Monday, October 21, 2013

Lightning Bolt! Is Pearl Jam Getting Old?

After 4 years they do a busy tour schedule, Pearl Jam finally put out their 10th album. Album highly awaited by the fans. Lightning Bolt was different from their previous recordings, it sounds more rock n 'roll, but some of the songs comes with a strong ballad.

If you are the loyal fans of Pearl Jam, you'll be able to feel how much this album is very different. More easy listening and some fans feel this album is rather commercial. Ten is no longer as dark as, or growled like Vs, or full of surprises like No Code.



Getaway as the opening song is not too surprising me, it still feels the atmosphere of The Fixer on this song.

But switch on the second song Mind Your Manners, I am struck by the rhythm of Ramones-style punk spirit. I think everybody knows if Eddie is quite influenced by the music of the 70s punk era, but this is Pearl Jam. For some people who knew him as the bearer of this grunge is something of a surprise. Although I did not really know what "grunge".


Sirens the 4th song on this album, maybe is the most controversial song Pearl Jam ever made. Many fans felt the song was too commercial and out of musical styles Pearl Jam are anti-mainstream and against the current. Some disappointed but also many new fans who come because of this song. Just like when they performed the song Last Kiss which eventually recruited many new fans with a taste which is different than the old fans of earlier generations.


Let The Record Play one that I love from this album, begins with guitar solos of McReady that sounds like '50s era recordings. Eddie Vedder on ukulele craze seems to continue on the track Sleeping By My Self. But unlike Soon Forget or the songs on the album Ukulele Song, this song is played in full band so it does not feel lonely and more colorful.

But of all the songs, there is one song that it would become a legend of this album. Future Days will be always remembered epic that fans of all time. New side of Pearl Jam that started melancholy, which has been trying to avoid an instant pop rhythms.

I think it's hard to stay afloat in the music industry intensifies, with many new talents. Not to mention the age of the members of Pearl Jam who are not young anymore. They are no longer a Seattle teenager who jump and hung on the rig when singing Even Flow. So changes in their music that tends to be more ballad is something reasonable in their current age.

But that's how Pearl Jam, like it or not whatever they do is a masterpiece for millions of their loyal fans.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Balance of Information on the Internet

Knowingly or not, the Internet is a necessity for everyone. With various needs and a variety of activities. We easily find answers to any question. Although the answer we get is not necessarily in line with expectations.

Internet is a medium of information built by millions of people in the world. Anyone taking part to contribute to the information on the internet. Including me and you. In contrast to the information that we get in the era of conventional media like newspapers, television or radio. The largely one-way (one way). We can based on the information that was made editor of the journalists who were less likely to argue about the truth or we protested. The Internet is a two-way information media. Writers are readers, and readers also have the same power as a writer.

Because that's the infinity of the internet eventually become a source of unlimited information. Everyone has the right to express opinions and information on the internet, right or wrong.

But there is a phenomenon that I have observed on the internet, the positive information that I get is not worth the negative information. For example, the services of a firm or bank. Information about complaints is usually a lot more than praise.

I think because of freedom of speech on the internet is causing this to happen. Because basically the people who were let down will seek solutions of the problem. While they were satisfied usually silent. Because we thought it was supposed to be such a service. So no need to be praised.

This causes more negative information appears. Whereas in the real world, they are satisfied and disappointed that it could be much more satisfied. But since that satisfied not feel the need to tell on the internet, then just a little positive information we have encountered.

So the purpose of this article, do not rush to judge something bad because of the information that we get on the internet. Look for other references as comparison before we decide good and bad.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Installing Windows XP on Asus EeePC 1015BX

By default this netbook are bundled with Windows 7 Starter and or Asus ExpressGate OS. You can't find any driver on bundling CD available for Windows XP installation. I have been trying many OS on this netbook, from Windows 7 to some Linux Distros.

Windows 7 is the best option for this netbook, when the desktop running very smooth and responsive for your office application. But some games are not running well with this OS. I don't know exactly why, due to huge memory need while playing the game or because of DirectX 10 compatibility.

Then I try to installing Windows XP Professional to Asus EeePC 1015BX with all risk. This is not easy to find the XP driver for this netbook. I have to surf and search over the net and find compatible driver.

Here the steps to installing Windows XP on Asus EeePC 1015BX :

Preparation :
1. External USB Optical Drive/ DVD/ CD drive.
2. USB Flash Disk
3. Windows XP installation CD
4. Download XP driver listed the Section 2.

Section 1 :
1. Boot your netbook and goes to BIOS by pressing F2.
2. Set IDE setting to Native IDE
3. Choose your installation device boot priority.
4. Install XP just as usual.

Section 2 :
1. When installation was done, you need to install some driver.
2. ATI HD 6290 Driver, you can find the latest driver on official ATI AMD sites. Click here to go.
3. Realtek HD Audio, you can use driver from CD. That's compatilble with XP too.
4. For Wireless, LAN and other device, you can use skydriver to install the drivers. Download here.

When I'm using Windows 7 on my netbook, I was frustrated because I can't play my favorite Assassin's Creed 2. It's always force closed on Ubisoft logo. I think this netbook has not enough resource to play the game. But I amazed when using Windows XP Pro SP3, Assassin's Creed series was running well altough it run with poor FPS. But, with low setting graphics, I still can play this games.

Overclocking Asus EeePC 1015BX

Asus EeePC 1015BX is a cheap netbook with AMD APU C-60 with ATI HD 6290 graphic chipset. 2 GB RAM are soldered on mainboard so there is no chance to upgrade it.

By default the clock speed of C-60 is 1.0Ghz but this CPU has Turbocache which is can boost the speed automatically to 1.3Ghz when it load some heavy application. But I’m not satisfied with this speed when I need it to play a heavy game like Assassin’s Creed 2.

This is the CPU-Z result before and after overclocked :

notoc

brazosoc

I found a way to overclock this CPU with a software called Brazos tweaker. And I’m surprised, this low end processor can overclocked to 1.6 Ghz easily. Here I show you how to do it.

  1. Download Brazos Tweaker here.
  2. Set P0 State Mult = 2.5 VID = 1.0500, P1 State Mult = Default VID = 0.900, P2 State Mult = 8.0 VID = 0.75
  3. Just leave the other set by default
  4. Choose High Performance, Apply and reboot.

Now I can play my fave Assassin’s Series with better FPS. Enjoy.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Installing Java on Ubuntu

Yes, I believe in the present day everybody use Java. So I don’t need to explain what is Java because you can found it on Wikipedia or another site to getting know more.

Here I just want to make a notes for my self, cause I’m tired to searching this method on the net every time I need to installing  Java on Ubuntu. Here’s the steps:

First you need to remove openjdk if it’s installed or if you don’t know is it installed on your system. Just remove it from your terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) with this following command.

sudo apt-get purge openjdk*

If you have Java installed from another PPA and you are having problem with it then you have to do following steps before installing the new one.

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/oracle-java7-installer*

sudo apt-get purge oracle-java7-installer*

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*java*

sudo apt-get update

Now you can install the new Java with this following commands

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webup8team/java

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

You can check the Java version by searching Java Control Panel on Dashboard.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

USB Audio Detected But No Sound on Ubuntu (Solved)

After doing a fresh installation of Ubuntu 12:04, I did update and upgrade. Add some apps and tweaking in order to Ubuntu faster and more reliable.



But when it did restart, suddenly the sound was not heard again. I am trying to find the cause of this. Ensure that the USB Audio detected by Ubuntu using this command.



The output of the command is as follows:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: AUDIO [USB  AUDIO], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Indicates that the actual USB Audio is detected by the system. However, the system does not select it as the default audio. Then the my task is the revamp USB Audio as the main sound card on the computer. Here is how to change the default USB audio sound card.


1. Edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf . Since this is a system file you will need to sudo to get this done. e.g.

$sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

2. Scroll down to the end. Now you have to change the line which says

options snd-usb-audio index=-2

to

options snd-usb-audio index=-1

Reboot and it should work.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Can Not Post or Reply a Comments on My Own Blog

Someone has been asking me something on my blog someday. And I have to answer it soon. After wrote the long answer, It won’t send and back to empty space on my comment box.

I think, it’s must be something wrong with my blog templates modification. So I change it to default template and try again. But the problem still there.

While I’m looking solution for this problem over the internet. I’ve found this because of the browser setting and it can fixed easily. I’m using Google Chrome and I think it would be same method for another browser like Mozilla or Internet Explorer.

1. On your Google Chrome goes to Setting

2. Scroll to bottom of page and click Show advance settings…

3. Click Privacy – Content Setting button

4. Uncheck Block third-party cookies and site data

5. Click Done

 

That’s all.