November 2003 Archives

Well, time now to figure out the best film scanner for this Christmas. Might actually buy one now that I'm generating lots of 35mm and want to scan in all those old photos too. The day is definitely getting close when real quality adherents like "Steve Hoffmann":http://sphoto.com/techinfo/dslrvsfilm.htm can compare a $1,500 Canon 10D with a film camera plus scanning and say that this 6Mpixel image is on pare. Of course, the holy grail on the upcoming 11-14Mpixel cameras coming that have the same image sensor size as 35MM (wow!). The Canon 1D for instance is still in the $8K range, but coming down. That's what I'm waiting for :-) Until then, the scanner models to consider: h4. Minolta DImage 5400 This is the latest film scanner out there. Not many formal reviews of it. Much of the interest on the Internet has shifted to digital cameras (I'm going there too as soon as an affordable high resolution back comes out. Say 10Mb for $1K :-) In the mean time, here's the latest on the Minolta: * Minolta 5400 great, but software sucks!. Trying to decide between the Nikon. Here's a review at Photo.net that basically says the resolution is amazing but the software isn't that great. Some good sample scans as well. He talks about something called the Silverfast imaging software which he loves and will soon be out for the 5400. Not surprising that the included software isn't that great IMHO. * "Minolta 5400 Image Quality":http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0064L1&unified_p=1. Title of the posts are a little misleading, but a good discussion and some sample of the image quality. * "Minolta Image Quality Solved with Vuescan":http://robertdfeinman.com/tips/index.html. Someone else with a Minolta 5400. He finally solved his problems with different software from "Hamrick":Hamrick.com that solves the software limitations. good reading. * "Mike Nunan's Review":http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Scanners/Minolta/page_1.htm. A good review by Mike using the included software. h4. Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED Talk about a long name! The cost is the same as the "Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED":http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/LS4K/L40A.HTM assuming the $200 rebate in effect until December 31 ($200 higher otherwise), so interesting to see which one is really better. Minolta has better specifications, but the Nikon is time tested, has great reviews. The main specification differences are that the Minolta: | | Minolta | Nikon | | Ship Date | 2003 | 2001 | | Resolution | 5400 dpi | 4000 dpi | | Connection | USB 2.0 and Firewire | Firewire only | | Dynamic range | 4.8 | 4.2 | | Scratch Removal | Digital ICE | Digital ICE | | Color Depth | 16 bit | 14-bit | Here are some reviews of the Nikon. These are pretty in depth since it has been out for two years and is the flagship in many ways: * "Photo.net":http://www.photo.net/nikon/scanner/4000. Quite a few comments over the last two years to read through. Some interesting ones are that for everyday use, you should scan at 4000dpi, 50% image size, and 8 bits, which yields very manageable 4-6Mb files that can be printed with good results up to 8x10. A "user":http://www.pytlowany.com/ED4000_pg_4.html who solved the problem of slides jamming in the feeder by narrowing the opening with a piece of credit card plastic. You can also try "Lynn Farmer":http://lynnfarmerphoto.net/35MMBoard/messages/3dqtr01/16070.html and "Gregg Man":http://www.greggman.com/pages/ls2000.htm (very detailed with photos). * "Steve Hoffmann":http://sphoto.com/techinfo/scs4000.html. A deep review of the 4000 and he loves it. Main points he makes are to make sure the film is really flat and actually has to be the right way when scanning at 4000 dpi. h4. Scanning Software Essentially, most of the included software isn't that great. There are two third party packages that get lots of comments: * Vuescan. * Silverfast by Lasersoft. Most professional types use these and then do the final edits in Photoshop, so I may be springing for Photoshop someday soon. Unless there is a decent open source photo editer somewhere. I can only hope. h4. Epson 3200 Flatbed Scanner There are also the flatbeds to consider. * "Photo-i on the Epson 3200":http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Scanners/Epson_3200/page_1.htm. It is also the best selling on Amazon is the "Epson 3200":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008ISWU/qid=1070334214/br=1-1/ref=br_lf_e_1//102-7967833-8380932?v=glance&s=electronics&n=227756. It has 3200 dpi and has a 35mm film holder. The quality in the reviews shows that it is very high, although not as good as the best dedicated scanners. Probably not a bad compromise all things considered. In specmanship, it is slightly lower with a 3.7 Dynamic Range, but on the other hand way more versatile. Main issue is lack of Digital ICE. It does comes with a version of SilverFast which is wonderful. * "Steve's Digicam on the Epson 2450":http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/epson_2450.html. The previous model's like Epson 2450 have been highly rated for quite a while as good for scanning photos and also transparencies. The flatbeds now have dedicated slide and 35mm attachments, but their performance isn't as good. Still for $300 or so, it is a interesting compromise. Particularly if you use third party scanning software like Vuescan or Silverfast.

MetroKitchen.com. Another good things for the Christmas lists. Here's someone in Atlanta that has a great selection of super high quality cookware. My personal favorites (that I thought I blogged, but can't find now): * "All-Clad Cookware":http://www.metrokitchen.com/all-clad/. Top rated in many places. The most durable is the brushed aluminum of Master Chef 2 , but Connie really likes the all stainless look even though it gets dirty after a while of LTD * "Wusthof Knives":http://wusthof.metrokitchens.com/grandprix.html. These again are the top rated knives. We've had them for about two years and I can tell you they are really awesome. Only regret is that I should have gotten a better knife sharpener (see below) * "Chef's Choice Sharpener":http://www.metrokitchen.com/store/d-mart.asp?command=list&search=chfch. Cook's Life did a review of sharpeners and Chef's Choice was the clear winner. The 320 is the lower end model at $99. You might think ridiculously expensive until you actually cut something with a sharp knife. Changes your world. I'm holding on this as a Christmas gift :-) * "Rabbit Corkscrew':http://www.metrokitchen.com/store/d-mart.asp?command=list&search=rbbt. Another seemingly crazy gift, this is a wine bottle opener that really works. Usually $100 at Williams-Sonoma, their version is $70.

With all this great snow, I've been looking for skis. Missed most of the sales, so I'm off trolling the web. Here are some interesting sites for the Volkl 724 Pro and Rossignol Bandit B2 I've been looking at: * 724 Pro Skis by Volkl. Says they have these on sale, but you have to call. $649 which is a good price over the typical $849 list price. * "Rossignol B2":http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/Traveler/product/Alpine_Mid_Fat_Skis.html. Notes from the Road another site. $670 in Utah. * "US Outdoor Volkl 724 Pro":http://www.usoutdoorstore.com/istar.asp?a=3&dept=01&manufacturer=110. $790 with Motion Piston 1200 bindings. h4. Ski Rentals "Ski Rentals":http://www.snowrental.com/. Of course, the best way to buy skis is to try them on the slopes and buy them from the local ski shop vs. online. Just like bicycles, support your local shops if you can. Anyway, here's a great idea. These folks let you rent super high quality skis in France, Italy and Austria. So you don't have to carry them all the way overseas. Nice idea. h4. Used Skis "Evogear":http://www.evogear.com/productdetail.asp?pn=125. Maybe a good idea is to get a pair of used skis. They have the Rossignol Bandit B2 for $600 with Rossignol 120 bindings used for $700. These guys are based in Seattle. Another great idea. As an example, the "2003 Salomon Scream Pilot 10":http://www.evogear.com/productdetail.asp?pn=74 was regularly $1,200 list but they are selling for $559 with bindings as a premium used model. Wow, that is a great deal. And, they include actual "photos":http://www.evogear.com/productdetail.asp?pn=74&sp=248&t=sp of the model.

I've been recommending the Blackberry 7230 to a host of folks. Here's the latest and some FAQs: _Hello Rich, Finally I see someone who has a Blackberry 7230. I have been seriously considering one. I live in Upstate NY but I travel every year to Germany for a month. While there I would like to send/receive e-mail and the Blackberry seems a good solution. BUT--my computer at home would be turned off. And I have an e-mail account as you see it right now. Would it be possible to access e-mail while in Germany? Oh yes, I also do not use Outlook/Outlook express, but rather the e-mail program with Netscape. (People tell me I am working with a dinosaur, but it still works for me). I do also have a T-Mobile data only account for my laptop with using a PCMCIA card acting as a modem connecting to T-Mobile's network. Thanks for any information/suggestions you may have. Cordially, Mahl Mahlon Wagner_ Great questions, Mahlon. Here are your answers: I've been to Germany and the UK myself and this has turned out to be a good solution. Your mileage may vary of course, but the fact that it supports GPRS international roaming makes it easy to get email anywhere where there is GSM coverage. On your connection to email, this Blackberry sports a new feature called "Web client". The Blackberry servers themselves will look for mail and deliver them to you so you don't need to have your PC on. The only thing you need is to have POP3 or IMAP access to your mail server. If you don't know what these are, let me know. Unfortunately, AOL and hotmail won't work and yahoo requires an extra charge for POP3 access. If you are using a cable modem like Roadrunner then things are great since they provide this POP3 access. Also since you have T-mobile already, you can decide to make the Blackberry just a data device for $40/month or you can use it as a phone as well for whatever plan you pick plus $30/month. I've been using it as a phone and while it is big, it does let me get rid of one device. Thanks, Rich --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. If interested, see ignitionpartners.com . (With apologies to Sir Ernest Shackleton) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a little ludwig goes a long way: Installing XIII right now.... You're right that 80GB no longer is big enough. I'm maxed out right now just with video files on a 120GB machine and my home server has 2x120GB and I'm creaking at not enough space. I just deleted all my games I don't use and am archiving my home videos on DVDs. So, storage remains an issue. Thank goodness Fry's is selling the 250GB Western Digital drives for $120 after mail-in rebate. I have to get over there ASAP to buy these drives and do some reshuffling. Right now I'm thinking a minimum of 250GB per machine and the server needs 1TB. Plus with all this video editing, I'm going to need more processors. First time I've actually needed more horsepower in five years (I have right now a 450MHz Pentium III, a 400MHz Pentium III and a 2.4GHz Pentium IV). Good for Intel long term I think :-)

a little ludwig goes a long way: Tong is on fire.. Hey John, just trying to emulate you buddy!

Alien Clamp Fitting Instructions. Well its been two years since I installed this. The reviews are right. It is super light (just 140 grams), but incredibly hard to adjust. When I sit my fat butt on the seat, it literally locks into place. When I disassemble pieces go flying. The most depressing thing is that it uses 2.5mm hex key which isn't standard on my little Park tool, so if it slips (when it isn't tight), then it is a real problem on the road. It says it only need 11.5 inch pounds or 1.5 newton meters to tighten. Hmm. Mines needs much more to stay locked in. May be why the hex bolt is now stripped. In any case, it is great, but just hard to adjust. Next one I try I might give up a few grams for easier adjustment.

_Hat tip to the folks at roadbikerider.com for this one_ Uncle Al's Rant: Campy Record Bottom Bracket Dear Uncle Al: Uh oh! I've read how much you don't like the Campy Record bottom bracket. I have 5,000 miles on my 2003 Record Carbon crankset so would be interested to know specifically what's wrong with it. -- Larry S. Uncle Al Fires Back: The short answer is that it's the most over-designed bottom bracket I've ever seen. There are twice as many parts as needed, and many of them are made of materials (carbon fiber and aluminum) that do not stand up well to the terrific loads we exert on them. Trying to make a bottom bracket light with gee-whiz materials is fine when the design gives us something that is reliable and long-lasting. But my experience with Record bottom brackets is that they will barely last a season, let alone many seasons like I think they should. The more surfaces that interface, the greater the chance for slop in the system, which accelerates bearing wear. In terms of added durability, Campy's dual bearings on the drive side accomplish nothing that a well-designed, two-bearing cartridge system can't. I'll bet if you pull both crankarms and turn your BB spindle by hand, you'll notice it's not very smooth after only 5,000 miles. Solution? All three Phil Wood bottom brackets have a simple design that's executed with extreme precision. There is no unwarranted movement, and under hard use they will last for many, many years. When play is finally detected, you can send them back for refurbishing for a nominal fee. The stainless-steel Phil BB is as light as the Campy record at 192 grams. And it has a lifetime guarantee -- an offer no one else makes. If you want the ultimate, install Phil's proprietary Ti/Magnium BB. At 135 grams, there's nothing lighter or finer. Try one. You'll never use anything else. _"Branford Bike":http://www.branfordbike.com/bottombr/bb3.html or "Phil Wood Online":http://www.philwood.com/pproducts.htm has these in stock, here are the prices. Amazing thing is that they'll last 20,000 miles without maintenance. Wow, for me that's about 8 years of riding, so although expensive, very economical with pricing and when it wears out you send it back to Phil Woods and he puts new bearings in for $30. The generic Titanium with the Alloy rings seems like the best buy:_ | Part | Price | Weight | Comment | | Stainless Steel Campy | $99 | 198 grams | Same weight as Record | | Titanium Campy | $159 | 137 grams | Generic Titanium | | Magnium Campy | $249 | 134 grams | Some magnesium/titanium composite | | Teflon/Alloy Mounting Rings | $38 | 11 grams | British threads | | BB Mounting Ring Tool | $14 | n/a | Really need two to adjust easily |

NeroPlugins.cd-rw.org. Wow an incredible list of plug-ins for Nero that support an amazing number of codecs. Everything for AAC converts to Mpeg4 to using Ogg Vorbis with Nero.

Doom9.net - Ogg Vorbis Guide. One thing that is pretty neat is if you use Ogg Vorbis, a much more efficient encoding, rather than MP3 for Xvid movies. Here's the guide from Doom9. So, the state of the "art" open source movie uses the open source xvid codec and then the ogg vorbis encoder/decoder. I just created an ogm file (Ogg Movie file) with The Commitments and it sounds pretty darn good. The audio is 165MB in Dolby AC3 at 48kHz sampling at 192Kbps and this is compressed into a 83MB Ogg Vorbis file running at 96Kbps Then the MPEG2 encoding used on a DVD results in 3GBs worth of data, this becomes a Xvid file that is 1.3GB with no perceptible loss of quality at least to my ears. Net, net, you end up with a 1.4GB file so you get a 50% compression and no loss of quality that I can tell. BTW, the way that you play this back is by downing the Ogg Vorbis Directshow filters so it can be played back in Windows Media Player or just about anything that uses Directshow. Xvid has a simmilar player in something called ffdshow that you also get from the Gordian Knot codec pack. Amazing what technology can do. Although a little complicated for the average human!

Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource. OK, a new guide that tells you how to backup a DVD to a DVD recordable. Good stuff. complicated as usual, but great for geeks.

Audio-Only DVD Ripping Guide - How to Convert DVD Video to MP3 or Audio CD Format. A very useful guide that explains how to take the AC3 soundtrack and get it into MP3 format.

This is tricky because AC3 is at 48kHz whereas CDs are at 44.1kHz and are in different formats.

The key programs are headaAC3he (a wonderful name). This program downmixes an AC3 soundtrack into a Wav file. You can then use LAME or whatever MP3 encoder you want to convert to another format.

Ars Technica: Introduction to Multithreading, Superthreading and Hyperthreading and "Tom's Hardware":http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20021227/. _Well, the Intel site was confusing on the topic of what is this hyperthreading thing, so a quick google search found an article that someone with a 30 year old computer science degree like me can understand_ The basic idea is that today's modern processors have two very different problems from the old days. Today, memory is incredibly slow (10-20 clock cycles, compared to 2-3 when I did computer systems design). So, if a thread has to access memory it is stalled essentially forever. Second is that there are very long deep pipelines in today's processors (so you might have 7 different pipelines that can execute and each is 6 stages deep). That means that if a thread stalls, then you lose lots of performance. You have to empty this gigantic pipeline to get to the next instruction. That's a big change from the old days of say 2 pipelines and 3 stages in each. Thus, what hyperthreading does is to make scheduling much more granular. If a thread blocks on a memory access, you can throw all kinds of other threads into the unused parts of the pipeline. In effect what happens is that a single CPU (which is of course today really, a very parallel thing, it has lots of schedulers, lots of pipelines and lots of stages in the pipelines) becomes logically two CPUs to the operating system. There are some things to be duplicated, but essentially, to the software it looks like you can be in two entirely different contexts every single cycle. Tom's Hardware provides a higher level view BTW and points out that this matters the most when you are running at full bore applications with lots of threads (that is lots of parallelism). Not true with things like Office applications though.

I've been looking for this so sweet barebones system and the first ones are coming up for sale. Here are some folks who are starting to carry. They are not yet at the big guys like newegg.com: * Directron. Never heard of these guys, but doing preorders for $349. * "Top Micro":http://store.topmic.com/shuttlesn85g4.html. They have them for $390. * "General Nanosystems":http://www.nanosys1.com/bb-sh-sn85g4.html. But doesn't have a price yet. * "Excaliber PC":http://www.excaliberpc.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=24&products_id=2973. They have a bundle of the Athlon 64 and the Shuttle for $700. Not a bad deal given the chip is about $400 on Pricegrabber. They also have the Shuttle ST61G4 for $375. Note that you need a graphics card with this bad boy.

X-bit labs - Hardware news - New Shuttle XPCs ST61G and SB75G2 - Targeting Gamers and Enterprises?. _Another hat tip to Xbitlabs_ The XPC ST61G barebone – first SFF PC powered by the RADEON 9100 IGP core-logic with integrated graphic core supporting DirectX 8.1 capabilities unveiled this Summer – is probably targeted for gamers and multimedia enthusiasts. Besides the relatively powerful graphics, the ST61G is able to provide a dual-channel memory controller to boost performance in multimedia applications, 1AGP 8x and 1 PCI slot for greater expandability, 2-channel Parallel ATA controller as well as 2 Serial ATA-150 ports. Generally, the ST61G is a PC that packs dozens of capabilities and may be upgraded to bring even more features and performance to satisfy growing demand for extreme performance. A couple of days ago a new XPC barebone from Shuttle – SB75G2 – emerged in a number of Akihabara stores in Japan. The product is built upon i875P core-logic – Intel’s premier chipset this year. The SB75G brings everything Shuttle XPC platform has to offer – loads of I/O ports, including USB 2.0 and FireWire, Shuttle’s own technologies as well as 220W PSU – one of the most powerful PSU used in barebones. The main peculiarity of the PC barebone is a number of enterprise PC features – Gigabit Ethernet, ECC memory support and Serial ATA-150 RAID. All three are hardly used at home, but are popular among workstation users demanding rock-solid stability and the fastest Ethernet connection

X-bit labs - Hardware news - Shuttle Projects Further Growth of XPC Shipments in 2004. _Amazing how big a business these XPCs are getting to be_ Shuttle said in an interview to DigiTimes web-site that its XPC shipments this year will be between 550 and 600 thousands of units, 50 to 100 thousands more than originally predicted, and a 120% to 140% growth from the last year’s 250 thousands of Shuttle SFF PCs. The company shipped 373 thousands of its mini-barebones in the first three quarters of this year. However, the demand for small form-factor PCs from both clone and OEM markets is likely to push sales of XPCs up to 55 thousands per month in November and December, about 10 thousands more than Shuttle typically estimates. Market Intelligence Center (MIC) based in Taiwan predicts that share of mini-barebone computers among all desktops shipped this year will be about 1.5% – that is more than 1.60 million of units. Roughly 30% of the market is occupied by Shuttle, while the remaining tens of companies, including MSI, IWILL, Soltek, Gigabyte, Biostar, ASUS, ECS, ABIT, FIC and loads of others, share the remaining 60% or about a million of units.

CPUID. This is a great utility set for tweaking your PC and knowing how it is performing. For instance PC Wizard tells you what machine you actually have and how it is performing. Like Sisoft Sandra, but just for the CPU. There is also CPU-Z which tells you exactly what processor you have running. Great for geeks!

Another potential game are to have a name on your back and then you have to go find the other person who matches. Kind of a mixer and there is a prize you get if you find your opposite: * Famous Couples. An entire web site. * "Famous Movie Couples":http://www.imdb.com/Couples/. All the folks who are movie star couples. So for instance in the "B":http://www.imdb.com/Couples/B we have Notorious BIG and Faith Evans if you are hip. Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart if you are not. * "Valentine Couples":http://hicards.com/valentine/vcouples.html. Another set of folks who are married. For instance, who knows Winston Churchill's wife is named Clementine. * "Famous Love Stories":http://www.infoplease.com/spot/lovestories1.html. These are the people and their stoires. For instance, you could have a trivia thing about the "Robert and Elizabeth Browning":http://www.infoplease.com/spot/love7.html story.

Sectie B & D: Hoe MP3, DivX maken. Well, I tried some new Xvid settings and now the second pass won't work. Here are some more recommendations. I'll give these a try. This is true since Xvid defaults are single pass, so you have to understand something about what to set. This is also probably the best description of what the Xvid settings mean for the non-techie

We're having a Holiday Party and I like to invent fun games. Here's one, match the famous person with what they drink. So, you have folks who have the name of a famous person and match it to what their favorite libation is. Here are some websites to pick from: * Absintheusa.com. Absinthe was drunk by Oscar Wilde, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Napoleon Bonapart, Ernest Hemingway. * "Famous Martini Drinkers":http://www.deepwater.org/specialty/martini.html#famous. Martini by James Bond of course. But also Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, FDR. * "Famous Dom Perignon Drinkers":http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/marilynonline/fave.html. Marilyn Monroe.

VoIP NEWS ONLINE. Been looking at VOIP for consumers. Here's an entrie site dedicated to it. Note that Vonage just raised an additional $35M from NEA to bring their total to $60M plus. Have about 70K subscribers, but seem to be a early leaders. Also have Skype who are doing the classic, its just free for peer to peer and doing broad scale peer-to-peer distribution so they have essentially zero cost. Then, there are the old folks like net2phone which has a traditional model for pricing, but is essentially voice over IP on PCs although they also have hardware offerings. The big difference seems to be the termination. With Vonage, you get termination to a real phone number, whereas with Net2Phone, you can dial out, but you can't dial in.

Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource - Codec Comparison May 2003. The latest motion Codec comparison that I could find. Pretty interesting results. Basically says that DivX 5.05 is fast and has OK quality while Xvid is slower with better quality. I ran Xvid against Raiders of the Lost Ark and in two passes, it took a total of 11 hours (!!!), so I can vouch for not fast. Did have it set for very high quality though.

How to deal with spyware/adware. Yuck spyware, here's a good source of information about it. Specific data on DivX: When you finish installing DivX, it will immediatly start a program called “gain trickler,” which slowly downloads GAIN onto your hard drive. It will also put the trickler on your start list, so that it executes each time you reboot. Deal with that (you can use msconfig to edit your start list). Then run Ad-Aware and remove every trace of GAIN except for the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\clsid\{21ffb6c0-0da1-11d5-a9d5-00500413153c}\ registry key. DivX 5 will still work. "Doom9":http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=185c6d4850da18d8081b3024c8b0118b&threadid= has a great article on this. (Of course, paying for Divx 5 will also get you a spyware-free version.) Also, be aware that the for-profit version of the DivX 5 codec, whether paid for by ads or by direct payment, offers no advantages for people who only want to watch movies. All you need to watch Divx-encoded video is the basic version, which does not come with spyware. Or choose the better option: install the ffdshow DirectShow filter (the latest version, regardless of whether or not its “alpha”) and then watch video using the media player of your choice. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\clsid\{21ffb6c0-0da1-11d5-a9d5-00500413153c}\

Wine Press Northwest magazine online. A good web site focused just on Pacific Northwest wines.

Nic's XviD Binaries & Paraphernalia ;). Because DivX now doesn't let you remove GAIN for the free ad version (how sad), I've switched over to using XviD. This is an open source MPEG4 codec. Since it is open source, the settings are very strange and hard to understand. Check out the source page here that explains how to set the various parameters. Complicated.

Radified - Audio Codec Comparison. The latest on codec comparisons between Lame, Ogg Vorbis and others

intraVnews | Features. Here's a free for personal use Outlook RSS reader. The other one I tried required a subscription.

Rss Readers. There must be a thousand of these. Here's a Wiki that compiles them. Way too many to try in a lifetime :-)

Busview Applet Launch. An amazingly cool thing. They've put position hardware into Seattle buses, so you can actually see using this Java applet in real time where your bus is. Cool!

The kids have been playing lots of our old favorite board games lately. Here are some places to look for tips and tricks: h4. Monopoly This is a game that really teaches you how to add and subtract. Here are some strategy guides: * Monopoly.com - Downloads. This has a strategy guide online that is interesting

I've been taking quite a few 35mm photographs laterly and have about a years worth that I need to scan. The Nikon 4000 is the one I really want, but it is way too expensive. The Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 is a new one that is about $800, so I thought I'd look at it. Here are some reviews: * Mikes 5400 review. Great thing is that it has Firewire and USB 2.0, so will be fast. Also is 5400 dpi and has the Digital Ice scratch remover, so the specs are amazing. Seems to have pretty good quality according to the scans that Mike did. "Pricegrabber":http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=853730/blsrt=1/ut=0ce41693ae1ec9b4 shows it at just about $800. * "Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED":http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/LS4K/L40A.HTM. This has a $200 rebate on it right now. 4000dpi, Firewire interface, 48 bit images. 4.2 dynamic range. A great scanner by most reviews. Also have Digital Ice. At Pricegrabber, it's just over "$1,000":http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=408160/blsrt=1/ut=0ce41693ae1ec9b4 so is the same price as the Minolta when you include the rebate. Pricing-wise, "Pricegrabber":http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=23&sortby=popular-&vendors%5B%5D=0&popup1%5B%5D=3%3A307&popup1_attr_id%5B%5D=307&popup2%5B%5D=0&popup2_attr_id%5B%5D=144&popup3%5B%5D=0&lo_p=0&hi_p=0&form_keyword=&ut=0ce41693ae1ec9b4 shows that for film scanners: * "Nikon Coolscan IV ED":http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=408161/ut=0ce41693ae1ec9b4. This is the best seller. Inexpensive relatively at $474. It's USB 1.0, 36-bit * "DiMAGE Scan Dual III":http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=654035/ut=0ce41693ae1ec9b4. This is very inexpensive at under $300. Has USB 2.0.

BBlog - php blog software. Bob over at "Bob's Planet":http://bobsplanet.com mentioned this is a full PHP based blog. I may have to give it a try.

Federal Trade Commission - Your National Resource for ID Theft. Jennie had a credit card used by some Nigerians buying dolls. This is a big deal. Fortunately, Google shows that the FTC has a pretty good site for what you need to do. It isn't just a matter of cancelling the card anymore since folks will create new czrds with your name. Most important is to file a police report so you have something written down and contact the big three credit bureaus so they will have a fraud alert on your identity.

MSN House & Home - Movies You Must Watch on DVD. A good review of great DVDs to show off your home theater, in reverse order of course: 10. Fight Club. 9. Heat. Michael Mann's LA vice story. I didn't like the movie much though. 8. Saving Private Ryan. There is a special limited edition with a new C-Reality transfer. Wow. 7. Jurassic Park. 6. Gladiator. Nice transfer 5. Terminator 2: Judgement Day. There's a new high definition transfer in T2--Extreme DVD. 4. Apocalpyse Now. There's a new Redux version that has a better transfer. 3. The Matrix. 2. Toy Story 2. 1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. The first 10 minutes are truly magificent. *

Creating a bootable Windows XP SP1a CD (Nero) (Windows XP) - TACKtech Corp. _Shamelessly cribbed from TACKtech because instructions like this tend to evaporate on the web_ You will need the following items: # A copy of the original Windows XP CD or ISO # "Network Installation":http://microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/network.asp of SP1a for Windows XP ~125MB # The boot file which you can download here ("bootfiles.zip":http://www.tacktech.com/pub/xpboot/bootfiles.zip / 1.07KB) or the tongfamily copy. # CD Recording Software (Ahead Nero 5.5.9.9 was used in this example) # A computer running Windows 2000 or Windows XP (Home/Professional). # (optional) The updated Windows XP SP1a "deploy.cab":http://microsoft.com/WindowsXP/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/deploytools.asp ~1.7MB * If you are using an older version of Nero please read TTID# "177":http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=177. * If you have an ISA SCSI Controller please read TTID# 238. * If receive an error message while following the instructions please read TTID# "184":http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=184. Create a folder called XP on your hard drive (C: is used in this example). A minimum of 800MB is required. In this folder create three sub-folder called CD-ROOT, XP-BOOT, and XP-SP1a. Copy the entire Windows XP CD (or extract the ISO) into folder CD-ROOT Optional Step 1: Rename or delete C:\XP\CD-ROOT\SUPPORT\TOOLS\deploy.cab. Optional Step 2: Copy the downloaded xpsp1deploytools_en.cab to the folder C:\XP\CD-ROOT\SUPPORT\TOOLS\. Optional Step 3: Rename xpsp1deploytools_en.cab to deploy.cab. Copy your Service Pack 1 file into C:\XP Rename the Service Pack file to XP-SP1a.EXE Click Start > Run... Type in the following command in the Open text box: C:\XP\XP-SP1a.EXE /U /X:C:\XP\XP-SP1a Click the OK button. Files will extract. Dialog will close when complete. To apply the Service Pack 1 to the Windows XP in CD-ROOT Click Start > Run... Type in the following command in the Open text box: C:\XP\XP-SP1a\UPDATE\UPDATE.EXE /S:C:\XP\CD-ROOT Click the OK button. When integrated install has completed successfully, click the OK button. Extract the BootSector file (boot.bin) from bootfiles.zip in to the folder C:\XP\XP-BOOT Start Nero - Burning Rom. Select File > New... from the menu. If the Nero Wizard starts, click the Close Wizard button. # Select CD-ROM (Boot) # Select Image file from Source of boot image data # Set Kind of emulation: to No Emulation # Set Load segment of sectors (hex!): to 07C0 # Set Number of loaded sectors: to 4 # Press the Browse... button # Select All Files (*.*) from File of type: # Locate the BootSector file (boot.bin) in the folder C:\XP\XP-BOOT Goto the ISO tab # Set File-/Directory length to ISO Level 1 (Max. of 11 = 8 + 3 chars) # Set Format to Mode 1 # Set Character Set to ISO 9660 # Check the Joliet check box # Check all Relax ISO Restrictions checkboxes (There should be three options there) Goto the Label tab Select ISO9660 from the drop down box. Enter the Volume Label as WXPVOL_EN Enter the System Identifier as WXPVOL_EN Enter the Volume Set as WXPVOL_EN Enter the Publisher as MICROSOFT_CORPORATION Enter the Data Preparer as MICROSOFT_CORPORATION Enter the Application as WXPVOL_EN * Note: For other Windows XP CD versions you can find the correct Volume Label using the table found in TTID# "283":http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=283 Go to Dates Tab Select Use the date and time from the original file Go to the Burn Tab Check Write Uncheck Simulation Check Finalize CD (No further writing possible!) Set Write Method to Disc-At-Once. (We have had Track-At-Once work as well.) Click on New Go to the File Browser in Nero Locate the folder C:\XP\CD-ROOT Select everything in the folder and drag it to the ISO compilation panel. Choose File/Write CD Click the Write button Wait for CD creation to finish. Click OK

Well, it's time for my six month review of how to do DVD backups. Super useful to have a backup and also to have a smaller copy for watching ont he airplane. Here's the latest: * DVD-copying extravaganza - CNET reviews. In the last six months, there have been a ton of commercial products. I've used Gordian Knot for a while and it is definitely for power users. DVD X Copy appears to be the only one that works with commercial DVD movies. It is a straight DVD to DVD copy tool though. * "Divx and Xvid Conversions":http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/dvdtodivx.html and "DVD to Xvid Details":http://nic.dnsalias.com/MPEG-4_XviD_Koepi_24062003-1_Encoder_Guide_ver20030702.pdf. Now that DiVX is a commercial product, some folks are switching to the open source XviD as an alternative. Here's a ripping guide that uses good old Gordian Knot. * "Flask MPEG":http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/dvdtodivx_flaskmpeg.html. It's apparently easy to use, but is buggy and slow. * "Gordian Knot":http://www.divx-digest.com/articles/dvd2divx_gordianknot.html is hard to use, but powerful. Current version is 0.28.6. * "Gordian Knot Fast 4U":http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64266. Currently in alpha test, this is a much simpler version of Gordian Knot. * "XMPeg":http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/dvdtodivx_xmpeg.html. This is easier, but won't with all titles. I'm going to review Gordian Knot, then try XMPeg then post a review of each.

"SlimX Batteries":http://electronics.realbuy.ws/B000063574.html. _My batteries in my SlimX aren't holding charge, here is a review from someone who found out where to buy them_ I had a difficult time finding places to buy the special rectangular NiMH batteries which the SlimX uses, not to mention a source for an external charger. I figured the following might be helpful for others in the same boat. iRiver iMP-350 SlimX uses 2x NiMH "prismatic" (gumstick) batteries of 1400mAh capacity each. These are the batteries which you install into the flip doors under where the CD spins. Apparently, these batteries are commonly used by portable MiniDisc units from Sony, Panasonic, etc. The following batteries should be equivalent: * Sanyo HF-A1U * Sony NH-14WM * Panasonic RP-BP140H The lowest price I've found so far [on the net, anyway] is US$20/battery (Sanyo HF-A1U), from "TNR Technical":http://www.tnrtechnical.com/prismatic-rectangular-cells.html (notice the pricelist posted is already outdated) or at "Warehouse 123":http://www.warehouse123.com/product_list.php?cat=battery The Sony and Panasonic batteries appear to be more $$$ (some places sell the Sony NH14WM for US$27). I doubt the Sony battery is 10x better than the Sanyo part, especially considering they both claim ~1400mAh capacity. If anyone wants to conduct a comparison please post results here :) The depressing thing is that this means a set of replacements is $40 or nearly the price of the player!

Net2Phone - Broadband Products - Max PVN. We were on a conference call today. Man are these complicated from a hotel room. The hotel speakerphone didn't work, so I cranked up my old Net2phone account so we could all at least hear the call.

Also trolled their site. They have some nice solutions for small businesses that are global. Something we do quite a bit of where you can use the Internet for hauling between small branch offices. Something call PVN. Also a nice product called 2-port Gateway for home use. Gives you two analog phone lines that you can connect in that work over the broadband connection. Nice to have at home.

Net2Phone - Broadband Products - Max PVN. We were on a conference call today. Man are these complicated from a hotel room. The hotel speakerphone didn't work, so I cranked up my old Net2phone account so we could all at least hear the call. Also trolled their site. They have some nice solutions for small businesses that are global. Something we do quite a bit of where you can use the Internet for hauling between small branch offices. Something call PVN. Also a nice product called 2-port Gateway for home use. Gives you two analog phone lines that you can connect in that work over the broadband connection. Nice to have at home. "Max 8":http://web.net2phone.com/partnerships/distributors/product/broadband/max8.asp. This is the nice adjunct to the network product. It lets 8 analog lines connect in via VOIP to net2phone. This is perfect for key systems. What isn't clear to me is how inbound calls are handled.

DC-120 Toshiba Portege 300, 600, 2000, 7000, T3400, T3600, and R100 Series Laptop DC Car Adapter. Here's the equivalent adapter for Car sockets that is $45. BEcause toshiba has a proprietary connector, you need this for the many older flavors that used their little mini connector.

Bart's Network Boot Disk. The second technique is to boot off the network. In the old days, I had a trusty PCMCIA Ethernet card with DOS drivers so I could put a floppy in and then get the network up and then connect to a machine. Alas, I've lost that card and floppy. So to recreate it Bart has done much the same thing. THe main issue is that you have to have an Ethernet that can be recognized from DOS and those are far and few these days. The neat thing is that he's collected lots of DOS based NDIS drivers to install there

Bootdisk.Com. I've had two machine crash on me now while running Windows XP. The bad news is that we normally buy machines without integrated CD-ROMs, so recover is a real problem. Thank goodness for this site which has MS-DOS and other boot recover things along with pretty universal CD-ROM drivers. This is a real problem now because most CD-ROMs don't have DOS drivers anymore, so you need some flavor of Windows for it to work, but the problem is that you have absolutely nothing left on the hard disk.

Ok, I foutn Laptop for Less and this seems to ahve a good selection of old Compaq accessories: * Battery for Compaq Evo. $115 for an internal Compaq Evo 400c battery sure isn't bad. * "Universal DC/DC Stepup Convertor":http://web1.applelaptopbattery.com/ccp5/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?usr=50X5437793&rnd=6841936&rrc=N&cip=64.3.228.130&pg=prod&ref=DC%2FDC+ADAPTER&cat=&catstr=&catstr=. This is a mouth full, but basically, this lets you charge the Compaq battery in your car. It is a universal charger so will work with most things (but not the strange Toshiba connector arrggh!). * "Empower Airplane Power Connector":http://web1.applelaptopbattery.com/ccp5/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?usr=50X5437793&rnd=3571400&rrc=N&cip=64.3.228.130&pg=prod&ref=AIR+ADAPTER&cat=&catstr=&catstr=. This $10 piece of magic converts the car plug adapter to an airplane adapter.

HP | CONFIGURATION. We have an old Compaq Evo 400c that I use quite a bit. One the quandaries is that when we got it, we didn't get every accessory to save money, but now it would be nice to have a CD drive for instance when it crashes. Of course these are expensive as the HP configurator shows. Heres a list of parts: | part # | description | unit price | comment | 286255-B25 | Mobile Expansion Unit N410c | $199.00 | So you can boot from a CD | | DF928A | 5GB PCMCIA Hard Drive | $249.00 | Can this boot from a PCMCIA hard drive, good question | | 293343-B25 | 4 Cell Li-Ion Primary Battery (n400c/n410c) | $149.00 | The battery is shot, so at least need this | | 236309-B25 | 4 Cell Secondary Lithium-ion Battery (External) | $179.00 | I think this one is still good | | DC303B | 90W Auto Adapter/Charger | $79.00 | Do I need this or can I use a universal charger | | 269089-B25 | MultiBay Drives, 24X DVD/CD-RW | $199.00 | So it is $400 just to have a CD player for this | The minimum that I need is a new internal battery and something that lets me plug into the airplane. This thing require 18.5 volts so it is an odd voltage for a universal charger, so that would mean having to buy the HP version DC303B at $80 just to be able to run it on a plane. Ugh.

"Shuttle Launches":http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2003/11/6/prodit/6631568&sec=prodit and "Optorite DD0401":http://www.optorite.com/newproducts.htm. Just when I thought it was safe to make Christmas recommendations, now come two Shuttle boxes that could change the recommendations so that the SK43G becomes the new low-end machine of choice and the ST61G4 has the ATI graphics chipset so maybe the last barrier for Shuttle (slow onboard graphics is conquered). We'll have to wait for reviews. but right now I'd say the SK43G will replace the SK41G in the low-end system adn the ST61G4 will replace the SB65G2. Finally, Optorite just announced an 8x DVD+/-RW drive. Wow, that's fast, so I need to see how that is going to perform: * "Shuttle SK83L":http://php.technobabble.com.au/article300.html. The new SK83L is the latest design meant for the Athlon 64 processor. Utilizing VIA's upcoming K8M800 chipset, it offers users a Socket-754 platform with integrated Unichrome graphics. It has support for DDR400 memory (up to 2GB) and it will also come with 1394, USB 2.0 and SATA ports. According to Shuttle, the SATA interface can be configured for RAID operation too. So this will compete with the as yet unavailable SN85G4 it appears. Will be interesting to see the review comparison. In other benchmarks, the nVidia and VIA chipsets have been about the same, so it will be a cost issue. * Walibe SFF - SK43G - Shuttles latest AMD machine. This is an update to the SK41G that is the low-end recommendation. Major feature is that it uses the new KIA chipset, so supports 400MHz FSB and will thus be faster. Also, will be cheaper than the SN45G since KIA is less than nVidia. The main difference is that it has TV output from its onboard video. It has serial ATA with RAID 0 built in, so it is quite high end. Not sure you really need serial ATA but cool to have a RAID option. Main negative is the power supply is only 200 watts, so you have to be careful what you put into it. * "Shuttle ST61G4":http://www.shuttle.com/hq/product/barebone/specs_b.asp?B_id=28. This is a brand new machine, they just put up for Intel Pentium systems. It uses an ATI chipset (I need to find a review on that one). And it uses the new card reader like the SN84G4 so that means it uses the G4 chassis which also means the 5-1/4" drive isn't removable so its harder to get into it. Given the chipset is ATI, it is probably cheaper than the Intel versions (SB65G2 and SB75G2), but need to check on performance. As the "ATI 9100 IDP":http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1452 previews show, it might be great. Here's summary from PCstats on a early sampel system using the ATI 9100 compared with the graphics on the Intel 865G: | | ATI 9100 | Intel 865G | Comment | | Business Winstone 2002 | 30.5 | 32.8 | Higher is better, DDR400 adds 3% vs. DDR333| | Content Winstone 2003 | 47.6 | 46.2 | Only DDR333 measured on the 865G side | | Unreal Tournament 2003 Botmatch | 38.0 | 13.8 | 865G is unplayable at 14 fps | Wow, these benchmarks show that the new ATI chipset has something that has the same performance in office applications since any video card can handle these, but if you want to