Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Nybble Issue No. 216

N Y B B L E   M O N T H L Y   N E W S L E T T E R
A Free Ezine about Anything Tech and Everything Else
2009.12.29 Issue No. 216


In this season of gift-giving (either to others or to yourself), here are some tips to maximize the bang for your buck when buying tech toys.

Rule number one. Never pay full-price at the store. Things are almost always cheaper online. Better yet, buy it second-hand. Wait till after Christmas, when the presents have been opened. People might not like their gifts. Some might get tired of their new toys quickly. Hit the auction sites for good bargains.

When buying tech toys, get the cheapest model in the best product line. Let me explain. A company usually has different product lines with different features. For mp3 players, the only difference within a product line is the storage capacity. Why pay top bucks for maximum capacity, when you can get the cheapest one (with the same core features) and extend the capacity with external memory cards. For plasma/LCD TVs, the difference is in the screen size. Stick to the series with the features you want, and buy the medium-sized model. You don't pay the premium for the large screen size, but you still get all the features.

Make sure your tech toy is upgradable and/or hackable. No point buying a gadget that is end-of-(feature)life when you buy it. Check that the company is active in publishing new firmware for your gadget to fix bugs or enhance functionality. Better if there's an active hacking community developing software for your device. Again, your toy must be hackable in the first place for all these to work.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Have an answer, comment, suggestion, or violent reaction? Send them my way by clicking on Reply or join nybbletalk@yahoogroups.com to discuss a topic. If you think Nybble is good enough, do tell the modders about it. Thanks.


_________ARTIFICIAL MEAT_________

In the not-so-distant future, we'll be eating meat not from animals, but grown in a lab. Researchers in Netherlands have created what was described as soggy pork and investigating ways to make it more palatable. So far, no one has tasted this artificual meat, but such producs could be in the market within five years.

The scientists created the meat by extracting cells from the muscle of a live pig ang putting them in a broth of other animal products. The cells multiplied and created more muscle tissue. All they need to do now is to artificially "exercise" and stretch the muscle, in hopes of turning it into something like steak, so that people will eat it.

Vegetarian groups welcomed the news. There's not gonna be any "ethical objection" if the meat didn't come from a dead animal. Meat produced in a laboratory could reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with real animals. Trivia for you: meat and dairy consumption is predicted to double by 2050 and methane from livestock is said to currently produce about 18 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases.

The project is backed by the Dutch government and a sausage maker and comes following the creation of artificial fish fillets from goldfish muscle cells.


_________ALGAE BATTERIES_________

Algae is often pushed as the next breakthrough in biofuels. If researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden, have their way, this slimy stuff could also be the key to paper-thin biodegradable batteries.

Conducting polymers have long been thought to be a solution in developing lightweight, flexible, nonmetal batteries, but these polymers have so far been impractical because regular paper can’t hold enough of them to work effectively. Now Uppsala researcher Maria Stromme and her team has found that the smelly Cladophora algae species that clumps on beaches, can also be used to make a type of cellulose that has 100 times the surface area of cellulose found in paper. Because of this bigger surface area, it can hold enough conducting polymers to effectively recharge and hold electricity for longer amounts of time.

The algae-based paper sheet batteries hold up to 200% more charge than regular paper-based cellulose batteries, and they can recharge in as little as 11 seconds. Eventually, they could be used in any application that requires flexible electronics — for example, clothing or packaging that lights up. Perhaps most importantly, the algae batteries could one day cut down on e-waste from conventional metal batteries.


_________PLASMA ZAPPERS________

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have demonstrated a prototype device that uses plasma to rid hands, feet, or even underarms of bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA. The device works by creating plasma, which produces a cocktail of chemicals in air that kill bacteria but are harmless to skin. A related approach could see the use of plasmas to speed the healing of wounds.

Plasmas are known as the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid, and gas. They are a soup of atoms that have had their electrons stripped off by, for example, a high voltage. (Same plasma as the ones used in plasma TVs.) For this particular medical application, rather than turning a whole group of atoms into plasma, a more delicate approach strips the electrons off just a few, sending them flying. Collisions with nearby, unchanged atoms slows down the electrons and charged ions they leave behind. The resulting plasma is harmful to bacteria, viruses, and fungi - the approach is already used to disinfect surgical tools.

The team says that an exposure to the plasma of only about 12 seconds reduces the incidence of bacteria, viruses, and fungi on hands by a factor of a million - a number that stands in sharp contrast to the several minutes hospital staff can take to wash using traditional soap and water. A similar approach, using the element argon instead of plain air, has been demonstrated for application directly to wounds, and initial indications are that it speeds heaing.

More testing of the devices is necessary before they end up in widespread use, but there is already significant interest from industry.


_________COUNTING ANTS_________

Scientists at the University of Ulm wanted to find out whether ants count. An ingenious experiment conducted in the Sahara suggests that they probably do.

Most ants get around by leaving smell trails on the forest floor that show other ants how to get home or to food. That may work in the forest, but it doesn't work in a desert, as the wind blows aways the smell left in the sand. We know ants use celestial clues to establish the general direction home, but how do desert ants actually get to their doorstep?

Harald Wolf and his assistant Matthias Whittlinger trained a bunch of ants to walk across a patch of desert to some food. When the ants began eating, the scientists trapped them and divided them into three groups. They left the first group alone. With the second group, they used superglue to attach pre-cut pig bristles to each of their six legs, essentially putting them on stilts. The third group had their legs cut off just below the "knees," making each of their six legs shorter.

This is what happened after the ants had their meal and were released:
- The regular ants walked right to the nest and went inside.
- The ants on stilts walked right past the nest, stopped and looked around for their home.
- The ants on stumps fell short of the nest, stopped and seemed to be searching for their home.

It turns out that all the ants had walked the same number of steps, but because their gaits had been changed, they went exactly the distances you'd predict if their brains counted the number of steps out to the food and then reversed direction and counted the same number of steps back. In other words, all the ants counted the same number of steps back!


_________SPLIT MOBILE PHONE_________

We have candybars, we have sliders, we have dual-sliders, we have twisters, we have flippers. Now, we're about to have splitters. Fujitsu is breaking new ground in the cell phone market with the imminent introduction of a cell phone that splits into two parts.

The F-04B was recently announced as part of NTT DoCoMo's new line-up and is scheduled to hit Japanese shelves in March or April next year. At first glance it looks like a conventional slider cell phone, but decouple a catch and the entire back half of the phone can be pulled off. The top half contains a 3.4-inch touchscreen display and most of the electronics needed for the handset to function. The radio module and antenna is also in this part. The back half has a QWERTY keyboard and the slide-out numeric keypad. The two halves stay in contact via Bluetooth up to a distance of about 10 meters. Both halves of the phone include a mic and speaker so either can be used for receiving calls. The top half includes the ringer and vibrator while the bottom half has a light so each is capable of alerting the user to an incoming call.

This could be an advantage for people who worry about potential health problems from keeping a cell phone near the head -- the top half with the phone can be kept in a bag and calls made and received using the lower half of the phone in essentially the same way as a Bluetooth headset works.

Calls can also be dialled via either half although the bottom half with the keyboard lacks a display to assure users that they are entering the right number. If using the keyboard half of the phone to make or receive a call it's possible to use the top half of the display to, for example, check e-mail or take a picture.

Full details of the handset are yet to be announced but NTT DoCoMo said it measures 11.4 centimeters by 5.1cms by 20.4cms and weighs 173 grams. Standby time is 600 hours in WCDMA mode and 400 hours in GSM mode while talk time is 300 minutes and 330 minutes respectively. The screen resolution is 480 pixels by 960 pixels, it has a bilingual (Japanese and English) interface, built-in Felica contactless smartcard and the camera has an impressive 12.2 megapixel resolution. Other features include GPS and HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) high-speed data downloads. Fujitsu also plans to offer an optional projector unit that can be clipped onto the bottom of the phone in place of the keyboard to project images on a nearby flat surface.

There are no plans to put the phone on sale overseas.


_________LANDMINE-DETECTING BACTERIA_________

With landmine strewn across 87 of the world’s countries, these are just major accidents waiting to happen. Each year they cause 15,000-20,000 new casualties, the vast majority of which are inflicted upon civilians.

Currently, finding landmines is done by Sifting through minefields, a dangerous, tedious, and expensive process. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh are trying to find a solution. They have engineered a new strain of bacteria can be sprayed onto local affected areas or air dropped over entire fields of mines. Within a few hours the bacteria strain begins to glow green wherever traces of explosive chemicals are present.

The new strain was produced using a technique called BioBricking, wherein strands of bacterial DNA can be manipulated to express desired traits. The bacteria are cheap, can be easily mass produced, and offer tremendous advances over the cost of removing a land mine using conventional detectors, which can range from $300 to $1,000. Just need to be careful that spreading of said bacteria is not seen as an act of biological warfare.


_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Forward/Reverse DNS Lookup

Cell Size and Scale

Microsoft CD Keys

Software crack download site

Do Speedy Math in Your Head


_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
Why do ants pick up other dead ants and take them back to their nest? What do they do with them?


_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful.
~ H.H. The Dalai Lama


_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
How does a trick candle work?

The wick of a trick candle has small amounts of magnesium in them. When you light the candle, you are also lighting the magnesium. When someone tries to blow out the flame, the magnesium inside the wick continues to burn and, in just a split second (or two or three), relights the wick.

Source: Arcamax Trivia


_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
A termite walks into a bar and asks "Is the bar tender here?"


That's all for this week. Nybble is and will always be a work in progress. Please do send me your comments and suggestions on how to improve Nybble. Just hit the reply button to you know, reply.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Hacking the PS2

Not as easy as I thought. Following standard procedure, I spent a couple of days trawling through the online forums and Youtube, researching on the different ways to hack a PS2. As they say, there's more than one way to skin a cat. I'm interested in the cheapest way, as this cat is only a freebie.

If you're a cheapo like me, your best bet is FreeMcBoot. Latest version as of this writing is v1.8b. The theory is that using a modded PS2, you run the FreeMcBoot installer (off a USB or a customized CD). Once prompted, insert a memory card, and FreeMcBoot with install the necessary files on it. Insert this memory card on any unmodded PS2, then power up. Voila, soft-modded PS2!

At least, that's how it's support to work, but it didn't work for me. I burned the special CD with the Noobie package. The install process worked fine, but when I tried to boot off the memory card, FMCB didn't come up. It's like my PS2 can see the files, but it's not booting from the MC. Bad.

Is it because my new 64MB memcard is not genuine? So I go to eBay to buy a used 8MB Sony MagicGate memory card. Still no go. Is it because my FMCB disc is bad? I burned it again. At 1x speed. And tried it on the two memcards. Still no go. I downloaded FMCB v1.7, and tried everything again. Still no go. Time for a break.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Movie 2009.12.26 - Look

For the first few minutes, I seriously believed that Look is a proper, bona fide documentary. Hidden cameras in the mall changing room showing naked young girls? Security cameras catching employees flirting and doing nasty things in the storeroom? Turns out it's just a mockumentary. Reason why it's so realistic is because the whole movie is filmed from the typical vantage points of surveillance cameras.

The movie starts with:
"There are an estimated 30 million surveillance cameras in the United States generating more than 4 billion hours of video every week. On any given day the average American is captured approximately 200 times."

I totally believe this. I heard it's even worse in the UK.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Movie 2009.12.24 - ExTerminators

Movie about a group of women in an anger-management class who start a business killing off abusive men. That pretty much sums up the plot. It's kinda new to me, but after watching the movie, there's really nothing special. There's a twist in the end, but I'm sure you'll get it pretty quick.

Movie stars Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Amber Heard, Sam Lloyd, etc.

Monday, December 21, 2009

WD NAS --> DLNA <-- LA32B650

The WD NAS supports UPnP and DLNA. The Samsung LA32B650 supports DLNA. I think the Xbox XBMC, connected to the Sammy, supports UPnP. Now, to get everything working together.

I let the TwonkyMedia UPnP server run for a while. I went to the XBMC menus and played around with the config. It can see the NAS directory structures, but it's not displaying the files. If I use my laptop browser, I can access the directories and the files, so it's not Twonky's problem.

Next, I tried ushare. Configuration is simple enough - just edit /opt/etc/ushare.conf to point where the media files are. Sammy can see files, but they won't play.

Next up is minidlna. The application doesn't even seem to read the config file. None of the media files are being served.

I finally settled for MediaTomb. Like TwonkyMedia, scanning the directories take time, but at least they work. OGG, MKV, and some AVI won't play, but I'm guessing this is more Sammy's fault.

Oh, and don't forget to add the following to config.xml and mappings.xml:
<map from="avi" to="video/mpeg"/>

<custom-http-headers>
<add header="transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming"/>
<add header="contentFeatures.dlna.org: DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01700000000000000000000000000000"/>
</custom-http-headers>

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Hacking the WD MBWE

Spent the past few days Googling and reading up on the forums on the best way to hack the Western Digital MyBook World Edition, hereafter known as WD MBWE.

First step to hacking the MBWE is to gain ssh access to it. With the earlier models, you have to point your device to access an external website to download and install a "firmware". After running the upgrade, ssh will be enabled. My suggestion is for you to upgrade to the latest official firmware (currently 01.01.16), which has ssh access as an option. That's Advanced --> System --> Advanced, then turn on "Enable SSH". Easy as that. Default root password is welc0me.

What you get is a basic Linux running on your MBWE. To extend its functionality, you can download sources and compile them on your own, OR get Optware. With Optware, you get literally hundreds of pre-compiled binaries ready to be downloaded with just one command. Now, Optware is not just for MBWE, so you gotta be careful with which "feed" you subscribe to.
  • If your MBWE has a ring of blue lights in front, use the mbwe-bluelight feed.
  • If your MBWE has a string of white lights in front, use the cs05q1armel feed.
Run the below set of commands to install/set up Optware:
feed=http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware//cross/unstable
ipk_name=$(wget -qO- $feed/Packages | awk '/^Filename: ipkg-opt/ {print $2}')
wget $feed/$ipk_name
tar -xOvzf $ipk_name ./data.tar.gz | tar -C / -xzvf -
mkdir -p /opt/etc/ipkg
echo "src armel http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware//cross/unstable" > /opt/etc/ipkg/armel-feed.conf
wget http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/local--files/optware/sort_dirname.tar.gz
tar xvfz sort_dirname.tar.gz -C /


With Optware, all new applications are installed under /opt/bin
/opt/bin/ipkg update - to update local feed list
/opt/bin/ipkg list - to see what's available for download
/opt/bin/ipkg list_installed - to see what's already installed
/opt/bin/ipkg install - to install or upgrade packages (including dependencies)
/opt/bin/ipkg remove - to remove packages

Of course, any application you install won't run automatically unless you add it to /etc/initd Sample initialization and termination scripts are in /opt/etc/initd/* Optionally, you might want to install teinturman's feature packs. I tried the installer and feature packs, didn't work for me, had to spend some time and effort backing out the changes done to the system. Try it though, it might work for you.

Next thing we gotta do is disable the Mionet crapware. Other people might have a need for it, I don't. There's an option to turn it off via the GUI, but internally /usr/sbin/wixhwmonitor still calls /usr/mionet/monitorCVM.sh, which restarts it. So monitorCVM.sh is what needs to be tweaked to really disable Mionet.

Just add:
if [ ! -f "/etc/.mionet_on_startup" ]; then
exit 1
fi
The new firmware also upgrades TwonkyMedia Server to v5.1. This works out of the box - identifying most of my audio and video files. Only downside is that it's taking a long time to scan my files and the constant spinning is making the drive hot. More hacking next time.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Asian Santa

For some reason, my wife's colleagues at the villa thought it's a good idea to get me to play Santa at this year's Christmas presentation. With so many other possible candidates, I said "Yeah, sure, but only as a last resort, if you guys can't find anyone else." Turns out they can't find anyone else. So here I was in my Santa suit and Santa wig and Santa beard and Santa hat, waiting for the kids to cheer, which is my cue.

I come out of my hiding place ho-ho-hoing and spouting "Merry Christmas". After distributing bags of lollies to the kids, I loitered around the greens for picture-taking (FOC). I must be a strange sight - thin Asian chinky-eyed Santa.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Movie 2009.12.14 - Jennifer's Body

I wonder why they called the movie Jennifer's Body, as I didn't get to see much of it. Yeah, there were parts where Jennifer took off her clothes (while seducing her victims), but none of the good parts were shown.

The story has nothing to do with Jennifer's body though. Murdered in the woods as part of a Satanic rite sacrifice by a rock band after fame and fortune, Jennifer comes back from the dead with the demon inside her because the ritual asks for a virgin, and she's not. She attains some superhuman powers, but these wane after a few days. To top up her powers, Jennifer needs blood, so she preys on her male classmates. Best friend Anita starts getting suspicious about the weird things happening. She does some research in the occult section of the library and comes to the conclusion that Jennifer is a succubus. She then tells her boyfriend Chip to stay away from Jennifer.

School dance time. Jennifer seduces Chip, leads him to the nearby pool house, and proceeds to feed on his neck. Anita manages to save Chip from Jennifer, but he later dies from loss of blood. Furious, Anita later sneaks into Jennifer's bedroom, and kills her by stabbing a boxcutter into her heart. For this, she was confined in a mental asylum. Having been scratched by Jennifer during their confrontation, Anita assumes some of her superpowers and is able to break out of the asylum easily. She hitchhikes her way to the hotel where the band is staying, and kills them all.

Unbelievable (not in a good way) performances. False advertisement - didn't see much of Jennifer's body. Plot is too simplistic. Pass.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Movie 2009.12.13 - Where the Wild Things Are

Watched this movie in Gold Class at Westfield Parramatta. On top of our $50 voucher, we had to pay $24 more. That's fricking' $37 per person! Should've watched 2012 instead to make it worthwhile. I mean, 2 hours and 4o minutes.

Saw the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, and I liked it. Should've stopped at the trailer and not watch the movie 'coz you're not missing much. Story of a kid called Max who has a wild imagination and overly hyper. One time, he overstepped the line and bit his Mom on the shoulder. Mom shouted, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Max didn't agree with her observation, and stormed out of the house. He found a boat and sailed into the oceans and later landed on the island of the Wild Things.

Bluffing about his abilities, he became king of the Wild Things. They don't really do much - wrecking houses, smashing trees, building forts, having dirt-clod battles, etc. Beneath all this fun and contentment, there's an undercurrent of tension, as some of the Wild Things feel that Max is playing favourites. Some even suspect that he's not a king - "regular, like us." Carol later discover Max' secret and throws a tantrum, threatening to eat him. Max eventually leaves the island, but not before settling their differences.

So you see, this is how Max deals with his pent-up angst and rage. He realizes that it's fun to be wild, but there are consequences to other people, and he has to be sensitive to that and not be selfish. At the end of the movie, he comes back home. Instead of giving him a good beating, his Mom was at the kitchen waiting for him with a piece of cake, which Max eats in silence.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Movie 2009.12.12 - The Man Who Knew Too Little

Another Bill Murray masterpiece. Movie is about this not-too-bright guy Wallace who visits his brother living in London to spend birthday with him. His brother is hosting some German executives that night, so he got Wallace to take part in the reality show/crime drama called the "Theatre of Life". While in a phone booth waiting from a call from the one of the cast to start the show rolling, he picks up a call meant for a hitman, and is mistaken for an American agent. Hilarity ensues. Turns out some some Cold War hold-outs are trying to kill Russian and British dignitaries during the signing of an important peace accord. Wallace unknowingly foils the plot and saves the day.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Movie 2009.12.11 - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Would've been nice to watch this on 3D - imagine the foodstuffs flying right into your face, but then we watched this at home on the telly. Not too bad. The plot is only so-so, but some of the jokes are really funny. Wacky wannabe scientist Flint invents a gadget (called FLDSMDFR [Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator]) that uses microwave that mutates water into any kind of food you can ask for. And ask they did. The town of Swallow Falls changes its name to Chewandswallow, and eventually becomes deluged with food.

To stop his machine, Flint improvises his car into a spacecraft, flies up into the sky to upload the kill code via USB (a la Independence Day). He loses his thumbdrive while fighting off the sentient super-food, so he asks his Dad to email the kill code to his mobile, and you know that's never gonna work. In the end, the blocks out the machine's output port using his super-sealant, and the machine blows up. Flint plunges back to earth and was saved by ratbirds, another creation of his.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Movie 2009.12.06 - 2012

Another disaster movie. We were supposed to watch this on Gold Class, but it was booked out. Would've been nice to watch this on Gold Class. I'm pretty sure the plot is so-so, but the special effects must be very good. And at three hours, it's a good way to spend your time inside the Gold Class cinema.

Scientists in India discover that the earth's core is getting hot at an accelerated pace. World leaders were told to prepare for the worst. Taking a leaf from the Bible, they thought of constructing these massive, hi-tech arks to weather out the tsunamis. To fund the project, places on the arks are being sold to the tune of 1 billion euros a pop.

Come 2012, the crustal displacement begins. There are earthquakes everywhere, volcanoes erupting, and the world's famous landmarks come tumbling down. There were some suspenseful moments as John Cusack and his family were escaping from the carnage and trying to head to safer ground in the Himalayas, where the arks are hidden. A bit of drama where Chiwetel Ejiofor defied authority and argued that they should take in everyone, and not just the ticket holders. (I just hate freeloaders.) More finger-biting suspense as the giant tsunami hit, and one of the arks was rendered useless as its main hatch got jammed. Just as the ark was about to smash against Mount Everest, John Cusack managed to fix the problem and saved everyone's lives.

Come year 0001 (about a month after D-Day), the waters have receded and the arks set sail for the Cape of Good Hope to start life anew.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Movie 2009.12.04 - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer A.K.A. Scent of 13 Women. Directed by Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame based on the novel by Patrick Suskind.

Strange story about an 18th century lad named Grenouille, who was born in a foul-smelling fish market, but had the uncanny gift of smell. With some training from a perfumer called Guiseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), he masters the tricks of the trades, and sets out to create the ultimate perfume using oils derived from the scent of 13 very beautiful women - all of them now dead.

Grenouille was eventually caught and sentenced to die by beheading. Just as the guards were about to give him a beating in his cell, Grenouille pulls out his vial of perfume, and the guards stop in their tracks. At the town plaza, Grenouille arrives wearing expensive clothes in a magnificent coach. The moment the murderous mob smelled him, they too had a change of heart and started cheering for him, declaring him to be an innocent angel. Grenouille drops some perfume on his handkerchief and lets it flutter in the wind. The crowd goes into a rapture - all the townspeople took off their clothes and started having an orgy right then and there. By the time they woke up, Grenouille is gone.

Would've been nice to see what he would do next, given that he can make people do his bidding so easily. Well, back in Paris, he was feeling a bit down because his first love didn't return his affection, and he eventually killed her. So he returns to the place of his birth and drenches himself with his vial of perfume. There was a crowd of homeless people nearby and they become enraptured. Everyone wanted a piece of him, and that's what they did. By the time the people came back to their senses and left the scene, all that's left of Grenouille is a pile of bloodied clothes. Loved to death, literally.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Movie 2009.12.05 - Be Kind Rewind

I had high hopes for Be Kind Rewind. I mean Jack Black? And Mos Def? And Danny Clover in a comedy? What could go wrong? For one, comedy-drama doesn't really work for me. The movie is funniest whey they were doing the skits for Ghostbusters and Rush Hour 2. During the latter part of the movie, it switched to drama, and I lost my interest. Still not too bad.

Be Kind Rewind is the name of a neighborhood general store that rents out video for $1. It's so old school they only do VHS tapes. Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) is the store owner. Mike (Mos Def) is the store assistant, and Jerry (Jack Black) is the tambay. One night, Jerry is trying to sabotage the local electric plant and gets electrocuted, making him highly magnetic. Next day, he walks into the store and fries every single tape, leaving only static behind.

If that was me, I would've just gone out and ordered more replacement tapes. But these guys are down on their luck and out of cash. A few more weeks and their building's gonna be demolished to make way for a modern housing complex. Instead, Mike and Jerry had this great idea to recreate the movies using a clunky videocam and themselves (just the two of them) as actors.

And what do you know? The "new" movies become a hit in the neighborhood, and everyone can't get enough of it. So with the help of the girl-next-door Alma (Melonie Diaz), they start a backyard industry creating 20-minute "Sweded" movies. That was until the FBI came along and shut them down for copyright infringement. Too bad. So they decide to create an original movie as a last hurrah, with participation from everyone in the community. Screening is the night before the demolition team moves in.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Damn You, Antivirus System PRO!

I was using my laptop when all of a sudden I started getting these pop-up and system notifications about this virus and that malware. I didn't go to any naughty websites and I wasn't installing any new software, so can't explain how it happened.

I know I'm in the middle of a malware attack, so I tried to call up my arsenal. Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager. No good, Windows tells me that it has been infected. I tried running HiJackThis! and ProcessExplorer. No good, they're being silently killed as soon as they start to execute. Tried to Google for more information. Even my Internet access is being blocked. Instead, I was being redirected to pr0n sites, and more notifications urging me to install Antivirus System PRO now!

Using another laptop, I found out that this Antivirus System PRO is itself the culprit. Most websites suggest killing certain processes, deleting certain files and registry entries, but I'm not even being allowed to do that. Booted into Safe Mode with Networking, and went straight to the BSOD. Left with no choice, I booted up normally and fired up Task Manager and HiJackThis! the first chance I got. The rouge process (bwbtsysguard) eventually showed up and I terminated it quick. That seemed to be the end of it, as the system worked fine afterwards.

A quick scan by HiJackThis! found this:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [isavkgid] C:\Documents and Settings\alching.***-INTRA\Local Settings\Application Data\shxroa\bwbtsysguard.exe

which I promptly deleted.

Just to be on the safe side, I downloaded Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and Spyware Doctor and gave the hard disk a good scan. After weeding out a few more startup entries, everything seems to be back in order. Whew! Just imagine if this had happened in the office. Half a day of downtime.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

X31 with No Drive

So what can you do with a Thinkpad X31 with no hard disk and no CD drive? USB boot, of course!

Using the Linux Live USB creator and armed with a Knoppix 6 iso, I was able to run Knoppix 6 off a USB drive. Knoppix was able to make use of the X31's WiFi straight off the live USB, so I was able to connect to the Internet and do some browsing. Too bad the included IceWeasel browser doesn't do Flash. GnomePlayer was able to play MP3s, but there was no video for my DivX AVIs. I'm still impressed though.

Next up, I might try to do a WinXP live USB, though I heard it's not that easy.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Sculpture by the Sea 2009

Last day of Scuplture by the Sea. Would've come earlier to the beachside art gallery, but was busy with work. My colleague told me that last week, they even had a replica of Bumblebee displayed outside the Bondi Pavilion. Too bad I missed that.

Parking is really becoming a problem. I forgot to bring coins, so I tried to avoid the paid parking area. After circling the residential blocks for half an hour without finding any parking spot, I decided to park first and get some coins later. Turns out I can actually pay by credit card. Still, took me another 10 minutes of waiting to find a spot.

Sculpture by the Sea 2009 is pretty much the same as last year. Same idea, different presentation. Being the last day, there are lots of people (and dogs) around. Friends would meet friends and they would stop and chat and play with their dogs right in the middle of the walkway. I really hope they don't do that next year.

Of all the exhibits, I like the drinking straw in the middle of the ocean the best. Simple and smart. I did look around for the naked boy, but didn't see him anywhere.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

BigW Saturday Sale

From what I've heard (online forums and from friends and colleagues), this is the sale the everyone has been waiting for:
  • 200g chocolate bars (different varieties) for $1
  • thongs for $1
  • 320GB Verbatim portable HDD for$69
  • cheap baby nappies
  • cheap soft drinks
I'm more interested in the first three, so I didn't note the prices for the nappies and soft drinks anymore.

So I drove to Campsie Shopping Centre a quarter before opening time. The parking area's still locked down. Quickly made a left to park at Woolies. By the time I got to Big W, the moms with their trolleys have already barricaded the store entrance. Some have even filled up their trolleys with cases and cases of softdrinks which were displayed outside the store. All they need to do is go straight to the checkout counter.

The clock struck 8:30am, and there was a mad dash into the store. Me, I went straight to the electronics section; specifically to the locked shelf where the portable hard disks were kept. After a moment, a staff came by, opened the glass shelf, and took out a couple of HDDs. The guy in front of me asked for a couple of blue ones, and got them. The lady behind me asked for one and got hers. I asked for mine, but the guy ignored me. He said he got to bring the HDDs to the counter and will be back. So we waited. Another staff came by, picked up a few more HDDs, and left. The guys in the queue (including me) were getting frustrated with the lack of service. The guy said we have to place our orders at the counter. The queue broke up and we went to the counter. More people already there. Forming two queues. Bad. I joined one and hoped. People were clamoring for the hard disks, and they were being handed out randomly. Good thing I managed to snag one. A man and a woman ended up in a shouting match because she was served even though the man was earlier in the queue. I can tell you chivalry is not dead.

At the food section, the $1 choco bars are being scooped up by people as soon as the staff can put them on. Only lady even asked the staff to give her the whole damn box. At the shoes section, the moms are filling up their baskets with $1 thongs. I can't even get to the stuff with some many people around. Ah, people go crazy during sales. The checkout is even worse. Long, long queues at the checkout counters. And the self-service kiosks are not much better. People seem to take a long time to scan their items. Some people who don't know how to operate the machine still insist on using them. Me, I'm just happy that I got my 320GB portable HDD, even if it's pink.

Friday, November 6, 2009

PS2 and EyeToy

First thing I bought from eBay after getting a fat secondhand Playstation2 console is a memory card. Without said memory card, you can't save your games. Guess SIL forgot to tell me this important fact, which I only found out after half an hour into a Kingdom Hearts game and I need to save state.

PS2 memory cards are cheap enough on eBay. Why buy an original Sony 8MB card for $25, when you can buy a no-name 64MB one for $7 (delivered)? Games for the PS2 are pretty cheap too, considering the aging console is on the way out. EBGames are selling used games for a flat rate of $13, and cheaper still on eBay.

My next purchase is a second-edition silver EyeToy camera. (Said to be smaller and smaller than the original black one.) Getting a bit of a Wii-envy, so I bought it for some interactive gaming. Also bought Kinetic Combat with the fisheye lens, which is supposedly quite rare already. Plus Play3 and Eyetoy Groove.

Ah, so much stuff to buy. Next on the list is Singstar and the network adapter. Now, if I can only hack this PS2...

Monday, November 2, 2009

Movie 2009.11.02 - The Boys Are Back

Got free tickets to The Boys Are Back. We probably won't have watched the movie if not so. From the reviews I've read prior to watching, it sounds like a drama/tearjerker. Not really my type. Then again, I've got nothing better to do tonight.

Clive Owen plays a sportswriter dad trying to deal with the tragic death of his wife, raising two sons on his own. And how does he achieve that - just say yes to all the kids' wishes. Now, that's a surefire way to get into trouble. There's the juggling of professional work with personal life, sibling rivalry, some tension as a new girlfriend moves into their lives, etc. In the end, as always, everything works out ok.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Nybble Issue No. 215

N Y B B L E   M O N T H L Y   N E W S L E T T E R
A Free Ezine about Anything Tech and Everything Else
2009.11.01 Issue No. 215

Don't you just hate it when you have to do something, something you've done before long time ago, and now you can't remember how to do it properly? So I'm supposed to make a backup copy of this DVD. (Legally, ok?) I remember simply doing a copy and paste from the DVD drive to the hard disk. Of course, due to copy protection, Windows will only allow you to do this a certain number of times. Now it doesn't work for me. I did some bit of online research, and this is what I found out.

Basically, most DVD content are CSS-encrypted. Ever if they're in digital format, it's physically impossible to make a 1-for-1 copy of DVDs because blank DVDs have built-in anti-copy protection. What you do, download a copy of DVD Decrypter. This piece of software is quite old already, and not publicly available. I'm sure you know where to search for it though. DVD Decrypter extracts the keys and uses them to decode the files. It's quite versatile - it can extracts the files to your HDD or it can save everything as an ISO image. Assuming your DVD is single-layer (4.7GB DVD-5), you can use the same software to burn the resulting ISO to a blank DVD. In my case, my source disc is a DVD-9, so I have to either split the files to fit 2 DVDs or re-encode to compress the movie into one disc. Another software called DVDFab can do both pretty good. It's so good, it can check how much disk space is left and adjust how aggressive the compression needs to be.

Have an answer, comment, suggestion, or violent reaction? Send them my way by clicking on Reply or join nybbletalk@yahoogroups.com to discuss a topic. If you think Nybble is good enough, do tell the DVD rippers about it. Thanks.


_________100 PETABITS PER SECOND.KILOMETER_________

Scientists at Bell Labs have set an optical transmission record that could deliver data about 10 times faster than current undersea cables, resulting in speeds of more than 100 Petabits per second.kilometer. This translates to the equivalent of about 100 million Gigabits per second.kilometer or sending about 400 DVDs per second over 7,000 kilometers, roughly the distance between Paris and Chicago.

Such capacity increases on undersea cables are important. A single home isn’t sending about 400 DVDs per second, however, as video becomes increasingly available and downloaded on the web, entire neighborhoods and geographic regions will get there, and that capacity increase is reflected in the growth of long-haul networking demand. The transmissions were not just faster, they were accomplished over a network whose repeaters are 20 percent farther apart than commonly maintained in such networks, which could decrease the costs of deploying such a network.

To achieve these results, researchers from the Bell Labs facility in Villarceaux, France used 155 lasers, each operating at a different frequency and carrying 100 Gigabits of data per second. The team multiplied the number of lasers by their transmission rate of 100 Gigabits per second and then multiplied the 15.5-Terabit-per-second result by the 7,000-kilometer distance achieved. The combination of speed multiplied by distance expressed as bit per second.kilometers is a standard measure for high-speed optical transmission.


_________TAKING SHOWERS BAD FOR HEALTH_________

Showering may be bad for your health, say US scientists, who have shown that dirty shower heads can deliver a face full of harmful bacteria.

In the Proceedings journal, the study authors say their findings might explain why there have been more cases of these lung infections in recent years, linked with people tending to take more showers and fewer baths. Water spurting from shower heads can distribute bacteria-filled droplets that suspend themselves in the air and can easily be inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs, say the scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder. While it is rarely a problem for most healthy people, those with weakened immune systems, like the elderly, pregnant women or those who are fighting off other diseases, can be susceptible to infection. They may develop lung infection with M. avium and experience symptoms including tiredness, a persistent, dry cough, shortness of breath and weakness, and generally feel unwell.

When the researchers swabbed and tested 50 shower heads from nine cities in seven different states in the US, including New York City and Denver, they found 30% of the devices posed a potential risk. Levels of Mycobacterium avium in showerheads were 100 times higher than those found in typical household water supplies.

Since plastic shower heads appear to "load up" with more bacteria-rich biofilms, metal shower heads may be a good alternative. Showers have also been identified as a route for spreading other infectious diseases, including a type of pneumonia called Legionnaires' disease and chest infections with a bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Hot tubs and spa pools carry a similar infection risk, according to the Health Protection Agency.


_________TIME TELESCOPE________

A "telescope" that can magnify time could dramatically increase the amount of data that can be sent through fibre optic cables, speeding up broadband internet and other long-distance communications.

It isn't possible to speed up the flashes of light that stream through the global network of optical fibres at around 200 million metres per second. But more information can be squeezed into each burst of light, says Mark Foster at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, using what he and his colleague Alexander Gaeta call a "time telescope" fitted with "time lenses". An optical lens can deflect a light beam into a much smaller area of space; a time lens deflects a section of a light beam into a smaller chunk of time.

The Cornell team made their time lenses using a silicon waveguide that can channel light. An information-carrying pulse made from a series of small laser bursts signalling digital 1s and 0s travels through an optical fibre and into the waveguide. As it enters, it is combined with another laser pulse from an infrared laser. The infrared pulse vibrates the atoms of the waveguide, which in turn shifts the frequencies of the data-carrying pulse before it exits the waveguide and passes into an optical fibre beyond.

The front of the [data-carrying] pulse is shifted down in frequency and the end is shifted up in frequency within the silicon waveguide. Because the speed of light passing through a medium depends on its frequency, the front of the pulse is slowed down while its rear speeds up. At the time lens's focal point, the rear of the pulse catches up with the front, producing a fleeting image with a spectrum encoding the entire light pulse.

The Cornell team compressed a light pulse carrying 24 bits of data in this way. They used a second time lens to convert the compressed image back into a 24-bit light pulse like the one they started with. The second lens was more powerful than the first, however, so the second 24-bit pulse was 1/27th the length of the one that went in: the pulse duration shrank from 2.5 nanoseconds to 92 picoseconds, but no information was lost.

Put simply, the system is able to send 27 times as much information on the same wavelength channel. The only downside is a small lag (about a millisecond) in the data stream.


_________NSW'S UNHACKABLE NETBOOKS_________

The NSW Department of Education in Australia is using asset-tracking software, RFID tags, and BIOS-embedded filtering smarts to roll out 240,000 netbook computers into what CIO Stephen Wilson calls "the most hostile environment you can roll computers into" - the local high school.

Over four years, some 240,000 Lenovo netbooks, funded under the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution initiative, will be offered to students in year nine. The netbooks can be kept until year 12, or permanently should the student finish his or her studies at the school.

They are armed with an enterprise version of the new Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft Office, the Adobe CS4 creative suite, Apple iTunes, and content geared to students. Although the netbooks are loaded with many hundreds of dollars of software, 2GB RAM and a six-hour battery, the cost to the NSW Department of Education is less than $500 a unit.

Underneath the covers of the netbooks - and within the network that controls them - lies a great deal more smarts to ensure that the total cost of ownership of each machine does not blow out. At the physical layer, each netbook is password-protected and embedded with tracking software at the BIOS level of the machine. That is administered through an enterprise services bus, which also connects the Remedy suite for asset management, Active Directory for authentication and Aruba's Airwave for wireless network management. If a netbook were to be stolen or sold, the department can remotely disable it over the network. Even if the hard drive of the machine was swapped out or the operating system wiped, it would be useless to unauthorised users. While there is a serial number and barcode on each computer, the department said that thieves or students might be able to remove them. To combat this, it is using passive RFID chips on every machine that will enable them to be identified "even if they were dropped in a bathtub".

The department used the AppLocker functionality within Windows 7 to dictate which applications are installed. Web access on the netbooks is filtered according to a corporate security policy (using McAfee's SmartFilter technology) plus an additional SOCKS-based proxy client, which provides web filtering at the network layer. The devices also use Microsoft's Forefront Antivirus technology.


_________NUCLEAR BATTERIES_________

Researchers have demonstrated a penny-sized "nuclear battery" that produces energy from the decay of radioisotopes. As radioactive substances decay, they release charged particles that when properly harvested can create an electrical current.

The University of Missouri team says that the batteries hold a million times as much charge as standard batteries. They have developed it in an attempt to scale down power sources for the tiny devices that fall under the category of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (Mems and Nems).

Nuclear batteries are an attractive proposition for many applications because the isotopes that power them can provide a useful amount of current for phenomenally long times - up to hundreds of years or more. As a result, they have seen use in spacecraft that are fired far off into the cosmos. But for applications here on Earth, their size has limited their use.

The Missouri team, led by Jae Wan Kwon, employed a liquid semiconductor to capture and utilise the decay particles. They are now working to further miniaturise the batteries. And although the whole idea hinges on the use of radioactive materials, the devices are safe under normal operating conditions.


_________COMPUTERS TO MARK ESSAYS_________

The owner of one of England's three major exam boards is introducing artificial intelligence-based automated marking of English exam essays in the UK. Pearson, the American-based parent company of Edexcel, is to use computers to "read" and assess essays for international English tests in a move that has fuelled speculation that GCSEs and A-levels will be next.

All three exam boards are now investing heavily in e-assessment but none has yet perfected a form of marking essays using computers – or "robots" – that it is willing to use in mainstream exams. Academics and leaders in the teaching profession said that using machines to mark papers would create a "disaster waiting to happen".

The Times Educational Supplement (TES) reports that the Pearson Test of English Academic, an English­language exam, was launched on 26 October. It includes essay questions and will be used in 20 countries, including the UK, to rate applicants' English skills before they are admitted to university. Computers have been programmed to scan the papers, recognise the possible right responses and tot up the marks. Pearson claims this will be more accurate than human marking, and eliminates human elements such as tiredness and subjectivity.

Other exam boards said the adoption of computers to mark beyond their current use in multiple choice tests was inevitable.


_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Sugar on a Stick

LiveUSB Creator

ASCIIpOrtal

LegalTorrents


_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
I've heard that most of common house dust comes from dead human skin cells. If this is so why are abandoned houses so dusty?


_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
I think somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt


_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
Is banging your head against a wall a waste of time?

Not necessarily -- Banging your head against a wall can burn up to 150 calories per hour.

Source: Arcamax Trivia


_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
These two strings walk up to a bar. The first string walks in and orders and the bartender throws him out and yells "I don't serve strings in this bar. The other string ruffs himself up on the street and curls up and orders. The bartender shouts, "Hey, didn't you hear what I told your buddy?" The string says "Yeah." The bartender says, "aren't you a string?" The string says, "No, I'm a frayed knot."


That's all for this week. Nybble is and will always be a work in progress. Please do send me your comments and suggestions on how to improve Nybble. Just hit the reply button to you know, reply.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

One-Bridge Walk, Opera House Rainy Day, and SRO Mass

Quite a few events lined up for today. There's Breakfast on the Bridge as the opening act for Crave Sydney. There's the Seven Bridges Walk. The Sydney Opera House is having an open day today, and so is the Chinese Garden in Darling Harbour. And also the Danks Street Festival.

The wife and I took the train to Milsons Point. By then, Breakfast on the Bridge is finished, as we can see with event caps and bags on their way home. Too bad we missed out. From 190,000 applicants, only 6,000 people were selected to take part. The whole Bridge was closed to traffic, and 10,620 sq. m. of kikuyu turf laid out for the lucky few to have picnic on. As the Harbour Bridge is part of the Seven Bridges Walk, I thought I might have a chance to walk on the grass. No such luck. Workers were busy rolling up the turf, while we had to walk on the sidelines.

From The Rocks, we went straight to the Opera House to queue up for Open Day. There are three self-guided tours available, each covering a different section of the Opera House. Tour 1 covers the Concert Hall, the Opera Theatre, and Utzon Room. The wife wisely suggested we go for tour #2 as it covers the Opera Theatre scenery dock, backstage of the Drama Theatre, Administration areas, Rehearsal rooms and the Green Room. During the tour, we saw a couple of guys in full-body costume walking about, a lone guy playing a strange stringed instruments, and some ballerinas dancing to Swan Lake. Very interesting. With time to spare, we queued up again for tour #3, which covers the Drama Theatre (currently playing the God of Carnage), Playhouse, and The Studio where some gynmasts were practising.

Just as we finished our Opera House tour, this thunderstorm rolled in. I wonder how the Bridges Walk participants are doing. After lunch at home, we went to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church to attend the special Healing Mass. Supposed to start at 2pm, but we decided to get there early to get good seats. Good seats? We can't even get a decent parking spot. The whole street is packed! We had to drive a few hundred meters further to find a spot. By the time we got to the church, the massive hall is full. Even the front lot has a queue 10 or so lines deep. Ah, we truly are in desperate times. Father Fernando Suarez (a.k.a. the Healing Priest) arrived promptly at 2pm and Mass started. Father Suarez told us how happy and nervous every time he sees a packed church. Just the other day, he was in Melbourne. There's this guy who had been blind for 20 years. A few days later, he received a call from the man's daughter, saying that after he prayed over him, the man can now see again. Wow. Then, there's this woman who talked too much (according to the husband) and got tongue cancer. The doctors had to cut a portion of the tongue off, so the woman can't talk and can't taste anymore. During a healing mass, the husband prayed that his wife be healed. And guess what? The woman's tongue grew back, and she can speak again. In the words of the Pussycat Dolls, be careful what you wish for 'cos you just might get it (hey!) you just might get it (hey!) you just might get it (HEY!)

Mass finished around 3pm, and the healing started. The plan is for Father Suarez to pray over the guys inside the church first. They evacuate the place, then the guys outside the church (us) can go in. After 2.5 hours of shuffling about, we got into the church. And guess what? Another super-long queue, but at least we had seats. My only complaint is that I can't sit in peace. Every few seconds we had to get up, and shift a few seats forward. After about an hour we got to the head of the queue. So what you have is a row of around 10 people lined up in front of the altar. Father Suarez would talk to them and pray over them, touching their necks or foreheads. After the priest releases his touch, the person is drained of energy and slumps back. They are are then supported by volunteers standing behind them, and laid on the floor to recover. Given that I've standing for hours, I won't be surprised if my knees gave way, too. Didn't happen though. Father asked my wife what she wishes for, and he asked me if I'm Chinese. Then it's all over. Went to Westpoint Blacktown for dinner at a Vietname/Filipino restaurant.