After band practice at Fortbend church today, I drove home on Hightway 6. At a traffic light, my car suddenly shutdown. There was no electricity. Nothing. Just died in the middle of the road. I was totally in panic mode. Luckily, a total stranger came by and helped me pull my car to a safer place, and suggested me to take a look at the battery connection. It turned out that the connection was indeed kind of loose.
Since I was the one was changed the car battery like a month ago, so it was pretty obvious that I was the one who didn't tight up the connection enough.
With the help of that stranger, I was managed to get the car running again, so I drove to the near by Walmart (only 2 minutes of driving time), pay $8 to buy a set of wrench, and used it to tight up the connection. After all, I need a set of that kind of tool in my car in case something goes wrong anyway.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Mending > Recycling
I spent about 1.5 hours to mend various items: drum mallet, drum bag, here and there. It's less about saving money (although it did); it's about turning something semi-useless into totally useful. My sewing is not awesome, but good enough to get the job done.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Need
I had a very strong urge to satisfy myself tonight, an urge that I couldn't resist. So I gave in and have ...... a lot of ice cream and chips. Hmmm .. ice cream.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Another day messing with stuff at BestBuy without buying stuff
I just love going to BestBuy trying out various gadgets and then leave. If I do the same thing in Hong Kong, I would get killed.
I found out that there's a abundant of official iPad accessories in the store, including the once hard-to-find iPad Camera Connection kit. Darn it, I shouldn't had waste time driving miles to another BestBuy 2 weeks ago to get the same kit.
I finally got a chance to mess with the Nintendo DSi XL, but since they locked the device down, I couldn't experience how light (or heavy) it was. The screen was pretty OK, but still not good enough to justify me buying something that I already had (classic NDS).
I tried Livescribe, It seemed like a good idea, but not good enough to make me put down my money, plus I don't like the idea of forcing me to bring a special notebook with special paper. For that much trouble, I much rather carry my iPad.
I tried Microsoft's Arc Keyboard and seemed like a stupid idea. For $59, it uses the same old wireless technology. The keys were fine but not worth the price. I would consider if it did bluetooth.
Other than that, it was same old same old stuff. I will wait another 2 months and then come back and see if there's any new fun stuff.
I found out that there's a abundant of official iPad accessories in the store, including the once hard-to-find iPad Camera Connection kit. Darn it, I shouldn't had waste time driving miles to another BestBuy 2 weeks ago to get the same kit.
I finally got a chance to mess with the Nintendo DSi XL, but since they locked the device down, I couldn't experience how light (or heavy) it was. The screen was pretty OK, but still not good enough to justify me buying something that I already had (classic NDS).
I tried Livescribe, It seemed like a good idea, but not good enough to make me put down my money, plus I don't like the idea of forcing me to bring a special notebook with special paper. For that much trouble, I much rather carry my iPad.
I tried Microsoft's Arc Keyboard and seemed like a stupid idea. For $59, it uses the same old wireless technology. The keys were fine but not worth the price. I would consider if it did bluetooth.
Other than that, it was same old same old stuff. I will wait another 2 months and then come back and see if there's any new fun stuff.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Cleaning up my cyber closet
You probably had this experience before : you have a bedroom crowded junk, and day after day you just ignore them thinking that you are too busy to clean them up, until one day you just can't stand it so you spend a whole day doing nothing but keep cleaning and arranging your room until to get a point that all the chaos finally under control. I did that not for my physical room but for my iPad today.
Ever since I brought my iPad, I use it every single day for all sort of activities. In fact, all the Facebook puzzles I created these days are all completely done on iPad without exception. iPad is my biggest content creation and content consumption device these days. As time goes by, though, I found my iPad cluttered by applications that I WOULD LIKE TO USE but rarely use. This creates a big problem because until iOS4 arrives, there's only so much home screen space I have on the device. In addition, all these "good to have" application and content becomes a distraction to me. It's like preparing your final exam in a room full of Bluray players, video game console, HiFi and all sort of fun stuff. Those things distract you from getting your work done.
So, it's time to do a major clean up. But the problem is, how do I satisfy my crave of having those "good to have" application with me all the time? The iPad Camera Kit with my 4Gb SDHC card is the answer. In fact, I am getting a 16Gb card so that I can store even more stuff when I am on the road.
So after spending almost 9 hours, I have an iPad containing ONLY stuff that I will use daily, while having a 4Gb SDHC card containing all the iPad and iPhone apps that I care about in case I need them. Finally my "digital room" is clean and tidy now.
Ever since I brought my iPad, I use it every single day for all sort of activities. In fact, all the Facebook puzzles I created these days are all completely done on iPad without exception. iPad is my biggest content creation and content consumption device these days. As time goes by, though, I found my iPad cluttered by applications that I WOULD LIKE TO USE but rarely use. This creates a big problem because until iOS4 arrives, there's only so much home screen space I have on the device. In addition, all these "good to have" application and content becomes a distraction to me. It's like preparing your final exam in a room full of Bluray players, video game console, HiFi and all sort of fun stuff. Those things distract you from getting your work done.
So, it's time to do a major clean up. But the problem is, how do I satisfy my crave of having those "good to have" application with me all the time? The iPad Camera Kit with my 4Gb SDHC card is the answer. In fact, I am getting a 16Gb card so that I can store even more stuff when I am on the road.
So after spending almost 9 hours, I have an iPad containing ONLY stuff that I will use daily, while having a 4Gb SDHC card containing all the iPad and iPhone apps that I care about in case I need them. Finally my "digital room" is clean and tidy now.
Connecting self-powered harddisk based MP3 player to iPad
I always find it interesting to connect my old gadgets to my new gadgets and see if that can generate new chemistry of new usage. Recently I brought an iPad Camera Connection Kit. The USB connector gave me an idea: what if I connect my iPod Classic 80Gb to my iPad using the connection kit?
The result: it's exactly like connecting the iPod Classic to a computer: I can use iFile app to access all the files that are in the general file partition. I cannot, however, access the song files on my iPod Classic. That is something I expected. Based on the same idea, I tried connecting my old iRiver H140 to my iPad, and find that I can access all the files on that iRiver player.
So there you go. Old harddisk based MP3 player can be used as portable harddisk for iPad.
The result: it's exactly like connecting the iPod Classic to a computer: I can use iFile app to access all the files that are in the general file partition. I cannot, however, access the song files on my iPod Classic. That is something I expected. Based on the same idea, I tried connecting my old iRiver H140 to my iPad, and find that I can access all the files on that iRiver player.
So there you go. Old harddisk based MP3 player can be used as portable harddisk for iPad.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
iPad GPS Failed me
Here's one downside of using your iPad as your GPS: it could fail.
It happened to me during my way back from a resturant to home today. The GPS was working FINE when I used it to navigate to a restaurant near SugarLand, but then when I hopped back into my car, turned on the iPad, and tried to use it to naviagte back home, I saw the "searching ..." message stayed on. I tried all the GPS apps and they gave me the same result. I finally had to give up using GPS and instead using common sense to navigate around and eventually I got home.
When I got back home, I found that the GPS was still not working. So I gave the iPad a reboot, and after everything went back to normal. Strange.
It happened to me during my way back from a resturant to home today. The GPS was working FINE when I used it to navigate to a restaurant near SugarLand, but then when I hopped back into my car, turned on the iPad, and tried to use it to naviagte back home, I saw the "searching ..." message stayed on. I tried all the GPS apps and they gave me the same result. I finally had to give up using GPS and instead using common sense to navigate around and eventually I got home.
When I got back home, I found that the GPS was still not working. So I gave the iPad a reboot, and after everything went back to normal. Strange.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
iPad Camera Connection Kit : more that just SD card reader
The first time I read about Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, I was like, "what a joke, and who will buy this overpriced pair of dongles just for transferring photos." But now that I have it, I found them amazing. That's mostly because this pair of gizmo does more than just what was advertised.
For instance, I am now typing on a regular DELL USB keyboard. I just plug the keyboard to the iPad, got a "not supported device" message, dismissed it, and also notice that light were turned on on my keyboard. When I enter whatever application that took typing, I found the keyboard just work. That's pretty sweet.
However, since this is not a supported feature, there's quite some gotcha associated with using regular USB keyboard. For instance, if you turn off your iPad while the USB dongle and USB keyboard still hooked up with your iPad, the next time you turn your iPad on, iPad WON'T recognize your USB keyboard anymore. I tried and tried, connected and reconnected, and still couldn't make it work again. The only way to get the USB keyboard working again is by hard restarting the iPad. It's not the end of the world, but still it's a bit inconvenient. Guess that's why this feature is not officially supported.
On the other hand, the SD Carder is more robust. Turning the iPad on and off doesn't affect the ability for the system to recognize the card as additional storage. And using iFile with the SD Card reader is simply awesome, since iFile allows you to open the files on the SD card with a large array of application existing on your iPad. So I can directly import a PDF file into iBook, directly open a divx movie in OPlayer, directly editing a JPEG in photo editing software. In fact, I am seriously thinking of getting a 32Gb SD card so that I can use it to store all the files that I don't want to store in my iPad, but want to be with me "just in case", like apps, videos, games and so on.
Finally, the official features, which allows you to import photos and video you took from digital camera, are actually done pretty nicely. When I got the video imported, I can do some minor video editing like trimming. It's no way close to iMovie on iPhone 4, but still a very neat feature in case you want to quickly capture something, and then put it online in minutes.
Overall, I like what I got. This kit expands the feature of my iPad and make it further more as a content creation device instead of a pure content consumption device.
For instance, I am now typing on a regular DELL USB keyboard. I just plug the keyboard to the iPad, got a "not supported device" message, dismissed it, and also notice that light were turned on on my keyboard. When I enter whatever application that took typing, I found the keyboard just work. That's pretty sweet.
However, since this is not a supported feature, there's quite some gotcha associated with using regular USB keyboard. For instance, if you turn off your iPad while the USB dongle and USB keyboard still hooked up with your iPad, the next time you turn your iPad on, iPad WON'T recognize your USB keyboard anymore. I tried and tried, connected and reconnected, and still couldn't make it work again. The only way to get the USB keyboard working again is by hard restarting the iPad. It's not the end of the world, but still it's a bit inconvenient. Guess that's why this feature is not officially supported.
On the other hand, the SD Carder is more robust. Turning the iPad on and off doesn't affect the ability for the system to recognize the card as additional storage. And using iFile with the SD Card reader is simply awesome, since iFile allows you to open the files on the SD card with a large array of application existing on your iPad. So I can directly import a PDF file into iBook, directly open a divx movie in OPlayer, directly editing a JPEG in photo editing software. In fact, I am seriously thinking of getting a 32Gb SD card so that I can use it to store all the files that I don't want to store in my iPad, but want to be with me "just in case", like apps, videos, games and so on.
Finally, the official features, which allows you to import photos and video you took from digital camera, are actually done pretty nicely. When I got the video imported, I can do some minor video editing like trimming. It's no way close to iMovie on iPhone 4, but still a very neat feature in case you want to quickly capture something, and then put it online in minutes.
Overall, I like what I got. This kit expands the feature of my iPad and make it further more as a content creation device instead of a pure content consumption device.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
New battery for my car
It started when I found that my I couldn't started my car this morning. I checked with my friend Daniel Yeh after the Sunday service. Based on my description, he concluded that it's probably my battery that's dead. So after I got back from church, I checked the battery and it sure looked like it's in pretty bad shape (just by the outlook actually since I didn't have the equipment to check whether it's dead or not.) I remembered Issac (sorry, wrong spelling, but I forgot the correct spelling of his name) told me that he got his battery from WalMart and it was pretty cheap and comes with 3 years warrenty, so I decided to go to WalMart.
Because going to WalMart, I had to yanked out the old battery since I didn't to find places to recycle it, and then I realized that the battery in my car was also came from Walmart, which was great since I got discount on battery even if the warranty has been expired.
Taking the battery out was much easier than I expected, especial when I found that my roommate had some wrenches that worked great with the screws used to connect the battery with the cable. The only catch was that the alarm would get kicked off when I attempted to disconnect the battery. I kind of solved the problem by plugging a pair of inner ear headphone.
The car battery was way heavier than I expected, and I had serious trouble holding it in single hand for more than 5 seconds. So I got a shopping cart when I reached WalMart and put the battery in it. By the way I was using my roommate's car. It's about time for me to drive his car around after being left idle for almost 2 months anyway.
So I brought the battery to the auto parts counter, and had the battery checked. Sure enough the battery was dead, and it was also out of warranty. But since I brought a new battery that is the exact same model as the one I brought back, I got a deep discount. So instead of payijng $80 for a new battery, I only had to pay $35.
So I got back home, hooked up the new battery, endured a few seconds of noisy alarm being kicked off from time to time, and eventually got the new battery set up. I started my car and everything worked normal again.
Because going to WalMart, I had to yanked out the old battery since I didn't to find places to recycle it, and then I realized that the battery in my car was also came from Walmart, which was great since I got discount on battery even if the warranty has been expired.
Taking the battery out was much easier than I expected, especial when I found that my roommate had some wrenches that worked great with the screws used to connect the battery with the cable. The only catch was that the alarm would get kicked off when I attempted to disconnect the battery. I kind of solved the problem by plugging a pair of inner ear headphone.
The car battery was way heavier than I expected, and I had serious trouble holding it in single hand for more than 5 seconds. So I got a shopping cart when I reached WalMart and put the battery in it. By the way I was using my roommate's car. It's about time for me to drive his car around after being left idle for almost 2 months anyway.
So I brought the battery to the auto parts counter, and had the battery checked. Sure enough the battery was dead, and it was also out of warranty. But since I brought a new battery that is the exact same model as the one I brought back, I got a deep discount. So instead of payijng $80 for a new battery, I only had to pay $35.
So I got back home, hooked up the new battery, endured a few seconds of noisy alarm being kicked off from time to time, and eventually got the new battery set up. I started my car and everything worked normal again.