what is transmissive LCD display…?
While reading specification of “BlackBerry Curve 8900″ smartphone, we came accross this term – “Transmissive TFT LCD” reading (My friend Amit is planing to buy this phone)…
though I had some idea about this and similar other technology (Reflective TFT LCD), but to know exactly what these technologies are, I did a quick googiling… and here it is for reference…. 
LCD Display Types:
-
Transmissive LCDs: In transmissive construction, all of the light seen by the user comes through the LCD from the backlight. Most LCDs used in portable computers today are transmissive. A transmissive LCD looks good indoors and is typically completely black (unreadable) in direct sunlight. The reason is that sunlight is up to 1,000 times brighter than LCD’s backlight, so the reflection of sunlight from the surface of the LCD overwhelms any light coming through the LCD.
-
Transflective LCDs: Transflective construction starts with a transmissive LCD and adds a partially reflective mirror layer between the LCD and the backlight. Depending on the LCD manufacturer, the mirror layer can be either a half-silvered mirror or a full mirror with tiny holes punched in it. When a transflective LCD is used indoors, it is illuminated by the backlight just like a transmissive LCD, except that the mirror layer blocks some of the light. When a transflective LCD is used outdoors, ambient light reflects off the mirror layer and illuminates the LCD. Note that outdoors, light has to go through the LCD twice, once on the way in and once on the way out. This tends to makes the outdoor performance of a transflective LCD not as good as the indoor performance, where the light only has to go through the LCD once.
A transflective LCD is therefore by definition a compromise. It can never be as bright as a transmissive LCD indoors, and it can never be as bright as a reflective LCD outdoors. It’s particularly poor at the “crossover point”, where there’s enough light outdoors to overpower the backlight, but not enough to fully illuminate the LCD by reflected light. Whether the compromise is acceptable or not depends on how badly the user wants or needs to be able to use the LCD both indoors and outdoors.
-
Reflective LCDs: A reflective LCD always has a fully reflective mirror layer. All light used to view the LCD, whether it’s ambient light or from a frontlight, goes through the LCD, bounces off the mirror layer and goes through the LCD again. (See the sidebar on “Light Guides” for an explanation of how frontlights work.) Since the light still has to go through the LCD (and the frontlight) twice, even though the mirror reflectivity is 100%, the outdoor performance of a reflective TFT with frontlight is generally slightly worse than a transflective TFT (assuming that the same technology is used in both). Indoors, since a frontlight is not as efficient as a backlight, and the light still has to go through the LCD twice, the performance of a reflective TFT with frontlight is again slightly worse than a transflective TFT (once more assuming that the same technology is used in both).
The article has been taken from this link, so many thanks to the author. 
running KDE trunk…
As i told in previous post that I was trying to build the KDE-trunk…
I checked out the trunk from SVN on 2nd of july itself…..but got it compiled yesterday….
yes, it took more than 10 days…
searching on google and asking the developers directly @irc, helped me on this…..
Currently, i’m running KDE 4.3.60 (KDE 4.4 >= 20090706) and SVN version of amarok and k3b…
This is how I got it working….
1) After checking out the KDE trunk (svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/KDE) from SVN, I tried to build kdelibs first…
but got some errors saying “parsing error related to cmake”… i tried a lot to fix this myself but at the end one guy on #kde-devel suggested me to update my kdelibs from SVN…
so, I updated the kdelibs (svn update) … and tried to recompile (cmakekde)….
this time I got kdelibs compiled…
2) Then I went for kdebase…. and failed…(got some errors related to phonon….)
3) when I restarted my system after that I was getting only mouse pointer on the blank screen….
4) so, I entered system with a different login… (one tip from my side, always keep a separate account for backup)
I enquired on irc again…. and came to know that I should compile the code in this order:
kdesupport->kdelibs->kdepimlibs->kdebase…
so, I took kdesupport from SVN, and built it… after that kdelibs again… and so on…
this time I got kdebase working, so is my main login…(big relief)….(btw, this was second time within these 10 days, I lost my login)….
5) then, i compiled all other modules without any hussle..all went smoothly….
6) Today morning I found that amarok is not working anymore…. what could be done…?
took the code from SVN, and went for compiling…. got errors (as usual)…
back on IRC and some tries here and there…and just 15 mins ago… I got amarok 2.2-SVN, up and running… (meenwhile I got k3b 1.67.0 working, too)…
That’s nice, community is really very helping….
Still there are many problems left which I need to sort out…. and I’m sure about that…..
here are some more screenpicks.. enjoy…
that’s all for now…
I’ll be back soon with updates …. till then, bye…
Linux kernel bits which I feel excited about…
Here are some comparisions between:
Linux (2.6.23) versus Windows (Server 2008)…
I compiled these here so that, next time if I want to check the scheduler latency of linux kernel, I should not go for googling.
—-
Performance
| Scheduler (performance) | Linux | Windows |
| scheduling latency (average) | 0.009mS | 2mS |
| scheduling latency (worse) | 0.3mS | 16mS |
.
.
Interrupt Performance
| Interrupt (performance) | Linux | Windows |
| interrupt latency (average) | 11uS
5uS (custom) |
36uS |
| interrupt latency (maximum) | 1000uS | 45000uS |
.
.
Stack
| Stack (kernel) | Linux | Windows |
| kernel stack size | 8KB | 12KB |
.
.
Uniprocessor Boot Image
| Boot Image (uniprocessor, no PAE) | Linux | Windows |
| filesizes – kernel mode (no drivers) | 1.7MB | 6.9MB (3.3+0.5+2.0+2.0MB) |
| filesizes – user mode (no drivers) | - | 3.0MB (0.7+1.0+0.6+0.7MB) |
| filesizes – total (no drivers) | 1.7MB | 9.9MB |
.
.
Hardware Clock
| Hardware Clock | Linux | Windows |
| tickless | Y |
N |
| timer interrupt frequency default – uniprocessor | 250Hz | 100Hz |
| timer interrupt frequency build time configurable – uniprocessor | unlimited | N |
| timer interrupt frequency – multiprocessor | 250Hz | 66.6Hz |
| timer interrupt frequency build time configurable – multiprocessor | unlimited | N |
.
.
Memory Hardware Limits
| Memory Limits (Hardware Support) | Linux | Windows |
| Maximum RAM – 32bit, no PAE | <4GB | 1GB (Starter)
<4GB (others) |
| Maximum RAM – 32bit, PAE | 64GB | 1GB (Starter)
<4GB (others) |
| Maximum RAM – 64bit | 1024GB-8589934592GB | - (Starter)
8GB (Home Basic) 16GB (Home Premium) 128GB (others) |
.
.
Multiprocessor Limits
| Multiprocessor (limits) | Linux | Windows |
| Maximum number of CPUs – 32bit SMP | 32 (logical) | 1 (Starter, Basic, Premium)
2 (Business, Ultimate, Enterprise) |
| Maximum number of CPUs – 32bit NUMA | 32 or 1024? | 1 (Starter, Basic, Premium)
2 (Business, Ultimate, Enterprise) |
| Maximum number of CPUs – 64bit SMP | 255 (AMD64/Intel64)
1024 (IA-64) |
0 (Starter)
1 (Basic, Premium) 2 (Business, Ultimate, Enterprise) |
| Maximum number of CPUs – 64bit NUMA | >1024 | 0 (Starter)
1 (Basic, Premium) 2 (Business, Ultimate, Enterprise) |
.
.
Device Limits
| Device (limits) | Linux | Windows |
| Block device limit 32bit | 16TB | 16TB |
| Block device limit 64bit | 8EB | 256TB |
| Major/minor numbers | 4k/1M | - |
.
.
Kernel Source Code
| Kernel Language (no drivers) | Linux | Windows |
| source | open source | closed source
partly open source (WAP access WRK) |
| language – C | Y | Y |
| language – Assembly | Y | Y |
| language - SEH | N | Y |
| language - VEH | N | Y |
| language – C++ | N | Y |
| language – C proportion | 94% ±3%y | 60% ±25% |
| kernel – size Source_lines_of_code | 3.5M ±0.5M | 10M ±5M |
.
.
Kernel + Drivers Source Code
| Source Code (kernel + drivers) | Linux | Windows |
| language – C proportion | 94% ±3% | 70% ±25% |
| language – C++ | N | Y |
| total Source_lines_of_code | 7M ±2M | 17M ±9M |
| estimated bug error rate per line | 0.02% | 0.2% |
| i.e. estimated bugs total | 1400 | 34000 |
.
.
Kernel Development
| Development (kernel) | Linux | Windows |
| development model | open source | closed source |
| development cycle time -major release | 35 months | 63 months |
| development cycle time -minor release | 3 months | 31 months |
| development cycle time -patch release | ongoing | ongoing |
| development process – simple | Y | N |
| modularity – high | Y | N |
.
.
Hardware Form
| Hardware (PC) | Linux | Windows |
| Desktop | Y | Y |
| Laptop | Y | Y |
| Media Center | Y | Y |
| Tablet | Y | N (Starter, Basic)
Y (others) |
| Rack, Server etc | Y | Y (see limits) |
| Wearable | Y | Y |
| Hardware (other) | ||
| PDA | Y | N |
| mobile phone (cell phone) | Y | N |
| router | Y | N |
| internet tablet | Y | N |
| watch | N
Y |
N |
| coffee machine | N | N
Y (XP) |
| embedded (other) | Y | N |
.
.
Hardware Architecture
| Hardware Architecture Support (PC) | Linux | Windows |
| x86 (Intel) | Y | Y
N (Starter not all) |
| AMD64/Intel64 (AMD/Intel) | Y | Y
N (Starter) |
| IA-64 (Intel) | Y | N |
| Hardware Architecture Support (current) | ||
| PPC64 – PowerPC-64 (AIM) | Y | N |
| SPARC64 (Sun) | Y | N |
| ARM (ARM) | Y | N |
| PA-RISC (HP) | Y | N |
| Cell (STI) | Y | N |
| AVR32 (Atmel) | Y | N |
| Blackfin (Analog Devices) | Y | N |
| MN10300/AM33 (MEI/Panasonic) | Y |
N |
| Orion Feroceon (Marvell) | Y |
N |
| System i (AS/400) – POWER (IBM) | Y | N |
| Cray – Opteron (Cray/AMD) | Y | N |
| z/Architecture (IBM) | Y | N |
| ETRAX CRIS (Axis) | Y | N |
| H8 (Renesas/Hitachi) | Y | N |
| SH – SuperH (Renesas/Hitachi) | Y | N |
| SH64 - (Renesas/Hitachi) | Y | N |
| V850 (NEC) | Y | N |
| MIPS-64 (MIPS) | Y | N |
| MIPS-64 (Cavium OCTEON) | N
Y (patch) |
N |
| MIPS (MIPS) | Y | N |
| Hardware Architecture Support (non-current) | ||
| PPC – PowerPC (AIM) | Y | N |
| SPARC32 (Sun) | Y | N |
| Alpha (DEC) | Y | N |
| Cray – pre-Opteron (Cray) | N | N |
| System i (AS/400) – IMPI (IBM) | N | N |
| System i (AS/400) – RS64 (IBM) | Y | N |
| m68k (Motorola) | Y | N |
| m88k (Motorola) | N
Y (branch) |
N |
| S/390x (IBM) | Y | N |
| S/390 (IBM) | Y | N |
| MIPS (DEC) | Y | N |
| Hardware Architecture Support (game consoles) | ||
| Wii (Nintendo) | Y | N |
| Xbox 360 (Microsoft) | Y | N
Y (branch) |
| Xbox (Microsoft) | Y | N
Y (branch) |
| PS3/Playstation 3 (Sony) | Y | N |
| PS2/Playstation 2 (Sony) | Y | N |
| Gamecube (Nintendo) | Y | N |
| Hardware Architecture Support (other) | ||
| others | Y | N |
.
.
Virtualization
Guest
| Virtualization (Guest) | Linux | Windows |
| Can be run as guest | Y | N (illegal Starter, Basic, Premium)
Y (+1 licence Business, Ultimate) Y (Enterprise) |
| maximum number of guests (RHEL, Microsoft Virtual Server) | unlimited | 512 (with Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, for free) |
.
.
These comparision are blindly copied from this link.
Many thanks to the author of this comparision, for his hard work and for enlightening us.
-
Tutorial, how to stream video on VLC 1.0.0
VLC 1.0.0 released today. 
Yes, after more than 8 years of development, finally !!!
Here is the dowload link for windows and here for ubuntu.
VLC:
——
- Free, Open Source and cross-platform
- Independant of systems codecs to support most video types
- Live recording
- Instant pausing and Frame-by-Frame support
- Finer speed controls
- New HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, Blu-Ray Linear PCM, Real Video 3.0 and 4.0, …)
- New formats (Raw Dirac, M2TS, …) and major improvements in many formats…
- New Dirac encoder and MP3 fixed-point encoder
- Video scaling in fullscreen
- RTSP Trickplay support
- Zipped file playback
- Customizable toolbars
- Easier encoding GUI in Qt interface
- Better integration in Gtk environments
- MTP devices on linux
- AirTunes streaming
- New skin for the skins2 interface
Now they support Blue-ray, that’s a nice thing came along…
Anyways, after I read this news on Phoronix, I told Amit, so he downloaded installer for windows.
and we started to play with streaming,
After an hour of playing with the options and googling, we got unicast and broadcast working….
Here is the way:
first, output of ipconfig on my machine:
__________________________________
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.73.1.68
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.254.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.73.0.1
__________________________________
UNICAST:
————
1- Find out the ip-address of the client computer, where you want to enjoy the video. e.g. – 10.73.1.6.
2- on the server computer, run vlc
3- Press “ctrl+s” or click on Media->Streaming.
4- Add the file to stream.
5- Press the button “Stream”.
6- Press “Next”
7- Choose “New destination” – “UDP”.
8- Press “Add”
9- give the client ip-address in the “Address” field – 10.73.1.6
10- Press “Next”
11- Press the button “Stream”
12- It’s (server) now streaming the video.
13- open vlc on client
14- Press “ctrl+n” or click on Media->open network stream
15- Choose Protocol as UDP (leave the Address field blank)
16- Press the button “Play”…
BROADCAST:
—————
- Find out the broadcast address of the network, follow the steps below for that (thanks to Amit)
———-Calculate the “Network Address”
————–”Network Address” = “IP Address” AND “Subnet Mask”
———-Now calculate the “Broadcast Address”
————–”Broadcast Address” = “Network Address” OR NOT(“Subnet Mask”)
———-here in my case “Broadcast Address” comes as 10.73.1.255
———-for more information visit this link or this one.
- Now follow the same steps as above (just use “Broadcast Address” instead of ip-address of client’s computer)
Now you can enjoy the show anywhere on the network…..
Here are some screenshots-
Reliance Netconnect plus, so far so good…
I shifted to the new flat in May and unfortunately there is no cable internet service available in the building….
I asked Tata Indicom, Airtel, Hathway, Sify and some unknown local providers, but no luck at all.
I had to take some connection urgently since I am willing to dive into KDE sources (yeah, time has come )
and have to start the study for the first semester (M.S. in software systems)…
So, there were three options -
- Airtel USB internet (EDGE based, 150Kbps max)
Rs. 600 per month (unlimited usage)
- Reliance Netconnect plus (EvDO based, 3.1Mbps max)
Rs. 499 per month (Night only, 10 GB)
- Tata Indicom Photon (EvDO based, 3.1Mbps max)
Rs. 499 per month (Night only, 10 GB)
First option was rejected right away, such bad speed when the world is moving to 4G….
Now I had Reliance and Tata Indicom,
My last connection was Tata Indicom, so I know about their service,
they don’t listen to the customers,
I complained around 20 times for speed issue but no result.
And Reliance, no need to talk about them,
everybody knows…they are passionate about cheating their customers….
and the are very innovative in that too….new schemes…new ways to screw you….
but as I told no other choices…so I planned to take Tata Indicom USB….
I called their customer care to have a demo session….
like always, the custome care guy promised me that the demo person will come next day…
same repeated three times….
so, I myself planned to visit their store….
In the store, I seen the device,
but could not verify the speed…since their was no flash player installed…(to check sppedtest.net)…
and they were not allowed to install anything on their computers…(I feel, he was ashamed of the speed demonstration..)..
Meanwhile, I called Reliance custome care, and got the same old response…
“the demo guy will come today/tomorrow/within this week….”
But I still was thinking that Tata Indicom would be better…(being a Tata employee)…
so, visited another store of Tata Ind…and you know what, they withdrew the “Night plan” which I was looking for….WTF…
I thought, Reliance will also follow them…(that’s what they do….always similar plans…)…
so I decided to take Tata Indicom with (Rs. 1250, Use 24×31, 10 GB)…
and visited the store again…
This time first I checked the Reliance store out…
“Night plan” was there…and I asked for demo…and was satisfied with the speed…
It was 2.6 Mbps download, 100 kbps upload speed….
I bought the modem right away…..didn’t even bother to take a look on Tata Indicom…which was just aside this store….
They told, I’ll be online from Monday….
but It was not activated…(due to some document problem)…
I sent another copy of document and then yesterday (wednesday), they said it has been activated….
As soon as, i reached my apartment, I tried it out in windows…
and finally, yes, it was working…
now, I had to try it on Linux…(The modem was being recognized anyways)..
with the help of some posts by some desi geeks…
I was online on my kubuntu again…
and speedtest told me that I was surfing at 2.24 Mbps…..not bad….
I updated my intallation to KDE 4.3 beta 2 and started checking out KDE trunk…
soon I will be runing KDE trunk on my lappy….
I will let you know, how I get KDE trunk running…
see ya….
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