Me and Anniken took the old amplifier down to Hi-Fi Klubben, where I bought it. Taking the amplifier with us was a last minute thing, I knew it was at least two years old and figured that the repairs would not covered by the store when the amplifier was that old. But I’m very happy we did take it with us, because it turned out that the store is required by law to cover repairs for five years, not two, like I thought.

The very helpful staff in the store confirmed that they also heard the static noise in the right front speaker, concluded that repairing the amplifier would be more expensive than to actually give me a brand new one. So they picked up a Denon AVR-1611 from their storage room and simple gave it to me, no charge.

On top of this I got an additional five years the store-have-to-pay-for-repairs on the new Denon. That was probably the most surprising thing about it all and if this continues I’ll never have to buy a new amplifier ever again. I just have to hope they all go tits up every four years.

And now for something completely different.

A couple of years ago I bought a dead cheap surround amplifier from Argon. It was a demo model they’d used in the store and I got the amplifier and a region free DVD player for 900 NOK, about €114. A bargain. The DVD player gave me a mild electric shock if I touched it whenever it was plugged in a wall socket, but the amplifier worked like a charm until a few weeks ago, when a static noise began to sound from the right front speaker. Cleaning and dusting the insides of the amplifier didn’t help – I’ve successfully “fixed” a similar problem doing that in the past. The reason for the static noise is evidently a soon-to-fail thingy inside the amplifier and since I don’t have the wiring diagram, an oscilloscope, spare parts or the skills to fix it, I’m guessing it’s about time to get a new surround amplifier.

“What about getting someone with a wiring diagram, an oscilloscope, spare parts and the skills to fix it for you”, you might ask. Yes, that is a good idea in theory. The problem is my experience with trying to get people to fix my stuff. They either a) manage to misplace the gadget they try to fix or b) is unable to reproduce and fix the problem, but still charge me for the job. So by getting a brand new amplifier I avoid that someone a) manage to misplace the amplifier or b) is unable to reproduce and fix the problem, but still charge me for the job.

I’m no audiophile, so I don’t need all the bells and whistles, plus I really don’t want to sink a lot of money into this. My only real deal is actually the size of the amplifier. Most of the surround amplifiers I’ve seen are damn huge, at least if they are not part of a complete package with speakers. Since I have 5+1 excellent speakers, getting a package is not an option for me, but I really wanted an amplifier with a DVD player form factor. With that in mind I thought I’d check out what Argon had managed to put together since I bought the first amplifier.

It turns out that Argon doesn’t manufacture surround amplifiers anymore. In fact, it looks like they never did, because my failing amplifier is not even in their discontinued products backlog. Also, finding a slim surround amplifier turned out to be quite the challenge. I found the MARANTZ NR-1501, but it’s way too expensive. After a while I realized that my wish to go both budget and slim wasn’t possible and started looking at monster normal size amplifiers instead. Pioneer has some budget models, but it’s a brand I associate with cars and blue neon lights.

Eventually, I turned to Denon. Even though the guy who designed their website needs to be thought a lesson about the use of Flash intros, frames and pop-ups, they do make high quality audio equipment. They also offer budget lines, which suits me well. In the end, I will probably settle for the Denon AVR-1611. It has a lot of crap I don’t really need, like “3D pass-through technology” and “Audyssey MultEQwith Advanced Low Frequency Correction”, but it supports 5 speakers and a sub woofer, optical digital input and HDMI. Sounds like a blast!

Unless you have any better suggestions?

So I set off on a quest to find the ultimate Mini-ITX for a home server for my web server and mail server. The server had to be both powerful and silent, meaning no noisy power supply, no CPU fans and no clicking hard drives. The only real way to achieve this is by building a server with no moving parts at all. I also wanted to use a enclosure that looked nice enough to have in the living room. After a lot of research I ended up with the following hardware:

• SilverStone Mini-ITX SST-LC19R black.
• Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC6400 800MHz.
• Samsung DVD±R/RW/RAM slim DL 8X SATA black.
• ZOTAC ION ITX F series motherboard.
• Two Kingston V Drive notebook 64GB SSD SATA/300.

If you decide to build a server with the same hardware as me, there are a few things your should be aware of when it comes to the ZOTAC ION ITX F motherboard, SilverStone LC19R case, Kingston V SSD hard drives and Samsung slim SATA DVD drive:

• The Serial ATA (SATA) cables that come with the ZOTAC motherboard are all angled. This means that you will not be able to use them unless you either attach your hard drives upside down (not possible with the Kingston V SSD hard drives) or get rising brackets or something similar. You have to buy new SATA cables that are not angled.
• The screws provided with the ZOTAC motherboard are too large to attach the Kingston V SSD hard drives. There are no screws provided with the hard drives,  so you have to get some smaller screws yourself.
• The USB cable for the internal card reader in the SilverStone case is too short and you will not be able to attach it to the ZOTAC motherboard. This means that you either have to buy an extension cable or consider buying the SilverStone LC19 instead, which comes without an internal card reader. I will not use the card reader in my box, so this is not a loss for me. The reason why I bought the LC19R was that the LC19 was unavailable.
• The SilverStone case comes with front connectors for IEEE 1394 FireWire, audio in and audio out. This is great, but there are no internal connectors on the ZOTAC motherboard for any of these, meaning that they cannot be used.
• That said, you will be able to use the two front panel USB connectors as that cable is long enough to reach the ZOTAC motherboard and it even has 2 internal connectors for USB (only 1 used used for the front panel USB connectors).
• No cables are provided for the Samsung slim SATA DVD drive. You have to buy a cable that fits to a slim SATA power and data connector, which, for some reason is not the same connectors used for SATA hard drives.
• You should also remember to buy a network cable. Even if the ZOTAC motherboard comes with an internal wireless LAN card, I will be using a good old network cable to connect to a network switch in my apartment. Because of this I don’t know if the wireless LAN card works or not in Ubuntu 9.10. This probably won’t be a problem if you’re using Windows, though.
• The ZOTAC motherboard comes with an Intel Atom 330 CPU with passive cooling. You should be aware of the fact that the CPU will overheat when the motherboard is inside the SilverStone case, even when the CPU is idling. This was a major disappointment for me, since the CPU had to be cooled down with a fan. To top it off, the CPU fan provided with ZOTAC motherboard is too large to fit in the SilverStone case. Thankfully you can move the case exhaust fan and attach it to the case by the CPU heat sink instead. This solved the overheating problem. If you want to use another fan, note that you can only fit 50x50mm fans inside the SilverStone LC19R case. A 3-pin connector is required to attach the fan connector to the ZOTAC motherboard.
• Since you are pretty much screwed if the CPU fan breaks down, it’s highly recommended that you buy a spare 50x50mm fan with a 3-pin connector just in case.

As you can see, there are quite a few gotchas when it comes to the hardware. I could probably have done a lot better research before I placed the hardware order, but it was hard to find information like this online. Even though none of the gotchas are critical, it’s rather annoying that most of the SilverStone LC19 front panel connectors can’t be used with the ZOTAC motherboard and that the Atom CPU didn’t stay cool enough with just passive cooling. When everything that can be attached and connected are actually attached and connected, the SilverStone case looks quite nice in my Hi-Fi rack.

So this is the reason why there hasn’t been any new entries this week, my spare time has been used to build the server and set up the necessary software. With a little luck, the server will be up and running tomorrow evening.

Update: As requested in the comments, here are some pictures of the box.

Even though I listen to a lot of different music, I don’t have that many CDs; it’s been a while since I made the move from CDs from downloads. iTunes and torrents are to blame for that. For a while I downloaded pirated version of the album and then bought the CD online. Yes, I downloaded pirated music, but I also bought the CD. Probably not entirely legal, but I feel I’m in the clear. Because of this I’ve got quite a lot of CDs that I’ve never actually taken out of the cover.

Then I started to buy all my music as digital downloads and now it’s time to take the next step in the digital music evolution: Spotify Premium.

You’ve probably heard about Spotify, and it’s also a good chance you’re using it even if it’s still in a closed beta for most users. But if you’re not familiar with the application, here’s a very short summary: Spotify let’s you stream music from their vast music collection to your computer and mobile phone (if you have an Android phone or an iPhone).

The basic idea isn’t new, you’ve been able to stream music on the internet to computers and mobile phones for years, but the sources have mostly been radio stations with music that some DJ has already put together in a playlist for you. With Spotify you have access to the largest music collection you’ll ever see and with offline mode you can store up to 3333 tracks locally and listen to them even without an internet connection.

What pushed me over the edge from the ad-supported version to the USD 14 a month premium version were mainly three things:

1. The in-between-tracks commercials. Let’s face it, they have become intrusive up to a point where you really want to get rid of them, but not by not using Spotify.
2. Access to the mobile phone client, which is only available if you have a premium account. I just ditched my iPhone in favor of an HTC Hero running Android and the phone supports both the Spotify mobile client and proper multitasking. Hey, Apple, creating a handset that doesn’t allow multitasking is a god damn design error.
3. Offline mode. I don’t have a flat fee data plan on my mobile phone subscription so offline mode on the mobile client is just pure genius: It basically eliminates my need for iTunes. Even though there is a limit of 3333 offline tracks, that’s more tracks than my current iTunes library.

I’ve only been a Spotify Premium user for about half an hour or so, but I already love it. Right now I’m listening to an excellent Sarah McLachlan live album, “Mirrorball“, in offline mode on my HTC Hero and the sound quality is just great.

I got two Spotify invites to with my Premium account, so if you’re not yet a Spotify user and want to try it out, drop a comment with your e-mail address and I’ll send you an invite.

Update: Both invites are now handed out, but I’ll get two new next month.

One of the most interesting things I learned, however, was not about NRK per se, but about a project that’s currently in development. I’m not sure if the project details are publicly available information or not and I vaguely remember something about a non disclosure agreement in my contract, so to avoid getting whipped I’m not going to go into any details here. What you need to know that it’s a very complicated computer system handling huge amounts of data – and the data is not being backed up externally.

Say what!?

It’s interesting to see that even if a company looks very professional from the outside, you keep stumbling across things like this when you’re allowed to venture inside the corporate box. Of course, this is not unique to my employer, I’ve heard similar stories from other people and I’ve also experienced the same with other companies. I’m sure you have experienced the same yourself. But seriously, not making external backups of the data stored by the computer system in question – or any computer system for that matter – is complete and utter madness. Even if you make physical backups of all the data it doesn’t matter when both the original and the backup is located at the same room.

When the server room melts down – and it will – you’re fucked. As simple as that. Let me give you a very relevant and recent real life example:

The T-Mobile Sidekick is a mobile phone and communications device that uses a computer cloud to store the user’s personal data. A computer cloud in this setting is a collection of servers hosted by a Microsoft-owned subsidiary called Danger. Now, according to TechCrunch, the Sidekick users have been suffering from a major outage all week. In a statement released by T-Mobile yesterday, they report the following:

[...]

Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low.

[...]

Can I get a whoops-a-daisy?

While browsing the interweb on my iPhone a while back, I came across a site using the WPtouch plugin for WordPress. It automagically displays your WordPress site in a more mobile-friendly way and everything works surprisingly well out of the box. It’s supposed to work well on not only the iPhone and Android handsets, but all kinds of mobile browsers. I’ve only tested on my iPhone and on someone’s HTC Hero, but it looked very nice on those two handsets. I’ve even taken the liberty to include a screen shot in this post. If you have a WordPress site, you need this plugin to better support everyone who is browsing your site on a mobile device.

And while we’re on the subject of mobile phones; I’m considering ditching my iPhone in favor of an Android handset. The HTC Hero has become rather popular at work and I’ve had the chance to play around with it for a while. So far, so good. According to the reviews I’ve read, the major drawback of the Hero is that it can be a bit laggy at times, but this has been addressed by HTC in a recent patch. Also, my first generation iPhone is getting slower and slower for each update Apple releases, opening the Messages application can take as much as half a minute some times.

The Android platform has quite a few good things going for it; one of the things I like the most is that you can have applications running in the background on your phone. This means that you can have an application like the new Spotify client or the closed beta Wimp client running in the background and still do other things, like sending a text message. Apple does not allow this on the iPhone to preserve battery. A good idea in theory, but it can also be very limiting for the application developers.

Another great thing is that Android is Java based, and I know Java (supposedly). This means I can create my own applications. I’ve already got an excellent idea for an application that has great potential of becoming an instant hit, at least in the Oslo area. No, it’s not another Trafikanten-client.

So it looks like it’s not a question of if I’m getting an Android handset or not, rather when I’m getting it. The HTC Hero is of course a nice phone and I would probably have gotten that one if it wasn’t for the fact that there are some very interesting things happening in terms of Android handsets in the not-so-distant future. Samsung will soon the launching its Samsung I7500 Galaxy in Norway, LG and Motorola have some models available and Sony Ericsson is supposed to have an Android phone in the pipe as well.

In my hunt for no CD cracks for my old games (the DVD-ROM on the Dell is broken), I came across AI War: Fleet Command:

• Cooperative RTS game (1-8 players) with numerous unique ship types.
• Challenging AI in 26 styles, many with unique superweapons.
• Insanely high unit counts: 30,000+ ships in most games.
• Lengthy campaigns featuring 80+ simultaneous planetary battlefields.
• Different Every Time: 16 billion procedural maps, each with specific units.
• A focus on deep strategy that you don’t get in most RTS games.

With those features, it started to sound like my wet RTS dream and after I had a look at the graphics, I was sure I could play it on my old Dell. But when I checked the system requirements, I realized I was wrong. Of course it takes some CPU power to keep track of 30,000+ ships in real time. Bummer. Browsing through Wikipedia’s list of RTS games released since I last bought one also revealed that I’ve missed out on some really great titles since I don’t have a good PC to play on.

So I decided it was time to upgrade and, for the first time since I started studying in Grimstad in 1998, build myself a new desktop PC! I went crazy, ordered a quad core CPU from AMD instead of Intel, which I’ve always bought, a GeForce 9800GT graphics card from Gainward, a manufacturer I’ve never even heard of and the 64 bit Professional version of Windows XP to stay future proof. Hopefully I can upgrade to Windows 7 for a reasonable price when it’s released in October. And with a Belkin DVI KVM switch, I can use my current monitor, mouse and keyboard.

It’s a farewell-to-work present to me from me!

But there is one major issue with the 400D and the kit I’m using now: It’s just too large to take with me wherever I go. This summer I will be out and about a little and I’ve decided to see if it’s possible to find a digital compact camera that will cover my needs without being too pricey.

I’ve decided to stick with Canon since I’ve never had any real problems with any of my Canon cameras, the image quality has always been great and Canon cameras are usually scoring quite high in the various reviews I’ve read.

I’ve narrowed my search down to four models. They all have their pros and cons based on my simple criteria: High image quality, small camera size and low weight, the camera should be somewhat sturdy so it doesn’t break apart the first week and manual controls would be nice, but it’s more important that the camera is capable of taking good photos when it’s running in automatic mode. Also, video is nice, but not really necessary.

Canon PowerShot D10

This is the camera of the pack that should be able to withstand the most punishment before it goes tits up. It’s water proof down to 10 meters, will survive a fall from 1.22 meters (from 1.23 meters, it’ll break into tiny, tiny pieces) and should operate in temperatures as low as -10 degrees. An excellent camera for anyone with both legs into extreme sports – in other words, overkill for me. The camera sports a 12.1 megapixels image sensor, 35-105mm equivalent lens with 3.0x optical zoom and optical image stabilization, 2.7-inch LCD and ISO sensitivity from 80 to 1600.

With those specifications, it should be able to do the job, but there are some downsides here. First of all, the shock, dust and water proof housing makes it quite large compared to the other three models. Also, everything water proof is a little bit more expensive than things that are not. Digital Photography Review describes the camera as “an Elph / Ixus wrapped up in a waterproof shell” and I can agree with that comparison as the technical specifications of the D10 are very similar to some of Canon’s Ixus models.

Canon Digital Ixus 870 IS

The Ixus 870 IS is the camera that packs the least punch when it comes to megapixels with “only” 10 megapixels. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll notice any difference from 12.1 to 10 megapixels. None of the four cameras can shoot RAW images and they all feature the same type of image sensor (1/2,3″ CCD) and image processor (DIGIC 4 with iSAPS-technology). Other features on the 870 includes 28-112mm equivalent lens with 4x Optical zoom and 4x Digital zoom, 3.0 inch LCD, dual Image Stabilizer and ISO sensitivity up to 1600.

The camera scores well for high image quality in the test I’ve read and the the only real con has been high ISO noise. Personally, I like that it has a 28-112mm equivalent lens and 4x optical zoom. 2cm macro might also come in handy.

Canon Digital Ixus 100 IS

This is the smallest of the four, weighing in at 75 grams less than the D10. It’s also, at least in my humble opinion, the camera with the best design, except maybe for the buttons on the back. It’s one of Canon’s first compacts to offer HD (720p) movie recording and the quality is rather good. According the reviews I read, the Auto mode works well, recognising not just the difference between people, landscapes and close-ups, but also the lighting conditions, adjusting the exposure and flash accordingly. Sounds excellent for point-and-click snapshots.

Other features are 33-100mm equivalent lens with 3x Optical zoom, ISO levels from 80 to 1600, 2.5 inch LCD and Image Stabilization.

Canon Digital Ixus 110 IS

This is the Ixus 100 IS’ bigger brother, or maybe sister – if you decide to get the pink version. In design, the 110 IS looks a bit like the 870 IS, at least from the front. The back of the camera, however, is very different and I’m really not sure if I like it. Sure, image quality is the number one criteria when buying a camera, but it should look nice, too. As far as comparisons go, the 110 IS comes with more or less the same technical specifications as the 870 IS, except for an extra 2.1 megapixels, a bit smaller LCD screen and the possibility to shoot somewhat larger JPEG photos.

The main difference between the two is that the 110 IS can record 1280×720 widescreen movies and the LCD screen also has a widescreen form factor.

Verdict

In conclusion, all four cameras are usable options for me, but I think I can safely remove two of them the list. The PowerShot D10 is too large and I don’t really need a camera that I can dive with. It’s also a bit pricey. That said, if I get the D10 I will be prepared for more or less any situation where it’s possible I’d like to take a picture, but I’m not looking for a camera like that – I want a simple, no fuzz, point-and-click snapshot compact.

That also means that the Ixus 110 IS has got to go. It, too, is too large and the back looks like a mess. 1280×720 wide screen video recording would be nice, though. Still, it’s not the in-the-pocket camera I’m looking for.

That leaves the Ixus 870 IS and the Ixus 100 IS. Tomorrow I’ll try to stop by a photography store to have a look at them both. I suspect that the Ixus 100 IS is the one I’ll eventually end up with, but it’s hard to say until I’ve had the chance to play around with both.

The internet and Hallvard have been my main sources of information during my search. I’ve been reading reviews and recommendations on the these sites and they come highly recommended if you’re ever looking to buy a digital camera:

• akam.no (in Norwegian)
• Digital Photography Review
• PhotographyBLOG
• Camera Labs
• Canon
]]> http://www.vegard.net/archives/1961/feed/ 0 http://www.vegard.net/archives/1799/ http://www.vegard.net/archives/1799/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 19:15:30 +0000 vegard http://www.vegard.net/?p=1799 Hallvard is obviously better than me when it comes to searching to internet and sent me a link that enable me to solve the crappy-flash-video-support-on-a-netbook-in-Ubuntu-9.04 problem. So, to get Flash video to work properly on your netbook in Ubuntu 9.04, do the following:

1. If you have not selected a FIrefox plugin to handle Flash yet, make sure you select the Adobe plugin from the list and go directly to step number 2 below. If you have already, like me, installed the SWF decoder version because you thought it was a good idea (it was not), move on to the next step.
2. Remove the swfdec-mozilla plugin by running the following command from a terminal:

$ apt-get remove swfdec-mozilla

On my netbook, this also removed another package, but as far as I can tell, that didn’t matter much. Then install the Adobe Flash plugin with this command:

$ apt-get install adobe-flashplugin

3. Create a configuration file in your home directory for the Flash plugin:

$ vi ~/mm.cfg

and add the line

OverrideGPUValidation=true

in the newly created file. Save by pressing :wq and then enter.

Or roughly something like that. Since i tend not to write down what I do as I go, the above guide might not be 100% accurate. Shame on me and good luck to you.

]]> http://www.vegard.net/archives/1799/feed/ 1 http://www.vegard.net/archives/1793/ http://www.vegard.net/archives/1793/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 19:33:07 +0000 vegard http://www.vegard.net/?p=1793 For a while now I’ve been rambling on about netbooks and on Saturday I finally received my Asus Eee PC 1000HE, meaning that I’ll shut up about the netbook thing soon. But I thought I’d share my initial impressions of the computer first.

The 1000HE is a 10″ netbook with the latest Intel Atom N280 processor, 1GB (can be replaced with 2GB if necessary) of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and all the other bells and whistles you’d expect from a computer these days.

The netbook comes with Windows XP Home Edition installed and that works well. The N280 isn’t a power horse, though, and it will start to struggle a little when you open Flash-intensive sites, like online newspapers tend to be. I didn’t test video, but some reviews I’ve read say that most video formats should work OK, except for 1080p HD video where it’s likely that you will experience some frame dropping.

A major selling point for the 1000HE is the advertised battery life of 9.5 hours. I’m not really sure if 9.5 is realistic, mainly because I’ve not had the computer turned on for that long yet. But since I started using it on Saturday, I’ve only plugged in the charger once. The 9.5 hours of battery life are also dependent on how good the power saving features of the operating system is and I’ve installed Ubuntu in favor of XP. According to what I’ve read on the all-knowing interweb, battery usage with Ubuntu tends to be higher than when using XP. But if I’m able to use the 1000HE for at least 8 hours straight at normal use without the need for an external power source, that’s more than enough for me.

Some people have problems with netbooks because they tend to have rather small keyboards. So far I’ve not had any issues with the 1000HE’s keyboard, but I’ve got small girly hands, so that might be the reason why it didn’t take long adjust my writing style to it. Noise, or rather the lack of, is important to many people. As for fan noise, the 1000HE is very quiet under normal use, the fan is almost impossible to hear. I’ve not tried to run CPU intensive operations to really get it going, though.

At 1.45Kg (3.20lbs) and with the dimensions of 266mm (W) x 191.2mm (D) x 28.5mm~ 38mm (H), the netbook should be quite portable. Exactly how portable I don’t know, because I haven’t brought it with me outside of the apartment yet. But it’s portable enough to be used when laying on the couch and sitting by the dinner table. Like most laptops are, too, I guess.

Of course there are a couple of things that could have been better, but I suspect that they are related to me using Linux and not XP. Flash, for instance is a nightmare, at least Flash video streaming. Even though the CPU load is not too high, there is a constant audio/video sync problem and that makes Flash video more or less useless. The built in web camera also struggles in Linux, with a crappy frame rate. In XP it worked much better. The final thing that is not working very well on Linux is the audio level. Even at maximum volume, the audio from the speakers is hard to hear in a semi-noisy environment, like when the TV is on. It was a little better when using headphones.

But all in all, the Asus Eee PC 1000HE is a great choice if you’re looking for an ultra-portable computer for basic everyday nerd tasks.

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