First impressions of the Intel D945GCLF (Atom) Desktop Mainboard

My old AMD Geode NX1750-based energy saver machine (I posted about it here) has for some reason passed away - the mainboard keeps on crashing. May it rest in peace.

I took a look around to find out what's current in the energy saving market, just in order to decide whether repairing would be worth it, but in the end i opted for a completely new solution based on an Intel Atom CPU.

Since I always intend to keep investments as small as possible, I chose the Intel D945GCLF all in one solution, containing Mainboard, CPU and Video Card - the smallest solution offered by Intel. I would have preferred the D945GSEJT which is using a better CPU, the far more energy efficient notebook chipset and allows using external 12V adapters (which are all passive and more energy efficient), but it's about twice as expensive. I also try one further energy optimization : I exchanged the system HD with a Notebook drive. All storage comes as PNP USB devices. I could tell myself this will reduce the system energy consumption, but that would be fooling myself, I guess.

The new system brings along two major aspects of optimisation for me :
-I can now use cheaper RAM modules (DDR2 instead of DDR)
-I have a bootable S-ATA Controller, which makes HD replacement rather easy. IDE / P-ATA Disks are supported as well, I currently use an 2.5" IDE disk. I intended to buy a PCI-pluggable controller for the old machine, but that would have been as expensive as the whole new system (~ 55 Euros).

I can't seem to find my ammeter, so I don't realy see the difference in energy consumption. There's a review on the internet that displays some measured values : A system with a 2.5" Disk and DVD-drive supposedly consumes somewhere around 25-30 Watts idle and about 45 Watts in a burn-in-test-scenario.

Debian 5.0 Windows 7 RC1 runs smoothly on the system, which is meant to be online somewhere close to 24/7. No driver trouble - everything was installed using the netinst DVD image (I only had to tweak the xorg.conf to add a few resolutions) using standard settings.

Of course this system is not perfect, and here's the drawbacks (those that I have come to notice so far, at least):
- audible chipset cooler. I resent that, but I'll have to live with it. That's the skinflint's price for saving at the wrong end. If your main goal is absolute silence, use a D945GSEJT instead. This will mean ZERO noise, but it costs a penny more.
- Low peak performance of the CPU. Firefox with five tabs (running on debian) is about as much as I would give to this hardware. For working, this is useless. For numb tasks like Server-, Router- or Download-Solutions this will do just fine.
UPDATE: Windows 7 (RC1) runs a lot better than Debian 5. No performance problems, even with ~10 Tabs in FF :D

All in all, I really enjoy this kind of hardware :)

GIMP is short for "(Oh, how )Great Is My Photoshop"

Recently, I've had to deal with the GIMP from time to time, my company lacking a Photoshop license.I think eventually I got a bit into it, but it still makes me chunder whenever I have to use it.

To sum it up:
Using GIMP for photomanipulation is a bit like asking for a car and getting four wheels instead.
Using GIMP for webdesign is impossible.

Amen.

Sustainable Job Disposal

If you want to lose your job and make sure you won't get another one anytime soon, why not try this ?

Beware of the Crocodeagle

And that's basically all I have to say. Please check this out

Visual Studio 2008 dies beautifully when performing IDE layout changes

Very recently my Visual Studio 2008 started to show some strange behaviour:
After moving docking / dockable tool windows to my second screen and arranging them there, I hit F5 to run/debug the application. This caused VS to crash and lose all IDE layout changes I had made so far. Reciprocally, changing the layout while debugging, then ending debug mode, results in the same error. I guess this must mean that the error arises when storing the IDE Layout for later retrieval. This behaviour is 100% reproducible.

The problem seems to be a well-known one in the Microsoft Development department, but no one seems eager enough to fix it, as a list of unresolved issues at Connect show (see here,here,here or here).

After Google did not provide me with a solution, I went on searching by myself, and the very first thing my Windows XP event log hinted me to was the failing component here, msenv.dll. Depending on your System, there are multiple flavours of that file installed (e.g. for VS2005, VS2008, Office11,...).

After some testing around (exchanging DLLs to ensure correct loading), I finally copied the version located at "/program files/commonfiles/microsoft shared/Help 9" to "$VS2008INSTALLDIR$/Common7/IDE", and finally can work properly again.

I draw the conclusion that my msenv.dll has been compromised, but how, by what and why?

What an ugly way of solving things...

My new ride - GEM PRP800

After playing on my really lovely Yamaha CLP 860 for more than 6 Years, I wanted to go mobile, more or less. For that reason I was looking out for a stage piano.



After having spent some time at the music store in cologne, I have fallen for the Korg SP 250, which has a great keyboard and really quite good sounds.

One alternative I had heard sound samples of was the GEM PRP800, highly credited among musicians for its realistic sound engine. Yup, you haven't misread: It has a sound rendering engine (called DRAKE), and features the sounds of a 7 Foot Steinway and Sons and Fazioli F308 grand piano, among others. I really liked that sound, but the price (899 EUR list price) was a bit off bounds.

Recently a used one of them popped up on ebay, and so I thought to myself, why not give it a try? So I got it for a total of 462 EUR , a deal I won't come to regret so soon. It's really an awesome sounding digital piano, the best I've heard so far (which is probably due to the price range I usually check).

Want to buy a Clavinova CLP 860 ? Contact me...