December 21, 2008

Lenovo IdeaPad S9 Linux


My company asked me to go out and buy a netbook for a customer for Christmas. For the allotted budget they gave me, I could only get either the lowest end Acer Aspire One or the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, so I decided to get the Dell since it's the only netbook that I didn't have any hands-on experience with.

But when I arrived at the shops, they happened to be putting the new Lenovo IdeaPad S9 with Linux on display, and it happens to be within the allotted budget as well.

When I looked at the specs, I was surprised to find that even though it's the lower priced Linux version and cost the same as either the Acer or Dell, it has the exact same hardware specs (besides the screen, of course) as the IdeaPad S10 Windows XP version that I got earlier. i.e., 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive, etc. It even has Bluetooth! So I bought one immediately.

The picture above shows some of the specs as found by the pre-installed Linpus Linux Lite.

I can't wait for the customer who will be receiving this to call back and say, "I can't run NFS on this thing! And where's the DVD writer?!"

December 20, 2008

Jizz in my pants



When goofing off at work, never watch something that makes coffee come out from your nose, and you still need to keep a straight face afterwards.

I could already see the spoofs and remixes coming.

I'm voiding the warranty on my new wireless router and I
JIZZED IN MY PANTS

The Youtube video linked above is the HD version. But if you use the Download Video link you'll only get the standard version. You need to go to the Youtube page, then download using a downloading tool such as Fast Video Download, then you'll get the HD version in MP4 format.

Youtube's HD videos now take up the width of the screen instead of just the left part like regular videos. Very nice.

Official site: The Lonely Island.
And the lyrics.

December 16, 2008

Panasonic G1 firmware


Panasonic is in a firmware upgrading spree too. Yesterday they released firmware for the LX3, and today the G1. Whee!

The new firmware is available here. (Version 1.1, released 2008/12/16.)

Improvements:
  1. Makes it possible to check the exposure with Live View during the AE lock.
  2. Makes it possible to continuously display the enlarged screen of the MF assist.
  3. Added "color adjustment function" for the LCD monitor/View finder.
  4. Added "Red-eye reduction forced flash on" to the flash setting for the [PARTY].
  5. Improved the performance of AE(Auto Exposure) and AWB(Auto White Balance).
  6. Improved the accuracy of flash control.
  7. Improved the noise reduction during high sensitivity photo shooting.
In related news. Adobe released Lightroom 2.2 to support Panasonic raw files. Panasonic is turning many heads in the photography world!

December 15, 2008

Panasonic LX3 firmware


The new firmware is available here. (Version 1.1, released 2008/12/15.)

Improvements:
  1. Compatibility update for the DMW-FL220 flash unit.
  2. Improved auto white balance performance.
  3. Improved auto focus performance.
Update: apparently there were two unreleased firmware between 1.0 and 1.1.

Improvements in Version 1.05:
  1. Improved the MF assistance (enlarged) position may be shifted to the center although MF assistance position is shifted with joystick when zoom lever is rotated to Tele side.
  2. Improved the noise may be displayed in the AF area selecting screen.
  3. Improved the black part may be displayed in the MF assistance (enlarged) area when the dark area compensation is set to ON.
  4. Optimization of the enlarged position indicator and MF assistance (enlarged) being displayed.
  5. Improved the AWB icon is displayed in film grain scene mode when WB adjustment is chosen.
  6. Improved the exposure compensation value may not be stored in the picture as an Exif data with iA shooting mode.
Improvements in Version 1.04.
  1. Improved favorite guide indication and clock indication of world time may be lapped over.

December 12, 2008

Ghost town vacation

I went on a holiday last weekend to Krabi and Phuket. Normally the beaches of Krabi and Phuket are filled with tourists, but since the PAD morons destroyed the country, the beaches and streest are mostly empty and many places are closed down.



When I was at Krabi, I stayed at a hotel right in the middle of downtown. In theory it sounds quite nice, but all the action is actually at the seaside at Ao Nang. Downtown is more like the middle of nowhere.

The surprising thing was the hotel has WRT54GL's at every floor, running Tomato with WDS enabled to provide free Internet service. I didn't see anyone else besides me using the service though. And how did I know they were running Tomato with WDS, and that I was the only user? Because they were all running with the default username and password.


Obligatory shot of James Bond Island.

December 9, 2008

Gmail JPEG attachment problem

I was away on vacation for a few days, and of course, something has to break while I was away. Gmail's attachment function broke and I got flooded with help messages. An example below.

This is the original image, taken from a previous post.


When Gmail attaches the JPEG image, it becomes corrupted. And the corruption is different each time. Once in a while it even corrupts the image so badly that it becomes uncompletely unviewable.

Surprisingly enough, the corruption problem even happens with images embedded inside PDF files. I found this out when I tried to work around the image corruption problem by embedding JPEG's inside PDF files, but the PDF files became corrupted as well.

I wonder if it's affecting all attachments?

December 2, 2008

Happy face in the sky


I was heading home last night and found huge crowds looking up at the sky. I don't follow astronomy news so often anymore but I still know my stars and planets, and was surprised to see the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter in conjunction forming a smiley face. This is detailed in Astroblog, and I took a quick shot.