computing

The underlying language, used by programmers, to display webpages hasn’t seen any dramatic visual changes in many years. There is a new standard, HTML 5, which is currently a draft but nearly complete in the “Recommendation” status. What does this mean for most people? HTML5 will mean more interesting browsing experience.

Not a geek?

I’ll inject here that if you’re not a geek, we have a while before any of these updates will trickle down to your machine. Keep using your current web browser and don’t worry about future changes.

Most of the visually interesting effects on web pages are accomplished with images. For example, on this website, the titles of the articles appear in a unique green font with a drop-shadow. The unique font and drop-shadow can’t be accomplished with previous versions of HTML. There’s no way to communicate with the web browser to tell it how you want the shadow to appear, or where to find a font if it is missing from the local machine. On my website, these titles are actually images – they are not text.

How about a box with rounded corners? Today it must be done with images; in HTML5 this is easily accomplished with a simple text description.

What else is new?

A bunch of stuff, but some examples would be:

• Gradient colors (smoothly blending from one color to another)
• Transitions without Flash (the pictures at the top of my website are a good example of a simple Flash implementation that would be replaced - no more need to install Flash)
• Intelligent layout that adapts to the device (such as displaying on a cell phone web browser)
• Embedded video without a special player
• The ability to render games smoothly
• How about spell-checking?

You might thing that these seem like tiny changes, but the impact on the website could be pretty dramatic, allowing websites to present information in a magazine style without the complicated requirements of including images as background elements.

Is there anything to see today in HTML5?

There are a few websites that have HTML5 tests underway – such as YouTube. Plus there are demo sites, such as Microsoft’s demonstration. My site includes some HTML5 tags, but you won't see them without an HTML5 compliant web browser.

What do you need to see HTML5 today?

The new version of Internet Explorer for Windows, IE 9, is now in beta and supports many of the HTML5 draft elements. It does not support one of my favorites elements yet – text shadow

The Chrome browser, from Google does a pretty good job with HTML5, although there are some instances (such as border with border radius) that don’t render as well on my machine as IE9.

Firefox 3.5 has less support for HTML5, but it is missing many of the elements. I've tried the beta of Firefox 4, but I don't find it stable enough to recommend.

I’ve read that Apple Safari does a good job with HTML5, but I haven’t tried it. I’ve had problems with Apple software making system changes in the past that annoyed me, so I don’t install it when I don’t need it.

Summary

Some cool stuff is coming, which will enable more websites to have attractive, cool functionality, even if they don't have the budget for graphic artists and highly skilled web developers.

My cell phone has reached the end of its contract (and I'm tired of looking at a broken front screen), so it's off to Verizon Wireless for a new phone. I spent ten-forevers analyzing each phone, comparing features, reading reviews, before settling on the new HTC Incredible.

The HTC Incredible uses the Android operating system purchased by Google in 2005, which is a pared-down version of Linux. HTC throws a custom user interface on top of Android to present a pretty slick phone.

When I finally decided to place my order on-line, I noticed that the web site said, "Will be shipped by June 1". Okay, it's backordered, it is still a cool phone. I placed the order. Within a couple of hours I received an email that my order had been processed and that my new phone should be arriving in two to three business days. "Wow," I thought, "Maybe they just had a shipment." The next day I noticed that the credit card had been charged, so I began peeking out the window for the UPS man to bring me my new toy.

On the fourth business day I called Verizon, "Where's my phone?" It took them 15 minutes to figure out that the phone was still backordered and that I should stop sneaking peeks at the UPS man, lest he get the wrong idea.

It turns out that the email I received is part of the on-line, automated processing system; it was confirming that the transaction was approved and I had been charged. The message really has no connection to whether or not the phone has actually shipped.

So when will my phone appear? Probably in the first week of June! Am I disappointed? Sure - who likes to be teased?

Five years seems like a short time for many things, but not for computers. While many of us have computers older than five years of age, it’s generally acknowledged that five years old is about the lifespan of a well-used machine. My home computer reached five years and had the equivalent of a stroke; a core electrolytic capacitor in the power filtering section of the motherboard popped.

Unfortunately, it means I was also left with a box of out-of-date parts – power supply, CPU, video card – even the DVD burner. I realized it was time to gut the beast and start over.

There were several “user scenarios” to be met in the parts selection – photo editing, sound editing, video editing (sensing a pattern here?); these were the activities that would stress the machine. Simple activities, such as surfing the Internet or writing email, could be accomplished with a surplus machine. However, the media editing scenarios demanded more oomph.

Careful examination showed that the video editing software, Sony Vegas, would put the machine under the greatest strain. Since Vegas relies upon the CPU for most of its processing, and is multi-threaded, I went for a chip that has been doing well in such challenges when tested by trustworthy organizations; I settled on the Intel i5 Quad 750. Vegas will use all four cores – as do some of the other applications I use, including my Nikon photo editing package.

After selecting the CPU, the other components fell into place – 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 1 TB Western Digital drive with 64MB cache, 5750 ATI video card with 1G RAM, 650 watt Corsair modular power supply, a SATA-based DVD DL burner, and they are all hosted by a Gigabyte motherboard that includes SATA3 and USB3. The operating system? Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

Assembling the beast took little more than an hour, including the time to carefully route and bind all of the cables to insure good air flow and easy maintenance.  I decided to use the stock cooler for a couple of reasons – first, it’s the warranted cooling solution, second, I’m not overclocking the CPU, and third, I was too impatient to get a new bracket to fit one of my old coolers.

So, what’s cool about the result? It is mighty quick. I’m very pleased with the performance; particularly when editing media. This machine goes into sleep mode quickly, then restarts in two seconds; literally, two seconds and it’s ready. Playing a DVD uses single digit CPU cycles. Heavy audio processing (Stereo Tool) results in single digit CPU cycles. Windows 7 pre-fetch means that Outlook 2010 loads in two seconds.

I’ve reattached my audio chain to the input. It’s my overkill method for Skype connections. A Shure SM 87, preamp via an old Mackie mixer (VLZ preamps), ancient dbx 163x Over Easy compressor, to a BeachTek XLR adapter. It probably doesn’t sound much different from the average setup, but it’s fun to play with. The video duties are handled by a Microsoft LifeCam Cinema – very clear image. By the way, the little blue doo-dad on top of the compressor is a badge reader so that I can VPN into work. The gray box beneath is my USB memory card reader.

So, that’s the rundown of the refit. Still using the same keyboard, monitor, mouse, and DLink gigabit switch, but there’s no denying it’s a whole new machine.
 

About five years ago, I built my home computer. At the time, it was a middle-of-the-road machine with good components. Alas, two weeks ago the machine failed… completely. There’s an old joke that electronics run on “magic smoke.” This is a reference to the acrid smell emitted by electronics when something goes terribly wrong.

Although my machine didn’t actually emit any “magic smoke,” it did come to a complete failure – no lights, no POST messages, no indication of life. It was an ex-parrot. I’ll tag the geek specifics lower in the story.

After digging around in the garage for a couple of hours, I managed to get a partially operational “Franken-PC” running. It won’t do sound, can’t talk to the printer, and is very slow – but it gets me onto the Internet.

I’m hoping to secure enough parts to bring the machine into the current millennia within the next couple of weeks. Until then, two of the eight cylinders are operating. 

Geek stuff: The failure is centered around old, bulging capacitors on the motherboard. It appears that several of the old electrolytic capacitors around the power supply connection socket have failed. There are others (associated with USB ports) that had failed previously. Its seems a dubious use of time and money to attempt to replace the capacitors on this five-year-old motherboard.

The Franken-PC motherboard actually is in worse shape (for capacitor failure), but none of the problems are critical for CPU/RAM/Network/disk controller, so the machine gets me onto the Internet. The Franken-PC is a single-core, mobile AMD processor with 2G RAM. It clocks out performance that is similar to a nine-year-old Pentium 4 chip. If only doing a single task (one browser, or just Word) it does okay. Just don’t attempt to run multiple applications, anything requiring heavy processing (such a video editing), anything that requires sound, or anything that needs to be printed.

I’m hoping to replace the motherboard, CPU, and RAM in the next few weeks. We’ll see what kind of deal I can find at NewEgg.com!

In the fine cinematic feature, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” there is drawn the great distinction between “bunnies” and “rabbits” when the troop encounters the Rabbit of Caerbannog. They are told that, “death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth,” in reference to the rabbit – which is obviously not warm and cuddly like a bunny. Therefore! I pronounce the critters I vanquished today to be dust rabbits!

A friend (who shall remain anonymous, to avoid being associated with the horror that follows) was having problems with his computer after installing new memory (RAM). The machine was decidedly unstable and quite disagreeable. I spent some time diagnosing the problem, finally discovering that one of the new “sticks” of RAM was indeed defective.

While digging through the computer I discovered the rabbits – they were everywhere! They had congregated beneath the cooling fan for the CPU – creating a lovely blanket of near-wool properties, ideal for summer computing!

There were rabbits in the video card fan, rabbits on the motherboard, and rabbits in the air intake vents. Those little beasties had multiplied over the years to take over the whole machine!

With vacuum cleaner hose in-hand, I conquered the evil monsters one-by-one. The machine should be more stable without the furry critters everywhere.

So, when was the last time you had a geek exterminate the beasties from your computer?
 

While I enjoy most Microsoft products, I found that the Windows Media Player isn’t my favorite. It performs well enough for most people, but I’m a little pickier. My newest machine is now four and a half years old, so any gains in performance are delightful to me. I’ve elected to switch back to Winamp as my default music player. The price is right too – you can get it for free.

The biggest drawback to Winamp are the hoops you must jump through when installing the application. First, the opportunity to choose the wrong edition (say, one that costs money) is quite easy. Second, during the installation the manufacturer (AOL) makes several attempts to hijack the user’s home page and other preferences, as well as install extra software. These assaults are easily avoided by geeks, but since they are the default options I’m sure normal mortals will fall prey to them.

Winamp plays my MP3 collection more cleanly that Windows Media player and supports “plug-ins” that allow the user to customize their experience. For me, there is a plug-in that I really adore: Stereo Tool. The simple name belays the coolness. The plug-in was developed by a fellow named Hans van Zutphen and is designed to moderate the differences in volume between different songs. Hans gives the plug-in away – pretty cool. Be warned: some of those previously save performance gains are lost with the use of the Stereo Tool. For me, the ROE (return on enjoyment) is well worth it. If there is one failing of Stereo Tool, it would be the incredible flexibility available in the plug-in - which is needed by radio broadcasters.

Here’s more detail about how Hans’ plug-in works for the geeks. Stereo Tool uses the same concepts used by commercial radio stations to get consistent loudness – multiband compression and limiting. The heart of the plug-in is a ten-band compressor/limiter (which has separate compressor and limiting functions) to provide a very good approximation of the radio station experience. If you’d like to learn more about the geeky details, feel free to drop me a line, or check out Han’s website.