CTRL, 1 – Mutes Windows Sound?!?!

Is this a standard???  I can’t find reference to this hot key sequence out there in Google land.

You need to hit CTRL, release and then hit 1, not CTRL-1, i.e don’t hold down CTRL.

On my (*non* Windows Media Keys Keyboard under Windows 7) system here, it works with both left and right CTRL and main keyboard or numeric keyboard “1”.

 

Google Keywords: Windows 7, Audio, Mute, Volume, Control, CTRL, 1, One

150W Auto DC to AC Inverter with USB

Here’s the one I got:

Input: DC 12V
Output: AC 110-120V, 60Hz, 150W
            USB DC 5V, 500mA

I use it for our camera battery chargers when we go on road trips.
It's a pretty compact arrangement to plug a cam.batt.charger into this and forget about it.
And it's nice to be able to toss our iPods, Smart Phones, etc on the USB port.

I've read that charging camera batteries requires more juice than you can get out of USB,
and that's probably why those are all A/C wall plugs only.

They don't show it in the picture but on the reverse side of the unit is a little 20v *external* fuse (i.e. easily user serviceable).
You don't always see that kind of feature with these kinds of cheapo things.

There's actually a little fan in that box which is probably a good thing.
Unfortunately you can hear it when it cranks up... it's not a deafening noise but you can hear it.

I actually don’t like Xoxide that well… they definitely bungled my last order… you might want to source this somewhere else… the model number appears to be “DAU-150”… I can’t identify a manufacturer name anywhere on the outside…

Here’s a Google Search for similar items (inverter is a key word to include in your searches)… there’s plenty of good options out there…

Here’s one on eBay that looks just like mine but also sports a dual Euro/US compatible AC socket.

Overclocking ‘Skeletor’ Q9450 – Round 2

(see round 1 notes for full specs)

After watching a quick youtube of a guy that hit 3.9Ghz (485MHz FSB) where he didn’t bat and eye about leaving his DDR2 at something around 1000MHz, I decided to copy his lead and give up on the 1:1 DRAM:FSB thing and just go for the CPU gusto… I wasn’t seeing much love at 485… it would somehow boot if I goosed the DRAM to 1349 or something like that… but Win7 would reset after boot logo… lower DRAM frequencies wouldn’t even boot until I set it to auto and it came back with 971 :(

I’m at 420 FSB with 1400 DRAM now and holding in Win7 for a nice stretch here… that’s around 3.4GHz which is at respectable 26% increase… we shall see.

Primary OC BIOS settings (gleaned from here)

• CPU Ratio = 8
• C1E = disabled (I have no idea)
• Max CPUID = disabled (ditto)
• FSB = 420
• FSB Strap = Auto
• PCIE Freq = 100
• DRAM freq = 1400’ish
• CPU Voltage = 1.39375 (he read that was the safe max somewhere)
• DRAM Voltage = 1.8 … haven’t played with this at all yet to see if lower would suffice

Temps reported from Everest:
Motherboard    34 °C  (93 °F)
CPU    33 °C  (91 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1    44 °C  (111 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2    44 °C  (111 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3    43 °C  (109 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4    41 °C  (106 °F)

Micro SATA to ZIF Adapter

 
Update: 13 Dec 2010

• I have the board in hand now… I’ll answer preliminary questions anyone has… still planning to hold out on Intel X18 G3 before I actually try cramming it all in my tablet.
• I opened my tablet this evening and it’s definitely not going to be a cake walk… the first commenter is right… most of us are going to be stuck with the existing HDD’s cavity which means no room to stick the adapter on the SATA end… *maybe* I can unsolder the mounting poles and bend the micro SATA connector into something close to a 180 degree reverse… stripping the SSD bare might give it all enough room… still looks like a complete long shot… otherwise, there’s soldering wires directly from board to SSD as the commenter mentioned… and *maybe* putting the sata connector on a ribbon cable, just to preserve the drive for other purposes.

Finally, we have a full product to work with that adapts directly from Micro SATA to ZIF.
My intended purpose is to convert a 1.8” Micro SATA SSD to the ZIF connector on my netbook PC… I just never saw myself pulling off the microscopic soldering job required by the piecemeal solutions posted by clever folks on the longstanding NotebookReview thread about this topic.
Doug at sales@microsatacables.com has been very helpful.
This is a brand new item they just received and haven’t had a chance to post on www.microsatacables.com yet.
Rough Dimensions: 55mm (L) x 26.5mm (W) x 7mm (H)
I've ordered one and will post results on fitting it in my Samsung Q1U… obviously it’s a long shot given the space constraints as always… first thought is that hopefully there’s something to be done with the giant silver box on right side of first photo… I think I can handle soldering that to some relocation wires … then it looks like a significant portion of the PCB would be safely whackable as shown in the second photo… and of course strip the SSD’s stock enclosure down to its barest essential dimensions… any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.
The Intel X18-M 1.8” SSD (SSDSA1MH160G2xx) is the obvious prime choice right now but hopefully a bunch of Christmas and New Years cheer will distract me long enough to hold out for Intel’s imminent G3’s… so it’ll probably be February before I can post any results (that sound you hear is me champing at my bit).

Car GPS Navi Shopping

TomTom lineup

Obfuscated Marketing Buzzwords (OMB’s) abound in this segment… it’s taken me many GC’s (Google Clicks) to distill what is sold down to differentiable features.

As always Wikipedia is our friend.

Euro vs US product availability – if you sit on the Car Navigation product page and flip back and forth between the various locales (very bottom of all pages), you start getting a feel for what’s available where… DE has the “Via 125” listed right now, where GB has the “Via 120 Live” and the US doesn’t even list the Via line at all.

“GO” product line – the main difference I see here between the X/XL products is that GO includes microSD card slot and the prices are significantly higher for otherwise equivalent model/features.

“IQ Routes” – application of historically collected consumer based traffic data to your current route (TomTom.com IQ Routes home page).  This data is collected from all of us by uploading via USB connection to the “Home” application on our PC’s.  This data represents driving speed per road segment per time of day in order to be most accurate.

“HD Traffic” – analytical combination of mobile phone generated traffic data in addition to traditional government traffic data sources. Highly detailed white paper (from HD Traffic home page).  Delivered every 3 minutes to capable devices via Live services (see below).

“Via” – appears to be the latest model line sporting most of TomTom’s contemporary functionalities combined (e.g. 5” screen, voice control, Bluetooth-hands free calling, Live Services, 4GB internal flash mem, etc, but notably NO SD slot)

“Live Services” – wireless updates via integrated cell/SIM (includes HD Traffic, etc). Delivered every 3 minutes.  Requires a subscription (estimated $10/montly, even though some come with 12 months for free, any subscription like this is a big personal turnoff).

“RDS-TMC Traffic” – live traffic data delivery via radio receiver (product link).  I have confirmed directly with TomTom customer support that the RDS-TMC receiver is indeed included in the box on XXL 540T and XXL 540TM models via the car charger cable.  And that it does provide lifetime traffic information.

Memory – XXL 540TM World Traveler Edition (WTE) appears to be the only XXL 540 model one that comes with 4GB mem.  Although other models are listed on TomTom.com with 4GB, it has been confirmed by buyers that all other XXL 540 models are 2GB only as recent as Nov 2010 (best reference, also see the main thread).

Great hands on comparison between Garmin Nuvi 1490T and TomTom XXL 540S

TomTom enhanced software hacks

• TripMaster – provides many things include track log

Openbravo ERP & POS – Open Source ERP, FINALLY!

Openbravo – heck of a BoD/CxO roster, InfoWorld bOSSie awards last three years running, solid funding … looks pretty good

Blu-ray Burner & Media Shopping

Burner: Pioneer BDR-206

• Provantage has brown box OEM for $130.37 (+ $11.70 APO shipping)
• Dual Layer capable
• 3D capable (whatever that means)
• Write: 12x BD-R (DL), 2x BD-RE (DL), 5x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW
• Read: 8x BD-R/RE/ROM (DL), 6x BD-RE DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CD-ROM
• 4MB cache
• some write performance competitive comparison specs

Media:

• Vinpower’s “Optical Quantum Best Print” product line is competitively priced and covers the specialty gamut well (hub printable, etc)
  • In particular, the Water-Resistant Media using “Liquid-Defense” version sounds pretty cool: The OQBP water-resistant media is a new innovation using nanoparticle technology. It secures the printed matter to the disc preventing moisture from separating the ink which causes smearing and bleeding.
  • Rated at 4x for BD-R *BUT* RunTechMedia.com says – “This media can record up to 8x speed in certain 8x or higher speed Blu-ray burners, please refer compatibility list for more info.” and goes on to list the previous gen Pioneer BDR-205 as capable of 10x with these discs (sweet :)
  • Google Shopping Search 
  • RunTechMedia.com has competitive prices
    • OQBDR04LDWIP (White, Hub Printable, with Liquid Defense) 10pack = $30 ($3 a disc is a little rich for my purposes, i.e. photo backups initially)
    • OQBDR04GWIP-H (*GLOSSY* White, Hub, NOT water proof) 25 pack = $46.25 ($1.85 is top end of ok in my book, fair tradeoff if I do want to print something for friends)
    • *NOTE*: VinpowerDigital.com doesn’t promote all the various formats they actually manufacture…I originally missed that there was even a glossy version available… if you’re not up for the top end pricey Liquid Defense, I absolutely recommend *GLOSSY* white finish at least… the plain white (i.e. “matt”) finish I’ve tried once on another generic brand was much less impressive… it only ups the cost of the 25 pack by $6.24 over the non-glossy format (OQBDR04WIP-H) and I think it’s totally worth it.
    • RunTechMedia had solid eMail sales support and actually price matched Provantage on the Pioneer burner, for a markdown of $40 (schwing!)
    • They charge $9.55 for APO *PRIORITY* shipping on single spindle case qtys… that’s fair
    • fyi, even though their confirmation email listed depressing "Media Mail", my package did arrive promptly via Priority as quoted.