[Languages][Data Sizes]
[Learn to Overclock your CPU!!]





General Computer Knowledge


This section is to teach misc. computer knowledge, but it will help. The best way to be a good programmer is to first understand that computers aren't smarter than us. Think they are? Well...who makes them? Who programs for them? We do.
Basically, a computer is a really dumb person who is just really fast. They only respond to what you tell them to do and if not for us, they'd just sit there like lumps of metal.


Languages


There are many programming languages, BASIC, Visual Basic, Pascal, C, C++, FORTRAN, COBOL, Ada etc.. , But to the computer there is only one language, Machine code. Most languages used today are high level languages, they relate to the english language more closely. Compare a language such as Pascal or VB to Assembly and you'll see the difference. But the coding that you write and see is not the same that the computer sees. In order for the computer to understand the language, it has to first translate it into machine code. Machine code is a language only computers can understand. Obvioussly there are people who can read and translate it since we made computers i can only understand about 2 letters worth of it, but i wouldn't be able to see where it starts or begins. What machine code looks like is just 1's and 0's, a computer reads data by pulses of electricity, a 1 represents a pulse and a 0 represents no pulse. How impossible is it to read? here try reading a lot of this..

Character 'M' in machine code = 01001101

Yea.. we can easily read that(sarcastically speaking)

So what compilers like VB and the others do is translate it into machine code.

Language to Machine Code diagram


Data Size


This section is to teach about the size of data if you would want to know, it can't hurt. First i'll try to exlplain it then i will show you a diagram of it. Remember the machine code i told you about? well, each one of those 1's or 0's is a bit, not a BYTE but a BIT. A byte is different, it's a set of 8 bits. A kilobyte is a set of 1,024 bytes, not 1,000 exactlly like most think. And the list goes on heres a diagram of different data sizes:

DataSizes
Bit 1's and 0's
nybble 4 Bits
Byte 8 Bits
KiloByte 1,024 Bytes
MegaByte 1,048,576 Bytes
GigaByte 1,073,741,824 Bytes


Want to learn how to Overclock your CPU?

First off, this section is to only teach you, i do NOT recommend you do this to your computer. I took the risk and did it to mine but i face this risk of burning out my CPU.

WHAT IS OVERCLOCKING?
When you overclock your computer, what your doing is "fooling" to computer into thinking you have a faster chip than it really does. Your computers speed, measured in Mhz, is determined by your Bus speed in Mhz x(times) your multiplier setting.
Example: A system with a Bus speed of 33Mhz and a multiplier setting of 4 would equal a system with just under 133Mhz in speed. It actually equals 132 but we see this as 133. That's the same as when i installed more Ram, I now have 63Mb of Ram because part of 1Mb is being used seperatley.

WHATS THE DANGER OF OVERCLOCKING?
i am going to tell you the danger before i tell you how to do it, this way you can make the decision.
When you overclock, what your actually doing is pushing your chip to process faster than it was designed to process. What this does is create more heat, as you should know, heat is VERY bad for a CPU. If you dont have adequate cooling inside your computer then don't even think of doing this. A good heat sink would be fine for this, this is the reason i decided to do it, i felt my heat sink is good enough to cool the chip along with the chip's fan.

HOW DO I OVERCLOCK?
Ok first you'll need to print or memorize this because the computer has to be off. After you turn off your computer i suggest unplugging it. Take a screwdriver and open up the mid tower, then look on your motherboard(thats the really huge one that holds the cpu chip), youll see something like this:

(not all computers look like this)


Now notice the magnified part i drew? That shows the Jumper Settings.
What it looks like is 3 pins lined up ,top to bottom on my motherboard. All you have to do is pull the little plastic tab out, and then put it back but in the position where its covering the top two not bottom two pins. easy so far, huh?
to be safe you should wear an anti-static braclet or touch a metal part of the computer to ground yourself from static electricity. If you shock the computer you can damage it.
Now restart your computer....umm try plugging it in again first..
youll come to a settings display, now from here you can change the speed you'll see where it is it's very obviouse.
Some computers allow you to change the individual multiplier or bus speed setting , other computers just ask you for the new speed. If you have one that let's you change the numbers individually then make sure you DO THE MATH FIRST, and try not to overclock by more than 66Mhz

133Mhz -to- 200Mhz = Ok, But still slow.
200Mhz -to- 266Mhz = Perfect for a 200Mhz system.
266Mhz -to- 300Mhz = That's what i did!
333Mhz -to- 400Mhz = There's no use 333Mhz is good.
400Mhz -to- 450Mhz = Safe, but not practical really.

Changes NOT to make:
233Mhz -to- 333Mhz = Danger
233Mhz -to- 400Mhz = Just call the Fire Department now.
So now you know just a little more about computers. If you want to know more then come back ill update this page.