Laptop Overheating

My Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop has been getting slower and slower since I first purchased it new around three years ago.  I had assumed that this was due to the inevitable degradation of Windows Vista, but a fresh reinstall of Windows 7 didn't help.  When I burned myself on the bottom panel of the laptop, that was a pretty good indication that I should check for an overheating problem.

I installed I8kfanGUI, a handy little program for monitoring Dell Inspiron, Latitude, and Precision laptop temperatures, fan speeds, and CPU speeds and loads.  It allows you to manually control the speed of the laptop fan; I used this to max the fan speed, hoping to bring the processor core temperatures down to something reasonable.  Under high load, temperatures were still staying as high as 85C, and the laptop's performance was suffering as Windows automatically 'throttled' the processor speed to keep the temperatures from continuing to increase.

Time for more drastic measures.  Using this helpful guide to disassembling a Dell Inspiron laptop, I completely took the machine apart.  Inside: giant dust bunnies, completely clogging up the heatsinks at the end of the heatpipes that cool the CPU and GPU.  These could not have been removed simply by blowing some canned air through the external vents on the laptop; I had to use tweezers to dig out them out.  The fan was still spinning, but the air wasn't getting where it needed to go to keep things cool.

Success!  I reassembled everything, fired it up, and the load temperatures were down into the 60's.  Still pretty warm, but no CPU throttling and no performance loss.

Loss of computer performance over time is NOT normal.  If a fresh install of a stable operating system doesn't solve the problem, heat management may be the issue.  A computer is just like any other piece of machinery, and a little routine maintenance can make all the difference.  It can be a real pain to take a laptop apart and put it back together again, but an hour of effort can make it usable again.

Analyzing the global psyche with Google

{Query} [Google-Recommended Completion]

{How to}
tie a tie
kiss
lose weight fast
get pregnant
get a girl to like you
write a cover letter
write a resume
solve a rubix cube
make jello shots
make it in america

{How do I}
find my ip address
get a passport
know if im pregnant
get my work copyrighted
love thee
delete my facebook account
download youtube videos
look
delete my myspace
breathe lyrics

{What is}
my ip
my ip address
love
lady gaga's real name
a good credit score
chatroulette
the meaning of life
cinco de mayo
autism
twitter

{My girlfriend and I}
have nothing to talk about
fight all the time
are growing apart
are having communication problems
have nothing in common
are on a break
are bored
always fight
are going to different colleges
broke up

{My boyfriend and I}
fight all the time
have nothing to talk about
are growing apart
are on a break
can't communicate
are fighting
are bored
fight a lot
always fight

Summary:

The average internet user is most concerned about finding a mate, a complicated process which often involves ties, jello shots, and kissing.  To impress potential mates, the average internet user is: looking for a good job; traveling to other countries; losing weight; writing books; and solving Rubix cubes.  To avoid scaring off potential mates (and perhaps potential employers), the average internet user is considering closing their accounts on various social networking sites.  Perhaps the only thing the average internet user is as interested in finding as true love is their IP address.

Once they have found a mate, the average internet user is desperately unhappy.  Regardless, the average internet user proceeds to make babies (a poorly-understood process).

The Brewing Continues

Both fermenters are bubbling like crazy today; I don't have a rotameter hooked up, but I would guess that carbon dioxide production is peaking in excess of 100mL per minute.  Everything in the must is now suspended, buoyed by the bubbles rising from the yeast, which are now floating in a cloudy layer near the surface.

It's obvious enough that yeast produces a ton of carbon dioxide during anaerobic growth... but how?  Molecular oxygen is not present to act as the final electron acceptor in oxidative phosphorylation, so the TCA cycle (the source of the carbon dioxide produces by you right now) certainly isn't active.  For a closer look, we go to the basic (unbalanced) bioreaction stoichiometry:

C₆H₁₂O₆ (sugar) + CH_1.9O_0.51N_0.23 (protein) -> CH1_1.77O_0.49N_0.24 (biomass) + C₂H₆O (ethanol)

Most available protein is going to biomass (which has almost the exact same stoichiometric ratios as protein), along with some of the sugar.  Most of the sugar will go toward generating reducing equivalents (NADH) and energy carriers (ATP), in which it will be almost stoichiometrically converted to ethanol.  If you take a look at that stoichiometry:

C₆H₁₂O₆ (sugar) -> C₂H₆O (ethanol)

Glucose on the left has a 1:1 C:O ratio, whereas ethanol has a 2:1 C:O ratio.  Carbon dioxide has a 1:2 C:O ratio, so this is a likely solution for closing the mass balance!  Of course, this is all nasty global inference, which should be left to systems biology (fake science).

What really happens?  Pyruvate decarboxylase (using thiamine pyrophosphate [pictured] in an acid-catalyzed reaction) hacks pyruvate into acetaldehyde and carbon dioxide.  The acetaldehyde is converted into ethoxide by reaction with NADH, and is then protonated to yield ethanol.  This is 'Ethanolic Fermentation'.

(Isn't mechanistic biochemistry so much more satisfying?)

Let The Brewing Begin

Oh school - the more classes you've taken, the more doing well just comes down to going through the motions and taking the time.  Unfortunately, all of this fake learning has been keeping me from doing the stuff I really want to do.

I'm headed to Germany in two weeks, but I wanted to get one solid project going before I head out.  Fairly quick to set up with long wait times to product?  Brewing fits the bill perfectly.

I kind of feel like 'brewing' with store-bought malts is sort of a cop-out.  I'd rather go with something simple and straightforward, do it right (meaning without too much cheating), and expand upward as I get better at it.  There are many indications that mead was one of the first fermented beverages, even predating agriculture itself, so it seemed like the perfect place to start.

Setting everything up was very straightforward.
Follow this project's progress in my Brewing Notebook.

Environmentalism Extrema

I mentioned on Sunday that most environmentalists aren't calling for a reduction in the human population.  Some, however, are!  Others have messaged me saying they indirectly support human population reduction through better availability of contraceptive methods and education.  I've also heard the argument made that voluntary population control could help stabilize the economies of extremely depressed regions in Africa.  I guess it's worth keeping in mind that a reduction in per capita consumption only really has an effect if the population is fairly stable or declining.


The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement has a very interesting stance.  From their website:

"Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense."

Everyone likes to discuss 'carbon footprint', but perhaps 'carbon legacy' is just as important: if my six-person family severely limits its use of natural resources but still consumes more overall than a three-person family with a much higher per capita usage, who is 'more green'?

If I drive a Prius 30 miles to work every day and my coworker drives his old gas-guzzler but lives only 5 miles away, who is doing more to conserve?

Can you really claim to be an 'environmentalist' if you live in a climate where you need to heat your living space five months out of the year?

Should conservation be measured on a 'per-lighbulb' basis, or is it really only a relevant concept when it is considered in terms of all of the decisions an individual makes, including what they buy, what they eat, where they live and work... even how much they reproduce?

Discuss!

(thanks to Kyle for the link, Ben for the 'legacy' concept, and Mr. Somers for a really good point)