Monday, November 21, 2011

A tour in S2 Heights, Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan

Some of the (almost) completed houses built in S2 Heights, Seremban 2.  This is one of the 24x75" Serena houses.

Serena, S2 Heights, Seremban 2

Sunday, October 02, 2011

MacBook Air 13" 2011 photo shots


I have gotten this new MacBook Air 13" (year 2011) since early August and didn't take any photos of it until today.  Here I'm taking these photos for your viewing pleasure.

Oktoberfest mug 2011




I've just got myself an 'Oktoberfest' mug that comes with a purchase of 2 x 6-pack.  This cost me about RM60.

Cheers (prost!) people!


By the way...OktoberFest is mostly celebrated in September, in Munich, Germany


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest

Saturday, August 13, 2011

What started the fan on my 13" MacBook Air 2011?

Here I am, have got myself a new 2011 Apple MacBook Air.  I like it.  The build is solid; the weight is just nice for me; the thin case is easy to carry with just one hand.  And it's so quick to close the lid and re-open it to continue whatever work I have been doing.  The battery also lasts about 4 to 5 hours based on my usage.


But with this, I still could not leave without certain features that I miss from Windows.  First of all, Microsoft Money.  This is the only piece of software ever that I have most often used in the past, err, 10 years?  Microsoft no longer develops this software but they have included a "sunset" edition for free to users of all the earlier versions.  The next one is a ActiveX, which runs only in Internet Explorer.  ActiveX is used on a couple of websites that I use almost every day and there are no other web browsers that support ActiveX.  Lastly, the Encrypted Files System, EFS, in Windows 7 that I use on my USB flash drive to store some personal files.  I find no solution in Mac OS X Lion that lets me use a certificate-based EFS on the flash drive.


Wait, I'm supposed to stick to the topic of what started my MacBook Air fan.  The MacBook Air runs so quietly most of the time except when the fan starts to run at full speed.  I can feel the warm breeze from the left side of the system, near the power connector.  I figure these may be the reasons the fan start.  You see, the sole reason a fan starts is to reduce the temperature of certain components in the system when a thermal sensor measures that its temperature reaches a certain level.  I guess it's mainly the CPU that runs the hottest when it's stressed to perform to 100%.   Back to the possible reasons that trigger the fan in my case:


1) VMware Fusion - this virtualization software runs my Windows 7 Operating Systems so that I can run Microsoft Money and IE.   I notice that whenever I started this, surely a couple of minutes later, the fan started into full spin.  Even though I have only assigned 1GB of memory to it.  I think I will try to put this OS on a diet by disabling some services


2) Adobe Flash Play - occasionally I play some Flash games.  This also kick-starts the fan.  I vaguely remember Steve Jobs complaining how Flash Player behaves badly.  Oh well.  Hopefully this HTML5/Adobe Edge may supersede Adobe Flash and behave better


Seems to me that the fan noise also affects many others who stated their comments in the Apple Support forum https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3194717?start=0&tstart=0


18-Aug-2011 I found one article by VMware.  Not all of the things are applicable when we use Windows 7 in a MacBook.  View that article at VMware View Optimization Guide for Windows 7.   By doing some of the suggestions, I am able to reduce the idle memory usage of Windows 7 Professional to about 320MB.  The general idea is that whatever things the HOST/VMware Fusion will do, we disable the similar functions available in the guest OS - i.e. Windows 7.


03-Oct-2011 Using coconutBattery 2.7, I measured the "Battery power usage" to be about 24 watt when I was running a Flash game in Facebook, compared with just about 8 watt without it running



Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The HP TouchPad

The HP TouchPad has been launched in some countries.  It is currently running WebOS 3.0.  There may be updates to the OS by HP to fix certain issues with applications and user experience.


For now, some of HP TouchPad characteristics and features are listed below.  Skype voice and video call fucntionalities (HP Synergy) are integrated in the OS.  Video calling APIs are not available in the SDK  at this time.
  • Videos are played in landscape mode only
  • The TouchPad supports HTML5 and Flash video in full screen mode
  • WebOS does not support WMA, WMV, and AVI
  • The TouchPad supports H.264 Flash Video, MPEG4 Codecs (MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, M4A, MP3, AAC, AMR, QCP)
  • Amazon Kindle for WebOS will be availble
  • QuickOffice - an office productivity tools - reads Microsoft WOrd, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF files.  It does not edit these documents
What set the HP TouchPad apart from the other tablet computers?
    1. Touch to Share (for easy data communications)
    2. Touchstone technology (for wireless power charging)
    3. Beats technology (for better audio experience)
    4. Compatible with HP Printing Solutions
    5. HP Synergy (for voice and video calls)
    6. Just Type (for better user experience)
    7. Support to Adobe Flash Player (for full web experience)


More updates will be posted when I have more information about this HP product.  HP has not announced the launch date for Malaysia at this time.


These are the technical specifications:


  • HP webOS 3.0
  • High-speed connectivity
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2-GHz processor
  • 9.7-inch diagonal XGA capacitive, multitouch screen with a vibrant, 18-bit color, 1,024 x 768 resolution display
  • The option of either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage
  • High-performance browser with access to the web, including support for Adobe Flash Player Beta (10.3 Beta) for access to rich, Flash-based web content
  • Wireless connectivity:
    • Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication
    • A-GPS (3G only)
    • Bluetooth wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
  • Multimedia options, including music, photos, video playback, and a 3.5 mm headset/headphone/microphone jack
    • Internal stereo speakers and Beats Audio
    • Front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam for live video calling
  • Email, including EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers) and personal email support (Google Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP)
  • Robust messaging support
  • Light sensor, accelerometer, compass (magnetometer) and gyroscope
  • Rechargeable 6,300 mAh (typical) battery
  • Micro-USB (Charging and PC Connect) with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
  • Built-in HP Touchstone technology for easy charging (HP Touchstone for TouchPad sold separately) and HP Touch to Share to share web addresses between TouchPad and compatible webOS phones
  • Dimensions: 190 mm x 242 mm x 13.7 mm (7.48 inches x 9.53 inches x .54 inches)
  • Weight: approximately 740 g (1.6 pounds)