Reaching for a higher calling…. for music in the box

I have been ripping MP3 320kbps from music CDs for many years. The main reason why i am ripping at the highest bit rate offered was to optimise the playback quality.

Ripping music CD has some benefits & conveniences in terms of:

• music CD dont get scratched easily
• jukebox function
• no need for those higher-end dedicated CD player (S$350 to >S$1000). Just a very very good music sound will do (S$200 – >S$400).

However, recently i noted that there was a trend of music lovers going towards the way of using FLAC format in ripping their CD.  FLAC was introduced a few years back and has gain popularity due to its lossless format, promising true CD-reproduction in music playback. I was kinda of slow to pick this up as i already have my means to storing my media in my favourite format and not knowing how good FLAC actually sounds.

So in my free time, i tested out the MP3, CD, and FLAC version of a particular song. Damn! I was blown away! The music reproduction from FLAC almost sounded the same as CD. Clarity is so damn good especially for those CDs that were 24bit processed (HDCD). The files are actually coded at a higher bit rate of 700++ kbps which resulted in bigger file size as well. We are talking about a normal 320kbps MP3 song could be at 10.7mb but a 737kbps FLAC song could be at 28.5mb. This is like 2.66x more from the normal MP3.

With the advances of storage technologies, even 1Terabyte HDD seems to be a commonplace now. This huge file size requirement might not be a major concern anymore. However, there is another problem……

FLAC ripping doesnt come with the intuitive tagging of albums unlike the MP3. Either that or i am struck with old CD titles that nobody bothered to keep a record in the database anymore. This means that i might have to rename all the titles in my CD collection….. This sucks! *looking at the collection*

Two more years for new Windows OS

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/062408-microsoft-windows7-ship-date.html

This OS will be the coolest OS ever since win3.* and Win95. And we are taking about major jumps here.

Mojave OS – the next big thing

http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/

😛

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

HP 24-inch DreamColor LP2475w

This monitor is stated to be a S-IPS! If this is accurate, i would hoot this in a jiff!

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06a/382087-382087-64283-444767-444767-3648442.html

Flickr woes

The photos i have uploaded to flickr seems to be less sharp than the original……….hmmmm.

mobility vs main stay – for laptops and PCs

We have seen many users getting more and more computer literate as it is no longer expensive to own a PC or  a laptop. However, many are very confused on what gives (what do they need or want from a computing device).

A horde of tech-savvy users getting laptops for their studies, work or even home-based computing needs. Some of them have different needs from the other users: some might need powerful desktop replacements; some for their gaming needs; some just simply have phobia on getting a DIY PC (in which fears of PC breaks down and they dont have the expertise to fix it. Getting a laptop solve this, as they can simply throw it back to the supplier and have it fixed); some needs it for the portability to bring it to work, school or study.

However, laptops do have some limitations. Things that are so common in PC, are missing in laptops primarily due to size constraint of laptop.

• Storage space – laptop can have the biggest 2.5″ hdd’s can offer in terms of size but PC can have the numerous 3.5″ hdds can offer.

• Screens – Laptops can give 21″ at the biggest, cant do hardware calibration (except for this), generally have a poorer screen than dedicated LCD screen.

• No Raid option – well, almost all except for some desktop replacement models.

• No dedicated music sound card option – did i specifically mentioned music…. that is right! currently usb-option music box simply doesnt cut the cake!

• Full sized keyboard- kinda of obvious isnt it. How many times do we hear others complaining about their fingers cramped after long hours of typing. But kinda of funny when some PC users specifically want a slim based keyboard that is similar to the laptop keyboard. Perhaps sometimes aesthetics do precede in importance versus functionality.

One thing that laptop stands out from PC is mobility. Of course, with the prices of thumbdrives are getting cheaper by the day or data storage via the net (with bandwidth no longer an issue), getting data across doesnt require a laptop as long as you can access the data from some places else. But having your very own laptop with your own customised settings sometimes is a plus point as customised settings also means ease of control and perhaps feel good factor as well.

The emergence of netbooks might change things around as they are sprouting out from major brands that are competing on pricing, portability on weight, portability on the size of it, net-tability and etc. Things started to get really complicated for end-users as they are really spoilt for choice.

With the decreasing prices on these mini-monsters that is stated to go way under what a normal PC could offer in pricing, it is no wonder that majority on the end-user would be swayed towards the purchase of the netbooks, especially so when they are basically using their PC for web-surfing or some document processing.

I might consider using both in future. Main PC for my most computing needs and netbook for my e-book reading fantasy. Netbook with portability in size, portability in weight, touch -screen and ability to read PDF smoothly (unlike the incapability of convergence devices like pda-handphone).

Just when you think it wouldnt happen to you!

Just two weeks ago, i had lost my years of photos in a PC configuration running in RAID 0. I thought it would not happen to me as the PC as just recently setup about few months back with very new hardisks. But damn things do happen and when they do……. you would start to think why you didnt do this and that to prevent it! Lots of curses, swearing and finally some compromises made with my inner peace. What lost has been lost, can you do anything about it?

Anyway, since i am going to rant….. might as well tell you my misadverture story behind it. Here goes:

I was running two RAID 0 configuration; the older RAID 0 system (i shall name it RAID A) with older hdds was meant to use it for system and programs while the newer RAID 0 sytem (i shall name it RAID B) with the newer hdds was meant for data backup. So one fine day one of the hdds with RAID A decided to surrender its IC (IC aka Identification Card. in which dead people doesnt need them LOL!). No big deal for me as I can simply check which is functioning of the two and make it a temporary system drive.

But with my lack of experience of RAID system made a mess out of my RAID B as well. The system installs and boots fine in the undamaged older hdd (from RAID A). But once I placed the RAID B onto the equation, things started to get very cranky. It was found out that the computer can boot with a RAID A (system) and normal hdds (data) or RAID A and RAID B together but not normal hdd as system, RAID B as data. It got to do something about the limitation of the bios settings. I was having too many BSOD that i have decided to get a new “companion” hdd for my older hdd to run RAID A again as i need the data from my RAID B data drive.

It was only clear from then that my data from RAID B was screwed up pretty badly as one of the hdd had already disconnected from the array. I have asked qns on the forum but no smart arse was able to answer my qns on the reconnecting the hdd back to an array. Nearly lost all signs of hope, till i managed to search a thread on similar problem……… the solution was simply to delete and create the array. So i just try lah, bad mistake!!!! i didnt managed to see it as a drive in the computer management but thankfully i didnt initialised (another bloody phase used by M$ for formatting) it as well.

Managed to saw someone who had some luck in getting a software to work for him in retrieving the lost data from a RAID system…… Hey why not!

One thing for sure is that the bloody software rocks!!!

http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizardpro/

Having paid about $SGD150 (USD89.95) for the software that manages to retrieve my years of photos…. all i can say is that it is damn worth it! Just dont overwrite any info or format the drive and you should be relative safe in securing those images.

My very first post!

Dont mind my england…. too much rojak on every Friday’s night does has its side effects.