New Access Point

Yesterday, i bought a new wireless home router, D-Link DIR 600 so that i can have a better mobility access on my house. It was cheap enough with all the features that the device has. Actually i didn't plan to buy the device, but while i'm accompanying my colleague to buy UPS, i saw the device and since it was considered quite affordable, i decided to buy it.

This morning, i tried to set up the wireless network and under than five minutes, i managed to set it up. Most of the time spent of unpacking the device, removing the seal, unwrap the cables, and do the preparations. When it comes to the setup, i only need to define as DHCP and set the SSID and the WPA2 Keys and that's it. It started to work instantly.

I can work more mobile now

Indonesian Map

My father's friend at Singapore gave my father a GPS device today (Tibo B1000). Unfortunately, it is pre-loaded with Malaysia and Singapore maps only. I checked the website and i found out that they use TeleAtlas as the map provider, but when i checked the website, they don't have product information for my device.

So basically the device is available, but with no Indonesian map available. I'm not sure whether the map from Navigasi can be used or not, but it has different format as well.

Any help on this issue?

CrunchPad is Coming

PCWorld has written an article about CrunchPad which i think will be quite phenomenon when it's released. It's slick, simple, and slim.

It's running on Linux operating system which has been modified to run the web browser (based on WebKit) and display some badges (some kind of icons) which will launch the application associated with the icons.

Another rumor is that Apple is developing what people called Apple Tablet. Rumor said that it will be published in 2010.

Will there be another changes from NetBook into CrunchPad and Apple Tablet? We will see in the next few months/years

2.6.27 Will Support Most Webcam

Thanks to the merge of gspca drivers, the next stable Linux kernel, 2.6.27 will support most web camera available on the market nowadays. These drivers will support many devices and it will be added in the future (remember, new drivers are being added constantly every cycle, mostly in merge window).

Even though i don't have web camera yet as of now, this kind of work will make me measier to choose which product i should be in order to work in my Linux box in the future (when 2.6.27 shipped, which is about 2-3 months from now).

Future laptops should be more functional, as more and more drivers are included in the kernel, so most of the devices should work out of the box after installation process. This should make switching to Linux become easier.

More Verbose Output

One visible changes to the USB drivers in the latest kernel (2.6.25) is the information shown is more verbose than in the previous kernel. Currently, you will get more information about a product when it's connected via USB ports. Here's an example taken from dmesg output when i plugged in my USB flash disk on my computer:

usb 2-6: New USB device found, idVendor=0951, idProduct=1607
usb 2-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 2-6: Product: DataTraveler 2.0
usb 2-6: Manufacturer: Kingston
usb 2-6: SerialNumber: 200706200000000059188363
usb-storage: device found at 20
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 16:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] 7888896 512-byte hardware sectors (4039 MB)
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] 7888896 512-byte hardware sectors (4039 MB)
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1
sd 16:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 16:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete

The bold one are new information after i installed kernel 2.6.25 few days ago. It reveals more information about the vendor, serial number, device strings (for identifier) and also products name.

USB Cable Extension

Five days ago i bought a cable for USB Extension. I haven't been able to try it out until yesterday and i found out it was broken, since my USB couldn't be detected at all. I was using Slackware Linux on my office and i never thought it was Linux's fault. So i tried to test it on my colleague's laptop who's using Macintosh and Windows and they ended with the same result: the USB wasn't recognized.

Today i went back to the computer store and ask for replacement. They said that cables doesn't have warranty. I told them that in the receipt i got, every item which has low prices are guaranteed for two weeks. So she said that they will replace it, but only once and it will be a shorter cable. I said OK, so we agreed. Since it's only one time replacement, i went to the neighbor of this store which is a sub division for services. I asked them to try the new one and it failed. They gave a replacement and let me tried it but everything failed. I got a replacement three times, until finally they gave a better cable for me (i think they grab it from other product) and it was more expensive than mine, but it's definitely shorter, but it works (finally). So i decided to take those without any charges at all. It's a black one, similar with my computer's casing on my office.

Here's the result from Linux's dmesg:
usb 2-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 2
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1001472 512-byte hardware sectors (513 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1001472 512-byte hardware sectors (513 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
usb-storage: device scan complete
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1001472 512-byte hardware sectors (513 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1001472 512-byte hardware sectors (513 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
usb-storage: device scan complete
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0

Hacked IPhone For Sale

a seventeen years old students has succeeded unlocking IPhone and he provide his steps on his blog. Right now, he's trying to sell the IPhone via EBay, but he's stuck with some problems, so he wanted to sell it to the highest bidder. Interested? I wonder what will the price be after it has been unlocked

It's quite interesting, since he even post a photo of soft drink cans that were spent while he was unlocking the IPhone. Right now, he can finish the process within two hours, but he's not going to open unlocking services

Finally, A New Mouse

So today i decided to buy a new mouse as well as a new printer cartridge because mine is running out (i have to prepare it before it's empty). So i went to one of the computer store near UGM and bought them all. I had several choices there, but finally i decided to buy from Logitech, since it's proven great for me (this is personal experience though) and it has wrap capabilities, so if i don't use it, i can wrap the cable around the mouse and put the USB plug on the bottom of the mouse (and it will cover the optic as well), so it's very compact. Another thing is that i got an USB extension, which makes the cable even longer (effective for computer which is located in the bottom of a desk). Well, given that features, it's common if it's a little bit more expensive than the other products available (it's not the most expensive though).

So my desktop's mouse will be used for my laptop (it's big, which makes my bag will be heavier, but it's fine, since i'm very comfortable with that mouse. It's quite big, so it fit with my palm).

New Mouse

I think i need a new mouse for both my desktop. It's a cordless mouse from logitech (it's already more than five years old and it's still working great). It has infra-red capabilities, so i can move my mouse from distances and it's still working. The problem is that it requires a battery to operate. Sometimes, i left my computer turned on when i go somewhere else (mostly because i'm leaving my download window open, either directly from browser or from torrent) and it still consumes the battery power and every 3 weeks or so i had to change the battery.

My laptop uses a normal USB mouse. I bought it because i am not used to use touchpad when working with laptop (at first. Now i'm quite used to it). Because i used my desktop mostly now (since i have moved back to my hometown), i'm thinking to switch between my desktop and laptop's mouse, so i can have two benefits:
1. I don't have to buy new mouse
2. I don't have to buy lots of new batteries, since i can use the touchpad most of the time (when i'm teaching) and only use the mouse when i need something that need a precision (for my laptop)

But after thinking for a while, i think i do need new mouse for backup. I don't have any spare at my house, so it might be a good idea to buy one.

There's another solution also that in my head, which is buying a rechargeable batteries and also the charger, so i can have them recharged all the time. Hm... will think of it tonight and decide it for tomorrow's plan

Sound Problem

In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of problems about sound in most modern distro, from Ubuntu, Slackware, and many more. They have confirmed that their soundcard is detected by the kernel and the module has been loaded, but the speaker won't produce any sound. Most of them happened in Lenovo laptops (like my Friend, Anton). The solution i got from several sources are to compile newer ALSA packages, but in Linux Forum, there's a new solution you might try. Look at this thread and give it a try. It might work for you (you might need to change the path, since it's using Slackware)

Update (19 August 2007): Another solution has come up. This time is for users who used Realtek HD Audio. Check this thread for the solutions.

Connected But Unstable

Today, a guy from Speedy came to my house and tried to fix my problem after they called me at 1 PM. He checked my modem and he saw that the VPI and VCI setting were incorrect, so he delete the account, create a new one with correct setting, and voila.. it connects

But wait.... the problem doesn't end there. When the guy left, i tried to browse some site and start my YM application. So far so good, until it stopped by itself and i couldn't connect anymore. I checked the modem LED and it's became RED again (meaning there's an error). Strange, i didn't do anything at all to change the modem settings, so i tried to delete the account and do the same steps, but i i failed to make it connect again. After several retries, finally i can fix it. But it didn't last for long, since it happened periodically.

At last, i tried to reset all of the modem setting by using a special button in the back of the modem using a pen and wait for about 10 seconds. By using this trick, your modem will lose all of it's settings, so it's kinda bare modem. I tried to setup my account again and it worked again (for now), but i don't know how long it will last this time (this is when i write this post). Hopefully it will be fixed permanently, since it's very annoying to reset the account every few hours just to get connected again

So i'm so sorry if in the middle of a chat session, i didn't respond for a long time and suddenly my YM quit