We've just posted a new quiz on our Test Your Skills section: surge supressors. This is the perfect choice if you've read our Anatomy of Surge Suppressors tutorial and are willing to evaluate what you've learned. Enjoy!
We've just posted a memory cache quiz at our Test Your Skills section, which is the perfect choice if you read our How The Memory Cache Works tutorial and is willing to test your knowledge.
I think our editor Cássio got jealous that I visited Ferrari’s boxes last year – sponsored by AMD – and took the picture below, with BMW Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld at IBF (Intel Business Forum) – which is sponsored by Intel. Well, at least we could somewhat balance AMD and Intel coverage on the Formula 1 arena, even though AMD took me to Ferrari's boxes, while Intel didn't take Cássio to BMW's boxes…
click to enlarge Figure 1: Cássio Lima and Nick Heidfeld.
This week Brazilian Federal Police and Brazilian IRS shut down Cisco Brazilian offices in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and arrested the Brazilian branch president and directors and brought in several employees for interrogation. You can read the full story, in English, here.
Since I am originally from Brazil, I ought to give my opinion on this matter.
The whole problem with Brazil is what we call there “Brazil Cost”. Brazil is a highly taxed country and its taxation is only surpassed by Sweden’s. But compare what the Swedish people get in social return to what Brazilians get.
Among other things, the cost of importing things, especially electronic equipment, is around 100%. This includes importation duties, VAT (which, insanely enough, is calculated on top of all other expenses, including other taxes – have you ever heard of a place where you pay tax on tax?), freight, insurance, storage, customs broker fees, etc.
So any product that costs USD 100 in the USA will cost at least USD 200 in Brazil, if imported thru the legal channels. We say at least because we were only talking about costs, and obviously both the importer and the distributor will want a piece of profit.
Then we have another thing that a lot of people don’t think about. Brazilians make far less money than people living in the US. The minimum wage in Brazil is of R$ 380 or USD 190 PER MONTH. This translates into USD 1.08 per hour, if we do the math using a 40-hour week (Brazilian law allows 44-hour week). In the US the Federal minimum wage is of USD 5.85 per hour, with the majority of states setting a far higher minimum wage (California’s minimum wage is of USD 7.50 per hour, for example).
So on top of things costing at least twice, Brazilians have a lower buying power, meaning that a thing that costs USD 50 in the US is like if it costed USD 100 for a Brazilian, as Brazilians have far less money to spend.
If you put buying power into the equation, then things in Brazil are at least four times more expensive than in the US.
The crazy thing is why there is such high taxation. The idea behind it is to protect the local industry. The government is afraid of lowering taxes and having Brazilian companies running out of business. So instead of changing things in Brazil to make Brazilian companies more competitive, the solution used in Brazil is to set high importation duties, creating a false sensation that Brazilian companies can survive. In fact, they can’t, due to several reasons like bureaucracy, archaic labor laws and high market control by the government, ideas set back when the military was in the government between 1964 and 1984. Just for the record, things were even worse in the past: until 1993 Brazilians couldn’t legally import any computer equipment.
Brazilian government also says that taxes are high because the high rates of smugglering. But of course smugglering is high! Who can afford 100% importation duties? It is just a matter of basic math: a lower tax applied to a higher volume leads to a higher tax revenue. If the importation costs are lowered for something like 20% I think everybody could import legally, the smugglering problem is gone and the government would make more money, as more people would start importing things legally instead of smugglering them. Anyone can see this but the government.
The sad truth is that is not the real motive the taxes are high. The real reason is (1) Brazilian government don’t want to give up the taxes they are already collecting and is not willing to try a radical change in mentality and (2) there are a lot of hidden agendas around: there are some people that don’t want things to change so they can still profit from the current situation one way or another – like bribery.
The biggest question – the one nobody seems to be asking in Brazil, and if they are, nobody is doing anything about it – is simple: where does all this money go? I can tell for sure it is not to education, health care, infrastructure or creating ways to enhance Brazil’s potential to compete in a globalized world. Oh yeah, the current government likes to help Brazilians companies to export soy beans, steel and other raw material. When will they learn that real money is made on finished goods? Do Brazilians really want to be known in the global market as mere raw materials supplier? I don’t think so.
In recent years there was a lot of buzz about the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China –, the countries with the highest growth potential. But with this scenario it is hard for Brazil to enter the international game.
It is always good to remember that democracy is something that exists in Brazil for only the past 22 years – before that the country alternated between dictatorship and short-term democracy. The country and especially their people have a lot to learn, like free market, voting for a change, getting together and protesting in an effective way (unfortunately most Brazilians get upset with the current situation, complains with their friends but do nothing to really change) and, most importantly, getting on the phone or sending e-mails to the senators and congressmen they voted for.
Have you ever heard of Panasonic's TH-103PF9UK? It is a 103" HD (1080p) plasma TV -- world's biggest --, coming also with the world's highest MSRP: USD 70,000. Ouch. But I believe that the stores carrying this product can give you a discount (none of them are listing the final price on-line, only the MRSP).
By the way, it weights 474 Lbs (215 Kg), so besides money you will need to have at least four strong dudes to put this TV in place. But if you can pay that much on a TV hiring people won't be a problem for you.
For the normal guy, buying a video projector is still the best option if you want an outrageous screen size. The prices have fallen below USD 1,000 for quite a while for non-HD projectors and even HD 1080p models like Sony's VPL-VW50 can be found at a very affordable price (USD 3,700 at Amazon.com, far below the USD 5,000 price tag from when it was launched) and it can easily project a 100" screen positioning the projector 17.5" (5.33 meters) away from the screen. Another interesting feature about this model from Sony is that it uses a proprietary version of LCoS technology. It is also nice to remember that with USD 70,000 you can buy 18 Sony VPL-VW50 projectors and still get USD 3,400 back.
Whenever I think I had seen it all I find something even more bizarre – or, in this case, funnier. At Officemax’s website you can buy a USB missile launcher, a device that allows you rotate its launch pad thru your computer and throw three small missiles sequentially towards your boss or a co-worker by hitting “fire” on the control program that comes with the product – it even plays the sound of a real missile when you hit “fire”.
Just to let you guys know that I've just updated our HyperTransport tutorial correcting some mistakes I wrote. Basically, I've said HyperTransport 2.0 was never used on AMD CPUs, which is quite wrong -- all current AMD CPUs (except Sempron) are based on HT2 using, however, the lower speed grade provided by this version of HyperTransport. It is just that AMD does not say anything about the HyperTransport version they use on their datasheets, what got me confused.
As many of you already know, I am Tae Kwon Do black belt holder, training for over 15 years in this martial art. Recently I took the test for 2nd degree black belt. This time a colleague from Tae Kwon Do who also happens to be a professional photographer took the pictures and also the quality of the videos are nice enough to post them here. If you like martial arts you will like to watch them.
During this test I had to repeat everything I did before on my first black belt test – with more accuracy, as it one would expect of someone moving to a higher rank – plus some new movements, like defense against knife attack and self-defense against grabbing. The breaking test was more difficult – instead of one pine board per kick, I had to break two one-inch pine boards held together, for each technique.
Here is the summary of what I had to know and perform:
All forms (poom-sae, equivalent to the “katas” from karate) from colored belts plus 1st dan poom-sae (Korio). My master asked me to perform Korio, tae guk o jang (blue belt), tae guk tchil jang (red belt), tae guk pal jang (red with black stripe belt) and tae guk sa jang (green with blue stripe belt).
Three-step sparring (sebom kyorugui or sam bo derion 25 drills)
Two-step sparring (dubom kyorugui or i bo derion, 16 drills)
Kneel sparring (anjoa kyorugui or joa derion, 9 drills)
Demonstration of several hand and leg techniques.
Defense against knife (3 drills), new for this test.
Self-defense against grabbing (3 drills), new for this test.
Several matches, including 1x2 match (i.e. me against two other guys at the same time).
To break two 1-inch pine boards held together with a jumping side kick (tuiu yop tchagui) jumping over three colleagues.
To break two 1-inch pine boards held together placed 7.5 feet high (2.3 meters) with a jumping front kick (tuiu ap tchagui).
To break two 1-inch pine boards held together with a hand technique from my choice. I chose to break them with my elbow.
The pictures and videos are posted in the same order my master asked me to perform the techniques. By the way, the last photo is the best one. I posted the "before" and "after" so you can believe I didn't use Photoshop.
Video 1: Korio poom-sae (1st dan black belt form).
Video 2: Tae Guk O Jang (blue belt form).
Video 3: Tae Guk Tchil Jang (red belt form).
Video 4: Tae Guk Pal Jang (red with black stripe belt form).
click to enlarge Figure 1: Kneel sparring (ajoa kyorugui or joa derion).
click to enlarge Figure 2: Basic ready position used on two-step and three-step sparring.
click to enlarge Figure 3: One of the two-step sparring (dubom kyorugui or i bo derion) movements.
click to enlarge Figure 4: One of the three-step sparring (sebom kyorugui or sam bo derion) movements. Before you ask, the target is a vital spot below the armpit, not the head.
click to enlarge Figure 5: Defense against knife attack.
click to enlarge Figure 6: Another defense against knife attack.
click to enlarge Figure 7: Continuation of the above defense.
click to enlarge Figure 8: Defense against grabbing.
Video 5: One of the matches I had to do.
click to enlarge Figure 9: Preparation for the first breaking test. Pay attention on the thickness of the pine boards.
Video 6: Breaking two 1-inch pine boards 7.5 feet high (2.3 meters) with a jumping front kick (tuiu ap tchagui).
click to enlarge Figure 10: Jumping three colleagues with a side kick to break the two 1-inch pine boards. Pay attention to their thickness. See the video below.
Video 7: Breaking two 1-inch pine boards with a jumping side kick (tuiu yop tchagui) over three colleagues.
click to enlarge Figure 11: Preparing to break two 1-inch pine boards with my elbow (palkub dolio tchigui).
click to enlarge Figure 12: Breaking two 1-inch pine boards with my elbow (palkub dolio tchigui).
Updated on 09/17/2007:
I passed my exam and got my 2nd dan certificates this weekend, see picture below.
click to enlarge Figure 13: Getting my 2nd dan certificates from my master, Renato Ribeiro (5th dan), and from my grandmaster, Yong-Min Kim (9th dan).
We've just added a complete new section to Hardware Secrets: Datasheets Section. On this new section you will find datasheets for chips used on PCs, like processors, graphics chips, chipsets, audio codecs, network controllers and more! Datasheets are technical documents provided by the chip manufacturer and it is an interesting read if you want to learn more about a given chip.
We are starting this section with 700 datasheets (yes, you read it right), including some hard-to-find datasheets (especially the datasheets for graphics chips), not available on the manufacturer website.
We hope you will enjoy this new section. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Just to let you guys know that we updated our Core 2 Duo E6750 review in order to include some overclocking results. Your can read our review at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/463.
