Sergei Mutovkin’s Rumbling Mumbling

Again, just after finishing watching another Blu-ray disk - “Road Warrior” I was greeted with a message that a new update is available, this time it was 2.42. No details available, though I really hope that it will resolve choppy MP4/AVI file playback issue that plagued my Playstation ever since I’ve installed long awaited 2.41.

Other than that I still have to inform the great Internet why I was out of blogging for so long…

I remember the days when I was waiting for new iRiver firmware for my SlimX and Rio Volt hacked to be iRiver iMP-100 before that, it was fun - new features were coming every month. Now SONY is providing me with as much fun bun but now for my Playstation 3 and all of a sudden after finishing watching a DVD I get a notification that Firmware 2.35 is available. Though there is not a word about it on SONY Playstation Network website that I’ve just checked… SURPRISE is in the box - Installing NOW

Update: After installation it did not let me know what new features I can try, thus I assume it was a bug-fix release, still Bravo SONY… PS3 is the best piece of hardware I own

It is just a small statement to support Earth Hour. It is my statement to let governments and people governed by them know that we need to start “thinking Green”. We need to stop waisting our natural resources and use best available technologies to generate our energy. But on a personal level we can also help by recycling, using power efficient products, encourage producers of currently more expensive “green” products by buying only “green”.

Blogs like mine don’t help to solve the problem, they actually make it more acute. Unfortunately, it is a pleasure to have some services available at all times and it is difficult to part from them. But at least we can switch off devices that are not used. For example, even if power supply is just plugged to a power outlet, most probably in this idle mode it sucks a watt or two while the device is completely shut. Even a power supply of your computer can be made more efficient, you just have to ask your supplier of choice be it Dell or Apple. You can use efficient CPUs, like the 45W AMD Athlon 64 X2 or upcoming Intel Atom. You can recycle your old CRT screen and get a small power efficient LCD, or even better buy a lightweight portable laptop and use it as your only computer.

Show them we want to be “Green”.

It has been almost three weeks as AMD has announced the new chipset - 780G and a new power efficient CPU - X2 4850e. Motherboards are available for a couple of weeks already and are quite cheap. I’ve put my eye on this combo as my new server rig (with ASUS M3A78-EMH motherboard that features 6 SATA2 ports - feature that should be standard these days, but it is not). 4850e should be approximately as fast as 4800+ but only at 45W. Great? Isn’t it? But the CPU is nowhere to be found. Is this a paper launch again? Too frustrating…

All I want is a power efficient rig to run Ubuntu 8.04 Server LTS.

April 6, 2008 Update: What a disaster. I want to get AMD CPU first time in a VERY VERY long time and I can’t do it ANYWHERE on the internet one month after it has been announced. I totally miss the point of announcing it at all… It seems Dell is using it already in its business line, but nowhere else. If only there was any Intel based 6 SATA port motherboard I would have dumped AMD idea altogether. Then AMD complains that it can’t occupy its fabs enough… Now I know: it is because CPUs are not available at all, nobody can buy them to require any manufacturing at all. If only there was a cheap G33 based 6 SATA port motherboard except the expensive Supermicro board…..

Today my Sony Playstation 3 told me that an updated is available. The funny part, not a single RSS feed I’m tracking is reporting anything and Firmware itself did not inform me of any new features. A bit of Googling and it appeared that it is just a bug-fix release.

Where is my updated for Blu-Ray Profile 2.0? Where is my improved DivX support? What about other MP4 formats? Just joking - so far PS3 was one of the most impressive purchases I’ve ever made. And delivered more features then I could have ever wished. Slideshow in 1080p alone justifies the cost of the system (in Portrait mode with Face Detection and majestic panning). Thank you Sony, but keep updating it - I love fresh stuff

Wow, what a snowstorm and it is still not over.

Time after time I was cleaning my driveway, just to get it all freshly covered just a couple of hours later. I like the snow, but what would happen when all of it will decide to melt later next week? I’ve seen earlier this year in nearby Kleinburg.

After that I’m horrified of what to expect after THAT MUCH snow. It was so bad that GTA on Saturday had almost 800 car accidents and that’s considering that most people stayed at home! It is still a blizzard outside, with all the snow slowing down by 3am tomorrow. For now prepare for another Bushism - early March time switching ahead that will steal one hour from my sleep for the next little while and will waste a little bit more of my electricity since I’m waking up quite early and will have to light up my house instead of enjoying spring sunshine.

For now a few of the pictures I’ve taken earlier in the day (with more to come tomorrow ).

Snow outside

Backyard door and my BBQ all covered

Backyard through the mosquito net

The full set of pictures will be uploaded to my Flickr account.

Sun was recently very active in making smart choices in selecting open source project to hire developers from or open-source companies to buy (MySQL, Innotek’s VirtualBox) and finally adding the best scripting language to its toolbox - Python. Hiring to prominent Python developers will hopefully make Python a first choice scripting language for different Sun supported products. It seems we will not have to wait for too long to get descent Python support in Sun’s amazing Netbeans IDE and who knows may be one day we can get support for the best web framework - Django.

One amazing piece of hardware, just put 6 SATA connectors on it and it is a perfect Linux server. Just 4 Watts (plus 3×10W for HDDs) instead of 100+ will make my hydro bill go down quite a bit.

Month after month I was checking Dell’s Canadian online store to see if Ubuntu pre-loaded laptops and desktops are available, but as everything here, ultra-conservative canadian Dell office refused to offer any cheaper and safer computing solution, instead forcing people proven expensive, proprietary and virus-laden Microsoft Windows systems. But…

The wait is over!

Now you can order Ubuntu 7.10 based laptops and desktops for approximately $50 cheaper then their Windows pre-loaded brothers and sisters. My favorite is M1330 which is the first slick laptop from Dell.

Get yourself a Dell!

Good buy consumer friendly but technically challenged (only 30Gb on two layers) HD-DVD. Toshiba is has discontinued its High Definition disk format! Good to know that HD-DVD only movies will be soon available in Blu-Ray on my PlayStation 3.