Asus Xonar DX Dolby Digital Live (DDL) SPDIF popping noise

I have a Asus Xonar DX which I got for the very specific reason that it has Dolby Digital Live (DDL). DDL is the real-time conversion of your PC audio to a Dolby 5.1 signal. Yes, I know DD is compressed. Yes, I know it lowers audio quality. MEH. It lets me use my old PC speaker 5.1 set which has a DD input. Deal with it.

Anyway, there is an obnoxious issue with the Asus card (and I believe other Asus cards with DDL) where, when using DDL, there is a delay between when a sound is played on the PC and the activation of the DD signal. This results in a distorted popping noise when your receiver first gets the signal. It's especially annoying if your PC is playing short sounds, like it's beeping because then the DD signal is basically going on and off, and results in many popping noises.

The solution is this: Go into the Asus traybar application, go to the mixer, click record, click the eyeball (monitoring) under the mic, and turn the mic volume all the way down. This will keep the DD signal on at all times and fix the popping issue. It may also work to monitor the line-in or aux-in, if the mic doesn't work for you.

Fixing the STOP 0x7B error when upgrading motherboards and cpu, in Windows 7

I recently upgraded my motherboard and, not wanting to have to re-install Windows completely, I tried simply swapping out the motherboard, cpu and ram. MANY people on the internet will tell you that this is impossible and you will have to do a complete re-install. THEY ARE WRONG.

I went from a Core 2 Duo e6600 with a Gigabyte GA-G31M-E2SL to an Ivy Bridge i5- 3570k with a Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H.

If you simply do the swap as I did, you will very likely encounter the dreaded BSOD with the STOP 0x7B error. This is due to the hard drive controller being different between the two boards. The fix I did is here. I cannot take credit for this fix, it was originally posted by dcoetzee here.

1) Make sure you know if your old bios had your hard drives running in IDE or AHCI. It should be set the same when you install the new board.

2) Burn a copy of Hiren's boot CD. here

3) Go into Control Panel > Device Manager, and write down all drivers that are named with your chipset. For example, under your IDE Controllers, you might have Intel Series 6 Serial ATA Controller. Update these drivers to a "standard" controller or driver. It should be an available compatible driver type when you try to update the driver.

4) Install your new motherboard/cpu. It's probably best to keep the parts to a minimum for the moment (just your OS harddrives, no unnecessary peripherals).

5) Start up, make sure the IDE/AHCI setting in the bios is the same on the new board.

6) Boot into Hiren's boot CD

7) Select miniXP

8) Open up Hiren's BootCD program launcher

9) Programs > Registry > Fix hard disk controller

10) enter in your windows directory. If Hiren's isn't detecting your drive, make sure the IDE/AHCI setting is the same!

11) run it

12) That shoud be it! Reboot, and you should be able to get into Windows 7. I would immediately put in your motherboard drivers CD and update all the drivers. Also update all the drivers you changed in Step 3. The "Standard" drivers will likely work, but it's nice to have the ones optimal for your mobo.

I spent hours trying to find this very simple fix. I hope this helps someone on the internet find a solution.

Setting up OSX Time Machine on a Windows 7 Shared Folder

I have a home server that I built originally with the intention of just recording TV. But I've recently realized there's a great deal of cool things that can be done with your own always-on server. I picked up a new WD1500EARS drive and put it in my server with the intention of having it serve as, not only more media storage space, but also a networked backup location for my main PC and laptop. I also figured I could set aside some space to use as a Time Machine backup location for my hackintosh. I won't go into detail describing how to do this, instead I'll just point you to this excellent guide by Hupio:

http://hupio.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/osx-timemachine-and-sambawindows-share/

No other guide I found on the web mentions the critical step at the end, that you have to create a sparsebundle and put it on the shared folder for it to work.

A problem that may pop up is that Windows 7 is not really setup to act as a file server. The result is that OSX will disconnect from Windows due to some memory allocation error. This can be fixed with a couple of registry edits, described here:

http://alan.lamielle.net/2009/09/03/windows-7-nonpaged-pool-srv-error-2017

Hackintosh setup...

Ugh. Just realized I never finished the Hackintosh setup guide... I'll hopefully get around to it one day. The information to setup osx on a non-mac is available all around the web, it's just that the information is generally very poorly consolidated. Given the huge variety of system configurations, this is understandable. I was just hoping I could help those folks out that have similar configurations to my own. Anyway, like I said, hopefully I'll get back to it later on.

Thunderbird 3 already is beginning to piss me off

Search sucks. I search for "waters" and everything with "water" shows up. I put "waters" in quotes, and STILL everything with "water" in the text shows up. WTF. The default search results page sucks. Who the fuck thought it was a good idea?

Honda Civic Sales Chart

I'm currently looking to buy a Honda Civic Sedan LX. I was trying to predict whether Honda will extend certain incentives they have in place, so I made this chart of Honda Total Car Sales and Civic sales over time. Maybe someone'll find this useful...

All data is from here:
http://hondanews.com/categories/1090/releases/3888

Hackintosh setup Part 1 - Introduction

edit: apologies for the constantly updating pages. I keep thinking of how to format this so it's easiest to follow.

Hackintosh Install Guide Contents

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - What You'll Need
Part 3 - Installing OSX
Part 4 - Additional Notes

I've recently been messing around with trying to install OSX on my PC. There's a ton of information on the internet, however, the problem I ran into is that this information isn't easy to sort through. There's a huge number of forum posts dealing with the various hardware combinations that people have, and it can be pretty overwhelming. An additional problem is that many of the people at the forefront of hackintosh developement are based in Asia or Europe and english is definitely not their first language.

I am not an expert on setting up a hackintosh, but I figure if I put up the setup procedure that I used for my system, someone out there might find it useful. Something that drove me crazy is that there are a bunch of tiny details that need to be paid attention to, but is hardly ever mentioned in other hackintosh guides. I'll try to highlight the ones that gave me trouble.

Hackintoshes are notoriously picky about what hardware and what drivers are used. This contributes to the fragmented nature of install guides on the web. What may work for one person's hardware may not for another. The process I used here should be applicable to a wide range of hardware, but will be the most help to those that have my same motherboard. I will be posting the kexts and boot files I used.

My hardware:
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2 motherboard
2x2GB DDR2-800
ATI Radeon HD4850
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
PS/2 Microsoft Internet Keyboard
USB Microsoft Intellimouse
Maxtor 80GB IDE HD
Pioneer IDE DVDRW

To start, here are the resources I used:
insanelymac.com - A lot of info here, but the forums are a pain because it isn't easy to find. The best you can do is use the forum search and read the stickied posts in the relevant sections. The wiki there is not really up to date or written well, so don't expect much from that.

menoob Hackintosh tutorial - This is the process that I basically followed.

bassheadtech tutorial - Another similar tutorial which was also helpful.

google.com - Yeah, I know should be obvious, but unfortunately people are lazy and need reminding. Don't underestimate how useful google can be to help you solve your install problems. If you're getting an error, chances are high someone else has experienced that same error already. The two guides posted above were found with google, and the solutions a number of driver problems I had were also found via google.

fucktards

I work with this guy who is a total slacker. Now, although I generally find lazy people contemptible, that in and of itself is not enough to seriously annoy me. What frustrates me is that I actually have to work with this douche. To this dumbass, I just want to say: I understand what we're doing is not the most glorious project ever, and I'm sorry your career isn't going as swimmingly as you would like, but tough shit man. It's not like you're the only person with a lame job. You don't have to be a dick about it and talk over me every time I say something. And even when I'm not even fucking talking to you, you try to talk over me. Fuck you man.

Buffered java.io.RandomAccessFile

Now for some total randomness. I'm posting this because I know someday, someone, somewhere out there, will come across this exact same problem and will google for it. The solutions I found via google were meh, and I know I would've liked to have this. So I post this for the children of the future (unless Sun gets its act together).

/**
*  A subclass of RandomAccessFile to enable basic buffering to a byte array
*  Copyright (C) 2009 minddumped.blogspot.com

*  This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
*  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
*  the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
*  (at your option) any later version.

*  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
*  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
*  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
*  GNU General Public License for more details.

*  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
*  along with this program.  If not, see .
*/

package ed.javatools;

import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

/**
*
* @author minddumped.blogspot.com
*/
public class BufferedRaf extends RandomAccessFile {

 public BufferedRaf(File file, String mode) throws FileNotFoundException {
  super(file, mode);
  bufferlength = 65536;
  bytebuffer = new byte[bufferlength];
  maxread = 0;
  buffpos = 0;
  sb = new StringBuilder("0");
 }

 private byte[] bytebuffer;
 private int bufferlength;
 private int maxread;
 private int buffpos;
 private StringBuilder sb;

 public int getbuffpos() {
  return buffpos;
 }

 @Override
 public int read() throws IOException {
  if (buffpos >= maxread) {
   maxread = readchunk();
   if (maxread == -1) {
    return -1;
   }
  }
  buffpos++;
  return bytebuffer[buffpos - 1] & 0xFF;
 }

 public String readLine2() throws IOException {
  sb.delete(0, sb.length());
  int c = -1;
  boolean eol = false;
  while (!eol) {
   switch (c = read()) {
   case -1:
   case '\n':
    eol = true;
    break;
   case '\r':
    eol = true;
    long cur = getFilePointer();
    if ((read()) != '\n') {
     seek(cur);
    }
    break;
   default:
    sb.append((char) c);
    break;
   }
  }

  if ((c == -1) && (sb.length() == 0)) {
   return null;
  }
  return sb.toString();
 }

 @Override
 public long getFilePointer() throws IOException {
  return super.getFilePointer() + buffpos;
 }

 @Override
 public void seek(long pos) throws IOException {
  if (maxread != -1 && pos < (super.getFilePointer() + maxread) && pos > super.getFilePointer()) {
   Long diff = (pos - super.getFilePointer());
   if (diff < Integer.MAX_VALUE) {
    buffpos = diff.intValue();
   } else {
    throw new IOException("something wrong w/ seek");
   }
  } else {
   buffpos = 0;
   super.seek(pos);
   maxread = readchunk();
  }
 }

 private int readchunk() throws IOException {
  long pos = super.getFilePointer() + buffpos;
  super.seek(pos);
  int read = super.read(bytebuffer);
  super.seek(pos);
  buffpos = 0;
  return read;
 }
}

Some notes:
1) This is only for buffered reading.

2) Most read type methods in RAF end up calling read(), so read() is the only method that really needs to be overridden. The exceptions are the read(byte b[]), read(byte b[], int off, int len), readFully(byte b[]) and readFully(byte b[], int off, int len) methods. They end up calling a private readBytes method. It's probably not a big deal, since in those methods you're asking for a byte array anyway, but it will throw off the buffpos file pointer!

3) If you're calling lots of readLine(), the readLine() in the original RAF sucks. It constantly creates a new StringBuffer object which is unnecessary and can really slow things down. In my class, I reuse a StringBuilder and just delete the contents. Unfortunately, for some dumbass reason, readLine() is final, so my method is readLine2(). From a simple test of reading through a file using readline, I find the performance is nearly the same as using BufferedReader.

4) people on the Sun Forums are total fucking douchebags. Don't ever go there looking for help.

still here

I feel like I should post something, since it's been over a month since the last post. Although there's still way more in the Democracy is Overrated series, I think I'll put that on hold for a bit.

Democracy is Overrated part 2

The vote of each person in this video counts as much as your vote.

Democracy is Overrated part 1

It's that time again to exercise our civic rights and vote for whatever nonsense is on the ballots this year. Whenever I look at my voter pamphlet, I'm always bugged by this question: "Does anyone actually read this crap?" I'm not talking about the half page proponent/opponent summaries, I'm talking about the multipage, small-print legalese stuff in the back. I'd put money down that nearly no one does. It bothers me that people, who aren't fully informed, are allowed to vote on these matters. Doesn't that seem ridiculous to anyone?

I argue that, at a minimum, someone who is contributing to a decision that affects tens of millions of people in a state should at least read the god damn legislation. That's at a minimum. I think in order to make a fully informed decision, one would have to be somewhat informed in relevant current details of the state.

Say, in your household, you're faced with the decision of whether to buy a new car. Would you do that without looking at your complete financial position?How much is the monthly payment and where is the money coming from?

When it comes to deciding whether to fund measure XYZ, shouldn't people be putting in the same amount of research and thought into that? What's the current financial position of the state? What's the current annual revenue? Where's the money to fund this measure coming from?

The reality is, not many put that much thought into this. People tend to vote whatever their party's position is. They read the measure summary and base their decisions on that.

It just seems to me, allowing decisions affecting millions to be decided by people not equiped to make the most informed choice isn't rational.

Practical experience

I've been taking these martial arts classes for the last year. The gym I'm taking the classes at offers a pretty wide range of arts. I've just been taking the panatukan, or philippino boxing, I'm enjoying because it's like dirty boxing. Anyway, even more recently, for the past few months I've also been taking the weaponry class.

The weaponry class is basically a series of drills. It looks freak'n cool when done right, but I've been wondering recently what the practical value of it is. I mean, seriously, when's the last time you heard of two people fighting with sticks or machetes? And if I'm ever in a knife fight, I'm looking to run at the first opportunity.

Maybe I am better off having this little tid bit of extra knowledge compared to your average joe, but I really have no idea where I stand. Maybe there's a weaponry sparring class I can take, or maybe I should be randomly starting knife fights with people...

Is it just me?

Most of the friends I've made in Seattle are people I work with. They're an alright bunch, and I do enjoy hanging out with (most of) them.

I sometimes wonder, though, what the hell is up with their other friends. Occasionally, I'll meet some of them, and I think "these guys are tools." What I don't get, is why my friends, who I like, hanging out with such douchebags? It makes me wonder if maybe I just don't know my friends that well. I still feel like I'm the new guy, so I don't think it's really my place to mention I think these other guys are asshats.

Of course, an alternative that I'm forced to acknowledge, is that maybe I'm the problem! Maybe I'm the jerk, and I just don't get along with other people very well.

Unfortunately, I don't see any solution to this question. I don't have any really close friends here that I can confide in to figure out if I'm just being a hardass. I guess that's part of why I started this blog, so I can ramble into the void of the internet.

People in Seattle are cheap

I've been in Seattle for over a year and a half now. During my time here I've observed certain behaviors of people here, each of which is insignificant, but taken together have lead me to this conclusion: People in Seattle are cheap. BTW, when I say "cheap," I don't mean thrifty. I mean definition number 7 on answers.com:

Cheap
adj., cheap·er, cheap·est.
7. Stingy; miserly.

What finally coalesced my thoughts on this, was that yesterday, I overhead some coworkers talking about how they should find a time to dumpster dive, discussing what the best places were to dumpster dive and how great dumpster diving is. Dumpster diving. Seriously? WTF?! Ok, usually, overhearing something like this wouldn't really make me draw any conclusions. I'd probably think, "Ok, that's... odd. But whatever floats your boat." The thing is, this isn't the first time I've heard Seattleites talk about the awesomeness of dumpster diving. The last instance, was during a work retreat, where a different person mentioned it. I remember being dumbfounded that I was the only person in the van who seemed to think dumpster diving was odd. Everyone else just accepted it as the most normal thing in the world.

I remember the very first incident that gave me the impression of Seattleites being cheap, was within the first couple of weeks of coming to Seattle. The person in charge of birthdays was collecting some money to get a gift for someone in the workplace. Well, the next day, I overheard (No, I don't intentionally eavesdrop. People just talk really f'n loudly) someone talking to the office manager, complaining about having to contribute $5 to everyone's birthday and that they really didn't want to do this anymore. After that, the policy of getting the birthday person a gift ends. I understand people might not be raking in the greenbacks. But come on, seriously? $5 for everyone in the office is $60 a year.

My human experiment

There's an old lady that takes the same bus as me to work. Something I've noticed is as she walks up to the bus stop, she always stops at the pay phone near the stop and checks the change dispenser for extra change. Every time I see this I think, "what the hell. Does she really expect to find change in there? When was the last time anyone ever used a freak'n pay phone? And even people do regularly use it, how often do they leave their change in there?" Seriously, I wonder when's the last time she actually found any money in there.

This morning, I was thinking the next time I get to the bus stop before her, I'll leave a penny in there, just so I can see her reaction when she finds it. I'll bet it'll make her day. I should film it too.

I need to be more selfish

I need to stop caring about what other people think. Occasionally (ok, more like daily), I'll think about quitting my job and running away to do something else. When I seriously consider doing this, I start feeling this surge of guilt. I feel guilty that I would be letting other people down. People like my parents and even my boss. This bothers me because, why the hell should I be feeling guilty for wanting to do something else? Why do I care what these people think? Shouldn't my feelings come before anyone elses?

Just start writing

I think I've already found a problem I have with trying to maintain a blog. I have this tendency to want to think out every post in its entirety before I write, which is ridiculous because then I end up never writing anything. Also what is happening is that new ideas for posts are popping into my head on a daily basis. All this thinking is leaving me in a state of apoplexy. So what I'm going to try now, is to just make a small chunk of time of half an hour or so and just write what I can in that time.

Hello World

Welcome to my blog.

There are two primary reasons I wanted to start a blog. First is: I suck at writing. So, what better way to improve than get as much practice as possible? I'm hoping that this blog will force me to write a little more and hopefully get some much needed practice.

Secondly, I've noticed recently that I tend to have a lot of random thoughts in my head that I want to share but I have no one to share them with. This leaves me feeling a little lonely. I know writing in a blog isn't a substitute for talking to another human being, but I figure for the purposes of letting all my thoughts out, it's the next best thing.

I also think it might be interesting to have a record of all the random things I think about. It might be fun (or scary) to look back over time to see how I've changed (or not).

So let's begin!