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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-02b
Last news before Chinese New Year & Valentine's Day
Antec power push throttling higher
Welcome Antec, a long-time leader in cases, power supply units,
cooling fans & other gear for the gang of DIY PC builders. You
may see a lot of new competitors in the PSU arena, but Antec
isn't standing still when it comes to power supplies. Ask
Veronica to help you check out their new designs that emphasize
even less power waste, even less heat production, even better
reliability & even quieter operation. If your build projects get
coverage, ask how Antec products can help you add bragging
rights. Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont, CA)
510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
How Franklin bill reader works
Inside the small bar-of-soap-size package of a Franklin Bill
Reader ($300), an embedded camera grabs a snapshot of the front
or back of US currency, open or folded, in any orientation.
Pattern recognition algorithms (USB-updatable) compare key
"fingerprint" points in the image to like areas in known currency
($1-$100 denominations), find a match & announce its value,
either aloud or through a headphone jack. Vision impaired users
are, of course, the intended focus for this device, but we don't
know anybody who doesn't marvel at it. Review units are
available; ask Aline. Contact: Aline Boutin, Franklin Electronic
Publishers (Burlington, NJ) 609-386-2500x4434
aline_boutin@franklin.com http://franklin.com
Fuel cell dwells inside S80 Select BACtrack
Perhaps the most professional-caliber blood alcohol screening
device in the line, the BACtrack S80 Select BACtrack breathalyzer
(street $155-$199) uses an advanced Xtend electrochemical fuel
cell sensor for enhanced accuracy. Users can adjust the blow
time, required blow pressure, displayed measurement units & set
an audible beep threshold. (Blow pressure options mean that even
people with diminished lung capacity can test). Your beat may not
cover those who frolic on St. Patrick's Day, but consider the
concerns of places that serve them, park their cars or enforce
the laws. Contact: Keith Nothacker, KHN SOLUTIONS (San Francisco
CA) 415-693-9756x113 mailto:keith.nothacker@bactrack.com
http://bactrack.com
Tiffen's top tipsy fighter: Merlin
We were thinking about St. Patrick's Day & how a Steadicam Merlin
can keep people shooting straight even when they're not
necessarily able to keep walking straight when we learned that
Merlin has become one of Tiffen's best-selling retail products.
It's hitting a broad mix of pro, semipro & avocational users of
both video cameras & DSLRs (not just those with video modes
either). Ask Hilary for info, explanations & maybe a loaner for
your St. Paddy segments or items. Contact: Hilary Araujo, Tiffen
Company (Hauppauge, NY) 631-609-3216 haraujo@tiffen.com
http:/.tiffen.com
Special Report: Getting geeky with pinholes
We learned a trick we want to share, but be prepared because this
is on the full metal geeky side of life. This is a router trick
that lets you come from an "outside" LAN (static IP addresses on
the "real" Internet) to access a WiFi printer on an "inside" LAN
(behind the network address translation of a router). Let's set
the stage. When we upgraded to "Business Class" cable modem
service, we bought a tier of 5 static IP addresses (which cost a
lot more than just 1 & a lot less than 13, the next steps up &
down). For now, 2 of those 5 are spares (anticipating more
Web-facing servers), 1 goes to our production desktop, 1 goes to
our "Project Yippie" server & 1 goes to our router. Behind the
router, our inside LAN has wired & WiFi connections to several
PCs & handsets, a femtocell, several printers & occasional
notebooks. Part of the router's job is to protect many of those
inside assets from access by the Web at large - imagine the
denial of service & other hassles if some punk hacker decides to
task your printers with churning out a few thousand pages of
porn. We contacted both online & phone support for the vendor of
our router as well as people at several of the leading brands to
ask how we could configure everything to do what we want to
accomplish. We want to keep static addresses where we need them
while keeping most of our connections (via router) from using or
needing more static IP addresses - so far the easy part - yet
still let our static-IP desktop print to an "inside" LAN WiFi
printer. The answer is a pinhole, in this case meaning specific
permission to allow specific ports from a specific IP address
(our desktop) to communicate with a specific device at a specific
internal LAN IP address. (Our TrendNet router lets us assign a
specific IP address from its inside pool to any specific device
based on its MAC address). The exact methods will vary from
router to router & the exact ports will vary from printer to
printer (especially one with scanner, fax & other services like
our Lexmark models), but this basic approach can accomplish what
support wonks on the other side of the planet kept telling us is
impossible.
Project Yippie: The server-build
The hardware part of our system build was fast & uncomplicated,
giving us some elbow room for a few fillips. With essentially
everything we needed other than drives already part of our
Clarkdale system board (officially, an Intel Core-i5-661, socket
1156 processor on an Intel DH55TC micro-ATX Media Series
motherboard), we didn't think we'd have to populate a single slot
until we noticed that this motherboard doesn't include the Intel
Matrix Storage Manager, so we'd have to find our own way to array
the drives. Our trio of nicely power-efficient 3.5" Hitachi
Deskstar 500GB drives (2 to be mirrored as Main, 1 for Backup -
nightly) all fit a single drive cage in the noise-reducing Antec
Mini P180 microATX case. In our initial build, we're leaving the
Crucial 2GB DDR3 modules in place (for 8GB total that we can
later increase to 12GB or 16GB by swapping in a pair or two of
4GB modules) & running without an optical drive (since we already
used our desktop to download the software we need to install into
a Seagate Free Agent Go portable drive). We added a Thermaltake
noise-reducing silicon fan gasket & stuck their noise-reducing
foam inside the left side panel. We used an ATX
vibration-reducing Vizo gel gasket when mounting the Antec True
Power New TP-650 power supply; modular cabling means we only have
to plug in cables we need to help keep open airflow paths
uncluttered; we chose to over-spec the power supply to assure
that it would stay cool, meaning its temperature-responsive 120mm
fan will always run at its slowest, quietest setting. The case
offers 2 front USB ports & one front eSATA port & we added a rear
chassis bracket with 2 additional USB connectors for a total of
10 available (which we don't think we'll need, but there's yet
another available 2-port connector on the motherboard). The whole
hardware build was only slightly more complicated than one of our
little Atom box builds, which we can now do on the kitchen table
between drinks & dinner.
Special Report Bonus Review: PDFzilla
These days, between features embedded in applications or
utilities & all the e-mail attachments that arrive, we all have
growing collections of PDF files, but what if you need those
pages in some other format? We'll confess to being suspicious of
the claims for PDFzilla, but having tried it, we're very
impressed. You start by adding one or more PDF files you want to
convert; it lets you convert one at a time, a folder at a time or
in huge batches (in our test run, conversions ran at less than 1
second per file); it also lets you limit the conversion to a
single page or a limited page range. There are options specific
to some output format: none for DOC, RTF or HTML; page breaks for
TXT; DPI for graphics (JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG or TIF) & for Flash,
it offers fps, play button & Flash 6 compression options. Some of
the conversions are imperfect; taking a PDF that showed only a
graphic, we've seen areas that are transparent in original art &
appear correctly in PDF files come out on black backgrounds in
their conversions to any graphical format & GIF files display no
colors while TIF files do; the DOC & HTML page was unrecognizable
but the Flash file was perfect. Many runs with mixes of type &
simple images came out perfectly, others with more complex
graphics had these issues & several files reported password
protection (which we can't absolutely confirm or deny as
accurate). Bottom line: PDFzilla is a promising utility for
"jail-breaking" PDF pages into other useful formats that has some
sandpapering left to do, but even so, is very useful indeed for
several kinds of need.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: SpectraSan 24
We're not well-enough educated in disinfectant sciences to know
where to begin looking for evidence of whether they work or not,
but we know enough about gizmos & gear to figure out the
trade-offs of spraying to prevent germs. When we got pitched to
review an antibacterial, antiviral & antifungal (plus
deodorizing) spray called SpectraSan 24 we were pretty clear that
we'd take a look at it mostly to learn what might make it a less
than optimal choice in a tech-laden workplace. The lit claims
it's effective against H1N1, HIV-1, E Coli, Staph Simplex 1,
Salmonella, Polio & more, based on a hint of silver & a roughly
5% citric acid active content in the spray, also claiming a
residual effectiveness up to 24 hours. They recommend spraying
any hard, non-porous surface from toilets to kennels to counters
to TV remotes & computers (especially in shared areas). We
sprayed it on some phones & things; it is not quick-drying; the
instructions say to thoroughly wet an area, let that stand for 30
seconds to 10 minutes (the time depends on what organism you're
trying to kill, as if we'd know) then wipe it dry. We can
certainly see that practice of daily wetting, waiting & drying as
helping increase employment & helping them sell more products,
but we find the regimen way too intense & somewhat too tedious
for a normal workplace. Bottom line: Even if SpectraSan 24 is
completely effective in killing every dangerous germ in the
workplace, it's unlikely to fit well into the work habits of
those without some overriding special need for concern.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700
Our "Yippie" server doesn't draw much power (about 250 Watts at
peak, less than half that most of the time) so why would we
consider an over-capacity power supply? One reason is that
installing a new power supply in an existing system can be
tedious, so even if our configuration grows, this will handle it.
One reason is heat; if we can run a power supply at less than 30%
of its design load, power efficiency may drop a smidge but it
will produce less heat & handle it handily. Less heat also means
less noise because its fan can run at its slowest, quietest
speed. We asked Cooler Master to send their Silent Pro M 700 for
review & had another nice surprise on the quiet front: it's the
first power supply we've seen that comes with silicon rubber pads
to absorb vibration. It uses flat modular cables that are easy to
tuck out of the way of air flow; also, since you only populate
those you need, you don't have to find a place to stuff the
spares. The big 135mm fan is well balanced & seems to have been
chosen for low fan noise. We had some concerns about whether it
could keep a system alive during the switch-over to backup power
during an outage, but this supply maintains a hold-up time of
17msec (UPS switchover time is on the order of 4msec). It's very
tolerant of vagaries on the power lines (not uncommon here in the
Blizzard Belt), adapting itself to work with 90-240VAC at
47-63Hz. We were delighted in our initial run test to find that
even without its rubbery pads, it was inaudible. Bottom line: the
Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700 seems to do what it takes to
assure that once you install it, you never have to think about it
again.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: Thermaltake TMG i3 CPU cooler
When we fired up our Project Yippie system for an acoustic noise
test, the loudest thing about it was the CPU cooler fan (the
stock fan with the Intel kit). We set our sights on Google to
find some quieter Socket 1156 alternatives. The short list came
down to two (both identically priced at $12.99 at our local Micro
Center & both featuring simple Intel-standard pushpin mounting):
a Scythe Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 GT (28.6CFM, PWM 500-2000rpm
fan) & a Thermaltake TMG i3 (35.1CFM, PWM 300-2500rpm fan). Our
choice of the Thermaltake was based in part on our reading
(spring & ring vibration dampening in the fan mount & an "enter
bearing" with a better seal & more available lubricant than
standard sleeve bearings) & in part on seeing it first; both of
these products gains bragging rights for both heat dissipation &
silence versus the stock solution. We like the wider fan speed
range of the Thermaltake because it means that as long as we keep
the server running coolly, it can run more quietly. The air flow
is down through the fan, then out in 4 sideways directions across
the fins, meaning it can also help cool the memory & motherboard
chips. Bottom line: with the Thermaltake TMG i3 CPU cooler in
place, it is now very difficult to tell by ear whether our
Project Yippie server is on or off.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: A-L Expressionist Classic
The Altec Lansing Expressionist Classic speakers (second of the
three reviews we're doing on their products) are nice to look at
with smoke-grey plastic plates a bit over 5" square on the
business side of cylindrical housings about the size of a pound
can of coffee. The built-in amplifier can drive some big-league
volume out of these speakers, which Altec Lansing positions for
use with notebooks or media players (standard analog small stereo
connection plus a wall wart for power, with a power switch &
volume +/- controls on the right channel). The sound profile adds
a lot of low-midrange emphasis. These are not speakers for audio
purists (the tonality can be reminiscent of listening through a
few feet of 5" ventilation ducts), but we can see them working
out fine for many office desktops or dorm rooms. Bottom line:
Altec Lansing Expressionist Classic speakers do a good job of
sound field imaging, including a very good phantom center
channel, delivering sound energy that will please many younger
ears while looking handsome in the process.
Is one paragraph too much?
We have a serious question to ask you about this Bulletin. Back
in 1982, we set a standard of just one paragraph for any one item
(based on the old AP Radio Headline Wire, plus a little elbow
room). We still keep things to just one paragraph, including some
that we admit to being monstrously long. Daniel Dern wrote to
suggest that we break long items into multiple paragraphs; we'll
have to rewrite our VBA code to handle that, so it won't be
instant. Our question: should we? Would you rather see multiple
paragraphs short paragraphs, the long ones we have now, or a
compromise in content to stay with a single paragraph but keep it
shorter? We do this weekly work for you, so we want what we do to
work for you. Please drop a note to Marty & let him know what you
prefer. Contact: Martin Winston, Newstips (Novelty, OH)
440-338-8400; marty@Newstips.com http://Newstips.com
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Newstips Bulletin [Novelty, OH] +1.440.338.8400 http://Newstips.com
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