Tag Archives: hobbies - Page 11

To Bed To Rise

Posted by on March 5, 2013 No comments

When Windows 8 came out, I had planned on making a Windows Store app that would be an alarm clock with sound soother for falling asleep.  Hardly a new idea.  In fact, I was driven more by personal need than personal gain.  I have the Dell Inspiron Duo.  The original one, with the JBL audio dock.  It’s possibly the best-designed multifunction consumer device. The custom dock triggers an app that can be used as a slideshow (like on an office or counter, replacing a digital photo frame), or as an alarm clock (best kept bedside).  The point is, when you’re not using it as a laptop or tablet, you’re using it as something else.

Well, you may know that this product got justifiably poor reviews because of its weight/battery life ratio and isn’t in production or even in warranty anymore.  Regardless, I own one and I have two docks, one at home and one at work.  One day I decided to upgrade to Windows 8 and the clock app wouldn’t launch anymore.  This was heartbreaking for me.  And until a recent explosion of programming motivation, I just used the dock as a charging station.

But tonight is the first live run of my replacement app for the Inspiron Duo “DockClock” or “DuoStage” or whatever they called it.  I’m pleased that I was able to come up with a technique for detecting when the laptop was docked as well as discovering the method for putting the screen to sleep on command.  The rest, involving background sounds, alarm timing, and background animation was easy work.

The original:

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My prototype, with corner controls displayed:

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My main regret is that I waited so long to write this app, since there’s a lot of Duo owners out there that have probably lost their capability to use the alarm clock in their docks.  But once I’ve given it sufficient personal testing, I’ll put it out there for download.

Oh, and as a passing mention, it appears I’m in my fifth year of posting on this blog.  I sure didn’t expect that.  There’s a lot of history in here, with some really low points in my life. Despite that, I’d have to say that the present is truly a high point of my life.  Will there be another five years?  Who knows?

Killing Creativity

Posted by on October 9, 2009 No comments

I am getting so old.

The pieces are finally coming together to allow me to start recording again.  Windows 7: check.  New Cubase 5: check.  Now we’re ready to configure the recording setup.

Using an Emu 0404 as input, I have two mono inputs for my use.  Outboard, I have a Mackie 1642 that will do mixing duties for traditional gear.  It has 4 mono busses, so I routed two of them to the 0404’s inputs.  That will let me selectively choose what inputs I want to record.  Aside from having a cable plugged into the wrong port in the back, it was a snap.  The physical is simple.  The virtual is a little unknown to me, which is where I felt old.

The request I wanted seemed simple: I did not want to monitor the input.  If I wanted to monitor the input, I would do it through Cubase, which would send it to the main output.  Obviously I want to monitor the main output.  Reading through documentation (ugh), I found some diagrams that seemed to explain what needed to be done.  The 0404 talks to the input and the speakers through physical connections.  Cubase talks to the 0404 (not the input and not the speakers) through virtual connections – ASIO connections.

So after a good hour of tweaking, I got the routing correct and working.  Then, just to prove to myself that I understood what was going on, I reset everything to defaults and started over.  But after resetting everything, it worked without any tweaks.  So now I don’t even know what to think.

Bottom line is, I’m not doing anything musical tonight.  No wonder those that can afford studio time just do it.