Another warm day...

Yargh.

Death Valley. My studio is death valley. I've actually switched everything but the G5 and when I want music, the desk and amp off. The violin has been put elsewhere.

G5 has been running the fans a lot - hardware monitor reports 62.5º for the Memory Controller heatsink, which is pretty warm. I've been digging around for things online today after reading new posts re: iSync 2.1 and so forth, and have found that Apple have made the internal Bluetooth module - the one thing I was gutted not to have on my machine - available as an AASP upgrade. Which means for my out-of-warranty machine, a quick search on eBay. It apparently plugs into the motherboard beside the modem, but I've yet to see anything confirming that it can be done on a Rev. A G5.

Getting on better with the iPaq having discovered that my disappointment with the screen was entirely justified. VGA screen? Sure. Now lets run it at QVGA so it looks like any other Pocket PC. SE_VGA hacked it nicely and now, provided you have a handy magnifier, things use the full 640 x 480. Bloody hell, those are some tiny pixels. Something 'sort of inbetween' would be nice. I think that's another reason I like the Clie so much, it's 320 x 480 and small, but readable.

You know what I miss? My HP820. Subnotebook format, really light, battery lasted forever. Give me Windows Mobile 2003 on a Compaq Aero 8000 or HP820 machine, with the insane XScale CPU.

Blaggage...

ThinkOutside Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard - for the iPaq, a rather nice looking aluminium keyboard. Should go well with the PowerBook

*fingers crossed* TomTom Navigation 5 - Bluetooth GPS and software. Can I say 'w00t'? Yes, I can.

Damn heat

Well, it was inevitable.

The Behringer's PSU has blown again, like it did a couple of years ago at the same time of year, in the same heat. Thing is, whilst i bitch about the South Facing top-floor, slate roofed studio, the empty, North side second-floor spare room is also pretty warm without any electronics in it. I can't think of any actually good air-conditioning solution, though - anything which would (to my mind) be effective is going to be too bulky and expensive, especially since it would need fitting professionally.

I have a spare. Nevertheless I'm well pissed off about it, because it does mean that the studio is unuseable until the weather changes - I suspect that the chances are it's hit the thermal trip and is fine for some time still, but last time I killed the regulators trying to use it, reducing the time it would run for until it was measurable in minutes. For a fan-cooled PSU that's pretty lame, but as even the G5 is clearly Not Happy with the heat, I can't blame a crude PSU with a fan stuck on it for failing. Incredibly the Beige G3 hasn't died yet.

Nice surprise; the PR firm that represents the makers of the Virtual Keyboard got in touch (I'd emailed their Hong-Kong based manufacturer asking for information) - I will be getting a Virtual Keyboard Bluetooth to test with the iPaq and PowerBook. Should be amusing to see what it works on!

I totally need to find a way of making the cellar waterproof and heated. It's the only place in the house cold enough that the studio would be running alright...

(no subject)

G5: Black screen (didn't come alive when poked, so not the screen in sleep mode), fans going mad. Nothing in logs, but had to reboot. I think, thermal panic, but Hardware Monitor was seemingly looking the other way too.

Fucking heat. Give me AIRCONDITIONING, dammit!