The Tomorrow Times

a digital study of Colour

2009-05-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some programming lately (coding an application to load onto my camera that makes the camera capable of taking high dynamic range photos natively), but writing this application has made me notice a few things about the colour, light intensity and tone of a digital image. There are some things I have taken for granted really about working with coloured images in photoshop, never really having dealt with the nitty gritty details of image enhancements that I'm forced to learn all about now. I feel like sharing a couple of these interesting insights, however obvious they seem to be.

First off, lets explore how important the varying levels of brightness is to a photo. Take, for example, this following image.

(Image credit of Alexiuss @ http://alexiuss.deviantart.com/art/Seasonscape-69489448)

It's a lovely image, but lets see what happens to the image when we remove the varying levels of brightness (or shading I guess you could call it); we're just going to leave behind the colour hues.

We are left now with a colorful, but rather confusing, image made up of several main colors: cyan, green, yellow, red, magenta, and blue. White represents an area lacking colour. Even though a coloured image in principal requires three times more information than a black and white image, all that added information provides relatively little use on it own it seems.

Next, lets look at the opposite effect; turning a coloured image into a black and white (gray scale) image. The thing is, how do you do this? If there are three colour channels in a coloured image, (Red, Green, and Blue,) how best do you combine them to make just one black and white channel?

First up, it seemed logical to me to just average all three RGB colour channels to make the black and white image: the above is the outcome. Overall, I was pleased with this first result, but after reading up some more on the behaviour of light, color and human perception, I realized that the ideal method might not be just so simple.

One thing to realize is that the human eye sees different luminosities for each of the three main RGB colours. In the above image, the ratios 0.3 : 0.6 : 0.1 were used to combine (add up) the RGB channels to make just one whole channel. The idea is, the human eye sees green as being 6 times as bright as blue and twice as bright as red. But is this even the best method?

The above image was produced by squaring each of the RGB colour channels, adding up the results, and then rooting that sum. I actually really liked this result; it makes some sense that the brightness of a color might not be linear in nature, but even if that is not the case, visually I found this result the most appealing.

Lastly, I wanted to see how my paint application defined brightness to see if I could duplicate how it might produce a black and white image from a colored image. Its method was actually performed by taking the lowest and highest valued channel (per coloured pixel) of the three RGB channels and just averaging them-- completely ignoring the third colour channel! The above is the result.

In the end, I have tested 4 different methods of producing a black and white image from a coloured image- and there are probably a dozen more other ways yet unmentioned here. I wish I could say there was 'a best' method, but it appears that it all comes down to personal preference. Some of the methods may be considered more accurate, numerically or perceptually, and other ways may just look nicer. In the end, it may not really matter, as the end results of the different methods were all still very similar. Can you see the differences?

For something that seemed at first so simple, I'm amazed to find that working with coloured images at the nitty gritty level becomes quite the chore. My headaches do not end there however, as modifying and combining the dynamic ranges of multiple images introduces new challenges as well. It turns out that just averaging two identical photos (with just different exposures) produces pretty decent results! It may not be the best method of producing an HDR image, but it sure is easy. (bonus: simply averaging the images also seems to reduce image noise!)

How to get Skype for the iPhone in Canada

2009-03-31T19:49:00.001-07:00

It seems every country was able to download and install Skype for the iPhone as of today... except for Canada. Apparently it was due to some patent-licencing issues.. I really wanted Skype though since I have unlimited incoming calls on my iPhone, but no long distance features and limited outgoing minutes; Skype-out would be a great way for me to save some money.

Well, there is hope, Canada!

Steps involved:

1) Visit http://www.tunecore.com/freealbum and get a free iTunes promo code. If the link no longer works, Google is your friend when it comes to finding other valid US iTunes promo codes.
2) In iTunes, select from the Menu, Store > View My Account and login.
3) Select Change Country and follow the instructions.
4) You will want to select US as the country and instead of using a Credit Card, just enter the promo code. The new address you enter needs to be US-based; Beverly Hills, 90210 is popular.
5) When done, you can use the US iTunes App store (since your account is now set to US) to install Skype to your iPhone. (Syncing Apps with iTunes can be a pain bit of a pain in the butt, so if you are having problems with the syncing process, keep playing with it until you get it to work.)
6) Skype should now be installed on your iPhone, but with your iTunes set for US, using your iPhone App store could be a problem. So, once Skype is installed, just repeat the above steps to change your Country setting in iTunes back to Canada.
7) If you do not have a Credit card, or wish not to enter a Credit card number, Dose.ca provides free promo codes that will allow you to bypass this step. American promo codes may not work.
8) Now that your iTunes account is set back to Canadian, everything should be back to normal, except Skype will now be loaded on your iPhone.
9) ENJOY!

If you are having problems with my above method, check out this site, as it offers a slightly different method that should also work.

[Update: Skype calls over 3G are disabled for some annoying reason, so only calls over WiFi seem to work. $4/month for skype versus $40/month for a cellular voice plan... I feel like I'm being scammed. gah!]

Lenovo T400 - Trial Outdoors

2009-03-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a long winter up here in Canada and with the warm, sunny weather now approaching, computer users attempt to migrate outside with their laptops to soak up some much needed Vitamin D. One problem though -- not all notebooks displays are readable in bright light.

I wanted to try out my Lenovo Thinkpad T400 notebook outside today, as the weather was finally somewhat warm and the sun was shining. I bought the T400 a few months ago in hopes of the screen being usable outside in direct sunlight, but I was unable to actually test it until now.

When customizing a Thinkpad at Lenovo.com, there often are a few choices for display types. Some options include LED backlighting, some include high resolution displays and most recently, Lenovo has started offering an ultra bright 680-nit display option for the T400 that is designed for outdoor use it would seem.

The display my Thinkpad uses is the LED-backit 1440 by 900 resolution display option, which is bright, but not 680-nit bright.

I started my test outside with the T400 in the early afternoon on a sunny March day here in Toronto. One thing I quickly noticed was that in direct sunlight, reading black on white text was quite easy, even with the backlight turned off; this was in part due to the transflection properties of the display. Without the backlight on, the whites had a yellow tint to it, whereas with the backlight set to full, there was more of a slight blue tint to the whites. Also, shadows (with the backlight off) quickly lowered the contrast, making it harder to read, while with the backlight set to full, shadows had less of an effect.

Despite having some added problems with having the backlight off, in direct sunlight text was still readable with the backlight off and I was able to greatly increase the battery life of the notebook because of it.

On an overcast day, or when there are shadows present, turning on the backlight to full works well to bring out more accurate colors and to make text even more readable. Text was still not as easy to read as it is when indoors, but it was workable. I was able to write up an article for work, while sitting in the sun at a park with my iPhone providing me a tethered Internet connection. I will need to try this all on the beach sometime. :-)

Anyways, as for reflections, since the screen was matted, I did not see any real reflections at all. (unlike on the new glossy Macbook displays). Other than reduced contrast, my eyes did not need to fight or become strained trying to see the display. There was one problem, easily fixed, but during the late afternoon, when the soon was nearing the horizon, there was a blurry bright reflection of the sun. Adjusting the screen's angle or shifting the notebook a bit to another angle fixed that issue.

As a conclusion, I would say the matted LED backlit 1440x900 LCD display on the Lenovo T400 is fully adequate for working on a document outside in the direct sun. It even has some transflective properties that allow a user to turn off the backlight completely and still see the screen. Watching a dark movie or dealing with dim images may be troublesome however.

The incredible battery life of the T400 allowed me to spend virtually the entire day working outside, which is a plus as well. Purchasing the new 600-nit option displays for the T400 would be even better for working outdoors I am sure. I'm very pleased, but as you can tell from the images, contrast is still greatly lowered.

One last thing,
I will try to add more photos of other notebooks under direct sunlight conditions to help give everyone an idea of what are good outdoor displays and what are not. If any readers have a photo of their notebook out in the sun however, send it my way and I will add it to the site, along with all the others I get.

punkrawker@gmail.com

[Update: A reader had a few questions for me that I may not of made clear in this article. So, I am attaching below my response, in case anyone else has similar questions. ]

When I bought my T400, Lenovo offered a different selection of LCD panels for the T400. There was the WXGA, WXGA+ and WXGA+ /w LED BL. I notice that Lenovo seems to change what is offered quite often; sometimes do to a shortage of a specific type. In some cases, it is just the price that goes up or down for an option, but at other times, the option is removed. I paid about $80 for my screen upgrade; while there were some weeks the same upgrade cost $150- it does not seem like Lenovo.com Canada offers this option at the moment.

The current offerings at Lenovo Canada are:
WXGA
WXGA+
WXGA HN + backlit.
(none of these really seem that great to me)

I bought the WXGA+ /w LED BL. From what I can tell, my display has a 300:1 contrast and 250 nits of brightness. It really seems quite bright compared to older Thinkpads.

This T400 review also had the same panel that I have it seems.
http://www.buy.com/articles/loc/64230/channeltype/2/channelid/127/subtype/1/2004569.html
There opinion on the 250nit display outdoors was "it is perfectly serviceable outside." I tend to agree; even on the sunniest of days, things are quite usable/readable. However, with the 250nit display, in direct sunlight the contrast of the screen seemed to be become lower, so I would say if you plan on working outdoors a lot, an even brighter screen could be a better choice. A brighter screen = easier to view outside. The pictures in my article are of the 250nit LED display in sunlight.

The 250 nit display that my T400 has is currently not offered at this time at Lenovo.com Canada, but it might become available in the future. If you can get the WXGA+ /w LED BL 250nit display upgrade (for under $100, preferably), I'd say it is a great option for people who only occasionally plan to use their notebooks outdoors. It is still looks bright and more than bright enough for indoor use. The viewing angles are not that super great however.

Their is currently a WXGA HN (high nit?) /w LED BL being offered now at Lenovo.com Canada --- I assume this is the 680 nit option as mentioned in this article. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Laptop-Toughens-Up-Against-Panasonic-Dell/
"The Lenovo ThinkPad T400, which has a retail price starting at $1,350, includes an optional 680-nit "high brightness" panel designed to provide extra visibility even in bright ambient conditions, such as light shining directly on the screen. "

As for a higher resolution version of this display, someone on the Internet said "at least for one day, there was yet another option (priced at $150, if I recall correctly) for a 14.1" WXGA+ (1440x900) "High Nit" with LED backlighting." The HN high resolution LCD display might of sold out already. If you wait, it might become available again in the future. And then again, Maybe not. It seems like the best choice for a LCD Panel if you can get it.

Heavy outdoor users will want to grab the HN (680nit?) LED BL option, as it will make working outside more pleasurable. If you can get it with the WXGA+ resolution, that would probably be preferred. You might have to wait and see if it becomes available though. I can't really suggest anyone get the WXGA low-resolution display, but for a lot of people that resolution is fine to use. If that is the only option available, it might be the best choice though. If it were me, I'd wait and see what other options become available.

I have also seen a "Wide Viewing Angle" display option appear at Lenovo.com at one time or another; I dont know how it differs exactly from other screens, but the display I have does not have great viewing angles. It seems however that the HN display options have Wide viewing angles (which is great). " , Lenovo is equipping the ThinkPad T400 laptop with an optional high brightness, wide angle screen, making it nearly four times brighter than previous ThinkPad laptop screens." - Lenovo PR. Im unsure exactly if this is a fact yet tho and im not sure what exactly is considered wide angle.

As for the Non-LED BL displays (CCFL), I would not recommend getting one of these. They tend to be not as bright as the LED BL displays, and these backlights often tend to burn out after like 5 years of use. The LED BL options also seem to provide for better battery life comparably.

If it were me at the moment looking to buy a new T400, I would wait for better options to become available. I like having a high resolution display, but I also like my display being LED backlit. Since I don't work outside that much, the WXGA+ 250-nit LED BL option works fine for me, but a brighter screen with better viewing angles would be preferred. The WXGA+ HN /w LED BL option would probably be the best option, if you can find that offer.

I do not know for sure if you can buy a Thinkpad in the US and have the warranty be valid in Canada. According to this discussion however, http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=90585, a USA warranty is valid in Canada. If you can order from the US, it seems like that may indeed be a great way of getting the display type you want, while not having to wait for Lenovo Canada to start offering it.

(At the time of this writing, Lenovo USA only offers CCFL displays and the WXGA HN LED display. The same as Canada, so ordering from the US at this time may not actualy help out much)

(disclaimer: This article contains opinions and it may also contain factual errors. Please inform me of any errors, so I can correct them. If you do not agree with my opinion on something, please leave a comment below to share your own opinion. thank you.)

Review: Lenovo S10

2009-03-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

Here is my initial review of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook* that I recently bought and had the day to play around with.

System Specifications:
10-inch display (matte)
512 MB RAM (2 GB Max?)
80 GB HDD
Intel Atom 270 1.6 GHz processor.
Intel GMA 950 graphics
Webcam
SD Card Reader
3-cell battery
Black
Windows XP Home SP3

Price paid: $329 (CAD) + tax & shipping
I ordered the S10 from NCIX Canada on sale; Lenovo Canada charges $429 ($399 on sale) for a slightly more upgraded S10e model. I'm definitely happy with the price that I paid, but a 6-cell version would have been preferred.

Performance:

Futuremark's Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark:
Internet Explorer 7.0 score = 64
(for comparison, an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ scored 162 and an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 scored 447)

It made some sense to test the browser performance of the S10. A score of 64 is pretty low, but surfing the net still seemed to be responsive... most of the time. There were a few webpages, including Engadget, that seemed to cause a few seconds of unresponsiveness to the system as a whole while the page loaded. Switching to a faster browser, increasing the amount of memory from 512 MB to 2 GB (the max?) and installing anti-advertisement software to fend off the flash-based ads should help things out.

SuperPi 1.5 Mod (http://www.xtremesystems.com/pi/)
1 M = 1 minute, 34 seconds
(for comparison, a Lenovo Thinkpad T400 with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4 GHz scored 20 seconds)

YouTube HD Video Playback
I loaded up a YouTube HD video clip of the new Transformers 2 trailer (720p) for a test; playback was set to fullscreen and quality was set to high. The display of the S10 is not actually 720p, rather 1024 x 600.

The Intel Atom 270 processor is not actually a dual-core chip, but rather it just has hyper-threading capabilities that make it seem like it is a dual-core. As you can see from the CPU Usage History though, at no point was the video putting a full strain on the system, but it got close at times. As it stands, low-bit rate 720p video should run just fine on the S10.

Considering how the S10 has no Blu-ray drive, no DVI or HDMI output, and that it has a limited screen resolution, being able to handle 1080p video is not something most users will need to worry about with this system.

Windows XP Startup
I didn't bother to time it, but bootup speed with the 80 GB 5400 RPM hard drive seemed quick. There was very little useless bloatware pre-loaded on the system, but a Norton AV Trial was pre-installed, which I didn't care much for. I uninstalled it and Windows booted up a tad faster afterwards. Windows XP does still feel faster than Vista.

System Build Quality and Design
I was very pleased with the system quality of the Lenovo S10. It felt very solid, even more solid than the Lenovo Thinkpad T400 that I use regularly. My T400 actually felt a bit flimsy in comparison, but the S10 was kinda heavy too... it felt *solid*.

The S10 was also a very attractive looking netbook in my opinion; classy, yet business looking. The black color worked well and although black is kinda boring, the small size of the system kept it still looking quite interesting

(A cat, a Lenovo T400 and the Lenovo S10)

As expected, the keyboard did feel kinda small, but it was fine for writing short emails with. I would not want to write a long article with it; I actually quickly gave up on writing this article on it. The keys were large enough to hit properly, but there was very little spacing in between the keys. I'm sure if you spent some time learning how to type on it, it would become easy to use. The fact I switch between so many computers here though, it is annoying to have to re-adjust to a new style of keyboard every time.

[Update:] Compared to other netbooks, the S10 has a relatively spacious keyboard I'd say. After using it a bit more, I'm finding it easier to write on, but it still feels somewhat cramped and I'm still making more mistakes with it than on a normal size keyboard. I do have large hands though.

It seems a bit pointless to hook up a dedicated USB keyboard to the S10, as why would you then not just bring a full size notebook with you or just use a desktop PC instead, but a dedicated keyboard would make typing on the system a lot better.
(I'd take a notebook over a netbook or desktop if I could only have one, but casual users may prefer a netbook, so having a USB keyboard could still be sensible I guess)

I felt that the right shift key was in an odd place, and that the tab button was a bit small, but considering the size of the keyboard it all made sense, so it didn't bother me much. Also, the Home, End and F12 keys are function keys.

The touchpad was small, but it was fine to use- not really any more annoying to use than a regular notebook touchpad. There was a scrolling area along the side, which I was glad to have.

The left and right buttons were firm and recessed (flush until pressed), which made them a bit hard to click actually, but for short-term use it was not annoying. I would want a mouse with me if I was going to be doing any serious work on the system. [Update: After a while, I got more accustomed to the buttons; they do not seem so annoying anymore to me.]

I wish there was a Trackpoint nub also, but I figure that would of made the keyboard smaller and even harder to type on. Those red nubs surprisingly take up a lot of keyboard space

The display, when shut, did not have any latch holding it locked in place. Instead, the hinge was firm, which kept the display in place. It was actually a bit tricky to open the notebook, considering the force it took and the lack of grip provided. When opened, the display opened up to about the same angle as a Macbook, which is a perfect angle for typical use. Still, if you want to use the S10 on a desk stand or something, this limited angle could be a problem.

The display itself is matted and had decent viewing angles; not quite 178-degrees or anything, but it was better than some TN displays that I've used lately. I could vary my viewing angle from the ideal position somewhat without seeing much noticeable contrast difference; there was some though; mostly with the vertical.

The max brightness level was good, more than enough for easy indoor use, and I would imagine it would be okay to use in the shade outside. In direct sunlight, well, its readable I'm betting, but I wouldn't recommend it. A bright screen was easier to read with.

The size of the 10-inch screen was as expected; what size you decide on is really personal preference. The point of a netbook is to have something small and cheap, but having too small a netbook could also result in having an unusably small keyboard. The bevel around the screen and keyboard was relatively thin I felt, so that's good.

Thanks to the decent resolution of the display, 1024 by 600, webpages did not feel too crap. There were some programs that could have used more vertical space, such as in Google Documents, but it wasn't too bad. I quickly got use to the screen size and found it didn't feel too small for most things. It might depend on your eye-sight though I guess.

The colors and clarity of the display were all acceptable to me; no serious complaints about the screen here.

The Webcam worked fine and the aim was pretty decent. It was relatively crisp and with moderately lit indoor lighting things seemed well exposed. The webcam really made me look even uglier than normal though; from how it appeared it was because the webcam was angled up at my face due to it being on my lap, rather than being at eye level, and because it brought out my pale skin colors too accurately. Who knows for sure though; maybe I'm just that ugly. For obvious reasons, I don't feel like including a snapshot, but regardless, the webcam itself seemed to be without any real fault. Nothing spectacular about it I guess, but it was better than some others that I have used.

Update: I did notice that there was some lag delay in the webcam video feed and that the frame rate was not super amazing, especially when using the webcam in low light conditions, but that is pretty normal for webcams. Still, I'm pleased with the webcam.

Update 2: Okay. okay. I've included a still from the default webcam feed. This was taken late at night with a couple lamps lighting the room. The room had low to moderate lighting. The image is unaltered; there is some strong noise removal present it seems.

(Webcam still)

The S10 does have an integrated microphone and speakers; I didn't test the microphone, but the speakers were as expected. Listening to my online voice mail, with the volume set to full, things came through fine. Not exactly full of bass, but they should be fine for basic use. Loud enough I'd say. You might want to carry a pair of headphones with you if you plan on listening to music or watching a movie.

The S10 included a few other nifty design features, such as a dedicated button for launching the system's recovery tools and a button that turns off the wireless connectivity. There was also an expansion slot, which is unique among netbooks, but most users will never realize a use for it. There was only 2 USB ports though, instead of the typical three; one of each side of the netbook. Overall, I was pleased with the design of the S10 and all the design features it offers.

Battery Life
The S10 comes loaded with a simple** power management tool. Not quite as fully featured as the versions on Thinkpads, but it worked well regardless. It lets a user quickly switch between performance, balanced, and power saving modes.

On balanced mode, the screen's brightness was near fully brightness, which was great, and the system seemed speedy still. Battery life seemed to last about 3 hours (some are saying a bit less) of typical use, but it varies of course depending on what you are doing.

On power savings mode, the audio, wireless and brightness level became disabled or reduced. Really, the power saving mode was unusable for me. It definitely would increase battery life if you were focused on just writing a document though.

[**Update: The power management tool actually turns out to be pretty powerful on the S10. It was not a very intuitive process, but to gain access to the real "advanced" power options, you need to double click one of the power scheme buttons in the Lenovo Power management application. The Lenovo PM software disables the Windows power management manager, which is fine with me, but can also be frustrating if you don't know how to access to the advanced options.]

When the power got low, the system dimmed the display to save power it seemed. Problem is, when I plugged in the power cord after this happened, the display still remained dim; no biggie. The battery charged up to 90% very quickly.

Software
As for included software, there was no backup CD included, unsurprisingly, but there was a backup image of the Windows installation on a hidden partition. There were actually 3 partitions on the 80 GB drive, two of which were dedicated for system backups and drivers.

In total, about half of the 80 GB drive was taken up by the backup partitions it appears, leaving less than 30 GB of free space on the main system C: partition. There was a lot of free space on the backup drive D: partition; no idea why though; it seemed to contain just some drivers and some backup files.

You could format the entire 80 GB drive, but the default install was actually rather clean I thought and without a CD drive, reinstalling Windows could possible be a big pain. I would need to try to be sure though. You might get away with just deleting the D: partition for more free space; but I dont know how important the D: drive is yet.

Ive been asked about this partition thing a lot, so I will double check the numbers I posted and report back when I figure it all out for sure. I don't think I am mistaken, but just to be sure, Check out this review; they are equally confused by the partition on the S10.

[Update: Hidden partition = ~3.5GB of 15GB used, NTFS ; Drive C = ~7 GB of 30 GB used, FAT32 ; Drive D = ~1 GB of 30 GB used, NTFS]

There was not a lot of other software pre-loaded on the S10; just some trial antivirus software, drivers and associated basic apps, and some Lenovo backup/restoration software.

Conclusion
I have not yet got a full feeling for the Lenovo S10, but my first impression from the device is a good one. If you are looking for a small, solid notebook that is capable of basic tasks, the S10 is a great choice.

The three things I liked about the S10 the most included;
-System failures can quickly be repaired thanks to the hidden system partitions and dedicated recovery button.
-The included expansion card slot
-The solid design that I have come to expect from Lenovo

Three things I didn't like;
-The trackpad buttons were fully recessed, making them harder to click with my fat thumb than normal.
-The fact that the backup partitions took up nearly 40 GB of hard drive space.
-I can't really fault Lenovo for this, as there is a 6-cell option available apparently, but the 3-cell battery can't offer a full day of mobile unwired use.

Disclaimer: This article, along with others on this site, may contain opinions and/or factual claims that may be unintentionally wrong. I'm not perfect, but I try to be. *I don't know if the term netbook is legit to use these days anymore, but until the situation is clarified, I assume it is still fair use.

Canada Computers' Daily Deal Forecast

2009-03-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

For those in Canada, here is a sneak peak of some of the upcoming daily deals heading to Canada Computers; a popular computer store up here in the cold great north. It beats having to check the site daily.

Courts Can Access Private Facebook Profiles

2009-03-04T15:33:00.000-08:00

The use of Facebook in the courtroom is a hot, topical issue that is currently generating a lot of buzz among lawyers. In Canada, private Facebook profiles can now be ordered to be produced in court for use in personal injury insurance litigation.

OH noes! Your insurance company is taking you to court over your disability claim and you got to pretend now that you're actually sick. No worries, just walk with a limp for the rest of the week and yelp in pain when anyone touches you - easy.. right? Well, not so fast...

You vaguely remember last month when you and your friends spent a week at the cottage, drinking beer and jet skiing without a care in the world? Well, all those private photos you uploaded to Facebook to share with only your friends will be coming back to haunt you; even if your Facebook privacy is set to maximum protection.

Courts in Canada can now demand to have access to your Facebook profile. What may be even scarier is that Facebook is known for not actually deleting photos, links, comments or profiles, even if you thought they were deleted-- Facebook really often justs 'hides' them on you, so you think things are deleted, but not so to a clever lawyer.

Even if you are able to delete everything on your own profile, what is to say your drinking buddies have done the same on their Facebook profiles?

Facebook is a scary place indeed.

Source

Panasonic PZ800 50-inch Plasma Quick Review

2009-02-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

I like to review new electronics I buy, even if they are not exactly new to the market. Enter the Panasonic 50PZ800 plasma television, which I picked up yesterday from The Brick (here in Canada) for $1999 (CAD).

Pricing and Purchase
The MSRP for this television is $2999 CAD (or $2499 USD). The reason for the substantial discount on this television for me mostly was because the TV was a "3-month" old floor model. The sale tag price of the TV had $500 off intially (being a floor model and all), but the rep took off another $300 after a little bit of haggling. There was a store-wide clearance sale going on also, which probably helped allow the sale rep to be more flexible on the price.

At $2200, the TV was equal to the original price that the store bought the TV for from the manufacture. When the sales team was packing up the TV though, they noticed when the power was off that there were some small nicks on the display. It looked like someone punched the display with their wedding ring or something. They alerted us to this, as you couldnt tell when the display was on... the sales rep contacted the store manager though, who authorized a further $200 of the sale price, because of the damage. So, in the end, we only paid $1999 + tax + extended warranty. yes, we got a discounted extended warranty and we can exchange it for store credit in 4 years if we do not ever use it. Sounds great to me!

I was happy with my experience shopping at The Brick. They let me use their store's computer to check and compare online pricing, which they would price match if needed, and the TVs were setup in a sensible way that made comparing image quality easy. TVs are one of those things you have to see in person I find, to get a true sense of what looks good. Futureshop said they could not give us a discounted price when we asked for one, but all of a sudden they did start making lower offers when we started heading for the door. Tricky bastards. The $100-off offers they made sucked though and their extended warranties were much more expensive than what we paid at The Brick.

Pioneer vs Panasonic
I looked at Pioneer also, which Futureshop had on sale for $2999 and BB had for @3499, but The Brick did not carry. The Pioneer did look like it had really good black levels. There seemed to be a bit of choppiness in high action scenes, but that might of been simply been due to a 24 FPS input source. Who knows. The Panasonic PZ800 did not seem to have as good black levels as the Pioneer, but they both still were great. I went with Panasonic, as it was a better price, and there were some things about it that I liked, even if it didnt have as good a black level.

Nice Features of the Panasonic PZ800
The PZ800 comes with a unique THX-certified pre-calibrated image setting. This was a really nice feature for me, as I can just press a button and know Im getting a near-perfect image, without needing to calibrate the display myself. Things look natural, not-washed-out and moderately bright. For movies, this setting is awesome.

There is a Game-mode image setting, which increases the brightness and makes colors more vibrant. With movies and TV, I found this setting washed out the whites and over-saturated the colors, but it did make things BRIGHT. When I hooked up my laptop to the TV via VGA (which is another really nice feature, as my laptop does not have DVI or HDMI) things went pretty well. However, when I loaded up a computer game, with the THX setting the game seemed dark and murky. The Game-mode image setting though really did make things easier to see and made the game more pleasant. Nice. When going back to watching movies, the THX mode was remembered. double nice!

The Panasonic PZ80, PX80 and PZ75 do not have the THX or VGA PC input features I dont think. The VGA PC input though is limited to 1366 x 768 resolution i think, which was expected. The HDMI PC input though is full HD.

Black Levels
The black levels on the TV are great, although when there is a very dark scene with not much contrast, i notice that the black levels seem suddenly less-black. When there is some contrast on the screen though, when is like 99% of the time, the blacks look very black. I look forward to the days when blacks are truly 'black', but this screen does it pretty damn well still.

Sound
I thought at first that I might need to get a separate sound system for the TV, but after plugging the TV in a loading up a movie, it immediately became apparent to me that I could totally do without a big surround system. The TV has hidden in it some speakers that work quite well, and even have some bass to them. Things get pretty loud, but the bass does gets weak when the volume gets 'loud'. I'm not a big fan of surround sound systems anyways, too messy. The sound does sometimes seem to have a virtual surround sound effect, which is pretty neat. Overally, I was pleasantly suprised by the sound of this TV, and will likely not buy a separate sound system.

LCD vs Plasma
Its just my personal opinion, but I prefer Plasma over LCD. The LCDs look sharp and bright, but they also look more pixelated, flickery, and less natural. Also, the black levels on many of the LCDs I saw were pretty crappy. The actual image quality of the PZ800 is fabulous. I can't find any ways to fault it other than unrealistically wishing it had even better black levels THIS PLASMA LOOKS GREAT.

DVDs and HD material.
I don't have a Bluray player yet, but I might get one eventually. As it stands, I will be mostly watching OTA ATSC channels and DVDs. I hooked up my noname DVD player to the TV via composite, which is realize is crap, but even still things were pretty great. Sitting about 8-feet back, I watched Alien vs Predator on DVD, and was thrilled with the way things looked. I could tell it wasn't HD material from 8-feet away, but there was nothing about the image quality that bothered me.

The dark scenes in AvP were not a problem for the TV at all, and the action went by without any noticable flicker. I noticed some rainbow effect or something like that for a split second, but it was during a high contrast, black and white scene, with a lot of movement. It didnt bother me, but it was interesting that I noticed it.

As for HD sources, I hooked the TV up to my roof antenna, and was able to pull in about a dozen HD sources with the ATSC tuner. NTSC sources i also pulled in fine. The reception on the TV was great, better than any other I have used so far. Im in the Toronto area, and Im getting the New York WNED PBS HD and NY FOX 29 HD with no problem. The 1080i HD ATSC sources LOOK GREAT. Stunning. I can only imagine what Bluray might look like. From 8-feet away, i can tell a difference between SD and HD sources, as HD sources are more crisp, but both look GREAT. SD sources have no pixelization and other than looking a bit softer, they still are pleasing to watch.

In moments of high action, the ATSC HD sources do seem to have a bit of motion blur or flicker, but this might be to the limited frame rates of the source. I quickly stop noticing it after a moment, like the flicker I intially notice when at the movie theatre. It really does have less flicker than a lot of the TVs i looked at it.

The TV does show relfections and finger prints, but when the TV is on it is easy not to notice them. light scratches do not show when the TV is on.

Conclusion
Pros: Great picture, good black levels, good integrated sound system, useful THX image mode, Frameless edge-to-edge glossy display (easy to clean), simple but easy to use remote control, good OTA reception, PC VGA input

Cons: remote control is not back lit, dark levels did not seem as good as the pioneer's, SDHX card slot can only display photos--> cannot play movies it seems.

@ $2999, this TV seems a bit on the pricey side, but it is good competition for the Pioneer Plasma. After using the TV, I would find it hard to pick the Pioneer instead now if the two TVs were the same price. For the $1999 I paid for this TV, I feel like it was a great deal and I am very happy with the purchase -- even if there is a few scratches on the display. $2700 or less seems like a good price for this TV, IMO. The display is an absolute delight to watch and I really have to be picky to find any faults. It may not have Youtube or Divx support, but it does the important things VERY WELL.

Cheers.

Lenovo T400 Review

2008-12-23T16:33:00.000-08:00

So, let my review of the Lenovo T400 begin.

Configuration under review
Lenovo T400
14.1-inch LED 1440x900 display
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 CPU (2.4 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 25 W TDP)
3 GB of DDR3-1066 MHz RAM
Switchable graphics: Intel GMA X4500MHD or ATI Mobility 3470 /w 256 MB
Bluetooth
Intel 5300 WiFi
80 GB 5400 HDD
Webcam
Media Card Reader
Windows Vista Home Basic
9-cell extended battery

Price: $1070 CAD (Ordered November 24th, Delivered December 4th)
Also ordered a Lenovo Bluetooth laser mouse. Price: $33 (Delivered in 1.5 days)
Prices were substaintially discounted, thanks to a friends of employees discount and an addition e-coupon code.

CPU Performance:
1M on SuperPI Mod 1.5 scored about 21 seconds.
For comparison, my 3 year old AMD Sempron 3000+ overclocked to 2.4 GHz scored 50 seconds and my brother's 2 year old Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 overclocked to 3.0 GHz scored 19 seconds. The processor is very efficient in both terms of clock cycles and power savings, but compared to modern-day desktops, it is not particularly fast.

Graphics Performance;
Intel's integrated graphics solutions are not known for great performance, but they do tend to be energy-efficient. Using the integrated graphics on the T400 makes sense for nearly everything one might do on a notebook, including watching HD movies, but for games and graphically demanding applications, Intel's integrated solutions will be a let down. I am a bit concerned about the capabilities of the integrated solutions several years down the road, whether they will still be adequate, but for the forseeable future they are enough.

Luckily, the T400 is also offered with a discrete graphics option; the ATI Radeon M 3470 with 256 MB of graphics memory. Better yet, when using Windows Vista, with literally just a couple clicks of the mouse you can switch between the integrated and ATI dedicated graphics. The ATI graphics do use more power, so to simply leave the notebook with dedicated graphics enabled is not the best choice for increasing battery life. The power managment software cannot switch between dedicated and integrated graphics on its own, you have to manually change it by clicking.

The ATI Radeon M 3470 is about THREE times faster than the integrated solution. In 3DMark06, I was able to achieve a score of 2540, with the dedicated graphics, which is not a great score. My slow, old AMD Sempron 3000+ (overclocked) system for example, with a cheap Nvidia 8600 GT graphics card, was able to score 6000 points in the same test. Do not overestimate how fast the ATI 3470 is; it is not fast. The average score in 3DMark06 these days for a desktop is about 14,000. However, I was able to still play Fallout 3 on medium graphics without any problems and I was able to play my collection of older games just fine with the ATI solution.

I still recommend getting the discrete graphics option if you are going to get the Lenovo T400; you don't need to enable it, but it is nice to have if the integrated solution ends up ever being simply too slow. It is not good enough for serious gaming, but you can get away with using it for casual gaming. The integrated solution is still fine if you plan on treating the T400 as a business notebook only.

Battery Life:
At 50-percent brightness (which is just fine for writing with), the wireless connections in Idle mode (not connected, but enabled) and integrated graphics enabled, I am getting about 10-hours of battery life. The configuration I picked of T400 was designed to offer me maximum battery life. With online gaming, I would expect about 3-hours of battery life (ATI graphics, speed step enabled, and 70-percent brightness). With web-surfing, I expect about 7- to 8-hours of battery life. With watching online movies, I would say no more than 5-hours can be expected. These are my estimations with about 3 weeks of using the T400 under my belt. Overall, battery life is great with the 9-cell battery, which does stick out the back of the notebook, but the trade off was well worth it too me. I was getting about 7-hours with my iPhone tethered via USB, in power save mode.

Display:
I personally find the viewing angles on the T400 a bit too narrow for my liking. It really throws off the contrast if the screen is not tilted at exactly the right angle. I have gotten use to it though, but during movies it can still be a bit annoying. Darker scenes seem to exaggerate the problem I find.

The display can be turned up to be rather bright, but it is no brighter than what you would find on a quality desktop LCD display. It is a big improvement over my older IBM Thinkpad though, but use in direct sunlight will still be a bit challenging. During an overcast day, at full brightness, the display was easily readable though. The contrast of the display needs a bit of tuning to get it just right, as I found the lighter shades got washed out. I'm glad the screen is matted and not glossy, but the display is still very prone to annoying finger prints.

Btw, There seemed to be a bit of flicker at times; hardly noticable, but when the brightness was turned down I sometimes noticed it. When taking photos of the display with my camera, the flicker became very apparent. My CCFL-based Thinkpad had no such flicker. It seemed like something to do with LED backlighting.

[update: I added a new review of the outdoor capabilities of the T400's LED display]

Hard Drive:
The 80 GB hard drive was split into 3 partitions, with nearly 15 GB being reserved for recovery and rescue software. After installing some basic applications, I discovered that I was already down to just 20 GB of free space. If you choose however, you can take out the DVD drive and replace it with a second hard drive, which I am tempted to do. I hardly use the DVD drive anyways. You can also replace it with a second battery, but from what I have read it seems they have a limited lifespan due to constantly being fully drained.

The hard drive turned out to be Western Digital 'Blue' Scorpion drive, which appears to be fast for a 5400 RPM drive and rather energy efficient.

Recovery Software:
One of the paritions is reserved for a bootable recovery utility. It's like a live boot CD was pre-loaded on the drive. You can browse the internet, fix your computer and copy files off the hard drive if needed. Overall, I was impressed by the amount of recovery software included. I unfortunately don't have enough hard drive space to do any system backups, but there are several different options for that. There is also the ability to 'rejuvinate' your system by restoring to an earlier backup, but while keeping all your preferences and files. Supposedly, this is a good way to get rid of a virus or get rid of bloatware that has been slowing your system down.

The ThinkVantage blue button on the keyboard opens a menu with short cuts to commonly used utlities and recovery options. A nice touch that I keep forgetting I have.

One thing I discovered though is; don't mess around with the partition/boot tables. If the recovery partition cannot boot, you are going to have lots of problems. Another potential problem is if the hard drive dies. All the recovery software is on the drive, so it's useless if your hard drive crashes. Lenovo does not include a boot CD or recovery CD; something I found to be very frustrating. There is an option to 'create' a restore/recovery DVD, but you need the DVD burning option for that. I ordered the CD RW drive, not the DVD RW, so how was I going to create a recovery DVD? It ended up needing to burn 12 CDs, which was a waste of my time.

If you need to reformat your drive, and you havent created the restore CD set, you are also going to face problems with finding all the drives and software online that originally came with your notebook. Lenovo will send you a recovery DVD if you beg them for one though, assuming you are still within warranty, but they may charge you money for it. I wish they just included the DVD with the purchase; it would make things much easier.

Bloatware:
Although there was a bit of bloatware included with the purchase, none of it was all that bad. Office 2007 demo, WinDVD, some AntiVirus software, and a ton of ThinkVantage programs. It didn't take long at all to delete the stuff I didnt want, which wasn't much, but I was still left with a lot of things in my task tray. Generally, the Thinkvantage tools and services take up very little memory and processing cycles, and other than a crowded taskbar, I'm happy. The 3 GB of memory helps make this an even smaller issue. Lenovo did a good job integrating its tools into the Windows Vista operating system, giving Windows Vista many more advanced options, especially in regard to power managment.

Sound:
The sound quality is crisp and clean, but it is lacking bass. Nothing that wasn't expected. The loudness though is a bit of a problem, as the volume does not go up that high. It has been fine so far for personal use, but some movies that I have watched I wish could have been just a bit louder. Wearing headphones works great.

Wireless:
I got the Intel 5300 wifi, which comes with three antennas instead of two. It seems to work great; picking up WiFi APs with no problem. I was able to download a CD image from a desktop computer on a network via WiFi 802.11G at about 2.2 MB/s (Linksys G router). Depending on power mode, sometimes the WiFi goes to sleep and it doesn't always come out of sleep when its needed. I have to manually re-enable it. There is a physical switch on the T400 to turn off all WiFi, which is nice.

Bluetooth works. I had some problems getting my iPhone to sync at one point over Bluetooth, but eventually I got it to work. Dunno why I was having problems. The wireless Bluetooth Lenovo laser mouse has generally worked well. In games like fallout 3, I noticed some mouse lag, but with just websurfing, there was no lag at all. The mouse connects quickly, although I did have a couple times when the computer and mouse wouldnt sync properly, but after a few minutes of pressing buttons, it suddenly began acting fine again.

Webcam:
The camera is kinda junky. Im sorry to say. The camera is useless under dim lighting, but under moderate lighting it is acceptable. Under bright light, things begin to work a bit better however.

(At the Mall, writing this. It is bright here, so the colors are actually pretty good. However, my head is cut in half and there is a mysterious [sarcasm] white dot appearing on my face)

Lastly, the camera does not feel like it is aimed properly at my head. It points towards to the ceiling, rather than my head. This is in part due to the viewing angle the display needs to be tilted at to be seen properly. If the display had a better viewing angle, it might be possible to tilt the screen forward more and solve the webcam aiming issue. As it stands, the screen gets totally washed out when you tilt it forward. I have the same problem with the keyboard light next to the webcam ; it blinds you rather than illuminate the keyboard when the keyboard is tilted at its proper position. If you tilt the display forward, you no longer need the light, as the display's backlight illuminates the keyboard just fine.

Style and Quality:

It is a Thinkpad. I think the bevels on the side of the keyboard and around the display could be slimmed down. As it stands, I feel it is an inch bigger than it needs to be to fit the keyboard and display. The notebook is boring, businessy, but it is pretty resistant to fingerprints and damage. The battery is a bit loose, which makes the notebook feel a bit cheap. There are not many weak spots on the notebook; the keyboard does feel solid, despite what other reviewers have said, and I can see this notebook lasting a long time. It is of standard weight and thickness; maybe just a tad thinner/lighter than your average 14-inch notebook, but it is no ultra-light. It is under 6 pounds.

Ports:
There are no DVI/HDMI/S-Video ports, just a VGA port. there are also three USB ports, a firewire port, ethernet, modem and a card slot for expansion i guess. The media card reader works fine, but compact cards do not work with it, but SD cards do.

Conclusion:
Overall, I am happy with this notebook. If you have used a ThinkPad before, there should not be too many surprises. The Lenovo T400 should be a fine notebook to use for work, but for gaming it may not be the best choice. I think a desktop would be the much better choice for gaming. However, the T400 is adequate for casual gaming. The T400 is also not an ultra light, but it does offers a good balance of weight and features I think. The battery life remains one of the highlights for me with this notebook, but if battery life is not that important to you, there definitly are some other options out there for you.

Review: Lenovo Bluetooth Laser Mouse

2008-11-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to give back to the community a bit, I am going to giving a review of my experience with Lenovo Canada and two new products I have recently ordered from it online. The two products are the Lenovo T400 14-inch notebook and a Lenovo Bluetooth Laser Mouse.

Purchasing

I ordered online both the T400 and the mouse late Monday night, from Lenovo.com. The total price, after tax, was about $1,250. Before tax, the T400 cost me $1070, while the mouse cost me $27 (regular $45). Shipping was free. I scored a bit of a deal on the purchase thanks to some e-coupon codes that were mentioned over at Redflagdeals.ca. These e-coupons saved me a lot of money, but it still took about a month of constant checking before Lenovo had what I wanted in stock and at a decently low price.

Shopping at Lenovo.com is a bit like playing the stock market; there are ups and downs. One day the LED back-lighting feature would cost $370, the next day it would be just $30. In the rare case, it would even be a negative value, which leaves me wondering who is in charge of pricing over at that place? When I ordered, I was able to get the dedicated+integrated graphics option at a cheaper price than just the integrated graphics option; woot!

At the regular price of $1,750, I never would of ordered the T400- way to expensive for me. The local retailers, Canada Computers and Newegg.ca, offer better deals then that on other good notebooks, as does even Dell.ca now and then. Looking on Craigslist, I found a few nice Lenovo X61t tablet notebooks selling for just $1100, which I was very tempted to get.

After much consideration and waiting, I decided that the T400 was the best choice considering the price I could get it at. Long battery life, a matted screen and dedicated graphics were some of the key things that won me over with it. I was given an old IBM T23 notebook a year ago and despite it being slow and ugly, it grew on me. I don't know how, but I actually ended up preferring the red nub over a trackpad. When I had a chance to try the Dell D630's blue nub, it was no where near as awesome as IBM's. The IBM nub does get 'stuck' now and then, which causes the cursor to have a mind of its own; which sucks.

Anyways, enough babbling, so I ordered the T400 and mouse Monday night and within a few minutes I had received an email and confirmation of my purchase. No shipping date was listed, which erked me a bit, but earlier in the ordering process a time of 'less than 16 business days' was listed. I have heard some people waiting for months to get their notebooks from Lenovo, while others having it in under a week; I suspect it will take me a month to get mine.

I have to say, the waiting is probably the worst part about ordering online. I really prefer just going to the store, trying it out and taking it home to play without any delay. Ordering online does have the benefit of customization though, so... yeah. After spending a couple hours trying to figure out how to find out online more information about my shipping info, I finally figured it out, kinda. It didn't tell me anything more than your order is being processed. I guess I could call up Lenovo, but talking on the phone is so... old fashioned.

Regardless, the day after I placed my order, I got an email from Lenovo saying 'part or all' of my order has shipped. I got my hopes up, but it turned out that it was just the mouse. The notebook was still in process. In less than two days, the mouse was delivered to my door by a friendly Asian working for a delivery company I have never heard of before. Apparently the notebook will ship via UPS or something more substantial.

So I have a mouse now, but no new notebook. Oh well. I will update this review as things progress, along with a in-depth review of the T400 notebook. So far ordering from Lenovo has gone smoothly, but I still am nervous about something going wrong; I have heard some horror stories.

Unboxing the New Mouse

Considering all that came with the mouse was a pair of Energizer AA batteries, a CD and a couple of mult-languaged documents, it sure came in a big box. A shipping box inside a bigger shipping box, may I add.

I was impressed to see Energizer batteries were included and not noname garbage. Hell, I was glad to see batteries were included at all. The instructions seem to be pretty simple, but I haven't yet hooked the mouse up to my computer yet. That will come a little later on. There was also a safety guide included; knives don't even have saftey guides. wtf?

My cat seemed to like the mouse. No surpise there. He was more scared of the unboxing knife than he was of the mouse.

The mouse was smaller than it looked like online, but I should have expected it. It is a travel mouse, designed to be small. It really is not as comfortable as a desktop mouse, especially since it is not ergonomic, but at least lefties can use it too. It feels of good quality and has that Thinkpad rubbery feel to it. Nothing exceptional, just good quality; very Thinkpad-ish.

The red scroll wheel 'clicks' when you turn it, which I like. You can also use it as a button and toggle it side to side for horizontal scrolling.

I can't seem to scratch the mouse with my fingernail at all, despite the surface 'feeling' very soft and smooth.

On the underside you can see a power switch, a Bluetooth button, a laser and a battery hatch release. A little green light goes on, on the bottom of the mouse, when you turn it on. The telfon pads seem well made, I guess at least, but the mouse does glides easily on a flat surface. Too easily?

When you press the battery release on the underside, the battery compartment springs open. Kinda cool. The batteries slip in, one on each side, which gives the mouse some weight. Without the batteries, the mouse feels very light. Overall, the mouse feels balanced, but the ass of it is heavier than the front by a bit; this seems to be a good thing.

I am told the batteries can last up to 3 months of use, but the mouse goes to sleep after just 10 seconds of inactivity; which I am sure can get annoying, as there is a delay in waking it up again. I will update when I get a chance to use it more.

In case anyone is wondering, there was no Bluetooth dongle or adapter included, so your notebook must already have Bluetooth capabilities for this mouse to work.

Lastly as you can see, there is a green light on the top of the mouse when it is on as well. I think green is a bit odd fashioned, but it matches a Thinkpad very well- both have little ugly green lights. The red and black also work, with the texture matching very closely. The buttons click well, although along the sides of the buttons it takes a bit more effort to get a click; really though, that isnt a problem and perhaps it will prevent accidental clicks if the mouse bumps into something.

I am told it has a DPI of 800, but I will confirm this in tests later on.

Waiting for the new Notebook to Ship

This is just the first part of a very long review I will be doing, stay tuned. Hopefully sooner than later. It is for Lenovo to decide at this point. :P

Professional Tech Journalist

2008-08-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

So I've started writing for a real tech site a few weeks ago and it has been nice so far. It's a bit different writing for a big tech site compared to writing for myself on a crappy blog, but not in a bad way really. Ya, sure, I now actually need to use proper grammer and sentence structure and I need to write more than one post a month, but I still get to express some opinion and I actually get paid for doing it.

As for this blog, I will continue to update it with whatever content I'm not able to get posted on the other site -- whatever that may be, but also I will use this site for testing ideas and posts like rants/how-to's/scripts. Just stuff that would never make it on a professional site, but techie stuff im still interested in-- so pretty much the way it is already and has been for years.

If you have any ideas for my site or whatever else, comment below. This site is personal enough that I will probably actually respond.

Regards,
Steve

DropBox

2008-07-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

I discovered a nifty service for Mac and PC a couple months back called DropBox. It allows you to transparently sync files in a directory over multiple computers, storing files locally and online, while also providing group sharing of files with recoverable revisions. Very cool stuff, reminding me a lot of a hack for Gmail I used to use, but more refined. The above 'getting started video' is linked to their website.

The service has been in beta mode for a while now though, only accepting new members via invitation. I just happen to have a few spare invites to the service... first 3 people to email me asking for one gets an invite! punkrawker at gmail dot com

How to find & download hard-to-find music

2008-06-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

How many versions of the song 'Blue Moon' have you heard of in your life? A few at least, I'm sure. After being asked from a friend to find them a particular cover of that song from the mid 1950's, and who didn't know who covered it, I decided to write up this tutorial.

Knowledge is power and knowing a few tricks makes this all a breeze. I want to share with you all a couple ways of going about finding hard-to-find, if not impossible to find, music. BTW, the legality of downloading music online without paying for it always seems to be a grey area for discussion, but if you can't find a song on iTunes or at HMV, what then?

Okay, the easiest way to find a particular song quickly and easily online is to visit.. YouTube.com

Seriously, type in the song you are looking for into YouTube and be surprised by how many videos are using that song for accompanying audio. What then? Check out: http://www.flv2mp3.com/

Just copy and paste the address from the youtube video into their website and out pops JUST the MP3 audio! Now, I admit the audio quality may not be fantastic, but beggars shouldn't be choosers. I just told my friend how to do this, he quickly found the cover of the song he wanted on Youtube, and had himself the MP3 file in minutes. ....Steve saves the day yet again.

But what about BRAND NEW music on a local band's website that isn't released yet? Maybe they let you listen to it on their site, via some online flash player, but they don't let you download it. Who knows why, but you want to download their songs. ..How?

The below method isn't as easy and isn't guaranteed to work.

Okay, first visit their website. ie: http://www.bandsname.com/

Go to the page that is playing the music. ie: http://www.bandsname.com/music.html

Right click and select from the pop-up menu, "View Source"

A bunch of code should now appear in a text editor. Search (Control-F) for ".swf"

There may be more than one result, but among all the choices make you best guess at which one controls the music or just do the next step for all of them. A good chance it's the right one is if the full text result is "bandsname mp3.swf". "Menu.swf" likely isn't.

Test it out by modifying the following "http://www.bandsname.com/bandsname mp3.swf" and copy it into your browser's address bar. You should hear music or see a play button appear.

Again, in your browser's address bar at the top of the screen, modify and then enter the following: "http://www.bandsname.com/bandsname mp3.xml" You'll notice we simply changed the file extension from .swf to .xml

If all goes well, you should have MORE computer code appear on your screen. If you get an error, retrace your steps, try a different .swf file name in the page, or you may need to be a bit clever to continue on your own.

Among all the code, do a search again (Control-F) for ".mp3". If you find anything, you win!

Copy the entire contents of the text string you found, ie: "bandsname mp3_files/01 songs name.mp3" back into the address bar with the band's website address if one is not specified. ie: http://www.bandsname.com/bandsname%20mp3_files/01%20songs%20name.mp3.

This should download the song for you! If you want to list what other songs they have in the directory for download, try the following: "http://www.bandsname.com/bandsname%20mp3_files/01%20songs%20name.mp3". You can then just click on any file to download it if it all works out for you.

Okay, so I hope that all was a bit interesting for you. I don't promise it will work for all web pages or bands, but the basic idea there will work for many of them. No, I won't provide you with any band sites that this hack might work on,.. but I will suggest to you a band that does have great music--- c0ndu1t

Cheers

Bill Gates and his thoughts on the future.

2008-06-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

In an interview between the previous PC Magazine editor and Microsoft's Bill Gates, a lot is discussed about Bill's forecasts of the future on such things as speech recognition and tablet PCs. Bill says it may be considered stubbornness, as he has been saying these same things for the last couple decades without some of his predictions coming true, but he still believes these technologies will become mainstream. Eventually when the market is finally ready.

I tend to agree with Bill on a few things. I do think tablet PCs will see more popularity; as they become affordable, students will start bringing them to lectures for note taking. Microsoft's OneNote software is fabulous in this regard and with tablet PCs now in the 1500$ range, it won't be long until it could be common place. They will however NOT replace a keyboard though in your home office. Touchscreens, however, may end up replacing your mouse in many applications -- the iPhone and iPod Touch are great examples of where touchscreens are finding mainstream uses. Gamers and larger screens will probably sway against using touch primarily, due to functionality requirements and fingerprint smudges.

Voice dictation is growing popular in many places -- Google's 1-800-GOOG-411 phone service is an example of how it is being implemented, and it may not be long before you start seeing most kiosks and other self-services using them. Doctors currently are finding voice dictation quite useful and I could see many other applications where note taking or drafting of ideas could use voice dictation. I do not believe it will replace they keyboard when used for document creation any time soon, and there is always something to be said for silence.

READ THE INTERVIEW HERE

What do you think?

The future of CPUs and the GPUs collide

2008-06-21T11:55:00.001-07:00

In a computer, we have the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The CPU has traditionally been considered the heart of a computer, as it is responsible for running your software's code. The GPU on the other hand has traditionally been used to output to the computer screen what the CPU says to display.

Overtime though, these devices, especially the GPU, have taken on more responsibilities in a computer. For example, the GPU for the last decade have been able to hardware accelerate 3D graphics -- something that was once done rather relatively poorly by software via the CPU instead. More recently, with high definition video being played on computers more and more, and the CPU struggling to process all that media data, GPUs were given the ability to take some of the processing responsibly, and speed up high definition playback on slower computers.

Slowly it seems, GPUs are taking on more roles that used to be roles of the CPU. However, the need for more and more powerful GPUs is unnecessary for many, as even the simplest GPU today can do all but the most demanding tasks. So other than computer gamers [and CAD work], why would anyone need a powerful GPU?

CPUs at this point in time really haven't crossed much into GPU territory, but that has also been due to the nature of the CPU's structure. They aren't designed to be able to parallel process huge amounts of data like GPUs do. However, that is all changing! CPUs in the last year have become multi-cored, meaning they are becoming more and more parallel with their processing nature-- they are becoming more like GPUs!

Within the next year, we will be seeing CPUs that also work as GPUs (or intergrate one at least)! CPUs have become more than powerful enough to do the work of a GPU, and with CPUs expecting to grow to 80 cores in size in the next decade, they have all the parallel processing power to be a rather decent GPU solution-- even for computer gamers. This is especially true for those who don't plan on playing games, as the power needed for such office work use is trivial.

So what are GPU's doing? Well, GPUs aren't going to be dying, nor are CPUs, at least not in the foreseeable future. GPU's will always appeal to hardcore gamers more than anything a CPU can offer. At the same time, GPUs have an ace up their sleeve...

Since CPU's are becoming more and more like GPUs, due to their growing parallel nature, software now must be written with parallel processing in mind to get full potential out of the CPU. CPUs would love to stay linear in nature, but the laws of physics are making that too hard for them to keep up their growth rate that way. Parallel processing isn't bad, but it's harder for programmers to write optimized software for and not all programs can be run in parallel.

But if CPUs are now becoming a lot like GPUs in nature, why can't GPUs do the same software processing that CPUs can do? Well, they now can! nVidia for example has released a tool for software programmers, called CUDA SDK, that will allow software to be run on the GPU! In fact, certain applications run A LOT faster on a GPU than on a CPU, applications like protein folding research or real-time 3D CT scanning at hospitals. Along with CUDA, we have other releases like physics processing taking place on video cards, which was once done only by the CPU.

Of course, GPUs are horrible in comparison to many other things CPUs are good at, but as CPUs become more and more parallel in nature, GPUs and CPUs will have their differences become less and less. Expect GPUs, or derivatives of GPUs, to actually find more uses -- acting like a co-processor for the CPU, in many professional and research fields, while still appealing to serious computer gamers. Expect CPUs to continue to grow and expect them soon to replace GPUs all together in entry-level consumer computers.

RIM makes some Thunder of it's own

2008-06-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Despite the iPhone 3G being the talk of the town these last few days, a device that has gone under the radar in a lots of ways may be just the thing to steal some of Apple's thunder. Introducing the RIM Blackberry Thunder (9500?).

I gotta admit, it does look like the iPhone a lot, minus the buttons at the bottom. So now I have three choices for next gen phone; iPhone, Bold, and Thunder.

I'm really liking the Thunder though. Maybe I can get it without a contract?

So.. questions about the new iPhone?

2008-06-09T22:06:00.001-07:00

Well, the new iPhone 3G has been introduced and lots of details have been spilled, but there are probably lots of questions remaining. Anyone have a question that needs answering? Leave a comment with your question!

I have a question myself though, that anyone who knows the answer to I would love to hear from. I currently have a 2-year voice plan with Rogers (one of two soon-to-be Canadian iPhone providers) yet no data plan. According to what information I can find, the iPhone in Canada will be selling for $ 199/299, with a new three year contract. From what I can tell from other sources, there will be no retail sales of the iPhone.

So my question and issue is, if I'm already in a contract, I can't exactly get a new contract, can I? And if I can't get a new contract, how do I get the iPhone? Will I only need to get the data plan to meet the criteria? Will I end up paying 500$ minus any credit I have towards my account? Insights?

update: "Upgrade Eligibility and Qualified Upgrade PricingUpgrade eligibility will be determined based on standard upgrade eligibility rules. Customers must be upgrade eligible to receive the qualified upgrade pricing. However, not all customers will be qualified upgrades. AT&T has not determined the price of the 3G device for non-qualified upgrades."

Apple WWDC Keynote

2008-06-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

General Keynote Overview

Lots of free mobile applications, such as eBay and geo-based social networking.
Lots of games and tools @ $ 9.99
Incoming alerts when using an application.
None of this until early July!!! boo!
iPhone 3G /w better battery life, GPS, and slight design improvements! yess!
199$/299$ for 8GB/16GB
Released July 11th in 22 countries.
White and black options.

Detailed Apple Keynote Timeline:

It begins...
Steve Jobs look under fed and over worked.
Sneak peak of Snow Leopard.
Apple's SDK 4000 developers, many of which are top 500.
Rambling about iPhone's success.
More rambling, recapping about the iPhone.
Talking about the SDK and API and compatibilities with MacOS.
They seem to be stalling the keynote with lots of filler.
Demonstrating development tools.
Location-based contact filtering.
Demoing some SEGA game.
$ 9.99 ... for a cell phone game?
eBay iPhone application.
Location-based social networking application.
Loopt? Free? Not bad. Twitter competition.
TypePad blogging software. Looks half-baked?
An RSS feed reader.. exciting...
Associate Press news tip poster thingy.
More games. Physics-based. $9.99
Music creation application.
Sports game stats and video highlight app.
Apple stock down. LOL. People want a phone, not 10$ apps!
Medical visualization tool for med students.
CT and PET image viewer app.
Some 3D third person game. Still under development.
There is no background processing. I dont care what they say, this is limiting.
They have sort of push notificiation system to make up for this. We'll see....
Some new features, like bulk delete, parental control, permissions, etc.
iPhone 2.0 software RELEASED early July. GAH!!!
Free for iPhone owners, 9.95 for iTouch users.
Apple takes 30% of application revenues.
Apps less than 10megs can be downloaded over cellular networks.
More apps, but there suddenly is a lack of interest considering the release date...
iDisk, file sharing.
No cut and pasting still?
Lots of obvious apps, like calendars and calculators and email.
People getting more and more discouraged with the lack of iPhone.
Mobile.Me is talked about, 99$/year. Feels like they are trying to catch up with RIM.
Includes 20Gigs of storage, up from 10gb of the .Net service.
Why not just use Google's offerings, that are free?
Mobile.Me is for consumers, but no consumer wants to pay 100$/year for email.
I think I'm going to buy the new Blackberry Bold instead.
iPHONE 3G!!!!!!! INTRODUCED!
It’s thinner at the edges, has a full plastic back, solid metal buttons, 3.5-inch display, camera, FLUSH HEADPHONE JACK, and improved audio.
No video chat....
EDGE vs 3G, 2.8X faster.
The 3G iPhone’s standby is 300 hours. 2G talk time is up to 10 hours from 8 hours. 3G talk time is 5 hours. (Jobs says other phones have about 3 hours.) Browsing, 5-6 hours of 3G browsing. Video is 7 hours, and audio is 24 hours.
Wifi loads in 17 seconds.
GPS! YES!
Rambling about location-based services being the 'next thing'.
6 counties covered, including Canada and Mexico.
A demo.
No China or Russia
70 Countries will be getting the iPhone 3G in the next several months.
199$ for 8gB iPhone
299$ for 16gB
White version also.
July 11th roll out date in 22 countries.
A new ad with two guys carrying a metal case.
The end.

Mac Predictions for Keynote

2008-06-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

Quickly before the keynote starts, here are my predictions.

Touchscreen-based tiny laptop/tablet.
Canada release for iPhone
SDK launch for iPod Touch and iPhone.
Snow Leapord.
Lots of business recapping.
Some smaller software related releases.

Enjoy!

1 minute to go.

What on earth is Twitter?

2008-06-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

What can truly be best described as an Internet phenomenon, Twitter.com has caught on like wild fire among the social crowd and techies. But will it catch on with the mainstream crowd?

Twitter is, at its heart, a service for community-based SMS messaging (144 char mobile texting). When you twitter a message, anyone who cares to hear it, can, and if they desire, respond. Friends can keep their friends updated on their life every minute of the day; journalists can keep an audience updated from moment to moment at an event; or it could even be used much like a large chatroom, but where you only have to hear the responses of those you care about. No fancy stuff required -- just a plain cell phone is needed.

Lost out the in the middle of no where and need directions? Twitter out a message and minutes later get flooded with answers from friends who follow your twittering stream. Feel like sharing that you just took the biggest crap ever? Twitter away! If anyone cares to hear it, they can! Twitter has much more potential than just this, but I hope you get the idea of what it's about.

Why is it catching on? Well, it's essentially Facebook, but in concentrated form, simple enough to use from any phone, anywhere. It's not just limited to phone SMSing, but you can use twitter from even Facebook, email, MSN, or the twitter.com website. It's addictive, so use at your own risk.

The only thing that might be keeping Twitter from exploding is the fact not everyone yet is cell phone SMS savoy, and I honestly feel that you may find this service a bit confusing to you without being familiar with facebooking or text messaging. Also, if your friends aren't very tech/social savoy, you may find yourself without many people to twitter with -- although there are lots of people out there worthy of listening to on twitter.

The Mars lander for example has its own Twitter stream that is rather cute. Barak Obama has a twitter stream that is interesting to follow, and there are plenty of news streams that are being now twittered. Get a cell phone, or just goto Twitter.com, and start seeing what you are missing. It's a great way to waste time when sitting on the bus when with just your cell phone.

Twitter.com
You can twitter me @ Xyster

The MSI Wind Ultra Portable Laptop

2008-06-01T14:19:00.001-07:00

Ever since Asus introduced the EeePC, the ultra cheap, ultra portable, ultra light laptop, things in the laptop industry have found themselves entering new territory.
People want a cheap laptop, that is truly mobile, and does the simple tasks they want. They may have a more powerful laptop at home, but most often, we just need something to keep us connected. Where smartphones start to lack, the Asus EeePC picks up, and with the need for connectivity these days, these cheap mobile secondary laptops are making a huge hit!

Following the wave of Asus, there have been a flood of EeePC Clones. Even Asus has rushed to get its next model of the EeePC out on market, in an attempt to improve on its own design. They aren't the only ones though --- MSI's Wind laptop is hot on the heels of Asus with a design that seems to be an EeePC killer.

Expected the second week of June, with a better screen, better keyboard, faster CPU, and more memory -- at still dirt cheap pricing, this is going to be the laptop you'll want to grab quick when on the go.

The CPU is an Intel Atom 1.6GHz, but it runs at an underclocked 1.33GHz (rumors). Still, this is quite a bit faster than the original Asus EeePC, though slower than the 900MHz Celeron versions. More interesting, with the press of a button, you can force the CPU to run at 1.6GHz, the CPU's rated speed, or push the same button when on the go to further reduce power, letting you squeeze more vital battery life from the device when the speed is unneeded. It's great to see the Turbo Button making a comeback (finally) these last few months.

Expect 3 to 7 hours of battery life, and a price around $500 to $600 on release.

edit: There are some companies coming out with tablet versions of similar cheap UMPC that should shake up the market even more later this year. Expect in the next two years to see touch screens on laptops become an increasingly popular option, especially with the unreleased Windows 7 apparently designed with touchscreens in mind and Apple pushing them too.

More Details Here

iPhone's new SDK release is intimidating

2008-03-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

So, the other day Apple announced big news for the iPhone. It was releasing the tools needed for anyone to create applications for the iPhone .. for free. It also is providing free hosting on iTunes for created software, with options of allowing those to make a profit on such distributed software. In essence, the iPhone went from just an iPod+phone to potentially an anything-you-want-it-to-be device.

This is intimidating news for many companies, from RIM to Nintendo to Microsoft, as the iPhone really can be competitive now in many markets. ie: Apple has announced the highly anticipated game, Spore, will make it onto the iPhone by the end of the year.

I still think the iPhone could use a small price drop though...

New all natural PEPSI product

2008-03-07T23:26:00.000-08:00

I never liked the fact Pepsi used corn-based fructose sugar in its cola and aspartame in its diet cola. I felt my only options were diabetes or brain cancer. Well, now we all may soon have a new alternative -- Pepsi RAW.

What makes this interesting to me is the truly all natural ingredients and choice to go back to the days of sugar cane being used as a sweetner. Better tasting? Fewer calories? Awesome! Despite the fact it will surely cost a lot more and be hard to come across, it could start a 'healthly alternative war' in the soda industry. Something we could all benefit from and it's LONG overdue, if you ask me.

Link

Interactive 360° Flash-based video

2008-02-26T11:45:00.000-08:00

I found this project, called Papervision3D, to be quite interesting. Using a 360° camera and a bit of clever Flash programming, they were able to make an interactive video. Lots of potential I think.

Link (via hackzine)

RIP Stage6.com

2008-02-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

Seems this post is now a bit pointless, as STAGE6.COM will be closing down this Thrusday. Apparently the site was costing them too much money. It's so sad to find that out, as I thought it was the best streaming services out there. I guess it was just ahead of its time. Hopefully, we may see it again one day.

Something a bit interesting for those who use Stage6.com It seems that when a video is removed from Stage6, be it by user or by conflicting with the terms of service, the video file isn't actually deleted from the servers for some time and can still be accessed.

Below is a script that will let you play videos removed from Stage6.com. Simply enter the video ID# into the text box below and hit play! You can find the video ID# in the no-longer-working URL.

ie:www.stage6.com/user/FLOOR_MASTER/video/1973259/

Play your Last.fm radio station without a subscription

2008-02-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

Wishing you could play your Last.fm radio station, instead of that annoying 'recommendation radio station' they offer unsubscribed members? Well, just enter your last.fm user name below to listen to your actual station without the need for a subscription.

* you will be logged out of your last.fm account if logged in, as you must be logged out for this to work.