The Great One's Gadgets

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Test video samples for Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS5 Point & Shoot

HD 1280x720

VGA 640x480

QVGA 320x240

Test image samples for Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS5 Point & Shoot

4:3 14M 4320x3240 - for printing up to A2 size prints

4:3 10M 3648x2736 EZ - for printing up to A3 size prints

4:3 5M 2560x1920 EZ - for printing up to A4 size prints

4:3 3M 2048x1536 EZ - for printing up to 13x18cm(5x7") prints

4:3 0.3M 640x480 EZ -for sending as e-mail attachments or WEB photo

3:2 12.5M 4320x2880 - for printing up to A2 size prints

16:9 10.5M 4320x2432 - for printing up to A3 size prints

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS5 Point & Shoot

Moi first kamera :P
Wanted a simple Point n Shoot basic camera and got this atlast..

Sunday, August 7, 2011

How to fix Emerald in Linux Mint 10

When i do

> emerald --replace

i get the error "Segmentation fault"

To fix that I had to follow these steps.

1. Remove emerald completely

> sudo apt-get purge emerald

2. Install some deps packages

> sudo apt-get install git autoconf libtool libwnck1.0-cil-dev libwnck-dev intltool libdecoration0-dev libemeraldengine0

3. Fetch emerald via GIT

> git clone git://anongit.compiz.org/fusion/decorators/emerald

4. Compile and install it!

> cd emerald

> git checkout -b compiz++ origin/compiz++

> ./autogen.sh
> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
> make
> sudo make install

After that i ran

> emerald --replace

and it worked.

Source

Friday, July 29, 2011

Toshiba Satellite C640-i4010- why, where and how ?

This is my review and not a generic review on how the machine works. I wanted one as my current ones were Acer 4520 and Lenovo S10-3. The former an old 14 inch notebook which has come back from death like a phoenix and the latter a brand new netbook which is superfast after a RAM fix. Well i wanted a new 14/15 incher as the 10" netbook was too small and light for me. So after weeks of hunting i ended up on some options:

1)Lenovo Essential G Series G565 (59-053008) 24.7k
[AMD Athlon 2 Dual Core, 15.6", 2GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200]
2)Toshiba Satellite C Series C640-I4010 24.8k
[Intel Core I3, 14", 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, Intel HD Graphics]
3)MSI CR Series CR420 23.6k
[Intel Core I3, 14", 2GB DDR3, 250GB HDD]

Option 2 was the only option for me as it was a tempting deal, but wait, I can't find any reviews about that machine online [Did the whole world missed reviewing it? ] I decided to take the risk. Speaking of the config, it has 2nd gen Core i3 2310M which was more tempting and if you get 4GB gigs and 500GB Hdd what else do you need. I was ok adjusting with the two USB 2.0 ports as I felt I am getting way more for my budget that was 25k .

Once i decided, the next main decision to be taken was from where. I hated online shopping maybe just cos that i haven't tried it but i had no intention in buying it online. I saw the BEST price at www.flipkart.com and i was like 'wow'. But then I didn't know how good flipkart is but it had a frigging awesome word-of-mouth from my friends. I thought of testing it, ordered a 8GB pen drive. I got proper and timely notifications of my order from them and got my order in 2 working days. I was like 'awesomeeeeeee' [Miz WWE style]. I decided to take the risk and ordered the C640-i4010 on a Wednesday. I got the notification that i would get it before next Tuesday (so 6 days). On Thursday i got another notification that it has been dispatched. And to my surprise I got it Friday evening (within 2 days time). That was quick too.

You can see the pics here Toshiba Satellite c640-i4010. It came with no OS and no carry bag (1k more if you want the two). Next up was which OS to install. Was sick and tired of MS crap , i loved the Ubuntu NBR and Jolicloud OS which i installed on my netbook so I went the opensource way and this time installed Linux Mint 11 [after looking at many reviews] . I went with efficiency and speed over gaming this time. Installation was a very simple and straightforward. After that i had a complete laptop.

Complete Hardware and Software Specs here.

Coming back to the review, this is a VFM machine not a very high end just because of the tempting specs.

Looks- Its not as sturdy as my old Acer 4520 but neither is it as plastic as other toshiba models are, its just OK. Keyboard is chicklet type and is smooth once you are used to it. Trackpad is neat with multi-touch technology with finger scroll which is impressive. Its a 14 inch HD LED CSV Display and is more than enuf for me with 1366x768 resolution. Includes a decent 0.3MP camera

Connectivity- Bluetooth, Wi-fi works flawlessly. It has a DVD-writer too which works too. Also includes a VGA port and an Ethernet port. Built in audio speakers are decent. There are ports for audio and mic.

Battery Life- I get 4.5hrs when just browsing. If you are playing movies then you will get 3.5hrs from a full discharge. 6-cell battery

Performance- 4gigs of RAM and a 5400rpm 500GB HDD is sufficient and the 2nd gen Core i3- 2310M too. Running smooth.

Overall- I am happy . PERIOD

Monday, July 25, 2011

Benchmarking Test 1- Battery

I used Phoronix-test-suite , you can get it from here

Battery Power Usage
System - This test is designed for notebooks and netbooks and monitor's the system's battery consumption as it idles for 60 seconds, then turns off the monitor for 60 seconds via DPMS, then turns the display back on and plays back a sample H.264 1080p video file using mplayer with the X-Video output adapter

>>phoronix-test-suite benchmark battery-power-usage

sb2- battery at 100% discharging with just firefox running
sb3- battery at 80% discharging with again just firefox running
sb4- battery at 60% discharging with firefox, vlc player[1080x720 being played], bamshee player[another 1080x720 movie played], gimp[just opened] running