Clash of Clans

Have been playing Clash of Clans for the past few weeks, and I have to admit it's quite addictive. It started when my wife's cousin was teaching my son how to play the game. He didn't get the finer points of the game, so he simply wasted away his resources, and nothing much was happening after that. So I thought I better play and learn the game myself, so I can teach him. Ended up playing more than him.

There are three ways to play Clash of Clans. In single-player campaign, you attack a series of goblin villages, earning gold and elixir as reward. In multiplayer mode, you are paired with another player within your same league. If your attack is successful, you are rewarded with gold, elixir, and trophies. You can also opt to join a clan, and attack other clans. This involves one day for preparation and another day for the actual clash.

Most of my game time is spent on building/upgrading defences, gold mines, elixir collectors, and storages. With the collected loot, you can train troops, upgrade buildings and walls, etc. Once your troops are ready, you can attack other players for trophies and more gold/elixir. When your phone/tablet is idle, other players can also attack your village. So on and so forth.  Build time takes longer and longer as you level up. It also requires more and more resources to upgrade the same structure.

I guess this is where the appeal of the game comes from. There is an end goal to aspire for, and it takes a lot of effort and resources to achieve, but everything is broken down into levels, so you know where you are in the hierarchy. You train up to see if you have what it takes to beat the next guy. You design and plan your village and defences to see if they can stand up to attackers on their own. So far, I haven't joined any clans because I wanted to see how far I can take my village without resorting to outside help. And no actual money spent on IAPs like gems.

Movie 2014.12.30 - Lucy

Movie is about a woman (by the name of Lucy) who overdoses on synthetic CPH4, and activates 100% of her cerebral capacity. Written and directed by Luc Besson, the movie has great visuals and amazing action sequences, but the storyline is a bit weak. Too much scientific mumbo jumbo, and too much time spent trying to explain said mumbo jumbo to the audience. Also, if you have four pouches of super dope CPH4, would you trust them to random people you picked up from the street? Then go all-in with your whole gang to retrieve them? Why not just cut your losses and cook up a new batch in the lab?

So what can you achieve once you go beyond the standard 10% mental capacity? You can feel everything that happens in your body. You can feel your bones growing, your cells splitting, your body heat being emitted, etc. You can remember everything that has happened to you - all the way back to when you were born. You don't feel pain or desire. You can listen to people's conversations, even at a distance in any language. You can control electronic devices like TV, phones, laptops, etc. You can read people's minds. You can change your hair colour and style at will. At 60%, you can drive like a French cabbie. You can physically control people and inanimate objects (think guns and knives). You can create invisible force fields. At 70%, you can travel through time (backwards only), while sitting on a chair. You can manipulate matter and information. You start to lose yourself and morph into a black supercomputer with lots of spikes. At 100%, you become a USB stick. I wonder what storage capacity it has if it's meant to contain ALL known information in the world.

Swollen Uvula

Woke up with a bad case of swollen uvula. It's that little thing that hangs off the back of your throat. My one was inflamed and a bit swollen and elongated that it's actually touching my tongue. Every time I have to talk or swallow, it gives me such pain. Too cheap and/or lazy to go to the GP, I consulted the health experts on the interwebs instead. No shortage of that.

They reckon it's a viral/bacterial infection brought about by dehydration. They could be right, as I had some sinus problems some days ago. Lots of websites with different suggestions, but these are what I'm trying out:

• Gargle regularly with warm salt water to clean out excess mucus. Not saltwater from the sea, but ordinary tap water with added salt.
• Drink lots of lemon ginger tea with honey.
• A couple of lozenges (Strepsils) every few hours.
• Cold drinks and ice cream to numb the pain. This I approve.

Movie 2014.12.21 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Another animation franchise given the Michael Bay treatment. No, he didn't direct this movie, but he did produce it. So there.

The action scenes are non-stop and very slick. CGI is top-notch. The animator didn't do a good job with Megan Fox though. Her face looks fake, according to my wife. Me, I didn't notice because I wasn't looking at her face. I was looking at the turtles.

I'm sure by now everybody already knows how the TMNT and Splinter came to be. The Foot Clan and Shredder is out to release some toxis across NYC. The plan is to contaminate everyone, then Sacks come in with the antidote, using mutagen he extracted from the turtles. Profit. April and Vern take on Sacks, while the turtles duke it out with Shredder. Shredder takes a massive fall from the Sacks Tower, but not before he dabs his finger on some spilled mutagen. I smell a sequel.

Movie 2014.12.20 - The Maze Runner

Another film adaptation of a young-adult book. A mix of Lord of the Flies, Lost, The Hunger Games, and a few others.

You have a bunch of boys trapped inside a walled glade. They don't remember who they are or how they ended up in the glade. Every month, an elevator rises up from the ground with some supplies and another boy. Every morning, a door opens up leading into a maze, then closes at night. Runners go inside the maze to try to find a way out. If you don't get out of the maze by the time the door closes, robotic spiders called Grievers hunt you down and kill you.

This time, the elevator comes up with a boy named Thomas. He's a bit special because during his first time in the maze, he manages to destroy a Griever. This ruffles the feathers of some old-timers, and the group is split into two loyalties. In the end, Thomas convinces the group that facing the deadly Grievers, and going through the maze is their only chance of getting out. They get lucky and stumbles into the control room. A woman in a video explains that most of the global population was wiped out by a worldwide catastrophe. Her group called the World Catastrophe Killzone Department (WKCD) is monitoring the kids' brains in order to find a cure. (Okay...) In the background of the video, we can see some soldiers rushing into the room, and the woman shoots herself in the head. Then, the same soldiers rush into the same room (again), and whisks off the kids in helicopters.

In the final scene, we see that the woman is alive, and wiping off fake blood from her forehead. Come back again for the sequel.

Movie 2012.12.14 - The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box

Movie is based on the 2007 kiddie book by G. P. Taylor, Mariah Mundi: The Midas Box. The movie doesn't break new grounds, simply following the formula for safe kiddie movies. You have the resourceful boy/teenage adventurer, the suffering leading lady, the dastardly villain, a mysterious island with a monster, an ancient relic, etc.

The movie in general feels slow and plodding, with exciting moments coming in spurts. At the end of the movie, I still don't know what the Midas Box is for. Does it turn objects placed inside into gold? Is it the one that powers the healing waters of the hotel's pools? Or is it merely a gun that disintegrates people? Guess I have to read the book to know for sure. As usual, more sequels to come.

Modify Screensaver Settings Via Registry

Not able to modify your screensaver settings due to group policy? If there's a will, there's a way.

If your sysad haven't disabled your access to the Registry Editor:

1. Run regedit fro the command prompt.
2. Browse to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop"
3. Create/Edit the following registry values:
• ScreenSaveActive (1 to activate)
• SCRNSAVE.EXE (should point to the SCR file you want to use)
• ScreenSaveTimeOut (timeout in number of seconds)
• ScreenSaverIsSecure (0 to disable password check when session is resumed)

If you want to make use of your own SCR, copy the files to C:\Windows\SysWOW64

If you don't have the rights to run Registry Editor, simple create a plaintext REG file with the following lines inside:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop]
"ScreenSaveActive"="1"
"ScreenSaverIsSecure"="0"
"ScreenSaveTimeOut"="300"
"SCRNSAVE.EXE"="Mystify.scr"

VOB to MP4

In my previous post, I made use of DVD Decrypter and AutoGK to make DVD backups. People on the forums have been saying the those two software applications are quite outdated already. It's true that DVD Decrypter haven't seen a new version for years now, but that doesn't make it less capable. For most DVDs out there, it should still be able to rip them with no problems. As for the encoder, I've switched from AutoGK to Handbrake. Its UI is pretty intuitive, and my needs are simple. If the DVD is not copy-protected, Handbrake can even use it as source, although this is not recommended.

So, select a VOB file that was ripped by DVD Decrypter. Set the output directory and filename. Click Start. The software analyzes the source file and applies some automatic tweaks (cropping and scaling) to the output. If you have other VOB files, you can queue them up. Default containter is mp4 (m4v) and constant quality set to 20. Encoding is very quick - just a matter of minutes for a half-hour video. It does help to use a 2.6GHz Intel Core i5 quad-core laptop with 8GB of RAM.

Disabling Android OTA Notifications

So I've got my Nexus 4 happily running SlimKat for a few weeks now. Today, I suddenly get the much-anticipated OTA notification for Android 5.0 Lollipop. A bit surprised because I thought rooted phones running custom ROMs will not get the OTA notification. In any case, you should not let the OTA update proceed because it will definitely mess up your phone.

Question now is, how to disable the OTA notification. It can't be dismissed. It shows up after a reboot. The guys on the forums talk about disabling SystemUpdateService or turning off notifications for Google Framework Services. The best and easiest method I've found is to long-press the actual OTA notification, go to App info, then turn off Show notifications (for Google Play services). This stopped the OTA notification for good. Not sure what else I broke though.

Factory Default for Nokia E75

Sister is in need of a spare phone, so I thought of resetting my retired Nokia E75, and giving it to her.

From the Ctrl Panel, go to Settings, then General, then Factory Settings. "Restore all original phone settings? Phone will restart." Sure. Post-restart, all my old data and applications are still there. Hmm, not what I wanted.

Then I read somewhere that you can use special code *#7379# to reformat the phone. However, because "newer" phones like the N- or E-Series have the UDP (user data preservation) feature, not all of the data may be wiped. What we need here is a hard reset to bring the phone back to how it was coming from the factory. And this is how you do it:

1. Make sure phone is powered off.
2. Hold * (star key), 3 (number button), and talk (green key) simultaneously, and power on the phone while still holding all three buttons.
3. Let go of the power button once phone has started booting up. Release the other keys once you see the Nokia handshake animation.

SlimKat on the Nexus 4

Definitely thought about flashing Lollipop on my brand new Nexus 4, but later decided against it. Given that this is my daily driver, I don't have to time to play around and get things working. Would rather stick to what I know is working properly. From what I've seen so far, for me, Lollipop doesn't bring anything significant, except for Material Design and Project Volta. By upgrading all my Google apps to the latest version and using a good custom ROM and kernel, I should be OK.

Read up on the forums and settled on SlimKat and franco kernel. No need for fancy features and eye candy. All I need is a minimal, stable ROM with good battery life. Been using Slim since my SGS days, so no second thoughts there. Hopefully, a Slim version of Lollipop will be released soon.

Lollipop on the Nexus 7

Wasn't expecting the 2012 Nexus 7 (WiFi) to get a taste of Android 5.0 Lollipop, but here we are. Factory images for the Nexus devices just went live on the Google Developers website. Instead of waiting for the OTA, might as well just flash the image myself. This, of course, means that I'll lose userdata, but no biggie.

Manual flashing instructions are the image site itself, or you can use the guides here and here. If you're lazy like me, you can use a toolkit like WugFresh's NRT (Nexus Root Toolkit). CNET has some good instructions on how to use NRT. The software updates itself, downloads dependencies for unlocking and rooting, and downloads the correct image for your device model and build. After a couple of reboots, my Nexus 7 is now running LRX21P.

It might just be me, but everything seems a bit sluggish. Updating the Google apps takes 5-10 minutes each. I'll give it a few days to adjust, and see how it goes.

Nokia Lumia 530

Big W is having one of its one-day sales again. Special mentions are the $39 Nokia Lumia 530, $15 scooters, $6 for 6 Hot Wheels, $248 Windows 8.1 laptop, etc. I was planning to be there first thing in the morning, but as usual, it didn't happen.

Passed by this afternoon, and was surprised that there are still two boxes of Lumia 530 left. Do I need another smartphone when I still have two spares? No. Is it cheap? Yes. So I bought one. By the time I thought about it, and decided to get the last remaining one, it's already been sold.

Here are some specifications to convince you that $39 is a bargain:

• Runs Windows Phone 8.1
• Comes with Nokia Mix Radio, Nokia HERE Maps
• 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait CPU with Snapdragon 200 SOC
• 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, up to 128GB microSD removable storage, 15GB free cloud storage
• Telstra pre-paid SIM with $10 credit
• 3 months free international Skype calls
• extra coloured cover

Nexus 4

I've had the HTC Raider for almost two years now, and it's starting to show it's age. Battery life has decreased significantly, so I installed an extended battery, which increased the phone thickness and weight. With the custom ROM I'm using, MMS is not working, getting low call volume, mute button not working, self-restarts, etc.

So I decided to get a Nexus 4 (codename Mako). The LG E960 may be two years old, but it's got pretty decent specs - 4.7" IPS display (318 ppi), 1.5GHz quad-core Krait, 2GB RAM, and 16GB internal storage. Only downside, as with all Nexus devices, is that battery is not removable and no external storage. I heard battery life and camera quality is below average, too.

One interesting feature is that the phone actually supports LTE, but is not advertised/marketed. The forums tell my that by flashing some hybrid modem, the phone can actually make use of LTE. Found out later that it only supports AWS band 4, which is predominantly used in US/Canada. No use for me then.

Maybe I should've bought a cheapo Huawei Ascend G526 or Y550 and get 4G LTE. Then again, I want Android 5.0 Lollipop, so Nexus 4 is still the way to go.

First Paid App

I've been using Android for the past four years, and today is the first time I've paid for an app. (Thanks, Google Opinion Rewards!)

Not that I'm using pirated softare. It's just that everything I needed to do, I can do with free apps. Now that I've started commuting to work again, I'm in need of an app that shows the train schedules. I've tried a few, and the best so far is TripView Sydney. You set two endpoints (train stations), and it shows you all the combinations (routes) between the two, sorted based on arrival time. What I like about TripView Sydney is that I can tell from a glance how many trains I can afford to let go without missing my arrival time. For example, there could be 4 trains leaving station A, different trains on different platforms, but they all end up at station B at the same time. This means I can take my time and walk at a slower pace.

XBMC and XBMCHub

Well, they're no more. XBMC has been renamed Kodi, and XBMC Hub has restyled itself as TVAddons.

As of this writing, Kodi is now at v14.0 "Helix" Alpha. Thought it best to stick to the more stable Gotham XBMC. After installation, grab the Config Wizard from TVAddons.

Go to System, then File Manager. Create a Fusion source that points to http://tvaddons.ag
Back to main menu, go to System, then Settings, then Add-ons.
Select "Install from zip file", select Fusion, select start-here folder, download plugin.video.hubwizard-1.1.5.zip
Back to main menu, go to Programs, select Config Wizard. Once completed, restart XBMC/Kodi, and your system should now be properly set up.

Now, this didn't work for me because it was taking too long in downloading the scripts from TVAddons.ag, and simply errored out. What I did instead, is to install the add-ons manually.

Repeat the same steps, this time download the plugin.program.addoninstaller-1.1.7.zip
Select the add-ons you want, and wait for them to be installed.

Movie 2014.09.28 - Transformers: Age of Extinction

Basic premise is that a bounty hunter by the name of Lockdown is assisting the humans in cleaning out the Transformers, in exchange for Optimus Prime. Meanwhile, Megatron now Galvatron means to detonate the Seed to generate enough metal to build an army to wipe out the human species.

In once scene, this engineer announces the discovery of the holy grail. I thought it was the cup from the last supper, but it turned out to be a blob of metal they named transformium. Who came up with the name?! Anyway, it's programmable matter. Pray tell programmable through what interface? Mind control? The Pill! Awesome product placement there, Dr. Dre.

Given that these are obviously alien robots, why would they be created in the image of motor vehicles? Helicopters? Samurai warriors? Dinosaurs?! I mean, if these Dinobots are so fearsome and powerful, why would they subject themselves to Optimus Prime's control? "We must join forces, or else forever be their slaves. So today you stand with us, or you stand against me. Only together can we survive. Let me lead you!" Can they even understand what Prime is blabbering about, given their tiny little robotic brains?

tl;dr Came for the Michael Bay explosions; stayed for the cheesy dialogue and bad voice acting.

Sugar on a Stick on a VM

Been playing with VMware lately, so I thought I'd try running Sugar on a Stick on a virtual machine. I've installed SoaS on a hard disk before, so this is something new. No new SoaS release since then (still the 10th iteration using Fedora 20), but the anaconda installation is simpler, since I have the whole "hard disk" to myself.

Sugar Labs has some documentation on this topic, but VirtualBox is the hypervisor of choice. Using VMware is not much different. Basically, you create a new VM, and boot using the SoaS live ISO image. In my case, I gave it 1GB of memory and 8GB of diskspace. Once you're in the Sugar environment, run Terminal, switch to root user, and type liveinst. HDD installation starts once you've decided on the partitioning. To complete the installation, you need to set the root password and optionally create a normal user. I strongly suggest you complete the second part because Fedora won't allow you to log in as root. Learned this the hard way.

Neat thing with VMware is that you can actually suspend your session, and continue where you left off the next time.

Swatch Buff

Nope, not a new Swatch model. Dropped by the Swatch store below QVB to have a couple of Swatches buffed. Did you know they offer this service for free? Actually, all Swatch stores worldwide do. Don't expect too much though. Mine was fininshed in less than a minute, literally.

Noticed that the SISTEM51 is already available. Staff said they came in just a couple of weeks ago. Costs a hefty $195, but they do look interesting. (Only U$150 in the US.) Also saw some boxes of Mystery Vintage on offer. You have a choice of Originals Gents, POP, Scuba, and Lady models. Three Swatches for the low, low price of $95. (U$70 in the US.) The good thing about this is that instead of being a "mystery", someone (probably the local staff) has already pre-marked the box, so you know what models are inside.

Manual Windows Update

This how-to is more for Windows XP, where your only options for Windows Update are:

• automatic update on a specific day at a specific time
• download updates, but do not install
• notify, but do not download or install
• no automatic updates

No option to "Check for updates" on demand like in Vista or Windows 7.

To get around this, you can run 'wuauclt /detectnow' on the command line to force an update check.
Another option is to restart the Windows Update client by turning off Automatic Updates from Control Panel, then turning it on again. This also forces interrupted update downloads to restart.

Google Security

With news that 5 million Gmail passwords leaked on a Russian Bitcoin forum a couple of days ago, I started looking at how to make my Google account more secure.

First thing you want to check is whether there have been logins from unfamiliar devices and/or locations. Head over to security.google.com to check recent activity.
Second thing I did is to enable 2-step verification, the second step being a security code that Google sends to your mobile number via SMS. Every time you need to sign in to your Google account, you enter your password, plus this security code. Just be aware that as soon as you enable this feature, you have to re-authenticate your apps, devices, and browsers that use your Google account.

This works fine for Google sign-ins on the desktop. On Android, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some newer apps are 2-step-verification-aware, and will allow you to enter the security code. Some apps will simply say that your password is incorrect. Couple of ways to go around this:

• Remove Google account, then add it in again. Enter account password as usual. A browser page should pop up asking you to enter the security code.
• On my older Android (Gingerbread) phones, this didn't work because it doesn't allow you to remove Google account, unless a factory reset is done. For this, you need to generate an app/device-specific password in lieu of your standard Google password. Works as advertised.

Worst case, if things aren't working out well, simply disable 2-step verification, and change your password regularly.

Win7 on T41 and T43

Why install an unsupported OS like Windows XP, when you can install Windows 7? As long as your clunky old laptop has at least 1GB of RAM and at least 40GB of hard disk space, I don't see why not. People have reported that Win7 actually runs faster than WinXP on these old laptops. For me, I'm just after the updated patches and drivers.

On the T43, installation is pretty straightforward. You format the HDD, install Win7, let Windows Update pull in all the latest drivers and patches for you. Software installation took about half an hour. Downloading the 100 or so drivers and patches (and installing them) took over two hours. The driver for the display adapter is always the tricky one. In this case, Windows Update found the proper Intel X3100 driver for the T43.

Not so lucky for the T41. After 5 hours of software and updates installation, I ended up with the standard VGA display adapter, instead of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000. I mean, it's still able to support the maximum display resolution, but no sleep option, only hibernate. Apparently, the GPU is considered too weak to run Win7, so no official drivers from ATI. Your best option are modded drivers. Check the below links for more discussion about this specific issue, and how people went around it:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=83758
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=77964

Most of the download links mentioned in the posts are now dead. The one that actually worked for me is from http://www.mediafire.com/?5tieomimroy

Unpack the archive, select the display adapter from Device Manager, and update the driver. For some reason, after updating to ATI Radeon 9000, the resolution is reduced, but I now get the sleep option.

Updating Microsoft Security Essentials

Got an old IBM ThinkPad T41 that needed an OS reinstall. Windows XP went in without a hitch. Tried installing the latest Microsoft Security Essentials, and it won't install due to unsupported operating system. Apparently, WinXP reached end-of-support on April 8, 2014. No more patches, no more security updates. Easy fix is to simply get an older version of MSE from elsewhere. As of this writing, latest MSE engine is version 4.5. I downloaded version 4.4, and it installed without any complaints.

With respect to antivirus definitions, Microsoft will supposedly keep them coming until April 15, 2015. With my v4.4 MSE, I was able to get the latest definitions without doing anything special. If that's not the case for you, there are other official ways to get the latest virus definitions.

Either that, or simply install a different security product.

YouTube Download

Seen a YouTube video that you liked? Flag it for watching later. If you find yourself watching the video repeatedly, might as well download it for offline viewing. Save the bandwidth for something else.

Firefox and Chrome has a lot of YouTube downloader extensions out there, and they work just fine. Whenever you watch a YouTube video, you get an extra button that allows you to download the video in different formats and resolutions. But that means that extension is running all the time, slowing down other browser tabs, even if you're not on YouTube.

Nowadays, I just use an online YouTube download service like dirpy. You simply enter the YouTube video URL, then it gives you options for bitrates and start/end times. You can also enter the ID3 tag information before you download. Downloading the actual video in different resolutions is also supported.

Music Clips is another good alternative.

Carpark Problems

Lately I've noticed that the carpark of our local shopping centre is getting more crowded. Not only that, there's always a long queue to exit the carpark. I mean, how hard can it be? Before reaching the exit point, make sure car window is rolled down, paid parking ticket is on hand, slide it into the ticket slot, and off you go.

But no, that would be too boring. Instead, some people do the following to spice things up:

• Look for the parking ticket once they are right at the boom gate (and have difficulty finding it).
• Insert the parking ticket only to find that payment needs to be made.
• I've seen people get out of their car and walk over to the pay terminal to pay in coins, instead of simply using their credit card at the exit point. Credit card surcharge must be a killer.
• This guy in front of me was waving his parking ticket at the LCD screen of the boom gate terminal. He would press some buttons, then tap the ticket on the machine again. I presume he must've pressed the intercom button because after a few minutes, eventually the boom gate went up. I was really tempted to get out of my car, and sort help him out. I looked at the terminal screen, it says "Scan your ticket". Insert would've been a better word.
• Then there's this guy who would insert his ticket, and the machine would spit it out. He'll insert it again, and same thing happens. I shout "Wrong slot, dude!", then he inserts it into the ticket slot instead of the credit card slot.

 Interestingly, I've only seen these things happen in my local carpark.

Movie 2014.09.02 - Dragonwolf

I have mentioned before that my vote for worst movie of all time goes to Spawn. Looks like we have a new winner here.

Dragonwolf is so bad, I thought it's a subtle comedy. Honestly, I've seen better acting in high school plays. The actors stand around looking cool, and reciting their lines. Once in a while, they'll put in some naked girls and sex scenes to spice things up, but it only helped a little bit. There's no flow in the storyline. Heck, what storyline?!

The only redeeming part is that fight scene between the TRIO of gangsters and Mozart. (Who comes up with such names?) The bad guys are obviously no match for Mozart, but they still take him on one by one. The black dude with the bright yellow outfit was dancing around, saying things like "I'm gonna bust yo' ass, mother-fo!", switching from scorpion style to monkey style, etc. Still got his butt kicked miserably. So funny.

Movie 2014.08.26 - Lost in Beijing a.k.a. 苹果

Don't know what to feel after watching this tragedy of a movie. Felt a bit dragging, as there were lots of shots of daily life in Beijing, which could've been edited off. I guess the moral lesson of the movie is that in this dog-eat-dog world, it's every man to himself.

We have a young couple living in some shantytown in Beijing. An Kun is a window cleaner. Pingguo works at a massage parlour. I would say they're happily married, as they have passionate sex once in a while. One day, while Pingguo is drunk at work, her boss Lin Dong takes advantage of her. Amazingly, An Kun saw it go down while cleaning the windows. In his anger, he rapes the wife again back in their place. Making the most of the situation, he tries to extort money from the boss. Unsuccessful, he starts fooling around with the boss' infertile wife Wang Mei. Meanwhile, Pingguo becomes pregnant. Lin Dong was beside himself with happiness. He showers the couple with gifts and nutritional supplements. He strikes a deal with An Kun - if the baby is his, he'll pay him a big sum of money in exchange for the baby.

The baby turns out to be An Kun's. He bribes the doctor to fudge the blood type on the birth certificate, and proceeds to "sell" the baby to Lin Dong. Meanwhile, Pingguo stays over to take care of the baby. An Kun gets jealous of Lin Dong and Pingguo, so he kidnaps the baby. He is eventually caught. Pingguo realizes that everyone is just after their own interests (even her husband), so one early morning, she leaves with the money and her baby.

Movie 2014.08.26 - Maleficent

Another movie putting a twist on a well-known fairy tale.

We have the human kingdom led by King Stefan (Sharlto Copley) and the fairy kingdom in the Moors protected by Maleficent (Angelina Jolie). The two used to be childhood friends, then lovers before things turned sour. In his ambition to be king, Stefan drugged Maleficent and sliced off her wings as proof of her death. Maleficent was so incensed by the betrayal that she transformed from cheeful fairy to spiteful "witch" overnight. On Princess Aurora's (Elle Fanning) christening day, she put a curse on her that can only be broken by true love's kiss. Through the years, she spied on Aurora, and started to accept her. When she fell asleep on her 16th birthday, Maleficent simply gave her a true love's kiss, which promptly woke her up. Aurora freed Maleficent's wings from their shackles, and Maleficent is whole again. Big fight between Maleficent and King Stefan, and his men with her dragon, where King Stefan fell to his death. Maleficent takes Aurora to the Moors to rule the fairy kingdom.

The trailer and soundtrack made the movie look scarier and spookier than it is. I found it a bit boring.

Upgrading the ZTE V9... Again

The Optus MyTab a.k.a. ZTE V9 is currently on official CM7.2, but that hasn't been updated in years (March 1, 2013).

I did some searching and the latest unofficial CM ROM is CM11 Kitkat.
http://www.modaco.com/topic/367844-devrom-cyanogenmod-110-android-442-for-zte-v9/

I was so excited, I immediately installed it. Didn't even do a backup. Wipe data, factory reset, wipe cache, format /system, wipe dalvik cache, flash ROM. What do you know? Installation aborted due to "some symlinks failed".

My suspicion is that the /system partition is too small. I took a second look, and the CM11 thread says it needs more than 185MB for /system. I remember when I installed CM7.2 over the stock Android 2.2 ROM, I had to do some repartitioning. Got a bigger /data, but /system was reduced. So apparently, I currently have a 136MB /system partition, instead of the default 220MB.
http://www.modaco.com/topic/342556-repartition-nand-for-optimal-cm7-setup-2011-08-15/

Instead of repartitioning again, which is quite messy, I've decided to install some old versions of CM until it fits into the /system partition. Started from CM10.2 to CM10.1 to CM10. With CM10, I didn't get any installation errors anymore, and the tablet booted up just fine. Downside is that the /system is now full. Can't even install gapps. So I guess I have to sideload all my apps. Some apps like MX Player doesn't work become of some missing libraries that probably come with gapps. TuneIn runs, but would FC once in a while. My home button also now doesn't work for some reason.

I'm really itching to repartition and install KitKat. Maybe I'll save that for a rainy day.
http://www.modaco.com/topic/342556-repartition-nand-for-optimal-cm7-setup-2011-08-15/#entry1744456

Better QuickPic

QuickPic has a new update (v.3.7.1) since my last post. And now, you can disable the pan and zoom feature. So it looks like I can keep using QuickPic as my slideshow viewer, instead of Dayframe. Sans playlists and weather info and photo details, etc. On an old ZTE V9 with only 512MB of RAM, this makes a big difference.

QuickPic vs. Dayframe

I've always used QuickPic as my default photo gallery. It's small, fast, free, and doesn't come with ads. With a recent update, it now supports online albums from Picasa, Google Drive, Dropbox, Flickr, OneDrive, etc. And its slideshow feature works pretty well, too.

However, if you're trying to repurpose an old Android tablet (or a Kobo) as a digital photo frame, then QuickPic is not what you want to use. For one, QuickPic pans and zooms into a small part of the picture, so you don't see the whole picture. It also uses transitions between photos. Not good if you're using an E-Ink screen, as the final picture ends up blurry.

This is where Dayframe comes in. Like QuickPic, it can pull photos from the cloud, but it can handle more online sources, like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. You can group different photostreams into playlists. It supports Chromecast photos and slideshows. The slideshow can even display current weather and photo details. You can set up Dayframe to run as a screensaver to run at specific times of the day. Unlike QuickPic, you can disable the zoom feature and slideshow transition.

The only downside I can see compared to QuickPic is the app size. Dayframe is around 20MB, while QuickPic weighs in at less than 500kB.

Windows No-Password Login

Of course you still need to assign passwords to users and the administrator account for better security. I'm talking about the use case where it's your personal laptop, and Windows still requires you to type in your password every time it boots up or wake up from sleep.

Easy way to bypass this. Open command prompt, and type in netplwiz. Untick "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer." Click Apply. It will then ask you to enter your password again. Reboot to take effect. Works for both Windows 7 and 8.1.

Next, go to Control Panel, then Power Options. On the left-side panel, click on "Require a password on wakeup". Select "Don't require a password", then Save Changes.

Movie 2014.08.17 - New York, I Love You

This is one of those 10-short-movies-in-1 like Love Actually and Valentine's Day, where the characters in those sub-plots are independent, but somehow interact with each other within the bigger picture. The main commonality here is that all stories happen within New York.

Two guys hop into a cab, and they decide to share the ride and the fare. They and the driver can't decide which route is the fastest. They argue until the driver kicks them out of the car. A young cocky thief steals from the wrong guy, and gets one-upped. The girlfriend of the better thief spends the rest of the day with the younger thief. A customer comes in to a jeweller's store and they haggle and talk about their religion. Later on, each of them daydream about getting married. A writer hits on this classy lady at the street corner. After a long discussion, she turns out to be a hooker, and gives him her business card. Frustrated, he goes back to his writing, and meets a film maker at the next table. He leaves her a message on her videocam. At the same street corner, two strangers have a spirited discussion about anonymous sex. Then they go back in the restaurant to finish their dinner as husband and wife. A retired singer checks into a hotel with an intent to commit suicide. A bellboy with a walking disability tries to help her close the windows, and falls to his death. A painter frequents a Chinese medicine store and offers to paint the pretty shop girl. She refuses. One day, while the owner is asleep, she sneaks off to the painter's studio, but too late, as the painter recently died.

I liked the story about this guy who was dumped by his girlfriend on the day of the prom. The local pharmacist took pity on him, and offered his daughter as a stand-in. She looks all right, so the boy agrees. Turns out she's on a wheelchair. They go to the prom, and they tell people he's doing it for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. They end up at Central Park, and he gets his prom night wish, too. You know what it is. Next day, boy pushes girl back home. She hops off the wheelchair, and walks into the house. Wannabe method actress.

Last story is about this old couple who celebrates their anniversary by taking a stroll by the beach. And we know all these because of that film maker who had her videocam always on.

Clearing Windows Clipboard

Found myself in a strange situation where new putty selections are not being copied to UltraEdit. I tried copying text from other applications, but it looks like it's not being copied to the clipboard because Ctrl-V always yields the same content.

Try this trick to manually clear the Windows clipboard. From the command prompt, type in 'echo off | clip' (without the single quotes). Or if you're lazy, Win + R, then 'cmd/c "echo off | clip"' (without the single quotes).

Try pasting in an empty Notepad to verify that the operation worked. In my case, I went back to UltraEdit, and the old clipboard contents is still there. So maybe UltraEdit is filling the clipboard from its cache. Switched to good ol' Notepad, and no more issues. (After clearing the clipboard again, of course.)

eBay Tips and Tricks

I've been buying and bidding on eBay for many years now, and I'd like to think I know my way around the system.

The last thing you want to do is to let the seller (and other bidders) know that you're interested. The more "valuable" and popular an item is perceived to be, the higher the price people are willing to pay for it. And as a buyer, of course, you want the price to be as low as possible. So when you see that item you like, do not immediately put a bid on it. Simply put it on your watchlist, so you get back to it later.

Some people swear by automated sniping software, but I'd rather do the job myself. At T minus 15 seconds, put in the highest bid you're prepared to pay. At T minus 3 seconds, click on the Confirm button. Just enough time for the bid to go in, but not enough time for other bidders to increase their bids. There's always a chance that someone else has already put in a higher bid, so if you really really want that item, confirm your highest bid at T minus 10 seconds. In case there's a higher bid, you still have some precious seconds to beat it.

One thing you need to be careful about. When sniping, make sure you're actually logged in. There have been times when I put in my highest bid at T minus 3 seconds, only for eBay to ask for my username and password. By the time I've logged in again, the bidding has closed.

Watch out for items that are listed twice by the same seller. Is it so that he really has two items? In that case, no need to go all in on the first one because you still have a second chance. If it turns out to be a dupe, better make sure you snag the first one. I remember one seller having an item for regular auction, and the same item ending 7 days later with a Buy-It-Now price. It's possible that he really has two E100s lying around, or maybe that's just his strategy. If the regular auction fetches a price higher than the Buy-It-Now price, he can simply cancel the second item. If someone make an offer that is higher than the winning bid, guess which winner will get the goods?

Movie 2014.07.27 - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Intro of the movie fills us in about a simian virus outbreak that decimated the global human population. Meanwhile, Caesar and his simian colony are settled comfortably in the forest. In a chance encounter, one of the humans shoots and injures one of the apes. Caesar leads his troops to the human town in San Francisco and warns them to stay out of their sanctuary. What Caesar doesn't know is that the humans need access to the forest in order to access the hydroelectric dam. Malcolm goes back to Caesar with his request. There is a tentative peace between the two camps, while the humans (and apes) cooperate to bring the dam back in operation.

All it takes is for one bad egg to bring everything crashing down. And that is what happened. Back in SF, Dreyfus, the leader of the humans, is stockpiling arms and ammunitions, preparing to duke it out with the apes. Koba, Caesar's right-hand ape, kills a couple of humans and steals their rifles. While everyone is celebrating the successful activation of the dam, Koba shoots Caesar with the rifle, and blames it on the humans. Koba leads an assault on the human colony and takes everyone prisoner. Malcolm and his wife rescues and revives Caesar, who later subdues Koba.

In the end, it's all for naught, as military reinforcements are on their way to the city, and an all-out war is all but guaranteed.

Movie 2014.07.27 - Muppets Most Wanted

In this sequel, the Muppets go on a world tour with some coaxing from Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais). Kermit is mistaken for Constantine, the world's most dangerous frog and number one criminal, and was sent to a Siberian gulag. Meanwhile, Constantine paints his mole green and passes himself off as Kermit.

Dominic plans the groups itinerary, and while the Muppets are performing, he would break into the nearby museum and steal some treasures. During their Dublin stop, Constantine announces that he and Miss Piggy are marrying at the Tower of London. Animal, Walter, and Fozzy discovers that "Kermit" is really Constantine. They escape and helps Kermit break out of the gulag. While the wedding is going on, Dominic steals the crown jewels with the help of the Muppet babies. Kermit and the gang foil Contantine's plan and goes on to Siberia for the last performance of their world tour.

I found the movie quite enjoyable. Cameos from Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Usher, Celine Dion, Christoph Waltz, etc. Lots of laughs and song-and-dance numbers.

Creating a WiFi Hotspot

When out and about, I usually use my smartphone as a 4G modem for my laptop - either through USB tethering or as a portable hotspot. However, the reverse is a bit tricky. For example, I would be in a hotel room which provides wired Ethernet to the laptop, but no WiFi for my smartphone or tablet.

I've looked into this before, and there are software like mHotspot and Connectify that can use your Internet-connected PC as an access point for other devices. However, if your PC's wireless adapter supports hosted networks, then you won't even need any third-party software.

1. Open a command prompt with administrator privileges.
2. Type 'netsh wlan show drivers'. Make sure it says Yes for "Hosted network supported"
3. Type 'netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<SSID> key=<password>" to create the WiFi hotspot with the chosen SSID and password.
4. Type 'netsh wlan start hostednetwork' to activate the WiFi hotspot.
5. To deactive, simply type 'netsh wlan stop hostednetwork'.
6. To check the hotspot status, type 'netsh wlan show hostednetwork'.
7. Open Network and Sharing Center. Right-click on the connected that is connected to the Internet, and select Properties. Under the Sharing tab, tick "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection". Select the connection name that is used by your hotspot. Click OK.

I've tested this myself and it actually works just fine. Lifehacker's article makes use of an ad hoc network. I still prefer the former method.

Sources:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-WiFi-Hotspot-Using-the-Command-Prompt
http://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/2bqfvi/ysk_how_to_turn_your_pc_into_a_wifi_hotspot/
http://lifehacker.com/5369381/turn-your-windows-7-pc-into-a-wireless-hotspot

Movie 2014.07.26 - Divergent

The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter. You have people living in a post-apocalyptic world, and children being sorted into different "factions" in order to keep the peace. You have the Amity, who are peace-loving folks who provide food for the society. You have the Erudite, who supplies the smarts. There is the Dauntless, who are the protectors of the realm. There is the Candor faction, who tells no lie. Then there is the Abnegation, the social workers who care for the factionless.

Children at a certain age are given an aptitude test to determine which faction they are best suited for, but they can still select which faction they want to join during the Choosing Ceremony. What's the point? Wouldn't everybody just go for the safest choice? Obviously not the Dauntless, where competition is tough, and there's a real chance of being kicked out, and becoming factionless. Beatrice turns out to be a Divergent, but her procter advised her to keep this a secret.

There is the obligatory initiation rites, introduction of more characters, some martial arts training, some war games and simulations to keep interest up, some friction within the team, a little romance, then we get to the real story. Apparently, the Erudite are in cahoots with the Dauntless - plotting to overthrow the Abnegation, who currently runs the show. The Dauntless recruits were given a suggestion serum, and ordered to round out the Abnegation faction. Tris, with the help of Four, storms the Dauntless stronghold and stops Jeanine's diabolical plot.

If you think the ending is a bit abrupt, don't worry - more sequels coming up.

Adding Java to Windows 7 PATH

Java is actually installed on my Windows 7 system, but is not showing up when I try "java -version" on the command prompt.

So looks like the JRE bin directory is not included in the system path. What you want to do is right-click on MyComputer and select Properties. Click Advanced system settings. Under the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables. Under System variables, scroll down until you find the PATH variable. Select it and click Edit. Add in the JRE bin path, and click OK.

Movie 2014.07.20 - Cuban Fury

Another British feel-good underdog movie. Tween Latin dancing sensation Bruce (Ben Radcliffe) was on the way to conquering the salsa world when he gets bullied and beaten for wearing too much sequins. He screams "Salsa is for pussies!", and drops out of the dancing circuit. Fast forward 25 years, Bruce (Nick Frost) gets back into the game to impress his new boss Julia (Rashida Jones), who's also a salsa enthusiast, and to one-up the office alpha male Drew (Chris O'Dowd), who's out to nail Julia.

You can probably guess what happens next. Bruce goes into Rocky mode, and enlists his former mentor Ron's (Ian McShane) help to get back into the groove, in time for the big competition. Given Frost's pudgy chubby build, there's no way he's going to win the competition. He doesn't get the trophy, but he did get the girl.

The movie is done by the numbers, and there's not too many surprises. Nick Frost tries his best to be convincing as a Latin dancer, but it doesn't really work. The other characters are pretty static, and needs more development. Nice drive-by cameo from Simon Pegg though.

Mini-SIM to Micro-SIM

There should be not too many people left who are still using mini-SIMs on their mobile phones.

If you moving on to a handset that's using the micro-SIM format, you can either go to your cellular service provide and request for a new micro-SIM, or DIY.

Download the template from here:
http://www.thechinacellphone.com/micro_sim_template.pdf
Or here:
http://adipura.menlh.go.id/.../micro-sim-template-2.pdf

Make sure the printout (use A4) is 1:1. Use the printed ruler as a guide.
Position your mini-SIM and mark out the lines to be cut.
Use an X-ACTO knife or a pair of sharp scissors to make the cuts.
Use a piece of sandpaper to round out the edges or to finetune the dimensions.

Dual-Booting Android on Kobo Glo

There are a couple of threads on how to install Android on Kobo Glo. For dual-boot, go with this one.

First off, you'll need an 8GB microSD card. After installing the scripts mentioned in the thread, a full system backup will be done on first boot. Takes about 10-15 minutes. Copy off the created img file for safekeeping. Then use Flash Drive Image Writer to write the Android image to the microSD card. The thread is mainly for Kobo Aura HD, but if you scroll down to the comments section, you'll find specific files for the Kobo Glo.Power on the Glo and keep the backlight button pressed until you see the LED light flash red. The device will now boot Android from the external microSD card. Boot normally, and you'll go straight to Nickel.

To install apps, get them directly from APK Downloader. No need to log in to your Google account or go to the Play Store. For my purposes, I installed the following:
QuickPic to repurpose the Glo as a digital photo frame
Weather Neue for weather forecast
Display Brightness to turn off the backlight, which is on by default

In ebook mode, the Glo lasts for weeks. Unfortunately, not so when it's in Android mode.

Hacking the Kobo Glo

Running out of devices to hack/mod, so I turn my attention to the Kobo Glo. I've had this for some time now, and so far saw no need to hack it. So I've been reading the forums on MobileRead, and now I've got the itch.

Prior to making any changes to the Kobo Glo, make a backup just in case. Everything runs off an internal 2GB microSD, so best option is to crack open the case, take out the microSD card, make a backup of it, and put it back in.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/home/youruser/backup.img
Insert similar-sized microSD card, and do the reverse.
dd if=/home/youruser/backup.img of=/dev/sdX

If you use Windows, you can use the below tools to do the same thing:
USB Image Tool - http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/
Win32 Disk Imager - http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Using a hex editor (Free Hex Editor Neo), go to offset 200 (before any partition starts). What you see is your Kobo's serial number. Make a copy of this.

If you're too lazy to open up the case like me, there is another option. As the Kobo Glo has an external microSD slot, you can simply insert another card, and install some scripts to make a backup from internal to external. Details on this thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212474). Mind you, I installed the scripts, but it didn't work for me. Maybe my firmware (3.5.0) is too new? I installed Angor's scripts from this blog post, and that did the trick.

If you managed to brick your device before you managed to make a backup, head up to the forums and request for a clean SD image. If someone takes pity on you, they'll send you a copy. Don't forget to edit in your personal serial number before writing the image to the microSD card.

At this point, I have the option of installing KoboLauncher or Kobo Start Menu. The latter looks more full-featured, but is more "intrusive" as it puts itself above Nickel, the Kobo user interface. In the case of KoboLauncher, it's just a tile on the homescreen. When launched, it presents you a list of small apps that you can run (CoolReader, pbchess, sokoban, checkers, reversi, notepad, calculator, etc.). Installation instructions here:
http://wiki.vlasovsoft.net/doku.php?id=en:pbchess-1.2.6#kobo_touch_glo_mini_aura

Swatch Solar

Heard of Swatch Solar, but this is the first time I saw it being sold on eBay. Naturally, I flagged it on my watchlist, ready to put in the winning bid.

Then I did some research. Unlike other solar-powered watches, Swatch Solar doesn't really run on solar power alone. Light hits the watch face, and solar energy is used to recharge an internal battery, which powers the movement. Well, technically not a battery, but more of a mini capacitor. Instead of storing electrical energy chemically like rechargable batteries, the mini capacitor stores electrical energy physically.

And unlike the Swatch Autoquartz, where the battery is not user-replaceable, you can swap out the Renata GC 1120 on the Swatch Solar when it dies. You'll need to have the right tool though. Instead of the usual battery cover with a slot, this one has three small indentations arranged in a triangle. I guess this is prevent people from putting in the wrong type of battery. Thing to note - the factory that produces these GC1120 mini capacitors have stopped production 15-20 years ago. That's probably the end of the line for the Swatch Solar then.

Cool fact - the Swatch Autoquarz uses a Panasonic MT920.