RSS FeedAs you may have noticed, I’ve been taking pictures of abandoned and decaying pictures. While I’ve been exploring these buildings for quite some years, I never took photos of my adventures in the past; with exception of this photo. A few months back I suddenly decided to start taking some photos; at first with my cell phone, later with my Canon PowerShot A620.
On its own the PowerShot A620 is a fine camera, and it has served me well for nearly 5 years. But traveling through moist and dark buildings, I started to notice the limitations of a “point and shoot” camera; even though the PowerShot has plenty of options for custom settings. And since I started to like taking pictures more and more, I decided to start looking for an upgrade.
I had already decided that I wanted to get a “Digital single-lens reflex” camera; more widely known as “DSLR”. After reading a lot of reviews and comparing models, I had found my new camera: the Canon EOS 450D.
The EOS 450D has a very nice 12.2 megapixel resolution, which is more than enough to produce high quality images. The lens that was included with the kit is not –the- best lens, but it does its job quite well. I will probably get a better lens at some point in the future, but for now this lens will do just fine. The camera has a 9-point autofocus system that works remarkably fast. Where the PowerShot took about 1 second to focus, the EOS 450D does it in maybe 0.1 second. I’ve got a bunch of memory cards lying about that I can use with the camera. On a 4 GB card I can store 658 photos in JPG format or 177 in RAW format.
I’ve ordered some accessories from DealExtreme, which should arrive in a week or two. I’ve ordered a nice camera bag, some lens cleaning products and some useful thingies like a water level that you can slide onto the camera and a lens-hood.
It might take some fiddling and practicing before I will have mastered this beast, but I’ve read a lot of tutorials, watched a truckload of how-to videos, and I’ve got quite some experience with photography already; so it won’t be long before I’ll be able to produce some kick-ass pictures 
The results will, of course, be available in the photos section of this website. I can’t wait to get outside and play 
I’m all set. This next Saturday (July 25th, 2009), I will be moving my new web server from the “staging area” (read: my bedroom) to the data center in Amsterdam. Sunday (July 26th, 2009) the old server in Canada will be powered down and dismantled.
Aside from departing from the server in Canada, I will also be departing from Xoops (the CMS that I’ve been using for 2 years now). I’ve decided to write my own website code, for a couple of reasons: security, speed and size (also related to speed I guess…).
The more code you have, the slower a site is, and the more can go wrong. Xoops is a very large CMS, with a lot of functionality (most of which I don’t use). If I write a minimalistic CMS myself, with just the things that I use; it should - in theory - make the site smaller, faster and more secure.
So… this Saturday my server will go online, but my website will be offline for a while until I’ve made a basic blog module.
Wish me luck!
Today, my black magic woman arrived. Unfortunately, it turns out that the 2x1GB memory I had arranged doesn’t fit. But with the 1GB that was in the server and 4GB extra... it’s still 5 GB and that’s still plenty for a webserver.
Some snapshots for your viewing pleasure:
*purr* 
As some of you might, or might not know, I rent a dedicated server at iWeb in Ontario, Canada. They have some decent deals going on and starting at USD 69,- a month you can rent your own server. That is… if you stick to 1GB ram and either Linux or FreeBSD. If you want a different operating system, you have to pay extra, and if you want more memory, you also have to pay… extra. In my case it ended up at USD 109 a month for An Intel Celeron D 3.0 GHz with 2GB Ram and 300 GB IDE hard disk, equipped with Windows 2003 Standard Edition. The package includes a 10MBps uplink and 1 TB of traffic per month.
This is an average price for renting a dedicated server, but it always struck me as odd that I have to pay USD 10,- a month for an 1 GB memory module that costs € 15,- at my workplace. Time for change, I thought… so I did a bit of researching and found out that for € 49,- per month, I can collocate my own server on a 100MBps uplink with 1 TB traffic per month, at Trans|ip, the same company where I have my domains registered. It’s not rocket science to see that it would save me about €35,- to € 50,- per month, depending on the exchange rate of course.
I would get 10 times the uplink speed for less money. The only problem is that I didn’t have my own server. I had already decided that I wanted a certain minimal configuration:
- Dual Core processor
- 4 GB memory
- 2 Hard Disks in raid 1 configuration
First I checked the website of my employer, Aces Direct, of course. Unfortunately, the cheapest server that met my desired specifications was way over the budget that I had in mind. The problem is that most servers are sold without disks, and server hard disks are a bit more expensive than consumer hard disks.
Next I ended up at a company that sells reasonably cheap web servers. For € 399,- (ex taxes of course) you can get a simple server with either an AMD Athlon 64, AMD Sempron 64, or Intel Dual Core E2220 processor. A bit of research told me that neither of the AMD’s was Dual Core, and that the Intel was a first generation Dual Core processor and had performance that was comparable to a single core processor.
A co-worker told me that one of our suppliers might have something on stock. On our website, we prefer to sell the latest models obviously, but the suppliers might have an older model on the shelf somewhere. A quick E-mail here and a phone call there told me that indeed one of our suppliers had some older models on the shelf that might fit within my budget. The price would be comparable to the cheap web server with the AMD or Intel Dual Core processor, but it would be a Hewlett Packard or I.B.M. Of course I feared that it would end up way too pricy again due to the more expensive hard disks, but the supplier told me not to worry about it.
A bit of haggling and ass kissing later, I had made a very nice deal on my new server, which should arrive next Monday or Tuesday. I went a bit over my planned budget, but also managed to make a deal with my boss so that I can pay for the server in parts. I’ll pay half of the server in cash (which is well within my budget), and half of it will be deducted from my salary in 3 parts. So what did I get?
From a supplier I managed to get For € 819,91 inc taxes :
- Hewlett Packard Proliant DL 320 G5P with Intel Xeon 2.66 GHz processor.
- 4 GB memory upgrade kit.
- 2x 250 GB hard disk (hot plug)
Via another channel I also managed to get a 64-Bit Windows 2008 Web Edition license and an additional 2GB of memory for free (the guy owed me a favor :P). I think going from a Celeron D 3GHz with 2GB ram and IDE hard disk to a Dual Core Xeon 2.66GHz with 6 GB ram and raid 1 hard disks is quite a nice upgrade, and after the server has been paid off, I will save money and have more performance.
My Server should arrive Monday or Tuesday, so stay tuned!
I’m an audiophile, I admit… and specifically I like a deep, warm and lush bass. Unfortunately, most consumer headphones (won’t drop names, but you know which brands I speak of ) either have no bass at all, or have deep lows but absolutely no midrange bass. I found a solution for that in the Beyer DT 770 PRO, but walking on the street with a full-sized studio headphone looks kind of wonky, so I decided to look for something more compact for outdoor use.
The search led me to the V-Moda “vibe”, a pair of aluminum ear buds. I’ve been using them for about two months now, and think they deserve to be mentioned.
The sound is just amazing. The highs are crystal clear, the mids are lush and alive and the bass is just all there. So far I’ve only discovered one negative aspect about them: if your MP3 file is poorly encoded, you will notice it. The ear buds are unforgiving and relentless when it comes to poorly encoded MP3’s, but that is a good thing as well. It means the ear buds don’t add any bullshit to your signal, but just give you exactly what you’re supposed to hear.
They’re pricy (€ 85,-), but they are worth every cent of that. They deliver what they promise and look stylish while doing it. In short: 100% kickass.
... And that’s just what they’ll do! My old shoes were rather (read: extremely) worn down, so it was time to get some new tires. The criteria ? Must fit my personality, must be black (also part of the first requisite), and must be comfy.
I’ve always been a big fan of New Rock shoes. They’re made in Spain, and just look smashing. My eye fell on the 710-S1 model, as displayed below.
They’re not cheap (€ 199,-), but they’re worth every cent.
Working for an IT retailed definitely has its benefits. Last week my boss sent an e-mail around the company informing us of this really nice deal he made with Hewlett Packard.
So what’s this really nice deal, you wonder? Well… Hewlett Packard had a Christmas discount deal for its employees, so that they could purchase a Hewlett Packard 2133 UMPC at manufacturing costs + taxes. My boss heard of that, did some professional ass kissing, and made it possible for us to buy one at a hefty discount!
The 2133 mini note comes in various configurations that range from € 269,- to € 599,- (ex taxes) depending on the features installed. The version we got, the FU344EA, has a list price of € 459,- (ex taxes), but we were able to get it for € 189,- (ex taxes). Quite the deal, I’d say! Needless to say I was one of the first people in the company to place an order.
So what did I get for that money? Let’s go over the features a little bit:
By default it comes with Windows Vista Home Basic installed. But given the specs of most mini notebooks, that doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. So first thing I did was install Windows XP on it. Most of my co-workers initially decided to leave Windows Vista on it, but all complained that the 2133 took nearly 3 minutes to boot up, and was constantly at 100% CPU usage. My Windows XP boots up in just under 30 seconds, and doesn’t suck up as much juice from the processor. After my co-workers saw that, most of them came begging at my desk to install XP on it.
By default it has 1 Gigabyte of RAM, which is provided by a single PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM module. First thing I did was replace that with a 2GB module. Some of my co-workers ordered an additional 1GB module, but found out later that it has only 1 memory socket. As always, it comes down to the simple matter of doing your homework properly by reading some reviews before making a purchase… 
It has a 1.6 GHz VIA C7-M ULV processor. According Hewlett Packard it has an 800 MHz FSB and 128 KB L2 cache, but VIA’s website claims that it is 1.5 GHz with 400 MHz FSB. Maybe Hewlett Packard made an exclusive deal with VIA, but in any case the CPU is pretty ok. This particular CPU is known for its low power consumption, but also has somewhat lower performance than the most commonly used Intel Atom processor. I’m curious why Hewlett Packard opted for this processor instead.
To accompany the CPU, the chipset features a VIA/S3 Chrome 9 video chipset, which uses up to 128 Megabyte of the main memory. It’s not the best video chipset, but it does have some basic 3D capabilities. Some 3D games run perfectly on it, others have problems. I’ve seen a video on YouTube of a guy playing some nice games on it. Of course it goes without saying that a net book is not a super game system, but playing some Quake 2 on the train ride home from work... It will do that pretty ok. I, for one, found a good use for my huge collection of Game Console Emulators
The 8.9 Inch Screen has a native resolution of 1024x600 pixels (WSVGA), but a nice feature of said VIA/S3 Chrome 9 chipset, you can also set the video resolution at 1024x768 pixels too. The chipset will scale it down by 168 pixels, so it looks a bit squished; but it’s a nice feature if you need that specific resolution (for games that only support the standard 4:3 resolutions, for example).
Above the 8.9 Inch screen is a tiny webcam that has 640x480 pixel resolution. It’s a typical notebook webcam, which has a pretty decent image quality with normal daylight, but goes very grainy with lower light conditions. My co-worker Rowan noticed that to the right side of the webcam, inside the casing is a tiny blue led that creates a blue haze in the lower right corner of his webcam. My 2133 doesn’t seem to have that problem though.
To the left and right of the webcam are 2 tiny holes (about 1mm in size) where apparently there are 2 microphones; this means it has a stereo microphone, which is quite uncommon for notebooks. Most notebooks, even the really pricy ones, have a mono microphone; but this little rascal has stereo, which definitely has some big advantages with voice chatting. If you’re slightly to the left or right of the laptop, you still get good sound, where most laptops lose volume rapidly if you’re not strait in front of the microphone.
To the left and right of the screen are the speakers. Some co-workers said that it looks ugly to have these black bars next to the screen, but it has 2 benefits. Firstly, the whole screen has a thick black frame, which gives the screen’s contrast a good boost; The colors are just better visible when there’s a black frame around a screen. And secondly, the speakers are aimed strait at you when you’re sitting in front of the mini notebook, so the sound quality is better too.
Most laptops have the speakers in the base, and deflect the sound either via the screen or via the desktop to the user. That way a lot of volume and sound quality is lost. With the 2133 the sound travels directly from the speakers to your ears, which is much better. The speakers may be tiny, but they have an incredibly full and rich sound, with remarkably high output.
The keyboard is amazing! Hewlett Packard claims that the keys are 92% of a regular desktop keyboard’s size, and they’re not lying. My parents have an Acer Aspire One, which has a “normal” net book keyboard, and I’m always hitting two keys at a time. With the 2133 I don’t have that problem at all; while the 2133 isn’t even that much bigger than the Aspire One (maybe 1cm longer and 1cm wider).
On the left side of the notebook we find the headphone and microphone/line-in plugs, a powered USB port (for external hard disks or USB CD-ROM drives, for example) and a VGA-out port. The right side of the laptop hosts an ExpressCard slot, an SD card card reader, a regular USB port (2.0 of course) , the power connector and an RJ45 network socket.
Connection wise it’s pretty well configured. It has an 802.11a/b/g wireless network card and a 1000 Mbps wired network connection. Unfortunately, the model we were able to buy has no built in Bluetooth adapter, but Kensington sells a really small USB Bluetooth receiver that fits very snuggly into the powered USB port (the port is slightly recessed), so I might pick one of those up sometime soon. My Cell phone has internet connection sharing and a 7.2 Mbps HSDPA wireless internet connection. I can use that on the 2133 for some browsing or perhaps even online gaming 
Modern times ask for modern Communications. My old phone was still “ok”, but the features were not up to my demands anymore, so it was time to get an upgrade. I looked around a bit, and found the perfect replacement, which arrived today.
My new phone is a spiffy HTC Touch Pro. If you get it without a subscription, then the phone is a bit pricy (about € 600,-), but since I bought the phone via my work; the payment is done in parts. The phone is pricy, but given the features and possibilities, I’d say it has definitely been worth it. A quick run-through:
It has a 2.8” screen with full VGA resolution (640x480). Most other Windows Mobile based phones have QVGA, which is 320x240 pixels. This phone has a much higher resolution on the same screen size, so the picture is much sharper and just looks amazing.
It has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but with separate numerical keys. This may not seem like a big feature, but on most other Windows Mobile phones (including my old one), this is not the case. On those you have to fiddle with press-and-hold keys to get numbers, which can get quite annoying if you’re typing lots of numbers in an E-mail, SMS or MMS.
It has a built in GPS receiver. It’s not the world’s greatest GPS receiver, and probably not one of the fastest; but it does it’s job quite well. I’ve installed Google Maps and TomTom Navigator 7 (with full European maps) on it, and those work just great.
It has UMTS and HDSPA capability. In other words: up to 7.2MBps mobile internet. This was my main reason for replacing my old phone. The old one had just GPRS (64Kbit), which was more than enough for just MSN, but sometimes you want to look something up quickly, and that just took forever. I bought this phone because it has UMTS support, but to my great surprise my service provider also supports HDSPA. My mobile internet is lightening fast, and the Opera 9.5 browser works really nice too.
It has a 3.2 Megapixel autofocus camera with a flash, that produces very decent pictures. My old phone had a 2 Megapixel camera, but it had no autofocus. The pictures were always a bit grainy and blurry. I used to carry around my 7.1 Megapixel photo camera 24/7 to make photos for the website, because the photo’s from my old phone weren’t cutting the cheese. With the HTC Touch Pro, the pictures are crisp, sharp and pretty decent quality. So from now on, I won’t be dragging my normal photo camera around 24/7 anymore, and most of the photos that you see in the blogs will be made using the HTC Touch Pro.
It has a tilt sensor. This has some fun uses.. you can use it in games, you can use your phone to level something out, and when your phone is ringing when you’re sitting in a meeting for example.. you can just flip the phone upside down and it will mute the ringer till you flip it back up.
It has TV-out. Cool, this means I could use the HTC Touch Pro as a mobile DivX player. I could hook it up to a beamer for presentations, and I can even use it as an S-video webcam (with some software you can already use it as an USB webcam).
It has a built in radio tuner. I probably won’t use this feature a lot, but it’s cool that it’s in there.. you never know when you might need it.
I really love my new phone, and will be using it a lot probably. It opened up a new level of possibilities for me, which I will definitely be using.
Aside from my trip to France, I was planning to go to more places; but due to the shitty weather, I decided to spend the money on something else. My computer was 5 years old, and even though it still worked fine, I badly needed a better computer.
When I ordered the computer they told me it would arrive Thursday, but since I would be in France that Thursday, I asked them to send it over the next Tuesday. Today my new machine arrived: an Acer Aspire M3640.
4GB memory
640GB Western Digital hard disk
Nvidia Geforce 8600 GS with 512MB memory.
It’s not the latest hardware, but compared to my old machine it’s a very good upgrade. I also ordered a 4GB USB2 memory stick, which I use with Readyboost to make the system even smoother.
Isn’t she cute? Nope... I’m not talking about the 8-port gigabit Ethernet switch... I’m talking about my brand new, ultra smooth ’n sexy Mac Mini
I’ve also got an older Mac LC III standing in the attic, which I bought a couple of years ago, but never got around to playing with. On a previous job I had some first-hand experience with MacOS-10, and my first impression was very positive. I didn’t buy the most expensive type strait away, since this probably isn’t going to be my main workstation anyway. For experimenting and playing, the 1.25 GHz, 256MB memory and 40GB hard drive are more than sufficient. It does the job and runs smooth, that’s all that matters imo.
Aside from the 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processor, the 256 MB memory and the 40GB hard drive this tiny box also features an ATI Radeon 9200 with 32 MB memory, 1 Fire wire 400 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a 56k modem, a 10/100 MBit Ethernet adapter, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW and a nice built-in speaker with pretty decent sound output. In other words: it’s a very complete package at first, I was thinking of putting an USB KVM-switch on my 20” widescreen, but then again... I’ve also got an old 17” LCD standing around doing nothing. I figured I’d use that one for the Mac instead, so I can use the Mac and my main PC at the same time.
”So, what the hell is a KVM-switch?” you might wonder. Well, it’s just a little box that allows you to use one keyboard, mouse and monitor on 2 (or more) computers. KVM simply stands for Keyboard, Video & Mouse.