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3
Jan
2011
Ars Technica is Awesome
A couple months ago I was looking into subscribing to Ars Technica. So I went over to their subscriptions page to try and convince myself it was worth $50 for the next year.
The Wired magazine was useless because I’m Canadian.
The coupons are kind of nice, but the only one I would use is ThinkGeek and I buy from them maybe once a year.
The full RSS feeds and nice layout are neat as well.
But I didn’t think any of this was worth $50.
I did end up subscribing though. Because Ars Technica is awesome. I love the articles. I love the detail of the articles and I love the fact that they do some awesome features on random things. And that is worth $50 to support something like that.
1
May
2010
PS3, S/PDIF output to computer
Recently posted this on a forum but I figured this might be a good place as well:
Goal:
5.1 output from my PS3 through my computer.
Why? I don’t have any other way to output to 5.1 from it without spending money (receiver + different speakers).What I have:
First gen PS3, HDMI and TOSLINK cables.Monitor has HDMI -> analog stereo output
Problems: Constant low hum (monitor has bad quality output) and only 2.0 sound. This requires the monitor to be on HDMI output to passthrough audio as well.This motherboard. It has a Realtek ALC888 chip. I also have the separate bracket for TOSLINK in.
Problems: This can do stereo but no DTS/Dolby, but it fixes the buzzing problem. It can also play when the monitor is on different output.And a Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio card.
This has S/PDIF in, but I am not spending $100+ on the options they have to actually use it. Instead I am trying repin the gigabyte bracket and have it connect to this card. It does have DTS/Dolby decoding :DSo, the gigabyte manual says that the bracket has three pins.
1. red – Power
2. yellow – SPDIF_I
3. black – GNDSo I switched black and yellow to match up with this pinout diagram of the creative card (top left, +5V, GRN, SPDIF0 IN)
Plugged that in and… nothing. I can hear feint popping when I switch audio output devices on the PS3, but the Creative card never shows a signal (“Unknown or invalid signal”, just like when disconnected).
Any help or insight would be appreciated, thanks.
P.S. I think I may have destroyed any input on my sound card by fooling around with this. My microphone no longer works on that sound card :(
3
Mar
2010
Back to Chrome
I was outside the CSClub today, studying hard for that CS246 midterm when a conversation about Firefox’s stagnation broke out. Many points about it having an incredibly old base and just not being so great compared to Chrome.
So I looked back at why I switched away from Chrome the last time I was using it.
- Too much RAM usage on my netbook with Windows 7
- No bookmark syncing, Xmarks wasn’t working at the time
- Missing many add-ons I loved in Firefox
And effectively all these problems have been solved. My netbook is now running Ubuntu, Xmarks works and google has their own built in syncing with google docs and there are many more add-ons (like ad-blocker) so I’m not missing any functionality. Not to mention that Chrome feels like a faster browser and uses less vertical space by default.
So I’m back with Chrome. I might look like a google fanboy but I think of it as the same as I think of Logitech. I didn’t decide to buy a Logitech mouse (or three), keyboard, speakers and headset because I’m in love with the company. I chose it because those were the best products at the time. Google makes some really nice products, so I will embrace them.
16
Jan
2010
RE: My Thoughts on Digital Distribution
This is a response to this blog post. Go and read it first otherwise this one will make no sense at all.
Removal of Consumer Rights
I absolutely understand not wanting to lose this control. If I want a friend to borrow a a game all I have to do is lend them the cd, they play, give it back when they are done.
Instead, if I want someone to play my game I’d have to give them access to my entire account and I won’t be able to play these game myself at the time. Not to mention I don’t think steam would take this nicely.
However, on used game sales, I have sold maybe two PC games over the last 10 or so years I’ve been playing them for. It is not a big loss to me at all. Read the rest of this entry »