Another out of topic article… We were invited last weekend for a “premier session” on DroidPad Mi700 - an all-in-one smart pad by local company CSL (just found out that it stands for Commitment, Service, and Loyalty). Long story short, let’s start.

Sadly we were only briefed at a counter with 10 of us surrounding 3 devices. The environment was kind of noisy as well. I am expecting a private room and each of us being assigned with a real device to hand-on. Anyway, the device is powered by Android 2.2, Qualcomm 600MHz processor, 512MB RAM, Bluetooth, GSM (yes, you can make call), GPS, Wifi, 3MP camera + webcam, and router…. just to name a few (click here for official spec).

Seriously it was kind of slow if compared to other Android devices which used 1GHz processor. The boot up took times and certain games could be lagging. With limited RAM, definitely a memory card slot is required and thank goodness it came with a MicroSD slot (up to 32GB). The device also has a mini USB port so that you can connect it to PC.

The screen is 7 inches capacitive touch screen with the resolution of 800 x 480. Sadly, it was made of plastic instead of scratch-resistant glass, and glare was serious. I had difficulty in taking the screenshot with fluorescent lights on top. The device dimension is 179.4 x 110 x 11.5 mm. It is smaller than iPad but still bigger than normal smart phones and normal pockets will not fit in. Perhaps you need to put in inside your handbags or cargo pants.

For tech savvies or cheap IT engineers like me, good news is that this device can be rooted/customized (e.g. similar to gaining root access in Linux). I won’t go into details here but you can always Google around.

At first glance, an all-in-one device at an affordable price (RM1599). It looks like the China’s Android “iPad” before the real iPad released however this one definitely better than its “predecessor”. The ability to make calls and 18 months warranty are definitely a plus for this device. CSL has its advantages of releasing this device early as next year would be the year of smart pads and competitions can be high that time. Perhaps the only things remained unknown are the battery life, hardware quality and software stability. Special thanks to the organizer for organizing the event.

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Nyonya Cafe

Usually I will have my lunch in New World Park when visiting CTY Aquatic Shop. After a while, I was not sure which restaurant to try. Nyonya Cafe, which is somehow easily missed, is a place where you can enjoy authentic nyonya cuisine (and more).

Compared to other restaurants, the cafe is seriously decorated with antiques, such as teapots, vases, bamboo baskets, and statues. The owner must be a serious collector.

Nyonya Cafe Banner

In the menu you can see some Nyonya, Malay, and Chinese food. There is even spaghetti dishes in it. It makes me wonder whether it is really an authentic Nyonya cafe at first glance.

Nasi Ulam

Nyonya Laksa

I order Nasi Ulam (herbal rice) (RM6.00++) during my first visit. It is a Malay cuisine famous at eastern coast. For subsequent visits I ordered Nyonya Laksa (RM5.00++), which is rich in coconut milk and mild spicy compared to Penang laksa. Tastes good even though I still sweating

Choon Piah

Loh Bak

鸿图面 Ang Tho Mee

Of course there are some Chinese cuisine as well, such as Choon Piah (春饼) (RM5.00++), Loh Bak (RM6.00++), and Ang Tho Mee (鸿图面) (RM7.00++). The different between Choon Piah and Loh Bak is that the later one is stuffed with minced meat (e.g. chicken) than vegetables. The Ang Tho Mee is like those “Shang Mee” 生面 as seen in some dim sum shops. The sauce is different and is rich in vegetables. The deep fried noodle looks like a mountain when it arrives.

Gandum

Bo Bo Cha Cha

Bee Koh Moy

I also order some desserts, such as gandum (RM3.50++), bo bo cha cha (RM3.50++), and bee koh moy (RM4.00++). They look a like but below are the differences:

Gandum (Malay): Make of wheat.
Bo Bo Cha Cha (Chinese): Yam, sweet potato, sago, and coconut milk.
Bee Koh Moy (Nyonya): Black Glutinous Rice broth (a.k.a pulut hitam in Malay).

Nyonya Bak Chang

They tastes good. They are rich in coconut milk and some people may not able to take it (stomach may spin like hell). I also ordered Nyonya Bak Chang (RM3.50++). Unlike Chinese meat bak chang, Nyonya bak chang has minced meat and the fragrant of ketumbar (Coriandrum sativum). It is gentle to your stomach.

Other than the one in New World Park, there are other 2 branches in Penang, including:

i-Avenue: 01-01-36, Medan Kampung Relau 1, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang. Tel: 604-6410788/0988.

Tanjung Tokong: 515-A, C.M. Hashim, 11200, Tanjung Tokong, Penang. Tel: 604-8997099

Few years ago, one of my colleagues complained that the food in i-Avenue was not really Nyonya authentic and was expensive. Personally I can’t comment on that since I not been there before. As a whole, if you are looking for affordable and authentic local cuisine in a nice environment, you should try this restaurant.

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Battery Jumper

Have you ever experienced battery flatted out after switching off the engine? It may due to the fact of not turning off headlights or the battery is becoming weak, and will result in the car cannot be initiated at all . One way to solve this on the spot is to find a working vehicle and use jumper/booster cables to recharge your battery. The cable is widely available in most hypermarkets and spare part shops.

The cables usually come in a pair – red and black. Common sense tells you that connect the red cable to both positive ends, while black to both negative ends of both vehicles. This is actually not a recommended way. You should connect the black end at flatted vehicle to a metal surface other than the bettery knot. This is to avoid sparks generated once connected and cause fire. It is also found that the battery will charge up faster in this way. Below is the complete steps:

(Reference)

1. Connect one end of the RED jumper cable to the POSITIVE (+) post on the dead battery.

2. Connect the other end of the RED jumper cable to the POSITIVE (+) post on the good battery.

3. Connect one end of the BLACK jumper cable to the NEGATIVE (-) post on the good battery.

4. Connect the other end of the BLACK jumper cable to a heavy metal ground on the engine or frame of the vehicle with the dead battery. DO NOT make the final jumper connection to the NEGATIVE (-) post on the battery itself because it usually sparks and may ignite hydrogen fumes in the dead battery causing it to explode.

NOTE: On some vehicles the battery is not easily accessible (because it is located inside a fender panel, trunk, etc.), so there may be special jumper connections in the engine compartment for jump starting the vehicle.

CAUTION: DO NOT lean directly over the battery while making jumper connections (in case of explosion).

5. Start the vehicle with the good battery, and run the engine at a fast idle (1200 to 1500 rpm)for a couple of minutes. This will help charge up the low battery and make starting easier.

6. Now you can start the vehicle with the dead battery. If it does not crank or cranks very slowly, wiggle the jumper connections to make sure they are making good contact. Then try again. The engine should start if there are no other problems (such as a bad starter or ignition circuit problem).

7. As soon as the engine starts, disconnect both jumper cables. Do not allow the metal ends of the jumper cables to touch each other or the RED cables to touch anything metal on either car.

8. Keep the engine running 20 to 30 minutes, or drive the car to recharge the battery. During this time, leave the lights, heater, A/C and other electrical accessories off so all of the charging system’s output can go into the battery.

NOTE: If the engine dies shortly after it has been jump started, or as soon as the jumper cables are disconnected, it probably means the charging system is not working (bad alternator, voltage regulator, wiring problem or loose/dirty battery cables).

Finally, replace your battery every 2 years (which is common for sedan car) or when you noticed that the car takes more cranks to start the engine. Don’t wait until the car cannot be started at all.

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Overclocked your CPU and want to torture it to see how far the CPU can go? Try a freeware called IntelBurnTest which will stress your CPU to the max. It can also be applied on new laptops to see if it will overheat or not. For example, my HP Compaq 6910p survived the test while Presario C793TU shutdown by itself after few minute.

[Download IntelBurnTest 1.8 (25-Oct-2008) here]

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Few months ago I mentioned on my Compaq Presario C793TU laptop in one of my posts. These two weeks, I had bad experience with this machine, that is, it is overheating at room temperature of about 30ºC! When I first purchased this machine I installed Fedora 9 (a Linux distribution) under air-conditional environment which is working fine. Intermittently, I noticed that the laptop’s fan spins for few minutes and shutdown automatically when I was using Firefox. I tried to fresh install Fedore/Windows Vista and the process cannot be completed due to overheating issue.

I am suspecting the CPU fan is not powerful enough so I sent it to local HP service center located at Krystal Point, Penang two weeks ago. It takes about 4 days to replace a board and test it before I noticed that the laptop failed me again when trying to install Windows Vista/Fedora 10 Beta at 30ºC.

I am suspecting the technician was testing it under air-conditional environment as when I first turned on the laptop at service center to verify the fix, the air blew from the vent is like coming from Alaska. Early this week, I threw my laptop back to the service center and this time I clearly stated under “Problem Description” that the laptop is still overheating when using at room temperature of 30ºC.

After 3 hours, I received an unhappy call from the technician saying that the laptop is working fine. When I asked him whether he is testing on testing on non air-conditioning environment, he told that the air-conditioner is running but is at low speed. From the conversation, I knew that he has no intention to fix my laptop.

The next day, when I was collecting back my laptop, as usual, I turn it on on the spot. Again, the air flow is like the laptop just taken out from fridge!

I am fed up with HP customer service. When I went back home, I tried to install Fedora 10 Beta again and it overheats as usual. To overcome this issue, I actually have to take out the cover at the bottom:

C793TU memory compartment

With bottom cover removed, I can install Fedora 10 Beta successfully. What’s the point I purchase a laptop while I have to take out its cover every time I use it? Definitely a laptop designed by a penguin working in south poles which underestimate the weather in tropical countries like Malaysia.

As a whole, cheap laptop has its own price. HP used to have good reputation on its product, especially on printer series (I have a HP Laserjet 1100A which is about 8 years old and is still running… even though some time it sucks up whole rim of paper.) Due to bad experience with the product and HP customer service, I will never consider HP notebook in future.

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However, being slow has its own advantage. Take a look at figure above. It is “Pet Society” in Facebook – a flash game in which you raise and play with your pet in virtual world. One of the mini games is to catch the ball thrown by your pet. The speed will increase together with the number of catch you made.

Using normal PC, you are considered very good and will be given gold medal if you can made 50 catches. With Pentium III, I managed to catch 300 times on “slow motion” mode.

Pentium III – Your ultimate gaming machine… even today

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TDK DVD+R Media (100 pcs)

At first I thought this is the end of my 4 years old fat PS2. However, it still runs quietly and smoothly on other DVD+R/-R brands. After taking a closer looks, It appears that the transparent layer toward the center hole is slightly thinner than others (even though it is hard to tell sometime). This may cause the spinner not able to properly push the disc to another end before spinning.

Here comes MacGyver! To solve the above mentioned issue, try use a small piece of transparent tape used in office and paste it near to the transparent layer (see figure below). Insert into the disc tray again, and voila~ no more noise and the disc can be played quietly now.

Paste a tape on backup disc to reduce noise

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1. Remove all cables, controllers, memory card, and disc from the console. Don’t worry about voiding the warranty as it is most probably expired now.
2. Flip over the console and remove the square rubbers and plastics. There are overall 8 screws you need to remove.
   
3. Flip over the console and remove top cover. You will see some heat sinks on the left.
   
4. Use tiny cross screwdriver to remove two tiny screws (as shown on a red circle above).
5. Use a flat screwdriver and insert it to the hole on upper left. After inserting, slight push your screwdriver handle to the right so that the clip below can be pushed to the left in order to take out the disc tray top cover.
6. Repeat step 5 on upper right side.
7. You should now able to take out the top cover.
   
8. Saw the len? Use a dry cotton bud to clean it.
   
9. Use a wet cotton to clean the round spinner.
10. Clean the disc tray using a wet cotton. It may look OK on black background but take a look on the cotton after cleaning it.
    
11. Close everything.

Your console should perform better now. If not, time to go for PS3.

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After trial and errors, I found out that DVD recordable media having GOLD reflecting layer (the layer where you label your disc) performs better than others. So far I have good experience with Ricoh and TDK gold reflecting layer discs. Sadly I can’t find any Ricoh disc in my place now so I am using TDK as alternative. It has “CMC MAG-M01-000” as disc identifier.

A DVD+R with gold reflecting layer

So, try get one DVD recordable media with gold reflecting layer and try it on your gaming console.

P/S: It is also heard that DVD+R is better than DVD-R, even though I don’t have any test result as a proof. So far I have been using both +R and -R on my PS2 fat console and they are working fine.

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