Before I make my comments about Silverlight 2 Beta 2, I've first had to get the darn thing working with Visual Studio 2008. Anytime I'd go to open a Silverlight project, I'd be greeted with "The project type is not supported by this installation".
Unfortunately, I was foolish enough to install the VS2008 SP1 beta/.NET 3.5 SP1 beta (largely thanks to the cool stuff mentioned at Remix) which apparently was the original cause of this problem. It wouldn't be too bad if Blend had any IntelliSense, but unfortunately the only way to develop the C# behind the SL2 project is to use VS2008.
After several uninstall/reinstalls of everything I could find relating to VS2008 (and no more reinstalls of SP1 Beta), I stumbled across Michael Sync's tips for Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Tools + VS2008. I uninstalled and reinstalled everything according to that post…but it turns out all I needed (no reinstalling required) was but one parameter while launching VS2008…
devenv.exe /resetskippkgs
Now I'm "enjoying" Silverlight 2 content again, but hopefully future versions of the SL2Chainer will fix this on install!
The Live Writer team have released a tech preview of the next version of Windows Live Writer. While the GUI for Wordpress’ editor is certainly improved in v2.5, it still doesn’t beat the power of a desktop app. The fact that while I’m writing this post, it looks like I’m writing it straight on my blog is fantastic for visualising how good/bad/otherwise it’ll come out at the end of the day, rather than having to just “know” or use preview everytime I add an image.
It has a few neat looking features (that are immediately noticeable) such as
Support for Lightbox/Lightbox groups! (Via Options under Link on images)
Quicker access to different “views” of your blog. Down the bottom there are now three tabs, Edit, Preview and Source
Images can now be centered! Yay!
Image editing options now include cropping and tilting. While I’m unlikely to use tilting, cropping I’m sure I will. There are always moments where an image is one or two (or 10!) pixels off, and it is much quicker to crop in WLW than it is to load up Photoshop again.
Going from the Live Writer team’s blog entry, most of the changes are related to the SDK, albeit not stable at the moment.
On a negative note however,
It seems to of changed quotes from being " to “ and ”. A small visual difference, but when copying code examples, means you have to run a search and replace to get any snippets working! Update: As Brandon Turner pointed out in the comments, Tools -> Options -> Uncheck "Use smart quotes" fixes this issue. The Live team is fast to respond!
You still can’t modify any of the parameters on the border effects. By that I mean you can’t make a drop shadow more subtle, change how strong the reflection is, or even change the colour of the solid 1/3px borders.
I'm sure there are one or two things I haven't noticed at first glance, so by no means take this at a definitive list of new features.
Update: Okay, so SL2B2 is coming out next week apparently, and it addresses at least some of the control issues! Maybe I'll get some of my wants sooner rather than later.
No, this isn't a leaked announcement of SL2B2, but things I want (need?) into Silverlight before v3. I've been playing with SL2B1 lately, and while I'd love to say it totally rocks and I'll be using it everywhere from now on…but I just can't bring myself to that level of fanboyism.
Tile/TileBrush/Ability to tile images. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to use a tile background in parts of my app which can't overlay HTML.
"BitmapEffects". While these have sort of been depreciated in WPF 3.5 in favour of PixelShaders, Silverlight doesn't have the ability to do Inner/Outer Glow, Drop Shadows, etc.
More controls - Think of this point as <em><em'ier><EM'iest!'>! I attempted some Silverlight 1 stuff, but it was a nightmare building anything "rich" because all controls had to be built by hand. Don't get me wrong, SL2B1 has a lot more controls (and very common/useful ones at that), but there are still a fair few missing from WPF.
Webcam support; Flash can do it, but I personally think the amount of media stuff that Silverlight can do would make it even more useful. Webcam support in Silverlight, along with additional controls like TreeView…you could replace whatever instant messenger you currently use with a completely web based/silverlight without losing any of the rich experience!
Perhaps less restrictive port ranges for Sockets, currently only 4502->4532 & 80 are supported. According to Robert Folkesson "the site of origin restriction will go away in future release", maybe the port restrictions will too.
can has Silverlight for WinMo now pleeeeease?
To me, Silverlight 1 was interesting in the aiblity to deliver WMV, but failed to really get my interesting. Silverlight 1.1/2 is a lot more powerful by bringing .NET into things as well as inbuilt controls (and yes, I know a host of other things), but it still doesn't seem all there.
I can now see the obvious reason for why it was rebranded from the seemingly "good" codename of "WPF/E" (where the E stood for everywhere) - it's not WPF, its sort of a subset, but not really.
The wife's new gaming rig contains a Leadtek 9600GT, which was slightly cheaper than a 8800GT and subsequently slightly slower. For the games she plays (heck, even the games I play) at the monitors native resolution (1680×1050) it is more than powerful enough. The only problem with the card (and 99% of the cards on the market) is the huge amount of noise that can be generated. The 8800GT's stock cooler for example, can get up to 70 decibels! I remember my 7900GT getting up to similar levels of noise.
The unsuspecting stock cooler Naked 9600GT
Enter third party coolers. On my ageing 7900GT, I have a Thermalright HR-03 installed, which I thought was fantastic, although the price (~$80 at the time, plus more for a fan), size and weight were a bit much to take. Prices on the HR-03 (as well as the GT and Plus models, which add compatibility) have come down (to ~$50), but they're still expensive compared to the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 which PCCaseGear are selling for just $37.
I was a little unsure of what the results would be, as the airflow in the wife's computer isn't fantastic (just one 120mm Antec Tricool fan (set on Low), the stock Intel Heatsink/Fan cooling the Core2Quad Q6600, and the fan on the 430w Antec Earthwatts power supply) which usually hampers passive cooling considerably.
9600GT with Accelero S1 mounted - it dwarfs the card!
Idle
Load
Leadtek 9600GT (Stock Cooler)
36c (started at 31c and then after 10mins stabilised at 36c)
62c
Leadtek 9600GT (Accelero S1)
35c (started at 28c and then after 10mins stabilised at 35c)
55c
To simulate load, I played through the first two levels of Gears of War, with all details on high (apart from AA), it was silky smooth.
The results are amazing: the S1 come out 7c cooler. While the passive S1 by itself is a better cooler than Leadtek's active cooler and normally I'd be more than satisfied by that, I had already purchased the Turbo Module because of the airflow issue I mentioned, so I thought "what the heck, lets add it to see the difference!"
The Turbo Module consists of two frameless fans, which clip onto the Accelero S1 (or S2), and plug in via a 3pin fan power (or with an included adapter 4pin hdd/odd molex power plug). Installation should just be: clip it on then plug it in. Unfortunately, I discovered the 3 pin fan power cable wasn't long enough to reach the closest CHA_FAN plug, so I had to use the adapter. Then I discovered the power cable was obstructing one of the fans due to the stiffness of the cable. As it turns out, I didn't tuck all cables into the heatsink properly, doing so prevented the fan cables from obstructing the fans.
An alternative to the Turbo Module is to use cable ties with a large quiet fan if you've got one (I'd recommend 92mm or 120mm) but unless you've got one handy the Turbo Module will probably come in cheaper ($12 vs ~$30 for a "low noise" 120mm fan).
"Turbo Module" added
Idle
Load
Leadtek 9600GT (Accelero S1 + Turbo Kit)
~28c (it fluctuated between 27c and 28c for about 10minutes)
36c
That's 26 degrees Celsius or 48% cooler than the stock fan on load, and 19c cooler than the S1 by itself.
The Turbo Module certainly has huge benefits, as I'm sure strapping any fans to it would. Since the S1 without any fans is "acceptable", it really comes down to:
Are you overclocking?
Can you afford it?
Can you live with the slight increase in noise?
Noise wise, I can't hear it over the PSU or Intel HSF, so I'd be happy to leave it attached. This may change if I was to replace the 120mm fan with a Nexus Real Silent (or a Noctua) fan and the Intel HSF for something like the Thermalright Ultra 120/Extreme (or Scythe Ninja/Mini Ninja).
The S1 may not be for everybody though. It isn't compatible with the 8800GTX/Ultra, 9800GTX/Ultra or older 8800GTS models (G80 GTS's aren't compatible, G92 are compatible) and its rather large. The last point is not going to be a concern for anybody with "gaming" or "enthusiast" size cases (mid or full size towers, or even some larger desktops), but for small form factor cases, it may protrude too far up. Likewise, if you have need of all your PCI/PCIe slots, it turns the single slot 9600GT into a dual slot, while adding the Turbo kit really turns it into a triple slot card.
While not my first smart phone, the HTC p3600i is my first Windows Mobile (WinMo) phone. I put the emphasis on my first WinMo phone, because my mother has an O2 XDA Stealth slider WinMo 5 phone, so I have been exposed to Windows Mobile before.
First, the physical love (p3600i)
It would be unfair to say that I love the p3600i but I certainly don't hate it either. Compared to my mothers phone, its thinner/smaller, lighter, and doesn't get as hot. Compared to the Sony Ericsson m600i (my previous phone), it has a larger/brighter screen, but is larger and heavier. However, unlike the m600i, the p3600i has curved corners, making it fit better into my hand and into my pockets.
One area this phone that suffers (and indeed many of HTC's other models) is tactile input. While it has a good scrolling wheel, and a few side buttons, it lacks a key/number pad. The m600i is/was a horrible phone - the touchscreen was rubbish, the battery life was poor, the software isn't compatible with Vista, and it was sloooow. The only redeeming feature it had (in my eyes), was the QWERTY keyboard input. Adding this to the p3600i however, would either add to the physical dimensions or reduce the screen size, so its one of those undesirable situations: do you make it bulkier, cut down screen size, or leave it as it is? There are other models (such as the TyTN II) that have a slide out keyboard without getting much (if at all) bulkier, but that just adds to cost.
The bottom line is, If you are a heavy SMS'er, or write novels on your phone, steer clear of any phone with just touch screen for input, but if you don't fit that description, it just takes a bit of time getting used to either scribing, or using the on screen keyboard. When I originally started writing this review, I was of the opinion for any text input this phone was a nightmare. HTC's new Touch Diamond phone has an interesting on screen keyboard (in the style of the m600i's keyboard - QWERTY with two letters per key) with much larger buttons (takes up 90% of the screen). It's incredibly usable, and people have hacked it out of the Touch Diamond to work on other phones! While I don't find it as fast as my m600i, I still find it faster than the standard number pad on "dumb phones". For me, this is permanently on now, and I'd recommend it to any WinMo5/6+ owner with a touchscreen only phone!
Battery life isn't too bad, but it isn't too good. It is better than my m600i, but Bluetooth or wifi chew the battery life.
On beating the turtle with a hare (Windows Mobile 6)
(HTC's Home plugin for the Today screen, and the HTC Touch Diamond Keyboard .And yes, I know I spelt Skype wrong, but at least you know these screenshots are from an "actually-in-use" phone)
When choosing my phone, it basically narrowed down to the Nokia N73 (which would have been 'free' on the plan I was going onto), or the HTC p3600i (which is +$10/m on the same plan). While I could have chosen either phone for a variety of reasons, such as the N73 for better battery life, or probably a better camera OR the p3600i for having a touch screen, the decision was made because one phone ran WinMo, and the other didn't. Why go for WinMo? Well, I'm really getting into the .NET stuff, and I use Outlook. That is, .NET CF runs on my phone, and Outlook syncs with my phone (email and contacts, bi-directional) whenever I'm in range of my laptop.
One thing I've heard over the years is that WinMo's greatest flaw is that it is unusably slow, so I was reasonably expecting that the phone would be unpleasant to use, requiring patience to switch between menus/apps. Either that only applied for WinMo 5 and earlier, or the delays were exaggerated. While heavy multitasking (particularly with a large webpage open in IE, and ActiveSync going) does slow down, the phone/OS combo is still faster than my M600i, although not as fast as my wife's Sony Ericsson K850i.
There are a lot of nice things about WinMo, such as "proper" syncing with Outlook or the ability to write my own apps (.NET CF) a lot easier than I would be able to with Java (since my J2ME knowledge is low). Even Sony Ericsson have realised that WinMo is a very good platform for smartphones over their SymbianOS, and will be releasing their own WinMo phone (…ironically made by HTC)
Bottom line
Neither Windows Mobile 6 or the HTC p3600i are flawless, but they're both totally usable, and even enjoyable to use.
I'd prefer a smaller/lighter phone, with a better battery life, higher quality camera phone, and a slide out keyboard, but I'm not willing to spend that much (money or time waiting for it to come into existence!) more to get it. The only complaint about connectivity is that it doesn't use a standard 3.5mm audio jack, but apart from that, it has connections for everything else (wifi, bluetooth, 2/3g, IrDA).
WinMo6 is good (better than what many claim it to be), but the default interface could do with a serious work over. HTC have addressed this on some of their phones (such HTC Touch series), and the interface can be found for other HTC/WinMo6 phones, but it should be improved by Microsoft and be the default settings.
Internet Explorer is useless by todays standards (either mobile or desktop browsers), and needs a serious overhaul. Apparently Internet Explorer in WinMo6.1 at least has a zoom mode, but unfortunately there isn't a WinMo6.1 ROM for the p3600i, so I'm not able to tell.
With Remix over, I thought I'd sum up my thoughts on the event. Last year's Remix was my first Microsoft event, but now I have a few more under my belt. This year I hung around Stephen Price, whose Quokka cartoons were featured all over the Remix blog. Stephen's a very cool bloke, even if he gets lost too easily.
Keynote
While Mark Pesce's keynote speech was fantastic, I'm not sure how much relevance there was to most of Remix. The content of Remix's sessions were always going to be about about XAML (Silverlight/WPF), IE8/ASP.NET, and Expression Studio - that is technically focused, rather than the social implications. The Live Platform session (the third session) certainly did expand on "hyper-connectivity" (social) and the technological side of things, but the rest of the Remix "conversation" was perhaps a bit too focused on the technical or product side of things. That aside, I will repeat, it was a fantastic presentation. Get yourself on Twitternow!
If you weren't at Remix, watch the video above (text version)
Session 1 - What's New in Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5 and beyond
I quite like WPF, but I haven't really seen the need to move to .NET 3.5….until Joseph's presentation.
.NET 3.5 cool things are:
New (I think?) Addins space is in a secure isolate (separate app domains), and are able to have different security levels, such as (AddInSecurtyLevel.)Internet or FullTrust. For security purposes, Addins do not see a "parent" GUI object - they cannot "walk up the VisualTree".
Under .NET 3.5 SP1, ClickOnce and XBAPs supported in Firefox
Now possible to "brand"/customise the setup program (generated by the VisualStudio deploy wizard)
The WPF cool things are:
Interactive 2D on 3D is now "native", rather than a third party/unsupported library
WPF can make use of some DirectX stuff natively, rather than having to Interop/P/Invoke
Better debugging for WPF Databinding (this stuff is gold - will be making use of it for MahTweets!)
Formatting in DataTemplates/DataBinding (ie, <TextBlock Text="{Binding textField, StringFormat= - \{1\}}" /> will prepend " - " to the string) Nothing "wow", but so much more logical to do that on the presentation side of things, rather than needing to modify the business objects so that you can present the data correctly.
Recycling Virtualisation. Emphasis because this is particularly cool. In .NET 3.0, UI controls such as a ListBox would be virtualised, generating the ListBoxItems for the items that are visible at the time (+5 items above or below). When the ListBox is scrolled, and a new bunch of ListBoxItems is visible, the old ones are destroyed. Recycling Virtualisation in .NET 3.5 doesn't destroy the "old' ListBoxItems, but reuses them. This means memory usage while scrolling stays about the same and doesn't continuously grow the more you scroll!
Out of band releases for new controls, much better than having to wait for .NET vNext
ShaderEffects sort of replace BitmapEffects (both still exist, but no reason to use BitmapEffects now) implemented in hardware so performance is much much better, and scales properly. You can create your own ShaderEffects using HSHL/PS
Ugly things:
.NET 3.5 is 200MB in size, compared to 50B for 3.0, and ~20meg for v1/1.1/2.0. 3.5 does include both x64 and x86 binaries, which partially explains the size. In VS2008/.NET3.5 SP1, there will be a ".NET Client Only Framework" (compile option in VS2008 SP1) that is aiming for ~25MB download, but wont include all the .NET libraries (such as System.Web), but only the ones that are most commonly used in client applications.
This was a fairly run-of-the-mill "I have a new application, let me show you it" presentation, covering Expression Studio 2 (except Expression Encoder 2) as well as Deep Zoom Composer. Unfortunately, for any attendees of Remix 07 or Mix On Campus, this sort of stuff (albeit for xStudio1) was pretty much what the events were all about last time, and it felt like the audience knew a bit more (about their favourite specific application) than Tim did.
While the list of new features to xMedia2 are neat (RAW image handling, batch renaming, metadata browsing, voice annotations, gallery generation), I still don't really know what its purpose is in the Expression Studio suite. If it was a free app I could probably find a use for it, but for photo/image management Live Gallery is "good enough", and I manage all my music in Media Player…maybe its great for video management?
Contrasting with statements from Lee Brimelow from last year (that "everything you can do in Design, you can do in Blend, so I don't see the point of xDesign"), Tim showed off xDesign2 and some of the reasons why you'd use it over xBlend. Yes, you can probably do everything in xBlend, just like everything you can do in Photoshop can be done in Paint. Being a developer, I think I'll still be sticking to Blend, but I could see how the more artistic parts of XAML would be easier in xDesign.
Despite the improvements to xWeb2, as a developer and somebody who has been generated CSS/(X)HTML for years, I will not get any value out of xWeb2. VS2008 does all the stuff I need to do, or Notepad++ steps in when I need to go kung fu on my CSS. PHP IntelliSense/support has made it in, but this should have been a feature in xWeb2.
Session 3 - Windows Live Platform: Take the best of Windows Live and make it yours
I didn't really know what to expect from this session, the Live Platform session sounded like it would be pretty boring, but I wasn't overly interested in the other session which was upstairs, so the Live Platform session it was! I was pleasantly surprised, as this was a very cool session, possibly my favourite for the day! My laziness paid off!
The key things were how you can use Microsoft's Live Platform to create incredibly interactive websites by making use of the Live services such as Virtual Earth, Live Messenger (/Hotmail) contacts/presence, Spaces, Storage (FolderShare/SkyDrive), Notifications (via email, SMS for North America, or via WLM through the alerts service).
For a few projects I have in mind, the Live ID login system looks appealing, although I'm wondering if a service like OpenID is more 'acceptable' (by end users, since Microsoft is so evil and all, apparently). I'd be very interested in the Live Platform Team's view on OpenID vs LiveID, or if they can coexist.
Angus left Twhirl running while giving his presentation, so I managed to get a few tweets popping up on the screen!
Session 4 - Building an Immersive, Integrated Media Experience in Silverlight
This session showed off the new ABC Silverlight Store, which while cool, is all Silverlight v1 stuff. It just seemed to lack the "wow", going over very similar things that were covered at Remix 07, without the edge the original presentations on Silverlight v1 had because it wasn't new. I walked out (I needed a break/fresh air, not because I was bored) before it finished, so the last 15 minutes may have been awesome, its hard to tell.
The Silverlight Store also had a matching desktop client…written in Silverlight? I think (as a demonstration of the power of Silverlight and WPF), it would have been mucho cooler to do that in WPF. The technical reasons for not doing so are more than understandable - WPF weighs in at 20meg, and Silverlight at about 4meg. Both clients being Silverlight means just one framework download/install, which is much more friendly for the target audience.
The presentation was done using DeepZoom, zooming into each slide or diagram to show more detail, such as exploding a file overview into the actual code behind that file. That bit was cool.
Session 5 - Skipped
I skipped session five, not because of the content available, but because I ran into Long Zheng, and we got to chatting. Long has a new Zune ("Long Zhune"). He's a cool guy, with or without the Zune!
Session 6 - Using Microsoft Silverlight for Creating Rich Mobile User Experiences
I've been looking at creating a mobile version of MahTweets, using .NET CF. The three problems I have with .NET CF are limited controls available, it's all WinForms crap, and only available on Windows Mobile phones. Silverlight, however, will be on Windows Mobile phones and Nokia's S60 and S40 OS' phones, uses XAML solving both WinForms problem, and amount of controls available!
A good list of S60 phones can be found at the Nokia Gaming Blog - I think the cool thing is that it includes the popular E65, and all (I think) of the powerful N series phones! It is foreseeable that other phones (or browsers) will eventually be able to play Silverlight as well!
Shane talked about how Mobile is already big, but is already accelerating faster than PC/laptop markets, and the ways designs will have to change not just for the limited capability or screen real estate, but the way the mobile user "snacks" on content.
Michael demo'd Silverlight on a HTC WinMo phone, but unfortunately its "pre-pre-pre-beta", so we aren't able to play with anything yet. Apparently some of the other Remix events around the world pulled the Silverlight mobile content! The goal of the Silverlight mobile project is to use the exact same Silverlight tools, and allow all existing Silverlight stuff to just work - you wont have to compile to "Silverlight Mobile", ala .NET and .NET CF.
Imagine Cup
During Session 5, I had Long talk me through what his teams project was all about. It is very cool, but rather than fumbling around to describe what it is, he's already blogged about the team SOAK entry.
It was fantastic to see that some of the feedback from last year made the event change this year, such as including free wifi and 'recharge' stations. Unfortunately, the wifi/net connection weren't too stable up until ~3pm, and other suggestions such as including pens for the feedback forms didn't make it through, so Stephen and I pinched one of the vendor's pens.
I can't remember if I wrote down "better food", but this year had a lot less salmon and cold wedges! There were even TimTams! ('cause, you know, this it totally the most important part of the day).
This year the event was split across Melbourne and Sydney, and cut down to one day (each). This year's venue (Melbourne Town Hall) was both better and worse than last year. More room to move between sessions and chairs to sit on, but higher ceilings (which created echo's and "lost the vibe"), consistently bad lighting and uncomfortable chairs during the sessions all worked against the Town Hall. A few others agreed on the venue being 'so-so', and Ed Hooper suggested that the Melbourne Convention Centre, which is where Heroes Happened was held, would have been a better choice - which I agree with.
Remix is still in an infant state, its still learning about itself, but it is developing, experimenting and evolving. While not everything was perfect, I still will be attending next year because despite all my complaints it was still a great (albeit exhausting) day. Next year, however I think I'll just take my camera and a notepad, rather than laptop + camera, which is fairly weighty. I'll also sit a bit closer so that some more of my photos turn out. Argh!
Just like last year, Nick Hodge has a summary post of activity on the blogosphere about Remix.
Like Nero, PowerDVD is one of those applications you see bundled with nearly all (non-OEM) DVD drives these days. And again, like Nero, it has now become an obsolete application to me. And if it's not bundled with a DVD drive, it's bundled with a graphics card. Or if the motherboard has sufficient graphic prowess itself, it may even be bundled with the motherboard!
Nero's downfall was because it became too bloated. I didn't want to have to install a 1 gigabyte program to burn files to a discs or the occasional ISO, so ISORecorder and Vista's DVD burner have replaced them - free. One could argue that Nero was just trying to stay relevant by adding in features it perceived its users wanted, and I'm sure some users do make use of it, but I don't really see the need for video, audio and photo editing bundled with my CD/DVD burning software.
PowerDVD's downfall is seemingly by their own design. In the "old" PowerDVD 7 Ultra, both HD-DVD and Bluray playback is present. It works perfectly fine for my usage, except for two things.
The first problem, it doesn't integrate into Windows Media Center, with the best way to do so is a script to launch the application when HD/BD discs are detected.
The second is that subtitles on many of my HD-DVDs are permanently on. They're not encoded into the main stream (as I can switch between subtitle languages fine), but PowerDVD won't disable them.
So, I thought upgrading to PowerDVD 8 Ultra would be the way to go. Unfortunately Cyberlink has decided that since Toshiba has dropped HD-DVD support, they would too. PowerDVD 8 Ultra no longer plays back HD-DVD.
"No HD-DVD playback? Fine. I'll go build my own HD-DVD player with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the HD-DVD player and the blackjack. Eh, screw the whole thing."
I'm considering building my own MCML based plugin (so it can, potentially, stream across to Media Centre Extenders), using DirectShow Graphs and AVISynth to patch it in. Initial tests are looking good, I just need to figure out MCML a bit better first ;)
After my HTPC building series of blog posts, a Channel8'er was disappointed that I didn't include others in the building process of it. This time I've decided to make a Windows Home Server box, this time including the community to help me choose the parts.
Unlike Channel 8's Max Builds a PC series, I cannot be giving this away (finances simply don't allow it), so its' purely for participation value. I'll try and round up some prizes (maybe Expression Studio 2? I'll have to see what restrictions the copy I'll be getting has), but can't promise anything.
Why build a server, based on WHS? WHS is easy. It's easy to setup, it's easy to use, it's easy to maintain. I have better things to be doing that learning the ins and outs of either Windows Server or Linux to perform the same functions that WHS does out of the box. Well, that and Nick has one, so I'm jealous.
When building most "normal" computers (desktop use/work use/whatever), the two main factors are usually performance and price. The usual process is to get as much power in to as small a budget as possible.
While this remains true for my desired server, there are other characteristics that have equal or greater importance. For example, low power usage is very important due to the "always on" nature of a server, and because of the location the server will run, low noiseis equally important.
In order of importance, those key factors are:
price
low noise
low power usage
performance
Price
The budget for this project is AUD$600 (give or take $50) for case, power supply, hard drive(s), motherboard, CPU, ram and any additional cooling needed. This does not include the WHS license cost.
Meet today's Contenders
This post looks specifically at CPUs and Motherboards. Why both? Well, for the lowest power/noise solutions, often the CPU either only comes with a motherboard or is actually soldered in.
From a CPU point of view, my research based on pricing and/or power usage leads me to believe that the "real" contenders are:
From AMD's low power series, the BE X2 2350. These have the advantage of having very good performance per watt as well as being a standard AM2 socket CPU so that it can be used in any standard AM2 motherboard, but suffer from slightly higher price (over $100) and power usage compared to some of the other contenders.
From VIA, the C7 range of CPU's, which range from 1.1 to 1.7ghz, all come bundled with a motherboard. The main downside to VIA is the limitation to just two SATA ports, effectively limiting the server to (with technology available now) 2TB
From Intel, the yet unreleased "Atom" range of CPU's. With little known about the Atom apart from its low power usage, it is hard to know what socket it will use, let alone pricing or availability!
Again from Intel, the Celeron E1200, weighing in at a tiny AUD$55 currently, and like the BE X2 2350, is able to used in a standard (LGA755)/readily available motherboard.
XBit Lab's Dual Core Shootout (E1200 "wins", again by having lowest power usage)
From the motherboard point of view, it depends on the CPU chosen.
For AMD, I actually don't know what motherboard would be 'worth while', since all I've looked at over the last few months has been Intel (gaming rig for my wife, or HTPC). That being said, I think any 690g based board, such as Asus' M2A-VM would be more than suffice, given gigabit Ethernet and 4xSATA controller capabilities of the chipset.
For VIA, a good combination seems to be the MM3500 (not actively promoting Pioneer Computers Australia, but they had a good product page), which has a 1.5ghz C7 CPU, gigabit Ethernet, but is limited to just two SATA ports.
For Intel's Atom, there isn't enough information to judge, but for the E1200, Gigabyte's G31M-S2L or Asus' P5KPL-VM both feature gigabit Ethernet, 4 SATA ports, on board video, etc. The mATX form factor also helps by not limiting our case selection down the track. These boards both come in at about AUD$75
Decision Time…
What would you choose, for both CPU and motherboard, taking cost, power and features into consideration? Is limiting the server to 2TB (before buying a PCI/PCIe SATA controller) balanced out by low power usage of VIA, or do the 'big boys' from AMD and Intel win the day? Have I rounded up all the viable options?
I was initial excited, because I've been rather disenchanted with Handbrake which I've been trying to use since Jeff Atwood went on about it, and how he uses it to archive his DVD collection. While Expression Encoder won't allow you to directly encode a DVD, but working a bit of magic I've managed to create a system to encode DVD's to WMV's (VC1), but I'll save that for another time.
There are a few rather serious problems with using xEncoder or its API. For a start, you can't really really join an audio and video stream together. While this may seem harmless enough, when you combine it with the other faults, it grows in annoyance. The main problem I've noticed so far is that xEncoder can not do anything but stereo audio.
"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out"
In the main Encoder GUI, there is a drop down box for Audio Channels, which only exposes Stereo; if you are using the API, you can set your MediaItems to have an AudioProfile. That AudioProfile has a Channels property (Int), but if it is set to anything above or below 2, my test program would simply crash!
Hopefully xEncoder v2.5 or v3 adds multichannel support, otherwise the API for xEncoder is really of no benefit over the older Windows Media Encoder (WME), which multichannel! The xEncoder API requires xEncoder to be installed which unlike WME, is not free, cannot join audio and video together, and cant handle multichannel audio. (edit, fixed, thanks Will)
When it was announced that