BLue screen on ThinkPad T60

I experienced a blue screen of death on my work machine while I was installing a USB dongle driver and a bar code printing application at the same time. Snap.

Gave up ....

Well after struggling to get the VMWare Server 1.3 client recognizing my Bluetooth dongle, I gave up. In fact, after I tried installing the Abe driver thing from their web site (BlueSoleil_2.3_standard_Release_060728.zip), the OS simply crashed. I had to use "Rollback to success bootable option" thing at the start up screen (F8) in order to get back to the regular bootup.

So, nah, forget about syncing my phone at work.

USB Hardware vs VMWare Server 1.0.3

I just realized that the VMWare Server 1.0.3 does not have as much rich client support compare with the VMWare Workstation 6.0 that I used at home. For instance, to contact to certain specific USB device, I have to explicitly connect it from the [VM][Removable Devices][USB devices]. Not only that, but I need to figure out which description means what device.

The following is a short list of stuff that I had:
- Dura Micro USB Device - External 80Gb Harddisk
- Genesys Logic USB Device (Port 2) - Eagle Tech USB 2.0 Card Reader
- SGS Thomas Microelectronic USB DEvice - Thumbprint scanner
- Cambridge Silicon Radio USB Device (Port 1) - Abe Bluetooth Dongle

And right now I am trying to make the Abe Bluetooth Dongle working with my VMWare OS... we'll see how it went ....

Problem solved with Acrobat Typewriter

Last week I had problem printing my Time sheet created and modified on Acrobat 7. The text I typed using Typewriter wasn't being printed out.

However, I resolved the problem this morning by instlling Acrobat Reader 8.1. In fact, the Acrobat Standard 6.0 can edit the document properly, and the print preview on Acrobat Reader 8.1 showed the text typed with Typewriter tool.

Hopeful thing will work out when I print it out this Friday.

Pain in converting Portfolio 4 files to Portfolio 7 format

I wasn't aware of the pain involving converting Portfolio 4 files to Portfolio 7 format until recently. I started yanking out the stuffs I stored in storage for years (about 6 years) and found that I had a lot of photo disc cataloged by Portfolio 4 format. So I thought, "Probably just open it using Portfolio 7". Well it failed, as the application only able to open it in read only format.

Frustrated I was, I checked around and found the following two articles in the Extensis web site:
- How can I upgrade my Portfolio 6 or earlier catalog to Portfolio 7?
- I'm having trouble upgrading my Portfolio 6 catalog to Portfolio 7

It's great that they document this specific information on the site, but it also means that the problem happens so frequently that they have to put a specific section for it.

So now I am in the process of so called "recovery" in Portfolio 6, hoping that once it's done, I can open it with Portfolio 7 or even Portfolio 8. Here's some tidbit about the process:

- Needs a lot of disc space. At least 2 to 3 gigabyte should be available in order to conduct a successful recovery.
- it seems like the longest time spend was in Rebuilding Schema and Tables. In fact, it seems to take more than hours to complete the process. At least I am currently still waiting for it to complete.

Protocol Encryption in µTorrent

I was not aware of Protocol Encryption until recently, and I was not aware of the existence of such a thing in µTorrent until I read this FAQ session in this page. Pretty cool, and I should try to take advantage of it when the time comes.

WiFi problem and solution

I was a bit frustrated by the lack of internet connection last night. I got the pirate IP from the WiFi router but it was not connected to the Net.

I kept tried and tried renewing the IP address and still didn't get it going. I was frustrated and went to sleep after then.

And then this morning an idea stroked me: why don't I just connect directly to the broadband modem? I did and instantly got the Internet connection going. So it was the problem of the WiFi router not being connected. So I turned off the power of the WiFi router, and then turned it on again. Within a minute I got the WiFi router working too.

But then eventually I need to reset the WiFi router by direct connection (192.168.1.1), plus I need to switch to WPA since WEP is so widely being cracked now.

1440 TV Box

The 1440TV box was arrived. When it worked it worked pretty well. But I experienced some of the following problem:

- Audio signal got dropped once in a while
- There was times when the top of the screen had some video noise.

At first I thought it was the problem of the cables, but later I realized that it probably isn't the case. In all the above cases, problem seems to be able to be solved by simply turning on and off the screen. I will observe this setting a few days more and see what kind of action I should take (like return and get another item)

Instead of blue screen, I experienced freezing

I didn't experienced any blue screen of death today. However, I found that the Internet connection was not working right after I opened the lid of the x60t. I didn't pay much attention and continue typing my diary. Then I touched the WiFi setting and that was the time when the machine frozen up. There was no blue screen, but simply frozen up. In order to preserve my writing, I used my PDA to write down what I wrote on the screen, and then reboot the machine.

I think it has something to do with how VRam was being used. So I think that next time before I go to sleep, I should switch the machine into single screen display mode.

This is annoying indeed.

Transferring files through Bluetooth

ow is it like to transfer files from PC to mobile phone through Bluetooth? I tried transfer a Podcast ("486 BuzzCast 06_01_07 - Flash cache.mp3", 24Mb in size) to my Nokia 5300 through Bluetooth, and it took about 10 minutes.

Conclusion: don't do it. It's a waste of time and waste battery life approach to transfer file. Use a cable instead. After the cable to connect between Nokia and PC is just a generic cable. Nothing fancy, and pretty error prompt.

Moto Bluetooth headset with Nokia 5300: not a match?

I have problem using a Moto Bluetooth headset (received as a bonus gift back when I brought Moto E398) with Nokia 5300. First the pairing was not going smooth. and it failed a few times even after I entered the correct passkey "0000". Then even after I paired, I didn't seem to be able to get it working.

In addition, that Moto headset cannot be used to listen to music through Bluetooth. I
guess it only works with special bluetooth stereo headphone.

Overall, what a disappointment.

Painless BlueTooth Synchronization

My packages from Hong Kong finally arrived. Among them was my bluetooth dongle, a cheap HK$28 bluetooth dongle and yet works perfectly. So I yanked it out, plug it to a USB 1.1 port (by connecting a USB 1.1 hub to and USB 2.0 which plugged to a USB 2.0 port of x60t. Yeah I really run out of USB ports on my x60t, man!) and within minutes I have a bluetooth support on ThinkPad x60t. So I use the Vista Bluetooth device setup, and within minutes I have my laptop paired with my Nokia 5300. Finally I started Synchronization on my x60t, and within a minute, I have all the lastest Outlook data synced to my mobile.

I love my Nokia 5300 :-D !