Awesome speakers!!!

These new Samsung Pleomax computer speakers are absolutely awesome!  The more I play with its software, the more tricks I find.  Now I see it can even simulate 7.1 surround sound.  Yeah, no matter how much software, it's still only two speakers, and there's no way this will ever sound just like 7+1, but since I spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer and therefore I'm really close to these speakers, the sound is really great.

I'm glad I bought the version of these speakers that come with a CD-ROM, cause there was another that's only one buck cheaper but doesn't come with the software. Yeah, the software makes an enormous difference. Granted, the software appears to be third party, not Samsung exclusive, but it's just terrific.

Now I see the light and understand that the old external no-brand speakers were a piece of shit.

Terrible light fittings

Once at home, I thought finally I could sit down and start assembling the prototype.  Wrong!

When I turn on the lights of my tiny studio, one more light bulb has blown out.  Other light bulbs I might ignore --as a matter of fact I already had three other non-working lights--, but this one I definitely need cause it's the one right on top of my desk!

So I called the building's management to send me some electrician and fix the four light fittings.  I must point out that one of the broken fittings blew out even though I rarely use it, and I had it replaced it when I moved in in January.  They couldn't send me an electrician on the spot, but I was amazed nevertheless that he showed up one hour later, right on the promised time.

I don't know, maybe I look stupid, but whenever these guys come to fix a lighting fixture in my apartment, they come thinking that all I want from them is to swap a light bulb for me.  No!  If I call them it's because it requires some tool I do not have.  In this case, for some reason, the sockets were damaged, not the light bulbs.  This is really strange.  It took two electricians almost 90 minutes to fix the four thingies.  I was very happy though.

After they left, I cleaned up and stuff, then fixed supper real quick, and afterwards I went to buy some more spare light bulbs cause I know they'll blow up again.  When I come back from the convenience store and turn on the lights, boom!  One more light bulb blows.  Fuck.

On the other hand...

You may need to read the previous posting to get a better picture of what was happening...

Actually, the reason why I was at the electronic shops today was because I needed to buy some electronic spare parts to assemble some prototype.  Man I got really angry at some of the shopkeepers.  They're really a bunch of morons.

One of the stores I visited was a bit like a supermarket in which you're supposed to look by yourself through all the racks for the thing that you need.  In this particular store I needed help from one of the clerks, so I approached him, and since he wasn't wearing a uniform --he was wearing a badge though--, I started the conversation by asking him if he worked at the store.

The motherfucker said "No!", continued walking completely ignoring me, and went straight into the door labeled "Staff Only".

Yeah, one more reason for his momma to be proud of him.

New computer speakers

At home I only have a laptop computer with tiny speakers, but sometimes those are not powerful enough to listen to music from a different room.  So a long time ago I bought some external computer speakers.  Those are commodities, or so I thought, and believing that the brand wouldn't matter, I bought some smallish, really cheap speakers of an unknown brand.

Almost as soon as I tried them at home I repented cause they were of really poor quality.  One of them even had something loose inside so when you shake it, you can hear something, perhaps a screw tumbling inside.  On top of that, it often makes bad contact, so after a few minutes of giving so-so quality sound, suddenly the volume would be drastically reduced all on its own.  Then I have to touch, squeeze, spin the connector in the hopes that the sound will return.

Lately I couldn't take any more of that crap, so I decided to buy another set of speakers.  It doesn't matter they might be more expensive, but this time I want them to be of some brand I know.  Today that I was walking around some electronic shops, I decided to buy some Samsung speakers I saw on the shelves.  I liked this particular model because they're small, good looking, and in the box it says that they're powered from the USB port, and on top of that, it comes with software to simulate 5.1 surround sound.

Now that I'm testing them, I think these are very well worth the price --more than three times as expensive as the older ones.  Not only is the sound much clearer, but also much louder, even though the speakers a physically much smaller.  And the software it came with is also kind of cool.  It can be configured to imitate the sound effect of being in a pub, or in the bathroom, etc.  Like 15 different environments, including "drugged"!!!

Hooray for these Samsung speakers!

Idiot shopkeepper

My friends and I want to assemble some electronic stuff.  One of them gave me a diagram of his design, and since I was the only one available to go shopping, oh well.

I really don't know anything about resistors and stuff like that.  So at the end of the long shopping day, I was kind of glad I'd been able to pull all of that all by myself.

Now a few days later I have time to sit down and look up in Google to confirm that whatever I bought matches the specifications.  The results?  The resistors are ten times too resistant and the inductors induct only one tenth of what they're supposed to.

I'm especially pissed off with the resistor incident cause when I arrived to this particular store, although it was 15 minutes before closing time, the shopkeepers were already in a mindset to go home, and this happened at a store that several people had recommended me to go to.  I went in, and the clerks bounced me from one counter to another, and finally to the very first one I'd visited.  Then this moron at the very first counter took a quick look at my paper and he said "no have this", "no have that", etc.  "Only have this", then he went to bring me the resistor and then crossed out the item from my list very proud of himself.  Really imbecile.  I bet his momma is also proud of him.

Blond woman fluent in Chinese

I just saw in the BBC a live report from Beijing.  It was by a blond woman who speaks in English with British accent.  But the astonishing thing is she was interviewing people on the street asking them questions in Chinese!  And then she was translating for the cameras.  Unbelievable.  I wonder how much of her translation was accurate.  Did she make up any part of the answers when she repeated them in English?  Very impressive.

It's not my imagination...

Today I tested again my mobile from this room on the back side of my apartment, and yeah, the signal is still strong!

Mobile phone at home

Ever since I moved into this apartment almost eleven months ago I've had problems with my mobile phone's signal which is incredibly weak.  There's a mobile phone mini base on the corridor ceiling near the entrance to my apartment, but it's from the competing mobile carrier, not mine which is the largest company in the country.  So it was kind of annoying cause as a result of that I always had to leave my mobile near the window, and even then I'd have a hard time talking on it.

But today somehow the signal got a lot stronger and I can have a very clear conversation even from the room that is farthest away from the window!  It's not an illusion, I already talked about three times today from that room, and the three times it was very clear.

Weight loss

I was suggested to lose at least 5 pounds, and for this purpose, they told me to eat more veggies.  They also told me to reduce my intake of bread, pasta, etc.

So last time I went to the supermarket I decided to buy fruits instead of bread for my breakfast.  I saw that the large bundles of bananas were rather cheap, so I bought one with about 14 bananas on it.  Yeah, I know they meant for me to cut on the carbs, but hey, at least I'm getting variety in my diet, and increasing the amount of non-processed stuff.  That's gotta be much better than eating white bread.

Surprisingly, it was a bad choice.  Even though the bananas looked wonderful at the supermarket, once I bought them home, they started to ripen really really quick.  Much quicker than I had expected to eat them.  Arrgh!  I ended up overeating when what I really wanted was to  eat less carbs.

Spam

This is astonishing. I just checked one page of my spam box. My mail client shows 50 messages per page, and I saw that out of the 50 latest, 22 are identical. What the fuck? Does that mother fucker think that by sending me 22 identical messages I'm going to believe him 22 times better? It's some stock trade advice crap. I hate that bastard.

Crappy power adaptor

Me and my brother are trying to work on some electronic project, and he left me to put together the parts.

I have never done this, I just read the instructions and try to follow them.  The most challenging perhaps is the soldering.  Gee, two days ago I went to two shopping centers where I thought I might find the soldering iron and the solder.  Took me a while to find, but once I know where those things are, it's easy.

Now the project requires a power adapter with an output of 5V.  I found a really nice adapter with which it is possible to switch between several different output voltages and even the polarity of the plug!  And on top of that, it was very cheap.

But when I bring it home, I see it just doesn't work.  Then I realize it would be really useful to have a multi tester, to measure voltage, etc.  So I go again I go out to look for this device.  When I finally find it, I also see a desoldering tool, which I think must be very convenient to have, so I also purchased it.

Back at home this afternoon, I use the multi tester to check the marvelous power adapter, and no wonder I didn't see it work... it's a piece of crap!  It's supposed to have selectable output between 3V and 12V, but with the tester I see it actually gives between 13V and 22V.  What the fuck?  And on top of that, it has a sticker that says " Q.C. Passed".  Mother fucker.

Another odd dream

Gee, this morning I can still remember the previous night's dream.  It's happened two days in a row.  How strange!

My brother was complaining that he was tired of trying to make everybody happy, and he wanted to start a new life somewhere far away where nobody would know him.  After much begging, I got him to tell me where, and he even took me with him to help him settle in his new apartment.  His new place was an apartment in Atlanta.  I was walking by myself inside along the corridors of his apartment building and ran into an old friend who also happened to be renting a unit in the same building, but in a different wing.  And one of the first things this guy asks me is if I know where could he buy some crystalline drugs.

What a strange dream.

Odd dream

Last night I had a dream that even now I can remember.  I'm puzzled cause I usually forget my dreams by the time I wake up, or a few minutes after waking up.

My high school class was going to get together for the first time in I don't know how many years.  Everybody's very thrilled and so on.  The meeting is going to be in some sort of gym where there'll be some food, buffet, but the best part would be of course to see and chit chat with the old pals and old teachers.

I don't have a car, so it's a bit inconvenient for me to arrive to the place.  When I finally do, almost everybody's already there.  I think a couple of guys where going to address the crowd or something.  But instead of politely waiting for them to finish their speeches, all of the guys and girls of my class headed straight for the tables.  They didn't even bother talking with other people.  They were there only for the food.

I on my side, tried to listen to the speech and chit chat with the people, but people were simply not very interested in talking.  By the time I gave up and went to the table, almost all of the food was gone, and even worse, there were no clean plates nor clean forks for me to use.  What a shitty prom reunion.