September 2007 Archives

These big LaserJet 4250n take a long time to run out of toner and there are host of remanufactured ones. But if you want the geniune article, there are two choices, the HP 42A (Q5942A) which lists for $150 or the HP 42X (Q5942X) listing for $225 according to HP

the big difference is that the 42X lasts for 20,000 pages if you can believe that while the 42A is good for 10,000. I haven't used the knockoff toner cartridges (or ink cartridges for that matter), but at $200 a pop it just doesn't seem that worth it.

Just doing the math, the 42X is a better deal if you plan on having the printer for a long time :-)

Amazingly, Pricegrabber doesn't have this, but Newegg stocks at $195 and $123 respectively for the 95A and 95X plus $8 shipping.

Verbatim makes a knockoff of the 45X for just $100 if you dare.

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this is what tends to happen with sudden shutdowns. The hard disk are cached, so you can really torque them. The fix is to run chkdsk /r from the Windows XP CD. But I can't even keep the computer up long enough to do that, so need to wait for a new power supply

Unmountable Boot Volume

1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.

2.When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

3.If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.

4.When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.

5.At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r , and then press ENTER.

6.At the command prompt, type exit , and then press ENTER to restart your computer.

This takes a bit longer, but the system should boot back into Windows.
</blockquote

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If you have an unlocked cell phone or iPhone that you are bringing into China, you need to set all kinds of custom things. Shanghai Expat has collected all the settings in one place. How convenient:

WAP

The WAP information page is :
http://www.monternet.com/moneditor/cs/wap/wapguide/

The settings you need are:
Wap Home : http://wap.monternet.com
Gateway IP : 10.0.0.172
Port: 9201

if you have GPRS:
GPRS APN : cmwap
No Username/Password needed

if not then the you use circuit switched (no modern phone uses this anymore)
CSD number is: 17266
username: wap
password: wap
Type: Modem (or simulated)

MMS
MMS setup is found here:
http://www.monternet.com/moneditor/cs/help/mms/

APN: cmwap
Server Name: http://mmsc.monternet.com
Gateway: 10.0.0.172
(some phones link this info together with the wap setup)

SMTP/POP Mail
The info can be found at
http://mail.monternet.com/
http://mail.monternet.com/free/gb/Help_QA.htm#a15

First thing you've got to do is register on the mail site: http://mail.monternet.com
Its all in chinese but I had GoogleTranslate in another window to translate the options Very Happy
Choose the first plan which is the free one (its the one that says 0RMB/Month (0元/月) The others may be better if you have larger email needs.

Enter your mobile number and you'll get an SMS with a confirmation password.
Enter the confirmation password
Enter your password and a question/answer in case you loose your password.
again it ask you for the plan...

Once that's all set up you need to setup your PDA. The instructions are here.
http://mail.monternet.com/free/gb/Help_QA.htm#a15
I assume you've setup your GPRS, Wap, MMS already so the relevant info for you is

Outgoing SMTP Server: smtp.17288.com Port: 25
Incoming POP3; pop.17288.com Port: 110
Username: Your Mobile Number
Password: Whatever you entered in registration

After that you should be able to send/receive mail from your phone/PDA.
The email address is YourNumber@17288.com eg 137xxxxxxx@17288.com

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I've heard of companies not liking modders, but wow, Apple is certainly taking it to extremes. If you have unlocked your iphone, their latest firmware 1.1.1 actually makes "bricks" or makes the phone useless if it detects it. Talk about extreme measures. They actually will make inoperable something that cost $400-600 just by a simple update. While probably not illegal, it sure is unfriendly as heck. Even Sony and Microsoft have never actually destroyed the firmware in a PSP or PC when they detect someone has used a hacked version of PSP software or a pirated copy of Windows. Well, it will be interesting to see what happens next. They have not tried to drive folks out of business yet, so sites like modmyiphone.com are still up, but I'm sure that is just a matter of time.

Here are the instructions in case that site comes under attack:

iPhone unlock Part 1 under OS X

1. Take your iphone out of the box
2. Make sure iTunes is off, Start /Applications/Utilities Activity monitor and kill the process iTunesHelper
3. Plug the iphone into your computer
4. Download iPhone 1.0.2 firmware from Apple
5. Put the iPhone into restore mode by turning it off (hold down the sleep button for 5 seconds), then hold the Home and the Sleep button for 25 seconds
6. Start iTunes and it will ask if you want to restore and hold the Option key down and press restore and select the iPhone 1.0.2 firmware.
7. Make sure you don't upgrade to 1.1.1!
8. Download the Independence applications to your Mac. This unshackles the mac also known as jailbreaking so you can install applications on it
9. Find the 1.0.2 firmware in ~/Library/iTunes/Updates and rename it to a .zip file and unzip it, point to this when you run Independence unshackling
10. Now download the Apptapp installer software and it will install an application installer on your iphone
11. Install Community Sources, BSD Subsystem and then OpenSSH from your iPhone's new AppTapp button
12. Download Cyberduck, a freeware ftp application for the mac, and also lockdownd and unlock.app
13. Figure out the IP address of your iphone by going to Settings Wireless DHCP
14. SFTP lockdownd to /usr/libexec and unlock.app to /Applications on your iPhone. The default username is root and password is dottie.
15. Turn off and on the iPhone and you'll see the Unlock application.
16. Take out the SIM and run the application

Good luck!

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Having lots of trouble diagnosing this problem.

1. At first I thought it was memory, but replaced 2×2GB sticks with 2×1GB sticks. This seemed to help for a while, but now getting lots of shutdowns.
2. It even happens when running memtest from the BIOS on my DFI LanParty, so no way is this a Windows problem.
3. Also replaced the CPU fan as I could see the fan speed varying a lot. Wonder if it is because of fan speed misreporting.
4. Finally, thought it might be because of temperature, but it is cold now, so that isn't the problem.
5. Checking the internet for google:"sudden shutdown" seems to imply it might be the power supply that's causing it. Doesn't seem like it co¨ld be a thermal issues, so off to find a good power supply.

Anandtech just reviewed the Seasonic power supplies. I've used them before and except for an early incompatibility with the X2 that has since been resolved two years ago, it works great. So it's time to buy another one I guess and try it before giving up and going all Mac :-)

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I keep forgetting how to do this, so here are the instructions again. They are a little arcane:

1. Download from the Blackberry CSL download site both the desktop manager and the 8300 Chinese input version

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Ryan has given all of us some great tips about taking the very hard to take night cityscape shots and firework shots. I've been reading quite a bit about these techniques, but he really has some great tips. Here they are for the next time you need to take an impressive night time display:

1. Get a tripod. This is really important as these are long exposure shots. I'd recommend the Gitmo 1540 if you have the cash and a Markins Q3 Emilie as a ballhead.
2. For nightshots, if you want to make the clouds fuzz and see the car and boats make a pleasing streak, but keep everything that is static in focus, then go the Aperture priority (the "A" on a Canon or Nikon) and set the f-stop to F/11 and set the ISO to 100 to get a nice long high resolution exposure. Set the exposure compensation to -0.7EV or so, but you can experiment with this to see how bright you want it. Set mirror lockup and timed delay to 2 seconds, so you can just press the button and nothing is going to move.
3. For nightshots where you want to see things sharply, go to Shutter priority and set this for 1/30th of a second and F-stop to F4 or so, then crank the ISO to probably 800 at least. This should freeze the frame.
4. For fireworks, set the exposure to Bulb, that is the shutter will go on for as long as you want. Set the aperture to F/11 and ISO 400. Now make sure you are in a really dark location. Put your hand in front of the lense to block the light. Click the shutter, this will open the shutter. When you see the explosion, remove your hand. The camera is now recording the image. Block again. You can do this a couple of times, so you get multiple explosions on each frame. Since in effect, your hand is the shutter, you will get multiple exposures on the same picture. NOrmally, you will need about 2 seconds or so of exposure, but it is fun to experiment!

Bob asked me about backup as did Richard, so here's a quick review of how to do backup.

There has been a long evolution here for me. Originally, at home I bought a tape backup that did a mammoth 5GB, but I just never used it. Then just had a big PC with lots of storage. Back then five years ago, that was a mammoth 120GB. Then drives started failing, so I just put in bigger drives on all the desktop PCs and duplicated files everywhere. That's mainly because all the

I've been using the Buffalo and the Simpletech NAS for a year and 3 months respectively and I'm amazed at how well they work. Then there is Drobo that Bob recommended (Greylock, RRE and Sutter Hill are in the deal btw). So here are my recommendations:

Simple backup for home

The other solutions work very differently, they are complete enclosed drives that include a 500GB hard drive. In general, the Simpletech adds just about $20 per drive but each appears as a separate network server. So probably the best low cost solution. "PC Magazine":
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1780731,00.asp liked it OK at $400, but now the price has really declined.

Right now Simpletech offers a wide range at 500GB seems like the best price per bit. The main issue is the fast Ethernet at 100Mbps is pretty slow. About as fast as USB 2.0 in my experience. Right now it is $140 or so according to Pricegrabber

Fast NAS

If you really need speed and a couple of 500GB is OK, then LS-500GL at $280 according to Pricegrabber

It is realy the best choice if you are doing big media files. For instance, copying 40GB of a HD movie takes about 10 minutes over !Gbps Ethernet while it took me nearly an hour on a 100Mbps Ethernet to the Simplestation. It is expensive though.

If your drives are more complicated and you don't mind slowness

It is expensive at $500 without any drives, but it has some cool management features. It automatically reconfigures based on what hard drives you slam in. It is a USB 2.0 device, so it is not going to be to terrifically fast which is the big problem. I have in the past used a very fast enclosure that uses eSATA which basically runs at drive speed. So you have a choice in terms of either. PC Magazine has a good overall review but without eSATA or something faster, its hard to get super excited since these drives are slow at roughly the same speed as NAS. The big issue is how to manage storage.

It goes for $450 according to Pricegrabber so it is a funny solution. It is very flexible and expensive since it doesn't include hard drives.

The net

There is no perfect solution yet. I would say the Drobo makes sense on the next upgrade when it gets beyond USB 2.0 to ideally both eSATA and Gigabit Ethernet for the high end.

Right now, I'd say that if you had to buy something right now, get the Simpletech if all you want is basic backup and the Buffalo if you want the a higher performance media server.

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The first of these, the Nikon 18-200 is an amazing lense. Only for digital cameras, it is the only lense that most folks are going to need most of the time. Cost is high, but the quality is very good. $800 buys a lot. Plus it is image stabilized and paired with the Nikon d40x, it is an amazing camera.

Sigma has launched a very similar lense for just $500. At least Popular Photography says it is quite nice. Just about the same specs as the Nikon, but quality varies a lot more from sample to sample, so caveat emptor. Most importantly, it comes in Nikon and Canon mounts so us Canon users have an option.

Tamron also has a 18-250 F3.5-6.3 Di II AF LD (what a name!) which Popular Photo named a Best oBuy at $500 street. It has good photoquality and it is very compact. 4 inches and under a pound. Got a good popphoto review. They found that SQF was excellent in all focal lenths and good on distortion. Main thing it lacks is optical stabilization.
Final lenses that is way more expensive is the Canon EF 28-300MM F3.5-5.6L IS USM which costs $1500 but is a true professional lense. Luminous Landscape so most folks won't use it. It shipped late 2004. It has Internal Stabilization as well. It is also big and heavy at 1.6Kg so not exactly like the ultralight Nikon or Sigma. Like the Canon 100-400 which I also have it uses a push-pull for focus and that is a bit tricky to get right. Still it is a full frame lense and performance is just decent. The-Digital-Picture.com which does mainly Canon reviews found it to be good in quality. Main issue again is that it is so big.

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Often times I'm watching CSI or especially Cold Case and I just love the songs. Most fans have sites for this stuff, but TuneFind seems to do the most professional job of this.

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We have one of these at work and you need a little update to the color profile ICC and also they have really fixed their setup guides so you can set all the arcane parameters. The short of it is to set:

1. Photoshop to let photoshop determine colors
2. Set relative colormetric (and try perceptual if it doesn't look good)
3. Set black point compensation
4. In the Printer dialog, set the paper type to Photo Pro Glossy
5. Set the quality to custom and then to "1"
6. Set ICM to none

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iPhones uses a much narrower plug, so most headphones and cassette adapters won't work. I've cut away the plastic on my Etymotic 4 and 6is and this seems to work, but when I do it on my Sony cassette adapter, it causes the whole thing to break. A non-intrusive fix is to buy a dongle adapter. Etymotic told me about two:

Belkin

Griffin Technology

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Intel has been leading on the desktop for a while now and now with the new Barcelona coming out from AMD, it is more equal on the server. So, if you are trying decide whether to buy a notebook or a desktop, what's the scoop? Is there a new processor refresh around the corent. Here is what the latest smarties at Infoworld think as of 6 September 2007.

First, there will be a server version of Pneryn by the end of the year, but who knows what happens on the mobile and desktop versions. Most folks expect the first Penryn processors in November, so hold on if you can. What's the big deal, well, they go from 65nm to just 45nm, so the thing should be cooler and better. The mobile Penryn won't ship until early next year, so if you are going to buy a notebook, it is a pretty safe time right now because the Santa Rosa chipsets are out and the current Core 2 Duo is going to be around another six months.

There is going to be a low cost chip also called the Silverthorne for budget machines that will come out in 1Q 2008 apparently,. So, the net is that if you are doing a heavy duty high performance desktop, wait for the fall release.

If you have to have a notebook right now, it is OK to buy.

If you want a budget PC and can wait until next year, wait, otherwise, now's not a bad time since budget PCs really don't need to be that fast.

Here is the first revisions of GUI unlock from FreeiPhoneunlock.com and it is a kludge, but what the heck, here are the instructions:

1. Make sure you have firmware version 1.0.2 by going to the phone
2. See if you have the right modem firmware and seeing if Settings/General/About/Version says 03.14.08_G
3. Jailbreak the phone (which means you can install apps on it) by using iBrickr on Windows or the equivalent Mac brea
4. Download the files from
   http://www.theyearbooks.ca/iphone/Unlock.app.zip
5. Use iBrickr to upload these files to /Applications/Unlock.app
6. Download a new iUnlock from
   http://rs205cg.rapidshare.com/files/55177995/dl/iUnloc
7. You should now see the Unlock icon on your iphone
8. Click on it and be patient, it takes 20 minutes (the next version will be 3 minutes, but it will pause at flashing firmware and the percentage bar will hang.
9. Hold the Home button and the power button to restart

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Commercial guys are charging $50-100 to unlock an iphone, but now hackers have a free unlock that is complicated, but let's you use your iPhone with any carrier. Here is the way that you can do it.

It is a huge thread, but there is a site called iunlock.com which claims to be the easiest. Do I dare risk it? Engadget reports there is a front end for this.

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Folks have been busy figuring out to install third party applications on the iPhones (and presumably the new iPod Touch which uses the same software). Installer.app is one such attempt. It downloads over the EDGE network directly so that's pretty cool. Can't wait until Apple supports this directly. You then can download stuff. If you download Community Sources then you get all sorts of stuff that can "brick" your iPhone. For instance iBlackjack did that for me, although the rest works fine.

I installed this and it has some cool apps like a Doom, but this application hung my iPhone, so its nice to know how iPhone reset works. Here is what you do:

iPhone: Basic troubleshooting

# Press and hold the Home button below the screen for at least six seconds, until the application you were using quits.
# If that doesn't work, turn iPhone off and turn it on again. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button on top of iPhone for a few seconds until a red slider appears, and then slide the slider. Then press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.
# If that doesn't work, reset iPhone. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.

And also how you can take a "bricked" iPhone and get it back with iTunes through an update and restore. You basically do the rest above and then from iTunes first select a reset and then you can update from the backup.

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The day was coming where folks realized that with things like iPhones or Blackberrys that you should just be able to use your mp3 as a ringtone. Blackberry just lets you do it. In Apple's case, they want $0.99 for the track and then another $0.99 to make it into a ringtone. So what can you do?

First you can use Funtastic which is a hack that lets you put anything into the ringtone directory.

Dailytech reports that "Cleverboy" on Mac Rumors that you just take any AAC file (e.g., something names m4a if it is unprotected or .m4p if it is a protected song you bought on itunes) and rename it with a .m4r extenison. It then appears as a ringtone. Kinda cool. Wonder how long that exploit will last.

According to Lou don't download iTunes 7.4.1 as this fixes this exploit, so you'll have to go back to using hacks like iFuntastic.

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Alex loves sailing and when we asked Holden about racing as father and son, he said, the definitive Seattle experience is Snipe racing on Lake Washington. What the heck is a Snipe? It's a 15 foot long sail boat. You can check out the Seattle chapter called Snipe Fleet 444 and they cost between $1800-$4000 and you have to oin the Corinthian Yacht Club after the first year of trying it. The races are $85 for a series of four races and then you join the CYC. Cost for that is very nominal. 30/year for a junior and $555/year for adults.

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AppleInsider | Apple to offer early iPhone adopters $100 credit - Jobs

After personally reading hundreds of emails from disgruntled iPhone customers, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs appears to have had a change of heart and now plans to offer early iPhone adopters a $100 credit towards future Apple purchases.

In an open letter to customers published on Apple's website, Jobs conceded that while the technology road is a bumpy one, Apple should have done a better job of taking care of early iPhone customers, many of which make up the company's most faithful.

"Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these," he wrote, referring Wednesday's unprecedented 33 percent price drop on the iPhone just 9 weeks after release. "Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store."

Details on the $100 store credit are still being worked out, according to Jobs, but will be posted on Apple's website sometime next week.

"We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers," Jobs added. "We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple."</blockquote

Because OS X just logs you without a password by default (like Windows 95 used to), you can really forget your password as I did with a now ancient iMac (the one that looked like a lamp). So how do you recover. Well, Google is my friend and here is what Elliot says:

Mac OS X Password Recovery at Elliot Lee

Although there’s no real way to recover a lost root password, you can change the root password even if you do not know the current one. You must have physical access to the machine in order to accomplish this task.

1. Click Restart at the login window
2. While the computer is restarting, hold down “Command-S” until you see text scrolling through the window. This boots the computer into single user mode.

3. At the Localhost% prompt type:
/sbin/fsck -y
/sbin/mount -uw /
/sbin/SystemStarter

You will then see various services starting up.

4. When the Localhost% prompt reappears, type: passwd [username] It will then ask you to type the new root password twice, so do so. (Though I’ve not tried it, it appears you can type niutil -list . /users to get a list if users if you do not know the username….if someone wants to verify this, I would be most appreciative).

5. After entering the new password, type: reboot

6. At the login window, enter the username with the new password. Once you are logged in, you can use the Multiple Users application (/Applications/Utilities) to change your user’s password, or create a new user account.

Note: this may not work for newer versions of OS X; I think they did something about it in a security update. I hope this helps you with Macintosh password recovery.

http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/43 has another way.

You’ve forgotten the passwords to all of the user accounts on your system. You don’t even remember the Administrator password. End of the line, right? Wrong. If you have the Mac OS X CD that was used to install your system in the beginning, then you can use that CD to gain access to your Mac and change the password for any or all of the existing accounts. For detailed instructions on how to do this, visit the Apple support document titled “Changing your Administrator password“. After you’ve finished resetting your password or passwords, be sure to store away the system CD in a safe place since anyone who has it esentially has unrestricted access to your Mac.

I've had this tripod for a year now and I must say it was super expensive, but worth it. The tripod is $520 and the head is $270, so don't lose it, but on the other hand, there are lots of photos I couldn't have gotten particularly landscapes without it. The only real hiccup has been that when you travel through Japan, they require tripods to be less than 60cm and this one with the ball is more like 65cm, so you have to take the whole thing apart including the legs to get through. Caveat emptor. It is plenty sturdy for a DSLR and a 100-400mm lense. It is a series 2. Here is what I'd buy now and where. You have two real options, a really lightweight kit built around the GT-1540 that is small and handles small dSLRs and 70-200mm lenses that is good for travel or a heavier GT-2530 that has double the weight capability and is more stable so good if you aren't backpacking through Nepal:

The Sturdier kit GT-2530 based

• Gitzo GT-2530. This is the carbon fiber tripod 1.4 kg that is 65cm tall with up to 12kg of weight supported. To get around the height problem in airports, another option is the GT2430 which has 4 secion and is 56cm long, but a little less convenient with the additional section when you deploy it

Most folks can get away fine with the Markins Q3 Emilie, but if you really want sturdy then the Q10 is probably better.

To travel around, you can get the Kinesis T720 as a looser fit while the T620 is a tighter one. I'd say the T720 is more versatile in case you get a bigger tripod or have more junk. You also need the T220 Foam liner so your back doesn't get sore. I do think a backpack makes some sense as a way to carry a tripod. The H245 makes sense as the backpack carrier as it is heavier and better for bigger loads.

Traveler's GT1540 based

And if you don't do really big lenses, then the GT1530 does just 8kg of load and is 62cm tall and weighs just 1.1kg so it a great choice for really packing around as the GT1540 which has four sections so is a tiny 54cm. Basically, B&H has the GT-1540 for $535 not inclucing shipping.

"Markins Q3 Emilie": http://www.markinsamerica.com/MA5/Q3.php?req=blackThis seems to be a very nice choice. $270 from either Photoproshop.com or direct from Markins.com for the same price. This is the ballhead that goes on top of the tripod. You really do want to get a nice smooth one.

Since you'll be traveling, you either stick the tripod into your backpack and then when you are light and taking photos, get the Kinesis T620. The small tripod bag is a nice way to carry all the stuff. $46 direct and the T220 Foam Insert ($13). And you also need the "H344":"http://www.kgear.com/h/H344.html ($29) for light loads or the heavier H245 which is a harness to turn the tripod bag into a backpack $43. Kinesis has a good chart comparing their systems. So with a small tripod like the GT1540, the T620, T220 and the H344 are probably just fine.

BTW this stuff comes without instructions, so the hidden file SuspenderInstruc.pdf is incredibly valuable to figure out the tangle of belts and loops.

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Wow, there is a complete update of the iPod line. I wonder if the student promotion where you get $200 off an iPod arrives to these lovelies?

There is the iPod nano which now has the same size screen as the old iPod, now called the iPod Classic, then there is the iPod touch which is the iPhone without the radio. Wow, now that is a cool device! You can also have wifi on the iPod Touch, so that's a great device!

The nano now has a 2" diagonal screen with 320×240 resolution and the 4GB is only $149. Wow, that's a great deal! It is also incredibly thin at 0.26" or 6mm.

The iPod touch is 8GB or 16GB and has the same screen and interface as the iPhone and starts at $300. it's really gorgeous. Its a 3.5" diagonal display with a 480×320 display. Also, they've dropped the Iphone to a way more reasonably price. It is down from the $600 I paid to just $400 (did I just say that, in any case way more reasonable, basically getting a phone adds $100 to the cost which makes more sense).

Finally, I don't think I want it, but you can get the iPod Classic with 160GB hard drive but it has the smaller 2.5" screen if you are a true music lover.

The basic conclusion:

• If you want small, then the 4GB iPod nano at $149 is a great buy. It has reasonable storage and you can watch movies and it is cheap
• If you want browsing and so forth and it has Wifi, IMHO< the $350 16GB iPod touch is really the sweetspot machine
• If you are getting a phone anyway, I'd say the $400 iPhone is a good buy, it is effectively $100 more than the 8GB iPod Touch and you get a phone and web browsing everywhere which is nice. Now if they just had the 16GB iPhone then I'd be really happy. 8GB is not really that much.
• If you need a phone and do lots of email though, I'd go with the Blackberry Curve, still the undisputed leader in lots of emailing and then the iPod Touch for watching videos.

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With PCs, I normally don't get their extended warranty since they don't tend to break. With Windows laptops, they normally have a year and I can fix most of them. (I've replaced the hard disk of an ASUS notebook four times!). But, with the Macbooks, we ended up buying a three year service contract for about $200. I have to admit that I'm amazingly impressed with Applecare. Basically, for Macbooks, I really think you need it. The hard disks on all laptops seem to fail a lot and the Macbook I had just wouldn't boot.

It is really great Apple has retail stores. I had forgotten what Nordstrom's like service for computers is like. It is a little like you can only buy something at low prices and lousy stores with PCs, but with Apple, it is more expensive, but on the other hand, I took the machine in with an online appointment. I didn't get the usual debug everything on the phone. With Sony laptops, phone is the only thing and the rep takes you through literally four hours of scripts. In this case, the guy looked at the notebook. Said, it was bad and three days later called and I have a albeit new (make sure to backup!) notebook hard drive installed for me.

So words of advice, get a Macbook, get the Applecare (not Procare! that only gives you priority appointments for learning how to use stuff). It really is an advantage. Second advice is that if you can afford it having a spare Macbook around is very nice to tide you over for the three days or so it is out.

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A DFI LanParty UT with an Athlon X2 3800 has been gradually failing. Throwing memory errors and now has sudden shutdown problems. It is very nasty figuring out what is wrong. If you read posts on sudden shutdown, folks often blame (so things you should try if you've got similar problems):

1. Heat. This is the case when the machine really does just shutdown. The Athlon has a kind of rude thermal protection. When it gets too hot on an Intel machine, the CPU just throttles down, but on the Athlon, it would just melt and catch fire. The quick fix was that when the Athlon X2 came out was that if something got too hot, the BIOS would suddenly shut the machine down. In looking at the BIOS, the temperatures looked fine, but the fan speed appears to show fluctuations to zero. Tech Republic reports that if the BIOS sees the fan speed of the power supply or CPU drop to zero, it will automatically shutdown the machine. In looking at the fans they are spinning, so I'm guessing the fan speed is not being correctly reported. So go to your bios and check.
2. The most common problem though is an overheating CPU. One thing that is not obvious if you have a do-it-yourself machine is that you don't lather a lot of thermal paste on the CPU. This actually reduces cooling which is not intuitive, so you want just a thin, thin layer. I did this wrong and when I wiped all the paste off on another machine, temperatures dropped from 65C to 45C, so this makes a big difference. Not the problem in this case
3. The power supply is dying. This can also cause a problem so you want a high quality power supply. I've also had problems where there is not enough voltage in the supply to run everything. This is a big problem with power hungry graphics card. In this case, there are four hard drives in it and a big graphics card and the X2 eats power, so it could be the power supply is failing. This does happen and the only way to know is to first try to take drives out to reduce the load or if you are impatient, just replace the supply.
4. There is a RAM memory problem. Bad memory might be it. The machine occassionally on start reports bad memory problems. The quick fix is to replace the memory. I've been running this thing overclocked and most of my overclocked machines have memory failing every two years or so. It has a pair of 1GB memory in it, so the quick fix is just to replace the memory. In this case, though I first ran memtest and it ran fine for 8 hours but did crash even running non overclocked. That's suspicious so maybe just replace to be sure.
5. A short in the motherboard. This is a bad one as its impossible to find and in that case, I guess the only answer is to buy a new computer or a new motherboard if you are ambitious. The problem of course is that on this machine it is three years old, so everything from the Athlon X2 to the socket to the memory is now obsolete, so just getting a new iMac or Macbook is way cheaper and plus you get three years service. Being philosophical for a DYI machine, three years is a long time. Just make sure you've backed everything up!

Net, net, my money in this case is on fan not being reported correctly to the BIOS, next up is replacing the RAM and seeing if I can run memtest for 24 hours are least. Finally, unplug all but the boot drive and see what happens. It does appear somewhat thermally related as later in the day it won't even get to the BIOS before shutting down. I wish the BIOS would report that it is doing the shutdown, but the Athlon BIOS were just hacked for this thermal problem. Literally, the CPU shuts down without anywarning.

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Mary and a couple of other folks have told me that their Blackberry Pearl trackball doesn't roll right anymore. This is another casualty of progress as the sidewheel of the old Blackberry was very reliable. Apparently, you have to very delicately remove the thing and clean the lint out. It is horrible to imagine how screwed up you could get this thing, but if you dare called T-mobile if you are in the one year warranty period and try to get a replacement or see  http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/38395-trackball_cleaning_disassembly_w_pictures.html

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If you can believe it, there are only seven daily nonstop flights between the US and China and three via Tokyo. But it is really harder than heck to actually figure out the right flights using expedia or even a travel agent. The routings are wierd. So here is a summary that I've found really helpful. First thing is to actually find the long haul routes that exist. There are very few. I use flightstats.com to track flights and their changes. After a bunch of digging, you discover how few US to China flights there areally are.

It is very hard to discover, but Flychina.com seems to have the best list of nonstops. See Shanghai to America as a summary including decent connections:

US-based Carriers Flight to China

For instance, there are only seven non-stops from the US to China each day on American carriers (there are an additional three that stop via Narita). There are a total of ten Chinese carrier flights each day. Of these, they all leave in the afternoon pretty much, so if you are g

United

UA 851 ORD PEK Lv 1240PM Ar1500 plus 1 day 747 Flightstats
UA 897 IAD PEK Lv 1223PM Ar1355 plus 1 day 747 Flightstats
UA 889 SFO PEK Lv 1107AM Ar1425 plus 1 day 747 Flightstats
UA 857 SFO PVG Lv 1350 Ar1725 plus 1 day 747 Flightstats

Continental

CO 89 EWK PEK 12:10PM Ar1425+1 day Flightstats
CO 88 PEK EWK 12:00 Ar17:25

American

AA 289 ORD PVG 10:35AM Ar1405 +1day 777 Flightstats
AA288 PVG ORD 1625 Ar1700 777

Connections to China

Then you have connections, which can be via Narita or via Incheon ICN and Seoul

United

SEA NRT PVG via ANA

Northwest

They have three connections via Tokyo, but no nonstops

Korean Airlines

KE246 Lv 0907 Ar 11:33+1 Flightstats
KE 26 Lv 1406 Ar 17:35+1 777 Flightstats

Asiana

China-based airlines

Also, you have Chinese airlines, which are definitely a second choice with one to New York and also three to LAX. There are 10 flights by Chinese airlines daily:

China Eastern

I've taken this flight and it is very OK is how I would describe it. Bring you iPod touch and watch movies on it. The times are just awesome though. You can get a full day of work in New York and then essentially take a red eye to Shanghai and on the return, you really rock and roll. Only the LA flight is daily

PVG JFK MU588 Lv 1:30am Ar 4:50Am+1 1246
JFK PVG MU587 Lv 18:30 Ar 20:45
LAX PVG 12:30 Ar 18:30+1
Vancouver PVG Lv 13:30 Ar 18:20+1 MU582 1356
PVG LAX 2:50pm 10:30am MU 583 Daily
PVG Vancouver 2:55pm 9:30am MU 581 1356

Air China

These are very hard to find as they don't appear in the reservation systems, so you have to go directly to their websites

Also, you have Chinese airlines, which are definitely a second choice with one to New York and also three to LAX. There are 10 flights by Chinese airlines daily. Most folks feel that Air China is probably better than China Eastern and if you can fly an American carrier that would be great.

PEK LAX CA983 Lv 20:30 Ar 17:45 747
LAX PEK CA984 Lv13:40 Ar17:20+1 747
PEK JFK CA981 Lv 13:00 Ar 14:30 747
JFK PEK CA982 Lv 16:30 Ar 18:00+1 747-400
PEK SFO CA985 Lv 16:00 Ar12:40 747-400
SFO PE CA 986 Lv 14:20 Ar 17:05+1 747-400

Now there is quite a bit of new about the iphone. Most significant is that there is now someone who can unlock the phone. So you can buy one from apple and then put any carriers sim into it. You still need a data plan with that carrier but no two year contract.

Second is that ambrosia charges $15 for itoner which let you use any mp3 as a ringtone. Again it gets out of another restriction

Don't forget to report your crab catch. You can do it online, but only September 4-15 at Crab Catch