Three Wise Men

Mandatory PlayStation 3 Firmware update (v3.30)

A Sony figure called Eric Lampel¹ announced on the 22nd April 2010 that new mandatory PlayStation 3 firmware system update is available for all interested users on PSN.

Sony continues with surprises. I will fire up my PS3 and update to the latest and the greatest system update. User agreement v1.4 – nothing new about that, accepting and checking turn off the system auto-magically after the update, and waiting … Must say that Sony could do a little more for us technical geeks. For example while we wait for download to complete we could browse through a list of new features, bug-fixes, possible new bugs, commercial about how movie downloading is the same as stealing.

Anyway since Sony doesn’t have this information available for us, Eric has a job that requires from him to pass some of this information to us. You know the tech geeks. And this is what Eric reported:

“Hi everyone, in our continued effort to provide the best, most comprehensive entertainment experience possible, we’ll be adding a few new features to PlayStation 3 (PS3) via the latest system software update, which is a mandatory update and will be available shortly.

Most notably, you’ll see some new sorting options within Trophies that make it easier to claim bragging rights among your friends on PlayStation Network.

• Trophy enhancements – Now you can more easily sort trophies in the [Trophy Collection] and [Comparing Trophy] sections. Sorting can be done with [Trophy Collection] in the [Game Category] and also when comparing trophies with your friends in the [Friend Category]

• Trophy Folder (Title List) can be sorted by game name/ by title according to the date in which you earned your last trophy (ascending/descending)

• Add-on list (Group list) can be sorted by original/the date in which you earned your last trophy (ascending/descending)

• Trophy list can be sorted by original/trophy name/grade/date of obtaining the trophy (ascending/descending)

In addition, this update preps the PS3 system for some upcoming new features, including 3D stereoscopic gaming, which is coming soon to PS3, in time for the launch of Sony’s 3D BRAVIA TVs.”

Update and you will have the capability to sort your trophies. I will never understand why is sorting called a mandatory feature.

1. he is director or PlayStation Network Operations [↩]

Sony is dedicated to 3D stereoscopic experience for 2010

After almost a year of rumors and guessing, on the 7th January, 2010, Sony announced that it is dedicated to bring the 3D experience  to consumer homes. Announcement was made at Consumer Electronics Show (CES). As seen from announcement 3D will be integrated into most aspects of Sony’s product line meaning consumer electronic devices, TV and movie content and game devices.

The latest information is really interesting because it means that PS3 will be able to play stereoscopic games. The update which will enable stereoscopic game play will be available through PS3 update which will be available sometime in the summer 2010. Playback of “Blue-ray” discs with 3D content will also be able on PS3 with later updates.

Read more for additional information about first experience with 3D stereoscopic games. READ MORE

Unboxing of Western Digital MyBook drive

Previously I already unboxed stuff, remember? This now is unboxing taken to the new level. Most of the people unbox things by taking them out of the box, removing the wrapping and packaging material. I decided to go deeper than that. Take a look at the video if you want to see how deep¹ …

Disclaimer: twm-kd.com is not responsible for any damage to your hardware if you decide to repeat the unboxing. We are doing this knowing that warranty will be void after the procedure.

1. Not recommended for people who suffer from emotional attachment to hardware. [↩]

Coming up: PlayStation 3 Firmware update (v3.10)

Eric Lampel – Director of PlayStation Network Operations confirmed a rumor about an upcoming PS3 firmware update.

He stated that the update will include the following features and improvements:

• Social networking integration by linking your PlayStation Network account to Facebook. PS3 will; upon users confirmation, publish trophy and PSN store activity. Although we applaud that users will have a choice weather to publish their personal information on their Facebook wall, we are not convinced that this will work through XMB menu system.
• The Photo category on the XMB has been revamped to make it easier to see more of your photos stored on your PS3
• The PSN Friends List has been modified based on feedback we received after update 3.00. Additionally, you can now choose a color for your PSN ID on the XMB¹.

Additional features list will follow upon 3.10 release. When? Soon.

Edit: Sources at 1UP.com state that PlayStation 3 firmware update 3.10 will be available later today on the November 18 2009.

1. Thank you Sony [↩]

Assembly of a Nixie Clock

Image via Wikipedia

A while ago¹ I decided that as a geek I need to equip myself with binary clock or a digital clock made with Nixie tubes. Until now the idea was brewing. It was almost 15 years since I designed a circuit board by myself and it was a little less time ago when I was soldering something. I had to find an already made kit that didn’t require designing the circuitry from scratch. Pretty soon I ruled out the binary clock since they can be easily obtained in any geek store. Nixie tube clock is a completely different story altogether. Tubes are nowadays relatively rare and much harder to get. After some digging and my distrust to purchase a bunch of easily shattering glass tubes on e-bay, I found tubehobby.com which offered various nixies and complete clock kits. For a relatively low price of $99 I ordered complete nixie clock kit. Kit included all the electronic parts and the Nixie tubes. There was no power supply and casing. Power supplies are easy to get and you’ll be able to find one in your local radioshack store.

Kit from tubehobby.com had basic online instructions on how to assemble it, what kind of power source is required to drive the clock and few tips about setting up everything.

Assembly was fun and memory reviving experience. I do recommend that you use sockets for integrated circuits since they are more delicate and harder to replace if you damage them with too much heat at soldering. When you buy chip sockets² make sure you double check what you’re buying or you’ll end up like me. With one wrong socket and a decision about waiting one more day with the assembly³. Instructions were clear and easily understandable, but you’ll need a background in electronics and circuit design if you want to make this to work. If you never held a soldering iron in your hands I recommend that you get someone to help you.

Two things that gave me a little headache during the assembly. Setting the firing voltage for tubes – there is a small potentiometer on the board and a capacitor where you need to measure the output voltage of the driver⁴. A slight, tiny move of the potentiometer changed the value by 10V or even more, so finding that 160V was quite a task. Second problem was more of a dexterity issue. See, the tubes have 13 long and bendable pins that need to go through 13 tiny holes that are very close together. It took me about 5 minutes to insert each tube. :)

Apart from one broken separator bulb, kit from tubehobby.com was perfect. I am not sure if separator bulb was broken during transport or if I fried it when I connected the clock for the first time. Separator bulbs can be set in three different modes. They can blink once per second, then can be used as an AM/PM indicator if you use 12h clock format, they can be constantly lit or you can switch them off. Only one bulb was working for me and I found the blinking highly annoying. I turned it off and I’ll probably remove both bulbs from the circuit board sometime in the future.

Of course, you need to see the video of nixie clock in action.

1. Couple of years ago actually. [↩]
2. They are not included in the kit. [↩]
3. No, I didn’t wait, I soldered one chip directly to the board. [↩]
4. You’ll need a voltmeter for this. [↩]