Day +2850: Tracking flights and listening to Air Traffic in real time :-)

I am fine today.

You want to know where is the flight your loved one is flying?  Go to http://www.flightradar24.com/ and search for the flight. You will get see the location and also the flight information such as altitude and speed of the aircraft.

You can also listen live air traffic by tuning in to http://www.liveatc.net/. Search the airport - key in KUL for KLIA for example. Then you can hear the real time conversation between the pilots and the traffic controller :-)

The sky is full of aircrafts

The flight parameters of MH177 

Listening of live air traffic control of KLIA

See you next post :-)

Day +2796 : The benefit of sharing our problem

I am fine today.

The USB port of my Galaxy Note was faulty for the past few weeks. Initially, the charging and connectivity to the PC was intermittent until recently it totally "cut off", causing the device unable to charge. Fortunately, my wife has a Galaxy Note as well. So I have to "tumpang" charging using her hand phone. Once the battery was fully charged, I would transfer it to my hand phone, and this involved tedious works.

I used the Galaxy Note for more than two years and though it is kind of slow, it still usable. So I do not plan to replace it with Note 3. I was thinking of sending the device back to Samsung Service Centre. I told Richard about my phone problem. Richard advised me to go to some mobile phone shops that do repair. I listened to him and sent the phone to a shop in Pusat Bandar Puchong which got it repaired in two hours, and it cost RM60 only :-)

Sharing our problem with others sometimes bring benefits like this. If I kept my problem, I would have to take all the trouble to send the phone to Samsung Service Centre and then wait for a few days to collect it back again. I shared and I got a better solution :-)

The component that was replaced

See you next post :-)

Day +2776 : Getting 50GB Online Storage for free :-)

I am fine today.

If you need 50GB clould storage and don't want to pay any money, try https://mega.co.nz/. According to Wikipedia, "Mega, Ltd. (branded as MEGA) is a cloud storage and file hosting service. Successor to Megaupload, its most notable feature is that all files are encrypted locally via JavaScript before they are uploaded. " This means that MEGA will not be able to see what you put on their server since they don't have the key to decrypt the files you stored there :-)

Apart from uploading and downloading files, MEGA also provides utilities for users to synchronize a particular drive on a local PC to a MEGA folder.

I have been using MEGA for the pass few weeks. It is an excellent free cloud storage service and I highly recommend you to give it a try.

The main features

The drive interface - very user-friendly

See you next post :-)

Day +2475 : An incredible Chinese Speech Recognition Input On Android

I am fine today.

If you would like to find a Chinese speech input software for your Android phone, look no further than iFlytek Voice Input (讯飞语音输入法手机版). You can installed it through Google Play free of charge.

The speech recognition is really incredible. One can talk continuously to the phone, and see the speech get converted to text on the fly. I really couldn't believe the speech input would one day reach this kind of maturity. And now I am very certain that voice input is practical. However, the phone needs to have internet access for the voice recognition to work.

Apart from the speech recognition, one can also write on the phone continuously and see the writing get converted into text on the fly. It works even if you scribble (写草书).

If you would like to find a good Chinese speech and handwriting recognition input software, iFlytek Voice Input should end your search :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +2434 : Papago and Google Map

I am fine today.

I am not good at identifying road at all. Getting to a new place is always a challenge to me. The GPS Papago helps a lot. I am now quite confident that I would be able to reach a new place without getting lost.

However, Papago has its own problem - difficult to search the destination. For example, a search for "MBS" would return nothing. Don't worry! We can make use of Google Map which is good at searching. First of all, search "MBS" on Google Map, then right click on the location mark, and then choose "What's here?". The coordinates of MBS will be shown. Just copy them into Papago and there you go :-)

"A" is MBS. Right click on it, you will get the popup menu. Choose "What's here?"

You get the coordinates :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +2275 : Wow! So Cheap!

I am fine today.

My room mate purchased a 7" tablet that cost only RM248 today. The tablet was running Android 4.0.4 and it came with 4GB of storage with the option of expansion through an external SD card. It also came with a keyboard.

My room mate purchased the tablet from The Store, Sungai Buloh. The tablet was made in China and the actual selling price was more than RM300. However, he managed to bargain the price to RM248. He did this by introducing another 4 students to purchase the tablet.

I saw someone selling the tablet at Giant, Puchong a few weeks ago, with a price of more than RM300 that time. Given that Samsung is selling its 7" tablet without 3G at RM800 , I was tempted to purchase this cheap tablet. However, when I checked online, someone who purchased a cheap tablet found it unable to charge after six months, and this refrained me from purchasing it.

Considering the fact that the tablet comes with one year warranty, it might still worth to purchase it and use for one year, and then changed to a new one if it becomes faulty after the warranty expired. Now I am tempted to purchase again :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +2270 : More signal, please!

I am fine today.

Though the seminary provides internet access with a minimal charge of RM50 per semester, I subscribed to a broadband service because the service provided by the seminary is slow and very unstable. Imagine all students compete for a 2 or 3 Mbps line.

However, subscribing to wireless broadband myself doesn't rule out all internet access problems. It is because seminary is located in a rural area where the 3G signal is very weak. Some rooms simply have no signal at all. Fortunately, my room have some signal but it is weak and unstable.

After some experiment, I found a way to boost the signal, that is, by hanging the modem in the air as shown below. I am very happy that this approach increases the strength of the signal received and I am now satisfied most of the time :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +2228 : My Samsung Galaxy Note is kaput

I am fine today.

After eight months of usage, my Samsung Galaxy Note started to experience auto reboot problem since Monday. The problem is very annoying.

I upgraded the OS of the phone to Android 4 few weeks ago. The upgrade brought more harm than good; the battery drained like crazy and the phone also slowed down. I did the upgrade because I would like to run Chrome which is only compatible with Android 4 on the phone.

I reset the phone to the factory default but since the ROM has be upgraded to Android 4, all I get is still Android 4. And the phone continue to reboot itself :-(

After tolerating the rebooting phenomenon for a few days, I found out that it was the on off switch that cause the problem - the phone always reboot itself immediately or not long after I press the on off switch.

I brought the phone to Samung Service Centre in PJ yesterday afternoon. I was told that I can collect the phone next Tuesday or Wednesday.

I was thinking of purchasing an entry Samsung Android Phone as a replacement initially, but when I know that I can get back the Galaxy Note so soon, I decided to use my old Windows Mobile based HTC touch. It is so small and difficult to navigate :-(

Not so many people but I waited for more than one hour

Nice price for Galaxy Note RM1999. It cost RM2300 last year. I rugi RM300 :-(

See you next post :-)

Day +2172 : HomePlug

I am fine today.

UniFi HyppTV programs are delivered through internet and is thus called Internet Television or IPTV. I found out that it is delivered through a separate channel other than the 5Mbps internet service. Therefore, the viewing of UnifiHypp TV won't slow down the internet connection. Someone on the internet mentioned that in fact the HyppTV is carried over a separate channel with the speed of 8Mbps, and with this speed, the viewing of HD program is possible.

UniFi service comes with a IPTV set-top box that connects to the TV, so it has to be located next to the television. But we normally put the router somewhere near the computer in the study room. So the problem  now is how to connect the set-top box to the router? Of course we can pull data cable from the study room to the place where the television is located in the living room, but this solution can be very messy.

I came to know a device called HomePlug that allows us to use power network to carry data. The UniFi installers said that they can provide the devices and test the connection for me with a cost of RM150. When the setup was completed, they are asking for RM300 which I declined outright.  The setup needs a pair of HomePlug, the installers might referred to the price of one HomePlug initially.

I purchased TP-Link TL-PA210Kit that came with a pair of HomePlug. It cost RM139. I managed to installed it successfully after some diagnostic work. The HomePlug managed to deliver data with a speed of 200Mbps, but when I tested with a diagnostic tool, I only get a speed of 90Mbps. However, this is more than enough for the IPTV service :-)

Almost twenty years ago when I was working with Petronas in Miri, my boss Michael Parfitt showed me an article that talked about the possibility of delivering data over the power network and now this concept has been realized :-)

TP-Link HomePlug

The connection diagram of the HomePlug is shown as the figure below.

Picture courtesy of TV Smith - 

See you next post :-)

Day +2171 : UniFi HyppTV

I am fine today.

The UniFi VIP 5 home package comes with TV services called HyppTV. Telekom Malaysia (TM) introduces HyppTV as: 

The exciting world of HyppTV is where you can enjoy a variety of movies, serial TV, documentaries, news, entertainment and much, much more - all on demand, all at your convenience. No more fixed schedules and time-tables to worry about. HyppTV is delivered via UniFi's high-speed broadband network. HyppTV will revolutionize the way you, and your family, enjoy TV! Primetime. Anytime. Everytime. ""

HyppTV offers 87 channels consisting of 19 free channels, 17 video-on-demand genres and 18 interactive channels. The free channel include include TV1, TV2, TV3, NTV7, 8TV, TV9. This is an advantage for me as we have difficulty receiving television signal through the antenna and since we don't subscribe to Astro service, we have no means to view these channels. And now with the HyppTV service, we can view the channels.

TM is giving all new subscribers 30 days free viewing of the 30 Premium Channels. And after this period of free trial, we can signed it up with a promotional price of RM30 per month. The Premium Channels are listed as follow:

1. BBC Knowledge (Channel 141)
2. BBC Lifestyle  (Channel 140)
3. CBeebies (Channel 130)
4. BabyFirst (Channel 131)
5. STAR Chinese Mov2  (Channel 151)
6. STAR Chinese Chl (Channel 150)
7. Channel [V] Taiwan (Channel 152)
8. Fashion TV HD (Channel 143)
9. iConcerts HD (Channel 146)
10. UTV Movies (Hindi) (Channel 191)
11. UTV Bindass (Hindi) (Channel 192)
12. Jaya Max (Tamil (Channel 190)
13. tvN HD (Channel 181)
14. EMAS (Channel 104)
15. SETI (Channel 153)
16. Nat Geo Music (Channel 147)
17. Nat Geo Adventure HD (Channel 148)
18. MNC International Chl (Channel 112)
19. MTV Live HD Channel 149)
20. Screen Red (Channel 180)
21. Warner TV (Channel 162)
22. Universal Channel HD (Channel 163)
23. Syfy HD (Channel 165)
24. Fox Crime HD (Channel 164)
25. Nick Jr. (Channel 132)
26. MUTV (Channel 170)
27. Al – Jazeera (Channel 126)
28. Trace Sports HD (Channel 171)
29. TVB 8 (Channel 154)
30. The Capital (Channel 127)

We will only decide whether to sign up to Premium Channels after the free viewing period has expired.

See you next post :-)

Day +2170 Upgrade to UniFi

I am fine today.

TM representative called me about two weeks ago asking me whether I would like to upgrade existing Streamyx 1Mbps ADSL package to the optical fibre based high speed internet called UniFi. I agreed.

The TM contractor came to install the UniFi connection on Sunday, pulling a fibre cable from the telephone pole at the back lane of my house to a place where my computer is located on the first floor. Though the fibre connection was tested OK, the router failed to establish an internet connection. They packed the equipment and went home.

They came again on Monday, but this time, even the fibre connection couldn't be established. However, this didn't deter them from trying again. They came back on Tuesday to no avail. After much coordinating and testing with TM access centre, they finally get the equipment online on Wednesday.

TM called VIP N where N can be 5, 10, 20 with respective download and upload speed of 5Mbps, 10Mbps and 20Mbps. The fibre connection bring to the house Video, Internet and Phone service, and thus the name VIP.  I subscribed the most basic package - VIP 5 that cost RM149 per month. The package come with the following features (Click on the image to get a larger view):

Compared to 1Mbps Streamyx, the internet connection is very fast. The speed test indicate an upload and download speed of about 4.7Mbps each. This allows the download of 2GB of data in an hour :-) This is about 5 times faster than the Streamyx Package that I had.

Under the terms and conditions, the data quota is 60GB per month but Telekom Malaysia has not enforce this at the moment, and I hope that they will never enforce this.

I am the second one in my residential area who installed Unifi :-) Though I am the "pioneer", I found out that the line is pretty stable, and I am very happy with it :-)

See you next  post :-)

Day +2071 : GPS on Galaxy Note

I am fine today.

I had great difficulty in getting the GPS to work on my  HTC Touch 3G three years ago. The GPS signal was always lost when I reached Puchong. I sent the handphone back to the vendor in Subang Jaya a few times but the problem was not fixed.

I installed Papago X5 on my Galaxy Note and it worked pretty well :-) For someone who always has difficulty driving to a new destination, the GPS can be a great help.

The major advantage of Papago is that it displays a junction view to lead us to the right lane whenever we approach a junction.  This make sure that we don't make a wrong turn.

I have to do some tweaking to make Papago X5 to work on Galaxy Note. I learned that Papago M8/M9 for Android will be released very soon. I will be purchasing the upgrade once it is released :-)

Junction View - to make sure we make the right turn

See you next post :-)

Day +2070 : Send Free SMS from Gmail

I am fine today.

We are now able to send free SMS to Maxis and Digi numbers through Gmail. The service doesn't cover Celcom numbers at the moment.

Sending SMS is very easy. It is no different than the Google Chat, but before that you need to do some configuration.

Firstly, you click on the button highlighted below in your Gmail.

Then click Settings.

Then click labs.

Enable SMS (text messaging) in Chat

Enable SMS in Chat gadget

After thant Save Changes.

Now you are ready to send free SMS. In the Chat and SMS gadget on the left, type the word "send" and then clik "Send SMS".

Fill in the form below and click Save.

You will then find a Chat box on the lower right of your Gmail where you can type in message and send.

A better way is to enter the name and number in Google Contact, and then you can search the name under the Chat and SMS. Once you got the name, you can send SMS without typing in the detail again. 

For those contact that always appear in the chat gadget, like "Richard Ting" below. It is even easier to send SMS. Move the mouse over the name.

Click more.

Click Send SMS.

You get the Chat box as below on the lower right of Gmail where you can type your message.

You are given 50 SMS credit. Each message you send will reduce the credit by one. However, when the recipient reply your message, the credit will be increased by 5 with maximum credit of 50. The message that the recipient reply will go into the chat box just as you are doing chatting :-)

Have fun sending free SMS :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +2007 : New phone - Samsung Galaxy Note

I am fine today.

I got the new hand phone on the 9 December 2012 - one day before I went back to Sarawak for holiday. I upgraded my current Celcom plan to "Celcom Exec 50 + Celcom Broadband mBasic" and paid RM1748 for the phone as mentioned in my blog post "Day +1981 : Officially joining Android camp". However, one has to pay another RM300 in advance; an amount which will be paid back in few months in the month of rebate in the bill.

The phone is a lot better than my existing HTC Touch 3G PDA phone. With the Celcom package, now I am online all the time; able to access all the internet services such as Google Service, facebook, and youtube.

One immediate advantage of the phone is that it synchronizes with Google service including the contacts. That means if you key in a contact in the phone, it will be reflected in the Google and vice versa. Furthermore, the 5.3" is good at least for me. Installing Amazon Kindle software on the phone almost turns it into an Amazon Kindle Fire which cost more than a thousand. Apart from that, the display is excellent.

Since there are too many applications available for the phone, I need more time to explore the device and see how I can benefit further from the it :-)

Samsung Galaxy Note - Image copied from Samsung website

See you next post :-)

Day +1981 : Officially joining Android camp

I am fine today.

It is time to retire my HTC Touch 3G PDA phone which has served me almost three years now. When I first purchased the phone, it was a tough job for me to open its back cover as it was too tight, but now the back cover will open by itself unexpectedly. At one time, I lent the phone to my friend to make a call in a single piece and she returned to me two pieces - the phone and the detached back cover. When the back cover was detached, the battery tempted to be loosened, and the phone was off. Therefore, the only choice for me now is to change the phone, but which one to buy?

I was quite sure initially that my next phone will be iPhone, but the release of Samsung Galaxy Note changed my mind. The main reason behind the change is its large 5.3" screen size which enable someone with presbyopia(老花) to use it without wearing glasses. Further, my friend told me that the device interface is as responsive as that of iPhone.

The phone cost RM2299, but I will be getting it from Celcom under a plan called  "Celcom Exec 50 + Celcom Broadband mBasic" which cost RM88 per month, and with that, the cost of the phone reduced to RM1,748 under 18 months contract.

The Celcom Blue Cube outlet at Sunway doesn't have stock currently. I will be getting the phone when the next stock arrives :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +1968 : Server hacked, and hard disk crashed

I am fine today.

Joseph wanted to play game on my laptop yesterday. He kept on begging me while I was sleeping in the afternoon. In order to have a good rest without being disturbed, I gave in. When I woke up in the evening, I discovered that the laptop's hard disk was undetectable :-( I think the hard disk is damaged. Fortunately, I purchased extended warranty for the laptop and it is still under warranty. However, some of the data might be gone :-( I ordered another laptop today and will call for onsite support next week for the existing one.

In addition to this, my company server was hacked 10 days ago, and I noticed that it is hacked again today. We did something on the server today and hope that it is better protected than before.

These two cases kept me busy today and delayed my assignment again :-(

See you next post :-)

Day +1929 : Can I have a facebook account?

I am fine today.

"Can you register a facebook account for me?" asked Adriel who study primary one.

I am quite puzzled about this request as she seldom touch the computer.

If you manage to create a product like facebook in which everyone would like to go for it even before knowing what it is, then you will be certainly be rich and famous :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +1914 : Kindles arrived :-)

I am fine today.

The four units of Amazon Kindle arrived yesterday. Now everyone in the family except Adriel and Aaron has a Kindle, but two of them were most excited to see the Kindles arriving.

"Which one is mine?" they asked?

I don't know how to answer them :-(

See you next post :-)

Day +1912 : New model of Kindle released

I am fine today.

Amazon released 4 new models of Kindle a few days after I purchased 4 units of Kindle 3 at a price of USD114 each. The price of the new model starts as slow as USD79. The highest end product now is Kindle Fire which comes with a colour e-ink display. All new models do not come with a keyboard.

The model that I have purchased is now renamed to Kindle Keyboard and the price dropped from USD114 to USD99 , so I lose USD15 per unit. Under the advice of my nephew, Soon Hui, I requested Amazon for a refund, and they accommodated the request without a question. Through a simple online chat, they rebated USD60 to my credit card account :-)

I am now happy with my purchase :-)

The 4 new models of Kindle

This is the one that I have ordered

See you next post :-)

Day +1908 : The Chronicles of Narnia, the best books I ever read

I am fine today.

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. The seven books are listed in chronological order as follow:

1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

Three of them - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - were adapted to films which I believe most of us had seen.

I loaded the series onto the Amazon Kindle (e-book reader). Daniel finished all of them in a few days and then Joseph did the same. 

"The best ever read. I wish there were more than seven," Joseph told us after completing them.

Daniel is reading The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien now. And Joseph is complaining that Daniel occupied the Kindle all the time that he got nothing to read. We all are waiting for the new batch of three Kindles to come this week :-)

See you next post :-)