tododoingdone

Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse and OS X

2006-05-28T16:22:00.000+00:00

A while a ago I posted my experience on gettting all the buttons on the microsoft bluetooth mouse to work in OS X. The trouble I had was that Gamepad Companion had a bug with bluetooth device when doing monitor spanning. I am happy to report the bug has been fixed under the new 2.4 version AND it's now a universal binary.

Finally my mouse is working on all five cylinders (buttons actually), rather than the pathetic two.

btw, the new version of sidetrack is now also a universal binary, and works under the MacBook Pro. For those of you using a Mac laptop and hasnt tried sidetrack, you got to download it and try it out! It will make your trackpad 10 times more useful. It's one of the application I can't live with out.

Action

2006-05-20T17:59:00.000+00:00

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.”

Frank Tibolt

MacBook Pro Temperature Sensor

2006-05-17T16:16:00.000+00:00

Apple released a new firmware for the MacBook Pro yesterday. As usual, I check out the forums for any problem before applying any major update on my Mac. This time there seems to be some weird problem surfacing on the 2GHz MPBs. Some users are reporting that after the firmware update, their CPU frequency is capped at 1000MHz. Although this doesnt seem to affect 1.83 and 2.16 models, I will wait until the situation is resolved before applying the update.

One nice utility was discussed in the thread for monitoring the CoreDuo CPU temperature, you can download it from here.

This is rather nice, and is currently the only temperature sensor I can find for the MBP.

Now I know my MBP idel at around 1.5 to 1.66 GHz with a temperature of 65 degree C :)

Overclock your MacBook Pro

2006-04-08T22:24:00.000+00:00

WARNING: Overclock your graphics card at your own risk, I am not responsible for any damage caused by following any instructions given in this blog. I repeat, OVERCLOCKING IS DANGERROUS! DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Here is a quick step by step guide on overclocking your MacBook Pro's X1600 graphics card:

1. Download ATI Tool, make sure you get the 0.25 version, 0.24 WILL NOT work, I tried it myself, it doesnt recognise the card.

2. Install ATI Tool, launch, the default core/mem should be around 313/300.

3. Make sure the 3D view (hairy carpet) is closed (if not, your MBP is very likely to crashed when you set the clock, mine crashes everytime), set your overclock, try something low first, say 370/370. Click "set clock" then check for artifact. Run it for 10-20 mins. While it's checking, monitor your MBP's temperature, make sure it's not melting!

4. If the low overclok works ok, try something more ambitious.

That's it :) I am running 400/400 now, the frame rate for the hairy rotating cube has gone up from 62FPS to 93FPS, that's a wopping 30% increase!

FYI, There are some very brave souls overclocking their MBP to 470/470!!!

Showing Skype status without using Javascript

2006-02-23T14:12:00.000+00:00

Here is another tip for today,

Problem: I was trying to insert skype status into my ebay listing this morning, so I went to skype's nice status logo generation page and copied the code. Ops, ebay doesnt allow user to insert any javascript code.

Solution: Took me a bit of time to look around but you can do the same thing with an HTML link, http://mystatus.skype.com/bigclassic/skypename, the main function of the javascript is only to check whether skype is installed on the user machine, if not then redirect the user to skype download page.

btw, the web status doesnt work for Mac version (The preference to allow this function is not in the Skype for Mac). I will see if I can turn it on using my Windows machine when I get home to nite.

Another thing, if you want to insert a button to let people make skype call to you, consider using skype:username?call rather than callto:username because the skype: protocol header is much more flexible. For example you can do skype:username?chat to start a chat, even skype:username:file to send a file! For full details see here

MacBookPro CPU Upgrades

2006-02-14T14:13:00.000+00:00

It looks like Apple is going to stick to the original US shipping date. However they just annouced that MacBookPro will now have 1.83 or 2.0GHz CPU with an option to go right up to 2.16GHz (for $300 extra). This may explain the one month delay between the annoucement and shipping. I think when the product was annouced, Apple simply didnt have a clue whether the MBP will be able to handle the (heat and power requirement) 2/2.16GHz Core Duo chip. The 1.67/1.83GHz versions were there to meet consumer/investor expectations, while they were finishing testing the real MBP. Can we expect Apple now to release the battery life estimation?

Another problem is for the people who spend the most money ordering the top of the line machines will now get the bottom of the line. I guess they will have to cancel and resubmit their order in order to get the 2.16GHz option thus be pushed right back down the order queue. I know I would be very pissed off if that happens to me.... Apple really should treat their customers better.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to some real life performance figures of the new MBP, we should expect them sometimes next week, if Apple manage to ship on time.

MacBookPro Delays

2006-02-08T15:12:00.000+00:00

The earliest shipping date for the MacBook Pro has been the 7th of Feb for some UK buyers. The day has passed and some people have been reporting delay in shipping until the 10th of Feb (see MacNN forum). This is hardly surprising, I reckon Apple will NOT ship the product unitl at least when they can publish the MBP's battery life!

People in my group that have placed ordered have started moaning about the delay :) I bet it wouldnt ship until at least the last week of Feb.

todo: wait for MBP's arrival on my friend's desk

Dom vs String in Javascript

2006-02-05T15:14:00.000+00:00

Check out the performace difference between using DOM and innerHtml in javascript. DOM could be up to 4 times slow! What a surprise! or is it?

I would guess most javascript implementations have a highly optimised string manipulation library since this is one of the feature that's being used ALOT. So is it such a surprise that when building a html table using DOM is much slower than direct string concatenation? Probably not. I would expect the same in perl, python or ruby.

But how about languages like Java or C? I would like to see a similar performance comparison :)

todo: find a performance comparison in Java

Skillz Rap Up

2006-02-05T14:53:00.000+00:00

After I discovered Skillz yearly rap up, they are the tracks that are high on my list every Jan/Feb. So here are the rap up for the past 3 years, see if you still remember some of the events that he raps about. I wish someone else will do a rap up on current affairs, I bet there will be 10000x more kids listening to that then the news and radio's year-in-review programes.

2005
2004
2003

Enjoy!

todo: get a skillz album

Mocking static methods?

2006-01-29T17:13:00.000+00:00

This wasn't obvious to me at first, it took me a while to get why we can't mock static methods. So here it goes the reason in one line,

"Static methods aren't polymorphic, they are resolved at compile time, therefor it's not possible to use mock objects to test."

Hope this help you guys who are scratching your head like I was.... (if you are not sure about polymorphism, think of it as late binding)

btw, mock objects are great, it's one of those things that once you discovered how to use them, you wonder how you ever survived without them in the first place. There are plenty of resources on the web about them, see the documentation from easymock for a quick introduction.

done: use mock objects to help speed unit testing.

A good time to get a PSP at bargain price?

2006-01-27T19:13:00.000+00:00

PSP homebrew has been released for firmware 2.00, 2.01 and 2.50 according to PSP Update. (for those of you dont know what homebrew is, pls google for for details, in one simple sentence, it lets you load programs from the memory stick.) What does this mean for average user like us?

According to a reliable source HL, traders has been unloading PSP with firmware v2.0+ on ebay with substantial discount. This is caused by the left over xmas stock. As homebrew modification becomes popular with users, demand for 1.0+ PSP's (homebrewable) far outweights supply and they command a premium over 2.0+ PSP. However, once v2.0+ becomes homebrew modifiable, HL expects prices to climb up to original level.

So if you are looking to buy a PSP, NOW is the time to get a bargain v2.0+ system on Ebay!

done: I already got a bargain PSP last year in Tokyo.

Mobile Internet in the UK with Vodafone

2006-01-27T14:48:00.000+00:00

Yesterday on my way back home on the tube I saw a Vodafone advertisement - "£25 for 250MB Data" Wow! I didnt realise mobile internet is getting to an affordable level in the UK now. This is £1 per MB and they also have a £45 tariff for "unlimited" data (of course this is subject to terms and conditions, blah blah blah). Only a few months ago, mobile data is still at £3 per MB level.

This is very exciting for me, because I have been dreaming of the day when I could work on my thesis in the 2rd floor Cafe of the Tate Modern and it is now possible! Now I just need to go make sure there is power socket, my dear powerbook wouldnt even last 1hr on battery now :(

What's left for me to do is to find a 3G phone with Windows Mobile 5. Why do I need 3G and why do I want Windows Mobile you may be wondering. 3G because GPRS data rate is just too low for me, 64Kbps, that's going back down to modem speed! 3G has a theoretical download speed of 384kbps which is more than acceptable to me. Nothing against symbian phones but I need Window Mobile because I want to run Skype :) I am getting tired of using headset to make and receive Skype calls.

The only 3G phone with WinMobile5.0 on the market is the O2 Exec, Kirk has been using it for a few months now and he loves it. However he's the kind of person that has a big phone fetish I think :) I can't imagine carrying that brick around with me all day. What I am waiting for now is the Motorola Q, not sure if it will have 3G support, Kirk told me that the trade show model doesnt have it... damn it!!

If you are interested, call vodafone for the Mobile Connect 250 tariff, it's strange because I can't find this tariff anywhere on Vodafone's website.

todo: write a section in tate modern with 3G connection, while enjoying the view.

Mac OS X and Microsoft Bluetooth IntelliMouse

2006-01-25T22:20:00.001+00:00

For all of you out there who's looking to get a bluetooth mouse for your Mac, it's best the steer away from the current Microsoft offering. It's a great mouse under Windows but it does NOT work properly under OS X.

Since Microsoft's driver will only allow 2 buttons to work, I have been looking around the web to find a 3rd party solution. USBOverdrive and Gamepad Companion are the two most talked about amoung users of multi buttons mouse on OS X. USB Overdrive is great apart from the fact that it doesnt support bluetooth devices. The author has been promising bluetooth support for a while now, but who knows when it will come. The easiest way to keep yourself updated is to register for update notification on Versiontracker.

I tried Gamepad Companion on my 12inch rev b Powerbook. It works fine, hurray!! that is until I plugged in a external monitor for extended desktop :( There is apprently some bugs with Gamepad Companion regarding support with multiple monitors. The mouse cursor jumps erratically and is not usable at all.

Conclusion: If you want a bluetooth mouse for you Mac, and want to be able to use more than 2 buttons, wait for either of these software to be updated.

doing: waiting for the bug fixed version of gamepad or usb overdrive, then I can get my MS mouse to work!

MacBook Pro Reviews

2006-01-25T18:27:00.000+00:00

To those of you luck boys and girls out there who have already ordered you MacBook Pro, here are a couple of links that I found most interesting over the past 2 weeks.

The first one is a informal performance benchmark of the MacBook Pro. This is done at the Mac Expo, using the demo machines. In summary the new MBPs are slower in performance to the old G5 PowerMac and much faster than the old Powerbook G4 when running universal binary applications. The result is no surprise to most people I think , but is far from the 4x faster claim from Apple.

The second is a video review of the MacBookPro. Again this is done at the Mac Expo, the machine looks pretty much the same as the old Powerbook but watch out the new features and the clueless Apple sales guy :)

The main complaints I read around the web are, in that order, lost of Firewire 800 port, lost of PCMCIA slot and the lost of modem. The only real problem is the lost of PCMCIA slot since there is no way of getting say a 3G or EDGE datacard to work on a MBP. However since battery life figure is not released yet, I am sure this will be the top one complaint when it's released. Most people seems to expect the battery life to double by switching to a dual core machine? That's double the power AND double the battery life??? Life will be so sweet if it works that way.

Guys at work already order 3 of these babies, oh I can't wait for their arrival!

todo: get a MBP without getting further into debt :)

3rd time lucky! Blogging restarted.

2006-01-25T09:45:00.000+00:00

This is my 3rd attempt at blogging. Hope it will last longer than the previous times combined :)

I will be blogging about stuff that i need to do, am doing and have done, hence the title.

Ever since william told me during lunch he made 50 dollars from his blog in 10 days from Google Adsense, I have been thinking about restarting a blog.

I considered 3 options, hosting it myself, using a hosting company, or use a free web blogging service.

Option 1 is too much hassle for 1am on a Wed morning. If you enjoy that kind of things or have time to burn, check out Wordpress. If you enjoy that kind of thing, have time AND money to burn then prehaps you can try out Movable Type. I used it for my first blogging attemp while it was still free. Oh, since I worked with Java a lot, it's only natural for me to look for a open source Java blogging solution, and not surprisingly I found a pretty good one. Blojsom looks good, although I only spent about 10 mins at their site, it looks a polished product. If you know Java, this may be a option to the sea of PHP and MySQL solutions.

Option 2 is simply not an option for me while my bank balance is in such a desperate state. I did look through a few hosting companies recommeded on the wordpress page though. Nothing to get excited about, all ranges from 6 to 9 dollars. 5-10GB storage, 200GB bandwidth etc etc. I wouldnt mind a free domain name though.....

Option 3 is by far the easiest option for this time of day. I already had an account with blogger as the remainant of my 2nd blog failure. Nothing wrong with blogger but I thought I might try something new this time. Wordpress looked good until I signed up... No template customisation at all!!! who are they kidding. By that time it was already 1:30 and I decided to just go back to blogger and get this thing done.

Wow, so this blogging idea moved from to do to doing to done all in about 13 hrs. I wish everything could be this simple.

Now I can go to bed and sleep well. Good Nite.

doing: how long will i last this time?

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2001-01-01T20:15:00.000+00:00