A Day "Off"" Blog Post

So anyway......as it turned out, I didn't really work yesterday. The daughter was sick the night before, but as teacher parents, we took her to school anyway just to see if she was over it. Turns out that she wasn't quite ready for a day of school yet (she's the dramatic child), and needed a day home with dad to finish getting over her stomach bug that's been bothering mom and I as well. So, about 9am, I got the call to come and get "it". After frantically scrambling to get things ready for a sub, taking the school bus that I drive in the morning back to the bus lot, I go and get her. Although, most of you are now probably imagining the above, it's really more like the below.....except I don't look that good!

What really ends up happening with these things is that I give her some medicine, feed her lunch and get the TV to the correct channel for her......oh yeah, lay there and listen to her read a book till she falls asleep. Therefore the reality is that I got to spend most of the day stuck in the house, BUT doing what I want! .......which in this case turned out to be the looong put-off SSD upgrade from my trusty laptop.

WAIT! When did the Mac thing happen?!? Never fear, the earth did not stop spinning and I haven't decided to "end it all" due to Mayan doom and gloom. I also spent the day negotiating a deal for one of my long time client-families for a MacBook Christmas present for their son. Did pretty well too! Less than 3 year old MacBook Pro 13" for$525 (good for a Mac that is). Anyway, back to the X300. A few months ago, I came across some Samsung SSDs in the weird 1.8" Micro-SATA spec that's used in the X300/301 (as well as a few other) notebooks. These were the 128Gb versions originally contracted for the X301, and not the 64Gb that was in mine. The price was good (sub-$100) so I bought two. One for my Z61m Ark of the Covenant project and one to upgrade the long-suffering X300. But other projects got in the way and the suffering went on, largely because the X300 kept working without complaint. Well, yesterday, that came to an end! While the daughter napped, I did the long neglected deed! 

The pay-out? Weeeellll; I can't say that there is any. The machine runs exactly as it did before the upgrade. I haven't even looked at the drive "properties" to admire my handiwork. It has simply soldiered on as before. However, what I ended up with was another thought; as I sat holding the old 64Gb SSD in my hand, and thinking......."what do I do with this"? Especially after I realized that I'd also have the Dell 50Gb temporary SSD in hand as well after Mushkin RMA's my Chronos 120Gb back to me. Two spare, "small" SSDs.....hmmmmm

At that point, it hit me! I could upgrade both the kid's computers, which still run XPP by the way. They don't store anything anyway, so all the main computers in the house would be on SSD boot drives and Windows 7. Fast Booting for everybody!!! Not bad for a day off baby-sitting a sick child.

Crash & Burn, but from the Ashes.......

If you've never had it happen, then you're either incredibly blessed or haven't worked with computers long enough! Saturday, while working on my project of ripping some movies for the children to play on their new tablets during the pending loooong car trip, my computer died.....spectacularly I might add. Well, it flashed, then when it came back up, the boot drive wasn't recognized at all. I'd say that's more spectacular then the run-of-the-mill, blue-screen or missing/corrupt NT bootstrap file. So anyway, the 6 month (or so) old Mushkin Chronos is somehow toast. I contacted Mushkin today and getting an RMA for it. 

So, the question became, do I just wait for the RMA and have my main rig down for a week or two? I decided the answer was "no", we go on to the "if-then" question. Which is, should I replace it with a bigger drive for the similar cost of the original. Other than the 240Gb drives like the one I put in my wife's T61 which run about ~$170, there was the always bulletproof Intel 330 which Micro Center was selling for $150 (same as Newegg), or do I go the cheap way and buy a small 60Gb for something like $60-80. 

I'm standing in front of the big case of SSDs at Micro Center this morning pondering the issue, when I noticed way down in the lower corner a generic looking SSD with no sign. I asked about it, and the sales guy says that it's a Dell 50Gb SSD that they made a special deal with Dell to liquidate them. After checking, he said that it was $34.99, but they had just lowered it for "Black Friday" sales to $29.99, and that it was actually OEM'd by Samsung. SOLD!!!

So, yes, I'm sitting at the workstation typing this out on this temporary SSD. Now the question is going to be: what do I do with a little 50Gb SSD when the Mushkin comes back?

Loss'd and Found

Free (or included) stuff that really works is kind of the joy of my life. This afternoon, I was in the living room enjoying the fruits of my labor. Actually, I even sat just watching the software doing it's job. I think my wife thought that I had actually lost it! I was excited by the Media Center reindexing itself due to my work ripping music the last few days. 

All the little album cover art refreshing over and over till the indexing was over. Then I went through it, grabbed a few albums to stream to the main A/V system in the living room. After a while, reality hit and had to go in the office and grade essays. 

While I was doing that, I fired up the archiving A/V system in the office so I can do one the "honey-dos" for my wife. This amounted to converting a series of stories from cassettes that she'd like to use with her classes. Of course, nobody has a cassette player, so everything would be far easier it they were in the form of computer files. 

To that (and other) end, over time, I've accumulated a bunch of antiquated components.

Mostly these are left over from previous systems, or picked up from random places. The Yamaha KX-200U cassette and Sony SLV-D360P DVD/VHS desks were saved from previous systems. A Panasonic RS-803 8-Track deck and Dual 1219 3-Speed turntable were picked up from the Disabled American Veterans Thrift Store in Lubbock. And finally a Sony MXD-D40 CD-Minidisc combo deck was found at a Goodwill Store in Garland. Actually, the only purpose bought piece is the Yamaha RX-V870 receiver that integrates everything, and sends the signal to my desktop workstation. It was bought off of eBay for about $15. The seller had stated that the speaker volume of one channel was lower than the other, which turn out to be correct, but not really relevant for my purpose anyway. Oh yeah, as packaged with the deal is a Yamaha RAV-2000 universal remote along with the original one as well.Significantly, this receiver was in Amarillo and therefore I could have a family member pick it up for me. It was a huge plus not to pay shipping on a fairly heavy electronic component!

This combined with a free easy to use piece of software called Audacity makes for a nice and inexpensive archiving system that can do 7 different kinds of obsolete (to one degree or another) media.

I've "Loss'd" It!

OK, that's a little bit of poetic license which is a little cheesy and I'll go ahead and apologize for it! What this is about, is that on July 17, of last year, when I posted about bringing up the WHS v1 file server, there was a section on ripping my music collection to it "losslessly". Weeeellll.....I was hopelessly defeated by the procrastination monster and it never happened. 

So, here I sit, one year and four months later (give or take), ripping CDs to the new, WHS 2011 server which not only has the new OS, but is pretty much new guts as donated by the mystery benefactor.....otherwise known as my brother. The old guts have gone on to live a happy life with a friend in Colorado Springs. The only parts left from Hercules (v1), are the two Hitachi 2Tb hard drives and the case! It's so different, I actually thought about renaming it the Spectre.....you know, the AC-130H gunship? 

 But given it's job as a small network file server; a little much.

Has the ripping gone well; yes. Has it gone smoothly; kind of..... I have found that a number of CDs cause WMP to "spit-up" when it goes to look for the album info on the Internet. Admittedly, without deep research, but never-the-less, I'm going to blame this on the Millenium Act that, that morally reprehensible Arkansas snake-oil salemen signed into law! But it's a pain in the A**! I'll figure out a way to get around it though and it only occurs on about 5% of my CDs. What I can say though, is that the end is in sight! I'm on the last of my 6, 40 CD albums. There are a few of my wife's that I'd like to rip and some other random ones that are in a drawer, but the vast majority of my CD collection is now in computer files!

Unfortunately that leads to the inevitable project that I've been trying mightily to avoid. I really need to rip some, (and I really want to emphasize that) of our movies into file form so I can crunch them down into a more travel/tablet friendly format. Anybody know of a good (meaning easy to use...as in one step), cheap software that they'd recommend for this? 

Oh, yes: I've been meaning to ask. Some might have noticed my format change where I've moved from the longer, more elaborate but more infrequent Blog posts, to the current, short, quick-hitting, but more frequent posts? Please comment if you have thoughts.

Me and Mac.....and Heinz

No, this is not about me and a friend or me and a pet; it's really a semi-catchy title for a post about me and Apple products...kind of. I love them......it's that simple. Like BMWs, I love them too. I even bought one of them back in my pre-wife/pre-children days. And let me tell ya; they are the Ultimate Driving Machine! And I wasn't just any BMW driver, I owned an "M" car, the M5 to be specific. Not just any M car (notice the lack of quotes here?), but the E28, M5 that were actually assembled at their Motosport facility in Munich, of which, only about 600 or so made it to the United States in 1987, sold as '88 models. You could have any color you wanted as long as it was black, and you had one choice to make (tan or black leather seats) and there was one option....heated or non-heated seats. It was the fastest production car in the world when they first introduced it at the 1984 Amsterdam Auto Show. Not surprising since it had the M1's engine in it. The top end was limited to 149mph (here in America) due to the aerodynamics being similar to that of a brick.....as you can see.

 What does this have to do with Macs? Am I going through middle-age crisis and about to run out to buy something like this again and try to win over some young lassie? No, of course not! I'm happily "Daddy", and driving my very utilitarian Chevrolet Trailblazer and responsible Honda Civic Hybrid. The point I'm making is this.

What is technically or design-wise "the best" isn't generally the best choice. I chose the title "Frugal Propellerhead" for a very specific reason. Although I love technology, I work within some very clear confines AND to some degree, I revel in that fact. The fact that I can accomplish what I do with the compromised that I need to make given my circumstances AS WELL AS personal philosophy of getting the most "bang for the buck". Of course that's opinion; it is a blog after all, so by nature, about opinions, right?

So I'll continue this with an explanation of what shapes my thinking in regard to Macs. I'll have to start by saying that I have a bit of an aversion to "prestige" type products. An example was the BMW. Let me just be clear that I LOVE cars (also virtually all other forms of transportation including everything from airplanes to locomotives and even scooters)! However, I couldn't get myself to buy a BMW. Despite the basis of the companies history being rooted in performance and motorsport, much like Ferrari or Porsche, the majority of their buyers are well-heeled buyers purchasing based on prestige. These are for the most part, people who wouldn't know first thing about performance driving. Here in the United States unlike Europe, we think driving is a right, not a privilege. Therefore, we often simply buy what we can make payments on, and not what we need, much less what we can use in it's intended manner.

What made me think of this was a message from my friend Rich. He's a professional database programmer who makes his living using computers. He uses Macs because for what he does, it works best; also because they are well-built and well-designed. So, after reading my post on using my ThinkPad Tablet, he pointed out that there are software APPs for the iPad that would allow it to do what I did on my tablet. Ahhhhh, if only all users/buyers are rational and informed like him! It'd be awesome if they weren't to originally, that they'd education themselves after purchase, but no, like most Starbucks sipping, cellphone talking BMW drivers out there, the majority of iPad users don't buy it because of it's design and performance excellence, but due to it's popularity. Therefore, in an almost perverse manner; it is form over function. 

It is a bit of a double edge sword though and I'm ambivilent about it. On one had, I decry the fact that Apple charges what I consider an absurd premium for it's products, which is mostly due to the fact that they can. At the same time though, like gamers, their designers pushing the envelop leads others to improve their designs as well. If we never had the MacBook Air, we'd probably never have today's UltraBooks.

However, I and others like me, the frugal tech-lovers of the world should really thank these folks! They buy for looks and popularity, not for function.....so when something newer, and perceived to be cooler comes along, then they buy that and get rid of what they had. That's what I really LOVE. It allowed me to buy my wife's less than year old $550 tablet for $202, my friend Steve's iPad for $215. This works for DSLRs as well. My "Plastic Fantastic" Nikon D50 cost me less than $100.

So.....Love Thy Ignorant Neighbor!

Age of "Slate": Part Deux

When last we discussed tablets, I ended with what I perceived to be clear "marching orders" from my wife to find a tablet for her. As it turns out, not too long after that, I came across another ThinkPad "Slate" tablet (16Gb version) that I was able to pick up for $202. It came with a everything including the optional pen as well as a very nice portfolio case that was easily another $50, AND a 16Gb SD card. It even shipped in the original box. Again, it looked new! I know, the concept/line has been killed off in favor of the more sophisticated Windows 8 tablet moving forward, but you know what? I don't care! Now that I've figured out where tablets fit in my life, I'm happy with what they are....doubly so, for being able to get a high-end tablet at a low-end price. Plus, since it's the same model as what I have, it takes all the same accessories as mine.

After a couple of months of carrying mine around, I've found it's niche. First of all, the form factor makes it super easy to just grab and run: so it goes to doctor's appointments, football games (read and check mail during halftime), and the car when the kids will be sitting and restless for a long time. It's also excellent for checking weather and mail quickly, but it's really the last thing that I found this week that has me the most excited!

I've finally found a picture viewer that I'm happy with! The simplicity is amazing, yet it does everything I'd want it to do. The App is called Justpictures.

The developer is Kouch and IT'S FREE! This is why I got an Android tablet! 10" of excellent IPS screen goodness that allows it to be the perfect portable image viewer. The does a great job of leveraging another ThinkPad tablet feature; the SD card slot. No, Micro/Mini card requiring an adapter to fiddle with. No awkwardly connecting the tablet to a computer through USB and slowly transferring files. Just pull the card, plug it into the fast Sandisk reader, navigate to the server's photo folder and grab a bunch of pictures. Throw it back into the tablet and use this slick piece of software to show pictures or simply to run as a portable digital photo-frame.

I was so excited, I loaded it onto my wife's tablet and put a bunch of pictures on her SD card for her. 

My other cool tablet thing? About a week ago, I was sent to a conference for work. While tablets were common among the participants, I was the only one using a tablet with an active pen input used in conjunction with a note-taking APP. It was amusing to watch the various iPad users frantically tapping away on their screen keyboards and laptop users trying to balance them on their legs in the rooms crowded with attendees......while I took notes on digital "paper". Around our house, the tablets have become such a hot item, that we are probably going to give the kids their Dell Streak 7 Christmas presents early!

The one down-side? We've gone through glasses spray-cleaner at a record pace since the kids have gotten their grubby little fingers on them! 

Oh yeah; almost forgot, I found a free APP called Helicon, that allows me to tether the tablet to my Nikon D300, DSLR via the USB port and control it. Just put the camera in LiveView and you can see what the camera sees via the tablet. Now if I know what to use it for, that would be extra-cool! Right now, it's a solution without a problem...... Isn't Android great!?!





 

Nikkor 50mm/f1.4: "Return of the King"

No, it's not some sort of Tolkien Trilogy/Star Wars epic tale. It's an unexpected gift, from the sky, or more accurately.....my brother, who happens to have pretty much the same hobbies that I do. Anyway; "out of the blue" last week, he emailed me wanting to know if I'd like to have one of his manual focus 50mm/f1.4 Nikkors....apparently, he has several. Of course, I'd said yes! What else would I say? As it happens, this is one of the Holy Grail lenses from back in the old Nikon ran the world (or at least professional photography) days. Although, it's not the "made of unobtanium" 58mm/f1.2 Noc lenses, it is just half a stop slower, considered VERY sharp, of outstanding build quality (natch), and merely just expensive. Apparently, he had bought up the last of the Ai conversion kits from somewhere, found some of the "non-Ai" versions of this lens cheap, converted them, then had them "chipped" (as discussed in an earlier post) by an outfit in Oregon.

 

So, it shows up in the mail yesterday, whereupon, I immediately attach it to the D300 and start shooting away! Initially I had thought that with the current (not optimized for focusing) screen of my camera, I'd need to rely on the focus confirmation indicator in the viewfinder. After looking at my pictures, it turns out that my brain works better than the camera's automation. I had taken several pictures of my daughter in the office, making sure that I was watching the indicator, then went outside and took more of both children riding bikes or scooters in the street. Obviously, with moving subjects, I had to just focus on what I saw and ignore the indicator. Turns out that the pictures taking outside were generally focused correctly whereas the ones I shot inside were not. Not that the inside pictures weren't sharp, they just weren't sharp on the right thing! It was fooled! To say that I was a little surprised would be an understatement. Now that I have the results, I have my new "go-to" low-light lens as well.

This does create a bit of a conundrum though: should I do my 28mm project with the originally planned "E" Series lens, or go with a nicer Nikkor now that I've seen the results of what can be done with a "chipped" older manual focus lens? I do know one thing though: I'm about to sell my Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 "D" auto focus lens!

Saturday Morning Blog: Return of the 90's

I did something odd this beautiful, early November (gorgeous month here in North Texas) morning. I got out some CD's and are playing them; literally as we speak. Why is that unusual? Some of you may already know. Ironically, it's a compilation of popular 90's songs! .....you know, one of those CD's you can buy at Target or some place like that, or in my case, Half Price Books. It cost $7 and they are all good songs; if you don't mind Pop. For me, the 90's were pretty much a music wasteland anyway, and I mostly wanted the songs to situationally return me to a time when I was working in higher education administration, spending a lot of time with college students. So, these types of CDs are perfect...no waste on songs I don't recognize.

Now is it obvious where I'm going on this!?! The 90's was when the CD medium reached it's Zenith. By the last half of that decade, it had swept all competition into the dustbin of recorded sound history. Yet today, I was literally blowing dust off of my cherished 40 CD albums to get at my languishing collection. What happend!?! In today's world, I'm not so much deciding what CDs I want to play, but more what format(s) I want my collection ripped into so I can access them in a more efficient manner. Computer manufacturers are about to eliminate optical drives from the design of newer laptops all-together. This is a medium that sowed the seeds of it's own demise within the concept itself. As a digital format, the medium is actually pretty much irrelevant. 

 

In the world of 1s and 0s, it certainly doesn't need to be in the form of pits read by a laser. 

In October of 2001, the devastator arrived:

Was it the first digital music player? No Was it the best (however you define that)? Probably not. It was the most powerful, in terms a shift of how people saw the delivery of content. Yes, I understand that it was probably a product that rode on the back of what went before.

I'd argue that the concept of portable music can be credited to the Sony Walkman.

And that the 1992 Minidisc was the pinnacle of that concept, with a superior sound reproduction almost a decade before the iPod, but with the arrival of the 20Gb versions of the iPod, a person could pretty much put their entire music collection in one place. This is almost irresistible as a concept.

For us, the tipping point was the 5G (5th Generation) version in 30Gb capacity. I kind of use my wife as a "bell-cow" (forgive the term). She's not so much technologically oriented vs. technologically aware. When she starts asking about some product or another (Android Tablets are the latest), I know that it's mature enough to look into purchasing for our use. When I say mature; what I mean is that the cost-benefit ratio is such that I'll get enough use out of it not to have "buyer's remorse" after purchase. In this case, it was her Christmas present that year, and I spent the rest of the holiday ripping our CD collection into her iTunes. At first, we just enjoyed literally having our entire CD collection with us when we traveled (from Dallas, it's 6 or 7 HOURS to Amarillo, Lubbock or Midland......Texas is a BIG place). So the necessity of going through my CDs to decide which ones to take came to an end.

Then a couple of years ago, the Griffin TuneDock came to live at our house, which of course interfaced with the receiver in my main A/V system which is the main reason that there's dust on my CD albums. 

But the things that really put the nails in the coffin was my rediscovery of the joys of vinyl records for my serious listening.......and the adoption of the computer based home file server which not only streams music anywhere on my network, but "losslessly" meaning that it's essentially the same as what the CD originally offered. 

So yeah, something like this; which explains the HTPCs littered through previous posts for those who have been following along. "Thus endith the lesson", as originally delivered by Sean Connery to Kevin Costner in The Untouchables" of 1987.