Refreshing!

As a long-time TV and computer-monitor repairman, I usually notice computer screens as I move through my world. One of the things that bugs me quite a bit is that most computer users have their monitor's vertical-refresh rate set at the default value of 60 Hz. This flickers like crazy to my trained eye (obedience school was tough!) and can lead to eyestrain and headaches for the users--but they will probably never even know the cause.

Under Windows, this is easily fixed with a free utility, MultiRes--in fact, it's one of the utilities that I always install on any Windows machine I work on, either my own or one I'm fixing or upgrading. It's also useful for changing screen resolution on-the-fly, as well. This can be especially useful for certain games or graphics applications.

During installation I specify Load with Windows--from then on it "lives" in the Windows System Tray in the lower-right corner of the screen. Either a right-click or left-click over the icon with the mouse will bring up a list of the available screen resolutions. The vertical-refresh rate can be specified for each resolution setting--the system will remember the configuration the next time you go to that resolution.

Try it, I think you will like it!

Sound & Music

My interest in electronics was sparked by an interest in music (at age 2). For a variety of reasons, I never learned to play a musical instrument, but I learned to play the stereo REAL well... To a great extent, my interest in computers was also piqued by music. As a part-time recording engineer and loudspeaker designer, the first program I typed into my KIM-1 computer was one that allowed me to play (admittedly primitive) music through the KIM's cassette port. Later, the 4-voice two-channel audio output of the Amiga caught my ear. This was long before decent-quality sound, or even the MP3 format as we know it, was available on the PC; the leading music-file format on the Amiga at the time (1987) were known as MOD (music module) files -- think a MIDI file with built-in samples. Most of these MOD files are still available today, and still provide good listening. In fact, they are STILL being created -- the creation tools (still called "trackers") are also available, as well. Look for file extensions like MOD, IT, XM, S3M, STM, and others. WinAmp plays these OK, but MODPlug does a better job, and has a tracker available too (all for Windows). Under Linux, XMMS works OK -- here's some other MOD-related Linux information, as well.

If you have broadband and a reasonably-decent PC, you should be listening to streaming audio when you can. There are tens of thousands of "Internet radio stations" available, with all types of legal(!) content, from talk, news, and police scanner streams to CD-quality music of all types. Some of the directories that list these "stations" include SHOUTCast and IceCast--both of which have excellent search functions. If you run Linux, check out StreamTuner too (there's no Windows equivalent). Most streams are MP3 format, but some are in the open-source OGG format; in either case, WinAmp (Windows) or XMMS (Linux) will play these handily. It's also possible to record audio streams straight to your hard drive using StationRipper (Windows) or StreamRipper (Linux) and break them into smaller chunks (if needed) using MP3splt (both platforms). I am writing an article with more details on how to deal with streaming audio on both platforms. In the meantime, my Audio Tech's Page has more information and will have a link to the article, as well.