October 2006 Archives

My parents in law have a computer bought 2 or 3 years ago from Bestbuy. It is eMachine T2542.

Last week, it did not work suddenly. The problem based on their description is:

1. When push the power button, green light blinks for a second then NOTHING.
2. If push it twice, no blink, NOTHING.
3. Wait a few minutes, push button, #1 happens again.

No signal sent to monitor.

I trust it must be the power supply. It is a PS failure. Maybe the mother board failure at the same time. Look at the post here.

I am not hundred percent sure, because they are in San Francisco.

A lot of people know that Skype has ability to make a free call with North America until the end of 2006. I tried before, the voice quality is good enough.
But I am tied to my computer. The skype is only run on the computer.
Voxlib is a solution.

1) Install a skype and create a new account.
2) Download Voxlib client software, Vox for Skype, and Install it.
3) Setup your cellphone information in Voxlib.

Go to try it.

I am noticed that a guy left a comment on my blog. He asked to exchange the links with me to his blog, and gave me his site information.

I checked his blog. There is no link to me.

It looks so funny.
A person ask another one to swap links, but have not set the link in advance. How does he think?

Let me list the requirement of link exchange rule of my blog.

You want to exchange the link to me. So you should prepare your link to my Blog in your site before send your request. If I review your site and feel comfortable to link back to you, I will inform you. If I don't, I will also let you know.

I have a SPA-2002 device for 8 months. I also use VOIPSTUNT as my Voip serivec provider.

The Firmware with device is 3.1.2(a). Nothing wrong.

I went to SIPURA website, and saw the new firmware there.

So, I upgrade it to new version.
Let me show you how to do the upgrade.

1) Download it from the download page. Here

2) Decompress it into a folder.

3) There are two files, spa2002-03-01-05.bin and spa2002-03-01-05.exe.

4) Get the IP address of your SAP-2002.
You can go to SPA's voice menu by pressing **** on your analog phone and press 110#.
Your current IP will be announced.

5) Run the windows executable from windows machine. It will ask for SPA's IP-address. It will then try to identify the SPA, and perform the upgrade.
Note: Don't power off at this time.

Now it's time to upgrade your Ubuntu 6.06 to 6.10.
There is no free shipit for 6.10. And it is not a Long Term Support (LTS).

You can download it here.

Let's see some new features implemented in Ubuntu 6.10.
1) New Startup Screen.
It will looks much clear in different resolutions.

2) GNOME 2.16
This is the latest GNOME.

3) Tomboy
Note-taking tool.

4) F-spot
F-spot is a photo manager to replace the gthumb.

5) Evolution
Evolution 2.8.0 comes with GNOME.

I watch some blogs hosted on blogspot.com.

I find 500 error this morning, at 11:20 PST.

Internal Server Error
Error 500

blogger.com is Ok now.

Blogspot is hacked?

In the recent days, a piece of news is going across the Chinese blogs.
China is developing "Real Name System" for blogs

I think nothing can be more ugly than it. The gov. said over 50% people support this system. Nobody tells you how they calculate this figure. Maybe just in their mind. Normally I call them hit the head to get the figure.

This is a big news for blogs. Keso has his own point to argue against it.
Even in the WebmasterWorld, it has been a featured post.

I am proudly announce Pentacle In-Out Board v 6.10.0.1211 is ready for brand new installation and upgrade from all previous version.

I post the new release on Oct., 22 2006.
The upgrade package is ready yesterday.

In v6.10, I added some new features and improvement:
* 3 level of user rights.
* Delete / Undelete user.
* Vacation day carry forward can be half day.
* If date or time entered in error, Admin can correct it.
* Database backup and compact.
* Email address can include new TLD (top level domain), such as .name, .coop, .museum.
* Send email by group or location.
* Improve the speed to load Pentacle News.

I use Firefox more often than before. I download the Firefox 2.0 when I know the final version 2 is coming.

I did not get the upgrade information from the 1.5.0.7 version. In the official site, it is still old version to be download.

I have this link to download it from the Open Source Lab.
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/win32/
Choose the language you prefer to download.

I use English. It is about 5.6MB.

If you work on computer over 10 years, you must have some old hardware.

It's me. I have a big box. I saved a lot of old stuffs. Such as sound card, video card, motherboard, NIC, etc.

Why I save them?
I think sometime I will use them to build a computer. Just like some cars driven on the road with collection plate.

Do you know how government take care of the old batleship, or submarine? I guess most of them are stored in a security place. Even they are very old, they are still sealed up for keeping. They are all workable.

If you bought a computer last month or you want to buy some one as a Christmas gift to your boy, it must be a Windows Vista Ready PC.
It may has an integrated graphics card, can run Microsoft Office smoothly, and may be OK for some small 2D games.

Do you think it can support most of the advantages of Windows Vista?
The answer is NO.

Almost all PCs sold in the computer stores are Windows Vista Ready PC.
The requirement of Windows Vista Ready PC is "800-MHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM and an integrated graphics processor that can handle Microsoft's DirectX 9 graphical interface"
It means Microsoft Windows Vista can just run on it.

I found some of my articles are copied and posted on the other sites without my permission. They even do not follow my CC license.

I use "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Canada" license in this Blog.

It means anybody can copy, distribute, display, and perform my work, if he follow my conditions as below:
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by me
Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Someone faile to follow the copyright law. They don't care it.
What do I do? If I find my article is stolen.

We went to Oakridge Mall last week. I still remember the feelling when we stepped on this land about five years ago.

We resided in my aunt's house for three monthes. It is close to the Oakridge Mall. We always walked there to buy foods.

Last week, I took a photo on the back entrance of the mall. Nothing is changed.

The first place we lived in Canada.

On Friday morning, I received the phone call in the office. Vivian, my wife, told me that I have a parcel from Amazon. I asked her, "Is it a big parcel?". She said yes. I knew that it is my book, PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites.

I made order on October 8, and got the book on Oct. 13. Only one week.

It is so fast if they have it in stock. I am not sure when I will receive the other book for Gloria.

The package is good enough to protect the book in transit.
There are one invoice and the book.

Let me introduce this book a little bit:

I want to try the post from Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

The MovableType API is http://YOURBLOG/PATH/TO/mt-xmlrpc.cgi
I use MovableType. Google said MovableType supports more features than Blogger. Good.

Don't forget setup your Web Services Password in your Author setting in the MovableType.

Now Google is only support one blog setting. What about if I have two or three blogs and I want to post to more than one Blogs?

In Try Google Docs & Spreadsheets , I say I will try it. It is a real test for Google Docs & Spreadsheets .

I noticed Google Docs & Spreadsheets the day before yesterday. Now the news is comming to say, Better together: Docs & Spreadsheets

I think it is worth to try.
Here is its own official Blog.

Google had Spreadsheets before.
Google has Docs & Spreadsheets now.
Google will have Offic in future.

When you prepare your business travel, you may need your laptop. There are some tips for you.

If you travel without your Laptops:

Set up guest PCs in your branch offices for on-the-go employee. Transport data on thumb-drive storage devices. Make enterprie apps accessible by Web browser. Use SSL VPN connections for temporary PCs to ensure security. SSL performs a disconnection cleanup so work history is automatically scrubbed from borrowed PCs. Carry a cell phone and PDA. Even if they're relegated to checked baggage, they have a better chance of going undamaged.

What about you travel with Laptops

I use VoipStunt as one of the important phone services. I make at least two international long distance phone calls per day.

I have a custimized dial plan. It is easy for my daughters, one 6, the other is 3 years old.
They can dial phone to their grand-parents by themselves.

It is very easy. Just dial two digits and phone rings.

Let's see what I set.

In the dial plan field, which is under Admin>Advanced>Line 1. I use line 1 for Voipstunt service.

(00xx.|<99:00862166666666>|<88:0014152222222>)

For another example, I want to call Shanghai China. His phone number is 66666666. I have to dial 00862166666666. 86 is country of China, 21 is area code of Shanghai.

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving day.

We will have a turkey dinner tonight.

I finished a survy, Nortel 2006 Trend Survey, in September. So, I received two Amazon.com gift certificates. $15.00 each.

Firstly I go to Amazon.ca to make the order. When I entered the claim code, it said the code is not correct. Then I went back to the email. Ok, it is said, "redeem at Amazon.com". I can not use these gift certificates on Amazon.ca.

I saw there is a Super Saver Shipping with the order over $25.00. I choose two books. When I choose the destination, it said I can not use this Super Saver Shipping, because of the shipping address is no in USA.

That's my orders. I live in Canada. I have gift certificates only valid in Amazon.com.

I am noticed that a comment left on my Vista vs. Ubuntu, in which I mentioned Gimp can replace the Photoshop.

RantMax writed to me:

Replacing Photoshop with Gimp?
Have you ever worked with them professionally? I did, with both.
Gimp can't step on Photoshop's pinkie.

Yes, you are right. The photoshop is a software for High-End users. It has a lot of advanced features the Gimp doesn't.

My question is do you need all these features. You may use some in your professional design. How many advanced functions you paid for, but never used?

For the regular users, as a homework, or some none-professional works, you can use Gimp.

Recently, Google updated it Google Earth's photos in a lot of country or area. This update included the photos of Shanghai, China.

I have a screenshot of my home in Shanghai last year.

Compared with the screenshot below I just took, it is much more clear than before.
And, some construction site is almost finished in the new photo.

I posted How to convert APE to MP3 in Chinese one year ago.

Now I feel it is not completed to explain the whole story for converting and some setting for the program working on Windows 2000 English version.

How to Convert APE to MP3 on Windows 2000?
I have following files download somewhere.

Do you know this famous singer? She is TERESA TENG. Her voice heard like from heaven.

Because of these files' name are Chinese, to make them work smoothly, I changed the reginal options in control panel into Chinese.

After these setting, let's download the programs we will use later.
Download Monkey's Audio 3.99F, this version including MakeAPL. MakeAPL will be used later.
After downloading, just run the self-extracting .exe, and the setup program will step you through the rest of the installation.

Download LAME 3.97b2
Download file
Decompress it and copy all files into your installation of Monkey's Audio, something like:
c:\program files\Monkey's Audio\External\

I read Google Blogoscoped, and continued to go to Google-eBook Download Center.
That's Internet sharing. That's real Internet spirit.

Let me see what's so good there.
O'Reilly Google Hacks
Google For Dummies
Building Your Business With Google For Dummies
O'Reilly Google Advertising Tools - Cashing In With Adsense Adwords & Google APIs
55 Ways to have fun with Google
Google Maps Hacks
.......
and lots of Google related eBook can be download.

Voipstunt.com released its new credit policy.

There will be no more expiry dates for credit. Say you buy $15.00 credit and have 120 Freedays. It means you can call all destinations marked as "Free" in 120 days for free.
And after 120 days, you still have $15.00 in your account. Now you can use this money to pay all your phone calls by the minimal rate.
The current minimal rate is 1cent/min for most of the "Free" destinations.

In the previous credit policy, the credit will expire in 120 days. That means after 120 day "Free" call, you have zero balance in your account.

That's great to the users.