tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52129094300631610532024-02-20T08:59:43.053-08:00Chitambira's BlogChitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-80561333240041518842022-04-01T07:33:00.000-07:002022-04-01T07:33:41.490-07:00Replacing a disk in a ZFS pool (RAID mirrored) of a Proxmox node<p><b>I am just putting this here for my notes, but it may also help someone!</b></p><p>The disk to be replaced, contained 3 partitions including the boot partition.</p><p><br /></p><p> #Check the status of the ZFS pool (see the UNAVAIL disk and note its ID)</p><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">zpool status</div></div><div>#Check the partitioning on the available disk and the new disk (new disk should be empty)</div><div>(new replacement is sdb in this case)</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">fdisk -l /dev/sda</div><div data-plaintext="true">fdisk -l /dev/sdb</div></div><div>#Copy (Replicate) partition table from sda to sdb and check with fdisk</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">sgdisk /dev/sda -R /dev/sdb </div><div data-plaintext="true">fdisk -l /dev/sdb</div></div><div>#Because we have copied the partition table, we need to generate unique random GUIDs for sdb</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">sgdisk -G /dev/sdb &</div></div><div>#Clone the boot and OS partitions</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1M </div><div data-plaintext="true">dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/dev/sdb2 bs=1M</div></div><div>#For the 3rd (proxmox) partition, check the ID of the new partition (sdb3)</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">ls -alh /dev/disk/by-id/</div></div><div>#Use zpool replace to replace old id with new id and use zpool status to check the progress of resilvering</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">zpool replace rpool /dev/disk/by-id/ata-<disk-ID>-part3 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-<disk-ID>-part3</div><div data-plaintext="true">zpool status</div></div><div>#When resilvered, check the partitions with lsblk, Need to change the UUID for boot partition since we copied from sda. Check the correct UUIDs with cat (may be in formart XXXX-XXXX)</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">lsblk -f</div><div data-plaintext="true">cat /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids</div></div><div>#Use mtools to modify the UUID of sdb3 back to its proxmox original (Install mtools if needed) (remove hyphen in the serial)</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">apt install mtools</div><div data-plaintext="true">mlabel -N XXXXXXXX -i /dev/sdb2 ::</div><div data-plaintext="true">lsblk -f</div></div><div>#Partprobe to update the partition info, and check with lsblk</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">partprobe /dev/sdb</div><div data-plaintext="true">lsblk -f</div></div><div>#Check the boot partitions using the proxmox tool, refresh to copy and generate grub file in new partition</div><div data-codeblock="true" style="background-color: #fbfaf8; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, "Courier New", monospace; font-size: 12px; padding: 8px;"><div data-plaintext="true">proxmox-boot-tool status</div><div data-plaintext="true">proxmox-boot-tool refresh</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Done.</div>Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-12312560904742218972020-04-08T16:48:00.000-07:002020-04-23T19:53:40.370-07:00On Coronavirus 5G Conspiracies<br />
Here are my thoughts and analysis to address the rampant 5G conspiracies that are flooding social media. I do not claim to be an authority (Like a renowned professor) in the field of 5G propagation, neither am I at a senior level in this field. I have put my qualification in this field towards the end, so that you may judge for yourself, my level of understanding of the technology concerned.<br />
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Whilst some organisations or governments are generally understood to seek to weaponize technology, the theories peddled in this case show ignorance on what 5G is. 5G is NOT a single device, or a single piece of technology or system that a govt may clandestinely use. 5G is a collection of standards, protocols and technologies, which enables cross compatibility between devices and systems, making sure that anything that is certified to be 5G compliant, can communicate with another in an expected manner.The conspiracy theories seem to focus on the propagation. Delving into detail of the physics in this area will show you that the statements that are being said by the conspiracy theorists are factually WRONG!. In this case the only way one can weaponise 5G is to take advantage of its efficiencies and connectivity for something else. It’s like saying because cyber-crime and online identity theft is rife nowadays, then we blame the Internet as a technology. Can we or should we blame the Internet for cybercrime? So there is no need to single out 5G when we indulge in our favourite conspiracies about the AntiChrist. We may as well include ALL the technological breakthroughs ever since our existence, because 5G depends on these previous breakthroughs, and builds upon them.<br />
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To cut it to the chase, for those who are particularly worried about the 5G radiation, you would more likely (if at all) be affected by the WiFi in your home, than 5G, and furthermore, you are 100 times more likely to be affected by an incandescent light bulb in your room, than 5G.<br />
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Contrary to popular belief, not all 5G is going to use high frequencies. Many concerned about radiation, are saying 5G uses high frequencies (eg over 40GHz). To elaborate on this, like I said, 5G is a collection of technologies and approaches, it has no stipulated frequency, so it depends on the technology that you are using, to achieve a 5G compatible service. Millimeter Wave (mmWave) is one such connectivity technology, which utilizes high gigahertz frequencies (over 24GHz)., but there is also Massive MIMO (MaMIMO) (which is implemented as Multiuser MIMO (MuMIMO) in 5G) which uses frequencies some which are lower than WiFi (WiFi uses up to 5.8GHz ). (I happened to have worked on the later for over 4 years, and was using 3.5GHz). Also note that 60GHz has already been used in a WiFi-esque technology called WiGig (alternatively known as 60GHz WiFi). Microwaves (used in microwave ovens, and in some existing communications infrastructure and satellites) also use frequencies greater than 5G mmWave. In any case, it is important to note that most of the current and on-going 5G installations are using sub-5GHz frequencies. The screenshot below, is taken from a response provided by Three (a UK Mobile Operator) to someone who raised the same 5G questions;<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0s58ITBAZw7ODETzuGv3Ars_aU-og8N9MKocyDUFC-5X8hxFvkNhEEXdfgmrlQbxb-1pcugy6nZ2iKhDg1OnElGYv0dcDIT5uSWxJMXaDDPohPUa3bN_2yEPw2cOQgbPTw2FQqDqExfQ/s1600/Screenshot_20200411_013411_com.facebook.katana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="739" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0s58ITBAZw7ODETzuGv3Ars_aU-og8N9MKocyDUFC-5X8hxFvkNhEEXdfgmrlQbxb-1pcugy6nZ2iKhDg1OnElGYv0dcDIT5uSWxJMXaDDPohPUa3bN_2yEPw2cOQgbPTw2FQqDqExfQ/s640/Screenshot_20200411_013411_com.facebook.katana.jpg" width="294" /></a></div>
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The basics of physics specify that Velocity = Frequency x Wavelength. mmWave signals, because of the high frequencies, have shorter wavelengths (hence called millimeter wave). Notice velocity in this case is the speed of Electromagnetic (EM) propagation, which is fixed, and generally taken to be the speed of light. This means mmWave propagation is severely limited (generally, a coverage radius of 200m expected). This is why there will be a need to deploy a large number of base stations (on lamp posts and buildings in the city centre etc), this is what is generally referred to as “Densification” by deploying “Pico base-stations”.<br />
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The two proponent 5G connectivity technologies leverage advances in computer processing, electronics and clever mathematics. It is these advances that make the technology possible. One key facet of this I am currently working with is exploitation of antenna diversity, spatial multiplexing and clever matrix inversion in MaMIMO. These technologies make the receivers much smarter. 5G utilises multiple antennas at the base station.<br />
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I happen to be among the pioneers in demonstrating the clever electronics, mathematics and computer processing that makes 5G possible (See links towards the end). <br />
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The engineering in the above technologies seeks to utilise either beamforming (in case of mmWave) or Spatial multiplexing (MaMIMO) meaning the propagation will be directed to a particular user. This means there is no need to transmit a lot of power hence in actual fact, each antenna will transit SIGNIFICANTLY less power than current mobile systems (in our case, power was reduced a factor of 10 compared to 3G - that’s a lot of power saving). Beamforming may actually be used to focus energy on a single object (which in theory may be weaponised), but the practical reality is that there is a limit on the power that you can transmit out of each antenna, governed by both the standard and the electronics (Digital-to-Analogue Conveters (DACs), Power Amplifiers, etc). This means if someone flouts the standards, they will also need to “fry” the transceivers and yet magically transmit a power enough to harm a human being.<br />
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Without knowing what Frequency is, we cannot possibly dispel the "High Frequency" myth. In simplest terms, frequency refers to how often an occasion is repeated, over a fixed period of time. In RF terms, its the the radiating power that is pulsating (specified in decibel-milliwatts or dBm). This means you may have a very high frequency signal but with very low power which effectively diminishes the radiation energy in it. An example of 5G transmit power is 25dBm which equates to 0.3162Watts. If you could wrap your head around the 5G antenna, that's the power that you will receive, if you only place your cheek next to it, you receive a fraction of that ( By comparison, an incandescent light bulb radiates 60Watts). As the distance from the basestation increases, the power becomes minuscule. Original 1G (GSM) transmit powers were considerably higher (because they needed to cover large distances) than current technologies. There are stories of an engineer who climbed up a 1G tower with a chocolate in his pocket and it all melted :D. You were more likely to have been affected by 1G than 5G. So forget about frequency, the right question to ask is what transmit powers are being used in these technologies?<br />
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In any cellular communication, the power that you receive on your mobile is significantly smaller that what your mobile is transmitting back to the basestation. A critical thing to worry about is the quality of your handset. Those substandard handsets that are sold cheap, most from unscrupulous manufacturers in China, are VERY dangerous, you do not know what its transmitter is doing. Best is to buy handsets that are certified to comply with published standards, like FCC (America) or CE (Europe). You can see those markings at the back of your handset or inside the cover.<br />
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Radio Frequency (RF) radiation is non-ionising (unlike say nuclear radiation, x-rays, gamma rays etc). This is an established fact. So the effect of RF radiation on biological tissue is only limited to heat, and insanely extreme transmit power is required inorder to deliver heat that can burn tissue. Its possible (outside of communication systems), but there is NO known communication system is capable of that. That would be downright illegal. To put it into perspective, the two images below shows the high end of 5G spectrum (range of frequencies available for 5G use).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qS2K4V-AALeSTVv_1UW9lSw18csVnbFTAicdTl54p6YqbRNR8z7GcpW1HWMDIy9bFDhVOCmEuiUIUx0Ziw7-muBmm2XeJffzgNLefu5Acf8dnapGoO_mguYsfpcO4tScO3HnNCSLo-M/s1600/IMG_20200411_205505.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qS2K4V-AALeSTVv_1UW9lSw18csVnbFTAicdTl54p6YqbRNR8z7GcpW1HWMDIy9bFDhVOCmEuiUIUx0Ziw7-muBmm2XeJffzgNLefu5Acf8dnapGoO_mguYsfpcO4tScO3HnNCSLo-M/s640/IMG_20200411_205505.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDxCIOoCOZRdou22XqGa62utUo8x_JTEgyFpYrkhDm37zs991K1f3efEfvR8Cxt8m6s4eJxKBximwXri2ZshQlsSMZ_U0uT9UjadCTx1DBNug-888l_YGB5EH24fKXWvYXxONjQTLVFA/s1600/IMG_20200411_205751.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="640" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDxCIOoCOZRdou22XqGa62utUo8x_JTEgyFpYrkhDm37zs991K1f3efEfvR8Cxt8m6s4eJxKBximwXri2ZshQlsSMZ_U0uT9UjadCTx1DBNug-888l_YGB5EH24fKXWvYXxONjQTLVFA/s640/IMG_20200411_205751.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Furthermore, there are very cheap devices that measure EM radiation. Anyone can buy these anytime from countless online shops or high street electronics shops. There is nothing that is stopping anyone to buy one and move around measuring radiation levels across any city. You can use them to compare radiation between a 5G base stations and a 4G base station. These are plausible approaches to take for anyone concerned, than propagating downright dumb conspiracies.<br />
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Now consider the power reduction and efficiencies in 5G, by sending energy only to the mobile you want (beam-forming in mmWave or even spatial multiplexing in MaMIMO) and combine that with the fact that the mmWave signal dies faster (inverse square law - 300m away from a 5G base station, you don’t get any signal), you then realise that the fears about 5G radiation are unfounded. 5G’s main goal, beside specified system improvements like lower latencies and larger bandwidths (which may have come without 5G) is to improve efficiencies, i.e. Power efficiency (transmit little power and still be able to communicate clearly) and Spectral efficiency (transmit more data to many mobiles using the same frequency resource within the same time slot). I happen to jointly hold world records in the this later area (<a href="https://techxplore.com/news/2016-05-world-5g-wireless-spectrum-efficiency.html">https://techxplore.com/news/2016-05-world-5g-wireless-spectrum-efficiency.html</a>). <br />
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I have been involved in public 5G trials for both mmWave and MaMIMO:<br />
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<a href="https://www.evaluationengineering.com/industries/communications/wireless-5g-wlan-bluetooth-etc/article/13015180/ni-supports-bristol-lund-5g-field-trials-at-bt-nearing-100bshz-spectrum-efficiency">https://www.evaluationengineering.com/industries/communications/wireless-5g-wlan-bluetooth-etc/article/13015180/ni-supports-bristol-lund-5g-field-trials-at-bt-nearing-100bshz-spectrum-efficiency</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2017/february/massive-mimo-trials.html">http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2017/february/massive-mimo-trials.html</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.watershed.co.uk/news/bristol-hosts-uks-first-public-trials-on-new-5g-testbed">https://www.watershed.co.uk/news/bristol-hosts-uks-first-public-trials-on-new-5g-testbed</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/research/smart/events/layered-realities-weekend/#">https://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/research/smart/events/layered-realities-weekend/#</a><br />
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<a href="https://phys.org/news/2016-04-bristol-5g-wireless-showcased.html">https://phys.org/news/2016-04-bristol-5g-wireless-showcased.html</a><br />
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I have been mainly researching MaMIMO, specifically tracking mobile users (which happens to be another field that is fanning the conspiracies). These trials were done in public places, with no known or reported health effects. </div>
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I have also been to conferences where I met in person, the people who originally proposed some of the approaches that are used in 5G and also met the leaders of HUAWEI research on 5G, during one of these conferences (one was a keynote speaker) and we discussed both our research groups progress pertaining to 5G connectivity (of course at high level). All these are people like you and me, funded by national bodies like EPSRC in my case, and other regional bodies, with NO influence on the day-today research activities.<br />
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Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-1121656136019058312019-05-15T05:10:00.000-07:002019-05-15T05:10:01.903-07:00UK Spectrum Scale User Group Meeting - 2019<div>
<img alt="Related image" src="https://pawsey.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Spectrum-Scale-Logo.png" /></div>
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<b>Intro</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">The UK/World Wide 2019 Spectrum Scale User Group took place on the 8th and 9th May at the IBM’s South Bank Client Centre. I had the pleasure of attending this meeting alongside two colleagues from our office. The first day hosted talks from the Spectrum Scale CTO who presented an interesting history of GPFS from its inception to the current status.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Networking</b></span></div>
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The key benefit that I personally got from attending the user group meeting was the networking. We are looking into a implementing Spectrum Archive solution and getting into contact with people who have practical experience with this offering was key. I was able to have a good discussion with Khanh Ngo, who the the IBM STSM responsible for Archive. He gave me his contact details and allowed me direct access to contact him whenever I want something pertaining the his product offering. He presented his product on the second day of the conference, and his presentation was top-level but concise. We discuss about my rough design sketch and we ended with him offering to drop by our office the next time he is returning to Europe, and that around Aug when he is coming to Amsterdam.</div>
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The next person I was pleased to meet was Dan Foster, who happen to be my predecessor. Dan has done some dev implementations of both TSM-HSM and LTFS-HSM, so he quite knowledgeable on these product offerings. The key issues with Archive, that Dan pointed out to me are the Reclamation and Reconciliation. While the Archive had baseline functions to perform these tasks, an admin with need to know, in a verifiable way, the actual tapes that/files that will be involved in these processes. This requires some scripting on top of the base functions provided by Archive, is automation has to be implemented. Dan himself has a product that provides this functionality and more, offered by his organisation.</div>
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The other key person I got in contact with, wrt to the above project, was Patrick Dekkers, who is a Storage Specialist at Amsterdam UMC Locactie VUmc. Patrick has implemented the Archive for his organisation. His is a Stretched-Cluster configuration and he gave a presentation of his overall storage infrastructure, which was helpful to understand how they are using Spectrum Scale and Archive. It would be a good think to keep in contact with Patrick to exchange notes on our experiences, and probably a working visit to his facility to catch-up and see stuff in action.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Other observations</b></span></div>
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Two technical presentations by the Spectrum Scale developers were quite interesting for me. The first was titled "Deep-dive on Spectrum Scale Reliability, Availability and Serviceability improvements". The talk centred on network reliability, outlining cases, causes and troubleshooting of network related issued in Spectrum Scale. Key was the improvements in v5.0.2 that make log messages more clearer. Having implemented Spectrum Scale Object Storage a few weeks ago, I was quite happy to see the commands I have gotten accustomed to, accompanied by easy to read messaged, and enhanced context as provided by the developer on the day.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;">The other presentation that I found interesting was the "</span><span style="font-size: 14px;">Overview: Spectrum Scale support for NFS and SMB</span></div>
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Spectrum Scale Best Practices for Snapshots" The bit about Snapshot best practices was interesting. I realised that there is actually a careful consideration that has to be taken designed processes for snapshotting and backup. My hunch was that most of the time people use badly designed processes, which just work mainly because the systems are not performance constrained, or end applications (and or users) are tolerant of the effects caused by bad practices. One key think I was reminded is that even with Fileset Snapshot, the cluster run a filesystem-wide quiesce which means taking and deleting of a large number of filesystems can result in a big impact even without end-user I/O. The choice and time for deleting snapshot has to be carefully considered.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Lighter notes</b></span></div>
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Overall I enjoyed my 2 days in London with a first day rendezvous at the Jazz Cafe were Hypnotic Monkeys produced a superb performance. I especially like their Afro-Jazz sounds garnished by Rap lyrics. Also the days coincided with UEFA semifinals which we enjoyed in the local pub which were often full to the hilt.</div>
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Being my first ever user group meeting, I was thorough impressed with the level of organisation and attendance. Meeting the developers, most of whom I had seen their names in user group forums/mailing lists, that was refreshing to put faces to names.</div>
Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-29793728579522962332019-03-02T15:31:00.000-08:002019-03-02T15:31:01.489-08:00Huawei Mate20 Pro - A great spec'ed flagship!<br /><br />I received this product as part of a review program in return for an unbiased review<br />The Huawei Mate20 Pro smartphone is essentially, according to me, a phablet if we are to go by the screen size. But let's face it, size really matters! I do not want to squint my eyes when i am watching videos on Youtube and Video Hub or other “tubes” and “hubs”. Screen real-estate is a critical factor, as the trends have proved. The Mate20 Pro’s screen is "Yuuuuge" at 6.39 inches, whilst the phone weighs only 189 grams and is 8.6mm thin. This is probably the best screen size to weight ratio I have seen. Moreso, the phone fits snuggly into one's' hand allowing one hand operation without any problem, thanks to the much reduced width of only 72.6mm, slimmer than even the P20 Pro. The key feature here is the edge-to-edge screen, which monopolises the phone's real estate. You will probably instantly notice the "top notch" (pun or no pun, you decide). The notch can be turned off if one doesn't fancy it.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<br /><br />There is no home button on the front, like on the P20 Pro, instead, the fingerprint scanner comes embedded into the screen. Like most modern smartphones the Mate20 Pro ditches the home button so as to dedicate the front, to the screen. Other interface features of note are the screen recording, which allows one to record all screen interactions, and the split screen, which allows two applications to be run on separate screens simultaneously. This seems to be a standard feature for most Huawei phones now<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BtjHUidH907/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">#huaweimate20pro #ProInsiders #TheInsidersUK</a></div>
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A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/foolishious/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Benny</a> (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2019-02-06T17:26:22+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 6, 2019 at 9:26am PST</time></div>
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The battery on the Mate20 Pro is a humongous 4200mAh, thats 200mAh more than the already juice-saving record breaking P20 Pro. This means the Mate20 Pro will be able to keep things ticking for 2 days easy-peasy, after a full charge. I managed a whole 3 days uptime despite my intensive use of the camera as I was testing various modes and scenarios during the same period. Couple this with the quick-charge feature, you realise that you soon forget about the yesteryear wores of cellphone charging.<br /><br />Like its predecessor, this phone is all about the camera. The phone has got 3 rear Leica cameras which work together to provide appropriate lighting, depth, focus and colour performance. Indeed the power of AI is summoned on this phone to aid in object auto detection, auto camera mode sand settings accordingly, making this behemoth, a perfect point and shoot buddy.<br /><br />The Mate20 Pro has all other bells and whistles that one would expect from Huawei’s flagship. It's all IP68, IR sensor is versus, NFC etc etc. but this phone has its shortcomings like all things “many-made” and man-made. The in-display fingerprint sensor is sometimes inconsistent, failing to recognise my fingerprint, meaning i have to use other authentication modes. Also if one uses a tempered glass screen protector, this problem can be made worse. This technology could be in its early stages and one hopes this will improve with time.<br /><br />However, the Mate20 Pro comes with all PIN, Fingerprint and 3D face recognition mechanisms, this allows one to choose the methods they feel is most effective considering their circumstances.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-69206584448917554462018-10-08T10:32:00.001-07:002018-10-08T10:36:19.425-07:00HP Sprocket Plus: An ultra portable photo printer showcasing the future!The HP Sprocket Plus, is an ultra portable device, that is showcasing what the future of photo printing is like. The technology is very sound and the pictures are convincing.<br /><br />The Sprocket Plus has external dimensions of 141.9 x 89 x 18 mm (5.59 x 3.50 x 0.71 in) and weighs only 0.205 kg (0.45 lb). It can print photos of size; 2.3" x 3.4", which is 30% larger than the standard Sprocket.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyy-HNbzyWs_wZbalLzUSaiTebNarwaMRvYu3zvsf5hO7KlHQT9mpuMbc5JYkq7Xbx_-P8QQ1DYXlQ-oyfV8eKPOkFzkK-RWGHxopgnsVYxc3oLNNkAMyWhjSsu9Mo63Cvw4vazmeSdSY/s1600/237405630alt1.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyy-HNbzyWs_wZbalLzUSaiTebNarwaMRvYu3zvsf5hO7KlHQT9mpuMbc5JYkq7Xbx_-P8QQ1DYXlQ-oyfV8eKPOkFzkK-RWGHxopgnsVYxc3oLNNkAMyWhjSsu9Mo63Cvw4vazmeSdSY/s320/237405630alt1.jpg" /></a></div>
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HP Sprocket Plus, showing size relative to a standard mobile phone.</div>
<br /><br />Setting it up is a breeze,and its operation is straightforward, with the Sprocket App that is available on both Android and iOS. It is enough to know that you can take a photo on you phone and make a couple of presses to print that photo to the sprocket.<br /><br />Mine came with 20 Photo paper and 10 sticky-backed photo sheets. The sticky-backed sheets are a fun addition to this device. It means you can now be able to print your own stickers, yes, that's right, stickers. The size is not big enough for framed photos, but not small enough for kids stickers, so I will call these “Adult stickers”. Fun uses for these stickers could be DIY postcards, wallet stickers, luggage stickers and memoir or travel book photos. For the creative types, this can be a very useful feature, making the Sprocket Plus a fun, ultra portable , social and creative gismo.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwjdGDxI7xqmG7Q3oItToJN1EdcEEJm0MHyL9H59XltokapJRHe-2uk8JmDgIgxx2EXKgfouKEwpUM_GXMgER2MJciZDHkYaqRiLt_VT0RAD6rOnXpaGL7DJplA30iB5MfamI94pZ82o/s1600/IMG_20180720_143906.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwjdGDxI7xqmG7Q3oItToJN1EdcEEJm0MHyL9H59XltokapJRHe-2uk8JmDgIgxx2EXKgfouKEwpUM_GXMgER2MJciZDHkYaqRiLt_VT0RAD6rOnXpaGL7DJplA30iB5MfamI94pZ82o/s320/IMG_20180720_143906.jpg" /></a></div>
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Sticky-backed paper (pack of 10)</div>
<br />I know some may have questions about the quality of the photos, so I will say my opinion so that you may be guided. These photos are nothing near the quality of professional photos printed on photographic paper. But as a guide, the quality is comparable to 1990’s film-based camera photos which were commonly printed on Kodak paper. Some of you may still have such photos in your drawers, so you should rest assured you will get something similar from this device.<br /><br />This device does not require cartridges, and for that reason, I will say the price for it (retailing around £160) is not bad at all. I am yet to get authoritative information on the durability of this device, but a 2 year warranty will be enough for such a device.<br /><br />Having said all this, I expect HP and other Tech companies in this niche, to take this technology further, to bring newer models that are capable of printing bigger photos, with much improved quality.Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-41914959976377081442018-06-12T15:17:00.000-07:002018-06-12T15:17:07.680-07:00Huawei Flagship: P20 Pro - The Super Crafted AI Laced Behemoth<b>"Probably the best Android Smartphone out there!" - me</b><br />
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I received this product as part of a review program in return for an unbiased review<br />
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I am talking about the Huawei P20 Pro Smartphone. This is Huawei flagship phone, which is mearnt to compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S9 and Apple's iPhone X (or 10 if you like). I have beena able to play around with this beauty and boy oh boy, I fell in love!<br />
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The P20 Pro is a smartphone which is supposed to be in the category of so called phablets, if we are to go by the screen size. I say "supposed" because the moment you get hold of this phone, you will realise how its profile is deceptive. The screen is "Yuuuuge" at 6.1 inches, whilst the phone weighs only 180 grams and is 7.8mm thin. Moreso, the phone fits snugly into ones' hand allowing one hand operation without any problem, thanks to the reduced width of only 73.9mm. The key feature here is the edge-to-edge screen, which monopolises the phone's real estate. You will probably instantly notice the "top notch" (pun intended), reminding you of the iPhone X's notch, except that Huawei's was done much better, leaving useful screen space (for status icons) either side of the notch. Also the notch can be turned off to leave just a rectangular screen. You may want to berate Huwei for "copying" here, go ahead, I totally understand (but who doesn't)<br />
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I will not bore you with specs, which can be found in full, on Huawe's website via <a href="https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/phones/m/p20-pro/?u=m&gclid=CjwKCAjw0ujYBRBDEiwAn7BKtzSXfGTRYE1NwLDUrhvkNwBI2FNzMX50ytcpvRGlrRo80YAwziO_AxoCg30QAvD_BwE&adobe_mc_sdid=SDID%3D6F05A7B6FF301856-649100DFB6B93223%7CMCORGID%3D7DA25C0158C1322D0A495DB1%2540AdobeOrg&adobe_mc_ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F">THIS LINK</a>. This phone is all about its camera, but I will appetise you with other features before I give you my 2 cents about the camera, and my thoughts on what the camera AI direction can produce, in next-gen smartphones.<br />
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<b>Interaction</b><br />
The home button is very much present on the front bottom, for those like me, who like the button style for tactile control. Th button also holds the fingerprint scanner, which is where I prefer it to be, than at the back of the phone. Other phones may have ditched the home button so as to dedicate the front space, to the screen, but Huawei did it in a very effective way, that doesn't take much screen space, by using a very slim button. Other interface features of note are the screen recording, which allows one to record all screen interactions. This is especially important if one is creating usage manual or tutorials for apps etc. There is also the split screen feature, which allows two applications to be run on separate screens simultaneously. This seems to be a standard feature for most Huawei phones now.<br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BjBZPtlg1Mh/" data-instgrm-version="8" style="background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BjBZPtlg1Mh/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">New toy, #Huawei P20 Pro, with three cameras at the back, one of which is 40 Megapixels. This phone is all about the camera #ArtificialIntelligence makes for a smooth experience, automatically detecting objects and changing settings accordingly. Over 6 inches of screen, don’t tell me 6 inches is average 😉 But that notch reminds me of some kilo dollar worth of a phone 😛 #HuaweiP20Pro #P20ProInsiders #TheInsidersUK</a></div>
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A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/foolishious/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Benny</a> (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2018-05-21T01:54:53+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">May 20, 2018 at 6:54pm PDT</time></div>
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<b>Battery</b><br />
The battery on the Pro 20 is a decent size 4000mAH, which for me has been able to keep the juices flowing for almost 2 days after every full charge. This was despite my intensive use of the camera as I was testing various camera modes and scenarios during the same testing period. If you couple this with the quick-charge feature, you realise that you soon forget about the yesteryear wores of cellphone charging, especially if one is making use of portable power banks.<br />
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<b>IR Remote</b><br />
This phone comes with an InfraRed (IR) LED. This means that you can be able to control about any IR device like TVs, Radios, Set-top boxes etc. I have used an app called <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tekoia.sure.activities&hl=en_GB" target="_blank">SURE Universal Remote</a> on Android for over 5 years and it works perfect on this phone.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF92_Sp46ktuDQwHCnwEu-QXZqwvo9Hx4NbO1f0RZ2hzfDqcNFEOMJROVSnrvxfI0_coRNXnVtJSzlHBR1gAKRcLlxUH7aWJtm9jprdHDpcNF6xgQ-BMeTSwu8rl8Ur-KlkmocI4C98vc/s1600/P20ProIR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1458" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF92_Sp46ktuDQwHCnwEu-QXZqwvo9Hx4NbO1f0RZ2hzfDqcNFEOMJROVSnrvxfI0_coRNXnVtJSzlHBR1gAKRcLlxUH7aWJtm9jprdHDpcNF6xgQ-BMeTSwu8rl8Ur-KlkmocI4C98vc/s640/P20ProIR.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Camera and AI</b><br />
Now, this phone is all about the camera, so my camera highlights deserve to be mentioned here. The phone has got 3 cameras which work together to provide appropriate lighting, depth, focus and colour performance. More detail on how this is achieved, can be found on <a href="https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/phones/m/p20-pro/?u=m&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3v3YBRCOARIsAPkLbK4kdMbGWJ1ntHwMl05bTD3xG1hpcW3wvZZ0AVF7Ln8QmxV2bJH8YY4aApz_EALw_wcB&adobe_mc_sdid=SDID%3D2C1ABF2FD2A40226-3DC3D18D15497CEF%7CMCORGID%3D7DA25C0158C1322D0A495DB1%2540AdobeOrg&adobe_mc_ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F" target="_blank">Huawei’s website</a>, but the more critical ingredient in this recipe is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing. Indeed the power of AI on this phone is evident through the camera. The camera is able to detect objects and adjust the camera mode and settings according. One good example, which I noticed immediately, was how colours were being enhanced whenever I was capturing photos of food at restaurants (one of my favourite hobbies) In my experience the AI has been able to provide the touted “Point and shoot perfection” in Huawei’s speak.<br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj7uEEWAOGn/" data-instgrm-version="8" style="background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj7uEEWAOGn/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Huawei's flagship #HuaweiP20Pro can turn your boring park into a tropical paradise 😀 #P20ProInsiders #TheInsidersUK</a></div>
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A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/foolishious/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Benny</a> (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2018-06-12T17:32:44+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jun 12, 2018 at 10:32am PDT</time></div>
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Starting with the <a href="https://pro-blog.chitambira.com/2018/04/a-budget-android-smartphone-punching.html">Huawei PSmart</a>, the front facing cameras have been using beautifying algorithms that make selfies very flattering. I have used beauty selfie features on Samsung phones, but I have to say Huawei's algorithms are probably the best I have seen so far. On Samsung, the processing seemed excessive that all the blemishes where being removed, leaving a face that looked like it had had a heavy application of make-up. On one instance, my friend had to ask me if I was now wearing make-up. With the P20 Pro, the skin tone is smoothed out without excessively taking out detail, which leaves selfies more beautiful while preserving natural features.</div>
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<b>Possibilities with AI driven camera</b><br />
Imagine capturing a photo of your friend John, and the phone aromatically save the photo with the filename "John" and tagging location and weather details at the same time. AI with the camera can be useful in various ways. Software can b developed that regularly capture the self of the user, records various health metrics and be "aware" of surroundings via AI object recognition algorithms. this can be exploited to monitor health and wellbeing of elderly or disabled people. Augmented reality is another easier way of exploiting AI camera features, but that has already been demonstrated in many smartphone applications available today. An extension to that, will be turning the phone into a real companion. Using smart speaker AI, like Alexa, together with Camera AI like on this phone, A smartphone can be turned into a companion for a blind person, who strap the phone on their neck, speak to it, and the camera continually sensing objects around and providing audio warnings and instructions via smart speaker, to guide the blind person around a place like a public square.<br />
There are probably other use cases which we may not comprehend now, but which I am sure are already in the pipeline, that's how technology has always been.<br />
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<b>Cons</b><br />
It would be blasphemous to claim that Huawei has come up with the holy grail of a phone. The P20 Pro has its shortcomings, but like all things, those may actually be someone’s meat. Mine came with 128GB internal storage and that cannot be extended because there is no microSD card slot. For me, that capacity, plus my cloud storage facilities, means the storage is much more than what I need. Secondly, the 4K video capturing is not stabilised, so if one want to do some serious 4K videos, they may want serious gear like gimbals for a smoother output. However, for most personal video requirements, the full HD 1080p is adequate. Lastly, there is no headphone jack, so if like me you were still using those wired earphones, you are out of luck. Fortunately for me i had Bluetooth earphones as well, which i had not been using, but turned out they are actually better quality than the one i had been using. Only thing i hate it having to charge the earphones everyday<br />
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<b>Verdict</b><br />
Not perfect, but still probably the best Android smartphone on the market currently...<br />
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<br />Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-60869795691091221852018-04-22T18:46:00.002-07:002018-04-22T19:27:12.063-07:00A Budget Android Smartphone Punching Above its Waist<b>A Great Value for Money, Mid-range Android Smartphone</b><br />
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The Huawei P Smart smartphone is probably one of the nicest looking mid-range android smartphones around. Mine came in black, but immediately I was drawn to its sleek looks and feel. The phone is slim (<a href="https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/phones/p-smart/specs/">see detailed specs here</a>) and packs a screen that covers a satisfying amount of the phone's real estate. The placement of ordinary features like speakers, cameras and headphone jack, are nothing out of the ordinary. This means that the phone will provide a seamless experience to most of the popular phones that we have now been accustomed to. The profile and curved edges makes it look and feel like one of the most popular brands, so nothing new there, and if you had loved some of these already popularly available phones then you will love this one. New to me is the fingerprint scanner at the back and also you will notice the 2 cameras there as well.<br /><br /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="262"></col><col width="146"></col><col width="262"></col></colgroup><tbody>
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The looks are quite suave. I like the thinness. the screen is bright, and big. The phone's slim width profile makes it snag in the hand. Branding is spot-on, so for these reasons, I would quickly judge this to be the "best value" android phone. Obviously its durability, reliability and functionality are not being judged in this statement.<br /><br /><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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The phone boasts of a 5.65 inch TFT screen made of 2.5D toughened glass. It packs 468 pixels per inch, making its pixel density, average, although not top of the available range. Perceptively, the colours are very vivid and bright giving an impression that the screen quality s top quality.<br />Operationally, the P Smart is allows a split-screen, meaning you can run 2 separate app/tasks in two separate windows at the same time. You may be familiar with this from Samsung’s modern Galaxy Note range. Although the screen width is slimmer, the bezel is very minimal, giving an edge-to-edge screen look, hence why it was possible to have a big screen, while maintaining a slimmer look and lightweight.<br /><br />
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The is a 3.5 standard headphone jack, so no surprises like those one pulled by Apple. The is a loudspeaker at the bottom edge and an earpiece at the centre top just like the iPhone 6 range. Volume buttons are on the right edge where there is the power button, just like Samsung Galaxy phones, everything is standard as far as these are concerned. The sound quality is decent and video quality is full HD.<br /><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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The P Smart has 13MP dual cameras at the rear, and a 8MP front camera. The dual camera at the back allows shallow depth images to focus properly. Larger aperture lenses makes photos very accurate in terms of lighting and also capturing the real colours. Swiping left when using the camera, brings up the settings and most of the modern setting's like GPS tagging, voice control, etc. are present. The front camera comes with a very useful feature called Smart Beauty, which makes selfies stand out.<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Pictures taken using the P smart</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Hardware and performance</span></div>
The one I received came with 32GB internal storage, but there is an MicroSD card slot which takes upto 256GB sd cards. Next to this sd card slot, is the nano sim slot and the phone comes sim-free.<br />The phone boasts of an Octacore processor and 3GB RAM which keeps everything ticking nicely and smoothly. Latest Android 8 operates all these inards and provides that popular OS feel that we have all grown to love.<br />The 3000mAh (probably now the standard) makes sure that you get a good solid 20hr talk time from your phone. Obviously when you install some power hungry apps, your battery juice may drain much more rapidly, but you are assured that you will be fine for at least your average working day period.<br /><br />
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Obviously this beauty is 4G ready and all other usuals are versus, like WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, NFC and GPS. Sensors available are the fingerprint scanner, compass, gravity, proximity, ambient light sensors.<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">USPs and Appeal</span></div>
I am giving a summary of features which I feel stand-out for this device, especially when compared to other phones in the same price range.<br /><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Smart beauty</span></div>
For me, this feature takes the trophy. I have used beauty selfie features on Samsung phones, but I have to say this one is probably the best I have seen so far. On Samsung, the processing seemed excessive that all the blemishes where being removed, leaving a face that looked like it had had a heavy application of make-up. On one instance, my friend had to ask me if I was now wearing make-up. With the Psmart, the skin tone is smoothed out without excessively taking out detail, which leaves selfies more beautiful while preserving natural features.<br /><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Dual Bluetooth</span></div>
This feature allows the phone to maintain and manage 2 Bluetooth connections simultaneously. This, for me, means I am able to connect BOTH of the in-ear Bluetooth earphones, In-ear BT earphones that come without any cable are very popular nowadays because they are very small and are not noticeable, allowing one to wear them without anyone noticing. However, most, only one can be connected with most phone, so you would only be able to use one at a time. Now with the P smart, one is able to connect 2 of such earphones and enjoy an immersive audio experience.<br /><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Split screen</span></div>
This feature is common with the Samsung Galaxy Note range, where you can have two windows on your phone with each widow doing a different task, like playing a video in one, whilst beside it having a Chat with a friend or browsing the web. Just like with the Galaxy note, not all apps would be compatible with this, but this had been a very welcome feature in the past for me, something I have missed whenever I had to use any other phone. Now its available with this “budget” phone, how nice!<br /><br />
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There are also other features that one would find interesting, like use of hand gestures to take photos (handsfree capture), speed sharing, where you can send files without having to pair phones and also without need for internet, and also use of the fingerprint scanner as a shutter button, as a trackpad for navigation and as a wake button.<br /><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">When all is said and done:</span></div>
This phone will be ultimately be judged on the basis of what it offers, vs its price. For that reason, I would say the phone is priced right, currently available at some retailers at the price sub £200. That's a good balance between performance, brand reputation and price. Its worth every penny.<br />Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-58206083017029576892017-11-08T20:37:00.001-08:002017-11-08T20:37:29.975-08:00New Samsung Gear 360 and Gear VR headset<b>Intro </b><br />
This post is seeks to review 2 Samsung devices namely the new Gear 360 (2017) and Gear VR headset. You will notice that I have previously reviewed the earlier Gear 360 version on this blog, so this post will primarily talk about the new model in a comparative manner. If one want to see the specs and capabilities of the old model, please see my previous review on this <a href="http://pro-blog.chitambira.com/2017/01/the-future-of-photography-is-here.html">link</a><br />
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<b>New Gear 360 </b><br />
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The new Gear 360 camera is an awesome and well made product. It keeps the best parts of the previous model, vis-a-vi, stylish aesthetics, a sturdy construction and indeed being easy on the eye. with its beautiful colours, especially the white version. This new camera is about 40% smaller than the previous model, with a few modifications to the position of the small display, which is now on the integrated handle. No more separate tiny tripod handle. Setting it up is a breeze, quite straight-forward even without reading the instructions lol! (even though I always read first). No differences to the previous model. </div>
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<i><b>New Model Specifications</b></i><br />
<i>Physical</i><br />
<i> Dimension (HxWxD): 100.6 x 46.3 x 45.1 mm</i><br />
<i> Weight (g): 130</i><br />
<i>Battery</i><br />
<i> Battery Capacity: 1160 mAh</i><br />
<i> Removable: No</i><br />
<i>Run time</i><br />
<i> Video Recording Time (Dual 2560x1280@30fps): Up to 130 mins</i><br />
<i> Video Recording Time (Single 1920x1080@30fps): Up to 180 mins</i><br />
<i>Audio and Video</i><br />
<i> Video Recording Format: MP4</i><br />
<i> Video Recording Compression: H.265(HEVC)</i><br />
<i> Audio Recording Compression: AAC</i><br />
<i> Number of MICs: 2</i><br />
<i>Camera</i><br />
<i> Image Sensor: CMOS, 8.4 MP x2</i><br />
<i> Default Output Pixel (Count Equivalent to): 15.0 MP</i><br />
<i> Video Recording Resolution: 360° (4096 x 2048)@24fps</i><br />
<i>Memory</i><br />
<i> External Memory Support: MicroSD (Up to 256GB)</i><br />
<i>Connectivity</i><br />
<i> USB Interface: USB Type-C</i><br />
<i> USB Version: USB 2.0</i><br />
<i> Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4+5GHz</i><br />
<i> Wi-Fi Direct: Yes</i><br />
<i> Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth v4.1</i><br />
<i>Compatible Phone Models</i><br />
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<i> Galaxy S8, S8+, S7, S7 edge, </i><br />
<i> Note5, S6 edge+, S6, S6 edge, </i><br />
<i> A5 (2017), A7 (2017) </i><br />
<i> *Android 5.0 or later</i><br />
<i> * iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE with iOS 10.0 or later</i><br />
<b><br /></b>Of particular importance, you will realise that this new model is compatible with almost all modern phones. For me, I wanted compatibility with the iPhone and they did not disappoint. For most of the operations that I wanted , like viewing live footage in different formats - panoramic, fish-eye or 360, the iPhone app is capable. Also capturing photos and videos directly from the phone, the app handles that well, as well as automatic stitching of files, to redden them for sharing. This is a major plus for Samsung, which allows its devices to be adopted by a wide base of users.<br />
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Operation is quite similar to the previous model, so I will not dwell on this. I got the sense that Samsung was trying to address the short comings of the previous model, with this one, so it is probably important that I pay attention to the differences. I have my original blog at (http://pro-blog.chitambira.com/2017/01/the-future-of-photography-is-here.html) and there, one can find information on the software, Action Director, that one can use to deal with the files. Just like with all 2-lens 360 cameras, one needs to take consideration of light sources when shooting. It is best practice to make sure that both lenses receive roughly same amount of light, so its best to point the nose of the camera to the light source than pointing one lens. However, having said than, I realised that the new camera deals with lighting much better than the previous one, so the light source issues are not prevalent. Stitched-up photos look more seamless this time.<br />
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Video quality has been greatly improved as expected because of the specs changes. To my layman eye, the videos are quite vivid now and also somewhat better stabilisation seems to be employed. On the hardware itself, the camera is IP53 certified, so is still dust and splash proof. However, there is no more the rubber-sealed door to the ports, I am wary of even letting splashes on my camera. The SD card and Type C USB ports are external and the battery is no longer removable (make what you want of this)<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8lnCGyJItFlMXTHpWn3eMNroiIgqcjwos9EnJF1BwWGZAXAP_PLasqHeBdi8MVmaRstYrX1xbM1GxUj1zhrIONkVYFYPKGparkQlfNTiGZv9yzICsfnJ7dhlOvmEbp3DBIbjZPQ4s1Q/s1600/IMG_6602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><br />
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Generally this new camera offer better video quality, is smaller and lighter, and better battery life. The smaller size means that the distance/gap between the two lenses is reduced, leading to better stitched photos, no more blind zones. Performance is also great, quick response times for quick shots not using timers. The other thing I realised is the better sound quality on recorded videos. Previously, the sound in my beach videos was pretty bad.<br />
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<b>Photos captured using the new camera</b><br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BbGKVmYB8gD/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">#Tinyplanet #Weston-super-mare #InsidersGear360 #TheInsidersUK</a></div>
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A post shared by Benny (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2017-11-05T02:09:40+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Nov 4, 2017 at 7:09pm PDT</time></div>
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Merchant Ventures Building, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BristolUni?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BristolUni</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bristol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bristol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InsidersGear360?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#InsidersGear360</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheInsidersUK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TheInsidersUK</a> <a href="https://t.co/2NRPkrZjf4">pic.twitter.com/2NRPkrZjf4</a></div>
— Benny Chitambira (@kupafulous) <a href="https://twitter.com/kupafulous/status/927003287852847104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<i>Comparisons of images created using the older and newer models</i></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BPqsz1LjnJQ/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Tiny planet #Bristol #nightsky #Insidersgear360 #Photography #tinyplanet captured using #samsunggear360 #photosphere #littleplanet #spherical</a></div>
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A post shared by Benny (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2017-01-25T00:26:49+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jan 24, 2017 at 4:26pm PST</time></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BbLpjQhh_EL/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">#Tinyplanet #Bristol using the new #Samsung #Gear360 #InsidersGear360 #TheInsidersUK</a></div>
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A post shared by Benny (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2017-11-07T05:18:37+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Nov 6, 2017 at 9:18pm PST</time></div>
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<i>Old camera</i></div>
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<i>New Camera</i></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BQtSTIojRHF/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Tiny planet #Weston #Insidersgear360 #Photography #tinyplanet captured using #samsunggear360 #photosphere #littleplanet #spherical</a></div>
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A post shared by Benny (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2017-02-19T21:04:16+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Feb 19, 2017 at 1:04pm PST</time></div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BbGLlz7hEXK/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">The new #Samsung #Gear360 is so much sharper. #Tinyplanet #Westonsupermare #InsidersGear360 #TheInsidersUK</a></div>
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A post shared by Benny (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2017-11-05T02:20:37+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Nov 4, 2017 at 7:20pm PDT</time></div>
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<b>Gear VR Headset</b><br />
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Samsung Gear VR is a well thought-out product that delivers true VR experience thru a simple affordable platform.<br />
I have played around with my Gear VR well enough to know the true difference and benefits this gadget offers, when compared to other headsets.<br />
First, we have to talk about the build quality of the device itself. The key differentiation here is obviously the fact that this device comes with modular connector mechanism which allows you to interchange the connections from USB, USB type C or possibly other standards, by swapping the connection module.<br />
Also the phone slot is adjustable to accommodate phones of different sizes.<br />
The construction is plastic, obviously to keep weight and price low, but it comes with a good portion of cushion to deliver unparalleled comfort.<br />
The lenses have a focus adjusting wheel which is much welcome especially for us who wear glasses. Now we do not need to wear the headset over our spectacles.<br />
Another stroke of genius is the inclusion of on-board controls. You can control playback, menus etc even without the separate controller. this is especially useful in cases where one loses, misplaces or simply do not have the Bluetooth controller.<br />
The controller itself is a well made product, fitting snugly in the hand, well, placed buttons with a pistol trigger like button which works as the OK/Select button. The fact that you can also recenter it or modify its default aiming direction means it can be used by people with different handicaps or natural hand orientation.<br />
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It is possible to charge you phone while its still within the Gear VR. This is thanks to the USB Type C connection on the headset itself. If you connect this while playing, the headset will use the power from the charger directly, otherwise it will charge the phone inside.<br />
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<img alt="Samsung Gear VR Virtual Reality Headset quarter view" height="480" src="https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/SamsungUS/2_74747_GearVR_007_Set1_Black_517325990_517325991_303957788?$product-details-jpg$" style="text-align: center;" width="640" /><br />
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Gear VR headset</div>
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<img alt="Samsung Gear VR Virtual Reality Headset Controller" height="480" src="https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/SamsungUS/3_74755_VR-Controller_003_L-Perspective_Black?$product-details-jpg$" width="640" /></div>
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Bluetooth controller</div>
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Now we have to talk about the operation itself. Its comforting to know that one does not need to be a tech guru to operate this headset. Everything is straightforward. The key thing is that you only have to slot your phone in, and the VR software/platform spring into life. Just slot you Samsung phone into the glasses, and make sure the connector is firmly connected to the phone, and the Oculus system will automatically start (I talk more about the Oculs later)<br />
Then we move on to the software platform itself. The Gear VR provides hardware assisted rendering and features using the Oculus technology and platform. The Gear VR is only compatible with Galaxy S6/S6 Edge or newer devices, so if your phone is not compatible as above, then you are out of luck.<br />
However, there is a good reason why the compatibility is that much limited. For starters, these new Samsung phone have got good screen resolutions. For example, iPhone 6S has 1334 x 750 = 1,000,500 pixels, while Samsung Galaxy S6/Note4/5 etc has 2560 x 1440 = 3,686,400 pixels, thus almost 4x the resolution of iPhone, so the iPhone 6 or 6S would be terrible for VR.<br />
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Secondly, there is no VR operating system for iOS. The Samsung Gear VR includes an Oculus launch app, along with stores from both Samsung and Oculus. ... The iOS apps for iPhone does offer a rudimentary interface to some Google Cardboard apps, but not to all VR experiences available on other platforms. In simple words, the iPhone as it is at the moment, was never built with VR in mind.<br />
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Whilst one may be able to play Zombie shooter VR games on iPhone, the extent of movement and rendering is pre-defined within the game and the headset can not independently explore all the VR FOV (bound specified in the game or app) where as the Gear VR platform allows you to explore all possible dimensions. In terms of the experience, this can be summarised as a factual statement that one can be fooled to think they are in a different environment/place./world when using the Gear VR where as that is not possible with most budget headsets with which the iPhone may be compatible.<br />
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Watching and enjoying content created using the Gear360 camera, on your Gear VR means Samsung provides a full VR ecosystem which is easily accessible to the masses. The Gear VR headset obviously does not break your bank and the two Gear 360 cameras can be bought for a song on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Gear-360-Camera-Version-White/dp/B01M4J53CO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1509908732&sr=8-3&keywords=samsung+gear+360" target="_blank">Amazon</a><br />
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The key thing as far as VR is concerned is content. What use does it servers when you can have a perfect VR headset, but without any content to enjoy it with? Well if you are reading this and wondering the same, you are in luck. Samsung's teaming up with Oculus provides a platform that is pregnant with content and possibilities.<br />
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<img height="380" src="https://scontent.flhr2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.2365-6/17636512_363871270680438_2448200804046209024_n.jpg?oh=965654f173578a3c14cb6d5dfaa58f8e&oe=5AA13A28" width="640" /></div>
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Oculus home screen</div>
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The most compeling downlods that you can use as proof of the unmatched imerseive capability of the Gear VR are the following appls (available within Oculus platform)<br />
(i) Try the VR effects especially Magga's dances on <a href="https://www.oculus.com/experiences/gear-vr/1230799313655858/">Amaze 3D Videos</a><br />
(ii) <a href="https://www.oculus.com/experiences/gear-vr/1174406302638883/">Amazing Cinema</a> offers an experience equivalent to watching Cinema on the night sky (with the sky being the screen, that's pretty awesome!!<br />
(iii) Oculus Video offers videos and movies you can watch in realistic cinema setting if you want.<br />
(iv) There are loads of other channels (apps) that can offer you a VR environment for your usual entertainment sources. These include National Geo, CNN, Discovery etc.<br />
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Video of Oculus cinema</div>
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There is also the meeting rooms where you can meet with your Facebook friends who are on the Oculus platform as well. Meeting in the virtual reality is just fun on its own, and you can strike conversations using the phone's microphones which make the whole experience unusual and fun.<br />
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A large selection of games are multiplayer, so you can play with friends over the internet. The Oculus platform makes use of Facebook for social networking, so if you have Facebook friends with an Oculus compatible VR headset, then fun-times will be unending...<br />
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Zombie shooting games are fun with the Gear VR. As already described above, the Oculus platform/operating system, allows an immersive environment which is adequate to fool your senses to feel and believe one is actually transported to a different place. This is possible because of the impeccable graphics capability, image resolution of the phone, and perfect head tracking and motion rendering capabilities of the sensors of the Gear VR headset. This combination is what most experts call the premium VR experience.<br />
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Overall, the Gear 360 and Gear VR are a must have gadgets for modern (or rather futuristic) entertainment. These are not half backed gimmicky devices, but real challengers which I think are worth your coins.Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-63861552368345932442017-09-26T16:27:00.000-07:002017-09-26T16:39:30.228-07:00Samsung Galaxy Tab S3: Fantabstic side-kick!<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been using the Tab for a number of weeks now and I am fairly comfortable, giving my 2 cents on this piece of kit.</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, this is Samsung's first truly premium tablet. I have to describe its build and aesthetically features to demonstrate that fact.</span></span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Unboxing</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Tab comes in a very nice dark grey box with seals for guarantee of "newness". Opening that box exposes some well thought-out and neatly packed items which include the S Pen, The Tab and the charger together with cable and documentation. The Tab itself will be in a dust proof sleeve, whose unfastening process actually gives you that kind of satisfaction, if you get what I mean.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Unboxed Tab</span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unboxing this beauty was an awesome experience. As always, and often, I had the luxury of doing the unboxing, with my 2 best buddies who are 11 and 6 years old :D, Their reaction was very positive, and they liked what they saw. We have an unboxing video on periscope, can follow the link below</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.pscp.tv/foolishious/1djxXLvlPjzxZ">https://www.pscp.tv/foolishious/1djxXLvlPjzxZ</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Looks and feel</b></span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the Tab S3 it is clear that Samsung are aiming for the most premium and complete android tablet experience. The metal rounded edges and glass back together with a light weight, only 429g, makes the tablet is perfectly balanced and fits very comfortably even in somewhat small hands.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Talking of premium look and feel, the AKG glass back of this tablet is just one such feature which gives the device its "Woohah!"</span></span><br />
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The screen is so vivid, as if things are about to spring into life. Using the tab, is like a kill, in broad-day-light. I mean literally, the screen is so vibrant that you are forced to wonder why there ever had been some tablets with screens that simply did not work in bright sun/day light.
Simply this table is the best 'under the sun', excuse the pan.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Specifications, Hardware and S Pen</b></span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The following is an overview of the specifications of this Tab;</span></span><br />
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Dimensions (mm) 237.30 x 169.00 x 6.00
Weight (g) 429g
Battery capacity (mAh) 6000mAh
Removable battery No</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Screen size (inches) 9.7 inches
Resolution 2048x1536 pixels</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Processor 1.6GHz quad-core
Processor make Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
RAM 4GB
Internal storage 32GB
Expandable storage Yes, microSD upto 256GB</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Rear camera 13-megapixel
Camera Flash Yes
Front camera 5-megapixel</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
GPS Yes
Bluetooth Yes, v 4.20
NFC No
Infrared No</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Compass/ Magnetometer No
Proximity sensor No
Accelerometer Yes
Ambient light sensor Yes
Gyroscope Yes
Barometer No
Temperature sensor No</i></span><br />
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</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The S Pen is fantabulous, its thick enough to feel like a real pen and is quite sensitive. Air-play (or is it whats its called?) works like a charm, sensing the pen even whilst its still hanging up in the, Oh boy..."air"</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The S-Pen is light weight and comfortable to use and obviously doesn’t need batteries or charging or some pairing process with the tab before use. It just works. The animated "swoosh" sound that plays as you write with the pen is quite satisfying, as if one is writing on a real paper. My handwriting is probably among the worst, people used to say I write like a medical doctor on hospital cards, but the Tab has always got the gist of what I would be trying to write, every time, Its magical.</span><br />
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Well, as it happens , my first test-drive included streaming my beloved Beatles collection in the background while I checked-out loads of other features. Its an understatement to say I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sound. My auditory orifices where quite elated on consuming such well-rounded acoustic and sonic energies. In simple words, top-quality audio... That quality audio is bellowed from 4 speakers at each of the rounded corners of the tab. Call it surround sound or what you will, I will call it perfect sound from a perfectly sound technology.
Did I tell you this sort-of indulgence lasted a good half-day? (24hr day :D) Well, if that's not "New testament" to the battery capacity, I don't know what is. The Tab can pack a sizeable punch of AmpHours to make even Mayweather jealous. It makes the Tab go on and on and on like an energiser battery, and believe me, that's great staying power!, no one minute wonders...
For once it feels good to own a mobile device that I don't have to charge every hour.</span><br />
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</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Competition</b></span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will not even let you search wildly in the market, for this Tab's competition, because there is only one. Without beating about the bust, the iPad Pro is the only competition here. Both Tabs come with a stylus, a metal frame, a vivid display and comparable size and weight.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what separates them?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Its probably best that I don't waste time on obvious stuff, and stick to the issues. There are differences that some people may be interested in. Generally these two devices offer comparable value, so I will highlight the 3 areas where I believe you may notice differences. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">First is the screen. You may want to head over to iPad pro 9.7' s specs to compare, buy simply, the Galaxy Tab S3 takes the crown here. The S3 Tab is HDR ready (High dynamic range) which allows to watch HDR content, bringing more sharp and vivid images onto the screen.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second is the camera. Tab S3 has 13Mega Pixels compared to iPad Pro's 12MP, BUT the results from the iPad trounce the S3 by a country mile. Visually the sharpness of the images from the iPad is captivating. Could it be the True Tone flash? could it be the Live View functionality? my opinion is that the iPad wins on this one.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lastly, but not least of-course, if the juice tank that keeps everything ticking, the battery. From my research (of-course i do not own the iPad pro 9.7) generally the iPad ticks for around 10hrs continuous use as compared to the Tab S3 which can go upto around 12hrs. It should be noted that the iPad battery is 7306mAh whereas the Tab S3 is 6000mAh. So the Galaxy tab wins on this one.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have not forgotten about the issue of the pocket by the way. So I will simply say Samsung produced a device to give Apple a run for its money in this particular market. So it can generally be expected that Samsung's offering will equally break your bank in the same fashion your usual Apple device does.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Tab S3 retail price is £599 including S pen </span></span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Standard 32GB WiFi model)</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It comes in black or silver colours.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The iPad Pro costs £549, plus £99 for Apple pencil (Standard 32GB WiFi model). It comes in silver, gold, space-grey and rose-gold colours.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So not much difference in price, (iPad cost £49 more) but indeed both tablets aim to search your pockets somehow, when compared to the rest of that market space... I do believe they deserve to, though...</span><br />
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</span><span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I dressed my Tab S3 in quality gear that did not even break my bank. I am talking about the case and Bluetooth keyboard.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This device has become my companion, providing entertainment (I love movies and music) on the go.
Funny enough, I have also found that its a formidable work device. I am "rdesktoping" to my work computer and enjoying both worlds simultaneously. Sometimes I am also using Google Docs to do a lot of business and work on the tab. Writing with the S Pen is making this a favourite of mine for any office work
Kudos Samsung!</span>Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-69614456618975831202017-09-25T09:51:00.006-07:002020-04-25T17:49:25.272-07:00Ring Video Doorbell WIBNIF (Wouldn't It Be Nice IF.....?)I will admit that I am a gadget lover, and have had considerable experience with various gear over the years. That being said, there have been instances when my purchase of a gadget had been influenced by real/true/genuine necessity rather than curiosity. When I moved home a few years ago, I fould that the analogue door bell that was in place was useless. It was a wired set-up but the bell was placed, still, in the entrance hall. Even after cranking its volume or adjusting the solenoid, it was still inaudible when one is upstairs. Moving the bell anywhere was going to mean running long cables.<br />
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Now my first solution was obvious. I had the house already set with LightwaverRF smart lighting, smart power sockets and heating (www.lightwaverf.com). This is one of the cheapest, easy and yet stable smarthome solutions (if one does not want to tinker with Domoticz). So it was a no-brainer not to consider LightwaverRF's door bell offering, which came at about £30. What you get is a traditional metal bell (solenoid hit) and a push button to install at the door. The good thing is the two work wirelessly (433Mhz RF like all other LightwaveRF lighting products) and the bell is battery powered by 2 CR232? batteries which can last for almost a year.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for lightwaverf bell" src="http://kingfisher.scene7.com/is/image/Kingfisher/productTemplate?$baseImage=Kingfisher/5060252202374_01c&$PROMO_450_450$" /></div>
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LightwaveRF Door Bell set</div>
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You get to pair the push button wiith the bell, and you can place the bell anywhere in the house, and indeed its loud enough. Mine I hanged it up in the stairway, hanging on just a single wall nail/screw.<br />
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I also paired the bush button with my bedroom lights, and set it so that when someone rings, the lights flash (on-off-on-off) These settings are set by 4 small switches at the back of the push button, so you can check the manual to set them according to your desired lighting response,<br />
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My main issue with this bell was, it was quite expensive for what it offered. The flickering of lights was quite mundane because you would not notice it on a bright day, and also was not necessary as long as the bell was still working, save for cases when your bell battery goes flat without your knowledge, which should be quite a rare event.<br />
This bell was markerted as a LightwaveRF wireless bell, but there was nothing smart about it. There are better wireless bells with a mains plugged chime (no need to buy batteries) which cost £6 online.<br />
I would have loved a situation where this bell could notify me via the LightwaveRF app, whenever the bell was rung, but alas. I have the same issue with LightwaveRF's door/window magnets, they are quite dumb.<br />
I tried to search IFTTT (www,ifttt,com) for recipes that use the bell push or the magnetic switches, but there are none. It seems you can only use these 2 products to activate lights when the push button is pressed or when the door is opened, no push notification or anything else.<br />
At least ifttt recipes would have been better, but you cannot select the 2 devices as sources because LightwaveRF's devices are passive, and STATELESS! They do not communicate their state (eg. is light on? is door open? etc, you cant make such queries)<br />
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So what I decided on was to try something better in terms of functionality. I therefor sold my LWRF bell on ebay for £24 gross (that was a good sell)<br />
I bought the much talked about Ring Video doorbell (www.ring.com), the battery operated one. I bought mine from Argos, which sells the bell bundled with a chime unit (the sounder) for £169, but I had a £10 voucher which any Argos customer can get hold of easily, so it costed me £159 for both. The chime is around £24 separately, so it means I got the bell for £135, which is a very good find. Also Argos offers buy-now-pay-later for 6 months on this, so thats slightly over 20 quid per month, interest-free. Thats equivalent of me skipping my after-lunch coffee for just 2 days per week, honest its worth it.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for argos ring door bell and chime bundle" src="http://media.4rgos.it/i/Argos/5984547_R_Z001A?$Web$&w=570&h=513&$WebPDPBadge570$&topright=empty&bottomleft=empty" /></div>
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Ring Video Door Bell and Chime set</div>
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Now on to the Ring itself, the device is well made and quite sturdy. At the time of this writing, Ring has just released its second version of the door bell called "Ring Video door Bell 2" From what I can tell, this new video door bell only differs with the original in that it records videos in 1080p (instead of 720p), is a bit slimmer (not thinner!) and removable batteries. On the downside it comes with slightly reduced field of view (FOV) There could be another subtle differences but I believe I have mentioned everything thats worth highlighting.<br />
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You connect your bell and chime to your wifi network. The chime will sound when the door bell id pressed. this happens over wifi, so if either of these disconnects to wifi, no ding dong sound for you.<br />
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<b>WIBNIF 1.</b> Chime and bell should have had their own direct RF signal for communication.<br />
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Also when the door bell is pressed you receive a notification on your phone (same with motion detected by the way...) You can then answer the doorbell by tapping on the notification and voila,... you are talking to your PPI sales guys, or The Watch Tower brethren or even your Royal mail delivery guy (one-way video and 2-way audio)<br />
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The major flaw in this design is the LAG that exists between button pressing and receiving of notification. This means if your home broadband is not fibre and has high latency, and you are away from home, chances are that you will answer the doorbell when the delivery guy (who happens to be in a hurry to meet his quotas) is gone, or you may be luck to see his back as he leaves.<br />
I must say however, Ring has been working very happy to reduce this delay to acceptable levels. I think they are making sure that the device does not go into deep sleep, which however sucks the juice outta the battery, I want to see the mods that ring are making to address this issue....<br />
My setup so far, after a lot of tweaking, has a delay of around 7 seconds, which is acceptable and in most cases I have been able to catch the delivery guy just as he dragged his first step off and in other cases I simply had to say a loud hello on answering.<br />
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So what other WIBNIFs does this system have?, well, if you install this as your first ring product, it becomes apparent very quickly.<br />
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<b>WIBNIF 2.</b> extra bell push button, to sound the chime?<br />
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Imagine if you have multiple access ways to your property, or just a simple back garden or kitchen door. Wouldn't it be nice to have a simple bush button to install at these extra access ways, so that it sounds the chime? Most of the time you would not really need another video doorbell at these points, so a simple push button would have been enough.<br />
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Ok, from my comparison with the newer version, you probably have picked up that these doorbells are battery powered. This original one has no way of charging the battery without dismounting the doorbell from the wall. I will not comment about the removable battery in 2nd version.<br />
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The Ring Video door bell and other Ring cameras, are compatible with IFTTT, meaning you can do clever triggers and actions based on motion detection. This is a very welcome features for these devices. You can turn on lights when someone rings the bell,or when motion is detected. You can even use Alexa recipes.<br />
They are also compatible with Smartthings, so one can use security smart-apps in Smartthings, to trigger the alarm when motion is detected outside normal hours.<br />
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It should be noted that Ring devices record videos to the cloud, and you have o pay something like £25 a year per each device, to be able to use this feature. There is no local storage, leading to my next wibnif<br />
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<b>WIBNIF 3.</b> sdcard slot for local recording?<br />
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It would have been nice if these devices were able to record locally to an sd card and offer an option for user to not use their cloud platform.<br />
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Overall Ring video bell is a well made product which is being letdown by technology employed, which inherently introduces delays. If the door bell could talk directly to chimes, at least the system would be very usable EVEN only as an expensive wireless intercom, without the bells and whistles of being an internet enables device.Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-50832742275513596642017-01-10T17:53:00.000-08:002017-02-13T10:55:39.395-08:00The future of photography is here - Featuring Samsung Gear 360 VR Camera<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Intro</span></b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Virtual reality (VR) is quite an old technological proposition. It has been around for donkey years and at some point in the far past, has been subject of many sci-fi movies. Its hard to believe that it was described in late 1930s and was coined into the Oxford dictionary in late 1980s.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Modern use and up-trending of VR has largely been as a result of the availability and very low cost of head-mounted-displays (HMDs) popularly know as VR headsets. That is further strengthened by advances in video game production, which saw a lot of VR games becoming mainstream.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Computing power in smartphones nowadays is much stringer that the spacecraft that took America to the moon. This meant more sophisticated gaming with multi sensory input and haptic feedback can be programmed into portable games that can be played on smartphones. My first VR game was the Zombie Shooter VR, which is quite fun (and scary)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Enough of this nostalgic blurb about where we are coming from, we are here now, in 2016, Ooops 2017, and the <b>Samsung Gear 360</b> is here with us, capable of shooting impeccable super-resolution (4K) photos and videos. This is indeed a culmination of many technological advances, but to be able to capture such breath taking images with a tiny, beautiful camera, is a stroke of genius. I received mine courtesy of <b><a href="https://www.theinsiders.eu/home/welkom/14/" target="_blank">The Insiders Network</a></b> for the <b>#Insidersgear360</b> campaign.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="01ab72f3c3b2e3eb726034d84ffc8d7f3815969a80.jpg" height="198" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/OA64oZzn8QcATeNPHC4QymuH0NDZnKr5oUvWAZBr_kv20CrgxELfDX2RSDT6Cycw6NSPRSbCp7FD1Weir-d_BjM_2qtONSVxm4cavg5eUQXyf_BY2QX9HVWtirEp8mpepjSIaggl" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="171" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slightly smaller than a tennis ball</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="013f7bb75b05be110094cfc1583823b342169ad65a.jpg" height="203" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/inh7HrWG6SOZtZD_RlpkBlJwzTYyfcSSnihMQDXzLK8JIZPjHeahwZueZziDzYB7JjPzd6poTbNIz3yW1vRc2YxpLWcPsZ3uEmwzPrf42wqRGsKiN_er2F4qyNIduL5WQh1HwGzv" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="152" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">USB charging</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="01cdefc000804e36d9279d70020825d78067231bf0.jpg" height="139" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/nnkSq8CPW1Onqh2c_ThvkhgKRUTtyqLGaihhkzO8h8A978ddmAT_QsVfq0L0gmWG_Dqvygodj8yK9lKfk0wY4g0mGYIJRSQLm4kfgkDPBcWE7J0LwjqIv0gq5nYSODN1pg1hHTOz" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="144" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the field</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="01b3a0271b8d726a6972cbcc6ec340908bc599833e.jpg" height="126" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/VQ1cfoDi4km0TGB2NtVrxtVXqsruDIGeCnUogBGXcDojhbUNAEex8-VBUEt4_oMDDBIbJmdqbTDCiZlCmi3lk2iyym5WD7qSQfY1QVMEu5KO8m6fDBhUjkNPS2HM0pinRyXfzFMa" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="163" /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Specs</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Compatibility</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, Note 5, S7, S7 edge with the Samsung</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gear 360 app; </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">PCs with the Gear 360 Action Director software</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sensor</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2 x 15 MP CMOS</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lens </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aperture</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">f/2.0</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Field of View</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">180° per lens</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chipset</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DRIMe5s</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Format</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: MP4 (H.265)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video Resolution</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dual Cam: 3840 x 1920 at 30 fps</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Single Cam: 2560 x 1440 at 30 fps</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Image </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Format</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">JPEG</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Image Resolution</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dual Cam: 7776 x 3888 (30 MP)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Single Cam: 3072 x 1728 (5 MP)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Audio</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Codec: MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Format: MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Memory</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1 GB built-in RAM </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">microSD card up to 128 GB</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Display</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">0.5" (72 x 32) PMOLED</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connectivity</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz) </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WiFi Direct </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bluetooth 4.1 </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">USB 2.0</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NFC</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sensors</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Accelerometer, gyroscope</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Battery Capacity </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1350 mAh</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dimension</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2.6 x 2.2 x 2.4" (66.7 x 56.2 x 60 mm)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Weight</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5.4 oz (153 g)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Packaging Info</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Package Weight</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1.0 lb</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Box Dimensions (LxWxH)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6.2 x 3.8 x 3.7"</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Personal review</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Gear 360 camera is a well made product, with stylish aesthetics, a sturdy construction and indeed easy on the eye. Setting it up is a breeze, quite straight-forward even without reading the instructions lol! (even though I always read first)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The fun part began after connecting it to my wife's galaxy 6 edge. Controlling it, settings, and capturing videos and photos from the gear 360 app on the S6 edge was much fun and downright easy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was not immediately clear to me how one can convert those nice photos and videos to be viewed as 360 videos anywhere else (i think that what they call stitching). However, a quick search on YouTube for the howto videos, uncovered a wealth of information on how to do this. Most videos were talking about using the gear 360 desktop software called "ActionDirector", but I wanted to avoid anything that takes me time and suck the fun away from the experience, so I went with easy, fast and simple tricks that you can do on the phone to stitch the videos. YouTube has plenty of videos to show you how. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After my initial testing, I came round to install the action director. I quickly learnt tricks of dealing with the PC software that allowed me to quickly use stitched up photos and videos without having to publish them in "ActionDirector". See more on ActionDirector down below in this blog. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One thing I quickly learnt about taking photos with this gadget was that, if there is a single light source, one has to make sure that the light source is exposed equally to both lenses, like pointing the "nose" of the camera to the light source instead of pointing just one lens to that light source. this makes the stitched photos transition, seamless. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Battery and USB ports door</span> </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The camera is IP53 certified and has got rubber-sealed door to the ports to keep them water tight. It may not say its water proof but I assume it should handle light showers, and splashes without any issues. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You can use the small display at the top of the camera for basic settings without the need to connect to the phone. This means that the camera can effectively be used even without a Samsung phone. Small LEDs above each lens indicate which lens is in use, and will be flashing when the camera is in use. You can configure to use either single lens, if needed.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Things to note!</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Battery life is not very impressive on this little thing, it died on me midway through my fun when I was away exploring the seaside. Good thing is that the battery is removable so one can carry extra batteries if they want to record videos all day long. </span></div>
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File sizes are humongous for recorded 360 videos, if you are recording for anything more than 15 minutes. Stitching these can take some time, but if you are like me, record during day, process overnight, then you should be fine. </div>
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The other thing that bothers me is I am not very impressed by the image quality esp video. It could be I need specific settings (currently set at 3840x1920 for video and 30M for photo)</div>
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This camera is only compatible with a handful of high-end Samsung smartphones. This can be frustrating for loads of people who own iPhones/iPads, LG, HTC and Google nexus high end smartphones.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gear 360 in action</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I will not bore anyone with my descriptions of how to set this thing up or other nitty gritties, of which the professionals have already published on YouTube. My personal opinion is that this little device is a game changer. It will be hard to imagine a time when photos only used to expose a small angle around the subject, leaving the viewer’s imagination to wonder what else was happening beside or in front of the subject.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9ln7w8RjA0C_-Hk7sed73eOO5wbUHEKnI7R-s648OBRl4CC2be2qrpW6MMmPbZJ0DmUbMM6pq6y-zghjqhcGUW3W3tffB9_WUk6W5tT_0UawgIiKppLqW0ZwZHqsWJ1mHFUVlK9k2yQ/s1600/360_0120_Stitch_YHC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9ln7w8RjA0C_-Hk7sed73eOO5wbUHEKnI7R-s648OBRl4CC2be2qrpW6MMmPbZJ0DmUbMM6pq6y-zghjqhcGUW3W3tffB9_WUk6W5tT_0UawgIiKppLqW0ZwZHqsWJ1mHFUVlK9k2yQ/s640/360_0120_Stitch_YHC.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weston-super-Mare during the night (stitched image)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGGZ1Pr60DSImQySP-iEBaStxnVaqk7QTNXuXSWxFvpwVzgk52_rU1IRtqxkgvXIRRyoh807LjwRr2-pJIHaj8Nz8Rll16vksy3gt2uKcCnoZuhK3_YlrRljt_EfpfNza9PGxECeyA9AA/s1600/360_0108_Stitch_YHC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGGZ1Pr60DSImQySP-iEBaStxnVaqk7QTNXuXSWxFvpwVzgk52_rU1IRtqxkgvXIRRyoh807LjwRr2-pJIHaj8Nz8Rll16vksy3gt2uKcCnoZuhK3_YlrRljt_EfpfNza9PGxECeyA9AA/s640/360_0108_Stitch_YHC.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sovereign Shopping Mall, Weston-super-Mare
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWKk7-V2tsG0ywI6EUSexIVKJ8XrXjih9FOMlmSpqlkAJCveeSlcv4NBpKhlMK7mQOCan-Xbe4pnl6RXQ1AAZfK68Egt9gvXYDMz40CMDkZxL-bRIZN2ndXxhQR_zGuir2BH8AkCcJEJk/s1600/360_0148_Stitch_YHC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWKk7-V2tsG0ywI6EUSexIVKJ8XrXjih9FOMlmSpqlkAJCveeSlcv4NBpKhlMK7mQOCan-Xbe4pnl6RXQ1AAZfK68Egt9gvXYDMz40CMDkZxL-bRIZN2ndXxhQR_zGuir2BH8AkCcJEJk/s640/360_0148_Stitch_YHC.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bristol atop Trenchard car park</td></tr>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-528a486e-865e-8fc3-3790-dd46aee26af0" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I Know one can capture very professional looking photos by setting the camera on a big tripod, proper light setting, etc. but these photos where captured while walking, holding the camera in one hand, by its little tripod, but they still look awesome. Obviously my had features in the images because no care was taken to hide them etc. This serves to demonstrate how simple and easy it is to operate the camera, and the perfect auto-stitching that is done by the software.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Action Director </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The desktop software to manage and process the Gear 360 files, called the action director, is quite a large piece of software which should take up more than 500MB of your hard-drive. A setting that I found very important for in the software is the "Automatic angle compensation" for 360 content. This can be set by checking (or ticking) the checkbox as show in the picture below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another trick that can be helpful, came from noticing that if you import the Gear 360 files into Action Director, it starts the stitching of the files automatically. You can import the file by doing "Files -> Import -> Media Folder". After selecting the folder which contains your files, all the files in there will start stitching soon after the import is finished. Each and every file imported, will show the percentage or status of the stitching process. The ones with a 0% are those that have not started stitching and large video files will take time to finish. All this while, there is no action needed and when stitching is finished, the stitched files are found in the folder as configured under "File" in Preferences (see pictures below)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Its best to configure the folder where you want to store the processed files before you start importing files into Action director, the default location is not an intuitive path, so one may want to change that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Click on the gear to open Preferences</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Automating Angle correction</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 10.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Setting the import and export folders</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The above processes describe the stitching that is done in ActionDirector, but Action director is provided as an editing tool, so if one want to cut clips, join them and making a longer single video from different files, that can be accomplished by dragging the files to the area indicated, and they would need to "publish" the resulting file. Someone mentioned that this processing takes a long time, so I have not attempted it. I believe that will probably be necessary only to professionals working on specific projects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ActionDirector is somewhat disappointing because there is no way to select where you want the camera to be facing when the video starts playing. One may want to start the video facing upwards, backwards or front facing the direction of motion, but there is no way to set this in ActionDirector.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Below are raw unedited YouTube 360 videos taken on a windy day at dusk</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tiny Planets with Samsung Gear 360</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Making tiny planets photos from 360 images has been a very popular trick on social media. There has been Instagram marketers who have been constantly proposing use of such pictures simply to draw large number of followers. It is not difficult to see why most people can be drawn to tiny planet photos, they have particular charm, exoticism and also offers a new perspective to photography.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">making Tiny planet images from your 360 photos is easy, you simply need to have the relevant app on your phone. i will stick to phone apps for this, because most people use their phones for social media, and also because its easier and quick to do on the phone, than having to download, install and configure desktop software.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On a Samsung phone, you may consider the free apps like the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zinilaus.photoeffect.tinyplanet" target="_blank">Tiny planet -Globe</a>; there are other gazillion apps from Google Play, if you follow the related apps, and you may find the one with the features that you like the most.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On the iPhone, i have been using <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rollworld-tiny-planet-photos/id867960225?mt=8" target="_blank">RollWorld</a> which is one of the quick and simplest apps to use, with integration to all social networks so that you can share the photos immediately, within the app.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BPqsz1LjnJQ/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Tiny planet #Bristol #nightsky #Insidersgear360 #Photography #tinyplanet captured using #samsunggear360 #photosphere #littleplanet #spherical</a></div>
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A photo posted by Benny (@foolishious) on <time datetime="2017-01-25T00:26:49+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jan 24, 2017 at 4:26pm PST</time></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Bristol atop Trenchard Car Park</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Competition</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The VR camera market's already had the LG360 and a more professional Kodak PixPro SP360 camera. Both the Gear 360 and the Kodak PixPro are 4K, the Gear 360 has got an edge because of its size, its much more compact, with both lenses on the single camera. It is also fully controllable from a smartphone. Ricoh has got a very good 360 camera, the Richoh Theta S retailing around £299 with a very small gap between the 2 lenses which makes the stitching perfect even at short distances, but its not 4k. The video quality is awful. Nikon also released the Nikon KeyMission 360, which is 4K and action proof. Its priced the same as the Gear 360. However, it is quite chunky, which makes the stitching awful. Also its software is horrendous.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Verdict</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The samsung Gear360 could be that VR camera that takes 360 capturing to the masses. The design is more than beautiful, its easy to use and does not break the bank. I suspect that Samsung will open this little device to other smartphones, and when that happens, this will easily be the most lovable, portable 360 camera. Currently, its a 4 star for me.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Other potential uses of 360 cameras.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Since one can wear a VR headset and be able to play 360 videos on a smartphone, it is easy to realise that one can actually move around (wearing the VR headset) following the visual information on the screen. This is equivalent to a “Virtual Tour” of a place. Galleries, shops and other places of interest can provide virtual tours to their customers, who in turn can browse, and explore the remote places as if they are there, using the 360 videos/photos.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is also not hard to imagine that the next movies to come from Hollywood would incorporate VR to some extent. We will probably see a merging of the video game industry and movie industry. We will be able to take part in movies and determine how the story progresses, taking advantages of the many diverging story lines that would have been incorporated into the movie. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">360 cameras can become mainstream in surveillance and security applications. Instead of swivelling CCTV cameras, 360 cameras can provide that all-around imagery without having to deploy swivel cameras. Similar dashboard 360 cameras that capture the road ahead, the driver, the side roads and the road behind, can be very lucrative if one wants to capture everything happening, like in a pile-up accident, you can study what actually happens in all the 360 angles.</span></div>
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Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-27924556292183473922017-01-08T17:36:00.001-08:002017-02-03T11:55:42.765-08:00Amazon's Alexa - smart home voice assistantAlexa has been with us for some time now. I have been able to play around with it. I currently have 2 Amazon Echo Dots.<br />
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According to Wikipedia "Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon.com's Lab126, made popular by the Echo. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audio books, and providing weather, traffic and other real time information. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation hub.[2] Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as Echo), other devices require you to push a button in order to activate listening-mode. Currently, interaction and communication with Alexa is only available in English and German."<br />
I hope that statement give a quick glance at what this device is really about, and whether it might be for you.<br />
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There are other voice assistance on the market and the main competitors to Alexa are the Google Home Assistant and Apple's HomeKit.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amazon Echo (Taller) and Echo Dot (smaller)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gooogle Assistant</span></div>
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The following tables gives a summary of current devices and systems which are compatible to each of the 3 offerings. The tables are written in the format of the "Smart Home Scoreboard for CES2017" from which can be found at <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/a-smart-home-scoreboard-for-ces-2017/">https://www.cnet.com/news/a-smart-home-scoreboard-for-ces-2017/</a><br />
Tables in that link are continuously updated everyday, so the information here is a snapshot of information on that link.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Compelling smart device compartibility</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amazon Alexa</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Belkin WeMo Dimmer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chamberlain Smart Garage Hub</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Belkin WeMo Dimmer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whirlpool appliances</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leviton Decora light switches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hyundai</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dish Hopper DVR</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honeywell Lyric Home Security and Control System</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chrysler 300</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Element 4K TV</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nvidia Shield TV</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LG Smart Instaview Refrigerator</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nvidia Spot</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ford Sync3</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mattel Aristotle by Nabi child's smart speaker</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hydrao smart showerheads</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Samsung SmartThings kit</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LightwaveRF Dimmaers and sockers</span></div>
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</tbody></table>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-528a486e-80d0-c06a-694a-ace3e2e4e0c3" style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amazon Alexa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple HomeKit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Assistant</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Samsung Powerbot VR7000 robot vacuum</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sylvania Multicolor smart bulb</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Belkin WeMo Mini smart plug</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WeMo Mini smart plug</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kwikset Premis smart lock</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coway Airmega air purifier</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Omaker Wow speaker</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lifx Plus smart bulb</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Switchmate Bright smart switch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lenovo Smart Assistant speaker</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ConnectSense Sensors</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Switchmate Power smart plug smart switch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C by GE Lamp</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fibaro sensors</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sensory Voice Genie</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coway Airmega air purifier</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First Alera Onelink Environment Monitor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First Alera Onelink environment monitor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Netatmo Smart Smoke Alarm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Somfy One security camera</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Withings Home Plus WiFi cam</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C-Way Memoo child's smart speaker</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carrier Cor smart thermostats</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Switchmate Bright smart switch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">D-Link Omna 180 Cam HD</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Switchmate Power smart plug smart switch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sensory Voice Genie</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hubble Hugo camera</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yale Real Living Assure Locks</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carrier Cor smart thermostats</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yale NexTouch Wireless Locks</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Huawei Mate 9 phone</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incipio CommandKit WiFi Smart Wall Switch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incipio CommandKit WiFi Light Switch</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incipio Command Kit Smart PowerStrip</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cambridge Nightengale</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ADT Pulse</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sensory Voice Genie</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Onkyo VC-FLX1</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 20px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mayfield Robotics Kuri</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gimmicky</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amazon Alexa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple HomeKit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Assistant</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">iDevices Instant Switch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">iDevices Instant Switch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LG Hub Robot</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ubtech Robots Lynx</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bixi</span></div>
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<b><br /></b>
<b>What you can do with Alexa?</b><br />
The following is an example list of things that you can say or ask Alexa.<br />
"Alexa, whats my day like tomorrow?"<br />
"Alexa, tell Lizzy a bedtime story"<br />
"Alexa, tell me a joke"<br />
"Alexa, play Christmas music"<br />
"Alexa, who is Michael Jackson?"<br />
"Alexa, wake me up at 7 in the morning"<br />
"Alexa, ask Skyscanner for a flight to New York"<br />
"Alexa, ask The Telegraph for the top stories"<br />
"Alexa, how's my commute?"<br />
"Alexa, shuffle my Favourites playlist"<br />
"Alexa, turn it up"<br />
"Alexa, will it rain tomorrow?"<br />
"Alexa, read my audiobook"<br />
"Alexa, what's on my calendar today?"<br />
"Alexa, what's the weather in London?"<br />
"Alexa, play Taylor Swift from Amazon Music"<br />
"Alexa, turn on the coffee machine"<br />
"Alexa, turn on all the lights"<br />
"Alexa, switch on main bedroom lights"<br />
"Alexa, set the master bedroom to 20 degrees"<br />
"Alexa, what's in the news?"<br />
"Alexa, ask Uber to request a ride"<br />
"Alexa, open Just Eat and ask for my last order"<br />
"Alexa, ask Jamie Oliver for a recipe"<br />
<br />
<b>My setup</b><br />
I have 2 Echo dots, One in the living room and the other one in my bedroom. I can use the one in the living room if I am in the Kitchen, provided there is not too much noise (like loud music playing), but it works all the time.<br />
<br />
To be able to ask Alexa the above question and get expected answers, one need to activate the relevant "skills". Skills are software intelligence that recognises the context and subject of the questions, and know how and where to fetch the data to be able to respond to the pondered question. Say if you have your own product that you want to be compatible with Alexa, you can program a little piece of software specifying the questions that people should ask, and then code the necessary response of your device, in form of actions (e.g. movements if its a mechatronic device, or database fetches, is its data requests)<br />
<br />
I use most of the default skills that come enabled with Alexa, and I have activated a few more. I have the SmartThings and LightwaveRF smarthome kits (see previous posts). I connected and activated these skills in my Alexa, so I am able to do the following;<br />
- Switch on/off or dim lights (e.g. "Alexa set living room lights to 20 percent")<br />
- Switch on/off electrical sockets (thus controlling devices connected to those sockets)<br />
- Switch on/off heating<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhneCNdR2inSF0Sbxiyf6jfFnKPR5WJHERkRsCasRyHYxo-u4qFvARcyAHMR71ideJucSLqxXvAjaJf5Wl25b6XVfpITx6TgqJgNdE7ydNx-hKk5Wz3mda23DEaMrgZYydPsn7_mbxtIu8/s1600/016d06cde0f386c7387d15c3b913d786de3ffbfeb0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhneCNdR2inSF0Sbxiyf6jfFnKPR5WJHERkRsCasRyHYxo-u4qFvARcyAHMR71ideJucSLqxXvAjaJf5Wl25b6XVfpITx6TgqJgNdE7ydNx-hKk5Wz3mda23DEaMrgZYydPsn7_mbxtIu8/s320/016d06cde0f386c7387d15c3b913d786de3ffbfeb0.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>LightwaverRF and SmartThings Skills</i></div>
<br />
The above systems are the key to the success of Alexa in my house. My visitors are always in awe of how I control devices and lights in my house by just using my voice.<br />
At the moment no other home assistant is compatible with LightwaveRF system, so Alexa is ahead of the game at the moment.<br />
<br />
If you have any interesting tricks, skills and features that you want to share or discuss, please leave a comment.Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-79304900780612198062015-11-28T02:21:00.001-08:002015-11-30T14:58:48.330-08:00SmartThings home automation kit<br />
It has been a long time before posting anything on this blog. This was so, because of a lot of activities and responsibilities that I have been engaged in since late last year. However, that has not stopped me from playing around with a lot of tech. over the months, I have had pleasure trying out a number of prototype smart watches, liquor dispensers (really?...lol) some new smartphones and cars.<br />
<br />
You may have followed my earlier posts on home automations from some 3 or 4 years ago, where I used to talk of smart tvs, before they became mainstream, also X10 home automation, and probably the LightwaveRF kit which has been the central lighting and heating control system in my home.<br />
<br />
Recently I got my hands on the Smart-things home automation kit by Samsung.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHjau_JVj-eBqdJ1-6SZTynbiueu39LY69ez2Vvvwlsg63XqreefqE0w_h5maMWEjV0S8rLLtbzXbsO6oMQ186aIwnHsUoap9ca2BST4ULhiVp6J0bKrGWjpIyljrHogH5cQRdkorohQw/s1600/smartthings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHjau_JVj-eBqdJ1-6SZTynbiueu39LY69ez2Vvvwlsg63XqreefqE0w_h5maMWEjV0S8rLLtbzXbsO6oMQ186aIwnHsUoap9ca2BST4ULhiVp6J0bKrGWjpIyljrHogH5cQRdkorohQw/s320/smartthings.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKVSZ34JF9AJpN1gauACCW3DerZfYyIRQspMYBEp6W9m2313OX_j08UE4sLs7yb9K8oI1DrQI-9Qdd32_5xEMc6Q_5f6RDZSezaS5wy4TuIoRpRI1Ivj9JeziWLacljodkYHno7dDgOY/s1600/l_10135868_008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKVSZ34JF9AJpN1gauACCW3DerZfYyIRQspMYBEp6W9m2313OX_j08UE4sLs7yb9K8oI1DrQI-9Qdd32_5xEMc6Q_5f6RDZSezaS5wy4TuIoRpRI1Ivj9JeziWLacljodkYHno7dDgOY/s200/l_10135868_008.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Smart-things kit</div>
<br />
<br />
This kit is really dynamite, which comes in small packages, but with ability to do much much more...<br />
The starter kit, which is the most basic set of devices that can get you started, usually consist of;<br />
- a hub, which is the main brains and control centre,<br />
- a on/off socket that can be plugged onto wall sockets and then in turn be used to control(switch on of any connected appliances)<br />
- a motion sensor (which also doubles as a temperature sensor)<br />
- a multi-sensor which can work as a magnetic open-close sensor as well as a temperature sensor.<br />
- a presence sensor, which registers its presence whenever its in proximity to the hub.<br />
<br />
The smart-things kit is based on industry standards like z-wave, which makes it compatible with other existing devices and sensors. This allows one to buy other sensors from other manufactures, which can be used or controlled via the smart-things hub.<br />
These can be;<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>smoke detectors/alarms, </li>
<li>door bell/chimes, </li>
<li>heating control systems, </li>
<li>other light bulbs,</li>
<li>network/ip wireless cameras</li>
<li>other security systems</li>
<li>etc etc</li>
</ul>
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The best part is, all smart-things devices can be controlled via your smartphone, using a very sleek and responsive app, whether you are at home or away.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS0CAOXiWtKVSuuv8m5pK3QIC7B6wIJGRRgrh_qXA7K1RqQKuyDcfKT0ti2zoY1Hp8EllZ3-0kIt6CQgMXEJdijfrgSJU3ZPlV0QLZiypmqghjQJL1oQNZOvjkDOem2tAp0rWbXHw2-04/s1600/Screenshot_2015-11-28-07-00-56.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS0CAOXiWtKVSuuv8m5pK3QIC7B6wIJGRRgrh_qXA7K1RqQKuyDcfKT0ti2zoY1Hp8EllZ3-0kIt6CQgMXEJdijfrgSJU3ZPlV0QLZiypmqghjQJL1oQNZOvjkDOem2tAp0rWbXHw2-04/s320/Screenshot_2015-11-28-07-00-56.png" width="180" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAVbUvy9NcZY-R_SeTmsPMh7TR0DEfWUdVcdrnj3dhhUeF4Y154PyBqLUQW3QqRaT0-1h6gD17oXspzb29RvUGHeoQlkANj4FkgrCElFxEJ7TxCWkP_7E9lfvvCuagmFA5xrA1b99lNM/s1600/Screenshot_2015-11-26-09-47-09.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAVbUvy9NcZY-R_SeTmsPMh7TR0DEfWUdVcdrnj3dhhUeF4Y154PyBqLUQW3QqRaT0-1h6gD17oXspzb29RvUGHeoQlkANj4FkgrCElFxEJ7TxCWkP_7E9lfvvCuagmFA5xrA1b99lNM/s320/Screenshot_2015-11-26-09-47-09.png" width="180" /></a></div>
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SmartThings Android App</div>
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You can also integrate your smart-things kit with IFTTT (if this then that) and use the already made recipes that can make your lights automatically switch off at dawn, or when you play a movie via your home cinema system, get a call when the smoke alarm goes off while you are away, etc etc, the list is endless.</div>
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Other companies that have tried total home-automation (lighting , heating, doors/widows open-close, energy consumption monitoring, temp/humidity etc etc) like LightwaveRF, however use proprietary standards which makes it hard to integrate or mix their devices with other vendors' and that is a major disadvantage that I think smart-things is trying to address.</div>
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Also smart things devices are quite smaller that most devices out there. However, when it comes to wall sockets and lighting control, their socket switch looks bulky and it sits between your wall socket and the appliance that's being controlled, in this case a lamp. For bulbs, obviously the assumption would be that one gets a compatible bulb, which can be controlled by the hub (and you have to leave the wall switch on all the time) So in that regard, smart-things is beaten hands down by LightwaveRF, which has got VERY sleek wall dimmers (which replace you wall switches) and also sleek wall sockets with their tech integrated in, which means the finished work looks very neat and subtle.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv-reTywthubjuDI96gu7zYv7QMqxP2p9EImPeSvO1zLY_sIkXS-kbCivgn1aXlWQWs0wqADxEVmjbuTOrGiT0sW4mRxmPK1o_5qElj_isb3Vz0CfY333iZz_wzbHdL26JNhJit0Zv5C0/s1600/1431095246-03214000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv-reTywthubjuDI96gu7zYv7QMqxP2p9EImPeSvO1zLY_sIkXS-kbCivgn1aXlWQWs0wqADxEVmjbuTOrGiT0sW4mRxmPK1o_5qElj_isb3Vz0CfY333iZz_wzbHdL26JNhJit0Zv5C0/s200/1431095246-03214000.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJSC7wyaKQa1xDsHRnXSmNBCmKnJPAOcqaTKyN-pOxCr-UZU2FvEUnu9ifiTBv0EzJ8mNp3zYWK_jKgUUa5SxYPmbGAZdvP5kvlttl0-mzW9ZsdmhNGZd5oOkqnPLjK4DSw62XjuAOlXk/s1600/Double-socket-with-hand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJSC7wyaKQa1xDsHRnXSmNBCmKnJPAOcqaTKyN-pOxCr-UZU2FvEUnu9ifiTBv0EzJ8mNp3zYWK_jKgUUa5SxYPmbGAZdvP5kvlttl0-mzW9ZsdmhNGZd5oOkqnPLjK4DSw62XjuAOlXk/s200/Double-socket-with-hand.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ww6DyDTWbGgwONVE39UUtFFJyWbOkQVkyXZndYgJVwwj_fKZJegCOFdcRmOq2PbUSuk3lY7Q_fLFIE63N34F8kMw3-UOHtBAwChs27QICyEUe9SwM_UL6-b1QZ9VGVxfhMpv80Ngx-g/s1600/heating-products.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ww6DyDTWbGgwONVE39UUtFFJyWbOkQVkyXZndYgJVwwj_fKZJegCOFdcRmOq2PbUSuk3lY7Q_fLFIE63N34F8kMw3-UOHtBAwChs27QICyEUe9SwM_UL6-b1QZ9VGVxfhMpv80Ngx-g/s200/heating-products.png" width="200" /></a><br />
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LightwaveRF kit</div>
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<div>
If there was a way of integrating these two systems, that was going to be a compelling proposition and direction as far as home automation and smart homes is concerned, but that is very unlikely.</div>
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<div>
Below are some videos that can demonstrate what you can do with the Smart-things kit;</div>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/jHEo43Jybbs">Using Smartthings on the go!</a></div>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/tYR5ttMZAfY">Smartthings at home...</a></div>
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Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-64576903667653760342013-11-12T04:45:00.000-08:002013-11-12T04:45:51.983-08:00Handy TSM queries#query act log for media errors<br />
q act begind=-1 search="media error"<br />
<br />
#note the vol with error and query it to get its status<br />
q libv cir-g-lib <vol_id> f=d</vol_id><br />
<br />
#check the volume out<br />
checkout libv <libname> <vol_id> checkl=no rem=bulk</vol_id></libname><br />
<br />
#query configured schedules<br />
query sched f=d<br />
<br />
#Removing a node from backup<br />
q node <node_name> f=d</node_name><br />
q filespace <node_name></node_name><br />
del filespace <node_name> * (this removes all backup data for node1)</node_name><br />
del filespace <node_name> <fsid> nametype=fsid (fsid is an integer for filesystem id)</fsid></node_name><br />
remove node <node_name></node_name><br />
<br />
#Renaming a node<br />
rename node node2 node3 (this renames the node, but it keeps all the data)<br />
(you'll need to logon to node2/3 and edit the dsm.opt/dsm.sys file etc and restart the scheduler to rename it on that side too).<br />
<br />
#List filespaces that have not been backed up in the last 10 days for node <node_name></node_name><br />
SELECT node_name,filespace_name, filespace_type,DATE(backup_end) as DATE FROM filespaces WHERE -node_name='<node_name>' and DAYS(current_date)-DAYS(backup_end)>10</node_name><br />
<br />
#show backups for the last 7 days<br />
q event * * begind=-7 begint=12:00 endd=today node=<node_name></node_name><br />
<br />
#show last backup completion date/time<br />
q file <node_name> f=d</node_name><br />
<br />
#show last successful backup end times for node<br />
select END_TIME from summary where activity='BACKUP' and SUCCESSFUL='YES' and ENTITY='<node_name>'</node_name><br />
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Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-90398768155211018342013-08-07T05:28:00.000-07:002013-08-07T05:28:07.014-07:00Simple straightforward upgrading of firmware on Dell serversThis has been testsed on Dell PowerEdge R720 running 64bit Centos 6.4<br />
<br />
###Upgrade BIOS and firmware<br />
###need to install 32bit libraries as the upgrade program itself is 32bit<br />
yum install glibc.i686 libstdc++.i686 zlib.i686 libxml2.i686 compat-libstdc++.i686<br />
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wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi | bash<br />
yum install dell_ft_install<br />
yum install $(bootstrap_firmware)<br />
inventory_firmware<br />
update_firmware<br />
update_firmware –-yesChitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-83710283739832867482012-09-14T06:34:00.002-07:002012-09-17T02:12:33.118-07:00Meaning of /etc, /usr in Linux?In my career, I have come across many people who have described the acronyms /etc, and /usr in very different ways. However, for all other purposes, all the users and Linux community generally agree on the use intended or otherwise, of these filesystem hierarchy levels.<br />
The discussions that i have heard goes like so:<br />
<h2>
<b>/usr</b></h2>
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<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">/usr: "user". , eg. /usr/bin is for general user binaries, /usr/doc and /usr/share/doc</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Actually, /usr stands for Unix System Resources.</span>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">/usr usually contains by far the largest share of data on a system. Hence, this is one of the most important directories in the system as it contains all the user binaries, their documentation, libraries, header files, etc.... X and its supporting libraries can be found here. User programs like telnet, ftp, etc.... are also placed here. In the original Unix </span><a class="kLink" href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/#" id="KonaLink7" style="background-color: #cfd9ff; background-image: none !important; border: 0px none transparent !important; bottom: 0px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; left: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: static; right: 0px; top: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; position: static;"><span class="kLink" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-bottom-color: blue; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-style: none !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; width: auto !important;">implementations</span></span></a><span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">, /usr was where the home directories of the users were placed (that is to say, /usr/someone was then the directory now known as /home/someone). In current Unices, /usr is where user-land programs and data (as opposed to 'system land' programs and data) are. The name hasn't changed, but it's meaning has narrowed and lengthened from "everything user related" to "user usable programs and data". As such, some people may now refer to this directory as meaning 'User System Resources' and not 'user' as was originally intended.</span>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">usr stands for "user-specific resources" and it fits quite nicly i think. it might be other abbreviations that is used with "usr" though, but i wouldnt know about them other then the ones ive read in this thread</span>
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<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">According to linux-training.be/files/books/</span><a class="kLink" href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/#" id="KonaLink8" style="background-color: #cfd9ff; background-image: none !important; border: 0px none transparent !important; bottom: 0px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; left: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: static; right: 0px; top: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; position: static;"><span class="kLink" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-bottom-color: blue; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-style: none !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; width: auto !important;">html</span></span></a><span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">/fun/ch09s08.html, it stands for Unix System Resources.</span>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><code style="border-bottom-left-radius: 10px; border-bottom-right-radius: 10px; border-top-left-radius: 10px; border-top-right-radius: 10px; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 194, 202); color: #242626; font-family: Consolas, 'Lucida Console', Monaco, monospace; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px;">/usr</code><span style="color: #242626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> - The secondary hierarchy which contain its own bin and sbin sub-directories.</span></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #242626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #242626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b>/etc</b></span></h2>
<span style="color: #242626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">'/etc' is indeed an acronym and stands for "Editable Text Configuration"</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #242626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #242626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Yes, etc stands for "etcetera" </span><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It's purpose in life is to host various </span><a class="kLink" href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/#" id="KonaLink0" style="background-color: #e6e6e6; background-image: none !important; border: 0px none transparent !important; bottom: 0px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; left: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: static; right: 0px; top: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; position: static;"><span class="kLink" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-style: none !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; width: auto !important;">configuration </span><span class="kLink" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-style: none !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; width: auto !important;">files</span></span></a><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> from around your system.</span>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Probably not the official meaning, but I have seen etc referred to as "editable text configuration".</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">it means the simple 'etcetera'</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfd9ff; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<i style="background-color: #9fc5e8; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 3px; color: #363636; display: inline !important; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0.5em; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">it means 'extended tool chest' per this <a href="http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-September/msg00098.html" style="color: #002f2f; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">gnome mailing list entry</a> or per <a href="http://www.linuxguiden.no/index.php/Katalog_/etc" style="color: #002f2f; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this Norwegian article</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"editable text configurations" is a stupid name too, because if it's text, it's evidently editable. So why not just "text configurations" then? Also, in early Unix, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">everything</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> was editable (remember, in Unix, everything is a file), so that's superfluous too. And, lastly, it was the repository for a lot of things that weren't configurations, including binaries.</span></span>
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<br />
So whats your take on these!Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-65505543535623295392012-09-10T12:35:00.003-07:002022-05-22T06:01:58.959-07:00Fixed RHEL/Centos 5 rpms for net-snmp-5.3.2.2-17 gpfs supportAs raised in bug note 707912 (
<a href="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=707912">https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=707912</a>)<br />
<div>
where net-snmp does not see mounted xfs filesystems, the shipped net-snmp-5.3.2.2-17 in the Centos 5.8 tree (and probably later versions in RHEL6 as well) does not support gpfs filesystems either.</div>
<div>
The implication is that those who are upgrading from earlier versions (e.g. from Centos 5.5 to 5.8) will lose snmp monitoring of gpfs filesystems.</div>
<div>
All the versions in the Centos 5.8 tree are broken. The only way to address the issue is to upgrade to a later tree (e.g. to Centos 6.3) or to build from source or to use third-party rpms.</div>
<div>
I have managed to patch and rebuild the shipped net-snmp-5.3.2.2-17.x86_64.rpm and that has proved to be an easier, low risk alternative.</div>
<div>
Those who may need to reuse my binaries are <a href="http://www.filedropper.com/net-snmp-5322-17x8664" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.filedropper.com/net-snmp-libs-5322-17x8664">here</a> & <a href="http://www.filedropper.com/net-snmp-utils-5322-17x8664">here</a></div>
<div>
~]# yum remove net-snmp net-snmp-libs</div>
<div>
~]# rpm -Uvh net-snmp-libs-5.3.2.2-17.x86_64.rpm</div>
<div>
~]# rpm -Uvh net-snmp-5.3.2.2-17.x86_64.rpm</div>
<div>
~]# rmp -Uvh net-snmp-utils-5.3.2.2-17.x86_64.rpm<br />
~]# yum install OpenIPMI (re-install if you had removed it as dependent in first command)</div>
Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-31267255074979528902012-07-23T07:52:00.004-07:002013-08-07T05:29:12.686-07:00Zenoss Filesystems MonitoringHave came across many zenoss users asking about changing the default thresholds for filesystem, disk utilisation. In many cases, the issue is about the fact that the default template calculates percentage utilisation and and a threshold like (95%) may not be appropriate for large (hundreds of terabytes) filesystems.<br />
<br />
There are a couple of things that can be done.<br />
1. Modify the default template<br />
2. Use a transform in /Events/Perf/Filesystem that calculate actual figures, then decide the fate of events based on these figures (you can obtain such a transform <a href="http://pastebin.com/Q42hGLvz" target="_blank">here</a>)<br />
<br />
If the first approach above sounds good, I may be able to upload a zenpack which adds a second graph on the template, and also contains a modified copy of FileSystem.pyChitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-61232768877085177422012-07-05T10:09:00.002-07:002012-07-05T10:13:44.423-07:00GPFS Highly Available (HA) SNMP monitoring configuration<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">The available/documented GPFS SNMP implementation (By IBM) is not designed to be highly available.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-snmp-gpfs/" style="background-color: #f3f3f3;" target="_blank">Here is the link</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">There is only one SNMP collector node at a time. If that node fails the SNMP monitoring does not fail over to any other node and thus complete loss of cluster monitoring/reporting.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This blog post offers a simple </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">implementation of gpfs snmp monitoring failover. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The failover scheme uses a callback mechanism triggered by a quorumNodeLeave event and the eventNode is its only parameter.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First create a folder to contain your callbacks (if you already have a location for your callbacks, use that instead)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Download/copy the following script into the callbacks location and make it executable.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://pastebin.com/dJhLKQUY" style="background-color: #f3f3f3;" target="_blank">gpfs_snmp_failover</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Modify the script to indicate your available collector nodes by substituting "quorum" and "quorum_node_2" with the hostnames of your gpfs quorum nodes.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note that in this case the callbacks location is /callback so you may have to modify the script accordingly.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Copy the modified script to all quorum nodes</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Add the callback (run once from any quorum node);</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">mmaddcallback NodeDownCallback --command /callback/snmp_collector_failover.sh --event quorumNodeLeave --parms %eventNode</i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if you want monitoring to be reverted back to the default prefered collector node after it comes back online, you may consider adding a node join callback;</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">mmaddcallback NodeJoinCallback --command /callback/snmp_collector_failover.sh --event quorumNodeJoin --parms %eventNode</i></span></blockquote>
</div>Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-70897563673530500162012-07-05T09:40:00.005-07:002012-07-05T10:12:10.461-07:00Unix --> Linux --> Android<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">What is Unix?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">[From Wikipedia] <b style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Unix</b><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">(officially trademarked as</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><b style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">UNIX</b><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">, sometimes also written as</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><b style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Unix</span></b><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">) is a</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_multitasking" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Computer multitasking">multitasking</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">,</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-user" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Multi-user">multi-user</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">computer</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Operating system">operating system</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">originally developed in 1969 by a group of</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Telephone_%26_Telegraph" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="American Telephone & Telegraph">AT&T</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">employees at</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Bell Labs">Bell Labs</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">, including</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson_(computer_programmer)" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Ken Thompson (computer programmer)">Ken Thompson</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">,</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Dennis Ritchie">Dennis Ritchie</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">,</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Brian Kernighan">Brian Kernighan</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">,</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_McIlroy" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Douglas McIlroy">Douglas McIlroy</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">,</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lesk" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Michael Lesk">Michael Lesk</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">and</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ossanna" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Joe Ossanna">Joe Ossanna</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">. The Unix operating system was first developed in</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Assembly language">assembly language</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">, but by 1973 had been almost entirely recoded in</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="C (programming language)">C</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">, greatly facilitating its further development and</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_portability" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Software portability">porting</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">to other hardware. Today's Unix system evolution is split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T as well as various commercial vendors, universities (such as</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="University of California, Berkeley">University of California, Berkeley</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">'s</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="BSD">BSD</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">), and</span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="Non-profit">non-profit</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">organizations.</span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Group" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="The Open Group">The Open Group</a>, an industry standards consortium, owns the UNIX trademark. Only systems fully compliant with and certified according to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_UNIX_Specification" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Single UNIX Specification">Single UNIX Specification</a> are qualified to use the trademark; others might be called <i>Unix system-like</i> or <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Unix-like">Unix-like</a></i>, although the Open Group disapproves<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix#cite_note-0" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup> of this term. However, the term <i>Unix</i> is often used informally to denote any operating system that closely resembles the trademarked system.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the influence of Unix in academic circles led to large-scale adoption of Unix (particularly of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Berkeley Software Distribution">BSD</a> variant, originating from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="University of California, Berkeley">University of California, Berkeley</a>) by commercial startups, the most notable of which are <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_Operating_System" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Solaris Operating System">Solaris</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-UX" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="HP-UX">HP-UX</a> and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIX_operating_system" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="AIX operating system">AIX</a>, as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Darwin (operating system)">Darwin</a>, which forms the core set of components upon which<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc." style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Apple Inc.">Apple</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="OS X">OS X</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Apple TV">Apple TV</a>, and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_(Apple)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="IOS (Apple)">iOS</a> are based.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix#cite_note-1" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix#cite_note-2" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[3]</a></sup> Today, in addition to certified Unix systems such as those already mentioned, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Unix-like">Unix-like</a> operating systems such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MINIX" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="MINIX">MINIX</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Linux">Linux</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Android (operating system)">Android</a>, and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="BSD">BSD</a> descendants (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="FreeBSD">FreeBSD</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetBSD" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="NetBSD">NetBSD</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenBSD" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="OpenBSD">OpenBSD</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonFly_BSD" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="DragonFly BSD">DragonFly BSD</a>) are commonly encountered. The term <i>traditional Unix</i> may be used to describe an operating system that has the characteristics of either <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_7_Unix" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Version 7 Unix">Version 7 Unix</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="UNIX System V">UNIX System V</a></span></div>
<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">What are other unix-like operating systems?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Linux (including all its flavours eg, Redhat, Suse, Ubuntu, Centos, Debial etc)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Android</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">BSD (OpenBSD, FreeBSD etc)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span><br />
<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Apple Mac OS (including iOS)</b><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Apple's operating systems are derived from Unix, therefore they share a lot of features with Linux and other Unix/Unix-like operating systems.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span><br />
<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Where is Linux used</b><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Linux is, and has been the main driver of Internet (servers) for decades. It is the most used operating system in Servers (behind the scenes stuff) with Windows being the most popular for Client systems (Personal computers and desktops)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">There are some upcoming popular Linux Desktops eg. Ubuntu</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Linux, just as its parent Unix, has given birth to its own set of various derivatives like Android</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Because Linux is highly customization, a lot of hardware manufacturers have used it as the operating system in their electronic products. Because these products are specialised (one task) computers, this operating system within them is generally know as the firmware</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Firmware for many networking (internet) capable hardware devices use Linux</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">eg. Routers, TVs, Portable Media Players, Soft Phones all use some form of Linux at the core of its operations.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Some sensor devices like the Zigbee sensors also use some form of Linux as their central system</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">A majority of mobile phones (both feature and smartphones) use a derivative of Unix/Linux as their operating systems</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span><br />
<b style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Why Linux is so popular, whilst little known</b><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">Linux is like underwear in our life. Its necessary and everyone subtly uses one, without thinking about it, but there are great companies producing these undergarments around the clock. You have freedom to wear the one you like, that suits your needs, or even to modify at will. You have choice to have the <u>very</u> cheap (or free) yet functional ones, or flashy brands according to your taste. Most people who use Linux say the major thing about is "Freedom" Whatever that means, Linux is a basic component of our modern technologies.</span>Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-61196181941554265612012-03-29T08:12:00.001-07:002013-04-18T07:36:55.132-07:00Simple straight forward install of Nvidia graphics drivers on Centos6<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">echo -e "\nblacklist nouveau" >> </span><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file [[<i>or let the nvidia installer do the job</i>]]</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img.bak</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">dracut -v /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">init 6 [[<i>and reboot to runlevel 3</i>]]</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-295.33.run -s -n -X --kernel-source-path=/usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/ [[<i>use appropriate driver and also check your kernel-source-path</i>]]</span></span>Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-39653600383719572962011-11-01T06:39:00.000-07:002011-11-24T06:47:13.496-08:00[HEA-4] The Power of Android<b>Making my smartphone the main controller</b><br />
PC control (esp. with tv used as monitor):- You can make user of various applications that makes it possible to control your PC with your Android smartphone from anywhere in the world.<br />
I will list here a few of these android apps and you can go through their features on their app pages.<br />
<a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.Relmtech.Remote&feature=search_result">Unified Remote</a> (power control, YouTube, spotify, keyboard and mouse)<br />
DLNA (play media in your phone, on your telly or control how you stream media from dlna source, to your telly)<br />
Connected media (HTC Sense dlna implementation)<br />
<a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.skifta.android.app&feature=search_result">Skifta</a> (android app that lets you choose source (either your phone, computer (Media player etc), Picasa, flicker etc, etc AND choose player (either your phone or your telly) and then play the media irregardless for where you are.<br />
There are also loads of <a href="http://wiki.samygo.tv/index.php5/Main_Page">SamGo Extensions</a> that let you do cool things with your telly from your Android smartphone like the <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=de.quist.app.samyGoRemote">SamyGo Remote</a> as discusses in "Playing with my Samsung TV"<br />
If you have newer TV models <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.samsung.remoteTV">Samsung Remote</a> will cut it. <br />
<a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.teamviewer.teamviewer.market.mobile&feature=search_result">Teamviewer</a> is available on Android, and it let you control any windows PC from your Android phone with all the actions being visible on the computer screen itself. So this can be great tool for remote user support.<br />
If you only want remote access to your computer, using your phone, then <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wyse.pocketcloudfree&feature=search_result">PocketCloud </a>is a good remote deskstop app for you.<br />
If you want to turn on (boot) your computer from anywhere in the world, you need <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.benfinnigan.wol">WOL</a> together with necessary setups on your home router connected to your computer. If you need details, can provide in upcoming series.<br />
Imagine that you are watching a Movie and playing music video on your Telly. If the volume is very high and your phone is on the coffee table, you might miss those important calls or text messages. You wont need to worry about that if you have <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=eu.saramak.callnotifier.samsungtv">TVCallNotify.</a> or <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=de.adoubleu.android.samsungtvremote">SamsungTV Messenger</a> (for samsung tvs) All the calls and msgs alerts will pop right on your big screen. <br />
If you have home automation gear setup(<a href="http://www.uk-automation.co.uk/pages/Control-X10-with-an-iPhone.html">X10 stuff</a>), especially the CM15Pro (discussed in "Power of Android Part 2" you can use your Android smartphone to control the lights around your house, control garage door, gates, window blinds etc etc. The appropriate app for that would be <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.melloware.x10.android">X10Commander</a><br />
If you happen to have the UK Virgin Media TV service (V+ or Tivo) you can utilise thier offiffial app <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.virginmedia.tvguide" target="_blank">Virgin Media TV Guide</a> to set programmes to record using your android phone even when you are abroad (provided your box is on or in standby mode)<br />
Further more, you can use the <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.arantius.tivocommander" target="_blank">Tivo Commander</a>
app to control your Virgin Media Tivo box using your phone. you just
connect your Tivo's ethernet port to your home network. With the Tivo
Commander app, you can browse shows, record, play, change channels, etc
etc in the comfort of your couch, only with your android smartphone.<br />
<br />
<br />
Other Android Apps that may be of interest are:<br />
VLC remote / VLC Direct<br />
WIN - Remote<br />
Vlingo (better than iPhone's Siri)<br />
etc<br />
etc<br />
<br />Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-72584101244244539512011-11-01T05:27:00.000-07:002011-11-01T05:27:55.626-07:00[HEA-3] Playing with my TV <br />
<b>TV Evolution</b><br />
Almost all TV nowadays come with some king of a software system inside that controls the TV. This is the software that interacts with the remote controls. This software is called the Firmware. TV firmwares have undergone massive changes over time. Primarily because of advancement in hardware capability, Nowadays this firmware is similar in capability to most computer operating systems that are available. This makes TVs some kind of computers in themselves. As you will realise, Actually Samsung TV run Linux as their firmware. This means most of the things that you can do with a Linux box, you can do with a sumsung TV alone (i.e. if you are a geek of course)<br />
However, latest firmwares from Sammy have all been ring fenced and you might not have better lucky playing with them. <br />
<br />
<b>Playing with my Samsung TV</b><br />
Inorder for me to play with my Samsung TV, I needed to gain root access to the Linux system inside. I had to install a previous version of the firmware so that I could have ssh access enabled. If someone is not computer savvy, they can simply follow instructions given on the <a href="http://wiki.samygo.tv/index.php5/Main_Page">SamyGo project</a><br />
It is very easy to install SamyGo Extensions on your TV. One of the primary reasons I wanted to install them in this case, was that I wanted to be able to control my TV with my Android phone. I hacked my firmware and installed the following extensions.<br />RemoteLAN - For TV Remote control via android phone. (however, you if you have a 2010/2011 model you may not need to do all this and android market app is just sufficient to setup a smartphone remote control)<br />New Internet widgets<br /> DTS audio encoders so that I can play .mkv HD Video files with dts audio<br />etc, etc, etc.<br />I also wanted to use my TV as a samba client (to mount shares on PC) so that i can easily mount my computer folder with pics, music and movies and play them on TV.<br />Other cool stuff include installing a Web browser on your TV so that you can browse the Internet without the need for any computer. There is also an extension for keyboard and mouse input/output, that enables you to just connect your wireless keyboard and mouse to your TV.<br />All this makes your Telly a perfect computer.<br />Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-85326205990827236272011-09-27T08:17:00.000-07:002011-09-27T08:28:25.312-07:00[HEA-2] Networked Media<b>Networked Media</b><br />
I will assume that most of the media files (Movies/Videos, Music/Audio etc) will be organised within a computer which acts as the media server. Media HadrdDiskDrives portbale or dektop, flash/usb sticks etc are also alternative ways of storing home media files.<br />
<br />
<b>PC and TV audio output connected to home theater system</b><br />
With your meadia PC connected to your sound system, you benefit from the superior sound perfomance whilist playing the filses from your computer. Most TVs have optical outputs you can use that to connect TV audio output to your sound system.<br />
<br />
<b>DLNA/Samsung PC Share Manager</b><br />
Now that you have your TV connected to the network (wireless/ethernet wired), you also have you computer connceted to the same network, you can utilise various dlna utilities or software to play you media files directly on the TV. As for Samsung TVs, you can use the Samsung PC Share Manager software, that comes with the telly. Once you fire it up in your computer, your shared folders will be browsable on your TV. The are a multitude of other tools/softwares to set up dlna for your TV, <a href="http://www.rbgrn.net/content/21-how-to-choose-dlna-media-server-windows-mac-os-x-or-linux">check here</a><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Use TV as PC monitor</b><br />
If your media server/computer is located close to the telly, you can use a vga cable (if your telly has vga/pc input) or hdmi to use yoor telly as a computer monitor. This gives you an advantage whre you dont need to have a separate monitor for your media server. after all theis computer is primarily a media server, so you probably dont use it while watching telly. In any case most tellys nowadays have the PIP feature where you can have split screens, so you can split the screen briefly when you want to check something on the computer whilist watching a channel.<br />
As for the keyboard and mouse for your computer, using the telly as the monitor, thats where your android phone comes in handy. This is dicussed later, so check back on details of Android apps to use your smartphone as your computer keyboard and mouse.<br />
<br />
<b>Youtube, Spotify,Web Browsing</b><br />
With the setup described above, you will be able to watch youtube videos, play spotify music or other flash based web content with the sound coming off your super sound system, and images coming off your telly.<br />
You can control all these using your smartphone. There is an Android App called <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.Relmtech.Remote&hl=en">'Unified Remote'</a><br />
Just conncet your phone to the your home wireless network and install the <a href="http://www.unifiedremote.com/">server version of unified remote</a> on the computer. You will be able to browse on the big screen from the comfort of your sofa.<br />
<br />
<b>TV remote control</b><br />
Most new tv's can be controlled using your Android smartphone. If you have latest (2010 or later) Samsung TV's you can install <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.samsung.remoteTV">this android app</a> or <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.samsung.remoteTV_TAB">this one</a> to control your tv. If both your TV and smartphone are Samsung brand, you can use <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.samsung.smartview">this app</a><br />
If you have an old Samsung TV, you can follow the 3rd instalment of this series to see how I played with a 2009 model Samsung TV.<br />
<br />Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212909430063161053.post-62599661429603939332011-09-27T07:44:00.000-07:002011-09-27T07:44:57.828-07:00[HEA-1] Components of a Home Entertainment NeworkComponents of a Home Entertainment Nework<br />
<b>Broadband conection</b><br />
You need to have an internet connection, so that you can be able to pull content from the internet. Many providers will give you a modem/ or piece of equipment that connects to the internet be it via DSL, Cable, or FTTH.<br />
<b>Wired/Wireless home newtork</b><br />
Most nternet service providers in the UK will provide a wireless router (in somecases eg BT, the wireless router and DSL modem are all built into a single hardware device) You connecet the modem to the wireless router. The wireless router will most likely have a few ethernet port, you can use these if you want to connect any other device eg TV or computer to your home network using ethernet cables. There are perfomance and reliability(qos) benefits of using a wired connection over a wireless connection. However, if you devices are not located in close proximity, wireless will inevitably be the best solution.<br />
<b>Home PC/Laptop/Media server</b><br />
You can use any computer with any operating system provided it performs good enough to be able to sream media files.<br />
Digital Set-top box/PVR/DVR<br />
You may already have digital video recoders, If these can be connected to you home network, the better. Samsung recoders, blu-ray discs etc all are capable of connecting to other Samsung devices wirelessly (Anynet+) However, these kind of devices may not be necessary for an internet enabled home entertainment network since you can be able to record your freeview or other broadcast to your computer.<br />
<b>Network capable TV</b><br />
A lot of TVs nowadays are internet enabled. This means they can be connected to your home entwork via either an ethernet port (if it comes with one) or wifi. There are some models which have USB ports that can be used to connect a wifi dongle, and they can then be connceted to your wifi using that dongle. You would need to examine your TV to check for whether it has an ethernet port or a usb port. Also you have to check in its manual for the internet functionality it can do. Most HD TVs from 2009 onwards are network enabled.<br />
<b>Smartphone</b><br />
You will need a good performing smartphone. Needs to be able to run processor and ram intensive apps decently. In terms of currently available appls and tools, this is an area where Android phones outshine the iPhone.Chitambirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07550808230858803189noreply@blogger.com0