Comments on: Dim Display like Real Mac when Idle… Kinda

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:45:31 +0000

The link has been updated. Thanks for the heads up.

By: rizal

rizal — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:24:38 +0000

hi Richard, Download link for Dim Display.zip is not available…please add more link.
Thanks

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:07:51 +0000

I just used the BootCD to boot my Hard Drive because of Chameleon issues (caused by my own ignorance) and it booted properly along with the dsdt.aml I included in the BootCD. This is a major step becuase we now have dsdt.aml loading.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:03:30 +0000

I hope we get a fix so we can use software (utilities, etc.) that require you to use a “boot disc” such as Drive Genius. This will keep us running smoother and faster just like our real Macs.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:37:22 +0000

This is true. Take for example our ability to boot Mac discs. Fortunately there may be a fix for this so I’m working on it.

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 02 May 2009 03:23:45 +0000

At the end of the day, there are still many Mac-specific programs that, even with us running Mac OS X, just won’t work right and I’m sure ScreenShade is one of them. If it doesn’t work on a “PC” it’s probably not going to work on our HackBook because the hardware is PC regardless of what software (Mac) we put on it.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:51:59 +0000

If the software doesn’t automatically dim the screen then what is the benefit of this over Fn + Down to dim the display.

By: Cristian

Cristian — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:19:26 +0000

Dave,
There is a software on the Apple website which dims the display like a real mac.
It’s ScreenShade. I tried it and is really good. The main problem: it does not automatically dim your screen on PC .

By: Wolfer

Wolfer — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:22:35 +0000

Got the timing on this “project” about perfect now — in regards to when it is triggered by the machine’s idle state. Also, I finally optimized the ‘proof-of-concept code’ and got the script to only use ~.02% of the CPU now (across multiple launches) — while running in the background. Yey! (You can monitor its usage by looking for the ‘Dim Display’ process in ‘Activity Monitor’.)

If anyone wants the new script/code, let me know… Although I doubt many of you even attempted to run this thing, much less keep it, much less even download it. But, if you did put it on your machine and left it, I’d be REAL curious if you like it; I guess requests for the new sscript will validate this for me, huh?

ANYHOW…

With the new code’s timing and CPU usage improvements, I’m keeping it on the machine permanently. It now triggers at 1.5 mins. of idle time now, doesn’t interfere with your selected screen saver kickin’ in, and does have some actual benefit… It dims the display enough for your active work on the screen to be made semi-private (hard to see). And, with the latest version of the Screen Dimmer screen saver – http://www.anoshkin.net/software/screen-dimmer – you can set the opacity and fade duration to make things look real “pretty,” or “pretty” to your liking at least. Even though it does “dim,” it’s just a Quartz Composer overlay on your desktop, so save power it does not, but hey, it looks like it does, it makes the 1525 even more Mac-like and ain’t that damn well good enough?!

By: Cristian

Cristian — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:03:22 +0000

A real breakthrough would be if someone will succeed to get “automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes” as found in Display option in a real Mac.
I have tested Inspiron 1525 vs MacBook Unibody 2.0 Ghz and although the later seems to respond a little bit faster I got the same Geekbench score 2700.
So, Inspiron 1525 with help of Richard , Dave , Gbonilla and all of you really does a good job :)

By: Dave Wolf

Dave Wolf — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:53:59 +0000

@Thomas, stepping is locked in the CPU — per what clocks it can actually step between. You can use some tool, maybe Superhai’s command line tool to have the CPU return what stepping options it supports.

I hear ya on your theory, but there is some bottom threshold to stepping (generally 800mHz for us). Intel would need to make the change to support something lower otherwise. They did… It’s called the Atom. Thing draws next to nothing! — and there’s dual-core versions available now. Sweet CPUs.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:54:06 +0000

Although this is completely unrelated to this topic, it would be cool if we could change the minimum CPU when auto throttling to a value below 800mhz. If we could hack the BIOS for this then battery life would be even longer when only one or so applications was open and not all that CPU power was needed.

By: Dave Wolf

Dave Wolf — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:59:52 +0000

@Richard. Yeah, I have the same set-up — dim on battery, max brightness on AC. Works well. And, as you said, all is adjustable in either mode with the Fn key and arrows.

Just wanted to make sure we were talking about the same thing and that you didn’t have something cooler workin’ for ya when idle — that is, other than a screen saver kickin’ in or the display turning off/sleeping at whatever preset time.

‘Presh.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:34:49 +0000

Dave,

Dim when the power source isn’t AC (when I pull the plug) using the Fn key to set it. There is no animation in the dim, just goes to whatever brightness setting you have set and that’s the BIOS doing all the work — not the OS which is why it works on Mac OS X.

By: Dave Wolf

Dave Wolf — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:27:32 +0000

Actually, I’m DIGGIN’ AppleScript. . . outside of this stupid project even. Pretty amazing stuff you can do with this high-level language!