speaking my mind

tech companies with defunct devices and how they treat their customers

2017-10-21T20:55:00.001-07:00

for this particular blog entry, i want to talk about two devices i found to be extremely useful and have loved using them. however, the companies these devices came from seems to have either disappeared or has gone on to do other things. that's fine and all, but theses devices that they sold are no longer supported. not only that, because these devices depend on the manufacturer's system being up and running, when they take those servers out of commission, these devices become useless.

the first one is call the iTwin Connect/iTwin Pro. this device looks like two usb drives that are paired. the idea is that you connect one stick to a computer in location A and the other stick to a computer in location B. with the two sticks paired. you could use one computer to access files on the other and it works flawlessly. i've used this device to access files on my home computer from work and vice versa. it couldn't be any easier. however, when the company producing this device went belly up, they never bothered to inform any of their users. the devices simply stopped working.

the second one is the mojio odbii vehicle diagnostic/vehicle tracker device. it plugs into the odbii port on your car and provides you information about the status of the car. it also has 3g connectivity and built in gps. so i used this device to give me assurance that my car hasn't been stolen. it's also great to locate your car in a parking lot when you don't remember where you parked. but the company decided that it would end support for this device and NOT tell its users about that decision. again, another device bites the dust.

project fi

2016-08-15T15:29:00.001-07:00

google has launched project fi for public consumption. for those that don't know what project fi is, here is a quick summary. project fi is google's venture into cell phone service. they do this not by setting up their own cell towers, but by using cell towers of other service providers, much like H2O using AT&T's cell towers. at the time of public launch, google is working with T-mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular. one thing that sets google apart from all others in cell service is that google allows you to roam across ALL 3 networks. that's right. using google's cell service, you will be connecting to 3 service providers, depending on which has the stronger signal where you currently are. in addition, a network of free wifi hotspots is also added into the mix. if you are within range, google says that you will connect automatically and will be able to make calls over wifi. this will cut down the amount of data you use as well as voice minutes. though this really doesn't really matter for voice, because voice + text is unlimited in their offering. and while you are on one of these wifi hotspots, your calls and data requests are automatically encrypted. at this time, the service can be used in over 135 countries.

pricing starts at $20/month for unlimited voice + standard sms text. data cost $10 per GB, turning your phone into a hotspot is explicitly allowed, and there is no overage charge. let's say you sign up for 3 GB and use 4 for the month. in this case, you will be charged for the additional 1 GB at the same rate as the other 3 GB. not only that, let's say you only use 2 of your 3 GB. in this case, you will actually get a $10 credit for next month's bill. i know of no other cell service provider that does this. and when used abroad in the 135 countries, data still costs only $10 per GB (i believe that data speed is limited in many countries, however). but unfortunately, call from abroad is not included in the unlimited call + text plan. calling from abroad is on a per minute cost schedule and varies from country to country. but i believe that it is competitive, if not lower than other providers.

the only huge thing about this service is that it officially works on just 3 phones at the time of this writing, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, and Nexus 6P. if you don't already have one of these phones, you will need to purchase one just to take advantage of this service.

a note about the pricing structure. if you use a lot of data, this plan may not be for you. someone who travels a lot and use a phone as a wifi source for a laptop will likely use a lot of data. if this is the case, a traditional unlimited plan will most likely be more suited to your needs. also, those with family plans also pay less than moving to project fi for each member of the family. this plan is suited for individuals that use a reasonable amount of data (which may or may not vary from month to month) and those who travel abroad and like the fixed $10 per GB of data price structure.

my experience: before this, i have been using iphones on tmobile for quite a few years. after activating project fi service on a nexus 5x, i decided to see if i could just swap the sim into my iphone just to see if it works. USING AN IPHONE WITH PROJECT FI DOES WORK. however, there are some glitches and other downsides with using an iphone for FI service, the biggest of which is that you lose your advantage to roam across the three networks.

the fixable: 1. i was already limited to tmobile on my old service, so i'm not losing anything when i switched over to FI. if i travel, i can just switch the sim card back into the nexus 5x to take advantage of using 3 networks.

2. when someone leaves me a voicemail, i get a text saying that the voicemail had failed, even though this is not true. i checked, and there is a voicemail.

3. when i get a standard sms, appended to the end of the message is a series of characters that always begin with a "~". i just ignore this.

4. using LTE for both voice + data resulted in a long delay when dialing out...up to 28 seconds before i heard the phone ring. this is also true on the phone that i called. i heard that hearing the rings after dialing out may be antiquated and unnecessary and that it just let's the caller know that the dialing out process is working. but here, the phone that i dialed also did not ring for about the same amount of time. after i switched over to use LTE just for data, the dialing out time was cut to a much shorter 2 to 5 seconds.

5. tmobile's wifi calling is no longer an option.

6. data speeds were not up to par until i changed the APN from the default to "h2g2". search for "project fi apn" and you'll find other settings to make data work right.

7. project fi uses google's hangouts app by default to handle messages. you can use the standard message app if you want by making changes in the hangouts app.

the only iphone feature that works without any changes is iMessage. this just works as expected.

one additional thing. you must keep your nexus phone if you are going to do this. they don't tell you this, but not only is the fi sim tied to your google account, but the nexus phone itself is also tied to your account. once you set up the iphone, you cannot simply sell the nexus. if someone else tries to set up the nexus with fi, it will fail. in order for another user to sign up for fi service with this nexus phone, it must be detached from your account. and if it's the only phone on your account, detaching it will also cancel your fi service. to keep your fi service, you must have at least one nexus phone on the account. if you have two, great. you can detach one and do as you wish with it.

source for html5 audio element static?

2011-09-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

here are some sample html5 code that uses the audio element to play a song. the section below the script assigns an audio file to the player. i've tested it and it runs fine. i have a total of 4 songs that i need to put on this page and creating a player for each song works fine.

but then i decided to get creative by using a single player and making it possible for the user to load 1 of 4 songs to the single player before clicking the play button. when you click on any of the songs, the audio element's source files are changed by the script.

however, only the first song loaded (the default song "Song 1" loaded at the time the page loads) plays. it seems that the source file loads at page load time and cannot be changed. is this a restriction of the html5 audio element? any suggestions?

thanks.

<!DOCTYPE html><html dir='ltr' lang='en-US'>
<head><title>media</title></head>
<body>

<script>
function loadSong(songTitle, oggFile, mp3File) {
document.getElementById('song_title').innerHTML = songTitle;
document.getElementById('ogg_file').src = oggFile;
document.getElementById('mp3_file').src = mp3File;
}
</script>

<div class='audio_box'>
Song 1 
<audio controls='controls'>
<source id='ogg_file' src='media/music/Song1.ogg' type='audio/ogg' />
<source id='mp3_file' src='media/music/Song1.mp3' type='audio/mpeg' />
Your browser is not currently supported for playback of music. Please use a browser such as the latest Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari.
</audio>
</div>


<a id='song1' href="#" onClick="loadSong('Song 1', 'media/music/Song1.ogg', 'media/music/Song1.mp3')">Song 1</a> 
<a id='song2' href="#" onClick="loadSong('Song 2', 'media/music/Song2.ogg', 'media/music/Song2.mp3')">Song 2</a> 
<a id='song3' href="#" onClick="loadSong('Song 3', 'media/music/Song3.ogg', 'media/music/Song3.mp3')">Song 3</a> 
<a id='song4' href="#" onClick="loadSong('Song 4', 'media/music/Song4.ogg', 'media/music/Song4.mp3')">Song 4</a> 

</body>
</html>

jailbreaking and unlocking ios4.1 on my iphone 3g

2010-10-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

the iphone dev team just released the new pwnage tool 4.1 for jailbreaking and unlocking ios 4.1 for the iphone, ipod touch, and ipad. i've been waiting on it for a while since my iphone 3g was already on ios 4.0 when it was handed over to me. and as many others have experienced, ios 4.0 on the iphone 3g is slow...really slow. included in ios 4.1 is a fix to cure the iphone 3g of is sluggishness. apple released ios 4.1 a couple of months back but i could not upgrade right away to ios 4.1. doing so without the ability to unlock it would mean that i could not use it on t-mobile.

well, the wait is over. as always, the way the pwnage tool works is by creating a custom firmware from the official one that itunes uses to ugrade your phone. once you have pwnage open, you point it toward the downloaded firmware file from apple. you make a few selections as to the type of device you have, the unlock option, and software that you might want to install along with the cydia package. a few minutes later, it spits out a file that you should be using to upgrade your phone. at the end, it asks if you have jailbroken your phone previously. if so, you could just fire up itunes, option-click the restore button on itunes and point it to your custom firmware. if the phone is not currently jailbroken, it helps you put your phone into a mode called "dfu" (essentially recovery mode) so that itunes will accept putting the custom firmware onto your phone. there is a message that says if you are unsure, then you should say that it is not currently jailbroken and go through this extra step.

well, since i've been using it on t-mobile, i know that it has been jailbroken. so i opted to just bypass this next step and jump right into using itunes to upgrade my phone. let me tell you that this was a HUGE mistake. after working for what seems to be forever, it quits and tells me that error 1603 has occured. not only that, the iphone kept on displaying the spinning wheel without letting up, indicating that it was still working. by this time, the spinning wheel is now called the spinning wheel of death. i had to force a shut down by simultaneously holding down the home and power buttons until the screen went blank. upon powering it back on, it was introduced to the "connect to itunes" graphic. so i connected to itunes and it finds the phone. it says that it has to be restored before it can be used. so i do the option-click thing and pointed to the custom firmware file i created. and again, after a long while, it errors out.

i went online and did some research, tried all suggested fixes, but nothing worked. by this time, i was on my 4th or 5th try, and still getting nowhere. i thought that i had a dead phone. the last piece of advice i got from researching was to restore back to version 4.0 and attempt the upgrade once again. luckily, i kept the custom firmware i created for version 4.0. and i'm not sure if this mattered or not, but another piece of advice was to do the upgrade using a different user account. i tried the combination of the two and it worked. but it only worked to put me back to where i was before...on ios 4.0.

after getting my phone to boot on ios 4.0 again, i went back to my original user account and used the pwnage tool to put the phone into dfu mode. then i option-clicked restored once again and pointed to the newly custom 4.1 file again. this time, it worked. in about 20 minutes, the phone was on ios 4.1. it took another half hour to load everything from a backup onto the phone. after that, i went into the cydia app and installed the ultrasn0w unlock utility so that i could use the phone on t-mobile again. what should have taken about an hour to accomplish took me 4 hours.

so my learning in this was that you should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use the pwnage tool to put your phone into dfu mode, even when it says that previously jailbroken devices do not have to go through that step.

now my phone is running much faster. no more waiting 2 seconds after i make an entry for it to take effect.

one last thing. always backup by forcing a sync before you attempt to upgrade. you don't want to have to re-enter all your contacts and calendar events from scratch. oh, and i did this on a mac. as of this day, the windows version of pwnage tool 4.1 is not yet available.

cisco sta1520 (sdv tuning adapter)

2009-12-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

after using the required tuning adapter with my tivo s3 recorder for a couple of months now, i can definitely say that this piece of equipment did not improve my cable service. in fact, it completely sucks. there are a couple of problems.

the first is that it reboots on almost a daily basis. and when it does, if i happen to be recording something, even if the source is a hd signal from my outdoor antenna and not a cable channel, it cancels my recording.

the second problem is that on many occasions, the hd channels that i do watch from the cable source are coming in very pixelated, to the point of dropping audio completely and making the video entirely unwatchable. before the tuning adapter was installed, my hd signals from cable were rock-solid. if the point of the sdv tuning system is to ease up on bandwidth usage, why is the picture quality now worse than before?

Microsoft Security Essentials

2009-10-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Security Essentials is officially out for the public. If you haven't heard, this is free anti-virus, anti-spyware, and nti-malware software from Microsoft. I have been using Avast for years and have finally switched when it became available. I decided to switch because reviews have been generally positive, especially since it uses very little resources such as disk space and ram, and it works just as well as any other anti-virus software out there.

However, the auto-update mechanism has to be tweaked when it comes to new virus defintion files. I'm sure that it does auto-update. I'm just not sure what the schedule is since I don't leave my computer on all the time. I would prefer for it to check whenever it comes out of standy/hibernation, or when it boots/reboots, which Avast has already implemented (in my experience). This is something that must be implemented by Microsoft if they hope to have it widely adopted as the primary malware protection of users.

It can be downloaded at the Microsoft Security Essentials page.

One last thing. Your copy of windows must be validated in order for you to download the software.

flip minoHD review

2009-10-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

i have used a flip minoHD for a few months now. the video quality is terrific if you have adequate lighting. with 1280x720 resololution, the quality is definitely better than that of the iphone or the new ipod nano. there's 8GB of flash memory, good enough for an hour of recording.

on the negatives, there is no memory expansion slot if you need more recording time. you simply have to offload video to a computer to gain more recording time. and there is one more negative aspect of this recorder that i consider to be huge for me. in order to charge the recorder, you have to connect it directly to a usb port on your computer. this isn't bad per se. but if it's the one and only way to charge it, then i would say it's a bad thing. to be fair, they do sell a separate charger that you can plug directly into a wall socket. however, that's another $30 on top of the $200 i've already spent.

since it charges exclusively via usb, i thought that a usb hub with its own independent power supply would be able to charge it. but it won't. i also tried an ipod power adapter. no go. then i have a griffin power block, made for charging devices that charge via usb. this charges my ipod and every other device i have that charges via usb. but it won't charge the minoHD. since all three of these options that i have available to me supply its own power, i don't understand why it won't charge. the blinking light indicates that it is charging, but it's not. and not only will it not charge, but it actually drained power from the minoHD. that's right. according to the battery indicator, i started out with a half-charged battery. leaving it plugged in overnight drained it completely.

the only explanation i can come up with is that the flip minoHD has some kind of built-in circuitry that prevents you from charging without a computer. but they do sell that charger as an accessory. so the conclusion i have come to is that they did it on purpose just so that you have to buy their charger, designed to bypass this no-charge circuitry, if you want the option of charging without a computer. what a racket.

yes, i can always use a computer. but think about this. the power needed to charge this device is miniscule. but it forces me to waste a lot more power by using a computer. i do not leave the computer on 24/7. that's just a waste of power and perhaps shortens the life of its components and i don't understand why people do it. i turn it on when i need to use it, then it's off when i'm done.

it takes just 2.5 watts to charge the flip minoHD, but the power source is using up anywhere from 30 watts (let's say a netbook) to 300+ watts (full desktop), which puts efficiency under 10% at best. how would you like it if the company providing your electricity charges you 100 watts for every 10 watts of light your light bulb outputs?

the great 2009 lay offs...it's my turn

2009-04-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

well, i got my notice today. after 13 years and some months, they had to let me go. kind of glad, since i've been wanting to stop doing work with marketing data and transition into programming instead. this was the kick i needed.

cigarette tax 2009

2009-03-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

i hate that not only did the federal government raise the cigarette tax, but that california also did it as well. do they think that the added revenue will lift america out of this recession? why are smokers singled out to pay this extra tax? how would you like it if your habbit is going to sporting events and every time you enter a stadium, they charge you an extra tax? what about a tax on every drink you order in a bar?

they justify it by saying that it will discourage people from smoking. that's true enough. but if they want to raise revenue, why would they want anyone to quit? it's a contradiction.

last year california voters also approved a tax increase on cigarettes. the revenue goes to keeping emergency rooms open. are smokers responsible for keeping emergency rooms open? what percentage of emergency visits are accounted by smoking-related problems? why don't they tax purchases of guns for this. afterall, gun shots will certainly land you in an emergency room. and what about people who participate in sports? they should be taxed for participation because they are more likely to suffer injuries that land them in an emergency room. how do you justify NOT taxing them?

cancelled landline service - still getting calls

2008-10-22T23:33:00.000-07:00

a couple of months ago, i cancelled my landline phone service. but i kept a phone jacked in because i could apparently make 911 calls.

then a couple of weeks ago, i began to hear this phone ring. the first time, i did not pick up in time (i was still asleep). then when it rang again, i picked up and actually had a conversation with a telemarketer. how is this possible? i tried calling the number myself and got the standard disconnect message. can these automated computer dialers actually get through even though i've cancelled service? did they make a deal with the phone company? i'd like to know the answer to this question because it's bugging me.

fear of cancelling your landline

2008-08-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

on friday, the 1st of august, i decided that should not be paying the phone company for something that i do not use. and that is my landline phone service at home. i have had a cell phone since 1995 and it took me this long to get rid of my landline because i saw it as insurance in case i need to call 911 from my home. the thought is that with a cell phone, the 911 call centers may not be able to locate where you are calling from with enough accuracy to find you in time. however, all landlines are associated with an address. so it's easy to find you. and even if the method of triangulating your position with cell phone technology is 100% accurate, it's only acurate to pin-point you on a 2-d map. so if you happened to be in an apartment building that is 6 stories high. triangulation can't tell you which story you are on.

i knew all of this when i decided to cancel my home phone service. but i was willing to take the risk anyway. 24-hours after the cancellation, i picked up the phone to see if there was still a dial tone. to my surprise, the dial tone was still there. then i decided to dial up my own cell number to test if it still worked. it didn't. there was an automated message saying that the line is not in service and that i should call the phone company to activate service. but right after that, the message continued on to say that for emergencies, i should dial 911.

needless to say, i was totally surprised. i am not saying that this is the case with everyone who's cancelled their landline service. i'm still not clear on the reason. perhaps it's a law similar to a cell phone's ability to make 911 calls even if there isn't a sim chip in it (for gsm phones) or even if the bill was never ever paid and service was cut off.

anyway, i'm glad i took the risk and it paid off. i was able to put into storage two phones (two less wall warts that constantly drain electricity) and i just replaced them with an old-school phone that just plugs into the phone jack but did not require electricity. you should always have one of these old school phones anyway, since it works without electricity. chances are that both electrical and phone lines will be out of commission in a large emergency (think major earthquake). but there is still a chance that phones lines will still be intact and working.

so if you have kept your landline all these years as insurance for 911 calls, you should call your phone company and ask about the ability to make those calls if service is cancelled.

riding the metro in los angeles

2008-06-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

because i can no longer stand the ever-rising price of gasoline, i thought that i should try out the metro. the route is not so bad since i found out that there is a bus nearby my home that takes me to union station in los angeles and from there i transfer to the red line which takes me to about a half mile from my work place.

i took it on a test ride one monday morning and it went as smooth as you can expect. the red line runs frequently enough that there is never a wait of more than 15 minutes. the total trip on the test ride took an hour and 45 minutes. total ride time on both lines took about 45 minutes, so the extra hour went to waiting and walk time. and the ride back home in mid-afternoon was a little quicker. each way was roughly an hour longer than if i was to drive myself. but i didn't mind knowing that i was saving a bunch of money and taking one vehicle off the road in the process.

and two days later, i made a decision to commit to this mode of transportation and bought a monthly pass. on this day, the morning commute went as usual. however the ride home was quite a different manner. i got off work at around 17:30 this time. the ride on the red line to downtown was no problem. but when i got to the bus stop for the second leg of my trip home, i had just missed my bus by about 3 minutes (according to the schedule). so i waited for the next one, which is due to arrive 40 minutes later at 19:17. this bus did not arrive on time, and when it finally did arrive, the "no service" light was on. it just drove past everyone uncaringly.

now my thinking was that since this one was not in service, that another would be due to arrive soon. no such luck. 20 minutes went by (now 19:39) and i decided to take an alternate bus. this route requires me to take a third bus to arrive at my destination, but i didn't have a choice since the next one was not due until 20:15. so i hopped on the next arriving bus, knowing that it goes partially in my direction and that i could stop along the way to catch yet another bus to finally take me home.

i arrived at the next stop at 19:50, and waited until 20:18 for my final ride. finally got home at 20:45 but had to hop into my very own vehicle to go to my mother's for a quick dinner. finished my dinner and left my mother's at about 21:25. two minutes later (now 21:27...duh), when i got onto my home street, guess what i saw. that's right, the bus that was supposed to take me home in the first place.

this, on the day that i made a commitment to public transportation and purchased a monthly ticket to show it, is not making a good impression on me.

the rail lines are very reliable but the buses are sadly lacking.

it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to get home.

can microsoft use up any more space?

2008-03-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

so i bought myself a new laptop with vista on it about a month ago. it came with a hard drive that's been partitioned into two logical drives, each about equal in size. and i've been gradually loading it with the various softwares that i use, with the intention of transitioning to a laptop permanently instead of using my desktop as my main computer.

tonight i happened to notice that my c: drive is at near capacity at around 45 gigs leaving only 5 gigs left. what? i know i didn't load that much sofware and my data files amount to no more than 100 mb. so i began to tally up the sizes of each and every folder on the root directory.

seeing that the "Users" directory is about 20 gigs raised a huge alarm in my head. like i said, i have about 100 mb in data files that are on the c: drive (i make it a point to save all my data files on the d: drive or an external drive). at first, i couldn't find the source of the files that used up the 20 gigs. then i remember that there is a hidden folder for each user, called "Application Data" in winxp, with its equivalent named "AppData" in vista.

it's normally hidden. so i go into Tools>Folder Options at the drop down menu and selected the option to show hidden files/folders. eureka....once the AppData folder showed itself, i drilled further into it (C:\Users\Hue Tang\AppData\Local\Temp). this temp folder holds 20 gigs of files that should have been deleted when its usefullness has come to an end. but every useless file stuck around. unbelievable. deleted the contents and i've just reclaimed more than a third of my c: drive.

microsoft, if you are listening, this may be another reason why people don't want to use vista. even though hard drive space is cheap, it doesn't mean that there is an endless supply, especially on a laptop. what are you thinking?

and on another matter, why do you schedule things to happen in the middle of the night? do you actually expect people to leave their computers on 24/7? in this time and age when people are trying to conserve energy and do all they can to save the planet, you aren't doing anything to help. you don't manufacture a lot of hardware, but in my opinion, you are one of the worst polluters on the planet for not adopting the right attitude. you're presence is widespread enough that if everyone left their computers on at 2 am for updates, this planet is sure to be in a worse situation overnight.

you, too, can be green

2008-03-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

start by sending electronic payments to pay your bills instead of writing checks. most banks even encourage that you pay your bills through your bank instead of writing checks, so much so that they make it free for you to do so. this reduces on the number of trees being cut down just so that they can make the paper used to print your checks. and this also reduces on the use of fuel by the postal service for delivering your payment.

next, if your creditors offer it, and most do, opt to not receive a bill in the mail. have them notify you by email. you'll most likely be able to login to the site to check out the bill if you so choose. my electrical service, gas service, home telephone, and cell phone service no longer send me "snail mail". the four companies all send me emails, telling me how much i owe on a monthly basis. then i just jump on the net, login to my bank account, and authorize my bank to make electronic payments to the appropriate payees.

but because i want to look at my credit card transactions more closely, i opted to still receive paper bills from my credit card companies. however, payments are still made electronically. i'm hoping to make the full transition soon to not get any paper bills at all in the mail.

i recycle all glass and plastic containers. and it doesn't matter if you don't get much out of it. i don't. they all rest in a large bag in my garage. when it fills up, i leave it next to the trash bin for someone else to pick up or for the trash collection people to pick up. even though i don't get any cash back for my efforts, i know that someone else, and more importantly, the planet, benefits.

and don't leave the water running while you are brushing your teeth. same goes for washing dishes. and finally, turn off the lights when it's not needed. and transition to compact fluorescent bulbs to further cut down on the use of electricity. they also last so much longer than regular incandescent light bulbs.

these are some of the simple things you can do that doesn't require that you spend money to be green. in fact, they save you money. the compact fluorescent bulbs may cost more per bulb, but they pay for themselves within a couple months in the form of a reduce electric bill. they also last much longer, so you don't have to buy replacements so quickly.

10 times faster vs. 10 times as fast

2008-03-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

i have a problem with people, especially those who are the technical fields and those who report on technical things, when they tout that something new is "10 times faster" than the original.

let's take the next generation of usb speed, for instance. it is speculated that after usb 2, the generation of usb devices will perform a 4800 kbps, as opposed to 480 kbps for usb 2. here's my problem. tech people are saying that this is 10 times "faster" when in fact it is 10 times "as fast".

there is a difference. let's take an example. if i travel 10 miles at the rate of 10 miles per hour, i would have arrived in 1 hour. another person covers the same distance in 10 hours traveling at a much slower pace of 1 mile per hour. in this case, i would have arrived 9 hours earlier, not 10. substitute "faster" for "earlier" it makes a lot of sense. to say it the other way, i would have traveled 10 times as fast, not 10 times faster.

10 times faster than 1 mile per hour is actually 11 miles per hour.

to put it yet another way, we commonly hear that something is "twice as fast" as something else. you would have no trouble figuring out that if i traveled at 5 miles per hour, twice as fast is 10 miles per hour. notice that hardly anyone says "two times faster".

the same concept applies for "more" vs "as much". just ask yourself if you would rather have twice as much as your current salary or two times more. example: i make $1 an hour. making twice as much is making $2 an hour whereas making two times more would imply 2 times more than the original.

original = $1.
two times original = $2.

two times more than original <=> two times original + original <=> $2 + $1 = $3.

so think about the terms you should be using the next time you have a comparison such as this. i can only say that technical people should know better and people who report on tech issues should know as well.