Posts filed under ‘Tech’

A friend of mine was shopping Walmart looking for a new laptop.  This is something I recommend people do so they don’t have to come to me to find one.  Walmart is cheap and as long as you recognize the brand you’re buying, you should be getting something that is going to work and get done what you need it to.  What happens, though, when you find two laptops so similar, you have trouble telling the difference?  You’ll do what she did and send me the web links for the specifications.

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[Re-posted with permission from Marissa's Dad]

We’ve got various iDevices in the house.  An iPad.  Iphones.  We’re Apple junkies, regardless of the effect it has sometimes on the wallet.  All told, the tech has been pretty good to me, I’m sure I’ve made more money supporting it out in town than it’s cost me overall.  My inner cheapness prevents me from buying the whammerdyne max-capacity iPhones, and making do with old tech long after the rest of the world has moved on.

Our video library is hosted on an older machine crammed full of relatively ancient hard drives, honestly, well in excess of what the laws of physics should allow.  I’m fairly sure I can cook a turkey with the waste heat coming off that

machine.  As a result, the DVD rips we store on the iTunes running on that machine for the AppleTVs in the house far exceed the capacity of any given portable iDevice we may have.  The existing iTunes covers streaming to the AppleTV units, but not streaming to the portables.

I did some research, tried some free alternatives, then I found Stream to Me.  Stream to Me, by Matt Gallagher’s Projects With Love, is a combination application for your Mac or PC, and an iDevice (iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch).  The Serve To Me part of the application is free for download- it’s the iDevice app that’s very inexpensive.  Given my limited budget, Isplurged for it anyway when an iPad ostensibly to be used for Marissa and the Brother arrived in the house.

It’s an amazing, seamless solution for streaming entire libraries over a LAN to an iDevice.  The server application runs quietly and with very little footprint on our streaming computer running OSX Leopard.  The Serve to Me part of the application has transcoded on the fly many different containers, I’ve used MP4 H.264, AVI, and MKV files, all in 720p resolution and streamed them to the iPhone/iPad application with minimal pre-processing delay and no hiccuping in the video waiting for the 802.11g stream to catch up.

Before you freak out on me, and say I’m pushing all this on you just because the developer gave me the app for free- he didn’t.  I purchased the app in the beginning of April after I thought it would be best for my problem.  It’s streamed the Brother’s baby signs DVDs as well as some Baby Einstein for Marissa.  It’s an awesome solution for a portable video player for us inside our network.

A RF dummy load is quite useful when working on transmitters. It allows you to test and adjust the transmitter without an antenna, eliminating interference to other radios on your test frequency. It also presents your transmitter with a proper 50 Ω load so as to not cause any damage to its final RF amplifier stage.

A recent project required me to modify and align twelve UHF transmitters. The transmitters had a 25 watt output and the alignment session on each would be short. Rather than buy a dummy load for this project, I decided to build my own.

The central part of the dummy load is a resistor (or resistors) with a total resistance of 50 Ω and a wattage equal to or greater than your transmitter. The resistors also must be non-inductive which eliminates all the common wire-wound power resistors. Acceptable types of resistors include carbon composition and thick film.

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I got excited when I found out we were designing machines with approximately a $4,000 price point.  I have always wanted to see just how powerful a machine I could build with a reasonably large budget, but have never got around to putting a “shopping list” together.

I decided I would break it up into a smaller sub-budgets, to ensure that the machine is both powerful and balanced. I decided it should be something like this:

• $1,000 – Storage Drives
• $600 – Processor and Motherboard
• $1000 – Case, Cooling, Power Supply
• $1,400 – GPU and RAM Drives

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[Re-posted with permission from Marissa's Dad]

Miniature Goodness

My tech-headdery is not a secret.  First, I try to accomplish something using what I have on hand, and when I can’t quite bend that to my will, then I drop the cash on something that fits the bill (which to save time, I should have done in the first place).  We’ve had media center computers hooked up to televisions off and on for the last five years, but a good small and wireless keyboard solution has been a problem.

I finally gave up on a nice, small keyboard about two years ago.  A wireless mouse and a small wired USB keyboard seemed to be about the best, non-$200 solution.  The good people at Thinkgeek.com had something in store for me, though.  Enter, the Magic Pro ProMini Keyboard.  The name doesn’t roll off the tongue, but that’s offset by the amazing english composition on the back.   To wit:

“With a 90-degree flip a switch function key Touchpad, allows you to be more humane mode of operation to achieve click, scroll, and the mouse click action.  Control and enjoy the fun of the same notebook computer.”

Nice!  So, with this amazing back of the box color text, I automatically assumed the manual included would be of little use, and I was right.  Fortunately, the device is about as intuitive as you can get.  Plug in the (included) 2.4 ghz wireless USB dongle, check.  Turn on keyboard, check.  Operating system recognizes device, check.  Good to go!

Very small.  Very handy.  About as easy to lose as a remote control.  The trackpad could be a bit faster, but that’s a pretty minor gripe.  I could see this device used for either a media center PC or as a presentation aide- there’s a convenient laser pointer embedded in one edge of the keyboard, so that’s nice.

It’s not a perfect device, but is very cool.  The keystrokes don’t always register, but that could be user error as it seemed to get better with time.  The laser pointer is easy to accidentally turn on, irritating any feline in the vicinity.  Bluetooth would be better, but then the keyboard would probably be significantly more expensive.  None of these things are deal breakers.  The device is perfect for a mediacenter PC, better than any other solution I’ve tried to date.  So, price to performance?  Totally worth it.  A perfect keyboard it is not- that said, I did the text editing of this review on it!

Look at the item page at ThinkGeek by clicking here.

More often than not, I search with Google at least 100 times per day – it’s a sickness that I am aware of.

Since I use it so much, when something changes in the way Google works, it catches my eye almost immediately. Just a few minutes ago, Google Instant went live on my account.

You might be asking yourself, what is Google Instant? If you haven’t heard about it via the tech blogs over the last few weeks, Google Instant is a new real-time search feature they have been working on for some time. With each letter you type, Google shows you search results in real-time. This not only eliminates the need to hit “enter” after typing a search term, but it allows you to review the search results instantly, and refine them as you enter your query.

I honestly think it’s pretty cool from what I have seen thus far. As far as functionality goes, I am pretty sure that Google sorts through some of my search history and uses geolocation for clues as to what I might be searching for this time around. The results are pretty much dead on, and aside from past searches, relevant local businesses and geographic features are some of the most prominent items listed in the search results.

If you are not experiencing the instant search just yet, don’t panic. Google is rolling the service out a bit at a time, and only to supported browsers (Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8).

Now what I want to see is Firefox and Chrome developers working the instant feature into their search bars. That would really make the feature complete. I envision that if my current tab does not contain a Google search results pane, the browser should open a new tab and display my instant results as I type. Hop to it lads!

One thing I enjoy doing every so often is sitting down to design a computer that I would build if money were no object. I call this my “Dream Machine”, and it’s more than recklessly throwing together the most expensive components I can find.

When I say that I approach the build as if money were no object, I am stretching the truth a bit. My overall rule for the build is that, provided my wife would ever agree to this, I am spending the equivalent of a healthy holiday bonus on a new computer. This would never happen, of course, but it does create a nice ceiling for how much money I can spend in creating my dream computing system.

With that in mind, I put my hypothetical $4,000 towards building the perfect computer for me. I stress “for me”, because everyone is different. Some people eschew storage space for raw processing power, and would be willing to sacrifice $1,000 for a processor alone. Others are focused solely on gaming, and want to have three of the best cutting-edge graphics cards in three-way SLI, so that they can finally play Crysis at full resolution. I have a bit of a different take on the dream machine. It might be a bit pedestrian, perhaps even somewhat boring…but hey, it’s my dream!

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Viking Modular Systems has announced the availability of its SATADIMM, an Enterprise Class SATA II Solid State Drive (SSD) in an industry-standard DDR3 240-pin DIMM form factor. The SATADIMM SSD derives its power from the 1.5V supply to the DIMM socket (operates from 1.25 – 3.3 vdc) and data transfer is enabled by using a standard SATA cable. New designs have the option of wiring the SATA through the DIMM socket so no external cable is required. The SATADIMM has built-in ARS-128 encryption for data protection and supports Trim commands. The different models include SLC (single-level cell) versions with a 25GB to 200GB range and MLC (multi-level cell) versions with a 50GB to 400GB range. The SATADIMM supports SATA 3Gb with sustained read/write speeds of 260MB/sec., plus sequential and random performance of 30,000 I/O operations per second.

A few of us have recently been playing around with thin client motherboards that Jim graciously donated. While I already have a project in mind for mine, I can’t get the thought of building a car computer out of my head, since these boards would be well-suited to the task.  Once I pay off my car, I may make my carputer a reality – until then, I figure why not dream on paper? Perhaps readers will get the same urge that I have, so here is a place for everyone to start.  Keep in mind that this system is not meant for performance, but to have just enough power to serve as your new front end.

ZOTAC NF610I-K-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 NVIDIA nForce 610i Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
[$44.99 - Newegg]

When considering a motherboard for this build, less is more.  There really is not a need to have a massive amount of components built in.  My mantra is, “The less we have, the less power the board takes”.  Reviews of the board on Newegg are decent, but varied.  Many people report problems trying to power this board, though those users might be mistaken.  In fact, one reviewer confirmed that the board only used 48w at idle and 62w under load.

Intel Celeron 430 Conroe-L 1.8GHz 512KB L2 Cache LGA 775 35W Single-Core Processor BX80557430
[$40.99 - Newegg]

I felt that finding a CPU with low power consumption would be the best choice for the power supply I selected.  Plus, to exceed stated power loads that the board supports, one would have to use a 35w Celeron 420, but the 430 isn’t much different in that area.  You can laugh, but this time the Celeron takes the cake.

Asus Triton 75 CPU Fan For Intel LGA 775 & AMD Socket 754/939/940/AM2
[$49.99 - PC Planet]

Since this is going to be a full dash install, I figured there wouldn’t be the need for a heat sink with a fan.  I felt that a fan might cause excess noise that would not be too pleasant when positioned just inches away from you.

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) System Memory Model F2-4200PHU2-2GBLA
[$49.99 - Newegg]

I honestly didn’t pick this RAM for any reason other than it having the heatsinks attached.  It was pretty much the first thing that I saw with 2x 1GB modules for a decent price.  Remember, this system is not geared towards performance, but 2GB should be enough to keep Windows moving along nicely.  (If you decide to go that route.)

Kingston SSDNow V+ Series SNVP325-S2B/64GB 2.5″ 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
[$189 - Newegg]

I picked this SSD for a few reasons.  No moving parts means higher shock resistance, a must have in a car.  However, I am still surprised by how little force the SSDs can take when operating.  This one has a higher non-operational max vibration resistance and also has low power consumption. (Though it really is about the same as any other SSD).  Again, low power is pretty key in this system.  You might want to still add in some sort of vibration resistant mounting just to be on the safe side.

PICOPSU-160-XT
[$49.50 - Mini-Box]

So when it comes down to running a tiny board and trying to fit it in a tiny space, you really need a tiny power supply.  No, make that a PICO power supply.  If you read the reviews on Newegg for the motherboard, you will have seen that at least 1 person had success with a PICO 200w.  Though I think this 160w should suffice it also provides 200w at it’s max.  This also does DC-DC conversion which, if you know anything about your car, is mandatory.

LITE-ON Slot Load CD/DVD Burner Black Slim SATA Model DL-8ATS
[$49.99 - Newegg]

I am unsure about using an optical drive in a moving system.  You should consider using some type of spring and rubber mounting system to ensure that you can avoid skipping and grinding on the disc.  I also consider this optional because many carputer builders skip it.  After all, won’t all your music be on a hard drive?  Of course, having a way to update items from disc might be nice as well.

Sharp 7″ Touchscreen TFT-LCD Panel
[$106.91 - GoodDeals]

This is the key component of any good car computer.  It provides the ability to see and interact with whatever software you have installed.  Take note of the web site’s instructions on how to wire this up in a car.  You will need to attach the cable labeled “light switch” to your positive battery lead in order for this to operate when the car is turned to ACC mode.

Now I know this probably leaves you with burning questions on how to piece it all together or what to install on it, but there are plenty of websites dedicated to carputers.  This is simply a list of a few suggestions on how you might piece one together.  In total, all of the parts listed clock in at just under $600 before shipping, and I feel it would be a great way to get somebody started on a build.  A few extra items that might be needed, depending on what you want it to do, would be a GPS unit and perhaps some hardware to use all six channels of sound coming out of the motherboard.

Comments? Suggestions?

While BitTorrent might be all the rage, I’m a Usenet guy.

I am honestly not very patient when it comes to obtaining things I want, so waiting hours or days for downloads to complete has never been my strong suit. Aside from the original Napster, BitTorrent and similar P2P apps have never been something I have enjoyed using. Usenet however, is a completely different experience – one which I highly recommend.

You may or may not have heard of Usenet before, but it has likely been around longer than you have. In fact, the first spam message ever delivered was done so via Usenet. It’s the Internet’s oldest and best-kept “secret”. This is partly because Usenet is kind of like “Fight Club” in that the only real, yet unofficial rule is, “You do not talk about Usenet.”

I on the other hand do tell people about Usenet. However, I only do so provided I have deemed them technically capable enough to handle the task. This is really one of the main reasons why I think Usenet remains a little more obscure than most other online technology. While Usenet is not as complex as say, compiling your own Linux distro from scratch, there is definitely a learning curve that stretches beyond the patience and understanding of most people. I find that the benefits of Usenet far outweigh the cost and effort associated with using it.

The major highlight of Usenet is that there is virtually no waiting. You don’t have to wait hours for a slow download to complete. You don’t have to sit and hope that there are enough peers available to grab that old file you are looking for. When something is posted to Usenet, it’s there for good (almost). When you select a file that you want, you are able to download it as fast as your broadband connection can handle, provided you selected a good Usenet provider. Everything is “just there” – no waiting, no fuss…you just grab and go.

That said, if you are contemplating leaving the world of trackers and leechers behind, I will be more than happy to lead you to the path of enlightenment…

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