rigelt

Gainward gtx 560 ti Phantom noise

2012-01-10T00:41:00.002+01:00

I just bought a Nvidia gtx 560 ti to be able to turn details up in BF3 1920x1200. Decided for Gainward Phantom because of good reviews for their cooling concept.
Performance and general noise levels are fantastic to say the least. But hey wait! What's this weird sound coming out of my rig while having any 3d app launched?? check out the vid.

Man - considering the additional charge for the Phantom series - that's disappointing. Friend has the same problem with his identical product too. We're not returning the card, because we both usually use headphones while in games.

At least I'm perfectly happy that the card's inaudible while working with regular apps - that is 90% of the time I'm using this comp.

Logitech Ulitmate Ears 200vi and Android

2011-12-08T23:22:00.007+01:00

After about a year of daily use on my bicycle ride to work the loose connection close to the jack began to really bother me. The jittering sound drove me nuts.
Eventually I decided to get a new pair of Ultimate Ears ... and they had to be cheap too [digitec.ch]

Ulitmate Ears 200vi - quick summary:
+ good overall build quality
+ soft and comfortable ear plugs
+ good price while providing mic
+ rigid cables, means no cable tangle
+ button to pick and end calls (htc desire)
0 Sound quality is not splendid but acceptable, I miss some clearness.
0 Bass is unspectacular also.
- cheap looking too (nooo really)
- yup, I said so already: I'd love more bass

full specifications see Logitech site

>> I wanted cheap and got cheap, with acceptable sound quality. Solid, not more, not less
On 2nd thought I might opt for the 350vi instead.

The compatibility list on the ultimate ears website is completely useless. I'll test them for you on some Android devices and report here over time.

HTC Desire
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable > one click for play/pause and to pick and end a call, long press the middle button to fast forward to the next song.

Google Nexus S
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable

Sony Ericsson Arc
completely not compatible with this phone, but that's bearable since Sony Ericsson offers a very good earphone collection themselves

HTC Wildfire S
(follows)

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II
sound works, mic works, only the remote's middle button is usable

check out CompHelperKid's review vid for some more details

YouTube Original resolution HQ38

2011-10-22T12:24:00.002+02:00

While searching for a special soundtrack I stumbled accross a youtube video promoting the use of the "original quality" - these vids are still rare but make sense if the audio source was excellent and you're into great sound quality.

The original setting features either a 2k or a 4k video feed and cristal clear audio. Here are some example stats of what the stream packs in for you:

Name: Original also HQ38
aka: 4k or 4096p or 2k, 2048p

Container: MP4
Video Codec: H.264(mpeg4 part 10)
Resolution: 4k - 4096x2304 (~xxxx kbps) or 2k - 2048x1152 (min. 1570 kbps)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Audio Codec: AAC 151+ kbps VBR, 44.1kHz stereo

So far I only saw 2 channel audio feeds, what is actually fine with me, because I mainly feed the earphones only. The rest of the youtube codecs and how to record videos and extract audio is described here.

(interesting: transcoding with lame.exe delivers catastrophic results for the first 10s)

Winamp Green Color Tweaks

2011-09-11T16:45:00.002+02:00

This is simply a repost of my old entry to test the visibility in the google index when it comes to searching for "Winamp Green" - last week I was surprised, that my pictures didn't show up in google's image index at all. (maybe because they're crap, but that's another story...)
Also tweaked some other SEO factors, like the image titles, the blog title, leaving out the deviantart sharing code and so forth. But most of all I think the difference will be whether the image is hosted at deviantart or at picasa (blogger's default).

[Update 23 January 2012: four months went by, exactly as expected both pictures are now in the top 10 when image-searching for Winamp Green. SEO is not so difficult after all - one just has to understand a few main principles. Number one to me?? ...post your content on sites that are owned by google like youtube, blogger, picasa. Keep your content clean and authentic.]

btw: Winamp Green Modern is still the color scheme I use all and every days :-)
Cheers.

head over to deviantart to learn, how to activate

the green color in your winamp

and the same for BigBento

Kanye West - Love Lockdown

2011-08-11T01:26:00.001+02:00

totally off topic, totally old ... I'm really wondering - how the heck can one not consider this video a real blast! I'm not asking - get out of here if you don't consider it a total blast hehe. Enjoy the performance.

Youtube is cool, you can't buy this song as is. Save the 720p video and extract the audio yourself. It's easy. Also check out these two cool remixes:

xXMorshuXx's Love Lockdown (Dubstep Remix) - Crosby
NicolasLettow's Love Lockdown dubstep remix

(while he doesn't behave weird during awards we might consider kanyewestfoundation.org - because just like him ... we all mature.)

rotten Amazon App Store

2011-08-03T00:14:00.002+02:00

I often state that I don't like to read books, they are generally out dated and so forth. But I do read a lot - just everything that doesn't come in the form of books. Bro reads around 8 hours a day and makes a fortune from the gathered knowledge.

For real: this was today's best read, comes in two URLs - a company mainly developing for iOS, later also for Android and then checking on Amazon App Store. Well written and amazing: Amazon App Store Rotten To The Core. Then we have to read through this comment to get a more complete view.

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Android 4 - Nexus Rumors

2011-06-20T01:14:00.024+02:00

[Update 19.10.11 Been really busy from 0600 through 2300 and ... missed all the great news of course. But then again, Android 4 seems to be even better than expected, so I'm happily looking forward to the upcoming hardware greatness, which will be announced in the coming weeks. What really bothers me, is that wife and kids are angry because of the long away time /]

(btw: i made above's pic - how about backlinking?)

Coming to you ~~October 11th~~ October 19th
livestream on youtube.com/android @ 10:00 HTK

Since the announcement we often get to read that the next Android release will be merging together the Android 2.x and tablet Android 3 branches to one release, handling all display resolutions with a Honeycomb style user interface (Update 19.09.11: YES it will - read through this dev post.) . There's no official word on the naming of that next release - call it Android 4 - Android 2.4 with 2.6.35.7 Kernel - Ice Cream Sandwich - Android 3.4 - whatever. The next release is being told to bring new

face recognition features
better multitasking
better video conferencing
~~USB hosting~~
new launcher / new UI
a lot of goodies for developers!

Reading about all the next Nexus phone rumors? Man they are insane to say the least. I don't even want to name the sources, other than "the net" ... it just doesn't make all to much sense at the moment. Altogether I belief that we're dealing with Android 2.4 rather than Android 4, we'll just have to wait and see.
Read for your amusement only and drool on. Android 4 stuff will be added here once the news condense in a more rational context.

Nexus 3 aka Nexus Prime promoting Android 4 - rumor summary as of june 2011

display 720p - 4 inch (1280*720)
~~cpu Snapdragon 'krait' dual core,~~ 1.2 ~~to 1.5 GHz (or~~ TI OMAP 4460)
gpu? (integrated into OMAP is the PowerVR SGX540)
1 GB memory
of course with NFC and the whole rest
Hardware might come from LG > nexus 3 teasers like this one are wide spread
if the hardware comes from Samsung then we might face a 4.65 inch Amoled display in a device called GT-i9250. 1280x720 | 5MP cam

What does that mean to me?

Wife's Arc is close to perfect. Great camera, perfect hdmi out, good design
Samsung? I don't like how they clone the iphone over and over, hardware is superb though
HTC Sensation reviews don't make me fully happy - camera and product design not adequate
LG firmware still featuring some weird bugs, bad launcher
Sony Ericsson and HTC released commitments to unlocked bootloaders
...still being very happy with my HTC Desire?
hardly ever missing any Android functionality other than a really good camera?
not being an OS Upgrade Junkie?

I would like to see a Sony Ericsson Arc successor, with dual core to support vast media options, front facing camera, edge to edge display and the next Android release in Q1 2012. (Nope I'm not talking about the ST18i). So I guess that I won't buy the next Nexus.
[Update 13.07.] I just checked for news about the Sony Ericsson Duo. Head over to IBT Tech section for a good roundup. In Japan it might be released as the Nozomi ...
[Update 31.08.] today Sony Ericsson announced the "Arc S" single core CPU with 1.4 GHz. I guess that's not the successor I'm wating for but certainly a great device.

announced 09. January 2012: the Xperia S. Quite neat. Probably my next phone. click here for an overview of the phone's specs. (yup, fm radio with rds is included)

Samsung S24A450BW and S22A450BW

2011-06-19T17:23:00.005+02:00

We are using Samsung Monitors for quite a while now. The overall experience we got for the money was always excellent. In June 2011 Samsung announced a new generation of monitors > Series 4 business TFTs with LED backlight and 16:10 aspect ratio, models S24A450BW and S22A450BW.

images source: samsung.de

TFT/TN-Panel
1980*1200 S24A450BW
1680*1050 S22A450BW
very low switching times
matte panel, matte frame
TCO5 certified | high adjustment flexibility
tilt -5° to +20° | 29W power usage
DVI-D, 15pin D-Sub (no hdmi, no display port)
full fact sheet (not yet avail in english)

The TN panel technology in use is very cheap because it's dominating the consumer market. IPS panels, S-PVA panels and so on offer better quality but usually lack fast response time. Lower production numbers and more sophisticated technology doubles prices in most cases.
So for most of us TN panels suffice. To avoid frustration, you should be aware of the downsides before ordering such a cheap monitor:

colour mixing happens with only 6bit per RGB channel, resulting in less available colours. TN panel builders use "dithering" to reduce the noticeability of the resulting effects. Often people only notice the lack of colors when being told. See here for more information.
limited viewing angles | but then again 97% of the time I sit in front of my comp alone - so I don't care about it. The colors remain enough stable to notice only very little color bleeding towards the edges.
Samsung suckz when it comes to older products. After a year they often switch from the good initial panel to cheaper AU Optronics panels - without changing the product name! So don't wait to long a time once the product has been announced.

BTW: Personally I would opt for 16:10 aspect ratio - because you get some extra height for the task bar and menus. Movies aren't released in 16:9 either! wut? you didn't know? 2.39:1 and 1.85:1

If you want to buy a bigger 27" monitor with higher resolution, then I suggest having a look at the Samsung SyncMaster S27A850D. see pictures below.
Specs: 2560 * 1440 (16:9), PLS Panel (similar to IPS), LED, no hdmi, cheap!

more pictures here

8 light minutes away

2011-06-08T01:52:00.003+02:00

a star 8 light minutes away - huge erruption on june 7 2011
(explanation and zoomed in, see here )

also check: http://youtu.be/_N2PXdq_bWE?hd=1

good music

2011-06-07T23:58:00.022+02:00

Bought Sony Ericsson Arc for Wife a month ago. Overall impression is superb, especially the HDMI connectivity works like a total charm! Enough Tech bla-bla

This post is meant to be about perfect media. Dubstep - indie music at it's best. Brought to your inner cores through your precious audio gear [bro, other bro, me]

focus! distraction by the noise is fatal - the level of perfection is extremely high. Very hard to accomplish in arts. On par with my other favorites, ie Johnny Cash's interpretation of Hurt. go on, assimilate your headphones and click play below...
manually select 720p!

Beyond the airlock by korejekt (aka bro Remo)
"commander, there is something outside of our ship." - "i heard the rumors. the spacewalkers all believe it's the Geist."

bullet proof (Foamo Dubstep Remix) >> 480p!

http://youtu.be/wKriBNF_2tI?hd=1

Adele - Set Fire to everybody > 720p

http://youtu.be/md1QECWVRHs?hd=1

Flight Facilities - Crave you (Adventure Club dubstep remix)

http://youtu.be/ZeaIvjoH1FY?hd=1

Jawnae - Welcome to Rock City > 720p

http://youtu.be/T6upfkC2g44?hd=1

Preview: More monsters & Sprites >> 480p!

http://youtu.be/LhDmt2sntXE

the remix EP available on Beatport June 7 and iTunes June 21

Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites >> 360p!

http://youtu.be/WSeNSzJ2-Jw

13.8 Mio views since oct 2010 - krass

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in Asia

2011-04-16T16:00:00.000+02:00

Haven't posted in a while because of a promotion I focused more on my job. Plus we're on vacation in Asia since almost a month. Once I'm back I will gather the important HTC Android facts and report whether we decided for or against the Sony Ericsson Arc. I also updated the Core i5 (1155) articles, because I learned that overclocking the new K-Models works much more sophisticated than I thought.

Uhm - actually I'm just posting, to show you these pictures taken yesterday:

some of you knew already...
always had a crush on Serena

Sony Ericsson Arc

2011-01-18T03:22:00.004+01:00

Wife wants to replace her Sony Ericsson Satio because sometimes it just behaves really weird - every week it happens once that you can't pick calls or one can hardly hear her talking (crash related!), the symbian user interface also turned out to be very unintuitive etc.
From all devices her friends are using she likes Xperia X10 the most > for the simple reason, that its design is appealing! Via my HTC desire it's also clear, that Android usability is fantastic. Requesting: good product design, multitouch and Android? We're currently looking forward to the recently announced Sony Ericsson Arc!

It also features:

large screen | 4.2"
respectable cam | 8MP backround illuminated sensor
decent battery pack | 1500mAh
hdmi out | all videos easily presentable on tv
robust Gingerbread
fm radio

the rest is nonsense geek stuff that doesn't bother her the least (for example two microphones which will provide noise canceling during phone calls). All together it seems to be a cool gadget, fusing tons of technical stuff with an appealing jacket... let's see where it goes from here
Price @digitec is ~~extreme! >> chf 799.-~~ reasonable chf 569.-

more information can be found here:

more pictures: google image search
launch article at sony ericsson blog with commercial videos

technical specifications at sony ericsson / at GSM arena

hey this video seems cool to me - also spotted our bedroom tv in it LOL:

der PC fürs 2011

2011-01-17T01:49:00.018+01:00

Früher als erwartet sind alle Komponenten bereits lieferbar. Es geht hier wie immer nicht um einen Büro PC, sondern ein Teil für anspruchsvolle Anwender, die viele Videos schneiden und transkodieren, 3d Szenen bauen, Audio Tracks erzeugen und ab und zu ein modernes Spiel in 1920x1200 mit allen Details "on" spielen. Im Hintergrund läuft dauernd Mail, Winamp und ein uploader. Wer das alles nicht macht, soll auf keinen Fall so viel Geld ausgeben! (siehe einleitende Artikel hier und hier)
[achtung: am 31.01. wurde öffentlich, dass alle bisher produzierten neuen 6er Intel-Chipsätze einen Produktionsfehler aufweisen (B2 stepping) > betrifft die Langlebigkeit der ersten 4 SATA Schnittstellen. Fehler kann nur durch einen Motherboardaustausch behoben werden. Die noch zu produzierenden neuen B3 steppings dürften anfang April im Verkauf ankommen. siehe hier]

Bemerkungen: starke Übertakter müssen die K-Modelle nehmen. Interessiert mich nicht, da beim extremen Übertakten i.d.R. Speedstep & deeper C-States etc. ausgeschaltet werden. Speedstep, die Schlaf- und Turbo-Modi sind ja aber genau die extremst hohe Ingenieurskunst die wir wollten...
Update 16.04.11 > anders als ich dachte, funktioniert der Übertaktungsmechanismus für LGA1155 Sockel CPUs anders als bei den bisherigen Intel Chipsätzen. Statt dem Frontside Bus Takt zu erhöhen wird der Multiplikator in Einerschritten erhöht. Der grosse Vorteil: alle CPU Stromspar- und Turbomechanismen funktionieren weiterhin. Das war bei den 1156er Boards nicht so. Demnach spricht einiges für die K-Modelle. also i5 2500K (nur CHF 10 Aufpreis).

Mehr als 4GB RAM will auch jeder, selber ein Game besitzen das mehr als 2 GB Ram alloziert? meistens Fehlanzeige. Ausnahmen sind Hosts von virtuellen Maschinen: die schlucken unter Umständen sehr viel Speicher. Bei mehr als 4GB wird Win64bit Pflicht. Ein Win32 Betriebssystem kann wegen sich überlappenden Adressbereichen typischerweise lediglich 3 bis 3.3 GB Speicher nutzen.

Wichtig: wer die in der CPU eingebaute GPU nutzen möchte, muss ein H67 oder ein Z68 Motherboard organisieren, nicht ein P67 wie wir. Aber mit den H67-Boards kann man die CPU nicht übertakten, nur den GPU-Kern (und das bringt nix). Wer ein K-Modell kauft und die CPU übertakten will, muss zurzeit ein P67 Board kaufen! Und was ist mit dem Z68 Chipsatz? Hier kann man Übertakten und gleichzeitig die interne GPU nutzen und hat noch zwei, drei zusätzliche Gimmicks wie z.B. SSD Caching. Ich lass die Finger davon - wenn schon, dann grad auf SSD setzen, die interne GPU nutzt eh absolut niemand von uns.
Schade: viele viele Nutzer klagen bei den neuen Chipsätzen über Probleme mit dem S3 Standby Modus. Meistens ist ein dokumentierter Intel Microcode PLL OV Fehler die Ursache.

Thema SSD: wer das Geld hat, soll sich eine fürs System-Laufwerk C: besorgen. Dann für die Datentresore eine 2TB Disk einbauen. Bitte keine 3TB Disk. Viele Applikationen stolpern noch über diese Diskgrösse. Generell wird der SSD Effekt überschätzt - Speed ist zwar enorm, mit dem Resultat, dass der PC noch länger auf die erste Tastatureingabe des Anwenders wartet - CPU und GPU wirken viel nachhaltiger. Was aber an SSD super ist: sie sind absolut geräuschlos!

Bei mir geht das anders: schnelle 1TB HD für aktive Daten, zweite langsame 5400er 1.5TB Disk für Sicherungen und Schrott. Die komplexe SSD-Technik ist kompliziert und noch jung - die zugehörigen Microcode-News aber sehr spannend! Selber hätte ich lange nichts anderes als Intel verbaut, die Konkurrenz ist langsam auch robust.

aktualisiert 11.09.2011
CPU, Intel Core i5 2500K - 199
Board, ASUS P8P67 - 139
(kein SLI, in-Chip GPU nicht nutzbar)
(Alternative: Z68)
RAM, Patriot 2x 4GB / 79
HD Samsung F3 1TB - 59

GPU, Nvidia GTX560 TI - 249

DVD Writer / irgendwas - 29
(schreibt eh niemand mehr DVDs - BluRay)
Case, any Case u like / just any / really any - 58
Power, Cooler Ma / oder - 100
-------------------------------
totals ~ CHF 912.-

+
Windows 7 home prem 64bit deutsch - 95
Windows 7 home prem 64bit english - 95
Display, Samsung BX2440 - 279
Display, Samsung new s24a450bw
CPU-Cooler, AC Freezer - 39
very nice Keyboard - 37
very nice 5star Mouse - 79
5star Mouse with same hardware but more buttons - 90

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Moderat - Rusty Nails

2011-01-12T02:37:00.003+01:00

A few weeks back my bro invited me to an aphex twin gig in Bristol this march - I was like huh? ... well uh - okay?

Up until today I had no clue what this is all about, he booked flights, rooms and bought many tickets. Then he sent me these URLs today and I'm TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY!!! Makes me think: if I can help my kids believe in only a very few things then I hope this includes:
work very hard and share - be authentic - learn to identify true beauty

Bloc weekend - the perfect teaser

vitalic - live at bloc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2dfGC1oziE

moderat - live at bloc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w0JSVGh3E0&feature=player_embedded

describing the next song, elefanti 400 on youtube put it like this:
"when the angel of immortality apparat, and the angel of infinity
modeselektor met, a new universe arised. it is? called Moderat and one of
their planets is called rusty nails. it is just godlike"

die Tiefsee

2011-01-12T01:25:00.002+01:00

Sehen wir doch der Realität ins Auge. Wir wissen viel, aber noch immer sehr wenig...
Dieses Video hat mich wieder mal zum Staunen gebracht, da läuft in 1000m tiefe doch tatsächlich ein Fisch herum. Ja, er läuft. Einfach unglaublich.

http://www.3sat.de/page/?source=/nano/umwelt/150882/index.html

[Update Sep 2011: die Aufnahme stammt von 2002, möglicherweise vor den Küsten Tasmaniens. Abgebildet ist möglicherweise ein seltener Hand Fisch]
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Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge

2011-01-03T23:59:00.006+01:00

Update 15.01.11 > früher als erwartet sind z.B. bei Digitec schon alle CPUs und Motherboards lieferbar. Siehe auch den entsprechenden Einkaufstipp. / nicht vergessen: alle bis 25.01.11 produzierten H67 und P67 Chipsätze weisen einen Produktionsfehler auf. Fehlerfreie Produkte werden erst gegen Ende März erwartet.

Update 16.04.11 > anders als ich dachte, funktioniert der Übertaktungsmechanismus für LGA1155 Sockel CPUs anders als bei den bisherigen Intel Chipsätzen. Statt dem Frontside Bus Takt zu erhöhen wird der Multiplikator in Einerschritten erhöht. Der grosse Vorteil: alle CPU Stromspar- und Turbomechanismen funktionieren weiterhin. Das war bei den 1156 Boards nicht so. Demnach spricht einiges für die K-Modelle. also i5 2500K (nur CHF 10 Aufpreis)

Die NDAs sind abgelaufen, ab heute dürfen nun alle über die neuen Core i5 und Core i7 berichten was das Zeugs hält... Aber allzuviel müsst ihr dazu eigentlich nicht lesen gehen, denn für jene Gruppe von Usern welche diese Programme einsetzen gibt es keine Alternative!
Man kann quasi bedenkenlos zugreifen - einzig bei der Wahl des Motherboards wird es noch ein wenig spannend. In ein paar Stichworten zusammengefasst:

CPU Sockel LGA1155 :-(
neuer GPU Teil liefert noch immer nicht die Leistung einer $60 Grafikkarte :-(
neuer zugehöriger Intel Chipsatz noch ohne USB 3.0, jedes Motherboard wird eine andere Lösung dieses "Problems" präsentieren
erstaunlich mehr Speed > sehr hohe Taktraten, bei niedrigem Stromverbrauch (fast unglaublich)
der bisher exzellent funktionierende Turbo Modus wurde noch verbessert (burst mode)
die CPUs sind günstig > beste Preis/Leistung haben wohl Core i5 2400 & 2500
Beispiel-Motherboard: Asus P8P67 > bereits unsere P7P55-Boards für die erste Core i5 Generation waren sensationel robust plus der zughörige Treiberservice bei Asus.com war die letzten 2 Jahre tip top. (die Austauschprogramme für die erste, schlechte Charge laufen sauber)
NIC des Chipsatzes bietet nun Jumbo Frame Support (haha)

Hier gibt's eine gute kurzweilige Zusammenfassung: Heise
mehr Links zu englischsprachigen Reviews folgen später
Core i5 GPU Performance (Techpowerup)
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Kein neuer PC mehr

2010-12-05T21:30:00.011+01:00

Update 15.01.11 > früher als Erwartet sind z.B. bei Digitec schon alle CPUs und Motherboards lieferbar, siehe auch den entsprechenden Einkaufstipp.

~~Die nächsten drei Monate würde ich keinen neuen PC kaufen~~. Grund: Intel wird im Januar die Nachfolge-Prozessoren der aktuellen Core-i5 und Core-i7 CPUs vorstellen (Sockel 1155). Die neuen CPUs basieren auf dem Kern der Sandy-Bridge Linie. Neben dem höheren Takt dünkt mich AVX und der niedrige Stromverbrauch (leise Kühlung) nennenswert.
Mir geht's immer darum, nicht zum Schluss einer Produktegeneration noch neu einzusteigen, denn meistens bereut man das später. Bei Version 1.0 zu starten ist in der Regel auch schlecht, aber bei Intel riskiert man seit vier Jahren wenig.

my core i5 750

Bekanntlich entwickelt auch Intel ihre Produkte seit Jahren in einem Tick-Tock Zyklus > Tick heisst bestehende Technologie wird verbessert und "ge-shrinked" (shrinking bedeutet praktisch immer, höhere Taktraten bei niedrigerem Stromverbrauch) - Tock heisst: neue Generation, neue Funktionen. Im Januar ist Tock dran; man darf von einem extrem ausgereiften Produkt ausgehen, da praktisch alle Desktop Intel-CPUs seit Nehalem so gut wie keine Schwächen aufweisen. Hoffen wir, dass die verbreiteten Compiler rasch nachziehen, sonst macht AVX wenig Sinn.

übrigens: Nvidia hat vor zwei Monaten mit der GF110 (gtx580) ihren "Tick" released und so den misratenen "Tock" GF100 (gtx480/gtx470) ausgebügelt - das Die wurde allerdings nicht ge-shrinkt.

source: canardpc

Auch ein Intel-Chipsatz der Generation 6 kündigt sich an, so dass mir ab Februar/März folgende Konfiguration für Power-User sinnvoll scheint:

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500 - 4 Kerne - 3,3 / 3,7 GHZ - 6 MB Cache- 95W tdp - kein HT
MB: Asus P8P67 (Intel Generation 6 Chipsatz, leider ohne native USB3)
Ram: 4 GB > niemand von euch braucht mehr...
GPU: Nvidia GTX 570 / GTX 560 ~~Auch dieses Teil wird erst noch angekündigt werden~~.
SSD ja/nein? Speed ist super, aber Preis/Leistung ist für mich noch nicht im grünen Bereich.

> statt einer SSD lieber eine zweite 2 TB-Platte um ein einigermassen anständiges Backup zu erstellen.

(image source: Malaysia)

Mit einer solchen Konfig hat man die nächsten 3 bis 4 Jahre mehr als genug Performance! Alle Apps werden zügig laufen, praktisch alle Spiele werden bis 1920x1200 mit max. Details flüssig bleiben, Einschaltzeit aus dem extrem sparsamen S3 Standby Modus beträgt 5 Sekunden UND vor allem wird das Teil leise kühlbar sein.
Dann? Mitte 2012 eine SSD einbauen und alles wird einen Schluck besser. Anfang 2013 steht dann Haswell in den Startlöchern: 8 Kerne Default, 22nm, neue Energiespartechniken, UEFI und und und

Spectacular Life Form

2010-12-03T03:04:00.001+01:00

So many know so little... it's absolutely shocking. That's what I'd often think when it comes to religious discussion about the where and why.

Science does not invent new technology and laws of nature... it just discovers and visualizes what's driven us since the very beginning. We still don't know much - but we know much more than 100yrs ago. And we will come to understand a lot more in 100yrs from now.

In case you haven't noticed: a healthy personality is mainly driven by love, passion and honesty
whereas religion often leads to blindness and vicious activities.

Do you know why water at 84°C freezes faster than water that is 5°C? you don't. Currently nobody understands that. Water has many more anomalies, than the usual 4 you might have heard of in school.

Seen from the third planet in our solar system? Why the heck is the moon diameter exactly the same as the sun's ? have you ever wondered? This might not have any impact on life (yet) - but will eventually roll up how we function.

So much is yet to be discovered. Diligence and modesty help.
Try to get a hold of today's extreme news:
Spectacular Life Form - nytimes

oder auf Deutsch:
Spektakuläre Lebensform - Spiegel.de

What was it again? Why could we double life expectancy in the last 100 yrs?

Android browser allows data theft

2010-11-24T04:08:00.006+01:00

Extreme news arrived yesterday... to my surprise all big international Android sites haven't reported it yet.

A simple link allows an attacker to steal user data from your Android phone!
Thomas Cannon discovered this and explains here

I got the news here:
Android vulnerability permits data theft on heise.de

und die deutsche Version dazu:
Android-Lücke ermöglicht Datenklau

Brief comment:
Compared to the whole rest of bugs and problems I consider this a severe flaw since most of us use the good and slim default browser. No rooting no dialog box, nothing but an URL is needed to make this work. This will not become widespread but provides an excellent example how all devices can be tricked by consequently accessing it's "features"
We'll all track, how Android providers handle this problem. No paranoia please, my next few phones will feature Android for sure, seeing how thin the membrane protecting personal data can become (for a limited time) is impressive though.

Chile Miracle - 33 again

2010-10-14T03:30:00.004+02:00

Wonderful News today! This post just serves as a diary entry for me and my kids. Let's always remember, what good can be done by each and everyone together.

Saw the rescue of the 2nd guy live. Then a few others and now the last one. It's 3am over here. Stevie can't sleep either - it's a family thing I guess. She's sitting here in my lap while I write this lol.

und zur gleichen Zeit auf tagi online (hehe).
die sind schon im Näscht ?! NZZ Berichterstattung hat schon
nach dem 17. geretteten Kumpel schlapp gemacht.
lmao

Google TV and Logitech Revue

2010-10-07T23:33:00.002+02:00

I'm looking forward to the merger of TV and internet for a while now. While current solutions just provide a faint display of possibilities, Google TV seems to head in the right direction.

Finally the marketing campaigns for Google TV and Logitech Revue have been launched. Below I added some links to give you a jump start into the topic.

I'm sure that "3D" won't have a big impact on TV for the next two to three years, because the technology still isn't mature (lots of flickering) and there's simply no 3D content available! At this moment only three 3D Blue Ray movies are sold in Germany/Switzerland - and hardware prices are still very high. 3D is fun at the movies and that's where we will consume that form of motion picture in the coming days.

But there's a lot of media available on the internet already! I care much much more about accessing media on the net and most of it is free of charge.
We all know that YouTube is muuuch better than MTV for music and that our kids love video search results from "Tom and Jerry" or "Mister Bean Animated" > it all plays without commercial breaks, episodes you don't like can be skipped with one click.
We already watch a lot of YouTube on our Sony Bravia TVs and it works surprisingly well (KDL-40EX710). But I miss a keyboard, YouTube HD support and a normal web browser ... and that's where the new products will hopefully jump in. And nope, our excellent WD TV Live can't fill the gap. More about that later.

Google TV - Quick Tour
Logitech Revue - explained on the US site $300
Google TV hands on video, also showing controls through iphone / android app
Logitech Revue getting mixed reviews

Mixed Reviews? Yes the market is getting crowded but come on, apple tv? Apple is evil! Nope I won't explain myself. It's not really the Logitech Revue I'm looking forward to, but Google TV instead. I think the concept points to the right direction, so let's keep track with the coming product announcements. That's all we Europeans can do for now :-)
BTW: a Filet-O-Fish costs $5.50 where I live, so we ain't no penny pinchers.

BTW > the device is driven by a Intel Atom CE4100, supports wireless 802.11a/b/g/n, ethernet 10/100 Base-T and uses Logitech Unifying wireless technology

(image source: logitech en-us press)

And what's about Sony's version of Google TV? They'll release a TV and a Blu-Ray Ray Player with built-in processors and RAM. Check out their site for some impressions

Android HTC Desire better user interface

2010-08-25T01:37:00.003+02:00

BTW: you can make your phone look better and add functionality to the homescreen without even rooting the device. Below you see how I set up my phone these days.
The lower dock is scrollable with a swipe, so you can add a total of 15 fully customizable actions (actually even more if you use the "swipe gesture action")

apps and widgets used: LauncherPro, MusicMod, weather widgets (yr.no),
WiFi widget, smooth calendar, battstatt, tajm, diviclock, apps organizer

wallpaper credits: tamilia orb vector
more wallpapers here and more inspiration at XDA dev

Exchange ActiveSync on Android phones - Desire Froyo

2010-08-25T00:30:00.003+02:00

Loads of Android users around the globe have been waiting for a matured support of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync security policies.

The good news: since Android 2.2 aka Froyo MS Exchange syncing works exactly as desired! I just created some screenshots to give you an idea how Exchange support was implemented into Android. Let's hope your HTC Android, Samsung Magic, Xperia X10 etc. will get a Froyo update soon.

First the exchange setup. Honestly... it can't get any easier than that, the setup process works the same way as on every other phone supporting MS Exchange: your administrator has to provide nothing more than the name of the server you need to connect to and add your user-id to the designated active directory group.

Go into settings > "accounts & sync" - add Exchange ActiveSync
You will be prompted for the server name, your user-id,
domain name, email address and password. Done.

before syncing for the first time you'll have to accept
the security policies activated by the Exchange Administrators

the screenshot gives you an idea

you can setup the update schedule quite precisely
(peak time start and end, sync frequency)

our administrator set the password retry limit to 10 see top of screenshot
the 11th wrong try will trigger the process "erase all data"

most important: the integration into the android calendar
and email is absolutely seemless! This is also true for the reminders.

...you get the idea!

Logitech G700 Mouse announced

2010-08-05T23:05:00.013+02:00

Some of you know that I'm using a Performance MX Mouse almost a year now. It's close to perfect - really.
Today Logitech announced the tuned up version G700 > comes with 13 customizable buttons instead of just 9 and with higher transfer/report frequency. While I can't care less about the (nonsense) features specifically designed for gamers? I'm often in need for many mouse buttons while working series of hundreds of pictures in Photoshop.

[Update Aug 2011: just bought a G700. While the design and the driver's usability are perfect, I dislike that on the side we're dealing with a hard, cheap feeling, rough plastic, where the Performance MX offers a much higher perceived value by it's soft and slightly 'rubberish' shell.
Everybody intending to use the included USB cable should be aware, that it's relatively rigid. Pleasant surprise: tilting the mouse wheel left an right triggers a clean click - better than the analogue sampling introduced with the Performance MX. btw you can also run the mouse without having the battery inserted, so it's cord vs. weight /end]

under exposed to give you an idea of the rough surface

Have a look at the pictures, the mouse looks really good and the buttons are placed where I love it. ~~That's the main reason for me to report the mouse~~. ~~Maybe~~ I'll get one for my kids? For their Photoshop course I mean - lol

(image source: logitech.com)

Remember: in the normal consumer Logitech products you can only assign custom key functions to all buttons by using uberoptions (or manually tweaking the xml files), whereas in the gamer products such as this G700 you can assign custom functions to more and every button right out of the box.
In the driver you can create as many button profile sets as you like, three of them are stored in the mouse itself.
The pictures explain it all:

Logitech G700 & Performance MX

Specs taken from their site:
- 13 customizable buttons
- 200 - 5700 dpi
- dpi can be changed in 5 steps, you can freely assign a value per steps
- report rate or polling rate: up to 1000 Hz (125, 200, 250, 333, 500, 1000 selectable)
- weight 145 g (reports also state 151g), 128g if you run it without the battery
- only one AA battery max, eNiTime 1.2V, 2000mAh
- no customizable weights
-

Reviews and pictures:
design
Lesnumerics.com
crunchgear.com
engadget.com (pics)

HTC Desire Froyo Update Android 2.2

2010-08-02T16:32:00.011+02:00

On July 21 HTC released the official Android 2.2 aka Froyo update for the HTC Desire. The Update is delivered to you over the air (FOTA). Go to settings / system software updates / and hit "check now" if you want to get it right away.

In no particular order, here's a quick overview of some of the new functions that have been added:

Adobe flash 10.1 showcase now downloadable in the android store
...works fabulously! Even a flashheavy site like okaydave.com works

HTC: new FM Radio widget, new color
Now with real RDS support - wow didn't expect that

voice recognition searches now actually work
with the same tool? hey even voice dialing works fine

HTC: new flashlight using the photo LED - but I think flashlight apps to make the main display shine in bright white are more useful

HTC: added 720p video recording mode
HTC: camera options now also displayed portrait style
(click here for Desire 720p test video)

"recent apps" now showing 8 apps, new design

Wifi Hotspot functionality

Thai and other Asian fonts added, Chinese Input added
they all render in the browser as well as in all apps

HTC: easier keyboard language switch through added key
new texting dialog makes it much easier to attach files (mms)
HTC: new "App share" application
HTC: is the calculator widget also new?
browser can now display animated GIF
browser now supports file upload
HTC: powering off phone now delivers better feedback (vibrating)
much better MS Exchange ActiveSync security policies support (auto-discovery, GAL look-up, calendar synchronization, remote wipe)
better browser performance
some apps can now be installed/moved to SD-Card
new Android Market widget
screen can now also be rotated to the right
Android Market now offers the option "update all"
THE BAD: all of a sudden google search history was activated automatically

>> full list of new features at android developers

New Version Details:
Android version 2.2
Baseband version 32.43.00.32U_5.09.00.20
Kernel version 2.6.32.15-gf9c0527 / htc-kernel@and18-2 #1
Build number 2.09.405.8 CL218634 release-keys
Software number 2.09.405.8
Browser version WebKit 3.1

Download YouTube HQ22 HQ37 HQ38

2010-07-16T02:05:00.012+02:00

I often download a YouTube video ... to extract a soundtrack and save it as mp3 or to save a short film for offline viewing, so the kids can watch stuff in the train and so on.
There are many documented methods out there but still some people aren't aware, that all web videos actually can be saved. I use three different tools to get the best results:

the Firefox Add-On Download Helper (66 Mio downloads)
and Handbrake to convert the videos to the size and format that best suits my needs
AudioCoder for all audio related tasks with full control (aka Mediacoder Audio Edition)

Before you start grabbing videos you need to know just one important thing:
>> YouTube offers most videos in different resolutions

Let me give you an example: If you're an audiophile type, then you certainly want to know that higher quality streams also offer better audio encoding. It might be essential to the music grabber to understand the different quality levels available, since Download Helper offers you to choose the desired encoding and size level. If you haven't heard about that, you gonna end up with lower quality than expected.

This list gives you an overview of available YouTube formats
(will complete it later)

Type	Resolution	Ratio	Format	Audio (quality)	Name	video bit rate
[HQ6]	480x360	4:3	FLV	mono	HQ6
[HQ18]	480x360	4:3	MP4	stereo	add &fmt=18 to url
[HQ35]	854x480	16:9	FLV	44.1 kHz stereo AAC 102kps	480p
[HQ22]	1280x720	16:9	MP4	44.1 khz stereo AAC LC 128kps	720p	~730kbps @30fps
[HQ13]	176x144	4:3	3GP	mono	HQ13
[HQ17]	176x144	4:3	3GP	stereo	QCIF Mobile
[HQ34]	640x360	16:9	FLV	stereo	360p
[HQ37]	1920x1080	16:9	MP4	stereo	1080p
[HQ38]	4096x2304 also 2048x1152	16:9	MP4 AVC1 high @L5.0	44.1kHz stereo AAC 151Kbps /VBR)	4k or 4096p or “original” or 2k, 2048p	4k ~??? 2k ~1570 kbps @30fps
[HQ5]	400x226	16:9	FLV	stereo	240p

In many cases you then want to convert the downloaded stuff:
>> Handbrake is very easy to use and delivers fantastic results.

Open the video you want to convert (the source video)
choose one of the predefined profiles
edit the settings (resolution) to your likings
choose the destination for the converted file
go!

Looking for an easy way to create MP3 Files from the grabbed video? Usually it takes only two to three clicks to extract the sound. I suggest using AudioCoder. (Beacause of LAME.exe problems and drag&drop you should download the 32bit version only.) I convert because I prefer how perfectly mp3 is treated by all devices out there - I'm talking about skipping tracks, embedding cover art, embedding meta data etc.
You lose a bit of quality while converting AAC to let's say mp3 "cbr 164kb/s" because both are lossy compression formats but I couldn't care less about that, while being in a crowded airport or a TGV... phreaks just shouldn't convert.

[09.08.2011 - please note, that I'm checking on alternatives to MediaCoder products because - they violate GPL for not properly informing about the ffmpeg licence, not to mention the absence of source code providing since 2008. Chinese product - open source first - closed source since 2008? It's wrong. BTW Same problem with Freemake - with freemake I'm even more sceptic because they hide all their intentions and sources.]

>> If you want to deal with the original AAC audio stream only, you might want to try the small tool Yamb >> developer site, "editing" / "extract streams"to split/demux the AAC audio stream from the video stream.

Nvidia GTX 460 released

2010-07-13T03:05:00.002+02:00

Finally the Nvidia DX11 product we've been waiting for has arrived. Placed at the $200 limit (digitec CHF 230.-) and with very low idle power consumption.

- decent performance
- very quiet
- very cheap! (768MB version, FPS per $ already at first day of release)

Read techpowerup's conclusion for an overview. If you want a really quiet GTX 460 then make sure that you'll get yourself Nvidia's reference board design!

You might also want to check out the benchmarks at Anandtech. While I tend to disagree with their rather pessimistic conclusion (768 vs. 1024 MB), it's still a good thing to check out figures from a different source.

Update Sep/2010: GTX 460 and GTS 450 With the release of driver 260.63 the audio formats DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD can now be transmitted through HDMI (compressed). With every driver release functions are being added. While you don't need most of the new features you're certainly interested in the game's performance gain (5 to 15%), so keep the drivers up to date regularly.

HTC Desire review

2010-06-28T04:16:00.033+02:00

It all began with the SE t39 - then through the last 9 years I owned Sony Ericsson cell phones only, product design and ease of use were always superb. Everyone I introduced to the brand was surprised by its usability and photo quality. Finally time has come to try something new.
With the release of Android 2.1 I decided go for an Android Phone.

Update: Android 2.2 / Froyo update? is available since July 31st. Adding Video 720p recording and all 2.2 features! cool thing. and yes! also Thai font support ;-)

I chose the HTC Desire: the specs are impressive and very important to me, it comes with a FM radio receiver whereas the great looking SE Xperia X10 doesn't. The phone is slim, looks good and has a fantastic screen and a headphone jack - I won't write anything else about the hardware, because hey: it's just good and it's all there.

So? I'm totally amazed how very complete this device is! Never did my Android mates tell me about the extreme freedom of use ... simply because they were not really exploring it's capabilities. I also love the concept that (thanks to linux' good memory handling) most Android Apps stay open and available much longer than on other phone OSes - jumping back into a previous task is very practical! Feels like true multitasking.

There are many lengthy HTC Desire reviews (one more) posted everywhere, but they are about facts and technical issues. I prefer to give you a glimpse at why I think I'm currently using one of the best cell phone there is. More pictures, less text.

First of all the home screens > true eye catchers

7 screens, center one see above
totally customizable - fully animated wallpaper available

Drag around the widgets, add whatever you like...
download animated wallpapers, everything for free

Get apps and widgets in the Android Market and elsewhere (google),

still not so much around, this will change with time.

What are apps? Who needs such a crap?
In the screenshots you see, how the app FREEdi YouTube Download Helper
saves a music video as mp3, after that you trim it with the default music player,
then set it as a ringtone - all done with just a few 'clicks'
(now go on searching for your iphone custom ringtone tutorial)

Besides games, there are all sort of apps out there, mainly they
process information to suit the small display and become finger friendly.
some examples:
Astro File Manager or AndroZip File Manager (adding zip support)
toppreise.ch - quick settings - soccer app - zebra paint

Writing email, texting and mms, copy & paste goes very very easily,

keep the key pressed to access the special characters.

Word suggestion works almost flawlessly!

MS Exchange Users attention! No full exchange profiles support in Android 2.1!

(certificate handling is special > read why > then how to import)
update: click here to see how ActiveSync works on Desire with Android 2.2

No surprises when it comes to calling functions and using address book.
There's an annoying bug when syncing with google contacts though,
all your contact pictures get shrunk to something like 60x60 pixels.
We hope this gets fixed soon.

Now! browsing and playing back media works much better than I dared to imagine:

(I use mp3tag to add cover art)

Look at the phenomenal video resolution - one will hardly believe when seen live
on the HTC Desire's screen: 800 x 480 - zero judder.
(convert all movies flv, divx, xvid, mp4, mkv with handbrake)

Internet browsing works great too, the high display resolution
turns out to add positively to the reading experience , fonts are very smooth.

The flash and html5 discussions are useless, in 2012 all devices out there
will render html5, but in 2010? Many sites still use flash
and the Desire renders it quite acceptable!
That's because HTC installed a beta version of flash 10.1 (flash lite plugin).

The integrated youtube app now offers HQ mode, compare the screenshots.
While there are better youtube apps available out there,
this still proves to be practical enough.

Last but least - two things I like very much about this phone:

there's a minimal fm tuner available, works as desired (RDS only with 2.2),
plus the notifications in the top left corner are very practical in everyday use.
Dragging down the notification window is very smooth, allows direct jump to app.

Conclusion:

Openness! the Android experience is nothing short of fantastic
the phone is very cheap
(toppreise.ch CHF 550.- / €420 / iphone4 no sim-lock CHF 900.- / €645)
superb connectivity and media experience
looks and usability of home screens can be tweaked to please every taste
great display with multitouch (but amoled displays become rare!)
GPS, motion sensors and so on - all common 2010 functions included
fair: 5mp camera has fast autofocus and LED flash
Android 2.2 aka Froyo will come to the phone soon and add:
better MS Exchange security profiles support, WiFi access point functionality,
mobile flash 10.1 support

So what's the downside to all this greatness?

no xenon flash
~~no thai fonts~~ solved
~~no 720p video recording~~ solved
no hdmi out
battery life is limited
max 3 days very low use, 1 day when everything is used to the max
~~no Skype support yet~~ Skype is available since 5 October 2010
the speaker is medicore
~~no voice dialing~~ solved
because of its success > always sold out! (Better since SLCDs were introduced)

I very believe that over time much less iphones will be sold. while the hardware and the connection to itunes apply to most? I think apples money leaching and anti flash practices will bring themselves to a halt soon.

Android? While connection to pc software will never be as tight, the whole package is more flexible. The hardware already surpassed the iphone for half the price. Also check out the specs of this impressive Motorola announcement. Intel is also readying an Android core for x86 hardware, which will add to the spreading...

good vid from phonearena:

Nvidia GTX 480 and 470 reviews

2010-03-27T00:53:00.012+01:00

oh boy 6 months late, the cards are finally available. Reviews are posted all over the net as of now... results are rather disappointing! GTX 480 to hot, to loud. Oh damn according to anandtech even the GTX 470 seems to be hotter and louder than any 5800 ATI out there. Update June 2010: at least in europe prices for GTX 470 dropped a lot. They cost only about 10% more than ATI's 5850. Also check out the GTX 460!

Some facts:

GTX 480 is currently the fastest single GPU solution available, beating ATI 5870 performance by about 10-15%
GTX 470 is just around 5% faster than a ATI 5850 but also costs a bit more more
GTX 480 ($499) an is about 25% faster than GTX 470 (around $350)
relevant to me, DX10 Modern Warfare 2 at 1920*1200 with 4xAA > well here the difference is 20-30% in favor for the Nvidia products. That's not bad! (uuh in other reviews the cards are on par...)

Reviews: GTX 480 and 470 Anandtech and at tomshardware, GTX 480 at techpowerup, GTX 480 at Golem.de und heise.de

Preise in Deutschland
Preise in der Schweiz: GTX 470 > vorher CHF 450.- Juni 2010: akzeptable CHF 400 / GTX 480 > kranke CHF 600.-

Since ATI demands are still said to be very high, their prices won't drop fast either. I guess I'm looking forward to something like GTX 485 and GTX 475 where some of the problems might have been addressed? For people playing in lower resolution than 1920*1200 or without turning all details to the max, the GTX 460 seems to be a good solution at prices around CHF 225.-

1min Video demonstrating gtx 480 loudness lmao

Windows Phone 7 UI and silverlight

2010-03-16T04:56:00.003+01:00

There's this cool 20 Min video from Mix 2010 where Microsoft's Joe Belfiore shows more from Windows Phone 7's user interface. In the end he also presents a nice news app created using silverlight.
I'm no MS freak, just have to admit that I really like what I'm seeing!

Logitech mouse click not working

2010-03-16T02:56:00.008+01:00

After years we all faced the following problems with all our Logitech mice...

double click not working anymore
left click hardly ever working
click-dragging resulting in unpredictable results
single mouse click registered as double click
etc.

In most cases we just have to clean the inside of the micro-switch and all problems vanish. My 6 yrs old son helped me out this time:

I'd say the pictures are self-explanatory, some of you might want to remove the battery as the starting step.
Richard has some more information posted here, plus there's another site with similar info and more pictures. I hope this was useful...

.

Logitech Set Point 6 released

2010-03-16T01:34:00.014+01:00

By the end of February Logitech released Set Point 6. Still a 00 release but it already seems to work quite fine at my place.
It now implements the drivers "Productivity" and the "Gamer" branch under one hood and has a modular update system.

Also in the new release my Performance MX mouse buttons 6 and 9 can't be assigned custom functions. But once again we're lucky enough and Richard's uberoptions adds the value we desire. (Update June 2010: currently I'm not able to apply uberoptions to a fresh windows 7 setup. So I also had to revert back to Setpoint 4.8 - tiresome)

Just take note, that after having installed uberoptions the new OSDs won't fully work yet (volume and font).
During uberoptions installation you have to make sure to feed the installer with the new Setpoint paths. For Windows 7 32bit & 64bit those are
C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPointP
C:\ProgramData\LogiShrd\SetPointP\Devices

(old vs new notification area icon)

In general v6 looks really good and seems to head into the right direction. Important to some: the new release currently features less wheel options! Some KB/Mouse combos are not fully supported yet.

In their forum you'll find the release notes and some comments. But before you download anything - make sure to save your current configuration user.xml found in %appdata%\Logitech\SetPoint\ it might be helpful in the process.

some facts:

New Driver Version for Productivity branch is 4.90.80 / up till now we used the fine 4.82.11. Driver Version for Gamer branch is 5.3 (old drivers can be found on Logitech's ftp server)
new install file: 24 MB / old install package: 67 MB
I never cared much about the huge installer, the memory footprint is more important and in my case I can't report anything really bad. With SetPoint v6, just the mouse, I read khalmnpr.exe 4.8 MB, Setpoint.exe 4.8 MB
In the new release OSD functionality was cut > now only displays volume, mute, play/pause, caps on/off but no longer application names

some screenshots:

Above's screenshot shows the new App Override dialog. Basically works like the previous one.
Below: the new OSD looks much better:

Gamers might be interested in this Logitech Forum Thread.

Changes from earlier versions of SetPoint:

The download size has been reduced by approximately 60%. This has been achieved by streamlining the code and removing device pictures from the download package. SetPoint will automatically download pictures in the background for devices that are connected to your system.
SetPoint 6.0 includes the control panels for standard mice and keyboards (previously supported in SetPoint 4.x) and gaming mice (previously supported in SetPoint 5.x). This reduces duplication of system components, resulting in a smaller overall installation size.
The SetPoint control panel for standard mice and keyboards has been updated with a new appearance.
Numerous bug fixes and stability enhancements have been made in SetPoint 6.0

Porsche 918 Spyder at Geneva 2010

2010-03-01T21:24:00.028+01:00

It's been forever that I've visited the official Porsche page. I go on typing http://www.porsche.com/ and go "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS???" This car looks faaaantastic!

Porsche 918 Spyder Concept

2x 109hp electric motors, 500hp V8, 0-100/0-62 in 3.2s, Nordschleife faster than 7:27

10 hours ago I decided to go to the Geneva Motorshow this friday. Now I realize that an hour ago below's media was released.

(high resolution)

Sony Ericsson and Windows Phone 7 Series

2010-02-15T21:12:00.013+01:00

For the longest time I thought, wow the ZuneHD user interface is by far the best looking of any mobile device currently out there! Just perfect.

aaaahhh... Today we got good news! Microsoft brings the Zune UI to phones and calls it Windows Phone 7 Series! So the next months I'm looking forward to Sony Ericsson's announcements for matching Xperia hardware in Q4 2010. I just really really hope they'll pack a decent camera with xenon flash into the thing - hdmi out for 720p vid is also very high on my wish list.

The main hardware buttons will be reduced to three: home, search and back - similar to how Symbian and Android phones work these days.
Allthough Ballmer has no objections to Adobe flash, the first release of Windows Phone 7 won't come with flash support. As does Win7, the OS itself supports multitouch for up to 4 fingers.

At the moment the videos are enough for me. If you feel like wanting to read more about the OS, I suggest this good read @ pcworld / oder auf Deutsch gibt's natürlich bei heise was zu lesen. Here's also a short introduction to the next symbian^3 > quite good looking as well.

Firefox with Windows Aero glass effects

2010-02-14T22:11:00.002+01:00

Pretty long ago I wrote down, how one could allow Firefox to make use of Windows Vista's or Windows 7 Aero effects. Meanwhile you can choose between some glass add-ons. Basically they're all mods from the original glasser add-on.

Since the hide menubar function has been integrated into Firefox 3.6, all you need for the good looks is the All-Glass add-on. It also renders your tabs fully transparent - that's how I prefer it. To sum it all up:

All-Glass for the Aero effect
Kempelton for great looking icons
Scroll Zoom Button (because I'm to lazy to hit Ctrl+0 while browsing)
to hide the menubar > right-click and deactivate it. Press Alt to make it visible

done.

.
Some of you might be interested in the Firfox 4 Mockup Theme. Allthough it looks good, to me it's still "to alpha" ...

No Adobe Flash in iPad and iPhone

2010-01-31T19:50:00.003+01:00

Media is full of possible answers why Apple hardware doesn't support Adobe Flash. Mr Jobs goes on pointing out bugs and stuff. Makes me angry. Use your common sense people.
If their devices would support flash: endless games would be available for free, endless music vids would be available ... for free. A serious threat to their revenue plan and app store delusion I guess.

all Flash bashers should consider:
- it brought sound to the mainstream internet
- animation for the masses
- video for everyone without additional plugin
- first to bring HD Vid to the masses (no breakthrough for the divx plugin)
- first internet mainstream app to access my GPU's power for HD vid decoding

So everyone thinks all current devices will render HTML5 easily? doh.
maybe in two years from now. html5 rendering asks for a lot processing power
whereas flash works TODAY.

While Jobs' hardware does a lot of other things right, I personally have a problem with Apple's arrogance.

Jacob Blaylock

2009-12-27T23:47:00.010+01:00

"...that would be interstellar"

Mich nervt manchmal, wenn die Medien zu dick auftragen und unterschwellig eine pseudo pazifistische Grundhaltung transportieren wollen.
Doch diese Geschichte auf Spiegel.de geht schon etwas unter die Haut. Ist schon zwei Jahre her, aber das Thema ist eigentlich zeitlos und nicht an irgendeine Nation gebunden. Einigermassen lesenswert.
Fazit: Beziehungsprobleme, Alkohol, Krieg? Zusammen ein beängstigendes Paket.

Von den 175 Rückkehrern der 1451. haben vier im ersten Jahr nach dem Dienst Suizid begangen. Zum Vergleich: in der Schweiz gibt es pro Jahr 1 Suizid auf 5260 Menschen. (Bundesamt für Gesundheit – 15. April 2005)

Seine Musik & er über sich selbst

Artikel in NY-Times, da steht haufenweise Zeugs, das es nicht in den Spiegelbericht gebracht hat.

Bildserie bei Indystar anderes Englisch als bei der NYT

Video - Homage an Jakob Blaylock

Sehr leiser Core i5 PC

2009-12-27T18:09:00.012+01:00

Nun hat auch Kumpel Fank einen Core i5 PC zusammengebaut, im wesentlichen steckt das Zeugs drin, das auch bei mir verbaut wurde . Er kann fast nicht glauben, wie leise das Teil arbeitet! Zudem hat er sich für eine ATI 5850 entschieden - auch die ist im Windows Desktop Betrieb kaum hörbar, bietet bereits dx11 und sehr hohe Performance (pro Watt).

Ich war bis zum Release der 5000er Serie aus diversen Gründen gar kein ATI-Fan, die letzten 4 Jahre hatten sie nur miese Hardware produziert, die Treiber waren problemlos reproduzierbar zum Absturz zu bringen. Ende 2009 sieht's aber anders aus: mit dem 5850er wurde sehr vieles richtig gemacht. Nvidia dagegen? Die bieten ausser der GTX260 momentan bekanntlich keine zeitgemässe Grafikkarte zu einem anständigen Preis/Leistungsverhältnis. Seit September ist der Preis für GTX275 zudem um unanständige 25% gestiegen... unglaublich! Das bei einer Supermarkt-Teuerung von minus 3% im 2009 ;-)

Wer kann, soll warten bis im März/April 2010 der Nachfolge-Chip des GT-200 released wird.
Aber bitte nie vergessen!! Wer keine Spiele startet und kein Photoshop ab CS4 nutzt, soll niemals mehr als $60 für eine Grafikkarte ausgeben!
Hey - womöglich wäre der kleine Finger beim Brand Nvidia dann sogar in einer etwas maskulineren Stellung? hehe

Update Sep 2010 > Preise aktualisiert, siehe Spalte rechts

~~Nachfolgend der aktualisierte Vorschlag, Preise in CHF:~~

~~CPU, Intel Core i5 - 229~~
~~Board, ASUS P7P55D - 171~~
~~RAM, 2x 2GB - 125~~
~~HD Samsung F3 1TB - 104~~

~~GPU, Nvidia GTX275 - 269(329) read~~
~~oder~~
~~GPU, ATI 5850 - 379 read~~

~~DVD Writer - 38~~
~~Case, any Case u like - 105~~
~~Power, Cooler Ma- 133~~
~~-------------------------------~~
~~totals ~ CHF 1284.-~~

+
~~Windows 7 home prem 64bit - 119~~
~~Display,Samsung 2494LW - 279~~
~~CPU-Cooler, AC Freezer - 44~~
~~very nice Keyboard - 42~~
~~very nice 5star Mouse - 129~~

.

Modern Warfare 2 NAT strict or open

2009-12-01T12:27:00.013+01:00

It's hard to believe how much crap is posted these days, when it comes to Modern Warfare's NAT status > strict / open.
and nope - I wouldn't turn on my router's UPnP function. Why?

To solve the MW2 issue you need to do three things only:
(described for PC but i guess it basically works for xbox and PS3 too)

make sure your router ALWAYS assigns the same tcp-ip address to your computer, open your PC's command prompt and type: ipconfig /all - the physical address is the mac address you'll need for this step - log into your router and look for "reservation" now reserve the address for your PC. (or assign addresses to all your home devices manually)
in your router, look for something called Port Forwarding, then add an entry (aka add a custom service) with the following value: Forward UDP / port 28960 / "to your PC's tcp-ip address"
make sure your firewall isn't blocking the incoming traffic to your application or game. Check this in the firewall advanced dialog > inbound rules

et voilà - done!

In my case I had to go through an unusual extra step. My Netgear router has an additional security feature called "NAT Filtering" > I had to change it from 'secured' to 'open' to allow things to work.
BTW if you're not happy with the given default port 28960 you may use any other available port for the PC version of MW2. In Steam right click on the game, select properties, select Launch Options. Then enter +set net_port 61499 to tell MW2 to listen on port 61499 for incoming connections. This is helpful when your sister or brother want to host their own game within the same family network.

Short explanation
Actually you might go nuts configuring your devices! Ask your befriended computer wiz to help you with above's steps, the pro knows immediately what to do. Keep your router password and your admin account handy before he arrives at your home.

Why do you have to go through all this?
These days almost all broadband connections make use of a router. With its default setting internet works fine, but you won't be able to host services like webservers or games etc. Generally that's a good thing because it keeps your comp environment a bit safer from outside attacks. But it usually prevents you from hosting a game.

Your ISP lends you 1 TCP-IP address every time you connect to the internet, the router grabs this address. Let's call this address "A"

But "A" isn't the address of your PC! Your PC uses an internal TCP-IP address, let's call it "Q". All network traffic from and to the internet is always addressed to "A" the internet doesn't know about the existence of "Q" (Q belongs to a address range that won't work within the internet itself).

To make everything work, routers use the technology called NAT Network Address Translation, where the router changes and forwards the tcp-ip packets to the correct client "Q"

However there's a problem. NAT will only forward packets to "Q" if "Q" has previously requested those packets! But when you host a server software like uTorrent, Apache, World in Conflict or Modern Warfare 2 no packets have previously been requested. "Q" just sits there and waits for the incoming networking packets.

The solution is simple yet hard to make it work, if you don't know much about computers. Tell your router to forward the important packets (that initialize the connection process) to your PC. In short: Router "A" forward all incoming packets on UDP port 28960 to the Modern Warfare 2 PC "Q" - and in this process don't let the PC's firewall stand in your way.

Now you have a lead why people in the comp biz earn a lot money. Everyday they work with above's topics combined: NAT, ports, udp, tcp-ip, dhcp, private address range, fw rules, wpa2, etc. And hey, those are the easy parts of the whole trade.

Intel Core i5 CPU cooling

2009-11-07T04:46:00.014+01:00

When I unboxed the Core i5 750 CPU I went like "huh? this tiny cooler is going to cool down this number cruncher?!" So at first I was very surprised, how quiet my Core i5 system would work. While dealing with everyday tasks such as writing protocols and reading online stuff, the boxed cooler will never turn faster than 1100 rpm, it's nearly inaudible. The main reason lies in low clock rates. The cpu would hardly ever run any of the four cores at more than 1,2 GHz - remeber: the nominal speed is 2.66 GHz with a designated possible max of 3,2 GHz for individual cores in certain situations (Intel calls it turbo frequency).

So what happens when you bring the cpu close to it's thermal limits by running more demanding tasks? The boxed cooler goes wooooOOOOOOO! The sound would annoy me to no end because suddenly the boxed cooler is rocketing to 2600 rpm. Time to look out for alternatives. Screenshot on the right shows values for Intel stock cooler / one of the cores at 3200 MHz

The Zalman product I had in mind is not available in Switzerland yet, so I bought the cheapest substitude: an Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme rev.2 for just CHF 44 / €28. What can such a cooler do for you? Isn't that obvious when you look at the following picture? The smaller cooler is the Intel cooler shipped with the Core i5 750.

To me it doesn't make much sense to write a lengthy review since I'm not into overclocking. Just let me tell you, that I'm totally happy with the performance of this cooler. While using firefox it runs @560 rpm (ASUS cpu cooling set to silent profile), at full load it still remains absolutely silent @1200 rpm. You really can't hear the thing at all. While I only care for the noise level - even at those low rotational speeds the cpu temperature is 10°C lower.

on the left: values for arctic cooling freezer xtreme rev.2 / one of the cores at 3200 MHz

I will soon publish a video, to let you hear the difference between the two coolers. >> Update nov 09 - done!

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 announced

2009-11-03T13:44:00.012+01:00

So it's offical now, the Xperia X10 was announced by SE and presented by pretty Ullis Norström:

You'll find the full press release and a lot of details about the device here.

I'm very surprised how accurate all the rumors and leaked pictures were! Some of us now need to decide between the X10 and the Satio. Both are packed into a very classy design, but X10's user interface brings more of Sony Ericsson's style and Android 1.6 OS, which simply has more appeal to many out there. When the phone will finally be released to the market it hopefully features Android 2.0. (since 1.5 and 1.6 still lack some common things: for one currently it's not possible to transfer files via bluetooth, because MANY of its profiles ain't supported yet. In our office that was the main method for quick phone2phone file transfer.) Update Nov 12.2009: The phone will be released with Android 1.6

But the commercial video shows something essential: we might just focus on the simple questions and cut the geek crap, does the phone look good? does the user interface look good? Is the touchscreen responsive, does the camera shoot good pictures, can we sync our appointments and address books?

Sony Ericsson however introduces the so called UX Platform, a comprehensive way, how the user can access contact information and media stored on the device, plus also on the internet. They split this function into two new productnames: Timescape for contact information and Mediascape for songs and videos; they are accessible through the infinite button. The press release tries to explain it to us - but one has to wait and see how the functionality and performance develop during the next 4 months.

Xperia X10: has Android 2.0 and a very fast cpu, no Xenon flash, display can only show surprisingly few colors, Video Recording 854*480 16:9 / xxfps, truly multitouch capable? No automatically changing Wallpaper on X10? ds ds ds well all these features will be delivered by you or the android community I guess. Then there's timescape and mediascape ... and possibly a very hefty price tag, around €600-700.
Update 26.12.2009: sample pictures and movies taken with Xperia X10 (8MP)

Satio: has Xenon flash, 12 MP (only 9MP when shooting in 16:9), Video Recording 640*480 / 30fps, superb address book and messaging client, very good value for money.

Slashgear Demo Video

for a rather complete comparison of Satio and Xperia X10 click here [sony ericsson UK]

General	Satio™	Xperia™ X10
Size	112.0 x 55.0 x 13.0 mm	119.0 x 63.0 x 13.0 mm
Weight	126.0gr	135.0gr
Available colours	Black Silver Bordeaux	Sensuous Black Luster White
Screen	360x640 pixel 16,777,216 color TFT touchscreen	480 x 854 pixels WVGA 16,536 color TFT touchscreen
External screen
Memory	SanDisk microSD™ support	Phone memory 1GBSanDisk microSD™ up to 16GB, 8GB included
Networks	GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSPA 850/900/1900/2100	GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSPA 900/1700/2100
Performance GSM Standby time: Talk time: Video call:	11 hours 0 min 360 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min	0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min
Performance UMTS Standby time: Talk time: Video call:	4 hours 50 min 340 hours 0 min 2 hours 20 min	0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min 0 hours 0 min

Sony Ericsson Satio first impressions

2009-11-03T01:16:00.009+01:00

(Update JAN 2011: don't buy this phone anymore! It's old by now - opt for Sony Ericsson Arc)

Finally Satio was released and became Wife's early Christmas present. While I stick to my C905 for now, let me give you some information on the perfect looking device. (Übersetzung, siehe unten)

The phone itself has the look of a high-value device, has good usability and very good display. No multi touch but surprisingly I don't miss that at all.
I won't write much, because it has all been covered in this review at gsmarena in great detail and with superb screenshots! I recommend that you read through the whole review, since it's been written in a balanced tone.

I can only add the following:

>> the S60WebKit browser is better than described in the review. While in a bus or train I prefer the news site's mobile versions a lot! It doesn't make sense to download and show the complete homepage of let's say washingtonpost.com; to big, to much commercial, to colorful, distracting. Why should my tiny mobile device care to render 500kB+ of data? That just doesn't make sense. This mobile version is what I want to see, and that's exactly what Satio presents by default. A major plus to me.

>> the xenon flash is phenomenal

>> the review states that Satio's on-screen QWERTY fares well. Me? I think it works like a charm, a lot better than I hoped for.

>> the high resolution screen is absolutely superb! Google maps and all the other apps have a lot of space to render onto.

>> unbelievable: while this might not be important to you, the phone even showed a correct thai font rendering for our thai mp3 tags!

What can be done better by Satio's successor?

better menu look & feel > more logical and prettier as we are used to by Sony Ericsson, less conservative and square à la Nokia.
the homescreen should offer more options (customizable icons at top and bottom)
divx & xvid support out of the box
hdmi out
720p video recording
current camera is to grainy in low light (high iso) conditions

Currently there's no better cell phone available. Don't hesitate, it doesn't even cost all to much. Just be aware that you have to reload it every 48 hours.

Update: For me this has already changed in April 2010 > the HTC Desire is the recommended device!

== ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ ==

(Update JAN 2011: nicht mehr kaufen! Es ist schon alt - besser Sony Ericsson Arc)

Und das ganze noch auf Deutsch:
Hier noch der Link zu einem extrem kompletten Satio Review [gsmarena] mit vielen guten Screenshots. Ausführlicher geht's nicht mehr und ich sehe es in den meisten Punkten wie der Autor. Das Handy ist wirklich cool. Für meinen Geschmack nicht ganz perfekt, aber 90/100.

meine Ergänzungen zum Testbericht:

>> Den S60WebKit Browser finde ich besser, als beschrieben. Ich surfe in Tram und Zug eh lieber auf den Mobile-Auftritten der diversen News Sites. Versucht mal die spiegel.de Page auf ein Handy zu bringen >> zum Schreien, viel Werbung, 500kB+ Daten die gesaugt und gerendert werden wollen. Auf einem Mobile Device unbrauchbar. Viel besser funktionieren auf den kleineren Displays http://m.spiegel.de oder http://mobile.nzz.ch

>> Der Xenon Blitz ist für ein Handy phänomenal gut!

>> Die on-screen QWERTZ Tastatur > im Test steht gut.
ich finde das Teil hervorragend! Funktioniert viel besser, als ich zu träumen gewagt habe.

>> Der Screen ist der Hammer! Bei der hohen Auflösung sieht Google Maps auf dem Satio sagenhaft gut aus. Nur werden wir es dann auch benutzen? Speziell im Ausland wo es eigentlich Sinn machen würde? Unanständig hohe Datenroaming-Gebühren!

>> Uuuunglaublich: ist für dich wahrscheinlich nicht von Interesse, aber das Phone hat aus unseren Songs sogar die Thai MP3 Tags korrekt dargestellt!

Was sollte der Satio Nachfolger bringen?

besseres Look&Feel in der Menunavigation schöner und logischer à la Sony Ericsson, weniger konservativ und korrekt à la Nokia
ein Homescreen mit mehr Optionen, mehr Konfigurationsmöglichkeiten
divx/xvid Ausgabe ohne Umkonvertieren
hdmi out
720p recording (das haben erst geile Foto Kameras ab 350 Stutz)
bei low light und hohen ISO Werten weniger Körnigkeit, für ein Handy aber ok.

Zurzeit das beste verfügbare Handy, zudem kostet es weniger als befürchtet! Aber nicht vergessen, dass es alle 48 Stunden geladen werden will.

Update: schon seit April 2010 empfehle ich allerdings das HTC Desire!

Satio Sony Ericsson Theme Creator

2009-10-30T23:42:00.015+01:00

(Updated May 18, 2010)
Of course we all purchased a Satio and are eager to create themes for it!

You too? Argh, Theme Creator 4.08 through 4.12 don't support Satio's Symbian OS yet. You might be interested in the following thread over at developer.sonyericsson.com.

For the moment we have to stick to Carbide.ui Theme Edition. read more here or in the Satio section at developer.symbian wiki

...without custom themes it already looks quite fine though!

(Update Feb 27, 2010)

A beta version is available for some days now.

Get the Beta Version 5.0.6.4 here http://creations.sonyericsson.com/download

You should read Gseth' comment before using it.

(Update May, 2010)
Sony Ericsson made a new Beta Release available on it's Developer World site. It's given version 4.16 for now and can create themes for Satio and Vivaz. For description and download link go here.

What is pnaico.exe

2009-10-28T20:15:00.013+01:00

You ran msconfig to check your Windows7's startup programs and found pnaico.exe.20FBBF0A_A7E5_4BDE_9798_9811C3D135AC.exe ? huh?
Of course you googled for pnaico.exe and only found rather weird answers.

This is what I found: It's all about having "Citrix Online plug-in" v11 installed on your system (program neighbourhood agent ico). This is by no means caused by malware. Most likely you installed this program to connect remotely to your work or campus.

and again: run "msconfig" and deactivate the two automatic startup commands as shown in the screenshot, but don't assume an attack on your comp.

That's how you get rid of below's annoying Change Server dialog
you can always start the app from the start menu if you're in need later

Core i5 System

2009-09-11T01:20:00.022+02:00

(leises core i5 system, siehe hier)

Die Intel Core2 Duo sind in den Regalen der Händler bald Geschichte...

Seit Dienstag 08.02. sind die neuen bezahlbaren CPUs in der Schweiz lieferbar, höchste Zeit für ein Update der empfohlenen PC-Konfiguration. Das Paket ist eher teuer - kauft nur so ein Ding, wenn ihr den PC auch zum Geldverdienen nutzt! mehr Infos in diesem Posting

Tipp: Steigt nicht auf den nobrainer Vier-Kern-Hype auf, noch immer nutzen 95% der normalen Apps nicht sinnvoll mehrere CPU-Kerne simultan. Gib es zu - DU kennst keine einzige, der in den Benchmarks gennanten Programmen... ?

Trotz den neuen Compilern ist es in vielen Fällen noch immer sehr schwierig, eine Applikation auf viele Rechenkerne zu verteilen - natürlich wird diese Geschichte in Intels Pressemappen nicht thematisiert, stattdessen vergleichen sie die neuen CPUs mit einem Pentium E5300 - das kann schon fast in der Kategorie Gehirnwäsche angesiedelt werden. Haltet euch da lieber an eure bewährte Fachpublikation. [heise] (oder Anandtech, PcPerspective, etc.)

Vergleich der Fact Sheets [intel] - deine alte CPU vs die neuen bezahlbaren Core i5 & i7

Warum Core i5?

ähnlich günstiger Preis wie die bisher aktuellen Core2 Duo
macht nichts schlechter als die bisherigen CPUs
falls du sie abrufen kannst: viel Leistung pro Watt
die zugehörigen Motherboards bieten viel, sind erstaunlich günstig
in 1-2 Jahren skalieren viele Programme gut mit der Anzahl CPU Kerne
die Schachtel sieht cool aus

Warum nicht Core i5?

die bisher erhältlichen Core2Duo Systeme bieten schon sehr sehr viel Speed
heutige Sockel 775 Boards sind extrem ausgereift
Kannst du alle 4 Kerne auslasten? > i5 50% mehr Abwärme, noch leise kühlbar? (Update: wehe du startest ein Game. Der i5 default Lüfter schraubt auf 2500 U/Min hoch. Yup dann wird er laut! Der Lüfter wird immer sofort laut, sobald die CPU einen oder zwei Kerne in den Turbomodus schaltet. Jetzt ist er leise! Mehr Infos hier.)
zurzeit noch keine Boards mit SATA3, USB3

Beispiel Core i5 System Preise digitec.ch

CPU, Intel Core i5 - 239
Board, ASUS P7P55D - 175
RAM, 2x 2GB - 115
HD Samsung F3 1TB - 99
GPU, Nvidia GTX275 - 269 read
DVD Writer - 35
Case, any Case u like - 130
Power, any Brand- 100
-------------------------------
totals ~ CHF 1162.-

.
.

Logitech Performance Mouse MX

2009-08-29T23:28:00.024+02:00

Beginning to look around for new mice because I want to replace my MX600. My current favorite is the upcoming Logitech Performance Mouse MX. It is overpriced but I simply need 8 to 10 mouse buttons while working in photoshop.

[image source: logitech]

Gaming mice always feature many buttons, but I hate the (zero delay) cord. THEN uuuugh their design often ranges from ugly to grotesque...
I also very disliked Logitech's MicroGear scroll wheel [pdf] when it was introduced two years ago: middle mouse button used a lot of force, tilting the wheel left and right was a pain. Now things seem to look better, tried the recent mice which come with a plastic wheel instead of one made of metal and the usability was quite ok.

Now I hope that the mouse won't weigh to much. At least it's design is very appealing, don't you think so too?
update1: In below's video something weird is announced though > "The side scroll is pressure sensitive - the harder you press the faster it scrolls sideways."
Now who the heck needs such a feature? I already keep hoping that we all can modify the driver's xml so everyone can assign whatever function to side scroll
update2: in this 9min review, a guy compares the mouse to his previous MX Revolution

track price in Switzerland [digitec]

Sony Ericsson Android

2009-08-26T00:03:00.008+02:00

Android will be a winner in the end, but the OS is still at an early stage. So it wasn't a surprise when Sony Ericsson announced that they would go for the 2nd gen release and skip v1.1 (& 1.5?).

We have to notice that the Android market currently hosts VERY few applications, plus we all dislike the hidden bomb called google kraken - but even more we dislike the apple cult >> an overpriced mass product, from a company with questionable methodology (solved in phone's v3 though but oh you also payed twice to unlock your MP3s, plus the craziness [flickr])

What the heck am I talking about? Well the rumors around Sony Ericsson Rachael are very promising...

maybe it looks like this

eventually it hosts a snapdragon chipset

the user interface might look really cool [youtube]

UPDATE1: the product will be announced Nov. 3rd [youtube]

Sony Ericsson Satio

2009-08-25T23:24:00.006+02:00

(Update JAN 2011: don't buy this phone anymore! It's old by now - opt for Sony Ericsson Arc)
The release date is nearing! Meanwhile you've all realized that it's project name Idou has been dropped for "Satio"
I really hope things turn out fine, since Frank, Stooves & Wife seem to be hooked on the device. Some URLs for the crowds:

good images [eprice taiwan]

long video [youtube, 6min]

internet on satio video [youtube]

fact sheet [sony ericsson]

digitec price in switzerland

interesting to me: fm radio / high resolution cam with xenon flash / microSD / can play youtube / webkit based browser / exchange active sync / no multitouch / no 720p output / unaestethic icons call for a mod / good design / good looking media browser

*

Winamp theme Ebonite

2009-07-28T18:22:00.004+02:00

There's this great looking winamp theme

Ebonite 2

a major plus is the built-in color editor, which let's you adapt winamp's colors to your wallpaper within seconds...
give it a try

Michael Jackson

2009-06-27T23:39:00.011+02:00

argh - got to know about his death, the moment the news was released in the net. Hey am I the only one around here who thinks ... Michael Jackson (1958 - 2009) was a good looking guy?! Of course I'm not talking about the recent pictures, but who cares.
Oh man - all the crap that was spread about him day and night. Others take painkillers too. How about you, did you know he was suffering Vitiligo? [all vids youtube]

I'll remember you like this - and this - and this - and weirdo-this
your music filled my teen years, thank you. RIP
;

my desktop

2009-05-13T01:31:00.003+02:00

just thought ... hey my desktop looks cool ;-)

interfacelift / clocks

internet media

2009-05-12T22:57:00.005+02:00

Friends often don't seem to realize, why being a consumer of and in "the internet" isn't anything bad. Media published in the internet is often much closer to reality - more authentic than your local newspaper or local tv station could ever be. It took me many years to fully understand and give into this fact.

digg.com is a complicate place - and hey it's everything else than free of special interest groups. The same goes for wikipedia.org and their forks, but when it comes to freedom of speech etc. they are lightyears beyond the currently established classic publications.

Here's a good example of media - coming to you through and because of the internet:
Digg Dialogg with Richard Branson [22 Min]

"I'm a great believer in life, in saying yes and not saying no"

"I'm a great believer in working hard"

"you don't have the same color scheme during the whole flight"

"sadly - the death of record labels is pretty much upon us"

"time is being done, record labels are almost a thing from the past"

"because the money goes to the bands, it's not necessarily a bad thing if record companies disapear"

"elders using moral authoritiy to go and address conflicts"

Star Trek XI

2009-05-07T18:55:00.007+02:00

go watch this movie!
Go WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!
GOOOOOOOO WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!
if you enjoyed any of the Star Trek episodes from TV - then
don't hesitate and go watch this movie!

I was in the first scheduled show in my hometown - my own little birthday present ;-)
totally didn't expect it to be this entertaining - truly a total surprise!!
The way the caracters are introduced and everything else... a perfect experience.

Back at home I checked in on rottentomatoes - the score is extreme! 96%

box office
official site
*spoiler alert* TRAILER don't watch it! Just head to the movies.

take a beer can with you - sit back and n'joy...
.

eingelegte Gehirne

2009-05-02T07:29:00.006+02:00

Wieder einmal ein Interview, das etwas aus der Reihe tanzt.

Holsboer: Viele Patienten akzeptieren es dankbar, wenn ich sage: Sie haben eine Stoffwechselstörung, die sich auf Ihr Befinden und Verhalten auswirkt, und die korrigieren wir jetzt. Ich werbe dafür, Depression als organische Krankheit zu sehen und nicht als etwas, wofür man sich schämen müsste. Am Magengeschwür war früher die Schwiegermutter schuld oder die Kindheit. Dann fand man heraus, es ist ein Bakterium. Das war ein schlechter Tag für die Psychoanalyse! Ich bleibe dabei: Das subjektive Erleben ist nicht grundsätzlich etwas anderes als Rheuma oder Diabetes.

...weiterlesen [spiegel.de]

.

Clocktopia - nice Windows gadgets

2009-04-07T21:14:00.005+02:00

.free of any sense - the heck, sometimes you can't even read the time clearly

who cares
these clocks look so much better than the rest!

get them here [deviantart]
.

PC Preise April 2009

2009-04-04T21:48:00.012+02:00

Habe die Preise in der rechten Spalte aktualisiert. Kurz zusammengefasst:

Neue Grafikkarte ist drin - Nvidia GTX275. Nach allem was ich gelesen habe, ist ATI kein Thema mehr > zu hoher Stromverbrauch im Desktop-Betrieb, lauter Default-Lüfter während 3D-Betrieb. Der Fokus liegt wie immer auf "guter Preis für viel Leistung" - um Geld zu sparen kann man natürlich zu günstigeren Karten greifen: GTX260 oder GTX260^2 [digitec]

RAM ist knapp bemessen, da Vista 64bit de facto aber praktisch keine Vorteile bietet, spielt es im Moment keine grosse Rolle. Es kommt halt auf deine Hauptapplikation drauf an.
Core i5 [techpowerup] und Windows7 kommen in der zweiten Jahreshälfte. Du bist ein early adopter... dann warte doch noch vier fünf Monate. Core i7 ist nach wie vor nur ein Thema für reiche Säcke.

-------------------------------
CPU, Core 2 Duo E8400 e0 - 209
Board, ASUS P5Q - 151
RAM, 2x 1GB PC1066 - 49
HD Samsung F1 1TB- 119
GPU, Nvidia GTX275 - 353 read
DVD Writer - 37
Case, nzxt - 99
Power, XY 550W - 80
-------------------------------
totals ~ CHF 1097.-

+
Vista home premium - 138
Display,Samsung 2443BW - 409
Cooler, Zalman 9700er - 65

Windows Mobile 6.5

2009-02-17T00:02:00.016+01:00

SE Idou ( >> video)

I am
- EXTREMELY Apple skeptic (rip-off, quick time washout, quick time a trojan for itunes, worse than MS etc.)
- iPhone skeptic (actually everything fine with it, but it's from Apple)
- disappointed by the Xperia (lame CPU, bad cam)

All of a sudden I think - hey Windows Mobile doesn't look all to bad after all...
watch the upper video [german, golem.de]
Well I'm looking forward to the presentation of Xperia2 and the next gen Androids [nvidia] - siehe auch bei heise.

Pictures of the new Sony Ericsson W995 [golem.de]
and Sony Ericsson's potential Cybershot future: Idou [golem.de]
[Idou update and videos see here]

still very happy with my SE C905 though.

Customize Firefox' Search Bar

2009-02-14T21:02:00.005+01:00

The Firefox search bar has been the source of constant annoyance recently. Whenever I was using it, google woudn't behave as expected - all google & igoogle settings weren't applied to the results page, plus the results were served from Google Switzerland. Similar to the situation, when you don't accept the google cookie.

Believe me, I almost freaked - Google Switzerland behaves like crap, compared to google.com, nope I won't go into details here.

The cure to all this was not to choose "Manage Search Engines" within Firefox (100% futile and sterile since ff3) , but to head over to the Mycroft Project as in the old FF days. You'll find gazillions of ready to use FF search engines.

I installed "Google Search (En any unfiltered 100)" and all my problems were solved at once.

Sony Ericsson SE S001

2009-02-01T22:27:00.007+01:00

New Cybershot phone anounced in Japan:

3.3" wide screen / resolution 480 × 854 / up to 26 million colors (organic)
8MP Camera (LED flash) / up to iso 1600 / smile shutter / BestPic
capturing video in VGA: 640 × 480 (up to 90 min, 1GB)
GPS / jap. cellphone TV / three colors: black, pink, greengold
145g / lithium-ion battery 870mAh /

web presentation here
more pictures @ sony ericsson

source: sony ericsson japan

forget Steam

2009-01-16T23:47:00.005+01:00

ai ai ai - you might have heared about the thousands angry european Steam users. Steam europe charges you this way:
$1 = €1

ridiculous

and now read this posting over at the steampowered forums
that's not ridiculous - it's dirty!

Buying games @ steam used to be a great experiance: it always worked fine, updates were served automatically, you could move dollars to the deserving developers - and you also got the games a tad cheaper than the boxed versions.
It's simple: using Steam since the very beginning and pushing it amongst all my friends - I feel betrayed. I won't spend money at Steam anymore until this issue is whiped away.

don't buy

2009-01-15T22:14:00.013+01:00

Most people I know spend waaaaaaaaay to much money on computers!

You don't know or earn money with any of the following applications?

- media creation and modern encoders h.264
- compilers
- 3d apps like Maya or blender
- most recent 2d app PS CS4 with files over 50 megs
- or see intel slide march 2010 for a list of special apps

Don't intend to use your PC for a quick game once in a while?
trailer1 (HD) /trailer2 (HD) / trailer3 / trailer4

well, DO NOT SPEND more than CHF or $700 on a PC!
more than 3gig RAM will boost your productivity close to zero
(4gigs of RAM are a tribute to gaming & Photoshop or virtualization)

THIS makes much more sense than more RAM!
.
.
.

Winamp Green

2009-01-09T02:29:00.008+01:00

Did some editing of color-presets.xml for Winamp's BigBento and Modern skins. Really wanted to see how my beloved *green* suits Winamp.

BigBento TomGreen1 by ~rigelt on deviant ART

TomGreen2 by ~rigelt on deviant ART

Flying in through Utapao

2008-12-02T10:58:00.002+01:00

Lucky me. After having spent 21 looooong hours on tiny Doha airport, everything worked out fine.
After I got out of the plane in HongKong, it took me just an hour to organize a flight to Utapao Thailand. Economy was full though, but I was lucky to get business class for only HK$2700.
Ha! probably the first and only time I'll post from a Thai Silk Lounge ;-)

Meanwhile the courts in Thailand ruled against the People Powaz fools... [deutsch]
Well then, I should arrive in BKK by midnight thai time. Cheers.

On my way

2008-11-30T20:48:00.001+01:00

BKK is still blocked. Trying to get into Thailand through HongKong. Really missing Nick, Stevie & Nuch! Wish me luck.

Firefox Page Zoom Button

2008-11-29T12:03:00.009+01:00

You can access Firefox's zoom function with three keyboard shortcuts Ctrl++ Ctrl+- (Ctrl+mouse wheel) and Ctrl+0 to reset to 100%.

But then there's this great tiny add-on which let's me access the browser's zoom function exactly the way I wished to:

move the mouse cursor over the icon
mouse wheel zooms
left click resets to 100%

install & more info here

Soccer again

2008-10-22T23:40:00.003+02:00

argh - Basel just went down 0:5 against Barcelona. But hey: it's time for another soccer highlight: Goalie G...

Logitech illuminated keyboard

2008-10-06T23:15:00.008+02:00

While I was awaiting an illuminated Logitech keyboard for a while now, there are so few extra keys on the keyboard... raises a touch of skepticism here. I'm really into minimal design though.

All the recently released mice don't really satisfy me either, so I keep wondering about their future products with 'bang' features.

source: logitech.com
prices CH

Canon EOS 50D - 40

2008-09-14T19:33:00.005+02:00

Summary of the main differences between the recently released Canon EOS 50D and the 40D owned by some of us. Taken from the dpreview spec sheets.

Sony Ericsson G705

2008-09-12T05:42:00.007+02:00

Very good looking phone for the ladies. More Info @ sony ericsson

- with WLAN, HSDPA & HSUPA
- aGPS
- no Xenon flash, 3 MP cam

Sony Ericsson C905

2008-09-12T05:23:00.018+02:00

probably my next mobile phone. 8 MP camera with aGPS, WLAN access and FM radio. Due late october 2008.

commercial video (youtube).

More Info @ sony ericsson
prices CH toppreise
sunrise 2 Jahre Abi verlängern: CHF 247.-

update nov 08:
some more facts

- video recording resolution is limited to 320 x 240
- only HSDPA, no HSUPA (though hsupa providers are VERY rare)
- ActiveSync
- conference calls with up to 5 parties
- WiFi/WLAN connecting just fine with WPA2

Got myself one and can't say anything bad about it! fantastic display and picture quality.

Sony Ericsson W902

2008-09-12T05:06:00.011+02:00

The next Walkman Handy looks fantastic. release date october 2008. Features all the usual stuff, inclusive rds radio and 5MP camera. Read more.
No WiFi, no GPS.

PC Preise September 2008

2008-09-12T04:40:00.003+02:00

Ich habe die Artikel und Preise in der rechten Spalte leicht angepasst. Obwohl ich kein Fan von ATI-Treibern bin, muss ich doch sagen, dass Preis/Leistung für die 4850-er Produkte immer noch top ist. Zudem empfehle ich euch ein wirklich schönes Gehäuse.

Make Firefox look great

2008-06-25T21:44:00.017+02:00

Vista user? Firefox3 user?
Follow these steps to make Firefox 3 look like this:

>> Update February 2010: this article is outdated, new version is here

get the hide menu bar extension
get the kempelton theme
log into the Mozilla add-on site
otherwise you can't download experimental extensions
get the glasser extension
for the bookmarks toolbar get the glasser extras.zip
( JAN 2009: glasserextras.zip currently can't be downloaded at it's original location! Get it at rapidshare instead)
press WIN+R and open the following location: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
in there > open the folder xxxxxx.default
now open the folder chrome
from glasserExtras.zip move the file Vista Personal Bar - Media Player.css into the chrome folder
now rename the copied file to userChrome.css

Done!
make the menu visible by pressing ALT
.

Kempelton 3.0

2008-06-18T00:52:00.007+02:00

Kempelton for FF3. Looks just as great as v2 did.

Get it here.

capitals of europe

2008-05-19T09:02:00.009+02:00

When I was a kid, my brain functions didn't allow me to memorize anything taught in geography classes. It's not soooo important to life though.
Anyways, for the coming years it's better to know things about eastern europe too. Try this little flash game.

The goalkeeper

2008-05-13T03:13:00.003+02:00

soccer at it's best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBV1pqzAEuI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY8AIhbqPHo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwIaEy5pI8s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R96j711uSIM

Wenn man im Paradies lebt - vom LSD Entdecker

2008-05-01T10:59:00.006+02:00

"... nur der Mensch, dieser Idiot, glaubt, er müsste die Sonne auf die Erde holen und hier Atomkraftwerke bauen."

Erst jetzt habe ich dieses Interview entdeckt. Im zweiten Teil werden auch einige meiner Überzeugungen widerspiegelt.
Dass diese Substanzen denen in unserem Gehirn gleichen, ist für mich völlig neu.

Albert Hofmann ist am Dienstag im Alter von 102 Jahren in seinem Haus in Burg (Basel-Landschaft) verstorben.

Why are manhole covers round?

2008-04-14T21:54:00.002+02:00

While reading this article I got a really good laugh. Why? I realized, that up to this day I didn't know the english word for manhole cover... muahahaha.

True Color Gif?

2008-03-26T23:54:00.002+01:00

Never before I heared anything about true color gifs > check out an example and explanation here

Kempelton 2 for Firefox 2

2008-03-12T00:40:00.007+01:00

I fail to understand, why this brilliant Firefox2 theme gets so little attention. It blends wonderfully into Vista. Compared to this I think the new FF3 default theme's a laugh.
And please don't get onto our nerves by pointing out how Vista sucks, because it doesn't. Get it here for FF2. Kempelton is Thunderbird's default theme by the way.

Note > Kempelton 3.0 for FF3

Office PC

2008-02-05T19:54:00.000+01:00

An example of a fast family PC without focus on gaming. Prices are in Swiss Francs from digitec.ch. A reduction of 160.- is possible without losing much performance (CPU & graphics).

Article number	Labelling		Price
140135	Asus P5K SE, Intel P35, Socket 775, 1333FSB	Details	132.-

136187	Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, Dual Core, 2.66 GHz, 4MB, FSB1333	Details	243.-

122978	Kingston ValueRAM, 2x1GB Kit, DDR2-800, CL5	Details	64.-

140974	Samsung HD320KJ, T166S, 7200rpm, 8MB, 320GB, SATA-II	Details	99.-

145250	NEC AD-7200A, 18x DVD±RW Writer, DL, DVD-RAM, grau, bulk	Details	34.-

126923	Case: Jou Jye CF-6129, black, ATX 2.0, 400W	Details	59.-

132394	Gigabyte GeForce 8500GT, PCI-E, 256MB GDDR2, passiv	Details	86.-

119761	Zalman CNPS9500 AT, Socket LGA775	Details	63.-


7.6% MWSt.		Total CHF excl. VAT	724.91
Total CHF incl. VAT			780.-

6-bit or 8-bit LCD?

2007-12-01T09:05:00.000+01:00

Most TN panels are very fast switching but only able to produce 262k colors, using dithering to display the 16,7M delivered by the PC. The issue might be important if you're a photographer.
But always keep in mind that the end product - the print - might show much less than even 10k distinguishable colors, so this issue might be overplayed by some geeks.

I suggest reading these articles and comments.
at TFTcentral & Photo.net

huge screen

2007-12-01T08:05:00.000+01:00

Why not a 24" display. Bought a Samsung Syncmaster 245b and can't say anything bad about it. The huge resolution of 1920 x 1200 is nothing for gaming in native resolution though, it just requires to much GPU performance. The best about all this is the low price CHF 640.-

Facts: hdcp compliant dvi port, every source is scaled to full screen, no hdmi port, TN panel (fast, 6-bit).

Read a very detailed review here.
(image source)

Canon EOS 40D

2007-11-04T20:10:00.002+01:00

Well you've probably read about the breathtaking feature list of the Canon EOS 40D. I was reluctant to post anything here, since simply everyone was praising the camera so much. Finally I found quite a balanced read (go for the conclusion) here.

If you're not waiting for the Canon EOS 5d follow up, if full format sensors are not your thing - then get the 40D right away.

[Update August 2008:] meanwhile I bought the camera too. The cam is close to perfect for my use, the price was right and I was not willing to pay more for a 50D.

Logitech keyboard

2007-11-01T00:29:00.001+01:00

Called "Access Keyboard 600" this might be your choice if you work in a data center, where cordless keyboards are forbidden (doesn't make much sense these days, but rules are rules :-(

UPDATE 04.nov. - actually I bought one right after posting here. Please take note, that the feeling when you type resembles a usual keyboard more than the quiet and soft MX3200. Personally I like the keys of my 3200 much more, but also got good feedback for the access keyboard 600.

8800GT - the GPU we all waited for

2007-11-01T00:00:00.000+01:00

Nvidia announced the 8800 GT. Great cost/performance ratio.

112 stream processors clocked at 1. 5GHz and a 256-bit memory interface running at 900MHz.

Reviews and benchmarks:
Tomshardware, Anandtech, Tweaktown & H Enthusiasts.

ZEROtherm Hurricane HC92 CU8800 VGA Cooler @ Modders-Inc. – GeForce 8800 GT @ Chilehardware (es) – GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB BFG OC SLI @ Guru3D – GeForce 8800 GT @ HardOCP –XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition @ Hardware.info – ASUS EN8800GT @ Hardware.info – MSI NX8800GT @ Hardware.info – nVidia GeForce 8800 GT @ Hardware.info – EVGA 8800GT 512MB Superclocked Edition @ Hardwarecanucks – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB @ HardwareZone – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT @ HotHardware –EVGA GeForce 8800GT SSC Edition @ Motherboards.org – BFG 8800 GT OC @ NeoSeeker – MSI 8800GT-512MB @ TBreak – Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT GPU @ Tech Report – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT @ TechARP – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT @ TechARP – Nvidia Geforce 8800GT Roundup @ DriverHeaven , Thank you TechPowerUp

Sony Ericsson K850i

2007-10-20T18:15:00.000+02:00

would get it... if I wouldn't already own a K810i.

the tiny mouse

2007-08-02T11:39:00.000+02:00

Logitech VX Nano - tiny mouse, tiny receiver. The rest is rather unspectacular, no special buttons around. More information here.

Another good looking keyboard

2007-07-30T07:54:00.001+02:00

Some of us aren't allowed to use radio connected keyboards at work (futile rules). Since the design of most wired keyboards simply sucks... Logitech's new Wave keyboard might be a solution for you, because they also offer a wired version without the mouse. More information on their site.

New Sony Stick Walkman

2007-07-30T07:35:00.000+02:00

Sony NWD-B100? ahhh finally a Sony MP3 Player which won't be released together with the unloved Sonic Stage software. Also Sony's music file format ATRAC will be left out. What remains: 1 or 2 GB version with FM radio, a Voice recorder. The rest are standard MP3 Player features. Available in the uk august 07. Yet the player isn't listed on the Japan's Sony site.

Sony NW-E016F walkman

2007-04-14T11:27:00.000+02:00

Finally a new interesting walkman will arrive.

Short description: full color OLED Display, 1/2/4GB Versions, FM radio, plays MP3 / Atrac / wav / wma, only weights 28g. Software: Sonic Stage 4.3 wich now supports vista. I hope the software is not as crappy as in the previous releases. High speed battery charge: 3 hours in just 3 mintues!
Source of all the images: Sony Japan.

Winamp Theme Barracuda

2007-04-10T23:57:00.000+02:00

Very stylish Winamp theme! Get it here and make sure you've read the creator's comment.

Divx in Vista Media Center?

2007-04-05T05:43:00.001+02:00

Of course you already want your Vista Media Center to play all your divx vids? But there's no official DIVX release out there yet right? Head to this site and download the vista compatible ffdshow tryout. The beta2 worked fine for me.

bought the MX 3200

2007-03-26T23:07:00.007+02:00

Some thoughts about the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200. I have to mention that I use all my Logitech devices with the uberOptions applied to the original drivers. Most software limitations set by Logitech are simply swept away then.

The search&zoom bar is kinda useless. I gave it a try in Photoshop, the web browsers etc. and then there's this annoying beep beep beep everytime you're using it. (update: how to turn the beeps off)
What else can you do with the zoom bar? Check out the configuration options in the screenshot - you get the idea. All the other buttons around the zoom bar are ok and freely configurable.
The "100% button" below? Does exactly what it says - also in Photoshop: simply reverts all views back to 100%, default zoom level or default font size. Quite handy and placed at the right spot on the keyboard.
One Touch Search is quite handy too, but I wish they would integrate more sites like answers.com and not just Google, Yahoo, Live.com. (update: see logitech Forum plus here)
As with most Logitech cordless mice and keyboards your computer might not enter into standby mode anymore when the MX 3200 receiver is connected, because the powersupply&motherboard combo simply can't deliver enough power to keep the USB-receiver running while in standby or hibernate. The solution is to not allow keyboard and mouse to wake up the Computer. See screenshot on how you can correct the situation. (same for XP).

Update june 2007 - finally solved this issue - see my posting
The tiny display is not backlit and has the functionality of a digital stopwatch back in 1982. The only thing I'll ever use it for is to check out time and date, it doesn't bother me either that it's there though. Design wise it blends nicely into the whole thing.
Vista support? The Logitech software won't let you assign hibernate as a shutdown option. Hibernate is Vistas (and also my) default shutdown mode. I also miss the ability to assign "switch user" since it presents another dialog than "lock." But I'm looking forward to see this being implemented in a future release of Setpoint.
Didn't figure out yet how to make the VOIP buttons work together with Skype (ver 3.1.0.147). None of the three buttons works so far.
Update: it works now try this - thx Richard.
What my wife absolutely loves about this keyboard is the following: compared to most other keyboards out there, you almost won't hear me typing anymore. No clicking no nothing. Everyhing's smooth but the feeling while you type is still good.
BEST OF ALL: the keyboard mouse combo just looks fabulous and blends perfectly into a working space with a black flatscreen. Eye-catcher!

Alltogether I'd say that the MX 3200 is a great set; you get what you'd expect for the money. Also the included mouse is the best one for my liking - especially because it runs with just one battery inserted. (Lefthanders can go for the mx610-lefty)

(for more pictures, try this google image search)

== ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ == ~ ==

UPDATE Sep 2009: I can't use the keyboard anymore :-( after 2 yrs I also became a victim of the sticky key issue [google]. A lot of force was required to press some of the keys, so I decided to follow the instructions given in this guide. The result was devastating: all keys now required at least double the force than they used to. All the cleaning to remove the oil didn't bring back the key press feeling from back when I bought the keyboard, so I eventually bought a Microsoft Keyboard - you see - I don't like the currently available Logitech KBs. Aren't they just plain ugly?

But don't get me wrong - the MX3200 was a stunning piece of hardware and worked perfectly 98% of the time! For me the time to switch has come, that's all.

Nice Keyboard

2007-03-24T18:43:00.001+01:00

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200. Keyboard with some goodies. For more information on the good looking device - head here for a review or go to the official site.
Of course the mouse still looks as good as it did in Sep2005. It comes all black now.

it's easy to trick you

2007-03-14T03:46:00.000+01:00

try this one - I'm always surprised how easy it is, to fool around with what you thought to be the reality.

Check this out - LOL

2006-11-17T01:25:00.000+01:00

just follow the instructions given in the video
"es isch würklich cool"
the phantasmatron...

Winamp & Streamripper

2006-06-30T12:37:00.000+02:00

Na dann. Alot of people asked me about winamp and Streamripper. But why the heck doesnt everyone know about winamp since what... 1998? I'll never understand.

I don't like using MediaPlayer and RealPlayer when it comes to online radio, the players themselves are fine but take RealOne as an example: often you're forced to listen or watch 25s advertising before the stream would begin playing. Quite annoying!

That's why I'm always listening to audio streams presented on Shoutcast with Winamp. Winamp also offers us a very easy (and free) way to record the streamed media with a plugin called Streamripper. Check out the screenshots below if you have problems configuring Streamripper.

Through shoutcast you're able to access over 9000 music streams of every taste. When you enter the site you'll be presented the radio stations with the highest listener count, quite convenient if you're listening to mainstream stuff.
You're into Black Music Specials, Jazz, Brazil Jazz, Lounge Music or whatever? Just type your genre's name into the search box and voilà - a list of stations is presented immediately. Drag the yellow button into your winamp playlist or just klick on it...

Some of my favorite stations include:

Digitally Imported - Chillout - ambient (site)
Digitally Imported - Lounge
BlueMars Music for the Space Traveller (site)
Groove Salad (site)
Thaidisconet Morlum
Smooth Jazz (site)
for 80s sound try .997 The 80s Channel (site)

Need help configuring streamripper?

Your Winamp playlists are always a mess?
Winamp's video playback sucks?
Try using these settings

Eizo S1931 / S1921

2006-06-21T22:52:00.000+02:00

June 2006: Eizo 19" TFT FlexScan S1931 and S1921 available. The only difference to the S1910 (I own) is an ambient brightness sensor that detects changes in the ambient brightness and signals the backlight to adjust the screen brightness accordingly. Official Site

my thing...

Canon EOS 30D

2006-02-22T00:34:00.000+01:00

New Canon EOS 30D (8 Megapixel) to replace EOS 20D. Not so much changes though. Spotmeetering is now available the image cache can hold 11 RAW pics (highest resolution). Of course Canon also enlarged the backside display - it's a standart 2.5" now. read more about the camera here