Tinypliny's Journal

08/21/2011 11:04 #54989

Sound card on PanP7
Category: linux

For reference the sound card on my PanP7 is:

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec* | grep Codec

Codec: Realtek ALC272
Codec: Motorola Si3054

It has the most crappy output with ALSA sound server. The front mic used with a mic booster produces an extremely high pitched sound. I am sure it is capable of killing all bats in a 10 mile radius and driving all humans crazy or deaf or both.

The driver is meant for these following platforms. From /usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/HD-Audio-Models.txt.gz:

ALC662/663/272
==============
3stack-dig     3-stack (2-channel) with SPDIF
3stack-6ch     3-stack (6-channel)
3stack-6ch-dig 3-stack (6-channel) with SPDIF
6stack-dig     6-stack with SPDIF
lenovo-101e     Lenovo laptop
eeepc-p701     ASUS Eeepc P701
eeepc-ep20      ASUS Eeepc EP20
ecs         ECS/Foxconn mobo
m51va         ASUS M51VA
g71v         ASUS G71V
h13          ASUS H13
g50v         ASUS G50V
asus-mode1      ASUS
asus-mode2     ASUS
asus-mode3     ASUS
asus-mode4     ASUS
asus-mode5     ASUS
asus-mode6     ASUS
dell         Dell with ALC272
dell-zm1     Dell ZM1 with ALC272
samsung-nc10     Samsung NC10 mini notebook
auto         auto-config reading BIOS (default)

The problem is the regular sound output is extremely low. I can bet that if I put windows on this machine, the speakers will come to life. But that is just not happening with ALSA. The alternative is OSS, which I tried but had so many problems, I had to return to ALSA. I could install pulseaudio but pulseaudio has such crazy whims and fancies it is impossible to predict what will stop or start working next. It's a just a sound card, not some rocket science. Linux sound drivers just aren't up to snuff yet.

08/21/2011 09:26 #54988

Gloomy day on all counts
Category: whine

I hate rainy cloudy days like today. I hate them so much. They increase my panic over trivial things. I have my windows open and some MORON is smoking on top of all this. It makes me livid. I detest the smell of cigarette smoke and it makes me angry when I have no control over people who just force me to smell and breathe it against my will. I wish I could just go out, break their cancer-stick into pieces and strangle them right there. I have NO goodwill for smokers who continue to smoke in a CLEARLY marked NON-SMOKING building!

It's grossly unfair to the non smokers who pay with their health. We don't share your poor habits and your lack of motivation to quit so please don't poison us with your toxins.

I hate you smoker whoever you are. I wish you all the very nasty of gloom today and a complete lack of any good luck whatsoever. You deserve to be despised and I completely loathe your habit.

I am considering getting this sunshine simulator:

I am not sure I have full blown seasonal affective disorder but I definitely don't like gloomy days and would like a sunlight simulator instead of or in addition to the regular CFL bulbs I have on all my lamps.

paul - 08/21/11 10:05
I am kind of opposite there. I mean I live sunny days but they make me less productive because its hard to resist the urge to be outside. On gloomy days I can get more work done and not feel bad about being inside.

08/20/2011 16:22 #54986

Bottle of borax in my shoe closet

Presenting another exclusive episode of...

~~The world~~ My shoe closet according to (e:Paul,54985).

metalpeter - 08/22/11 18:34
I don't even know what that stuff is for.....

tinypliny - 08/20/11 22:21
He wanted to borrow some of my flashy heels and was trying them out. That bottle is from home, they use it to grow extra limbs when necessary.

libertad - 08/20/11 21:14
Where did you get this? Why is Paul going through your closet? Do you use this to kill ants?

paul - 08/20/11 18:36
Those same ingredients make a good ant killer. Neem plus borax.

08/20/2011 14:33 #54984

Counterfactual thought
Category: science

I think (e:paul) was wondering how businesses actually make money from Groupon...

From:

What is missing in the typical narrative about Groupon â€“ the one promoted by the company â€“ is the â€œcounterfactualâ€. The counterfactual is a powerful concept embedded in statistical theory. In order to evaluate the data in front of us, we must imagine an alternative world (the counterfactual) in which we allow the data to present themselves differently. To understand how medicine X might affect you, you can't just measure what happened after you took medicine X; you must also consider what might have happened if you took medicine Y and/or nothing at all.

So, instead of just thinking about the new customers brought in by Groupon, we must also consider the world without Groupon. In the world without Groupon, the regulars pay $100 for their meals, and the new customers pay $0 or some other amount (if Giorgioâ€™s has other ways to attract them). This allows us to realize that the insertion of Groupon into that world would lower the intake from regulars while simultaneously raising the intake from new customers. For the merchant, whether Groupon is a net benefit depends on the balance between those two numbers.

This is related to the concept of opportunity cost in economics. When evaluating the value of an investment, we canâ€™t just tally up the returns of said investment; we have to compare those returns to the returns of doing something else such as keeping the money in the bank.

metalpeter - 08/22/11 18:12
That is interesting..... My two cents is this with out getting into the kinda hard to follow just by reading it math...
1. Groupon is set up by a certain number of people and a certain number of time.... My understanding is that it is like buying a group rate....
A. The hope is that this big group of people will try something they normally wouldn't because of the savings and the group thing ... So you get customers you wouldn't normally get...
B. Might lose some money on Regulars but Regulars who like the place have a time and place they go and might not like this idea
c. With the company deciding the date they can pick a time when business is slow or when having a bunch of people come in helps them out...

It is important to understand that with any coupon you save money. But on each unit or each meal this is a certain amount of profit made and with a coupon that profit amount goes down but it is still a profit.... What the hope is that the smaller amount of profit (this may not hold true in many things with groupon) with more buyers makes the total profit higher and even if it doesn't that in the long run the new customers will by more... I think Restaurants are perfect for this often cause people don't want to try a new kind of food or a new place they love the place that they go but for cheap they will try a new place... If the food is on buy old place hello new place.....

08/20/2011 14:09 #54983

rdesktop
Category: linux

There are todos and then there are reallywantodos.

$ rdesktop -g (Size of the screen) -u (your AD userid) -d (AD Domain) -r disk:desktop=/home/(your linux account)/ -a (colour depth) (PC Name according to Active Directory)

This is a reallywantodos.

How to:

Connect to the VPN
In the terminal

rdesktop ip address of the remote computer

Couldn't be easier.

tinypliny - 08/20/11 15:05
Nice howto: :::link:::

tinypliny - 08/20/11 14:55
I am going to fix this later on Monday when I am in office. But thanks so much for the help! :)

tinypliny - 08/20/11 14:53
Okay got past that but ran into this: :::link:::

Hahaha..

tinypliny - 08/20/11 14:41
Hmm.. I did that already and ran into an error that I am trying to find the meaning of...

"ERROR: getaddrinfo: Name or service not known"

paul - 08/20/11 14:30
Just start out with rdesktop IP

You will get prompted for the login info.