Sunday 27 February 2011

1TB on my iMac (late 2006)

原本打算買 WD Caviar Blue 1TB (WD10EALS),可是灣仔電腦城和298電腦城都缺貨。友人(損友)就叫我去買 Caviar Black 2TB ($1400),理由是我由 500GB 升級,容量只增加一倍太少,我又嫌 Caviar Green 太慢了。可是,一台 2TB 黑碟 的價錢太貴了(怎麼2003年時以$1200買120GB時又沒有嫌太貴呢?),$1200已經夠我買一台 1TB 藍碟日用加一台 2TB 綠碟作備份,何必要選黑碟呢?

灣仔電腦城找不著,自然去298再找,在 price.com.hk 看到有貨報價的樂天電腦正好在 298,報價才 $415,所以打算去找這店。可是 298 裡的情況也不見得樂觀,很多店鋪都沒有貨,大多都主力賣綠碟。有一間店的店長咬牙切齒地叫:“唔洗搵喇,成個場都無貨”。可是,樂天電腦就在旁邊,我到底要不要再多問一間呢?

正在我猶疑不決之時,自認好友的二人(好損的損友)已經撇我而去,找什麼 TV BOX 之類的東東。心有不甘,我折返再問,樂天電腦也是沒貨,沒有 WD10EALS,但有 WD10EALX,是 SATA-III 的版本,索價 $480,分毫不減。家裡的 iMac 已經拆了一半(我是確認可以拆開 iMac 的一體化外殼才毅然去買 hard disk 的),如果空手而回,我都不曉得要不要合上 iMac,所以貴一點也還是乖乖奉上一張大牛。
回家飯後馬上著手拆 iMac 的工序(之前只是拆了外殼)。拆 LCD 比我想像中難,包邊的包膜很難完整拆開,最後都是弄得一團糟。成功換了 hard disk 並清理了一些塵垢之後,就組合起來。說實在,我覺得 iMac 其實是一台 laptop,只是用了檯機的 LCD 和3.5" hard disk,沒有充電池,內置火牛。所以它賣得比其他 desktop 貴。

重灌系統的時間比我預計長,因為第二隻DVD的碟面與包裝膠袋融合了,安裝就癱瘓了。第二隻DVD裡是 iLife'06 和 iWork 2004 test drive,幸好我有 iLife'09 和 iWork'09,所以重新啟動安裝時不再選它們,就可以避過第二隻DVD。我以後都會記得備份跟機的回復光碟,更重要是不要放碟在膠袋裡,即使是 Apple 原裝那個袋,Apple 裝酷可是卻苦了用家。

重灌是很悶的工作,不過比重灌 Windows 輕鬆得多,我可以大模廝樣地將 /Users/Pang/Library 回復,這裡頭全是應用程式的 data files,即是多了無用、無謂的 files 也不會拖慢系統,不像 Windows 的 registry 般要上RAM。起碼,我可以選擇性地裝上我真的需要的程式,而裝回的程式也會沿用我的設定。這是 Windows 系統很難實現的(至少在XP和以前的系統)。

我知道拿 2009年的 Mac OS X 10.6 與 2001年的 Windows XP Pro 比較是不太公平,但,誰讓 Windows 系統升級那麼困難和破費呢?

除了回復之外,我也打算將之前兩台 Mac 的 data 統一在一起(MacBook 換了 SSD 之後已經淪為 Windows machine...)。其中一項工作是要將 Adium 裡的 chat log 融合。關於這一工作,可以參考這文章:On Merging Two OS X Installations

近年的 Adium 記錄 chat logs 是以個別對話(conversation)來分拆 files,並以時間作為 files 名字的,這個做法聰明得很,我可以很容易地匯合兩個 logs。注意,如果把第二台機的 folder 直接放到原位上,Mac OS 的做法是丟棄原有的 folder,換上新的 folder,是整個 folder replace。這做法在 Windows 上是融合,同名的才會被覆蓋 Overwrite,要小心 。

要匯合兩個 folder,按上面的文章教,用 rsync,可是他的方法在我的電腦上不太 work,我將兩個 logs 都放在一起:分別 /logs_imac/ 和 /logs_macbook/,然後在 Terminal 執行以下的 command:

$ rsync -r logs_macbook/* logs_imac

最後,所有的 logs 都在 logs_imac 裡頭了。

由於我有一台 LaCie hard disk,接頭 SATA + 1394 firewire,所以拆下來的舊 hard disk 就放到 LaCie 裡。跑 firewire 的外置真的又快又穩定,完全是物有所值。用過 Firewire 400 就以後都不想再用 USB 2.0。看看下圖,這是 copy 的讀寫速度和 CPU 使用率,而且在抄寫的 files 是大小不一,小至幾十KB,大至幾GB,速度卻是穩定的 40MB/s。火線外置是最好的!

Constant data transfer rate. With USB, the speed is unstable.

Low CPU consumption. With USB, the CPU usage is always high.

Thursday 24 February 2011

Western Digital Caviar for iMac (Late 2006)

My iMac (late 2006) came with a Hitachi 500GB SATA-II hard disk, which I paid extra to upgrade from 320GB. Its SATA controller can only run at speed 1.5Gbps (SATA-I), kind of wasting the hard disk's performance. Anyway, it has been running slow and getting full (with less than 10% space left... even it's still some 30-40GB of free space). So, I wish to upgrade it to 1000GB or so, as the price dropped so much all these years. A 1TB drive is only $400 (USD50), a 2TB is $640 (USD80).

So far, I'm not consider Hitachi because it is hot. I don't have good impression with Seagate even the one in my office is Seagate. So, I go for Western Digital. My friend told me about their Caviar series and said "Go for Blue, not for Green".

The max capacity of Western Digital Caviar Blue is 1TB. It is only a double of my current drive. I'm thinking to get more than just a double. But... following is their product chart (3.5", minimum 1TB, SATA interface)

WD Caviar Black
Model # Interface RPM CapacityCacheprice
WD2002FAEXSATA 6 Gb/s72002 TB 64 MB
WD1502FAEXSATA 6 Gb/s72001.5 TB 64 MB
WD1002FAEXSATA 6 Gb/s72001 TB 64 MB$603
WD2001FASSSATA 3 Gb/s72002 TB 64 MB$1260
WD1001FALSSATA 3 Gb/s72001 TB 32 MB$652
WD Caviar Blue
Model # Interface RPM CapacityCacheprice
WD10EALXSATA 6 Gb/s72001 TB 32 MB
WD10EALSSATA 3 Gb/s72001 TB 32 MB$415
WD Caviar Green
Model # Interface RPM CapacityCacheprice
WD30EZRSDTLSATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower3 TB 64 MB$1890
WD25EZRSDTLSATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower2.5 TB 64 MB
WD20EARS SATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower2 TB 64 MB$662
WD15EARS SATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower1.5 TB 64 MB
WD10EARS SATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower1 TB 64 MB
WD20EADS SATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower2 TB 32 MB
WD15EADS SATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower1.5 TB 32 MB$735
WD10EADS SATA 3 Gb/sIntelliPower1 TB 32 MB$420

There are questions asking why choose the Caviar Green. Here is one of the reviews (in Chinese) : 給我一個選綠盤的理由?西數黑藍綠盤對決.

Looking at the review, Caviar Blue is great choice. However, they don't offer 2TB version (yet?). So, I may either go for Caviar Black or Caviar Green.

iMac (late 2006)
iMac5,1
Core2Duo 2.16GHz, 4MB L2 Cache
DDR2 667MHz 2GB + 1GB (non dual-channel)
SATA 1.5Gbps link

Considering my iMac is that old, there maybe no differences between Caviar Blue and Caviar Green. The bottleneck falls into the onboard SATA controller.

So, shall I go for Caviar Green because I can store more data on iMac, without connecting a lot external drive? Or, shall I get Caviar Blue so that the iMac run faster? I may also get another DDR2 2GB so that the computer runs dual channel, which should be 8-10% performance boost.

Monday 21 February 2011

"NCNList KERN-EXEC3" error on Symbian emulator

One in a few installation of Symbian SDK has a problem in starting up the emulator. Discussions should be easily found by googling "ncnlist KERN-EXEC3". The solution, however, is a bit tricky to locate, thanks to the ever-changing Forum Nokia site. When will they stay on a fixed UI and structure? Maybe that's how people earn their living: whoever take over the department would try to change every thing down to a deep blue or royal blue - so that they have make some sort of contribution and be granted for a large amount of cash. Anyway.

Here is the current link to the solution:

http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/TSS000651_-_NCNList_KERN-EXEC_3_panic_when_starting_the_S60_3rd_Edition,_FP1_emulator

It would be vise if we posted the answer with key words or description, rather than "click here for solution". I have to search "TSS000651" on the wiki site for the most updated link. Maybe you have to do that too. Good luck.

MacBook Unibody (early 2009) with OCZ Vertex SSD

My 13" MacBook Unibody (early 2009) comes with a SATA-1 250GB hard disk. The controller maybe capable of 3.0Gbps but it only runs at 1.5Gbps, probably due to the bottleneck at the hard disk. While everyone is crazy about SSD, I want to know if my 2 years old MacBook Unibody can boost up to next level speed.

Mine is a MacBook Unibody early 2009 model. It is not a MacBook Pro which has an SD card slot. So, it is not-so-common to find reviews of SSD upgrade. Most of reviews are made by MBP users. But here is a good one (since it is about OCZ on OCZ forum, I feel like reading a commercial ad):

OCZ Vertex: MacBook Unibody, BootCamp and Win7 - Benchmarks and impressions

I was reading this article while shopping in the mall. And so I went for the OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD. Prior to visit the mall, I also read another one, which indeed scared me a bit and being careful on the brand to choose. To my surprise, even an Intel SSD doesn't work on the MacBook Pro.

Installing a SSD in a Macbook Pro unibody

My 2 years MacBook Unibody took over 2 minutes to start up (count from the moment I press the power button). Clean installing Snow Leopard on SSD is really fast, about 15-20 minutes. It boots in 25 seconds. It takes 45-50 seconds to boot into Windows XP, however. It takes 20 seconds before the Windows XP loading screen appears. I guess the EFI is not as optimized as Asus eeePC S101. The netbook has a faster boot up speed, even it runs on Atom CPU, DDR-2 memory and SSD with max w/r 80MBps.

Here is a simple speed test. I timed the time required to load Symbian S60 3rd Edition FP1 emulator.

around 60s on P4 HT 3.0GHz, DDR-1 RAM, SATA-I hard disk
around 50s on Atom 1.6GHz, DDR-2 RAM, SATA SSD (MLC)
around 30s on C2D 3.0GHz, DDR-2 RAM, SATA-II hard disk
around 15s on C2D 2.4GHz, DDR-3 RAM, SATA-II OCZ SSD

Does it worth the money? I would say... if you are freely to spend.

(I will post photos here later).

Tuesday 15 February 2011

百獸王

去買台式奶茶的路上經過一間玩具店,櫥窗放得密密麻麻的,裡面狹窄難行,像是那種禾稈冚珍珠的店舖,於是走進去看看,不是看平常留意的高達、渣古,而是找百獸王。

Yahoo拍賣網有美版的百獸王,叫價$400還未到賣價,似乎賣家想賣$500以上。美版,並不是合金版,其實不值這個價錢。我想要的,不一定是合金,放出來好看,可以拆、可以合體,就好。

網上評語看多了,想買的意慾又沉下來了。看來,美版25週年金屬色膠版的比例最好。
百獸王(金屬色膠版)www.toysdaily.com/discuz/viewthread.php?tid=123682

除了百獸王之外,另一個想收藏的是斷空我。不過網上賣過千元,真係太過貴了。

如果不買合體合金的話,或者可以考慮以下幾位人兄的做法。

HG独角兽xplay百兽王(www.hkml.net/Discuz/viewthread.php?tid=118871)

darius Unicorn x 百獸王 hk.myblog.yahoo.com/darius_scy/article?mid=3105

darius Unicorn x 六神合體 hk.myblog.yahoo.com/darius_scy/article?mid=3102

Friday 11 February 2011

Palm Tungsten E2 入手

終於再一次購入第二部 Palm(第一部 m505 已經賣掉)。沒想過2003年推出的PDA,居然不支援2GB卡,我那部2002年的Asus A600都可以讀到。(官方說明

Palm的手寫似乎沒有PocketPC的手寫順暢,原因不太清楚。雖然我鐘情於 Palm 的 UI,但在這部 TE2 上,有很多地方都出顯示的問題。似乎係 OS 用的 themes 和 自身的 draw function 不夾。這一點令我覺得很失望。

我在 Yahoo Auctions 買這一部「全新」的 Palm Tungsten E2,買的時候價格合理,買了之後賣家馬上脹價一倍,就不合理了。

TE2 有藍牙、沒有 Wifi。如果想用它上網,除了買 palmOne 的 WLAN SDIO 卡外,只有以藍芽連去電腦或者手機。連去電腦是比較實際,因為用手機上網的話...... 似乎直接用手機吧,大概是有 Palm app 需要上網才會這樣做。

How to connect to internet via computer Bluetooth adapter

Windows ICS 要求 PC 做 192.168.0.1。這個問題可大,例如公司的network 裡 192.168.0.1 已被 router 用了。好彩家裡的 Buffalo router 是 192.168.11.1,或者我總算見到這個設定的好處:讓家裡一部電腦做 ICS。(MAC 機分享 internet 時不是這樣,可惜 Palm 無法連去 Mac)

Thursday 10 February 2011

iPhone 4 月費計劃(2011年初)

iPhone 4 月費計劃(2011年初)

註:
STV: SmarTone-Vodafone
O2F: one2free
One2Free: 增值服務每月$36,最少12個月,可在第13個月前取消。
3HK: 3Screen全年電影通行証,逢星期三可於嘉禾戲院3Screen換領免費戲票一張。電影通行証數量有限,送完即止。
3HK: 12個月手機失竊保障,須另簽訂額外3個月合約(合共27個月)。
3HK: 攜號轉台,首15個月每月額外400基本通話分鐘或200MB本地數據。
3HK: 尊享優惠 - iPad超值數據月費計劃

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Simple way to play OGG on Windows

  1. Upgrade Windows Media Player to v10 or above.  It is v9 which comes with XP.
  2. Download WMP Tag Support here (M4a/Flac/Ogg/Ape/Mpc Tag Support Plugin for
    Windows Media Player & Media Center v 1.1)
  3. Install the program.  No need to restart the computer.
Another guide (Chinese):如何讓 Windows Media Player 播放 .ogg 音樂檔