[{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m running a TrueNAS Server using the Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING motherboard. Because of all the peripherals like a LSI® SAS 9300-8i PCI Express card for my SAS disks, I didn\u0026rsquo;t have enough PCI lanes to run a \u0026ldquo;normal\u0026rdquo; graphics card. So I got an old Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 NVS290 PCIe x1 card that only uses one PCI lane and fits into a X1 PCI slot. But I would rather run the box without a graphics card and boot headless. But all the information on the internet told me that the Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING Motherboard could not run headless. After several tries, nothing worked. But I finally found a solution\nBIOS Settings To Get Headless Boot To work Boot into the BIOS settings by restarting and pressing the Delete button or F2 repetedly. Go to the \u0026ldquo;Advanced\u0026rdquo; section. These are the settings needed to get it to work.\n1. Boot → \u0026ldquo;Wait For \u0026lsquo;F1\u0026rsquo; If Error\u0026rdquo; → Disabled. This is the main gate. With it disabled, the board logs the VGA error and continues to the boot loader anyway.\n2. Boot → CSM → Disabled. In legacy/CSM mode the firmware treats missing VGA as fatal because it needs INT 10h; pure UEFI mode has no such requirement and boards that \u0026ldquo;can\u0026rsquo;t boot headless\u0026rdquo; often can once CSM is off. TrueNAS SCALE boots UEFI fine, but check your boot entry is the UEFI one before flipping this, or you\u0026rsquo;ll get a different no-boot.\n3. Enable Fast Boot while you\u0026rsquo;re there - it skips some of the device re-enumeration where headless boards occasionally hang.\nAnd that\u0026rsquo;s it. It now saves 12 Watts without the graphics card.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/getting-asus-rog-strix-b550-f-gaming-motherboard-to-boot-headless/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m running a \u003ca href=\"https://www.truenas.com\"\u003eTrueNAS\u003c/a\u003e Server using the \u003ca href=\"https://rog.asus.com/se/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b550-f-gaming-model/\"\u003eAsus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING\u003c/a\u003e motherboard. Because of all the peripherals like a LSI® \u003ca href=\"https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-lsi-9300-8i.html\"\u003eSAS 9300-8i PCI Express card\u003c/a\u003e for my SAS disks, I didn\u0026rsquo;t have enough PCI lanes to run a \u0026ldquo;normal\u0026rdquo; graphics card. So I got an old \u003ca href=\"https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/quadro-nvs-290.c1453\"\u003eNvidia Quadro NVS 290 NVS290\u003c/a\u003e PCIe x1 card that only uses one PCI lane and fits into a X1 PCI slot. But I would rather run the box without a graphics card and boot headless. But all the information on the internet told me that the Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING Motherboard could not run headless. After several tries, nothing worked. But I finally found a solution\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Getting Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING Motherboard To Boot Headless"},{"content":"\nAfter installing my new pfSense firewall, I wanted to expose some of my servers to the internet. First, I had HTTP and HTTPS made available for this blog by using NAT. But that\u0026rsquo;s not very secure, so I found HAProxy, a module inside pfSense. It\u0026rsquo;s a reverse proxy, among other things.\nI configured it to use ACME, another module inside pfSense, to acquire SSL certificates from Let\u0026rsquo;s Encrypt, handle all SSL traffic and then send the requests to my internal servers. The internal servers no longer need to handle SSL traffic, so they talk to the HAProxy with unencrypted port 80 traffic. Thus separating the outside WAN from my servers on the inside LAN. I found an excellent guide on how to set this up.\nProblem with internal access But I could not get calls to the servers from the internal network to work properly. So I decided to route all internal calls on LAN to the HAProxy as well. But it refused to work. I did Host Overrides so that the URL of the servers pointed to my pfSense firewall. I configured HAProxy to listen to the LAN network as well as WAN, but that didn\u0026rsquo;t fix it. But after hours of searching, I found the solution.\nSolution Inside the HAProxy settings, under Front End, I configured it to listen to LAN as well as WAN. Because that feels obvious, doesn\u0026rsquo;t it?\nBut no. That doesn\u0026rsquo;t work. You need to set it to Any (IPv4) instead of LAN Address (IPv4).\nNow I can access all the servers on the inside with SSL encryption, and an added bonus to be able to access different servers on port 443 from WAN and LAN by using rules on HAProxy just by using different subdomains. Very nifty. Hopefully you landed on this page if you had the same problem.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t forget to setup a new rule on your firewall to allow LAN traffic to port 443 on your pfSense firewall. And naturally you need to change your access port to the pfSense firewall to something else than 443 to avoid conflict.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/pfsense-haproxy-https-http-problem-accessing-from-lan/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"841\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/pfsense-haproxy-https-http-problem-accessing-from-lan/images/PngItem_4782464_hu_785a07529f937b6e.png\" srcset=\"/pfsense-haproxy-https-http-problem-accessing-from-lan/images/PngItem_4782464_hu_973b46659dbe85a2.png 360w,/pfsense-haproxy-https-http-problem-accessing-from-lan/images/PngItem_4782464_hu_71e964ca5abcc322.png 480w,/pfsense-haproxy-https-http-problem-accessing-from-lan/images/PngItem_4782464_hu_3c1a06ff619ebfe9.png 720w\" width=\"904\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter installing my new pfSense firewall, I wanted to expose some of my servers to the internet. First, I had HTTP and HTTPS made available for this blog by using NAT. But that\u0026rsquo;s not very secure, so I found HAProxy, a module inside pfSense. It\u0026rsquo;s a reverse proxy, among other things.\u003cbr\u003e\nI configured it to use ACME, another module inside pfSense, to acquire SSL certificates from Let\u0026rsquo;s Encrypt, handle all SSL traffic and then send the requests to my internal servers. The internal servers no longer need to handle SSL traffic, so they talk to the HAProxy with unencrypted port 80 traffic. Thus separating the outside WAN from my servers on the inside LAN. I found an \u003ca href=\"https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-reverse-proxy-via-haproxy-acme-on-pfsense/3513\"\u003eexcellent guide on how to set this up\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"pfSense HAProxy HTTPS HTTP Problem Accessing From LAN"},{"content":"\nWhen installing the excellent Atom Editor with Platformio-ide, the main window inside the editor would hang on my new Mac. I uninstalled the program and deleted the .atom directory and tried to reinstall, the application would freeze the main window, and I had to force-quit the program. After a lot of experiments, I finally found a way to fix the problem.\n(Having a problem with the Atom editor asking to restart over and over? Jump over here)\nHow to fix Atom Editor from freezing up when installing platformio-ide The fix we are going to try will delete all the installed modules and settings, but it\u0026rsquo;s the only way I managed to get it to work.\nOpen the Terminal application and type the following commands:\ncd sudo rm -r .atom/ These commands will remove any remnants of earlier installations.\nStart the Atom Editor. It will recreate the .atom directory, which we will need.\nQuit the Atom editor.\nGo back to the Terminal application so we can install some needed packages manually. Write the following into the Terminal window:\napm install build platformio-ide-terminal platformio-ide-debugger autocomplete-clang linter-gcc2 language-ini tool-bar linter-ui-default intentions linter file-icons busy-signal Now we have all the requisite libraries we need to install platformio-ide. But there is a bug in the script that checks that the installation is complete. The script checks to see if you have clang installed. Check that you have clang installed. It comes installed with the XCode developer kit. Check if it\u0026rsquo;s available with the following command:\nclang -v You should get a response similar back in the terminal window:\nApple clang version 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.32.62) Target: x86_64-apple-darwin19.5.0 Thread model: posix InstalledDir: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin Now you can start the Atom Editor. Go to \u0026ldquo;Install a package\u0026rdquo; and search for platformio-ide. Press install. You are now going to find another bug in Atom.\nThe dreaded \u0026ldquo;PlatformIO IDE has been successfully installed!\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Please restart Atom to apply the changes.\u0026rdquo;\nThe dreaded Restart Atom forever dialog box\nUnfortunately, when you restart the application, the same pesky dialog box comes up again! You can keep on pressing the restart button again and again, but the installation will never finish.\nJust quit the Atom Editor for now, and let\u0026rsquo;s fix the installation bug.\nFixing the Atom Editor restart loop There is a javascript snippet that runs at the end of the installation of platformio-ide. It tries to run a command called runCommand, which isn\u0026rsquo;t available. I don\u0026rsquo;t do Javascript, so I don\u0026rsquo;t know why. But I do know what the code tries to do. It checks the availability of clang, and we already did that earlier. So let\u0026rsquo;s rewrite and hack our way out of this bug.\nYou need to edit the Javascript file code-completion-engine.jswhich you can find here:\ncd ~/.atom/packages/platformio-ide/lib/installer/stages/ open the file code-completion-engine.js with your favorite text editor. Replace the following text at line 42:\nclang_installed = await this.clangInstalled(); With:\nclang_installed = 1; We are fooling the program to think that the check for clang completed successfully, thus never running the code that doesn\u0026rsquo;t work.\nIf you start the Atom Editor now, everything should be up and running.\nHopefully, they\u0026rsquo;ll fix this bug. Many people on other platforms, like Linux and Windows, have a similar question, but I\u0026rsquo;ve only tried it on, Macintosh.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/atom-platformio-hangs-startup-loop-restart-fixed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Atom Editor logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/atom-platformio-hangs-startup-loop-restart-fixed/images/atom-logo_hu_6d6abb1512060a3e.jpg\" srcset=\"/atom-platformio-hangs-startup-loop-restart-fixed/images/atom-logo_hu_4bfba7e85a8edf6d.jpg 360w,/atom-platformio-hangs-startup-loop-restart-fixed/images/atom-logo_hu_cbd48265e83e3b02.jpg 480w,/atom-platformio-hangs-startup-loop-restart-fixed/images/atom-logo_hu_65de57276dc94c4c.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen installing the excellent \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://atom.io\"\u003eAtom Editor\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e with \u003cstrong\u003ePlatformio-ide\u003c/strong\u003e, the main window inside the editor would hang on my new Mac. I uninstalled the program and deleted the \u003ccode\u003e.atom\u003c/code\u003e directory and tried to reinstall, the application would freeze the main window, and I had to force-quit the program. After a lot of experiments, I finally found a way to fix the problem.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(Having a problem with the Atom editor asking to restart over and over? \u003ca href=\"#atom-constantly-require-reboot\"\u003eJump over here\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Atom Editor Platformio Hangs at startup endless restart - fixed"},{"content":"\nAfter finally building my first Hackintosh, I decided that the AMD Ryzen™ 3900X processor would be perfect, although Apple never made a Machintosh machine with an AMD processor. I used the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite motherboard because it has everything I need for my build. But I decided to upgrade my working machine with a Bluetooth/Wifi PCI-E card to be able to use the SideCar function in macOS. Being able to connect Bluetooth equipment is also lovely.\nAfter Googling around, I found a card that filled all my needs. It\u0026rsquo;s the Fenvi FV-T919, a Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11 a/b/g/n/AC compatible Wifi-card that uses ICs that are supported in macOS directly, so no patching needed.\nBut after installing the card, there was a problem when trying to shut down the machine from the macOS side; the computer would shut down and immediately start up again. Fortunately, I\u0026rsquo;ve found a fix for the problem.\nMachine Refuses to Shut Down After doing the standard Googling, I found others with the same problem. Their solution? Buy another less capable card, the Fenvi FV-HB1200, to solve it. So I did. But after trying the new card, the problem remained. Gaaaahh!\nSo I realized that there\u0026rsquo;s probably a setting in the BIOS that needs to be adjusted. And I was correct.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s what you need to change in the BIOS if you have an Aorus motherboard and have this issue.\nReboot the machine and go into the BIOS settings by pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. Switch over to Advanced settings. Under \u0026ldquo;Settings,\u0026rdquo; choose Platform Power. Set the ErP setting to Enabled. The ErP setting turns off power to the PCI-E bus and LEDs. I guess that there\u0026rsquo;s a firmware problem on the Fenvi cards that makes the machine reboot when trying to shutdown.\nI hope that helps, so you don\u0026rsquo;t go down the route of buying two cards unnecessary.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/hackintosh-amd-shutdown-problem-with-fenvi-fv-hb1200/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"AMD Ryzen Logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"546\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/hackintosh-amd-shutdown-problem-with-fenvi-fv-hb1200/images/amd-ryzen-logo_hu_d7d7a5558ad03380.png\" srcset=\"/hackintosh-amd-shutdown-problem-with-fenvi-fv-hb1200/images/amd-ryzen-logo_hu_db4b7281f34556be.png 360w,/hackintosh-amd-shutdown-problem-with-fenvi-fv-hb1200/images/amd-ryzen-logo_hu_64b986f68dde52d7.png 480w,/hackintosh-amd-shutdown-problem-with-fenvi-fv-hb1200/images/amd-ryzen-logo_hu_5d0645c309c12d82.png 720w,/hackintosh-amd-shutdown-problem-with-fenvi-fv-hb1200/images/amd-ryzen-logo_hu_1ad08a528bdf8bb7.png 1080w,/hackintosh-amd-shutdown-problem-with-fenvi-fv-hb1200/images/amd-ryzen-logo_hu_d7d7a5558ad03380.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/\"\u003eAfter finally building my first Hackintosh\u003c/a\u003e, I decided that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-9-3900x\"\u003eAMD Ryzen™ 3900X processor\u003c/a\u003e would be perfect, although Apple never made a Machintosh machine with an AMD processor. I used the \u003cstrong\u003eGigabyte X570 Aorus Elite motherboard\u003c/strong\u003e because it has everything I need for my build. But I decided to upgrade my working machine with a Bluetooth/Wifi PCI-E card to be able to use the SideCar function in macOS. Being able to connect Bluetooth equipment is also lovely.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter Googling around, I found a card that filled all my needs. It\u0026rsquo;s the \u003cstrong\u003eFenvi FV-T919\u003c/strong\u003e, a Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11 a/b/g/n/AC compatible Wifi-card that uses ICs that are supported in macOS directly, so no patching needed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut after installing the card, there was a problem when trying to shut down the machine from the macOS side; the computer would shut down and immediately start up again. Fortunately, I\u0026rsquo;ve found a fix for the problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hackintosh AMD Shutdown Problem with Fenvi FV-T919"},{"content":"\nWhen building my AMD Hackintosh, I decided to prepare for a future upgrade of my CPU. I based my current build on an AMD Ryzen 3900X, but I plan to update it to a Ryzen 3950X. So I decided to install a CPU water cooling system.\nNZXT Kraken X62 CPU Water Cooler After installing the Kraken X62 CPU water cooler, I realized that, for it to work as it should, the cooler controller needs to run the Windows software after every cold start. Otherwise, it goes into a default mode, with the pump running at max speed, but the fans running on idle.\nWhy they decided to go that route is beyond me. Why they don\u0026rsquo;t save the last settings inside the controller chip for the cooler, so it survives a cold reboot is plain stupid. In my case, using the PC as a Hackintosh with Mac OS, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t run my machine doing heavy tasks because the fans cooling the radiator wouldn\u0026rsquo;t spin up, with the risk of overheating the CPU. The same problem exists on Linux as well.\nSo I had to find a better way.\nFan Hub/Controller There are fan hubs and controllers available, where you take one of the PWM outputs from the motherboard, and connect it to the controller who uses the BIOS setting for the specific fan to control several fans. But that means more money spent. Thankfully there is a better way.\nI got a fan cable splitter when I upgraded the 120mm case fan to a more massive 140mm Noctua fan. The splitter shares the PWM signal, and connects the fans in parallel, making them spin at the same speed. My main concern was if my motherboard, in my case an Aorus X570 Aorus Elite, could deliver enough power to drive two 120mm fans for the watercooler from one connector. I used the optional CPU fan/cooler header available to connect my splitter, and it works great. All I had to do was to go into BIOS and adjust the Alt.CPU fan settings to keep the water in the system at a reasonable temperature. So now, I have a great cooling system on both the Mac OS and Windows side.\nHappy days!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"628\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/images/NZXT-Kraken-62_hu_1fce439005ce5a23.png\" srcset=\"/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/images/NZXT-Kraken-62_hu_3fae14d0957af05b.png 360w,/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/images/NZXT-Kraken-62_hu_d3aee7eaf55a7bc5.png 480w,/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/images/NZXT-Kraken-62_hu_fb492743054da89b.png 720w,/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/images/NZXT-Kraken-62_hu_1fa36f3722ad94f5.png 1080w,/hackintosh-water-cooling-fan-problem/images/NZXT-Kraken-62_hu_1fce439005ce5a23.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen building my AMD Hackintosh, I decided to prepare for a future upgrade of my CPU. I based my current build on an \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2OSnQhA\"\u003eAMD Ryzen 3900X\u003c/a\u003e, but I plan to update it to a \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2ULEYcp\"\u003eRyzen 3950X\u003c/a\u003e. So I decided to install a CPU water cooling system.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hackintosh Water Cooling Fan Problem"},{"content":"\nThis info is out of date! All you need is the script \u0026ldquo;update_all\u0026rdquo; MiSTer FPGA is an amazing open-source platform where they use an FPGA development board from Terasic as the base to be able to do cycle-accurate emulation of computers, arcade games, and gaming consoles. But to get everything set up isn\u0026rsquo;t very easy. My main interest is the arcade cores for being able to play my favorite old games precisely as it would be, playing on the original hardware. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to give you a rundown on how to get it to work here.\nMiSTer FPGA Arcade Cores There\u0026rsquo;s currently much work going on in the development of the different hardware emulations of old arcade games. When you install the SD-card for MiSTer FPGA, you get everything you need, except the ROM files (software) to run the supported games. But the ROM files (usually in a .zip file) needs to be converted to a usable format for the FPGA implementation.\nWhat you need is a non-merged version of the MAME ROM Disclaimer: it\u0026rsquo;s illegal to download ROMs you don\u0026rsquo;t own. You used to have to run either a Windows BAT script, a Linux shell script, or copy your ROM files to a folder on your FPGA board and run a script locally. But changes are going on in the way the ROM files are handled. These changes are there to make everything easier to have an emulated board run different ROMs on it. It also makes it possible not to have to convert the zipped ROM file before using it. The new file type, called .mra, is the future. But how do you use it instead of the old way?\nMRA Files There\u0026rsquo;s already support for the new way of using .mra files in the update script on in the MiSTer FPGA installation. But to get the update script to use the new way of handling MAME ROMs, you need to do some extra steps.\nTo get it to work with .mra files, you need to make some changes.\nThe easiest option is to enable FTP to connect to your FPGA board. There\u0026rsquo;s a script to enable FTP included with the MiSTer FPGA standard installation so that you can enable it directly on your board via the Script menu.\nThe MiSTer FPGA password for SSH and FTP is 1\nCreate a new folder in /media/fat/_Arcade called mame\nCopy all the .zip MAME ROM files to /media/fat/_Arcade/mame\nAdd a configuration file called update.ini into /media/fat/#Scripts\nAdd the following text to the update.ini file:\nMAME_ARCADE_ROMS=\u0026quot;true\u0026quot;\nRun the script update.sh either from the menu system inside MiSTer FPGA or via SSH.\nThe update.sh script will now download all the cores needed into a folder called /media/fat/_Arcade/cores automatically. The needed .mra files will also be downloaded to the /media/fat/_Arcade folder automatically.\nSo the final file structure should now look like this:\n/media/fat/_Arcade has all the needed .mra files\n/media/fat/_Arcade/mame should contain your uploaded .zip MAME ROM files\n/media/fat/_Arcade/cores should contain all the .rbf FPGA emulation code files.\nSooner or later, all this will be unnecessary because the use of .mra files is going to be the standard way of doing things. But until then, you can make there changes and get a fully running system. There might be some small problems during the transition, but they will be ironed out with time.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mister-fpga-getting-arcade-cores-to-use-mra-files/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"MiSTer FPGA Terasic DE10-Nano board\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"803\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/mister-fpga-getting-arcade-cores-to-use-mra-files/images/terasic-de10-nano_hu_d0bdfd102bf7a6a7.jpg\" srcset=\"/mister-fpga-getting-arcade-cores-to-use-mra-files/images/terasic-de10-nano_hu_94b910df275a1dbf.jpg 360w,/mister-fpga-getting-arcade-cores-to-use-mra-files/images/terasic-de10-nano_hu_dea979bf969d285d.jpg 480w,/mister-fpga-getting-arcade-cores-to-use-mra-files/images/terasic-de10-nano_hu_fa5b322eb019897d.jpg 720w,/mister-fpga-getting-arcade-cores-to-use-mra-files/images/terasic-de10-nano_hu_9d4834f442b97c06.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1200\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"this-info-is-out-of-date-all-you-need-is-the-script-update_all\"\u003eThis info is out of date! All you need is the script \u0026ldquo;\u003ca href=\"https://github.com/theypsilon/Update_All_MiSTer\"\u003eupdate_all\u003c/a\u003e\u0026rdquo;\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki\"\u003eMiSTer FPGA\u003c/a\u003e is an amazing open-source platform where they use an \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/3aJUxqv\"\u003eFPGA development board from Terasic\u003c/a\u003e as the base to be able to do cycle-accurate emulation of computers, arcade games, and gaming consoles. But to get everything set up isn\u0026rsquo;t very easy. My main interest is the arcade cores for being able to play my favorite old games precisely as it would be, playing on the original hardware. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to give you a rundown on how to get it to work here.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MiSTer FPGA Getting Arcade Cores To Use mra Files"},{"content":"\nI\u0026rsquo;ve decided to learn how to program FPGA:s. So I got myself two Terasic boards, one Terasic DE10-Nano for testing out the excellent MiSTer FPGA hardware arcade/computer/console emulator and a simpler DE0-Nano for beginning to learn Verilog.\nBut the software used, called Intel Quartus Prime 19.1, is truly horrible. The Windows version doesn\u0026rsquo;t work with high-resolution screens when using scaling; the text is cut off on the display. So I installed it on my Linux Ubuntu 18.04 machine instead. Now the display works, but there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of other problems, like getting the dreaded error message: \u0026ldquo;USB-Blaster unable to scan device chain\u0026rdquo;. I\u0026rsquo;ve written them down here for later reference, and maybe you have the same install problems, so this might help.\nUSB-Blaster \u0026ldquo;unable to scan device chain\u0026rdquo; Error Message After installing the software, I tried to use the programmer to connect my development board, but I got the error Unable to scan device chain. After searching the net, I found information on setting up the computer so that you don\u0026rsquo;t need to run the JTAG as root.\nSo I added the file /etc/udev/rules.d/51-usbblaster.rules and put the following text into the file to allow a regular user to access the Terasic FPGA board.\nUSB Blaster SUBSYSTEM==\u0026#34;usb\u0026#34;, ENV{DEVTYPE}==\u0026#34;usb_device\u0026#34;, ATTR{idVendor}==\u0026#34;09fb\u0026#34;, ATTR{idProduct}==\u0026#34;6001\u0026#34;, MODE=\u0026#34;0666\u0026#34;, NAME=\u0026#34;bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}\u0026#34;, RUN+=\u0026#34;/bin/chmod 0666 %c\u0026#34; SUBSYSTEM==\u0026#34;usb\u0026#34;, ENV{DEVTYPE}==\u0026#34;usb_device\u0026#34;, ATTR{idVendor}==\u0026#34;09fb\u0026#34;, ATTR{idProduct}==\u0026#34;6002\u0026#34;, MODE=\u0026#34;0666\u0026#34;, NAME=\u0026#34;bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}\u0026#34;, RUN+=\u0026#34;/bin/chmod 0666 %c\u0026#34; SUBSYSTEM==\u0026#34;usb\u0026#34;, ENV{DEVTYPE}==\u0026#34;usb_device\u0026#34;, ATTR{idVendor}==\u0026#34;09fb\u0026#34;, ATTR{idProduct}==\u0026#34;6003\u0026#34;, MODE=\u0026#34;0666\u0026#34;, NAME=\u0026#34;bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}\u0026#34;, RUN+=\u0026#34;/bin/chmod 0666 %c\u0026#34; # USB Blaster II SUBSYSTEM==\u0026#34;usb\u0026#34;, ENV{DEVTYPE}==\u0026#34;usb_device\u0026#34;, ATTR{idVendor}==\u0026#34;09fb\u0026#34;, ATTR{idProduct}==\u0026#34;6010\u0026#34;, MODE=\u0026#34;0666\u0026#34;, NAME=\u0026#34;bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}\u0026#34;, RUN+=\u0026#34;/bin/chmod 0666 %c\u0026#34; SUBSYSTEM==\u0026#34;usb\u0026#34;, ENV{DEVTYPE}==\u0026#34;usb_device\u0026#34;, ATTR{idVendor}==\u0026#34;09fb\u0026#34;, ATTR{idProduct}==\u0026#34;6810\u0026#34;, MODE=\u0026#34;0666\u0026#34;, NAME=\u0026#34;bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}\u0026#34;, RUN+=\u0026#34;/bin/chmod 0666 %c\u0026#34; Well, that didn\u0026rsquo;t work, but it is probably a good idea to have this file installed.\nThis Fixed It! The next thing did the trick, however. It seems this is an old bug that Intel hasn\u0026rsquo;t managed to fix for several release versions. Great stuff.\nYou need to add a soft link so the software can find a library.\nOpen a terminal window and write this command:\nsudo ln -s /lib64/libudev.so.1 /lib64/libudev.so.0 Restart the machine, connect your Terasic FPGA board with a USB cable, and open a terminal window. You can now write the following command in the terminal window\njtagconfig And if you don\u0026rsquo;t get any errors and the system recognizes the USB-Blaster hardware, you should now be able to download bitstreams from Quartus to your FPGA board. If you get any error messages about missing libraries when starting Quartus, make sure to install them. For example, I had to install the following libraries. sudo apt install libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk3-module To make this even more annoying, I sometimes have to enlarge the Quartus Programming window; otherwise, the program would hang. Quartus Prime is the software that keeps on giving.\nI hope that helped.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/quartus-prime-fpga-usb-blaster-problems-ubuntu-18-04/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"261\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/quartus-prime-fpga-usb-blaster-problems-ubuntu-18-04/images/Quartus_prime_icon_hu_263b1cc975b64b10.png\" width=\"213\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve decided to learn how to program FPGA:s. So I got myself two Terasic boards, one \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/36XENOk\"\u003eTerasic DE10-Nano\u003c/a\u003e for testing out the excellent \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki\"\u003eMiSTer FPGA hardware arcade/computer/console emulator\u003c/a\u003e and a simpler \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/36NnYWj\"\u003eDE0-Nano\u003c/a\u003e for beginning to learn Verilog.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut the software used, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/software/programmable/quartus-prime/overview.html\"\u003eIntel Quartus Prime 19.1\u003c/a\u003e, is truly horrible. The Windows version doesn\u0026rsquo;t work with high-resolution screens when using scaling; the text is cut off on the display. So I installed it on my \u003ca href=\"https://ubuntu.com/\"\u003eLinux Ubuntu 18.04\u003c/a\u003e machine instead. Now the display works, but there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of other problems, like getting the dreaded error message: \u0026ldquo;USB-Blaster unable to scan device chain\u0026rdquo;. I\u0026rsquo;ve written them down here for later reference, and maybe you have the same install problems, so this might help.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Quartus Prime FPGA USB-Blaster Problems On Ubuntu 18.04"},{"content":"So my blog is finally back in business after being off the grid for many months. Things have happened in my life. A divorce, moving to a new apartment and trying to start rebuilding my life again. But now I\u0026rsquo;m back!\nNew Web Server Setup I used to host my blog on a hosting company in Texas. But after installing a small computer for using my music setup in Roon, I figured that I might as well use it as my webserver. The machine is an Intel Core i9 12 thread CPU-based machine that I bought cheaply from AliExpress, and It\u0026rsquo;s plenty fast. I need plenty of horsepowers to drive my room correction software in Roon, but there should be enough left to manage my blog on the same machine.\nI Need a Lab I still haven\u0026rsquo;t finished setting up my lab, but I will get the last couple of things to be able to finish it. So hopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll be able to put up more content here.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/blog-is-up-and-running-again/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo my blog is finally back in business after being off the grid for many months. Things have happened in my life. A divorce, moving to a new apartment and trying to start rebuilding my life again. But now I\u0026rsquo;m back!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Blog Is Up and Running Again!"},{"content":"\nI\u0026rsquo;ve moved over from Squeezebox server to Roon as my multi-room music playback system. The new system works wonderfully, and I love it. However, there\u0026rsquo;s one thing that I\u0026rsquo;ve had a problem with, and that\u0026rsquo;s getting Apples AirPlay to work reliably with my Roon Raspberry Pi endpoints running Diet-Pi Linux. The Shairport-sync constantly crashed. After searching around the net, I found a solution to my problem.\nRaspberry Pi, Diet-Pi Linux and Shairport When using a Raspberry Pi DAC board, everything works as it should when installing Roon and Shairport in Diet-Pi Linux. However, I\u0026rsquo;ve upgraded to better external USB DAC\u0026rsquo;s, and Shairport refused to work. Here\u0026rsquo;s two things that should make it work again.\nChanging shairport-sync.conf To get USB DAC\u0026rsquo;s to work in Diet-Pi, you need to modify the shairport-sync.conf file and add some settings.\nYou need to SSH into the Raspberry Pi endpoint and make some edits.\npico /usr/local/etc/shairport-sync.conf Scroll down until you are in the ´alsa´ section of the settings in the file. Add the two following rows of settings to the alsa settings.\noutput_rate = 88200; // can be 44100, 88200, 176400 or 352800 output_format = \u0026#34;S32\u0026#34;; // can be \u0026#34;U8\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S8\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S16\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S24\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S24_3LE\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S24_3BE\u0026#34; or \u0026#34;S32\u0026#34; The above setting works perfectly for my Topping D-50 DAC.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re DAC can\u0026rsquo;t handle either of the sample rates and 32-bit resolution, set it to one of the other settings, for example, 44100 and S16 for CD-quality audio.\nOn my S.M.S.L SU-8 DAC, I also needed to add the following line; otherwise, there was no sound output:\noutput_device=\u0026#34;hw:1\u0026#34;; Do a restart of the shairport software with the command:\ndiet-pi-services restart shairport-sync So my complete shairport-sync now looks like this:\ngeneral = { name = \u0026#34;%H\u0026#34;; interpolation = \u0026#34;soxr\u0026#34;; }; metadata = { enabled = \u0026#34;yes\u0026#34;; include_cover_art = \u0026#34;no\u0026#34;; pipe_name = \u0026#34;/tmp/shairport-sync-metadata\u0026#34;; pipe_timeout = 5000; socket_address = \u0026#34;226.0.0.1\u0026#34;; socket_port = 5555; socket_msglength = 65000; }; alsa = { // mixer_control_name = \u0026#34;PCM\u0026#34;; output_device=\u0026#34;hw:1\u0026#34;; output_rate = 88200; // can be 44100, 88200, 176400 or 352800 output_format = \u0026#34;S32\u0026#34;; // can be \u0026#34;U8\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S8\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S16\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S24\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S24_3LE\u0026#34;, \u0026#34;S24_3BE\u0026#34; or \u0026#34;S32\u0026#34; }; You should now have a working AirPlay setup on your Diet-Pi Raspberry Pi.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/shairport-crashing-when-using-usb-dac-with-raspberry-pi/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"210\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/shairport-crashing-when-using-usb-dac-with-raspberry-pi/images/airplay-logo_hu_e186d1211c0371b8.jpg\" width=\"147\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/roon-why-i-switched-and-you-should-too/\"\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve moved over from Squeezebox server to Roon\u003c/a\u003e as my multi-room music playback system. The new system works wonderfully, and I love it. However, there\u0026rsquo;s one thing that I\u0026rsquo;ve had a problem with, and that\u0026rsquo;s getting Apples AirPlay to work reliably with my Roon Raspberry Pi endpoints running Diet-Pi Linux. The Shairport-sync constantly crashed. After searching around the net, I found a solution to my problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Shairport Crashing When Using USB DAC with Raspberry Pi"},{"content":"\nPayPal has now added 2FA, so this info is no longer needed. Kept for posterity.\nTwo-factor authentication today is a must to keep your online accounts safe. You certainly want to keep your PayPal account safe. Using SMS to add an extra authentication is a hassle and could cost you money as well. PayPal, in their infinite stupidity, has chosen not to use the regular 2FA two-factor authentication used by most of the online sites. Instead, they decided to go with Symantec/VeriSign\u0026rsquo;s design, where you need a proprietary iOS, Android app, or a dedicated hardware key. This method makes it very hard to get it to work with the worlds best password manager software, 1Password. However, with some elbow grease, there is a way of getting it to work. Here\u0026rsquo;s how.\nSoftware Installation First, we need to install some software. I\u0026rsquo;m using a Macintosh, and these instructions should work under Linux.\nFirst, you need to install the Xcode command line software. Just open the Terminal application that you can find in the /Applications/Utilities folder.\nStart it and enter:\nxcode-select --install This command installs the necessary tools for the rest of the installation.\nNow, let\u0026rsquo;s install the actual tool that creates the key.\nEnter the following into the terminal application:\npip3 install https://github.com/dlenski/python-vipaccess/archive/HEAD.zip I had to replace pip3 with pip on my installation, but I have many changes in my Python setup, so that may be the reason why pip3 didn\u0026rsquo;t work on my Mac.\nYou need to install a software called HomeBrew.\nJust enter the following in the Terminal window and press return:\n/usr/bin/ruby -e \u0026#34;$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)\u0026#34; Now we can use Brew to install the rest of the software needed.\nJust type the following into Terminal and press enter:\nbrew install oath-toolkit That\u0026rsquo;s all the software you need. Now let\u0026rsquo;s continue.\nCreating Two-Factor Authentication Key Let\u0026rsquo;s continue in the Terminal application. We first need to create a key. This key will be used to generate all the six-digit authentications later.\nEnter this into Terminal and press return:\nbash\u0026#34;]vipaccess provision -p[/cc] This will create a unique key and store it in a hidden folder in your home directory.\nThe output from the command should look something like this.\nGenerating request…\nFetching provisioning response…\nGetting token from response…\nDecrypting token…\nChecking token…\nCredential created successfully:\notpauth://totp/VIP%20Access:VSSTXXXXXXXX?digits=6\u0026amp;secret=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\u0026amp;period=30\u0026amp;algorithm=SHA1\u0026amp;issuer=Symantec\nThis credential expires on this date: 2022-02-12T02:26:33.767Z\nYou will need the ID to register this credential: VSSTXXXXXX\nYou can use oathtool to generate the same OTP codes\nas would be produced by the official VIP Access apps:\noathtool -d6 -b \u0026ndash;totp XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX # 6-digit code\noathtool -d6 -b \u0026ndash;totp -v XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX # … with extra information\nYour information is going to look different. The X:ed out in the above output is my key, so I\u0026rsquo;ve obscured it with X:es. You are going to need this information later to create the key required for PayPal. It\u0026rsquo;s a good thing to save this output, so copy the text from the Terminal application and paste it into the \u0026ldquo;Notes\u0026rdquo; field of your PayPal password inside 1Password.\nPayPal Settings Now it\u0026rsquo;s time to log in to PayPal and do some changes.\nYou need to login to your PayPal account. Go to your account setting, and click on \u0026ldquo;My Settings\u0026rdquo;. Click on \u0026ldquo;Update\u0026rdquo; under the section \u0026ldquo;Security key\u0026rdquo;.\nClick on \u0026ldquo;Activate a new security key token.\u0026rdquo; See picture below.\nIn the field \u0026ldquo;Serial number\u0026rdquo;, enter the key from the output in the Terminal application called \u0026ldquo;You will need the ID to register this credential:\u0026rdquo;\nIt starts with VSST and has six digits after it. Copy it complete with VSST and the six following numbers. Paste it into PayPal\u0026rsquo;s field \u0026ldquo;Serial number\u0026rdquo;\nIn step 2 on PayPal\u0026rsquo;s setting, you should input a 6-digit code, but you need to create one first. Copy the command you got from the Terminal output when creating your key. It should look something like this:\noathtool -d6 -b \u0026ndash;totp XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX # 6-digit code\nPaste it into the Terminal application and press return.\nThis will display a six-digit code. Just copy the generated code from your Terminal window into the first 6-digit field.\nNow go back to the Terminal application, and repeat the command. The easiest way is to just press the up-arrow on your keyboard, which should fill in the command you just entered automatically. Press return. If the six-digit key is the same, just keep repeating the command until you get a new unique key. Copy that key and paste it into the field \u0026ldquo;Next 6-digit key\u0026rdquo; on the PayPal web page.\nNow press activate on the PayPal page and if everything worked out, you should now have a security key completed in PayPal.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s move on to 1Password and make it automatically generate the two-factor authentication for your PayPal password.\n1Password Two-Factor Authentication For PayPal Open the 1Password application. Search for your PayPal password in the search field. Select the PayPal password and press the \u0026ldquo;Edit\u0026rdquo; button in the lower right side of the 1Password window.\nNow press the circle with three dots inside to add a new field. Select \u0026ldquo;One-time password\u0026rdquo; as the field type.\nYou now have a One-Time Password field, but you need to add the secret key into this field. Copy the information Credential created successfully: you got earlier when we created the key in the Terminal application. It should look something like this: otpauth://totp/VIP%20Access:VSSTXXXXXXXX?digits=6\u0026amp;secret=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\u0026amp;period=30\u0026amp;algorithm=SHA1\u0026amp;issuer=Symantec\nNow all you have to do is to paste the entire line into the \u0026ldquo;One-Time Password\u0026rdquo; field inside 1Password.\nPress save in 1Password in the lower right side of the window.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s try it out! If you added the field described above, as a result, you should now have an indicator showing a timer and a six-digit generated key on one of the lines of information in 1Password for your PayPal password.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;ve have done all of the above and everything worked, you are now ready to try it out. Log out of PayPal, and try to log in again using 1Password. It should automatically fill out the password and then copy the generated six-digit key into the clipboard. Paste the six-digit key into the field when PayPal ask for it. You should now be logged in.\nConclusion If you think that this was a lot of stuff to do just to get better security in PayPal, you\u0026rsquo;re absolutely right. Send an email to PayPal and ventilate your anger. If they just used normal 2FA-encryption you wouldn\u0026rsquo;t need all this work. But if you managed to get through all this, give yourself a pat on the back. You just made your PayPal much safer and also gives you a more convininent way of logging in with two-factor authentication.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/paypal-two-factor-authentication-1password/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/paypal-two-factor-authentication-1password/images/1password-icon-new_hu_b6ec281d3e04b9c3.jpg\" srcset=\"/paypal-two-factor-authentication-1password/images/1password-icon-new_hu_9464f1a296257a9.jpg 360w,/paypal-two-factor-authentication-1password/images/1password-icon-new_hu_cb794990b9038e97.jpg 480w,/paypal-two-factor-authentication-1password/images/1password-icon-new_hu_9ae49ef70547b780.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePayPal has now added 2FA, so this info is no longer needed. Kept for posterity.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo-factor authentication today is a must to \u003ca href=\"https://pixelprivacy.com/resources/two-factor-authentication/\"\u003ekeep your online accounts safe\u003c/a\u003e. You certainly want to keep your PayPal account safe. Using SMS to add an extra authentication is a hassle and could cost you money as well. PayPal, in their infinite stupidity, has chosen not to use the regular 2FA two-factor authentication \u003ca href=\"https://twofactorauth.org\"\u003eused by most of the online sites\u003c/a\u003e. Instead, they decided to go with Symantec/VeriSign\u0026rsquo;s design, where you need a proprietary iOS, Android app, or a dedicated hardware key. This method makes it very hard to get it to work with the worlds best password manager software, \u003ca href=\"https://1password.com\"\u003e1Password\u003c/a\u003e. However, with some elbow grease, there is a way of getting it to work. Here\u0026rsquo;s how.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"PayPal Two-Factor Authentication in 1Password"},{"content":"\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been running my music system at home using Squeezebox Server software for many years. It has served me well, but Logitech bought the entire eco-system and then abandoned it. Because it\u0026rsquo;s Open Source, it\u0026rsquo;s still updated, but it\u0026rsquo;s time to do an upgrade to a better system. After testing a lot of different server solutions, I finally choose Roon by Roon Labs as my music server software. Here\u0026rsquo;s why.\nRoon Music Server Software First off, I hate software that is subscription model based, and the Roon music server software has a yearly subscription of around $100. However, you can buy a lifetime licence for $460 and never have to worry about it again. If you think that hundred dollars a year for a music server software are expensive, well, so did I. Until I started to use it.\nMy Setup Let me describe my audio setup first. In my lab/bedroom I have a stereo system setup with Elac BS 263 speakers that have their amazing jet ribbon tweeters and a complementary subwoofer. The music is fed from the Roon music server to a Raspberry Pi 3 running DietPi, because of its easy support for Roon. with the excellent DAC Khadas Tone Board that is cheap, but measures like the heavyweights.\nI also have my main headphone setup beside the bed. For music listening, I have another Raspberry Pi 3, running DietPi that connected via USB to the S.M.S.L SU-8 balanced DAC. This DAC measure like a champ, punching way above its price. I also connect my MacBook Pro via optical out to the SU-8 DAC for watching movies. Everything goes through the stellar Massdrop THX 789 headphone amplifier. Check out the insane performance of the Massdrop THX 789 amplifier here.\nI have yet another Raspberry Pi 3 as my music playback system in the living room. A Topping D50 DAC (measurement results here) connects to Raspberry Pi 3 via USB. Output from the DAC goes to a modified Class-A amplifier with my homebuilt ProAc Response 2.5 clone speakers.\nWhy Roon? Using Roon is easy to learn and master. It scans through all your local music in the folders you specify, which in my case is stored on a QNAP file server. But you can install a hard disk directly to the server if you wish. It then adds cover art, reviews, info about the artist and all the information about the production of the album. If another album, song, artist or other people that were involved in making the record is mentioned anywhere, it automatically links to that information. This feature means that you can find all the albums you have that is mastered by the king Steve Hoffman, for example. You can like songs, albums and even anyone that is in the production and there\u0026rsquo;s a one to five-star rating, both the reviewers rating, but you can add your own as well. Naturally, there\u0026rsquo;s an easy to use playlist function as well.\nSignal Path One great feature is always to be able to see the signal path integrity. If you play a song that is lossless, it shows it as a little silver dot. When playing compressed music, the dot changes colour, from green to red, depending on the compression used. If you do any processing, the dot changes to a silver star. If you click on the indicator symbol, you can see the entire processing chain, from the song origin all the way to the speakers/headphones. You also get an indication oh how fast your Roon Server can process the sound. In the picture below, you can see that the source is an MQA 24-bit 48kHz source file, the unfolding to 96kHz after decoding of the MQA information. Then you can easily see the entire processing chain, including all the DSP audio processing, applied. The total processing speed is 13.3 times the speed of the song, which is good. If the rate drops below 1, it\u0026rsquo;s time to either remove some of the processing or get faster server hardware. But you have to go quite crazy to bog down the server under x 1. Like upsampling everything to DSD512.\nTopology The idea behind how Roon works is to have a server that does all the heavy lifting. That includes upsampling, DSP functions and maintaining your music library. Then you have Roon endpoints, which can be any of the supported hardware available, a Raspberry Pi with a DAC or even the now discontinued Google Chromecast Audio using the optical out to an external DAC. You don\u0026rsquo;t want to use the Chromecast Audio output directly, because it doesn\u0026rsquo;t sound very good. But as a receiver to a DAC, it works very well. There\u0026rsquo;s no processing other than delivering the audio streamed from the server on the endpoint device.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s support for old Squeezebox hardware as well, which is great if you have some of the old devices.\nDisplays You can use a regular Chromecast to display the currently playing song playing on any endpoint, including the lyrics on your TV. This function is quite fun when you have a party. Impromptu karaoke anyone?\nI enjoy seeing the album art and pictures of the artist when I play music in the living room. You can configure the Chromecast to automatically start the TV when you start playing music from a specific endpoint.\nDiscover Mode There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of different ways of looking at your music library. Here are some screenshots to give you an idea.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s an automatically updating section called \u0026ldquo;Discover.\u0026rdquo; It keeps tabs on what you listen to, and provide you with suggestions on hidden gems or other albums. I love it.\nRoon Discover Section\nMain Welcome Page\nRoon Overview Section\nAdding Tidal If you\u0026rsquo;re like me, who have invested heavily into my audio gear, Spotify\u0026rsquo;s lossy compression won\u0026rsquo;t do. Tidal streams at CD quality or higher, but their application isn\u0026rsquo;t as polished as Spotify. However, there is built-in integration in Roon for adding Tidal or Qobuz, and the integration works like magic. There\u0026rsquo;s a radio feature inside Roon, where you can select any song and Roon automatically creates an endless radio station with music based on the song you selected. And if you have Tidal connected to your server, it fetches music both from your local library as well as from Tidal. If you find an album you like on Tidal, just press \u0026ldquo;add to library\u0026rdquo;, and you have it readily available. Albums from Tidal has the little Tidal logo on the cover when they are displayed in your library.\nRoon\u0026rsquo;s Internal Links To Everything! On every page, like album reviews, artist information etc, you have active links. So if another album or artist is mentioned in the text, it links directly to that album or artist. This makes it fun when reading reviews of music. Just click the links and go down the rabbit hole.\nAs you can see it on Ice Cube\u0026rsquo;s artist page below. N.W.A is linked automatically as well as other artist and albums mentioned. Just click, and you\u0026rsquo;re there. If you don\u0026rsquo;t have it in your library, it finds it on Tidal (or Qobuz.)\nHigh Resolution and MQA Naturally, Roon supports high-res audio. When streaming through Tidal Hi-Fi, you can stream high-resolution MQA audio. There\u0026rsquo;s been much discussion on the good or bad of MQA all over audio internet forums and blog posts. It\u0026rsquo;s a system for putting high-frequency information in the noise floor for later unfolding (some talk about six bits of information in a 24-bit file) and also does some phase correction. This makes the files to stream smaller, but still retains a higher resolution than regular CDs. If you use Tidal\u0026rsquo;s HiFi subscription tier, you can stream MQA encoded files directly. If your DAC doesn\u0026rsquo;t support MQA, Roon can do the first unfolding for you. You can get uncompressed hi-res streaming from Qobuz, and you don\u0026rsquo;t need a DAC that supports MQA. That\u0026rsquo;s the way I\u0026rsquo;ve gone.\nAudio Processing You have many options to optimise your audio setup for each of your audio endpoints. There\u0026rsquo;s no AU, VXT or other external filters, but Roon comes with some very handy integrated DSP tools.\nProcedural EQ Parametric EQ Room Curve\nGreat for doing easy changes, like setting up a \u0026ldquo;Room Curve\u0026rdquo; or add some bass. You can configure each music endpoint with different settings. When you save a setting, you can apply it to other endpoints as well.\nSpeaker Setup if you\u0026rsquo;re unfortunate enough not to be able to place your speakers at an equal distance, Roon gives you the ability to set the distance from your listening position for each speaker. The processing adds delay if there is a difference between speakers. You can also set the individual gain for each channel.\nConvolution Now we are getting serious. Using REW and a good measurement microphone, you can make FIR filters for doing room correction. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking of writing an easy guide on how to do just that, but Google is your friend, and you can find all the information on how to do it.\nCrossfeed Don\u0026rsquo;t like the \u0026ldquo;inside your head\u0026rdquo; feeling you get from headphones? Use Crossfeed to add bleeding of the sound into each channel which makes the sound less fatiguing and sound more like when you listen to speakers in front of you.\nAudeze Presets I like this one, being the proud owner of the Audeze LCD-2C headphone. This addon does the DSP correction for all their different models of headphones for optimal sound quality.\nControlling Roon Music Endpoints There are several ways of controlling the music playback on your different systems around the house. There is an iOS, Android, Mac OS and Windows application available. All of them can act as an endpoint for playback as well. You could also buy a Raspberry Pi with the 7\u0026quot; screen and setup control stations around the house. There\u0026rsquo;s even a dedicated Linux distribution called RoPieee just for that.\nYou can group several playback endpoints and set the delay between them for perfect playback around the house. Great when you have a party and want music in several rooms at the same time.\nThe Roon Server Hardware You need a dedicated Roon server. The server does all the processing, so the endpoints don\u0026rsquo;t have to do any processing, it just receives the music to playback via Roon labs own RAATS protocol via WiFi or Ethernet. You could take an old PC, Macintosh or a modern QNAP NAS and set it up as a server.\nI use an old laptop that has a dual-core Intel i7 processor. However, if you are planning on doing much processing and having a lot of different endpoints running at the same time, you need a more powerful server.\nRoon Optimized Core Kit Roonlabs, the developer of the Roon software has made a Linux distribution called Roon Optimized Core Kit. The good thing about the Roon Optimized Core Kit is that you don\u0026rsquo;t need to know anything about Linux, a web interface is available where you can do all of the configurations without ever touching the command line. It\u0026rsquo;s designed for the small Intel NUC 10 NUC10i3FNH computer. All you need is 64GB of M.2 SSD for storing the database and caching of images and 4 to 8 GB of internal memory. Total cost on Amazon, around $530. If you\u0026rsquo;re not planning on doing a lot of DSP processing, you could use the Intel Core i3 based NUC7i3BNH computer instead. That cut\u0026rsquo;s the cost down to around $350. I will get the higher performing one later. After the server is up and running, you can change any setting from any endpoint you have available.\nIf you know your way around Linux, you could do what I did, use Ubuntu Server and configure it yourself. Don\u0026rsquo;t want to mess with Linux? There is Roon Server software application available for Mac OS, Windows and QNAP NAS.\nWhat Are The Downsides? Well, first of all, it\u0026rsquo;s quite expensive. Also, the iOS playback app sometimes misbehaves. Simply quitting it and restarting fixes that. The Mac OS, Windows and Raspberry Pi software, including the server, are rocksteady. If you are interested in music and value quality playback, this is it. There are cheaper setups available, a lot of them for free, but none of them is quite as polished as Roon.\nInternet Radio As of now, there\u0026rsquo;s only rudimentary support for internet radio. This is something that Roon Labs are working on, so it will be improved in subsequent updates.\nSummary Listening to music and have all the information available at your fingertips makes music listening so much more fun. A clean and easy to use interface also helps. When my yearly subscription is up for renewal, I will buy the lifetime licence.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/roon-why-i-switched-and-you-should-too/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"512\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/roon-why-i-switched-and-you-should-too/images/roon-logo_hu_4f7ad72ba6646e41.jpg\" srcset=\"/roon-why-i-switched-and-you-should-too/images/roon-logo_hu_70699670efc61f47.jpg 360w,/roon-why-i-switched-and-you-should-too/images/roon-logo_hu_909e74707c105163.jpg 480w\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been running my music system at home using Squeezebox Server software for many years. It has served me well, but Logitech bought the entire eco-system and then abandoned it. Because it\u0026rsquo;s Open Source, it\u0026rsquo;s still updated, but it\u0026rsquo;s time to do an upgrade to a better system. After testing a lot of different server solutions, I finally choose \u003ca href=\"https://roonlabs.com\"\u003eRoon by Roon Labs\u003c/a\u003e as my music server software. Here\u0026rsquo;s why.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Why I Switched To Roon And You Should Too"},{"content":" Happy Jacken!\nYou just helped me to continue making content that might help you or someone else in need.\nSo Thanks again!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/thanks/","summary":"\u003cfigure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Jackenhack Blog Logo Jack Zimmermann\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/slask/jackenface_small.svg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigcaption\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHappy Jacken!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou just helped me to continue making content that might help you or someone else in need.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo Thanks again!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Thanks!"},{"content":"\nI had an annoying problem on my 2015 MacBook Pro Mac OS when watching movies on Netflix using Safari. When in full-screen mode, the display would flash/flicker a couple of times a minute. Well, after digging around, I found a solution for it.\nWhy Does the screen keep flashing when watching Netflix? Some MacBook Pro\u0026rsquo;s have dual graphics cards. Mac OS switches between them depending on what kind of work you are doing, and by switching cards it saves batteries. Unfortunately, the built-in Intel graphics cards are the reason for the flickering and flashing. So we need to turn on the high-performance graphics card when watching Netflix.\nSolution The solution to the problem is to go to System Settings and select Energy Savings. There you\u0026rsquo;ll find the checkbox, \u0026ldquo;Automatic Graphics Switching\u0026rdquo;, which is turned on by default. Uncheck the tickbox and the flickering stops. If you are on the move, make sure to re-enable the automatical switching, because running the higher-performing graphics card all the time drains battery capacity.\nTurn off this tick box to fix the flickering on full-screen Netflix\nupdate After reading several comments below, there seems to be another problem with more recent versions of MacBook Pro, where the fix is to turning off the “shake mouse pointer to locate” option in Accessibility Fixes the problem.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/macbook-netflix-flicker-flashing-in-full-screen/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"576\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/macbook-netflix-flicker-flashing-in-full-screen/images/netflix-logo_hu_c1fb4b1b62886e18.png\" srcset=\"/macbook-netflix-flicker-flashing-in-full-screen/images/netflix-logo_hu_14aae8d03b398de7.png 360w,/macbook-netflix-flicker-flashing-in-full-screen/images/netflix-logo_hu_24239f4713b80bbf.png 480w,/macbook-netflix-flicker-flashing-in-full-screen/images/netflix-logo_hu_e40a84efdb5eb893.png 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had an annoying problem on my 2015 MacBook Pro Mac OS when watching movies on \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e using Safari. When in full-screen mode, the display would flash/flicker a couple of times a minute. Well, after digging around, I found a solution for it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"why-does-the-screen-keep-flashing-when-watching-netflix\"\u003eWhy Does the screen keep flashing when watching Netflix?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome MacBook Pro\u0026rsquo;s have dual graphics cards. Mac OS switches between them depending on what kind of work you are doing, and by switching cards it saves batteries. Unfortunately, the built-in Intel graphics cards are the reason for the flickering and flashing. So we need to turn on the high-performance graphics card when watching Netflix.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MacBook Netflix Flicker Flashing in Full-screen"},{"content":"\nIf you leave your PlayStation Motion Controller without charging it for a long time, the battery will not charge. Even after you press the reset button, the controller refuses to recharge. Replacing the battery is an easy fix, but expensive, and there is another way of getting the PlayStation Controller to work again.\nLow Voltage The PlayStation Motion Controller uses a Li-Po battery that operates from 3 to 4.25 Volts. If the battery drops way below 3 Volts, the recharging IC in the controller refuses to recharge. This is unfortunate because contrary to popular belief; you can restore a depleted Li-Po battery back to normal again. Naturally, this only works if the battery is still functioning correctly.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRwoYJyjZNo\u0026amp;frags=pl%2Cwn\u0026amp;ab_channel=bigclivedotcom\nElectricity is really just organized lightning.\nGeorge Carlin\nDisclaimer: If you don\u0026rsquo;t know your way around electronics, this could go wrong. Don\u0026rsquo;t attempt this unless you know the dangers of charging a possibly damaged Li-Po battery!\nLi-Po Battery Charging Cycle To charge the Li-Po battery, you apply a constant current until the battery reaches 4.2 Volts. The charger then switches to Constant Voltage, keeping the voltage at 4.2 Volts and continues to supply current until the battery is full. So what we are trying to do here is to get the nominal voltage up over 3.0 Volts, which is the cutoff threshold for most charging IC. Anything lower than that, and the charge controller refuses to charge the battery. Hence, the problem. Some smarter controllers tests the battery and recharge without a problem, but not in the PlayStation Motion Controllers.\nRestoring The Battery This will require you to get hold of a lab power supply. If you don\u0026rsquo;t have one, maybe one of your friends have one. Otherwise, Makerspaces are an option. The power supply needs to support Constant Current mode. Dissasemble the Motion Controller by removing the four screws on the bottom of the unit. Use a plastic spudger or a small screwdriver to remove the connector for the battery.\nDisassemble the Motion Controller and disconnect the battery.\nSetup Setup the lab power supply to 4.2 Volts and 100 milliAmpere current. It\u0026rsquo;s safer to start at low current if something should go wrong. Connect thin leads into the connector on the battery and connect the red wire to plus on the lab power supply and do the same for the black wire to minus. Place the battery inside a metal container while charging in case anything should go wrong.\nContinue to charge the battery until it shows about 3.5 Volts, and you can increase the current to 250 mA. But make sure that the battery isn\u0026rsquo;t getting hot. Continue until the voltage reaches 4.2 Volts. You can continue to charge the battery using the lab power supply, or reassemble the Motion Controller and use the regular USB cable to finish the charge.\nResults So far, I\u0026rsquo;ve successfully restored two PlayStation Motion Controllers. Both of them has been unused for over a year. After the above fix, they now charge without a problem and works as they used to. So back to shooting clowns in Rush of Blood.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/playstation-vr-motion-controller-refuses-to-charge/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"PlayStation Motion Controller Image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1000\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/playstation-vr-motion-controller-refuses-to-charge/images/playstation-motion-controller_hu_db4455bc2878601f.jpg\" srcset=\"/playstation-vr-motion-controller-refuses-to-charge/images/playstation-motion-controller_hu_d9856d781b048302.jpg 360w,/playstation-vr-motion-controller-refuses-to-charge/images/playstation-motion-controller_hu_80af670b36e77d6d.jpg 480w,/playstation-vr-motion-controller-refuses-to-charge/images/playstation-motion-controller_hu_f44a32071c47c506.jpg 720w\" width=\"1000\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you leave your PlayStation Motion Controller without charging it for a long time, the battery will not charge. Even after you press the reset button, the controller refuses to recharge. Replacing the battery is an easy fix, but expensive, and there is another way of getting the PlayStation Controller to work again.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"PlayStation VR​ Motion Controller Battery Refuses To Charge"},{"content":"\nThere\u0026rsquo;s been a lot of chatter on the internet of the \u0026ldquo;Ambien defense\u0026rdquo;.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s quite a good defense for weird behavior. I\u0026rsquo;m talking as a recovering Ambien abuser for over ten years.\nIt all started when my doctor prescribed Ambien for my sleeping problems. They worked marvelously as a way to finally get a good nights sleep. But after a year or two, I realized that I liked the effects of Ambien (called Stesolid in Sweden,) which made me want to stay awake a while longer after ingesting the pills. It\u0026rsquo;s a fast acting version of a classical benzo medicine like Valium. And you get dependent on them very quickly.\nCrazy Shit You Do on Ambien I\u0026rsquo;ve made a lot of crazy posts on Facebook and Twitter after taking Ambien. More insane than usual, which for those who know me is a new kind of crazy.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s Give You An Example. One morning I did what I always do, open my MacBook Pro or iPad and read and answered all the emails. But there was a mail from a professor of economics from a well known University in the US, that had sent a long email going through the motions of explaining something. I didn\u0026rsquo;t have a clue and couldn\u0026rsquo;t figure out what he was on about. But after checking my browser history and checking my outbox in AirMail, I realized that I\u0026rsquo;d read an article in a business magazine, got miffed about the premise and sent an email to the author. Thankfully, my argument was quite spot on, but I couldn\u0026rsquo;t remember anything about posting it or even reading the article. It was like reading someone else\u0026rsquo;s email.\nJust Say No! All the time I was on that horrible pill, I did a lot of stupid stuff, just going through all the shit I wrote would take forever. Thankfully I\u0026rsquo;m of that horrendous pill now but still struggling to get off Valium.\nSo for me, when someone blames Ambien for doing crazy shit, I\u0026rsquo;m actually on their side. The only fly in the ointment is that it never made me change my general outlook on life in my weird postings. I never became a racist, women hater or anything else. Just blurting out information that would be best kept to myself.\nThe manufacturer of the DRUG (extra emphasis) responds by saying (about Rosanne Barr) that their drug doesn\u0026rsquo;t make people racists. Maybe that is true, but it makes people dependent on their medications and does make people do stuff they wouldn\u0026rsquo;t usually do, and fast as well, so they should just shut up and take the pain. It\u0026rsquo;s a horrible drug that should be considered only in the most severe cases of insomnia and not hand it out like candy for sleeping disorders. But I guess the income from the sales makes up for all the harm they inflict on people.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/ambien-as-a-defense-for-bad-behavior/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"339\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/ambien-as-a-defense-for-bad-behavior/images/ambien_hu_38cfe4a843f471b7.png\" srcset=\"/ambien-as-a-defense-for-bad-behavior/images/ambien_hu_dc3f61e20a59c9c4.png 360w,/ambien-as-a-defense-for-bad-behavior/images/ambien_hu_d603c729eba67438.png 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere\u0026rsquo;s been a lot of chatter on the internet of the \u0026ldquo;Ambien defense\u0026rdquo;.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://nordic.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-ambien-use-tesla-board-what-drug-does-2018-8?r=US\u0026amp;IR=T\"\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s quite a good defense for weird behavior\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;m talking as a recovering Ambien abuser for over ten years.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ambien as a Defense​​​ For Bad Behavior"},{"content":"Just got my new Aneng AN8009 Multimeter in the mail. I\u0026rsquo;ve made an old post about improving the responsiveness of the Aneng AN8008 in an earlier blog post. I loved that meter, but I gave it to my son who is just beginning on his electronic journey. So naturally, I needed a replacement. After checking eBay, I found that there\u0026rsquo;s a new model, the Aneng AN8009 so I decided to get that model. It has the same problem that the Aneng AN8008 had; it\u0026rsquo;s slow to settle on a value when measuring. Fortunately, my old modifications work on the Aneng AN8009 as well.\nAneng AN8009, A Great Little Multimeter It\u0026rsquo;s a fabulous multimeter. It now has added features like temperature measurements and NCV, so you don\u0026rsquo;t go poking around high voltage by mistake. But it has the same problem that the AN8008 had. When measuring it takes about five seconds for it to settle down. That get\u0026rsquo;s old quickly. But luckily, my earlier modification works. After soldering a 0.1µF, 1µF, and a 10µF 0805 SMD capacitor, and replaced the 100µF electrolytic capacitor with a good quality 1000µF/10V Panasonic FM capacitor, it\u0026rsquo;s fast as a fox. I also added a 4.7µF 0805 capacitor to the voltage reference. You can find how to modify your Aneng AN8009 meter here.\nThe Results Of The Modifications Here\u0026rsquo;s the before and after measurement of the DC rail. Quite the improvement. And it shows when using the multimeter. It now settles in less than a second and stays right on the money. Very nice!\nSo now I have a small pocket multimeter that is fast again, and I like the new features. The Aneng AN8008 and AN8009 are the best multimeters you can get for under $30. Just don\u0026rsquo;t go poking around high voltage, because the rating on this meter is not to be trusted. But for low voltage electronics, it\u0026rsquo;s perfect!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/aneng-an8009-improve-accuracy-response/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1000\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/aneng-an8009-improve-accuracy-response/images/aneng-an8009_hu_5c4b45b18782330.jpg\" srcset=\"/aneng-an8009-improve-accuracy-response/images/aneng-an8009_hu_31b9ecec7da61c43.jpg 360w,/aneng-an8009-improve-accuracy-response/images/aneng-an8009_hu_4f03e3918afccc5c.jpg 480w,/aneng-an8009-improve-accuracy-response/images/aneng-an8009_hu_86bbad15c99ae673.jpg 720w\" width=\"1000\"\u003eJust got my new \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2xILzKW\"\u003eAneng AN8009 Multimeter\u003c/a\u003e in the mail. I\u0026rsquo;ve made an old post about \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/\"\u003eimproving the responsiveness of the Aneng AN8008 in an earlier blog post\u003c/a\u003e. I loved that meter, but I gave it to my son who is just beginning on his electronic journey. So naturally, I needed a replacement. After checking eBay, I found that there\u0026rsquo;s a new model, the Aneng AN8009 so I decided to get that model. It has the same problem that the Aneng AN8008 had; it\u0026rsquo;s slow to settle on a value when measuring. Fortunately, my old modifications work on the Aneng AN8009 as well.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Aneng AN8009 Improve Accuracy, measuring Speed"},{"content":"My current music setup is a Raspberry Pi 3 with a HifiBerry DAC+ audio card as my music player. It works perfectly, except for one annoying thing. The new HifiBerry DAC+ makes an audible click or poping sound when changing the sampling rate. I have a lot of recordings in higher resolution than CD-quality of 16-bit 44kHz, so it\u0026rsquo;s jarring when it happens. I like to play my music loud which exacerbates the problem. But there\u0026rsquo;s an easy solution, and at the same time, you can get better sound quality overall. Here\u0026rsquo;s how to fix the problem.\nSolution To The HifiBerry DAC+ Clicking sound I use Max2Play as my central Squeezebox Server and player in the living room because of the simple setup and have several PiCorePlayer units sprinkled around the apartment. So here\u0026rsquo;s how to fix it in both of them. What we need to do is to upsample all the audio to one sample rate. Let\u0026rsquo;s start with Max2Play.\nMax2Play Go to the IP-address of your player, select Audioplayer and under Edit advanced options change ALSA Parameters to 120:4:32:1\nALSA Parameters The first value is the buffer value in milliseconds. I\u0026rsquo;ve doubled the amount, so there\u0026rsquo;s more memory available. Next is the period count which I leave at the default value. 32 is the number of bits of the DAC, and the HifiBerry DAC+ uses the PCM5122 DAC which is a 32-bit, 384-kHz PCM Interface IC, so let\u0026rsquo;s use all the bits. The last value is the standard value for using mmap.\nCommand Line Options Next under the line Command Line Options, enter -r 192000 -u vX::3:28:70:110:50\nThe -r 192000 command tells squeezelite to use 192000 as the sample rate. Unfortunately, 384000 doesn\u0026rsquo;t currently work giving a lot of skipping audio, but 192000 should be enough for anyone (unless you are a bat.)\nThe -u flag is to tell squeezelite to upsample. Here\u0026rsquo;s a rundown of some of the commands.\nX = async – resample to the max rate for the device, otherwise to max sync rate ::3 Attenuation. The output is lowered by 3dB, which is good when the record is badly mastered, thus giving you some headroom to counteract Intersample Peaks. If you mostly listen to modern pop or rock, you could put 4 dB here just to be on the safe side. :28: number of bits precision (HQ = 20. VHQ = 28) obviously we are going for Very High Quality here :) If you have an older Raspberry Pi, you may have to go to a lower value because, with more precision, you use more CPU power. :70: passband_end = number in percent (0dB pt. bandwidth to preserve. Nyquist = 100%) See note below :110: stopband_start = number in percent (Aliasing/imaging control. \u0026gt; passband_end) See note below :50 phase_response = 0-100 (0 = minimum / 50 = linear / 100 = maximum) See note below [caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_6152\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] (Click image for larger size)[/caption]\nPiCorePlayer Settings To fix the problem in PiCorePlayer, you use your web browser and point it to the IP-address of your PiCorePlayer. Go into Sqeezelite Settings.\nHere are all the settings you need:\nALSA Setting 120 4 32 1\nUpsample Setting vX::4:28:70:110:50\nTo read up on what the different values mean, just read the info on the settings for Max2Play.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_6156\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] (Click image for larger size)[/caption]\nProblem Fixed, But What Have I Just Done? So finally, we don\u0026rsquo;t have any clicking anymore, and as a bonus, better sound quality. But you may be wondering about the different numbers given for passband, stopband and phase response. Well, it\u0026rsquo;s a can of worms. The above is my preferred settings, but you can read up on what the settings do, and most importantly, adjust them to your liking. But to simplify, it sets the way the impulse response of the upsampling behaves and also how much tradeoff of imaging you get in the audio. By lowering the pre-ringing, you can get a better soundstage, but the price you pay is artifacts in the music. It\u0026rsquo;s a balancing act. Taste also comes into play. But remember, adjusting the filter settings gives very subtle results. If you have a good sound setup, you will be able to hear the difference. But the settings used above gives the best soundstage both in my living room and the bedroom.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s an excellent article about upsampling that goes into what it does, and you have some values to try out yourself. I\u0026rsquo;ve already found my favorite.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/hifiberry-dac-click-changing-song/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1321\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/hifiberry-dac-click-changing-song/images/HifiBerry-DAC-plus-Raspberry-Pi_hu_f0bbf3a6a77a0837.jpg\" srcset=\"/hifiberry-dac-click-changing-song/images/HifiBerry-DAC-plus-Raspberry-Pi_hu_daca869b5f66f83b.jpg 360w,/hifiberry-dac-click-changing-song/images/HifiBerry-DAC-plus-Raspberry-Pi_hu_ae885c786bca5483.jpg 480w,/hifiberry-dac-click-changing-song/images/HifiBerry-DAC-plus-Raspberry-Pi_hu_3eef366af1f957c0.jpg 720w,/hifiberry-dac-click-changing-song/images/HifiBerry-DAC-plus-Raspberry-Pi_hu_1b22611a226c7ae8.jpg 1080w,/hifiberry-dac-click-changing-song/images/HifiBerry-DAC-plus-Raspberry-Pi_hu_f0bbf3a6a77a0837.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003eMy current music setup is a Raspberry Pi 3 with a HifiBerry DAC+ audio card as my music player. It works perfectly, except for one annoying thing. The new \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2q7Yor4\"\u003eHifiBerry DAC+\u003c/a\u003e makes an audible click or poping sound when changing the sampling rate. I have a lot of recordings in higher resolution than CD-quality of 16-bit 44kHz, so it\u0026rsquo;s jarring when it happens. I like to play my music loud which exacerbates the problem. But there\u0026rsquo;s an easy solution, and at the same time, you can get better sound quality overall. Here\u0026rsquo;s how to fix the problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"HifiBerry DAC+ Click When Changing Song"},{"content":"\nI\u0026rsquo;ve written an article on how to remove the purgeable portion on a hard disk on MacOS, but in High Sierra, Apple has changed the file system from HFS+ to APFS. Because of that, my old guide doesn\u0026rsquo;t work. So here is how to remove the Purgeable part of the disk in MacOS High Sierra.\nRead this before continuing: Only use this for making more room if you need to change the partition size of your disk. Usually for installing Bootcamp or having multiple partitions on a drive. If you don\u0026rsquo;t understand the above, don\u0026rsquo;t do it! The method is not a way of getting more space. That is all handled by the operating system.\nAPFS – How a Smart File System Can Make Some Things Difficult Because Apple has changed to a much smarter file system, my old method of creating a file and then duplicate that file until the disk was full, thus forcing MacOS to start to remove the Purgeable portion of the drive doesn\u0026rsquo;t work anymore. That\u0026rsquo;s because APFS is smart enough to recognize that it\u0026rsquo;s the same file, so it makes pointers to the original data, so it doesn\u0026rsquo;t take up extra space. So here\u0026rsquo;s how to do it in MacOS High Sierra.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s Fill Up The Disk To The Brim To Remove Purgeable Open the Terminal application in Applications/Utilities. What we need to do is to start making a file that will grow until the disk is full. So enter the following into the Terminal window:\ndd if=/dev/zero of=~/stupidfile.crap The command will create a file called stupidfile.crap in your Home directory and fill it with zeros. It will continue to grow, first at a fast pace, but as the disk gets close too full, it will become slower and slower. But hang in there. During the creation of the file, you will get a lot of warning messages that the disk is full. Just leave it there, because if you close it, it will reappear after a while.\nThe Disk Is Full, Let\u0026rsquo;s Continue. When the Terminal window command ends with the message \u0026ldquo;No space left on device,\u0026rdquo; the disk is full, and mission accomplished. MacOS should now have removed all the Purgeable space from the drive. So all that is left is to delete the file stupidfile.crap inside your home directory.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t forget to empty the trashcan to regain the space.\nYou should now have no Purgeable part of the partition left.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-os-remove-purgeable-high-sierra/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Screenshot of Disk Utility showing Purgeable part of volume\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"316\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/mac-os-remove-purgeable-high-sierra/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_abfe3f8e4e5940ad.jpg\" srcset=\"/mac-os-remove-purgeable-high-sierra/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_989565a2fde4b11e.jpg 360w,/mac-os-remove-purgeable-high-sierra/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_137dc1f705259f6.jpg 480w,/mac-os-remove-purgeable-high-sierra/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_7b963afe55e162e4.jpg 720w,/mac-os-remove-purgeable-high-sierra/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_75f6409b22324fc3.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1154\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-os-purgeable-remove-clear-space/\"\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve written an article on how to remove the purgeable portion on a hard disk on MacOS\u003c/a\u003e, but in High Sierra, Apple has changed the file system from HFS+ to APFS. Because of that, my old guide doesn\u0026rsquo;t work. So here is how to remove the Purgeable part of the disk in \u003ca href=\"https://www.apple.com/lae/macos/high-sierra/\"\u003eMacOS High Sierra\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MacOS Remove Purgeable in High Sierra"},{"content":"\nI\u0026rsquo;ve recently got interested in RF radio. But I live in an apartment, so I can\u0026rsquo;t do any installing of large antennas. So after doing the obligatory Google search, I narrowed it down to two antennas. The Wellbrook Loop Antenna and the (much cheaper) PA0RDT Mini-Whip. Being short of cash, I decided to buy a cheap Mini-Whip from eBay.\nInstalling a PA0RDT Mini-Whip In an Apartment The recommended way of connecting the antenna is to have it off the ground with an unearthed mast in a garden or on a roof and then ground it from the antenna to earth with a grounding rod. Well, that\u0026rsquo;s not going to happen where I live, so I needed a way of getting it to work in a regular apartment. So I made a makeshift antenna holder from a piece of plastic pipe and installed it outside my window.\nThe problem is that the PA0RDT Mini-Whip is an active antenna, and picks up a lot of noise from the environment, which in my case is my lab. The Wellbrook Loop Antenna also has active amplification but picks up more of the magnetic field opposed to the electric, so it\u0026rsquo;s not as sensitive to noise sources you usually find in homes. The loop antenna also makes it easy to \u0026ldquo;blank\u0026rdquo; out noise sources by turning it around and nulling the noise. But I couldn\u0026rsquo;t afford a Loop Antenna, so PA0RDT Mini-Whip it is (for now.)\nGetting Rid of Noise I\u0026rsquo;ve been using both my oscilloscope and HF radio to find noise sources around my equipment. I had to move some very noisy USB chargers that probably have poorly designed switching power supplies. Ferrite beads on a lot of cables also improved the noise floor. But you can\u0026rsquo;t always fix the problem at the source, like neighbors plasma TVs, or two of the most massive antennas in Stockholm, just five kilometers from my location, blinking away annoyingly on the horizon. I guess a gas-powered metal saw and a couple of years of jail time could fix that problem as well, but alas, I think I\u0026rsquo;ll stick to trying to fix local interference.\nOne thing that I read was that you should never connect the ground lead from the antenna shield to a radiator. Well, for me it makes a huge difference! I must have a well-behaved grounding network connected to the radiator because, without it, I can\u0026rsquo;t receive anything. Just scraped off some paint from the radiator, and connected an 18 gauge wire between it and the outside of the BNC connector at the antenna.\nAfter all the searching for noise and trying to fix the problem, I still got a very high noise floor. But after watching one of my favorite YouTubers, TRX Bench, I stumbled across his series on Baluns. In one of the videos, he shows a common mode choke and how to wind it, so I thought I\u0026rsquo;d give it a shot. And this my friends helped! I put the choke inside an aluminum case bought for cheap on eBay and added a bypass switch to be able to see the impact. And the results are quite remarkable.\nYou can see when I switch the common mode choke in. A significant improvement, even if it\u0026rsquo;s not perfect. The noise floor drops by about 10 dB, but the signals stay. So now I can hear a lot more faint stations that I couldn\u0026rsquo;t pick up before. I also added an external RTL-SDR.COM FM Notch Filter even though the SDRPlay RSP1A SDR receiver already has one built-in.\nCommon Mode Choke Yeah, I know. Overly complicated, but I was in a hurry!\nYeah, I know. Overly complicated, but I was in a hurry!\nI used 0.25mm magnet wire and used the only ferrite ring I had at hand that operates at the required frequencies, an Amidon T44-6. This toroid is probably not the optimal one, but apparently, it worked. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking of trying to put two T44-6 stacked on top of each other and rewire a new choke. Or I\u0026rsquo;ll end up buying an Amidon FT240-43 and try that one out.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the video showing how to wind the choke correctly.\nhttps://youtu.be/JhAPJISUjB8?t=18m55s\nNext Up, A Loop Antenna I\u0026rsquo;m going to build a Wellbrook Loop Antenna clone called WellGood by M1GEO and see if it suits an apartment dweller like me. It\u0026rsquo;s going to be fun comparing the two antennas and see which one comes out on top.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/pa0rdt-mini-whip-installing-in-an-apartment-building/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1324\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/pa0rdt-mini-whip-installing-in-an-apartment-building/images/PA0RDT-mini-whip-in-window_hu_68a9226dd3c89d44.jpg\" srcset=\"/pa0rdt-mini-whip-installing-in-an-apartment-building/images/PA0RDT-mini-whip-in-window_hu_b5421fa5ab1a4fdc.jpg 360w,/pa0rdt-mini-whip-installing-in-an-apartment-building/images/PA0RDT-mini-whip-in-window_hu_8863d33ccb46d5f3.jpg 480w,/pa0rdt-mini-whip-installing-in-an-apartment-building/images/PA0RDT-mini-whip-in-window_hu_98cb864d0b6093b8.jpg 720w,/pa0rdt-mini-whip-installing-in-an-apartment-building/images/PA0RDT-mini-whip-in-window_hu_da37e9be6a2c1ff.jpg 1080w,/pa0rdt-mini-whip-installing-in-an-apartment-building/images/PA0RDT-mini-whip-in-window_hu_68a9226dd3c89d44.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve recently got interested in RF radio. But I live in an apartment, so I can\u0026rsquo;t do any installing of large antennas. So after doing the obligatory Google search, I narrowed it down to two antennas. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.wellbrook.uk.com/loopantennas/\"\u003eWellbrook Loop Antenna\u003c/a\u003e and the (much cheaper) \u003ca href=\"http://dl1dbc.net/SAQ/miniwhip.html\"\u003ePA0RDT Mini-Whip\u003c/a\u003e. Being short of cash, I decided to buy a cheap \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=MiniWhip+Active+Antenna+Assembled+in+Box+HF+LF+VLF+mini+whip+sdr+RX+portable\u0026amp;_id=222469570201\u0026amp;\u0026amp;_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2658\"\u003eMini-Whip from eBay\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"PA0RDT Mini Whip – Installing In an Apartment building"},{"content":"Update: Apparently WeMo took notice of this article and contacted me. They have now sent a replacement unit. I also got an email from the people at Airspy, who mistakenly thought that this blog post was directed at them, which is not the case. The reason for me to choose Airspy is because they make quality products at a really good price, and I plan to do a blog post about using the Airspy Mini as an ADS-B receiver.\nThinking of buying any radios, antennas or other radio amateur equipment from WiMo Antennen und Elektronik GmbHI? Think again!\nI wanted to buy an Airspy Mini to use as a makeshift simple spectrum analyzer. Usually, I buy directly from the manufacturer, but I wanted to be sure that if something were wrong with it, then it would be easier to have a seller closer to Sweden, so I decided to buy from WiMo Antennen und Elektronik GmbH in Germany. That turned out to be a mistake.\nIf You Get a Faulty item, Surely they\u0026rsquo;ll Fix it? Not So Much\u0026hellip; After ordering the Airspy Mini on the 24th of November last year, I got my unit a couple of days later. I tried it on the regular PC that I use for SDR stuff. Worked for about 20 seconds, and then it hanged. My first reaction was to suspect a problem with Windows, so I re-installed the Airspy driver and software. But the problem persisted. So time to move to my Mac, where I tried it, and the same problem appeared. After about 20-30 seconds, the Airspy Mini stopped working. Being a computer technician I wanted to be sure before contacting WiMo Antennen, so I tried it on a third Windows computer. And sure enough, the same problem on that machine.\nContacted WiMo Antennen and got a return ID-number and I merrily send the unit back and expected to get a replacement unit, because that\u0026rsquo;s what any other company I\u0026rsquo;ve ever had to do with would do. But not WiMo Antennen. First I got the runaround that they were moving their laboratory so that it would be a delay. So I waited. Next time I contacted them, my salesperson Björn Hoff told me that they returned the faulty unit to the manufacturer! WTF!? Without sending a new part to me as a replacement? Huh?. Even small companies in China have better return policies than that. So apparently they sent the unit back to ITead in China, without sending me a working Airspy Mini.\nBut I decided to wait. I kept mailing WiMo Antennen, but always got the same response, \u0026ldquo;We are waiting for feedback from the manufacturer.\u0026rdquo;\nAfter waiting for more than two months, I tried to do reclaiming via PayPal. But even though I have a long list of emails from WiMo Antennen und Elektronik telling me that they\u0026rsquo;ve received the unit and sent it to the manufacturer, PayPal wanted a tracking number, which I didn\u0026rsquo;t have, so they closed the case.\nSo, here I am, three months later, still not sure if I\u0026rsquo;m ever going to see an Airspy Mini.\nI buy a lot of stuff from companies all over the world, but this is the absolute worst customer care I\u0026rsquo;ve ever encountered. So If you are thinking of buying from WiMo Antennen und Elektronik GmbH, be prepared to be shafted if the item you buy doesn\u0026rsquo;t work.\nI know, it\u0026rsquo;s boring to read the complaints of a dissatisfied customer, but I\u0026rsquo;m so fucking angry right now that I need to release some steam.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wimo-antennen-horrible-buying-experience/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1342\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/wimo-antennen-horrible-buying-experience/images/airspy-mini-broken_hu_c5ef2ca696efe816.jpg\" srcset=\"/wimo-antennen-horrible-buying-experience/images/airspy-mini-broken_hu_614215609845d298.jpg 360w,/wimo-antennen-horrible-buying-experience/images/airspy-mini-broken_hu_6a9ae5bcacc7ae49.jpg 480w,/wimo-antennen-horrible-buying-experience/images/airspy-mini-broken_hu_4d9036abb9fadc62.jpg 720w,/wimo-antennen-horrible-buying-experience/images/airspy-mini-broken_hu_cef4e20ae593bce7.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1291\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e Apparently WeMo took notice of this article and contacted me. They have now sent a replacement unit. I also got an email from the people at \u003ca href=\"https://airspy.com\"\u003eAirspy\u003c/a\u003e, who mistakenly thought that this blog post was directed at them, which is not the case. The reason for me to choose Airspy is because they make \u003cstrong\u003equality products at a really good price\u003c/strong\u003e, and I plan to do a blog post about using the Airspy Mini as an ADS-B receiver.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThinking of buying any radios, antennas or other radio amateur equipment from WiMo Antennen und Elektronik GmbHI? Think again!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI wanted to buy an Airspy Mini to use as a makeshift simple spectrum analyzer. Usually, I buy directly from the manufacturer, but I wanted to be sure that if something were wrong with it, then it would be easier to have a seller closer to Sweden, so I decided to buy from \u003cstrong\u003eWiMo Antennen und Elektronik GmbH\u003c/strong\u003e in Germany. That turned out to be a mistake.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","title":"WiMo Antennen A Horrible Buying Experience"},{"content":"I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks, learning all the ins and outs of my new Cetus3D 3D-printer. It’s a cheap printer for around $300, but it has linear rails and can give excellent results. Unfortunately, the calibration quality from the factory was terrible, which is unfortunate on such a superb printer.\nMy Y-axis was way out. If I zeroed out the nozzle on the left side, the right side was 2.0 lower. There is a calibration feature inside the program, but you need to always print with a raft to get your prints level, with the accompanied wastage of PLA plastic. But I finally found an easy way of fixing the Y-axis adjustment. Here’s how I did it.\nI found a stand on Thingiverse, so I printed two of them. I just needed to move the print plate to the center and attach the calibration arms to the axis after removing the print head. They fit snuggly on the Y-axis linear rails.\nAfter checking, I noticed the 2mm gap on the right side of the alignment stands.\nSo I turned the printer around and removed the three screws that hold the Y-axis rails to the Z-axis tower. Just make sure to use a pen to mark the exact location of the arm to be able to assemble it as it was before.\nInstead of removing the whole arm, I just used a screwdriver to pry out the size of the axis closest to the Z-arm. Behind it, there are six screws. The first leftmost screws are for holding a plastic bracket, but the next two are the ones you need to loosen to be able to adjust the Y-axis. Using the supplied hex wrench, I loosened the screws while holding down the arm so that both the printed alignment stands where touching the print bed. While continuing to hold it in place, I tightened the screws. So now I have a difference of 0.1 instead of 2.0 when calibrating. I could make it even better, but it is close enough for me.\nThe printing results are now much better, and I’m no longer forced to use rafters.\nA big thanks to wbvreeuwijk for making the calibration brackets. They make it so easy to be sure it’s calibrated now after disassembling the printer.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/cetus-3d-y-axis-calibration-the-easy-way/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1600\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/cetus-3d-y-axis-calibration-the-easy-way/images/y-axis-calibration-stand-cetus3d_hu_efbd45d6edd92e2e.jpg\" srcset=\"/cetus-3d-y-axis-calibration-the-easy-way/images/y-axis-calibration-stand-cetus3d_hu_3dabfb2c8c9dc90f.jpg 360w,/cetus-3d-y-axis-calibration-the-easy-way/images/y-axis-calibration-stand-cetus3d_hu_49c6d00c4c457cf9.jpg 480w,/cetus-3d-y-axis-calibration-the-easy-way/images/y-axis-calibration-stand-cetus3d_hu_f4dec38c9b391bbe.jpg 720w,/cetus-3d-y-axis-calibration-the-easy-way/images/y-axis-calibration-stand-cetus3d_hu_a614eef28e101200.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1200\"\u003eI’ve been busy the last couple of weeks, learning all the ins and outs of my new \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2pZw0s4\"\u003eCetus3D 3D-printer\u003c/a\u003e. It’s a cheap printer for around $300, but it has linear rails and can give excellent results. Unfortunately, the calibration quality from the factory was terrible, which is unfortunate on such a superb printer.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy Y-axis was way out. If I zeroed out the nozzle on the left side, the right side was 2.0 lower. There is a calibration feature inside the program, but you need to always print with a raft to get your prints level, with the accompanied wastage of PLA plastic. But I finally found an easy way of fixing the Y-axis adjustment. Here’s how I did it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cetus 3D Y-Axis Adjustment The Easy Way"},{"content":"After finally getting my Cetus3D MkII 3D-printer I was eager to start to print. When I started through the steps to calibrate the printer by adjusting the build plate height, but the print head/nozzle refused to get close enough to the build plate to finish the calibration! The cables on the motor came in contact with the chassis of the printer! So the injector was 5mm from the build plate and couldn\u0026rsquo;t get any closer by increasing the step values. But there is an easy fix for the problem.\nWhen they assemble the Cetus3D in China, sometimes they don\u0026rsquo;t adjust the height of the Z-axis good enough. But thankfully it\u0026rsquo;s easy to fix. You have to remove the three screws that hold the Z-axis.\nLean the whole assembly back and loosen the hex screw for the Z-axis adjustment plate using the supplied wrench.\nRetighten the nut that holds the attachment rail and re-assemble the Z-axis. If you moved the Z-axis mounting plate the right amount, you should now be able to calibrate your Cetus3D printer.\nAnd what a printer! After calibration, the printer has been running 24/7!\nA minor snag on an otherwise excellent printer!.\nHappy printing!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/cetus3d-mkii-cant-calibrate-nozzle-close-to-build-plate/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"600\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/cetus3d-mkii-cant-calibrate-nozzle-close-to-build-plate/images/cetus3d-printer_hu_9ffb2e82ec7852c5.jpg\" srcset=\"/cetus3d-mkii-cant-calibrate-nozzle-close-to-build-plate/images/cetus3d-printer_hu_a790c6d28f3f977e.jpg 360w,/cetus3d-mkii-cant-calibrate-nozzle-close-to-build-plate/images/cetus3d-printer_hu_314468a0c00fd5a9.jpg 480w,/cetus3d-mkii-cant-calibrate-nozzle-close-to-build-plate/images/cetus3d-printer_hu_a703b0c18583b91f.jpg 720w\" width=\"800\"\u003eAfter finally getting my \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2pZw0s4\"\u003eCetus3D MkII 3D-printer\u003c/a\u003e I was eager to start to print. When I started through the steps to calibrate the printer by adjusting the build plate height, but the print head/nozzle refused to get close enough to the build plate to finish the calibration! The cables on the motor came in contact with the chassis of the printer! So the injector was 5mm from the build plate and couldn\u0026rsquo;t get any closer by increasing the step values. But there is an easy fix for the problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cetus3D MKII Can't Calibrate Nozzle Close to Build Plate"},{"content":" ITEAD contacted me about testing some new equipment and write an unbiased blog post about it. I usually reject all such offers, but this one worked for me. Why? Well, all the stuff they offered was on my shopping list anyway! And my home is quite literally chock full of Sonoff relays, lamps, etc.\nSo the first thing I started to play with was the SONOFF RF BRIDGE 433. The bridge makes it possible to control switches, doorbells, curtain openers, etc. that uses 433MHz communication frequency. I\u0026rsquo;m not interested in using the original firmware because I prefer to do my home automation setup in Node-RED. Here\u0026rsquo;s how it works.\nSONOFF RF BRIDGE 433 Upgrade Firmware So I decided to try the ESPURNA firmware that works with the SONOFF RF BRIDGE 433. I\u0026rsquo;ve used Tasmota and ESPEasy on other Sonoff devices but thought that this could be an excellent excuse to try out ESPURNA. There\u0026rsquo;s a great tutorial on how to flash the new firmware here. Here\u0026rsquo;s a picture on the guts of the unit. As per usual, you need a USB TTL to Serial Adapter that works with 3.3 volts. You can find them easily on eBay.\nThere is already a soldered header with 3.3 volts, RX, TX and GND available, so they are making it easy to install any firmware of your choosing, instead of the factory one. Great stuff! There\u0026rsquo;s a switch close to the programming header that needs to be set to off position to disconnect the ESP8285 from the SiLabs 8-bit microcontroller that does all de encoding/decoding of signals. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget to set it to on again after uploading the firmware!\nConnecting Devices Via 433MHz So I bought some extra 433 switches and remote control. I also got a door sensor, but that one was dead as a doornail (no pun intended), so I have to get it replaced. But no problem getting the remote control to work inside Node-RED. All you have to do is to go to the web interface for the device, select \u0026ldquo;RFBRIDGE\u0026rdquo; and press \u0026ldquo;LEARN\u0026rdquo; for the on and off switches. The SONOFF RF BRIDGE 433 will beep, and you can press the button, and the hexadecimal code will show up and then you just press the \u0026ldquo;save\u0026rdquo; button. The firmware does have six switches, but it can be increased up to a hundred if you modify some settings in the ESPURNA firmware. But there is another way. A way to be able to both receive and send ANY code you want! Directly from Node-RED!\nAdding SONOFF RF BRIDGE 433 To Node-RED To add the switches to Node-RED is easy. I\u0026rsquo;ve named my RF Bridge SONOFF_RFBRIDGE; you have to replace all the instances to the name you have given your RF Bridge. Add an MQTT node and set the topic to SONOFF_RFBRIDGE/relay/0 and you\u0026rsquo;ll get a payload of 1 or 0 depending on the switch state of switch 0. To activate a switch via the RF Bridge, just send a \u0026ldquo;1\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;0\u0026rdquo; to your MQTT node with the topic DEVICENAME/relay/0. The relays become 0-5.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve put in SONOFF_RFBRIDGE/relay/# as my topic because using a hash sign receives all codes. I use a Switch Node to get six different outputs to make it a bit tidier. Then it\u0026rsquo;s easy to add nodes to the switch I\u0026rsquo;m interested in.\nBut What If Six Switches Isn\u0026rsquo;t Enough? Well, I\u0026rsquo;m glad you asked. Because there is a \u0026ldquo;raw\u0026rdquo; input and output of 433MHz messages that you can use to tap any codes. That means that you can receive and send any command you like! How cool is that!\nTo receive all the RF codes, just create an MQTT node with the topic SONOFF_RFBRIDGE/rfin which will give you all the decoded 433MHz messages in hexadecimal. If you want to send a specific code, create an MQTT Out node and set the topic to SONOFF_RFBRIDGE/rfout/set. Now you just have to send the command directly to that node. Quite interesting possibilities there.\nDoes It Work With All 433MHz Equipment? I\u0026rsquo;ve only tried ITEAD\u0026rsquo;s remote control, a NEXA remote and a bunch of mains relays and everything works perfectly. I\u0026rsquo;ve already connected several mains power switches to it to control lighting, and it works without a hitch. I will install door and window detectors later on and update the article.\nSo there you have it, an excellent bridge between WiFi and 433MHz controlled equipment, all inside the comfy Node-RED environment. Only your imagination is stopping you now.\nExcellent!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/433-mhz-support-node-red/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"740\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/433-mhz-support-node-red/images/sonoff-rf-bridge-433-unit_hu_96033339821d4b07.jpg\" srcset=\"/433-mhz-support-node-red/images/sonoff-rf-bridge-433-unit_hu_37bba1605f9a1df3.jpg 360w,/433-mhz-support-node-red/images/sonoff-rf-bridge-433-unit_hu_7858c395b9d948f4.jpg 480w\" width=\"649\"\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://itead.cc\"\u003eITEAD\u003c/a\u003e contacted me about testing some new equipment and write an unbiased blog post about it. I usually reject all such offers, but this one worked for me. Why? Well, all the stuff they offered was on my shopping list anyway! And my home is quite \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/sonoff-switch-i2c/\"\u003eliterally chock full of Sonoff relays\u003c/a\u003e, lamps, etc.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo the first thing I started to play with was the \u003ca href=\"https://sonoff.tech/product/smart-home-security/rf-bridge/\"\u003eSONOFF RF BRIDGE 433\u003c/a\u003e. The bridge makes it possible to control switches, doorbells, curtain openers, etc. that uses 433MHz communication frequency. I\u0026rsquo;m not interested in using the original firmware because I prefer to do my home automation setup in Node-RED. Here\u0026rsquo;s how it works.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"433 MHz Support in Node-RED"},{"content":"Over the years I\u0026rsquo;ve been reading about a way of restoring old computers and other equipment where the plastic has turned yellow and how some bright guys developed a method called Retr0bright to reverse the process.\nThe reason for the yellowing of the plastic is the flame retardant bromide that is infused in the plastic to prevent fires. When exposed to UV-light, the bromide comes to the surface of the ABS plastic, and the yellowing begins.\nUnfortunately, even after treating the item with Retr0bright, the yellowing returns after 3-4 years, looking worse than your grandfather\u0026rsquo;s underwear.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s my attempt at a fix to that problem.\nRetr0bright, Why Does The Yellowing Return? After reading the obligatory Wiki page and reading the main forum thread about the Retr0bright method, I\u0026rsquo;ve found some interesting stuff on why the plastic turns yellow again. The first suspect was apparently that the treated equipment was exposed to UV-light and thus started the chemical process with the bromide again. But there\u0026rsquo;s compelling evidence that this not the answer. One user reports that he treated a bunch of old computers, put them in storage, entirely in the dark without exposure to UV-light, but the machines started to turn yellow again. The only other factor he mentioned was that it could get a bit hot in his storage location during the summer.\nSo UV Protection Won\u0026rsquo;t Do It When I first heard about the problem with the dreaded re-yellowing, my first idea was to use some protective UV-light filter on the surface of the plastic. But that won\u0026rsquo;t do because the degradation continues even in the dark.\nThere are even versions of reversing the yellowing process by only using ozone and UV light to change the process! So there\u0026rsquo;s something else going on.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZYbchvSUDY\u0026amp;t=106s\nBritish Museum To The Rescue! I\u0026rsquo;ve started to collect and restore old fountain pens some months ago, and one of the things I use to protect my cleaned and polished pens are a wax developed by the British Museum, called Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax Polish. They use it on old metal objects like brass and copper, on wood and a lot of other stuff. But the thing that makes me think that this could help is that it works to keep copper from tarnishing. So the idea is that the wax will act as a sealant for any outside contamination. Time to experiment!\nGo For Broke! The only thing I could find in my drawers that had the bromide yellowing was my old Woz designed CL-9 Core Remote Control. It was designed by Steve Wozniak when he left Apple and started a new company. The CL-9 was the first programmable remote controller out there. Very advanced, but designed by an engineer for an engineer. I mean, buttons that use hexadecimal! Only people like me can love stuff like that. They didn\u0026rsquo;t sell too well.\nThey are starting to go up in price and are quite collectible, but what the hell, let\u0026rsquo;s try it on mine!\nAs you can see, it\u0026rsquo;s pretty bad. It still retains the original white color under the pull-down tab on the remote. I removed the upper \u0026ldquo;lip\u0026rdquo; and the battery cover to try on first, before dismantling the entire unit. The original formula for Retr0bright is as follows:\n1 pint (568ml) Hydrogen Peroxide, 10 to 12% Strength 1 Heaped Tablespoonful (approx. 45 grams or ½ an ounce) of Xanthan Gum 1 Teaspoonful of Glycerine Once this has been mixed, to activate it, you add: ¼ teaspoonful (about 4 grams) of an \u0026lsquo;Oxy\u0026rsquo; based laundry booster, e.g. Oxiclean, Vanish, etc. The Xanthan Gum and glycerine turned out to be unnecessary because the Hydrogen Peroxide 12% I got hold of was in cream form for dyeing hair, so I didn\u0026rsquo;t need the extra stuff to make it into a paste. So all I did was to mix the Hydrogen Peroxide and sprinkled some Vanish to activate it and put it into some plastic wrapper to keep the plastic wrapped in the liquid during the UV-light exposure.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5845\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] Feeling like Heisenberg here, but shouldn\u0026rsquo;t it be blue?[/caption]\nOne UV Lamp, What To Do? I only bought one measly UV lamp, stupid me. So I took an old box and covered the inside with aluminum foil to get more light evenly on every spot.\nBut naturally, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t find an E27 lamp socket to plug in the damn UV lamp. After rummaging through the entire apartment I still couldn\u0026rsquo;t find one, so I finally just gave up and removed the lampshade on my lighting in the bedroom. Trying to explain to my wife, why we suddenly had a cardboard box hanging from the roof with some strange blue light emanating from it was quite the experience.\nAnd to make it clear, just to set that in perspective, this is how my side of the bedroom looks like. Poor woman!\nSo Let\u0026rsquo;s See The Result! [gallery link=\u0026ldquo;file\u0026rdquo; columns=\u0026ldquo;2\u0026rdquo; size=\u0026ldquo;medium\u0026rdquo; ids=\u0026ldquo;5840,5854\u0026rdquo;]\nSo, the front cover still has some yellowing, but I probably only need to give it another go, but the battery cover is as brand new! It\u0026rsquo;s good enough, for now, to do the test with the Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax. I decided to cover the battery cover with the wax and leave the front cover untreated because it apparently needs another go with Retr0bright. I\u0026rsquo;ve put them in the window to expose them to heat and UV, although we\u0026rsquo;re talking about Sweden in the winter, so not that many hours of sunlight per day in the next six month, unfortunately.\nColor Calibrate As you can see, I have an 18% gray card for color calibration, and I can easily replicate the exact lighting conditions, so I should be able to measure quite tiny discrepancies in the colors over time. Now we just have to wait and see if it works.\nUpdate 04-05-2020: Unfortunately, I have been divorced and the items in the test got lost when moving. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to find them again. I can say after a year, it showed no sign of yellowing again.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/retr0bright-will-it-last/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/retr0bright-will-it-last/images/CL-9-core-remote-controller.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/retr0bright-will-it-last/images/CL-9-core-remote-controller_hu_529745a4d0a42a58.jpg\" srcset=\"/retr0bright-will-it-last/images/CL-9-core-remote-controller_hu_5e4d785b0471fafe.jpg 360w,/retr0bright-will-it-last/images/CL-9-core-remote-controller_hu_e7cf253139b025b4.jpg 480w,/retr0bright-will-it-last/images/CL-9-core-remote-controller_hu_15251e71a0521bac.jpg 720w,/retr0bright-will-it-last/images/CL-9-core-remote-controller_hu_c258cd2813cee9e0.jpg 1080w,/retr0bright-will-it-last/images/CL-9-core-remote-controller_hu_529745a4d0a42a58.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eOver the years I\u0026rsquo;ve been reading about a way of restoring old computers and other equipment where the plastic has turned yellow and how some bright guys developed a method called Retr0bright to reverse the process.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reason for the yellowing of the plastic is the flame retardant bromide that is infused in the plastic to prevent fires. When exposed to UV-light, the bromide comes to the surface of the ABS plastic, and the yellowing begins.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnfortunately, even after treating the item with Retr0bright, the yellowing returns after 3-4 years, looking worse than your grandfather\u0026rsquo;s underwear.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere\u0026rsquo;s my attempt at a fix to that problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Retr0bright – Will It Last?"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5818\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;300\u0026rdquo;] My first attempt of a Collinear Antenna. Professional mounting![/caption]\nPart 1 – Checking the Velocity Factor of the Coax Cable I have a homebuilt Collinear Antenna on one of my two ADS-B receivers. It\u0026rsquo;s an eight element antenna, built without any real effort of making sure that all the elements where the right length. So it\u0026rsquo;s about time to try to do it properly. The easy way is to get Flightaware\u0026rsquo;s great ADS-B antenna and filter, but it\u0026rsquo;s fun to build your own as well.\nTo build a good antenna, you would preferably use a Vector Network Analyzer so you can do proper measurements of your antenna design. With it you can quickly check stuff like SWR and optimize the impedance of the antenna at the frequency it\u0026rsquo;s intended to be used. In my case 1090MHz for ADS-B. But if you don\u0026rsquo;t have the money to spend, you have to improvise. I\u0026rsquo;m going to build a 12 element Collinear Antenna out of cheap RG-58 coax cable. But to calculate the right length of each element, we need to know the Velocity Factor, or the signal speed through the cable compared to light traveling in a vacuum. So let\u0026rsquo;s do the measurements.\nThe Cable I got a long stretch of some old RG-58 coax cable from an old cash register. You could just go with the velocity factor values you find on the internet for RG-58, which the almighty Google says is 0.66. But using this value in my case would be wrong, and the calculations would end up with an antenna way out of the optimal performance, as we shall see.\nThe Measurement Setup Here\u0026rsquo;s what we are going to do. Send a pulse with fast rise time (in my case a pulse with 9.5 ns rise time) from a signal generator at relatively long pulses, in my case with a Silent SDG2122X 120MHz Waveform generator (Actually a hacked SDG2042X.) The pulse goes into an oscilloscope, with a T-BNC connection. Connect the coax cable to the other BNC connector on the T-connector. The pulse first shows up as a quick rise on the oscilloscope, but the signal will travel down the unterminated coax cable and reflect back. This will double the signal when it reaches back to the oscilloscope. So using cursors, we can measure the travel time of the pulse and divide it by two to get the propagation time.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5820\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] The pulse without the unterminated cable attached.[/caption]\nOk, and let\u0026rsquo;s connect the unterminated cable. Now we see the adding of the returning signal from the coax cable.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5821\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] Pulse with return echo from an unterminated coax cable.[/caption]\nThe pulse width should be long enough because we want to be able to measure short cables. If you don\u0026rsquo;t have a signal generator with a fast rise time (the quicker, the better), you can build a pulse generator with the swift rise and fall edges of about 1.2 ns for around a dollar. Here\u0026rsquo;s a video on how to create it.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cP6w2odGUc\nHere are the settings on my signal generator with 8.4ns rise time. I\u0026rsquo;ve set the output to 50 Ω impedance to match the connections at the oscilloscope.\nCalculating the Velocity Factor of the Coax Cable So now it\u0026rsquo;s time to use the cursors on the scope for measuring the time for the signal to go to the end of the unterminated cable and echo back.\nSo the Δ between the start of the pulses are 91ns. The propagation time is half of that, 91÷2=45.5ns for the signal to go one way through the coax cable. The cable is 950 cm long and the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1 ns is 29.99709 cm.\n950cm ÷ 45.5ns ÷ 29.99709ns = 0.696038 Velocity Factor. The factor is 0.696 times the speed of light.\nWill the specified value of 0.66 and 0.696 VF make a difference when doing the calculations for the lengths of the sections of the antenna? Let\u0026rsquo;s check.\nThe formula for calculating the length of each element is:\n[latex]\\lambda=\\frac{c}{f}[/latex]\nc = speed of light in vacuum 299 792 458 meters per second. f = Frequency, 1090MHz for ADS-B\n[latex]\\lambda=\\frac{299.792458}{1090}=0.2750389523\\ meter\\ wavelength[/latex]\nLength of element = (half wavelength in meter) 0.2750389523 ÷ 2 = 137.5194761468 * (VF)0.696 * (convert to cm) 100 = 9.4888438541 cm\nSo the length of each of the elements should be 9.49 cm with this cable. But how much would it have differed if I used the official velocity factor from the manufacturer? Then the result would have been 9,08 which is almost 5 % off target. Will this make a difference? We\u0026rsquo;ll see when I build an antenna. You can find a handy calculator for calculating both ½ and ¼ wavelength for collinear antennas with build instructions here.\nIn the next installment, I\u0026rsquo;ll do the assembly of the antenna and make some comparisons against my FlightAware Antenna, and my old bodged together collinear antenna.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/diy-coaxial-collinear-antenna-ads-b-sdr-receiver-measuring-cable/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5818\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;300\u0026rdquo;]\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1600\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/diy-coaxial-collinear-antenna-ads-b-sdr-receiver-measuring-cable/images/ugly-colllinear-antenna-ads-b_hu_b1184bf39c3ba7a3.jpg\" srcset=\"/diy-coaxial-collinear-antenna-ads-b-sdr-receiver-measuring-cable/images/ugly-colllinear-antenna-ads-b_hu_18f0dbfa7f3349fa.jpg 360w,/diy-coaxial-collinear-antenna-ads-b-sdr-receiver-measuring-cable/images/ugly-colllinear-antenna-ads-b_hu_5fbe1950bc02c0aa.jpg 480w,/diy-coaxial-collinear-antenna-ads-b-sdr-receiver-measuring-cable/images/ugly-colllinear-antenna-ads-b_hu_b3e5c12373574544.jpg 720w,/diy-coaxial-collinear-antenna-ads-b-sdr-receiver-measuring-cable/images/ugly-colllinear-antenna-ads-b_hu_c7f6f2330dc314f5.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1200\"\u003e My first attempt of a Collinear Antenna. Professional mounting![/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"part-1--checking-the-velocity-factor-of-the-coax-cable\"\u003ePart 1 – Checking the Velocity Factor of the Coax Cable\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have a homebuilt Collinear Antenna on one of my two ADS-B receivers. It\u0026rsquo;s an eight element antenna, built without any real effort of making sure that all the elements where the right length. So it\u0026rsquo;s about time to try to do it properly. The easy way is to get \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2uK9uIb\"\u003eFlightaware\u0026rsquo;s great ADS-B antenna\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2q1ap2u\"\u003efilter\u003c/a\u003e, but it\u0026rsquo;s fun to build your own as well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo build a good antenna, you would preferably use a Vector Network Analyzer so you can do proper measurements of your antenna design. With it you can quickly check stuff like SWR and optimize the impedance of the antenna at the frequency it\u0026rsquo;s intended to be used. In my case 1090MHz for ADS-B. But if you don\u0026rsquo;t have the money to spend, you have to improvise. I\u0026rsquo;m going to build a 12 element \u003ca href=\"https://www.balarad.net\"\u003eCollinear Antenna\u003c/a\u003e out of cheap RG-58 coax cable. But to calculate the right length of each element, we need to know the Velocity Factor, or the signal speed through the cable compared to light traveling in a vacuum. So let\u0026rsquo;s do the measurements.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"DIY Coaxial Collinear Antenna for ADS-B SDR Receiver – Measuring The Cable"},{"content":"\nIf you are on the lookout for a sub $30 Multimeter (or $15 on eBay) for working with low voltages, the best one right now in my opinion is the cute and tiny Aneng AN8008 TrueRMS Multimeter or the newer model, the Aneng AN8009 with NCV and temperature measurement. They have a lot of functions and can measure µA current, and both are a 9999-count meter. The continuity tester is reasonably fast, but there is one little problem that bothered me. It takes 5 to 10 seconds for it to settle on a correct voltage reading. When it finally ends, it\u0026rsquo;s spot on, but the waiting is annoying. But fortunately, there is a simple fix for this problem.\nFixing The Long Settling Time After taking the meter apart, I started by measuring the input DC voltage to the meter. The measurement shows that the DC rail is quite noisy.\nThe noise spikes are over 30 millivolts from two AAA batteries! There\u0026rsquo;s something adding noise on the DC rail.\nDecoupling Capacitors There is a decoupling cap on the input, a Rubycon 100 µF 16 Volt YXA capacitor, but when measuring it, the ESR is 1.4 Ω which is quite high. So first I replaced it with a low ESR Panasonic FM 100 µF 25V capacitor that measured 0.4 Ω instead.\nFortunately, there are three unpopulated 0805 sized pads on the board, marked C14, C15 and C16, so I soldered one 0.1 µF, 1 µF, and a 10 µF 0805 capacitors before I installed the 100 µF capacitor. Any run of the mill 0805 capacitor will do. But it doesn\u0026rsquo;t hurt to use a name-brand like Murata, Panasonic or similar. Here is a search for the required capacitors on Digikey.\nThe modification cuts down the noise on the power rail to one-third of what it was before the amendments! But wait, there\u0026rsquo;s more!\nNow the peak to peak values where 8.5 millivolt instead of 30 millivolt, and there\u0026rsquo;s a lot less high-frequency noise. But what happens if we increase the capacitance even higher?\nI installed a 1000 µF capacitor and knocked down the noise down to 3.6 millivolts P-P! I tried a 3300 µF, but it was a diminishing return, so I decided to keep the Panasonic FM 1000 µF 10V capacitor installed. A noise cut down from 30 to 3.6 millivolt will undoubtedly help the ADC to give more ENOB. Here\u0026rsquo;s a search for the right type of 1000 µF capacitor on DigiKey.\nImprove The Reference IC The Aneg AN8008 uses a 1.2 Volt reference IC, the ICL8069DCZQ. It\u0026rsquo;s decoupled with a 0.1 µF capacitor, but when looking at the datasheet, they recommend a 4.7 µF capacitor. So I desoldered the small 0603 and stacked two 2.2 µF capacitors in its place because I didn\u0026rsquo;t have a 4.7 µF capacitor at hand. Same as before, any run of the mill 0603 or 0805 capacitors will do. But I prefer to buy name brands. The capacitor doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to be of high voltage rating; they are there just to filter out the noise to ground.\nSo Did It Make A Difference? Yes! The meter settles on values instantly, instead of 5 seconds of drifting back and forth. The reading is also much more stable over time because it used to wander around. It\u0026rsquo;s also spot on when compared to my HP 34401A 6 ½-digit multimeter.\n[gallery link=\u0026ldquo;none\u0026rdquo; size=\u0026ldquo;medium\u0026rdquo; ids=\u0026ldquo;5795,5796,5797\u0026rdquo;]\nSo now a $25 multimeter performs even better. If you need a small portable multimeter (you can never have too many multimeters), this is a great buy! Don\u0026rsquo;t believe the CAT rating on it. I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t work with anything high voltage with this unit, but for low energy, it\u0026rsquo;s perfect. And after these modifications, it\u0026rsquo;s even better!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1742\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/images/aneng-an8008_hu_b4bab8a22d8b04bd.jpg\" srcset=\"/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/images/aneng-an8008_hu_e6860346b456b89e.jpg 360w,/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/images/aneng-an8008_hu_a9d165669efa5603.jpg 480w,/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/images/aneng-an8008_hu_f482ab14749d6efc.jpg 720w,/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/images/aneng-an8008_hu_64b31af92116d657.jpg 1080w,/aneng-an8008-modify-for-better-accuracy-faster-readings/images/aneng-an8008_hu_b4bab8a22d8b04bd.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you are on the lookout for a sub $30 Multimeter (or $15 on eBay) for working with low voltages, the best one right now in my opinion is the cute and tiny \u003ca href=\"https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32839539223.html\"\u003eAneng AN8008 TrueRMS Multimeter\u003c/a\u003e or the newer model, the \u003ca href=\"https://amzn.to/2xILzKW\"\u003eAneng AN8009\u003c/a\u003e with NCV and temperature measurement. They have a lot of functions and can measure µA current, and both are a 9999-count meter. The continuity tester is reasonably fast, but there is one little problem that bothered me. It takes 5 to 10 seconds for it to settle on a correct voltage reading. When it finally ends, it\u0026rsquo;s spot on, but the waiting is annoying. But fortunately, there is a simple fix for this problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Aneng AN8008/AN8009 Modify For Better Accuracy Faster Readings"},{"content":"Finding System Files in Finder Don’t you hate it when you need to find a .plist settings file or any other file that is in one of the Mac OS system files folders? I do. So here is a little tip on how to do global system files search directly in the Finder.\nChanging The Settings In Mac OS Finder Search When you do a regular search directly in any Finder window, you only get results from your home folder. But there is a way of fixing that.\nWrite anything in the “Search” input field in a Finder window. When you get the search results back, press the “+” icon under the search field.\nNow press the drop-down menu and choose “Other…”\nNow you have a plethora of choices of searches to choose from, but the one we want is “System files – Include system files, such as preference files and plug-ins.” Just enable it by clicking on the “In Menu” tick box.\nClick the OK button to save the changes.\nHow To Use the System Files Search in Finder Now every time you need to search for a file in the system in Finder, just press the “+” icon and choose “System files.” The window will show “aren’t included” as standard, but just select “are included” and Finder will search all your system files.\nUses? Well, if you need to reset an application\u0026rsquo;s settings, just search for the .plist file for that specific application and delete and you’re back to “as new.” (granted, this is if you know what you are doing.) Find unnecessary files from applications you’ve deleted. So there you go, now you can search everything directly from the Mac OS Finder.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/search-system-files-in-finder-mac-os/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"finding-system-files-in-finder\"\u003eFinding System Files in Finder\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDon’t you hate it when you need to find a .plist settings file or any other file that is in one of the Mac OS system files folders? I do. So here is a little tip on how to do global system files search directly in the Finder.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Search System Files in Finder Mac OS"},{"content":"Easy Way To Calibrate a Bryman BM869s Multimeter After replacing my lost Fluke 87V multimeter with a new Brymen BM869s (rebranded Greenlee in the US) about a year ago, I’ve been delighted with the multimeter. It has every possible function I could ask for and then some. It’s been my go-to meter when working on electronics projects. I do have a Siglent SDM3055 DMM that is very good, but due to its startup time, I usually reach for my Brymen BM869s when I need to measure something, and it has higher resolution. But after getting a broken HP/Agilent 34401A DMM from eBay, fixing it up and replacing all the capacitors, I now have a better reference. I’ve compared it to my friend\u0026rsquo;s calibrated 6 ½-digit multimeter, and it’s still within spec, so naturally, I want my Brymen to be as close to my HP 34401A as possible. Turns out that calibrating and adjusting the Brymen is quite easy. Here\u0026rsquo;s how to do it.\nDeciding on what to calibrate I\u0026rsquo;m only interested in changing the calibration of the DC voltage, especially the 0-50 Volt range. I seldom do anything high voltage, so that\u0026rsquo;s what I want to be adjusted. Usually, when you do a calibration, you need to go through all the calibration steps, requiring something like a Fluke 5502A, but with the Brymen you can do the first couple of calibration steps and still retain the settings. The DC steps are 0, 5, 50, 500 and 1000 Volts. I can quickly do a calibration up to 50 Volts, but I don\u0026rsquo;t have the resources or the need for the 500 and 1000 Volts.\nGetting the Brymen Multimeter in Calibration Mode There\u0026rsquo;s a manual on what you can calibrate on your Brymen Greenlee multimeter that you can download here.\nBut first, it\u0026rsquo;s time to start planning on getting your 5 and 50 Volt reference to feed the multimeter during calibration.\n5 Volt Reference First, I needed a clean 5 Volt signal. I have a Siglent SDG2042X Arbitrary Waveform Function-Generator at hand (naturally hacked to 120MHz). The DAC on that unit is 16-bit, and the output has quite low noise. So I put the function generator into DC mode and dialed it up to a bit over 5 Volts. Because I needed to get 5 Volts down to 6 ½ digit precision, I connected a multi-turn 50 kΩ potentiometer that was lying around as a voltage divider to be able to set the correct voltage.\n50 Volt Reference My bench power supply, the Rigol DP832 Programmable DC Power Supply, can only put out 30 Volts on two of the outputs and 5 Volts on the third. Luckily, the power supply outputs are floating, so all I had to do was to connect + from one of the outputs to the - on the other. After enabling \u0026ldquo;Track On\u0026rdquo;, I just had to set output 1 and 2 to 25 Volts and get 50 Volts on the two remaining terminals. Again, I used the potentiometer to make fine adjustments.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5763\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] Channel 1 and 2 connected to get 50 Volts out.[/caption]\nTime To Calibrate My Brymen BM869s The calibration procedure is the same for a lot of Brymen and Greenlee multimeters.\nFirst, turn the multimeter off While holding down Select and Hold buttons, turn the selector dial to Ω within a second. If everything worked, you should get 250,000 Ω on your multimeter display. If not, turn off and try again. It\u0026rsquo;s slightly fiddly to both press two buttons and rotate the dial. After you get the 250,000 Ω on display, rotate the selector dial to the part you want to calibrate, in my case, DC Volts. When calibrating DC voltage, the first one is 0 Volts. Just connect a short banana test lead between the COM and VOLT socket to short out the input to give you 0 Volts. On the BM869s, press the Range and Δ buttons simultaneously to get the multimeter ready. On other models, you need to push Range and the Hz buttons. Press the Range and Hold buttons to store the value. The display now shows 5.0000 V on the display. Connect the 5 Volt reference, while at the same time measuring with a good meter, and adjust the potentiometer to get to 5.00000 Volts. On the BM869s, press the Range and Δ buttons simultaneously to get ready, or Range and the Hz buttons. Press the Range and Hold buttons at the same time to store the value. The display now displays 50,000 V. Connect the power supply to the potentiometer, adjust the voltage to exactly 50 Volts. On the BM869s, press the Range and Δ buttons simultaneously to get ready, or press Range and the Hz buttons on other models. Press Range and Hold to store the calibration value for 50 Volts. If you have 500 Volts available, you can continue with the calibration, repeating the above procedure. Otherwise, you can just turn off the meter. The stored values for 5 and 50 Volts remains. Time To Test Your Multimeter Do a sanity check and compare your freshly calibrated meter with your reference meter. Voilà! You now have a calibrated meter!\nIf the meter doesn\u0026rsquo;t show the correct values, do the calibration steps above again and test. Maybe you\u0026rsquo;re like me, where the OCD goes on full alert if they don\u0026rsquo;t match!\nHappy metering\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/calibrating-brymen-bm-series-multimeter/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"image-of-a-brymen-bm869s-multimetereasy-way-to-calibrate-a-bryman-bm869s-multimeter\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Image of a Brymen BM869s Multimeter\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1498\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/calibrating-brymen-bm-series-multimeter/images/brymen-bm869s-multimeter_hu_8e0e9b559d25da89.jpg\" srcset=\"/calibrating-brymen-bm-series-multimeter/images/brymen-bm869s-multimeter_hu_76bf555277297c1e.jpg 360w,/calibrating-brymen-bm-series-multimeter/images/brymen-bm869s-multimeter_hu_40a93ae75fa60556.jpg 480w,/calibrating-brymen-bm-series-multimeter/images/brymen-bm869s-multimeter_hu_89ba9774a3a7b30c.jpg 720w\" width=\"788\"\u003eEasy Way To Calibrate a Bryman BM869s Multimeter\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter replacing my lost Fluke 87V multimeter with a new \u003ca href=\"http://www.brymen.com/PD02BM860s_869s.html\"\u003eBrymen BM869s (rebranded Greenlee in the US)\u003c/a\u003e about a year ago, I’ve been delighted with the multimeter. It has every possible function I could ask for and then some. It’s been my go-to meter when working on electronics projects. I do have a \u003ca href=\"https://siglentna.com/digital-multimeters/sdm3055-5-%C2%BD-digits-dual-display-digital-multimeters/\"\u003eSiglent SDM3055 DMM\u003c/a\u003e that is very good, but due to its startup time, I usually reach for my Brymen BM869s when I need to measure something, and it has higher resolution. But after getting a broken HP/Agilent 34401A DMM from eBay, fixing it up and replacing all the capacitors, I now have a better reference. I’ve compared it to my friend\u0026rsquo;s calibrated 6 ½-digit multimeter, and it’s still within spec, so naturally, I want my Brymen to be as close to my HP 34401A as possible. Turns out that calibrating and adjusting the Brymen is quite easy. Here\u0026rsquo;s how to do it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Calibrating Brymen BM-Series Multimeters"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5576\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] SI5351C Programmable I2C Clock Generator with 8 outputs capable of 2.5 kHz to 200 MHz. Low phase noice 27 MHz crystal with external input for Lab Reference signal, 10-100 MHz.[/caption]\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/projects/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/\"\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5576\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;]\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"435\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/projects/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard-580x435_hu_d875a1059c9ec1c7.jpg\" srcset=\"/projects/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard-580x435_hu_209b42fcd51a4df.jpg 360w,/projects/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard-580x435_hu_53d8eaebf492d657.jpg 480w\" width=\"580\"\u003e SI5351C Programmable I2C Clock Generator with 8 outputs capable of 2.5 kHz to 200 MHz. Low phase noice 27 MHz crystal with external input for Lab Reference signal, 10-100 MHz.\u003c/a\u003e[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Projects"},{"content":"SI5351C I²C breakout board with external 10-100 MHz reference Input There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of variants of the SI5351A and B series breakout boards, but no C-series which for me is the most interesting of all three. The reason is that the SI5351C has an input for an external 10 to 100 MHz reference signal so that you can use a GPSDO, atomic clock or any other lab reference instead of the onboard 27 MHz crystal. The board has eight separate outputs, which can be programmed to output any clock between non-integer-related frequencies from 2.5 kHz to 200 MHz. So you have the choice to either use the onboard low phase noise SMD crystal, or an external lab reference signal as the basis for generating the eight different clock outputs. Perfect for replacing the pesky oddball drifting crystal at 28.8MHz in an RTL-SDR or maybe make your Ham Radio equipment spot on frequency.\nThe SI5351C Board [caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5690\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;400\u0026rdquo;] Calibration result after one-hour warmup at 24 Cº[/caption]\nThe board I\u0026rsquo;ve designed has level shifting built-in, so you can use 3.3 Volt or 5 Volts without problems when programming the clock generator with I²C. I run all the boards for an hour after being tested and then calibration of the onboard crystal, using a Rubidium atomic clock, slaved to a GPSDO as a reference. The 27 MHz crystal that is used is very stable, and you\u0026rsquo;ll get decimal precision when using the included calibration value. The DC converter that I\u0026rsquo;ve used on the board has extremely low noise, thus improving the accuracy of the onboard crystal.\nExternal Reference 10-100 MHz For programming any frequency between 2.5 kHz to 200 MHz with 0 PPM, you can use the SMA input for an external reference that is between 10 to 100 MHz. Then you get an extremely accurate clock signal out from all the 8 SMA outputs. With a connected GPSDO you now have all the clocks synchronized against the reference, which makes the output clocks as exact as your reference. And today you can get a GPSDO or a Rubidium atomic clock for under $200 on eBay.\nProgramming I\u0026rsquo;ve used the excellent Arduino library Etherkit SI5351 to program the SI5351C breakout board.\nTo initialize the card, all you have to do is to specify which reference you want to use. So if you\u0026rsquo;re using the onboard 27 MHz crystal, here\u0026rsquo;s an example how to it up to output 24 MHz on channel 0.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;C\u0026rdquo;]\n#include \u0026ldquo;si5351.h\u0026rdquo; #include \u0026ldquo;Wire.h\u0026rdquo;\nSi5351 si5351;\nvoid setup() {\nsi5351.init(SI5351_CRYSTAL_LOAD_8PF, 27000000UL, -4775); // You can initialize the library with your calibration value.// Set CLK0 to output 24 MHz si5351.set_freq(2400000000ULL, SI5351_CLK0);\nsi5351.set_freq(1250000000ULL, SI5351_CLK2); // Set CLK2 to 12.5 MHz. Leaving a gap between two outputs is good practise.\n}\n[/cc]\nYou have two decimal places when setting the frequency for the output, but integers when setting the local oscillator frequency.\nNow for the fun part. If you connect a lab reference to the Ext. SMA connector, you can select to use that instead of the onboard crystal for even better performance.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;C\u0026rdquo;]\n#include \u0026ldquo;si5351.h\u0026rdquo; #include \u0026ldquo;Wire.h\u0026rdquo;\nSi5351 si5351;\nvoid setup() {\n// Initialize the Si5351 to use a 10 MHz clock input on CLKIN si5351.init(SI5351_CRYSTAL_LOAD_0PF, 10000000UL, 0); // Set PLLA and PLLB to use the signal on CLKIN instead of the XTAL si5351.set_pll_input(SI5351_PLLA, SI5351_PLL_INPUT_CLKIN); si5351.set_pll_input(SI5351_PLLB, SI5351_PLL_INPUT_CLKIN);\n// Set CLK0 to output 24 MHz si5351.set_freq(2400000000ULL, SI5351_CLK0);\n}\n[/cc]\nIn this case, I\u0026rsquo;m setting up the reference from a 10 MHz external reference from an GPSDO. Very easy. You can read more on the Etherkit SI5351 Library here. Now all the eight outputs have 0 PPM output from 2.5 kHz to 200 MHz if you have a good reference source connected.\nThe specifications of the breakout board Input voltage: 3.7 to 5.5 Volts Onboard crystal: Low phase noise 27 MHz crystal Power: Ultralow noise 9 µVrms ADP151 DC converter Inputs: External lab reference, 10 up to 100 MHz Outputs: 8 channels of clocks programmable to individual frequencies with zero PPM offset if you use the external reference.\nIf your interested in a finished card that is tested and calibrated, send an email to jacken@jacken.se (note that the board is fully populated, but does not include SMA connectors, because it\u0026rsquo;s cheaper to order them from eBay, than have me send them from Sweden)\nThis board is Open Source Hardware so you can download it here and make your own. The SI5351C is extremely small, so you need an SMD oven or SMD rework station for soldering.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"si5351c-ic-breakout-board-with-external-10-100-mhz-reference-input\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1050\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_d9e4f4483259607e.jpg\" srcset=\"/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_5fad011b66273809.jpg 360w,/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_bb0e7ecb471cae46.jpg 480w,/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_35ae20e1ae7fd8cb.jpg 720w,/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_e7cd3b145dc5565a.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1400\"\u003eSI5351C I²C breakout board with external 10-100 MHz reference Input\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere\u0026rsquo;s a lot of variants of the SI5351A and B series breakout boards, but no C-series which for me is the most interesting of all three. The reason is that the SI5351C has an input for an external 10 to 100 MHz reference signal so that you can use a GPSDO, atomic clock or any other lab reference instead of the onboard 27 MHz crystal. The board has eight separate outputs, which can be programmed to output any clock between non-integer-related frequencies from 2.5 kHz to 200 MHz. So you have the choice to either use the onboard low phase noise SMD crystal, or an external lab reference signal as the basis for generating the eight different clock outputs. Perfect for replacing the pesky oddball drifting crystal at 28.8MHz in an RTL-SDR or maybe make your Ham Radio equipment spot on frequency.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SI5351C I2C-Programmable Clock Generator breakout board"},{"content":"Can\u0026rsquo;t Remove Purgeable Disk Space Note: If you have MacOS High Sierra installed, you need this guide instead.\nWhen trying to install Bootcamp on my MacBook Pro, I had to delete a lot of files to get enough space to be able to accommodate for a Bootcamp partition on the drive. But even after removing around 60 GB of storage, MacOS Sierra could still not make a large enough partition for Windows. When checking with Disk Utility, it showed that indeed I had enough space, but there was a part called Purgeable that was impossible to move. No tools from Apple are available to handle this, but here\u0026rsquo;s how I fixed it.\n(not actually my disk, forgot to take a screenshot)\nOptimize Disk Storage Apple added a feature called \u0026ldquo;Optimize Disk Storage\u0026rdquo; in MacOS Sierra. The idea is quite good. This feature isn\u0026rsquo;t well-implemented, though. If you have it enabled in System Preferences under iCloud/iCloud Drive settings (which I think is on by default), you essentially have two different values of how much disk space you have available. One \u0026ldquo;real,\u0026rdquo; that shows exactly how much there is, and then you have the Purgeable part, that includes software that can be uninstalled on the fly and later restored if enough space is available.\nMy problem was that MacOS Sierra refused to remove the Purgeable part of the partition, so when I tried to install Bootcamp, It only showed the \u0026ldquo;real\u0026rdquo; free disk space. The issue is, I manually deleted stuff like iMovie and GarageBand with the associated files by hand using OmniDiskSweeper, which is a free and excellent application for finding and removing large unused files on your disk. But for some reason, MacOS Sierra refused to recognize that I had the free disk space. After searching the net, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t find a good solution. But after a quick hack, I\u0026rsquo;ve created an easy way of forcing MacOS to remove the \u0026ldquo;Purgeable\u0026rdquo; disk space.\nHow to remove Purgeable Disk Space First, I created a 20 GB file using the Terminal application. It\u0026rsquo;s easy enough thanks to MacOS Unix underpinnings. Open the Terminal app, found in the Utility folder in Applications. Don\u0026rsquo;t let the sparse interface scare you; this thing has superpowers!\nEnter the following:\ndd if=/dev/zero of=~/stupidfile.crap bs=20m The command creates a file named stupidfile.crap using a device available on Unix/Linux, called /dev/zero which sends zeros which we use to create a large file.\nYou could do a periodic \u0026ldquo;Get Info\u0026rdquo; in the Finder to check on how large the file is. Another is to install Brew and use it to install the great tool watch by entering the command\nbrew install watch If you do, open a new Terminal window and enter:\nwatch ls -alh ~/stupidfile.crap Now we can see how large the file is. When the data is about 10-20GB in size, press ctrl-c in the first window to stop creating a file. You can now quit the Terminal application.\nLarge file, let\u0026rsquo;s fill the disk! So now we have a large file. No need to use the /dev/random function to make a larger file, because it\u0026rsquo;s faster to duplicate the stupidfile.crap we just created. So go to your home directory, select the file stupidfile.crap and press cmd-d to duplicate the file. Just keep making several duplicates at the same time to speed things up. Now we will make a lot of copies of the file in your home directory. What we are aiming for, is to fill the disk, so the OS starts purging (hence, eating into the \u0026ldquo;Purgeable\u0026rdquo; part.)\nSooner or later you\u0026rsquo;re going to hit the magic wall, and you\u0026rsquo;ll get messages that the disk is full. Wait a while and see if it has removed parts of the Purgeable section using /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. If the system allocates more free space, keep duplicating our dummy file to fill up the disk. Sooner or later, you will have a full disk with either a very small or nonexistent \u0026ldquo;Purgeable\u0026rdquo; section on it.\nTime To Turn Off \u0026ldquo;Optimize Mac Storage\u0026rdquo; Now you can turn off that pesky Optimize Mac Storage function. So go to System Preferences/iCloud, press the iCloud Drive Options button to get to the setting. Deselect \u0026ldquo;Optimize Mac Storage.\u0026rdquo;\nNow you can remove all the dummy files we created to fill up the disk, and Voilà!, we now have access to all the empty disk space without that stupid Purgeable part there.\nSo now I could make a more substantial partition for Windows. Why a larger partition for Windows? Games of course!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-os-purgeable-remove-clear-space/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"cant-remove-purgeable-disk-space\"\u003eCan\u0026rsquo;t Remove Purgeable Disk Space\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNote:\u003c/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-os-remove-purgeable-high-sierra/\"\u003eIf you have MacOS High Sierra installed, you need this guide instead\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen trying to install Bootcamp on my MacBook Pro, I had to delete a lot of files to get enough space to be able to accommodate for a Bootcamp partition on the drive. But even after removing around 60 GB of storage, MacOS Sierra could still not make a large enough partition for Windows. When checking with \u003cstrong\u003eDisk Utility\u003c/strong\u003e, it showed that indeed I had enough space, but there was a part called \u003cstrong\u003ePurgeable\u003c/strong\u003e that was impossible to move. No tools from Apple are available to handle this, but here\u0026rsquo;s how I fixed it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Screenshot of Disk Utility showing Purgeable part of volume\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"316\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/mac-os-purgeable-remove-clear-space/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_abfe3f8e4e5940ad.jpg\" srcset=\"/mac-os-purgeable-remove-clear-space/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_989565a2fde4b11e.jpg 360w,/mac-os-purgeable-remove-clear-space/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_137dc1f705259f6.jpg 480w,/mac-os-purgeable-remove-clear-space/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_7b963afe55e162e4.jpg 720w,/mac-os-purgeable-remove-clear-space/images/purgeable-disk-utility-mac-os-x_hu_75f6409b22324fc3.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1154\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigcaption\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(not actually my disk, forgot to take a screenshot)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e","title":"MacOS How To Remove Purgeable on Hard Drive"},{"content":"\nMy wild guess is that most people get a small Linux computer, like the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Banana Pi or Orange Pi for a specific task. Unfortunately, most distributions are chock-full of software, with everything installed per default. But if you want to set up a lean single board computer for a specific task, you\u0026rsquo;re out of luck. Thankfully there is a Linux distribution, DietPi, that aims to fix that problem.\nDietPi DietPi is specifically designed to make an initially small and lean installation of Linux. It’s based on a small (400MB) optimized Debian distribution for each specific platform, which there are plenty supported. It comes with easy access to tools for installing optimized software for specific tasks. So you can install just the software you need, without the included fluff you find in other distributions. Every time you log in, you get a notice if there is an update of the system. It also shows a couple of tools specific for DietPI, which is a nice feature for those less comfortable with using Linux.\nEasy Setups, For Example as a Music Playback Endpoint If you\u0026rsquo;re not comfortable with Linux but want to build a great music player endpoint for the venerable Roon Music System or Squeezebox, DietPi makes that really easy. With the dietpi-config command tool, you can select the DAC you\u0026rsquo;re using easily and use the dietpi-software commnad to install you\u0026rsquo;re preferred playback system.\nInteresting Tools I like that it’s based on Debian, where you have the normal apt-get command, so you can install any software from the Debian repository. But there are some additions that I enjoy. One of them is dietpi-process_tool, which allows you to optimize the specific applications that you are using your small-board computer for.\nSetting the Process Priority As you can see in the screenshot, you can tweak individual processes to maximize the response of the specific server. The images are from my NodeRED Home Controller Server. It’s important that NodeRED get’s the highest priority, but I’ve also tweaked lighthttpd, MySQL, and PHP. So NodeRED gets a \u0026ldquo;nice\u0026rdquo; value of -20 and both PHP and MySQL gets nice -10. The changes do make a noticeable improvement when working with the web interface. It’s much faster and responsive than when the processes are set to the default values. This is a very handy tool to squeeze out all the performance from a single board computer.\nExtreme Settings You can totally go nuts and start to mess with the Linux Scheduling Policy if you want to. Any process can be set to\nnormal First In, First Out (Real-Time, time-critical) Round Robin (Real-Time, time-critical) Batch style execution Background jobs (Very low priority) As you can see, there’s a lot of possibilities to make your small server run at optimal speed. This is a handy and easy to use tool. My advice is to start with just changing the nice values for the processes. You can actually make the machine perform worse if your scheduling settings are wrong. It\u0026rsquo;s easy to try out different settings and see if they make any improvements.\nMy new “go-to” Linux Distribution If I need to set up a new Raspberry Pi or Odroid, DietPi is my first choice. DietPi is much smaller than the ones offered by the makers of the computers, and the tools are the same on every board. Familiarity goes a long way. That it\u0026rsquo;s Debian-based makes it even better, so yeah! And if you like it, don\u0026rsquo;t forget to donate to support further development!\nOptimised Software Here’s a list of some of the software available with an easy to use installer.\nDesktops: LXDE - Highly optimized lightweight desktop without the “bloatware”. MATE - Popular Gnome 2 desktop. XFCE - Lightweight desktop. GnuStep - Alternative/unique desktop. Chromium - Optional: Web browser Remote Desktop Access: Tightvnc Server - Desktop for remote connection. VNC4 Server - Desktop for remote connection. NoMachine - Feature rich remote desktop connection. XRDP - Remote desktop server for Windows Remote Desktop Client. RealVNC Server - Desktop for remote connection. Media Systems: Kodi - Media Centre / Player YMPD - Lightweight web Interface audio player for MPD O!MPD - Feature-rich web Interface audio player for MPD CAVA - Optional: Console-based audio visualizer for MPD Mopidy - Web Interface Music /Radio Player SubSonic - Feature rich media streaming server with web interface. SqueezeBox - Also known as Logitech Media Server. SqueezeLite - Audio player for SqueezeBox. Shairport Sync - AirPlay audio player with multiroom sync BruteFIR - EQ and Digital Room Correction via ALSA. MiniDLNA - Media streaming server (DLNA, UPnP) Ampache - Web interface media streaming server. Emby - Web interface media streaming server. Plex Media Server - Web interface media streaming server. Murmur - Mumble VoIP Server Roon Bridge - Turns your device into a Roon capable audio player NAA Daemon - Signalyst Network Audio Adaptor (NAA). IceCast - Shoutcast Streaming Server, including DarkIce. BitTorrent / Download Tools: Transmission - Lightweight BitTorrent server with web interface Deluge - Alternative BitTorrent server with web interface qBitTorrent - Lightweight and fast (c++) BitTorrent server with web interface rTorrent - BitTorrent server with ruTorrent web interface Aria2 - Download manager with web interface SABnzbd - NZB download manager with a web interface. Emulation \u0026amp; Gaming: OpenTyrian - Gaming Cuberite - Fast Minecraft server with web interface MineOS - Multiple Minecraft servers with web interface AmiBerry (uae4arm) - Amiga emulation system, using optimized builds of uae4arm-rpi DXX-Rebirth - Descent 1 \u0026amp; 2 OpenGL port Camera / Surveillance: DietPi-Cam - RPi Camera / Web Interface Surveillance MotionEye - Camera / Web Interface Surveillance Cloud / Backups: OwnCloud - Your own personal cloud-based backup/data storage system NextCloud - Your own personal cloud-based backup/data storage system Pydio - Feature-rich backup and sync server with a web interface. UrBackup Server - Full backups for systems on your network Gogs - GitHub style server, with a web interface. Syncthing - Backup and sync server with a web interface. Tonido - Lightweight backup and sync server with a web interface, and, cloud access. CloudPrint - CUPS print server, with support for Google cloud printing Social / Search: Forums - phpbb3 Wordpress - Website Blog and Publishing platform. Image Gallery - Host and browse your images from a web interface. BaiKal - Lightweight CalDAV + CardDAV server. OpenBazaar - Decentralized peer to peer market server using BitCoin. YaCy - Decentralized open source search engine.\nWiFi HotSpot WiFi HotSpot - Turn your device into a wireless hotspot/access point. Tor HotSpot - Optional: Routes all WiFi HotSpot traffic through the Tor network. Home Automation: EmonPi - Lightweight Energy usage stats with EmonPi PCB. Grasshopper - Web App to control Bticino MyHome\nHardware Projects: RPi.GPIO - GPIO Interface library for RPi (python). WiringPi - GPIO Interface library (c). WebIOPi - Web interface to control RPi GPIO. I2c - Enables support for I2c based hardware. Node-Red - Visual tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services. Mosquitto - Message broker that implements MQTT protocol versions 3.1 and 3.1.1. Blynk Server - iOs and Android apps to control Arduino, ESP8266, Raspberry Pi and similar microcontroller boards over the Internet. Remote Access: Weaved - Access your device over the internet. VirtualHere - Share physically attached USB devices from your SBC, over the network. System Stats / Management: DietPi-Cloudshell - Lightweight system stats for your LCD display or monitor. Raspcontrol - Web interface system stats Linux Dash - Web interface system stats PhpSysInfo - Web interface system stats RPi Monitor - Web interface system stats NetData - Web interface system stats Webmin - Remote system management with web interface Open Media Vault - Web interface network attached storage (NAS) solution System Security: Fail2Ban - Protects your system from brute-force attacks Webserver Stacks: LAMP Webserver - Apache2 / MySql / PHP LASP Webserver - Apache2 / SQLite / PHP LAAP Webserver - Apache2 / MariaDB / PHP LEMP Webserver - Nginx / MySql / PHP LESP Webserver - Nginx / SQLite / PHP LEAP Webserver - Nginx / MariaDB / PHP LLMP Webserver - Lighttpd / MySql / PHP LLSP Webserver - Lighttpd / SQLite / PHP LLAP Webserver - Lighttpd / MariaDB/ PHP phpMyAdmin - Web interface SQL admin tool Certbot - Free, automated SSL cert creation and setup, allowing https. Tomcat8 - Apache Tomcat server DNS Servers: Pi-hole - A DNS/Web server that will block ads for any device on your network. File Servers: ProFTP - Simple, efficient, lightweight FTP file server. Samba - Feature rich file server. vsFTPD - Feature rich FTP file server. NFS - Network file system server VPN Servers: OpenVPN - Easy to use, minimal hassle VPN server PiVPN - OpenVPN installer \u0026amp; management tool Network Load Balancing: HaProxy - High-performance TCP/HTTP load balancer. Website URL’s: NoIp - Website URL Address File Server Choices: ProFTP - Simple, efficient, lightweight file server. Samba - Feature rich file server. SSH Server Choices: Dropbear - Lightweight SSH Server OpenSSH - Feature rich SSH server with SFTP/SCP support. Log System Choices: DietPi-Ramlog - Lightweight RAM logging. Full - Full logging system with Rsyslog and Logrotate. Web server Preference System: Apache2 - Feature-rich web server Nginx - Lightweight web server Lighttpd - Extremely lightweight web server Supported Single Computer Boards Computer Model CPU RAM Raspberry Pi All Various Odroid C1 Amlogic 1.5GHz quad-core 1GB DDR3 Odroid C2 Amlogic 1.54GHz quad-core (64bit) 2GB DDR3 Odroid XU4 Samsung Exynos5422 (4x 2GHz 4x 1.4GHz) 2GB DDR3 Pine A64 A64 1.2 GHz quad-core (64bit) 512MB - 2GB DDR3 NanoPi Nano Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 256MB - 512MB DDR3 NanoPi NEO Air Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 256MB - 512MB DDR3 NanoPi NEO2 Allwinner H5 1.2 GHz quad-core (64bit) 512MB DDR3 NanoPi M1 Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 512MB - 1GB DDR3 NanoPi M1+ Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 512MB - 1GB DDR3 NanoPi M2/T2 Samsung S5P4418 1.4 GHz quad-core 1GB DDR3 NanoPi M3/T3 Samsung S5P6818 1.4 GHz octo-core 2GB DDR3 BananaPi Pro Allwinner A20 1.2GHzdual-coree 1GB DDR3 BananaPi M2+ Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 1GB DDR3 OrangePi PC Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 1GB DDR3 OrangePi One Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 512MB DDR3 OrangePi Light Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 512MB DDR3 OrangePi Plus/Plus 2 Allwinner H3 1.2 GHz quad-core 1GB DDR3 OrangePi Zero Allwinner H2+ 1.2 GHz quad-core 256MB - 512MB DDR3 Sparky SBC (Allo) Actions semiconductor S500 1.1GHz quad-core 1GB DDR3 Asus Tinker Board Rockchip RK3288 1.8GHz quad-core 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 VMware Host system dependent 1GB/Can be changed VirtualBox Host system dependent 1GB/Can be changed RoseApple Pi Actions semiconductor S500 1.1GHz quad core 2GB DDR3 ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/dietpi-lean-mean-linux-machine/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"DietPi Logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1440\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/dietpi-lean-mean-linux-machine/images/dietpi-logo_hu_a5d0aed0d3182a91.jpg\" srcset=\"/dietpi-lean-mean-linux-machine/images/dietpi-logo_hu_94e50182f13404bf.jpg 360w,/dietpi-lean-mean-linux-machine/images/dietpi-logo_hu_b1308f6deb338ab2.jpg 480w,/dietpi-lean-mean-linux-machine/images/dietpi-logo_hu_741739949ab83d98.jpg 720w,/dietpi-lean-mean-linux-machine/images/dietpi-logo_hu_6fa8526d729f7db0.jpg 1080w,/dietpi-lean-mean-linux-machine/images/dietpi-logo_hu_a5d0aed0d3182a91.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy wild guess is that most people get a small Linux computer, like the \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/RaspberryPi3-board\"\u003eRaspberry Pi\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/beaglebone-black-board\"\u003eBeagleBone\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/banana-pi-board\"\u003eBanana Pi\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/orange-pi-board\"\u003eOrange Pi\u003c/a\u003e for a specific task. Unfortunately, most distributions are chock-full of software, with everything installed per default. But if you want to set up a lean single board computer for a specific task, you\u0026rsquo;re out of luck. Thankfully there is a Linux distribution, \u003ca href=\"http://dietpi.com\"\u003eDietPi\u003c/a\u003e, that aims to fix that problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"DietPi Makes Your Raspberry Pi a Lean Mean Linux Machine"},{"content":"\nWhen you make your own NTP server, you probably spend a lot of time trying to get it as accurate and stable as possible. To get good results, you need to connect your server to a good time reference, like an atomic clock, GPS or a GPSDO to get the PPS (Pulse Per Second) to sync your server with the reference clock.\nIn both Linux and BSD, there is kernel support to slave the very inaccurate CPU clock crystal to the PPS signal, continually adjusting the frequency, because the crystals of computers continuously drift due to temperature and barometric pressure differences. So most of the work is to get a crappy crystal to behave. What if you just jumped over that step, so the CPU clock gets synchronized with the same lab reference that the PPS signal uses, using a SI5351C Clock Generator?\nRead on to see a simple way of doing it and get an extremely accurate NTP server for under $200.\nYou may be wondering why not just either buy a complete NTP server or at least use a fast Linux computer directly, instead of trying to make it as small, energy efficient and low cost as possible. But there\u0026rsquo;s a reason. I\u0026rsquo;m planning to help install a bunch of NTP servers in different countries in Africa (yes Sarah Palin, Africa isn\u0026rsquo;t a country), so I need to keep the cost down, but still have it perform very accurately. I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to get a deal with a large internet provider, so we have room to install servers in each of their nodes around the continent. Because right now, the NTP server situation in Africa is quite abysmal.\nFor fun and (no) profit! My first experiment has been with the Raspberry Pi 3. It\u0026rsquo;s a great little computer, and it\u0026rsquo;s possible to get good results on it. The Ethernet goes over the USB bus which makes it slow (besides the fact that it\u0026rsquo;s only 100Mbit/s.) So even when you have very accurate time locally on the server, when sent out to clients it degrades because of the USB to Ethernet conversion, and network latency.\nSo I looked around for another card with a proper 1Gbit Ethernet with a dedicated controller. I settled on the Odroid C2. It\u0026rsquo;s a quad-core ARM 64-bit computer, running at 1.56GHz. It has 1Gbit Ethernet, 2 GB of DDR3 RAM and runs some different flavors of Linux, so it\u0026rsquo;s perfect for my project. The below $50 price tag was a pleasant surprise as well. It also has provisions for using eMMC5.0 or SD-card, where the speed of the eMMC is much faster than the SD-card.\nThe NTP Server Setup I use a Trimble GPSDO that I bought from eBay as my local time reference, giving me both a PPS signal and two 10MHz signals (which we\u0026rsquo;ll use later) coming out from it. The signals are synchronized with the atomic clocks onboard the GPS satellites, giving me an accuracy between 10 to 50 nanoseconds. The PPS pulse is fed into one of the GPIO pins on the computer as a time reference for syncing the kernel and the NTPD server application.\nUnfortunately, the pulse width is too short for Linux to pick it up, so I\u0026rsquo;ve designed a pulse extender circuit which I\u0026rsquo;ve made Open Source Hardware, so the system can pick up the interrupt and make the adjustments. Usually, you use a feature of the Linux kernel, called PPS Consumer which adjusts the clock frequency of the entire system to get the very unstable local CPU crystal more in line with the correct time. I\u0026rsquo;ve been working for months trying to improve the latency and the stability of the kernel to make the oscillator as precise as possible.\nBut then it dawned on me. Why? Couldn\u0026rsquo;t I just replace the unstable clock with something better? My first idea was to install a more stable crystal, but you still have the problem of it drifting from the PPS signal. But I finally found a solution.\nSlaved CPU Crystal There is a clock generator IC called SI5351 from Silicon Labs. It\u0026rsquo;s an IC, where you have a local 25 or 27MHz crystal and then you can program it to output different clock signals at different frequencies between 100kHz to 200MHz, all derived from the local oscillator. Both Adafruit sells a breakout board, and there are others as well. But they use the SI5351A or SI5351B versions of the IC, where the differences are the number of outputs and that the B version can have a Voltage Controlled Oscillator. So the A version has three outputs, and the B versions have eight. But the most interesting one for me is the SI5351C, which can use an external 10-100MHz reference instead of the usual 25 or 27MHz crystal as its reference. And it also has eight outputs.\nOh, lightbulb over my head! Apparently, the solution to my problem was all there. I have an extremely accurate atomic clock that is slaved by a GPSDO that outputs a 10MHz signal. So for testing, I built a breakout board PCB and did a test. You can read all about the SI5351C breakout board here.\nThe initial test was just to see how stable it was. The data sheet for the SI5351C said that the jitter from the clock generator would be around 70 nanoseconds. So I hooked up my contraption connected to an old Arduino (for programming the frequencies via I2C) to my old modified Philips PM6665 frequency counter and let it run for 24 hours. And it was spot on. I tested a lot of different frequencies, but the CPU on the Odroid C2 is 24MHz, so I let that frequency run for a long time. And it works, without a glitch. The only thing I needed to do was to add two resistors to form a voltage divider to get down to 1.5 volts to match the voltage of the old crystal.\nOdroid C2 Modifications Time to replace the CPU crystal on the Odroid C2 with my newfangled module. Looking at the schematic, both of the capacitors C159 \u0026amp; C160 needs to be removed. We don\u0026rsquo;t need to create the phase shift anymore. The same goes for R107. And naturally the crystal itself.\nI use Capton© tape around all the components around the crystal to protect them from the heat from my SMD heat gun. A magnifying glass or microscope helps because the parts are tiny.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s how the Odroid C2 PCB looks like without the heatsink. To remove the heatsink, just press down on the two tabs and squeeze the pins together on the other side.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a closeup of the area of the clock circuit.\nAfter removing the components, it should look something like this. The crystal and C159, C160 and R107 are also removed.\nNext up, let\u0026rsquo;s connect the clock generator board to the Odroid C2 board. Try to use thin wires which makes it easier to fit the heatsink back again without a problem.\n\u0026ldquo;Yeah, I need an enclosure and shorter cables.\u0026rdquo;\nAnd here\u0026rsquo;s the experimental setup as it runs until I find a suitable enclosure.\nOn my first prototype of the SI5351C Clock Generator card, I didn\u0026rsquo;t get the interrupt pin out from the IC. The board you can download here, has the line connected. So if the external reference should fail and the interrupt pin goes high, hopefully, I can switch over to the onboard oscillator quick enough, so the Odroid C2 board doesn\u0026rsquo;t hang. Still waiting for the new version of the PCB design from China to test that.\nSo, what\u0026rsquo;s the result then? Well, I\u0026rsquo;ve been fiddling around and testing with different options. When leaving the Kernel Consumer turned on, I get very low values on the loopback statistics from NTP, but the NTPD daemon continually updates the board frequency, so it\u0026rsquo;s not as useful as just polling the PPS signal every 16 seconds in NTP. Here\u0026rsquo;s how the loopback statistics look.\nAnd this is when I have four machines on 1Gbit Ethernet, having a sh*tload of stress tests topping out at 22000 requests per second on the Odroid C2! The processor was utilizing 22% of CPU load. So if you have clients using the regular connection time of once every 64 or 1024 seconds, it can easily handle a couple of hundreds of thousand clients or more.\nSoftware I\u0026rsquo;m using the excellent Etherkit SI5351 library. To get it up and running, this is all code you need.\n#include \u0026#34;si5351.h\u0026#34; #include \u0026#34;Wire.h\u0026#34; Si5351 si5351; void setup() { // Start serial Serial.begin(115200); // Initialize the Si5351 to use a 10 MHz clock input on CLKIN si5351.init(SI5351_CRYSTAL_LOAD_0PF, 10000000UL, 0); si5351.drive_strength(SI5351_CLK0, SI5351_DRIVE_8MA); // Set PLLA and PLLB to use the signal on CLKIN instead of the XTAL si5351.set_pll_input(SI5351_PLLA, SI5351_PLL_INPUT_CLKIN); si5351.set_pll_input(SI5351_PLLB, SI5351_PLL_INPUT_CLKIN); // Set CLK0 to output 24 MHz for CPU clock on Odroid C2 si5351.set_freq(2400000000ULL, SI5351_CLK0); // Set CLK2 to output 25 MHz for Ethernet si5351.set_freq(2500000000ULL, SI5351_CLK2); // Set CLK4 to output 12 MHz for USB controller si5351.set_freq(1200000000ULL, SI5351_CLK4); } void loop() { // Read the Status Register and print it every 10 seconds si5351.update_status(); Serial.print(\u0026#34; SYS_INIT: \u0026#34;); Serial.print(si5351.dev_status.SYS_INIT); Serial.print(\u0026#34; LOL_A: \u0026#34;); Serial.print(si5351.dev_status.LOL_A); Serial.print(\u0026#34; LOL_B: \u0026#34;); Serial.print(si5351.dev_status.LOL_B); Serial.print(\u0026#34; LOS: \u0026#34;); Serial.print(si5351.dev_status.LOS); Serial.print(\u0026#34; REVID: \u0026#34;); Serial.println(si5351.dev_status.REVID); delay(10000); } As you can see, I\u0026rsquo;m planning to replace the crystals for both Ethernet and USB as well. Why? Why not? It\u0026rsquo;s there!\nThere is a pin header for turning on or off the Odroid C2, so I\u0026rsquo;m planning to have the Odroid turned off until the SI5351C is fully configured, then turn on the computer. I\u0026rsquo;ll put up the schematic (one transistor!) when I finalize the enclosure and software.\nThe SI5351C Breakout Board It uses a low noise 3.3-volt regulator; I have also added level shifting so that you can use both 5 Volt Arduino or if you prefer, any microcontroller that can do I2C at 3.3 Volt.\nNaturally, this board can be used for a lot of other exciting stuff as well. How about a VFO for you HAM-guys out there or maybe time to replace those drifting crystals in your Ham-radio? With a cheap U-Blox GPS receiver and some modifications, you can get the reference 10MHz frequency you need. And you will be accurate down a couple of decimal places. Go nuts! You can read more about the board here.\nSo I decided to release the board as Open Source Hardware so that you can download it here. If you\u0026rsquo;re not up to doing SMD soldering (the SI5351C is 3x3mm, so you need an SMD oven), you can send me an email because I\u0026rsquo;m going to make some for sale. You can contact me at jacken@jacken.se\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/ntp-server-extreme-accuracy-for-under-200/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/si5351c-i2c-frequency-clock-generator-breakout-board/\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1050\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/ntp-server-extreme-accuracy-for-under-200/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_d9e4f4483259607e.jpg\" srcset=\"/ntp-server-extreme-accuracy-for-under-200/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_5fad011b66273809.jpg 360w,/ntp-server-extreme-accuracy-for-under-200/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_bb0e7ecb471cae46.jpg 480w,/ntp-server-extreme-accuracy-for-under-200/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_35ae20e1ae7fd8cb.jpg 720w,/ntp-server-extreme-accuracy-for-under-200/images/SI5351C_breakoutboard_hu_e7cd3b145dc5565a.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1400\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you make your own NTP server, you probably spend a lot of time trying to get it as accurate and stable as possible. To get good results, you need to connect your server to a good time reference, like an atomic clock, GPS or a GPSDO to get the PPS (Pulse Per Second) to sync your server with the reference clock.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn both Linux and BSD, there is kernel support to slave the very inaccurate CPU clock crystal to the PPS signal, continually adjusting the frequency, because the crystals of computers continuously drift due to temperature and barometric pressure differences. So most of the work is to get a crappy crystal to behave. What if you just jumped over that step, so the CPU clock gets synchronized with the same lab reference that the PPS signal uses, using a SI5351C Clock Generator?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRead on to see a simple way of doing it and get an extremely accurate NTP server for under $200.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"NTP Server Extreme accuracy for under $200 Using SI5351C"},{"content":"So you need to replace the soldering iron on your Atten 8502D Soldering Station. You could just buy the heating element, but you can find a complete soldering iron with cable for less than $12 on eBay. So It\u0026rsquo;s easier just to replace the whole thing.\nIt Doesn\u0026rsquo;t Work! I have ordered replacement irons before (I\u0026rsquo;m very rough with my soldering station) just to find out that they don\u0026rsquo;t work. You get the dreaded S-E or H-E message on display and, obviously, something is wrong. What do you do now? Read on to find out.\nHow to Make It Work Usually, the soldering iron has the wrong pins soldered to the connector. The eBay listing says that it works with Atten 8502D, but apparently, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t. So time for some testing.\nUnscrew the tip of the soldering iron so you can pull out the small PCB inside the handle. The heating element has two colored wires and two white ones.\nThe white cables are for heating, and the colored ones are the temperature sensor. Use the continuity tester on your multimeter and check that the white wires are attached to the leads that go to pin 5 \u0026amp; 6. The polarity doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter because it\u0026rsquo;s AC.\nThen use the ohm setting on your multimeter between the two colored wires. The resistance should go up when you hold your hands on the heating element and settle down again when blowing on the element. If it does, you know that you have a working heat sensor on the heating element.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5450\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;400\u0026rdquo;] The wrong Pinout, pin 3 should be on pin 2[/caption]\nThese two wires should be connected to pin 1 and 2. So do a continuity test to find out which pins they are attached to. Finally, you have to open the connector and move the cables to the correct location.\nAtten 8502D Pinout So here are the pinouts of the Atten 8502D Soldering Station.\n-Temp +Temp NC. NC. Heater Element Heater Element Center pin: GND The +temp pin was soldered to pin 3 on my latest soldering iron, so all I had to do was to move it to pin 2. Finally a working soldering station again.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Atten 8502D Soldering Station image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/images/atten-8502d-solder-station_hu_5394f9628b41f8de.jpg\" srcset=\"/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/images/atten-8502d-solder-station_hu_1aad528ade15bc67.jpg 360w,/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/images/atten-8502d-solder-station_hu_e1717946ac58b9d1.jpg 480w,/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/images/atten-8502d-solder-station_hu_50707bb55064ebb.jpg 720w,/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/images/atten-8502d-solder-station_hu_194bb48dca95e5e8.jpg 1080w,/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/images/atten-8502d-solder-station_hu_5394f9628b41f8de.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003eSo you need to replace the soldering iron on your \u003ca href=\"https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4\u0026amp;toolid=11800\u0026amp;pub=5575287361\u0026amp;campid=5338068209\u0026amp;mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2FTrimble-GPS-Receiver-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-sine-and-square-wave-%2F252162780444%3Fhash%3Ditem3ab612ad1c%3Ag%3AudkAAOSwhcJWQCPM\"\u003eAtten 8502D Soldering Station\u003c/a\u003e. You could just buy the heating element, but you can find a \u003ca href=\"https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4\u0026amp;toolid=11800\u0026amp;pub=5575287361\u0026amp;campid=5338068209\u0026amp;mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2FSOLDERING-STATION-IRON-for-ATTEN-AT936b-AT937b-AT8586-AT8502D-ESD-SAFE-50W-OZ-%2F261560957888%3Fhash%3Ditem3ce63f7bc0%3Am%3AmEumb655kUeUaFD4SrTh61w\"\u003ecomplete soldering iron with cable for less than $12 on eBay\u003c/a\u003e. So It\u0026rsquo;s easier just to replace the whole thing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"it-doesnt-work\"\u003eIt Doesn\u0026rsquo;t Work!\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have ordered replacement irons before (I\u0026rsquo;m very rough with my soldering station) just to find out that they don\u0026rsquo;t work. You get the dreaded S-E or H-E message on display and, obviously, something is wrong. What do you do now? Read on to find out.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Atten 8502D Pinout Replacement Iron Heating element"},{"content":"How to add an I2C interface to a Sonoff WiFi Smart Switch. The Sonoff brand is a whole series os IOT devices that use the esp8266 WiFi processor internally. The devices are easily hacked and are cheap. The Sonoff WiFi Smart Switch is the most straightforward device, which can turn on or off 110/220 Volt 10 Ampere remotely. That means you can have your ceiling fan, lamp or anything else connected t mains power remotely controlled by your phone or computer. But the software that comes with it isn\u0026rsquo;t very flexible and cannot be integrated into a home control system like NodeRED, OpenHAB or any other home automation system.\nFirmware The Sonoff devices are easy to hack, so you can put a better firmware like ESPEasy on it and integrate the device with any system. ESPEasy has an extensive list of extra modules that you can connect, like temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, light sensors, PIR sensors and a long list of other things.\nBut most modules connect with I2C, which is a serial interface for interconnecting ICs using a clock and a data line. The Sonoff Switch only have one extra pin available, making it impossible to connect more advanced sensors. But there is a way of fixing that. Here\u0026rsquo;s how to add that to add an I2C connector to your $5 Sonoff and open up a whole field of stuff you can do.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s upgrade the firmware! To be able to upgrade the firmware, you have to open the enclosure and find the five holes in the center of the PCB and solder a female header for easy programming. As you can see in the picture, I\u0026rsquo;ve already soldered in a 5-pin header. (Click image to enlarge). I have marked the pinouts in the i.\nTo be able to program the new firmware, you need a USB to TTL Serial Adapter. You need an adapter that is 3.3 volts compatible. Connect the 3.3 Volt on the USB adapter to the 3.3 Volt input on the Sonoff. Do the same for ground. RX on the adapter should go to TX, and TX on the adapter goes to RX. Yes, they are crossed over, too young to remember RS232 and Null-cables, you whippersnapper?\nBut don\u0026rsquo;t connect mains power! You should never have the Sonoff device connected to mains power when upgrading firmware! The USB Serial Adapter provides 3.3 Volts needed by the esp8266. Doing it wrong is a good way of getting a punk hairdo or maybe wings and a harp\u0026hellip;\nNow, all you have to do is to download the firmware and follow the instructions here to install it. The size of the memory on the Sonoff WiFi Switch is 1024k as standard. Either do the upgrade with the available memory or maybe you want to increase the memory of your Sonoff? Read on\u0026hellip;\nUpgrading The Memory If you want to make your Sonoff future-proof, there is a way of updating from 1MB of memory to 4MB. This is handy as the ESPEasy firmware evolves and get\u0026rsquo;s more substantial. Or maybe you want to write your own code and need the space? If you plan to do OTA[1], you need double the memory of the size of your program. You can do wireless updates without having to resort to using the USB to Serial adapter after the first install. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a must because ESPEasy works with just 1MB, but it\u0026rsquo;s better to have 4MB.\nI prefer to isolate plastics and other heat sensitive parts with heat resistant Capton® tape. I use a hot air soldering station to remove the old memory IC, but you can use a soldering iron. Just fill the tip of the iron with a big blob of solder and heat all of the legs on one side of the IC at the same time while bending the chip up carefully with a screwdriver. Then you do the same thing on the other side.\nThe replacement IC is called Winbond W25Q32FVSIG, and you can get 10 of them for around $3 on eBay. Make sure that the dot-marking indicating pin 1 is lined up correctly and solder on the new IC. Now you have a 4MB Sonoff! Naturally, if you flashed the firmware before upgrading you need to flash the firmware on the new memory chip.\nSonoff WiFi Smart Switch with I2C Now let\u0026rsquo;s add I2C to the Sonoff Switch.\nYou\u0026rsquo;ll find the esp8266 IC on the underside of the PCB. We need to solder two small wires to the pins on the esp8266 to get I2C. We need to solder the wires directly to the esp8266 IC because the pins are not connected to anything on the PCB.\nThe processor doesn\u0026rsquo;t have hardware I2C support, so you can use two free pins to connect, but usually (and in ESPEasy), GPIO4 and GPIO5 are used for I2C connections. Here I have soldered a thin wire to pin 24, which is GPIO5(SCL).\nAfter you soldered the wire, make sure to glue the wire to the PCB. Hot glue works fine. This keeps the wire in place and doesn\u0026rsquo;t snap when routing the wire later. Then I soldered a wire to pin 16, which is GPIO4(SDA) and hot glued it to the PCB. You now have the hardest part done!\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_5417\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] Yeah, it looks like an enormous amount of glue, but it\u0026rsquo;s a couple of millimeters.[/caption]\nYou need a good magnifier glass or preferably a microscope designed for working with SMD components.\nIf you use thin wire, you can just take it up between the enclosure and the PCB. I added a 4-pin female header connector and soldered a 90-degree male header that I connect to the programming pins. Then I just soldered the 3.3 Volt, GND, the two I2C wires to the connector. Everything you need to connect a module using I2C.\nOn the first one I made, I glued the female header on the PCB approximately where you can see it in the image above and made a hole in the enclosure cover. On the latest one, I just made an opening on the top of the box and hot glued the connector there. Install the cover and connect it to the thing/things you want to be able to turn on/off. Now with I2C, it can do double duty as a temperature sensor, dust sensor or many other possibilities. And now your Sonoff can connect several I2C sensors on the same pins. Pretty cool!\nConfiguring ESP Easy Now it\u0026rsquo;s time to try it out. After you\u0026rsquo;ve done the initial setup of the Sonoff device, select \u0026ldquo;Devices\u0026rdquo; in the setup menu. Select the sensor you just connected to your Sonoff. In this case, I have attached a BME280 Temperature, Barometric Pressure, and Humidity sensor.\nWhen you select the sensor, you get the setup screen for the selected device.\nNow you can specify the number of decimals and even do calculations, for example, adjusting the Pressure to accommodate for height over sea level. Just enter %value%+4.0 in the Formula Pressure field to add 4 to the hPa value. Just remember that you can\u0026rsquo;t use spaces in formulas.\nThe values are sent to the MQTT broker that you configured, or to another Home Automation System.\nHere is an example of my Node RED server with Mosquitto MQTT broker that I use for controlling all the stuff at home. This one turns on the ceiling fan when it gets too hot in the bedroom. I can adjust the settings for temperature via a web browser.\n[gallery type=\u0026ldquo;slideshow\u0026rdquo; size=\u0026ldquo;large\u0026rdquo; ids=\u0026ldquo;5439,5438,5442\u0026rdquo;]\nOver The Air updates. A way of programming the esp8266 via WiFi instead of having to upgrade with a USB to Serial adapter cable. ? ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/sonoff-switch-i2c/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"how-to-add-an-i2c-interface-to-a-sonoff-wifi-smart-switch\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/sonoff-switch-i2c/images/sonoff-wifi-switch.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1000\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/sonoff-switch-i2c/images/sonoff-wifi-switch_hu_a513419d9e429f58.jpg\" srcset=\"/sonoff-switch-i2c/images/sonoff-wifi-switch_hu_b8eb69b5ac055277.jpg 360w,/sonoff-switch-i2c/images/sonoff-wifi-switch_hu_416c26c48874e2cc.jpg 480w,/sonoff-switch-i2c/images/sonoff-wifi-switch_hu_568c24d09e14f74f.jpg 720w\" width=\"1000\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eHow to add an I2C interface to a Sonoff WiFi Smart Switch.\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://sonoff.itead.cc/en/\"\u003eSonoff brand\u003c/a\u003e is a whole series os IOT devices that use the esp8266 WiFi processor internally. The devices are easily hacked and are cheap. The \u003ca href=\"https://sonoff.tech/product/diy-smart-switch/basicr2/\"\u003eSonoff WiFi Smart Switch\u003c/a\u003e is the most straightforward device, which can turn on or off 110/220 Volt 10 Ampere remotely. That means you can have your ceiling fan, lamp or anything else connected t mains power remotely controlled by your phone or computer. But the software that comes with it isn\u0026rsquo;t very flexible and cannot be integrated into a home control system like \u003ca href=\"https://nodered.org\"\u003eNodeRED\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.openhab.org\"\u003eOpenHAB\u003c/a\u003e or any other home automation system.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"firmware\"\u003eFirmware\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Sonoff devices are easy to hack, so you can put a better firmware like \u003ca href=\"https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php/ESPEasy\"\u003eESPEasy\u003c/a\u003e on it and integrate the device with any system. ESPEasy has an extensive list of extra modules that you can connect, like temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, light sensors, PIR sensors and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php/ESPEasy#Applications\"\u003elong list of other things\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut most modules connect with I2C, which is a serial interface for interconnecting ICs using a clock and a data line. The Sonoff Switch only have one extra pin available, making it impossible to connect more advanced sensors. But there is a way of fixing that. Here\u0026rsquo;s how to add that to add an I2C connector to your $5 Sonoff and open up a whole field of stuff you can do.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Sonoff WiFi Smart Switch With I2C Port"},{"content":"What kind of impedance does this coax cable have? Sometimes you dig around in your parts bin, desperately searching for a bit of coax cable to make a new connector to your fantastic whizzbang widget. If you find a piece of cable without markings, how do you know if it\u0026rsquo;s 75Ω, 50Ω or some other impedance? Well, here are two easy ways of finding out.\nMeasure twice, calculate once To calculate the cable impedance, you only need to use the simple formula:\nBut how do you get the inductance and capacitance of your bit of cable? Just take a piece of the cable (just a short piece is enough) and measure the capacitance between the center core lead and the shield of the cable on one end of it. You need an accurate unit with four wire measurement capability which in my case is an excellent and cheap DER EE DE-5000 handheld LCR Meter.\nNow let\u0026rsquo;s hook the cable up to the LCR-Meter.\nAs you can see, the measured Capacitance of the cable is 10 pF.\nCable Inductance Next up is the inductance. You have to remove some of the insulation on the other side of the cable and short out the center pin to the shield. Then use the LCR Meter and measure the inductance at the open end of the cable.\nSo now lets short out the other end of the cable and measure.\nHere, the inductance of the cable is 100 nH.\nYou should now have two values, the Capacitance in pF and the Inductance in nH.\nSo let\u0026rsquo;s plug in the values into my trusty calculator:\nWhat? That can\u0026rsquo;t be right? This result had me stumped for a while. I was certain that the cable I\u0026rsquo;ve used for illustration was 75Ω. So I remeasured and came to the same results. A quick Google search shows that the cable, Bedea RG-62 is in fact 93Ω. So close enough. As you can see, the results are close enough to distinguish between 50Ω, 75Ω, 100Ω or any other type of coaxial cable. So now you have a quick way of checking the impedance of cables you bought from a Ham-Fest or just some random cable hidden in the cable drawer.\nAnother Way of Measure Cable Impedance I have written an article about measuring the velocity factor of a cable. You can use the same technique to send a short pulse through the wire and check the reflection. By adding a potentiometer at one end of the cable and sending a short pulse through it, you could adjust the potentiometer until the reflected signal is at the lowest value. By measuring the Ω value of the potentiometer when you get the least reflected signal back to the oscilloscope, you then know the impedance of the cable.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/cable-impedance-how-to-measure/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"what-kind-of-impedance-does-this-coax-cable-have\"\u003eWhat kind of impedance does this coax cable have?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"742\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/cable-impedance-how-to-measure/images/coaxcable_hu_317ac5b4800ac3b2.jpg\" srcset=\"/cable-impedance-how-to-measure/images/coaxcable_hu_2550fd2ce83ede47.jpg 360w,/cable-impedance-how-to-measure/images/coaxcable_hu_f60ea1a86c2d025e.jpg 480w,/cable-impedance-how-to-measure/images/coaxcable_hu_2be5a7924d08d01e.jpg 720w,/cable-impedance-how-to-measure/images/coaxcable_hu_3a588d097792c7d0.jpg 1080w,/cable-impedance-how-to-measure/images/coaxcable_hu_317ac5b4800ac3b2.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSometimes you dig around in your parts bin, desperately searching for a bit of coax cable to make a new connector to your fantastic whizzbang widget. If you find a piece of cable without markings, how do you know if it\u0026rsquo;s 75Ω, 50Ω or some other impedance? Well, here are two easy ways of finding out.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cable Impedance How to Measure It"},{"content":"With the resurgence of good Hi-Fi, where more and more people buy good headphones and listen to a lot of music thanks to streaming, it\u0026rsquo;s sad to see the things the mastering engineers (and in the end the artist) do to music. The recordings are getting worse. Even old records that get the \u0026ldquo;Remastered\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;Expanded\u0026rdquo; treatment doesn\u0026rsquo;t sound as good as the original. Why?\nAs Loud As Possible! The Loudness War Everyone wants to one upon another by making their record \u0026ldquo;hotter,\u0026rdquo; making it overly compressed. It compresses the dynamic range of the music, so it sounds equally loud, which makes it sound perfect for people listening to music on a 1-inch speaker on a transistor radio. It has been going on for a long time, and It\u0026rsquo;s popularly known as the \u0026ldquo;Loudness War.\u0026rdquo; To master it that way made sense back when people consumed their music through transistor radios in their cars, where the engine sound drowned out the songs. Or maybe their boomboxes at the beach. But look around, most people listen to music with headphones today. A lot of people use the crappy headphones that come with their phones, but more and more people upgrade to better sounding headphones. But even with crappy headphones, some dynamic range makes music sound so much better.\nMastering Engineer, Guess What? It Doesn\u0026rsquo;t Work! All streaming services use ReplayGain (or equivalent), which calculates the dynamic range, maximum loudness and compensates when played back, making music being equal in loudness when played back. So if you do it the old, \u0026ldquo;let\u0026rsquo;s crank it up to max to make it louder!\u0026rdquo; doesn\u0026rsquo;t work anymore. Quite the opposite. Your song will play back at a lower volume than a more dynamic recording of streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.\nExample? This isn\u0026rsquo;t just a problem with new recordings done today. Every time you see the dreaded \u0026ldquo;Remastered\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;Expanded,\u0026rdquo; you can be almost sure that some asshat has cranked everything to 11, and in the process squeezed the life out of the music. You can\u0026rsquo;t listen to more than two songs before you get listener fatigue.\nSo let\u0026rsquo;s look how bad it is. Let\u0026rsquo;s take a classic alternative Rock album \u0026ldquo;Goo\u0026rdquo; by Sonic Youth. This is from their released CD on Mobile Fidelity. Pay close attention to the round ring, where the green line shows variations in the dynamics of the recording. The highest peak is just under the 0dBFS recoding level you can have on a CD because unlike analog recordings, digital sounds horrible when clipping.\nOk, so let\u0026rsquo;s take a look at a high resolution 24-bit, 192KHz \u0026ldquo;Remastered\u0026rdquo; version from HDTracks.com. Check out how the mastering engineer (or artist) managed to compress the living hell out of the dynamics of the recording, making it equally loud almost the entire song. Check out that green line. Like a brick wall. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me started why on earth they released this in 192KHz either. There\u0026rsquo;s only extra signal to heat up your tweeter if you have an excellent speaker system. Or maybe having bats flying into barns.\nThe thing is, you can hear this clearly when you compare, and will never touch the \u0026ldquo;remastered\u0026rdquo; version again.\nAs you can see from the frequency bandwidth, it seems like the mastering engineer had access to the analog master tape, because there is information beyond 22KHz. But they managed to destroy the album. The album is from 1990, so it pre-dates digital recording. If you listen to the CD version and then switch to the \u0026ldquo;high-res\u0026rdquo; remastered version, you can\u0026rsquo;t stand hearing for many seconds before giving up.\nThis is not an anomaly; most recordings get this treatment when they do \u0026ldquo;Remastering.\u0026rdquo; And if you wonder why vinyl LP\u0026rsquo;s are having a comeback, here\u0026rsquo;s one reason. You can\u0026rsquo;t make vinyl too hot, because the pickup will jump out of the groove.\nWant To Check? I\u0026rsquo;ve used to use the free program Audacity but found a German company called XiVero that does an excellent suite of audio programs. MusicScope is a unique application (and AU-plugin) for checking out why albums sound better or worse. You can see the amount of compression, dynamic range, and frequency response. It\u0026rsquo;s also great to check for another, far less known problem.\nInter-Sample Peaks When music producers, mastering engineers or anyone working with audio, they usually work entirely in the digital domain. When checking levels, they rely on the digital level meter, that shows how close to clipping they are. The problem is that they usually don\u0026rsquo;t have a clue on how a DAC works when converting the digitally recorded signal back to the analog domain. You can have a recording which never reaches the \u0026ldquo;red\u0026rdquo; level on the meter, but when a couple of samples are at or near 0 dB, the DAC interpolates the signal, making the resulting signal higher and dutifully clips the signal.\nIf you have a quality DAC, like the Benchmark DAC2 HGC, they designed the DAC to have a +3 dB \u0026ldquo;headroom,\u0026rdquo; and a lot of other quality DACs can handle inter-sample peaks, but the cheaper ones found in phones and computers? Not so much. And paying $2000 to fix a problem that shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be there in the first place? Not the best reason for choosing a DAC. Although, If I had $2000 I would happily buy a Benchmark DAC, for the audio quality alone.\nSo how do Inter-Sample Peaks look like? Here you go. This is \u0026ldquo;Felt\u0026rdquo; by Garbage. Fitting name.\nCheck the green (now mostly red) line, showing when inter-sample peaks rear its ugly head.\nWhy is this a problem, I can\u0026rsquo;t hear it? Take a song with a lot of inter-sample peaks, and run it through an MP3 or AAC converter and look at the result. It\u0026rsquo;s even worse. Here, let me do it for you.\nLook Ma! I made it even worse! Maybe I have the chops to be in the music business after all!\nBy the way, if you take apart Apples script for testing audio to be labeled \u0026ldquo;Mastered for iTunes,\u0026rdquo; it checks for precisely this. How hard can it be?\nThere\u0026rsquo;s a lot of information available on the internet, like this or this on why and how.\nYeah, I know that you can use it as an artistic expression (I like Iggy Pop\u0026rsquo;s mix of Raw Power better than David Bowie\u0026rsquo;s, even though everything is cranked to 11), but for god sake, get a grip!\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been working on a high-end headphone amplifier for the last eight month, and it sounds fantastic. Many of my friends tease me, saying \u0026ldquo;why the gear when you only listen to old punk records anyway?.\u0026rdquo; The funny thing is, the old punk records have more dynamic range than most of the modern pop records.\nGo figure\u0026hellip;\nThe EU Volume Cap \u0026ldquo;In October 2008, the European Commission warned that listening to personal music players at a high volume over a sustained period could lead to permanent hearing damage. As a result, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) amended its safety standard for personal music players.\nNow all personal music players sold in the EU after February 2013 are expected to have a default sound limit of 85dB. The user can choose to override the limit so that the sound level can be increased up to maximum 100dB. If the user overrides the limit, warnings about the risks must be repeated every 20 hours of listening time.\u0026rdquo;\nWhen I\u0026rsquo;m on a roll ranting, let\u0026rsquo;s take up another pet peeve I have. EU has put a volume cap on all portable music players, like phones or DAP\u0026rsquo;s, so they aren\u0026rsquo;t allowed to output more than 85dB. So an iPhone sold outside of EU has more amplification. The snag? The measurements are made with the crappy headphones that come with the unit. They design their headphones for maximum efficiency, not audio quality. That means that when you connect headphones that need more power, the volume is too low. So you need to invest in an external amplifier or DAC/amplifier combination to be able to use better headphones.\nThis is insane! I\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure that bad headphones do more damage than high volume due to distortion. There used to be a patch for the iPhone firmware to remove the volume cap, but it doesn\u0026rsquo;t work anymore. Total insanity.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/images/cover.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1432\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/images/cover_hu_61ecba71692a7c6.jpg\" srcset=\"/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/images/cover_hu_5152d796025ce675.jpg 360w,/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/images/cover_hu_ebad9fc78747483c.jpg 480w,/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/images/cover_hu_94a3577cbc277a4b.jpg 720w,/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/images/cover_hu_3369a47b66e810a5.jpg 1080w,/how-to-destroy-a-record-mastering/images/cover_hu_61ecba71692a7c6.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eWith the resurgence of good Hi-Fi, where more and more people buy good headphones and listen to a lot of music thanks to streaming, it\u0026rsquo;s sad to see the things the mastering engineers (and in the end the artist) do to music. The recordings are getting worse. Even old records that get the \u0026ldquo;Remastered\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;Expanded\u0026rdquo; treatment doesn\u0026rsquo;t sound as good as the original. Why?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How To Destroy a Record Mastering"},{"content":"\nI needed a cheap heatsink for my Raspberry Pi 3 that I use as a music player/server. To maximize performance, I wanted to overclock the computer for faster searching and handling of all my music. I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to overclock my central Stratum-1 NTP server to 1350MHz without any problems, but the dinky little aluminium heatsink was way to anaemic, so I found a very cheap DIY solution to my question. With this heatsink, I can run the Raspberry Pi 3 at 1.5GHz all day at full tilt without any issues!\nDIY Heatsink When it comes to heat dissipation, there\u0026rsquo;s no substitute for size and the right material. Copper is massive and has excellent heat transfer abilities, so I searched and found cheap GPU heatsink shims that were 15x15 mm for under $8 including shipping. All I needed to do was to stack a lot of them on top of each other while having them protrude on each side for heat dissipation as you can see in the picture. A pleasant side effect is that the heat sink isn\u0026rsquo;t high, so I can have my DAC-card mounted without a clearance problem. So I got some cheap heatsink compound and regular super glue and just put the heatsink compound on each copper plate, leaving space in the middle for a small dab of glue. Yes, I super glued the copper plates directly on the CPU, because, hey, a Raspberry Pi is cheap!\nAnd the results are excellent!\nOverclock settings Here are the settings in the setup file /boot/config.txt for the overclocking part.\n# Overclocking arm_freq=1500 sdram_freq=550 over_voltage=6 temp_limit=85 #Will throttle to default clock speed if hit. Running the command\nsysbench --num-threads=4 --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=2000000 run For over an hour, the temperature never exceeds 65 C° and this while at the same time playing 24-bit 192KHz audio. Raspberry Pi 3 mounted inside a box with a DAC card added on top! Not exactly optimal, thermal wise. I\u0026rsquo;ve waited two months before writing this up because I wanted to make sure it would work in the long run. It\u0026rsquo;s now been running continuously now without any glitches. So the next step is to try the same thing on my NTP server. It\u0026rsquo;s going to be interesting to find out if I can go higher than 1350MHz that it\u0026rsquo;s currently running when installing in my 3D printed case with a fan on top. Hoping for 1.5GHz on this one as well naturally.\nDoing More Useful Stuff A commenter mentioned that doing a kernel compile would simulate the hard use of the Raspberry Pi 3 better, so I downloaded the source code and did two compiles after each other of the entire kernel source. Highest temperature? 66.6 C° or 150.8F. Must be working with a daemon that made it come up with that number.\n\u0026ldquo;The Number of the Beast!\u0026rdquo;\nPower I was just a bit curious how much current the Raspberry Pi 3 would draw because I have a 5 Volt, 1 Ampere power supply and there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of talk about needing 2 Ampere. I used my beloved YZXstudio USB Power Meter to check how much current it uses and to my surprise it only used around 560 milliAmpere, using up about 2.8 watts. The Raspberry Pi 3 running with 100% load on all four cores. The DAC wasn\u0026rsquo;t running when testing though. I had to double-check that number because I thought it would be much higher, but it\u0026rsquo;s correct. Nothing connected to the USB ports and no screen attached. But pretty good!\nMaybe I just got lucky with this card, and it\u0026rsquo;s a fluke because there are differences between cards. But I think this is an excellent alternative to the cheap aluminium heat sinks that everyone is selling anyway.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Raspberry-Pi-3-DIY-heatsink\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"715\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-DIY-heatsink_hu_67a39a2b09ce17a2.jpg\" srcset=\"/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-DIY-heatsink_hu_f00788e6c0d5a25.jpg 360w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-DIY-heatsink_hu_65cf75858f4d4beb.jpg 480w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-DIY-heatsink_hu_6c48030ecddd55d1.jpg 720w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-DIY-heatsink_hu_1d0459da1a6c7bca.jpg 1080w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-DIY-heatsink_hu_67a39a2b09ce17a2.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI needed a cheap heatsink for my Raspberry Pi 3 that I use as a music player/server. To maximize performance, I wanted to overclock the computer for faster searching and handling of all my music. \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/\"\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve managed to overclock my central Stratum-1 NTP server to 1350MHz without any problems\u003c/a\u003e, but the dinky little aluminium heatsink was way to anaemic, so I found a very cheap DIY solution to my question. With this heatsink, I can run the Raspberry Pi 3 at 1.5GHz all day at full tilt without any issues!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi 3 Overclocking Heatsink Cheap"},{"content":"A friend of mine bought a new amplifier, but he wasn\u0026rsquo;t pleased with the sound. So he called me and asked if I could recommend a good old amplifier that could drive smaller speakers because he likes the aesthetic of older things. And the venerable NAD 3020B was the first one that came to mind. When I was young, this was the first affordable amplifier that sounded good.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s not a powerhouse by any means, putting out (a very conservative estimate) 2 x 20 watts. But the phono stage accepts both MM and MC pickups which is excellent, and the sound quality is exceptional. So he scoured the used market and finally found a NAD 3020B. Unfortunately, when he got it home, there was a loud hum from the output. So I told him to send it to me so I could fix it.\nTime to take the amplifier apart and start doing some troubleshooting.\nIt has a bottom plate that is held in place by a few screws, so access to the components is easy. But to get to the main power capacitors, there is a metal bracket on the underside that needs removing. The bracket is held down by screws from the upper side and the front and the rear. It\u0026rsquo;s easy to start measuring once you remove it.\nA Humming NAD 3020B The hum had a low frequency, so I guessed that the main power capacitors were dried out. If that happens, the power supply can\u0026rsquo;t filter the ripple from the bridge rectifier, giving the amp a low hum.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re using a regular multimeter, you can\u0026rsquo;t measure the capacitors in-circuit because the voltage the multimeter puts out is enough to activate components on the circuit board, screwing up the measurements. So I usually start with my Signstek MESR-100 V2 ESR meter, a cheap meter that uses a low voltage, high-frequency sine wave to test the capacitors. That means that you can check components in-circuit without problems. Very handy!\nSo how did one of the main power capacitors measure up? Not to well I would say, which wasn\u0026rsquo;t a surprise. I continued to measure a bunch of other capacitors as well, and they were even worse. It was clear that I needed to either just give up or replace all the capacitors. I opted for the latter. My curiosity on how the amplifier would sound was too big only to give up. Just to make sure, I desoldered a couple of caps from the power supply and the amplifier stage and used a high-quality meter, my DER EE DE-5000 Handheld LCR Meter to check the state of the caps. This meter can measure θ - phase angle, D (aka tan δ) dissipation factor, ESR, Q, series and parallel inductance, series and parallel resistance.\nBy the way, the DER EE DE-5000 is the same meter as the company IET Labs sells. But they will empty your wallet by taking three times the price for the same meter. Brand name and all.\nWell, the measurements didn\u0026rsquo;t improve, let\u0026rsquo;s leave it at that. Some of the larger ones measured ESR in the 1k Ω range. You don\u0026rsquo;t see that every day!\nTime To Turn Shopaholic So time to go through the schematic and check all the capacitors I needed. A long list emerged. I choose to use only high-quality components so that the amplifier would last at least for thirty more years, if not longer. So only Panasonic FM, Nichicon and Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors for electrolytic capacitors and Wima for smaller caps. I opted to replace some of the smaller caps in the signal path with Wima capacitors. I also increased the capacitance and voltage rating on the main power supply caps. Instead of the 85 Cº grades of the old ones was replaced with 105 Cº rated ones. So the amplifier should be able to take a lot of abuse.\nMaking Life Easier The NAD 3020B schematic and the repair manual I got for the amplifier was scanned ones I found on the internet. The scanned quality was terrible, so I had to continually flip the amp over to see where the components where. But I gave up and took a photo of the upper side and the lower side and used Photoshop, lining up the images and turning down the transparency of one of the layers, giving me a good picture of the placements of the components. Click on the image for an enlargement.\nGoodie Bags! Yes, I admit, I love to get quality components. Getting a big bag of quality capacitors delivered by my friendly DHL courier makes me smile. Call me a nerd.\nFortunately, I bought a cheap but good Chinese vacuum desoldering station a couple of months ago, so replacing the capacitors was very easy. The NAD 3020B model is famous for having very sensitive copper planes on the PCB, which lifts quickly, but I had no problem when using the desoldering station.\nSo Was It Worth It? After measuring the transistors to make sure they were in good shape and adjusting the bias, I powered up the amplifier after connecting a pair of home built speakers, and the hum was gone. And it sounded good! Good! I spent a couple of hours just leaning back, enjoying the music. Success!\nThe Result I went over to my friend\u0026rsquo;s apartment, and we first listened to his newly bought Onkyo A-9010 amplifier connected to a pair of Bang \u0026amp; Olufsen speakers with a matching subwoofer. It sounded ok, but a bit recessed midrange. Time to hook up the NAD 3020B. We tried CD first, and sound quality was much better! I couldn\u0026rsquo;t try out the RIAA-stage beforehand because of a broken vinyl player, but to my relief, it worked perfectly. So we spent a couple of hours enjoying the music and drinking a lot of wine.\nSo If you can get your hands on an old NAD 3020 and have the means to restore it, go for it.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/images/nad-3020b.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Photo of a NAD 3020B Amplifier\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"756\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/images/nad-3020b_hu_91e380c0f8d22638.jpg\" srcset=\"/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/images/nad-3020b_hu_960ee0f5a9b2ff45.jpg 360w,/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/images/nad-3020b_hu_f58f45b626da5e14.jpg 480w,/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/images/nad-3020b_hu_dc49486ab0510e85.jpg 720w,/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/images/nad-3020b_hu_57eb46178f3039a8.jpg 1080w,/nad-3020b-amplifier-classic-worth-restoring/images/nad-3020b_hu_91e380c0f8d22638.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eA friend of mine bought a new amplifier, but he wasn\u0026rsquo;t pleased with the sound. So he called me and asked if I could recommend a good old amplifier that could drive smaller speakers because he likes the aesthetic of older things. And the venerable NAD 3020B was the first one that came to mind. When I was young, this was the first affordable amplifier that sounded good.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s not a powerhouse by any means, putting out (a very conservative estimate) 2 x 20 watts. But the phono stage accepts both MM and MC pickups which is excellent, and the sound quality is exceptional. So he scoured the used market and \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/nad3020-amplifier\"\u003efinally found a NAD 3020B\u003c/a\u003e. Unfortunately, when he got it home, there was a loud hum from the output. So I told him to send it to me so I could fix it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"NAD 3020B Amplifier A Classic Worth Restoring"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been really annoyed with Eagle PCB because it has a bug on Mac OS X for a long time. When working with a PCB, pressing the middle button on the mouse for scrolling a layout, the program crashes. Thankfully I found a workaround.\nWorkaround It\u0026rsquo;s really simple actually. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t work in all situations, because there are some serious problems with the scrolling part, but here\u0026rsquo;s one way of improving the chance of not having crashes. When starting Eagle PCB it normally opens the latest project you\u0026rsquo;ve been working on. Here\u0026rsquo;s the thing, don\u0026rsquo;t start working on the project! Close both the schematic and layout file. Then it\u0026rsquo;s just a matter of opening the document again and everything is much less prone to crashing. Weird? You bet, but it\u0026rsquo;s a workaround.\nIf a document continues to constantly crash, I usually uses \u0026ldquo;Save As\u0026hellip;\u0026rdquo; and give it a new name and that sometimes also improves the chance of not getting crashes.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/eagle-pcb-crash-scrolling-mac-os/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"eagle-logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"600\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/eagle-pcb-crash-scrolling-mac-os/images/eagle-logo_hu_8558d29b7136be5e.png\" srcset=\"/eagle-pcb-crash-scrolling-mac-os/images/eagle-logo_hu_837b42d3fa78f16e.png 360w,/eagle-pcb-crash-scrolling-mac-os/images/eagle-logo_hu_94a7e9ce266fea26.png 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been really annoyed with \u003ca href=\"https://cadsoft.io\"\u003eEagle PCB\u003c/a\u003e because it has a bug on Mac OS X for a long time. When working with a PCB, pressing the middle button on the mouse for scrolling a layout, the program crashes. Thankfully I found a workaround.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Eagle PCB Crash when Scrolling Mac OS X"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_4974\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;400\u0026rdquo;] Raspberry Pi 3 Overclocking Case Enclosure[/caption]\nThe results are in: I\u0026rsquo;ve been very busy with different projects, and one of them requires a custom enclosure. So I thought it would be an excellent excuse to learn Fusion 360. When the Raspberry Pi 3 came out, I did some overclocking experiments. But I settled with just passive cooling with some small aluminum heatsinks. But after seeing some tests done with a more massive copper heatsink combined with a cooling fan, I decided that I wanted to build a case with a silent fan with enough room for a large heatsink. I need it for my NTP server at ntp.jacken.se to get better performance.\nSo time to dig into Fusion 360. I like the interface and building the box was a lot of fun. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of great tutorials on Youtube on how to get started, and Autodesk has a lot of suitable material as well. I built everything with parametric variables, so I can quickly change things like wall thickness, height, etc. and everything automatically adjusts accordingly.\nAirflow I\u0026rsquo;ve tried to plan the best airflow through the box. The fan sucks in air through the vents on the side and from the bottom of the case, where I have put an air intake for cooling the RAM chip. I\u0026rsquo;m going to experiment with the raisers for the PCB so I can put a heatsink on the RAM as well. The other opening is on the side to funnel fresh air over the copper heatsink and have the hot air exiting at the top. I\u0026rsquo;m going to try to find a 5-volt fan, but otherwise, I\u0026rsquo;ll just build a small boost converter, taking 5 volts from the Raspberry Pi and convert it to 12 volts. It wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be too much of a problem to use PWM to regulate the fan speed as well. Then it can adjust the fan speed as needed.\n3D Printing Thankfully I have a friend at my old workplace, where they have an UltiMaker 2 3D printer, so I\u0026rsquo;ll have a prototype in a couple of days. It\u0026rsquo;s going to be interesting to see if the clearances are correct from the published drawings of the Raspberry Pi 3.\nIf everything fits, it\u0026rsquo;s time to start finding the most massive copper heatsink I can install and begin to push the envelope of overclocking on the Raspberry Pi 3. But even if I am not able to overclock more, at least the CPU will run around 50˚C instead of 70-75˚C.\nUpdate: Got a prototype printed on an UltiMaker 2. Yay! The results I put my Raspberry Pi 3 NTP server in my new case and adding an eBay boost converter to get 12 Volts from the 5 Volt pin on the Raspberry Pi 3 and adding a Gelid Solutions Silent 5 fan. I ran sysbench five times in a row while checking the temperature and when overclocking to 1.4 GHz, it hovered around 68-69˚C and stayed there when the processor was running at full tilt. I lowered the voltage to the fan to around 7 Volts, so It runs silent, and it still worked with the anemic little aluminum heatsink I have. It\u0026rsquo;s now running dead silent and stable at 1400 Mhz. As you can see from the statistics screenshot, the machine when overclocked to 1350 Mhz used to hover around 54˚C, it now stays around 42˚C when running 1.4 GHz and the memory running at 550 Mhz. I call that a success.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-enclosure/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_4974\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;400\u0026rdquo;]\u003cimg alt=\"Image of Raspberry Pi 3 Overclocking Case Enclosure\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1214\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-enclosure/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-overclock-case_hu_d22e835e2da8e740.jpg\" srcset=\"/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-enclosure/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-overclock-case_hu_bfc5d780073d6cf0.jpg 360w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-enclosure/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-overclock-case_hu_b67e817272a9aef5.jpg 480w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-enclosure/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-overclock-case_hu_df81e18ed11a38f6.jpg 720w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-enclosure/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-overclock-case_hu_5a793dd1bdf63ac.jpg 1080w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-enclosure/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-overclock-case_hu_d22e835e2da8e740.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e Raspberry Pi 3 Overclocking Case Enclosure[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Results\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe results are in:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e I\u0026rsquo;ve been very busy with \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/\"\u003edifferent projects\u003c/a\u003e, and one of them requires a custom enclosure. So I thought it would be an excellent excuse to learn \u003ca href=\"http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview\"\u003eFusion 360\u003c/a\u003e. When the \u003ca href=\"http://amzn.to/2pu1TWP\"\u003eRaspberry Pi 3\u003c/a\u003e came out, I did some \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/\"\u003eoverclocking experiments\u003c/a\u003e. But I settled with just passive cooling with some small aluminum heatsinks. But after seeing some tests done with a more massive copper heatsink combined with a cooling fan, I decided that I wanted to build a case with a silent fan with enough room for a large heatsink. I need it for my NTP server at ntp.jacken.se to get better performance.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi 3 Overclocking Enclosure"},{"content":"I haven\u0026rsquo;t had time to update the blog because I\u0026rsquo;ve been busy designing a new headphone amplifier. There\u0026rsquo;s been a lot of development when it comes to operational amplifiers and I was curious about how well I can get an amplifier to measure using the latest technology. The op amp I\u0026rsquo;m using still hasn\u0026rsquo;t got a development board, so I make one myself. The op amps are 5x5mm in PVQFN-20, so you need to use an SMD soldering gun or oven to be able to solder them. I simulated the circuit with both LTSpice and TINA90, but left biasing resistors and some other stuff in good old fashion though-hole components for easy testing.\nTrying to test the unit with programs like RMAA with a EMU 0404 USB Audio card isn\u0026rsquo;t good enough. I\u0026rsquo;m essentially measuring the noise floor of the EMU. So next step is to test it on an Audio Precision Audio test equipment and hopefully get some better data.\nPower Supply I\u0026rsquo;m going to develop this in two steps. First step was getting the amplifier prototype up and running. During testing I used my RIGOL DP832 3 Outputs Programmable DC Power Supply, feeding the amp ±15 V to the board. I then used a wall-wart AC adapter, making it a voltage doubler and splitting the supply into positive an negative rail. I already had a PCB made for another project, so I just cut out the parts I didn\u0026rsquo;t need. When measuring it using my LNMP using jellybean parts like the classic 7815/7915 the noise floor on the power supply is around 1 mV. The final power supply are going to use Texas Instruments 1 amp DC converters with 4µV/15µV noise floor. The opamp has very high PSRR and CMRR, so it\u0026rsquo;s kinda overkill using these components, but it\u0026rsquo;s an experiment how well you can measure it, without thinking about cost. But even with the \u0026ldquo;bad\u0026rdquo; power supply, it sounds insanely great!\nSo now I\u0026rsquo;m waiting for the new revision of the amplifier board and will send the new power supply design to China. Looking forward to get the new PCBs.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Jacken Headphone Amplifier\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"747\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/images/Jackenhack-Headphone-Amplifier_hu_6ff705565297c047.png\" srcset=\"/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/images/Jackenhack-Headphone-Amplifier_hu_e77e8079e5e9e3ce.png 360w,/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/images/Jackenhack-Headphone-Amplifier_hu_a38dc380db5aabeb.png 480w,/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/images/Jackenhack-Headphone-Amplifier_hu_d15064df3f1170c.png 720w,/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/images/Jackenhack-Headphone-Amplifier_hu_aa8df71d8f2d3e31.png 1080w,/high-performance-headphone-amplifier/images/Jackenhack-Headphone-Amplifier_hu_6ff705565297c047.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003eI haven\u0026rsquo;t had time to update the blog because I\u0026rsquo;ve been busy designing a new headphone amplifier. There\u0026rsquo;s been a lot of development when it comes to operational amplifiers and I was curious about how well I can get an amplifier to measure using the latest technology. The op amp I\u0026rsquo;m using still hasn\u0026rsquo;t got a development board, so I make one myself. The op amps are 5x5mm in PVQFN-20, so you need to use an SMD soldering gun or oven to be able to solder them. I simulated the circuit with both \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/use-ltspice-iv-windows-version-mac-os/\"\u003eLTSpice\u003c/a\u003e and TINA90, but left biasing resistors and some other stuff in good old fashion though-hole components for easy testing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"High Performance Headphone Amplifier"},{"content":"After becoming a full-fledged time-nut (I\u0026rsquo;m compiling a new Linux kernel on my second NTP server as we speak), I have started to use the statistics that I usually install on a server just to keep a check on it. Sure, when installing something like MRTG, it\u0026rsquo;s great to see if something is clogging the system, but mostly, it\u0026rsquo;s unused. But when working with an NTP server a lot of factors start to make a difference. The temperature of the processor (the whole computer actually, mostly due to crystal drift), the load of the CPU\u0026rsquo;s, etc.\nStatistics I\u0026rsquo;m currently using MRTG to do the necessary measurements like network load, CPU temperature, and load. But I\u0026rsquo;m going to install a Bosch BMP180 sensor tonight so that I can have ambient temperature and barometric pressure. These are other things that can affect the performance of both the crystals on the server and Ethernet card (in this case, it\u0026rsquo;s a Raspberry Pi, so it\u0026rsquo;s the same crystal :-( ), but also the GPS receiver. Here you can find some great advice here on how to setup your monitoring of the NTP server. There\u0026rsquo;s also a lot of useful information on how to build and set up a Raspberry Pi Stratum-1 NTP server, although some of the data is a bit outdated.\nHardware I\u0026rsquo;m using a U-blox Neo 7M GPS module that I bought on eBay with a pigtail connector and a better antenna. But I\u0026rsquo;m only using the GPS module to get the necessary time down to seconds because the GPS unit is a generic navigational type, not a time-precision unit like the NEO-M8T or LEA-M8T. Instead, I\u0026rsquo;m feeding the 1 PPS signal from a Trimble GPSDO to get better sub-second performance.\nBut the new server is using a board by HAB Supplies designed especially for the Raspberry Pi using a U-Blox MAX-M8Q, still, a consumer GPS unit, so it\u0026rsquo;s going to be fun to compare the performance compared to a \u0026ldquo;real\u0026rdquo; time GPS. My confidence in the board is not high though. With the board I got the power and PPS LED indicators didn\u0026rsquo;t work. The power LED is missing (It\u0026rsquo;s broken off the board) and the transistor driving the PPS led is dead.\nI connected my oscilloscope and checked both the serial communication and the 1 PPS signal, and they are both working, but with a broken off power LED and a non-working transistor that is supposed to drive the Timepulse LED, it\u0026rsquo;s hard to debug. I\u0026rsquo;ve contacted HAB Supplies two days ago, but still haven\u0026rsquo;t got a reply for a replacement board, so I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to desolder the broken components and repair the board myself. That will spare me the hassle of having to send the board to England and then wait for a replacement.\nThe funny thing is, I\u0026rsquo;m ordering stuff from China on eBay all the time and have never gotten a broken piece of kit, but when ordering from Europe it doesn\u0026rsquo;t work. Things are changing.\nA Better GPS board If your thinking of buying the HAB Supplies board, here\u0026rsquo;s my tip. Buy the Adafruit Ultimate GPS HAT for Raspberry Pi instead or if you have soldering skills, get a generic U-Blox GPS module on eBay for $8 and connect that to a Raspberry Pi. You only have to solder one little wire from a resistor to get the PPS signal out. Then you can attach it to GPIO pin 18 on the Raspberry Pi. You also need to connect 3.3V power, GND, RX and TX signal and your up and running.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-stratum-1-ntp-server-statistics/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-stratum-1-ntp-server-statistics/images/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-statistics-pps-gps.png\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"MRTG main screen for a NTP server\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1650\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-stratum-1-ntp-server-statistics/images/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-statistics-pps-gps_hu_e3677e28331a3b01.png\" srcset=\"/raspberry-pi-stratum-1-ntp-server-statistics/images/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-statistics-pps-gps_hu_a221c33b454c383c.png 360w,/raspberry-pi-stratum-1-ntp-server-statistics/images/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-statistics-pps-gps_hu_a707305cad6ae012.png 480w,/raspberry-pi-stratum-1-ntp-server-statistics/images/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-statistics-pps-gps_hu_c7d64d4abe5d6946.png 720w,/raspberry-pi-stratum-1-ntp-server-statistics/images/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-statistics-pps-gps_hu_c1423e31ac0313fd.png 1080w\" width=\"1275\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eAfter becoming a full-fledged \u003ca href=\"http://leapsecond.com/time-nuts.htm\"\u003etime-nut\u003c/a\u003e (I\u0026rsquo;m compiling a new Linux kernel on my second NTP server as we speak), I have started to use the statistics that I usually install on a server just to keep a check on it. Sure, when installing something like MRTG, it\u0026rsquo;s great to see if something is clogging the system, but mostly, it\u0026rsquo;s unused. But when working with an NTP server a lot of factors start to make a difference. The temperature of the processor (the whole computer actually, mostly due to crystal drift), the load of the CPU\u0026rsquo;s, etc.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi Stratum-1 NTP Server Statistics"},{"content":"I wanted to get a distribution amplifier for my 10 MHz lab reference signal from my GPSDO to feed my equipment, like my timer/frequency counter, signal generator, and other stuff. I also needed a way to distribute a 1 PPS signal from my Trimble GPSDO to my NTP servers and other clocks and monitoring systems. The Trimble only got two 10 MHz outputs and one 1 PPS signal output, so I needed to add more, especially for experimentation.\nI saw this video by Gerry Sweeney where he modifies an Extron 300MX video distributions amplifier, adding a rubidium reference standard and was intrigued. But I changed the modifications to fit my needs and here is the result.\nI got hold of an Extron ADA 4 300MX HV, a model where there are only four outputs per inputs, instead of six for the RGB and sync inputs. As you can see in the picture, there are plugs in the extra two outputs per row. But it was easy to upgrade to the more prominent model by desoldering a termination resistor and solder in a new 50 Ω BNC connector. But my first order of business was to try to lower the noise of the switching power supply inside the unit, feeding the Texas Instrument CLC409[PDF] opamps used to distribute the RGB channels.\nI could have made it easier for myself by replacing the switching power supply with a linear one. But I was curious about how much work it would be to try to filter out the switching noise, and my experience working with switching power supplies are very limited. So it was an excellent excuse to read up on how they work and how to get the noise level down.\nSwitching Noise The power supply on the backplane has an LT1376 1.5A, 500kHz Step-Down Switching Regulator. But the electrolytic capacitors and the inductor are on the same side as the connectors, which makes space a problem when they designed the power supply. There\u0026rsquo;s no room for large capacitors. There\u0026rsquo;s also one 7805 and 7905 DC voltage regulator for the +-5 volt rails, where they\u0026rsquo;ve put a ferrite bead on the negative 7905 input to keep the noise down. And there\u0026rsquo;s always more noise on the negative rail.\nFirst order of business was to find a good point to do the noise measurements. I wanted the test point as close as possible to the op-amps, so I made small coils of wire that I soldered to the ground side of one of the decoupling SMD capacitors, so I didn\u0026rsquo;t need to use a long ground lead on the oscilloscope probe. It acts like an antenna and picks up a lot of noise, making noise measurement impossible.\nThen it\u0026rsquo;s just a matter of sticking the oscillator probe in the coil and put the measuring pin at the voltage rail side of the SMD capacitor.\nEven after passing through the 7805/7905 DC regulators, the rail was noisy. They have a decent PSRR, but we\u0026rsquo;re talking about switching noise at 500 kHz, so a lot of it goes through the DC converter. There is decoupling very near the op-amps, so some of the noise gets filtered out, but I added low ESR catalytic capacitors (Panasonic FM-Series) on the back side of the board, where there\u0026rsquo;s lots of space.\nI also added some storage buffers on each rail by soldering 10 µF tantalum capacitors on both the positive and negative rails on each op-amp. Naturally, I put one of the tantalum capacitors the wrong way, so I had a beautiful explosion when I turned on the power. Holy Moly, how tantalums goes up in magic smoke! It fried the CLC409 in the process. So I had to use my SMD desoldering heat gun to remove the faulty op amp and start to find a replacement. The LMH6702 op-amp has replaced the CLC409 as it is now obsolete. An improved version with better specs, so I ordered two and replaced both op amps on the upper row to get six outputs with the \u0026ldquo;nicer\u0026rdquo; ones.\n1 PPS Distribution My first thought was to use the sync circuit already on the board, just like Garry Sweeney did in his video, but the output looked horrible! First a lot of switching of the signal back and forth, but also a lot of pre and post ringing. So I decided to rebuild the 1 PPS distribution myself. All I wanted was input with hysteresis and no ringing if possible. So I used a 74AC14 Hex Inverter with Schmitt Trigger Input [PDF] which has hysteresis on the input signal and makes an output signal with speedy rise time without ringing. I then took that inverted signal and fed it into a 74AC04 Hex Inverter and connected two outputs with a 100 Ω resistor on each output for more drive capability. My initial plan was to use four outputs with 200 Ω resistors, but two seems to be enough.\nNaturally, there will be some propagation delay, but by using the 74AC line, which is much quicker than the regular HC series of IC, you get a faster circuit. The delay is higher than I would have liked, but it should come down when I make a PCB using SMD components and not the hodgepodge I\u0026rsquo;m using now. The outputs of the board, mounted inside the box are connected with long wires going directly to the outputs. So I can shorten the cables considerably when I get the PCBs by installing it directly on the main PCB.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_4901\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;3264\u0026rdquo;] Testing the circuit[/caption]\nThe output signal looks nicer on the scope than the signal coming out from the Trimble GPSDO. The upper, yellow line is the output from the buffer; the bottom blue signal is from the GPSDO. No more ringing.\nI now feed the GPSDO through a box that widens the pulse width of the PPS signal from 10 µS to around 50% duty cycle.\nFuture Modifications I\u0026rsquo;m waiting for some ferrite beads that fit on the legs of the 7805. So one on the input and one on the output. I have also built an LC filter that I\u0026rsquo;ll put in front of the DC regulators to minimize the switching noise. There is an excellent article by the late Jim Williams called Minimizing Switching Regulator Residue in Linear Regulator Outputs [PDF] where different ways of minimizing switching noise are discussed and measured. A great read.\nOutput Bandwidth I\u0026rsquo;m not going to use the amplifier for anything higher than 10 MHz, but I did measure the bandwidth as far as I could go with my equipment, which is 120 MHz. I fed the input with a sine wave with a 1-volt peak to peak with 50 Ω termination with my Siglent SDG 2042X and measured the signal on my Rigol 1054Z. I increased the frequency, waiting for the signal to go 3dB down, measured at 0.707 volts on the oscilloscope. The signal generator can output sine waves to 120 MHz, and the scope has a bandwidth of 100 MHz, but it works up to 120 MHz (I\u0026rsquo;ve hacked the scope and the signal generator). The lowest measured value was around 0.900 Volts, so the bandwidth is a lot higher than 120 MHz.\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_4817\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;800\u0026rdquo;] 1 Vpp at 10 MHz[/caption]\nAnd at 100 MHz\n[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_4818\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;800\u0026rdquo;] 0.914 Vpp at 100 MHz[/caption]\nThere\u0026rsquo;s plenty of bandwidth if I need it. That is not surprising when checking the data sheet for the LMH6702; it had 720 MHz bandwidth at 2 Vpp. The old CLC409 op-amps have a 350 MHz bandwidth at 2 Vpp. But op amps with this kind of specs are notoriety fickle, so they oscillate easily. Decoupling is paramount.\nSo far I\u0026rsquo;m happy with the results. I want to get the noise floor down on the positive and negative rails as far as possible. Not because I need to, but because It\u0026rsquo;s fun to improve and measure. All the equipment locks to the lab reference signal without problems, and my Siglent signal generator outputs nicer sine waves when fed through the amplifier at higher frequencies than when using the internal oscillator. And it\u0026rsquo;s bang on when it comes to accuracy.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/reference-10-mhz-distribution-amplifier/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Extron Ada 4 300MX Video Distribution Amplifier\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/reference-10-mhz-distribution-amplifier/images/extron-ada-4-300mx_hu_3b0a474d4a650bf4.jpg\" srcset=\"/reference-10-mhz-distribution-amplifier/images/extron-ada-4-300mx_hu_9292ae8f4556d4e2.jpg 360w,/reference-10-mhz-distribution-amplifier/images/extron-ada-4-300mx_hu_cad3a0b212b9feda.jpg 480w,/reference-10-mhz-distribution-amplifier/images/extron-ada-4-300mx_hu_cbcbf4b328876aa6.jpg 720w,/reference-10-mhz-distribution-amplifier/images/extron-ada-4-300mx_hu_bc0e50276f0b6256.jpg 1080w,/reference-10-mhz-distribution-amplifier/images/extron-ada-4-300mx_hu_3b0a474d4a650bf4.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003eI wanted to get a distribution amplifier for my 10 MHz lab reference signal from my \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_disciplined_oscillator\"\u003eGPSDO\u003c/a\u003e to feed my equipment, like my \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/philips-fluke-pm6665-pm6669-ocxo-pcb/\"\u003etimer/frequency counter\u003c/a\u003e, signal generator, and other stuff. I also needed a way to distribute a 1 PPS signal from my Trimble GPSDO to my NTP servers and other clocks and monitoring systems. The Trimble only got two 10 MHz outputs and one 1 PPS signal output, so I needed to add more, especially for experimentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chrzrod3tQY\"\u003eI saw this video by Gerry Sweeney\u003c/a\u003e where he modifies an \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/extron-dist-amp\"\u003eExtron 300MX video distributions amplifier\u003c/a\u003e, adding a rubidium reference standard and was intrigued. But I changed the modifications to fit my needs and here is the result.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"DIY Reference 10 MHz Distribution Amplifier"},{"content":"\nWarning: as of yet, there is no official support for overclocking the Raspberry Pi 3, so you could damage your small computer. Just a reminder.\nUpdate: I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to make a DIY heatsink for the Raspberry Pi 3 for $4, and it\u0026rsquo;s running stable at 1.5GHz. Click here to read.\nThe new version of Raspberry Pi 3 was released yesterday, so I naturally had to get two. I\u0026rsquo;m using two as Stratum-1 NTP servers, and with the old Raspberry Pi 2, I had hit the roof when it came down to getting better time resolution. So when I read that a new 50% faster version had been released, I raced to the nearest store and got a couple. I have one experimental NTP server that isn\u0026rsquo;t handing out time on the internet and another one that is the primary server, connected to the NTP Pool Project.\nI installed the experimental Raspberry Pi 3 first, so I could test performance and try to overclock it. And it went very well.\nOverclocking Naturally, I want to get the most out of the Raspberry Pi 3, so I got some small heat sinks. There\u0026rsquo;s one larger for the CPU/GPU, so that was easy enough. But then it got confusing. What to do with the other two smaller heatsinks included in the \u0026ldquo;overclock kit\u0026rdquo; for the Raspberry Pi. The immediate instinct is to put it on the other large IC, but after searching for SMSC LAN9514 I realized it was the controller for Ethernet and USB and had a hard time trying to understand why the Internet was full of pictures of people putting a heatsink on a network/USB controller. I wanted to overclock the processor and memory. The memory chip is on the underside of the board, so I decided to put both of the smaller heatsinks on the SDRAM instead. Seems to me to be a better place to put a heatsink. But It comes with a problem. Space. Most enclosures for the Raspberry Pi doesn\u0026rsquo;t have enough room for heatsinks on the bottom side of the card. Fortunately, my board uses spacers, so I could use longer standoffs and fit the board correctly, even putting a wee bit of pressure on the heatsinks to help with the cooling.\nOverclock Testing Time to fire the new Raspberry Pi 3 up and try to get the max performance out of it. I booted it with the already installed Linux Raspian, and all worked as normal, just\u0026hellip;you know, faster. Time to test. First I put the CPU cores in \u0026ldquo;Performance\u0026rdquo; mode so they wouldn\u0026rsquo;t go down to a slower speed. A Raspberry Pi have different CPU modes like conservative, on demand, userspace, power save and performance. When the processor has a light load, it goes into power saving mode, that switches to a lower CPU speed. So I put all the CPU cores in performance mode by writing the following command line.\necho \u0026#34;performance\u0026#34; |sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor I wrote a small shell script to monitor the CPU speed and the temperature to be able to see if it gets too hot during my experiments.\nI created a file called check_cpu_speed_temp.sh\npico check_cpu_speed_temp.sh and wrote:\ncat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq /opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp Now it was time to try how much I could overclock it. I opened the config.txt file in the /boot/ directory and changed the arm_freq setting to:\narm_freq=1400 I rebooted and everything looked good. So to test if the Raspberry Pi 3 would be stable under heavy load I wrote this on the command line, just to get the cores working at 100% CPU usage:\nfulload() { dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null | dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null | dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null | dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null \u0026amp; }; fulload\nThis just creates four threads that copy zeros into /dev/null, the Linux equivalent of a digital trashcan. This puts all four cores at close to 100% all the time.\nI started the small shell script, having it update every two seconds by writing:\nwatch ./check_cpu_speed_temp.sh\nAnd watched as the temperature climbed. It stopped around 58-59 °C and stayed there. The next step, going up to 1.45 GHz didn\u0026rsquo;t work, the machine refused to boot. So I put the SD-card in my Macbook Pro and edited the /boot/config.txt, adding voltage boost by adding the line:\narm_freq=1400 over_voltage=6 Now the machine booted up without a problem. I managed to run the Raspberry Pi 3 at 1.5 GHz but decided not to overdo it. I compromised and settled on a CPU frequency of 1.45 GHz.\nIf you want to kill the processes that bog down the CPU, just write killall dd and they will stop.\nMemory Overclocking Next step, overclock the memory speed. It seems like the new Raspberry Pi 3 has the same SDRAM memory as the Raspberry Pi 2. The standard rate is 400 MHz. I tried to bump it up, but it maxed out at 500 MHz. So I added sdram_freq=500 in /boot/config.txt. It worked perfectly. Next up was 550, but then the machine got unstable, so I settled for 500.\nGraphics I haven\u0026rsquo;t tried to increase the speed of the GPU. My Raspberry Pi runs as a headless server, but I realize that the GPU speed is connected to the speed of the L2 cache, so maybe this is something to experiment with at a later time. Raspberry Pi 2 and newer have separate L2 Cache between CPU and GPU.\nRunning Your Raspberry Pi 3 at Full Speed All The Time If you add the following two lines, your Raspberry Pi 3 will run at full speed all the time. Doing this will guarantee that you\u0026rsquo;re violating your warranty if something goes wrong. Just a warning.\nforce_turbo=1 Not all Raspberry Pi 3 are created equal So I now had a Raspberry Pi 3 that run with 1000 MHz more combined processing power than the standard one and with a speed boost of the SDRAM. Naturally, I had to try it out on my other unit. No such luck. As soon as I tried to increase the CPU speed, it quickly climbed to over 80 °C and became unstable. So It seems like you have to cross your fingers when it comes to the possibility to overclock your Raspberry Pi 3. I quickly moved the faster card to my main server, because it is the one that needs the most speed.\nIs the Raspberry Pi 3 faster? I\u0026rsquo;m running the two Raspberry Pi as NTP-servers. Here\u0026rsquo;s a before-after plot of the time resolution on my Stratum-1 NTP-server loopback statistics.\nNano Second Raspberry Pi 3 NTP Server The servers precision has gone from 0.95367431640625 µS calculated precision to 0.476837158203125 µS. So I\u0026rsquo;m now in the nanoSecond territory on my Stratum-1 NTP-server. Unfortunately, the Raspberry Pi\u0026rsquo;s Ethernet goes through USB at 100Mbit/sec, so that\u0026rsquo;s a bottleneck.\nThe overclocked Raspberry Pi 3 has now been running for 24 hours, handing out time to thousands of computers and it is stable as a rock. Update 2016-03-16: Still running one of the Raspberry Pi 3\u0026rsquo;s at 1350 MHz and 500 MHz memory settings and it\u0026rsquo;s rock solid.\nSo it seems like it\u0026rsquo;s a crap shoot if you\u0026rsquo;re going to be able to overclock your Raspberry Pi 3. I got lucky with one of the cards. And let\u0026rsquo;s face it, a 1.2 Quad Core 64-bit computer for $40 is fantastic!\nBenchmarking the Overclocked Raspberry Pi 3 After comments about the overclocking not working, here are my results. The test program seems to be a single thread, but I can debunk the idea of the processor going slower when overclocking.\nStandard Raspberry Pi 3 - no overclocking\nBYTEmark* Native Mode Benchmark ver. 2 (10/95) Index-split by Andrew D. Balsa (11/97) Linux/Unix* port by Uwe F. Mayer (12/96,11/97) TEST : Iterations/sec. : Old Index : New Index : : Pentium 90* : AMD K6/233* --------------------:------------------:-------------:------------ NUMERIC SORT : 650.05 : 16.67 : 5.48 STRING SORT : 66.218 : 29.59 : 4.58 BITFIELD : 1.8311e+08 : 31.41 : 6.56 FP EMULATION : 124.03 : 59.52 : 13.73 FOURIER : 6531.7 : 7.43 : 4.17 ASSIGNMENT : 8.6217 : 32.81 : 8.51 IDEA : 1858.7 : 28.43 : 8.44 HUFFMAN : 896.88 : 24.87 : 7.94 NEURAL NET : 9.7445 : 15.65 : 6.58 LU DECOMPOSITION : 314.82 : 16.31 : 11.78 ==========================ORIGINAL BYTEMARK RESULTS========================== INTEGER INDEX : 29.905 FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 12.378 Baseline (MSDOS*) : Pentium* 90, 256 KB L2-cache, Watcom* compiler 10.0 ==============================LINUX DATA BELOW=============================== CPU : 4 CPU ARMv7 Processor rev 4 (v7l) L2 Cache : OS : Linux 4.1.17-v7-atom-pps+ C compiler : gcc version 4.9.2 (Raspbian 4.9.2-10) libc : libc-2.19.so MEMORY INDEX : 6.347 INTEGER INDEX : 8.426 FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 6.865 Baseline (LINUX) : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38 * Trademarks are property of their respective holder. Overclocked Raspberry Pi 3 to 1350 MHz CPU and 500 MHz SDRAM clock speed\nBYTEmark* Native Mode Benchmark ver. 2 (10/95) Index-split by Andrew D. Balsa (11/97) Linux/Unix* port by Uwe F. Mayer (12/96,11/97) TEST : Iterations/sec. : Old Index : New Index : : Pentium 90* : AMD K6/233* --------------------:------------------:-------------:------------ NUMERIC SORT : 685.76 : 17.59 : 5.78 STRING SORT : 68.556 : 30.63 : 4.74 BITFIELD : 1.9658e+08 : 33.72 : 7.04 FP EMULATION : 129.07 : 61.93 : 14.29 FOURIER : 6460.8 : 7.35 : 4.13 ASSIGNMENT : 10.302 : 39.20 : 10.17 IDEA : 1972.1 : 30.16 : 8.96 HUFFMAN : 930.43 : 25.80 : 8.24 NEURAL NET : 10.065 : 16.17 : 6.80 LU DECOMPOSITION : 400.31 : 20.74 : 14.97 ==========================ORIGINAL BYTEMARK RESULTS========================== INTEGER INDEX : 31.995 FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 13.506 Baseline (MSDOS*) : Pentium* 90, 256 KB L2-cache, Watcom* compiler 10.0 ==============================LINUX DATA BELOW=============================== CPU : 4 CPU ARMv7 Processor rev 4 (v7l) L2 Cache : OS : Linux 4.1.17-v7-atom-pps+ C compiler : gcc version 4.9.2 (Raspbian 4.9.2-10) libc : libc-2.19.so MEMORY INDEX : 6.977 INTEGER INDEX : 8.834 FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 7.491 Baseline (LINUX) : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38 * Trademarks are property of their respective holder. ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Raspberry-Pi-3-box\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1584\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-box_hu_70694382a2cfba28.jpg\" srcset=\"/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-box_hu_e33bc54a1c03de0b.jpg 360w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-box_hu_4bbf5c97f1c774e4.jpg 480w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-box_hu_65ed2f3a120d243e.jpg 720w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-box_hu_4e57a5d55734ba9d.jpg 1080w,/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/images/Raspberry-Pi-3-box_hu_70694382a2cfba28.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWarning: as of yet, there is no official support for overclocking the Raspberry Pi 3, so you could damage your small computer. Just a reminder.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking-heatsink-cheap/\"\u003eUpdate: I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to make a DIY heatsink for the Raspberry Pi 3 for $4, and it\u0026rsquo;s running stable at 1.5GHz. Click here to read.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe new version of \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CD5VC92/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;camp=1789\u0026amp;creative=9325\u0026amp;creativeASIN=B01CD5VC92\u0026amp;linkCode=as2\u0026amp;tag=jackensweblog-20\u0026amp;linkId=36452e682c3a0eb993e54b725d6cb134\"\u003eRaspberry Pi 3\u003c/a\u003e was released yesterday, so I naturally had to get two. I\u0026rsquo;m using two as \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-lcd-status-display/\"\u003eStratum-1 NTP servers\u003c/a\u003e, and with the old \u003cstrong\u003eRaspberry Pi 2\u003c/strong\u003e, I had hit the roof when it came down to getting better time resolution. So when I read that a new 50% faster version had been released, I raced to the nearest store and got a couple. I have one experimental NTP server that isn\u0026rsquo;t handing out time on the internet and another one that is the primary server, connected to the \u003ca href=\"http://pool.ntp.org\"\u003eNTP Pool Project\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI installed the experimental \u003cstrong\u003eRaspberry Pi 3\u003c/strong\u003e first, so I could test performance and try to overclock it. And it went very well.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi 3 Overclocking"},{"content":"Update: You can download the Eagle PCB files for the PPS Pulse Width Extender here. The PCB is made to fit the Hammond 1455C802BK enclosure.\nI have two Stratum-1 NTP servers using Raspberry Pi 2\u0026rsquo;s as servers. But the two setups are entirely different. My primary NTP Stratum-1 server is available at ntp.jacken.se, but it is also in the .se pool of ntp.org. It\u0026rsquo;s a Raspberry Pi 2 I use a Raspberry Pi 3 that I have connected a U-Blox Neo-7 GPS receiver. But I\u0026rsquo;m not using the 1 PPS signal coming out of the U-Blox. I have a Trimble GPSDO that I bought from eBay. The unit has two 10 MHz lab reference outputs and one 1 PPS output. But after measuring the signal coming out from the GPSDO, I realized that the timing speed for the seconds \u0026ldquo;Tick\u0026rdquo; was only 10 µsec which is way to fast for the Raspberry Pi to pick up as an interrupt on one of the GPIO pins. So I built a pulse extender, making the pulse around 250 milliseconds instead. And now the Raspberry Pi picks up the pulse without problems. Some GPSDO units can set the pulse width by programming the unit via a serial port, but I can\u0026rsquo;t find that feature on this unit (which is poorly documented and was OEM made for some other manufacturer), so I had to do it with hardware. So how does it look when crunching the numbers on it?\nImage updated with results from the Raspberry Pi 3 As you can see, most of the values stay in the ±1 µs, but there are values, mostly scattered below 0 that shows up.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a comparison to my second Raspberry Pi 2 Stratum-1 server, this one using a U-Blox Neo-8Q\nI changed over from a Raspberry Pi B+ to a Raspberry Pi (as you can see in the diagram above) and I\u0026rsquo;m using a board from HAB Supplies. My board came with a broken off led light for power and a dead transistor for driving the pulse LED, but the GPS works. I contacted their support but got no reply. So I\u0026rsquo;ll do the repairs myself when I get the LEDs. I get these weird spikes now and then but haven\u0026rsquo;t been able to trace it down yet. But I\u0026rsquo;m working on it. The battery holder is great because I can take the noisy 5V output from the Raspberry Pi and use a low noise 3.3V DC regulator. Need to remove the jumper and solder the + and - to the battery holder, and I\u0026rsquo;m up and running. I can feed a much cleaner DC signal into the U-Blox GPS unit. Does it make any difference? Haven\u0026rsquo;t a clue. But I will know in a couple of days when I get the data.\n1PPS square wave extender I powered the extender unit with a switching DC power supply at first, but could directly see that I would get an improvement using a DC to DC regulator instead. And the numbers got better. But I decided to try making a PCB with SMD components, making the path for the signal as short as possible. I also found a faster version of the main IC. The new IC is faster by a factor of at least x 10. I also added an extremely low-noise DC to DC converter ADP151 3.3V on the PCB. We\u0026rsquo;re talking 9 µVRMS noise level. I\u0026rsquo;ve also added over-volt protection on the output to protect the Raspberry Pi if something should go wrong. I\u0026rsquo;ll put up a post on the performance with the new device.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wider-pulse-width-1-pps-signal-gpsdo/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate: You can download the Eagle PCB files for the PPS Pulse Width Extender here. The PCB is made to fit the \u003ca href=\"http://amzn.to/2pbXoRo\"\u003eHammond 1455C802BK enclosure\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have two Stratum-1 NTP servers using Raspberry Pi 2\u0026rsquo;s as servers. But the two setups are entirely different. \u003cimg alt=\"trimble-gpsdo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/wider-pulse-width-1-pps-signal-gpsdo/images/trimble-gpsdo-400x300_hu_7098dd93a36e27.png\" width=\"400\"\u003eMy primary NTP Stratum-1 server is available at ntp.jacken.se, but it is also in the .se pool of ntp.org. It\u0026rsquo;s a Raspberry Pi 2 I use a \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/\"\u003eRaspberry Pi 3\u003c/a\u003e that I have connected a U-Blox Neo-7 GPS receiver. But I\u0026rsquo;m not using the 1 PPS signal coming out of the U-Blox. I have a \u003ca href=\"https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4\u0026amp;toolid=11800\u0026amp;pub=5575287150\u0026amp;campid=5338067808\u0026amp;mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2FTrimble-GPS-Receiver-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-sine-and-square-wave-%2F252162780444%3Fhash%3Ditem3ab612ad1c%3Ag%3AudkAAOSwhcJWQCPM\"\u003eTrimble GPSDO that I bought from eBay\u003c/a\u003e. The unit has two 10 MHz lab reference outputs and one 1 PPS output. But after measuring the signal coming out from the GPSDO, I realized that the timing speed for the seconds \u0026ldquo;Tick\u0026rdquo; was only 10 µsec which is way to fast for the Raspberry Pi to pick up as an interrupt on one of the GPIO pins. \u003cimg alt=\"pulse-increaser\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"400\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/wider-pulse-width-1-pps-signal-gpsdo/images/pulse-increaser-358x400_hu_716d285389558108.png\" width=\"358\"\u003eSo I built a pulse extender, making the pulse around 250 milliseconds instead. And now the Raspberry Pi picks up the pulse without problems. Some GPSDO units can set the pulse width by programming the unit via a serial port, but I can\u0026rsquo;t find that feature on this unit (which is poorly documented and was OEM made for some other manufacturer), so I had to do it with hardware. So how does it look when crunching the numbers on it?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Increase Pulse Width 1 PPS signal from GPSDO"},{"content":"Generator functions and Python. Doing your administrative stuff faster. Often when I need to monitor something on one of my linux servers, I always gravitate towards these papers. I always forget how to use them, so putting them here is for me as much as it is for you. Go though the PDF presentation about Python Generators for System Administrators. and fiddle around with the example code. I\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure you can find stuff you need to to and you will be amazed of the speed of the code. It took a while for me to wrap my thick head around it, but the end result is great!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/python-generators-for-system-administrators/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"python-logogenerator-functions-and-python-doing-your-administrative-stuff-faster\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Python logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/python-generators-for-system-administrators/images/Python-logo-notext.svg_-150x150_hu_ac3dced7bf2ae80f.png\" width=\"150\"\u003eGenerator functions and Python. Doing your administrative stuff faster.\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOften when I need to monitor something on one of my linux servers, I always gravitate towards these papers. I always forget how to use them, so putting them here is for me as much as it is for you. \u003ca href=\"http://www.dabeaz.com/generators/\"\u003eGo though the PDF presentation about \u003cstrong\u003ePython Generators for System Administrators\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/a\u003e and fiddle around with the example code. I\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure you can find stuff you need to to and you will be amazed of the speed of the code. It took a while for me to wrap my thick head around it, but the end result is great!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Python Generators for System Administrators"},{"content":"The last couple of weeks I\u0026rsquo;ve been busy building a Raspberry Pi 2 Raspberry Pi 3 connected to my Trimble GPSDO using the 1 PPS output. The Trimble unit synchronizes with the atomic clocks onboard the GPS satellites, and the precision is fantastic! I bought the GPSDO to get a 10 MHz lab reference for my measure equipment, but after reading an article about Time-Nuts, people obsessed with measuring time as accurately as possible, and one of my friends showed me pictures of their new Stratum-1 NTP server rack he helped design, I was hooked.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd9gk_F3spI\nSo I started to read as much as I could about a way of setting up my Stratum-1 server using as cheap equipment as possible, but still get good results. And I think I\u0026rsquo;m on my way of getting good results. I\u0026rsquo;m currently nudging closer to measuring the errors in nanoseconds instead of µsec.\nThe setup My first problem was that the output from the Trimble GPSDO\u0026rsquo;s PPS connector. It was CMOS pulse, with incredible clean edges, but the pulse width was only 10 µs. I tried to connect it directly to one of the Raspberry Pi\u0026rsquo;s GPIO pins, but the pulse was too short to trigger an interrupt. Usually, GPS units output either a 50% duty cycle square wave. So I needed to increase the length of the on-state of the pulse. After a lot of digging, I found a solution that didn\u0026rsquo;t add too much delay, or interfere with the razor sharp edges from the Trimble GPSDO unit. I also added over voltage protection on the out pin so that it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t fry the Raspberry Pi. The result was encouraging. The output square wave was clean as a whistle and just a couple of nanoseconds added to the signal. With my first attempts, I used an eBay DC to DC switching converter, but it introduced a lot of stray noise, so I used my earlier obsession with building a low noise DC converter for Hi-Fi equipment. That sorted that problem.\nIn the oscilloscope image above, the blue line is the output from my converter. The yellow line is from the GPSO. Yes, the pulse is so short it\u0026rsquo;s buried in the blue line. My calculations for the circuit was 250 ms, but as you can see it\u0026rsquo;s 225 ms. Good enough. The Raspberry Pi only uses the leading edge anyway. And now the GPIO pin gets an interrupt signal.\nThe PPS Converter So this is the prototype for the converter. It isn\u0026rsquo;t pretty, but it does the job. I\u0026rsquo;m designing a PCB with an even faster IC and using surface mount components, and I\u0026rsquo;ve found an ultra-low noise DC converter that is perfect for this. I\u0026rsquo;m almost finished designing the PCB the PCB is completed with better results, which will be housed in a Hammond (god, I love their boxes!\u0026quot;) enclosure. Maybe I can sell a few if there is some interest.\nThe Kernel Setting up the kernel was a bit of a challenge. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of misleading information on the internet (as usual), but I tried out several tricks, even going so far as to compile an RT-version (no good for this). I currently have mine hooked up as a Stratum-1 server at http://pool.ntp.org, and it\u0026rsquo;s holding up fine. Been running now for almost a week.\nAn LCD Display I had an Adafruit RGB LCD Plate for Raspberry Pi laying around, so I connected it to the NTP server. It\u0026rsquo;s great for showing the time, current accuracy, number of computers connected and other statistics about the server. I\u0026rsquo;ve put it up on Github if you want to give it a try. It\u0026rsquo;s a hack, but it\u0026rsquo;s been running now for almost a week, and I\u0026rsquo;m adding features to it when I have time. The program is written in Python, so it\u0026rsquo;s easy to do your changes.\nDownload the Raspberry Pi NTP Server LCD Display here\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-lcd-status-display/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"lcd-stability\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-ntp-server-lcd-status-display/images/lcd-stability-400x300_hu_485afaa2a994ac00.png\" width=\"400\"\u003eThe last couple of weeks I\u0026rsquo;ve been busy building a Raspberry Pi 2 \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/\"\u003eRaspberry Pi 3\u003c/a\u003e connected to my \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_disciplined_oscillator\"\u003eTrimble GPSDO\u003c/a\u003e using the 1 PPS output. The Trimble unit synchronizes with the atomic clocks onboard the GPS satellites, and the precision is fantastic! I bought the GPSDO to get a 10 MHz lab reference for my measure equipment, but after reading an \u003ca href=\"http://www.wired.com/2007/12/time-hackers/\"\u003earticle about Time-Nuts\u003c/a\u003e, people obsessed with measuring time as accurately as possible,  and one of my friends showed me pictures of their new \u003ca href=\"http://www.endruntechnologies.com/stratum1.htm\"\u003eStratum-1 NTP server\u003c/a\u003e rack he helped design, I was hooked.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi NTP Server LCD Status Display"},{"content":"Upgrading a Philips-Fluke PM6665 Frequency Counter with an Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator - Up and Running! I needed a frequency counter for my little lab at home. Naturally, I wanted an HP Agilent 53132A or similar, but it’s way too expensive for my modest use. So I browsed around eBay and found an old Philips-Fluke PM6665 frequency counter with the optional 1.3GHz add-on board. With a 10 second gate time, I can get down to 0.1 Hz at 10 MHz, so that’s more than I need. It didn’t have the option of a better crystal, unfortunately. When I tested the PM6665 against my Trimble 10 MHz GPSDO reference, the unit was off by 200.1 Hz. Without a calibration sticker on the instrument, I’d say that’s pretty good for a device manufactured in the late 80s. I tried to trim it, but it uses an adjustable capacitor, and you only needed to look at it for it to change settings.\nThe other problem was the temperature difference when having the unit open for calibration. As soon as I closed it, it started to drift. There is an input on the back of the unit for a lab-reference 10 MHz signal so I could connect my GPSDO to it, but I wanted to see if I could get good precision on it as a standalone unit. There are a lot of salvaged components available on eBay from old cell-towers and other equipment that need precision timekeeping. So for around $15 you can get a 10 MHz crystal ovenized oscillator. They look like they’ve been removed with a crowbar. But the two I bought has been working flawlessly. And just like with old wine, a crystal gets better with age.\nOne of my favorite YouTubers, Gerry Sweeney, go and subscribe! Upgraded his old Racal-Dana 199x with a 5V ISOTemp OCXO131–100.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Y971uY3Nk\nSo I modified his circuit to work with my old Philips PM6665. It uses a MAX6198A as a voltage reference for calibration. It has low drift from temperature differences, 5ppm/°C (max) Temperature Coefficient and ±2mV (max) Initial Accuracy, so It’s a perfect fit for using as a calibrator for the voltage controller pin on the OCXO. The trimpot also has drift due to temperature, but when the unit warmed up in about 15–20 minutes its super stable. There is a built-in calibration in the frequency counter, but I couldn’t be bothered trying to decode the serial traffic between an old 8-bit processor and the board.\nI designed the PCB using the (not so well scanned) service manual as a reference because I still hadn’t received the unit sent to me from the seller in Canada. A weird side story. My counter turned out to have been manufactured just a couple of kilometers from where I live here in Sweden. So in a way, it finally came home again. (Ah, the good old days when we manufactured electronic equipment.)\nAfter reading the schematic, I was confident of the placement of the board. But I was wrong. My design was counting on that the oscillator board would be horizontal, but naturally, it was vertically mounted. That was a stupid mistake. No problem, I just had to bend the connector socket, installing it at an angle and everything was hunky dory. Well, one of the mistakes. I forgot that it was mirrored when making the package for the ISOTemp unit in Eagle PCB, Easily fixed, just solder it on the backside! (fixed in the new version below).\nThe PM6665 has an LCD screen that isn’t backlit, so I added two white LEDs. That turned out quite well. Now I can see even in low light. There’s a connector to the front panel where pin 9 is +5 volt and pin 1 \u0026amp; 10 are GND. I was a little bit worried that the weak old 7805 DC regulator would go berserk with all the extra current being drawn, both from the OCXO (600 mA on turn on, stabilizes to around 250 mA when up and running) and from the two LEDs, but It seems to work correctly. I added an extra 5 Volt supply connector to the PCB if there would be a problem. While at it, I also added a place for an SMA connector for the 10 MHz signals if I want to use the card for something else.\nThe Schematic Here’s the schematic with the 10-pin female connector (I desoldered the original and put it on my new PCB). As you can see, there’s a header for choosing where to get the power. Either from the main board or your supply. I use the +5 Volt from the connector without a problem (so far). If you want to go fancy-schmancy, you could build a 5-volt regulator with filtering, etc., but I’ve been running the counter for days, and after calibrating the OCXO using an oscilloscope (more comfortable and quicker), it’s been rock solid.\nA New Schematic and PCB I’ve designed a single sided PCB in Eagle PCB with the correct size and orientation. Download it and go nuts. It’s pretty Schmick to have an old instrument perform like it’s 1999!\nResult The warmup time is about 10–15 minutes, but if you want to be sure, give it 30 minutes (or leave it on, it has no fan, so it’s dead silent).\nHere’s the device connected to my Trimble GPSDO and this is after two days, and not a flicker of deviation from the calibration. When feeding the counter from my Siglent SDG2122X, it shows an error of 2 Hz. Until I enabled the external GPSDO reference on the Siglent signal generator. Then it’s dead on from 1–120 MHz. I’m pretty impressed with the Siglent SDG2122X, 2 Hz off with its internal non-ovenized crystal is pretty good.\n(Ohh! Look at that lovely backlight!)\nDon’t Forget! You need the ISOTemp 131–100 5 volt OCXO version!\nDownload Eagle PCB Schematic and PCB Design Here Download the Eagle schematic and PCB here.\nAnd here’s a tip, just upload the board file to DirtyPCBs. They automatically make the Gerber files needed. You get 8–12 boards for about $25 including shipping, and they haven’t failed me yet. You can even select the PCB color!\nHappy Hacking!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/philips-fluke-pm6665-pm6669-ocxo-pcb/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"upgrading-a-philips-fluke-pm6665-frequency-counter-with-an-oven-controlled-crystal-oscillator---up-and-running\"\u003eUpgrading a Philips-Fluke PM6665 Frequency Counter with an Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator - Up and Running!\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Philips/fluke PM6665\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"263\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/philips-fluke-pm6665-pm6669-ocxo-pcb/images/philips-fluke-pm6665-400x263_hu_7b2ff50d26016537.jpg\" width=\"400\"\u003eI needed a frequency counter for my little lab at home. Naturally, I wanted an \u003ca href=\"http://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1000001386%3Aepsg%3Apro-pn-53132A/universal-frequency-counter-12-digits-s?cc=US\u0026amp;lc=eng\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHP Agilent 53132A\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e or similar, but it’s way too expensive for my modest use. So I browsed around \u003ca href=\"https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4\u0026amp;toolid=11800\u0026amp;pub=5575287150\u0026amp;campid=5338067808\u0026amp;mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3Dphilips%2Bfluke%2Bpm6665%26_blrs%3Dspell_check\"\u003eeBay and found an old \u003cstrong\u003ePhilips-Fluke PM6665\u003c/strong\u003e frequency counter\u003c/a\u003e with the optional 1.3GHz add-on board. With a 10 second gate time, I can get down to 0.1 Hz at 10 MHz, so that’s more than I need. It didn’t have the option of a better crystal, unfortunately. When I tested the PM6665 against my Trimble 10 MHz \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_disciplined_oscillator\"\u003eGPSDO\u003c/a\u003e reference, the unit was off by 200.1 Hz. Without a calibration sticker on the instrument, I’d say that’s pretty good for a device manufactured in the late 80s. I tried to trim it, but it uses an adjustable capacitor, and you only needed to look at it for it to change settings.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Philips-Fluke PM6665 Frequency Counter with Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator"},{"content":"\nSpeeding up your SPI MAX7219 LED displays when using Arduino and LedControl Library In preparation for the arrival of my GPSDO[1], I’m doing a quick build of an “Atomic Clock” display to have above my lab equipment. I’m using a cheap, small eight digit red LED SPI-controlled display. It uses the MAX7219 controller that I got from eBay for next to nothing. I plan to parse the RS232 information from the GPSDO unit and display the exact time. I\u0026rsquo;ll also post error messages if the GPS signal lock gets lost.\nI’ve done a quick prototype using an Arduino Uno, but I plan to try to get an Attiny85 to work as the controller when I’ve finished the parser and the rest of the software.\nAfter doing some research, naturally, there was a library available to connect to my LED display called LedControl. It\u0026rsquo;s part of the standard Arduino libraries (in the download section). But when I checked the code, it uses the Arduino routines to shift out the SPI data to the display. It\u0026rsquo;s great if you want to be able to use any pins to connect to the screen, but using Arduino’s bit manipulation tools for “bit-banging” the display is slow.\nHow slow? Well, I modified the code for the library, so it uses hardware SPI instead. Here you can see the difference.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-LFL6rY_OY\u0026amp;feature=youtu.be\nMy uneducated guess is something like 40–100x the speed compared to the original code. So if you drive a lot of displays in series and are using the LedControl library, you can speed things up by using my library instead. The only downside is that you need to use the designated hardware SPI pins. You can find the modified hardware SPI version of LedControl here. I’m going to fiddle around a bit and add some more features when I get the time.\nGPS Disciplined Crystal Oscillator, in my case a Trimble with a dual ovenized crystal oscillator. ↩ ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/max7219-led-display-arduino-speedup-hardware-spi/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Image of an 8 Digit LED Display SPI controlled MAX7219\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"928\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/max7219-led-display-arduino-speedup-hardware-spi/images/led-display-max7219_hu_3f117f434e8b5538.jpg\" srcset=\"/max7219-led-display-arduino-speedup-hardware-spi/images/led-display-max7219_hu_c80a0ed25cfb999b.jpg 360w,/max7219-led-display-arduino-speedup-hardware-spi/images/led-display-max7219_hu_bb33f7ad4590bfb6.jpg 480w,/max7219-led-display-arduino-speedup-hardware-spi/images/led-display-max7219_hu_d7a8f93917f89218.jpg 720w\" width=\"1023\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"speeding-up-your-spi-max7219-led-displays-when-using-arduino-and-ledcontrol-library\"\u003eSpeeding up your SPI MAX7219 LED displays when using Arduino and LedControl Library\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn preparation for the arrival of my GPSDO\u003ca href=\"#fn-1\" title=\"see footnote\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e, I’m doing a quick build of an “Atomic Clock” display to have above my lab equipment. I’m using a \u003ca href=\"https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4\u0026amp;toolid=11800\u0026amp;pub=5575287150\u0026amp;campid=5338067808\u0026amp;mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_odkw%3D8%2Bdigit%2Bled%2Bdisplay%26_sop%3D12%26_osacat%3D0%26_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.X8%2Bdigit%2Bled%2Bdisplay%2Bmax7219.TRS0%26_nkw%3D8%2Bdigit%2Bled%2Bdisplay%2Bmax7219%26_sacat%3D0\"\u003echeap, small eight digit red LED SPI-controlled display.\u003c/a\u003e It uses the \u003ca href=\"https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/power/display-power-control/MAX7219.html\"\u003eMAX7219\u003c/a\u003e controller that I got from eBay for next to nothing. I plan to parse the RS232 information from the GPSDO unit and display the exact time. I\u0026rsquo;ll also post error messages if the GPS signal lock gets lost.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’ve done a quick prototype using an \u003ca href=\"https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno\"\u003eArduino Uno\u003c/a\u003e, but I plan to try to get an \u003ca href=\"http://www.atmel.com/devices/attiny85.aspx\"\u003eAttiny85\u003c/a\u003e to work as the controller when I’ve finished the parser and the rest of the software.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter doing some research, naturally, there was a library available to connect to my LED display called LedControl. It\u0026rsquo;s part of the standard Arduino libraries (in the download section). But when I checked the code, it uses the Arduino routines to shift out the SPI data to the display. It\u0026rsquo;s great if you want to be able to use any pins to connect to the screen, but using Arduino’s bit manipulation tools for “bit-banging” the display is slow.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Speeding up your SPI MAX7219 LED displays using a modified Arduino LedControl Library"},{"content":"I’ve finished the OCXO upgrade. Read about it here\nWhile browsing on eBay for my new lab at home (I\u0026rsquo;m getting into electronics again), I came across a Philips PM6665 Frequency Counter, an old but functional unit so I couldn\u0026rsquo;t resist, I had to buy it. So I downloaded the Users Manual and Service Manual for the frequency counter and started to check the schematic. As usual the unit, when new, could be bought with several options. One of them was a better crystal oscillator, an MTCXO that can be automatically calibrated using a 10 MHz external reference, giving an accuracy of 3*10-8 but my unit doesn’t have that option, unfortunately. This will be fixed though. But it does have a 70 MHz to 1.3 GHz optional input!\nSo here’s what I plan to do…\nFirst some information on the different oscillators available on that model.\nSpecifications of the Philips/Fluke PM6665 Time Base (Crystal oscillator)\nTime Base (Crystal oscillator) Oscillator Version Standard MTCXO Aging Per Year \u0026lt;5 x 10–7 (5Hz) \u0026lt;1 x 10–7 (1Hz) Per Month \u0026lt;5 x 10–6 (50Hz) \u0026lt;5 x 10–7 (5Hz) Temperature Changes 0°C to 50°C \u0026lt;1 x 10–5 (100Hz) \u0026lt;2 x 10–7 (2Hz) Line Voltage Changes 10% \u0026lt;1 x 10–8 (0.1Hz) \u0026lt;1 x 10–9 (0.01Hz) I’m waiting for delivery of a Trimble GPS disciplined OCXO with 10 MHz lab reference output, and the unit has provisions for hooking up an external clock on the back panel via a BNC connector. Now we’re talking about PPB[1] resolution instead!\nBut why stop there? I’m going to modify mine with an electrically controlled ovenized crystal that I bought cheaply from eBay. There’s a lot of them on eBay for $17-$25 (purchase new? think thousands of dollars!), so instead of ±50 PPM[2] which is the usual run of the mill oscillator, I’m getting an Isotemp 131–100 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator where the specs are ±5 PPB!\nSo how come they’re so cheap? There’s a lot of phone cell towers and the like that need exact time, so there’s a significant surplus of these devices. They’re not hard to find on eBay\nSo after studying the schematic for the frequency counter, I found the description of the standard crystal oscillator. Unfortunately, it didn’t include the electrically controlled MTCXO oscillator option, so there’s no information on the protocol used when calibrating the MTCXO. There are data and clock pins for communication between the central controller board on the unit, but there’s no description of how it works. It would have been nice to be able to let the apparatus do the calibration automatically, but for now, I’ll do the calibration manually. Maybe I’ll do some hacking and decipher the calibration routine and make a PCB board for it, but for now, this is what I have planned.\nThe Isotemp 131–100 OCXO I found this great article after watching his channel on Youtube, where Gerry Sweeney talked about upgrading one of his frequency counters. There’s a blog post with some useful information on how to build a controller board here. I measured (approximately, because I only have the schematic, not the unit or parts yet) and designed a board so I can upgrade the Philips PM6665 with an OCXO. For less than $50 I think it could be worth it, and anyhow, who want’s to miss out on hacking an old frequency counter?\nI’ve added the possibility to select to use the internal +5V rail provided, but I don’t think it can handle the power requirements for the OCXO, so I have also added mounting holes for external +5V. I also put an SMC connector on the board if I want to use the card for something else. If it works, I’ll upload the Gerber files here for anyone interested.\nParts Per Billion ↩ Parts Per Million ↩ ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/upgrading-philipsfluke-pm6665-frequency-counter-oven-controlled-crystal-oscillator-ocxo/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eI’ve finished the OCXO upgrade. \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/philips-fluke-pm6665-pm6669-ocxo-pcb/\"\u003eRead about it here\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"introicon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"465\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/upgrading-philipsfluke-pm6665-frequency-counter-oven-controlled-crystal-oscillator-ocxo/images/philips-fluke-pm6665_hu_4b65fafc165cf6de.jpg\" srcset=\"/upgrading-philipsfluke-pm6665-frequency-counter-oven-controlled-crystal-oscillator-ocxo/images/philips-fluke-pm6665_hu_b2e7403a8622839.jpg 360w,/upgrading-philipsfluke-pm6665-frequency-counter-oven-controlled-crystal-oscillator-ocxo/images/philips-fluke-pm6665_hu_30f7173b804fb820.jpg 480w\" title=\"Philips PM6665\" width=\"708\"\u003eWhile browsing on eBay for my new lab at home (I\u0026rsquo;m getting into electronics again), I came across a \u003ca href=\"https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4\u0026amp;toolid=11800\u0026amp;pub=5575287150\u0026amp;campid=5338067808\u0026amp;mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3Dphilips%2Bfluke%2Bpm6665%26rmvSB%3Dtrue\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhilips PM6665\u003c/strong\u003e Frequency Counter\u003c/a\u003e, an old but functional unit so I couldn\u0026rsquo;t resist, I had to buy it. So I downloaded the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/slask/Philips_pm6665_pm6669_user_manual.pdf\"\u003eUsers Manual\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/slask/pm6665_pm6669.pdf\"\u003eService Manual\u003c/a\u003e for the frequency counter and started to check the schematic. As usual the unit, when new, could be bought with several options. One of them was a better crystal oscillator, an MTCXO that can be automatically calibrated using a 10 MHz external reference, giving an accuracy of 3*10-8 but my unit doesn’t have that option, unfortunately. This will be fixed though. But it does have a 70 MHz to 1.3 GHz optional input!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo here’s what I plan to do…\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Upgrading a Philips/Fluke PM6665 Frequency Counter with an Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator OCXO"},{"content":"\nRunning LTspice IV on Mac OS X Before I start testing a new idea for an electronic circuit and building it on a breadboard, I usually want to check it with LTspice. It’s a fantastic piece of software for testing almost any kind of component. Nearly all manufacturers have a spice equivalent for most of their parts. But there’s a snag. The Mac version of LTspice is a piece of crap. Having to run a virtual PC or reboot using BootCamp feels unnecessarily slow and convoluted. But there’s a way of running it as a “normal” Mac application. Here’s how to do it.\nWineBottler WineBottler is an app that uses the Wine Windows compatibility layer, so it’s not an emulator and is fast. It creates standalone applications and includes everything needed for Wine to work. So you’ll have a double-clickable program in your application folder. There is a commercial version of Wine for Mac called CrossOver, but for me, WineBottler works excellent.\nNot all Windows applications are compatible in Wine, but LTspice IV works like a charm. Download WineBottler here.\nInstalling LTspice IV on Mac with WineBottler Start WineBottler. The initial screen shows some preconfigured applications that are available. Press the button Advanced.\nGo to Linear Technology’s homepage and download the Windows version of LTspice IV. There’s a Mac version, but a lot of stuff is missing and is horrible.\nIn WineBottler, leave all the default settings under Advanced and press “Select file…” under Programs to install.\nNow you only have to press the Install button, and WineBottler does it’s thing. Save the app in your Applications folder for easy access.\nAnd here you have it, LTspice IV running as a separate application on your Mac! Yay!\nDon’t forget to donate to the WineBottler guys for making this tool available for free.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/use-ltspice-iv-windows-version-mac-os/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"WineBottler Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"512\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/use-ltspice-iv-windows-version-mac-os/images/Msi_hu_899a3e98144406d7.png\" srcset=\"/use-ltspice-iv-windows-version-mac-os/images/Msi_hu_d115da53b786da66.png 360w,/use-ltspice-iv-windows-version-mac-os/images/Msi_hu_43d7fe64c410e196.png 480w\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"running-ltspice-iv-on-mac-os-x\"\u003eRunning LTspice IV on Mac OS X\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBefore I start testing a new idea for an electronic circuit and building it on a breadboard, I usually want to check it with LTspice. It’s a fantastic piece of software for testing almost any kind of component. Nearly all manufacturers have a spice equivalent for most of their parts. But there’s a snag. The Mac version of LTspice is a piece of crap. Having to run a virtual PC or reboot using BootCamp feels unnecessarily slow and convoluted. But there’s a way of running it as a “normal” Mac application. Here’s how to do it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Use LTspice IV Windows Version on Mac OS X"},{"content":"I got myself a four channel 50MHz oscilloscope to be able to do some measurements. The Rigol DS1054Z. It\u0026rsquo;s expensive in Sweden if you buy it from a local retailer, but I ordered mine from Batronix in Germany and thanks to being part of the EU, there\u0026rsquo;s no customs and extra taxes added to the price.\nThe oscilloscope is easily hacked to 100MHz and a lot of other functions like serial protocol decoding and also more memory depth. RS232/UART, I2C and SPI decoding, advanced trigger functions like RS232/UART, I2C, SPI, Runt, Windows, Nth edge, Delay and Timeout trigger. Search for \u0026ldquo;Rigol DS1054Z hack,\u0026rdquo; and you\u0026rsquo;re on your way to transform your scope to a much more expensive version. But don\u0026rsquo;t enable the 500µV option. The oscilloscope doesn\u0026rsquo;t support it in hardware, so you will run into bugs if enabled.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been delighted with my purchase, except for the occasional bug. But today it went into a total haywire mode. When trying to start it up, it hangs on boot. Either by just showing the Rigol boot screen, or show the standard display but remain immune to any input from the controls. Panic! But thankfully I found a solution to my problem.\nResetting the Rigol DZ1054Z oscilloscope After searching the net, I finally found a way of resetting the oscilloscope to factory settings and get it up and running again. On the left side of the front panel, there are six dark grey menu select buttons. And the magic one is the fifth from the top. To reset the oscilloscope, just power off and then on the scope, repeatedly pressing the fifth button and the oscilloscope resets to factory settings. Yeah, the menu changes to Chinese, but that\u0026rsquo;s easily fixed by just selecting English in the language settings on the list to the right of the screen. Up and running again! Hurray!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope-hangs-boot/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Rigol DS1054Z Reset Button\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope-hangs-boot/images/rigol_ds1054z_reset_hu_189a092a0e80db4d.jpg\" srcset=\"/rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope-hangs-boot/images/rigol_ds1054z_reset_hu_f24fd61398d05922.jpg 360w,/rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope-hangs-boot/images/rigol_ds1054z_reset_hu_7fa55609a2c7d677.jpg 480w,/rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope-hangs-boot/images/rigol_ds1054z_reset_hu_b5882277bec14709.jpg 720w,/rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope-hangs-boot/images/rigol_ds1054z_reset_hu_44ab93d63727f178.jpg 1080w\" width=\"1200\"\u003eI got myself a four channel 50MHz oscilloscope to be able to do some measurements. The \u003cstrong\u003eRigol DS1054Z\u003c/strong\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s expensive in Sweden if you buy it from a local retailer, but I ordered mine from \u003ca href=\"http://www.batronix.com/shop/oscilloscopes/Rigol-DS1054Z.html\"\u003eBatronix\u003c/a\u003e in Germany and thanks to being part of the EU, there\u0026rsquo;s no customs and extra taxes added to the price.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.gotroot.ca/rigol/riglol/\"\u003eoscilloscope is easily hacked\u003c/a\u003e to 100MHz and a lot of other functions like serial protocol decoding and also more memory depth. RS232/UART, I2C and SPI decoding, advanced trigger functions like RS232/UART, I2C, SPI, Runt, Windows, Nth edge, Delay and Timeout trigger. Search for \u0026ldquo;Rigol DS1054Z hack,\u0026rdquo; and you\u0026rsquo;re on your way to transform your scope to a much more expensive version. But don\u0026rsquo;t enable the 500µV option. The oscilloscope doesn\u0026rsquo;t support it in hardware, so you will run into bugs if enabled.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been delighted with my purchase, except for the occasional bug. But today it went into a total haywire mode. When trying to start it up, it hangs on boot. Either by just showing the Rigol boot screen, or show the standard display but remain immune to any input from the controls. Panic! But thankfully I found a solution to my problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Rigol DS1054Z Oscilloscope Hangs-Freeze On Boot"},{"content":"After fixing my Pro-Ject Speedbox II SE I thought I check how it worked and if I could improve it. I\u0026rsquo;m in the process of comparing my bench version against the Speedbox, and my model is winning big time! I\u0026rsquo;ll get back when I have a nice unit up and running\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/building-record-player-motor-controller-project/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Pro-Ject Speedbox SE II inside\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1920\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/building-record-player-motor-controller-project/images/Pro-ject-speedbox-II_small_hu_9b3e71a89e958b3e.jpg\" srcset=\"/building-record-player-motor-controller-project/images/Pro-ject-speedbox-II_small_hu_949018a5ca499b5.jpg 360w,/building-record-player-motor-controller-project/images/Pro-ject-speedbox-II_small_hu_ddb862bb3ed4585a.jpg 480w,/building-record-player-motor-controller-project/images/Pro-ject-speedbox-II_small_hu_b5853fd0037eb334.jpg 720w,/building-record-player-motor-controller-project/images/Pro-ject-speedbox-II_small_hu_dff3c013dee1baec.jpg 1080w,/building-record-player-motor-controller-project/images/Pro-ject-speedbox-II_small_hu_9b3e71a89e958b3e.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003eAfter fixing my Pro-Ject Speedbox II SE I thought I check how it worked and if I could improve it. I\u0026rsquo;m in the process of comparing my bench version against the Speedbox, and my model is winning big time! I\u0026rsquo;ll get back when I have a nice unit up and running\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Building A Better Record Player Motor Controller Pro-ject"},{"content":"\nApple Music So I gave Apple Music streaming a try. Being able to just search for music and add it to my playlists sounded like a good idea. After a while the recommendations becomes rather good as well, giving me some tips of other bands I might like. But here’s the problem I have with Apple Music. When you sync your music via iCloud, you can no longer sync music via iTunes! And to be able to download music locally from Apple Music to your phone, you must use the “in the iCloud” solution. Catch–22 anyone?\nI like to encode some of my favourite albums in ALAC (Apple’s lossless format.) I also make excellent sounding variable bit rate 320kbit AAC lossy songs from 24-bit 96–192kHz sources using 48kHz instead of the standard 44.1kHz. You might argue that I can’t hear the difference from Apples AAC compressed music, but I have a rather nice pair of headphones (Oppo PM–3 headphones with an Oppo HA–2 DAC/amplifier), so I like to feed it with the best quality possible. And I have tried to compare AAC files created from 16-bit, 44kHz and from 24-bit, 96kHz using ABX Tester, and get 100% correct results every time. Well, except for one song by The Clash from their first album, when they still where a punk band. Considering that I’m over 50 years old and can’t hear a beep over 16.000Hz, it’s kinda strange. I guess I have to try just 16-bit vs 24-bit to see if that’s the thing that makes an audible difference. And before you comment that the reason I can hear a difference in audio quality is that the high resolution version is mastered differently, I can debunk that immediately. I downsampled the music from 24-bit, 96kHz to 16-bit 44.1kHz myself using one of the best down samplers available, the venerable iZotope RX 4.\nThe Problem with Apple Music But here’s the snag I have. If songs I have in iTunes are available in Apples music library, it downloads a compressed, lossy version from their archives onto my iPhone and I can’t upload my music in full resolution via iTunes because of the iCloud sync. Totally fucking stupid! Naturally I could just upload it to the Onkyo HF Player app, which I use when uploading and listening to really high resolution audio (both FLAC and DSD), but then I can’t listen to music that’s been downloaded from Apple Music, because only Apples own music player can play that music. Because It’s copy-protected. The Onkyo app doesn’t have Apple Watch support yet, which is another good reason for me to want to use Apples music player. Having to take out an iPhone 6 Plus and a DAC out of my pocket every time I want to change a song is kind of a chore. So I did the only thing left to do. I cancelled my subscription to Apple Music and turned off iCloud Music sync. Somehow iTunes managed to mess with my ranking of songs, but it wasn’t to bad. Now I’m back to encoding my music the way I want and can upload it without problem.\nI’ve been thinking of going the Spotify route, but they screw the independent artists too much by paying them next to nothing. I guess Apple doesn’t fair much better either when it comes to paying the not so popular musical artist. Tidal has lossless FLAC as an option, but It feels like it’s more for the top 10 kind of music and my taste differs a lot from the mainstream. And no, I don’t have a neck beard…\nHere’s dreaming If only Apple could upload the music to iCloud if it is higher than their 256kbit AAC, or let the user upload music to a device without going through iCloud, they would have a happy customer. But until then, close but no cigar…\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/apple-music-streaming-no-go/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"iTunes Application logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/apple-music-streaming-no-go/images/iTunes_hu_7917f499d8eb4bd1.jpg\" srcset=\"/apple-music-streaming-no-go/images/iTunes_hu_bf2544488fe20a92.jpg 360w,/apple-music-streaming-no-go/images/iTunes_hu_9726b27015a85a6e.jpg 480w,/apple-music-streaming-no-go/images/iTunes_hu_122168ebaedb445e.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"apple-music\"\u003eApple Music\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo I gave \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/music/\"\u003eApple Music\u003c/a\u003e streaming a try. Being able to just search for music and add it to my playlists sounded like a good idea. After a while the recommendations becomes rather good as well, giving me some tips of other bands I might like. But here’s the problem I have with Apple Music. When you sync your music via iCloud, you can no longer sync music via iTunes! And to be able to download music locally from Apple Music to your phone, you must use the “in the iCloud” solution. Catch–22 anyone?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple Music Streaming – It's a No Go For Me"},{"content":"Back in the early nineties, I had been out partying all night long. I was way too drunk, but didn’t feel like going to bed just yet. So I poured myself a beer and sat down in the living room. On top of the TV was a VHS cassette I hadn’t seen before. One of our neighbors worked as a film reviewer for a film magazine, so after he had seen the films he usually lent them to our family. So I put it in the VCR and sat down, not knowing what I was about to see. It started right away with a a couple of guys in a helicopter chasing a dog, trying to shoot it. “That’s weird” I thought…\nJohn Carpenter’s The Thing It was obviously The Thing by John Carpenter. This was made in 1982, long before you could do anything on a computer for visuals and the special effects in this film was insane! I had never seen anything like it.\nThe funny thing is that the first horror film I ever saw was The Thing from Another World, a film based on the short story “Who Goes There”, which The Thing is based on as well (following the book more closely.)\nCritics The film came out a couple of weeks after Steven Spielberg’s ET, so it bombed hard in the US. This is really a pity, because today It isn’t very hard to choose between these two films. At least not for me. I watched it again just a couple of months ago and it still holds up. I love the idea of the paranoia that is building up throughout the movie. Who can you trust? Very reminiscent of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956, which supposedly portrayed the fear of being taken over by communist in the McArthy era.\nThere are some bad movies by John Carpenter, but the good ones are masterpieces. Assault on Precinct 13 is great! Maybe has a bit slow tempo for the younger viewers, but I think it’s a classic, both for the movie but also for the music. Another old favorite is Escape from New York\nAnd to forget to mention the movie Halloween would probably be sacrilege.\nIf you haven’t seen there movies, do yourself a favor and do it. You won\u0026rsquo;t be sorry…\nJohn Carpenter Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnTbtSPf2HI\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/john-carpenter-the-genius/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBack in the early nineties, I had been out partying all night long. I was way too drunk, but didn’t feel like going to bed just yet. So I poured myself a beer and sat down in the living room. On top of the TV was a VHS cassette I hadn’t seen before. One of our neighbors worked as a film reviewer for a film magazine, so after he had seen the films he usually lent them to our family. So I put it in the VCR and sat down, not knowing what I was about to see. It started right away with a a couple of guys in a helicopter chasing a dog, trying to shoot it. “That’s weird” I thought…\u003c/p\u003e","title":"John Carpenter the Genius Film Maker"},{"content":"\nNagios Directory Index Forbidden by Options Directive After installing Nagios on a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B by following these installation instructions, I ran into an irritating problem. When trying to connect, I got the authentication dialog, but after that, I got an access error in my browser.\nDirectory index forbidden by Options directive: /usr/local/nagios/share\nI searched around on Google but couldn’t find a solution. But after a lot of fiddling with Apache2, I found a solution. There’s a problem with the standard installation of the file in /etc/apache2/conf.d/nagios.conf created by make install-webconf\nTo make my search for the problem more manageable, I disabled authentication in /etc/apache2/conf.d/nagios.conf so one source of potential problems were eliminated. I just commented out the Auth lines. Then when I accessed http://localhost/nagios/index.php I got the error:\n[error] [client 10.200.2.115] script '/usr/local/nagios/shareindex.php' not found or unable to stat\nAha! Something is missing in the name shareindex.php. It should only be index.php. In the automatically configured nagios.conf file that the make install-webconf command creates, the Alias directive for Apache2 was missing a simple “/” at the end. So all you have to do to fix the problem is to add a trailing / to the end of the path set up by the Alias.\nHere’s the original Alias directive in nagios.conf\nAlias /nagios/ \u0026#34;/usr/local/nagios/share\u0026#34; All you have to do is to change it to:\nAlias /nagios/ \u0026#34;/usr/local/nagios/share/\u0026#34; Sometimes small errors can create annoying problems. There’s a lot of (wrong) answers when doing a Google search, so hopefully, this will rank enough to help someone that has this annoying, but easily solved problem, they’ll find this.\nHere’s the fixed /etc/apache2/conf.d/nagios.conf for posterity.\nSAMPLE CONFIG SNIPPETS FOR APACHE WEB SERVER # This file contains examples of entries that need to be incorporated into your Apache web server configuration file. Customize the paths, etc. as needed to fit your system. ScriptAlias /nagios/cgi-bin \u0026#34;/usr/local/nagios/sbin\u0026#34; \u0026lt;directory \u0026#34;/usr/local/nagios/sbin\u0026#34;\u0026gt; SSLRequireSSL Options +ExecCGI AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all Order deny,allow Deny from all Allow from 127.0.0.1 AuthName \u0026#34;Nagios Access\u0026#34; AuthType Basic AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users Require valid-user Alias /nagios/ \u0026#34;/usr/local/nagios/share/\u0026#34; \u0026lt;directory \u0026#34;/usr/local/nagios/share\u0026#34;\u0026gt; SSLRequireSSL Options None DirectoryIndex index.php AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all Order deny,allow Deny from all Allow from 127.0.0.1 AuthName \u0026#34;Nagios Access\u0026#34; AuthType Basic AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users Require valid-user ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/nagios-directory-index-forbidden-options-directive/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Nagios Screenshot\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"982\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/nagios-directory-index-forbidden-options-directive/images/nagios-screenshot_hu_bdfea31040359de8.png\" srcset=\"/nagios-directory-index-forbidden-options-directive/images/nagios-screenshot_hu_231aa61114f16aab.png 360w,/nagios-directory-index-forbidden-options-directive/images/nagios-screenshot_hu_51a5d881605e7adb.png 480w,/nagios-directory-index-forbidden-options-directive/images/nagios-screenshot_hu_38cad3c3020e759f.png 720w,/nagios-directory-index-forbidden-options-directive/images/nagios-screenshot_hu_8c426496de0d439b.png 1080w,/nagios-directory-index-forbidden-options-directive/images/nagios-screenshot_hu_bdfea31040359de8.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"nagios-directory-index-forbidden-by-options-directive\"\u003eNagios Directory Index Forbidden by Options Directive\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter installing Nagios on a \u003ca href=\"http://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-2-model-b/\" title=\"Raspberry Pi 2 Model B\"\u003eRaspberry Pi 2 Model B\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://www.i-security.ro/linux/raspberry-pi-and-nagios-open-source-monitoring/\"\u003eby following these installation instructions\u003c/a\u003e, I ran into an irritating problem. When trying to connect, I got the authentication dialog, but after that, I got an access error in my browser.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ccode\u003eDirectory index forbidden by Options directive: /usr/local/nagios/share\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI searched around on Google but couldn’t find a solution. But after a lot of fiddling with Apache2, I found a solution. There’s a problem with the standard installation of the file in \u003cstrong\u003e/etc/apache2/conf.d/nagios.conf\u003c/strong\u003e created by \u003cstrong\u003emake install-webconf\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Nagios Directory Index Forbidden by Options Directive"},{"content":"\nThere’s one thing that I fear when it comes to my storage and that is to lose all the pictures I’ve been taking for all these years. I have seen customers of mine that have lost all their images due to a hard disk crashing and seen the tears. I usually do my regular backup using TimeMachine on my Mac to an Apple Time Capsule. But my photo library in Adobe Lightroom is too big to fit on the SSD drive used in my MacBook Pro, and TimeMachine doesn’t do a backup of external drives. So I use rsync to make a backup to my NAS which uses RAID–1 for extra protection. But I don’t want to rely on a single backup. A fire, burglary or simple hardware failure makes me uneasy. So I also do an off-site backup using the excellent Arq backup program.\nArq Backup with Amazon Glacier Up till now, I’ve been using Amazon Glacier to store all my images. It’s cheap, with about $0.01 per Gb per month to store your information in the cloud, and an additional transfer cost for uploading all the images. But that’s a one time cost and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. So I’ve been quite happy with the solution. But there is a downside. If you need to restore your data, there is an initial waiting period and the faster you download your data, the more expensive it gets. And it can get crazy expensive if you’re in a hurry. Add that to the fact that you have to be a rocket scientist to actually calculate how much it will cost, makes it even more annoying.\nEnter Arq backup with Google Cloud Storage Nearline The people at Haystack software, the makers of Arq just sent out an email.\nGoogle just announced a new storage service that’s better than Glacier!\nGoogle Cloud Storage Nearline is a great option for backups because it’s only $.01/GB per month for storage cost, and it’s much, much easier to restore your files from Google Nearline than from Amazon Glacier. There’s no 4-hour delay, and Google doesn’t incur any crazy “peak hourly request” fees if you restore too quickly. The Nearline pricing is much easier to understand in general than Glacier’s confusing fees. When storage providers compete, Arq users win!\nIf you’re already paying for a Dropbox or Google Drive account with lots of storage, Arq can back up to that storage. Otherwise, if you want to only pay for what you use, Google Cloud Storage Nearline seems just about perfect.\nIsn’t competition great?\nSo now I’m moving my backup over to Google Nearline Storage. First impression after creating the account and choosing the location for my backup? Faster upload than Amazon Glacier. So that’s a big plus. Arq backup gives you a lot of options on where and how to do your backup, but it now seems like Google has the upper hand.\nAnd for those who think that Google already has enough of your information, I’m happy to inform you that you can encrypt your backup with a password, so no one except you can get to the information.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/arq-backup-for-mac-os-x-now-supports-google-cloud-storage-nearline/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Arq 3 application icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/arq-backup-for-mac-os-x-now-supports-google-cloud-storage-nearline/images/image-150x150_hu_2668e3c34aff5019.jpg\" width=\"150\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere’s one thing that I fear when it comes to my storage and that is to lose all the pictures I’ve been taking for all these years. I have seen customers of mine that have lost all their images due to a hard disk crashing and seen the tears. I usually do my regular backup using TimeMachine on my Mac to an Apple Time Capsule. But my photo library in Adobe Lightroom is too big to fit on the SSD drive used in my MacBook Pro, and TimeMachine doesn’t do a backup of external drives. So I use \u003ca href=\"https://rsync.samba.org/\" title=\"rsync\"\u003ersync\u003c/a\u003e to make a backup to my NAS which uses \u003ca href=\"https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/geom-mirror.html\" title=\"19.3. RAID1 - Mirroring\"\u003eRAID–1\u003c/a\u003e for extra protection. But I don’t want to rely on a single backup. A fire, burglary or simple hardware failure makes me uneasy. So I also do an off-site backup using the excellent \u003ca href=\"https://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/\" title=\"Mac Backup to AWS Glacier, S3, SFTP, NAS, Dropbox, OneDrive | Arq | Haystack Software\"\u003eArq backup program\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Arq Backup for Mac OS X Now Supports Google Cloud Storage Nearline"},{"content":"MultiMarkdown has just been updated to version 4.7. MultiMarkdown 4.7 Released. Unfortunately it looks like my biggest gripe with MultiMarkdown still isn’t fixed.\nWhen adding images with MultiMarkdown size attributes, the HTML that is generated uses styles instead of the size parameters. This is the reason I prefer to write image links in HTML in my Markdown documents. Anyway, I still really like MultiMarkdown because of table, internal links and footnote support.\nQuick look Brett Terpstra has updated his Quicklook plugin for Mac OS X, so you can see Markdown files directly in Finder without having to open any programs. Release 1.1 · ttscoff/MMD-QuickLook · GitHub. Check it out.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/multimarkdown-4-7-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMultiMarkdown has just been updated to version 4.7. \u003ca href=\"http://fletcherpenney.net/2015/03/mmd_4.7_released\"\u003eMultiMarkdown 4.7 Released\u003c/a\u003e. Unfortunately it looks like my biggest gripe with MultiMarkdown still isn’t fixed.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MultiMarkdown 4.7 Released"},{"content":"So they added a new WYSIWYG editor in Wordpress own app for iOS. And to my Initial amazement it looks like it handles images the correct way by first uploading them, and then gives you the different automatically created sizes done by the server. Maybe I\u0026rsquo;m finally able to upload images and have Retina support without having to use my Editorial workflow? But when looking at the generated HTML, the height and width of the images is set to zero. It points the URL to the full resolution image, even if you select a smaller one. Not good. If you save a draft, it forgets your image settings like alignment and title.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s still no way of selecting already uploaded images from the Wordpress Media Library. You can only upload images stores on your iOS device.\nBut the first thing that strikes me is the omission of creating headlines. There\u0026rsquo;s bold, italic and even strike through, but no H1, H2 tags for headers. there is a HTML button so you could still enter it manually in HTML. But that isn\u0026rsquo;t very user friendly.\nSo no WYSIWYG headers Entering them manually in HTML and you can edit them in the WYSIWYG mode. A big omission of not having buttons for it I think. An other thing missing is a button for inserting in the document.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a friends Harley Davidson with a ProCharger supercharger. A good way of testing if Retina works.\nUpdate: first try of uploading an image failed miserably. Let\u0026rsquo;s try it again\u0026hellip;\nIt displays the full resolution image, even if you select one of the theme-created sizes. Not good\u0026hellip;\nIf I can get image upload to work with a horrible hack with Python inside Editorial App, surely the Wordpress guys should be able to handle XMLRPC? I haven\u0026rsquo;t seen one blog editor that handles images the right way or that doesn\u0026rsquo;t insert a lot of horrible HTML code in the posts. Why is this so hard to fix?\nUpdate: new version, and still it uses the full image. It never remembers the alignment between saves. Not good. Back to Editorial for blogging. ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/a-brand-new-wysiwyg-editor-in-wordpress-for-ios-app/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo they added a new \u003cstrong\u003eWYSIWYG\u003c/strong\u003e editor in Wordpress own app for iOS. And to my Initial amazement it looks like it handles images the correct way by first uploading them, and then gives you the different automatically created sizes done by the server. Maybe I\u0026rsquo;m finally able to upload images and have Retina support without having to use \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/\"\u003emy Editorial workflow\u003c/a\u003e? But when looking at the generated HTML, the height and width of the images is set to zero. It points the URL to the full resolution image, even if you select a smaller one. Not good. If you save a draft, it forgets your image settings like alignment and title.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A brand new WYSIWYG editor in WordPress for iOS app"},{"content":"Getting better speed over WiFi Most people today have their computers, phones and media players connected via Wi-Fi. But is your wireless network operating at the highest rate? Well, there’s a couple of things you can do to increase both the reach and your connection speed with some simple configuration changes. Let’s see if we can improve your Wi-Fi speed.\n2.4 GHz UHF Spectrum Most Wi-Fi routers still use 801.11b or 801.11g in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. In urban environments, this leads to congestion and overlapping channels which in turn degrade the signal quality. In a perfect world, there should be five channels separating you from other Wi-Fi routers, but that’s only going to happen if you live in a rural area without too many neighbors.\nA Wi-Fi signal occupies five channels in the 2.4 GHz band. Any two channel numbers that differ by five or more, such as 2 and 7, do not overlap. The oft-repeated adage that channels 1, 6, and 11 are the only non-overlapping channels is, therefore, not accurate.\nAn easy way to find the best channel to choose is to use the excellent Mac OS X application WiFi Explorer. WiFi Explorer is a great utility to find which networks you have around, the channels they use and also the transmission power relative to your position. The trick here is to see the channels either not used by other routers or at least have your router set to a channel where the other routers have a weak signal and where powerful transmitters don’t contain too much overlap over the channel you have selected. Choose “Channels” to get a graphical overview of all the Wi-Fi routers that are around you.\nAs you can see in my example where my SSID is “Jacken” there are overlaps over the whole 2.4 GHz band, but the channels with the lowest signal strength from other Wi-Fi routers are in the 1–5 channel region, so in my case, I decided to go with channel 1.\n5 GHz Spectrum With newer Wi-Fi routers that support more modern standards like 801.11AC, they can operate at both 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrum. If you look at the graph for my apartment as an example, there’s a lot of older Wi-Fi routers on the 2.4 GHz band, but only one on the 5 GHz band. Most modern routers work in both 2.4 and 5 GHz. That makes it possible to connect older computers or other equipment that doesn’t support 5 GHz and still be able to function, but also because the 5 GHz signal has a harder time sending and receiving over longer distances. With an 801.11AC router, it can switch automatically between 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz if it has problem connecting.\nAs you probably guessed, it’s a good idea to get a new Wi-Fi router that supports 801.11AC if your computers and phones are compatible, because the higher frequency band isn’t so congested (yet). The transfer speed difference is also remarkable. If you are close enough to the router so it can transmit at maximum speed, you no longer need an Ethernet cable stuck in your computer to get amazingly fast speeds.\nPlacement of the Wi-Fi Router You can further optimize your speed by finding the location for your Wi-Fi router. Here we again are going to use WiFi Explorer to help you when searching for the best place for your router. Even small changes in placement can make a difference. Choose your SSID network name in the list and select the “Signal Strength” button. Position your Mac at the location you usually work on it and move the Wi-Fi router around.\nCheck to see if the signal strength has increased. Usually, you’re constrained by cabling and aesthetics (and significant others) when deciding on where you can put the router. Go ahead and experiment.\nChecking your Wi-Fi Speed in Mac OS X There’s a “hidden” function available in Mac OS X where you can see more information about your Wi-Fi connection than you usually do. You can get the signal quality, the connection speed and a lot of other details. All you have to do is to hold down the Alt key while pressing the Wi-Fi symbol in the menubar. You now get more extensive information about transmission rate, the selected BSSID, the channel used and a lot of other details. This method is a quick way of checking if the Wi-Fi network is working and how good of a signal you have.\nHopefully, after going through all these hoops, you now have a faster, more stable Wi-Fi connection.\nWant to increase your web surfing speed? Here’s an article on how to get faster DNS lookups. Happy Hacking!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/faster-wifi-speed-mac/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"getting-better-speed-over-wifi\"\u003eGetting better speed over WiFi\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost people today have their computers, phones and media players connected via Wi-Fi. But is your wireless network operating at the highest rate? Well, there’s a couple of things you can do to increase both the reach and your connection speed with some simple configuration changes. Let’s see if we can improve your Wi-Fi speed.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Faster WiFi Speed With Your Mac"},{"content":"\nHere is an easy way to increase the speed of loading web pages by optimizing the DNS you are using when surfing the web. Everything you do on the internet will be affected by the speed of the Domain Name System you are using. So let\u0026rsquo;s try to make it faster.\nDNS Every time you visit a web page, the browser has to look up all the URLs to images, ads and other resources found on that page. Everything on the internet has a unique IP-address, but to make it easier for us imperfect humans, we use human-readable addresses. Like to this blog which is www.jackenhack.com. For the computer to get hold of the IP-address, it uses a system called DNS an abbreviation for Domain Name System. So it is used for looking up the IP-number for a given web address. The number of DNS lookups that is needed for a page to load stacks up quickly and every search takes time.\nSo a right way of optimizing your speed when browsing the web is to make sure that the servers you are using are as fast as possible. But how do you find out which DNS server to use? Thankfully Google has already written a program for just that purpose. It’s called NameBench and is a free download.\nNameBench The interface is pretty straightforward. The application contains a massive database with common DNS servers that it uses to test speeds. You have an entry line where you can enter DNS server IP-numbers yourself. Maybe you got some DNS servers from your internet service provider or other sources you like to test. To include them, Just put them on the line separated by commas in NameBench test.\nDNS Speed Results Quit all other applications that use the internet on your machine and make sure it doesn’t go to sleep during the test. Then press the Start button. It should take about ten minutes for the test to run. When it’s finished, it opens a web page with recommended DNS servers. As you can see, I have already optimized my servers, so I’m only getting a 5 percent gain if I change my settings, but you can typically get something like 20–60% or even higher speeds. When you have a fast DNS, the response of loading web pages is improved considerably. It’s an easy thing to check, so it’s worth a try.\nAs you can see in the picture, in the upper right corner, you get recommendations on how to set up the primary, secondary and tertiary servers. If you are using DHCP, you need to change the settings to the recommended ones on that device that hands out the DNS information to your computer. Usually, that’s on your firewall or Wi-Fi router. If you have fixed IP-addresses or don’t have access to the DHCP server settings, you can override the DNS settings in System Preferences/Network. Select the interface you want to change and press advanced. There is a tab for DNS, so just add them there, and you’re good to go.\nHappy Hacking!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/faster-web-browsing-optimizing-dns/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"DNS logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"665\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/faster-web-browsing-optimizing-dns/images/image_hu_2620851ba0eb8b57.jpg\" srcset=\"/faster-web-browsing-optimizing-dns/images/image_hu_dec8dee39f85f487.jpg 360w,/faster-web-browsing-optimizing-dns/images/image_hu_5a7b5e206c23b0a9.jpg 480w,/faster-web-browsing-optimizing-dns/images/image_hu_6f359b534b1e47a6.jpg 720w\" width=\"907\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is an easy way to increase the speed of loading web pages by optimizing the DNS you are using when surfing the web. Everything you do on the internet will be affected by the speed of the Domain Name System you are using. So let\u0026rsquo;s try to make it faster.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Faster Web Browsing By Optimizing DNS"},{"content":"“Mapping WiFi Signals in 3 Dimensions” 3D wifi plot image\nAdam Fabio, Hackaday:\n[Charles] is on a quest to complete ever more jaw-dropping hacks with the popular low-cost ESP8266 WiFi modules. This week’s project is plotting WiFi received signal strength in 3D space. While the ESP8266 is capable of providing a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), [Charles] didn’t directly use it. He wrote a simple C program on his laptop to ping the ESP8266 at around 500Hz. The laptop would then translate the RSSI from the ping replies to a color value, which it would then send to the ESP8266. Since the ESP8266 was running [Charles’] custom firmware (as seen in his WiFi cup project), it could directly display the color on a WS2812 RGB LED.\nA great hack. It’s amazing to actually be able to see the reception of the Wi-Fi signal mapped as a 3D object. Shows that just moving a router/receiver a small amount can have an impact on reception.\nI have two ESP8266 for a project I’m working on. I was going to hook it up to an AVR micro controller, but I’m thinking of getting the tool chain and do it all on the ESP8266 instead.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mapping-wifi-signals-in-3d/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"mapping-wifi-signals-in-3-dimensions\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://hackaday.com/2015/02/17/mapping-wifi-signals-in-3-dimensions/\"\u003e“Mapping WiFi Signals in 3 Dimensions”\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"3D wifi plot image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"326\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/mapping-wifi-signals-in-3d/images/3d-wifi-plot-580x326_hu_79aaaf792af29afa.jpg\" srcset=\"/mapping-wifi-signals-in-3d/images/3d-wifi-plot-580x326_hu_eaec6d146ca233e.jpg 360w,/mapping-wifi-signals-in-3d/images/3d-wifi-plot-580x326_hu_5e2d8deca022a659.jpg 480w\" width=\"580\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigcaption\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3D wifi plot image\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdam Fabio, Hackaday:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[Charles] is on a quest to complete ever more jaw-dropping hacks with the popular low-cost ESP8266 WiFi modules. This week’s project is plotting WiFi received signal strength in 3D space. While the \u003ca href=\"https://nurdspace.nl/ESP8266\"\u003eESP8266\u003c/a\u003e is capable of providing a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), [Charles] didn’t directly use it. He wrote a simple C program on his laptop to ping the ESP8266 at around 500Hz. The laptop would then translate the RSSI from the ping replies to a color value, which it would then send to the ESP8266. Since the \u003ca href=\"https://nurdspace.nl/ESP8266\"\u003eESP8266\u003c/a\u003e was running [Charles’] custom firmware (as seen in his WiFi cup project), it could directly display the color on a WS2812 RGB LED.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA great hack. It’s amazing to actually be able to see the reception of the Wi-Fi signal mapped as a 3D object. Shows that just moving a router/receiver a small amount can have an impact on reception.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mapping WiFi Signals in 3D"},{"content":"I’m working on my script for uploading images directly from the iOS Markdown text editor app Editorial to Wordpress. The current script uses xmlrpc-Wordpress library, but I’m writing my own so the user doesn’t have to install the extra library just to use my script. When uploading files with xmlrpclib, I got this annoying thing happening. Every time I uploaded an image using xmlrpclib and the function wp.uploadFile the uploaded file got wpid- prepended to the filename of all my uploaded files.\n[cce lang=\u0026ldquo;python\u0026rdquo;]mediarray = {\u0026rsquo;name\u0026rsquo;:\u0026rsquo;test.jpg\u0026rsquo;, \u0026rsquo;type\u0026rsquo;:\u0026lsquo;image/jpeg\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;bits\u0026rsquo;:binaryfile, \u0026lsquo;overwrite\u0026rsquo;:\u0026lsquo;false\u0026rsquo;} xarr = [\u0026rsquo;\u0026rsquo;, user, password, mediarray] result = self.server.wp.uploadFile(xarr)[/cc]\nIn this example, the uploaded image would get the name wpid-test.jpg instead of test.jpg\nSolution After poking around in the xmlrpc.php file on my Wordpress server, I finally found a solution to my problem. The wpid- is added for handling conflicting filenames. This should only be happening if overwrite is set to true put for some reason this doesn’t work. Why? I don’t know (or care.) In the the code above, if I just remove the ‘overwrite’:’false’ statement, it works.\n[cce lang=\u0026ldquo;python\u0026rdquo;]mediarray = {\u0026rsquo;name\u0026rsquo;:\u0026rsquo;test.jpg\u0026rsquo;, \u0026rsquo;type\u0026rsquo;:\u0026lsquo;image/jpeg\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;bits\u0026rsquo;:binaryfile} xarr = [\u0026rsquo;\u0026rsquo;, user, password, mediarray] result = self.server.wp.uploadFile(xarr)[/cc]\nProblem solved. The filename is now named test.jpg, and the the peasants rejoice. just as we want.\nJust putting it up here for people searching for the solution to this problem. I couldn’t find any with Google, so maybe this will help others.\nHappy Hacking!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wpid-added-file-uploading-xmlrpc/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Python logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/wpid-added-file-uploading-xmlrpc/images/python-logo-150x150_hu_10ccd5809ced2e67.jpg\" width=\"150\"\u003eI’m working on my script for uploading images directly from the iOS Markdown text editor app \u003ca href=\"http://omz-software.com/editorial/\" title=\"Editorial for iOS\"\u003eEditorial\u003c/a\u003e to Wordpress. The current script uses xmlrpc-Wordpress library, but I’m writing my own so the user doesn’t have to install the extra library just to use my script. When uploading files with \u003cstrong\u003exmlrpclib\u003c/strong\u003e, I got this annoying thing happening. Every time I uploaded an image using \u003cstrong\u003exmlrpclib\u003c/strong\u003e and the function \u003cstrong\u003ewp.uploadFile\u003c/strong\u003e the uploaded file got \u003cstrong\u003ewpid-\u003c/strong\u003e prepended to the filename of all my uploaded files.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"wpid Added to File Name When Uploading With xmlrpc"},{"content":"I helped my boss today with a weird problem. In his calendars on his iOS devices, an extra line would show up, displaying the GMT time of the event. The event was placed correctly in the timeline, but it included the GMT time in the text. Naturally I did the obligatory Google search and found a lot of other users with the same problem, but not any solutions on how to fix it.\nAfter checking all the settings on Google Calendar and checked the time and calendar settings, I couldn’t find anything wrong. But after checking out his iPad settings, I realized that the old IT guy had missed a thing.\nWe use Google Apps for Business at work. One of the nice things about that is that you can use the Exchange protocol instead of IMAP and CalDAV. I hate to admit it, but when used with iOS devices, using the Exchange protocol has several advantages. You get push email, making the connections instantaneous and the synching of calendars and address books are fast and reliable. His iPhone and iPad was set up with the standard IMAP for mail and CalDAV for calendars. The former IT guy made a mistake when setting up his devices, something that’s easily done when the setup box looks like this.\nBy instinct you would think that you should select Google, but that’s not the case when you have a Google Apps!. You should use the Exchange account setup button. If you have a regular Google account, you have to use IMAP and CalDAV unfortunately.\nEnter your email address and password and on the next screen where you’re supposed to enter a server, you put m.google.com Don’t forget to enter your email address in the Username field as well. Leave the domain field empty. Now you can get your email with instant push notification and sync your address book and calendars with Google Apps.\nYou can read Googles own description on how to setup an iOS device for Google Apps for Business here.\nAfter moving from CalDAV to connecting to Google Apps with Exchange, the problem was fixed. The iOS calendar app no longer shows the GMT time.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/gmt-time-showing-iphone-ipad-calendar-app/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"iOS Calendar App Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/gmt-time-showing-iphone-ipad-calendar-app/images/ios-calendar-icon-150x150_hu_712956efe4ab83e6.jpg\" width=\"150\"\u003eI helped my boss today with a weird problem. In his calendars on his iOS devices, an extra line would show up, displaying the GMT time of the event. The event was placed correctly in the timeline, but it included the GMT time in the text. Naturally I did the obligatory Google search and \u003ca href=\"https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6548616?tstart=0\" title=\"iOS 8 Calendar on iPhone showing GMT times for ... | Apple Support Communities\"\u003efound a lot of other users with the same problem\u003c/a\u003e, but not any solutions on how to fix it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter checking all the settings on Google Calendar and checked the time and calendar settings, I couldn’t find anything wrong. But after checking out his iPad settings, I realized that the old IT guy had missed a thing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"GMT Time Showing in iPhone iPad Calendar App"},{"content":"I’ve tried a lot of blogging apps for the iPad, but none of them handles images the way I want. Images gets the weird name iOS has assigned to them which is not good for SEO. When I upload images to Wordpress, I want them to end up in the Wordpress Media Library and have all the theme defined sizes created automatically. Just like when you upload from the web interface in Wordpress. There’s an added problem when you want your site to support images displayed on a Retina or high DPI device, showing the picture in high resolution using a plugin like WP Retina x2. My favourite text editor on iOS is Editorial app, So I made this Workflow so I can do the naming, resizing and uploading of the images directly inside the app from my iPad or iPhone 6 Plus. You can select which of the theme defined image sizes you want to display and also set the image alignment. This workflow works excellent with the WP Retina x2 plugin, which is the one I use on my site. When everything is done, you have an MultiMarkdown referred image link at the cursor position in the text editor, and the image link and information like width, height and alt-text is added to the end of the document. This makes a very convenient way of blogging on the iPad.\nFeatures uploads images directly to WordPress Media Library which creates the different image sizes defined in WordPress theme Able to name the image and give it an alt-text Choice of uploading original size or to reduce the image size Choose left, center or right alignment for the image Creates a short referenced MultiMarkdown link at the cursor position and adds the image info at the end of the document automatically Adds the images pixel dimensions for HMTL5 compliance Download The Workflow Begin by downloading the workflow by following the link and press install on your iOS device.\nPrerequisites This workflow use the wordpress_xmlrpc module, so that needs to be installed in Editorial before you can use the workflow! But I’ve written a guide about how to install the module/library here. You could also add the wordpress_xmlrpc library via iTunes, but I haven’t tried it. If you forget to install the library, the workflow will warn you and also link you to instructions on how to install it. It’s a one time installation. I’m thinking of making this automatic, but I haven’t had time to look into it yet.\nBefore you begin You need to edit the Workflow and add the URL of your site, your Wordpress username and password. It’s easily found in the beginning of the workflow.\nHow to use Put the cursor where you want your image to appear and start the Workflow. After starting, you get the standard iOS image select dialog to choose an image from your iOS image gallery. So select the picture you want to use.\nAfter selecting the image you get a dialog where you can upload either the full resolution image, or resize it to your liking before uploading.\nEnter a filename for the image. Use something descriptive, but avoid spaces and substitute them with “-”. If you forget and use spaces, they will be replaced by “-” automatically. You don’t need to add .jpg at the end of the name if you don’t want to, it’s also handled automatically.\nEnter an image title if you like. If you don’t need an image title, just press OK.\nNext up is a dialog box where you can select one of the predefined image sizes you have configured in your Wordpress theme, or go with a full resolution image.\nEnter an alt text for the image. You need to do this, because it’s used as the marker name in the MultiMarkdown link. And you should always enter an alt description for images anyway. Both for visually impaired and for Google, because Google Image use that text to get a hint of what the image is depicting.\nWhen everything is done, you should now have a referenced link inserted and the image link information added at the end of the document.\nWhen it’s time to export to HTML, you need to use the MultiMarkdown function. Just make a simple export workflow like this one.\nMultimarkdown export script\nHappy blogging!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Editorial iOS app icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_2e8c8ae2808969a0.jpg\" srcset=\"/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_d59e8266a2ebf565.jpg 360w,/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_f7e134ff9a92b269.jpg 480w,/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_362977c5c188a880.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/editorial/id673907758?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\u0026amp;ct=Blog\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the AppStore\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_e9bd881d9508069.png\" srcset=\"/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_9f896ab9e7102ec7.png 360w,/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_dc70ee18946631a9.png 480w\" width=\"659\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eI’ve tried a lot of blogging apps for the iPad, but none of them handles images the way I want. Images gets the weird name iOS has assigned to them which is not good for \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization\"\u003eSEO\u003c/a\u003e. When I upload images to Wordpress, I want them to end up in the Wordpress Media Library and have all the theme defined sizes created automatically. Just like when you upload from the web interface in Wordpress. There’s an added problem when you want your site to support images displayed on a Retina or high DPI device, showing the picture in high resolution using a plugin like \u003ca href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-retina-2x/\"\u003eWP Retina x2\u003c/a\u003e. My favourite text editor on iOS is Editorial app, So I made this Workflow so I can do the naming, resizing and uploading of the images directly inside the app from my iPad or iPhone 6 Plus. You can select which of the theme defined image sizes you want to display and also set the image alignment. This workflow works excellent with the \u003ca href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-retina-2x/\"\u003eWP Retina x2\u003c/a\u003e plugin, which is the one I use on my site. When everything is done, you have an \u003ca href=\"http://fletcherpenney.net/multimarkdown/\"\u003eMultiMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e referred image link at the cursor position in the text editor, and the image link and information like width, height and alt-text is added to the end of the document. This makes a very convenient way of blogging on the iPad.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Editorial App Workflow Upload Image to WordPress Media Library Version 2.2"},{"content":"\u0026ldquo;WiFi Map uses community power to share network passwords\u0026rdquo; George Tinari, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW):\nWiFi Map is a crowdsourced tool for finding all of the Wi-Fi hotspots in your area as well as the passwords to certain security-protected networks.\nThis looks like a great utility when trying to find a free WiFi hotspot. I\u0026rsquo;m going to give it a go on my iPhone next time I\u0026rsquo;m out and about in the city. I hate the 1Gb cap I have on my phone by network provider Tele2.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s just hope that Apple doesn\u0026rsquo;t ban the app. I\u0026rsquo;ve seen it before\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wifi-map-uses-community-power-to-share-network-passwords/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"heading\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.tuaw.com/2015/01/27/wifi-map-uses-community-power-to-share-network-passwords/?ncid=rss_truncated\"\u003e\u0026ldquo;WiFi Map uses community power to share network passwords\u0026rdquo;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGeorge Tinari, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW):\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWiFi Map is a crowdsourced tool for finding all of the Wi-Fi hotspots in your area as well as the passwords to certain security-protected networks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis looks like a great utility when trying to find a free WiFi hotspot. I\u0026rsquo;m going to give it a go on my iPhone next time I\u0026rsquo;m out and about in the city. I hate the 1Gb cap I have on my phone by network provider Tele2.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WiFi Map uses community power to share network passwords"},{"content":"YouTube now defaults to HTML5 YouTube Engineering and Developers Blog: Four years ago, we wrote about YouTube’s early support for the HTML5 tag and how it performed compared to Flash. At the time, there were limitations that held it back from becoming our preferred platform for video delivery. Most critically, HTML5 lacked support for Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) that lets us show you more videos with less buffering.\nOver the last four years, we’ve worked with browser vendors and the broader community to close those gaps, and now, YouTube uses HTML5 by default in Chrome, IE 11, Safari 8 and in beta versions of Firefox.\nThanks Steve Jobs for really start the war against Adobe Flash. It\u0026rsquo;s a bug ridden extension full of security holes, and the sooner it disappears, the better. This will put another nail in the coffin.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/youtube-now-defaults-to-html5/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"youtube-now-defaults-to-html5\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://youtube-eng.blogspot.se/2015/01/youtube-now-defaults-to-html5_27.html\"\u003eYouTube now defaults to HTML5 \u003cvideo\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"youtube-engineering-and-developers-blog\"\u003eYouTube Engineering and Developers Blog:\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFour years ago, we wrote about YouTube’s early support for the HTML5 \u003cvideo\u003e tag and how it performed compared to Flash. At the time, there were limitations that held it back from becoming our preferred platform for video delivery. Most critically, HTML5 lacked support for Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) that lets us show you more videos with less buffering.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the last four years, we’ve worked with browser vendors and the broader community to close those gaps, and now, YouTube uses HTML5 \u003cvideo\u003e by default in Chrome, IE 11, Safari 8 and in beta versions of Firefox.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"YouTube now defaults to HTML5"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve started to use the excellent iPhone app Next to keep track of my expenses. My bank has a utility that automatically tracks every purchase I make, but for me, being a notorious money spender, it\u0026rsquo;s kind of a therapeutic thing to be forced every time I buy something to actually acknowledge the expense and not just buying without thinking. It\u0026rsquo;s also a great way of keeping track of what kind of things I spend my money on.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s even an accompanying iPad and Mac application which syncs via iCloud between them automatically.\nThe interface is customized for each platform, the iPhone for quick entries whereas the iPad and the Mac app are more concentrated on displaying the statistics of your purchases.\nThe iPhone app consists of three different screens. The main quick entry screen, the statistics screen and the entry listings page.\n(All the entries are in Swedish Kronor. I\u0026rsquo;m not that crazy spender!)\nEntry Screen iPhone The quick entry screen consists of a number of configurable icons, each representing the type of expense it is. It\u0026rsquo;s easy to change the icons and rearrange the order by which they are displayed. Icons change the hue of blue depending on how much you spend in each category, so the more you\u0026rsquo;ve spent the darker the icon becomes. This makes it really easy to get a quick glance on where you spend the most money. When an icon is pressed, a number pad comes up allowing you to enter the sum of the purchase, and you can optionally add text to the entry.\nTo get an overview of your expenses, just swipe to the Statistics page.\nStatistics on this page you can get an overview of expenses by week, month or years.\nEntries list view Here you can see each individual entry you made in date order, where you can edit or delete entries. Just tap on an entry to edit or swipe left to delete.\nNext App URL scheme In the latest upgrade of the app, it now supports URL schemes, so it\u0026rsquo;s now easy to call the app from other workflow-enhancing applications like Launch Center Pro where you can set up even quicker entries for stuff you buy often.\nThe URL scheme works like this:\nnext://add?category=5\u0026amp;amount=4.99¬e=Beer The category value is by the order of the icons starting with 0 at top left and continues to the right line by line.\nThe note parameter is optional.\nThis is great if you want to set up predefined purchases you do often. There\u0026rsquo;s even support for x-callback, so it automatically returns to the calling app after the entry is registered. So below is an URL call for Launch Center Pro, adding an entry for a beer for $5 in the fifth category and then returns.\nnext://x-callback-url/add?x-success=launch://\u0026amp;category=5\u0026amp;amount=5¬e=Beer You can read more about the URL Scheme for Next App here.\nI really like this app and really recommend it.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Next iphone expense app icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/images/next-iphone-expense-app-icon_hu_6757b340d4e97043.jpg\" srcset=\"/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/images/next-iphone-expense-app-icon_hu_938d5534887d2d3e.jpg 360w,/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/images/next-iphone-expense-app-icon_hu_a7c7c3c07e684b8b.jpg 480w,/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/images/next-iphone-expense-app-icon_hu_c2d1ea8c2d5c3a2d.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/next-for-iphone-track-your/id596366290?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\u0026amp;ct=blog\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the AppStore\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_e9bd881d9508069.png\" srcset=\"/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_9f896ab9e7102ec7.png 360w,/next-app-for-iphone-expense-tracker/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_dc70ee18946631a9.png 480w\" width=\"659\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve started to use the excellent iPhone app \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/next-for-iphone-track-your/id596366290?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\u0026amp;ct=blog\" title=\"Next expense app for iPhone\"\u003eNext\u003c/a\u003e to keep track of my expenses. My bank has a utility that automatically tracks every purchase I make, but for me, being a notorious money spender, it\u0026rsquo;s kind of a therapeutic thing to be forced every time I buy something to actually acknowledge the expense and not just buying without thinking. It\u0026rsquo;s also a great way of keeping track of what kind of things I spend my money on.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Next App for iPhone Expense Tracker"},{"content":"\u0026ldquo;furbo.org · Clearing the Icon Services cache in Yosemite\u0026rdquo; After installing or updating a system to Yosemite, I have seen blank (missing) icons on several Macs. I have also seen cases where the desktop doesn’t get updated after a change to the document icons in the application itself (which happens as developers update their apps to use the new icon guidelines.)\nSaving this link for later. Looks like a good thing to know.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/clearing-the-icon-services-cache-in-yosemite/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"heading\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://furbo.org/2015/01/19/clearing-the-icon-services-cache-in-yosemite/\"\u003e\u0026ldquo;furbo.org · Clearing the Icon Services cache in Yosemite\u0026rdquo;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter installing or updating a system to Yosemite, I have seen blank (missing) icons on several Macs. I have also seen cases where the desktop doesn’t get updated after a change to the document icons in the application itself (which happens as developers update their apps to use the new icon guidelines.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSaving this link for later. Looks like a good thing to know.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Clearing the Icon Services cache in Yosemite"},{"content":"I have being going through the code for the Editorial App Workflow for uploading images directly to Wordpress Media Library and added some functions. There where several bugs and problems. Should work better now. — Bug where scaling didn\u0026rsquo;t work at all (shame!)\n— Added full resolution image as alternative\n— should work now for blogs that doesn\u0026rsquo;t automatically make scaled versions of uploaded images, only presented with the option to use full resolution.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/editorial-app-wordpress-upload-images-workflow-updated/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have being going through the code for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.editorial-workflows.com/workflow/5906229377368064/Q0zY0TDSI0k\"\u003eEditorial App Workflow for uploading images directly to Wordpress Media Library\u003c/a\u003e and added some functions. There where several bugs and problems. Should work better now. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— Bug where scaling didn\u0026rsquo;t work at all (shame!)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— Added full resolution image as alternative\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— should work now for blogs that doesn\u0026rsquo;t automatically make scaled versions of uploaded images, only presented with the option to use full resolution.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Editorial App Wordpress Upload images Workflow updated"},{"content":"How to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X to Fix Annoying Printer Problems | OSXDaily\nHow to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X to Fix Annoying Printer Problems\nThis little trick was new to me. Good to know.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/resetting-mac-os-x-printing-system/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://osxdaily.com/2015/01/09/reset-print-system-mac-os-x/\"\u003eHow to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X to Fix Annoying Printer Problems | OSXDaily\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X to Fix Annoying Printer Problems\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis little trick was new to me. Good to know.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Resetting Mac OS X Printing System"},{"content":"\u0026ldquo;Apple seeds OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 beta with focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver\u0026rdquo; AppleInsider:\nApple on Wednesday issued a new beta build of its upcoming OS X 10.10.2 maintenance update, once again asking developers to focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver alongside general system compatibility testing.\nI hope Apple manages to fix the Wi-Fi problem that I have with MacBook Airs since upgrading to Yosemite. Constantly dropped connection and the only solution to the problem? Turn off and then on the network again. The machines worked fine before upgrading and It\u0026rsquo;s very intermittent.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/apple-seeds-os-x-yosemite-10-10-2-beta-with-focus-on-wi-fi-mail-and-voiceover/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"heading\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/01/07/apple-seeds-os-x-yosemite-10102-beta-asks-developers-focus-on-wi-fi-mail-and-voiceover\"\u003e\u0026ldquo;Apple seeds OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 beta with focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver\u0026rdquo;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAppleInsider\u003c/strong\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApple on Wednesday issued a new beta build of its upcoming OS X 10.10.2 maintenance update, once again asking developers to focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver alongside general system compatibility testing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hope Apple manages to fix the Wi-Fi problem that I have with MacBook Airs since upgrading to Yosemite. Constantly dropped connection and the only solution to the problem? Turn off and then on the network again. The machines worked fine before upgrading and It\u0026rsquo;s very intermittent.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple seeds OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 beta with focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver"},{"content":"\nI have always loved Rally games. So I was glad to see a new Rally game showing up on iOS AppStore.\nRegular readers of this blog knows that I rarely review bad software, trying instead to concentrate on all of the great apps out there. But this review is going to be different.\nI’m not a fan of the Freemium way of selling games. I rather buy the game and get all (or almost all) the content and can get on playing without having to constantly pay for obvious things to continue. So I was glad to see that WRC The Game was a paid app. Bad mistake. If it was Freemium, I would have played for five minutes and then happily deleted the game. We are just talking about $1.99, but I’d get pissed if I buy a bad cup of coffee for that price as well.\nSo why so hostile? Well, basically the game is crap. You’re driving a car (with physics developed no doubt by someone who has never driven a car), on a to narrow road. Just a touch against the “invisible” walls on the sides and the cars either crash or for some inexplicable reason flips over. The car feels like it’s on rails. That is, until the game designers decides that it’s time to derail. The grip of the tires are the same on gravel, snow or tarmac (and probably moon dust). It’s the way the driving feels that matters. I’m sure you can get good at dodging the sketchy physics engine and become good at driving in this game, but who would want to? And a Rally game without spoken direction? Unheard of.\nSo what’s a good Rally game? The best Rally game I ever played was RalliSport Challenge 2 on the original Xbox. Not version one, which was horrible.\nIt’s still version 1.0, but I don’t have much hope of it ever being fixed, because it feels wrongly designed from the start. That’s unfortunate, because when a Rally game is done right, it’s a bliss.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wrc-game-ios/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"WRC Rally Game for iOS Screenshot\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/wrc-game-ios/images/WRC_Rally_iOS_hu_2b5c808e53bd0dae.jpg\" srcset=\"/wrc-game-ios/images/WRC_Rally_iOS_hu_dfd50ca2aebf3ab8.jpg 360w,/wrc-game-ios/images/WRC_Rally_iOS_hu_f864cba2747d3bfa.jpg 480w,/wrc-game-ios/images/WRC_Rally_iOS_hu_709c08f20db9eb3d.jpg 720w,/wrc-game-ios/images/WRC_Rally_iOS_hu_7212e32980bab69b.jpg 1080w,/wrc-game-ios/images/WRC_Rally_iOS_hu_2b5c808e53bd0dae.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have always loved Rally games. So I was glad to see a new Rally game showing up on iOS AppStore.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRegular readers of this blog knows that I rarely review bad software, trying instead to concentrate on all of the great apps out there. But this review is going to be different.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m not a fan of the Freemium way of selling games. I rather buy the game and get all (or almost all) the content and can get on playing without having to constantly pay for obvious things to continue. So I was glad to see that \u003cstrong\u003eWRC The Game\u003c/strong\u003e was a paid app. Bad mistake. If it was Freemium, I would have played for five minutes and then happily deleted the game. We are just talking about $1.99, but I’d get pissed if I buy a bad cup of coffee for that price as well.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WRC The Game for iOS"},{"content":" I love wasting time watching YouTube. There\u0026rsquo;s always something interesting, funny or informative to find. On my Mac I have extensions to eliminate the annoying ads, And to get the highest quality available, but when watching on my iPhone or iPad I have sit and wait five seconds and then press skip when ads are shown. But not anymore. I found a great YouTube App replacement that plays back videos in the highest possible quality, but also does away with the ads. The app is called Protube. It\u0026rsquo;s only $2.99 and well worth it. So now I can watch even more crazy videos.\nTheres a setting screen where you can log in to your Google account and also setup your default playback quality. Obviously I have 1080P on my iPhone 6 Plus and it looks gorgeous.\nYou can easily select categories of what you want to watch, and also get your normal subscription feed. The navigation is much faster and presented in a nicer way than the official YouTube app. To navigate back you just swipe to the right to get to the previous screen. And no more dragging the video down to the left and then having to swipe it away. This iOS app really makes watching YouTube a better experience. The app is universal so it works on both iPhone and iPad.\nHighly Recommend\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/youtube-app-ios-protube/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"ProTube logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/youtube-app-ios-protube/images/image1_hu_154ed87c991cf564.jpg\" srcset=\"/youtube-app-ios-protube/images/image1_hu_6e8cde0673b4baad.jpg 360w,/youtube-app-ios-protube/images/image1_hu_58dc813b7e22ceac.jpg 480w,/youtube-app-ios-protube/images/image1_hu_cbfa4d7a6dee9967.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/protube-for-youtube/id931201696?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\u0026amp;ct=Blog\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the AppStore\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"45\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/youtube-app-ios-protube/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824-150x45_hu_713f85b85ed64548.png\" width=\"150\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eI love wasting time watching YouTube. There\u0026rsquo;s always something interesting, funny or informative to find. \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/safari-browser-speedup-crash-proof-extensions/\"\u003eOn my Mac I have extensions to eliminate the annoying ads\u003c/a\u003e, And to get the highest quality available, but when watching on my iPhone or iPad I have sit and wait five seconds and then press skip when ads are shown. But not anymore. I found a great YouTube App replacement that plays back videos in the highest possible quality, but also does away with the ads. The app is called \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/protube-for-youtube/id931201696?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\u0026amp;ct=blog\" title=\"protube\"\u003eProtube\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s only $2.99 and well worth it. So now I can watch even more crazy videos.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Better YouTube App for iOS - ProTube"},{"content":"Mac OS X Yosemite was released 16th of October. Naturally I installed it on all my machines. My new work computer, a MacBook Air 13\u0026quot; worked perfectly before the upgrade, but after the installation I\u0026rsquo;ve had constant problem with Wi-Fi. No problems what so ever before upgrading, so obviously something is screwed up with Yosemite. My private machine, a mid-2014 MacBook Pro Retina has no problems at all.\nWhen searching through Apples support forum, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of similar stories (and also a lot of noise.) it\u0026rsquo;s incredible that Apple still haven\u0026rsquo;t fixed the problem, with the network connection going down every five minutes. The only fix is to turn of wifi and turn it back on again. Incredible\u0026hellip;\nThere\u0026rsquo;s an article over at medium with a possible temporary fix that I will try when I get back to work.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/yosemite-mac-osx-wifi-problems/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMac OS X Yosemite\u003c/strong\u003e was released 16th of October. Naturally I installed it on all my machines. My new work computer, a MacBook Air 13\u0026quot; worked perfectly before the upgrade, but after the installation I\u0026rsquo;ve had constant problem with Wi-Fi. No problems what so ever before upgrading, so obviously something is screwed up with Yosemite. My private machine, a mid-2014 MacBook Pro Retina has no problems at all.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen searching through Apples support forum, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of similar stories (and also a lot of noise.) it\u0026rsquo;s incredible that Apple still haven\u0026rsquo;t fixed the problem, with the network connection going down every five minutes. The only fix is to turn of wifi and turn it back on again. Incredible\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Yosemite Mac OSX wifi problems"},{"content":"To long between updates I\u0026rsquo;ve been too busy with work and other stuff, so this blog has been on the back burner. But my New Years resolution will be to resurrect this blog with a lot of new content.\nMerry Christmas and a Happy New Year!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/its-been-way-to-long-time/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"to-long-between-updates\"\u003eTo long between updates\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been too busy with work and other stuff, so this blog has been on the back burner. But my New Years resolution will be to resurrect this blog with a lot of new content.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMerry Christmas and a Happy New Year!\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It's been way to long time"},{"content":"\nUnderstanding Composition | Blender Guru\nDiscover How To:\nWhy composition is one of the most important things you\u0026rsquo;ll learn The most common mistake artists make Simple rules to create more engaging artwork Great video on how composition works. Made for to CGI but is equally applicable to photography.\nhttp://youtu.be/O8i7OKbWmRM As a fun counterpoint, here\u0026rsquo;s an article about why the golden ratio is bullshit.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/how-does-composition-work/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Golden ratio image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"372\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/how-does-composition-work/images/1364723558_hu_595c96e620e52786.jpg\" srcset=\"/how-does-composition-work/images/1364723558_hu_11f3ee70014f5127.jpg 360w,/how-does-composition-work/images/1364723558_hu_c02d2d32a9cd5e8d.jpg 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/understanding-composition/#.VFgpo4ikqK0\"\u003eUnderstanding Composition | Blender Guru\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDiscover How To:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy composition is one of the most important things you\u0026rsquo;ll learn\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most common mistake artists make\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSimple rules to create more engaging artwork\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGreat video on how composition works. Made for to CGI but is equally applicable to photography.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/O8i7OKbWmRM\"\u003ehttp://youtu.be/O8i7OKbWmRM\u003c/a\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a fun counterpoint, \u003ca href=\"http://m.fastcompany.com/3044877/the-golden-ratio-designs-biggest-myth?fb_ref=default\"\u003ehere\u0026rsquo;s an article about why the golden ratio is bullshit.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How Does Composition Work?"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_3666\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] Josep Ma. Rosell[/caption]\nGreat Utilities for Mac OS X Here\u0026rsquo;s my list of applications I can\u0026rsquo;t live without on my Mac. It\u0026rsquo;s the first thing I install when setting up a new machine. Maybe you\u0026rsquo;ll find one you like?\nFantastical Fantastical is a great calendar utility for your Mac. You get a calendar in the menubar with natural language entry, easily accessible with a keyboard shortcut. You can write, \u0026ldquo;lunch with Pete next Tuesday at 1\u0026rdquo; and Fantastical will automatically add an entry for it in your calendar. But what if you want to select which calendar you want the entry in? End the sentence with / and the first letters of the calendar name. For example /w for work.\nNaturally, you can still edit entries the standard way if you like or if you want to add attendees or notes. Fantastical is available on both Mac OS X and iOS, and I use it on all my devices.\nFantastical works with iCloud, Google Calendar, or Yahoo Calendar accounts.\nLaunchBar LaunchBar is the first application I install after setting up a new machine. Instead of having to click around to get things done, you press a hot-key and then enter an abbreviation to open a document, start an application or a host of other actions. You can now work without leaving the hands from the keyboard, making you operate faster. It automatically learns your abbreviations while you use it so it gets smarter the more you use it. You can have it do multiple steps, like selecting a folder, compress it and then send it via email.\nSome of the functions that programs like LaunchBar, Quicksilver and Alfred is now integrated into Apples Spotlight Search, but LaunchBar is much more advanced. You get a lot out of it by just using the basics, but you continue to discover new great features all the time. LaunchBar has been around for a long time, and it comes from a great developer, Objective Developer\nAvailable for download here\n1Password Tired of trying to remember a hundred different passwords or even worse, use the same password for all your accounts? With 1Password you only need to remember one password, and you can have long randomly generated passwords for each website account, server or devices requiring a password. The application includes a password generator where you can set up precisely how many characters, symbols or numbers you want the password to contain. The app comes with plugins for all major browsers so with just a keyboard shortcut you fill out the username and password when logging in. You can save your personal information so signing up for a new account makes it easy, having 1Password enter all the info. You can also collect your credit card information in 1Password which makes your shopping online easy by filling out those pesky fields with one keystroke.\nThere is built in sync between Mac and iOS devices, so you always have access to your login information even on the go. The information is encrypted, so if someone manages to get hold of the password database, they can\u0026rsquo;t get to them.\n1Password - No More Sticky Notes\nhttp://vimeo.com/88901304\n1Password for iOS It\u0026rsquo;s easy to set up syncing between your desktop and your iPhone and iPad, so you always have your encrypted information with you.\nGrowl Growl is a notification system that has been around for a long time on the Mac. It\u0026rsquo;s a great utility. In fact so good that Apple introduced their notification system in Mountain Lion. But Growl gives more fine-grained information from applications that support it. So you can get notifications when a file in Dropbox is updated, when Transmit has finished an upload or when Transmission ends a torrent download.\nHardwareGrowler And here\u0026rsquo;s my favorite use of Growl, because with HardwareGrowler you get information when you lose a network connection, USB devices connects and disconnects, volumes mounts or unmount. When you attached new hardware to your Mac, you know that it worked and you also know if something detaches. Losing an Ethernet or wifi connection, and HardwareGrowler will tell you so. HardwareGrowler is a great utility.\niStat Menus Want to know if an application is taking up too much CPU usage? Getting low on system memory and want to see which is the offending application? Need to look at the transfer speed of your network connection? With iStat Menu you get access to that and more directly from the menu bar. You can configure it to suit your needs. You can even check the temperature of all the sensors in your computer. It\u0026rsquo;s a great way of getting status on how your system is running.\nThis application is not available in the Mac AppStore\nDownload here\nTextExpander This utility lets you make abbreviations and have it expand to longer texts called snippets. It\u0026rsquo;s great for email signatures, boilerplate answers for letters and email. I use it a lot for blogging for inserting Markdown code and often used graphics in HTML that is hard to remember. It saves a lot of time. It even has statistics builtin so you can check how much time you have saved from not having to type out all the text. On the Mac, it\u0026rsquo;s system-wide, which means that you can use it in any program. There\u0026rsquo;s also the ability to sync your snippets with Dropbox so you can share them between several Macs or even iOS devices.\nThis application is not available in the Mac AppStore\nDownload here\nTextExpander Touch for iOS There\u0026rsquo;s a version of TextExpander for your iPhone and iPad as well. Most of the functions work, but it\u0026rsquo;s not system-wide due to Apple restrictions. But a lot of the best iOS apps support TextExpander for iOS, and it even has a unique keyboard in iOS 8, so you can use it with any app.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-utilities/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_3666\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;aligncenter\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;]\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-utilities/\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Image of Tools\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"957\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/mac-utilities/images/1596898776_81a4b7b325_o_hu_4a3549d222129ffe.jpg\" srcset=\"/mac-utilities/images/1596898776_81a4b7b325_o_hu_596facda0c9c711a.jpg 360w,/mac-utilities/images/1596898776_81a4b7b325_o_hu_1929e588051e39db.jpg 480w,/mac-utilities/images/1596898776_81a4b7b325_o_hu_b4ff62700cab2bbe.jpg 720w,/mac-utilities/images/1596898776_81a4b7b325_o_hu_fbb00991b8cb5af0.jpg 1080w,/mac-utilities/images/1596898776_81a4b7b325_o_hu_4a3549d222129ffe.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/batega/\"\u003eJosep Ma. Rosell\u003c/a\u003e[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"great-utilities-for-mac-os-x\"\u003eGreat Utilities for Mac OS X\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere\u0026rsquo;s my list of applications I can\u0026rsquo;t live without on my Mac. It\u0026rsquo;s the first thing I install when setting up a new machine. Maybe you\u0026rsquo;ll find one you like?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Must-Have Mac Utilities"},{"content":"\n10 Free Apps for Filmmakers - Premiumbeat.com\nSome of these apps are really good. And they\u0026rsquo;re free!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/great-free-iphone-apps-for-film-makers/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Camera Lens image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"945\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/great-free-iphone-apps-for-film-makers/images/camera-lens_hu_763cec6dd661bd3.jpg\" srcset=\"/great-free-iphone-apps-for-film-makers/images/camera-lens_hu_e2f352151f203ceb.jpg 360w,/great-free-iphone-apps-for-film-makers/images/camera-lens_hu_60ce3968b14bdcc3.jpg 480w,/great-free-iphone-apps-for-film-makers/images/camera-lens_hu_4ff76d89e006ca32.jpg 720w\" width=\"945\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/10-free-apps-for-filmmakers/\"\u003e10 Free Apps for Filmmakers - Premiumbeat.com\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome of these apps are really good. And they\u0026rsquo;re free!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Great Free iPhone Apps for Film Makers"},{"content":"\nUsing Marsedit 3 I’ve been dabbling around with different blog editors for Mac now for a while, trying to find one that suits my needs. I usually try to do most of my blogging on my iPad, but when writing on my Mac I\u0026rsquo;ve used Byword in combination with Marked2 to do the initial texts written in Markdown.\nI write the text in Byword and do the preview in Marked2. When the article is ready for export, I use the Markdown to HTML converter in Marked2 and paste in the text into Wordpress. There I can fill out all the fields for the SEO plugs and add pictures. But now it looks like I can write new articles in my usual way with Byword and then publish them with Marsedit 3 because it can convert Markdown before uploading the post to Wordpress. I\u0026rsquo;ve added custom fields for the excellent plugin Yoast WordPress SEO directly in Marsedit. That was yet another reason for having to go to the Wordpress web interface just to enter those fields. Although, I have to admit, I do generally still check the SEO settings page just to make sure I don’t get any glaring errors and preferably see all green lights in the SEO plugin before publishing. Still, it makes it easier to have access to the SEO fields directly in Marsedit 3.\nDesign The design of Marsedit haven’t changed in a long time. It’s a great application, yet it feels a bit old. It could do with a facelift. It’s a powerful blog editor and everything you need is there. But after trying out Blogo the Marsedit interface feels dated. But on the other hand it’s way more capable than Blogo.\nImage uploads I’m using the plugin WP Retina 2x for displaying images in Retina. When using the Upload Utility in Marsedit 3 the image (the screen dump above) isn’t uploaded in full resolution, so I need to re-upload it in the Wordpress web interface. That’s annoying and yet another step I don’t want to worry about. Hopefully this will be fixed in later updates of Marsedit.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/marsedit-3-my-new-blog-editor-on-my-mac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Marsedit 3 Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/marsedit-3-my-new-blog-editor-on-my-mac/images/MarsEdit3Icon_hu_dd60570c1bd2a811.jpg\" srcset=\"/marsedit-3-my-new-blog-editor-on-my-mac/images/MarsEdit3Icon_hu_2e06aa3b40d0576f.jpg 360w,/marsedit-3-my-new-blog-editor-on-my-mac/images/MarsEdit3Icon_hu_f5b638bbb211aa78.jpg 480w,/marsedit-3-my-new-blog-editor-on-my-mac/images/MarsEdit3Icon_hu_970592c105f973cb.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"using-marsedit-3\"\u003eUsing Marsedit 3\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’ve been dabbling around with different blog editors for Mac now for a while, trying to find one that suits my needs. I usually try to do most of my blogging on my iPad, but when writing on my Mac I\u0026rsquo;ve used \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/byword/id482063361?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\"\u003eByword\u003c/a\u003e in combination with \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/marked-2/id890031187?mt=12\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\"\u003eMarked2\u003c/a\u003e to do the initial texts written in \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/\"\u003eMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MarsEdit 3 My New Blog Editor On my Mac"},{"content":"\nAirmail 2.0 A new version of Airmail has been released in conjunction with the new version of Mac OS X called Yosemite. It’s been redesigned to match Apples new look of the operating system and I love it. I’ve written before on my switch from Apples Mail to Airmail and what I like about it, and now there’s more to love. Here’s a list of some of the new features in version 2.0:\nAirmail Share Extension Airmail Plugins Support iCloud Accounts Sharing iCloud Drop Attachments New Draft Engine Import-Export Account Settings Improved Performance (it was already quick) Improved Search Etc…\nYou have to check out the improvement list for yourself, it’s a doozy.\nI still have a lot of users at work using Apple Mail so I will spend some time using it, to see if there’s an improvement. But there’s so many things I like in Airmail 2.0 that I don’t think I’ll switch back.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/airmail-updated-version-20/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"airmail2_logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/airmail-updated-version-20/images/airmail2_logo_hu_980026d5e565db95.jpg\" srcset=\"/airmail-updated-version-20/images/airmail2_logo_hu_7da1ee05fffcd1a6.jpg 360w,/airmail-updated-version-20/images/airmail2_logo_hu_b463746cbbbc9ccf.jpg 480w,/airmail-updated-version-20/images/airmail2_logo_hu_620cf8c09feb449e.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"airmail-20\"\u003eAirmail 2.0\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA new version of \u003ca href=\"http://airmailapp.com\"\u003eAirmail\u003c/a\u003e has been released in conjunction with the new version of \u003ca href=\"https://www.apple.com/osx/\"\u003eMac OS X called Yosemite\u003c/a\u003e. It’s been redesigned to match Apples new look of the operating system and I love it. \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/airmail-mac-great-replacement-apple-mail/\"\u003eI’ve written before on my switch from Apples Mail to Airmail\u003c/a\u003e and what I like about it, and now there’s more to love. Here’s a list of some of the new features in version 2.0:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Airmail updated to version 2.0"},{"content":"Fujifilm X100S My New walkabout camera I used to try to bring my Canon 5D Mark II with me wherever I went. But with the best walkabout lens, the old 24–70 f2.8L mounted on the camera; it became a pain just to carry the beast around. Only the glass weights 1.1 kilos, and with a battery grip with dual batteries, it’s a complete monster. I still use it because of the great optics and the quality when shooting with it, but I no longer use it for street photography.\nMy First Camera My dad had a period in the late sixties, early seventies when photography was his primary interest. That interest changed to ham radio instead in the 70s, so he had all these great cameras in the closet. A chrome Leica M4, Canon Pellix, Hasselblad 500CM and a 6X6 Rolleiflex camera. I used to borrow either the Leica M4 or the Canon Pellix to shoot on black \u0026amp; white negative film and process it myself in the bathroom. After getting a Leitz enlarger, I started to develop my prints as well. I loved that Leica M4 but I didn’t appreciate what a beautiful camera I had as a sixteen-year-old beginner. My father used to say, “Buy the best gear you can afford because when you fail, you can’t blame the equipment!” Harsh advise, but true. I could barely afford film for it, and I had to be very restrictive with how many shots I took. The best way of keeping the cost down was to buy film in larger cans and fill the rolls myself.\nI eventually traded the Leica M4 for an expensive lens. Yeah, I know, I’m stupid. I\u0026rsquo;m still regretting it.\nWhen I started to photograph again, now in the digital age, using my Canon 5D Mark II, I still wanted something like the Leica M4. Easy to carry and quick focusing in darker places. I guessed that Leica would finally release an affordable rangefinder camera first and sell a boatload of them. But someone beat them to it.\nEnter the digital age So about two years ago I heard about a new rangefinder camera from Fujifilm called X100. It looked like my old Leica M4 and had everything I need for a camera that I could always bring with me. But I didn’t have the money.\nFujifilm X100S Not being able to buy the first iteration of the X100 was fortunate, because the new Fujifilm X100S that replaced the X100 was so much better. I’ve owned mine now for seven months, and I\u0026rsquo;m totally in love with it. If I go somewhere, I try to remember to take the X100S with me. It’s light and well-built so that it can stand up to some abuse. Last week I spilled a beer on it during a wedding (yes, I was drunk!) but after using electronics cleaner and some PTFE oil, I got the On/Off switch working again.\nMy favorite pictures have always been images from such masters photographers like W. Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Christer Strömholm, Anders Petersen and Diane Arbus, so a small silent camera that doesn’t look professional would work wonders for my street photography. And the Fujifilm X100S delivers. The 35mm f2 equivalent lens is tack sharp even at full open. The lens is fixed, which is excellent. Small and flat and you have to reframe by moving around. That’s a great way of training new angles of a subject. There\u0026rsquo;s an auto-ISO setting that is perfect. You just set the slowest speed you accept and then set the exposure dial to auto and then just adjust the aperture to what you need.\nThe menu system is complicated so it takes a while to get used to, but once you know the camera, it’s fantastic. I wouldn’t recommend this camera to someone who is not technically inclined; there are more accessible cameras available If you want a point-and-shoot. But if you are intrigued enough, learning the Fujifilm X100S is worth it. I usually set time to automatic and auto-ISO with a minimum of 1/60 of a second as the slowest speed. So now, all I have to do is to choose the aperture I need, and the electronics in the camera does the rest. Because the camera handles high ISO so well, this has worked out as a great way of being quick and getting the shot. Very seldom do I need to alter the exposure compensation, but when I do, it’s straightforward with its dial.\nDownloading Pictures I always have my iPad Air with me. I’ve got an SD-card reader with a lightning connector so now I can sit down in a café, download the images I shot during the day, edit them and have them on 500px, Twitter or Facebook within minutes. Naturally, I use Geotagr to add geolocation to all my pictures. And now with Pixelmator for iPad, I can do some serious editing as well.\nRaw or Jpeg? Typically when I shoot with my Canon 5D Mark II, I always shoot in RAW, but the output from the Fujifilm X100S is so good that I hardly switch over to RAW and rely on the jpegs directly from the camera instead. Only occasionally do I use RAW. Adobe (with the help of Fujifilm) does now include the film emulation settings in Adobe Lightroom so you can apply them to your RAW files if you want to. The camera doesn’t come with a lens hood. Don’t buy the Fujifilm one; they are way to expensive. You can find one for one-tenth of the original price on eBay, and together with a high-quality filter, you don’t need to put on the lens cap, just wipe off the protective filter when needed.\nSo if you want a light, rugged and silent camera that’s great for street photography, look no further. There is a newer version now, called Fujifilm X100T that has further improvements but retains the excellent sensor and optics.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/fujifilm-x100s-walkabout-camera/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"fujifilm-x100s\"\u003eFujifilm X100S\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Fujifilm X100S camera photo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1110\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/fujifilm-x100s-walkabout-camera/images/X100S_Front_LR_hires_hu_1402d2a790a6409c.jpg\" srcset=\"/fujifilm-x100s-walkabout-camera/images/X100S_Front_LR_hires_hu_86259cf934d190cf.jpg 360w,/fujifilm-x100s-walkabout-camera/images/X100S_Front_LR_hires_hu_ad45c5b335fdb729.jpg 480w,/fujifilm-x100s-walkabout-camera/images/X100S_Front_LR_hires_hu_26c7e6caf4dc18b6.jpg 720w,/fujifilm-x100s-walkabout-camera/images/X100S_Front_LR_hires_hu_802f43df27bfe300.jpg 1080w,/fujifilm-x100s-walkabout-camera/images/X100S_Front_LR_hires_hu_1402d2a790a6409c.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"my-new-walkabout-camera\"\u003eMy New walkabout camera\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI used to try to bring my Canon 5D Mark II with me wherever I went. But with the best walkabout lens, the old 24–70 f2.8L mounted on the camera; it became a pain just to carry the beast around. Only the glass weights 1.1 kilos, and with a battery grip with dual batteries, it’s a complete monster. I still use it because of the great optics and the quality when shooting with it, but I no longer use it for street photography.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fujifilm X100S My New Walkabout Camera"},{"content":"\nLittle Snitch 3 your network connection monitor I have a couple of applications that I always install on a new Mac. Little Snitch 3 is one of them. They are the essential software I need to have installed to be productive and secure. Little Snitch by Objective Development is one of them. I’ve been using it for more than ten years now, and I wouldn’t dream of running a Mac without it installed. What Little Snitch 3 essentially does is monitor all outgoing traffic from your open applications and processes and gives you the ability to allow or deny that traffic. It is an excellent way of seeing what kind of information is sent from applications without your knowledge or consent. And it’s a great way of stopping traffic that “Phones home” without your explicit permission. When an application tries to send out something over the network, it gets intercepted by Little Snitch, and you can then allow or deny the connection, either temporary or permanently via the dialog box that appears. So Little Snitch is always there, protecting your privacy.\nDeny or Allow? When an application tries to connect, and if you haven’t already set up a rule, you’ll get this dialog box automatically. As you can see, you can choose “Deny” or “Allow” if it should be denied or allowed forever or one of the following choices: So you could let an application make the connection until you quit the app, or for a finite time, like 1 hour. For me, it’s almost always Forever or Once. After you have selected your parameters, press Deny or Allow and Little Snitch 3 will guard you against that traffic, allowing or denying the traffic depending on your settings. This is incredibly handy. As you can see in the dialog box, you can force the application to be allowed or denied for a specific port, a particular domain name or port, and domain name. This is great if you want to be sure that the application doesn’t connect to any other place using another protocol. So you have fine-grained control over the communications going out from the app.\nEditing The Rules You can quickly change the rules you have configured by selecting “Rules…” in the Little Snitch 3 menu bar. Here you can add or remove rules or do changes.\nInvalid Rules In the left column of the main window, you have something called Invalid Rules. Here you see rules that don’t apply anymore because the application in question no longer exists or changed name. It’s smart to go through this list once in a while to keep the Little Snitch 3 rules lean and clean.\nRedundant Rules This selection shows rules that override each other. It makes it easy to clean up redundant rules. You can go through the rules and remove unnecessary ones, like when one rule invalidates another, etc.\nNetwork Monitor Window There’s a network monitor window that you can use to see all the in and outgoing traffic. You can sort the data in the window after:\nLast activity Traffic Amounts Process Hostname So this is an excellent tool to find applications that hog the internet connection for example.\nI think it\u0026rsquo;s great being able to have complete control over what and where my applications can do. There’s probably a lot of people who use it for pirated software, so the app doesn\u0026rsquo;t phone home, but that’s not my reason for using it. I want to see if any process on my computer tries to connect somewhere without my permission and to use the Research Assistant that gives more information about the specific traffic. It would be extra hard for a Trojan to try to do something without me knowing either, so that’s another benefit.\nAutomatic Profile Switching New in version 3 is Automatic Profile Switching. When you switch between networks, like home and work, for example, Little Snitch 3 can automatically change rules. So you could ban all traffic to FaceBook at work, or allow traffic you wouldn’t allow at home. I haven’t tried this feature but will soon.\nYou can buy Little Snitch here.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/little-snitch-3-privacy-monitor-controller/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Little Snitch Application icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/little-snitch-3-privacy-monitor-controller/images/Little-Snitch-Configuration_hu_581bec9494169bb9.jpg\" srcset=\"/little-snitch-3-privacy-monitor-controller/images/Little-Snitch-Configuration_hu_e07c9ce2c6ff63a9.jpg 360w,/little-snitch-3-privacy-monitor-controller/images/Little-Snitch-Configuration_hu_9051e978e0938825.jpg 480w,/little-snitch-3-privacy-monitor-controller/images/Little-Snitch-Configuration_hu_dfd30bf85659c3c0.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"little-snitch-3-your-network-connection-monitor\"\u003eLittle Snitch 3 your network connection monitor\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have a couple of applications that I always install on a new Mac. Little Snitch 3 is one of them. They are the essential software I need to have installed to be productive and secure. \u003ca href=\"http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html\" title=\"Little Snitch 3\"\u003eLittle Snitch by Objective Development\u003c/a\u003e is one of them. \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/does-your-programs-phone-home/\"\u003eI’ve been using it for more than ten years now\u003c/a\u003e, and I wouldn’t dream of running a Mac without it installed. What Little Snitch 3 essentially does is monitor all outgoing traffic from your open applications and processes and gives you the ability to allow or deny that traffic. It is an excellent way of seeing what kind of information is sent from applications without your knowledge or consent. And it’s a great way of stopping traffic that “Phones home” without your explicit permission. When an application tries to send out something over the network, it gets intercepted by Little Snitch, and you can then allow or deny the connection, either temporary or permanently via the dialog box that appears. So Little Snitch is always there, protecting your privacy.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Little Snitch 3 Privacy Monitor and Controller"},{"content":"\nBlogo 2 Update: After using Blogo 2 for a while I decided to use Marsedit 3 instead. It\u0026rsquo;s a much more mature product right now. I decided I wanted to try a new blogging application and stumbled onto Blogo 2. After installing it I had problems at first because I could only see the first 16 pages of content on my blog. But after contacting their support, they found out the problem (a weird character in one of my posts) and even logged in and fixed it. So my initial impression of the support for the application is very good. I just wished that the application supported Markdown and have a way of synchronising to Dropbox so I can switch between my computer and my iPad. But for quick posts like this (and if everything works because I haven’t pressed the Publish button yet) this could be a useful application. And there is sync with Evernote so that might work in a pinch.\nQuick thoughts When uploading images, the application renames them into a cryptic number instead of the original filename. For example 1410822474.jpeg instead of blogo_icon.jpg which was the original name for this entry. That’s not good for SEO because Google takes the filename of the image into consideration as well when indexing your content.\nImage size When adding a picture, you can set the image size. Unfortunately it doesn’t work when you use a Wordpress plugin for displaying images in Retina quality. I’ll hack around and see if I can find a solution to this problem. Otherwise the image handling seems ok.\nI like the minimalistic interface when writing. No distracting things are displayed while editing (even images are shown as gray boxes, unless you preview or hold down the Alt-key) that keeps you concentrating on doing the actual writing. I like that.\nEvernote There is a sync function for syncing your blog posts to Evernote, This gives you the ability to edit on your iOS devices or on another computer. I tried both ways and the sync worked as advertised. Nifty little feature.\nSafari Plugin There’s a Safari plugin so you can post images, videos or quotes directly from Safari which is a nice touch.\nHTML There’s no HTML editor. I can understand the reasoning behind not including it, making the program less intimidating, but let’s face it, you still need to be able to write HTML when blogging. So pretty please with sugar on top, please add it. You can even hide it as a setting in the Advanced section of the preferences.\nI’ll have to give this program some time and see if I like this way of blogging. I’ll be back with a more comprehensive walkthrough later on.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/initial-test-of-blogo-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"1410822474_thumb.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/initial-test-of-blogo-2/images/1410822474_thumb_hu_8e221eb382d06be8.jpeg\" srcset=\"/initial-test-of-blogo-2/images/1410822474_thumb_hu_e262b020ee3d7d35.jpeg 360w,/initial-test-of-blogo-2/images/1410822474_thumb_hu_8ebda929ffda0474.jpeg 480w,/initial-test-of-blogo-2/images/1410822474_thumb_hu_23ea8046c7619867.jpeg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"blogo-2\"\u003eBlogo 2\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate: After using Blogo 2 for a while \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/marsedit-3-my-new-blog-editor-on-my-mac/\"\u003eI decided to use Marsedit 3 instead\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a much more mature product right now.\u003c/strong\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI decided I wanted to try a new blogging application and stumbled onto \u003ca href=\"http://www.getblogo.com\" title=\"Blogo 2 Application\"\u003eBlogo 2\u003c/a\u003e. After installing it I had problems at first because I could only see the first 16 pages of content on my blog. But after contacting their support, they  found out the problem (a weird character in one of my posts) and even logged in and fixed it. So my initial impression of the support for the application is very good. I just wished that the application supported Markdown and have a way of synchronising to Dropbox so I can switch between my computer and my iPad. But for quick posts like this (and if everything works because I haven’t pressed the Publish button yet) this could be a useful application. And there is sync with \u003ca href=\"https://evernote.com\" title=\"Evernote application\"\u003eEvernote\u003c/a\u003e so that might work in a pinch.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Quick Test of the Blogo 2 Blogging Application"},{"content":"JPEGMini What if you could reduce the size of all the jpeg pictures on your hard disk? Do you have problems sending full resolution jpeg images via email because of size restraints? Is your iPhoto library too large? Let’s face it; pictures is one of the things that sucks up space on your drives. It\u0026rsquo;s even more annoying if you are using a newer Mac with an SSD disk where cost is premium. Upload speed when sending emails or uploading images to the web can be slow and annoying. An application called JPEGMini claims to help you with reducing your pictures with up to five times while retaining all the quality. I got a bit curious if the team at JPEGMini and their patented image compressor really could reduce large JPEG photos without losing quality. I’ve tried the application before when I wrote my article about comparing the best jpeg compressor applications for web use. But even though JPEGMini is geared more towards large megapixel pictures, not small images usually used on web pages, my test shows that it stacks up well against the competition even on more modest photographs. Many web pages now use pictures optimized for high-resolution images like for Retina display and high-resolution mobile devices, so the use of an image compressor is getting even more useful for web use.\nBut how well does JPEGMini retain quality on megapixel images in JPEG format? How much do you lose in quality by using compressing?\nAbout JPEGMini JPEG Image Compressor JPEGMini Lite JPEGMini comes in four versions. First, we have the JPEGMini Lite which you can download for free. With it, you can compress twenty images per day for free. It’s a great way of trying it out and see if it fits your needs. I did download the Lite version and later made an in-app purchase to the full version. My recommendation is to get the full-featured JPEGMini instead, so you don’t have to go through the hassle of reauthorizing it every time the application is updated.\nJPEGMini With JPEGMini you can compress images up to 28Mpixel pictures and compress as many images as you like.\nJPEGMini Pro Pro version for photographers that work with high-resolution images (up to 50 Megapixels) and need the extra speed, because the Pro version uses multithreading and is up to 8 times faster than the regular version. It also comes with an Adobe Lightroom plugin.\nAdobe Lightroom plug-in The plug-in for Adobe Lightroom makes it easy to compress your jpg photos when exporting from within the application. A nice touch.\nServer version They even got a server version for websites with image upload capabilities.\nCompression Image Filesize MB Filesize MB Compressed % of original size test1 6.4 2.6 41% test2 4.5 2.9 65% test3 3.6 1.9 53% test4 8.9 2.4 27% test5 7.4 3.1 42% test6 6.4 2.7 42% test7 5.9 2.4 40% test8 9.2 3.9 43% test9 6.4 2.3 36% test10 5.3 2.2 41% test11 4.5 1.3 28% test12 9.4 4.8 50% test13 13.1 6.5 50% All the images used in this test are from either a 21Mpixel Canon 5D Mark II or my new favorite camera, the venerable Fujifilm X100S. The pictures were exported directly from Lightroom with jpeg quality setting of 100% in full resolution, retaining as much information as possible. I’m using a selection of thirteen different pictures (you can see a gallery of the images used at the end of this post), for some variation of different subject matter to see what kind of picture compresses the best. I’ve included pixel-busy images of Stockholm, but also a studio photo with a lot of white surroundings. So now on to the important question, how good is the quality of the compressed images I used?\nQuality So inevitably the image quality must suffer when doing this kind of compression? I’ve made 100% zoom in on the test images before/after compressing. Therefore, you can see for yourself if the compression has any impact on the picture quality.\nThese are the pictures is used in my test:\n[gallery link=\u0026ldquo;file\u0026rdquo; ids=\u0026ldquo;3452,3451,3450,3449,3448,3447,3446,3445,3444,3443,3442,3441,3440\u0026rdquo;]\nSpeed! The JPEGMini Pro is a speed demon compared to the standard version. The standard version isn’t slow, but when running the Pro version, all cores on my Intel i7 MacBook Pro goes to 100% CPU usage and the compressed images flashes by in an instant. So if you’re planning to do a lot of compression, the Pro version is the way to go.\nDrawbacks I’ve only found one thing to complain about in this software, and that is that you can’t drag images directly to the application icon. You need to first start the application and then drag the images to the application window or use the open command in the File menu. Hopefully, they will fix this in a later version.\nConclusion JPEGMini is excellent for freeing up space on your hard disk if you have a lot of large jpg images and is also great when you have to transfer the images over the internet. As you can see in the comparison, there’s virtually no image degradation after compressing images, and the compression ratio is usually more the 50% and often a lot more. You can drag your iPhoto library directly into the JPEGMini window and free up gigabytes of space on your disk. I can’t detect any degradation in image quality when compressed with JPEGMini, so I’m impressed.\nI consider JPEGMini a must-have program in my image processing arsenal, and I recommend it. Try out the free trial version first, and I think you’ll agree.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/reduce-image-size-large-photos/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"jpegmini-pro-icon-imagejpegmini\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"JPEGMini Pro icon image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/reduce-image-size-large-photos/images/JPEGminiPro_hu_e18bc23fb602690e.jpg\" srcset=\"/reduce-image-size-large-photos/images/JPEGminiPro_hu_41f46a0559fb0567.jpg 360w,/reduce-image-size-large-photos/images/JPEGminiPro_hu_9e9e89b449807fd6.jpg 480w,/reduce-image-size-large-photos/images/JPEGminiPro_hu_f65fd17ab47caf24.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003eJPEGMini\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat if you could reduce the size of all the jpeg pictures on your hard disk? Do you have problems sending full resolution jpeg images via email because of size restraints? Is your iPhoto library too large? Let’s face it; pictures is one of the things that sucks up space on your drives. It\u0026rsquo;s even more annoying if you are using a newer Mac with an SSD disk where cost is premium. Upload speed when sending emails or uploading images to the web can be slow and annoying. An application called \u003ca href=\"http://www.jpegmini.com\"\u003eJPEGMini\u003c/a\u003e claims to help you with reducing your pictures with up to five times while retaining all the quality. I got a bit curious if the team at JPEGMini and their patented image compressor really could reduce large JPEG photos without losing quality. I’ve tried the application before when I wrote my article about comparing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/image-compression-tools-web/\"\u003ebest jpeg compressor applications for web use\u003c/a\u003e. But even though JPEGMini is geared more towards large megapixel pictures, not small images usually used on web pages, my test shows that it stacks up well against the competition even on more modest photographs. Many web pages now use pictures optimized for high-resolution images like for Retina display and high-resolution mobile devices, so the use of an image compressor is getting even more useful for web use.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut how well does JPEGMini retain quality on megapixel images in JPEG format? How much do you lose in quality by using compressing?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"JPEGMini an easy way to reduce size of large photos"},{"content":"\nTrying to display color corrected images on an iPad A couple of weeks ago i bought the Spyder4Elite so I could color calibrate my Retina MacBook Pro 15“ and my Asus PA246 24” monitor. And the calibration works really well.\nThere is no way of color calibrate your iPad, because Apple has not given developers the ability to create or change the calibration of the screen. But Datacolor, the makers of the Spyder4 line of calibrators has solved the problem by making an app that connects to your Mac via your network and use the calibrator to calibrate their app called SpyderGallery. This enables you to see calibrated versions of your pictures inside the viewer. But the calibrated data only works in the SpyderGallery app.\nAfter downloading SpyderGallery from the AppStore, you can have a link for the accompanying Mac application sent to you via email. Unfortunately the link doesn’t work and gives you a server error 500. After searching using Google, I found the software and tried to install it on my Mac. It uses the horrible Vise X installer software and immediately complains that you don’t have enough permission to install the application in your Applications folder. The workaround is set the destination to the base directory of an attached drive and then move it to the Application folder manually. This is an annoying bug that doesn’t give much confidence in the product.\nAfter that you can start calibrating your iPad and the data is sent from your Mac (that has the calibrator connected to it) to you iPad.\nThe iPad cycles through a couple of colors like red, green, blue and different shades of gray, just as it does when calibrating on your Mac, but it seems to not do an as exhausting test as it does when calibrating a monitor connected to the computer. Maybe that’s why the result is pretty appalling. After comparing images that looks great when viewing them using the uncalibrated view setting, the images turns into a red tinted image with obvious banding in the highlight. The worst example is a test on a black and white picture. Uncalibrated it looks good, but as soon as you turn on the calibrated view you now have a banded red colored image. So the application is effectively unusable. I’ve tried to do recalibrations with the lights turned off just to make sure that no stray light enters the hardware calibrator. But it still gives appalling results.\nThankfully the Mac monitor calibration works very well and I’m very happy with the Spyder4Elite, but it’s unfortunate that they’ve released such a poor application for the iPad. Maybe this is a problem with the API for iOS devices, but then why release an inferior product at all?\nI have deleted the SpyderGallery from my iPad because frankly it’s unusable in its current form. This is unfortunate because the iPad is a great device to display images on. Hopefully they’ll fix this and makes it usable.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/spydergallery-color-calibration-ipad/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Spyder4Elite Color calibrator photo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1091\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/spydergallery-color-calibration-ipad/images/spyder4elite_hu_d64f69d8ae9bb57f.jpg\" srcset=\"/spydergallery-color-calibration-ipad/images/spyder4elite_hu_e9f121e83365ae41.jpg 360w,/spydergallery-color-calibration-ipad/images/spyder4elite_hu_300d78dafa4f7672.jpg 480w,/spydergallery-color-calibration-ipad/images/spyder4elite_hu_9bd23b7d864f71f9.jpg 720w\" width=\"937\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"trying-to-display-color-corrected-images-on-an-ipad\"\u003eTrying to display color corrected images on an iPad\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA couple of weeks ago i bought the Spyder4Elite so I could color calibrate my Retina MacBook Pro 15“ and my Asus PA246 24” monitor. And the calibration works really well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no way of color calibrate your iPad, because Apple has not given developers the ability to create or change the calibration of the screen. But Datacolor, the makers of the Spyder4 line of calibrators has solved the problem by making an app that connects to your Mac via your network and use the calibrator to calibrate their app called \u003ca href=\"http://spyder.datacolor.com/portfolio-view/spyder-gallery/\"\u003eSpyderGallery\u003c/a\u003e. This enables you to see calibrated versions of your pictures inside the viewer. But the calibrated data only works in the SpyderGallery app.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SpyderGallery color calibration for iPad"},{"content":"\nNon-local backup I’ve been going back and forth trying to find a good off-site backup for a long time. I do have an Apple TimeCapsule where I do backup locally, but it doesn’t backup my external drives where I have all my pictures that goes back many years and that would be a nightmare to lose. I use Arq and Amazon Glacier to backup my pictures off-site and I also use rsync to a local NAS for a local backup. But I want a way of doing backup of all my stuff, so I’ve tried both CrashPlan and Backblaze but always found them to slow for my liking. Another reason for giving up on CrashPlan was the client software that uses to much processing power and I think the client is written in Java which would explain why it’s a resource hog. Not so with Backblaze that uses only about 3% of CPU even when the settings for upload speed is set to full upload speed and it doesn’t use much memory.\nThere is a huge difference in upload speed between Arq backup to Amazon Glacier and Backblaze. The Amazon servers are located in Ireland so I guess much of the speed difference is that the Backblaze servers are in the US and doing backup from Sweden is slower. Hopefully Backblaze will install servers in Europe as well. For now, I’ll upload everything (current estimate 22 days) and try to use it for a while to see if it works.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/backblaze-offsite-backup/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Backblaze logo image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"411\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/backblaze-offsite-backup/images/logo-backblaze-big_hu_fdd02f71834a8ef4.png\" srcset=\"/backblaze-offsite-backup/images/logo-backblaze-big_hu_2362bb445cbb8e34.png 360w,/backblaze-offsite-backup/images/logo-backblaze-big_hu_6bf61e79239be8e1.png 480w,/backblaze-offsite-backup/images/logo-backblaze-big_hu_bf0a230d4a03a019.png 720w,/backblaze-offsite-backup/images/logo-backblaze-big_hu_f31a2f2e3a37db86.png 1080w,/backblaze-offsite-backup/images/logo-backblaze-big_hu_fdd02f71834a8ef4.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"non-local-backup\"\u003eNon-local backup\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’ve been going back and forth trying to find a good off-site backup for a long time. I do have an \u003ca href=\"https://www.apple.com/airport-time-capsule/\"\u003eApple TimeCapsule\u003c/a\u003e where I do backup locally, but it doesn’t backup my external drives where I have all my pictures that goes back many years and that would be a nightmare to lose. I use \u003ca href=\"http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/\"\u003eArq\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://aws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/glacier/\"\u003eAmazon Glacier\u003c/a\u003e to backup my pictures off-site and I also use rsync to a local NAS for a local backup. But I want a way of doing backup of all my stuff, so I’ve tried both \u003ca href=\"http://aws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/glacier/\"\u003eCrashPlan\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://www.backblaze.com\"\u003eBackblaze\u003c/a\u003e but always found them to slow for my liking. Another reason for giving up on CrashPlan was the client software that uses to much processing power and I think the client is written in Java which would explain why it’s a resource hog. Not so with Backblaze that uses only about 3% of CPU even when the settings for upload speed is set to full upload speed and it doesn’t use much memory.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Backblaze Off-Site Backup"},{"content":" There are several JPEG image compression tools available that takes a jpeg file and reduces the size of the photo without altering the quality. But which one works best for posting images on a website? I was curious, so I took the tools I usually use and put them through the compress photo function. All applications tested claims not to lower the quality of the image. I’m concentrating on testing jpeg files here, and do a followup article later with results for optimizing PNG files.\nThe images and source I exported all the pictures from Adobe Lightroom 4 as jpg with a quality setting of 80, which is the one I usually use when uploading to my blog, Flickr or 500px. I’m not a big fan of jpeg artifacts, but you could get away with much lower quality setting depending on the picture. I tried to take different kind of images, where some contain a lot of details, and other with less, to see what kind of effect that has on the image compression result.\nApplications tested JPEGmini JPEGmini is an excellent image compressor application on Mac OS X. This is a tool primarily for compressing large size images and does a fantastic job of it. I\u0026rsquo;ve included lower resolution pictures just out of curiosity. And it seems like it’s a good match for some smaller images as well. But if you have to send large photos with the quality of the original still intact, this is the obvious choice.\nImageOptim ImageOptim is a popular (and free) image optimizer for Mac OS X. It handles JPEG, PNG and GIF files. By utilizing several Open Source programs like PNGOUT, AdvPNG, Pngcrush, OptiPNG, JpegOptim, jpegrescan, jpegtran, and Gifsicle it has lots of muscle for jpeg compression.\nFor Microsoft Windows users, there are similar apps, like RIOT, but I haven’t tried it. YMMV[1].\nEWWW Image Optimizer A Wordpress plugin that automatically compresses uploaded images. It has a lot of settings for optimizing the compression. This plugin is for those who host their server because you need to be able to install all the Linux commands requirements for the plugin. It uses jpegtran, OptiPNG/PNGOUT, and gifsicle for compression. There is an alternative for those who don’t have shell access and the ability to install the extra software needed on the Wordpress server. It’s called smush.it! But it sends all the images to Yahoo for compression, and there’s been a lot of problems getting it to work reliably.\n1024 pixels long side image Application image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg image4.jpg image5.jpg Original 380792 161510 132392 123245 197888 EWWW Image Optimizer 324341 123691 102321 96509 164443 ImageOptim 340203 131281 110674 98442 168892 JPEGmini 220070 102092 110793 67766 135362 Results in reducing image size Here you can see the power of JPEGmini in action. As you can see, the size of the first large image is almost cut in half using JPEGmini. In all pictures except image3, which is mostly white background, JPEGmini is the clear winner. On image3, EWWW Image Optimizer wins with about 8kb. JPEGmini were designed to compress the size of high-resolution pictures, but it still holds up well with images meant for web publication.\n800 pixels long side image Application image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg image4.jpg image5.jpg Original 246413 108951 93432 79577 140135 EWWW Image Optimizer 200660 77190 67975 57967 109215 ImageOptim 209333 81782 73269 58811 111842 JPEGmini 156679 72347 74017 48642 100789 Results in reducing image size Now the results are closer, with JPEGmini still maintains a lead, depending on the complexity of the image.\n500 pixels long side image Application image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg image4.jpg image5.jpg Original 117143 61239 52093 42607 81325 EWWW Image Optimizer 80807 34950 31212 24862 52324 ImageOptim 83693 36650 33322 24978 53557 JPEGmini 79119 46833 47006 32246 59335 Results in reducing image size With images in the 500-pixel range, now the choice of tools is between EWWW Image Optimizer and ImageOptim. There’s a difference of a couple of bytes to EWWW Image Optimizer’s advantage.\n300 pixels long side image Application image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg image4.jpg image5.jpg Original 63066 39997 32361 28174 51919 EWWW Image Optimizer 30174 15916 13631 11270 23749 ImageOptim 31132 16512 14179 11270 24324 JPEGmini 53339 34004 30457 23878 43501 Results in reducing image size Now EWWW Image Optimizer and ImageOptim is the definitive choice. The difference is negligible between them, but a small advantage when compared to EWWW Image Optimizer. The similarities in results are not surprising because both utilities use the same engines, just with minor tweaks in the settings.\n200 pixels long side image Application image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg image4.jpg image5.jpg Original 37058 26619 21480 20152 33332 EWWW Image Optimizer 14506 8640 7206 6507 12730 ImageOptim 14824 8845 7289 6507 12945 JPEGmini 31885 23651 20515 18083 29266 Results in reducing image size This confirms earlier findings, which JPEGmini works best with higher resolution images. EWWW Image Optimizer still wins over ImageOptim, but with just a couple of hundred bytes or they are the same size.\nConclusion If you are about to upload sizeable high-quality photographs to your website or a photo sharing site, you can’t beat JPEGmini. The compression results are fantastic with no visible artifacts. It’s a steal and an essential tool for anyone dealing with photographs. It allows you to email a full res photograph from a high-end camera without losing image quality. And it saves bandwidth when uploading pictures to online services.\nImageOptim is an excellent standalone application for Mac OS X and its free! So this is the goto application if you’re compressing smaller jpeg, png or gif images. Drag and drop the picture, and you\u0026rsquo;re done. It’s an excellent choice if you can’t install EWWW Image Optimizer, or going to use the images for something else than publishing to a Wordpress site.\nBut for publishing smaller images to your website if it’s running Wordpress and you\u0026rsquo;re allowed to install software on the server, EWWW Image Optimizer is the way to go. All you have to do is to upload your image to Wordpress, and EWWW Image Optimizer automatically compresses the pictures for you. And it works wonders with PNG images as well. It even has a bulk compress command for compressing photos uploaded before you installed the plug-in.\nImages used for the test [gallery link=“file” columns=“4” ids=“2755,2756,2757,2758,2759”]\nYour Milage may Vary. ↩ ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/image-compression-tools-web/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Test Image 3\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"99\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/image-compression-tools-web/images/testimage-3-150x99_hu_3b5a62d7dfbb6359.jpg\" width=\"150\"\u003e There are several JPEG image compression tools available that takes a jpeg file and reduces the size of the photo without altering the quality. But which one works best for posting images on a website? I was curious, so I took the tools I usually use and put them through the compress photo function. All applications tested claims not to lower the quality of the image. I’m concentrating on testing jpeg files here, and do a followup article later with results for optimizing PNG files.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Image Compression JPEG Tools for Web"},{"content":"\nUsing a Clicky PC Keyboard from Corsair on a Mac If you have followed this blog, you probably know that I love clicky keyboards. But getting a Buckling Spring or even a Cherry MX Blue keyboard specifically made for Macintosh isn’t easy, at least not here in Sweden. So the way to go for me was to get a PC gaming keyboard.\nI first bought the Razer Black Widow which is a Cherry MX Blue clicky keyboard. But I didn’t like the layout of some of the keys, so I gave it to my son to use on his gaming PC. That made him a fan of clicky keyboards, and that has to be worth something. Anyway, back to the drawing board trying to find a likable keyboard.\nAfter searching around, I found the Corsair Vengeance K70 PC Gaming Keyboard which I think is the least ugly gaming keyboard I’ve managed to find.\nCorsair Vengeance K70 PC Gaming Keyboard The keyboard has a beautiful brushed black anodized finish that’s nice. It looks better in real life than the pictures I found online. The USB cable has two connectors at the end, but you only need to connect one if you’re not using the extra USB connector located on the keyboard itself. The keyboard comes with free gaming keys for the classical A-S-D-W keys and 1 to 6. The keys are red and tilted for making it easier to play games. For me, this is something that’s going directly into the drawer. I’m left-handed so I use I-J-K-L to play, and the standard keys will work fine for occasional gaming sessions. My primary use is to write, and as I write on the keyboard, I have a little smile on my face. There’s something special about the sound and feel of clicky keyboards. But using it at night when the wife is in the bedroom? No way, It’s way too loud. And the more you use it, the louder it gets because you’ll increase your writing speed, making even more of a racket.\nThe keyboard comes with hand rests in plastic, with a rubberized coating, so your hands have something to lean on. I like it, so I’m keeping it installed.\nMedia Player Control Keys The keyboard comes with controls for Play/Pause, Stop, Next song, Previous song, Mute and a wheel for adjusting the volume. And they all work right out of the box! Well, except for Stop, because iTunes doesn’t have a dedicated stop button, just pause/play. The controls are in their separate location in the upper right corner of the keyboard, and they are convenient. Best implementation I’ve tried so far. The Scroll Lock and Pause Break buttons adjust the screen brightness, so two buttons that are useless for Mac users come to good use here.\nCompatibility Mode Switch There is a BIOS switch for compatibility for different computers, but I have mine set to the one closest setting to the text BIOS. This is apparently the Compatibility Mode setting. With that selected the caps lock indicator LED works.\nSetup for Macintosh So the keyboard is a PC keyboard, and the key mapping for the alt and command are reversed. But the fix is easy. Open System Preferences and select Keyboard. Press the button called “Modifier Keys…” and set the Option key to Command and the Command key to Option. Don’t forget to select the right keyboard using the popup at the top of the settings dialog box. It’s nice to see that the Caps Lock key is a “real” key so that I can map it to CTRL.\nHappy? So far I’m happy with the result. Typing is heaven thanks to the Cherry MX keys, and I love the analog feel to the volume control. I’m probably going to get tired of the red LEDs behind the keys, but there’s a button to turn them off, so that’s not a problem.\nGaming I\u0026rsquo;ve started to play games now on my new MacBook Pro Retina 15\u0026quot; machine. I\u0026rsquo;m dual boot using BootCamp, and right now I\u0026rsquo;m in the middle of playing Far Cry 3, an excellent game. And it\u0026rsquo;s nice to have a good keyboard when playing.\nYou can buy the Corsair Vengeance K70 MX Blue Keyboard here\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/corsair-k70-clicky-pc-gaming-keyboard-mac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Corsair K70 Keyboard Side View\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"960\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/corsair-k70-clicky-pc-gaming-keyboard-mac/images/corsair-k70-keyboard-side_hu_8559cd8ec7296979.jpg\" srcset=\"/corsair-k70-clicky-pc-gaming-keyboard-mac/images/corsair-k70-keyboard-side_hu_d32a81b5c47402b8.jpg 360w,/corsair-k70-clicky-pc-gaming-keyboard-mac/images/corsair-k70-keyboard-side_hu_30d2327a5ec125b8.jpg 480w,/corsair-k70-clicky-pc-gaming-keyboard-mac/images/corsair-k70-keyboard-side_hu_f3dea5e601aa01c0.jpg 720w,/corsair-k70-clicky-pc-gaming-keyboard-mac/images/corsair-k70-keyboard-side_hu_14e130ab589d5265.jpg 1080w,/corsair-k70-clicky-pc-gaming-keyboard-mac/images/corsair-k70-keyboard-side_hu_8559cd8ec7296979.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"using-a-clicky-pc-keyboard-from-corsair-on-a-mac\"\u003eUsing a Clicky PC Keyboard from Corsair on a Mac\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you have followed this blog, you probably know that \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-keyboards-clicky-real-typists/\"\u003eI love clicky keyboards\u003c/a\u003e. But getting a Buckling Spring or even a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/switches/key/mx.htm\"\u003eCherry MX Blue\u003c/a\u003e keyboard specifically made for Macintosh isn’t easy, at least not here in Sweden. So the way to go for me was to get a PC gaming keyboard.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Corsair K70 Clicky PC Gaming Keyboard on a Mac"},{"content":"\nSqueezePlug problem where Squeezelite refuse to start I installed a Raspberry Pi in my livingroom as a Squeezebox music Server/Player, using a SqueezePlug[1] image. But when I tried to install the Squeezelite player, it refused to start. I tried to uninstall and reinstall, selecting another USB Audio Interface, but the problem persisted. After checking around and doing a some experimenting, I found that I could start Squeezelite manually from the terminal prompt, but if I tried to start it with the init.d or service script, it refused to start. So I started to dig around and experimented with changing the settings for Squeezelite and I found the problem…\nAt the end of the settings file for Squeezelite in /etc/default/squeezelite there’s a line that sets up the audio. The installed line is\nSLOPTIONS=\u0026#34;-n SqueezeLite -o front:CARD=DAC,DEV=0 \u0026#34; When I changed the line to:\nSLOPTIONS=\u0026#34;-n SqueezeLite \u0026#34; Now everything worked. It seems that in SqueezePlug, the settings for using a USB audio card is already setup when running the setup command in SqueezePlug, so the extra information isn’t necessary.\niPad controlled Hi-Fi Music Player with iPeng 7 So now I can enjoy my music in the livingroom using the incredible “bang for the buck” asynchronous USB audio interface HiFimeDIY, and control the player with the excellent iPhone/iPad app iPeng 7\n[caption id=\u0026quot;\u0026quot; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;580\u0026rdquo;] iPeng 7 Squeezebox iPad Screenshot[/caption]\nA linux distribution for Raspberry Pi that is already setup to make it easy to use the Raspberry Pi as a music server/player. Read more about SqueezePlug here. ? ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/squeezelite-problem-starting-squeezeplug-raspberry-pi/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Raspberry Pi logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1440\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/squeezelite-problem-starting-squeezeplug-raspberry-pi/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_2006f59e20cfbe25.png\" srcset=\"/squeezelite-problem-starting-squeezeplug-raspberry-pi/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_a1d9c616596ab41d.png 360w,/squeezelite-problem-starting-squeezeplug-raspberry-pi/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_63cfc76619ba0b1f.png 480w,/squeezelite-problem-starting-squeezeplug-raspberry-pi/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_ce91df34fae40af0.png 720w,/squeezelite-problem-starting-squeezeplug-raspberry-pi/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_a951a74991497081.png 1080w,/squeezelite-problem-starting-squeezeplug-raspberry-pi/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_2006f59e20cfbe25.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"squeezeplug-problem-where-squeezelite-refuse-to-start\"\u003eSqueezePlug problem where Squeezelite refuse to start\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI installed a Raspberry Pi in my livingroom as a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_player)\"\u003eSqueezebox\u003c/a\u003e music Server/Player, using a \u003ca href=\"http://www.squeezeplug.eu\"\u003eSqueezePlug\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:1\" title=\"see footnote\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e image. But when I tried to install the \u003ca href=\"https://code.google.com/p/squeezelite/\"\u003eSqueezelite\u003c/a\u003e player, it refused to start. I tried to uninstall and reinstall, selecting another USB Audio Interface, but the problem persisted. After checking around and doing a some experimenting, I found that I could start Squeezelite manually from the terminal prompt, but if I tried to start it with the init.d or service script, it refused to start. So I started to dig around and experimented with changing the settings for Squeezelite and I found the problem…\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Squeezelite problem starting in SqueezePlug on Raspberry Pi"},{"content":"Update to the update 2018 Still my favorite email client, and I\u0026rsquo;m now also blessed with a version for iPad and my iPhone. It\u0026rsquo;s up to version 3. It never crashes, and the search is fast and excellent. Best email client ever!\nUpdate 2016-02-16 I\u0026rsquo;m still using Airmail now, two years after I wrote this post. It has never failed me in any way. It\u0026rsquo;s now up to version 2. I guess Apple has probably fixed a lot of the problems they had back then when connecting to Gmail. And let\u0026rsquo;s face it, Google changed a lot from the original IMAP standard, so everyone had to keep up. But I\u0026rsquo;m sticking with Airmail 2. Now there\u0026rsquo;s even an excellent version for Airmail for iOS. And you\u0026rsquo;ll feel right at home. It also syncs your settings from your Mac OS X application, so now I have an HTML signature on my iPhone. Yay! The only complaint is that they did the app for iPhone only and not an iPad version. In a perfect world, it should have been a universal app. But hopefully, they\u0026rsquo;ll fix that in the coming months.\nAirmail, my new favorite mail client After Mac OS X 10.8, Apple Mail has been going downhill by every update. It’s weird because the iOS Mail app is rock solid. I have my email domain on Google Apps, and I know that Gmail doesn’t follow the IMAP standard, instead choosing to do it their way. So they use tags instead of folders, etc. The blame has to be put on Google for not following standards but is a significant player; you can pretty much set your own rules. Anyway, Apple Mail has become a slow, unreliable application although they have fixed some of the more severe problems in the latest release. For the first time in many years, I was on the lookout for a new email client software.\nTime to find a new Mail Client I wanted to be able to have both of my private and work email accounts in the same program but have them separate to make life easier, and after searching the net, I found an application called Airmail. The feature list is comprehensive to the point of me not wanting to list all the features here, but follow the link to get a lowdown on all the things the application can do. I’ll go through the things that persuaded me to switch.\nSpeed Airmail is fast. I mean, really fast! I just bought a new MacBook Pro 15\u0026quot; Retina with a 2.5Ghz Intel i7, so it’s probably not the best computer to pass any judgment on the speed of an application, but my computer at work is a three-year-old MacBook Pro, and Airmail feels very fast on that machine as well.\nSwitching between email accounts When setting up several email accounts in Airmail, it’s easy for the user to switch between them. I have two private email addresses and one for work that I have configured in the application. There is an option to use a unified inbox, but for me, it’s much better to have my work emails separated from my private ones. You can either switch by clicking on the small icons on the bottom left column in the application window, but a quicker way is just to use ctrl–1, ctrl–2 or ctrl–3, etc. to be able to switch between your accounts.\nDepending on the one you chose, Airmail will use the correct reply address and signature specifically for that account. Very convenient, and cuts down on mistakenly sending email from the wrong return address.\nMenubar Icon Another great feature is the small icon in the menubar that shows a little airplane symbol. It is black when there is no new mail, but turns blue and shows the number of new emails. The icon works as a toggle, so if you press it, the Airmail application becomes the front application, but if you push it again, the Airmail window disappears. A great feature because I no longer need to have the mail application showing all the time. That’s a handy little feature. When a new email arrives, you get a nice looking system notification through OS X standard notification system.\nOmniFocus I do all my planning both for work and private projects in OmniFocus so it’s nice to see that there is built-in integration with OmniFocus, a program that I can’t live without. No more problems when Apple updates Mail and makes the OmniFocus plug-in stop working.\nYou can send emails directly to OmniFocus by right-clicking the message and select the submenu ‘dispatch’ and choose ‘Create OmniFocus Task,’ and a new task window will appear. It creates a new task and adds a URL to the specific email message.\nQuick Entry Often you only need to make a quick reply to an email thread without any signature at the bottom. By pressing Command-E, you get a fast entry dialog box for entering your answer. It usually replies to the primary sender, but if you want to respond to all persons, just press Command-Shift-E.\nMultiMarkdown You have the option to write your email messages in either plain text, rich text, HTML or MultiMarkdown. For me, this is a great feature, because I write everything in Markdown these days. But if your old school, or have recipients that have inferior email client software, you can always write and send it as plain text.\nEmail Signatures It’s easy to set up a nice looking signature that will show up at the end of your messages because you can write the signature in Markdown or HTML. You can do an HTML signature in Apple Mail as well, but it’s not for the faint of heart. In Airmail it’s dead simple, primarily if you use Markdown to generate nice HTML code.\nExternal File Sharing Services Most email servers have a limit on how large attachments you can have. The limit the servers usually have are somewhere between 5 to 20Mb. Airmail provides the ability to link an external service, so it uploads a large attachment and then provides a URL to the file. Currently, these are the services you can connect to:\nFTP Attachments Dropbox Google Drive Droplr CloudAppSo as you can see, there’s plenty of options for sending large files to a recipient without having problems with mail servers returning the mail because it is too large. Encryption There are plugins for S/MIME and GPG available to download separately, I have both the S/MIME and GPG plug-in installed, and it works as it should.\nSmall nitpicks Sometimes when an email conversation is selected, and a new mail arrives, it doesn’t show up, so you have to choose another message and then select the discussion again for it to show. This is a small bug and one of the few I encountered. I’m using Airmail both at work and at home, and this is the only bug I’ve seen so far after a couple of weeks of intensive use, so it’s a small issue that will be fixed in an update. There’s also a tiny cosmetic error (that I have reported to the makers of Airmail) in the Swedish translation of the application. Other than that, I haven’t had a single problem with the app.\nCost This application is insanely cheap. Currently, it has an introductory price of $1.99, so you don’t have to risk a lot of money to try it out, and if you do, I’m sure that you’ll like it. If not, you just lost less money than a decent cup of coffee.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/airmail-mac-great-replacement-apple-mail/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"airmail2-logoupdate-to-the-update2018\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"airmail2-logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/airmail-mac-great-replacement-apple-mail/images/airmail2-logo_hu_27a93e2691f5db63.png\" srcset=\"/airmail-mac-great-replacement-apple-mail/images/airmail2-logo_hu_5c12acecb70a6f93.png 360w,/airmail-mac-great-replacement-apple-mail/images/airmail2-logo_hu_eaedce1228849936.png 480w,/airmail-mac-great-replacement-apple-mail/images/airmail2-logo_hu_88db4a1ac0a02594.png 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003eUpdate to the update 2018\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStill my favorite email client, and I\u0026rsquo;m now also blessed with a version for iPad and my iPhone. It\u0026rsquo;s up to version 3. It never crashes, and the search is fast and excellent. Best email client ever!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"update2016-02-16\"\u003eUpdate 2016-02-16\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m still using Airmail now, two years after I wrote this post. It has never failed me in any way. It\u0026rsquo;s now up to version 2. I guess Apple has probably fixed a lot of the problems they had back then when connecting to \u003cstrong\u003eGmail\u003c/strong\u003e. And let\u0026rsquo;s face it, \u003cstrong\u003eGoogle\u003c/strong\u003e changed a lot from the original IMAP standard, so everyone had to keep up. But I\u0026rsquo;m sticking with \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/airmail-updated-version-20/\"\u003eAirmail 2\u003c/a\u003e. Now there\u0026rsquo;s even an excellent version for \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/airmail-your-mail-with-you/id993160329?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\u0026amp;ct=blog\"\u003eAirmail for iOS\u003c/a\u003e. And you\u0026rsquo;ll feel right at home. It also syncs your settings from your Mac OS X  application, so now I have an HTML signature on my \u003cstrong\u003eiPhone\u003c/strong\u003e. Yay! The only complaint is that they did the app for \u003cstrong\u003eiPhone only\u003c/strong\u003e and not an \u003cstrong\u003eiPad\u003c/strong\u003e version. In a perfect world, it should have been a universal app. But hopefully, they\u0026rsquo;ll fix that in the coming months.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"airmail-my-new-favorite-mail-client\"\u003eAirmail, my new favorite mail client\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter Mac OS X 10.8, Apple Mail has been going downhill by every update. It’s weird because the \u003cstrong\u003eiOS Mail\u003c/strong\u003e app is rock solid. I have my email domain on \u003cstrong\u003eGoogle Apps\u003c/strong\u003e, and I know that Gmail doesn’t follow the IMAP standard, instead choosing to do it their way. So they use tags instead of folders, etc. The blame has to be put on \u003cstrong\u003eGoogle\u003c/strong\u003e for not following standards but is a significant player; you can pretty much set your own rules. Anyway, \u003cstrong\u003eApple Mail\u003c/strong\u003e has become a slow, unreliable application although they have fixed some of the more severe problems in the latest release. For the first time in many years, I was on the lookout for a new email client software.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"time-to-find-a-new-mail-client\"\u003eTime to find a new Mail Client\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI wanted to be able to have both of my private and work email accounts in the same program but have them separate to make life easier, and after searching the net, I found an application called \u003ca href=\"http://airmailapp.com\" title=\"Mac OS X Mail Client\"\u003eAirmail\u003c/a\u003e. The feature list is comprehensive to the point of me not wanting to list all the features here, but follow the link to get a lowdown on all the things the application can do. I’ll go through the things that persuaded me to switch.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Airmail for Mac a Great Replacement for Apple Mail"},{"content":"MacBook Pro 15\u0026quot; Retina Mid2014 Calibrated compared to sRGB and Adobe RGB 1998 A couple of days ago I got my new Spyder4 Elite Color Calibrator for color calibrating monitors. After doing a calibration on both on the latest MacBook Pro 15\u0026quot; retina and my factory calibrated Asus PA246, I saved the comparison charts for the two displays to see how they stack up.\nSpyder4\nMacBook Pro 15\u0026quot; Retina 2.5Ghz i7 The graph above comparing the MacBook Pro (red line) vs. Adobe RGB 1998 where it managed to display 88% of the colors. Adobe RGB 1998 is a much more significant color space than the more commonly used sRGB, so for web work, the sRGB color space is more important. When compared to sRGB, it managed to display 99% of sRGB after calibration.\nsRGB MacBook Pro 15\u0026quot; Retina Mid–2014 Here’s the sRGB plot and as you can see, it manages to display 99% of the sRGB color space, which is very good for a laptop screen.\nSo how does this compares to a display that is manufactured to display colors as accurately as possible?\nAsus PA246 Factory Calibrated Display Ehh! That’s quite a difference! Let’s break it down. The purple line is Adobe RGB 1998. The blue line is when I connected my MacBook Pro with an adapter cable using a DisplayPort cable into the Asus display; the red line is when I plugged in the computer with an HDMI to HDMI cable. The real shocker here is that there is a significant difference between using a converter cable compared to using an HDMI to HDMI cable.\nThe Asus PA246 display manages to display 99% of the Adobe RGB 1998 color space as advertised by the company, so that’s nice. But you do come to appreciate the resolution of the Retina display on the MacBook Pro when comparing it to the much lower resolution Asus display. But the 24\u0026quot; of screen real estate is excellent for viewing pictures.\nsRGB Asus PA246 Monitor Here’s the Asus PA246 compared against sRGB, and it manages to display 100% of the color space with ease.\nSo now I have a beautiful setup when editing images. I mostly use Adobe Lightroom, and I’m using the larger Asus monitor for displaying images for color correction and have the library and controls on my MacBook Pro display.\nGetting your display\u0026rsquo;s color calibrated is a must if you are serious about your photography. A quality calibrator doesn’t cost much and will last for many years. The software that comes with the Spyder4 Elite has a user-friendly mode and an advanced mode, but you’ll get a great result by just following the guide in the software.\nYou can buy the Spyder4 Elite here\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/macbook-pro-retina-color-accuracy/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"macbook-pro-15-retina-mid2014-calibrated-compared-to-srgb-and-adobe-rgb-1998\"\u003eMacBook Pro 15\u0026quot; Retina Mid2014 Calibrated compared to sRGB and Adobe RGB 1998\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA couple of days ago I got my new \u003ca href=\"http://spyder.datacolor.com/portfolio-view/spyder4elite/\"\u003eSpyder4 Elite Color Calibrator\u003c/a\u003e for color calibrating monitors. After doing a calibration on both on the latest MacBook Pro 15\u0026quot; retina and my factory calibrated Asus PA246, I saved the comparison charts for the two displays to see how they stack up.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New MacBook Pro 15\" Retina Color accuracy"},{"content":"\nOvercast makes it fun to listen to Podcasts again After reading a lot about a new podcast app called Overcast created by Marco Arment, famous for creating Instapaper I downloaded the app just to check it out. I love Instapaper, an app that really has made me appreciate long form journalism, so I thought I’ll try to see if Overcast could make me interested in listening to podcasts again, something I haven’t done in a while.\nThe Overcast app The app is free to download from the AppStore, but have in-app purchase for some extra features. I normally hate to buy something in-app, but I can understand his thinking when Apple and others have free podcast apps available. You can try out the extra features that you get by the in-app purchase for five minutes inside the app to see if you like them, but the features aren’t a must, so you can continue to use the app for free if you like. But after trying the extra features I decided to buy it.\nThe added features are:\nCellular downloads Variable playback speed Smart Speed Voice Boost Per-podcast effects settings One-by-one playback option Sleep timer Unlimited number of playlists Unlimited episodes shown in playlists The two features that sealed the deal was Smart Speed and Voice Boost.\nSmart Speed This feature analyses the podcast your are listening to and when there is a silent gap, or “dead air”, the app shortens it, thus saving you time and makes the podcast seem more professionally produced. I have it turned on all the time, but I guess it wouldn’t be the best choice if you listen to a lot of comedy podcasts. It will probably do horrible things to the comedy timing. But for the podcasts I listen to, it works great.\nVoice Boost This feature adds some EQ and compression so that less then stellar recordings of voices sounds more consistent. This makes it easier to listen to podcasts in cars and noisy environments. Yet another feature I have on all the time.\nBattery Life My concern with the added features was that my old iPhone 4 would run out of battery quickly while listening, but the app really shines. It doesn’t suck the batteries dry, even when all the audio processing is activated, which is impressive. If you have a iPhone 5 or newer, you get a beautiful spectrum analyzer displaying during playback, but it’s wisely turned off on the iPhone 4, saving battery life and screen real estate.\nNot a Universal App This app is made for the iPhone only. For me this is not a problem, because I always listen to podcasts on my iPhone anyway.\nPodcast Recommendations The first time you start the application, you have to register. This might seem a bit odd, but there’s a good reason for that. The app doesn’t have to constantly check for new episodes of podcast feeds because this is handled by the sync servers. If you add your Twitter account (read only), you can get recommendations for podcasts from people you are following as well. Very handy.\nThe recommended section in the app is a bit thin right now, and it is very US centric. But it’s easy to add an URL to other podcasts you like to follow.\nThis app has got me back to listen to podcasts again. I like the user interface and is easy to use, something a lot of other podcast apps can’t brag about.\nHighly recommended\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/overcast-iphone-podcast-app/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Overcast Logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1430\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/overcast-iphone-podcast-app/images/overcast_logo_hu_d4769b42a6c2d655.png\" srcset=\"/overcast-iphone-podcast-app/images/overcast_logo_hu_4d5257e55d23fd25.png 360w,/overcast-iphone-podcast-app/images/overcast_logo_hu_b3084884cb3b366c.png 480w,/overcast-iphone-podcast-app/images/overcast_logo_hu_e389a4d33b472ec3.png 720w,/overcast-iphone-podcast-app/images/overcast_logo_hu_12f02d1fcb697e0e.png 1080w,/overcast-iphone-podcast-app/images/overcast_logo_hu_d4769b42a6c2d655.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"overcast-makes-it-fun-to-listen-to-podcasts-again\"\u003eOvercast makes it fun to listen to Podcasts again\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter reading a lot about a new podcast app called \u003ca href=\"https://overcast.fm/\" title=\"Overcast Podcast App\"\u003eOvercast\u003c/a\u003e created by Marco Arment, famous for creating \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instapaper/id288545208?mt=8\u0026amp;uo=4\u0026amp;at=11lJWT\u0026amp;ct=blog\" title=\"instapaper\"\u003eInstapaper\u003c/a\u003e I downloaded the app just to check it out. I love Instapaper, an app that really has made me appreciate long form journalism, so I thought I’ll try to see if Overcast could make me interested in listening to podcasts again, something I haven’t done in a while.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Overcast iPhone Podcast App"},{"content":"Apple Airport Utility how to display more information While doing a Wi-Fi scan at work to get better reception and optimize the location and channel selection using NetSpot Wi-Fi Reporter, I had a problem. Our wireless network is set up with roaming, so when NetSpot Manager displays the scanned Wi-Fi device, it only shows the MAC address. So identifying an AirPort Extreme wireless router can be difficult, especially since Apple has simplified the user interface of AirPort Utility and removed a lot of information. One of them being what MAC address the AirPort unit has. So I needed a solution.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the main window in AirPort Utility. When you click one of the routers, you get access to an Edit button.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s how the window looks like when pressing the Edit button after selecting an AirPort device in AirPort Utility. I found a “hidden” screen within AirPort Utility, which you can get to by holding down the ALT key when pressing the edit button. A new Summary screen is displayed. Here you can see your MAC address, both for the wired network, and more importantly, which MAC address the Wi-Fi interface has. It also displays the serial number of the selected AirPort Extreme/Express, and the exact model version. Very handy to know. Now I can finally name my routers with names without going and reading directly on the router to find out the information. And considering where some of those Routers are placed, would make me, a middle-aged man run for cover.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll try to follow up with an article on how much better (or worse) the network got, and how I did it.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/apple-airport-utility-hidden-summary/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"apple-airport-utility-how-to-display-more-information\"\u003eApple Airport Utility how to display more information\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Apple AirPort Extreme image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1865\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/apple-airport-utility-hidden-summary/images/airport-extreme_hu_2b4191f250294d0f.jpg\" srcset=\"/apple-airport-utility-hidden-summary/images/airport-extreme_hu_519437f030a0854e.jpg 360w,/apple-airport-utility-hidden-summary/images/airport-extreme_hu_f321f549a34418de.jpg 480w,/apple-airport-utility-hidden-summary/images/airport-extreme_hu_29b9d746c1d3faec.jpg 720w\" width=\"1055\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile doing a Wi-Fi scan at work to get better reception and optimize the location and channel selection using \u003ca href=\"http://www.netspotapp.com\" title=\"NetSpot: Wi-Fi networks detector and manager\"\u003eNetSpot Wi-Fi Reporter\u003c/a\u003e, I had a problem. Our wireless network is set up with \u003ca href=\"http://www.hometoys.com/emagazine/2012/04/demystifying-wi-fi-roaming-what-you-need-to-know-to-avoid-costly-mistakes/1909\" title=\"AV and Automation Industry eMagazine - Demystifying Wi-Fi Roaming: What You Need to Know to Avoid Costly Mistakes | HomeToys\"\u003eroaming\u003c/a\u003e, so when NetSpot Manager displays the scanned Wi-Fi device, it only shows the \u003ca href=\"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address\" title=\"MAC address - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\"\u003eMAC address\u003c/a\u003e. So identifying an AirPort Extreme wireless router can be difficult, especially since Apple has simplified the user interface of AirPort Utility and removed a lot of information. One of them being what MAC address the AirPort unit has. So I needed a solution.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple AirPort Utility Hidden Feature"},{"content":"\nMac OS X Finder Sidebar Shared Computer Icons not Showing up I started to have a problem with Mac OS X Finder where the Shared computers in the Finder window sidebar didn\u0026rsquo;t show up. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t even change the Sidebar settings in Finder Preferences. So I did some digging around and found out how I could fix it, but also how stupid I am.\nGet rid of Finder Preferences So I deleted the files com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.sidebarlists.plist from Library/Preferences in my home directory and did logout. This fixed the problem with the settings in Finder Sidebar Preferences, but no Bonjour computers or servers showed up in my Finder windows. Very annoying to say the least. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t figure out what was wrong. Was the firewall on my computer blocking Bonjour from updating? Was it a Little Snitch setup that had gone awry? A lot of Googling and a lot of testing later, but I could still not get connected servers or Bonjour computers to show in the sidebar. Arghh!\nSimple Solution But guess what? A managed to have a total brain fart. When hovering the mouse pointer over the Shared text in the Finder Sidebar, there\u0026rsquo;s a \u0026ldquo;Show\u0026rdquo; button that appears. It only appears when hovering, which might explain why it took so long for me to figure it out. When you click it, the servers and machines showed up, and the \u0026ldquo;Show\u0026rdquo; button obviously changed to \u0026ldquo;Hide\u0026rdquo;\nBut I blame it on a long day, tired, etc. I\u0026rsquo;m just glad that it works again. But to my defence, it\u0026rsquo;s a bit Un-Mac-like to have this button hidden. I just wonder how many others that has written on forums about this problem, missed this little gem?\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-os-x-finder-shared-missing-sidebar-shared-computer-icons/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Finder Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/mac-os-x-finder-shared-missing-sidebar-shared-computer-icons/images/finder-icon_hu_f00602053b29fc7b.jpg\" srcset=\"/mac-os-x-finder-shared-missing-sidebar-shared-computer-icons/images/finder-icon_hu_6ef248a4d779b625.jpg 360w,/mac-os-x-finder-shared-missing-sidebar-shared-computer-icons/images/finder-icon_hu_35f293ed4618488.jpg 480w,/mac-os-x-finder-shared-missing-sidebar-shared-computer-icons/images/finder-icon_hu_4a41f594ccb3dc34.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"mac-os-x-finder-sidebar-shared-computer-icons-not-showing-up\"\u003eMac OS X Finder Sidebar Shared Computer Icons not Showing up\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI started to have a problem with Mac OS X Finder where the Shared computers in the Finder window sidebar didn\u0026rsquo;t show up. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t even change the Sidebar settings in Finder Preferences. So I did some digging around and found out how I could fix it, but also how stupid I am.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X Finder Missing Sidebar Shared Computer Icons"},{"content":"\nMultiMarkdown on iPad - an update I have updated my list over how well iPad Markdown writing apps handle the more advanced MultiMarkdown rendering. I also added some new apps to the list of the features I tested. Since I wrote the article, a new favourite writing app of mine, Editorial has been added to the list, and also IA Writer which now has MultiMarkdown support.\nAlmost all of the apps on the list supports Dropbox syncing, so writing in one application and rendering it in another that supports the features you need isn’t to hard. And with the enormous potential for scripting provided by Editorial, using x-callback-url schemes to send the text to another app for final rendering is pretty easy.\nx-callback-url You can read an article here about x-callback-url and URL schemes and how they work. There’s a web site with a database over x-callback-url supported apps and the commands that you can use.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/multimarkdown-ipad-iphone-revisited/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"MultiMarkdown logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"128\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/multimarkdown-ipad-iphone-revisited/images/1354510289_hu_7be709c1e503a84f.jpg\" width=\"208\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"multimarkdown-on-ipad---an-update\"\u003eMultiMarkdown on iPad - an update\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/ipad-multimarkdown-supported-apps/\"\u003eupdated my list over how well iPad Markdown writing apps\u003c/a\u003e handle the more advanced \u003ca href=\"http://fletcherpenney.net/multimarkdown/\"\u003eMultiMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e rendering. I also added some new apps to the list of the features I tested. Since I wrote the article, a new favourite writing app of mine, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/writing-with-editorial-ipad-app/\"\u003eEditorial\u003c/a\u003e has been added to the list, and also \u003ca href=\"http://www.iawriter.com/ipad/\"\u003eIA Writer\u003c/a\u003e which now has MultiMarkdown support.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlmost all of the apps on the list supports \u003ca href=\"https://www.dropbox.com\"\u003eDropbox\u003c/a\u003e syncing, so writing in one application and rendering it in another that supports the features you need isn’t to hard. And with the enormous potential for scripting provided by Editorial, using x-callback-url schemes to send the text to another app for final rendering is pretty easy.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MultiMarkdown on iPad iPhone Revisited"},{"content":"\nMy Raspberry Pi Car Audio Player A lot of people are using the excellent Linux microcomputer Raspberry Pi and install it in their cars. Usually, they use a color screen that is touch sensitive, being able to play back video and music. But I’m only interested in high-quality audio playback, being able to have all my CDs in lossless FLAC format for optimal sound quality. So a 16x2 LCD with some buttons is plenty. I now have a working system (but not yet installed in my car.) here’s a description of how I\u0026rsquo;ve built it. Most of the installations I’ve seen the use of the audio out from the Raspberry Pi, but it’s only 11-bit and sounds like crap. I want to use an external DAC, and you can get that to work in XBMC, but only menu and music output, not films. There are some HDMI to audio converters, but I’ll instead use a quality USB DAC.\nhttp://youtu.be/wzmFZlpbBCQ\nPower supply Because a Raspberry Pi is a bona fide Linux computer, you can’t just cut the power when you want to turn it off. There’s a risk of corrupting the filesystem just like on your Mac or PC, so to install it into a car, you need a way to keep the Raspberry Pi-powered on until the shutdown is complete. First I built my power supply with its micro controller to handle the shutdown. But it was large and not very elegant. But after Googling around I found a Raspberry Pi power supply specifically made for use in a car, so I immediately ordered one. There are several different versions, but they only had a 2 Amp version that plugs directly into the Micro-USB connector in stock. Preferably I would have liked the 3 Amp version with two standard female USB connectors on it, but who can wait? And the 2 Amp version manages to drive an SSD drive in a USB enclosure, the HiFimeDIY USB DAC and the AdaFruit 16x2 character LCD display with keypad without a problem, so I’m a happy camper.\nI’m going to use a flat cable for the display so I can hide the Raspberry Pi, power supply, and DAC and only show the screen. I probably have to experiment with the length of the cable and see if there is any interference, but hopefully, it will work. And I obviously will need to find an enclosure for the display.\nIgnition and shutdown There are three different leads from the power supply. One is for connecting directly to the car battery, one is the ground connection, and the third is for connecting to the ACC line of ignition. When the power supply senses that the ACC cable is on, it powers up the Raspberry Pi, and when you turn off the ignition and the ACC cable goes low, it sends a signal to the Raspberry Pi to start shutting down. When the Pi is shut down, another connector goes low, and the microcontroller on the power supply turns off the power to the Pi. You can set a timeout, so the computer doesn’t shut down immediately, which is handy if you were just doing a quick errand and didn’t want the Raspberry Pi to have to boot up again. Very handy.\nThe power supply comes with a simple script for handling the shutdown and is easy to install. You can also change the script to use two of the other GPIO pins if you are using it for something else.\nHiFimeDIY USB ES9023 DAC Audio card I ordered a USB sound card that I knew worked with the SqeezePlug Linux distribution. It’s called HiFimeDIY and uses an ESS Technology Sabre DAC which is an excellent DAC, so the sound quality is fantastic.\nThe DAC is plugged into the AUX in on my car stereo system with a 3.5mm to RCA cable.\nSoftware For handling the playback, I installed the Logitech Squeezebox Server. The server will handle all the maintenance of the audio files on the SSD disk. I also installed SqueezeSlave for playback.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the audio card selection dialog box.\nI’ve written my Python program that handles the communication with the server and for controlling the menu system. It’s up and running, but needs some more development to manage the display of special characters. But it’s good enough right now to use. I will put up the code on GitHub as soon as I cleaned the code up and fixed it some more.\nWhen everything is up and running, I will make a downloadable image of my setup to make it easy for anyone to get this system working. There where some bugs in one of the Python modules that needed patching and some other stuff so that an image would be preferable, so you don’t have to do all that. But I don’t want to upload something half done.\nIf you have questions or suggestions, write a comment.\nHappy hacking!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-car-audio-system/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"raspberry-pi-car-computer.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1425\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-car-audio-system/images/raspberry-pi-car-computer_hu_d623d2627555ba13.jpg\" srcset=\"/raspberry-pi-car-audio-system/images/raspberry-pi-car-computer_hu_becfc7ed4368382a.jpg 360w,/raspberry-pi-car-audio-system/images/raspberry-pi-car-computer_hu_a9da29e733044bc6.jpg 480w,/raspberry-pi-car-audio-system/images/raspberry-pi-car-computer_hu_9b30b44ad28b965.jpg 720w\" width=\"862\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"my-raspberry-pi-car-audio-player\"\u003eMy Raspberry Pi Car Audio Player\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lot of people are using the excellent Linux microcomputer \u003ca href=\"http://www.raspberrypi.org/\" title=\"Raspberry Pi\"\u003eRaspberry Pi\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.engineering-diy.blogspot.ro/2013/08/car-pc-projectaugust-2013-update.html\" title=\"Engineering(DIY): Car PC project(August 2013 update)\"\u003einstall it in their cars\u003c/a\u003e. Usually, they use a color screen that is touch sensitive, being able to play back video and music. But I’m only interested in high-quality audio playback, being able to have all my CDs in lossless \u003ca href=\"https://xiph.org/flac/\" title=\"FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec\"\u003eFLAC\u003c/a\u003e format for optimal sound quality. So a 16x2 LCD with some buttons is plenty. I now have a working system (but not yet installed in my car.) here’s a description of how I\u0026rsquo;ve built it. Most of the installations I’ve seen the use of the audio out from the Raspberry Pi, but it’s only 11-bit and sounds like crap. I want to use an external DAC, and you can get that to work in XBMC, but only menu and music output, not films. There are some HDMI to audio converters, but I’ll instead use a quality USB DAC.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/wzmFZlpbBCQ\"\u003ehttp://youtu.be/wzmFZlpbBCQ\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi Car Audio System"},{"content":"\nInserting Score Card Research javascript After doing some research using Google Webmaster Tools to get my images indexed, I discovered that a JavaScript called b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js was loading without me installing it. I found out that the Disqus comment system adds it without my knowledge. That’s not ok, so I have decided to remove Disqus from my blog. It’s unfortunate, because it is a pretty good system. I like the ease of making comments, and also that you can follow comments you made on different sites with ease. But if they try to do sneaky stuff like that, they’ll end up in /dev/null (in the trashcan for non geeks). After searching with Google I found that this isn’t something new. It’s been going on for quite some time. Thankfully I have all my comments stored, so I’ll just have to use the build-in comment system in Wordpress.\nPlain stupid I understand that Disqus wants to make money, being a free service and all, but going behind the back of its customers is not the way to go. They really need to find a better business model. You can opt in for placing ads with them and share the revenue, but that doesn’t seem to be enough.\nTracking beacons For a long time I’ve been using Ghostery to block web trackers and it has worked like a charm. I’ve written a post a while ago about essential plugins for Safari, including Ghostery that really makes Safari crash proof and you get the added benefit of not getting tracked while surfing. Go check it out.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/dumping-disqus-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Disqus logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/dumping-disqus-blog/images/disqus-logo-150x150_hu_3f59d77801c4e861.png\" width=\"150\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"inserting-score-card-research-javascript\"\u003eInserting Score Card Research javascript\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter doing some research using \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/\"\u003eGoogle Webmaster Tools\u003c/a\u003e to get my images indexed, I discovered that a JavaScript called \u003cstrong\u003eb.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js\u003c/strong\u003e was loading without me installing it. I found out that the \u003ca href=\"https://disqus.com\"\u003eDisqus\u003c/a\u003e comment system adds it without my knowledge. That’s not ok, so I have decided to remove Disqus from my blog. It’s unfortunate, because it is a pretty good system. I like the ease of making comments, and also that you can follow comments you made on different sites with ease. But if they try to do sneaky stuff like that, they’ll end up in /dev/null (in the trashcan for non geeks). After searching with Google I found that \u003ca href=\"http://walterhiggins.net/blog/CommentsOffAgain\"\u003ethis isn’t something new\u003c/a\u003e. It’s been going on for quite some time. Thankfully I have all my comments stored, so I’ll just have to use the build-in comment system in Wordpress.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Dumping Disqus from my blog"},{"content":"\nhAtom errors and Google PageRank When I checked my blog in Google Webmaster I noticed a lot of errors in the Structured Data section. After fixing the errors in Wordpress by adding structured data, my traffic increased without any changes. That includes posts. So obviously Google uses hAtom when setting PageRank.\nHere’s a diagram showing when Google started to remove the errors.\nAnd here’s a diagram showing the 20% increase in traffic after the errors was fixed.\nSome of the errors in the diagram remains. That’s because I haven’t fixed static pages yet. But will do tomorrow.\nHere’s an article describing how to fix the problem in WordPress. I had to do some other changes because I use the excellent WordPress framework Genesis on my blog, so the setup is a bit different.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/google-pagerank-hatom-errors/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Hans Gerwitz\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"449\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/google-pagerank-hatom-errors/images/1402378059_hu_622244842a15fa9c.jpg\" srcset=\"/google-pagerank-hatom-errors/images/1402378059_hu_d05a7827b30337c6.jpg 360w,/google-pagerank-hatom-errors/images/1402378059_hu_84ecc8326eccc617.jpg 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"hatom-errors-and-google-pagerank\"\u003ehAtom errors and Google PageRank\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I checked my blog in Google Webmaster I noticed a lot of errors in the Structured Data section. After fixing the errors in Wordpress by adding structured data, my traffic increased without any changes. That includes posts. So obviously Google uses hAtom when setting PageRank.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Loosing Google PageRank Because of hAtom errors"},{"content":"Audio Engineering Pioneer John Meyer: Stop Chasing The Next Big Thing, And Go With Flac Instead — Tech News And Analysis:\nJohn Meyer may be making really expensive loudspeakers, but when it comes to high-end audio, the audio engineering pioneer prefers free. FLAC, the open source audio format developed by Grateful Dead fans to trade bootleg recordings, is “the perfect format” for music aficionados looking for higher-resolution audio, Meyer told me during a recent interview. And to him, any company pushing trying to make a buck with selling upsampled music is just out to sell snake oil. “It’s tricking people who don’t know enough about technology,” he said.\nI couldn’t agree more. We don’t need more formats. FLAC handless lossless compressed music without an hitch. Been using it for years and have my entire record collection in FLAC. I’m working on having my FLAC-encoded music in my car as well! Whohoo!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-engineering-pioneer-john-meyer-stop-chasing-the-next-big-thing-and-go-with-flac-instead-tech-news-and-analysis/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://gigaom.com/2014/04/18/audio-engineering-pioneer-john-meyer-stop-chasing-the-next-big-thing-and-go-with-flac-instead/\"\u003eAudio Engineering Pioneer John Meyer: Stop Chasing The Next Big Thing, And Go With Flac Instead — Tech News And Analysis\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Meyer may be making really expensive loudspeakers, but when it comes to high-end audio, the audio engineering pioneer prefers free. FLAC, the open source audio format developed by Grateful Dead fans to trade bootleg recordings, is “the perfect format” for music aficionados looking for higher-resolution audio, Meyer told me during a recent interview. And to him, any company pushing trying to make a buck with selling upsampled music is just out to sell snake oil. “It’s tricking people who don’t know enough about technology,” he said.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Flac, the best choice"},{"content":"Update: A newer, better version has been created. You can download it here. I use the excellent iPad app Editorial as my preferred text editor. I want to be able to upload images directly from Editorial to WordPress, using xmlrpc, so the images ends up in the media gallery, the files in the correct folders, thumbnails made and a Markdown link with the correct URL is created. So I’ve written a workflow you can download that gives you the ability to select some text (that will be the alt text for the image), and either upload the image in the original size, or resize the width to the dimension you specify. After the image is uploaded, the Markdown image code is inserted. Another good thing is that you have the ability to name the image file, which I haven’t seen in other solutions, like in Poster App, where you get the cryptical iOS internal name of the image. Not so SEO friendly. The easiest solution was to use the wordpress_xmlrpc module, so that needs to be installed before you can use the workflow! but I’ve written a guide about how to install the module/library here. If you forget to install it beforehand, you will get this dialog box with instructions on how to install it if you start the workflow.\nAdding site URL, username and password You need to edit the workflow to set the site URL, username and password before you can use it. Enter your WordPress username in the field for the username variable in the workflow.\nUsername dialog\nDo the same for the URL to the xmlrpc.php file of your Wordpress blog.\nSite URL dialog\nThe final thing you need to do is to set the password variable.\nNow your done.\nWhat! Putting my password in the open? Well, I first wrote the Python code to use the Keychain, but soon realized that if some nefarious person wanted to get the password, all they had to do was use\n[cc lang=“python”]keychain.get_password()[/cc]\nTo get access to the password, so not much security there. So don’t let people fiddle with your Editorial workflows.\nRemember to enable remote blogging To be able to upload images, you need to enable remote blogging. So go to your Wordpress Admin panel: Settings\u0026gt;Writing\u0026gt; And make sure the box is checked next to XML-RPC.\nUploading images When everything is ready all you have to do is to:\nSelect text that will be used as alt text for the image.\nStart the workflow.\nSelect the image you like to upload.\nImage select dialog\nChoose if you want to upload it in the original size or make the width smaller.\nResize dialog\nIf you choose the resize option, you can enter a new width value. That value is saved in a preference file so the next time you run the workflow, that’s already filled in.\nSize dialog\nNow give the image a name. The image is uploaded as an JPEG file, you can add the .jpg extension but otherwise it’s done automatically.\nImage name dialog\nThe image should now upload and an Markdown image link created automatically for you.\nI hope this workflow can help some of you bloggers who like to work mostly from your iPad. I know it has for me.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/editorial-app-upload-images-wordpress-workflow/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"update-a-newer-better-version-has-been-created-you-can-download-it-here\"\u003eUpdate: A newer, better version has been created. \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/editorial-app-workflow-upload-image-wordpress-media-library/\"\u003eYou can download it here\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the AppStore\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/editorial-app-upload-images-wordpress-workflow/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_e9bd881d9508069.png\" srcset=\"/editorial-app-upload-images-wordpress-workflow/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_9f896ab9e7102ec7.png 360w,/editorial-app-upload-images-wordpress-workflow/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_dc70ee18946631a9.png 480w\" width=\"659\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI use the excellent iPad app \u003ca href=\"http://omz-software.com/editorial/\" title=\"Editorial for iPad\"\u003eEditorial\u003c/a\u003e as my preferred text editor. I want to be able to upload images directly from Editorial to \u003ca href=\"https://wordpress.org/\" title=\"WordPress › Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e, using \u003ca href=\"http://python-wordpress-xmlrpc.readthedocs.org/en/latest/\" title=\"Welcome to python-wordpress-xmlrpc’s documentation! — python-wordpress-xmlrpc 2.2 documentation\"\u003exmlrpc\u003c/a\u003e, so the images ends up in the media gallery, the files in the correct folders, thumbnails made and a \u003ca href=\"https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/\" title=\"Daring Fireball: Markdown\"\u003eMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e link with the correct URL is created. So I’ve written a workflow you can download that gives you the ability to select some text (that will be the alt text for the image), and either upload the image in the original size, or resize the width to the dimension you specify. After the image is uploaded, the Markdown image code is inserted. Another good thing is that you have the ability to name the image file, which I haven’t seen in other solutions, like in Poster App, where you get the cryptical iOS internal name of the image. Not so SEO friendly. The easiest solution was to use the wordpress_xmlrpc module, so that needs to be installed before you can use the workflow! but I’ve \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/editorial-app-import-modules-with-pipista/\"\u003ewritten a guide about how to install the module/library here\u003c/a\u003e. If you forget to install it beforehand, you will get this dialog box with instructions on how to install it if you start the workflow.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Editorial iOS Upload Images to WordPress Workflow"},{"content":"\nImporting pipista modules in Editorial Lets face it, the Editorial App is a fantastic text/Markdown editor. It’s incredibly powerful with scripting abilities. But one of the most amazing tool for a power user is the ability to write Python scripts that can do almost anything. There are a lot of modules included with Editorial, but how do you add a library if it’s not included? There is a script for Editorials sister application Pythonista, that makes it easy to add modules, and you can use that for importing libraries to Editorial as well. The script is called Pipista.\nHow to import a python module in Editorial I needed to import the python-wordpress-xmlrpc library for uploading images to the Wordpress Media Library on my blog directly from Editorial so the images ends up in the media section in WordPress. I didn’t want to use FTP or SFTP. So here is how to import (and use) that module.\nFirst you need Pipista. I’m using version 2 unstable because it unzips the file automatically, so everything is done for you. It also puts the modules in a separate directory so it doesn’t clutter up your filesystem.\nFirst we need to get the pipista script into Editorial. So go to the pipista GitHub page and download the script as a text file. (You can just select the text and paste it into a text file.) Name the file pipista.py Upload the pipista.py file to Editorial with iTunes\nGo to the Console and write the following lines. Enter each line separately and end with return.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;python\u0026rdquo;] import pipista pipista.pypi_install(\u0026lsquo;python-wordpress-xmlrpc\u0026rsquo;)[/cc] You should now have the module installed and ready to go.\nUsing the new module in your scripts Because the directory with the modules aren’t in the system path, you need to add that at the top of your script before trying to import a module. Just write\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;python\u0026rdquo;]sys.path += [os.path.join(os.getcwd(), \u0026lsquo;../../../Documents/pypi-modules\u0026rsquo;)][/cc]\nAnd now you can import you’re newly installed modules.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;python\u0026rdquo;]from wordpress_xmlrpc import Client, WordPressPost from wordpress_xmlrpc.compat import xmlrpc_client from wordpress_xmlrpc.methods import media, posts[/cc]\nAnd there you go!\nCompatible Modules Not all modules will be compatible, especially those that needs to compile C or other languages, so you need to experiment and check the Editorial or Pythonista forums.\nHappy hacking!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/editorial-app-import-modules-with-pipista/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"1377461573.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"128\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/editorial-app-import-modules-with-pipista/images/1377461573-150x128_hu_c155e926571bb72b.jpg\" width=\"150\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"importing-pipista-modules-in-editorial\"\u003eImporting pipista modules in Editorial\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the AppStore\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/editorial-app-import-modules-with-pipista/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_e9bd881d9508069.png\" srcset=\"/editorial-app-import-modules-with-pipista/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_9f896ab9e7102ec7.png 360w,/editorial-app-import-modules-with-pipista/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_dc70ee18946631a9.png 480w\" width=\"659\"\u003eLets face it, the \u003ca href=\"http://omz-software.com/editorial/\" title=\"Editorial for iPad\"\u003eEditorial\u003c/a\u003e App is a fantastic text/Markdown editor. It’s incredibly powerful with scripting abilities. But one of the most amazing tool for a power user is the ability to write Python scripts that can do almost anything. There are a lot of modules included with Editorial, but how do you add a library if it’s not included? There is a script for Editorials sister application Pythonista, that makes it easy to add modules, and you can use that for importing libraries to Editorial as well. The script is called \u003ca href=\"https://gist.github.com/pudquick/4317095\" title=\"Version 2.0 of pipista - Unstable branch :)\"\u003ePipista\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How To import modules with Pipista into Editorial iOS app"},{"content":"Update: this problem is solved with iOS 8. Apple has opened up the operating system, so you can install alternative keyboards on your iPhone or iPad. SwiftKey is working on an iOS version.\nI’m just trying out the app SwiftKey on both my iPad and iPhone and it works very well. I can’t understand why they haven’t implemented an URL scheme though. That way you could use apps like Drafts or Editorial together with SwiftKey, and then send text to and from your favorite editor when your done. Hopefully they will implement it soon.\nHopefully they’ll add Swedish to the language support as well.\nSwiftkey Note supports Swedish now.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/swiftkey-for-ios/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate: this problem is solved with iOS 8. Apple has opened up the operating system, so you can install alternative keyboards on your iPhone or iPad. SwiftKey is working on an iOS version.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the AppStore\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/swiftkey-for-ios/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_e9bd881d9508069.png\" srcset=\"/swiftkey-for-ios/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_9f896ab9e7102ec7.png 360w,/swiftkey-for-ios/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_dc70ee18946631a9.png 480w\" width=\"659\"\u003eI’m just trying out the app \u003ca href=\"http://swiftkey.com/en/\" title=\"Swiftkey Note\"\u003eSwiftKey\u003c/a\u003e on both my iPad and iPhone and it works very well. I can’t understand why they haven’t implemented an URL scheme though. That way you could use apps like Drafts or Editorial together with SwiftKey, and then send text to and from your favorite editor when your done. Hopefully they will implement it soon.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SwiftKey for iOS"},{"content":"Major step in iOS gaming\nThis is something I would really buy for my new iPad Air. Be able to play first person shooters on the go! Love the size of the controller!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/major-step-in-ios-gaming/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.tuaw.com/2014/01/10/the-steelseries-stratus-is-the-most-important-ios-gaming-periphe/?ncid=rss_truncated\"\u003eMajor step in iOS gaming\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is something I would really buy for my new iPad Air. Be able to play first person shooters on the go! \u003ca href=\"http://www.tuaw.com/2014/01/10/the-steelseries-stratus-is-the-most-important-ios-gaming-periphe/?ncid=rss_truncated\"\u003eLove the size of the controller!\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Major step in iOS gaming"},{"content":"\nEditorial iOS Markdown Text Editor So I found a new favorite iPad text editor called Editorial. After reading Federico Viticci’s great review of Editorial on macstories.net I bought the app, because the creator Ole Zorn wrote one of my other favorite apps Pythonista. And Editorial is amazing!\nEven if you only use it as a standard Markdown editor you get value for your money, but what makes Editorial great is its workflow engine. You can create commands in a similar fashion to Mac OS X Automator but it is much more powerful in my opinion. It has a Python interpreter built in, so you have all the power of Pythonista available directly inside the app. I guess that the app can be quite intimidating for a novice because it’s powerful and it have somewhat of a learning curve. So for people just interested in writing text in Markdown this might be overkill. My guess Byword would be a good alternative to Editorial. But if you want to have the most advanced Markdown editor for your iPad, With the ability to program it to work the way you want, there’s no substitute, get Editorial.\nCustom User Interface In the latest version of Editorial, you can even have your workflows have their own custom user interface. So you can have buttons, switches, lists or even user interface items you create yourself.\nBest way of getting started Federico Viticci have made an extended version of his review available as an iBook, with more examples and a more thorough explanation on all the apps features. the book is called Writing On The iPad: Text Automation with Editorial and It’s available in the iBook bookstore, so if your serious about learning how to use the app, get the book. It comes loaded with downloadable examples.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/writing-with-editorial-ipad-app/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Editorial iOS app icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/writing-with-editorial-ipad-app/images/editorial-app-icon-150x150_hu_aeb0577a44e5d3ea.jpg\" width=\"150\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"editorial-ios-markdown-text-editor\"\u003eEditorial iOS Markdown Text Editor\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the AppStore\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/writing-with-editorial-ipad-app/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_e9bd881d9508069.png\" srcset=\"/writing-with-editorial-ipad-app/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_9f896ab9e7102ec7.png 360w,/writing-with-editorial-ipad-app/images/Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40_0824_hu_dc70ee18946631a9.png 480w\" width=\"659\"\u003eSo I found a new favorite iPad text editor called \u003ca href=\"http://omz-software.com/editorial/\" title=\"Editorial for iPad\"\u003eEditorial\u003c/a\u003e. After reading \u003ca href=\"http://www.macstories.net/stories/editorial-for-ipad-review/\" title=\"Reinventing iOS Automation: Editorial Review\"\u003eFederico Viticci’s great review of Editorial\u003c/a\u003e on macstories.net I bought the app, because the creator Ole Zorn wrote one of my other favorite apps \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/scripting-programming-iphone-ipad-python-pythonista-review/\" title=\"Pythonista\"\u003ePythonista\u003c/a\u003e. And Editorial is amazing!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Editorial iPad App Writing"},{"content":"\nNix Color Sensor by Matthew Sheridan — Kickstarter:\nNix is a patent pending device that allows anyone to become a color expert. Just grab Nix from your pocket, purse, or bag, touch it to an object and magically watch the exact color appear on your iPhone, Android, PC, or Mac. Once scanned, you can keep palettes of your favorite colors, match the color to real life pigments, and even receive directions to the nearest store where you can purchase the color.\nThis looks like a cool project. And it’s open source! I wonder if it is accurate enough for car paint etc?\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/nix-color-sensor-by-matthew-sheridan-kickstarter/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"318\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/nix-color-sensor-by-matthew-sheridan-kickstarter/images/1378925442_hu_ca3731d538ca00c.jpg\" srcset=\"/nix-color-sensor-by-matthew-sheridan-kickstarter/images/1378925442_hu_9e696ef2b8c68dd5.jpg 360w,/nix-color-sensor-by-matthew-sheridan-kickstarter/images/1378925442_hu_4b1638d14bc32224.jpg 480w\" title=\"Nix Color Sensor\" width=\"600\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nixsensor/nix-color-sensor\"\u003eNix Color Sensor by Matthew Sheridan — Kickstarter\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNix is a patent pending device that allows anyone to become a color expert. Just grab Nix from your pocket, purse, or bag, touch it to an object and magically watch the exact color appear on your iPhone, Android, PC, or Mac. Once scanned, you can keep palettes of your favorite colors, match the color to real life pigments, and even receive directions to the nearest store where you can purchase the color.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Nix Color Sensor by Matthew Sheridan — Kickstarter"},{"content":"\nAdafruit TRINKET – Mini Microcontroller – 3.3V and 5.5V versions:\nIt’s a tiny microcontroller board, built around the Atmel ATtiny85, a little chip with a lot of power.\nA cool cheap little Arduino compatible board for smaller projects. The 3.3V version runs at 8MHz and the 5V version can run at 8 or 16MHz. It has five I/O pins available and comes with 8kb of memory. It can be programmed with AVRDude or the Arduino IDE after some small modifications. Looks great!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/adafruit-trinket-mini-microcontroller/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"461\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/adafruit-trinket-mini-microcontroller/images/1378246553_hu_25e685ae6f3577a1.jpg\" srcset=\"/adafruit-trinket-mini-microcontroller/images/1378246553_hu_18f4c0774eaeed7e.jpg 360w,/adafruit-trinket-mini-microcontroller/images/1378246553_hu_3369220a438985a.jpg 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/09/03/new-products-adafruit-trinket-mini-microcontroller-3-3v-and-5-5v-versions-7-95/\"\u003eAdafruit TRINKET – Mini Microcontroller – 3.3V and 5.5V versions\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s a tiny microcontroller board, built around the Atmel ATtiny85, a little chip with a lot of power.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA cool cheap little Arduino compatible board for smaller projects. The 3.3V version runs at 8MHz and the 5V version can run at 8 or 16MHz. It has five I/O pins available and comes with 8kb of memory. It can be programmed with AVRDude or the Arduino IDE after some small modifications. Looks great!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Adafruit TRINKET – Mini Microcontroller"},{"content":"\nReinventing iOS Automation: Editorial Review:\nEditorial for iPad, redefines the market of text editors for iOS, and, in many ways, sets a new standard for iOS automation and desktop-class apps. Editorial makes me want to work from my iPad.\nEditorial is my new favorite Markdown editor with amazing workflow scripting abilities and a complete Python interpreter from the programmer that made Pythonista. Link to an extensive review of the app and its capabilities.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/reinventing-ios-automation-editorial-review/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Editorial iOS app icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/reinventing-ios-automation-editorial-review/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_2e8c8ae2808969a0.jpg\" srcset=\"/reinventing-ios-automation-editorial-review/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_d59e8266a2ebf565.jpg 360w,/reinventing-ios-automation-editorial-review/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_f7e134ff9a92b269.jpg 480w,/reinventing-ios-automation-editorial-review/images/editorial-app-icon_hu_362977c5c188a880.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.macstories.net/stories/editorial-for-ipad-review/\"\u003eReinventing iOS Automation: Editorial Review\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEditorial for iPad, redefines the market of text editors for iOS, and, in many ways, sets a new standard for iOS automation and desktop-class apps. Editorial makes me want to work from my iPad.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEditorial is my new favorite Markdown editor with amazing workflow scripting abilities and a complete Python interpreter from the programmer that made Pythonista. Link to an extensive review of the app and its capabilities.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Reinventing iOS Automation: Editorial Review"},{"content":"Now that Google is pulling the plug on Google Reader, I’ve been researching an alternative. I bought Fever, a self hosting solution. My favorite RSS app for ipad is Mr. Reader has just been updated with support for Fever, but it’s slow. So I’m giving up on Fever as my syncing for RSS and going to use Feedly instead, now that they have an API. Feedly has a very nice app on iOS but Mr. reader now also supports Feedly, so I’m going to use it instead. On my Mac I’ll just use Feedly’s web interface which is quite nice. Good to be able to find interesting articles to read again.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/rss-reader/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"243\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/rss-reader/images/1372380672_hu_ff527fbb1cfd7707.jpg\" width=\"445\"\u003eNow that Google is pulling the plug on Google Reader, I’ve been researching an alternative. I bought \u003ca href=\"http://www.feedafever.com/\"\u003eFever\u003c/a\u003e, a self hosting solution. My favorite RSS app for ipad is Mr. Reader has just been updated with support for Fever, but it’s slow. So I’m giving up on Fever as my syncing for RSS and going to use \u003ca href=\"http://feedly.com/\" title=\"Feedly RSS\"\u003eFeedly\u003c/a\u003e instead, now that they have an API. Feedly has a very nice app on iOS but Mr. reader now also supports Feedly, so I’m going to use it instead. On my Mac I’ll just use Feedly’s web interface which is quite nice. Good to be able to find interesting articles to read again.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"RSS Reader"},{"content":"\nWhen trying to sync a new iPhone to my Google Apps account it seems that it’s no longer possible to use Exchange push mail, address book and calendar syncing. By signing up for their service for free I paid by letting Google rummage through my mail for later use in targeted advertising. But now they killed yet another service that I come to depend on. My trust in Google is totally gone. Now I have to spend hours setting up a mail server, getting passwords from my users and sync all accounts using IMAP. Then I have to help everyone to set up iCloud sync for the address book and calendars instead. Because Google can’t be trusted. All these problems can easily fixed buy paying Google, but why pay twice? Money AND my private life? WTF?\nHow the decision makers at Google management thinks is beyond me. You don’t provide services for people and then pull the rug from under their feet, that doesn’t instill trust in any of your products. But lesson learned, no more depending on paid by selling my privacy to Google…\nIf you still want to sync your stuff, there is a way of syncing in the link below. Not nearly as good or convenient, and you have to change the settings on all your iOS devices.\nWe announced that starting January 30, 2013, consumers won’t be able to set up new devices using Google Sync; however, existing Google Sync connections will continue to function. You can read more about the Google Sync End of Life on the Google Blog. I’ve put together a list of common questions/concerns.\nGoogle Sync End of Life - Google Groups\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/problem-syncing-exchange-on-new-iphone/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"277\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/problem-syncing-exchange-on-new-iphone/images/1372199796_hu_532bf3d3b67339f.jpg\" title=\"broken Google\" width=\"280\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nWhen trying to sync a new iPhone to my Google Apps account it seems that it’s no longer possible to use Exchange push mail, address book and calendar syncing. By signing up for their service for free I paid by letting Google rummage through my mail for later use in targeted advertising. But now \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/trust-google-services/\"\u003ethey killed yet another service\u003c/a\u003e that I come to depend on. My trust in Google is totally gone. Now I have to spend hours setting up a mail server, getting passwords from my users and sync all accounts using IMAP. Then I have to help everyone to set up iCloud sync for the address book and calendars instead. Because Google can’t be trusted. All these problems can easily fixed buy paying Google, but why pay twice? Money AND my private life? WTF?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Problem syncing Google Apps Exchange on new iPhone"},{"content":"\nAfter setting up a SMB Samba share on my Raspberry Pi in Squeezeplug, the size of the mounted volume showed the size of the SD-card instead of the USB hard disk. To fix it, I had to change the setup for Samba. Here’s what I did to fix it.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;] pico /etc/samba/smb.conf [/cc]\nTo get Samba to show the correct size of the volume mount, you need to change the path setting to point directly to the disk mount point. I mounted my disk to /mnt/hd1\n[cc][media_lib] comment = Public Folder path = /mnt guest ok = Yes read only = No [/cc]\nchange the line:\n[cc] path = /mnt [/cc]\nto\n[cc] path = /mnt/hd1 [/cc]\nRestart the Samba server with the command sudo service samba restart. Now the mounted volume should show the right size of your attached USB disk.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-samba-showing-wrong-size-share/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Raspberry pi\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"393\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-samba-showing-wrong-size-share/images/raspberry-pi_hu_37c4426a8d5aca44.jpg\" srcset=\"/raspberry-pi-samba-showing-wrong-size-share/images/raspberry-pi_hu_98cfd064d84e5940.jpg 360w,/raspberry-pi-samba-showing-wrong-size-share/images/raspberry-pi_hu_518595198b947cc7.jpg 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAfter setting up a SMB \u003ca href=\"http://www.samba.org\"\u003eSamba\u003c/a\u003e share on my \u003ca href=\"http://www.raspberrypi.org\"\u003eRaspberry Pi\u003c/a\u003e in \u003ca href=\"http://squeezeplug.de\"\u003eSqueezeplug\u003c/a\u003e, the size of the mounted volume showed the size of the SD-card instead of the USB hard disk. To fix it, I had to change the setup for Samba. Here’s what I did to fix it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi Samba Showing Wrong Size Mounted USB Disk"},{"content":"\nCrystal cMoy Freeform Headphone Amp:\nVery cool transparent cMoy headphone amplifier, made using clear casting resin. This is something I have to try.\nVia 0pachira\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/run-away-brainz-audio-crystal-cmoy-freeform-headphone-amp/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Crystal cMoy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"450\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/run-away-brainz-audio-crystal-cmoy-freeform-headphone-amp/images/Crystal_cMoy_hu_e12876c3366b7f09.jpg\" srcset=\"/run-away-brainz-audio-crystal-cmoy-freeform-headphone-amp/images/Crystal_cMoy_hu_86f3ddc22fcb62b.jpg 360w,/run-away-brainz-audio-crystal-cmoy-freeform-headphone-amp/images/Crystal_cMoy_hu_b5ad0b83cb882344.jpg 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/audio-crystal-cmoy-freeform-headphone.html\"\u003eCrystal cMoy Freeform Headphone Amp\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery cool transparent cMoy headphone amplifier, made using clear casting resin. This is something I have to try.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVia \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/0pachira/status/339624679872540672\"\u003e0pachira\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Run Away Brainz: Audio: Crystal cMoy Freeform Headphone Amp"},{"content":"\nUpdate: You can find my latest update on the progress of my Raspberry Pi Car Audio System here.\nI’m working on a Raspberry Pi as a music player in my car. I’m putting all my music on a SSD disk in lossless FLAC. I’ve already got hold of a 2x16 character LCD with six button from Adafruit that only uses two pins for communication with I2C. It’s easy to program and it has four different background colors.\nCar Power Supply for Raspberry Pi I need a power supply to install the Raspberry Pi in my car. It needs to convert 12V to 5 Volts for both the Raspberry Pi and the USB hub that’s needed for the SSD disk. There’s a description of a suitable low loss power supply in the magazine (free download) MagPi issue 6 on page 6. it uses the LM2576 buck switching regulator. It even have an on/off pin which I need so I can easily control it. There’s a problem that needs fixing. I don’t want the computer, SSD disk and USB audio car drawing power all the time, depleting the battery. So I’m going to use a AVR Attiny13 micro controller which is a very low power 8-pin chip that has external interrupt and a sleep mode. The micro controller will wake when the Ignition is turned on, and turn on the main power supply for the computer. When the ignition is turned off, the micro controller waits for thirty minutes, and then tells the Raspberry Pi to shut down gracefully, checks that it’s halted and then turn off the main power supply. After that, the micro controller goes into sleep mode. This will keep the power consumption at a minimal. The Attiny13 has its own low power buck converter, so it won’t drain the battery as much as the main power supply.\nI’ve already got the power supply up and running. next step, see how it works when the engine is cranked, which makes the power from the battery to fluctuate. If it doesn’t work I need to check if the engine is cranking and not start the power supply until the cranking is done.\nNext step, writing the software for the logic of the Attiny13. It’s been a while since I programmed an AVR micro controller, but it’s going to be fun.\nSoftware I’m going to use Logitech Sqeezebox server and I’m writing a front end connected for it and play the music out through an USB audio card using SqeezeSlave. I’m controlling it with a python program, and it is up and running but is still too rough around the edges. But I’ll put it on Github when it is ready. I’ll install a WIFI dongle and set up a ad hoc wifi network for editing playlists with my iPhone or iPad using iPeng HD. I usually just select a playlist when driving, but I have artist, album and song selection as well.\nWhy? I want to be able to have all my albums in a lossless format in my car. It’s one of the few places where I can play music at the sound level I like (loud!). And making your own stuff is fun. And you get to decide how it operates.\nI’ll keep you updated on my progress.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-car-computer/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"400\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-car-computer/images/1368805598_hu_18259a2b10194bf3.jpg\" title=\"Car Power Supply Raspberry Pi\" width=\"299\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate: \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-car-audio-system/\"\u003eYou can find my latest update on the progress of my Raspberry Pi Car Audio System here.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m working on a Raspberry Pi as a music player in my car. I’m putting all my music on a SSD disk in lossless FLAC. I’ve already got hold of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.adafruit.com/products/1110\"\u003e2x16 character LCD with six button from Adafruit\u003c/a\u003e that only uses two pins for communication with I2C. It’s easy to program and it has four different background colors.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi Car Computer"},{"content":"When setting up a Raspberry Pi with SqueezePlug, my favorite distribution for setting up a music server I always get the error message “avahi-daemon disabled because there is a unicast .local domain” because I have a lot of Apple equipment configured with Bonjour. To fix it, all you need to do is to edit /etc/default/avahi-daemon and change the line:\nAVAHI_DAEMON_DETECT_LOCAL=1\nto\nAVAHI_DAEMON_DETECT_LOCAL=0\nthen restart the Avahi-daemon with\nsudo service avahi-daemon restart\nProblem solved.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-avahi-daemon-disabled-because-there-is-a-unicast-local-domain-solved/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhen setting up a Raspberry Pi with \u003ca href=\"http://www.squeezeplug.de\"\u003eSqueezePlug\u003c/a\u003e, my favorite distribution for \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-squeezebox-logitech-server/\"\u003esetting up a music server\u003c/a\u003e I always get the error message “avahi-daemon disabled because there is a unicast .local domain” because I have a lot of Apple equipment configured with Bonjour. To fix it, all you need to do is to edit \u003ccode\u003e/etc/default/avahi-daemon\u003c/code\u003e and change the line:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ccode\u003eAVAHI_DAEMON_DETECT_LOCAL=1\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eto\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ccode\u003eAVAHI_DAEMON_DETECT_LOCAL=0\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ethen restart the Avahi-daemon with\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ccode\u003esudo service avahi-daemon restart\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProblem solved.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi avahi-daemon disabled because there is a unicast .local domain - solved"},{"content":"\nUses | Day One:\nThis is an ongoing archive of the many use cases we’ve found for ourselves and that have been reported by our users. We hope this will inspire you to think of new ways you can incorporate Day One into your workflow and daily routine.\nGreat page of collected uses for the marvelous app Day One. I found some good ideas for writing earlier stuff than the diary I’ve kept for two and a half years. It wouldn’t exist a diary if it wasn’t for Day One. And the great thing is that it’s available on iOS and Mac with syncing through iCloud or Dropbox.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/uses-day-one/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Day One App Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/uses-day-one/images/image_hu_ac28adff1a71ea0f.jpg\" srcset=\"/uses-day-one/images/image_hu_93a361184d4cb29e.jpg 360w,/uses-day-one/images/image_hu_d835515a0011264f.jpg 480w,/uses-day-one/images/image_hu_48979b1ddedddec6.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"http://dayoneapp.com/guide/uses/\"\u003eUses | Day One\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is an ongoing archive of the many use cases we’ve found for ourselves and that have been reported by our users. We hope this will inspire you to think of new ways you can incorporate Day One into your workflow and daily routine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGreat page of collected uses for the marvelous app Day One. I found some good ideas for writing earlier stuff than the diary I’ve kept for two and a half years. It wouldn’t exist a diary if it wasn’t for \u003ca href=\"http://dayoneapp.com/\"\u003eDay One\u003c/a\u003e. And the great thing is that it’s available on iOS and Mac with syncing through iCloud or Dropbox.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How To Use Day One App"},{"content":"Getting rid of Open With duplicates - All this:\nYou right-click its icon in the Finder, choose Open With, and a submenu pops up with an absurd number of duplicate entries.\nWhen you first noticed the duplicates, it was just one or two and you didn’t want to take the time to find out how to fix it, but now you’re kind of pissed at your Mac for being so stupid.\nIt’s so annoying having a lot of duplicates, or all Windows apps in the “Open With…” sub-menu when right clicking. This article solved it nicely! Saved here for my own reference.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/getting-rid-of-open-with-duplicates-all-this/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2013/02/getting-rid-of-open-with-duplicates/\"\u003eGetting rid of Open With duplicates - All this\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou right-click its icon in the Finder, choose Open With, and a submenu pops up with an absurd number of duplicate entries.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you first noticed the duplicates, it was just one or two and you didn’t want to take the time to find out how to fix it, but now you’re kind of pissed at your Mac for being so stupid.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Getting rid of Open With duplicates - All this"},{"content":"Google Reader joins graveyard of dead Google products - Slate Magazine:\nIt’s hard to lose a loved one, especially if that loved one is a Google service. That’s why we’re opening the gates of the Google Graveyard, a virtual space for grieving. Buried in these hallowed grounds are some of Google’s ill-fated services. Some, like Google Reader, lived long, prosperous lives, full of admiration and glory. Most, like Google Wave and Google Buzz, struggled to carve out a place in this harsh, unforgiving world where technologies continuously clash and innovation reigns king. But whether these services transformed our productivity or only polluted our inboxes, they all touched our world in some way.\nYeah, you really have to think twice before depending on Google for your Internet services.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/google-reader-joins-graveyard-of-dead-google-products-slate-magazine/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/map_of_the_week/2013/03/google_reader_joins_graveyard_of_dead_google_products.html\"\u003eGoogle Reader joins graveyard of dead Google products - Slate Magazine\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s hard to lose a loved one, especially if that loved one is a Google service. That’s why we’re opening the gates of the Google Graveyard, a virtual space for grieving. Buried in these hallowed grounds are some of Google’s ill-fated services. Some, like Google Reader, lived long, prosperous lives, full of admiration and glory. Most, like Google Wave and Google Buzz, struggled to carve out a place in this harsh, unforgiving world where technologies continuously clash and innovation reigns king. But whether these services transformed our productivity or only polluted our inboxes, they all touched our world in some way.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Reader joins graveyard of dead Google products - Slate Magazine"},{"content":"[caption id=“attachment_2704” align=“alignleft” width=“272”] Photo by phrawr[/caption]\nGoing paperless Tired of drowning in stacks of papers? Want to go paperless? Here’s how I moved all my documents to the cloud and cleared up a lot of the clutter at home. I used my old trusty photo scanner, because when all the old papers are scanned and achieved, I only have to scan the new inflowing papers, not the insane stacks of paper I had previously.\nScanning Workflow The easiest route is to buy an advanced duplexed document scanner like the highly regarded and award winning Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 duplex document scanner. It comes with all the software you need and you just put in a stack of papers, receipts or business cards and away it goes.\nThere’s also a small portable scanner called Doxie Go that looks interesting, with rechargeable batteries and a SD card slot.\nBut I don’t have the money to buy one now so my old flatbed scanner, the Canon CanoScan 8800f, now discontinued and replaced with the better Canon CanoScan 9000F have to do at least for now. It’s not really made for scanning large amount of papers, but it does the job. I’ve made what I think is a pretty good workflow so I’ll try to describe it. Maybe you can find some nuggets here.\nScanning software The Folder Action described below makes it possible for any program that can scan and save a file to a folder to upload automatically to Evernote. So you could use whatever application you want.\nABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac I first tried to use ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac. It is fast, easy to use and generally nice. But the file size of the finished PDF files was much larger than when compared to my final workflow. I don’t want to take up to much space on both my local disk and on Evernote. Downloading PDF files from Evernote is also much faster on my iOS devices.\nA good thing about ABBYY is that this software is often included with document scanners. If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat, this will do fine and you can skip the rest of this article. But if you need a smaller file size for your scanned documents, read on.\nAdobe Acrobat After testing different solutions, I found the setting that makes the smallest, most compact PDF files that still is very readable in Evernote. And it’s searchable because of Acrobats built-in OCR. Evernote uses OCR on uploaded images and documents but if I decide to leave a copy on my computer, I want the PDF to be searchable.\nThe Workflow I want the scanned document to be automatically added in Evernote, something that Acrobat cannot do automatically. So I created a Folder Action in Automator with an Applescript that takes the saved files and sends it to Evernote automatically. It then deletes the local file.\nSo first I opened Automator and created a new Folder Action that will automatically send everything dropped or saved in the folder to Evernote and then delete the item.\nAdd a “Run AppleScript” action to the Automator script and add the code below.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;applescript\u0026rdquo;] on run {input, parameters} repeat with i in input tell application \u0026ldquo;Evernote\u0026rdquo; to create note from file i tell application \u0026ldquo;Finder\u0026rdquo; to delete file i end repeat return input end run [/cc]\nSettings in Adobe Acrobat Now that we have a folder that will send our scanned documents to Evernote, we need to create an Action in the Action Wizard in Adobe Acrobat to automate the scanning and saving as much as possible.\nCreate a new action called “Scan to Evernote” and add the following actions:\nAdd a “Start with scanner” action Reduce file size action “Save to” action, selecting the folder we created a Folder Action on earlier Click the settings for the scanner and select your scanner and enable the checkmark “Make searchable (run OCR)”\nSelect “Options” for the OCR and select your primary language and set the PDF output style to ClearScan. This makes the finished document easy to read, but still very small in file size.\nStart scanning your documents Now all you have to do is to select “Scan to Evernote” from the Action Wizard menu in Adobe Acrobat. When the action is finished, the document should automatically be sent to Evernote and then deleted from the folder. You now have access to all your papers, documents, receipts etc from both your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad or Android phone. Very handy!\nIf you have any suggestions of making this better, please feel free to write in the comments.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/paperless-scanner-mac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=“attachment_2704” align=“alignleft” width=“272”]\u003cimg alt=\"Photo of a stack of paper\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/paperless-scanner-mac/images/stack-of-paper_hu_e332c0cc38143f87.jpg\" width=\"436\"\u003e Photo by \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/phrawr/\"\u003ephrawr\u003c/a\u003e[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"going-paperless\"\u003eGoing paperless\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTired of drowning in stacks of papers? Want to go paperless? Here’s how I moved all my documents to the cloud and cleared up a lot of the clutter at home. I used my old trusty photo scanner, because when all the old papers are scanned and achieved, I only have to scan the new inflowing papers, not the insane stacks of paper I had previously.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"scanning-workflow\"\u003eScanning Workflow\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe easiest route is to buy an advanced duplexed document scanner like the highly regarded and award winning Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 duplex document scanner. It comes with all the software you need and you just put in a stack of papers, receipts or business cards and away it goes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere’s also a small portable scanner called Doxie Go that looks interesting, with rechargeable batteries and a SD card slot.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut I don’t have the money to buy one now so my old flatbed scanner, the Canon CanoScan 8800f, now discontinued and replaced with the better Canon CanoScan 9000F have to do at least for now. It’s not really made for scanning large amount of papers, but it does the job. I’ve made what I think is a pretty good workflow so I’ll try to describe it. Maybe you can find some nuggets here.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Going Paperless With Evernote and Any Scanner On Your Mac"},{"content":"\nHow to use interrupts with Python on the Raspberry Pi and RPi.GPIO » RasPi.TV:\nWe’ve finally got interrupt capability on the Raspberry Pi for GPIO programming in Python using RPi.GPIO.\nInteresting! Saving this link for later experimenting. Need buttons for my Carputer Raspberry Pi.\nVia Scoop.it!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"raspberry-pi-logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1440\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_2006f59e20cfbe25.png\" srcset=\"/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_a1d9c616596ab41d.png 360w,/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_63cfc76619ba0b1f.png 480w,/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_ce91df34fae40af0.png 720w,/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_a951a74991497081.png 1080w,/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv/images/raspberry-pi-logo_hu_2006f59e20cfbe25.png 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"http://raspi.tv/2013/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio\"\u003eHow to use interrupts with Python on the Raspberry Pi and RPi.GPIO » RasPi.TV\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe’ve finally got interrupt capability on the Raspberry Pi for GPIO programming in Python using RPi.GPIO.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInteresting! Saving this link for later experimenting. Need buttons for my Carputer Raspberry Pi.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVia \u003ca href=\"http://www.scoop.it/t/raspberry-pi/p/3998495504/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-raspi-tv?_tmc=MtLL3YsveuCqkb1uJ8iWzRYpXkaszG2FW15vSncTSh8\"\u003eScoop.it!\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How to use interrupts with Python on the Raspberry Pi and RPi.GPIO » RasPi.TV"},{"content":"\nBetter battery life Macbook Pro with gfxCardStatus Update: Just installed Mac OS X 10.8.4 and now it works much better. Fantastical, Growler, Hardware Grower, Scrivener and Tweetbot now works without switching cards.\nLater models of Macbook Pro computers comes with dual graphics card. This makes it possible to use a low performance card when not using graphics intense applications, and automatically switch to the faster, but less energy efficient card if needed. But how do you know which card is currently active? There is a great application available called gfxCardStatus that shows you when the computer switches, and even uses notifications.\nIf your on the move and on battery power, you can force the computer to use the Integrated less power draining graphics card. If you need full speed, just select the Discrete card. The third alternative is to have it in the normal Dynamic Switching Mode. But there’s a snag when using Switching Mode. A lot of applications forces the Macbook Pro into using the Descrete high performance battery draining card, for no apparent good reason. Let’s examine that.\nHardware This problem looks like it’s specific to “older” Macbook Pro machines. Newer (Retina display) Macbook Pro’s don’t have this problem. So it looks like this is a problem with the OS, not the developer.\nAfter getting a response from the developers of Fantastical, it seems like the culprit is calls to CALayers.\nUsing Core Animation is what will trigger the discrete GPU in this case. That’s kind of a requirement to achieve smooth effects in a Mac app these days.\nUsers commenting about this sees different results than mine because of newer hardware. My Macbook Pro is a model:MacBookPro6,2 and newer machines does not have the same problems. So is this a bug in 10.8.3? I’ll try to test it on a Retina Macbook Pro.\nBattery draining applications on Macbook Pro Here’s a couple of applications that doesn’t need graphics power, but still kicks in the more powerful but battery draining graphics card. I’ve only chosen applications that I often have running in the background. I also excluded obvious applications that really need the extra power from the discrete graphics card.\nWhy do an application switch to the power draining mode? It’s been a couple of years since I did Cocoa Objective-C programming, but reading up on this problem, there are a couple of things that can trigger a switch.\nTriggers Application uses OpenGL Connecting a second display requires the Discrete card Using CALayers can trigger a switch Dropbox You start Dropbox and it instantly forces the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M to kick in, all the time! To display an icon in the menu bar? I’m depending on Dropbox all the time, but now when I need to work on battery power I have to quit Dropbox. This should be easy for them to fix.\nUpdate: Check out the response from Dropbox support.\nByword If I start Byword by opening a document, the machine uses the lower power graphics card, but if you open the iCloud open dialog box, the Discrete cards kicks in and won’t switch back until you quit the application. So there’s at least a way around this, which is good because this is my favorite Mac blog writing app and use it a lot.\nUpdate: Check out the response from their support. Gotta love Byword!\nFantastical Like Dropbox, Fantastical has been a staple in my menu bar. But this is another application that forces a switch to the more power hungry card. And let’s face it, Fantastical shouldn’t have to use the faster card.\nGrowl Another application that shouldn’t need to start the advanced graphics card.\nChrome Browser If you want to save battery when on the road, Safari is a better alternative to Chrome, because it also forces the more powerful graphics card to kick in. Safari doesn’t.\n1Passwordhttps://agilebits.com/onepassword) Yet another program that forces the faster more power hungry card to start. But should it really be necessary? I rather have better battery life.\nUpdate: Response from their support.\nScrivener Scrivener has a similar problem as Byword. As soon as you open the file browser, the Discrete card kicks in and stays active until quit. Yet another great app that unfortunately is the type of app that’s active a lot on my machine.\nDayOne This is my favorite diary app on both iOS and the Mac. It also kicks in the power hungry card immediately. But because the Mac version is behind feature-wise, I usually do my writing on the iPad anyway. But when they update the app with tags, weather and location data, maybe they could spend a while trying to fix this problem.\nTweetbot Immediately switches over to the Discrete card. This is unfortunate because this is yet another application that’s usually opened all the time. So when on battery power, I’ll use Safari instead.\nKeynote This makes sense. It’s a graphics intense application. Apple Pages does not use the power hungry card. And if such an advanced app can manage with the slower card, so should Dropbox and Fantastical.\nReeder Switches over to the power hungry card. This application is a bit up in the air at the moment due to the shutdown of Google Reader. But they’ve updated the iPhone version for syncing to my new replacement service Fever, so if they implement that in the Mac client it will become a staple application again. But I will not have it running in the background when on battery.\nTransmit Maybe not the most used application when on battery power, but it is good to know that it will decrease the battery life if left open.\nSkype Here’s a program I guess a lot of people have running when out and about. But when selecting user listings or anything else, it switches over to the battery draining card.\nResponses from the developers I’ll try to send a bug report to all the applications above and keep this section updated with responses (if there will be any).\nByword Response Yes, coming next update, Byword will no longer use the dedicated graphics card.\nYou do provide a great insight regarding when Byword causes the switch. When chasing this problem we never quite understood what triggered the issue because on our machines it never did. Thanks for that.\nJorge\n1Password response Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this.\nI’ve tested this on my own computer, which is a 15\u0026quot; Retina MBP. It’s running 10.8.2 still (need to run some backups before updating to 10.8.3) and I was not able to recreate this. In fact, I had Skype, Fantastical, 1Password, Dropbox, Reeder, Tweetbot, and Transmit all running. Which is quite a full list based on your blog post.\nSince I was mostly concerned with 1Password I did a variety of things to try to coax it into switching graphics modes. I tried both the website version (3.8.20) of the app and the Mac App Store version (3.9.6). Neither exhibited any of the graphics card switching you mentioned.\nI had our CEO give it a try as well, he’s running 10.8.3, otherwise, same MBP as myself. He was not able to get it to trigger.\nSo, that makes me believe that at least to some extent, this may be based on graphics drivers. Some computers may have drivers that are triggering the discrete graphics incorrectly. It may also be that our test is slightly flawed here and that the Intel HD 4000 is capable of more than previous models and therefore graphics switching isn’t necessary on newer devices. I believe you mention that newer devices may not see this behavior, I assume it’s due to the integrated graphics card, but cannot confirm directly, merely a guess based on the limited knowledge I have.\nBefore I dig in more, could you confirm which version of 1Password you’re using?\nAlso, does just opening the app trigger the discrete card, or do you need to do anything in particular to get it to do it? If so, what steps did you take to trigger it?\nCheers!\nKyle Swank\nAgileBits Support\nDropbox Response Hi Jack,\nThank you for contacting us! This seems to be a bug introduced by the Mountain Lion 10.8.3 upgrade on 2010 Macbook pros and is not limited to Dropbox.\nA lot of other applications on your Mac will now cause the discrete graphic card to be on as you correctly pointed out. For now the only solution is to revert back to the previous Dropbox build. Here’s the link:\nhttps://dl-web.dropbox.com/u/17/Dropbox%201.6.18.dmg\nWe’re looking into a possible fix, but it’s a little unclear how complex it will be!\nThanks for bringing this to our attention and for the amazing bug-hunting work!\nBest,\nStefano\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/battery-draining-applications-macbook-pro/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"gfxCardStatus icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"256\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/battery-draining-applications-macbook-pro/images/gfxCardStatus-icon_hu_3f2bf44f7e4116ee.png\" width=\"256\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"better-battery-life-macbook-pro-with-gfxcardstatus\"\u003eBetter battery life Macbook Pro with gfxCardStatus\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate: Just installed Mac OS X 10.8.4 and now it works much better. Fantastical, Growler, Hardware Grower, Scrivener and Tweetbot now works without switching cards.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nLater models of Macbook Pro computers comes with dual graphics card. This makes it possible to use a low performance card when not using graphics intense applications, and automatically switch to the faster, but less energy efficient card if needed. But how do you know which card is currently active? There is a great application available called \u003ca href=\"http://gfx.io\"\u003egfxCardStatus\u003c/a\u003e that shows you when the computer switches, and even uses notifications.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf your on the move and on battery power, you can force the computer to use the Integrated less power draining graphics card. If you need full speed, just select the Discrete card. The third alternative is to have it in the normal Dynamic Switching Mode. But there’s a snag when using Switching Mode. A lot of applications forces the Macbook Pro into using the Descrete high performance battery draining card, for no apparent good reason. Let’s examine that.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Battery Draining Applications on Macbook Pro"},{"content":"inessential.com: Why I love RSS and You Do Too:\nWhy I love RSS and You Do Too\nEven if you don’t use an RSS reader, you still use RSS.\nIf you subscribe to any podcasts, you use RSS. Flipboard and Twitter are RSS readers, even if it’s not obvious and they do other things besides.\nInsightful article about RSS from the venerable developer of NetNewsWire. RSS is everywhere. He’s right about the future of RSS. Google killing Google Reader will end up better for everyone.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/inessentialcom-love-rss/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://inessential.com/2013/03/14/why_i_love_rss_and_you_do_too\"\u003einessential.com: Why I love RSS and You Do Too\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy I love RSS and You Do Too\u003cbr\u003e\nEven if you don’t use an RSS reader, you still use RSS.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you subscribe to any podcasts, you use RSS. \u003cstrong\u003eFlipboard\u003c/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eTwitter\u003c/strong\u003e are RSS readers, even if it’s not obvious and they do other things besides.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInsightful article about RSS from the venerable developer of \u003cstrong\u003eNetNewsWire\u003c/strong\u003e. RSS is everywhere. He’s right about the future of RSS. Google killing \u003cstrong\u003eGoogle Reader\u003c/strong\u003e will end up better for everyone.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"inessential.com: Why I love RSS and You Do Too"},{"content":"\nSecure browsing on iOS (iPhone/iPad) using OpenVPN and the Raspberry Pi « Remi Bergsma’s blog:\nWhen I’m not at home I use my iPhone or iPad and connect to the internet using either 3G or public wifi. I want to configure my mobile device to setup an encrypted VPN tunnel and route all traffic through it, so I have a safe browsing experience. Fortunately, there now is an OpenVPN app available on iOS that allows you to do that! Please install this app using the App Store, and continue reading to set it all up.\nLooks like another great use for a Raspberry Pi! I’ll try it out when I get hold of my third one.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/secure-browsing-on-ios-iphoneipad-using-openvpn-and-the-raspberry-pi/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"OpenVPN Logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"54\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/secure-browsing-on-ios-iphoneipad-using-openvpn-and-the-raspberry-pi/images/1363228989_hu_e4d4eaeef85dc5eb.jpg\" title=\"OpenVPN Logo\" width=\"208\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://blog.remibergsma.com/2013/03/13/secure-browsing-on-ios-iphoneipad-using-openvpn-and-the-raspberry-pi/\"\u003eSecure browsing on iOS (iPhone/iPad) using OpenVPN and the Raspberry Pi « Remi Bergsma’s blog\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I’m not at home I use my iPhone or iPad and connect to the internet using either 3G or public wifi. I want to configure my mobile device to setup an encrypted VPN tunnel and route all traffic through it, so I have a safe browsing experience. Fortunately, there now is an OpenVPN app available on iOS that allows you to do that! Please install this app using the App Store, and continue reading to set it all up.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Secure browsing on iOS (iPhone/iPad) using OpenVPN and the Raspberry Pi"},{"content":"\nOfficial Blog: A second spring of cleaning:\nWe launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.\nI don’t get it. So they count heads, and see that not as many people use Google Reader as they’d like. But the only people I know that use RSS on a daily basis are the one that counts. Bloggers, journalists and tech leaders. You know, the people that write and influence the rest of the heard. How can you not make money on the data Google gets by their reading habits? You want me to have to spend all day reading assorted ramblings on Google+ or Twitter to find some nuggets? I don’t have the time for that.\nIf they can’t be bothered, why not open source it? I mean, they like open, just check out Android…oops, forgot, it isn’t so open any more…\nPaid service Try this for size, let people pay a subscription fee. You can still anal probe your users for the data for your precious ads. Isn’t that a win-win situation?\nTrust in Googles Services I’ve already been burned before when using Google as my data handler. By shutting down services, who dares to put any trust into using Googles services? A year ago if a customer of mine asked for the best solution for a company e-mail system, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Google Apps. Now? No way. I’m already in the planning stage of moving my mail, calendar and address book from Google Apps. Because, who knows, suddenly I’m sitting there having to migrate my data to another solution. And not just for me but customers that relied on my advice of using Google Apps.\nMoved to my own RSS server with Fever So I installed Fever tonight. Hopefully my RSS readers on iOS will support it. Reeder for iPhone supports it, and with a bit of luck, so will the iPad and the Mac version as well. I just have to rely on the web interface for the time being.\nThe upside Suddenly a new market opportunity opens up for others, providing the same service and actually make money. There are smaller companies that’s going to make some good money on this one. And there will be innovation again.\nNIK And now I’m just waiting for the final stab in the back. Google killing off NIK Sharpener, the best sharpening plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. And the writing is already on the wall…\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/trust-google-services/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"277\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/trust-google-services/images/1363285224_hu_b52784278e5e9462.jpg\" title=\"Cracked Google Reader icon\" width=\"280\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://googleblog.blogspot.fi/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html\"\u003eOfficial Blog: A second spring of cleaning\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don’t get it. So they count heads, and see that not as many people use Google Reader as they’d like. But the only people I know that use RSS on a daily basis are the one that counts. Bloggers, journalists and tech leaders. You know, the people that write and influence the rest of the heard. How can you not make money on the data Google gets by their reading habits? You want me to have to spend all day reading assorted ramblings on \u003cstrong\u003eGoogle+\u003c/strong\u003e or Twitter to find some nuggets? I don’t have the time for that.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Why should I trust Google Services?"},{"content":"I want to be able to share interesting web pages on my Wordpress blog using iOS directly from Safari using a bookmark and a Pythonista Python script. The script takes the URL of the page, any text you copied and the page title, formats it in Markdown and creates a new post in Poster App automatically.\nSo here you can find the script and how to set it up. I’m using a Wordpress plugin called PHP Markdown Extra, because I want all the posts to be in Markdown, not in HTML on the server. It’s so much easier to go back and edit posts, and I’m using [MarsEdit on my Mac and Poster App on my iPhone/iPad to edit posts. Both of them supports editing in Markdown, which is great.\nJavascript Bookmark in iOS Safari First of all we need a way of getting the URL from the web page, the title of the article and some descriptive text. So first you need to add a bookmark in Safari on your iOS device that will use Javascript to extract the information and send it to Pythonista for formatting and then have the formatted text sent to the Poster App.\nOpen Safari, and go to any page and press the share arrow and select Bookmark.\nGive it a name, I used “To Poster App” but you can call it anything you like. Make sure it’s in the Bookmarks Bar for easy access and press the Save button.\nNow we need to edit the bookmark and insert some Javascript that sends the necessary data like URL and the page title to Pythonista. Press the Bookmarks icon in the status bar in Safari and navigate inside the Bookmarks Bar. Press the Edit Button and press on the bookmark we just created.\nSelect the Javascript code below and paste it into the URL field below the name of the bookmark, replacing whatever was there before.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;javascript\u0026rdquo;] javascript:window.location=\u0026lsquo;pythonista://posterlink?action=run\u0026amp;argv=\u0026rsquo;+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+\u0026rsquo;\u0026amp;argv=\u0026rsquo;+encodeURIComponent(document.location.href); [/cc]\nAdding the posterlink.py script to Pythonista Now we need to add the script in Pythonista that’s been called from the Javascript code above. Copy the script below on your iOS device, open the Pythonista App and create a new script called posterlink and paste the code. If you prefer another name for the script, remember to change the name in the Javascript code as well.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;python\u0026rdquo;] # A simple script for creating a post in Poster App using Pythonista directly from an iOS browser. # add a bookmark in the browser with the JavaScript code: # javascript:window.location=\u0026lsquo;pythonista://posterlink?action=run\u0026amp;argv=\u0026rsquo;+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+\u0026rsquo;\u0026amp;argv=\u0026rsquo;+encodeURIComponent(document.location.href); # # Copy text of interest on page, and click bookmark. A new Markdown post # in poster will be created. # _ _ # | | | | # | | __ _ ___| | _____ _ __ # _ | |/ _` |/ __| |/ / _ \\ \u0026lsquo;_ \\ # | |__| | (_| | (__| \u0026lt; __/ | | | # \\____/ \\__,_|\\___|_|\\_\\___|_| |_|\nimport urllib from urllib import urlencode import sys import webbrowser import clipboard import console\nnumArgs = len(sys.argv) print numArgs if numArgs != 3: console.alert(\u0026lsquo;This script needs two arguments. Title, URL and text in clipboard.\u0026rsquo;) else: title = sys.argv[1] url = sys.argv[2] clip = clipboard.get() text = clip.encode(\u0026lsquo;utf-8\u0026rsquo;) complete = \u0026ldquo;\u0026rdquo;\u0026quot;[{title}]({url}):\n\u0026gt; {text}\u0026quot;\u0026quot;\u0026quot;.format(title=title, url=url, text=text) strlist =[] strlist.append(\u0026lsquo;posterapp://create?text=\u0026rsquo;) strlist.append(urllib.quote(complete, safe=\u0026rsquo;\u0026rsquo;)) strlist.append(\u0026rsquo;\u0026amp;title=\u0026rsquo; + urllib.quote(title)) actionurl = \u0026ldquo;\u0026quot;.join(strlist) print actionurl webbrowser.open(actionurl) [/cc]\nUsing the script You should now be able to go to any page you want to do a blog post about, select some descriptive text and choose copy, then press the bookmark in the Bookmark Bar. This will launch Pythonista, which will format the text in Markdown syntax and send it to Poster App. The text you copied will be formatted as a quote. Just add your own text or comment and publish. A quick way of sharing a link to something interesting on your Wordpress blog, directly from Safari.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/blog-post-ios-safari-poster-app-pythonista-script/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Poster Icon image\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/blog-post-ios-safari-poster-app-pythonista-script/images/poster-icon-150x150_hu_f4b5bd475fad195c.jpg\" width=\"150\"\u003eI want to be able to share interesting web pages on my Wordpress blog using iOS directly from Safari using a bookmark and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/scripting-programming-iphone-ipad-python-pythonista-review/\"\u003ePythonista\u003c/a\u003e Python script. The script takes the URL of the page, any text you copied and the page title, formats it in \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/\"\u003eMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e and creates a new post in \u003ca href=\"http://www.tomwitkin.com/poster/\"\u003ePoster App\u003c/a\u003e automatically.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Blog Post Directly from iOS Safari to Poster App Using Pythonista Script"},{"content":"Wordpress Performance with W3 Total Cache and Varnish Cache LoadImpact Here’s some performance metrics from LoadImpact. First up is a test with 15 minutes of load going from one user to 100 users. As you can see the load time stays under 500ms most of the time. The spike was because of a server update taking place at the same time. An average of serving around 40 pages/sec gives this old server the ability to serve up 2,400 pages a minute, 144,000 pages/hour and 3,456,000 pages per day. I’ll probably consider upgrading before I hit that kind of number of visitors hehe!\nBut this test only loads a couple of pages, so they becomes cached almost immediately. Often when you get hit on your blog, it’s often one or maybe two articles that get extra load because of a link in from a high traffic site. So it looks like my Wordpress server can take a fair amount of hits.\nLoadStorm I made a load storm scenario where 15 users clicked on random buttons on random pages, just to make sure that most of the pages was not loaded in the cache. This simulates a popular site with a lot of popular content. Eventually most pages would get cached so the results would be even higher, but with the machine I’m running on, 13 req/sec is actually really good. That’s 46.800 pages per hour or 561.600 pages per day. And as I said, this scenario is very unlikely. On a forum site maybe, but not on most Wordpress blogs.\nSimulated Browser User\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measured-wordpress-server-performance/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"wordpress-performance-with-w3-total-cache-and-varnish-cache\"\u003eWordpress Performance with W3 Total Cache and Varnish Cache\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"loadimpact\"\u003eLoadImpact\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere’s some performance metrics from \u003ca href=\"http://loadimpact.com\"\u003eLoadImpact\u003c/a\u003e. First up is a test with 15 minutes of load going from one user to 100 users. As you can see the load time stays under 500ms most of the time. The spike was because of a server update taking place at the same time. An average of serving around 40 pages/sec gives this old server the ability to serve up 2,400 pages a minute, 144,000 pages/hour and 3,456,000 pages per day. I’ll probably consider upgrading before I hit that kind of number of visitors hehe!\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"Loadimpact user load time\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"355\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/measured-wordpress-server-performance/images/loadimpact-user-load-time_hu_169f42d25a03fbe2.png\" srcset=\"/measured-wordpress-server-performance/images/loadimpact-user-load-time_hu_7aa3391c154b4c4c.png 360w,/measured-wordpress-server-performance/images/loadimpact-user-load-time_hu_85a1348ba35ab7c7.png 480w,/measured-wordpress-server-performance/images/loadimpact-user-load-time_hu_1920ea0c5394c9c2.png 720w\" width=\"800\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Measured Wordpress Server Performance"},{"content":"\nComparing iPad calendar apps at a glance | iMore.com:\nMost are pretty good. One looks like no designer really cared to do much design. As with the iPhone versions, that might be because there’s a split between apps designed for iOS users, and for users who prefer functionality over form in the best old Windows Mobile sense of the word…\nI’ve been trying to find a good Calendar replacement. Finally there is an Mac, iPad and iPhone version of Fantastical App.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/comparing-ipad-calendars/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"600\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/comparing-ipad-calendars/images/1362967991_hu_a9a3341d9f901940.jpg\" title=\"Fantastical\" width=\"450\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.imore.com/comparing-ipad-calendar-apps-glance\"\u003eComparing iPad calendar apps at a glance | iMore.com\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost are pretty good. One looks like no designer really cared to do much design. As with the iPhone versions, that might be because there’s a split between apps designed for iOS users, and for users who prefer functionality over form in the best old Windows Mobile sense of the word…\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’ve been trying to find a good Calendar replacement. Finally there is an Mac, iPad and iPhone version of \u003ca href=\"https://flexibits.com\"\u003eFantastical App\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Comparing iPad Calendars"},{"content":"\nUpdate: After this old machine gave up I moved my hosting to HostGator for the time being. I will host it at home again when I get the time to build a new machine.\nWordpress Server Hardware The server is an old IBM PC with an Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.20GHz. It has 3Gb of memory and an IBM 60Gb SSD disk installed. The SSD disk made a huge improvement in performance!. Hopefully it will stand the test of time. But so far, so good.\nInternet line I actually have the server installed in the living room and using my home internet connection, a 10/100Mbit line provided from Bredbandsbolaget. So the upload speed is 10Mbit per second, and when testing with LoadImpact from the outside, It can handle around 30–60 pages/second. Using LoadStorm the CPU tags along around 1% of processing use, all due to the Varnish Cache, the W3 Total Cache and CDN provided by Amazon CloudFront.\nUnnecessary Accessories I also built a display so I can see when I get a new unique visitor on a LED display. So while you read there pages, I can see you! After finding an old General Electric ampere meter, I added the analog needle to show the CPU usage. I used an Arduino to control the display and CPU meter. I’ll do a post if someone equally nerdy as me is interested.\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1lsi_e8H_0\nThat’s about it when it comes to the hardware. Nothing amazing or special, but it does the job well. Very well in fact. I haven’t got Slashdotted or being attacked by hackers, but my initial test shows some promise.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wordpress-server-optimization/wordpress-server-hardware/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Photo of an old IBM Wordpress Server\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/wordpress-server-optimization/wordpress-server-hardware/images/ibm-server_hu_65d7451ac36da173.jpg\" width=\"400\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e After this old machine gave up I moved my hosting to HostGator for the time being. I will host it at home again when I get the time to build a new machine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"wordpress-server-hardware\"\u003eWordpress Server Hardware\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe server is an old IBM PC with an Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.20GHz. It has 3Gb of memory and an \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/web-server-with-ssd-disk/\"\u003eIBM 60Gb SSD disk installed\u003c/a\u003e. The SSD disk made a \u003cstrong\u003ehuge\u003c/strong\u003e improvement in performance!. Hopefully it will stand the test of time. But so far, so good.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Wordpress Server – Hardware"},{"content":"\nMy Wordpress Server Setup I’m going to try to describe the Wordpress server you are currently browsing. This is run on old hardware but I’ve been optimizing the software side of Wordpress to get the highest speed possible. On these pages you can read what I’ve done to get Wordpress optimized to get as much speed as possible with old hardware.\nI’ll go trough my installation and how to try to squeeze as much speed as possible from limited resources. The server is run from my home internet line and still manages to take a pretty severe beating.\nThings covered is the hardware setup, the Ubuntu Linux install, optimization of Apache and MySql, caching plugins for Wordpress, using CDN for image and download delivery and putting up a Varnish Server in front of it all.\nI’ll try to keep this pages updated as a server log for me to remember all the different settings. Maybe it can help you to?\nComments and pointers are always appreciated.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wordpress-server-optimization/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"wordpress-logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1155\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/wordpress-server-optimization/images/wordpress-logo_hu_6f84b6b75d2c8422.png\" srcset=\"/wordpress-server-optimization/images/wordpress-logo_hu_8a6ed12b44be25ef.png 360w,/wordpress-server-optimization/images/wordpress-logo_hu_c8ea745f7bb4db08.png 480w,/wordpress-server-optimization/images/wordpress-logo_hu_bd03404e5716f235.png 720w,/wordpress-server-optimization/images/wordpress-logo_hu_91681e395f807e8e.png 1080w\" width=\"1160\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"my-wordpress-server-setup\"\u003eMy Wordpress Server Setup\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m going to try to describe the Wordpress server you are currently browsing. This is run on old hardware but I’ve been optimizing the software side of Wordpress to get the highest speed possible. On these pages you can read what I’ve done to get Wordpress optimized to get as much speed as possible with old hardware.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’ll go trough my installation and how to try to squeeze as much speed as possible from limited resources. The server is run from my home internet line and still manages to take a pretty severe beating.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Wordpress Server Optimization"},{"content":"\nExternal Wordpress editors like MarsEdit doesn’t show categories or tags I just installed Varnish Cache on my website to speed up load time with great success. But after loading my favorite Mac blog editor MarsEdit, when doing a refresh, all the categories and tags disappeared! I realized that it must have something to do with Varnish blocking the requests between the external blog editor and Wordpress, but I haven’t had time to really learn all the intricacies of vcl. As usual Google came to the rescue, and I found [this post in Swedish that solved the problem]). I’d thought I might regurgitate the solution here in English for other with the same problem.\nSolution Just add the following in /etc/varnish/default.vcl in the sub vcl_recv\nThis lets all the access to xmlrpc.php pass through Varnish uncached.\n[cc] # Pass external editors like MarsEdit and iPad editors if(req.url ~ \u0026ldquo;/xmlrpc.php\u0026rdquo;) { return(pass); } [/cc]\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/wordpress-marsedit-problem-show-categories-varnish-xmlrpc-php/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"MarsEdit 3 icon photo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/wordpress-marsedit-problem-show-categories-varnish-xmlrpc-php/images/MarsEdit3-icon_hu_317d03ed9a509e51.jpg\" srcset=\"/wordpress-marsedit-problem-show-categories-varnish-xmlrpc-php/images/MarsEdit3-icon_hu_985d8808f91b5000.jpg 360w,/wordpress-marsedit-problem-show-categories-varnish-xmlrpc-php/images/MarsEdit3-icon_hu_5f683089a3ff49f7.jpg 480w,/wordpress-marsedit-problem-show-categories-varnish-xmlrpc-php/images/MarsEdit3-icon_hu_7536b39a5fdefe8e.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"external-wordpress-editors-like-marsedit-doesnt-show-categories-or-tags\"\u003eExternal Wordpress editors like MarsEdit doesn’t show categories or tags\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Download on the Mac App Store\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"80\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/wordpress-marsedit-problem-show-categories-varnish-xmlrpc-php/images/Download_on_the_Mac_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_165x40_0824_hu_44d93f25a4deffcb.png\" width=\"270\"\u003eI just installed Varnish Cache on my website to speed up load time with great success. But after loading my favorite Mac blog editor \u003ca href=\"http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/\" title=\"MarsEdit blog editor for Mac\"\u003eMarsEdit\u003c/a\u003e, when doing a refresh, all the categories and tags disappeared! I realized that it must have something to do with Varnish blocking the requests between the external blog editor and Wordpress, but I haven’t had time to really learn all the intricacies of vcl. As usual Google came to the rescue, and I found [this post in Swedish that solved the problem]). I’d thought I might regurgitate the solution here in English for other with the same problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Wordpress MarsEdit Problem Doesn't Show Categories Varnish xmlrpc.php"},{"content":"\nPythonista, finally programming workflow automation for iOS? I’m doing most of my writing on my iPad or occasionally on my iPhone, and I write everything in Markdown. There are some great scripts in my current favorite language Python out there for doing Markdown conversions, image manipulations, etc., but unfortunately, Apple rules regarding programming apps on iOS devices are pretty stringent. But an app for programming Python on iOS called Pythonista have some smart ways of getting around some of Apple\u0026rsquo;s restrictions. And one of the wonderful things you can do is home screen shortcuts, making your scripts available directly from the home screen of your iOS device. All you have to do to create a Pythonista home screen shortcut is to go to a web page and enter the script name and optional arguments. After that, add the page home-screen with Safari’s bookmarks button. Another way of starting your scripts is directly as bookmarks in Safari or another web browser. I found the app from this article about making life easier by scripting with Pythonista, a great read of all the functions available in the app.\nBecause they added a Python library for managing the clipboard, you can copy pictures or text to it, then start your script that reads from the clipboard and then put the new modified text/picture back to the clipboard, ready for pasting into any app. Very handy!\nURL Schemes Pythonista has an URL Scheme so that it can be called from other programs. This makes it perfect for apps on the iPhone like Launch Center Pro on iPhone that supports URL Schemes to start your Python scripts.\nWith more and more apps supporting handleOpenURL, the things you can do starts to look very handy indeed.\nx-callback-url Applications that support the x-callback-url specification makes it possible to send information to one app and get the results back and then continue to process it or sending it to yet another app. Hopefully, more apps will support x-callback-url, but some great ones already do.\nPythonista (of course!) Instapaper Google Chrome Terminology Due Definition Drafts Scanner Go iCab Mobile Phraseology iZettle Notesy Poster So far I own nine of these applications, four of them bought just because they support x-callback-url, so listen up developers!\nEditor To work with the editor is a treat! Fast, responsive and very smart. It’s straightforward to use. Most of my editing has been modifying existing scripts and changed them so I can use the clipboard. But you can make more extensive programs. There’s a built-in interactive prompt where you can try out commands and test. Great for trying out a concept or try to find a bug. It’s also handy for people like me who just started to learn Python and need to try out stuff.\nExtended keyboard There is an extended keyboard with the most used keys you need when programming Python. You can move the cursor in the text by just sliding your finger from back and forth across the extended part of the keyboard, and the cursor moves accordingly. Very clever!\nLibraries It includes all the standard libraries for Python, but the developer of Pythonista has also created some handy libraries for things specific to the iPhone/iPad\ncanvas — Vector Graphics clipboard — Copy and paste console — Functions for working with the text output and keyboard input editor — Functions for scripting Pythonista’s text editor keychain — Secure Password Storage scene — 2D Graphics and Animation sound — Play simple sounds Other handy libraries included are:\nbs4 — BeautifulSoup 4 Dropbox feedparser — Universal Feed Parser Markdown Python Imaging Library Requests – HTTP for Humans So there are plenty of libraries available, and more are coming.\nDocumentation The complete documentation for Python and the standard libraries comes entirely inside the application. All the information on the graphics library, Dropbox and clipboard library as well.\nExamples Here you get a couple of examples of how it works and what you can do.\nAn interactive example of using the built-in web server in Pythonista to create MultiMarkdown tables. Here’s a GitHub repository with a lot of examples, mostly related to Markdown, but also some with image manipulation because Pythonista contains not only the standard Python libraries but also the Python Imaging Library, making it excellent for doing automatic image manipulations. I\u0026rsquo;ve written a little snippet for posting directly from Mobile Safari to the Poster app on my iPad or iPhone. I hate that I can’t look at the HTML code when surfing on Mobile Safari, so here’s a little script for using Pythonista to display the HTML source, nicely formatted for easier reading.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;python\u0026rdquo;]\nA simple script for showing the HTML code of a page directly from mobile Safari. add a bookmark in the browser with the JavaScript code: javascript:window.location=\u0026lsquo;pythonista://showHTML?action=run\u0026amp;argv=\u0026rsquo;+encodeURIComponent(document.location.href); _ _ | | | | | | __ _ ___| | _____ _ __ _ | |/ _` |/ __| |/ / _ \\ \u0026lsquo;_ \\ | || | (_| | (| \u0026lt; __/ | | | ____/ __,|___||____|| || import sys import console import urllib from bs4 import BeautifulSoup\nnumArgs = len(sys.argv) print numArgs if numArgs != 2: console.alert(\u0026lsquo;This script needs an URL as an argument.\u0026rsquo;) else: url = sys.argv[1] usock = urllib.urlopen(url) data = usock.read() usock.close() soup = BeautifulSoup(data) console.clear() print(soup.prettify()) [/cc]\nInconveniences The major problem I have with the app is the way to import scripts into it. Most of the blame goes to Apple for not allowing importing of scripts from Dropbox or by other means[1]. Apple wants to keep the iOS out of the troubles of malicious code execution, and that’s understandable, but the apps are already jailed, so they can’t access files outside its own folders. But I guess the more avenues you give for a hacker, bad stuff will happen.\nFor now, I have a folder in Dropbox with the scripts I find or develop on my Mac, and then open them with a text editor app and paste them into Pythonista.\nIt’s nice to finally have the ability to script tedious and repetitive tasks on iOS. With more libraries being added, this app will become even more useful. It’s also a fun and convenient way of learning Python, a great programming language!\nThere is a script for importing directly from GitHub. ↩ ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/scripting-programming-iphone-ipad-python-pythonista-review/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Pythonista icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"208\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/scripting-programming-iphone-ipad-python-pythonista-review/images/pythonista_icon_hu_3b3e1ac7e5eb4576.jpg\" width=\"208\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"pythonista-finally-programming-workflow-automation-for-ios\"\u003ePythonista, finally programming workflow automation for iOS?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m doing most of my writing on my iPad or occasionally on my iPhone, and I write everything in \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/\"\u003eMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e. There are some great scripts in my current favorite language \u003cstrong\u003ePython\u003c/strong\u003e out there for doing \u003cstrong\u003eMarkdown\u003c/strong\u003e conversions, image manipulations, etc., but unfortunately, Apple rules regarding programming apps on \u003cstrong\u003eiOS\u003c/strong\u003e devices are pretty stringent. But an app for programming Python on iOS called Pythonista have some smart ways of getting around some of Apple\u0026rsquo;s restrictions. And one of the wonderful things you can do is home screen shortcuts, making your scripts available directly from the home screen of your iOS device. All you have to do to \u003ca href=\"http://omz-software.com/pythonista/shortcut/\"\u003ecreate a \u003cstrong\u003ePythonista\u003c/strong\u003e home screen shortcut\u003c/a\u003e is to go to a web page and enter the script name and optional arguments. After that, add the page home-screen with Safari’s bookmarks button. Another way of starting your scripts is directly as bookmarks in Safari or another web browser. I found the app from this \u003ca href=\"http://www.macstories.net/stories/automating-ios-how-pythonista-changed-my-workflow/\"\u003earticle about making life easier by scripting with \u003cstrong\u003ePythonista\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, a great read of all the functions available in the app.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBecause they added a Python library for managing the clipboard, you can copy pictures or text to it, then start your script that reads from the clipboard and then put the new modified text/picture back to the clipboard, ready for pasting into any app. Very handy!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pythonista Review - Programming iOS with Python for iPad iPhone"},{"content":"I love my music playback setup that consists of a couple of Squeezebox V3 players in different rooms so I can listen to music in lossless format wherever I am in the apartment. With the iPeng HD app on my iPad, I have a nice interface for controlling the players with album art and other nice features. But the best part is that I can playback high resolution audio directly on my iPad using the Camera Kit USB adapter and an HRT HeadStreamer DAC portable USB headphone amplifier. But I wanted a small, cheap and eco-friendly server for hosting my music files and wondered if I could use the Raspberry Pi. And here’s my findings.\nRead about my Raspberry Pi Car Audio System using Squeezebox here Installation First off, I did a search on how to do the installation of he Squeezebox server, Logitech Media Server.\nThere’s a preconfigured image ready to download called SqueezePlug with the Squeezbox Server (now known as Logitech Media Server) and a lot of other server options for serving media like pictures, films etc.\nI used this setup to install just the server because I only needed the Squeezebox Server function with just a Samba connection for uploading to the USB disk connected to the Raspberry Pi. But the easy way is probably to just use the preconfigured image from SqueezePlug.\nUPDATE After installing another setup I tried SqueezePlug and it was much easier! It helps with setting up a static ip-number and is much easier to configure mounting of a external USB disk. So this is the way to go if you’re thinking about doing this.\nPerformance and usability The scanning of my library of 1200 CDs in lossless FLAC format took about 40 minutes. This is a total scan, so the next scan will go much faster when looking for changed or added music. By setting the scan timer you can have this done late at night.\nThe web interface is usable, but can seem a bit slow at times. That was something I experienced even when using a fast server, so that point is moot for me. But using the Squeezebox V3 player to navigate music really impressed me. No noticeable lag. Very usable. Using the Squeezebox App for iPad called iPeng HD that is a great program for navigating your music collection and selecting songs or album for playback it’s downright quick. But you can even playback the music directly on your iPad/iPhone.\nSample rate problems Due to the fact that version 3 of the Squeezebox player only supports 24-bit, 48Khz playback, unlike the Squeezebox Touch, the server has to downsample high res files to one that is supported by the device. It uses a conversion tool called sox to do the downsample. Problem is, the Raspberry Pi doesn’t have the horsepower to handle the conversion, even when over clocking. This is not a problem for standard CDs which use 16-bit 44.1Khz, but if you bought a lot of music from places like HDTracks in high resolution there’s a problem. I tried to stream high res audio (both 88Khz and 96Khz) without a problem to an iPad connected to an external DAC via the Camera Connection Kit’s USB connector. As long as the DAC supports the sample rate, the Raspberry Pi can handle it.\nWith the newer versions of the Squeezebox player, like the Squeezebox Touch which supports higher sample rates, this shouldn’t be a problem, it’s only when resampling needs to be done that there’s a problem.\nMultiple clients I can stream one 24-bit, 88.2Khz song to my iPad, play a standard CD quality song to my laptop with SqueezePlay and at the same time playing another song on the Squeezebox V3 without a problem. I’m sure it could handle more. Pretty impressive!\nFor this setup, I just wrote a Python script to downsample all high resolution music to 24-bit, 48Khz, something my Squeezebox V3 was able to handle and the high quality audio playback was solved. This wouldn’t be needed for owners of devices that supports the sample rate of your music. I’ve put up the downsample script on github if you want to downsample your library. The script does downsample the original files to the sample rate you set, so make sure to have a backup before running it.\nLow cost, extremely small Eco friendly Squeezebox server With a cheap Raspberry Pi server and an USB disk, you have a music server that draws just a couple of watts of power. This is a great and cheap solution to be able to share music around the house in amazing quality. And with it’s small footprint and almost no heat being generated, it’s easy to just hide away from prying fingers.\nLogitech and stupidity Logitech really has destroyed a great product by discontinuing devices. It has a strong user group and a lot of development going on. But after they took over, everything got very confusing for the consumer, and now the product line seems to be dying. Thankfully the original developers had the server side of the software Open Sourced, so even if Logitech kills the product line, hopefully they will live on. I’m thinking of getting an extra Squeezebox Touch just because of the playback quality and the hacking possibilities with these products.\nStill, it’s a shame. The second I got the news that Logitech bought the Squeezebox company, I knew they would destroy this product.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-squeezebox-logitech-server/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Raspberry Pi in a clear case next to an external USB hard drive\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"400\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/raspberry-pi-squeezebox-logitech-server/images/image2_hu_ddbf82bebdf7e79c.jpg\" srcset=\"/raspberry-pi-squeezebox-logitech-server/images/image2_hu_51bbab8548551973.jpg 360w,/raspberry-pi-squeezebox-logitech-server/images/image2_hu_a4bb45215f0a8f2b.jpg 480w\" width=\"670\"\u003eI love my music playback setup that consists of a couple of Squeezebox V3 players in different rooms so I can listen to music in lossless format wherever I am in the apartment. With the \u003ca href=\"http://penguinlovesmusic.de\"\u003eiPeng HD\u003c/a\u003e app on my iPad, I have a nice interface for controlling the players with album art and other nice features. But the best part is that I can playback high resolution audio directly on my iPad using the Camera Kit USB adapter and an HRT HeadStreamer DAC portable USB headphone amplifier. But I wanted a small, cheap and eco-friendly server for hosting my music files and wondered if I could use the \u003ca href=\"http://www.raspberrypi.org/\"\u003eRaspberry Pi\u003c/a\u003e. And here’s my findings.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Raspberry Pi as a Squeezebox Logitech Server"},{"content":"\nCheck out my article on using Qrq with a Google Cloud Storage Nearline. It\u0026rsquo;s cheaper than Amazon Glacier.\nBeing a photographer, I have a lot of pictures on my hard disks. Using a Canon 5D Mark II with it’s 23 megapixel sensor shooting in RAW doesn’t help. My main backup is two different NAS servers doing alternating TimeMachine backups every other hour, a feature added in Mountain Lion. This is great, because if one backup unit breaks down or gets stolen, I still have another copy on the other NAS. But what if both got stolen? Imagine the horror? So I’ve been searching for an offsite backup solution that’s cheap and just works. And now I think I found it.\n**\nAmazon Glacier Amazon has launched a new service called Glacier for storing files that doesn’t need to be accessed often. And the price per Gb is dirt cheap. So using this service would be perfect to use for my purpose. But to make everything easy, you need a backup program that supports Amazon Glacier for storage, and fortunately I found one.\nAmazon Glacier is an extremely low-cost storage service that provides secure and durable storage for data archiving and backup. In order to keep costs low, Amazon Glacier is optimized for data that is infrequently accessed and for which retrieval times of several hours are suitable. With Amazon Glacier, customers can reliably store large or small amounts of data for as little as $0.01 per gigabyte per month, a significant savings compared to on-premises solutions.\nArq 3 Backup for Mac OS X Arq 3 is a backup application that can do backup to Amazon S3 or Glacier. It doesn’t use Amazons server side encryption so the data is sent encrypted directly from Arq 3 itself. Haystack Software provides a command line utility called arq_restore on github enabling you to access your data without Arq 3, which is a nice touch if they should go out of business and not leaving you stranded with data you can’t access. An even better solution would have been to put a unencrypted compressed file containing the source code for arq_restore in every backup bucket.\nSetting up the backup The application installs a menu bar icon to make access to the application a breeze.\nAfter getting registering for an account at Amazon, something Arq 3 guides you through, you just add the folders you want to have backed up. You can select to store it in S3 which has faster access times but is more expensive, or choose Amazon Glacier with it’s lower cost but have slower access times.\nYou can exclude files and folders from the backup, or choose to not backup files that fit a specific search criteria.\nBudget One nice feature is the Budget preference. Here you can set up a cost limit so you don’t get any surprises when it’s billing time. Very handy!\nBandwidth throttling You can set up the backup to slow down when you are actively using your Internet connection, set it for full speed or choose a specific bitrate for uploading. I have a 100/10MBit line and upload at full speed and the application seems very CPU friendly, something not all backup programs can brag about.\nScheduling You can set how often the backup executes. There is options to set different times for S3 and Glacier. I wish that you could set this per folder also, but that’s an minor annoyance.\nFirst backup Be prepared that the first backup will take a long time. Of course this depends on the amount of data to backup and the speed of your Internet connection. But after the initial backup, only changes are uploaded.\nRestore If you need to restore, Arq will test your download speed, and then do an estimate of total cost for downloading your backup data. If you have a fast internet line, the restore could become very costly, because you pay more the faster you download. But there\u0026rsquo;s a built in function for setting the download speed manually, essentially throttling the download. You get a cost estimate, so if your not in a hurry, just enter a lower download speed value. You get an estimate cost for restore directly, so choosing how fast you want your data is easy.\nThe fear of loosing years worth of photos is something I hope this will remedy. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.\n**\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/amazon-glacier-cloud-backup-macintosh-arq-3-backup/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"512\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/amazon-glacier-cloud-backup-macintosh-arq-3-backup/images/image_hu_e693b9ab5aa52ee9.jpg\" srcset=\"/amazon-glacier-cloud-backup-macintosh-arq-3-backup/images/image_hu_468ebc5de8f49bb7.jpg 360w,/amazon-glacier-cloud-backup-macintosh-arq-3-backup/images/image_hu_2820c7eb9a104e4a.jpg 480w\" title=\"Arq 3 application icon\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/arq-backup-for-mac-os-x-now-supports-google-cloud-storage-nearline/\"\u003eCheck out my article on using Qrq with a Google Cloud Storage Nearline. It\u0026rsquo;s cheaper than Amazon Glacier\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBeing a photographer, I have a lot of pictures on my hard disks. Using a Canon 5D Mark II with it’s 23 megapixel sensor shooting in RAW doesn’t help. My main backup is two different NAS servers \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/osx/whats-new/features.html#timemachine\"\u003edoing alternating TimeMachine backups every other hour, a feature added in Mountain Lion\u003c/a\u003e. This is great, because if one backup unit breaks down or gets stolen, I still have another copy on the other NAS. But what if both got stolen? Imagine the horror? So I’ve been searching for an offsite backup solution that’s cheap and just works. And now I think I found it.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e**\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Amazon Glacier Cloud Backup with Macintosh Using Arq 3 Backup Application"},{"content":"\niPad and MultiMarkdown Supported Apps Updated 2014–07–06 Since I originally wrote this article, much has happened. The Elements app looks like it’s been discontinued because I couldn’t find it in the AppStore, so I have removed it from the comparison table. I’ve added my new favourite iOS text editor, Editorial which is an amazing app for configure your text workflow just the way you like it. IA Writer has added support for MultiMarkdown so I added it to the list as well.\nTrying to use MultiMarkdown for writing this blog on an iPad has been frustrating. Just trying to find a writing app that supports tables, footnotes, internal links and tables drives you crazy. One App can do some of the things right, others do nothing right. So here is my test of the Markdown Writing Apps I have available, and how they compare feature-wise.\nI’ve moved over all my writing to Markdown, just because it’s a great way of writing for different media. But I need to use the more advanced version MultiMarkdown to be able to handle internal links, cross-references, more advanced image links, footnotes, tables and bibliography. So I did a Markdown test document with all the stuff I need, and checked if the App could handle it and generating working HTML. So here it goes.\nMultiMarkdown Support\niOS App Cross-Ref Images Footnotes Tables Bibliography Definitions Byword 2.1.6[1] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Phraseology 2.0.4[1] No Yes[2][3] Yes No No No Poster 2.1.1[4] No Yes[2] No No No No Notesy 2.5.3[1] No Yes[2][3] No No No No Writing Kit 3.9.2[1] No Yes[2][3] Yes No No No Drafts iPad 3.6.3[1] No Yes[2][3] Yes No No No IA Writer v2.0[1] No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Editorial 2[1] No Yes[2][3] Yes No No No Conclusion So if you need some or all of these features, have a look in the table and make your choice. I like to write in Editorial when blogging because of the workflow I added for uploading images and the ability to export to any app using URL scheme. When writing other texts I usually use IA Writer or Byword. Thankfully the apps for iOS isn’t expensive and most of them can sync via Dropbox, so switching between apps isn’t the end of the world.\nI’ll try to keep this list updated whenever an update is available.\nIncludes SmartyPants support. ↩\nDoesn’t display image caption. ↩\nMessed up when having bold text in alt-text. ↩\nThis app is no longer for sale. Wordpress has bought it. It’s still updated for those who bought it. ↩\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/ipad-multimarkdown-supported-apps/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"128\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/ipad-multimarkdown-supported-apps/images/1354510289_hu_7be709c1e503a84f.jpg\" title=\"Markdown\" width=\"208\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"ipad-and-multimarkdown-supported-apps\"\u003eiPad and MultiMarkdown Supported Apps\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"updated-20140706\"\u003eUpdated 2014–07–06\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince I originally wrote this article, much has happened. The Elements app looks like it’s been discontinued because I couldn’t find it in the AppStore, so I have removed it from the comparison table. I’ve added my new favourite iOS text editor, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/writing-with-editorial-ipad-app/\"\u003eEditorial\u003c/a\u003e which is an amazing app for configure your text workflow just the way you like it. \u003ca href=\"http://www.iawriter.com/ipad/\"\u003eIA Writer\u003c/a\u003e has added support for \u003cstrong\u003eMultiMarkdown\u003c/strong\u003e so I added it to the list as well.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MultiMarkdown - iPad Supported Apps"},{"content":"After getting my Raspberry Pi I used the one built-in on my MacBook Pro, but the SanDisk SDHC-card showed up as read-only in finder on my mac, and Disk Utility refused to format it. The write protection switch on the card was correctly set, so that made me a bit baffled. But it seems that the internal card reader on the MacBook Pro is a bit finicky.\n[\n](https://www.jackenhack.com/sd-card-readonly-macbook-pro-card-reader-solved/images/wpid-Photo-2-nov-2012-1551.jpg)\nGetting your MacBook to Make SD-Cards Writable The trick to getting the reader to see the card as writable, you need to put the write protection switch on your SDHC or SD-card in the middle because the sensor in the card reader is flaky. After doing that, the card shows up as writable. So now I have my Raspberry Pi up and running with RaspBMC, and I\u0026rsquo;m a happy dude!\nMore articles on Raspberry Pi are coming!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/sd-card-readonly-macbook-pro-card-reader-solved/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Raspberry Pi in clear case\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"641\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/sd-card-readonly-macbook-pro-card-reader-solved/images/Raspberry-pi-in-case_hu_1d6c73edbef5f72b.jpg\" srcset=\"/sd-card-readonly-macbook-pro-card-reader-solved/images/Raspberry-pi-in-case_hu_846da522682588ce.jpg 360w,/sd-card-readonly-macbook-pro-card-reader-solved/images/Raspberry-pi-in-case_hu_c4a3448e4ff01f4b.jpg 480w\" width=\"600\"\u003eAfter getting my \u003ca href=\"http://www.raspberrypi.org/\"\u003eRaspberry Pi\u003c/a\u003e I used the one built-in on my MacBook Pro, but the SanDisk SDHC-card showed up as read-only in finder on my mac, and Disk Utility refused to format it. The write protection switch on the card was correctly set, so that made me a bit baffled. But it seems that the internal card reader on the MacBook Pro is a bit finicky.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SD-Card is read-only in Mac Macbook Pro card reader - solved"},{"content":"GeoTagr To be able to tag your DSLR pictures with GPS information is both fun and practical. But to date, most DSLR cameras don’t have GPS built-in or is an expensive hardware add-on option. That includes the Wi-Fi iPad you might own. The last couple of years I’ve used a lot of different solutions to track GPS data while I’m out taking photographs. My first way was to use a Garmin GPS unit and then transfer the information to my Mac, but now, with mobile phones like iPhone and Android, there’s no reason to tug along yet another device.\nMy weapon of choice now is an app for iPhone and iPad called GeoTagr, a universal app for logging GPS tracks while you photograph, and then tag images with location data. For me, the pictures I want to tag are the RAW images that I import into Adobe Lightroom 4. And with this app, it’s straightforward to accomplish.\nTracking When your ready to go on your photo walk/assignment, just start GeoTagr. You are greeted with a screen that tells you to set the clock in your camera to the same time as your phone. This is for making it easier to match up the GPS data and pictures later. If you are abroad, there’s an option to correct time zone and time differences in Adobe Lightroom 4, so if you miss this, it’s not the end of the world.\nAfter the time is correct, all you have to do is to press the Start button. Press the power button on your phone to turn off the screen and save batteries. (making sure that the GeoTagr app is still running), put your phone in your pocket and go about your business. I guess that a shirt pocket is better when inside a city with tall buildings, but I haven’t had a reception problem keeping the phone in my front pants pocket.\nAs you can see, there is information on how long the battery will last if keeping the program running with the screen turned off. I walked around for half a day, and it hardly made a dent in the battery usage. Much better than other programs I’ve used. Very nice!\nWhen you are finished taking photos, all you have to do is to press Stop, and the tracking data is saved in a list with the name of the location, tracking points, length of the walk, date and time.\nExport I usually just export a copy to Dropbox and send an email to myself with the GPX file. The Dropbox is a handy backup, and the emailed one is the one I use. So now the data is ready to import to Adobe Lightroom 4.\nIn the next installment, I’ll show you how to tag the images inside Lightroom 4.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/geotagr-iphone-ipad-gps-dslr-geotagger/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"geotagr\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"223\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/geotagr-iphone-ipad-gps-dslr-geotagger/images/GeoTagr_logo_hu_c6c160886b2bad4c.jpg\" title=\"GeoTagr logo\" width=\"218\"\u003eGeoTagr\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo be able to tag your DSLR pictures with GPS information is both fun and practical. But to date, most DSLR cameras don’t have GPS built-in or is an expensive hardware add-on option. That includes the Wi-Fi iPad you might own. The last couple of years I’ve used a lot of different solutions to track GPS data while I’m out taking photographs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/gps-tagging-on-the-cheap/\"\u003eMy first way was to use a Garmin GPS unit and then transfer the information to my Mac\u003c/a\u003e, but now, with mobile phones like iPhone and Android, there’s no reason to tug along yet another device.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy weapon of choice now is an app for iPhone and iPad called GeoTagr, a universal app for logging GPS tracks while you photograph, and then tag images with location data. For me, the pictures I want to tag are the RAW images that I import into Adobe Lightroom 4. And with this app, it’s straightforward to accomplish.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"GeoTagr - my iPhone-iPad GPS DSLR Geotagger of choice"},{"content":"Instead of having one favorite password that you use on every account you create on the web,making it very easy for someone that gets ahold of it to wreak havoc of you life. Wouldn’t it be great if you had different, impossible to guess passwords on each site? But you only had on password to remember? Well, 1Password can help you both generate random passwords and to help you log in automatically to those sites using just one master password.\nWhy use 1Password? There’s a lot of reasons to use a program like 1Password. Not only to keep your logins to all your web accounts, but also for remembering PIN numbers for your phones, safe combinations and storing your software licenses using the build-in function for just that. It will help you create unique impossible to guess passwords for every web site account. The plug-ins for web browsers automatically fills in the password for that specific account, so you only need to remember the master password. And by only having to remember one password, you can make it longer and harder to guess. It can also store your credit card information and autofill your information when you are buying stuff on the internet. Neat stuff! And because the 1Password file is encrypted really good, you can feel confident that no neferious person gets hold of your information.\nNever forget… With the help of 1Password, you will never ever forget your passwords. You can also store other passwords, for example for servers, Wifi routers, door codes and safe combinations. It can store your credit card information and also help you fill it in when you do online shopping. You can even store all your software licenses (including your receipt PDF files) so you’ll never have to call support again to get one when you lose it.\nHow does this work? 1Password uses an encrypted file that contains all your passwords. It’s encrypted with your master password. You can then access the passwords directly from inside your preferred web browser by just using your master password. The application fills in the hard to guess password from your database automatically and you are good to go. You can change the settings so that you have to enter your master password every time you try to log in to a site, or have a time limit on how long you are able to log in to sites.\n1Password uses a very secure encryption technique, so if you loose your master password you’ll lose all your encrypted information. So make sure you hold on to it. But I don\u0026rsquo;t see that as a downside, that means that even if I lose my computer or phone, that person can\u0026rsquo;t get to my information even though they have the files.\nInstalling To install 1Password all you really need to do is to buy it at the Mac AppStore. You can buy it directly as well. But to get the full advantage of this system, I would recommend to also get the iPad/iPhone apps if you have those devices. It’s really easy to sync between your computer, iPhone and iPad so you always have all your passwords and other vital information with you, where ever you go. The application helps you install the plug-ins for your web browsers, which makes it really easy to get started.\nSyncing between Mac, iPad and iPhone Syncing is done with Dropbox or iCloud, a both very convenient cloud storage systems, but I prefer Dropbox. Read more about Dropbox here. Every time you create a new password or other entry it gets synced to the other devices, like your iPhone, iPad, Android or computer, so you can read it on them as well. No more leaving home, not remembering you PIN-code for your phone or forgetting the pin code to your bank card.\nBrowser plug-ins 1Password supports the most common web browsers and have plug-ins for them. The supported browsers are: * Chrome * Safari * Firefox * Internet Explorer\nClipboard security If you copy anything from 1Password you run the risk of someone looking at what’s in your clipboard. But 1Password automatically removes passwords. By default the clipboard is cleared after 90 seconds.\niOS Because Apple doesn’t allow browser plugins in iOS, the 1Password app for iPhone and iPad are a bit limited. You get all the information from the desktop application synced to your device, but you can’t login from Safari automatically. There is a limited browser in the application but if you want to use Safari or Chrome on your iOS device, it’s still a hassle to have to switch between 1Password, copying the password and paste into you web browser. Still, it’s great to always have all your password and important information with you wherever you go. This is something that will be a non-issue when Apple releases iOS 8, where they opened up for creating extensions for Safari.\nMultiple vaults There is support for having different Vaults. So I can have my passwords for work in a seperate vault and share it between my work Dropbox and my private one. So when I change jobs, I don\u0026rsquo;t have to worry about having my private passwords mixed up with the ones at work, so I can just hand it over to the next guy. Pretty handy.\nNegatives? So after all this, what’s the downside? Well, if you select a easy to guess master password, a perpetrator could get hold of all your sensitive information. That’s why you should choose a long and hard to guess master password. But the good thing is that you only have to remember one password, but all your accounts on the web have a different password. So if one of them gets exposed, all of your other passwords are safe.\nCracked encryption The number of bits used to do the encryption essentially determines how hard the password is to brake using brute force and a lot of computer power. As computer power increases every year, this could be a problem in the future. But 1Password uses AES 128 bits so it should last you many years before needing upgrading. You can read more about how the 1Password database is encrypted here.\nNo plugin for web browsers on iOS devices. That means you need to switch to 1Password, login and then copy the password. This is a hassle, and it’s a restriction on the developers by Apple. But still, at least you have your passwords, credit card numbers etc, are with you where ever you go. And that’s very handy.\nFor me, 1Password has become an essential part of my computing experience. So far, it’s saved my behind twice.\nHigly Recommended\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/secure-computer-passwords-web-1password/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"600\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/secure-computer-passwords-web-1password/images/1Password_icon_hu_5d7125b2f5f9836a.jpg\" srcset=\"/secure-computer-passwords-web-1password/images/1Password_icon_hu_b4305dc91956d08e.jpg 360w,/secure-computer-passwords-web-1password/images/1Password_icon_hu_a9c76377eeeb7827.jpg 480w\" title=\"1Password app icon\" width=\"600\"\u003eInstead of having one favorite password that you use on every account you create on the web,making it very easy for someone that gets ahold of it to wreak havoc of you life. Wouldn’t it be great if you had different, impossible to guess passwords on each site? But you only had on password to remember? Well, 1Password can help you both generate random passwords and to help you log in automatically to those sites using just one master password.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"1Password Secures computer passwords on the web"},{"content":" Initial installation Ubuntu Server Last time I configured my web server with Ubuntu Server, I had problems finding all the instructions on what and how to install everything needed to get a WordPress blog with W3 Total Cache, CDN, Apache2 MPM Worker and fcgi working. So this is my attempt to write down the steps needed to get the server going. You might find it of interest if your needs are similar to mine. Here\u0026rsquo;s the requirements for my WordPress blog.\nApache MPM Worker threaded version APC PHP Opcode optimizer All the required modules for W3 Total Cache Graphics libraries for Mint statistics I\u0026rsquo;m not going to describe the basic install. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of pages available to help you with that. Just remember to enable LAMP Server software during the install process.\nAfter the install, let\u0026rsquo;s first make sure everything is up to date.\napt-get update [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade[/cc]\nSet ip-number First we need to set a static IP-adress. In the terminal, edit the file /etc/network/interfaces\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo pico /etc/network/interfaces[/cc]\nThere should be a line that looks like this (depending on your ethernet port your using).\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]iface eth0 inet dhcp[/cc]\nChange it to:\n[cc]iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 192.168.1.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 gateway 192.168.1.1 [/cc]\nYou need to use the ip-numbers for your network.\nDNS Change /etc/resolv.conf to your name servers\n[cc]nameserver 8.8.8.8 nameserver 8.8.4.4 nameserver 192.168.1.1 [/cc]\nIn this case I\u0026rsquo;m using Googles DNS servers and as a fallback my routers DNS caching DNS server.\nRemove resolvconf for dhcp with [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]apt-get remove resolvconf[/cc] otherwise resolve.conf will be overwritten at every reboot.\nSSH Use SSH to login to your web server, and use SFTP to send files.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo apt-get install ssh[/cc]\nlogin ssh without password To make login via SSH easier and to make it simple to connect to the server remotely for backup, set it up so you can login without a password\nWordpress installation Because I\u0026rsquo;m not going to have multiple domains on my server there\u0026rsquo;s no need to do a multiple site setup. I just use the default location /var/www for my files. Just go to the WordPress home page and follow the instructions on how to install it in that location. After that you have to install the plugins you need. The plugins I use are:\nW3 Total Cache – for speeding up the site All in One SEO Pack – For making the pages more SEO friendly WordPress SEO Plugin – SEO optimisations and Sitemap creation BWP Google XML Sitemaps – Creates the Sitemap files for search engines CodeColorer – Beautifies code Disqus Comment System – A connected comment system with easy login Efficient Related Posts – Shows related posts that might interest the reader Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) – Shows related posts that might interest the reader Google Custom Search Plugin – I use Google Search instead of the built-in search to minimize the load on the server Minty – Adds the necessary javascript for keeping Mint statistics Permalink Redirect – I\u0026rsquo;ve changed my permalink structure so this redirects with a 301 code to the new location Robots Meta – Allows you to control meta tags and add nofollow to tags or archives SEO Friendly Images – Adds missing info in pictures SEO Slugs – Makes the URL more SEO friendly TentBlogger Optimize WordPress Database Plugin – Makes it real easy to optimize the MySQL database WP Smush.it – Makes sure to compress uploaded images optimally WPtouch – Adds a mobile theme for iPhone, iPad and Android devices install ftp Wordpress comes with an automatic update function to make it easier to do updates of WordPress and plugins. To use it, I install FTP on the machine. But remember, don\u0026rsquo;t have the FTP ports open directly, only use it if you have your machine behind a firewall. FTP is not secure, so it\u0026rsquo;s much better to use sftp for uploading and editing files.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo apt-get install vsftpd [/cc]\nEdit /etc/vsftpd.conf\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]local_enable=YES write_enable=YES [/cc]\nChange anonymous_enable=YES to NO\nI had problems after installing vsftpd refusing to let local users login. Apparently it\u0026rsquo;s a bug. Here\u0026rsquo;s a fix:\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo apt-get remove vsftpd sudo rm /etc/pam.d/vsftpd sudo apt-get install vsftpd [/cc]\nAfter doing that, everything worked fine.\nApache2 mpm worker I\u0026rsquo;m using the faster threaded version of Apache, called Apache2 mpm worker.\nFaster threaded apache2 [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo apt-get install apache2-mpm-worker libapache2-mod-fcgid[/cc]\nEnable fcgid\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo a2enmod fcgid sudo aptitude install php5-cgi php5-cli [/cc]\nAdd the following to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf or place these basic configuration settings in a file under /etc/apache2/conf.d. For example, /etc/apache2/conf.d/00-myconf (\u0026ldquo;00-\u0026rdquo; will help insure it is read first before other /etc/apache2/conf.d files, which is necessary).\nCode: [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;apache\u0026rdquo;]\nAddHandler fcgid-script .php FCGIWrapper /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5 .php Options +ExecCGI\nAddHandler fcgid-script .php FCGIWrapper /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5 .php Options ExecCGI FollowSymlinks Indexes\n[/cc]\nApache mods WordPress and W3 Total Cache needs some Apache modules, so let\u0026rsquo;s enable them.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2enmod expires sudo a2enmod headers [/cc]\nrequired for wordpress with W3 total cache cURL required for Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront, Rackspace CloudFiles support.[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo apt-get install curl php5-curl [/cc]\nHTML Tidy for minify To be able to use the minify function of W3 Total Cache you need to install php5-tidy.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;] sudo apt-get install php5-tidy [/cc]\nGD graphics library for spark lines in mint I use Google Analytics for my statistics, but I also have Mint, because it\u0026rsquo;s quick to get a glance of the incoming traffic. But to get the Sparks Pepper to work you need to install the GD library.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo apt-get install libgd2-xpm sudo apt-get install php5-gd [/cc]\nOpcode cache Alternative PHP Cache is a free, open source (PHP license) framework that optimizes PHP intermediate code and caches data and compiled code from the PHP bytecode compiler in shared memory.\nUsing this will speed up the execution time of PHP code.\nAPC http://pecl.php.net/package/APC\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]apt-get install php-apc[/cc]\nMySQL and blog backup In the next installment I\u0026rsquo;ll walk you through how to setup an external backup of your WordPress blog.\nStay tuned.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/ubuntu-server-wordpress-w3-total-cache-install/","summary":"\u003ch2\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"1632\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/ubuntu-server-wordpress-w3-total-cache-install/images/servers_hu_8614b27c571c8cb3.jpg\" srcset=\"/ubuntu-server-wordpress-w3-total-cache-install/images/servers_hu_d54f9189a649df5b.jpg 360w,/ubuntu-server-wordpress-w3-total-cache-install/images/servers_hu_f830d9da07d2a5ff.jpg 480w,/ubuntu-server-wordpress-w3-total-cache-install/images/servers_hu_286eb1d4e33becb0.jpg 720w,/ubuntu-server-wordpress-w3-total-cache-install/images/servers_hu_6c22a44cfcb8e09a.jpg 1080w\" title=\"servers\" width=\"1224\"\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"initial-installation-ubuntu-server\"\u003eInitial installation Ubuntu Server\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast time I configured my web server with Ubuntu Server, I had problems finding all the instructions on what and how to install everything needed to get a WordPress blog with W3 Total Cache, CDN, Apache2 MPM Worker and fcgi working. So this is my attempt to write down the steps needed to get the server going. You might find it of interest if your needs are similar to mine. Here\u0026rsquo;s the requirements for my WordPress blog.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eApache MPM Worker threaded version\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAPC PHP Opcode optimizer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll the required modules for W3 Total Cache\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGraphics libraries for \u003ca href=\"http://haveamint.com/\"\u003eMint\u003c/a\u003e statistics\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Ubuntu Server WordPress with W3 Total Cache install"},{"content":"\nWhen setting up my new web server I had a problem when installing vsftpd on Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS. After doing the sudo apt-get install vsftpd and enabling login for local users, I got a “Server 530 login incorrect error” when trying to connect with a local user. The settings for disabling anonymous login and allowing local users where set in /etc/vsftpd.conf. [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES write_enable=YES[/cc] But the ftp server still refused to let me login with any of the users on the system. I tried remove and reinstall, but the problem persisted. Finally I found a thread where others had the same problem. And here’s how to fix the problem. [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;] sudo apt-get remove vsftpd sudo rm /etc/pam.d/vsftpd sudo apt-get install vsftpd [/cc]\nThis fixed the problem for me. The only reason for me to have an ftp server on my machine is to do automatic updates of WordPress. The machine is behind a firewall so port 21 is not open to the world. For file upload I use sftp.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/vsftpd-ubuntu-server-530-login-incorrect-error-fixed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Ubuntu Server Logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"140\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/vsftpd-ubuntu-server-530-login-incorrect-error-fixed/images/ubuntu-server-logo_hu_44715296c14d98f1.png\" width=\"140\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen setting up my new web server I had a problem when installing \u003ca href=\"https://security.appspot.com/vsftpd.html\"\u003evsftpd\u003c/a\u003e on \u003ca href=\"http://www.ubuntu.com/business/server/overview\"\u003eUbuntu Server 12.04 LTS\u003c/a\u003e. After doing the \u003cstrong\u003esudo apt-get install vsftpd\u003c/strong\u003e and enabling login for local users, I got a “Server 530 login incorrect error” when trying to connect with a local user. The settings for disabling anonymous login and allowing local users where set in /etc/vsftpd.conf. [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES write_enable=YES[/cc] But the ftp server still refused to let me login with any of the users on the system. I tried remove and reinstall, but the problem persisted. \u003ca href=\"https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vsftpd/+bug/869684\"\u003eFinally I found a thread where others had the same problem\u003c/a\u003e. And here’s how to fix the problem. [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;] sudo apt-get remove vsftpd sudo rm /etc/pam.d/vsftpd sudo apt-get install vsftpd [/cc]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"vsftpd on Ubuntu server 530 login incorrect error - fixed"},{"content":"SSD My old web server built on old spare parts had a hard disk crash a month ago. So I had to put it up on my BlueHost account while waiting to get hold of a new disk. I decided to try out a SSD disk, so I got hold of a 60gb IBM SSD disk. Without any optimizations, it can now handle double the traffic! I’ll continue to optimize tomorrow to get the most out of it. I’m doing an article on how to set up a LAMP server on Ubuntu Linux for WordPress with all the stuff needed to get W3 Total Cache, APC and other stuff working, because I can’t find a good article that describes everything. I will start writing on it tomorrow.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/web-server-with-ssd-disk/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"ssd\"\u003eSSD\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy old web server built on old spare parts had a hard disk crash a month ago. So I had to put it up on my BlueHost account while waiting to get hold of a new disk. I decided to try out a SSD disk, so I got hold of a 60gb IBM SSD disk. Without any optimizations, it can now handle double the traffic! I’ll continue to optimize tomorrow to get the most out of it. I’m doing an article on how to set up a LAMP server on Ubuntu Linux for WordPress with all the stuff needed to get W3 Total Cache, APC and other stuff working, because I can’t find a good article that describes everything. I will start writing on it tomorrow.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Web server with SSD disk"},{"content":"Safari Browser Safari, the standard web browser that\u0026rsquo;s included with Mac OS X is fast, stable and has some great features. But there are some ways of improving it to make you\u0026rsquo;re browsing experience even faster, more secure and pleasurable. Here\u0026rsquo;s a walkthrough of my favorite extensions for Safari.\nClickToFlash Let\u0026rsquo;s face it, most of the time when Safari crashes, it\u0026rsquo;s actually the Adobe Flash plug-in that brings the application down. Just ask Apple, they get the crash logs. Apple has tried to remedy this with later 64-bit versions of Safari, so when the Flash plug-in hangs, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t bring down Safari, it just refuses to load the page. Thanks to the iPhone and iPad (and people getting annoyed of the use of Flash on web pages), Flash is getting out of fashion in a hurry and many of its uses are being replaced with HTML5. But until every flash ad or page disappears completely, we have to live with it. Or do we? There\u0026rsquo;s a great extension for Safari called ClickToFlash. Instead of loading the Flash plug-in for the page that contain Flash, it just puts up a grey square with the word \u0026ldquo;Flash\u0026rdquo; in it. If you want to see the Flash content, just click on it. Now that specific Flash content is loaded. This will speed up page loading and rendering a lot when viewing pages full of Flash ads. It also reduces CPU use (the Adobe Flash plug-in is a resource hog). The battery life will increase if your on a laptop, and also let you surf without an annoying fan running all the time. And it also cuts down on the annoyance factor of busy pages full of ads. You can add sites that are allowed to display Flash content in the settings for the extension. Another nice benefit? No more Safari crashes.\nClickToPlugin This is an alternative to ClickToFlash that stops the loading of any content that requires a plug-in on a page. It can also replace media player plug-ins with Safaris native HTML5 player instead.\nFree\nAdBlock If you don\u0026rsquo;t want to see ads on the web pages you surf to, there\u0026rsquo;s a solution. The AdBlock plug-in removes all ads all together and is very good at it. You can disable the ad removal for specific sites in the settings. It\u0026rsquo;s a fantastic plug-in. Sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s actually nice to see ads, especially on sites about an interesting topic where the ads may be of interest. You can whitelist sites so that the ads are shown.\nFree.\nYouTube5 The standard video player on sites like YouTube and Vimeo are Flash based. As you have seen above, the less use of Flash, the better. There is support for HTML5 players on almost every video site today, and are used when devices (or computers) doesn\u0026rsquo;t have support for Flash. This extension replaces the Flash Video player with a HTML5 based player instead. This player uses less CPU and gets all the benefits of bypassing Flash and also removes the in-video ads as well. You can set your preferred resolution when playing back video in the extensions settings.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s some of the features:\nA custom designed HTML5 player to replace the usable, but very limited built-in player. Support for Vimeo and Facebook video. The ability to switch video resolutions within the player, without having to access Safari’s preferences. Support for downloading videos from YouTube and Facebook. A fully functional volume control, rather than just a mute button. Support for displaying the video’s title, author, and source, in a video overlay, along with a link back to the video’s page on YouTube, Vimeo, etc. If there is a problem with displaying the video, there\u0026rsquo;s a button so you can switch to the original video player if you like.\nFree\nGhostery This is an extension that tracks the trackers. When you go to a web site, most of your online habits are tracked by a lot of companies that then use or sell that information. With this extension you can see who\u0026rsquo;s tracking you, get information on that company and their policies. But the great thing is that you can block them from snooping on you. I\u0026rsquo;ve disabled all the trackers except Google Analytics, because it\u0026rsquo;s nice for those who run the web site to get some statistics. I\u0026rsquo;ve been using it for over a year and the only site I had problem with was my bank. But you can put sites on an exclusion list which solved that problem.\nFree\nResult? After installing all these Safari extensions, your browsing should now be both faster and makes Safari almost crash proof. Not bad for a couple of minutes of work.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/safari-browser-speedup-crash-proof-extensions/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"safari-application-iconsafari-browser\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Safari Application Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/safari-browser-speedup-crash-proof-extensions/images/safari-browser-compass_hu_2ac04f3114ea197c.jpg\" srcset=\"/safari-browser-speedup-crash-proof-extensions/images/safari-browser-compass_hu_26efa7b1f0f41299.jpg 360w,/safari-browser-speedup-crash-proof-extensions/images/safari-browser-compass_hu_c42ecd4bfd297ab0.jpg 480w,/safari-browser-speedup-crash-proof-extensions/images/safari-browser-compass_hu_1b5017325b1056eb.jpg 720w\" width=\"1024\"\u003eSafari Browser\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSafari, the standard web browser that\u0026rsquo;s included with Mac OS X is fast, stable and has some great features. But there are some ways of improving it to make you\u0026rsquo;re browsing experience even faster, more secure and pleasurable. Here\u0026rsquo;s a walkthrough of my favorite extensions for Safari.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e","title":"Make Safari browser Faster, More Secure and Crash proof"},{"content":"Choosing an excellent keyboard for your Mac Let\u0026rsquo;s face it, Apple produces some great products, but there are two things the past years that they aren\u0026rsquo;t that good at. They can\u0026rsquo;t make usable mouses, and the keyboard is less than stellar. The laptop keyboards are ok as far as laptop keyboards go, but after you\u0026rsquo;ve tried a \u0026ldquo;REAL\u0026rdquo; keyboard, you will become a keyboard snob. Thankfully Apple stopped using proprietary connectors many years back, so you can buy any mouse for PC and use that instead. Even USB keyboards made for PC works after changing a setting, by switching the alt-command keys. But you won\u0026rsquo;t get all the unique keys for controlling iTunes, volume and other settings. The funny thing is, that if you want to find a good keyboard, you see the most extensive selection of keyboards with good, tactile and clicky response among all the PC gamer keyboards. Most of them look horrible though.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been working with computers since 1979 and here\u0026rsquo;s my list of the best keyboards ever produced. And I\u0026rsquo;ll try to give some tips on getting your hands on a tremendous clicky keyboard.\nModel M keyboard I always preferred Macintosh over a PC. But back in 1982 when the first IBM PC came, there was one thing I was impressed with, and that was the keyboard called Model M. The used a technique called buckling spring. They were sturdily built, made a lot of noise, but by god you could write fast on those things! Lexmark sold the manufacturing equipment to some of their employees who started Unicomp who still produces the keyboard. They are pretty expensive but virtually unbreakable. Now you can get modern USB versions and models made explicitly for Linux and Mac computers.\nUnicomp Classic Keyboard Here you can get a modern version of the classic mechanical Buckling Spring keyboard. They have a lot of different models to choose from. There are various keyboard layouts and models. A fantastical keyboard.\nApple Extended Keyboard The best keyboard from Apple that comes close to the feel and speed of the IBM Model M was Apple Extended Keyboard. They had Alps keys and had a great feel to them. They were only produced for three years when the Macintosh II was introduced. I had a bunch of them that I threw away, something I regret now. There are converters from Apples Proprietary ADB connectors to USB available. So you can still use them on a modern computer.\nDas Keyboard Model S Professional For Mac The Das Keyboard is expensive and markets itself to be comparable to the Model M in the way it feels. But they don\u0026rsquo;t use the Buckling spring keys (which Unicomp owns the patent for.) So they use keys from a manufacturer called Cherrycorp. The Cherry MX keys are high quality, that\u0026rsquo;s available in four different versions. Black, Blue, Red, and Brown. The keys are rated for 50 million presses, so they should last a long time. I\u0026rsquo;ll give you the lowdown on the difference later on. Many keyboards that are marketed as gaming keyboards use Cherrycorp MX keys. For gamers, tactile feel is essential, but also the number of keys that can be pressed at the same time. Something that could help a fast typist to get better speed when writing. There\u0026rsquo;s a very comprehensive article describing the difference between the Cherry Keys that you can read here. The one to go for as a writer is Cherry MX Blue, a tactile \u0026amp; clicky switch.\nTactilePro Here\u0026rsquo;s a copy of the old Apple extended keyboard, upgraded with USB hub with three USB 2.0 connectors. Look nice, especially the white version. There is a US, U.K., German and Japanese version. No luck with a Swedish version, but I could live with the US one. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to find any resellers and give it a go.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the sales pitch from the maker of the keyboard, Matias.\n“The best keyboard Apple ever made” rises again. The Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard is built from the same premium keyswitch technology that Apple used in its original Apple Extended Keyboard, widely viewed as the best keyboard Apple ever made.\nLegendary Feel \u0026amp; Speed of Alps mechanical keyswitches. Mac users who crave the feel of Apple\u0026rsquo;s legendary Extended and Extended II keyboards will love the Tactile Pro. Unlike other keyboards made today, each key is built on an individual Alps Mechanical Switch. They feel better, and you\u0026rsquo;ll type faster.\nNoise The main drawback when it comes to this type of keyboard is the noise. They make a lot of racket. Forget typing in the same room as someone trying to sleep. Or even easily irritated co-workers. But the feeling of these keys is second to none.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to order a Unicomp keyboard, but meanwhile, I settled for a gaming keyboard called Razor Blackwidow, which was the least ugly one I could find with Cherry MX Blue. Update: I\u0026rsquo;ve ordered a new keyboard, because I didn\u0026rsquo;t like the key arrangement on the Razor Blackwidow. So I gave it to my game crazy son, who love it. I\u0026rsquo;m about to get a shipment of a new Cherry MX Blue-based keyboard tomorrow.\nUnicomp doesn\u0026rsquo;t make a Mac-compatible keyboard with Swedish keyboard layout, so I\u0026rsquo;ll have to settle for a US model when I eventually get one.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-keyboards-clicky-real-typists/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"choosing-an-excellent-keyboard-for-your-mac\"\u003eChoosing an excellent keyboard for your Mac\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet\u0026rsquo;s face it, Apple produces some great products, but there are two things the past years that they aren\u0026rsquo;t that good at. They can\u0026rsquo;t make usable mouses, and the keyboard is less than stellar. The laptop keyboards are ok as far as laptop keyboards go, but after you\u0026rsquo;ve tried a \u0026ldquo;REAL\u0026rdquo; keyboard, you will become a keyboard snob. Thankfully Apple stopped using proprietary connectors many years back, so you can buy any mouse for PC and use that instead. Even USB keyboards made for PC works after changing a setting, by switching the alt-command keys. But you won\u0026rsquo;t get all the unique keys for controlling iTunes, volume and other settings. The funny thing is, that if you want to find a good keyboard, you see the most extensive selection of keyboards with good, tactile and clicky response among all the PC gamer keyboards. Most of them look horrible though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been working with computers since 1979 and here\u0026rsquo;s my list of the best keyboards ever produced. And I\u0026rsquo;ll try to give some tips on getting your hands on a tremendous clicky keyboard.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tactile Mac Clicky Keyboards for Typists"},{"content":"\nSSD drive and extra disk for more speed, instead of DVD drive in MacBook Pro Changing out your hard disk in your MacBook Pro to an SSD disk is a great way of increase the speed of your machine. And I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about a little faster, where talking about the feeling of getting a new machine. But a SSD is still expensive and are limited when it comes to storage size. So it\u0026rsquo;s not going to be able to replace your big standard disk. The solution is simple. Replace your internal disk with a SSD disk, then remove your DVD drive and install a large 2.5\u0026quot; disk for your bigger files. Replace your DVD? Yes, do you use it anymore? I\u0026rsquo;m not. You need a special bracket to be able to install the extra disk, so you have to buy it. But many installation kits for replacing the DVD player also includes an external USB case to install the DVD into, so you still have access to one if you need. I bought my installation kit from Ebay for next to nothing, but didn\u0026rsquo;t include the case. As I said, I\u0026rsquo;m a modern Mac user and don\u0026rsquo;t use DVD. Hint, hint.\nHere you can find an installation kit with the external DVD case.\nMake sure you backup all your files from your old disk to another one so we can copy it later on. Do this before installing the SSD and extra disk!\nSystem installation After installing the SSD disk and the extra disk in the machine, do a normal install. If you buy the kit mentioned before, just plug in the external DVD and do a normal install. Another option is to install the system from a USB stick.\nEnable TRIM TRIM is a way of keeping the SSD optimized, or as Wikipedia describes it:\nTRIM enables the SSD to handle garbage collection overhead, that would otherwise significantly slow down future write operations to the involved blocks, in advance.\nApple introduced TRIM support in 10.6, but only for machines with the SSD disk installed from factory. So there’s no way of installing a third party SSD disk. Well, there’s actually a hack to fool the OS to think it’s an Apple installed disk. It’s a bit hacky, but could be worth it, especially when the disk starts to get full. But make sure the SSD disk supports TRIM! Otherwise you could get into trouble. Here’s a link to a program for enabling TRIM support in OS X.\nChanging Hibernation Mode When you run your MacBook until the battery drains out completely, the machine saves the current state of the machine, making it possible to resume when the AC adapter is connected again. The downside of this is that the system has to write the entire memory of your machine onto your spanking new SSD Disk. Because the prices of the disk is still high, there\u0026rsquo;s a way to not save the entire memory to disk, freeing up more space on the disk. The downside of this is that you loose all the open documents that you haven\u0026rsquo;t saved if the battery drains completely. But you get ample warning before the battery goes out, so for me, the extra space is more important. To disable the Hibernation Mode you enter the following command in the Terminal application.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0[/cc] This means that when the machine goes to sleep, everything is saved in RAM. This is the default behavior on a stationary machine. You can replace the \u0026ldquo;0\u0026rdquo; with \u0026ldquo;1\u0026rdquo; for suspending to disk only, or \u0026ldquo;3\u0026rdquo; to suspend to disk and RAM, the default setting for portable machines.\nSSD disk for System and Applications I have the Mac OS X system, fonts, and all my applications installed on the SSD disk. But i put larger files, like iPhoto library, Lightroom pictures, iTunes music, Final Cut Pro files and caches for them on the larger extra drive. So while you don\u0026rsquo;t use any of these programs, the extra drive goes down in sleep mode and the machine is totally silent; a godsend when writing at night, or just surfing the web. Some programs can wake up the extra drive for no apparent reason, but you can read my article on how to find software that keeps the disk from going to sleep. Another great benefit is better battery life. I have set the the sleep time to 1 minute, but you can set it for longer if you like. The extra disk starts up so fast, so there\u0026rsquo;s no need to have it spinning unnecessary. To set the number of minutes before sleep, start the Terminal application found in Applications/Utilities [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;] pmset -a disksleep 1[/cc] Enter your password.\nYou can change the 1 to whichever number of minutes you want. the -a sets the number of minutes for all power modes. If you only want to change when on battery power, use -b, and use -c when on wall power.\nnoatime Setting up so that the operating system doesn\u0026rsquo;t update when a file was last accessed, which will wear on your SSD disk, you need to do the following:\nCreate a file called com.jacken.noatime.plist at /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and copy the following text into it. Save and reboot.\n[cc lang=\u0026ldquo;xml\u0026rdquo;] \u0026lt; ?xml version=\u0026ldquo;1.0\u0026rdquo; encoding=\u0026ldquo;UTF-8\u0026rdquo;?\u0026gt; \u0026lt; !DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC \u0026ldquo;-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd\u0026quot;\u0026gt; Label com.my.noatime ProgramArguments mount -vuwo noatime / RunAtLoad [/cc]\nLinks But how do you set up links so you don\u0026rsquo;t have to store the large files on your smaller SSD disk? So let\u0026rsquo;s go through how to move the large files and link it up.\niPhoto First of all create a folder on your external disk. I created a folder called Pictures. Then copy your entire iPhoto Library file from your backup to the folder on your big extra disk. To redirect iPhoto to use the iPhoto library on the external disk, you need to tell it where it is. Make sure that iPhoto isn\u0026rsquo;t running, start iPhoto while holding down the option key. You now get a dialog box, where you can choose which library file to use. Select the iPhoto Library on you extra disk.\nAdobe Lightroom To put the images for Adobe Lightroom is obviously going to be the extra disk. But there is a debate over the speed increase of putting the cache files on the faster SSD disk.\nThe normal recommendation is to place the application, Camera Raw cache, catalog and previews on the SSD and photos on the conventional disk drive; yet this configuration is only marginally faster than putting everything on a conventional disk drive. We can also see that the SSD helped reduce preview rendering times when the photos where located on the SSD. Clearly, storing photo files on the SSD isn’t a realistic proposition when typical storage capacities are factored in, but it’s worth keeping in mind for the day when larger less expensive SSDs become available.\nSo let\u0026rsquo;s stick with having the application on the SSD disk, and put caches, images and temporary rendered files on the extra hard disk.\nCopy your folder containing your Lightroom Catalogs, including all files connected to the catalog, including the Lightroom Settings folder to your extra disk from your backup.\nUnder the Lightroom Settings File Handling you\u0026rsquo;ll find this dialog box: Press \u0026ldquo;Choose\u0026rdquo; and create a new folder on your extra disk (I called mine /Caches/Lightroom Caches). To speed up the program, increase the Maximum Size settings from the standard one. You can experiment between 10GB-20GB.\niTunes If you have a lot of music in your iTunes library (mine is almost 60GB!) it\u0026rsquo;s best to move it to the extra disk. You\u0026rsquo;ll find the iTunes Library in the Music folder in your Home folder on your backup disk. Copy it to a folder on your extra disk. To tell iTunes which library to use, start iTunes while holding down the option-button. Select your library on the extra disk and your all done!\nTimeMachine extra feature Something I found out when doing a TimeMachine backup was that it also did a backup of the extra disk and not just the SSD system disk. Maybe this differs from machine to machine so it\u0026rsquo;s a good idea to check. But it\u0026rsquo;s a great little extra bonus.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/speed-macbook-pro-ssd-disk/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/6345916908/\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"331\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/speed-macbook-pro-ssd-disk/images/ssd-disk_hu_173a7e4e06c00f0b.jpg\" srcset=\"/speed-macbook-pro-ssd-disk/images/ssd-disk_hu_ebb87b02592e4d71.jpg 360w,/speed-macbook-pro-ssd-disk/images/ssd-disk_hu_acbf40ddc8b8ca07.jpg 480w\" title=\"ssd-disk\" width=\"530\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"ssd-drive-and-extra-disk-for-more-speed-instead-of-dvd-drive-in-macbook-pro\"\u003eSSD drive and extra disk for more speed, instead of DVD drive in MacBook Pro\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChanging out your hard disk in your MacBook Pro to an SSD disk is a great way of increase the speed of your machine. And I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about a little faster, where talking about the feeling of getting a new machine. But a SSD is still expensive and are limited when it comes to storage size. So it\u0026rsquo;s not going to be able to replace your big standard disk. The solution is simple. Replace your internal disk with a SSD disk, then remove your DVD drive and install a large 2.5\u0026quot; disk for your bigger files. Replace your DVD? Yes, do you use it anymore? I\u0026rsquo;m not. You need a special bracket to be able to install the extra disk, so you have to buy it. But many installation kits for replacing the DVD player also includes an external USB case to install the DVD into, so you still have access to one if you need. I bought my installation kit from Ebay for next to nothing, but didn\u0026rsquo;t include the case. As I said, I\u0026rsquo;m a modern Mac user and don\u0026rsquo;t use DVD. Hint, hint.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Speed up MacBook Pro by installing a SSD disk"},{"content":"When changing permalinks in Wordpress from an old format to a new, you risk losing Google page rank.\nOn my blog, I’ve had my permalink set to /archives/year/month/day/name-of-article. Looking at my web server log, very few used the archives sidebar, so I removed it. To make the link shorter I needed to remove everything except the article name. But when changing the permalink, all the incoming links will get a 404 error from all old connections, and the search result from Google, lowering your Google ranking. Not good.\nSo what we need to do is to redirect all the old links to the new shorter one. But we need to do it with a code 301 which tells search engines that the current connection is permanent, thus keeping the page rank.\nYou could solve it by adding commands in the .htaccess file, but this is a pain in the **s! So I tried to find a plugin that would do this automatically. Unfortunately, There are a lot of plugins, some giving the code 302, which means that the redirect is temporary which is something we don’t want. Others didn’t work at all or had stopped being updated by the author. But I finally found a plugin that worked.\nThe name of the WordPress plugin is Permanent Redirect. It’s easy to install, and after installing, all you have to do is to enter the old permalink and change the setting to the new one you want.\nAfter looking at the Apache log, I could see that all the pages with the old URL got a 301 error code and then loaded the new one. Success! Trying to keep the number of plugins to a minimum in WordPress is an excellent way of speeding up your site, but I did not notice any speed degradation after installing.\nHopefully, this will help you to find a plugin that works, and that is easy to install.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/changing-permalinks-in-wordpress-without-losing-google-rank/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Wordpress Logo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1155\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/changing-permalinks-in-wordpress-without-losing-google-rank/images/wordpress-logo_hu_6f84b6b75d2c8422.png\" srcset=\"/changing-permalinks-in-wordpress-without-losing-google-rank/images/wordpress-logo_hu_8a6ed12b44be25ef.png 360w,/changing-permalinks-in-wordpress-without-losing-google-rank/images/wordpress-logo_hu_c8ea745f7bb4db08.png 480w,/changing-permalinks-in-wordpress-without-losing-google-rank/images/wordpress-logo_hu_bd03404e5716f235.png 720w,/changing-permalinks-in-wordpress-without-losing-google-rank/images/wordpress-logo_hu_91681e395f807e8e.png 1080w\" width=\"1160\"\u003eWhen changing permalinks in Wordpress from an old format to a new, you risk losing Google page rank.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn my blog, I’ve had my permalink set to /archives/year/month/day/name-of-article. Looking at my web server log, very few used the archives sidebar, so I removed it. To make the link shorter I needed to remove everything except the article name. But when changing the permalink, all the incoming links will get a 404 error from all old connections, and the search result from \u003cstrong\u003eGoogle\u003c/strong\u003e, lowering your \u003cstrong\u003eGoogle\u003c/strong\u003e ranking. Not good.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"permalinks in Wordpress - changing without losing Google rank"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026quot;\u0026quot; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;448\u0026rdquo;] Image by DigaoSPBR[/caption]\nMy internal hard disk would continuously spin on my MacBook Pro and never goes to sleep. I replaced my internal drive on my MacBook Pro with an SSD disk, which made a massive difference in speed. At the same time, I removed the DVD unit and installed a new 500gb drive instead. The extra disk went to sleep when not in use, but then started within a couple of minutes or less. Here’s what I did to fix that problem.\nFinding out the culprit First of all, I needed to change the time before the disk went to sleep. I set the value before sleep to one minute, so I don’t have to wait long between tests. [cc lang=“bash”]sudo pmset -a disksleep 1[/cc] The command will set the time for sleep to one minute when using an AC adapter. Replace -a with -b for changing the setting when on battery power.\nTo find the applications that were accessing the volume, I opened the terminal application and started to observe the output of the following terminal command. To narrow the output, I used grep to just show events and access to the extra disk. Otherwise, you\u0026rsquo;re going to get a LOT of additional output.\n[cc lang=“bash”]ls /Volumes/[/cc]\nThe command will show you the name of your connected volumes. If the volume name contains spaces, you need to add \\ before every space character. For example, let’s say the volume name is Macintosh HD, you need to use\n[cc lang=“bash”]Macintosh\\ HD[/cc]\nReplace name_of_volume with the name of your disk.\n[cc lang=bash\u0026quot;]sudo fs_usage | grep name_of_volume[/cc]\nEnter your login password. When the disk wakes up, press ctrl-c to stop. The text can scroll pretty fast. Look at the right column for stuff that might have activated the disk.\nThe first thing I noticed was that fseventsd was logging information to the external disk. To deactivate the logging, just enter the following:\n[cc lang=“bash”]cd /Volumes/name_of_disk\nsudo touch .fseventsd/no_log[/cc]\nInterfering software I continued to look for applications or processes that accessed my disk, and one of them was iStat Menu. I checked the settings for iStat Menu, and the disk info part was disabled, but it still accessed the disk. So I had to disable it. I love iStat Menu, so that felt a bit sad, but until they fix this, it will be turned off.\nUpdate: Thanks to one of my readers Hextor for finding this. There’s a way to get iStat Menu without the disk continually waking from sleep. Disable the S.M.A.R.T check of the drive.\nI have a lot of links for stuff like the download folder, Final Cut Pro settings, buffers for applications and all my photos on the extra disk so naturally, the additional disc will start when using applications using these files. But now when I surf the web or write, I no longer have to listen to the sound of the disk. Blissful silence.\nIf you don’t need to do Spotlight searches on that disk, you can add the drive to the ignore list in the Spotlight settings under System Settings. Or disable Spotlight altogether.\nDisable Spotlight On my machine, I’ve disabled Spotlight altogether. Found this post with details on how to do it.\nEnter\n[cc lang=“bash”]sudo mdutil -a -i off[/cc]\nTo enable it, use the same command, but replace “off” with “on” instead.\nDisable Time Machine Local Backups When OS X can’t connect to your Time Machine backup server, the operating system does local backups. That would sometimes start up the disk. After reading this description on how to disable local backups on my machine, the disk never wakes up if I’m not directly accessing it. But if you\u0026rsquo;re not connected to a backup device for Time Machine, there’s a risk of losing information if something goes wrong, so read the linked article before proceeding.\nYou can now change the time before the disk goes to sleep. My 7200rpm disk starts very quickly, so I kept mine on a couple of minutes. Added benefit? Much better battery life!\nI hope this helps you if you have the same problem.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/disk-that-refuses-to-sleep-in-mac-os-x-how-to-fix-it/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026quot;\u0026quot; align=\u0026ldquo;alignright\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;448\u0026rdquo;]\u003cimg alt=\"Picture of a hard disk\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"332\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/disk-that-refuses-to-sleep-in-mac-os-x-how-to-fix-it/images/hard_disk_hu_2ce9b528f65c6a26.jpg\" width=\"448\"\u003e Image by \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/digaospbr/297551592/\"\u003eDigaoSPBR\u003c/a\u003e[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy internal hard disk would continuously spin on my MacBook Pro and never goes to sleep. I replaced my internal drive on my \u003cstrong\u003eMacBook Pro\u003c/strong\u003e with an SSD disk, which made a massive difference in speed. At the same time, I removed the DVD unit and installed a new 500gb drive instead. The extra disk went to sleep when not in use, but then started within a couple of minutes or less. Here’s what I did to fix that problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Disk never sleeps in Mac OS X - how to fix it - updated"},{"content":" Geotag DSLR images using an iPhone and a Mac One of the nice things about modern camera phones and even some regular cameras uses GPS to tag photos and embed the coordinates in the pictures EXIF data. But wouldn’t it be great if you could do that with your fancy DSLR camera photos as well? Programs like iPhoto, Aperture and Adobe Lightroom 4 can show you your pictures on a map. Many online photo sites like Flickr also uses the GPS data in the pictures to display them on a map.\nUse your iPhone to geotag pictures There’s an easy way of adding the GPS coordinates to your RAW or jpg images using your iPhone as a GPS logger. To get it to work correctly, make sure that the clock on your digital camera is the same as your iPhone. This will help when adding the coordinates later. There are some free alternative apps for iPhone like Gps Stone GPX, but I’m using an app called GeoTagr for logging when I walk around taking pictures. All you have to do is to sync the clock in your camera with your phone. This is made easy by a reminder from GeoTagr on the first screen. Press start to start recording. Turn off the display and put it in your pocket. Just have the app running while you photograph. After you are finished, press stop and use the share function in GeoTagr to send the track data by email or to Dropbox to your Mac. Adobe Lightroom 4 now has support for directly importing .GPX-files, so if you are using that program it\u0026rsquo;s much easier. But if your image handling software doesn\u0026rsquo;t have support for tagging images you can still embed the GPS information in you images. Download your images to your computer. I usually use Image Capture, a very underrated program, and download the images to a folder on the desktop. Start up GPSPhotoLinker, a free program for Macintosh. Import your .gpx track data and photos and use the automatic batch function in the program to save the GPS data into the image. Now you are ready to import your images to your favorite image handling program like iPhoto, Aperture or other image handling software. So now when you upload pictures to Flickr, the GPS location is embedded in the image.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/geotag-your-dslr-images-using-your-iphone-gps-and-a-mac/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"map-from-iphone-showing-geotagged-images-from-dslr-images\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Map from iPhone showing geotagged images from DSLR images\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"369\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/geotag-your-dslr-images-using-your-iphone-gps-and-a-mac/images/gps_map-e1328826604107_hu_d743a47572397841.jpg\" srcset=\"/geotag-your-dslr-images-using-your-iphone-gps-and-a-mac/images/gps_map-e1328826604107_hu_ba0c34e34314549c.jpg 360w,/geotag-your-dslr-images-using-your-iphone-gps-and-a-mac/images/gps_map-e1328826604107_hu_d56ac6c5acf03fc8.jpg 480w\" width=\"548\"\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"geotag-dslr-images-using-an-iphone-and-a-mac\"\u003eGeotag DSLR images using an iPhone and a Mac\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the nice things about modern camera phones and even some regular cameras uses GPS to tag photos and embed the coordinates in the pictures EXIF data. But wouldn’t it be great if you could do that with your fancy DSLR camera photos as well? Programs like iPhoto, Aperture and Adobe Lightroom 4 can show you your pictures on a map. Many online photo sites like Flickr also uses the GPS data in the pictures to display them on a map.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Geotag your DSLR images using your iPhone GPS and a Mac"},{"content":"\nAsus PA246Q ProArt Professional monitor – Made for photographers As a photographer you need to be able to really get the most out of your images, you need a color accurate monitor. You usually have to pay a lot of money to get a good monitor that\u0026rsquo;s factory calibrated and uses a IPS panel, a panel type that is better at showing correct colors than the more common (and cheaper) TN panels. But there are some reasonably priced monitors. One of them is the Asus PA246Q ProArt monitor. It\u0026rsquo;s factory calibrated and even ships with a printout of the calibration result from the factory. You can set the monitor to sRGB or Adobe RGB 1998 color space directly on the front controls of the monitor. It\u0026rsquo;s also has fairly high resolution with 24\u0026quot; size 1920x1200 pixels.\nAfter using my Spyder Color calibrator there wasn\u0026rsquo;t that much of a difference between the built-in calibration and the Spyder created one, but calibrating the monitor is always a good thing to do.\nThe monitor is thick, so you need ample of desk space to accommodate it, but the monitor stand is sturdy and there is a lot of adjustments available including height. Very handy.\nWhen comparing the Asus PA246Q monitor to the monitor on my Macbook Pro mid 2010, you really see the difference in image quality. I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t edit images using Lightroom or Photoshop on the Macbook anymore. You get spoiled fast when seeing the difference you get from a good monitor.\nThere is a built-in USB hub and connectors for HDMI, D-Sub, DisplayPort and DVI-D. It also includes all the cables, except for the mini-DisplayPort cable for my Mac, which is a nice touch. There is an audio-in port but the build in amplifier has way to low gain to be usable. It\u0026rsquo;s essentially useless. But for me that\u0026rsquo;s not a problem. I bought the monitor for it\u0026rsquo;s image quality.\nWhen buying a monitor, one thing to look out for are dead pixels. A dead pixel in the middle of the screen can really be annoying when doing editing. Different manufacturer has a minimum of dead pixels the monitor has to have for a replacement. Mine has one dead pixel fairly low on the screen, so I can live with that.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s a built in 7-1 card reader, but considering that the monitor is aimed for the professional market, the absence of CF-card capability seems a bit stupid.\nWould I recommend this monitor? Yes, even though there are some problems, the price and image quality makes up for the faults.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the manufactures description:\nThe Most User-friendly P-IPS ProArt Series Professional Monitor P-IPS panel with 98% Adobe RGB coverage and 178° wide viewing angle QuickFit Function instantly boost design efficiency by providing real-size document, photo, and grid on screen Built-in USB hubs and 7-in-1 card reader for instant connection\nPanel Size: Wide Screen 24.1\u0026quot;(61.13cm) 16:10 Color Saturation : 98%(Adobe RGB), 100%(sRGB), 102%(NTSC Panel Type : P-IPS Resolution : 1920x1200 Display Colors : 1073.7M (10bit) So here is my likes and dislikes about this monitor: Good Factory color calibrated. Great image quality Able to display 98% of the Adobe RGB color space. Bad Built-in audio interface has too low gain, making it practically useless. No CF card support in card reader. ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/asus-pa246q-proart-professional-monitor-review/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Asus PA246Q ProArt Professional monitor\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"338\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/asus-pa246q-proart-professional-monitor-review/images/P_500_hu_eac64db2fb463b80.jpg\" width=\"397\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"asus-pa246q-proart-professional-monitor--made-for-photographers\"\u003eAsus PA246Q ProArt Professional monitor – Made for photographers\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a photographer you need to be able to really get the most out of your images, you need a color accurate monitor. You usually have to pay a lot of money to get a good monitor that\u0026rsquo;s factory calibrated and uses a IPS panel, a panel type that is better at showing correct colors than the more common (and cheaper) TN panels. But there are some reasonably priced monitors. One of them is the \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NM8PB6/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;tag=jackensweblog-20\u0026amp;linkCode=as2\u0026amp;camp=1789\u0026amp;creative=9325\u0026amp;creativeASIN=B005NM8PB6\"\u003eAsus PA246Q\u003c/a\u003e ProArt monitor. It\u0026rsquo;s factory calibrated and even ships with a printout of the calibration result from the factory. You can set the monitor to sRGB or Adobe RGB 1998 color space directly on the front controls of the monitor. It\u0026rsquo;s also has fairly high resolution with 24\u0026quot; size 1920x1200 pixels.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Asus PA246Q ProArt Professional monitor review"},{"content":"Here are some additions to my .bash_profile for making life easier. I especially like that completion now ignores case. Makes navigating the file system so much faster. Give them a spin. [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]export HISTCONTROL=erasedups export HISTSIZE=10000 shopt -s histappend set completion-ignore-case on [/cc]\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/my-favorite-commands-in-bash_profile-on-mac-os-x/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHere are some additions to my .bash_profile for making life easier. I especially like that completion now ignores case. Makes navigating the file system so much faster. Give them a spin. [cc lang=\u0026ldquo;bash\u0026rdquo;]export HISTCONTROL=erasedups export HISTSIZE=10000 shopt -s histappend set completion-ignore-case on [/cc]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My favorite commands in .bash_profile on Mac OS X"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve had problems with my new iPad, where the screen would flicker when the brightness was set to a low setting. Very irritating. My first fear was hardware problems but after upgrading to the latest beta version of iOS, 4.2 beta 2 the problem is fixed! Yay! No need to replace my beloved iPad.\n**Update** A bit too fast, the problem remains.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/problem-with-flickering-screen-on-ipad-fixed-in-ios-4-2-beta-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"iPad\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"198\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/problem-with-flickering-screen-on-ipad-fixed-in-ios-4-2-beta-2/images/ipad_hu_686c9a5f48eb6866.jpg\" width=\"160\"\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve had problems with my new iPad, where the screen would flicker when the brightness was set to a low setting. Very irritating. My first fear was hardware problems but after upgrading to the latest beta version of iOS, 4.2 beta 2 the problem is fixed! Yay! No need to replace my beloved iPad.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e**Update** A bit too fast, the problem remains.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Problem with flickering screen on iPad fixed in iOS 4.2 beta 2"},{"content":"My first try to write on an iPad and I\u0026rsquo;m smitten. Hopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll get one next week.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/trying-out-an-ipad-and-liking-it/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy first try to write on an \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPad-Tablet-32GB-Wi-Fi/dp/B00365F6EG%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Djacken-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00365F6EG\"\u003eiPad\u003c/a\u003e and I\u0026rsquo;m smitten. Hopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll get one next week.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Trying out an iPad and liking it"},{"content":"My twelve year old son want\u0026rsquo;s to learn how to program. My first idea was to teach him Ruby or Python, but I decided to go with Arduino. It\u0026rsquo;s C-based so that\u0026rsquo;s a good start I think. Were currently planning a couple of projects but so far he\u0026rsquo;s managed to get some LED\u0026rsquo;s blinking. A good start.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/arduino-a-good-way-of-learning-kids-to-program/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy twelve year old son want\u0026rsquo;s to learn how to program. My first idea was to teach him Ruby or Python, but I decided to go with \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Duemilanove-Board-with-ATmega328/dp/B003N01NPU%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Djacken-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB003N01NPU\"\u003eArduino\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s C-based so that\u0026rsquo;s a good start I think. Were currently planning a couple of projects but so far he\u0026rsquo;s managed to get some LED\u0026rsquo;s blinking. A good start.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Arduino, a good way for kids to learn how to program"},{"content":"So who am I? I\u0026rsquo;m a geezer who loves to tinker with almost everything that has to do with computing. I got my first computer more than 35 years ago, and I\u0026rsquo;ve been hooked ever since. Thankfully the computer field is so diverse which make it easy for me to switch to different areas when I get bored. I usually get interested in one area, then try to learn as much as possible about it. And as soon as I get pretty good at it, I get bored and jump on the next thing. Take VoIP as an example, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of info about it on this blog, including a program I wrote JackenIAX a many of years ago, but then I just stopped updating it. Well, I got bored. And let\u0026rsquo;s face it, everyone has a cell phone nowadays anyway.\nRight now, I\u0026rsquo;m in a period of working with electronics. Mostly related to atomic clocks and NTP-servers. I\u0026rsquo;m also currently in the last stages of designing an excellent headphone amplifier.\nI live in Sweden, so my spelling might be a bit funky, but hopefully, you\u0026rsquo;ll be able to decipher it anyway.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s also some info on how to install/fix/modify stuff, mostly written for me because I tend to forget. Hopefully, it can help someone else as well.\nContact me ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/about-jacken/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"jackenhack-blog-logo-jack-zimmermannso-who-am-i\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Jackenhack Blog Logo Jack Zimmermann\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/slask/jackenface_small.svg\"\u003eSo who am I?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m a geezer who loves to tinker with almost everything that has to do with computing. I got my first computer more than 35 years ago, and I\u0026rsquo;ve been hooked ever since. Thankfully the computer field is so diverse which make it easy for me to switch to different areas when I get bored. I usually get interested in one area, then try to learn as much as possible about it. And as soon as I get pretty good at it, I get bored and jump on the next thing. Take VoIP as an example, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of info about it on this blog, including a program I wrote \u003cstrong\u003eJackenIAX\u003c/strong\u003e a many of years ago, but then I just stopped updating it. Well, I got bored. And let\u0026rsquo;s face it, everyone has a cell phone nowadays anyway.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"About Jacken"},{"content":"Gigawork DAC unmodified Gigaworks modified RightMark Audio Analyzer test Testing chain: External loopback (line-out - line-in) Sampling mode: 24-bit, 44 kHz Read about the modifications made here.\nSummary Test Gigawork DAC unmodified Gigaworks modified Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: +0.54, -1.98 +0.07, -0.60 Noise level, dB (A): -98.3 -109.9 Dynamic range, dB (A): 98.3 109.8 THD, %: 0.0005 0.0008 IMD + Noise, %: 0.0036 0.0020 Stereo crosstalk, dB: -96.2 -108.7 Frequency response Noise level Dynamic range THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS) Intermodulation distortion Stereo crosstalk This report was generated by RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.0 ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measurement/gigaworks-dac-before-after-compare/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"gigawork-dac-unmodified-gigaworks-modified\"\u003eGigawork DAC unmodified Gigaworks modified\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"rightmark-audio-analyzer-test\"\u003eRightMark Audio Analyzer test\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"testing-chain-external-loopback-line-out---line-in-sampling-mode-24-bit-44-khz\"\u003eTesting chain: External loopback (line-out - line-in) Sampling mode: 24-bit, 44 kHz\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRead about the modifications made here.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"summary\"\u003eSummary\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTest\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGigawork DAC unmodified\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGigaworks modified\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e+0.54, -1.98\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e+0.07, -0.60\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNoise level, dB (A):\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-98.3\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-109.9\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDynamic range, dB (A):\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e98.3\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e109.8\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTHD, %:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0005\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0008\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIMD + Noise, %:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0036\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0020\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStereo crosstalk, dB:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-96.2\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-108.7\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"frequency-response\"\u003eFrequency response\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Spectrum graph\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"319\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/measurement/gigaworks-dac-before-after-compare/images/fr1_hu_d1e7d3e4368093d3.png\" srcset=\"/measurement/gigaworks-dac-before-after-compare/images/fr1_hu_c82ab696add0dbe2.png 360w,/measurement/gigaworks-dac-before-after-compare/images/fr1_hu_f936db13ddcfb9f8.png 480w\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gigaworks DAC before after compare"},{"content":"RightMark Audio Analyzer test report Gigaworks DAC modified with Cirrus Logic example output filter and GD-Earth HDAM discrete output\nTesting device gigawork_cirrus_gd_earth_gnd Sampling mode 24-bit, 44 kHz Interface Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in) RMAA Version 6.1.2 20 Hz - 20 kHz filter ON Normalize amplitude ON Level change -0.3 dB / -0.3 dB Mono mode OFF Calibration singal, Hz 1000 Polarity correct/correct Summary Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.04, -0.34 Very good Noise level, dB (A) -110.2 Excellent Dynamic range, dB (A) 110.2 Excellent THD, % 0.0014 Excellent THD + Noise, dB (A) -93.0 Very good IMD + Noise, % 0.0026 Excellent Stereo crosstalk, dB -107.1 Excellent IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.0025 Excellent General performance Excellent Frequency response From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB -0.66, +0.04 From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB -0.34, +0.04 Noise level Left Right RMS power, dB -104.1 -102.9 RMS power (A-weighted), dB -110.1 -110.2 Peak level, dB FS -86.9 -85.0 DC offset, % +0.0 +0.0 Dynamic range Left Right Dynamic range, dB +104.3 +102.8 Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB +110.1 +110.2 DC offset, % +0.00 +0.00 THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS) Left Right THD, % +0.0013 +0.0014 THD + Noise, % +0.0020 +0.0024 THD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0020 +0.0024 Intermodulation distortion Left Right IMD + Noise, % +0.0024 +0.0027 IMD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0016 +0.0018 Stereo crosstalk Left Right Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB -108 -107 Crosstalk at 1000 Hz, dB -107 -106 Crosstalk at 10000 Hz, dB -88 -87 IMD (swept tones) Left Right IMD + Noise at 5000 Hz, 0.0024 0.0026 IMD + Noise at 10000 Hz, 0.0024 0.0026 IMD + Noise at 15000 Hz, 0.0024 0.0026 ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measurement/gigaworks_dac_modified_with_cirrus_logic_example_output_filter_gd-earth/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"rightmark-audio-analyzer-test-report\"\u003eRightMark Audio Analyzer test report\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGigaworks DAC modified with Cirrus Logic example output filter and GD-Earth HDAM discrete output\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eTesting device\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003egigawork_cirrus_gd_earth_gnd\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eSampling mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e24-bit, 44 kHz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eInterface\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTesting chain\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExternal loopback (line-out - line-in)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eRMAA Version\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e6.1.2\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e20 Hz - 20 kHz filter\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eON\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eNormalize amplitude\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eON\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eLevel change\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-0.3 dB / -0.3 dB\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eMono mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eOFF\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eCalibration singal, Hz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e1000\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ePolarity\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ecorrect/correct\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"summary\"\u003eSummary\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eFrequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e+0.04, -0.34\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eVery good\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eNoise level, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-110.2\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eDynamic range, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e110.2\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTHD, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0014\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTHD + Noise, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-93.0\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eVery good\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eIMD + Noise, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0026\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eStereo crosstalk, dB\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-107.1\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eIMD at 10 kHz, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0025\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGeneral performance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExcellent\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"frequency-response\"\u003eFrequency response\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Spectrum graph\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"319\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/measurement/gigaworks_dac_modified_with_cirrus_logic_example_output_filter_gd-earth/images/fr_hu_ca114f906399f5d2.png\" srcset=\"/measurement/gigaworks_dac_modified_with_cirrus_logic_example_output_filter_gd-earth/images/fr_hu_788a07da0c191220.png 360w,/measurement/gigaworks_dac_modified_with_cirrus_logic_example_output_filter_gd-earth/images/fr_hu_efa0d13d15ca2caa.png 480w\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gigaworks DAC modified with Cirrus Logic example output filter and GD-Earth HDAM discrete output"},{"content":"RightMark Audio Analyzer test report Testing device Gigaworks modified Sampling mode 24-bit, 44 kHz Interface Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in) RMAA Version 6.1.2 20 Hz - 20 kHz filter ON Normalize amplitude ON Level change -1.1 dB / -1.2 dB Mono mode OFF Calibration singal, Hz 1000 Polarity correct/correct Modifications: Removed second opamp. Removed L+,L-,R+,R- input caps. Removed filter caps around opamp, C1, C2, C3 C4, C6. R13 and R14 lifted to get signal out directly to RCA. Check DC offset before plugging in. The mod is temporary, will test with Cirrus Logic\u0026rsquo;s low-pass filter example later on\u0026hellip;\nSummary Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.07, -0.60 Good Noise level, dB (A) -109.9 Excellent Dynamic range, dB (A) 109.8 Excellent THD, % 0.0008 Excellent THD + Noise, dB (A) -96.2 Excellent IMD + Noise, % 0.0020 Excellent Stereo crosstalk, dB -108.7 Excellent IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.0021 Excellent General performance Excellent Frequency response From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB -1.07, +0.07 From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB -0.60, +0.07 Noise level Left Right RMS power, dB -104.9 -105.6 RMS power (A-weighted), dB -109.6 -110.2 Peak level, dB FS -87.4 -87.5 DC offset, % +0.0 +0.0 Dynamic range Left Right Dynamic range, dB +104.9 +105.8 Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB +109.5 +110.2 DC offset, % +0.00 +0.00 THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS) Left Right THD, % +0.0008 +0.0008 THD + Noise, % +0.0016 +0.0016 THD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0015 +0.0016 Intermodulation distortion Left Right IMD + Noise, % +0.0021 +0.0020 IMD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0014 +0.0014 Stereo crosstalk Left Right Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB -108 -105 Crosstalk at 1000 Hz, dB -107 -109 Crosstalk at 10000 Hz, dB -93 -101 IMD (swept tones) Left Right IMD + Noise at 5000 Hz, 0.0020 0.0021 IMD + Noise at 10000 Hz, 0.0020 0.0021 IMD + Noise at 15000 Hz, 0.0020 0.0021 ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measurement/gigawork-ebay-dac-modified/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"rightmark-audio-analyzer-test-report\"\u003eRightMark Audio Analyzer test report\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eTesting device\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eGigaworks modified\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eSampling mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e24-bit, 44 kHz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eInterface\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTesting chain\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExternal loopback (line-out - line-in)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eRMAA Version\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e6.1.2\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e20 Hz - 20 kHz filter\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eON\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eNormalize amplitude\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eON\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eLevel change\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-1.1 dB / -1.2 dB\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eMono mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eOFF\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eCalibration singal, Hz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e1000\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ePolarity\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ecorrect/correct\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eModifications: Removed second opamp. Removed L+,L-,R+,R- input caps. Removed filter caps around opamp, C1, C2, C3 C4, C6. R13 and R14 lifted to get signal out directly to RCA. Check DC offset before plugging in. The mod is temporary, will test with Cirrus Logic\u0026rsquo;s low-pass filter example later on\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gigawork Ebay DAC modified"},{"content":"RightMark Audio Analyzer test report Testing device /measurements/gigaworks_unmodified Sampling mode 24-bit, 44 kHz Interface Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in) RMAA Version 6.1.2 20 Hz - 20 kHz filter ON Normalize amplitude ON Level change -0.4 dB / -0.4 dB Mono mode OFF Calibration singal, Hz 1000 Polarity correct/correct Summary Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.54, -1.98 Average Noise level, dB (A) -98.3 Excellent Dynamic range, dB (A) 98.3 Excellent THD, % 0.0005 Excellent THD + Noise, dB (A) -91.5 Very good IMD + Noise, % 0.0036 Excellent Stereo crosstalk, dB -96.2 Excellent IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.0037 Excellent General performance Very good Frequency response From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB -2.14, +0.54 From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB -1.98, +0.54 Noise level Left Right RMS power, dB -97.5 -97.3 RMS power (A-weighted), dB -98.4 -98.2 Peak level, dB FS -83.7 -84.1 DC offset, % -0.0 -0.0 Dynamic range Left Right Dynamic range, dB +97.4 +97.3 Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB +98.3 +98.2 DC offset, % -0.00 +0.00 THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS) Left Right THD, % +0.0005 +0.0006 THD + Noise, % +0.0028 +0.0030 THD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0026 +0.0028 Intermodulation distortion Left Right IMD + Noise, % +0.0035 +0.0036 IMD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0031 +0.0031 Stereo crosstalk Left Right Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB -102 -98 Crosstalk at 1000 Hz, dB -97 -94 Crosstalk at 10000 Hz, dB -88 -89 IMD (swept tones) Left Right IMD + Noise at 5000 Hz, 0.0036 0.0038 IMD + Noise at 10000 Hz, 0.0036 0.0038 IMD + Noise at 15000 Hz, 0.0036 0.0038 ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measurement/gigawork-ebay-dac-unmodified/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"rightmark-audio-analyzer-test-report\"\u003eRightMark Audio Analyzer test report\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eTesting device\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e/measurements/gigaworks_unmodified\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eSampling mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e24-bit, 44 kHz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eInterface\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTesting chain\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExternal loopback (line-out - line-in)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eRMAA Version\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e6.1.2\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e20 Hz - 20 kHz filter\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eON\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eNormalize amplitude\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eON\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eLevel change\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-0.4 dB / -0.4 dB\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eMono mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eOFF\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eCalibration singal, Hz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e1000\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ePolarity\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ecorrect/correct\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"summary\"\u003eSummary\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eFrequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e+0.54, -1.98\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eAverage\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eNoise level, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-98.3\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eDynamic range, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e98.3\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTHD, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0005\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTHD + Noise, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-91.5\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eVery good\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eIMD + Noise, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0036\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eStereo crosstalk, dB\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-96.2\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eIMD at 10 kHz, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.0037\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExcellent\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGeneral performance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVery good\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"frequency-response\"\u003eFrequency response\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Spectrum graph\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"319\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/measurement/gigawork-ebay-dac-unmodified/images/fr_hu_bf721a10643f6b80.png\" srcset=\"/measurement/gigawork-ebay-dac-unmodified/images/fr_hu_8ebcca91d4f691df.png 360w,/measurement/gigawork-ebay-dac-unmodified/images/fr_hu_78f973423795d30d.png 480w\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gigawork Ebay DAC unmodified"},{"content":"Here is the second part of how to improve the quality of an old CD player, the Pioneer PD S-505. You can find the first part here. In this section, I\u0026rsquo;m going to show you how to install a better, more stable clock circuit into your 505 to lower the jitter. This particular clock comes from Kingwa, that has a series of crystal oscillators for improving DVD players, CD players, and DACs. The price is reasonable. I\u0026rsquo;ve installed them in three different units and had zero problems, so the quality seems reasonable.\nOk, so why install a new clock? Isn\u0026rsquo;t there one in there already? Yes, your right. But by using better parts like crystals with lower ppm and also design a very clean power supply to feed the clock, you can make your CD-player sound much better. And the reason is lower jitter.\nBut what is jitter? There is plenty of excellent places to go read up on it. Here\u0026rsquo;s some.\nhttp://www.audiocraftersguild.com/AandE/cd-jitter.pdf (PDF warning)\nhttp://www.stereophile.com/reference/590jitter/\nOk, let\u0026rsquo;s look at the schematic. Here you can see the clock and two capacitors, C404 and C403 and the clock is X401. The clock is feeding into the DAC (PD2029A) (you can find the complete schematic in part one)\nWe need to remove the crystal X401, and the two capacitors, C403 and C404. The old load capacitors are no longer required. The next step is to connect the Kingwa clock to the DAC. As seen in the schematic, the clock is 16.9344Mhz, so we need to use the right outlet from the Kingwa clock. There are three different divisions of the clock. You need to solder two connections. One is for the ground, labeled GND, and the one next to it marked 1/4F0.\nNow we need to feed the signal generated from the new clock to the DAC. Connect one of them to the hole in C403 furthest away from the DAC. I put the GND line here. The other one should go where the old clock used to go. Use the one closest to the large capacitor for the DAC (see picture).\nThe Kingwa clock is going to need power. Any voltage between 10-30 V DC will do. I will have an upcoming article about the power supply I built for it. You will find the connectors for the power on the top side of the Kingwa clock.\nNext step, testing. Put in a cd. If you have the cover removed when doing the testing, REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE EXPOSED TO DANGEROUS HIGH VOLTAGE! No touchy while doing this. Not on the part we soldered but on the power supply. Anyway, If you didn\u0026rsquo;t know this, you really should not be doing this in the first place.\nWhen you press power, it should read the TOC from the CD. Press play. If the display shows the seconds ticking, you can turn the player off, unplug and put the cover back on.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/adding-a-kingwa-clock-to-a-pioneer-pd-s-505/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHere is the second part of how to improve the quality of an old CD player, the Pioneer PD S-505. You can find the first part \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/mods-and-upgrades-on-a-pioneer-pd-s-505-for-better-audio-quality-part-1/\" title=\"Modding a Pioneer PD S-505\"\u003ehere\u003c/a\u003e. In this section, I\u0026rsquo;m going to show you how to install a better, more stable clock circuit into your 505 to lower the jitter. This particular clock comes from Kingwa, that has a \u003ca href=\"http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/diy/JZ1/JZEN.htm\" title=\"Kingwa CD DVD clocks\"\u003eseries of crystal oscillators for improving DVD players, CD players, and DACs\u003c/a\u003e. The price is reasonable. I\u0026rsquo;ve installed them in three different units and had zero problems, so the quality seems reasonable.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOk, so why install a new clock? Isn\u0026rsquo;t there one in there already? Yes, your right. But by using better parts like crystals with lower ppm and also design a very clean power supply to feed the clock, you can make your CD-player sound much better. And the reason is lower jitter.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut what is jitter? There is plenty of excellent places to go read up on it. Here\u0026rsquo;s some.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Adding a Kingwa clock to a Pioneer PD S-505"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_978\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;300\u0026rdquo;] Jamison Judd[/caption]\nI found this great shell script to test your MySQL server. You need to have your MySQL server up and running a while before running the test to get valid data. With all the possible setting variations this is can be a handy tool.\nGet MySQL Performance tuner here.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/optimize-mysql-for-speed-and-memory-use/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_978\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;300\u0026rdquo;]\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamisonjudd/2433102356/\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Jamison Judd\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"500\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/optimize-mysql-for-speed-and-memory-use/images/2433102356_4d4ce9234b_hu_c9c13ff4a4dcf504.jpg\" title=\"Jamison Judd\" width=\"375\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Jamison Judd[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI found this great shell script to test your \u003ca href=\"http://mysql.com\"\u003eMySQL\u003c/a\u003e server. You need to have your MySQL server up and running a while before running the test to get valid data. With all the possible setting variations this is can be a handy tool.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.day32.com/MySQL/\" title=\"MySQL Performance Tuner script\"\u003eGet MySQL Performance tuner here.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Optimize MySQL performance for speed and memory use"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_969\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;292\u0026rdquo; caption=\u0026ldquo;Lenn-Art Subwoofer\u0026rdquo;][/caption]\nLast time I ordered some speaker elements from Germany I ordered some extra Tang Band W8-740C subwoofer elements for a later build. I\u0026rsquo;ve been oogling this design to go with my home-built?ProAc 2.5 clones. Micke, a friend will make the boxes for me, provided I sent him the drawings. What an exellent excuse to try to learn Solidworks. Amazing program. I have designed my own version of the venerable GainClone amplifier with a beefed up power supply and will use two subwoofers in stereo. Nice to not have to build the boxes. Last time when I built the clones the apartment was filled with MDF dust for months.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/lenn-art-tang-band-w8-740c-subwoofer/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_969\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignnone\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;292\u0026rdquo; caption=\u0026ldquo;Lenn-Art Subwoofer\u0026rdquo;]\u003cimg alt=\"A Tangband W8-740C\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"473\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/lenn-art-tang-band-w8-740c-subwoofer/images/subwoofer_Lenn_Art_hu_eba567c0da24c490.jpg\" title=\"Lenn Art Subwoofer\" width=\"292\"\u003e[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast time I ordered some speaker elements from Germany I ordered some extra Tang Band W8-740C subwoofer elements for a later build. I\u0026rsquo;ve been oogling \u003ca href=\"http://www.hififorum.nu/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true\u0026amp;TOPIC_ID=40179\"\u003ethis design\u003c/a\u003e to go with my home-built?\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/proac-response-25-clones-plays-real-music/\"\u003eProAc 2.5 clones\u003c/a\u003e. Micke, a friend will make the boxes for me, provided I sent him the drawings. What an exellent excuse to try to learn Solidworks. Amazing program. I have designed my own version of the venerable GainClone amplifier with a beefed up power supply and will use two subwoofers in stereo. Nice to not have to build the boxes. Last time when I built the clones the apartment was filled with MDF dust for months.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Lenn-Art Tang Band W8-740C subwoofers"},{"content":"So, after doing an upgrade of my Apache installation all my web content stopped working. It continued to give 403 errors. After spending hours changing permissions and checking every little detail I gave up. So I installed Nginx instead. It\u0026rsquo;s a bit scary to start using a totally new web server software, but why not live dangerously? Anyway, it\u0026rsquo;s fast! Really fast. The only problem I had was to get all the redirects to work. And I also removed my gallery2 installation and moved the blog to /\nProblems\nIt took longer than I had anticipated, mainly because I had to learn how to set up Nginx, but also because of the trouble of getting answers when searching the net. But here\u0026rsquo;s my working config (mostly saved for me if I forget :)\nserver { listen 80; server_name www.jackenhack.com jackenhack.com; keepalive_timeout 5; tcp_nodelay on;\taccess_log /var/log/nginx/access.log; location ~* ^.+\\.(xml|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|css|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|pdf|ppt|txt|tar|mid|midi|wav|bmp|rtf|js)$ { root /var/www/nginx-default; } location / { root /var/www/nginx-default; index index.php index.html index.htm; gzip on; gzip_http_version 1.0; gzip_comp_level 2; gzip_proxied any; gzip_types text/plain text/html text/css application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript; #include /etc/nginx/wordpress_params.super_cache #include /etc/nginx/enable_wordpress; # rewrite old blog url rewrite ^/blog/(.+)$ /$1 permanent; # if the requested file exists, return it immediately if (-f $request_filename) { break; } set $supercache_file \u0026#39;\u0026#39;; set $supercache_uri $request_uri; if ($request_method = POST) { set $supercache_uri \u0026#39;\u0026#39;; } # Using pretty permalinks, so bypass the cache for any query string if ($query_string) { set $supercache_uri \u0026#39;\u0026#39;; } if ($http_cookie ~* \u0026#34;comment_author_|wordpress|wp-postpass_\u0026#34; ) { set $supercache_uri \u0026#39;\u0026#39;; } # if we haven\u0026#39;t bypassed the cache, specify our supercache file if ($supercache_uri ~ ^(.+)$) { set $supercache_file /wp-content/cache/supercache/$http_host/$1index.html; } # only rewrite to the supercache file if it actually exists if (-f $document_root$supercache_file) { rewrite ^(.*)$ $supercache_file break; } # all other requests go to Wordpress if (!-e $request_filename) { rewrite . /index.php last; } } # setup for jackeniax location /jackeniax { root /var/www/nginx-default/jackeniax; index index.php index.html; if (!-f $request_filename) { rewrite ^(.*)$ /jackeniax/index.php?q=$1 last; break; } if (!-d $request_filename) { rewrite ^(.*)$ /jackeniax/index.php?q=$1 last; break; } } location ~ \\.php$ { fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www/nginx-default$fastcgi_script_name; include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params; } # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache\u0026#39;s document root # concurs with nginx\u0026#39;s one # location ~ /\\.ht { deny all; } } ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/upgrading-to-nginx-wordpress-redirect/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo, after doing an upgrade of my \u003ca href=\"http://www.apache.org/\"\u003eApache\u003c/a\u003e installation all my web content stopped working. It continued to give 403 errors. After spending hours changing permissions and checking every little detail I gave up. So I installed \u003ca href=\"http://nginx.net/\"\u003eNginx\u003c/a\u003e instead. It\u0026rsquo;s a bit scary to start using a totally new web server software, but why not live dangerously? Anyway, it\u0026rsquo;s fast! Really fast. The only problem I had was to get all the redirects to work. And I also removed my gallery2 installation and moved the blog to /\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Upgrading to Nginx and getting WordPress to work"},{"content":"\nRead a newer article on how to do this using an iPhone instead. I just love gadgets. That\u0026rsquo;s why it\u0026rsquo;s nice to find that I bought a Garmin eTrex a long time ago. Haven\u0026rsquo;t used it in years, but then when Apple released the latest version of iLife 09 with the map function in iPhoto I realized that it is very cool to have all the images geo tagged. So I found a program called GPSPhotoLinker, a program that downloads GPS data and pictures and by the date/time on the pictures manages to add longitude and latitude information in the picture info. When you import pictures with this information iPhoto can use that to show it on maps and make it searchable. And when you upload pictures to Flickr, it also uses the location information place your picture on a map. Very cool. The software is free to download here. If you have an old GPS receiver like me, you need a serial cable (I made my own because of the very high prices for ready made cables), just check eBay. You also need a USB to serial converter, like the \u0026ldquo;Keyspan High Speed USB Serial Adapter.\nTo start tagging, just power on your GPS receiver when you start (I just put it in my shirt pocket) and then photo away). Set the clock in your camera (check the GPS clock, it\u0026rsquo;s VERY exact ) because this is information that is used to sync position information.\nDownload all your pictures in a folder, connect the GPS, start GPSPhotoLinker and download data from the GPS, and then select the folder with pictures you took. Press \u0026ldquo;batch\u0026rdquo; and your done! iPhoto 09 map showing my short walk today\nMap with my pictures in flickr\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/gps-tagging-on-the-cheap/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"GPSPhotoLinker program icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"128\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/gps-tagging-on-the-cheap/images/icn-gpsphotolinker-128_hu_aa7363e54740b442.jpg\" width=\"128\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"read-a-newer-article-on-how-to-do-this-using-an-iphone-instead\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/geotag-your-dslr-images-using-your-iphone-gps-and-a-mac/\" title=\"Geotag your DSLR images using your iPhone GPS and a Mac\"\u003eRead a newer article on how to do this using an iPhone instead.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI just love gadgets. That\u0026rsquo;s why it\u0026rsquo;s nice to find that I bought a \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-eTrex-H-Handheld-Navigator/dp/B000PDV0CE%3FSubscriptionId%3D0PZ7TM66EXQCXFVTMTR2%26tag%3Djacken-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000PDV0CE\"\u003eGarmin eTrex\u003c/a\u003e a long time ago. Haven\u0026rsquo;t used it in years, but then when Apple released the latest version of \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ilife/\"\u003eiLife 09\u003c/a\u003e with the map function in \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/\"\u003eiPhoto\u003c/a\u003e I realized that it is very cool to have all the images geo tagged. So I found a program called \u003ca href=\"http://www.earlyinnovations.com/\"\u003eGPSPhotoLinker\u003c/a\u003e, a program that downloads GPS data and pictures and by the date/time on the pictures manages to add longitude and latitude information in the picture info. When you import pictures with this information iPhoto can use that to show it on maps and make it searchable. And when you upload pictures to Flickr, it also uses the location information place your picture on a map. Very cool. \u003c/p\u003e","title":"GPS tagging on the cheap"},{"content":"Before/after measurements of DIY modified Hifi Equipment.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measurement/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBefore/after measurements of DIY modified Hifi Equipment.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Measurements"},{"content":"\nPart two of this series is now up. Read on how to install a better clock in your Pioneer PD S-505 CD player.\nMods your Pioneer PD S-505 CD Player for better sound quality So I bought this Pioneer PD S-505 for $40 to test how good audio quality I\u0026rsquo;m able to squeeze out by modifying it. But It will not be just the standard subjective judgment 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\u0026rsquo;s get going.\nThe steps I planned is the following:\nRemove 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 crystal and opamp But first we need the schematic of the player, so download the Pioneer PD-S505 schematic here.\nOk, let\u0026rsquo;s look at some stuff we need to do. First, we have to remove the mute transistors. Fewer electronics in the audio path gives better sound quality. The transistors are there to make the measurements look better for reviews. So they have to go.\nClick for larger image\nSo transistors Q403, Q404, Q453, and Q454 are removed. Desolder och just clip the pins (carefully) with a wire cutter.\nNext 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.\nRemove the headphone opamp if you don\u0026rsquo;t plan to use it. It\u0026rsquo;s better to buy an external headphone amplifier instead.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s about it for today. Next installment, upgrade the clock to improve jitter numbers.\nOn to part two on how to add a better clock to your PIONEER PD S-505\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mods-and-upgrades-on-a-pioneer-pd-s-505-for-better-audio-quality-part-1/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Pioneer PD-S505\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"71\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/mods-and-upgrades-on-a-pioneer-pd-s-505-for-better-audio-quality-part-1/images/s505_hu_301149aa5e372448.jpg\" width=\"175\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/adding-a-kingwa-clock-to-a-pioneer-pd-s-505/\"\u003ePart two of this series is now up. Read on how to install a better clock in your Pioneer PD S-505 CD player.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"mods-your-pioneer-pd-s-505-cd-player-for-better-sound-quality\"\u003eMods your Pioneer PD S-505 CD Player for better sound quality\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo I bought this Pioneer PD S-505 for $40 to test how good audio quality I\u0026rsquo;m able to squeeze out by modifying it. But It will not be just the standard subjective judgment 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\u0026rsquo;s get going.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mods and upgrades on a Pioneer PD S-505 for better audio quality part 1"},{"content":"RightMark Audio Analyzer test report Testing device Pioneer PD-S505 with LM4562 and GD-clock Sampling mode 16-bit, 44 kHz Interface MME Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in) RMAA Version 6.2.1 20 Hz - 20 kHz filter ON Normalize amplitude OFF Level change -2.6 dB / -2.7 dB Mono mode OFF Calibration singal, Hz 1000 Polarity correct/correct Summary Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.08, -1.21 Average Noise level, dB (A) -84.5 Good Dynamic range, dB (A) 84.6 Good THD, % 0.032 Good THD + Noise, dB (A) -66.0 Average IMD + Noise, % 0.054 Good Stereo crosstalk, dB -83.7 Very good IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.041 Good General performance Good Frequency response From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB -4.38, +0.08 From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB -1.21, +0.08 Noise level Left Right RMS power, dB -80.0 -80.2 RMS power (A-weighted), dB -84.5 -84.6 Peak level, dB FS -66.3 -64.8 DC offset, % -0.0 -0.0 Dynamic range Left Right Dynamic range, dB +79.7 +80.2 Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB +84.5 +84.7 DC offset, % -0.00 -0.00 THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS) Left Right THD, % +0.0050 +0.0588 THD + Noise, % +0.0290 +0.0665 THD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0187 +0.0821 Intermodulation distortion Left Right IMD + Noise, % +0.0428 +0.0655 IMD + Noise (A-weighted), % +0.0314 +0.0465 Stereo crosstalk Left Right Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB -80 -79 Crosstalk at 1000 Hz, dB -84 -82 Crosstalk at 10000 Hz, dB -81 -82 IMD (swept tones) Left Right IMD + Noise at 5000 Hz, 0.0247 0.0706 IMD + Noise at 10000 Hz, 0.0251 0.0501 IMD + Noise at 15000 Hz, 0.0265 0.0485 ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-baseline/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"rightmark-audio-analyzer-test-report\"\u003eRightMark Audio Analyzer test report\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eTesting device\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003ePioneer PD-S505 with LM4562 and GD-clock\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eSampling mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e16-bit, 44 kHz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eInterface\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eMME\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTesting chain\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eExternal loopback (line-out - line-in)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eRMAA Version\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e6.2.1\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e20 Hz - 20 kHz filter\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eON\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eNormalize amplitude\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eOFF\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eLevel change\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-2.6 dB / -2.7 dB\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eMono mode\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eOFF\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eCalibration singal, Hz\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e1000\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ePolarity\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003ecorrect/correct\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"summary\"\u003eSummary\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eFrequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e+0.08, -1.21\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003eAverage\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eNoise level, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-84.5\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eGood\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eDynamic range, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e84.6\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eGood\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTHD, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.032\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eGood\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eTHD + Noise, dB (A)\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-66.0\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eAverage\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eIMD + Noise, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.054\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eGood\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eStereo crosstalk, dB\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-83.7\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eVery good\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eIMD at 10 kHz, %\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.041\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003eGood\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGeneral performance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"frequency-response\"\u003eFrequency response\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Spectrum graph\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"319\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-baseline/images/fr_hu_64221ccf875082d4.png\" srcset=\"/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-baseline/images/fr_hu_c3ca4a6da9917624.png 360w,/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-baseline/images/fr_hu_801201afc7b9017a.png 480w\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"pioneer PD-S505 baseline"},{"content":"RightMark Audio Analyzer test: comparison\nBaseline with gd clock and LM4562 modded with pana FM and Wima, snipped discs\nRightMark Audio Analyzer test Testing chain: External loopback (line-out - line-in) Sampling mode: 16-bit, 44 kHz\nSummary Test Baseline with gd clock and LM4562 modded with pana FM and Wima, snipped discs Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: +0.08, -1.21 +0.04, -0.80 Noise level, dB (A): -84.5 -88.5 Dynamic range, dB (A): 84.6 88.6 THD, %: 0.032 0.030 IMD + Noise, %: 0.054 0.036 Stereo crosstalk, dB: -83.7 -88.6 Frequency response Noise level Dynamic range THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS) Intermodulation distortion Stereo crosstalk This report was generated by RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.0 ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-vs-mod-3/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eRightMark Audio Analyzer test: comparison\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"baseline-with-gd-clock-and-lm4562\"\u003eBaseline with gd clock and LM4562\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003emodded with pana FM and Wima, snipped discs\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"rightmark-audio-analyzer-test\"\u003eRightMark Audio Analyzer test\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"testing-chain-external-loopback-line-out---line-in\"\u003eTesting chain: External loopback (line-out - line-in)\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSampling mode: 16-bit, 44 kHz\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"summary\"\u003eSummary\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\t\u003cthead\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTest\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaseline with gd clock and LM4562\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003cth\u003e\u003cstrong\u003emodded with pana FM and Wima, snipped discs\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/thead\u003e\n\t\u003ctbody\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e+0.08, -1.21\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e+0.04, -0.80\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNoise level, dB (A):\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-84.5\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-88.5\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDynamic range, dB (A):\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e84.6\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e88.6\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTHD, %:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.032\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.030\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIMD + Noise, %:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.054\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e0.036\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ctr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStereo crosstalk, dB:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-83.7\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003ctd\u003e-88.6\u003c/td\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003c/tr\u003e\n\t\u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"frequency-response\"\u003eFrequency response\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Spectrum graph\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"319\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-vs-mod-3/images/fr1_hu_a344a8db70ba9431.png\" srcset=\"/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-vs-mod-3/images/fr1_hu_c5e62eb1a392642f.png 360w,/measurement/pioneer-pd-s505-vs-mod-3/images/fr1_hu_96ddf852d31cd898.png 480w\" width=\"512\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pioneer PD-S505 vs Mod #3"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;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.\nMy wp-config.php file looks like this:\ndefine(\u0026#39;DB_NAME\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;wordpress\u0026#39;); /** MySQL database username */ define(\u0026#39;DB_USER\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;root\u0026#39;); /** MySQL database password */ define(\u0026#39;DB_PASSWORD\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;root\u0026#39;); /** MySQL hostname */ define(\u0026#39;DB_HOST\u0026#39;, \u0026#39;127.0.0.1:8889\u0026#39;); ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mamp-wordpress-and-error-establishing-a-database-connection/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;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.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy wp-config.php file looks like this:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MAMP WordPress Error establishing a database connection"},{"content":"Change the following resistors R8,R9,R14,R17 to 30k\nAnd these caps C32,C33,C34,C35 to 150pf\nThe following values was changed:\nR8,R9,R14,R17 to 30kC32,C33,C34,C35 to 150pf\nAdded pulse transformer on coax SPDIF\nChanged Opamp to lm 4562 after adding pulse transformer\nLifted pin 2 of the CS4397 and connected it to pin 16 of the CS8416 to get 192khz to work.\nChanged all important caps to low ERS Panasonic FM.\nChanged the external filter to correct values, R2 becomes 3k, C22 becomes 22nF, and C23 becomes 1 nF.\nIt now sounds excellent!\nIm on my way to add an discrete output stage and just override the opamps. Just some small bugs that needs to be fixed.\nDiscrete DAC output stage\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/modded-lawrence-hong-kong-dac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eChange the following resistors R8,R9,R14,R17 to 30k\u003cbr\u003e\nAnd these caps C32,C33,C34,C35 to 150pf\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/modded-lawrence-hong-kong-dac/images/hongkongdac-1.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Changes to the hong kong cheap DAC\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"703\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/audio-hifi-diy/modded-lawrence-hong-kong-dac/images/hongkongdac-1_hu_a8e0a0be792388ab.jpg\" srcset=\"/audio-hifi-diy/modded-lawrence-hong-kong-dac/images/hongkongdac-1_hu_495e9e042a4a016b.jpg 360w,/audio-hifi-diy/modded-lawrence-hong-kong-dac/images/hongkongdac-1_hu_eb9931e17aef74e8.jpg 480w,/audio-hifi-diy/modded-lawrence-hong-kong-dac/images/hongkongdac-1_hu_2d5d85d805a3d13a.jpg 720w\" title=\"hongkongdac\" width=\"766\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe following values was changed:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eR8,R9,R14,R17 to 30kC32,C33,C34,C35 to 150pf\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdded pulse transformer on coax SPDIF\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChanged Opamp to lm 4562 after adding pulse transformer\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLifted pin 2 of the CS4397 and connected it to pin 16 of the CS8416 to get 192khz to work.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Modded Lawrence Hong Kong DAC"},{"content":"After using Spotify for a couple of days, I must say that they almost nailed it. And I have never seen as much entusiasm about a new service among people of so different age groups. The Mac client is really nice (and fast!) This is something the music business should have come up with a long time ago. I think I bought about five songs on iTunes total. I like the idea of \u0026ldquo;owning\u0026rdquo; my music, or at least own the piece of plastic it comes on. But the chear joy of being able to just search and ad a shitload of music and start listening is exhilarating. But I have a couple of gripes\u0026hellip;\nHopefully they will increase the bitrate. There is a market for people that want the highest possible quality and are prepared to pay for it. Here\u0026rsquo;s a possibility to actually get better quality than CD without having to resort to half-assed attempts like SACD. Yeah, I know you need a lot of bandwidth, but I live in Sweden and have had 100mbit connection for years.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/spotify-is-going-to-kick-some-ass/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter using \u003ca href=\"http://www.spotify.com/en/\"\u003eSpotify\u003c/a\u003e for a couple of days, I must say that they almost nailed it. And I have never seen as much entusiasm about a new service among people of so different age groups. The Mac client is really nice (and fast!) This is something the music business should have come up with a long time ago. I think I bought about five songs on iTunes total. I like the idea of \u0026ldquo;owning\u0026rdquo; my music, or at least own the piece of plastic it comes on. But the chear joy of being able to just search and ad a shitload of music and start listening is exhilarating. But I have a couple of gripes\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Spotify is going to kick some ass"},{"content":"Got my cpu vu-meter working.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/753/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eGot my cpu vu-meter working.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"AVR based analog CPU meter"},{"content":"Everytime (well, last night actually) when I need to do something with Applescript I shudder with horror. The syntax is actually something you forget all the time. There must be better alternatives for Apple to use as a scripting language. I agree with this article, but Python or Ruby would be a better alternative I think.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/yes-please-apple-kill-applescript/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEverytime (well, last night actually) when I need to do something with Applescript I shudder with horror. The syntax is actually something you forget all the time. There must be better alternatives for Apple to use as a scripting language. \u003ca href=\"http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/502/apples-script\"\u003eI agree with this article\u003c/a\u003e, but Python or Ruby would be a better alternative I think.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Yes, please apple, kill AppleScript"},{"content":"I have had this annoying problem with my Macbook Pro. Sometimes when waking the machine from sleep, the machine can not connect to the selected Airport network and then hangs with spinning pizza of death.\nApples next update to 10.5.3 looks like it will fix it. Hopfully Apple will release it soon\u0026hellip;\nFrom Fixed list of Mac OS X update 10.5.3 - Joining AirPort network after wake issue resolved\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-os-x-1052-hangs-on-wake-from-sleep/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have had this annoying problem with my Macbook Pro. Sometimes when waking the machine from sleep, the machine can not connect to the selected Airport network and then hangs with spinning pizza of death.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApples next update to 10.5.3 looks like it will fix it. Hopfully Apple will release it soon\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Fixed list of Mac OS X update 10.5.3 - Joining AirPort network after wake issue resolved\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.5.2 hangs on wake from sleep"},{"content":"Here\u0026rsquo;s my ongoing plan of? modifying my E-MU 0404 USB sound-card that I use for playback from my Mac Mini and also for ripping vinyl records in high quality. My first plan is to change all the caps better ones. I will also do a before/after? measure? to see if the noise floor drops.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s some pictures of the inside, showing the main board. (click for larger size)\nSo the next step is to order some Panasonic FM capacitors and some Black Gate caps.\nI will continue to document my progress and hopefully my results as well.\nUpdate: Haven\u0026rsquo;t had the time to do the upgrade. Still very pleased with the sound quality when standard. May get the soldering iron out later on\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/modding-a-e-mu-0404-usb/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHere\u0026rsquo;s my ongoing plan of? modifying my \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IXNE3E?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;tag=jackensweblog-20\u0026amp;linkCode=as2\u0026amp;camp=1789\u0026amp;creative=390957\u0026amp;creativeASIN=B000IXNE3E\"\u003eE-MU 0404 USB sound-card\u003c/a\u003e that I use for playback from my Mac Mini and also for ripping vinyl records in high quality. My first plan is to change all the caps better ones. I will also do a before/after? measure? to see if the noise floor drops.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere\u0026rsquo;s some pictures of the inside, showing the main board. (click for larger size)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/modding-a-e-mu-0404-usb/images/inside_emu-0404-usb.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"758\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/audio-hifi-diy/modding-a-e-mu-0404-usb/images/inside_emu-0404-usb_hu_d1cc9e2cb1af05ee.jpg\" srcset=\"/audio-hifi-diy/modding-a-e-mu-0404-usb/images/inside_emu-0404-usb_hu_1c138421ac6d441f.jpg 360w,/audio-hifi-diy/modding-a-e-mu-0404-usb/images/inside_emu-0404-usb_hu_d8db5b2bc67e502a.jpg 480w,/audio-hifi-diy/modding-a-e-mu-0404-usb/images/inside_emu-0404-usb_hu_e8453ce888cf5937.jpg 720w\" title=\"inside E-MU 0404 USB sound card\" width=\"748\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Modding a E-MU 0404 USB"},{"content":"Cambridge Azur 604 phono pre amplifier Goal is to increase this cheap turntable preamplifier to something much better Trying to get better sound.\nHow I did it (UPDATED!) Due to incredible stupidity, I missed to replace all opamps. In the new pictures you can see that that\u0026rsquo;s done. I also added Silver Micas.\n[gallery]\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/modified-cambridge-asus-604d/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"cambridge-azur-604-phono-pre-amplifier\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00106E67G?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;tag=jackensweblog-20\u0026amp;linkCode=as2\u0026amp;camp=1789\u0026amp;creative=390957\u0026amp;creativeASIN=B00106E67G\"\u003eCambridge Azur 604 phono pre amplifier\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"goal-is-to-increase-this-cheap-turntable-preamplifier-to-something-much-better\"\u003eGoal is to increase this cheap turntable preamplifier to something much better\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrying to get better sound.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"how-i-did-it\"\u003eHow I did it\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(UPDATED!) Due to incredible stupidity, I missed to replace all opamps. In the new pictures you can see that that\u0026rsquo;s done. I also added Silver Micas.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[gallery]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cambridge Azur 604D modifications"},{"content":"Here I\u0026rsquo;m going to put all my DIY projects that I\u0026rsquo;m doing for my stereo equipment.\nModified Cambridge Azur 640P RIAA phone pre-amplifier\nModding a E-MU 0404 USB sound card for better performance when doing vinyl rips.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHere I\u0026rsquo;m going to put all my DIY projects that I\u0026rsquo;m doing for my stereo equipment.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"23\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/audio-hifi-diy/images/diy_hu_62680c1e6f7aa16f.jpg\" title=\"diy\" width=\"23\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/modified-cambridge-asus-604d/\"\u003eModified Cambridge Azur 640P RIAA phone pre-amplifier\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"23\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/audio-hifi-diy/images/diy_hu_62680c1e6f7aa16f.jpg\" title=\"diy\" width=\"23\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/audio-hifi-diy/modding-a-e-mu-0404-usb/\"\u003eModding a E-MU 0404 USB sound card for better performance when doing vinyl rips.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Audio-hifi DIY"},{"content":"\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/our-new-family-member/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Cicero\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/our-new-family-member/images/kittekatt.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Our new family member!"},{"content":" So finally my new ProAc Response 2.5 clone playing music. And how they play! I got myself a new Class-A amplifier to have something nice to drive them with. At first they sounded a bit short on the bass side, but now after about 20 hours of listening, the bass starts to improve. I\u0026rsquo;ve never believed in the \u0026ldquo;burn-in\u0026rdquo; of speakers, but I have to say I\u0026rsquo;ve been mistaken.\nI invited some friends over for a music listening party. A lot of records and an even larger amount of beer made for a beautiful evening.\nAt the same time I ordered my new amplifier, I also ordered a new DVD player with DVD-Audio and SACD playing capability. So I rush out to get my hands on a SACD record, but the only one I could find was the slightly overplayed Dark side of the moon by Pink Floyd. But it was a good test record because I have two different mastering versions on cd, so comparing was easy. And to my surprise the CD (actually Flac played through my Squeezebox) sounded better than the SACD one! So I had to check that the player didn\u0026rsquo;t play the normal cd layer, but no, it played the SACD layer. The singing voices on the SACD sounded muffled compared to the Japanese pressing of the CD. Also the pinpointing of instrument placements in the stereo image was not as good an coherent from the SACD. The player a Pioneer 696 is a low budget player so it could be it. But I\u0026rsquo;ll crank up the manual and check so I haven\u0026rsquo;t done something stupid with the settings.\nMore testing tomorrow\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/proac-response-25-clones-plays-real-music/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"ProAc Response 2.5 clones\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"455\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/proac-response-25-clones-plays-real-music/images/proac_hu_d6587ba20f572a3f.jpg\" width=\"420\"\u003e So finally my new ProAc Response 2.5 clone playing music. And how they play! I got myself a new Class-A amplifier to have something nice to drive them with. At first they sounded a bit short on the bass side, but now after about 20 hours of listening, the bass starts to improve. I\u0026rsquo;ve never believed in the \u0026ldquo;burn-in\u0026rdquo; of speakers, but I have to say I\u0026rsquo;ve been mistaken.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"ProAc Response 2.5 clones plays real music"},{"content":" So I finished putting my new diy speakers together. I still need to put veneer on them (probably going to use cherry) But they sound great! Yes, really great. I\u0026rsquo;m going to add the notch filter, just to try it out.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/proac-clones-finished-almost/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/proac-clones-finished-almost/images/proac_response_2_5.jpg\" title=\"ProAc Response 2.5 clones\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"ProAc Response 2.5 clones\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"447\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/proac-clones-finished-almost/images/proac_response_2_5_hu_8a01f9bf2a5b7a4b.jpg\" width=\"178\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e So I finished putting my new diy speakers together. I still need to put veneer on them (probably going to use cherry) But they sound great! Yes, really great. I\u0026rsquo;m going to add the notch filter, just to try it out.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Proac clones finished! Almost..."},{"content":" So I finally decided to go with the Proac Response 2.5 clone speakers. The original speaker costs $4400, but a very good copy or the original is possible to build for around $1000. It uses high quality Scan Speak speaker elements, and I bought them today. My friend Micke is also building a pair at the same time. So now I have four speakers standing in my livingroom. Everything is covered in MDF dust. Thankfully I have a very understanding wife.\nSo far we have put together the side and top walls. Today we glued the Bituben dampening material to all the walls (except the front baffle) I still feel faint and feel a stinging sensation in my fingers. Next time, gas masks. Anyway, we are moving along in a good pace. Hopefully we will have a pair of working speakers finished this weekend. The plan is to first finish the speakers, but not glue the back end so we can make adjustments to the stuffing and filtering. I also want to try different lengths of the bass reflex tube. Coming along nicely. But I\u0026rsquo;m still worried about doing the veneering.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/proac-response-25-clones/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Proac Response 2.5 Clone\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"378\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/proac-response-25-clones/images/proac_response_clone_hu_78b2dc8e75bba5b1.jpg\" width=\"180\"\u003e So I finally decided to go with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/196proac/\"\u003eProac Response 2.5\u003c/a\u003e clone speakers. The original speaker costs $4400, but a very good copy or the original is possible to build for around $1000. It uses high quality Scan Speak speaker elements, and I bought them today. My friend Micke is also building a pair at the same time. So now I have four speakers standing in my livingroom. Everything is covered in MDF dust. Thankfully I have a very understanding wife.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Proac Response 2.5 clones"},{"content":" Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick picture of my finished Cyburg Needles speakers. First time I ever done any wood crafting, and they sound great! They are really easy to build. You can find the plans for them here (PDF warning).. Next up, a pair of Jordan Transmission Line speakers.\nUpdate: I built a couple of ProAc Response 2.5 clones instead. They are incredible and sounds absolutely amazing!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/cyburg-needles-speakers/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Cyburg Needles DIY Speakers\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"326\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/cyburg-needles-speakers/images/cyburg_needles_hu_a42ee179ade69a95.jpg\" width=\"244\"\u003e Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick picture of my finished Cyburg Needles speakers. First time I ever done any wood crafting, and they sound great! They are really easy to build. \u003ca href=\"http://hifi.splibs.net/content/tqwt/2/Needle.pdf\"\u003eYou can find the plans for them here (PDF warning).\u003c/a\u003e. Next up, a pair of \u003ca href=\"http://www.quadesl.com/tidytl.html\"\u003eJordan Transmission Line speakers\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e I built a couple of \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/proac-response-25-clones-plays-real-music/\"\u003eProAc Response 2.5 clones\u003c/a\u003e instead. They are incredible and sounds absolutely amazing!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cyburg Needles Speakers"},{"content":"I have made some small upgrades to JackenIAX. The main thing is that now you can set the number of digits used for local extensions, so that you don\u0026rsquo;t get a prefix number added before dialing.\nThere is other stuff coming shortly\u0026hellip;\nGo and download the latest JackenIAX\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/new-version-of-jackeniax-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have made some small upgrades to JackenIAX. The main thing is that now you can set the number of digits used for local extensions, so that you don\u0026rsquo;t get a prefix number added before dialing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is other stuff coming shortly\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo and download the latest JackenIAX\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New version of JackenIAX"},{"content":"I want to have a couple of speakers in the beadroom, so I started to search the net. I found a very intresting DYI speaker project here (Swedish). So I ordered the speakers and can\u0026rsquo;t wait to get them. My skills in working with wood is very limited, but I may get some help from one of my friends, who is an expert wood carpenter.\nThe build is based on a German project called Lancetta (PDF warning) but with some modifications. Very cool using a small 3\u0026quot; driver. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to post more info when I get started.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/diy-speakers/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Image of a Tangband W3871S speaker\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/diy-speakers/images/tangbandW3871S_hu_c48409c0185877d7.jpg\" srcset=\"/diy-speakers/images/tangbandW3871S_hu_7e97bc166e3e1d6d.jpg 360w,/diy-speakers/images/tangbandW3871S_hu_826973438dbdd8c5.jpg 480w,/diy-speakers/images/tangbandW3871S_hu_f3a5264e0c74e3b4.jpg 720w\" width=\"900\"\u003eI want to have a couple of speakers in the beadroom, so I started to search the net. I found a very intresting \u003ca href=\"http://www.hififorum.nu/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45145\u0026amp;whichpage=1\u0026amp;SearchTerms=lancetta\"\u003eDYI speaker project\u003c/a\u003e here (Swedish). So I ordered the speakers and can\u0026rsquo;t wait to get them. My skills in working with wood is very limited, but I may get some help from one of my friends, who is an expert wood carpenter.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"DIY speakers"},{"content":"I finally completed a new version of JackenIAX. It now has up to four lines support. I also added a searchable call log. Lot\u0026rsquo;s of other small improvements as well.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/jackeniax-with-multiple-lines-support/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI finally completed a new version of JackenIAX. It now has up to four lines support. I also added a searchable call log. Lot\u0026rsquo;s of other small improvements as well.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"JackenIAX with multiple lines support"},{"content":"My videos\nSearch \u0026amp; Destroy By Sofia\nhttp://vimeo.com/34026150\nMy first movie part as a fat middle-aged man (TYPECAST!). Filmed in glorious 35mm!\nMy old Nova\nhttp://vimeo.com/35017774\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/videos-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMy videos\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSearch \u0026amp; Destroy By Sofia\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://vimeo.com/34026150\"\u003ehttp://vimeo.com/34026150\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy first movie part as a fat middle-aged man (TYPECAST!). Filmed in glorious 35mm!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMy old Nova\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://vimeo.com/35017774\"\u003ehttp://vimeo.com/35017774\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Videos"},{"content":"I found the site CSS Library, a great source for CSS code snippets and ideas. Fits me perfectly because I\u0026rsquo;m working on a Drupal site for work, and this comes in handy.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/great-source-for-css-ideas/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI found the site \u003ca href=\"http://www.dynamicdrive.com/\" title=\"CSS Library\"\u003eCSS Library\u003c/a\u003e, a great source for CSS code snippets and ideas. Fits me perfectly because I\u0026rsquo;m working on a Drupal site for work, and this comes in handy.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Great source for CSS ideas"},{"content":"I just uploaded an updated version of my site. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of stuff still to fix, like old pictures in the wrong sizes etc. The same goes for the movie pages. But at least I finally installed WordPress 2.02.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/updated-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI just uploaded an updated version of my site. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of stuff still to fix, like old pictures in the wrong sizes etc. The same goes for the movie pages. But at least I finally installed \u003ca href=\"http://www.wordpress.org\" title=\"WordPress\"\u003eWordPress 2.02\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Updated blog"},{"content":"I finally have a version of JackenIAX that supports multiple lines. I have added so you can choose to output background music for the calls on hold. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of testing, and I also have to rethink the user interface to be able to handle multiple calls. But i think it\u0026rsquo;s going to be cool.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/jackeniax-and-multiple-lines/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI finally have a version of JackenIAX that supports multiple lines. I have added so you can choose to output background music for the calls on hold. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of testing, and I also have to rethink the user interface to be able to handle multiple calls. But i think it\u0026rsquo;s going to be cool.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"JackenIAX and multiple lines"},{"content":"You got to love the net. What ever you search for, you\u0026rsquo;ll find it. One of the best concert I even attended was the last concert with a Swedish punk band called Grisen Skriker (the pigs are screaming) back in 1979. And guess what, someone took pictures of the event. Naturally I did a vanity search of the pictures, but couldn\u0026rsquo;t find myself in the pictures. But I did find the lead singer of the band Ebba Grön, one of the ultimate Swedish punk bands. He probably learned a thing or two that night. It took me one hour just to make it from the door into the hall where they where playing. The band eventually took their clothes of, because the air conditioning broke down.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/grisen-skriker/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYou got to love the net. What ever you search for, you\u0026rsquo;ll find it. One of the best concert I even attended was the last concert with a Swedish punk band called Grisen Skriker (the pigs are screaming) back in 1979. And guess what, someone took pictures of the event. Naturally I did a vanity search of the pictures, but couldn\u0026rsquo;t find myself in the pictures. But I did find the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com/grisen-skriker/images/thastrom.jpg\"\u003elead singer of the band Ebba Grön\u003c/a\u003e, one of the ultimate Swedish punk bands. He probably learned a thing or two that night. It took me one hour just to make it from the door into the hall where they where playing. The band eventually took their clothes of, because the air conditioning broke down.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Grisen skriker"},{"content":"Every time I answer the phone (yes, I\u0026rsquo;m using JackenIAX), I have to pause iTunes before answering. So today I added an option so when you answer or dial, iTunes pauses automatically. It will be in the next release (within a couple of days) I had to rewrite a large section of code for some other features that I have planned. I\u0026rsquo;m getting a bit more comfortable with Cocoa programming, and discovers old code full of brain farts. And the code is getting smaller with more features. A step in the right direction\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/adding-new-features/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEvery time I answer the phone (yes, I\u0026rsquo;m using JackenIAX), I have to pause iTunes before answering. So today I added an option so when you answer or dial, iTunes pauses automatically. It will be in the next release (within a couple of days) I had to rewrite a large section of code for some other features that I have planned. I\u0026rsquo;m getting a bit more comfortable with Cocoa programming, and discovers old code full of brain farts. And the code is getting smaller with more features. A step in the right direction\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Adding new features"},{"content":"I just put up a new version of JackenIAX. Added Applescript support, URL dialing (currently only via Applescript), DTMF tones when dialing etc.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/new-version-of-jackeniax/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI just put up a new version of JackenIAX. Added Applescript support, URL dialing (currently only via Applescript), DTMF tones when dialing etc.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New version of JackenIAX"},{"content":"So Apple released a new Intel Mac Mini today. And they use Intels GMA950 for graphics. How stupid is this? So this machine is a no-go for me. I\u0026rsquo;m so disappointed.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/apple-hates-games/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo Apple released a new Intel Mac Mini today. And they use Intels GMA950 for graphics. How stupid is this? So this machine is a no-go for me. I\u0026rsquo;m so disappointed.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple hates games"},{"content":" I just received a mail from a user of JackenIAX. He\u0026rsquo;s running a patched version of Mac OS X on a generic PC, and now the program works on his machine. Cool! So now I guess JackenIAX is working on Intel Macs as well. Debugging via proxy (I don\u0026rsquo;t have an Intel Mac) is not the way to go. You could press the Donate button on this page, and I promise to buy a Intel Mac for debugging. Nudge Nudge\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/looks-like-it-works-on-intel-mac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Jackeniax Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"126\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/looks-like-it-works-on-intel-mac/images/jackeniax_icon1_hu_9f3cd4413abe4492.png\" width=\"131\"\u003e I just received a mail from a user of JackenIAX. He\u0026rsquo;s running a patched version of Mac OS X on a generic PC, and now the program works on his machine. Cool! So now I guess JackenIAX is working on Intel Macs as well. Debugging via proxy (I don\u0026rsquo;t have an Intel Mac) is not the way to go. You could press the Donate button on this page, and I promise to buy a Intel Mac for debugging. Nudge Nudge\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Looks like it works on Intel Mac"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve added a couple of new features in JackenIAX.\nAdded a symbol to indicate when you got new voice messages in your Asterisk server. Rewrote all of the code for the indicator symbols. Nothing you will notice, but I feel good about it. Now the codec selection actually work. Input validation of all preferences.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/new-features-in-jackeniax/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve added a couple of new features in JackenIAX.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdded a symbol to indicate when you got new voice messages in your Asterisk server. Rewrote all of the code for the indicator symbols. Nothing you will notice, but I feel good about it. Now the codec selection actually work. Input validation of all preferences.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New features in JackenIAX"},{"content":"As you may know I recently released my new program for VoIP for the mac. I have written instructions on the home-page how to get a free account at FWD Free World Dialup to test. It seems they have a lot of downtime, so I get a lot of bug reports. I really need another free IAX provider to recommend. Anyone knows about one?\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/problems-on-the-other-end/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs you may know I recently released my new program for VoIP for the mac. I have written instructions on the home-page how to get a free account at FWD Free World Dialup to test. It seems they have a lot of downtime, so I get a lot of bug reports. I really need another free IAX provider to recommend. Anyone knows about one?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Problems on the other end"},{"content":" So it\u0026rsquo;s finally time to release my IAX softphone for Macintosh. It\u0026rsquo;s still very much in beta, but I need feedback on how everything works. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of stuff that I\u0026rsquo;m adding that didn\u0026rsquo;t make it into this release. Have a look here.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/first-beta-of-jackeniax-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Jackeniax Icon\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"126\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/first-beta-of-jackeniax-released/images/jackeniax_icon_hu_9f3cd4413abe4492.png\" width=\"131\"\u003e So it\u0026rsquo;s finally time to release my IAX softphone for Macintosh. It\u0026rsquo;s still very much in beta, but I need feedback on how everything works. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of stuff that I\u0026rsquo;m adding that didn\u0026rsquo;t make it into this release. Have a look here.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"First beta of JackenIAX released"},{"content":"I just need to write rudimentary install instructions, finish the simple homepage for downloading and I\u0026rsquo;m in business. So any day now\u0026hellip;\nIf you are in a hurry, mail me at info@jackenhack.com and ask if you can join the beta team.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/the-release-of-the-first-beta-of-jackeniax-softphone-for-mac-os-104-is-imminent/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI just need to write rudimentary install instructions, finish the simple homepage for downloading and I\u0026rsquo;m in business. So any day now\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you are in a hurry, mail me at \u003ca href=\"mailto:info@jackenhack.com\"\u003einfo@jackenhack.com\u003c/a\u003e and ask if you can join the beta team.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The release of the first beta of JackenIAX SoftPhone for Mac OS 10.4 is imminent"},{"content":" I used to be fascinated by the idea of a voice interface to the computer. That was until I actually used one. It feels awkward and it\u0026rsquo;s slow. Yeah it has some use in specific applications, but for general use, I think it will never be. Back in 1983 Hewlett Packard released a computer called HP 150 that used touch-screens. My boss thought that I needed to go though their authorization courses to learn about this new revolutionary computer they where going to sell. So I was excited (this was before the mac). It was kind of fun to see that the attendees was fascinated and used the touch-sceen for the first fifteen minutes, but it was just to slow and uncomfortable to use, so everyone, including the teacher, started to use the keyboard. So I just wrote that computer off. And I\u0026rsquo;ve been skeptical about touch-screen input ever since. Until I saw this and was blown away! If a tablet computer had something like this I\u0026rsquo;d sell my body to science to get one. And science would probably reject the body and demand a refund. But then it\u0026rsquo;s to late, I\u0026rsquo;m dead and I have a tablet computer! Muhahahaa!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/interfaces/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Hp150 Small\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"198\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/interfaces/images/hp150_small_hu_c8c8ed472c5dcdbc.jpg\" width=\"200\"\u003e I used to be fascinated by the idea of a voice interface to the computer. That was until I actually used one. It feels awkward and it\u0026rsquo;s slow. Yeah it has some use in specific applications, but for general use, I think it will never be. Back in 1983 Hewlett Packard released a computer called HP 150 that used touch-screens. My boss thought that I needed to go though their authorization courses to learn about this new revolutionary computer they where going to sell. So I was excited (this was before the mac). It was kind of fun to see that the attendees was fascinated and used the touch-sceen for the first fifteen minutes, but it was just to slow and uncomfortable to use, so everyone, including the teacher, started to use the keyboard. So I just wrote that computer off. And I\u0026rsquo;ve been skeptical about touch-screen input ever since. \u003ca href=\"http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/\" title=\"Touch-screen input that works\"\u003eUntil I saw this\u003c/a\u003e and was blown away! If a tablet computer had something like this I\u0026rsquo;d sell my body to science to get one. And science would probably reject the body and demand a refund. But then it\u0026rsquo;s to late, I\u0026rsquo;m dead and I have a tablet computer! Muhahahaa!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Interfaces"},{"content":"\nBuilding the venerable CMoy DIY Headphone Amplifier The last couple of weeks I\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking of building a small headphone amplifier. I want to tap into the line-out of my iPod to get better sound. I also have a problem with my headphone jack on my pod. After fighting with my friend Hermans dog, he managed to get his paw entangled in my headphone cables and destroyed the cable jack. So I have searched the net to try to find a good amplifier to build (I don\u0026rsquo;t have the money to buy one right now), and I found the Cmoy headphone amplifier. But I used another build page that has some upgrades to it. Unfortunately I could not find the bread board they used, so I had to make my own design. So after a couple of hours of soldering and using a drill it was time to try it out. And it worked! No debugging or anything. This must be a first.\nLearning electronics This is a great way of learning electronics. Just read the articles at TangentSoft about audio amplifiers and you will learn a lot on how audio and amplifiers work. And you\u0026rsquo;ll find ways of improving or even building better headphone amplifiers as well. You\u0026rsquo;ll even learn how to improve manufactured headphone amplifiers by modding them.\nSo how does the CMoy amplifier sound? Loud! And I think the quality is very good. I have tested them on my Shure e2c, Koss MX100 and my Sennheiser 600. I didn\u0026rsquo;t do a lot of listening with the 600, but the Koss MX 100 get a big quality improvement. Will continue to test it out tomorrow.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/cmoy-headphone-amplifier/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"CMoy DIY Headphone Amplifier\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"187\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/cmoy-headphone-amplifier/images/_MG_4120_hu_282e336c74e0c1e.jpg\" width=\"200\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"building-the-venerable-cmoy-diy-headphone-amplifier\"\u003eBuilding the venerable CMoy DIY Headphone Amplifier\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe last couple of weeks I\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking of building a small headphone amplifier. I want to tap into the line-out of my iPod to get better sound. I also have a problem with my headphone jack on my pod. After fighting with my friend Hermans dog, he managed to get his paw entangled in my headphone cables and destroyed the cable jack. So I have searched the net to try to find a good amplifier to build (I don\u0026rsquo;t have the money to buy one right now), and I found the \u003ca href=\"http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy/\"\u003eCmoy headphone amplifier\u003c/a\u003e. But I used \u003ca href=\"http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/\"\u003eanother build page\u003c/a\u003e that has some upgrades to it. Unfortunately I could not find the bread board they used, so I had to make my own design. So after a couple of hours of soldering and using a drill it was time to try it out. And it worked! No debugging or anything. This must be a first.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"CMoy DIY Headphone Amplifier"},{"content":"So I finally got my 100 mbit internet connection. Yay! But after testing the speed through my WRT54G router/firewall, I could not get higher speeds than around 20 mbit/sec. After assembling an old 300 mhz pc with three Ethernet cards and the SmoothWall linux firewall I get around 70 mbits/sec. I will probably try to overclock the poor old pc to 400 mhz tomorrow. To try everything out, I downloaded the XCode 2.2.1 development image from Apple. It\u0026rsquo;s around 800 mb and it took just a couple of minutes. I could get used to this.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/firewall/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo I finally got my 100 mbit internet connection. Yay! But after testing the speed through my WRT54G router/firewall, I could not get higher speeds than around 20 mbit/sec. After assembling an old 300 mhz pc with three Ethernet cards and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.smoothwall.org/\" title=\"SmoothWall Linux Firewall software\"\u003eSmoothWall\u003c/a\u003e linux firewall I get around 70 mbits/sec. I will probably try to overclock the poor old pc to 400 mhz tomorrow. To try everything out, I downloaded the XCode 2.2.1 development image from Apple. It\u0026rsquo;s around 800 mb and it took just a couple of minutes. I could get used to this.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Firewall"},{"content":"Still having problems with looping echo on my Powerbook G4 15\u0026quot; There\u0026rsquo;s a new website about the problem, so go there and sign up if you experience this problem.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s incredible that Apple has chosen to keep this problem quiet. Instead of admitting that they have a problem with the latest 15 and 17\u0026quot; Powerbooks. Instead they give lame excuses and tells the customer that they can only run one audio program at a time. But even that doesn\u0026rsquo;t work. Give it enough time, and this could become a PR nightmare for them. If they just admitted that they have a problem and that a fix is on the way, but right now no one even knows if they are going to fix this.\nMy guess is that it\u0026rsquo;s a hardware problem and that they fear that they need to replace the motherboard on all HighRes Powerbooks\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/apples-silence-and-my-powerbooks-echo/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eStill having problems with looping echo on my Powerbook G4 15\u0026quot; There\u0026rsquo;s a new website about the problem, so \u003ca href=\"http://powerbookdefect.info/\" title=\"Echo problem on Powerbook g4\"\u003ego there\u003c/a\u003e and sign up if you experience this problem.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s incredible that Apple has chosen to keep this problem quiet. Instead of admitting that they have a problem with the latest 15 and 17\u0026quot; Powerbooks. Instead they give lame excuses and tells the customer that they can only run one audio program at a time. But even that doesn\u0026rsquo;t work. Give it enough time, and this could become a PR nightmare for them. If they just admitted that they have a problem and that a fix is on the way, but right now no one even knows if they are going to fix this.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apples silence and my Powerbooks echo"},{"content":"I haven\u0026rsquo;t had time to update my blog for a while. The last couple of days has been spent trying to hunt down an annoying bug in my IAX client I\u0026rsquo;m writing. Sometimes when dialing in, my program would not get a notification from the Asterisk server that a call was in progress. So I have tested all sorts of things to try to find the bug. So today I finally used tcpdump to see exactly what kind of packets I got from the server. And the problem was that I connected from the inside of my firewall, out trough and back again! So it was just an miss-configuration, the program has been working all along. Isn\u0026rsquo;t the Darwin award coming up soon?\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/waiting-time/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI haven\u0026rsquo;t had time to update my blog for a while. The last couple of days has been spent trying to hunt down an annoying bug in my IAX client I\u0026rsquo;m writing. Sometimes when dialing in, my program would not get a notification from the Asterisk server that a call was in progress. So I have tested all sorts of things to try to find the bug. So today I finally used tcpdump to see exactly what kind of packets I got from the server. And the problem was that I connected from the inside of my firewall, out trough and back again! So it was just an miss-configuration, the program has been working all along. Isn\u0026rsquo;t the Darwin award coming up soon?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Waiting time"},{"content":"\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been hard at work on my IAX client software the last couple of days. I also have re-written a lot of the code. I decided early on that I wanted to have classical VU-meters to display the in and output volume. But I don\u0026rsquo;t want them to take to much CPU time. So I made a lot of optimizations on that code. So after the rewrite I managed to lower the CPU utilisation by half. And it\u0026rsquo;s fun to do programming in Cocoa, but the framework is hard to learn by the volume of it. But slowly I\u0026rsquo;m getting more comfortable.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/vu-meter/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Vumeter\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"92\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/vu-meter/images/vumeter_hu_e967c9a3fcc2c934.png\" width=\"160\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been hard at work on my IAX client software the last couple of days. I also have re-written a lot of the code. I decided early on that I wanted to have classical VU-meters to display the in and output volume. But I don\u0026rsquo;t want them to take to much CPU time. So I made a lot of optimizations on that code. So after the rewrite I managed to lower the CPU utilisation by half. And it\u0026rsquo;s fun to do programming in Cocoa, but the framework is hard to learn by the volume of it. But slowly I\u0026rsquo;m getting more comfortable.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"VU Meter"},{"content":"After reading stuff like this and this, I wonder Is it only me who sees the connection? There\u0026rsquo;s been a lot of discussions on the net about Apple getting a bit of the Intel \u0026ldquo;Intel Inside\u0026rdquo; payoff and if they consider putting the logo on the new macs? My uneducated guess is that Mr Jobs actually made Intel change their logo to something worthy putting on a Mac. Just my guess. But I\u0026rsquo;m known to be insane\u0026hellip;\nAfter reading stupid predictions from companies like Gartners and others I thought I might have a go, so my prediction is that the first machines to have a new Intel logo is going to be a Macintosh.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/logos-intel-and-apple-computer/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter reading stuff like \u003ca href=\"http://appleaday.blogspot.com/2005/12/intel-logo-on-apple-computers.html\" title=\"Intel logo\"\u003ethis\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28562\" title=\"New logo for intel\"\u003ethis\u003c/a\u003e, I wonder Is it only me who sees the connection? There\u0026rsquo;s been a lot of discussions on the net about Apple getting a bit of the Intel \u0026ldquo;Intel Inside\u0026rdquo; payoff and if they consider putting the logo on the new macs? My uneducated guess is that Mr Jobs actually made Intel change their logo to something worthy putting on a Mac. Just my guess. But I\u0026rsquo;m known to be insane\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Logos, Intel and Apple Computer"},{"content":"\nI have had a bit of a snag in my program Im writing, so to do something else for a while. So I tried to install Ruby On Rails, a much talked about web developer framework. And after reading all the hype, I just had to see what it was like. So off to Ruby By Rails homepage to read up on it. They have a presentation area that has a couple of Quicktime films demonstrating Rails programming. And rails looks good! But another thing caught my eye, the guy managed to write code fast and easily it seemed. And the guy doing the demonstration was doing it on a Mac OS X machine. The speed and the way of working with text really blew me away. But nowhere could I find the name of the text editor. So I had some googling to do. And I found it. It\u0026rsquo;s called TextMate. So I wanted to buy it so I could use it to program my new VoIP software client. But I don\u0026rsquo;t have much money to spend on software right now, being totally broke, but after seeing the price €39 I bought it immediately, you can\u0026rsquo;t complain at that price. The integration with XCode looks good. I haven\u0026rsquo;t had any problems so far. It\u0026rsquo;s nice to see that you can find great software from small firms and download and buy them directly.\nLooks like I found a new text editor.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/textmate/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"TextMate Text Editor\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"127\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/textmate/images/textmateicon_hu_ff87bea2aebac84c.png\" title=\"TextMate Text Editor\" width=\"132\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have had a bit of a snag in my program Im writing, so to do something else for a while. So I tried to install \u003ca href=\"http://www.rubyonrails.org/\" title=\"Ruby On Rails\"\u003eRuby On Rails\u003c/a\u003e, a much talked about web developer framework. And after reading all the hype, I just had to see what it was like. So off to \u003ca href=\"http://www.rubyonrails.org/\" title=\"Ruby On Rails Home Page\"\u003eRuby By Rails homepage\u003c/a\u003e to read up on it. \u003ca href=\"http://rubyonrails.org/screencasts/\" title=\"Ruby On Rails demonstration video\"\u003eThey have a presentation area that has a couple of Quicktime films demonstrating Rails programming\u003c/a\u003e. And rails looks good! But another thing caught my eye, the guy managed to write code fast and easily it seemed. And the guy doing the demonstration was doing it on a Mac OS X machine. The speed and the way of working with text really blew me away. But nowhere could I find the name of the text editor. So I had some googling to do. And I found it. It\u0026rsquo;s called \u003ca href=\"http://www.macromates.com/\" title=\"TextMate the best text editor on Mac OS X\"\u003eTextMate\u003c/a\u003e. So I wanted to buy it so I could use it to program my new VoIP software client. But I don\u0026rsquo;t have much money to spend on software right now, being totally broke, but after seeing the price €39 I bought it immediately, you can\u0026rsquo;t complain at that price. The integration with XCode looks good. I haven\u0026rsquo;t had any problems so far. It\u0026rsquo;s nice to see that you can find great software from small firms and download and buy them directly.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"TextMate"},{"content":"The IAX client I\u0026rsquo;m writing is coming along nicely. It\u0026rsquo;s now in a state that makes the program usable. And today I made changes so I could compile a universal binary. And the program works on my PPC mac, but I use some libraries I needed to change the makefiles for, so I don\u0026rsquo;t know if they work on a Intel Mac. It would be cool if I could get the first release to support universal binaries, so hopefully I can find someone who has a developer machine, or a pc with a hacked Mac OS X for Intel on it.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/compiling/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe IAX client I\u0026rsquo;m writing is coming along nicely. It\u0026rsquo;s now in a state that makes the program usable. And today I made changes so I could compile a universal binary. And the program works on my PPC mac, but I use some libraries I needed to change the makefiles for, so I don\u0026rsquo;t know if they work on a Intel Mac. It would be cool if I could get the first release to support universal binaries, so hopefully I can find someone who has a developer machine, or a pc with a hacked Mac OS X for Intel on it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Compiling"},{"content":"With the latest beta firmware in the Grandstream GXP-2000 VoIP phone, the have added support for BLF. This means that you can use the quick dial LEDs for status of extensions. You can monitor all extensions on your phone. If a extension is busy, the led for that extension is lit. You can also dial directly to the extension by pressing the dial button. Very handy.\nFirst you need to upgrade your firmware on your Grandstream GXP-2000 phone. You can download the v1.0.1.13 beta firmware here. There have been some reports of problems with this firmware, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t had any problems with it so far.\nTo upload the firmware to the phone you need a TFTP-server. I used TftpServer for Mac OS X. There are similar programs for Windows, like this one. But I haven\u0026rsquo;t tried them.\nunpack the firmware, and put the files boot55.bin and gxp2000.bin in the root directory of your TFTP server. Now you need to tell your Grandstream phone where it can find the new firmware. So log in to your Grandstream phone by pointing your web browser to the ip of the phone (if you look on the phone display you can find the ip-number). Log in with the password (the standard is \u0026ldquo;admin\u0026rdquo;) you configured the phone with. Select \u0026ldquo;Advanced Settings\u0026rdquo; and select Via TFTP server under Firmware upgrade. You need to enter the ip-number of the computer running your TFTP server. In my case its 192.168.1.223.\nPress the update button at the bottom of the web page and then press reboot. If everything is working your phone should reboot, and then the status light should blink while it downloads the firmware from your TFTP server. The whole upgrade process takes a minute or two.\nWhen the phone has booted up again you can check the current firmware version by pressing the MENU button and then the UP button on your phone until you see Firmware displayed on your phone. Press the MENU button to display the firmware version. You should now have a phone with v1.0.1.13 of the firmware.\nOk, so now it\u0026rsquo;s time to get your Asterisk@Home server configured. Start by logging in via SSH or directly on a the Asterisk server. Then you need to write the following in the terminal.\ncd /etc/asterisk nano extensions_custom.conf I have three extensions I want to have status information on: 200 is my wireless phone 201 is my wifes wireless phone 202 is a phone in my office\nSo to add so that I can get status info about these extensions, I\u0026rsquo;ll add the following in the [ext-local-custom] context. [cc] [ext-local-custom] exten =\u0026gt; 200,hint,SIP/200 exten =\u0026gt; 201,hint,SIP/201 exten =\u0026gt; 202,hint,SIP/202[/cc] Press ctrl-x and press yes to save the file. Now we need to tell Asterisk that this is the context to give status on.\nWrite the following in the terminal window\nnano sip.conf\nAnd add the following line under the [general] context.\nsubscribecontext=ext-local-custom\nPress ctrl-x and press y to save your changes.\nNow you need to restart your asterisk server by writing the following:\nasterisk -r restart gracefully The asterisk server should now restart.\nWhere now ready to configure the Grandstream phone to display status for these lines. So log into the Grandstream phone with your web browser again. Go to Basic Settings and set up your extensions. Here you can see how my settings would look like.\nNote that the keymode is Asterisk BLF and not Quickdial. Press the update button and restart the phone.\nNow try to dial from one of your extensions and the LED on your Grandstream phone should light up.\nYay!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/setting-up-subscribenotify-blf-in-asteriskhome-for-grandstream-gxp-2000-phones/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWith the latest beta firmware in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ROZZ44?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;tag=jackensweblog-20\u0026amp;linkCode=as2\u0026amp;camp=1789\u0026amp;creative=390957\u0026amp;creativeASIN=B001ROZZ44\"\u003eGrandstream GXP-2000 VoIP phone\u003c/a\u003e, the have added support for BLF. This means that you can use the quick dial LEDs for status of extensions. You can monitor all extensions on your phone. If a extension is busy, the led for that extension is lit. You can also dial directly to the extension by pressing the dial button. Very handy.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Setting up SUBSCRIBE/NOTIFY BLF in Asterisk@Home for Grandstream GXP-2000 phones"},{"content":"So my wonderful wife gave me a new Powerbook G4 15\u0026quot;. And it\u0026rsquo;s a a nice machine. A lot of people will probably laugh at me when the new Intel Powerbooks will be available in early 2006, but she could only get hold of one now. And I\u0026rsquo;m not complaining. I\u0026rsquo;m currently so poor that dogs compulsory take a piss on my leg.\nThe screen has the same resolution as the last 17\u0026quot; screen. So now I have to change the font size in Xcode and NetNewsWire to be able to read. And I keep finding new specs on the machine. I had to go into the audio settings and found that the machine now supports 24-bit 96khz audio. There\u0026rsquo;s also digital I/O.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s a joy to do programming when I have some screen real estate. My old 12\u0026quot; screen was a bit cramped when using Xcode with all the windows. And I have started to play games again. I have gone through Battlefield 1942 again. But now in high resolution. It\u0026rsquo;s a great game.\nI haven\u0026rsquo;t updated the blog as often as I should, but I\u0026rsquo;ve been busy. Looking for a job, programming on my new IAX softphone program. But I\u0026rsquo;m really going to need a good graphics designer to design the icon and the UI. So if someone feels up for it, send me a mail at jacken@jackenhack.com\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/new-powerbook/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo my wonderful wife gave me a new Powerbook G4 15\u0026quot;. And it\u0026rsquo;s a a nice machine. A lot of people will probably laugh at me when the new Intel Powerbooks will be available in early 2006, but she could only get hold of one now. And I\u0026rsquo;m not complaining. I\u0026rsquo;m currently so poor that dogs compulsory take a piss on my leg.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe screen has the same resolution as the last 17\u0026quot; screen. So now I have to change the font size in Xcode and \u003ca href=\"http://netnewswireapp.com\" title=\"The best news reader on macintosh\"\u003eNetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e to be able to read. And I keep finding new specs on the machine. I had to go into the audio settings and found that the machine now supports 24-bit 96khz audio. There\u0026rsquo;s also digital I/O.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Powerbook"},{"content":"Googles new free service both delight and scare the shit out of me. They have managed to get people to sign up their mail at GMail, letting Google index all their emails. And now with Google Analytics we are going to give them every detail on how we surf? So George Orwell was wrong, you don\u0026rsquo;t need an totalitarian society to have full control of peoples life\u0026rsquo;s. We are in-fact giving them that for free. We write our thoughts and events, and then hands the information over to a company for them to go trough and index and generate patterns. And as long as the company is \u0026ldquo;not evil\u0026rdquo; it\u0026rsquo;s apparently ok. Makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.\nBut not enough to stop me from signing up. I have lot of principles I live by, and one of them is to break the other principles I live by. Makes it easier.\nSo I signed up, put the javascript code and got an confirmation on the setup page that all was ok, and my statistics should show up within 12 hours. As of now I have waited 25 hours. I would think that hey have a lot more success of people signing up. Theres already a WordPress plugin to make it easy to use. My guess there will be a big update of their server farm that handles the analytic part.\nBut I\u0026rsquo;m really looking forward to get the new statistics to compare to my current systems.\nUpdate: I finally got my statistics. And it looks very comprehensive.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/google-analytics/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eGoogles new free service both delight and scare the shit out of me. They have managed to get people to sign up their mail at GMail, letting Google index all their emails. And now with \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/analytics/\" title=\"Google Analytics Web traffic statistics\"\u003eGoogle Analytics\u003c/a\u003e we are going to give them every detail on how we surf? So George Orwell was wrong, you don\u0026rsquo;t need an totalitarian society to have full control of peoples life\u0026rsquo;s. We are in-fact giving them that for free. We write our thoughts and events, and then hands the information over to a company for them to go trough and index and generate patterns. And as long as the company is \u0026ldquo;not evil\u0026rdquo; it\u0026rsquo;s apparently ok. Makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Analytics"},{"content":"On the latest versions of Apples Powerbook, there is a function called hibernate. Normally when you close the lid on your Powerbook to let it go to sleep, forgetting to plug it in to a charger, all your unsaved data will be lost. With hibernation activated, you just plug in your Powerbook with the depleted battery and press start. Now the desktop comes up, just the way it was when you put your machine to sleep. But this only works on the new machines? Well, some people beg to differ. Go read it and see if you can hack your machine to get it to work. I did it on my Powerbook G4 867ghz and have had no trouble so far.\nUpdate: I had to turn it off because my machine had problems waking up. Apparently there is problems with the 12\u0026quot; 867mhz machine.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/hibernate-on-your-older-powerbook-or-ibook/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOn the latest versions of Apples Powerbook, there is a function called hibernate. Normally when you close the lid on your Powerbook to let it go to sleep, forgetting to plug it in to a charger, all your unsaved data will be lost. With hibernation activated, you just plug in your Powerbook with the depleted battery and press start. Now the desktop comes up, just the way it was when you put your machine to sleep. But this only works on the new machines? Well, some people beg to differ. \u003ca href=\"http://matt.ucc.asn.au/apple/machibernate.html#makeitwork\" title=\"Use hibernation on your older powerbooks\"\u003eGo read it and see if you can hack your machine to get it to work\u003c/a\u003e. I did it on my Powerbook G4 867ghz and have had no trouble so far.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hibernate on your older Powerbook or iBook"},{"content":"I now have a working IAX soft phone up and running. Answering and dialing works. The sound quality is good. And the amount of cpu usage is around three percent. But as soon as I add all the animating graphics, like sound input/output meters and stuff, that figure will go up substantially. But one of the goals is to try to avoid letting the program becoming a resource hog.\nI decided to really try to stay focused on the basic stuff to really iron out the bugs/memory leaks before continuing to the fun stuff like user interface. But thanks to Project Builder, it\u0026rsquo;s easy to make a usable interface immediately.\nI wanted to call the program Breaker-Breaker! but there\u0026rsquo;s already a rock band called that. And even worse, a film with Chuck Norris. Next alternative, Ten-Four. If you can think of a better name, please comment.\nIf I manage to keep this tempo up, I\u0026rsquo;ll have a usable beta in a couple of weeks. Touch wood.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/application-name/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI now have a working IAX soft phone up and running. Answering and dialing works. The sound quality is good. And the amount of cpu usage is around three percent. But as soon as I add all the animating graphics, like sound input/output meters and stuff, that figure will go up substantially. But one of the goals is to try to avoid letting the program becoming a resource hog.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI decided to really try to stay focused on the basic stuff to really iron out the bugs/memory leaks before continuing to the fun stuff like user interface. But thanks to Project Builder, it\u0026rsquo;s easy to make a usable interface immediately.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Application name"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been looking for a softphone for Macintosh that uses IAX, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t been able to find a good one. The EyeBeam and X-lite uses sip and has stability problems so they are not an option either. So I started to write my own softphone. It\u0026rsquo;s nice to be programming in Cocoa again. But I\u0026rsquo;m becoming old, so I have to read up on programming in Cocoa again. I have a working softphone up and running already. Well, sort of. It receives calls and you can answer and talk. But I\u0026rsquo;ve only been writing on it for two days, and most of the time has been spent on installing a Subversion system on my server. As soon as I get a polished version, I\u0026rsquo;ll put up a beta program. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking of calling the program \u0026ldquo;Breaker-Breaker!\u0026rdquo; in the old CB-radio spirit. And yes, it will have the old style analog VU indicators for bandwidth and voice volume.\nUpdate: I have released my IAX Softphone client for Mac OS X, You can read more about it here.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/iax-soft-phones-for-mac-os-x/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been looking for a softphone for Macintosh that uses IAX, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t been able to find a good one. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.xten.com/index.php?menu=eyeBeam\" title=\"EyeBeam SIP Soft phone\"\u003eEyeBeam\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.xten.com/index.php?menu=X-Series\" title=\"X-lite SIP Soft phone\"\u003eX-lite\u003c/a\u003e uses sip and has stability problems so they are not an option either. So I started to write my own softphone. It\u0026rsquo;s nice to be programming in \u003ca href=\"http://developer.apple.com/cocoa/\" title=\"Cocoa Object oriented Application environment\"\u003eCocoa\u003c/a\u003e again. But I\u0026rsquo;m becoming old, so I have to read up on programming in Cocoa again. I have a working softphone up and running already. Well, sort of. It receives calls and you can answer and talk. But I\u0026rsquo;ve only been writing on it for two days, and most of the time has been spent on installing a Subversion system on my server. As soon as I get a polished version, I\u0026rsquo;ll put up a beta program. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking of calling the program \u0026ldquo;Breaker-Breaker!\u0026rdquo; in the old CB-radio spirit. And yes, it will have the old style analog VU indicators for bandwidth and voice volume.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"IAX Soft Phones for Mac OS X"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m currently looking for a new job, so I needed to write a CV and some other stuff. So I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to try out Apple Pages. Sure, it\u0026rsquo;s a bit buggy and slow in some instances, but over all it\u0026rsquo;s actually a pretty decent program. It won\u0026rsquo;t replace Microsoft Word for power users, but for people like me, who need to write simple documents, it\u0026rsquo;s perfect. My guess is that Apple have not done to well selling this program. And if they go the normal route, they\u0026rsquo;ll just stop updating it and let it die. This is a lesson that Apple really need to learn from Microsoft. They have to stick to it, improving the program, and the buyers will come.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/apple-pages/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m currently looking for a new job, so I needed to write a CV and some other stuff. So I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to try out \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/\" title=\"Apple Pages iWork Word processor\"\u003eApple Pages\u003c/a\u003e. Sure, it\u0026rsquo;s a bit buggy and slow in some instances, but over all it\u0026rsquo;s actually a pretty decent program. It won\u0026rsquo;t replace Microsoft Word for power users, but for people like me, who need to write simple documents, it\u0026rsquo;s perfect. My guess is that Apple have not done to well selling this program. And if they go the normal route, they\u0026rsquo;ll just stop updating it and let it die. This is a lesson that Apple really need to learn from Microsoft. They have to stick to it, improving the program, and the buyers will come.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple Pages"},{"content":" As soon as you mention the word VoIP, everyone responds with \u0026ldquo;Skype?\u0026rdquo; This immediately gets me into an discussion why people should not use Skype. The fact that your computer is used as a link to route traffic, much like BitTorrent. That it is based on a proprietary protocol, only known by Skype, so no other manufacturers can make compatible equipment without permisson (and probably a big fat wad of cash) to Skype Corporation. All this means that there\u0026rsquo;s no connection between Skype and regular SIP phones that is emerging as the standard for VoIP calls. But all hope is not lost.\nThe Gizmo Project is a program that\u0026rsquo;s much like Skype, except it\u0026rsquo;s based on standard codecs and protocols. That means that anyone using Gizmo could call someone with a different provider of VoIP. You can also set up so your Asterisk server automatically receives calls from Gizmo and direct them to their extension. All for free.\nAll new users get a SIP phone number that can be used from other SIP phones.\nSo if you already have an Asterisk server, now it should be easy to convince people to try Gizmo out. They can call you for free to your regular phone, and you can call Gizmo users as well.\nSo I\u0026rsquo;m going to see if I manages to convert my friends to use Gizmo Project instead. There\u0026rsquo;s a client for Mac, Windows and Linux.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/gizmo-project/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Gizmo-Logo2\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"90\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/gizmo-project/images/Gizmo-logo2.gif\" width=\"237\"\u003e As soon as you mention the word VoIP, everyone responds with \u0026ldquo;Skype?\u0026rdquo; This immediately gets me into an discussion why people should not use Skype. The fact that your computer is used as a link to route traffic, much like BitTorrent. That it is based on a proprietary protocol, only known by Skype, so no other manufacturers can make compatible equipment without permisson (and probably a big fat wad of cash) to Skype Corporation. All this means that there\u0026rsquo;s no connection between Skype and regular SIP phones that is emerging as the standard for VoIP calls. But all hope is not lost.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gizmo Project"},{"content":"I helped my friend Micke to set up an Asterisk@Home PBX server today. But when setting up Free World Dialup FWD, we had some problems. First I forgot to enable IAX in the account setup. After that, dialing out worked, but we could not dial in to his FWD number. To connect we use an IAX trunk. We searched for an hour trying to find the problem, and after searching Google we finally found the answer. In the trunk settings for FWD, the incoming user context has to be named iaxfwd. Irritating to say the least. After changing the name everything worked fine.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/problem-dialing-in-to-asteriskhome-from-fwd/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI helped my friend Micke to set up an Asterisk@Home PBX server today. But when setting up Free World Dialup FWD, we had some problems. First I forgot to \u003ca href=\"http://www.siptosip.net\"\u003eenable IAX in the account setup\u003c/a\u003e. After that, dialing out worked, but we could not dial in to his FWD number. To connect we use an IAX trunk. We searched for an hour trying to find the problem, and after searching Google we finally found the answer. In the trunk settings for FWD, the incoming user context has to be named \u003cstrong\u003eiaxfwd\u003c/strong\u003e. Irritating to say the least. After changing the name everything worked fine.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Problem dialing in to Asterisk@Home from FWD"},{"content":"Asterisk: The Future of Telephony online from O\u0026rsquo;Reilly Media. They have released it under the Creative Commons license. This means that you can download the book here for free. But it also means that you should buy the book here. Now you have the downloaded pdf version for quick searching, and the nice feel of a paper copy for browsing.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/free-book-about-asterisk/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Asterisk book\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"128\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/free-book-about-asterisk/images/asterisk_book_cover_tn_hu_d63a55bcc2434f35.jpg\" width=\"128\"\u003eAsterisk: The Future of Telephony online from O\u0026rsquo;Reilly Media. They have released it under the \u003ca href=\"http://creativecommons.org/\"\u003eCreative Commons license\u003c/a\u003e. \u003ca href=\"http://www.asteriskdocs.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=11\"\u003eThis means that you can download the book here for free\u003c/a\u003e. But it also means that you should \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2\u0026amp;camp=1789\u0026amp;tag=jackensweblog-20\u0026amp;creative=9325\u0026amp;path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596009623?v=glance%26n=283155%26n=507846%26s=books%26v=glance\"\u003ebuy the book here.\u003c/a\u003e \u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/free-book-about-asterisk/images/ir\"\u003eNow you have the downloaded pdf version for quick searching, and the nice feel of a paper copy for browsing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Free book about Asterisk"},{"content":" After setting up my Asterisk@Home server and do all the configuring to get all lines and extensions up and running, it was time for recording the Digital Receptionist messages. My first stab at it wasn\u0026rsquo;t that great, let\u0026rsquo;s face it, I\u0026rsquo;m no voice-over announcer. I wanted a little more professionally sounding recording. So I started to search the net for a way to do it, and I think I found a pretty good solution.\nUsing Text To Speech For The Menus In Asterisk Update: If you\u0026rsquo;re using Mac OS, these voices are included in the system. There\u0026rsquo;s a text-to-speech software from a company called Scansoft that is amazing. They also have a demo so you can try it out. If you choose RealSpeak Telecom, you get examples that are 8 kHz WAV files, just what Asterisk wants. You can only write up to 100 characters in the demo, but I\u0026rsquo;ll show you how to download and stitch together the demo files to get a more extended message that\u0026rsquo;s usable. There\u0026rsquo;s a lot of different languages to choose from, but these two are the best sounding English ones.\nEnglish Australian - Lee English Brittish - Daniel I live in Sweden, so I have used the Swedish voice. It\u0026rsquo;s not as good as the English voices (especially the Brittish), but it\u0026rsquo;s good enough.\nSo when you\u0026rsquo;ve chosen the language and the voice you like, enter the text you want to use for your Digital Reception message. You can only insert 100 characters at a time. When the demo voice loads in your browser, listen to see if you like the result. If it sounds terrible, try to rephrase using other words instead, and try again. When you get the result you desire, copy the URL from the resulting page and download the file to your computer. On a Linux or Macintosh computer, the easiest way to do it is to open a terminal window and write:\ncurl -O http://url_of_demo_file\nYou should now have a .wav file in your home directory.\nThere probably is an easy way to do this in Windows, but I don\u0026rsquo;t do Windows. You could try this. But I haven\u0026rsquo;t tried it.\nRepeat the above steps until you have all the speech you need for your voice menu.\nNow open the first file you have downloaded with a sound editing program. I would recommend Audacity, an Open Source sound editor, downloadable free for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.\nWhen you have installed your audio editor, open the first sound file that you saved earlier.\nNow it\u0026rsquo;s time to combine all the sound files you have saved, so open the next sound file. Then choose \u0026ldquo;Select All\u0026rdquo; under the Edit-menu.\nAll the audio is selected, and it\u0026rsquo;s time to copy it. Select \u0026ldquo;Copy\u0026rdquo; from the Edit-menu.\nClose the window. You should now see the first sound file you opened. So now let\u0026rsquo;s move the cursor to the end so we can paste in the sound we copied earlier to the end of this one. Choose \u0026ldquo;Move Cursor\u0026hellip; To track end\u0026rdquo; under the Edit-menu. Now choose \u0026ldquo;Paste\u0026rdquo; from the Edit menu. The copied sound should now be in the first document. Continue to open the next document, select all, close, move the cursor to the end and paste in with all the other files you saved. Now you have a complete audio file to use for your voice menu.\nCheck to see if you need to change the sampling rate of the document. Down in the left bottom corner of the file you should see the project rate. Make sure it\u0026rsquo;s 8000, otherwise change it.\nNow, we\u0026rsquo;re ready to save the completed audio file. Select \u0026ldquo;Export As WAV\u0026hellip;\u0026rdquo; from the File menu.\nSelect an appropriate name for the file and save it.\nSo let\u0026rsquo;s create a Digital Receptionist in Asterisk@Home.\nOpen your web browser and navigate to your Asterisk server. Go to the Asterisk Management Portal and select Setup.\nSelect Digital Receptionist. Click on \u0026ldquo;Create a new Voice Menu.\u0026rdquo; You\u0026rsquo;re now going to get a question on which extension you have. Ignore this, because we don\u0026rsquo;t need to record a message, we have the new one we just created. Just click on Continue.\nYou should now have the Record Menu on your screen. Here you can dial *77 to record a message, but you also have the choice to upload your file. And that\u0026rsquo;s what we\u0026rsquo;ll do. Press the \u0026ldquo;Choose file\u0026rdquo; button. Select the combined sound file you created earlier. Now press the Upload button. Note to Safari users. Sometimes there\u0026rsquo;s a problem uploading files. Download Google Chrome and use that instead.\nYou should now be able to dial *99 to listen to your uploaded voice menu. If everything sounds good, give the list a name and enter a description of the menu. Press the Continue when done.\nNow you need to enter the number of options in your voice menu. I\u0026rsquo;ve set up my list so people can leave a voicemail to all our four family members, so in my case, it\u0026rsquo;s four. Press continue.\nNow you have to describe which phone keys do what. Select your choices and press Continue.\nYou now have a new Digital Receptionist to use.\nThis isn\u0026rsquo;t brain surgery, but not everyone has used a sound editor, so maybe this helps someone.\nNext step, check if there is a possibility to use Scansofts RealSpeak together with Asterisk. Think about the opportunities.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/setting-up-a-professional-sounding-digital-receptionist-in-asteriskhome/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Asterisk\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"96\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/setting-up-a-professional-sounding-digital-receptionist-in-asteriskhome/images/asterisk.gif\" width=\"174\"\u003e After setting up my Asterisk@Home server and do all the configuring to get all lines and extensions up and running, it was time for recording the Digital Receptionist messages. My first stab at it wasn\u0026rsquo;t that great, let\u0026rsquo;s face it, I\u0026rsquo;m no voice-over announcer. I wanted a little more professionally sounding recording. So I started to search the net for a way to do it, and I think I found a pretty good solution.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A professional sounding Digital Receptionist in Asterisk"},{"content":"\nI got my first real Voip phone, the Grandstream GXP-2000 a week ago.\nI have two ATA boxes to connect my old wireless phones, but I wanted to try out a real IP-phone. It\u0026rsquo;s a nice enough phone, feels a bit cheap (which it is), but I guess you can\u0026rsquo;t get everything for $100. Connecting it to my Asterisk server was a no-brainer. It has a web interface for setup, but you can do basic setup like ip-numbers from the phonepad. It\u0026rsquo;s great to have an message-waiting led on the phone. Then you just press the MSG button to listen to your voice-box messages. To enable this function, just put *97 in the field \u0026ldquo;Voice Mail UserID\u0026rdquo; in the Account page of the web setup. There\u0026rsquo;s support for up to 11 line indicators (with an additional key-module) but I think I\u0026rsquo;ll do fine with four. The only thing I haven\u0026rsquo;t got working is the Conference button, but it\u0026rsquo;s easy to just transfer the calls to a conference number. You also have 7 quick dial buttons. To configure them, just go to the web setup for the phone and enter the name and number. The sound quality is excellent. Much better than both the Linksys PAP2 and the i3 micro Vood VRG-121 box I have for my old analog phones. The speaker phone works, but isn\u0026rsquo;t fantastic. I normally just use the speaker phone while waiting for the call to go through, so for me that\u0026rsquo;s not a problem. There\u0026rsquo;s a new firmware I\u0026rsquo;ve just installed that\u0026rsquo;s supposed to make the speaker phone part work better, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t had time to test it fully. So would I recommend this phone? Yes, if you need a cheap voip phone that uses SIP I can really recommend this one.\nMore blog entries about Asterisk\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/sip-voip-phone-grandstream-gxp-2000-review/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Grandstream voip phone\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/sip-voip-phone-grandstream-gxp-2000-review/images/GXP2000_front_p_hu_676c9d6861d18f9.jpg\" title=\"Grandstream voip phone\" width=\"240\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI got my first real Voip phone, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.grandstream.com\"\u003eGrandstream GXP-2000\u003c/a\u003e a week ago.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have two ATA boxes to connect my old wireless phones, but I wanted to try out a real IP-phone. It\u0026rsquo;s a nice enough phone, feels a bit cheap (which it is), but I guess you can\u0026rsquo;t get everything for $100. Connecting it to my \u003ca href=\"http://www.asterisk.org/\" title=\"Asterisk Open Source PBX Software\"\u003eAsterisk\u003c/a\u003e server was a no-brainer. It has a web interface for setup, but you can do basic setup like ip-numbers from the phonepad. It\u0026rsquo;s great to have an message-waiting led on the phone. Then you just press the MSG button to listen to your voice-box messages. To enable this function, just put *97 in the field \u0026ldquo;Voice Mail UserID\u0026rdquo; in the Account page of the web setup. There\u0026rsquo;s support for up to 11 line indicators (with an additional key-module) but I think I\u0026rsquo;ll do fine with four. The only thing I haven\u0026rsquo;t got working is the Conference button, but it\u0026rsquo;s easy to just transfer the calls to a conference number. You also have 7 quick dial buttons. To configure them, just go to the web setup for the phone and enter the name and number. The sound quality is excellent. Much better than both the \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2\u0026amp;camp=1789\u0026amp;tag=jackensweblog-20\u0026amp;creative=9325\u0026amp;path=tg/detail/-/B0002V8KX6/qid=1128813530/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1?v=glance%26s=pc%26n=507846\"\u003eLinksys PAP2\u003c/a\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/sip-voip-phone-grandstream-gxp-2000-review/images/ir\"\u003e and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.i3micro.com/\"\u003ei3 micro Vood VRG-121\u003c/a\u003e box I have for my old analog phones. The speaker phone works, but isn\u0026rsquo;t fantastic. I normally just use the speaker phone while waiting for the call to go through, so for me that\u0026rsquo;s not a problem. There\u0026rsquo;s a new firmware I\u0026rsquo;ve just installed that\u0026rsquo;s supposed to make the speaker phone part work better, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t had time to test it fully. So would I recommend this phone? Yes, if you need a cheap voip phone that uses SIP I can really recommend this one.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SIP Voip Phone Grandstream GXP-2000 Review"},{"content":"While watching some old stuff I recorded on my Dreambox, I found an old episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; the guest was Donald Trump. Leno is auctioning out a motorcycle for charity. A guest (a blond bimbo who\u0026rsquo;s name eludes me) sold a kiss to the audience for $500 for charity, which Jay Leno quickly doubled. During which one of wealthiest persons in the US sat silent, doing nothing. His publicist must have torn his hair out. You can\u0026rsquo;t make yourself look cheaper than that. Being a sleazy bastard is probably one of the many things you need to get that rich, but I rather stay poor than let me become anything like that man.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/donald-trump-a-cheap-bastard/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhile watching some old stuff I recorded on my Dreambox, I found an old episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; the guest was Donald Trump. Leno is auctioning out a motorcycle for charity. A guest (a blond bimbo who\u0026rsquo;s name eludes me) sold a kiss to the audience for $500 for charity, which Jay Leno quickly doubled. During which one of wealthiest persons in the US sat silent, doing nothing. His publicist must have torn his hair out. You can\u0026rsquo;t make yourself look cheaper than that. Being a sleazy bastard is probably one of the many things you need to get that rich, but I rather stay poor than let me become anything like that man.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Donald Trump, a cheap bastard?"},{"content":"Update: The code below does not work in Asterisk 2.0b4 or newer. I will update with instructions on how to get it to work in those versions. Thanks to Dan for pointing this out.\nUpdate: I have changed the code to the removed part. It now requires a key press to accept the number to delete.\nI have added a blacklist function to my Asterisk@Home server and thought that I\u0026rsquo;d share it here if someone is interested. There are two ways to add a number to the blacklist. The easiest is to dial *32. Then you get a voice telling you the number of the last incoming call. To add it to the blacklist, press 1. Great use against pesky telemarketers and If you want to add it manually, press *30. Then you can enter the phone number directly on your telephone. To remove an entry from the blacklist, press *31 and enter the phone number. If you don\u0026rsquo;t like the codes I use, change them.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s How You Add A Black-list Function In Asterisk Add the code below at the end of extensions_custom.conf. You can edit it from the web interface, go under Maintenance and Config Edit and select extensions_custom.conf. You have to add it to the _custom file because AMP changes the _additional.conf file every time you update something.\n[custom-blacklist-add] exten =\u0026gt; s,1,Playback(enter-num-blacklist); exten =\u0026gt; s,2,DigitTimeout(5) exten =\u0026gt; s,2,ResponseTimeout(60) exten =\u0026gt; s,3,Read(blacknr,then-press-pound) exten =\u0026gt; s,4,SayDigits(${blacknr}) exten =\u0026gt; s,5,Playback(if-correct-press) exten =\u0026gt; s,6,Playback(digits/1) exten =\u0026gt; 1,1,DBput(blacklist/${blacknr}=1) exten =\u0026gt; 1,2,Playback(num-was-successfully) exten =\u0026gt; 1,3,Playback(added) exten =\u0026gt; 1,4,Wait(1) exten =\u0026gt; 1,5,Hangup exten=_X.,3,Playback(num-was-successfully) exten=_X.,4,Playback(added) exten=_X.,5,Hangup [custom-blacklist-remove] exten =\u0026gt; s,1,Playback(entr-num-rmv-blklist) exten =\u0026gt; s,2,ResponseTimeout(60) exten =\u0026gt; s,3,Read(blacknr,then-press-pound) exten =\u0026gt; s,4,SayDigits(${blacknr}) exten =\u0026gt; s,5,Playback(if-correct-press) exten =\u0026gt; s,6,Playback(digits/1) exten =\u0026gt; 1,1,DBdel(blacklist/${blacknr}) exten =\u0026gt; 1,2,SayDigits($blacklist) exten =\u0026gt; 1,3,Playback(num-was-successfully) exten =\u0026gt; 1,4,Playback(removed) exten =\u0026gt; 1,5,Hangup [custom-blacklisted] exten=s,1,Answer exten=s,2,Wait(1) exten=s,3,Playback(nbdy-avail-to-take-call) exten=s,4,Playback(carried-away-by-monkeys) exten=s,5,Playback(lots-o-monkeys) exten=s,6,Hangup [custom-blacklist-last] exten =\u0026gt; s,1,Answer exten =\u0026gt; s,2,Wait(1) exten =\u0026gt; s,3,DBget(number=CALLTRACE/${CALLERIDNUM}); goto 104 if no last caller exten =\u0026gt; s,4,GotoIf($\u0026#34;${number}\u0026#34; = \u0026#34;\u0026#34;?104,1) ; also if it\u0026#39;s blank (caller id blocked) exten =\u0026gt;s,5,Playback(privacy-to-blacklist-last-caller) exten =\u0026gt; s,6,Playback(telephone-number) exten =\u0026gt; s,7,SayDigits(${number}) exten =\u0026gt; s,8,Wait,1 exten =\u0026gt; s,9,Playback(if-correct-press) exten =\u0026gt; s,10,Playback(digits/1) exten =\u0026gt; 1,1,DBput(blacklist/${number}=1) exten =\u0026gt; 1,2,Playback(privacy-blacklisted) exten =\u0026gt; 1,3,Wait,1 exten =\u0026gt; 1,4,Hangup exten =\u0026gt; s,104,Playback(unidentified-no-callback) exten =\u0026gt; s,106,Hangup You also need to add a custom function to the from-PSTN context, a function that gets called before the normal incoming call handler. So it checks if the incoming number is on the blacklist. If so, give a weird message (or maybe just congestion?)\nAdd the following at the beginning of extensions_custom.conf. Make sure there\u0026rsquo;s not a declaration for that context already. If so, add the lines there. [cc][from-pstn-custom] exten =\u0026gt; s,1,LookupBlacklist ; If CID blacklisted, goto 102 exten =\u0026gt; s,102,Goto(custom-blacklisted,s,1)[/cc] And then the last change. Add the following lines in extensions_custom.conf in the [from-internal-custom] context. There are already some lines there, but add the following after that. [cc]exten =\u0026gt; *30,1,Goto(custom-blacklist-add,s,1) exten =\u0026gt; *31,1,Goto(custom-blacklist-remove,s,1) exten =\u0026gt; *32,1,Goto(custom-blacklist-last,s,1)[/cc] You\u0026rsquo;ll probably like to change the [custom-blacklisted] to do something like congestion or hang up instead of the weird message my version does.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/adding-blacklist-to-an-asteriskhome-pbx-voip-server/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e The code below does not work in Asterisk 2.0b4 or newer. I will update with instructions on how to get it to work in those versions. Thanks to \u003ca href=\"http://www.thestroots.com\"\u003eDan\u003c/a\u003e for pointing this out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e I have changed the code to the removed part. It now requires a key press to accept the number to delete.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have added a blacklist function to my Asterisk@Home server and thought that I\u0026rsquo;d share it here if someone is interested. There are two ways to add a number to the blacklist. The easiest is to dial *32. Then you get a voice telling you the number of the last incoming call. To add it to the blacklist, press 1. Great use against pesky telemarketers and If you want to add it manually,  press *30. Then you can enter the phone number directly on your telephone. To remove an entry from the blacklist, press *31 and enter the phone number. If you don\u0026rsquo;t like the codes I use, change them.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Adding blacklist to an Asterisk PBX Server"},{"content":"There\u0026rsquo;s a system called ENUM that enables VoIP servers like Asterisk to check the number your dialing to see if there is a possibility to connect directly to your server instead of going over PSTN land lines. So I registered at E164.org and added my phone number. I tried to figure out how to add this functionality to Asterisk@Home, but couldn\u0026rsquo;t find anything on how to do it. But I finally managed to get it to work, and it\u0026rsquo;s really simple. Here\u0026rsquo;s how I did it.\nFirst you need an account at E164.org. Then you need to register your phone numbers there. An automated voice will call that number to verify, so have your pen and paper ready. Write the code down and enter it in the registration form.\nYou need to add the following line to the file /etc/asterisk/enum.conf\nsearch =\u0026gt; e164.org\nPut that line just above search =\u0026gt; e164.arpa\nGo to the setup page on your Asterisk@home server and select trunks. Choose to add an ENUM trunk.\nI have set my system up to only try to find a ENUM route on international numbers, so here\u0026rsquo;s how I did it. As you can see, it removes the initial 00 (the international prefix) because ENUM numbers should be 46XXXXXXX for a Swedish number.\nThen I edited the Outbound Routing. This is my international route.\nIf someone dials 00, this route is called.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve put the ENUM trunk first, and if that fails, it calls though my VoIP provider instead.\nNow just reload your settings and off you go!\nCheck out my setup for setting up a blacklist system on Asterisk@Home\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/adding-enum-support-in-asteriskhome/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThere\u0026rsquo;s a system called ENUM that enables VoIP servers like Asterisk to check the number your dialing to see if there is a possibility to connect directly to your server instead of going over PSTN land lines. So I registered at E164.org and added my phone number. I tried to figure out how to add this functionality to Asterisk@Home, but couldn\u0026rsquo;t find anything on how to do it. But I finally managed to get it to work, and it\u0026rsquo;s really simple. Here\u0026rsquo;s how I did it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Adding ENUM support in Asterisk@Home"},{"content":"Today I finally got to see a tele-marketer getting caught in my Asterisk server. I\u0026rsquo;ve made a blacklist system, so I can blacklist callers. As soon as they call, they get transfered to a voice saying \u0026ldquo;There is no one to take your call, they\u0026rsquo;ve all been carried away by monkeys\u0026rdquo; and then a lot of monkeys screaming. And the dumb fuck called back three times before giving up. One down, three million to go\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/screaming-monkeys/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eToday I finally got to see a tele-marketer getting caught in my Asterisk server. I\u0026rsquo;ve made a blacklist system, so I can blacklist callers. As soon as they call, they get transfered to a voice saying \u0026ldquo;There is no one to take your call, they\u0026rsquo;ve all been carried away by monkeys\u0026rdquo; and then a lot of monkeys screaming. And the dumb fuck called back three times before giving up. One down, three million to go\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Screaming monkeys"},{"content":"I have finally finished my first AGI program for my Asterisk server. So time for my next program. I have installed Nagios network monitoring program on one of my machines. I want Nagios to call my mobile phone when one of my servers go down and using Festival, giving me a voice message of what server and the type of problem.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/more-asterisk-agi/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have finally finished my first AGI program for my Asterisk server. So time for my next program. I have installed \u003ca href=\"http://www.nagios.org/\"\u003eNagios network monitoring program\u003c/a\u003e on one of my machines. I want Nagios to call my mobile phone when one of my servers go down and using Festival, giving me a voice message of what server and the type of problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"More Asterisk AGI"},{"content":"In apples voice/video chat program, it appears that it uses some kind of SIP protocol to communicate. But Apple, why not implement SIP phone ability into iChat AV? Being able to make voice phone calls to other SIP phone systems would be really cool.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/change-sip-in-ichat-av/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIn apples voice/video chat program, it appears that it uses some kind of SIP protocol to communicate. But Apple, why not implement SIP phone ability into iChat AV? Being able to make voice phone calls to other SIP phone systems would be really cool.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Change SIP in iChat AV"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve had performance problems with my firewall so I thought it was time to upgrade to a better firewall. After looking around I found a lot of articles about the Linksys WRT54G, a wireless router that\u0026rsquo;s easily patched with new firmware. Because it uses the linux operating system, Linksys have to publish source code under the GPL license. This makes it easy for others to improve and implement new features. So I got an image from Sveasoft called Talisman and installed it. And it works great! I can now have QoS so my VoIP telephone stuff always gets priority.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s going to be different versions of Talisman, one of them is going to be an image with Asterisk installed. That\u0026rsquo;s going to be fantastic.\nI now officially have more Linux computers at home that macs. And you have to love the stuff. My satellite receiver, my router, my phone PBX and hacker machine.\nWhen Apple was going through its rough times in the 90s I always comforted myself knowing that I always had a good operating system to migrate to if Apple went down the tube.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/linux-is-taking-over-my-home/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve had performance problems with my firewall so I thought it was time to upgrade to a better firewall. After looking around I found a lot of articles about the Linksys WRT54G, a wireless router that\u0026rsquo;s easily patched with new firmware. Because it uses the linux operating system, Linksys have to publish source code under the GPL license. This makes it easy for others to improve and implement new features. So I got an image from \u003ca href=\"http://www.sveasoft.com/\"\u003eSveasoft\u003c/a\u003e called \u003ca href=\"http://www.sveasoft.com/content/view/20/1/\"\u003eTalisman\u003c/a\u003e and installed it. And it works great! I can now have \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QOS\"\u003eQoS\u003c/a\u003e so my VoIP telephone stuff always gets priority.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Linux is taking over my home!"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been generally happy with tiger on my powerbook. The Spotlight search really has helped me finding my stuff. But I\u0026rsquo;ve had problems with slowdowns after working with my computer for a couple of days. I never turn of my computer, just putting it to sleep when I\u0026rsquo;m done working, and after a couple of days the machine would get slower and slower. I finally gave up and started to search for the problem. Turned out that Dashboard (when loaded) ate memory like a hog! My guess is that their is a memory leak when using some of the widgets. But for me, Dashboard is to slow to be of practical use for me, so I opted to disable it. And now the machine works great again.\nIf your interested in disable Dashboard, do the following:\nOpen Terminal (you\u0026rsquo;ll find it under Applications/Utilities)\nType defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES\nTo enable it again, write defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/mac-os-x-104-tiger-memory-problems/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been generally happy with tiger on my powerbook. The Spotlight search really has helped me finding my stuff. But I\u0026rsquo;ve had problems with slowdowns after working with my computer for a couple of days. I never turn of my computer, just putting it to sleep when I\u0026rsquo;m done working, and after a couple of days the machine would get slower and slower. I finally gave up and started to search for the problem. Turned out that Dashboard (when loaded) ate memory like a hog! My guess is that their is a memory leak when using some of the widgets. But for me, Dashboard is to slow to be of practical use for me, so I opted to disable it. And now the machine works great again.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger memory problems"},{"content":"As usual when I find something new, it goes a bit overboard. I always wanted to delve into learning the Perl programming language. So I took this opportunity to use it to write a small plug-in for my Asterisk server. As soon as somebody calls, my script goes to a Swedish directory service and looks up the name. It then puts it in the callerID information so the name shows up on my phones. It also connects to my satellite receiver and displays a message on my tv so I know who is calling. Pretty nifty. Naturally I found that someone already written this in php, and that they\u0026rsquo;ve used the wap version of the lookup page to find the name. That preserves a lot of bandwidth so I\u0026rsquo;ll probably rewrite my program to use that instead. Anyway, Perl is an amazing language.\nMy next addition will be to add a swedish weather service to my PBX.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/continued-adventures-with-asterisk/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs usual when I find something new, it goes a bit overboard. I always wanted to delve into learning the Perl programming language. So I took this opportunity to use it to write a small plug-in for my Asterisk server. As soon as somebody calls, my script goes to a Swedish directory service and looks up the name. It then puts it in the callerID information so the name shows up on my phones. It also connects to my satellite receiver and displays a message on my tv so I know who is calling. Pretty nifty. Naturally I found that someone already written this in php, and that they\u0026rsquo;ve used the wap version of the lookup page to find the name. That preserves a lot of bandwidth so I\u0026rsquo;ll probably rewrite my program to use that instead. Anyway, Perl is an amazing language.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Continued adventures with Asterisk"},{"content":"\nSo I\u0026rsquo;ve been busy for the last five days setting up my Asterisk PBX. I\u0026rsquo;ve connected two different VoIP lines to it. I have the X-Lite VoIP softphones installed on all the computers and an FSX device so I can use my regular wireless phone. And it\u0026rsquo;s enjoyable learning something new. First, my wife thought that I was crazy, \u0026ldquo;Who needs a telephone switchboard at home!?\u0026rdquo; But I think she\u0026rsquo;s coming around. Now she can sit at her computer using a headset and talk to her friends without holding the line. And it\u0026rsquo;s easy to transfer calls between all the phones in the apartment. It\u0026rsquo;s also nice to have a digital answering machine and get the messages mailed to you. The added benefit of multiple lines on the same phone number and that it doesn\u0026rsquo;t cost anything to dial a phone in Sweden is a bonus.\nThe last two days I have worked on a Perl AGI module for Asterisk. When someone calls, the script looks up the name of the person or company calling on the internet and shows it on the phone display. It works now, but I\u0026rsquo;m about to start to add a database function to it, so It saves the name/phone number in MySQL to minimize the load on the net and to get faster lookups. You can write the AGI in PHP, C or Perl, so I decided that this was an excellent opportunity to learn Perl. It\u0026rsquo;s a fantastic language for doing data mining. I will probably start using it now that I\u0026rsquo;m getting the hang of it.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s nice to see that there are companies like Rix TeleCom. It\u0026rsquo;s one of my VoIP providers. And talk about excellent service. And they let their customers connect using an Asterisk server; they even have a forum for asterisk users on their web page. And a couple of their employees regularly answer technical questions on the forum. It\u0026rsquo;s nice to see a company that is \u0026ldquo;hacker\u0026rdquo; friendly. They\u0026rsquo;ll get my recommendation.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/asterisk-pbx/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Asterisk\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"96\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/asterisk-pbx/images/asterisk.gif\" width=\"174\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo I\u0026rsquo;ve been busy for the last five days setting up my \u003ca href=\"http://www.asterisk.org/\"\u003eAsterisk PBX\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;ve connected two different VoIP lines to it. I have the \u003ca href=\"http://www.xten.com/\"\u003eX-Lite\u003c/a\u003e VoIP softphones installed on all the computers and an FSX device so I can use my regular wireless phone. And it\u0026rsquo;s enjoyable learning something new. First, my wife thought that I was crazy, \u0026ldquo;Who needs a telephone switchboard at home!?\u0026rdquo; But I think she\u0026rsquo;s coming around. Now she can sit at her computer using a headset and talk to her friends without holding the line. And it\u0026rsquo;s easy to transfer calls between all the phones in the apartment. It\u0026rsquo;s also nice to have a digital answering machine and get the messages mailed to you. The added benefit of multiple lines on the same phone number and that it doesn\u0026rsquo;t cost anything to dial a phone in Sweden is a bonus.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Asterisk PBX"},{"content":"Today I got a new domain, www.jackenhack.com (jacken.com is taken unfortunately)\nHave been struggling with mod_rewrite so redirect works with a 301 code. Hopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll still keep my ranking at google this way without loosing it all.\nso if you link to my blog, please update them as soon as possible. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget to update my RSS links if you use them. Thanks!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/new-domain-wwwjackenhackcom/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eToday I got a new domain, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jackenhack.com\"\u003ewww.jackenhack.com\u003c/a\u003e (jacken.com is taken unfortunately)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHave been struggling with mod_rewrite so redirect works with a 301 code. Hopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll still keep my ranking at google this way without loosing it all.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eso if you link to my blog, please update them as soon as possible. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget to update my RSS links if you use them. Thanks!\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New domain www.jackenhack.com"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_2955\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignleft\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;400\u0026rdquo;]©John Lillis[/caption] I got fed up with the fan that\u0026rsquo;s running constantly on my Powerbook 12\u0026quot; rev b 867mhz after installing the 10.3.8 Update. So here\u0026rsquo;s how you do it:\nDownload Update 10.2.8 and use Pacifist to extract /System/Library/ExtensionsAppleADM103x.kext from MacOSXUpdate10.2.8.pkg to the desktop. Do a backup of AppleADM103x.kext from your startup disk at /System/Library/Extensions to your home folder. Copy AppleADM103x.kext from your Desktop (the one you extracted from 10.2.8) to /System/Library/Extensions, you\u0026rsquo;ll need to enter the admin password to do that. Start Disk Utility and do a repair permissions on your start volume. Problem solved. Just for good measure, reset the parameter-RAM by holding down Command-Alt-P-R at startup. My machine now turns on the fans at 148 Fahrenheit instead of 125 Fahrenheit. For some reason Apple choose to change the temperature when the fan starts on Rev.A Powerbook 12\u0026quot; after Mac OS X 10.2.8 from 148 Fahrenheit to 125 Fahrenheit. This gives the result that the fan runs almost constantly due to the fact that the powerbook operates normally at 125 Fahrenheit. I did this hack back when Apple changed stuff in the 10.3.2 update, and they haven\u0026rsquo;t updated AppleADM103x.kext until 10.3.8.\nAnother thing to note is that I tried to do the Install option from Pacifist instead of the copy to the desktop. That didn\u0026rsquo;t work. My guess is that it has to do with the kextcache. maybe you just have to do a sudo kextcache -e or similar to get the kext cache to update? Haven\u0026rsquo;t tried it though.\nJust a reminder, I take no responsibility if you do this hack and something goes wrong.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/fix-for-constantly-running-fan-after-1038-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_2955\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignleft\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;400\u0026rdquo;]\u003cimg alt=\"Desk fan photo\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/fix-for-constantly-running-fan-after-1038-update/images/deskfan_hu_32cc168c5d13fc6a.jpg\" srcset=\"/fix-for-constantly-running-fan-after-1038-update/images/deskfan_hu_1e0e89ceaf48c6be.jpg 360w,/fix-for-constantly-running-fan-after-1038-update/images/deskfan_hu_954884f10bd1f72b.jpg 480w,/fix-for-constantly-running-fan-after-1038-update/images/deskfan_hu_8eeb236c8bc0bd38.jpg 720w,/fix-for-constantly-running-fan-after-1038-update/images/deskfan_hu_97f6f50ecc0622af.jpg 1080w,/fix-for-constantly-running-fan-after-1038-update/images/deskfan_hu_32cc168c5d13fc6a.jpg 1440w\" width=\"1440\"\u003e©John Lillis[/caption] I got fed up with the fan that\u0026rsquo;s running constantly on my Powerbook 12\u0026quot; rev b 867mhz after installing the 10.3.8 Update. So here\u0026rsquo;s how you do it:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDownload \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate_10_2_8.html\" title=\"Mac OS X Update 10.2.8\"\u003eUpdate 10.2.8\u003c/a\u003e and use \u003ca href=\"http://www.charlessoft.com/\" title=\"Pacifist\"\u003ePacifist\u003c/a\u003e to extract /System/Library/ExtensionsAppleADM103x.kext from MacOSXUpdate10.2.8.pkg to the desktop.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDo a backup of AppleADM103x.kext from your startup disk at /System/Library/Extensions to your home folder.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCopy AppleADM103x.kext from your Desktop (the one you extracted from 10.2.8) to /System/Library/Extensions, you\u0026rsquo;ll need to enter the admin password to do that. Start Disk Utility and do a repair permissions on your start volume. Problem solved. Just for good measure, reset the parameter-RAM by holding down Command-Alt-P-R at startup. My machine now turns on the fans at 148 Fahrenheit instead of 125 Fahrenheit.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor some reason Apple choose to change the temperature when the fan starts on Rev.A Powerbook 12\u0026quot; after Mac OS X 10.2.8 from 148 Fahrenheit to 125 Fahrenheit. This gives the result that the fan runs almost constantly due to the fact that the powerbook operates normally at 125 Fahrenheit. I did this hack back when Apple changed stuff in the 10.3.2 update, and they haven\u0026rsquo;t updated AppleADM103x.kext until 10.3.8.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fix for constantly running fan after 10.3.8 update"},{"content":"After updating to 10.3.8 Apple managed to lower the temperature that the fans turn on and off. So now when doing medium light work the fan goes on. And it drives me crazy. My guess is that they only changed the values one or two Fahrenheit, but it\u0026rsquo;s just at the point where my normal work load is. I tried the old trick to replace the kext for the fan control, but to no avail.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/annoying-fan/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter updating to 10.3.8 Apple managed to lower the temperature that the fans turn on and off. So now when doing medium light work the fan goes on. And it drives me crazy. My guess is that they only changed the values one or two Fahrenheit, but it\u0026rsquo;s just at the point where my normal work load is. I tried the old trick to replace the kext for the fan control, but to no avail.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Annoying fan"},{"content":"I just upgraded to 10.3.8 and Apple has managed to fuck up it up for the second time. On my Powerbook G4 867 12\u0026quot; the fan now runs constantly. This is the second time a software update has done this. But this time it\u0026rsquo;s worse, now it\u0026rsquo;s on constantly, not just when the computer is a little hot. This is going to drive me nuts, so I\u0026rsquo;ll probably try to replace the kext driver for the fans later on. That was the way to do it the last time. So if your running a Powerbook G4 12\u0026quot; (first model) wait a bit if you don\u0026rsquo;t want to listen to a constant breeze\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/running-powerbook-fan-with-update-1038/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI just upgraded to 10.3.8 and Apple has managed to fuck up it up for the second time. On my Powerbook G4 867 12\u0026quot; the fan now runs constantly. This is the second time a software update has done this. But this time it\u0026rsquo;s worse, now it\u0026rsquo;s on constantly, not just when the computer is a little hot. This is going to drive me nuts, so I\u0026rsquo;ll probably try to replace the kext driver for the fans later on. That was the way to do it the last time. So if your running a Powerbook G4 12\u0026quot; (first model) wait a bit if you don\u0026rsquo;t want to listen to a constant breeze\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Running powerbook fan with Update 10.3.8"},{"content":"IBM is getting to be an even cooler company. By embracing Open Source IBM changed my view of the company, and now they have given free access to 500 patents. Rock on! This is a statement from one of the biggest patent holders in the world. Software patents is bad for you.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/ibm/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIBM is getting to be an even cooler company. By embracing Open Source IBM changed my view of the company, and now they have given \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/technology/11soft.html?ex=1263186000\u0026amp;en=8862caf3587aebab\u0026amp;ei=5090\u0026amp;partner=rssuserland\"\u003efree access to 500 patents\u003c/a\u003e. Rock on! This is a statement from one of the biggest patent holders in the world. Software patents is bad for you.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"IBM"},{"content":"Back in 1982 I used to work for Apple answering Apple II support questions by phone. A couple of times people would call and ask questions about the Macintosh. This was two years before it was released! I guess Apples confidentiality is a lot better today.\nFirst Mac rumor on the internet.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/its-a-real-secret/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBack in 1982 I used to work for Apple answering Apple II support questions by phone. A couple of times people would call and ask questions about the Macintosh. This was two years before it was released! I guess Apples confidentiality is a lot better today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst Mac rumor on the internet.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It's a real secret"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been trying out the program RSyncX for doing backup of mail and web documents from one of my servers. The program can copy between folders on the same machine, or to or from any machine on the net. But I had some problems getting it to work. When using Quck RsyncX Script Generator I got an error, \u0026ldquo;rsyncx \u0026ndash;showtogo unknown option\u0026rdquo; So I had to to add --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync to the generated command line to get it to work. I\u0026rsquo;ll continue trying it out tomorrow, looks like a powerful tool.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/rsyncx/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been trying out the program \u003ca href=\"http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16814\" title=\"RSyncX program download\"\u003eRSyncX\u003c/a\u003e for doing backup of mail and web documents from one of my servers. The program can copy between folders on the same machine, or to or from any machine on the net. But I had some problems getting it to work. When using Quck RsyncX Script Generator I got an error, \u0026ldquo;rsyncx \u0026ndash;showtogo unknown option\u0026rdquo; So I had to to add --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync to the generated command line to get it to work. I\u0026rsquo;ll continue trying it out tomorrow, looks like a powerful tool.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"RsyncX"},{"content":" One thing that mystifies me is the way car companies implement electric cars. So here you have a car that has a limited range. So when the batteries are depleted, you\u0026rsquo;re supposed to stop for several hours and recharge them? Why? There is already an infrastructure (gas stations) that would be able to handle the recharging. When your battery is about to go empty, you stop at a recharging station (gas station) and exchange to a freshly recharged battery. Make the cells in a box that\u0026rsquo;s exchangeable. What you pay for is the recharging of batteries, and you pay a little extra for using the battery. This covers the cost of replacing used up batteries for the charging station. Of course, they all have to agree to use the same size for the batteries and to make a way of getting the battery changing done automatically. But if you can put a man on the moon, surely you could make this work? Maybe I\u0026rsquo;m missing something. And another way of making electric cars popular? Try performance. It\u0026rsquo;s effortless to make electric vehicles accelerate like hell. Make a cheap, nice looking and fast accelerating electric vehicle tailored for young people. Like the Ford Mustang used to do. If your ass is kicked at the stoplight by an electric car, you may consider one the next time you buy a car. Especially if you don\u0026rsquo;t have to stop and wait for recharging.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/electric-cars/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Batteries\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"123\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/electric-cars/images/duracell1_hu_385db01441a7bae0.jpg\" title=\"Batteries\" width=\"76\"\u003e One thing that mystifies me is the way car companies implement electric cars. So here you have a car that has a limited range. So when the batteries are depleted, you\u0026rsquo;re supposed to stop for several hours and recharge them? Why? There is already an infrastructure (gas stations) that would be able to handle the recharging. When your battery is about to go empty, you stop at a recharging station (gas station) and exchange to a freshly recharged battery. Make the cells in a box that\u0026rsquo;s exchangeable. What you pay for is the recharging of batteries, and you pay a little extra for using the battery. This covers the cost of replacing used up batteries for the charging station. Of course, they all have to agree to use the same size for the batteries and to make a way of getting the battery changing done automatically. But if you can put a man on the moon, surely you could make this work? Maybe I\u0026rsquo;m missing something. And another way of making electric cars popular? Try performance. It\u0026rsquo;s effortless to make electric vehicles accelerate like hell. Make a cheap, nice looking and fast accelerating electric vehicle tailored for young people. Like the Ford Mustang used to do. If your ass is kicked at the stoplight by an electric car, you may consider one the next time you buy a car. Especially if you don\u0026rsquo;t have to stop and wait for recharging.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Electric Cars"},{"content":"If your interested in learning how to color correct images in Photoshop and learn how color management works, this is the book. Photoshop Color Correction by Michael Kieran is an excellent book about all these subjects. It includes an example cd, and he goes through several examples on how to create exceptional looking images without color casts and other problems. He also shows how to set the black and white points of an image, how to make all adjustments using curves and a lot of tricks on how to fix a seemingly impossible image with modified profiles.\nA must if you like to use Photoshop to edit your digital photos.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/icc-profiles-color-correction-calibration-and-the-works/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIf your interested in learning how to color correct images in Photoshop and learn how color management works, this is the book. \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321124014/jackensweblog-20\"\u003ePhotoshop Color Correction by Michael Kieran\u003c/a\u003e is an excellent book about all these subjects. It includes an example cd, and he goes through several examples on how to create exceptional looking images without color casts and other problems. He also shows how to set the black and white points of an image, how to make all adjustments using curves and a lot of tricks on how to fix a seemingly impossible image with modified profiles.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Photoshop, color correction, calibration and management"},{"content":"So they decided to vote in the nitwit again. There\u0026rsquo;s a famous picture by Diane Arbus of a young man taken in 1967 with \u0026ldquo;Bomb Hanoi\u0026rdquo; buttons proudly on his chest. It was the first thing that popped in to my head when I saw that Bush probably will win.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/fool-me-twice-shame-on-me/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo they decided to vote in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.georgewbush.com\"\u003enitwit\u003c/a\u003e again. There\u0026rsquo;s a famous picture by Diane Arbus of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.masters-of-photography.com/A/arbus/arbus_pro-war_parade_full.html\" title=\"Diane Arbus Boy with a straw hat\"\u003eyoung man taken in 1967 with \u0026ldquo;Bomb Hanoi\u0026rdquo; buttons proudly on his chest\u003c/a\u003e. It was the first thing that popped in to my head when I saw that Bush probably will win.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fool me twice, shame on me..."},{"content":"So I upgraded my internet connection to 100mbit/sec. This is something that I would have thought that I would do in three to four years, but it\u0026rsquo;s a reality now. All I had to do was to enable it on my admin page at my ISP (and also get a bigger bill next month!) and ten minutes later after a reboot of my firewall, I was up and running. This is the way to do it! And this on a sunday! Lovely.\nBut of course there was other problems. The first was my firewall. It\u0026rsquo;s a NetGear FR114P firewall. It has a 100mbit WAN port, which is something they are bosting about. Problem is, the throughput is around 10mbit/sec. So why put a 100mbit ethernet connector on the box?\nSo I rig an old linux machine with a 400 pentium II as a firewall using Astaro security Linux. Now It gets a little better; around 20mbit/sec. So I put an extra ethernet card in my Mac OS X Server machine and used it as a NAT firewall machine. And now it\u0026rsquo;s full speed! And it\u0026rsquo;s insanely fast.\nThe download limit is 300 gb per month, and both down/upload counts, so this could be a deal braker, but only time will tell\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/100mbitsec/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo I upgraded my internet connection to 100mbit/sec. This is something that I would have thought that I would do in three to four years, but it\u0026rsquo;s a reality now. All I had to do was to enable it on my admin page at my ISP (and also get a bigger bill next month!) and ten minutes later after a reboot of my firewall, I was up and running. This is the way to do it! And this on a sunday! Lovely.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"100mbit/sec"},{"content":"My friend Martin once gave me a special edition of Apples Newton. It was transparent so you could see all the internal stuff. Very cool. I managed to drop it, unfortunately, so I got to see all the internals first hand :( Wish I still had it. To this day I have still not seen any PDA with the same features that the Newton had. For one thing, how come they still don\u0026rsquo;t have an auto correct feature in the drawing programs? If you drew a circle on the Newton, it automatically corrected it to make it into a real circle. No bitmapped image but vectorized. Perfect for people like me who couldn\u0026rsquo;t draw a straight line at gunpoint.\nBut for me, PDAs is a closed chapter, I want that functionality in my car phone ala the SonyEricsson p900.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/my-old-newton/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy friend Martin once gave me a special edition of Apples Newton. It was transparent so you could see all the internal stuff. Very cool. I managed to drop it, unfortunately, so I got to see all the internals first hand :( Wish I still had it. To this day I have still not seen any PDA with the same features that the Newton had. For one thing, how come they still don\u0026rsquo;t have an auto correct feature in the drawing programs? If you drew a circle on the Newton, it automatically corrected it to make it into a real circle. No bitmapped image but vectorized. Perfect for people like me who couldn\u0026rsquo;t draw a straight line at gunpoint.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My old Newton"},{"content":"I saw a bump in CPU usage on my server and had to check it out (yes, I have no life) And this is how it looks when you get posted on MacSurfer ","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/this-is-how-it-looks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI saw a bump in CPU usage on my server and had to check it out (yes, I have no life) And this is how it looks when you get posted on \u003ca href=\"http://www.macsurfer.com\"\u003eMacSurfer\u003c/a\u003e \u003cimg alt=\"CPU Usage\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"337\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 768px) 720px, 100vw\" src=\"/this-is-how-it-looks/images/CPU_Usage1_hu_15b4cf6041ad0a38.jpg\" srcset=\"/this-is-how-it-looks/images/CPU_Usage1_hu_e31172bc22ec58a8.jpg 360w,/this-is-how-it-looks/images/CPU_Usage1_hu_b4cadbc36e0e6e74.jpg 480w\" width=\"550\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"This is how it looks"},{"content":"[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_2418\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignleft\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;300\u0026rdquo;] Photo by Paul Hammond[/caption]\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been awhile since I last logged on to Usenet to read some groups and to download stuff. I found this great application called Unison from a company called Panic. And it\u0026rsquo;s great. I even signed up for a Usenet account from them when buying the software. I now have a 10mbit line at home, and no Usenet provider has been able to provide a fast enough service to me, until now. Impressive stuff. The only downside with the account is that you only get 10gig of download. Now, that may sound like a lot, but I get through that fast.\nThe program feels like a native Mac OS X application, and it\u0026rsquo;s written in Cocoa. It\u0026rsquo;s reasonably fast to search, and the user interface is easy to learn. The same goes for saving links to different newsgroups.\nThumbs up for this one!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/usenet-yes-i-use-a-net/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[caption id=\u0026ldquo;attachment_2418\u0026rdquo; align=\u0026ldquo;alignleft\u0026rdquo; width=\u0026ldquo;300\u0026rdquo;]\u003cimg alt=\"Photo by Paul Hammond\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"400\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/usenet-yes-i-use-a-net/images/servers-300x400_hu_7487d5a9d8754764.jpg\" width=\"300\"\u003e Photo by \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulhammond/2872919132/\"\u003ePaul Hammond\u003c/a\u003e[/caption]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s been awhile since I last logged on to Usenet to read some groups and to download stuff. I found this great application called \u003ca href=\"http://www.panic.com/unison/\"\u003eUnison\u003c/a\u003e from a company called \u003ca href=\"http://www.panic.com/\"\u003ePanic\u003c/a\u003e. And it\u0026rsquo;s great. I even signed up for a Usenet account from them when buying the software. I now have a 10mbit line at home, and no Usenet provider has been able to provide a fast enough service to me, until now. Impressive stuff. The only downside with the account is that you only get 10gig of download. Now, that may sound like a lot, but I get through that fast.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Usenet - The forgotten network"},{"content":" Little Snitch keeps you covered Use Little Snitch to monitor what developers of programs sends home. Then you can stop that specific traffic. More and more programs phone home with information to the software company. Sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s harmless, like checking if a newer version is available, but sometimes they also send data like serial numbers and your registration information. So is there a way for you to control what programs can do? Yes, there is! There\u0026rsquo;s an excellent program called Little Snitch that monitors all communication from applications on your Mac OS X machine and asks you if the information is allowed to be sent over the internet.\nGreat stuff! And you can tell the program to remember settings so you can allow regular communications to get through.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/does-your-programs-phone-home/","summary":"\u003ch2\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" height=\"350\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/does-your-programs-phone-home/images/Little-Snitch_hu_3a758f876ee7c987.jpg\" title=\"Little Snitch\" width=\"350\"\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"little-snitch-keeps-you-covered\"\u003eLittle Snitch keeps you covered\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUse Little Snitch to monitor what developers of programs sends home. Then you can stop that specific traffic. More and more programs phone home with information to the software company. Sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s harmless, like checking if a newer version is available, but sometimes they also send data like serial numbers and your registration information. So is there a way for you to control what programs can do? Yes, there is! There\u0026rsquo;s an excellent program called \u003ca href=\"http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/\"\u003eLittle Snitch\u003c/a\u003e that monitors all communication from applications on your Mac OS X machine and asks you if the information is allowed to be sent over the internet.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Little Snitch makes sure Mac applications doesn't call home"},{"content":"When Sweden joined the European Union a couple of years ago, all the politicians promised that everything would be better. The food would get cheaper and a lot of other stuff.\nWell, the food is more expensive than ever. Other than that the only thing I noticed is some stupid things that changed. Let me give you a couple of silly examples. Here are some rulings coming out of Brussels.\nPut a cap on loud music! On the European version of the iPod music player, EU has rules that specify how many decibels the player can output. So the european model has a lower output volume compared to the US model. The first thing you usually do is to get better headphones. So the volume gets even lower because better headphones need more output power to get the same volume. So now I have spent a couple of hours to be able to change the firmware in my iPod to the US version to get a sound level that is usable. Doing this is not an operation for the faint of heart. Is this the kind of stuff that occupies the brilliant minds of EU? I think that ordinary people are quite capable of adjusting the volume. And is it not up to me if I want to ruin my ears? How to remove the cap on iPods? Check this! WARNING! If you make a mistake, you\u0026rsquo;ll lose your iPod, and no warranty applies!\nQuickly, tax everything! When the digital video revolution started, with cheap DV cameras with near broadcast quality appeared, EU quickly put some taxation on DV cameras because they had Firewire input-connector. This meant that they could be regarded as video recorders, which means higher taxation. So all the EU models did not have Firewire input. This was good for me. I quickly learned how to change the firmware in the cameras and made some quick bucks converting video cameras so that people could put back video they edited back on tape.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s another foolish thing from EU.\nHere they have a great opportunity to use the power of all the countries of Europe to compete with the US, but instead, they make a copy of the former soviet unions stupid bureaucracy.\nYou could say that I should have more important things to worry about, with world hunger and all that, but at least I complain on my spare time, the guys in Brussels get paid for their stupidity.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/eu-the-european-union-and-the-technical-stupidity/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Sweden joined the European Union a couple of years ago, all the politicians promised that everything would be better. The food would get cheaper and a lot of other stuff.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, the food is more expensive than ever. Other than that the only thing I noticed is some stupid things that changed. Let me give you a couple of silly examples. Here are some rulings coming out of Brussels.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"EU the European Union and the technical stupidity"},{"content":"So after reading all the crap, I write here, you probably wondering who this guy is? No? You insensitive clod! Well, here I go anyway. I\u0026rsquo;m a 38-year-old computer consultant who loves technology. So you Luddites, read something else. My main passion is computers, but I have occasional attacks of other interests as well. One thing that always interested me is cars. 12 years ago I decided to build a car. I bought an old beat up Chevy Nova 75. It\u0026rsquo;s the kind of car you always see on race day. Usually, the one at the receiving end of death-defying jumps with junk cars. Anyway, a sleeper car can never lose. I disassembled the car entirely with the help of my friend \u0026ldquo;Raggar\u0026rdquo;-Johan and rebuilt everything. Here is a picture of the car.\nThe aim was to be able to get an American car to handle well. Sounds like an oxymoron but I think I managed quite well.\nThe car has a 355 ci Chevy V-8. It includes ported Corvette aluminum heads. Hydraulic roller cam and a 750 cfm Holley carburetor. The rear axle is a race built Ford 9-inch. I changed from an automatic transmission that exploded to a manual Richmond 5-speed racing gearbox. I installed polyurethane bushings throughout the car, and also installed a racing front and rear swaybar. The car also has a full roll cage. The front brakes are from a station wagon and the rear brakes are from Baer Racing.\nI lowered the weight of the car from 2 tons down to 1550 kg. It has 17\u0026quot; aluminum rims. I finished the project like nine years ago and done no upgrades since then. I think that I was pretty early with the pro-touring thing, at least here in Sweden.\nI have had some fun moments in the car. Maybe I\u0026rsquo;ll upload some crazy videos from inside the vehicle when trying it out.\nUnfortunately, I blew the engine a couple of summers ago, and with kids and family, I don\u0026rsquo;t have the money to build a new engine. I have a 400ci block that I´m rebuilding into a stroker 417 ci monster when I get hold of some cash.\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/me-myself-i-and-my-car/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo after reading all the crap, I write here, you probably wondering who this guy is? No? You insensitive clod! Well, here I go anyway. I\u0026rsquo;m a 38-year-old computer consultant who loves technology. So you Luddites, read something else. My main passion is computers, but I have occasional attacks of other interests as well. One thing that always interested me is cars. 12 years ago I decided to build a car. I bought an old beat up Chevy Nova 75. It\u0026rsquo;s the kind of car you always see on race day. Usually, the one at the receiving end of death-defying jumps with junk cars. Anyway, a sleeper car can never lose. I disassembled the car entirely with the help of my friend \u0026ldquo;Raggar\u0026rdquo;-Johan and rebuilt everything. Here is a picture of the car.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Me, myself, I and my car"},{"content":"So this is my first try at weblogging. I\u0026rsquo;m probably going to get bored after about three days, but I will give it a try. This must be the ultimate in narcissistic acts one can do. That\u0026rsquo;s why I think this will fit me like a glove.\nFinally made some changes to my homepage for my company. Last time I did any significant changes was about three years ago.\nMy next project will be to build a new WiFi access point with a board from Soekris. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to create my antenna from an aluminum can. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking of using a small Linux distribution called Pebble. It will fit on a 128mb CF card. All this for making a free access point. It will use throttling to limit bandwidth for non paying people. I think this is the way of the future. In Stockholm, there is a lot of access hot spots, but it´s usually because people haven\u0026rsquo;t configured their Wifi gear correctly;-) There are some commercial hotspots, but paying without first being able to try it out is the wrong way of doing it.\nHave they not learned anything from the local pushers? The first hit is always free!\n","permalink":"https://www.jackenhack.com/my-first-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo this is my first try at weblogging. I\u0026rsquo;m probably going to get bored after about three days, but I will give it a try. This must be the ultimate in narcissistic acts one can do. That\u0026rsquo;s why I think this will fit me like a glove.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinally made some changes to my homepage for my company. Last time I did any significant changes was about three years ago.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy next project will be to build a new WiFi access point with a board from \u003ca href=\"http://www.soekris.com/\"\u003eSoekris\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to create my antenna from an aluminum can. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking of using a small Linux distribution called Pebble. It will fit on a 128mb CF card. All this for making a free access point. It will use throttling to limit bandwidth for non paying people. I think this is the way of the future. In Stockholm, there is a lot of access hot spots, but it´s usually because people haven\u0026rsquo;t configured their Wifi gear correctly;-) There are some commercial hotspots, but paying without first being able to try it out is the wrong way of doing it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My first blog."}]