nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

3.5GB Yay!

November 22, 2006

Two hours, twenty six minutes, and sixteen seconds (2:26:16) after starting the Apple Hardware Tests, my machine can finally be said to have received a RAM upgrade. For the last three years I’ve been running it with 1.5GB of RAM, and that had been enough. Until I tried to work with 4000dpi scans of 35mm slides.

I must say, things run much better now. Especially with my compliment of other apps running, including Safari, Mail.app, Adium, SSH Agent, iTunes, Xjournal, Obsession (LJ Checker), Terminal, Gallery Remote, Vienna, and a few others.

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Tea and Biscuits

November 22, 2006


PG Tips, McVitie’s Digestives, and Organic Milk

What an excellent afternoon snack on a day when I returned from a rather lengthy lunch, only to be told that I can leave if I want.

Now I’m sitting here waiting for 2GB of RAM to show up for the G5 so that I can scan negatives. I was able to scan the 110 slides with the 1.5GB in here now, but it was pushing things. Opening the 45MB TIFFs in Lightroom with the current amount of RAM causes the machine to chew on the disk for 2-3 minutes per image. This needs to change before I tackle ~1000 full-frame 35mm negatives.

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nuxx.net

November 22, 2006

Also, my site, any I host, and email is down right now. I’m upgrading MySQL, so it’s not currently running, making things which are backed by it not work.

Email is still coming in, it’s just being queued up. Once MySQL is back up things should be back to normal.

UPDATE @ 09:43 EST: MySQL upgrade done. Email and sites working again. Time to do the PHP upgrade, which will break all websites for a while. Sorry.

UPDATE @ 11:16 EST: All updates complete. Everything should be back to normal. Let me know if it isn’t.

computersmoved from livejournalnuxx.net

Speakers and Stuff

November 21, 2006

All previous speakers returned, original speakers reinstalled. Played with the amp enough to realize that the ‘High Cut’ setting is not a low-pass filter as I would have expected, but is instead a high-pass filter. Therefore, having it set too high basically keeps appropriate bass from going to the speakers at all.

I’d had some difficulty adjusting this previously, but after replacing the speakers and retuning things, everything is MUCH better. I’ve got the filter letting everything possible go to the rear subs and the missing bass is now there. The rear levels have also been adjusted at the amp to be appropriate, although these may need a wee bit more tweaking. This remains to be seen, though.

Other tasks I have successfully completed tonight:

· Returned both pairs of crappy Pioneer speakers.
· Acquired Thai food.
· Ate Thai food with Belgian beer.
· Watched Frontline’s A Hidden Life
· Balanced my checkbook.
· Washed my sheets.

I guess that’s a plenty full night.

automotivefoodmoved from livejournal

Pioneer TS-G1341R Speakers vs. 2006 Honda Civic EX

November 20, 2006


Pioneer TS-G1341R Speakers fitted into gutted 2006 Honda Civic EX Rear Deck Speakers

Tonight’s project-cum-technical disappointment was what you see above. That is, my fitting some aftermarket Pioneer TS-G1341R 5¼” into the shells of Honda OEM speakers from the rear deck of my car.

See, ever since installing the Bass System Kit (photo gallery retired) a year ago, I just haven’t been wholly satisfied with the sound in my vehicle. The bass was improved over the factory bass, but it still sounded rather warbly and distorted even with ‘normal’-ish bass, such as the guitar in some pieces. Much electronic stuff was just right out.

Earlier today I decided that I’d pick up a cheaper, but likely decent set of speakers as replacements for the ones which shipped with the bass system kit. So, poking around, I came across the Pioneer TS-G1341Rs which are fairly widely available. So, at lunch I swung by Best Buy and grabbed a pair for just under US$50.

By gutting the leftover original speakers and some ¼” MDF I was able to nicely fit the new speakers in, and even wire them up to use the original Honda connectors. This is good because I can easily swap my new speakers in and out for the ones from the Bass System Kit.

Why would I want to swap them? Because the new speakers sound like crap. They sound worse than the ones with the Bass System Kit. In fact, they are more in line with the very original OEM speakers.

So, I don’t know what I’m going to do right now. Probably return them, and possibly acquire some (better 6½” speakers and an aftermarket mounting bracket. Or… something. I don’t know.

Bah. At least it only took a few hours.

automotivemaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Sequentix P3 Wooden End Cheeks

November 15, 2006


My Sequentix P3 with the wooden end cheeks installed.
(Click for more…)

Yay! My Sequentix P3 is finally complete! This afternoon I was surprised to find one of the typically labeled packages from Sequentix waiting in the mailbox. I’d been waiting for the wooden end cheeks for the P3 I’d finished a few months ago and they are finally here. I’m really, really happy with them, too.

As you can see above, they make the sequencer look really finished. This project can also now be considered totally, completely finished. Yay!

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Win32 RSS / Atom Feed Reader

November 14, 2006

Can any of you recommend a Win32 RSS / Atom feed reader? I’m liking Vienna on OS X, and Google Reader, but Google Reader just suddenly breaks all too often. And by breaks I mean fails to update feeds for long periods of time, if ever.

And Firefox sucks for feeds, because if I nest a bunch under one bookmark toolbar entry I have to drill down to each to check if there is anything new there.

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