XBox 360
Finally broke down and picked up an Xbox 360 Premium system for $399 today. Happy birthday to me (my wife said she could get one for my birthday, but I figured I'd just wait...then changed my mind). There were some sales on the wireless controller today for $39 as well, so picked up two more of those. Also, got Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, which is a pretty good/complex tactical shooter, Project Gotham Racing 3, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Topspin 2. Also already bought some Microsoft XBox Live Arcade games (like Zuma) for the wife...uh...yeah...I don't play those sort of games...

What I really want, though, is Burnout Revenge. There is something so visceral about that game. Yes, it isn't a realistic race sim, but the speed seems so real, and there is a really good fealing about crashing into those other racers in the face of oncoming traffic. I never thought I would like this game series, but I have...a lot.

The 360 sure does get hot in my audio cabinet, and I'm going to have to get a temp-sensor fan to put on the back of the cabinet to help out (it has always been a problem, but the 360 really puts it over the top). I also really miss not being able to play all the games from the HDD, like I do on my current XBox with the mod, though it is nice to have the 360 power up from the wireless controllers. The XBox 360 media streaming is extremely limited on the audio formats that are supported, and even WORSE on what is supported for video. My Sony PSP will plug into the 360 and detect through the USB, but you can't share video files...just audio. Not sure how to copy stuff between the two.

For the most part, I do like the 360 dashboard and the Live features. The demo downloads are a pretty good way to push stuff, though I wish they had a way to que the download and just trickle stream it while you played and did other things (or at least an option to "power off when done" option). Some of these downloads are >600MB. I think the Xbox Live! Marketplace is an awesome idea. There are some very reasonably priced games that are pretty fun there, and it is a pretty cool way to showcase some new developer talent, without going for a full blown published game.

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- posted by Jeff @ 9:37 PM | 4 comments

 
Sony PSP
I picked up a Sony PSP while I was in Singapore this last time. I screwed myself out of S$30 on the deal arguing over price (had it at S$625 at one point for the ceramic white value pack, 1GB Pro Duo, 3 games, hard case, screen protector and car charger). After reviewing the price on some of the games, I probably could have done about that well putting the whole thing together from Ebay (probably a little bit more with S&H and some used games), but then I wouldn't have been able to play it on the plane on the way back, and also I got to take a look at the screen before buying it to check for dead/stuck pixels. Ended up getting it all for about US$405. Mine has 2 little stuck red pixels on the right side that you can only see when the screen is black. I'm going to try to run the stuck pixel burn in flasher movie a couple times and see if it will clear them, but even if it doesn't, it is pretty good.

I'm VERY amazed with how good the screen looks. And while a lot of people seem to complain about the poor battery life, I was very amazed with the 5+ hour life I seemed to get out of it, even with the screen brightness up to max (and especially considering you are powering that beautiful 480x272 screen and the UMD drive, that seems pretty amazing to me out of the 3.6v 1800mah battery). The white ceramic unit I got is very clean and has very nice lines. It feels solid and fits quite nicely in my hands. The screen does seem to pull finger prints out of thin air, no matter how careful you are, but they clean up nice. I also got a screen protector, but that seems like a dumb gimick, since it is very hard to put it on without getting minor bubbles in it and doesn't seem to help the glare too much. Also, you can buy replacement face plates (including the screen) for under US$35, so I'll probably just do that.

The wireless seems to work pretty well (only 802.11b, but supports WEP and WPA and works just fine with my home wireless network on WPA TKIP and worked very well in the airport lounges on autoscan). Web browsing is a little tough with the screen realestate being pretty small, but it is better than my Blackberry mMode. Some extensive sites were rough and fill up the cache fast (default is 512KB, but I kicked that up to 1MB and most seem to load). Some have too many graphic forms that fill the page and give very little readable space, but the more simple pages were VERY easy to read news and follow links and stuff.

Movies and MP3 playback is very good, and I've even encoded a couple DVD's and TV shows to the MPEG4 format and placed it on the PSP (I'm going to be going through Flash memory VERY fast at this rate, and I already ordered a 2GB Pro Duo for $89 to supplement my 1GB). A pretty good encoder for the PSP is PSP Video 9, and works well. In most cases, you can get a very good widescreen encode with very little compression loss and good audio at just under 200MB/hour with the MPEG-4 AVC codec support, though it takes my P4-3GHz about 20 minutes/hour to encode.

I also picked up GTA for it, so I can Hack it, of course. There is a save game exploit that gives you access to a boot loader that allows you to run homebrew software, as well as up clock the PSP dual core CPU from 250MHz to 333MHz (this was the original planned speed, but I guess Sony dropped it down to 250MHz due to power consumption). One of the coolest little hacks is a wireless remote control function to control all sorts of home devices from your PSP. I need to get some of the emulators up and running and see how NES, SNES and GameBoyColor ROMS play on this.

I also am planning to get an additional replacement 2600mah battery or maybe even one of the 8in1 Game Grips that adapts the PSP's memory stick pro duo to SD/MMC/CF/MD/MS flash support and has additional standard 4xAA battery slots. Also, there are some really great looking replacement faceplates that look very nice, and come with replacement screens. For ~$6 each ($30 for a 5 pack from Divineo, I'm not sure why you would even bother with screen protectors...

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- posted by Jeff @ 8:47 AM | 3 comments

 
Forgeed ubout et
Yes, that was my lame attempt to speak New York Italian. Anyway, I'm watching (finally) the acclaimed series, Sopranos from HBO on DVD right now. So far, I love it. I'm not sure why, but I love the characters, and I love how completely two sided all the stories can sell to you (on one hand, Tony is a murdering gangster, and he is trying to reconcile all that with a 21st Century family man...on one hand, he is a murdering gangster, and on the other, he is a man with feelings and seeing a shrink...lol).


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- posted by Jeff @ 7:36 AM | 0 comments

 
Drive and Network Bandwidth
Spent some time bench marking some of my network file transfers and disk speeds. I'm really a little disappointed that Coolmax decided to only include an ATA-33 speed drive controller in that NAS enclosure. It really makes it almost useless for good speed transfers. It is only roughly 1/20th the speed of a local SATA-150 drive (granted, the 100Base TX network would limit it far before it got to that, but still, you could have over tripled the performance with an ATA-100 controller over a 100Base TX network, and the USB 2.0 480Mb/sec is basically wasted on this unit), and only about 1/13th the speed of a typical PATA-133 local drive. When you start talking video, that is getting pretty slow (only marginally faster than typical 54Mb 802.11g WiFi connections).

I may have to think about getting one of the Thecus 2100 Yes NAS with twin gigabit ethernet and dual SATA-150 drive support for some blinding fast network file support. But it costs $350, just for the bare enclosure...

I also took some time to create a RAM Drive and test that bandwidth. I chose a Windows XP compatible driver from SuperSpeed, and it is only a demo version.

Benchmarked Data Bandwidth Comparisons

Device	File System	Size (GB)	Interface	Cache (MB)	Speed (RPM)	Access Time (ms)	Sustained Read (MB/s)	Sustained Write (MB/s)
PC3200 CL3.0-3-3-8 DDR1 DRAM	RAM	2GB	Dual Channel	-	-	-	2584	2584
SuperSpeed RAM Drive Plus	RAM	1.2GB	Dual Channel PC3200	-	-	-	966	975
1000Base T	1000Base T	RAM	TCP/IP	-	-	0.3	54	54
100Base TX	100Base TX	RAM	TCP/IP	-	-	0.3	10	10
802.11g WiFi	54Mb/sec 802.11g	RAM	TCP/IP	-	-	1.7	2.3	2.3
Maxtor 6Y250M0	Local NTFS	250	SATA-150 RAID-0	8	7200	7	116	89
Maxtor 6Y200M0	Local NTFS	200	SATA-150 RAID-1	8	7200	7	90	84
Maxtor 6Y200M0	Local NTFS	200	SATA-150	8	7200	7	57	57
Maxtor 6Y200P0	Local NTFS	200	PATA-133	8	7200	7	41	38
Maxtor 6Y200M0	1000Base T NTFS	200	SATA-150	8	7200	7	37	34
Toshiba 20GB 2.5"	Local NTFS	20	PATA-33	0.5	5400	18	16	6
Maxtor 6Y200M0	100Base TX NTFS	200	SATA-150	8	7200	7	9	6
Coolmax CN-550 Seagate 9Y704G Barracuda	100Base TX FAT32 NAS	250	PATA-33	8	7200	7	3.1	3.0
Coolmax CN-550 IBM DeskStar DTLA-307030	100Base TX FAT32 NAS	30	PATA-33	2	7200	7	3.1	2.9

data above was taken with Sandra SiSoft 2005 SR3, and verified with raw file transfers.

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- posted by Jeff @ 12:16 AM | 0 comments

 
Networking "stuff"
I have always been fascinated by the potential and cool-ness of being able to network basic devices throughout the house. From hacked Tivo units to hacked Xbox consoles. Hacked Linksys wireless routers (versions identified) running embedded Linux, to HTPC units and NAS (Network Attached Storage). All of this, in addition to normal PC's, make it very easy to share/access information and data all through the house.

Well, I am going to try cracking my Linksys WRT54GS version 1.0 wireless router open and putting a hacked bios on it to enable all sorts of cool features (like making it able to be a wireless bridge/access point, boosting the power 300% for better connection, etc.). HyperWRT seems to be about the best open source BIOS right now for what I want (again, only works on Version 1.0-4.0 boxes...if your WRT54GS Serial number starts with CGN7 then you have a version 5.0, and Linksys has moved to the closed VxWorks BIOS rather than Linux and it won't work.

I also just bought a very interesting product, a Coolmax CN-550 NAS case that allows you to put/manage a UATA hard drive on your network and access it from anywhere on your network. It only supports single PATA drives and network speeds are only up to 100Mb, but it is cheap, has true NAS, FTP and TCP/IP web management as well as temp controlled fan and HDD spin down to keep it cool and quiet. A good review with more detailed info is also available.

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- posted by Jeff @ 11:03 AM | 10 comments

 
Fictional Reading
I have read quite a lot of books, and tend to lean toward the Sci-Fi end of the spectrum (Star Wars, Battle Tech, Issac Asimove, etc.), but also love many modern political thrillers and pretty much anything by Tom Clancy. But I have also tried a couple fantasy books recently, and Terry Brooks "Shannara" tales are ok, along with the much read "Lord of the Rings" and R.A. Salvatore's tales of the drow (Icewindale and such) are pretty good. But on some recommendations, I picked up "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. Reviews were very positive about how good his books were and how complex and filled with great human motivations and political intrigue. Well, I'm almost done with it (but there are 3 more books in this "Song of Ice and Fire" line), and I have to say, it is a very good read with very good character and plot development as well as detailed and complex motives and political maneuvering. Worth a read, if you are looking for something new.

Ha! There, something that isn't electronic or computer/gadget related!
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- posted by Jeff @ 12:13 AM | 0 comments

 
HDTV and the land of 1080p
Have been really craving a new HDTV for the last year or so. Specifically, some of the new rear projection DLP4 1080p style TV's. Well, HP has entered the consumer electronics TV market with great plasma and DLP TV's, and have a pretty good DLP4 1080p version in both a 58" and 65" model (MD5880n and MD6580n). Most importantly, it beats all the current competetors, by actually recognizing 1080p input sources (most of the Mitsubishi and Samsung only upconvert 480p/720p/1080i to the internal 1080p display, but don't actually allow 1080p content to be put in).

Well, finally broke down and ordered one of the 58" ones at a pretty hefty discount on one of the online forum "special purchase" deals (through TV Authority). It should be here sometime next week. Now, I have to figure out what to do with the old Mitsubishi WS-55411 and probably find a nice new expensive entertainment stand for this new one. I also have to get my HTPC set back up with DVI->HDMI out ready to display awesome 1920x1080 windows desktop (and ready for the new HD-DVD players). For now, the Xbox is proving to be an AWESOME media center, and it should do very well with 1080i content that can be de-interlaced and displayed very well on the 1080p display.

There is a good "owners" forum thread on AVS Forums.

Here is a temporary picture of the new cabinet I got from a local furniture store. We have small children with curious fingers, so I needed an enclosed cabinet for the components. After searching and being frustrated with what was available (at even exhorbant $5000 price tags), I was glad to find this. It is higher than I wanted it to be (at around 26") and would have liked something closer to 20", but I think it will be ok. Now, if I could just get the dang TV...

Update (1/28/2006): I cancelled my order with TV Authority as it has now been almost 20 days with no expectation of it even being shipped yet. HP has dropped the price by $500, and I'm not sure when I will be able to get the TV. Looks like it is going to be an HD-less Superbowl. Actually, I have my 30" Vizio LCD...



Update (2/3/2006): convinced me to keep my order, and offered to air ship the new TV to get it here before super bowl weekend. Well, it got here and it is huge. I got the new firmware updated on it, which fixes a LOT of problems, but there are still some small nuances (audio over HDMI is a bit flakey...fortunately I don't care too much about that, as I normally have the TV speakers off and use the stereo). Also, the color wheel is pretty loud. It is a high pitched whine that is just at the edge of audible range (sort of like a monitor running at 60Hz). Anyway, it is sort of driving me nuts. I wasn't tremendously impressed with the picture quality of standard def or even Showtime HD broadcast, after all the rave reviews. And I can actually see some nasty bright sparkling random patterns in the broadcast shows. But then I put in Ice Age to take a look at some DVD content and a good digital original source. This movie has some great color saturations and very detailed fine lines. Well, the content was simply amazing. This isn't even HD content, and yet it was as pretty as anything I'd seen. Very nice. Star Wars Episode II was also very crisp and clear and rendered well on the display. I'm going to try to hook up my HTPC tomorrow and check out some actual 1080p HD WMV content on it. It should be impressive.

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- posted by Jeff @ 5:32 PM | 4 comments

 
Fan noise
I have so many electronics and computers (network hubs, tivo units, xbox's, etc.) in my den that it gets pretty hot (and there isn't a good air return in that room, so with the doors closed to keep the kids out, it gets pretty warm). Worse than that, is all the fan noise in that room. Hell, even my Linksys gigabit switch has a fan on it. And it is NOISY. Well, it finally got even MORE NOISY. With all these fans running 24/7, I end up with at least one fan a month going bad on me (usually, it is the chipset fan on my Abit motherboard). Well, the one in the switch is going bad, and it is the loudest screetch/vibration you ever heard. My wife is about to kill me.

Sounds like others have had similar problems and complaints about the loud fan noise on these switches too (even when they are new and not going bad). But, how to open up the plastic case? Well, once again, the web is an amazing place. Of course, someone has a step-by-step guide on how to crack the case and replace the fan on that very unit. Finally!!!

Now, if I could only get more reliable fans for all my other units (and quieter ones). As I get away from gaming and high performance systems, quiet and cool electronics are becoming more and more important to me. I hate my HTPC for how loud it is, and even my main system with 4 RAID drives in it, puts out a ton of heat, and is only tamed with no less than 8 fans...sigh.

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- posted by Jeff @ 3:55 PM | 0 comments

 
3D landscape and background computer renders
I've really started to get into doing 3D rendering on my computer. The image to the left was created with such a program. I'm probably the least artistically talented person in the world and lack any sense of color co-ordination, but what can be generated with computer ray tracing and landscape rendering today is simply amazing. I started getting into this, mostly because of Lego virtual drawing, thanks to LDraw, which has 3D computer primitives defined for Lego. See my Lego page for more details on this, as well as links to the many different tools that can be used for editing models, creating backgrounds, and redering them.



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- posted by Jeff @ 8:54 AM | 0 comments

 
Hacking 802.11b WEP
Found this article that details the tools and proceedure to hacking 802.11b (and I assume it should be the same for 802.11g) wireless networks. Granted, the author was flooding the wireless channels with ping requests to generate massive amounts of wireless traffic, but that is just a best case scenario. With a long enough data dump of "keep alive" requests from the client, you can always end up getting enough to crack even a 4 key rotating 128-bit WEP.

This is a very interesting look at wireless security and how to approach it. I still think that stealthed SSID's, MAC Filtering and 128-bit WEP is going to protect 99.99% of us (unless I'm your next door neighbor...grin). And even then, not file sharing stuff you don't want out there is the next best thing (secure your intranet). Hell, someone would have to be roving the neighborhood looking for stealthed SSID's (which I've heard of people doing), but more likely, it is a neighbor that detects your non-stealthed SSID that would be most attacks. Just watch your front walk and realize that they have to be pretty close to even get the packets over the wireless. In fact, I may take my laptop and see just how far I can detect my own wireless network...
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- posted by Jeff @ 6:32 AM | 0 comments