Screw Redhat

I was fustrated for about a hour when I suddenly found that the Linux mp3 player xmms stop playing mp3 file. Turns out it was the freaking damn lastest version of the Red Hat build that instored a damn mp3 placeholder because of some stupid patent issue. Screw it. I download this patch and now I am back to business.

The hell.

Starting to get my grip on the Linux stuff

I finally figured out how to install OpenOffice 2.0 and have it running.

(By the way, the OpenOffice 2.0 doesn't have the stupid spellchecking problem. So I am pretty happy with it now :-D )

I followed the instruction and found that the expanded file is actually at "/opt/openoffice.org2.0" directory. I ran the file "/opt/openoffice.org2.0/program/soffice" and I got OpenOffice 2.0 running. I also created an icon at the start menu bar.

Strange hard disk problem

The S drive of my computer was suddenly malfunction for a short while. It was in the middle of launching a video file that the drive suddenly get corrupted. The horrible thing is that even after I used system scandisk to the try to fix it, it still failed. In desperation, I opened the case of my computer, and suddenly the drive seemed to start getting responsive. I then used Aconis Disk Director Suite to fix it and it was fixed.

Glad that the problem was resolved, but still, this is very strange indeed.

By the way, Aconis Disk Director Suite is awesome. It's like Partition Magic 8 but better.

Spellchecker on OpenOffice was not working

I am using the OpenOffice 1.1.2 Write application preinstalled on CentOS 4.2, and I found that the spelling checker didn't change my mis-spelled word even after I click the [Change] button (or something like that). That pissed me off, so I was trying to download and install the new OpenOffice 2.0. Well I sort of completed the installation as instructed, but still don't know how to start the OpenOffice 2.0. Linux is so new a beast to me that I really have hard time figuring out how to make it work. :-<

I created a Acronis Secure Zone on a drive using Acronis TrueImage 9. It was 20Gb in size, and now it contains the following three Operating system at the cleanest stage (at least at this momemnt):
- Windows XP Sp2 with all windows update completed, and checked with no spyware.
- Macintosh OSX Tiger 10.4 for Intel machine.
- CentOS 4.2 tailor for my desktop machine.

What surprised me was that the Trueimage 9 can compress (using Maximum setting) all three partitions within the 20Gb of space.

And now that I have a backup, I am freely messing with the three OS without any worry.

Disk Partition Utility that works better than Partition Magic 8

After being in the market for more than several years without any update and upgrade, Partition Magic 8.0 is showing it's age, and I need to find another boot management and disk partition solution. For instance, it failed to recognized partitions tocuhed by Acronis TrueImage 9.0, even though the Disc Management utility of the Windows XP OS has NOT PROBLEM recognizing that parttion. This shows the incompetance of Partition Magic 8.

Luckily, there are other products in the market, both in open source world in commerical world, that can fill the gap:

- Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0 (Boot Manager)
- Smart Boot Manager
- Acronis Power Utilities 2005

Back to Linux, and boy it is a joy ride!

During my process of setting up dual boot (or in my case, triple boot) so that I can use both Windows XP and Mac OS X on my Pentium 4 Intel box, I also installed Linux on my machine as I need to use the Linux boot manager to let me multiple boot my machine. And boy this bring me back again into the Linux world. I tried embracing Linux into my life couple of time but never work. This time, however, maybe finally working.

The OS that I installed is CentOS 4.2, and it is a very solid installation. I had only one problem during the installation and that was my fault (setting the resolution high than 1280 x 1024 and thus not able to see the screen and got a "out of range" message on my monitor). It recognized quite a lot of my hardware stuff. I was particularly impressed that it recognized the flash memory card that I put in my card reader. This is very important since one of the previous obstacle of me using the Linux environment was that I cannot find a good mean to move important (data files) to and from the Linux world. Now at least I have these flash memory cards as velchile.

I also need to get used to the idea that whenever user log in a Linux box, the account usually does not have admin user right. For instance, while I am in the process of setting up the MacOSX boot partition, I need to run fdisk. The command is NOT available if I login as regular user. I have to login as root, open Terminal, and then in command prompt excute the line "fdisk /dev/hdd", then I set "a" "1" and then "a" "2", and the type x to save the changes.

IT will still take me a while to get used to Linux, but at least now the incentive is bigger than ever.

More OSX adventure

Here's the information about how to set your PC to support Dual boot:

- Use Ultimate Boot CD to bootup WinXP after OSX installed
- osx86 : A site o ask Info about OSX86
- Detail step about how to make Dual Boot
- More people discuss about how to do Dual Boot
-

Using a Mac on PC: Almost a surreal experience

First of all, I made a stupid mistake by thinking that I need a USB mouse and USB keyboard in order to enjoy the the OSX for Intel thing. In fact, I even brought a new USB keyboard today just to prepare for the OSX installation. But then, the keyboard I brought is just a HK$29 chessy one, and this one actually works slightly better than the PS2 keyboard on my desk, so it's all good :>.

The fact is that the OSX install recognized both my PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard.

And damn now that I tried OSX for an hour, I have to say that I really like it. My biggest problem now, though, is to figure out a way to dual boot my machine so that I can use Mac sometimes and use Windows the other times.

More info about installing OSX on Intel machine

Here's some link that you may find useful when installing OSX on your Intel machine:

- Install with Apple.OS.X.x86.10.4.Generic.Install.DVD
- Over simplify how to

Installing Mac OS X on Intel PC

I got a Mac OS X x86 version, and when I reinstalled it, it did NOT recognize my PS/2 mouse, instead it was looking for a USB mouse. I wonder if it also looking for a USB keyboard . :-S

Continue Street testing LK-A6

Continue Testing the Look LK-A6:

- I am pretty confirmed that my old set of 1600mAh rechargeable battery is not good. The new GP chrager recognized those battery as "broken or invaild". And I am kind of believe that it was my crappy old charger that messed up the battery. **&^%&*ing chrager.

- Look LK-A6 as some minor gotcha, but overall it works pretty OK. And with my new set of GP 2500mAh rechargable battery, I could make many Giga bytes of data transfer and the battery was still going strong.

- Overwrite doesn't seem to work too well. It generates a duplicated folder. Very scary. Next time I will for empty a folder before rewriting files.

- It seems like copy a lot of small files is much faster than copy several huge files, even when both set of files are in the same size. Really don't know why.

A practicle and econmic stand for DELL Axim x50v

I found this great and economic stand for the DELL Axim x50v Pocket PC:

Quick battery test on Look LK-A6

Here’s my test on the Look LK-A6 Battery Life test, with a new set of GP Ultra Alkaline Battery.

Test 1:
Copying two avi files from Hard disk to Kingston 2Gb Elite Pro 50x Compact Flash card
- Arrested.Development.S03E03.HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi (178,854K)
- The.Office.US.S02E03.HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi (179,228 K)
It took about 4 minutes, and the batter stays at full 3 blocks.

Then, Test 2:
Copying the whole SD card content to Hard disk.
- Total size : 953K
It took like almost no time to copy.

Finally Test 3:
Copying several NDS Roms to Kingston 2Gb Elite Pro 50x Compact Flash card
- Total size of all files: 145Mb
It took about 2 minutes

And now the first block was blinking, although it was recovered to full three blocks after the copy completed.

By the way:
- All long file name were correctly preserved.
- The Erase feature was not working as I expected, but it's probably because I didn't know the correct procedure.
- I was pretty worry about the LK-A6 not working since when I get into the hard disk, the up down was failed and I got stuck with the cursor pointing at C Drive. But now with the new battery, the navigation was working alright. So I guess the navigation was not working when the voltage was not high enough. The conclusion is that something is wrong with my rechargeable battery (or on the crappy charger.).

Zap Portable Energy

I finally brought Look LK-A6 OTG Hard disk Enclosure last night, and found that the rechargeable battery that they have didn't do the job. I already brought a pack of 8 AA Alkaline battery to test and see whether the problem is on the battery or the harddisk enclosure itself, but it also caused me to research on something called Zap Portable Energy. Basically it's a big battery for charging other electronic devices. The US price is hiffty US$99, while the mainland China price is about YMB 388, which I think it's much more reasonable.

I found two reviews online from some mainland China sites:
- Review 1
- Review 2

Here's some more photo.

The product looks OK, and can be found at COME (國美電器) in Hong Kong, but I definitely will do more research before getting it.

------------------
(Updated on 2005-10-28)
Just found out that this freaking Zap Portable Energy at HK$540 in Hong KOng! Come on! A pack of 4AA 2500mA battery is just HK$55!!! No way I am going to pay $540 for this!!!

Read Japanese on DELL x50v - Finally a solution

After searching for months, I finally found a solution to read and write Japanese on my Pocket PC Dell x50v. I read this site which reference me to this site with detail instruction about how to configure your x50v to work with Japanese. Pretty cool.

Read the lyrics while listening to the song, on PC and on Pocket PC (and Windows Mobile)

I used a great freeware (Adware to be exact) called MiniLyrics which allows you to read the lyrics of the song while listening the song with WinAmp or iTune. The application even integrated a serach engine and can automatically download the lyrics. Well, I just found out that there's a Pocket PC app called Lyrics Magic which support playing back the same .lrc file while playing the song on Pocket PC. OK, now I have a big incentive to buy a bigger CF card for storing music, so that listen songs on PC (while downloading lyrics. And then when I am ready to go places, I just unplug the card and I will have all the lyrics without me.

For downloading Traditional Chinese version, check this link out.

Cool. So intergation my desktop and mobile life. (Damn it I am such a geek.)

E398 -> iTune - For real, but ...

If I am really running out of things to play, I may following this instruction to turn my E398 into a iTune mobile phone. But for now ... sorry, I have other better things to do :-P

Problem loading game with slow CF card with SuperCArd

I experienced some loading problem when I played “0083 - Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (J)” with my Super Card (with Firmware 1.52, of course). I suspect that it’s mainly because the game loaded directly from the card, and the card I used was a regular slow Transcend Compact Flash 256Mb card. I tried Kingston Elite Pro 50x Compact Flash with 2Gb this morning, and didn’t experience any problem at all. So maybe a faster CF can solve the problem.

How to rescure Compaq Presario 1720 US

My lousy Compaq Presario 1720 US laptop was giving me a creep when it failed top boot up after hibernation. It gave me those cryptic “beep beep beep” (no kidding, exactly three beeps) sound and there was nothing on the screen at all. I took the laptop apart one by one like removing memory, removing hard disk, battery and so on, and it still gives me beeping sound. The only difference was that the beep sound was slightly different after I took parts out.

After messing for a while, I finally figured out the solution:

If I hold the power button while also holding Del and Esc button to turn the machine on, I will get back the system bootup screen, and from then I can continue rescue me machine.

That’s it. And after then I simply let the machine boot up normal.

onebag.com - how to travel light

Here's a web site called onebag.com which tells you tips about how to pack your travel suitcase wisely.

Great use of a dead machine

I figured out that my machine was dead this morning because the failed Power Supply.
That's it. After just 1 year and 2 months of service, that GTR 450W power supply was dead. I promise myself that I will never buy another GTR power supply again. But then, it was not that there was no sign of trouble. There were couple of times when the power supply making some strange clinging noise. And when found it dead this morning, there was a pilled off label sort of jammed on the fan. Ironically it's the label of the power supply.

Bye bye forever freaking GTR.

However, since we have a useless desktop at home (dead because it cannot boot up right), so I gutted out that machine, used the power supply on my desktop. And now that after 6 hours of usage, that machine still runs OK. So I will probably keep using this Power Supply until it dies. The only downside is that it does not have enough internal Power plug, so I probably have to buy one sometime later.

IP TV - So much good stuff

The whole IP TV thing is getting more and more awesome, and I love it because it fits my life style extremely well. I spend almost 4 hours today a day on commute, and this is the time I get most of my entertainment plus tech education. All these tech TV shows allows me to fully utilize my commute time.

Here’s a list of shows that I am enjoying these days:
- Call For Help 2.0: get the torrent of each show here.
- Digital Life TV: Tech related TV
- The 1up Show: video game show
- Diggnation : Talk show about technology
- The broken: Errrr…
- System: Tech TV , enough said
- ComnandN: More Tech talk TV
- From the Shadow: Strange take on Tech, teen extreme x daily tech.
And if you enjoying all sorts of Podcas:

- ODEO
- Podcase.net

And Digg has technology news delivered based on a funny mechanism: vote.

Konfabulator Widget - free stuff to make your desktop more productive

You may have heard the Widget for Macintosh OS X and the Gadget (previously the sidebar thing) for the future Windows Vista. Well you don't have to wait for the future now, because the company who orignally came up with the Gadget idea was sold to Yahoo, and now you can download this Konfabulator Widget platform for free. The widgets are fun, pleasent looking, and in many cases useful. And I heard that it's pretty easy to create.

First there's Picasa, now Widget. Woo ...

More awesomely cool stuff for free: Widget

You may have heard the Widget for Macintosh OS X and the Gadget (previously the sidebar thing) for the future Windows Vista. Well you don't have to wait for the future now, because the company who orignally came up with the Gadget idea was sold to Yahoo, and now you can download this Konfabulator Widget platform for free. The widgets are fun, pleasent looking, and in many cases useful. And I heard that it's pretty easy to create.

First there's Picasa, now Widget. Woo ...

Exporting JPEG in Adobe Illustrator CS

I just realized that if I want to export a JPEG filea from Adobe Illustrator CS so that I can maintain the document size (800 x 600 in my case) and have the JPEG file important in PowerPoint at ease (without too much of resizing mess), I need to make sure that there's no hidden object occupies the area outside of the document. Such an obvious tidbit, but I was failed to recognized it and was fustrated myself my exporting a bunch not-so-right-in-size JPEG file.

Exporting with Adobe Illustrator CS

I just realized that if I want to export a JPEG filea from Adobe Illustrator CS so that I can maintain the document size (800 x 600 in my case) and have the JPEG file important in PowerPoint at ease (without too much of resizing mess), I need to make sure that there's no hidden object occupies the area outside of the document. Such an obvious tidbit, but I was failed to recognized it and was fustrated myself my exporting a bunch not-so-right-in-size JPEG file.

Nintendo DS as media player: Forget about it for now

I was testing out using Nintendo DS as a movie player and mp3 player while I was on my commute to home. I have to conclude that it was not a good experience. Sure the video plays OK smooth on a NDS, which is much better than those chessy GBA movieplayer thing. But the the upper NDS screen has not too big viewable angle, I had to hold my NDS pretty still in order to watch the movie comfortably. And then I found NO button to pause the playback. That really is a serious blow to me.

For being a mp3 player, I find the audio playback engine not working too well. The quality was definitely worse than playing the same mp3 file on my Dell x50v PPC.

So, in conclusion, NDS is a great game machine, but probably much inferior on media support comparing with PPC, and probably worse than PSP.

Playing video on Nintendo DS

I tried to convert a 60 minutes video ([TVBT]Densha Otoko_Ep_01_ChineseSubbed.avi) using dmvtools for watch on Nintendo DS. The result was far from stella. The file size is about 878Mb! Comparaing with the original 231Mb rmvb file, such huge difference is just unacceptable. Guess I should forget about using NDS as a serious media play.

Strange problem and strange solution with disc image

I was a bit shocked when I loaded up a Adobe Illustrator CS2 image in Alcohol 120% and found that even though the image was loaded, Alcohol 120% couldn't recognize the disc! After being panic for about 3 seconds, I figure out a strange solution that worked:

- Load up Nero 6
- Set the recorder as Image Recorder, open the .cue file, and RECORD it.
- A .nrg file will be created.
- Open this file with Alcohol 120%
- Success

Quick visit at Golden Shopping Center

I had a quick visit at Golden Shopping Center today mainly for 2 missions:

- To find a reasonable priced Webcam to buy (as gift for a friend)
- To serach for a OTG supported BiDirectly copying 2.5 inch harddisk case

First, let talk about the webcam. I found out that for cheap and generic brandname web cam, they usually cost between HK$75 to HK$150, depends on resolution (from 10K to VGA quality) and various gizmo feature (like front light, USB 2.0 speed). However, I am a bit worry about buying generic ones since this is a gift for a friend who has not much computer experience. I perfer getting something that is from a brandnamed company with a track record of updating their driver reasonably frequently.

I found that the cheapest brand name one is form Logitech called Quickcam Messenger. They are selling at a few store at Golden for HK$135, which to me is very reasonable. I read some review and seems like the product itself is OK. And then I read some praising review about this thing is thing at Amazon.com. So I think I will get this one tomorrow for my friend. PLus there's still update for the webcam, so I think this webcam should have a future ... unlike those generic ones.

As for OTG capable bi-direction harddisk enclosure, I found the Look LK-A6 seemingly a very good buy. Here's the reasons:

- Resonably priced: HK$320.
- With a forum with people actually answering question.
- Have a nice FAQ that solves most of my problem.
- Decent speed as it has a true USB 2.0 port.
- Have information online that I can find.
- Works with connecting to PSP.

So I guess I will get this one tomorrow.

Here's the outlooking of the product.
Here's the information about performance.

SuperCard - More and more fun everyday

There is a MoonShell media player for Nintendo DS, and it works pretty fine with CF card. Here's the download site, and here's the author's offical blog.

BTW, here's the English unoffical discussion site for SuperCard.

Gimpshop: Gimp with Photoshop (sort-of) UI

Check this open source app called Gimpshop out. You get photo editing power free of charge.

Find one good reason to move to Photoshop CS2: High Dynamic Range

I finally find a great reason to move to Photoshop CS2: High Dynamic Range. It allows me to combine multiple photos and have the dymamic range expanded to cover all the images, thus the resultant compsition of the photo looks right. For more detail, check this one out.

OpenOffice Portable version

OpenOffice Portable version allows you to open Office files without installing Microsoft Office or even OpenOffice itself.

Free Web Hosting - as of 18 Oct 2005

Here's some free web hosting sites, as of 18 Oct 2005:

- http://www.worldfreeweb.com/
- http://hp-h.com/index.php
- http://xthost.info/
- www.atspace.com

Short films for Pocket PC

If you are interest in watching some nifty short film, trailer, animation and commericals on Pocket PC, here's a site for you.

Burning DVD .iso that is "too big"

I was a bit puzzled this morning when I tried to burn a 4.37Gb DVD .iso image. Nero 6 complained that the regular DVDR disc is not big enough to handle the .iso. So I have to resrot to the plan B by first expanding the .iso into all the content files (using Winrar), and then create a new DVD Video in Nero with files I just expanded. All seems fine after then.

Problem solved, but I still wonder why it failed in the first place.

Supercard 1.52 firmware and old GBA Realtime save

Those of you who used SuperCard for a long time to play GameBoy Advanced game with Realtime save may have experienced the shock when you realized that after your upgrade the SuperCard firmware to 1.50, all your previous SuperCard realtime save was failed to load. The firmware 1.52 fixed the problem, and I confirmed it by trying out all 22 of the GBA Readltime Save game that I had.

However, there's a minor problem, and I think that problem has nothing to do with 1.52. In fact that problem may have exist for a long while already. When I have the realtime save game of the following games loaded up:

- Legend Of Zelda - Link To The Past
- F Zero
- Game and Watch Advance

They all have some sort of problem. Zelda loaded up with a tower map, but after I press any key, I got a black screen with the sound and the game continue running. Same case happened for F-Zero. For Game and Watch Advance, I got regular game playing with anonying beep sound at the back and some messed up screen.

Solution: First load the game without using Realtime save. Use the regular save file to start the game. I have aregular save file for the spot near the place I do realtime save, so I will be OK. This is also another good reason why it's definitely necessary step to save your regular save (.sav) whenever it's possible.

My explaination is that some data was not saved using RealTime save, and those data was loaded if you play the game in regular sequence. By playing the game in regular way until the point close to RealTime save, you loaded up the proper data in the memory. Combining with realtime save and you get the right game play continuing.

More on SuperCard 1.52 Firmware - Some card still save to DS Card

I posted my founding on SuperCard Firmware 1.52 at a Nintendo DS web site. Here's what I wrote:

今天花了點時間, 將一直在玩的遊戲用 SuperCard 2.24 轉換器 全轉為 Load from CF card, Save at CF card. 經過一番反覆測試, 發現以下遊戲成功將 save 到CF Card 上：

0003 - Yoshi Touch and Go (US)
0004 - Feel the Magic
0005 - Wario Ware
0083 - Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! (JP)
0091 - Nintendogs - Dachshund & Friends (US)
0096 - DS Rakubiki Jiten (JP)
0106 - Pac'n Roll (US)
0112 - Trace Memory (US)
0127 - Phoenix Wright

但以下的遊戲, 卻仍舊Save 到 DS Card 上, 不論 在SuperCard 2.24上如何設定：

須要4K EEPROM (我用 0015 - Catch! Touch! Yoshi! (JP))
0061 - Bomberman (US)

須要64K EEPROM (我用 0004 - Feel the Magic)
0056 - Super Mario 64 DS (US)

只要有合適的DS Card, 關機後記錄就不會消除了.



"００８３－應援團！" 不穩定, 但總算可以玩一點點. :-}


另外, 請在香港的朋友不要用廣東話吧. 很多國內的朋友看不懂呢. 畢竟這是一個全國性的網站, 希望香港的朋友能夠明白. 我也是香港人, 而且在美國活了１２年, 打中文對我來說是苦差, 但為了方便大家溝通, 我覺得是值得的.

Strange, Bomberman DS HAS TO save in DS Card?

Seems like most of the game I tried with SuperCard 1.52 firmware worked as expected, except Bomberman DS. It seems like no matter how I set in the SuperCard conversion application, it still saves to the memory card! In fact, unless I use a DS card with EEPROM 4Kb (like the Yoshi Touch game that I have), the save game won't work properly! I tried bootup with "Nintendog" and "Feel the Magic". Both failed. Strange isn't it?

Tried out SuperCard Firmware 1.52, and seriously loving it

The SuperCard Firmware 1.52 is so amazing! I can use it to play a lot of games that previously cannot be played. It also allows me to have backups on Nintendog that I raise. Totally awesome.

Some testing and observation:

- A ROM needs to have a .sav file (by default 256K in size created by the SuperCard app) with the same name in the same directory. Otherwise the save game won't be saved! No .sav file will be automatically created. So beware.

- Some (like 80%) of the .sav (4K or 64K ones) create by the previous version (1.50) can be recognized by the new 1.52 converted ROM. Some, however, doesn't work. For instance, Mario DS cannot recognize the old save. BUt then most of the others do.

- There's a slightly among of load time between scene. But they are mostly unrecognizable.

- Nintendog seems to work pretty work with 1.52.

- The SuperCard app created all save file (.sav) with the same 256K size. Wonder why.

That's all for now.

天上天下 comics online

Here a site for reading 天上天下 comics online, all the way up to Chapter 87.

More testing on the newly received E398

OK, tried another 5Mb song "01 - Extraordinary Machine.mp3" and this one plays pretty well. However, tried playing back video and it's still juggle after 2 minutes.

So .... I guess I still cannot convince myself to buy a new TransFlash card to the Mobile.... unless the card is getting cheap. :-<

E398 Received. eBooks playback OK, but 5.5Mb song still failed

I received back ny E398 phone from repair shop. The technical person said they changed motherboard. Damn.

I tried playing back all the 1.5Mb eBook file. Now they sound all OK. BUt the "14-The Pussycat Dolls ft. Busta R - Don't Cha.[www.mixermusic.net].mp3" song file still skills once 7 seconds. Sigh.

SuperCard 1.52 has been release, tried, and .... :-<

Well, just downloaded the lastest firmware 1.52 from SuperCard. At first I accidentally downlaoded the firmware upgrade and new converted app for SD card and it just didn't work. I downloaded the CF card version and it worked fine.

I tried the conversion app, and found that the some wordings are darken. But it didn't seem matter, cause the converted ROM still work.

I tried the ROM "0083 - Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (J)(PROJECTG)(2d59b3c8).zip" . It worked ... to a point. The machine hanged at a one stage of the game.

OH well, nothing is perfect, but at least now I can play something that previously cannot be played at all.

And here a list so that you can check which game definitely won't work with 1.52, and which game can at least boot up.

My Motorola E398 was dead - and it's all my fault

My Mototrola E398 was so dead that I had to send it to the Causeway Bay Motorola repair center.

It's was all started yesterday when I started wondering if I should spend some money to buy a TransFlash card to trun my mobile phone to a MP3 player. I brought with me the headphone that came with the E398 and tried it out this morning when I commuted to work. The sound quality was OK was the control was sluggish. But it was not the worst.

The worst part of E398 Mp3 playback support was that it got juggled once in a while. It's like every 10 seconds it skipped like 0.25 seconds. Very annoying. And it seemed to happen on file bigger than 1Mb. All my file (MIDI + MP3) which is smaller than 1Mb has no problem. And two of the bigger file I tired (a 1.5Mb audio book file, and a 4Mb song file) both failed to play smoothly.

So I started to wonder if upgrading the firmware may solve the problme.

Big mistake.

And on the top of that, there's a rumor that I can convert my mobile into a iTune phone. That gives me more incentive to do the advanture.

I follow this update firmware procedure and try to find the new firmware.

First, I found this new update. DAted back to 2005-05. Not current enough. However, I then find this newer and more advanturous one. So I tried this.

It required the machine to be in Flashcard mode. Fine, but caused by office machine to spend a lot of time to find the driver.

And then the firmware update apps started. AFter about 10 minutes, the firmware update completed.

And when I restarted the phone, it blinked, darken, blinked, darken. Never went back to the regular mode.

So I have to go to the Causeway Bay Moto repair center and turned in my E398.

At this momment I am still waiting for the repair verdict.

But then, this may be a good thing since now the repair center will have to refresh my firmware. Maybe they will give me the firmware that solves the mp3 playback problem.

iPod with video support finally arrive

Finally, video iPod is arrived, with the new iTune 7.0 and Quicktime 7.0. However, with such a tiny screen, I wonder how can the video watching experience it will be.

Also I wonder if the new iTune sloves the previous freaky problem which forcing you to use the OS language as the iTune application menu language. We'll see. (Installing it now.)

Japanese junky

If you are into all sort of crazy Japanese sub-cultural product, you should check this JBox site out.

http://jeansnow.net/

A nice Japanese culture blog : http://jeansnow.net/.

Still love my GBA SP

Yesterday I need to put Super Mario Brothers GBA ROM on Flash2Advance (as the ROM does not work with SuperCard), thus I pulled out my Flash2Advance with my GameBoyAdvance SP. I was kind of suprise how lightweight the GBA SP feels like, probably because I played NDS with a GBA game for about 2 hours just a while ago. The weight was so obivious. In fact, I was instantly feel glad that I didn't trade away the GBA SP, because it's actually a bit painful playing GBA game on NDS due to the heavy weight of NDS.

And if I complained about the weight of NDS, imagine how much I will complain about the weight of those Tablet PC.

My strange BIOS setting ...

I don't get it. I already disabled two of the three drives that I have on the BIOS setup. But after I booted up my machine, the OS still recognize the two "disabled" harddisk. Also the bootup drive selection seems to be working on something, but not exactly as I expected. Specifically, the drive I picked a startup drive wasn't being recognized as first drive when I boot up partition magic.

Strange error with Portfolio 7

I just encountered a strange error message from Portfolio 7 when cataloging my collection of downloaded photos. The cataloging process stopped and report an error message saying that either my machine was out of space, or some other problems causing the catalog process to stop.

I suspect that one of the following situation happened:
1. There's a limit on maximum number of files that Portfolio 7 can handle, that I just reached that number.
2. There's a limit on catalog file size, and my catalog just reached that number.
3. There's something wrong with the DVD disc that tried to catalog.

I tend to think that (2) is the case, since the file size of the catalog is now 4,293,918.720 bytes.

Maybe I'll spend sometime to figure out the real reason later.

3DStudio Max 8 is out

Sweet. 3D Studio Max 8 is out. I download the demo and installed it. The UI looks extremely familiar, which is good. I don't want to learn another UI afterall.

BTW, my friend told me about a SoftImage show that is coming to HK. Sounds very cool and I think I will go there to take a look.

NIntendo DS - Still loving it

I am totally enjoying my Nintendo DS these days. The games are all very interesting and innovative. Although not all games are SuperCArd really, those that works with SuperCard are already awesome enough and I don't even how time to play all of them. In fact, I spent 60% of my NDS time on Nintendog, one of the three game cards that I brought.

Scary! Cannot create Boot Partition on my SATA Drive?

Scary! Cannot create Boot Partition on my SATA Drive?

This morning I was working on making my Serial ATA harddisk as the bootdisk instead of the EIDE drive. I set it at the BIOS screen to take the SATA drive as the primary drive. But I tried installing both WinXP and Vista Beta 1, and I still got problem of Boot.ini failed to find the right partition to boot up.

Well, I'll try it again tonight.


[Note to Self]
WinXP on PS-IC35.... (EIDE drive. Working fine)
Vista on 4M-.... (SATA drive. Seems not working)

Acronis True Image 9 - There's ONE thing I love about it

I tried out the Acronis True Image 9 and burned the emergency boot up CDR. The Bootup doesn't have any new functionality comparing with the version 8, but it does come with something that's very important to me: it provides a Safe Mode boot up which the Acronis app WITHOUT the USB driver. And it was the USB driver that cause the bootup so DAMN LONG on version 8. So remember to boot up the Acronis True Image 9 Emergency Disk using the SAFE MODE!!!!

PC-1500 emulator

Wow, here's the PC-1500 Emulator.

Wonder if there's pocket computer emulator out there ....

Yesterday I had gathering with my old pal dated back from my primary school days. We brought up an issue about playing some old programmable calculators which made up of major part of my teenage days. Machines like Casio FX-502P, FX-602P, EL-512, FX-702P, FX-3600P and then Sharp PC-1500, PC-1250 and even the PC-1600. Damn, now I even start to remember those handheld computers (A4 size) like NEC PC-8201, Casio FP-200, Epson HC-20 ....

Gee, I wonder if there's any web site, or even emulator, dedicated to all those Japanese classic machines.

Finally installed Vista Beta 2. Not impressed.

I finally got Vista Beta 2 installed on my home machine. I am so glad that I preserved my original desktop OS using Acronis TrueImage (more about this later).

The installation was going pretty OK as I installed it as the first partition of my harddisk. Seems like I can only have one primary partition on my desktop. And I already sort of accepted the fact. So my only way to swap between different OS is by using Acronis TrueImage to load or save image. Oh well, at least there's a way to do so.

Back to Vista. After the installation I didn't get sound. So I have to let the System serach the Sound driver. I forget whether the driver was found in the drive disk of my ASUS motherboard disc or, but at least I have the sound working.

Then I found that the system was horribly slow. So I set the performance to best performance. All the gmmick UI suddenly gone, and at the same time the system becomes very fast. Obviously, the stupid UI effect drain the performance. I adjust the setting so that I see SOME of the fancy UI effect but not all.

AFter played it a while, I found nothing that really kept me from using it. So I saved a TrueIMage image, and switched back to my old OS.

UNless they improve the sluggish UI, no way I will use Windows Vista.

Oh, my Acronis TrueImage Server 8.0 boot disc was stuck at some point and bitching about some USB error. However, after patiently waited for about a few minutes, the application eventually comes up. The same problem happens when I start up from Windows. So I am going to install Acronis TrueImage 9.0 and see if it works better.

I found out that the Partition Magic 8.0 boot disc and Acronis TrueImage boot disc really is a life saver. Without them, reinstalling OS will become much bigger a pain.

Nintendog and NDSPatch

I figured out that the NDSPatch on Nintendog was not working. Although it seems like it saved part of the information, like the name of the dog and a few voice command, it messed up the setup so that the Going Out and Inventory menu never shows up, though render the game into not quite playable in long run.

Fine temp file hosting site

Found a fine temp file hositng site.
http://www.sendmefile.com/
Tried. At least it works.

Office 2003 Service Pack 2 - Tried, but ...

I applied Office 2003 Service Pack 2 on my office machine (running Traditional Chinese version) and my home machine (running US version). My home Office 2003, which was a fresh install and thus no previously service pack installed, have Service 2 installed without any problem. No yepping, new piracy checking, no nothing. It just worked. On my office machine, however, the installation was failed because the service pack claimed that no product was found. This is bull shit since I clearly see and using Word and Excel 2003 running on my box, and they are both in Service Pack 1. Well, screw it, at least my home machine was upgraded :> .

Using FlashMe prolongs battery life (comparing with using PassMe)

I did an experiment today and found out that using FlashMe prolongs battery life (comparing with using PassMe). I did it by turning on a fully charge machine and let it ran a game until the NDS turned itself off. Here's the result:

11:16 am - 4:42 pm
(5 hours 26 minutes)

Comparing with 3 hours 50 minutes, I gained about 1.5 hours by not using PassMe.

How to speed up Portfolio 7 catalog process

I found out that if my skip metadata scanning while cataloging a DVDR full of picture using Portfolio 7, the processing time will be become much faster.

Prcoedure to downgrade PSP firmware to 1.5

Here an instruction link to downgrade PSP firmware to 1.5 .

Problem saving game for 大合奏

I have problem saving game for 大合奏 after NDSPatched. L-<

Probably the single shooting game so far (for NDS)

My brother is a big time shooting game fan, so I am going to show the Nanostray NDS game to show. This is probably the only NDS shooting game so far.

NDSPatch - Now I get it

I finally got NDSPatch running right. It's actually very easy.

And based on the forum, there are pretty fair among of games that have the game saved in SRAM, and I can easily put those SRAM in CF card by using the SuperCard Saver feature. I turned the following games:

- 0091 - Nintendo
- 0061 - Bomberman (U)
- 0080 - NanoStray (U)

And all three seems to work great. I was particularly surprise that the 0091 Nintendog works because it suppose to use 2Mb save.

The use NDSPatch properly:
1. Drag your clean ROM to the NDSPatch exe. A new .gba extension of the converted file will be created.
2. REMOVE the .gba extension.
3. Create a .sav file (or copy from old ones) with the EXACT save name as the game. So if the game is hello.nds, then the save will be hello.sav .
4. Well, start play! When you need to save, just turn off and instantly turn on the machine. Use the SuperCard save feature.
5. Next time when you turn on NDS and play those NDSPatched ROMs, the game will AUTOMATICALLY pick up the .sav from the CF card! Isn't it awesome?

I love the fact that I don't need to load a fake GBA file for loading save game!

Not all game works with NDSPatch though, so I guess I need to keep reading the forum or try it out myself.

Nintendog - Better play in Power Saving mode

It seems to me that if I am serious about playing Nintendog, like walking the dog a lot, or join competition a lot, I better play the game in power saving mode (leave the machine on by closing the lid instead of turning off the machine. Otherwise the Nintendog will not proceed the virtual day in the game, and I will have problem walking the dog more often to get more prizes.

Not found hanging game ... yet

Remember I previous found two instance of NIntendo DS hanging while I was playing with SuperCard? I saw that people the 3rd time two days ago, but it was because I accidentally moved them PassMe card. And I think that now I use FlashMe, I will probably won't see the problem again.

A great game but not work for SuperCard

I saw Xplay (2005-09-26) demonstrating the crazy game called Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, and think that this could easily be a game as cool as one of those WarioWare serious. Too bad it does not work with SuperCard. Maybe I'll pick it up at the second hand market.

PSP Firmware downgrade to 1.5 becomes reality

People don't have to worry about buying non-Firmwire 1.5 PSP, and for Sony ... sigh.. nightmare to them.

Site 1
Site 2

Some brave stuffs I did to my Nintendo DS

Today instead of going to sleep (curse me for not doing so!), I did the following brave stuff:

- I opened NDS's battery case and GBA SP's battery case. I found out that I can use my GBA SP's battery in NDS by snapping off some plastic nod on the GBA SP's battery. I tried and it worked great. It's good that I didn't sell off the GBA SP. So many parts that I can reuse :-D.

- I flashed my NDS with FlashME. To short the machine (part of the step to install the firmwire), I use a screw driver, and it worked great. I tried Lost In Blue US (patched version) and Pac N Roll US. Both works great with FlashMe, and it also makes saving game reasonably easy.

Now I need to find out whether using FlashMe can really save some battery life comparing with using PassMe.

This is probably the most softcore game for DS

This is probably the most softcore game for DS : [link] .

This is probably the most softcore game for DS

This is probably the most softcore game for DS - [Link].

More about Saving games for Flash2Advance

Tried several times, reinstall, reboot, and still couldn't get F2APowerWriter version 2.61 recognizing. So very pissed. And screw that.

I find that I cannot just run f2aw 3.1 in my laptop. There needs to be some drivers to install before I can use f2aw. Ironically those drives will be installed by the F2APowerWriter installation. After installation, f2aw 3.1 works fine on my laptop, and I can backup and load my save games at ease.

Using Flash2Advance is still a troublesome experience

Facing with the fact that the using SuperCard to play SuperMarioWorld has huge slowdown problem, I decided to resurrect the Flash2Advance card to just play that game. Besides, there's a new writer appication for Flash2Avance flash card. So I thought, maybe I should give it a try.

Well, the experience was definitely NOT GOOD.

First of all the new version 2.61 DOES NOT work with my Flashcard (which is just a normal 256M bit card. So I need to fall back to the older version 2.40.

Then the USB driver does NOT work with my desktop, so I have to run the whole Writer thing on my laptop (it's always nice to have a second computer as I fall back solution). The "new" USB Driver that I downloaded DOES work on my laptop, though.

And the most anonying part is the lack of easy save game backup soluition. To load and save save game to and from my Flash2Advance card, I need to use the old F2A Writer to backup save.

And to think about it, all these applications maybe not be able to run properly when Windows Vista arrives. Sigh ....

A $25 Nintendo DS protection case

I brought this Nintendo DS protection case for $25 at a Tsuen Wan store. It's made out of soft plastic, unlike the $40 one which made out of hard plastic. My suggestion? Go get the $40 one! The soft plastic one doesn't engulf the Nintendo DS tight enough to make it a practicle solution.

Coolpix 3200 takes low resolution movies that works with BetaPlayer

I knew for a while that the regular quailty movie taken by Nikon Coolpix 3200 can be viewer on a Pocket PC device using BetaPlayer. Today I confirmed that the lower quality movie taken by Coolpix 3200 can also be viewed by Pocket PC. Nice :->