MacBook aNd I

Brain tags

2012-01-25T16:02:00.003+11:00

After reading the book Incognito by David Eagleman, I suspect the brain works by tagging thoughts with things like "real", "imaginary", "past", "present" and "future". Malfunctions with tags result in things like deja vu (present event tagged as past) and hallucinations (imaginary tagged as real). If only there were a way to tag memories as present, then we could relive our memories.

Photo organisation system

2012-01-23T23:50:00.002+11:00

With the large number of photos today, people need a way to organise them. This is what I use.

My system is totally file and folder based, because I don't want to trust/depend on a specific software. First I have folders by year:

2010
2011
2012

These folders are for miscellaneous photos. Within each folder, there are sub-folders for events:

01 Birthday
02 Holiday

I use 2 digits to sort the sub-folders, which are roughly chronological.

I don't bother to rename the files. This system doesn't allow searching, so I try and tag my photos in Picasa Web Albums. Since PWA doesn't allow sub-folders, my sub-folders in PWA have the year before them: 2012 01 Birthday.

This year, since the year folder usually gets too big, I'm making new sub-folders for topics, rather than events: 2012 01 Review

Liquid leaking from MBP MagSafe adapter

2012-01-23T23:39:00.003+11:00

I keep seeing this oily, colourless liquid on my MagSafe adapter. It only appears on this side of the adapter facing the wall. I wonder if it's coming from the adapter, or is it being picked up somewhere?

Grove iPhone 4 Case

2012-01-05T15:30:00.003+11:00

http://www.grovemade.com/

I got a new iPhone case, from Grove. This company designs and handmakes its cases wholly in Portland, OR.

The case came suspended in a wooden frame. The frame has no specific use, Grove says you can use the frame as a picture frame. I'm thinking of making it into a stand for the iPhone, like in the picture below but with transparent material replacing the cardboard. It would be nice if it could charge / sync / display / amplify the iPhone.

Ok so what's so special about these cases?

handmade
Grove is completely based in Oregon
CNC machined
made of bamboo - fast growing and environmentally friendly
hand coated with 3 coats of oil
laser engraved designs

One thing I don't like about the case is it doesn't work with screen protectors. It's surprising they can get tolerances so tight that a thin piece of plastic won't fit. They expressly say back screen protectors will damage the case. Still deciding if I should remove my screen protector or not.

The engraving is very detailed.

They painted the edge of the camera hole black to reduce reflections from the flash. That's a lot of attention to detail.

Top cutouts are ok. They fit all my earphones. Power button is a bit hard to press.

The bottom cutouts are restrictive. They don't fit some of my cables (original cable is ok) or my Kensington dock. At least the bottom part can be removed for docking.

Things in 2012

2012-01-01T17:23:00.003+11:00

I liked the posts on 2010 and 2011, so I'm continuing with one in 2012, with some changes:

posting it now instead of at the end of the year. Sometime in 2011 the post got corrupted and I had to rebuild it from memory.
augmenting the post with pictures

Events

SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa resigns

DBS ATMs are hit by unauthorised withdrawals
Wikipedia, Google and several websites are "blacked out" in protest against SOPA. Wikipedia uses Javascript to cover their website with this image for 24 hours.

Things in 2011

2012-01-01T14:52:00.000+11:00

World Events

Heavy rains cause flooding in Queensland
Unrest in numerous countries in the Middle East (Arab Spring)
(1) Earthquake causes (2) tsunami in Japan, damaging Fukushima nuclear power plant. This led to major problems shutting the plant down and dealing with (3) radiation contamination afterwards.
Elections in Singapore
Osama Bin Laden is found and executed
E. coli outbreak in Germany
Railway station in Singapore moves, tracks open to public for a while. People take pictures of the tracks for one last time.
Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 90th anniversary
High-speed train derails in China
Final space shuttle launch
Norwegian man goes on a rampage killing people
US credit rating downgraded
Riots in London
HP stops making hardware for webOS, considers stopping selling consumer products, shares drop 25%. TouchPad tablet on fire sale at USD$99.
Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple
Presidential election in Singapore, second election this year
Borders bookstore in the US, Australia and Singapore close down
Yahoo and HP fire their CEOs Carol Bartz and Leo Apotheker
Fire at Shell's oil refinery on Pulau Bukom burns for 34 hours and forces the refinery to shut down
Night Safari in Singapore's new chief, Isabella Loh, cancels their Halloween event 2 weeks before the day, after months of work by Singapore Polytechnic students
Steve Jobs dies
Gaddafi, Libyan leader, is ousted and killed
"Occupy" protests, we are the 99%
Kouk Leong Jin, Singaporean medical student who had just been married for 2 weeks, disappears after going to Athens for a conference.
Major floods in Bangkok
Yue Yue, 2 year old female Chinese toddler, is knocked down and run over twice in Foshan, then ignored by 18 passers-by. Prompts reflections on morals in China.
Turmoil in the Euro zone, Greece and Italy
99% protests
Major breakdown in Singapore's MRT system, resulting in people being stuck in trains for up to 40 minutes. A train window is broken for ventilation
Kim Jong Il dies

Personal Events

Went to Funfields
Used Scoopon
Proposed - learnt to use polymer clay, went for photoshoot, went to Eureka Skydeck 88, hired a videographer, ate at Koko at Crown
Took care of Dota, a bichon frise. Found out that bicon frises are a nice breed of dog to have.
Went for Guide Dogs Victoria open day
Had a garage sale
Went on a road trip to Canberra, Sydney and Surfer's Paradise and moved back to Singapore
Got married
Took pre-wedding photos
Went to Shenzhen and Hong Kong
Started PhD

Skills Learned

iMovie
GarageBand
Wedding: registration, dinner venue, photographer (pre and actual day), make up artist, invitations

MacBook Pro wearing out

2011-12-22T21:22:00.001+11:00

MBP's trackpad button is wearing out. Not sure how to describe it, so can't search if it's common or not. Like all mouse buttons, it clicks when you press and clicks again when you release. However, when dragging, it tends to release in the software before it clicks. This can be avoided by pressing harder, so I think it's wearing out. Problem also appears when using a nonconductive object to click, showing it's not a static problem.

I wonder how much it costs to fix? And why do Apple's buttons wear out so easily?

Acer Aspire 5755 P5WE0

2011-12-15T21:28:00.001+11:00

I'm setting up a new computer, so I'm taking the opportunity to catch up with Windows.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
i5-2430M
15.6" LED LCD (1366x768)
Intel HD Graphics 3000
2GB DDR3 RAM (upgraded to 6GB)
500 GB HDD
Card reader
USB 3
HDMI
Bluetooth 2.1
Intel Wireless Display (I think it has 802.11n)
It has a numeric keypad, which is nice. It has NO indication of caps/num/scroll locks, except software, which isn't so nice.
Original price $799 (with 2GB RAM)

Software

Nice to know Windows 7 wakes from sleep instantly
Has an easy way to disable autorun (my default changes to Windows are now: disable autorun, uncheck hide file extensions for known file types)
Paint now has lots more features, and the Ribbon interface as well
However, Windows (and the pre-installed software) still gives me the impression it's trying to see how much useless stuff it can throw at me before I reinstall it. Especially for the updates, which seem to be deliberately hard to disable.
Examples: Norton Online Backup, Adobe Reader Updater, and don't even get me started on IE add-ons.
McAfee deserves special mention. I stopped using it in the past because it was producing more pop-ups of its own than it blocked.

There was one before this of an "offer" to renew your subscription. That's right, McAfee blocks pop-ups so it can serve up its own. Also, it keeps adding its own icon to the Desktop! How is this different from spyware?

No recovery CDs provided
A major point I must bring up is there are no recovery CDs provided. It's such a common issue that it's the top FAQ:

At least you can burn your own from their software - note this doesn't answer the question of WHY, it just says HOW to get the recovery CDs. I think it's a cost-cutting measure, like software manuals, and this reflects very poorly on Acer.

Speaking of manuals, maybe I can't find the correct one, but the one I found is very poorly written. It does not mention:

how long is battery life?
how long does the battery take to charge?
what are the computer specifications - size, weight etc?

11 Best Science Books Of 2011

2011-12-14T19:11:00.001+11:00

From http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/12/12/best-science-books-2011/

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
The Beginning Of Infinity - David Deutsch
Radioactive - Lauren Redniss
The Physics Book - Clifford Pickover
I Have Landed - Stephen Jay Gould
The Magic Of Reality - Richard Dawkins
Field Notes - Michael Canfield
Feynman - Ottaviani and Myrick
Culture - John Brockman
The Man Of Numbers - Keith Devlin
Future Science - Max Brockman

Geeky Cufflinks

2011-12-13T22:10:00.003+11:00

Previous post: http://mbni.blogspot.com/2011/09/nerdygeekyscientist-cufflinks.html

In the end, I found these cufflinks made of real Pentium chips, by Intel:

The text reads: "Intel Pentium Processor. This is an actual Intel Pentium processor computer chip, the "brain" behind the world's most powerful PCs. The different colors are caused by light reflecting from the tiny electrical paths that connect over 3 million transistors. The Pentium processor is so powerful that it can calculate the multiplication table, one through ten, 100,000 times per second. So not only are Pentium processors fast, they're attention-getters."

I think they're perfect because they're geeky, look great and hard to find. I estimate they were originally sold in the 1990s, and found this pair on eBay. The cost USD20 + $30 postage. It's a pity Intel stopped selling these products. Actually, these are clip-on earrings, I couldn't find the cufflinks.

Unfortunately, I didn't end up using them, as they were too hard to put on and one of the chips fell off as I was putting them on, so I used a backup pair of cufflinks instead.

Sitex 2011

2011-11-26T13:08:00.001+11:00

Sitex is from 24 to 27 Nov 2011 at Singapore Expo. So the history is:

PC Show, June, Suntec City
Comex, September, Suntec City
Sitex, November, Expo

Reminiscing

2011-11-18T12:37:00.001+11:00

WHAT is it with all the sentimental articles in the air lately? What's odd is, they're all relevant to me. However, I don't enjoy them because:

They make you feel old
Harping on these make me feel like people are refusing to acknowledge this
Some of them are just to make you feel better than other generations (see below)

Even Yahoo is doing it - it's not just me

This is quite popular on Facebook. The beginning basically says, "haha, we've done all this awesome stuff you 90s kids will never get to see!" And the last line might as well read, "we didn't have all the things kids today have, yet we managed to have fun! Kids today are so needy."

Really? "Best" and "ever"? Some of these scream "I'm still alive! And young! And relevant!!!" so loud I'm ashamed to be associated with them.

That's right, revel in your archaic knowledge.

Every generation
I'm starting to think that in every generation, there comes a time when:

they think they've seen it all, everything in the past is golden and everything in the future will never compare
they somehow, like every generation before them, grew up in the Golden Age of music, movies, TV, games, literature and technology
when you point out today's phones have better graphics than all their games, they'll inevitably go on about plot and style and how the games of their childhood are still superior
they're living in the end times
the world is declining in every possible way - health, lawlessness, morals, environmental disasters

And I'm starting to think that time comes when they're 20-30 years old. To think this generation made fun of previous generations when they said things like, "in my day, I had to walk to school. Barefoot. Uphill both ways. And it snowed the whole year round!"

Kindle Fire

2011-11-14T23:09:00.001+11:00

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/amazon-kindle-fire-review/

The Kindle Fire is Amazon's first tablet.

It only has 8GB of storage and no external memory? How are you supposed to watch movies on this thing? Even the iPod Touch has more memory.

It's strange that they left out 3G. I find 3G very useful, especially when traveling. It's like free data roaming!

Block "recently read" in Facebook

2011-11-14T15:59:00.001+11:00

Facebook has an annoying new "feature", where it shows what your friends have recently read in the News Feed. It also takes the liberty to:

put this at the top of your News Feed
without you asking for it
and not having an easy way to be removed

Here's how to get rid of it:

This is the irritating, unwanted post. Mouseover the app name.

When the box pops up, click on the app's name to go to its page.

BLOCK that interloper!

Works for:

Yahoo
The Guardian

It's making me angry that FB messes with my News Feed without asking for permission or letting me undo it easily. If you think it's not that bad, keep this in mind: now everyone can see what you're reading, without you having to allow them!

As an aside, FB has a "new" feature which lets you choose between highlighted or recent first, which is pretty much exactly the same as the top stories or recent sorting they had before the latest update. Way to make a change, backtrack, then tout it as a new feature!

Photoshop Elements tip

2011-11-04T16:26:00.001+11:00

In the levels dialogue box, if you click on one of the numbers, you can 2-finger scroll (in OS X) to change the values! Wonder if it works in other dialogue boxes?

Prisencolinensinainciusol

2011-11-02T18:51:00.000+11:00

http://youtu.be/FcUi6UEQh00

An Italian song that sounds like English, but doesn't make sense. Interesting, without paying attention it sounds just like an English song to me.

Blogger Dynamic Views

2011-11-02T12:47:00.002+11:00

I tried out new layout "Dynamic Views" on Blogger, then reverted back to this old one.

I like this Sidebar view because you can see and access a lot of posts at once
Something about the page width

It's not ready yet. Problems:

The search function doesn't work.
No list of tags
No links to new post / customise

Credit card / ID iPhone case

2011-11-01T13:58:00.001+11:00

I said I was searching for this kind of iPhone case, and I got one from eBay.

it cost $2 including delivery, and looks exactly like the Case Mate one which sells for at least $39
similar ones were at least $10 in shops
again: why isn't this more popular, not for credit cards but for contactless cards? People don't play with their wallet on the bus. They play with their phones. They also need to tap their cards twice. Doesn't it make sense to keep the 2 together and not have to take out your card all the time?

protection: average. Top and bottom not protected, case doesn't extend above the screen much to protect it.
fit: very good. Still can't find an easy way to remove my phone.
build quality: surprisingly good, no sharp edges. The material is interesting. It's hard, like polycarbonate, but feels rubberised. A coating treatment seems too much for such a cheap case though.
holds 2 cards, very firmly. Swinging the phone or tapping it doesn't move the cards. Have to wait and see if stays this way.

Engadget Primed: SSDs and you

2011-11-01T13:03:00.002+11:00

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/31/engadget-primed-ssds-and-you/

Nice article, also mentions history of HDDs

Samsung SCX-4623FW counters

2011-10-31T15:45:00.002+11:00

There doesn't seem to be a way to reset the counters on the Samsung SCX-4623FW printer. How do I know how long the toner lasts then? This was the counter when I changed the toner. The starter toner is supposed to last 1000 pages, it only lasted 957, and with a lot of toner save pages.

Gold on clear label tape

2011-10-30T01:55:00.000+11:00

After looking all over, I finally found gold on clear tape (IR-18XG) 18 mm for the Casio EZ-Label Printer. They've stopped manufacturing it and I was lucky to find a shop (a watch shop, how unlikely) that still had some. I knew it existed because the label printer box mentioned it. The thing is, since it's so rare, now I don't feel like using it!

I find it disturbing that it's not mentioned anywhere online how much tape is contained in one of Casio's cartridges. I was thinking, if someone wanted gold on clear so much and they stopped making it, could he buy gold on something and something on clear, and splice the 2 together?

Copic Multiliner

2011-10-30T01:52:00.000+11:00

Actually, I love stationery. Looking at the pen blogs out there, I'm not the only one. I don't think I can compare with them though, so this is just a little post.

My favourite pen is the Uni-Ball Signo DX 0.38 mm. I like it because it's:

smooth
reliable
fine
waterproof
doesn't have a needle point. I don't like needle points because they get damaged if you press too hard. Otherwise, the Signo DX is the same as Pilot's G-Tec (Hi-Tec).

It has remained my favourite pen for >10 years. I recently found Copic's Multiliner, which might just become my second favourite pen.

Copic makes drawing instruments including pens and markers, so these pens are more for drawing. They're good for writing too.
Being for drawing, they have A LOT of options: 10 nib sizes, 12 colours
They're also very high quality - shape and colour consistency are key. Ink is waterproof and archival save (what is Copic proof?)
The paint on the Multiliner's body scratches off very easily - look at the word "Copic". Why?
The Multiliner is disposable, the Multiliner SP is refillable and the nibs are replaceable as well. The SP's body is made of aluminium and meant to last longer
I don't understand why people say they're expensive, the Multiliner is <$3 and the SP <$8. Refills are <$3. Unless the ink finishes extremely fast, they're about the same price as say Uni-Ball's Power Tank. And the money here goes into their quality, not like some branded writing pens.
I suspect (and this might be their key advantage over the Signo DX when writing) is the ink doesn't build up on the nib and smudge. This is especially obvious when drawing lines with a ruler.
Their disadvantage is you can't see how much ink is left

This is a close up of the SP's nib. How does it work? Is it a piece of plastic in a metal barrel? How do they get the ink to be consistent?
How does nib replacement work? They only seem to have 2 sizes of replacement nibs.

N95 Mask Fitting

2011-10-28T00:29:00.001+11:00

Sharing my experiences.

Lung capacity test
They ask you to blow into a machine as hard as you can, then inhale. Need to pass a certain level based on your height, weight and sex.

Mask seal test
They teach you to wear and take off the mask. After you put the mask on, they put a hood on you (a bit like those clean room hoods) and spray something to test the mask. I think it's a powder. If you taste (not smell) anything, the mask leaks. In the hood, they ask you to turn/tilt your head and bend down.

GoToob by humangear

2011-10-27T23:12:00.001+11:00

This is the best "travel tube" I've found. (those tubes for shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste etc. is there a proper name for them?)

Soft (silicone)
Dishwasher safe
Food safe
BPA free
Easy to fill
Carry-on approved
No-drip valve (a bit like those for honey, in fact I should use this to store honey)
Collar with labels - indicate what's inside. Locks.
Tube: silicone. Cap: silicone/#5PP. Collar: ABS
Medium size has a built in suction cup

I'm not such a big fan of the living hinge in the cap, but they say it's durable and I hope so.

Comparison between iPhone cameras

2011-10-27T14:07:00.002+11:00

http://campl.us/posts/iPhone-Camera-Comparison
All the way from the iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, Canon S95 and 5D Mark II.

I don't get why people prefer low depth of field. Seems to me it's easy to go from high -> low, but impossible to go the other way. Taking pictures with low DOF in the first place seems to be throwing away information. It's like using black and white.

Gaseous Tritium Light Source

2011-10-25T14:32:00.003+11:00

In my post about cufflinks I mentioned tritium lights as an option. This is what I was talking about.

Again, tritium:

radioactive isotope of hydrogen, with 2 neutrons and 1 proton (normal hydrogen only has 1 proton)
decays by beta-decay (produces electrons)
trace occurring in nature
made in nuclear reactors
used in hydrogen bombs and certain designs of fusion reactors

This product is a sealed vial of tritium with the insides painted with phosphors. As the tritium decays, it excites the phosphors, which produce light. The colour depends on the phosphors. I got green because it's the most obvious (the human eye is most sensitive to green).

no batteries
no recharging, unlike conventional glow-in-the-dark
nothing to replace
waterproof
lasts 10 years
temperature independent? Nuclear reactions are temperature independent.

Also used in watches (Luminox) and gun sights. Replaces the much much more dangerous radium.

Why this is cool:

tritium is rare
and used in man-made nuclear fusion!
safe way to carry a radioactive material with you
doesn't need batteries
durable and lasts extremely long
it glows
explain isotopes and nuclear reactions to people

iOS 5

2011-10-24T13:06:00.002+11:00

Updated 7 Dec 11

iCloud

5 GB free (per account? per device?)

Backs up: photos, documents, apps, books, calendar, mail, messages, contacts, notes, reminders, bookmarks
Can select individual categories to backup, tends to slow down Wi-Fi
Does not backup (more like archive) app settings for deleted apps - can only restore entire device, not individual apps.
Does it sync app settings (high scores) across devices?
Cannot backup to both iCloud and computer
How safe is my data?
Restoring from iCloud: http://heresthethingblog.com/2011/10/18/restore-iphone-ipad-icloud-backup/ doesn't seem to be able to spot restore for now
Need OS X Lion to use on Mac

Notifications

Swipe down to view Notification Center
Choose which apps are displayed in Notification Center, including weather and stocks
For each app, decide how notifications are displayed (none, banners, alerts), badge app icon (number on app icon), whether they're shown on the lock screen

Reminders

Like notes with a checklist
Location based (optional)
Date and time reminders (optional)
Checked items go to Completed list. There is no easy way to clear this list
View reminders by date or list

Sounds and vibration

Custom sounds for messages, voice mail, email, sent email, tweets, calendar and reminder - fully custom - can set own ringtones!
Programmable vibration patterns!
For each contact you can now set custom ringtone, text and vibration

Camera

Start camera from lock screen
Take pictures with volume + on phone or even on earphone remote
Display 3x3 grid when composing
Focus lock
Red eye correction, cropping in Photos app
Still has the colour problem
If you choose to, photos taken are stored in Photo Stream, across all devices. Seems to be impossible to delete photos from this for now. Photos stored for 30 days.

iMessage

Delivery receipts
Read receipts (if recipient allows)
See when someone's typing
Free, if you (both?) have Internet access
Can tell if contact has iMessage before sending
Some problems with multiple devices, or people stopping using iOS 5. Looks like they need to update the servers more often
If recipient does not have data coverage, it'll try for a few minutes, then eventually send as text message. If you know they don't have data coverage, you can hold down on your sent message and force it to send as text message.
Send pictures and location (untested)

Safari

Private browsing!
Still limited to 9 tabs on iPad?
Reading list

Newssstand

Twitter

Post to Twitter from some apps e.g. Photos
Does it still need a Twitter app?

Wi-Fi sync

Autocomplete phrases (under General > Keyboard) If you constantly type the same phrase, you can set up a shortcut for it (e.g. em becomes your email). I think the best part is you can reject this any time - instead of correcting automatically, the suggestion pops up like autocorrect. This means it's still possible to just type the shortcut.

Mail

Format emails

Calendar

New views

Video

Video now separate app

Hidden features in iOS 5

2011-10-23T02:49:00.000+11:00

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/our-favorite-hidden-features-of-ios-5/

Assistive touch
Hide your safari activity
Take pictures with your headphones
Alternate routes in map
Create custom vibrations and LED flashes
Get rid of Newstand icon

Another post by Herald Sun:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/hidden-features-of-apples-ios-5/story-fn7celvh-1226177341387

Lies, - volume button doesn't take pictures
Custom autocomplete phrases
Camera focus lock

Browser improvement

2011-10-21T16:14:00.001+11:00

This is one of those things that are obvious, but nobody thought about, like multitouch scrolling.

As a browser loads pages, the top of the page is in a fixed position, even if it's off the screen. That means that as ads or images load and the page becomes longer, the page on your screen will "jump". This is extremely irritating if you're about to click on a link, and end up clicking on something else.

They should just make browsers fixed about your current screen, or if that is changing as well, about your mouse cursor. Who cares about images that are loading if they're not displayed? This way, you'll never click on the wrong link because your browser loads just as you click.

Magicscan wand scanner

2011-10-21T13:51:00.002+11:00

I can't remember how or when I heard about wand scanners. Actually, there are 2 types: 1 feeds the paper itself, this way you can only scan sheets. This product, which is the other, must be moved over the surface by hand. With it you can scan books like a flatbed scanner, but the quality depends on the steadiness of your hand.
Not many companies make the second type of scanners. I think the most famous is VuPoint, which has a whole range of them (including one with a tiny colour LCD screen to preview). The others I could find were from tiny, unknown brands. Even this magicscan doesn't have their own website, but at least it has good packaging.Since they are all sold by small companies, it's hard to distinguish wand scanners, and I suspect they're actually the same. However, I saw a sign saying this one is:

smaller
faster

But the reason I bought this is there was someone to demonstrate it before I bought it, so I could see how it works and the quality. One difference I've noticed that might differentiate scanners is this uses 3 AAA batteries, while most use 2 AA batteries.

Reasons for getting one:

portability
scan large items (e.g. newspapers, certificates)
scan photos from albums

My main reason was 3, then 2. It's quite hard to scan large items with flatbed scanners, because you either can't close the lid, or will crumple the item. I guess most people get it for reason 1.

Tech Specs

pdf, jpf formats
300 DPI - 217 x up to 1200 mm
600 DPI - 217 x up to 600 mm
High resolution, colour, letter size - 4 seconds
Standard resolution, mono, letter size - 1 second
microSD storage
3xAAA batteries - 200 colour or 250 mono scans
253x30x25 mm
weight

Usage

It's very simple, there are only 3 main buttons: on/off/scan, colour/bw and hi/low resolution
If you move too fast, the error light lights up
I don't think you can move it "too slowly". The light seems to flash every time it moves a certain distance. If you move it slowly enough, the light flickers. If you move quickly, the light gets brighter.
It has an internal clock, but I can't be bothered to set it
Works directly with PC, no batteries or card needed (untested)
Comes with OCR software (untested)

Quality is quite good:

This is a scan of the box. It shows a problem: you have to move the scanner straight and you can't tell if you've done it wrongly. Here I bumped the triangular notch which made the scanner move at a different angle afterwards.

Scans of instructions

Another problem is you can't scan to the very edge of a page. The scan stops when the roller stops moving, so the distance between the roller and lens cannot be scanned. Can be fixed by scanning on a large surface.

Tried to take a picture when the light was on, but you can't really see it.

Nobel Prize winners' wrong quotes

2011-10-20T17:08:00.000+11:00

In the 1920s, people didn't believe macromolecules like polymers existed. Hermann Staudinger faced much opposition to his claims that molecules with high molecular weights existed. In fact, Heinrich Wieland, 1927 Nobel laureate in chemistry, wrote to Staudinger,

Dear colleague, drop the idea of large molecules; organic molecules with a molecular weight higher than 5000 do not exist. Purify your products, such as rubber, then they will crystallize and prove to be low molecular compounds!

Of course, now we know Staudinger was right, and he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1953 for this. It's just interesting to see how Nobel Prize winners can be wrong.

Another example is Dan Shechtman, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for "the discovery of quasicrystals". Linus Pauling, winner of 2 Nobel Prizes, rejected the possibility of their existence.

EURion Constellation

2011-10-17T17:09:00.002+11:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation

The EURion Constellation is a pattern of symbols meant to be detected by software or machines. This is used on banknotes, to prevent copying. When the pattern is detected, the machine refuses to print the image. I find it interesting how some places hide the pattern by disguising it as other things.

Sony ICD-UX512F voice recorder

2011-10-17T13:17:00.000+11:00

Included in package:

ICD-UX512F
Headphones
Carrying Pouch
AAA NiMH battery
USB extension cable
Software

Features:

Best audio format is Linear PCM 44kHz/16bit, second is mp3 192kbps
High sensitivity mic
Noise cut
Expandable memory
Recordable FM radio
Scene select recording
Track marks
Editing functions
Speed control
mp3/WMA/WAV/AAC playback

Haven't really used this type of device before (except a microcassette recorder), so I'm not sure how useful it is
Looks a bit like an iPod Shuffle, with a screen and a circle below it

Came with an additional free case (2 in total)
Case is not much use, not much protection
It obstructs buttons and the USB connector
Advantage is it can work as a stand

Can use rechargeable or disposable AAA batteries (can charge rechargeables)
Built-in USB port
Backlight
Sensitive mics - at least as sensitive as hearing, which isn't necessarily a good thing, there's actually a lot of background noise that we don't pay attention to, but you'll notice when playing back
Fortunately, there's noise cut for playback
Speed control for playback - I didn't think much of this, then I found it's very useful for listening to lectures, since you can still understand things at 150%, it saves you time
Customisable recording "scenes", like profiles. You can set, say, Interview to whatever sensitivity and quality. Displays scene icon during recording.
It has a "Low Cut Filter" which is supposed to remove wind noise during recording, but I haven't found it to work.
Arrange files using the device itself
Protect files - avoid accidental deletion
Plays back file when confirming erasing, makes it easier to check which file you're erasing
Even comes with USB extension cable, because the device may block USB ports
But the extension cable only works with this device
Doesn't display filename during recording

A Suggested Pain Scale

2011-10-16T01:02:00.001+11:00

I was just thinking about how I'd make a pain scale, and this is what I came up with:

Unaware of any pain
Not sure if pain is still present or subsided (like listening to a very soft sound, or seeing a shape disappear into a cloud)
Pain is confirmed, but "interesting" (like plucking a hair or pressing a bruise)
Steps are actively taken to avoid the pain (walking with a sprain)
Seeking ways to reduce the pain (headache)
Immediate help for pain is sought
Focusing all attention on reducing pain
Unable to help oneself in removing pain anymore

Neato Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

2011-10-12T13:32:00.000+11:00

Everyone's heard of iRobot's Roomba, but hardly anyone's heard of Neato. Their biggest feature, and the reason you should pay attention to them, is that rather than sweeping back and forth randomly in a room like the Roomba does, this actually maps the room and cleans methodically.

From their FAQ:
What is “intelligent cleaning”?
The Neato XV-11 maps its surroundings in a room and determines the doorways when first analyzing a room. It determines the best path to take and starts cleaning the perimeter of the area and then uses a methodical back and forth straight-line pattern to complete the interior. It follows this method, cleaning your house segment by segment.

What are the benefits of the methodical straight-line cleaning of the Neato XV-11 versus the random bounce-around cleaning of other robots?
By using a methodical straight line path to clean, Neato ensures there will be complete floor coverage in a timely manner. Since it can cover the floor in one pass, the Neato vacuum cleaning robot can use more of its energy with stronger suction power for its vacuum as compared to other bounce-around robots.

http://www.neatorobotics.com/

Searching for new iPhone case

2011-10-10T02:12:00.003+11:00

Thinking of getting a new iPhone case with:

3D printed - because 3D printing is the next disruptive technology and it would be great to have something on hand to show people what it's about
holds (credit) cards - because I find I'm usually holding my phone and card when on the bus, this way I can hold both at the same time

Found 2 options meeting both criteria:

source: http://freshfiber.com/test/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/74091504-1.jpg

Fresh Fiber specialises in 3D printed cases for various products. The Mondriaan is also made to hold credit cards. Although the point of 3D printing is custom made, on demand, their products aren't made to order, you can buy them in stores.

Saw it on sale here for $80
Hesitant about buying a case with so many holes in it
Case feels rough and unrefined, a bit like cardboard
Not sure how long 3D printing lasts (is it brittle etc.)
Hardly any reviews, none mention how long it lasts

If you want more protection / better design / don't need to hold credit cards, consider the Weave:

I think it's perfect to show off 3D printing since the woven design can't be made by any other way.

Shapeways is a website where you can upload your own 3D designs and print them in various materials. You can also let other people print your designs at a price you choose. There's an iPhone 4 case with credit card holder on sale there.

Without 3D printing, there are 2 more options. It's surprising how few cases there are that hold cards!
Case Mate ID Credit Card Case

http://www.case-mate.com

This is the standard plastic (maybe polycarbonate) iPhone case, with the back slightly raised from the iPhone and slots added for the card.

holds 2 cards
cards press directly against the iPhone (I think they give a back protector)
Doesn't really protect the top and bottom
Saw it on sale in Funan Centre for $39 and thought it was too expensive, then I found out most shops sold it for $59!
You can get one that looks exactly like it from eBay (about $2), making the original even more overpriced

Speck Candyshell Card

http://www.speckproducts.com

This has more protection than Case Mate's, but it's thicker. I think it's made of 2 types of material.

holds 3 cards
cards do not contact the iPhone

Found another one: Tangram Smart Case

http://bestappleaccessories.com/iphone-smart-cases/124-smart-iphone-case-moneyclipandmirror.html

I think it's Korean
Holds 3 cards, or 2 cards and a mirror or money clip

Griffin Aircurve Play

2011-10-09T21:22:00.001+11:00

Source: http://www.griffintechnology.com/

The Aircurve Play is the iPhone 4 version of the Aircurve. It now works in landscape and portrait orientation. Like the Aircurve, it's the best looking amplifier/horn I've seen. I was thinking, if I don't get an iPhone 4S, or even if I do actually, I might get the Aircurve Play.

As an aside: there's something wrong with Griffin's shop site. All the links lead back to the front page.

Sony CP-A2L USB Portable Power Supply

2011-10-09T02:11:00.000+11:00

Looks like Sony's getting into the business of (portable, rechargeable, Li-ion battery packs). Reasons I got one:

iPhone battery life seems to be shortening. Using it for a whole day out leaves uncomfortably little battery
Might have to charge other iPhones
Along with an iPad
Useful on holiday

Reasons I got this specific one:

2 USB ports
Cheap (it was on offer)

Tech specs:
Capacity: 3.6V, 4000 mAh = 14.4 Wh (yes, I know voltage isn't constant so this is an overestimate)
Charging time: 5 hours
Weight: 44.5g (meaasured, AC adapter, stated 45g). 146.7g (measured, battery pack, stated 145g)

Hardware

When you first open the box, this is what you see. The top box contains the manuals and power cable.

First - what's the top white box? That's the AC adapter. It's 100-240V to 4.1V. I'm not sure how this design is better, except it doesn't use proprietary cables.

Charging

5 hours is a bit long to charge
AC adapter got worryingly hot at first, then cooled off. I think it charges faster when there's less power remaining, so the adapter gets hotter.
Adapter also makes a sound during charging
Cannot use USB ports while charging! It would have been nice for this to double as an AC-USB adapter as well. I guess they don't want to encourage people to leave this charging (the instructions say to turn off the power when full)

The connection on the battery pack is on a circuit board. It's hidden behind the green door. I'm worried something may touch the contacts and short the battery.
Hey, what about using USB connectors to charge? That way, the adapter can double as a USB power supply.

Use

Can charge iPad and iPhone at the same time! Yes, it has the intelligence to charge the iPad.
Turns off automatically if you unplug the device. Supposed to turn off if the device is full as well (untested)
Reminder: iPhone 4 battery capacity = 5.25 WH, iPad 2 = 25 WH, so this should be able to charge 2 iPhone 4, but can't fully charge an iPad 2

Indicator light
This is my hierarchy of indicator lights, from best to worst:

Shows amount charged when charging and time left to charge. Indicates (not shuts off) when full. (MacBook)
Shows amount charged when charging. Indicates when full. (iOS devices, Kensington battery pack)
Shows amount charged when charging. Shuts off indicator when full.
Shows when charging (not amount). Indicates when full. (Kindle, Oral-B toothbrush, Nikon D50 charger)
Shows when charging. Shuts off when full.
???

The CP-A2L is at 5, which is the bare minimum of charging indicators.

Compared to Energizer XP4001

The Energizer XP4001 is the most suitable to compare this product with, since both are 4000 mAh and can charge 2 devices at once. In fact, I was considering this before I got the CP-A2L.

Although both are 4000 mAh, the XP4001 is at 5 V while the CP-A2L is at 3.6 V. This means the XP4001 has 20 Wh, or 139% the capacity of the CP-A2L. You could also say the CP-A2L has 72% the capacity of the XP4001. I wonder if Sony reduced the voltage to increase the mAh, since that's what people compare?
XP4001 recharge time is 4 hours
XP4001 is 150 g
XP4001 output up to 1.5 A
XP4001 includes tips for a few devices and coiled cables, which should be easier to use on-the-go. The tips are useful since several devices don't come with USB charging cables.
XP4001 is $80 at the cheapest, CP-A2L half the price at $40.
XP4001 uses the standard adapter where the bulk is at the plug and there's a thin cable to the device. This might not last as long if the cable frays.
Both claimed rechargeable for 500 cycles
XP4001 has 3 year warranty, CP-A2L says it has a warranty but doesn't specify how long
XP4001 may have more safety mechanisms. At least they both have temperature protection.
XP4001 may come charged (CP-A2L does not)

Update 7 Jan 12

I was thinking about how I use this, and I think the thing I'll look for in my next battery pack is charging speed. If you're on the go, you may only have a few minutes to charge your batteries. It would be nice to get as much power as you can.

iPhone 4S

2011-10-06T22:28:00.000+11:00

(I'm trying to condense everything into 1 post, unlike what I did for the iPhone 4)

On 4 Oct 2011, Apple used the above picture to invite people to their Cupertino HQ for the event "Let's talk iPhone."At the event, they announced the iPhone 4S, iOS 5, iCloud and some new iPods.

iPhone 4S vs iPhone 4
At a glance, here are the changes (source):

Up to 64 GB
Dual-core A5 processor
Camera upgraded to 8 MP with f2.4 aperture
1080p video recording
GSM & CDMA
Front camera, screen, dimensions, weight and battery life almost the same

I would add Siri, the new voice command function.

My first reaction, along with the general consensus, is that there aren't as many changes as I expected. I think it's even a smaller change than from the 3G to the 3GS, which increased the battery life, added a compass and autofocus to the camera (http://mbni.blogspot.com/2010/09/iphone-4-meta-post.html). Then again, if you look at their pattern: iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S. It's alternating between big changes, where they change the form factor and add many new features, and slight modifications. So we shouldn't be too surprised.

That's only for the hardware side of things. Looking at the iPhone 4S video, I noticed nobody's paid much attention to Siri, and it looks REALLY promising. In fact, if it works as well as they claim, I'd say Siri alone is a bigger change than the others combined. I wonder: just how advanced is it? We know it can search for things, and it probably can't solve complex mathematical equations, so it's somewhere in between. So just what exactly can it do? I think the previous Voice Control wasn't used as much because there was no list of functions and people didn't know about some of them (telling the time and date). It seems there are 2 innovations in one: voice to text and comprehending text. The last thing I want to say is I hope it works for more accents than they claim, or its use is going to be limited.

Am I going to get one? For now - no. I'll try to get a 1 year contract so I can get the next iPhone (which should be a big upgrade) next year.

iPhone 4S hardware
to be added

Steve Jobs passed away today

2011-10-06T20:51:00.003+11:00

I woke up today and looked to Engadget to see if I'd missed any unexpected news in the night (it's happened before). This is what I found.

Apple website on 6 Oct 2011

http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/

It's really sad and unexpected. I guess everybody thought he just wanted a break when he resigned, nobody guessed how sick he was. Then again, thinking about it, he doesn't seem like the type to quit when he could still work. It's even more sad that this happened the day after the iPhone 4S was announced. I wonder if there's any connection?

I'm thankful for everything he has brought to the world, and hope Apple can get on without him.

Looking for environmentally friendly printing company

2011-10-02T01:08:00.000+10:00

Looking for printing company that can do as much of the following as possible:

print on 100% recycled paper
totally chlorine free
soy based inks or VOC free
energy from renewable sources
using recycled water or recycling used water

I'll be happy with just the first one. Just wondering - if I can't find one, it's probably more environmentally friendly to use a normal local printer than to ship from the US.

The Toaster Project

2011-10-01T11:30:00.001+10:00

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/09/28/the-toaster-project/

This person tried making a toaster all by himself. Our technology is so specialised now that no single person knows how to make an entire product. The final product cost 250 times what it cost in store. I think it shows the advantages of economy of scale and mass production.

New Kindles/Amazon tablet

2011-10-01T11:27:00.002+10:00

Amazon has released 3 new Kindles. In increasing power/price: Kindle, Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire (a tablet). All much cheaper, and no keyboards. To input text on the Kindle you have to scroll and click. Tablet is 7" screen and the other two are 6". Tablet runs on Android. Unfortunately it seems for now only the Kindle is available overseas.

Personally, I'd take the Kindle Touch 3G, for easier input and 3G. Oh, apparently it's infrared multitouch, not capacitive like the iPhone.

Ultimate Business Card

2011-09-28T15:57:00.000+10:00

My new pet project - trying to cram as many uses at the same time into an ordinary name card as possible.

Trying to keep it simple - just a piece of card, cutting it and printing things on it. Maybe sticking a piece of tape or string onto it. No metal or plastic. If I allowed metal, the first thing I'd make would be an iPhone SIM ejector.
Focusing more on urban uses, like for electronic devices and city life. Not so much jungle use, like a Swiss Army Knife.

Dividing the uses into functions to keep them organised.

Uses requiring minimal modifications

Scrap paper
Mini notice (with a piece of double-sided tape)
Name sign
Table balancer

Stationery

Ruler
Protractor (only 60 and 45 degrees)
Compass (draw circles)
Set square

Hygiene

Nail pick
Finger splint

Camera

Tripod
White balance card
Dust reference card

iPhone

iPhone stand
Cable winder
Mini packet (e.g. to hold a SIM card)

Others

Bookmark
Weighing scale (don't know how yet, but it would be cool to have this function)
Musical instrument
Coaster
Measure outer diameter of screws
Cufflinks (not very commonly needed, but easy to do)

I've made some prototypes:

I tried to make tweezers but they weren't hard enough.

Twitter

2011-09-26T02:25:00.001+10:00

I finally got a Twitter account, mainly to learn how to use Twitter. I figured since I can't program and I don't use an open source OS, if I want to be a geek I should at least keep up to date with sites EVERYONE is using. Also partially because recently I've been feeling reluctant to learn new things, and I'm not sure if this is due to growing old or being busy. I'm determined not to become someone who sticks to familiar comfortable things as they grow old, so this is me keeping up. As they say, you don't stop learning because you grow old, you grow old because you stop learning.

There's some overlap between Twitter, Facebook and Blogger, so I haven't figured out niches for each of them yet.

From what I've seen of Twitter, I have to commend them for having a vision and sticking to it. Recently there have been many companies floundering due to lack of vision. This has cost them greatly, and in the case of Borders, resulted in their closure. Facebook recently made many changes (subscriptions, new news feed, ticker, I have to write about this in a new post) that have been widely criticised. Maybe they're trying to assimilate Twitter, MySpace and Google+, but they should be cautious of losing sight of their goals. Even big, popular companies can make very expensive mistakes, like HP found out.

CamelCase and ISO8601

2011-09-25T20:34:00.001+10:00

I once thought of using capitalisation instead of spaces to fit more words into an SMS, I didn't know it was so popular and there was a Wikipedia article on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CamelCase

When I started taking a lot of pictures, I figured the best way to name them was the 8 digit number year month date (yyyymmdd). That way, sorting by name automatically sorts by date. Any other form of naming (d-m-y, spelling out the month) is useless when sorted by name. However, when I tried writing the date in this format, people didn't get it. I found out this method of naming is also an ISO standard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iso_date

Facebook privacy scenarios

2011-09-22T13:46:00.002+10:00

Updated 16 Nov 11

I've always wondered about the privacy settings on Facebook. They're so complicated, are you sure they behave like you expect them to? Recently they changed something so that friends of people tagged in your photos can see that photo too, which may not be what you want. One of my friend's photos was set to "Friends", but the friend of someone tagged in the photo could see it too.

Here are some questions about their privacy settings. I realise they keep changing things, so the answers may not be up to date. It's like a cat and mouse game, or using a more nerdy term, a Red Queen situation.

Is visibility based on most restricted or most open? e.g. if I tag a "Friends" photo, can the tagged's friends see it too? If I tag a "Public" photo, and the tagged person's settings say do not let friends know when that person's tagged, will their friends be notified?
My friend had a "Friends" photo. I tagged myself in it. My friends, who originally couldn't see the photo, now can. So it looks like it overrode the setting. I think it's either 1) most open or 2) most recent.
If I make a comment on a post, and the owner hides that post, can I still see it?
Who exactly can see what I comment on and like in their ticker? All my friends? The set intersection of my friends and people who can see the root comment? - so far I think it's the latter, I haven't seen any updates about posts I shouldn't be able to see.
What exactly do people in a list see for the privacy settings of a post only visible to that list?

Protest over solar panel factory's pollution

2011-09-20T12:31:00.001+10:00

A sign that solar panels aren't always environmentally friendly. I'm hesitant to put a link that won't always work, and I can't copy the article, so I'll put some key points that will let me search for the article in the future.

Jinko solar factory
In Haining city, Zhejiang province
Said to have caused 31 cases of cancer and death of large numbers of fish in a nearby river

Label guidelines

2011-09-17T15:48:00.001+10:00

Updated: 29 Oct 2011

My labels are a mess, so I'm trying to follow these guidelines. This post is so important, I made a link to it on the top.

Android - posts relating to the Android OS, or Android devices from manufacturers without their own label
Apple - the company, their philosophy or their products without labels
AppleScript
bad designs - examples of poor design
blog - use of this blog as a diary
blogger - comments on the Blogger service, or settings for this website
dyson - company or products
ebay - company or things found on eBay
excel
facebook
farmville
fashion - clothes and eyewear
gadgets - devices without their own label
gaming - hardware or software
gmail
Google - company, policies or products without labels
GPS - GPS devices
hardware - computer hardware without their own label
house design - things I want/don't want in my house
imovie
iOS - iOS itself and apps
ipad - hardware or software specific to the iPad
iPhone - hardware or software specific to the iPhone
iPhoto
iPod
IR webcam
iTunes
Kindle
label printers
macbookpro - hardware or software specific to the MacBook Pro
monitors
networking - networking/Internet hardware/software
nutrition
OS X - the OS and included apps
photography - cameras, theory, techniques
photoshop
Picasa - Google's product, Picasa, including Picasa Web Albums
pointing devices - things that control the cursor on your computer screen
printers
retro - posts about old devices
sony
stationery
statistics
technology - posts on technologies that may or may not currently be used, or comments on science
think - questions/thought experiments
travel
watches
wikipedia - interesting wikipedia articles
windows
word
youtube

Nerdy/geeky/scientist cufflinks

2011-09-16T16:38:00.000+10:00

Since I've found my ideal cufflinks, I'm sharing what ideas I had for geeky/nerdy/scientific cufflinks here. I'm a materials guy, so many of these focus on materials I like.

Gold - as pure as possible. Gold is a fascinating material. From Theodore Gray's The Elements, "Diamonds are a fraud, but gold is the real thing, richly deserving the adoration it inspires." Remarkable properties and treasured by everyone. Too bad the only gold cufflinks I could find were old-fashioned and quite expensive ($400). At least its value is permanent.
Titanium - another exotic, high-tech metal.
Carbon fiber - I found this nice carbon fiber and titanium cufflinks online.
Liquidmetal - an amorphous metal, as opposed to crystalline, that has high strength, hardness and corrosion resistance. Unfortunately the only cufflinks I could find of this material were made by Mont Blanc, so who knew how much they cost? Also, they never mentioned how much of the cufflinks were actually made of Liquidmetal. I considered casting my own for a while.
LED - Think of all the technology in semiconductors required to make these, that we take for granted now. And they produce their own light! And they're easily available online!
Laser - But nobody's ever tried putting lasers in their cufflinks. Or at least tried selling them. My idea was to have a magnet in one and a switch in the other. Tap them together and the laser comes on. Tap them again to turn it off. Imagine the lasers being powerful enough to cut through things. Add your own sound effects.
Ceramic - Not the conventional kind used to make plates and vases, I was thinking of zirconia, the material used to make ceramic knives. The interesting property of this material is, like ceramics, it's usually brittle. It's made tougher by stabilizing the tetragonal phase down to room temperature (like compressing a spring). Any cracks destabilize this phase, transforming it into monoclinic and applying a force to close the crack! I suspect this is used in ceramic knives, but I haven't checked. However, if you search for zirconia cufflinks, you'll find the cubic phase instead.
Stone - It might be nice to have cufflinks made entirely out of granite or something.
Atom - Not very special, just an atom symbol.
Borosilicate glass - Borosilicate glass is stronger than ordinary glass. They might have these, but not for the entire cufflink, which is what I wanted. They have fiber-optic glass cufflinks too.
Tritium - a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It produces electrons when it decays. People put this inside sealed glass vials, paint the insides with phosphors and it glows by itself, like glow-in-the-dark toys that don't need to be recharged. Used for watches (Luminox) and gun sights. Hard to find by yourself and not easy to see the glow in the daytime though. Oh, and it has to be man-made, and it's used for experiments in nuclear fusion (easier than regular hydrogen).
3D printed - a true engineer would make their own, and what better method than the new technology of 3D printing? Unique and totally customizable. I'm not very good with CAD though.
Circuit board - my favourite in this list, it has the right combination of uniqueness, geekiness and ease of findingness. Being recycled, they're environmentally friendly too. I especially like the red/purple ones, since you don't see these circuit boards very often.

As to which cufflinks I finally settled on, I'll reveal that at a later date.

Google image search

2011-09-14T18:11:00.001+10:00

Sept 11, 2011

2011-09-11T23:37:00.001+10:00

Just recording what I was doing exactly 10 years ago while I still can remember.

I had just finished my English 'O' Level preliminary exams and was preparing for Geography the next day. While doing some final revision, I turned on the radio. That's strange, it seems to be a news broadcast. What's this? They're talking about planes and buildings. Something was going on in America. I changed to the news station. I remember them saying there were no planes in the sky, and thinking, "how do they know that? It's nighttime." (It was about 9 pm) Wondering if my parents knew what was happening, I opened my door to tell them, and found the audio continued outside. The radio was directly streaming audio from the TV station! I watched the news on TV and realised this event would make history. I stopped watching before the second tower collapsed.

Private browsing in iOS

2011-09-06T12:15:00.000+10:00

I've noticed Safari in iOS lacks a Private Browsing feature (is there any open and aboveboard use for Private Browsing?). Some solutions are:

Use another browser
Force quit Safari so it doesn't save history

However, the first option wastes resources and the second is risky if you forget. I was wondering, since many apps on iOS have built-in browsers, and they don't seem to save histories, maybe they could be used for private browsing? I'm sure most iOS devices will have at least one app with a browser, such as the Facebook app.

Comex 2011

2011-09-04T19:05:00.000+10:00

I'm trying to keep track of the computer exhibitions in Singapore. This weekend, 1-4 Sept 2011 is Comex 2011:

And on the weekend of 11 Jun 2011 was the PC Show, also at Suntec City. I always thought they alternated between Suntec and Expo, but these were at Suntec twice in a row.

iPhoto faces

2011-09-01T01:17:00.002+10:00

Does adding new, undetected faces to iPhoto improve its recognition?

Total photos on Picasas Web Albums

2011-08-30T19:36:00.002+10:00

You can see how many photos you have on PWA in your Google Dashboard.

As of now I have 19,171 photos.

Green for the sake of it

2011-08-30T19:26:00.000+10:00

It's nice that people are finally catching on to environmentalism, and its popularity means that even people who don't care about the environment take part just because it's fashionable. However, being popular means some companies only want to appear to care for the environment. The aim of this post is to point out things to look out for to see if a company is genuinely environmentally-friendly.

The most common offense is using reversed/inverted text, or "knockout text". This is white text on a black background, like the font on this site. What's wrong with this? Well, unless they're printing using white ink (unlikely), what they're doing is printing all the black parts and leaving the white (text) blank. This uses a lot more ink. So they have to manufacture, transport and apply more ink, and it also makes the paper harder to recycle since de-inking is one of the steps in recycling. Of course, this website is exempt, unless you print it (see 3rd point).
I'm all for using recycled materials to make new things, but this is only useful if the recycled material replaces new material. I don't like using beverage can tabs to make things like handbags for the following reasons: it's impractical - they catch on things and scratch things. Most of all, aluminium is highly recyclable and using it like that prevents it from being better used.
A small issue, but some websites claim to use less power because they use white text on a black background, the logic being less light needs to be produced. Well, I thought of that a long time ago, when I considered using a black wallpaper to increase my laptop battery life. It doesn't work for LCD screens. LCD screens produce all the light first, then remove what isn't needed. The only way to save power is to reduce the brightness. It might work for CRTs though, but if you're still using a CRT, that isn't going to save much power.

I don't like biodegradeable bags - they occupy more volume, weigh more and most irritatingly, tend to flake into pieces without warning when you store them, dirtying all your stored plastic bags. I'm waiting for some references to back up my claims before putting them up there though. Apparently, landfills are designed to let things NOT decompose, because that would cause settling and release gases. In that case, there's no point using biodegradeable bags. This is even more true for incineration (and everybody who claims to care for the environment should know how where their rubbish goes). The only good use I've heard of for them is to hold organic waste e.g. food or grass, so the whole package can be composted.

Disruptive technologies

2011-08-30T18:37:00.001+10:00

My use here is more broad than convention, but I can't think of a better term. I'm talking about new technologies/innovations that are so successful/popular that all companies eventually end up using them, regardless of who invented them.

carbon fiber racquets
variable valve timing
multitouch
optical storage media
perpendicular recording

There are many technologies that claim to be like that, e.g. carbon nanotubes, but it's rarely obvious which technologies will be game-changers when they're just introduced. It usually takes a few years for a technology to show its impact. Some new ones that may or may not become widely used:

dual clutch (sure they have good performance, but are they necessary in normal cars?)
Audi's ultralight technology
solid state drives
unibody construction? (haha)

And of course, the beauty industry is FULL of these, probably because each company wants you to think their product is unique and exclusive, and so they can patent it. Some ingredients are quite common, so I guess they can be considered as well (or maybe they just have a good reputation and aren't patented, like antioxidants): AHA, tea tree oil, salicylic acid.

Shenzhen

2011-08-28T23:42:00.000+10:00

I went to Shenzhen, which is like the source of all computer equipment.

What do they sell there?

Handphones. Oh, so many handphones.
Handphone accessories
Computers/laptops and parts
Cameras
Media players
Torches and laser pointers
LED bulbs
LED sign panels (see below)

I only had 1 day to explore the electronics shopping centres, so I couldn't possibly see all of them. Although the stuff there is cheaper, most of it is available in Sim Lim Square, so there's no point going just to buy these things. Especially since you have to bargain and calculate to avoid being cheated, and keep an eye on your stuff while you're there. For example, I was thinking of buying a wand scanner:

The best price I found there was slightly more expensive than in Sim Lim Square! More common things were cheaper.

I didn't buy much. I bought a Singapore Apple plug (for the iPhone or MacBook adapter), a weighing scale and an LED panel (RMB$180):

I used to have one from ThinkGeek. That was slightly troublesome because it used disposable batteries and seemed to use up the batteries even when switched off. This one uses rechargeable batteries, and it lasts quite long. I left it on overnight and it still had power. It's programmed by computer, and can also display images.

Internet speed upgrade

2011-08-28T20:06:00.000+10:00

I upgraded my Internet access from 3 Mbps to 10 Mbps.

Before

After

Connection details

Samsung MLT-D105L

2011-08-28T02:04:00.001+10:00

Toner for the Samsung SCX-4623FW. RRP SGD$115. Rated for 2500 sheets. I'm not familiar with laser printers and issues like disposable/reusable print heads, what parts will be worn out by using poor quality replacement toner, resetting chips etc. so I'll just stick to originals for now. I sure hope this doesn't measure amount of toner left by pages printed though, otherwise what's the point of using toner saving mode? At least it should have a manual override so I can use the last pinch of toner. I know old toner cartridges are worth money though, wonder if I can sell my old one?

Quote about knowledge

2011-08-26T14:08:00.001+10:00

I've been looking for this quote for a while. I like it because it explains why I like measuring things.

When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science.

— William Thomson Kelvin

Steve Jobs resigns as CEO

2011-08-25T12:54:00.001+10:00

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/24/steve-jobs-resigns-as-ceo-of-apple/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/08/24Letter-from-Steve-Jobs.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/08/24Steve-Jobs-Resigns-as-CEO-of-Apple.html
http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/24/steve-jobss-apple-a-timeline/

I think it's because of his health. Being a CEO is exhausting even for someone in good health, and he hasn't been very well recently. Hope he feels better soon!

Mighty Wallet

2011-08-21T23:55:00.005+10:00

http://www.mightywallets.com/

I've wanted to buy one of these ever since I saw them, because I love unusual materials. Their small capacity held me off though. I finally rationalised buying one for an everyday wallet, because I didn't need to carry that many things around and my normal wallet was too big. I finally got one at the Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention (STGCC) on 20 August 2011, because they were 20% off.

Made from Tyvek
Recyclable
25% post consumer recycled content
Strong
Thin
Light - it's only 11g. How light is that - 2 Singapore $1 coins weigh more than that.
Water-resistant
Adapts to how much you put in it

I really love how it's ingeniously folded from a single sheet (this also gives it lots of hidden pockets. You can unfold it and hide cards inside. This is especially useful for cards you don't have to take out, like contactless cards) and it looks and feels just like paper. I specifically chose a design that highlights its paperlike qualities. Not sure how long it'll last, I'm expecting it to last 1 year and I'll be happy if it lasts 2 years. It's a bit troublesome with no coin compartment though, so I'm using one of the card slots. These few days my coins keep dropping when I open it upside-down. It came with 4 name card sized samples of Tyvek, and the packaging uses more Tyvek, which I'm using to test the material.

Also, not sure if I can put photos of individual cosplayers from STGCC, so I'll just put some random group shots.

Update 5 Jan 12

It's been 4 months, and the Mighty Wallet has held up nicely. At this rate, it should have no problem lasting a year.

This side faces away from me when in my pocket.

This side faces towards me. It has slightly more wear. Initially, it wore quite fast, with the print fading and fibres coming off. Once it reached this level, it stabilised and hasn't changed much.

The corner, which is probably the fastest wearing area.

Showing the fibres coming off

There is hardly any wear on the inside and the print looks unchanged. The right side of the opening is wrinkled due to me storing coins there.

Bottom of the right side, due to storage of coins.

Introduction to flat screen displays

2011-08-21T00:41:00.000+10:00

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/engadget-primed-all-mobile-displays-are-not-created-equal/
I thought this was a better title than the original. Putting the link here because Engadget's search system is rubbish.

HP Discontinues webOS

2011-08-20T01:28:00.002+10:00

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/18/hp-will-discontinue-operations-for-webos-devices/
Link has a nice timeline of the relationship between HP and Palm. HP bought Palm in April 2010.

Did they buy Palm and sell it in less than one and a half years, hardly making any products with webOS? It's like buying something and not using it.
Was buying Palm an epically bad business decision?
What's going to happen to the TouchPad?

Engadget interviews Stephen DeWitt, head of HP's webOS global business unit:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/the-engadget-interview-hps-stephen-dewitt-discusses-the-state/
From his answers, it's no wonder they're in this debacle. They need management with an idea of what they're doing. Apparently, HP's stock fell 25% in 5 days.

Using the iPad with external keyboards

2011-08-20T01:11:00.001+10:00

I want to highlight this excellent site, http://www.alltipsandtricks.com/ipad-keyboard-shortcuts/, which states which keyboard shortcuts you can use with your iPad. Surprisingly, the volume and brightness buttons work! The shortcuts were useful, but what made me point this out was their comparison of the differences between the keyboard dock and the Bluetooth keyboard.

Additional shortcuts I've found:

The eject button shows/hides the on-screen keyboard
Cmd+left or right are like the Home and End buttons in Windows, they jump to the beginning or end of a line. It's surprising this works, because even in OS X, it doesn't always work.
Alt+left or right jump word by word, like Ctrl+left or right in Windows.

While I'm talking about iPads and keyboards, I don't understand why people buy cases with built-in keyboards and even more, keyboard docks. If they need a keyboard that much, why don't they buy a netbook? To those who say because an iPad has features like games and is easier to carry around, well you lose all of that by buying these types of keyboards. Now you either have to carry an unnecessarily huge case, or remove it every time you want to hold your iPad. A much more logical solution would be to buy an external keyboard, like Apple's wireless keyboard, and an iPad stand or case. This way you can easily convert between the 2, and it may even be cheaper than some keyboard cases out there. The only reason I can think of for this combination is people who refuse to buy a non-Apple computer product, because Apple doesn't make netbooks.

More charging discoveries

2011-08-17T01:29:00.000+10:00

Continued from Belkin 4 port USB hub / more iPhone charging experiences

I noticed a few more things about charging the iPad:

charges with my MBP
only charges when I plug it in first, if I plug in my iPhone first, my iPad doesn't charge!
didn't charge when I plugged it into a HP desktop

I found this article by Apple, which explains everything:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4049

some Apple computers and displays can supply up to 1100 mA (the normal is 500 mA)
but they only supply this much to the first device that requests it

Looks like the iPad needs at least 1100 mA to charge, and with only 500 mA it displays "not charging" and only charges when sleeping.

Sawstop safety saw

2011-08-14T22:46:00.001+10:00

This amazing saw stops itself and retracts the blade when it detects contact with the human body!

http://www.sawstop.com/

If you laugh, you might be a physicist

2011-08-14T22:41:00.002+10:00

A well-known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down

iTunes has got the wrong idea

2011-08-13T23:45:00.000+10:00

iTunes has got the wrong idea when it comes to syncing photos. You want to "sync" things that are changed frequently, like documents and music (playlists). Syncing photos creates the following problems:

slow sync time (iPad 2 stuck on "Finishing sync")
risk of accidents corrupting all copies, which could have been used as backups
cannot move, rename, resize, archive photos (ok, I want to keep a copy of my holiday photos on my iPad to bore helpless saps, but I don't want to keep a copy in my Pictures folder)

And the additional problems if you don't use iPhoto:

cannot add/delete individual photos
cannot use subfolders

To some extent, the same problems apply with pdf files and movies in iTunes. Enter third-party photos apps. These have got it right:

add and remove photos, not sync. Works like a USB drive. Add once and leave them. Forever.
add individual photos - have an album of things you want to buy
delete photos you don't want to show people
password protect individual folders
folders and subfolders, independent of those on your computer
transfer photos by WiFi http server

I tested the app Photo Manager Pro, by Linkus, and am very satisfied with it.

In addition to the features above, it also has:

search
universal app!

I first got it to read comics, and found the search is very useful - you can just dump everything into 1 folder, and search for the chapter numbers to find the correct files. You can scroll between files in the search results, you don't have to return to the search page or even worse redo the search after each file.

Oregon Scientific weather station BAR321HGN

2011-08-10T12:30:00.000+10:00

I wanted a barometer, and since Oregon Scientific seemed like a pretty high-end brand (and the only brand of weather stations I knew of), I decided to try it out.

The BAR321HGN includes:

main unit (measures temperature, humidity and pressure)
remote unit (measures temp and humidity, and RF clock signals)
stand and wall mount for main unit
AC adaptor
batteries for both main and remote units

Features:

measure temperature, humidity and pressure
records max and min temp and humidity, and hourly pressure over the last 24 hours
weather prediction based on pressure
measures UV level with an optional meter
clock with 2 time zones and alarm
backlight
can announce time and weather
unused features: can set time based on radio signals from an atomic clock (in Europe), can set alarm to ring earlier if remote sensor measures temperature below 2C (snow), supports 5 temp/humidity sensors and 1 UV sensor

The box reminds me of Sony/Casio boxes - some features in many languages, but not very attractive. You'll probably find the product on display on a shelf, not in the box. Judging from the features and accessories included, it's quite a high-end model, and I saw the original price on the box was $350, but I got it for only $108, because it's so old. In fact, it was so old that the batteries that came with it had leaked.

Records max and min from remote sensor even when not displaying their data on screen (can only display 1 set of temp and humidity data at a time, either main unit or remote)
Remote unit is "all weather"
Set announcements to hourly between certain hours, or once a day
Announce in several languages
Select seconds, day or dual timezone display
Screen is too low contrast and reflective, making the numbers hard to see (compare top and bottom pictures). Can hardly be read from >1 m away.
Talking function only works when AC power is used. Conversely, there is no way to turn this off other than not using AC power.
Despite using batteries, data is reset once you open it, which you have to do to plug in AC power (the socket is hidden in the unit itself)
Although hiding the AC plug in the unit makes it look nice and seamless, with the wire coming out of the unit itself, the wire has to be forced in a channel at the bottom of the unit. This channel is too narrow and damages the wire.
Difficult interface. Memory and History buttons do the same thing, except Memory is for temperature and humidity, while History is for pressure. Pressure uses History to change settings, while everything else uses Mode.

Summary
Most irritating aspects are the interface and display. I expected more from this brand, but since this model is so old, maybe they've improved. Otherwise, performance is okay.

Belkin 4 port USB hub / more iPhone charging experiences

2011-08-07T00:43:00.000+10:00

I wanted something to charge several USB devices at once, and adaptors only go up to 2, so I tried a USB hub instead. I got a Belkin hub, which has 4 ports and is powered (meaning it comes with its own power adaptor).

The good news is, yes, it supplies power if you just plug in the adaptor and don't connect it to a computer. I can charge my Kindle and LED message board.

(Not a picture of the board charging, just to show you what it is) The bad news is, it doesn't charge the iPhone/iPad (without a computer)! This is a summary of the situation:
iPhone: charges only if computer and power adaptor connected
iPad: does not charge at all
The hub doesn't have any indicator lights, which is disappointing for such an expensive hub. The Logitech powered USB hub had individual lights for each port.

After searching online, I found the situation is as I expected: the hub needs some "intelligence" for the iPhone to charge, just like the iPod Touch.
http://nttup.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/usb-device-charging-un-mystified/
In short, the device asks the hub, "hey, can you supply 500mA?", and the hub has to reply for the charging to go. The good thing is, it isn't an Apple thing, they're just following the USB rules here. A solution would be to modify the hub: http://carlhutzler.com/blog/2009/07/28/usb-hub-as-an-ipodiphone-charger/ but this would disable data transfer, and I'm not going to do that to my new hub. Another solution would be to modify the cable, and in fact I saw a charging cable on ThinkGeek that probably does that. It's quite expensive though, and I'd rather buy a wall adaptor.

With so many people wanting to charge their devices, it's odd no company has made and advertised a USB hub that can charge without a computer. I also wonder about the many USB charging devices, like the power sockets with built in USB ports, if they can supply 500mA?

Summary of USB chargers:
Dumb - charges: Kindle. Probably because it only needs 100mA.

Belkin USB hub (without computer)
No brand USB adaptor

Intermediate - charges: iPod Touch, iPhone, NOT iPad

Belkin USB hub, with power and computer
Belkin adaptor
Kensington charging dock with mini battery pack

(Not sure if the last 2 can charge the iPad, so putting them here)

Ultimate - charges iPad and everything else (so far)

MacBook Pro USB port
iPod power adaptor (the one that comes with iPhone and Apple's universal travel kit)
iPad charger
Taiyo travel charger

The last one is a curiousity.

The front says "Taiyo TH-252 USB". I bought it because it was a travel adaptor and had 2 USB charging ports, so I only needed to bring this while traveling. It happily charges my iPhone and iPad, which now I know to be no mean feat! At first I thought this was a simple charger, and the devices weren't picky. The main problem with this adaptor is it seems loose in the socket - if you push it in, it springs back a little. The same with plugs in its own socket. However, I think its charging capabilities more than make up for this.

Metropark Hotel Wanchai Hong Kong

2011-08-06T01:17:00.000+10:00

41-49 Hennessy Road
Wan Chai, Hong Kong

I stayed at the Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong recently. We picked it because it had a good location (I'm not sure exactly where, I didn't pay attention to the place names).

Good facilities - fridge, safe, many TV channels, choice of pillow fillings
Modern, new furnishings
Good service
Central location, walking distance from metro
Many steps from street level to lift (cannot wheel luggage)

Some interesting pictures I took:

The hinge for this cupboard door is quite complicated. What does it do that normal hinges don't?

I like the design of their power points. First there are 2, and they're installed in opposite directions so there's a lower chance of obstruction. My adaptor (on the right) won't fit on the power point on the left. They also include a travel adaptor and LAN cable.

Exchanging one poison for another

2011-07-30T20:52:00.000+10:00

Many products claim to be free of one thing or another, in turn being better for you or the environment. I think this is a marketing gimmick, because on inspection they are replaced with something else, usually newer, less tested and so with less known about them.

My first example is MSG. It causes thirst and headaches in some people. I saw a brand of instant noodles claiming to be MSG free. This does not mean it is replaced by some natural ingredient, instead the noodles contains some chemical I didn't recognise, so I stuck to the tried and tested MSG.

The other example is acetone free nail polish remover. People know acetone is bad for them, so a nail polish remover without acetone must be better, right? Maybe you'd prefer MEK, almost identical to acetone, gamma butyrolactone http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16035208 or good old highly toxic methanol?

Other examples I could think of:

BFRs
Bisphenol-A
Dioxins
CFCs

Very often, the replacement isn't safer, it's just that we don't know how dangerous it is yet. I believe some replacements will be found to be worse than the original in the future.

Bladeless Fan

2011-07-18T22:51:00.003+10:00

I bought a bladeless fan from Taobao, China's auction site, like eBay. I think the site name literally means "search/find treasure". There are many shops selling similar items here, and it's hard to find a reliable one. I chose this because this shop had videos of a person standing on the ring and dropping the motor, and the fan still worked. Oh when I went to Shenzhen there were lots of shops selling these fans as well.

The supposed advantages of this fan are, in order of importance to me:

easy to clean
safe
efficient/brushless motor
low centre of gravity
balanced
no buffeting
continuous power control
small footprint (added by me)

The main advantage, if it is true, is that it's easy to clean, supposedly you can just wipe it. However, I'm sure there are blades/vanes/impellers/moving things hitting air inside, which will accumulate dust, so I highly doubt it's that simple. I can't find any pictures of the inside of an Air Multiplier online, the best I found was:

Which probably isn't of the original. Still, it seems to have blades. After using this fan for a while, I find dust begins to accumulate on the intake ports (those rectangular patches of holes on the base), especially the fibrous kind of dust (as opposed to the powdery kind). Is all the dust being deposited here, or is some still sucked inside and left there?

I didn't think much of its safety at first, since I don't tend to stick things into fans. However I've found it's more useful than I thought, especially with things like curtains, which my old fan used to suck in. I used this with a mosquito net and could place the fan anywhere without risking it entangling. Another advantage is since the intake is all around the base, it's difficult to block.

Another nice advantage is efficiency, if the fan induces more wind than the motor alone produces, it should be more energy efficient than other fans. This needs to be tested though, as I'm sure it uses some energy squeezing the air through a tiny gap. I'm not sure if this has a brushless motor as advertised.

Another thing I've noticed is that I can look through the air intake ports to the other side, meaning the lower part of the fan is hollow. I looked at the Air Multiplier and it was the same. Why don't they make it smaller then?

Having the fan pivot about its centre of gravity sounds nice, but the movement is very stiff, and it can't be adjusted with 1 hand. Its tilt is also very little compared to normal fans. I've tried the Air Multiplier and it's not easy to tilt either.

Buffeting seems like something they came up with just for marketing. I've never noticed it before, and I'm not sure I can feel it, even when looking for it.

Stuff to do:

make cyclonic air purifier
blow smells

I had a chance to have a look at a real Air Multiplier:

it's more powerful and quiet
the base pivots more smoothly, but still can't be adjusted with 1 finger
also hollow near the air intake

While I'm sad that mine isn't that good, I'm glad to know that the money spent on the Air Multiplier actually goes somewhere.

Bee Cheng Hiang Mini EZ Chicken Bak Kwa Nutritional Information

2011-07-17T23:16:00.001+10:00

I ate a lot of Bee Cheng Hiang's individually wrapped bak kwa during my holiday. It's a great snack: easy to keep, easy to eat, tastes great and nutritious. Their Singapore web site doesn't mention the nutritional information, but I bought another bag in Hong Kong, which does. I thought this would be useful, since I couldn't find it online (websites didn't specify what kind of bak kwa).

Bee Cheng Hiang Mini EZ Chicken
Ingredients: chicken, sugar, fish sauce
Per 40g: energy 146 kcal, protein 9.7g, total fat 4.4g, saturated fat 1.4g, trans fat 0.0g, carbohydrate 16.8g, sugar 15.2g, sodium 369.3mg
That works out to 3.5% saturated fat and 11% fat. 27.1% calories from fat.

Polarisers/polarizers

2011-07-17T15:07:00.000+10:00

How do the polarisers in black and white LCD screens work? Polarisers have to block 50% of unpolarised light, but those screens are too bright to be 50%.

Not what you think it does

2011-07-17T00:43:00.000+10:00

I find the power schemes in laptops misleading, like "maximum battery life". They make me feel that they really increase your battery life, like throttling performance would, but what they really do is only adjust the timers before various parts shut off. This only works if you leave your laptop alone, but if you're actively using it, this won't make a difference.

Engenius ERB9250 wireless repeater

2011-07-17T00:33:00.000+10:00

I bought this wireless repeater to extend the range of a wireless network. It's probably the easiest way - just put it at the edge of the existing coverage, it picks up and repeats everything it hears. One thing I'm wondering is whether the 802.11 standard covers repeaters, which would make them much simpler and more efficient. If not, there would be problems involved with receiving everything you sent.

To set this up, you survey wireless networks around, select yours and input the password (it only repeats for that network). You might need to tweak IP settings, since it should have a static IP and you need to make sure DHCP doesn't assign that IP to another device.

easy to set up
detailed site survey (signal strength and type of encryption)
physically compact
does not inform you if password is wrong
main problem is with logging in - it does that thing where it says someone else is logged in and refuses to log you in (set automatic logout to 1 minute), if you log out and try to log in again it tells you to close and re open your browser
configuration does not work with iOS, the page keeps refreshing
no other uses, I should have got one that can work as an Access Point (AP) as well

Tip: after setting up, check wireless > client list to see if your device is there to see if it's working.

Cameras with special features

2011-06-12T22:40:00.000+10:00

Looking for a new camera? Can't differentiate between the brands? Want a camera that stands out from the crowd? This is a list of cameras I've observed that have unique features.

Built in projector - Nikon
Easily show off your pictures to others. Sony recently came out with a video camera with a built in projector as well.

3D - Fujifilm
Has 2 lenses to capture 3D images. I think the lenses can be used to take pictures at different zoom levels as well. To show off the 3D pictures, there's a built-in lenticular (no glasses needed) display, and they sell a 3D digital photo frame.
Nintendo's 3DS can also take and display 3D pictures, although at lower quality.

Front facing screen - Samsung
Useful for self portraits.

Shock/water resistant - Olympus, then Panasonic, now almost every brand
Olympus had water resistant film cameras with their mju series, now they have durable digital cameras as well. This feature must be popular, now almost every brand has their own model.

High speed - Casio
Their cameras have speed in many areas - start up, autofocus, picture to picture time, and video framerate. As an example, their EX-ZR100 can take still images at 40 fps, and video at 1000 fps (although at almost-unusable 224x64 resolution).

High sensitivity (ISO) - ?
Infrared - ?
I'd really like to see an infrared camera.

Repeated Ken Burns in iMovie

2011-06-12T02:59:00.000+10:00

Let's say you have a still image in iMovie, and you do the usual Ken Burns on it. The limitation of Ken Burns is you can only have 1 start and 1 end point. What if you want to focus on a few things? Want to start a new one where the old one left off? Continually zoom in on different areas in the image? It's hard to align the next clip where the first one left off. I faced this problem when, after my Ken Burns, I wanted to dim the image, except a certain area, to draw attention there.

Just copy the clip after setting the Ken Burns, paste it after the original and swap the Ken Burns start and end points. This way you can set a new end point. Or you can crop instead of Ken Burns, so the whole clip will be the end point, effectively freezing the final position.

I used the second method, exported an image to Photoshop, dimmed it, and returned it to iMovie.

New old iPhone 4

2011-06-09T23:52:00.000+10:00

I replaced my iPhone 4. The Home button was spoiling, it would mix up 0, 1 and 2 clicks. The service centre for iPhones in Singapore is this out of the way place. They gave me a refurbished one. I was worried there would be scratches, since I don't expect them to replace the exterior for every iPhone, but somehow it was perfect. It came with protective plastic stickers on the front and back like a new iPhone has. I wonder what they do to the outside? I'm also slightly worried about the battery.

Harder materials shaping softer

2011-06-05T22:36:00.000+10:00

It seems to me a recurring theme occurring in engineering is how progressively harder and harder materials are used to shape the previous material.

For example, you want to build a plastic part using injection moulding. To make the mould, you need a material that is harder than the plastic at processing conditions. Maybe you use steel. To shape that mould, again you need a harder material, maybe a ceramic like tungsten carbide. It's the same with forging metals.

One thing in this chain is that as materials get harder and harder, they become more difficult to shape. The steel mould above can be made by drilling out unwanted material. However, the material for the drill itself can only be made into simple shapes, like rods, sheets, or most often powders.

Sometimes, we "cheat" and use heat or energy to shape the hardest materials. Some very hard materials can only be worked at high temperatures. Or we might use electricity, plasma or lasers to shape them, the energy being "infinitely" hard.

Does this mean we can't use the hardest materials without a harder material to shape them?

Infinity Blade guide

2011-06-05T13:35:00.007+10:00

I wrote this because the other guides online don't answer my questions, which is surprising considering how well written they are. Contains spoilers

How to play for fun and profit
I put this first because it's the most important. This idea is still in testing.

The idea is to stay in negative bloodlines to gain levels, exiting occasionally to reset your gear
Whatever stage your game is in now, switch to negative bloodlines
Play until your gear is mastered (or most of your gear)
Switch to normal bloodlines
Get the Infinity Blade and other gear
Kill the Deathless Kings and enter New Game +
In bloodline 2^2, enter negative bloodlines again
Repeat
The problem with this method I see is that you lose out on stat points from mastering items

Bloodline

Affected by: number of times you die/win at the hands of the boss
Affects: difficulty of other monsters, amount of gold dropped

Level

Affected by: XP
Affects: your stats

Boss level

Affected by: number of times you've killed him
Affects: his difficulty

If you're having difficulty killing the boss, level up first
If you're having difficulty with the monsters, level up without increasing the bloodline (die and choose restart castle)
If you want to earn more money, play at the highest bloodline you can manage (get killed by the boss)

Negative bloodlines

Play negative bloodlines by dying during the tutorial (tap the shield, but don't hold)
You continue with your gear, gold and level, and get a new set of dark gear
You cannot change gear, you have to use the dark gear
Dark gear is powerful and has lots of mastery points
Don't stab people, it makes them stumble so you only get 1 hit in. Wait, then combo them when they're stunned >:)
When you advance a bloodline, it decreases by 1 (-1 to -2)
When you return to the positive bloodlines, you keep your XP, gold and gear, but lose the dark gear
What this means is you can use this to level up when your gear is mastered / you can't afford new gear. When you return you'll keep your level, but you have to start from bloodline 1 again.
If you enter, exit and re-enter negative bloodlines, it remembers your dark gear mastery and God King level, but I suspect starting a New Game + resets it
Not sure if you enter negative bloodlines with the Infinity Blade, whether you can kill the Deathless Kings
You can enter negative bloodlines from New Game +, same rules apply
When you return, you're back to bloodline 1 (not 1^2), enemies are from bloodline 1, but your gear mastery is still remembered. God King is back to level 50. The game seems to have been reset, except for your level, stats and previous masteries.

New Game +

Buy the Infinity Blade and use it on the stone in the castle basement
It opens the doors to 3 bosses, the "Deathless Kings"
Their levels are 50, 100 and 150
Defeating all 3 Deathless Kings opens the door to another boss, a level 200 robot (Zero Mech)
After killing the robot, another character walks out to fight you (very easy compared to the robot)
After killing that character, you've finally completed the game! You get the achievement "All good things... - Get to the final ending of the game".
You have an option to start a New Game + or next bloodline
If you start the next bloodline, you have to kill the robot again to start a New Game +
In New Game +, you get a superscript number to your bloodline: first + is ^2
Gear and gold are reset, level and stats are kept
Purpose is to let you continue leveling up, but negative bloodlines may be better for this

Save game files are compatible between iPhone and iPad! Use a file explorer, like iPhone Explorer, to copy the save files. It's a good idea to backup the save files as well.

Spotlight as a calculator and dictionary

2011-06-02T02:39:00.001+10:00

I found out this isn't as well-known as I thought, and it's pretty useful, so I'm sharing it here.

You can use Spotlight in OS X as a calculator by typing in the calculations. If you're already typing something, you don't even have to leave the keyboard - ⌘+spacebar opens the Spotlight query, and you can start typing straight away.

Hmm maybe this isn't as well-known either. You can also use Spotlight as a dictionary, by using the same method.

Boot Camp with 64 bit Windows

2011-06-01T01:52:00.000+10:00

When installing a 64 bit version of Windows on a MacBook Air, I had the error message "Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model", apparently because Apple does not support 64 bit Windows on MBAs. I found a simple solution at http://michael.anastasiou.me/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22:qboot-camp-x64-is-unsupported-on-this-computer-modelq-solution&catid=7:how-to&lang=en.

Speaking of Boot Camp, it's irritating that the Windows drivers are ONLY available on your Mac OS install discs. If you're installing Boot Camp, you need your OS X discs to install it properly. This is troublesome if you've lost the discs or don't have them with you.

Import photos into iMovie without using iPhoto

2011-05-30T00:49:00.000+10:00

Apple products are great - if you use all their products. I wanted to use a folder of photos in iMovie, and I don't use iPhoto. I'd done it before, but I couldn't remember, so I'm writing it here.

First open the photo browser in iMovie and drag the divider so you can see the list of sources:

Then just drag the folder you want into that list.

Panasonic F-PJD35A air purifier

2011-05-28T18:09:00.002+10:00

I've always wanted an air purifier. I think dirty air is underestimated. I've tried a few cheap air purifiers but they were useless, so don't waste your money. The good ones are about $400 onwards, but I didn't want to buy one with no way of measuring how good they were. I saw this on sale at half price ($299), so I decided to finally try one.

Basically, it's a filter and a fan, with a nano/ion generator. Personally, I don't really like ions from air purifiers because I'm not sure what they do. The brochure for this has reports saying their ions kill viruses/bacteria.

This is the front of the main filter

Back.

The second, deodourising filter. It has a very interesting structure, like black crystals grown on a grid.

At full power, it uses 32W. At minimum power, 6.5W. Maintenance: vacuum the front of the main filter (black) once every 2 weeks. Filters last 2 years.

It seems to be on its way out. Panasonic's Singapore and Malaysia websites have no air purifier section, although the model shows up on their website on Google searches. I had a hard time finding the manual online, and finally found it on the Hong Kong website.
Has dust sensor, and can automatically control its power according to amount of dust.
Sensor sensitivity can be adjusted
Quite quiet and uses little power
Long filter life
No HEPA
Filter frame is made of cardboard, I read this may lead to poor sealing and air bypassing the filter, but looking at the dust accumulated this doesn't seem to be a problem.
I'm afraid I'll drop something into the vent on top and it'll destroy the fan. I hope the fan isn't directly beneath the vent. All the other air purifiers I've seen also have the vent on the top.

After 2 weeks, there is a visible layer of dust, although it's hard to see in this picture.

Sharp's air purifiers using Plasmacluster are quite famous. I found Plasmacluster works by splitting water molecules into H+ and OH- ions, which deactivate viruses and bacteria. According to Panasonic, "a nanoe is a fine (5 to 20 nm) and weakly acidic water particle with a reactive substance and an electric charge", "nanoe comes from condensed moisture in the air". I wonder if they're similar?

If I were to get another air purifier, I'd look for:

HEPA filtration
UV disinfection (I trust it more than nanoe)

Wax seals

2011-05-28T17:07:00.000+10:00

I'm working on a new idea. I bought sealing wax from Art Friend (about $4).

I don't have a wax seal, so I used a Chinese calligraphy seal. It's made of stone, so it has good thermal conductivity.

It works very well.

The wax has very good properties for sealing - it's not ordinary candle wax:

It holds an impression well - the lines on the flat area in the image above are from the stone of the seal
It doesn't stick to the seal
It solidifies fast - instructions online say to hold the seal for 1 minute, but I only held it for about 10 seconds
It sticks to the paper well
It's hard after solidifying - pressing as hard as I could with my nail left only a slight mark
It can be peeled off the paper in 1 piece
It's very flexible - I can fold it and crease it and it won't crack

It's more like rubber than wax, but it can be remelted after peeling it off.

Changes to Picasa Web Albums

2011-05-26T22:36:00.000+10:00

What have they done to PWA? It's so hard to tag people now:

no thumbnail in the auto-complete - you can't tell which account is the correct one
can't edit email addresses of contacts
if you make a wrong contact, it remains there even if you untag it from all photos

We see in 2D

2011-05-26T20:58:00.000+10:00

I'm convinced that we actually see in 2D, or maybe pseudo-3D, and N-dimensional beings see in N-1 dimensions.

What I mean

By "seeing in 2D", I mean that what we see can be expressed in a 2D image
In other words, we can only see the front of objects. We cannot see what is behind, or blocked
We also have some distance data, which is what I mean by "pseudo-3D"
I would consider "seeing in 3D" to be able to see all sides of an object at the same time

Why I'm bringing this up

In most "flatland" or 2D movies/stories, the world is shown from our point of view and we can see the entire world at once
The characters also behave as though they are able to see what we see - what's behind other objects etc.
What they see should really be expressed as a line

Samsung SCX-4623FW

2011-05-18T20:11:00.001+10:00

I was looking for a new printer and I wanted:

fax
laser
wireless networking

I couldn't find one from Canon, Epson or Brother, and was about to get an inkjet, when I found that Samsung had one.

easy to set up
good software - scans over network for Macs
ID card copy (copy both sides by scanning twice before printing)
the nice thing is that despite paper jams, I've never seen unfused toner, so it's not messy
no duplexing
tends to jam when you feed the same paper twice, maybe because the paper curls
the manual tray only accepts 1 sheet at a time, making it not very useful

Scotch Precision Ultra Edge Non-Stick Scissors

2011-05-18T20:03:00.002+10:00

Non-stick - glue resistant
Titanium-fused blades - harder
Soft comfort grip handles
Adjustable pivot
Individually hand-tested
Lifetime warranty

These scissors claim to have "titanium-fused" blades, but I suspect they're still mostly iron (they're magnetic). One wonders how much actual titanium they contain, and if the titanium has any purpose other than marketing. According to The Elements by Theodore Gray, most "titanium" products contain no titanium at all.

In my experience, loosening of the joint is the main mode of failure of scissors. Most scissors have riveted joints, so once it loosens, you can't do anything. In fact, the reason why you can't use scissors with your left hand is the motion of your hand tends to separate the blades. If you grip it correctly, it can be done. If the joint is tight enough, as with this scissors, it works fine with either hand. The other common problem is glue on the blades. I used to clean it off using alcohol, which can breathe new life into old scissors. Since these scissors claim to fix these 2 problems, they should last very long.

According to Scotch, these are suitable for cutting:

copy paper
photos
cardstock
fabric
crafts
tape/craft glue

Other models of scissors are suitable for successively less materials, starting from the bottom.

Speaking of long lasting scissors, I have a pair that has cheated death twice. A long time ago, I decided I needed a proper pair of "office" scissors, as compared to "school" or "children's" scissors. I bought a pair, and used it for many years before bringing it to Australia. There, it met a new pair of scissors meant to replace it, but it outlasted the replacement. I wasn't planning on bringing it back, but somehow it survived the journey and is back here now. What shall I do with it?

A simple way to take macro pictures

2011-05-18T02:48:00.002+10:00

One feature I miss on the iPhone 4 and my SLR is taking macro pictures. To me, macro pictures are more useful than huge amounts of zoom. I found an easy way to take macro pictures.

A long time ago, I bought the "Credit Card Companion" from Tool Logic. It's a multifunction tool, in the shape of a credit card (although much thicker). They still sell the same model today, which shows something about the design. Victorinox, the swiss army knife company, has released their own version called the Swisscard. Among its functions, the CCC has an 8x magnifying lens. This is quite high magnification, but the lens is much smaller than other magnifying glasses. To use it, you're supposed to hold it close to your eye and move the object to focus.

Due to the similar sizes of this lens and the iPhone 4's, I tried holding the CCC in front of the iPhone 4's camera and taking pictures. I found this worked even with the CCC pressed right against the iPhone 4, making it very easy to use, since you don't have to adjust the distance between the 2. The results are very good:

To compare the effect of the lens, I tried taking a picture with and without it, without moving the iPhone:

It only appears to affect focusing, not magnifying the image.

Things I'm wondering:

will this work with other lenses as well?
and other cameras?
how does the magnification of the lens affect things?

I tried it with a 3x magnifying lens, and the camera couldn't focus as close as with the 8x lens. Maybe a higher magnification allows closer focusing, without changing the actual magnification?

Old computers

2011-05-09T19:28:00.001+10:00

I'm condensing my posts about my previous computers, to tidy things up.

1. Compaq Presario 944

Medium tower case
90 MHz 486
8192 kB RAM
500 MB HDD
4x CD-ROM (fastest at that time)
1.44 MB disk drive
9600 kbps modem
14" SVGA monitor
Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.2
Bought in 1995 with a Canon BJC-4000 for $3600

It came with a lot of software. My favorite game was Lode Runner: The Legend Returns and it also had others like King's Quest 6, Skifree and Pipe Dream. Creative Writer was great too. I played a lot of shareware games on it like Hocus Pocus, Raptor: Call Of The Shadows, In Search Of Dr Riptide, Whacky Wheels and Duke Nukem 1 and 2. I also played Mechwarrior 2 and Worms on it. One of the last games I played on it was Red Alert, which I continued on my next computer. In the end, it was given away.

3. Gateway Solo 9300 XL

Intel Pentium III with SpeedStep 500/600 MHz
224 MB RAM
12 GB HDD
DVD-ROM
LS120 (Superdisk) drive
ATI Rage Mobility 8MB video card
15" screen
First computer with USB ports!
Bought in 2000 for $5500

The things I liked about it were that it had a battery meter built into the battery, so you could check the power left without turning on the computer. Strangely, this feature has vanished from new computers (it's on the MacBook Pro, but on the computer, not the battery). Battery indication was built into the BIOS, so you could use the function key to check battery percentage left in any program.

I found that the RAM cover was the hottest part, so I stuck a heat sink onto it. The difficult part is finding an adhesive that conducts heat, is removable, and does not damage the laptop. I used double sided tape (some people call it tissue tape?). You can see the battery indicator. It had pop-up legs to elevate itself too.

In the end, it wouldn't boot up. I sold it for $50 to a recycler.

4. Dell

5. Fujitsu Lifebook

6. Pluto

I bought this computer in December 2006. The GeForce 8 had just come out.

Intel D975XBX2KR motherboard
Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 GHz 2MB L2 cache
2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
320 GB SATAII HDD with 16 MB cache and NCQ
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB (there were only 2 models, the GTS and GTX)
17" (5:4) DVI monitor
$3000
Bought in Dec 2006

The non-advertised parts were cheap: fan, PSU and case. The fans didn't even fit the fan slots on the case and were screwed into the grille instead. The case was hard to take apart and upgrade. No tool-less drive bays or anything of that sort. The worst part is that a few days after getting it, the PSU blew! I got it repaired and so far it's ok.

7. Dell Inspiron 530s desktop

Core 2 Duo E6750
22" E228WFP (VGA and DVI, 1680x1050)
3 GB (2x1GB+2x512MB) dual channel DDR2 667MHz RAM
500 GB 3.0Gb/s HDD with NCQ
16x dual layer DVD+-RW
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 256MB
Belkin Superior Series 6 way surge protector with 45,000 max spike amperage
MS Office 2007 Home & Student

Bought 23 April 2008 for AUD$1408. I liked it because it was a slim design, not a full sized CPU. As with my other Dell computers, the inside was neat and well designed. Sold it because I was leaving Australia.

8. MacBook Pro mid 2009 15"

MB986X/A 15" Unibody model (2009)
2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 6MB shared L2 cache, 1066MHz bus
4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB 5400RPM HDD
GeForce 9400M and GeForce 9600M GT (512MB)
Bluetooth
802.11n
Backlit keyboard
Gigabit ethernet
Firewire 800
Height: 2.41 cm (0.95")
Width: 36.4 cm
Depth: 24.9 cm
Weight: 2.49 kg (5.5 pounds)
AUD$3399 (with student discount)

Spliced Word file

2011-05-06T02:44:00.000+10:00

I recently tried to fix a Word file, and this is what I learnt.

By the looks of it, the file had been “spliced” with another, autorun.inf. The beginning went:

autorun]

[autorun[

autorun[

[autorun

:jmp8

open=BOOTEX\thumbcache_131.exe

Solution 1

Save the Document to Another File Format, and Then Convert It Back to Word

Open file
Save as: (in decreasing priority) rtf, html, other text formats, txt
Close and reopen

Solution 2

Insert the Document As a File in a New Document

In a new document, insert > file

Solution 3

Open the File by Linking to It

Create and save a new document with sample text
In a second, new document, paste special > paste link > formatted text (rtf)
In the second document, edit > links
Change source > select broken document

Solution 4

Use the Recover Text from Any File Converter

This one finally worked, but I found that in addition to being corrupted, the file was also unsaved, so there wasn’t much data in it anyway.

File > open > change file type to recover text from any file (*.*)

References (with more solutions)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826864
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290946

Things I've done since I got back

2011-05-05T21:29:00.002+10:00

It doesn't feel like I've done much, but when I think about it, there's quite a lot:

Set up new phone number
Set up 3G
Reset internet password and set up new modem/router
Saw the dentist
Made appointment with LASIK clinic
Selected, bought and installed new printer
Tidied my room
Found company to deliver belongings from Australia and received them
Applied for Internet banking and got a debit card
Reset Singpass
Moved solemnisation to outside ROM, found a solemniser and venue and registered marriage
Visited wedding exhibition and got an idea of services/prices
Found wedding dinner venue
Bought air purifier
Bought shredder
Transferred Paypal and eBay accounts
Applied for Visit Pass extension

invisibleSHIELD for iPad 2

2011-04-28T22:11:00.001+10:00

I've wanted to try the invisibleSHIELD ever since I saw their promotional picture. A self-healing skin that can resist penetration by a pen is the kind of protection I want for my gadgets. The company also seemed as obsessed with protection as I am. After considering it for my laptop and phone, I finally decided to try it on my iPad 2.

First, the version I bought was "Full Body". With that name you'd expect it to cover everything, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the crucial corners.

This is a major fail for a protection device. The corners and edges are most in need of protection (see the iPhone 4 bumper). This may be because the iPad 2's shape is very hard to cover - the Gelaskins for it do not cover the corners as well (as an aside, Gelaskins are easy to apply, look good, customisable and immune to dust and air bubbles, since they aren't transparent).
Another problem is that, as you can see, it covers the SIM card slot. I'll have to peel the shield back a bit to change the SIM card. The good thing is it covers where the Smart Cover attaches, which prevents scratches from the Smart Cover hinge. It works with the Smart Cover, with 1 problem: the extra friction prevents the Smart Cover from aligning automatically. It'll jump and stick, but it may stick slightly askew and remain that way.

The other problem is that it's ridiculously hard to apply. Even the videos teaching you how to apply it demonstrate using 2 people. I also think it's a bad idea using so much water around your device, especially one with water detecting stickers.

Poor coverage
Hard to apply
Works with Smart Cover

Portal 2 off to a bad start

2011-04-24T00:17:00.001+10:00

I bought the eagerly-anticipated PC game Portal 2, and my first impressions aren't so good:

lousy packaging (like an envelope)
my game didn't come with the DVD! Fortunately with the code I can register on Steam and download it myself.

These are somewhat made up for by the fact one copy includes Windows and Mac versions.