Ji He's Weblog

Posted by Ji He at 3:28 PM | Permalink

I have recently installed a NVIDIA TNT2 M64 video card with TV out on the whitebox and have successfully configured an old APEX TV as the primary monitor for both console and xwindows. The work involved installing a "close source" driver avialable via NVIDIA's official web site and manually editing the xorg.conf file (see attached as the extended entry).

However, once I upgraded the Fedora distribution to Core 5, the NVIDIA driver does not work any more. Further studies revealed that this is the "fault" of both Fedora and NVIDIA. Firstly, the initial release of Fedora Core 5 used a wrong kernel distribution which prevented non-GPL modules from being loaded (full story at OS News, and the new kernel release). And secondly, the latest "official" NVIDIA driver needs to be patched in order to work on Fedora Core 5 (NVNews Discussions).

Apparently, I am not the only one who encountered the same problem. And thankfully there are already some detailed instructions on how to make it work. I just followed this instruction and I am a happy camper again!

My xorg.conf file that uses a CRT TV as the primary display:

################# Start of File ###############################################
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder3)  Wed Dec 14 16:39:22 PST 2005

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "TwinView (Analog LCD + TV) configuration"
    Screen      0  "TwinView" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the 
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
    RgbPath         "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
    FontPath        "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "fbdevhw"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "record"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
#	Option	"Xleds"		"1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
#	Option	"XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults).  For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
# or:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
#	Option	"XkbVariant"	"nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:nocaps"
#
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "CRT"
    VendorName     "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName      "Analog LCD Panel 1024x768"
    HorizSync       31.5 - 48.5
    VertRefresh     40.0 - 70.0
    Option         "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "TV"
    VendorName     "TV Vendor"
    ModelName      "Generic CRT TV"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 50.0
    VertRefresh     40.0 - 60.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "GeForce"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    BoardName      "nVidia GeForce2/MX 400"
EndSection


# Edit the color depth and CRT's resolution if you like
Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "TwinView"
    Device         "GeForce"
    Monitor        "TV"
    DefaultDepth    16
    Option         "NoLogo"
    Option         "CursorShadow" "on"
    Option         "TwinView"
    Option         "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
    Option         "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT, TV"
    Option         "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
    Option         "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
    Option         "MetaModes" "CRT: 800x600, TV: 800x600"
    Option         "HorizSync" "CRT: 31.5 - 48.5; TV: 30 - 50"
    Option         "VertRefresh" "CRT: 40.0 - 70.0; TV: 40 - 60"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       16
        Modes      "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection
################# End of File ###############################################

Posted by Ji He at 2:51 PM | Permalink

A PC power supply is one of the most important components in a computer, yet it is often the least appreciated due to it’s "low-tech nature". When a power supply is dead, your entire system is dead. A bad computer power supply could also cause other parts of your system to fail. As personal computers become ever more powerful, the importance of a reliable power supply is more than ever before.

It’s easy to tell if a PC power supply is working or not. However, until now it has been hard for a PC end-user to measure the quality and reliability of a power supply. Dr. Michael's research work revealed an interesting discovery -- the weight of a power supply is directly related to the quality of the power supply. So, as a simple and easy way, "buy a power supply by the pound".

Read the full article published at Directron.com.

Posted by Ji He at 9:40 AM | Permalink

Ask and you shall receive. When it comes to the art of leadership, this age-old saying holds a lot of truth.

If you want to be a better leader, a better manager, or a more effective professional, focus on questions more than answers. See what questions stimulate the most compelling answers. Observe how people react when they're asked something, compared to when they're told. Become a collector of the most interesting questions and pull them out as arrows in your leadership quiver.

Yahoo! Finance has the full article.

Posted by Ji He at 9:03 AM | Permalink

The three major consumer credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, announced Tuesday that they have created a new credit scoring system, "VantageScore", aimed at simplifying the loan process for both lenders and borrowers. The agencies in the past each used their own proprietary formulas to create their own scores, meaning that a lender dealing with a consumer's application for a credit card or a mortgage might have to reconcile three widely different scores. With the new system, a single methodology will be used to create the scores.

The scores will range from 501 to 990, and will be grouped on "the familiar academic scale." Experian gave these groupings:
A -- 901-990
B -- 801-900
C -- 701-800
D -- 601-700
F -- 501-600
It said the new scores would be available immediately.

Yahoo! Finance has the full story.

Posted by Ji He at 9:30 AM | Permalink