Edward's Take

[ubuntu] Nvidia Driver Random Freeze

edwardteoh — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 02:06:57 +0000

After my recent update (7th Feb 2011), I have been facing issues with Ubuntu Lucid (10.04), where it randomly does one (or all) of the below:

display goes ‘fuzzy’ or ‘freezes’,
the mouse can still move for a while at least.
mouse freeze
keyboard does not respond

If i am patient enough, I can wait and everything should be fine in 30 seconds. Sometimes if i am lucky, i get to use my system for 5 minutes before the whole thing repeats itself. Irritating, isn’t it?

Well…. i do have low tolerance for this kind of issues, it is unacceptable in so many levels, right? Thus, i went around surfing the net for a solution, and i have tried the below but it does not help:

update / upgrade everything that is possible
reinstall the Nvidia drivers
install the latest Nvidia driver
change Nvidia driver & preferences
upgrade to Ubuntu Maverick (10.10)
modify codes related to the my USB keyboard and mouse
disable display effects: smooth fonts, visual effects… etc

After many re-installations of Ubuntu Maverick and trying out settings above, I am finally convince that the whole shebang is due to the Nvidia drivers and Xorg incompatibility. In the end i just did the simplest thing possible: DISABLE THE NVIDIA DRIVER

System > Administration > Additional Drivers (Restricted Drivers)
Click on the activated Nvidia driver
Click on the ‘remove’ button towards the right bottom

Yes, it will disable all the fancy visual effects, but i get a stable system that does not randomly hang for the last 24 hours. And it is better for me this way, at least. That’s my take.

[youtube] StarCraft II – Secret Mission

edwardteoh — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:56:59 +0000

There is a secret mission in StarCraft II. For any StarCraft fan, it is a must play, else you would not have completed StarCraft II! That’s my take.

[android] Motorola Droid Getting Android 2.2 (Froyo) Next Week

edwardteoh — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:34:05 +0000

Verizon has dropped a note to Engadget with news that the Droid will be getting the Froyo (Android 2.2) treatment next week (as in 2nd August 2010). That is good news indeed!

If Motorola keeps to the schedule for Android 2.1, which Droid got their update 2 weeks earlier that Milestone, Motorola Milestone user like myself should see the Froyo update soon. If Motorola is committed to Android, and would like to keep their users happy and loyal, they better make sure there is a Froyo update for Milestone users. That’s my take.

[ Engadget ]

[youtube] StarCraft II – Ghost of the Past Trailer

edwardteoh — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 06:04:15 +0000

[gadg3t] How Apple Should Fix the Antenna Issue on iPhone 4

edwardteoh — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:00:16 +0000

Just don’t hold it by the antenna!

[ Flickr via Gizmodo ]

[android] Alarm Clock Not Going Off

edwardteoh — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:53:17 +0000

I just got my first Android phone, Motorola Milestone, for a week and am having great fun with it! But the Alarm Clock keeps on bugging me as the Alarm Clock doesn’t ring at all, and I was using my trusty old Nokia phone as my alarm till today.

Finally i have time to do some research, and found out how sometimes too much control over your phone is bad (if not done properly). My problem was the Advanced Task Killer which I have installed onto my Milestone on day one itself, and I have been using it to kill off all the apps to save power & memory. Android allows us to so much control, that we sometimes forget that some of the apps still need to be run on the background, and Alarm Clock is one of them.

So, for those of you who face the same problem, and uses the Advanced Task Killer (or any other task killer), the fix is rather simple and should be valid for all alarm clock apps, not just the default ones. All you need is to do is include the Alarm Clock in the ignore list by performing the steps below:

Open Alarm Clock
Go back to home
Open Advanced Task Killer
Long press on Alarm Clock
Click on Ignore to add Alarm Clock to the ignore list
(you can manage the ignore list by going to the menu -> Setting -> ignore list)

Good luck, have fun, and let me know if this works for you!

[web] iTunes Accounts Hacked

edwardteoh — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:21:57 +0000

A number of iTunes accounts has been hacked, with user reporting between $100 & $1400 being spent without their knowledge or consent.

The first hint that something was amiss over the weekend came when two developers noticed that 40 out of the top 50 slots in the iTunes books section were all released by the same dev—Thuat Nguyen, all of whose apps have since been pulled from the App Store—most without ratings or reviews, most purchased from hacked accounts.

From Gizmodo

The good news is that there are some user out there saying that iTunes Store acknowledges the issues and will reimburse your the money. The developer and the apps involved in such fraud has been removed from the App Store. This comes to prove that as Apple stuffs become more popular, hackers are also getting more interested! That’s my take.

[ Gizmodo ]

[gadg3t] Laptop Manufacturers Back Universal Power Adapter

edwardteoh — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:51:07 +0000

This is good news indeed because we will eventually see cheaper laptops, and people will be able to share power adapter in a meeting room instead of the asking what make & model each other laptops are when the juice is running low.

It is always a waste when i see good adapters being thrown into the garbage bin whenever we change to a new laptop. According to the IEEE people, this will lower e-waste and reduce the cost of buying a new laptop by 10 to 15 per cent. Yippy!

Too bad only Acer and Asustek are going to back this IEEE power supply standard for now. I hope other companies will join in soon. I am quite certain Apple will not join in, after all they have this MagSafe design which i am very impressed with. Think of the environment! That’s my take.

[learn] CSI – Fact v. Fiction

edwardteoh — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:12:06 +0000

Click on the pix above to view the whole infographic seperating CSI’s facts from fiction (mostly fiction), such as how long it will take to REALLY process DNA samples, do CSI really drive hummers….

[ Forensic Science ]

[games] StarCraft II – Wings of Liberty => 27th July 2010

edwardteoh — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:39:40 +0000

When i was out to watch a movie, I saw StarCraft II’s advertisement. It is interesting that they are showing it in a cinema! I have been following StarCraft II beta games on youtube for the past 3 months, but I didn’t come upon the release date till today! (announced 3rd May 2010)

The long awaited game has finally arrived, especially for those who are in my age group who grew up with this game. So head on over to youtube to watch what are the new units, and their unique abilities. From what I have seen so far, StarCraft II will be a very well balanced game, and hopefully it will be able to replace the very old but reliable StarCraft as the default RTS in tournaments!

The PC / MAC requirements can be found on Blizzard, but as a kind soul, below are the recommended PC system requirement (who cares about the minimum!):

Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
2 GB RAM
512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better
12 GB available HD space
Broadband Internet connection

July 27 2010 will be a reason for a lot of people out there to buy a new machine. That’s my take!