GeekwithEnvy

Technology

How To Test Your LCD Monitor Calibration

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LED Abstract Image

If you’re finicky about your LCD displays and you want to make sure you’ve got everything dialed in correctly then there’s a great website you can go to that will help you make sure you’ve got everything right.

The Lagom LCD monitor test pages, offer up a variety of test images that can be used to not only determine proper calibration but overall quality of a particular display. As the website mentions you can also download the images to a USB thumb-drive to test displays is a retail environment. I used this page today to recalibrate my LCD monitor and it looks much better.

It can be difficult to tell sometimes whether things are off or not by simply looking at a photograph and that’s why these test pages really help. Just make sure you follow the instructions carefully and you will be on your way to display calibration perfection.

Want to know what color depth your display and graphics hardware are currently using? You can head to NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) reference test page here.

Keep NASA Strong Sign a Petition

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NASAmeatball

Help keep NASA going strong by helping them keep their budget from dropping below 1% of Federal Funding. There are many things that make the United States successful and advancing our knowledge and ability, which NASA greatly contributes to, is clearly one program worth keeping strong.

So, if you feel the same, then let’s take action and let the government know how we feel by signing a petition.

In 1961, at the height of the space race, the NASA budget was 4.41% of federal outlays. In 2005, despite the federal government spending only ~$15 billion on NASA.

The 2013 budget expects ~$19 billion of funding for NASA or half of a percent of spending; truly this is a pittance, but one that yields vast economic and scientific rewards.

NASA advances our nation when well-funded; by guaranteeing that no less than 1% of federal spending will be on NASA, we promote job creation, encourage creativity in the economy, and gain insight on our universe.

1% is a small financial guarantee of progress in the final frontier!

A Quick Guide to IPv6

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In order to better understand what IPv6 is and why it’s important to the internet’s future, we should briefly discuss what Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is and what the main problem with it is.ipv6Illustration

IPv4 addresses are comprised of a 32-bit value. This system is what the majority of the internet has been using for Internet Protocol (IP). A standard IPv4 address looks like this:

(192.x.x.xxx)

This 32-bit integer system allows for a possible combination of up to 4,294,967,296 (232) addresses. Yes, that’s a lot of addresses but we have run out of them, in fact we ran out of them in early 2011. Keep in mind that there are over 20 billion active devices connected to the internet.

The Problem:

Every single device that connects to the internet is assigned an IP address. As we mentioned earlier, there are billions of devices out there and that number keeps getting higher every day. The internet needs to be able to keep up with that incredible pace, but it can’t. IPv4 has already run out of addresses and all we can do with IPv4 addresses now is reclaim them and re-assign them.

The solution

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the next step forward in internet address assignment. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address system and that means a possible combination of up to 3.4×1038  addresses, yes, that’s 340 trillion trillion trillion! Clearly this is the format we wan’t to be using in a world that’s constantly adding more and more devices to the internet.

A common address for IPv6 is formatted like this:

(2001:0db8:85a3:0042:1000:8a2e:0370:7334).

What are some other benefits that IPv6 has?

IPv6 is far more efficient when it comes to sending data and it even offers up auto configuration capabilities that don’t exist with IPv4. The new protocol is also much more secure and offers true end-to-end connectivity, which eliminates the need for Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT helped reduce problems with the IPv4 model as it began to run out of addresses by allowing you to hide multiple private IP addresses behind one IP address. Without it, we would have had a lot more trouble with IPv4 in the past.

So when do we switch and how long will it take?

Well the transition to IPv6 is going to take quite a while but it has already begun. The world IPv6 Launch occurred on June 6, 2012 and we continue to make progress as internet providers and websites make the change.

Am I on IPv6 Already?

Chances are that you aren’t but if you want to be sure, Google can help you figure that out by heading here.