By Isaac Meso
The other day I was chatting with a friend of mine and he was really excited about how his new toy that had been shipped from U.K was all powerful. One thing that caught my attention during our chat was when he said that his laptop had a core i7 processor. So I played dumb and asked him what that meant and to my dismay he went completely blank.
My friend is just one of the many people who have little or no idea what these features that are inscribed on our laptops really mean. To shade more light on this topic I would start first by briefly explaining what a core is.
All computers come with processors. The core is that part of the processor that actually performs the reading and executing of instructions. This means that a multi core processor would execute more than one instruction at a time on the same piece of silicon. In addition your computer will read each core as a separate CPU. For instance if your PC is dual-core it means that your machine has two cores in a single processor. The computer reads this as two separate CPUs meaning you can handle multiple tasks at a time.
Now that we have a rough idea what a core is, what is the difference between Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 and what do they really mean? First of all let us erase this fallacy that is common with most computer users; that the numbers beside the Cores reflect the number of processors in your PC. Core i7 does not have seven processors nor does Core i3 have three processors. On the contrary the number is usually indicative of their processing powers.
The relative processing powers of these cores is usually based on a collection of criteria including, number of cores, clock speed (in GHz), size of the cache, Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading.
The main difference however between these processor technologies can be pegged on three major factors:
Number of cores
The more cores there are in a processor the more tasks (known as threads) served at the same. For instance Core i3 CPU has the lowest number of cores. It comes with only two cores thus the name dual-core processors. On the other hand Core i5 processors come with 4 cores meaning it comes with 4 processors.
Turbo Boost
The Turbo Boost technology common with Intel products allows a processor to dynamically increase its clock speed whenever need arises. However the maximum amount that a Turbo Boost can raise clock speed at any given time is dependent on the number of active cores, among other factors such as the estimated power consumption.
For instance none of the Core i3 CPUs have Turbo Boost. Core i5 processors on the other hand are equipped with Turbo Boost 2.0 technology. This means that core i5 processors can outrun any Core i3 while Core i7 can outrun any core i5 processors.
Cache size
Last but not leas, cache is that memory inside the CPU that stores data that the processor keeps using over and over again. Cache function like RAM, only that it is faster since it’s located within the processor itself.
With a larger cache more data can be accessed quickly. Core i3 processors have 3MB cache. Core i5s come with 6MB of cache while Core i7s come with 8MB of cache. This is clearly one reason why an i7 will outperform an i5 and an i5 outperform an i3.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
SUICIDE, NOT ME!
By Boaz Onyango
‘A third year electrical engineering student at Moi University commits suicide’ reports the 3rd Eye. The reader reads and then sighs absent-mindedly and then flips to other stories. The news spreads quickly, everybody talks about the sad incident and marvels but two days down the line the story is soon forgotten and fades into oblivion like the Nyayo milk. Nobody takes a second to remember or try to find out who the unfortunate student was! Moi University will, as a routine, send a eulogy to the family and then proceed to say that until his death he was a third year.
‘Suicide, not me!’ We often say this, thinking that we are immune to this menace; that it can only happen to others but not to us. It’s like road accident death tolls that remain statistical figures to us until we lose a limb and escape death by a whisker. Then we became part of that statistic and know that accidents are real and claim lives!
The truth of the matter is that even those who end up killing themselves never contemplated that they would, one day, cut their lives short by hanging their necks on a rope. This evil act respects no boundary and we cannot afford to be indifferent because it claims lives of both the young and the old daily around the world. The educated and illiterate, the poor and not even the rich are spared! It’s like cancer.
Well we might be lucky to escape but our beloved brothers and sisters, friends, cousins and parents can all fall victim. Wouldn't it affect us? I don’t know the answer to that question but what I know is that funeral services are enjoyable if attended only in the neighbours’ homestead!
I knew the late Chester Katuva and I am sad to write this article in honour of his memory. He was my neighbour in C Houses before he went home. We would exchange greetings whenever we met in the corridor of the house. I didn't get to know him on a personal level but his quietness and humility could not be lost on any person who happened to meet him. Like most, he didn't look like the suicidal type. My heart bleeds for his family. We lost a potential engineer who could have helped to construct Konza or Tatu City in pursuance of vision 2030!
How many more lives shall we continue to lose? All of us are at a risk and we cannot afford to turn a blind eye and play ostrich politics of burying our heads in the sand while this monster continues to claim innocent lives every day. Like a small spark of fire normally causes a big inferno, and small things generate into big things, suicide starts like a joke, triggered by small things like a nasty comment from a close person like sweethearts or parents. This nasty comment then finds a place and settles in your mind! It then begins to prick your conscious and nag your thoughts, and then the devil comes uninvited and takes it from there. The incident hits headlines in media stations. It gets to be reported as breaking news!
Factors that trigger suicidal thoughts include, but not limited to, bad relationships or breakups. My advice to you is; go slow when it comes to love because there is danger in loving someone too much! Don’t neglect your brain. Let it also love because unlike the fragile heart it can’t be broken. Financial constraints, academic failures and slaps of life also rank high in causing suicides.
And when suicidal thoughts knock on your door never ignore them by saying ‘Suicide? Not me!’ Talk to someone you trust such as a friend or pastor. Never undermine the power of opening up. A problem shared is always half solved. Remember to also pray to keep the evil spirits at bay. And when the thoughts persist think about reasons why you should live and not reasons why you should die!
‘A third year electrical engineering student at Moi University commits suicide’ reports the 3rd Eye. The reader reads and then sighs absent-mindedly and then flips to other stories. The news spreads quickly, everybody talks about the sad incident and marvels but two days down the line the story is soon forgotten and fades into oblivion like the Nyayo milk. Nobody takes a second to remember or try to find out who the unfortunate student was! Moi University will, as a routine, send a eulogy to the family and then proceed to say that until his death he was a third year.
‘Suicide, not me!’ We often say this, thinking that we are immune to this menace; that it can only happen to others but not to us. It’s like road accident death tolls that remain statistical figures to us until we lose a limb and escape death by a whisker. Then we became part of that statistic and know that accidents are real and claim lives!
The truth of the matter is that even those who end up killing themselves never contemplated that they would, one day, cut their lives short by hanging their necks on a rope. This evil act respects no boundary and we cannot afford to be indifferent because it claims lives of both the young and the old daily around the world. The educated and illiterate, the poor and not even the rich are spared! It’s like cancer.
Well we might be lucky to escape but our beloved brothers and sisters, friends, cousins and parents can all fall victim. Wouldn't it affect us? I don’t know the answer to that question but what I know is that funeral services are enjoyable if attended only in the neighbours’ homestead!
I knew the late Chester Katuva and I am sad to write this article in honour of his memory. He was my neighbour in C Houses before he went home. We would exchange greetings whenever we met in the corridor of the house. I didn't get to know him on a personal level but his quietness and humility could not be lost on any person who happened to meet him. Like most, he didn't look like the suicidal type. My heart bleeds for his family. We lost a potential engineer who could have helped to construct Konza or Tatu City in pursuance of vision 2030!
How many more lives shall we continue to lose? All of us are at a risk and we cannot afford to turn a blind eye and play ostrich politics of burying our heads in the sand while this monster continues to claim innocent lives every day. Like a small spark of fire normally causes a big inferno, and small things generate into big things, suicide starts like a joke, triggered by small things like a nasty comment from a close person like sweethearts or parents. This nasty comment then finds a place and settles in your mind! It then begins to prick your conscious and nag your thoughts, and then the devil comes uninvited and takes it from there. The incident hits headlines in media stations. It gets to be reported as breaking news!
Factors that trigger suicidal thoughts include, but not limited to, bad relationships or breakups. My advice to you is; go slow when it comes to love because there is danger in loving someone too much! Don’t neglect your brain. Let it also love because unlike the fragile heart it can’t be broken. Financial constraints, academic failures and slaps of life also rank high in causing suicides.
And when suicidal thoughts knock on your door never ignore them by saying ‘Suicide? Not me!’ Talk to someone you trust such as a friend or pastor. Never undermine the power of opening up. A problem shared is always half solved. Remember to also pray to keep the evil spirits at bay. And when the thoughts persist think about reasons why you should live and not reasons why you should die!
A DAD, A FATHER AND A MAN
Whenever I looked at my father,
You know what I saw?
I saw a dad.
I insist I saw
I wasn't told, you know.
He was a father in a man.
Further into being a father,
He was a dad.
In the outer world,
A man, he was
But in my world
A dad, a father and a man -
A true one.
At least in my childhood eyes.
You know what I saw?
I saw a dad.
I insist I saw
I wasn't told, you know.
He was a father in a man.
Further into being a father,
He was a dad.
In the outer world,
A man, he was
But in my world
A dad, a father and a man -
A true one.
At least in my childhood eyes.
C.N. Leakey.
YOU SHAMELESS THIEF, YOU!
By Shiku Ngigi
Yes, you there plotting your next burglary. You are the ever-absent student in class, thief in the hostel. So your parents sent you all the way to this land to steal? Did they labour day and night to send you to the university only for you to metamorphose into a common thief?
It’s one thing to steal back in village, steal the neighbour’s chicken when they are not looking and have a feast with friends (It is, if you are a ten-year-old with all the time in the world to think of nothing but that). It is yet another thing to call yourself an intellectual and invest your time to devising ways and means of robbing students of their hard-earned belongings.
You walk into the library and sling a bag over your shoulder as if it belongs to you. A bag you grabbed on one of the racks at the entrance. You break into rooms and grab the first laptop you see. You even wait for the dead of the night to walk out to the clothes lines and make away with people’s wet clothes. You have stooped lower than low.
OK, maybe your parents did not send you here. Maybe you laboured all on your own to make it to this great institution. So what? Did you make all that effort only to reduce yourself into an agent of crime? Oh yes, you are a criminal, just in case you have deluded yourself into thinking you are better than they who do it forcefully.
Shiku, I am from a poor background. I cannot afford a laptop and neither can my parents, you say. Hold up. I am pretty certain that you are alive because you had some tea and mandazi for breakfast. Also, I am pretty sure you are not naked or out there in the rain. What am I saying? A laptop is not a basic need. Do what you can with what you have. Use it well and your efforts will pay off in the end.
You might even get a better laptop with better specs than the one you are planning to steal. Laptops are made to expire in as few as three years. This is based on a little maxim we call Moore’s Law. Obsolescence will hit you in the face before you have erased the legal owner’s data. While you are bent on eyeing that poor girl’s laptop in the library (one equipped with 2GB of RAM, 32-bit Windows 7 and 160GB disk space), another bright individual is making ends meet to buy an awesome Core i7, complete with Windows 8, 6 GB RAM and 640GB of disk space).
There is nothing as pathetic as blaming your background for the thief you have become. You are a shameless individual who delights in seeing other people suffer. You reap where you have not sown, akin to the hyena, which waits in the shadows for the lion to make a kill on its behalf. (And by the way, hyenas have been found to hunt for over 50% of their meals. Turns out you are the only real scavenger out here.) Don’t blame your parents. You are old enough to know that what you’re doing is entirely wrong.
It’s also likely that you are stealing laptops for a bigger syndicate in campus. That’s just sad. It gets sadder; that moment it hits you that you are just a minion. You are stealing to enrich the big boss up in your little ‘organization’ while you attain the label thief. It cannot get any sadder than that.
Meanwhile, we will lock our doors a little tighter, hug our bags a little tighter and keep our eyes peeled for any move you make. You are one of those people who should be banished to Mars or Pluto if it still exists. You can also reform while there’s still time. It’s all up to you. Your days are numbered.
Yes, you there plotting your next burglary. You are the ever-absent student in class, thief in the hostel. So your parents sent you all the way to this land to steal? Did they labour day and night to send you to the university only for you to metamorphose into a common thief?
It’s one thing to steal back in village, steal the neighbour’s chicken when they are not looking and have a feast with friends (It is, if you are a ten-year-old with all the time in the world to think of nothing but that). It is yet another thing to call yourself an intellectual and invest your time to devising ways and means of robbing students of their hard-earned belongings.
You walk into the library and sling a bag over your shoulder as if it belongs to you. A bag you grabbed on one of the racks at the entrance. You break into rooms and grab the first laptop you see. You even wait for the dead of the night to walk out to the clothes lines and make away with people’s wet clothes. You have stooped lower than low.
OK, maybe your parents did not send you here. Maybe you laboured all on your own to make it to this great institution. So what? Did you make all that effort only to reduce yourself into an agent of crime? Oh yes, you are a criminal, just in case you have deluded yourself into thinking you are better than they who do it forcefully.
Shiku, I am from a poor background. I cannot afford a laptop and neither can my parents, you say. Hold up. I am pretty certain that you are alive because you had some tea and mandazi for breakfast. Also, I am pretty sure you are not naked or out there in the rain. What am I saying? A laptop is not a basic need. Do what you can with what you have. Use it well and your efforts will pay off in the end.
You might even get a better laptop with better specs than the one you are planning to steal. Laptops are made to expire in as few as three years. This is based on a little maxim we call Moore’s Law. Obsolescence will hit you in the face before you have erased the legal owner’s data. While you are bent on eyeing that poor girl’s laptop in the library (one equipped with 2GB of RAM, 32-bit Windows 7 and 160GB disk space), another bright individual is making ends meet to buy an awesome Core i7, complete with Windows 8, 6 GB RAM and 640GB of disk space).
There is nothing as pathetic as blaming your background for the thief you have become. You are a shameless individual who delights in seeing other people suffer. You reap where you have not sown, akin to the hyena, which waits in the shadows for the lion to make a kill on its behalf. (And by the way, hyenas have been found to hunt for over 50% of their meals. Turns out you are the only real scavenger out here.) Don’t blame your parents. You are old enough to know that what you’re doing is entirely wrong.
It’s also likely that you are stealing laptops for a bigger syndicate in campus. That’s just sad. It gets sadder; that moment it hits you that you are just a minion. You are stealing to enrich the big boss up in your little ‘organization’ while you attain the label thief. It cannot get any sadder than that.
Meanwhile, we will lock our doors a little tighter, hug our bags a little tighter and keep our eyes peeled for any move you make. You are one of those people who should be banished to Mars or Pluto if it still exists. You can also reform while there’s still time. It’s all up to you. Your days are numbered.
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