technology and audio matters

Surely not I ask myself, but my Zyxel P336M has stopped working! This one’s a replacement, the first failed (or did it?) with similar symptoms. First intermittent disconnects then finally no communication at all with the PC. All lights on the router flashing. Well turns out a full ‘factory reset’ has returned the unit to working order. (Hold the reset button in for 40 seconds after reapplying the power). Trouble is no clue as to how or why the unit got into this configuration. Perhaps resetting every 3 months makes a lot of sense?

Sadly this tale has taken a another ‘twist’. Only hours after the apparent fix (by factory reset) the self resets, started once again. On further discussion with Zyxel it does in deed sound as if it has a hard fault. It’s on its way back today. I’ll keep you posted.

Update 14/10/07 – the unit has been returned and diagnosed to have a faulty power supply. Evidently the supplier has now been changed.

Well I’m on my 3rd DVD video recorder now. I’ve had a Sony, and two Panasonic units. The first Panasonic wasn’t that brilliant and behaved rather erratically. Not my historical experience of Panasonic products. Typically their solid and dependable. Thanks to the generous Richer Sounds extended warranty I’ve a new machine. I keep asking myself what I’ve gained over and above VHS. At one level I could argue not a lot. In fact in many ways it’s all been a bit of a disappointment. Sure recording quality seems pretty slick and stable but what else? How about having to Format a disk before recording. What’s that all about? I’m more than familiar with such steps on computers, but what does the man in the street know about formatting. Also beware that any given machine will work with any old disk format i.e. -R or +R , a number don’t (like my earlier Pansonic). Another issue to watch for is that I prefer to use re writeable disks. Unfortunately other DVD players (apart from the PC) won’t accept. Use write once media if you need universal playback around the home/office. I’ve gained a Freeview tuner which is useful of course. But unlike the old VHS you have to interrupt the TV watching experience to set the unit up. Progress , I’m not so sure

I think in hindsight a DVD/Hard Disk machine or Hard Disk alone is probably a better overall proposition. No need to format disks, ‘record on the fly’ as you should always have space. Still these have now come down dramatically in price and probably represent the more user friendly option today.

Just borrowed one of same and took a few pictures. I must say I was slightly disappointed with the initial results. With it’s digic III processor I was expecting great things. After all this is 2 years in advance of my old Ixus 500, plus it’s up to 7 Mega pixels, albeit with a reduced optical zoom range at only 2.4 times. Perhaps it’s a result of a smaller lens. Menu options seem similar to the old Ixus. However the features have been extended and include some basic scene modes like portrait, night time, landscape etc. The zoom control is also a little strange as it shares the navigation thumb wheel. Not for me I think in spite of it’s ‘twee’ size, the reason I tried it out So at a glance it’s not bad but not necessarily the best camera for the money, great perhaps if you want a small camera to go any where. Detailed review here:

http://www.digicamreview.com/canon_digital_ixus_i7_zoom_sd40_review.htm

Made my annual trip to Heathrow to hear the best in 2 channel hifi. Today was trade only, 22nd and 23rd Sept it’s open to the public. Details a bit tricky to find so here’s the link http://www.chestergroup.org/lsav07/

A number of the usual suspects exhibiting including Naim, Proac…, but some with poor music choices in my humble view. So hard to tell how all the products sound. My tip , check out the Bosendorfer range at the AUDUSA & CO stand, something special going on there. Check out Astin Trew for some good value products. Aeon are demonstrating a compact product with a single full range drive unit by Jordan. Interesting if maybe not 100% accurate? The new ‘Tiny’ Usher was producing some prodigious bass from a small cabinet. Worth a visit but only if you looking at true high end sound equipment.

Well here’s me advising everybody else to backup and guess what – I’ve had a disk failure! Luckily it’s on what was my old machine. It had some historical data but that’s probably history. I’ve got everything backed up on other hard disks and CD. Jut proves the point. Interesting its a Seagate 80G IDE, probably around 2+ years old. It’s been spinning every day though. The message is clear, a failure can occur at any time and often when we are least prepared.

I recently bought a case on ebay described as being suitable for a Panasonic TZ1. Indeed the case will allow a TZ1 to fit inside. What’s not clear is it will simultaneously fit a bag of potatoes! Exaggerating somewhat , but the point is, I assumed the case would be no larger than necessary. So be careful, ask or check dimensions first if not buying from the original supplier or brand.

For those of you who are interested, here’s a substantial article by Andrew Orlowski of ‘The Register’ about Psion and the latter years. I even get the odd mention

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/psion_special/

Had a fascinating chat with Paul Brinklow of http://www.psionflexi.co.uk/ fame. Paul redesigned the LCD Flexi PCB that can fail in the Psion 5mx machine. To date Paul has repaired thousands of machines and they still keep coming in! So once more this raises the ‘old chestnut’ . Is there still an opportunity for a new machine that bases itself on the clamshell design of the 5mx? Clearly for so many to be still in use today, there’s obviously something just right about the format and specifically the quality of the keyboard unit. We are both reminded of course that the success of the product was due to a combination of factors, a clever mechanical design married to an elegant software platform that just worked. To boot, it runs for many hours on a pair of ordinary AA cells. Of course any new offering has the challenge of what operating system and application suite to put on such a machine. There have been some attempts to build a Linux distribution, but the momentum for the 5mx as an obsolete product I guess isn’t there today. Apart from EPOC is there anything else that could offer the same user experience today? Comments welcome.

Just received this morning. An allegedly new HP photo printer for the sum of £17 incl. postage and packing. Any good you might well ask? Well I’ve avoided these small printers for fear of media costs. When I need prints I usually use one of the online services such as Bonusprint or Jessops. I’ve seen some impressive results from Photobox although possibly a little more expensive than the former.

In reality this is an old model dated 2005 , I downloaded the most up to date driver from HP’s website as often the supplied CD’s are out of date. (all 185Mbytes of it). Well how does it print? Looks ok at first glance, colours are vivid and results look better than prints made on my Canon i560. Might well come in handy for the odd print. I suspect though that a replacement ink cartridge will cost as much as the complete printer! As a bonus the printer has a built in memory reader and can be equipped with a battery for portable printing at party’s or functions. Recommended if the budget is tight.

See picture below:

Prompted by recent ‘climate concerns’ and my pocket! I invested in a Maplin Power meter. (see photo below). For the princely sum of about £14 you get a complete Watt/VA meter with LCD display. It seems to stack up with the published power ratings on most devices around the home. I’ve checked a few small chargers, PC’s and compared some LCD and CRT monitors around the home. In truth there’s not a huge saving switching from CRT to LCD just to save power. Any saving due to the passive nature of the display is partially negated by the the back light technology. Basically they still suck up the watts! There’s lots of interest in the subject. A whole new wave of products are emerging including the type that indicate the total household consumption. Check out ‘WATTSON’ at
http://www.diykyoto.com/

More worrying though is my Telewest/Virgin Media set top box, manufactured by PACE. Commissioned here a few years back due to indifferent analogue TV reception here in Kingston. Worrying at a level but when ‘in standby’ the unit consumes 12W ! When ‘on’ marginally more at 13W although it’s flickering on the least significant digit. So much for Standby then as it’s the same when it’s on! I’m reliably informed by an ex designer of where the power is apportioned i.e. where the 12W is going. But my question is , why is do I need or want it? I would understand the unit has to be on to receive updates to the epg, new firmware or whatever. But this means for a good 20 hours a day it’s running at 12W . I’d personally rather it were zero or if Virgin want it on, let them pay or source the power!