One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

After delays in manufacturing OLPC, I recently got my hands on a new OLPC for a few hours. Currently, the only way of getting your laptop is via the G1G1 program where for $400, you give one laptop to a child in need and you get one. Tmobile was also generous enough to give 1 year of free Tmobile HotSpot service with this!

First impressions:
It's pretty small & light, and cute with a little handle on the top.


It took me a few minutes to open the laptop since I didn't RTFM. Hint: need to open both antennas first before the laptop would open.


This laptop is definitely for kids. Everything seems small. Small screen, small keyboard (so small that I can't touch type on it). The keyboard is not the tactile type, it's molded rubber so it's still OK if you spill stuff on it.


There are some thoughtful design:
The LCD swivels 360 degrees, allowing you to show what on your screen easily.

When you open the antennas, it uncovers USB and headphone/mic jacks. I like the fact that there's one horizontal and one vertical USB ports. Depending on what you try to plug in, sometimes it fits better one way or another (because of the antenna).

It's also equipped with stereo speakers, and even a camera!


I find the software not too intuitive though, at least not for me. A taskbar appears when you drag your mouse button to the edge of your screen. Then there are a variety of applications you can run. The only thing that took me awhile to figure out is how to switch between applications. They have some pretty cool applications pre-installed. Like a video recorder, sound recorder/analyer (you can see the waveform on the screen and it changes when you talk).


Overall, I think it's a good first laptop that will help educate many children abroad. It's not something for me to use daily - even if it's only for web-browsing.

Ubuntu first timer

First, I downloaded GParted free utility to repartition my HD. I reduced my current Windows boot partition to 30gb and left the rest unformated. GParted is a straight-forward FREE program that let you do this. Just boot off the CD that I created off the .iso. Boots with a nice X-windows with the util loaded already. After it's all done, I rebooted to Windows just to make sure that partition still works. Windows ran the diskchk since it thinks the disk is "dirty", but everything is fine after that.
A couple months ago, I requested a ubuntu 7.10 CD. Finally got a chance to put it to use. I booted off the CD. It loaded ubuntu and ran it out of RAM. There's one "install" icon on the desktop and clicking that start the install. I made a mistake and let it choose the biggest partition to install (I should've configured the partition to 30gb and put the rest as a shared storage partition between my windows and linux OSs). While it's installing, I'm free to web-browse using the firefox already loaded. It was by far the easiest Linux install I've experienced (the last time I installed Linux was redhat circa 2003).
That's it! Now I have a dual boot machine in less than an hour.

Dell Inspiron 530s

Got my new Dell Inspiron 530s (the 's' for slim) computer yesterday.



Here's the spec for it:
Intel Core2 Duo processor E6550 (2.33GHz 1333FSB) w/Dual Core Technology and 4MB cache
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
Dell USB 4 Button Premium Optical Mouse with Scroll
Dell USB Keyboard
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
320GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Dell 19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Integrated NIC card
56K PCI Data Fax Modem
16X DVD+/-RW Drive

I ordered on Friday morning. It shipped on Saturday (the next day) and I got it on Tuesday! it's amazing how quickly Dell can configure a computer.
Even though I could've gotten a QuadCore for the same price, it doesn't come in the slim-case version - which would look nicer if I decide to use it as a MediaPC connected to the TV.

The first thing I noticed when I turn on the computer is how LOUD the fan noise is. It's like sitting on the plane near the jet engine.

When I first got a Dell about 5 years ago, I was really impressed by their computers. It was so quiet, well built and nicely engineered. I remembered it was the first time where I saw a clam-shell case (no screws needed) and slide-on HD and optical drives. Many of the features that common cases now have. It was then that I decided that I couldn't beat Dell with price or the quietness - it was the end of computer-building era of my life.
When I heard this new 530s, I thought that era might come back.. yes, it was that loud.


I had thoughts of selling it off immediately. I guess I'm impatient - because if I rebooted the computer just once, I would notice that the fan noise would be gone :) A sure way to fix the fan noise is to reset the BIOS to default settings and start over.

The good thing I like:
The media reader!

In Windows Explorer, you can actually see the icons of the type of media card each drive letter correspond to. This has always been my pet-peeve with multi-media reader, it would pop up as E,F,G,H drives and you don't know which one is which.
Cooler still, the icon would turn to color when you insert a card.

Looking inside the case, everything is pack tight.

Still, there are 2 PCI slots, a x1 PCIe slot and a x16 PCIe slot. They're all half-height (low profile) slots though. Which will make my search for a good video card slightly harder, but I expected as much. My current choice is the MSI 8500GT low-profile fanless video card. It's at the top of my list because it has both HDMI and DVI output. HDMI is useful so that I only need one cable to carry both 1080p and audio.

I do like the fact that this case has space for 2 Hard drives. Most slim cases only have space for 1. It also have 4 memory slots. Currently it's only populated by 2x512MB 667Mhz DIMMs, but I plan to buy at least 2x1GB 800Mhz DIMMs.

My dissapointments:

• No SPDIF!! The onboard audio (HD Realtek) supports 7.1 surround sound, but it doesn't have a simple digital audio output .
• No Gigabit - another cost cutting measure from Dell. My 1.5 year old Dell Dimension E510 comes with Gigabit Ethernet. This brand new one only comes with 10/100.

I got XP home just so I don't feed Microsoft's Vista bandwagon. I fully intended on putting Linux or move my XP MCE from my old computer to here.

Next would be my experiment with ubuntu 7.10 before deciding which OS to keep.

Flickr

Yes, I'm probably one of the late-bloomr in the flickr craze, but I recently found out that Yahoo! is EOL-ing its photo service. When you go to http://photos.yahoo.com, it will ask you to move your photos to a different service. Since flickr is now owned by Yahoo, they have a special deal (which they don't advertise until AFTER you pick flickr) that will give you 3 months free of the pro account. With a pro account, you will have unlimited upload capability. I've been uploading my old pictures like crazy. This also make me realize that I take WAAY too many pictures. It made me take less pictures on my next outing.

The interface is nice and you feel accomplished when you've uploaded a set of pictures. :) Still a long way to go for me, but at least I have a place to show my pictures instead of the dusty DVDs they're in right now....

I fixed it!!

Yes, 4 months later, a few more grey hairs, I finally figured out what was "wrong" with the router. I decided to remove the 'Connection Name' field from the PPPoE connection (made it blank) and it connected! How weird is that?! I tried it both with the Tomato firmware router and the brand new Buffalo WHS-G54S router I bought to fix this problem (which it failed).
Phewwwwww.. still doesn't make sense, but at least I got it fixed.

Tomato Firmware

Ever since the Daylight Savings Time change (it might be a coincidence), my DD-WRT flashed Buffalo router doesn't successfully connect to my ISP via PPPoE anymore. :(
At first I thought it was the ISP's problem, because it was working fine and dandy for a month or so and after I got back from my trip, internet was down. After calling ISP, they told me the default stuff and also told me to plug the DSL modem directly to the PC since "routers are not supported" by them. Grudgingly I complied and lo & behold, I got internet!
Fortunately, I have an ancient Dlink DI-804V router that I'm using as my PPPoE dialer and my Buffalo router is connected to it now. Another hop to go to the internet, but it's better than nothing.
Today, I decided to try the Tomato Firmware 1.06. Flashing was easy through the DD-WRT's web interface, just make sure you write down the encrypted password by sending this command:
nvram get http_passwd
because this will be the password after reboot - username is root.
Unfortunately, I get the same behavior as DD-WRT firmware with respect to PPPoE. I guess I give up for now and try something else later.

SCUBA Diving

I just got back from diving at the Ko Similan island chain in Thailand. It's the BEST diving I've ever done. Granted, I haven't been diving much at all. I got my diving certification in Summer of 2005. Living in the Pacific NW, the water temperature is very cold. I had to dive with a drysuit on. It wasn't an enjoyable experience for me. But I decided to give it another try in Nov 2006. It's another cold water dive. It was slightly better than the first time, but the bad rainy weather didn't help.
Finally, I heard that Ko Similan is one of the top 10 dive site in the world. Since I'm going to Thailand anyways, I decided to try it one last time. I figured, if I don't like it there, then there's no point in continuing.

Well... It was orders of magnitude better than the cold water dive. I only wore a 3mm shorty and nothing else. My weights were just right that I didn't have to adjust my BCD at all during the whole dive. A whole tank lasted me at least 50 mins, diving down as deep as 80 feet.
We saw so many different types of fish with great visibility. I even saw a Leopard Shark and big Manta Rays!
I'm motivated into diving more now. But one thing is for sure, I will never do a cold water dive again.

Company I used for Ko Similan diving and I would recommend and use them again.
Similan Scuba Adventures which is related to Diversland.

Craps

I was in Vegas this weekend for a little gambling. I found a small hole-in-a-wall casino in downtown Henderson that has small table minimum and big odds (10x). Because of the $1 table minimum, I was able to learn how to play without losing a lot of money. I started off pretty bad. During my roll, I probably only rolled 5 times before I got a 7. A truly pathetic roll. After passing on rolling again, finally, another person on the table decided to roll. This is when my luck turns. I had a simple betting strategy. I put in $1 on the pass or come line and put $10 odds behind it. The rollers were so hot that in the end, I was up $450! By far the best winnings I ever got in a casino. I think I'm hooked! Although I don't think I will ever play craps on a table with $5 minimum (which is the norm in Las Vegas strip). I think I would be too nervous to play correctly.

Here's a good website of how to play craps.

Vitamins

My mom left to visit relatives in Asia a few weeks ago. Before she left, we went to Costco, dutifully buying bottles of vitamins to bring back. Vitamin B-12, E, C, "One-A-Day" pills, etc. This was requested by my relatives back in Asia. And my relatives are not unique. Almost every Asian I know, when they go back to Asia for a visit, would have vitamins in their suitcases.
Why is this?

First of all, I guess vitamins are one of the few things that are still labelled "Made in USA". Most consumer goods are now imported from Asia, so it seems silly to take those back to Asia as gifts.
The main reason, I think, is the believe that vitamins from US is "real". Less chance of it being some fake vitamins. Since China is so famous for pirating CD/DVD, people are afraid that they would do so for vitamins too. And I tend to agree with that sentiment, just because the regulations are more strict in US and the government is less corrupt.

Now, if people are so afraid that they're being cheated, that seems to me that the effect of vitamins are not very obvious. You could be taking the "fake" stuff for years and won't know it. Which also means that when you are taking the real stuff, you probably don't know the difference either.

I try to take Vitamin C every day, although that rarely happens. Maybe when I'm feeling sick I would remember taking it. I guess I don't really "believe" in its effects.

If you're wonder what the different Vitamins are for, you can read the reviews on this website: linky

DD-WRT

I just discovered that my old & trusty Buffalo Technologies WBR2-G54 router is one of the supported routers for the opensource DD-WRT firmware.
Why should I upgrade?
Well, there are TONS of features that DD-WRT has that my router doesn't have. But the only thing I really care about is the fact that it does Static-DHCP (I provide the MAC addresss and the router will provide the same IP everytime) and DDNS (so I can access my site even though my WAN IP address is always changing).
My Buffalo currently has the Static-DHCP feature, which is essential for people with multiple ReplayTVs like me. ReplayTV (or more accurately, VxWorks) has a bug where it would request multiple IPs. By having Static-DHCP, it will consistently get the same IP address and won't confuse other ReplayTVs on the network.

Flashing my router with the firmware was easy enough. But the problems came afterwards. First, I couldn't logged into the router with the default root/admin password. Telneting to the device resulted in the same behavior. I finally had to flashed it with OpenWRT firmware, set the password there and then reflashed it with the DD-WRT firmware. Now it's all well.

There is one minor feature that I *miss* from the original Buffalo firmware. That is the ability to configure what the gateway IP address the DHCP server gives away. By default it's the router's IP address, but if the router is not the end hop of this subnet, this is an extra wasteful hop that I would like to eliminate. Nobody in DD-WRT forum seems to know anything about it. But since it's minor, I guess I can live with it.

Links for the instructions:
General install
Buffalo specific