DIY Home theater speakers

So I was hunting around for some parts for a client when I came across this site, rather than hog it all to myself I thought I would share it - here is a good example - DIY low profile center channel

The site has several DIY kits to help you custom build some killer speakers and many other things, and if you read one of their guides you will know its not some cheapskate tweeker trying to sell kits, these are engineered with quality components -
- similar to how we build products whether it be networking equipment, servers etc, we like to "purpose pick" each individual component for its best qualities to suit the purpose of the overall product - its nice to know that we can now purpose build theater products with ease as well.

Google Fiber - Google getting in the cereal business?

Yep - who would have thought - people in Boston are giggling over google since the mayor over there has announced that they are ready for Google Fiber (me too;)! - you may think people in Boston are having bowel issues, but no - they are referring to Google's Fiber Optic network (yes they are getting into the local ISP business). Google is quite possibly going to supply Gigabit speed to neighborhoods all over Boston.

Some people may say "Wow - high tech!" - But this is nothing new, gigabit fiber has been around for a few years now, the only reason you dont hear about it is because the telcos that own the fiber are charging megabucks to have it, so really nobody buys it but companies like CBS or Level3 and such, I priced out a fiber connection for a client a few months back and it was a mere $5000 per month.

The new in this situation is Google - who has been known to give amazing products away for next to nothing - so if I can get a Gig fiber connection to my house for $100/month - I will jump right on that giggling train.

Most likely this (like many google services), is a preemptor to their television network - yes, google is ramping up to push their ads on THEIR network of course - why should they want to advertise on Cox cable? Oh and dont forget phone, I would bet theres some sort of phone service that these customers will qualify for - such as Google Voice with a service level agreement, then of course - they would have to push hosted phone systems!

Is there nothing google cant keep their hands out of?? -next thing you know there will be a google church - sorry i will not be bowing to that google.

more on Google Fiber in Boston here

Google taking over the world, your TV may be next

Google is working on their own set-top Cable boxes and TV integration, Google hopes that the new platform will succeed where dozens of lesser efforts have failed—to truly and seamlessly integrate web content onto TVs, bringing services like Twitter and sites like YouTube, in addition to games, webapps, and, of course, Google's search, to the big screen. The Google TV software reportedly includes a version of Google's Chrome browser for doing some light surfing, as well. The New York Times says Google TV will be delivered on set-top boxes that use Intel Atom chips and run an Android-based platform, though the technology will also reportedly be built directly into Blu-ray players and TVs from Sony. Additionally, Google is working with Logitech to built a keyboard-equipped remote control for the platform.

Who on earth would want to use Open Source?

Some may ask, "Is anyone but the geek tinkerers using open source" - well I was putting around the web the other day, and came across this interesting article about how the entire US Postal Service tracking system is run on about 1,300 servers running open source Linux, the tracking system has to deal with about 40,000,000 new transactions per day (not counting existing items to track) - that is a LOT of stuff to track.

Open source is no small potatoes, and is in use in enterprise environments the world over. We run many of our solutions on open source, and most of the time they provide higher efficiency with more features than commercial platforms costing $100,000s of dollars!

Stop badware!

Looks like google is using this new service in their search results called StopBadware.org - very interesting concept, it keeps a semi detailed report of malicious sites, when they were last scanned, and what type of content was found. If a google search result has such content you are forwarded to the stopbadware report for that site. Their database appears to be built by partners like google and largely user contributed, so if you hit a bad site report it there.

If you find one of these reports - PAY ATTENTION to it, more than likely the site you are attempting to reach could harm your computer.

New Asus eee 1008HA - ouch my mega hertz

Just picked up a new eee for a client - this thing is one of their slimmer eees with a 10 inch LED powered LCD - so far I am indifferent to it, cant say I like it or hate it.

While its supposedly 1 inch larger than my eee 901 (which has been through WW3), they seemed to have added most of the extra inch in the wrong direction - its significantly wider, but only a tad taller - the scroll keys get used a lot!!! The LED backlit is great, nice and bright - and the main reason why the battery goes for 6 hours.

They probably did this hat trick to fit a much wider keyboard on there (most people complain about the tiny keys on my 901), I like the new keyboard, it has great feedback, with solid keys. The touchpad is one of those slick multi-touch deals for scrolling and zooming (the mac pinch thing), and its flush mount on the PC. Finally they put a fricken CAP lock light on it, and the dedicated wifi button is nice.

They did some other {unnecessary} tricks on this thing also - all the io ports are hidden behind "nifty" little doors - most likely my client will inadvertantly rip this off as the doors are quite clumsy to use - especially the network port. The video port is another hat trick - you pull this little magnetic dongle out the bottom, and plug into a mini high density video port on the side for external monitors - again kind of clumsy, waiting to see how long before the dongle gets lost.

For power usage this thing is great, it does not have as large a battery as my 901, but to compensate they have used LED for its lower power usage, and one other nasty trick - the CPU is a single core Atom N280 (my 901 is a dual core), while it has a super performance option which clocks to a whopping 1.7 ghz, its still no competition for a dual core CPU. I am typing this article on it, and have installed several apps on it, so far it has performed well, but I know my clients - they could slow down a Ferrari! In short time, it will most likely begin to hesitate.

A combo of the FN key + Space bar bumps the CPU around to aide in battery life, here is what I found:

• 855 mhz power saver mode
• 950-1660 mhz Auto High performance mode (recommended mode)
• High performance mode didnt seem to change any compared to the "auto" modE
• 1705 mhz Super Performance mode

Its got pretty much all the other standard junk, bluetooth, webcam, 160 gig drive, SD slot, but the screen and CPU really leave me desiring more - if I were to get one personally, it would be a no most likely, but it might serve someone else as a great ultra portable.

THANK GOOGLE FOR THE TERRIBLE FORMATTING OF THIS ARTICLE!

Google really is taking over the world

Now I am convinced - look at all these new features in Google Docs and not just that - now I can upload any filetype - even an ISO as long as each file is under 100mb, and they give me a woppping 10 gigs total storage!!!! Is the wool being pulled over my eyes - or is that just an amazing amount of storage - for free!!!

Ohhh and besides that some people (like Joe) will be tickled pink to learn that Google has now released their Google Hosted Apps marketplace (if google hosts your domain (its free)), to boot - the new Market place offers a cajillion apps, including google integrated CRM packages (several) and even flippin accounting packages - is this like more rediculous than Earl Scheib $199.9995!?

Most all of these addon packages are fee based of course, but thus far google has provided superior products at less money than many of the so-called enterprise class solutions out there (not saying google is perfect, did I mention their blogger stinks) - I dont know how they do it.

Watch out, someday soon all will be saluting a Sieg Heil to google.

Connecting XP clients to Windows 7 shares

Windows 7 appears to network wonderfully (when all connected computers are Win7), the new Homegroup feature makes networking just plain simple.

If you are attempting to connect XP computers in a Win7 workgroup environment you may run across unreliable connectivity to the Win7 shares. I have found the hints on this site helpful, additionally you should restart the Server service and its dependancies.

MS Security Essentials - first missed virus

So it appears MS Security Essentials is just as good as all the other antivirus products out there - a client came to me with "Windows XP Antivirus 2010" on her laptop - this is a virus (see end of this post), and Security Essentials completely missed it, this new variant is a killer, not even Combofix could remove it (that's why people hire us).

Why continue to use this AV product - well, this is about the same grade of service you would get from any other Antivirus product out there paid or free, with the exception that it does not feel like your PC is trying to pull a bull dozer. So why buy Norton Internet Security and slow your brand new super fast computer down like it was a 1979 Ford Pinto?? - when chances are high that some virus will still get past it

THERE IS NO 100% EFFECTIVE ANTIVIRUS!!!!

If I had to choose a paid product I think it would be NOD32 from Eset - although it seems to slow bootup time to about 3-4 minutes on a fast computer while it does its initial scan, after that its pretty much smooth sailing and almost as efficient (CPU wise) as MS Security Essentials.

If it resembles this in anyway - its a fake:

UPDATE: Found the source of the virus - a web site that shows videos of popular TV Series - it was attacking via an Active X control - avoid active X threats by using Opera (safest) or Firefox - havent heard of Opera - well there's tons of great products that invest more on R&D than marketing campaigns - they have actually been around longer than Firefox, and chances are if your mobile phone has a browser, it was built by Opera.

All in all, I still think MSSE is a great low impact product, and we have found ways to double up the protection offered by it making a rock solid solution with no impact on your PC performance, call us today to find out how.

New eeeBox with HD

The new eeeBox from Asus is really packin some punch in a tight box - full 1080p HD playback, slot load DVD player and HDMI onboard, near silent running - this thing is a sleeper!

It's all because of Nvidia's new ION processor platform (based on Intels Atom), Nvidia has taken it one step further and integrated a high end graphics processor right into the southbridge chipset (a very new concept), which reduces the amount of components on the board, and reduces the overall power usage dramatically - this system uses 70% less power than todays typical PC (many of which are already low power). Less power = less heat = more processing potential.

No I dont have one yet, but I plan on getting an ION package in some form pretty soon.

Imagine your plasma slapped to the wall, and one of these guys slapped to the wall right next to it - what a duo!

Nice to know the president uses Aastra for his hotline to blow up the world

Just stumbled across this article (humor) - http://nose4news.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/obamas-daughter-almost-causes-armageddon/

Its interesting that the president's hotline to blow up the world is an Aastra IP phone, disappointing that its a measly 51i.

Google Voice treatin me bad today

Just had a few calls with severe jitter on goog voice today, looks like they are having some load issues.

Some router throughput reviews

Just picked a few popular routers to look over, some of the results are surprising and disappointing:

• Linksys WRT54G2
• Linksys WRT54GL
• Linksys RVS4000 Security Router
• Netgear FVS318G
• Sonicwall TZ190
• Smpl Route SR3E1W

It seems when I come into a clients small office and they say - ya I set it up, I hooked up the WRT54G2 - I say newer is not always better, looks like its only optimal at 8 simultaneous connections - although I doubt I would find an ISP with 70mbps throughput anytime soon, but it appears throughput problems start around 25 mbps. Quoted here:
"I did some additional investigation into the G2's simultaneous throughput problem and found that if I limit its data send rate to around 20 Mbps, I didn't see the throughput battle. But with a send limit of 25 Mbps, the problem reappeared."

It appears the WRT54GL is a pathetic example as well, completely dropping all communication at around 8-16 simultaneous connections - see the chart here. On a single download the GL appears to provide a very unstable 30-50mbps of through put.

Another sore looser from the bunch - Linksys (by Cisco) RVS4000 Gigabit Security Router with VPN, coming in at a blazzzing 14mbps max download (yes its gigabit) - its sad to say that this would not be sufficient for most cable modem connectons. But they call this a professional grade router - this is designed for the office?? - some smooth marketing pulled the wool over your eyes.

Netgear has some nice ones, but a popular one I often see is the FVS318G Gigabit VPN router. This guy can push about 22 mbps of raw throughput with about 200 max connections - not bad, not great.

And what about the resellers delight (Sonicwall loves a good reseller romance) - the TZ190, touted as a true enterprise product for the SMB, with 128mb of RAM, 16mb flash a 433mhz cpu and a dedicated VPN processor, it can provide a "blazing" 1.5 mbps of VPN throughput using 3DES. Such a "deal" at $1300 for the TZ190 with wifi, and annual support at $150 for basic and upwards of $800 (annually) if you get their full security suite (sweet reseller delight). Oh and the VPN is also another annual license cost - go figure, oh and not to mention if you need more than 1 office-2-office VPN - yes you need to upgrade to Enhanced OS, like routing packets with an elephant - bulky. Well their pure routing performance is about 25-26mbps of throughput - good for most cable modem connections (some max at around 30mbps).

The SmplRoute SR3E1W SMB router (by Simple Technologies), comes in at a blazing 88mbps of throughput with 2000 active connection states in the firewall (capable of 10,000+ states). With a 500 mhz processor, 256mb RAM and anywhere from 1-8gb of flash it can provide 30-35mb of VPN throughput. With no annual fees, anything less than $1300 would make this thing a smokin deal compared to a Sonicwall. We size the hardware based on your feature requirements, why would a basic small office router be suited to do complete antivirus, website, and spam filtering - this is like hauling a choo-choo-train with your F350 pickup truck.