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).

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

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.

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.

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!

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.