Monthly Archives: December 2008

C-Media 8738 / 8768 drivers

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I recently built a new PC, mainly to play my favourite games from yesteryear,  from some moderately oldish parts lying around, and unfortunately found out that the used mother board I got from e-bay had a problem with its sound, as one of the channels didn’t seem to work. Not to fret, I thought and went straight to the next PC-World to get some cheapo 5.1 soundcard. I think I spent 15 pound on this no-name, white box model based on the  C-Media 8738 / 8768 chipset and quickly found out that the accompanying Windows driver was terrible shite and buggy as hell.

Well, you get what you pay for.

Then I found a open, free (new BSD license) actively supported driver by a mysterious bilingual gentleman calling himself  ”dogber1” that works absolutely terrific and has resuscitated this machine. Good documentation, easy install and a goof community site make this an excellent choice for your old soundcard.

Another example how open source can deliver excellent quality to the masses.

The Revo iBlik Radiostation

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I hope you all had some good pagan holidays.

This year the best girlfriend and I decided to hold a credit crunch Christmas (ccc) and limit the presents to the appropriate sums for a general recession. Nevertheless there was something on my mind for some time: I always wanted a small, ‘all in one’ solution for the bedside: It needed to be small, be able to dock my Ipod, play music from my media server via uPnP, stream from the internet, play DAB stations and FM. Tall order.

Or so I thought.

Enter one the most ridiculously named products ever, the Revo iBlik Radiostation.  Revo are a Scotland (Lanark, to be exact) based company specialised in DAB/Multisource devices, and the afore mentioned device does it all. So, I can listen at night not only to Radio4, but also to my podcasts on the Ipod, and, even more amazing, my beloved Radio New Zealand National via wi-fi or ethernet.

It all does it from a stylish little box with an antenna, an ethernet connector, a headphone adapter and, crucially, a stereo cinch connector that can hook up to an amp and a set of proper speakers, making this a very delectable choice for the living room as well.

So, does it work?

Yes. All of it, every bloody feeature. No bugs yet, and I have to admit that I am mightily impressed.At 180 pounds (that’s really favourable in Euro, btw) it doesn’t come cheap, but it does everything it should do, with so much more flaire and style than the other multisource options out there, like the ridiculously expensive and ugly as hell Phillips Streamium. Honestly, good hardware does not have to look like something out of ‘Star Trek: The next Generation’ and does not have to be as expensive as a dilithium chrystal either.

Merry bloody Christmas!

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As a certified atheist I am mainly looking forward to 3 days of good food, sleep and relaxation, but I personally have nothing against the seasonal message of peace, love and goodwill to all women and men.

So merry Christmas to all you religious types and may your personal deity do you good. For the rest of us I hope the religious types will abide by the spirit of Christmas and stop shooting and bombing each other.

Just for a bit.

Love,

FB

Planck Density. Something to get your head around.

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So last week’s New Scientist attempted to familiarise me with the concept of  ‘loop quantum cosmology’. If I get this right (and please, somebody correct me if I am wrong) this theory states that before the big bang our universe already existed: after expanding to its fullest diameter it then shrank back until it reached microscopic volume in which things were pretty dense: 5.1 × 1096 kilograms per cubic metre dense (also called Planck Density) . Now that is even denser than population density in the East End. So when the universe reached that state of density, every thing started anew with a ‘big bounce’.

That of course means that we are all recycled, like a park bench made ouf recycled plastic.  A comforting thought, but the creationists will probably have another hissy fit when they find out (again) that the universe is older that 6000 years.

It is time. Again.

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Ok, so it it is thingie. Christmas.

Which has a lot of advantages, e.g. Christmas singles. The best, after Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ must be Mel and Kim’s “Rockin’ around the Christmas tree”. But I insist on somebody please identifying  ‘Curiosity killed the Cat’ as the annoying carol singers.

Please ? It’s been bugging me only 22 years.