Pat Notebook on the Web

Plantronics Savi W440A-M Microsoft Lync Headset Unboxing

2012-01-26T11:50:00.003+08:00

I do a lot of conference calls every day. So much so that I am almost known as the "telephone operator" at home. Actually Microsoft Lync (paired with Microsoft Exchange and Communicator) is a great piece of office productivity software. You can make lots of conference calls and even do a lot of local calls or overseas calls using VoIP. In addition, there are even now versions of Lync released on iPhone and Android. Unbelievable :)

Anyway, a good headset is needed for good comfort calls especially if your calls are very long (like mine... people just loved to talk non stop.. sigh). I started with normal audio headsets and then there were ones given to me like USB headsets.

This one that I am unboxing today is even more amazing. The Plantronics Savi W440A-M Microsoft Lync Headset is WIRELESS :) Great.. I can go to the toilet and do my stuff all while pretending to be interested in how the weather is on the other side of earth, or how many kids the other person have or how many vacations they are going to do etc. Nice... wireless is good...

No frills packaging as I believe it is a bulk purchase:

Opening up, I am impressed and confused and shocked :)

A manual is always useful..

Look at the number of different types of headset wearing style ! For different people and their different taste.. amazing !

And to cater to that, there is even a fit kit with extra ear loops, ear tips and foam sleeves.... WOW...

The actual head set with the battery

A box in case you need go travelling..

Two different types of charger.. wall charger (that comes with different plug sizes that you can use depending on where you are) and of course a USB charger:

And of course, you need a USB adaptor on your laptop/PC side so that the headset can communicate wirelessly to the PC/laptop:

The headset in the charger station:

Would you get one for yourself ? :)

Hakone Free Pass from Gora to Sounzan Via Cable Car

2012-01-20T10:02:00.000+08:00

Wrote about the Hakone Free Pass and its first stop at Yumoto. After you reached Gora, there is an interesting "cable car" that brings you upslope to the next stop...

The Gora station and its vicinity is a very pretty place:

Take time to read about the daimonji yuki monument

Off to the "cable car"

Sit right in the front (if u can)..It offers an excellent view !

A map shows all the "stops" of this cable car ride.. If u have time (unlike the usual me, rushing to complete the Hakone Loop), take time to visit the parks etc.

And in case you looked at the photos and screamed, what's a cable car ! It is not a cable car.. It is named by the authorities :)

A short ride later, you reach the Sounzan station.

The ropeway is coming up next ! What's a ropeway ??!! Tell you more in next blog..

Hachiko Statue at Shibuya Exit

2012-01-09T03:30:00.000+08:00

The Hachiko Statue at the Shibuya Exit of the JR train station.

Follow the same instructions on the previous post, and you can see it immediately upon exit of the train station.

Don't know what this is :)

Some photos of the Shibuya crossing areas:

Believe me guys, this is a great place for people watching. For guys only. Nice place on weekends for watching people.. u know what i mean :) :) :)

Shibuya Crossing

2012-01-05T11:32:00.000+08:00

I am sure you have seen the Shibuya Crossing in movies and TV shows. It is located in front of the Shibuya Station (the famous Hachikō exit) and stops vehicles in all directions to allow pedestrians to inundate the entire intersection. Shibuya Crossing is often featured in movies and television shows which take place in Tokyo, such as Lost in Translation and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, as well as on domestic and international news broadcasts.

Many people want to catch a view of the Shibuya Crossing at a higher level (and not just cross it or looked at it at the pedestrian level).

At Pedestrian Level:

One of the usual place is the Starbucks cafe on the 2nd level opposite the station exit.

Actually one of the best views is at the walkway between the Yamanote and Inokashira train lines. When coming from Shinjuku, get on the back of the train. Take the back stairs. This is a photo of the back stair case as you walking towards it from the BACK of the train.

You will be looking for the Hachiko Exit:

Once out of the station, the crossing will be in front of you (and so is the Hachiko statue).

To get to the walkway, turn right. Take the escalator or stairs up to the 2nd floor. Look for signs for the "Inokashira Line.". For example, I saw this and walked up the stairs:

Keep walking up the stairs..

At the top of the staircase, you will see the Fancl store:

Tokyo will be on the left. Do not go there :)

Walk to the right (i.e. the RIGHT of the store when you are FACING IT) of the store. Not down the stairs but by the windows...where you can already start to see the crossings...

There's a mural made by Okamoto Taro on the wall as you walk down the walkway. The walkway connects the Tokyu Dept, Store building side to the other side.

Behold, the crossing is right in front of you, opposite the Mural (actually, frankly, you probably see the crossing BEFORE you see the mural.. HA)

Not busy enough as I visited in on an early Sunday morning. I bet it is packed at night or in afternoons on weekends...

320GB Playstation 3 in Blue

2012-01-02T00:30:00.000+08:00

I swore this is my last gadget for 2011 (ha ha ha... it is already Jan 2012)...

I finally gave it to temptations after months of control.. sigh. I have bad control... Bought a 320GB Playstation 3 in Blue during Xmas period... :)

Okie.... I know I super duper late into the game and super duper slow. This is already old product (in fact, I heard PS4 is round the corner) and also Playstation Vita is doing a roaring trade. I just wanted to start gaming again. Last time used to do it a lot but then life starts to get busy and I neglected the PS2 and gave it away. Now just want to slowly find my way back :) Hopefully in 2012, the Vita and PS3 can seamlessly integrate together for a complete gaming experience. Also I realized that PSN (Playstation Network) is pretty important to me as games of my time (yes.. my times) are available there.. such as Final Fantasy IX etc... amazing, right. bet the kids are laughing at old man :) :) :)

For fun and laughter. Joy and Tears. Happy New Year to everyone !! Here's wishing you and your family a most wonderful 2012 and a healthy successful one !

May 2012 be a great year for all !!

The blue controller:

And the BLUE baby...

Backside:

And nowadays, the ever important PSN:

Galaxy Tab 30pin to Female USB Adapter Dongle

2011-12-30T20:23:00.000+08:00

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 has been amazing to me. I love it. However, you might be aware it has no expansion slots (e.g. a micro SD slot etc). Hence, if you need more space (or just want convenience), you will need a Galaxy Tab 30pin to Female USB Adapter Dongle. Of course Samsung sold those too. But I got mine from ebay and waited 1 month for it (the Xmas shipping period is very bad....). But it is worth the wait. I can now use it to watch movies that I cannot possibly bothered to copy over to the internal storage of the Galaxy Tab.

Here are some photos of it being used.

With USB thumbdrive

With SD card through a SD Card Reader

Laughing Gor will be so proud :)

And amazingly, a Wireless Logitech mouse. Beat that :)

Nice and useful buy !!

Synology DS1511+ Hard Disk Crash (Not)

2011-12-29T10:25:00.000+08:00

I was settling nicely for a well deserved rest on Xmas eve when my email box literally woke me up with an email..

The mail came from my Synology NAS and it stated (and this was possible as I have set up mailing in the Synoloyg DS1511+ NAS) nicely..
"Internal Disk 1 on Diskstation has crashed, please replace it"
And signed off sweetly as "Sincerely, Synology Diskstation".

I ran to my NAS and indeed it was beeping furiously and the lights on the front of the NAS were flashing. This was the first time in my life I had to deal with a hard disk crash on a NAS. Fearing the worst (and more like, truth be told, that I was not even 1% confident in my own ability to handle this situation), I really had no idea what to do. It was one thing to read (and be sold) about features of a product (in this case, the RAID features of a NAS) and yet it was another thing to face it when you are not so technically capable :)

Using my web browser, I found that I could logged into the NAS. Going to Synology DSM storage manager, I first switched off the beeping sound and then saw this:

Does not looked too good. I went into the individual hard disk level and was not sure what to do. I decided I will do a SMART test. Was thinking that I can then showed it to Seagate and get a new hard disk back from warranty coverage :) :)

Surprisingly, when I ran the SMART test, the "crashed" hard disk was shown up as working fine. What I meant was that the SMART test showed NORMAL. There was, however, a message stating that the "System Partition Failed".

Going back to the storage manager, I decided to try to repair the volume (that's what they called the "collection" of the 5 hard disks creating a single data source" in the NAS). This was despite the error message and when the logical thing was to replace the hard disk (I am a stubborn guy and besides that, I do not have a spare empty 2TB sitting around. They were all used for backups for the contents of this very NAS).

Despite these, it happily goes ahead and repair. I decided I will try to sleep.

8 hours later on Xmas day, after the repair was completed, the storage managed still showed failure and I had in fact even received emails of failures from the NAS. It looked exactly the same as the initial error state when I first saw it on Xmas eve (perhaps Synology has even done its own auto repair before that ?).

The thing was that even though there was this error, I could still accessed the NAS and I could still copied data out of the NAS (I did not dare to copy INTO the NAS, fearing that I might disturb it.. such is my ignorance..). But I was quite happy that it seemed to me no data was lost (despite the one hard disk "crash" or "error"). I did managed to update my backups of the NAS (not that it was really necessary as I had just done my weekly backups of the NAS 2-3 days ago).

Anyhow, I decided being stubborn was useless and it was time to replace the hard disk. I shut down the NAS and took out the hard disk. To my shock, the inside of the NAS was so dirty !! There were so much dirt lumps (you know.. lots of dirt lumped together in a ball like shape.. looking very consumable like a rice ball :p) everywhere inside the NAS. There were lots of dirt balls sticking to the NAS disk latches and also to the sides of hard disks. So I took out all 5 hard disks (and also placing them carefully in the SAME order they are in the NAS. you really do not want to mix them up..) and then cleaned the NAS and the hard disks. And the fans inside the NAS etc. All in all, not a very pretty sight on a Xmas day.

As I unscrewed the "crashed" hard disk, a thought came to my mind. Perhaps the hard disk was not really crashed per se (after all the SMART test showed me it is okay, right? I dun know). So perhaps I just need to "clean up" the hard disk literally. I cleaned it up physically (ha) and then bring it to my PC and deleted all the partitions in that hard disk using Windows and hence cleaning it up logically (ha ha). It became a fresh new hard disk without any formatting.

I then put back the hard disk into the NAS (together with the rest, cleaned up and all screws tightened again) and launched into the storage manager. This time there was no red color indicator (HA) but just this message:

Feeling slightly better, I then ran the REPAIR task again. 5 mins later, I received an email from the NAS:

Feeling much much better, I looked at the progress and indeed it looked sweeter:

8 hours later, it looked much much sweeter and better and happier and nicer and... *you get the idea* :)

Finally about 10-11 hours later, everything was back to normal ! :) :)

During the time when the repair was taking place, I was able to looked through the support forums in Synology web site and saw a lot of great help, including one that, if necessary, of actually contacting Synology Support team to help rebuilt the partition remotely. But what strike me most was this:

It looks like there may be a loose connection to disk 2. I recommend reseating this disk and making sure that it is well secured to the disk tray that you are using the long screws that secure the disk trays to the metal chassis. Crash doesn’t mean that there was an issue with the disk, it means that it was ejected and ‘crashed’ out of the array. There was a communication issue for longer than allowed so the system was forced to eject the disk to continue operations.

I thought it sounded like my case and perhaps that was the case here. I never will know anyway.

What I learnt from this incident:
(1) The Synology NAS RAID 5 did worked. No data was lost despite the one hard disk "Crashed". Ha. I know this is silly but try to understand from a non-technical user point of view. For many highly skilled IT people, you probably have seen it happened at work and knew that is the case. You probably dealt with even worst situations. But for home users like me, we never have seen it before so it is nice to see it working from a personal point of view.

(2) Backups. Backups. Backups. I had backups done regularly for data on the NAS as I was taught that a NAS is not a backup. That gave me much more assurance in this whole incident. At worst, if I failed in my attempts, I can either contact Synology or I can re-do the whole NAS. Painful but at least I know the hard work of years of collecting the prawns (oops.. I really meant the data) in the NAS were still there in backups.

(3) Clean your NAS regularly please. Yes.. Clean your NAS physically once a while. As it is usually sitting in a corner (in my case at the lowest level of the rack), it can really gathered lots of dirt from down there.... Once a while, it is good to be cleaning it up, removing the dirt (*YUCKS*), cleaning the fans (which provides ventilation and cooling to the hard disks) and then tightening the screws on the hard disk cradles. Just don't mix up the order of the hard disks. Put them back in the exact order.

(4) A 'crash' is not always a crash :) :)

VIPERTEK Premium Slim Leather Case Folio for Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

2011-12-27T12:04:00.002+08:00

After a long wait (due to the huge shipping traffic during Xmas), my casing for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 finally arrived from the United States. I bought it from Amazon as I have a good relationship with them and indeed it was a very pleasant experience again. What happened was I gave the shipper a wrong address and instead of questioning me, they did not hesitate and just immediately shipped a 2nd one the next day. Eventually both arrived at United States vpost service and I returned one back to them. No questions asked and very fast. Highly recommended :)

VIPERTEK Premium Slim Leather Case Folio with Built-In Stand for Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 GT-P7300 GT-P7310

So here's some photos for the casing. It did added more weight to the otherwise superbly light Galaxy Tab 8.9... the tablet is very light and adding this casing did made it a bit heavier especially for night bedside use. But I guess for the sake of protecting it, it is good as it is thick and nice and very strong. And did I told you I am in love with the Galaxy Tab :) :)

Holes for Camera:

And charging point:

To make it a stand, you need to remove the Galaxy Tab from the cover at the two ends at the bottom and use it as the pivot points.

Three different angles are available:

Nice ?

Monoprice Small Patch Panel in Living Room

2011-12-23T13:20:00.001+08:00

A few blog posts ago, I wrote about the monoprice patch panel in the "nerve centre" of the house (i.e. study room lah)... Where my PCs, NAS, Modem, Network Switches are. Of course, there must be the opposite side of this nerve centre, right. From the "nerve centre", data flows to and fro to different parts of the house for specific reasons. So here's sharing two parts. One part is the living room where the gadgets for entertainments are.

For the living room, I had a TV cabinet built with thoughts given to the needs of a cable TV point (for Starhub), a telephone point (for that Mio TV in the future) and many electrical plugs (for all your gadgets, TV, BluRay players etc). Then also enough space for a small patch panel. For this case, I chose the Monoprice Mini Patch Panel (with 12 ports) as it is small, nice size and has 12 ports (more than enough) and yes, because I have a soft spot for cute cute things :).

To start off, I had designed the TV Cabinet and they built the cabinet to my needs (You need think through what gadgets you have, what cabinet spaces you need, always remembering the technical parts like electrical plugs, network points, cable tv points, telephone points etc).

So here's my instructions to the contractor on where to place the technical needs. Cute right ? My contractor and his workers laughed and laughed at this... Sigh, very funny meh???.....

Anyone looking to hire an interior designer for networks. ME ME ME !! :p

And how it looks at half way point of renovation. A photo tells it all. The left side (blue cables) are the CAT6 cables that is ran from the "nerve centre" to the living room. I ran 6 cables from there to the living room. The middle cable is the SCV cable. Next to it is the Singtel telephone line and then the start of a long chain of plugs.

So I then start to install the 6 cables to the patch panel. As usual, you need to label carefully the cables and write them down to avoid any confusion. So patching the cables take place next.

So here's how it looks when done inside the TV cabinet. You can see the cables on the left side going into the patch panel. The patch panel has white parts for you to label them as you need but I did not. I just wrote down the numbers in a small note book or Evernote.

A close up. There are also holds for you to screw the whole patch panel tightly to the cabinet.

The electrical plugs when done:

The starhub cable and telephone point:

So I am very happy. I now have 6 CAT6 points in the living room for wired connections between the living room and the "nerve centre". So far I am very happy. Streaming of MKV, RMVB, AVI are flawless via XMBC on Apple TV2 or AC Ryan etc. In the future, when I upgrade my TV, I am sure there will also need for a network point to the TV and I am thinking of buying a PS3 (or Wii or Xbox etc) all needed a cable point too. Then there are always the possibilities of BluRay and also even things like sound systems that needed network connectivity nowadays !

I guess my point is that even 6 are not enough and there are always growing needs for such cables points in your living room. You will never have enough cable points :)

And since we are already on this topic (and I dun wish to write a separate post), let's also show photos of how the rest of the cables ran to the rest of the small flat. As I said, I had 12 cables laid from the "nerve centre". 6 goes to the living room as above. 3 goes to the master bedroom and 3 goes to the spare room. So that's 12 altogether.

This is how it looks:

Then as usual, I did the patching of the cables to the CAT6 heads:

And installed face plates on them. You can get them cheaply at many hardware shops but I got mine from Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park:

So you have network points in the bedrooms too. What can you do with them is you can, of course, run wired connections from your PCs (in bedrooms ???) to the network points. But come on, most of us don't do that right ? Most of the time you will be using a laptop or a iPad table or an Android tablet wirelessly. If your wireless router is not in your bedroom, sometimes wireless network reception cab be weak and not what you want.

In which case, this article will be great use to you. I did exactly what he suggested and my reception is perfect in the bedroom and even the living room (yes I installed a wireless router there). I made use of the TP Link Wireless Router I bought initially for hacking but never did it in the end. It is now my wireless router in the bedroom and in the living room.

Try it ! It is better than wireless repeater :) :)

Microsoft Touch Mouse by Deanne Cheuk

2011-12-16T10:16:00.002+08:00

What a stunning looking mouse from Microsoft. This is no ordinary mouse but the Touch Mouse Artist Edition that features a design created by New York-based artist Deanne Cheuk. Absolutely beautiful and comes in a equally well designed box. Like a toy car box. That I cannot even bear to take it out and use it. I think it might just end up on the display shelves and I go out and get a normal mouse. Ha. This is also a Touch Mouse by Microsoft. The Microsoft Touch mouse is the flagship mouse of the Touch family and features a large multi-touch surface with BlueTrack technology. It has a multi touch interface and is really nice... A perfect Xmas gift for your loved ones and that geeky cousin of yours.. like me :)

Unboxing ! :)

NICE NICE NICE !!!! VERY NICE !!

Like a toy.. ha.

Okie.. taking it out.. carefully and heart pain :)

Close up of the design by Deanne Cheuk:

And her signature at the bottom of the mouse.. making sure you knows of it :)

The rest of the stuff including battery and the transmitter:

Then opening further the box (deep inside the depths of the box...) is a cable which at first makes me so confused.. what is this ? A mouse cable ? A USB cable for installation of software ? A Windows phone sync cable ? :) :)

Turns out it is a very thoughtful move by Microsoft. It is for those who have desktops at the bottom of the table or far away from the monitor and need to make sure the transmitter is able to communicate with the mouse (how many times u have a small cute transmitter but it is so far from the table !).... the first page of the manual (yes there is a manual..) explains it all...

Beautiful.. brilliant.. elegant.. sexy.. very very nice...

But of course, I have to compare the Apple Magic Mouse with this mouse side by side.. sorry Microsoft :)

Building the Monoprice Patch Panel Box

2011-12-09T14:51:00.007+08:00

A long while ago, I bought two patch panel from Monoprice. The 24 port monoprice patch panel and then the smaller (cuter) 12 port mini patch panel... A very sharp eye reader asked what happened to my patch panel box and how it was finally used. Well, the 24 port was used in the study room hub and the mini patch panel is used in the living room. I wished I can tell you I did it :) But of course, not... it was my contractor who did it..

Today, I sharing some photos of the 24 port patch panel

After the contractor laid the cables all over, all the ends of the cables are consolidated at the hub:

Then I got him to build a box around the cables with a small opening just nice to fit the patch panel

And of course a nice finishing with laminate wood

After that, the cables are patched with CAT6 connections myself. Quite a learning experience :)

You do need to be careful with the labeling of the cables, knowing exactly where in the house each cable leads to, label them and then when you fit them into the patch panel, take note carefully of the number indicated.. this helps later when everything is done. Else you have to ask yourself.. which slot in the patch panel is leading to my Apple TV in the living room ! :)

Once you done up all the cables, you push the patch panel back into the hole and then screwed the patch panel to the box (screws are provided for the ends)

A patch panel ready for your use...

Will share the use of the mini patch panel if there are any interest... :)

Cheap $2 docking stand for your tablets

2011-12-07T14:04:00.002+08:00

$2 at Daiso.. :)

Good enough for me :)... for iPhone, for Ainol Novo and for Samsung Galaxy Tab.. and oh yes very light.. now... just need some way of connecting a charging cable to it :) :) :0
A bit big for an iPhone.. :)

Works well for Ainol Novo 7 Advanced.. in fact, the best among the 3 gadgets

A nice gap between the front and the back to hold the tablet nicely

The back...

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 next :)

And there are enough height in the stand such that the Galaxy Tab also works standing up straight.. can use it to see the stock prices at Shareinvestor :) :)

There you go...a $2 docking stand HA HA

Of course, if you want a real docking station, here are some from Amazon :) :)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 inch 16GB GT-P7300 tablet

2011-12-06T13:11:00.006+08:00

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 inch GT-P7300 ! Yippe.. Unboxing time ! :)

Got this as part of a Starhub (Singapore internet cable provider) deal.. just got a bit impressed by Android tablets (since the Ainol Novo 7 Advanced) so very much wanted to get one.. while waiting for a very stable version of Android for HP touchpad.. (I still like the HP touchpad as it is big and nice.. but the OS is.. and the lack of apps are... sigh)..

Anyway, unboxing pictures !

Hate the charger. The charger for HP touchpad is nicer.. :)

And hidden behind the manual. Samsung nice earphone with different ear buds sizes :)

The tablet itself.. power switch, volume, plug for ear piece..

SIM card slot

And back camera...

As compared with a 5 cent and 10 cent coin

And iPhone 4.

And launching it !

Hello world... Hello baby..

In need of a SIM card

Got a cheap screen protector from a HDB shop nearby :)

Geez.. thanks Starhub.. I dun need this :(

Ainol Novo 7 Advanced Cover

2011-11-30T16:49:00.000+08:00

A cover made in China and bought on Taobao. Pretty reasonable and fit the Novo really well... just a bit of problem for me, not sure which side goes into the cover initially :) :)

Else I am very happy :)

The price ? 25 China money. Here's the link.

TP Link TL WR703N Mini Wifi Wireless Router

2011-11-23T10:38:00.001+08:00

Just arrived. A different version from the first WR702N that I had mistakenly bought... Another fun project to try to install OpenWRT on it...

Cisco SR2016T 16-Port Rackmount 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch

2011-11-15T14:24:00.003+08:00

There are a few things that always run out. Time, money, hard disk space and ports in a switch. A while back, I bought a 8 port Gigabit switch from TP Link and thinking it is probably enough.. After a few months, it is NOT enough :). Primarily due to the Apple TV2, a new work laptop as well as countless network experiments I am doing at home (e.g. TL-WR702N and soon to arrive TL-WR703N)...

The price difference between a 8 port switch and a 16 port switch is still quite big but interestingly, I noticed that, compared to a few months ago, prices of 16 port has dropped quite a bit. For example, D-Link 16-Port 10/100/1000 Rackmountable Switch has a new black packaging (it used to be white/green) and has a $100 lower price. It was SGD 270 or so but now has dropped to SGD 170. And even the 24 port has also dropped by a similar amount. Even the Netgear JGS516 ProSafe 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch has dropped to about SGD 170 (but in an brown box)...

Admittedly, I was very tempted but in the end, after much thoughts, I decided the switch is the blood-line in my home network and better to get an enterprise level strength. Frankly, I don't know if my choice is good (from Amazon, it is) but I just went ahead...

This is what I got: Cisco SR2016T 16-Port Rackmount 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch.

Take note that the part number is Cisco SG 100-16 and you want the Cisco SR2016T version (not the Cisco SR2016 version).

Rackmount accessories

With an iPhone for comparison

One thing I cannot get used to is the cables are now in front (instead of at the back like the home switches

Switch on and it works immediately.. with all the green LED lights flashing away :) :)

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Unboxing Photos

2011-11-14T18:45:00.001+08:00

Lenovo X220 unboxing photos... Mine comes with a SSD (Solid State Drive) so it is pretty rocking fast :)

With a docking station

Without a docking station

Connectors aplenty...

I always always always love Lenovo keyboards since the very first IBM laptop that I had :)

Ainol V8000 HDS Advanced Media Player

2011-11-10T11:55:00.000+08:00

Ever since I bought an Ainol media player 1 year ago, i have been a fan of the brand. It is cheap and good. And it plays everything.. I mean, really everything.

So got this touchscreen (again taobao rocks) this time. The model is Ainol V8000 HDS Advanced (what's up with this "advanced" thing. there is the Ainol Novo 7 Advanced.. now there is a Ainol V8000 Advanced).

Ainol V8000HDS Advanced Model:

I was very pleased with the previous model I bought and hence when it is time to move to a little bigger (from 4" to 5")... I definitely not going to try any other brands except Ainol. Normally I dun like touchscreen as I felt that it is un-necessary for a media player and also because of the potential issues (not every one is an Apple :p)... Yet as it is really cheap even though it is a touchscreen (and the word "Advanced", u know.. ha ha)... so I took the plunge and ordered this.

And, sad to say, my experience with this is a little let down. The touchscreen is horrible. It responds really badly (i.e. press really hard before any reaction or even no reaction) and I had a hard time using it. Somehow, it looks like there is already a protective screen on the media player (did i got an used set ??!!) but as a whole, the touching experience is very frustrating... I even managed to uncover a serious bug (scroll to the end of the screen and when you come back, the SETTINGS icon does not work anymore). Sad...

Still unboxing photos ahead.. hopefully a firmware upgrade will come soon... else at least let's enjoy the music and movies.. it plays everything and its saving grace is that it is cheap in taobao :)...

Oh well...

If copying is the ultimate flattery, then Apple must be so damn proud. Every damn icon looks like an Apple.. seriously very very very lack of class... even the previous version had its own icons or its own style.. come on, Ainol.... do you really need to do this ?

Familiar ??

Damn familiar :)

Free dictionaries...

Free games

Playing music

Playing Movies. at least there are now two buttons on the screen that really works (u can fast forward by pressing and holding the forward buttons).

Astro Boy again :)

Finally.... this is the ultimate .... the crazy un-necessary shut down screen.. looks like a F*** iPhone but never mind that, the damn sliding to shut down is so so so insensitive.... it takes a few times to shut it down !!

Un-necessary !!!

TP-LINK TL-WR702N Mini WiFi Wireless Router

2011-11-09T12:41:00.000+08:00

Dun even ask me why I got this. Wrong order. Meant to order TP-LINK TL-WR703N Mini WiFi Wireless Router to try to install OpenWRT on it but ordered the wrong one.. silly mistake...

Quite small and cute cute though.. will find a use for it anyway :)

Chinese Manual.. HELP :)

Hakone Free Pass Stop One : Hakone-Yumoto

2011-11-08T15:28:00.000+08:00

A few posts ago, I talked about the Hakone Free Pass and how you can travel around Hakone with it.

The first stop is, of course, the Hakone-Yumoto. But to reach there, if you have reached Odawara via the bullet train, follow the signs leading you to the train to Hakone-Yumoto

The train from Odawara to Hakone

The Hakone-Yumoto station is the first stop of the Hakone route. This is also a great place to have a taste of the hot bath. I went for one and really felt weird, being naked in front of many men :)

At this station, if you dun exit the station for the town (which is a nice place to have a bite and of course, hot bath), then you look for the cute train that takes you to Gora.

Inside the train, you can see more maps guiding you of the station around the route

Sit back and enjoy the sights on your way to Gora... Beautiful...

Adding 3G Dongle to Ainol Novo 7 Advanced

2011-11-05T14:10:00.002+08:00

Quite pleased with the Ainol Novo 7 Advanced tablet so far. Except with a bit of issues with the Wifi signals... seemed quite weak but as a whole, still acceptable...

Very quickly a new firmware on the internet appears yesterday. Version 1.8T with a new UI. Upgraded it very easily (so easy that I am surprised .. ha ha)

After upgrade:

A tablet is only useful if it is easy and light to carry around, do a lot of stuff that can be done by PC plus connectivity. I attached a 3G dongle to the tablet via the supplied cable and a few seconds later, it worked immediately. It recognized the dongle, set up the connection and no need for any installation of software (even in my MacBook, I need to install and also need to log on). There was no log on etc. It works plug and play !! Amazing.. impressed.

Of course, it also works with iPhone hotspot :)

Black Eggs at Owakudani Hakone Japan

2011-11-04T17:33:00.002+08:00

A few posts ago, I talked about the Hakone Free Pass and how you can travel around Hakone with it.

One of the stop on the route is the Owakudani. Owakudani is the volcanic vent of Mt. Kami which was formed approximately 3,000 years ago during the last eruption of the Hakone volcano.

Once you reached the Owakundani station (in the Hakone route, which we will cover in the future), please do not go ahead on the route. Exit the station and then, there is a short walking trail (about ten minutes one way) leads from the ropeway station into the volcanic zone to a number of steam vents and bubbling pools (just follow the crowd, you will never get lost one....).

Here you can purchase eggs, cooked in the naturally hot water. Owakudani's special boiled eggs are made by utilizing geothermal heat and they have black shells because of sulfur and iron contents in the hot spring water attaching to them. Hence, they are called "Kuro-Tamago (black eggs)" and are extremely popular among the visitors. It is said that every egg a person eats will prolong his/her life by seven years.

Shops are everywhere...

And the cooking process..

The spring to cook the eggs

White eggs going in..

Black eggs out...

But still the eggs are white inside lah :)

And oh yes, this is the best spot to see Mount Fuji.. on a very clear day.. NICE ? :)

Foscam Wireless Pan/Tilt IP Camera FI8918W

2011-11-04T09:52:00.002+08:00

Wanted to get a IP camera that allows you to monitor your place, your kid or your office ?

Recently got a Foscam Wireless Pan/Tilt IP Camera from a local company called Matrix IT Distribution. It was a pretty easy transaction. I emailed them, transferred the money and then next day, it was delivered to my place. I liked the cost of about SGD149 (for a Pan/Tilt camera, this is a good price to pay) and also the fact their support is pretty good (e.g. they produced a write up on how to set up port forwarding in Singtel MIOBOX (2WIRE ROUTER). I have lots of experience with Starhub and my own router port forwarding but never had any with Singtel (I get the feeling it is not easy ... perhaps it is, but I dun know..). So I am pretty happy to have a guide to help me. Truth be told, it is a pretty easy thing to buy a IP camera but the real benefits is the ability to do the viewing OVER THE INTERNET and in our dynamic IP world, some knowledge are needed in port forwarding (for lay man like me :p). And also, this IP camera can record to a NAS too.

I did noticed that it is cheaper to buy in Amazon but that's without their local warranty and also you need to ship it back. Still, if you buy a lot, is technically capable etc :)

Anyhow, sharing the photos of unboxing and will share any fun/experience of setting it up in the future.. so many gadgets, so little money :)

Guides for both Windows and Mac.. that's good

Set of accessories

Don't be shy baby :p

Ainol Novo 7 Advanced Tablet

2011-11-03T21:51:00.002+08:00

The latest craze in town. A very affordable Made in China tablet with the Allwinner A10 (Cortex A8) chip. The resolution is supposedly crazy at 2160p and has an interesting mini HDMI output to show off the contents on a LCD TV.

The price ? As low as 140SGD before shipping on taobao and street price of SGD185 to SGD200 in the Singapore IT malls. Provided you can find one ;-)

8 GB onboard. Actually comparing with 32 GB HP touchpad, that's really small :)

Very grand hor. HA HA

Messy set of accessories. Ear piece, charger, USB cables and even a remote control for you to use when you have attached the tablet to a TV etc

Here's the baby:

Side buttons

Against a Singapore 10 cents coin

Hello welcome world....

My unit came with Android 2.3.4 and firmware of 1.7B. As at writing, 1.8T has been released just these few days :)

All the menus are in Chinese for my set but you can change it to English

So what do you think.. will you buy one ? Or stick to Apple iPad :)

Xunlei Media Player Interface and how to activate it in Singapore

2011-10-30T02:21:00.000+08:00

So the unboxing photos of the Xunlei Media Player have been shared and so how does the interface looks like ?

Here it goes.. on the surface, it looks like a normal China made media player except there is an icon for the Xunlei Shop on the Media Player:

In one corner, it will never stop reminding you it is a XUNLEI media player :)

It does have a pretty snappy interface and things just roll around quite well. In addition, the settings are quite a lot and I never felt lost in the interface even though it is in Simplified Chinese.

Anyway, the whole point is the Xunlei Store that is in the media player that allows you to "purchase" and download the movies/TV serials/variety shows etc.

Here's the movie section:

TV serials section

Some advice....

You will want to upgrade the firmware when you received it. The original firmware was something like 30th August 2011 but there is a newer 2nd September version on the Xunlei Media Player sales page. Just two days but a world of difference.

The usual firmware upgrade steps in the media player will NOT work (i.e. you cannot go to the menu and choose upgrade firmware... it will not recognize the upgrade file you downloaded...). Instead, the instructions is in Chinese here.

My steps for your convenience:

You need to download the firmware, unzip it, place the IMG file into a thumb drive, plug into the media player, shut down the media player, press a toothpick into the RESET hole at the back of the media player and hold for 5 seconds (YES, A TOOTHPICK), then press the button to start the media player and while starting holding the silly toothpick, wait for the firmware upgrade screen to appear before you let go. The firmware upgrade will start and takes about 5-10 mins.

When the firmware upgrade screen appears, AC Ryan PlayOn media player fans will go crazy. It looked exactly like the firmware upgrade screen of the AC Ryan PlayOn. 100% similar when you upgraded the firmware of the AC Ryan PlayOn. So .. under the hoods, the so called classier AC Ryan playon is a Chinese media player huh ? :)

Never mind. Why the upgrade ? Apparently it allows for online streaming of Xunlei shop items and most importantly, the ONLINE TV section of the media player really got a LOT MORE new stuff as compared to the original version. I highly recommend you upgrade to the new version....

Youtube

Online weather

Online Streaming web sites for Chinese movies and TV shows and even Live TV shows.. I saw a lot of channels and one day, will try to play it during a Premier League match to see if I can find free English Premier League games :) :) :)

Here's one online streaming app...

Okie.. now let's talk about the activation of the media player.

Th fun part starts.. in order to download any of the movies in the SHOP, your media player needs to be activated.....Yes.. the Xunlei media player NEEDS TO BE ACTIVATED. What ??!! It is just like Windows software. Not only do you need to buy it but also after buying it, in order to use the Shop@Xunlei front end, you need to activate it.

Reason is that it needs to know you are in China so that you can use it and can link the yearly subscription account with your media player. However, if you are in Singapore, it does not work for you. You will NOT be able to activate it at all.

You will keep seeing this screen where a code DOES NOT APPEAR. You need this code to then enter into your online account to "link the online account with the media player". Hence there must be a linkage or activation of the link between your subscription and the box (like iTunes and AppleTV2)... problem is if your IP is in Singapore, you can forget it, the screen will just keep showing "attempting to get code" as in this screen:

Dun bother to wait. If it works, it is just a few seconds. If not, you can wait forever... I tried all kinds of methods before finally found one method that works for me.

Here's what you need. You need a VPN provider. For example, I use Overplay.Net (which has China servers and Hong Kong servers and which is why I signed up with them). Just like Apple TV2, the media player does not support VPN so even if you have a VPN provider, it is not enough. So that's only step 1. You then install the Overplay VPN software on your laptop and connect the laptop to a router via an cable. That means you are doing a WIRED connection to the VPN server in HK or China on your laptop. That will free up your WIRELESS for use as a hotspot for others to connect (others in this case is the media player..).

Next on your laptop, you install a software called Connectify (http://www.connectify.me/). Use the free version. This will create a hotspot on your laptop. Don't try to use the Windows 7 hotspot functionality. The media player refused to work with it. I dun know why. I noticed my HP Touchpad also does not work with Windows 7 hotspot too.

In the Connectify software, you need to be careful. You need to tell it to allow you to connect to the internet via the VPN (usually it is LOCAL AREA CONNECTION 3, in my case) and to accept incoming wifi connections via the free wireless Wifi connection. In other words, you are accepting incoming wifi connections to your laptop and then connecting your laptop to VPN provider's server via the VPN software.

Complicated? Ya.. a bit.. a picture:

With the above settings, you are ready for next step.

You will then next go to the media player and DISCONNECT the wired line from the media player to the router (if you are using it anyway). You then use the free Wifi dongle they provided (see... so nice of them.. else we are dead...) and then plug into the USB of the media player. Next, in the settings of the media player, you switch off the WIRED connection then switch on the WIRELESS connection. The media player will scan all the wireless connections available at your place.

Find the Connectify wireless hotspot (you can see my name is "connectify-" and connect to it (with the password you set in the laptop.. u can see the screen above again).

Now... if it works, your media player will tell you it is connected to the internet.. you can then check to make sure it is so... and with hands trembling, you then go back to the Xunlei Shop settings and behold, you will find the code flashing in front of you !!! I nearly cried with happiness when I was successful...

Using this code, you will go back to the web site on your laptop and access your Xunlei shop account. Somewhere is a place where you can enter this code so that you can tie the media player to your yearly account.... complicated and messy...

But if it works...you can now go ahead and download movies directly from the Xunlei Shop inside the media player !!
Important note: I realized that if I put the set to standby, it will again ask for the activation code AGAIN when I try to download. So you will have to redo the whole process again. A bit like Apple tv2 tendered. Very Troublesome.. so please take note of that.. I have not tested if I leave it alone (never shut it down at all), will it also happened (i.e. the box poll the IP address every now and then). The good thing is that once you are back in the HK/China IP addresses, no need for activation. The set will know and you are fine.. just be aware...

The Shop Front where you can choose your movies..

I chosed Overhead 2 (the latest Chinese movie to be available in Bluray) and I chose the 720p version....

Immediately the download begins after I started it... and from the screen you can see that it is taking 514KB/s and will take another 36 minutes to complete...

All these from the media player itself....

And when it is done

The completed file in the silly XLMV format.. uuurgghhh

Which can only be played on this media player and certain PC software...

And the movie plays...

Also note that you don't really need to download directly from the media player (actually it is the only GOOD reason to buy this media player but if you have troubles activate it, then forget it lor....you can still download on your PC and then copy the files over.. just like these photos show:

After that, just play it like any normal files...
There you go.. the Xunlei Media Player..
Not for the faint hearted :).. maybe an Apple TV2 is easier :) :) :)