lungsi.think

Custom 17,000-watt 8-Sundown Audio SAZ-1500D

2007-12-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

Observe the roof of the car and the guys hair blowing

Lenova i909 - Mobile Phone with NES Emulation

2007-11-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

Looks like Lenova is really going strong not only have they bought IBM PC and are able to make them successful without crapping them, they have also come up with a really cool idea.

" The Lenova i909 "

Lenova i909 is a mobile phone looking like the N-series phone or the w810 Sony Ericsson with:
2.4″ 262K color QVGA TFT display,
2 megapixel camera,
microSD memory card slot,
mp3 and video player,
111.4 × 50.2 × 15.5 mm dimensions and 112.8 grams weight.

But wait wait.......

What makes Lenova i909 apart from the others is that it comes with a cool D-Pad controller that's meant for playing NES emulated games on the phone.

It's an excellent idea but unfortunately it's only available in China. Which makes me fell Lenova is going the Japanese or any other electronic manufacturer's way of marketing their products first in their country and then if we are lucky we get them someday....That's a bummer :-)

Link (Chinese):
mobile.zol.com.cn

2.4GHz wireless 3D Finger Optical Mouse

2007-11-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Wearable (ring) optical mouse.......how neat !!!

It is sold at www.usbfever.com for US$ 36.99.

The package contains:

1. The 3D finger optical mouse has a 1000dpi high resolution that works by using radio frequency of about 2.4 GHz with a working distance of about 15 meters. It's USB interface is plug n play requiring no installation (driver or software). It weighs just about 25 grams.

2. The mouse has a built in 3.7 V, 230 mA Li-ion battery that is rechargeable by plugging the USB. It also has an automatic power saving mode that turns off the mouse if mouse movements are not detected for a while.

3. It also comes with 3 different ring sizes to fit for different people with different ring sizes.

4. The RF reciever just needs to be plugged to a USB port for the mouse (reciever) to detect the frequency and work.

Here's a video demonstration I found on youtube.

Shadow Puppetry - an art

2007-11-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

I came across this video clip from youtube. This is one of the most amazing shadow puppetry I have seen performed by Raymond Crowe at the 7th Annual Helpmann Awards 2007.

Killer Bean Forever

2007-11-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

I am not sure if this is going to be a real feature film.....presumably it is..from the self titled official trailer for Killer Bean Forever at metcafe. It looks awesome just check out the trailer.

Killer Bean Forever - Official Trailer

Using Hitachi 750 GB Internal HDD for External HDD

2007-11-11T01:08:00.000-08:00

As you might have all heard about the 1 Terabyte barrier being broken. First by Hitachi and now Seagate and WD has followed with their own 1 TB hard-drives. This is mostly because to break the 500 GB barrier the head movement had to change to perpendicular which was extremely difficult to be plausible untill recently.

I was hunting around for a back up hard-drive since my 250 GB laptop was catching up with me. First I went for the 750 GB hard drive instead of the 1 TB ones because:-
it was cheaper
presumably more stable and reliable (my theory:- since the latest techs... need to be tried and tested and I was not going to be the guinea pig)
lesser platter numbers than the 1TB ones (though more than the 500GB)
made sense over the 500GB ones (why not get 750 GB when you can get them :-) )

So I went on web search for those external hardrives - I came across Lacie, Cavalry, WD - My Book, Seagate's Free Agent and HP's Personal Media Drive. I then shortened my shortlist to Seaget's Free Agent and HP's Personal Media because - they were well priced and more reliable.

But then I had a change of mind. I realized that these proprietary external hard drives were more expensive with lesser specification that those you can build yourself. So I decided to build myself.

I noticed that all these proprietary external hard drives had at least 7500 rpm with cache ranging from 8MB - 16 MB (one of the factors determining their price). Most of these reasonably priced ones did not even have fan and they outputs either had one of the following combinations :-
USB alone
USB with Firewire
USB, Firewire and eSata (the priciest of them all).

So I made a criteria for what my external hard drive would be before building it :-
at least 750 GB,
at least 16 MB cache,
at least 7200 RPM speed.

On searching the web with these criteria in mind I came to realize that most of the proprietary external hard drives with 750 GB and 16 MB cache was much more expensive than the individual hard drive built by the same manufacturer (eg, WD , seagate). And I came to realize I could get 32 MB cache which was being offered by Hitatchi and moreover it was well priced (obviously more expensive than the 16 MB one but in the same budget I was initially intending to spend on the the proprietary 750 GB with 16 MB cache).

So because of the reasons I have described and because of its reliability I decided to get the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 (which is the same family that makes the 1TB). It had the following features:-
Size: 3.5 inches
Capacities: 750 GB
Cache: 32 MB
Speed: 7,200 RPM
Interfaces: SATA 3.0 GB/s
Seek Time: 8.5 ms read
9.2 ms write
Platters: 4
Heads: 8
DataSheet

Comparison between UltraStar, DeskStar and CinemaStar families of Hitachi 750 GB.

Now I was in search for a good sturdy 3.5' enclosures that had a fan to keep the hard drive cool hence helping it life span. I came across (depending upon their pricing) - Eagle Consus W-Series, iRock, iMicro, Vantec..............and so on but they were mostly USB with or without fans and did not seem to have very good reviews. I finally came across a very reliable enclose built by one of companies that build power supply for PC's, ANTEC. It's the veris model from antec which was not only well built but had USB with eSata outputs and with very silent fan. Best of all it did not have any of pesting CD's and installation issues for drivers.

Features / Specifications :-
Dual output interface - USB2.0 and eSATA (external Serial ATA) allows you to transfer data up to 480Mbps or 3Gbps respectively
The Body - Two layer (plastic with aluminum) structure upper and lower covers to absorb HDD and fan noise
Carbon-glass filled frame to reinforce the strength of the whole enclosure
Built-in silicone pad to absorb HDD noise
Included: USB cable, eSATA cable, and eSATA bracket to convert internal SATA to eSATA, Stand included
Noise Level: 20 dbA with the blower on inside the enclosure
Supports: up to 1TB SATA hard disk drive
Windows 2000 / XP / ME / VISTA
Dimensions: - 21.9cm(H) x 14.6cm(W) x 5.7cm(D)

Installation after I received my Hitachi 750 GB hard drive and the enclosure was pretty straight forward (it barely took 10 min) by just following the instruction that comes with the enclosure. There is also a video demonstration of the installation procedure at Antec Website

Post- Installation in my 12" laptop:- (click for enlarged picture)

You must have noticed that I have preferred using eSata instead of the slower USB (makes sense because I have 750 GB of external HDD). For that I had to get an extension card, in my laptop it's the new express card/54 (the old one would be express card/34). I got the one from SIIG but you can get cheaper ones as well an expensive one from Belkin. I must say however I have not had any problem with this one. You just had to plug it in install the driver that comes with it (Vista Compatible - drivers form the website). After that reboot and just plug the eSata from the external HDD and walah!! it's ready to take in your datas.

After all that, I partitioned my 750 GB HDD into 7. I must eSATA is fast unlike USB (without those memory and power consumtion from the motherboard) and the antec fan in the enclosure is very quiet you just don't hear it (I thought it might be a marketing gimick when the official site mentioned it produced sound < 22db). On conlcusion, you must have guessed what I am going to say. I LOVE IT.

Elephants Dream - First Open src Movie

2006-06-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Elephants Dream

Elephants Dream is the world’s first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender

I have downloaded the movie using bittorrent and have watched the HD version (1960 X 1080) with a file size of 814 MB for a 10 min 53 sec movie.

It's great quality and though some of the animation is not perfect for the open source team this is a step forward with some of the 3D modelling like the old man's beard and other's as well (you have to watch the movie to find it out for yourself).

Here are some of the links depending on the file sizes but these the bittorrent and not direct download. You don't have to worry, 'cause there are about 4000 seeder (not to mention leechers) for each of the file, so your download will be pretty fast, that is, if you have a good connection :-)
< a href="http://www.tribler.org/content/Elephants_Dream_HD.avi.torrent">HD AVI (1960x1080!) (815MB)
AVI (1024) (425MB)
QuickTime:
1024 (311MB)
720 (145MB)
480 (99MB)

Alternatively, you could also go to the DOWNLOAD PAGE

Screenshots:

Album Cover Art Downloader

2006-05-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Album Cover Art Downloader is a very neat and convenient program for searching the album cover images for your mp3 collection.

All you have to do, is open the software after downloading and open
-> the folder that contains your music collection (mp3 or wma), i.e, a folder that contains subfolders,

OR

-> just the folder of a single album

You can then Search for any particular album. The search are from:
Amazon.com
Yahoo.com
WalMart.com
Buy.com
You can enable or disable the searches from any of these 4 sites.

To prevent overexpectation, I have to mention that you are not going to get 1600 X 1200 images (the name of the program is Album Cover Art Downloader) most of the images searched will usually be of the sizes 90 X 90, 160 X 160, 190 X 190, 300 X 300 and 500 X 500.

For a complete description on how to use Album Cover art Downloader, you can watch the Flash Demonstration or read the manual

Do Not Need AOL Browser

2006-02-23T12:15:00.000-08:00

For Windows 9X/ME :-
Steps-

1) Download an application RASPPPOE available as Zip file so unzip it in a specific folder. Here is the link to Official Website of RASPPPOE.

2) Start >> Settings >> Control Panel

3) Double Click "Network"

4) Click "Add"

5) Select "Protocol" then Click "Add"

6) Click "Have Disk..."

7) Click "Browse...

8) Browse through to the folder you unzipped RASPPPOE
".inf"files will appear
Select any of the ".inf"files
Click "OK"

9) Click "OK" again

10) Click "OK" again

11) It will automatically do the set up now.
RESTART the computer

12) After booting the computer
Start >> Settings >> Control Panel
Double Click "Network"
Your Network List will appear

13) On List select "PPP over Ethernet Protocol ->"adapter or NIC associated with your ADSL modem
Click "Properties"

14) In the "General" options of the Properties
Check the box for the option of MTU/Maximum Transfer Unit
Type "1400" for the value of MTU
Click "OK"

15) Start >> Run

16) In the dialogue box
Type "raspppoe"
Click "OK"

17) Set up window with the name of your Network adapter should appear
Click "Query Available Services"

18) A list of available services for your ADSL adapter should appear

19) Click "Create a Dial-up Connection for the selected Adapter"
Click "Exit"

20) A Shortcut will be created

21) Double Click Shortcut

22) Fill in the username and password
Click "Connect"
REMEMBER it is "username@aol.com"

For Windows XP :-
Steps-

1) Click "Start"
then "Control Panel"

2) Click "Network and Internet Connections"

3) Click the icon "Network Connections"

4) Under the menu "Network Tasks" on the left hand side
Click "Create a new connection"

5) Click "Next"

6) Choose the option "Connect to the Internet"
Then Click "Next"

7) Choose the option "Set up my connection manually"
Then Click "Next"

8) Choose the option "Connect using a broadband connection that requires a username and password"
Then Click "Next"

9) Type in the ISP Name - you can type anything to personalise it.
Then Click "Next"
Here's an example

10) Type in your username and password and
Check box for the upper two options
Make sure username = "username"@aol.com
Click "Next"

11) Check the box for "Add a shortcut to this connection to my desktop" for convenience.
Click "Finish"

12) To connect - Just click the shortcut on your desktop
OR Start >> Connect to >> "the ISP Name" you typed in

13) A window like the one below will appear ready for connection.

Tony Jaa

2005-12-28T16:43:00.000-08:00

Finally back with some article

2005-10-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

I just came across an article as I have been recently trying to teach myself Python by reading and listening to podcast, particularly podcast411.

It was an article written by the renowned hacker since the 70's Eric.S.Raymond for the linux journal. He explains in the journal how he first came across Python while using Perl and didn't think much about python in 1997 but the 2nd time he came across python around the same year which he says was accidental (as it was with the first encountered), he was surprised with the elegance and power the Python language had not to mention cleaner syntax.

He even mentions in this very long article by ESR how in his 2nd encounter with Python which was accidental, he created a GUI interface of his utility program fetchmail using python in just 6 days off which 2 days was spent learning python.

{Now, let me remind you that this time period for learning will differ depending upon their previous exposure to programming, so for beginners you will take a longer time learning however this gives you an idea on how easy it is to learn this powerful programming language}

Link to the full article

A great idea for podcast search in "INFANTILE" stage

2005-09-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a great site for particularly searching podcast's on the net.

I don't know what speech recognition technology they are using but it basically works by you/me typing in a word listed in the dictionary and then podcast searches for those words on the available podcast's on the net.
A list of those then pops up and you can listen to the sample to be sure it's the podcast you actually were searching for.

Frankly, it's not very accurate in it's search (which is not surprising since speech recognition technology is still developing) but it's a great idea and a great effort.

Do you want to publish things without the hassle ?

2005-09-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

I listened to the TWIT podcast and came across on of the interviews with Bob Young

Bob Young has got his website called www.lulu.com

You can publish for FREE (obviously) if you are an author or even a movie and www.lulu.com will market it in it's website with their respective pricing.
They are also working on DVD releases for any independant film-maker, if you have a made movie that you or your firends have made it and are hunting for a studio company to release it, no worry's you can just upload them for free at www.lulu.com and get it ready for sale.

Just Click Bob Youngs's Site:

ADSL USB Breakdown

2005-09-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

I have recently been having problems with my AOL connection.

The connection seems to die out and get automatically disconnected which really annoys me and so today after finishing my test I went on a hunt for information about the problems.

I always knew that those expensive ADSL modems with routers were better but did not know how and even thought those PCI-ADSL modems are better than the one I had.

But to my views ahd to change after knowing that the routers are better because of their independence, i.e, they have their own power source and are not reliant on the the cpu.
So obviously, both the USB-ADSL and the PCI-ADSL use the cpu performance and hence give poorer performance.

Though we all know about the limited performance and breakdown of USB ports it just amazed me how much computer resource these ports pull.
Just imagine I have the occassional blue screen with my USB-ADSL even if I have a 4GB RAM ;-)
That says alot about not only on the USB-ADSL performance but also on the performance of any USB devices. Looks like firewire will surely take over USB's :-)

Click these thumbnails to get a very basic overview about these 3 types of modems (advantages and disadvantages) it's only for novices :-)

And those who want to know more about the BUGCODE_USB_DRIVE blue screen just click the link. This one's detailed though it's from a forum.

Gearlog

2005-09-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

I am in a hurry :-) so I won't be typing much this time, because I have got a test tomorrow.........

Here's a great link to know about the latest gear's tested:

A Great Free Rhythm & Blues Video

2005-09-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

I just came across this gem of a movie at Archive.Org which is not sruprising that this ite has it because it's one of the best open source media sites. I used to visit this site mostly for archive books and videos of maths and computer stuffs.

However, I was just playing some tune with my guitar and reading an encyclopedia on blues and jazz ("Jazz is a white term to define Black people. My music is Black classical music." - Nina Simone) when it just clicked me that I could just search for any blues or Jazz videos at this site. This is when I came across this great videos which any classical black music lover (blues & jazz) will love and cherish it after they download it.

Rhythm and Blues Revue (1955)
Rhythm and Blues Revue is a musical variety show filmed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York City featuring a cast of popular African-American performers:
Willie Bryant, Freddie Robinson, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie,

Faye Adams, Bill Bailey, Herb Jeffries, Amos Milburn,

Sarah Vaughan, Nipsey Russell, Big Joe Turner, Martha Davis,

Little Buck, Nat 'King' Cole, Mantan Moreland, Cab Calloway

and Ruth Brown.

Here's the link for download
You can also view Thumbnails
The video is 1 hour 12 minutes long, and pretty good in quality with some lip sync problem but it's not a problem, unless you are very meticulous.
The options available for viewing are:

STREAMING:

For watching the streaming video at 64 Kbps for Dial-Up Click here (Dial-Up)
For watching the streaming video at 256 Kbps for Broadband Click here (Broadband)

DOWNLOADING:

For downloading 64 Kbps quality MPEG-4 Click here (83 MB)
For downloading 256 Kbps quality MPEG-4 Click here (187 MB)
For downloading as MPEG-1 file Click here (695 MB)
For downloading as MPEG-2 file Click here (3.5 GB)

I personally have downloaded the 695 MB MPEG-1 file, and let me tell you it's quite decent in quality.
This movie has also been listed in IMDB, though there's nothing much written or commented about the movie except for the full list of casts.

2005 Nationwide Mercury Awards

2005-09-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my couch after watching for an hour of British Nationwide Mercury award show which frankly is a great show for the upcoming musical talents in the U.K without the usual media frenzy of the present popular music scene (I know most of us know about that, by now......)

Well, this show gave nominations to 12 bands most of which were independant. Most because Cold Play was amongst them, probably because they too started out as an independant band and had been nominated since their first album and hence this was their third time for their third album.
And unlike most other awards this particular award handed out an award statue for each and every one of the nominations, and of course a seperate one for the winner (including the one he/she gets as a nominee.

I thinks that's enough of beating around the bush, here are the 12 nominees

Bloc Party	Antony And The Johnsons
Maximo Park	The Magic Numbers
Hard Fi	Seth Lakeman
Cold Play	Polar Bear
K.T Tunstall	Kaiser Chiefs
Go! Team	M.I.A

And the Winner is.............................
Antony And the Johnsons

Hooke Magazine Back Issues

2005-09-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Reading Science magazines !!!!

Hooke's Magazine Back Issues

Here are some of the back issues that might interest some.....

Free Books Links

2005-09-08T02:30:00.000-07:00
Here's a link of the website that has the full books on Molecular Biology.

Book Details
4th edition
Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, and Peter Walter.
Garland Publishing
2002
Lots moreFree Medical Books
Here's a link for Computer Programming Books

Here's another link for the free ebooks mostly on computers
WARNING !!!! Some of these books are in Russian but they also include English

One of my favourite books "Concrete Mathematics"

Download the 2 parts, Links: Link-1 and Link-2
A book on understanding the "Timing for Hand-drawn Animations"

Now here's a books that boasts with its "Read Less Learn More" attitude

Links of the book :Link-1, Link-2 and Link-3
Need to know more about "Bioinformatics"

And yes, how can I miss out on providing a link for book on

Beginning

2005-09-07T13:19:00.000-07:00
Well well well, I am finally blogging.

I actually already have one at http://www.myspace.com/lungsi

But I wanted a weblog dedicated to jot down my understanding about anything I come across in simple plain language.
Which is not surprising........as Richard Feynman has been my "imaginary mentor".

So, if you have already visited my weblog first of all thank you, and wellcome.
But let me warn you that I intend to describe my thoughts about anything (mostly science) and so the blogs will be quite lengthy.
I apologise in advance for that.