Pogoplug after a few days

I had this device for several days and so far it works well. I replaced the original Pogoplug software with ArchLinuxArm. The box is much snappier than my original Cobalt Qube 2 with NetBSD 5.2. Of course it is much faster machine and with double the memory. The size of the device is also small and the case while funky looking is OK. I only wish it would open more easily so I could take a look inside.

ArchLinux appears to be well made distribution with the package manager that tracks dependencies. Startup scripts are easy to understand, unlike the latest Ubuntu. I am not sure why they keep changing startup scripts every year. I installed Python and Samba to run MyMedia server and to backup my data from the Windows PC. MyMedia server runs very well on this hardware. The menus come up fast and the videos and images served quickly enough. Over all it is very good box for the purpose.

I am getting another enclosure and will install Linux on the hard drive instead of the USB stick it is on now. I want to try to compile some software and to see how well this box would work for unix development. It probably would not be a speed daemon but it could work.

At this point I would recommend this device to anyone capable of installing Linux himself.

Linux on Pogoplug

I was tempted by the Pogoplug Family deal and got myself a Pogoplug  classic for $29.95. They advertise it as a "free device" with Pogoplug Family but in reality you are buying the device for the above sum. Don't forget to cancel the service after receiving the device. Otherwise it would be more expensive than actually buying the same device outright.
After getting the device I evaluated it for about a day. I got the grey version of the Pogoplug Classic with Marvel Chip, 256MB of ram and 128MB of flash. The device itself is snappy and works reasonably well. It recognized my USB hard drive and went to work on it, apparently indexing the content. I measured transfer speed and using my old router with 100Mbit Ethernet, the transfer speed is around 9MB/s which is not bad. The device is silent and consumes very little power.
The companion software on the other hand is terrible. It is very much useless for backup as one can not control what is being backed up. You can only specify the top directory and everything under that directory is backed up. I thought about using the drive feature to backup with Microsoft Sync Toy but somehow it makes for a very slow backups. This device appears to be made for a completely computer illiterate person who never used any NAS devices. It also requires connection to the Pogoplug servers and I would imagine opens files on your "cloud" to snooping by the company. Over all I found the "Pogoplug Cloud" concept is sorely lacking in the implementation department. It does not hold a candle to the simplicity of Dropbox or Google Drive.

I actually got this device to replace my very old Cobalt Qube microserver which is showing its age. In that role Pogoplug Classic performs really well.
Most people appear to have good luck with the Arch Linux Arm and that is what I decided to try. I used a Centon 4GB flash drive as my root drive and WD drive in USB enclosure as my data drive. Installation of Arch Linux Arm is very simple and described on the web page. The Pogoplug Classic model number is POGO-E02 which is one of the supported devices.
The installation went smoothly and the box appeared operational but it would not acquire  IP address. Due to the bug in the Ethernet driver and my old router the device kept disconnecting and reconnecting to the network. After some search I found the solution. If your Pogoplug appears to boot but fails to acquire IP address add following line to the dhcpcd.conf file : nolink. Linux, samba and python occupy around 740MB on the flash drive. I did not install git but instead use my custom copy of the MyMedia server.

Now my Pogoplug is booting Linux and can act as NAS device with up to 4 USB drives and can run MyMedia server for Roku. It is much snappier than my old MIPS box but obviously not as fast as my desktop. It is worth $30 in my opinion if you can install your own Linux on the device. Similar devices would easy cost north of $50.

If I decide later to change my mind and use the "Pogoplug Cloud", reverting back is as simple as removing the USB flash drive and rebooting the device. The original system is preserved in the flash along with the original uBoot bootloader.

Inkjet change of mind

All of the good things I said about that HP printer? Well, I take them all back. I honestly do not know how people live with inkjets. I own a Brother laser printer and before that I had Oki. Nether one gave me so much grief  or was so high maintenance as this HP!
We print very little in our house. The older generation is out of school and the younger does not print that much yet. This causes constant ink problems with this printer! I can turn off laser printer for a year and after I turn in on, it will print perfectly. If I turn off inkjet for a year chances are that I would not be able to print when I turn it back on. The ink will dry out and/or the head will clog. It happened several times already and I am getting annoyed.
I  had to unclog head again recently and it cost me two refills and hours of time. The ink runs out in the worst possible moment, just when I need to print something.
To say something good about this printer - the scanner still works OK. That is the extent of the good things.
I would not recommend inkjet at all, unless you have to print in color all the time. After my supply of ink runs out I am selling this junk and getting myself a new laser all in one!

Roku2 vs WD TV Live

I recently picked up Roku2 at Costco. I figured that we can try using it for streaming some media from the internet and the PC. My initial impressions were not very good because of the defective remote. The remote would lock up about twice a day and I had to remove and replace the batteries and that was very annoying. Other than that device was OK but it did not support many formats. After talking to the Roku customer support person I returned device to Costco and got WD TV Live which a lot of people liked. After using Roku2 and WD TV for a week each I formed my opinion.

In streaming from the internet Roku wins hands down. It has many more channels, some even very good. If you only want to use Netflix and Hulu, WD TV is OK. If you want more choices Roku2 is your box! It has bunch of educational channels like Khan Academy and MIT Open Courseware.

If you want to stream variety of formats locally WD TV could be a better choice if you do not want to transcode. Since I occasionally had to transcode video for iPod, I already had Handbrake and has no trouble transcoding for Roku. Roku only supports H264 and VC1 codecs and only few containers, while WD TV supports a large selection of codecs and containers.

To stream locally with WD TV you can use DLNA server or just use windows sharing. Windows sharing is dangerous to use over wifi since my network is not secured. All DLNA servers that I used are huge and clunky. At the end I used ps3mediaserver which after running overnight grew to 1GB in size. There is NO REASON why a glorified web server should be that large.
To stream to Roku, one also has several choices. I tried two - Rocksbox and MyMedia. Rocksbox is pretty good and works well. It costs $15 after a month trial period. It works together with the monogoose webserver or any other webserver that you can configure. The monogoose server is light, small and fast. It is very easy to configure.
MyMedia server has its own server solution written in Python and the source of the Roku app is included. I liked that approach since I could add features and fix any problems, not that it had any. At the end I went with MyMedia and it works very well. Memory footprint starts under 10MB and grows to around 15MB after running for a while. The server is responsive and supports multiple Roku units.

In the user interface department Roku2 wins with the large margin. User interface is fast, responsive and intuitive. WD TV is very far behind. You can tell that this product was done by the company with no experience in user interfaces. UI is sluggish, progress indicators are absent in the few notable places. You think that box is hung but after a few long seconds it comes alive and does its thing. The WD TV is never actually hung but I thought several times that it did.

WiFi performance is much better on Roku2. When away from the router WD TV had trouble with the streaming and video would often freeze. Roku never had any problems.

So over all my preference is Roku2. The only area that falls short is a media format support. Given fast computer and handbrake it is not a huge problem. On my quad core AMD Phenom PC 1 hour SD movie is transcoded in about 6-7 minutes. This machine is about half speed of modern i5 or i7 machine.

WD TV power consumption about twice that of Roku2. Not that it matters much since both boxes consume under 10W. Roku2 consumes under 3W when running and less than 2W when screen saver is running. KillaWatt could not detect any energy being used by Roku2.

The only area WD TV box is better than Roku2 is the media format support. If you are not willing to transcode your media but instead willing to live with clunky and slow interface, WD TV is your box. If you want many free and good internet channels, willing to transcode and like good interface experience, go with Roku2.

Costo bundle of Roku2 XS contains 2 months of Hulu and a HDMI cable. Given that the price of the bundle is lower than just a Roku box elsewhere, it is a very good deal. Do not forget a complete Angry Birds game which comes with this Roku box.

WD TV Live went back to the store and I bought a new Roku2 unit at Costco. This unit does not have the problem with the locking up remote and I am very happy with it.

Microwave magnetron replacement

Important note: microwave oven contains very high voltage and should be handled with extreme care.

Our GE Spacemaker microwave broke (again). This time it was the magnetron. One of the isolators on the filament connector burned out and the current started flowing between the connector and the magnetron body. This was accompanied with loud noise and sparks.

Turned out that the magnetron has very long warranty - 10 years. If your magnetron goes, contact your microwave manufacturer before buying a new part. Few days later I received a new magnetron.
The microwave repair FAQ states that the high voltage diode must be replaced together with the magnetron. I found this to be true because as soon as I turned on the oven after magnetron replacement the old diode went up in smoke.

Replacement diode from the manufacturer was priced astronomically high. In my opinion $50 for a $2 part is a bit overpriced. I started looking for suitable replacement. As it turned out most household microwaves use diodes with the current from 0.3A to 0.5A. Our GE Spacemaker had diode with the current of 0.35A and voltage of 12kV. Most of the places that sell microwave parts do not specify any parameters on the parts that they sell. On ebay however one can find diodes with the stated parameters but most of them ship out of China and have shipping time of several weeks. I was able to find one person selling NTE517 diode for a reasonable price. This diode should be able to replace HV diode in pretty much any household microwave. It has Vpk-15kV and Io-550mA. The person was selling two versions of the diode, one without mounted connectors and one with connectors. I found one without connectors first so I bought this one. If you have problem with soldering or just want to save some time the one with connectors is a good choice just for a few $$ more. I cut connectors off the old one and soldered them to the new one. Original connectors are crimped to the leads but soldering them is OK too. After that I used heat shrink tubing to isolate one connector. Original diode was isolated with medium thickness tubing which should be good up to 20kV. I could not find that type of tubing so I used just a regular tubing and that seems to work just as well. It probably will not hold if the diode is touched while under voltage, but I do not have suicidal tendencies and have no plans of touching it.

The lessons from owning and fixing the GE microwave are following:

* GE microwaves are poorly designed and poorly made. For the appliance that is built in to the cabinets they sure break a lot. Our microwave is cracked in several places, some that are not even touched.

* GE charges way too much for parts although they ship promptly.

* NTE517 is a good replacement diode for most of the household microwaves.

DELL D610 Power Button Fix

We own total of 3 Dell D610 laptops. These were very popular at some point and now they are cheap and plentiful. If the laptop works it is not a bad machine for email and web browsing. Although running most of the flash games it is out of the question. But this post is not about how good the laptop is but about one common problem. These laptops tend to stop reacting to the power button. User has to press power button harder and harder which in fact makes the problem worse.

The problem is that the power button is mounted on the panel and the panel is plugged in to the female connector on the main board. The female connector is soldered poorly on some models and gets loose from the motherboard. It is held just by solder and nothing else.

To fix the power button one must almost completely disassemble the laptop. I would not get in to the disassemble procedure as it is available online elsewhere. The goal is to expose this connector and effectively to take out the motherboard. The connector must be accessible with the soldering iron from all sides.

You will need two soldering irons, one about 40 to 60 watt with a large tip and one 25 watt with a small tip.

After disassembling the laptop, reheat large pads of the connector with the large iron and small pads with the small iron. Make sure the solder is melted well and connection is restored. The power button will work like new after that. Do not overheat motherboard and the connector otherwise you are risking lifting the cooper trace.

DELL Lattitude E6510

Recently I got a new Dell laptop at work. This new laptop replaced a 6 year old Lattitude D600, which was still working well but became too slow to run all the software, that IT installs on our work computers.
I love new computers. They are slicker, faster and better than the old ones. A lot of technology is packed in the new laptops. In any event this was my mood until I started to use this machine.
The one I got was nearly top of the line Lattitude E6510. It has Core i7 with 4 cores and 8 total threads, 4GB of ram and 250GB hard drive (our standard memory size to run a 32 bit OS), 1920x1080 led screen, decent video card and what ever else came in the bundle.
When I just started using it, I was pretty impressed how fast this machine was. I also liked the back-lit keyboard which allows you to work in the dark environments, like an airplane. The fingerprint reader is a nifty gadget, as well as built in camera and the microphone. I guess these things were around for a while, I just never had a laptop that had them all.
I was quickly disillusioned after using that machine for a few days, especially away from my desk. The keyboard on this laptop is terrible. The internal design has metal parts rubbing against each other during the key press, so all of the larger keys squeak in a very annoying way. I had to pop most of the keys and put a small dub of lithium grease one the metal parts. This becomes old very fast, especially when you are traveling and don't have the grease handy. Also powerful processor does come with the price - heat and short battery life. The machine is hot and noisy. The fan makes annoying purring noise and almost permanently turned on. The battery lasts under 2 hours, which is less than my 6 year old laptop did. I can't figure out how to make it last longer. All I want is to edit a file in Word or a text editor and have the machine last for longer than 2 hours, is that too much to ask?
The speakers are next to the keyboard and protected by a grill with the small holes drilled through it. The holes accumulate dust and grime and are impossible to clean with anything but a brush. I prefer speaker grill to be easier to clean or at least be some place that does not get dirty easily.
The machine is heavy but this is not a complaint. I knew how heavy it was when I ordered it. It does not bother me, but people looking for a lighter machine should avoid this laptop.
The bottom line that I miss my old laptop. It was slow but it was solid and had pretty good battery life. With my 2 batteries it could last a whole flight across Atlantic. This one not so much.
On the bright side, looking on how poorly this laptop is made, it will not last 6 years and I will have to get a new one in a year or two.

Nissan Cube is a bad car

I got this car as a rental during my week long business trip. I was somewhat excited to drive it because the styling is funky and I like hatchbacks. As I got more familiar with the car my opinion slowly deteriorated and eventually reached the low point. I would not recommend this car to anyone.
I will start with the good things. This car full of gadgets - voice activated radio with cellphone synchronization. Car comes with key-less entry and a lot of cup/bottle holders. I counted 7 total, but maybe there was more. There is a lot of headroom but I doubt that the tall person can use it.

Now for the bad things. The ergonomics of this car are terrible. I am not a short person but not a tall one ether. From the driver seat I could not reach pretty much anything in this car. I could not reach radio, dashboard, parking break, mirror, light switches in the front. I barely could reach steering wheel because it only adjusts up and down. The seat is utterly uncomfortable, there is no lumbar support at all, and that should be present given that the seating position is mostly vertical. Trunk space is tiny, I doubt that large piece of luggage will fit in trunk. I guess if the back seats are dropped you can fit pretty large piece in the back. The back door is large and can accommodate large TV or probably a twin mattress. The gas mileage is pretty bad for the car with such a small engine. The indicator in the car showed that I was averaging 29MPG. I guess this is because of the car's boxy form.
The materials inside are cheap as pretty much expected for the car in this price range. The interesting thing that with all the gadgets presents, the simplest features are missing. There is no automatic light turn shut off which should be present at any price range in this point of time.
I honestly cant tell who Nissan was targeting with this car and I honestly wonder how many did they sell.
I would not recommend this car even as a rental because of uncomfortable seats.

Driver Sweeper - a handy utility

Driver Sweeper is a handy utility to remove traces of the drivers that uninstallers leave behind. I did not know about it until a guy from PowerColor tech support pointed it out. Even when re-installing new version of the driver it may be handy to run this utility to remove all files from the old driver. Turned out that NVidia uninstaller leaves a lot of things behind. This utility is currently maintained so it should be safe to use.

PowerColor Radeon 6850

I got PowerColor Radeon 6850 to replace my aging EVGA-8800GT. I run a lot of benchmarks with that card and my conclusion is not very favorable. The card works only slightly better than the old 8800GT. People report huge improvements with this card, but I did not get any of it. There is an improvement but it is not that great and mostly at higher resolutions. At lower resolutions the 6850 performs worse than the 8800!? Maybe it is my system but I am not at all happy with the result. I will keep this card for a year or so and then will probably upgrade it.

One advantage the new card has is that it consumes less power when running in plain windows and not doing anything 3D. It also allows computer to go in to low power standby. Previous card had trouble shutting down completely.

Update:
After using this card for a few days, I would say it is more or less OK. I would not consider it a bargain but since I already paid for it, I would use it until something better comes along.
It plays Crysis 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 well enough.