Month: June 2022

Intel or AMD processors. Which one should you buy

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Intel processor

The 2 CPU giants in the PC market are the Intel and AMD processors.

Of the 2 types of CPU makers mentioned above, Intel is the overall market leader in that their processors are widely preferred to that of AMD. Intel produces a wider range of processors and the  faster ones. You will agree with me that core i3, i5,  and i7s are the most sought after processors whether you want to build or buy a PC.

Intel processors are generally more expensive, but they give value for money. 

Does it mean that AMD processors are inferior; Not at all. The PS5 and PS4 video gaming consoles which are still the best sellers in the market run on AMD architecture. If you are on a budget, you should go for AMD processors as they are generally cheaper than their corresponding Intel counterparts.

Units of Data in Increasing Order

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big data storage device

Bit is the smallest unit.

One Nibble = 4 bit.

One Byte = 8 bit.

One Kilobyte (KB) = 1,024 Byte.

One Megabyte (MB)  = 1,024 KB.

One  Gigabyte (GB)  = 1,024 MB.

One Terabyte (TB)  = 1,024 GB.

One Petabyte (PB) = 1,024 TB.

One  Exabyte (EB)  = 1,024 PB.

One Zetabyte (ZB) – 1,024 EB.

One  Yottabyte (YB) – 1,024 ZB.

One Brontebyte (BB) – 1,024 YB.

One Geopbyte – 1,024 BB.

A Geopbyte is the highest storage unit and it does not have any short form.

Types of Insitu tests for density and shear strength of soil

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Types of Tests to obtain the density and shear strength of soils include;

Standard penetration

Vane

Unconfined compression test

Plate bearing test

California bearing ratio test (CBR)

Standard penetration test

This test measures the relative density of the soul. lt is done by driving a 35mm diameter rod into the soil. The number of controlled blows it takes for the rod to be driven to a particular depth is measured and then the result is checked against a standard chart to determine the strength and classification of the soil.

Vane test

Vane test

This test measures the shear strength of soft cohesive soils. The vane is pushed into the soil and rotated by hand. The amount of torque necessary for rotation is measured and then shear strength of the soil is calculated

Unconfined compression test

unconfined compression test equipment

This is a device used to measure the compressive strength of soil.  A soil sample of 76mm long and 38m in diameter is placed in the apparatus under applied loading. The the sample is then sheared under load & shear stress us automatically recorded

Plate bearing test

plate bearing test

This process involves digging a portion of the ground to foundation level. Placing a 600mm by 600 mm steel plate at the bottom and subjecting it to vertical loading. A displacement meter is used to check the displacement of the steel plate into the soil. This is done until the place has sinked in the soil to about 15% of the breadth of the steel plate. The safe load is taken as ⅓ of the load that caused the steel plate to be vertically displaced by 15% of its breadth. Readings are taken every 6 hours and increments to loading are done every 24 hours.

California bearing ratio test (CBR)

The test shows the load penetration of soils relative to that of a standard crushed stone sample. It is stimulated in the laboratory by driving a cylindrical plunger of known cross sectional area  into the soil at a given rate.

How you can troubleshoot your submersible water pump

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submersible water pump

When your submersible pump stops working, don’t just rush to call the technician for repairs. There are still some troubleshooting you can do yourself and save some costs.

Your submersible water pump should come fitted with a control box. Inside the control box is fitted a circuit breaker and capacitor.

control box of submersible water pump

The first thing you can do yourself if your pump doesn’t work is to open up its control box and check if the capacitor isn’t blown. In most cases this is usually the case. If it applies to you just replace the capacitor with  an original one of the same type.

Sometimes it might be the circuit breaker that is faulty, you can replace that yourself too as well. 

If it’s not possible to change only the faulty capacitor or circuit breaker, just change the whole control box.

If after changing the control box, the pump still doesn’t work or trips off after a while, then the  problem might be with the pump itself. Get a technician to service it. 

If the coil of the water pump has burnt, then it is advisable to buy a new one rather than repairing it.

How to make candle yourself. DIY

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candle

Materials needed to make candle are;

candle wax

Candle wax

Stearic acid

Paraffin oil

Paraffin oil 

Wick

Wick

Mould

Colour (optional)

To make about 320g of candle you will need the following quantities of materials;

Candle wax: 320g

Paraffin oil:10ml

Stearic acid:

Wick: 1m

1 mould

Procedure

Cut the candle wax into small pieces.

Place a pot on a cooker and set it on low heat. 

Put all the pieces of candle wax into the  pot and stir until it is all melted. 

Add the paraffin oil and stearic acid into the melted candle wax and mix all together. You can also add colour at this stage if you like.

Remove the pot from the cooking heat.

Wait for it to cool for about 45 minutes, the mixture would have become semi solid by that time.

Place the wick inside the mould and ensure it is at the center of it.

Using a spoon,  fill up the mould with the semisolid candle wax mixture, ensuring that the wick is approximately always at the center throughout the procedure.

Leave it in the mould for about 3 days  for the candle wax mixture to fully solidify, then remove the mould.

Your DIY candle is ready.

CPU Hyper thread, Multicore & Overclock

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Hyper threading as it relates to CPU.

intel corei i7

Hyper threading enables a CPU to handle tasks more efficiently and resourcefully. It means the CPU can multitask without degrading system performance. Hyper threading was first made to work with x86 based CPUs such as Pentium 4. Now even Intel atom uses the hyperthreading technology. Hyperthreading makes a CPU like Pentium 4 behave as a dual core, but these cores are virtual, and they share the same computing resources but are efficiently managed.

Multicore as it relates to CPU

A Multicore CPU is a CPU capable of advanced multitasking using physical cores that have their own separate computing resources,( not shared). It is like plugging two or more individual processors into one integrated circuit. A CPU with multiple cores means that each core can be assigned to different tasks. However, if a core cannot adequately handle the task assigned to it, other cores can jointly assist to finish the task.  

Overclocking CPU

Most CPUs have their speeds clocked. However, some specially designed CPUs have adjustable clock speeds. The reason why most CPU speeds are clocked is to prevent them from burning out. Interl CPUs that can be overclocking capabilities have the letter K in their name while that of AMD is called black edition.