Those inferior USB cable
14/06/2010 
Anyone using many external USB device, will find themselves overwhelm by lots of USB cables, similar to devices that require many different power adapter.
Compare to firewire (where Apple get it right) , the biggest problem of USB cables lies on the interchangeability .
Today, there is at least 6 types of connector interface for USB. If anyone take a wrong cable with them when on the field, too bad.
To make things worst, the USB mini-A and USB mini-B connector are pretty similar. If you mix them up, it just won’t work. In addition, an inferior mini-A/mini-B connector, will give problem to the user in the wrong run.
Sometime, the user just found their external hard disk/DVD-ROM/etc devices stop working, all because of a pair of damage USB mini-A/B cable.
So instead of buying a new external hard drive casing/DVD writer/modem/etc, one should just find a replacement cable and give it a try.
Due to quality control issues, it happens that many USB mini-A/mini-B connector happens to be too short for some devices. Sometimes, the connector plastic guidance wear off and no longer give a firm grip to the join.
Android SDK on netbook : some tips & tricks
It seems with adequate RAM (2GB), running Android with the Eclipse IDE is really not a big deal. But that is the development part.
Wait until you start the emulator to test the software, prepare for some slower-than-snail surprise. It will take 5 to 10 times (from 5 minutes up to 15 minutes) longer compare to system using dual-core CPU(less than 5 minutes).
And not to my surprise, when running Android ADT, you don’t want to run ANY flash program in the background. It will just eat up all the CPU and make the emulator take forever to load up. And due to Google Chrome keep creating thread when you surf the net, it will compete with the emulator on the RAM usage. Do take note that even a Pentium-M notebook with 2GB RAM run the emulator faster than the low power atom processor. And the emulator navigation may become jerky if you run application that take up the memory.
Anyway, you can keep the emulator open to reduce the loading time.
As long as you keep the memory usage below 400GB, the emulator will start smoothly.
For more tuning, you can check out buru tips that I found from the web :
Android development on a netbook
Windows 7 bleeding edge : Blue cube 3.5g modem problem
ishak
im using os win7 ultemate..but when i use blue cube 3g 3.5g usb modem..at my laptop it not work well..it say display not support on this blue cube….how can i can fix it?plz help me…..
Apparently, this is common issue for all software that solely build from Windows XP era and the software builder yet to upgrade to cope with Windows Vista/Windows 7 .
Worry not, most of the occasion, user like ishak should just suppress the message and just run it, the program will execute anyway. Even for those “Unsigned Driver” that not certify under Windows 7, you can do the same. But instead of suppress the message , just press “Continue”, “Continue Anyway”, “OK”, etc to go ahead.
What if the legacy USB hardware driver doesn’t work? Well, there is one last resort. For those using Windows 7 Ultimate/Professional, they can download Windows 7 XP Mode, load the XP, pass the USB modem/hardware to the XP mode platform. Just beware, Windows 7 XP mode does not work 100% with all legacy hardware. In such case, you need VMplayer. Just convert XPmode using VMware converter and put load it up using VMplayer.
For those cannot install Windows 7 XP mode, you can alway install the free VMplayer(registration require), install Windows XP inside it (you need to take care Windows XP activation yourself), start it , plug in the modem (your mileage might vary, some computer need minor tuning for the USB device when using VMplayer)
Saving Tips for domain purchase
If you want to save a few dollars, it is highly recommended to to purchase domain name from popular registrar.
The reason behind are simple, popular registrar offer discount coupon. You just need to hunt down the discount coupon, calculate which coupon give you the best discount and enter it during purchase.
Take <a href=”http://www.godaddy.com/”>Godaddy </a> as example, it charge me US$20 for 2 years domain renewal. And the discount given are so little.
What I did is fire the google search engine, key in “godaddy discount code” or “godaddy discount coupon” . And look for the current year offer.
You may need to try some of the code. Expire code will not work. In addition, not all code works, but keep trying, you will find the right discount that works. Using this way, I save around US$5 when renewing my domain for 2 years. For those who maintain numbers of domain the saving will be greater.
Split Netbook/notebook hard disk partition
Today netbook/notebook hard disk storage are massive. However, the manufacturer are getting lazy. They put the default Windows Operating system into single partition.
Unlike Linux/Unix system that run a slightly different file system, Windows has the tendency become clutter. The “defragmentation” works must run from time to time to arrange all the clutter data or the user will risk file corruption.
In addition, a smaller Windows partition allow user backup the whole windows OS for ease of recovery.
To split the Windows XP NTFS partition, no many free tools available. After I try suggestion on <a href=”http://gparted.sourceforge.net/”>Gparted</a>, conclusion is made : don’t use it unless you already install linux boot loader. This is hard lessons I learn after I split partition on 2 netbook using gparted and fail, because NTFS file system keep revert back to same partition size.
For the time being, I will suggest <a href=”http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd”> Hiren Boot CD </a> which work for the time being. Nevertheless, Hiren boot cd include many –ahem– commercial tools , which is handy for emergency recovery.
<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntfsresize”> NTFS resize</a> worth a try . Together with bootable livecd or USB OS, this should be a handy free tools to split partitions.
Quick Windows drivers bluescreen repair
So here is the quick and dirty way to fix it.
- Download Ubuntu Super Os . Install as bootable CDROM or bootable thumbdrive. You may download Knoppix if you want more choice.
- Boot Ubuntu thumdrive or CDROM
- Open the file manger, go to the hard disk, this should show as “XXX GB Hard disk”
- Under Ubuntu, when you open the windows hard drive, you will notice it is mount as /media/disk
- Go to /media/disk/windows/system32/drivers
- Create a empty folder
- Move all file under /media/disk/windows/system32/drivers to another directory
- Now insert Windows installation CDROM . Copy the whole cdrom /i386 folder to /media/disk/i386 . Make sure the subdirectories are copy as well.
- Reboot System, boot from the Windows installation CDROM
- Skip the Recovery console screen and go into the Windows installation screen(should be the 3rd screen). Click “R” to choose repair. Let the system run.
- After the system copies and replace file into the system, at some stage , in some machine (e.g. netbook) it will ask for some missing file location. just key in c:\i386
- Keep answer the same folder location until the installation done.
Aftermatch
- Combofix is an useful tools to fix your windows system according to Microsoft specification. Besides stopping viruses, it can use to fix corrupted windows settings. Combofix is a pretty safe tools.
- Run hijackthis to remove unwanted startup file. Make sure you know what you are doing.
Compatibility fun time with windows 7
Oh dear.
Some user just cannot resist Windows 7 interface, like guy looking at new gadgets on shelf.
Unlike gamer and business computing user, they have little idea Windows 7 will break old application. Sometime it is not the fault of this user, but company that they attach to.
In Bolehland (AKA Malaysia), some large cooperate IT have no idea about technology handling. They simply lock into technology features that simply incompatible in future OS. So when they roll out the software with little compatibility test, user will do the install- uninstall-reinstall rush.
Because the company doesn’t do it right to inform the user about the compatibilities issues. Not in the user email , nor their support website.
When a user ask me whether their newly upgrade Windows 7 will run their cooperate software, I just give a smirk.
Should I help them to put Windows 7 XPM (XP Mode)? Well, they will not appreciate the help until the dateline, why bother.
Blog reboot, Tech only
I am quite tire of local politick-me events. Just archived all my old post and restart the blog for Technology talk.
Perhaps migrate some old tech discussion post here too.
MCMC : another hopeless Bolehland gestapo
Cow-head videos: MCMC comes a-calling again. And guess what MCMC looking for?
The seven-member MCMC team, which included three digital forensics experts, demanded Malaysiakini to hand over the original tapes of the two videos.
The team, led by Mohd Syukri Jamaluddin, has also sought to copy certain parts of the hard disk from two Malaysiakini computers used to edit and upload the videos.
This is to establish a ‘digital trail’ from the original video footage to the final uploading of the two videos.
This is pathetic. MCMC is NOT even a good enforcing body over many of telco frauds, negligence. And yet, they are fooling around with some ‘information’ that under a gray area. Even they are under the MIS-information ministry, why mcmc waste their time on getting digital video footage puzzle me. Original tape? Oh dear, this is digital age. mcmc best friend – Uncle Ho already know this long time ago, a digital copy is as genuine as the original.
Apparently, mcmc, like its brotherhood of macc, are playing gestapo under the umno umbrella. In fact, the function of Gestapo are not function as law keeping body, alas, it is a regime bouncer to mute or even kill the dissident, in order to prolong the lifespan of terror regime.
RM 218 millions throw out suit will lead to “greener” election in future ;)
According to Malaysiakini news, Court throws out RM218 mil suit against Umno .
Apparently, umno election campaign supplier for 2004 GE, Elegant Advisory, failed to collect its RM 218 millions bills, for so many years.
Nevertheless, the RM218 millions of material are pretty interesting amount, it show that Malaysia Election commission are cow(-ard) investigating such anomaly of spending.
Imagine this, umno campaign material already cost RM218 millions, and can you imagine all those “helper” during the election. And I bet the material doesn’t cost so much, most of it , are the “makan makan” fees 😉
This Is 1 more Malaysia Boleh.
Perhaps the suits help reduce the plastic wastage in subsequence election. You never know.
umno go green. LOL.
Wait, it is PAS symbol that is green. Oh well…
Caffeinbar 