Some Tidbits about using RepliGo 2.5 Client for Pocket PC

RepliGo is a great client for eBook generation and viewing. The lastest version of the viewer on Pocket PC is version 2.5, and after using it a while, I found that following gotcha that you may need to pay attention to:

- The RepliGo PocketPC client can only see files in the first level directory. That means, if you put file in /SomePlace/awesome.rpo , RepliGo 2.5 can see it and display it in the document list. But if you put the files into deeper directories like /SomePlace/YetAnotherPlace/YouAreDoomed.rpo, then you won't see the file in the RepliGo document list. That's bad for the following reason.

- If a document doesn't show up in the Repligo Document list, even though you can open it from File Explore, the setting and last viewed page setting won't be saved. I personally rely on the client to remember the spot where I left off, so this auto bookmark feature is critical for me.

- Always open file from the RepliGo document list instead of from File Explorer. I already explained it above.

- You can always change the font size on flow setting by click and hold on the page, and then select [View->Flowed->(size)]. And best part is that the setting will be preserved next time you come back to the document.

NDS: Kaitou Rousseau - Strange but fine

Kaitou Rousseau is surely a strange game. It's actually more of a digital comics, which you unfold the story by clicking, drawing and pointing thing. I am able to slowly progressing on the game thanks to it's nice instant save feature. And with the FAQ, I think I am be able to even finish it.

NDS: Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest

I was testing the game Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and to my surprise I think the game is not too bad. However, I got stuck and first level and there's no way to save the game, and there is no walkthought on the web , so I am sort of giving it up for now. But the biggest problem is the contrast. The game is simply too dark to be comfortably playable on my on my Nintendo DS Classic. Maybe this game is my excuse to get a NDS Lite? Well, nope, not for this game.

Sony VAIO Type U

I thought Sony VAIO Type U is a nice gear to fulffill my ultimate portable device dream until I saw the device personally at Wan Chi computer center. The screen is just too small to cramp in 1024 x 800 resolution! My eyes will blind if use that gear quality, and by turning on the 640 x 480 mode with web browser on Pocket PC, I know exactly the experience is like to use that Type U to browse web page: it will be HORRIBLE. Well, better wait for another device.

Still I was trying to figure out the price of U50 in Hong Kong and see if it drops to a reasoanble price range. The device does not look too cute , but I was hoping that the price can be drop to HK$7000. The Sony U series seems to have quite some fans. For there are Wikipedia entries . And people seems to use it more as a super powerful media player .

Struts Studio 3.x not green friendly

Still speaking for the ultimate Tablet based PC

YOu know me. I am still seraching and seraching and seraching for the ultimate device for watching i1080 video, reading eBook, and maybe sketch some picture along the way. I sort of settled with my DELL Axim x50v for me, but always look for the next big thing. And I know what I want:

- 7 inch screen
- Touch screen support (I can live with customized stylus
- 4 hours + battery life.
- Less than 2 pounds (the lighter the better)
- Under US$1000.
- Good screen with huge viewable angle.

Is the new Ultimate Portable PC does the job? Far from. But it's getting to the right direction.

- Hands-on with the Samsung Q1 / Origami
- Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC
- Comparing multiple portable machines
- PC Mag Review
- Cnet Review

Still speaking for the ultimate Tablet based PC

YOu know me. I am still seraching and seraching and seraching for the ultimate device for watching i1080 video, reading eBook, and maybe sketch some picture along the way. I sort of settled with my DELL Axim x50v for me, but always look for the next big thing. And I know what I want:

- 7 inch screen
- Touch screen support (I can live with customized stylus
- 4 hours + battery life.
- Less than 2 pounds (the lighter the better)
- Under US$1000.
- Good screen with huge viewable angle.

Is the new Ultimate Portable PC does the job? Far from. But it's getting to the right direction.

- Hands-on with the Samsung Q1 / Origami
- Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC
- Comparing multiple portable machines
- PC Mag Review
- Cnet Review

Ultimate Fighter

I saw a new US TV show from the channel Spike, and I was wondering what that show is. Turns out it's yet another reality show about having a bunch of body builder or boxer living in a room kind of big brother deal.

OK, enough is enough.

Scary, M-Audio Firewire Solo stopped working for a short while

Here's how the crazy thing happened:

I have Mac OSX Intel 10.4.6 installed on my desktop. And then I have the Firewire Solo for Mac driver installed. During the process it said something like Firmware upgrade. I let it go and the installation was completed. I can play mp3 on the Mac side.

Then I switched back to Windows XP, and to my surprise the FireWire was stopped working!!! And no matter how many times I unplugged and plug again it still failed. I was very fustrated. Finally I have the Firewire connected when rebooting the machine to the Mac side. On the Mac side, I was told that the firmware update was once again going on. And then the Mac side worked. Without disconnecting anything, I switched back to the PC side, and finally the Windows side recognized the Firewire Solo, and installed the corresponding driver.

Strange enough, at the last step even the PC side says something like "the firmware is now being updated".

So does it mean that the firmwire will be updated everytime I switch from Mac to Windows, or from Windows to Mac?

That doesn't make sense, and surely make my switching life much more complicate :- < .

Let me reboot once and see how goes ...

There are unconvertable PDF files

Last night I found something really strange. There was a strange PDF file that I downloaded from the Net. It seems like just a regular Traditional Chinese document with nothing but a bunch of text in the content. But when I tried to copy and paste the text content in a NotePad, I got a bunch of garbage. And then I tried to convert it to HTML document, and I got a strange error saying something that I didn't understand. Notice that I was not using merely the reader, but the Adobe Acrobat 3D. So .... clueless.

Vista have Chinese input preinstalled

I thought I need to explictly install Chinese input in Vista beta2, but it seems like it has been preinstalled..... STrange.

Super Mario 2.5D

The hell ....

Two gigabyte memory, not much faster

I added a 1Gb DDR400 memory module in my home desktop computer. I didn't see any particular performance increase, but at the same time, I didn't find the machine being hogged and spending anytime on busy disk access while using multiple VMWare virtual machine. So I guess that HK$650 I spent on the KIngston memory is still worth while.

Antivirus Solution for Windows Vista Beta 2

I was trying to install AVGAntivirus on my Windows Vista Beta 2 but then I encountered the error message saying that the current version of AVG Antivirus free vesrion doesn't work with Vista:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This version of AVG 7.0 Anti-Virus System (avg7rsxp.sys) is known to have compatibility issues with the version of Windows you are running. AVG 7.0 Anti-Virus System (avg7rsxp.sys) has been blocked from running because it might keep your computer from starting correctly in the future. This program was created by Grisoft, Inc..

Contact Grisoft, Inc. about upgrades or other possible solutions to help make this program compatible with this version of Windows.

Grisoft, Inc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


I went to the web site and found that even the latest version doesn't work. So I gave up and get the one year free trial subscription of CA E-Trust EZ-Antivirus. After all the beta will expire within a year anyway, right :> .

I got the download link and the license key WX4TY-ECRXL-XZCIH-RKWXL , and went ahead installed it.

It worked. All is well :> .

Got Sound woring on Vista in VMWare

I got sound working on Vista in VMWare:

step 1: In VM Setting, Specify sound host adapter.
step 2: Go to Device Manager. Update Driver, and let it browse the net.
step 3: Finally it gives me back "Creative AudioPCI (ES1371, ES1373) (WDM)"

Done and done.

More about Vista on VMWare

This VMWare official page has some info about installing Vista on VMWare. I haven't tried any of the advice though.

Also after network driver installed, Network Adapter will show "VMWare Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter".

Windows Vista Beta 2 on VMWare, working, and pretty nice

Ever since I learnt to use VMWare, I conduct all my risky system testing on VMWare. Anything that couldn't suddenly be installed and execute on VMWare will be eliminated from my test list. And that's why I skipped the last Vista Beta 1 since it was so VMWare unfriendly.

Recently Microsoft released a public beta of Windows Vista Beta 2, so I downloaded the 4Gb DVD iso, burned it on a DVD+RW disc, and installed it on a VMWare system. To my surprise, it ran pretty well. The following is my observation:

- A simply no fancy installation sucked up 9Gb of my harddisk space. Yes, I know Microsoft Windows is a fat a**. Still :-I

- Vista was almost unusable before installing VMWare Tool. And even after that it the network and sound was still not working right. Fortunately there's a way to fix the network problem. Simply open "Device Manager" (you can use the quick text lanucher provided by Start, pretty cool), right click on the Xed network adapter, choose specify driver location, and then point to d:\program files\VMWare\VMWare Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\win2k . And then, wala, I can use Vista to connection to the web.
I still haven't get the sound problem resovled. Maybe later.

-Cut and paste between Vista in VMWare and host computer desktop DOES NOT work. Maybe someone knows how to twist it.

- By default Internet Explorer has problem working with the proxy at my workplace. I have to turn off some security setting to make it work. On the otherhand, Firefox works great.

- I confirmed that IE 7.0 works with the web application I developed and currently maintaining for my client. Pretty nice.

- Autofit Guest Windows of VMWare also doesn't work. I have to explictly change screen size of Vista. Not the end of the world though.

- The perform of Vista in VMWare is actually pretty acceptable. At least it's much better than the crappy one I tested last time (even forget what build it was).

- Network Printer works. It's so cool to see I printed something from Vista.

I'll explore more later.

damn disc

By the way, this is what I got when the disc cannot be read:

Cannot create or replace 6: Data error (cylic redundancy check)

.. the hell. And LiteOn has no problem reading it.... Go figure :-< .

WEll, proven: 8x Sky with NEC no good

Like I mentioned in my last blog, the Sky 8X disc I burned at the office NEC DVD Burner was not working too well. So today I made a 2x burn on a Sky 4x DVD-R Disc. This new one worked great at the PVR-111.

For now I am still in the inconclusive mode, but I definitely will have to use the 4x DVD-R Disc if I need to burn DVD at work.

Pinoreer DVR-111 cannot read something written NEC !?

Something sort of shocked me this morning. I found out that a Sky 8X DVD+R disc burned in my office's NEC DVD Recorder (probably at 4x) was NOT readable in my DVR-111 DVD Recorder at home. I was sort of in a panic. Luckily the LE DVD Rom drive was able to read it. So I made another burn in the office using a Sky 4X DVD-R disc burned at 2x, and see if my DVR-111 can read it without problem.

There are also several factor going on this morning, though, and may cause the unreadable disc event happening:
- AVG Antivirus scanning seemed to be running at the background.
- VMWare 5 is running potential affect the DVD-Rom reading
- VMWare is running a intensive 3D Studio Max 8 installation.

We'll see.

Firefox kicks ass with cross platform extensions

I just found out that all the Firefox extension I downloaded and installed on my Windows XP OS can also be applied to the Firefox on Ubuntu 6.0.6. Sweet cross platform!

Loco Roco - Cutest PSP game

If there's one reason to get PSP, this will be the one: a Japanese game called Loco Roco. The concept is simple: roll a jelly like object around. It's so cute. So cute :- D ....

Confirmed that the Pioneer DVR-111 is good

After verify with several trial, I can now pretty much safe to say that the new DVR-111 is good for max burning speed in all cases I tried. Sweet :-D.

HK Wacom online registration sucks

I was trying to register my new Wacom Graphire 4 online, but the stupid web site registration process has problem recognize the model number I entered. So I gave up and go for the snail mail registration.

Two more portable software - Shade 8.1 and PowerISO

Yes, I am totally obsess with make as much application as portable software. And today I found out that I can make Shade 8.1 and PowerISO run as portable software.

Power to the portable :-D .

Music Cideo Torrent

Here's a few torrent:

- Music Video Torrent
- Music Vid
-

Dell x50v screen too bright to view in a totally dark enviornment.

Today I went to mainland China to attend my grandma's funeral. During the 3+ hour commute on a minivan I tried to watch some technical video to better utilize my time.

I figured out that, while tried to watch video at night on the road with almost total darkness outside and total darkness inside the car, that it's kind of PAINFUL to watch video from DELL x50v PocketPC even at the lowest brightness as the lowest brightness is still too bright to play in total darkness.

I gotta keep that in mind next time I go for long trip in US :-m .

Vue 5, not portable friendly

Tired. Vue 5 isn't portable friendly.

Speed control on Teleport

I was being bitched by the IT department that I sucked up too much bandwidth. So I need to reconfigure my download clients to obey certain speed limit. Here's what I did:

FlashGet:
I select [Tools]->[Speed Limit Mode...]->[Manual]. And then at the bottom of the window I set the speed to 55Kb/s. So far no complain since then.

Teleport:
There's no strange forward way to set speed limit, however, I use the following trick to set the speed limit:
1. Select [Project]->[Project Properties...]
2. Under the [netiquette] tab. I set Wait (5) seconds between request for (all) servers.
After then the speed seems to stay below 55Kb/s, which is good.

Cool! Folder Cache 1.6 is free and green

I was so glad when I realized that Folder Cache 1.6 a portable friendly application. The lastest version 2.6 has been moved from freeware to shareware, but I think it's still worth the price judged by the fact than it greatly improves productivity.

Blogger.com's death for a day.

Blogger.com was dead almost whole day yesterday! I wonder why.