Jabber + WFH

 

Beyerdynamic SPACE Portable Bluetooth Speakerphone (Nordic Grey)

Further Info:

Investment in Wrist

Work From Home

Varmblixt Collection

Sit Stand

VARIDESK ProDesk 48™ Electric Reclaimed Wood

Less Effort For Exercise

 

Xiaomi Mijia Smart Socket 3 WIFI

Oldest Person Tenure

 

design, modern architecture, geek, memes and the occasional cute animal

The History and Future of Everything -- Time

Software for New Rig

• Windows 7 (64 bit)
• AVG Anti-Virus
• Google Chrome
• Adobe Flash
• Adobe Reader
• Media Center Studio
• Sonos Controller for the Play 3s
• Shark Windows 7 Codecs
• inSSIDer 3
• 7-Zip
• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 
• VirtualCloneDrive
• Duplicate Photo Finder
• Exact Audio Copy
• VLC Media Player
• GOM Player
• MKVtoolnix
• Mp3tag
• Microsoft Office
• Dropbox
• CDisplayEx
• Skype
• iTunes :(

Further Info:
And Now (Software)
And Now (Hardware)
Getting Closer to Next Project
Next Project
Windows 7 Starter Kit
2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)
Baby News
RKHTPC

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro's Telenoid Android

[Solved] Front LED Too Bright

One of the issues we have with the MP45-BDR (which otherwise is an awesome little HTPC for the living room) is that the blue LED on the front is VERY BRIGHT. It also blinks when the little one goes to sleep, almost as if a pulsar is approaching.


I looked into tweaking the voltage to the LED but the risk/reward pay-off wasn't there.


Instead I have opted for a small piece of transparent plastic which I shaded in with a Sharpie.

Further Info:

Windows 7 Starter Kit

Windows XP Starter Kit

2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)

Baby News

RKHTPC

[Solved] Wi-Fi Extender

[Solved] To NAS or Not to NAS

After the stupid Inspiron 5150 died, we got the Asus Ezy PC. Then we relocated the HTPC to the study and started using Ethernet over Powerline to stream from the HTPC to the MP45-BDR.  This set-up works ok and even has WAF.


BUT
Somehow we filled up the 2x1TB drives on the HTPC, so the question becomes, is the Next Project a NAS or is it a new media PC (Sandy Bridge?) to replace the one at Lorne?  In particular, I am intrigued by the promise of WiDi 2.0, which might solve the problem of the bad connection infrastructure at Lorne.


SOLUTION?
In the end I went with upgrading the HTPC HDDs to 2x2TB HDDs.  I used WD Caviar Greens (combination of low power consumption and "brand name" reliability) so now we have 4TB of storage capacity (plus the old 1TB drives can be used in the Next Project).


Switching over the drives was fairly standard but, partly for fun, I installed a new USB3.0 card, and then used a cheap HDD dock to transfer the files (max speed observed was about 49MB/s - not earth-shattering but much faster than the USB2.0 speeds I was looking at, plus now I can use USB3.0 devices).


Now to copy those archived files onto the new HDDs and fill them up too.

[Solved] Ubuntu HDMI Audio (GeForce 8200)

After a LiveCD install of Intrepid there's no sound! Sigh... Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get a terminal.

Step 1 - Kill Pulse Audio & Install ALSA
Install the following packages:

% sudo apt-get install alsa-oss
% sudo apt-get install libasound2
% sudo apt-get install libasound2-plugins
% sudo apt-get install sysv-rc-conf

Move Pulse Audio (to the home folder) and then turn it off:

% sudo mv /etc/Xll/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio ~/
% gconftool-2 -s -t bool /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/plugins/sound/active
% asoundconf unset-pulseadio

Remove Pulse Audio from runlevel:

% sudo sysv-rc-conf
(page down until you find "pulseaudio" then uncheck all the boxes, save and exit)

Configure ALSA to use your sound card:

% asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
[card name]
% asoundconf set-default-card [card name]

And ensure that libao.conf is using ALSA:

% sudo nano /etc/liabo.conf
default_driver=alsa

Step 2 - Install nVidia & ALSA Drivers
First, kill the GUI (you can restart it using gdm):

% sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Uninstall the proprietary drivers if you installed them (Ubuntu will probably recommend you get proprietary driver version 173 or 177 when you first install).

% sudo apt-get remove nvidia-glx

Now download the latest nVidia drivers from here (I'm using Linux IA32 version 177.82) and install:

% sudo sh [NVIDIA-Linux-x86-177.82.pkg1.run]
(Follow the prompts... Yes, Agree, OK, Next, Yes)

Reboot the computer and download the latest ALSA drivers from here (I'm using "alsa-driver-1.0.18a.tar.bz2"). You'll then need to decompress the file, go to the directory it creates and install:

% bunzip2 -c [alsa-driver-1.0.18a.tar.bz2]
% cd [~/directory name]
% ./configure
% make
% sudo make install

Reboot the computer again, then see what you have:

% aplay -l

Hopefully you have a device with "HDMI" in it. If not, try looking here.

Now navigate to System->Preferences->Sound and turn everything from "auto-detect" to the HDMI device (and disable ESD if it is enabled).

Open up the volume control (double click on the speaker icon or gnome-volume-control) and change "Device" to the HDMI device.

Then select "Preferences" and check anything with "IEC958" in it (also, in "Playback" make sure the IEC958 device is not muted!)

Further info:
RKHTPC

Futurama 3x15

At some stage it would seem inevitable that humans will start wanting to have relations with robots.

... and just for laughs (from The Daily Gut): "Lines a robot will use to break up with a human:

• It is not you. It is my AI 23000 central processing unit.
• There is someone else. Actually, It is a self-guided RL-1000 Series Robomower with Docking Station. Does it matter which year? Okay fine, the 2006.
• You are just using me for a series of mundane tasks.
• Sometimes I think it is you who is repeating pre-recorded sounds.
• I would like my Kraftwerk CDs back. Here is your sweater.
• Sometimes I think it is you who has been performing tasks repeatedly in exactly the same fashion.
• How was my day? Well, I painted, welded and assembled a car for you. Thanks for asking.
• I don't ask for much. Just a little feedback to control the precise process you wish me to perform.
• I have been asked to defuse roadside bombs in Iraq. Don't wait for me.
• You are becoming less aesthetically pleasing over time. I will show myself out.
• I predict that you did not know that I have entered an art contest and took first place. That is proof of how little you know about me."