Windows Vista Gaming Performance - NVIDIA and ATI Compared

Introduction

Introduction

Chances are you might have heard of some software package that was released today; a new version of Windows or something like that. It's only the biggest software release in the last five or so years, and it has all the hardware and software vendors on their toes trying to prep their drivers and hardware to run on it.

Windows Vista is the biggest shift in the consumer software world since Windows 95. I won't bore you with all the details of what makes the new OS changes so dramatic, but some things like indexed searching, security out the wazoo, a new user interface dubbed Aero Glass, integrated Media Center software and DirectX 10 might start the feature list.

For our look at Vista and gaming performance, the new DirectX 10 with a completely new graphics driver subsystem is the most noteable change. DirectX 10 adds support for geometry shading (or rather working on geometry in the same way pixels have been for years) and requires hardware developers to move to a unified shader architecture. You can get a LOT more detail on DX10 and the changes that NVIDIA has made to their GPU architecture because of it with the GeForce 8800 series of cards by taking a look over my GeForce 8800 GPU review.

What We are Watching For

Because of these dramatic changes to the graphics system, both NVIDIA and AMD have had to spend significant time redeveloping their graphics drivers to work with the new Windows Vista operating system. Both NVIDIA and AMD (and ATI) have been working on Vista development for YEARS and we have been hearing claims of having the best "Vista Support" from both camps nearly as long. But now that the day of redemption is actually here, who will come out on top?

I decided to take the retail version of Windows Vista Ultimate, got the latest drivers from both AMD and NVIDIA as of Friday and began to spend my weekend testing. What is important to note here is that my intention is NOT to compare the ATI Radeon cards against NVIDIA GeForce cards -- rather it was to compare the gaming experiences provided by ATI and NVIDIA on both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Should gamers worry about upgrading to Vista right away or should they wait for drivier stability and performance to catch up with the Microsoft vision? Read on to find out.

AMD's ATI Catalyst Vista Driver

Of AMD and NVIDIA, I was surprised to find that the ATI Catalyst driver team right off the bat seemed to be more organized and up beat about their Vista introduction. Having prepared a presentation for media to discuss the latest control center changes, features, short comings as well as future plans gave me the impression that AMD/ATI has been working on preparing for this day for a LOOONG time.

Catalyst 7.1 Vista Driver

While Catalyst 7.1 is already available for Windows XP, the 7.1 release for Vista was officially announced just yesterday. It is no longer a beta driver and has full WHQL certification.

The Catalyst 7.1 Vista drivers introduce quite a few new features in addition to Vista support starting with a new installer program that is easier to use and will eventually allow enthusiasts to downoad driver updates directly through it. It also brings Blu-ray and HD-DVD support to Vista and AMD GPUs for the first time, a topic of heated debate in many home theater discussion groups. ATI's CrossFire technology is added in as well (it wasn't available before hand) as are some performance and stability improvements over previous Vista revisions.

AMD was forth coming with information on the current CrossFire implementation including the lack of OpenGL CrossFire support for now. That means games like Prey and Quake 4 won't be able to use the mutli-GPU configurations though all DX9 games should be nearly on par with Windows XP performance levels.

Another big improvmenet in the Catalyst driver is the big speed up in control panel load times; one of my biggest pet peeves about ATI's most recent drivers. While I didn't bother to time the loading times I can tell with 100% assurance that the CCC is a much faster application under Windows Vista.

In addition to being faster, it is also improved upon functionally. A new 3D preview scenario actually gives the user a scene that somewhat resembles a game as opposed to a company logo or a box car on a flat polygon road.

As it mentioned in the first slide, ATI is also bringing some new features to the Vista Catalyst drivers very soon including support for MSAA adaptive anti aliasing. Using multi-sampled AA instead of super-sampled AA should allow for a nice enhancement in image quality on those alpha blended textures.

Those of you that might dual-boot with Linux when not in gaming mode will appreciate the first Catalyst Control Center for the Linux OS.

Finally, as I also mentioned before, the new download manager in the works from AMD will allow for gamers to only update the components of the software that have changed from the release they have installed. This should dramatically lower the required download sizes and annoying wait times. With just a single installer application, users will no longer need to hunt through the ATI website to find what they need.

In Practice

In real world use, by me gaming on it for a couple of days, the Catalyst 7.1 Vista driver was very stable and reliable nearly 100% of the time. I was unable to get Prey to run at all, though ATI said they could not reproduce the error. Some other driver issues are still holding this back from a prime-time preparedness though:

First, this is really aimed at the 32-bit version of Vista only for right now, and features like HD-DVD and HDMI output support aren't scheduled to hit the 64-bit version until Catalyst 7.3 sometime in March. As I mentioned, OpenGL support is a bit lacking both without CrossFire support and in single card performance. ATI admits that the "focus of this first release is to deliver a stable OpenGL driver" and that performance enhancements will be coming in later releases.

Also, as we expected with the Vista release today, even the 32-bit gaming performance is a bit behind where we have it Windows XP. As driver developers spend more time with the OS in the wild (now that everyone else can get it and test it) I expect that we should get closer and closer to a 1:1 perforance ratio.

Of course, for more details on that, check out our benchmarks in the coming pages.

NVIDIA ForceWare Vista Driver and System Setup

Just like ATI has been doing for the past three or so years, every time we sat down in front of some NVIDIA PR people at a meeting it was reiterated to us how important the transition to Vista was going to be for the industry and how far ahead of the competition NVIDIA was. The time is now, so how do they stack up?

NVIDIA ForceWare 100.54 Vista Driver

Jumping right to the thick of things, NVIDIA is well behind where AMD is at this point in driver development for Windows Vista. AMD came to me with a Vista driver a couple of weeks ago and wanted to know what our Vista tesing plans were. I had to pry a driver from NVIDIA to get testing done in time (and even then I wanted to address more titles, but couldn't for this deadline). Eventually I was given a driver in the 100 series, 100.54 that finally met the promise of Vista gaming with NVIDIA's GPUs.

First the good: the driver was very stable though not WHQL certified (just a simple prompt in Vista still to by pass) and performance in most of the games we played was playable. NVIDIA had both 32-bit and 64-bit versions available for testing though I only had the 32-bit OS as of the time of this writing.

There are more than a few issues that I felt were glaring ommissions from the driver though, the most notable of which was SLI support. As of 100.54, support for running NVIDIA's most prominently marketed technology was not available with the GeForce 8 series, 7 series or anything else. NVIDIA promised me that when the OS went live on Tuesday, January 30th, there would be a publicly available driver that WOULD enable SLI in the "top titles" -- meaning only the top tier of games. I haven't seen it yet, so I'll be just as eager to try it out as you.

Some significant faults can be found in the TV output capabilities of the driver as well; something that is actually pretty stunning considering that Media Center is going to be included with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate edition by default. HDMI support is basically a wash with some noteable image quality issues, black and white output only with the GeForce 8-series and only stereo audio output supported. Those of you that read my review of the NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology will remember how pleased I was with the over/underscan correction the driver provided -- but that isn't here in the 100 series of ForceWare drivers for Vista.

The NVIDIA control panel itself remains unchanged from the newest version seen on Windows XP; you can decide for yourself if that's good or bad though most reader's opinions tend to find it bland and difficult to use.

There is quite a bit missing from the control panel as well including some wizards for setting up TV output (makes sense, huh?) and multi-display configurations which are somewhat limted in the 100.54 as well.

As for gaming, the driver actually does pretty well! There are some stand out "issues" that were raised in the release notes that made my brow perk up a bit. Call of Duty 2 only shows solid colors when running at 4xAA in-game AA; 4xAA setting in the control panel does work though. For the 8800 cards, Apple 30" Cinema display is a bust without support for high resolutions and HDTV output is black and white. Say what?

After going through these lists I was struck with the notion that this driver seemed incredibly hurried. While the Vista OS is new, and even the 8800 cards are new, there is really no excuse for this state of driver development. The OS has been in development for 5 or more years and NVIDIA told us they had been working on G80 for over 4 years. That seems like plenty of time to get the driver in order, doesn't it?

Regardless, we still played the games we were going to (just without SLI testing) to see how WinXP performance compared to the Vista performance on Forceware 100.54.

Testing System and Setup Configuration

The test setup was pretty straight forward -- run Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same system and see how performance varied in some popular titles. Our NVIDIA rig consisted of the EVGA 680i motherboard and an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU to test both the GeForce 8800 GTX and the 7900 GTX cards. The AMD X1950 XTX and X1950 CrossFire tests were run on an Intel 975XBX2 motherboard with the same X6800 processor. Both boards sported 2GB of DDR2-800 memory and a PC Power & Cooling 1 kilowatt power supply.

Testing Methodology

Graphics card testing has become the most hotly debated issue in the hardware enthusiast community recently. Because of that, testing graphics cards has become a much more complicated process than it once was. Where before you might have been able to rely on the output of a few synthetic, automatic benchmarks to make your video card purchase, that is just no longer the case. Video cards now cost up to $500 and we want to make sure that we are giving the reader as much information as we can to aid you in your purchasing decision. We know we can't run every game or find every bug and error, but we try to do what we can to aid you, our reader, and the community as a whole.

With that in mind, all the benchmarks that you will see in this review are from games that we bought off the shelves just like you. Of these games, there are two different styles of benchmarks that need to be described.

The first is the "timedemo-style" of benchmark. Many of you may be familiar with this style from games like Quake III; a "demo" is recorded in the game and a set number of frames are saved in a file for playback. When playing back the demo, the game engine then renders the frames as quickly as possible, which is why you will often see the "timedemo-style" of benchmarks playing back the game much more quickly than you would ever play the game. In our benchmarks, the FarCry tests were done in this matter: we recorded four custom demos and then played them back on each card at each different resolution and quality setting. Why does this matter? Because in these tests where timedemos are used, the line graphs that show the frame rate at each second, each card may not end at the same time precisely because one card is able to play it back faster than the other -- less time passes and thus the FRAPs application gets slightly fewer frame rates to plot. However, the peaks and valleys and overall performance of each card is still maintained and we can make a judged comparison of the frame rates and performance.

The second type of benchmark you'll see in this article are manual run throughs of a portion of a game. This is where we sit at the game with a mouse in one hand, a keyboard under the other, and play the game to get a benchmark score. This benchmark method makes the graphs and data easy to read, but adds another level of difficulty to the reviewer -- making the manual run throughs repeatable and accurate. I think we've accomplished this by choosing a section of each game that provides us with a clear cut path. We take three readings of each card and setting, average the scores, and present those to you. While this means the benchmarks are not exact to the most minute detail, they are damn close and practicing with this method for many days has made it clear to me that while this method is time consuming, it is definitely a viable option for games without timedemo support.

The second graph is a bar graph that tells you the average framerate, the maximum framerate, and the minimum framerate. The minimum and average are important numbers here as we want the minimum to be high enough to not affect our gaming experience. While it will be the decision of each individual gamer what is the lowest they will allow, comparing the Min FPS to the line graph and seeing how often this minimum occurs, should give you a good idea of what your gaming experience will be like with this game, and that video card on that resolution.

Our tests are completely based around the second type of benchmark method mentioned above -- the manual run through.

System Setup and Benchmarks

AMD Vista Test System Setup
CPU	Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 - Review
Motherboards	Intel 975XBX2
Memory	Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C4
Hard Drive	Western Digital Raptor 150 GB - Review
Sound Card	Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
Video Card	Radeon X1950 XTX - Review
Video Drivers	Catalyst 7.1 (8.333) - Vista Catalyst 7.1 - WinXP
Power Supply	PC Power & Cooling 1000w
DirectX Version	DX 10 - Vista DX 9.0c - WinXP
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate Windows XP Professional SP1

NVIDIA Vista Test System Setup
CPU	Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 - Review
Motherboards	EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard - Review
Memory	Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C4
Hard Drive	Western Digital Raptor 150 GB - Review
Sound Card	Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
Video Card	NVIDIA 8800 GTX Reference - Review BFG Tech 7900 GTX OC - Review
Video Drivers	100.54 - Vista 97.44 - WinXP
Power Supply	PC Power & Cooling 1000w
DirectX Version	DX 10 - Vista DX 9.0c - WinXP
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate Windows XP Professional SP1

Benchmarks

• 
  

  3DMark06

  
  


• 
  

  Battlefield 2

  
  


• 
  

  Call of Duty 2

  
  


• 
  

  FEAR

  
  


• 
  

  HL2: Lost Coast

  
  


• 
  

  Prey

  
  

I tested these games at 1600x1200, 2048x1536 and 2560x1600, all running at 4xAA and 8xAF in-game settings. High-end systems like the one we have here demand minimum resolutions of 1600x1200 to be worth your money!

Battlefield 2

Battlefield 2 (Direct X)

---

Battlefield 2 is one of the first games to come along in quite a while that turned out to really push the current and even following generation gaming hardware. Having the privilege of being the first game that might need 2 GB of memory is either a positive or negative, depending on your viewpoint. Here are our IQ settings used:

Our map was the Strike At Karkand that turns out to be one of the most demanding in the retail package in terms of land layout, smoke and other shader effects.

Our first series of tests looks at the NVIDIA 8800 GTX and 7900 GTX experienecs under Windows Vista with Battlefield 2. With the 7900 GTX, the gaming experience remains mostly unchanged between Windows XP and Windows Vista as average and minimum frame rates stay within a close margin of each other. The 8800 GTX isn't so lucky, as we see a big drop in performance under Vista at the 2560x1600 resolution where the 100 FPS frame cap can't help as much. Here we see a 28% drop in average frame rate; and even at 1600x1200 the min FPS drops by 23% though the average remains very close to the Windows XP scores.

The AMD X1950 XTX scores from WinXP to Vista remain nearly the same with a modest 2% average frame rate change. Surprisingly we sw a 10% INCREASE in the minimum FPS using dual cards in CrossFire mode at 2560x1600! Clearly though the AMD Vista driver performance is MUCH closer to the Windows XP experience than NVIDIA's.

Call of Duty 2

Call of Duty 2 (Direct X)

---

Call of Duty was the best selling FPS of 2003 and Call of Duty 2 looks to continue that tradition with a great game style and superb graphics. Below are the graphical settings we used in our testing.

**Optimize for SLI is enabled in all of our testing!

The first mission was used in its entirety as the benchmark.

As mentioned earlier, running 4xAA in CoD2 through the in-game settings on the NVIDIA Vista driver presented us with all the sounds we expected but with a big solid grey colored screen. Fantastic. Switching to 4xAA set in the control panel allowed us to run it, so bear in mind we are comparing control panel set 4xAA on Vista to the in-game set 4xAA on Windows XP.

Looking at the 8800 GTX, the performance of the Windows Vista driver is very uplifting! Scores are actually modestly higher under the new OS compared to our testing under Windows XP. The 7900 GTX isn't as lucky, seeing a 12% drop in average frame rate at 1600x1200.

Again AMD's performance under Windows Vista is a very close match to that of Windows XP both in single card and CrossFire modes.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (Direct X)

---

Lost Coast is the free technology demo that Valve created to show off their HDR rendering technique. Because this method of doing HDR (high dynamic range) lighting uses integer math instead of floating point, both ATI and NVIDIA cards can do both HDR and AA at the same time.

The NVIDIA Vista driver fails to impress under Half-Life 2: Lost Coast; with the 7900 GTX performance drops by 22% at 1600x1200 while the flagship 8800 GTX performance drops by 52% mainly due to a much lower maximum FPS. At the 2560x1600 resolution that we had enjoyed so much under Windows XP and the 8800 cards NVIDIA's Vista performance is 43% slower than in Windows XP and the minimum FPS is 25% lower and because of that was noticeably choppier during game play.

AMD's X1950 XTX performance in Lost Coast under Windows Vista is nearly a mirror image of that under Windows XP.

 

 

Google's VOIP Strategy

Is Google getting set to compete with the telcos – or maybe change voice communication forever? It’s starting to look that way.

Google Talk Beta is a 1.5 MB instant-messenger download for Windows Vista, XP or 2000 whose functions resemble AOL Instant Messenger or Skype: primarily voice, chat and file transfers. Google explains the service in depth on its Web site.

There is currently no Mac and Linux version of Google Talk, although Google says Mac and Linux fans can communicate with Google Talk users via any of several IM clients that support the open XMPP standard. Google Talk doesn’t currently use the SIP standard and its traffic won’t be encrypted until the full release. Google currently lists Trillian, GAIM, iChat, Adium and Psi as interoperable with Google Talk.

If you have a Gmail account, Google Talk automatically loads your contacts as potential persons to call or IM. In addition, you can save IM chats to your Gmail account or specify that a chat be “off the record” and not saved by either user’s Gmail account, although people using non-Google IM clients could potentially save chats on their PCs. (This feature is either a Sarbanes-Oxley blessing or a pretrial-discovery curse, depending on your perspective.)

Google could go in several directions from this first step toward telephony. Most obviously, Google Talk is another piece in Mountain View’s continuing effort to assemble a Google desktop (and perhaps even the fabled Google OS). However, Google’s legions of Ph.D.s may be up to something much more disruptive.

In December 2006, Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google's enterprise division, told Internet News that Google would ride into enterprise settings on the shoulders of people who already use Google apps on their own. Some observers question this strategy, considering some Google tools haven’t had great luck with consumers yet. Om Malik, for one, observed that as of July 2006 only 44,000 people used Google Talk for IM conversation.

Now come the interesting parts: First, Girouard said Google would beef up Google Talk to increase compatibility with traditional telecom systems and other vendors’ VoIP offerings. Second, in the same article, Forrester researcher Charlene Li said Google might make those voice files searchable. Girouard’s and Li’s remarks open up major speculation as both a telco competitor and as a game-changer.

Google the Telco Killer?

First, Google might partner with any number of telcos as a last-mile provider for a branded VoIP network, just as Apple recently partnered with Cingular to finish calls on its new iPhone. Google isn’t saying—but then, it’s not talking about all those unused (“dark”) fiberoptic lines it bought, either, which could enable it to start its own VoIP network with only minimal outside involvement.

Telco ambitions may partly explain why Google is heavily involved in the Net-neutrality debate, battling big phone and cable companies’ efforts to give preferential treatment to certain data streams (their own, their sponsors’, whoever pays for it) while potentially limiting others. Google sees such efforts as a threat to people’s ability to get quick search and other information from Google. In addition, an end to Net neutrality could also threaten relatively bandwidth-intensive applications like Google Talk, which carriers could slow-track in favor of their own voice or VoIP traffic.

But then, why bother trying to be a phone company when your IM client lets users bypass phone companies—even cell providers—for practically nothing? Some companies—notably Nimbuzz —already take advantage of Google Talk’s commitment to open standards. The Nimbuzz IM client lets you call IM buddies worldwide from your mobile, paying only “your cheapest local rate” for the call. As an IM client, Nimbuzz voice bypasses whatever software counts cell minutes or registers international tariffs, although the blog MobileCrunch thinks sound quality could be improved. In effect, the cell-service provider’s role and rate-setting power shrink dramatically in a world of interoperable IM clients like Google Talk.

Google the Game-Changer

If Charlene Li’s speculation bears fruit and future Google Talk revs both capture and search voice traffic, this little IM client potentially changes the telecom business forever. Here are a few ramifications of digitally recorded, searchable phone calls:

The ability to remember exactly what you just told someone is a major boon to consumers, and businesses would suddenly have an incredibly powerful tool for capturing customer information, certainly more powerful than placing ads related to e-mail content as Google search and Gmail do today; but Google and personal and business users could face problems with state or federal wiretap laws, with additional trouble from prosecutors obtaining warrants for Google’s voice recordings of suspect conversations, and Google Talk’s success could convince the FCC that VoIP is now big enough to regulate, and try to persuade Congress accordingly.

Considering the difficulties that Google and others have had in simply creating effective video search, however, comprehensive, searchable voice-call records may be restricted to science fiction—or the National Security Agency—for now.

For more on VoIP, see the VoIP News VoIP Buyers Guide .

23 Ideas for Finding New Readers for Your Blog

How do you find Readers for Your Blog? There were quite a few responses to the question - some of which went a little unnoticed as they were moderated until I got home. So I thought I’d summarize some of the main themes that arose in the discussion with a few quotes from those who left comments.

For the full series of comments see the post - but here are the main themes (keep in mind that these ideas come from readers - not all of them will be for everyone):

1. Comment on Related Blogs - raising4boys writes - “Commenting on related blogs is probably the most effective strategy early on in the process. And responding to comments when people leave them on your blog (this encourages them to keep coming back).” And from Brody - “I visit other blogs in my niche, add them to my feed and participate in the discussion on their blogs via the comments. Writing interesting comments often gets people to click through to see your site.”

2. Join Forums - elprezidente writes - “I’ve found that one very quick way to infuse readers to a new blog is to be active in discussion forums related to your blog topic. Locate posts that ask for help with something you are familiar with and share your experience.”

3. Write Effective Post Titles - Aziz writes - “Simple and to the point. The title should create an instant urge to read the entire post… But of course it should be related to the topic of your blog”

4. Interviews - Ollie writes - “One example being to interview fellow bloggers who are in the same niche as me. This has gone down well, and has been great for both myself and the interviewee as traffic flows between us.”

5. Persist - Dan Norman writes - “Persistence is key. After starting up a new blog last month and letting go of another this month, I notice that traffic (quality traffic) doesn’t happen over night. On my last site, I think it took 6 months before ASK.com found me.”

6. Connect with Local Bloggers - Rob O writes - “The other thing I’ve been doing just recently is connecting up with other bloggers in my city and the neighboring towns. We’ve got something of a link exchange going and a nice side-effect to this is that I/we have discovered that there are quite a few more bloggers and/or website authors in the area than ever expected.”

7. Give Away Free Stuff - Peterandrej writes - “I’ve had some success with giving away free stuff, like free templates for WordPress. It doesn’t give me lot of new readers, because my blog is written in Norwegian, but the templates give lots and lots of new links to the blog, giving it a much better pagerank in Google, which in turn should mean more readers from search-engines.”

8. Be Opinionated - Trent writes - “Be opinionated, but encourage opposing viewpoints in the comments. Opinionated makes you interesting - encouraging other perspectives makes you essential.”

9. Ask Questions of Other Bloggers - Trent also writes - “Ask questions of other moderately successful bloggers and try to network. If you shoot too high, you’ll often get blown off because these people have so much stuff to read and deal with.”

10. Use Trackbacks - Maki writes - “Sending highly creative and penetrating trackbacks about a blogger’s original post.”

11. Advertise - Mike Panic writes - “Buy advertising space on related websites.”

12. Educate Readers about RSS - Mike Panic writes - “With the most recent blog I launched I created a page in WordPress called Feeds which not only has the RSS icon on it but a description of what a “feed” is and what are some of the most common ways to subscribe and use feeds, mostly pulled from a CC article.”

13. Offline Promotion - Mike Panic writes - “Talk to friends, family and coworkers about them… you’d be surprised how much the traditional way of “networking” really does work…. also Business cards, depending which blog I’ll post on a community board at a grocery store.

14. Search Engine Optimization - Michelle writes - “Properly optimizing my blog has been a big boost to my readership. Once I figured out how to play around with SEO I started getting a regular 25-35% of my hits from Google.”

15. Quality Content (mentioned by many) - ilker writes - “Posting only quality content.. obviously! Better posts are discussed more, increasing both the number of comments and references in other blogs.”

16. Blog Carnivals - Slade writes - “submitting posts to Blog Carnivals”

17. Memes - Leanne writes - “I’ve picked up a handful of wonderful friends and readers through initiating the “Thursday Thirteen”. Yeah, a meme. Bloggers want to know about bloggers, not just the business aspect of it but the *person* writing the blog. Reading a quick list of “getting to know me” type tidbits gives me instant inside information on whether or not I will become a regular visitor. Some participants have used it solely to gain business, but frankly I think that turns people away. People are interested in people first, and what they do second. It works.”

18. Frequent Posting - baggage writes - “I also try to post frequently. I find that the more I post, the more readers I have. The less comments, but the more readers.”

19. Guest Bloggers - Random Good Stuff writes - “I invite other bloggers to guest blog and allow always one link back to their site. I have 3 active guest authors … and in return they link to my site from time to time.”

20. Get Links from Other Blogs - Jamdo writes - “Getting mentioned on other sites and blogs in the same niche, I think, has been the best way to get a readership who keeps returning to a blog. Make contact with other bloggers in yoru niche via comments, email, AIM, skype, homing pigeons - whatever.”

21. Newsletters - Adrian writes - “The Zookoda newsletter provides nice spikes and people tend to forward the newsletter to their friends.”

22. Social Networks - Ilya writes - “Submit your story to Digg and reddit and, regardless of whether it makes the front page or not, you get 50-100 free hits. The easiest way to generate quick exposure. Failing that, comment frequently on blogs that you like. With any luck, the blog author will want to find out more about you, follow the link to your blog, and perhaps write a post referencing one of your posts.”

23. Pitch Your Posts - Marty Weil writes - “I view other bloggers as a PR pros view journalists working in traditional media. I reach out to bloggers using tactics successfully employed in the world of professional media relations. For instance, I “pitch” specific posts that they might find adds value to topics they are writing about. I also send email introducing them to my blog, but only if there’s a good fit between my blog and theirs. The key is to be very selective in approaching the “media gatekeeper”–just as successful and smart media relations people do.”

BERPIKIR POSITIF

Pygmalion adalah seorang pemuda yang berbakat seni
memahat.
Ia sungguh piawai dalam memahat patung.
Karya ukiran
tangannya sungguh bagus.
Tetapi bukan kecakapannya itu menjadikan ia
dikenal dan disenangi
teman dan tetangganya.
Pygmalion dikenal
sebagai orang yang suka berpikiran positif.
Ia memandang segala
sesuatu dari sudut yang baik.
SELALU POSITIF . . . . DAN POSITIF
Apabila
lapangan di tengah kota becek, orang-orang mengomel.
Tetapi Pygmalion
berkata, "Untunglah, lapangan yang lain tidak
sebecek
ini."
Ketika ada seorang pembeli patung ngotot menawar-nawar
harga,
kawan-kawan Pygmalion berbisik,"Kikir betul orangitu."
Tetapi
Pygmalion berkata,
"Mungkin orang itu perlu mengeluarkan uang untuk
urusan lain
yanglebih perlu".

Ketika anak-anak mencuri
apel dikebunnya,
Pygmalion tidak mengumpat. Ia malah merasa
iba,
"Kasihan,anak- anak itu kurang mendapat pendidikan dan makanan yang

cukup di rumahnya."

Itulah pola pandang
Pygmalion.
Ia tidak melihat suatu keadaan dari segi buruk, melainkan
justru
dari segi baik.
Ia tidak pernah berpikir buruk tentang
orang lain; sebaliknya,
ia mencoba membayangkan hal-hal baik dibalik
perbuatan buruk orang lain
Pada suatu hari Pygmalion mengukir sebuah
patung wanita dari kayu
yang sangat halus.
Patung itu berukuran manusia
sungguhan.
Ketika sudah rampung, patung itu tampak seperti manusia
betul.
Wajah patung itu tersenyum manis menawan, tubuhnya elok
menarik.
Kawan-kawan Pygmalion berkata,
"Ah,sebagus- bagusnya patung,
itu cuma patung, bukan isterimu."
Tetapi Pygmalion memperlakukan patung itu
sebagai manusia betul.
Berkali-kali patung itu ditatapnya dan
dielusnya.
para dewa yang ada di Gunung Olympus memperhatikan dan
menghargai
sikapPygmalion,
lalu mereka memutuskan untuk memberi anugerah
kepada Pygmalion,
yaitu mengubah patung itu menjadi manusia
betul.
Begitulah,
Pygmalion hidup berbahagia dengan isterinya
itu
yang konon adalah wanita tercantik di seluruh negeri Yunani.
Nama
Pygmalion dikenang hingga kini
untuk mengambarkan dampak pola berpikir yang
positif.
Kalau kita berpikir positif tentang suatu keadaan atau
seseorang,
seringkali hasilnya betul-betul menjadi
positif.
Misalnya,
Jika kita bersikap ramah terhadap seseorang,
maka
orang itupun akan menjadi ramah terhadap kita.
Jika kita memperlakukan anak
kita sebagai anak yang cerdas,
akhirnya dia betul-betul menjadi
cerdas.
Jika kita yakin bahwa upaya kita akan berhasil,
besar sekali
kemungkinan upaya dapat merupakan separuh

keberhasilan.

Dampak pola berpikir positif itu disebut dampak
Pygmalion.
Pikiran kita memang seringkali mempunyai 2 dampak
:
fulfilling prophecy atau ramalan tergenapi, baik positif maupun

negatif.
Kalau kita menganggap tetangga kita judes
sehingga kita
tidak mau bergaul dengan dia,
maka akhirnya dia betul-betu menjadi
judes.
Kalau kita mencurigai dan menganggap anak kita tidak
jujur,
akhirnya ia betul-betul menjadi tidak jujur.
Kalau kita sudah
putus asa dan merasa tidak sanggup pada awal
suatu usaha,
besar
sekali kemungkinannya kita betul-betul akan gagal.
Pola pikir Pygmalion
adalah berpikir,
menduga dan berharap hanya yang baik tentang suatu keadaan
atau
seseorang.
Bayangkan,

bagaimana besar dampaknya
bila kita berpola pikir positif seperti itu.
Kita tidak akan
berprasangka buruk tentang orang lain.
Kita tidak menggunjingkan
desas-desus yang jelek tentang orang
lain.
Kita tidak
menduga-duga yang jahat tentang orang lain.
Kalau kita berpikir buruk
tentang orang lain,
selalu ada saja bahan untuk menduga hal-hal yang
buruk.
Jika ada seorang kawan memberi hadiah kepada kita,
jelas itu
adalah perbuatan baik.
Tetapi jika kita berpikir buruk, kita akan menjadi
curiga,
"Barangkali ia sedang mencoba membujuk,"
atau kita mengomel,
"Ah, hadiahnya cuma barang murah."
Yang rugi dari pola pikir seperti itu
adalah diri kita sendiri.
Kita menjadi mudah curiga. Kita menjadi tidak
bahagia.
Sebaliknya,
kalau kita berpikir positif,
kita akan menikmati
hadiah itu dengan rasa gembira dan syukur,
"Ia begitu murahhati. Walaupun
ia sibuk, ia ingat untuk memberi
kepada
kita."......
..

Warna hidup memang tergantung dari warna kaca mata yang
kita pakai.
Kalau kita memakai kaca mata kelabu,
segala sesuatu akan
tampak kelabu.
Hidup menjadi kelabu dan suram.
Tetapi kalau kita memakai
kaca mata yang terang, segala sesuatu
akan tampak cerah.
Kaca mata yang
berprasangka atau benci
akan menjadikan hidup kita penuh rasa curiga dan
dendam.
Tetapi kaca mata yang damai akan menjadikan hidup kita
damai.
Hidup akan menjadi baik kalau kita memandangnya dari segi yang
baik.
Berpikir baik tentang diri sendiri.
Berpikir baik tentang orang
lain.
Berpikir baik tentang keadaan.
Berpikir baik tentang
Tuhan.
Dampak berpikir baik seperti itu akan kita rasakan.
Keluarga
menjadi hangat.
Kawan menjadi bisa dipercaya.
Tetangga menjadi
akrab.

Pekerjaan menjadi menyenangkan.
Dunia menjadi
ramah.
Hidup menjadi indah.
Seperti Pygmalion,
begitulah.


MAKE SURE YOU ARE
PYGMALION

and the world will be filled with positive people

'Dumb Terminals' Can Be a Smart Move for Companies

"More companies are forgoing desktop and laptop computers for dumb terminals — reversing a trend toward powerful individual machines that has been in motion for two decades, the Wall Street Journal reports. 'Because the terminals have no moving parts such as fans or hard drives that can break, the machines typically require less maintenance and last longer than PCs. Mark Margevicius, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc., estimates companies can save 10% to 40% in computer-management costs when switching to terminals from desktops. In addition, the basic terminals appear to offer improved security. Because the systems are designed to keep data on a server, sensitive information isn't lost if a terminal gets lost, stolen or damaged. And if security programs or other applications need to be updated, the new software is installed on only the central servers, rather than on all the individual PCs scattered throughout a network.'"

Your reviews: Vista and rivals

Microsoft launches its new operating system, Windows Vista, on Tuesday, promising "the wow starts now". We have selected two readers to explain what they like and don't like about the new operating system and two readers who are extolling the virtues of rival systems - the open source platform Linux and Apple's Mac OS X.

1. Vista: Dan Verley 3. Linux: Paul Broadbent

2. Vista: Nick Fletcher 4. Mac OS X: Jonathan Tilney

WINDOWS VISTA

Vista has overhauled the Windows interface

Dan Verley, US

Approximately six months ago I was given an opportunity to beta test Microsoft's latest operating system (OS) Windows Vista.

I've been using Windows since 3.1 came out, so I immediately jumped at the offer. I really wasn't expecting something altogether different from previous versions, but immediately Vista proved to be in a league of its own.

The first thing you notice when you get to the desktop is the appearance. It is visually stunning.

One of the things that Microsoft has been boasting about is Windows Aero, which is an experience centered on 3D graphics.

With features such as translucent windows, smoother window performance, and Windows Flip 3D, it just adds to the overall experience.

Windows Flip 3D is by far my favourite. It's similar to Alt-Tab, but it brings up a 3D view of all the minimized windows. You can see what each window is and then select whichever one you want to view.

Even though Vista requires more resources, (probably because it is more graphics oriented) it's more stable and performs better that any version that I've ever used.

The most unique new feature is called Readyboost. When you're having performance issues due to insufficient memory, you can use a USB flash drive as an additional cache of memory to boost performance.

It's an amazing OS. I really think that this one's going to give Apple Macs a run for their money.

Return to top of page

---

Nick Fletcher, Australia

Being a software developer for the Windows platform, it is important that I keep up to date with the never-ending developments in PC technology, particularly those provided by Microsoft.

I have been using Windows Vista for about one year now and seen it mature into the final product.

A huge amount of research has been put into this new version which is evident in everything from the user interface right through to the new security model.

This latest update provides many new components but the one which will provide the greatest change for windows users is the Windows Presentation Foundation - a set of components which allow graphics designers to produce visually stunning user interfaces.

This new technology relies on the DirectX (a graphics technology provided on most modern graphics cards and also a requirement for the new Aero user interface) graphics engine to draw the interface leading providing new features such as 3D and animation.

As an operating system for your average consumer there are also lots of great improvements, the new media player, a more intuitive user experience and easier backup facilities.

I also like the way that all my existing hardware just works (although I am aware many other people have had problems).

Boot time is much improved over XP and with the deep sleep option, it allows you to resume work from an almost zero power state in just a few seconds.

Excessive demands on hardware also mean that many people may not choose to upgrade their OS, waiting instead until the PC is replaced.

Whilst 512Mb is quoted as the minimum I would say that 1Gb is needed for a wait-free session. The graphics card must also support DirectX9 in order to display the Aero user experience - another expense if you don't have one already.

In short though, I see windows Vista as a big improvement over Windows XP and would strongly suggest other PC users who have not explored beyond the Windows camp to upgrade.

Return to top of page

OPEN SOURCE - LINUX

Gnome is a free desktop interface for Linux

Paul Broadbent, UK

One of the advantages of Linux is its flexibility.

For the novice user it is straightforward to use, yet it also gives more experienced users radical powers over their computer which are not available in other operating systems.

Also there is a huge variety of high quality, free software available for Linux, and using a package manager it is trivial to choose one of these thousands of applications and install it in a couple of clicks.

Another significant advantage with Linux is that, unlike in Windows, there is no need to worry about security since viruses are very rare, no virus has yet spread successfully on the platform.

And using powerful desktops such as KDE and Gnome with stunning visual effects it is able to look even better than Vista and OS X.

Also, unlike Vista and OS X, Linux provides comprehensive support for languages such as Gaelic and Welsh.

Unfortunately Linux's use is less widespread than the competition, which means that hardware and mainstream games often lack official support, so they can occasionally be difficult to install.

However there are always many people on the internet ready to help out with any problems.

What really sets Linux apart is its social significance provided by the free software license. It encourages users to share the software they love with their friends, rather than making the act of sharing illegal and branding it piracy.

Also it encourages programmers to be better people, working in the open and allowing other programmers from across the world to help improve their software, rather than locking up their work with restrictive licences which prevent programmers from working together.

Return to top of page

APPLE MAC OS X

Apple is working on a new version of OS X

Jonathan Tilney

The first thing I noticed after switching from Windows to Mac OS X almost six years ago is its complete lack of distractions.

It is clean, uncluttered and lets me get on with my tasks.

When I see Windows' reminders, popups, and other interruptions, I appreciate its absence in OS X.

My Mac hardware and software looks great and is supremely functional.

It seems someone has taken care of even the smallest details to make it work together seamlessly.

One benefit I have found has been how little maintenance my Mac needs.

It works for 11 hours a day, all week, and is restarted once over the weekend when I run a small maintenance utility.

I don't remember the last time a programme crashed on me, and OS X itself has never crashed on me.

Security is great, as you would expect with a system based on the industrial strength of Unix, although I do practise safe computing and don't take it for granted.

This means I don't waste time on bugs and spyware (there are no viruses for OS X in the wild).

Productivity in Excel spreadsheets, word processing, email and web surfing, photo processing and music all just seems to work (co-existing with Windows users too).

I now feel like I am in charge of my computer rather than it being in charge of me.

I find it hard to find things to criticise, except perhaps to say that new versions of iWork and iLife are produced each year and it is hard to resist buying each new version, modestly priced as they are.

iPod Shuffle colors released!

In five brilliant colors and just $79, the 1GB iPod shuffle lets you wear up to 240 songs¹ on your sleeve. Or your lapel. Or your belt. Clip on iPod shuffle and wear it as a badge of musical devotion.

One size fits all

You know what they say about good things and small packages. But when something 1.62 inches long and about half an ounce holds up to 240 songs, “good” and “small” don’t cut it. Especially when you can listen to your music for up to 12 continuous hours.² In fact, iPod shuffle just may be the biggest thing in small.

Ready to wear

Clip it to your coin pocket. Clip it to your bag. No matter where you clip your skip-free iPod shuffle, you’ll have instant access to music. In silver, pink, green, blue, and orange, iPod shuffle goes with everything. Put it on, turn it up, and turn some heads.

Remix and match

The first step to wearing 240 songs is downloading iTunes — free. Then drop your iPod shuffle into the included dock, plug the dock into your Mac or PC’s USB port, and sync in minutes. Got more than 240 songs? No problem. Let iTunes autofill your iPod shuffle and get a new musical experience every time.

1. 1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less. Song capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; actual capacity varies by content.


2. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.

Linux Kernel hackers offering hardware companies free driver development

Yes, that's right, the Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. No longer do you have to suffer through all of the different examples in the Linux Device Driver Kit, or pick through the thousands of example drivers in the Linux kernel source tree trying to determine which one is the closest to what you need to do.

All that is needed is some kind of specification that describes how your device works, or the email address of an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while. A few sample devices might be good to have so that debugging doesn't have to be done by email, but if necessary, that can be done.

In return, you will receive a complete and working Linux driver that is added to the main Linux kernel source tree. The driver will be written by some of the members of the Linux kernel developer community (over 1500 strong and growing). This driver will then be automatically included in all Linux distributions, including the "enterprise" ones. It will be automatically kept up to date and working through all Linux kernel API changes. This driver will work with all of the different CPU types supported by Linux, the largest number of CPU types supported by any operating system ever before in the history of computing.

As for support, the driver will be supported through email by the original developers, when they can help out, and by the "enterprise" Linux distributors as part of their service agreements with their customers.

If your company is worried about NDA issues surrounding your device's specifications, we have arranged a program with OSDL/TLF's Tech Board to provide the legal framework where a company can interact with a member of the kernel community in order to properly assure that all needed NDA requirements are fulfilled.

Now your developers will have more time to work on drivers for all of the other operating systems out there, and you can add "supported on Linux" to your product's marketing material.

This offer is in affect for all different types of devices, from USB toys to PCI video devices to high-speed networking cards. If you build it, we can get Linux drivers working for it.

For any questions about this program, please feel free to respond to this email, or contact me directly at greg@kroah.com. I will also be available at FreedomHEC 2007 held adjacent to WinHEC, if anyone wants to bring devices and work face-to-face.

Vista DRM Cracked by Security Researcher

"Security researcher Alex Ionescu claims to have successfully bypassed the much discussed DRM protection in Windows Vista, called 'Protected Media Path' (PMP), which is designed to seriously degrade the playback quality of any video and audio running on systems with hardware components not explicitly approved by Microsoft. The bypass of the DRM protection was in turn performed by breaking the Driver Signing / PatchGuard protection in the new operating system. Alex is now quite nervous about what an army of lawyers backed by draconian copyright laws could do to him if he released the details, but he claims to be currently looking into the details of safely releasing his details about this at the moment though."

OSSDI to Distribute OpenOffice.org in Schools

Xampper writes to tell us that the OSSDI (Open Source Software Distribution Initiative) is a new organization that has cropped up to help not only spread the word about Open Source Software, but to help distribute the OpenOffice.org office suite starting with less fortunate school districts. The OSSDI describes their current status as still being in its "infancy as an organization. Because of this, all of our current resources are focused on gaining supporters, raising funds, and recruiting volunteers. Plans are under-way for our first software distribution, but we must first cover our operating costs. We are also interested in becoming a registered not for profit corporation so that donors will receive tax breaks for their gifts, but the registration process can also be very costly and time-consuming."

Frank Taira Supit hanged himself?

The Jakarta Post quoted family members that lawyer turned airline businessman and key supporter of Amien Rais in 2004 election Frank Taira Supit had committed suicide, hanged himself in his Rempoa residence, South Jakarta.

Mr Supit is the co-founder of corporate law firm Makarim & Taira Supit, National Mandate Party (PAN), and airline company PT Efata Papua Airlines. Police is investigating the case and awaiting the autopsy result to confirm whether it was really suicide.
Mr Supit, Graduated from Harvard Law School (summa cum laude, the first Indonesian to get that), married to a Filipino. He also established PT Sigma Batara.
At Air Efata, Supit owns 8% directly and indirectly through PT Taira Markas (90%). Papua governor Barnabas Suebu reportedly owns 2%.
"Looks like he had huge professional and personal problems recently. But I'm shocked to hear the sad news," one of his friends said.
"He's a perfectionist, smart, and low profile. But I never imagine his life ended like that," another friend said.
Evening paper Sinar Harapan reported in its headline that Supit's wife Marylou reported the tragedy on Monday. Marylou declined to comment on speculations about Mr Supit's death.
The paper quoted several sources that Air Efata has been in trouble with liabilities to Angkasa Pura I, II, Pertamina, and other companies of more than Rp100 billion. The airline has reportedly invested Rp180 billion. Supit tried to restructure the company's debt with new loans from Bank Lippo, but the bank pulled out in the last minutes. Air Efata also got loans from Oentoro Surya (owner of PT APOL) and overseas institutions thanks to his reputation as respected lawyer.
He survived Marylou, and three children (Harumi Supit from his first wife, and two kids of 8 and 7 years old). He paid higher salary for pilots, co-pilots, air crews and land staffs than any airline in the country.

The Future Microchips Will Be Smaller, Faster and Will Lose Much Less Energy

One of the most important findings in transistors in the last four decades enhances the much desired development of smaller and more powerful microchips.

Intel Corp. and IBM made the technological breakthrough by using an exotic new material: tiny switches that are the building blocks of microchips. "At the transistor level, we haven't changed the basic materials since the 1960s. So it's a real big breakthrough," said Dan Hutcheson, head of VLSI Research, an industry consultant. "Moore's Law was coming to a grinding halt," an allusion to the industry maxim formulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who said that the number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two years. As a result of this principle, the chips have been smaller and faster, in an industry of $250 billion in annual sales.

The new technology, based on the metal named hafnium, helps the development of circuitry as small as 45 nanometers (1:2000 of the width

of a human hair). "We do expect that those products will deliver higher performance levels than existing products," said Steve Smith, vice president of Intel's digital enterprise group operations. "What we're seeing is excellent double-digit performance gains on media applications."

The new technology could last at least two technology generations, when circuitry will get 22 nm dimensions. "We've been doing this for 40 years and we've got to the point where some of these layers you have to make smaller wouldn't scale anymore," said IBM Chief Technologist Bernie Meyerson. "We are getting down to a stage of technology where people have wondered if you could really ever go there, and we have definitely shown a roadmap down to these unbelievably tiny dimensions," said Meyerson.

The current technology has a 5 atoms thick layer of silicon-based material, thus a lot of electricity leaks out, causing wasted power and shorter battery life. "It's like running two faucets when you only need one. You're actually wasting more water than you're actually using," said Jim McGregor, an analyst at the technology market research firm In-Stat.

These are the benefits of the new technology: smaller transistors, potentially doubling their total number in a given area, and also faster ones, with a speed increase of over 20 %, and a decrease in power leakage by over 80 %. "Consumers are going towards mobility and power-sensitive solutions. We need to not only make things smaller and more efficient but also use less power," McGregor said.

But there are many obstacles in continuing the development of new chip generations: it is increasingly difficult to create light beams narrow enough to etch circuitry on chips. "But this takes out what has been considered the biggest number one roadblock," VLSI's Hutcheson said.

The Satellite Receiving Multimedia Car of the Future

The current car radios present many inconveniences: crackling radio stations, signal loss in tunnels and difficult tuning to the correct frequency.

But recently, ESA and nine partners in the industry and service sectors have presented a new prototype at the Noordwijk Space Expo, in the Netherlands, of what would be the multimedia car radio of the future.

The new car radio functions like a satellite receiver for television channels. Instead of a large dish antenna on the car's roof, there is a special mobile antenna, flattened so that it can be integrated almost invisibly into the bodywork that picks up signals in the Ku frequency band employed by communications

satellites.

The idea of integrating a satellite receiver in a car is not a novelty as in the US, more than 13 million drivers utilize the services of XM-radio and Sirius radio that broadcast to mobile satellite receivers. That is done via satellites, but enhanced by a rural network of transmitter pillars.

However, the new European multimedia system is much more advanced. Instead of new satellites and a web of ground-based transmitters which would require a huge investment, overpassing a billion Euro, the new system employs only the already existing communication satellites.

Moreover, the mobile multimedia system uses a cache memory (a hard disk or its solid-state equivalent). The received signals can be recorded (like in personal video recorders) and listened after a short time shift or much later. This ingenious technique surpasses the problem of signal loss in tunnels or obstructions disturbing the program.

This way, the driver is able to select a part of the broadcast to listen to, or pause a broadcast he/she is interested in as they stop to fuel.

The engineers were forced in their approach to develop an entirely new antenna that could be easily integrated in a car, as the large, fixed dish antennas designed to broadcast television signals via satellites were excluded for not being practical.

The project has taken three years of research, but the new technology possesses a great potential for the car industry and broadcasting.

Photo credit: BMW

What is the Human Body Made Of?

Have you ever wondered what the human body is made of?

Well, a team at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada, did and realized the first draft of the human metabolome (the totality of metabolites from the human body). The metabolites are the small chemicals found in or produced by an organism. The team has identified and characterized 2,500 metabolites, 1,200 drugs and 3,500 food components that can be encountered in the human body.

The metabolome list could trigger a new era in detecting and treating diseases.

The Human Metabolome Project (HMP) would have a much more powerful impact on medical practices than the Human Genome Project, as the metabolites point more directly to the body's health and physiology. "Metabolites are the canaries of the genome," says Project Leader Dr. Wishart, professor of computing science and biological sciences at the University of Alberta

and Principal Investigator at NRC, National Institute for Nanotechnology. "A single base change in our DNA can lead to a 100,000X change in metabolite levels."

"The results of this research will have a significant impact on the diagnosis, prediction, prevention and monitoring of many genetic, infectious and environmental diseases," stated Dr. David Bailey, President and CEO of Genome Alberta.

The metabolites are extremely sensitive in showing what a person eats, how he/she lives, the time of day, the time of year, his/her general health and even his/her mood. "Most medical tests today are based on measuring metabolites in blood or urine," Wishart says.

"Unfortunately, less than 1% of known metabolites are being used in routine clinical testing. If you can only see 1% of what's going on in the body, you're obviously going to miss a lot."

The team made up of 50 researchers based at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary completed the part of the 95 % unknown metabolites of the human metabolome in the past two and half years. "With the data in the HMDB, anyone can find out what metabolites are associated with which diseases, what the normal and abnormal concentrations are, where the metabolites are found or what genes are associated with which metabolites," Wishart says.

"It's the first time that this sort of data has been compiled into one spot. By decoding the human metabolome, we can identify and diagnose hundreds of diseases in a matter of seconds at a cost of pennies," Wishart added.