Draconis IV

2010-03-09T10:44:00.005Z

I found this site, suggested by Carlos Martins in his Blog, to convert online typical/common audio formats to other known formats:

http://media.io

It converts .mp3, .wav, .ogg, .wma, .m4a, .mp4 and .aac to:

MP3
OGG
WAV
WMA

4 quality levels (in Kbps):

High: ~256
Medium: ~192
Normal: ~128
Low: ~96

Enjoy!!!

PS- It doesn't work in Google Chrome (yet)...

Eclipse + Gnome + Compiz Issue

2010-01-14T21:02:00.004Z

Since Eclipse has a small problem with Gnome 2(.28.1) and activated Compiz, it's necessary to set an the GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS environment variable to true:

GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true

So I created a small eclipse.sh script on the Eclipse directory, to execute the program and call the variable without interfering with the system:

#!/bin/sh
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true
./eclipse

2009-12-11T19:54:00.007Z

So, I have Sidux installed in my home desktop computer, and I needed a script to increase the speed of the apt-get install/upgrade/dist-upgrade commands, so I followed these steps that I found on the internet to solve my problem:

1) Run the following command:

sudo apt-get install axel

2) Create the following script:

#!/bin/sh
#apt-fast by Matt Parnell http://www.mattparnell.com , this thing is FOSS
#please feel free to suggest improvements to admin@mattparnell.com
# Use this just like apt-get for faster package downloading. Make sure to have axel installed

#If the first user entered variable string contains apt-get, and the second string entered is either install or dist-upgrade
if echo "$1" | grep -q "[upgrade]" || echo "$2" | grep -q "[install]" || echo "$2" | grep -q "[dist-upgrade]"; then
echo "Working...";

#Go into the directory apt-get normally puts downloaded packages
cd /var/cache/apt/archives/;

#Have apt-get print the information, including the URI's to the packages
apt-get -y --print-uris $1 $2 $3 $4 > debs.list;

#Strip out the URI's, and download the packages with Axel for speediness
egrep -o -e "(ht|f)tp://[^\']+" debs.list | xargs -l1 axel -a;

#Perform the user's reqested action via apt-get
apt-get -y $1 $2 $3 $4;

echo "Done! Make sure and check to see that the packages all were installed properly. If a package is erred, run sudo apt-get autoclean and try installing it again without the use of this script.";

elif echo "$1" | grep -q "[*]"; then
apt-get $1;
else
echo "Sorry, but you appear to be entering invalid options. You must use apt-get and one of apt-get's options in order to use this script.";
fi

3) Make the file an executable:

chmod +x ./apt-fast

4) Now you can use the (sudo) apt-fast {install|upgrade|dist-upgrade} to increase your downloads speed

And that's it!

You can add a symbolic link (or even move the file) to the /usr/bin directory, so the script can be called with no path involved.

Source

Doubts... again... Android Smartphones

2009-12-10T12:10:00.016Z

One more persisting doubt, I want a device which is prepared to receive the coming Android apps, so the phone needs to have a good CPU, preferably a GPU (like the Iphone 3GS), 256 RAM and 512 ROM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a decent battery... The Motorola Milestone is the phone that covers almost, if not, all requirements that I need, but there are very good alternatives for almost 150€ less, but which exclude the CPU/GPU power boost I wanted, so the device wouldn't become an obsolete brick in less than a year or two:

*** Motorola Milestone - Review 1 / Review 2 / Review 3 / Review 4 / Review 5 / Review 6 / Video Review 1 (italiano) - 450-500€ - Loja 1

** Acer Liquid - Review 1 / Review 2 / Review 3 / Review 4 / Video Review 1 (italiano) - 350€ - Loja 1

** HTC Hero - Review 1 / Review 2 / Review 3 / Review 4 - 400€-450€ - Loja 1 / Loja 2 / Loja 3

* Motorola Dext - Review 1 / Review 2 / Video Review - 300-350€ (???) - Not yet in the market

Recently, a link to a supposedly HTC new phones roadmap for the next 6 months leaked. The HTC Bravo, is the most interesting device from the list, even though I think it's worthless to keep waiting for another new phone.

I've decided to buy one of these previous devices, so I won't loose track of the Android train, and believe me, it's already on tracks and running at a fine speed as I write this...

So... any recomendations? Anyone?

- Processadores (Intel SU vs P7450, entre outros)

2009-12-10T12:03:00.012Z

I've made a small comparison between these Intel SU vs P7450 processors, and I decided to expose it here:

SU3500 has only one CPU;
P7450 is faster (2.13 GHz) than all the others (1.3-1.4 GHz) and has a 1066 MHz FSB, so the RAM memory can be used at a 1066 MHz speed and take total advantage of it, while the other CPU's are limited to take advantage of only 800 MHz;
P7450 spends (much) more energy than all the other 4, wich is the real advantage from all other CPUs over it, which means that all the others have more autonomy. Comparing with SU9400 (the most powerfull of the SU's), the P7450 consumes more than half the maximum energy , in a proportion of 25 Watts to 10 Watts concerning the SU4100/7300/9400 (so it says in the Intel website). The SU3500 is an ULV and spends 5.5Watts, which is almost half of the other SU's, but like I already mentioned, it has 1 less CPU unit;
The P7450 and the SU4100 don't have IntelVT (CPU extensions to optimize performance in virtualization tasks, a feature of less interest to those who don't use virtual machines);
And as a final note, the actual CPU Intel series performance "ladder" is something like this, concerning the CPU's that I consider to be useful when buying a laptop: Atom >> SU >> P >> T >> i5 >> i7 (performance) / i7 >> i5 >> T >> P >> SU >> Atom (battery life).

If one uses the laptop to do the basic day-by-day tasks, some gaming and the battery life is not critical, one should use the P7450.
If battery life is everything and processing power is actually not required at all, the SU3500 performs a little better than the actual Atom series and spends less the energy of all other SUs.
If battery life and processing power are required, I would probably go for the SU7300/SU9400.
If virtual machines are critical to use, it's important to have IntelVT, but I don't really know the difference between the SU7300/SU9400 IntelVT performance boost and an actual P7450 with a better clock and FSB speed (using DDR3 1066 MHz RAM memories, of course).

I found a great link, with an updated benchmark between several CPUs: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

Doubts, doubts and more doubts... (Laptops Inside)

2009-12-10T10:58:00.009Z

The doubt persists for portability purposes...:

(biggest priority = more asterisks '*')

** Asus UL30VT - Review 1 - 700-900€

*** Asus 1005 HA-H - Review 1 / Review 2 / - 300-350€

*** Asus 1201N - Hands-On - 410-450€

* Toshiba T130 - Review 1 / Review 2 / Review 3 / Review 4 - 600-700€

...and to join one of these, I need a more powerfull desktop replacement like one of the following:

** Asus G60J-JX060V - Review 1 / Review 2 / Review 3 - 1400-1500€

** Clevo W860CU (STR6) - Review 1 / Review 2 - 1600 - 1700€

The one I really want, is not beeing sold here in Portugal at the moment. It's the Asus G51J, a brother of G60J, but with a hell of a screen resolution, Full HD 1920x1080. Honestly, I think it would sell like hot bread, but it's ASUS decision, only they know why they don't sell this laptop here:

*** Asus G51J-A1 - Review 1 / Review 2 / Review 3 / Review 4 / Review 5 - 1400€-1700€ (???)

HELP!!!

PS- In a future post, I will add some pros and cons about each device, concerning what I like and dislike about them.

2009-10-15T16:18:00.006+01:00

There are doors which take us to parallel worlds... What We All Come to Need, from the north-americans PELICAN, is a real portal...

The End Of The Beginning...

2008-02-07T00:34:00.001Z

Nothing's better than start a journey listening to Route 666 dos God Is An Astronaut...

The path is long, twisted and misterious...