IndieGoGo - ZX Spectrum Vega + smashes goal of £100,000 in 24 hours

Like the first project to bring the ZX Spectrum Vega to life, the Vega+ has smashed the goal of £100,000 in less than 24hours and it still has a month to go!

Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega Plus Console - New IndieGoGo Project

Hot on the heels of the ZX Spectrum Vega is the IndieGoGo project to create a handheld version of the console, but rather than being excited, I feel sort of cheated as the project hits the £13,000. If you had asked me, a backer of the first project, if I would have preferred a handheld with a TV adapter, the answer would have being "hell yeah". I wish the team luck, but you won't be getting my backing this time.

 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-sinclair-zx-spectrum-vega-plus-console

Gadgets : Samsung CLP-310 Colour Laser Printer

So I brought a Samsung CLP-310, because of the Ubuntu compatibility.

However, I discovered very quickly that the driver within Ubuntu, Foomatic/foo2qpdl isn't that compatible. The printout are dirty brown and the colour templates are awful, none work, plus side black is great and it does automatically recognise the printer.

So, you end up downloading the Samsung Unified Driver. Good news, Ubuntu instructions and they are simple and easy to follow. Bad news, the unified driver is closed-source and you can tell as the installer adds "Unified Driver Configuration" icon to your desktop and "Samsung Unified Driver" to your Application Menu, it stinks of Microsoft! Are Samsung trying to fill a gap or find a gap in the market?

Next dirty little addition is smfpd to your deamons, this is Samsung's unified solution to multi function printers connected via the LPT port, this was added due to a root level flaw in the previous version, but we are back to closed-source again and as you can probably guess, a USB only device has no need for this deamon. So, enter bum, or boot-up manager and deamon disabled, what is disappointing is the lack of description for this deamon, again something that would be done automatically in the open-source world.

So, driver installed enter the unified driver configuration and guess what? Two printers, one setup via Ubuntu/CUPS and one via Samsung Unified Driver, delete the Ubuntu/CUPS and Ubuntu will auto-reinstall at restart, the reason Samsung also create their own URI's for LPT and USB ports, again doubling there own work by not working with existing open-source methods for LPT/USB URI naming and creating the two printer issue. Messy, but I can live with it, so the Samsung Unified Driver Printer Driver needs configured because by default it selects the recommend and poor Foomatic/foo2qpdl printer driver, so after trial and error, I discovered that the correct setting is "Samsung CLP-310 Series (SPL-C)". The printouts look great and the colours are good, very good. The printer is quiet, it goes to sleep straight after printouts are complete, it is small, compact and cheap to run both electrically and on consumables.

It is a shame that Samsung's closed policy means a degree of messing around, but results are worth it for £90. I suggest Samsung should look at the policy on drivers and follow HP into open-source market.

Further Reading:
http://www.samsung.com

Gadgets : Acer Extensa E420 Desktop

Acer Extensa E420 Desktop AMD 1640B Athlon

Good Points :

• A steal at less than £150
• 64 bit Processor
• HDMI connector
• High Quality Audio Card
• Motherboard can take up to 8 gigabytes of RAM
• 4 USB ports plus audio input/output on the front of the base unit
• Gigabit Network Card
• 160 Gigabtye SATA Hard Disk
• Very, very quiet
  

Bad Points :

• Single Core Processor
• ATI Graphic Driver provided by AMD/ATI and approved by Ubuntu Development Team can be unstable
  
• Memory is very specific, ie; you cannot use anything faster than the PC2 5300 667Mhz. I tried 800Mhz and it caused massive instability, but I also found that PC2 4200 444Mhz will actually work safely.
• BIOS does not have an option to move the AGP aperture, this can cause problems, if you install 4 gigabytes or more of RAM as this aperture is placed in the high memory and from my research, I found that both Microsoft Windows and Linux attempt to mark the area as reserved. Linux uses 64 megabytes and the Windows system will reserve around 1 gigabyte of memory. Unfortunately, this reservation can be overwritten causing instability. See following example from my kernel log;

Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Checking aperture...
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] No AGP bridge found
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Node 0: aperture @ 2832000000 size 32 MB
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Aperture beyond 4GB. Ignoring.
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Your BIOS doesn't leave a aperture memory hole
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Please enable the IOMMU option in the BIOS setup
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] This costs you 64 MB of RAM
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Mapping aperture over 65536 KB of RAM @ 20000000

Conclusion; As a long time Ubuntu and Linux user, this computer is steal and runs like a dream in full 64 bit, but the 4 gigabyte AGP aperture is an issue because of the integrated video card and reservation being overwritten. I was forced to reduce my memory to allow the BIOS to put the aperture in lower memory, but for a Linux user that is probably less of an issue than for a Microsoft user, where memory is often a premium.

Further Reading:
http://www.acer.co.uk
http://www.ebuyer.co.uk

Gadgets : Acer 24" Wide Screen X243w

Good Points

• Resolution 1920 x 1200
• Refresh Rate 5ms
• 15 pin VGA input
• Simple menu system

Bad Points

• No HDMI
• Running my XBOX 360 at 1920 x 1080, it had some problems auto adjusting

Conclusion; Really good monitor both for computers and XBOX 360 plus it is good value for money.

Further Reading :
http://global.acer.com/products/monitor/X_series.htm

Gadgets : TeckNet ZL606 1.5" Colour OLED MP4 Watch

Meet the TeckNet ZL606, 1.5" Colour OLED, 2 Gigabyte, MP4 Watch.

Good Points

• Using the watch is easy, I didn't use the manual initially
  
• SMV(SigmaTel Motion Video) play back is good and so is the sound quality
• SMV Convertor is easy to use on a Microsoft Windows platform
• MP3 playback is smooth and crisp
  
• The 128x128 pixel OLED screen is bright
  
• The FM radio has the ability to record it as a WAV file, could be useful?
• Voice recording as WAV, real spy stuff, if they don't notice the glowing screen!
• Pretty menu screens, however, the wording is a little weird plus user skinning would have been a good feature
• Pictures and the slideshow system is good and it will scale large images
• Easy connection to PC via USB 1.1, shows as removable harddisk

Bad Points

• The strap clasp is metal and sharp plus its poor position means it cuts into the wrist
• The strap has a large rubber end, I assume to cover the sharp metal clasp, but it isn't a good fit
• The manual is in English, but it is pretty poor
• No website, No direct support is provided
• SMV(SigmaTel Motion Video) is the only MP4 format that works, no Linux support
• WINE can run the SMV converter, but cannot find codecs to convert anything
  
• Small USB connector(non-standard?)
• Small 1mm headphone jack
• The digital clock is unimpressive, they could have done more, maybe even user skinning?

Conclusion; "Take it or leave it", this isn't a must have gadget, plus it doesn't have that Linux Ubuntu support that I really need.

Further reading :
http://www.tecknetdirect.co.uk/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/