How to hook up a laptop to digital speakers

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you know that I have had my Alienware Area 51-M laptop for a while now, since my desktop computer went the way of the buffalo. 

The problem is this: how to connect the 1/8" mini-jack SPDIF output on my Alienware 51-M laptop to the 9-pin mini-DIN input on my Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 speakers?

The thing that really aggravated me over this particular problem is that I knew there should be a way to connect the two, but the solution wasn't the easiest to track down.

On the side of my laptop there is only one output jack, but the label says "headphones / SPDIF" on what looks like your typical 1/8" jack. now, the SPDIF part tells me that there is digital output capabilities.

Another factor in prolonging the situation is that for a laptop, my Alienware 51-M has decent enough sound output. The two speakers directly under the screen, and another pair on the front edge of the base do a decent job of 4-point positional surround. But they are only laptop speakers, so volume and bass are not exactly sufficient if I want to turn up some tunes to enjoy from the other side of the room.

My speakers from my old desktop system are another matter. My Sound Blaster Live! card in my desktop was connected to Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 4.1 surround speakers, meaning two front satellites, two rear satellites and a subwoofer performed amazing feats. Of course, my speakers have a 9-pin SPDIF connector, more commonly called Digital DIN or mini-DIN.

I spent 3 hours last night trying to find a bridge between the two. A cable, even a converter box of some kind that would take the output from one, and interface the input of the other. This was so aggravating to stike out again and again. The closest I got was a forum post that referenced an old offer from Creative Labs that would send the necessary cable to customers who bought newer sound cards that no longer had the 9-pin SPDIF output. And the link in the forum post was broken.

So what did I do? I went to the resident AV god at work, Jimmy. And he found The Solution. On Creative Labs website, he found the 1/8 inch to Mini Din and RCA Adapter.

So I ordered the thing. 

We'll see what happens when it gets here.

If it doesn't work, I may be selling both the laptop and speakers on E-bay out of complete frustration. Hah.

The free trade economy of music

Jason Silverman of Wired.com interviews Michael Nesmith with the opener, "You remember Michael Nesmith. He's the Monkee in the wool cap."

You'd think this would be a psychedelic trip down the road of TV fame to tragedy and the slow road of rehabilitation and recovery that so many other pop stars experienced, but Nesmith's life has been anything but stereotypical.

Nesmith invented music videos. He was the brain power that started MTV. Have your attention now?

Now he's back to writing new music, and is releasing an album soon that he plans to push to the public through filesharing services first, rather than second to the big recording industry avenues.

Silverman asks Nesmith a series of enlightening questions about the history of the music industry, and where trends such as the file sharing revolution is taking the market for music, both for the music industry and for consumers.

I was particularly impressed with the insight Nesmith offers in his prediction of the forced retirement of the recording industry as-is, "Well, its all to the good, I think... It's a new personal freedom, new individualism." He continues, "Has anybody ever put together a word that means producer and consumer at the same time? That's what's going to happen. We'll be both. We'll have the means of production and consumption under our own control. I can't imagine that being anything but good."

Read the wired.com interview in it's entirety here.

Dell buys Alienware

A friend sent me this:
It's Official: Dell Beams Up Alienware

I love my Alienware laptop. I love it. It's one of the most beautiful PC's I've ever had. Some of the best hardware available, their tech support actually speaks english, and gets me a response quickly. And I only had to call them twice since I have bought my lt a little under a year ago.

I used to really like Dell as they used to have a good reputation for the same thing: hardware that works, intelligent, useful support. In general I think they are probably the best of the mainstream comercial brands, but I don't think I will buy another Dell in the near future. Their tech support has become a masochists outsourced dream.

Leave it to say, I really, really, really hope Dell doesn't screw Alienware over.

Sony DRM 'rootkit' removal woes

If you pop a music CD into your PC, you may be getting more than you bargained for. Sony's copy-protection software installs a 'rootkit' that hides from the system process list. There are already examples of trojan viruses that have used this cloaking technology to compromise a system. Another issue presented by this is the concern of privacy for the user, as it has been proven that the DRM makes a connection to Sony via the Internet without informing the consumer in the EULA.

http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69601,00.html

Microsoft will soon release an update to remove the cloaking portion of the DRM, but details on removal of the actual service are shady at best.

Mark Russinovich at SysInternals has posted more detailed information on the security issues and vulnerability of the DRM software, and has instructions for manually removing the Sony DRM.
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/11/more-on-sony-dangerous-decloaking.html

Dear Friends

This weekend was awesome.

My friend Jim, his wife Brandy, and brother Paul drove up from Saint Louis for the weekend.

We had tix to the Final Fantasy, "Dear Friends" concert at the Rosemont Theatre. It was pretty funny making fun of the gamer geeks in t-shirts and/or cosplay in comparison to the older 50+ crowd in full suits and ties, etc. But the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra really did an awesome job. I was most impressed by the behavior of the crowd who broke out into spontaneous applause when the Composer, Eumatsu took his seat to watch the performance, and for a few short seconds when Vivi came up on the screen during the Latin dance from FFIX.

And that was only the beginning of the weekend! On Sunday we drove downtown to Ed D'bevics for dinner, my sisters Ruth and Rachel joined us since they hadn't seen Jim in... wow, probably close to 9 years. We had a good time, even with the meandering trek through Chicago to actually get there.

Brandy is soon to be a momma! It was a little strange to see Jim being the protective husband at first, but I think he will fit the position well.

Jim's brother Paul was a great guy, too. I am glad he was able to head to the show and hang out with us. I hope my sisters didn't intimidate him too much, though. ;) And I will never hear some jock rev his engine without breaking into a spontaneous grin.

Sunday evening we hung around the appartment. Napoleon Dynamite was the movie of choice for the evening. THAT IS A HILLARIOUS MOVIE and a little embarassing how much that resembles the boonies of the Midwest where I grew up. I think Rachel was in denial, but hey, I will admit it, we really WERE that geeky and neive. And the "skit" scene... that just rocked. Napoleon is my pseudo-hero.

Jim and crew were going to head out early that evening, but we went on for hours on ranging topics from hauntings at Milikin Univ, how to tell you've just been to a bad wedding, and more amusing randomness.

Around midnight our friends realized they should leave so they could be home by 5am, since they had an appt at 9:30! So we let them part, and crashed to bed in a very good mood.

That has to be the best weekend I have had in a long, long time!

Why AS400 sucks

Yes. It. Does.

The client connection is a telnet session that backpacks traffic over a few other useless ports. The server watches for a constant signal from the client, but since there is no heartbeat signal, most firewalls and routers will drop the session as an idle connection if you don't watch for it in your network config.

AS400 systems are older than dirt.

Why do people insist to use archaic, useless hardware, and expect it to work seamlessly with today's technology? And WHY (please tell me why!) DO THEY EXPECT ME TO KNOW HOW TO FIX THEIR DUMB AS400 PROBLEMS?!? Well, ok, that last question is rhetorical. I DID fix their as400 problem.

AS400 SUCKS!

Whilst I was away

This weekend I took a trip to my parents.

My dad is very amusing when it comes to him trying to use any sort of technology. He recently bought himself a laptop, which he has no idea how to use, so my sister and I spent a good 8 hours just in the car, not counting the time I spent trying to write step-by-step instructions on how to do *everything* with his laptop. The funny thing is, he probably will have one of my brothers *do* everything for him, so when he ends up on the road he won't know how to use it anyway. hah, I love my Dad, and it was pretty cool to have the extra time to catch up with my sister. I hope she didn't go too crazy spending sooo much time around me!

My brother James is indeed now taller than me. Don't worry, I beat him around enough to make sure he remembers his place in the pecking order. Joshua is actually getting pretty close himself. It is really sad, I figured since I was taller than both of my parents, I would end up staying the tallest. As luck would have it, both of my younger brothers will probably end up passing me. I guess I really _should_ have eaten all of the brussel sprouts, liver, lima beans, squash, broccoli and calliflower and such that I avoided as a child. Oh well, as long as I can still beat both of them up, it's all good.

The wife has her Spring Break from teaching, so she is down south visiting some of her friends and family. After my first day back at the appt alone, the next three days are looking very sad and lonely for me. Ah, when you are in love, being apart is oh-so-not-fun.

Today I took my bike out for a spin. I put a few miles on it thismorning as a very nice break from work. I really mourn the past when I actually was any good at biking, but for now I am content to ride along the silly paved path through a well maintained and somewhat treed area that the city folks here fondly like to call a "forest preserve". I call it a well maintained, somewhat treed area with a paved little path running through it. Forest, my ass.

Actually, I am breaking from work right now to write this. Yes, I am still working. My boss decided to send me home to work on a project. This was supposed to free me of distractions for the remainder of March to finish said project. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line the concept of "free of distractions" was lost. So leave it to say I have many sleepless nights ahead of me as I try to cram this project that could probably use another 2 weeks of work into the next 3 days. Wheeeee! Deadlines are fun.

So yep, I am basically slaving away at work, with the very rare exposure to sunlight today that almost blinded me. Fresh air and sunlight I have decided are VERY over-rated, and in general very unpleasant to deal with.

I want my Underworld soundtrack. I ordered it and the tracking thingy at Best Buy said it was shipped, but guess what, I DONT HAVE IT AND I WANT IT. Anywhoo, its really good from what I can tell from the crappy previews they give on the website, and I have found that techno-industrial actually is a better background for a work-minded environment than even classical. My Moby and Crystal Method are definitely getting their milage in addition to Mozart and Bach. No, I am not becoming a little pansy clubbing poser. I leave that to the youngins. But in moderation (both time and volume), there are some decent indy-tech cuts out there.

Well, time to get back to hacking out code. I have some sexy COM+ database objects that need a bit of a makeover before I share them with the world.

As always, I love you my dearest of friends and blog readers. Remember, a little insanity makes life alot easier.