Lillesvin Networks » Gear

My Next Computer

Anders K. Madsen — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:38:19 +0000

My MacBook (2nd gen) is nearly 4 years old now and it’s not running that great, so I’m looking into what computer I should be getting next. Since I’ve taken up some gaming recently — Urban Terror and Starcraft — I’d really like one that, besides running all my usual stuff, is able to run Starcraft 2.

Now, Starcraft 2 requires a pretty good graphics card, so if I want to stay on OS X, I’m going to have to go with at least a MacBook Pro 15″ — i.e. a 13.200 DKK computer ($2350 / €1770). Now, that’s a hell of a lot of money. Alternatively, if I choose not to care about OS X and just try to get value for my money, I can get an MSI FX600 with equal or better specs for 6.000 DKK ($1050 / €800).

A quick comparison of some key specs. (Specs and prices from http://edbpriser.dk)

	MSI FX600 (008NE)	MacBook Pro 15” (2.4 GHz)
Processor	Intel Core i5 (2.4 GHz)	Intel Core i5 (2.4 GHz)
RAM	4 GB DDR3 SDRAM (8 GB max.)	4 GB DDR3 SDRAM (8 GB max.)
Display	15,6” (1366×768)	15,4” (1440×900)
Graphics card	Nvidia GeForce GT 325M	Nvidia GeForce GT 330M
Video mem.	1 GB DDR3 SDRAM	256 MB GDDR3 SDRAM
Hard drive	500 GB Serial ATA-150	320 GB Serial ATA-150
Price	6.000 DKK / $1050 / €800	13.200 DKK / $2350 / €1770

Granted, GDDR3 RAM is a lot better than just DDR3 (the G makes all the difference), but it’s not 4 times better.

On top of that, I’ve lost absolutely all respect I had for Apple when I bought my MacBook back in 2007. The upcoming Mac App Store and shit like that is just downright retarded. Meanwhile Microsoft has actually been doing pretty much the same as they’ve always been doing, but compared to Steve Jobs’ insane world domination plot, Steve Ballmer is actually starting to look like the sane one of the two. And Windows 7 is getting rave reviews, so why not give that a try, now that OS X is going “Trumpets!”

Now I’m just left thinking, why would anyone (today) spend money on a Mac, when you can get the same specs in non-Apple computer for less than half the price? The MSI obviously doesn’t look as slick as a unibody MacBook, but it looks alright — I mean, it’s not downright ugly if you peel off all the stickers, and the day I pay 7.000 DKK ($1250 / €940) for just the design, is the day when someone ought to shoot me in the fucking head.

New gear: Danelectro Dano 63 Short Scale Bass.

Anders K. Madsen — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:21:47 +0000

Mah baes, let me show u it.

So I noticed that Aage was having a sale, so I hurried there and came home with this nice little Danelectro Dano 63. Granted, it’s NOT your top-of-the-line bass — they usually don’t make those out of card-board boxes, but it has that lo-fi charm and distinct sound that I love in an instrument, so it’s great! Sounds good too. All at about €133 (aprox. $190 US)!

2 Turntables: Check! Microphone: Check!

Anders K. Madsen — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:48:14 +0000

The 2nd turntable arrived today — HTFR is forgiven for the previous failed attempt to deal with them. :)

Turntable no. 2 on its way.

Anders K. Madsen — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:07:54 +0000

Just ordered a 2nd Stanton T.120 from HTFR — hopefully this time it’ll be less of a hassle to actually get it. Time to get mixing! (Soon.)

Got it!

Anders K. Madsen — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:23:54 +0000

I finally received the turntable today! Don’t have time to write — gotta scratch!

Waiting for gear

Anders K. Madsen — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:29:53 +0000

A while ago I ordered a Stanton T.120 turntable from DJSuperstore, and a Stanton SA.3 mixer and Ortofon Concorde Scratch needle + cartridge from Musicstore.de. Now, the mixer, cartridge and needle were all delivered over a week ago, but apparently DJSuperstore has some problems coming up with my T.120 and apparently they tell me nothing unless I email them 3 times on different addresses and ask over and over again. Last I heard from them they said that the turntable they’d reserved for me was damaged when it went to dispatch and they’re now awaiting a replacement from Stanton and that they’d mail a confirmed date the next day, which they didn’t. Of course, I had to drag that out of them with the spamming mentioned earlier — the last I heard from them without eliciting anything my order was waiting to be shipped and they’d let me know when it actually did.

Now, I’m pretty sure that they’re not trying to rip me off or anything like that, but it’s still a major pain in the ass that they’re so slow and so bad at communicating with their customers. If anyone knows some way of pressuring them into hurrying up, please let me know — I’m getting somewhat impatient here.

YABAP 2.0

Anders K. Madsen — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:18:45 +0000

So, here we are again, with Yet Another “Back Again” Post – a kind of post that seems to be taking up a little too much space on this site. Anyhow, my dad bought himself a new box to function as server, which is great, because the old one was getting a bit slow. I hope I succeeded in migrating/restoring everything properly, if not, please let me know.

Doing MIDI Music: Linux and/or OS X?

Anders K. Madsen — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:02:27 +0000

For my birthday, my dad got me a USB MIDI keyboard, which is awesome — especially if I want to use it with GarageBand, because MIDI on the Mac is soooo easy. One thing, though, is that I’d actually rather use it with LMMS and MuSe on my Ubuntu installation, but that seems to be rather difficult. It actually works fine with LMMS, but alas, LMMS does not seem to support SoundFonts and neither can I make (and play) an entire drum kit at once. I have to record each different sound individually — i.e. I have to record the tracks separatly, which is a pain, in my opinion.

So, MuSe and MIDI… It may just be me, but it seems I’ve tried every possible combination of settings and soft-synths, but still no cigar. I know that the keyboard is recognized, because — as I said — I can use it with LMMS, but MuSe just seems to make using MIDI really, really complicated, which is too bad. If anyone knows of any up-to-date documentation on the subject, please let me know, because what I’ve been digging up on google is ancient.

Anyways, I hope I don’t get too carried away with MIDI and totally lose the ability to keep it simple — don’t hesitate to let me know, if that happens. For now you’ll have to settle with my old tracks, until I’ve figured out how to work MIDI on Linux — or at least until I figure out how to make GarageBand obey my every command (hehe, yeah right… Like Apple would let me do that.) Alternatively, if Ardour make that native OS X port available soon and it has (some) MIDI editing capabilities, I might actually use that, because it absolutely rocks my boat.

Finally, if you have any tips or tricks (anything!) regarding MIDI on either Linux or OS X, please comment away (or email me). It’ll be greatly appreciated!

Squircle is the new rounded rectangle

Anders K. Madsen — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:00:55 +0000

I finally got the stuff moved to another and better web server (very kindly provided by my dad) so hopefully response times will be quite a bit lower than before. I must say, WordPress requiring more than what the old server was capable of delivering was somewhat of a disappointment, but hell, one’s got to get with the times. Standardization over bastardization, glossy gradients over semi-transparency and squircle is the new rounded rectangle!

All this server-raum means a couple of things besides response times. First of all, there may be problems that I haven’t discovered, so let me know if you encounter some. Second, in my experience webmail, ViewVC and stuff has gotten a lot more responsive to the point of actually being usable, so to those affected by that, do enjoy!

YABAP (Yet Another “Back Again” Post)

Anders K. Madsen — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:57:45 +0000

So… We moved in and the server was moved to my dad’s house, where it turned out that TDC (my dad’s internet provider) had blocked port 25 — ie. no SMTP for me — and refused to open it again. After a couple of days, a solution was found, but I’m not sure how well it works, but I’ll just hang in here a while to get a better idea about it. The rest of the services should run as always, although those whose stuff I host, will probably want to change the IP address in the DNS records. (You can get the new one by doing ‘host lillesvin.net’.)

Apart from that, we’re starting to get settled in our new and absolutely awesome flat and now that we’ve got a 5 mbit/1 mbit connection, it’s all so much better. I’ll probably post some pictures later (of the flat, not the internet connection), when I can get hold of a camera. We ordered a D-Link access point yesterday, which will probably be delivered monday, so this summer I’ll be blogging from the roof terrace. Oh yeah…