Jacken’s Blog

Well, the iPhone version seems to work ok. It’s actually quite nice to be able to write in landscape mode.

And the amazing thing is that now when the kids are at their grand mother, we still know how to have fun. I’ve been laughing my ass of all weekend. So I’m on for another 13 years.

I had this problem of all my pictures looking really washed out in some web browsers. The problem is that a lot of browsers don’t support color profiles, so even if include a profile it will be ignored. Instead the sRGB color profile is used. This makes pictures that look good in Photoshop look bland in your browser (unless of course you use Safari on Mac that use included color profiles)

Here’s a picture that originally has a the Adobe RGB(1998) which has a larger color gammut than the more used sRGB. But if you export the image without any modifications using “Export to Web…” in Photoshop, this is how it looks.

Compare the left one that’s exported without doing anything to it to the right one that has had color profile settings changed. The left one looks a bit bland and missing information?

How to fix this?

I did a lot of experiments, and this works for me. There’s probably a better way of doing this, so please feel free to correct me in the comments.

Open the picture in Photoshop and do the normal stuff like changing size and other adjustments.

When you are finished and want to export it, first do this:

I’m going to convert the image to my profile for my screen and as you can see my calibrated profile name is “New Profile (2009-01-13 04-43), but If you don’t have a calibrated screen, use “Color LCD”.

Under the Edit menu, select “Convert to Profile…”

Select your screen profile under “Destination Space”, in my case New Profile (2009-01-13 03-43) and press return.

Now it’s time to export for web.

Try to upload to the web and see if it makes a differense. It should.

To get the best result you really should get a screen calibrator. This is a device that makes sure that the colors on screen is correct. Here’s a couple.

“ColorVision S3P100 Spyder3 pro” (ColorVision, Inc.)

I have this one, and I’m very satisfied.

“GretagMacbeth Eye-One Photo – Colorimeter / color calibrator” (GretagMacbeth AG.)

Now we’re talking more money but also more exact results.

So I bought this Pioneer PD S-505 for $40 to test how good audio quality I’m able to squeeze out by modifying it. But I’t wil not be just the standard subjective judgement of improvement but also measurements. Back in 2000 you had to pay about $400 for it. It uses the stable platter which means you have to put the CD in upside down. So let’s get going.

The steps I planned is the following:

• Remove the mute transistors.
• Replace the output opamp
• Remove headphone output
• Replace the clock with a GD-Audio clock
• Improve the regulated voltage feeds to the DAC and opamp
• Improve the power supply
• Add a separate regulated power supply for the clock and opamp

But first we need the schematic of the player, so download the Pioneer PD-S505 schematic here.

Ok, lets look at some stuff we need to do. First we have to remove the mute transistors. Less stuff in the audio path equals better sound. The transistors is just there to make the measurements look better for reviews. So they have to go.

Click for larger image

So transistors Q403, Q404, Q453 and Q454 is removed. Desolder och just clip the pins (carefully) with a wire cutter.

Next step, time to desolder the opamp which is a rather old opamp (NE5532). Desolder the opamp IC405 and solder in a socket for easy testing with different opamps. I settled on LM4562 at first.

Remove the heaphone opamp if you don’t going to use it. It’s better to buy an external headphone amplifier like V-CAN Tube Headphone Amplifier or better.

That’s about it for today. Next installment, upgrade the clock to improve jitter numbers…

My friend Pär and I have this reacurring event where we meet up at my place, eat dinner and then sit around hacking on our computers. Showing off all the new stuff we found on the net, programming tips and new software recommendation. It’s a nice little event. Looking forward to tonight.

I’ve installed MAMP on my Mac to do some changes to my blog. I tried to set the WordPress wp-config.php file to connect to localhost:8889, but got an error that It could not connect to the database. After replacing localhost:8889 to 127.0.0.1:8889 it works. My quick guess is that permissions for the root user is set to allow connections 127.0.0.1, but not localhost. Anyway, it works now.

My wp-config.php file looks like this:

Interesting article at CRN Australia.

My favorite Media Player, Plex has added a lot of new streaming content. Check it out here.

“Black Like Me” (John Howard Griffin)

Back in 1961 the author disguises as a black man and experiences all the prejudices in the south.

As soon as it was possible to remove those annoying messages with drinks, cuddly bears requests and shaved midget tossing games, facebook is getting fun to use.

I’m also starting to like Twitter. I bought this little program called EventBox to replace Twirl because I’m always on a laptop so anything that use up to many cycles on the cpu goes to the dustbin. The program looks nice but takes a bit to get used to. The only gripe I have is that it doesn’t show replies on Facebook status changes. But it’s still beta and only costs $15 during the beta period. And kids, you have to support independent developers!