History of performance on Dell computers
History of performance on Dell computers
In IT Hardware Domain , we can't generalize the no. of years the particular Peripheral / device will last . We measure life expectancy differently using different units .
About reliability , Dell is one of the most Reliable Laptop Manufacturers.
About the failure of hardware ,
Scenarios :
a) 2008 - 20** - companies are coming with minimalistic designs ( Slim / Small Computers ) which are as powerful as the giant ones . But internal circutary thus , is even more sophisticated , many of the chips are fused with the PCB boards .
b) 1960-2007 - PCB Boards were big , Chips had visible pins , therefore repairing with success rate > 50 % was possible .
For eg :
a) Monitors ( LEDs / LCDs ) -
Typical Life of : 10,000 to 30,000 hours ( For monitors ) / 30,000 - 40,000 hours ( For LCD LED TVs )
OEMs- LG / Samsung .
Realistic Life expectancy - Assuming 30,000 hours life , if we use it 6 hours a day , 6 days a week then it will last for about 833 days or 2.3 years .
Shikshantar's scenario - In last 3 years , we faced problem in 1 out of 15 LCD Monitors we have.
b) Hard Disks - Ref Notes (d,e,f)
Typical life : 1 month - 5 years .
Warranty offered - Post 2012 , 1 years - 3 years . Before that it used to be 3 years - 5 years . Western Digital & Seagate both reduced warranty from 3 years to 1 year(d)(e)
Though Hard Disks are very reliable yet they are vulnerable to internal errors / circuitry damages within 90 days of purchase .
Hard Disks are sensitive to temperature . Spending more than 50% of time in 40C is an indication of possible problem .
We count the usage in terms of Cycles ( Reads / Writes )
OEMs ( Used in Shikshantar ) - Seagate ( Dell PCs / Laptops ) , Western Digital ( Dell PCs ) , Toshiba ( Apple MBP )
Reliability between Vendors : Seagate is more reliable than Western Digital . WD crashes frequently as compared to Seagate .
Recommended : When it comes to data and data storage, it is never too extravagant to assume that drive will fail tomorrow , so we need to backup data accordingly .
c) Battery - In case of Laptop , after 1000 cycles typical Dell / HP battery looses about 50 % of its strength , while Apple MacBook Pro's looses 20% of strength .
d) Motherboard -
It contains hundreds of chips inside it , when it goes for repairing , any of the faulty chip found is replaced / repaired . Increase in sophistication of circuitry disallows manual repairing thus parts are repaired by OEM ( their authorized vendors )
Dell ( might ) operates like this , they collect the damaged parts , replace it with new . Sends parts to OEM , parts are installed in refurbished machines for reselling .
e) Power Supplies - For optimal life of computers , Voltage Stabilizers should be installed first , which will further provide power supply to UPSs which in turn , will power Computer Machines . Only this way we can absolutely rule out possibilities of Power surges , High Voltages which generally damages computer parts like Motherboards . ( Possible reason of Laptop's failure ) .
Note :
a) Temperature of the environment affects the life of Computer . Standard Operating Temperature of Machines is 10 to 30 degree Celsius
b) Dell purchases parts from different OEMs , assembles them . Thus we don't get warranty from OEMs but Dell which is limited .
c) Reference
- http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/buying-advice/laptop/3419512/most-reliable-laptop-makers-revealed/
d) Reference - http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/17/2641569/seagate-wd-hdd-one-year-warranty-reduction-2012
e) Google White Paper - Reference - http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/research.google.com/en//archive/disk_failures.pdf
f) http://superuser.com/questions/37049/what-is-the-lifetime-of-a-typical-hard-disk
Bottom line : About Dell , we have 29 Dell machines ( including PCs & Laptops ) , and in 2-3 years we faced problems in 6 Hard Disks & 1 Monitor ( Partial Functioning ) excluding this issue till date .
So , performance of Dell had been good .
How to grow wealthier?
Everyone aims to become wealthier. That's an intrisic motivation to many. So what's the art of becoming richer?
Fundamental lies in building multiple streams of money and money will in-flow from them.
Build products.
Build a network which will help build assets.
Meet and talk to lots of people.
Start series of small businesses.
The truth is success requires years of hard work and success requires consistent work on things project skill.
written in 3.08.2014
The art of measuring your success
We all strive to become better version of what we are. The eternal chase of better life starts from the moment when our mind becomes goals oriented.
So how to measure the success and achieve goals eventually?
The secret lies in choosing your metrices of calculating your success.
Never measure your success on the basis of how much money you made / but how much value you generated for others.
Money is simply a facilitator / medium to how wealth / values are exchanged. Therefore the more the value you will share with others, the more value you will get back eventually.
You should care about most competitive market in business to really test out your product’s competitiveness. Rest will follow.
Personal trait - you should be spontaneous, shorten the time required to achieve the goals.
Find more productive ways to do things since time is in limited supply.
How do you plan to outstand?
Don’t just compete but be creative about solving problems in more efficient manner. That will help you in standing out from your competitors.
The madness we humans are into - long hours commute to work
There was a time when I used to go to Gurgaon from Faridabad through Public Transport which used to take 6 hours bothways. It was crazy. It happened to be my first job and my excitement fueled me with energy to handle that extreme stress of taking an auto rickshaw to a delhi metro, a shared cab and in between the transitions an hour long walking. It was a tiring affair.
I managed to optimise the commute time by finding different routes and modes of transport and brought down that time to 4 hours but things were tiring and crazy.
In 5 months, I was convinced that I need a car to save my soul and hell lot of time so my parents bought one for me and I paid all the installments every month. It brought the time of commute to 2 hours. That was pretty relaxing comparing with 6 hours getting lost in public and public transport.
But Gurgaon has world's one of the busiest traffic which used to make the commute time very tiring as perpetually you have to accelerate and apply brakes. Besides losing time, mental sanity, you also utilise your cognitive resources way too much ( brain and other senses works too hard that they get tired and need resting period for coming back to efficient stage ).
In a year, the decision was made. I was absolutely convinced that I had to leave my job. It didn't matter how much I loved to work with my colleagues as they were brightest set of people I came across during that time.
That's nearly the picture of so many people like me. Majority of human beings who are aged between the 22 and 55 are indulged in some sort of employment in any part of the world. We are part of a rat race where we wake up every morning to get ready for the office, spend hours in commute and 8 to 10 good hours at work and commute back to home to have the final meal of the day and go to bed to sleep absolutely exhausted.
That's the life of millions around chasing their dream life, better life for their children, their family.
No time to keep up with the hobbies, a few nights can be spent reading. Can't really follow the gym routine due to irregular work frequently, social life is notion reserved for only weekends.
As a result, we not only get extremely busy minds but also deteroited health and relationships with families and friends as both needs constant attention, nurturing.
So, how can we design an ideal life for working professionals like me and many others in their mid 20s?
Best way is to find a job nearby the home. Ideally an hour to work bothways should be upper bound, 30 minutes would be just perfect.
So what are the other alternatives?
Besides finding a job nearby your home, you can start freelancing or private contracting ( if you are proficient enough with good networking and communication skills ). That will give you luxury of time and defining your working hours and the cost of services you offer.
You can also become a part time blogger who can generate some income from it. If you are a coder, you can start your side project which if takes off, can replace your full time job.
The catch there is to leave your full time job once your side project starts generating atleast 3/4th of your present salary. That will ensure that your living standard is maintained and you don't get desperate to join the rat race again.
One of the most inspiring books I read about side-projects is The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich.
It taught me how I could drop out of the mudane rat race and follow my passion while keeping my life financially sustainable. Perhaps you should see it a read as well if you are planning to hop out of your rat race.
I got inspired by following post(s) to write on this topic:
1. http://beta.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-commute-cherry-2017... - It is a story of a lady who commutes for about 6 hours to work ( both sides ) and spends about 10 hours at work. She sleeps for about 4.5 hours a day and She is 60 years old. Surely you won't want that kind of life for yourself.
My observations about controlling Spam in your Drupal Website
- Whenever lots of illegitimate users used to create their users account, I became absolutely sure that either the core is out of date or are the modules. Updating them became my first priority. ( By far, the most important way! )
- Then there is honeypot module which works like charm. The catch is that you don’t get form specific timing option out of the box so you have to choose the least common time for all the modules which can many of times defeat the purpose of having honeypot.
- ReCaptcha is another great way to keep your spammers occupied. It surely can defeat the purpose of having honeypot ( but all automated bots will get bypassed by this ).
