W A R N I N G !


W A R N I N G !

This page is full of non-facts and bullsh!t, (just like the internet and especially forums and other blogs), please do not believe entirely without exercising your intellect. Any resemblance to real things in reality is purely coincidental. You are free to interpret/misinterpret the content however you like, most likely for entertainment, but in no case is the text written on this blog the absolute truth. The blog owner and Blogger are not responsible for any misunderstanding of ASCII characters as facts. *cough* As I was saying, you are free to interpret however you like. *cough*

Friday, January 28, 2011

[Anime] "Best of the season/year"

I've went through a few of the previous season(ending in Dec 2010)'s offerings.

Some of them were commented to be "best (genre) of the season/year".

But frankly, I am not amused.


Because so far, there was nothing spectacular. In fact quite a number of them fall into the "only watch when you've watched everything else and are still bored" category. Comedies with low-level humor, love stories with no feelings. There were some that were average, but shouldn't get the title of "best".

But, if you compare them against the pile-o'-junk created in that season, well, that puts things in perspective.

I was wondering about the lack of high ratings and attributed it to uncertain AniDB rating system, now I know the real reason.

The problem is some of the reviewers. I also find myself a possible victim of this - habituation. Being exposed to bad shows after bad shows, eventually one finds even the mediocre good.

It also hurts my radar that detects the quality of the show. Ironic that I have to expose myself to crap and possibly degrade my radar in order to prove its accuracy, but so far it has still been accurate - things that I thought would suck still suck.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Random thought/quote:

"I also think inside the box. But my box is bigger."

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Quick user review: Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600


Got this for $15.90 from Popular, before Popular Member Discount.

It's pretty good for that price.

It is supposedly quiet touch keys. Yup I find them pretty quiet. But more importantly due to this quietness (or for this quietness, please correct my English) the buttons are very soft and I feel little resistance when typing. (At this price range) Except, unfortunately, for the right shift - it is hard to press if you press it at the extreme left, which I always do when typing.

(I know there are some people who like hard-to-type keyboards, and those that you need to press all the way until you hear a click sound. I'm not in favor of developing tendinitis.)

The Caps Lock is very user friendly. Hate it how you always accidentally hit the Caps Lock when typing A and/or Shift? Some keyboards have a gap between Caps Lock and A, and many still don't, but this keyboard takes a step further by having a gap between Shift and Caps Lock too.

One great part about this keyboard - the calculator button above Num Lock. I frequently use the calculator. But then I think I'd rather use the mouse since my hand is on the mouse most of the time, rather than on that specific button.

Volume control and Play/Pause buttons, which works as they should. Pretty normal. But that's one of the reasons I got this keyboard - I needed it.
Could be a little less stiff for something that's to be pressed repeatedly though.
Though I didn't know that the Play/Pause button works even when the program is in the background. Well, that's useful, since I often have music playing in the background.

Looks are pretty okay if not better than average at this price range - at least it is rounded and smooth.

Now the big problem -

The Escape, F1 to F12, and PrtScn etc keys are not the normal keys like on normal keyboards. Nor are they the shorter keys on compact/notebook keyboards. Instead, it's those kind of small and soft buttons you find for less intensive stuff (well, less often pressed than a keyboard).

Why this is a big problem - the Escape key is one of the most important keys on a keyboard. As important as the Enter it also often gets its own color, and is situated in a special upper left corner, and separated from everyone else. It is used all the time to exit programs and cancel functions.

Now it is a soft, low-profile button that is hard to press.

Same for the function keys - F4, F2, F5, F1 and F10 are often used, so are F8 and F12. In fact, the point of the function keys is to be quickly accessible when you want it, hence the gaps between them to make them easily identifiable and pressable (e.g. F5 = left-most in middle row). PrtScn and Pause too - when messages fly by fast and you want to pause it, you want to be able to hit the Pause key.

Now all these keys are hard to find, hard to press, and their durability is suspect.

If not for this problem, I would have recommended this keyboard.

With this problem, well... I'm not sure if I can live with it. Then again, I am living with tinnitus and a bad knee. So I can take some amount of suffering.

Monday, January 24, 2011

No sound from Intel on-board graphics' HDMI on XP? Here's the fix.

Google KB888111.exe.

Install that, then reinstall your graphics driver.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Ninja (heatsink) duct upgrade

I was cleaning up my table, computer included, so decided to take this chance to make a duct for it.

I really love the Ninja's design - a square heatsink that simply allows air to flow through itself as if it is not there.

It is a fairly efficient fanless heatsink, but a duct boosts its cooling capability by a lot without an extra fan.

So here's what I did:


Another angle:


Yup, I'm using both system and PSU fan to suck out the air through the Ninja. Might be a bit of overkill - just the PSU fan might be enough.

If the sensor is correct, I'm idling at room temperature with system fan @ 700rpm, and that's after Linpacking. While Linpacking it is room temperature + 15 (assuming the room temperature is 22), with fan at ~860rpm.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

SNR Savior


- Reduces noise level and increases SNR by allowing for higher source output levels
- Attenuates random noises as the signal passes through before entering the amp/receiver
- Shifts the amp/receiver's volume control from the problematic ~9-o'clock to ~12-o'clock to avoid channel imbalance issues at low volume positions
- Alleviate grounding-related noise issues with 11kohm impedance to ground seen by source and 1khom seen by load
- Uses pure silver wiring and Dale CMF 1% military grade resistors
- Amount of attenuation: 20dB

Monday, January 10, 2011

Coaxial S/PDIF-out from X-Fi XtremeGamer SPDIF_IO header

The low-profile X-Fi XtremeGamer is devoid of connectivity; but hey, which consumer soundcard isn't.

Apparently the connections of some newer high-end soundcards are becoming more bare than that of on-board sound, but I digress.



The SPDIF_IO header on my XtremeGamer has always interested me. I've been using this card's optical out but would prefer coaxial, and I needed a coaxial in for testing purposes.

This is my actual card.


And this is the connector:


A bit of poking with the multimeter reveals this:


Considering the alignment of the +5V, Ground and 10k to ground pins, those are probably for the optical SPDIF-in. Or the 10k to ground pin could be something to connect to +5V to activate the other ground pins which are otherwise too numerous. Perhaps I should call them "mystery pins". At any rate, it does not work as coaxial SPDIF-in.

EDIT: After looking around other Creative cards with this connector, I came to a conclusion that, the unknown 10k to ground pin, is indeed SPDIF-in. However since it has a 10k load it will not work well with a 75-ohm coaxial cable source. A buffer or a source that can handle the load, like the electrical signal generated from the optical-in, Creative's drive-bay console whatever things, even SPDIF-out from the motherboard and CD-ROM drive should work - I haven't confirmed it myself yet but you can always try.

I didn't get the first prize but at least got the consolation prize. So all that's needed for coaxial SPDIF-out is pins 7 and 9. Digging through the box-o'-rubbish I came up with this contraption:


Fixed onto the card, center (signal) wire to pin 9, outer shell (ground) to pin 7.


Installed it into my com. Viola, it works.

Quote of the day:

"There's a term for those people who leech off society and then whine when their privilege is removed. I call them 'losers'."

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Yup, wood is still being expensive


1. Find a spirit level
2. Put it in an oversize block of wood
3. Sell it for $29

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Faith typical values

"MINI PCM2704 HI-FI USB DAC SOUND CARD BOARD - XD

Description:

Brand new
compatible the USB 1.0 16bit support 32 KHz / 44.1khz / 48khz sampling

Dynamic range: 100dB

noise signal ratio: 105db (faith typical values) THD + N: 0.002%

Internal integrated independent 12MHz clock generator built-in 8 x Oversampling digital filter

Adopt double power supply.Analog part is + 5V , Digital parts for + 3.3 V"

http://cgi.ebay.com/MINI-PCM2704-HI-FI-USB-DAC-SOUND-CARD-BOARD-/170572980257?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b6f12021

Now now, how do you even get 100dB from 16-bit in the first place?

Answer is: You can't.

TI's datasheet also shows it maxes out at 98dB.

How "faith".