Phorce Unboxing!

Finally, my Kickstarter funding comes to me!

 

My First Time Building PC

Here is the build: http://pcpartpicker.com/b/sKhqqs

Building PC looks like Lego + Gundam, but from my experience, I want to share some advice.

I like smaller cases. Everyone told me it will give you trouble fixing the parts, and boy I must agree. But I can take that. What made me stressful was following the chassis instructions. PSU first, then motherboard, then ODD and HDD, then expansion cards (in my case, chassis fans were already installed). What is not put in there is plugging cable. And yes, that is a nightmare. One advice is that you don't need to put PSU first; you can put motherboard first, plug some cables then put PSU in. In such a small case, the PSU is on the way of the cable pins (lucky I have small fingers, so some left out cables could easily be sorted out). I had to take out the PSU after plugging in all the power cables because I have not plug in the front panel cables.

Another tips I can tell you is the CPU cooler from the CPU box already has a thermal paste applied on the cooler. If you have been seeing PC building videos, you might be thinking, "Shucks, I didn't buy any thermal paste." The answer is no need. I had to watch some youtube videos until some guy mentioned it.

One trouble I met in building my PC was the graphic card. When I finished building the PC, the parts are powered, but it was not booting. From online search, I took the suggestion to put only one RAM and to take out all expansion cards and yes it went to BIOS! Then I put in the other RAM, followed by installing Windows. Then I put in my wireless card. Everything still good. Then I put in my graphic card. Blank. BLANK. Oh my God. I spent the nights until 4 am only to know my graphic card caused the problem. So I went online, and some tips are to disable Intel graphics (for fear of graphic module crash) and to force enable PCI-E slot for graphics. Of course, not wanting to waste Intel graphics, I force enable PCI-E and... Wow, there is an option to enable both graphics there? Let's try! So I went to boot the PC again and BAM. Still blank. Wondering what is wrong, I try to plug in the HDMI to the motherboard instead of the graphic card and the screen is blue with mouse cursor! I tried moving the mouse cursor and it went missing to the side! That means that the system thinks that I have two monitors; one from graphic card and one from motherboard. This means my graphic card is working! So there you go, I uninstalled the graphic card, went into safe mode, disable Intel graphics, reinstalled the graphic card and finally, it works. That. Was. Painful. But worth it :)

Another confusion I met was IO shield. I didn't know why there are so many protruding pins on the IO shield, and Google search did not come up with anything obvious. Those pins are for grounding (prevent electric shock) the electric charge from the IO panel on the motherboard. They should touch the IO panel on the motherboard, but yes, you have to bend it! Otherwise you can't fit the motherboard with the IO shield on the case. It took me several attempts until I can fit my motherboard into the IO shield.

Oh, one more advice. Please have a screwdriver ready. I thought one of the parts would provide screwdriver, which apparently is not. In the end I used a cheap multi-tool with screwdriver that I owned to build the whole PC (ckck).

Google's Focus on Chrome

http://thenextweb.com/google/2013/11/21/google-building-chrome-app-based-development-environment-using-dart-polymer/?fromcat=all

It seems that lately Google has been pushing the boundary of Chrome and Chromium OS. I discussed about Chromium OS limitations before (here and here), but the article above seems to make my posts very obsolete as it will be soon before we could develop on Chromium OS/Chrome.

NUS Wushu Performance - SUNIG 2013

Part 1 and 2. Too bad the focus was lost for many times.

NUS Wushu Performance - NUS Sports Award 2013

Flattr - Updated

I am trying this new service called Flattr, which enable people to support content creators (like micro donations for every like/favorite/+1). I think it is better than putting ads since it shows support. If it looks good, I would replace the ads in this blog :)

Update:
I must say the idea behind Flattr is very good. However, it seems I am against the idea of flattring every thing that I give my like to. I prefer to specify which to flattr and which not to.
I have removed the ads on this blog :)

Mac OS X Maverick: Tags

When I read the post about tags in the new Mac OS X, I thought, "Wow. Someone in Apple Mac OS X dev has the same thought as me!" Hahaha. How happy I am, though I never thought of the implementation like Mac OS X dev did. Here is my post on tagging system:

http://hansccwolf.blogspot.com/2012/12/tagging-system.html 

The video below has the demonstration of the tag system as well (at 0:26 onwards):

Samsung SideSync

Samsung is one of the best when it comes to Android customization features. This is an interesting one: SideSync (the link goes to GSMArena post, as it has more explanation rather than just the video). It's a very interesting feature where you can share screen and all. There is just one trouble: you need a Samsung PC for that, which is a very grave downside. I think Samsung is trying to protect its sales of PC (including notebook PC and tablet PC). Let's wish that they change their mind soon. By the way, the companion app in Android is already available in Samsung's own App Market. There is quite some complain on the availability of the program on the Samsung PC side, though.

Turbulenz Game Engine

https://turbulenz.com/

Just a share on an interesting website. Well, it is an open source HTML5 game engine, but I go there to play fun games that are free. Enjoy!

Famo.us : Reinventing multiple platform compatibility of web application

You could try their demo here: http://famo.us/ . It has first-person-shooter-like navigation on laptop (have not tried yet on touch devices, though it should be fully compatible).

The interesting stuff is not in the demo. It is actually in the thought process. I think it is very interesting to see how people are now pushing the boundaries of web applications although the web itself has been existent for much longer. I attached the video below.

Internet and Productivity

I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet

A very nice sharing of Internet not being the reason for you to be not productive. It's quite long, but you should get the story halfway the article :)

3D Visual in Browser without Plugin

Epic Citadel

Interesting development of browser-based application. I tried Epic Citadel before on my iPad. This is the same thing in browser without any plugin needed (though it does not really in Chrome, but works well in Firefox). Web-based application is gaining attention lately for its versatility and universality across platforms.

E-Ink Tablet for Writing

Yeay! The gadget that I have been waiting for! Hope it is manufactured soon!!

Sony prepares a 13.3-inch e-ink stylus-enabled tablet for students

$2 Capacitive Stylus

I thought that was bullshit, then I experimented from some other materials. It worked!!! On my first try, I didn't have any aluminium foil, so I tried using a paperclip since I supposed it is a conductive metal. I didn't use any pen casing, only wet cotton bud (well, some call it Q-tip or cotton swab, but it is called cotton bud in Indonesia) and an unbent paperclip. So, I know the physics behind is that you need to touch the metal which touches the wet cotton for it to work as a stylus, so I did just that. Hold the paperclip with my left hand and ensure it touched the wet cotton, then I navigate the wet cotton on my Galaxy SIII. Eureka!!!

Obviously, I was not satisfied. I bought an aluminium foil (costed me SGD 1.80) and what I did was wrapped it on the cotton bud, pour water into the cotton, VOILA! Perfect stylus with a very high working degree!!! Tip or side, they just worked well!

Here is the "stylus":

What could I do with it?

These two are my attempts at using the stylus. There was no need to keep erasing and sketching (as opposed to just draw a line once). Just that my handwriting becomes quite bad on touchscreens and I just suck at drawing.

Here is my attempt at designing a logo for Pycon Sg 2013 (the S would be the python while the g, well, I just thought of a poisonous animal/bug and it would be a wasp). Again, I sucked at drawing so I scrapped the plan to develop further.

Is there a price on design? - Updated

Recently, I have been browsing through laptop catalogs. I found some that have higher price but nicer design and feel. That popped a question in my mind: do we put price on design?

I looked at Sony Vaio S Series. Indeed, for the given specification, it is more expensive compared to other laptop's of similar or even better specification such as from ASUS or HP. However, Vaio S Series has probably the thinnest profile for such size of given specification. Also, it is much lighter than ASUS better counterpart (N series). HP Envy ultrabook, while cheaper, has no CD slot (though not many using it now, but some school work needed to be burnt on CD requires it, thus the inclusion on comparison). HP Pavilion, which best spec has cheaper price, is large in term of size and heavier.

Some laptop are heavier than their look. ASUS N series comes here again. I was considering it when I saw my friend carrying it around. I wanted to see the build quality so I borrowed it from him. It was much heavier than how it looks, especially with its sleek design. HP Envy is light enough, though it is still heavier by a little compared to its look. I found Vaio S as heavy as how it looks. People like to tell me that I am a boy, so I should not fret heavy laptop. But I always like light laptop and possibly of smaller size. Possibly it is just my preference, or that I am just lazy carrying around powerful laptop that is heavy and big.

I decided to put a price on design. I deem it worth the money for all the weight shed and the shrunk size. I would not say the same thing on Mac family, though. I agree that Macs look to have better build, and obviously nothing can beat Macbook Air thin, light and sleek profile yet. But the exorbitant price on Mac may not be comparable to PC since the price put on Mac OS X may be different than that of Windows, thus comparison might not be of equal ground.

*Update:
John Ive (in a small part of the article) talks about how hard it is to measure design, because you cannot associate number with it (unlike hard drive). Probably this is the reason people do not want to put price on design; it is hard to be scaled. http://stratechery.com/2013/jony-ive-is-not-a-graphic-designer/

Firefox OS Phone

I was planning to buy the Firefox OS phone (although developer phone). Keon priced at $119 and Peak at $194 (not sure if those include tax and delivery charge). The sale just started today.

The moment I landed on the website, the Keon was already sold out!!! Probably since it was cheaper. Then I took a bath, returned to my laptop, see if I could pre-order Keon and BOOM!!! Peak is also SOLD OUT!!!! Oh my god!

I didn't know their demand was so high, especially that Firefox OS has not matured yet. I guess the cheap price of the phone would entice more people to buy later, as compared to the hiking price of Android phones (at least the higher end, while Firefox OS phone only has 2 models), thus developers are keen to buy them. Another probable reason is that the developer phone is so cheap compared to Android developer phone, like HTC One and Samsung Galaxy SIII developer edition.

Hope the stock restored soon and I could get one Keon.

Review: Grand Lotus Chinese Food Restaurant, Kota Kasablanka, Jakarta, Indonesia

Grand Lotus Chinese Food Restaurant
Kota Kasablanka
Upper Ground FS #31
ph (021) 29488506

Place: Not so big since in a mall, but cozy enough.
Food: Small portion per item, but taste very good even when compared to Chinese Food Restaurant of higher class.
Price: At the time of writing, there is discount on weekdays and with some credit cards (Citibank if I am not mistaken). Not too expensive.

Menu tasted that are recommended:
- Kailan Dua Rasa
- Ayam Goreng Grand Lotus
- Fu Yung Hai (taste very good)
- Bistik Sapi (don't know exact name)
- Fillet Carp (don't know exact name)

My wish

I wish I would have someone to go around to those lonely nature.

Happy Lunar New Year!!!!

Yeay!!!! Happy Lunar New Year!!!! I hope I can get a digital keyboard soon!!!!! :DDDDDD

Papertown Super Theme GO

Papertown Super Theme GO on Google Play

It is an awesome theme. Very kiddy, my favorite :) Wish I could make something like that :)