Monday, December 31, 2012

Scenic World

Before we left our cottage at Blackheath, we drove down the road to check out Govett's Leap. To the left you can see the waterfalls (formerly known as Bridal Veil Falls). Crossed the railway, and followed Shipley Road all the way to Hargraves Lookout overlooking Megalong Valley. There's a Swedish couple having their wedding there, so we didn't stay long. Next stop, Katoomba.

Been to Echo Point a few times already, but the Three Sisters never disappoint. For something different, we decided to check out Scenic World after lunch. Special mention goes to Unique Patisserie along Katoomba Street for its yummy Singaporean/Malaysian dishes and pastries/desserts.

Scenic World boasts of three rides - Cableway, Railway, and Skyway. With a $21 Valley Return pass, you can take the railway down the valley, take one of the many trails towards the cableway station, then take the cablecar ride up back to Scenic World. For $7 more, you can get the Scenic Pass, which gives you a two-way ride on the Skyway across the Jamison Valley.

Of the three rides, I liked the Skyway best. The 72-person cabin offers 360-degree views of the Jamison Valley. The glass bottom section clears up in transit, so you can see down into the valley, too. As for the Scenic Railway, it's said to be the steepest cable-driven railway in the road at 52 degrees. The ride is too short, though, only 415 meters in incline distance.

Another interesting trivia I read somewhere - the souvenir shop is the largest in NSW.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Mount Tomah Botanic Garden

Late start for the day as it was foggy and drizzling. A blessing in disguise as who would want to explore an open garden under full sunlight? Hopped on the free shuttle the moment we got to Mount Tomah Botanic Garden. This gave us a chance to see most of the gardens and decide which ones are worth exploring further. For lunch, your one and only option is Restaurant Tomah. A bit pricey, but excellent food. As the restaurant is perched on a ridge, it offers magnificent views of the Blue Mountains.

Next stop is Mount Wilson. We bypassed Cathedral of Ferns and went straight for Du Faurs Rocks Lookout. Parked at the fire station and hiked the 500-meter dirt road to the lookout. Not what I would call a proper lookout. No signs or barriers - just a rocky outcrop and a huge drop below. Not even sure how stable the "platform" is. Should be strong enough for at least five adults, as nothing happened when we took our group photo. From here, you can see across the valley towards Bell. On the left, you can see Chinaman's Hat, a rock formation which looks like its namesake.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Return to Jenolan Caves

Last time I visited Jenolan Caves was more than five year ago. Five years later, everything is pretty much the same as I remembered it. I don't know, maybe for a World Heritage Area, that's a good thing maybe?

Jenolan Caves Road is still as long and winding and undulating as before. The last few kilometers are still quite narrow and treacherous, barely enough for two cars to pass each other. Parking is a problem, too. We got there a little before lunchtime, and the lower first and second carparks are already full. The third carpark we encountered was also full. Lucky for us, a ranger opened the gates to an adjoining one, which can take on about twenty more cars. I'd hate to be that 21st car.

The Caves House is pretty much the same as I remembered it, as is the ticket office. The big signboard across the street with the giant location map and the list of caves and their viewing times and availability is still the same one. The caves, I'm sure, they're still the same.

Once you're done with your cave(s) of choice, don't forget the free self-guided tour of Nettle Cave and the Devil's Coach House Cave. These are just outside the Grand Arch. Pick up your multilanguage Acoutiguide audio device from the ticket office.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Movie 2012.12.19 - The Man with the Iron Fists

Kung-fu films don't get campier than this. Was lured into watching this movie because the blurb says "Quentin Tarantino presents...". Apparently, the man has nothing to do with it. The movie was directed by RZA (pronounced ree-zah), and written by RZA and Eli Roth. He probably just lent his name to the venture to help his friends sell more tickets. Heck, before this I've never even heard of RZA. Yeah, shame on me, never listened to Wu-Tang Clan.

Anyway, the movie has some big names in there, like Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Jamie Chung, Rick Yune, and um, RZA, among others. Didn't help a bit in making the movie better. Not sure if the acting is really supposed to be bad (as a homage to the old martial arts flicks), or the actors knew it's a crappy movie and gave up trying. The storlyline is a mishmash of old themes - government gold stolen while in transport, power struggle within the clan, the son avenging the father's death, an invincible enemy, lady escorts who are part-time assassins, fighters who rise from the ashes to become super fighters, etc. You name it, it's all in there.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Creeds' ROM for SGY

Can't remember when was the last time I updated the Samsung Galaxy Y. It's currently running v3.2 of Creeds' ROM, and the latest version is 3.5. Thought it best to do an upgrade before I sell the phone.

The upgrade process is easy enough. According to the FAQ, you don't even need root. Download the zip file, and copy over to the external microSD card. Boot into CWM recovery by pressing VolUp + Home + Power. Perform data reset, select Install zip from SD card, choose the ROM zip. Once installed, reboot.

In my case, the factory reset worked, but I still ended up with Creeds 3.2. Did the upgrade a couple of times, with some variations of wipe cache partition, wipe Dalvik cache. No joy. Read through the forums and found a tip - mount system. That worked a treat!

Friday, December 14, 2012

Movie 2012.12.14 - Battlefield America

My wife is such a fan of dance-off movies, I thought this would be a good addition to the collection. WRONG! For one, there is not much dancing going on. During the times when the kiddies were actually dancing (instead of fighting among themselves), it's very, very heavily edited. You can't really see the dance moves.

I know the recent dance movies are cliched, but this one takes the cake - a group of disadvantaged kids who likes to dance, a hotshot adman sentenced to community service, (kiddie) gang rivalry leading up to a dancing competition, dilemma between a promotion and sticking with the crew, a kid who has to deal with his mom's death and the arrival of the estranged dad, a mom who won't let his son join the crew, an understanding boss who has a change of heart after watching the competition, etc. Man, you could guess the plot a mile away. There is not much acting happening, just people reading their lines.

Really should've checked IMDB first before watching this movie. 1.9 stars out of 10. 'Nuff said.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Movie 2012.12.10 - Skyfall

Not one of my favourite Bond movies. The pace of the movie feels slower. There is less gadgets, less cars, less girls, and more talk. The dialogue is sharp and witty, but the plot is weak.

In this installment, Bond (Daniel Craig) is pitted against an old MI6 agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), who has gone rouge a few years ago. Silva is out to get M for betraying him to the Chinese. He starts off by stealing a list of undercover NATO agents and revealing their identities on YouTube. Then, he hacks into MI6 and later firebombs the HQ. Bond captures Silva and brings him back to MI6's new underground offices. While trying to decrypt Silva's laptop, Q inadvertently lets some malware into their network, allowing Silva to escape from his cell. Silva barges into M's tribunal hearing and shoots at her, but was foiled by Bond. Bond snatches M and drives off to Scotland in a vintage Aston Martin. At the Skyfall manor house, Bond and his trusted gamekeeper Kincade and M set up booby traps around the place a la Home Alone. The bad guys come and there are explosions everywhere. At the end of it all, Silva is killed by a knife in his back, and M eventually dies from a gunshot wound.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Wiggles' Celebration Concert

All good things must come to an end, even for the Wiggles. After more than 20 years of being in the business, the original cast of the Wiggles (except for Anthony) is handing over the reins to a new generation of kiddie entertainers. In this farewell concert, the much-loved Wiggles perform the old favourites one last time for their fans - young and old alike.

The concert was supposed to start at 1:30pm, but it was delayed a bit. People were lining up to buy merchandise, to have their pictures taken with the Big Red Car, to check in the prams, to buy coffee and foodstuffs, etc. The Allphones Arena was packed, although surprisingly it wasn't full-house. My kid is not a die-hard Wiggles fan, but he eventually warmed up. The Wiggles members were introduced one by one, then Captain Feathersword, Wags, Henry, and Dorothy. The new cast also got to strut their stuff.

My only gripe was that I left the DSLR at home. Unlike other concerts, the Wiggles were encouraging everyone to take pictures and videos. I had to make do with the SGS for videos and the Atrix for photos.

Monday, November 19, 2012

CM7 Atrix-MROM

Just about had enough with the Atrix with its myriad issues - random reboots, not charging, slow charging, process hangs, etc. Not sure if it has to do with the Atrix itself or the Neutrino ROM. To be sure, I decided to try out MMontuori's CM7-based Atrix-MROM. Supposed to be more stable, as it's built entirely from source.

First impression - delivers what it promises. Much better camera and video recorder. Video capture lags a bit when using high resolution. Very stable. Fingers crossed.

"Aristocrat" Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/4 cup banana ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons calamansi or lime juice
  • 4 pieces chicken thighs and legs

Whisk together garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, pineapple juice, banana ketchup, and calamansi juice. Add marinade to chicken in a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least overnight for up to two days.

Before cooking the chicken let it rest at room temperature for over an hour. Do not discard the marinade but set aside for basting. Grill chicken over medium heat until cooked through, basting occasionally. Serve fresh off the grill with java rice.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Upgrading the Motorola Atrix 4G

Been eyeing JB Hi-Fi's $199 Motorola Atrix 4G for a couple of weeks now. Before I could order online, SIL had a change of heart and gave me her pre-loved handset, which she bought for $700. There's a good reason though - she's now rocking an SGS III. Her Atrix is prone to random reboots, and the battery sometimes doesn't recharge.

Spent most of the day reading up on how to unlock the bootloader, how to root, how install a recovery and how to flash a new ROM/kernel. With Moto devices, you have to deal with locked bootloaders, SBFs, RDS, fastboot, and a few terms I've never heard of.

Theoretically, you simply unlock the bootloader using the "fastboot oem unlock" command, once you've managed to connect the phone to the PC and go into the fastboot menu. Some devices come with a BL that cannot be unlocked, so your best option is to flash a known unlockable BL. This is done using the RDSLite tool.

Unlocking/Rooting the Motorola Atrix 4G
http://www.forceflow.be/2012/01/15/unlocking-rooting-the-motorola-atrix-4g/

Noob's Guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1154600

Another guide from Cyanogenmod
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_olympus

Automatic Bootloader Unlock/Root
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1182871

Pudding unlock/root guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1136261

In my case, I find it more convenient to simply download the auto-unlocker tool because it comes with all the tools and software that you'll need in one package. Install the Windows drivers and make sure the PC can detect the Atrix. Boot into the RDS Protocol Mode by powering up the phone with the VolUp button pressed. Run RDSLite and flash the SBF (Single Binary File) for your device. Once finished, the phone will automatically reboot. Power off the phone.

Dunno what happened, but the Atrix never booted up properly after that. Looks like a softbrick to me. Used the auto-unlocker tool to fix the softbrick.

Next step is to unlock the BL. Power on the phone while holding the VolDown button. This will get you into the fastboot menu. Scroll through the options by pressing the VolDown button. Once you see "fastboot", press the VolUp button to select that option (fastboot protocol support). Most guides don't mention this, so all the while I thought there's something wrong with the USB cable or USB port or the drivers or the laptop! From the command prompt, "fastboot oem unlock" to get your DeviceID. "fastboot oem unlock " to unlock BL. "fastboot reboot" to reboot.

Next step is to install a CWM recovery. Easiest and safest way is to do it via ROM Manager. Then it complained that my device is not yet rooted. You can root it now using the one-click root tool, but I opted to use moto-fastbook instead. I can get the root later by flashing a pre-rooted ROM.

One-click root for Moto devices
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1255548

RomRacer's Recovery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1204500


Last step is to flash a custom ROM. Even here I got problems. I've decided to go with Neutrino's ROM because non-Blur and slimmed. Problem is, it hasn't been updated for a while, and the original download links are now broken. Had to trawl through the forum posts to get the ROM and addons. That's how ended up with a v2.8 ROM with v2.9 addons, which failed. With a proper recovery, it's relatively easy to recover from such mistakes.

Neutrino ROM downloads
http://neutrinorom.haris.me/old-files/aaurnab/

Official Neutrino ROM addons
http://ge.tt/84vdN0M?c

faux123 kernels
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1156040

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Remove Babylon Crap

No idea how it happened, but even an Internet veteran like me got duped by Babylon Search. It's now my default search engine. My browsers all have a Babylon toolbar. My homepage goes to Babylon. New tab defaults to Babylon Search. Wonderful!

Most obvious solution is to remove all reference of Babylon from Add/Remove Programs. Done. (Some people have reported that it's not even visible in Add/Remove Programs.) Next is to uninstall/remove the toolbar from the browsers. Easy. Next is to manually reset the homepage. Check. Then, remove Babylon from the list of search providers. Done.

Changing the new tab default page is a bit trickier. On Chrome, go to Setting, go to On Start-up, go to Open a specific page, and remove any Babylon pages. For IE, run regedit.exe. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs. On 32-bit Windows, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs. Change the value to res://ieframe.dll/tabswelcome.htm

Monday, October 15, 2012

The Aurora II's Not Ainol!

Finally! After exactly one month of waiting, I took delivery of the Novo7 Aurora II Android tablet by Ainol.

First impression, the tablet is quite thin (compared to the Optus MyTab), and lighter. It looks smaller, but that's only because it doesn't have dedicated softkeys. It comes with a set of earphones, USB cable, and an AC charger. Does it mean I always have to use the AC charger to charge it? Fortunately, no. USB charging is supported via the mini-USB port.

The 7" 1024x600 IPS display is gorgeous. There's only one small slit at the back for a mono speaker, but audio is load and clear. I have no use for the built-in Chinese apps, so I flashed in a CM10 custom ROM to replace the ICS OS that it came with. After some time on the slatedroid.com forums, I decided to go with  Christian Troy's CM10 ROM. Upgrade procedure is pretty straightforward.

  1. extract the CWM zip file and copy the two files to an external microSD card
  2. copy the CM10 ROM, gapps, and the A2 compatibility zip files to the same microSD card
  3. boot the tablet in CWM recovery mode (Power + Volume- at the same time)
  4. do a backup just in case
  5. select "wipe data/factory reset" and confirm the deletion
  6. select "install zip from SD card", then select "choose zip from SD card", then select the CM10 file
  7. next is gapps
  8. last is the A2 compatibility zip
  9. reboot the tablet

The tablet is surprising snappy and responsive. 1.5GHz dual-core Cortex A9! Did I mention the display is awesome? My only gripe is that the plastic back doesn't seem removable, and tends to get warm after a while. Overall, this is a nice little tablet. Awesome value for the price. Too bad I'm not the one who's going to be using it.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Fotopic Is Back!

Well, not really. If you remember, Fotopic shut down a few years ago (back in 2011) because parent company Snappy Designs Ltd went into liquidation. The private buyer was supposed to resurrect the service, but that plan was eventually abandoned. And now, finally they're allowing users to download their photo collections. Access is provided on a rolling basis alphabetically, with usernames starting with "0" to "9" or the letter "a" getting priority. Once the process is complete, the site will be permanently shut down. Downloaded all my albums in a jiffy.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Sony CMT-CX5BiPB Micro Hi-Fi


The unit is a bit smaller than I expected. Good thing, too, because we actually had to take away some family photos on top of the TV stand to make room for it. Retails for $249, bought it online for much less than that.

What I like about it:

  • Wall mountable - not like I'm gonna put nails into my wall to mount it.
  • Digital radio - reception not too good in our area, but it works.
  • Nice, clean, crisp sound quality.
  • iPod connectivity. Now, my iPod nano with the broken screen can get some use.
  • 3 x iPod universal dock adapters provided. None of which fits my 4th-gen iPod or 4th-gen iPod nano.
  • Top slot-loading CD drive - a space saver.


Cons:

  • No USB input support
  • Speakers not attachable to the main unit
  • Rear connectivity area (for power, audio in, and L/R speakers) too cramped
  • Doesn't support the 4th-gen iPod classic, even though it's "Made for iPod and iPhone"
  • No AM band support

Monday, October 8, 2012

Recipe 2012.10.08 - Toyomansi Fried Chicken

Ingredients:


  • 2 kilos chicken wings
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or calamansi)
  • 2 cloves garlic, squashed
  • freshly ground black pepper


Instructions:

Marinade chicken wings overnight. Remove marinade, then fry chicken wings. Easy peasy.

My first attempt resulted in the chicken pieces being too salty. Maybe switch to a less salty soy sauce, or dilute marinade a little bit with water.

Friday, September 21, 2012

SGS SlimJB Reflash

After connecting the Philips SBA16000 portable speaker to my SGS, I noticed that the home button doesn't work anymore. Short press doesn't bring up the launcher, and long press doesn't bring up the recently-used apps list. Quite a pain to be pressing the back button multiple times just to access the launcher. What's more, most of my ASS and launcher settings have reset to default. Maybe the home button functionality got turned off? Really hoping it's not a hardware fault.

Rebooting didn't help, so I tried a quick flash to the latest SlimJB 2.4, as some forum posts suggested. Didn't help. Time for a full wipe, which finally fixed the issue. I blame it all on that $10 Philips speaker. Nifty little gadget though. Runs on 3xAAA batteries, class 'D' digital amplifier, compatible with any audio source with 3.5mm headphone jack.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Audiobook 2012.09.20 - Sophie's World


Took me a few weeks of commuting time before I finished the audiobook version of Sophie's World. If I haven't been using Audio Speed Changer, it would've taken me longer. The book is basically a summary of western philosophy from the earliest Greek philosophers till the present day. That's going to be super-boring, so Jostein Gaarder put his lessons within a storytelling framework, where two characters eventually discovered they're part of the story, and works against the author.

A pretty good effort; better (and faster) than attending a full-blown philosophy course.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Book 2012.09.13 - Plugged

I've been a fan of Eoin Colfer and his Artemis Fowl series of books back when a friend introduced them to me many years ago. When Plugged came out, his first adult crime novel, I just had to read it. My verdict? Not as good as I expected. The wit and humour is still present, but there's too many coincidences that the story doesn't ring true.

Daniel McEvoy is an Irish ex-UN peacekeeper from Lebanon. Burned out, he relocates to New Jersey, working as a bouncer at a seedy strip club. His friend/doctor Zeb is kidnapped, his girl Connie is murdered, he's being harassed by corrupt cops, drug-dealing lawyers, and Irish mobsters. What's more, he needs to get his hair plugs sorted out.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

CyanogenMod on ZTE V9

Must've been months or years since I last rooted/flashed the Optus MyTab (a.k.a. ZTE V9). Checked the forums, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the V9 is now officially supported by Cyanogenmod. Yay, no need to use kallt_kaffe's hacked ROMs.

Downloaded the latest CM7.2 nightly and gapps for ZTE V9, and whacked them in. Upgrade guide here: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/ZTE_V9:_Full_Update_Guide Basically, copy both files to the sdcard. Boot into CWM recovery, wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache partition. Flash CM, then flash gapps. Reboot system now.

Only difference I noticed is that the UI is sporting a light blue color, instead of green. Device feels a bit faster, but that's probably due to the new flash. Wifi performance is definitely much better and more stable. Overclocked to 825MHz (from stock 600MHz), and everything's all good.

Monday, September 3, 2012

SlimJB 2.1 to 2.2

What a difference a minor revision makes. Same zippy performance, awesome battery life, no more softboots. More configuration options. By far the best ROM I've used so far.

People have complained about FC's, random reboots, some stuff not working. I'll let you in on a secret. Always do a clean install, and DON'T restore. I know it's a pain downloading all those apps again, and reconfiguring everything from scratch, but that's the price you pay for a clean working ROM.

As before, copy the device and common zips to the sdcard. Boot into CWM recovery, then wipe data and format system (under mounts and storage). Flash device.zip. If this step completes too fast (less then 5 seconds), reflash. Then flash common.zip. Reboot to system.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Movie 2012.09.01 - The Three Stooges

Movie feels kinda drawn out, considering I've seen a lot of the old TV series, and used to that format. Still, it's good to see the boys back with their old tricks. Story is about Moe, Larry, and Curly trying to save the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage from closure by raising $830,000. They tried a few ventures, which obviously didn't work so well. My favourite part is when Moe joins the cast of Jersey Shore (as Dyna-Moe) and gives 'em what they deserve. He was so good, the producers of the reality-TV show paid off the debt and built a brand-new orphanage, as an advance for a new show called Nuns vs. Nitwits, featuring the three of them.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Pioneer SE-NC31C

Took the Pioneer SE-NC31C earphones with active noise-cancellation for a test drive on the daily commute. Happy to report that it works as advertised. Instead of simply blocking out everything, it merely cancels out (up to 90% of) the constant noise. That means it doesn't really eliminate the engine revs, but the constant bus hum is gone. Great when you still need to be aware of your surroundings. Audio quality is pretty good but not as good as my Brainwavz M4 IEMs. In terms of controls, there is an on/off switch to enable/disable the noice-cancelling feature. There's also a monitor button to temporarily turn off the audio, so you can "monitor" your surroundings. One AAA battery is supposedly good for 120 hours of noise-free audio.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

SlimJB Issues

A few things I noticed after a day of JellyBean. Battery usage is higher than normal and getting a few softboots. Nothing too bad that would force me to go back to SlimICS though.

Discovered two faults. One, can't view CJK characters anymore. Following the advice here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30568986&postcount=1425, I managed to restore the Asian character support. You basically download a CM10 nightly, extract the Droidsansfallback.ttf file from system/fonts and whack it into the same folder on your phone. Two, the Google search bar/widget doesn't work. For this, I had to flash the VoiceSearch/GoogleNow addon to get it working again. Mighty impressed with Voice Search. It was already working fine in ICS, but now the answers are presented in the new card format and spoken out. I also noticed that the clock doesn't display AM/PM, even when configured to do so. Not a biggie.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

SlimICS to SlimJB

Two months after the official release of Jelly Bean (Android 4.1), I took the plunge and upgraded form SlimICS to SlimJB. SlimJB actually came out a few weeks ago, but I took my sweet time and waited for the more stable v2.1.

For the upgrade, you'll need to download your device package and the common pacakge. Enter CWM recovery (that's VolUp + Home + Power), wipe data, format system (under mounts and storage). Flash the device zip, then the common zip. If the flashing happened too quickly, remove/replace the battery, and do it again.

The intial bootup took longer than usual, and there is the initial lag, but quite impressed that my old SGS can still run Jelly Bean quite well. The UI feels very responsive, and the overall performance is as fast as ICS.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Movie 2012.08.04 - Pour elle

French suspense thriller. Anything for Her is about an average high-school teacher who springs his innocent wife from prison. She was sentenced to 20 years prison for murdering her boss. Left with no legal recourse after trying to prove her innocence for three years, he hatches a desperate plan to rescue her. He basically falsify her medical records, so that she would be sent to the medical clinic. There, he disarms the cops and they make a run for it. With falsified papers and money he robbed from a drug dealer, he and his wife and kid starts a new life in El Salvador. The plot can be unbelievable at times due to the numerous unexpected coincidences, but somehow it works.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Hacking the Dettol Automatic Dispenser

This must be the bargain of the month. The Dettol No-Touch Hand Wash System sells for $19.99. That includes the battery-operated automatic dispenser, a 250mL hand wash refill, and 4xAA batteries. Woolies is currently selling it on special for $9.99. A discount of 50% sounds nice. I did some searching and found a special edition Ice Age 4 package hidden at the back. For the same price, you get a free children's movie voucher. Considering that movie tickets are now around $15, this is a steal! Better still, the item checks out for $8.49 at the counter!

The only complaint for this automatic dispenser is that it dispenses a lot of hand wash, and the refill is quite expensive. Good thing there's a hack/mod to make it dispense less. Video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRfLlz0EA4k
Basically, you take off the 4 screws inside the battery compartment. Press the refill-release button to remove the upper compartment. Disconnect the feed tube and the sensor, so that you can safety take off the base unit. Pry off the plug located in the middle of the unit. Invert the orange stopper. Put everything back in. The dispenser should now dispense less.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Movie 2012.08.03 - La doppia ora

A.K.A. The Double Hour. A psychological thriller about a hotel chambermaid who meets a security guard in a speed dating event. The two strike it off quite well, and one day Guido brings Sonia to his workplace - a mansion in the middle of a forest. Just when the couple went to the woods for a quick snog, a team of robbers swooped in and cleaned the place out. Guido tries to protect Sonia from the gang leader's advances, and a shot is fired. For three days, Sonia was in a coma. We see her visiting Guido's grave. We see her colleague committing suicide. We see her meeting up with her boyfriend, who turns out to be the gang leader.  We see the police inspector taking a strong interest in her criminal past. We see her being drugged by her manager and buried alive.

Sonia wakes up from her coma, and Guido is there by her bedside, and she is confused. In the end, Guido discovers that everything has been planned by Sonia and her boyfriend from the very beginning. He had them in his sights and could've alerted the authorities before they escaped to Buenos Aires, but he let them be.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Updating the WikiReader

Took delivery of OpenMoko's WikiReader from COTD. Would you believe these things used to sell for $100 in 2009? Got it for a fifth of the original price, excluding shipping, of course.

What's a WikiReader? It's basically an offline Wikipedia - a battery-powered, text-only mobile device with a monochrome touchscreen that allows you to read Wikipedia articles. New content is added every quarter.

The WikiReader is supposed to come with an 8GB microSD card, but the one from COTD is only 4GB. And the content is from 2010. Bah! No matter. Armed with utorrent, I headed over to http://dev.thewikireader.com/language-packs/ and downloaded to my heart's content - WikiTravel, WikiQuote, Wikitionary, Chinese Wikipedia, and Project Gutenberg. Dumped the wikis to a 16GB card, and ended up with my version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

To be more specific, the language packs are packaged as 7z archives, so you'll need 7-Zip to unpack them. Download the base image and any language packs that you want. On a clean microSD card, copy the Base Image files onto the root directory. Then copy the unzipped language packs onto the card - one folder per pack.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Movie 2012.07.08 - Postal

A nonsense movie that you only watch for the laughs. Don't even try to make sense of the plot. You have Postal Dude having troubles finding employment. Then he finds his obese wife cheating on him. Angry and frustrated, he teams up with his cult leader of an uncle to make some quick buck, so he can leave town (Paradise, Arizona). Their bright idea is to steal a shipment of highly sought-after Krotchy Dolls from a local amusement park, and resell them. For some reason, the Al-Qaeda terrorists have the same plan, resulting in a massive shootout. Postal Dude and his sexy sidekick kills 'em all, except for Bin Laden, who is whisked off by his buddy Bush. Again, for some strange reason, Bush orders a nuclear strike on China and India, who retaliate in kind. End of the world.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Splitting FLAC

Got a few albums that are encoded into single FLAC files, making the files quite big and unwieldly. And the iPod and iRiver that I have don't support FLAC.

To split the single FLAC into multiple tracks, you'll need the cuesheet that was generated when the FLAC file was created. Best way to do this is to use foobar2000, which I already have, and I don't want to download extra software like CUESplittler. Simply drag and drop the cuesheet into foobar2000, and it'll load the tracks. Right-click and choose convert. You can choose the output format, destination format, file-naming options, post-processing, etc. Make sure you have the encoders first.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Movie 2012.06.27 - Snow White and the Huntsman


Gritty retelling of the Brothers Grimm favourite. To make the story a little different from the original, they downgraded the seven dwarves, and gave more screentime and lines to the Huntsman. No more Snow White tending to their lodgings while the dwarves work the mines. This time, Swow White and the Huntsman were being hunted down by the evil queen Ravenna's men into the magical forest. On their way to the Duke's castle, they were attacked by the dwarves, who eventually take them to a secret oasis. The duo meets up with the Duke's men and leads an army against the Queen. The rest you can probably guess.

My complaints - dragging storyline, cheesy dialogue, and Kristen Stewart is far from being the fairest of 'em all.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Removing Outlook Attachments

Used to be able to do this by clicking on the attachment and pressing delete, but looks like this is not possible anymore in Outlook 2007. So I end up having big emails even after I've save the attachment already.

What we need is a macro to strip away the attachments, leaving the email message intact. Best solution I've found so far is this. Save the attachments to a folder, removes the attachments, and add a note in the message saying what has been removed.

Try to follow the instructions to the letter. I tried to change a few stuff and ended up with "macro not found" errors.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Movie 2012.06.08 - Sucker Punch


Ever since I saw the trailer, I've always wanted to see Sucker Punch. Turns out most of the awesome action sequences - the samurai warriors at the Shaolin temple, the WWII German zombies, the dragons in a castle -  are just a figment of Babydoll's imagination.

Babydoll is the protagonist in the movie. Committed to a mental asylum by her stepfather for allegedly killing her sister, she uses her imagination to survive her ordeal. She imagines herself to be in a brothel show run by the orderly Blue. Together with her other participants, they hatch a plan to bust out of the club using items like a lighter, map, knife, etc. In the process of trying to steal a knife from the cook, one of the girls was stabbed and mortally wounded. Then Blue found out about the plan, and kills off another girl. Babydoll still decided to push through with the escape plan. The difference is, she set herself up as a diversion, and let one of the other girls escape. In the end, back in the real world, Babydoll was lobotomized by the doctor under forged order from Blue. Just as Blue was about to have his way with Babydoll, the cops bust in and takes him away.

I quite like the story. Even without the trance sequences, the suspense is good enough to keep me interested.

Movie 2012.06.08 - Spellbound


The only reason we watch Korean romantic comedies is because my wife likes the actors. In this particular movie (also known as Chilling Romance), I'd rather look at the female lead (Son Ye Jin), as the male lead (Lee Min Ki) is only so-so. Even the wife agrees.

Lee is a street magician/illusionist who eventually falls in love with his quiet, quirky female assistant. The reason why Son's anti-social is because she's being haunted by her classmate's ghost, who blames her for her death. The ghost wants Son to be forever alone, so she she scares away anyone who tries to get close. Lee decides the girl is worth all the trouble, and they hope to make it through together.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Movie 2012.06.05 - How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

To be frank, I didn't like this movie one bit. All throughout the movie, Simon Pegg is just being insensitive and inconsiderate and obnoxious. Not sure if he's really like that in real life, or he's really a great actor because I'm starting to hate his character.

Simon plays Sidney, a struggling journalist who gets his big break and moves to New York to work for Sharps magazine. There he makes a fool of himself and offends everyone. Surprisingly, he still manages to move up the corporate ladder. At this awards night where his date wins best actress and is about to pick up her awards, he grapples with her and tries to take away her mother's ring. Chaos all around. With ring in hand, he tracks down his former colleague old flame and slips the ring in her pocket while they slow dance.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Movie 2012.05.31 - CJ7

Done in the usual Stephen-Chow over-the-top style. Unfortunately, movie has no story. Well, it does, but barely.

You've got poor construction-worker dad sending son to posh school. Kid is made fun of by classmates.On one of his daily dumpster runs, Dad picks up a green blob, which turns out to be an alien superdog called CJ7. Dad falls to his death at the construction site, and CJ7 uses up all his life force to bring him back to life. Alien mothership arrives to resurrect CJ7. The end.

The only redeeming feature of this movie is the kid and the pretty teacher.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Movie 2012.05.30 - Dorian Gray

Haven't read the book. Didn't know what to expect from the movie. Generally ok performance from all of the actors, but nothing special.

Dorian Gray arrives in London to take possession of his late dad's estate. Soon enough, he is befriended by Lord Henry Wotton, who is a bad (to put it mildly) influence to him. Despite indulging in all of the vices available to him, Dorian doesn't suffer the effects of age. His fountain of youth lies in a lifelike portrait that he keeps in his attic. It is the portrait that ages and get corrupted.

When Dorian turns his attention to Henry's daughter Emily, Henry takes matter into his own hands, and burns the portrait. Dorian finally saw the portrait for what it is and goes down with it in a fiery explosion. At the end of the movie, we see that Henry has the "restored" portrait in his own attic.

Friday, May 11, 2012

From Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich


I'm starting to have serious doubts that Samsung will ever release Ice Cream Sandwich for the Galaxy S. I've installed a few Gingerbread ROMs. They're all good, but provide only incremental improvements and features, like Face Unlock. I think I have to take the next step with Ice Cream Sandwich.

I've trawled the XDA Developer forums for a few days now, and I've decided to use Slim ICS ROM and Semaphone Kernel. Upgrade time is probably 15 minutes - much less than the time I took to research the process. Before anything else, download a CM9 ROM, the Slim Base, the Slim Essentials, and copy them all to your device's internal storage. Coming from a GB ROM, you'll need to reboot into recovery, then Wipe data, Format system (found under Mounts and Storage). Flash the CM9 ROM. Again, reboot into recovery, then flash Base, then flash Essentials. If the Base flash is too quick, then something has gone wrong. Just flash the Base again. Finally, Reboot to system, and that's it.

In my case, I got bootloops after flashing the CM9 ROM. Had to replace the battery, then boot into recovery via Volume Up, Home, and the Power button. Reflashed CM9, and everything is fine afterwards. First impression:

  • default 182 dpi
  • clean Roboto font
  • very responsive and very slick
  • way too many configuration options via ASS, Device Settings, and NSTools

Reinstalled all of my favourite apps. Everything worked except for Dropsync 1.65. Upgraded to 1.68, downgraded to 1.65, then 1.61. Only time it worked again was when I upgraded to the latest 2.0.4.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Unlimited Online Photo Storage

Strictly speaking, not really unlimited, but virtually unlimited only if you do it right.

I used to unload my pictures to Flickr. With my free account, I get 300MB worth of upload every month. However, Flickr will only show the last 200 photos in the photostream, so I had to constantly purge my albums. Then I tried Fotopic. The free account gets 250MB of storage. To maximize this, I used to resize my pictures before uploading. 
When space ran out, I simply signed up for another account. I worked for a while until I got caught.

Nowadays, I use PicasaWeb and Google+. With PicasaWeb, you get 1GB of free storage. However, photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels don't count towards the quota. And by uploading photos in Google+, they're automatically resized to 2048 pixels anyway, so you get virtually unlimited storage.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Nybble Issue No. 228

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
2012.05.01 Issue No. 228

Wow! Can't believe it's been almost a year since I last published Nybble. At the rate things are going, I should start calling it an annual newsletter.

Anyway, has anyone else noticed that people are more and more pictures? Every time we eat out, I notice people taking pictures of their food. I saw this guy taking a picture of the trolleys at Costco. I saw this girl taking a picture of herself with an Ikea plush toy. Friends meet up and they take pictures of each other. Picture looks boring? Instagram it. Forgot what you ate for breakfast yesterday? Check your photo gallery. Can't think of anything to post on Facebook? (WHAT?!) Upload some pictures.

And here I am with my rarely-used too-expensive Canon EOS 550D and a Canon Powershot S2 IS stored away in a drawer.

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 shutterbugs about it. Thanks.


_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* Apple Goes into Restaurant Business
* MIT Invents Super Glass
* Samsung TV Vulnerabilities
* IBM Develops Air-Breathing Car Battery
* The $60 LED Light Bulb
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh


_________APPLE GOES INTO RESTAURANT BUSINESS_________
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57422071-71/apple-to-build-private-restaurant-to-keep-out-snoopers/

Security-conscious Apple is planning to build an off-site private restaurant for its employees. According to Dan Whisenhunt, Apple's director of real estate facilities, "We like to provide a level of security so that people and employees can feel comfortable talking about their business, their research and whatever project they're engineering without fear of competition sort of overhearing their conversations."

The 21,468-square-foot "cafeteria" is a short walk from Apple's Infinity Loop HQ and will have two stories, meetings rooms, lounge areas, conference rooms, storage lockers, an underground parking lot. Although visitors can eat at the Caffe Macs (its on-site restaurant) if they are signed in by an employee, the new restaurant is exclusively for staff, meaning there won’t be any semi-public access, allowing Apple employees to conduct their business in total secrecy from competitors.

_________MIT INVENTS SUPER GLASS________
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/333734/20120426/mit-researchers-invent-perfect-glass-video.htm

MIT researchers recently announced a major breakthrough in glass-making technology, which basically involves a new way to create surface textures on glass to eliminate inherent drawbacks like unwanted reflections and glare. In fact, this new "multifunctional" glass is not only crystal clear -- unlike all other glass, which is reflective by nature -- but it also causes water droplets to bounce right off its surface, "like tiny rubber balls."

The glass is self-cleaning, anti-reflective, and superhydrophobic. Now, if only the scientists can make it as tough as Corning's Gorilla Glass, then we'll have a winner.

The new glass also helps boost the efficiency of other glass-based tools and objects. For example, photovoltaic cells can lose up to 40 percent of their efficiency within six months, usually due to dust and dirt accumulation; but with the new self-cleaning glass as a surface, a photovoltaic panel would transmit much more light through its surface, making the cell much more powerful, especially when the sun's rays are at an angle. Without MIT's glass added to solar panels, the glass sometimes reflects as much as 50 percent of the sun's rays during the early morning and late afternoon hours.

The secret behind this incredible glass technology? MIT's invention is created by a simple surface pattern, which consists of an array of nanoscale cones that are roughly five times as tall as their base width. These conical shapes are completely responsible for the unique characteristics of the glass. The invention is still patent-pending.

_________SAMSUNG TV VULNERABILITIES________
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/researcher-causes-endless-restart-loop-samsung-tvs-042412

As TVs become smarter and more connected, it's just a matter of time before more and more of these vulnerabilities show up.

Italian security researcher Luigi Auriemma was trying to play a trick on his brother when he accidentally discovered two vulnerabilities in all current versions of Samsung TVs and Blu-Ray systems that could allow an attacker to "disable" those devices. All you need is for the TV connected to a Wi-Fi network. One of the bugs leads to a loop of endless restarts while the other could cause a potential buffer overflow.

Basicaly, when the TV receives a controller packet from the network about a new 'remote', it prompts the user to either 'allow' or 'deny' access. Within this packet is a string for the name of the device. Auriemma discovered that if he inserted line feeds and other invalid characters into the string, the TV would enter an endless restart loop. The TV doesn't respond to manual and remote controls. Even unplugging the TV doesn't resolve the restart loop. According to Auriemma, he was only able to recover the TV by putting it in service mode.

As for the buffer overflow, Auriemma determined that he could crash devices by setting the MAC address to a long string. Auriemma claims there is no fix for these bugs because he was unable to report the bugs to Samsung. He has also received no word from Samsung. He claims that Samsung doesn’t even have a channel through which to report these types of bugs.

_________IBM DEVELOPS AIR-BREATHING CAR BATTERY_________
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/126745-ibm-creates-breathing-high-density-light-weight-lithium-air-battery

IBM recently demonstrated a light-weight, ultra-high-density, lithium-air battery, as part of its Battery 500 project to produce a battery capable of powering a car for 500 miles.

In IBM’s lithium-air battery, oxygen reacts with lithium to create lithium peroxide and electrical energy. When the battery is recharged, the process is reversed and oxygen is released. While conventional batteries are completely self-contained, the oxygen used in an lithium-air battery obviously comes from the atmosphere, so the battery itself can be much lighter. The main thing though, is that lithium-air energy density is a lot higher than conventional lithium-ion batteries: The maximum energy density of lithium-air batteries is theorized to be around 12 kWh/kg, some 15 times greater than li-ion — and more importantly, comparable to gasoline.

Lithium-air batteries have been around since the 1970s, but the necessary tech was well beyond the capabilities of then-contemporary material science. Today, with assistance from partners Asahi Kasei and Central Glass — IBM now has the materials and technology required to build a lithium-air battery. Supercomputers also played a big part in this breakthrough; IBM isn’t a battery-making company, after all. IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputers at IBM Research in Zurich and Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago were used to model and optimize the li-air chemistry. The battery prototypes themselves are being built at IBM Research Almaden, California.

_________THE $60 LED LIGHT BULB_________
http://phys.org/news/2012-04-rebates-bulb.html

Phlips state-of-the-art LED light bulb is the most energy-efficient yet, lasts about 20 years and is supposed to give off a pleasing, natural-looking light. But what separates it from the pack most is the price: $60.

A bit pricey, but Netherlands-based Philips is discounting it right away to $50 for consumers, and working on deals with electric utilities to discount it even further, by as much as $20 to $30. This means the bulb will cost anywhere from $20 to $60, depending on where it's found. Online, consumers will be paying $50 for each bulb, because utilities don't subsidize online sales.

For $25, or even $35, the bulb looks like a good investment compared to an incandescent bulb. It uses only 10 watts of power, meaning saves about $8 per year in electricity if it's used four hours a day. It's expected to last at least 30,000 hours, or 30 times longer than an incandescent. At four hours per day, that's 20 years.
But the Philips bulb is not only up against $1 incandescent bulbs. CFL are nearly as energy efficient. They use about 15 watts for 60 watts worth of light. They're much cheaper too, typically costing around $5. The Philips bulb has some advantages over a CFL: It lasts three times longer and gives off a more natural-looking light. It doesn't contain the toxic mercury vapor inside CFLs, which creates a minor hazard when they break.
Incandescent bulbs of 40 watts and above will be banned in 2014.


_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
eBookee
http://www.ebookee.net/
Furry Elephant
Animations, simulations, and Activities for Teaching and Learning
http://www.furryelephant.com/
Cryptocat
https://crypto.cat/
Encrypted, private chatrooms
MP3Skull
http://mp3skull.com/
Free mp3 download
Budget Bytes
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/
On a mission to save money and eat well!

_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
Why do all movie tickets cost the same?

_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
It's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
 ~ Frederick Douglass

_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
Which Ninja Turtle was the odd man out?
Of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all named after artists and / or sculptors, Donatello does not occur in the same time period as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.
Source: Arcamax Trivia

_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
My mother was away all weekend at a business conference. During a break, she decided to call home collect.
My six-year-old brother picked up the phone and heard a stranger's voice say, "We have a Marcia on the line. Will you accept the charges?"
Frantic, he dropped the receiver and came charging outside screaming, "Dad! They've got Mom! And they want money!"


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.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Dual-Booting XP and Kubuntu

The Kubuntu install went pretty well. Then I noticed that the new Kubuntu partition has 25GB, while my original XP partition now has only 15GB. Fired up KDE Partition Manager, but obviously, it can't do move/resize on the running Linux partition. Switched to Windows and installed the free MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition. For some reason, it can see the ext4 partition, but the move/resize option doesn't work. Time to pull out the big guns.

Downloaded, burned, and ran Parted Magic and fixed the parititions up. More for XP, less for Kubuntu. Next, I worked on the no-audio issue. After an hour of research and trial-and-error, turns out the speaker is actually muted. N00b. Managed to map some Windows shares, but looks like Amarok and Dragon Player can only play local files (after installing more libraries and codecs).

CPU clock frequency seems to be locked to 600MHz, even though it's a 1.6GHz processor. Second opinion via cpufreq-info disputes this. 600MHz is only when the CPU is idle.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Precise Pangolin Install

Precise Pangolin came out this week, so it's time to try it out. I have a spare ThinkPad T41 running Windows XP, so I decided to dual-boot it with Kubuntu. I've looked at Lubuntu, Xubuntu, and Linux Mint, but thought Kubuntu to be more appropriate for my needs.

Booted up the Kubuntu installer CD-ROM and immediately got an error message - "This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae. Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU." Turns out that starting with 12.04 LTS, the default kernel requires the CPU to support pae. My options now are:
  • install a previous release, then upgrade from there or
  • use the Minimal CD. Once the base system is installed, then do "sudo tasksel" to install the Kubuntu Desktop.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Android Overclocking

Finally found time to overclock the Optus MyTab (ZTE V9). First you need the tablet to be rooted. Install SetCPU and choose what max. frequency you want. My suggestion is to try out a speed setting and make sure the tablet is still stable. Then slowly bump up the speed until such point that the tablet hangs.

In my case, I was able to OC the 600MHZ to 825MHz. Those soft-decode DVDRips now play back much smoother now. I was able to underclock the device to 122MHz for even more battery capacity. Did the same thing for the wife's Huawei U8300 - from 528MHz to 710Mhz.