It is the year 2002, and I was invited to a housewarming party of a colleague. When we came to his appartment the first thing I saw (or actually, everybody saw) was a big movie projector hanging from the ceiling. It was a huge Barco CRT projector. One with 3 tubes for red, green and blue. Ofcourse he had to show off his new big toy and showed us some nice DVD movies on a big screen. I was so impressed that ever since that moment I wanted to have my own projector and enjoy movies on a big screen too. Now, 7 years later, I went a step further and have my own Private Home Theater!
Ofcourse it all started from that moment in 2002. But to cut it short, since 2002 I bought (and sold) a Barco CRT projector, played around a bit with surround sound (Bowers&Wilkins speakers) and we end up at the beginning of 2009. This is the moment I had bought a Full HD projector and decided to really make something nice. With the help of a great company which specializes in HomeTheater ("Beter Beeld & Geluid") and helps designing HT's I started making concept sketches and models of how I wanted things to be.
At first I created some raw models of the room in question. Although, as you can see, there are quite some obstacle's in the room, solutions can always be found. It is possible to work around them. The guys at "Beter Beeld & Geluid" gave some pointers on how the room could be altered to be a great Home Theater. With these remarks I started creating a new model in which I used all the advice that was given.
Because the room is long and small (which affects room accoustics) we had to make sure the listening position is not in the exact center of the room. If you do place your viewing position exactly in the center, you will have problems with the lower frequency's. To make this possible the projection wall is placed 40cm in front of the real wall. This way you can move your viewing position further to the back and thus you won't sit in the center of the room (although it might visually seem like you are).
A second advantage of moving the projection wall 40cm is that you can place speakers and subwoofer behind the screen. But this requires an accoustic transparant screen.
A new wall should be created on the right side of the room. This is done to create symetry in the room and create space for a/v devices like the receiver, dvd/bluray player, xbox, etc. Plus, you can use this space to place side speakers if you want to go for a 7.1 speaker setup. This was actually advised due to the room being rather long and small. It would greatly enhance the soundstage and create a more realistic surround sound experience.
After this it needed the accoustic changes and a visual design. Again with some brainstorming and help from BB&G we came to the folowing definitive design for the room.
Accoustic material (absorber and diffusor) is hidden inside the left and right pillars. This too is needed to create a better sound stage.
From this moment everything was clear and I could begin constructing everything. I won't go into the exact details of the construction (I have done so in a Dutch forum, so if you would like more info, just ask me :)) but the results are great! Just a few pictures to show off!
The speakers behind the screen:
And the projector side:
And, now the rundown of specs of what you see:
Projector: JVC RS-10. Projection Screen: Screen Research 110" diagonal (96" wide). Receiver: Yamaha RX-V3800. Speakers: Martin Logan Fresco i. Subwoofer: DIY - Peerless XLS12 (1 12" active and 1 12" passive woofer).
So thats it! It rocks big time. Expect, from time to time, some reviews of movies I have watched.
I hadn't seen Terminator:Salvation yet because it never showed in Digital Cinema in Metropolis Antwerpen. As I now have a FullHD version of the movie, I could watch Terminator: Salvation at home... Finally! Large projection screen, great sound, killer sub. And most of all: No one running in front of me, no people sniffing, sipping a drink and baby's crying! And with this experience in my mind: My first blog-review of a movie...
As always, I try to watch a movie with as little knowledge as possible. Ofcourse I know the prequels, but I didnt watch any trailers or read about it online. At most, I look at the rating it has on IMDB and the length of the movie. The mind-set in which I watched the movie was "It will probably be somewhat like T3".
Well, I couldn't be more wrong. After the first 30 minutes I was totally convinced that the movie was nothing like Terminator 3, but still holds true to the Terminator story. There are lots of references to the other terminator movies and to its timeline. Not only storywise, but camera wise (and probably tech-wise) as well. Some of these references are more obvious and others are very subtle. In my opinion it was done really well. When I look back at Terminator 3, I would say it was a movie which was more the 'comic' side of the Terminator movies. A lot of things were overdone and it just didnt feel quite like Terminator. I was concerned that T4 would turn out to be, once again, a movie which would focus too much on a mediocre story, pointless action and stupid jokes. But in contrast to T3, Terminator: Salvation was the more serious movie. The storyline was surprisingly good, it was not top-notch, but still overall better than other action movies in this genre. Further the movie had some great surprises I didnt expect (i.e.: the scene at the gas-station) and they sucked me into the movie even more.
The CGI in this movie was awesome! No where in this movie I had the feeling the CGI was off as if it didnt fit into the movie. In a lot of movies (G.I. Joe had this on multiple occasions) you just notice that a CGI item is just not real enough. Though the CGI was really great, I needed some time to get comfortable with the colors of the movie. It had an overall colorless look which did complements the settings of the movie as being dark. But in my opionion it had, at certain points, just a bit too little color.
Right now I am only able to use the DTS Core track. Nevertheless the soundtrack of the movie was super. The seperation between music score and sound effects was certainly noticable. Though it was not done as great as in James Bond: Quantum of Sollace. The sound effects/surround sound of the movie was done really good, better than in most movies! You have the feeling you are placed right in the middle of the action. Sound is coming from everywhere and it is all just spot on! With this combine a great LFE track to support the explosions and gunfire and you are sure you will have some very impressive and intimidating moments!
Overall:
A great story, fun to watch, apropriate humor and ofcourse: Terminators!
Verdict: 7.5
(the scene at the gas-station)
Just a text blog entry to find out if the twitter tool creates a tweet!
You have an ISP which is just fabulous, great speeds, acceptable pricing and no download limits. Great! Now you can have your own linux/windows server right at home. Run a webserver, claim some domains, host a few other things (mysql, python, ruby, django, etc) and tinker around with everything you couldnt do at a hosting provider. But when you try to configure your mailserer the fun ends. Mail just doesn't get deliverd... Booo!!!
At first you think you configured your mailserver wrong. Maybe you didnt set up your MX record corectly for your domain or maybe, just maybe, your postfix config is wrong (what could go wrong there? :P). After some tinkering and frustrated tests you come to the annoying conclusion that it is your ISP who is nagging you. It appears they block the SMTP port (port 25) in their firewall, so nothing gets through to your server. Damn it!
So your first thought is to go around it. You are a great tech-buff and you think you can outsmart your ISP blocking a port in its firewall and find a workaround, so you think to yourself "why not run it on port 26 (or something else) instead??". A fine idea indeed. But there is one problem. SMTP servers don't know your mailserver is running on a different port. And it has to know!
Let me illustrate this a bit more.
When someone (user@gmail.com) typing a message and wishes to send you an email (user@somedomain.com), creates the mail, and clicks on send, the google mailserver first contacts the DNS server to request the MX record for the domain (somedomain.com). It receives a response in the form of an IP address.
Then the mailserver will connect to this IP addres on port 25. Why port 25? Because thats the way all SMTP server work. It does not know any better than to connect to port 25. Its the way SMTP works.
So, no dice.. Just using a different port is not enough (and No: tricking the world into thinking port 26 is the new port 25 aint gonna work).
After some thinking the solution came to me. If we can't trick the world into sending to port 25 and we can't go around the port block at the ISP. Why don't we run it before the ISP or at another ISP?
"Uh, but, aint that the most obvious solution?"
Yes ofcourse it is. Running your mailserver on a different location where port 25 is not blocked is the perfect solution. But it is not appropriate in this case indeed. You want to run you own mailserver at home so you have full control over it. Not at a colocated place, hosted by a hosting provider and what not.
But think one step further:
"If someone would be willing to run a mailserver outside of your ISP's influence, and forward all incoming mail which is supposed to be for your domain and forwards this to your machine which has actually running a SMTP server on a port other than port 25 and delivers the mail on that port... Wouldn't that solve the problem?"
And there you have it. The solution to the problem. This way you can run a mailserver yourself even when your ISP blocks port 25!
Now I've been searching around for someone who offers this kind of service, but was not succesful. So I thought to myself, why not create such a service yourself? And so from the need of a solution, there came a solution and maybe a solution which can help other people aswell!
Currently I have this problem solved in a proof-of-concept scenario where a friend of mine is running a SMTP server (on port 25) and he forwards all emails directly to my SMTP server running on port 25. Right now I'm looking into ways of providing this solution to other people.
Update: Recently we (Marc-David and I) have launched our service at http://www.reroutemail.com/
I recently started working on a new freelance project. Now there's nothing special about that because thats what I do for a living right now... But reading around on the internet and in books made me realize again that blogging about it is a good way to get things 'out there' and a way to clear my own mind.
My new project involves the creation of a pretty straight forward web application. Users logging in, an amount of relations between different objects. Some listings, some variables, some conditions, the works.
The fun part about this project is that, so it turns out, it is the stuff that realy makes me happy doing. Its a project in which I can do everything from start to finish. The basic idea is provided, a basic layout is provided and most of the data which should be available stored in the database is provided. So it basicly comes down to creating a solid DB design, creating a technical design, PHP coding, HTML layout, bug testing, bug fixing and deployment.
There are no real constraints on this project in terms of baggage from previous made stuff. No buggy feature which was previously implemented and results in quircky behaviour. No strange DB Designs which actually don't make sense at all.
Most projects I have done in the past actually have this kind of baggage. I am constraint in how to set up the project and only have the freedom of when I do the work, not in how I do the work.
But with this project, I have total freedom, and it makes me happy!
Right from the start I figured I could again use my freshly created framework which, supposedly, 'failed' according to a previous post. Now I couldn't be more wrong when I wrote it! It turns out that although I hadn't much use for some of the features in the past, the things I had created came in real, REAL handy! I had a basic site up and running in a few minutes and in a day orso I was back into the feeling of how it was to code and make real progress real fast. The need for improving the framework returned. And, more pleasingly, my motivation skyrocketed and the work wasn't work anymore, it became fun.
For me fun is one of the things needed to stimulate progress and creativity. When it is fun to work on a project you are constantly thinking about how to create new stuff and improve stuff. In this project I have fixed more bugs and created more effective functionality in the framwork than when I was actively working on the framework itself. And fixing stuff gives you pleasure/satisfaction, and pleasure drives you to create/improve new things, which in their turn gives you more pleasure/satisfaction. It's a win-win situation. And it is one I realy needed at the moment!
Expect more posts later on the project (and I try to keep my word this time :))
It has been some time now since I have given away my Barco 801s Graphics and bought the JVC RS-10 projector. But I did not take the time to write about it on my blog up until now.
Why put away the Barco?
Well that is an easy question to answer; maintenance, performance, weight,size and noise.
Maintenance, because watching a movie on a barco just takes too much time. Every time you turn it on you need to wait a certain time before it is warmed up. Further, the CRT tubes 'drifted'. This means the convergence of the 3 tubes degraded over time and needed fine tuneing every once in a while.
Performance, because although the Barco supported resolutions up to 1920x1080 (which is full HD resolution) it was not able to give a picture which was full-hd worthy. It became a little fuzzy and stuff. True, the image was better than 1280x720. But it was no where near the crispness of Full HD. Further the light output of a Barco is relatively low. You realy need a light controlled room (fully dark:)) to enjoy the full potential of the Barco.
Last but not the least, weight, size and noise. The barco was not very small, light and silent. With 100cm x 60cm x 30cm it was not small. Weighing aproximately 70kg, it was not very light. And with all the 12cm fans in there, it was not very silent either...
The few things CRT's do have is superb color accuracy, long tube lifetime (10.000 hours vs 1000 hours) and great contrast ratio's. But once you have seen the pro's of the RS-10 they fade away real quick. Astonishing sharpness, near-crt black levels (35.000:1), leight weight and small dimensions realy made the choise easy.
Ultimately, the nw RS-10 delivers a realy great picture and gives astonishing performance. In a fully dark room and even in rooms with normal daylight (it does not perform well in direct sunlight though ;))
Conclusion: great projector!
After a few weeks I decided to start reading "Getting Real" from 37signals. I bought the book when I read about it on a blog from Scott Berkun (Why Requirements Stink) .
I started in the morning and read it from cover to cover in a few hours.
The book does a fabulous job in creating a 'think small and easy' mind-set. And it does so without going in too much detail. Every chapter is relatively small and gets to the point quickly. After every chapter I got the feeling that I wanted to put the theory into practice and start right away. But moreover it made me wanna read the next chapter and find out more (which ultimately resulted into me reading it from cover to cover in one read).
As stated in the introduction, a lot of the principles and methods are not thought up by 37signals themselves. They borowed a few here and there and added their own sauce to create a 'methodology' which is very suitable for themselves. Although they state things as being a fact, they never force things on you. They just point out the way they do it and why it helped them to achiever their goals.
The book made me realise again how 'easy' it is to start a web application and do it right but without all the fuss of elaborate planning, specifications, etc, etc.
Another side-effect of reading the book is that I wanted to blog about it again, and it resulted in me writing 3 blog posts today. I just wanted to get it all out of my system, and get it out of there right away. True, there may be typo's and grammatical errors in some of the posts, but it is the web! When someone points them out they are realy easy to fix. Thats the way the Internet works! 
In one of my earlier blogs I posted about the framework I wanted to create. At the time I was really anxious in creating it and making it as cool as it was in my mind. Unfortunately, all didn't go as planned and although I have really created some nice stuff, it was not as I had expected.
So what went wrong?
First of all, I stoped working in an environment where the framework was needed for. I stoped working at my former employer and started my own business. At this company there were all sorts of problems which could be fixed by creating a framework of tools and guidelines. The framework had a purpose and the features it should have where crystal clear.
But when I stoped working there, this problem went away... So what I was eager to create became a "solution in search of a problem". And because the necessity for it went away, there was no drive to create all the aspects of it. With that, usefullness and motivation went away.
For a long period of time I did not really see this. I happily started working on it, but was not getting the results I was hoping for. Over time, the time spent on the project deminished and time was spent on other projects instead.
So the project failed?
Well, not really. I did create a solid base for all my other web development projects. The simple websites I created use the framework and it really helped me create them nicely and easily. Right now I use the framework as a "means to an end" instead of an "end". When the framework does not support something I want, I create it. Not the other way around. And although I should have learned this lesson before, from sources like Scott Berkun's: The art of Project Management and numerous other sources (books and online). I think the only way someone really learns the meaning of a statement like "A solution in search of a problem" is to experience it first hand. Preferably in a way he fail's (failure is the best learner).
What now?
Well, I learned quite a bit from the experience, and right now I am aiming on some new projects and products I would like to create. A lot of idea's sprung from reading "Getting Real" by 37signals. I will be posting about the book, and the idea's I'd like to work out, pretty soon.
In a recent post by on the Joel on Software blog by Joel Spolsky (Joel on Software: How to be a program manager) I read about the famous book "How to Win Friends & Influence People". The book covers some great ways to communicate with people and in a decent and nice way. Although the book is written more than 70 years ago, the book still applies to everyday situations. I bought the book and expected a book which covers the different aspects of communicating with people in a sort of step-by-step way which explains human behaviour. However this was not the case. The book is 95% examples and 5% explanation and guidelines.
Is this bad? No! Definately not! It gave me great insight in the human behaviour and how to cope with certain situations.
Is the book hard to read? Yes, in my opionion it is. I was not very charmed by the fact that I had to read example after example after example about how a certain principle worked for famous person X or regular person Y or business associate Z. I expected more of an in-depth explanation on why a certain principle worked and how it could be applied in a more general way.
However, all the principles and theories provided in this book are spot-on and can be applied in everyday situations.
For example I tried applying the simple principle of "Talk about your own mistakes first". I had some problems with my phone bills as I have converted my private-phone-plan contract to a business-plan contract. Some bills where lost or unretrievable from the website, I got charged twice in a certain period and got credited multiple times in other months. All was a mess and I could not make heads or tails about it.
When I called them, I did not start by stating they where wrong or that they had a non-transparent way of migrating me from a private to a business-plan contract. And that charging me double is totally outrages. Instead I started by stating that I was totally lost in the bills I received and that what was charged on my private bank account and business bank account did not add up in my mind. The response was that in their computer system all seemed well and that everything adds up neatly. However they did confirm that all was a bit of a mystery and that they would gladly help me make sense of it. I asked if she could resend all of the bills they had sent to me again so I would have everything in one batch. She responded that normally they could not do this and that they have to charge for it, but as it was a complex situation she would sent me all and charge nothing for it.
It amazed me that when I applied this simple principle, I got satisfying help and they even gave me more than I asked. I am sure that when I started complaining and stating they were to blame, I would have received a less satisfying response and maybe receive no additional help at all.
The bottom line is; this book is a really great read for everyone who wants to get the most out of everything he does and make his 'world' a more happy place to live in.
Ever since I bought my Barco projector (i guess it has been a year or 3 now) I wanted to get the most from it. And since it is a CRT projector it is garantueed that you need to put in a lot of time to get everything correct. Allthough the PJ is realy high maintanance (it requires constant care to get the optimum result) the result is worth it. A CRT projector has, for a long time, been one of better performing projectors. In the past it was never a question wheter you should buy a CRT projector or one of the other techniques (DLP/LCD). Black Level and resolution where the main reasons you should not buy a DLP/LCD. Not to mention the side effects they brought with them (screendoor effect, rainbow effect).
In these years I have frequently read about the need to calibrate it so you can get the best results. A greyscale calibration makes sure the PJ uses the correct amount of red, green an blue to display a grey-color (from black to grey to white) as accurate as possible (grayscale-calibration).
The reason it never got calibrated was my lack of action. I always wanted to have the PJ set up correctly in my room before I decided to have it calibrated. Ofcourse it was never set up 100% correctly, so I posponed it again and again and again. Further the costs where to concider aswell. A calibration can cost up to €150 for a CRT device. And then you can only have 1 device calibrated. And as I felt my setup was not final, I thought I'd be throwing away money. And lastly I recently decided that I will buy a new projector in the near future which should be even better, so again, doing a calibration would be a waste of money.
Well... Last week I came across a cool from thread: Greyscaling for dummies! It explains how one could do a greyscale calibration yourself (ofcourse, I need to add that doing it yourself is by far not the same as having an ISF certified person doing your calibration). After reading it carefully the experimental me shouted out and I decided I should buy a color analyzer and give it a shot.
It is quite fun to do a calibration (well, at least to me it was fun). Tweaking your display device to display a optimal picture is cool and gives you a sense of achievement! Furthermore, the resulting image realy is quite different!
I always heard the difference would be big, but I had not realised it would change this much. The image has more detail and the image appears to have more depth.
And the best part is, I can calibrate whatever and whenever I want. In my calibration spree I decided I should calibrate my Barco, My Dell 2407WFP, My laptop and the old Sony KV28FX65 television.
There where different results from the calibration on each of them. The TV for instance was massively off. the colors where to 'cool' (more blue) and much detail was lost due to the wrong use of the brightness/contrast combination. Though it was off, it was the most easy one to calibrate. It only took my 1 try to get as close to the optimum as possible. The Dell was a different story. It was already quite OK and needed just a little finetuning. Unfortunately the servicemenu of the dell wasn't as helpfull as I'd hoped so I was not able to get it as perfect as I would want to. The laptop was a different story altogether. I did not put much time in it. The screen of my laptop is just bad in general. White at the top isn't the same as white at the bottom. So calibrating the center just makes sure the center is OK. But the rest is still wrong. Lastly, the Barco. This is the most difficult one. It is very susceptible to environmental changes. This is due to the nature of the Barco. It has relative low light output. Therefor the smallest light source has an effect on the image. A perfectly dark room is the most optimal, but this isn't always possible. In my room this results in that my greyscale differs when I'm measuring in the morning, midday or evening/night. So I needed to compromise. I decided I'd calibrate it for night use only and accept that when Im watching during the day that the image might not be as accurate as it could possibly be.
All in all I would say that buying the color analyzer was a great move. I would not say it can replace a professional ISF calibration. But when you have the time and the motivation to learn a thing or two about display's, it is a realy fun thing to do.