Another HTPC

As my parents asked for their own HTPC, I built one for them ;-)

This time I am using an Asus M3N78-VM motherboard with an AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU and 2 GB RAM as basis, again in a Digitainer case. A 1 TB WD10EADS harddisk from Western Digital completes the system, no optical drive has been installed so far. The motherboard is larger than the one I used to refurbish my Digitainer, but it just fits into the case.

Software is again Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 and XBMC.

HTPC and LCD

When I first connected my old (but refurbished) HTPC via VGA to the LG LCD TV the screen resolution was auto configured to 1360 x 768. Changing via nvidia-settings to 1920 x 1080 was only possible for the running session and gone after reboot.

Trying to make it permanently via the "Save configuration to X conf" button resulted only in "Failed to parse existing X config file ‘/etc/X11/xorg.conf’"...

Solution was found at Wetware:
recreate xorg.conf with sudo nvidia-xconfig and save the settings permanently with sudo nvidia-settings afterwards ;-)

Thanks to Wetware!

Recent positive experiences

With the following products I have made positive experiences recently:

• Sony BDP S360 Blu-ray player
• LG 32LH3000 LCD TV
• Epson SX600FW printer, scanner, copier and fax with WiFi
• DIGITUS external NAS case for 3,5"-HD

Ubuntu servers

Recently I had to configure two servers on older hardware, in both projects I chose Ubuntu 9.10 32bit Server edition as base for the systems.

• Server 1 (AMD Athlon Processor 1.1 GHz, 640 MByte RAM) is an internal file server with remote access via SSH and Apache on the stored files.
• Server 2 (AMD Sempron Processor 3000+, 768 MByte RAM) publishes an Oracle Apex driven website with about 10.000 views per month.

For remote administration webmin is being used in both cases.

Digitainer upgrade

Since being replaced by the new HTPC, the Digitainer which served this part for nearly 3 years, was due for an upgrade:

• Biostar GF8200C M2+ motherboard
• AMD Athlon II X2 215 cpu
• 2 GB RAM
• 500 GB Samsung HD502HI harddisk

It runs with Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 and of course XBMC.

As remote controls I use

• Generalkeys 2.4GHz mini wireless keyboard with mouse function
• Auvisio remote control VRC-1100 (Vista MCE Remote Control)

Home Theatre PC

My new HTPC is making progress:

Hardware

• Sapphire PI-AM3RS785G motherboard


• AMD Athlon II X2 250 cpu


• 2 GByte RAM


• Samsung 750 GByte HD HD753LJ


• Samsung DVD writer


• Auvisio remote control VRC-1100 (Vista MCE Remote Control)


• Compucase 7K09B-FP25U black case


• Asus VW161D TFT monitor

Software

• Ubuntu 9.10 amd64


• XBMC 9.11

Thanks to Klaus Hertle for support!

Notebook upgrade

The upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 on my Medion Akoya P6620 took 2 hours without any problems.

Presentation at DOAG Conference

Today I gave a presentation about Application Express in teaching "APEX in der Lehre" where I shared my experiences with APEX in various courses.

You can download the presentation here.

Arnoldshain IX

The ninth Arnoldshain Seminar takes place at the moment in Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay - we have near live coverage with pictures due to wireless LAN and my Netbook ;-)

Ju 52

Heli-Air-Show Phalsbourg

Nice, well organized event ;-)

Anspach & Hahnweide

You can find pictures from Taunus-Flugfest and Hahnweide Oldtimer Meeting here:

Hahnweide 2009

Taunus-Flugfest

Multimedia remote control

Just bought a Auvisio remote control VRC-1100 (Vista MCE Remote Control) from Pearl for my Xubuntu-based HTPC, it works out of the box as remote for the Listen music player!

Upgrading

Two old Athlon-based systems of mine were in desperate need of an upgrade - this kit Biostar Mainboard 8100M2+ SE AllInOne Athlon 5200+ X2 incl. 2GB RAM from Pearl worked perfectly. Windows 7 RC and Ubuntu 9.04 are the new operating systems.

As time goes by ...

Hard disk upgrade again for the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo 7424 notebook: WD 320 Scorpio GB, works without problems.

Air Classics Gelnhausen

Spent a few hours with aviation at the weekend: See my pictures from

• FRA,
  

  FRA 20.06.09



• the Airlift memorial

  Berlin Airlift Memorial

  
  


• and Air Classics Gelnhausen
  
  

  Air Classics Gelnhausen 2009

at picasaweb.com/aelsas

Bluetooth

Bluetooth stick FreeTec BlueUSB04C from Pearl works perfectly under Xubuntu 9.04.

FFH Airshow Langenselbold

On June 13th 60,000 people visited the first FFH airshow at Langenselbold glider airfield. Highlights were the Royal Jordanian Falcons, Pioneer Team from Italy and a spectacular nightglow with fireworks.



See more impressions at picasaweb.com and youtube.com

Nokia E71

Just got a Nokia E71 - nice little machine, which fulfills all my communication needs. Works perfectly with Google Maps and GMail.

For synchronizing the calendar with the Google calendar I use goosync.com.

Upgrading

Upgrading from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04 on my DELL Inspiron 8600 with Broadcom WLAN failed. A complete new install from CD worked perfectly.