I always keep an eye at the "Lenovo China (Hong Kong S.A.R.) - Special offers - ThinkPad" website. Newer laptops with faster CPU and better configure, and lower price than my T42. Sigh... but my T42 has been serving me and helping me for a year and half already. The only issues it suffer are the small harddisk (40 GB harddisk = 36 GB after format, and 3 GB goes to a recovery drive, only around 27 GB is usable by me) and lack of Bluetooth connectivity. Of course, it would be great to have a build-in card reader but this can be solved easily. At least a card reader does not create trouble as if the Belkin Bluetooth doogle, or should I say the Bluetooth software?
Anyway chance to replace? Always feel sorry to my T42 if I replaced it by T60. But, upgrade possible? PCMCIA Bluetooth? PCMCIA SD card reader? Will T42 run better after upgrade? The first problem come up in my mind is the stability and the second the power consume when on DC.
Well...
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
C drive? E drive? or... D drive!
On Nokia Series 60 phones, there are two memory types for user to choose from, namely as "Phone Memory" (C drive) and "Memory Card" (E drive). Mostly, users should install applications and copy data to memory card, so that they can reserve as much phone memory as possible for other purposes, such as receiving messages. On the other hand, developers will install applications on phone memory, due to lack of expensive memory cards in stock. Thus, users might experiencing something very different, which the developers have ever thought of.
I discovered this tonight, when I tried to develop a program with my E50. Being a developer and a user, I knew that installing application on memory card is far more safe than on phone memory. Not to mention that I want to reserve more phone memory too. At least, if anything goes wrong, I can format the memory card easily with a card reader, while phone memory is hard to clean up. Using the card helps me discover a problem of using memory card: it's 20 times slower than the phone memory.
My application will import some data on first start up. The database it generated is only 67KB. It took less than 3 seconds to generate on emulator, around 27 seconds on phone memory, and nearly 8 minutes on memory card! However, it's quite sure that users will install their applications on memory card 90% of time. What to do? I've try to optimize the importing process, which eventually I'd introduced some memory leak within (I knew they are unclosed database view, but haven't locate and fix all). For nearly 5 hours I was struggling with this damn, slow memory card (both Eagle Tech 256MB and SanDisk 64MB are slow). Well, yes, I also struggled with sleepiness. Finally, I've a solution come up in mind, a lightning solution which might do thing in a flash!
1. copy the orginal database to the D drive, the RAM disk on phone (Yeah, S60 phone has a ram disk, can you believe it?)
2. do the importing on the RAM disk.
3. copy the final file back to the place it came from.
But this mean quite a lot of re-do work now. No sleep...
I discovered this tonight, when I tried to develop a program with my E50. Being a developer and a user, I knew that installing application on memory card is far more safe than on phone memory. Not to mention that I want to reserve more phone memory too. At least, if anything goes wrong, I can format the memory card easily with a card reader, while phone memory is hard to clean up. Using the card helps me discover a problem of using memory card: it's 20 times slower than the phone memory.
My application will import some data on first start up. The database it generated is only 67KB. It took less than 3 seconds to generate on emulator, around 27 seconds on phone memory, and nearly 8 minutes on memory card! However, it's quite sure that users will install their applications on memory card 90% of time. What to do? I've try to optimize the importing process, which eventually I'd introduced some memory leak within (I knew they are unclosed database view, but haven't locate and fix all). For nearly 5 hours I was struggling with this damn, slow memory card (both Eagle Tech 256MB and SanDisk 64MB are slow). Well, yes, I also struggled with sleepiness. Finally, I've a solution come up in mind, a lightning solution which might do thing in a flash!
1. copy the orginal database to the D drive, the RAM disk on phone (Yeah, S60 phone has a ram disk, can you believe it?)
2. do the importing on the RAM disk.
3. copy the final file back to the place it came from.
But this mean quite a lot of re-do work now. No sleep...
Monday, November 13, 2006
My Mac goes Wireless
I spent two full days to get my iMac online using AirPort but without success. Finally I gave up and use cable. However, ocasionally the Mac will unable to connect to Internet. I will have to unplug and replug the cable several times before it can hookup again.
Tonight, I used miniStat2 widgets to connect via AirPort, accidentally. It is a monitoring program, in Dashboard. Actually, I seldom use them, except when I try to set up an alarm clock at the ProdMe 0.7b. But I ain't sure why it can make connection possible. A mircale, anyway.
Tonight, I used miniStat2 widgets to connect via AirPort, accidentally. It is a monitoring program, in Dashboard. Actually, I seldom use them, except when I try to set up an alarm clock at the ProdMe 0.7b. But I ain't sure why it can make connection possible. A mircale, anyway.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
While using Mac
I am going to list some problems I'm current facing when using my Mac, as well as great software I found.
Problems:
List shall go on.
Problems:
- Must install OpenVanilla for my one-and-only-one Chinese input method, Dayi.
- OpenVanilla's Dayi works in NeoOffice Writer (Word) but not Calc (Excel)
- home and end keys do not act same as in Windows.
- VirtueDesktop
- You Control: Tunes
- Adium
- Microsoft Messenger 6.0.1 for Mac (the latest update is quite okay, at least it can display others' emotion icons)
- To install Open Office 2.0, must install X11 first. To install X11, insert the Installer Disc 1 that come with Mac, select Optional Installs and select customize. (details)
List shall go on.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Naming My Devices
In computer world, every device can have a name for identification. Naming them one by one has been a headache to me. Most of the time I just use their model number. Sometime will added my name with it. But sometime I would give them a better name.
falcon - the second desktop built by me. This name was first used in a file server from the first company I worked for. Furthermore, I was using falconer somewhere for something before, which I had now forgot. A funny thing about this computer is that, I picked the slowest P4 CPU available in the market, rather than a fastest one.
dolphin - Buffalo LinkStation is a 250GB LAN disk I bought for backup purpose. I tried to pick names of animal species, to match with falcon. "D" for data and "D" for dolphin.
swallow - I borrowed Sunny's CPU-onboard computer for some time (now returned). This computer won't start up if installed memory is over 64 MB RAM.
Penguin - for my white and black Nokia E50.
Hawk - during reinstalling the Bluetooth software on my second laptop, IBM ThinkPad T42, I gave it a new name. This comes from black hawk (in Chinese) as T42 has black body.
I want to rename my white iMac and black Nokia N70 if possible, but don't have any good names to represent them. iMac is white...... may be... polarbear? And Owl for the black N70?
falcon - the second desktop built by me. This name was first used in a file server from the first company I worked for. Furthermore, I was using falconer somewhere for something before, which I had now forgot. A funny thing about this computer is that, I picked the slowest P4 CPU available in the market, rather than a fastest one.
dolphin - Buffalo LinkStation is a 250GB LAN disk I bought for backup purpose. I tried to pick names of animal species, to match with falcon. "D" for data and "D" for dolphin.
swallow - I borrowed Sunny's CPU-onboard computer for some time (now returned). This computer won't start up if installed memory is over 64 MB RAM.
Penguin - for my white and black Nokia E50.
Hawk - during reinstalling the Bluetooth software on my second laptop, IBM ThinkPad T42, I gave it a new name. This comes from black hawk (in Chinese) as T42 has black body.
I want to rename my white iMac and black Nokia N70 if possible, but don't have any good names to represent them. iMac is white...... may be... polarbear? And Owl for the black N70?
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
iBackup for Mac (2)
Pure Mac: Backup - Software for Macintosh is the original website where I found the link to iBackup. You might also find other interesting software for Macintosh there.
I've been using the iBackup for half a month. However, I run the backup a few times only. Sigh, my work is killing me. Anyway.
As someone has reported problem with non-Mac partitions, I tried to run a small set of backup before. It seems that if the backup destination is FAT partition (my Buffalo DiskStation 250 GB USB harddisk come as FAT16 by default), iBackup cannot be smart enough to not overwrite already exist files. Luckily that it shows a complete log on screen and save as log file for users to analysis. Because of this, I've reformatted my DiskStation to Mac OS format (which took me some time to do so).
So far, iBackup works as I expected, although the duration is quite long. Existed and unchanged backup-ed files are no longer being copied. This would save some writing time. However, it takes a long time to do comparison, which unlike Windows which use a flag in file to identify whether the files was backup/updated. Well, may be this is because the backup in Windows is built into the OS, while the one for Mac isn't.
Due to this, the iBackup sometimes appears hang when compare folders with large files (such as the Movies folder). If you have enough trust on the software and if you have over 100GB of data to backup, please run it while you will be away for hours. Last time it took me 3 hours to update my 120GB backup set with less than 2GB of new data.
I've been using the iBackup for half a month. However, I run the backup a few times only. Sigh, my work is killing me. Anyway.
As someone has reported problem with non-Mac partitions, I tried to run a small set of backup before. It seems that if the backup destination is FAT partition (my Buffalo DiskStation 250 GB USB harddisk come as FAT16 by default), iBackup cannot be smart enough to not overwrite already exist files. Luckily that it shows a complete log on screen and save as log file for users to analysis. Because of this, I've reformatted my DiskStation to Mac OS format (which took me some time to do so).
So far, iBackup works as I expected, although the duration is quite long. Existed and unchanged backup-ed files are no longer being copied. This would save some writing time. However, it takes a long time to do comparison, which unlike Windows which use a flag in file to identify whether the files was backup/updated. Well, may be this is because the backup in Windows is built into the OS, while the one for Mac isn't.
Due to this, the iBackup sometimes appears hang when compare folders with large files (such as the Movies folder). If you have enough trust on the software and if you have over 100GB of data to backup, please run it while you will be away for hours. Last time it took me 3 hours to update my 120GB backup set with less than 2GB of new data.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
iBackup for Mac
When I am mirgating data from my old desktop to this new iMac, what concern me most is the backup solution. As far as I know, Backup is free to .Mac subscriper, which subscription cost is at least HK$780 per year. I will not use much of their services anyway so it seems not a good solution. Although one can get a 60-day free trial first to obtain the software (download require log-in/sign up), Backup cannot be scheduled without .Mac account. Someone found a "solution" to use the software without .Mac account but that require advance level of Mac as well as a server (see "Running Apple's Backup Without a .Mac Account". This seems to complicated to me, all I want from Mac is simplicity but not complexity. Finally I found a solution: iBackup.
The program look nice and I still learning to use. However, the first draw back I found is that it has problem with FAT 32 partitions. It cannot skip existing files but write all files again everytime it runs backup. This isn't a good sign. Anyway, I've reformatted my Buffalo 250 DriveStation to Mac partition and try back up now. Hope this work well.
The program look nice and I still learning to use. However, the first draw back I found is that it has problem with FAT 32 partitions. It cannot skip existing files but write all files again everytime it runs backup. This isn't a good sign. Anyway, I've reformatted my Buffalo 250 DriveStation to Mac partition and try back up now. Hope this work well.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
打造大易輸入法
Mac OS 自帶的大易輸入法有嚴重的設計缺陷，習慣Windows那套的人無使正常打字，最慘是因為工作需要，還是需要使用Windows。因為無法隨時「轉台」而造成在Mac上用Windows的方式，回到Windows時又用了Mac的方式。
上Google一查就找到Shih-Hsien的Blog，他也遇到這個問題並成功解決（參閱「用 OpenVanilla 打造 Mac OS X 上的大易純三碼輸入法」），按他指示找到「香草輸入法」（下稱OV）。OV是很不錯，可惜它的大易輸入標點符號的方法欠奉，後來上網再查就發現這個「大易標點符號在WinBase上的輸入方法」，裡面有個大易修正檔，雖然是給版本0.6.3，可是放在版本0.7.2還是可以的。
用 OpenVanilla 打造 Mac OS X 上的最接近Windows XP的大易輸入法
修正檔沒錯可以讓你打標號，可是和Windows的使用方法還有一段距離，於是我把它來個大改，除了全型英文字外，其餘的標點、符號、圖案和街道字都加上去，我想大概有二百多個字元，由於cin檔的授權不容許重新散佈，我只好把更新了的部份貼出來。若果你有興趣的話可以先參考以上各連結，明白了cin檔是什麼一回事後再copy我這段update (因為太長了所以放在comment裡)。
上Google一查就找到Shih-Hsien的Blog，他也遇到這個問題並成功解決（參閱「用 OpenVanilla 打造 Mac OS X 上的大易純三碼輸入法」），按他指示找到「香草輸入法」（下稱OV）。OV是很不錯，可惜它的大易輸入標點符號的方法欠奉，後來上網再查就發現這個「大易標點符號在WinBase上的輸入方法」，裡面有個大易修正檔，雖然是給版本0.6.3，可是放在版本0.7.2還是可以的。
用 OpenVanilla 打造 Mac OS X 上的最接近Windows XP的大易輸入法
修正檔沒錯可以讓你打標號，可是和Windows的使用方法還有一段距離，於是我把它來個大改，除了全型英文字外，其餘的標點、符號、圖案和街道字都加上去，我想大概有二百多個字元，由於cin檔的授權不容許重新散佈，我只好把更新了的部份貼出來。若果你有興趣的話可以先參考以上各連結，明白了cin檔是什麼一回事後再copy我這段update (因為太長了所以放在comment裡)。
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
6th day with iMac
Today is the 6th day with the new iMac. The feeling toward it is still more "strange" and "hard to use" than a Windows PC. Probably I am too used to the "Windows-way".
Besides transferring some songs, importing Emil Chau's "Rain Man", and writing blogs, these days I spent most of my time on importing and organizing my photos with iPhoto. I already successfully crashed the iPhoto several times. For example, create an album "2004 HK 1-day trip" under some folder and fill it with several hundreds photos. Then create another smart album under another folder, set the name of this smart album to "2004 HK 1-day trip" and set the smart settings to "Album is 2004 HK 1-day trip". Then the program freeze and not responsing. But it keeps taking more and more memory slowly.
Today, I plugged an USB harddisk with NTFS format to the mac. I didn't realize that Mac OS X cannot write to NTFS partition (may be I just forgot). Anyway, after several click and move folder, the computer frozen! What? It's a Mac... My first hard-reboot.
I still too new to Mac. But somehow it looks like Linux to me now, besides with the familiar interface of iTunes and iPhoto.
Besides transferring some songs, importing Emil Chau's "Rain Man", and writing blogs, these days I spent most of my time on importing and organizing my photos with iPhoto. I already successfully crashed the iPhoto several times. For example, create an album "2004 HK 1-day trip" under some folder and fill it with several hundreds photos. Then create another smart album under another folder, set the name of this smart album to "2004 HK 1-day trip" and set the smart settings to "Album is 2004 HK 1-day trip". Then the program freeze and not responsing. But it keeps taking more and more memory slowly.
Today, I plugged an USB harddisk with NTFS format to the mac. I didn't realize that Mac OS X cannot write to NTFS partition (may be I just forgot). Anyway, after several click and move folder, the computer frozen! What? It's a Mac... My first hard-reboot.
I still too new to Mac. But somehow it looks like Linux to me now, besides with the familiar interface of iTunes and iPhoto.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Order of 20" iMac (MA589/A)
Long waiting for nearly a decade, I'd orderd a 20" iMac with upgraded harddisk and keyboard/mouse finally on Wendesday. I'm expecting it delivering in one or two weeeks. By that time, I've to decide whether I should settle the bill in full by cash or EPS and save $500, or settle it by 12-month interest-free installment on VISA card without any discount. Assuming that I select the installment and the money was put into a saving account, the complex interest and the cash rebate on VISA card can add up to $200-$220. That mean I still have to pay $280 extra for the installment. My friend said that is the fee for installment. Quite true. But paying $13930 in full now is quite heavy and unhealthy to my financial report. Yet, $280 in value, unless the interest was rasied by a double, otherwise, the money in saving account can never earn that back.
I just thought of another installment: first I settle the bill by cash and account into Liability, which then I return it month, on my own schedule. That way, the money will not instantly gone on my report and yet, I get both installment and cash discount. (umm... this may sound complicated but... it just fits and works on my financial planner)
Anyway, I still have a week before I've to make up my mind (unless the computer arrive earlier than expected).
I just thought of another installment: first I settle the bill by cash and account into Liability, which then I return it month, on my own schedule. That way, the money will not instantly gone on my report and yet, I get both installment and cash discount. (umm... this may sound complicated but... it just fits and works on my financial planner)
Anyway, I still have a week before I've to make up my mind (unless the computer arrive earlier than expected).
Monday, September 11, 2006
Letters Replace Numbers for New Nokia Phones
〔電信產業〕諾基亞效法敵手,未來新手機將以名稱代替數字編號
(路透社) 09月 08日 星期五 08:10PM
路透赫爾辛基電---全球最大的手機製造商諾基亞(Nokia)周四表示，將效仿競爭對手頗為成功的RAZR、「巧克力」等名稱給新手機命名，代替過去的數字編號方式。
諾基亞行銷主管帕爾迪(Keith Pardy)在花旗集團(Citigroup)紐約投資者會議的網路視頻中說：「未來你們看到的將不光是我們的編號系統，你們將開始看到具有某種意涵、且對消費者有重要意義的名稱。」
帕爾迪並未說明究竟是會為全部新機型命名，還是仍會有部分機型以四位數字編號問世。諾基亞本周稍早推出了7390、7373、7360等新機型。
競爭對手摩托羅拉(Motorola)超薄型RAZR手機熱銷，隨後決定多款新機型以四個英文字母命名，諸如SLVR(讀音為sliver)和PEBL(讀pebble)。LG電子的超薄滑蓋手機「巧克力機」也掀起搶購熱潮。
分析師稱，給手機起名並不會改變根本，但對該計劃予以肯定。FIM Securities分析師許厄蒂表示：「沒有人會記得數字。人們希望用名字稱呼手機。數字沒有意涵或感情色彩。」(完)
--翻譯 烏雲高娃;審校 劉瑞芬
(路透社) 09月 08日 星期五 08:10PM
路透赫爾辛基電---全球最大的手機製造商諾基亞(Nokia)周四表示，將效仿競爭對手頗為成功的RAZR、「巧克力」等名稱給新手機命名，代替過去的數字編號方式。
諾基亞行銷主管帕爾迪(Keith Pardy)在花旗集團(Citigroup)紐約投資者會議的網路視頻中說：「未來你們看到的將不光是我們的編號系統，你們將開始看到具有某種意涵、且對消費者有重要意義的名稱。」
帕爾迪並未說明究竟是會為全部新機型命名，還是仍會有部分機型以四位數字編號問世。諾基亞本周稍早推出了7390、7373、7360等新機型。
競爭對手摩托羅拉(Motorola)超薄型RAZR手機熱銷，隨後決定多款新機型以四個英文字母命名，諸如SLVR(讀音為sliver)和PEBL(讀pebble)。LG電子的超薄滑蓋手機「巧克力機」也掀起搶購熱潮。
分析師稱，給手機起名並不會改變根本，但對該計劃予以肯定。FIM Securities分析師許厄蒂表示：「沒有人會記得數字。人們希望用名字稱呼手機。數字沒有意涵或感情色彩。」(完)
--翻譯 烏雲高娃;審校 劉瑞芬
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
E Bible for Mobile (free)
Recently, one of my friends turn to Pocket PC phone from Symbian S60 phone. Smart choices because Pocket PC could be more applicational than Symbian, when both are being compared on phone devices.
He found a free Bible for Pocket PC, namely Pocket e-Sword (official website). It is quite powerful, honestly. And most importantly it is free. However, it doesn't seems to be stable on my Acer n300. Probably because I've installed the program to memory card instead of the internal memory, which the website recommended. I don't have any screenshots yet. But you may find more from the link above.
At the same time, another friend is looking for a e-bible for her Nokia 6280. Here is the one her friend had referred to her: Go Bible. This is a Java (J2ME) applications. Please note the Java limitation of your phone prior to installation. Owners of Nokia phones may click here for device specifications.
May God bless you.
p.s. By the way, I found some links from http://www.christianpda.org/. Registration is required even for browsing. What the! Browsing should be registration-free. It seems to be a personal information collecting forum. Be aware.
He found a free Bible for Pocket PC, namely Pocket e-Sword (official website). It is quite powerful, honestly. And most importantly it is free. However, it doesn't seems to be stable on my Acer n300. Probably because I've installed the program to memory card instead of the internal memory, which the website recommended. I don't have any screenshots yet. But you may find more from the link above.
At the same time, another friend is looking for a e-bible for her Nokia 6280. Here is the one her friend had referred to her: Go Bible. This is a Java (J2ME) applications. Please note the Java limitation of your phone prior to installation. Owners of Nokia phones may click here for device specifications.
May God bless you.
p.s. By the way, I found some links from http://www.christianpda.org/. Registration is required even for browsing. What the! Browsing should be registration-free. It seems to be a personal information collecting forum. Be aware.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Mac Spoofs
Looking for news about Mac, I found these on web. They're super funny. Enjoy.
1. Crash Different - Mac also crash...
2. PS3 vs Wii (compare with the offical Get a Mac ads)
3. Also this and more. Feel free to check out www.macspoofs.com yourself.
1. Crash Different - Mac also crash...
2. PS3 vs Wii (compare with the offical Get a Mac ads)
3. Also this and more. Feel free to check out www.macspoofs.com yourself.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
RatRace
' This code really works! Copy and paste into VB
' The truth - Rat race - V1.0 - Vince Natteri - http://techotek.com - Copyright 2006
' This code runs constantly
Sub RatRace()
Dim YourAge As Integer
Dim Salary As Double 'Actually, integer will do but I am just flattering myself
'Get the age
YourAge = InputBox("What the heck is your age?", "Your age again:")
'What the heck is his age
If Not IsNumeric(YourAge) Then
MsgBox "You can't remember your age and have succombed to the rat race."
Exit Sub
End If
'Start the rat race!
While (YourAge < 65 )
'WeekDay returns 2 for Mondays and 7 for Saturdays...
If Weekday(Format(Now, "dd-mmm-yyyy")) >= 2 And Weekday(Format(Now, "dd-mmm-yyyy")) <= 7 Then
MsgBox "You are: " & YourAge & ". Now go to work, please your boss and draw an income and pay the bills"
Else
MsgBox "Relax, it's the only day in the week you can do this"
End If
'Is he dead?
If (MsgBox("Are you dead yet?", vbYesNo) = vbNo) Then
'Increase age by one if it's been an year
If (MsgBox("Is it your birthday yet?", vbYesNo) = vbYes) Then YourAge = YourAge + 1
Else
MsgBox "Sorry to hear that. Hope you've worked well and made some large corporation more money."
Exit Sub
End If
Wend
'Over!
MsgBox "Congratulations! You've been working all your life to pay bills! Hope you enjoyed being part of the rat race! Good bye!"
End Sub
' The truth - Rat race - V1.0 - Vince Natteri - http://techotek.com - Copyright 2006
' This code runs constantly
Sub RatRace()
Dim YourAge As Integer
Dim Salary As Double 'Actually, integer will do but I am just flattering myself
'Get the age
YourAge = InputBox("What the heck is your age?", "Your age again:")
'What the heck is his age
If Not IsNumeric(YourAge) Then
MsgBox "You can't remember your age and have succombed to the rat race."
Exit Sub
End If
'Start the rat race!
While (YourAge < 65 )
'WeekDay returns 2 for Mondays and 7 for Saturdays...
If Weekday(Format(Now, "dd-mmm-yyyy")) >= 2 And Weekday(Format(Now, "dd-mmm-yyyy")) <= 7 Then
MsgBox "You are: " & YourAge & ". Now go to work, please your boss and draw an income and pay the bills"
Else
MsgBox "Relax, it's the only day in the week you can do this"
End If
'Is he dead?
If (MsgBox("Are you dead yet?", vbYesNo) = vbNo) Then
'Increase age by one if it's been an year
If (MsgBox("Is it your birthday yet?", vbYesNo) = vbYes) Then YourAge = YourAge + 1
Else
MsgBox "Sorry to hear that. Hope you've worked well and made some large corporation more money."
Exit Sub
End If
Wend
'Over!
MsgBox "Congratulations! You've been working all your life to pay bills! Hope you enjoyed being part of the rat race! Good bye!"
End Sub
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Holux GPSlim 236
Today I borrowed a GPS module from my boss - Holux GPSlim 236. Tried many times but I still couldn't get a fix on the satallies. Downloaded the user manual from official website, I found out that the chip set is third generation. It should be the latest chip set and should be the best so far. Anyway, it won't work indoor. I'll try it some where outdoor later. What a stupid GPS module!
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