest bang for the buck in this market segment is to switch your power supply into a silent power supply and to modify your machine from an air-cooled one into a water-cooled one. With water cooling, you would generally cool the CPU, GPU, and motherboard chipset. With a well-designed PC case, your other computer components can be cooled quite well with passive air cooling.

Audio and Video Media Workstations — With these specialized types of PC’s, any unwanted noise can be very problematic in your business. These types of machines are very common in production firms, recording studios, advertising agencies, and broadcast. If your facility has the space, I usually recommend moving the offending machines out of the control room, and into an adjacent room, wiring closet or computer room. This type of setup would require installing a wiring assembly consisting of application-specific baluns and shielded wire that would allow you to transfer keyboard, video, mouse, USB, audio signals and virtually any other electrical signal to your control room. The beauty of this type of set up is that it makes upgrading easier as you don’t have to pay for more expensive purpose-built silent AV workstations. However, if you don’t have the extra space available, you can examine your systems’ components and switch to low-noise components and even install Dynamat sheeting.

Another approach I’ve seen used with these types of machines is the use of an acoustic isolation box. An isolation box is another enclosure that houses noisy machines that you typically may find in the broadcast field. Many of these boxes have acoustical foam on the inside and have standard 19″ rails to mount your media workstation and other AV components.

As you may have surmised there is usually no single quick-fix to eliminating unwanted noise from your technology. Due to many different technologies and components out there, it may be difficult to diagnose and correct the problem yourself. Your best bet is to enlist the services of a technician who has experience with addressing the issues of unwanted noise.

As with anything in life, a truly exceptional website takes a lot of investment in both time and money. Taking advantage of the latest technology and designing your site with the future in mind will add great value to your site. Yet unrealistic expectations still persist among business people who are new to web services. In order to avoid web services sticker shock and the paralysis that goes along with technology unawareness, it best to educate yourselves on the common fallacies that exist with web services.

Common fallacies of web services

SEO strategies are equivalent to sales prospecting — As simple as this sounds, for many business people it is not an obvious statement. Many hold the view that seach engine optimization is the most critical component to sales prospecting and the only reason to have a web presence — this is simply not true. In order for any SEO strategy to work successfully, you need a website that has a wealth of content that is valuable to your customers as well as a business strategy that is sensitive to your customers needs. SEO strategies should not be looked at as a sales prospecting vehicle; they simply don’t work that way.

SEO strategies as a replacement to good content — It is a mistake to look at any SEO strategy as a shortcut to having a robust web presence with compelling content. Any SEO strategy alone, will not keep users coming back to your site. There is simply no replacement to having a website that is designed in a usable way and is a valuable service to your users.

Customized leading-edge web development available as “turn-key” at entry level prices — The ongoing advancement of the latest breed of web technologies allow people to deliver content and services in more dynamic and effective ways. Some consultants market these new technologies as turn-key solutions and entry level prices. However, the practical application of these technologies are much different than the pledges of these marketers. In addition, web hosting costs for a richly developed website with a lot of content using the latest technologies simply can’t be had at “entry-level” pricing.

Using a website strictly for marketing or sales prospecting — One of the biggest mistakes you can make in devising a strategy for your web presence is to view your new site strictly as a vehicle for sales prospecting. This single focus really does not work and will alienate a great many visitors to your site. Your website should service the needs of both new and existing clients. A website that is designed with the customer in mind, gives a value-add to your users and creates a comfort-level for doing business with you.

Latest generation web technologies generate sales leads and increased traffic — The latest technologies by themselves don’t generate sales leads or increase traffic. Although new technology allows you more freedom to present your content in new and dynamic ways; it is no replacement for working hard and exercising diligence in your business.

In conclusion

In this day in age, it may seem common to buy into marketing hype of an easier way of doing things as a magic pill for your business. In these uncertain waters, your best course of action is to become educated regarding the available technologies for your business. And when dealing with a consultant, hire someone that has a balance of both technical and business experience. Someone who will tell you the whole story, not just what you want to hear.

The best and most compelling web strategies on the Internet were not developed with minimal effort and were not a turn-key endeavor. Compelling websites are usually in continual development and are very responsive and dynamic to your client’s needs. Developing and maintaining such as site takes a significant amount of time and resources, however, it pays great dividends in improved customer communication, loyalty and satisfaction.

For a lot of small business owners that I work with, it seems that the price-point for technology is usually the selling point. However, I am always quick to point out to my business partners that there is a lot more to the message than the marketing. No matter how attractive pricing becomes, it is very important to focus on the total cost of ownership or TCO.

There are many factors to consider when trying to determine the total cost of ownership of a piece of technology. For example, let’s say we are looking for a desktop workstation for our business — there are a wide variety of additional potential costs that should be taken into account.

Finance Charges – During a typical 3 – 4 year product life cycle of a desktop workstation, many small businesses will find it advantageous to lease for the term of the entire product life cycle. You don’t pay for the entire product up front, but over the course of your lease, you will pay additional finance costs that are built into the lease — that increases your TCO.

Migration or Setup - If your new workstation is a replacement for an existing workstation, there will need to be a migration of your data and environment to the new system. If the workstation is a new system, there will need to be a setup of your required software, environment so that everything works with your systems.

Software Licenses -Software licenses are a significant portion of the TCO of any desktop workstation. In fact, in many small businesses, the cost of software licenses alone can exceed the initial cost of the hardware.

Energy - This is one factor that many businesses don’t take into account, but should because of the increasing costs of energy. For a system that is run 8 hours a day during a 3 – 4 year product life cycle, your additional electricity costs may add another 50-60% to the cost of an entry-level workstation. For servers that are left on 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, energy costs usually exceed the initial cost of the server hardware.

Infrastructure & Resources - Sometimes overlooked is the actual infrastructure and resources costs. The type of infrastructure you should consider is the cabling costs (network or otherwise), power management (surge suppressors and uninterruptible power supplies) and security solutions (desktop locks or other anti-theft devices). In terms of resources, a typical cost to factor in would be the cost of the personnel that operates the technology.

Service and Maintenance – For many small businesses that do not have an I/T person on permanent staff, service and maintenance issues are of critical importance and usually cost more on an on-call basis. The amount of service calls vary from business to business, but in my experience, on average, I see about 3 – 6 service calls per workstation over its four-year life cycle. This may seem high to some people, but for many small business owners that do not have technical people on staff, it is common to get a contractor in to do simple maintenance, data restoration or other functions.

If you’ve gotten this far, you should have a better understanding of the additional costs that increase the total cost of ownership of technology you acquire for your small business. Careful planning in the research and purchasing phases of your new technology will allow you to better control your costs by buying right-sized technology for your application.

Things to consider when making technical purchases at big-box retail outlets

In determining if shopping at a big-box retail outlet is a good option for your small business, focus on your requirements and how discerning you are about your technology.

Limited Range of Products – In big-box retail, it is very common to find a lot of popular brand names, but you won’t find the full range of solutions for each brand. For example, if you are looking for an HP Notebook, you will typically find mainstream notebooks with features that fit a large market segment on both price and features. But you typically won’t find more business-focused notebooks and additional parts for your purchase such as higher capacity batteries.

Limited After Sale Support – in the typical big-box retail environment, it is typical to find employees that are not very familiar with specifics on the technology that they sell; so getting information on parts and add-ons for your technology can be very frustrating experience.

Not Business-Focused – Most of these outlets are not business-focused and seem to have employees that are oblivious to the concerns of small business. In fact these outlets seem to cater only to the casual home user with their customer loyalty programs and other marketing gimmicks. Business users need services that have value for their business such as leasing of their technology acquisitions and free technology seminars that are focused for the small business owner.

One of the common complaints that I hear from users making the switch from their desktop to a notebook PC, is that the sound of their notebook is not as robust as they would like. I always have to illustrate to these users that the internal speakers on their business notebooks are very small and lightweight and as such are not made for high-volume multi-media escapades. Now it is true that there are multi-media notebooks on the market that have good sound and even sub-woofers, but these notebooks tend to be more on the larger and heavier side; a big issue with small business road warriors. Still, these larger multi-media notebooks don’t compare with the audio quality from traditional consumer electronics.

For general listening, I recommend that my clients get PC speakers from Logitech, Creative or other companies. They are inexpensive enough that you can have a set in your office and at home. For most users, a good set of PC speakers is more than enough for listening to webcasts, the occasional DVD and listening to music. Notebook users should generally experience the same sound from these speakers as when they were using a desktop. The good thing about these types of speaker packages is that it all comes complete in one box, like a complete kit. The bad thing about them is that sometimes the connections are proprietary and if one satellite speaker blows or doesn’t work, you usually have to get a whole new set of speakers.

Using home recording monitors for high-performance audio?

For users that are very discerning about their audio, it is important to do your home work. I’ve seen some notebook users who think the way to go is to use a powered monitor like the Chinese-made KRK Rokit 5 from KRK Systems and an external pro-audio sound card. Monitors like these are made for the home recording market, but don’t be confused thinking that just because people generally use these to mix tracks that they sound the best. Sound is quite a subjective thing, and what sounds good to one person might not generally sound good to someone else. While it is true that monitors for home recording are generally designed so that the sound has a flat sound response, a flat sound is generally not ideal for home listening environments. If you are listening to music, watching a DVD or playing a video game, it is important that your sound be immersive, lively and have a wide dynamic range.

Smaller monitors like the Rockit 5’s are usually used as a tool by sound engineers so that they can approximate the sound of mainstream home electronics. In traditional recording studios, an engineer or producer would use a variety of different monitors to record and mix down tracks. Usually a small monitor would be used at the end to validate the mix done on very expensive, accurate and large monitors.

A good “sound” experience for the notebook user is to think about the entire chain, not just one or two products along the way. I know that powered monitors are convenient for many people, because they don’t have to worry about amplifiers and extra connections. I think the Rockit 5’s are a moderate value in this type of application, but more discerning listeners would be well advised to read the next section.

My recipe for a getting awesome sound out of your notebook PC

I generally don’t like powered monitors (especially the entry level ones). For a discerning audiophile, it is better to design a system based on your specific performance requirements using quality discreet components. Think of approaching a task like this the same way a chef would approach making a meal — use good quality ingredients, but if a component does not live to expectations, make sure your system (or recipe) is flexible enough to change.

A favorite set-up of mine is shown in Figure 1. As you will notice from the diagram, the notebook computer feeds an external sound device and goes into a direct injection box. In many cases, you can omit the external sound card and plug your equipment straight into an injection box. Some external USB sound interfaces have the facilities of a D.I. box — in a case like this, skip the D.I. box in the diagram. If you need a D.I. box for your notebook, give Radial Engineering’s JPC a look.

I like to feed my sound inputs into a compact preamplifier so that I have the flexibility of switching between other sound sources. In an application like this, I would prefer using a tube preamp feeding two compact tube mono-block amplifiers. I know that some people are squeamish around tube equipment. There are a lot of nice alternatives out there, just choose what works for you.

Figure 1

And when it comes to speakers, take your time auditioning different makes so that you find the perfect match for your ears and your room. When it comes to a set-up like this, take your time and experiment with different components until you find what works best for your ears.

High-Performance Audio Tips

In order for you to make the best of the audio performance on your notebook computer, I have assembled together a bunch of tips to aid in your journey.

Use only high-quality source material — Make sure that your digital audio and video files are encoded properly for playback using good quality encoding settings. I find that many users have poor quality audio files that may have gremlins from the analog world such as crosstalk, static and audible noise. In addition MP3 files are sometimes encoded at such high compression (very lossy), it really kills the dynamic range in the music and makes the music sound dull.

Install your system properly — Avoid taking short cuts in your installation process. I’ve seen problems where a user will install a 12 foot section of speaker wire on the left and a 4 foot length on the right side. To obtain good stereo imagery, make sure that all things are equal and cut speaker wire to equal lengths and make sure that both speakers are correctly angled and placed equidistant to the listener.

Comparatively test your system — To make sure you get the best performance out of your system, occasionally take inventory of your components and find out where you can make performance gains. When replacing interconnects or other components, try and do a comparative A-B test to evaluate the difference and fine-tune your system accordingly. Don’t be afraid to swap interconnects or speakers with your friends to evaluate their differences.

Just how common are random power fluctuations and intermittent power dropouts?

You may think that if you live in a big city or in the downtown core, that the power quality is sufficient enough not to worry about. The truth, is that random power events are quite common, no matter where you live. In many installations across the city, I’ve seen what can happen when a client doesn’t have the proper power management technologies at their facility. In my computer lab, I roughly experience about 4-6 major power events a year. I define any power event as a major power event if it requires my UPS technology to switch over to battery power. This could include a complete loss of power (blackout) a temporary voltage drop (brownout). Sometimes the loss of power may be only a few seconds or in the worst case, many hours. In addition to the major power events, additional power events that can adversely affect your equipment are a surge in electric current or slight voltage drops.

Why you need an Uninterruptible Power Supply

Because computer technology is extremely susceptible to poor power quality, it is very important to make sure that you have a UPS solution that adequately protects you. Poor power quality and major power events can damage or shorten the life span of your valuable equipment. Power events contribute to poor availability of your systems & applications, which leads to reduced productivity and erodes your customers’ confidence in you. In all too many cases, bad power events contribute to data loss, equipment failure and a loss of business.

Choosing the UPS solution that is right for you

Finding the right power management solution can be a daunting first-time task. First start with taking an audit of your systems and the facility they reside in. Be sure to take note of any special concerns with your technology or any increased risk in your facility or geographic area. Bring all this information to an information technology professional, so that he/she can recommend the solution that best fits your needs or budget. It is extremely important to talk with a professional as they would have experience and be able to outline many potential risks and solutions that you haven’t even thought of.

I personally have been using APC solutions in my own computer lab and in customer installations exclusively. The reason is simple, their products perform quite well, they have a broad product range and the after sale support is the best in the industry. I have no problem entrusting my equipment or the equipment of my clients to APC technology. In my experience, the equipment pays for itself when you experience your first major power event.

Just a quick note to let you know that I’m in no way compensated by APC for my favorable opinion of their power solutions. I recommend them based on my good experiences of using this technology in the field.

Initial product impressions

The Screenplay HD is finished in a matte black textured paint (feels like fine sandpaper, although they probably were going for suede). The finish just doesn’t feel right; it doesn’t have the polish of previous Iomega products. From an aesthetic and fit & finish point-of-view, I don’t think this product compares favorably with other consumer electronics products. However, this product functions as advertised. The unit works well as an external USB hard drive and plays back various media including video, digital stills and audio.

The remote control is very slim, about the size of three credit cards and it uses an inconvenient (and more expensive) coin cell battery. The remote control is designed to snap into the base of the Screenplay HD (I suppose for traveling or storage).

Shortcomings of the Screenplay HD

I was surprised to see just how many short comings this product has. Even though this product is made in China, I was expecting that it would be competently designed as many American-designed products are. What follows is a list of things that I didn’t like. I know a few things may sound nit-picky, but I have listed all my impressions so you can make a more informed decision of what is important to you.

Almost adequate product documentation — The Screenplay HD comes with a small printed user manual that is less than one page in your own language. This manual is quite useless, and there is a better HTML user’s guide on the accompanying CD. And if you don’t like reading manuals, you won’t appreciate that the Screenplay HD doesn’t come with a full-color illustrated “quick start” diagram that you see with well-designed products.

Slight vibration — The product exhibits a slight noise from vibration when set on a table top or TV stand. Most people probably won’t notice this with the sound on. However, when you mute the sound, the noise from the vibration is noticeable. This problem is easily corrected by placing the Screenplay HD on top of another surface such as an anti-slip mat or a mouse pad.

Inferior remote control — The remote has a thickness of about three credit cards which makes it uncomfortable to hold. Since the remote control is the way you would interface with this device the most often, it is important to have a well designed and ergonomic remote. Other problems with the remote is that is uses a coin cell battery and doesn’t have real buttons. The buttons on the remote are surface mount contact switches. <ugh>

The “buttons” are of all the same size and shape, so it is very difficult to use this remote without looking at it all the time. In addition the fast forward and reverse “buttons” are not next to the play button as is the norm with other consumer electronic products. This makes watching videos very inconvenient as you always have to focus a lot on the remote to make sure you are pressing the right buttons.

The other enjoyment-busting flaw in this remote is that you have to make sure that you aim the thing directly at the Screenplay HD in order for this thing to work. If your aim is off about 20 degrees or so, it won’t work. Full size remotes I’ve tested from Sony and Panasonic which have a better range and allow you to be off aim in some cases 45 degrees or more and the still work.

Poor navigation — With an onboard 500GB HD, it is important that the Screenplay HD be effective in navigating around with it’s on-screen-display. When loaded with video files, it is very difficult to quickly scroll down your list of videos. Holding the “down” button doesn’t work. In order to scroll down, you have to repetitively hit the “down” button. This is all the more made more difficult with the pathetic remote control with surface mount contact switches. A better remote would have been ideal. In addition, a page down button on the remote or a feature on the on-screen-display would have helped.

No product localization — It would have been great if this product was more localized for the North American market. This thing is outfitted with a SCART connector which is totally useless outside of Europe. Ideally, I would have liked to have seen a North American version of this product with actual RCA connectors for composite video and audio (L/R) as well as component video connections. In this way, I would have been able to use standard cables.

For component video and standard composite video with audio, the Screenplay HD uses a custom 1/8″ 3-conductor connector cable that splits into 3-RCA jacks. So if you are using one of these connections, you have to use the supplied cable or make your own.

Poor on-screen-display — Another problem I found in my testing is that the on-screen-display (OSD) has some flicker. One big oversight in this device is that there is no way to delete video files through the OSD via the remote! This means that in order to delete files, your only option is to connect the Screenplay HD to your computer via the USB cable and do deletes from there. In case you are wondering, you can ‘t do any file operations through the OSD whatsoever. This would include renaming or moving files to another folder.

Glitchy video performance — For MPEG files, I find that the onboard decoder of the Screenplay HD renders a blurry and glitchy video. The same video files look better on other devices, including PC playback. I also find that there is a 1.5 -2.0 second audio / video sync problem on the Screenplay HD that is not apparent on other devices or on PC playback of the same file.

When viewing video files on the Screenplay HD, the audio would randomly drop out on me. I found that I could correct this by fast-forwarding and reversing back to where I left off and hitting the “play” button again. This is a very annoying glitch!

Poor fast-forward and reverse ratios — Another problem is with the Screenplay HD’s fast-forward and reverse speeds. The screenplay can forward in 2x, 4x, 8x speeds. However, at 2x, I think the video goes by too fast and makes it hard to scan over the boring parts of the video. The fast forward and reverse features would have been more usable if they shadowed the ratios that you find in quality consumer electronics products (from Sony and Panasonic).

No bookmarking or resume-play — If you are viewing a video with the Screenplay HD and stop the playback, you will be annoyed to find that there is no resume function! So in order to resume, you would have to restart playback and manually fast to where you left off! There is not bookmarking feature with the screenplay. This is a major flaw in the product as this type of feature is commonplace in PVR’s, DVD players, portable media players and Windows MCE.

What would have made this product better

In addition to correcting the above noted product short comings, there are a few things that I suggest would make this product better.

Support for WMV files — I would have liked to see support for Microsoft WMV files. Wouldn’t it be great if this thing could support the native DVR-MS files from Windows Media Center Edition? Oh well…

Security PIN — Also a security function that would protect children from mature content would have been a plus. In my view, it is a big oversight that this wasn’t added as this is commonplace on DVD players and PVR’s.

A screensaver — This type of feature is very common on quality DVD players and PVR’s, however, is absent from the Screenplay HD. It is a good feature to have in order to prevent burn-in of your pricey television screen.

In summary

I guess that you can view this device as a convenience product because it is very portable and plays different types of media and allows you to store your digital files. However, there are so many problems that make this device usable. In my view, don’t make a product unless it is absolutely the best product you can make. All the short comings in this product take all the joy out of using it. In fact, the video quality, the audio drop outs and fussing with the remotes are enough to make you want to throw this thing out the window!

My recommendation to my colleague would be to use this more as an external hard drive than a video player. I suggested that I could build him a really quiet, feature-laden, high performance PC-based PVR in a small form factor at many times the price of his Screenplay HD. <Just fishing…>

When I was a wee youngster, I remember one of the first things that I saw that got me interested in programming a computer was a computer language called LOGO. Some people may recognize the most popular feature of LOGO as “turtle graphics”. It was simple enough for me to get started on it right away and was instantly hooked by all the creative possibilities. The basic features of LOGO are easy enough for any parent to navigate through with their child. In addition, you will find many great lesson plans available on the Internet.

Where to get LOGO for your computer

There are quite a few implementations of LOGO out there. For Windows based PC’s a free version of LOGO called MSWLogo is available from Softronix’s website. This implementation is quite good and will even run well on older PC’s. A newer version of the program is available as FMSLogo. If you are using another platform, be sure to check out XLogo, which runs under Sun’s JAVA runtime environment. JAVA.

Getting started with Turtle Graphics

The turtle, which is an on-screen cursor, can be given commands to draw on the screen. In the examples below, it is represented by a triangle icon. Simples English commands allow you to tell the turtle what to do. For example giving the command “FORWARD 100″ will move the turtle up 100 pixels and in the process, it will draw a line on your screen.

Simple examples

There are a lot of great resources and learning guides on the Internet for you to explore, but I’ve included some simple illustrations to show you what you can do with turtle graphics.

To draw a line, you would type,

FORWARD 100

and the resulting graphic output would look something like this:

To draw a square, you would type,

REPEAT 4 [ FORWARD 100 RIGHT 90 ]

and the resulting graphic output would look something like this:

To draw a circle, you would type,

REPEAT 180 [ FORWARD 2 RIGHT 2 ]

and the resulting graphic output would look something like this:

Making computer art with LOGO

I think one of the more compelling things you can do with LOGO is create computer art. The language is very powerful, but simple enough to get started with it right away. Below I’ve included a screen shot of MSWLogo with a multi-colored spiral graphics. The graphic below is primarily created with one simple shape, a circle. Experiment with different shapes, colors and sizes and see what you can come up with. Click the image for a full-size version.

The code for the above example is as follows:

PU SETSC [0 0 0] HOME HT CS PD SETPENSIZE [1 1]

; ** ORANGE DOTTED LINES **

MAKE “T 500 MAKE “I 0
WHILE [:I<101] [SETTURTLE :I PU HT SETX -500 SETY :T SETH 90 PD MAKE "T :T-10 MAKE "I :I+1]
SETPC [253 139 3]
MAKE “I 0 MAKE “T 0
WHILE [:I<201] [WHILE [:T<101] [SETTURTLE :T PD FD 3 PU FD 2 MAKE "T :T+1] MAKE “T 0 MAKE “I :I+1]

; ** FIVE MULTICOLORED SPIRAL CIRCLES **

SETTURTLE 0 PU SETPOS [-200 100] PD HT
SETTURTLE 1 PU SETPOS [0 0] PD HT
SETTURTLE 2 PU SETPOS [200 -100] PD HT
SETTURTLE 3 PU SETPOS [-200 -100] PD HT
SETTURTLE 4 PU SETPOS [200 100] PD HT
REPEAT 36 [ REPEAT 180

[SETTURTLE 0 SETPC [4 75 252] FD 3 RT 2
SETTURTLE 1 SETPC [149 247 246] FD 3 RT 2
SETTURTLE 2 SETPC [193 3 240] FD 3 RT 2
SETTURTLE 3 SETPC [50 174 68] FD 3 RT 2
SETTURTLE 4 SETPC [199 217 0] FD 3 RT 2]

SETTURTLE 0 RT 10
SETTURTLE 1 RT 10
SETTURTLE 2 RT 10
SETTURTLE 3 RT 10
SETTURTLE 4 RT 10]

I hope you enjoyed this simple introduction to the world of LOGO. This computer language has been around for quite some time and is still a great tool for teaching and exploring your own creativity. Have fun exploring.

]]> http://www.torontotechnophile.com/?feed=rss2&p=535 0 http://www.torontotechnophile.com/?p=525 http://www.torontotechnophile.com/?p=525#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:55:44 +0000 Ted K. http://www.torontotechnophile.com/?p=525 You know, I’ve always dabbled a little in computer art and graphics. I find that computer graphics are an interesting way to play with colors and light. Over the years I’ve used many different types of graphics applications from paint programs to 3D rendering to fractal programs and more. If you have some time on your hands, why not see what you can create.

I’ve recently tried out a program called Chaoscope. It is a “3D Strange Attractors Rendering Software”. It is a freeware software application that runs on the Microsoft Windows™ platform. You can create some interesting images with this program in which you don’t need to understand the underlying math to fully appreciate . I’ve rendered an image using Chasoscope (below). Feel free to click on the image and download the full size version in 1280 x 1024. It is a quick download at 159k — it makes a great wallpaper!

The Chaoscope application is easy to use and the interface is uncluttered. I’m sure you’ll be rendering interesting images in no time.