Postpwning chores

After a four month break, I have finally had a chance to continue where I left off in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on the PlayStation 3. I was distracted for a while there by my Windows PC, after purchasing a some great games on Steam for cheap. Speaking of which, hopefully Nelle and I will get a chance to continue our Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light cooperative campaign on the PC—if we manage to assemble all of our new IKEA furniture before the weekend ends…

What are you guyses playing?

Equalizer app for iOS

I discovered an iOS app recently, Equalizer, which allows you to modify the frequency, Q and precut on up to seven parametric bands for the music stored on your iOS device. The app itself has been available for some time, but some recent revisions have significantly altered the functionality. These recent changes—namely, the ability to equalise music on the fly—have brought the app to my attention.

In my view, iOS (and any iPod running the default firmware) has always been lacking a critical feature: a graphic equaliser. Sure, there have always been a bunch of preset EQ curves, but these are, at best, so-so. In fact, until iOS 4.0 arrived, these preset EQ curves introduced audible distortion on bass-heavy tracks, because there were no precut adjustments being made to compensate for the low frequency gain. This was the primary reason I held off buying an iPhone until the iPhone 4 arrived. It was the longest two years of my life!


I found myself still tied to my old iAUDIO X5 MP3 player with Rockbox firmware installed, through some inexpensive bass-heavy ear canal headphones, even after I bought the iPhone 4. I tried to retrain my ears to enjoy a flat EQ curve with some new and expensive ear canal headphones connected to the iPhone, hoping that they would pump out some powerful low frequencies without the need for an aggressive EQ curve. That was an ill-informed decision. Those earphones are expensive because they produce a flat frequency response—but that's not what my ears want!

So, back to the app… Equalizer, in its current form, is the app I have been waiting years for. It is a complete music player; an alternative to the iPod app, with a 7-band fully parametric equaliser. The equaliser itself works in a similar way to my beloved Rockbox. The amplitude, centre frequency, and bandwidth can be controlled individually on each band, as opposed to drawing a single curve on a more simplistic software equaliser, such as EQu – also in the App Store. This is perfect for my bass hungry ears, as I can give multiple 12 dB gains at 20 Hz with a sharp drop down to 0 dB at around 60 Hz, creating deep sub-bass without the muddy lower-middle frequencies interfering.

Music selection is handled in a similar fashion to the iPod app, which is a breath of fresh air after using the similar app, EQu, where album selection appeared to be left as an afterthought.

My recommendation is quite simple: if you are currently satisfied with the sound coming from your current iOS device, and feel there is no room for improvement, then carry on using the iPod app. If you find yourself wanting a little more…  Scrap that; buy this $3.99 app, and a pair of ear canal headphones. You don't know what you're missing out on!

Mother will not be pleased

Obey the grassface potatoes

One man's junk is another man's… who am I kidding?

Although I had originally hoped to avoid spending money on the old Windows 98 PCs, I couldn't pass the opportunity to purchase nine used 10BASE2 network cards with coaxial ports for $1.00 on eBay! A reliable network using this method was the stuff of legends back in the day; so this might involve some serious troubleshooting. Well, there will definitely be some kind of shooting involved.

Old age, nostalgia, and its effects on garage space

For those who have been checking my blog regularly, you may have noticed a slight decline in regular postings during the 2010 period. My interests change faster than the pants of a deer in a lion cage, so unfortunately my blog had lost my attention for quite some time; but this is about to change, because I have loads of stuff and junk (literally) to talk about!

I'll kick it off with some news about my latest hobby. In an attempt to relive some of my most memorable years, I have become the proud father of seven Windows 98 era PCs that would have otherwise been thrown out by my employer. With these old machines, a choice selection of high school chums and I will be able to replay some of the old multiplayer games that kept us busy most weekends (and many weeknights) during the 1999–2001 period. I'm talking about classic LAN games such as Delta Force, Half-Life: Counter-Strike, Motocross Madness 2, Quake, Soldier of Fortune, Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, Viper Racing, Worms 2, and butt-loads more. Sure, some of these games are playable on new systems, but nothing beats the feel of a chunky beige keyboard, a flickering CRT monitor, and a noisy rig with the stability of a dead wombat on a tightrope. There's no ugly image resampling for the low-resolution games, and there's a sense of satisfaction I get knowing that the computer is working hard to display the primitive graphics.

Before we go to the trouble of removing 10 years worth of boot marks and coffee stains, I want to at least make sure the old PCs will talk to each other in a network. This was problematic back in the day, as we all had different machines with different operating systems. This time around I have a bunch of Dells, all running Windows 98 Second Edition. The only problem is, the network card drivers want to extract to floppy disks before they can be installed. Where am I supposed to find working floppy disks?! I could try eBay, but I'm hoping to avoid spending any money on this project. Besides this setback, I have functioning sound and video card drivers, and Viper Racing is as fun as it was in 1999!

I better stock up on Cheetos and Mountain Dew, 'cause there will not be any girls there.

Finally, something that the kids can't break

I attached the surround speakers in the home theatre this morning. Amazingly, I found all four speaker cables in the first attempt! It's really scary sawing nasty big holes in my nice new walls. Now all I need is a Blu-ray that will make use of the 7.1 channels.

The hybrid

My dad's class at school has been creating and racing HPVs and Hybrids for the past eight years or so. Pictured is their latest monster! It's powered by a 72cc petrol engine and an electric motor, and sports a fully adjustable suspension system. It will be competing in the 24 hour race at Maryborough this weekend.

Networked? Yes. Yes it did.

It's been ages between posts, but it's so hard to find the time! There's so much to share; but there's nothing as interesting and rare as a computer networking success story!

As mentioned previously, we are currently unable to access ADSL at our new home, so the only affordable option for Internet access is wireless broadband. The modem (Huawei E5832) we chose has a built-in wireless router, but there are no Ethernet ports.

My network consists of a desktop PC, laptop and a plethora of video game consoles (two that require a hard connection, and three that are wireless). The desktop PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 are connected by cable to a Asus wireless router, as a physical connection is required to reliably stream content from the PC to the consoles.

The devices connected to the Asus router could not gain Internet access because there is no way of physically connecting the modem to the Asus router.

The chumps (and chumpettes) at whirlpool.net.au directed me to a free third-party firmware upgrade for the Asus router, called DD-WRT. This has unlocked a tonne of features supported by the Broadcom chipset, but blocked by the Asus' default firmware. Now the Asus wireless router runs in Client Bridge mode, with a wireless connection to the Huawei modem.

The consoles can access the Internet! But before you get too excited, I haven't tested the physical connection between the PC and the consoles. I can't imagine any problems there though (unless I give it any amount of thought).

We have the Internet! (not all of it)

I've been offline for a while, but I have good reason. We moved to our new house! You probably already know that, though; I've already spoken to my three readers since the move.

Everything went well, except for the part where the bank wouldn't pay because they didn't have the money! Of course, the bank didn't tell us until we rocked up for the settlement with big smiles on our faces. We're in the house now, so we're happy again.

We thought that connecting to the internet would be a cinch. It turns out we can't get ADSL at our house yet, because we're connected to a RIM. I don't understand the details of a RIM, but basically it's a device that Telstra connects to the telephone exchanges to enable more phone lines quickly and cheaply without having to lay cables. As a side effect, ADSL ports become severely limited, or disabled altogether. Yesterday we connected to dial-up through Beagle Internet, but I was unable to share the internet with other devices in our network (plus it is really slow!). So now I have a prepaid wireless broadband account with Virgin Mobile. The modem itself is a portable Wi-Fi router, and it looks a bit like a mobile phone. So now we can connect three devices to the internet sighmultaneously!

Forza Motorsport 3 demo arrives

I am a huge fan of racing simulators. A few weeks ago I heard that a demo of the upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 Xbox 360 game would be available on the 24th of September - today. I connected to Xbox Live, and located the demo; only to discover that you require an Xbox Live Gold Membership in order to download the Forza 3 demo (I only have the free Silver Membership). Put simply, I have to pay to play the demo! Demos are supposed to attract people to the full game, not scare them away. I guess Microsoft can do what they like, now that Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3 is now officially more than six months away.

Carpet and Vinyl

Janelle visited the house today, and she couldn't help but notice that there was carpet and vinyl in there! All that is left is the door handles, driveway, hot water service and appliances.

Certificate of Occupancy

We just received the Certificate of Occupancy for our new house, so we're on track to move in on the 2nd of October!

Top 10 website

The website for the computer store MSY - which I check regularly because they have great prices - now has a 'Top 10 Website' logo on the homepage.

Firstly, congratulations to MSY for the achievement.

It's amazing what can be done in a web browser these days! Check it out: www.msy.com.au

The first person who can find the pricelist and give me the price of a Kingston 4GB SDHC card gets a surprise.

The house

House update! The paint has been attached; front and back doors have been applied; and the wall tiles have been ensembled.

We noticed that the bathroom vanity unit is in the wrong position (it should have been flush against the bath), and the decorative tiles are not the ones we selected; but they're not problems worth worrying about. Also, a hole in the floor of the lounge room has yet to be filled; and one of the powerpoints in the laundry is missing! Most likely, a hole simply hasn't been cut to reveal the cable.

Latest PlayStation 3 firmware v3.0 smells

The PlayStation 3, like the Xbox 360 and Wii, has the ability to upgrade it's firmware via the Internet. Version 3.0 has recently become available, and after having used the new XrossMediaBar OS, I have decided I prefer the old one! Here's why:

• I can no longer access the XMB while listening to music.
• All menu items, exept for the currently selected item, disappear after a couple of seconds (a strange and very annoying design feature)
• Selecting an item on the XMB often changes the background image, which can be annoying.
• Direct links to PlayStation Store items are everywhere!
• The games bar now defaults to the PlayStation Store, instead of the game that is in the Blu-ray drive.
• The cool PS3 chime no longer plays when a game has been started.
• The new friends list looks ugly.
• The game 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune' now has freezing problems. Possibly other games also.

Hopefully the next update will be less aggresive with it's downgrades.

Construction completion date

We received notice today that our house is almost completed, and the keys will be handed over on the 2nd of October! That's great news, as we were originally told that we might be in by Christmas.

Wife buys husband a t-shirt

My wife bought me a t-shirt from Threadless with the pictured design. Hahahahahaha! Hyenas.

Desigen

A friend of mine had asked me to create an invitation for an upcoming six week study on spiritual gifts, titled 'Soup Lounge - Food for your Soul'. The invite needs a 'James Brown', '70s Funk Disco' feel to it. I'm not the most creative person on the planet, so I decided to rip-off a James Brown album cover! I found this 'best of' album to base it on:

I wanted to incorporate the tilted 'OW' letters, which explains why I have misspelt the word 'lounge'. So far it's got the thumbs up. I'm looking forward to seeing how it prints!