When Good Drives Go Bad... News at 11

For the 3rd time in 2 weeks one of our RAID5 drives has gone bad. What's worse than being woken up at 5am to work on a degraded RAID5 array? Knowing that it was avoidable.

Upon closer research it turns out that the drives themselves need a new firmware installed in order to prevent timouts from marking the disk as failed. What's most frustrating is there was no way to tell if our drives were affected until they failed, but ( LARGE OEM ) had the records of the part numbers and should have been able to warn us in advance that we might be affected.

So now I'm forced to come in on the holiday weekend in order to bring down both file servers and boot them with the patch cd in order to "fix" the firmware problems. This is yeat another unseen issues with RAID5. Since the drives usually come in one batch if there is a problem with one the likleyhood is that it will affect all the drives increasing the likleyhood of a double disk failure in the whole array.

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Photo: Color and Light

It's been a slow day so I though I would post one of the images from my portfolio. I am working on stories on the FDA, media storage for the home, a review of the Oppo DV-981HD, and some metablogging posts.

Color and Light

Peace and well wishes to all in this holiday time.

-Eric

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My Year Without Cable

Since January I have watched several new TV shows and the major sporting events; Almost all of them were in glorious HDTV. With only minor changes to our viewing habits I have kicked the cable TV to the curb and gone 100% OTA for network and local broadcasts. It might surprise some people that someone with a HDTV might not have cable service. In reality dropping cable TV was an excellent choice for our household.

Cheating

Some people may think we cheated. When we dropped cable we picked up a subscription to NetFlix in order to tide us over. We are big movie buffs and with the ever increasing cost of purchasing or rentals it seemed like a good choice for us. Despite some reservations about throttling we have consistently gotten 3 disks/week if we are diligent about returning the disks quickly. Our NetFlix queue has ebbed and flowed between a dozen and a few hundred discs. It's a general mix of TV shows that we have not seen and movies that we want to watch, but not own.

Hardware

I really caught a lucky break when we converted out system over to antenna reception. I picked up a surplus Sony DHG-HDD500 from my local Tweeters for a measly $200. Adding a simple 10' Radio Shack antenna for $80 and some cable and connectors $20 to create a functional system that would pick up every station in our broadcasting area. I am close enough to the towers that I don't have to worry about pre-amps or other amplification equipment at this time. If you can't get one of the Sony DVR you can use any good ATSC tuner ( built into most TV's ) or put together a MythTV box with the appropriate tuner card and duplicate most of the same functionality.

The chimney antenna went up without too much effort. I did scare my wife half to death climbing around on the roof. I used the information from "antennaweb" on order to aim the antenna in the general direction of the main tower locally.

NOTE: For those who don't think they can setup an antenna because of one or more restrictions you should first read the FCC's website on the issue. What it boils down to is that basically none of the restriction from HoA's, local, or state restriction on OTA reception are valid.

How Well Does It Work?

It works like a charm. Most people who come over and find out that we are using an antenna are amazed at the picture quality. We get CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, WB, and CW (was UPN ) all as digital transmissions, most in HDTV. The signals are strong and rarely have dropouts. It's at least as reliable as the Time Warner cable that we had before and quite a bit cheaper. We get guide information OTA as well from the "TV Guide" system that is datacast with the local PBS station. The Sony dvr is a timesaver as well since we can not be tied to the TV during prime time with a new baby in the house.

How Much Are You Really Saving?

Basic digital cable and a HDTV converter box rental run approximately $50/month, NetFlix runs approximately $20/month, and the hardware cost me $300. In the first year that's a savings of $60 and a savings of $360 for every year after that. Amortizing the DVR over a 5 year lifespan ( conservative estimate ) leads to a first year savings of $220 and a savings of $320 for the next five years. That adds up to a grand total of $1500 saved over the next 5 years!

Conclusion

The only issue that we have had with the new setup is the lack of a number of cable only favorites including the Daily Show and Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Considering the long term savings I don't think of these as insurmountable problems, just annoyances. I think that most moderate TV viewers could probably get used to a lifestyle with only OTA and NetFlix if they give it half a chance. The addition of the DVR really helps to extend our enjoyment of the system as a whole by allowing us to watch just the "good stuff" on our own schedule.

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Metablogging: Getting the "Read More" Working

After reading the help page "How can I create expandable post summaries?" I was even more confused than when I started because the code did not seem to work with the new template system. After a little trial and error I was able to create functional post summaries for the new templating system as well.

THIS IS ONLY APPLICABLE TO BLOGGER BETA The NEW BLOGGER WTIH GOOGLE TEMPLATES! If the above help page appears inappropriate then use the distructions below.

UPDATE: 6/7/2007, Most of this has been integrated into the blogger help page, please try those directions first!

You Want Me To Put What Where?

I looked at the page and was very confused since the tags and variables that are used in the help page don't seem to exist in the new templating system. You can tell you are using the new system by looking for the following string near the top of the template HTML "xmlns:b='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/b'". Once you know that you are using the new system and not the old system you need to change the template in a different way.

Ok, So How?

It boils down to the fact that you need to make two changes to the template. You need to add the conditional css tags and you need to alter the blog posts to include the "read more" link. You will need to be editing the template HTML with "expand widget templates" checked in order to complete this change.

I inserted the following code right before the </head> tag in order to get the conditional css in place.

} ]]></b:skin>
<style>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
</b:if>
</style>
</head>

<body>

Next we alter the way that posts are displayed. ( you must have expand widget templates checked ).

<div class='post-body'>
<p><data:post.body/></p>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
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</b:if>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

Now What?

In theory, once those changes are made, you should be able to use the direction on the page to edit your posts. The jist is that you need to add the to the bulk of your text in order to achieve the desired affects. You can see a perfect example of this effect on my blog.

UPDATE: You still need to wrap the hidden part of your blog posts in a <span class="fullpost"> ... </span> in order to acheive the affect just as the help page describes.

Problems

There is one problem with this effect and that is it affects all posts, not just long ones. This change is either on or off for all posts.

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Review: Panasonic TH-42PX60U - Great, Inexpensive, Plasma

Summary: A well rounded 42" plasma that can be had for less than $1300 at many reputable online and big box stores. It has enough inputs to keep most people happy and well within the budget of most HDTV enthusiasts. Features that have been honed over several generations of consumer plasma TV's really shine on this set. I think the biggest complaint that I have about the set is the HDAVI control system that is creating some consternation with the SONY DVR that I have.

Baby Room Steals FP, News at 11

For the past few years the only TV in our house was a 1024x768 DLP from projection system. This venerable system served us well with over 3k hours of use and we would have continued to use it if not for the new arrival in our home. In 2006 we celebrated the birth of our first child and I had to give back the "Movie Room" so that we could have a room for the child ( spoiling her already ). I proceeded to sell off the equipment that we had and would no longer need and seek out a new display device that we could use in our well lit living room. At this time I really though, after reading far too much about HDTV sets, that almost any unit would do and I didn't want to spend that much, boy was I wrong.

LCD TV's - Inexpensive or Cheap?

The first TV that we settled on was a Syntax 532H 32" LCD set. The company had good reviews and the unit was a good price. I plugged it in and immediately knew that something was wrong with the set. The best term for the defect was "motion muddiness". While worse on low poor quality sources, it problematic for all sources and resolutions that I tested. It turns out that the "Budget" LCD market is really a minefield of poor quality or outright defective units on top of the issues that normally plague LCD displays.

Plasma - Am I Going to Break This Thing?

My main concern that initially pushed me into the LCD market was the impression that Plasma's were inherently a fragile technology. With terms like "Image Retention (IR)", "Burn-In", a short lifespan, and warnings against pausing movies I had initially discounted the technology. After a careful re-evaluation of the state of technology it turns out that those impressions were partially or completely wrong. While there is such a beast as IR, it's hardly noticeable and has more to do with an electrostatic charge than any indication of permanent damage that you may be doing to the set. Burn-in is probably the most feared plasma damage as it permanently alters the image with a "ghost" of another image. While it is still possible to "Burn-In" a plasma the likelihood with the modern panels from Panasonic are slim. This set has no "orbiting" or screen wipe feature because the set really does not need it. It is barley more susceptible to burn in than a regular CRT set. All modern panels also quote a 60,000 hour lifespan and this translates to 10+ years under even the most demanding household.

Plasma TV's - Inexpensive or Cheap?

Not wishing to rehash the incident with a budget no-name Plasma I finally settled on the Panasonic TH-42PX60U which could be had for less than $1300 in a local, reputable, electronics store. Even with a big jump up in price is the least expensive brand name plasmaat this size. Saving a few hundred just didn't seem to be the wise thing to do in this case.

NOTE: This set is large enough that I recommend you find someone with a big car to help you get this home in one piece. It is not recommended that you move it lying down, it should really be move in the upright position.

Setup and Initial Impressions

It was easy enough to get this unit out of the box, unfortunately the pedestal is not pre-assembled. Removing and setting up the pedestal requires at least 1 more person. Someone needs to hold the TV steady while the pedestal is put together and in order to place the TV on the pedestal; As long as you have that other person the unit should setup in less than 30 minutes. Amply inputs on the back make attaching all of your devices a breeze.

The first time I turned the set on I knew it would work. It had none of the defects that I had come to hate about LCD and the picture of even the worst SD TV was more than acceptable on it's 42" screen. It was the best SD I've seen on a HD second to the Toshiba 42H81 CRT RP that I owned 5 years ago.

HDTV was stellar, even with the seemingly low resolution of the panel it was crisp and clear. Using simple brightness and contrast I was able to dial in a bright and vivid 3d image.

Styling is good, many people may not approve of the silver, but the black trim around the screen are good enough for me to give the video a real 3d look.

Calibration

I have gone through several rounds of calibration and expect to go through several more before I am fully satisfied with the settings. I have been trying the various picture modes to see which looks best before and after attempted calibrations. The three picture modes ( cinema, standard, and vivid ) each map directly to a level of contrast enhancement in the video processing. Cinema has none, standard has a small amount, and vivid has a stronger amount. All three of these were checked with the cycling plug patten on the DVE disk. Although I am a discerning viewer, I believe that "out of the box" settings were very good for the standard picture mode.

Sources

I have several devices that I use on an almost daily basis.

XBOX w/XBMC: at 720p the XBMC puts out an acceptable image for videos and images stored on the household media server. It was a little tricky trying to get the gamma on XBMC to be approximatly equal to that of the DVD player. I also use this for retro gaming and it looks great on the big screen. We have had gaming sessions of "Super Mario 3" for up to 4 hours at a clip without any harm to the screen.

Sony DVR: Our main tuner is a Sony DVR that we use with OTA reception. The picture is everything that I have come to expect from HDTV shources and I have no issues except for the fact that the HDAVI ( some sort of control that goes over the HDMI ) seems to give the DVR issues when it first starts up. It's not a big deal it just takes longer than I would expect before and image appears on the screen and the DVR is controlable from the remote. I run the DVR at "HDMI Auto" and that passes through the video for the TV to deal with de-inetlacing ( if necessary ) and it does a great job.

Oppo 981HD: This wonderful upscaling DVD player is attached via HDMI@1080p. It throws an image that really does squeeze 100% of the possible PQ out of the lowly DVD format. At times the image is brutally honest about the poor quality mastering, but at viewing distance this is usually not a problem. Some people avoid the plasma and oppo combination for fear of "macroblock enhance"; so far I have not had a problem with this. I think I can see the effect from close up, but from normal viewing distance it is not a problem for me.

Conclusion

The TV is excellent considering the price I paid for it. It produces a stunning picture that is well within the reach of many A/V enthusiasts. Plasma works well for those people who are looking for the best in PQ from a flat panel display in this price range. I have now had mine for over a month and I believe it was a very good choice.

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Review: Harmony 880 Advanced Remote

Summary: Have more than 4 IR remotes in your electronics setup and hate finding the right remote? Do you have so many A/V items that your better half does not understand how to turn on the TV? You need this device.


Like most of my reviews, I won't bore the reader with simple facts about this device since you can find that information anywhere on the internet. I will give a hands on view of the device and my improssions of how well the device works ( or doesn't work ).

Long Time User

I have been a Harmony remote user from back before they called themselves Harmony. The unit I have been using for the past 5 years had the label "EasyZapper.com" on it. This was the original website and it was a very functional remote. It attempted to simplify the A/V experience down to it's most minimalistic experience and, for the most part, it worked like a charm. It was quickly decided by users and staff that the scroll wheel and lack of both navigation and transport controls was a bad idea. Needless to say the remote served out home well for those 5 years only needing an occasional change of batteries and update from the website when I got a new device.

Recently I swapped out most of my A/V equipment and went to reconfigure the remote only to discover that the unit would not longer accept programming over the USB port. I was disappointed, but quickly got over the loss by lusting after a long needed upgrade.

Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced IR Remote

I knew immediately what remote I wanted to upgrade to when the trusty old remote died... the harmony 880. With enough buttons to make any geek happy and enough customization to make almost any setup possible. The only major limitation in setup is that it can only control IR devices. After fighting with a larger online reseller around black friday I finally get the remote a week later. It came out of the box immediately and I set it up to begin charging.

Because I had a whole new A/V setup and a new remote I decided to make a new account on the Harmony site. Within 20 minutes I had inputted all of the devices I use and was on my way to customizing the remote with extra buttons, favorites, and timings in order to eek out even more from the unit.

Support

There ended up being a few things that I could not quite get correct. Changing inputs via a macro works great, but the set does have discrete codes that would improve the speed. I tried several other TV's and found a number of discrete codes that worked quite well. I contacted support and over the course of several days we went through many iterations of the Panasonic database until we had all but one discrete code for this TV mapped to the remote. Now that's what I call support. The company encourages this type of exploration because they update their database and all people with that device benefit next time they synchronize the remote.

Conclusions

This is one of those devices that is easy to recommend. Assuming you have remote hell, you need one of these. You can get them at price points from $70 up to $250 ( the 880 can be had for $130 if you shop around ) and they all work about the same, just decide what features you really want and what you want to spend. The only real downside to the remote is the fact that you need to program it via the web and if for any reason down the line the website goes poof, you remote become a doorstop. Many attempts to get Harmony to open up the remote have always been rebuffed by the company.

Overall this has been a very beneficial addition to my modest home theater setup.

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Windows Genuine Advantage ( WGA ) needs a new name.... Windows Genuine Extortion

UPDATE: If you are looking for information on how to pirate Windows you have come to the wrong blog. I recommend you take a look at Linux and Apple. If you must use Windows pony up the $80 to NewEgg.com and buy a OEM copy of the software and be legal!

From Wikipedia

Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person either obtains money or property from another through coercion or intimidation or threatens one with physical harm unless they are paid money or property. Euphemistically, refraining from doing harm is sometimes called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence or a lawsuit which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence or lawsuit is sufficient to commit the offense. The simple four words "pay up or else" are sufficient to constitute the crime of extortion. An extortionate threat made to another in jest is still the crime of extortion.

Looking Back

My mother needed a windows system that would stand the test of time. It needed to just work and provide her with the applications that she used. She really didn't care about all the features, but I settled on XP Pro so that I could remote control the system from afar. Back in 2002/2003 it seemed like the most viable option for her needs. In retrospect it pains me to know that decision ended up costing me far too much of my time over the past several years.

I setup my mother's system almost three years ago with Windows XP professional. Being a good geek at the time the only good way to install XP was slipstreamed with SP1 and a VLK to avoid "activation woes". The setup was painless and the system has been operation since that time with need for little more than an occasional cleanup and defragment. This year as Microsoft started pushing WGA I knew it would eventually lead to nothing but trouble for us.

In the past few months the WGA Notifier finally made it's appearance on my mothers system and she has been calling me ever since to get it fixed. Recently I went over to try and clear this up by resetting the product key to a perfectly valid OEM key.

Note: I know that the use of the VLK was technically in breach of the license, but at the time it was the most effective way to do a slipstreamed installation without the hassles of activation. This was not an attempt at piracy since I had a fully licenced copy availible. Between OEM cruft installed by default and activation it was far easier ( at the time ) to do it this way.

Windows Genuine Annoyance

My mom called and complained to me time and time again that the messages were "everywhere" and would not go away. I had no idea that she was being quite literal and the messages were far more pervasive and annoying than I thought possible of Microsoft.

There are messages on the logon screen, there are timeouts when you log in, taskbar popups that would make any scammer proud, and of course the inability to do anything on Microsoft's site without being nagged or outright prohibited because they believe you are a dirty pirate. It's not bad enough that they are nagging the crap out of you, but clicking on the balloon "To resolve now" is an exercise in frustration. The problem occurs because the WGA task bar widget opens the pages in the default browser, unfortunately for those of us who have decided to turn off IE, those pages launched are useless in firefox.

So all of these messages from Microsoft to resolve the problem are just dead ends for those who have a safe browser installed.

"Get Genuine" aka I Want My $150 Dollars Now!

After activating IE6 I was able to finally make some heads or takes of what was going on with the system and I became infuriated. From my perspective I had the following four option available to me.

I already knew that I could re-install from original media and use the OEM key to create a working system, but this was a none to pleasant option for a system that has been running for almost 3 years. The fact of the matter is that restoring the system to all of it's functionality would be a full time job for me even with the backups that I have. All of the software on CD or downloaded over the years would have to be reinstalled and reconfigured to work in a manner that my mother had become accustom to.

According to the Genuine Advantage webpages I could "Get Genuine" and avoid a re-installation by ponying up $150 in order to appease Microsoft ( for the time being ). They would provide me with tools and keys that would make the error messages go away and even send me copies of the software on CD for future re-installations.

I could try and update my installation with other tools in order to get it to recognize a perfectly valid OEM key for XP Professional, but the documentation for that is scant at best.

I could go back to the warez groups and use some WGA removal tools to stop the nag/spyware that Microsoft has installed on my mothers computer.

Unfortunately for me I selected trying to get windows to recognize my perfectly valid OEM key.

I started my quest with the standard search of Google and came up with a Knowledge Base article from Microsoft. With it I was able to get the system to fail activation, but for some reason I could not get it to take the new product key. This was ok, I would jut call the activation hotline since they have been helpful in the past with strange error messages like this. This time they were initially helpful and even waited as the very slow system rebooted, but then were unable to help. The real kicker was when I mentioned that I was trying to change keys because I was getting a WGA error. The person on the phone told me to buy the $150 "Get Genuine Kit" and then proceeded to hang up on me.

At this point I am livid and I have to take a break from the computer.

Getting Real Help

That same evening I went home armed with new information about why, why, and how. It turns out that the only reason the validation is failing is because the venerable VLK used has been blacklisted by Microsoft. Going online with the search "VLK OEM" I was able to finally pull of the correct answer to my quandary. Microsoft has a product called the "KeyUpdateTool" that helps to convert a VLK to an OEM key including updates to the software to make it valid. Why was this not the first option that Microsoft presented to people rather than a demand for payment? I will be trying out this tool in the next day or so to see if it's working and I will report back.

I was also able to find forums run by Microsoft when researching this story, forums that were not apparent on any of the screens that the WGA tools brought up. These program presume guilt and act accordingly without fear of repercussions. My mother probably would have been incapable of divining this option from the information given and would have been forced to "pay up" had I not come to her aid.

Extortion

"To protect your copy of Window, you must click Get Genuine now."

"pay up or else" ... I was not kidding when I said it was Windows Genuine Extortion. This whole process is designed to intimidate and coerce customers in to paying protection money to Microsoft. This is not some vague threat, but a specific threat to withhold fixes to manufacturing defects. They fail to properly disclose how this could be in error and they do not help the customer with the issues that their software is directly responsible for creating. It's not like people are asking for a free upgrade to Vista, we are talking about security bugs and engineering defects in XP. Even the threat to withhold these fixes without payment should constitute extortion on behalf of Microsoft.

Make no mistake, this is a clear cut protection racket designed to earn more revenue from customers to frightened, lazy, or busy to discover the truth for themselves. It's use as an anti-piracy tool is limited since those people truly pirating XP will disable the WGA notification and use a 3rd party patching tool to get their security updates. Yes, the people really hurt by this change are those honest customers that want to "do the right thing".

Looking Forward

Had I the option I would have installed Linux in a heartbeat, but unfortunately my mother was far too tied to specific, proprietary, software to make that a real option. Had Apple been where it is today I would have gone with OS X in a heartbeat. But for now it's XP or bust and I have to deal with the mess that Microsoft has created for it's customers.

The next generation of Microsoft products only make the whole system worse. WGA is now an integral part of Vista. This should at least reduce the number of false positives the systems creates, but it now means that every user making almost any change to the hardware of their system will invoke the wrath of "Activation" by calling Microsoft and begging to be allowed to continue to use the software they purchased legally.

Mark my word, this whole process has soured my palate for Microsoft. I have up until now believed "The right tool for the right job" but I can no longer in good conscience recommend Microsoft because of this latest attack on it's customers. Thankfully looking around we have several options available to us. Both Apple and Linux's offering are robust and compelling for the modern consumer. While all have some shortcomings there are very few customers for whom Apple or Linux are not an acceptable option moving forward. Even if Microsoft never goes to trial for this criminal offense I can only hope that they are tried in the "Court of public opinion" and people see this for mess that it is.

Postscript

The other night I went over armed with the KeyUpdateTool and this time I had much more success. It took me a total of 30 minutes to use the key, reboot, and then do a telephone activation. Now her system is "genuine" and "authorized". While I understand Microsoft's wish to combat piracy, they only thing that they really accomplish with this latest round of inquisitions is to further aggravate customers by treating them, once again, like criminals. Shoot first and ask questions later is not a smart way to build a lasting relationship in the market.

After speaking with mom we have come to the conclusion that her next system will probably be a nice shiny Apple MacBook.

Post-Postscript

If you want to read up on more stories just like this all you need to go to Microsoft's own forums. There is story after story after story after story after story after story after story and I'm just getting warmed up. My personal favorite is "My Mother is a Software Pirate".

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