Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT)'s WebLog : Personal

A lot of snow around Seattle

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 23:43:00 GMT

It has been heavily snowing for more than a week. I cleaned my driveway four times already, each time removing a foot of snow - good excercise :-). However, our street was only plowed once :-( so one really needs a high clearance car to get out. It is snowing every year and yet city does not have snow plows. Power went out twice - we are lucky to have a backup generator. It is still a mystery to me: every year we have snow, strong winds and heavy rain. And each time city and utility company are unprepared. Kids are having fun sledding and building snow forts though :-)

I like HTC Touch

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:07:00 GMT

I blogged back in April that I was going to get HTC S710. I did get one and liked it a lot. However, in July I went on vacation in Hawaii and was careless enough to go swimming with my new phone sitting in my pocket. Well, the phone, of course, died. So when I returned I started looking for replacement. I was close to ordering another S710, but then discovered HTC Touch. Just in case you want to ask why didn't I get iPhone: I don't buy locked phones, I have no interest in switching to AT&T and interoperability with Exchange is very important to me. I need business stuff to work first and multimedia/Web browsing second. So I ordered HTC Touch from mobileplanet.com. HTC Touch is a very neat device. First, it is a real PDA with stylus and Windows Mobile 6 Professional. At the same time it is not as large as typical PDA, it is light and fits well into pockets. TouchFLO is a good thing too. WiFi works well, both at home and at work, syncs with Vista and Exchange flawlessly and Bluetooth stack works beautifully with my car Bluetooth system. So far I am a happy camper.

NVidia 79xx SLI driver for Vista is published

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:35:00 GMT

Looks like I can finally install Vista on my home box. My rig has two 7900GTX in SLI configuration and NVidia drivers until the most recent one only supported 88xx in SLI mode. Hopefully fresh one works well. Well, if it crashes once in a while when playing games, that's OK too as XP driver crashes every 20-30 minutes on my machine when I am playing Oblivion ;-)

The wait for HTC S710 is unbearable

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:37:00 GMT

I love Bluetooth phone/car pairing but my old iMate SP3 does not transfer address book to the car so I really want new phone. I preordered HTC S710 quite some time ago. Mobile Planet expected it on 22nd or April. Now it is due on 9th of May. Cool thing is that it also has WiFi and keyboard in such a compact package. There is also more powerful S730 coming out in July with 400MHz CPU and GPS, but I am afraid faster CPU will be draining battery way too fast. iMate barely survives three days with Bluetooth on and it is mostly standby mode...

Small smartphone or a bigger device? Why do we have to choose?

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:33:00 GMT

Most of the time I only need a small candy bar smartphone that is extemely convenient to carry around and which is fine for calling, occasional e-mail reading and some limited Web browsing. However, sometimes I need to type an answer to an e-mail. But I don't have to do it very often so I don't really want to be carrying around a PDA-style smartphone with a keyboard or even bigger device. And sometimes I definitely want a big high resolution screen so I can browse Web more comfortably. And 3.5" PDA screen is not enough anyway.

How do we solve this in the world of ordinary computers? We carry around 12" light laptop and connect it to a big screen and an external keyboard when necessary. So what I want is 5" or 7" screen with dock where I can insert my small smartphone and be able to browse Web and read documents on 7" 800x600 screen instead of 160x120. Same mobile plan, same device, same applications, same favorites, same contacts. No need to decide if you need small device, large PDA or in-between compromise.

Power outage in Puget Sound was bad

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:17:00 GMT

My home lost power Thursday night, a week ago. On Friday there was no power anywhere. Bellevue, Redmond, Kirlkand, Woodinville - all were dark. We tried to get to Microsoft campus on Friday morning since usually it used to keep power even under quite serious conditions. It took us good two hours to get there (normally it takes maybe 30 minutes) However, there was no power on campus either. We returned home and stayed there until Saturday. By Saturday morning it was getting really cold, even with fireplace on. Fortunately, by Saturday morning power on Microsoft campus was restored. Also, Seattle also had power restored so we moved to Seattle hotel. It was really difficult to find one which had rooms available. We stayed in different hotels ever since watching updates at Puget Sound Energy Web site until today, when we finally go power restored in our home. The damage has been so extensive so some homes won't have power until after this weekend.

It is still a mystery to me why there are so many wires in the air and not buried in the ground... Even after almost 10 years living here I don't see much progress in burying wires in order to reduce probability of power outages during winter storms.

Who is complaining about snow?

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 02:09:00 GMT

It is fun to play outside, then get back to work over remote connection, then go make a snowman and then work some more :-)

My driveway today

Me, having fun with my daughter

Now, I had too much fun... Back to work! :-)

Pandora.com - highly recommended

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Sat, 13 May 2006 07:55:00 GMT

Pandora.com is a pretty cool music service and price is attractive too. You can have if free with ads or ad-free for $36 a year. That's one latte a month and four times chaper than satellite radio. And all it needs is a browser, so it is always with you as long as you are online.

Now playing station seeded by Tangerine Dream...

Converting cassette tapes to MP3

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 10:05:00 GMT

I recently purchased an interesting product called PlusDeck2 which is essentially cassette deck that you install in the PC, connect to the sound card and COM port. It comes with software that automates conversion process by controlling deck via the COM port and digitizing tape output using existing sound card.

Who needs to convert tapes? Well, I do :-). For example, my daughter loves to listen to Russian fairly tales and many of them are only available on tapes. However, my Prius does not have tape deck so I really need a CD, preferably MP3 or WMA so I can fit tons of stories on a single disk and keep her entertained (and myself not bored listening to the same story over and over again). My daughter also likes to listen to stories and music at home and we don't have tape deck there either. All audio titles are sitting either on CDs or on my music machine.

PlusDeck is a good piece of hardware, I installed the deck in 5 minutes and after tinkering for about 20 minutes with the sound recording levels was able to begin conversion. The software lacks recording level meter so usually you end up oveloading the sound card. I ended up keeping line input level at about 10-20%. The other issue is that you probably want to get at least simple sound editor to get rid of tape noise and trim recorded file into separate titles. The accompanying software seems to be capable of splitting recording into separate songs or parts, but some reviews mentioned that it was not very precise so I decided to record each side into a separate WAV file and then split it into pieces myself. Manual suffers from poor translation but you probably only need to look at the connection diagrams, everything else is pretty much self explanatory.

Sure, if you already own a tape deck, you can simply connect it to the sound card and use your favorite recording software. But it you don't own one and/or like the automatic process, PlusDeck will help. It also can convert tape directly to MP3.

Lossless music online

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Fri, 20 May 2005 09:29:00 GMT

Apparently Smithsonian Global Sound offers tons of world music in both MP3 at 128 Kbps and FLAC. Grateful Dead is also now available in FLAC at a reasonable price such as $23.50 for four CDs. Good sign, hopefully major online music stores will eventually follow the suit...

Six months with Prius

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Tue, 10 May 2005 09:42:00 GMT

Back in October 2004 I bought Toyota Prius hybrid. (I traded in Infinity FX45 if that matters). It has been half a year and 5000 miles and I am still very happy. I am averaging 47 mpg. I upgraded audio system and now enjoying good music in the morning traffic. As a matter of fact, Prius is a great car for music listening since it turns off gas engine when it stops or moves slowly so in heavy traffic it mostly runs on the battery. This means that engine noise does not interfere with the music! :-)

Some people don't like Prius electric steering, but I found it quite satisfactory. I like small steering wheel since I used to smaller ones in sporty cars I used to own. Brakes are really good. Smart keyless entry rocks too.

My 5 years old daughter said she liked my new Prius better since it has larger windows so she can see more surroundings. She also enjoys that color energy display that shows which engine runs the car and what is the current fuel consumption.

I recently ordered EV Mode kit which restores battery-only mode which is available in European and Japanese Prius but for some reason was taken out of American model.

All in all, I am happy with my Prius.

Mac Mini - is Apple going to produce Mac-based car audio unit? ;-)

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 05:06:00 GMT

New Mac Mini is 6.5"x6.5"x2". DIN1 size (standard car radio head unit size) is 7.375 wide by 2.25" high. I am wondering why it is so close... ;-)

Mini may be a good media box provided it is quiet. Dustin Mihalik says Mini is quiet but I am not sure since I played with Mac G5 and it was pretty noisy at full load even with all its smart fans and multiple cooling zones. My guess is that Mini is probably as quiet as Powerbook. However, I have no idea how quiet Powerbook actually is when it playing video or audio at high bit rates. My experience with Intel-based laptops has been pretty poor. Before I built my own media box I tried to use old IBM laptop as well as Toshiba 3480 and they both had pretty noisy fans.

Last high quality photo lab closed on the Eastside

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 05:49:00 GMT

Overlake Photo that I have been using for quite some time is going out of business due to digital pressure. No more quality film development close to work :-(. Now I'll have to either use mail order (most probably) or drive all the way to Seattle Photobition (former Ivey Seright). Overlake lab did a good job developing slides of all formats, black-and-white negatives, push/pull processing, cross-processing (i.e. devloping slide film as negative or the other way around). Folks at Overlake haven't been able to make large professional quality prints from slides so for printing I have been using Photobition. However, over the last years with recent developments in scanners, ink jet printers, papers and monitors I began printing more and more myself on my trusty Epson 1280. So I probably added to the Overlake untimely demise...

I do shoot digital, but for art work I still mostly use film. There are few reasons. Reasonably priced digital SLRs still have 1.5x focal lens multiplier so even with 12mm lens I can only get around 20mm equivalent on my EOS D60. Digital does not yet have full panoramic abilities (stitching only works for landscapes since you have to take multiple images so your subjects must be still). I am using Noblex 135U for panoramic work. Digital also does not yet have all movements of a good view camera (well, at a reasonable price at least :-)). Image noise is still a problem with long exposures or at high ISO speeds (1600 film is still better than 1600 ISO setting on digicam). And even 8 megapixels is not enough for 20"x20" print, especially if some cropping is needed. Maybe in a couple more years, when EOS 1D becomes more reasonably priced and a bit smaller and lighter...

Even then, not all film effects can be reproduced in Photoshop. I have yet to see good algorithm for imitation of cross-processing or for infrared film effects.

Digital music in the car: part II

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 02:29:00 GMT

I began blogging about my car project earlier this month. Here are options I figured out so far:

1. Install full computer in the car. This might be new Sony U750 portable with 5" touchscreen. Or put DIN-size PC in the standard opening and add 7" touchscreen. However, I am not sure how slow Windows XP will boot on those units (2.5" HDD is not a speedy rocket and VIA 1GHz CPU is not snappy either (I know since I am running music PC based on VIA 800 MHz CPU). I am also unsure about temperature. Most HDDs specify 10C (~52F) as minimal operating temperature. It gets lower in wnter here in Seattle. Windows CE.NET would be better, but SDK is $995. Yeah, I work for Microsoft, but I'd like to make something that others will be able to replicate.

2. Add an interface to head unit. This gets to iPod2Car or Dension IceLink. Dension does not support Toyota Prius so I am limited to iPod2Car. Cost is around $250.

3. Install Alpine 98xx unit with iPod interface. Convenient, but Alpine usability is pretty bad (slow scroll, awkward button sequences, limited nuber of titles supported, English-only display, blocks iPod controls). However, with cheapest Alpine head unit total cost is just around $300.

4. Install new head unit with Aux input. Clarion DRZ9255 is my favorite (it can be found for much less than MSRP). This requires running line out cable as well as DC power cable. I want neat install that won't involve cigarette lighter adapters and wires hanging around while music player is sliding left and right on the passenger seat. So some kind of cradle with minimal wiring is a must. Probably more expensive proposition than #3.

As for player itself, it seems buying new iPod is inevitable. I checked out Portable Media Centers, but they all are only 20GB (too small for my lossless music and I already own 20GB iPod). I am not sure why PMCs are limited to 20GB since iPod 30GB was avialble two years ago and 40-60GB disks have been around for quite some time. iRiver announced 40GB PMC but delivery date is not known. iPod Photo is available in 60GB version (and I'd like to have 80 GB or more). Other players either don't support titles in Unicode or don't support lossless compression.

I will probably try iPod2Car first. There have been some complaints about its reliability and somewhat upredictable behavior when it works in some cars and does not in others even if car model and year is exactly the same. My other option will be #3.

Got a new car

Mikhail Arkhipov (MSFT) — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 05:23:00 GMT

It is Toyota Prius.

It is pretty big change for me since I have been driving fast cars for many years. However, most of the time I am now driving in peak traffic taking daughter to and from kindergarden. It has been three weeks and so far I have been enjoying the car, it is indeed a geek toy :-). I wish it had better seats, but otherwise it is great. No rush, I am listening to music, watching cool little energy monitor and enjoying the ride. 48 mpg does not hurt either.

A few states started to give hybrids extra perks, such as right to use HOV lane (CA and NY) with a single driver in the car or free municipal parking in LA and San Jose.

If you are interesting in hybrids, check out Prius Online community, Prius Chat forums and hacks from Coastal Tech.