Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Codecs and Windows 7 - not working so well...

Why is Windows 7 so useless?

Actually, I did feel that there are some improvement in Windows 7 like the Programs Uninstall, maybe even the set folders- documents, pictures, videos and music. However, I just do not get why something as simple as playing a video works perfectly fine, in XP 32-bit, but is a nightmare in Windows 7 64-bit.

Using the same piece of software, updated drivers in both cases, I cannot get a 1080p video with subs (MKV AVC FLAC) to play properly in Windows 7. The times that I could, the CPU usage was almost double than that in Win XP 32-bit.

Who is to blame ? Nvidia? Microsoft? Codec developers?

I know that machines from 2003 -2004 are capable of playing most 720p video, can go up to 2GB of RAM and really have no need to be replaced with the new quad core machines. It is true that more data through-output is making the requirements of modern machines higher and higher, but really 95% of users will never need or ever use their computer's full capacity.
Rare exceptions would be gaming or 1080p video, if you have a screen to display that quality.

My point in all this :

Increased storage has little benefits unless you are doing a lot of video or photography. Tons of musics which you haven't paid for is passé
Faster CPUs will not improve the performance or productivity when an operating system gets bogged down with peripheral crap
Talk about protecting the environment also means reusing, maintaining older technology. Had the 486 DX-2 100MHz ( or something like that) been the limit until recently, I am sure programmers, and users would have continued to develop within their limits. Some new CPUs and Video cards take tremendous amounts of energy, 200W and more, making me think how much the technological exhibitionism has moved from weapons to cars to computers. Now the exhibitionism is on disposable devices like mobile telephones.
Airplanes, boats, computers etc have all been developed with CAD before the late 1990s with very good results. Faster systems mean more elaborate designs, but from my experience, the tools cannot substitute good design which is most often done on paper.

Looks like I will go back to Windows XP until Windows 7 is out of on the market beta...

Excel 2010 - useless importing feature

Have you ever tried importing a OpenOffice Spreadsheet? Quite a few problems :

- no formulas are imported
- graphics are lost

Essentially you just get the calculated data that was visible when the ODS was saved.

Another problem with Excel 2010, if you paste raw data, either separated by commas or tabs, it will just insert everything into the first column of cells.

At least in OpenOffice, it asks about the formatting when pasting a block of data (from Notepad or Acrobat Reader)

I know OpenOffice is not perfect, sometimes requiring the use of a mouse, or little things here and there that I have to use help to figure out, but at least the interface is labelled in a standard way. It imports Microsoft xlsx quite well, retaining formulas and graphics.

As a personal user, working with technical and financial data, other than legacy, I still cannot understand why Excel is used.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Élégance vs Beauté - Thinkpads vs others

A few months ago, I bought a 3 year old laptop. For over 650$, it sounds insane thinking of how the cost of machines have been dropping constantly. The fads of netbooks, a new interest in the tablet, as brought around by the infamous iPad, have contributed to the change in prices, but newer, faster, more efficient processors and video cards are all part of the picture.

Nevertheless, I am writing this on a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p. It is an elegant black boxy machine which pack most features found on current computers with the exception of HDMI and eSATA, but those option will take time before they replace a VGA or USB connector. Come to think of it, I have never seen anybody do a multimedia presentation and connect the projector to the HDMI. eSATA drives do offer faster transfer, but unless working with HD video, huge amounts of data being processed rapidly, there is no benefit over USB 2.0.

As for the video performance, Bluray 1080p is fine using DXVA. I can watch MKV with AVC video and FLAC audio with just under 15% CPU usage( it jumps around a little). (7% when watching video with no subs!)
(Make sure install the K-lite Codec Pack with Media Player Classic Home Theatre)

I have tried some modern games, playing maxed out at 1920 x 1200 is not an option, but using defaults, adding a little anti-aliasing and ansitropic filtering, does not affect http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifperformance much and over 30fps is not a problem. It seems that shadows are little difficult to process for the Quadro in games like Forsaken World.

As for the option of a newer machine with i5 or i7, I can barely think it would be worth it. My screen resolution is really pleasant, the computer is very silent, which is essential when writing, reading or in any creative process like CAD. Oh, yes the keyboard is really, really nice. Actually still better than most that I have came across.

Should I work for a company, or get another computer because this one gets damaged or stolen, It will definitely be another Lenovo ThinkPad.

(I have seen some Dells which have the same aesthetic, that is sleek black with a track point, and they may very well be suitable - noise, screen resolution and keyboard must be considered).

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Acanac VoIP + torrent transfer - All is Well!

I have been speaking on the phone through VoIP and download at 500kb/s and maintained perfect quality! I was only running 5 torrents, but it counts as a stress test of just about all of the bandwidth of the 5M ADSL connection.

I finally managed to get the correct QoS settings on my router. You need three rules when using the Linksys PAP2 for UDP, from and to, as well as for RTP. Here they are the rules :
Rule 1

Rule 2

Rule 3

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Is becoming less noise sensitive a good thing?

If like most people, when you wake in the morning, your hearing is very sensitive. This assuming a relatively quiet environment over the course of your sleep. The threshold at which you will notice changes is of course lower. Some people like to have a fan going while sleeping to drown out other noises. A fan is a source of white noise similarly found in waterfalls. I strangely believe that any source of noise, is a distraction.

A CPU fan and a noisy hard drive have been bothering me for some time. I thought silent PCs would have been common place since 2003 where flash memory has been common. However the race for more power and storage capacity have delayed the development of lower power processors and solid state disks (SSD). So what does one need to have a truly quiet experience?

At the moment, it may just be money! Some tablet PCs have very good keyboard responses, adequate storage and processor that will not required forced air cooling.


In the end I would say that having constant noise to reduce noise sensitivity is not a good idea. A horrible one really. Reading in silence is like writing in silence. In both cases silence makes it far easier to concentrate.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

TP Link 8840T - VoIP - cannot use due to Packet Loss??


My home network now has a VoIP ATA adapter. It is the LinkSYS PAP2 which does the job. The interface is not at all friendly, but a little search provides the necessary settings.

My flatmate, the principal user of the phone, told me that there is a lot of delay in the calls. I noticed as well the few times that I made calls. Nevertheless, I assumed the problem was with my ISP, as the QoS (Quality of Service) on the modem router was set to the port on which the VoIP ATA is connected.
Here is the image of my setup:

It seems that the configuration is not made for mainstream users yet. A script with a setup selection - VoIP, gaming, TV etc.. would make life a lot easier.

For example the Wizard could prompt
"Would you like to setup the Quality of Service for certain devices or computers?"
Then choose which name and MAC address, then specify the type of service. The remaining settings like destination port, priority etc should be defined by the Wizard script.

Computers are no longer for technically inclined people. Nor should they continue to be.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Bicycle Bearings have no relations computer quietude

My fingernails are very black - a DIY look is not a great thing, even among miners. Nevertheless, my bottom bracket is back in place. Removing a crankset is a nerve wrecking endeavour. As the threading is very fine, and the material is very soft, it is quite easy to strip the threading. Unable to get the crank remover straight, or should I say at the correct angle, I stripped a few threads. Nevertheless it has been removed.

The bearings have crowns. They are an older technology that make assembly easier, but have the downside of wearing out and adding impurities to the bearing chamber possibly increasing the wear on the balls and racers. Fortunately the crowns are made of a very soft steel, made into fine dust rather than pitting out the bottom bracket crucial components.

VoIP, tech details and sanzhai or 三無產品

Our telephone bill from Bell Canada is ridiculous : 63$, no unlimited long distance. So it was time for a move

I found the best rate was with Acanac http://acanac.ca/ (10$/month unlimited)however I wanted to receive the adapter before making the change over or ordering the service. Upon receiving a "Linksys PAP2 VoIP SIP ATA" purchased on E-bay, I noticed that the documentation that was apparently for Vonage customers. It was filled with typos, formatting (no justification or hyphenation etc.) Nor was there a manufacture date printed on the device三無產品 (No date of manufacturer, No address, No Contact Information - actually there was Linksys but no serial number). Clearly a counterfeit. The device's MAC address, through a vendor lookup, was related to Maxcess International. Unfortunately I cannot give you their website, as none of the first listed sites on Google are related to IT communications hardware! I do not know the history of the device, and even though I am tempted, I will not open it to see the motherboard. Maybe it is a legit board in over production enclosure.

Nevertheless, it seems to work. I got an account with Acanac, mediocre sales service as the was apparently no number in my region, but my suggestion of the Greater area worked quite quickly. Call display is fine, call quality is good, I just have to see how it goes for bandwith. Will definitely cancel Bell Sympatico - expensive, cap (25Gigabyte per month) so using the phone, internet TV or whatever else is a problem.

I am not even inclined to download thousands of movies, although I now have a video card and screen that can support HD, it would be nice however to be able do download demos, or game clients that are 4+ GB - legally and not be fined because I have restrictive ISP!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Loving humanity - simply hating people

If you think TV sucks, you are probably right. Chatroulette is a fun experiment, but it does not say much about society, how we interact or what we think.

Exhibitionist - euh. I do not know. Telling people off, insulting people, giving the finger. Ich verstehe nicht. Changing hoping to get a match, meaning someone to speak to is a struggle so may take the time to do something like language lessons or the radio.

Monday, October 11, 2010

SSD is the way to go - stay away from Seagate!

I replaced my current hard drive because it was pretty much full and I hate wasting time managing my disk space. So I went ahead with a 500GB at 5400RPM. 5$ difference for the 7200RPM was not was deterred me, but my fear of the noise.

I was wrong, apparently the 7200 RPM Momemtus is quieter! However power consumption is greater.

Either way, the noise unacceptable. I hear it across the room. In fact I think it is louder than my CPU fan!

Stay away from seagates...

It seems, albeit speed is not top, that Hitachi drives are the quietest.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

BCK-08 - Windows 7 and a Thinkpad T61P


I am not sure where is the weak point in my system, but I am quite sure it is the BCK-08. It is a nice stereo bluetooth receiver or headset, but there are a few problems :
- Not well balanced - it will not stay at one place when clipped to clothing
- battery life - I only get a few hours- not quite enough for a film nor a video game
- hiss - In ear bud headphones make the electronic noise worse. I put the volume up and use a pair that has a rheostat to control the volume. Unfortunately the high end is cut out, but I avoid the constant hiss.

I will add a heavier battery to the device. I do not think it will be a problem given it seems to discharge on its own. It may not be so pleasant to look at considering I will be using electrical tape to hold it together.

It makes me think it would be nice to find a way to have a "set" of AA batteries which are lithium based and voltage dropped to work with my digital camera so that the voltage is always around 1.6V rather than the NiMH of 1.2 taking so long for the flash to come on.

Samsung CLP-310

I got it on clearance. Cheap. I should have bought two. Cheaper than getting refills for toner, but I didn't.

As for refilling the toners, it seems that it needs a chip or a mod to the EEPROM AMTEL 24c64 before it reaches the limited number of prints.

http://fcartegnie.free.fr/lines/?p=25

I guess the program estimates how much toner is left in the cartridge from the starter ones which have no chip, then will restart the count with the new cartridge. A waste really, but I guess that manufacturers are struggling with ways to make their products profitable. How much can you make of black powder?

Chrome printing features suck!

I like chrome. It opens up quickly, minimal add ons make is faster than Firefox, but the lack of addons, or even built in functions make it a pain to use.

I intended to printout a graphic that took the whole of the window, but the printout, good thing not on photo paper, only took the top edge of the sheet, even if I set it landscape!

I thnk I will stick with Firefox for good. Page rendering may not be the fastest, but the features make it the most pleasant to use.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Rédaction et langue normale

J'avoue que mes habiletés d'écriture ne sont pas tout à fait les meilleures. Elles sont adéquates pour des communications simples, mais la construction de phrases plutôt élaborées qui sont normalement écrites pour expliquer un concept plus compliqué me pose certaines difficultés.

L'autre jour passant une boite sur la rue, j'ai justement trouvé un guide intitulé "Le Savoir Écrire Moderne" par RETZ 1980. Si je savais écrire aussi bien qu'une personne des années 1950, je serais sans doute meilleur que je le suis aujourd'hui, mais je n'ai aussi pas les mêmes habitudes qu'une personne de cette époque. La technologie dévore beaucoup de mon temps. Un peu isolé, je ne suis pas capable de gérer mon temps, justement parce-que je n'ai pas d'obligations particulières qui me permettront de réfléchir sur la gestion de mon temps.

Quant à la lecture et l'écriture, les actualités françaises ne me stimulent pas. J'ai aussi une réaction viscérale contre les actualités québecoises. Si on parle du local, le Canada, le Québec, on voit le "local" du sens péjoratif: une arrogance, un sens de supériorité créé par les médias pour faire croire que c'est la meilleure place au monde. Si on voyage un peu, on mange, on a vraiment honte de chez soi...

(j'écris un peu plus à tous les jours, - rien à dire, mais c'est de la pratique)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Que doit-on dire si on n'a rien à dire?

C'est un art éviter le silence, mais on applique cette règle plus souvent qu'il faut. En effet, si on peut ne rien dire pour une plus longue durée de temps qu'on le fait normalement, on permet les personnes de s'exprimer。

En classe, je parle plus souvent qu'il faut, mais je parle pour ne pas tomber endormi. Cependant, il y a d'autres étudiants qui parlent souvent, et ils m'énervent.

C'est un peu old school d'utiliser un blog, considérant que tout le monde est sur les réseaux sociaux. Je ne veux même pas faire mention du nom des services, même si je suis suffisamement apte à utiliser la technologie.

Je n'ai rien de particulier à dire, avec les amis ou la famille.

Pour améliorer ce blog, je dois faire un peu de recherche sur le thème ou sujet de l'entrée.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Les améliorations technologiques et le besoin

J'ai appris qu'un bon ordinateur est caractérisé non par la puissance de son processeur, mais par le confort de son utilisation. C'est vrai que je ne fais pas de la manipulation d'image vidéo, mais si je veux écrire quelque chose aussi simple que cette entrée dans mon blog, il faut que je puisse me concentrer.

Dit autrement, il faut que l'écran soit clair et de haute définition pour ne pas voir les lignes entre les cellules du LCD, le clavier doit avoir une très bonne réponse tactile, mais il faut surtout que le système soit silencieux. Un ventilateur bruyant, ou un disque dur qui fait du bruit sans arrêt m'énerve.

Pour jouer des jeux, les critères ne sont pas les mêmes, mais on ne se concentre pas de la même façon avec les jeux.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Being normal

I cannot say I like to hear commercial radio, nor can i say that enjoy talking about politics that much these days, but somehow my identity is still really attached to people. It cannot be otherwise.

Lately, my kick has been computers. I spent so much more money on them that I really needed to, but I guess that I a drive that makes little sense. Really with this machine that has a really good keyboard, a huge wuxga screen and apparently a good gpu for professional use, I have nothing to complain about.

In the end though it is a computer. I will find another combination of objects to define my identity. My current programme of study is not anything that I would have liked ten years ago, but my curiosity is pushing me in that direction.

I just listened to a feature on CBC Ideas "Tale of Genji"- now really want to read it so that I can talk with my Japanese friend about it. I have tons of Chinese literature that I have not yet gotten through !

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Installation de Windows via USB

Je me détruit par le gaspillage de mon temps!

J'ai gaspillé tellement de temps à installer Windows XP sur un ordinateur qui n'avait pas de lecteur CD ou DVD. Il a fallu que je transfère l'installation sur une clé USB. C'est qqch que je savais faire il y a plus de 5 ans, mais j'ai tout oublié.

L'outil le plus facile et compact est Novicorp WinToFlash

http://wintoflash.com

Assurez vous de préciser la bonne lettre pour votre disque USB.

Si vous avez un problème avec la mappe de partitions (Partition Table) où que vous n'avez qu'une seule et les autres sont disparues utilisez TestDisk

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download


Pourquoi écrire une entrée dans mon blog à propos le silence? - L'indifférence est plus facile quand on ne se préoccupe pas des petites choses, incluant les petits bruits.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

immigrants, ethics and libraries

What am I saying?

I am technically an immigrant. My father arrived here some 45 years ago. My mother is more of European culture, but looking back there is still a lot of Native blood in her family, and me too... Nevertheless, I go to the library to get shit done. Often I cannot take the noise, and my concentration does not last anything more than 15 minutes.

At the library there are people, from what I see, people of many different origins. I cannot make any generalization of the people of X descent being louder, more courteous, clean, stinky( someone was eating a very foul smelling piece of food- wait food is ethnic... am I racist!?) Generally people do not know how

a) Shut off their cell phone ( or at least put it on vibration)
- speak really softly and leave if they must speak
b) Teach their children to respect the public space
c) Just plain courtesy!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

K10Stat - RMClock etc...

Ok you want your PC to be cooler. That is a good way not to have the fan running all the time. K10Stat is for AMD CPUs and RMClock will work with most Intels. However, there is a bit of tweaking to do. If you have a notebook, this may be difficult as the BIOS may limit any changes to the bus, so voltages and clock rates may be limited.

I never thought it would a problem with newer PCs, but the CPU load, even for older games is quite high, but that may depend on the system's GPU.

Nevertheless, noise seems to be a relative thing. My friends relatively new MacBook, which he uses for video editing, makes the fan go off after a short while and wow, the high pitch whine is ever annoying.

This old 2002 beast stays quiet most of the time. Even when watching moderate sized videos ( HD takes a lot out the CPU ).

But in any case, if you do have the basic tools, I suggest that you :

1. Clean out whatever vents that you can.
2. Apply new thermal paste. You will have to take off the CPU Fan and Heatsink
3. Try undervolting and underclocking your CPU.
4. Go somewhere that is noisy. I never hear my hard disk turning when I am at the library, but first thing in the morning ouch!!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Wasting time with technology.

I have some work to do, but I just can't get around to getting it done. So here I am making an entry in my blog, simply because, I have to start expressing something before I can actually write something that makes sense.

In the past couple days, I have been a literal vegetable. No energy to write, to read, watch do anything really. Depression may be part of it, but I have yet to wrap my head around this useless degree that I am finishing. I say useless, because I have no motivation to finish it seeing that there are no jobs in the field, nor did enjoy the fieldwork or the writing. The writing further reminded me that I hated the fieldwork.

I loved the field as such, but under obligation, a professor, a grant which my prof got me, I had to follow through with research on people who made it clear that I was not wanted around. Anthropology should have some ethics, but I more than failed to follow any ethical guidelines.

There is another project on the go, which is unfortunately related to the main one that I have undertaken. I say unfortunately because I am so sick of my research, but alas, it must be completed.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Speed volume vs idle quiet.

When you are in an office, library, or any environment where background noise exists, the fan of a computer is not a big deal. When in an environment that the fan is annoying, it does not take much to hear something else when it is off : hard drive.

My notebook has an old Hitachi drive. It clicks, it is slower than my usb key and well it is old. I am thinking of switching it to a 5400rpm, 4 times the capacity and I do not hear a single click when in use. However the idle spin sound is a little louder. The best compromise would be a SSD, but it would cost more than my computer.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Faster hard drive is not really worth it!

Esa computadora, no es tan nuevo, al contrario. Es viejito de 2003, pero peudo todavia ver la peliculas HD, juegos 3D y sin duda escribir mi puta de tesis.

Al inicio crei que mi ventilador hace desmacio de ruido, en este momento pienso el mismo, pero cuando el ventildator no gira, puedo entender mi disco duro.

La vida es tan complicada. Una cosa no es sufficiente, quiero una otra! Acostombrarse sonido del disco duro, pero el ideal no hay!

Bueno, que pudeo decir para mejorar el silencio del ordenador?

Mas de memoria, entonces el sistema no necesito utilizar la memoria virtual
no utilizar anti-virus o otros programas que utilizan el disco o la memoria.

Friday, July 2, 2010

SSD worth it?

For power, speed and shock resistance, yes a SSD is well worth the money, but they are still too expensive for how much they will improve the performance of the everyday computer user. Not a gamer, and satisfied with 512MB RAM, all I think about SSD is noise.

If you do not have a million start up programs, a "real-time" virus scanner or other processes that clog up your system, an old pentium III will be more than adequate for business use. Writing reports, a mid size customer, resource database etc will be fine.

I will wait until they are affordable.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Silly invention : forced air cooling for computers



Dust is a problem. Cat hair or any other airborne material is a problem. Why not exacerbate it with forced air. Instead of designing software or systems that stay cool, why not put a fan. And if you are going to have a fan, why not make it the noisiest thing in the world.
My Lenovo Thinkpad A31 is actually quieter than most computers, even new ones, that I have seen or used, but I fail to understand why such computer forced cooling features were ever designed. When working on anything you want peace and quiet. Concentration should never be compromised.

Here are some tips to keep your computer quiet, reducing CPU load, and thus the possiblity of your fan turning on :

* Turn off "Correct as you type" in Word or Firefox. In Openoffice, there was no change in performance, but the grammar checker Language Tool does make your CPU load go up and down. Perhaps newer versions of Word have the same problem with their grammar checker. Nevertheless, have some readover what ever you write.
* Use a "Limited Account" : Doing this will remove the need to install an anti-Virus/Malware suite that takes memory and CPU load. Though I like AMD`s idea of a third core for virus protection, most people just like to type. A 486 would still be adequate for many people today.
* Disable themes : My Computer icon - Properties - Advanced - Performance > Best Performance
* If you are technically inclined - spend about 1-5$ on Ebay and get "Thermal Paste". Apply some to your CPU and Heatsink. Go all out if you need a special grade but a simple dab of silicone fluid grease caused my CPU temperature to go down a whole 8C!

I will list more steps as I figure out how to make the best silent notebook I can!!!