Perfect Placement

I opened the car door and saw this banana peel placed perfectly for my left foot.

Silver LX3 has landed

When I first read about Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 camera, it was priced at around $400. I was interested but balked at such a high price for a compact camera, only to see the price rise to $500 even at decent outfits such as Amazon and B&H Photo Video. In fact, the LX3 sold so well that it was forever out of stock, and it sold so well that its main competitor at the time, the Canon PowerShot G10, was able to jack up the price to $500 as well.

After some deep thinking and soul searching (as I always do before a big purchase), I decided to get myself a LX3 as a backup to my DSLR. The problem was then to find one.

I first came across Dell that claimed it had the silver LX3 in stock for around $430 plus tax. In stock and a lower price? I preferred the black model, but I could certainly overlook the color. So off I went:

• June 13 – Placed order with Dell
• June 29 – Dell order delay number 1
• August 21 – Dell order delay number 2
• September 21 – Dell order delay number 3
• September 30 – Dell cancelled my order citing production discontinuation

What a disappointment. Had I not waited for Dell I could have purchased the black LX3 for $500 at B&H, and I could have used it for my London/Paris trip.

A month passed without any LX3 incidents. Then on Monday (Oct 26) I was browsing around and chanced upon RitzCamera.com which was selling the silver LX3 for $427 in stock! I was also able to get a 5% discount through my employer, bringing the total to $405. What a deal!

On Thursday (Oct 29) the silver eagle had finally landed, via FedEx.

Mediacenter now running Windows 7

Windows 7 is released publicly today. I grabbed a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium intending to install it on my mediacenter this weekend, but since there was no good show to record tonight, I went ahead and installed it right away. Windows 7 x64 installation was pretty sweet and smooth, but once again the VFD/IRTrans drivers cost me a few additional hours (refer to my Vista experience).

Unlike with Vista, Windows 7 already installed the latest VFD driver, so my first attempt was to manually install the previous downloaded IRTrans software (v06.09.01). It didn’t work – my MCE keyboard and remote clicks would not register. Adjusting IRTrans settings didn’t help.

After a bit of online research, I noticed that a much newer version (v09.10.09) of IRTrans software was available. This version contained a x64 binary, which I realized might be the difference as my Vista was x86. Unfortunately IRTrans setup.exe failed as it complained its inability to install Visual C++ Runtime 8 SP1 x64. My workaround? Download it manually before running IRTrans setup.

I chose to install IRTrans as a service, but that didn’t work. In the end I disabled the service and added IRTrans USB shortcut to Startup folder.

And now my mediacenter is once again fully operational. Windows 7 MediaCenter is much, much better over Vista’s.

[Update] Well, I thought the mediacenter and its remote controls were fully functional, but it wasn’t until later that I realized I couldn’t turn on/off the PC with the remote. This used to require some setup in XP but just worked in Vista (see my previous Vista post). With Windows 7, the same instructions didn’t work – the Learn Command window simply wouldn’t pick up the power button press. What ultimately worked for me was this:

1. Skip the “Learn Command” altogether.
2. Open IRTrans GUI Client, select Mode->Device Status.
3. In the “PowerON Remote/Command”, use the predefined “mediacenter”/”power” pair instead of “skpower”/”powerbutton”.
4. Click on “Set Mode”.

Now my mediacenter is fully operational.  *fingers crossed*

[Update @ 2009-10-24T13:55-8:00] Turned out the skip forward and back buttons didn’t work out of ‘box’. I had to follow instructions at IRTrans forum to enable them:

Edit C:\Program Files\IRTrans\remotes\apps.cfg
At the end of [COMMANDS] section, add the following

NEXT [KEY]\CTRLF

NEXT [KEY]\CTRLB

NEXT [KEY]\CTRLF

PREV [KEY]\CTRLB

Reload IR database to use the new config.

Futile attempts to set up a dev environment

I needed to set up a dev environment to run a new software.

Attempt 1 failed on laptop because software requires Windows Server 2003. My laptop runs Windows Server 2008.

Attempt 2 failed on desktop because software requires Windows Server 2003 x64. My desktop runs Windows Server 2003 x86. Desktop CPU is not x64 capable.

Attempt 3 was to install Server 2003 x64 on a newly acquired desktop. PXE OS installed failed because Server 2003 was not an option.

Attempt 4 was to boot into desktop’s existing OS and install Server 2003 from network share. It failed because x64 setup.exe wouldn’t run on the the existing x86 OS.

Attempt 5 was to install from a DVD. Hard disk format failed, so installation continued right over existing files. A few installation files failed to copy over. Installation, and thus attempt 5, succeeded with unrecognized network interface card (NIC).

Attempt 6 was to find the device driver  for NIC. I couldn’t find correct drivers from existing DVDs.

Attempt 7, which will happen tomorrow, is to find and download a driver online. We will see how that goes.

Conspiracy theory on cellphone carriers’ customer support

So AT&T wanted to bill me for 3 roaming calls in UK which I never made, received, missed, nor had voice mails for. In UK I had just turned on my cellphone briefly to verify that I could make emergency calls if I needed. I called AT&T last night and the guy agreed to waive all roaming charges. I was told that the final bill amount would be X.

Today I checked my bill amount again.  Instead of X it was Y, where Y > X. I called AT&T once more and had to explain the now-longer story. Turned out the guy last night only waived 2 of of the roaming calls instead of 3.

In the end I got all roaming charges waived. The total roaming amount was actually less than $3.50, but I just didn’t feel like paying for services I didn’t get.

I have a conspiracy theory. Could it be possible that AT&T instructs their employees to never fully resolve customer issues on the first attempt? This way customers would be annoyed enough the next time to just pay extra instead of wasting time with AT&T support. And if formally instructing employees  is too risky, maybe AT&T’s support system has a bug/feature to randomly reduce the amount of compensation/refund.

London Paris 2009

[Update @ 2009-11-18T00:27-8:00] The entire photo collection is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadgetdude/sets/72157622332008897/.

We are finally back from our 10-day vacation to London and Paris. I wanted to summarize our experiences quickly before memory starts to fade, so photos will have to wait are still being uploaded.

London (September 7 to September 11)

Day 0 (September 8 )

We flew via KLM airline to London, transiting at Amsterdam. We then took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station, which is already in the city. The busy 4:30pm commuters made sure I didn’t want to take Tube to my hotel, so I took a cab instead.

 

Day 1 (September 9)

Buckingham Palace

The parade changing ceremony was scheduled for every other day in Autumn, and unfortunately for us, the next ceremony was not on the day of our visit. We didn’t pay for the interior tour, so we stuck around outside to take some photos. Nothing too special.

Geography, gender, and sample size

I have reached a conclusion in the past few days regarding geography and infant gender. Based on the people I know, it seemed that those living in the East Bay will have a daughter as first born while the opposite is true across the bay.

Then this evening my theory was proven wrong by a friend who has access to a much wider sample size, i.e. she knows far more people than me. Without a second thought she gave me a negative example after I brought up my conjecture. Luckily I am not doing a PhD on this.

“爱你一万年”方言版

你能听懂多少？

iPhone push notifications for Gmail

Google Mail (Gmail) is my primary email, but emails in my Gmail account are not pushed to my iPhone. Since I can’t (or don’t want to) switch to Palm Pre and Android, I will have to make do with some workarounds.

Requirements

• An always on PC (or Mac if you are an Apple fan)
• Growl for Windows (or Growl for Mac)
• Thunderbird
  • MinimizeToTray
  • Minimize To Tray Enhancer
  • Folderpane Tools
  • Growl/GNTP
• Prowl for iPhone

Setup

First follow these instructions to set up push Gmail on iPhone, then perfect the experience by doing the following:

1. 1. Download and set up “MinimizeToTray” and “Minimize To Tray Enhancer” to have Thunderbird start with Windows and minimize to tray.
   2. Download and set up “Folderpane Tools” to set Thunderbird’s startup folder as Inbox – otherwise Thunderbird won’t detect new emails right after startup.
   3. Follow this article to disable Thunderbird’s annoying new mail system tray icon.

Experience

So far I get notified on iPhone within a few seconds of Gmail arrivals. One can also push messages via to an iPhone using Prowl’s web site (Prowl login required).

Cost

Everything is free except for the $2.99 Prowl iPhone app. That and the extra electricity the always-on PC will consume.

[Update @ 2009-07-16T19:27-7:00] Thunderbird times out after idling for a while. In other words, the whole setup works temporarily before it craps out. Unsure why, but could be due to Thunderbird’s inability to reconnect after IMAP IDLE timeout (references one, two).

Transformers 2: Trying Too Hard

I loved the first Transformers movie, so we went to watch the sequel in theater today. I wasn’t expecting much going in as I had read tons of negative reviews, but I was still hoping for a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately the critics were correct, Transformers 2 was just a summer action movie and nothing more.

Some of my thoughts:

• The story was so-so at best.
• The jokes were crude and forced.
• More robots meant zilch. None was outstanding.
• Devastator was a disappointment.
• Why must Transformers act like humans? Why must Jetfire have a “beard”?
• Why must there be Transformer clowns? Why oh why must there be Jar Jar Transformers?! Why oh why did we get a Transformers “chihuahua”?!
• Didn’t know the transformation technology could imitate organic matters like human skin.
• Where can I get that cool Decepticons hood ornament?