f-log

just another web log
25 Jul 2003 19:00 -- no distributed network project statistics for the mo
I am giving serious thought to retiring this laptop, which is a pity but I now have Linux running beautifully on my main machine and it is a pain to get this out just to do these posts and then transfer the files across.
It may mean I get the stats back, plus some other things, I am not sure, though if I need to move the office round to make typing more comfortable on the main machine. I will not bin this one, just leave it in the closet until a rainy day.

25 Jul 2003 18:57 -- no distributed network project statistics for the mo
I have finished two more books. First was "The Weavers of Saramyr" by Chris Wooding, a fantasy adventure in an alternate demon/magic ridden 1600s Japan. Started off on shaky ground but got better very quickly ending up as Very good, I am looking out for the follow up sequels. I was especially impressed by the interweaving stories on different levels that flowed together rather than fighting each other.
Second was the new(ish) Steven King novel "From a Buick 8", rather an odd title and I was some what put off by the Christine type cover (I did not like the film Christine, never read the book). In fact I held out very little hope for this, as I had found the "Dreamcatcher" rather predictable. but "From a Buick 8" DID surprise and was intriguing to the "I can not put this down" point. Without spoiling the plot to much it is based over 25+ years in Pennsylvania (no, that is not where Dracula comes from) and is told by a number of people reaching to present day and then beyond. What is especially clever is the use of telling a story to someone else with the specific point of hammering home a way of life a way of living. Buy it, read it, its a goodern.
I have also started work on a short "history of my computer page" for the mod and quite pc crew, coming soon ..... !

25 Jul 2003 17:38 -- no distributed network project statistics for the mo
So is MoviX2 the be all and end all DVD player? fraid knot, but its not MoviX2 fault, but Mplayer. When researching this an issue, it appears MPlayer never wanted to be the best DVD player for Linux it just has the ability to play DVDs, there appear to be many other specific DVD players for Linux, I just need to find them and mix them into a CD based distro.
Oh and festival has gone weird, I tried to create a siteinit.scm file as per the online help to increase the volume but it stopped working so I removed the file and ... it still did not work, but gave unpredictable failures :(
Before I did any quietening of the PC, we could not leave it on over night because the noise was to much. After the the Zalman Flower and the Quiet PSU the PC could be left on but the door must be kept shut, now the PC can be left on WITH the door OPEN all night !!
...........
The above was written sometime ago, I have been very lazy expect some serious catch up !

13 Jul 2003 19:46 -- no distributed network project statistics for the mo
I also spent some more time with MoviX2 here how it went;
Burned a downloaded ISO of MoviX2 (unknown version, I remember thinking it was beta) and got DVD to work but only region free DVDs worked.
Burned a downloaded ISO of MoviX (has no X GUI) but DVDs to slow (region free)
Downloaded MoviX2 0.3r1(and then again with 0.3r2) and added libdvdcss.so burn and booted, ran region encoded DVDs but VERY slowly.
Tried adding all the extra codecs to 0.3r2 but still to slow.
Took the CD of the unknown version and copied the files over the 0.3r2 src directory added libdvdcss.so built ISO and burnt and low an behold I can now play region encoded DVDs with MoviX2, much better than windows.
With the silent drives the machine is a lot quieter, but it is not silent, maybe i should invest in some acoustic foam ...
Oh, I also got festival installed and talking(quietly), not sure what I am going to do with it for the moment.

10 Jul 2003 20:11 -- no distributed network project statistics for the mo
So where have I been ? quite a few places actually:
Barcelona : it was hot
Monte Carlo : stunning views : hot
Civitavecchia/Rome : Very Hot
Pompeii : to hot
Malta : so hot we only went off ship for half an hour
Santorini : very very Hot
Athens : hot hot hot, phew !
We went of cheap cruise we got of the tvtravelshop channel, as you can see from above it was VERY HOT in the Mediterranean, but the places we got to see were amazing !!
Got back off holiday and still no silent drives emailed http://www.quietpc.com and found that they had tried to deliver to the wrong address, it appears the IE form auto-complete had put my home post code against the work address. Any hoo got them today and just installed them, they are running VERY quietly !!
But installation was not smooth;
One : neither of my drives were a neat rectangle with lips and curves, one was exceptionally difficult to fit in the housing and could only be managed with a bit of carefully constructed cardboard.
Two : neither of the drives connectors lined up with the ducts and modifications using a knife were involved.
Three : could not fit CDROM drive back in if top silent drive was screwed in, but appears pretty secure.
Four : Could not properly seal one silent drive cap although appears pretty secure.
Five : Silent drive caps are not designed to handle a IDE slave connection but cable just reaches and does not appear to be putting on to much strain.
BUT the drives work, it has actually neatened up my cables and it IS a lot QUIETER !!

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