Roy Tanck's weblog

ASRock’s ION nettop really rocks!

Roy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:02:25 +0000

A little over a year ago, I got myself the cheapest media center PC ever, on the form of an old refurbished office machine. It was fast enough to handle most of what I wanted it to do, but it was lightly too big for my AV setup, and decidedly beige. Ugh. But my main issue with it was that it was also making long hours. The Pentium 4 series of processors is notorious for its high power consumption, and I was starting to feel guilty.

I’ve had a couple of Atom based PCs in my home (a netbook and that really small PC I wrote about earlier), but found them to be slow, especially when it came to graphics. Intel’s ancient 945 chipset was a real bottleneck, and the newer US15W had terrible driver issues in Linux. That’s why I wanted to try nVidia’s Ion chipset. I decided that an ASRock Ion 330 would be the perfect little HTPC for me.

Atom at its best

The first Atom platform had a great new chip that barely used any power at all, combined with an old chipset that used lots of power. That’s why netbook battery life usually isn’t so good. Both nVidia and Intel have since come up with solutions. The Intel US15W is very power efficient, but it’s also still pretty slow. Newer ‘Pinetrail’ Atom processors have a newer GMA3150 integrated into the chip itself. It preforms OK, but also ups the Atoms power consumption. Ion is nVidia’s solution. At roughly the same power levels as the old GMA950, it offers spectacular performance. Even with Pinetrail available, I feel Ion is still the way to go.

Speed

Another thing that I liked about ASRock’s offering is that it uses the dual core N330 processor that does 64 bit. It’s a lot faster than its single core cousins and combined with the speedy Ion graphics this machine feels much more snappy than the average netbook. Ubuntu runs really nicely and is a breeze to set up. It’s fast enough to do some modest video encoding on, and it plays video files flawlessly. I use Boxee’s new Beta on it, and the image quality is perfect.

Hardware

The Asrock Ion 330 is a small, nondescript black or white box. It’s not particularly pretty, but it’s well-built and offers an optical drive and all the right connectors. There’s HDMI, VGA and six USB ports. It’s being advertized as being very quiet too, but that’s not true. There’s a tiny little fan in there (I’m quessing about 3 cm in diameter) that makes a high-pitched sound. It’s not terrible, but if silence is important to you, you’ll need to replace it with a quieter model.

Pros and cons

+ Low power consumption
+ Perfect video playback through GPU accelleration
+ Small, unobtrusive box
+ Optical drive (Blu-ray optional on newer models)
+ Cheap, and comes without Windows
- A little noisy
- Not as faster as a ‘real computer’
- No front USB, all six are on the back

For me, this is the perfect box to hook up to my TV. I don’t need a tuner (although USB options are available) and I don’t need it to be very fast. It handles my downloads with ease and plays back movies magnificently. All while consuming very little power.

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Closing the comments on WP-Cumulus posts

Roy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:46:31 +0000

I hate having to do this, but I’m going to be closing the comments on most of the WP-Cumulus related posts on this blog. Because some have several hundred comments, they’ve become impossible to read and I find that the same questions keep getting asked over and over again. I’ve tried to patiently answer all of them, but I’m no longer able to keep up. Blog comments just aren’t a very good support mechanism.

If your question is about WP-Cumulus, the original WordPress plugin, not one of its ports or variations, please post it in the WordPress forums. This allows others to find the answers, and chances are your question has been discussed already. The forums are an invaluable resource, and offer a much better platform for WP-Cumulus support. If you add the “wp-cumulus” tag to your thread, I’ll almost certainly see it.

I’ll also try to update the FAQ more often. It’s a little out of date, but definitely still a good place to start. Oh, and for more info, see my support page.

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Can software really reduce your computer’s power consumption by 30%?

Roy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:38:27 +0000

I stumbled across MiserWare MicroMiser a couple of days ago. It promises to shave 10 to 30 percent off your PC’s power consumption, without you even noticing. All you have to do is download and install the program. I have to admit this sounded a little too good to be true at first, but considering how I’m really into low power computing, I decided to sign up for the beta program and give it a try.

Unfortunately, I do not have a reliable way to measure how much power my PC uses. It’s a relatively ‘green’ PC with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and all the other usual stuff. It probably uses more than 100 watts of power, and it’s on for at least 32 hours each week. Currently, both on my desktop and my laptop, MicroMiser is reporting power savings of over 30%. Those stats are probably a little optimistic, but even if it’s half that, this is a very interesting program. Especially since I’ve noticed absolutely no reduction in my computer’s responsiveness and speed.

I’ve suggested this piece of software to my favorite Dutch hardware review website, hardware.info. One of the things I love about the way they review new hardware is that they consistently test each product’s hunger for power. They have all the neccesary equipment, and the result are can be quite surprising. I hope they decide to test MicroMiser, and I sincerely hope they find it to work. The next step then would be to get everybody to use it.

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Was Google’s Nexus One switched at birth?

Roy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:24:55 +0000

If you’ve not been living under a rock these last few days (or weeks, even), you’ll know that Google has just announced (and released) its first ever mobile phone. Called the Nexus One, it represents Google’s vision of what an Android phone should be. And I’m pretty sure the sotfware is OK. It’s just that I find myself not liking the phone exterior design. I know I’ve dismissed Apple products as ’style over substance’ in the past, but this thing looks like the HTC Touch from 2007. It might look a little better in real life, but the official stills look decidedly unexciting to me.

At the same time, HTC, who make the Nexus One, have a phone in their portfolio that looks a lot more like what I’d expect from a Google Phone. Its HD2 is a very sexy device that coincidentally has pretty much identical specs compared to the Nexus. It looks nothing like HTC’s other phones, yet runs boring old Windows Mobile. I’m telling you, these two devices were switched a birth. Somewhere deep inside HTC’s Taiwan development labs, a very sexy, top secret new Google Phone was designed, but delivered to the wrong software department. Meanwhile, the next boring Windows device was handed to the Android people.

Despite its bland looks, I’ll probably still get a Nexus One. I’ve been putting off getting an Android phone for way too long, and this is the new king of hill. But I’ll probably regret the terrible mixup for as long as I have it…

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My attempt at the top 10 gadgets of the decade

Roy — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:58:23 +0000

When I read Engadget’s “Ten Gadgets that Defined the Decade“, I was amazed by some of their choices. I could easily think of a few gadgets that changed the way we use technology, but weren’t listed. While I agreed with a couple of items on their list, like the iPhone, I couldn’t help writing my own top 10 of the most influential gadgets of the last ten years. Here are my candidates in random order.

1. Canon EOS 300D (Rebel)

If you had a little money to spend you were able to get a digital photo camera back in 1999. They weren’t very good, but at least you could enjoy the obvious ‘workflow’ advantages that come with digital photography. But if you were an enthusiast, film was still the only option. The 300D changed that. It wasn’t the first digital SLR camera, but it was the first that mere mortals could afford. Priced at $999, is allowed amateur and ‘prosumer’ photographers to step into the 21st century.

2. Nintendo Wii game console

Engadget listed the XBox 360, but much like the PlayStation 2 and 3 it was a machines aimed at typical gamers. Every console released in the last decade had better graphics/sound/networking, except one. The Wii focused on what really matters: Gameplay. With its motion sensing controllers it made games intuitive. You mom could play them, perhaps even with your grandma. It wasn’t trying to sneak a blu-ray player into our homes, it wanted to let us have some fun.

3. Asus Eee-PC 701

If I had to condense this list to just one item, this would be it. I was an instant netbook fan when Asus announced this little machine. Sure, later models, like the 900 listed by Engadget had better specs, but the best thing about the 701 was what happened before anyone ever actually got one. The internet lighted up with enthusiasm for a new computer that was slow compared to everything else. It had abysmal specs, but it was small, light and had a great battery. Asus invented a whole new computer market segment, and we’ll enjoy its benefits for a long time.

4. Apple iPod

It’s a tragic misconception that the iPod was the first mp3 player on the market. There were many, the most notable being the MPMan and Creative’s RIO line. But all of them used flash storage, and as a result could barely hold a single album. The iPod changed that and allowed you pocket half your music collection (if not all of it). Its initial success was probably driven by the popularity of illegal download services like Napster, but then the iPod’s ecosystem evolved and iTunes evolved into the most successful online music store. It revolutionized the music industry, by showing how people like to enjoy their music.

5. Intel Core2 Duo

OK, I know the components in your PC aren’t usually very interesting, but there’s something special about Intel’s Core technology. For years, CPUs had not just been getting faster, but also hotter. The last couple of Pentium IV’s ran so hot it took ridiculously large and heavy coolers to keep them cool. Not only did the CPU itself use a lot of power, so did the cooling. The Core line of processors outperformed everything on the market, but also cut power consumption in half. An unfortunate side effect was that it instantly made competitor AMD’s product line irrelevant. AMD is yet to fully recover, which goes to show just how revolutionary this chip was.

6. Linksys WRT54G

Another choice that may seem strange, but bear with me for a second. If there’s anything that changed the way we use gadgets in the last ten years, it’s Wifi. The technology had existed since 1997, but most of us didn’t set up a wireless network in our home until after the start of this millennium. And the WRT54G was the most iconic wireless router of its age. It had wireless-g (introduced in 2003), performed well and was extremely hacker-friendly. There’s still a huge community out there that uses this cheap little machine for just about anything. Wireless networking may be the real star here, but Linksys put it into a very cool little box.

7. Apple iPhone

I remember how everyone was amazed when it became apparent that Apple was about to release a mobile phone. In hindsight it makes perfect sense. Before the iPhone, phones were either too limited to be fun or too complicated to operate. The app store has become an amazing ecosystem, and Apple has managed to put smartphones into the hands of people who never managed to send an SMS from their previous Nokias. I’m pretty confident that Android will be in my next decade list, but for the ‘aughts’, the iPhone takes the cake.

8. HDTV

I didn’t pick a specific TV set or decoder, but if there’s one thing the last decade will be remembered for (in technology that is), it’s that High Definition Television finally made it’s way into our homes. For decades, the industry had been working on a better TV standard. Analog HDTV had been around since before I was born, and digital standards were established in the early 1990s. It took so long because in order to enjoy it all we, the consumers, needed to invest in a new TV. And it wasn’t until those became relatively cheap and flat that we were willing to do so.

9. TomTom Go

Let me first of all clarify that I live in The Netherlands. TomTom is a Dutch company, and they completely dominate their domestic market. So the first affordable GPS navigation unit I ever saw was a TomTom. Until then, satelite navigation was an expensive option on vehicles I could only dream about. The ‘Go’ changed that, and my wife and I currently both have one of its successors. And so does everybody else. It’s changed the way we drive, and even though Google’s Android navigation app is about to make it even more affordable, this was a game-changing device.

10. Ubuntu Linux

Engadget’s top 10 included the decade’s most successful commercial OSs, Apple’s OSX and Windows XP. But it was Linux that really came a long way in the last ten years. XP was a logical evolution of Windows 95, but Ubuntu managed to bring a whole new OS to the consumer desktop. Well OK, it wasn’t entirely new. But all the Linux distributions I’d played with prior to Ubuntu just weren’t ready to be used by regular users. Ubuntu is. I’d recommend it to my mom without hesitation. It even comes with a Bittorrent client. How cool is that? It’s safe, it’s fast and no other OS lets you install new software as easily as Ubuntu. And on top of it all it’s the first community-written operating system. Power to the people .

So there it is. My top 10. Did I leave your favorite gadget out? Please feel free to leave a comment. If you plead your case well enough I may reconsider…

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iPazzPort – the budget-friendly HTPC keyboard

Roy — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:48:16 +0000

I blame PayPal. They’ve made it far too easy to order stuff on eBay . When I saw the iPazzPort on Engadget a while ago and read in the comments that they were very cheap on eBay I couldn’t help myself. Two clicks later I’d ordered this little gizmo from a vendor in Hong Kong. It took nearly a month to get here, but I’m glad it did.

The iPazzPort is a small wireless keyboard with a built-in trackpad. It uses RF signals to communicate with the (included) USB receiver, which has a range of about 10 meters. I had been looking for something to replace my aging BTC 9019URF which is big, ugly and doesn’t quite work from my couch.

Value for money

My first impression was that the iPazzPort looks incredibly cheap. But then again, it is. It’s only around $20 (new) on eBay. It’s pretty sturdy, but don’t expect this thing to look nice. When I plugged the USB thingy into my laptop and switched on the keyboard it turned out to work straight away. No drivers needed, so it should work on all OSs (I tested Ubuntu and Windows 7). It also comes with a USB charging cord, which is convenient. The trackpad is actually better than most I’ve worked with and definitely an improvement over the joystick on the BTC.

BS stands for backspace

The keyboard layout needs some getting used to. In fact, it pretty much sucks. The arrows keys are in strange locations, as are most other non-qwerty keys. If you’re going to be typing a lot, this is not the keyboard for you. It’s nowhere near as good as the one on my Nokia E71, which is half the size. There’s also no shift key. You need to enable caps lock, type the capital, and turn it off again. The keys are nearly flush with the device’s top cover, and they’re very ‘clicky’.

So?

At a fraction of the cost, this little thing is a budget alternative to Logitech’s terribly expensive DiNovo Mini. It’s smaller and lighter, but is also much less comfortable to type on. If your typing needs go beyond the occasional URL or search term, look elsewhere. If you, like me, use it to fire up a movie from time to time it may just suit your needs.

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How to show each post’s date in WordPress

Roy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:45:50 +0000

The templating system in WordPress is very flexible, and there’s rarely something you can’t do or that doesn’t work as you’d expect. A notable exception however is the_date. Its purpose is simple enough. It displays the current post’s date of creation. But on pages with more than one post (such as on many blog home pages), something weird happens. If a number of posts on any given page were created on the same date, the_date will only show that date for the first of those posts.

In the early days of blogging, posts were usually listed by date, much like a regular, paper diary. In the old default theme that comes with WordPress a big date title is used to separate posts into days. That’s what the_date was created to do, and so it makes sense it only displays the same date once. In most modern themes however, people like the date to be among the meta data for each article, so the_date falls short.

the_time

In comes the_time. This template tag, as the name suggests, shows the time at which a post was created. However, it accepts a PHP time format string as an argument, and can be made to display the date. You could simply put a date formatting string in there and be done with it, but I like to keep things flexible, so i wanted to use the date format string set in WordPress’ settings. That way the user controls the output, and it can be adjusted to international preferences.

When I first ran into this I posted my issue on the WordPress forums, and Otto42 came up with a prefect solution. I’ve been using it ever since and thought I’d share it here.

the_time(get_option('date_format'));

What this does is get the user-set date format from WordPress and feed it to the_time. Since that function doesn’t have a ‘once a day’ limitation, you can use this as often as you like in your theme.

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BB-Cumulus takes your forum tags for a spin

Roy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:07:53 +0000

WP-Cumulus has been ported to quite a few other platforms. I keep bumping into it, often on sites not running WordPress. I’ve given up trying to post about all of these spin-off projects, but this one feels a little special. Gautam Gupta has created a bbPress version. As far as I’m aware this is the first port to another Automattic project (I’m still waiting for a wordpress.com ‘port’, come on Matt ).

So, if you want your forum tags to fly like your blog tags, head over to http://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/bb-cumulus/ for the download.

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Updated Fit-PC2i adds second LAN port

Roy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:05:17 +0000

CompuLab just released a new version of their tiny Fit-PC2, called the Fit-PC2i. My guess is the ‘i’ stands for ‘internet’, because the most interesting new feature is a second gigabit ethernet port. This allows the device to be used as a router or firewall, so it’s not a feature that helps desktop users much. In fact, in order to fit (pun intended) the second RJ45 socket they’ve had to eliminate two USB ports from the back of the device, leaving just two full-size USB ports.

But there’s some good news too. According to the press release, the ‘i’ can be ordered with a 2GHz processor (although not currently listed on the website), and a 2GB memory model is also available. This is more important than you might think, because the RAM chips are soldered onto the motherboard and can not be replaced or upgraded. Also new is an RS232 port on the front of the device.

So, if you’re looking for a tiny little computer with an astonishingly low power consumption and two network connectors, look no further. Be advised though that the current state of the GMA500 graphics driver is still ‘a bloody mess‘, and you’ll need a display with a digital (DVI or HDMI) input.

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Help me test WP-Cumulus unicode support

Roy — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:33:41 +0000

The one feature I’ve always wanted to add to WP-Cumulus is true unicode support. Flash player 9 made this impossible because it needed to have the font characters embedded into the movie, and unicode fonts are simply too big for that. But with Flash 10, Adobe has introduced new ways of handling text, and those now allow for non-embedded text to be animated quite smoothly. There’s also no longer any need to specify an exact font name, you can simply tell the player to get a sans-serif font. Flash player 10 is on over 93% of computers now, so it starts to make sense to use it to finally add this long-awaited feature to WP-Cumulus.

This movie requires Flash Player 10 or better.

I’ve created a test movie (above) that uses these new features, and I’m anxious to find out if it works for you, especially if you’re in Asia, Russia or anywhere else with a non-Latin character set.

What are you seeing?

Are you seeing all 45 tags (approximately), in many languages?
Are you seeing your (non-Latin) language?
Any other issues?
Do you want me to add your language to the test? Post the language name here.

Please leave a comment below and tell me if the movie works as it should. Thanks!

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