A Leslie Wong Blog

I’ve wanted to repair my Macintrash using this method many times, but I would not have started with the claw. I would also be more emphatic.

I downloaded LiveAndroid, a LiveCD for Android running on x86 platforms from Google Code, to try on my Macintrash.

Currently I am running OS X 10.5.7 and Windows 7 (build 7100) on my Late 2006 Macbook (Core 2 Duo, T7200). I’m also using rEFIt as my boot manager. The Android LiveCD showed up as Tux on the boot screen and I got to the Android desktop with the message, “Please connect charger, the battery is getting low: less than 15% remaining”. I was running on AC and the battery was fully charged. I dismissed that warning and went into the console (alt+F1) to try to configure networking.

The liveandroidv0.2.iso supports DHCP, so I tried to get the network running using the howtouse live-android instructions:

ifconfig eth0 yourip netmask yourip’s mask

e.g. ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

That resulted in ifconfig SIOSIFADDR: No such device

I also tried ifconfig eth1 but received the same message. I didn’t look at the startup log. What’s the use of anything

One of the problems I am experiencing with Wordpress today is an out of memory php error with Wordpress 2.8 when I use Arne Brachhold’s Google XML Sitemaps plugin to rebuilt my sitemap:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 16777216 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 41 bytes) in /…/wp-settings.php on line 288

If I disable all my active plugins except Google XML Sitemaps, I don’t get the error when rebuilding the sitemap.

I am using Godaddy shared hosting, have added the line “memory_limit = 64M” in my php5.ini file and added the line ini_set(‘memory_limit’,'64M’); to my wp-config.php and I still get the error. I did not have this problem with Wordpress 2.7.1.

I found this post by Jeff Starr, WordPress Error Fix(?): Increase PHP Memory for cache.php. Maybe his solution had to do with an Apache configuration – the post was written on February 17, 2008, so it wasn’t a Wordpress 2.8 issue. Anyway I did the three things he mentioned, and things seem to be OK at the moment. I’m not going to pursue the problem anymore.

I’ve been trying several builds of Windows 7 x64 on my Macbook that uses the Intel 945 Express Chipset. Recently, I did a clean install of Windows 7 build 7100. The display driver that is installed is a Prerelease WDDM 1.0 Driver (8.15.10.1620).

When I tried to play a DVD with Windows Media Player, I received the message “Cannot play DVD video.” Microsoft gives several possible reasons for this message:

1. Your video card driver is out-of-date.
2. Your computer is missing a compatible DVD decoder.
3. Your computer hardware is not powerful enough to play DVDs.

Since build 7 is Windows 7 Ultimate, I assumed a decoder was built in to the OS. I was indignant that suggestion 3 was questioning the manhood of my Macintrash.

Then I remembered the OpenGL problem I had with one of my programs. After I installed the Intel Vista 64 bit drivers 7.14.10.1504 for the 945GM Chipset from downloadcenter.intel.com, WMP was able to play DVDs. I’m not sure why the Prerelease WDDM 1.0 Driver didn’t allow the decoding, but the released Vista driver works – just be sure to run the installer in the compatibility mode for Windows Vista.

My Windows Experience Index also went up a tad compared to build 7068; compared to build 7000, the WEI from 2.0 to 3.0. So my computer is getting faster as it ages or Microsoft is improving Windows 7.

My first issue of Mine. came today. It’s Time Inc’s experiment at a personalized magazine.

I had a choice of five titles out of the available eight: Travel & Leisure, Golf, InStyle, Money, Real Simple, Time, Sports Illustrated and Food & Wine.

After I chose Time, Sports Illustrated and Food & Wine, I had to think about my last two choices. I realized I’d be reading them online if I were interested in them.

Time Inc and Lexus got marketing information from me. That Lexus is involved, immediately moves me out of the target audience. I’m old and Mine looks to me to be an old person’s idea. A handful of stories every two weeks? Have they seen RSS?

In my first 36 page issue, I got a helpful article from t+l Journal, “How to Look Out an Airplane Window”. Step number 1, “Choose a Window Seat.”

My RSS feeds are not in danger of being unread. My Google Reader Trends:

“From your 91 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 16,414 items, starred 44 items, shared 79 items, and emailed 6 items.“

I did an upgrade installation of Window 7 build 7068 (x64) over build 7000 that I installed in January on my Macbook (13-inch Late 2006 with an Intel Core2 Duo Mobile Processor T7200, 3GB RAM). Winver gives: 7068.0.amd64fre.winmain.090321-1322

I ran the Windows Experience Index assessment again, and the base score went up from 2.0 (build 7000 64-bit) to 2.8 (build 7068 64-bit).

With build 7000, my Macbook’s low score was because of the 2.0 subscore of the disk data transfer rate of the primary hard disk, a 120 GB Toshiba MK1234GSX. With build 7068, the subscore of disk data transfer rate of the same primary hard disk went up to 4.3.

With build 7000, the Processor and Memory (RAM) subscores were 5.0, while the Graphics and Gaming Graphics subscores were 3.1. With build 7068, the Processor and Memory (RAM) subscores were 4.8, while the Graphics and Gaming Graphics subscore was 3.1. The Desktop Performance for Windows Aero dropped from 3.1 (build 7000) to 2.8 (build 7068).

The main problem I’ve been experiencing with build 7000 is that Windows Explorer will get sluggish or hang after waking from sleep. Trying to switch directories or file copying, even locally, will trigger the problem. Ending the explorer.exe process and restarting the process doesn’t always solve the problem. A reboot does.

A Star Trek (TOS) Tricorder will be released in late June 2009 by Diamond Select Toys.

Given the technology changes since 1966, this tricorder would probably be easy to mod into the real thing.

Measuring 12 x 5 x 8 inches (30.5 x 12.7 x 20.3 cm), it could be a host for a hundred things, like a PSP, DS or even a case for my homeless Via pc2500.

Buy the Star Trek the Original Series Tricorder @ Amazon.com and I get a piece of the action.

netgeek06 over at digg writes, “As we stand waiting at the starter tree of the 2009 motorsports season, we’ve let our minds wander across the infinite expanses of Google Earth, finding these shots of the world’s top 15 race courses.”

Number 7 is Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, near my house.

read more | digg story

I installed the Windows 7 Beta (7000) on my Via pc2500, powered by a 1.5 GHz Via C7-D, an x86-compatible desktop processor. The Via motherboard is installed in a SilverStone SST-LC11S-300 HTPC case connected to a Sony KV-36FV1 television.

I wanted to use the Via pc2500 as a DVD player and Netflix streaming player but the performance of Windows 7 Beta on the Via pc2500 isn’t really that great, even with a PCI video card (a EVGA 256-P1-N399-LX GeForce 6200 256MB 64-bit GDDR2). With 2GB of system RAM and the latest version of Silverlight, Netflix streaming is jerky. DVDs played with Windows Media Player also do not play smoothly.

The Windows Experience Index was only 1.3, and the blame was on the Via 1.5 GHz processor. Task Manager showed 100% CPU usage while trying to stream Netflix. (My ATT-Yahoo DSL connection (Elite 6.0/768) speed is about 5.2 mb/s down and 437 kb/s up, so Netflix streaming looks OK on my more robust PCs.) I don’t really see how the new netbooks can have any decent performance with Windows 7.

The pc2500 is currently my hardware looking for an applicaton. Now I’ve tried Windows XP, gOS, Ubuntu, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Linux MCE. The Via hardware is just anemic. Maybe with a Mimo USB monitor, it’d be OK as a carputer.

Windows 7 Beta on my vintage (purchased 2002) Shuttle SB51G works OK. The Shuttle XPC has an Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz CPU (SL6HL), 1 GB RAM and an ATI All-In-Wonder 9600. I normally boot Windows XP 2005 MCE and use it as a file server, media server (using TVersity), DVD player and Netflix streaming client (through a browser).

Windows 7 performance feels comparable to XP MCE, that is to say, it doesn’t feel slow. But there also isn’t any other crap installed – anti-virus and other applications. The Windows Experience Index was 3.0, and in this case, the sluggard was the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Ultra ATA/100 320 GB hard drive.

Since there are no Windows 7 video drivers for the lowly ATI Radeon 9600 / X1050, I used the ATI Catalyst 9.1 Display Driver for Windows Vista. I wanted to use ATI Catalyst Control Center application to hotkey switch between the primary and secondary display (Dell 2007 WFP and a Sony KV-36FV1), so I can watch DVDs on the Sony TV in the living room. The hotkey switch that works in XP doesn’t work with Windows 7.