electronics Archives - Page 11 of 14

More Gaming

As you can see from my gamertag below, I’ve definitely been playing with the Xbox360 more and more. Unfortunately, that’s only really been from two games, PGR3 and CoD2. I haven’t even started in on NFS:MW, which looks crazy fun from what I’ve seen Aaron play. It’s crazy, there are days that I really want to just sit down and play, but when I actually can, there really isn’t enough time. Between work, working out, Erin, and Everything Else™, I can’t say I have that much time to just play. However, I am on the last section of CoD2, which means that if I ever finish it, my gamerscore should increase quite a bit (I’m playing it on Veteran, the hardest difficulty, the first time through). Plus I just purchased a 12 (+ 1) month subscription to Live!, so I can play online, which when I actually did it in PGR3, was quite fun. And then there’s more cool games that are coming out, like Alan Wake, Burnout Revenge (granted it is just a re-release), and others.

Oh yeah, and the D-Day invasion on Veteran mode, is, well, frickin’ hard.

ESX Networking

This is just a quick update with something that I finally fixed two nights ago. If you happen to run VMWare ESX, *DO NOT* share a NIC between the console and Virtual Machines (VMs). This was how I had been running my system because I only had one NIC at the time. However, I had purchased a new dual port Intel gigabit NIC about a month ago, but I just hadn’t had the time to actually update the system to utilize it. Well, two nights ago, I set the original NIC to only the console session, and then put ports on the dual port NIC on a virtual switch used by all the virtual machines. Therefore, I theoretically get 200 Mbps to the virtual machines.

Holy crap, talk about an improvement. Transfers between the VMs and my NAS used to be dog slow, but now they are where they should be. I just need to get a gigabit switch with jumbo frames to use everything to fullest extent.

Xbox 360 Part 2

As I’m sure everyone knows, the Xbox 360 was released on Tuesday. And you can read all about Erin and my adventure on Aaron’s site. Unfortunately, we came up empty handed. However, even if we would’ve gotten one, I think we would’ve resold it. Especially since they were going for more than double their cost.

The good about all this though, is that we will still be getting one, just probably not anytime soon. I’ve gone back to the company I had the preorder with, since it’s about the only place I fell I’ll be able to get it from anytime soon. In fact, the distributor that supplies Avindigo apparently says they should have some on Monday. Who knows if those have already been allocated though. I guess we’ll just have to wait like everybody else. I can’t wait to get it and play on the new plasma though.

Motorola Programming

All I can say for Motorola’s programming ability is, “Crap.” I’m attempting to update my phone, MPx220, with the latest version, 1.43, and I don’t think I’ve ever had so many problems. The page prior to the download page is horrible to begin with. In order to actually get to the System Update tool, you have to click the white arrow INSIDE the yellow circle. Way to go on that image link there guys. Then after I installed the software, which piggybacks on activesync, it takes literally 3 minutes for it to load. You double click on the shortcut, or straight on the executable, and you sit there for 3 minutes. No splash screen, nothing. If you open up taskmanager, you see that the program is running, but it’s not really doing anything. Then all the sudden you see something appear to continue.

Once you’re in the setup program, you have to install a different driver for the phone, but to do this, you have to remove the battery and then plug the phone back into the USB cable. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that. Only one of the devices got installed when I did that. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize you needed the audio device for the modem that it installs also, so I kept progressing until it started to detect the phone. Well, of course it couldn’t, and can you go back? Of course not. So, I got the audio device installed, restarted my machine, and then waited another 3 minutes for the program to load.

At least the program gives you the ability to backup and restore your data before and after the upgrade. Granted, I don’t have much stuff on my phone. Heck, I don’t even know what this update fixes; good job on the release notes, err, wait there are none. However, it’s gotta fix some of the problems that I’ve been having, so it’s worth a shot. Plus I’ve heard there may actually be speed improvements.

**Update**

Turns out you need that extra driver because that’s how you get the update to the phone. You actually take the battery out and plug it in to do the update. Maybe it’s this convaluted to prevent the novice’s from doing this and wiping there phones accidentally.

**Update 2**

Well, even after the previous update to this post, it still didn’t work. The program just hung at “start deep sleep” or something along those lines. A little googling turns out that this is a common error. However, the good news is, I’ve found a solution. Turns out there’s an offline updater that can be found places. In fact you can grab all sorts of different ROMs from there too. And just in case you’re not sure what you’re doing, I’ve found a decent blog that tells you all about it. About 3 hours after I started, I finally got my phone updated. Honestly, I’m not noticing that much difference. Maybe I’ll try out the Asian 3.51 one?

Xbox 360

Well, I have some bad news about the Xbox 360. Turns out my supplier (who will go unnamed), has just informed me that he won’t be getting any units from his distributor until December. This is unfortunate, especially since I was hoping to take a trip on the 21st in order to get one. Alas, I guess I’ll just have to try to get one at a brick and mortar store on the 22nd, along with everyone else. Maybe it will be like when Halo 2 came out, and I won’t have a problem at all. However, for some reason, I don’t think this will be the case. :down:

Apple New Announcements

Last week they announced the Video iPod. I personally have nothing against it. However, today, Apple made some announcements about new PowerBooks and PowerMacs. It’s today’s announcement that really bothers me, specifically the new “quad” processor PowerMac. Normally, I’d be all about it, it sounds like a beast. I’m not even going to talk about anything else from here on out. I just want to show “the people” how overpriced Apple products truly are, but first, some background.

I had mentioned my home setup at home to a coworkers before. It’s nothing really that great hardware wise, but it’s more how I utilize it, and the price I got it when it was new. Anyways, I’ve got VMWare ESX server installed on it which allows me to run multiple “virtual” machines on top of the one machine. This way I can have a machine dedicated to specific tasks, instead of everything on one. Obviously this helps for when something goes wrong. Now, everything doesn’t go down if I accidentally mess something up.

Anyways, he realized how great of an idea this was, so he wanted to get a server machine up and running that could do the same thing. Well, he’s a developer, so he didn’t really know what to look for, so I priced out a machine for him. Basically I priced him out a beast of a machine for $2500. The specs of it are listed below.

Supermicro H8DAE ($356)
One Dual Core Opteron 265 ($728)
4GB PC-3200 Reg ECC RAM ($516)
MegaRAID 150-4 SATA Card ($235)
3 Seagate 200GB SATA Drives in RAID 5 for 400GB of redundant space ($327)
Case with 645W PSU ($266)

Now that, plus a plain CD-ROM drive and floppy comes to just under $2500. Now, lets look at the Apple Store to see what you get with their “quad” machine for $3300.

Two dual-core G5 Processors
512MB 533 DDR2 NON-ECC RAM
250GB Harddrive (not redundant and not on dedicated hardware controller)
Dual Layer 16x DVD Burner
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB Video Card

Shall we compare the differences? Yes, we shall.

If I were to get my machine up to all the specs listed on the mac (without reducing any of the components), I’d have to add another processor (+$728), add a dual layer DVD burner (worst case +$100), and add a video card (+$110). Let’s see, adding that all up gets us to $3404. Shoot, just over what the PowerMac costs.

But wait, let’s do a similar thing for the PowerMac.

We’d have to add 4 1GB ECC Dimms (+$1500), and increase the harddrive space, oh wait, they don’t have a redundant solution, so we’ll just go with the 500GB option they offer, even though it’s insanely inferior (+$500). After adding on those, we’re at $5099.

Wow, for a whole 1.5 grand less, you can have a superior machine. That’s really all I wanted to show.

iPod Nano

Well, I’ve been wanting to buy something for my walk/ride to work in the morning. At first I was tempted to just get a miniSD card for my phone, but I never really went through with that, especially since 1GB miniSD cards are expensive and hard to come by.

And then we all saw the release of the iPod Nano. I definitely admired the size and cost of the device, but I wanted to see it in person. So, on Friday, me and a couple of guys from work headed to the Apple store to check out this new iPod.

What’s funny is that they didn’t even have any on the floor. The only way you knew it exists was because a floor salesman was carrying one around showing it off. We were all impressed with the size and the screen. However, I was really grooving the black one online, and the guy was showing off a white one. I asked if he had 4GB black ones, and sure enough, he said they had all of the in stock.

One of the guys bought a 4GB white one for his wife, and I asked about the 4GB black ones. The guy at the checkout said they didn’t have 4GB black ones. Well, I wasn’t going to settle for something that wasn’t even what I really wanted. I mean, I’ve waited this long. Turns out they did have one, so, well, I bought one.

The thing is awesome. It shows up as a removable harddrive, has an awesome screen, and the sound quality is pretty darn good (for mp3s). However, iTunes, sucks. I’ve got around 55GB of mp3s, and they’re stored on a network attached storage device. I had some time on my hands, so I decided to add all of these mp3s to iTunes library. Wow, was that a mistake. First of all, it took forever, and then to select songs, or even to sync a CD to the iPod, it took forever.

I’m looking at anapod to use with it. At least I can use drag and drop, and even have a shell explorer “send to.” Plus, I can actually sync albums easily, unlike with iTunes. I can tell that iTunes is definitely built around single songs and not full albums. It’s just a shame though, but at least there are other alternatives to it.

Now, I just need to get it to work in my car correctly. There are many options. However, for the best bang for the buck, I’m looking at the VW02/PC-POD. This way it will work with all of my radio controls (don’t have to use the iPod at all), and it charges for those long trips. The plan would be to wire it to the center arm rest. But that’s another purchase and project. Maybe if I actually used my car more than 3x a month.

VLAN Trunking with Virtual Server 2005

Getting VLAN trunking working on a Virtual Server 2005 host with Intel NICs can be problematic if done on host that already has Virtual Server installed. The problem arises with the Virtual Machine Network Services that is installed on each NIC. In order to get everything working, make sure you have the latest Intel Drivers and that you uncheck “Virtual Machine Network Services” under the NIC properties. You can then add your VLANs that you want trunked to the card under the NIC’s properties. The new VLANs will then appear as separate Network Connections, and each of the new Network Connections will have the Virtual Machine Network Services installed and checked.

Now, if you don’t uncheck the “Virtual Machine Network Services”, after you add the VLANs to the NIC properties, nothing shows up. Talk about wasting a lot of time. Also, all of this should be done from the console session, otherwise you may or may not see the tab on the NIC properties to add VLANs.

I hope this helps someone else out there, because there was a lot of time wasted on this here.

Pirates!

I just want to thank Aaron for pointing me towards the awesome game, Sid Meier’s Pirates! It’s so basic, yet so incredibly fun. In other news, it’s coming out for Xbox, well, today. So, go rent it or something. And if you don’t have an Xbox yet, shame on you.

Good Time to be a Gamer

As many people know, this week is E3. This means, that all the soon to be released stuff gets previewed this week. The most notable stuff that’s come out in the last few days is the Xbox 360, and the PS3. Nintendo has released some stuff on the Revolution, but nothing to the extent of Microsoft and Sony.

Needless to say these next gen consoles are going to rock. Microsoft has finally realized what the original Xbox should’ve been (and actually almost is with xbmc). Sony, has, at least on paper, produced a machine that seems unheard of with respect to hardware.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the 360 more than the ps3. Yeah, the ps3 seems to have the edge with hardware specs, but who knows if that will really mean anything, plus it’s coming out after the xbox. The things I really am looking forward to the 360 are the multimedia hub aspect to it, because, frankly, that’s pretty much all I use my xbox for right now. However, the dual HD outputs and the ability to have 7 wireless controllers on the ps3 entices me also.

I guess it all comes back to the title…it’s a good time to be a gamer.