May 12 2008

No Major Issues To Report

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 12:07 am

[edit]
Please see this comment at the bottom for a helpful fix from Alex Ron. Where the hell did ‘Alex’ come from. Only just noticed my error, apologies Ron.

Well, all seems well post-SP3 installation. There were a couple of hiccups – Windows Live Messenger now complains (error 2771) when it is started up that there is a component missing, and installation fails. This has been observed by others who have installed Service Pack 3, but it looks as though a simple re-installation (assuming you already have the latest setup downloaded) should fix it.


Secondly, though not SP3 related, I noticed that Windows Update had a new audio driver for my motherboard. I installed it and rebooted, this has resulted in the Intel Audio Studio app from failing to load, complaining that “Sonic Focus drivers must be loaded for this application to work”. However, I still have sound coming out of my speakers, and the only use the Intel app was put to were graphic equalizer-related. Think I’ll just leave this be for now…

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Jul 16 2007

Intel Jumps On Board

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 8:40 pm

The 100 dollar laptop scheme for developing countries now has Intel as a member, despite their previous apparent opposition, and in fact competition, in the guise of the Classmate PC.
Originally the group behind the $100 laptop scheme (One Laptop Per Child) accused Intel of selling their laptop at less than cost, in an effort to squeeze OLPC out of the market.
All that now appears to be water under the bridge, at least in public. Although AMD will continue to supply the CPUs (for now) that power the laptops, both Intel’s expertise and CPUs for the servers behind the system.
One other benefit will be that software written for one laptop should now work on the other, as Intel, AMD & OLPC in general will ensure that no incompatibilities arise between the $100 dollar laptop and the Classmate PC.

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Apr 24 2007

System Specifications

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 4:14 pm

When describing technical issues, I’m often called upon to supply the specifications of my IT equipment.
This post has been put together so I can easily refer people to the pertinent information…

System Specifications – PC

Intel D945 PVS Motherboard with 10/01/07 BIOS
Intel P4 660 3.6 GHz CPU
2 Gb RAM (2 X 1Gb 667MHz DDR2)
Asus 7900GT – PCIe x16 256Mb Grfx card – on Forceware 97.73
BenQ FP91V 19″ , Subini S-6811T 8″ & Sony KDL 40W2000 40″

NoName 550 Watt Twin Fan PSU
APC ES 525 Uninterruptable Power Supply – battery knackered
other UPS must update details here
Innovision EIO AP1680 PCI ATA133 RAID Controller (ITE IT8211 based)
Seagate Barracuda ST3320620AS 320Gb 7200rpm 16Mb Cache SATAII
Seagate Barracuda ST3160023A 160Gb 7200 rpm 8Mb Cache PATA-100
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus8 40 Gb PATA-133
Buffalo External 80Gb PATA/USB
WD External 250Gb PATA/USB
2 x Lite-On SHW-16H5S DVD-RR
EIO USB2 & Firewire PCI card

NetGear router – UPDATE
SafeCom IC+ 56K Ext. Modem (SEMT-5600)
TDK Bluetooth v1.2 Adapter (TRBLU03)

Logitech USB Cordless Trackman Trackball
Genius Keyboard – KKB-2050HS
XFX Executioner Dual Impact USB Gamepad (PSX-like force feedback controller)
Logitech Formula Force GP Force Feedback Steering Wheel & Pedals

Sony Ericssion K700i (used as a Bluetooth Remote Control/Phone for UK SIM card)
PC Line PC-100 TV Card – TV tuner/RCA/S-Video/InfraRed input (Based on Phillips 7134 chipset)
Genius VideoCAM Look WebCam
Canon DC080W (3Mp Digital Camera)
Microsoft Fingerprint Reader (Model 1033)
HP 1513 MFD
Various USB Thumbdrives

Redundant Spares
SafeCom SWAMR-54108 ADSL Modem/Router/AP – Now with Mother-in-law
D-Link 604T ADSL Modem/Router/AP – Now with Mum
Origo ASU-8000 USB ADSL modem
D-Link DWL-G122 USB2 Wi-Fi 802.11g Dongle
D-Link DGE-528T 1GBps PCI LAN Card
SafeCom USB 11Mbps WLAN Dongle – Now with brother
Nisis DV Cam 2 (Rev.1) – Photo, Video & Webcam

Software & Services Used :
Win XP Pro SP2 – All updates applied
No-Ip (Dynamic IP pointing)
TightVNC/WinVNC
ShoutCast
WebCamXP

System Specifications – PDA/PPC

iPaq 2210
240×320 Display
Intel PXA255 CPU
64Mb RAM
OS – Windows 2003 Mobile Edition (WinCE 4.20)
1Gb SD Card
11Mbps CF Wireless Card
GPS – 16 Sat
Bluetooth
Broken D-Pad – 4 hardware buttons re-assigned to navigational duties

System Specifications – SmartPhone

Orange SPV C550 (HTC Hurricane rebadged by Orange UK)
OS – Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphones (2nd Edition)
GSM & GPRS, triband 900/1800/1900 MHz
2.2 inch screen 240×320 pixels TFT transflective LCD, 64k colours
Camera 1.3 Mp
TI OMAP 750 Processor
64Mb ROM, 32Mb RAM
2 Gb Mini-SD Card
GPS – 16 Satellite
TomTom Mobile5, Battery Monitor, CellTrack, TCPMP, SmartVNC, GPRS Traffic Monitor, Smurf, Doom, GNUBoy, PicoDrive, NES Emulator, Worms World Party

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Mar 08 2007

Couple of Quick News Items…

Category: In The Media,Kazakhstan,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:13 pm

Intel ‘accidentally’ lost e-mails relating to their court case with AMD – More details here. Article has been removed, so link also removed.

Borat-ese enters Hollywood lingo at #1 ! High Five! It’s Sexy Time!

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