Gadgets

Site troubles

David Vidmar — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 06:50:31 GMT

This site has been experiencing technical difficulties in last couple of days. As far as I can see, it’s been some hackers playground. Things are returning to normal.

Thank you all for your patience.

Logitech Harmony One tips, tricks and hack

David Vidmar — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:06:45 GMT

Here is a list of sites, downloads, tips, tricks and hacks for Logitech Harmony universal remote controls, mostly for Harmony One.

Don't use the software that came with remote. Download last version from Logitech.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/440/3742&hub=1&cl=roeu,en?section=downloads&tabs=1,3,2,5

Print this worksheet when you go hunting for model numbers of your devices.
http://myremotesetup.com/easyzapper/New/ProcAddDevices/DeviceWorksheet.asp?OEMName=logitech

Check if your devices are compatible with the remote.
http://myremotesetup.com

Great database of channel icons for use with “favorite channels” feature.
http://www.iconharmony.com

Some more tips and tricks.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=967841

Use some models on Linux (but not One).
http://www.phildev.net/harmony/

Windows Home Server 2.0

David Vidmar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:53:52 GMT

My good old home server died. This 7 years old machine that I stacked with hard drives was happily running Windows Home Server and few more things on the top for little more than a year.

But just last week some capacitors on main board blew and it was time to find a substitute.

I quickly decided I need brand new machine I could trust. This were requirements for components:

Case with enough space for 3.5” drives that can be mounted without screws, can be ugly, nobody will see it.
Low energy consumption CPU, possibly dual core for extra power for occasionally building of my software, network video rendering and some light web hosting-
Motherboard with onboard graphics card and gigabit Ethernet, since I rewired home network with gigabit lan (man, it flies!).
Heat and loudness is not something I’m concerned about, since machine will be in the basement - far from anyone to hear it and where is cold enough.
2 GB RAM so I can start extra virtual machine if needed-
1 TB of disk space to add to my current ~2 TB array of drives-
Cheap.
On stock.

This is what I came up with:

Case: Cooler Master Elite RC-331 – 31.90 EUR

Simple and cheap, but with quite intelligent system for locking drives.

Power Supply Unit: be quite! Straight power 350W – 41.90 EUR

It’s rated “80 plus”, has lots of power cables for drives and I don’t need anything more than 300W.

Motherboard: ASUS M3N78 motherboard – 62.90 EUR

Probably little over the top, but I it was on sale.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e – 59.90 EUR

As suggested by coworker, low consumption, more than enough performance.

RAM: 2x1GB Kingston ValueRAM DDR2-800 – 30.20 EUR

Trustworthy brand, but cheap-

Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar 1TB – 89.90 EUR

What a price for 1 TB of space! I want more! :)

Cooling: none

Stock fan that came with CPU, no need for anything more.

Optical drive: none

I’ll just pull SATA DVD-ROM from my main machine to do install, from then on I don’t need it.

Total cost: ~320 EUR

I’ll add 2 x 500GB WD and 2 x 240 WD ATA drives joined in RAID0 on FastTrack TX2000 controller from old machine and drop other smaller disks.

I’ll reuse Windows Home Server OEM from old machine.

Update: It’s up and running. I’ll move data from old drives over the night and it’s all set!

(Almost completely) silent Radeon 3650 graphics card

David Vidmar — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:58:41 GMT

I needed a second DVI connector on my desktop computer for attaching LCD TV so I went with Gigabit Radeon 3650, removed stock cooler and attached Scythe Musashi aftermarket cooler.

When assembled it looked and worked so good I had to share this picture with the world.

With it’s massive fans and speed controls I can run this on slowest possible speed, cooler is completely cool and it’s completely silent. Cool & cool!

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Released

David Vidmar — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:15:09 GMT

Today we saw a release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1.

So, what’s new?

Windows Vista x64 bit client,
option to repair backup database,
backup of home server Shared Folders (I don’t need, I prefer Jungle Disk for off-site backup),
and, of course, fixed dreaded data corruption bug that everyone feared but no-one got bitten by,
plus better performance, lower power consumption and other things we can’t really see.

If you were putting off getting WHS for your home, now is the time! It’s the best solution for home storage & backup by far. I use it for a while now and I still love it. If you can’t buy it off-shelf, head to eBay.com.

So, what happens when you upgrade?

You have to install new version of connector software on all computers. Simple, fast, semi-automatic.
You’ll have to update remote access setting. Simply reconfigure with wizard and it’s done in a snap.
You’ll probably have to change users password for remote access, since now they have to be (very strong).

All in all 10 minutes of your time.

Download: Windows Home Server Power Pack 1

More info: Description of the Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 update, Windows Home Server Release Documentation

My Dell laptop is running loud, fan is almost always on full speed

David Vidmar — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:11:10 GMT

Lately my Dell Latitude D820 has been running very hot and loud. I tried to help it cool with various desk and lap positions, but things went from bad to worse. Google search confirmed my suspicion that dust has killed it’s cooling capabilities.

I could take it to repairs, but that’s no fun. And since times at Vidmar family are very stressful, what better way to take mind off troubles that some“screwdriver fun!?

First, I ran I8kfan GUI, a free tool to monitor temperature and change fan speed of Dell laptops. My CPU was hot, and speeding or slowing down didn’t do nothing to the temperature. Another proof, that dust is was in the way.

Getting to the fan is not easy, as one has to:

unscrew every screw you find on the bottom and back of the laptop,
remove battery,
remove keyboard,
remove hinge,
remove display.

Luckily Dell provides instructions, so it’s not that hard as it seems. Instructions also tell that you should also remove hard drive, wireless card and RAM, but it’s not true.

After opening my laptop, this is what I found.

This is how it will look after you take your laptop apart (glasses optional).

After cleaning laptop is running 15-20°C cooler than before.

One more piece of advice before doing what I just did – there are three kinds of screws. Black, fat and short for hard drive, silver for display and black and longer for everything else. Keep that in mind when putting machine back together.

Free software for Nokia Symbian phones

David Vidmar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:07:36 GMT

Following one of most popular posts on this blog about Free Software for Nokia 6600, this is some more free titles, collected by Robert:

Tools

Calcium - Slick calculator.
S60SpotOn - Handheld torch.
Tasky - Task manager.
Y-Browser - File manager.

Information

Mobile Weather - Weather forecast application.
Papyrus - Time management. ($19.95!)

Games

S-Tris 2 - Tetris.

You can find a more software in lists on N95 blog and Lifehacker.

Google Apps good news

David Vidmar — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:29:57 GMT

Robert has dropped a two good bits of news about Google Apps as comments to this weeks Links of the week.

First, Gmail mobile application is finally available for J2ME (Java) phones!

Just surf to http://m.google.com/a on your mobile phone and you'll have a chance to install the app. It works like a charm. Easily best mobile email client out there.

What is strange is that the Google Apps info page doesn't have anything on it and I haven't seen any news about it anywhere (but I didn't looked very hard).

Second, there is a new setting in in the control panel of Google Apps that should turn on new regular Gmail features sooner.

I haven't turned it on more that 24 hours ago, but I don't see any changes yet. So I'm not sure if it just doesn't work or I just don't get it. If you try it, please report back.

Technorati tags: google, google apps, mobile, java

Find great jobs and hire the best talent

David Vidmar — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:44:39 GMT

Users that actually visit vidmar.net site have probably noticed there has been job board embedded in this site. At first I tested the field with my own version of it, but that was later replace with a professional service Hidden network by Alex Papadimoulis, legendary MVP for MS Paint and author of The Daily WTF.

I believe this service on my blog will be of use for both job seekers and employers!

If you are looking for a new challenge, just browse jobs and subscribe to the feed. Just don't forget to report back when you get that dream job, ok?

If you are employer, you can post your jobs for free (international) or with a huge discount using these codes:

100OFF0712 - $100 discount ($199 for first listing)
200OFF0712 - $200 discount ($99 for first listing)
299OFF0712 - $299 discount (free first listing)
INTLFREE7 - free international (non US/CA) listings

When you apply, please enter my referral number 1159. Thank you!

Take a look at some others blogs that are part of Hidden Network:

Technorati tags: job, job ads, employment

Free GPS software for Java phones

David Vidmar — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:19:35 GMT

I'm not a big fan of car mounted GPS devices. I find them cool but I really don't see why average Janez (~ Joe, but from Slovenia) would need one. But I really like Bluetooth GPS devices you can connect to your laptop, PDA or even phone. So I got myself one!

I was investigating who has in my sailing crew had a big and expensive phone I could stick mapping software onto I found that you don't need a state of the art phone at all for task like that. There is a lot of cool software for regular old Java enabled GPS phones that do the trick!

Here is the list of what I found...

If you'll dive into offline mapping here is short list of software you will need to easily create maps for TrekBuddy:

Any has any experience with this?

Technorati tags: gps, gsm, phone, java, software

Gadgets

Site troubles

Logitech Harmony One tips, tricks and hack

Windows Home Server 2.0

(Almost completely) silent Radeon 3650 graphics card

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Released

My Dell laptop is running loud, fan is almost always on full speed

Free software for Nokia Symbian phones

Google Apps good news

Find great jobs and hire the best talent

Free GPS software for Java phones

Google Maps Mobile

Mobile GMaps

J2ME Map

Trek Buddy

TrackMyJourney - Mobile

More