Software : : CoolCow 1.0
Posted By: Krashan. on 2012/4/4 9:14:58
The CoolCow program is a small utility for those interested in distributed.net contests of number crunching. While the distributed.net client runs in the background, it still fully loads the CPU. This stresses a cooling system, which is especially hearable in Macs mini or PowerBooks. CoolCow reduces processor heating (at a cost of lowered client throughput) by periodically switching dnetc client off and on. The duty cycle is adjustable via small GUI. CoolCow is released with source code on BSD license and is available for download in our download section.
 
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
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    connor
    Joined: 2007/7/29
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    Is it only useable for not hearing the cooler when using dnetc? when I watch youtube with OWB it just takes some seconds for the fan to blow my ears (mac mini 1.5ghz). I wonder if running your Cool Cow during that youtube playback would help lowering this noise, too. Or would I have to run dnetc additionally to not hear this noise?
  • »2012/4/4 14:56
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  • Andreas_Wolf
    Joined: 2003/5/22
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    >Is it only useable for not hearing the cooler when using dnetc? [...] I wonder if
    > running your Cool Cow during that youtube playback would help lowering
    > this noise, too.

    I doubt that a program that periodically switches on and off dnetc can be used to periodically switch on and off Youtube playback within OWB. Besides, I bet that you wouldn't want that anyway.

    > Or would I have to run dnetc additionally to not hear this noise?

    If a program causes a certain load which in turn causes the fans to spin, running an additional program with an additional load and then reducing this additional load certainly won't reduce the load caused by the first program. Quite to the contrary, it's still an additional load to the one that made the fans spin in the first place.

    [ Edited by Andreas_Wolf On 2012/4/4 18:12 ]
  • »2012/4/4 18:27
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  • MorphOS Developer
    Krashan
    Joined: 2003/6/11
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    From: Białystok...
    Quote:

    Is it only useable for not hearing the cooler when using dnetc?

    Yes. It does no magic unfortunately... It just slows dnetc down, so it does not heat the CPU so much. To do the same for movie watching, you would have to slown down the movie player. I guess it is not what you really want ;-).

    There are two categories of users involved in distrubited.net contests. The first one can be described with "I want every single free CPU cycle to bump up my stats". They do not care about noise and they will be not interested in CoolCow. The second one (which I'm a member of), thinks "well, I want to run it in the background, so it does not interfere with my usual activity". As you have noticed, a Mac mini fan can interfere with user's activity in a quite annoying way ;-). This was a reason to write CoolCow.
  • »2012/4/4 19:51
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
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    MarK
    Joined: 2004/1/25
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    From: Prague, The Cz...
    very nice idea, macmini is really a stormmaster, when doing some work :) especially, if you have it right in front of You next to lcd... (i put it under the table)

    bye, MarK.
  • »2012/4/5 5:34
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
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    connor
    Joined: 2007/7/29
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    Quote:

    Quote:

    Is it only useable for not hearing the cooler when using dnetc?

    Yes. It does no magic unfortunately... It just slows dnetc down, so it does not heat the CPU so much. To do the same for movie watching, you would have to slown down the movie player. I guess it is not what you really want ;-).


    Usually not but especially web videos take more CPU cycles than e.g. playing files with MPlayer, so my question was meant as kind of proposal for you to judge whether it makes sense. Web videos often are not of this high quality that it would make a difference espceially when the buffer loads faster than the videos plays back. I would say that slowing down the speed a little would not hurt, so I would be happy to try. Would it mean much effort for you to adapt the Cool Cow for this playback?
    Quote:



    There are two categories of users involved in distrubited.net contests. The first one can be described with "I want every single free CPU cycle to bump up my stats". They do not care about noise and they will be not interested in CoolCow. The second one (which I'm a member of), thinks "well, I want to run it in the background, so it does not interfere with my usual activity". As you have noticed, a Mac mini fan can interfere with user's activity in a quite annoying way ;-). This was a reason to write CoolCow.

    I used it in former times but when I got older I stopped this remote penis measuring. But for people who use it it will be a good helper.
  • »2012/4/5 16:31
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  • Andreas_Wolf
    Joined: 2003/5/22
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    >> To do the same for movie watching, you would have to slown down the
    >> movie player. I guess it is not what you really want ;-)

    > Web videos often are not of this high quality that it would make a difference
    > espceially when the buffer loads faster than the videos plays back. I would say
    > that slowing down the speed a little would not hurt, so I would be happy to try.

    You really want to watch videos in slow(er) motion? And what's with the audio then? Wouldn't that have to be either transposed, choppy or getting more and more out-of-sync?
  • »2012/4/5 20:25
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    Krashan
    Joined: 2003/6/11
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    From: Białystok...
    Would it mean much effort for you to adapt the Cool Cow for this playback?

    I guess it is not even possible. CoolCow relies on a feature of distributed.net client, which allows an external application to pause and resume it.

    I guess you want some kind of slow motion for video, not 10 seconds playback followed by 10 seconds of pause and so on. CoolCow works this way. It allows dnetc to run for a specified amount of time, then stops it for another specified amount of time.

    [ Edited by Krashan On 2012/4/7 6:17 ]
  • »2012/4/7 8:15
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
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    connor
    Joined: 2007/7/29
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    You are right, I do not want to have 10s of video and then 10s pause. That wouldn't be fun.
    DSL speed is fast enough, harddisc is fast enough, graphics card is fast enough for playback of avergage quality. Just the fan makes too much noise because the CPU gets stressed. So a littler less stress, maybe 5-10% would not make much of a difference for the experience of the webvideo. But it could stress the CPU less and make less noise. Don't know if it would help. Don't know if it would work. It is just an idea for having a less loud MOS experience.
  • »2012/4/10 17:50
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  • MDW
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    Joined: 2003/7/25
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    Great idea, great application. I will use it on my future PowerBook with MorphOS 3. :)

    Thank you Krashan!

    [ Edited by MDW On 2012/4/11 10:36 ]
  • »2012/4/11 11:35
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