After installing Windows 7, there was again the dilemma of partitioning, and I finally decided to get a disc image of GParted to provide a better grasp of how to do this: 5 partitions, 2 for the OS, 1 for the Linux swap, 2 for storage. This will give my 500GB external WD MyBook drive some time to rest.

Installing Ubuntu was again the easiest thing to do, and after logging in for the first time, it was much like logging in to my initial experience with Windows 7: everything just works. With only ONE spoiler: after installing the recommended proprietary NVIDIA drivers, the splash screen suddenly went low-res, and was really an eyesore. Apparently, other people are annoyed by this as well.

There were several solutions that were put out, but I found this article to be effective: How to Fix the Big and Ugly Plymouth Logo in Ubuntu 10.04

Two things:

1. Be sure to adjust the resolution value stated on the article to the one you’re actually using. Its 1280×1024 on the article, and I had to change all values to 1440×900.
2. Instead of running commands and having the terminal window open and exit for a second, as stated on the article, I’d suggest opening up terminal and to just copy-paste the commands there. Easily, it lets you know that if your entered commands did work.

As long as I don’t use Photoshop, I guess every time I turn on the PC from hereon I won’t be hurrying anymore to beat the countdown to choose Windows from the GRUB boot loader.

Related Posts

• February 9, 2010 -- This Month’s Thing To Geek On: The Portable Audio Rig (0)
• November 19, 2009 -- Back When People Didn’t Know What A Terrabyte Was, CD’s Ruled (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- ZOMG November It Is And Nothing Is Really Happening (0)
• October 26, 2009 -- Liveblogging: Windows 7 Installation (0)
• October 7, 2009 -- Keeping Passwords (4)

Just last month, it was an unhealthy obsession on CPU cooling. Now its that thing in the middle you see with a red light on the bottom.

Its 500 pesos worth, powered by one AAA battery, and it makes me keep my mp3 player volume halfway.

Now before I geek on, let me share my history of music gear purchases.

I bought a walkman with my first salary, and then it was snatched during a jeepney commute to work along Aurora Boulevard months later. I had discman’s, I even remember getting a generic one that plays vcd’s and mp3s. I’m not that sure anymore what my first mp3 player was, but maybe it was that wallet-busting 4th gen grayscale 40GB iPod, which I bought primarily because I will be working in China. More than a year after that, I misplaced it. Then, as a cheap alternative, I went for a Creative Zen Stone, which I really didn’t mind having, it served its purpose, but it was only 2GB, and pretty idiot-proof, I remember just setting it aside one day and never picked it up again. More than a year or so ago, I had the full intention of making my Nokia E63 handle my music, since it did come with a 3.5mm socket, but found the sound lacking, but it was sufficient for tuning in to the radio. Middle of last year, I got this puny thing which could be mistaken by anyone as something you could get at the nearest CDR King branch, not knowing that the small (portable) audiophile community hold it in very high regard, not because of its features (text-only screen, no app support, but it does have radio), but because of the sound it provides. Yes silly person, it easily pawns the iPod where it matters: the sound department.

Of course, there are the headphones/earphones. I’ve had several Philips units (cheap price and sound), some Sennheiser buds, and two Sennheiser headphones, an HD201 (closed) and the lightweight and collapsible PX100. I guess the general misconception is that those flimsy-looking, barebone’d headphones don’t hold anything to those bulky, closed ones. WRONG. The PX100 is one of the best I’ve ever owned, so much that I bought another one when my first one got wonky. I also got what appeared to be the budget-but-quality choice of recent years, the Creative EP-630, which marked my entry into IEM’s, or in-ear monitors. Now that’s one to debunk that man-on-the-street with neon-colored audio-headgear impression: these tiny little wired things I put in my ear is technically superior-sounding to yours, and I can easily stash on my jeans’ bolsa-de-relo.

My most recent portable audio rig was a pair of hacked (using the Kramer mod, which involved stuffing part of the earphone barrel with foam) JVC Marshmallow IEM’s, and the Sansa Clip. Out of nowhere, I remembered a friend mention something about headphone amps, and since it didn’t involve much money, I found myself at a gaming stall around MRT Ayala getting a Fiio E3, and a pair if Soundmagic PL11 IEM’s, both included in the photo posted above.

Honestly, I didn’t expect this to be another semi-obsessive gadget frothing-in-the-mouth episode again.

Fiio E3 amp + Soundmagic PL11 IEM’s

Here’s the rub: the Fiio E3 is a headphone amp that is just a bit bigger than the single AAA battery that powers it, and it gives any audio device (mp3 player, some cellphones, your pc-to-pc-speaker connection) that has a 3.5mm jack more volume, but more importantly, a fuller sound. The Soundmagic PL11‘s are budget IEM’s, but despite its generic-sounding name, these are serious performers at its 800 pesos pricepoint. It does justice to electronic and dance music, as well as jazz. As far as rock is concerned, not much luck. I need brighter -audiophile-speak I learned today- earphones for that. Yes, now you can even listen to rock! See, I was using the largest available tips (the PL11 comes with 7 pairs) since it was sensible to think that that would give me the best sound isolation, but I needed to hear rock. I changed what I was using to the ones encircled in red:

Tested on 90s grunge from the Singles soundtrack, and last year’s Krallice record. The guitars and vocals aren’t so drowned as before. Ahh, here’s where you can tell that the little things do count.

But then you must’ve heard about custom earphones which requires an actual impression of your ears, right?

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Now, I’m constantly scouring two portable audiophile forums: http://www.head-fi.org/ and locally-based http://headphiles.org/. The intent? Look for a better headphone amp, without breaking the bank. The situation so far? Still researching, and waiting for the next payday.

Related Posts

• November 19, 2009 -- Back When People Didn’t Know What A Terrabyte Was, CD’s Ruled (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- ZOMG November It Is And Nothing Is Really Happening (0)
• March 3, 2008 -- Rethinking This Web Presence (2)
• May 2, 2010 -- GEEK NOTES: Ubuntu 10.04 Alongside Windows 7 (0)
• March 13, 2010 -- Starting The Weekend Early With The Old And New Crowd (1)

And we, dear reader, will fast forward to the present and dwell on my wanting one, or two, terrabytes more of storage via an external hard disk. This wishing coincided with my cleaning my workstation at home yesterday. No before and after pictures of the mess, but let me present a web artifact I found, and would still keep, from the olden days:

mp3.com CD samplers, with videos, software, and the obligatory free internet

At the time when mp3 conversion was just rearing its huge head to everyone’s everyday living, when 64MB flash disk players were the porma iPod-equivalent, when the then highly controversial Napster was dying, and there were a few trying to take its place (it was always Audiogalaxy or 100% legal Epitonic for me), receiving my free mp3.com CD samplers made me feel cutting-edge and tech-cool. The CD’s didn’t only have mp3s, but video game previews, movie trailers, and music software.

Never mind that I don’t think I ever valued the actual music in it. Like everyone else, freebies are always appreciated in my world.

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More CD talk:

Since Ubuntu 5.04, I’ve decided to order disks-to-ship, since they don’t charge anyway, and I get stickers! Ubuntu shipped discs for x86, PowerPC, Mac, AMD64, 64-bit, and like any geek, I’d want to get the maximum reasonable number. Now I have a couple of dozen of these I’m not sure what to do with, though. For gloating purposes, I’ll be keeping a copy of each, and unload the others.

My estimate-count of the CD’s from the cleanup yesterday would be in the few hundreds. Some data and mp3 backups, but more significantly, VCD’s. I feel stupid now not just converting the DVD-copying to AVI’s. VCD was the preferred format, so I can view them on a normal TV-media player setup. See, kids, DVD players then played VCD’s and DVD’s, that’s it. They were picky even.

Oh, being older and a little wiser, I will commit to the following from hereon:

• Not ordering CD’s when I can download them. This applies to Ubuntu, and to other similar free-order, free-shipping opportunities.
• Not buying CD sleeves or cases (for the meantime). I’ve removed old CD’s from their cases, and now have close to a hundred to recycle for use again.

If only we can also recycle old, unusable CD’s. Apparently, they’re too small and light to throw and play frisbee with, as we did before when we were kids with found LP’s.

Related Posts

• February 9, 2010 -- This Month’s Thing To Geek On: The Portable Audio Rig (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- ZOMG November It Is And Nothing Is Really Happening (0)
• March 3, 2008 -- Rethinking This Web Presence (2)
• May 2, 2010 -- GEEK NOTES: Ubuntu 10.04 Alongside Windows 7 (0)
• March 13, 2010 -- Starting The Weekend Early With The Old And New Crowd (1)

I do try to listen to all the newer metal releases, but as for now, nothing really appeals to me as much as Meshuggah material: extremely heavy music without the need to resort to overbearing metal imagery (but as seen on video above, they are in that boat). And despite the term technical cropping up every time you mention the band, the technique doesn’t take over the song, and goes over to guitar-god territory.

Some geek talk for ya:

I’ve installed Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala beside the splendid Windows 7. Not very impressed. Annoyed that it won’t save my resolution settings, and yes, that’s even after I’ve consulted multiple threads on the support forums. You won’t see me taking it out of my system though, since I’ve had Windows screw me before.

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Not sure why, but MediaMonkey, my favorite music jukebox software has been conking out on me. I’ve had Mozilla Songbird, but it was crashing on me on the Windows 7 RC build, and officially, they don’t support the latest Windows OS release until now. The minimalistic Foobar2000 seems to rebuild its database forever, before it could start. I even opted for Windows Media Player 12 (bundled with Windows 7), but it just doesn’t feel light enough to handle my music library. Now, I’m putting up an old friend to the test: Winamp. Hung on me once, but so far, so good.

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No Firefox yet. Loving Google Chrome, it just feels right with the visual candy of Windows 7, except that now I don’t get to check my email as much since I used email alert plugins before.

Back to music!

What I’m listening to as I write this blog entry:

From the EP: Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age. The old Broadcast albums were more song based, and not as trippy, and very good.

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There’s a new Outerhope record out, and you can sample the songs via their Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Outerhope/

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And as always, some Japanese music:

Spangle Call Lilli Line instantly reminded me of Audio Safari, and the early softer songs of School Food Punishment. Beautiful beautiful beautiful music, since 2001.

Link gold: For the latest in J-music >> http://jpoplovernet.blogspot.com/

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Lastly, quick reviews from the latest big records:

Weezer – Radtitude: Some good songs, but this will most likely be filed under a-good-album-possibly-great-even-but-I-might-not-listen-to-it-again.

Slayer – World Painted Blood: Same as above.

Related Posts

• February 9, 2010 -- This Month’s Thing To Geek On: The Portable Audio Rig (0)
• January 2, 2010 -- Unwelcoming 2010 (2)
• November 19, 2009 -- Back When People Didn’t Know What A Terrabyte Was, CD’s Ruled (0)
• August 11, 2009 -- The Story So Far (1)
• October 11, 2008 -- One of Those Weekends to Wait For, This Isn’t (2)

Still backing up Windows 7 RC files. Failed to install Wordmobi (Symbian) on mobile phone (for mobile blogging), needs Python, which I can’t be bothered to install right now. Documents and Downloads folder finished transferring.

2:09 PM

Win 7 RC backup DONE. Ubuntu 9.04 backup DONE. After not using Ubuntu since Win7 RC, I just realized how faster, and how antiseptic the user experience is on Linux. Oh well, 3 days to go before Ubuntu 9.10 anyway. But for now, BYE Win7 RC and Ubuntu 9.04! I will be wiping out both of you for the final Windows 7 FINAL install!

2:51 PM

Install DONE. Now that was fairly easy, almost painless, except for the usual wait. That’s it for this liveblog session! Now downloading latest NVIDIA graphics drivers.

Related Posts

• May 2, 2010 -- GEEK NOTES: Ubuntu 10.04 Alongside Windows 7 (0)
• February 9, 2010 -- This Month’s Thing To Geek On: The Portable Audio Rig (0)
• November 19, 2009 -- Back When People Didn’t Know What A Terrabyte Was, CD’s Ruled (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- ZOMG November It Is And Nothing Is Really Happening (0)
• October 7, 2009 -- Keeping Passwords (4)

So after spending time figuring out the new passwords I’d use, I also looked up possible password management solutions, and came up with this pretty straightforward approach:

1. Use Passpack (for online password management).
2. Use Dropbox and store an encrypted backup copy of a list of my new passwords.

This setup was partly inspired by this post, though I simplified and made that part of the solution my backup method. Yes, not exactly a geeky solution, but these were based on a few considerations:

• Passpack looked good, and it did feel nice and secure once I actually used it. I know that hosting sensitive data on a web service that you don’t host yourself is an iffy thought, but then self-hosted solutions aren’t always the best solutions to less-than-complex needs. I use Gmail for all my email needs, and with Windows Live (Hotmail) and Yahoo Mail also giving out unlimited storage, who needs their own POP (or similar) personal client-side mail solution these days? In contrast, I haven’t been enjoying the frequent self-hosted WordPress updates, and the idea of just moving to a site hosted on WordPress.com has been brewing in my head for some time now.

• Encryption software, such as Truecrypt, sounds like an awesome way to deal with storing sensitive files online. That, however, involved having the software with you for decryption. I don’t usually see myself in netcafes, but one thing that makes Truecrypt virtually useless in the netcafe situation is that you need PC administrator access to run it. Not exactly a setback, it makes perfect sense, but I opted for something easier: using the AES 256 bit password protection offered by 7zip. Now, all usable computers can handle that setup.

• (Offline) Password managers like KeePass and PasswordSafe will fall under the above-stated situation, wherein you would need the actual software for encrypted file access.

• I use a desktop both at work and at home, and seldom travel or go mobile. I don’t keep a pocket drive or USB drive with me as well.

• A minor setback would be mobile phone web browsing, but I’d only need to memorize 3-4 passwords for that anyway.

So far, so good. Oh, and let it be noted that my simple password strategy is solely for personal purposes, though some of this info may still be helpful in coming up with a business-purposed one.

Related Posts

• May 2, 2010 -- GEEK NOTES: Ubuntu 10.04 Alongside Windows 7 (0)
• February 9, 2010 -- This Month’s Thing To Geek On: The Portable Audio Rig (0)
• November 19, 2009 -- Back When People Didn’t Know What A Terrabyte Was, CD’s Ruled (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- ZOMG November It Is And Nothing Is Really Happening (0)
• October 26, 2009 -- Liveblogging: Windows 7 Installation (0)

I have Vista on my machine now, with the latest updates. Great improvement from XP? Yes, I should say so. Does it deserve the negative criticism it has been getting since its release? After a few days with it, I really don’t see anything major to gripe about.

Then, Microsoft released a release candidate for Windows 7 to the public last Tuesday, valid until June 1, 2010.

And, here I am, a few hours after downloading the DVD-sized evaluation-copy operating system, and I’m loving how Windows 7 RC works. Very snappy, just like the recently released Ubuntu Linux 9.04.

HA!

On Vista Aero with my current specs, I’m around 60+ RAM usage. On Windows 7 RC Aero, I’m using less than 40-50. My rig runs on a first-gen dual core Pentium and 1.5GB of RAM.

But, seriously, after constant partitioning, installing (I did get the latest Ubuntu, and installed it twice, since I wanted to use ext4 instead of the default ext3), as of today, I’m just left with Vista and Windows 7 RC on dual boot. About 80% of the time, about a week ago, I was on Ubuntu, browsing and listening to music, and would only boot to XP for Photoshop, mobile phone backups, etc.

The triple boot rig I had in mind (+Ubuntu) will have to wait when I have ample time to spare.

Related Posts

• May 2, 2010 -- GEEK NOTES: Ubuntu 10.04 Alongside Windows 7 (0)
• February 9, 2010 -- This Month’s Thing To Geek On: The Portable Audio Rig (0)
• November 19, 2009 -- Back When People Didn’t Know What A Terrabyte Was, CD’s Ruled (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- ZOMG November It Is And Nothing Is Really Happening (0)
• October 26, 2009 -- Liveblogging: Windows 7 Installation (0)

• As unattractive online monetization is to me – yes, I’m weird, haven’t you noticed- I should think of strategies to drum up at least the pagerank of this site, which once ranked as a ‘4‘, with zero effort.
• Go back subscribing to RSS feeds. My occassional visit to BoingBoing just won’t cut it. I’ve been behind my movie news and reviews as well. I’ve been a good podcast listener and have always had TWiT, and Diggnation to accompany me during my start-of-the-week commutes to work. Oh, what platform should I use? Bloglines has always been elegant in its execution, but maybe I should venture out.
• What is this ‘Twitter‘? LOL. Odd that I have 27 followers there, and I’ve only posted one update, which was when I opened my account. Pownce? I’ll try that, sure, I know I had an invite account there before it went public.
• A blogroll? Oh that’s way too much effort already! I’ve only upgraded to the latest WordPress version last weekend (which is unfortunate because ver. 2.5 will be released at the 10th of this month), and only figured out that my hosting space was clogged because of spam on a default account I don’t use. But alright, soon, probably.

Related Posts

• February 9, 2010 -- This Month’s Thing To Geek On: The Portable Audio Rig (0)
• November 19, 2009 -- Back When People Didn’t Know What A Terrabyte Was, CD’s Ruled (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- ZOMG November It Is And Nothing Is Really Happening (0)
• May 2, 2010 -- GEEK NOTES: Ubuntu 10.04 Alongside Windows 7 (0)
• March 13, 2010 -- Starting The Weekend Early With The Old And New Crowd (1)