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[Fixed] Skype and Pulseaudio on Fedora 16

Posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2012 at 09:05 in Linux by davidfretz

I solved a PulseAudio problem with Skype version 2.2.0.35 for Fedora 16.  I initially had it working.  However, tweaking the audio settings messed up the microphone port for the NVidia CK804 Alsa driver input into PulseAudio.   The thing that solved everything was to install the pavucontrol through yum.  Then run the command and go to the the configuration tab and change the Internal Audio profile to Analog Surround 4.0 Output and Analog Sound Input.  There isn’t an Analog Stereo Output and Analog Stereo Input for this driver.  That would be the one to choose for my setup.  After that one choice everything worked.

 

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Broken iPhone screen

Posted on Sunday, January 1st, 2012 at 21:11 in Apple by davidfretz

Well the screen on my iPhone will need some sort of maintenance in the form of a screen replacement. I ordered the replacement this evening and should appear on Wednesday. I have already looked at the steps on replacing the screen. It appears to be the hardest thing to replace on the phone. The phone basically opens from the back. You keep removing screws and parts, until you get to the front. The main thing on replacing the screen is to get a digitizer already glued to the LCD screen from the vendor. It will save time and frustration in the end.

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iOS 5 apps

Posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 at 07:23 in Apple by davidfretz

I started to see iOS 5 apps in the update queue in the App Store last night. The iOS 5 update should happen today in the middle of the day.  iTunes 10.5 is available now. It’s a sign of the change that it is coming from Apple.

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Dragon Age video sluggishness solved

Posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 18:05 in Gaming by davidfretz

I was trying to play Dragon Age on my PC the other day and immediately would run into very sluggish video.   This was strange.  I remember playing Dragon Age earlier and having no problems with the graphics.  I thought and remembered that I had a different mouse at the time.  I had replaced the first generation Steel Series Warcraft MMO mouse.  I went back to the old Razor Diamondback mouse and the video sluggishness was gone.  I hadn’t read anything about this problem anywhere on the Internet.  I hope that I’m the only one experiencing this problem.

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Dead Space spinning camera solved

Posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 13:36 in Gaming by davidfretz

My copy of Dead Space 2 will arrive next week sometime. I had finished Dead Space Extraction 6 months ago and it was a pretty good game. I plan on finishing Dead Space this weekend. I started the game the other night and ran into the initial camera spinning problem. The solution in my case was to disconnect the Logitech joystick from the USB jack and the spinning stopped. I also disconnected the Microsoft Wireless xBox controller that was charging on the PC’s USB as well. The game then started to work properly.

I also fired up the Nvidia 3D video with the glasses and had the 5.1 sound going through the Sound Blaster X-Fi in Dead Space. The sound is super excellent and sound is very even amongst all the speakers. Most games will have sound focus on the front speakers and lesser volume on the surround speakers. The 3D video works for the most part. The 3D video makes you focus on a certain level depth and sort of ruins peripheral vision a bit. The game story so far is pretty good and yet scary. I think, that my projection of finishing Dead Space by this weekend should be effortless.

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Starcraft 2 and Red Dead Remption

Posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 12:15 in Gaming by davidfretz

I’m still in the middle of Red Dead Redemption and Starcraft 2 just came in yesterday.  I’m torn in either finishing Red Dead Remption or start up the Startcraft 2.  I still haven’t finished Bioshock 2.  I’m not quite willing to put that on the pile of shame either.

I was able to rip the Starcraft 2 soundtrack and put it on the iPhone this morning.  It sounds like the old Starcraft soundtrack with more flare.  There appears to be some original works as well.  I wonder if Diablo III will do the same thing.

The Red Dead Redemption Soundtrack is really good.  It is very much in the style of the music of the spaghetti westerns  done by Ennio Morricone.  I used to listen to the soundtrack to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly all the time in the car.  I had a cassette deck in my 80′s Mercury.  The cassette deck very delicate and it would stop working randomly.  I would then have to get it repaired at the dealer.

This reminds me that Mercury will cease to be a Ford brand after this year.  So long Mercury.

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iOs 4 update on iPhone 3G

Posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 09:19 in iPhone by davidfretz

Apple iPhone 3GI can can claim that the 3G iPhone is just as slow with this update as the previous.  My phone won’t be upgraded at the low price from AT&T until the middle of January.  It’s just bad luck as the low price was extended to people with upgraded times to January 1, 2011.

I was able to take 11 pages of apps and put them in folders to condense to less than 3 pages of apps.  I guess, it’s a bright spot with the Apple  iOs 4.

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Seasonic 700W power supply dead

Posted on Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 12:48 in Gaming by davidfretz

The power supply, a Seasonic M12-700,  in my game machine went dead after 3+ years.  I had just started up Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer for 1 minute and then the freeze.

The screen went white with lots of artifacts still showing.  I figured the game had frozen and I rebooted the computer.  However, the fans were no longer turning  afterwords.  But, the interior lights were still working and the DVD and hard drives seemed to be seeking around.  I deduced one or more of the power rails had died.  My hope was that the motherboard wasn’t damaged as well.  I also figured the power supply went bad due to the warmer weather with no air conditioning.

Curiously the previous powers supply, a Seasonic SS-600, is still working on my Linux server.  The total time to buy the next power supply and install it was about 5 and half hours.

I ended up with the Antec True Power 750 Blue.  The stats that sold me were the 25A 12V rails.  The old M12-700 had 18A 12V rails.  Antec is 80 Plus Bronze certified for power efficiency. The Antec cooling fan lights up blue as a bonus.

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Server Failings

Posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 16:52 in Linux by davidfretz

Problematic SATA CableThe server took a turn for the worst this week.  The system kept crashing.

I knew, it had something to do with the hard drives.  However, SMART was telling me that the hard drives were working optimally.  I figured maybe one of the hard drives was being cooked by the 9800GT SLI setup in the case.  I didn’t like the video card/hard drive arrangement in the Antec SX1030 case with window on the side door.  However, I figured out an arrangement that works.

I was thinking about upgrading the Antec P160 with window on the side door for an Antec Skeleton on the game computer.  Then I would transplant the Antec P160 case to the server.  The P160 has always been really good about cooling.   Though, $150 was expensive in my mind to replace the Antec P160.

I finally got around to debugging the server.  There was an extra SATA cable plugged into the motherboard.  This cable would allow for  another hard drive to do backups to the server.  Then I thought backups should be done offline to another device not on the server.  The backups then could be distributed offline to another location.  It’s the safer way to do backups.  The cable was left connected to the motherboard with no hard drive.

I had the bright idea.  I could take the SATA cable and replace the cable to the hard drive that seemed to be having a “problem”.  This time no cable extra cables were left dangling.  To my surprise the computer booted up perfectly.  So the moral of the story is remove any unattached cables from your system.

I still might get an Antec Skeleton.  However, that will be another post.

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Xbox info

Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 15:29 in Gaming by davidfretz

xBoxI got a xBox 360 over the weekend to replace the xBox with a not so great DVD player.  I figure, I can finally finish Crimson Skies without the console crashing.  The replacement was a remanufactured Xbox with a 20 GB drive.  The $134.99 price sounded like a pretty good deal.  I was pretty surprised that the box came with an HDMI cable and a Microsoft component cable as well.  This is good.  I had planned to upgrade the TV sometime in the next couple of months to a LCD with HDMI and probly 120Hz refresh.

Anyways, I had read via random xBox pages that the old chipset wasn’t as great and more prone to the 3 Red Ring Of Dead or 3RROD.  I wanted to identify the xBox that I have recieve.  The easy way to the check the sticker on the back next to the power input.   If the sticker says 12V – 14.2A:5V, then it’s a falcon chipset xBox.   If the sticker says 12V – 12.1A:5V, then it’s the jasper chipset xBox.  I’m slight alarmed that the chipset is a falcon chipset.  I guess, I should keep the thing as cool as possible.

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