Lessfeet

You can do podcasting or multi-track recording without the need for a mixer. If you have a good quality professional microphone (Shure SM58 or better) you can connect it directly to your computer via USB using one of two devices.

The first is a USB microphone cable the SoundTech STUSBXLR10. One end is an XLR microphone connector the other a USB to connect it directly into your computer. You cannot use this cable with phantom power microphones.

If you have a phantom power mic what you need is the Shure X2u XLR-to-USB Microphone Adapter.

I have the SoundTech but I seldom use it. I would think that you would have to be very careful when handling it. If you break it it may not be repairable so don’t break it.  Maybe a better idea is to buy the Shure even if you don’t need phantom power. It may last longer.

There are a couple of problems I’m having with my new Nexus One smart phone. One is even when all of the windows are closed many of the applications continue to run. To shut them down you have to press the menu button, touch Settings, touch Applications and touch Running Services. Next you have to select the application you wish to shut down and touch stop. You could do all of this or you could install the “Advanced Task Killer” application. You open the “Advanced Task Killer” and touch Kill selected apps. You can also leave some apps running by deselecting them. That’s it! No fumbling through menus. Just two touches on the screen. Killing apps will help save your battery and save on your data consumption.

As I say constantly, “The three most important maintenance task on your computer are, backup, backup and backup.” You can always restore your software or replace your computer in a worst case scenario. What you can’t do or can’t do easily is recover your data. This is what you want to spend most of effort doing. I’ve mentioned to online backup solutions I like. What I’m now going to talk about is getting a backup locally(At your home or workplace). The advantage of this is it’s quicker to restore your data when it becomes necessary to do so. This by no means replaces the the off-site backup. It is just faster and more convenient.

You can build a home server or NAS (Network Attached Storage) with any old Pentium 4 class computer you have laying around. Besides the P4 you need a 500GB or more harddrive. At least 512MB of RAM is prefered. I do not have a spare drive around and later I’m planning to make this RAID5 so I am buying a 4 port SATA card and new 1 terabyte drive from NewEgg. Later I will buy the 2 or 3 additional drives I need to set up the RAID5.

After you gather the hardware you need to download FreeNAS and burn the image file to a CD. FreeNAS is free and open-source software that will turn your computer into a NAS.

So you have your Pentium 4 computer with 512MB RAM. You have a 500GB or more hardrive and you’ve downloaded FreeNAS. I will not explain how to put the parts together. If you don’t know how to do that you should not be doing this project. Now you are ready to begin.

The rest of the insructions!

About a week ago I receive my new smart-phone “the Nexus One” form Google. I am still putting it through it’s paces and trying to get use to the touch screen (hard for someone coming from a Blackberry with the keypad). Gmail, Calendar, Voice and Google Maps all integrate seamlessly. The new Google map application with turn by turn navigation that comes with the phone is incredible. The Google Goggles application could be very useful at some point. This phone is fast. The look is very sleek. Leo Laporte of TWIT is dropping his beloved iPhone for the Nexus One. Steve Wozniak co-founder of Apple Computer and the inventor of the personal computer says, “Google’s Nexus One is my favorite gadget” according to NBC Bay Area News.

I’m liking this phone and sure I’ll like it more when I learn more.

Caution! I’ve read that some are having problems getting tech support. For now I’m only recommending this phone for the techies. People who don’t need tech support.

The wireless on my Netgear Wireless G router went out this week and I had to replace it. I got a D-Link DIR-615 Wireless N 300 Router this week and I can’t be more pleased. With my Netgear router I never got all of my 10Mb speed from my ISP. I never worried about it because it was fast enough! Now I’m getting the full 10Mb and I’m sure if I had a computer with 802.11n I’m sure I would get much more. The best this is I always had problem using my wireless in one of my rooms. Now it just passes right through the walls as if they were not there because of something called Wireless G Maemo whatever that is. I don’t really care as long as it works!

The DIR-615 has better security with the addition of WPA2 which I was wanting to switch to for a while.

One of the best things about this gadget is the price $48 from NewEgg! Is was $39.99 until it was nominated product of the year by NewEgg customer. It still is a great deal.

The Roku players are settop boxes the brings all of your favorite content from the Internet to your television. Simple setup; I didn’t even look at the instructions. Roku players have built in wireless but I used the ethernet. After I connected the player to my home theater system and plugged in the ethernet I connected the power. I selected the connection type ethernet. You select the media source with the remote. If you have a Netflix, Flickr or Pandora account it will give you a codes to enter into those accounts via Internet. Don’t worry the Roku player walks you true it. You can now play unlimited online content from Netflix or Amazon Video with a payed account. Play podcast and other programing for free from Mediafly, blip.tv, Revision3, TWIT and many others. You can hear great music from Pandora. View your photos on Flickr and much more. Being a big podcast consumer I haven’t enjoyed a gadget this much in a very long time. I love TWIT.TV, Revision3 and others on the Roku very much. I am having a ball!

The Roku SD (Standard Definition) is $79.99.
The Roku HD (Hi Definition) is $99.99.
The Roku HD XR ( Hi Def with Wireless N) $129.99.

Do you have a cable modem in your living room but have computers in a different room as I do. I live in an apartment so drilling holes and stringing cable is out of the question. I tried using wireless with some success but it is slow and very unreliable. I dealt with this problem for quit some time.

The other day I ordered a Linksys Powerline AV Network Kit from NewEgg.com. Nothing but ethernet could be better! No more dropped signal! No more slow speed! It is easy to setup. In a few minutes it was ready to go.

You could buy a HP MediaSmart Server or any of the other Windows Home Server PCs or any of the other home-server products (one being Drobo). These work great but they cost $525 and up. I am going to turn a pc I already have in to one using Ubuntu Server. Ubuntu Server is free and I figure it might be a fun project. It will be harder to configure than an HP but it should be relatively painless. It is a good project and I really do need a home server.

Feb 23, 2009

I really like my a new camera. My old one was the pits! I even went back to film because of that old piece of junk.

I purchaased a Canon EOS 50D digital SLR camera. It is really a significant upgrade. 15.1-megapixel CMOS sensor so you can make tremendous print with little degradation. A 3″ LCD” view-screen so you can clearly see the images and settings. I got the package with 18mm to 200mm zoom lens. So it zooms from wide-angle to telephoto. With an aperture of f3.5 to f5.6 it’s not the fastest lens but it really is very versatile. What I am really crazy about is the low light performance. I have been shooting in very poorly lit rooms and I’m getting really great photos (photos posted later).

The 50Ds controls are quit complex and I’m still trying to figuer it out, so more later.