Meaning of terms...

OK, I'm considering getting an iPhone 3GS but am, admittedly, new to this device.
After reading the posts on this site I've run across several terms that I'm not familiar with.
Could anyone enlighten me on the meaning of the following terms?
Difference between 3G & WiFi:?
Push?:
Location Settings?:
I know what bluetooth is.
I think I may know what MobileMe does. I've read the info on Apple's site but I guess the concept is still quite unfamiliar to me. Any clarifications?
Thanks
-Mike

Mike,
MobileMe is a "cloud" personal information management service offered by Apple to allow users a central location for maintaining key information (email,calendar, contacts) that will automatically update all computers that are synced with it so all locations have the same information. If you're sitting at a traffic light and decide to change the phone number in one of your iPhone contacts, the change will be routed OTA to the MobileMe servers at Apple where the changed data will then be routed out to any other computers you've synced with the account. Every computer remains synced so you have instant access to updated data no matter which computer or device you're using. Works real well.
Google has this same capability, but it's free whereas Apple's service costs $99 annually. Again, both work very well.
Message was edited by: dmiannay

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Hi buddy,
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What does this TJ data mean?

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I assume you have a copy of ISO 32000-1:2008 available, so that you are reading what is written there first before asking.
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Hi
Thank you very much!
Its not too good news for me... are you sure?
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I can think of 2 things to check:
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Pro vs. Air: Can you translate the differences into user terms vs tech specs?

Hi,
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Walksthru wrote:
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As long as you are only doing light photoshop and video editing an air should be fine, however check the tech requirements of the software you plan to use before purchasing a mac. You don't want a mac that only meets the minimum requiremnents to run the software.
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http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564ZM/A

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Hi,
This type of question is almost impossible to answer over a forum .
You need to work with your business to understand what these requirements mean in terms of data modelling and relationships between object entities.
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Regards,
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Little tip.
Do'nt
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SkipWeisman wrote:
... I want to host the video solely on my website with its own video player (stop, play, pause buttons, etc.).
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• you have to upload your encoded files to your web-host, add some lines of code which generates a 'player'-experience (= tons of advice and free downloads around the net...); 'link' the code to your site-folders containing the videos - done.
• webspace and traffic
• decision to encode in what ..
• encoding video, probably wth some 3rd party encoder
• some 'website generator software' which allows manual coding for embedding your 'player'-code
=> now you see, HOW convenient iWeb is...
.. which, by the way, supports upload/FTP to 'foreign'/non-MobileMe websites..
perhaps you should try this very Mac-like way as a start..

DNS Requirements in Exchange 2013: Which RR's to create & what do they do?

Hi Experts, I had been primarily a RHEL guy in the past. Currently, I have 3 Node (All-in-one) Exchange 2013 DAG (all 3 nodes are virtualized in Hyper-V 2012 and are a part of HyperV2012
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A simplified (but detailed) explanation would be better because I have never dealt with Outlook anywhere before. Would be great if experts could point me to relevant blogs & online
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Yes Steve, that is how all Load Balancers are supposed to work but somehow it is not working for me.
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Exchange MAPI IP address)
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Regards, Rahul

IMac hdmi audio cut out

Hi guys,
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I'm using a motu828. I disconnected the firewire connection, and ran audio from the headphone jack to the motu, and VOILA, no problems... Last year, I went thru two motu units, not really sure if they are the issue.
I think it might be LOGIC's firewire circuitry. Apple techs couldn't find the issue, I had the G5 motherboard replaced. Another factor was I had 3 Lacie firewire drives (2 firewire 800, 1 400) I have had 4 Lacie drives die on me in the last 3 years. They are the only firewire drives I have, so I don't know if the fault lies with them, or the again Apples firewire circuitry, stressing the drives out???
I also put a firewire 800 card in my system.
I have now switched to an external ESATA raid setup. No more firewire drives. So far so good. Since I had the whole motherboard replaced, I don't know what that means in terms of MOTU connected via firewire..
For now, I'm running audio out of headphone jack, using all virtual instruments, so I know it will sound better when I get firewire audio up and running, but I got tired of it cutting out every 3 - 30 minutes. I'm thinking about the apogee duet unit. But again if it's connected via firewire, I don't know where that leaves me..
My G5 is three and half years old, perhaps it's tired and wants to be retired....
The dark part of me wonders, if Apple computers don't start crapping out after three years of heavy use, or is it that technology, software, updates, push the hardware beyond it's capacity after a few years.

Tapeless workflows and Sandy Bridge or other PC's: KISS or LOVE?

Tapeless workflows and Sandy Bridge or other PC's: KISS or LOVE?
Life used to be so simple when shooting video on a tape based camera. You shot your material, captured it for editing and stored your precious original footage on tape in a safe and dry place. Sure, it took time to capture, but the big advantage was that if you had a computer or drive failure, you would still have the original tape so everything could be recreated.
Now with tapeless workflows we have the significant advantage of much faster import of the original footage. Connect the flash card or disk drive to the computer over USB and copy the data to a HDD on the computer, ready for editing. The data on the flash card or disk drive can then be erased, so you can reuse it for more shots. But, like Johan Cruyff has said repeatedly, every advantage has its drawback. In this case it simply means that you no longer have the original material to fall back on, in case of computer or drive failures. That is a very unpleasant and insecure feeling.
The easy anwser to that problem is backups. Backup of the original media, backup of projects and backup of exports. This often means a bundle of externals for backup or NAS configurations. One thing is clear, it requires discipline to make regular backups and it costs time, as well as a number of disks. Four as a minimum: 1 for media, 1 for exports and at least 2 for projects. Note: This is excluding a backup drive for OS & programs.
There are different backup strategies in use. Some say backup daily and use one disk for monday, one for tuesday, and so on. Others say one disk for the first backup, the second for the second backup, then the first again for an incremental backup, etc. and once weekly a complete backup on a third disk. Whatever you choose, be aware that shelf live of a disk is far less than tape. There are horror stories everywhere about ball-bearings getting stuck after some time and without original tapes, you better be safe than sorry, so don't skimp on backups.
What is the relevancy of all this? I thought this was about Sandy Bridge and other PC's.
It is and let me try to explain.
Card based cameras are for the most part DSLR and AVCHD type cameras, and we all know how much muscle is required to edit that in a convenient way. Adobe suggests in the system requirements to use raid configurations for HD editing and practice has shown that raid arrays do give a significant performance boost and improve responsiveness, making for a nicer editing experience. The larger the project and the longer the time-line, the more a raid array will help maintain the responsiveness.
One thing you would not do is using a raid0 for projects, media and exports, even if you have backups. The simple reason is that the chance of disk failure multiplies by the number of disks in the raid0. Two disks double the chance of disk failure, three disks triple the chance, four disks quadruples the chance, etc.
Remember: Disaster always strikes when it is most inconvenient.
Imagine you have been working all day on a project, you decide to call it a day and to make your daily backup, but then the raid fails, before you made your backup. Gone is all of today's work. Then take into consideration the time and effort it takes to restore your backups to the state it was in yesterday. That does not make you happy.
Another thing to avoid is using a software or mobo based parity raid, for the simple reason that it is slooowww and puts a burden on the CPU, that you want to use for editing, not house keeping.
For temporary or easily recreated files, like the page-file, media cache, media cache database and preview files, it is very much advised to use a raid0. It makes everything a lot snappier and if disaster strikes, so what? These are easily recreated in a short time.
This was a general overview of what is required with tapeless workflows. Now let's get down to what this means in terms of system design.
Two approaches or train of thoughts
KISS: Keep it stupidly simple or LOVE: Laughing over video editing
The first one, the most economic one, is to use a system with 3 or 4 disks internally and 4 or more backup disks.
A typical disk setup can look like this:
This is a perfectly sensible approach if one does not have large or complex projects, long time-lines and is willing to take the risk of occasionally losing a whole days work, between backups. Many hobbyists and consumers fall in this category.
The KISS approach keeps it stupidly simple. The drawback is that there is no logical way to add more disks or storage. The discipline, diligence and effort required for regular backups make it far from a laughing matter. In fact it can quickly become a bore. Add to that the fact that the disk setup is simple but not very fast, so less suited for situations where lots of clips are involved, multi-cam is a regularly recurring situation or lots of video tracks are involved.
A number of video editors want more from their system than the occasional platonic KISS, they want to really LOVE their system, which lead to the other train of thought.
This is more costly than the KISS approach, but you all know a fiancée or wife is more costly and dear than the occasional kiss on the cheek by an old friend.
Let's start with a typical disk setup. It may look like this:
Two striking differences in comparison to the KISS approach:
1. Much easier disk organization and more disks and thus more space.
2. It requires a hardware raid controller, causing a higher investment cost. It is like an engagement ring. You don't get LOVE for free, one of the guiding principles of the oldest trade in the world.
These are easy statements to make, but what are the benefits or advantages, that you would fall in LOVE with such a system, and what are the drawbacks? Think back to Johan Cruyff's adage.
The only drawback is cost. The advantages are multiple, easier organization, more speed, more storage, snappier editing, no jerkiness, lesser requirements for regular backups and - this is the major benefit - hardly a chance of losing a day's work in case of a drive failure. Keep in mind that a parity raid keeps all your data intact in case of a drive failure, so lessens the need for up-to-date backups.
We all know, we get what we pay for: "If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. OTOH, if you pay money to monkeys, you get rich monkeys". But in this case you get what you pay for, a much better editing experience with a much easier workflow.
Using a parity raid (be it raid 3/5/6/30/50/60) you get security, ease of mind that you are protected against losing precious media, that you need not worry about the last time you made a backup, that the editing you did today may be lost and you save valuable time editing and a lot of aggravation because of a much more responsive system.
How does this all relate to Sandy Bridge and other PC's?
First of all, the price difference between a Sandy Bridge / P67 platform and an i7-950+ / X58 platform is very small. Of course the new architecture is slightly more expensive than the older one, but the differences are small, almost not worth talking about.
So what are the differences? Look below:
The first thing to keep in mind is that the Sandy Bridge is the successor of the i7-8xx CPU and as such it is much more evolutionary than revolutionary. The CPU power has increased significantly over the i7-8xx due to new architecture and a smaller production process (32 nm), but in essence all the capabilities have remained unchanged. Same memory, same PCI-e lanes, same version, same L3 cache and no support for dedicated raid controllers.
It is great that the processor performs much better than the older i7-8xx CPU's, almost achieving the level of the i7-9xx range of processors, but is still limited:
The Sandy Bridge is unsuitable for anything more than a KISS system.
Why? Because it lacks the required PCI-e lanes to accomodate more than a 16 x PCI-e nVidia card with CUDA support to enable hardware MPE acceleration and the integrated graphics are not supported by CS5.
You may wonder if that is a bad thing. The plain and simple anser is NO. It is a great processor, it delivers great value for money, is a solid performer, but it has its limitations. Intel had a reason to position this CPU as a mid-level CPU, because that is what it is, a mid-level performer in comparison to what is to come.
The term mid-level performer may seem strange when compared to the old generation of i7-9xx CPU's, because they perform almost equally well, but keep in mind that there is a generation difference between them.
So what about the i7-9xx and X58 platform?
It still is going strong. About the same performance as a Sandy Bridge, with only the much more expensive hexa-cores clearly in the lead, both performance and price wise. The quad cores deliver about the same value for money. The main difference however is the platform that allows a dedicated raid controller to be installed, thus making it the platform of choice for those who want to go from a passing KISS to true LOVE.
And what lies ahead?
Sandy Bridge E on the Waimea platform (X68). Now that is revolutionary. More than double almost everything a processor can offer: double the cores, double the PCI-e lanes, triple the memory, more than double the L3 cache, increase the PCI-e support from 2.0 to 3.0, etc...
This is why Intel calls this a high-end CPU / platform.
So what now?
If you prefer a KISS approach, choose either a Sandy Bridge/P67 or an i7-950+/X58 platform.
If you wonder whether in the future you may need multi-cam more frequently, edit more complex projects and longer timelines or even progress to RED, look at KISS/LOVE solutions, meaning the i7-950+/X58.
If you can't have downtime, time pressure is high, delivery dates to clients are critical or you edit highly complex projects, lots of multi-cam situations or lengthy time-lines, choose a LOVE solution, an i7-950+/X58 platform.
If you have the time to wait till Q4/2011, Sandy Bridge E/Waimea looks to be worth the wait.
Hope this gives you some more insight into recent and future developments and helps you make wise investment decisions.

I'm upgrading from an AMD 3800+, cutting with Vegas 7 Pro. Usually shoot DSLR or HDV, sometimes P2, EX or RED. I have ridiculously cheap access to Macs, FCP/FCS, all kinds of software.
I've been agonizing over this for the last month, was originally hoping the UD7 mobo was the solution, read the read about the NF200/PCIe issue a few days ago, http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/non-linear-editing-pc/489424-i7-980x-now-wait-sandybridge-2.ht ml- and still decided to go for a 2600k.
My preference is to treat my video footage the same way as my digital imagery: I make (at least) duplicate back ups of everything before reformatting the cards, never delete the back ups, and only worry about the day-to-day stuff at night. Unless I'm rendering or involved in other long processes, in which case I'll back up the work in process the next day. If I am under a really really tight deadline I might back up as I go.
Yes, a RAID might make it easier, but I'm paranoid enough to prefer a slower, safer backup. You can always duplicate, and usually improve upon, a days work, but you can never get back original footage you lost. I have only ever had one hard drive die on me (a few enclosures crapped out, though)- it took a couple of (mostly unattended) hours to rectify. As a matter of act, I've had far more loss/damage from tapes than from hard drives.
I ordered the UD7, 2 F4s and 4 F3Rs, understanding I will probably want to upgrade to SBE when it comes out, or maybe next year. The 2600k/mobo/RAM will likely hold its value better than a 950/X58, likely because of the marketplace as much as merit.
The UD7 / RAID card issue is in it's early days, there may be a solution/mitigation. Probably not. But if I really really need a RAID card, then I probably really really need a 980, NAS, etc etc.
But Harm still rocks!

What is wrong with as3

this is not a question about 'how i do X'. is rather a 'discussion' (flame or whatever, but to defend or argue about aspects, not people) about 'what is wrong with as3' and what aspects whould be taken into consideration for updates. right now i am using as3, and since i paid for this license, i choose this tool over some alternatives and i am using it to do stuff for other people who pay me to do it, i think it can be helpful for all of us if some actions are started in the right direction. i have already posted about 'all people in adobe are dumbasses that do not know how to make a scripting tool and are messing up my work', but i was pissed at the time (i still am pissed) but i believe this is not the right aproach. instead, if this goes to the right people in adobe, we all may get something in the future, like better and easier todo apps and web presentations.
pre: not only about the as3 specification, but COMPLY with the specification that you set. for example, some time ago there were problems with matrix transforms. this was corrected later with a patch. but this means it is not even doing what is is supposed to do
1. scriptable masks and movement, sprites and child sprites: there is a sprite with a mask, the mask is a shape drawn via script, something like
somemask=new shape();
somemask.graphics.beginfill();
(...etc)
somesprite.mask=somemask;
just like that. now add some child sprites to 'somesprite', and make 'somesprite' move, scale and rotate. there you will have something like a kaleidoscope, but not what you expected to do with your script. as the child sprites move in the parent mask, you will see that the child sprites appear or dissapear kind of randomly, and if the child sprites are textfields, it may be that the text is rendered outside the mask, or partially rendered outside the mask (as in only part of the text), rendered with the wrongf rotation or in the wrong place. some child sprites are clipped correctly, some dissapear totally when only a part should dissapear (clipped) etc.
way around: have not tried it yet, but i have the impression that bitmaps have different criteria for clipping, so i am thinking of trying this: appli an empty filter (a filter with params so it does not have any effect on the sprite or in the textfield) so the sprite is rendered as bitmap before doing anything else with it. as i said, i have not done it yet, but it may be a way around this problem, to avoid all this inconsistency with clipping
1-b. inconsistency between hierarchy and coordinates, specially masks: you apply a mask to a sprite, yet the sprite has a set of coordinates (so 'x' in the sprite means an x relative to its container), yet the mask applied to the very same sprite, as another reference as reference for coordinates (like the stage)
2. painting via script: in any other languaje, in any other situation, something like:
beginFill(params);
(...stuff 1)
endFill();
beginFill(params);
(...stuff 2)
endFill();
(...etc)
means: render region of block 1, then render region of block 2 etc, and no matter what, it should be consistent, since there is noplace for ambiguity. if you read it, you may think what that means, even if you dont run it you may have an idea of the picture you want to draw, but not with as3. as3 somehow manages to screw something that simple, and mixes all the blocks, and somehow uses the boundaries of one block as boundaries for other block. is like all blocks are dumped into whatever, and then uses all lines defined into it as boundaries for a unique block. it changes all boundaries and generates inconsistency between what is shown and redraw regions of the resulting picture, like lines that go to the end of the screen and then dont go away in the next frames, even tough the beginfill endfill block should prevent it
3. event flow: i dont know what was the policy behind as3 event flow design. it is in no way similar or an extension to previous event flow, neither with any event flow in any other plattform. i dont know how most people start with as3; in my case, i unpacked, installed and when i tried to do something with what i already knew i could not, so i started reading the as3 docs, and since is like 800 pages long, i just read the basics and the rest i would 'wing it'. in the part of the event flow, there was something about bubbling and stuff, it was not clear at all and when i tried to do what is was said in the documentation (like preventing events to 'bubble', as is called in the documentation), i could not see any effect but i could see it was a mess. flash is not the only thing out there to work with pictures or to work with mouse events, but is the only one that deals with things like 'target' and 'currentTarget'. my first experience on needing this was when i was dealing with my own event handlers (so the only thing that had control over mouse was the stage, and i would admin everything via script). there were events generated everywhere, the stage got events that were not genrated directly over the stage, but got there not with stage coordinates but the coordinates relative to the sprite that generated the event. so if i hover the mopuse over the stage, and the stage has some things on it how does it work? i get multiple event calls, like it was hovering multiple times over the stage in a single frame, but in each call with different coordinates? and what if i set all child sprites as mouseenabled=false or compare like 'if (event.target != event.currenttarget)', what if i move the mouse over a child, does it prevent the move mouse event at all? or does it filter only the event call with only stage coordinates? in my case, every time i move over another clip (with mouseenabled = true), the stage gets it as 'mouse up', even tough there was never a mouse release, what the hell? do even the people at adobe know how to handle events with their own tool when they require it? why does an event 'bubble' when i have not specifically tell it to do it? mi thought is that this event flow was very poorly conceived, and tough the intention may have been that there were different cases and it shopuld cover all cases, they actually introduced new problems that were not present in traditional ways to handle it, and it is neither the easier way to handle things, and this way, a very simple problem turns into a very ugly thing because it must handle things that were not neccesary to handle, or were implicit in other situations.
4. legacy: since as3, all interaction is different, and if you want to do things in the new plattform, using the new features, what you already knew just goes to the garbage can. when a new tool arrives, it should be an extension to previous tools (which is a reason to update instead of just buying a new tool from a different vendor). if everything i had or knew just means nothing from now on, then i can not say 'i know flash script', and my previous knowledge gives me no advantage when aproaching the new version. as3 is a new aproach that requires doc reading and stuff, even if you knew something about previous as specifications or other oo languajes. if you decide to change things from now on, like the things mentioned in this post, instead of just throwing away everything the users alerady knew about the tool, do like in java releases, they mark some things as 'deprecated', they keep working as they should, give a warning, but also a message saying this feature is deprecated, we suggest you use this library instead.
5. lack of previous functionality: if you 'update' something, it meand all previos functionality is still there (probably improved, but not with bugs if it was working fine), plus something else. now it seems backwards, there are some things that could be done in previous versions but not in this one, like 'duplicatemovieclip'
6. inconsistency with scripting/programming paradigms: (ok, fancy work, but fits perfectly here): as3 proposed ways to handle things, but the people who designed it got 'too creative', and they did something that is not consistent neither with previous versions of as or with other languajes. the documentations is full of things like 'it looks like x languaje or languaje family, but instead of using XXX word, you must use YYY'. great, what is this? namespaces 'work like', but 'differently' for example from java, .net, .c. its got the idea that a namespace means a grouped functionality but there are rules about where should be placed the file (ok, java has this also, .net takes care of it automatically if all files are registered in the project), but what you got is a mess that 'if you know other languajes you got the general idea, but nonetheless, even if you knew this or previosu versions of as, you still have to read whatever we decided arbitrarily just to be different'. namespaces, event handling, vars definition which is not like previous scripting neither like fully typed languajes.. is just a mess.
7. lack of scripting and graphics integration: unlike flash and adobe tools that just got on the graphics side leaving all the scripting integratuion apart, most tools from other vendors integrate very well interacton with what is on the screen. the script editor: very poor. autocompletion? a drop down list that does not heklp at all, appears in the wrong places, and when you need it to go, it does not go (so if i want to move away from the uncalled drop down list, i have to click somewhere else, making developement slowewr instead of helping, so the drop down list does not capture all events when i dont want to). in other ides you double click somewhere and it will go to the part of code relevant to that event or whatever. for example microsoft tools, ok i am antimicrosoft, and one of the reasons was that when windows 95 got to market proposing itself as the ONLY pc os you could use if you wanted to keep useing the apps you already had, it was a lousy product full of flaws but you had to keep using it because you had no choice. what is so different from what is happening with flash just now? yet the ide of c# is awesome, works very well and seems reliable.
adobe people: not all user are designers that just make pretty pictures. if it is not intended for scripting then why is it there. and if there are corrections to be done, they should patch all versions, not only the last one. previous version users also paid for their versions.

Well, there is no point in arguing.
I personally believe AS3 does exactly what it promises to do within limits (read: reasonable limits) of ECMA type of language. And sometimes it doesn’t do what we expect it to for it cannot possibly emulate everyone’s thinking process. The task, I guess, is to learn to think in terms of AS3 – not to try to make AS3 think like us. No language covers all the grounds. And no, it is not Java - with no negative or positive connotation. It is what it is. Period. I just hope that AS5 will be more Java like.
You are right about the fact that it is not necessary to know all the aspects of language in order to perform the majority of tasks. But it is paramount to have a clear idea about such fundamental concepts as display list model and events. For instance, depth swap has no meaning in terms of AS3 because display list object stacking is controlled automatically and there is no need for all these jumping through hoops one has to perform in order to control depth in AS2. There no more gaps in depths and one always know where to find things.
Similarly, there is no point in having duplicateMovieClip method. More conventional OOP ways of object instantiation accomplishes just that and much more. Just because OOP object instantiation needs to be learned doesn’t mean past hacks have place in modern times. duplicateMovieClip is a horse carriage standing next to SUV. What one should choose to travel?
Events are implemented to the tee in the context of ECMA specifications. I consider Events model as very solid, it works great (exactly as expected) and never failed me. True, it takes time to get used to it. But what doesn’t?
By the way, speaking about events, contrary to believe in Adobe’s inconsideration to their following. Events are implemented with weakly reference set to false although it would be better to have it set to true. I think this is because there are smart and considerate people out there who knew how difficult it would be for programming novices to deal with lost listeners.
I think AS3 is million times better than AS2. And one of the reasons it came out this way is that Adobe made a very brave and wise decision to break totally loose from AS2’s inherent crap. They have created a totally new and very solid language. If they had tried to make it backward compatible – it would be a huge screw up, similar to how our friends at Microsoft are prostituting VB and VBA – extremely irritating approach IMHO.
Also, Flash legacy issues shouldn’t be overlooked. Flash did not start as a platform for programmers. Entire timeline concept in many ways is not compatible with the best OOP practices and advancements. I think for anyone who is used to writing classes the very fact of coding on timeline sounds awkward. It feels like a hack (and AS2 IS a pile of hacks) – the same things can be nicely packaged into classes and scale indefinitely. As such I wouldn’t expect Adobe to waste time on hacking timeline concept issues by making smarter editor. They have made a new one – FlexBuilder – instead. Serious programmers realize very soon that Flash IDE is not for developing industrial strength applications anyway. So, why bother with channeling great minds into polishing path to the dead end?
I would like to state that all this is coming form a person who knew Flash when there was no AS at all. And I applaud every new generation of this wonderful tool.
I believe Adobe does a great job making transition from timeline paradigm to total OOP venue as smooth as possible. And no, they don’t leave their devoted followers behind contrary to many claims. They are working on making developing Flash applications as easy as possible for people of all walks. Welcome Catalyst!
Of course there is not enough information about AS3 capabilities and features. But, on the other hand, I don’t know any area of human kind activities that does.

Audio cut out and midi miss sync

Lately I have been getting audio cut out, and the missing, 'error while trying to sync audio and midi'.
I thought it was that I had too many instances of virtual instruments. So I mixed the song down. Imported that into a NEW song, with only one audio track, and then proceeded to try to do an organ overdub...Well Logic still drops out and gives me the message, even though there is NO midi information in this file...
Then I noticed that even AIF or mp3 files, didn't play properly from the desktop preview mode. They stop too. Activity monitor doesn't seem to be showing anything overworking..
Disk Warrior fixed some volume errors,
Anyone have any ideas to try?

I'm using a motu828. I disconnected the firewire connection, and ran audio from the headphone jack to the motu, and VOILA, no problems... Last year, I went thru two motu units, not really sure if they are the issue.
I think it might be LOGIC's firewire circuitry. Apple techs couldn't find the issue, I had the G5 motherboard replaced. Another factor was I had 3 Lacie firewire drives (2 firewire 800, 1 400) I have had 4 Lacie drives die on me in the last 3 years. They are the only firewire drives I have, so I don't know if the fault lies with them, or the again Apples firewire circuitry, stressing the drives out???
I also put a firewire 800 card in my system.
I have now switched to an external ESATA raid setup. No more firewire drives. So far so good. Since I had the whole motherboard replaced, I don't know what that means in terms of MOTU connected via firewire..
For now, I'm running audio out of headphone jack, using all virtual instruments, so I know it will sound better when I get firewire audio up and running, but I got tired of it cutting out every 3 - 30 minutes. I'm thinking about the apogee duet unit. But again if it's connected via firewire, I don't know where that leaves me..
My G5 is three and half years old, perhaps it's tired and wants to be retired....
The dark part of me wonders, if Apple computers don't start crapping out after three years of heavy use, or is it that technology, software, updates, push the hardware beyond it's capacity after a few years.

How do I read a pulsed input on an SCB-68 counter channel?

Hello all, I have been searching through the DAQ help and this board
for a few hours now and I cannot find an answer that addresses what
should be a simple problem. Let's start with hardware and software: I
have a 6062E PCMCIA DAQmx card connected to a SCB-68 (E Series)
connector block. I am running Version 7.1.0.306 of Measurement Studio
for Visual Studio .NET and am coding in C#. So please, no LabView
answers.
I am trying to read the pulsed output of the Omega HHT-1501 Digital
Tachometer - it outputs a TTL LOW pulse every time the sensor is
triggered, I would like to read in these pulses and get the
frequency to determine RPMs. As far as I can tell I need to
connect the pulsed signal line to CTR0, which is PFI9/GPCTR0_GATE on
the connector block, pin #3. I have verified that the tachometer is
indeed pulsing correctly. I have used the DAQ Assistant to create a
DAQmx task to acquire the frequency of a digital signal using the 1
Counter Low Frequency Measurement method, input range is set from 1Hz
to 1KHz, starting edge is set to falling. For Task Timing the
Acquisition Mode is Continuous, Samples to Read = 100.
When I run the test I get no response. And it also seems that the
GPCTR0_GATE is always at +5V. I have tried just about every other
combination of inputs, including using CTR1 on GPCTR1_GATE, pin 41, all
with the same result - no signal read.
So what is the problem? Every post or help article I have read makes it
sound like plug and play to read the pulses but this is not the case -
does the counter gate need to be configured as an input in either
software or hardware? Am I supposed to have a signal set on the SOURCE,
and if so what? And what about my ground line from the pulse source? I
have tried attachign that to DGND, still no result, and if I attach the
pulse signal gnd to the GPCTR0_SOURCE it causes my tachometer to lock
up.
This thread
http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=34826&query.id=3937#M34826
seems to be very closely related to what I want to do but is as vague
as the help articles - it mentions using one of the two timebases as
the source input - what does this mean in terms of code/wiring?
Additionally in the NI-DAQmx help article under Device
Considerations->Counter Signal Connections->AO/E/S Series it says
"The count direction terminal must be tristated to use an external
signal. Reset the device to ensure the terminal is tristated" for edge
counting. A) Is this related? and B) how does one tristate by reset?
Power cycling the scb-68 has no apparent effect on anything.
I would appreciate any help on this matter, hopefully with as much
detail as possible since the help manuals seem to be mostly useless for
guiding one in performing any task.
Thanks!
J. Slater

Hi Shyam,
The major factor that would come into play with the signal having some noise is that the counter is expecting a TTL signal and the oscilloscope is measuring an analog input signal. If your signal floats above the TTL thresholds or does not rise/fall within the specifications, the behavior is not predictable and it can be measured as a high or low by the counter. An oscilloscope will measure the analog signal and you may be able to measure the frequency of the noise on your scope by analyzing a smaller timeframe of the signal.
What Is the Definition of a TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) Compatible Signal?
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/acb4bd7550c4374c86256bfb0067a4bd
Steve B

Meaning of terms...

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