GhettoHardware.com

Follow-up HF 100 Camcorder experiences.

2008-08-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

First off, my camera appears to be broken.
My camera will begin zomming in slowly randomly. This happened this weekend while videotaping a wedding on a tripod. Nobody was near the tripod so I know this is a real problem. I think it has a mechanical or electrical issue which issues a very short "zoom" message to the camera's tiny electronic brain. The problem is exacerbated by a "feature" that seems to instantiate a continuous slow zoom when you tap the zoom-in / zoom-out button. I will be contacting Canon. (By sheer luck, I had a second camera recording he ceremonly on another tripod and it did not malfunction.)

Two inconveniences...
I have also found two unique problems that build upon one another.

1. The camera spends 10 seconds "reading the file structure" when you turn it on. (I suspect it is validating the absurd AVCHD disc structure rather than simply taking movies.) As such, I have tried a workaround where I do not turn off the camera at all. Seeing as the camera has no viewfinder, I assumed that it would close the lens and would not be able to record video when the screen was closed.

2. Unfortunately, the camera allows you to record video even while the screen is closed. This caused me to recrod a 10 minute video of the inside of my pocket when the battery and memory card would have been much better used taking additional videos of Andre's Bachelor party.

Recommendation: The camera really needs to support instant-on, perhaps buffering to memory while validating the disk. In it's absence, they need to ensure that the camera stops recording video when the screen is closed.

A closing gripe for good measure.
Some memory cards are too slow to support the hihgest quality mode. I get that, and I think it is appropriate to blink a message warning me that this card cannot support the requested mode. That said, why can't it bump down the the next highest quality and record precious moments instead of requiring me to bump it down to a supported mode through the menus.

Canon Vixia HF100 - Two steps forward, one step back.

2008-07-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

Out with the old - Canon HV10 HDV Tape-based camcorder...
I have long struggled with the Canon HV10 Camcorder that I purchased about 9 months ago. It takes great video, but dealing with importing video from tape was getting tiresome. I longed for something as convenient as a Point-and-shoot camera, which could record my high definition movies to a memory card. I have since imported all of my old DV and HDV Tapes, allowing me to sell the Tape-based recorder and replace it with something more convenient.

Tape-based Canon HV10 (left) vs. SDHC-based Canon HF100 (right).

In with the new - Canon Vixia HF100 SDHC Camcorder...
I was excited by the positive reviews of this camcorder. It was touted as the first AVCHD camcorder to surpass the qality of HDV. (AVCHD is based on h264 instead of HDV which is based on mpeg2. h264 should allow lower file size with equal quality.)

MiniDV Cassette (left) vs. SDHC Card (right).

How does the new HF100 compare???
Clear Strengths vs. the HV10:

The video quality of the HF100 is very high. I find the HF100 image to be clearly sharper, although compression artifacts do surface particularly in low-light situations. This is likely the result of the additional resolution and h.264 which is a more advanced compression algorithm. The AVCHD format appears to be growing in popularity so playback support should eventually surpass HDV support. (I should note that the softer image of the HV10 can be smoother and more pleasing at times, albeit less detailed.)

Importing from the SDHC-based HF100 does not require me to rewind a tape. I can copy movies to the computer faster than realtime with a USB cable or SDHC reader.

The HF100 offers a 30fps 1080p option in addition to the 60fps 1080i option. The HF100 can record at a full 1920x1080, which exceeds the only option on the HV10 which is 60fps at 1440x1080, interlaced.

Missed Opportunities:

I expected a Solid-state camcorder to function just like low-end digital cameras which can take photos or record short, low resolution videos. I expected to have a single folder on the memory card with sequentially numbered files, some Photos, some high-definition video files. I coudn't have been further from the truth.

The AVCHD format includes a inefficient, annoying folder structure to mimic Blu-ray. (More info at elurauser.com.) To obey the AVCHD format, I end up with a memory card filled with meaningless folders. The video files are numbered sequentially from 0001 and start over every time you empty the memory card. The photos are stored somewhere entirely different so I worry that I will delete them by accident after downloading just the videos. (I should note that the camera comes with a terrible "PIXELA" application that will import the videos with more intelligent names. This does not substitute for an intelligent organizational system on the disk.)

The h.264 video format is so compressed that it cannot play smoothly on several of my reasonably fast computers. Windows Vista (or XP) does not undertand the format so you need to install a 3rd party codec. The popular K-lite codec pack will only play the format after an additional step. (disable "MPEG TS splitter (Haali)" using the "Codec Tweak Tool" per these directions at avsforum.com

The 30fps, 1080p mode is actually saved as an interlaced file. (More info at elurauser.com.) As such, playback apps need to know that it is actually 30p to play it most accurately. Likewise, compression of a progressively-stored image should be more efficient than this allows.

Scripting Audio Cd Ripping

2008-03-05T22:41:00.000-08:00

I'm preparing to re-install Windows Vista on my Media Center PC, so it is time to document some of my latest projects. (I will wipe the machine, giving me 2 30gb boot partitions and the remaining ~400gb for data. This should set me up for future OS upgrades.)

I have found a clever, albeit overly simple method for scripting my DVD Changer. The batch files I created will change the CD and wait a few minutes, giving your ripper enough time to rip the CD.

Download Alex Wetmore's MediaChanger app. Unisntall it to a folder on your PC.

Download these batch files I created: batch files for MediaChanger.exe.zip

the script takes start and end disc number as parameters. ex: "switch 1 100"

Configure Windows Media Player to rip CD's automatically when they are inserted. I chose lossless WMV. (See Settings.)

Once ripped, I imported the songs into iTunes. This will re-encode the songs since iTunes doesn't understand WMV. (I chose 128kbps minimum VBR MP3's on Highest Quality.)

If I were to rip additional CD's, I could easily notify iTunes that new songs were added and it will convert the new songs.

Finally, my very own robot!

2007-11-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

I just got the sony 200-disc DVD changer for 99$ shipped. (It used to be 1000$, so this is quite a deal.) It is a 200 disc DVD changer with a firewire port that includes native support for Windows Media Center. The intended use is to fill it with DVD's and allow you to access any DVD from within a beautiful Movies Library.

I tried that functionality out and it works fine.

But first, I want to script the robot to rip all my audio CD's.

I tried to use Alex Wetmore's directions to script using the popular EAC Ripper with the Popular LAME encoder. It seemed to be workign fine, but I didn't want to go through WAV+CUE and have to find a way to convert those files into MP3's.

I'm now going on a hunch, that iTunes can be configured to rip an audio Cd whenever it is inserted into the PC. I will leverage the simple MediaChanger utility to simply insert each disc for 10 minutes, ample time for iTuens to rip the contents.

Baby Steps... HDV > HDDVD on DVD might happen.

2007-11-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

My goal remains simple, burn HDV videos off my HD Camcorder onto a HD-DVD compliant disc. I don't own a HD-DVD Burner, so my target is a 4.7 GB DVD-R.

This is thankfully possible. The HD-DVD Spec incudes support for 3x DVD, where HD content is stored on a DVD Disk, but the maximum amount of data that can be read per second is triple that of DVD's.

Link: 3x DVD info on Wikipedia.

My latest finding is a good description of an issue I've seen several places... The difference of PS and TS MPEG data.

In summary, Transport Stream is more robust, and can contain >1 stream of video and >1 stream of audio at the same time. It is meant for transmission in lossy environments. It is used for broadcast HD and as it turns out, HDV Digital Video. HDV does not use the multi-stream capabilities though.

Program Stream is intended for safer environments and does not have the ability to have extra streams. This is the format used on a HD-DVD Disc. I need to convert my .m2t (Transport Stream) captured video files into .mpg (Program Stream) video files for them to work in a HD DVD authoring app.

Link: MPEG-2 Transport vs. Program Stream

Next steps, try and create a disc using these instructions.

Canon HV10 HD Camcorder: video quality good, PC experience terrible

2007-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

Frustrated with the video quality coming out of my old Canon Optura camcorder and from our point-and shoot digital camera, I wanted to move to a HD Video option.

I did some research which told me that the Hard-drive or memory card based AVCHD camcorders would be ideal fr me since they don't require slow video import processes. Unfortunately, they are all 800+ dollars and out of my pricerange.

I saw a posting on Fatwallet that the Canon HV10 was on sale for 499$ (refurbished), and I decided to go for it. This is effectively just a 300$ upgrade since it can replace my canon Optura which still commands almost 200$ on ebay. If I got a HD or Card-based camera I would have to keep the optura indefinitely.

So, the video quality is really good. Note that HD is so detailed that camera shake has a more damaging effect on the video quality, so good results really do require a careful steady hand.

Unfortunately, the PC experience is a miserable mess even on Vista. Windows Movie Maker can import the video, but it comes in as one big block and it is saved with the odd ".dvr-ms" extension. (More commonly used for Recorded TV in Media Center) I expected it to come through as yet another codec wrapped in the .avi extension.

I eventually found the HDVsplit app that woilll correctly split the video into clips during inport. It instead uses the apparently industry standard ".m2t" extension that the rest of windows ignores. As such, the files are happily stored on the PC, but Photo Gallery, Media Center and Media Player ignore then.

EDIT: I have found that simply changing the extension from .m2t to .mpg will cause the videos to appear in Media Center and Photo Gallery. I don't like this hack and I don't know how to add searched extensions to WMP/Photo Gallery.

the stupid windows utilities that I always need and can never find

2007-10-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

Love it or hate it, windows users have the benefit of the largest library of professionally created, small company and enthusiast software and utilities out there. This is my attempt to share a few stupid apps that help me in daily use of the PC. I have broken them down by the problems that they address.

Stitching Panoramas

I haven't settled on a favorite stitching app although they all fail to preserve the image metadata.

Stitch with Windows Live Photo Gallery. Almost identical to Windows Vista Photo Gallery, the Live team did add the important stickign capabilities into this version.
Restore the metadata with Exifer. While showing it's age, Exifer remains the only app I've found that makes it easy to copy metadata from one file to another. I right click on my new panorama, and choose to import metadata form the fiirst photo I took in the panorama. This brings over all the detaisl about exposure, lens used, date taken; just what Windows Live should have done in the first place. (note: You need to right-click on the exifer app and choose "run as administrator" to get this to work on Vista.)

Ripping my DVD's so I have instant access with my Vista Media Center PC's "DVD Library" capabilities.

Media Center has a "DVD Library" feature designed to work with 1000$ 200 Disc DVD Changers. The truth is that the feature works even better if you rip your DVD's to your hard disk drive.

Enable DVD Library in Media Center. This is actually just a registry setting, but I always have to relocate the setting on the web.
Defeat the latest DVD copy protection with anydvd. You used to be able to get by with just DVDDecrypter, but the fair-use nazi's have upped their game.
Extract the DVDID This allows Media Center to show enhanced metadata for your movie. (more info on TheGreenButton.) (Unfortunately, the installer requires .net 1.1 even when you have a newer version. Download .net 1.1)

Fixing Music Metadata to work in Windows Media Center's anal retentive music library

Let's make this simple, Media Center is needlessly anal about Music Metadata, and it does a really crappy job helping you get into the optimal case. In short, it requires both the "Artist" id3 field and the "Album Artist" field to be set correctly and usually to the same value before it will allow you to browse to you favorite album by artist. It should really just assume that the Album Artist is the same as the Artist, unless there are multiple artists on the same album. It also does a poor job downloading Album Art. Thankfully, iTunes plus one very poorly written, buggy, crashy app is here to help

iTunes iTunes is inperfect, but it does a good job organizing your music files into tidy folders following the artist/album structure that makes so much sense. When adding new songs to the library, i back-up my iTunes library, add the new files, organizie them and wait for the filesystem to catch up, then add them to my master library which Media Player/Center picks up automatically.
AV Art Fixer This terrible application crashes a lot, but it makes it easy to confirm that the Album Artist and Artist fields are in sync. It also does a good job helping you locate album art on Google.

"digitizing" my Digital Video Casettes is a pain.

2007-09-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

I am trying to retire / sell my Digital Video Camcorder. It uses the cute Mini DV Tapes that hold 60 minutes of video in the better quality mode. Shouldn't this be easy since they are already in a Digital format? Unfortunately, no.

The Camcorder...
The video quality on my particular Camcorder, the Canon Optura 20, is pretty good, although limited by the well known limitations of the format, notably the low resolution and the interlaced video. I have stopped using the camera because it is bulky, and the video quality of a simple pocket-sized Digital Camera is almost as good. (Plusses: Progressive Video, no hassle importing the video. Minuses: less saturated video, much lesser zoom, poorer low-light handling.)

The Project...
All I want to do is bring all of the videos I've recorded using DV Casettes into the PC in their native format. 13gb/hour is a nuisance, but I don't want to import it again. I want each video clip to be a separate file. I want each file to have a filename/datestamp that matches the datestamp on the DV Tape.

This, should be easy, right?

The contenders...
First, I just plugged in my camcorder and used Windows Live Photo Gallery (Beta) which is the default handler for this format. It promises to import each clip as a separate file. It is free, It works most of the time, but it doesn't work all that well. In numerous situations, the first frame of the video is garbage. In other situations, it fails to break the video in some places, but correctly breaks the video in other places.

Frustrated, I went to the web. There is tons of information about DV, Digitizing old VHS tapes and many other related topics, but it is difficult to find a single useful source for this topic. I finally (re)found an application called ScenalyzerLive 4.0. I used an older version fo this application many years ago, but it didn't work on vista. This latest version is working like a champ thus far. Each clip is a separate file, and the first/last frame of each clip is not garbage.

Digitizing VHS?
Once I get all of these DV Tapes into the PC, I will look into digitizing VHS content. What I've learned thus far suggests that the best results come from a very high quality VCR coupled with a dedicated Analog>Digital converter such as the Canopus AVDC55 or better. This will save more annoyingly large DV formatted AVI's to your hard drive. I can later re-encode the video to MPEG2 for DVD's, or WMV for sharing online. (Many DV Camcorders, including mine can convert analog to digital. Unfortunately, the AV Conversion is not supposed to be as good as with the dedicated AV Devices. Maybe I can get a used one inexpensively.)

a fun read - Man attempts to feed himself for a month off a tiny Brooklyn backyard

2007-09-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

I rarely make it through 7 page stories, but this was an exception. As a fellow (sub)urban farmer, I was able to relate to many of the same struggles. Home-grown starts that are too spindly to take it in the real world, crops dying of mysterious mishaps, etc...

He adds to the mix the struggles of raising and pocessing animals in limited space which go awry quickly.

To CFL or not to CFL, not really a question.

2007-09-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight, spurred on by recent purchases of very inexpensive CFL Floodlights at costco, I underwent a consious effort to replace as many light bulbs as I could and home for a appreciable decrease in my annual power usage. (Costco was selling 4 packs ranging from 5$ for 65w equivalent floods to 10$ for 120w equvalent fully enclosed outdoor floods.)

My savings will actually be greater than that of others since I am paying a small monthly premium on my power bill to buy only 100% "green" power. The premium is curently $0.0125 per kWh which ends up being less than 10$ a month. (Link to sign up for with PSE.)

In any event, on to my findings...

Lights with proper glass or paper shades are an easy switch. This is probably why the cheap CFL's with a visible spiral are so popular. They don't look bad in many fixtures. I was able to use these in the downstairs bathroom, although these cheap bulbs have an audible hum, exacerbated by the small size of the bathroom. They also seem a bit dimmer than the 65w bulbs they replaced.

I tried the spiral bulbs as a replacement for the enclosed outdoor fixtures. Aside from being a bit to dim for the application, the visible spiral is somethign of an eyesore. (The 65w incandescent bulbs seemed a bit dim too.) I'm going to try again with the spirals which are enclosed in a frosted ball, and with slightly brigher bulbs.

With the recent availablity of CFL flood lights, I'm able to take the CFL's further into the home. In my experience with these particular bulbs, the 65w equivalent bulbs are a bit brighter than the 65w bulbs they replaced. The same seems to be true of the 120w equivalent bulbs.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to install them in the hallways since they have dimmers. Many stores are beginning to carry dimmable CFL's, so I will either wait and get them when they reach a more reasonable price or give up the dimming capabilites and install lower-wattage floods in these locations. (The 65w dimmables such as these from GE would be pefect. Unfortunately, even at Wal-mart's low low internet crushing price of 11.96 per bulb, this is an expensive endeavor for 12 bulbs.)

celebrating talk like a pirate day...

2006-09-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

My pirate name is:

Iron Tom Vane

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You tend to blend into the background occaisionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.

2006 Decibel festival

2006-09-15T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here are my pics for the 2006 decibel festival...

Opening Gala - Friday, 6:00PM - BROADWAY PERF. HALL
Is anyone planning/interested in trying to attend the opening Gala tonight with these three awesome acts? It is a sit-down performance so a little different than your usual electronic music event. We will need to be there early to get tickets..

GUEST SPEAKERS
6pm-6:30pm

MR. PROJECTILE
6:30pm-7:30pm
Downtempo Set

DERU
7:30pm-8:30pm
Ambient Set

THOMAS FEHLMANN
8:30pm-10:00pm
Dub Set

HEADFUK SHOWCASE V3 – Friday Night – Neumos
This is likely to be one of the best showcases of the weekend and definitely one of the best places to get your dance on.

LOGIC PROBE
9pm-10pm

LUSINE
10pm-11pm

TELEFON TEL AVIV
11pm-12pm

APPARAT
12am-1:15am

ALEX SMOKE
1:15am-2:45am

Optical showcase - 12:30 Sunday afternoon - BROADWAY PERF. HALL
I also would really like to attend the optical performances on Sunday afternoon… They are a combined music and visual arts performance and should be quite stunning. I expect to need to arrive early to get tickets.

RANDY JONES
1pm-1:45pm
(audio / video performance)

SPEEDY J & SCOTT PAGANO
2:15pm-3:15pm
(5.1 audio / video screening)

RYOICHI KUROKAWA
4pm-5pm
(audio / video performance)

Ambient showcase - 6:00 Sunday evening - BROADWAY PERF. HALL
Lastly, I really want to see this ambient showcase. I’m certain that it will be excellent as I attended last years showcase, and this year we have even better acts.

ANTON ZALAPARTA
6:30pm-7:00pm

MOKIRA
7pm-7:45pm

THE DEAD TEXAN
8pm-9pm

MURCOF
9pm-10pm

bedroom lighting

2005-04-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

The Facts: 12'10.5" across. A queen bed is 5' wide. I think the lights should be about .75' away from the edge of the bed. I think it would be worthwhile to put a switch on both sides of the bed for each of the respective lights.

The Problem: My bed is centered on the wall. I think it looks pretty good that way. Unfortunately, the light switch for the light above the bed is too far to reach from the edge of the bed. Likewise, the light designed to cover the bed area was 1) too low (I hit my head and broke a bulb) and 2) not centerd on the bed.

As it stands right now.

The Plan: As you can see, I already removed the round electrical box where the light used to go. I will soon remove the light switch box too. I will run wires behind the drywall over to the switch on the left side of the bed. From there I will run a wire up to the light just a few inches above.I will do roughly the same thing on the right side of the bed. (I will keep this as a double switch so you can turn off the room lighting from the bed. If I were even more motivated I could wire up 2 switches on both sides of the bed, one to operate the room lights (functioning as 3/4-way switches) and the second to operate the light on that side of the bed.

Mockup showing the Duncan Wall Sconce (150$ each from Crate and Barrel.)

Electrical plan

A Note: I may not need to wire a switch for the wall-mounted lamps because they will likely have a switch of their own. If I were smart I would buy the lights before deciding on the switches.

Distributing audio around the house

2005-04-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

One of my long-term goals for the house was to be able to distibute media content around the house. In particular, I wanted to be able to play music throughout the house at once; especially in light of all the time I've been spending at home painting, wiring or fixing things.

I knew that the house had a pair of speaker wires going up to holes built into the closets of the guest room. These holes were meant to aim speakers down into the living room below.

What I didn't realize was the fact that two additional wires were run from the same junction box in the living room. These two wires conveniently run all the way to the master bedroom, with a speaker wire ending on both sides of the sliding glass door. Unfortunately, the wires are of an absurdly low gague for speaker use, but very fortunately, there are 6 wires in each bundle instead of the normal 2 wires.

What I'm gonna do...
This will allow me to install both a pair of speakers inside the bedroom as well as a pair of speakers on the porch for the hot tub.

I have already connected a pair of speakers inside in the bedroom and connected them in the living room to a second older receiver. The older receiver is dedicated to driving audio in the bedroom and is connected to my Media Center PC with an analog 1/8 mini to dual-RCA connection. (In the livingroom, I'm using the Optical Output of the sound card to drive my primary sound system.)

I plan to control the volume and what is playing in the bedroom/porch by acquiring a RF-based IR Transmitter. I have not looked into these devices for range information or cost, but I know they exist.

Wall-mounted speaker outlets will give a professional look to the livingroom.

On the livingroom side, I have found out what wall plates I will need to give the job a professional look. These Speaker Jacks fit inside the same decora-style outlets that I'm using throughout the house. In the bedroom I will probably not bother, opting for only a small holeout of which runs a short segment of speaker wire directly to the speaker.

Patching wallboard seams

2005-04-13T23:39:00.001-07:00

When a drywall seam becomes visible it is quite a lot of work to hide it correctly.

That said, it's totally doable in the usual 3x as much time as you expected.

Try spackling/sanding the gap. Give up after a few tries because it looks crappy. Learn the hard way that you are gonna have to do this one right.
Go to home depot. Buy heftier spackle (not the cheap crap you use to fill nail holes.), a wider putty knife, some of that flexible fiberglass tape for this very purpose, and get a belt sander used on ebay or soemthing.
use the narrow end of the sander (the part where the belt makes a abrupt 180 degree turn.) to rub down a groove that is a couple millimeters deep and the width of the tape.
Note: I don't think this is the correct usage of a belt sander... I don't really care though.
clean off the wall with a shop towel.
apply tape
apply one coat of plaster... don't try to fill in the whole gap. Let it dry ~1hr.
sand the excess off. Apply another coat. This one shoud be sufficient.
Sand it smooth by hand or with a less agreesive electric sander.
go to home depot again, and buy the textured wall in a can. Use that on your smoothly sanded fixed and filled seam. (I had to use the finest texture tube to match my wall. I still had to sand a little of the texture off to get it to match.)
Paint it. Be happy.
Vaccum the carpet a zillion times to clean the mess. (this one is a theory, i've only vaccumed once, so it's still a mess.)

Cost? Shit, I dunno... About 3$ spackle knife, 3$ spackle, 5$ fiberglass tape. ~10$ textured paint. (plus tools: 50$ in sanding equipment)

So yes, I thought it would take an hour or two and it ended up taking a few hours on multiple evenings, but it looks... Sooooo Goooood!

Updating the electrical switches / outlets.

2005-04-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

My first project has been to replace the hideous almond/beige electrical outlets with the sleeker white ones.

This project made sense because the inspector made it clear that i needed to install GFCI outlets in the kitchen and baths. I agreed that this was a good idea, but I didn't want to buy almond-colored GFCI outlets only to replace them in some distant future with White ones.

So I jumped on the opportunity to make the house look a little sexier. I did an inventory of the situation and discovered that I needed:

29 2-way switches (~1$ each.)
29 regular outlets (~1$ each since I got the fancier "decora" outlets.)
10 3-way switches (would have been ~5$ each but i'll talk about these later.)
1 4-way switch (~12$ each if I bought a standard one.)
9 GFCI Outlets (~10$ each. Again, comments below.)
various switch plate covers. (As it turns out switch plates are described as "gangs" when the single plate contains more than one switch/device. The normal decora 4-gang switch plates seem very expensive at ~3$, but that's a steal when you realize the fancy Lutron Claro screwless plates costs 20$.)

First, the good news. As it turns out, every outlet in a bathroom does not need to be a 10$ GFCI outlet. A modern GFCI outlet like the 10$ ones I bough from Home Depot allow you to chain a whole string of Electrical Outlets off of a single GFCI switch... Sure, if you drop a hair-dreyer in the tub you need to search around the house to find the master GFCI switch to bring the circuit back to life, but it is perfectly safe. (The first outlet on my chain just so happened to be int he lower bathroom. From there it went to the master bathroom followed by the guest bathroom. For now, i'm just goign to have the one outlet int he guest bathroom protect the whole string of outlets... I don't own any electrical bathroom appliances anyhow.

Then, the bad news (for my wallet). Brendan pointed out that Home Depot sells some really sweet dimmer modules that work in multi-switch situations (replacing up to 8 outlets that would have otherwise been 3-way and 4-way switches.)

I decided that dimming was in fact critical for several of the zones in my house (to save power and to look less starkly lit.). As such, one of the 5$ 3-way switches would have to be replaced with a dimming 3-way switch such as this model by lutron.

Left: Lutron's cheaper Diva 3-way dimmer. Right: The master unit of the Maestro Series. (The LED's indicate the current brightness and you can dim the lights from the remote locations too.)

At 40$ + 12$ + 5$, I decided to go hog wild and get the primo Lutron setup, the Maestro series. I got a 2-pack (master + remote) for 50$ at home depot and I cannabalized a second 2-pack to get the second remote. This solved the situation and the results were fantastic. The lights can be dimmed at any location, they remember your dimmer setting and they fade ever so smoothly on and off when you tap the light switch. Was it worth 200$ to replace three zones and an extra regular dimmer with these fancy switches? Maybe not for resale value, but I sure like them.

Sadly, the included info from Lutron fails to explain how to wire more than two switches. Fortunately, the directions are available online.

For an overview of the traditional 3-way and 4-way switch wiring try this article on electrical-online.com.

New House means new kinds of projects.

2005-04-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

So, I've been really busy recently since I'm now a homeowner.

Roughly speaking, the home is ~1800sqft with 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a computer room and a large continuous living/dining/kitchen space. It's sitting on a tiny lot (30 x 100 ft) and feels alot like condo/townhouse living, but with nobody sharing a wall with me. I really like it in so many ways, but that's not to say it can't be better.

I'm going to try to document my various projects... Use this as a log of what I did to improve the place, what it cost me and how much better I like the place after the project was completed.

Coming Soon - What's in your Ghetto Hardware toolbox

2004-10-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new feature where I will review tricks and tools of the trade. I will post software utilities, tools and equipment that will help you get the job done. feel free to send me ideas at talph@hotmail.com

Getting Slashdotted

2004-10-11T01:48:00.000-07:00

So yesterday's article about the Media Center Bathroom Extender got linked to by the Slashdot homepage. I did it, I sent in a proposed article abotu my latest hack and they accepted it and posted it.

I guess what I have to say is that I now believe in the "slashdot effect". About 30 minutes ago I saw an e-mail from my webhost 1and1:

Subject: [Warning] Traffic limit: 100% reached
Dear Tom Alphin,
You have exceeded your included monthly traffic of 5000 MB (5.00 GB). As you have not provided your credit card details, your Website will be automatically locked. Associated services will be deactivated and your Website will no longer be available online.

You can remove the lock by entering your credit card details on the Control Panel.

In any event, I added a Credit Card to my account and I guess I will be billed 1$ per gigabyte.

The Numbers...

~15000 attacks by Slashdot homepage referrals.
~700 from xbox-scene.com
~2000 from the actual article on slashdot. (1500 from article.pl, 500 from the permanent slashdot.org/articles/04/10/09/1426240.shtml link.)

Visits grouped by referral.

Visits on Saturday. Decline from initial posting is suprisingly smooth.

Visits on Sunday. Second peak is lined up with the October 10 20:34 EST posting on Xbox-scene.com

I was suprised to see that Slashdot users really do use their open source browsers. In all fairness, I don't know if this site looks okay in Mozilla. (further look into the logs reveal that even slashdot users are ~75 running Windows)

P.S. The site with all of the associated small images was 188k. I just removed 15k form each of the four images by simply removing the EXIF data. (using the terribly organized but exceptionally useful exifer). That's a savings of 60k, or 1/3 of the pages footprint. I could have shaved even more space off if I just compressed the images more aggresively.

Media Center Bathroom Extender

2004-10-08T23:32:00.000-07:00

What? A Media Center PC for the bathtub???
No, not really. What I have done is repurposed a Xbox controller w/ built in LCD as a second display and controller for the Media Center PC in my bedroom. This allows me to change songs, pause, change volume etc.. without leaving the bathroom. I use it while reading a book in the bathtub. I would not reccomend it for DVD or TV viewing as the screen is very small. I suppose it would suffice for TV programs where the image is not that important like a news program.

Continue Reading...

Real Rhapsody, Cool idea, Frustrating Software

2004-10-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

First off, I think subscription music is going to be the norm very soon. If they can work out the rights such that I can take songs from my subscription onto a portable device, nobody will need to own music again.

That said, Real's Rhapsody music collection and software is nowhere near mature enough for everyday use.

1) Music selection is spotty at best. Sure, they have a ton of alternative fare, and I can dig deep into the Ninjatune Record Label's cd library (ex: Amon Tobin, DJ Food, etc..), but I run into roadblocks when I want to hear music by similar artists like Squarepusher who is on Warp Records, or Aphex Twin.

2) To fill the gaps as described in (1), you cannot include songs from your personal collection in the Rhapsody Experience. I feel it is awkward to have to use one tool to play music you own/borrowed/stole and another to play your Subscription Music.

3) Usability/Design failures drive me bonkers...

Doesn't support back/forward buttons on mouse.
It's emulating a web browser, so emulate basic browser features too.
Awkward layout of content.
Artist name is in upper left, but to go back to the homepage for the artist I must scroll the right side of the screen back up to the top and click on the "go to artist home" button.
Easy to play a song you just found right now, but impossible to add it to your current playlist at the end of the list.
How are we supposed to create a party playlist if we disrupt the current track whenever you add somethign ot the list.
Metadata all over the place, and I can't click on it to see related content.
Whenever I see an artists name, sunc as on a compiltion or in a paragraph which describes the influences of another artist, I should be able to click on that name to see the homepage fo that artist. Same thing with asong title. If I see Aerosmith's "walk this way", I should be able to click on "walk this way" to see all the covers and remakes of the song available on Rhapsody. By their design, a virtual homepage for each song title.

shopping spree notes (but I didn't buy anything)

2004-10-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

I took a few hours today to look at toys and gadgets.

1) convinced local Cingular store to take a phone home and see if the reception was acceptable with their GSM network. I could hear just fine even in the basement, but whenever I spoke i heard a heinous echo. Conclusion: Undecided.

2) took a test drive in a toyota prius. It was the 2004 model, so not the absolute newest, but it has the v2 changes that they made for 2004 so it's good enough to discuss. It is entirely drivable, Not entirely attractive, and reasonably spacious. (I can almost lie down in the back w/ the back seats folded down and fit. In a pinch I think it would be fine for two medium or small adults to sleep in.) Build quality of the interior surpasses subaru and a little lover than Honda. I am undecided about the giant touchscreen that replaces dozens of manual controls. Fortunately, they hooked up the most common controls on the steering wheel so you don't need to use the touchpad for most tasks. (volume, mode and channel; ac on/off and temperature up/down) Unfortunately you cannot use the giant screen to watch movies, control your Ipod or use a navigation system. I'm also not convinced that the menuing is all that well designed, but it does suffice (can you say flash upgrade and 3rd party skins?) Conclusion: I'll wait for v3, but it is good technology.

3) went to best buy to look at gear. First of all, I understand the need to secure the gadgets,. but you cannot reasonably try out a phone or mp3 player when it's locked down and you cannot access many of the controls. That sucked. I tried out the Rio Carbon once he took it out of the protective sheath. It sucks. I cannot narrow my collection first by genre (ex: rock) then by artist (ex: aerosmith) then by album (ex: big ones). This is a key way to filter your collection down to the desired subset that they are obviously too dense to understand. Too bad, because I have an unopened Rio Carbon on my desk that I will have to sell, return or exchange for something useful. (I don't have the receipt, but I bet I can exchange it at best buy for a Ipod Mini since they cost the same)

Lastly, I like the new refrigerators with the fridge up top and the freezer below. You open the door and all the frozen goods live in two big drawers. Seems exceptionally convenient (except when you need to hold that extra turkey when tey are buy 1 get 1 free.)

used books a good deal?

2004-10-05T01:49:00.000-07:00

I tried to purchase some books I found on amazon. Unfortunately, it looks like buyign used isn't quite the deal it appears to be.

my order with predominantly used books was 36.60 w/ 42.38$ shipping for a total of 79.66 w/ a little tax.

But, I guess I do save some money afterall. As a rule of thumb, Free super saver shipping makes a difference on books available used for 50% or less than amazon's regular price, but not on items which are pushing towards amazon's price.

if that book is 99 cents used and 8.99 new, get it used, but if you are only saving a few dollars get it used and save on shipping.

Lego Furniture

2004-06-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Snap-together furniture

As a follow-up to my Slot Furniture article, here are snap-together chairs that come out on a single piece of plywood.

AmIModernOrJustUgly

2004-06-17T00:43:00.000-07:00

Is my current house Modern -or- Ugly?

I stumbled upon this site which lists homes of a Modern Architectural style that are for sale in the Seattle area... After browsing, I must ask; Is modern just a nice way of saying ugly?

Don't mind my bad reference to am I hot or not.