Sunday, August 17, 2008

Mount NTFS disk to Mac OS X

All portable/external had disks currently support legacy FAT (or VFAT as Linux so calls it) from DOS era. The file system is ugly in a sense that it is a 'greedy FS which consumes more space than many other file systems. We can easily use up all the space in our harddisk just by putting many video files into this FAT-formatted harddisk.

Started in NT, a new format was introduced: NTFS (Next-Technology File System). It is quite decent FS, except it seems doesn't fully support journaling (I heard it does, but not sure about that since it is a proprietary format from Microsoft).

Anyway, I don't want to talk too long about the FS, but I just want to talk more about how could the harddisk possibly be mounted to a OS-X based Mac machines? The answer is: use MacFUSE and NTFS-3g!
These opensources were originally targetting the development for Linux, but some folks have ported them to OS-X.

To install, first you need to install MacFUSE (search google to find the location), and after it is successfuly installed, install the OSX version of NTFS-3g. It may require you to reboot. After reboot, try to connect an NTFS-formatted external hard disk to Mac's available USB port. If the system can recognize and mount it, you're done.

I have a 2.5" "WD Passport" 250 GB external hard disk which was I reformatted in NTFS after I bought it. In the beginning, out of curiousity I attached it to my Linux machine running OpenSUSE 10.3. Out of my suprise, It could recognized and mounted it with no issues. I then found out that on my Linux has NTFS-3g in it installed by default. After googling, I found the ported Mac version. Now, all my machines (OSX, Linux, XP) are able to read/write files into this small-but-nice device.

Most influencing Technology

Sometimes, I ask myself about what is the most influencing breakthrough technology in human life? The criteria I ask first that it must be substantial, it must be ubiquotus and found in most every tool, device or anything people use.

My first answer is Transistor. Why? First, it is one of the tremendous invention in 21st century. Secondly, it can be found almost in any household's equipment. Don't believe me? Look at cellphones, TVs, radios, video consoles, computers, cars, airplanes, spacecrafts, security systems, weapons, medical equipments, kitchen appliances, network devices (router, switches, PSTN), satellites, even in our body (pacemaker), ..., and the list would go on and on. Currently, there is almost nobody can live without it.

The second place is taken by LASER. The invention is so great that it has advanced many other sciences and technologies and used in many applications. It is used in medical equipments (e.g, laser surgeries), in telecommunications, industries, military, mining and oil industries or energy in general, basic science research (Cyclotron, etc.), instruments, biotech industries, entertainment (in discotiques, in all cd/dvd players) and even toys!

The inventors should've got double nobel laurates (yes, I know, they all got nobel laurates in the past, but seems it is not enough considering how much their invention has changed our life forever).

The third one is for the invention of computer or the Internet.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Make Blackjack II as Bluetooth modem on AT&T network

In case you're struggling to make the nice Samsung Blackjack II smartphone as a bluetooth modem, I've found what I need here, or in case the site is down, here I copy-paste the steps:




MAKE SURE TO RE-DOWNLOAD THE CAB AS IT IS CHANGED!!

ok so here's the NEW procedure:

Step0.0: Make sure your device is app unlocked!!**(see below note!); run secpolicies.cab first if unsure or the certs won't take!!
Step0.1 RESET THE DEVICE!
Step1: Install the BJ.WM6.ICS.Enable cab file (it might ask you to reboot)
Step2: navigate to \My Documents and click on the certs.cab file
Step3: RESET THE DEVICE!
Step4: go to start and run internet sharing
Step5: report back and lemme know if i fux0red anything ELSE up :P

this should work on both BJ1/WM6 and BJ2/WM6

file is temporarily hosted at:
http://www.mdots.net/misc/BJ.WM6.ICS.Enable.cab

**run this cab and reboot; http://sems.org/content/download/secpolicies.cab

After reset, I could see "Internet Sharing" under "Application (Start -> Applications -> Internet Sharing).  When I ran it, it showed two choices for PC connection (USB and Bluetooth PAN).

On PC (or MAC, with small diffs):

  1. Double click on the desktop icon identifying the connection. If not desktop icon was added go toStart, Settings, Network and Dial-up Connections, GPRS.
  2. Enter Username:
  3. Enter Password:
  4. Enter Password again in the Confirm box: 
  5. Verify that the number to dial is *99# and click dial.
    NOTE: If receiving error 678 or 619 the Phone number can also be entered as *99***1#, or *99***(CID Number)#
    NOTE: By default 1 is the CID, but can change.


I've not tested it yet, but seems to work OK.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

AT&T Wireless Packet-data Settings

Carrier:AT&T (USA)
APN:proxy
User name:
Password:

Carrier:Cingular (With acceleration) (USA)
APN:WAP.CINGULAR
User name:WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1

Carrier:Cingular(NO acceleration) (USA)
APN:
User name:
Password:

Carrier:Cingular (With acceleration) (USA)
APN:ISP.CINGULAR
User name:ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1

Carrier:Cingular (With acceleration) (USA)
APN:ISP.CINGULAR
User name:ISPDA@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1

Carrier:(ex AT&T) (USA)
APN:proxy
User name:guest
Password: guest

Carrier:Cingular (USA)
APN:proxy
User name:guest
Password: guest

Carrier:Cingular Orange/MediaWorks (USA)
APN:wap.cingular
User name:WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM or blank
Password: CINGULAR1

Carrier:Cingular (USA)
APN:isp.cingular
User name:ISPDA@CINGULARGPRS.COM or ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

USBConnect 881U

It's actually a Sierra-Wireless 881U 3G GSM modem.
The settings:

user=ISPDA@CINGULARGPRS.COM
password=CINGULAR1
init1 box enter: AT+CGDCONT=1"IP,"isp.cingular"


Enter the following AT command in any terminal application (e.g. Minicom) to obtain the signal quality (RSSI):
at!rssi?
A range from -60 dbm to -90 dBm is considered adequate.
Enter the following AT command to see whether your AirCard modem is online:
at!pcinfo

Enter the following AT command to turn the radio on (if the modem is in low power mode (LPM) the radio is off):
at!pcstate=1

For AirCards modems, the power LED on the card will light up.

Enter the following AT command in any terminal application (e.g. Minicom) to obtain the signal quality (RSSI):
at+csq
The first number indicates the signal strength above -109 dBm (in 2 dBm increments). A value of 7 or higher (-95 dBm) can be considered adequate.
Enter the following AT command to see whether your AirCard modem is online:
at!gstatus?

Enter the following AT command to turn your radio on (if the modem is in low power mode (LPM) the radio is off):
at+cfun=1
For AirCard modems, the power LED on the card will light up.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Get fit with Wii Fit

Finally I've got this device (I bought it at Best Buy when it had it in stock, I guess not very long would dissapear again). The package is similar to MacBook Pro package with stylist elegant white color and minimalist (not to much graphics but yet still informative to consumers).

The board is quite large, enough to seat my big feet. It's quite heavy (they put some weight for stability, not because of its electronics). I had to add extension (included in the package) to their pegs because carpet in my house is thick enough to make the balance being inaccurate. There is only a single button with a blue color LED at the back for power on switch. As other Wii remotes, it uses Bluetooth to connect hence require synchronization with Wii Console for the first time before use.

The software (called "Wii Fit") has two parts: "Body Test" and "Training". Body Test is all stuff related to measure our weight, BMI, balance and Wii Age. It's really good. It is able to track our daily weight measures and set target to reach our target BMI.

The training section contains 4 sections: Yoga, Strength, Aerobic, and Balance. For yoga, we are guided by an virtual instructor (with preference is set during setup. We can choose to use male or female instructor). It's very easy to follow, although not that easy to do what it is said (I sometimes fidget or wiggle a little and these all are detected with its very sensitive accelerometer in the Wii surve board).

My favorite game is Hulla-hoop, dance (forgot the exact name) and boxing. Similar to other Wii games, some of the games/activities are locked and can only be unlocked by doing more work-out (collecting more minutes over time).