Just bought a cheapo mp3 player a week ago: the Audiophase KP512. I think the information here is probably useful to any of the Audiophase mp3 players (I know there is a 1GB (KP1000?) version, probably others).
I was able to sync up some files with Windows Media Player 10.5 and the player worked well for a couple days. Then I added a couple more files and when I next tried to use the player, it told me there were 'no files'. Lame. I checked the information available on the player itself and it noted that there were 300+MB of files on it--my songs. Lamer.
So when I got home I did a little bit of research on the inter-webs and found out that it wasn't a unique problem. But beyond the advice given there, I didn't find much else. So, if anything that I have gone through can help anyone else, here goes....
I used the Windows Media Player to re-format the mp3 player. Now I realize that if you want to format your player, just delete everything by hand as that's all WMP does. Thinking that maybe WMP was part of the problem (check some of this discussion), I downloaded MediaMonkey (free and very well done) to do my syncing. Had the same issues, but I do like MediaMonkey.
Finally broke down and tried the RealPlayer to sync things. While I found some other issues with that (said some mp3 files weren't transferable for some reason), the process worked. I think that the issue MIGHT have to do with how folders are created in the syncing process. RealPlayer seems to just toss all the files into the root directory. This is fine for this size player, since there won't be over 256 songs on it. 256 is the limit for files in a directory I think. I'll need to experiment some more with the other players to see if this is actually the issue.
Another work around, which may be a little annoying is to just copy the files as if the player is a USB key or some other drive. That works too. Like I said, some more experimentation may be in order to find out the real issue. I don't want to temp fate just yet though since I actually have my music ready to listen to. That fact may tempt me to exercise tomorrow!
Oh, and the 'tech support' for Audiophase as listed in the user manual just goes to some guy's desk. I don't think leaving him a message is really doing any good. If he isn't tech actually tech support, I am sure he is kinda sick of those calls.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Disassembly of an Inspiron 1000 (or how I battled an army of Dell screws and won)
So I've had this Inspiron 1000 for a couple years now and have tried a few times to crack open the case but was either too frustrated or too bored to finish the job. Tonight I found an important clue here. So the game was afoot!
Removing the keyboard securing strip required a little more force than I would have expected. But then again, I think I broke a plastic tab doing it, maybe there was a gentler way to do it. It doesn't seem any worse for the wear after re-assembly, thankfully. Here is a super low-res, blurry photo to illustrate the strip removal:
When you take it off, you'll need to kind of pop it off of the hinge behind the monitor first. Then laying the monitor completely open, you can jimmy the rest open.
Oh, remember to remove the battery before doing any of this stuff. Oh, and don't take my word as gospel on any of this stuff, I'm just a guy who felt like voiding his warranty and couldn't find any better instructions on the Internet (the Dell manuals are lacking). Don't do any of this stuff if you aren't comfortable with basic static safety or don't have the right screwdrivers or haven't taken apart a desktop before or whatever.
Anyway, to get the rest of the case off, you'll need to remove the hard drive and find some secret screws in there. And note there are a couple screws under that keyboard strip:
Heck, there are screws freaking everywhere. My strategy was to unscrew every screw possible until stuff fell apart. It's good practice to keep track of all of the screws somehow. I had a separate piles for monitor screws (there are four), all of the internal screws, the hard drive related screws and all of the underneath screws. Screws!
When I got inside, I was a little overzealous and tried to remove the heatsink on the bus controller and broke the screws (more screws!). So be careful with that:
I was very excited to see that at the end of the whole deal, I didn't have any extra parts and that Windows booted up still and the keyboard still worked. Phew. Now we'll wait and see if the heatsink thing bites me later (I kinda taped it in place).
This was just a Sunday night exercise for me (either that or watch "The Surreal Life"), but if I ever need to replace the keyboard or fan or whatever, I guess I'll know how now.
Removing the keyboard securing strip required a little more force than I would have expected. But then again, I think I broke a plastic tab doing it, maybe there was a gentler way to do it. It doesn't seem any worse for the wear after re-assembly, thankfully. Here is a super low-res, blurry photo to illustrate the strip removal:
When you take it off, you'll need to kind of pop it off of the hinge behind the monitor first. Then laying the monitor completely open, you can jimmy the rest open.
Oh, remember to remove the battery before doing any of this stuff. Oh, and don't take my word as gospel on any of this stuff, I'm just a guy who felt like voiding his warranty and couldn't find any better instructions on the Internet (the Dell manuals are lacking). Don't do any of this stuff if you aren't comfortable with basic static safety or don't have the right screwdrivers or haven't taken apart a desktop before or whatever.
Anyway, to get the rest of the case off, you'll need to remove the hard drive and find some secret screws in there. And note there are a couple screws under that keyboard strip:
Heck, there are screws freaking everywhere. My strategy was to unscrew every screw possible until stuff fell apart. It's good practice to keep track of all of the screws somehow. I had a separate piles for monitor screws (there are four), all of the internal screws, the hard drive related screws and all of the underneath screws. Screws!
When I got inside, I was a little overzealous and tried to remove the heatsink on the bus controller and broke the screws (more screws!). So be careful with that:
I was very excited to see that at the end of the whole deal, I didn't have any extra parts and that Windows booted up still and the keyboard still worked. Phew. Now we'll wait and see if the heatsink thing bites me later (I kinda taped it in place).
This was just a Sunday night exercise for me (either that or watch "The Surreal Life"), but if I ever need to replace the keyboard or fan or whatever, I guess I'll know how now.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Planar Chaos prerelease action
My first post to this blog. I started this because I have many good times playing Magic and wanted to keep a record of some of those highlights. If you aren't familiar with Magic, then there won't be much for you here. I wouldn't expect much strategy and what not either, just some of my own experiences.
The major inspriration for this post is the prerelease event I attended two weeks ago. I opened some great Blue and Red for the sealed portion (Psionic Blast, Draining Whelk, Magus of the Scroll, splash white for Lightning Angel, etc). Ended up 3-1 and won some packs. The interesting stuff happened after the sealed tourney during the Two-Headed Giant....
My buddy Micah and I opened a fairly mediocre set of cards, but did the best we could. We won one and lost one. The third match was an eye-opener in many ways. Our opponents start fairly fast by suspending a halberdier and dropping a couple 1cc and 2cc creats. On turn 4 the fireworks went off. One of them played Sunlance, Uktabi Drake and Scryb Ranger. The other guy then casts Empty the Warrens for 8 goblins. At the time it just seemed like a nice couple of hands coming together for a big play. They mentioned that they had gotten it to got off for 16 in an earlier match. Needless to say, they ended up winning. It didn't really dawn on us until later that they had quite possibly cheated. Usually in sealed it wouldn't be likely to get 5-6 really good 1cc and 2cc spells in two colors that you can cast by turn 4. It would seem the support player (the non-warrens guy) would have to have several 1cc and 2cc cards in order to have that many to cast on turn 4 (not to mention the couple he cast before turn 4). The warrens guy also had at least one suspend card to support the warrens as well. The decks, in retrospect, are block-constructed quality for 2HG. But this was a low k-value event and there weren't any decklists. I guess we could have asked to count their cards and sb to make sure no extras were slipped in, but if they were smart enough, they could have made the counts come out right.
I know now that I won't be shy to ask a judge to count an opponent's cards. I really don't mind losing, but losing to cheaters is no fun. They are like theives, taking prizes away from more honest folk. Not to mention how they taint the experience.
I know it wasn't a clear-cut case of cheating, but my 2HG partner and I have played for nearly 20 years combined and this is the first time we'd really sensed something like this. Anyway, if any of this post made sense to you, you must play as well. Would you have suspected anything in this scenario? Do you think I am paranoid? Would you have acted on any suspicions? Just curious.
The major inspriration for this post is the prerelease event I attended two weeks ago. I opened some great Blue and Red for the sealed portion (Psionic Blast, Draining Whelk, Magus of the Scroll, splash white for Lightning Angel, etc). Ended up 3-1 and won some packs. The interesting stuff happened after the sealed tourney during the Two-Headed Giant....
My buddy Micah and I opened a fairly mediocre set of cards, but did the best we could. We won one and lost one. The third match was an eye-opener in many ways. Our opponents start fairly fast by suspending a halberdier and dropping a couple 1cc and 2cc creats. On turn 4 the fireworks went off. One of them played Sunlance, Uktabi Drake and Scryb Ranger. The other guy then casts Empty the Warrens for 8 goblins. At the time it just seemed like a nice couple of hands coming together for a big play. They mentioned that they had gotten it to got off for 16 in an earlier match. Needless to say, they ended up winning. It didn't really dawn on us until later that they had quite possibly cheated. Usually in sealed it wouldn't be likely to get 5-6 really good 1cc and 2cc spells in two colors that you can cast by turn 4. It would seem the support player (the non-warrens guy) would have to have several 1cc and 2cc cards in order to have that many to cast on turn 4 (not to mention the couple he cast before turn 4). The warrens guy also had at least one suspend card to support the warrens as well. The decks, in retrospect, are block-constructed quality for 2HG. But this was a low k-value event and there weren't any decklists. I guess we could have asked to count their cards and sb to make sure no extras were slipped in, but if they were smart enough, they could have made the counts come out right.
I know now that I won't be shy to ask a judge to count an opponent's cards. I really don't mind losing, but losing to cheaters is no fun. They are like theives, taking prizes away from more honest folk. Not to mention how they taint the experience.
I know it wasn't a clear-cut case of cheating, but my 2HG partner and I have played for nearly 20 years combined and this is the first time we'd really sensed something like this. Anyway, if any of this post made sense to you, you must play as well. Would you have suspected anything in this scenario? Do you think I am paranoid? Would you have acted on any suspicions? Just curious.
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