LG 32LN5310 Review

Over Labor Day weekend, I purchased the LG 32LN5310 from Best Buy for $259.99 +tax. Here is my review of it.



Pros:
  - Assembly of the base was easy
  - Good auto channel detection
  - Seems to use Direct LED back-lighting instead of edge-lit
  - 1080p
  - Excellent viewing angles
  - Has an Optical Audio out


Cons:
  - Eco mode seems to be too dark and I can't seem to find a way to increase the backlighting without going to normal mode since it is automatic
  - Does not appear to support HDMI 1.4 and Audio Return Channel


Other Thoughts:
  - Does not support local dimming and 3D, but at this price point not to be expected
  - Switching the tv from Eco to Normal mode and adjusting the brightness down gives an excellent picture
  - I know that 1080p at this tv size does not make any difference, but at the same price it certainly doesn't hurt :-)
  - This is the perfect size for a bedroom (or small living room)
  - I cannot find the tv on LG's website, but the best theory I have found is that it is just a rebranding of the 32LN5300 to be a Best Buy exclusive.

Convert Cisco Linksys E2000 into a Wireless Bridge using dd-wrt

My recent purchase of a refurbished Asus AC66R wireless router has left my previous router, a Cisco Linksys E2000, free to become a wireless bridge to upgrade my ps3 from 2.4GHz G to 5GHz N. Here are the steps that I followed to do it.

Disclaimer: All activity you do is at your own risk. I am not liable for any damage you do to your equipment.

1. First setup my new router and ensured that the encryption used was WPA2 Personal-AES on both spectrums
2. Downloaded dd-wrt.v24-21061_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini-e2000.bin from the dd-wrt page: http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database (search E2000)
3. Followed the flashing instructions on the wiki: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_E2000
1. Disconnected all ethernet cables and wireless clients
2. Did a 30/30/30 reset using a pen
3. Connected my laptop using an ethernet cable (also turned wireless off on my laptop)
4. Log into Linksys Web Interface Firmware Upgrade page at 192.168.1.1 using the default password (admin), went the Administration tab and then the Upgrade sub-tab
5. Wait 10 minutes until WLAN (wireless) light turns on.
6. Power cycle by unplugging E2000 for 30 secs.
7. Plug E2000 back in and wait about 5 minutes until it finishes booting.
8. Do a 30/30/30 reset on router.
9. Wait 3 minutes and log into web interface using the default user/pass (root/admin)
10. The router then made me change the password
11. You are done. There is no NEED to flash any other build.
4. I then configured the E2000 to be a wireless bridge using this wiki: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Bridge
1. My new and old router both use the ip 192.168.1.1, so if you use a different subnet be sure to modify accordingly
2. Changed the E2000 to a static ip
• Setup Tab -> Basic Setup sub-tab -> Network Setup heading
• Local IP Address: 192.168.1.2
• Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway: 192.168.1.1
• Local DNS: 192.168.1.1
3. I also disabled the WAN port at this point
4. Hard-coded a static ip onto my laptop wired connection
1. Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center
2. Left side -> Manage Adapter Settings
3. Right Click on your wired connection -> Properties
4. Highlight TCP/IPv4 -> Click on Properties Button
5. Use the following IP Address:
• ip: 192.168.1.100 (or a similar unused one on your network)
• subnet: 255.255.255.0
• gateway: 192.168.1.1
5. Disable the DHCP server on the E2000
6. Change the E2000 into wireless bridge mode
1. Wireless Tab -> Basic Settings Sub-Tab
• Wireless Mode: Client Bridge
• Wireless Network Mode: N-Only (5Ghz)
• Channel Width: Auto
• Wireless Network Name (SSID): type in your 5GHz network SSID
2. Wireless Tab -> Wireless Security Sub-Tab
1. Security Mode: WPA2 Personal
2. Encryption: AES
3. Password/Passkey: type in your network password

After all this I was able to successfully connect to the internet and the rest of my network. It also maxed out my 100Mbps laptop ethernet port.

Copying Songs from iTunes to a Sansa Clip

Unfortunately Windows Media player was having trouble syncing all my new songs under the iTunes folders, so I was wanting to sync directly from iTunes. However, there does not appear to be any way to do this only inside iTunes.

Here are the steps that I took to remedy my problem:

1. Ensure all the files are MP3 and not AAC (You can convert them inside iTunes).
2. Create an empty folder on your desktop.
3. Drag the MP3 songs that you want from the Music Library to the new folder on your desktop
4. Once all the songs you want are in that folder, Plug in your Sansa
5. Now open up the Sansa in My Computer (should show up as a removable drive) and go into the Music directory
6. Remove any songs you don't want
7. Drag (or copy&paste) all the songs from your folder on the desktop to your Music directory on your Sansa

Hopefully, this helped you!

Root and ROM LG Spectrum VS920ZV8

Since, I became tired of waiting on Verizon and LG to issue Jelly Bean for my Spectrum, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Here is the series of steps that I followed.

Backed up my device before rooting:

• Copied SD Card contents to my laptop
• Used ADB to backup my data
• Used this as my guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/125375/how-to-create-a-full-android-phone-or-tablet-backup-without-rooting-or-unlocking-your-device/
• Installed JRE 32-bit - Oracle
• Installed Android SDK 32-bit - Android
• Opened SDK Manager and installed "Android SDK Platform-tools"
• Enabled USB Debugging on my phone under Developer Options
• Connect your phone to your computer
• Changed USB type to Internet -> Ethernet under Connection Options
• Unmounted my SD Card (adb kept trying to backup all the data on my sd card regardless of options used) 
• See: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=28303
• Run a command prompt: cmd
• Inside the Android\Android-sdk\platform-tools folder, run: adb devices
• You should see your phone listed
• To initiate the backup run: adb -apk -noshared -all -f C:\Users\NAME\backup.ab
• For other options see: http://geekyouup.blogspot.com/2011/12/android-40-adb-backup-restore.html
• Authorize the backup on your phone
• Wait for it to finish 

 Rooted and installed CWM using this:

• AndroidForums
• Followed the above instructions to root and install CWM
• Used google play to download and install ROM Manager by CLOCKWORKMOD
• Used ROM Manager to install CWM 6.0.1.1 (not touch!) using Recovery Setup Option

Created a nandroid Backup:

•  Used ROM Manager

 Downloaded my ROM and Google Apps:

• CM 10.1
• Google Apps

Installed them:

• Rebooted into Recovery
• Wiped Data and Cache (factory reset)
• Installed from SD Card (CM 10.1)
• Installed from SD Card (Gapps)
• Rebooted

Everything seems to be working great, but have yet to try bluetooth.

6/12/2013 Update: Bluetooth works!

Convert Comma Delimited CSV to Pipe Delimited

Problem Statement

I have a comma delimited csv file that contained quoted strings that could contain commas and newlines. Unfortunately the program needed to process this file could not handle quoted strings, so it was treating commas as new fields and newlines as creating a new record.

Solution

I came up with the below code that uses awk to convert the csv to pipe delimited, replace the newlines with a space, and strip out the quotes. You can change the delimiter to anything, but since my data did not contain pipes, I used that.

Disclaimer

This does not handle escaped quotes, but since my data did not have any it works for me.

Code

awk -F"\"" '
     BEGIN{
          j=0; OFS="\"";
     }
     {
     if (NF%2==1 && j == 0){
          ORS="\n";
          for(i=1;i<=NF;i++){
               if(i%2){gsub(",","|",$i);}
          }
     }
     else if(NF%2==0 && j == 0){
          ORS=" ";
          for(i=1;i<=NF;i++){
               if(i%2){gsub(",","|",$i);}
          }
          j=1;
     }
     else if(NF%2==0 && j == 1){
          ORS="\n";
          for(i=1;i<=NF;i++){
               if(i+1%2){gsub(",","|",$i);}
          }
          j=0;
     }
     else if(NF%2==1 && j == 1){
          ORS=" ";
          for(i=1;i<=NF;i++){
               if(i+1%2){gsub(",","|",$i);}
          }
          j=1;
     }
     print $0;}
     ' file.csv | tr -d '"' > file.pipe

Folding on a HD 7850

I have been folding for years, but I just recently found out that adding a couple configuration options have doubled my PPD on my HD7850.


Enable Core17 beta units. Add the two following gpu extra slot options:

1.  First
•  Name: client-type
•  Value: beta
2. Second
• Name: extra-core-args
• Value: -gpu-vendor=ati

I found out about the options on this forum post: http://www.overclock.net/t/1367557/core-17-beta-wu


This took my HD7850 from 6-7k PPD to 12-13k PPD!

This is using the 12.8 drivers. I am letting it stabilize before trying 13.3 Beta drivers, because I had problems folding on 13.1 drivers. I will update this post when I try the new drivers.


4/20/2013 Update: I installed the 13.3 Beta 3 drivers (including the new APP SDK) and my cpu usage went from ~25% to ~2%. I am also seeing about a 40 second reduction in TPF resulting in about 3k more PPD. I have also seen some Bad work units that lower my PPD.

5/3/2013 Update: Folding has put the beta units back into a closed beta and I am only seeing Core16 units. So to maximize my PPD, I have gone back to 12.8 drivers and AMD APP SDK 2.7.

 Process:

• Disable Folding and make sure it does not restart automatically on reboot
• Download 64bit DRIVERS or 32bit DRIVERS 
• Download APP SDK 2.7
• Uninstall all AMD software/drivers using control panel
• Reboot
• Use Driver Fusion to remove all remnants of the AMD drivers
• Reboot
• Install drivers using custom install and uncheck AMD APP SDK runtime
• Install AMD APP SDK
• Reboot
• Restart Folding

5/7/2013 Update: They have released the Core17 work units again and now I am getting 18-20K PPD with them now.

6/14/2013 Update: With the release of the 8900 work units, I have moved to the 13.4 drivers and am now getting 28-30K PPD now.

Darksiders and Thrustmaster Dual Power

So when trying to use my Thrustmaster Dual Power with Darksiders in Steam, it would just spin me in a circle.

After some googling I found XBOX 360 Controller Emulator.

I simply downloaded the App from: http://code.google.com/p/x360ce/downloads/list

I placed it in the Apps directory: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Darksiders\"

Run it and it will ask you if it should create:

1. xinput1_3.dll
2. x360ce.ini

Allow it to create both.

I use the following configuration:

• Left
• Trigger: Button 6
• Bumper: Button 5
• Back: Button 9
• Start: Button 10
• D-Pad: DPad 1
• Stick Axis X: Axis 1
• Stick Axis Y: Inverted Axis 2
• Stick Button: Button 11
• Right
• Trigger: Button 8
• Bumper: Button 7
• Y Button: Button 4
• X Button: Button 2
• B Button: Button 3
• A Button: Button 1
• Stick Axis X: Axis 6
• Stick Axis Y: Inverted Slider1
• Stick Button: Button 13

If it says that it cannot find msvcp110.dll, download and install the trial: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads