Re: [CGUYS] Zune HD TV Interface Makes It a Media Center For Your Pocket
Well mr moneybags, 2500 dollars to listen to a ten dollar cd is cost prohibitive to a lot of people. On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 10:30 PM, Eric S. Sande esa...@erols.com wrote: A lot people of any generation, the cost is prohibitive. Beg to differ. One of the fastest growing and most innovative areas of hi-fi is in headphone systems. The youngsters all ready use Ipods and Zunes, they all ready have computers. They may not have the scratch for a full blown rig, but you can get audiophile quality for not too much more than a Mac Mini, a decent DAC/headphone amp, and some relatively cheap interconnects. Absolutely kills any Ipod or Zune on the planet for under US$2500 or less. Do it with a last generation PC for even less. Mac Mini (new) US$600.00 Benchmark DAC1 US$1000.00 Sennheiser HD600sUS$300.00 Optical interconnectUS$20.00 Itunes Free Monitor, keyboard US$200.00 Of course you're on you're own as far as the tunes are concerned. But that is highly respectable hardware that will support later expansion, that is the way I went, except that my music server is a PC. You can get less expensive than that but only if you are willimg to trade off the control flexibility and balanced outputs of the DAC mentioned. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** * * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune HD TV Interface Makes It a Media Center For Your Pocket
On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 1:30 AM, Eric S. Sandeesa...@erols.com wrote: A lot people of any generation, the cost is prohibitive. Beg to differ. One of the fastest growing and most innovative areas of hi-fi is in headphone systems. The youngsters all ready use Ipods and Zunes, they all ready have computers. They may not have the scratch for a full blown rig, but you can get audiophile quality for not too much more than a Mac Mini, a decent DAC/headphone amp, and some relatively cheap interconnects. Absolutely kills any Ipod or Zune on the planet for under US$2500 or less. Do it with a last generation PC for even less. Mac Mini (new) US$600.00 Benchmark DAC1 US$1000.00 Sennheiser HD600s US$300.00 Optical interconnect US$20.00 Itunes Free Monitor, keyboard US$200.00 Of course you're on you're own as far as the tunes are concerned. But that is highly respectable hardware that will support later expansion, that is the way I went, except that my music server is a PC. You can get less expensive than that but only if you are willimg to trade off the control flexibility and balanced outputs of the DAC mentioned. I merely send the audio output from my computer to my existing stereo system by way of cables. The result is audio that is magnitudes better than from the computer speakers. Cheap. I also have numerous CDs loaded with MP3s that are categorized into folders. I play the CDs via the CD/DVD player which has a small 9 B/W monitor attached, allowing me to view the contents of the CDs and to navigate through the offerings using the DVD player remote control. The player also has a USB port that I use in conjunction with flash drives to quickly and easily listen to newly obtained music. I often will record to my hard drive interesting music streams from the internet and listen to them later. Steve * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Subject: drupal for only 10 million
Looks like the price tag ($18M) is for 5 years of work with an ambitious mission statement and new content constantly added. Our cons/neocons had made it sound like it was for a weekend's work. They lied to us for 8 years and I guess it is hard to break a habit. Agencies are starting to see that government needs to be part of this larger information ecosystem, said Sheila Campbell, co- chairwoman of the Federal Web Managers Council. Managing the Web isn't just managing the Web site. It means putting the content out where people are on the Web. Great dot-gov Web Sites 2009 http://gcn.com/Articles/2009/07/27/GCN-Great-Gov-Web-Sites-2009.aspx Go visit these government sites and enjoy a job well done! Don't miss the contrast between the really good government sites and the shabby GCN site. Do note aspx at the end of the GCN URL. (ASP.NET is a web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft. Ho, ho, ho.) I have analyzed the code of some of these dot-gov sites and, as I wrote before, they are very well crafted. Lots to learn from their example. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
[CGUYS] Disk geometry error - solved but not cured
In case anybody was wondering, I did figure out what I did wrong with the 100-500GB disk upgrade. The original disk in a Dell notebook came with a host protected area (HPA). Dell uses this area to store extra features, which in this case was Media Direct. The cloning process (Acronis True-Image) duplicates track 0, which includes code in LBA-3 that exposes the Media Direct package when requested. However, the cloning process does not copy the contents of the HPA. The result is that the OS reports that there is HPA beginning at about 95GB. This is a boot-up BIOS feature that occurs in both Windows and Linux. When the new disk is booted, only the first 90-plus GB are seen, and the rest (400GB or so) are behind the HPA. The solution is to zap LBA-3, the sector that contains the HPA activation/exposure jump address. If this is zero, the system sees no HPA, and all is fine. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Disk geometry error - solved but not cured
I've seen lots of disks with extra partitions for manufacturer stuff. But usually it's a simple matter to just ignore it and toss in a newly copied hard drive. I guess what I'm saying is this explanation doesn't make sense to me. Do you have a link for further reading? Or is this just another reason not to use Acronis? PS Yes, there are still a few people on this list that like to talk about computers. For now. On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Jackjwz...@gmail.com wrote: In case anybody was wondering, I did figure out what I did wrong with the 100-500GB disk upgrade. The original disk in a Dell notebook came with a host protected area (HPA). Dell uses this area to store extra features, which in this case was Media Direct. The cloning process (Acronis True-Image) duplicates track 0, which includes code in LBA-3 that exposes the Media Direct package when requested. However, the cloning process does not copy the contents of the HPA. The result is that the OS reports that there is HPA beginning at about 95GB. This is a boot-up BIOS feature that occurs in both Windows and Linux. When the new disk is booted, only the first 90-plus GB are seen, and the rest (400GB or so) are behind the HPA. The solution is to zap LBA-3, the sector that contains the HPA activation/exposure jump address. If this is zero, the system sees no HPA, and all is fine. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune HD TV Interface Makes It a Media Center For Your Pocket
I have a computer hooked up to a pioneer receiver with svideo and digital audio, I've put all my cds and some dvds on the computer and can play anything with my ipod touch working as the remote. Since it's controlled via wifi, I don't even have t be in the same room. On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 1:48 AM, phartz...@gmail.com phartz...@gmail.comwrote: On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 1:30 AM, Eric S. Sandeesa...@erols.com wrote: A lot people of any generation, the cost is prohibitive. Beg to differ. One of the fastest growing and most innovative areas of hi-fi is in headphone systems. The youngsters all ready use Ipods and Zunes, they all ready have computers. They may not have the scratch for a full blown rig, but you can get audiophile quality for not too much more than a Mac Mini, a decent DAC/headphone amp, and some relatively cheap interconnects. Absolutely kills any Ipod or Zune on the planet for under US$2500 or less. Do it with a last generation PC for even less. Mac Mini (new) US$600.00 Benchmark DAC1 US$1000.00 Sennheiser HD600sUS$300.00 Optical interconnectUS$20.00 Itunes Free Monitor, keyboard US$200.00 Of course you're on you're own as far as the tunes are concerned. But that is highly respectable hardware that will support later expansion, that is the way I went, except that my music server is a PC. You can get less expensive than that but only if you are willimg to trade off the control flexibility and balanced outputs of the DAC mentioned. I merely send the audio output from my computer to my existing stereo system by way of cables. The result is audio that is magnitudes better than from the computer speakers. Cheap. I also have numerous CDs loaded with MP3s that are categorized into folders. I play the CDs via the CD/DVD player which has a small 9 B/W monitor attached, allowing me to view the contents of the CDs and to navigate through the offerings using the DVD player remote control. The player also has a USB port that I use in conjunction with flash drives to quickly and easily listen to newly obtained music. I often will record to my hard drive interesting music streams from the internet and listen to them later. Steve * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** * * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Subject: drupal for only 10 million
Hold on, you need to give some warning so I can get my hip boots on before you start shoveling this much high end shite. On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 7:01 AM, TPiwowar t...@tjpa.com wrote: Looks like the price tag ($18M) is for 5 years of work with an ambitious mission statement and new content constantly added. Our cons/neocons had made it sound like it was for a weekend's work. They lied to us for 8 years and I guess it is hard to break a habit. Agencies are starting to see that government needs to be part of this larger information ecosystem, said Sheila Campbell, co-chairwoman of the Federal Web Managers Council. Managing the Web isn't just managing the Web site. It means putting the content out where people are on the Web. Great dot-gov Web Sites 2009 http://gcn.com/Articles/2009/07/27/GCN-Great-Gov-Web-Sites-2009.aspx Go visit these government sites and enjoy a job well done! Don't miss the contrast between the really good government sites and the shabby GCN site. Do note aspx at the end of the GCN URL. (ASP.NET is a web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft. Ho, ho, ho.) I have analyzed the code of some of these dot-gov sites and, as I wrote before, they are very well crafted. Lots to learn from their example. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** * * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
[CGUYS] Consumer Level Rechargeable Battery Technology
All, I'd lie to get some advice. I am running a wireless mouse/keyboard combination. Mouse uses two AA's; Keyboard a single AAA. I'd like to reduce the batteries I send to the recycle by switching to rechargeables. I have not had any first had experience with rechargeables this century. Anyone have any charger/battery technology (Brand) combinations that work well? Thank you in advance. Regards, John S. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Consumer Level Rechargeable Battery Technology
NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargeable batteries in AA and AAA format abound for use in digital cameras. Made by various manufacturers. Generally they are used and recharged in pairs, which makes the use of a single AAA in the keyboard a bit problematical. I have used them in cameras, but generally don't, because they self-discharge over time, and I'm a person who may not use his camera for six months or more, but want it ready-to-go when I pick it up. I use non-rechargeable lithium batteries made by Eveready/Energizer (Bunny), because they store a whole lot more energy / last a whole lot longer (several times more) than even the best of the alkaline batteries. I think you can do OK with the NiMH batteries / charger purchased anywhere, e.g., Radio Shack, Best Buy, Penn Camera, etc. The fully-charged voltage of an NiMH battery is a bit below the new voltage of an alkaline battery (1.55 v). That may cause a problem in some applications. Fred Holmes At 12:41 PM 8/18/2009, John Settle wrote: All, I'd lie to get some advice. I am running a wireless mouse/keyboard combination. Mouse uses two AA's; Keyboard a single AAA. I'd like to reduce the batteries I send to the recycle by switching to rechargeables. I have not had any first had experience with rechargeables this century. Anyone have any charger/battery technology (Brand) combinations that work well? Thank you in advance. Regards, John S. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Consumer Level Rechargeable Battery Technology
On Aug 18, 2009, at 12:41 PM, John Settle wrote: Anyone have any charger/battery technology (Brand) combinations that work well? LSD NiMH... Sanyo Eneloop http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Eneloop-Pre-Charged- Rechargeable-Batteries/product-reviews/B000IV2YLY Rayovac Hybrid Kodak Pre-Charged Duracell Pre Charged * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Disk geometry error - solved but not cured
On Aug 18, 2009, at 11:18 AM, Tony B wrote: I guess what I'm saying is this explanation doesn't make sense to me. Do you have a link for further reading? Or is this just another reason not to use Acronis? Nothing wrong with Acronis. Different methods of copying are appropriate in different cases. You need to use the right tool and the right settings for the particular job. Making a bit-for-bit copy is going to give you an exact replica. If somebody has messed with track zero the copied drive will have the exact same modification. A bit-for-bit copy of a 100GB drive onto a 500GB platter will still look like a 100GB drive. To get the lost 400GB you will need to go back and mess with the drive some more or use a different copy method. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Disk geometry error - solved but not cured
Maybe I'm just misunderstanding, but I think you're wrong here. In the old days disk imaging may have done bit for bit clones, but these days they use compression, and they ignore empty spaces on the disk. So they have no trouble copying a partition to a different size disk. i.e., Last week I 'restored' my Vista 50gb partition to a brand new 75gb partition. It does not look like a 50gb partition to the OS. On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 2:24 PM, TPiwowar t...@tjpa.com wrote: Making a bit-for-bit copy is going to give you an exact replica. If somebody has messed with track zero the copied drive will have the exact same modification. A bit-for-bit copy of a 100GB drive onto a 500GB platter will still look like a 100GB drive. To get the lost 400GB you will need to go back and mess with the drive some more or use a different copy method. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] COMPUTERGUYS-L Digest - 17 Aug 2009 to 18 Aug 2009 - Special issue (#2009-787)
Date:Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:18:31 -0400 From:Tony B ton...@gmail.com Subject: Re: Disk geometry error - solved but not cured MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I've seen lots of disks with extra partitions for manufacturer stuff. But usually it's a simple matter to just ignore it and toss in a newly copied hard drive. I guess what I'm saying is this explanation doesn't make sense to me. Do you have a link for further reading? Or is this just another reason not to use Acronis? PS Yes, there are still a few people on this list that like to talk about computers. For now. Hi Tony. Yes my message was abbreviated and light on details. I didn't want to get caught in the cross-fire of a debate. ;- I should have gone to the Acronis site straight away, because 15 minutes of poking through their support forums uncovered the issue. Apparently it happens when ... a. You have a disk with an HPA, which Dell uses for Media Direct; b. You use Acronis to clone a disk to a larger disk. Start here: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm and here: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=166906#9 I have nothing but good to say about Acronis. (knock-on-wood) I could probably cook up some good scripts in Linux using `dd` `rsync` and `zip`, and achieve the same effect, but I do like me my Acronis. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Disk geometry error - solved but not cured
On Aug 18, 2009, at 2:41 PM, Tony B wrote: Maybe I'm just misunderstanding, but I think you're wrong here. In the old days disk imaging may have done bit for bit clones, but these days they use compression, and they ignore empty spaces on the disk. So they have no trouble copying a partition to a different size disk. i.e., Last week I 'restored' my Vista 50gb partition to a brand new 75gb partition. It does not look like a 50gb partition to the OS. Some of us like to have choices. You are describing a different choice as if it were the only way to do it. There are times when a bit-for-bit copy is just the ticket. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
[CGUYS] Flush With Cash and Fearing Rules, Major Carriers Tell Rural America to Get Lost
Looks like rural America will get to keep its guns and religion, but it ain't gonna get no DSL. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/ AR2009081302433.html?wpisrc=newsletterwpisrc=newsletter The Obama administration made a national priority of spreading high- speed Internet access to every American home and offered stimulus money to help companies pay for it, but the biggest network operators are staying away from the program. All three say they are flush with cash, enough to upgrade and expand their broadband networks on their own. Where did all this money come from that they can so cavalierly pass on $4.7 billion. Are we being overcharged? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune HD TV Interface Makes It a Media Center For Your Pocket
Well mr moneybags, 2500 dollars to listen to a ten dollar cd is cost prohibitive to a lot of people. OK, I'll accept that. But consider it from a different perspective. If you bought one $10 CD a week for 30 years, you'd have 1500 CDs, which is a respectable but not even close to impressive collection. THIS is an impressive collection: http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/09/biggest-record-collection-in-the-world-paul-mawhinney/ Puts a new perspective on a $2500 headphone system. Assuming you all ready have a computer with a USB port, how about this: HeadRoom Micro DACUS$333.00 Sennheiser HD600s US$300.00 Creek OBH-21 Amplifier US$375.00 $1008.00. Better? Not as flexible, but still very good. The HD600s are in my opinion the best value in high end audio right now, but an Ipod won't drive them. Either of the DACs I've mentioned is better than an Ipods'. Swap out the OBH-21 for an OBH-11 and you're at $833.00. I can't get as low as an Ipod because I'm reluctant to compromise too far on DAC, amp, or transducers. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Flush With Cash and Fearing Rules, Major Carriers Tell Rural America to Get Lost
In case you missed this: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2009/05/13/Verizon-Frontier-agree-to-86B-sale/UPI-64691242244299/ No comment. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Flush With Cash and Fearing Rules, Major Carriers Tell Rural America to Get Lost
On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 7:10 PM, TPiwowart...@tjpa.com wrote: Where did all this money come from that they can so cavalierly pass on $4.7 billion. Are we being overcharged? Of course we are being overcharged. I am sure that you already know that. To wit, we pay, on average, five times what users in the Netherlands pay, and our broadband bills are typically at least twice as much as in most other countries. Corporate Amerika Rules, the only country in the world that has no federal law mandating vacation for its workers. Steve * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Consumer Level Rechargeable Battery Technology
At 12:41 PM -0400 8/18/09, John Settle wrote: I'd lie to get some advice. I am running a wireless mouse/keyboard combination. Mouse uses two AA's; Keyboard a single AAA. I'd like to reduce the batteries I send to the recycle by switching to rechargeables. I have not had any first had experience with rechargeables this century. Anyone have any charger/battery technology (Brand) combinations that work well? I use Kodak rechargeable NiMH batteries in my digital camera, and like them a lot. They hold their charge well. I bought 4 AA batteries along with a charger at WalMart. Don't remember the price, but they were not the cheapest. They were still reasonable, though. -- Roger Lovettsville, VA * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune HD TV Interface Makes It a Media Center For Your Pocket
Another perspective on why Zune HD is a failure... Bad Idea #5. Go one better. As the rise and fall of Friendfeed indicates, copying the basic functionality of a successful application (Twitter, in this case) and adding a few new features -- doing the same thing slightly better from some perspective -- doesn't usually lead to attracting many users away from the copied application. It takes a radical recast of functionality -- a revolutionary increase in capabilities, or a new paradigm of use -- to get people to drop something they have been happily using and to adopt some alternative, especially when they are connected to many other users by the application. But you'd better expect to see better mousetraps of all descriptions continue to appear -- and then fade away. Five Common Pitfalls of Web Applications http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?doc_id=180607 * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Flush With Cash and Fearing Rules, Major Carriers Tell Rural America to Get Lost
On Aug 18, 2009, at 7:30 PM, Eric S. Sande wrote: In case you missed this: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2009/05/13/Verizon-Frontier-agree- to-86B-sale/UPI-64691242244299/ Wow I did! Approximately 11,000 Verizon employees will switch to working for Frontier, Verizon said. Verizon is bailing completely on those farmers. I never would have imagined. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Flush With Cash and Fearing Rules, Major Carriers Tell Rural America to Get Lost
Wow I did! It ain't exactly news. http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/03/30/fairpoint_verizon_deal_comes_to_a_close_on_monday/ No comment, I'm just sayin'. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune HD TV Interface Makes It a Media Center For Your Pocket
Another perspective on why Zune HD is a failure... A failure that hasn't been released yet? Interesting point of view. Perhaps we should wait just a bit. Reminds me of Dave Barry, who starts referring to new administrations as failed on about January 21. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
