Tech Bitz 101

NVIDIA 196.75 drivers can kill your graphics card!

2010-03-07T03:10:00.003+08:00

Seems that the latest NVidia display drivers 196.75 have some issues, mostly relating to the control of the on board cooling fan. Its effects could cause the fan to malfunction or even stop. If this is true, it could really cause some real damage to your NVidia display cards.

If you're using this version of the drivers, please downgrade to the previous working drivers (196.21) immediately. Below is a quote from the NVidia official site.

196.75 Alert!

We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers do not download this driver. Instead, please stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our website and we also are asking our partners and others to remove temporarily this 196.75 WHQL driver as well.

Pass this on.

Source

mDistribute.com

2010-02-24T21:27:00.004+08:00

Dreaming to be a film-maker and make some money even though you do not have the backing of a production company? Don’t worry; you can do exactly that, thanks to mDistribute.

mDistribute.com is a company which helps freelance filmmakers to distribute their products. Signing up for an account is 100% free, and filmmakers can also earn some money should a buyer decide to purchase a license from mDistribute to use your product. Most buyers includes Mobile Content Aggregators, Wireless Carriers, Mobile Content Brokers as well as individual website owners. Currently, mDistribute's main target is the mobile video market.

If you’re a buyer, you can also sign up for an account for free to check out what type of videos the mDistribute has to offer. You can then easily purchase a license to distribute your video of interest for your own usage (be it for business, or personal).

mDistribute is owned by Golivemobile.com, a 4-year old global technology company based in Denver. For more information, visit their site at http://mDistribute.com.

The Next Windows – Windows 8 aka Windows.next

2010-02-23T13:53:00.003+08:00

In the space of a few weeks recently, there seems to be much enthusiastic talks and “gossips” from Microsoft about Windows 8, the next operating system by Microsoft. According to Microsoft EMEA Regional VP of Consumer and Online John Mangelaars interview with the CIO, Windows 8 will be completely different and mind-blowing. Nothing much is known as this point, apart from the next Windows will now be dubbed (well, temporarily I guess, I don’t think that will be the final official name) Windows.next and it will be a far more integrated experience than ever before.

This is what I think we can expect with the release of Windows 8.

1. Windows 8 will be pure 64-bit OS.

2. Bing applications will be integrated into the OS, to enable “integrated” experiences.

Will this be what Microsoft needed to take on Google in the web? We’ll see. What’s your take on this?

The post on MSDN regarding this has been removed, but you can still obtain the Google’s cached version here. Grab it while its still there!

ChinaBuye [Paid Post]

2010-01-27T21:51:00.004+08:00

Disclaimer: I am not to be held liable for any transactions done between you, the reader and the vendor, ChinaBuye.Com. I do not have any personal experience dealing with this company before. Whatever stuff you buy from the site is solely your own responsibility and judgement.

Looking to buy electronic gadgets such as handphones, computer accessories, LED products, gadgets or game accessories? ChinaBuye.com might be a good place to head to. It is a China-based online supermarket, boasting prices being one of the cheapest in the world. It also provides wholesale and retail purchase. Transactions should be fast since their capacity is 5000 per day and they mentioned that orders are processed 18 hours after payment.

Established since 2006, it also ships to more than 200 countries in the world. You can also check out other user opinions in its forums before making a purchase at this site. You can share and view shopping experiences on both Facebook and Twitter.

It also provides free-shipping and accepts payment from major payment gateway such as Paypal. They also have a 30 days refund policy in-store, so you can get your money back in the case you’re not satisfied with the product!

For more information, visit China Electronics .

[This is a paid post by PayPerPost]

Happy new year 2010, Christmas Gift from P1, Unboxing the Wiggy Pt 1.

2010-01-05T23:03:00.004+08:00

First of all, Happy New Year 2010 to everyone. I know this is one hell of a long-outdated post but procrastination got the better of me =P.

Anyway, as most as FB-ians who me know might recall, I was “potong-ing” a lot a few months back to win a free year worth of P1 Wiggy Package in the P1 Facebook Potong Game. Somehow, I manage to “potong” enough (I apologize if I kept potong you over and over again repeatedly, I just lost track on whom I have “potong”) to win. And It was the very last slot! Thank you very much P1!

I also invited to the P1 Social Media Evening at Bangsar but unfortunately I was unable to make it. Looking at the photos taken during the event, seems like I missed a lot of fun! Still, they were kind enough (Thank you Nadia, CK and Cynthia) to arrange the prize to be sent via courier.

True enough, right after Christmas, the package arrived. The main package was actually the Wiggy Tin Kit wrapped in a P1 wrapping paper. After unboxing it, I got into business right away.

Plugged in, the notebook detected it as a thumbdrive. I was actually expecting the Install Hardware Wizard to pop up, so I was staring blankly at the screen for a few minutes waiting for something to happen. Serve me right for not reading the small pocket manual in the box.

I ran the installer in the “Wiggy Thumbdrive” and installation was a breeze. It all took about 3 minutes to complete and no restart was necessary.

However, I did encounter a problem. I realized that my place (Greenlane Heights, Penang) does not have Wimax coverage yet. So the furthest I could proceed is launching the P1 Connection Manager. Nothing much I can do except to go to P1 website to vote for my place.

So that’s it for Part 1. I'll proceed with Part 2 when I can actually connect using my Wiggy. P1 faster come cover my area la!

Below are some unboxing photos of the Wiggy :).

Wrapped Wiggy with P1 Wrapping Paper.

Wrapping Paper Unwrapped.

Tin Box opened with Wiggy Modem inside. Cool!

Probably one of the smallest manual I ever seen.

p/s: Wiggy was installed on a Windows 7 machine! No problem so far!

Cannot delete file: Access is denied

2009-12-06T04:36:00.002+08:00

Sounds familiar? Tried editing/deleting a file which is currently being used by an application or process but it has crashed?

Fear no more, there's a neat tool call the Unlocker which you can get it free from http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/ . This tool have saved me a lot of restarts and reboots :).

To use it, just right-click->Unlocker to unlock the file, and it will even tell you which process is actually locking the file. Neat, huh?

Make your Life Easier in Windows 7 with the Windows Key

2009-11-04T09:56:00.005+08:00

There’s more use for the Windows Key (the one between the left ctrl and alt key) in Windows 7 now. Enterprise Security MVP Debra Shinder shares some of her favourites.

WIN + SPACE: Same effect as clicking the “Show Desktop” area at the end of the taskbar; all windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop.

WIN + G: Don’t need to see the entire desktop? Just want to see the information displayed on your gadgets? This one brings the gadgets to the top.

WIN + T: Scroll through the items in the taskbar. It’s really cool to be able to do this without taking your hands away from the keyboard.

WIN + P: Select display options when connected to a projector (Computer only, Duplicate, Extend or Projector only).

ALT + P (in Explorer): show or hide the Preview pane (I love this one).

WIN + the Plus or Minus key: This lets you zoom in or out, magnifying the screen without using the mouse.

WIN + Left or right arrow key: This will dock the active window to the left or right side of the monitor, just as dragging to the side does.

WIN + SHIFT + left or right arrow key (with multiple monitors): Moves the active window to the monitor to the left or right of the one on which it’s currently residing.

WIN + Up or down arrow: Maximizes or minimizes the active window

What’s yours?

Get the full list of Win shortcuts at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/Windows7/Keyboard-shortcuts

26th October 2009, My Birthday, and also the End of the First Web Host I Used

2009-10-26T18:43:00.006+08:00

Yeap, today is my birthday. While it marks 25 years of my existence in this world, it also marks the demise of one of the first few web host ever to grace the Internet, Geocities.

I started using Geocities to host my personal website during my secondary school days about 11 years ago. At that time, web was still pretty much primitive with most connections are as fast as 48.8 kbps. Never could we have imagined the possibility of web applications, online games or even Facebook. After 11 years, things have really changed.

That’s when Web 2.0 emerged. Social networking sites appeared like mushrooms growing in a rainy day. Every online citizen started blogs be it a personal one, sharing or even some sharing jokes. Streaming sites such as Youtube enabled us to share and show our personal talent to the world, without going through agents and companies. Suddenly everything seemed possible, everything seemed exciting. However Geocities did not move on.

Geocities was then acquired by Yahoo! in 1999. This move proved to be very unpopular as users started to quit using the service. It was then Yahoo started introducing Yahoo! Web Hosting to persuade current Geocities users to upgrade their accounts. However, Yahoo! Web Hosting is a paid service, whereas Geocities is free.

Geocities had so much potential with its neighborhood and homestead concepts. It could have easily been a geographical version of Dacebook if it was managed properly. Yet, whatever that’s done is done and vice-versa, on this very day, would be the day that Geocities is put to rest.

RIP Geocities (1994-2009)

p/s: This is a tribute to Geocities "who" served millions of users throughout the past decade.

Who is Eugene Kaspersky? Find out more in www.kklub.net!

2009-10-24T19:43:00.004+08:00

Who is Eugene Kaspersky? He's the founder of the antivirus company that we all come to trust, Kaspersky-Labs. Still don't know who he is yet? Remember seeing those Jackie Chan commercials fighting computer viruses in TV? Yeap! That's it.

Kaspersky Labs now plays a very important role in computer and cyberspace security. His interest in computer security was actually ignited when the Cascade virus was detected in his computer. From then on, he continued to further his interest in this field, and eventually formed his own company. What a journey isn't it?

He also qouted that "Everyone should and must have an identification, or internet passport,... The internet was designed not for public use, but for American scientists and the US military. Then it was introduced to the public and it was wrong...to introduce it in the same way."

Keep up the good work!

Want to know more? Visit the Kaspersky club at http://www.kklub.net.

Recycle your Handphone & Get Cash?

2009-10-06T21:10:00.009+08:00

Remember seeing those plastic boxes at shopping complex where you can put your gadgets and batteries for recycling purposes? In the near future, we might be able to get some cash by just recycling our old gadgets like what we do with unused papers.

ecoATM or Automated Recycling Stations was recently launched to promote gadget or metal recycling to consumers. Li-Ion batteries in particular, commonly found in modern gadgets and handphones, cannot be discarded the same as normal rubbish. Batteries should always be recycled because they are harmful to the environment if discarded incorrectly.

So, what does this new ATM machine do? Once you dump in your item into its slot, it will examine the item and tells you how much your item is worth. Should you accept it, you'll get the cash. If the item is of no value at all, a "free item' will be issued and a tree will planted by your name. Sounds good?

Currently not available in Malaysia yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Hope the government will bring this fella in soon.

Source

Microsoft Security Essentials is finally out!

2009-09-30T17:01:00.003+08:00

After being one of the lucky beta testers a few months ago, I’m glad to hear that MSE has finally reached release status. You can easily grab it from http://www.microsoft.com/Security_essentials/ . For beta testers, your beta version of MSE should prompt you to upgrade to the full version of MSE. My upgrade was painless and it just seemed like any other normal update. As for those who’s doing a clean installation, the size of the installation file is just approximately 8MB file, which is small compared to other free AV installers. The only hurdle in the installation would be the WGA process, which shouldn’t be a problem if you’re using a genuine version of Windows.

Some of my findings from the beta testing was MSE was really good in terms of scanning speed. A complete system scan (130GB filled with roughly 360,000 files) took only about 30 minutes. I read reviews from other online sources that if your system is infested with malware, it would take longer. That could be a sign that there are viruses lurking somewhere in your system if it takes unusually long.

I recommend MSE for Windows users who are looking for standalone ad-free antivirus solutions. MSE was included in the recent AVTest's tests at http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02

Are Expensive HDMI Cables Worth It?

2009-09-09T21:59:00.010+08:00

You bought a new LCD TV, AV System and well probably a PS3. You spent about RM 5000-6000 (that's about USD 1500-3000), so the sales guy approaches and persuades you to buy a branded HDMI cable which cost about RM300 ++ (Usd 50-100). Then you start to think, "I spent so much already, might as well spent a few more hundred to get a premium grade cable?"

STOP! For normal Home A/V use where most of your devices are close to each other, cheap HDMI cables is usually sufficient enough. Quality and material build may be critical for analog cables for analog speakers (those copper ones with the split red and black cable), they are not important at all for a HDMI cable. They do not affect the quality of the display and sound being projected by your TV and AV System.

Why? Unlike analog cables, HDMI carries digital signals which consists of 1's and 0's. This means its either the devices receives the signal successfully or not. If it does, perfect. If it doesn't you'll see distortion and rubbish on your screen because the frame is corrupted. This means as long your cable is able to transmit the signals from your source to your TV, your cable is fine, even if its made of iron!

Another thing that confuses consumers is the various versions of HDMI. The sales guy might tell you that you need to replace your HDMI 1.2 compliant cable with a HDMI 1.3 one if your TV is HDMI 1.3 in order to get full utilization of the higher bandwidth, speed and resolution. Again, this is just another marketing talk. Physically, from the birth of HDMI up to HDMI 1.3, there is no difference made to the cables. In fact, HDMI 1.0 cables were already "prepared" to handle future enhancements without the need to alter the cable. Perhaps for HDMI 1.4, you might need to get new cables due to the slight alteration in the cable characteristics, but that's in the future. There's no HDMI 1.4 devices in the market yet anyway.

The only time when you really need to purchase these premium cables is when distance is an issue. If the cable length is only 3-6 feet in length, the cheap cables will do. However, the length exceeds that, you may need to consider those premium cables. Due the strict timing in data transmission, the cable have to be robust enough to transmit those gigantic bursts of data, especially across long distances. This is where the build and material quality of those premium cables shine. This is also the reason as why there are specific length when you look at premium HDMI cables, and they must never be altered after production. This means you can't cut a cable to be shorter and terminate it yourself. You'll end up burning your cash in the end.

If premium cables are still the way to go, I'll recommend Monster. If you are looking for cheap, affordable ones and living in the US, check out Optimization World. They have pretty cheap cables with free shipping.

The AudioHolic guys also did testing on various HDMI cables here. If you're interested, go have a look. You'll see that at 6 feet, all the cheap cables passed.

Snow Leopard? Update your flash player now!

2009-09-04T21:42:00.003+08:00

According to the blog on Adobe, it seems that the installation of Snow Leopard will downgrade your Flash Player to an old version which has some bugs and vulnerabilities. It is recommended that all users to upgrade to the latest version of Flash Player (10.0.32.18) for security purposes. You can download the flash player from http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

Source

Telling Your Oven to Start Cooking, With Your Mobile Phone!

2009-08-26T20:53:00.004+08:00

Recently, there was a news report about an oven being turned on, and started cooking at the highest setting on its own. Its trigger? Its none other than your mobile phone. All you need to do is to leave your mobile phone near the oven, and dial it.

Recall that you leave your phone too near a computer speaker, there is this “bee-boo-bee-boo” sound emitting from the speakers, or your monitor screen gets distorted when a call comes in. This is caused by “electromagnetic Interference (or EMI to Electronic Engineers). This is also the reason why you should NOT place your mobile phone near your chest if you are using a pacemaker. This is the probably why how the mobile phone could turn on the circuitry is the oven, and then trigger it to cook without any human intervention.

On the bright side, you can now leave your turkey in the oven and place a mobile phone beside it before you go to work on Thanksgiving Day. After you have lunch, all you need to do is to dial to your mobile phone!

You can read the news article on the link here. Most ovens are safe from this though, I assume.

Win a iPhone 3GS or Western Digital Hard Disk?

2009-08-13T11:42:00.005+08:00

In conjunction with the 52nd Merdeka Celebration, Exabytes is giving prizes to lucky people who is participating in their contest. All you need to do is register and put their banner in your site / blog. Don’t worry, its a just a small button-size banner that would reside on the top right of your site. What are you waiting for? Just hop in my clicking the banner on the top right of my site or here . Oh yeah, you can put my email hongaun@gmail.com as your referral, otherwise you won’t be able to register =P. If you win, I’ll win too!

Merdeka Malaysia!

Super Mario AI Competition

2009-08-11T10:04:00.006+08:00

In association with the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Games Innovation Conference 2009 (ICE-GIC) and IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG), a Super Mario AI competition is being organized. Those interested can still submit their codes as the deadline is August 18th (ICE-GIC) and Sept 3rd (CIG). Meaning you probably have to crank up the codes in the space of a month. The competition is based on a modified version of Infinite Mario Bros by Markus Persson, which was coded in Java,

Cash prizes are as follows:

ICE-GIC (Deadline: August 18th)

Prizes – USD 200,100 and 50 to respective winners

CIG (Deadline: September 3rd)

Prize – USD 500

For more information please check out the competition page at http://julian.togelius.com/mariocompetition2009/index.php

Current AI prototype clips available (not done by me!):

The one below tries to follow the mouse.

Good luck everyone! Programmers, open up your IDE!

New Commenting System

2009-08-03T12:48:00.002+08:00

I have integrated Disqus commenting system to replace the default blogger system. If there's any problem with it please let me know.

Only future posts will have the new commenting system implemented.

Rechargeable Battery Care

2009-07-31T15:43:00.003+08:00

Nowadays, rechargeable batteries is a must for our gadgets and is commonly used in mobile phones, notebooks and home electrical appliances. Very often we take them for granted and provide the wrong battery care! Not taking care of your batteries properly not only shorten their lifespan dramatically, but can also cause harm and damage to you and your surroundings. Below, I would cover two commonly used battery types in our household, Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) and Lithium-Ion (Li-ion).

Nickel Cadmium (NiCd)

Charging / Discharging

NiCd batteries suffer from memory effect, if they are are recharged and discharged to the same level of charge regularly. This is usually obvious when the battery voltage suddenly drops dramatically. However, the capacity is not reduced substantially. To recover this lost capacity, perform a deep or full discharge to INDIVIDUAL CELLS once in a while by using the battery until its fully discharged (or even better, with your battery charger if it came with a deep discharge function). It is not recommended to discharge your battery pack as a whole, as some cells may be discharged earlier, and this will result in a cell reversal charge condition. If you do not have any of these dischargers at your disposal, just use your batteries with an electrical appliance until its near dead flat for the FIRST time (If you have a voltmeter, stop the discharging sequence when the battery pack voltage drops to 1.0 V). After that, recharge it like normal. Individual cells can be discharged to zero voltage without harm.

Do not perform deep discharge too often as it will shorten the lifespan of the battery. (Once a month should be fine)

Lifespan

Typically, 1000 charge cycles before its capacity drops below half of its original capacity.

Storage

If not used, the battery should be discharged to maximum 40% of its capacity and store it in a cool dry environment.

Other precaution measures

Do not mix old and new batteries together. Old batteries loses its capacity quicker and could be damaged due to cell reversal charging. It could also cause damage as hydrogen gas is produced when this occurs.

Lithium Ion (Li-Ion)

Charging / Discharging

Unlike NiCd batteries, Li-Ion batteries do not suffer from memory effect. In fact, they should be charged as often and regularly as much as possible and should NOT be fully discharged. Discharging it fully will damage the battery (below 2.4V) permanently. Good Li-Ion batteries will always self discharge slowly from time to time, since it has an internal safety circuit that will prevent a “dead” battery to be charged (recharging a dead Li-Ion battery can be very dangerous). Since its charging process is a non linear process, its therefore dangerous to charge a Li-Ion battery without any monitoring mechanism. The charging sequence usually consist of 3 parts as quoted from Wikipedia:

Part 1. Apply charging current limit until volt limit per cell is reached.

Part 2. Apply maximum volt per cell limit until the current declines below 0.03C

Part 3. Periodically apply a top-off charge about once per 500 hours.

Some devices may have optimization charging mode when you charge the battery “in-house” together with the device turned on. It is recommended that you turn your device on while charging so that the device is able to monitor and prevent overcharging from occurring. Most dedicated chargers have this circuitry as well. If you are to charge it unmonitored, do not charge it for more than 3 hours or manufacturer specified time.

Lifespan

Typically, 1200 charge cycles. However, it is important to note that Li-Ion batteries age with time, even if not used.

Storage

Charge/Discharge it to 40% and store in a cool place to reduce the aging effects. Do not store a Li-Ion battery at 100% charged.

Other precaution measure

Li-Ion batteries are sensitive to heat. You should consider removing the battery from your equipment like notebook if you are going to connect it to a direct power supply for long hours. You should also buy Li-Ion batteries only when you need it due to its aging effect.

Sources – BatteryUniversity, Wikipedia

Deposit Cheques at Home – Using a Scanner

2009-07-28T13:58:00.005+08:00

It seems that we can deposit cheques from the comfort of our own home with just a scanner and internet connection soon, at least for the US-based residents. USAA, a financial service company which only serve people and family members who served in the US military is currently providing this service called “Deposit@Home”. This is specially convenient for those who travel often and have no time to go to the bank to drop in the cheque. You can check out the demo video at this link . There is report that Florida-based EverBank is about to start offering this service as well in the next few weeks.

I have no idea on whether this will actually be implemented in Malaysia. Luckily for us, the queue for cheque deposit aren’t usually very long.

Source

Fujifilm 3D Camera – Taking photos in 3D!

2009-07-20T22:13:00.004+08:00

Two decades ago, Fujifilm developed the world’s first fully digital camera. Later this year, Fujifilm will unveil another new camera technology – the world’s first 3D digital camera.

FinePix Real 3D System (its tentative name at the current time of blogging), Fujifilm’s new gadget will hopefully allow it to be ahead of the competition in the already saturated consumer market. This will definitely rejuvenate the saturated digital camera market as the limits on the megapixels, optical zoom as well as as other features such as face detection and anti-shake seems to be common for all digital cameras to date.

I did not have the opportunity to have a look at the actual prototype of Fujifilm’s new camera. Based on reading other articles and sources, its quite pleasant to know that the prototype was not much bigger or heavier than the current digital cameras in the market. One obvious difference in Fujifilm’s 10 megapixel camera is that it uses two lenses instead of one, spaced from each other about the same distance between the two human eyes. This allows the camera to shoot two photos from different angles as viewed by each individual human eyes of the same scene. The camera then intelligently presents the two images discretely to the right and left eye of the viewer, thus resulting in a stereoscopic image (this two images help provides the depth lacking in 2D photos). For 3D prints, a plastic overlay is also needed to act as a lens to provide the depth effect.

It would be interesting to see how much would this print cost and will user be able to print these photos at home without much cost.

Source

Google’s Operating System - Google Chrome OS

2009-07-08T16:49:00.003+08:00

Google finally announced it. I bet most of us were half-expecting it will come to this day, so I was not surprised by this announcement. Google announced on their blog that they were working on a new project called “Google Chrome Operating System”.

Basically, the OS is an open source (like Chromium project for Chrome), lightweight operating system which targets the netbook segment. The codes will be available by the later part of the year, and consumers will be able to use it by second half of 2010. Sounds good?

The netbook segment current represents quite an interesting dilemma. Being a stripped down version of the notebook with less power, the operating system has to be able to do the same tasks as a notebook with less brawl. At least basic tasks such as web surfing, playing music, typing emails and maybe some simple flash games. Currently, most netbooks’ operating systems are Windows XP (already obsolete), Windows Vista (soon to be obsolete when Win 7 comes by), Ubuntu / Linux and the upcoming Windows 7. Among the choices that we currently have, Ubuntu and Windows 7 seem to be the only viable choices out there as Vista will just crawl so bad and Windows XP will be losing official support very very soon in the next few years.

So, why would users use Google Chrome OS over the other OS veterans? Because its free? No. Because its open source? No. If there’s one thing Google can learn over problems which plague other OS, that is security. Google has managed to developed a secure browser with its Sandbox feature, it can do it with the OS version. They should have enough to learn to rectify and prevent security issues that could potentially plague an operating system, and they were pretty good at that with the browser so far.

Since Google made it very clear that the OS will be a web-centric OS, most of your applications will be on the web. That probably means a tighter integration with Google Apps (Gmail, Docs etc.). This will improve the performance of your netbook as the load will not be as heavy as a normal Windows or Ubuntu netbook. Perhaps we don’t even need to scramble for device drivers again as we can search and install driver through the “cloud” in Google’s enormous networks (installing drivers were often a bane when it comes to installing Windows on a fresh new PC). These will definitely make users happier.

Stay tune for more updates about Google’s OS. The architecture of this new OS will be interesting, especially on the security aspect.

By the way, if you din’t notice, Gmail has shed its beta label already =).

Microsoft, be prepared, be very prepared.

Source

Microsoft Research Paper : CIBAI

2009-07-07T12:49:00.008+08:00

If you’re from Malaysia or Singapore, you’re probably going to laugh your head off and going “WTF”. After that, please proceed below on what the research paper is about. For those peeps who don’t understand the fuss about the “Cibai”, I will explain at the end of this post.

“Class Invariants By Abstract Interpretation” , or CIBAI for short was a paper submitted by a researcher by the name of Francesco Logozzo. According to the abstract, Cibai is a generic static analyzer based on abstraction interpretation for modular analysis and verificiation of Java classes. A popular approach that’s frequently used validate program code is unit testing (eg. JUnit). Cibai was proposed to verify and test Java classes in a different way, and its results showed a higher level of automation and precision while having comparable performance. I have yet to finish reading through the paper, perhaps I’ll update this post later if I deem necessary. In fact this paper may be interesting for Java Developers to increase the quality of their codes.

Did you know that Cibai is also a word in Hokkein? A very "crude" one.

Cibai means female’s vagina in hokkien. It is also a commonly used vulgar word as it is the equivalent to the F word commonly used in English. Imagine a conference paper submitted by that name and its being read and heard via loudspeakers @_@.

This was just a coincidence, albeit a very rare random case. Please be careful when naming your products or papers. Google it before you actually put those words to paper.

Microsoft Research : Cibai

Hokkien Definition of Cibai

Norton AV and Internet Security 2010 beta is out

2009-07-06T19:09:00.004+08:00

A few weeks after MSE beta was announced, now its Symantec’s turn with their latest Norton Internet Security 2010 and Norton Antivirus Beta. I was never a fan a Norton’s AV because of their huge memory footprint in previous versions. I heard that the 2009 version improved on this aspect but I was already “converted” to be a loyal user of Kaspersky, so I doubt I will ever go back to using Norton ever again. Don’t let this hinder you to test drive the beta though if you’re interested.

To the folks who want to try out the beta, you can grab it from their Beta Center at http://www.symantec.com/norton/beta/index.jsp

Bear in mind, I have no idea how long the beta will last before it expires. I heard its about 2 weeks to a month, but I’m not able to find any details on this. Just keep this in mind if you decide to test drive it. Do let me know by posting a comment in this thread if you know.

And yes, it works with Windows 7.

Charging Your Mobile Phone Wirelessly

2009-07-03T18:00:00.005+08:00

“Hello? Yes Ma, I want to tell you that I will be … *beep *beep *beep, dead battery.”

How many times have we encountered this surprisingly common scenario? As for me, I always end up searching for the nearest un-vandalized telephone booth. Sometimes I wish my phone came with solar cells so that I can recharge by leaving it under the sun or some portable battery mobile phone charger (I did see one which uses a 9V battery to charge, but its only for old Nokia phones).

Nokia did it. You can charge your phone anywhere, everywhere, even at night! How?

They developed a new prototype charging system, which collects the ambient and stray radio waves such as TV, radio and even mobile phone signals and convert them into electricity. The power currently harvested by the prototype is still quite far from the required power in order to keep the phone in standby indefinitely though, for now. Nevertheless, this is a good sign that it still has great potential.

---Geek mode started! Proceed if you like to know more ---

This conversion of wireless energy into an electrical form was actually demonstrated before by Nikon Tesla in 1893, in his attempt to build an intercontinental transmission tower to send power wirelessly across the Atlantic Ocean. Nokia’s version is a very simple version of it, with just a wide-band antenna and two circuits. The antenna and receiver circuits harvest signals from 500 MHZ to 10 GHZ and convert these EMG waves into electrical current and feed it into the second circuit. The feeder circuit will then feed the current to charge the battery of the mobile phone.

There is a problem though, these circuits have to use less power (power loss + consumption) compared to the amount of power harvested from the EMG waves. Currently, the amount that can be harvested is up to 5 mW. 20 mW is needed in order to charge the battery of the phone enough to keep it on standby mode indefinitely without doing any phone functions. However, for a meaningful charge, a power of 50 mW is needed.

--- Geek Mode End ---

Nokia expects these phones to be out in three to five years time.

By the way, Palm Pre can be charged wirelessly via electromagnetic induction through its “Touchstone”. However, this still requires you to “dock” it to charge it.

Source

The Death of AC Adapters in the Future?

2009-07-01T18:04:00.007+08:00

Recently, Fujitsu Labs has announced that the company has developed a new type of energy-saving transistor, which would eliminate the need of AC Adapters used for notebooks.

This new type of transistor made of gallium nitride can reduce losses that are lost in current power supply units of computers, notebooks and other devices to up to one-third or less of the current level. Also, with the smaller size of this new transistor, the power supply unit can thus be integrated into main body of the notebook itself. This will be handy, all you need is just a power cable (hopefully a generalized cable can be used so that we can use one cable for all different brand of notebooks) direct from your wall socket. This would also help to eliminate possible fire hazards, as I began to doubt the reliability of notebook AC Adapters recently due to frequent report of burnt adapters nowadays.

This transistor is expected to be around for practical application in 2011.

Source

Preliminary Results for Microsoft Security Essentials by Av Test GmbH

2009-06-26T17:14:00.005+08:00

Microsoft has finally did it. MSE passed Av-Test GmbH's preliminary tests. Their tests basically consist of a mixture of 3200 common viruses, bot Trojans and worms. They were obtained from the most recent WildList, so yeah, the malwares are pretty updated.

It is also mentioned that MSE successfully detected all the threats and treated them. Not only that, it also did well in the clean files tests, where MSE are to scan files which are commonly mistaken as "fake positives". MSE did not trigger any false alarm.

Despite claims by rival competitors that MSE will not be able to provide the protection needed, MSE did well to defy the odds. Looks like its a huge slap back on their face.

More tests will need to be done to see if MSE is finally a matured AV product or not. As of now, it looks to be in pretty good shape.

AV-Comparatives.org will be testing the MSE in August, results of the tests will be know in the following month.

I won't bother running my own tests for MSE, the tests from these security companies are credible enough.

Ah, MSE does not use "cloud" to scan, it has its own local database and virus signatures.

Source

Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

2009-06-26T09:47:00.000+08:00

This is a post that is not related to the blog, but I would like to dedicate this post to pay tribute to our King of Pop, MJ who passed away this morning at 6.55 am (Malaysian Time) due to cardiac arrest. You will be remembered and may you rest in peace in heaven.

Microsoft Security Essentials - Day 1 First Impressions

2009-06-24T21:49:00.001+08:00

Ok I was one of the few who spammed the F5 key when midnight was nearing so that I was able to try this AV out. I downloaded the Win XP version, and its size was about 7.5 MB. Below are my quick first impressions so far (I'll write more when I have time later, together with some screenshots). MSE provides both anti-virus and anti-spyware protection.

Installation
Installation was a breeze. I encountered no particular decision making problem during the process. Perhaps the only hiccup was the WGA check, it din't bother me as mine is genuine Windows anyway. Perhaps others might not be as fortunate as me =P. It was just clicking next,next,next, finish.

Initial Run
After it finishes installing, it automatically tried to update the virus definition file, as usual for all AV products. After that, it runs a quick scan of my system. I did not notice any lag (in fact, I din't realise that it finished scanning). I did check my task manager about the memory consumption during the scan, and it seems to hover around 7.2 to 7.7 MB only. Very impressive!

Basic Testing with EICAR sample virus files
All was detected without any problems. It manages to detect and delete the affected files (Quarantine option is there as well) as soon as I finish downloaded the file.

Summary
So far its pretty good, and it is non-disruptive with its small lightweight memory footprint. This will even put AVG to shame as I do experience lag when I run a scan with AVG. I did not realise any slowness when I ran MSE. However how good is its detection engine? So far its pretty good, but its capabilities are not stretched yet. I'll probably download a few viruses to find out :).

If you have a brand new PC and need some basic protection, do consider MSE. The only catch is, you have to be using genuine Windows.

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta is now available!

2009-06-23T23:04:00.001+08:00

Grab it from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ . Only for the first 75,000 downloaders.

Added at 11.17pm GMT + 8 Hours.

To those having problems getting the download link, or receiving the invitation errors, now its fixed. You have to answer a survey by Microsoft before you're able to get the download links. Happy Beta-ing!

Microsoft Security Essentials (codenamed Morro) beta to be available soon.

2009-06-22T14:40:00.002+08:00

This is one of the Microsoft products that I am actually waiting for (besides Windows 7). From readings at Zdnet blogs and neowin, it does seems promising, especially for basic protection for newly installed PC. Its downloaded size of roughly 4-5 MB is definitely tiny, which even makes the lightweight AVG looks like a giant.

Stay tuned for June 23rd !

Here's some screenies for Morro.

Intel Nehalem Chips Preview

2009-05-27T17:47:00.000+08:00

Yesterday on the 26th of May, 2009, Intel previewed their latest member of the Xeon family, codenamed Nehalem-EX despite the global recession. Basically this chip will be the next streamline chips for high-end enterprise and server platforms.

Basically the summary of the new chip from Intel's site is as follows: (copied and pasted from Intel's site)

Intel Nehalem Architecture built on Intel's unique 45nm high-k metal gate technology process
Up to 8 cores per processor
Up to 16 threads per processor with Intel® Hyper-threading
Scalability up to eight sockets via Quick Path Interconnects and greater with third-party node controllers
QuickPath Architecture with four high-bandwidth links
24MB of shared cache
Integrated memory controllers
Intel Turbo Boost Technology
Intel scalable memory buffer and scalable memory interconnects
Up to 9x the memory bandwidth of previous generation
Support for up to 16 memory slots per processor socket
Advanced RAS capabilities including MCA Recovery
2.3 billion transistors

It is also interesting to note that this chip will offer up to nine times the memory bandwidth compared to the previous generation chip (Xeon 7400). That's a whopping but worthy upgrade, especially with the rise in the usage of web applications. In time we'll see if this complements or hinder cloud computing concept.

The chips will be available by second half of 2009. We'll see what AMD will do by then.

Source

Intel, Xeon and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Windows Installer Service could not be accessed

2009-01-07T14:57:00.000+08:00

[This is for Windows XP]

I encountered this problem while installing MS .Net Framework 3.5 Sp1. It failed with an error code MSI 1601, which is "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. Contact your support personnel to verify that the Windows Installer service is properly registered." according to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229683. Interestingly, I was unable to uninstall any programs which uses Windows Installer from Control Panel's Add/Remove Program as well!

Well, there are a few troubleshooting steps you can take, before you start panicking =).

1. Run Services.msc in Start->Run. Scroll down until you find Windows Installer. Try to start it if you can find it. If you can't find it, see the next step. If you're unable to start it, go to step 3.

2. If you can't find Windows Installer, Run CMD in your Run Command to open the Command Prompt. Run the following lines to reregister the service without the qoutes:

"msiexec /unreigster"

"msiexec /regserver"

If it still doesn't appear in your services. you will need to reinstall Windows Installer. It can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=5A58B56F-60B6-4412-95B9-54D056D6F9F4&displaylang=en.

3. In the rare cases that you're unable to start the service, this is usually due to the installation of the AppLocale Utility (which happened to me).

One way to fix this is to delete the following key regedit: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Custom\MSIEXEC.EXE". Remember to do a backup of your registry before you delete the key.

If the steps above did not help you, please refer to the KB at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346

AVG: Invalid Update Control CTF File Error

2008-12-03T16:46:00.001+08:00

This happens AVG tries to update, but the two files responsible: avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf are damaged/corrupted. However AVG does not attempt to repair or delete/recreate these two files automatically. In fact, AVG did not offer any suggested solution to fix this problem.

If you one of the unlucky ones, all you need to do is to do this process manually. First ensure that you can view hidden files. You can enable that by going to Tools -> Folder Options -> View Tab -> Select View Hidden Files and Folders in your Windows Explorer.

For Windows XP, enter this path in your explorer bar "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avg8\update\download".

For Windows Vista, look for the files in "C:\ProgramData\avg8\update\download".

Look for the two files (avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf) above, and delete or rename them. Then run the update component from your main AVG Control Panel, not from the taskbar directly. Your update should work now. Leave the bin files alone, as they are your virus database files.

Source

Finally, USB 3.0 has arrived.

2008-11-20T20:22:00.000+08:00

For those following the new USB stardard closely, you would have probably read this news a few days ago when it was announced (Nov 17th 2008). Known as "SuperSpeed" USB, it is able to transmit up to 5.0 Gb/s (625 MB/s), roughly 1 CD of data per second. That's about 10 times the current bandwidth of the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 standard. USB 3.0 also has better power efficiency with new power management features. USB 3.0 is also fully backward compatible with older USB devices. With this, I guess SuperSpeed Flash Memory will make very good "ReadyBoost" modules on Windows Vista.

While the new bandwidth upgrade is good, its only major positive impact would be for data transmission for storage devices (includes memory flash used by camera, mp3 players, removable hard disks, flash drives). HID won't benefit much from this. Computer mice and keyboard rarely transmit more than 1Mb/s, but I'm sure "USB 3.0 Enabled Device" will be used as a marketing strategy anyway.

I'm curious to see how well USB controllers will fare next year when its out. The full potential of USB 2.0 was not able to be utilized, and I wonder how far USB 3.0 is able to go, practically. As the current USB architecture is a master-slave architecture, the speed of the usb transmission can only go as fast as the host controller can request and handle data transmission from the device.

I'm still hoping to see a refinement (I don't see it yet, perhaps I missed out) on USB OTG (USB on-the-go) feature. This features allows the host controller and device to exchange roles. With this, it is possible to do a data transmission between PC's via the USB interface, which is simpler and faster to setup to a typical Cat5 LAN or adhoc wireless communication. Perhaps we can even form a "ring topology" (star just seem too distant for now, looking at current USB OTG limitation) to link several computer clients using USB interface for a small workgroup. Who knows? I hope my "vision" will be answered...somehow by someone =P.

Anyway, we'll probably start seeing USB 3.0 compatible chipsets by the 2nd half of 2009, and USB 3.0 devices by 2010. As for now, just relax and stick to firewire and USB 2.0.

For those interested to see the official announcement, you can go here to download the PDF file.

p/s: Did you know for USB OTG feature, the Host/Device swap capability is automatically lost when you insert a hub? The two devices will locked to their current roles, until the hub is disconnected.

Slow Streamyx Connections?

2008-11-18T01:56:00.000+08:00

[Warning: Long post]
I wrote an article about some basic streamyx troubleshooting over at lowyat.net forums a couple of years when I was in my uni days. I decided to make it available here so that a much wider range of audience could be addressed, and hopefully it would help you in your quest to get what your streamyx connection is suppose to give you. It may be VERY oudated, but I think its still useful as a headstart to more of the advanced streamyx connection guides that you can find on the web nowadays. If you're interested, you can still head over to the lowyat.net forum link here to check out other posts about the same topic. I just realised most of the time calling tech support for network (espec streamyx) takes a very long time to solve the problem, and usually a frustrating process (not to mention causing "heart attacks" and "hypertension" and "strangling t*n*t's neck syndrome). Here are things which I found out and it helps greatly espec for the technical support side and yourself. At least it would speed up the the process on getting the appropriate actions done. All this is taken from ZTE ADSL 831 Modem webpage. You can get the info via telnet too but i don't think everyone knows telnet xD.

1. If your case is having frequent disconnections, meaning suddenly got signal and no signal, first thing u should is check ur SNR ratings in ur DSL Param.

Check your local and remote SNR margin. the higher the better. the ratings below is for local SNR margin.

30 and above = Good, u shouldnt have disconnections problems.
15 - 30 = Maybe a few when peak time, probably your line needs to be changed
15 and below = Very FREQUENT disconnections. You should consult telekom to have your line checked, most cases are because the line are too old and once they are changed they're fine (the lines on the telephone poles). If you're using a lightning surge protector. REMOVE it. they are known to weaken the signal by around 50-70% in order to prevent the surge on devices.

I found this under WAN -> DSL -> DSL param

ADSL filters does not affect the signal quality for streamyx connections. they only filter out noise for your telephone. Using it or not shouldn't affect your data transfer at all.

As for attenuation, the lower the better. but i don't know the effects other than these yet anyway it shouldn't go above 40dB....most of the time attenuation increases with the decrease of SNR.

2. I have DSL signal but I can't login =(.

Check your ppp details.

Check your last fail cause.

Last Fail Cause: Indicates the action that ended the previous PPP session:
No Valid PADO Recvd: The unit initiated a PPoE handshake but did not receive a packet in reply from the ISP.
No Valid PADS Recvd: After the initial handshake, the unit did not receive a confirmation packet from the ISP.
Stopped by User: The user stopped the connection (for example, by changing the Configuration Manager settings for the PPP interface.)
No Activity: The PPP communication timed out, in accordance with the timeout period specified on the PPP Configuration page.
Auth Failure: The ISP could not authorize the connection based on the user name and/or password provided.
PADT recvd: The ISP issued a special packet type to terminate the PPP connection.
VC down: The Virtual Circuit between the unit and the ISP is down.
Internal failure: A system software failure occurred.

This is found under Routing -> PPP -> click the magnifying glass.

3. I can login but i can't surf!

Be sure to set your DNS servers...
202.188.0.132, 202.188.0.133, 202.188.1.5

4. I can't even login to my router page now, sometimes I can't even get ip address and i can't ping it.

Chances are you got into your router's blacklist......disable and clear it...remember to commit the changes. use another pc to login to it.

Try changing network cables too...for some reason it doesn't like CAT5 cables very much....i'm using CAT 5e cables now even though my CAT 5 cable is working fine with another network sweat.gif .
this is found in Services -> Firewall

5. For more troubleshooting to find out which link is causing problem (gateway,dns server, international link)

Open cmd window, and type: (-t denotes infinite)

ping 219.93.218.177 -t

This would ping streamyx gateway infinitely and test the link between you and the TMNET gateway. If there's a lot of timeouts here, then you know where the problem lies. Typical ping here is around 50-80ms

If there's no problem, then do this:

ping 202.188.0.133 -t
This would ping the DNS server infinitely, to test connection to DNS servers (typical ping is around 80-150ms).

ping google.com -t
This would ping google.com or any other sites, to test international links. for google.com it should be about 300-400ms.

Basically the route path is

You -> Gateway (219.93.218.177) -> DNS server (202.188.0.133) [to resolve the name into IP address to store to your local cache] -> Destination

Other DNS server ip
202.188.0.132
202.188.1.5 (my personal choice)

Latency needed to get data across the pacific is around 300ms.

6. Mis-capped case - how can i get back my "actual" bandwidth?

1. Save a screenshot of your router page with the upload and download bandwidth.
2. Make a call to streamyx hotline.
3. Tell them that you have been mis-capped.
4. Tell them that you are sure it has been mis-capped because :

You discovered about it when you accessed your router configuration page (IMPORTANT!). And make sure the screenshot includes the date on the taskbar so that you can ask for a rebate (If you don't have this, they say they can't check bla bla bla and say you cant rebate cuz in their system its correct since the day its been activated)
You have a screenshot of it if they demand proof and you say you will send it thru email to them if necessary
Add frustration and unsatisfactory tone (VERY IMPORTANT TOO)
Be confident that you have been mis-capped. Don't let the technician think you are a newbie.

5. Wait for 2-3 days, it should be fixed by then. If not, continue to call, or just go to clickers and demand them to change on the same day or see their manager.

- I was a victim of mis-capped case too 2 years ago, got 512k instead of 1M. Unfortunately I had to resort to step 5. Remember, you're the customer, don't need to be "understanding" to them. After all, this is their mistake, not yours.

p/s: Snowfish is my forum nickname over at forum.lowyat.net

Alternative to Viewing and Saving PDF Files

2008-11-12T23:00:00.000+08:00

PDF - Portable Document Format created by Adobe, has been the mainstream for soft copy document format for a couple of years now. Its cross-platform compatibility and ability to have embedded objects (hyperlinks, graphics, and even vector graphics!) have been its major strength and became the standard for web documents.

One very common application to view PDF files is of course, Adobe Acrobate Reader itself. It supports all capabilities and features that the current PDF format has to offer. However, it still takes quite a while (about 5-10 seconds) to launch on my Centrino Duo notebook, but its understandable as it probably the most powerful pdf reader available right now.

One other lightweight alternative is the Foxit PDF Viewer. This has been my favourite since a few years ago in my uni days. Being lightweight and its relatively small size to download (a mere 2.55MB), it provides the necessary yet sufficient basic features support to view PDF files. However, I do notice that the quality of display in Foxit reader still lacks in comparison to Adobe Acrobate Reader. If you are looking for maximum quality for your hard copy print outs, go for the official viewer.

So, what if you have a text document that has to converted to PDF format? Try MagicPDF. It installs a virtual printer driver which actually prints to a file. Just remember to change your selected printer to MagicPDF. The good thing is, it works with all applications and you probably won't be needing any application-specific plugins anymore to convert your file.

Note: Did you know that PDF format was actually created by Adobe?

Links:

Adobe Acrobat Reader http://www.adobe.com

Foxit PDF Viewer http://www.foxitsoftware.com

MagicPDF http://www.magicpdf.com

Unable to maximize Microsoft Word properly?

2008-11-07T17:48:00.000+08:00

Ever experienced the annoying problem of maximizing your word document, just to see it shrink to half or 2/3 screen?

Solution : Go to Start Menu -> Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Right click on Microsoft Word 2007.

Change Run drop down item to Maximized.

Now you're making full use of your monitor again =).

p/s: should work with other window apps as well, but so far I only face this problem with Microsoft Office applications.