softlinks (symbolic links) and hardlinks in Windows
by Jason on Feb.12, 2010, under Tech Stuffs, computers
for the die hard unix and linux fans out there who appreciate the use of symbolic links and hard links, there’s actually a Windows equivalent out there. (then again, if you a die hard fan… you may not use windows much… but for those who do… keep reading…)
All these years, I thought the closest thing to symbolic links in Windows will be the shortcuts. However, In Vista and Windows 7 there is actually a good support for symbolic links and hard links. The command line utility to create/manage these links are not there by default however. One will need to download a package from Microsoft.
Now, I’ve discovered that someone has actually developed a Windows explorer shell extension to create/manage symbolic/hard links. You can download the freeware here.
I’ve downloaded and installed the utility called Link Shell Extension (LSE in short), and it works nicely for me. Mind you, I strongly encourage you to read through the online manual to understand how to use it effectively. It also has a good coverage on the pitfalls in the earlier version of Windows.
For the benefits of you who do not know what are symbolic/hard links, these are references to files and directories in your computers. There are many usage for these links, and the most common scenario is this….
Imagine you have a file located in c:\users\hello\documents\download\section\blah\etc\here\thisfile.jpg
That is a very long reference to the file. To make things simple, you want the file to be available in c:\directory\thisfile.jpg but you need to keep a copy in the original location, and at the same time have c:\directory\thisfile.jpg as an exact copy. The traditional way is probably just to create a copy of the file, and anytime the original file is updated, we’ll just copy it again.
Now, imagine that we can create c:\directory\thisfile.jpg as a symbolic link to the original file. Access this symbolic link gives the exact same result as accessing the file directly. You can open, save, change the symbolic link just as if it’s a real file. And anytime the original file changes, you’ll get the update immediately. No need to copy the file over. In way, you save disk space as well, since there’s only one real copy of the file.
There’s a lot more to symbolic links and hard links, and you can easily find more information about them on the web.
Hope you’ll find this useful =)
[driving tip] don’t stop in the yellow box
by Jason on Feb.02, 2010, under anything
maybe I’ll start a chain of posts devoted to better driving… (or just my cover up of my rants about hopeless drivers on the road)
Let’s start by my strong believe that there are no such thing as “woman driver”. I am not gender biased, and a firm believer that there are bad male and female drivers. There has been too many instances where we think “oh… another woman driver”, and it turns out to be a guy. I know many ladies who drives well, and even better than some guys I know.
So, this morning, I had an encounter with a less-than-experienced driver. Just so happens the driver is female.
I was waiting at the light on New Bridge Road, waiting for the green to allow the approach to make a right into Merchant Road. So, it was currently green for the Merchant Road traffic and there was a line forming a right turn from Merchant Road to New Bridge Road. At the end of the line, a fairly new Honda Jazz/Fit. Since the traffic ahead on New Bridge Road was jammed up, everyone was stuck in the yellow box.
So, the light went red for them, but further down, the cars started to clear ahead. The column of cars right turning into New Bridge Road cleared, except that Honda Jazz. The lady was lost on what to do and just stayed right there in the middle of the junction. Blocking 2 lanes of incoming traffic from Eu Tong Sen street. Traffic started to go around her, but it held things up a little.
Finally, incoming traffic cleared and she reversed back to Merchant Road.
What should have been most appropriate in the first place, before she advanced into the junction was to wait behind. This is according to the basic theory rules. Never advance into a yellow box if you may end up blocking traffic. So, maybe for some reason she missed that.
Alright, so she moved into the junction to join the queue of cars to make the right into New Bridge Road. The next best thing she should have done was to follow closely the column of cars ahead of her when they moved off. Instead she froze on the spot and created chaos.
So, tip of the day… if you are already out and sitting in the yellow box, keep moving when you can safely do so.
how to jailbreak your iPhone and restore it back
by Jason on Jan.26, 2010, under iPhone
over the past 2 weeks, I attempted to jailbreak my iPhone. The only reason I wanted to do it was that I thought that I needed a mobile hotspot and there are jailbreak apps out there that makes it possible. It’s either this or invest in a dedicated pocket device that varies from $200 to $400. Since it was a much cheaper option to just do a jailbreak, I gave it a try.
After trying for the whole of a Sunday afternoon, it never went through and I gave it a rest. Over the course of the 4hrs I spent, I ran the jailbreak utility BlackRa1n, it would always get the phone to the iTunes restore screen (the one that showed a USB cable and iTunes logo), and never got past that. Overall, I reloaded the iPhone 3.1.2 firmware over and over, and finally I ran out of time and had to restore the phone back to the original state.
So, first rule of thumb, always run an adhoc backup in iTunes before any potentially disruptive change toe the iPhone. Do note, this is not the automatic backup that runs when you connect your phone to iTunes. Let that automated backup run when it does. But make sure you manually run the backup AGAIN after the automated on. This will create a permanent snapshot of the backup in iTunes. The automated one gets overwritten each time it runs.
With everything restored, iTunes slowly sync’d the apps, music, videos, podcast back. Interestingly, photos are not sync’d, but backed up. Which is good, that you’ll get all your photos back after the restore.
Couple of days later, I thought of giving it a try again. Trying to see what I did wrong. The whole process was suppose to be simple, many people have done it, and it’s just not right that a Tech Savvy guy like myself just can’t get it to go through.
So, I just fiddled around and by chance, I got it to run!!
The instructions are easily available if your search around for the complete steps to use BlackRa1n. What I always got stuck at was the “iTunes” screen on the phone. If the jailbreak worked, it should have automatically showed a picture of “Frodo”. What I did different this time, was by chance.
- I’m using Windows Vista Home Premium
- I stopped iTunes, and killed the process “iTunesHelper.exe”
- connected the iPhone 3GS to the notebook (iTunes should not start up at all)
- ran BlackRa1n
- it detected the phone, and forced it to reboot (this is normal)
- phone comes up in recovery mode (iTunes logo shows up)
- bam… it’s stuck here again and by chance, I was checking on some security settings on BlackRa1n.exe
- launched 2nd instance of BlackRa1n. (the first one was still running and… waiting…)
- lo and behold!! “Frodo” appeared, and the first instance of BlackRa1n was able to pick this up and continue the process of jailbreaking
- it reboots once more, and returns back to the normal iPhone interface
- DONE!
I was pleasantly surprised. At this point, the phone is jailbroken, and the next step was to put in the “App Store” of the jailbroken world, Cydia. It’s a neat little package manager, and pretty much what most people will need to do.
To top it off, the jailbreak was done without having to reset the phone to factory default first. All my existing apps, contacts, calendar entries, etc… were still there and working. So that was good, otherwise I would have to reconfigured everything from scratch.
I tested out several apps that was suppose to enable the iPhone as a mobile hotspot. Most of them work similarly, with the main differences to be the user interface, and here are the key features I found
- all of them work in adhoc mode wifi, none provides infrastructure mode networks
- this is usually not an issue, as nearly all computers can work with adhoc mode wifi networks
- however, if you are planning to use an Android phone as a client, it will not work; as Android does not support connection to adhoc mode wifi (unless you root the Android device and hack it)
- most of the apps do not initiate the adhoc mode wifi, in fact it requires the pc/notebook to create the adhoc network first, then the iPhone will join in
- all buy one of these apps behave like that; the exception is MyWi
- MyWi will create and initiate the adhoc network and even broadcast it
- in this way, all devices can find the adhoc network that’s available and join it instead
- I tested out MyWi with the free trial, and I loved the performance; the speed was good
- it even works with my iPod Touch G1 which was able to stream youtube, etc.
- sadly, my Android device will not work, which is the main deal breaker for me
With that, I found a part solution to what I need. It’s only a partial solution because not all my devices can work. However, it’s good for the performance was satisfying.
To restore the phone back to the original state, just fire up iTunes, connect the phone to the PC and hit “restore” in iTunes. It will do everything and should leave no trace of the jailbreak.
Will I encourage users to Jailbreak? Only if there’s a good reason for it, and that being that you are a power user, and there’s a specific functionality you want and need that only can be achieved by Jailbreaking.
Fapturbo 中文版出炉了！！
by Jason on Jan.15, 2010, under Investments & Trading
今天我收到了Fapturbo的消息，Fapturbo中文版终于出炉了！
如果您对外汇交易有兴趣的话，不能错过这个良好的机会。
我本身从2009十月用了Fapturbo外汇交易机器人，效果不错。
如果您有兴趣的话，不妨试试。请从这里转到fapturbo的网站去。
A Happy Day!! I got my Blueant V1 replaced!
by Jason on Jan.13, 2010, under Tech Stuffs
so recently, my Blueant V1 started to fail. After the exchange I realize that my original unit had a manufacturing defect which after months of usage finally resulted in the unit to fail.
So, I found the distributor of Blueant in Singapore, ARS IMG Pte. Ltd. Called them up and told them my problem. It was a very simple; head down to the office in Golden Wall Centre, showed the person in charge the problem. And he gladly gave me a 1-to-1 replacement.
I’m so glad that I’m once again equiped with my Blueant V1, I felt so handicapped without the voice dailing when I had to switch back to my backup headset.
2 thumbs up to Lawrence at ARS IMG Pte Ltd!! You made my day =)
I’m certainly very happy with my decision to buy the Blueant V1 months ago. Looking forward to many more moons of service with the unit.
XBMC on XBOX not playing MP4 files – solved!!
by Jason on Jan.12, 2010, under Tech Stuffs
I’ve been using XMBC on the XBOX for several months now… (yes it’s kinda late) but hey, it still rocks!!
Then recently, I moved the XBOX to the living room and for some reason the MP4 files would not play anymore. Everything else worked fine… but not MP4. I spent over a month troubleshooting it, re-installing XMBC, etc.. nothing worked. All I knew was that these files would play, when the XBOX was in my study & in the bedroom.
Finally, I was shown the light, by someone a lot less techy than me… my wife. I lamented to her about the unexplainable problem I was having with the XBOX. Then she asked… “is it because of the TV?” That literally lit up the bulb in my head and it lit up the path to the solution.
So, how does the TV have anything to do with the XBOX? What ever the XBOX should not be dependent on the TV. So, up front, that theory should have gone out the window… but not exactly. It was due to the TV, or rather… the xbox is connected to the TV using component cables. Everywhere else was using regular RCA. So… what’s the difference?
The difference was 1080i. Because the XBOX was using component cables, I had it configured to go up to 1080i. So, I turned of all hi-def resolutions (480p, 720p & 1080i) and tried. The movie played flawlessly. It was just that simple!! Further testing confirmed that MP4 would play in 480p and 720p… but not 1080i. That’s good enough… since my MP4 were all standard def anyway.
So, the month long troubleshooting, network testing, performance tuning, all went no where. It was simply just the XBOX settings for the TV.
Definitely learnt a new lesson about checking on the basics… even if it’s seemingly unrelated.
All thanks to my dear wife, Winny =)
HDMI to VGA/RCA cables? *beware* I don’t think they work
by Jason on Jan.09, 2010, under Tech Stuffs
was just on ebay looking for some cheap alternatives to buy HDMI cables… found some, quality was questionable… then I stumbled upon some people selling “HDMI to VGA/RCA” cables.
I was surprised for a moment. How’s that possible??
I should state that, it sure is possible to fabricate such a cable. It’s easy to just take any wire and put any sort of connectors at both ends. But watch out!! They are likely not to work.
The engineer in me knows that HDMI and VGA/RCA connections carry completely different type of signals. HDMI is pure digital and VGA/RCA are pure analog. There’s no way you can just take a cable, hook up the components and they will work.
For a start, if your equipment doesn’t get fried, you should already be lucky!
In reality, what you really need is a coverter box. A dedicated piece of equipment that converts HDMI signals to RCA or VGA.
So, be warned, don’t get suckered by simple cables that appear to do the trick. No such thing!!
Facebook update to 3.1.1 for the iPhone – GOOD!
by Jason on Jan.09, 2010, under iPhone
just checked out the update to the iPhone’s Facebook app… the current version is 3.1.1.
What’s new? my favorite part… Contacts Sync. It’s a step in the direction which was default feature my wife’s HTC Hero. Though the iPhone’s sync is not as comprehensive (yet) as what’s in the Hero, it’s a step in the right direction.
So what the contact will do is compare the contacts in iPhone’s contact list and your friends in Facebook. If it has found matches, it will then download their facebook photos to the iPhone contact (there’s an option to prevent overwriting an existing photo), and it will add a “home page” entry in that contact, which links to the facebook page. Touching that entry will launch the facebook app and bring up your friend’s page in-app.
This is pretty cool, except there were a few misses…. here’s what I’m certain of… when either one of the below matches
- firstname & lastname
- email address (if shared with you)
- possible phone number as well (I don’t have enough information to validate)
I did have a mis-match… a contact I had in my phone was matched up with someone in facebook with a completely different name, and I’m not even friends with the match. The only data in there was the phone number, and I can’t tell if that happened to have been the criteria of match. Anyhow, certainly a bug if you ask me.
So, how do you perform a sync? First a few things to do prior
- sync your contacts to your PC/Google
- create a backup copy of your contacts after the sync.. e.g. on Google, go to contacts and export everything
- backup is crucial, in case some how the facebook sync screws up your precious contacts
- go forth and make sure you have Facebook 3.1.1 installed
Having done the above, here it goes
- Launch “Facebook” app on your iPhone
- go to the app’s main menu by tapping the top left corner
- touch on the “Friends” icon
- touch “sync” on the top right of the page
- slide “Syncing” to “ON” (notice that “Replace Photos” is “OFF” by default)
- you’ll have to agree to proceed on, tap “I Agree” if you do
- sync begins… take note though, if you have a lot of contacts and they match… expect this to take more then just a few minutes. Try to keep the phone from going to sleep when doing this, or it will slow down
- however, if there’s any interruption, you just need to relaunch the app, and navigate to the sync page; and it should start syncing again from where it left off
*note* some times I need to relaunch the app a few times before the sync will start on it’s own… haven’t figured out why yet.
I hope future updates can even identify changed contact information and the app can prompt for updates.
have fun!!
“Please revert.” – really??
by Jason on Jan.03, 2010, under anything
my first rant of 2010… actually been holding off this post for a while… but alas! I must put it out there…
so what’s irritating me? the use of the word “revert” in many many emails (To/Cc) I receive.
Before reading furthur, I would like you to sit back and think… what do you think the meaning of the word “revert” is?
…
…
…
Do you think that “revert” has a meaning like… “get back to”… as in like “reply”, “respond”?
Have you seen, or even written sentences similar to… “Please revert to me once you have a decision.” ?
…
Now, please read up on the definitions of the word “revert” as found by Google, here.
…
Welcome back, did you find any of the definitions there that meant “respond”, or anything similar?
No?
Well, “revert” really means something like “undo”, “roll back”, “to restore back to a previous state”.
It DOES NOT MEAN, “reply” or any way near the vicinity of the word.
Now, if I’ve made you aware what “revert” means… think back on the sentences where the word has been misused… don’t they seem strange?
I work in the IT industry, and frequently we encounter problems and they’ll need to be fixed… so the person who’s tasked to make the necessary fixes sends you a mail to tell you that the problem will be worked on and it ends off… “I’ll revert once the problem has been resolved.”
Now, doesn’t it sound funny? If you read the sentence to the true meaning of “revert”… it probably could be read that this person is trying to be funny… yes, the problem will be worked on… but once it’s fixed, it will be “reverted”. LOL!!
Well, hope you’ve learnt something new today, good for the new year.
iPhone How-to : add other Google calendars to your iPhone Calendar
by Jason on Dec.31, 2009, under Tech Stuffs, iPhone
this is an extension of the iPhone Calendar how-tos… in this post, I’ll describe the steps you need to perform to add someone else’s Google calendar to your iPhone Calendar app.
If you just want to add your own calendar, you may skip this and go to this post instead.
Now, the steps to add someone else’s calendar is very similar to add your own using the CalDAV method. The only thing that needs to be done prior to the config in the iPhone is that this person must first share the calendar with you.
I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here, so please follow Google’s Instructions on how to share your calendar. I discourage you from making your personal calendar public. To learn more, read another Google’s FAQ entry.
For the calendar to work, so that you can see something on the iPhone, you need to set the permission level to at least “See all event details”. If it’s set to “See only free/busy (hide details)”, you will be able to add the calendar via CalDAV, but nothing will show up in your calendar. If you are allowed to make changes even, then by all means go and set the permission to “Make changes to events”. The ultimate you-have-it-all permission will be “Make changes AND manage sharing”, which I would think most people would not need.
If you are using Google Apps, and you can’t share beyond “only see free/busy information”, you’ll need to request your Administrator to increase the level of sharing allowed. This Google FAQ entry should help. *NOTE* after the administrator makes the changes, it will take a while before the system is updated and you can increase the level of detail to be shared on your calendar. This worked within 10mins during my testing.
Now, once the sharing is enabled, you can do a quick validation via your Gmail Calendar. See if the other person’s calendar is now showing up in your account as well. If yes, and you are not seeing “free/busy” information only, you are good.
The final step is to add the calendar to your iPhone’s setup. The steps are exactly the same as adding your own calendar via CalDAV (read this post), except in step 3, instead of using your own email address, you use the address of the person who had shared it with you. Follow through the rest of the steps, using your own Gmail login credentials, and you should be set!
At this point, your calendar should now show your own and the new calendar that was shared with you.
An additional tip for you… now that you have multiple entries from different calendars, it will be helpful to be able to visually identify easily which entries belongs to who. Fortunately, there’s a way to do this, but you’ll have to do this in Gmail Calendar’s web interface.
This is a very simple process, first just login to you Gmail Calendar. Next, on the left column of the page, find the calendar that you can see, and click on the little triangle next to it. A box will pop up and it will have several colors for your to choose from. Select the one you like and it’s done. In the iPhone Calendar, all entries belonging to that calendar will now have the color code you just picked.
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