ROFL! The n00b got a BSOD on his HTPC

March 31, 2006 eirikso5 Comments

Or in plain english:
Rolling on the floor lauging! The inexperienced user got a serious error on his home theatre personal computer.

People keeps asking. And a while ago I realised that my mother is reading this blog. She wasn’t the one requesting this little roundup of strange computer geek language but I have a feeling that she will be one of the persons learning a couple of new abbreviations from this article.

There is no point for me to give something of a complete guide to internet language. I’ll explain a couple of the abbreviations I have used here on eirikso.com and lead you to some excellent recources in the end of this article. Here we go:

HTPC – Home Theatre PC. A computer that is tailored for media playback. Very often built to stay in the living room besides amplifiers, DVD players, VHS players and other audio and video equipment. And, regarding the DVD players and VHS players the HTPC is very often replacing them, not sitting there besides them.

IMHO – In My Humble Opinion

LOL – Laughing Out Loud

ROFL – Rolling on the floor laughing (laughing even more than when you laugh out loud)

BSOD – Blue Screen Of Death. The blue screen that a Windows computer will give you when something goes seriously wrong. Usually the most horrible error message of them all. Very often connected to complete hardware failures.

NSFW – Not Safe For Work. “This link is NSFW“. Used to indicate that the content might be offensive. So far the closest thing you get to something that is NSFW on eirikso.com would be this. (…ouch. Did I mention that my mother reads this blog?)

WTF? – What the fuck? Hmm. Maybe one of the words there is NSFW?

w00t! – Something like WOW!, Fantastic!, Yippeeee! Difficult to translate directly, and a part of the very advanced l33t-language. Read the complete explanation of w00t here. Yes, you write w00t using the number zero instead of the letter “o” and l33t using the number three instead of “e”.

OMG – Oh My God

n00b – Newbie. An inexperienced user. “I am a n00b, please be gentle. ”

RTFM – Read The Fucking Manual. If you ask a very stupid question in a forum you sometimes could get a simple RTFM as the answer.

The list goes on. You find one of the most complete lists of internet slang on Wikipedia. Together with the Urban Dictionary you should be covered.

And yes, the fact that my retired mother actually reads this makes me proud of her. 🙂 …problem is that before I know it she’ll start commenting on my bad english.

Usability and error messages

March 30, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

I’m using Bloglines as my RSS reader. I like the fact that it is independent of the computer I use and that it lets me keep a list of clips and a blog of links that I can follow up later.

Today when I tried to access it the site was down for maintenance. Bloglines seem to have systems that let them maintain and keep the service running without having to take it down often, but today they apparently had to take it down for a short while.

What kind of message they give to their users while the system is down is an important part of their communication with their users. And I admit it. I am used to such horrible messages of “Error-whatever-please-come-back-later” that I actually get charmed by messages like this one:

Hi,

I’m the Bloglines Plumber. Bloglines is down for a little fixer upper. We will be back shortly. Bloglines will be all better when I’m done with it.

Thanks,
The Bloglines Plumber

The result of such a communication? Well, the downtime doesn’t bother me at all. Simple as that.

Experimenting with Lightbox for WordPress

March 28, 2006 eirikso11 Comments

Most of the pictures in this blog are thumbnails with a bigger version of the picture behind it. If you click the picture it will simply open the large version in a blank page.

There is a nice java script based plugin for WordPress that gives a bit of extra functionallity for pictures. When you click a thumbnail the bigger version will open on top of the same page with the rest of the page “dimmed”.

The question is: what do you think?
Leave a comment here if you have any thoughts…

The plugin seems to automatically work on all pictures in this blog. Click around and have a look. Should I leave it on, or would you like the good old “open-the-picture-in-a-blank-page”…?

You can try it here by clicking on one of these images (you can simply click it again to close it):

Some info about the images. Taken above Zermatt, Switzerland. With a Canon S2 IS.

The one to the left is the top of Matterhorn. Snapped at the right moment when a plane passed by. The one to the right is at the top of Rothorn. 3883 meters above sea level. Move slowly…

How to waste your company’s money and make an utterly stupid audio format

March 24, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

1. Be careful about timing.
Find an exact point when the majority of the users of existing formats are willing to change their habit. Around 1999 something happened to the way people wanted to consume music.

2. Analyze what this change is all about.
At this point people clearly moved towards more availability and was actually willing to sacrifice quality for the availability. Uncompressed audio was compressed and moved quickly between devices. Welcome MP3, Napster, iPod etc…

3. Now plan a format that is exactly the oposite of what people want
Welcome Super Audio CD (SACD). It was released in 1999. Most of you haven’t even heard about it. It is a very high quality audio format that is so insanely well protected that it won’t play on any of your existing devices.

It’s five channels but it won’t play on your new five channel home theatre. It’s digital but it won’t play on your new media center PC. Or Mac. Or Linux box.

This is just as stupid as it would be to launch a digital version of the good old Compact Cassette at the point when people got used to portable CD players and the professionals that wanted recording capabilities already had the high quality DAT system.

Oh. Wait. Someone did exactly that.

Or failing to understand that a special little disk with very low storage capabilities is not the way to go when people are used to carrying around their complete music library. Eh. Someone did that too…

Sesam.no just got some cheap ad-space

March 22, 2006 eirikso9 Comments

My friend Mykle just sold his MSN Display Picture for $122,50. The lucky winner of the auction on eBay was Norwegian search engine Sesam.no

Now, every time Mykle logs on MSN messenger the logo of Sesam.no shows up above all windows on about 50 computers automatically.

Every time Mykle chats with someone the logo of Sesam.no will be there loud and clear stating that “Mykle supports Sesam.no – better search”.

At $122 that’s a bargain if you ask me.

Building a quiet bleeding edge PC

March 17, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

Yesterday ExtremeTech featured an article about building a quiet but high performing computer for gaming. When building a computer that you want to place in your living room as a media center the question of noise is more important than the question of performance.

You need some power, but not the same kind of bleeding edge processor and graphics that gamers need to drive their advanced 3D action.

That’s why it’s interesting to have a look at people that have tried to silence a very powerful PC. By using the same methods and simply replacing some of the components with slightly lower performing components you can end up with a seriously silent media center PC.

Of course there’s always the question of looks. The important wife acceptance factor (WAF). The computer that ExtremeTech have built does not fit in on top of your amplifier. It looks too much like a regular PC. To solve that, I can simply recommend my own solution: a well ventilated cabinet with a silent fan in a noise reducing mount.

(Via Slashdot)

Run WinXP on a Mac

March 16, 2006 eirikso2 Comments

The contest is over. You can now run WinXP on the 17- and 20-inch iMacs, MacBook Pro, and new Mac Mini.

It’s just a question of time before someone manage to run MediaPortal, GBPVR, Meedio or a full Windows Media Center Edition on the new MacMini. A computer that has a seriously cool form factor as a media center. It looks good. It’s quiet.

Throw in two Hauppauge PVR-USB2 and a 1 TB external disk and you have a very nice HTPC.

This could bring a complete Media Center solution with TV-functionallity, an electronic program guide and a large user base to the Mac before Apple gets its act together and completes Front Row. But both CenterStage and MediaCentral seems to be alive and kicking. Maybe sticking to native OSX is a good idea after all? I need to get hold of a MacMini to do some tests…

ShowShifter is for sale

March 15, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

One of the pioneers in the media center software market has shut down and are selling all their assets.

ShowShifter was one of the first true media center softwares out there. And the first package that I used in my living room. I still miss the usability of the Music Library in that package. They had truly excellent navigation and a very easy possibility to make playlists from the remote.

They also supported offline recompression at a very early stage and had a great user community making plugins and enhancing the product. They did some bad mistakes and was simply too late featuring a proper electronic program guide and support for hardware encoding cards.

Now you can buy the remains of the company, the source code and probably their database of users.

So if owning a mediacenter is not enough, buy yourself a complete company. Or you can support the best brains from the users. They would like to purchase Showshifter and make it into a project run by the community: Help save Showshifter!

Recommended HTPC hardware

March 14, 2006 eirikso19 Comments

Because hardware changes fast it is difficult to make a list of recommendations that will last more than a couple of weeks. But people keeps asking, so here’s a quick list of some good equipment if you want to build yourself a home theatre computer.

Cabinet
The expensive but perfect:
mCubed HFX

The cheaper one:
Silverstone LC03 (review)

Power supply
Silverstone ST30NF (review)

TV-Card
Hauppauge PVR-500

Screen card
Nvidia GeForce 6600GT (review)
Note
I don’t know if this card fits in any of the cabinets recommended here. My main message is: choose a Nvidia GeForce 6600GT that is as silent as possible but still will fit into the case you choose.

CPU
As powerful AMD Athlon 64 as you can afford. The AMD processors has a “cool’n quiet” technology that makes them perfect for HTPCs. Lately people have also started using Pentium M processors in HTPCs. The selection of mainboards that support the Pentium M is not big, but this processor is perfect for a silent computer for your living room.

Memory
at least 512 MB (preferably 1 GIG)

Disk
As large as possible. Cool. Quiet. In general the seagate Barracuda 7200 disks has been quite good. The best qolution is to mount the disk in a 5 1/4″ bay in a special silencer to avoid vibrations. The Nexus DiskTwin is a good choice.

Fans and coolers
Zalman has a good selection of silent coolers and fans

Complete systems
Hush Technologies has fanless HTPC systems
In Norway a company caled Vendur can deliver complete fanless systems
For small media servers Mini-ITX.com is a good source
Niveus media has some beautiful and expensive systems
Voodoo Media Centers are also worth a look

But these things change fast and you should always do a bit of research before buying. Some good resources:
HTPC News
Good Media Center Blogs
AVS Forum

Screen technologies. LCD or Plasma?

March 13, 2006 eirikso8 Comments

People keeps asking me what I would recommend for a home theatre PC (HTPC). LCD or Plasma? In general I would recommend a good LCD. I know that the problems with burn in have been close to eliminated on the best plasma screens. Still, I find the crisp and clean LCD picture with absolutely no burn in problem preferable. A quick roundup:

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
First of all, it is perfectly OK to use your old tube. A standard cathode ray tube (CRT) connected to a PC through S-Video or even composite video should work fine if you adjust your screen card and use a proper media center software. The whole point of these softwares is to give you a front end from your computer that looks good even on low resolution television screens.

A quick trouble shooting tip: if you get a black and white signal from your PC when connecting through S-Video you probably have to select the correct output (S-Video ro Y/C) in your screen settings. If you get black and white when connecting through composite you probably have to take a look at the video format settings. Choosing NTSC when you have a PAL television could give you a black and white picture.

Liquid Chrystal Display (LCD)
LCD has been used for computer screens for some time. For the last couple of years they have been able to produce them big enough for use as television sets. Only half a year ago it was a problem that the contrast ratio (the difference between black and white) was too low. Resulting in loss of detail in dark and bright scenes. Now, that is about to end. Some of the vendors has introduced LCDs with contrast ratios of 3000:1 and 5000:1. Earlier that was only possible for Plasma displays. Another problem was response time. Bad response times could result in problems with fast moving video. Now, most LCD screens have a response time of 8 milliseconds or better. That should be enough for most people watching video or playing games on their screen.

Plasma
Plasma screens traditionally gives better contrast ratio, a more correct black level and in general a slightly more soft picture. Half a year ago a good plasma would without doubt outperform a good LCD in quality for watching movies. Right now that have changed because of better LCD panels. In general you have to pay more for a proper high resolution plasma compared to a high resolution LCD (a resolution of 1280 x 720 or more).

And for the people that want more than a quick round up:
Wikipedia: CRT, LCD, Plasma
Comparison: Plasma vs. LCD TVs

And yes, the pictures in this post are all super close ups of the described technologies. With compliments to my new Canon S2 IS!

eirikso

Photo, media, technology

Month: March 2006