Archive for Techy
November 4, 2008 at 1:52 am · Filed under Music, Take a Lap, Techy
The conventional Portable Media Player (PMP) sucks. Yes, I’m looking at you, iPod and Zune. It takes some left-wing thinking, but I feel it is the right one.
Story time.
I’m using a laptop, which the previous English teachers at my school have used. Upon receival, I began sifting through the files. What I first learned is that one of the teachers had been a Zune user. I looked through the music folder and was bewildered to find over 20 Gigs of music! Wow.
The teacher was an older man, so he had a lot of, what I would call classic or old bands. Some of it was good; Some of it was not. However, when I tried to play the music… It wouldn’t play. WTF. It wasn’t playing in VLC player, which is a swiss army knife of music players. What gives?
It turns out that this teacher was on the straight and narrow path. The majority of his collection was ALL legally purchased music from the Zune store. Now, there is no shame in that. It’s an honorable route. But, it’s not my route. Living in Korea away from your comfort music can be rough. Some of these older bands would be hard to find on any pirate websites. So, purchasing these albums would be the ideal choice.
However, these files are laced with DRM. Efff that, I say. This is why I couldn’t play the music with VLC player. The DRM wouldn’t allow me. “OK”, I thought, I’ll open the Zune software and listen to his music collection. Nope! I can’t do that either. To listen to the music, you have to log in with your Zune password. “Gaaahhh, foiled again!”
There were 20 Gigs of music here and none of it was playable.
… I know, right? In the end, there was nothing I could do.
/Uninstall Zune software. Goodbye. /Select all music folders and delete. Goodbye music. You are of no use to me. What a shame.
Now, let’s look at you iPod. I’ve been using you for the last 2 years and you are not without fault either. I’ve never bought music from the iTunes store. So, I wont comment on that. I still buy most of my CDs. However, all iTunes songs, also, come laced with DRM. Can I use iTunes songs with a Zune? No. Can I use iTunes songs with a Creative Zen? No. I have to use and iPod. Where’s the freedom in that?
And, dont even get me started on the quality of the song downloads. An mp3 is not a lossless file.
Secondly, I have to use that gorram program iTunes. I hate it. All I want to do is transfer MY music from MY computer to MY iPod. But, the software is so bloated. It does all of this shit that I dont want it to. I dont want you to download new updates. I dont want you to try and sync with the internet or take me to the iTunes store.
I dont even have iTunes installed on this laptop. I dont want to install it. Therefore, I can’t add new music to my iPod if I wanted to. I cant take music off either. If you go into the iPod filesystem, all the songs are garbles and unreadable if you try to take them off the iPod.
Before I came to Korea I thought about buying a new Nano. I thought about buying an iPod Touch, too, for the video capabilities. I’m glad I didn’t. There are restrictions and limitations of the video you can put on it. I dont want to spend hours converting video to the appropriate format of Apple’s choice.
The current standard is too restrictive and limited. I dont like it. There has to be a better PMP out there. And I think there is. When my nano dies, I wont go back for another one. I dont care about the ‘cool’ or ‘wow’ factor. I’m going to blast it up a notch.
September 27, 2008 at 11:12 pm · Filed under Techy
Sometime ago, I blogged about a little piece of software, CHDK, that would add more function to your Canon pointandshoot. I never got around to the project, because I didn’t have an SD card reader. I cant put the CHDK on the SD card.
Well, maybe, I can kill 2 birds with one stone.
I haven’t been playing my DS much either. I have a modchip device for my DS, which I bought in Korea. It worked for a time, but eventually “backup” games began to freeze during mid-game. It was annoying, because I got to the end of FF3, like the very end, and it would continuously glitch at one spot. It happened with Zelda, too. I’m not certain what is causing the freeze. I dont think it’s the games, and I blame the outdated modchip. So, I’m buying a new different card.
The new one uses SD memory to backup and store games. To put games on the SD card, you can hook it to the PC with a small USB reader, which comes with the modchip card. You see where I’m going here.
Maybe, I can get the DS to run backups again, without freezing, AND add the CHDK to my pointandshoot. Supposedly I can add some media functions to the DS, as well. I can’t wait!
September 12, 2008 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Techy
Since I’ve been home, I’ve been on the hunt for my missing media and tea mug. I’ve been missing my media the most, because it was a box of DVDs and CDs. I’m talking live bootlegs, ripped DVDs, homebrew software, and just archives of stuff. It was tragic that I couldn’t find this box.
Did I leave it in Chicago? I dont think so.
Did the box bounce out of my roommate’s truck when I moved? Possibly, but not likely.
Where the hell is it?!
Today, I walked upstairs and stared hard at my Dell computer boxes. The big one is for the tower. Those two are the monitors. What’s that bottom one? I moved all the boxes. Sure enough, at the bottom of the stack, there it was, my missing media! It’s been sitting at the top of the stairs all this time. I walked by it maybe ten times a day.
Well, that’s uncovered. Now,… if I could only find that tea mug.
May 7, 2008 at 7:17 pm · Filed under Photos, Techy
This will probably be my weekend project.
Camera Hacks: Turn Your PAS into a Super Camera
It wont become a DSLR, but it looks like it adds some useful functionality to the hohum “point and shoot”.
UPDATE: Well, it looks like my project will have to wait. I’m having some difficulty getting access to the root of my SD card. I’ll have to obtain a card reader or delve deeper into mounting the camera.
May 2, 2008 at 10:40 pm · Filed under Techy
Lately, I’ve decided that my computer should be doing something.
When on the computer, I just surf the web, listen to music, and watch video. (That’s all I bought it for.) It’s not CPU intensive or working to it’s full capacity. Often, I allow the computer to run when I’m not using it directly. I bittorrent overnight, but still the computer isn’t really doing anything. I’m not using any CPU power or being productive. Until, now!
I decided to do some folding.
Folding@Home is a project from Stanford University that uses millions of networked PCs to form a supercomputer for protein folding simulations. The client software is loaded on a PC, it contacts the central servers, and receives “work units”. The client then runs on spare CPU time, and uploads finished work units to the server. ~Folding@Home
I first set it up using Windows. The client was hassle free, but then I watched my folding in progress. I realized that folding my protein would take hours (or days) to finish. I don’t like using Windows for that long. So, I had to research the Ubuntu alternative.
With Ubuntu, I dread installing anything that’s not in the Package Manager (automated installer). It’s a bit of a hassle to find an up to date tutorial, and I’m not a linux wizard. Luckily, installing the folding program didn’t take too long (~2 hours).
This is protein p2526_AM22-43. Thus far, it’s taken a day for my P4 3GHz Dual Core CPU to get half way through this beast. But, now, I can actually put my computer to work for something useful.
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