Sony Archives - A Leslie Wong Blog

March 23, 2013July 26, 2021

Windows Server 2012 on a Macbook

After the failure of an old computer running Windows Server 2003, I setup Windows Server 2012 on a Macbook.

Years ago, I set up a Sony Vaio PCG-Z505HS running Windows Server 2003 at home so I could keep up with Macs and Active Directory. When I recently experienced problems with DHCP and DNS, I discovered that the Vaio had died. There was no LED power indication. My troubleshooting consisted of jiggling the power connector and checking the power supply voltage. When I measured voltage from the AC adaptor, I gave up, using the rationale that it had lived its useful life. The Vaio, with a Pentium 3, 500 MHz CPU, was introduced in January 2000.

Coincidentally, I had a hardware failure in my Macbook (late 2006), so I decided to repurpose it as a domain server using an evaluation version of Windows Server 2012.

The Windows Server 2012 installation was simple using the Server with a GUI mode installation. The Server Manager and configuration tools greatly simplify the setup. With Windows Server 2012 on a Macbook running silicon introduced in 2006 – an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7200 that has Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x), the next step is to try virtualization. As a Macbook running OS X, I successfully ran VMware Fusion VMs running Ubuntu and Windows 2000, though I forsee the 3 GB of RAM in the current system will be a limiting factor.

The best part about running an Active Directory domain at home is joining computeres to the domain. The welcome message says, “Welcome to the lower_slobbovia domain.

January 23, 2009March 25, 2019

Sony MDR-V6 and Sennheiser CX300 Headphones

In the past couple of months, my headphones have failed. The ear pads on my fifteen year-old Sony MDR-V2 headphones began to deteriorate. The wiring connections at the jack and drivers became intermittent. I soldered on a new jack, but it was difficult to get the insulation off the fine gauge wire. I got tired of fixing them and figured I got my money’s worth. My earbuds started having an intermittent connection too.

It was time for new headphones. I’ve been in a few recording studios in the past 30 years, and I often saw Sony MDR-V6 Studio Monitor Series Headphones being used. These fit my budget (~$70 USD) and all those recording studios can’t be wrong. There’s even a Wikipedia entry for the MDR-V6. The headphones are circumaural – they go over your ears. The sound reproduction is accurate.

When I ride my bike, I use earbuds, but only in one ear, so I’ll be able to hear the SUV, driven by a person talking on the phone, nearly kill me.

I chose a lower price point for earbuds, since I’m mostly listening to podcasts and the whizzing wind isn’t really conducive to high fidelity. Most of my music is ripped at 192 kbps VBR anyway.

I narrowed it down to the USD ~$30 Sennheiser CX300 in-ear stereo headphones and the USD ~$33 Sony MDR-EX75. I bought the Sennheisers. Hopefully they’re not counterfeit .

October 31, 2007

Wired Test – 720p, 1080i…What Does It All Mean

Chuck Cage at Wired has a good article on explaining all the numbers in HDTV.

He says: “A 20/20 human eye can’t recognize details smaller than 1/60 of a degree of arc. Don’t worry, you don’t have to understand that. With a little math, though, we can use this number to find the distance beyond which the eye has trouble distinguishing one pixel from another. It turns out to be 137 percent of the diagonal measurement of any 16:9 widescreen: around 38 inches from a 32-inch TV. So if you’re sitting 5 feet away, you’ll never notice the difference between 720 and 1,080 lines of resolution. But if you trade up to a 60-inch screen, that distance jumps to almost six feet. Better push the couch back,”

I wonder how many people sit 38 inches from their 32 inch TV? I have a 480i TV (read, CRT Sony KV-36FV1) and if I sit 42 inches away while playing Halo 3, I get car sick.