Strange wireless Intellimouse problem

I experienced some strange problem regarding to my wireless Microsoft mouse. There were a few situation which the system seemed to have problem letting the left button of my mouse to commit on commands like clicking OK or dragging some item. However, the same left button on my mouse had no problem performing other functions such as dragging windows.

And the strangest thing is on the "solution" of the problem. I fixed the mouse left button problem by plugging in my wired Logitech USB mouse, use the wired mouse to left mouse click some stuff, and then use the wireless mouse again. After then, the problem went away.

So, yeah strange indeed.

Some nice portable freeware

Don't thank me. I copy them from a computer magazine while I was having lunch....

- Great News
- EditPad Lite
- WildRename
- Mac looking launcher - RocketDock
- InfanView
- HFS+ - Portable File Server
- Money Manager Ex
- DeepBurner
- Windows Live Messnger
- Mega Sound Recorder

Broken mice

I found this morning that the left button of the Microsoft IntelliMouse has broken. It's been serving me for about 8 years, and it's about time for it be retired ... to my trash can. Farewell, intellmouse.






But then I also found out that another USB mouse I had has problem. It kept losing the USB connection and then reconnect about. I sort of realized that something was wrong with that mouse, and totally I decided to send it to a better place: my trash can.






Luckily I still have one USB mouse left. Logitech mouse, a faithful brand.




That also means that the Microsoft Intellimouse PS/2 is useless now, as the adapter seem to work only with the Microsoft Intellisense mouse.

Damage control: After the virus attack at my workplace

The client I worked with (a department in Hong Kong government) got virus infection on their machine, and seemingly spreading like wildfire since then. As of yesterday, things seem to be under control, and the machine under my control are all pretty safe now. It's time to apply the same scanning on my home machine and discs.

Using NOD32, I found out that the following items, among millions of files that I have, has virus in it:

- Hacking - 45 eBooks\Fighting Malicious Code (From the office laptop)
- Storm Codec 5.0.7 , Codec 6.x (From the shared server on 19th Floor)
- Reveal XP Product ID\keyfinder.exe

Among the three, the hacking ebook thing has been deleted form my disc set long time ago. The keyfinder ... well ... I don't use it at all. It was the Storm Codec that suprised me the most since, I actually used the codec pack in A LOT OF PLACES, and the system that has storm codec installed all worked out fine without any virus. It seems like the problem is on the installer, as it tried to download more stuff to the system while installing. Well, I will stop using StormCodec, and find another better codec pack form download.com instead. Gee, no wonder I cannot find StormCodec at Download.com.


The following is jsut for my own reference:



APPS_060321
Virus Detected by NOD32 (2006-12-23)
V:\Storm Codec 6.01.28\StormCodec6.01.28.exe »NSIS »StormSet.exe »NSIS »mms.exe - Win32/TrojanDownloader.Small.CHQ trojan

APPS_051125
Virus Detected by NOD32 (2006-12-23)
W:\_ Apps\Storm Codec 5.0.7\StormCodec5.07.exe »NSIS »yisou_sc.exe »NSIS »aclayer.exe »NSIS »aclayer.dll - Win32/TrojanDownloader.Agent.RS trojan


APPS_051114
Virus Detected by NOD32 (2006-12-23)
W:\_ Apps\Reveal XP Product ID\keyfinder.exe »RAR »xpkey.exe - Win32/PSWTool.RAS.A application
W:\_ Apps\Storm Codec 5.07\StormCodec5.07.exe »NSIS »yisou_sc.exe »NSIS »aclayer.exe »NSIS »aclayer.dll - Win32/TrojanDownloader.Agent.RS trojan


MOV_050828
Virus Detected by NOD32 (2006-12-23)
W:\喇叭書院.Swing.Girls.2004.DVDRip.x264.AC3.5.1CH-JJH繁體中文字幕\Swing.Girls.2004.DVDRip.x264.AC3.5.1CH-JJH\播放軟件\Storm Codec\StormCodec5.07.exe »NSIS »yisou_sc.exe »NSIS »aclayer.exe »NSIS »aclayer.dll - Win32/TrojanDownloader.Agent.RS trojan


MOV_050405
Virus Detected by NOD32 (2006-12-23)
R:\Million.Dollar.Baby.LiMITED.DVD.SCREENER.XViD-MPAA\播放軟件\Storm Codec\StormCodec5.00.-29.exe »NSIS »quiet.exe - probably unknown NewHeur_PE virus [7]
R:\Ray.2004.DVDRiP.XViD-KJS\播放軟件\Storm Codec\StormCodec5.00.-29.exe »NSIS »quiet.exe - probably unknown NewHeur_PE virus [7]
R:\...Phantom of the Opera ...

love this Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 set.

Finally the Microsoft Wireless mouse battery was out this morning (second time in it's lifetime in my home since I brought it six months ago), and I replaced a new pair of rechargeable one in it. Changing battery 2+ months each time for the wireless mouse, which to me is very reasonable rate. Once again, I love this Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 set.

Desktop Search: Goodbye X1 and Hello Copernic!

I was almost pissed when I found out that X1 does not support indexing files on removable harddisk. After I read this message, my heart was almost broken immediately. I tried the latest release and still no luck. So I am going to try out Copernic 2.0. In addition, someone posted the older version of X1 which comes with the removable harddisk indexing feature, but I guess I just don't care about it anyway more.

trip to Golden

Toshiba SD card price dropped to HK$210. I always use it as a guage to check the price of flash memory. Indeed the price is still constantly dropping.

I saw the blank 50Gb BlueRay blank disk, selling at HK$120. I was like, what the hell.
NOt much else stuff caught my attention during my trip to Golden today.

I saw an ultralight notebook from Toshiba that I kind of dig. It's called Toshiba Dynabook SS 1610, selling at HK$8890, the machine seems like a good always-in-my-bag companion. However, it suffered a big problem: I couldn't find a review online. And my policy is that if I could find a review I won't buy that project. So that's it.

Lots of people buying XBox 360 because of the new game Blue Dragon. Once again, a game sells a machine. Just like people getting Wii because of Zelda or Wii Sport. BY the way, I am still waiting for the solution to play Japanese game on a US Wii.

Seeing Wii in action

I got a chance to see Wii Zelda in action in a video game store. Too bad that the store was tiny, and the store owner have the TV set at the top of the store, makes it very hard to try Wii there. This demonstration also shows that you cannot play Wii effectively unless you have a reasonably big room.

Wii in Hong Kong

總於在灣仔198看到大量的日版和小量的美版Wii 湧現。本來心裡有一股衝動想立即購買一部，卻因為兩個原因令心裡的熱情大幅降溫。

首先是高昂的價格令我卻步。日版沒有Wii Sport 的主機索價 HK$2100, 而美版則標價$3100, 比美版原價貴一千多元。但最令我卻步的，卻是另一個原因：美版和日版的軟件不可以互換。換句話來說，美版的Wii 主機，不可以執行日版的軟件，反之亦然，這等於說要我在用明白的英文語言來玩遊戲和能夠購買日本最新的軟件之間被迫二者選擇其一，我覺得是一個很沒趣的處境。結果有些人便像我今天般決定兩者都不買，留待全區碼改機版的出現。

Now what is that model name?

I saw a ultralight weight Toshiba Dynabook today, and it was indeed very light in weight (the sales claimed that it was about 880g) even with the battery. Pricing at HK$12000, it's definitely not in my budget, but I am still interest it checking out more information. So I was a bit disappointed when I could find the project from the Japanese Toshiba web site, as I assumed that this gray market laptop with Kana keyboard should be showcased on the front page of the Japanese Toshiba web site somehow. But it didn't.

Seeing Singbox in Hong Kong

After hearing Buzz Out Loud podcast mentioning the word Slingbox tons of times, I finally saw them at WaiChi Computer Center. But then I have no idea to record Hong Kong Television program at all (I don't even watch Hong Kong Television), so I didn't dear to check out the price.

BEAT CRUSADERS - Tonight, Tonight, Tonight

The Jpop group BEAT CRUSADERS has a new album Tonight, Tonight, Tonight ,and It's like a fun Sonic ride. This is the kind of tune makes you happy ... for no good reason. Worthy of trying.

- Purchase Info
- Some review

Lacie Brick 300Gb Photos

Here you go some photo of the Lacie Brick 300Gb.
I am stress testing it by copying huge amount of files to and form the drive.
Seems pretty speedy as far as I know.

New toy from my boss .... lacie Brick 300Gb

My boss brought a new Lacie Brick 300Gb USB 2.0 3.5 inch external hard disk yesterday and asked me to use it for our project backup. I never used this stuff before and was wonder how good it is, and also:

- What tool I should use to stress test an external hard disk?
- Any benchmark application I can use the test this hard disk?

I'll probably have some review later today so stay tune.

P.S. My boss got this thing from a local Hong Kong computer store for HK$900.00 .

- The look
- Review for the 250Gb model
- US Price at NewEgg (US$144.99 = HK$1130.922
- This store sells at Hk$1091.92
- HK Golden says that the price is about HK$950
-

Viva, Movie Trailer

Ever since the Core Player 1.0.4 release, I was pretty happy about the fact that I can skip away from video conversion which I did a lot in order to make videos playable on my Pocket PC. Now my Pocket PC can play all the iPod video friendly video, and it opened up a huge array of video for me to consume, especially video Podcast.

And today I just found out another great way to enjoy video on the road: movie Trailer from Apple.

I realized that tons of video trailer are available from Apple QuickTime web site, these days most of them have a iPod downloadable version. So all I need to do is set up iTune on VMWare WinXP OS (I still DO NOT want any installation program to populate my desktop environment), and download as many movie trailer as possible. Since all the good stupid are in the movie trailer anyway, this can actually saves me a lot of movie viewing time.

Rouge Galaxy for PS2

I watch the Podcast 1 Up Show (Oct 27 2006) and saw them reviewing the game Rouge Galaxy for Playstation 2 (by Level 5, released by SCEI), and I was impressed by the Cel Shading 3D graphic. It's very pretty in sort of anime style, and not the Final Fantasy VII kind of realistic pretty. Still I would definitely enjoy it.

Too bad that I don't have time to play console game at home. But if it ever release in PSP, it could be a reason for me to get a PSP after all.

The movie "Open Reason"

My one line movie review for the movie "Open Season" would be: Great technology showcase, not so great in story and some voice acting problem.

I have nearly zero background knowledge before I started watching the movie, so when I heard the voice acting of the bear, I was like "man, the voice acting was kind of lame". And then later I realized that the bear was voice acted by Martin Lawrence. No wonder.

But I think the biggest problem is the story. It's too Hollywood formula. Enough said.

On the other hand, the movie is a great technology showcase. The environment was beautifully rendered and created. All the millions of furs and water and organic things that kinds waving and waving, and as a geek I instantly noticed how much CPU power was thrown at rendering all these.

Conclusion: worth rental, but I am definitely glad that I didn't see it in theater.