tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78024885450539538812024-03-13T04:54:51.195+00:00Totally Technical TalksA blog about technical stuffManuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-79164801543774495082021-07-13T01:14:00.015+01:002021-07-28T14:04:22.261+01:00Arduino Project - Car coolant level indicator - Volvo V50 T5 AWD <p><i><b></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>
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</b></i></div><i><b><br /></b></i><p></p><p><i><b>Most cars, as they get old, tend to die a death from overheating. </b></i></p><p>A lot of the overheating happens because the rubber hoses get brittle and fissure and at pressure they tend to break and let go all the coolant.</p><p>Depending on how that happens, which one it happens to and how zealous you are to the temperature gauges, you can be lucky and catch it in time, be distracted and catch it too late, or just be unlucky and have one of the lower end hoses go and not have a chance to catch the issue before the engine overheats.</p><p>Some cars are equipped with a coolant low indicator... but others aren't.</p><p>I was very surprised and UPSET at Volvo, when I found out that my 1997 v70 t5 HAD a coolant lever indicator, but the 2006 V50 T5 AWD from my wife didn't!</p><p>My guess? somewhere along the line, (as Ford purchased Volvo) an economist on the management team, bossing the engineers decided to take 20cents profit for sensors and not install it, unlike the engineers had designed and used for decades... the usual in today's business world. He probably also thought that, as the engines started dying on their customers, they would just buy more cars... instead of changing to a better engineered brand!!! This is what happens n'our days. Economists in power.... bad decisions all the way.</p><p>However I'm and engineer and I would never accept this sort of quality reduction... so:</p><p><i><b>I went on ebay and Amazon, and brought the following list of recommended parts</b></i>:</p><p>https://www.amazon.es/ELEGOO-Microcontrolador-ATmega2560-ATmega16U2-Compatible/dp/B06Y3ZHPWC/ref=sr_1_7?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=elegoo+mega2650&qid=1626133196&sr=8-7</p><p>https://www.amazon.es/POPESQ%C2%AE-Raspberry-Generador-Frecuencia-Frequency/dp/B06XVQYF3N/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=arduino+passive+buzzer&qid=1626133228&sr=8-5</p><p>https://www.amazon.es/Vosarea-Charger-Adapter-Charging-Voltmeter/dp/B07YYYP2SH/ref=sr_1_8?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=usb+to+12v+car&qid=1626133271&sr=8-8</p><p>https://www.amazon.es/AZDelivery-128-160-p%C3%ADxeles-91-OLED/dp/B078J78R45/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=oled+128%2662+i2&qid=1626133375&sr=8-2</p><p>https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383588215448</p><p>Did I need the MEGA instead of a simple UNO? NO! but since the car is t be driven by my wife and the Display should be more informative I added the Oled Display.. that oled display (plus variables and libraries) consume A LOT of ram and the UNO doesn't really cut it. However if you are to simplify things with a simple warning and buzzer, the uno is more than enough.</p><p>So being a Polestar V50 T5 AWD and having an oled to fool around with, I've added a couple of boot logo and boot info before the real stuff. The code is here for my example and should be adapted to your own usage. </p><p><b><i>Describing the circuit:</i></b></p><p>The liquid level readers are glued with something tough (I recommend T-REX) on the top level and bottom level of the expansion tank.</p><p>I recommend you to run a 4 wire cable all the way from the arduino place within the car to the engine bay... one for ground one for 5V and 2 for 5V return (one per sensor).</p><p>I also recommend you to create a simple oled placeholder with a 3dprinter, or use a dremmel to grind the oled location within the dashboard, assuming there is space for that. </p><p>I recommend you to place the oled in front of the existing dash on a non obstructing part of the dash, and the buzzer behind it, so it send the audio buzzing to the dashboard and this amplifies and reflects back to the driver. </p><p>Evidently the red warning led should be placed in front of the oled.</p><p>Then It is rather easy. On my code I've setup variables according to pins, you can change those and have your own project divert.</p><p>Arduino Digital IO 4 - wire to positive terminal on the buzzer</p><p>Arduino Digital IO 5 - wire to positive LED terminal arduino relay<br /></p><p>Arduino Digital IO 6 - wire from Lower fluid level sensor RETURN line</p><p>Arduino Digital IO 7 - wire from Higher fluid level sensor RETURN line</p><p>Arduino Communication IO 20SDA - Oled SDA<br /></p><p>Arduino Communication IO 21SCL - Oled SCL</p><p>External 5V supply:</p><p> - Liquid Sensor 1 Voltage and ground<br /></p><p> - Liquid Sensor 2 Voltage and ground<br /></p><p> ***you can power the sensors directly on the 12v car supply, but then you need a voltage divider on the sensor return line to the arduino. I find it just easier to run a 5V supply on the sensors and reduce circuit complexity and add stability, as cars can output anywhere from 11V to 14v, depending on rpm.<br /></p><p>Arduino 5V :</p><p> - Oled VCC</p><p>Arduino GND:</p><p> - Buzzer Ground</p><p> - Led relay Ground<br /></p><p>12v-usb car adapter, to Ignition 12V and car ground... and then a usb cable on to your arduino.</p><p>Led :</p><p><span></span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>- ground to car ground and 12V to arduino replay module, then from replay module to ignition p1 power (a.k.a. - radio power). <br /></p><p><b><i>Logic is as follows:</i></b></p><p>- show volvo + polestar logo on boot</p><p>- show car setup (power and AWD)</p><p>- enter loop mode with coolant level display<br /></p><p>-If all coolant levels are good the return value is 2 and display that everything is OK</p><p>-If only the lower level is returning signal, then a refill message is displayed</p><p>-if both sensors are not returning, than coolant is bellow threshold and a Stop the car" message appears together with an annoying buzzer.</p><p>- if top sensor is returning value but the bottom is not, something is off and a "check system" message is issued with a less annoying buzzer. <br /></p><p><i><b>The code and STL file can be found here:</b></i></p><p><a href="https://github.com/mr1b31r0/ArduinoCarCoolantLevelWarning/tree/main">https://github.com/mr1b31r0/ArduinoCarCoolantLevelWarning/tree/main</a><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i><b>Some pictures of the project with some oled display info:</b></i></p><p></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>
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</b></i></div><i><b> </b></i><p></p><p><i><b>First Assembly - buzzer + display + enclosure:</b></i></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>
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</b></i></div><i><b>ground for display is shared with buzzer :) one less cable.</b></i><p></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>
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</b></i></div><i><b><br /></b></i><p></p><p><i><b>And a some poliurethane glue to bind things:</b></i></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>
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</b></i></div><i><b><br /></b></i><p></p><p><i><b>Next is the relay for the 12v bright led light:</b></i></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>
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</b></i></div><i><b><br /></b></i><p></p><p><i><b>And a small test drive:</b></i></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>
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</b></i></b></i></div><i><b><i><b><br /></b></i></b></i><p></p><p><i><b><i><b>Setting up the Relay module and led light (12V):</b></i></b></i></p><p><i><b><i><b> </b></i></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b><i><b>
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</b></i></b></i></div><i><b><i><b><br /></b></i></b></i><p></p><p><i><b><i><b>The sensors and some tests:</b></i></b></i></p><p><i><b><i><b> </b></i></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b><i><b>
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</b></i></b></i></div><i><b><i><b><br /></b></i></b></i><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="366" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FxFj5LuEKDo" width="440" youtube-src-id="FxFj5LuEKDo"></iframe> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mUKzUUxTGko/YQFTOmPQPvI/AAAAAAACBwU/cahayczrKsM_SOyp0f6gzJ8Eo8RDd0yVACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1627476789260489-10.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mUKzUUxTGko/YQFTOmPQPvI/AAAAAAACBwU/cahayczrKsM_SOyp0f6gzJ8Eo8RDd0yVACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1627476789260489-10.png" width="400" /></a></p> </div><p>
</p><p><i><b><i><b>The final install:</b></i></b></i></p><p></p><p><i><b><i><b> </b></i></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b><i><b><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="374" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mPeS4pXDIS8" width="450" youtube-src-id="mPeS4pXDIS8"></iframe></b></i></b></i></div><i><b><i><b><br /></b></i></b></i><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b><i><b>
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<img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4uuRd1zdciM/YQFTNAGmzZI/AAAAAAACBwQ/3GLdpuaQme87erdhAtfup7N0QjotIObCwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1627476785617277-11.png" width="400" />
</a>
</b></i></b></i></div><i><b><i><b><br /></b></i></b></i><p></p><p><i><br /><b><br /></b></i></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><p><br /></p>Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-35957368370192582232020-01-05T14:54:00.001+00:002020-02-20T21:25:48.892+00:00Why I've just declined an apparently brilliant deal? Seagate is why!I've been working in IT since 1995! well officially, unoficially it dates back to 1986.<br />
But with RAIDS, since 1997... I've worked with a number of hard disk arrays and vendors, since becoming certified in storage by HP, back in 97 or 98.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Yesterday,</i></b> a good friend called me with a flash deal. 6x 8TB sata HDD for 600 euro! New!<br />
<br />
I was inclined in taking it, but then I decided to make the smart question: Hi Harry, what's the drive brand?<br />
The reply was: Seagate!<br />
And I've passed it! Naturally.<br />
<br />
<i><b>So why</b></i>!? did Seagate, the makers of some of the best drives I've used back in the ATA and SCSI days?<br />
<br />
I work with around 19 RAID at work and 4 at home... all running 24x7... and I've recently been over a simple statistic on hard-drive failures that is just explanatory:<br />
<br />
<i>Hard Drive Fail per brand 2.5" and 3.5":</i><br />
Seagate - 98%<br />
Samsung - 70%<br />
WesternDigital - 3%<br />
Hitachi - 0%<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Hard Drive Fail without possible software recovery within 1 week of buying:</i><br />
Seagate - 90%<br />
Samsung - 0%<br />
WesternDigital - 0%<br />
Hitachi - 0%<br />
<br />
<i>Hard Drive Fail within 1 year of buying 24x7 NAS or RAID usage:</i><br />
Seagate - 8%<br />
Samsung - 60%<br />
WesternDigital - 0%<br />
Hitachi - 0%<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Hard Drive Fail over 1Year and suffering a Datacenter cooling failure (one of the best ways to loose the reading head on a hard drive):</i><br />
<br />
Samsung - 10%<br />
WesternDigital - 2%<br />
Hitachi - 0%<br />
<br />
<i>Hard Drive Fail on USB hard-drive with over one year and backup-restore with moving between locations :</i><br />
WesternDigital - 1%<br />
<br />
<i><b>Now comes the conclusion:</b></i><br />
Clearly, if you want to sleep at night, you will NOT BUY SEAGATE! Easy One!<br />
But is the drive failure a quality problem or mis-usage?<br />
<br />
Well the remaining 2% of hard drives are equals of most the ones that failed, operating under the same circumstances over similar periods... and one of the failed drives is a "Seagate constellation", operating under redundant temperature controlled datacenter, and used for backup, and not high load... so clearly a quality issue.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Today, </b></i>If Seagate offered me HDs for free, I would just go pay and buy some Hitachi or WesternDigital... hell those, I would even buy second-hand and be cool with it.<br />
<br />
Samsung... well let's just stick with silicon as they clearly are better with SSD than mechanical drives... still, they've managed better than the industry giant Seagate. <br />
<br />
<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-60977857726677479772017-07-19T23:39:00.000+01:002017-07-19T23:39:40.396+01:00Blackberry Z30 end of Whatsapp support...is easy to solveHi all<br />
<br />
If, like me, you are a Blackberry 10.x user, you have probably been using FastTube for years not... not not and gave up like me... and then a couple of nights ago, was forced to stop using Whatsapp.<br />
That annoying "switch to a supported device please" message that makes you furious to the core.<br />
<br />
I've always been an android user... I have 3 android phones, 4 android tablets... and I must say I can live with android (normally after removing the operator and manufacturer bloat-ware)... but my side kick? my pocket secretary? that's the blackberry. It's always been, and I really hate that the community "try and force me out of something without first building something better for me to move to".<br />
<br />
It's an easy (economics like) step to say "whatsapp is free, you need to use the devices we tell you to use"... but there is a reason why brilliant people are taught engineering at college instead of economics.<br />
<br />
I hate those "non engineering, all economics, brainless decisions" and I also love a good challenge. So I took 5 minutes to digg deeper into this.<br />
<br />
So sure the BB whatsapp is no longer supported... uninstall that crap, it will never work again.<br />
However, the brilliance of BB system 10.x is that is has embedded android libraries as standard. That is why you can download .apk files and run it.<br />
The problem is that most of those libraries are accessed by the GUI and the GUI from BB was built to use it's own functions.<br />
<br />
Solution? Well why not installing a GUI manager for Android. Grab the "Nova launcher" APK and install it. All you need is to have BB OS 10.2 up... I'm using 10.3. The other APK you really need is the Playstore apk. Even if it does not run, some APK's check for it at launch so "being there" is important.<br />
<br />
One of the apks that you can install is the Watsapp apk... and believe-me... it runs perfectly.<br />
<br />
No need to buy a new phone... just to digg into the BB OS10 project and be amazed with the similarities between the 2 xNIX platforms and their respective support framework.<br />
<br />
Long live BB10<br />
<br />
<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-5394457344537604292016-08-26T02:08:00.003+01:002016-10-13T13:43:15.477+01:00The House of an audiophile Part 2 - The Cinema and Games roomThis article is pretty useless without first reading the <a href="http://totaltechtalks.blogspot.pt/2016/08/the-house-of-audiophile-part-1-living.html" target="_blank">Part1</a>, so if you haven't read that you will not understand the whys in this one.<br />
<br />
Ok so I dealt with the first part of the problem with Part1... but that still leaves me with the even bigger, even more asymmetrical, prone to echoes and natural amplification of sound Cinema and Games Room. <br />
There is another catch: the living room was supposed to have good sound, but this has to have good and powerful sound! If I'm having a party, this will be the disco.<br />
<br />
The geometry, already discusses in Part 1 is...<br />
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<br />
...challenging.<br />
<br />
So, again, after several tests and trials, and the obvious usage of my Galaxy Alpha phone as a sound analyser, I managed to sort things out this way: (for the geeks sake, I'm starting will the schematics and all the goodies, and I'll explain as I go.<br />
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<br />
OK so this is far more complex (starting with the inputs... being a cinema and game room and all)!<br />
<br />
The inputs start with the so full of glamour and on of the best CDPlayers EVER made the Nakamichi CD2P-E. This thing has been recapped and ouptup XOver trimmed so that all the possible musical details are pickup. This is an example of why a good old 16Bit DAC CDPlayer can eclipse an modern 24bit DAC cd player... I could talk for a year on this, but in very simple terms, think that the analog sound wave that you hear, once digitized is converted to a sort of bar chart of what the music would look like. Obviously, this loses resolution and that is why a true audiophile prefers vinils to CD's.<br />
However, there are some excellent designs out there that can "imagine" the gap between the bars and recover the lost sound-wave. Some are good.. some are great and some are gods.<br />
So in this sense, more bits = more resolution = better sound...no! CD's where recorded with a specific bit-stream in mind... having more bits does not mean that you have more resolution out of the CD, but rather you can decode more at once, and that allows you to have a bit-stream comparison on the recreation of the sound wave that could reduce conversion error.... so a 8 parallel chip 16bit circuit will easily eclipse a state of the art 24bit DAC (if the 16bit chips are really good).<br />
<br />
Back then, while Philips created the TDA1541A 16bit DAC chip (and they did a VERY good job at that), they also created what is called a reference diagram, so that integrators could follow and create their own design. These diagrams normally are a schematic build to make the chip work and they are build long before the chip is made... so, by other words, no one ever tested the diagram.<br />
Pioneer, sony, and all the other except Nakamichi and Arcam, decided to copy-paste the schematic and sell cd players.<br />
Did it work? yes! Where they any good?.. no! they where all mostly dull and flat. Nakamichi and Arcam, however, waited for the chip, built their board based on the reference but not blindly, and then tweaked the output and voila! They unlocked the secrets of the brilliance of Philips TDA1541a chip design.<br />
It is one of the best DAC out there!<br />
<br />
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The CD2P is rare for being very pure and precise in sound image, and shows you the best details in sound. It's that sort of player that makes you re-listen to all your collection because there was just too much you where missing.<br />
<br />
<br />
As usual, loving he best ever build and being a child from the 70's-80's, I have my Amiga 1200 Tower connected to my media sytem.<br />
You can see it here:<br />
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The rest is the typical Nintendo Wii, a Sony PS3 and a Roku3.<br />
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<i><b>The AVR:</b></i><br />
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The AVR is a Denon4306... a true beast<br />
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This, is directly driving the Front L+R, the Midle L+R and the Rear L+R... and then it pre-outs the subwoofer and the Rear and Center channel to a set of slave amplifiers. The direct drive from the Denon outputs 8Ohm at 130RMS watts, and given the generous size of the capacitors, it's no wonder it can drive the speakers without getting tired when a lot of bass kicks in. The Denon has a capacity to resist starvation that is not all that common.<br />
<br />
<br />
The central front slave to the Denon is no less than a Marantz PM55SE... yes it is a Ken Ishiwata tuned PM55... special edition. <br />
A beauty...with a total harmonic distortion of 0.02%<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AG54avbK1ek/V7-GCddNqBI/AAAAAAAAMtA/LocN1oF_haw9c5oT4gNEPG1s_KRLZllkACLcB/s1600/BW-DM305.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AG54avbK1ek/V7-GCddNqBI/AAAAAAAAMtA/LocN1oF_haw9c5oT4gNEPG1s_KRLZllkACLcB/s320/BW-DM305.jpg" width="241" /></a>This then drives directly a pair of B&W DM305. The 305 was an interesting project.<br />
B&W where on the quest for a deep bass speaker made form light materials, that could reproduce across the range and not suffer form brittleness form the light materials resonance, and still provide some bass. <br />
They created a Prism design backplane for the speaker that mimics the attenuator foam form the walls of any sound proof room.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-leg9_EeSpm0/V7-GB8P7VZI/AAAAAAAAMso/vs1cHpe44cAhqeW9OCF537FSg0XOAaMRACLcB/s1600/3052.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-leg9_EeSpm0/V7-GB8P7VZI/AAAAAAAAMso/vs1cHpe44cAhqeW9OCF537FSg0XOAaMRACLcB/s400/3052.jpg" width="275" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sbWq31YB2Ts/V7-GBwC6lZI/AAAAAAAAMss/aS2rvJe1344W_FCv5ejDphHRTEUl8xDxQCLcB/s1600/305.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sbWq31YB2Ts/V7-GBwC6lZI/AAAAAAAAMss/aS2rvJe1344W_FCv5ejDphHRTEUl8xDxQCLcB/s320/305.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Did they succeed? NO! the bass is to soft (probably attenuated by the prism), however, they are EXCELLENT to reproduce voice channels... like the typical "dialogue" assignment that a THX system enrols the central channel into. So an initial deception as main speakers, transformed into a solution for the central channel. Driven by a powerlfull bu low distortion amp.<br />
<br />
<br />
Back to the Amps... so I talked about the front, so how about the reinforced back?<br />
The room architecture meant that rear needed power, so instead of buying
extra big speakers and loose HIFI, I chose to spread the frequencies
across multiple speakers and make a "sound wall".<br />
<br />
Welcome to my faithful Marantz PRO PM4400 <br />
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Once again, I turn to Marantz this time seeking power and precision.<br />
This beast is directly driving:<br />
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The Mission 773 pair and the Celestion Impact s1 10"sub<br />
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The Missions will be talked about soon enought, so let's look at the celestion! This 10" driver with it's own poweramp and XOver, is able of going below 30Hz (normally you would go for a 12" and more to run below 30hz). we can;t however forget that celestion is the brand behing most rock concerts speakers, the bass stations on most dance clubs and, last but not least, a major builder and suplier of drivers for other speaker manufacturers.<br />
Yes, their driver can go bellow 30Hz and still be able to go up to 150Hz because of the stiff and light construction. <br />
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But we are not done with the Marantz PM4400 yet.... out of the back of the Celestion, Xover to 150Hz and up, there are a couple of Mission 772 on a pair of ATACAMA stands.<br />
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Now lets look at the speakers that the Denon drives directly:<br />
Starting with the back (since we where already there), a pair of Mission 774<br />
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On the Middle we have a pair of very powerfull and robust Wharfedale XARUS 4000:<br />
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The finally, the best sounding speakers for the money ever built, driven direclty by the Denon on the front R+L channels, a pair of Mission 782.<br />
These are very peculiar speakers that have a very interesting history, please read all about it <a href="http://totaltechtalks.blogspot.pt/2016/02/mission-782-repair.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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We can't forget that the mid-to low bass is output by a KEF 1000.2<br />
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The result? please have some pictures:</div>
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This is a Video of the Sound quality and image, with "The Verve's - Happy Man" brutal guitar:<br />
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Here, it is clear that the camera mic is on the limit with just a simple guitar playing as -20db, and when I up to -10db is just distorts the pickup sound. But believe-me... the listening experience is flawless if you have ears instead of a cheap MIC.<br />
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And this is a video demonstrating how easy this handles pure bass, at volume, without distortion or brittleness:<br />
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Without surprise, the Mic is not able to perform at -20db with a bass full music, the 10db is just pure distortion on the MIC.<br />
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However, looking at the graphs several conclusions can be taken on both videos:<br />
<ol>
<li>The system is reproducing at 24hz frequency and performs all the way up to 20khz without gaps</li>
<li>When the volume is increased, the system increases db's without compromising the frequencies... they all grow proportionally.</li>
<li>The Bass (hard to equalize) is maintaining the volume without gaining HUMMMMsss or becoming excessive.</li>
<li>The volume at -20db is enough to overwhelm a Splash Action cam's mic...with rock!</li>
<li>The 772 and 773 speakers are operating near the limit on the -10db with bass sound, I'll try to attenuate this in the future, so i can go all the way up to 0db and eventually end up without windows in my place :)</li>
</ol>
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<br />
Now about the Missions... all the 772, 773, 774, 782... together with my M73i, V62 and the Mission built Denon SCM51.<br />
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Some would ask, do you have a mission fetish? <br />
No! I have an engineering over economics fetish... that's why.<br />
It's easy to grab the best materials out there and, not minding cost, build a decent speaker that the client would buy for gazillion euro and perform nicely!<br />
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Mission is that brand that (in the old days) invested a lot of engineering time trying to create a speaker design that performed the best, and then try to replicate that design with materials that would cost less, so the client would not need to overpay (sometimes this came back to bite them, but some years in and a small research can turn this around in your favour... see my Mission 782 article).<br />
The result is that most OLD missions sound better than their price range. But every now and then they build a product that rockets out of their standard into stratospheric performance.<br />
The 782 is an example of that! It sounds better than speakers costing 10 times as much. Much like the M73i and V62 (after properly sanded with a minimum 2kg of sand) can sound better than speakers that cost 4 to 5 times as much.<br />
The 772, 773 and 774 are a family of speakers that are excellent performers for the price... but within this family, the 774 is the excel. It just sings through the entire frequency range without a fuss.... it's far better than the cost.<br />
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Why? Well, just like B&W has John Bowers, Marantz has Ken Ishiwata, Mission had Peter Comeau.<br />
Most speaker I buy are designs produced by or supervised by Peter Comeau. We seem to like the same things and that is very good... plus I love the idea of not paying for others laziness (nor marketing... hence not owning a single Bang&Olufsen).<br />
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Hope you like this article... more will follow are there are 5 other audio systems that make me very happy and proud... and will make their way into the next 5 articles, so stay tuned.<br />
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<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-56896665048333790312016-08-25T23:19:00.005+01:002016-08-26T02:10:20.518+01:00The House of an audiophile Part 1 - The Living RoomEqualizing the impossible:<br />
<br />
I'm very happy with my new house and the so very cool 2 living-rooms divided by a mezzanine thing. <br />
So I decided to transform the top living room into a "cinema and game room"... while the downstairs living room stays as such.<br />
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Problem? Well there is a point in which I'll have to equip with some decent audio, and taking into consideration the size and geometry of the 2 rooms I was in for a challenge.<br />
Why? well I love hi-fi, so big speakers and loads of volume would solve the room size problem... and kill quality and sound image while creating weird re-verbs and echoes. <br />
So I started a project of trial and error till I had everything I wanted. <br />
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Lets start with the problem:<br />
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OK, so I have a Big room sized as an amplifier cone, all with hard surfaces, but then with a bottom cut on the back that leads to another big room. <br />
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Then on the bottom room, I have a change form 3 to 6 meters in hight, asymetric and in the middle of the room, right where the big and bass eating sofa will be placed.<br />
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Things do not seem easy.<br />
<br />
So lets start by the Bottom Room, the living room with a bass propagation problem and a excessive treble at the rear issue:<br />
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I love movies, so my buy was an LG 65" LCD 3D TV.... that consumes almost all available space between the entry door and the fireplace... right in front of the extendible sofa with chaise-long...perfect.<br />
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Managing the AV system is an HarmanKardon AVR355 7.1 system. Very involving and warmed sound amp.<br />
The HK355 then feeds the central, front and rear channels to a Bose Acoustimass system. I know there are a lot of haters for the BOSE acoustimass system out there, but bare in mind this was chosen after several tests for an even distribution of sound...hence the usage of the JEWEL dual Cubes instead of the single cubes.<br />
This then leaves the middle channel to a pair of brilliant B&W RockSolid speakers.<br />
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This builds a basic and respectable 7.1 system capable of handling most frequencies... but no earthquake bass.<br />
So another Subwoofer was added. After several tries ranging from a kef 1000.2 to a custom made 10", and locating every possible place on the room, I decided to reinforce the pure bass with a B&W ASW500, and place it pointing the sofa and in the middle of the room, right under the 3mts to 6mts ceiling high transition.<br />
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Everything seemed perfect, however, listening to music at the dining table at the back of the room (on the 6mts high ceiling section), sound seemed brittle and unbalanced... I tamed it down a bit by removing volume on the rear channel, but then that lost the detail on 7.1 movies every time something was coming in from behind!<br />
It was clear that High-Low bass from the Bose acoustimass sub was not passing the sofa and having pointed the B&W rock solids to the middle of the sofa, the mid's where not propagating outside that area.<br />
SO, I grabbed an excellent NAD302, fed it to the pre-out output on the HK355 for the middle channel and then managed a prodigious pair of Castle Acoustics Knight5 for it to drive.<br />
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Placing the Knights was easy too... right where the room grows from 3mts to 6mts, slightly towards the 6mts area.<br />
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Conclusion? a clean, perfect sound that, after some tweaking got balanced across the full range from the low 32hz to the higher frequencies.<br />
The listening experience is prime in the sofa, but very good everywhere in the room, the sound image and detail is amazing, and it's clear that the BOSE system can handle voice channels very well, but they are eclipsed with easy by the B&W RockSolid and the amazing Castle Acoustics.<br />
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So schematics for the geeks:<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zuNVN24IE9o/V788nrEy2UI/AAAAAAAAMoM/S_W0lBlCN4k9KDdyIjGVVUJJJjaZF3gxwCLcB/s1600/DiagramSala.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zuNVN24IE9o/V788nrEy2UI/AAAAAAAAMoM/S_W0lBlCN4k9KDdyIjGVVUJJJjaZF3gxwCLcB/s640/DiagramSala.png" width="570" /></a></div>
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So the trick to make the BOSE system bearable (yes I know they are expensive and not brilliant, but they are very powerfull for the size and allow me to distribute sound better than a single Kef EGG and less open than a bipolar setup... believe-me I' have them all and tried them all)...so the trick... do not allow them ever to go under 200Hz... on only they sound fuzzy, you can also burn them up. <br />
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Again, the trick to make the acoustimass fake Subwoofer (it is actually a resonance box with 2 internal, very stiff, 6" woofers that either blow at the same time for a lower frequency response, of individually for a mid-bass range)... is not to drive it below 80Hz... yes it can do that, but it is not the comfort zone and it is also pointless if you have a big room with a bigger sofa in front of it... so just allow it to work the 80hz to the 160hz zone and he will be happy as a kid in xmas. <br />
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So pure bass that makes the earthquake in the movie a thing of reality in your room: Welcome to B&W ASW500. I chose this because with a 10" long-throw front faced driver, fed by a internal 70W amp. Unlike most designs I tested (down firing designs), this front firing model with a down firing resonance amplifier is the best choice for the current furniture setup.<br />
This sends most of the powerfull soundwave directly into the sofa, and the eco on the living room is the resonance output effect, minimizing the HUMMM effect that was so obvious with the down-firing designs. This beast is XOvered to work the 30 to 80Hz range.<br />
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So we have covered 30 to 80Hz, then 80 to 160Hz and then 200Hz to 20KHz. The Jewels Dual Cube allow for distribution, making the sound fill the room without the need to pump the volume up, avoiding high pitch echoes and uncomfortable listening spots.<br />
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Yes.... that leaves a gap on the 160hz to 200hz range... but fear no more... B&W is here. The RockSolids are a thing of wonder.... product of a disagreement between the 2 major partners at B&W - back then, the engineer was trying to experiment new materials with the standard designs while the artist was not happy with that and was pointing investment towards new case designs more on the "sound furniture style".... they split and the engineer decided to create RockSolid Sounds, and eager to try new materials, experimented on this model creating a 150W capable wonder. They then buried their "tomahawks" and fused the 2 companies together. This design fathered today's DM1 series... however it is far more ugly and that is why I like it... the ugly part is the result of an old design sound box that server the engineering purpose. Consequence? The Rock Solids sound better than the beautiful DM1 they fathered.<br />
These things can work form 75hz to 20kHz! however, the physical limitation of a small driver putting out big quantities of air is clear and that is why a good Sub is over 8" big. So they are XOver at 120Hz to the 20Khz limit.<br />
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We are then left with the room side and weird geometry solution. While B&W where fighting over the external design of their speakers, trying to build "sound furniture", at Castle, they've always bee there. Every speaker is made from natural wood, carved by artisans. They also have a Dual Pipe technology, that channels air through several wooden compartments on the speakers body (much like a exhaust muffler, only sophisticated and matured to perfection... they don't sound good... they sound really really good! In practice, the speaker is a true 3 way design, but each mid and mid-low driver has it's own compartment and sound pipe to work the resonance down and up the speaker body...it doesn’t sound... it's like it sings instead.<br />
They are connected to the award winning NAD 302 and the result is a very composed and warm sound. <br />
These are not crossed over... the NAD receives a pre-amp bypass from the AVR and amplifies it, then the internal XOvers on the speaker will split the high, mid and mid-low and allow the resonance pipes to work their magic.<br />
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The result is a very balanced output, across all the frequency range.. and qith the NAD running tone-defeat and the Harman-Kardon too, I have literally no distortion up to the 0DB resistance limit on the HK... sure that by then the B&W rock solids cones are almost jumping out of their structure, but the castles compensate whatever they lose to low frequencies and it is almost imperceptible. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qrqBcxKBxv4/V78v0LSkWfI/AAAAAAAAMn4/TESRM6umUVQXMdH33a9uwa5Z0AhrWKveQCLcB/s1600/LivingRoom_speakers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qrqBcxKBxv4/V78v0LSkWfI/AAAAAAAAMn4/TESRM6umUVQXMdH33a9uwa5Z0AhrWKveQCLcB/s400/LivingRoom_speakers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Some pictures of the living room:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YZ_6O4kCyo8/V79qixmRsRI/AAAAAAAAMrA/u0fTQPBMmCs2CP00Hk8yHPI9uEKvAYHDACLcB/s1600/20160825_195424.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YZ_6O4kCyo8/V79qixmRsRI/AAAAAAAAMrA/u0fTQPBMmCs2CP00Hk8yHPI9uEKvAYHDACLcB/s640/20160825_195424.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Here you can see the LG Tv, under it, you can see the custom made cabinet for the amps and the acoustimass bass module. On both corners an center on the ceiling line you can see the Jewel Dual Cubes placed to distribute sound as even as possible.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iowWPZieppg/V79qb-PTuvI/AAAAAAAAMpo/HYDIBITxNLQRK-kIDkQxcM8RBEjbxcQzwCLcB/s1600/20160825_174544.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iowWPZieppg/V79qb-PTuvI/AAAAAAAAMpo/HYDIBITxNLQRK-kIDkQxcM8RBEjbxcQzwCLcB/s320/20160825_174544.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8lcUz5HBd2Y/V79qbuWsnoI/AAAAAAAAMpk/Yr37ukHk91QV-QZNUp9WOXAPEVdm5INMwCLcB/s1600/20160825_174535.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8lcUz5HBd2Y/V79qbuWsnoI/AAAAAAAAMpk/Yr37ukHk91QV-QZNUp9WOXAPEVdm5INMwCLcB/s200/20160825_174535.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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Here in detail, the Jewel Dual Cube angles<br />
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Here are details on the HK AVR355 and the NAD, together with the Bose Acoustimass bass module<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t_55DF9WUeU/V79qch_P14I/AAAAAAAAMpw/C5q5IBtygjIwX7P63QkXOgKXgXKR-Gf7ACLcB/s1600/20160825_174624.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t_55DF9WUeU/V79qch_P14I/AAAAAAAAMpw/C5q5IBtygjIwX7P63QkXOgKXgXKR-Gf7ACLcB/s320/20160825_174624.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QySA4bdflCY/V79qcZQZTYI/AAAAAAAAMps/fJhzmlHyvysdde0jk1w91mpN511kOYawwCLcB/s1600/20160825_174616.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QySA4bdflCY/V79qcZQZTYI/AAAAAAAAMps/fJhzmlHyvysdde0jk1w91mpN511kOYawwCLcB/s400/20160825_174616.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-asVIgm0khkQ/V79qbb9XGlI/AAAAAAAAMpc/dJ4qebkzI2wxLb1oea5sWeHxGAc7-_jlACLcB/s1600/20160825_174521.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-asVIgm0khkQ/V79qbb9XGlI/AAAAAAAAMpc/dJ4qebkzI2wxLb1oea5sWeHxGAc7-_jlACLcB/s320/20160825_174521.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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The brilliant B&W RockSolids can be seen here in detail, and the 2 pictures bellow show them on the corners of the image, pointing to the sofa. <br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xzf87WXzgfo/V79qcTIVfZI/AAAAAAAAMp8/QQxHwBykxtE3OzRKST9mI4VF490w1BPwgCLcB/s1600/20160825_174550.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xzf87WXzgfo/V79qcTIVfZI/AAAAAAAAMp8/QQxHwBykxtE3OzRKST9mI4VF490w1BPwgCLcB/s400/20160825_174550.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K-pgZPbgYeo/V79qkLxOTvI/AAAAAAAAMrQ/z0dm4xytt6gamJCKqebupp14x1gmkMcCwCLcB/s1600/20160825_195528.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K-pgZPbgYeo/V79qkLxOTvI/AAAAAAAAMrQ/z0dm4xytt6gamJCKqebupp14x1gmkMcCwCLcB/s400/20160825_195528.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b0yske9FN-s/V79qkgByfEI/AAAAAAAAMrU/y7wmz30RcF08FYBQSLUYokQsDuhF7x64ACLcB/s1600/20160825_195541.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b0yske9FN-s/V79qkgByfEI/AAAAAAAAMrU/y7wmz30RcF08FYBQSLUYokQsDuhF7x64ACLcB/s400/20160825_195541.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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At the rear of the room, you can see the other jewel cubes in an elevated, pointing angled down position... and also the difference in hight that that part of the room has.<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zSq5ot3P0S8/V79qmCl4sdI/AAAAAAAAMrk/XDqpi5Q4xigrNkEfkfcPsvJ5AbDaJRwcwCLcB/s1600/20160825_195637.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zSq5ot3P0S8/V79qmCl4sdI/AAAAAAAAMrk/XDqpi5Q4xigrNkEfkfcPsvJ5AbDaJRwcwCLcB/s640/20160825_195637.jpg" width="360" /></a><br />
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Now exactly where the room changes to a higher ceiling, I've placed the castles and the ASW500, see? <br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7BrsAijfnts/V79qlg4buKI/AAAAAAAAMrg/sc0VxkFRuDYHWASXRSKteqMIJ7YjSGjBgCLcB/s1600/20160825_195619.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7BrsAijfnts/V79qlg4buKI/AAAAAAAAMrg/sc0VxkFRuDYHWASXRSKteqMIJ7YjSGjBgCLcB/s400/20160825_195619.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XV1OnRc_yFM/V79qk6gib-I/AAAAAAAAMrY/ThbEbZKgwZAxXj3ErPUh_cVdOdn_2scdACLcB/s1600/20160825_195549.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XV1OnRc_yFM/V79qk6gib-I/AAAAAAAAMrY/ThbEbZKgwZAxXj3ErPUh_cVdOdn_2scdACLcB/s400/20160825_195549.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
... and again here...<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WOq2O85lbzs/V79ql3GKCbI/AAAAAAAAMro/EZ44B8AGcTMv6Y5b9RcIQlaypxqBy0FOgCLcB/s1600/20160825_195609.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WOq2O85lbzs/V79ql3GKCbI/AAAAAAAAMro/EZ44B8AGcTMv6Y5b9RcIQlaypxqBy0FOgCLcB/s400/20160825_195609.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kYm6FyhLttY/V79qlFanIBI/AAAAAAAAMrc/MuKznQ8pxiwn8Hn5BbwubkhyJppXTCrtACLcB/s1600/20160825_195557.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kYm6FyhLttY/V79qlFanIBI/AAAAAAAAMrc/MuKznQ8pxiwn8Hn5BbwubkhyJppXTCrtACLcB/s400/20160825_195557.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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And to finish, the 2 beauties:<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jR5sgU7W-K4/V79qjw2jG7I/AAAAAAAAMrM/kHH2ov1QDWca3uyc54kI1xQY8Y6pWRagQCLcB/s1600/20160825_195503.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jR5sgU7W-K4/V79qjw2jG7I/AAAAAAAAMrM/kHH2ov1QDWca3uyc54kI1xQY8Y6pWRagQCLcB/s400/20160825_195503.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_sePvMSPLQE/V79qdTe2IrI/AAAAAAAAMqA/wd6NDLwE0LYkSG7wt9439ZYKAnA5jvnhwCLcB/s1600/20160825_174651.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_sePvMSPLQE/V79qdTe2IrI/AAAAAAAAMqA/wd6NDLwE0LYkSG7wt9439ZYKAnA5jvnhwCLcB/s400/20160825_174651.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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And that's it... the Living room is done and it is perfect. There where a lot of spares form the tests but I have other rooms I can use them in :) .<br />
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So Part 1 is done... next, <a href="http://totaltechtalks.blogspot.pt/2016/08/the-house-of-audiophile-part-2-cinema.html" target="_blank">Part 2 - The Cinema and Game Room</a>... where I will have to deal with disco style amplification and the so needed NO distortions and excellent sound image, personal demand.<br />
<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-30502144423778303982016-04-15T12:57:00.003+01:002016-04-16T11:08:01.932+01:00Top Watch TW061 - Smartwatch - Good simple, not perfect, but useless without the instructions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As a good father, I worry about the well being of my precious young daughter.<br />
So, in Christmas, I gave her a TOPWatch TW061.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HwiYABFu62I/VxDZiv5fG7I/AAAAAAAAMc0/nUIzTqdgYnMKbdH81agSdiH_iHS_MrBDgCLcB/s1600/71%252BiA7BtCfL._SL1024_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HwiYABFu62I/VxDZiv5fG7I/AAAAAAAAMc0/nUIzTqdgYnMKbdH81agSdiH_iHS_MrBDgCLcB/s320/71%252BiA7BtCfL._SL1024_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Making a long story short, the watch if nice and it is exactly what I wanted:</div>
<ul>
<li>cute pink silicon enclosure (other colours are available)</li>
<li>analogue watch (doesn't give it away and makes you kid think when checking for time).</li>
<li>Water resistant</li>
<li>3 dial buttons + 1 sos (runs all numbers till one accepts the call)</li>
<li>Induction charge mode (no plugs, no plugs to get dirty, moisture and/or to fail in time)</li>
<li>Excellent price</li>
<li>White-list. Bye bye salesman calling your kid trying to sell... whatever they what to sell.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v0i1b81Vy20/VxDZiGMJ2bI/AAAAAAAAMco/1oIH8O_ZLGADwR2VQtR6IIVL-jDEvYVHQCLcB/s1600/61LbI5ZtBnL._SL1024_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v0i1b81Vy20/VxDZiGMJ2bI/AAAAAAAAMco/1oIH8O_ZLGADwR2VQtR6IIVL-jDEvYVHQCLcB/s320/61LbI5ZtBnL._SL1024_.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nub_7d4gWf0/VxDZi1fJ7iI/AAAAAAAAMcw/H9mwX_Q4TrspP78K0CZYKnu96vgfIs-fQCLcB/s1600/711a0cuNqiL._SL1024_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nub_7d4gWf0/VxDZi1fJ7iI/AAAAAAAAMcw/H9mwX_Q4TrspP78K0CZYKnu96vgfIs-fQCLcB/s320/711a0cuNqiL._SL1024_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Not so good:<br />
<ul>
<li>no instructions. It does have a set of papers but calling that a quick reference guide is insulting.</li>
<li>poor autonomy (4 hours- 6 if you tweak the GPS and GPRS send interval)</li>
<li>Stability... every now and then a reboot is good to keep it running perfectly.</li>
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So this GPS-watch allows you to call your kids, see where they are at a specific point in time, allows your kid to call you and even call any one of the 3 numbers automatically once the SOS is triggered.<br />
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Simple and straight right?Why oh why did I write this article then? Well the lack of instructions makes it particularly difficult to run. <br />
Lucky me that I was the IT and Project Manager behind Localiser S.A. (a GPS positioning for safety purpose company we had in Portugal in the years 2005 to 2007). That allowed me to, together with a small help from the HTCmania forum (http://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=1075947), quickly understand the messaging format and probe the watch's system with SMS's until I managed to understand how to configure it.<br />
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You can configure everything with SMS's, but the mobile app is a much better interface... as long as you manage to configure the 2/3g apn... and that is the miracle setting no one seems to find.<br />
So how do you configure it:<br />
<ol>
<li>unbox let it charge for a couple of hours. Then use the supplied screwdriver tool to open the watch, take note of the IMEI number on the sticker, you will need that latter on.</li>
<li>Add a gprs/2g/3g enabled SIM card to the phone and close the cover. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE cover is nicely placed, screwed and the rubber seal makes a perfect insulation... fail to do this and kiss the "water resistant" feature good bye.</li>
<li>Turn on the "smart core" by pressing the on button. The watch will play a song while booting up.</li>
<li>Use a mobile phone to send the configuration setting for the APN. The watch will play another sound and reply via SMS with a "Data account set OK" message. Fail to do this and the phone will forever be Geolocated in "Shenzeng factory".</li>
<li>Use googleplay to download the app "Kids Care"</li>
<li>Create an account and add a device by entering the IMEI on the phone as the app requests. If you failled to do so, just send an sms to the watch with the command *6* and it will reply with the IMEI.</li>
<li>The use the app settings panels to setup the button numbers and whitelist</li>
<li>Very important... reboot the phone when it stops replying "setting OK" and when you finish configuring the phone</li>
</ol>
You can also do all the configuration and grab the positions by SMS.<br />
here are the entire command set to configure the phone (the 5 is by far the most important NOT TO MISS):<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*1*<i> </i></b><i>-> GET GPS position from watch via SMS</i><br />
<br />
<b>*2#N1#N2#N3* </b><i> -> SET the 1, 2 and 3 button dialling numbers</i><br />
<br />
<b>*3*</b> <i>-> GET the configures numbers for the 1,2 and 3 dial buttons </i><br />
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<b>*4* </b><i>-> CALL BACK (the phone calls you and enters "spy mode" so you can hear what is happening</i><br />
<br />
<b>*5#apn.mobileoperator.country#username#password*</b> <i>-> SET APN so the phone gets internet connection. in my case this was: *5#net2.vodafone.pt#vodafone#vodafone*</i><br />
<br />
<b>*6*</b> <i>-> GET IMEI</i><br />
<br />
<b>*7#N1#N2#Nx* </b><i>-> SET the white-list numbers</i><br />
<i></i><br />
<b>*8*</b> <i>-> GET the white-list numbers</i><br />
<br />
<br />
This is it... after the APN setting everything works from the mobile app, so I guess that the lack of the documentation is what is generating so much negative feedback on Amazon.<br />
<br />
If you have any questions, post them and I will try to help.<br />
<br />
***UPDATE***<br />
<br />
I decided to write this article as the Amazon community keeps sending me emails about people having trouble with this watch and asking for my help... then I started replying with the link to this blog and Amazon started cutting the posts as it includes URLs!<br />
Not commenting on amazon safety policy regarding people posting URLs... they make sense... but if you are going to send me emails asking for my help, then at least try to review the reply before censoring it.... or stop counting me on for helping YOU TO SELL THE PRODUCTS and the SUPPORT THEM FOR FREE, amazon!Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-87869342727229959682016-02-14T02:25:00.001+00:002018-09-07T11:56:03.800+01:00Mission 782 repair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
--- EDIT - please scroll to the bottom of this article for the edit ---</div>
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Hi everyone.</div>
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It seems that I'm having as much bad luck in transportation services, as I'm having good luck in auction items.</div>
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I've been looking for a pair of floor standing mission "old school" speakers.</div>
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There is a reason for that: old school mission speakers where made-in the UK (not China like later ones), with excellent craftsmanship and even better engineering. </div>
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As newer models have been labeled dull and flat, old models, particularly the ones using fixed vented pole designs for the midrange drivers, where something to look for and then keep with.</div>
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The mission engineers managed to match the crossovers to the perfect driver for that type of frequency response. This brilliantly mated combination, produces results comparable to speakers costing 5 to 10 times as much. This, to me, was Mission's trademark... archiving results through efficient engineering, beating "costly materials and drivers" with brain. It has everything to do with me...engineering instead blindly mixing expensive components and then making the client pay for it, claiming the old "exclusivity" excuse. </div>
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Don't get me wrong; good materials produce better results, it's just that whenever not so good materials with good engineering produce the same results, then the obvious conclusion is that applying the same engineering effort to better materials would give your client a better "ride for the money"... mission did that for some time and I absolutely respect that.</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">The 782 are a perfect example of what mission used to be:</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-43FHO_t7_Ow/Vr8xwgHE3GI/AAAAAAAAMZM/SwDaU9lzWcA/s1600/m78202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-43FHO_t7_Ow/Vr8xwgHE3GI/AAAAAAAAMZM/SwDaU9lzWcA/s320/m78202.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Back to my history: after a lot of searching and some frustration trying to convince some ebay traders that there was no difference on shipping a pair of speakers 10 miles of 10.000 miles, one very nice lady accepted my challenge and allowed me to bid on a pair of 782.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DI4tHNQ2Fk8/Vr8uXPUBIzI/AAAAAAAAMZE/435OUDtTMfo/s1600/mission%2B782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DI4tHNQ2Fk8/Vr8uXPUBIzI/AAAAAAAAMZE/435OUDtTMfo/s320/mission%2B782.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jnWzG1fYIFQ/Vr8uRFfopEI/AAAAAAAAMY0/BDCrUYqNvVg/s1600/vert-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jnWzG1fYIFQ/Vr8uRFfopEI/AAAAAAAAMY0/BDCrUYqNvVg/s320/vert-2.jpg" width="194" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">The 782 are a brilliant designed true 3way speaker. It features a 13cm midrange fixed vented pole ceramic design speaker on top, together with a 2,5cm silk dome tweeter, both enclosed in the top end of the speaker on a pyramidal shaped box. Then at the bottom, there is a side-firing 16,5cm woofer made from nomex, that enjoys practically 2/3 of the speaker body box for volume and reflecting.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a6gaeNnwZcc/Vr8uZFENvtI/AAAAAAAAMZE/SedJYbJHB3M/s1600/mission%2Bverticale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a6gaeNnwZcc/Vr8uZFENvtI/AAAAAAAAMZE/SedJYbJHB3M/s320/mission%2Bverticale.jpg" width="144" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xadl3qqrr_I/Vr8uXJpBv1I/AAAAAAAAMY4/X72RPehU-0I/s1600/01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xadl3qqrr_I/Vr8uXJpBv1I/AAAAAAAAMY4/X72RPehU-0I/s320/01.jpg" width="189" /></a></div>
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So summing up, after a LONG search, I managed to source a set of some of the best cost/quality speakers known to man.<br />
There was some degree of risk! The reason that make the 782 so exquisite, is that they where produced for a little time... and that was due to a mid-driver production problem! The original drives that came with the 782 where the Keraform 82-LF130/QS. Excellent design, reasonable build quality but a terrible detail. The coil protective plastic sheet, had a glue whose chemical composition reacted with the soldering on the metal, generating extreme corrosion. This would lead to increase in electrical resistance, reducing sound power and quality, with time the oxidation would inflate the once flat soldering and make the coil rub against the magnet walls and producing heat and drag, and ultimately the degradation would just insulate the parts and the driver is dead.<br />
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Most people facing this, just decided to trash or sell the speakers. for some time it was possible to buy replacement parts from Keraform, but, in time those would have the same fate.<br />
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<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MRAnCVwfvro/Vr6HqnlmuwI/AAAAAAAAMYg/DqR_sbLLk2w/s1600/20160208_124225_009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MRAnCVwfvro/Vr6HqnlmuwI/AAAAAAAAMYg/DqR_sbLLk2w/s400/20160208_124225_009.jpg" width="400" /></a>Obviously, Mission was aware of this and discontinued the series, then instructed the technicians to accept warranty repair claims, and substitute the driver with the Audax HM130Z0 Aerogel units. These where better, more expensive drivers that would perfectly replace the Keraforms without impact in sound quality/image.<br />
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So there are some 782 out there that whee trashed, others where sold as repair item, others for parts, others perfectly repaired and updated... and of course, the original ones... few in working order.<br />
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I knew this; I accepted that ... and even managed to find a set that was original and in perfect working order. Sure i was expecting some soldering degradation, but I would be able to peel off the plastic, clean the chemicals and re-do the soldering and wrap the coil back with a non acid glue. This, unfortunately never came to be. My couriers, managed to kill the midrange drivers on both speakers. I'm working out the insurance claims at the moment, and apart from some very unpleasant dealing with customer care, the escalation seems to work... so I'll wait until I add to this article the details... either for the best or the worse of it.<br />
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While grabbing the speakers I immediately felt a heavy item loose inside one of the speakers. Bad news for sure, confirmed when opening the speaker:<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZI9zTv6cgxY/VrfvhdDN15I/AAAAAAAAMW0/M8CvdvLRgaM/s1600/20160205_004447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZI9zTv6cgxY/VrfvhdDN15I/AAAAAAAAMW0/M8CvdvLRgaM/s400/20160205_004447.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HizRIY02n4c/VrfvmN6ByKI/AAAAAAAAMW4/kfVuXQPyy-0/s1600/20160205_004455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HizRIY02n4c/VrfvmN6ByKI/AAAAAAAAMW4/kfVuXQPyy-0/s400/20160205_004455.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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The front protective cover has the pins broken and clearly had suffer a large squashing impact.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RubpSedjfTA/VrfveZzL_TI/AAAAAAAAMWw/T2x8Hee7SJI/s1600/20160204_141348.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RubpSedjfTA/VrfveZzL_TI/AAAAAAAAMWw/T2x8Hee7SJI/s400/20160204_141348.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s9NiiDzg7eE/Vrfvpe6Rk_I/AAAAAAAAMW8/g72mozAtzE4/s1600/20160205_004500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s9NiiDzg7eE/Vrfvpe6Rk_I/AAAAAAAAMW8/g72mozAtzE4/s400/20160205_004500.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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A hole was easy to spot where the cone pole would be, and the inner speaker baffle filling was observable.</div>
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In panic, I immediately rushed to the next speaker... no good news there either:</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ytnU17X4OIk/VrfvEWr8lGI/AAAAAAAAMWQ/a5MASCNpyQk/s1600/20160206_174041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ytnU17X4OIk/VrfvEWr8lGI/AAAAAAAAMWQ/a5MASCNpyQk/s320/20160206_174041.jpg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m9lCWEijb0E/VrfvSakBQlI/AAAAAAAAMWg/gXVRgJkF8EQ/s1600/20160206_174024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m9lCWEijb0E/VrfvSakBQlI/AAAAAAAAMWg/gXVRgJkF8EQ/s320/20160206_174024.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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The center pole was loose, running around the speaker driver, however no heavy loose part was felt and the mounting point of the cone pole was still in place. but the pole was broken and heavily marked. </div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-01RYgkU04AQ/VrfvL4AoNWI/AAAAAAAAMWY/lQLqIL13Z0I/s1600/20160206_174047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-01RYgkU04AQ/VrfvL4AoNWI/AAAAAAAAMWY/lQLqIL13Z0I/s320/20160206_174047.jpg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VmyhhKnLzKY/VrfvJPQURXI/AAAAAAAAMWU/ezJyBDRIRkA/s1600/20160206_174055.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VmyhhKnLzKY/VrfvJPQURXI/AAAAAAAAMWU/ezJyBDRIRkA/s320/20160206_174055.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Ok... time to access the total damage on the first speaker:<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MuIeLV3GAyw/VrfvcrdIcBI/AAAAAAAAMWs/SnQ15_vWkI0/s1600/20160204_141321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MuIeLV3GAyw/VrfvcrdIcBI/AAAAAAAAMWs/SnQ15_vWkI0/s640/20160204_141321.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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First I toolk a clamp to remote the broken plastic pins that used to hold the protective front cover. then, using a screwdriver, I gently removed the rubber housings, exposing the Philips screws.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R2PI9N_Dgoo/VrfvxIDTqaI/AAAAAAAAMXE/7cMdtNbD77o/s1600/20160205_004652.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R2PI9N_Dgoo/VrfvxIDTqaI/AAAAAAAAMXE/7cMdtNbD77o/s400/20160205_004652.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Is1-gvXxq5o/VrfvsE80CgI/AAAAAAAAMXA/Z7N_izs_Ci4/s1600/20160205_004605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Is1-gvXxq5o/VrfvsE80CgI/AAAAAAAAMXA/Z7N_izs_Ci4/s400/20160205_004605.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Then I removed the front assembly, which holds the tweeter.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvqiLn16-CU/VrfvzHmQ1OI/AAAAAAAAMXI/hAADmAbY0vg/s1600/20160205_004824.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvqiLn16-CU/VrfvzHmQ1OI/AAAAAAAAMXI/hAADmAbY0vg/s400/20160205_004824.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dqhJVAfwMpM/Vrfv1gMpliI/AAAAAAAAMXM/YPYkAfNetwk/s1600/20160205_004834.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dqhJVAfwMpM/Vrfv1gMpliI/AAAAAAAAMXM/YPYkAfNetwk/s400/20160205_004834.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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I finally removed the driver assembly and got hold of the destruction:</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ry9F2TSprho/Vrfv55a9XdI/AAAAAAAAMXQ/8wuBk7koO24/s1600/20160205_004951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ry9F2TSprho/Vrfv55a9XdI/AAAAAAAAMXQ/8wuBk7koO24/s400/20160205_004951.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cCtGCfxLJl0/Vrfv814glyI/AAAAAAAAMXU/U6RfTVW2FS4/s1600/20160205_004957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cCtGCfxLJl0/Vrfv814glyI/AAAAAAAAMXU/U6RfTVW2FS4/s400/20160205_004957.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Whatever hit the driver, pushed the cone pole in, with enough force to rip the magnet from the driver structure, then the weight if the magnet ripped the wire plug wide open. </div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g4JuROLSrXU/VrfwARvkIiI/AAAAAAAAMXY/zpece9kmcbU/s1600/20160205_005006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g4JuROLSrXU/VrfwARvkIiI/AAAAAAAAMXY/zpece9kmcbU/s400/20160205_005006.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DiL_SZ7uD-A/VrfwDQKCGgI/AAAAAAAAMXg/NIAXCN_zw5M/s1600/20160205_005025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DiL_SZ7uD-A/VrfwDQKCGgI/AAAAAAAAMXg/NIAXCN_zw5M/s400/20160205_005025.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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This is the dismantled driver.... and, of course before any attempt to fix, a conductivity test was taken...<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wDzZuX9QY3s/VrfwH-1UasI/AAAAAAAAMXk/5YcqOOryAtM/s1600/20160205_005642.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wDzZuX9QY3s/VrfwH-1UasI/AAAAAAAAMXk/5YcqOOryAtM/s400/20160205_005642.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dQiq2tuhMIA/VrfwK_nl3AI/AAAAAAAAMXo/CXZTzkBP5FU/s1600/20160205_005721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dQiq2tuhMIA/VrfwK_nl3AI/AAAAAAAAMXo/CXZTzkBP5FU/s400/20160205_005721.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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At least the tweeter was in perfect order</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EDza-xLhGgk/VrfwaGJhYUI/AAAAAAAAMX4/n9fZFzQJo5E/s1600/20160205_005746.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EDza-xLhGgk/VrfwaGJhYUI/AAAAAAAAMX4/n9fZFzQJo5E/s640/20160205_005746.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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So conclusions: the main drive was dead...by many different forms of assassination attempt all at once. Independently, I would not foresee a bright future ahead of this speaker, it is an original Keraform, and the oxidation is way into the soldering.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RRHt6wuct4A/VrfwcqvZYlI/AAAAAAAAMX8/ktDreOvZ3_Q/s1600/20160205_010420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RRHt6wuct4A/VrfwcqvZYlI/AAAAAAAAMX8/ktDreOvZ3_Q/s400/20160205_010420.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-633mxUmKs0c/Vr6HfE2F0uI/AAAAAAAAMYU/RGIPuvfEmjU/s1600/20160213_012709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-633mxUmKs0c/Vr6HfE2F0uI/AAAAAAAAMYU/RGIPuvfEmjU/s400/20160213_012709.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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on the inner side, the bump is the result of extreme oxidation process.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N5BuT0FFyQ8/Vr6HkBqlAyI/AAAAAAAAMYY/ZmJsz1pBSBc/s1600/20160213_012759.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N5BuT0FFyQ8/Vr6HkBqlAyI/AAAAAAAAMYY/ZmJsz1pBSBc/s400/20160213_012759.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mPSVunky2L0/Vr6HmsVx4cI/AAAAAAAAMYc/AEfO4Do7BUs/s1600/20160213_012807.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mPSVunky2L0/Vr6HmsVx4cI/AAAAAAAAMYc/AEfO4Do7BUs/s400/20160213_012807.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<br />
Conclusion: I've made an insurance claim for the transportation, ordered a couple of AUDAX aerogel, and I'm now waiting delivery. Will update this post soon.<br />
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<br />
UPDATE:<br />
So the AUDAX drivers arrived. They are a thing of beauty, but their cast ring is bigger than the Keraforms... a lot bigger. They are also made from aluminum instead of plastic as you would find in the Keraform. In essence, they are a lot better built.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LjQVJ7G63i4/VsXa4g_4V7I/AAAAAAAAMZc/gBc2l-O2cHc/s1600/IMG_20160215_224734.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LjQVJ7G63i4/VsXa4g_4V7I/AAAAAAAAMZc/gBc2l-O2cHc/s400/IMG_20160215_224734.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BiucyH3Md6o/VsXa9Yz0UeI/AAAAAAAAMZg/qykTJK4zbd8/s1600/IMG_20160215_224750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BiucyH3Md6o/VsXa9Yz0UeI/AAAAAAAAMZg/qykTJK4zbd8/s400/IMG_20160215_224750.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Step 1 - place the old Keraforms on top of the new AUDAX and use a light colored pencil to template the cutting line on the aluminium .<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ROfE1Uolk_A/VsXbALa2ieI/AAAAAAAAMZk/Xje8uSOtWcs/s1600/IMG_20160215_225314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ROfE1Uolk_A/VsXbALa2ieI/AAAAAAAAMZk/Xje8uSOtWcs/s400/IMG_20160215_225314.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dAC2ofWZGIY/VsXbCaCKTKI/AAAAAAAAMZo/ZIUW82Jmv_A/s1600/IMG_20160215_225326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dAC2ofWZGIY/VsXbCaCKTKI/AAAAAAAAMZo/ZIUW82Jmv_A/s400/IMG_20160215_225326.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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2- use a dremel tool to cut the excessive aluminium. MAKE SURE you protect the new cone from debris... I just covered it with gum-tape.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gAfWl5fVvIQ/VsXbEbXMw5I/AAAAAAAAMZs/-NoRJbjRfdc/s1600/IMG_20160215_225540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gAfWl5fVvIQ/VsXbEbXMw5I/AAAAAAAAMZs/-NoRJbjRfdc/s400/IMG_20160215_225540.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jFUuZHF6RbU/VsXbGPxM_mI/AAAAAAAAMZw/amPgw7zaiSM/s1600/IMG_20160215_225736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jFUuZHF6RbU/VsXbGPxM_mI/AAAAAAAAMZw/amPgw7zaiSM/s400/IMG_20160215_225736.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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3 - Start cutting,<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zQ2XPwrAuto/VsXbH5g5MXI/AAAAAAAAMZ0/yELhKf0PUCc/s1600/IMG_20160215_225845.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zQ2XPwrAuto/VsXbH5g5MXI/AAAAAAAAMZ0/yELhKf0PUCc/s400/IMG_20160215_225845.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yT9Q0_B1Sok/VsXbJRboTbI/AAAAAAAAMZ4/6EsAEYiqsJc/s1600/IMG_20160215_233145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yT9Q0_B1Sok/VsXbJRboTbI/AAAAAAAAMZ4/6EsAEYiqsJc/s400/IMG_20160215_233145.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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4 - After cutting the metal from the driver, put it next to the wood and template the extra cut... the better you cut the metal, the less you need to adjust the wooden part.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vMpHPnhYjsI/VsXbKzFF9PI/AAAAAAAAMZ8/kF3QB1EvExg/s1600/IMG_20160216_200606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vMpHPnhYjsI/VsXbKzFF9PI/AAAAAAAAMZ8/kF3QB1EvExg/s400/IMG_20160216_200606.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7z4PR3GhKPQ/VsXbMSiP1LI/AAAAAAAAMaA/PbzLCn5Nbeo/s1600/IMG_20160216_200613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7z4PR3GhKPQ/VsXbMSiP1LI/AAAAAAAAMaA/PbzLCn5Nbeo/s400/IMG_20160216_200613.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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5 - Place the driver and use the drill tool to have new holes for the drivers screws.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tlGOMu2uwS4/VsXbOC028HI/AAAAAAAAMaE/t6e9zHtbYdM/s1600/IMG_20160216_201348.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tlGOMu2uwS4/VsXbOC028HI/AAAAAAAAMaE/t6e9zHtbYdM/s400/IMG_20160216_201348.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M7gQy98RDBs/VsXbPhFsj0I/AAAAAAAAMaI/6su7DcHSqWI/s1600/IMG_20160216_201355.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M7gQy98RDBs/VsXbPhFsj0I/AAAAAAAAMaI/6su7DcHSqWI/s400/IMG_20160216_201355.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<br />
6 - Place everything back together and enjoy your brand new UPGRADED Mission 782. These will not go bad of fail...and they sound a lot better than they cost.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GwWzhBcvTU0/VsXbRjAfFiI/AAAAAAAAMaM/MBLAeQRzDKI/s1600/IMG_20160217_200102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GwWzhBcvTU0/VsXbRjAfFiI/AAAAAAAAMaM/MBLAeQRzDKI/s400/IMG_20160217_200102.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-28u0P1yvRx8/VsXbTFDfm-I/AAAAAAAAMaQ/uIktQv8cfVo/s1600/IMG_20160217_200110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-28u0P1yvRx8/VsXbTFDfm-I/AAAAAAAAMaQ/uIktQv8cfVo/s400/IMG_20160217_200110.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9sDYXh4l674/VsXbUcgOOGI/AAAAAAAAMaU/HpEZBH0MoRc/s1600/IMG_20160217_200115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9sDYXh4l674/VsXbUcgOOGI/AAAAAAAAMaU/HpEZBH0MoRc/s640/IMG_20160217_200115.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EkXja-L7gXY/VsXbVtFlb9I/AAAAAAAAMaY/wnwsWdgj4SQ/s1600/IMG_20160217_200125.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EkXja-L7gXY/VsXbVtFlb9I/AAAAAAAAMaY/wnwsWdgj4SQ/s640/IMG_20160217_200125.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<br />
<b><i>----- Edit -----</i></b><br />
<br />
Hi everyone again.<br />
I decided to update this article as several of you commented on the original and some new ideas came into play.<br />
First of all, thanks for commenting. It's a joy to know that this article has been helpful to others and that they also share their knowledge.This is what the web is all about.<br />
<br />
Now starting with what got me into this edit: I recently upgraded my cinema & games room (yes I'll be updating those too), but by removing 2 slave amplifiers and buying a clone for my Marantz CD5000, left me with a surplus of 2 Marantz amplifiers (a PM 4400 and a 55 Special Edition) and a NAD C520 cd player.<br />
Since I spend more time at the office than at home, I decided to move the PM4400 and the NAD to the office. All I now needed to do was to source a set of speakers.<br />
<br />
More or less at the same time, my cousin decided to build his cinema and audio listening room. I managed to go to my first choice in audio - my good <a href="https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/hifipackaging" target="_blank">friend Bob </a> . While searching for the items my cousin would buy, I managed to find 2 pairs of 782s... and then later that day, while explaining him how much better these are when upgrade-repaired, I instantly started finding myself going upstair and listening more and more on my 2 782's.<br />
Weeeeellllll my cousin only neede 1 set, so i brought the other set for my office.<br />
<br />
The set I brought has 1 driver faulty and the other driver already replaced by mission like<a href="https://plus.google.com/104751649918919657493" target="_blank"> Chris Galloway </a>stated on his comment. I thought this would be an excellent time to look at what misison built audax drivers would look like and perform.<br />
I also thought, this is a good time to put in practice <a href="https://plus.google.com/116483989177570262825" target="_blank">Adrian Vos</a> method of fitting the driver in one of them, vs my old method on the other.<br />
<br />
ALSO, AUDAX continued to evolve the good old HM130Z0... not in it's last iteration as HM130Z12, it has a better plastic seal of the foam dumper, better coil and magnet so, by reason, should sound even better.<br />
So yeah i brought 2. This time i chased AUDAX website, only to get to AAC's website and finally there, <a href="http://www.aac.fr/fr/revendeur.php" target="_blank">source the distributors</a>. I chose the first entry - <a href="http://www.aarv.fr/" target="_blank">AARV </a>and got an excellent deal and very decent shipping.<br />
<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>So now for some conclusions: </i></b><br />
The Mission AUDAX made replacement driver vs the AUDAX HM130Z12.<br />
The difference is clear. The AUDAX HM130Z is a loaded, heavy magnet, very robust beast. The mission driver is not only smaller but also plastic structured and clearly not as robust.<br />
In the end, the Mission driver is very good, no doubt and the sound it outputs has an excellent image and is quite refined, however, unless I'm loosing it, I believe that I got slightly more detail on the HM130Zs, particularly at louder volumes. It doesn't come across as a surprise as, this being a device that produces precision mechanical waves, the more robust it is framed, the better it insulates the thrust into actually producing what it's being asked for.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xLvDll2aKN4/W5B3ISsud5I/AAAAAAABVkM/JW3abbUlSAQHueP77Lq0HuAPbn2YybB0gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_202240.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xLvDll2aKN4/W5B3ISsud5I/AAAAAAABVkM/JW3abbUlSAQHueP77Lq0HuAPbn2YybB0gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_202240.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q8FHQqUGCgY/W5B3InttXFI/AAAAAAABVkQ/2hYQu3lEqPQho4sJj9yA9WYWzoagqJaJQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_202212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q8FHQqUGCgY/W5B3InttXFI/AAAAAAABVkQ/2hYQu3lEqPQho4sJj9yA9WYWzoagqJaJQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_202212.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pXSGLd9TQ-I/W5B3JCOt8GI/AAAAAAABVkU/6cemAZ24JOsifl0QWMyHbCNYgfejsd4AACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_202204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pXSGLd9TQ-I/W5B3JCOt8GI/AAAAAAABVkU/6cemAZ24JOsifl0QWMyHbCNYgfejsd4AACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_202204.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><i>The repairs:</i></b><br />
As expected, the un-repaired KERAFORM unit was long gone and looked even worse than my previous ones.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--xxNyoDCHho/W5B3P_jhAAI/AAAAAAABVk8/7S9yiWlCbGQcQBgDdiy1QqOW6_17jiGMgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_205615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--xxNyoDCHho/W5B3P_jhAAI/AAAAAAABVk8/7S9yiWlCbGQcQBgDdiy1QqOW6_17jiGMgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_205615.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nua-BT0x-eE/W5B3PYr8Q5I/AAAAAAABVk4/-cDoXymGrdIsz2KM7BlLBF-cLysxg9yQACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_205604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nua-BT0x-eE/W5B3PYr8Q5I/AAAAAAABVk4/-cDoXymGrdIsz2KM7BlLBF-cLysxg9yQACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_205604.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OzA11f_TEw4/W5B3O46lNnI/AAAAAAABVk0/2gLFOM8pVfsFxWvXCrf9fQuxV6PgntdyQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_205551.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OzA11f_TEw4/W5B3O46lNnI/AAAAAAABVk0/2gLFOM8pVfsFxWvXCrf9fQuxV6PgntdyQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_205551.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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<br />
So deciding to go for both drivers, I then went for on driver on my method, grinding the outer frame out and fitting it in:<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-owm5R577AVc/W5B3OvMT33I/AAAAAAABVkw/7VLEuo8UfHcU9-mpOdKX_7CIqQDyuTpIgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_205413.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-owm5R577AVc/W5B3OvMT33I/AAAAAAABVkw/7VLEuo8UfHcU9-mpOdKX_7CIqQDyuTpIgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_205413.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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And for the other, I decided to give it a go on the Adrian Vos method. in essence I decided to dremel the driver contour out:<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVGNwztnS-A/W5B3K0_yHRI/AAAAAAABVkY/98s4liqVIsUg_P8TIKlftqVY2rxJPe-QwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_203239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVGNwztnS-A/W5B3K0_yHRI/AAAAAAABVkY/98s4liqVIsUg_P8TIKlftqVY2rxJPe-QwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_203239.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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and then groove in steps of 2mm up to 4mm<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0c7laJcabVM/W5B3K69kcGI/AAAAAAABVkc/k4NsmOZSyQwOOznEOTO93po9I5XR2soEACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_203243.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0c7laJcabVM/W5B3K69kcGI/AAAAAAABVkc/k4NsmOZSyQwOOznEOTO93po9I5XR2soEACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_203243.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eILnvFIXgIM/W5B3LP3TNgI/AAAAAAABVkg/97Iz1jlje0wKIgzpe3TtxA9KTf36gLy5QCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_203251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eILnvFIXgIM/W5B3LP3TNgI/AAAAAAABVkg/97Iz1jlje0wKIgzpe3TtxA9KTf36gLy5QCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_203251.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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And then, peel GENTLY each 2mm thick slice and go on to the next until I had a 4mm socket to place the driver in</div>
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]<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ltJUMiSAae0/W5B3M45pPOI/AAAAAAABVkk/SdPRpLWeIvcgfCwu8dtN4xI7JurBs-7OACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_203619.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ltJUMiSAae0/W5B3M45pPOI/AAAAAAABVkk/SdPRpLWeIvcgfCwu8dtN4xI7JurBs-7OACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_203619.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8agDjp2aGiA/W5B3NJLwluI/AAAAAAABVko/IC5cDuajaqoQGNWroTHgiJHpm4QvLQ0dQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_204031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8agDjp2aGiA/W5B3NJLwluI/AAAAAAABVko/IC5cDuajaqoQGNWroTHgiJHpm4QvLQ0dQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_204031.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is the end result.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CWJc7RiHodY/W5B3NQODR2I/AAAAAAABVks/VH3y3J0m6Rsz6uif_9jQ2daJq46gl0i3gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_205404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CWJc7RiHodY/W5B3NQODR2I/AAAAAAABVks/VH3y3J0m6Rsz6uif_9jQ2daJq46gl0i3gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_205404.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>Comparing the methods, </b></i><br />
on the left Adrians method, on the right my old method<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CWJc7RiHodY/W5B3NQODR2I/AAAAAAABVks/VH3y3J0m6Rsz6uif_9jQ2daJq46gl0i3gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_205404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CWJc7RiHodY/W5B3NQODR2I/AAAAAAABVks/VH3y3J0m6Rsz6uif_9jQ2daJq46gl0i3gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_205404.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-owm5R577AVc/W5B3OvMT33I/AAAAAAABVkw/7VLEuo8UfHcU9-mpOdKX_7CIqQDyuTpIgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180905_205413.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-owm5R577AVc/W5B3OvMT33I/AAAAAAABVkw/7VLEuo8UfHcU9-mpOdKX_7CIqQDyuTpIgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180905_205413.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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<b><i>Final marks:</i></b><br />
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Andrians method is MUCH FASTER AND EASIER. It also requires you to know how to manage a power tool and have firm hands, or you will end up defacing the speaker's outer wood shell. I still prefer my method as the final package looks tighter, but I find no difference in sound.<br />
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HM130Z's vs Mission own driver - IF you have the keraforms, you should opt for the HM130Z, else if you already serviced your speakers and have the mission aerogel AUDAX replacements, I don't believe the effort is worth it except if you are really trying to get the absolute best possible sound out of it. If, like me, you really want these babies to eclipse much higher line speakers, then the 110 euro it's gonna cost you, plus the afternoon grinding metal and wood is worth it.<br />
But the mission aerogel is a very good option and certainly costs half the money and 1/10th the effort.<br />
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HM130Z0 vs HM130Z12 - If buying for the first time, go for the 12's, if you already have the 0's the juice is not worth the squeeze... but you can always try to use Adrian's method and simplify the "squeeze".<br />
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It ends up being a "do you pursue audio nirvana or not?" question.<br />
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I'm now the happy owner of 2 pairs of repaired/upgraded 782's and the guys at the office went crazy when they started singing. They've just finished the run-in... boy do I love these speakers.<br />
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--- re-edit for location tips and sound test with spectrometer ---<br />
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Positioning of the speakers in the Room:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CbLptkywimI/W5JUex-Q3QI/AAAAAAABV94/orUETWcE6I8nDABcPAuzKF5gFxMoTu1fACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180907_112847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CbLptkywimI/W5JUex-Q3QI/AAAAAAABV94/orUETWcE6I8nDABcPAuzKF5gFxMoTu1fACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180907_112847.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3u6orm14pI/W5JUe3kgoqI/AAAAAAABV90/OVlxXRXu2sY2SJ8DoVch9SWl3frbngh8wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180907_112856.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3u6orm14pI/W5JUe3kgoqI/AAAAAAABV90/OVlxXRXu2sY2SJ8DoVch9SWl3frbngh8wCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180907_112856.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oKUljhNtISM/W5JUe-7z7JI/AAAAAAABV98/ZOmJg2xOXIwJhtyzPklNp0GF_8tlRX9xQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180907_112901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oKUljhNtISM/W5JUe-7z7JI/AAAAAAABV98/ZOmJg2xOXIwJhtyzPklNp0GF_8tlRX9xQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180907_112901.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gwBZrlkjq8Y/W5JUgoCAG1I/AAAAAAABV-E/Yj6TWMkm3MoK3qMyiNNIdQB-W666hq8kQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180907_112908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gwBZrlkjq8Y/W5JUgoCAG1I/AAAAAAABV-E/Yj6TWMkm3MoK3qMyiNNIdQB-W666hq8kQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180907_112908.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JbQD6ADGbzU/W5JUgjb9VzI/AAAAAAABV-A/1BwbJVqIfK8E_6BvESnZLRuMx_Px2axvQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180907_112913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JbQD6ADGbzU/W5JUgjb9VzI/AAAAAAABV-A/1BwbJVqIfK8E_6BvESnZLRuMx_Px2axvQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180907_112913.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jR3TKTJj4iE/W5JUg_gB6KI/AAAAAAABV-I/-obGfN-raUIYUNYR7rbwn07SaCJ7P_GBQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180907_112926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jR3TKTJj4iE/W5JUg_gB6KI/AAAAAAABV-I/-obGfN-raUIYUNYR7rbwn07SaCJ7P_GBQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180907_112926.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The speaker on the rigth should be another 20 cm away from the wall, but this IS a meeting room and function takes precedence! That board has given birth to some preety spectacular ideas that help paying for all this stuff so... </div>
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<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K8brtUzTWVU/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K8brtUzTWVU?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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As you can see, sound is coherent both next to the speakers and on the far side of the room. </div>
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This room has carpet and sound/heat insulation on both ceiling and walls, so not the best for sound propagation (thought rather good avoiding weird echos).</div>
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The spectral analisys shows very pleasent sound pressures across the frequencies, without excessive high frequencies and excessive low frequencies.</div>
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:)</div>
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ohhh and the treble, bass balance are all neutral, and loudness is off</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-684ixfofuLM/W5JXdvsnYBI/AAAAAAABV-w/WtjNCayYDhISwLmkOQWmcIpzok3xOndKQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180907_114621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-684ixfofuLM/W5JXdvsnYBI/AAAAAAABV-w/WtjNCayYDhISwLmkOQWmcIpzok3xOndKQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180907_114621.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-11611919533553640422016-02-01T17:27:00.003+00:002016-08-25T18:43:05.580+01:00Mission 772 speaker repair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I recently brought a pair of Mission 772 speakers. They are old but they are gold. And they sit just perfect together with my set of Mission 782. </div>
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The problem is that age takes the toll on these babies, and the rubber from the speaker outer damper started to degrade.</div>
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One of the speakers shown a fatigue fracture... not only not good and with influence over sound quality (when operating and high levels), being this an open center design, this would mean unbalancing and, in time, total driver failure due to the coil rubbing the walls and erode till destruction.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N8xFXFw1DEg/Vq9jsVm2lxI/AAAAAAAAMS0/GVVTMdlp3P0/s1600/20160130_130938.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N8xFXFw1DEg/Vq9jsVm2lxI/AAAAAAAAMS0/GVVTMdlp3P0/s400/20160130_130938.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9AzVX6y--lc/Vq9j-y5iNyI/AAAAAAAAMTc/5IODj-g3QGo/s1600/20160130_131218.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9AzVX6y--lc/Vq9j-y5iNyI/AAAAAAAAMTc/5IODj-g3QGo/s400/20160130_131218.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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A solution was needed, and I would not let these babies go because of a minor problem. So ebay to the rescue and, soon enough, a repair pack was underway.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2xIaNYK6174/Vq9jsywfTEI/AAAAAAAAMS4/V2z0Em7la2g/s1600/20160130_130951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2xIaNYK6174/Vq9jsywfTEI/AAAAAAAAMS4/V2z0Em7la2g/s400/20160130_130951.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dYeikkuQUe8/Vq9juUDO-kI/AAAAAAAAMTE/i0wWeNrgA48/s1600/20160130_131010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dYeikkuQUe8/Vq9juUDO-kI/AAAAAAAAMTE/i0wWeNrgA48/s400/20160130_131010.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Ok then, ready, set, go...<br />
First step is to lay down the speaker and remove the screws.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CyaOFmSc7sc/Vq9j5l5VhuI/AAAAAAAAMTM/JZag635Bto4/s1600/20160130_131104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CyaOFmSc7sc/Vq9j5l5VhuI/AAAAAAAAMTM/JZag635Bto4/s400/20160130_131104.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ah5KPm99FHg/Vq9j8Lvz7yI/AAAAAAAAMTU/o2-HfvqQT0Q/s1600/20160130_131224.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ah5KPm99FHg/Vq9j8Lvz7yI/AAAAAAAAMTU/o2-HfvqQT0Q/s400/20160130_131224.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then use a small knife to start to unglue/separate the external border of the old bubber/foam damper. BE CAREFUL when pulling as the inner side is still glued in and too much lift will damage the speaker cone.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r7fzXQ4QYfE/Vq9kIbJkfSI/AAAAAAAAMTk/_u5S6_HKi50/s1600/20160130_131423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r7fzXQ4QYfE/Vq9kIbJkfSI/AAAAAAAAMTk/_u5S6_HKi50/s400/20160130_131423.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then work on the inside, following the same rule: no excessive lift.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-atUemp1hMbQ/Vq9kIbcZ_bI/AAAAAAAAMTo/XVDeFfQqg3I/s1600/20160130_131646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-atUemp1hMbQ/Vq9kIbcZ_bI/AAAAAAAAMTo/XVDeFfQqg3I/s400/20160130_131646.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OJX62rkmuWg/Vq9kQbDc_FI/AAAAAAAAMT8/rL2tN-G8eYs/s1600/20160130_131705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OJX62rkmuWg/Vq9kQbDc_FI/AAAAAAAAMT8/rL2tN-G8eYs/s400/20160130_131705.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zIa1RGdh0RA/Vq9kUG8-ynI/AAAAAAAAMUM/MpAhQHzXBm0/s1600/20160130_131801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zIa1RGdh0RA/Vq9kUG8-ynI/AAAAAAAAMUM/MpAhQHzXBm0/s400/20160130_131801.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here is an image of the removed cone and the damage on the rubber damper.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W-YYHMi0zDw/Vq9kLA0hYqI/AAAAAAAAMT0/DISIuiY_ykc/s1600/20160130_131838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W-YYHMi0zDw/Vq9kLA0hYqI/AAAAAAAAMT0/DISIuiY_ykc/s400/20160130_131838.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It's an excellent time to inspect the main damper spring inside the driver showing in yellow. This one was just perfect.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ag1BdLDEllI/Vq9keF0InMI/AAAAAAAAMUU/wusNH--GqSA/s1600/20160130_131843.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ag1BdLDEllI/Vq9keF0InMI/AAAAAAAAMUU/wusNH--GqSA/s400/20160130_131843.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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As materials evolved, so did the design. You can compare the thickness of the rubber vs the replacement foam damper.<br />
This is good news and bad news at the same time: good because less weight and the same tenacity will mean less moving weight and a better response....the bad news is that the heavier rubber would hold the cone I place better during centering and reassembly...so more work for me.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tUqIY041tls/Vq9kemxlzXI/AAAAAAAAMUc/bm_XWOS17gs/s1600/20160130_131900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tUqIY041tls/Vq9kemxlzXI/AAAAAAAAMUc/bm_XWOS17gs/s400/20160130_131900.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Pt80bpoRJyE/Vq9keSPEwOI/AAAAAAAAMUY/FI1OOcyuJ7U/s1600/20160130_131914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Pt80bpoRJyE/Vq9keSPEwOI/AAAAAAAAMUY/FI1OOcyuJ7U/s400/20160130_131914.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The glue. The glue is another problem:<br />
You want enough blue to hold this in place...but not too much as is will add weight... and just enough to glue fast, but not too fast so you can move and place the damper properly and within geometry.<br />
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So the solution I to apply only to the inside, and apply an almost transparent amount of glue on both the edge of the cone and the edge of the foam damper.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AW_V_ixKJL0/Vq9kq0FSRqI/AAAAAAAAMU4/4GrogYGMKKs/s1600/20160130_132158.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AW_V_ixKJL0/Vq9kq0FSRqI/AAAAAAAAMU4/4GrogYGMKKs/s400/20160130_132158.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Then you marry the 2 parts together and, while HOLDING the cone with one finger, lift and place the foam on the cone...this will enable the glue to catch some air and react a little faster.<br />
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The material will try to counter the glue and the more surface you glue in, the more it will fight back.. SO, my recommendation is to grab gum tape, twist it into a rounded surface that will match the cone surface... and start fixing it in a cross pattern (top, bottom, side, side).<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-URD167KA-F4/Vq9kp-Zb_EI/AAAAAAAAMUs/Bdk4uKGDqdQ/s1600/20160130_132957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-URD167KA-F4/Vq9kp-Zb_EI/AAAAAAAAMUs/Bdk4uKGDqdQ/s400/20160130_132957.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4V-hhtadjSU/Vq9kqjI90oI/AAAAAAAAMU0/-G3ILpWbACU/s1600/20160130_133003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4V-hhtadjSU/Vq9kqjI90oI/AAAAAAAAMU0/-G3ILpWbACU/s400/20160130_133003.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
This is the final LOOK :)<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kKmrctOAbjo/Vq9kyf9gBqI/AAAAAAAAMVE/ay8ReLLV3Kw/s1600/20160130_133128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kKmrctOAbjo/Vq9kyf9gBqI/AAAAAAAAMVE/ay8ReLLV3Kw/s400/20160130_133128.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Allow it to glue in... time for coffee, and a movie or two. I let the glue set in for half a day... it's not really a contact glue (rather looks like wood glue, actually). So it does take some time to set properly.<br />
<br />
50% through... not it's time for the outer part.<br />
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The outer part is A LOT simpler... but not linear. </div>
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Glue wise, just slightly lift the foam and pass the glue without worrying too much about the amount of glue... it's a fixed part so no weight to influence motion.</div>
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HOWEVER, this is an open cone design.. it is set this way to allow better movement on the cone and consequently a better response, but this means that there is also some fluctuation of the cone and the entire coil assembly. IF that fluctuation means the coil rubs the side of the wall containing the magnet, it will rub the varnish out and then short circuit the coil... and eventually just completely wear it out until it looses continuity.</div>
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So after you set the glue on the outside, and before it sets, just move the come up and down, while adjusting the damper outside. You will feel free movement, or a slight vibration, created by the coil rubbing the walls.</div>
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Again, you can have gum-tape (this time a simple cross is enough), and adjust until movement is free, I do recommend you bias the setting a bit towards the upper side of the speaker, so that when standing, the small but existing weight will auto-balance.</div>
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Again the glue set in... a day should be enough. And then screw the driver back in... connect your speaker and... well it's a speaker, you know what to do with it :)</div>
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This is the final look of the 2 speakers:<br />
on the left you have the repaired one, the original (yet to be repaired) is on the right.<br />
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The speakers sound better with the new damper. Weight does influence moving parts... inertia, you know?Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-44466664206363831722014-02-24T17:59:00.001+00:002016-02-03T12:22:08.222+00:00I don't really like to say this, but......"I told you so" is impossible to keep within my lips or my mind for that matter.<br />
following reading this article -> <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-22/microsoft-said-to-cut-windows-price-70-to-counter-rivals.html">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-22/microsoft-said-to-cut-windows-price-70-to-counter-rivals.html</a> , I immediately looked at Microsoft and said "Told'ya" just like I immediately look'd at my tech friends and repeated that over and over and over again.<br />
<br />
I use to say "boy do I hate to be right all the time"... but in this case, I don't!<br />
This was an important step from Microsoft. Following the Windows 8.1 update without the metro as default for desktops (since statistics show most desktop users don't like it and find no use for it... no wonder!) as I've already theorized about <a href="http://totaltechtalks.blogspot.pt/2013/04/windows-8-is-it-flop-is-it-changer-what.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
If you think about Microsoft Operating Systems, they did had a quality jump with NT3.51 and NT4, that was good enough to pay for. I mean, comparing to Unix and Linux (and respective software) systems back then, Windows NT3.51 and NT4 did represent an increase in productivity.<br />
Now from that point on, instead of having better and more stable kernels, they actually managed to go the opposite way (with a couple of exceptions), while every one else was going better.<br />
<br />
Today's Windows8 is a benchmark. It's Kernel is excellent and actually very well built. And just like they managed to kill the product Windows Vista with a poor GUI implementation, they managed to do exactly the same with the Metro in Windows8...but don't get fooled by the goofy "metro", it is a brilliant piece of operating system.<br />
Invariably, the kernel supporting the software (which will help you have a stable, performer system to help you reach ROI), is now better than ever...and it's fair to pay for a good thing that allows you to work and generate income. However, the other available systems out-there, such as Linux, have evolved beyond Windows8 current state of Kernel evolution...and they are free.<br />
So this will than have to consider other stuff beyond the simple kernel.<br />
<br />
Now GUI wise, Windows have been better than any Linux, ever since it's debut, up till the moment they decided to consider every user would use a desktop productivity platform as they use the pad for reading news and playing games.<br />
Linux did suffer from that same trend with the "unity desktop" but its project branching characteristics managed to save it from doom and maintain a couple of good alternatives like the MATE project.<br />
<br />
This meant that Windows was loosing the edge it had on the GUI and not picking up the edge it lost on kernel fast enough to be competitive. So its fair to assume that windows had been living on the "software support from it's partners" cushion (ok ok and the fan boys). But the important thing is that considering price vs productivity, it was no longer the obvious choice, and that is an extremely dangerous gamble from a software company that ...survives... by selling software.<br />
<br />
Now, having lost the mobile device train (consequence pushing...forcing really... lower quality Windows CE to the market), this protected market is now getting a taste on Apple and Android products, and as such, their based on Operating Systems. This is undermining Microsoft's cushion as most software is being ported to these platforms, and also the market will be used to "the choice beyond Microsoft Windows bubble".<br />
To make things worse, the recent windows8 Metro interface is targeted for tablets and smartphones, so there was an urgent need to make them available beyond the one brand Microsoft forced into this (Nokia).<br />
<br />
It seams to me that Microsoft is taking a careful look at statistics. This decision of lowering windows8 price for low-cost devices is critical, just like deciding that windows 8.1 upgrade should boot without METRO by default while on a productivity environment, is a crucial move.<br />
This generates a better and faster ROI of anyone using their Operating Systems (manufacturers, clients... the works), and evens the cost vs functionality(productivity) scale.<br />
There is also an internal pressure, as office product line is going online and device independent, removing Microsoft's internal cushion to Windows O.S.<br />
<br />
It's clear to me that Microsoft is finally moving towards a better way of doing business, shifting from a set of policies that would protect mediocrity into a set that will promote quality and competitiveness. Thumbs up!Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-1399590906793472482013-09-11T17:41:00.002+01:002013-09-11T17:42:18.548+01:00Apple unveils the new iPhone (some 5 something...)<i><b>First </b></i>of all, lets me warn that IF YOU OWN Apple shares and are reading this, stop immediately, call your broker and SELL SELL SELL, then you can return.<br />
<i><b>Second</b></i>, if you own an iPhone, stop reading this, enter amazon or ebay and SELL SELL SELL cause no one will be buying it from you in months time.<br />
<i><b>Third</b></i>, if you own an Android, stop laughing... it's not decent to laugh of other people's problems. No, really; It's actually sad that the company that kicked started the smartphone revolution is now going under. It's even worse that the world is about to loose Blackberry and later after Apple...2 less competitors means less competition and the ones that suffer the most from this are the buyers.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Google's September seems to be controversial. </b></i><br />
First the bad news as Microsoft makes the final chess move on Nokia and buys it. It was expected ever since Nokia announced dropping the Symbian for Microsoft Operating Systems. If Microsoft intended to say in battle with Google on the smartphone market, they would need something more that a couple of Apple shares...and here they are.<br />
Second the excellent news as Apple unveils... the iPhone...again.<br />
<br />
So what is new about the iPhone... well if you live in the iPhone world, there are a couple of new things that clearly do not justify the shift. If however you managed to evolve out of that fan-boy package, and into the Android world then you can see the iPhone as you've always seen: A good idea back in 2007.<br />
<br />
<b><i>So what is new about the iPhone? </i></b><br />
<i><b>First</b></i>, they remembered that for year now, their competitors have been launching better phones, with better hardware and software for half the price. And grabbing the customer that doesn't buy a Guccy bag and as a consequence asks for specs and then compares before buying an expensive gadget. So they created the iPhone5C.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b><i>The iPhone 5C</i></b> is the iPhone 5! Same CPU, same display, same cameras, same battery (with software improved usage), only with plastic shell and 5 colors to choose from. Oh and the 16 or 32Gb FOREVER and no SDcard crap remains. </li>
<ul>
<li><b><i>Should you buy an iPhone 5C if you own an iphone5? </i></b>Why oh why would you sell your iPhone5 to buy the same phone on a worse casing. </li>
<li><i><b>Should you buy an iPhone 5C if you don't have an iPhone? </b></i>Why would you want an iPhone with android available? Still if you think that it sits good on the meeting table, just buy a Chinese iPhone replica...it's as effective in the meeting room and a lot cheaper.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
<i><b>Then comes iPhone 5S... </b></i><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b><i>The iPhone 5S</i></b> is the iPhone 5 with ONE improvement! CPU is the next gen A7 instead of the A6. Apple announced 2x faster than the A6, but leaked benchmarks show that it's only 30% faster. New colors! You can have it in gold, silver or "space grey"...clearly for the Guccy people. FingerPrint reader! Wow... something pointless really as it will just increase cost while the simple usage of the camera for IRIS reading would be much better...and oldschool to as you can have that on your Motorola Atrix since 2011 or on your Dell laptop since 2007. Same display, same cameras but better tweaked for low light scenes and with dual color flash. The ONLY new thing is actually the M7 co-processor. It's a CPU that computes and interprets motion, allowing a finer, faster and better movement and positioning awareness from the device! Cardio-fitness freaks, this is for you.</li>
<ul>
<li><b><i>Should you buy an iPhone 5S if you own an Iphone?</i></b> Why? are you a cardio-fitness freak? if so, go ahead! Are you a Guccy freak? if so, go ahead! </li>
<li><b><i>Should you buy and iPhone 5S if you don't have an iPhone?</i></b> No! Why? because of the same reasons you should never buy an iphone other than the first one: It costs twice of what it is worth and you have much better HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung android phones out there that completely eclipse the iPhone. And if the lame excuse of the meeting room table gadget should arise, think on just how much the "senseless fashion over reason" message is interpret by others attending the meeting.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
<i><b>So what did Apple managed to do?</b></i><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Copy the Nokia Lumia 620 at twice the price of the cheapest version (the iPhone5C).</li>
<li>Improve the camera on the phone...while you can have incomparably better results with:</li>
<ul>
<li>Panasonic Lumix 101P</li>
<li>Casio Exilim</li>
<li>Samsung Memoir</li>
<li>Sony Ericsson Idou</li>
<li>...and so on</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div>
<i><b>Google is now extremely happy.</b></i> They are loosing all the main competitors, and the other giant (although able to pick up the pace faster than most can imagine) took too long to wake-up for the smartphone business and as a consequence is still years behind. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i><b>Is there a future for Apple?</b></i> Don't really know. So far it seems that they have done nothing more than legal suits this last years and apart from changing business into Apple law inc, I don't really see a bright future at the moment.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-53309146188836150892013-07-15T05:54:00.001+01:002013-07-15T05:57:00.449+01:00After 15 days of hell, I found heaven...in the less predictable place.About 3 weeks ago, my long time faithful laptop died on me.<br />
It was my mobile workstation, packed with an extremely stable, fast and efficient UbuntuStudio64 10.10 running the only good gnome (gnome2).<br />
After the announced death by motherboard failure, it was time to buy a new laptop, and as this last one, it would have to last for years, so it would have to be state of the art...and since I'm not rich, it would definitively not be HP, APPLE, DELL or any other over inflated price-tag laptops.<br />
So after a lot of consideration (a looooot, believe me, as I still find it UGLY, HEAVY, BIG and KIDish...and i honestly only forget those feelings while I amaze at the brutal power and speed)...so a ASUS RepublicOfGamers G750Jx with 4rth gen Corei7 4700HQ, 32Gb ram, a boot SSD 265Gb Liteon SATA3, a storage 7200rpm 750Gb Hitachi Sata3, a Geforce GTX 770m with 3Gb and a couple of other tweaks, was on the way.<br />
<br />
When I got the machine, I was NOT TOO amazed to find it installed with Windows8... an excellent example of how to build a kernel and then how NOT to make it usable, by spoiling everything with the "I wannabe a pad" Graphical User Interface.<br />
<br />
Working with heavy virtualization machines, 3D and some programming, this would not do, so Linux was the ONLY way...and then...I found true hell.<br />
<br />
Cleaning up windows and EFI was a simple 5 minutes BIOS reconfiguration followed by a Gparted tool cleanup from a live-CD...easy.<br />
<br />
When I started installing Linux, I found the problems. First I tried the faithful UbuntuStudio64 10.10...but no network interfaces where found, leaving me with days trying to update packages by hand using another laptop and a SD card...no success. Definitively I needed some sort of networking connection so ubuntu would install every needed package.<br />
<br />
So I tried UbuntuStudio64 12.04... it had been working in my workstation for long without problems and excellent performance...but again no network interfaces where found...this was getting annoying.<br />
<br />
So next in line was the 13.04...under development, but at least everything seemed to work. The seemed to is a key word here... the system was stable, but XFCE kept crashing without reason or logic. And is got so frequent that I found my self doing simple copy-paste tasks without moving the mouse, and having to close any applications that might pop-up some message in-between...I've had it, I had to find a solution or start thinking on selling this piece of crap and buying an older, more reliable system.<br />
<br />
The next in test was Debian7.1...and I got a little hope when one of my older USB WI-FI's worked and Debian requested to join a network...but then security would not implement as it's WPA2 and that needs an updated library on the installation CD! Back to 0.<br />
<br />
Ok.. Lets try Ubuntu12.04 and then try to clean the "I wannabe a pad like Windows8" crappy Gnome3 on unity...somehow...but this time, install hanged constantly! No luck here.<br />
<br />
Next would be the even more desperate Ubuntu13.04...and the same install problems happened.<br />
<br />
By now I was in hell. I was already starting to look for second-hand laptops online in an effort to end this time consuming madness...when I remembered that there was another debian based distro that could work...<br />
...I didn't think of it in the first place because, thought it's good, it has an overall green looks that just leave-me sick...and that's why I never ever thought of MintLinux.<br />
<br />
After downloading MintLinux Olive 64 MATE, I found heaven. Everything worked (apart from the standard need to ban nouveau package at the grub loader, in order to be able to install nvidia drivers). I even tried VMWare Workstation 9.02...ad it worked immediately without tweaks and recompiling! and the 3d!!! The 3d inside virtual machines is working blazing fast, stable and like I've never EVER seen on VMWare Workstation on Linux.<br />
<br />
So this is a BIG lesson. People, bare with the ugly green look of MINT during installation and initial configuration (as you'll probably get rid of it immediately after first boot, like I did), and then you'll be on Linux Workstation heaven.<br />
MintLinux allows you to choose 3 different "flavors": XFCE (not recommended as the very fast and interesting XFCE was actually very unstable in this latest build...and that was my UbuntuStudio64 13.04 problem), Cinnamon (a KDE spawn... I never liked KDE) and .... the wonderful, glorious, gnome2 spwan and because of it, savior of all MATE... and that, my friends if by far the BEST DEBIAN BASED LINUX since UbuntuStudio64 10.10.<br />
<br />
I finally found heaven...and it's ugly green, but nothing that some gray paint can't handle.Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-19257515457011803512013-06-27T20:13:00.002+01:002013-06-27T20:13:58.600+01:00Making Ubuntu Studio 13.04 + NVIDIA TopEnd Graphics card work with the latest LowLatency Kernel Hi<br />
During my last trip, my HP Laptop that has been my side-kick for the last 6 years died on me.<br />
Guess it was time to find a new laptop...and it was everything but easy, but that's subject for another post.<br />
Having received my brand new ASUS ROG G750Jx (a true monster, from the looks to the size and weight of the thing) all pumped up with a 4rth Gen CoreI7 4700HQ, 32Gigs of ram, 256Gb SSD and 750Gb 7200rpm standard hdd, blueRay and a Geforce GTX770m with dedicated 3Gb GDDR5.<br />
It's the ONLY machine I could find with GOOD specs for heavy virtualization and graphics usage and with affordable pricing. The only problem is the "I'm a kid and this is my gaming rid" looks.<br />
<br />
It came with Windows8Pro, and thought I think this Microsoft Kernel is a lot better, I still think it's not close the the efficiency and footprint levels I consider efficient...and then there is the Metro GUI...ughhhh.<br />
So as expected, I used Clonezilla to backup the entire 2 HD partitions, setups, and data into a single Image to my external backup drive, and on to wiping it clean.<br />
I then decided to use the SSD drive for /boot, / and SWAP partitions, and having 32GB of ram, my swap ended up having 64Gb of ram, so this should be a really strong virtualization environment.<br />
I then configured the 750Gb Hd as my /home and Ubunto Studio 64 13.04, here we go!<br />
It's a beast. System loads in under 12 seconds after touching the power button, and everything feels under instantaneous in response time. I'm just amazed...this level of performance makes-me me forget and forgive the looks.<br />
<br />
It installed beautifully, but then after the update to Kernel 3.8.0-25-lowlatency, XFCE stopped working.<br />
With nothing but the command line, it was not that easy to grab hold of the latest NVIDIA drivers (not from the repository but rather the NVIDIA site).<br />
While running the NVIDIA drivers everything got clear to me, so here is the recipe to AVOID all the mess of the Noveau modules incompatibility with NVIDIA drivers:<br />
<br />
1 - Install Ubuntu 13.04 from the ISO and allow it to perform the first package update (no kernel).<br />
2 - Then, download the latest NVIDIA drivers form NVIDIA website. Use your file manager to allow the file to have execute permissions and leave it in the download folder.<br />
3 - Shift screen (ctrl+alt+F1) to command line, login and kill the XFCE issuing the command:<br />
sudo service lightdm stop<br />
4 - cd to your home/downloads where you should fing the nvidia driver and start it issuing:<br />
sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86......(your version here)........run<br />
This will lead to the Nvidia setup that will start firing errors. Don't worry! One of those errors is the Incompatibility warning with the "noveau kernel module". Just kick next and you'll be presented with a request to attempt to bypass loading of noveau kernel modules. Just say yes. Installer will continue and fail as the modules are still loaded.<br />
5 - Reboot your computer. You'll probably end up with a no XFCE boot direct into command line, if so just continue and re-do step 4, if not, repeat steps 3 and then 4.<br />
This time, the installed will succeed.<br />
6 - Reboot and you'll find yourself back in XFCE with NVIDIA power boosting the already light DesktopManager. Be happy and NOW you can run the remaining updates (the new linux kernel)<br />
7 - Reboot and enjoy a blazing fast kernel on a blazing fast DesktopManager.<br />
<br />
That's it!Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-11269670317725841202013-06-22T00:05:00.003+01:002013-06-22T00:13:59.613+01:00Microsoft Project & Project Server 2013 and Office365 line of products: Maturity to generate and support MaturityBefore I start this post, and due to some questions presented at some of my classes, I'll make a simple statement: I'm not a Microsoft man, as much as I'm not an Oracle, or Apple man or even a Red Hat Man. I'm a technology man, with Project Management Career built on top of an Engineering background. So I like efficiency and quality. If a brand I love creates a bad product I will NOT support or recommend it...as much as if a brand I don't like creates a good product, I WILL support, recommend and embrace-it. You see, after years working multiple technologies with multiple projects, I no longer value childish clubbing behavior. Brilliance is all over the world and all over companies...and it is a good thing that every now and then, one competitor rises above others and shines for a while, pulling responses from other competitors....it drives evolution and that's my point of focus.<br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>Having sad that, lets go into the article.</b></i><br />
I' been using Microsoft products to support business and training since as early as Microsoft Windows 2.0... regarding Microsoft Project and Project Server (that I've been using from it's early days), my students (when asking for my honest opinion) would hear something like, Microsoft Project Professional is good, and I strongly recommend it, Project Server however is not mature enough to justify investment so I recommend you to wait.<br />
That however HAS changed dramatically. Ever since Project Server 2010, that product maturity just leap forward into a top-in-class product. The only flaw would be that it was built on SharePoint, and thought better, it was (in 2010) far from acceptable in my (efficiency oriented mind).<br />
2013 is a leap to brilliance. SharePoint improved immensely not in terms of concept (as there was noting wrong with it) but rather in terms of quality...it is lighter, more robust, faster....it just works. <br />
This allowed for what already was a great product to be even better.<br />
<br />
<i><b>The new version of Microsoft Project Professional 2013,</b></i> is not that much of a leap since the already brilliant 2010. Sure a lot of people that actually understand the software calculation routine didn't think that way (I used to be one of them during the beta trials), but then it was their fault, as the product actually improved a lot and that included the calculation routine, especially towards resource assignment and peak usage.<br />
The most important improvement since 2013 comes from reports that are now BRILLIANT and totally flexible, and a new set of features that you really don't get to taste unless you evolve towards the SharePoint world. You see, now, you can use Project Professional 2013 to edit SharePoint task-lists, and use the brilliant "scheduling engine" in it to make those SharePoint task-lists come to life. This makes Project Professional 2013, not only the "client" app for Project Server, but also for SharePoint.<br />
<br />
<b><i>The Project Server 2013,</i></b> however is an important leap since it's predecessor. If you just look at features, the comparison is almost equal, but in truth things have evolved a lot.<br />
Project Server has been suffering a fusion with the SharePoint product. Of course this could be done at once, but it would eventually stall product evolution in terms of features that were much needed before 2010. Having reached that point, however, there was nothing to hold Microsoft back, and it shows.<br />
Project Server 2010, used to force you to create workflows using Microsoft Visual Studio and a lot of coding...now if you think that SharePoint excels in workflow creation and maintenance simplicity, this was a "turn-down". Well, feel turn-down no more! Today's Project Server 2013 uses the same workflow engine, and as a consequence, you can create workflows visually using SharePoint Designer.<br />
Project Server 2010 used to have 4 databases. These represent the several stages of Data inside the server. Of course that would represent a lot of shifts from database to database between saves, publishes, reports, etc. 2013, does consolidate everything into one database, allowing for better performance and control of data.<br />
Project Server 2010 was available only as a server, so you had to license SharePoint, Windows Servers, SQL Server just to have Project Server... 2013 is offered as both the standard installation you've always had (now called on-premises) and a new service on the cloud (called on-line). This is huge as in truth, most cost of ownership, cost of growing and inability to shrink, and the cost of installation is reduced to near nothing. This is a huge step on the product ans it uses all the benefits from SharePoint and none of the drawbacks.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Microsoft Office meets the world outside Microsoft windows.</i></b><br />
Now, Project Server always allowed you to use the web interface to use Project Web App. And that meant better support for cross-platforms and better in-company roll-out options. But if you try out the new Project Server 2013 Online with office 365, you'll experience things in a hole different level.<br />
The new Project Web App is even better, so if the browser has total W3C compliance, it will work in just about ANY platform. Don't believe me? Ok, so I've used it in 3 different Linux types using chrome, 3 different windows versions using both Chrome and IE and even done it on Android 4.0 using Chrome:<br />
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And that was not even half the story. I've been editing PowerPoint files, from Linux using the Web App, I've customized a Microsoft Project Server 2013 report using Excel Web App, from a Linux...<br />
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<br />
...and this, this is quite something. This is Microsoft saying, we will go cross-platform with our best products, meaning that ANYONE can use them, but there is another hidden message here that is most interesting. In order to move the most interesting software outside the Windows comfort zone, pressure is being placed on Windows team to develop more quality into the future Windows kernels. This clearly places them into a "careful with your competitors from now on, because users no longer buy your stuff because they what to use other products...you better do it right from now on or you'll run out of clients fast".<br />
Obviously this would never happen in the Windows Vista era...first because it was too early for the market and second because it would kill windows faster that a speeding bullet; doing it now that Windows 8 and Server 2012 have excellent kernels, does provide them some protection, but you must admire the gamble and pressure for quality that lies beneath all this "Web App".<br />
<br />
<b><i>There is also something very important in the product line evolution: </i></b>Project Server 2010 introduced PSI (Project Server Interface). In truth it's a facade to allow coders to interface with Project Server and do...just about anything you can do with it...you see Project Professional 2010, as the Project Server's Client, uses the exact same interface, so you can build a full features Project Professional and interface with Project Server. This is the EYODF (EatYourOwnDog'sFood) at its best. Now Project Server 2013 not only supports this PSI, the "On-Line" option of using it does create a new "complication" for access to database data. Enter the ODATA. ODATA is an open standard for streaming data using JSON or XML interface. Project Server 2013, allows you to use ODATA to generate reports on Microsoft Excel and them publish them on the server. It's clean, it's powerful, it's the future.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Office 365 is big</b></i>, it allows you to license "as you need", being able to grow and shrink as you need, using either windows and installing the windows desktop version applications, or using the growing number of products being "webalized" into these brilliant "web Apps", allowing for just about any system to run them. Sure not all apps exist for web and it still needs to grow a bit, but you HAVE to LOVE the commitment.<br />
<br />
It's been long since I said something like this (long is probably ever since windows NT4 and Windows Server 2003 x64) but, congratulations on a brilliant product line and strategy. Way to go Microsoft this is the culmination of an exemplar pull to mature and integrate a big and complex product. NICE WORK...if you only fix that horrible "metro" thing from both Server2012 and Windows8...Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-34377645552584848772013-06-02T12:47:00.001+01:002013-06-03T00:43:18.545+01:00Thank you GoogleThe eternal Google - Microsoft battle is long known, however, it recently got heated as Microsoft condemned the Google engineer responsible for finding zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft software.<br />
As a result of this reaction, Google announced its new disclosure policy:<br />
After discovering new vulnerabilities, they will alert the software manufacturer and wait 7 days before disclosing the findings to the world. This will allow the manufacturer to patch the software. <br />
So summing up, you now have the new seven-day vulnerability and the software manufacturers will be forced to invest in product quality. <br />
This is big! Google, not only tries their best to give you quality products (most of them, FREE), they now set the pace for the industry.<br />
The message is clear : be good or be gone from the software industry...<br />
Thought this is a clear comment-made-non-comment to Microsoft reaction, in truth it doesn't target Microsoft as the giant has more than capacity to solve and patch the world well within the 7 day timer; however for a lot of other software makers out there, this is "the grow up call".<br />
<br />
You gotta love Google.Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-12920439809901931392013-04-11T02:01:00.002+01:002013-06-23T19:10:58.860+01:00Windows 8... is it a flop? is it a changer? what the hell is it?Some months past Microsoft Windows 8 launch (and I've been trying it from beta versions) a question is pooping in everyone's head: <i>Am I the only one hating this interface? </i><br />
And when that is not the question, there is always it's twin sister question: <i>Am I the only one liking this interface?</i><br />
<br />
<b><i>Let's face it - </i></b>a phone is a phone, a pad is a pad and a desktop productivity computer is a desktop productivity computer.<br />
<br />
For some reason everyone else out there understands that a desktop PC is meant for productivity and work, in exception for Gnome team on Linux (they managed to screw an otherwise brilliant accession of the gnome desktop when they turned Gnome3 into a tablet like thing) and apparently Microsoft with Windows8.<br />
<br />
I've tried lots of Operating Systems lately, so I taught myself to separate Kernel and Core quality with the Graphic User Interface Quality.<br />
<b><i>AND this just turns this article a bit more bittersweet. </i></b>You see I've talking for years that Microsoft should increase product embedded security and efficiency...I even told time-over that if had Microsoft done the same Apple did, by choosing a light Linux based kernel (like Debian) and built their brilliant GUI on top of it, they would be unbeatable.<br />
Then this! Windows 7 Kernel (thought far from perfect) was really good when compared to it's predecessors (and no, I'm not talking Vista, as it's basically the same Kernel, the problem with Vista was bad Project Management and even worse GUI implementation)...Windows 8 Kernel is so much better that, if they managed to maintain the GUI, it would be a real improvement.<br />
HOWEVER, this time, it seams they just decided to get the kernel right, and kill the GUI... I just don't understand.<br />
<br />
<b><i>I guess </i></b>the PAD and Smartphone world is growing so much, classic software manufacturers are getting nervous and doing all kinds of mistakes....since even Gnome made-it and they don't have the same market as Microsoft to protect, it seams to me that they are getting confused.<br />
<br />
<i><b>As a PC, smartphone and PAD user let-me just tell you guys what I think;</b></i><br />
Phonewise, for pure productivity as a unified communications device, a cheap blackberry with OS5 or 6 is THE THING. For graphic complex apps and specific apps (designed by me for instance) I use an GalaxyS Duos running Android 4.<br />
My PAD is also an Android 4 (an ASUS TF101), but the version running in the PAD takes advantage of the screen and allows for more complex usage of it. It is the same basic code, just better tuned to the device and screen size.<br />
My computers run different versions of Linux (the laptop runs Gnome2 Ubuntu Studio 10.10, the workstation runs Xfce Ubuntu Studio 12.10).<br />
My virtual Machines run Windows 7 X64 and Windows Server 2008 R2.<br />
<br />
<i><b>So lets make conclusions</b></i>, I've been running from desktop operating systems that try to play PAD, because for that I HAVE A PAD!!! and I use my phones because none of them tries to BE THE PAD...and believe-me one of them is pretty close to the PAD running the same OS.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Microsoft made ONE smart move thought</b></i>, they allowed the real desktop behind the crazy "wannabe a pad experience" stuff. So apart from the user not being able to enjoy the new Kernel efficiency because they can't close apps and this eats up memory, they at least can switch to a desktop they almost know from Windows 7.<br />
<b><i>I find urgent that Microsoft does with 8 the same thing they've done with Vista:</i></b> quickly release 9 as this being the same 8 with a normally working and efficient GUI.<br />
On the Linux side and Gnome, I honestly think they've lost the edge and XFce was paying attention.<br />
<br />
<i><b>So to close... </b></i>It's not as it is bad... it is just a bad experience due to that GUI. And this could be just my opinion however I've been seeking everyone else opinion on this, and apart from fanboys, the pure lovers of this interface (from kids to corporate users) are less than my worse predictions indicated.<br />
<br />
----------------------------------------------------------UPDATE-----------------------------------------------------------<br />
Just learned that Microsoft is releasing an upgrade to windows 8 called 8.1. Here, you will be able to choose the interface you want to use: metro or that normal productivity desktop you've always had.<br />
I'm having that feeling that, for some reason, I should have gone to the horse races and bet it all on a horse instead of loosing my "fortune-teller" drift on an article...but hey, nothing's perfect...<br />
<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-91383937409876164202013-04-06T22:47:00.002+01:002013-06-23T19:15:17.953+01:00Iphone vs Android...errr is that Iphone vs Samsung Galaxy or Samsung vs LG Maximus or is it IOS vs Android...turnips vs mango-fruits?!?!?!!? These are my thought NOT about an article that talks about the iphone market share, but rather the comments i've read about that article .<br />
<br />
The article - <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130405133714-19021-reasons-for-ios-outperformance-in-the-us">http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130405133714-19021-reasons-for-ios-outperformance-in-the-us</a><br />
<br />
<br />
My thoughts -<br />
I honestly can't understand most comments I've read... especially the ones from so called "tech people".<br />
<br />
<br />
IOS (the iPhone operating system) is based on MacOSX, which in turn is based on FreeBSD (yes it is based on Darwin...the former NeXT machine operating system that in turn is mostly FreeBSD), which in turn is a unix-linux hybrid thing....Android is based on Debian which is probably the best Linux out there. In simple terms these are hybrid-made-monolithic kernels and that is why they mach the hardware perfectly and with big cohesion, stability and performance. Windows on the other hand is based on microsoft own kernels that are hybrid kernels, meaning they have a hard compiled core that loads modules as needed on the fly. So comparing the Droid to Microsoft and saying iphone is different is, for lack of a better word, nonsense... both the droid and the iphone are similar and they have nothing in common with microsoft. <br />
<br />
<br />
Second thing is the constant reboots and crashes... what are you talking about? <br />
<br />
I've had 1 Samsung Galaxy y Duos, and the only problems it had was the battery assembly that would miss-connection if the phone hit a table hard enough..this is hardware design, not the O.S. fault! <br />
<br />
My current droid is a Galaxy S Duos and works flawlessly. There is one huge difference between the iphone and the droid. You see iphone admits you are stupid and know nothing about the software and hardware you use on your phone (a good assumption because 99% of users do know nothing about the internals of what they use...as shown here); while the droid lets you do pretty much what you like with it...and if you know nothing about it, you'll have performance problems and with some badly built apps, crashes. <br />
<br />
<br />
There is another thing about the droid... it runs on zillion different devices, meaning that an app will have better chance of not working properly...while the iphone is a controlled hardware environment. <br />
<br />
<br />
One could argue that I use my droid out of the box and don't push-it by adding apps, but you would be wrong...in fact I have so many apps that I partitioned the SD card with to have an extra 2gb partition (now filled with apps). However I also use 2 VERY important apps every droid user should know: "Advanced Task Killer" and "Performance Tool". Reboots? crashes? Complaining about this on an GalaxyS running droid is the same thing as saying your car is bad because it stalled that other time you decided to fuel-it with mud instead of regular Gas!!! <br />
<br />
<br />
There is one thing about the iphone (and all other apple hardware for that matter) that I think no one really cares: it's priced twice of what it is worth. <br />
<br />
<br />
A droid costing half the iphone value will have better or equivalent hardware...ohh and at least you'll have an sd card slot to expand at will. <br />
<br />
Today streamline droid is the GalaxyS3 (S4 comming up)...it is so much better than any iphone out there that I find chocking when people still compare them. It's like entering a BMW stand and compare its best 3series with the fiat in the stand across the road, just because it has 4 wheels and it's called a car. <br />
<br />
Just because you don't know how to drive the bmw right, it doesn't mean the fiat is better!!! <br />
<br />
<br />
Several people from my family own iphones, honestly I think it is a stupid buy (and proved that time and time over...especially then they run out of memory and I lend them a spare sd card just for the fun of seeing them reject because they have no way of using it)..that doesn't mean it is bad; its just TOO damn expensive for what it delivers. <br />
<br />
<br />
I suggest you appreciate the fact that droid phones allow you to actually own them and do whatever you like with them... and if you make bad decisions, live with them or just clean some bad apps or memory. I would never EVER buy a phone that costs twice as much and then behaves as I'm not actually owning it, but rather some company...jailbreak is probably the most pathetic thing on the iphone! It's just like buying a car with a locked trunk that will only unlock when you go to the ONE supermarket the car brand owns :S weird to say the leastManuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-70865666342903518762013-03-06T20:08:00.003+00:002013-04-11T02:05:03.602+01:00Ubuntu 12.10 random file system in read-only mode...Hi all,<br />
If, like me, you are a heavy Linux user, and you have some SATA II or SATA III hardware installed on Your PC, you have a good chance of understanding this post.<br />
You see, most computers out there are Intel... hell most are Win-Tel. But ignoring software choices, hardware wise, most computers out there run on Intel hardware. In our days, running on Intel means having Intel chip-set, which in turn means having Intel SerialATA controllers.<br />
If you have Intel SATA controllers, you are lucky enough to enjoy the widely used and (as a consequence widely debugged) Intel SATA Drivers for Linux.<br />
If, on the other hand, you hate monopoly (in the line of thought that monopoly will kill competitors and as a result render you without options and as a consequence render you slave of a company...allowing it not to evolve products as often, and price-tag it as they want), you'll probably be running on AMD hardware...and probably use some different hardware for SATA controllers.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Enter the NCQ - Native Command Query.</b></i> Back in ParallelATA time, TCQ was invented. TCQ stands for Tagged Command Query. Is simple terms, instead of asking you hard-drive to fetch 1 piece of information from it, you just send a bunch of requests at a time, and allow the drive to chose which it gets first. The drive then uses the location and path of it's heads, relative to the position of the data blocks in the disks and traces a path that fetch information faster but not in the requested sequence. It's no different that a mail man running it's mail delivery routine. If he was to go deliver each letter and then return back to the post office to go for another delivery and then back again, it would take ages compared to a well planned and scheduled delivery run in which he delivers all the letters to a specific path, regardless of the order in which the letters were sent. It was a good idea, however Parallel ATA uses the ISA bus protocols to communicate. That simple fact means the CPU has to hand over all data to and from the disk to memory. As a result TCQ was just a good idea without support from hardware communication protocols as it results in a huge CPU overhead. It's as if the letters had to be given to the mail man buy it's boss one at a time, and his boss would have to go back and forward to fetch each letter...pointless!<br />
SATA controllers, on the other hand grabs a bunch of DMA (Direct Memory Access) addresses and uses them at will. This means that the TCQ version of SATA (called Native Command Query). Now using our example, the DMA address ability of the SATA bus is just like our mailman bag that can hold all the letter he takes before leaving the post-office.<br />
Unlike TCQ, the NCQ is a success and it's been widely implemented in every SATA2 and 3 controller.<br />
NCQ has one more ability over TCQ and that's the new SATA interfaced SSD drives. A lot of you would think that it's pointless to have NCQ if the drive has no moving parts, and so, no optimal retrieval path would have to be calculated to maximize the drive head to disk path...and you would be right about that. However SSD are so fast that the bottleneck becomes the host controller of the drive. So NCQ is used to instruct the drive on what to get while it's waiting for the controller to respond with a ready to receive state.<br />
<br />
<i><b>So NCQ seems like a good thing. </b></i>It is, however to take advantage of it, one has to buffer things (driver wise). You see, if the Operating systems requests 1,2,3 and the drive replies 2,1,3 the driver has to buffer the request, and the reply on order to allow coherence.<br />
THAT is the problem. Linux drivers for some non Intel controllers seem to have a bug in this caching. The result is that the Operating system often receives data that is out of order and thinks you have disk corruption... and other times you do have disk corruption because of the resulting re-writes. This will trigger a Linux kernel re-mount of the problematic hard-disk in read-only mode, allowing you to read your data and ultimately back-it-up. The more you stress your system, the likely this is to happen. Most people out there is thinking that their drive is failing and as a result are buying new hard-disks.<br />
<br />
<i><b>My case:</b></i> I am now running the latest Kernel 3.5.0-25 in Ubuntu-Studio 12.10.<br />
And my workstation hardware is ...AMD!<br />
The first time this happened was after a kernel update. So it was clear to me that I had a problem with some of the hardware drivers on that kernel. I then decided to investigate and found out that:<br />
1- Most of the other people having this problem were running on AMD<br />
2- Some of them solved the issue by re-configuring the BIOS controller to SATA I mode<br />
3- Some solved the issue by just changing to a PCI-express Intel based SATA controller.<br />
4- Some solved by disabling the NCQ mode on kernel boot.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Solution until a bug fix happens:</b></i><br />
The best way to solve this without changing hardware or rolling back to SATA 1?<br />
just edit the file /etc/default/grub with super user rights<br />
Change the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="libata.force=noncq"<br />
<div>
save and reboot.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Next time you upgrade your kernel, switch it back, reboot and try.</div>
Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-6761122443565003132013-02-27T22:55:00.002+00:002016-04-16T11:14:14.408+01:00Recovering auto-pruned posts in PHPbb forums...from SQL file backups, instead of the internal PHPbb toolI've been using PHPbb since V2 It's an excellent tool if you want to create a standard forum without a fuss in record time. I recon that I«ve been off for a while since V2 , but recently i had the need to create 2 sites that, according to specs where just simple forums, so I returned to PHPbb and found my self on V3.<br />
During the rush of putting the sites up A.S.A.P /BTW with install, full config, sample posts, creating emails invite emails, changing the email templates and code to include registration custom fields and template design and implementation of template design with google adds code embed, it took-me a total of 2 hours to get everything done. OOhh and it's 2 hours for the 2 forums, not 2 hours each! Not you have to respect that. Free code that saves you countless ours of coding and templating and configuring time. And mind that I was "rusty" (I didn't PHPbb since V2 and a lot has changed). This, is productivity that HAS to be appreciated: THANKS PHPbb team.<br />
<br />
I decided to post this article after finding some misleading information on the PHPbb forums stating (and I quote): "to script to do that automatically has been created yet", "it's just too complex, better restore the entire database".<br />
<br />
OK, you have instructions on how to restore and backup de database using PHPbb internal tools (makes sense as it IS the supported feature) but let's just assume that, just like me, you have much more to deal with and you configure your servers to backup automatically using cpanel, for instance.<br />
That means that you will not be using the internal PHPbb backup tool and as a result you'll be able to restore or backup at MySQL (or your db of choice) files level. That is also a good way to work right until the point where you find out that you left "autoPrune = yes" on one of your forums.<br />
You see Auto Prune is a nice admin tool. Let's just say for instance that you create a forum for improvement requests... you want to have people writing there, but you don't want those posts to stay there for ever. They just loose sense when either you implement, or reject the improvements users request.<br />
However if you just enable it in one of your other content forums, and please mind that by default it is set to prune posts over 7 days with no activity, you might just find your self visiting a ghost forums (especially if you are still starting it and you have few people writing on it.<br />
<br />
Now picture you forget that setting on, and also use Cpanel to backup. Well than I guess you'll find your way into this post (or the other forums posts I've quoted") sooner or later.<br />
<br />
It's easy to restore your pruned posts if you have an SQL for for your database restore.<br />
Just open your administration tool (PHPMyadmin for instance). At the same time, open your SQL restore file on a text editor and then browse the tables and the respective restore code to check what has been deleted and out of those what do you want to restore.<br />
Then use an SQL tool to run commands on your server and copy-past from the backup, file, clean up unwanted lines and run the command.<br />
It's that simple. The ONLY thing you absolutely need to understand is that there are several tables that have post information and indexing to forums and topics.<br />
So you'll have to perform this procedure in the following tables (and add the full lines to the missing table):<br />
<i><b> - PHPbb_posts</b></i><br />
<i><b> - PHPbb_topics</b></i><br />
<i><b> - PHPbb_topics_posted</b></i><br />
<br />
This will render your posts back on to your forum. However, you you also want the forum statistics and last post and poster up-to-date, you need to restore a part of your forums table. So inside <i><b>PHPbb_forums</b></i>, find the following fields and restore them from your backup (probably using either an update command or simple copy-paste into location, depending on just how much you need to restore)<br />
<b><i> - forum_posts</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_topics</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_topics_real</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_last_post_id</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_last_poster_id</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_last_post_subject</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_last_post_time</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_last_poster_name</i></b><br />
<b><i> - forum_las_poster_colour</i></b><br />
<br />
When you finish this procedure, now only you've recovered your posts and topics, you have also restored those statistics indicators on the forum's front page that will point your users to the most active topics.<br />
<br />
That's it, that's all. Simple and not by all means in need of a script or a complicated procedure.Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-62410921816938201212013-02-24T04:42:00.003+00:002013-02-24T05:23:41.644+00:00Bad Bad hacker...Protect your JOOMLA website before someone without ethics takes it out.Recently, there has been a huge wave of sites being hacked by the so-called "Your country's name here"CyberArmy.<br />
<br />
I've placed the "Your country's name here"CyberArmy of purpose. First was the Bangladesh, then Pakistan... and I've lost count on the rest of them. I've been watching this from the distance through feeds from twitter and rss, described as a "hacker war between India and Pakistan". However, in this last month I've had to spend over 50% of my time cleaning-up, recovering, protecting and placing back online sites from friends of mine, that were hacked.<br />
<br />
I'd like to state here and now that I'm affiliated with the Anonymous movement. However, I'm affiliated with the original concept of anonymous. NOT THE RADICAL fractions, nor the "It's cool to say we are anonymous but we're just a bunch of kids that destroy stuff fractions".<br />
Anonymous has no organized leadership, or body of command, so as a result, a lot of fractions just wander around and follow their own path under the name of Anonymous (counter-sense, I know, but you get the picture).<br />
<br />
Most of my friends sites are made on Joomla. Yes, others have .NET sites, or WordPress sites, but those really don't come asking me for help as they already know my answer.<br />
Joomla people, on the other hand, I try to help as much as I can. I don't code components (can't afford the time) but I do customize them and customize the Joomla it self. So when a friend asks for help I try to help...I figure that this is one way to give-back to the community.<br />
<br />
One of the things I've not explained is that I didn't charge for that 50% month worth of hard work. This part SHOULD clear my "Anonymous ideal alignment" and my understanding of this wave of STUPID and POINTLESS cyber terrorism.<br />
-If someone hack a government website and brings down the IRS database or VAT reporting and registration services, I'll be the first to cheer and congratulate...partially because very little governments on earth are honest (so they deserve to be robbed in the good old Robin Hood style) and partially because a big organization should pay for the best in terms of security (and most just decide to hire people without technical value, like friends and their colleagues kids, for these high-pay jobs).<br />
-If someone hacks a big company, especially if it's one of those company's that are truly worthless, and do nothing but damage with blind profit in sight (like moody's for instance), I'm the first to applause and pass the message.<br />
-On the other hand, if someone just hacks or defaces a website from a small company, because they are trying to show off skill, in truth they are showing off TOTAL and COMPLETE lack of I.Q. ...and I ultimately hate them with a despise that I can't even compare to an insect. At least an insect does what it is biologically programmed to do...a human, on the other hand, SHOULD KNOW BETTER!<br />
Small companies tend to serve their clients in the best possible way, because they can't afford to loose them; they try to have a lower margins because they are also lighter and with a leaner structure to support; they have very little profits compared to the big companies so no Lobby is possible, creating LESS government corruption impact; They also pay the full tax load, because they can't "shake the system off" with good lawyers and tax experts on the payroll...They normally have such a lean system that it's almost impossible to access good security experts, making their efforts to migrate their business online extremely vulnerable.<br />
As a result, most get hacked and the majority doesn't recover from the hit. Most had to pay for the website already, and did that at the lowest possible bid...it's unthinkable to rent an expert for 1 or 2 full weeks and pay 10k€.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Joomla</i></b> is an excellent CMS to build up-on. I don't particularly like V3.0, but I love 2.5 and 1.7 .<br />
Joomla gets patched regularly and it's actually very acceptable in terms of security.<br />
<b><i>There are 2 main problems with Joomla in terms of security:</i></b><br />
- you can install 3rd party components, and not all are safe form bugs.<br />
- the system is protected at code level, this then assumes no attack gets through as a result the data layer has very little protection.<br />
<br />
<b><i>The most common SQLinjection attack on Joomla,</i></b> take advantage of one vulnerability on a form on one of the components (generally 3rd party) and Injects SQL code. So the community developing Joomla protected their code, but a part of code done outside their control just bypasses all those protection layers.<br />
<b><i>So what?</i></b> Well, normally, the hacker will attack the users table on Joomla and just replace every user with the same username and password.<br />
<b><i>Why?</i></b> When you install Joomla, the very first user in the database is the Admin and it's a super user. Anyone logging in with that user can do anything.<br />
<b><i>How to solve this: </i></b>There are several protections (some more effective) but I'll go though them.<br />
<b><i>1-</i></b>change the user name to something different than admin and description different than super user.<br />
<b><i>2-</i></b>add a user called admin with no right at all (public or simple registered)<br />
<b><i>3-</i></b>on your database, change the username and email fields to UNIQUE.<br />
<b><i>So now, </i></b>next time the hacker tries an injection with a code like "UPDATE something_users SET username= 'admin', password='1234' WHERE 1=1", at the very first row, the database engine will issue an error because admin already exists.<br />
If, on the other hand he tries "UPDATE something_users SET password='1234' WHERE username= 'admin'", he will end up with a user account that has no rights at all.<br />
<b><i>Is that it?</i></b> No! a more knowledgeable hacker would simply replace the first row with a different user and still change both username and pass form your super user account. Something like "UPDATE something_users SET username= 'Pamela Anderson', password='1234' WHERE 1=1 LIMIT 1" or "UPDATE TOP(1)<span class="pun" style="border: 0px; font-family: Consolas, Menlo, Monaco, 'Lucida Console', 'Liberation Mono', 'DejaVu Sans Mono', 'Bitstream Vera Sans Mono', 'Courier New', monospace, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span>something_users SET username= 'Pamela Anderson', password='1234' WHERE 1=1" or "UPDATE something_users SET username= 'Pamela Anderson', password='1234' WHERE 1=1 ROWNUM=1"... this will change with the database engine, but you get the picture.<br />
<b><i>How to solve this: </i></b><br />
<i><b>1-</b></i> create a different account on your Joomla administrator (preferably NOT on the first users on your user list)<br />
<b><i>2-</i></b>give full administrator permissions to this new account.<br />
<b><i>3-</i></b>remove all permissions on the default administrator account (the first row on your table).<br />
<b><i>OR-</i></b> just use SQL commands to copy that account to a lower ROW, and then just delete the first ROW.<br />
<br />
<b><i>What if: </i></b>the hacker is patient enough to go and execute this last hack on the first row, try to log, if the user has no rights delete the first row and re-start the hack until he gets to a row with the real admin user? THIS IS HOW you should think... that what if the guy trying to hack-me is better and more persistent than I am?<br />
<b><i>Then, </i></b>the only way to solve this in the database, is using TRIGGERS.<br />
I personally protect MOST of my website databases with a BEFORE UPDATE and BEFORE DELETE or TRUNCATE or DROP:<br />
<i><b>1-</b></i>On the Update trigger I simply don't enable updating of the username and email without a safety password input into a value.<br />
<i><b>2-</b></i>About the DELETE, TRUNCATE and DROP, I just don't allow-it, period (you never know if the hacker just gets mad and decides to destroy).<br />
<br />
<i><b>So what about that good thinking that the hacker is better than me and can think around my defensive configurations, or that some entry-point on some module or component is wide open and beyond my comprehension until it is too late?</b></i><br />
Remember my advice? Assume the hacker is better and more persistent than you are; don't take Joomla updates for granted as they can still have vulnerabilities and they do not patch 3rd party components.<br />
Well, thinking about this I created a protection service. Think of it like a bouncer.<br />
I created a webservice (with internal protection against hacking) that is put to work in a different domain than the one of the site being protected... that way, the hacker will have to hack 2 different websites to clean up his "digital footprints".<br />
The webservice is then called by each index.php page on my clients website and administrative site. The call will send all the request data to the Webservice and wait for a forensic analysis. The reply may point the website visitor to the website, the hacker to a standard "stop trying to hack this site" page, or simply send the hacker or visitor to a "this site is blocked on your country" page.<br />
Independently of the answer being a block, anti-hack or a go through, the webservice logs everything and if (here come the important assumption) the hacker finds a hole, it will be recorded and later analysed to create a rule against that new vulnerability.<br />
<br />
For the time being, I'm only allowing free usage of this tool for all my friends that have been hacked, as I'm still testing the hardening efficiency. But as soon as finish the mobile app to access reports and statistics, I'll place a price tag on it. If you like the project, please keep visiting Http://www.thesitecupid.com (still on final construction phase) under "enforcer" menu....or register and follow this blog.Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-38404267747691605832012-12-05T00:44:00.002+00:002013-02-20T23:14:08.428+00:00VMWare Workstation under Linux....the heaven and hell in the same packageI'm a VMWare guy (still am).<br />
I've been virtualizing infrastructures from 1999 on. Back then I had no "big time" enterprise server virtualization software, so I used VMWare Workstation, first under windows and then finally under Linux.<br />
I've sicked to VMWare Server ever since the very first version and always under Linux...then ESX and ESXi came along and things got really serious. I absolutely love ESXi and I've tested in beyond the reasonable (or designed) usage, and it always surprises me.<br />
<br />
VMWare workstation however has a different relationship with me. I love it just about as much as I hate it. Let me explain why: VMWare workstation is very UNsupported on Linux. It seems stupid that the very best product they have and sell (the ESX and ESXi) is Linux based and it is just flawless.<br />
So VMWare Workstation works very very well under windows...witch kinda denies it's purpose on the first place! Why oh Why would I want to run a virtual machine built on top of a virtualization solution running under the worse O.S. when it comes to resource usage and management?<br />
When it comes to Linux, VMWare Workstation has historical problems with the best O.S. when it comes to managing and using hardware resources...and that's a bad thing. You see, Windows runs better if virtualized under Linux... it's more stable and a lot faster; the opposite is not true at all.<br />
<br />
So things loot like they've been inverted; The best implementation of VMWare Workstation is for the worse possible usage of that product. But this would be bearable if the Linux implementation was, at least, stable...but we're not that lucky.<br />
I'm a Debian/Ubuntu user, than meant constant headaches up until version 7. Whenever I had a Kernel Update, I would have several hours of rebuilding the VMNet kernel modules so that VMWare workstation could run, and that was everything but easy. Some guys produced patches and workarounds, but they normally posted them months after my hell week. Having less and less time to spend over glitches instead of real work problems, I had to switch into the "don't upgrade the kernel until articles with the patches and solutions have been posted" mode.<br />
<br />
Then things improved with VMWare Workstation 7 and it's perfect install routine. I though I was in heaven by then but this "honeymoon" was very short lasting. My laptop (obviously running Linux) uses an ATI graphics card...as a result, if I turned On the Virtual machine 3D acceleration, I get screen image corruption. Up till that point, I was blaming ATI on their bad drivers for Linux, as the dual screen functions are very unstable and often produce the same screen corruption I experienced in VMWare. Back home at the workstation with it's dual Nvidia graphics cards, Workstation 7 run smoothly with 3D acceleration.<br />
<br />
Then VMWare upgraded to Workstation8. WS8 was an important upgrade as is allowed link to ESXi for usage of the virtual machines (not full management functionality, but at least I could use the machines)...you see, VMWare VSphere client (the management for ESX and ESXi) is windows only! So Linux users had to install a Virtual Machine with Windows and then install the management application (it's goofy to manage your server from a VM running on that same server, but VMWare is well known for leaving you to making goofy decisions for lack of support on the right platforms). But back to the WS7, still the same cool installer and improved performance but, the laptop continued to have real problems with 3D acceleration. At least the Workstation could still kick ass on 3D with the Nvidia cards.<br />
<br />
Recently, VMWare upgraded to Workstation 9. I was thrilled to see the claims for better performance so I immediately tried it...and found HELL! You see, not only this one still doesn't work 3d on ATI cards, it crashed BADLY with my nvidia cards and 3D acceleration enabled.<br />
So where does this leave us? VMWare is building worse and worse implementations of better and better products! WEIRD!<br />
<br />
So why do I insist on running VMWare Workstation on Linux? Because I keep trying to find a good product and finally stick with it.<br />
<br />
My advise to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU out there is: Don't buy VMWare Workstation until you try EVERY function available...use the trial and test before you spend any money.<br />
I mean it's good for office and simple tools, but forget running games or even 3D apps on it without these VERY BAD PROBLEMS solved properly.<br />
<br />
Are there any other solutions out there? Sure!<br />
VMWare workstation is not compatible with ESXi, so I can't just stage a machine with Vmware Workstation and then upload to ESXi, I have to use VMWare converter to convert the machine to ESXi. In that sense, why use VMWare Workstation at all?<br />
Welcome to Oracle Virtual Box. Virtual Box, unlike VMWare Workstation, comes from Linux. The Windows implementation is not the prime development but rather the secondary.<br />
Is it perfect? no... not as a good performer as the VMWare workstation, but at least it supports 3D without crashing! Bare in mind that the USB support for the community edition is quite bad, so I recommend you to download form the Website instead of installing through Software Center.<br />
<br />
So... unless you want to use nvidia ONLY and keep on Workstation 7, just use Virtual Box and if you stage ESXi machines, don't worry as you would still need VMWare converter anyway if you were using VMWare Workstation.<br />
<br />
Sorry VMWare... better start supporting Linux at least as well as you do Windows! It's not that difficult, just grab one or two geniuses you have working on the ESX team and learn from them.Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-39587928888457236682012-12-04T15:21:00.002+00:002013-06-23T19:17:26.333+01:00Ubuntu on unity: is this the end?! NO!! Ubuntu Studio saves the day.I've been using Linux ever since I was forced to use PC hardware on my everyday job, against my platform of election - The Commodore Amiga.<br />
I started my PC experience with the 286 and then my father brought me an IBM PS2 386 SX, hopping I would drop the brilliant Amiga against the DOS and clumsy windows 3.0....it didn't work! I used the PC for the works at school (mostly programming), and the Amiga for just about everything else from programming to music producing, to video editing to the simple spreadsheet and word processing.<br />
Even when I was studying engineering, I was forced to use the AUTOCAD 12 under MSDOS...but I still used XCAD on the Amiga for the drawings, Lightwave 3D for animation and 3D, and sometimes I even played with Real3D for some very very awesome renderings of my mechanical parts.<br />
<br />
When I started working, back in 1997, the Amiga was loosing strength (because of poor visioned management that rotted the corporation for years), and I was running out of time to work 2 different systems constantly. By then Windows NT3.5 and latter the NT4.0 were the poor mans workstation standard, while Sun sparcs ran Solaris and Serious HP workstations ran HPUX.<br />
I had training in UNIX, but it was just impossible to have both a UNIX station and a Windows station back home, so since most of our clients were Windows based, I had to opt for the NT...hell, I even got certified (not something I usually tell people, not by the fact that's a Microsoft certification, but rather not to be confused with today's "Microsoft Certified Professionals"...back then a Microsoft certification was hard to get and implied real knowledge, instead of just good memory for brain-dump).<br />
<br />
Still, was constantly amazed with the increasing hardware power, while the results were so damn poor comparing to my good old Amiga... and I was not even comparing my A4000-030, I talk about the 80's A500 running a 7mhz 16bit CPU on 512Kbs of ram.<br />
<br />
It wasn't until 1999 that I got enough money to have several computers at home, and the office allowed me to have a laptop, so my work could be on the laptop and use my home machines for exploring other O.S. solutions. Back then Linux was not much easier than a Unix, and far from as productive as an Amiga... but at least it was hardware resource sensible and very fast.<br />
<br />
Linux grew in time... lot's of distributions passed and I tried them as I searched for a good Linux. I tried RedHat, TurboLinux, Mandrake and of course Debian, making this last one my preferred one.<br />
Ever since Ubuntu popped in the scene with REAL improvement on user desktop experience (and I'm talking about 6.04LTS), I decided to stick with Ubuntu and Debian alone. If the Hardware was too picky, I would go for Debian, and if I was running on state of the art hardware specs, Ubuntu (with it's constant updates) would be the choice.<br />
For the last years I've been using Ubuntu Studio 9.10 64 on my HP Compaq 8510p laptop, and I've used the same on my home AMD 5000+ Workstation, however problems with the support for Vmware workstation 6 and 7 on Debian based Linux (especially with the compilation of network kernel modules) made me constantly try new kernels, and that led me to the post title.<br />
<br />
On one of those Updates, the Ubuntu Studio 11 (if not mistaken) I found my self out of Gnome and into (if I'm not mistaken) XFce... and I really don't like KDE nor Xfce (or I thought I didn't). So I decided to re-install with Ubuntu and then manually install all the other packages from Ubuntu Studio....boy was I on for a surprise. Ubuntu had been defaced into that thing called unity. These's something very wrong about today's Ubuntu Unity and Windows 8! If I want a PAD, I buy one and run the Debian based Android on it!!!! Why would I want that interface on my workstation?!?!<br />
The pity thing is that the kernel is much better and faster (same thing as in windows 8... a much much better kernel on a bad interface), so the Unity interface is just a way to let you...NOT enjoy it and move away to the always reliable and good old DEBIAN. Like I did!<br />
<br />
I've been very very disappointed with today's Ubunty Unity, and I understood why would Ubuntu Studio move away from Gnome to a XFce like environment, however, I decided to recheck Ubuntu Studio on the 12.10 version. FINALLY, Ubuntu's good old "Gnome-like" desktop running on the brand new super fast kernel.<br />
<br />
So to conclude, If you used to like Ubuntu and feel disappointed (ultimately moving to Mint Linux...as I would if they drop that sick green), try the brilliant Ubuntu Studio 64 12.10... and find your self back into the Desktop Experience Linux game...and you know what? That brilliant Gnome like desktop...is actually Xfce4 :s. Seems like that, while Gnome is getting worse with unity, Xfce found it's way through.<br />
<br />
This is a good example for some of you readers queering me about my anti-Microsoft pro-Linux tendencies. I'm not against Microsoft... I actually love, use and teach how to use some of their products....at the same time, I'm not a blind Linux lover.<br />
If I like a product, than I like and write about it; If I don't... well I just don't and write about it.Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-33785176903050271552012-10-27T19:43:00.001+01:002013-04-11T02:05:03.596+01:00Understanding computer performance and architecturesHi all.<br />
This article is co-authored with David Turner David watched <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzIFym10zoc" target="_blank">my youtube video</a> showing of a workstation running Linux and multitasking beyond what is expected for that hardware.<br />
David started communicating with me as he has the same hardware base I have and uses windows, so we was both curious, confused... and I think that part of his brain was telling him "fake... it's got to be another fake youtube crap movie".<br />
So I channelled him to this blog and the latest post at the time about the Commodore Amiga and its superiority by design. Dave replied with a lot of confusion as most of the knowledge in it was too technical. We then decided that I would write this article and he would criticize-me whenever I got too technical and difficult to understand, forcing-me to write more "human" and less "techye".<br />
Se he is co-author as he is criticising the article into human readable knowledge. This article will be split into lessons and so this will change with time into a series of articles. <br />
<br />
Note, this article will change in time as David forces-me to better explain things. Don't just read-it once and give-up if you don't understand, comment, and register to be warned about the updates. <br />
<br />
Starting things up...(update 1)<br />
<br />
<b><i>Lesson 1 : </i><i>The hardware architecture and the kernels.</i></b><br />
<br />
Hardware architecture, is always the foundation of things. You may have the best software on earth, but if it runs on a bad hardware...instead of running, it will crawl. <br />
Today's computers are a strange thing to buy. There is increasingly less support for NON-intel architectures, which is plain stupid, because variety will generate competition instead of monopoly, competition will generate progress and improvement. Still most computers today are Intel architecture. <br />
<br />
Inside the Intel architecture world, there is another heavy weight that seems to work in bursts. That would be AMD.<br />
AMD started as an Intel clone, and then decided to develop technology further. They were the first to introduce 64bit instructions and hardware with the renown Athlon64. At that time, instead of copying Intel, AMD decided to follow their own path and created something better than Intel. Years latter, they don-it again with the multi-core CPU. As expected, Intel followed and got back on the horse, so now we have to see AMD build more low budget clones of Intel until they decide to get back on the drawing board and innovate.<br />
<br />
So what is the main difference between the 2 contenders on the Intel Architecture world? <br />
Back on the first Athlon days, Intel focus development on the CPU chip as pure speed by means of frequency increase. The result is that (physics 101) the more current you have passing on a circuit with less purity of copper/gold/silicon, the more atoms of resisting material will be there to oppose current and generate heat. So Intel developed ways to use less and less material (creating less resistance, requiring less power and generating less heat) that's why Intel CPU have a dye size smaller than most competitors 65nm, 45nm, 37nm and so on. For that reason, they can run at higher speeds and that made Intel development focus not on optimizing the way the chip works, but rather the way they build the chips. <br />
AMD on the other hand doesn't have the same size as Intel, and doesn't sell as much CPUs, so optimizing chip fabrication would have a cost difficult to return. The only way was to improve chip design. That's why Athlon chip would be faster at 2ghz than an Intel at 2.6 or 2.7ghz...it was better in design and execution of instructions.<br />
Since the market really don't know what they buy and just look at specs, AMD was forced to change their product branding to the xx00+... 3200+ meaning that the 2.5gh chip inside, would be compared to (at least) a pentium 3.2ghz in performance. That same branding evolved to the dual core. Since Intel publicized their Hyper-threading CPU (copying the AMD efficiency leap design, but adding a new face to it called the virtual CPU) AMD decided to evolve into the dual core CPU (Intel patented the HyperThreading and thow using the AMD design as inspiration, they managed to lock them out of the marketing to use their own designs.... somehow I feel that Intel has really a lot to do with today's Apple!)... and continued calling it the 5000+ for the 2 core 2500+ 2gh per core CPU.<br />
So to this point in time the AMD and Intel could compete in speed of CPU, the AMD athlon64 5000+ dual core @ 2gh per core would be as fast as an Intel Core2Duo dual core @2.5Ghz!? Not quite. Speed is not always about the GHz as AMD already proved with the Athlon superior design. <br />
At some point in time, your CPU needs to Input/output to memory, and this means the REAL BIG difference in architecture between AMD and Intel.<br />
Intel addresses memory through the chip-set (with the exception of the latest COREix families). Most chip-sets are designed for the consumer market, so they were designed for a single CPU architecture. AMD, again needing to maximize production and adaptability designed their Athlon with an built in memory controller. So the Athlon has a direct path (full bandwidth, high priority and very very fast) to memory, while Intel has to ask the chip-set for permission and channel memory linkage through it. This design removes the chip-set memory bandwidth bottleneck and allows for better scalability.<br />
The result? look at most AMD Athlon, Opteron or Phenom multi-CPU boards and find one memory bank per CPU, while Intel (again) tried to boost the speed of the chip-set and hit a brick-wall immediately. That's why Intel motherboards for servers rarely go over the 2 CPU architecture, while AMD has over 8CPU motherboards. Intel and it's race for GHz rendered it less efficient and a lot less scalable.<br />
If you always stopped to think how intel managed a big performance increase out of the CORE technology (that big leap that CORi3, i5 and i7 have when compared to the design it's based on - the Core2Duo and Core2Quad), then the answer is simple... they already had Ghz performance, when they added a DDR memory controller to the CPU, they jumped into AMD performance territory! Simple, and effective...with much higher CPU clock. AMD had sleep for too long, and now intel rules the entire market in exception for the super computing world.<br />
<br />
<i><b>The Video and the AMD running Linux.</b></i><br />
This small difference in architectures play an important role in the Video I've shown with the Linux being able to multitask like hell. The ability to channel data to and from memory directly means the CPU can be processing a lot of data in parallel and without asking(and waiting for the opportunity) the chip-set to move data constantly.<br />
<br />
So the first part of this first "lesson" is done.<br />
Yes, today's Intel Core i5 and i7 is far more efficient than AMD equivalence, but still not as scalable, meaning that in big computing, AMD is the only way to go in the x86 compatible world. AMD did try that next leap with the APU recently, but devoted too much time on the development of the hardware and forgot about the software to run-it properly. And I'll leave this to the second part of this "lesson". They also choose ATI as it's partner for GPUs... Not quite the big banger. NVIDEA would be the ones to choose. Raw power of processing power is NVIDEAs ground, while ATI is more focused on the purity of colour and contrast. So when AMD tried to fuse the CPU and the GPU (creating the APU), they could have created a fully integrated HUGE processing engine... but instead they just managed to create a processing chip-set. Lack of vision? Lack of money? Bad choice in the partnership (as NVIDEA is the master of GPU super computing)? I don't know yet... but I screamed "way to go AMD" when I heard about the concept... only to shout "stupid stupid stuuupid people" some months later when it came out.<br />
<br />
<i><b>The software architecture to run on the hardware architecture. </b></i><br />
Operating systems are composed of 2 major parts. The presentation layer (normaly called GUI, or Graphical User Interface) which is the one communicating between the user (and the programs) to the Kernel layer. And obviously the kernel layer that will interface between the presentation layer and the hardware.<br />
<br />
So...windows and pictures and icons apart, the most important part of a computer next to the hardware architecture, is the kernel architecture. <br />
There are 4 types of kernels:<br />
- MicroKernel - This is coded in a very direct, and simple way. It is built with performance in mind. Microkernels are normally included into routers, or printers, or simple peripherals that have specific usage and don't need to "try to adapt to the user". They are not complex and so eat very little CPU cycles to work, meaning speed and efficiency. They are however very inflexible.<br />
- Monolithic Kernels - Monolithic Kernels are BIG and heavy. They try to include EVERYTHING in it. So it's a kernel very easy to program with, as most features are built in and support just about any usage you can thing of. The down side is that it just eats up lot's of CPU cycles while verifying and comparing things because it tries to consider just about every possible usage. Monolithic kernels are very flexible at the cost of a lot of memory usage and heavy execution.<br />
- Hybrid Kernels - The hybrid-kernel type is a mix. You have a core kernel module that is bigger than the rest, and while loading, that module controls what other modules are loaded to support function. These models are not as heavy as the monolithic, as they only load what they need to work with, but they have to contain a lot of memory protection code to avoid one module to use other modules memory space. So they are not as heavy as the Monolithic, but not necessarily faster.<br />
- Atypical kernels - Atypical kernels are all those kernels out there that don't fit into these categories, mainly because they are too crazy, too good or just too exquisite to be sold in numbers big enough to create their own class. Examples of these are brilliant Amiga kernels and all the wannabes sprung by it (BEOS, AROS, etc), Mainframe operating system kernels and so on.<i><b>#REFERENCE nr1 (check the end of the article)# </b></i><br />
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For the record, I personally consider the Linux to be an atypical kernel. A lot of people think the Linux is Monolithic and would be right...in part. Some others would consider it to be Hybrid and be right...in part.<br />
The linux kernel is a full monolithic code block as a monolithic kernel, however, that kernel is hardware match compiled. When you install your copy of Linux, the system probes the hardware you have and then chooses the best code base to use for it. For instance why would you need the kernel base to have code made for the 386 CPU, or the Pentium mmx if you have a Core2Duo, or an AMD Opteron64? The Linux kernel is matched to your CPU and the code is optimized for it. When you install software that needs a direct hardware access (drivers, virtualization tools, etc) you need the source code for your kernel installed and a c++ compiler for one simple reason ->The kernel modules installed to support those calls to hardware are built into your new kernel and it is recompiled for you. So you have a Hybrid-made-monolithic kernel design. Not as brilliant as the Amiga OS kernel, but considering that the Amiga O.S. kernel needs the brilliant Amiga hardware architecture, the Linux kernel is the best thing around for the Intel compatible architecture.<br />
Do I mean that Linux is better for AMD than Intel? Irrelevant! AMD is better than Intel if you need heavy memory usage. Intel is better than AMD if you need raw CPU power for rendering. Linux kernel is better than windows kernel...so comparing to today's windows, Linux is the better choice, regardless of architecture. However AMD users have more to "unleash" while converting to Linux, as windows is more Intel biased on purpose, and less memory efficient. <br />
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<i><b>Resources are limited!</b></i><br />
Why is Linux so much more efficient than windows with the same hardware?<br />
Windows kernel is either monolithic (w2k, nt, win 9x) or hybrid (w2k3, xp, vista/7, w2k8, 8). However the base of a hybrid kernel is always the cpu instructions and commands and that is always a big chunk.<br />
Since Microsoft made a crusade against the open-source, they have to keep with their "propaganda" and have a pre-compiled (and closed) CPU kernel module (and this is 50% of why I don't like Windows...they are being stubborn instead of efficient). So while much better that w2k, xp and 7 will still have to load-first a huge chunk of code that has to handle everything from the 386 to the future generations i7 cores and beyond. Meaning that they always operate in a compromised operation mode and will always have code in memory being unused. Microsoft also has a very closed relationship with Intel and tends do favor it against AMD, making any windows run better in Intel than AMD...this is very clear when you dig around AMD FTP and find several drivers to increase windows speed and stability on AMD CPUs...and find nothing like that on Intel. For some reason people call the PC a wintel machine.<br />
So To start, Linux has a smaller memory footprint than windows, it has more CPU instruction-set usage than windows "compatibility mode", it takes advantage of AMDs excellent memory to CPU bus.<br />
Apart from that there is also the way windows manages memory. Windows (up until the vista/7 kernel) was not very good managing memory. When you use software, the system is instancing objects of code and data in memory. Windows addresses memory in chunks made of 4kb pages. So if you have 8kb of code, it will look for a chunk with 2 memory pages of 4kb free and then use-it.... if however your code is made from 2 objects, one with 2kb and another with 10kb, windows will allocate a chunk with one page for the first one, and then a chunk of 3 pages to the second code. You'll consume 4+12kb = 16Kb for 12kb of code. This is causing the so called memory fragmentation. If your computer only had 16Kb of memory, in this last case you would not be able to allocate memory for the next 4kb code. Although you have 4Kb of free memory, it is fragmented into 2 and since it's non continuous, you would not have space to allocate the next 4kb. <br />
The memory fragmentation syndrome grows exponentially if you use a framework to build your code on. Enter the .NET. .Net is very good for code prototyping, but as it's easy to code for, it is so because the guys building it created objects with a lot of functionality built into it (to support any possible usage)... much like the classinc monolithic kernel. The result is that if you examine memory, you'll find out that a simple window with a combo box and an ok button will mean hundreds if not thousands of objects instanced in memory...for nothing as you'll only be using 10% of the coded object's functionality.<br />
Object Oriented programming creates Code objects in memory. A single "class" is Instanced several times to support different usage of the same object types but as different objects. After usage, memory is freed and returned to the operating system for re-usage. <br />
Now picture that your code creates PDF pages. The PDF stamper works with pages that are stamped individually and then glued together in sequence. So your code would be instancing, then freeing to re-instance a bigger object, to free after and re-instance a bigger one...and so on. <br />
For instance:<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Memory in pages: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|-1K 1K 1K 1K-|<br /> Your code:<br /> code instance 1 6K </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">|-C1 C1 C1 C1-|-C1 C1 -|- <br /> Then you add another object to support your data (increasing as you process it) called C2 <br /> code instance 2 10K </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">|-C1 C1 C1 C1-|-C1 C1 -|-C2 C2 C2 C2-|-C2 C2 C2 C2-|-C2 C2 -|-<br /> Then you free your first instance a<span style="font-size: xx-small;">s</span> you no longer need it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">|- -|- -|-C2 C2 C2 C2-|-C2 C2 C2 C2-|-C2 C2 -|-<br /> And then you need to create a new code instance to support even mode data called C3. This time you need 18Kb, so:<br /> code instance 3 18K </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">|- -|- -|-C2 C2 C2 C2-|-C2 C2 C2 C2-|-C2 C2 -|-C3 C3 C3 C3-|-C3 C3 C3 C3-|-C3 C3 C3 C3-|-C3 C3 C3 C3-|...... and you've run out of memory!!</span><br />
I know that today's computers have gigs of ram, but today's code also eat up megs of ram and we work video and sound and we use .Net to use it.... you get the picture.<br />
<br />
Linux and Unix have a dynamic way to address memory and normally re-arrange memory (memory optimization and de-fragmentation) to avoid this syndrome.<br />
In the Unix/Linux world you have brk, nmap and malloc:<br />
- BRK - can adjust the chunk size end to match the requested memory so a 6k code would eat 6k instead of 8k<br />
- malloc - can grow memory both ways (start and end) and re-allocate more memory as your code grows (something wonderful for object oriented programming because the code starts with little data, and then grow as the program and user starts working it). In windows this will either be handled with a huge chunk pre-allocation (even if you don't use-it), or by jumping your code instance from place to place in memory (increasing fragmentation probability). The only problem with malloc is that it is very good allocating memory and not so good releasing it. So nmap was entered into the equation.<br />
- nmap - works like malloc but it's useful for large memory chunk allocation and it's also very good releasing it back. When you encode video or work out large objects in memory, nmap is the "wizard" behind all that Linux performance over windows. The more data you move in and out of memory, the more perceptible this is. <br />
<br />
There is also something important to this. If you thing about this, who does the memory moving in an Intel architecture? The CPU... so even using windows, moving stuff around memory constantly, the AMD has better performance because of the in CPU memory controller while the Intel platform needs to channel everything through the chip-set.<br />
The CPU architecture (both Intel and AMD) have, under normal conditions a "stack" of commands, and not all of them are using the entire CPU processing power, so Intel uses the "virtual processor" in hyper-threading, making 2 different code threads to be calculated at once, while AMD works it's architecture with simultaneous execution (everything from cache to CPU registers is parallel) and doubling the bus speed (100mhz bus, would work as 200mhz bus inside the CPU, allowing the system to divide or share CPU resources and communication from outside would happen at half speed of the processing speed. So if you enter 2x 32bit instructions (on a 64bit Athlon for instance), in theory, if those instructions are actually 32bit only and use the same amount of CPU cycles to be worked out, the CPU would return the result at once. Without this technology, the CPU would accept one instruction at a time and reply accordingly.<br />
Does the Intel CPU return better MIPS on CPU tests? yup. Most of the CPU testing software's induce big calculation instructions and eat up all of the CPU execution stack, so, no parallelization is possible (that part of AMD execution optimization...and Intel Hyper threading), and since the Intel CPU runs a higher clock speed (all those GHz), the results favour them. Still in real life, unless you are rendering 3D, AMD has the ground in true usable speed. Especially if under a good operating system that takes advantage of this and doesn't cripple RAM as it uses it.<br />
It's simple if you think about it.<br />
Both AMD Athlon 64 running at 2GHz and Intel Core2 at 2.5GHz have 64bit architecture. If they both get 2x 32bit instructions, Core2 will show the real CPU for its first 32bit instruction, and the hyper-threading second virtual cpu for the second instruction... and then would do this at 2.5GHz.<br />
At the same time the AMD would receive 2 instructions at once to the one and only CPU, side by side, but then would process each instruction to the CPU internally at double the speed. So the 0.5Ghz the AMD has less, is compensated by the fact that internally, it works writes and reads instructions, results and data twice as fast. If, however you send a full 64bit calculation, neither of CPU's will be able to parallel the execution stack... so the advantage of the double-data-rate inside the Athlon is gone and the only thing in play from that point on is Ghz....and the Intel has more!<br />
<b><i><br />So, to conclude this first "lesson":</i></b><br />
Linux on a good hardware architecture will multi-task way better than windows because:<br />
- AMD had a direct memory controlled in CPU and a direct memory connection as a result.<br />
- It can take direct advantage of AMD memory bandwidth and CPU functions because the kernel is CPU and hardware matched<br />
- The kernel is lighter because it is hardware matched.<br />
- The kernel doesn't need a lot of memory protection because it's "monolithic" in part.<br />
- Most code for Linux is done in c++ so it has no .net weight behind it (nor the operating system)<br />
- Linux handles memory. Windows juggles things until it "starts to drop"...or crash :S.<br />
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<br />
<b><i>The P.S. part :)</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>#REFERENCE nr1#:</i></b><br />
<b>Comment:</b> You like Amiga a lot. Are you implying one can still buy one? <br />
<b>Reply: </b>Yup and No. Yes you can still use an amiga today. Yes you still have hardware updates and software updates today that keep the Amiga alive.<br />
No, not the commodore USA as it's just another wintel computer named as amiga... a grotesque thing for a purist like me.<br />
Keep in mind that the Amiga was so advanced that, if you are looking too buy a computer 10 years into the future, than you have no Amiga to buy. The NATAMI project is the best so far, but from what I've read, it's just an up-to-date of the old Amiga... good and faithful, but not the BANG the Amiga was and has been until commodore gone under. The new Amiga can't just be an update, cause the old one with today's hardware mods can do so! The new Amiga has to show today what wintels will do 10 years from now. <br />
Maybe I can gather enough money to build it myself...I've got the basic schematics and hardware layout and I call this Project TARA (The Amiga Reborn Accurately).Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-80674631607284098592012-10-24T02:25:00.002+01:002013-04-23T00:04:31.781+01:00Renaissance on the silicon world has happened looong ago. It's just that very few noticed it.<b><i>The renaissance of the silicon</i></b>...nooo I'm not talking about Lola Ferrari nor Pamela Anderson and not even Ana Nicolle Smith. I am talking about the computer renaissance.<br />
A lot of people think that this day and age are the days of the renaissance. They are wrong. Computer renaissance happened long ago. It's just that very few noticed it. Those are lucky ones that were blessed with a true Silicon based Leonardo da Vinci Workshop. And out of those, the ones that were able to get the full picture, bloomed into a daVinci type brain.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Why </i></b>do I state this in the MultiCoreCPU and ZillionCoreGPU world where your refrigerator chip is more powerfull than the early IBM mainframes? Well, bare with me for a couple of minutes and continue reading.<br />
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Renaissance was not about vulgar display of power, but rather an era of intellectual growth and multiplicity of knowledge. The renaissance created some of the worlds best ever polymaths (people that master several areas of knowledge and have open-to-knowledge minds)...such as Leonardo da Vinci.<br />
<br />
So back to this day and age. The corei7 has multi cores of processing power able to process around 100 GigaFlops, a Nvidea card can have 512 GPU cores and kick out around 130 GigaFlops of parallel processing power.Today we play 3d games rendered at 50frames per second in resolutions exceeding the 1900X1200 mark, while back in the early 90's, the best desktop computer would take 48hours to render one 640x480 frame.<br />
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Still, when did we leap from the "electronic typewriter" linked to a amber display and the rudimentary graphics to the computer that can render graphics in visual quality, produce video, produce sound, play games on...and still is able of word processing and spreadsheets? Because that was the turning point. That was the computer renaissance.<br />
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<i><b>Still following me?</b></i> It's difficult to pin point in time when exactly did this all start and witch brand kicked it.<br />
<br />
Some say that it was Steve Jobs and the early 84 Macintosh... and thought not entirely wrong, are far from actually being right. The first "Mac" had an operating system copied from the XEROX project (that same project that Microsoft later brought from XEROX and spawned into MSWindows 1)...and that first Mac design was actually fathered by Jef Raskin (that left the LISA project) while only after the first prototype, had Steve Jobs gain interest in the Mac project and also he left the LISA project...kicking Jef our of the Mac project (some character this Jobs boy).<br />
<br />
The next logical contestant is the Commodore VIC20. It was aimed strait to the Mac market and with some success. But still not exactly able to kick the renaissance era, much like the first Mac.<br />
<br />
<br />
So.. was it Commodore C64/128 family? ahhh now we are talking more on the kind of flexibility needed to kick that so much needed renaissance, still short in ambition. They were brilliant gaming machines with some flexibility but not enough gut to take it through.<br />
<br />
Most would now be shouting "ATARI... the ATARI-ST" and would be... wrong. It's a good machine with a too-conventional-to-bloom architecture. Good? Yes! Brilliant? No!<br />
<br />
It's clear by now that the computer renaissance podium is taken by the Commodore Amiga. I'm not talking about the late 90's 4000... nor the 1200... or the 600...or even the world renown 500. I'm referring to the Amiga architecture. And that's something that will date back to the very first A1000 (yes the A1000 has a lower spec than the A500 and it's the father of them all).<br />
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<b><i>The Amiga</i></b> (unlike most will think) is not:<br />
- ATARI technology stolen by engineers leaving the company<br />
- Commodore own technology<br />
<br />
The Amiga Corporation project started life in 1982 as Hi-Toro, and the Amiga its self as Lorraine game machine. It was a startup company with a group of people gathered by Larry Kaplan who "fished" Jay Miner and some other colleagues (some from Atari) that were tired of ATARI's management and were disappointed with the "way things headed". Jay (called the father of the Amiga, but actually not the father of the Amiga, but rather it's brilliant architecture) was able to choose passionate people that were trying to do their absolute best.<br />
They were not worried about the chip power as that was something that Moore law would take care (in time), but rather the flexibility of chip design and the flexibility of architecture design.<br />
They were not worried with software features (another thing that the community would pick up in time) but rather on building a flexible and growable base.<br />
And above all I think, they were totally committed to giving the ability to code for the Lorraine console out of the box with the Lorraine console (unlike the standards back then, when everything was done in specific coding workstations... and if you think about that, much like any non computer device today)...that bloomed the latter called Amiga Computer. <br />
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<b><i>The TEAM</i></b><br />
Jay chose an original team of very dedicated and commited to excel people<br />
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1985</div>
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2007</div>
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Some pictures (courtesy of http://uber-leet.com/HistoryOfTheAmiga/) taken from the "History of the Amiga documentary" available on youtube:</div>
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The team has changed over the years and the full Amiga evolution history has a huge list of people (source: http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/people.html):<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />Mehdi Ali- A former boss at Commodore who made a number of bad decisions, including cancelling the A3000+ project and the release of the A600. He has been largely blamed for the fall of Commodore during 1994 and is universally disliked by most Amiga users. <br /><br />Greg Berlin- Responsible for high-end systems at Commodore. He is recognised as the father of the A3000. <br /><br />David Braben- Single-handedly programmed Frontier: Elite II and all round good egg. <br /><br />Andy Braybrook- Converted all his brilliant C64 games to Amiga, and got our eternal thanks. <br /><br />Martyn Brown- Founder of Team 17. Not related to Charlie. <br /><br />Arthur C. Clarke- Author of the famous 2001AD book and well known A3000 fan. <br /><br />Jason Compton- Amiga journo, responsible for the brilliant Amiga Report online mag. <br /><br />Wolf Dietrich- head of Phase 5 who are responsible for the PowerUP PowerPC boards. <br /><br />Jim Drew- Controversial Emplant headman who has done a great job of bringing other systems closer to the Amiga. <br /><br />Lew Eggebrecht- Former hardware design chief. <br /><br />Andy Finkel- Known as the Amiga Wizard Extraordinaire. He was head of Workbench 2.0 development, as well as an advisor to Amiga Technologies on the PowerAmiga, PPC-based Amiga system. He currently works for PIOS. <br /><br />Fred Fish- Responsible for the range of Fish disks and CDs. <br /><br />Steve Franklin- Former head of Commodore UK. <br /><br />Keith Gabryelski- head of development for Amiga UNIX who made sure the product was finished before faxing the entire Amiga Unix teams resignation to Mehdi Ali. <br /><br />Irving Gould- The investor that allowed Jack Tramiel to develop calculator and, eventually desktop computers. He did not care about the Amiga as a computer but saw the opportunity for computer commodification with the failed CDTV. <br /><br />Simon Goodwin- Expert on nearly every computer known to man. Formerly of Crash magazine. <br /><br />Rolf Harris- Tie me kangaroo down sport etc. Australian geezer who used the Amiga in his cartoon club. <br /><br />Allen Hastings- Author of VideoScape in 1986, who was hired by NewTek to update the program for the 90's creating a little known application called Lightwave, the rendering software that for a long time was tied to the Video Toaster. This has made a huge number of shows possible, including Star Trek and Babylon 5. <br /><br />Dave Haynie- One of the original team that designed the Amiga. Also responsible for the life saving DiskSalv. He has been very public in the Amiga community and has revealed a great deal about the proposed devices coming from Commodore in their heyday. His design proposal on the AAA and Hombre chipsets show what the Amiga could have been if they had survived. He also played an important part in the development of the Escom PowerAmiga, PIOS, and the open source operating system, KOSH. <br /><br />Larry Hickmott- So dedicated to the serious side of the Amiga that he set up his own company, LH publishing. <br /><br />John Kennedy- Amiga journalist. Told the Amiga user how to get the most of their machine <br /><br />Dr. Peter Kittel- He worked for Commodore Germany in the engineering department. He was hired by Escom in 1995 for Amiga Technologies as their documentation writer and web services manager. When Amiga Technologies was shut down he worked for a brief time at went to work for the German branch of PIOS. <br /><br />Dale Luck- A member of the original Amiga team and, along with R.J. Mical wrote the famous "Boing" demo. <br /><br />R. J. Mical- member of the original Amiga, Corp. at Los Gatos and author of Intuition. He left Commodore in disgust when Commodore choose the German A2000 design over the Los Gatos one, commenting "If it doesn't have a keyboard garage, it's not an Amiga." <br /><br />Jeff Minter- Llama lover who produced some of the best Amiga games of all time and has a surname that begins with mint. <br /><br />Jay Miner(R.I.P.)- The father of the Amiga. Died in 1994. Before his time at Amiga Corp. he was an Atari engineer and created the Atari 800). He was a founding member of Hi-Toro in 1982 and all three Amiga patents list him as the inventor. He left Amiga Corp after it was bought by Commodore and later created the Atari Lynx handheld, and during the early 1990's continued to create revolutionary designs such as adjustable pacemakers. <br /><br />Mitchy- Jay Miner's dog. He is alleged to have played an important part in the decision making at Amiga Corp. and made his mark with the pawprint inside the A1000 case. <br /><br />Urban Mueller- Mr. Internet himself. Solely responsible for Aminet, the biggest Amiga, and some say computer archive in existance. Responsible for bringing together Amiga software in one place he deserves to be worshipped, from afar. <br /><br />Peter Molyneux- Responsible for reinventing the games world with Syndicate and Populous. He is also famed for being interviewed in nearly every single computer mag imaginable IN THE SAME MONTH. <br /><br />Bryce Nesbitt- The former Commodore joker and author of Workbench 2.0 and the original Enforcer program. <br /><br />Paul Overaa- Amiga journalist. Helped to expand the readers knowledge of the Amiga. <br /><br />David Pleasance- the final MD of Commodore UK and one-time competitor for the Amiga crown. Owes me 1 PENCE from World of Amiga '96. <br /><br />Colin Proudfoot- Former Amiga buyout hopeful. <br /><br />George Robbins- He developed low-end Amiga systems such as the unreleased A300, which was turned into A600, the A1200 and CD32. He was also responsible for Amiga motherboards including B52's lyrics. After losing his driver's license, Robbins literally lived at the Commodore West Chester site for more than a year, showering in sinks and sleeping in his offices. <br /><br />Eric Schwartz- Producer of hundreds of Amiga artwork and animations. <br /><br />Carl Sassenrath- helped to create the CDTV, CDXL and has recently developed the Rebol scripting language. <br /><br />Kelly Sumner- Former head of Commodore UK. Now head of Gametek UK. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Bill Sydnes- A former manager at IBM who was responsible for the stripped down PCjr. He was hired by Commodore in 1991 to repeat that success with the A600. However, at the time the Amiga was already at the low-end of the market and a smaller version of the A500 was not needed. <br /><br />Petro Tyschtschenko- Head of Amiga International, formerly Amiga Technologies. Responsible for keeping the Amiga on track since 1995. </span><br />
<br />
<i><b>So why was this such a brilliant machine?</b></i><br />
<b><i>It starts with the hardware.</i></b><br />
The Amiga was based on the most flexible CPU of it's time. The Motorola MC68000 family. Motorola had the MC680x0 CISC CPU and MC68881/MC68882 FPU combination for workstations, and the MC880x0 RISK CPU family for the Unix workstations. That DNA fused into the PowerPC platform together with IBM RS6000 series RISK. Now some of you may say "yeah the PowerPC was such a flop that not even Apple and IBM stayed to it" and be ultimately wrong about it. The PowerPC problem was it's huge power consumption and dissipation when the CPU production couldn't go beyond the 90nm miniaturization. So a complex design with a lot of big transistors eat-up power and ultimately generate heat. That's why it got stuck. Ever tried to think why today's CPU's go Multi-core and rarely above 3ghz? yup .. better split the design and not let things get too hot...and today CPU are built on 22nm dye size miniaturization.<br />
The PowerPC is very much alive. Inside your XBox 360, and you Nintendo Wii, and your Playstation3 lives a 65nm PowerPC configuring from single to triple core applications. There is even a 2Ghz Dual core PowerPC from Palo Alto Semiconductors..and IBM..just check their servers for not Microsoft software and drool all over the PowerPC cpu specs.<br />
OK the CPU was important but was it all? NO!<br />
The heart of the Amiga is called the AGNUS (later called Fat AGNUS, and Fatter AGNUS) processor. That's Jay Miner's most valuable DNA..and ultimately gave him the title of "father of the Amiga".<br />
Consider the Agnus as a blazing fast and competent switchboard operator. <br />
On one side you have the bus for the CPU, on the other side the memory bus and even a chipset bus. All conveying down to the Agnus. What's the catch? Well, picture you want to play a tune while working your graphics on the Amiga. The CPU loads the tune to memory, and then instructs the Agnus to stream this memory bank to the audio processing DAC chip. By doing that the CPU is then free to do all the processing needs. This is just one example. The graphics was actually the mostly used example o the Agnus chip, but it could do just about anything. That's why you have Amiga machines with addon CPU cards running at different speeds and all in sync. The Agnus is the maestro.<br />
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The Agnus, shown here in it's dye miniaturized form, started life as a very complex set of boards to imprint Jay's brilliance. Just take a good look at the complexity:<br />
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This was the true heart of the Amiga and it's brilliant architecture capable of true multitasking (instead of time-shared multitasking).<br />
<br />
There were other chips for I/O, sound and graphics, but they all had a huge highway like, directly linked to memory at the hands of the Agnus.<br />
These are pictures of the early prototypes and design sketches:<br />
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<br />
<b><i>Then we get to the software.</i></b><br />
The Amiga OS was built to take advantage of this brilliant design. Most Kernels exist around 3 base kernel models (Monolithic, Microkernel & Hybrid Kernels)<br />
In Short, Monolithic kernel is big and has all the software packages needed to control hardware and provide software function (some call the Linux kernel monolithic...it is...ish... the linux kernel is compiled to the hardware and requested modules so it actually is a hybrid made monolithic kernel). The Microkernel is ofter seen on routers and simple devices that run a very fast yet little featured kernel design. The Hybrid is the kernel type that has a big chunk for the basic CPU and chipset functionality and then loads small microkernels as needed depending on the hardware available. <br />
The Amiga kernel on the other hand it a beast on it's own league (followed by BeOS, AROS, MorphOS and Atheos/Syllabl).<br />
It is a Microkernel design but threads each and every module. So from the kernel to software running, each and every one of them is a separate execution thread on the cpu, with it's own switches to memory from the Agnus and it's own address spaces. It's hugelly fast and stable, being the only draw back, the need for the coders to respect their given memory space (if not, the code could write memory from the loaded kernel space and crash the system...giving the Amiga known "Guru meditation error").<br />
<br />
<i><b>So this is the superior architecture </b></i>that spawned the computer renaissance and allowed for the bloom that created the computers we have today.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Today,</b></i> kids at school have a lot on knowledge that Leonardo da Vinci had. Back in the renaissance era he was one of the few having that knowledge...today every one has at least a good part of that knowledge. <br />
Take this thought into the computer world and its progress timeline on steroids and you'll be comparing the 80's Commodore Amiga polymath-ability to today computer and even mobile phone. The Amiga was 10 to 15 year ahead of everything else out there... and in terms of hardware architecture, still is ahead of everything out there.<br />
I was one of the lucky ones that migrated from the C64 to the Amiga500... and only 4 years later i was given an IBM PC. Had the Amiga been replaced by a PC computer (the Olivetti PC1 and the Schneider EURO-PC were big back then), my brain would be closed to the "electronic typewriter" sad reality. I am a polymath today because of the Amiga. It was the tool that (together with my parents investment in excellent and varied education) formed my brain in an open and exploratory way. Thank you Amiga.<br />
<br />
<i><b>References used for pictures and team list:</b></i><br />
<a href="http://uber-leet.com/HistoryOfTheAmiga/">http://uber-leet.com/HistoryOfTheAmiga/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/people.html/">http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/people.html/</a><br />
<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-50961909787121473492012-09-22T17:07:00.001+01:002013-02-20T23:59:13.302+00:00IPhone5 vs the Samsung Galaxy S3The eternal market illusion fight...for some reason WWF just popped in my mind.<br />
There is a reason for me not writing "The eternal battle". The reason is that there is no fight if, instead of placing a fighter against each other inside a ring under controlled environment, you just place them in front of a TV screeen and brag their strong point off at one another.<br />
In a true fight, each fighter has to be in the same weight class and age class or it would be an annihilation instead of a fight. Today's iPhone vs Samsung Galaxy is a fight as such. It's unbalanced as it was back when apple launched the iPhone. It's just inverted it's way through time...and it's all apple's fault.<br />
<br />
iPhone 5 = iPhone 4s = iPhone4 = iPhone 3 = iPhone 2 = iPhone<br />
And the 4 to 4s "evolution" is so stupid that they might just drop their act and call today's phone the iPhone sssss!<br />
<br />
The first iPhone WAS a clear evolution to all smartphones and I'm
grateful for Apple cause they kicked off the actual smartphone
revolution. But that's just about it. The phone was good for being able
to gather in on package several good ideas that weren't even developed
by apple, but they had the vision to pick and integrate in a good
product. This is an important part.<br />
<br />
<i><b>A lot of people talk about the apple better and unique design...sure-thing</b></i><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ISjjV3QcmKY/UF3RZIFHdnI/AAAAAAAACzk/Q1qp-4CgMiQ/s1600/iphone_braun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ISjjV3QcmKY/UF3RZIFHdnI/AAAAAAAACzk/Q1qp-4CgMiQ/s320/iphone_braun.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><i>Still on the Design, </i></b>the iPhone was a copy of Samsung F700, launched a full half year earlier than the first iPhone.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ob0mlALuwnA/UF3cC4ATU9I/AAAAAAAACz4/SiX-pGjOebc/s1600/20_samsung-i700live_6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ob0mlALuwnA/UF3cC4ATU9I/AAAAAAAACz4/SiX-pGjOebc/s320/20_samsung-i700live_6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><i></i></b><br />
<b><i>And a lot more talk about the grid-like icons</i></b>...that Nokia also had years before the iPhone and ERICSSON with the M610i, Pli and p700.<br />
<i><b>And more will say that the IOS is the thing...</b></i> well, IOS is the cut-down version of famous MacOSx. Now the OSx is a brilliant concept. Apple decided to cut down hardware and software production costs in able to free resources for the concept team. So they done a very bad thing (they switched to the crappy intel platform) abandoning the mighty RISK architecture, but an excellent thing developing the MacOSx on top of the UNIX FreeBSD Kernel. So while Microsoft was making a "crusade against" opensource, apple went right the opposite way. Apple realized that what they were actually good at, was the Graphical User Interface and the conceptual Look&Feel thing. So they grabbed a robust and efficient Kernel (the FreeBSD) and built on top of it. Brilliant, but ultimately an improved copy of something that wasn't made by them.<br />
<b><i>Still on the IOs subject, </i></b>the slide menu navigation that make the user love-it so, was present in the very first AndroidOS preview 1...and that was released 3years earlier. <br />
<i><b>Some will say that the "Slide to answer" is an apple improvement,</b></i> but 2 years earlier than the iPhone, any device running Microsoft Windows CE platform would do that :S. You see, apple designs good GUI's, but Microsoft conquered the world precisely by building good GUI's. And in mean time, even managed to save apple from bankruptcy.<br />
<b><i>This goes on and on... The SIRI?</i></b> Ever wondered why the IRIS was so fast to surge against it in the Android market? Well, because the code was already present in the XIAOI BOT android app...since 2010!?<br />
<br />
<b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Apple is excellent copying separate ideas from others and integrating them into a full winning product. <br />
<br />
<br />
<i><b>So back to the text:</b></i><br />
From that point in history forward, the iPhone is just something with no
place. As time passed, apple developed it into progressively smaller
steps and maintained or increased the cost.<br />
Today, it costs twice as
much as it should and delivers half as much as it should... so in
comparison with the android rivals, the iPhone is a merely 1/4th of what
others are offering. <br />
<b><i><br />
Is the S3 perfect?</i></b> No. There is a big problem with Samsung High end
phones: they are over priced. Not twice the price as they are worth in
hardware (like anything from apple), but still a good 20 to 30% over
price. It's getting trendy and the market trends are a stupid reason to
make necessary profit.<br />
Back in the iPhone 4S vs Galaxy S2 war, I used to advise people to buy
the LG Maximus X2. It has the right price for the hardware.<br />
<br />
So S3 vs iPhone? yup that's right... the question is also the answer. There is no iPhone5, it is just a repacked, overpriced iPhone.<br />
It's got no chance against the pinnacle of android phones evolution to date.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><i>So why does the iPhone sells?</i></b> Because human beings are in their majority strangely illogical.<br />
Why does Gucci shoes sell? you can buy a set of Nike for 1/100000000th of the price. You would run better, walk better, feel better and your bank account would be infinitely better.<br />
Gucci sells because it's Gucci and for some reason some hollywood star told everyone that they look better and cost millions more because they are exquisite.<br />
Period!<br />
The iPhone sells because the same Hollywood star uses an iPhone. The latest Samsung movie draws this fact in evidence.... the iPhone fans are pictured as futile, dumb and un-knowledgeable people (just like the typical Hollywood stereotype)...while the Samsung users are sensible, self-aware and intelligent people.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/bJafiCKliA8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
As any add its an exaggeration, but sadly this does represent over 50% apple fans. Still Samsung should watch their own sales department and cut their phones at least 15 to 20% in price if they don't want to get into what I call the "Apple zone" - too expensive for the offer.<br />
<br />
<br />Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802488545053953881.post-83473157259469881702012-01-15T02:07:00.004+00:002013-04-07T01:12:40.920+01:00Recover files from a VMFS virtual volume inside a iSCSI virtual volume<br />
<i><b>The problem:</b></i><br />
Some time ago, I had a real bad RAID failure. Since I use my VMWARE ESXi hardware just to boot from a pen drive and connect to my QNAP NAS via iSCSI, a raid failure means the RAID degrades and enters read-only mode. Linux Virtual Machines keep working with errors on some packages, but windows virtual machines freeze in a couple of seconds.<br />
<br />
<i><b>The Solution:</b></i><br />
Since I'm not rich and buying a full NAS system to copy from the read-only to the new one is out of question, I brought 2 2tb USB drives, connected them to my second NAS and moved the files out to the drives making room to move files from one NAS to another.<br />
Now until this part it's all very simple; grab NAS02, make a desktop terminal connect into both iSCSI target on NAS01 and NFS share on NAS02 and move files from one to the other...and you start by installing open-iscsi.<br />
HOWEVER, vmware hypervisors use a specially designed file system called VMFS, so mounting your iSCSI volumes will get you nowhere.<br />
That's when vmfs tools get into action. Install the vmfs tools package and then all you have to do is mount the drives. It's a crazy opp, but it works. Basically, You'll be mounting the virtual iSCSI volume into a virtual directory, then the VMFS virtual volume that the iSCSI virtual volume contains into another virtual directory.<br />
Better have Gigabit Ethernet for the next part: After this mount the NFS from the second NAS, and copy everything...for a couple of days, depending on your network speed :S<br />
<br />
Sources I used to study:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://planetvm.net/blog/?p=1592">http://planetvm.net/blog/?p=1592</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-setup-debian-ubuntu-linux-iscsi-initiator/">http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-setup-debian-ubuntu-linux-iscsi-initiator/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.howtoforge.com/using-iscsi-on-ubuntu-9.04-initiator-and-target">http://www.howtoforge.com/using-iscsi-on-ubuntu-9.04-initiator-and-target</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<i><b>How did I mount the iSCSI, then then VMFS virtual volumes in my linux desktop? here goes the command LOG:</b></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">administrator@RWS01:~$ su</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Password:<b><i>"SECRET"</i></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# /etc/init.d/open-iscsi start</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Setting up iSCSI targets [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# mount 10.0.101.246:/RECOVER /iscsi/rec</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# /etc/init.d/open-iscsi restart</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Disconnecting iSCSI targets [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Stopping iSCSI initiator service [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Starting iSCSI initiator service iscsid [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Setting up iSCSI targets [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# iscsiadm --mode discovery --type sendtargets --portal 10.0.101.247</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 42 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 43 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 56 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">iscsiadm: config file line 57 do not has value</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">10.0.101.247:3260,1 iqn.2004-04.com.qnap:ts-639:iscsi.vmwareisdata.bd99c2</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">10.0.101.247:3260,1 iqn.2004-04.com.qnap:ts-639:iscsi.vmwareboots.bd99c2</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# /etc/init.d/open-iscsi restart</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Disconnecting iSCSI targets [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Stopping iSCSI initiator service [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Starting iSCSI initiator service iscsid [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> * Setting up iSCSI targets [ OK ]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# tail -f /var/log/messages</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.203611] sd 22:0:0:0: reservation conflict</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.203638] sd 22:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY failed</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.203640] sd 22:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.203643] sd 22:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.206527] sd 22:0:0:0: reservation conflict</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.207253] sd 22:0:0:0: reservation conflict</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.208968] sd 22:0:0:0: reservation conflict</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.209013] sd 22:0:0:0: [sdc] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.211881] sd 22:0:0:0: reservation conflict</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Nov 23 01:44:01 RWS01 kernel: [ 391.211903] sd 22:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">tail -f /var/log/messages</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">^C</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# mkdir /iscsimount</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# mount /dev/sdb1 /iscsimount</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">mount: you must specify the filesystem type</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# sudo vmfs-fuse /dev/sdb1 /iscsi/4</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# sudo ls /iscsi/4 -alh</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">total 4.0K</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-t 9 root root 2.0K 2010-06-05 21:06 .</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4.0K 2010-11-22 20:18 ..</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 2.5M 2010-02-28 18:44 .fbb.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 61M 2010-02-28 18:44 .fdc.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 244M 2010-02-28 18:44 .pbc.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 249M 2010-02-28 18:44 .sbc.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 4.0M 2010-02-28 18:44 .vh.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 560 2010-11-14 18:19 VNAS01_BackupServer_UNX</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.5K 2010-11-15 19:18 VSRV06_DomainServer_2k8</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6.6K 2010-11-15 19:15 VSRV07_LTSDomainServer_2k8</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3.1K 2010-10-19 01:31 VSRV07_Sharepoint_2k8</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.8K 2010-11-15 19:07 VSRV08_WebServer_2k8_R2_64</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.5K 2010-08-07 03:20 VWKS03_Private_XP32</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3.5K 2010-08-23 16:45 VWKS04_Testbench1_XP32</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# sudo vmfs-fuse /dev/sdd1 /iscsi/5</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator# sudo ls /iscsi/5 -alh</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">total 4.0K</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-t 11 root root 2.2K 2010-03-06 04:29 .</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4.0K 2010-11-22 20:18 ..</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 2.5M 2010-02-28 04:20 .fbb.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 61M 2010-02-28 04:20 .fdc.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 244M 2010-02-28 04:20 .pbc.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 249M 2010-02-28 04:20 .sbc.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-r-------- 1 root root 4.0M 2010-02-28 04:20 .vh.sf</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.6K 2010-11-15 19:22 VRV01_DEVServer_2k3</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 280 2010-02-28 16:32 VSRV01_Development_2k3</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.9K 2010-11-15 19:22 VSRV02_LNX_VPN_WEB_DB</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 280 2010-02-28 16:16 VSRV02_VPN_MYSQL_APACHE</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.8K 2010-11-15 19:16 VSRV03_DBServer_2k3</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3.2K 2010-11-15 19:14 VSRV04_WEBServer_2k8</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.6K 2010-11-15 19:22 VSRV05_DBServer_LNX</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.8K 2010-08-07 03:22 VWKS01_Downloader_XP32</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2.5K 2010-11-15 19:22 VWKS02_Monitor</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">root@RWS01:/home/administrator#</span><br />
<i><b>THAT's COPY TIME NOW</b></i><br />
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Manuel Ribeirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01898244397231724106noreply@blogger.com0