Marauderz Stuff!!

So, you wanted your internet connection everywhere?

2010-03-07T21:27:32.5161069+08:00

Got a new toy recently. This here is the Sapido GR1102

It's basically a compact internet router.

So you can use this to share a hotel internet connection and what not, just like a normal router. But of course if it was just another compact router, I wouldn't have gotten it. :P

Along with a couple of other features which you can find out about on the product website, the 1st reason that I got the Sapido is that you can do this.

You can plug in a supported USB 3G modem which can then be shared wirelessly. This is especially handy when you got to meetings in other people's offices and you'd rather not (or are not allowed to) connect to their office network to get internet connectivity. You might argue that you could just connect the modem to your notebook and do the same thing, but what if you had multiple people from your office attending the meeting? Even though you can use internet connection sharing in Windows to share the connection, a dedicate device offers better performance... and your machine doesn't wait cycles trying to act as a router.

All this is fine, WHEN you have a power plug to connect to though. That's why here's the other reason I got this nifty little thing.

The GR1102 is able to be powered by 5V delivered via a USB mini cable. Or if you swap out the AC plug with the supplied connector.

You can then power it with DC current ranging from 5V ~ 12V. It sounds GREAT in theory, all I have to do is bundle this along with any one of my USB power supplies and I can be a mobile hotspot wherever I go. But what you can't see is the current requirements. Let me adjust the image so you can see the writing on the power socket more clearly.

It says "5-12V Min 10W". Now how would you go about getting 10W from 5V? It would mean that the power supply would need to be able to deliver 5V 2Amps(!)Checking with the Sapido website I found out that you don't actually need 2A, but rather just 1.5A. This is still a VERY high current requirement. As I mentioned in my car charger article previously. Sometimes it's not just a matter of volts but also amps in order to power your devices. Let me give you some examples of 5V power sources you have access to. Your computer's USB port is rated for 5V 1A, so the Sapido can NOT be powered by just ONE USB port, so you'll need to use a Y cable to power it. A typical USB battery source like what I have, outputs 5V but in varying current ranges from 500MiliAmps (apologies to people who actually know how to write the proper current notation, cause I CLEARLY DON'T!) to 1A. This is because they typically use some form of a 3.7V LiIon battery in them and then boost the voltage to 5V lowering it's current capability as a result.

So after futilely trying out a few other external batteries in the market, I figured I needed to build my own power source, a battery that clearly delivers the required voltage without passing through any voltage converters. I did the math and decided that I could build a battery pack out of EIGHT AA BATTERIES (8 x 1.2V = 9.6V, y 1.2? Rechargable batteries mar!) But I decided to try this first.

This is what we call a SLAB (Sealed Lead Acid Battery), You don't usually see one on it's own like this but it's used in thing's like UPS's, Motorcycles, and other equipment. It's a good choice for powering the Sapido because SLABs have (AFAIK) high current capacity, It's NOT a good choice for portability because SLABs are HEAVY! This one weighs errr.... more than 500 grams less than a kilo.

While SLABs are rechargeable batteries, I don't have any experience in building whatever that will recharge the battery so I referred to Adrian's old battery extender guide since he used a SLAB before. So half an hour later and again reminding myself I have no idea how to solder connector plugs properly I ended up with this.

And it works perfectly!! The battery supplies enough power to the router and I have my mobile hotspot. Or do I? I realized that not many people have actually seen a SLAB before, in fact I'd think that most people would have seen SLABs being used as bomb triggers in movies or TV shows. So I told myself carrying a SLAB with wires and tape all over it might not be such a good idea right now. I head on over to my favorite place for finding weird shit nowadays – Daiso. And I ended up with this.

For those of you who are thinking WTF? This is an INSECT CAGE, I decided to get this one instead of other normal cases because the router can get QUITE hot when in use, so the open ventilation should be sufficient to cold it off. I used the straps from my previous attempt at a car pc to secure the devices.

The 2 things just barely fit into the case itself, I haven't really done a proper test run yet cause I haven't been able to obtain a proper adapter to charge the SLAB and thus I don't know how long the power will last (Unless someone tells me that it's ok to pump 9V into the SLAB to charge it even though it says it's charging voltage is 7.2V) I'm really interested in seeing if the router will melt the cage after prolonged use!

One Step Closer

2010-03-07T00:26:10.6536129+08:00

I still remember taking this picture.

This was in 2008, WZ was just slightly over a year old then but he wanted to try and drive. And now...

Soon... soon...

Don't Call It A Q&A When You Can't Answer Anything!

2010-03-05T11:24:36.3132129+08:00

Just wasted my time paying attention to the #WP7Dev hashtag on Twitter just now, I (as well as other developers I think) thought it was to coincide with the announcement of the available frameworks on Windows Phone 7 Series done here. Another interesting thing to find out was that MS is still gonna push WM6.5 hmmmm, most likely WM6.5 is gonna become the preferred Enterprise App developement platform for writing company specific applications and the like, and WP7 for end users. That'll make for an interesting split... we'll see what happens.

So I was right about my predictions on XNA support in Windows Phone 7, I wouldn't call my prediction that Silverlight 4 support is right until they announce it at MIX, this is because from my point of view. The SL4 beta that we have access to is not fully suitable/capable of being an actual client framework yet. Hopefully something will change at MIX '10

Which was my main peeve about the Q&A session just now. They called it a Q&A session, but when most questions could not be answered, or had to be answered with a WFM (Wait for MIX) remark. WHY DID THEY EVEN BOTHER TO CALL IT A Q&A!!!

Just make the announcement on Twitter about the frameworks and leave it at that then, then people won't be pissed when they can't actually get any answers out of you since you never said you'd answer questions!

This is how you make a toy

2010-03-04T23:32:34.9176129+08:00

Kids around my part of the world most likely would know about Masked Rider, basically it's a super hero that fights monsters on a weekly basis, and it has been around for a long long time. The main thing that made it cool for us kids was the transformation belts which the heroes wore, or drivers as they are called. So anyway here's a video of the latest Kamen Rider Double's transformation sequence.

And now... this is how the TOY works.

It pretty much works EXACTLY THE SAME!!! I was really surprised as to how similar it was compared to the one depicted in the show. And then there's the detail of the thing.

It looks almost exactly the same to me. Even the memory modules in the show also look just like the toy. Down to the visible speaker at the top of the unit.

Such good design and detail leads me to one question.

Which came first? The toy or the prop? Cause I think it's sure possible that they designed the toy, ensured how it works. Then made use of the thing in the show. What an impressive way to make a toy which every Kamen Rider watching kid would want!

It's not like I can wear the thing!

The darn glowing trees

2010-02-25T01:30:55.8405714+08:00

So I went to look at some lights in the shape of trees in Shah Alam I-City, I wouldn't exactly say it was a fun experience. First of all when we got there we had the choice to park in 2 places, illegally on the road shoulder of a 4 lane highway opposite the park where said trees are, or in a large deep car park where you need to walk a bit before you can get back topside to where the fun is.

Walking isn't usually a problem but when kids and old people are involved, you could see those kind of people just worn out and sitting on the streets. This was definitely NOT meant to be a tourist spot. There were some parking near the park area.

But if you tried to park in these parking, someone resembling these guys will descend upon you.

And tell you that you can't park in the parking. I wonder why since no one is using the spots at night anyway not like we're taking spots away from the tenants. Then one of them reminded me that "This is private property, you come into my house, you abide by my rules" Well said I-City, I'll remember that.

So what can you see over at I-City? You're going there to see stuff like this.

LED Lights. Tons and tons of LED lights.

Some will be drapped over wireframes to form some interesting shapes.

Then there are some that are just hung around.

Hmmm.. maybe that's why they wanted to keep the parking empty? But then again there're many spots outside of this scenic shot.

And of course you get to see these.

These darn LED trees.

While they might look like real trees decorated with lights

They're not. So we're not looking at some meticulously decorated tree here. These are essentially glorified LAMP POSTS. But I guess it's ok that they are fake trees cause I felt a lot of heat coming from such a huge concentration of lights. (Then again it could have just been the weather.)

Nothing particularly outstanding, but I guess since they don't charge any entrance fee other than having you walk around a lot. And it is closer than FGS from PJ. So... if you have the time... why not?

The shot you see above contains about 1/3 of what there is to see over there.

Oh.. point to note for all you budding photographers going to all these light shows and trying to take shots of the lights. While a slow shutter speed will help you get nice pictures of lights, if you need to take pictures of people standing in front of lights like this.

Read your manual and figure out how to turn on rear sync flash, or night scene mode. So that you don't end up killing the effect of the lights with your flash and having your significant other go "DEE SLR also cannot take nice light picture one geh?"

Of course, if your camera can manage a high ISO shot. You can retain the multi color lit ambience of the trees.

I'm not teaching you how to take photos here, I'm just letting you know you should familiarize yourself with your gear for tricky shots like this. Lest your partner keep reminding you that your expensive camera can't take nice pictures.

OK.... I think I'm ready to go to FGS Dong Zen on Friday night then.

One Hell Of A Night

2010-02-23T00:17:43.0401076+08:00

I had one hell of a night yesterday, first of all at around 1AM I saw a very pissed off wife run outside the house. For those unfamiliar with Chinese customs 22nd Feb was the night where some special prayers would be done by some chinese.

And someone in our neighbourhood were launching thunderclaps NON STOP from 12AM to 1AM, and everytime one of those thing’s screeched through the sky, it’d wake up the dog behind my house, and more importantly it’d woke up my wife. So instead of letting her go postal on the people I decided to take it upon myself to find the source of the disturbance and take care of it.

I found the source which was a house a couple of blocks away from mine, there were 2 kids constantly setting off the things while their parents looked on. I appealed to their community spirit and asked them to stop. Luckily they complied, and I went back home to sleep.

Until I heard the dogs barking and someone banging on the window of the side room where my maid used to sleep in. Through the tinted kitchen window I saw a man walking around the back of the house. My father scared him off by screaming at him from behind the window, at which point I ran outside to see if he dropped anything and I found this in the drain.

At first I thought this was a condom wrapper from afar, but it turns out to be chewing tobacco according to friends who can read the words. Now I’m just afraid if the person will return and try to take any action against our house since we pissed him off..

sigh…

Grabbed An Interesting Piece Of Gear

2010-02-20T22:53:56.3437102+08:00

There are many situations when you need to move files between machines, you could either create a network fileshare if that's possible. Or you could shuttle the files using a USB drive if there's one available. I just acquired this little thing cause I wanted to see how it worked.

This is Vantec's ezShare Pro device, on the box it states that you could copy files between machines without having to setup anything. I was interested to see how it works so I thought to myself why not?

So... how does it work? Basically you plug the device into one computer, and then you plug a normal USB cable into the other end and then into another computer. Both systems will then register a new CD drive attached to it, then you run the program on said 'CD' on BOTH MACHINES and that gives you an explorer interface to drag files between the machines.

Simple? Yes. Can be done in other ways? Yup. But hell... might come in handy one of these days..

Small Basic Is Now Cooler!

2010-02-18T20:50:55.7971721+08:00

So I’ve talked about Small Basic before, and they’ve just released a new version. So what’s so cool about this nice little tool for learning basic? Well it’s about how you can now show code to people. For example, let’s say I have a simple turtle program and while I can show you the code here.

start:
GraphicsWindow.Clear()
Turtle.MoveTo (0,0)
Turtle.MoveTo(GraphicsWindow.Width,0)
Turtle.MoveTo(0,GraphicsWindow.Height)
Turtle.MoveTo(GraphicsWindow.width,graphicswindow.Height)
Turtle.MoveTo(0,0)
Goto start

Then start explaining what the code does or… if you have already downloaded Small Basic, I could give you the Small Basic code of TRM169

Or… you can just SEE THE CODE IN ACTION with the brand new RUN IN SILVERLIGHT publishing capability and you can actually see how the code runs!

And that is just so farking cool! Unbelievably useful for showing people how code samples would work! Think there are still some bugs though, but not a bad start.

Resistive & Capacitive, Both Are Touchscreens, Both Different

2010-02-16T16:27:31.176+08:00

2 widely used touchscreen technologies, resistive and capacitive. Both are essentially touchscreens which allows you to interact with the system with your fingers but what about when you want to WRITE on them? Like when I want to scribble ideas in OneNote? That's when I realized how different they work in that aspect. Check out the video.

So It's Windows Phone 7 Series.

2010-02-16T00:35:12.6348+08:00

So... it's was just announced... Windows Phone 7 Series it is... And after the whirlwind of a coming out party. Here are my initial thoughts on the system. And I'm gonna count up how many shots of alcohol I'm gonna take after this. Go watch the coming out video first if you haven't done so yet.

The Zune UI -

It sure looks like something you'll either love or hate with all the cropped title bars and stuff. My main worry is that with this spanking new UI. Backward compatibility with previous apps is damn near IMPOSSIBLE to achieve, in fact if you watch the video webcast (which they say they'll put an archived version up later) They said that they didn't want to splinter the UI experience anymore, ie. HTC's touchflow, Sony's XPanels, Samsung's shitty Omnia menu, etc. etc. Putting backward compatibility for WM apps will end up like putting backward compatibility for when Pocket PC's moved the start menu from the bottom to the top. The other telltale sign that backward compatibility is dead is the catchphrase that appears in the preview video that it's a brand NEW BEGINNING(or something like that)

While losing backward compatibility is a VERY BIG ISSUE, starting fresh with a new system architecture that knows how to deal with programs whose developers didn't take much effort into respecting the rules of the system will be good for the system in the long run. And so I shall drink to all the great Windows Mobile programs which *might* be lost in this transition (more dev info coming during the Mix conference) And hope that future developers can take better charge of their code, less the OS do it for them.

Is there multitasking or not? - This is a big question that was not answered, but just hinted by the preview video. The video poked fun at the fact that other phones *cough* iPhone *cough* let's you do one thing at a time, stare at one chunk of info at a time and no way to interact with it. This is because when you allow multitasking in a device with system constraints like a phone, a program is liable to kill and collapse the device, ie. Opening WAAAAYY too many heavy webpages in your web browsers on your phone. But then... the preview video kept talking about how we'll be able to have Live In Motion with the new Windows Phone 7 Series. So what kind of multitasking support would we as developers will get? Here's my theory, observe the Start screen (ie the new Today screen).

Now... during the webcast, a few things can be observed. The Live Tiles as they are called, were refered to as SUPER ICONS that deliver up to date information relevant to that tile. Tapping on the tile brings you over to the relevant Hub. My theory is that the Tiles are just like the Today screen plugins in Windows Mobile, and these are the ONLY THINGS that actually multitask, so programmers will be encouraged to split their apps into services and UI portions to retrieve data and present them to the user. Of course this model would only apply for task based apps like Messenger, Twitter, etc. etc. Doesn't answer how a new alternative music player would work to play music in the background.

Another interesting thing which I noticed was that, no one mentioned anything about an application launching screen. While this Start Screen sure looks like it could be it, I shudder to think what happens when you've installed enough tiles to make the user have to run a finger marathon to get to what they need. Oh wait... the iPhone already does that!

It's an interesting concept, and I guess I'll know the answer when Mix arrives.

What is the developer experience? - For me and countless other developers out there, this is the question that still remains unanswered, can we still write apps without paying additional licensing fees? can we deploy apps without using marketplace? WHAT do we write apps with? All these questions will have to wait till Mix to be answered. But I have my theories. While using .Net to write apps is practically a no brainer, the main question here is... WHAT DO WE DEVELOPE THE UI WITH? A typical WinForms app would clash HORRIBLY with the new Zune UI, not to mention it'd be crazy to try and implement an animation engine for elements and such. If only Microsoft had some sort of framework for presenting and animating elements through a storyboard, if only Microsoft had some form of runtime that can be used to sandbox applications and yet still provide the flexibility of a rich presentation experience along with the core .Net familiarity to the developers...

Oh wait... there is! Microsoft has both Windows Presentation Framework and Silverlight which can be used as a basis of creating rich animated applications. And the base specification of the device is supposed to be able to support all this now!

I'll drink myself silly if there's no way to write .Net code on a Windows Phone 7 Series, and it just wouldn't make sense for MS to have to make yet another framework for rich applications which doesn't inherit from WPF or Silverlight.

We'll find out at Mix I guess.

There is one thing to note though, with all the talk about games, and Live integration. And the fact that the hardware platform and specifications have been standardized. It's not too hard to picture XNA support to be in Windows Phone 7.

The hardware platform - The Windows Phone 7 Series (Hey.. that grammar is just wrong!) device platform has a standardized specification. So everyone will have a WVGA screen (that's 480x800 I guess, hey.. I think I know what kind of upgrade the iPhone 4G will get!) At least a said high spec'ed process and if I didn't hear correctly... FOUR POINT MULTITOUCH? I personally don't get the idea of multitouch as UI gestures, cause they're usually not intuitive and they generally means you can't do the operation with one hand which is important on a phone. But having 2 point multitouch helped the iPhone gaming industry since you could have a virtual joypad where you could move and press ONE button at a time. But FOUR points? Is that really necessary? Can you actually fit four fingers on a screen and STILL see what you're doing?

The 3 buttons on a Windows Phone 7 device will be Start, Back and Search. while I understand why the first 2 buttons are there, the Search button..... well I guess we'll see how that works out. I guess it's more useful than a call button which only searches for your contacts, but can it guarantee that I can find a person to call as fast as on my Windows Mobile phone right now and not as inefficient as the iPhone dialer?

Right now the virtual keyboard looks like a copy of the iPhone one, and I didn't see it in use enough to notice if it shares the same deficiencies (ie. letter's don't change to indicate CASING state). There're more screen pixels, why can't a better keyboard be made?

I'm glad that Microsoft isn't making the phone, since if Microsoft IS making the phone it'll most likely mean WE'LL NEVER GET IT IN MALAYSIA, since that'll mean they need to have an entire support for the device over here. They can't even do that for a game console or music player, how could they do it for a phone even if the target market is larger? I'll drink to that.

The integration with the Zune software is nice and everything, but if it means that I can't use my phone immediately upon purchase and have to activate it using the Zune software ala the iPod/iPhone, that would NOT be nice!

Ok... let's wait for Mix and see what else I can rant on, and see wheter I'm right about certain things.