The Digital PA System (Part 2)

Our Public Address system is finally working! Well, basically. We still have to setup two sound servers for two rooms, but the system now works with one microphone as sound source, and 3 speakers as sinks to PulseAudio.

Our final setup will be as follows:

Building 1:

• 1.1. Computer with Speaker on 1st Floor
• 1.2. Computer with Speaker and Microphone on the 2nd floor
• 1.3. Computer with Speaker on 3rd Floor

Building 2 (150 feet away from Building 1)

• 2.1. Computer with Speaker on 1st Floor

Building 3 (30 feet away from Building 2)

• 3.1. Computer with Speaker on 1st Floor

We use 1.2 as our primary sound server, sending audio streams to 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, and of course, to itself. To get the Mic working, we use the module-loopback to redirect Mic Source to Speaker Sink. Because dynamic automatic configuration of the module-combine does not work for remote tunnels, I installed a rather crude bash script/cron job to poll when sound servers become online and reconfigure module-combine.

!# /bin/bash
success=0

# Default Sink is the hardware sink
slaves=alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo

# try to load each network sinks
pactl load-module module-tunnel-sink server=server1.local && success=1
pactl load-module module-tunnel-sink server=server2.local && success=1
pactl load-module module-tunnel-sink server=server3.local && success=1 

pactl list | grep server1.local && slaves=${slaves},tunnel-sink.server1.local
pactl list | grep server2.local && slaves=${slaves},tunnel-sink.server2.local
pactl list | grep server3.local && slaves=${slaves},tunnel-sink.server3.local

# Only revise combo sink if slaves was changed
if [ "$success" = "1" ]; then
  pactl unload-module $(cat tmp_module_combo)
  pactl load-module module-combine sink_name=combo slaves="$slaves" > tmp_module_combo
  pacmd set-default-sink combo
fi

The script is run every 2 minutes on 2.1's user's account.

 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 3.1 are simply configured to accept network connections without authentication. We no longer use RTP sender/receiver as it is really killing all our wireless access points. Hopefully, this problem will be fixed in the future, as RTP multicasting really makes setting these sound systems easy.

The Digital PA System

We have a new project at our office, a Public Address (PA) system. A PA system seems a strange requirement for a small business like us. We already have redundant IM systems (A Jabber server as well as Empathy's distributed People Nearby service), but the argument for it is rather spiritual.

To implement the PA system, I voted to implement it the ultra-modern way, through the computer network. I've had my experiments with PulseAudio two years before, and from what I recalled, such a setup should be possible. We just have to weigh the pros and cons.

Pros:
1. Less capital expenditure. We already have a network. No need to put additional wiring to connect our disjoint offices which comprise three small offices, one of which a hundred feet away.
2. Flexible, programmable. Changes and expansions are as easy as connecting new speakers to a computer

3. It's a good experience

Cons:
1. Computers must be running on each area with the PA speaker. That's not much of a negative when there are already computers running in all areas
2. Network bandwidth. We have a combination of gigabit ethernet as well as wireless G.
3. It's pretty much experimental for us, without any professional consultants to rely on (or pay (which makes it a good thing...))

We're on the implementation stage now. We bought several two-way speakers and connected them to dual-core computers in each areas. These computers will act as sound servers. We had to use dual core computers after finding RTP multicast+gigabit network is a bit "demanding". (Most of our computers are Semprons or Atoms.)

Originally our plan was to use Pulseaudio's RTP multicasting for tremendously easy configuration. Unfortunately, we still haven't found a way to stop RTP from killing our wireless access points everywhere. We have some ideas to try like not putting any wireless access point/switch between any two sound server. Unfortunately, blocking multicasting on the wireless access points themselves are a no-go. We're just using inadequate consumer wireless routers that aren't configurable enough.

Today, I've gone to test fixed configuration instead using module-tunnel-sink and module-combine, with much success. I got my lowly laptop to act as master playing music to three other sound servers smoothly (and without stuttering when wired). I still have to solve the dynamic part, like reconfiguring the combined sink whenever a new sink comes up or one goes down. Maybe some bash scripts would help.

I'll update when I get this done and running.

eMachines D443 with the new AMD E-450 APU

We got the newest eMachines 14.1" notebook featuring AMD's E-450 Fusion APU. At 1.65Ghz, E-450 is a very minor upgrade to E-350's 1.6Ghz.

Specs include:
CPU: AMD-E450
Graphics: AMD 6320
RAM: 2GB DDR3
Hard Disk: 500GB
Optical Drive: DVD Writer
Wireless Network: b/g/n
Battery: 6 cells
OS: None

I don't know the mall price (if it can be found in retail), but at our buying price of less than 17k, this makes more value and performance sense for most business users rather than any netbooks in the market right now.

Unfortunately, since we're an Ubuntu/Linux shop, we can't make the laptop work with Ubuntu 10.04 or even 10.10 Beta yet. With frequent glitches and crashes, the E-450 is just too new. Same thing happened with E-350 and 10.10 and it looks like the problems of latest hardware not working with Ubuntu is still going to be a major issue. We might try some other distros. Hopefully, by the time 10.10 launches next month, we'll get a more stable experience in Ubuntu.

Drupal, CSS and Firebug

I've gotten our water heater website running without so much as any coding. Even the theme's pretty much standard plug in. Of course, I'd like it to be much better than that. But if nothing else, I'll go with functionality over aesthetics first.

Yesterday, I got into the theming part a little deeper though. I've just recently added Google +1 and Tweeter modules, and the alignment between Facebook, Google, and twitter, are just getting too messy.

I haven't touched CSS in almost 10 years, but with the help of Firebug and google, I got to a more acceptable design. Still there were the nitty gritty stuff -- I have so much to learn. How do I get the css into drupal? I tried CSS Injector but I couldn't get it to work. For now, I settled with modifying the module code and css. That's not a very good solution, because whenever there's a new module update, I'll have to do code merging.

I really need to get back to studying...

Yellow Pages for SME, but eYP for SME?

The Yellow Pages we get from PLDT (or Bayantel) comes from Directories Philippines Corporation (DPC). They're sort of like the paper version of Google as an advertising company, only worse. They have a very firm monopoly over phone directories. And because of their position, they can dictate very costly "royalties" for ads in their directory. They no longer need to be comprehensive -- if you don't get listed, there are more than enough choices. And they game their customers (the SMEs) into a system of unending rat race for the most colorful and biggest ads, and terrible categorizations that exist only to add to their wallet.

I hesitate to compare them to Google. Google has a sort of motto to "Do no evil". I do not hold DPC to the same standards. But we're still their customers. That's their power. I would be more than happy to see the thick sets of yearly phone books go the way of the dinosaurs sooner rather later, replaced by the interconnected network.

Which brings us to eYP, their electronic yellow pages. They're a rather late entrant to the easy world of internet directories. They're all too easy to make, but not all gain critical mass to last a lifetime. I was disappointed that Google made them a Philippine partner for maps or directory, because eYP is even worse as a directory than the Yellow Pages is.

Perhaps DPC foresee eYP as replacing the Yellow Pages as their primary cash cow or herd. In their struggle to make it an important revenue source as fast as they can, eYP has evolved from a clunky directory search engine to a Premium List realty company.

Before, when you search for "restaurants", you go directly to the Restaurants category. If you type "restaurant" instead, it looks for records with the word "restaurant". While that does not really make good sense, I think it's worse now.

Now, when you search for "restaurants", at least a 3rd of the page is now devoted to a rather long Premium List, the internet's version of real estate taxes. Afterwards follow not restaurants but categories that may or may not always be related to what you're looking for. Categories. When I type "water heaters", I want at once a list of where I can buy water heaters. Not a premium list, plus a slew of categories that are unrelated.

If eYP hopes to improve, perhaps they should focus first on user experience and premium services second. The value of eYP is how well its users like their services. They are no longer able to distribute yellow pages to everyone with a DSL line. It's all in the web, where they no longer have monopoly position. They compete with Google, Microsoft, sulit.com.ph, Facebook for the people's source for "direction".

We don't want another race until everyone's in a premium list. By then, in their hopes of continued growth, eYP might just introduce another indirection like Super Premium List, ad nauseam. Right now, as an SME, we still have a say in this regard.

For the SME, should we try eYP as a marketing medium? We've tried their website link "ala carte" last year. It was useless for us in the construction industry, barely registering 5 clicks per month. Perhaps companies in the retail, food, or consumer industry do better. Their email blast might be more effective, although I still think it's overpriced. But that's their business.

Linux, VB, Foxpro in Education and Business

Over the past week, I've gone through several interviews for applicants for sales, programming, and system administration. An unexpectedly good discovery was that Linux wasn't as obscure as I imagined.

For students who've graduated from 2008 and up, it's more common that they have experience using Ubuntu Linux. People even request for CDs or download them and try them at home. Of course, for a lot of them, it's just a one-shot try at 2007 or 2008. Well, it's 2011 and I think they might want to give it another try.

For businesses, while it is rare to find a company like us which uses Linux primarily, our favorite open source OS is still making inroads in the server and desktop.

Another unexpected but bad discovery was that VB6 and Foxpro are still being taught in schools. That means even now, they're being taught in computer schools and universities in the province. Granted, they're still much used in legacy apps. But doesn't mean they're destined for legacy work?

emachines D644 Now Working with Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

We got a couple of new emachines D644 in our office. As I previously blogged before, it uses AMD E-350 Zacate. Installing Ubuntu 10.10 is a hit or miss with this one. I've also tried Alpha versions of Natty Narwhal before but I get installation crashes all too often. There was also no out-of-the-box support for the ethernet and wireless access.

Fortunately, with the Beta 1 just released a couple of days ago, installation of Natty now runs perfectly. Also, it's the first time I actually got to see Unity in action. While it's a little bit on the slow side, (I only used the open source AMD graphics driver...) it's workable.

I just have a couple of minor gripes. I haven't managed to find a way to put a wine program shortcut in the dash. And the keyboard shortcut Super-S which used to launch the shutdown/switch-user menu on the upper right now activates Expo. Expo previously used Super-E as a shortcut, so I don't know why they would change these two default shortcut keys since 10.04. Now I don't know how to activate the shutdown/switch-user menu any more. It seems an inconsistent change without any advantage.

Impromptu Wireless Network Using Mobile Broadband

Today, we held an in-house training seminar at the PESA bldg.in Ramon Magsaysay Ave. It's not our normal venue, and the conference room was not equipped with Wifi, projector and screen, and even an adequate number of working electric wall sockets.

Our battle plan was for people to bring their own mobile wireless broadband. We wouldn't have a local network, but a few would at least have access to important emails. Along the way, I realized there must be a way to share the broadband internet, by building an ad hoc network.

All I need is to set up the computer with broadband to work as a wireless router. I tried this before in Windows XP back when I was in Shanghai, but I didn't get it to work. But I was more hopeful this time, with a more modern Ubuntu Linux 10.10 installation.

It turns out too dead simple. Once I get connected to the mobile broadband, it's just a few steps more:

1. Click on the Network Manager icon and choose to create a new network.
2. Give it a name (SSID). I typed "were".
3. Next, for some weak security, I chose 128-bit WEP encryption, and typed "wolf".
4. Click OK, and connect and you now have a wireless router!

Other laptops that want to connect to the ad hoc router just needs to connect to the "were" network, and provide the necessary encryption type and password.

This would be tremendously helpful trick for our next ad hoc offsite meetings and events.

eMachines emd644 Redux (Natty Narwhal Alpha 2)

I got a second eMachines emd644 notebook with AMD Zacarte. For some unknown reason, installation was much harder than the first one. Ubuntu 10.10 whether Desktop or Alternate editions weren't working at all. The Alternate installer was saying that there is no installable kernel available for the machine.

To get the machine working, I used the Alternate installer of the just released Alpha 2 of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Desktop edition still didn't work. With the Alternate installer, there weren't any problems with the installation. Both Ethernet and Wifi drivers are still not available, so I had to manually install the Broadcom STA driver to get to the internet.

Since this is Alpha 2 after, I didn't expect things to work smoothly. In fact, of all the available User Sessions, only Classic Desktop w/o Effects was working. AppMenu (Global Menu) was still flaky so I removed it from the panel.

Without Unity and AppMenu, the installation looks pretty much 10.10 except for the better hardware support. I'll see over the next few weeks how stable this is going to be. But if I can't get a stable Ubuntu on this laptop, I'll try other distros too.

Autodesk Inventor 2009 in MS Windows 7 Professional

When our company bought a 1 year subscription for Autodesk Inventor back in 2007, we got Inventor 2008 installed on a Windows XP Home desktop. Before our subscription ended, we got an upgrade copy of Inventor 2009. We didn't upgrade immediately however, as I wanted to run it in 64-bit mode with at least 8 GB of RAM. I wanted that it be worth the upgrade. I avoided Vista and waited for Windows 7 instead.

Unfortunately, Windows 7 is not supported by Autodesk for Inventor 2009. After all, Autodesk would want users to continue upgrading to the 2010 version. Whenever Microsoft gets a new Windows version out, you'll need the newest Autodesk version to get sure compatibility.

I tried googling for information on any compatibility issues between Inventor 2009 and Windows 7, but there weren't a lot of data to point towards clear affirmative or negative. The mantra was, run 2010 for Windows 7.

Nevertheless, I pushed through with a purchase of a quad-core with 8GB RAM. (Not that the "quad-" matters as much as the MIPS of the CPU to Inventor 2009.) Installation was not difficult. I applied all the updates for Windows 7 before I installed Inventor. After Inventor and Mechanical, I applied all their service packs. After a day, however, every time I ran Inventor, Windows 7 reported that it has crashed. I think I might have somehow messed up on some SQL settings.

Ok, let's try again. The second time around, I did the same steps. Only this time, I avoided running any database related shortcut like the plague. So far so good. We've been able to move from our 2008 files to 2009, and I haven't heard of any problems since.

eMachines emd644 with AMD's Zacate

I bought an eMachines emd644 notebook to replace the MSI laptop that just died the start of the year. Price at just a bit more than 20,000php, it's the cheapest notebook (not netbook) I've bought over the past few years.

I didn't really review the specs when I ordered it. But to my surprise, it packs more than I expected. It has the now standard but hefty 2GB of RAM. It has a 500GB hard disk that tempted me to send my current laptop off to our personnel and upgrade to this one. It has bluetooth which I almost never use. And it has a Zacate dual-core processor running at not-so-fast 1.6ghz, but with a much better graphics core than my current AMD P320+HD4250. I didn't really expect to find the new AMD processors so soon especially when it was just shown in the CES exhibit earlier this month. All in all, it's still too powerful for a regular company sales agent, that I think I could have gotten a better deal if I found one with a smaller hard drive at the least.

To my chagrin, installation of Ubuntu 10.10 wasn't flawless at all. I had to do some voodoo to get the Broadcom wireless working. The Atheros wired ethernet is not working at all! And once I installed the AMD proprietary graphics driver, I got the annoying "Unsupported Hardware" overlay at the bottom right of the screen. Couldn't they have just made that overlay an option that could be easily switched off?

Well, besides those minor issues, I'm pretty happy with the new laptop. Of course, I'm not the one really using it. Linux still has a bit to catch up when it comes to outright support for the latest and greatest hardware. I've learned that over the past with missing out-of-the-box support for ATI HD4250, Intel's Core i3/5/7 and now with Zacate. But I've grown to the challenge and learned to work along with the problems.

Mobile Deaths

Another laptop died this month. It was an MSI budget laptop bought in 2008, when 25k pesos was the budget price for laptops. Last year, its two twin sisters died the same way. Motherboard deaths.

Two years is't really good enough for laptops, considering some of our desktops are from more than 5 years back and still running fast under Linux. My very first laptop, a Compaq, got a broken back (LCD problem) after 3 years, but reached 5 years before its adaptor gave up. It would have still been fixable, but I was only using it as a fax server by then.

So now, I'm holding off from buying MSI notebooks for the time being. Before it was Neo's when my most expensive laptop died of heat stroke in just over a year. Then it was Toshiba's. It lived but a year. It was intended for my dad, but he never got to use it all. That one, we bought in the States, only to find out it was made in the Philippines. Not that there's a problem with that, of course. It was just funny, sort of.

Since then, when people ask me what's a durable laptop, I always say there aren't any. They all go down their death spiral the moment you buy them. That's half-serious. I encourage people to buy just what they need, and not more. If you're getting one for business apps like openoffice/libre office + email/internet, you'll be just fine and dandy with a 20k laptop. If you just want to stay connected so you can twitter your breakfast, a netbook worth 11k is quite good enough (until the battery runs out).

Brands don't matter much nowadays. Right now, I'm into emachines. I have now 10 or more emachines laptops in our company. The time I get too many hardware problems and premature deaths with them, I'll have to review my choices.

Photos in a Fictional World

It seems strange having to write stuff without posting any pictures. That's especially true with hardware reviews. :) Well, maybe I'll go back to reading camera reviews, and one day get my own. I've never had one my entire life. It's been a long itch. Then, maybe I'll get back to posting stuff.

What's a good digital camera for a neophyte photographer wants to get better at this?

Laptop Scoliosis

I bought an MSI EX460 a whole year ago, and just forgot to post my rants about it.  It's entirely too old for that now as I think you can't buy this model any more except through the bargain bins.

I selected this model mainly for Linux graphics work.  It sounded nice enough, with a Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and a video card with its own memory.  But I only really saw how it looked like after it was delivered.

It wasn't really that bad, except that I wouldn't want it for my own, if only because the keyboard is off-center.  With some unused shortcut buttons placed prominently at the left of the keyboard, it felt to me that there's a grave discomfort in having to maintain your hands slightly to the right and not center of the screen.

That, and too many blue lights.

The Last Box

The last box might as well have died last Saturday.  It's the last computer in our small office of 20 that's still running Microsoft Windows.  While the rest have been linux-ified, (some after being rendered untrustworthy by malwares), the last one has been churning on for a couple of years, trying and failing to update during shutdowns, but otherwise left to its own lifeline.

Last Saturday, it refused to boot up.  It's not the dead like nothing's turning on, but it was in a zombie state, trapped in dying and living in an infinite loop of failing to even get a second into booting Windows.  Unfortunately, it's not going to be as easy as a reformat.  The only reason that we still have a Windows computer in our office is that it runs Autodesk Inventor, which we use for drafting and project plumbing design and layout.  What this meant was that my weekend was booked.  I had to get it up and running come Monday.

How did it go?  First, I tried the Windows Repair option using the OEM CD.  It got to detect the previous installation.  It copied the original Windows files that are sure to work.  And then after 15 minutes or so, I got to the Detecting Device part.  Suddenly, the mouse and keyboard stopped working.  The system was now asking me to insert an Nvidia NForce driver installation CD.  That was the trap.

First, I have thrown all my driver CDs away already, being too used to modern Linux installations in which hardware just worked automatically.  Next, the mouse and keyboard don't even work.  It looks like it turned off the USB subsystem while waiting for the motherboard drivers.  I can't cancel the prompt or even browse for the files needed in the hard disk.  The only interface left was me ejecting and loading the CD drive.  So, that was a failure.

It looks like I needed a really fresh installation after all.  Ok.  No problem about that except for my worries with the licensing and activation of Inventor, which I have no experience yet.  It was a good number of hours of installing Windows XP yet again, and the cyclical downloading updates, restarting, and downloading updates, and restarting again and again.  I got to the old Windows installation routine from 3 years ago, installing our a basic software set which includes 7-Zip, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Adobe Acrobat Reader, MS Security Essentials.  And then the behemoth of Autodesk Inventor 2008.  (We're still using an old version because we decided not to renew subscription until perhaps the software can run in our primary OS, which isn't Windows after all.)

I found out activating Inventor was a problem.  I couldn't figure out how to input the correct serial number of the installation.  Upon running Inventor, it automatically directs me to activate over the internet.  But to activate, it first needs the correct serial number so it can generate a proper Request Code.  It was a chicken and egg bug, it seems.

Fortunately, after some meditation and a bit of RTFM, I found my solution.  I only had to copy the license files from the previous partition to the new partition.  It was that simple after all.  I got it to running state, applied 3 sets of service packs for Inventor and Autocad Mechanical, and I could now rest easy.  At least till the time I upgrade to the next hardware or software.

So there was the last box.  It went down but it refused to die.  I don't have high hopes of seeing Inventor for Linux see the light of day.  (We might try Varicad first, or some other more linux friendly CAD software.)   Till then, it will just have to live and survive.

Sun Wireless Broadband in Ubuntu 10.10

For a welcome surprise, it's even easier to install Sun Wireless Broadband in the latest Ubuntu version.  After I plugged in the USB modem, I clicked on the Network Manager icon and proceeded to create a Wireless Broadband account.  I still specified fbband as the APN, and set Authentication method as PAP only.  but that's it!  If I know better, those might not have even been needed.