The Evolution of Technology

Hack a normal camera into a UV camera

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 18:01:00 +0800

Recently got a pretty fun project and the requirement is to capture images of human face which shows the hidden sun damage (freckles) on your face. Some initial research indicated that in order to achieve the end result, a UV light source will be needed as well a UV camera which will only intaking spectrum in between 280nm - 380nm. (UV) Camera / (UV Band Pass) Filter + IR block Filter / UV Light source are all unknown variables in order to make this project work.

Since we know the wavelength of the spectrum we want, we go right ahead and place order for some small circular size of Hoya U340 filter (aim to use for webcam or GoPro), which gives us a very good visibility on the requested range and very minimal IR exposure (near 700nm)

The initial research also indicate that for most of the camera there are internal IR filters, in order to turn your camera into a UV camera the (internal) IR filter must be destroyed.

Initially I was aiming to go for compact size camera (ie webcam / GoPro) however soon I found out camera sensor is another unknown variable as well as most of the webcam sensors are NOT strong enough to intake / see the UV spectrum, as a result even the internal IR filter of the webcam was removed still end result pictures are not as what we are looking for! As a result that lead us to eliminate the webcam option.

Test Image from the mod Webcam & my shades are see through

The mod Web Cam with the Hoya Filter

Since Web Cam is not a viable solution in here, we move on to the second option - GoPro. We broke open an old GoPro Hero3 Silver and hoping to able to remove the internal IR filter, however we were stuck at the last part and not able to remove the lens form the housing.

We are aware that the GoPro Hero 3 is using the Sony sensor however am unsure what the wavelength in take hence still unsure whether GoPro will be the best fit.

Lens is stuck with the housing

At the end we have to move on to our third option, which is DSLR. DSLR is not really in our initiative, instead it's more a fall back plan as the original initiative was to make the setup rig small and compact, however a prototype to prove of concept of the tech is more important and hence we move on for DSLR.

Getting the DSLR to play along is a bit tricky, as we need to ensure there are pretty much no IR intake. Our selection is a Canon rebel t3i (small size) and we first remove the internal IR filter and replace it with a UV filter. Due to we didn't take in consideration of using a DSLR, as a result, we did not place any proper size of Hoya filter for the mod of the DSLR.

A replacement filter (BP 324)was used instead. The difference between the two filters is that Hoya blocks a better percentage of the IR (700nm mark) mean while BP 324 allows more IR lights in. BP 324 as an internal filter was not bad but as expected there are some IR pollution.

Due to the IR pollution, we add in another IR block filter outside of the lens (SP 510). Adding SP 510 gives us a much better picture, however still not perfect. Since we have a small piece of Hoya U340 filter, might as well take advantage of it and we stacked up the U340 and the SP 510 to create a layer of filters that allow specific spectrum of light to comes in and the result was stunning!

Blue Tag is handy to make the stacked filters stay

First experiment we did was to take images at outdoor environment with bright sunlight. In addition I applied some sun screen (as sun screen suppose to block UV hence if the camera work as expect, it will show the sun screen as black ink color). Below are some test images results: Am suspecting the purple-ish color is due to slight IR pollution.

Without the sunscreen, my shades turns black, expected result!

Sun Screen on my face and you can clearly see it

Second test is to move the set up to an indoor environment and utilizing UV the light source to produce similar effects as above pictures.

2 types of UV light source - Dark Blue & white

First we try out the UV light source with no light in the room (pitch dark environment) and wondering what the outcome will be...

Image taken with UV light source under pitch dark environment

Our first indoor test results in quite dark image, still my shades & sun screen shows up as ink black. Next, we try using various UV light sources (Dark Blue & White) to take pictures under the same room but with the normal ambient lights on.

Dark Blue UV light with normal ambient (indoor) lighting

White UV light with normal ambient (indoor) lighting

The result was quite different, and believe the Dark Blue UV light source yield a better result (monochrome).

Above are tests with filters stacking together using blue tag, since the camera is mod with BP 324 filter in, we now order a Schott BG 40 multiband filter, which should eliminate the IR and mean while still allowing the UV spectrum in. Once the filter is in will be able to provide some additional update.

With the above testing, we found out that in order to hack your camera into a UV camera, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Camera sensor must be strong enough to intake UV light spectrum (thou we yet to try out GoPro but we highly suspect the sensor should be able to take the UV spectrum)
Camera's internal IR filter MUST be removed and replace with UV filter (suggest to go for Hoya U340)
You will need additional IR filter(s) to stack on top of the UV filter or ring mount it on the lens to stop the IR pollution, and should try to eliminate IR light as much as possible
Finally you will also need a UV light source (make sure you work with UV-A light source as UV-B & UV-C are not eye safe)

Happy modding!

Strengthen up your Google Account, LastPass and other online services security with Multifactor Authentication via Yubikey

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 11:02:00 +0800

As there are more and more online services these days, it's tough for us to remember all the passwords we have for various services. Some advance users are using Password manager services like LastPass, 1Password and other similar services, those whom concern about security will probably turn on two-factor authentication for their online services.

Password Manager together with two-factor authentication for web services are recommended however if you forget your master password for your Password Manager Vault or your master password is compromised, all your passwords are at risk.

Setting up multifactor authentication for password manager will be ideal, this article aim to help on setting up Yubikey Neo with LastPass as well as couple other common online services.

There are various type of Yubikey, however with the heavy daily use of mobile device, I had chosen to go for the Neo as the NFC capability can become handy.

If you are a Mac user like myself, once Yubikey is plugged in, it will be recognized as a USB keyboard, follow these steps to complete the initial setup on MAC.

Yubikey initially didn't come with the U2F settings, as a result user will need to download Neo Manager in order to configure your Yubikey and enable the U2F functionality.

Once the U2F functionality is enabled, you may then be able to use the Youbikey to setup multifactor authentication with services like Google, Dropbox and many others.

LastPass
Set up multifactor authentication in LastPass is simple and easy! A detail guide can be found here

Plugin your Yubikey
Login to your LastPass Vault and select account settings from the menu on the left
Choose "Multifactor Options" & select Yubikey
Use the below settings for the drop down menu

YubiKey Authentication => Enabled
Permit Mobile Device Access => Disallow
Permit Offline Access => Allow

Click the first empty YubiKey field, and lightly press your YubiKey on the grooved circle
Enter your LastPass Master Password to save any updates you have made to your YubiKey settings and you are all set!

Once you have completed the above setup and enable your Youbikey, you may now login LastPass using your YubiKey. When you try to login, LastPass will prompt you for your credential as usual. Once your credential is entered and verified, LastPass will prompt for a Yubikey device code

Plug in your Yubikey to the computer and press on the grooved circle to generate the code. Once you pressed the grooved circle, a code will be generated and you will be automatically direct to your vault.

If you have a LastPass Premium account, you may use similar approach to access your vault on your mobile device. In order to do so, open LastPass and enter your credentials, LastPass will prompt for Yubikey verification. Tab your Yubikey to (the back of) your mobile device (ensure your mobile device's NFC is on) and your vault will be unlocked!

Other then LastPass, the U2F enabled Yubikey can also setup multifactor authentication for Google account.

Google Account

Login your Google Account
Click on your profile picture thumbnail (on the top right) and choose Account or nav to this link directly
If you yet to setup 2-step authentication, please do so by following the steps
Once 2-step authentication is set, click on the last tab (Security Key)
If your Yubikey already inserted, please unplug and press Register button
Insert your Yubikey, you should see green light blinking on your Yubikey
Press on the grooved circle and you will see a green checkmark to confirm

Once the above steps is completed when you login your Google Account, system will prompt for original credentials. Once the credentials have been verified, it will prompt for security key verification.

Insert your Yubikey and tab on the grooved circle and now you are now authorize to your Google Account!

Yubikey is a very useful security key, it's flexible enough and able to work with any services that support U2F. Services like Dropbox & Facebook are also support but you will need additional config on the key or use an Authenticator apps like Google Authenticator / Yubico Authenticator.

Yubico Authenticator is more preferable as Yubico Authenticator will NOT cache your passcode on your mobile device nor keep generating passcode continuously like Google Authenticator. Yubico Authenticator will only generate passcode once (for all previously setup services) when app detects Yubikey. In short it's more secure in comparison to Google Authenticator.

What's Google Cardboard and What You Can Do with It

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:24:00 +0800

Background - What is Google Cardboard and what you can do with it

Official Google Cardboard is a give away for participants during I/O 2014. In short it's a fold-out cardboard smartphone mount that, when combined with lenses, a magnet, a piece of hook-and-loop fastener and a rubber band and held against the face, affords a virtual reality experience that is similar to Oculus Rift & Samsung Gear VR. The differences? Google Cardboard is a DIY project as well it's a very low cost to afford for the VR experience.

Where can I get a Cardboard

Official Google Cardboard is not for sale, however you can build your own Cardboard and get the hardware parts from Amazon or 3D print your own, alternatively you can purchase replica online as well.

The replica Cardboard is easy to assemble. Shall there be any problem on assembling, corresponding FAQ sections will have all the info you need.

What's the NFC Sticker for? Do I need it?

The NFC sticker is NOT essential, it acts as a trigger to open the cardboard app automatically. DODOcase has their own VR app and their NFC stickers will automatically open their own VR app unlike Unofficial Cardboard opens up Cardboard app.

BOTH replica suppliers' NFC tag are not locked hence you can use any NFC writing app to re-write them.

What's the magnet & the ring meant for?

The magnet is used for clicking inside of cardboard app. When you pull and release the ring, your phone's magnetometer detects changes in the magnetic field and act as a click / tap on the program, however not all phones will be able to detect magnet pulls.

Work with Cardboard certification

On April 16, 2015 Google announced 'Works with Cardboard Certification' program.

As there are many manufacturer whom produce the cardboard like viewing device which each headset may be specific optimize for specific mobile device (like focal length, input type, and inter-lens distance, etc), as a result Google introduce the 'Work with Cardboard Certification' program to ensure the Google Cardboard App will automatically adjust the settings according to manufacturer's specs and optimize viewer's experience.

I have my Cardboard assembled, what can I do with it?

Android Devices
If you are using an Android Device, check to see if your smartphone is listed compatible on Google Cardboard’s list. If it is, download the Cardboard Android App

Once downloaded, open the Cardboard App and it will run an initial setup.
If your cardboard device has the 'Works with Cardboard Certification', simply use the Cardboard App to scan the QR code on your device and the Cardboard App will auto adjust itself for optimize viewing experience.

If your cardboard / headset does not have the QR code, simply press skip and you will reach the landing page of the app

In this screen you will be able to view a list of installed apps that's capable of VR experience. If your list is empty, simply press the Get more cardboard Apps / Cardboard Demos to begin your VR experience.

Apps recommendations for stunning VR Experience

Jack White: THIRD-D (360 live concert Video experience)
Orbulus (360 Image experience)
Mercedes VR for Cardboard (360 test driving experience)
Roller Coaster VR (Experience Roller Coaster in VR)

iOS Device
iOS device are also capable of VR Experience & Cardboard just like Android devices, as Cardboard will work with any smartphone that has a mobile VR app installed, simply ensure the Cardboard you are using fits the dimension of your iOS device as most cardboards are design specifically for 5" device hence the smaller iOSDevice may not fit well in the cardboard (Warning: Be aware that your iOS Device may slip out from the cardboard).

In order to experience virtual reality on your iOS device, simply go to iTunes store and seek for proper apps, below are some suggestions:

Dive City Coaster – Roller coaster simulator.
The Height – Simple VR demo/game.
Dive Zombie – Shoot zombies in virtual reality.
Moorente – Like Duck Hunt for VR headsets.
Stereoscopic Tunnel Effect – A never-ending journey through a virtual tunnel.

Once the app is install, simply open it and slip your phone into the cardboard to begin the VR experience!

I want more VR Experience!
Mobile app is not the only way you can experience VR world, both Chrome & Mozilla had their browser enable for VR experience and you may want to check them out. At the time of writing, Chrome Experience is fully support on Cardboard & various mobile devices to experience the VR world. Mean while Mozilla's MozVR only support Mozilla VR enabled browser or testing builds of Chromium for MAC & PC.

How to Roll Back Firmware Version in Xiaomi Box

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 14:06:00 +0800

In the previous blog entry, I had indicated that only firmware version 1.2.9 or prior will allow program such as Snappea to connect the box and install apk in the box. So what if you *accidentally* upgrade your firmware to 1.2.14? (latest firmware as of writing this entry)

You probably try to do a factory reset but you realize you still on 1.2.14, however it's not the end of the world yet :) and here is what you need to do

Unplug (power) your box, so your box is shut down
Before you plug in the power again, make sure you hold down BOTH "Home" & "Menu" buttons
Plug in your box while still holding the "Home" & "Menu" buttons
Now you should entered the recover mode of the box
Wipe Data / Factory Reset (option 3)
Choose Reboot System now (option 1)
Box will now as you to reboot to System One or System Two
*Depends on your box version, some has different options as System One listed as Current & some listed System Two as Current
You would like to choose the System volume that's NOT listed as current
Your box will now reboot and rolled back to the previous firmware version

You are now all set to go and can install apks via Snappea or similar program following instructions from my previous entry

Enjoy!

How to install additional TV channels & XBMC to your Xiaomi Box

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:27:00 +0800

Xiaomi can possibly be the Apple in China and one of their product is TV box which function is very similar to Apple TV but more powerful.

Xiaomi Box (also call Mi-Box) is a very neat Android Box that allow you to stream movies and TV from various channels. Simply connect to your router & TV it works! However the Xiaomi Box comes with very limited sources of channels and if you wish you watch a bit more it can be a problem as the box itself it's does not have Android Market nor you can easily install 3rd party app easily on it.

With a program call Snappea this problem just solved and you do not need to root your box at all! (At the moment of writing Snappea is only available for Windows)

Below is a quick how to:
*Please proceed at your own risk, as am not responsible for any damage of your box
[Update] The below is meant for MiBox first Gen, I had NOT try the below for MiBox second Gen!

Download the Windows client from Snappea site
Connect your Box to your computer via USB cable (the mirco USB can plug can be found at the back of the box), once connected, snappea will attemp to install Android client on the box
If everything goes well, you should now see your box being connected via Snappea and you will be able to view information about your box on your snappea welcome screen
*I had experience with situation that the Xiaomi Box firmware version 1.2.14 and beyond Snappea seems to be not able to install itself to the box and as a result you will need to reset the box and roll back to previous firmware version to 1.2.9 or below in order to install
Once verify the box is connected, go to Apps (left menu)
Click on install apps button (top menu)
Choose your APKs it will then push all these APKs to the box and install for you as well. Depends on how many apps you are installing, it can take a while

As mentioned before the streaming channels come in default of the box is very limited, couple of channels I would recommend: Tuzi TV (which also comes in a launcher that can become very handy afterwards); LiveTV and MyVST. If you would like to install XMBC in the box as well, simply download the APK from XMBC official site and install it via Snappea as well.
Other then the above mentioned TV channels, you can also install any 3rd party apps you wish, however not all apps are suitable to install to the box as you have to remember you will lost the touch and gesture control but left with a remote control, so think before you install. Last but not least you may also want to download ES File Explore or any other file browser so you can view the files in your box, feel free to download MX Player Pro / VLC Player to your box for your XMBC.

Once you install the above, and boot up your box again, you will see there are new launchers for you to choose from (including the official Xiaomi box launcher). If you want to switch launcher, simply press on the home button on the remote to bring up the launcher selection, be very careful not too check the box for auto launch as there's no easy way to launch the settings app form the box's interface.

Enjoy!

How to Activate Android Device Manager and Locate Your Lost Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 8 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0800

Google finally rolled out Android Device Manager, which allow you to locate your lost phone.
This new features is in the middle of rolling and if you are an Android users, you may already have Device Manager in your phone.

In order to activate Android Device Manager, simply nav to settings -> Security -> Device administrators and you should see Android Device Manager like below

Click on the check box in order to activate the service.
If you ever lost your phone, you may nave to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager and locate your phone, in addition you can also remotely Ring your Device as well as erase all data in the phone.
** Please note your phone have to be connected to internet and GPS has to be on in order for the above feature function

We wish you a Happy Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:01:00 +0800

Am sure everyone loves their birthday and am no exception. However my preference of birthday is enjoying it just like any other day. Grab a coffe, go to work, come home for dinner, nothing special.

Duno since when companies around us start to target on your birthday, some provide you promotions, some, simply wish you a "Happy Birthday" and some simply make you laugh out loud!

For example, I got a few emails saying Happy Birthday to me that includes my parents, Wattpad Team, a Job Search Site, NBA All access, etc. In addition I also get an SMS form HSBC, wish me a blessed birthday filled with happiness! (Thanks All!)

Different companies utilize various ways to wish their user Happy Birthday, and personally believes the above ways may be a bit old fashion. Below are some surprises for me and they are more out of the box and fun :)

Early in the morning, walk into Starbucks and grab my coffee, check in to +foursquare and the #4sq team wish me a happy birthday and they even know I look nice today :)

During my work day, would like to seek for something online, and hop to Google to perform a search, wa~la Thanks Google!

Am flattered and when I clicked on the Google Doodle, it brings me to my Google+ personal page notification and see some of my friends had also sent me birthday wishes, clicked on it and it returns a search page under hash tag #HappyBirthday which is to me. Again am super flattered!

After all it's just a birthday and I have to say it's very nice for companies to wish their users a Happy Birthday and as a user am happy these companies wishing me a great Birthday!

However come in mind, isn't that a bit sketchy that you are getting all these emails, SMS and funky wishes from all these companies? Oh wait, I think I subscribe and tell them when is my birthday??!! or ...

Privacy is always an issue and of course beware of what you are sharing :)
A Very Happy Birthday to myself :)

Happy Foursquare Day 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:26:00 +0800

It's April 16, 2012 if you are a Foursquare user, you might be aware of today is Foursquare day! It's a bit geeky as the square of four is sixteen hence April 16 was set as Foursquare Day.

There are a lot of Foursquare meet up around the world and last year Foursquare celebrate it with a Foursquare Day badge. This year will be the same, if you check in via the app you will get Foursquare Day 2012 badge.

In addition, if you are also a Untappd user (social beer drinking app), make sure you check in a brew with the location check in via Foursquare, you will see a surprise from your badge collection.

Happy #4sqDay !

Crisis Management: Social Media can save or destroy your brand

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:36:00 +0800

On a beautiful Easter Monday morning, I was not able to accessing Internet via my mobile nor making any calls due to a service outage, which I found out later on during the day.

Once I suspect the problem is on the carrier side, immediately I hop on my carrier's (SmarTone HK) web portal and Social Media Channels and hope to dig up some info about what's going on. Unfortunately I was not able to find anything regarding on the service status, instead I got posts about their promotions which was posted before the Easter holiday.

While I was surfing the net and seeking for answers, I saw a lot of postings from various Social Media channels that subscribers were complaining and it just gone viral. Throughout the day there seems to be no response from carrier's end on their official Social Media Channels (Facebook and Twitter)

In this digital age, computers, Internet and Social Media already become part of our life. If a person would like to know more about a specific brand they will go online and search for the brand. Brand's portal used to be the communication channel to customer but that's old schooled and a one way communications.

With the raise of Social Media, digital communications become more personal and instead of a one way communications, it's now a dialog (both ways). People will express their opinion or engage brand via the brand's Social Media profile. In another hand Brand can also utilize these channels to communicate or made announcement via their Social Media profile or identity.

Using SmarTone service outage as an example, the Brand itself should had made the announcement on their Social Media Profile and let their subscribers knows that the service was experiencing outage and keep updating the situation so subscribers have an idea how things are. Instead the Brand choose not to do anything and hence angry subscribers were complaining online via Social Media, which easily gone viral and hence leave a very bad reputation of the Brand.

Social Media can easily be a life saver for Crisis Management, Brands should always monitor their Brand existence online so the Brand can be aware of any negative comments or feedback and take immediate and proper actions.

In addition Brand should also take time to reply comments and communicate with their audience via each Social Media channel hence audience feels they are being hear by the Brand.

Social Media is a double edged sword which can benefit Brands if you utilize it on the right way, mean while it can also act as a viral platform that hurts your Brand BIG time if you didn't handle it well. Proceed with caution!

SmarTone announced their press release on Facebook
not till 24 hrs after the outage, why not earlier?

The Press Release was not even on @SmarTone_HK twitter page

Never just copy code out from any site off on the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 6 Apr 2012 22:46:00 +0800

Back in the days when you are in College, remember the professor are always able to pull out students whom are copying work from each other? You may wonder how the professor do it. The answer is simple, coz there are always trails or indication of copycat. People whom copy work from each other will always result having the same / similar mistake.

Normally I do not pay too much attention to my blog analytics, I only look into certain things here and there. Recently Google Analytics had rolled out new social report and hence from my Dashboard I'm able to see a Social Action panel, which look something like below.

At first I was a bit surprise, how comes there are some Arabic Characters from my Social Action and I had to admit I didn't pay any attention to this due to busy schedule. Instead of looking into things I just went straight to my Analytics Reports to observe some general traffic info.

Earlier today I finally got sometime and would like to update some settings and clean up some code from my blog, then I start digging up abnormal stats within my analytics data.

When I look deeper into the Social Report from Google Analytics I found out a funky URL that's not even within my domain. That's how I found out someone in somewhere is doing something they should not be doing. Copying codes directly from one site to theirs without updating some important information.

The next thing I did was to look up this link and take a look at this site. It links to an article page of an Egyptian Wheel Weekly News site, within the article I see something very familiar and that's the addthis sharing widget that I had on my blog.

A quick peek into the coding and I found out something very very interesting.

Code Snippets from the other site

Above is a code snippets of AddThis Sharing buttons configuration from that site. First few lines basically declares which social sharing buttons to be displayed and the line begin with var addthis_config is where the addthis configuration being set.

AddThis has a feature that allows user to hook up the service with Google Analytics, which can be very useful, the funky part from the above snippets is where the number begins with "UA-". That number is an unique ID for a Profile under Google Analytics account and that number look very very familiar.

A quick comparison to my blog's and I found out someone had been copying code from my blog.

Another quick peek to this site Google Analytics declaration code, I am even more sure some programmers simply snag the code out from my blog and didn't bother to change some important information, the Google Analytics ID that hooks up to AddThis.

Comparing the Google Analytics ID from above, I know something went wrong

The Problem: Since my Google Analytics ID was hooked up to another site's Addthis code, that means all addthis social data from the other site is now ported to my Google Analytics traffic data and hence my data is tempered

In another hand, the other party also missing a lot of their social data and will find out their Google Analytics data did not match up with their AddThis analytics data.

Once I found out the above I immediately fire off an email to their general info@ email and hopefully someone will look into the problem and patch it up.

Personally am not against anyone copying code from my blog (provided I did some customization on it), however if you do copy it, ensure you change the code to proper values instead of leaving a mess like this. One interesting I found out, there are always trail to find out someone is copying things from one another. What I hope is this is the only sole case and hopefully it will not happen to anyone anymore!

My First Speed Dating Experience ... via Twitter??!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:30:00 +0800

It's Feb 14th and that means it's St. Valentine's Day! I have to say I had a wonderful experience today as I had my first ever speed dating experience in my life. This speed dating was different from any normal speed dating, in fact it's utilizing the new technology with Social Media and was done via Twitter!!

Twitter Speed Dating (dwitter) was part of the Social Media Week Hong Kong event and is co-organized with #TDHK (a social meet up group in Hong Kong that start up by @jmis and @hyperCasey). The event took place at Bisous where a projected screen were set up with and Twitter wall with hash Tag #TDHK were displayed. Since it's Valentines Day, Nokia the sponsor had also provided some beautiful roses to all the participants!

How does it work: Host had prepared some random questions with multiple choice answers. Questions were twitted out (on the projected screen) with the hash Tag #TDHK. Participants were to choose the answers that suits them the most (then tweet your answer out with the #TDHK hash tag).

People with the same answer will gather together and form a group, the group will then have 3 mins to get to know each other.

During the 3 mins time duration, if you and your potential match are in sync and think you are a match raise up your hand and you will get a *match sticker*.

At the end of the night the people with the most stickers are pair up and consider as *match*, they then get the prize of free dinner at a fine dinning restaurant. Beside the lovely dinner, Nokia also offered 2 new phones as the lucky draw for the other participants (1 male, 1 female).

As one of the participants I have to say it's a very awesome (first time) experience! The idea is very innovative, love the concept a lot. It's awesome to see how Social Media can be easily plugged into speed dating, guess this is why we are having social media week.

Wish you all a sweet and Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Dwitter 2012!

How to install MIUI Rom on your Android Device with A2SD enabled

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:08:00 +0800

If you are like me got an Android Device that's almost 2 years old with limited storage space, rooting the device, install a custom ROM with some nice theme & pushing all apps to SD card may sound very tempting. This guide aims to provide a quick run down of how to install MIUI (a popular custom ROM that is based on cyanogenmod, which original implemented by developers from China)

In order to install a 3rd party custom ROM, first thing you need to do is to root your Android device! Please note that once you decided to root your device, your device's warranty will be voided & possible become non function. I'm not responsible for your device's malfunction & will not be able to provide any support for fixing your device, root your device on your on risk.

There are a lot of tools out there which provide one click root for your device, with some exception like my Nexus One you will need to unlock the bootloader in order to root the device. This tutorial will be using Nexus One as sample device, you may follow the guide online that's provided by MIUI for any other Android device.

MIUI provide a simple & easy to follow guide of flashing the MIUI Rom for your device. A guide of flashing the ROM for Nexus One can be found here. This guide is a bit outdated (Part 3 step 2 screen will not be shown. In addition Part 3 step 1 the correct command should be fastboot flash recovery n1_Recovery_3.0.1.4.img),

** If storage is your concern, you should first format your SD card and create an ext partition (with the size of 512MB - 1GB & No swap space) This partition is meant for A2SD (A2SD is different from App2SD. A2SD simply allow user to push all apps & apps' cache to the SD Card ext partition)**

You may format your SD card using the recovery ROM or using a Linux machine with the GPart tool.

** If you want an English Rom, you should go to MIUI.us and download the English Rom instead of downloading the default Chinese Rom from MIUI main site**

Follow the instructions from the MIUI guide should allow you to install the Rom without a problem. Once you installed MIUI you will be greeted with a nice interface which you may change the look & feel and change some of the settings later on.

By default MIUI supports A2SD, however A2SD is not enable by default. When I first set up MIUI & A2SD it was a very frustrating experience and am going to share my foundings with all of you, hopefully that helps avoid some frustrations for some users out in the public.

Once your MIUI Rom is installed, you will need to do two things

Go to Android Market & download Terminal Emulator. This app simply allow you to key in Linux command directly to the phone.
Go to Superuser app (inside tools folder)
- click on menu button on your device
- click settings
- turn on Root permission

Once the above is done, you should perform a clean reboot - Power down your device then turn it back on. My experience was without a clean reboot and executing the commands below will cost all your installed apps icon disappear & apps will not be able to install nor you able to run them on your device hence you will need to flash your Rom again (Painful! It took me entire day & re flushing Roms 10+ times to figure this out!)

Once your device is booted up, open terminal emulator and key in

$su (This command allow super user right - allow ROOT permission for Terminal Emulator)

#a2sd check (check the current status for a2sd)

Pay a close attention to the output and you should see the status saying app & private app is running from internal storage. Now lets push the apps to your SD Card

#a2sd reinstall (reinstall the a2sd app, your phone will automatically restart)

Once phone restarted, open Terminal Emulator again and key in the below to check the status

$su (This command allow super user right - allow ROOT permission for Terminal Emulator)

#a2sd check (check the current status for a2sd)

The status should now indicate app & private app are now running from SD Card, next issue the below commands to finish off the process

#a2sd zipalign (zipalign for each boot)

#a2sd cachesd (move all apps cache to SD cad as well, phone will restart again)

Once phone rebooted you issue the check command again, you should see zipalign is now running on boot & app's cache is also moved to SD card.

Congrats! You are all set! The only thing will occupied your internal storage now is you app data. I am unsure whether you would like to push your app data to SD Card (which is also do-able via a2sd command), for me that's good enough.

Hope this guide help and enjoy your refreshed old phone (it does feel like a new phone in a way!)

Ice Cream Sandwich had arrived !!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:14:00 +0800

The long waited Android OS - Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) is finally released together with the new Android device Galaxy Nexus and was announced in Hong Kong earlier.

Google had put in a lot of new features as well as enchantments to the core apps in ICS. Enhancements like screen capturing, panoramic camera, in app image editing, stacking apps icons together to create folder (oh yea iOS has that eh?), browser sync with Chrome, Calendar & Gmail app updates and more ....

Previously in order for user to get the above mentioned features you will need to download third party apps, now it's all built in to the OS itself. Some of these enhanced features are already pre-load & act as default functionality in popular custom ROMs like MIUI & CyanogeMod.

What exactly that means? From what I can tell, Google is listening & observing user behaviors, mean while trying to provide a better user experience for all the Android users by providing enhanced features that users been looking for & requesting.

There are also new features like Face Unlock, Android Beam & People App, these are all cool and amazing features! The question comes in mind - did Ice Cream Sandwich just set a new standard of the mobile OS platform?

It will be interesting to see whether the future release of iOS, RIM & other mobile OS will allow user to unlock their device by using Facial Recognition, mean while utilizing NFC for data transfer between devices may become the next big trend.

You can find a great overview of what's new of Ice Cream Sandwich in here

Android 4.0 SDK is out, in addition Galaxy Nexus will be available worldwide by November, 2011!

Technical / Hardware Spec of the Galaxy Nexus (First Phone to get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich) spec is listed below (via Gazmodo)

Galaxy Nexus

Network HSPA+ 21 850/900/1900/1700/2100; EDGE/GPRS (LTE will be available depending on region)
Processor1.2GHz dual-core processor
Display: 4.65-inch 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED
OS:Android Ice Cream sandwich
Cameras:Rear cam: 5-megapixel, Front cam: 1.3-megapixel for video call
Video: Playback and recording at 1080p (30fps, MPEG-4/h.263/h.264)
Connectivity:Bluetooth 3.0, USB, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC
Sensors: Accelerometer, compass, gyro, light, proximity, barometer
Memory: 1GB ram + 16/32GB storage
Battery: 1750mah standard battery
Size: 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94; 135g

If you missed out the announcement earlier you can view it below

Hands on with Facebook Messenger the Android app

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:51:00 +0800

Earlier today (Hong Kong Time) Facebook rolled out its shiny Messenger. Due to country restriction mobile app is only available for US users. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the app (apk file) from XDA Forum. Time for the test dive!

When you first run the app it requires user to enter their Facebook login info. Once authentication was completed user will be directed to the Messages screen which basically is what you see in the Messages section on Facebook (web version). All previous messages dialog will be shown in here.

User can create new (chat) message using the top right corner icon. Once message is created, simply enter name(s) in the TO field & select the participants, your (group) chat is created and time for chatting.
** It seems like you can send message to user using Facebook chat / message or you can send a direct message to the his/her mobile number (which pull from user's mobile device contact list)
I yet to be able to verify the above, additional testing will be needed.

Friend of mine in US happens to be one of the early adopter for Facebook Messenger and already have the app installed on his iPhone. I try to send him a message using the app as a test run and everything worked as expected

Chat dialog is like any other messaging service & it also allow user to send pictures to each other.

All message dialog that was done on mobile are sync back to Facebook (message session). Additional note to image sending / sharing: Image itself will is stored on Facebook as message attachment, user can review the image on the web portal (Message section), but user doesn't seems to be able to save the image to local mobile device via the Messenger app.
**If you happen to have Facebook (web) open on your computer and receive message from other users, message will go to BOTH mobile app & web at the same time.

Other then photo exchange between users, you can also locate where the other participants' location using the Map function. (Can be creepy in a way). User can turn off location sharing in the global settings, however by default your location is being share by the app.

Facebook Message is a great messaging app, however compare to whatsapp & other messaging system Facebook Message lacks of an unique killer feature. Without an unique feature, it's hard to convince me as a user to use the app as my primary messaging system. If the rumor of face time does come true, that's another story and certainly it will impact my decision on whether am going to use this app as my primary messaging system.

Android Market now integrate with Google Books

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 7 Aug 2011 17:00:00 +0800

Since last month there are already news for Android Market being updated with new features. However I yet to see any changes for Market on my Nexus One. Today it finally arrives on my N1.

New Layout of Android Market

The look and feel of the new Market layout is very similar to the new Windows mobile, with better features.
Once you clicked on any buttons on the welcome user can then swipe left / right to nav into different sections

One thing particular I like about the new Market layout is that it's integrate with Google Books and it allow users to purchase Google Books easier. Simply perform a search on Google Market it will also return you results from Google Books and allow purchase right away. (Looks like this integration still only available for US at the moment)

Google Books results are now integrate with Market

Other then integration of Google Books, Market also allow user to share apps (using the Android default sharing function), hence user can share the app easily

See the share button beside the search magnify glass?
It allows you to share this app easily

User can also review what app they had been install by clicking on the settings button.

My Apps section now hidden inside in the menu

Overall am very happy with the new Android Market, in addition there are certainly performance boost and slicker animation on returning the search results.

Hope you all enjoy the new Market as I do !

The Android Story

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:37:00 +0800

Infographic by Android Developers at [x]cubelabs

Google Plus (Google+) the new Social Media Era ?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:18:00 +0800

Unless you had been living under a dungeon you should see tones of articles & online buzzing about Google's new Social Media project - The Google+ Project.

Google+ itself is made up of 5 core features - Circles, Stream, Hangouts, Sparks & Photos.

Circles is by far the most favorable features that the users love. In short it's similar to Facebook's friend lists & Twitter's List but with a better functionality. User send update Stream to particular circle so only friends within the circle see your update (privacy). If you like a user stream you can simply plus one it (yup +1 button is integrated in stream line) You can also start a Hangout (video chat, Google Talk engine) with particular circle or only with selected friends

Sparks allows user to choose the topics that matter to the user & generate news articles feeds (looks like articles are pulled from Google News). User can then share these articles directly to Google+

Photos functionality is supported by Picasa Web Album, in another word all the images you uploaded to Plus is stored within Picasa.

The core core of Google plus is Circle and everything is surrounded by the Circle idea that's based on Paul Adams - Social Circles.

As you may be aware by now, Google Plus itself is closely integrated with a couple Google's own branded products.

Stream is closely integrated with +1 button (and it fits in the philosophy of plus one)
Photos is closely integrated with Piscasa & hence now Google Plus user can use Piscasa with no storage limits (sweet!)
Hangout is closely integrated with GTalk & its video conferencing features
Sparks is linked with Google news (or Google search engine), in the future am not surprise it will allow user to import its Google Reader feeds (an integration with Google Reader)
Mobile did i mentioned that Google Plus already rolled out its Android app last week and its iPhone app is already on its way for pending approval?
Remember the new black bar that Google rolled out to its products last month? User can now post to Google plus using the share features on the black bar & mean while it also shows Google Plus notification. This bar is on almost all Google products and hence user don't have to always stay on Google Plus and they still can interact with Google Plus.
All your Google Plus friends are automatically port to your Google contacts, hence you can sync to your phone or chat with them using GTalk
In addition your Google Profile becomes Google Plus Profile (provided you already in the circle)

As you can see everything is tightly integrated with each other and guess what? Yourself - the user is in the middle of all this (YOU are in the middle of the circle).

YOU are in the middle of the circle

Google had couple social attempts previously (Orkut, wave, & buzz) and they all fail, with the failure experience it had got from the past, the roll out of Plus was quickly compared with Facebook. Thus far 80% of the press are complementing Google's new product, mean while there are also critics on this products as well.

One of the biggest concerns from the press is 80% of the early adopters are male and seems like most of them are heavy tech savvy, which jumps to the question whether Google Plus is meant for Geeks.
Another huge concerns was your connections. Most people connections are either on Facebook or Twitter but not on Google Plus (just yet). A social network platform with no friends will simply make people want to quit.

The above concerns are valid and it's due to the fact that Google Plus still under private beta and there is a huge demand of invitation. In the past few days Google seems to open the invitation more often in comparison to previous week. I can see more of my Tweet peeps & Facebook buddies jumping on Google Plus and adding me to their circles.

A fact that cannot be doubted is Google Plus is gaining huge traction and momentum, users love it so far and are inviting more and more people to join in the private beta. Users are also sending their thoughts and feedback to Google mean while Google software engineers are reply questions and providing update on Google Plus platform itself (yup no email back & forth)

Stream from Kelly Ellis - Google Software Engineer

Some tips & tricks about Google Plus
Thus far I enjoyed using Google Plus and so do other users, hence there are a lot of by-products appear online that help users using Google Plus (some are official from Google, some are from third party users)

Numerous browser plugins / extension (mainly are chrome) to help you interact with Google Plus.
Google official released profile button that allow user to put it on the sites & blogs
User can get a vanity URL for their Google Plus here
At the moment Google Plus Android app only available in US. Non US user can get the apk file here

I believe Google Plus has quite a potential, as it can easily showcase the functionality of Facebook Twitter & LinkedIn mean while porting it in with other Google Products seems logical. It would be interesting to see how this product do in the long run.

If you are already on Google Plus, please feel free to add me on your circles

Mean while do let us know your thoughts on Google's Social Attempt, we would love to hear from you

How to invite your friends to Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:54:00 +0800

Yesterday, Google launched its Facebook competitor - The Google+ Project, which at the moment is under Field Trail (by invite only). For the pass 12 hours I had see a lot of people already starting to gain access to the platform & a huge thank you to @kitty_cheung whom send me an invite, hence I got the access to this nice playground.

I'm going have another post about the review of Google+ mean while main purpose of this post is to show you a quick way to invite your friends to Google+ so more people can try out this wonderful tool.

At the moment, Google had disabled the invitation link from Google+ however there is an alternative way to invite your friends to Google+

It's easy! Simply create a new stream and share it with your friends by keying in their Gmail address then an email will be sent to your friend with the stream you just share & a BIG orange box saying "Learn more about Google+", once your friend clicked on that box they will be in Google+ in no time! **Do check your junk mail folder thou, sometime it's possible will be categorize as junk!

the24 tech news create a nice video to showcase this how to.

Enjoy the great social platform from Google and let us know your experience!
In addition, we are also interest to know what's your thought on Google+ , if you can fill in the poll below for us, that will be greatly appreciate!

Update: Looks like Google has closed off invites after just a few hours. Guess users will have to wait for the next wave of invites to come

Update2: TNW show us a quick work around for invite. Simply create a circle & add those friends whom you would like to invite, then share a stream with he entire circle then those users will get an email to ask them to join Google+. So far it works like a charm!

Update3: Invite mechanism and workarounds have been shutdown because of excessive demand

Update 4: As for the past few days Google has released more invites am now able to share these invites out. If you do want an invite, simply follow @mark_shu and send me a DM together with your gmail. DO NOT post your email on comments section

Update 5: Google rolled out a new model of inviting friends to Google+, simply click here to get sign up Google+ if you yet to be in the fun circle.

How to integrate Google +1 button with AddThis

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 3 Jun 2011 15:55:00 +0800

Earlier in Mach, Google rolled out their own share button - Google +1 button, however the button appearance only limited to search results that's returning from Google.com but not localize search results. Yesterday Google rolled out the new +1 button, in addition a guide of how to implement the button to your web site was also released in Google code site.

I had always been using AddThis as my social media sharing gadget and am happy that they are partner up with Google to support the implementation of the +1 button. At the beginning it looks like the implementation of the +1 button to my blog should be an easy one, however there are a few catches you will need to watch out. If you are seeking to integrate +1 button using addthis service, this is for you.

**Important note** According to addthis service, this new button is not currently support for IE browser, will eventually fully supported in IE8+ and for non support browser, it will show an empty space.

Code that was originally provided by AddThis looks simple and easy, adding the code below should add the new button to your addthis button collection.

<a class="addthis_button_google_plusone"></a>

However once I placed the above code to my blog, I found out the button is not displaying.

A quick Google search let me know that quite a few people are experiencing the same problem and the root cause of the problem is related to the meta generator tag that is not functioning. There is a quick fix you can apply, adding the plusone.js before the top of your page and have it site before the </head> and you will be in good hands

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

From time to time, user may want to customize their button and within the addthis documentation I was not able to find any documentation regarding on customizing the button either.

Google +1 button do allow customization like button size, with or without counter, set language, etc. but how to modified these settings using addthis service?

Next stop, the +1 button API site. Within the API site there are description of the settings that can be applied to +1 button. Common settings like button size, set counter, counter settings (vertical and horizontal positioning) are all described within the site. A quick trail and error allow me to learn that these settings are able to apply to the addthis button settings.

For example if you want to modified the button size to medium and have no counter, simply apply the code below to the addthis button block

<a class='addthis_button_google_plusone' g:plusone:size='medium' g:plusone:count='false'/>

g:plusone is referring to the +1 button in addthis, by appending : with the properties from the API you will get the settings you want.

Above I simply set the button size to medium by using g:plusone:size='medium' & using g:plusone:count='false' to set no counter to my +1 button. give it a try and see how it goes!

Happy Sharing!

What a victim has to say for the Sony PlayStation Network Disaster

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:50:00 +0800

End of April is a bad bad time for Sony PlayStation Network as it was hacked and Sony were forced to pull the PSN offline. Being a victim in this disaster, I would like to let all of you know what's my experience and what's my frustration.

At the beginning of the outage, I was thinking it's just another small glitch of the system and hence I did not even worry about it. A few days later when the news are all around saying Credit Card info are possible to be obtain by the hacker, I know it's serious. (Am lucky I did not store my credit card info in the system). I had been patiently to wait for the system to get back up and mean while Sony did mention couple of times that PSN will be back up. Unfortunately, this is a long long wait, during the PSN outage, I still able to play my game, however am not able to download any update to the system nor the game and hence make me a bit frustrating, do not even mention i got a MJ virtual jersey that I yet to able to get due to the outage.

During the wait, I only got one email from Sony, yes one and only one. Not much detail in the email, simply Sony asked the user to wait patiently as they trying to solve the problem and did I mention the email was sent on April 30th and today is May 20th hmmmm. (If you are interest to see the email content you can view it at the bottom of the post)

Till today I still yet to able to login to my PSN account nor receiving any notice to reset my password. If I am not reading the news around the update, I simply do not know what's going on nor Sony send in any email to let me know I can read some updates on their PSN blog. This is a really nice way to treat your customers and I believe a weekly update email should do the trick.

Am unsure how long this disaster / outage will last, but can surely say that the longer the outage is the more lower customer satisfaction points I am going to give Sony.

PSN Outage email, click on the image to view full image

Update: As of June 16, Sony finally announced PSN service being resumed in the Hong Kong area and after a 3 months outage, I finally able to get on the PSN. In addition there are also a welcome back package which choose PSP / PS3 game download. I certainly hope this crisis is over

Convert Old Media to New

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 9 May 2011 10:00:00 +0800

Yesterday while I was in the salon, I picked up a copy of Wired Magazine and flipped through the magazine to kill some time off. During my little private reading time, ad below caught my attention.

Ad itself is simply, all about HTC Android phones, however when I take a closer look, I found out the ad is Google Goggles enabled.

Go ahead and use Goggles to scan the ad (image above) and you will experience he interactive features that was embedded in this ad.

Upon scanning the ad using my Nexus One, something fun shows up

Scanning an ad using your mobile is not something new anymore. (The ad I mentioned above was on Wired Magazine Nov, 2010 issue) Scanning an ad is very similar to scanning a QR code, the only difference is QR code does not provide any physical information to the reader, mean while an ad does.

Technology is changing and new media slowly become the main stream. A lot of people mis-understand and think old media still the king. Trend is slowly changing. If you are to alone relaying on old media to promote your product, one day you will be doomed. Knowing how to convert user / reader form old media to new media will be the key of success.

Using the above ad as an example, reader whom is reading the magazine spots your ad (simple old media tactics), by allowing them to scan your ad brings the reader from offline to online. In the online environment, (assuming it's a landing page), there are all sort of technologies can be used and utilized (flash / video and more) to promote your product. Alone the user experience already way better then an old media magazine ad. In addition, everything online is measurable and hence it will be easier for the promoter to measure the level of success (for the campaign).

In Hong Kong due to geographic location (huge population with condense area), old media are still the main stream for advertising / marketing, it will be very interesting to see when will the above ad start to appear in Hong Kong local magazine.

Do you love Fried Chicken, Foursquare new badge alert!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:46:00 +0800

Foursquare just release a new badge named Fried-Checkin!
In order to get it simply you need 10 checkins at venues categorized "Southern or Soul Food Restaurants" and you will get this shiny new badge!

Happy Check-in!

White iPhone4 had FINALLY arrived

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:27:00 +0800

Yes it's here and you are not mistaken! The (often delayed) white iPhone4 Finally arrived and this time Hong Kong is not being left behind! As of last night (~ 18 hrs ago) the white iPhone4 already available for sale. This little baby has no difference from the Black iPhone4 (all specs are the same) except the color. Are you going to get your White iPhone4 today? Is it really special? Special or not am not too sure, but one thing is true and that's it FINALLY here!

Happy 4sqDay 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:26:00 +0800

Happy Foursquare Day! The #4sqDay 2011 Badge is now unlocked and a lot of people in Europe or Asia are starting to unlock this badge. In order to unlock this badge, simply check in to any Venue on April 16, 2011 and that's it!

In addition Foursquare also rolled out a Happy 4sqDay Video, check it out below!

Celebrating Foursquare Day on April 16th

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:05:00 +0800

Tomorrow is April 16th and it's the official Foursquare Day (16 is the product of squaring four, as a result April 16th marks the official Foursquare Day). Foursquare encourages world wide users to organize Foursquare Day meet up and you can find the meet up location for your country here.

For Hong Kong Meet up, it will be held at W52 Restaurant & Bar. It's always good to come out meet some of your Foursqaure peeps and know more people.Thou personally I will not be available to attend the event due to personal business, however still would like to take this opportunity to help out the community on promoting this event. If you had yet to sign up for the event, I strongly recommend you go ahead and sign up for your local Foursquare meet up and learn more about the location based service. In addition there are special badges (from different partners) you can unlocked during this special day!

Happy Check In!

[Update]: Foursquare just posted out a list of tasks that users can do during Foursquare Day, seems like some hints for user to unlock some badges and had some fun!