Put a RJ45 connector on a Cat 5 cable

Why did I have to do this? My house is pre-wired: each room has 1 or more RJ45 (ethernet) port wired directly to a central cabinet, where I put my router. However, the wire at the cabinet end has no connector (I guess the builder gives opportunities for others to make some money) Fortunately, my brother knows this very well and taught me how to do this. We bought our crimper from Home Depot for $20.

The first thing he did was unscrewing the wall plate to figure out how it is wired at the port. In our case, it's 568-B standard. Next, we look up the wiring diagram at Wikipedia All these colored wire are actually inside the jacket of the Cat 5 cable. So we use the crimper to "peel" off the tip of the cable. Un-twist the wires. Straighten and fan them out. Arrange them according to the diagram, pin 1 - 8 (left to right) Then insert those 8 wires into the RJ45 connector "upside down" and make sure each wire gets into its own "slot." Finally, insert the connector into the crimper and press real hard (make sure the wires won't come lose) For a better description with pictures, check out this web page.

komi for 9x9 and 13x13 games

I'm about to lose my first DGS game :( I thought I could blame it on the high komi used: 6.5 but it turns out to be a reasonable one according to the folks @ godiscussions.com I guess I just need to work harder!

Convert a VCD to CD

You might ask: can't you just listen instead of watching the video? Well, my car has CD player only and I listen to some of my CD converted from VCD in the car, thank to this guide. The key piece of software is VirtualDub and we make use of its Audio->Full Processing function. You could even choose the left or right channel, which is useful for Karaoke VCD. Why pay for 2 if you could convert 1 from another?

Watch video on mobile phone

I used a software called Fever link Super for converting video to the 3gp format to watch on my SE phone. Haven't used it for a long time since I have a small memory stick but I upgraded to a 4GB yesterday. I converted a RMVB video. Worked like a charm. Definitely deserved more love. Here is the latest version.

TRENDnet TEW-424UB 3.0R USB Wifi Adapter working on Ubuntu

No, it's not deja vu. I got a PCI Wifi card working on my brother's PC last week. It's more complicated for my desktop since I use a USB adapter. The additional piece of the puzzle is Ndiswrapper. Just follow this guide on how to install Ndiswrapper using the Windows (XP) driver files (I copied it straight from the included CD)

The weird part is that I was not able to use iwconfig to enter the Wifi setting successfully so I use the GUI instead and it worked. (Not the first time but after a reboot)

RealPlayer on Ubuntu Gutsy

Another example of user-unfriendliness of Linux: Remember I called RealPlayer a success from my experience with Feisty? I followed the same steps on my brother's PC, on which we install straight from the Gutsy Live CD, but it didn't work. The installer complained libstdc++5 is missing. Sounds like this version was included in Feisty but not Gutsy. At that time we couldn't get it connected to the internet so apt-get was out of the equation. Fortunately we were able to download the .deb package from here on another machine.

Another alternative (probably a better one anyway) is to bypass RealPlayer completely and install the codec and MPlayer plugin instead. Of course that would be easier if one has internet connection.

USB Modem on Ubuntu

Linux is notorious for diffcult to get USB Modem to work for dialup networking. (Built-in Modem on most notebook are so called Winmodem. It's used to be difficult to get them to work as well but much progress has been made thanks to http://www.linmodems.org/)

After much research and a little bit of experimentation, I got a Dynex DX-M300 USB modem working on Xubuntu. This modem is relatively cheap and easy to find online. Here are my steps:

1) Download the HSF driver from Linuxant. Choose the link for Ubuntu.

2) Install using dpkg (i.e. Method B on this page)

3) Open a terminal and run wvdialconf

4) Edit /etc/wvdial.conf and change Phone/Password/Username for your ISP

5) Run wvdial. It will dial the number and make the PPP connection for you. After it connects successfully, it will show the local and remote IP as well as the primary/secondary DNS server IP. Keep the terminal open.

6) Now you could surf web!

Notes:
1) For some reason the modem doesn't work after I boot the machine with it plugged in. In that case only the power light come on. I had to disconnect and reconnect. Then the MR light will also come on and it will work.

2) The free version of the Linuxant driver has its max speed limited to 14.4kbps. If you want to go full speed at 56k, you could buy a license from them for $20. (I haven't tried it)

3) If your modem is plugged into USB and is detected properly, lsusb should show:
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0572:1301 Conexant Systems (Rockwell), Inc.

Wine problem on Gutsy

We got an error when we follow WineHQ's suggestion on installing Wine thru apt-get. Basically it complains about the dependency on libaudio2 but it is not installable.

Solution? Open Synaptic Package Manager and follow
sdibias's reply on this thread

Netgear WG311v2 PCI Wifi working on Ubuntu

We repurposed my brother's old PC to a Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon-based Media Center. (It's free upgrade! What's not to like?) However, it is not for the faint hearted. Even though the current generation of Linux is much user friendlier than the past. You still couldn't expect everything just works out of the box. For example, we tried using just the GUI to config the Wifi adapter to connect to the AP without success. Finally we found this very useful guide. Basically, all that were required are:
1) run iwlist (see section 6.8) to find out details of your AP (most importantly, the MAC address)
2) run iwconfig (see section 3.3 for the specific options) The command must include:
- the "name" of the AP, i.e, the ESSID,
- the MAC address
- the "password" (if you use WEP. I haven't tried WPA)

My iwconfig command complains about the mode but it still works.

May your installation to be as smooth as ours.

MTP Device blues

If you read the sister blog BigMusicLand, you know I have been using subscription music service based on Microsoft's PlaysForSure for a while. And I have been a happy camper until 2 weeks ago: all of a sudden, both Windows Media Player and Yahoo Music Jukebox wouldn't recognize my Samsung Yepp player.

I figure there must be something wrong with the driver. So I thought: why don't I uninstall it from the Device manager, then plug my player in, let WinXP auto-detect and install the driver again?

Well, like most things on Windows, thing didn't go as planned. After uninstall the driver and plug my player in, Win XP said "Found new hardware" (MTP device) and trying to install driver. So I put in the original installation CD. Win XP seemed to try reading it for a while but eventually says "Cannot install this hardware"! I googled it and it seems to be a common problem plaging users of different brands (Creative, iRiver, Sandisk) of PlaysForSure players.

Anyway, I guess I'm one of the "lucky" users since I "fixed" it by updating my Windows Media Player (it went from version 10 to 11)

GeForce 6200 TV-Out problem fixed

I have been using a XFX GeForce 6200 card in my workstation for a while and was quite happy with it. Recently I've repurposed my workstation as a living room entertainment PC and this card had no problem supporting TV-Out to my ancient projection TV.

However, just like most gadgets of mine, good time doesn't last forever! This Sunday after I exit from playing a movie through Real Player full screen mode, the Windows XP Desktop all of a sudden "lost its edge" or you could think of it as overstretched and ran outside the "border of the screen" It's hard to describe but you get the idea. This sounds very minor but also very annoying. Suddenly I am not able to reach and select from the "File" menu or close windows using the "red cross" icon!

I know the solution will have something to do with adjusting the setting of the video card but I couldn't think of any suitable setting. Finally I get to the GeForce tab on the "Display" settings of control menu. I chose my first option, i.e. TV Output, and click the "Device Adjustment" button, which opens another Windows. Still, no setting seem appropriate. Anyway I tweak a little bit of this and that and then exit. Viola! I have "regained my edge"

I dunno how common this problem is but if you run into it, try my solution above.

Media laziness

I understand that it is common practice for media outlets to quote from other news agency. What irritates me is that analysis/opinions are supposed to be original yet I see them being mirrored among media all the time. Consider the following cases:
1) US Government wants to drive away illegal immigrants by sending warning letters to employers who hired workers with social security number (SSN) not matched in the government's database, i.e., the so-called "no match" letter. Lots of opinion pieces I read says such policy is unfair to workers. These articles usually include interviews of some "no match" employee and how much they are hurt but it was never mention whether they have valid SSNs or not. I'm no supporter of unfair practices to the working class or immigrants but it's only unfair if these employee are wrongfully accused. I am surprised most opinion pieces conveniently ignore this part.

2) IMO, sports talk show hosts have one of the best job in the world. Topics come by so easily. And better yet, you could simply repeat the same topics from shows broadcasted earlier in the day! I remember earlier in this NFL season (~ Week 3/4) every host talks about both the Patriots and the Colts were undefeated but the latter is so "under the radar." I don't know how a team could be under the radar if everybody is talking about them!

3) Earlier this year a Californian woman hitting 16 hole-in-one (golf) made the news. Every news article commented how amazing that was but no one bother to verify the fact, until Golf Digest did. It turned out no one had actually witness the balls going into the holes. None of those 16 occasions. Enuff said.

[Update: I came across this article about how blogs not only lazy in checking facts but also "adding" incorrect "twist" to the story along the way. That's even worse!]

MySQL + PHP + UTF-8 = ????

The title is not a question. It actually describes a common problem: i.e., when UTF-8 characters stored in MySQL is queried through PHP
they displayed as question marks on the web page. The solution (courtesy of Shawn Olson) is call this before any of your database manipulation code:

mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");

BTW, I host my site and MySQL database at GoDaddy and it supports UTF-8 "out of the box" without any special config.

How to implement a hyperlink that "Save File As Target"

This is useful for linking to media file when you want your user to download the whole file before playing instead of opening the media player and "progressive download", i.e, buffer some and play right away before download is completed. Most modern browser and media player work well together in this regards and the former is an option from
right-mouse-click but I got a requirement to do this from left-mouse-click from my dad (No, right-mouse-click is not user-friendly enough according to my "customer")! So I found this solution in PHP.

Barry Bonds Day

This is a good year to be a baseball fan in San Francisco (even though the Giants have one of the worst season in recent history) First, we had the All-star game in July. Second, Barry Bonds hit his record breaking 756 HR here at AT&T park on Aug 7th. Today Mayor Gavin "Handsome" Newsom hosted a celebration honoring Barry's historic achievement and gave him the key to the city.

Canon TWAIN Driver 6.7.0 for Windows 2000

I am trying to unload pictures from my TX1 to my Win2K PC. Win2K did not recognize it as a generic USB mass storage device (unlike XP or Ubuntu) so I had to look for a driver. I was not able to find it from Canon USA's website but I found it here. Not sure if I'm supposed to use it outside Asia but I'm Asian so I guess I qualified >:) (BTW, it asks what region I was in during installation and I picked US. No problem)

Install emacs

I am an Emacser. There, I said it! It is not included as part of Ubuntu (but vi is! How unfair!) In order to try the latest and greatest version (22), I had to download and compile the source myself. The instruction in INSTALL works, only after I researched how to get rid of the various error (need to apt-get build-essential and libncurses5-dev.) Now I have it running in character mode! The journey to windows mode will continue...

Create DVD on which videos are played sequentially

This is a followup to my previous post on DVD Authoring with tovid on Linux. One thing I really don't like is that after one video is played, it always jump back to the menu. My desired behavior is playing the next video instead unless it is the last one. (Here is one example: I create DVD for videos taken at classes. Each sub-menu on my DVD corresponds to a lesson and contains all videos from that lesson. )

To achieve the desired behavior, I have two choices:
1) group videos from a lesson together so that they will be played one after another but I lose the chapter markers.
2) edit the XML. Each of my video (the proper term is PGC) has a post-action, which is written as "call menu;" by tovid. I simply need to change them to "jump title X;" where X refers to the number of the next video.

My Ubuntu Experience: VCD/DVD Authoring

At first I thought about trying DeVeDe but I read that DeVeDe is incompatible with the MPlayer shipped with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn so I tried tovid instead.

I) Installation: follow the instructions from here.

II) Start the App: simply type tovidgui under any writable directory (e.g. your home)

[1. Layout]: you add videos here. The simplest VCD or DVD requires 1 menu and all videos could go under the menu. Name your source and destination files without spaces and underscores if you can.

[2. Encode]: just hit "Start encoding" and let it finish.

[3. Burn]: this is where I ran into trouble. If I simply hit "Start", both VCD and DVD failed.

VCD trouble: the cue and bin files were created successfully. However, when it tried burning them using cdrdao, nothing happened. I had to kill that process and repeat the cdrdao command in Terminal. Then it burned the VCD. However, I could only play the resulting disc on computer but not my VCD player. Your mileage may vary.

DVD trouble: again, the files were created successfully. However, when it executed dvdauthor, it does not like the titleset with -noask in the XML. So the solution is re-run the last command right after [2. Encode]: i.e., the makexml command, but take out the -noask option. This will generate a good XML. Then I could hit "Start" under [3. Burn] without problem.

(Link to the official Tovid GUI guide .)

My Ubuntu Experience: 1 Month Anniversary

I have been using Ubuntu on my desktop workstation for one monthly already! I still can't kick the habit of booting to Windows from time to time (See reasons mentioned later) but that's something I'm determine to avoid doing (Ever since I got Frethog and removed it, my anti-virus keeps finding worms, e.g. Winko/auto.exe, which seems to come from the usual suspect, judging by the fact that a number of posts analyzing these worms were written by Chinese experts. Anyway, I digressed)

Let me summarize a few more things I was able to do on Ubuntu successfully since last time:
1) Burn music CD from MP3: simply use Applications -> Sound & Video -> Serpentine. Works like a charm.

2) Remote Login to Windows. Yes I know there is RDP for Linux but my remote server runs TightVNC. There is no native TightVNC client on Linux but the Java Applet TightVNC Viewer does the job.

3) Mount Windows NTFS directories in Read/Write mode: they are mounted as Read-only by default. The easiest way to mount them as Read/Write is using NTFS Configuration Tool.

4) Mount remote directories in Read/Write mode: if you setup Windows to share a directory on the network, it is accessible using SMB on Linux. These are the steps to mount them permanently and read/writable (Note: VLC could only play remote files on the LAN this way)

Not so successful:
1) SlingPlayer on Wine (link to WineHQ): the sound gets choppy when I work on other windows and the video is grainy as the video tuning wizard refuse to run.

2) VMWare: I ran the free VMWare Converter to create an image of my existing Windows installation but VMWare Server had problem running this image (got a black screen after starting momentarily and then it just quit)

In any case, for day to day web browsing/blogging/e-mail/office app, Ubuntu has done a pretty good job. I heard some people commented that Ubuntu's "budding" relationship with Dell is not very dissimilar to that of Microsoft and IBM and other early PC clone manufacturer! I am not sure if that is a positive comment.

[Update: I ran into this bug (and the solution provided in the same link worked for me) for my SMB mount. An example of STOP_SERVICE line looks like this:
STOP_SERVICES="mysql samba-shares "
(modified from the mysql only line)
]

Baseball All Star Week in SF Part III: The Game

The MVP of the game, Ichiro Suzuki, led off.



Two local All Star, Barry Bonds and Dan Haren, faced off.



Ken Griffey Jr was about to drive Jose Reyes home from 2nd base to score the 1st run of the game.

Baseball All Star Week in SF Part II: Home Run Derby

Vladimir Guerrero, before hitting his winning home run in the final round.

Baseball All Star Week in SF Part I: Fan Fest

Charlie Brown @ Moscone Center

Watch DVD on portable device

I just found another use of my Pocket PC: watch DVD. I got my instructions from the always helpful VideoHelp.com. Of course the ripped AVI will work on any computer. You could download AutoGK from here.

My Ubuntu Experience: Day 2

More items accomplished from my list:

4) I've finally got Chinese input working! Again, I did everything from the menu system (i.e, no command line :D ) Here are the steps (courtesy of this instruction):
i) Choose System->Administration->Language Support. It will automatically download some packages. Check the Chinese checkbox. It will install Chinese. Close it when it's done.
ii) Again, Choose System->Administration->Language Support. The previously checked "Enable Support to input Complex character" will become unchecked. Check it again.
iii) Log out and log back in.
我現在可以打中文了！

Also, contrary to what some people said, I was actually able to type Chinese in Open Office as well.

5) Watch Real Media encoded video:
Download the installer from http://www.real.com/linux . Change permission to executable and execute it. I chose to install to /usr/local/RealPlayer and the symlink dir option is the default (/usr) which symlink it as /usr/bin/realplay

Since I use SCIM, I got core dump when executing realplay, the workaround is do first:
export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
Then execute "realplay &" from the same shell.
(Link to Detailed Instructions)

[Update: To associate the .rmvb file extension with Real Player, try this]

My Ubuntu Experience: Day 1

That Frethog!generic episode motivated me to switch to Linux for my primary workstation, finally. And Ubuntu has the biggest buzz/hype in the Linux world these days so I went with it. (I know mainsteam is not my thing but with limited Linux experience for personal usage, I'd rather go with the mass since more info/help/how-to will be available and I'm sure I need a lot of them)

Let me briefly go over my installation: I downloaded the iso from here. Burned a CD. Went to BIOS and move my CD-ROM up in the order of boot device. Then boot the computer with the CD. Chose the first option on the menu, which start Ubuntu from the CD (that's why it's called a Live CD) Once I'm in it. I clicked the Install icon on the Desktop and the installer asked a series of questions, which I picked the default for most of them. The only tricky question was about partitioning: I had 5 partitions on my first hard drive: 1) Windows (NTFS), 2) Swap, 3) a /boot (ext3), 4) a root (ext3) and 5) a FAT16 partition. (2)-(4) were there because I had previously installed RedHat and I want to replace RedHat with Ubuntu, i.e., use the same partitions but don't care about keeping the content. So I picked "Manual" when the Installer asked about partitioning and edit the old RedHat parititions to indicate they will be used as /boot, root(/) and so on. Finally, the default location for the "Dual Boot loader" (which allows me to run multiple OS as I'm still keeping XP) was (hda0) and I was a bit skeptical at first since I recall going through a few extra steps to take care of that for RedHat (put GRUB on /boot instead of MBR) but it turns out fine.

Now, actually using it was when the fun began. I have a habit of making a list of things I want to try with any new toy before it arrive. So I did the same for Ubuntu. More things work out of the box then expected!

1) Browsing Chinese websites: I didn't need to install any extra font. It just worked!
2) Change monitor resolution to 1920x1200: this requires some work, non-trivial but manageable:
- Install Restricted driver
- Run the Autodetect Script Again (follow the section with the same name)
3) Watch videos: I tried a few of my favourite videos and the included Totem player can't play any of them but I knew a simple solution:
- Install VLC (Application->Add/Remove, choose All available applications and look for VLC)
I have been using VLC on Windows anyway.

Stay tuned for more of my Ubuntu Experience!

How I got rid of Frethog!generic

My computer was infected by the trojan Frethog!generic when I accidentally clicked on an unknown Chinese website last week. My CA Anti-virus (got it free from SBC Yahoo as a DSL customer) discovered it very quickly. Unfortunately, it was only able to remove copies of the virus but not the "original." I googled it immediately but couldn't find much info at first. The first thing I found out was that it was a password stealer. And that's enough to make me lose sleep. Since I was not able to find a quick solution, the next best thing I did was turn off the computer and unplug it from the network.

Fortunately I found a solution from Google later:
1) download a program called ComboFix from here or here.
2) reboot your PC, hit F8 before Windows started and start Windows in "Safe mode"
3) execute ComboFix.exe. It will start a "Text" window and scan your system for "bad stuff." This may take a long time (~10 min for me) After it removed the bad files, it will ask you to reboot. The program resumes after reboot and finally generate a report which includes all files created on your system recently. So in case it cannot find the offender, you still get a clue on what files could possibly be infecting your system.

Even though I dodged a bullet this time, I think it's a sign that I should finally seriously consider to switch OS on my primary workstation. Please read my next post!

Free RSS Reader for Pocket PC/Windows Mobile

My Dell Axim X30 is getting even more useful these days thanks to the free RSS Reader pRSSReader

When I had my Palm, I used to sync RSS feeds to using Sunrise (on Desktop) and Plucker (on Palm) However, now pRSSReader allows me to take advantage of the built-in Wifi on X30 to download directly to the PDA.

Two useful tips:
1) To download the web page linked to the news item for offline viewing, simple choose your feed from Site Manager, then choose File->Properties. Choose the "Caching" tab and check "Cache content for offline browsing" box.
2) To download podcast, again, choose your feed from Site Manager, then choose File->Properties. Choose the "Caching" tab and check "Automatically cache enclosures" box

Skating for the first time

First time ever for Madeline. First time in 8 years for me!

The Conservatives (Hong Kong edition)

If you're tried of the Christian Right in the States, I would like to introduce you to their Hong Kong equivalent. Check out 3 videos about Society of Truth and Light*:


Part I


Part II


Part III

*This is a group that is against legislation of anti-discrimination based on sexual orientation.

RC Sailing

RC stands for radio controlled. This is my newest hobby. I've always loved boats, especially sail boats. In fact, I have taken 2 sailing lessons! However, given my current schedule, it will be quite difficult for me to sail "the real thing" So I went for the RC version. Although the size is very different, the principles are the same. (I was also inspired by the character who owns a lot of RC toys from one of the cartoons my daughter watches. You know which one, right?)

After sailing for a few times, I'd like to share some of my thoughts:
1) This is a kinda messy hobby. It is not normally the type of things I like to play with. (You might say playing with computer is messy though but that's another story) For example, I don't like getting my hands wet. There were very few exceptions, and this has become one of them. Actually, my feet got wet when launching and retrieving the boat too. And of course, the boat needs to be cleaned after I sail every time.
2) This is a kinda niche hobby. Fortunately, there are several clubs in my area:
- North Bay R/C Sailing Association: sails at Marin County Civic Center Lagoon in San Rafael
- Shoreline Model Yacht Club: sails at Shoreline Park in Mountain View
- South Bay Model Yacht Club: sails at Lake Cunningham in San Jose. Also Sandy Wool Lake at Ed Levin County Park in Milpitas.
Other than these lakes, it is not allowed in most others, especially those in the East Bay Regional Park system (only one near Quarry Lake in Fremont allows model yacht and it seems to be for power boats rather than sail boats) Also, looks like the One Metre class is the most popular in this area. The folks at Shoreline sail CR914 but they are kind enough to allow me sailing my Nirvana II with them. I hope Nirvana catches on in my area soon. (If you sail one, please comment!)
3) I think a typical beginner like me go through these stages:
Stage 1: Happy as long as it comes back in one piece.
Stage 2: Happy as long as I could control it to sail in whichever direction I want.
Stage 3: Happy as long as it is moving at the best possible speed allowed by the wind condition.
My biggest fear so far is not being able to get my boat back. Touch wood it hasn't happened yet. I think it helps when:
- I sailed in a relatively small area
- I turned the rudder so that the boat sail in roughly the direction of where I was
- I used fresh battery and kept track of the time.
- I practiced using this simulator.

Here are some videos I took. (Just like my Go Motorboard 2000X, I bought my Nirvana II sight unseen. I hope my videos would help potential buyers)

Maiden Sail


In control (sort of)

Review: Nintendo Wii Part 3 (Madden 07)

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but this is the first game I ran out and buy after getting a Wii. Game critics pointed out that Wii's version is not much different from those on other consoles except that it is taking advantage of Wii's motion sensing controller for passing, tackling and certain running moves. For a football fanatic who has never been good at playing games using traditional controller, i.e. yours truly, the last aspect became the biggest selling point. Football video games have always been complicated because of its nature: there are so many players on the field, so many formation to choose, and then so many different moves you could make. I have played football games from several different eras, from DOS and keyboard based to PlayStation's (not old enough to play character mode on PDP8 though) I felt that game makers put in great effort to make them easier and easier for casual gamers. And Madden 07 on Wii is the most fun so far.

Madden 07 made it easier not only to control the players but also to pick a play to run. Under "Easy Mode", plays are grouped into run, pass and deep pass, with only a few key plays in each group. Intermediate players could choose plays "by type" under normal mode, with more groups (e.g Play Action or Screen) and more plays. Finally, advanced players could choose plays the traditional way, "by formation" (e.g. I-formation, single back, shot gun...)

In addition to playing single "standalone" games, I've also played the "franchise mode" (draft my own franchise and play multiple seasons. My Cowboy team has drafted Vince Young, Cedric Benson and Roy Williams, unintentionally!) and "Hall of fame mode" (created my own player, a QB that has been drafted by the Texans and started in place of David Carr!) Looks like I'll still be playing this game in 08!

My first Giants game of the 2007 season

The game sucked (lost to LA 4-10) but the seat was awesome (real close to Barry!)

Barry! Barry!
The Other Barry

Review: Nintendo Wii Part 2 (Wii Play)

Wii Play could be the second most owned game on Wii (I don't have the official stat) since it is bundled with a Wiimote. (The Wii console included 1 Wiimote. Most Wii owner would need at least one more to play with friend.) Wii Play is a collection of minigames, including table tennis, air hockey, pool, fishing and a few more non-sport games. I call them minigames because they are more like demo that showcase the potential of how future games will utilize Wii's unique motion sensing controller. To me these games feel even less complete and more barebone than those in Wii Sport. The replay values are not as high, especially in single player mode. However, it will serve as very decent party game.

[Update: I googled and confirmed Wii Play is indeed the 2nd most popular Wii game behind Wii Sports. And I found a pretty positive review here]

Review: Nintendo Wii Part 1 (Wii Sports)

By now you have probably read a review of this video game console somewhere or even watched one on your local news as it is widely covered by the media (not just the hardcore gaming publications) I'll try to provide a different point of view, as a gamer more experienced than a newbie but far from hardcore. I plan to share some of my thoughts after spending some time playing 3 games on it:

1) Wii Sports
This is the game that puts Wii on the map, so to speak. It includes 5 sport games (baseball, bowling, golf, boxing and tennis) that showcases the strength of Wii: the motion sensing controller. It is so much easier to play video games by waving a "magic wand" then pressing buttons and pushing joystick, which has been the staples in gaming since Day 1. This innovative user interface single handedly turned a lot of non-gamer into Wii players. They would not have play video game if they have to use a joystick! Nintendo was brilliant in making Wii Sports simple yet addictive. Analyzing closely though, the games are not actually that realistic. For example, you can't full swing in the golf game or you will overshoot the ball. Also, motion sensing can only be precise to a certain degree. So you might miss some balls you though you didn't when playing tennis. Same for boxing. Finally, most of the games are rather primitive: No base-stealing in baseball. Only 9 holes in golf. The one that I feel most complete is bowling. And I could understand that Nintendo would want people to buy more sophisticated games, not just playing Wii Sports all the time! Still, Wii Sports will be the most played game in my home in the near future. Wii fitness has become my previously non-existent workout routine. One guy claimed that he lost 9 lbs after playing Wii Sports 30 min per day for 6 weeks!

Another thing unexpected that I got out of this game is more appreciation and understanding of baseball! I've been a big fan for a long long time, but I've never played real baseball. Even though this baseball game is far from realistic, it is still miles ahead of those uses joystick and buttons. With this game I could feel the frustration of a batter being fooled by the pitcher's speed or location, as well as the pressure on a pitcher who is unable to get anybody out no matter what type of ball he throws. A slight difference between swings or speed of pitches turns a strikeout to a homerun. Subtleties like these are what makes baseball the great game it is. Ironically, these are also the Achilles' heel of the sport because appreciation of subtleties has been lost in this generation.

Part 2 of this series will be about Wii Play. Stay tuned.

Review: Dell Axim X30 Pocket PC PDA

I've been pushing the limit of my PDAs since the early days of Win CE with a Cassiopeia and Palm OS with a Handspring Visor. However, the last "advanced" PDA I used was Zire 72 (built-in 1.3 MP video camera and bluetooth for mobile e-mail and web browsing) After switching to an Abacus WristPDA, the only functions I really used are address book and reading novel. Basically I've given up on using PDA as a PC replacement.

What got me curious about the current state of PDA again was Nokia's new PDA-like Internet Tablet N800. Based on open source OS (linux) and platform (Maemo), it has got quite a few positive reviews. However, the high price tag ($399) made me look for a cheaper alternative on eBay and I bought this Dell Axim X30.

So, what functionality am I looking for this time around and how well does it perform?
1) Watch live TV: X30 is one of the supported (and cheapest) device for Sling Player, the client for watching TV streamed from Slingbox through internet/intranet, and in my case, mostly 802.11b Wifi. I can't expect great quality on such a small screen and relatively slow connection. To me, it is good enough and I'm willing to sacrifice quality for portability. The Pocket PC version of Sling Player costs me $30 though.

2) Watch downloaded video: The free software TCPMP does a pretty good job. It handles most popular formats except RMVB. I wish it won't pause when I touch the screen accidentally but I work around it with a hard case.

3) Read downloaded website: I simple use HTTrack on my PC to download websites to my SD card and use Pocket Internet Explorer on the Axim to read them. It would have been more convienient if I could mount the Pocket PC to Windows as a letter drive but I could live with this.

4) Read downloaded website in Chinese: what good does a PDA do if I can't read Chinese newspaper with it? Even my WristPDA could do that! So I installed CEStar on the Axim. So far so good. I have seen lots of recommendation of Monster Chinese over CEStar but I haven't tried it.

5) Read e-book: I have some Chinese (Big5) e-books in Palm's .prc format. CEBook is the only one that works with them.

6) Internet access: I'm happy with its versatility. I used these 3 modes extensively:
- Wifi (802.11b),
- Bluetooth-enabled cellphone as dial-up modem
- when you maintain an ActiveSync connnection (thru Bluetooth or USB) between a Pocket PC and a PC that is connected to the internet, the Pocket PC could access internet as well.
Surfing the web is not that fast. Pocket Internet Explorer might have something to do with it but my expectation is low to begin with. Also, I found a bug with surfing thru Bluetooth ActiveSync on PIE, it is unable to load pages after a while. I had to disconnect and reconnect. This is rather annoying.

7) E-mail: a client is built-in. It supports the popular protocols like POP3 and IMAP4. I found out Yahoo serves @yahoo.com e-mail thru IMAP4 for free. Simply install Yahoo Go and it will configure for you. It has been working fine for 2 weeks but incoming traffic has stopped for 3 days for some unknown reason. Maybe I've jinxed it :(

8) Note taking: I hand-write notes using the "Writing" view in Pocket Word. I've also tried the highly praised notetaking software PhatPad (costs ~$30-40) but I ended up not buying it. The problem is not with the software though. The screen is just so small that even PhatPad couldn't improve the notetaking experience much.

9) VOIP/IM: Skype is supported on this version of Pocket PC (2003). The voice quality is not bad.

[Extra credit] Listen to music through Bluetooth A2DP: It is not officially supported by Dell but HP iPAQ's driver is supposed to work. I'm able to listen through my Plantronics 590 headphone but the video played by TCPMP became choppy in this mode. I suspect the A2DP code eats up too much resource. So I ended up not using it.

Accessories
- PDAir Aluminum Case: I want a hard case with belt clip. The first one I found was from Innopocket and the reviews at Aximsite are not great. This PDAir case is recommended over it. I don't think it is that great either:
1) when I closed the case, the cover (or the top piece?) got "stucked" in the side of the bottom piece and it is hard to get it out. To make it worse, I lose some of the Neoprene lining in the process of getting the cover out.
2) The belt clip is attached to the case thru a screw and relies on friction to keep it attached. It came loose and dropped my Axim to the floor twice in 2 weeks already.
3) the PDA gets in the way often when it is clipped to the belt. It's not the fault of the case though. That's the nature of belt clip.
- Energy Leaf Extended Battery (1800mAh): the original battery won't last more than 2 hours with Sling Player on non-stop. This extended battery came in a combo deal with the PDAir case and it stole the show.
- St. Tropez Petite: a nice looking stylus pen combo

Alternatives
Would I be better off buying a Nokia N800 instead? I'm not sure. On one hand, it has lots of free (as in speech and beer) software and an enthusiastic community behind it. For example, the note taking software Xournal is available on N800 (BTW, before I bought the Axim, Xournal wasn't compatible with N800. Looks like it has been patched and hopefully the bugs were fixed) The larger screen (800 x 480) should help too. On the other hand, it is still Linux. Things like enabling Chinese is still harder than it should be. Also, I doubt Sling Player will be ported to it ever. So your best bet for live TV would be encoding and streaming from a PC thru other Open Source server/client combo.

Final words
Was it a good buy? Well, I bought it second hand so it costed less than my Zire 72. It does a somewhat better job with web browsing and multimedia than the Zire, thanks to the built-in Wifi and a faster processor. The bottom line is: I had enough prior experience with Pocket PC/Windows Mobile so my expectation is quite low. The Axim is on par.

More on Go Motorboard 2000X

Accessory
The Go Sporting Goods' blog recommended to use a baseball bat bag to carry it. I'm using a Easton Neo Classic Tote Bag ($29.99 @ Sports Authority). I think this bag looks pretty cool. More importantly it's large enough to fit the scooter without having to stretch it. In fact, it has enough room for my helmet, charger and lunch box too. The included shoulder strap is a nice touch too. Anything that makes it easier to carry 20lb is welcome. If you're buying a baseball bat bag too, make sure it's large enough (mine fits 4 bats) Those < $20 usually aren't.

Service
Remember I mentioned that brake handle problem in my previous post? I wanted to call Go Sporting Goods but they don't have any contact number on their website! So the only option I have was to send them an e-mail. And it took them 4 days to reply. The reply was polite and the instruction to fix it myself was clear but I wish it showed some willingness for them to fix it. I sent a 2nd e-mail about battery life and range and got no reply. So it sounds like I'm on my own. I can't say I could recommend dealing with a company that is so hard to contact.

Alternatives
I looked into foldable bikes before buying this. They are small enough to carry on a train. I had 2 concerns though:
1) price:
there're a few no name brand priced under $200 but I was skeptical. The most affordable brand name is Dahon and their bikes start at $350. Those from Bike Friday cost over $1k. Brompton starts at ~$800. You could find Strika on EBay for ~$500.
2) weight:
The no name ones are over 30lb. Dahons are around 25lb. The one that looks most promising to me is Strida at 20lb.
And I felt that 20lb is too much already.
However, you could buy one designed to roll on the wheels so that you could pull along, like a roller luggage bag. I've seen people do that with Dahon and Strida.
3) size:
Foldables take up so much space that you can only take a seat with a lot of space around it. No more sitting in the middle rows on a train. Strika seems to be the most compact one. It's easy to unfold too. Check out this video of Strida:


[Update: I ran into a fellow electric scooter rider on my train ride. He rode a Go-Ped ESR 750 Sports (the version with "solid" tire) and liked its power and durability. He also recommended Downtube foldable bike. Both the spec and price look pretty good.]

Review: Go Motorboard 2000X

It looks so sleek that it screams "As seen on Maxim, Stuff and FHM." Any gadget lover would want to own it. I took the plunge and bought one when I was in search of a portable "vehicle" for short commute to and from train station. This is arguably the lightest (20lb) and most compact (foldable to not much bigger than a skateboard) electric scooter on the market.

However, is this practical or simply a fancy gadget? After using it for a week, I could tell you the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I hope this article helps potential buyers understand its capability and limitations.

First, ask yourself:
- Do you live in a city that rains often?
- Is the road you plan to use it on relatively flat and smooth?
- Do you need to carry it a lot during your commute? (e.g. lots of stairs, part of the street is too crowded for riding)
- Are you a somewhat handy person (i.e, uses screwdrivers/wrenches to fix things yourself occasionally)?
- Do you need to go farther than 7 miles?

If you answer NYNYN, you could consider it. Let me elaborate:
- By design it could not be used on wet surfaces. The road has to be completely dry.
- By design it could not handle slope steeper than 10%. Also, because of its hard wheels (not filled with air,) you will feel every bump/crack/groove on the road. When I rode through pavement covered by tiles (or are they called bricks?), it feels very rough and bumpy.
- 20lb doesn't sound like much but if you have to carry it more than a few blocks, you'll feel the weight.
- It requires maintenance, similar to the level of bicycle but not as much as a car. For example, you need to wipe off dirt built up on the real wheel periodically or the drive mechanism will be damaged since it drives by clamming the real wheel between 2 spinning rods. You will also need to check the thickness and shape of the wheels and replace them when they get worned out. And my unit arrived with the brake handle assembled a bit awkwardly (long story) so I had my wrench taken out of the toolbox where it stays 364 days of the year and fixed it myself.
- It is not clear how far it is supposed to go on a single charge. The range is not listed on the manufacturer's website. Some sellers mention 11 miles, some advertise 8. I've also seen 7. Obviously it depends on the weight of the rider and how steep the roads are. I tested it on a flat 2 mile track that surrounds a lake. The battery indicator turned from "hi" to "mid" during the first lap and became "low" and beeping near the end of the 2nd lap. However, it did lasted thru the third lap and some more. BTW, I'm 200 lbs. So you get the idea. One nice feature is that when you run out of battery you could still ride it as a kick scooter without being hindered by the motor/drive mechanism (just need to keep it switched on)

The bottom line is: this design is chosen to keep it light and compact. If it were to be made more powerful, a different drive mechanism, most likely bigger motor and heavier battery would be required.

BTW, I suggest to check out comments left on Amazon just to get a more balanced view other than the hi-raves you found from the manufacturer and sellers.

To sum it up: do I have buyer's remorse? A bit. Is it fun to ride? A lot!

For those who hesistate to buy one without seeing it in action:

Review: Tascam CD-BT1 mkII Bass Trainer

Major features I used:
1) loop a segment of a song over and over and slow it down without changing its pitch.
2) change the key of a song. (This is useful when you practice songs with
different keys. It's tedious to tune your guitar once per song!)
3) mix my bass into the music from CD
4) boost the bass part from the CD

So I could practice one segment at a time and hear if I play it right. Bass boost doesn't help much on death metal though since bass is usually buried by guitar on death metal albums. I supposed you could achieve the same thing using software on computer. After all, the so-called bass boost is just heavyEQ-ing. But I like the idea of having all these features in a small package.

As a bonus, a chromatic tuner is built-in. No wonder I haven't played much metal since my bass was stucked with standard tuning!

I wish it takes SD card and works with MP3 stored on it but I could always burn songs to a CD-RW first. Right after I bought it, Tascam indeed released one that works with MP3.

Queen Mary II: The Disappointed

Previously I wrote about Queen Mary II's visit to San Francisco I was very interested in what people wrote when it visited Hong Kong.

Well, there were a bunch of disappointed folks. First, for some reason some people think the ship should be open to public but visitors were by invitation only.

Second, one guest lecturer on the ship, John Reich, has "bad mouthed" Hong Kong and upsetted a few fellow passengers from Hong Kong.

His criticism of Hong Kong includes:
- heavy pollution. I can't disagree with this
- the pollution is so bad that you won't get a good view from Victoria Peak. I have to disagree. I saw it myself. So are others. See this video as the proof.
- the museums' collections are poor. I won't even argue. Museums are never selling points of Hong Kong. On the other hand, if one is interested in Hong Kong's own history and culture, s/he would be able to learn a lot from the museums there.
- restaurants are not capable of serving customers the food they order. I have never heard of this! I speak Cantonese so I have an advantage over Mr. Reich. However, I do have a brother who doesn't speak much Cantonese and I haven't heard him complained. I'll be very surprised if all those world class 5 star restaurants couldn't get their orders right.

Reference: Here is an excerpt from 星島日報:

本港搭客林先生向香港旅遊發展局及報章投訴，表示自己在上月二十日於澳洲雪梨上船來港，在郵輪抵港前一天，一名英國歷史及考古學家John Reich在船上舉行一個介紹香港的講座中，連番批評香港，而講座內容其後在船上透過電視不斷播放。

林先生指出，該專家提及有關香港旅遊業的情況相當負面，當中包括香港空氣污染極為嚴重，到山頂遊覽根本甚麼也看不到，根本不值一遊﹔到食肆亦往往感到絕望，因為無論如何小心點菜，侍應也經常送錯餐﹔在尖沙嘴的藝術博物館亦不值一去，因為水準比區內其他館，如上海都要差。林先生認為該專家的意見並無根據及帶誤導性，向船員投訴但不果，故向旅發局反映要求跟進。

Acer monitor "No signal" workaround

Another "tech support" post: 2 months after I bought my new Acer 24" LCD monitor, I ran into the infamous "No signal" problem which seems to be a common one for Acer LCD owners. And I found the workaround from these customer reviews, i.e., unplug the mon for 1 min and try again.

It worked for me twice so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Outlook import workaround

My previous post "My X'mas Present" inspired me to write more "tech support" related post. Hopefully this is going to drive more traffic to my blog >:)

I'd like to share with the public a solution to this Outlook 2002 import problem I ran into: when I imported my address book from Outlook Express to Outlook 2002 following this instruction, all my entries appears as last name followed by first name with no space in between, for example, "GatesWilliam", which just look strange! I'd prefer "Gates, William" instead. (BTW, importing from CSV file has the same problem too)

And my search for this solution wasted 3 hours of my precious time :( Apparently it is not a very common problem. (Or people just don't care!) Finally I found this USENET news posting, which led me to the workaround. It is based on VBScript but don't worry if you don't write BASIC. All you need to do is cut-and-paste.

Now I'm one happy Outlook Address book owner!

You might wonder why I couldn't just use the Outlook Express Address book and forget about Outlook. Well, it's because my new Pocket PC only sync with Outlook, but not Outlook Express. BTW, this step completed my long overdued personal project: address book consolidation. I no longer have to live with all slightly different and somwhat outdated info in my Palm/Phone/Webmail address books!

Queen Mary II

She is in San Francisco today. This is the biggest ship I've ever seen!

From Wikipedia:
"At the time of her construction in 2003, the QM2 was the longest, widest and tallest passenger ship ever built, and at 148,528 gross tons, was also the largest. She lost that last distinction to Royal Caribbean International's 154,407 gross ton Freedom of the Seas in April 2006, but QM2 remains the largest ocean liner (as opposed to cruise ship) ever built, and her height, length, and waterline breadth are unsurpassed by any other passenger ship. QM2's luxuries include 15 restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, a theatre, and a planetarium."

My Xmas present

... is this 24" LCD monitor

Also I upgraded my video card (way overdue) to a XFX GeForce 6200 to take advantage of this new monitor. I got it for under <$40 at Buy.com. That's a pretty good deal. And it's good enough for me since I don't play much games on my PC. All I care is smooth playback of DVD and streaming video!

However, this upgrade was not without challenge: My motherboard ASUS A7V8X-X was a few year old and doesn't have any PCI-Express slot which is used by most of the new video cards. It does have an AGP-8x slot. So I bought the AGP-8x version of the GeForce 6200. And the installation instruction says XP is supposed to be able to detect new hardware and start the new video card driver installation after I put it in the AGP-8x slot but instead XP chose a generic VGA driver for display and that's it. I tried manually installing the GeForce 6200 driver but got an error saying the computer cannot find the hardware, i.e., the new video card!

Usually the best thing to do at this point is to upgrade all software that is too old and could potentially be conflicting with new hardware. In this case, I upgraded the 4-in-1 driver of my mobo (4-in-1 includes the AGP-8x driver) And the problem was solved after reboot! XP detected the card! I'm writing this so that someone who run into this same problem in the future might come across this post by Googling.

Now I'm enjoying full 24" 1920x1200 pixels of DirecTV sling-ed at ~3Mbps! (Oh yeah, I had to upgrade the firmware on my Slingbox to achieve this, of course)

The Environment-friendly McDonald

Well, at least it's hedgehog-friendly. McD has redesigned, i.e., narrowed the opening of the container of my favourite dessert: McFlurry so that hedgehog's head won't get stucked inside. The article is from London so I wonder if the new design in coming to the States too.

The Kobe Experience

My wife took me to Alexander's Steakhouse in Cupertino on Saturday night for my b-day.

The menu 

Australian Kobe Steak 

Dessert #2 

Quail egg and kobe chuckroll 

Our appetizers 

Hamachi Shots 

Australian Kobe Steak 

Dessert 

My wife + Prime Ribs 

Japanese Kobe Steak 

She can't teach

"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

Who said so? Of course, not me. Paul said so. Which Paul? The apostle of Jesus. See Timothy 2:11-14.

And it is quoted by a pastor in his dismissal letter to a female Sunday school teacher in his church.

Maybe he has read too much bible?

Is this censorship?

By now every web surfer must have become familiar with Google's ubiquitous advertisement boxes. Many websites are supported by revenue from Google's ad these days.

My favorite free newspaper Easy Bay Express has this article: "Publishers vs. the Censorbot", about Google pulling ad when it sees sensitive keywords on the page where ad supposed to appear and thus indirectly censoring contents of websites using its ad program.

I'm all against censorship (see my previous posts) I have never been a fan of Google and enjoy reading every bit of criticism on its practice. However, in this case I think it's just a technology issue: while a news report about porn and a story which is porn share some keywords, there must be some that only appears on the latter but not the former. Google's filter is simply not good enough to identify them.

What I'm really curious about is now that my page has the keyword "porn," will Google pull its ad? (i.e., show "public service announcement" instead of revenue generating ad)

Hollywood vs. Censors

Hollywood studios and the Directors Guild of America sued Utah-based CleanFlicks, CleanFilms and Play It Clean Video, Arizona-based Family Flix USA and CleanFlicks of Colorado for providing "edited" copies of their movies on DVD. The "sanitized" copies are supposed to have scenes with sex, nudity, violence and profanity removed.

This is the type of fight that I hope both sides lose but of course one side must win.

And the winner is ...... Hollywood! Well, I guess I would be more upset if they lost (surprise surprise!) 'coz censorship is a worse enemy to our civilization. From an artist's point of view, I certainly don't want to see my work being altered and re-published in any way without my consent so that my artistic values won't be jeopardized.

Of course artistic values have nothing to do with why the censors lost. Remember MP3.com? They got sued and lost for providing "online digital locker of MP3" to users who already own the CDs. The moral of that story was: if any additional money is to be made from copyrighted work, the copyright holder would want it. Not only did the censors not seem to have learned this lesson, but also they gave away a free lesson to Hollywood: there's a market for "sanitized" copies of their movies!

Remember this: Homezone and U-verse

I'll make sure I remember NOT to signup for their services. Here's why: both of these video services are provided by AT&T and AT&T's new privacy policy says AT&T will collect "information about viewing, game, recording and other navigation choices that you and those in your household make when using Homezone or AT&T U-verse TV Services."

So AT&T is expecting me to pay them to spy on me? No thanks. Not even if it is free! After all, there are enough free video entertainment from YouTubes already.

Blogger == Journalist? Not so fast

This became a heated topic because Apple's legal team claimed that bloggers are not "real" journalist and thus shouldn't allow to conceal the identities of their sources. This claim is refuted by the judge at the appeal court. And you could read about bloggers celebrating this "victory" everywhere.

Well, as Coach Corso, our friend at ESPN, would say, "Not so fast my friend." It's one thing that bloggers have the same legal rights as journalists but could we bloggers claim that most of our writing have journalistic values? I'm afraid not.

Even reputable blogs like BoingBoing.net publishes garbage some times. And it is quoted by The Digital Music Weblog. The article claims that "[Audio player maker] iRiver gives customers the choice of switching off DRM" but that's not what iRiver did! And I'm not the only one who sees how incorrect that is. Check out the comment by Vinny. He summed it up the best: the issue here is not DRM. iRiver's customers has the choice of listening to non-DRM-ed music all along. All iRiver's upgrade did is to give its users an alternative to Windows Media Player for transferring songs from computer to the device. (For those who cares for the technical details, the upgrade makes the device appear as a USB Mass Storage Device under Windows. So you could drag-and-drop using Explorer)

It's pathetic that most people who commented on blogs/forums like Digg and Slashdot never read the article they commented on. However, it's ridiculous that even the bloggers themselves do not research the subject they write about. The blogosphere seems to be ruled by sensationalism instead of rationalism. Well, maybe journalism is coming down to this level.

Best Practice in Computer Science

What is it? Outsourcing of course!

Wall Street Journal reported some college students are hiring from Rent-A-Coder to do Com. Sci. homeworks for them.

Is there anything wrong with students practicing this "skill" early in college to prepare for their career? I'm sure these kids will do a good job managing offshored projects when they enter the industry!

[via Slashdot]

Too late. You've lost your customer!

If you treat your customers poorly, they'll go to your competitor.

This is not exactly a new concept but Wal-Mart learned it the hard way.

Yet another proof that consumers are sheep

According to a survey about HDTV (high definition TV) done by set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta, a lot of buyers of HDTV don't have a clue about what high definition is and how to get such content. Check this out (everybody could use some good laugh for Friday afternoon):

"23% of HDTV owners did not invest in special equipment to watch HDTV channels because a message at the beginning of the programs they watch tells them that those programs are being broadcast in HD.

Nearly one in five (18%) reported that they believed the HD television would give them high-definition channels without additional equipment. "

There you go. The business model of making up some acronyms and put them on the products actually paid off!

With customers like these, why do businesses need to improve their products/services?

Tech writers' job made easy by Jobs

How? Whenever Apple release something, just sing your praises and your job is done!

For example, check out Apple's Amazing New iPod with Video

This writer actually went one step further by providing statistics! Read "I could count on one hand how many people I see on the train in a given month watching movies on their laptops. " That's supposed to support his argument that there is no portable video player market (of course before Apple launched the latest iPod!)

Another quote: "The other issue is, of course, content. IDC's Martin admitted that he bought an early portable media center, but has had little use for it. There are no short clips to download, so he leaves the device behind." Well, maybe poor Martin hasn't heard of something called cable or satellite TV. The portable media center could sync with a Windows Media Center PC which is capable of recording TV programming.

The notion of no content being available for portable video player is just wrong! Content is readily available, the issue has to do with the ease of use, including recording and transfering, which I have pointed out before, is not implemented well by Microsoft's Media Center solution.

If Apple is truly the maverick, it should have released a Mac based DVR (digital video recorder, think Tivo) solution that integrates with the new video iPod seamlessly.

What happened to separation of church and state?

"Bush: Miers' Religion Key Part of Her Life"

I suppose the constitution is not a key part of USA anymore.

Update: Miers has just withdrawn her nomination. The irony is: no matter how much our President wanted to sell her being a conservative, the ultra-conservatives just won't buy! Even hints of anti-abortion is not enough for them.

I have responsibility but no right

... sounds like slavery, huh?

"Software developers should be held personally accountable for the security of the code they write, said Howard Schmidt, former White House cybersecurity advisor, on Tuesday."

Mr. Schmidt: I dunno what medication you've taken but last time I check at most company developers have no right to code they have written (i.e., code are properties of those company and developers are not allow to "take" it with them when they change job, in most cases)

Let's see who he used to work for... President Bush!

Enuff' said.

American's tolerance level has reached a new low

A lady boarding a Southwest airline flight got booted off the plane.

The reason? She wore a shirt that says "Meet the Fuckers" with pictures of
President Bush, VP Cheney and Secretary of State Rice.

Here is a link to a Nevada TV station with a video clip. The lady, Lorrie Heasley, wore that shirt in the video. Check it out if you wanna see what it looks like.

Southwest said some other passengers complained about that. I think that's a lame lame excuse. It's not like she's bugging people by telling them her political views. It's a shirt for god sake! If you don't like what it says, turn away! No one force you to look at it. In fact, it's never polite staring at women's front side.

I can't boycott Southwest though 'coz I seldom fly it. Its service is below par to me anyway.

No publicity is bad publicity

Some like to diss bloggers as "attention grabbers" that have nothing better to say. As a blogger myself, I usually dispute that claim but I gotta admit some bloggers went over the board.

For example, one blogger claimed that he has "been using Macs for a while ... wondering if they're all that special" and he might switch back from Mac to PC. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinions. In fact, I wrote my fair share of criticism of Mac. However, this guy kept bashing the apps because he doesn't use them! Check out his nonsense:
"I really dislike iPhoto. I much prefer the Windows thumbnails."
What's he smoking? iPhoto is a photo management software (it's not perfect but I must say it does a pretty good job.) Windows thumbnails? That's a file preview mode! He's comparing apples to oranges.
"You know, .Mac is interesting, but way too expensive."
Apple's .Mac is a service not unlike the paid version of Yahoo's e-mail and photo storage service. I don't see how .Mac being expensive a reason why Mac is inferior to Windows.
"I'm not a musician, GarageBand to me isn't particularly compelling."
OK. That's as ignorant as saying "I'm not a painter, Mona Lisa to me isn't particularly compelling" as the reason for Louvre not being special.

Anyway, I gotta give him some credits for having the guts to diss Mac. I'm pretty sure he'll be expecting "hate mails" from some unhappy Apple fanboys. To be honest, some of his points are valid: low-end Macs are slow. Text Anti-aliasing do seem fuzzy on my Mac and better on Windows.

Another blogger wrote that phones should be replacing general purpose PC as the main device for computing needs. Well, that's pretty much stating the obvious. I mean, that's the ideal but not gonna happen in the near future! And the biggest disadvantage is giving too much control to your phone company, which has the tendency to charge you for anything you like to do with your phone.

I left out links to their blogs on purpose since I don't wanna give them extra traffic. In the meantime, I'll try my best to come up with more articles with high shock value.

RIP Montana Mazurkiewicz

Most think sport is about machoism most of the time, but it has a touching side too:

Notre Dame Fighting Irish's head football coach Charlie Weis visited big Irish fan, 10-yr old Montana, before he died of brain tumor last Friday. Weis granted him a wish: calling the first play for Irish's next game (vs. Washington last Sat)

Irish's first play was at their 1 yard line. What did Montana call? "Pass right!" That's a dangerous play at that situation but Irish went with it and got good 13 yards out of it.

Good karma working at its best? I think so.

And it's good publicity for Notre Dame, which hasn't had a lot for the past few years when it hasn't won as much as it used to.

You gotta earn your right before you trash talk

Terrell Owens, all-star wide receiver of Philadelphia Eagles, might indeed be a "bad apple" to his team at times (e.g. his feud against his coach, the management and his QB) but it's not something Derek Smith, a linebacker of 49er, who a lot of football fans have never heard of, has the right to say.

That's his comment before the Eagle-49er game, in which his defensive team has given up 143 yards and 2 touchdowns to Owens.

What did Derek Smith say after the game? Well, he still didn't want Owens on his team. Yeah right, like he wanna be on your team!

Man, some people might enjoy publicity like this, but it just sounded stupid to me.

Money can't always buy victory

I'm not talking about sports (where money could buy victory) This is about how a student fought against the almighty Microsoft's army of lawyers who sued him for selling 2 unopened boxes of M$'s software on eBay.

The result? He counter-sued and M$ settled.

Sometimes our legal system doesn't seem that broken.

Update your resume

Have you been wondering why the diaster in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina was handled so poorly? Maybe this explains: Discrepancies reported in Brown [chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency] resume.

Assistant to Manager, assistant manager, what's the difference anyway? (That reminds me of an episode of "The Office")

And at the highest level of academics, teachers always learn from their students. So you might say a student is also a professor!

Let me see: I have been working as assistants to CEO, directors, architects...... I should sign up for a Harvard distant learning class ASAP so that I could put Harvard Professor on my resume!

Wait a second! I wasn't on President Bush's campaign team before. (New resume now in trashcan)

Do you Yahoo? No thanks.

Yahoo is accused by a media watchdog of becoming a "police informant" for the Chinese government that led to the jailing of a journalist for "divulging state secrets."

Yahoo's practice is widely criticized by members of the media. While they acknowledge the need to comply with local law, most question whether such action is ethical. After all, the "state secret" here is an internal Communist Party message that warned journalists of the dangers of social unrest resulting from the return of dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, in June 2004. Isn't that kinda obvious?
See "Yahoo business ethics sorely lacking" (Infoworld)
and "Web of complicity" (Telegraph UK) Don't forget this is a company that was willing to buy the notorious spyware writer 3721 in order to "compete in the China market." I still remember how bad I felt when my computer was hijacked by 3721.

Surprisingly, there are quite a few netters (on popular website slashdot.org) defending Yahoo, saying it's nothing wrong with taking care of shareholder's interests.

I don't know about them. To be honest, I'm a heavy user of Yahoo's services: My Yahoo, email, fantasy sports...... Now I'll think twice before using any of them. I've already switched my homepage to My Netscape, even though it's inferior in terms of features. And this will be my last season playing fantasy sports on Yahoo. ESPN: here I come!

It takes less time than a commercial break (almost)

... To assemble a Dell! That's what I've just learned from this article: "...PC assembly time down to less than four minutes..."

Incredible!

Even more amazing is that 30 seconds were wasted every time they put those annoying Intel and Microsoft stickers on the computer!

Maybe we could save $100 off the price if they don't have to do that :P

The market of MP3 player is just as bad as the NL West

... where every team commits one blunder after another!

First, Rio is gone due to lack of QC and marketing. (They made it official last week.)

Second, Apple settled the lawsuit over its poor battery.

Now Creative is shipping worm with its player!

Is it that hard to make a decent player? I wonder.

Good bye UGL

UGL = Undergraduate Library, at University of Texas, my alma mater. This is one of the places in Austin where lots of my fond memories are associated with. (Yes, I met pretty gals there >:)

The university is moving the books out and converting it to a student center this Fall. It will be a place for students to hang out and study.

Well, actually that's what we used to do over there anyway (minus the study part :P) The books were useful to kill time when waiting for the "target" to leave.

I've never knew why it's called undergraduate library 'coz most libraries let undergrad in but I just found out that's not the case in the 50s. Interesting!

Microsoft makes baseball exciting

Aren't they? Here is their patent.

Well, kidding aside, it's not that bad. I guess MLB.com is actually using it now. I'm a subscriber of MLB.TV which streams video of complete or highlights of baseball games. Before I learned of this patent, I thought they must have hired a bunch of low-paid kids to cut (i.e. edit) these video. And I have been wondering how boring that job must be :P Looks like it's more automated than I thought.

Good bye Rio (the MP3 player pioneer)

See "Death bells ring for Rio as they are cut up and sold to SigmaTel"

It's sad 'coz I still believe among all competitors of Apple iPod, Rio Karma has the best features, design and UI, in fact, even better than iPod. This is based on my experience of owning one for 2 weeks (returned for battery life issue)

So, once again it proves that it takes more a good feature set to win in the consumer electronics business. You'd need marketing, marketing, marketing (yes, it's so important that I have to repeat it again and again), quality control and customer service as well. This is reinforced by my recent good (surprise!) experience with getting my iPod fixed (the headphone jack has bad connectivity) at an Apple store (BTW, there was no service dept at Apple store. Apple named it "Genius Bar." The name is a bit too arrogant and exaggerated but that's Steve's call, not mine. The service rep was actually a very helpful gentleman. He looked at my iPod and found that the remote control was the culprit. He simply swapped it with a new one.)

If fixing my Rio was this easy, I would have kept it and won't even consider iPod! Apple opening all these retail stores over the country turned out wasn't such a bad move.

RIP Jean Charles de Menezes

Mr. de Menezes was shot and killed by London police as a bombing suspect last week but London police later on admitted he was innocent.

You probably recall his killing made front page news. However, the fact that he was innocent didn't. It wasn't even appear as headline on http://news.yahoo.com/ !

This is very sad 'coz not only his life was lost for nothing but also his innocence was complete ignored.

Forget about justice but where is the conscience of the media now?

Hawk attacked Dove

So you think this is an analogy of what happens in politics today.

Well, symbolism turned reality. it actually happened in Hong Kong yesterday!

The result? Both dead. (Cause of death: bone fracture. Suspected both collided into a building during the chase.)

Politicians out there should learn something from this.

Good advice? Bad advice?

Dunno how accurate this is but according to Apple Daily (a Chinese newspaper from Hong Kong, no link) Professor Paul Chu, president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, appeared in a young student IT challenge award ceremony as guest of honor. He said he's happy to see that today's kids are so fluent in computer skills and they will have a bright future working in the IT industry.

Well, I'm not sure if he really meant what he said. Following the current offshoring trend, when these kids are old enough to work, IT jobs would have been offshored from China to other countries with even cheaper labors! This reminds me of Bill Gates encouraging young people in US to study computer science. (See my take in a previous comment) They either need a reality check or stop BS-ing!

(BTW, the winner is a 6th grader. She made her own e-card using Flash and built website that educate people about giant panda as an endangered specie. Good for her!)

Finally, American government is playing catch up

... on totalitarian policies.

If you've listened to any communist propaganda, you probably are familiar with their claim of a superior society. Eventually all other countries will follow their practice. Well, it looks like they're not all wrong:
U.S. House of representatives has approved constitutional amendment to outlaw American flag burning.

This immediately reminds me of two pro-democracy activists, Ng Kwok-hung and Lau San-ching, being fined for burning the Chinese national flag 2 years ago in China-ruled Hong Kong.

Maybe someday our first amendment will be amended to a point that criticism of the government like this will be deemed unpatriotic and thus criminal. So I'd better say it before it's too late.

MLB.TV Full Screen on Mac

...... previously not possible but I've found this solution (Credit to poster ess@Macforumz)

"You can trick Safari into playing the game in full screen using Windows Media Player.

To to this, you need to remove the Windows Media Player Plug-In from the internet plugins folder (it's located in HD-Library-Internet PlugIns-Windows Media Plugin).

After you do this, Safari will ask you if you want to us the WMP application (rather than the web based plugin for WMP) when watching a MLB.TV stream."

Then you could tell Windows Media Player to play it full screen. Problem solved!

OK. I should remove one strike against Mac.

Fight Censorship

Here is a follow-up to the article below: Adopt a Chinese Blog is a program to help Chinese bloggers by hosting their blog oversea to avoid being banned.

Well, those bloggers may still run into trouble back home as all traffic is being monitored over there.

I hope someday such program will become unnecessary.

Madeline's first swimming lesson

 

Video here

You should give credit to M$

... for criticizing themselves! See Microsoft bans 'democracy' for China web users on MSN Money. The company claimed that law required them to do so but the article pointed out no such law exists!

Well, in a country where journalist long time loyal to the ruling party could be detained for "spying", it doesn't matter what law exists.

Why should this be on the news anyway? It's capitalism at work, my friend! Apparently companies couldn't be wrong when they do things in the interest of their shareholders, no matter how immoral those are.

To Chinese bloggers: let's learn something smart from spammers: d3mocracy would do the trick.

Go SBUX Go!

What could be a better place to have the presense of this great company than the great palace?


Yes, it's the (not-so) Forbidden city in Beijing.

#1 Clueless Web hosting company

1&1 internet Inc call themselves "World's No.1 Web Host." I dunno what that means, but judging by the fact that they ban their customer's traffic for serving BitTorrent of their customer's own work, I think it probably means they're No.1 in the computer illiterate department.