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Last edited: Sun 2006-09-03 @ 19:58 , by DaRen 1 time(s)
Another Dell notebook on fire - 2:53 pm
Model: Latitude C600 (oh well, 2nd hand)
Computing , Hardware , News -  DaRen
 Dell notebook with battery problem Another alert message to all Dell notebook users out there: A family from Leicestershire in England was left in shock after their Dell laptop exploded "like fireworks" and set fire to their carpet and lounge.
According to a story in the Leicester Mercury, Shaun Allen, 39, said the drama experienced by him, his wife and children. The offending laptop was a Dell Latitude C600 bought from a shop in Coventry, about a year before for about £500.
Quote:
"There are six batteries inside a compartment, and they were shooting out like fireworks, like rockets. "
"They even bounced off the ceiling, they went up that high."
"I tried to extinguish the laptop and cover it over with a towel. I tried to carry it outside, but it was still exploding and I let go of it."
"As I dropped it, more batteries came out like fireworks. A couple of them hit the ceiling then bounced on the floor. Another one hit the ceiling and set fire to the carpet. My wife was jumping on it to put it out."
An investigator examined the Allens' laptop.
A Dell spokesman said that although they believed the battery which exploded was not the original supplied by Dell, the company was supplying a new laptop as a gesture of goodwill for the family's co-operation with the investigation.
Last month, Dell formally requested 4.1m customers around the world return batteries shipped with its notebooks sold between 1 April 2004 and 18 July 2006. The recalled lithium-ion batteries were made by Sony, saying that Dell branded batteries with cells manufactured by Sony could, under rare conditions, overheat
After reading this, should I just remove my battery from notebook? I run it on AC power 24/7 and the weather is starting to turn warm now... This worried me because I'm using a Latitude C640 purchased on 2003, although it does not falls under the time period for recall. I really don't wan't fireworks going on in my room, or even got hit by fireworks...also, did I forgot to mention I got 2 batteries... ? OMG ~~~ !
程序员的爱情 - 6:37 pm
Funny Stuff - DaRen
今天在 某人的博客看到一段有趣的一段code:
难道程序员的爱情 就注定是无趣的 是冷酷的吗?!
程序员的爱情 in C# [ Hide ] using Life;
using Life.Love;
namespace love
{
/// <summary>;
/// love 的摘要说明。
/// </summary>;
public class love :Life.Love
{
void love(boy, girl)
{
if(boy.有房() && boy.有车())
{
boy.Set(Nothing);
return girl.嫁给(boy);
}
else if(girl.愿意等())
{
next_year:
for(day=1; day<=365; day++)
{
if(day == 情人节)
{
if(boy.GiveGirl(玫瑰))
girl.感情++;
else
girl.感情--;
}
if(day == girl.生日)
{
if( boy.GiveGirl(玫瑰) )
girl.感情++;
else
girl.感情--;
}
boy.拼命赚钱();
}
年龄++;
girl.感情--;
if(boy.有房() && boy.有车())
{
boy.Set(Nothing);
return girl.嫁给(boy);
}
else if(boy.赚钱 > 100,000 && girl.感情 > 8 )
goto next_year;
else
return girl.goto(another_boy);
}
return girl.goto(another_boy);
}
}
}
呵呵，看来程序员的爱情还蛮寂寞的说。。。
ps: 兄弟，有几个地方的syntax错了，还有最好不要用 goto。。。 呵呵 开玩笑的。。。
Firefox 1.5.0.6 failed to wrap up a long string - 8:58 pm
Browser , Bug - DaRen
Stupid Firefox 1.5.0.6 unable to wrap up one long url link in one of the blog entry, causing the whole page has a "wide screen" view.
The fault
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx? familyid=32BC1BEE-A3F9-4C13-9C99-220B62A191EE&displaylang=en
I purposely put a space after the details.aspx? to avoid weird rendering in Firefox browser. Opera and IE wraps/breaks up the string on "-" but obviously Firefox doesn't treat that "-" as a point to break up long string 
Microsoft Windows Vista available for pre-order - 4:58 pm
Computing , News , Software - DaRen
Amazon.com has started to offer Microsoft Windows Vista operating systems for pre-order.
You can own the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate DVD-Rom at the price of $USD399.00 (or around $AUD523.00) and it will be available on 30th January, 2007.
However, according to Amazon, item can be shipped only within the U.S. for now. It seems DVD will be the main-stream media used. Geez, I'll get a new computer when Windows Vista is availabe next year, my notebook does not comes with DVD-rom, and I doubt it will be able to run those nice AERO-style animation in Vista... so I'll get a new desktop then ^^
Pricing info on more Windows Vista products
- MS Vista Ultimate Upgrade - $USD259.00 (around $AUD339)
- MS Vista Home Premium - $USD239.00 (around $AUD313)
- MS Vista Home Premium Upgrade - $USD159.00 (around $AUD208)
- MS Vista Home Basic - $USD199.00 (around $AUD261)
- MS Vista Home Basic Upgrade - $USD99.95 (around $AUD131)
By the way, a new copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate is over AUD500, I just think it's too pricey !!! Anybody going for a Linux switch and forget about their favourite MMORPG ??
Random Shots: Snacks on my table - 9:28 pm
Photo , Random Shots - DaRen
Played around a bit with my phone and took a few shots...
| Subject |
Snacks on my table |
| Location |
My desk |
| Date |
2006.08.28 |
| Time |
Around 6pm |
| Equipment |
Sony Ericsson K800 |
| Picture Size |
Scaled from 2048 x 1536 |
Router sold us out to neighbours ! - 8:15 pm
what a router....
Internet , Personal , Security - DaRen
Internet connection speed got slowed lately, that sounds normal to some people if their quota from ISP is reached. But that's not the case to me. It' unsual. So the house owner login to the router and guess what ? An unknown computer has connected (wireless) to the router and gain access to internet, also stealing our bandwidth... moron neighbours ! Well, it's not that we have unsecured wireless opened for public usage. It's just that somehow the router screwed up and lost the WEP configuration while I last reboot it, which is quite a while ago. Our wireless network has gone public without our notice.
Now the house owner has got WEP authentication up again and sealing up the "backdoor" for any unauthorized access. Well, if that moron is smart enough, he can crack our WEP key and use our network as a reward for him (we didn't use MAC address filtering and the router's logging system is lame...hehe..)
Anyway, opening your wireless network as unsecured network which allows other people (or neighbours) to access the internet isn't really a bad thing too. You'll theoretically be able to share all of the music on P2P networks without worrying about an RIAA lawsuit.
Quote:
In fact, this even had some people suggesting that, if you want to win a lawsuit from the RIAA, you're best off opening up your WiFi network to neighbors. It seems like this strategy might actually be working. Earlier this month the inability to prove who actually did the file sharing caused the RIAA to drop a case in Oklahoma and now it looks like the same defense has worked in a California case as well. In both cases, though, as soon as the RIAA realized the person was using this defense, they dropped the case, rather than lose it and set a precedent showing they really don't have the unequivocal evidence they claim they do.
soure: Techdirt
In fact, there are people purposely turned off the security to avoid trouble. What can I say ? Crazy world with crazy people having crazy ideas in their crazy mind... everything is possible !
Diet Coke + Mentos = Fire Extinguisher - 5:28 pm
Who will drink diet coke anyway ?
Cool Stuff , Crazy Stuff , Funny Stuff - DaRen
Probably you've already heard about this: Diet Coke + Mentos = fire extinguisher ?? (oh well, people loved to call it as liquid bomb instead of fire extinguisher to make you remember that we're living in a global terrorism era...)
"What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? It's amazing and completely insane." See below for crazy diet coke and mentos experiment ...
 Some people just have too much coke and time to spend ;)  They say it can go up to 5 metres high up the sky...
You can find more "home made fire extinguisher" videos on YouTube, or human experiment on Google video , or you can find the glory from Eepybird.com that carries out those crazy experiments. While it's fun to play with, do you want to know how it works ? Below is the explaination from Eepybird.com:
Quote:
These chemists are saying that the primary cause is physical, not chemical. Their explanation: nucleation sites. If you have a liquid that is supersaturated with gas (like soda, which is pumped full of carbon dioxide), a nucleation site is a place where the gas is able to form bubbles. Nucleation sites can be scratches on a surface or specks of dust – anywhere that you have a high surface area in a very small volume. That's where bubbles can form.
Mentos seem to be loaded with nucleation sites. In other words, there are so many microscopic nooks and crannies on the surface of a Mento that an incredible number of bubbles will form when you drop it in a bottle of soda. Since the Mentos are also heavy enough to sink, they react with the soda all the way to the bottom. The escaping bubbles quickly turn into a raging foam, and the pressure builds dramatically. Before you know it, you've got a big geyser happening!
Still don't understand what the heck is 'Nucleation sites' ??
Quote:
You can see nucleation sites in action if you coat the inside of a small glass with vegetable oil. Move the glass around to get a nice smooth coating of oil and then pour in some soda. What happens? No fizz. Why? No nucleation sites. Now sprinkle in some granulated sugar. What happens? Lots of fizz! Why? Lots of nucleation sites!
Do whatever you like with this, just don't try this near the security screening line in any airports, particularly in U.S. or Europe... and don't test this with your stomach too 
To my best friend - 9:10 pm
Personal - DaRen
To my best friend:
Don't be sad and feel hopeless, an angel is sent to say prayers for you. Be strong and take care yourself.
-=====-
_..._
.~ `~.
,_ / }
,_'--, \ _.'`~~/
'--,_`{_,} -(
'.`-.`\;--,__.'_
'._`/ |_ _{@}
/ ` |-';/ _
/ \ / | _ {@}_
/ '--;_ _ {@} _Y{@}
_\ `\ {@}\Y/_{@} Y/
/ |`-.___. / \Y/\|{@}Y/\|//
^^^^^^`--`------'`--`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jhead by Matthias Wandel - 7:47 pm
command line program that manipulates EXIF data
Software , Website Intro - DaRen
Found a nice & small utility from Matthias Wandel that manipulate EXIF data inside JPEG files.
Jhead is a command line driven program for manipulating the non-image parts of Exif flavour JPEG files that most digital cameras produce.
Jhead v2.6 program Features
- Extracting camera settings from Exif image files
- Able to set and/or adjust the Exif time field
- Manipulation (extrac, replace, regenerate) of Exif integral thumbnails
- Transplant Exif image header from one JPEG to another
Edit JPEG comment fields
- Automatically rotate images upright (using jpegtran) according to "orientation" tag.
- Manage running programs on large batches of Jpegs and restoring Exif header information afterwards.
- Display embedded GPS info (if present)
New toy in house - Sony Ericsson K800i - 5:41 pm
and btw, 3 , you sucked !
Gadgets , Mobile , Personal , Random Shots - DaRen
I signed up the Sony Ericsson K800i phone from Three on Monday. The sign up process for 3 is so lame and being a customer, I would like to say: "3, YOU SUCKED, BIG TIME !".
The first time I went to the 3 shop was last Sunday. I brought the documents that they needed, however, near to end of sign up, I was asked for my working and company details. Thet said an operator from 3 will ring up my company to verify if I'm really working in there or not. WTF ?! screw that.... That was Sunday ! who will stay in office on Sunday to answer call ? So they can't verify that. As an alternative for that, they wanted my company's manager's name card with his mobile number printed on it. They'll ring my manager on his mobile... again, WTF ??! Give me a reason and persuade me why I should carry my manager's name card all the time with me... So after wasted 1 hr in the shop, I left with empty hands. Then I drop by 3 shop the next day (Monday), and they finally can ring somebody in my company to verify it. I picked up the phone after work, thinking everything should be over.. and bam ! The girl in 3 shop forget to activate my phone number... I got a new phone but I can't make any calls...thanks for that, the 3rd WTF ???! goes here... Because it's after hours, I have to ring back first thing in the next morning (yesterday) to get them finish what they left over.... WTF !!!!!
Anyway, the phone is great. After playing with phone for a day, below are some of the pros and cons that I still remember...
Pros
- Great imaging quality (still picture)
- Better than average features/functions
- Installation of SE Phone Manager on Windows doesn't cause me any troubles (I once helped a friend to install a LG pc suit on windows..pain in the ass...)
- Display screen is very clear
- Navigation system is still consider better than average. I'm still able to pick up the navigation style pretty quick after I switch over to this phone, considering the fact that I've been using Nokia phones for past 5 years.
- Phone is light weight
- Any other thing is good except listed below
Cons
- The recording quality is way to small and pixelize
- Phone battery doesn't seem to last that long like what they advertised
- Keypard is a little too small to press
- Not sure if I'm not used to the joystick style navigation or they're a bit hard to use
- Auto key-lock activates too fast. A user define auto lock time would be great.
- The cover that protects the camera lens seems a bit fragile
- Contacts storing is a bit confusing between storing in phone or USIM
- Size is a bit bulky but not a big problem
- 1Gb M2 memory card is still hard to get (expensive too...)
- Blog this picture feature only limits to Blogger.com ... bugga !
- No chinese input for messaging (not sure if firmware update can solve this or not on International version, since China has their own K800C)
I still need to master the skill of text input for messaging on this phone, it's just a matter of time... Below are pictures of my old Nokia 8210 and the new Sony Ericsson K800I
Sony Ericsson K800I VS Nokia 8210
Sony Ericsson K800i in my hand
2 pictures taken from K800i indoor in night time (Xenon flash kick ass !). The thumbnails are rotated but not the originals.
 A can of coke on dining table
I found that there is a green line on the screen during video recording mode. Googled it on the web and realize it's a bug from SE, many people having this problem too. They all suggest/waiting for SE to release a firmware to fix the problem but nobody claims that he/she found a way to fix the problem until now. This is a obvious bug, can't believe SE just let this passes by. Anyway, I'll bring this phone back to 3 shop tomorrow and try to get a replacement, at the same time to collect my 100 free tickets for digital printing =)
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