Posted on Monday, 9th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

I always have dream to have a separate and dedicated passive volume control. There was a time when I was offered to acquire few sets of Grayhill ‘M’ series rotary switch. Although it has 7 Decks which definitely overkill for most application, but seeing the quality of the switch, I decided to grab some.

Although ‘M’ Series from Grayhill is not Military qualified switch, but it meets the requirements of MIL-S-3786 which covers moisture resistance, medium and high shock, vibration, thermal shock (from minus 65 up to over 125 degree Celsius), salt spray, explosion, terminal strength (2 lbs pull minimum), and stop strength (15 pound-inches minimum). Quite convincing, huh? The simple but major different is, the ‘HS’ Military grade will have a sealed shaft and panel. That will make a lot of different in ‘heavy’ environment, but probably not much at home.

Each switch is bundled inside a plastic tube. Nice and convenient way to carry the switch and also easy to be put on the storage bin.

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Tags: Attenuator, Grayhill, Military, preamp, Switched, volume control
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Posted on Thursday, 3rd March 2011 by Auw Jimmy

My new digital transport has just come, QLS QA-550.

This is actually a SD Card WAV Transport, as it only has digital out (either Coaxial or Optical) and internally I2S pin-out.

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Tags: Digital Player, SD Card Player, Transport, WAV
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Posted on Sunday, 10th February 2008 by Auw Jimmy

I have some free time today. So it’s the time to do some of my hobby: audio.

Today I have a Grado SR80 headphone and my old FireWire sound card, Terratec Aureon FireWire 7.1. This is a nice old sound card. It has Phono/MM stage and also can act as D/A without the necessary of a PC. I fire it up and get somehow dirty sound from my Grado. I clean up the headphone connectors with my favorite contact cleaner called Brasso. Problem solved.

Next, I download the latest driver from Terratec website. After installing it, somehow my Aureon’s Master LED blinking after 3-5 minutes playing sound and starts producing cracking noise. I don’t know why. I open up the Aureon and check for any failure inside but can’t find any. Everything seems ok!

Then I suspect the problem is on the driver. I search for my optical cable, the I hook up the Aureon to my onboard Realtek ALC660 via optical cable. Voila, everything runs perfectly over 30 minutes with no cracking or error sound. So now I’m sure that my Aureon (physically/hardware) is ok. (more…)

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Posted on Friday, 27th April 2007 by Auw Jimmy

According to this, Research in Motion (RIM) is working on the emulator to make Windows Mobile based devices to work like a Blackberry.

I think the idea is simple, but not easy to be implemented. According to RIM, they are working on the emulator based on the Windows Mobile 6 platform. So, expect no upgrade for the previous Windows Mobile user. The interesting thing is this software allow the user to switch between Blackberry and/or Windows Mobile mode. So, I don’t have to buy new Blackberry device to taste the real Blackberry (hope they will support full Blackberry services, not just the e-mail like the Blackberry Connect).

I think on one side, this idea will boost Blackberry’s popularity, but on the other side, this may affect the Blackberry based device selling. It’s interesting to see the RIM’s strategy upon this. The launch is scheduled this Fall.

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Posted on Friday, 27th April 2007 by Auw Jimmy

Spb has just launcher their new application (or game?). The idea is very interesting, to exercise your brain. Train your brain to reach another level, just like your muscle.

Basically, Spb Brain Evolution is a puzzle game. It has 10 games to train your brain. This program has its own way to train your brain. Let’s say, you have to finish certain level before you can play another game, you have to pass certain score, etc. This game also has “benchmark mode” to check you brain level. You have to answer some question and this program will evaluate your brain’s score.

The picture above show the “Brain Marking Result”. You can benchmark your brain once every day to see its performance.

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Posted on Wednesday, 7th March 2007 by Auw Jimmy

I just remember this tips today. Last year, when I was upgrading my iPAQ hx4700 (I’m stil using it right now) to Windows Mobile 2005, somehow the system was stucked. I didn’t know why, but it couldn’t boot up. Just showing boot up screen but never showed the Today Screen.

I remember that iPAQ (my old one, the 36xx) has a unique Parrot Mode (or debug mode in common terms). I looked around the web to find the shortcut button to enter the debug mode. Finally, I found the shortcut. The keys are “AddressBook + iTask + Reset” button. All pressed on the same time. Your screen will show HP logo with no backlight. Connect it to your PC (USB/serial) then re-flash your hx4700 either with WM2003 (original ROM) or with WM2005. Just run the ROM executable to re-flash your hx4700.

Another example: XDA
I also have another experience with my XDA IIs (HTC Blue Angel). Well, I played with some ROMs from XDA Developer and few times my device locked up. And I have to re-flash it back. The only way to solve this problem is by entering the debug mode by pressing the “Soft Reset + Power + Side Navigator” button. Then, connect your XDA to the PC and re-flash it back.

This method will work to fix the “dead” XDA/iPAQ due to corrupted ROM and power failure during flashing process.

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Posted on Saturday, 2nd September 2006 by Auw Jimmy

I’ve just watched the “Snake on the Plane”. Well, I saw some interesting (but not a new innovation) on the movie: The in-movie commercial.

On one scene, the FBI agent (forgot the name) wanted to identify the snake to his boss. But it was hard for him to inform his boss about the snake just by describing the snake’s color. One of the passenger told him that she could send an e-mail with the photo inside. The others complained that she needed a computer and digital camera to do that. She replied that “This could do that!” and showed her Treo 600 or 650 (it’s a Palm based PDA with digital camera).

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Posted on Saturday, 5th August 2006 by Auw Jimmy

If you have been in this world for at least 15 years, I’m sure you know what is “Walkman” refers to. At that time, maybe you didn’t know who is Nokia.

But now, Nokia is the biggest handset player in the world, in terms of money, unit sold, and perhaps, unit’s varians. They are now entering new market, about audio player in handset.

Yes, every handset maker has decided to include this feature into their handset. But we will discuss only two brand. First, the Sony (Ericsson) with its Walkman phone. Second, the Nokia due to their position as largest handset manufacturer.

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Posted on Wednesday, 26th July 2006 by Auw Jimmy

Last night, I saw a good movie on local TV. Actually, that was one of my favorite movie, with title Swordfish. I believe most of you have seen this movie, eh? I have seen this movie few times, and this movie really impresses me much. Not because of the scenes or the actors/actresses, but the path and logic from the movie itself.

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