Library108.com - Spiritual Media » portable

Western Digital's Smartware is unremovable

uddhava — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:51:08 +0000

I have been selling media for some time now which is stored on a hard drive. I was using Western Digital’s Passport serie hard drives because they are small, look nice and i never had problems with them. This week (6 oct 09) i bought another drive. It was the latest model (500 GB, model WDBAAA500AWT-EESN).

When i plugged it in (windows) for the first time two screens popped up. One screen was the “cannot find a driver” -screen. And they other was the “Smartware screen”. And in the windows explorer screen 2! new devices were installed. The hard drive itself and a new CD drive…???. After some digging around i found out that this “Smartware” automatically installs the CD drive everytime! you plug it into your computer. And it is NOT REMOVABLE!!! Shame on you Western Digital

So since i cant remove this annoying smartware i cannot use the drive… Thanks WD….. Goodbye WD…

So be warned and buy the older models!!!!!

Read some more :

The Harinam Sound @ Dublin Ratha Yatra – 13 sep 2009

uddhava — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:30:28 +0000

I was happy to attend the Ratha Yatra Festival in Dublin last sunday the 13th of Sep. I visited Dublin for a “tourist” tour and was suprised to find out a Ratha Yatra was planned. Amazing mercy from Krishna. The Ratha Yatra Festival in Dublin starts at Parnell Square and ends at the Park @ Stephens Green. The festival was wonderful with Mahavisnu Swami and many others. I made some photos, particulary from the soundsystem they used. The sound was not placed on the festival cart but was placed on a stroller. It was running on a 12V big battery. They used a 12V – 220 V converter to power a powered speaker and probably a wireless system. The singer was using a wireless headset so i presumed it was also mounted on the stroller.

Overall it looked like a nice contraption. The sound was clear but since it was mounted on a cart and very close to the ground the sound did not travel far. The music party moved sometimes quite far from the cart and then you could not hear the chanting anymore. Also people who were pulling the cart were not singing that much because of that. I suggest that the Dublin Rath organization could place the sound system on top of the cart in the future. In that way everybody can hear the chanting and will sing along. The big cart has enough place to store the soundsystem so that is no obstacle. Or they might consider buying the Megavox portable sound system!!!

Harinam Artillery

uddhava — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:13:27 +0000

I came across this article written by Tri-yuga das on his website

By Tri-yuga das in General
Published: Wednesday, 21 November 07 – 10:00 AM (GMT +11:00)
Last Updated: Tuesday, 20 November 07 – 08:36 PM (GMT +11:00)

Just before she returned to Sydney with her husband Rupa Raghunath, Krishna Rupa donated a Roland Street Cube (a battery powered portable amplifier, specifically designed for street buskers) to the Melbourne yatra.

She also left us with a cheap Ashton wireless headset microphone giving us the option of paying for it or returning it to the store for a refund. We gladly accepted the gift of the Street Cube, and opted to upgrade the cheap headset mic to a professional Shure PG30 model, securing donations to cover the expense.

On Friday afternoon, before the scheduled Harinama, Sita Pati, Vrajadhama and myself began to consider how to combine the Street Cube and Shure wireless headset mic into a single portable unit for use on the Harinama.

We went to Dick Smith’s and purchased an 8 AA battery pack and soldered to this the correct plug to provide a portable 12volt power source to the Wireless headset mic receiver.

I then went and purchased a strong elastic cord, a guitar strap and fittings, and a couple of stainless fasteners. Using these items I solidly secured the receiver, and its battery pack to the side of the Street Cube amplifier, and attached the fittings for the guitar carry strap. The result exceeded all of our expectations.

Running on just 6 AA batteries the Roland Street Cube produces and loud and clear sound, and is quite light to carry. Combined with the Shure Wireless headset mic, with its phenomenal range of about 40m, this combo is a formidable piece of Harinam artillery.

I dropped Sita Pati at the airport 5am Monday morning after a weekend of intense action and minimal sleep. He just sent me an email stating that he had purchased and adapted the same system for Atma Yoga in Brisbane before the sun had set that day.

“Anything auspicious should be done immediately:

I had this puppy done before the sun set….”

“Strap lock system. $30 from Allans - worth it to prevent the loss of the rest of the investment.”

Welcome to latest in Harinam sound system weaponry!

Portable Sound Systems for Harinam

uddhava — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:00:33 +0000

Harinam is great. And singing a harinam is very nice, but we need some form of sound amplification otherwise the devotees in the harinam group cannot hear the singer. So we need a portable soundsystem on batteries. I saw many harinam sound systems, either DYI or simple guitar amplifiers, and they all have their strong/weak points. When we needed to buy some sound system for our anual mega harinam party during Queensday in Amsterdam, i compiled a list of systems that caught my attention.

In the end i bought the Megavox Pro, and our harinam party was a great succes. This sound system is LOUD, and it lasted 6.5 hours. Next year i will need a spare because our harinam continued for 2.5 hours more…. . The megavox has a nice handle to hold it steady, but it is heavy… Ouch, my shoulder still hurts. So here i present the systems that i considered.

What i wanted

Not too heavy (less then 7 kg)
Wireless receiver/microphone
Battery life 3 hours or more (at high volume)

List of system that i considered buying

Megavox Pro
Monacor TXA-110
Mipro MA-101a
Chiayo Focus 500

List of systems that did not quite make it…

Chiayo Smart 300 (too small for big audiences)
mipro 705 (Heavy and expensive.)
Monacor TXA-800 (too heavy)
Monacor TXA-500 (too heavy)
Pyle Pro PWMA600 (9 Volt batteries. Non standard)
Crate Taxi TX15 (too heavy. Heard some negative remarks about battery life)
Roland Cube Street
Behringer EPA40 (too cheapy plastic)
Minivox / Minivox Lite

1. Megavox Pro

Read our in-depth review

The Megavox is build with a Horn type speaker. This means that the sound is loud and clear. Good for speach, but less for singing, although it still sounds goods. The megavox is used for example on the New York Ratha Yatra and does a good job there. The Megavox can be used with a wireless microphone option. The battery lasts at least 6 hours (volume half way – and that is loud!!). The battery cannot be changed easily (without unscrewing the backside). You can connect upto 2 (wireless) microphones and other things like CD-players etc.

We bought the megavox after some consideration. It is very expensive in Europe compared to the US (with this weak dollar). Read our review for details.
Anchor Audio website

2. Monacor TXA-110

New nice looking sound set introduced in apr 2008. Only 4.2 kg. Looks nicely build and of easy use, although i dont have experience with this thing. The battery (lead-gel) can be changed easily during harinam. Standard lead gel battery should fit. Monacor sells spare batteries but these are quite expensive. The wireless microphone is optional, but the receiver is built into the machine. You get a nice carrying bag for free with this set. I was seriously considering this system. It will be sufficient for a smaller harinam group. But since i needed a system for a big harinam group of 70+ devotees, i chose for the megavox.
Monacor website

3. Mipro MA-101a

Indeed does look a lot like the TXA-110, or is it the other way around ? Also peavey used to sell a portable PA that looks a lot like the mipro. Probably this thing is produced by some local Taiwanese? manufacturer and gets rebranded. Then why is the mipro so damn expensive ??? (found this online for $450. In the Netherlands this baby is 327 euro, excl mic)

This candidate was hard to get in Holland, and expensive compared to the Monacor TXA-110. so i dropped this in favor of the monacor.
Mipro Website

4. Chiayo Focus 500

I was considering this machine as it looked like it is decent quality and comes in a carryable bag with sound mesh. I dropped this in the end due to unavailability in Holland. The price i could find in Holland was 550 euro incl wireless microphone. This was a reasonable price, but since i couldnt buy it, i let it go. Also the audio controls (like volume) are on the back of this system. A bit clumsy when this system is strapped on your back. The battery is easily replaceable. A nice feature is that you can plug in a USB stick. The MP3 player will read the USB stick and play your music.. Cool..
Chiayo Website

The other systems that did not make it…

* Chiayo Smart 300

It looks nice and small, but i considered it too small. It has only 10 Watt, 4 inch speaker. That might not be enough for outside. Considering the battery type, it might run more then 6 hours depending on how loud you turn it.

* Mipro 705

Looks very sturdy and of a good built quality, but it is also very expensive. Without a microphone this thing costs 570 euro. It is also 10 kg because it has 2 batteries inside. This might be a good solution for inside the temple, or other gatherings. Not a harinam.

* Monacor TXA-800 and TXA-500

Although they have a nice trolley, so taking these systems is easy, they were too heavy to consider. I have some experience with a previous model (302) but i found the battery too limited in time and the volume too low. Also the square model without handle makes it difficult to ‘handle’.

* Pyle Pro PWMA600

Very cheap system ( $200 ) but limited to a handheld wireless microphone. The battery is a (non-standard) 9 V type. This means you cannot easily get a replacement, and the battery time is limited.

* Crate Taxi TX15

I was considering this guitar amp for a while because it runs on a big battery. This amp is heavy with 10 kg. But the local music store here warned of problems with the battery life (being shorter then 3 hours). So i dropped this option. This amp does not have a wireless microphone option.

* Roland Cube Street

A new model that Roland introduced in 2008. It runs on 6 AA batteries. It is rated as a 5W system and it should run for 15 hrs (Probably at low volume). I found this link where devotees have used this system together with a wireless microphone for their harinam.

* Behringer EPA40

I actually had this in my hands and it is what it is. A cheap plastic sound gadget. The battery can be replaced, and it carries a standard lead-gel battery, so finding a replacement/spare is easy. But no wireless option, and overal i wonder if the sound will be any good. I think not. Maybe it is suited for inside, or a very small inside harinam?

* Anchor Audio Minivox / Minivox Lite

Although i knew these systems were around i was focussing on the Megavox as it suited our requirements more. But it might be an option for a smaller harinam. If the sound is like the megavox, then i have good hopes for it. Unfortunately i dont have experience with this machine. Read here the introduction of the Minivox Lite