Lesson Learned: Battery Leak

Lesson Learned: Do not use low performance battery into high current drain devices. This what happen when I used low performance battery into my Nikon SB-600 Flash. Luckily I checked today because I want to test new rechargeable battery (eneloop XX). Go check your device now!

:: aerobrainTech ::

Free Android Source Code for Battery Status/Widget

I'm distributing my Source Code for the Battery Status and Battery Widget that I have shared in the previous posts. You may visit Android Apps page to grab the Source Code. I'm releasing these Source Codes as below license:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I'll let you try to combine these separate codes to work as an application containing that can launch and also can work as widget. I'll be posting the full combined Source Code maybe after couple of days. In fact I'm running the combined code on my phone right now. Work like a charm!

If anybody manage to combine, feel free to comment below.

Happy Coding Android!

Previous Related Posts:
Android Sample Code: Battery Status
Android Sample Code: Battery Widget  

:: aerobrainTech ::

Storm Trooper, R2D2 guarding the Google Data Center?

With the launching of Street View, Google has captured some pictures inside their Data Center in Lenoir, North Carolina. Upon viewing the pictures, my eyes caught at the Storm Trooper and R2D2 in front of a row of server racks.

Take a closer look below:

Wide Angle Converter

Wide angle converter (0.5x) mounted on Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 compare to Nikon 18-55mm VR.

Conclusion:

Wide Angle Converter does not product as wide as the factor given. For example 0.5x does not convert 28mm to 14mm (28 times 0.5), but it produces somewhere in between 24mm to 18mm. However it is good enough for those who does not want to carry 2 separate lenses.

Click on the image above to see the full resolution.

:: aerobrainTech ::

Firefox 16

 

Mozilla has released Firefox 16 today! Try it now!

Anyway, I'm still waiting for the Waterfox team to compile the 64-bit version of Firefox. [can't wait!]

:: aerobrainTech ::

Shutdown Timer

Before I go to sleep, I want to share how you can make use of the shutdown command built-in the Windows. In my case, I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate.

First of all, click START, run 'cmd'.

Then you can type: shutdown /s /f /t xxx

If you want to abort: shutdown /a

Whereby the xxx will be time in seconds. If you want to know more details on the options, simply enter shutdown.

At least if you still have processes running such as Dropbox synchronization, you can go to sleep first and let the computer shutdown by itself afterwards.

Good night!

:: aerobrainTech ::

Watch Live Air Traffic Online

I found this cool website showing the live air traffic around the world. Once you click on the plane you can view even the details including altitude, speed, heading, destination, etc. For an aeronautical background person like me, I found it very cool watching this!

Searched Keywords

Most searched keywords that reached to this blog.

Clouds generated using Wordle.net

:: aerobrainTech ::

Tools to Generate Your Facebook Report

Ever since we received spam in Facebook that claim it can produce report to our Facebook profile such who our activity, who visited our profile page most frequent and etc. Last week, I found 2 web-tools that can generate the report for our Facebook account. Of course, both tools will ask our permission first to do so.

Windows 8 @ 26-OCT-2012

Microsoft just announced the general availability for Windows 8 will be on October 26, 2012. On this date user should be able to buy Windows 8 to upgrade from existing Windows XP/Vista/7 or buy a new copy of the Operating System.

Microsoft also recently announced promotional price for upgrade from Windows XP/7 to Windows 8 for as low as $19.99.

Read more in the Windows Blog.

:: aerobrainTech ::

Firefox 14 Released, Office 2013 CP

It has been a while since my last post. Anyway I noticed that today Mozilla has released the new Firefox 14 (14.0.1) and after that, less than 24 hours, they have come out with Firefox 15 Beta 1.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has released the new Office 2013 Customer Preview. You may get 5 license for home users and 20 licenses for business/company users. 

:: aerobrainTech ::

Windows 8 Release Preview

Today, 1st of June 2012, Microsoft has announced the arrival of Windows 8 Release Preview.

Below are quoted from windowsteamblog.com:

"For Developers:

Windows 8 presents a huge opportunity for developers to build great new apps for a variety of form factors. If you’re a developer looking to get started developing apps with the Windows 8 Release Preview, I suggest reading this blog post from the Windows 8 app developer blog and this blog post from the Windows Store for developers blog. These two posts will have a lot of information, like where to go to grab the latest tools to begin app development. Developers can also visit the Windows Dev Center for more information on the Windows developer platform and what it means for the Windows 8 Release Preview. In the Windows Store today with the Windows 8 Release Preview, you will notice a lot of incredible new apps – this is just the beginning!

Android Sample Code: Battery Widget

*If you are new to Android, you should read this post first: Sample Code Battery Status

For a widget to work, below are some important items:

• AndroidManifest.xml must be altered
• Must create a layout file for widget provider
• Must create a layout for widget
• Main class source code

Google Drive vs Microsoft SkyDrive vs Dropbox

Just 2 days after Microsoft announced the SkyDrive, Google rise with the new Google Drive.

Below are couple of pictures during the installation:

Here is my comparison:

	Google Drive	SkyDrive	Dropbox
Free Storage	5GB	7GB (25GB for existing user!)	2GB (read this to get 16GB)
Maximum File Size	10GB	2GB	Unlimited (desktop) 300MB (online)
Sync Immediately upon File Change	YES	YES	YES
Notification upon File Change	NO	NO	YES
Sync over LAN	NO	NO	YES
Speed Notification during Sync	NO	NO	YES

:: aerobrainTech ::

SkyDrive: Free 25GB, Sync Like Dropbox

Yesterday, the official Windows 8 Blog announced that SkyDrive now can be synchronized to your desktop thru a client application. The good news is that for the existing Windows Live account, you will get FREE upgrade from 7GB to 25GB!

Scroll down below to see my comparison the SkyDrive vs Dropbox.

Below are my screenshot during the installation of SkyDrive client application on Windows 7.

 

 Here is my comparison:

	SkyDrive	Dropbox
Free Storage	7GB (25GB for existing user!)	2GB (read this to get 16GB)
Maximum File Size	2GB	Unlimited (desktop) 300MB (online)
Sync Immediately upon File Change	YES	YES
Notification upon File Change	NO	YES
Sync over LAN	NO	YES
Speed Notification during Sync	NO	YES

SkyDrive won on the storage size but lack of minor things compared to Dropbox. Hopefully SkyDrive team can continuously improve this cool service!

Source: Making personal cloud storage for Windows available anywhere, with the new SkyDrive

:: aerobrainTech ::

How Strong is Your Password?

I've read an interesting article about "Realistic Password Strength Estimation" from Dropbox tech blog.

Interesting quote:

"Through 20 years of effort, we've successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are HARD for humans to REMEMBER, but EASY for computers to GUESS."

In short, according to the writer's estimation complicated password such as "Tr0ub4dor&3" is easier for the computer to guess in comparison to "correcthorsebatterystaple".

You can check How Strong is Your Password here!

source: http://tech.dropbox.com/?p=165


:: aerobrainTech ::

Bitcasa (Beta) Cloud Storage Preview

Yesterday I received an email from Bitcasa telling me that I have been selected to test the beta version. The good news is that I will be able to invite 10 people to join me as the beta tester.

In this preview, I will show some basic function of Bitcasa.

Bitcasa Folder List (client)

  Bitcasa Folder List (on web or also called portal)

 Right Click to Cloudify a folder

Once the Bitcasa Client is installed, you can turn any folder to cloud folder (cloudify). The folders that has been cloudify will appear in the Bitcasa online portal. If you have multiple machines, you have the choice to sync with the cloudified folder via the Bitcasa Folder List on the client application as shown above.

9 exabytes folder size!

Once you cloudify a folder you will see the size of the folder is now about 9 exabytes!! This is equivalent to 9000 petabytes or 9000000TB!! (you need me to keep converting for you?)

In other words, you storage space now become almost infinity. However, since this is on the cloud, your internet connection must be fast enough to download and upload the files.

I have shown the great features, now lets talk about the weaknesses on the current beta versions:

• No upload/download/sync indicator - The client application does not tell whether a folder/file is being uploaded, downloaded or synchronized. This situation leave me at a confusion state.
• Files appear in folder but cannot open or hang when picked - In the connected folder, which you cloudify from othe machines but you want to access from another, upon opening the file or folder, the windows hangs for quite sometime. It confuse me again whether the files has been downloaded or it directly pulled from the cloud.

I also get this error upon opening pdf file in the cloudified folder.

In conclusion, I would say that the Bitcasa carries very good idea in terms of storing in the cloud. Their server also quite fast as I've been able to download a 30MB file at 1.3MB/s (that's megabytes not megabits). But those little things like indication and smoothness of synchronization will please customer more as what Dropbox has been good at doing it.

Look forward to the improvement of this cool service! Oh ya, for those who interested to test the Beta, please leave your email in the comment.

Thanks!

:: aerobrainTech ::

Creating Windows 8 To Go on USB

Another cool features in Windows 8 is the "Windows To Go". This feature allows you to run Windows directly from your USB Drive (thumbdrive or portable hard disk). Here are the steps to create the Windows 8 To Go.

Requirements (Download Links at the end of the post)

• Running Windows 7 or Windows 8
• Windows 8 DVD ISO
• Install-WindowsImage PowerShell Script
• USB Drive (Microsoft officially recommend minimum size 32GB)

Dropbox increases free storage space up to 16GB!

Recently Dropbox increases the free storage space from 8GB to 16GB. Of course you will not get 8GB directly. All you have to do is sign up for the free account of 2GB and recommend Dropbox to your friends. For every friend sign up, not only you will get additional 500MB free, but your friend as well!!

If you did not have Dropbox account, sign up now! For those already has the account, check out the referrals page.

 

Sign up Dropbox Now!

I already have account, bring me to the referrals page.

click skip ad on the top right corner

:: aerobrainTech ::

Creating Bootable USB Installer for Windows 8

In this post, I will show how to create a bootable USB Installer for Windows 8 (and other OS as well).

STEP 1:
Prepare at least 4GB USB Drive. Format using NTFS filesystem.
Also, make sure the partition is active as shown below:

 

Recommended Software (updated)

It has been awhile since my last update on the Recommended Software page. I've added a couple of useful software in the list such as Waterfox, Notepad++ and Siren. Also, I've added some software based on truemax suggestion in the last post.

Visit Recommended Software Page

:: aerobrainTech ::

Windows 8: Interesting New Features

After get frustrated with the dual-boot, fortunately I have a machine to fully test Windows 8 Consumer Preview with clean install. I format the hard disk, delete all partitions and re-create using the Windows 8 Boot Installer.

Anyway, I'm not gonna talk about the installation experience (in short, it went very well except for the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500M that is no longer supported by NVIDIA update). What I'm gonna talk about is the new interesting features in Windows 8.

Integrated Email Client and Calendar

Even without Microsoft Outlook (or similar software), Windows 8 comes with the built-in metro application. This application can be setup to access your work email (Exchange), gmail and definitely hotmail! The same goes to the Calendar!

Weather

Interesting part of this weather is that once you allow the application to use your location, it will pull the current and forecast weather for your location.

Windows Store

Although there are not that many applications (yet) in the store (comparing to the Android!), but the look and feel is nice. The games also optimized to the user interface and touch experience. You can try the game 'flow'! Quite a good game to kill time.

Start Page with All the Crucial Information you need!

Interestingly, I found out that the Metro Style Start Menu or Start Page is more that just a shortcut, but it also serves as center of information. Your latest email preview will be shown here, similarly the weather and also the event on your calendar.

New Shortcut Keys
There are new shortcut keys introduced in Windows 8. Below are a few (if not all) that I found:
Windows Key + X
Display setting menu near the old Start Menu

Windows Key + C
Open the Right Bar

Windows Key + F
Open Find Application

Windows Key + H
Open Share List

Windows Key + K
Open Devices List

Windows Key + Q
List All Applications Installed

Windows Key + W
Open Settings

Windows Key + . (period)
View Running Applications as Right Side Bar

Click here to download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (beta)
Happy Trying the Beta!

:: aerobrainTech ::

How to Crack RAR / ZIP?

Have you ever lost or forgotten the password for your RAR or ZIP archive? At first you don't want others to have access to your 'secret' files. But after sometimes (maybe few months or few years), you totally forgotten the password.

The good news is, RAR / ZIP archive are easily crackable. The bad news is, now you know that imposing password protection to a RAR / ZIP archive don't really secure your files! (haha!)

For a secure way to store your 'secret' files, please use TrueCrypt (free & open source)

Let us start. There are 2 free applications that you can try:

Waterfox is the 64-bit version of Firefox

If you are running a 64-bit machine with 64-bit Windows, you might want to try Waterfox. If you haven't notice, so far Mozilla only release the 32-bit version of Firefox.

Waterfox code is based on Firefox but has been recompiled to suit under 64-bit environment. This means, it should be able to support the multi-core processing and memory usage beyond 3GB. In short, it should be far better in terms of performance.

In addition to that, most of the plugins such as Flash Player, Java, etc also support 64-bit application. This shall produce a better performance browser. Why Mozilla is yet to release an official 64-bit of Firefox? I'm not sure, maybe they still want to make it better first.

If you are running 64-bit Windows, I fully recommend you to try this. It blends nicely with your Firefox current settings. So if you have addons installed, sync setup, you don't have to repeat the setting all over again. So good!

 

:: aerobrainTech ::

Firefox is Now 11!

The title maybe confusing .. but it's true!! Firefox 11 has been available for download at the link below:

:: aerobrainTech ::

Painful Experience: Windows 8 CP Dual-Boot

Today is the 3rd day I'm trying to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview as a dual-boot with my Windows 7. The dual-boot seems success but Windows 8 still cannot start properly today. Last night it was running properly and it was shut down properly. But today, it does not start properly again. After selecting Windows 8 on the boot menu, what does appear was just blue screen and a cursor. I think I've tried to install more than 10 times.

Before I continue to the list of issues I encountered during the installation, below are the specifications:

• Machine: DELL Latitude E6420
• Processor: Intel Core i7
• RAM: 4GB
• Current OS: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
• Intent to Install: Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit

List of useful tools involved:
Windows Storage Management: Run > diskmgmt.msc
EASEUS Partition Master: Download here

Below are the list of issues:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview is here!

Windows Consumer Preview is available for download now!! You may visit the below link to download the ISO image file. It is available for 32-bit as well as 64-bit machines. The size of the ISO files are 3.3GB for 64-bit and 2.5GB for 32-bit. It is also available in 5 different languages, English, Chinese, French, German and Japanese.

Download Windows Consumer Preview

The most exciting part is when Microsoft redefines the concept of mouse and keyboard and optimize the windows for touch. It is easier and friendlier to access commands and running apps instead of on the traditional taskbar (introduced since Windows 95). For me, it is really worth to try for normal users and for the application developers. This could be the next trend!

:: aerobrainTech ::