Here are 10 random songs from my playlist
Paradise City by Guns N Roses
Headshrinker by Oasis
Yellow by Coldplay
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own by U2
All Star by Smash Mouth
Strange Thing by Oasis
Hey Jude by Beatles
Sweetest Thing by U2
Closing Time by Semisonic
Roll Me Away by Bob Seger
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Calling all Nokia N800 and N810 owners :-)
Anyone out there run GPE-Calendar on their Nokia N800 or N810 Internet tablet? If so, I've got a treat for you :) Just recently I got so fed up with the default alarm from GPE-Calendar that I decided to grab the code and fix it. For those who have not had the displeasure of hearing this alarm it sounds like a British ambulance siren and it runs continuously for a full 2 minutes when it goes off. Better hope your office mate is not alone with it when it goes off or you may find your N800/N810 in pieces when you come back!! It is sooo annoying that I leave my N800 on mute most of the time so it does not go off when I'm in a meeting at work. Because of this I've been late to a few meetings, the most recent of which prompted me to fix this annoyance within this otherwise awesome calendar program.
My patch modifies GPE-Calendar (only if ./configured with --enable-hildon) such that it DOES NOT use the normal gpe-calendar alarm interface. Instead when an alarm is due to fire it creates a Maemo alarm event set to fire immediately! The Maemo alarm interface is the default/built-in alarm interface for the N8xx series. It provides snooze capability, custom snooze timeouts, and, most importantly, custom alarm sounds!! Just replace /usr/share/sounds/ui-clock_alarm.mp3 with any mp3 of your choice and GPE-Calendar will play it to alert you of your impending obligation.
For those interested my current patch can be found at the end of this post. If you do not waish to download the 400MB+ development environment for the N800/N810 and fight through learning to compile GPE-Calendar and all of its dependencies send me an e-mail (or leave a comment on my blog (hernejj.blogspot.com/) and I'll send you my gpe-calendar binary which *should* work as a drop-in-replacement for your /usr/bin/gpe-calendar if you are running
the version of GPE-Calendar available at http://maemo.org/downloads .
I've sent an e-mail to the gpe-mailing list including my patch so I can work on getting it accepted into their code repository. In the mean time, I'm posting the first version of this patch here (http://sites.google.com/site/hernejj/) for the benefit of anyone who cares.
My patch modifies GPE-Calendar (only if ./configured with --enable-hildon) such that it DOES NOT use the normal gpe-calendar alarm interface. Instead when an alarm is due to fire it creates a Maemo alarm event set to fire immediately! The Maemo alarm interface is the default/built-in alarm interface for the N8xx series. It provides snooze capability, custom snooze timeouts, and, most importantly, custom alarm sounds!! Just replace /usr/share/sounds/ui-clock_alarm.mp3 with any mp3 of your choice and GPE-Calendar will play it to alert you of your impending obligation.
For those interested my current patch can be found at the end of this post. If you do not waish to download the 400MB+ development environment for the N800/N810 and fight through learning to compile GPE-Calendar and all of its dependencies send me an e-mail (or leave a comment on my blog (hernejj.blogspot.com/) and I'll send you my gpe-calendar binary which *should* work as a drop-in-replacement for your /usr/bin/gpe-calendar if you are running
the version of GPE-Calendar available at http://maemo.org/downloads .
I've sent an e-mail to the gpe-mailing list including my patch so I can work on getting it accepted into their code repository. In the mean time, I'm posting the first version of this patch here (http://sites.google.com/site/hernejj/) for the benefit of anyone who cares.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Sennheiser HD 380 Pro Headphones
I got a chance to hear these as a local Guitar center and they sound awesome! I WAS headed in to buy the Sennheiser HD 280's (Pro) until I heard these. The 380's completely blow the 280's away. There is JUST no comparison.
The Bass response is amazing for closed ear headphones. This is quite rare from what I understand.
You can hear all the detail in the highs and mid-ranges and everything sounds crystal clear. Close your eyes and you might think you're sitting in a concert hall.
Since Sennheiser still does not have anything about these headphones on their web page I e-mailed them for info and got the following:
Product Features
Collapsible high-end headphone for professional monitoring use
Highly advanced features for superior sound-monitoring- Extended frequency
response for accurate, reliable sound reproduction- Increased sound
pressure level (110dB) to handle demanding use
Closed circumaural design for excellent passive attenuation of ambient
noise (up to 32dB)
Exceptional comfort for extended listening
Carrying case included for engineers on the go
Replaceable single-sided, coiled cable with 3.5mm jack connector and screw
type adapter to ¼"
Easily replaceable parts for long service life
Headphone with detachable coiled cable, Carrying case, ¼" jack adapter
Technical Data
Connector 3.5 mm plug, straight (separate ¼" jack adapter included)
Cable length 1m coiled, extendable up to 3m
Frequency response 8 - 27,000 Hz
Weight 220 g (excluding cable)
THD < 0.1 % (1kHz, 100dB SPL)
Impedance 54 Ohm
Transducer principle Dynamic
Sound pressure level 110 dB (1kHz, 1Vrms)
I can only find 2 places that sell these headphones right now. Musicians Friend (and thus, Amazon) and Guitar center.
Oh and another thing, the sound isolation these things provide is SECOND To NONE (Except maybe the 280's)! Even with the volume extremely low I could not hear people talking who were standing 3 feet away from me! I was listening to Guns N Roses when one of the sales guys fired up a Bose system in the same room... it was so loud that (without the 380's on my head) I couldn't hear people talking but with the 380's on I barely heard the music coming from the Bose system.
These are totally worth $200!!!! And I'm not even a hardcore audio guy. If you don't believe me just demo these things are your nearest Guitar Center! Take your current headphones with you so you can compare them.
The Bass response is amazing for closed ear headphones. This is quite rare from what I understand.
You can hear all the detail in the highs and mid-ranges and everything sounds crystal clear. Close your eyes and you might think you're sitting in a concert hall.
Since Sennheiser still does not have anything about these headphones on their web page I e-mailed them for info and got the following:
Product Features
Collapsible high-end headphone for professional monitoring use
Highly advanced features for superior sound-monitoring- Extended frequency
response for accurate, reliable sound reproduction- Increased sound
pressure level (110dB) to handle demanding use
Closed circumaural design for excellent passive attenuation of ambient
noise (up to 32dB)
Exceptional comfort for extended listening
Carrying case included for engineers on the go
Replaceable single-sided, coiled cable with 3.5mm jack connector and screw
type adapter to ¼"
Easily replaceable parts for long service life
Headphone with detachable coiled cable, Carrying case, ¼" jack adapter
Technical Data
Connector 3.5 mm plug, straight (separate ¼" jack adapter included)
Cable length 1m coiled, extendable up to 3m
Frequency response 8 - 27,000 Hz
Weight 220 g (excluding cable)
THD < 0.1 % (1kHz, 100dB SPL)
Impedance 54 Ohm
Transducer principle Dynamic
Sound pressure level 110 dB (1kHz, 1Vrms)
I can only find 2 places that sell these headphones right now. Musicians Friend (and thus, Amazon) and Guitar center.
Oh and another thing, the sound isolation these things provide is SECOND To NONE (Except maybe the 280's)! Even with the volume extremely low I could not hear people talking who were standing 3 feet away from me! I was listening to Guns N Roses when one of the sales guys fired up a Bose system in the same room... it was so loud that (without the 380's on my head) I couldn't hear people talking but with the 380's on I barely heard the music coming from the Bose system.
These are totally worth $200!!!! And I'm not even a hardcore audio guy. If you don't believe me just demo these things are your nearest Guitar Center! Take your current headphones with you so you can compare them.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Audio Setup!
I recently picked up an audio amplifier (a Technics SA-GX670 to be specific) at a garage sale for $10! This amp retailed for $400 in 1994 when it was made and since good audio equipment rarely depreciates in value I'm assuming that this thing is still worth a pretty penny. I actually talked the seller down from $15!! He original refused my offer of $10 but when I returned to his lawn 3 hours later I think he was more interested in getting rid of it than maximizing profits. Sure it was a gamble and I only saved $5, but I wasn't sure I really wanted it and at the time I had no idea how much this thing rocked!!
Me not really being a hardcore audio guy, I brought the amp home and it sat on my kitchen table for 2 days before I eventually got around to hooking it up to my computer. I'm not an audiophile and I've generally been happy with my $30 2.1 speaker setup that I've had for about 4 years now. It was a little hard for me to believe that this over sized chunk of metal was going to make a noticeable difference. So using a $5 USB sound card (since my busted on-board sound card only produces a single channel of output these days) I played some tunes to get a feel for how this amp could make my music sound better. There was a slight difference. I could hear more, things seemed a little clearer. I began to suspect that a bigger better set of speakers would make even more of a difference so I stole my wife's stereo speakers which tend to sound pretty good in my opinion. I replayed the music I was previously listened to and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! I was hearing backup vocals and instrument tracks I had never heard before!!!! Everything was so much clearer, less "tinny" and much easier on my ears. After about 2 hours of re-listening to a plethora of my favorite songs for the "first time" my mind was made up. Time to get a whole new audio setup! Since I had the amp, the "new setup" would only consist of new speakers and a new sound card and cable to connect everything.
I decided on a cheap, but not too cheap Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card. Yea I *could* have spent way more $ and gotten a card with a "hardware accelerated" DSP but it would be a waste as most of the time I'm listening to music and I have a fast CPU. The DSP would be most helpful for a high performance gaming rig where it can take the load off your CPU.
The hardest decision was choosing a set of speakers! I visited countless websites and every local store I could find that carried half way decent bookshelf stereo speakers. Its hard to find good old fashioned stereo speakers these days! Everyone seems to want 5.1 "surround sound" for their "home theater". Screw that! Why settle for 5 ultra tiny and ultra sucky speakers when you can get two big beefy speakers that do not suck for the same amount of money? After comparing specs, prices and listening to a few different speaker sets I settled on the cheapest pair I had been considering, the Yamaha NS-6490's for $80 at my local Radio Shack. I was a little reluctant to purchase these as my in-store testing was kind of mixed. I generally LIKED the way the sounded but I noticed two things that were disconcerting... 1) Lack of punchy BASS 2) the mid-range seemed particularly "muddy" at times. My fears were slightly diminished after reading a couple of on-line reviews on Radio shack's website stating that the in store amp sucks and it under powers this particular speaker set. The reviewer suggests "take these speaker home, hook them up to a good amplifier and you will love them!". So knowing full well that I could return them within 30 days if I was not satisfied I swiped my card and walked out of the store with a very large box of speakers :).
I got home. I cleared my desk. I placed the (magnetically shielded) speakers on aforementioned desk. After hooking everything up with brand new speaker wire and audio cables I gave them a quick test run. My music sounded good, but not great, as I was expecting. Just like at the store the sound was a little unclear at times and I was pretty sure the bass response was supposed to be better. After a few days of messing with mixer settings, verifying correct wiring, playing with the amp's settings and trying different things I was all but ready to return the speakers for a better set. It wasn't until I was demo'ing the setup for a friend that I, for the first time, took a few steps back from them! It was then that I realized, holy cow batman, these things are pretty much unresponsive within a 3 foot radius! Get out beyond 4-5 feet and the sound quality goes up by an exponential factor!! The bass is there! The mid range is crisp and clear! Soooo... gotta get 4-5 feet away from these babys huh? Weeellll... my L-shaped desk only extends about 3 feet from the center in either direction. This was started to look like a big problem.
I seriously considered how the hell I was going to fit a huge amp on my desk AND two over-sized bookshelf speakers and still have room for anything else! Now to top it all off... I GOTTA GET THESE THINGS 5 FEET AWAY FROM ME??? After about 3 hours of thinking, moving stuff around, and (much to the displeasure of my wife) rearranging half of our living room, I found a way to place each speaker about 5 feet away from my primary sitting position at roughly the same height.
As the above diagram shows I turned the speakers inward and pointed them at about a 30-45 degree angle so as to aim the sound at the side of the listeners head. I figured this was the best setup I could get if the speakers had to be 5 feet away from me. I chalked it up to an unfortunate side effect of having a L-shaped desk and being sandwiched in the corner of the room.
After getting everything set up (special thanks to my buddy Tom for all the help) I was very happy with the results! A tinkerer at heart, I could not leave things well enough alone however. I quickly got the idea (however stupid it seemed) to rotate the speakers to a 0 degree angle, thus pointing them both directly at the wall in front of me. Why not?? Hell, the things were only at a 30 degree angle to begin with.... If it sucked I'd just turn them back. No harm done.
hoping for the best but expecting nothing I started playing "What's Going On" by Four Non Blondes. It was that precise moment when it hit me! It was auditory gold pouring over my ears! The absolute BEST sounding audio I've ever heard in my entire life! Turning the speakers to face the wall seems to cause the sound to bounce off the wall creating a truly wonderful effect. The music seriously sounds like it coming entirely from in front of you. You can just imagine the band sitting directly in front of you playing high quality music!
Needless to say, I'm very happy with my new audio setup. It was worth every penny :).
Me not really being a hardcore audio guy, I brought the amp home and it sat on my kitchen table for 2 days before I eventually got around to hooking it up to my computer. I'm not an audiophile and I've generally been happy with my $30 2.1 speaker setup that I've had for about 4 years now. It was a little hard for me to believe that this over sized chunk of metal was going to make a noticeable difference. So using a $5 USB sound card (since my busted on-board sound card only produces a single channel of output these days) I played some tunes to get a feel for how this amp could make my music sound better. There was a slight difference. I could hear more, things seemed a little clearer. I began to suspect that a bigger better set of speakers would make even more of a difference so I stole my wife's stereo speakers which tend to sound pretty good in my opinion. I replayed the music I was previously listened to and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! I was hearing backup vocals and instrument tracks I had never heard before!!!! Everything was so much clearer, less "tinny" and much easier on my ears. After about 2 hours of re-listening to a plethora of my favorite songs for the "first time" my mind was made up. Time to get a whole new audio setup! Since I had the amp, the "new setup" would only consist of new speakers and a new sound card and cable to connect everything.
I decided on a cheap, but not too cheap Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card. Yea I *could* have spent way more $ and gotten a card with a "hardware accelerated" DSP but it would be a waste as most of the time I'm listening to music and I have a fast CPU. The DSP would be most helpful for a high performance gaming rig where it can take the load off your CPU.
The hardest decision was choosing a set of speakers! I visited countless websites and every local store I could find that carried half way decent bookshelf stereo speakers. Its hard to find good old fashioned stereo speakers these days! Everyone seems to want 5.1 "surround sound" for their "home theater". Screw that! Why settle for 5 ultra tiny and ultra sucky speakers when you can get two big beefy speakers that do not suck for the same amount of money? After comparing specs, prices and listening to a few different speaker sets I settled on the cheapest pair I had been considering, the Yamaha NS-6490's for $80 at my local Radio Shack. I was a little reluctant to purchase these as my in-store testing was kind of mixed. I generally LIKED the way the sounded but I noticed two things that were disconcerting... 1) Lack of punchy BASS 2) the mid-range seemed particularly "muddy" at times. My fears were slightly diminished after reading a couple of on-line reviews on Radio shack's website stating that the in store amp sucks and it under powers this particular speaker set. The reviewer suggests "take these speaker home, hook them up to a good amplifier and you will love them!". So knowing full well that I could return them within 30 days if I was not satisfied I swiped my card and walked out of the store with a very large box of speakers :).
I got home. I cleared my desk. I placed the (magnetically shielded) speakers on aforementioned desk. After hooking everything up with brand new speaker wire and audio cables I gave them a quick test run. My music sounded good, but not great, as I was expecting. Just like at the store the sound was a little unclear at times and I was pretty sure the bass response was supposed to be better. After a few days of messing with mixer settings, verifying correct wiring, playing with the amp's settings and trying different things I was all but ready to return the speakers for a better set. It wasn't until I was demo'ing the setup for a friend that I, for the first time, took a few steps back from them! It was then that I realized, holy cow batman, these things are pretty much unresponsive within a 3 foot radius! Get out beyond 4-5 feet and the sound quality goes up by an exponential factor!! The bass is there! The mid range is crisp and clear! Soooo... gotta get 4-5 feet away from these babys huh? Weeellll... my L-shaped desk only extends about 3 feet from the center in either direction. This was started to look like a big problem.
I seriously considered how the hell I was going to fit a huge amp on my desk AND two over-sized bookshelf speakers and still have room for anything else! Now to top it all off... I GOTTA GET THESE THINGS 5 FEET AWAY FROM ME??? After about 3 hours of thinking, moving stuff around, and (much to the displeasure of my wife) rearranging half of our living room, I found a way to place each speaker about 5 feet away from my primary sitting position at roughly the same height.
As the above diagram shows I turned the speakers inward and pointed them at about a 30-45 degree angle so as to aim the sound at the side of the listeners head. I figured this was the best setup I could get if the speakers had to be 5 feet away from me. I chalked it up to an unfortunate side effect of having a L-shaped desk and being sandwiched in the corner of the room.
After getting everything set up (special thanks to my buddy Tom for all the help) I was very happy with the results! A tinkerer at heart, I could not leave things well enough alone however. I quickly got the idea (however stupid it seemed) to rotate the speakers to a 0 degree angle, thus pointing them both directly at the wall in front of me. Why not?? Hell, the things were only at a 30 degree angle to begin with.... If it sucked I'd just turn them back. No harm done.
hoping for the best but expecting nothing I started playing "What's Going On" by Four Non Blondes. It was that precise moment when it hit me! It was auditory gold pouring over my ears! The absolute BEST sounding audio I've ever heard in my entire life! Turning the speakers to face the wall seems to cause the sound to bounce off the wall creating a truly wonderful effect. The music seriously sounds like it coming entirely from in front of you. You can just imagine the band sitting directly in front of you playing high quality music!
Needless to say, I'm very happy with my new audio setup. It was worth every penny :).
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Every 6 months
In keeping with a standard schedule I'm here to post since it has been about 6 months since my last post :)
Life.... hmm... Been working on the Ultimate Nesputer Project. I'll have a whole new blog for that soon enough complete with all the details. It's pretty much done. We just need to figure out proper cooling and recreate 2 usb/network port assembleys to mount underneath the little "dust cover" on the bottom of the nes.
Electronics has really grabbed my interest lately. I've been reading, circuit building, soldering and learning as much as I can about electronics. Why? Because I find it interesting. I'm still nowhere near even the "beginner" level of competence but I am enjoying it so I'll keep working with it until it bores me. Just like everything else I do.
I have not been as good at keeping up with my biking as I should be. Hopefully that will change. Winter is coming, time to start skating again!! :-)
I have a 500GB HD on order. Going to put it in an external case and use it for backups. I'm not that great at backing up my data and I'm hoping this will change that. rsync!
That is all. If I keep these short, I may do them more often.
Life.... hmm... Been working on the Ultimate Nesputer Project. I'll have a whole new blog for that soon enough complete with all the details. It's pretty much done. We just need to figure out proper cooling and recreate 2 usb/network port assembleys to mount underneath the little "dust cover" on the bottom of the nes.
Electronics has really grabbed my interest lately. I've been reading, circuit building, soldering and learning as much as I can about electronics. Why? Because I find it interesting. I'm still nowhere near even the "beginner" level of competence but I am enjoying it so I'll keep working with it until it bores me. Just like everything else I do.
I have not been as good at keeping up with my biking as I should be. Hopefully that will change. Winter is coming, time to start skating again!! :-)
I have a 500GB HD on order. Going to put it in an external case and use it for backups. I'm not that great at backing up my data and I'm hoping this will change that. rsync!
That is all. If I keep these short, I may do them more often.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Music of the moment ;)
This music rocks, I know, listening now when I SHOULD be in bed :)
Guns N roses - Sweet Child O Mine
A true classic in all senses. Gotta love the insane vocal performance by Axl Rose towards the end of the song. The guitar work is amazing all throughout. This is currently my favorite song of all time.
Linkin Park - What I've Done
A canadian band eh? :) Those of you in Potsdam can probably hear lots of Linkin Park on 106.9 The Bear! Canadian radio is sooo much better.
System of a Down- Lonely Day
The only System of a Down song that I really like. Quite a departure from their normal style hm?
Gob - I Hear You Calling
First heard this one in a computer game.. NHL 2005. Or was it 2004?
The Killers - Somebody Told Me
Just plain catchy. Can't help but to sing along.
Jet - Look What You've Done
Pretty much the only Jet song that really stands out in my opinion. I heard it live June of 2006 when Jet opened for Oasis at MSG in New York City. A truly awesome night of my life that I'll never forget.
Twisted Sister - Were Not Gonna Take It
Hehe... :) Gotta see this ;) It's also a very catchy song. Consider yourself warned.
Third Eye Blind - Jumper
This one takes me back :) Heard this for the first time on a school bus. This song has Quite possibly THE most addicting guitar solo of all time... if you've heard the song then you know the solo I'm talking about!! Find a more addicting guitar solo!!! Can't be done. Hats off T.E.B!
Silver Chair - Anthem for the Year 2000
Older... and heavier than most of my music but still very cool, even today.
Zeromancer - Send Me An Angel
Don't really care for the band, or this type of music but this song catches my ear. Its something different. Very soft and appealing approach to alternative.
U2 - New Year's Day
This might very well read 'U2 - *'. I've never heard a U2 song that I have not liked. These guys cannot make crappy music. It just doesn't happen! Bono's the man!
Anyways...
Life has pretty much sucked for the last 3 months. On the upside... things are looking up. Spring is coming (yay!! Good weather and bike riding!!), I have a cool new toy to play with (Canon HG10 digital camcorder), and I'm finally getting my life back in order after months of hell:
Guns N roses - Sweet Child O Mine
A true classic in all senses. Gotta love the insane vocal performance by Axl Rose towards the end of the song. The guitar work is amazing all throughout. This is currently my favorite song of all time.
Linkin Park - What I've Done
A canadian band eh? :) Those of you in Potsdam can probably hear lots of Linkin Park on 106.9 The Bear! Canadian radio is sooo much better.
System of a Down- Lonely Day
The only System of a Down song that I really like. Quite a departure from their normal style hm?
Gob - I Hear You Calling
First heard this one in a computer game.. NHL 2005. Or was it 2004?
The Killers - Somebody Told Me
Just plain catchy. Can't help but to sing along.
Jet - Look What You've Done
Pretty much the only Jet song that really stands out in my opinion. I heard it live June of 2006 when Jet opened for Oasis at MSG in New York City. A truly awesome night of my life that I'll never forget.
Twisted Sister - Were Not Gonna Take It
Hehe... :) Gotta see this ;) It's also a very catchy song. Consider yourself warned.
Third Eye Blind - Jumper
This one takes me back :) Heard this for the first time on a school bus. This song has Quite possibly THE most addicting guitar solo of all time... if you've heard the song then you know the solo I'm talking about!! Find a more addicting guitar solo!!! Can't be done. Hats off T.E.B!
Silver Chair - Anthem for the Year 2000
Older... and heavier than most of my music but still very cool, even today.
Zeromancer - Send Me An Angel
Don't really care for the band, or this type of music but this song catches my ear. Its something different. Very soft and appealing approach to alternative.
U2 - New Year's Day
This might very well read 'U2 - *'. I've never heard a U2 song that I have not liked. These guys cannot make crappy music. It just doesn't happen! Bono's the man!
Anyways...
Life has pretty much sucked for the last 3 months. On the upside... things are looking up. Spring is coming (yay!! Good weather and bike riding!!), I have a cool new toy to play with (Canon HG10 digital camcorder), and I'm finally getting my life back in order after months of hell:
- I started exercising again
- I went sledding last week (first time in 10-15 years??)
- Organized all the data on my computer
- Went back to work. Didn't miss much... snail's pace and such :-P
- Cleaned my desk
- Organized my storage room
- Ate a meatless meal for the first time in... my whole life.. ;) It was actually pretty good... go figure.
- ... and other stuff.
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