Playback: plug directly to front port, then choose “pulse audio sound server” (“pulse” on skype)

Recording/Capture: plug through the USB card, then choose “C-media USB audio device USB audio (ALSA)” (“c-media usb audio device (plughw:default, 0)” on skype)

On Skype, Recording does not work at all (error message: “Problem with Audio Capture”) with the below settings:
Default device (default)
headset
C-Media USB Audio Device (plughw:default,0)

With the below settings, test calls work but nothing is recorded
hda intel (hw:intel,0)
hda intel (hw:intel,1)
pulse

Overall, setting up a Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux dual boot on the HP Firebird with VoodooDNA 802 was a breeze.

Some observations about this desktop:

- So QUIET! It ranges from 10 dB (extremely quiet) to 30 dB (quiet room – my EeePc 901’s fan are this quiet), and you can sleep with it on. The internal HDD does not make any noise.
- Surprisingly, the bundled mouse and keyboard’s USB receiver seems to work natively with the computer, regardless of whether it’s the command prompt, Linux, or whatever. Nice.
- When I saw the 2.5 dual HDD were 5400 RPM I thought of getting an Intel 25M 80G SSD but so far it runs pretty well and SSDs may see drastic price drops over the next few years so I’m postponing that a year or two.

Windows 7

1. Once the computer arrives, visit the HP Windows 7 Upgrade order page and fill out the form. I purchased the Firebird from NewEgg and a single HTML file generated from the gmail email sufficed as proof of purchase. They’ll send you the Home Premium version and it will take about 2 weeks. (I ordered on December 8th and received the DVD on December 22rd)
2. Ignore the HPUA DVD and boot from the Windows 7 DVD. Go with the custom install, and wipe the HDD. Read carefully, because “Disk 0″ is actually the D drive! Wipe “Disk 1″, which has the Windows Vista installation.
3. After it’s all set up, de-activate automated updates and install the HPUA DVD. I’m not sure what it does, but just let it do its thing.
4. Uninstall the entire Nvidia Drivers et all package from the Control Panel, restart, and instead install the GeForce/ION Driver Release 195.62 (improved performance) and then the NVIDIA System Tools with ESA Support 6.05 (lets you control case LED lights). This tip is from MrAlTalib
5. Run system update, and theusual drill.
6. Programs I care about that I confirmed to work fine and well: Adobe CS4, Office 2007, Supreme Commander & FA (in dual monitor, which doesn’t happen in Vista!), Mass Effect (run the 1.2 patch). Before installing any games, run the system update to full because some older DirectX/MS C++ redist seem to cause problems.

Ubuntu Linux

1. The Firebird 802 doesn’t have WLAN – only LAN, so I purchased the D-Link DWA-140 after browsing through the list of cards that work on Ubuntu right out of the box. It’s a good USB receiver, and comes with a 3 feet long cable + dock to take over only 1 USB slot. Works out of the box with Ubuntu with my home’s WPA connection. Having a reliable network connection saves you a lot of frustration when setting up Linux – especially if you don’t have a LAN port handy nearby.
2. Get the 9.04 amd64 desktop. The 9.10 doesn’t boot to the graphic login mode after installation, and instead fails into command line. I didn’t investigate further.
3. I prefer the Wubi install, as it can be removed more cleanly when it gets stuck somewhere.
4. After installation, turn off the automated updates. Some of the updates seem to mess up the video drivers.
5. From this point on I relied mostly on ubuntuguide.org
6. I installed the latest nVidia drivers, but some instructions were mixed up, and some needed to be tweaked for Firebird’s Dual SLI GeForce 9800S MXM. (Reference: Install the latest nVidia driver, nVidia Linux x64 driver installation)
7. I downloaded the nVidia Linux x64 AMD/EM64T 190.53 (2009.12.16) driver (latest driver for the GeForce 9M series) and did the following:

system -> administration -> software sources -> check “sources” under ubuntu software, and third party software. let it update the packages list.
sudo apt-get install build-essential
close all programs
CTRL+ALT+F1
enter log in information
sudo bash
enter password again
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
sh /home/yonghokim/Desktop/NVIDIA..tab (replace yonghokim with your username, and hit tab after writing NVIDIA and the rest will auto-fill)
Just said yes to everything, including the 32bit OpenGL compatibility libraries. It spews an error about libGL.so.1 (“WARNING: Unable to perform the runtime configuratoin check for library ‘libGL.so.1′ (‘/usr/lib32/libGL.so.190.53′); assuming successful installation [OK]“) but I ignored it.
once done, reboot
sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra emerald librsvg2-common
Log out and then log in
Settings -> nVidia Display(sp?) -> activated second monitor using “TwinView” (both TwinView and Separate Screen+Xinerama work. I read somewhere that TwinView doesn’t take advantage of dual SLI systems.. will have to test further.)

8. At this point we have a dual monitor, compiz-enabled Ubuntu working. Someone posted that the sound didn’t work (described as a HDMI discernibility issue here), but on the 9.04 worked right out of the box. On volume settings, I saw the possibility to use ALSA on Digital, Analog, or HDMI so I think if it doesn’t work setting it on ALSA Analog should make it work.

After this, I installed ubuntustudio-desktop, the ubuntu-restricted-extras (restricted video codecs package, etc), ran the system update, and restarted. Then, xorg’s video driver failed. Oops? Will try to do those last three steps one by one and see which is causing the problem. (My guess is the system updates)

dreamweaver and drupal is what people use most these days to make websites. drupal is like wordpress, and dreamweaver is much more html code oriented

미묘해…

where droid’s better (be it the hardware or eclair – i can’t tell)
- finally, a respectable response speed. (see “hero sucks” below)
- on a related note – no longer scared of opening full webpages like techcrunch – browser won’t freeze/crawl
- when wifi is available, it turns off the 3g to switch to something that looks like edge to save batteries.. or maybe it just disconnects data altogether?
- multiple gmail contacts sync (calendar sync is with only one)
- unified multiple imap/exchange inbox
- seems to have a stronger bluetooth receptivity, because with hero, when i placed the phone on the left hand side of my body (i’m left handed, so that’s a better position while i bike) while listening to music, i used to get frequent interruptions and i thought it was the headset’s (blueant x5) fault. turns out i no longer have this issue with the droid.
- contacts app includes a “join duplicate contacts” feature
- i am not 100% sure but it seems the design is ambidexterous compatible! i have been instinctively using this with my left hand. (i’m left handed)

where droid sucks
- non-standard microUSB/charging port. (hero has a standard microusb) moto why did you have to do this to me.. :/
- the button placement still leads to hitting the wrong ones at the wrong times multiple times a day
- the tiniest possible power button – it’s hiding behind a small chin and it’s hard to press it without looking at it.

where hero sucks
- really, really slow. often i click something on screen, nothing happens, i click again, and 1-2 secs later the app starts and my second click triggers something unintended, like calling someone in the phone log. wish i could turn off the sense ui’s graphic effects
- i don’t foresee too many firmware upgrades forthcoming on the htc hero. for motorola, droid is their flagship product, at least for the next couple months, like the n95 was for nokia in 2007. if they want to keep selling, they’ll need to address some of the issues through patches. (n95 had at least 10 upgrades since their release, some of them including significant performance boosts – the latest being 2009) for htc hero, it’s a mixed issue – for htc hero it’s a good expensive phone but they sell others as well. in any case, it’s the manufacturer, not the provider, who will write the patches. is HTC pushing for the hero? maybe – look at their website – http://www.htc.com/us/ the hero and the g1 get a tiny spot on the bottom, but it will probably be gone in a month or two as they push out their other new and better models.
- after running a couple of apps (browser with twitter mobile, music, map) the memory runs dry, and the slowness adds up. totally unacceptable when even the n95 didn’t have that issue. and the n95 was released two years ago on a similar price range. ridiculous. have you seen the “solutions” running around, telling folks to run task panel x to run on auto mode killing tasks every 30 minutes? how will that every work, if i have to use apps for longer than 30 min (email, nav, gmaps), then do i have to add them to the ignore list? then how do i kill them when no longer needed?
- sometimes, you’ll click at the wrong link on the browser. even when you try to click on the right link while the next page loads, it doesn’t trigger the second link – the wrong page will load up fully, and only then can you press the back button and try the right link again. (fixed on droid)
- sprint doesn’t get evdo signal nor wifi for pandora in the corner of my room where i lie in bed (i’ve been sick lying in bed for the past 5 days), in los angeles koreatown, whereas verizon does
- no camera button (a lot of moments can be lost while looking for the camera app)
- youtube uploads limited to 3mb only. (droid will upload larger files only over a wifi connection – hey but that works for me)

where hero’s better
- native support for flickr uploading, including mass uploads. (droid’s current sole solution – Flickr Droid – uploads only one at a time right now)
- gmail group function is supported for contacts
- the sense ui has some really useful & well designed apps & widgets: alarm w/stopwatch and world time, the quick call widget, among others. peep was unimpressive.
- facebook integration is manual on hero, which improves accuracy. not sure how this works out on droid – i see some facebook people, but it may be of the [sn] tag leftover after the hero synchronization, or it may be doing automatic name match.
- when holding the phone with one hand, it’s easier to press the buttons using thumbs on the hero than on the droid. on the droid, the buttons are located way to the bottom and physiologically it doesn’t work out since the thumb’s maximum bending angle is 90′

overall impression with the android, or issues with both hero and droid
- there’s a lot of useless apps in the market. i wonder how the istore is faring on that front. and they MUST introduce compatible model number (or at least compatible android inf) as part of the standard app info grid, or else even good apps will get blasted with negative comments and ratings from users who tried it on incompatible platforms/phones.
- the voice dial function needs to be able to be voice activated, or through pushing a button on the headset, duh. on the n95, pushing the “play” button while not actively playing music would fire up the voice menu app
- the photo camera and video camera in both of them are no match to the n95. slow in opening, slow in starting to record, bad image quality.. the only plus is native youtube upload support.
- why do screenshots require installing the sdk? no wonder why the early reviews include boring promo photos.
- i’ve been using T9 since 2004, and used it on the n95 and i think it’s the fastest typing method given the os supports easy custom dictionaries (symbian s60 does) – the virtual keyboard is too slow for this. not sure how the physical keyboard will compare to this yet.

i started using cell phones in 2004 with a samsung x30 on t-mobile, then started off with smartphones with a htc cingular 2125 on at&t in 2006, then switched to the nokia n95 in 2007, and just got a htc hero in october 2009 before jumping to the droid last saturday. oh and i don’t drive so navigations is kind of a non-issue for me (unless i get a bike holder)

A: for “The Campaign”

Photo: Calaveras, http://www.flickr.com/photos/luckmendez/2175024833/