General: The Replacement Solution

I've finally got fed up with trying to fix the sound on this Shuttle with ALC882 sound. I've tried increasing buffers in ALSA and fiddled with pretty much every option under the sun. Surprisingly, despite the rest of the complaints on the Ubuntu Forums, it wasn't a PulseAudio issue as the same issues occurred in ALSA and OSS.

I took the replacement solution, which can barely be called a solution, by popping in a spare Sound Blaster Live! Value I had lying around. I booted up, and PulseAudio worked flawlessly with it out of the box. I'll have a fiddle with it in a months time, to see if Ubuntu has solved the issue.

After a little fiddling with my EeePC, I realised it would happily charge and would happily be powered by the mains (i.e remove the battery). However, it couldn't cope with the current draw of charging and running by mains at the same time. This turned out to be caused by a modification I had made to the power supply. I had replaced the power cord with a retractable USB cable, to make the PSU a little more portable. However, it would seem there weren't enough strands to deliver the current required. I made the assumption that if the cable couldn't cope, it would heat up (which it didn't), so crossed it off my list of possibilities a little too early. I soldered back the original cable and it's working like a charm. The annoying this, is I removed my Bluetooth and 32GB modifications as part of my problem solving. In the process, I've managed to kill the 32GB drive, giving me nothing by input/output errors

I am tempted to sell this unit and upgrade to the 900 series, but I've also been offered a very good deal on an HD DV Camera - so I'm a little torn!

From a media perspective, I went to see Iron Man at the cinema last night. I think I can put that down as the best film I've seen recently (considerably better than the new Stargate film). Probably helped along by my childhood fascination with wanting to be a robot. Some nice plot twists, good overall storyline, a cool main character, excellent CGI and funky sound track What more do you need for some evening entertainment?

Musically, I'm still listening to As Tall As Lions a lot. I never did get around to reviewing their albums, but of the two, the self titled album is probably the most accessible, but strangely their five track EP "Into The Flood" is one I often find myself sticking on before bed. The Carousel and Acrobat, from LAFCADIO, are strong enough songs to consider buying that album too. Definitely worth checking out.

The EeePC is fine and dandy Ivan! The 32GB flash drive was one I had modded in there. So a little disappointing to see it die

Well, let me tell you - I missed it. A LOT.